Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 08-11-25_MONDAY_6AM

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Morning news...have a liberal relative bagging on you? I share...Melissa Henson from Parents TV dot org discusses the cellphone free policies in some school districts. Does it work?

The Bill Meyer Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausordrilling.com. Here's Bill Meyer. Hey, it's great to have you here today, Monday, August 11th. Join the conversation at 77056633, 770KM.D. My email is Bill at Billmyershow.com. Busy weekend for me.

A lot of working, getting things done. Some maintenance that I've wanted to get done for a while. I ended up moving my water bottles into a shed, which hadn't really been, it wasn't really a great shed that was left from the old owners of my property a number of years ago. And there's a really nice shed at the back of the property, but kind of like one of those old kind of semi-rusty metal ones that you would get from the home improvement stores that was on the side. And so I thought, okay, what could I do with this? It's like, oh, wait a minute. I have these water barrels that are empty right now that I use for just a merriment. emergency water just in case there was ever a problem interruption in water supply and just

well you know just kind of like like having a good pantry having a backup food backup generator things like that and so i moved the the water barrels inside this i this shed i really wasn't losing much so i keep i wasn't using much so i keep it out of the sun and and so finally it's it's being used for something and it ended up working out really well so i got everything all cleaned out and got the old stuff out of the shed, throwing a lot of things into the dumpster, and, you know, just moving along. And so by the time Sunday was over, I decided to come back to work because I needed the rest, just a little bit like that.

And, yeah, and I was doing it yesterday in the heat. By the time it got to be about 2, 3 o'clock, I was really toasted and decided to go inside. But, it was a good weekend, just kind of a busy weekend. weekend. I hope it was good for you. Yeah, the heat is still long for today. Look, we're looking at 106, 107, about 105 tomorrow. Then it starts cooling down to just pretty much more of normal hot summer here in southern Oregon later in the weekend, heading into next weekend. So kind of just getting back to normal. So it's getting about, what, two, three days of higher than average heat, and then that's going to be about it. I think

will be okay on this one. Cooling shelters, of course, open in various cities around here that end up offering that. Before we get on to some of the other headlines, I had another interesting phone call and had to do with my sister, Diana. Friday was her birthday, and I had mentioned that on the air that she is, that she's a year younger than me.

August 8th, I'm August 5th, year apart. Yeah, Mom and Dad were pretty busy. All those times, we were, like, all the kids of the family were like little stair steps. It's kind of the way it was then in those days. But anyway, so I know that any time I talk to my sister, it always has the potential of descending into politics. And yet, I never bring up politics with my sister.

Any of you have relatives like this in which you never bring up politics or your politics up with them, but they always have to go, the person on the other side of the conversation. Now she knows I'm a conservative talk show host, and she's really, really upset with most of me. She says, I was listening to you the other day, and I think it was because I was probably mentioning her on the air, and she said, I thought that you were, you know, kind of balanced,

which was, you know, coming from a progressive, hardcore liberal. I thought, okay, all right, I don't know what I was talking about, fine. and then she went into President Trump I'm really disappointed and she was talking to me about how disappointed in me that she is

and by the way this is me calling her to wish her a happy birthday this is my liberal sister calling me Friday well no I called her she called me on my birthday and I didn't get a chance to talk with her then so I called her on her birthday

and so I've got to have a nice little talk about this I stayed completely away from politics, and she just completely went into it. Every, I just like, I said, listen, Diana, I don't do this. I never call you up and start talking about politics. Well, I'm disappointed in you because of your support for that pedophile. What are you talking about with this pedophiles? In other words, you know where she gets her talking points, right? You know, your support for this pedophile.

The only reason he doesn't want the Epstein stuff released. is because he's all over it and he's all in it. And I said, well, you know, if that was true, it was really bad news, Diana. Do you think that, you know, Biden would have released something like that? That would have come out a little bit sooner. Of course, and then it just kind of goes down. It kind of went downhill from there. I don't know.

I didn't even want to start this. I said, listen, I don't want to talk about this. I was just calling to see. And then she went into and Trump is making. making sure that my kids have no rights. So what are you talking about? Now, my sister, I think, is one of those individuals who can, well, is sort of living proof that much of what is coming out in the LGBTQ trans community, whatever it is, may have

a lot to do with conditioning and what you end up having at home. it's like it is amazing how so-called normal many children can be coming out of conservative families and then of course I also know conservatives that the moment one of their kid pops out it says I'm I'm gay and then all of a sudden they completely flip their thing around because they look at at saying this is having to well I have to be in solidarity with my with my child and if my child wants to cut his genitals off at the age of 12 because you know he feels you know weird about his sexual identity, et cetera.

Who am I to say? So the heck with what the conservatives are saying. I mean, I've known people like that. I get it. I disagree with him. Well, my sister has three children, three different fathers, and each and every one of them have an LGBTQ slash, if it's not LGBTQ, it is a mental illness, severe depression.

just all these sort of things. And I've never wanted to go there. I think I asked her one time. I was just saying, how is it that this can happen? You know, have we ever given any thought about this? And I didn't say anything about it. I just, you know, kind of move along, and she's just yelling at me. He said, okay, Diana, I'm just going to hang up now.

Okay. I don't want to hang up. I don't want to get into a fight with you. I didn't want to make this about politics. And she said, I love you. I love you, too. then we hang up and move on. And she honestly thinks that Trump is out there making sure that her children will have no rights, her no rights.

And I think she also said something along the lines of she's going to make sure that their family lines end. Now, I don't know if this is not going all in on gay marriage. And Trump has given no indication that he's not all. for a lot of the LGBT agenda. And he certainly doesn't hate LGBTQ. He has gays in his cabinet. Well, Tammy Bruce, former talk show

and Fox host, certainly one of them, seems to be doing pretty good. You know, a pretty good job in there for the most part. But it's just like, yeah, he is stripping them of their rights. And I'm trying to think what rights are, well,

what rights are, is President Trump stripping from my sister's children, many of them depressed and or LGBTQ. And of course, this is being growing up in a female-headed, you know, single family, you know, the saint and single mom. And we've had issues with this. We've talked about these things. And all three of the children, all three have some issues that are going on, some of them more serious than others. And what is about President Trump that's going to strip their rights? Now, there is a possibility that the way that a progressive, like my sister, might look at President Trump's stripping rights, is stripping away this malarkey that you have to bend the knee to absolutely every insane aspect of the LGBTQ agenda.

I'm thinking that may have something to do with it. But that's how my weekend ended up starting being yelled at and berated because I was supporting such an evil man pedified. and she must watch a lot of MSNBC is what I figure. So that's how my weekend started. I don't know if you have any relatives like this. And I assure you, I intentionally, when I called her up, was just going to be like, happy birthday, how's it feel to be 63, this and then the other,

and then Trump pedophile! That's how it started. It's like, whoa. Needless to say, she's having a rough next three years. figure. It's probably not going to get any better what I call her for sure. I don't call her very often. I think you can understand why. Do you have any relatives like that in your neighborhood? Because I'm about tell you, it is, it is something. All right, 7705-633-770 KMED. We'll go over some of the headlines here just a moment. And let me go to line two. Hi, good morning.

Who's this? Welcome. Hi, Bill. This is Vicki from the Applegate. Well, hello, Vicki, member of the early morning Rising Club. Oh, yes, always. This is my favorite time of the day, actually, is in the morning, so get a lot done before it gets too high. You know, the funny thing, you sound like my sister. I never told you this, but your voice reminds me a lot of my sister, except my sister, if she wasn't crazy, okay? Oh, okay. Well, I mean, I'm the other sister that's on your team. Oh, yeah?

So I do have a sister who lives in California, and luckily we are able to, we can talk about several different issues without actually going into, you know, the fire pit of politics. Yeah, the fire pit of political despair, right? And I'm trying to avoid it at all costs. It's like, I just wanted to see how she was doing. And I bet you've done the same thing, same sort of thing. Well, actually, if I mentioned something that my sister doesn't agree with, she'll just say, well, you know, we have the right to, we can agree to disagree, or I don't want to talk about politics, or I don't, you know, I don't want to talk about Trump or, and I don't bring up, like, specific politic issues, but we talk about gas prices, we talk about food prices. is we talk about whether, I mean, we talk all the way around the bush without actually going into the bush, you know what I mean?

So we have a good relationship, and it doesn't affect how we treat each other or love each other, as she calls me, every single day of the week, like, every single day. Oh, but yet you disagree on politics, but you still talk every day then, right? Every single day, weekends included. Now, how do you manage to avoid this and stay out of the pit of political despair like my sister and I ended up. And like I said, I was trying not to talk about politics with her. And I know, but some of my friends who have siblings that are totally like at the other spectrum, and they will refuse to come to holidays. They'll refuse to come to birthdays.

You won't even talk to them on the phone. And life is too short. You grew up with this person all your life. You've made a bond. Why are you letting go? that politics tear your relationship apart. I don't know. I don't understand that because I even told my sister, I said, listen, I don't want to talk about politics. I never bring up politics with you. I'm just calling up to talk about you and see how you're doing and just kind of catch up

a little bit, but it always goes there. But, you know, it's the narrative, Bill. It's so, the Democrats are so, have to convince everybody on how they look at things that they can't not bring it up. Now, luckily, my sister, we have a great non-politic relationship. But you sound like the exception rather than the rule for many families. Well, I feel very, very lucky. I feel very blessed that I can have my sister. We can disagree. We don't have to go into round one, two, three, and somebody's knocked out. You know, know, we just drop it and talk about other stuff.

Okay. There is something about that, about a progressive liberal, however you want to term it, wanting to, or needing, feeling the need to convince you and get agreement on the politics of things. Remember when I told you about going to that day after birthday dinner at the farm restaurant here in southern Oregon? and we're all sitting down at the farm table and immediately, immediately the progressives on the table start going into the politics of the world. And there seems to be, there may be something to that. Well, I think they were brainwashed so badly before COVID, during COVID, after COVID.

It's like, it's like when you listen to your favorite song and you just want to play it over and over and over and over and over again. Well, in other words, so politics are the progressive earwig then. Okay, got it. All right. Hey, Vicki, I appreciate the call. Thanks for that. 7705-633. Yeah, it was just yet another experience.

So I had two experiences in just a couple of days with some pretty intense liberals. One of them at that country farm dinner and the other one with my sister. I mean, talked to my sister on her birthday, trying to wish her a happy birthday. And then it veers off into Trump pedophile. Trump pedophile, evil man, stripping my children of all their rights. It's like, where did this come from? I was just saying, how are you doing?

Happy birthday. Oh, well, maybe as time goes on, things will mellow out there. I don't know. I'm always holding out hope, if nothing else. It's 626 at KMED, 993 KBXG. The Outdoor Report is every Friday morning just past 7 a.m. on the Bill Myers Show. The outdoor report on KMED and the Jukebox 993 covers recreational

opportunities and is powered by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority. Your Department of Adventure off Vileless Road on Airway Drive. When it comes right down to it, when we buy things, we want the best products, at the best prices, and the best service. Of course, sellers always try to tell you that they're the best. Hughes Lumber has been selling lumber products for over 40 years in the Rogue Valley. So if you want to really know who has the best lumber deals, just ask a customer of Hughes Lumber. In Medford, on Crater Lake Highway, the customer's favorite choice. When you donate blood, you help save lives. And right here in both Jackson and Josephine counties, the American Red Cross has daily blood drives near you. Did you know that the American

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No application fee if you apply by September 3rd. Learn more at UMGC.edu. That's UMGC.edu. Certified to operate in Virginia by Shev. Hi, I'm Lema from Orleys, and I'm on 106.7, KMED. Ooh, ooh, ain't got no old. I know place to wrong Yeah, we have a quick homeless update

Ain't got no own I know plays the wrong I'm a lonely boy I ain't got a home I always loved it when Rush Limbaugh used to do the homeless update with that song all the time from Clarence of Rockman Henry But it kind of works

That wasn't for the 50s though So I guess the homeless is not really a new deal President Trump declaring Sunday that homeless people in Washington in D.C. must leave the Capitol immediately. And he's making this part of a broader effort to make the city safer

and more beautiful. And because Washington is a federal district rather than the state, it falls under the constitutional authority of Congress rather than a governor. And the president already has a lot of power over the capital. This according to an article in Newsweek I was reading, including direct control of the D.C. National

Guard and bypassing local leadership. It could pave the way this is what Newsweek is saying federalized control mineralized control their warning

or federal overreach so that's where the progressive side of it says but other than that the article was was reasonably well balanced they're going to have a big

press conference about that today and so he just wants the homeless out of D.C. He also wants the thuggery crime out of D.C. too. This is going to be a big deal.

Everybody knows that if you've stayed at any time in Washington, D.C. over the last few years, and I certainly have a couple of times, actually, the sirens of the cops and the stops and the crime, it's just, it never stops. Middle of the night. Middle of the night. You know, it was really astounding, you know, to be in the nation's capital. And President Trump is tired of that, apparently. And so off we go. Now, he's more or less ordered all. the rest of us to be able to, you know, get the vagrants off the downtown streets, too. Of course, that goes against state law here in the state of Oregon, in which we're supposed

to do everything possible to help the drug-addicted, raving lunatics. Not all are drug-addicted and raving lunatics, but many are. It is 630 at KMED. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Hi, this is Kenny. Hey, Kenny, what's going on your world today?

What's happening? Just driving up and down the road. I just wanted to talk about what you were just talking about. Except mine hits. Oh, okay. Kenny, just so people know I was talking about how I called my sister up to wish her a happy birthday, and then it went into a Trump pedophile, evil man, stripping my children of all their rights conversation. And I just couldn't, I was trying not to go there, you know?

Yeah, mine hits a lot closer to home. In my case, it's my wife. Oh, boy. It's just a whole, whole happy household. Yeah, how do you? How do you pull that off? I'm thinking of, like, who's the guy, Mary Madeline, and who's the guy that looks like a snakehead? I always forget his name.

You know, the guy from the Clinton administration? Oh, I know who you're talking about. Yeah, okay, we know who we're talking about right now. But how do you make that work, or do you? I just don't talk about it. I got my thoughts. And as far as the, you know, the mail-in ballots. You know, I kind of want to remain anonymous.

She's not going to listen to this radio show. I'm pretty positive, but she actually voted for Trump last time. So even she was not able to call her in the circle for Kamala at that point? Even she couldn't do that, even though she is mostly more down in that camp's way of thinking. I just got a hold of the ballots before she did. I didn't hear that, okay? Okay. I did not hear that. But thank you for the call, all right? Oh, boy. See, that's something I figured that Pragues would probably do to their progressive husband, too, or to their conservative husband.

But anyway, hi, good morning. Who's this? This is mine, Dave. Hello, Dave. What are you thinking? I'm thinking that 19 people have died of fentanyl since the beginning of the year in a county that's only 42,498. about a couple a month, right? Two or three a month that you get in Sisku County, right? Right, yeah. And so I wrote an email through the website to Trump

to see if we can't get a strike force here to help out the county sheriff because I don't blame him, but he has to invest in his death. Yeah, I mean, two a month is actually a lot for it. How will come from? Yeah, two a lot, two a month is a lot for your particular county. Hey, you know, on a side note, you know something else I read about Ciskew County that I didn't know about Dave? So there? Okay, we lost him.

Okay. Something else I read, I was reading something about Steven Seagall and one of Stephen Seagall and Kelly LeBrock's children, apparently works, at least according to one reporter was looking at, works as a Ciskew County Sheriff's deputy. I did not know that. Remember Steven Seagull, you know, the fists of fury, all that stuff back from the 1980s? And, of course, Kelly LeBrock from Weird Science, well, you know, he married up. Let's put it that way until he wasn't, I suppose. It's 634. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, and I'm with Cherise from No Wires Now, your Dish Premier local retailer.

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From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. We start the week in Jackson and Josephine counties under an extreme heat warning that will be in effect until early Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, the area is also going to be under a fire weather watch where hot temperatures Tuesday afternoon will combined with gusty winds up to 20 miles an hour. A number of cooling centers have opened up around the region for folks without air conditioning or a place to cool off as temperatures are expected to hit 108 today, 105 tomorrow. The Access Weather Shelter is open in downtown Medford on West 6th.

In Ashland, the public library will be open, and in Grants Pass, the Mint Cooling Center will be available on the Redwood Highway. The U.S. Forest Service for the Rogue River Sisku National Forests said firefighters have responded to four new fire starts east of White City and the Willow Lake area. With no recent storm activity, the agency said the fires are likely human-caused. Law enforcement reminds you to report any suspicious or careless activity. Bill London, KMED. Are you buying or selling a house this year?

Here's a tip from Grants Pass Water Lab. If you buy or sell a property with a well, Oregon requires tests for bacteria, arsenic, and nitrate. Don't let this slow you down. Get your well tested now. Grants Pass Water Lab offers next day results for bacteria tests and a speedy three to five days for the full reporting that meets all the state requirements. Online at GPWaterlab.com, independent and serving the Rogue Valley for more than 40 years. Two dogs fabricating are fabulous at fabricating what you need to get the job done this summer. For example, if you're in the fire suppression business, the dogs custom build aluminum top mount forestry racks for vans to carry firefighting gear.

And if your RV or Camp trailer needs any hitch or tongue repair during camp season, two dogs can fix those puppies. They also build custom diamond plate battery boxes for extra protection in style. Two Dogs Fabricating on Brian Way off Sage Road in Medford, visit Two DogsFab.com. This is News Talk 1063, KMED, and you're waking up with the Bill Myers Show. Melissa Hanson is the vice president of Parents Television and Media Council, ParentsTV.org. We like to stay in touch with watching in the... The group is up to.

It's a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment. Responsible entertainment. Boy, it is a tall order these days. Melissa, welcome back. Always good talking with you. Thank you for having me on. We've been talking to you off and on over the months about an event, or not an event, but kind of an agenda that parents' television has been very supportive of,

and that has been about getting smartphones out of the classroom and getting classrooms in education, kind of back to just constantly. concentrating on things rather than the dopamine hits of the likes and the shares and who's liking your picture, et cetera, et cetera. And our local school districts have been doing some things. And I guess the question is, are they serious when they do come out with a cell phone rule? Is that kind of what you're concerned about? Because here it is, just a couple of weeks, two or three weeks. We're going to be talking about getting back into the classroom once again.

What's a you? Hello? Okay, sorry about that. Hey, could you start that again, Melissa, we just lost the first part of your statement there. Thanks. Yeah, I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? Yep, I can hear you fine.

Thank you. Okay. Yeah, I think they are serious about this, and I think this is a movement that has gained momentum, especially in the last year and a half or so because of the release of the John Haight book, Anxious Generation. where he really pulled together dozens and dozens of scientific studies that show how detrimental these smartphones in the hands of young kids have been not only to their mental health but also to their educational outcomes. Now, you have a recent report out there called smartphones out of the classroom,

what states are doing now to confront these digital distractions, and I would mention you're using some of the evidence like that man was that you were talking about, bolstering your case. Well, our report is mostly, I would say, in the category of a white paper. So we're just describing for parents what their state policy is on smartphones in the classroom. What we found is that now more than half of the states have either enacted or are in the process of voting on and getting governor's signature on legislation that would either restrict or completely ban cell phone use in K-12 classrooms. So there are some differences in how these policies are implemented. Some make you put them away bell to bell.

Some schools are allowing kids to access them between classes or during lunch breaks. But just about every state, minus maybe half a dozen or so, are moving in the direction of bell to bell ban. So they're pretty much seeing this then. I know that I'll listen to some hosts around the country and various other media people that are looking at this differently. I mean, to me, it sounds a little, very common sense. That is, it's a distraction we didn't have to deal with when we were kids,

and anything which distracts from an already problematic educational system would be welcome, I would think. I'm curious, is there a lot of pushback on a civil libertarian side of things? Like, oh, we should just be volunteering or else we shouldn't have to do a blanket ban. We'll just put kids in trouble who are actually misbeying. behaving with the phone. What do you think about that? Some of the advocating that approach. Yeah, you know, there are states that are willing to make carve-out for kids with special needs or who need to have access to smartphones to support their education because of learning differences.

But for the most part, I think there is widespread recognition that, you know, despite what the tech companies promised us in the 90s and early 2000s, about what boon these devices would be to education, how they would be able to tailor the education to every child's needs and so forth. Those promises really never came through. And we've seen quite the opposite effect. And so I think a lot of parents and many educators are waking up to the fact that, you know, we need to get back to basics. Kids need to learn how to read and write and spell and compose a sentence before they need to learn how to code. I find it interesting that just as parents are getting ready to really agree with getting

smartphones out of the classroom, now it's about why we have to have artificial intelligence in all the classrooms helping with everything. Don't you find that interesting? There seems to be like one big tech innovation after another. Maybe I'm wrong about that for noticing, but what do you think? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's interesting because this budget bill that was recently passed originally contained a provision which would stop states from enacting any kind of policies or restrictions

on AI in the classrooms. Now, fortunately, that was taken out of the Senate version before it was finally passed. Oh, it was? Okay, it was taken out. That's good. Okay. It was, but, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people are just sort of smacking their forehead saying, you know, what on earth are they thinking?

Have they not seen the fallout, you know, just now, 20 years out. after the iPhone was introduced, 20 years after Facebook was introduced, we're just now coming to terms with, you know, the total impact of these devices on kids' mental health. I can't wait 10 years before we can start to enact policies that might help mitigate some the harm from kids being on AI because we already are seeing the harm from kids being on AI, whether it's chat bots that are engaging kids and sexually suggestive dialogues, whether it's AI that is encouraging kids to commit suicides so they can be with these imaginary girlfriends that they've created in these chatbots.

I mean, unfortunately, the people that are most vulnerable to these AI chatbots are the people that are probably already most on the fringe in terms of their mental help. Yeah, they don't need any additional help getting in that direction per se. And I've often, and by the way, I'm not blaming kids. I'm really not. And I'm not saying that these kids are so different or weak. I'm not so sure, Melissa, and like I said, I don't know how old you are, but I'm in my, you know, close to mid-60s now. And if I had been dealing with Facebook and the public shaming and all sorts of other things that have come through the rise of social media and especially social media in your hand that you carried around, you know, all day, I don't know.

know if I would have escaped out of public school as well as I did, you know, with being as reasonably well adjusted. I don't know if that's, I don't look at this as like the generations are different. I'm looking at the environment is different for them, really. Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think, you know, there are a lot of kids that are struggling socially because all their friendships and relationships have been mediated through a screen. They don't know how to interact in person. You see stories all the time about kids bringing a parent along on a job interview because they just don't know how to function in the real world because their entire life

has been online. It's been devastating for a generation of kids. If we can correct course now, that's wonderful. But I think it's going to take some time to undo all the damage that's been done. Now, Melissa Hansen from Parents Media, if you were, if you had your choice, if there was a recommendation, not that you were a doctor or anything like that, but what is your overall recommendation for if you're going to give the kids cell phones, when does it start? When does the smartphone area cut off for you? What do you think? Yeah, well, there was a recent research study that came out that showed that the mental health consequences are greatest under the age of.

of 13. If you give a child a smartphone before they turn 13, you're going to have the worst mental health outcomes. So clearly, it's best to wait until they're 13. I would advocate waiting even longer. My son is about to turn 17. He has a flip phone. And even though when he was, you know, fifth, sixth grade, and all of his friends had had smartphones and he was asking for one a lot, we held out. We didn't do that. And now he's not really even all that interested in getting a smartphone. So, you know, if you can weather that storm of peer pressure, I think things will turn out better in the long run for your kid. If you can delay, delay, delay, delay getting them that smartphone. That is interesting. So your son isn't even all that

interested in getting a smartphone after having denied it to him when he was a kid? That's interesting. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when he was in fifth or sixth grade, almost all of his classmates, most of his peers had smartphones, and they weren't banning them in the classroom. So, you know, during lunch he had nobody to talk to because all of his friends were looking at their screen but now he's in a school where the phones are banned and he he doesn't need one he recognizes he doesn't need one he's able to talk to his friends during lunch and it's a much healthier environment and he's actually able to communicate with his peers rather than communicating through the smartphone device that's interesting right

or staring at the top of their head while they're I suppose now these these smartphone policies that are being enacted in many of the states now, not all of them, even Oregon is doing this too, is what I'm kind of curious about, do you get more pushback from students or from the parents or maybe about the same from both sides? What do you think? Is there any research on that? Just curious. Yeah, I think in general, there's more pushback coming from the parents and from the kids. And I think this is a problem that was really exacerbated. during the COVID period, when parents kind of got used to being in touch with their kids all day, every day, and they sort of took for granted that that was the right and privilege.

And, you know, that if they called in the middle of algebra class, their child should pick up the phone and answer, even if they're in the middle of a lesson. So a lot of the resistance is coming from parents and not from the kids. In fact, you know, there's a lot of survey data that indicates that kids recognize that these devices are a problem. They don't like the fact that they feel like they're addicted to these devices. A lot of kids want to break free from that. So to the extent that we as parents and adults can help them break free from that addiction, I think that these kids will be really grateful in the long run. I'm intrigued by kids realizing that the smartphone is a problem,

but that a lot of times they're going to have to work on weaning the parents having access to their child's smartphone in school. That that, that, That's going to be the next step, waning them off of that expectation that you can call or text at any time of the day. That's interesting. Wow. Okay. Melissa Hanson, do we lose you on your phone, by the way? I'm curious.

I think we did. Yeah, I know she was in a bit of a cell phone, a semi-dead zone. But I appreciate Melissa Hansen, and you can read this report. Smartphones out of the classroom, what states are doing now to confront these digital distractions. and you'll find out more about this on Parenthood.org, parentsTV.org. It's 11 before 7. Hi, I'm Matt with Stone Heating and Air.

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Visit dFR.orgon.gov slash prepare now to learn how. This message brought to you by the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, and this station. This is the Bill Myers Show on 1063 KMED. Got something on your mind? Give Bill a shout at 541-770-633-770 KMED. Dr. Carol Lieberman will join me in about 1520 or so. We're going to talk about President Trump's homelessness executive order, ordering homeless out of DC wanting to make the cities safe again.

Of course, I can't help and wonder if maybe some of the areas surrounding, you know, you know, the Beltway over the D.C. Beltway, they're going like, oh, no, he's going to shove him out here. We're going to have homeless hanging out at Dulles at the airport or maybe just outside of, you know, just outside of D.C. In Baltimore, it'll be even worse than it was before. Virginia, even worse. You have to wonder. You have to wonder.

Could you see some of those areas surrounding Washington, D.C., being really upset if all of a sudden the raving lunatics that have been making it very difficult to be a tourist in downtown D.C. over by the Capitol and the White House and places, if that would be interesting, wouldn't you think? We can talk about that other things, but I'm going to talk with Dr. Carol Lieberman about that and a bunch more, because all these places under control of liberal policies are having issues with homelessness and less so in areas that are not controlled in liberal areas. Less of a problem.

Not so crazy, Gene is here. Hello, Gene is this Monday morning early. It's got you early. What's happening, huh? Well, I just call to say, when do kids ever get a chance to really grow up when their mommy and their daddy are always everywhere they're at? there is a good point to be made there yeah maybe that is the difference between when people like let's say you and me you're not well you and I grew up at a time when we had parents and I had both parents and both parents you know cared about me but but there

was a much freer touch a much lighter touch course I know some may have said that you know they ignored us as we went out and about and and maybe We sometimes got ourselves in trouble, you know, here and there. But I just remembered it as being pretty well balanced. You know, had to be home by a certain time. But I didn't have to go out and give a laundry list of every place I was going to go to. There was never any such thing as a play date. You just went and played with your friend, didn't you?

That's how I remember. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you just ran around and hung out with people with thought something like you did. Yeah. I remember just yelling, oh, hey, Mom, we're going to go. I'm going to be playing with Jimmy. You know, Jimmy Chido, a couple of doors down, you know, was one of my childhood friends. And nobody thought anything about it.

But to be fair, though, Gene, maybe the anxiety is rising in a lot of parents because the days of the neighborhood in which there were stay-at-home parents, you can almost assume that there were stay-at-home parents everywhere. That's over. Wouldn't you agree on that? Oh, I agree. But the trouble it is, if you keep coddling your children too much, they never get a chance to grow up. And it doesn't matter who they run around with because they're always running around with you. Yeah, that's true. Well, there's nothing wrong, I guess, with having an idea of where you're out to.

But, yeah, it would be, I don't know, maybe this is a question for the Southern Oregon jury, though. is the culture today or is regular life in most areas so different and so much more dangerous from when most of we adults were growing up that we have to keep track of children that way I'm just I'm just raising the possibility if this is if this is reality maybe I don't understand what parents are up against with with their children my children are in their late 20s and in 30s now. And even then it was, I didn't worry about them too much at that time in the early 1990s, but maybe it's that bad.

And I don't know, but I will leave that open for folks to comment on, okay? How about that, John? Well, I just see this is a very nasty divide and conquer among our own children. Yeah, yeah. Well, the state's always trying to divide us away from our children. And so on one hand, I understand, you know, parents wanting to be able to stay in touch with their kids. I appreciate that. But, you know, if you feel like you have to be able to have access 24-7 to be able to text message, how are you, where are you, what are you doing?

What are you thinking? There's a pathology connected with that, too. Yeah. There's no trust to anybody. Nobody can trust anything. Yeah. But, of course, maybe they also know that being kids were not necessarily trustworthy. I know that I, there were, I was a pretty good kid, but, yeah.

I would go and rebel in certain areas. I would. Well, you make mistakes. That's how you actually live life. That's how you go about doing it. Make a mistake. Yeah. Thanks for the call, Gene.

I appreciate that. Not so crazy, Gene. But maybe that's one question I'll pose to the Southern Oregon jury, though, and I'll do that. Do you think, though, that today's culture is so problematic and society out there is so rough that a parent should have 24-7 electronic connection with the kids. Is it that different? I'm willing to be wrong on that if you think that, you know, Bill, you just don't understand what's going on out there.

And if I'm being naive about that, I'm willing to fall on my sword. But I would love to hear from a parent who is maybe struggling with some of the issues that we're talking about. I say, hey, Bill, you have no idea what it's like living out here in this section of here and yeah I want to make sure that I know where the kid is at all times and I don't like that cell phone ban and tell me why 770 5633 good morning this is bill hi who's this hey bill it's deplorable Patrick and I don't have much time but I want to make a real short quick point okay this this uh effort to get the smart phones out of the classroom

is being led by who not the teachers who's it being led by some outside group right that's what I'm getting from from it oh um the lady you just talked to

I was listening with one ear oh okay well yeah that's uh parents television of course parents television is all about trying to be responsible with uh with entertainment and media with kids that's part of them they're not the only person or the only group that's doing something like that or a lot of groups there are or are stepping up

But do you think, though, that is a good thing or a bad thing? You know, what is your overall impression? My overall impression is the kids don't belong with these phones. My grandson can't be without it. He's like he can't take a step without it. He can't go to the bathroom without the phone in his face. And his mom ignores my warnings. I'm the grandpa.

I got no authority, but I'm very disappointed in the teachers. They should have been screaming about. this years ago. All right. Appreciate the call there, Patrick. D.P., deplorable Patrick. He embraces the label. Good morning. This is Bill Meyer on K.M.D., who's this? Hey, Bill. It's Lynn. How are you? I'm fine, Lynn. How are you? Good. I don't think DP's got it quite right. I think the teachers hate the smartphones. And when I was subbing in, you know, I sub for about five years, I think. And the phones or the being of my existence, and the kids would go nuts because they're addicted. So if you just take them away, you create a bigger problem.

So you have to be really careful, and I remember asking kids to put their phone away, and they'd be like, that was my mom. And then I would like say, yeah, so. Exactly. Like you're 16, and you can't be away from your mommy for a day. So this is a great thing. I think it's the parents. that are the biggest issue.

But the other thing that people don't think about is the massive amount of EMF that the kids and students and staff are bathed in every day because, first of all, they have the Internet on their Chromebooks, and then they all have their phones. And it can't be good for people's health, and it probably contributes to some of the misbehavior. I know people think that's crazy, but there's more and more evidence that is a problem. Okay, so I'm going to take that to the bank here because you're... a parent and you have been a school teacher. So you've been in both arenas here.

I think you get some of that. Don't you find it interesting, though, that just as parents are, and the system is kind of looking at the danger of smartphone addiction for the little kids, for the kids in school and such, now the whole idea is to put artificial intelligence in the classroom, too. Don't you? I'm intrigued by that. It almost like they're replacing one electronic monitoring. and or helper, so to speak, with another, or am I wrong about that, that kind of look?

Well, I haven't heard advocating the AI in the classroom, although I'm sure people who would profit off it are advocating it. The teachers are appalled, you know, I've talked to them, because if you have AI, you're never going to be able to send a, well, actually, it's already here. You're not going to be able to assign a paper to be worked on at home because they'll just use AI. So all the writing will have to be done in the classroom. and that's unfortunate because then you don't get the experience of editing and thinking about your words

and actually learning the material because when you might one of my favorite English teachers said writing is a way of coming to know when you learn to write then you learn to figure out what you think about things and you get it down on a piece of paper and like no that's not quite right and you rewrite it and you rewrite it and all that's going to be vastly reduced with AI but that's the world we live in. Yeah, I'm interested in where this goes because I think that there is an amazing tool and capability in the hands of people who already understand and have mastered the information, if you understand where I'm coming from. You've already made those synaptic connections. And you know the material. You know, I guess an example, if you're an engineer

and you already understand the trigonometry and algebra and all the rest of this. You know this stuff frontwards and backwards. And then to bring artificial intelligence in to augment you, I see that as potentially very valuable and useful for people, but to start you off that way so you don't really have to master it, that could be a problem long term. Oh, 100%. I mean, it's just on steroids.

We already have the problem with kids don't know their math facts. because they use their calculators, usually on their phones, you know, to figure out what 8 plus 5 is. And in advanced math classes in high school, it's really making kids a lot dumber. And I'd like to see all of the technology out of the classroom and get rid of the Chromebooks, get rid of all of it. Because it's, I think it's doing a lot more harm than good. Could I comment also about raising kids and how much to protect them? Sure. I just, that was also brought up, you know, and that was really a challenge when we were raising our kids, and it's much worse now, but it's a much more dangerous world than when you and I were growing up.

If you don't know who the parents are that your kids are going to play at, you don't know what their values are. You don't know if they, you know, have drugs in the house, if they're, you know, pot smokers with proliferation of pornography, there's so much more sexual abuse than there used to be. there's been enough corrosion in the department or in the society that you overall level of safety has has lowered then of just letting the kid run around I think so and it's tragic and we used to talk about it as parents you know and we go camping you know like at Harris Beach and the kids would bring their bikes and they could just ride around and we wouldn't worry about it you know like how at last they're free to do it they want but I think it's a trick because you don't want to put fear

into your kids and I've seen parents do that try to scare their kids about all the dangers out there. You want to raise bold and brave kids who are willing to try things on their own, but at the same time protect them, hopefully, without them knowing a lot of it. But it's not easy, and I think keeping cell phones out of their hands as long as possible, our kids missed, you know, it was early in that whole thing, but they got flip phones at 16 because they were driving and wanted to be able to reach them. But it's very, very difficult to find that balance, but I think we need to help our kids be as free as possible,

but also be very wise about the influences they might be exposed to. Anyway, it takes a lot of prayer and a lot of careful thinking. You can't just raise kids without just sort of letting them grow. That's not going to go well. See, I appreciate it. That's why I posed the question, because there was a part of me, Am I thinking that it's safer than it really is out there? I don't think so at all.

Okay, all right. My kids are 28 and 30, and they've launched their lives, and they're doing very well, and they're very independent. It can be done. But I didn't let them do a lot of things that we did when we were growing up. Thanks to the call, Lynn. Good one. Appreciate that on KMED and KMEDHD-EG-Mad-EG-G-G-G-G grants.

Past Town Hall News. We'll catch up on the rest of the national news here just a little bit. Dr. Carol Lieberman talking about President Trump's ordering the homeless out of D.C. Wonder how that's going to go, huh? If you're remodeling your house,