This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Samantha Salem (Fringe Show)

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Our 2024 KC Fringe program wraps up with local entrepreneur and concerned Palestinian Samantha Salem.

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Stories told and laughter shared Every state shows how we care Dreamers rise and new worlds make in this frames All right, welcome to this podcast is uncalled for at the 2024 KC Fringe Festival. I am your host, Mike Cherenewski. Hi, and I'm your co-host, Heather Marie. And thank you very much.

It's our last live show. We made it. Yeah, we made it to the last show. I do not see us getting best of. That's okay. Well, they do say that you save the best for last and not in any way not get any of our previous guests, but I'm very, very, very excited for tonight's guests.

We have a fellow local mom. mompreneur, entrepreneur, Kansas City realtor, and just all-around incredible woman. Please welcome, Ms. Samantha Salem. Okay. Otherwise I end up turning my back to him. Because I'll sit wherever you put me. I'm glad to be here. I know.

We are glad to have. you very much. And, of course, I say San Theater project. Yes, project our voices to make sure all of our lovely guests can hear us as well. And especially our tech. So, so welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. Please go ahead and introduce yourself. Yeah, tell us a little bit about yourself and all of the many, many amazing things that you do. How much time do you have? I know. We have one, we have one hour and I do. It does go by fast. Okay. Well, my name is Samantha Salem. I am, where do I start?

I'm a local Kansas City real estate agent. I've been living in Kansas City for 17, 18 years now. I'm a mother to three children, and I have a lot of businesses, so I'm a serial entrepreneur. Do you want to know something that I've never realized until this moment? That is exactly my intro. I am also, I'm a local Kansas City real estate agent. And I'm not by comparison, Ms. Samantha is an extraordinary human, an extraordinary realtor. But I also am a, I've been in Kansas City for, in that 17, 18 year range.

And I also am a mother of three children. And I also have multiple businesses and consider myself a serial entrepreneur. Are you going to stop copying me now? I, you know what? I feel like I feel like I should be taking notes. I needed my notepad. I'm like, what's my next move? Well, that's why we partnered so well.

That's true. One of our endeavors was together, too. That is true. Well, and that's how we met. So that would be kind of a fun place to start. We met in entrepreneurial spaces. Yes. Creative entrepreneurial spaces.

Very creative. What I know about you is that creative is kind of always a component of what you're doing. It's in my blood. I can't help it. I'm sorry. I love it. I love it. I love it.

So what are you working on right now? Oh, God. Okay. Well, I just launched my travel design business. where I help people design and cultivate memories within the trips that they do. So the boring way to say that is I'm a travel agent, but I don't like boring. You don't do anything boring. You curate experiences, so this actually feels like it aligns very well with your natural

skill set. That's amazing. Thank you. So I did see recently making sure that you guys are following Samantha, and I will tag her socials at some point in time. But did you say you're going to go on your first cruise? I am. Okay.

I'm a very motion sickness prone person, so this is kind of exciting, kind of, like, scary. But why not? I can do it, so let's go. Yeah. Well, I've never been on a cruise for kind of that same reason. Come with me. I was going to say, in the follow suit. I'm trying to bring a whole group with me, so I don't feel seasick alone.

So that would be really nice to have, like, throw up buddies. Yeah, right, right. Although I think they've come a long ways with, like, motion sickness medicine now. Like, we would need to do some significant research beforehand to at least, like, stack the deck in our favor a little bit. They can only hope. Yeah. This, by the way, is funny coming to me as someone who joins the Navy out of high school.

So you've been on a ship or two. I have. Yeah. What was a pretty big ship that you were on? Oh, yeah. aircraft carriers for those who've never seen one person they're floating cities oh wow they're that big yeah i was told the cruise was a floating resort so let's see how that goes right it sounds like a petri dish to me honestly but let's go i yeah we as a matter of fact you're right let's just

stay far away from that because i too have heard cruise story horror story cruise horror stories yeah so no but i'm excited to learn though that you will be doing cool things with that. I'm excited about your first cruise because in the true follow Samantha pattern obviously like you know if it works for you it might work for me we'll see. Yeah I'll bring you on we'll go. So travel industry and I know that you do a lot of vlogging traveling's kind of been a passion of yours for a long time. It has and this business honestly I was trying to push it away for a very long time but it just caught up to me like I couldn't I couldn't get away from it I do travel quite a bit

for the last four or five years, I've been traveling at least once a month, minimum. So it just kind of naturally came into play where, you know, sometimes I travel for work and sometimes I don't, but it just made sense. Yeah. It made sense. So the travel industry aligned kind of just made sense. That was just an opportunity that was provided to you. Real estate, how long have you been doing real estate for?

Eight plus years now. Okay. Yeah. That's amazing. So you've seen, you were there pre-COVID through that, and then now kind of, we're seeing kind of an interesting, of course, right now we're still in that, that kind of downward turn, but then adding presidential elections. And it's an interesting real estate climate. Would you agree with that? I agree about the interesting part. Yeah. Let's just see how it goes because I don't feel comfortable making predictions in the real estate market because I've not been successful at that. So we take one day at a time. We do. My experience has been, and I will say like I'm not making a prediction either, is that it seems like real estate is always happening. So sometimes it's just mitigating the fears associated with that and then meeting the needs of who's buying and selling in those markets. But it turns out that people are always needing.

to go into home. They need shelter. They're going to have to buy or sell at some point, whether it's for pain or pleasure, hopefully more pleasure. But there's nothing pleasurable about these interest rates right now. So, yeah. But the good agents flow as water, with water,

and we just go with the flow and just kind of take it as it. Either you make it or you break it at this point. Answer the questions as they come in. And if we don't know, then we just help find the answers, because that's what we do. Yes, we do. So travel, extraordinary, curating experiences, real estate agent. What else is in your mompreneur business right now?

Well, I've been a real estate investor for a while. I've done almost everything. I've done the flipping and the buy-in holds and the smaller, like the smaller real estate residential. I've done the apartment complexes. We've done the glamping and stuff together and experiential, more of the hospital. hospitality, Airbnb side of things, long-term, short-term, mid-term, all of the things. So I'm kind of sick of that now. I have ADHD and I need new things all the time.

So I'm kind of phasing that part out because I want to open up more of my time towards more of the travel. Because that's always been my full-time goal is to do the travel full-time. and then more of like the organizing social activism type of thing because that brings more of the meaning, I guess. It's more fulfillment, personal fulfillment, and hopefully, hopefully one day we could change the world. I think that the world has changed by consistent small actions and people that care. Absolutely. We need more empathy and hearts. And just I had a, I shared recently a conversation that I was having. This was years ago the conversation took place, but I was running for an office and I was being told while having a conversation about just an important thing at that time that I was writing the fence.

And I'm like, I'm here to tell everybody that it's an imaginary fence. We are so intentional. Yes, and who's in, what is the intention of the fence? You know, like there's no real them. It's all us. And it's this idea of having to choose a side by default, alienates really important facts on both sides. So it's an interesting thing, and I'm glad to know that, I don't know if that's among your passion. So as an activist and kind of a segue into things that inspire me about you, Samantha, are you, as far as your heritage, where are you from, if you wouldn't mind sharing with everybody?

Okay, so I was born in New Jersey, boring, but my father is Palestinian, and he was born in Gaza City. And my mother, I now know, is Chinese, born in Vietnam, and she came to the states during the Vietnam War as a refugee. And my father came to the states with a student visa from Gaza around the same time. So they met in New Jersey, and that's where my birthplace happened. But very recently, when I was putting all the pieces together, I'm like, I'm a byproduct of war and it made me dig a little deeper and like, who caused these wars? Why were my parents kicked out of their homes and had to seek shelter in a new place? Why did this and this and this happen?

And it just, I mean, it just baffled my mind. I lived in Gaza for 10 years during my teenage years. So I was there from 9 to 19, my formative years. I was able to learn Arabic, learn more of a religion, the culture, the tradition. I got to play with the thousands of cousins that I have. I don't know the definite number yet. It's just still continuing. But I've been able to get the best of both worlds because I was raised here till nine,

let's say 10, so a whole decade in the U.S. and then a whole decade in Palestine. And then I came back to the U.S. as a very just informed person as a young adult. Because I had experienced a lot of different things. Yes. So. From your own perspective, your own experience. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I'm Palestinian.

That is amazing. So you are Palestinian and Chinese by your heritage. You're born in New Jersey, which is its own, its own different story. I was told I have an accent. But if I have an accent, it's like 30 years old, so I don't know. I can barely notice. You can notice? Well, my father is from Pittsburgh, and I often get accused of having an East Coast accent.

Yeah, well, I was nine when I left, so it shouldn't matter. maybe it's kind of one of those collective accents of it's English and you can understand me that's all that matters I agree by and large no I agree with that also so by comparison to all of that how did you end up in Kansas City uh marriage okay yeah well I'm thankful that that all of those past brought you here because then we got to know one another and through starting businesses and things that I've learned about you were, I mean, just indomitable. There's nothing that you aren't willing. I'm honest.

And you use really big words. That's indomable. It just means unable to be dominated. Like this woman is the epitome of perseverance and just making things happen. And so I'm very, very glad that you ended up in Kansas City. Thank you. But in a, in a, just a kind of a frank way, I'm a very frank person. How has it been as a Palestinian-American?

American these last, I don't know, I would say these last 30 plus years, but sincerely, recently, how you brought activism as part of your mission. Is that part of that alignment there? Yeah. I don't know how to answer that because it's hard to put that in words. survivor's guilt comes to mind because I'm here and not there kind of vibe. You know how that thought process goes, but also grateful that I'm here and not there so I can do something to help maybe in some way or form, but also I'm only here because of a piece of paper and a sheer stroke of luck. So it wasn't anything that I earned to be here. So it's very conflicting.

It's extruciating. I'm trying to say big words too, okay, damn it. It's very painful. It's very painful to sit here and watch and worry and not sleep at night, not knowing what's happening. I already lost family in this current genocide. I lost my grandmother, who I loved very, very dearly. And she passed on Christmas Day.

which to us we're Muslim we don't really celebrate but it's a very significant day so I feel like very memorable and my cousin Amani she was 42 and she was killed in her home with a random bomb just blowing up their house she was within the elusive safety of her own home and she couldn't

you know get away from all of the chaos and an absolute just murder that's happening right now. So my, a hundred percent of my family is displaced. More than half of our homes are rubble. My personal childhood home is still standing, but it's half broken. It's going to take a lot to rebuild, but it's standing. And see, like, this is where we're at.

We're very grateful that our home is standing. That's what you're comparing. with the rest of the Gaza Strip where 70% of it is completely decimated, completely gone. Well, so in Gaza right now, we're, I mean, there is no safe space in Gaza. No. We don't know what safe means. And really almost never have in your lifetime. There was, there was very, let's say. I don't know what to tell you, but life there had, like, we just went with it because that was the thing to do,

because it's either you move on with your life every day with a positive mindset and gratitude that you're alive, or you're going to be defeated. And then you're going to wallow. And we don't do that. We just don't. The resilience and the perseverance of our people has been extremely inspiring and we just, we're like, okay, you're going to take away my home, I have a tent. You're going to take away my tent? I have this, I have this. You're not going to give me food. I'm going to make food. You know what I mean? There is never a time where I'm like, whoa, me, I don't have these things, therefore I must swallow. You know what I mean? It's not an option for us. There was no choice. So you You have to keep moving forward and pushing forward with what you can and what you have, with the circumstances that are man-made that were forced on you. This is not a natural food disaster or famine.

This is all man-made, created and forced upon, for ethnic cleansing, pretty much is what it is. I appreciate the use of frank language and the use of the word genesis. It is a, regardless of how anybody would feel, like we, we as a global community have witnessed attempts and effective genocide historically and have stood united in the understanding that this is wrong, right? And to watch this on a global stage in real time is something that is incomprehensible. And to know, I remember when we were doing sweet tea and doing creative amazing things, and this is where part of my admiration for you stems from is there was a point. And this was around Easter time, and there was supposed to be a ceasefire.

And we're doing cool stuff. And there was a bombing that took place during the ceasefire. And you showed up, and you guys, you were very open. You're like, I'm sorry that I'm not all here today. This happened. And I was naive to the gravity of what was taking place there. And of course, what became an excuse, what became an excuse last October to validate a genocide, that nobody.

can be naive to. You know, I happen to know you and you happen to share with me something that caused me to seek information. And then I was deeply impacted by the reality of what was going on and what your family was going through. I remember you went to Gaza relatively recently. How long ago was that? That was October 22, ironically, a year before I knew everything was going to fall apart. My grandmother, I talked to her on the phone and she basically was like, when am I ever going to see you again? I need to see you before I die. And I hadn't seen her for nine years prior to that. So I did what every good granddaughter does. Traveled halfway around the world. And I spoke to take it. The only amount of time I was able to leave work was 10 days. I was able to secure

like the kids and everything. And out of those 10 days, it took me five to get there and come back. So I only spent five actual real days inside Gaza and seeing my family and my friends and all the things that were happening there. And I documented the heck out of that trip. On my Instagram, there's a bunch of highlights that say like Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, wherever I was, I was documenting everything. So, yeah.

It was, I am so, so, so thankful that I was able to go. I learned so much about Gaza in that time and watching you in your Korean mother and you call her Sizi. And picking olives and that smile. You and her have this just infectious smile, just all of your face, just in your eyes light up. So I too am thankful that you documented that journey. and the amount of time being able to cross very small barriers. These are things that, you know, us in the United States, I travel back in Ports to Kansas. I drove all the way to North Dakota and Minnesota, and I passed many borders and did so freely.

You know, those are things that I think people take for granted the reality of this space and of what that was like. Yeah, it's easier to get on a spaceship and go to the... the moon than it is to enter Gaza. And this is before this, this is just regular days. And I only strictly have US citizenship passport. I don't have any Palestinian paperwork. And it was extremely difficult for me to get in. And I had to beg and plea with them.

And if my dad wasn't physically there, they probably wouldn't have let me in either. I was like, I'm only here from my grandmother. It's just five days. I will sign here on my return. I will be here literally in five days. You will see me again. Please let me in.

It took a very long time, but they finally did let me in, and I'm grateful for that, too. But it took two and a half days to get there from here, and two and a half days to come back, and a lot of money, a lot of money, not tickets or flights. No, you have to pay people to let you in. But it was worth every. Absolutely, absolutely. Every single cent was worth it, 100%. And I now have documentation of what Gaza looked like before all of this,

because it's going to take us decades and decades to rebuild and to figure out where to put all these people and how are they going to live again, like decent human beings. Like, how do we bring them back their basic human rights? That's it. Like, that's it. No, I agree. Thank you, Michael.

How do you bring back basic human rights that, that have been robbed in the most brutal ways. And how do you expect, or what is the expectation? Not how do you expect, but what is the expectation of? And globally, unfortunately, there's human atrocities taking place all over. And we acknowledge that, right? There's eight genocides going on, right? Taking place actively.

And what's interesting to me, and in a very open way, we have a global stage. This information is available to us in real time. So there's very little, there's very little excuse. Now, there is some navigating the news and what is available to you. And I do, I am thankful that we live in a country that still we have access to alternative news sources. Because on a global scale, there are places that they quite literally don't know these things are going on because they don't have access to the information.

I would argue that a little bit. I'm prefacing this with that to say, that without, with taking out whatever limited access to the information exists, right, with taking out your marginalized excuses, there is no excuse. This is, we all are watching this in real time. And there are largely agreed upon on a global level,

level, this is not okay. We've watched this happen before. So how do we remedy this? Like, it feels to me, like there should be people that, you know, you call or we're like, hey, this is happening now. How do we stop this? And then those people are like, oh, don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain. And this is coming from somebody who's never experienced a moment like you've experienced. My grandmother was my best friend. I got to hold her hand while she took her last breath. And I have cried for you and still known that that would never be enough for what you have experienced in that. I'd like to say a few things.

So first of all, genocide is wrong, period. baby should be in prison right now and anyone who argues otherwise well they can F off thank you Michael I appreciate that I'm pulling back a little bit he can fuck off all right same with Russia would is a Ukraine being considered one of those genocides right now I think so I would agree yeah yeah Ukraine okay I'm neither Ukrainian nor Russian I am Polish So we are still, you know, Slavic brothers and everything, but what Russia is doing right now is equally disgusting. And for anyone to sit back and say, it's okay, like a certain presidential candidate, who, by the way, is a convicted felon 34 times over and also belongs in prison, you know, he can fuck himself too. No, oh, my God.

All right. And let's not forget. If Ukraine were to fall to Russia, and to their credit, they have not. Poland's next. All right. And the Polish people, you know, we've had to deal with Russians and we've had to deal with Nazis over our fairly recent history as a people.

Enough is enough, and I'm glad that they've stepped up and been leaders in that situation. Appreciate that. I do, too. I actually appreciate your passion in the way that you advocate for things, and I will stand on a part of that. Genocide is wrong.

Global stage, like, we should know better. We do have history repeating itself, and at what point in time are people held accountable, you know, and historically that did take place. I know that you have mentioned your activism and your advocacy. I would like to share. You have some things that are, well, just tell me about kind of your journey. Like you have some T-shirts and some stickers and your mission and the mission tagline of Free Palestine, right? how do we, how do we help, I guess? Like, how do we help? I'm like, Heather, you're all over the

place. I am. I'm not saying. And I want to know, like, what can we do to help? How can we, how can we support? Because at some point in time, this becomes a, this is not a political issue. This is not a religious issue. This is a humanitarian issue. And I heard a, you know, forgive me for anybody that takes this wrong way, but I heard a comparative comparison at one point in time referring to dogs, okay? And you have dogs that you beat repeatedly, and at some point in time, that dog bites you back. And you use that as an excuse to shoot the fucking dog. And the end of this comparison is the reality that Palestinians are not fucking dogs. the analysis of any kind of comparison where you are not recognizing human beings as human beings,

you've lost. There's no more argument. And any excuse to eliminate, or as you use the words, ethnic cleansing is wrong. It needs to be addressed adamantly and upfront. So I appreciate you. Let us know how we can help, aside from being real pissed off about it. Yeah. Well, first of all, you're allowed to be really pissed off about it very vocally, very loudly, everywhere you are. And to all the people that you know, your family, your friends, your social media, don't be scared. It's not the time to be scared anymore. Educate yourself. Speak to a fellow Palestinian. Speak to a fellow anybody that knows more than you. It's not wrong to unlearn things that you've been taught. It's not learn. It's not, it's not, it's not wrong to seek more information and ask questions. Turn on your thinking caps and just hear what you listen to in the medium. Be like, wait, was that really true?

Did that really happen? Let me go look into that more. Because we need to do more of that critical thinking thing, you know, like with the brains and how they work. If we can do a little bit more of that, I feel like we would be in a much better place. I feel like that's a broad scale statement right now. very vague, very, very general. Well, no, yeah, no, but in the judge, she's absolutely right.

Like, use your brain. Yeah. Use your brain. Absolutely right. This is the whole media literacy argument all over again. So, first of all, I obviously have a background in media production. We were participating in a podcast right now. But even before that, I did a public television for a little bit.

Yeah. That's fun. Yeah, right over here, KCPT, did an internship. came back, worked a couple of times as volunteer, work a couple times paid. They do a really good job. PBS does, of keeping personal bias out of their coverage. Now, something else that really pisses me off is anyone who dares to say anywhere. Oh, the American media has a liberal bias.

No, they don't. They really don't. look at the media that we consume on a daily basis. Most of it is owned by corporations. Corporations have a profit motive. Anything, they'll report on anything

as long as it makes them money. That is the cold heart truth. Do some of these outlets do a good job? Yeah. Others, well, not so much. If you want real journalism, BBC and a bunch of

the other foreign outlets, I think, to a far superior job than anything that comes out of the U.S. PBS and NPR included, unfortunately. I'm glad you brought media up because I wanted to kind of address that, what you spoke about before. So the way the media works, especially in favor of this, in this context, is what we call propaganda. It is creatively, it is designed.

Propaganda, basically, to be consumed by the ignorant, for lack of better word, ignorant people that are listening. And the easiest way to understand more of how in-depth this process is, they literally have it down to a science or an art, go to occupationmovie.org. it is a free documentary online for anybody to watch it is called the occupation of the American mind nice that yeah that literally speaks exactly to how are you hearing the things that are being said and all the lies that are being you know spoken is in that bullet point like if they say this say this if they say this say this and it's It's, they're taking us American people as ignorance. They take us as idiots.

And we just consume it and we hear it from here and we keep repeating it. And we don't look into how accurate it is. We don't look into if it's right or wrong. We don't look into the alternate history of the other side and what's really happening. And thanks COVID for bringing us TikTok because now we're watching a live stream genocide right in front of our eyes. without the media coverage, which is why they wanted to ban TikTok to begin with. If you really think about it, it's not because of China. Absolutely not because of China.

And honestly, Chinese TikTok looks entirely different than ours. We use it as an entertainment following into that versus like an educational tool. It's no longer just cat videos. And for the record, ignorant, all ignorant means is that you don't know. Yeah. And it's you're correct in what you're saying, but sometimes people take a word like that And that becomes the offense point. And now it's like, oh, no, ignorance is not an insult.

It's a reality. And the way to cure ignorance is to educate yourself. Which is going to get to the next point I want to make. I was actually on an ad hoc committee, legal one of the first of Johnson County that put together an ad hoc committee to study media literacy. How do we address it? how do we get more people to take the time to actually think about what they're consuming and everything?

And interesting, side note, none of them remember if that's at-hoc committee was a woman by the name of Cherise David's. Ugh. I'm not going to say anything. I'm not either. I'm very, the only political thing that I have to say right now is partisanship is the demise of democracy. It's all I have to say.

There are two sides of the same coin. It's literally the same exact thing. And we were warned about it at the beginning of the whole writing of the paper and all the things, and yet here we are. So, yeah. You were talking earlier about who do we call? I just wish we had someone to call and make all this stop. We have people to call. We've been calling them every day for the last 10 months.

But they choose not to do anything about it because they're paid. And who are they paid by? Exactly. So you want to go into that rabbit hole and then go dive down deep into how our politicians came to seats. And then the more I learn about politics, the more my mental health just goes down the drain this way. And the only way to really save the world is to abolish all governments. I mean, I'm going to say it loud and clear. We need to start over.

The U.S. needs to take a break, stay single for four years. And then learn about herself. They say you need like a month for every year you've been married. I mean, then we need a way more than four years. But it's just literally how it is because no matter how you look a blue or red or whatever, it was designed for the politicians to grow and for the people to just stay not free. We're not free people.

We really are not free people. I definitely agree that we've evolved here. over time and amendments and and media. So I would say even especially in the last 70 years, that it's just, it kind of feels like a puppet show. And it's a bad one. And that's difficult to say because just as from a very stark difference, as just a woman raising three daughters in America,

I have felt always this gratitude for being born in this country. And, well, now I live in the state of Missouri. So, like, it's, I'm, it is. It's hard, you know, you kind of take off the blinders, and I am thankful to have been born here, and I am thankful for where I live, and I am thankful for the freedoms that I do have and that my daughters do have,

because there are freedoms that do exist in that way. And I've never lived anywhere else, so I don't really get a fair basis, of comparison of how great or how little being able to cross Kansas state line, you know, is. That's why I'm in travel. You need somebody to talk to. I will, yes, no, I can assure you, you are my travel person. Travel opens up hearts and minds and empathy.

And I wish, I wish every single person in school was mandated at least like a week outside of the U.S. A lot of our problems would change. Like foreign exchange, we have a number of, so I'm in Belton, but we have a number of families and there are oftentimes foreign exchange that come here for this experience. So yes, like we should also be participating in foreign exchange programs and sending kids abroad. Did you, sorry, did you ever think at one point in life that you would be living in a state, in a situation where your daughters had less rights than you?

No. No. As a matter of fact, when they, when, when the talk of Roe v. Wade came up and returning it over, I was like, no, that's ridiculous. And that was one of, not, I mean, that's one of many, I suppose, you know, over time where I was just like, damn. And then came, it wasn't just that, right? Then came Missouri, who was ready. Because this had been in talks for a while. And then once that was passed, Missouri was like, boom, legislation. And now, you know, and no, I did not see that coming. I didn't see it coming so much that I laughed at it while it was square in my face. Which, by the way, is ignorance. Okay, like I was not educated on it. I was ignorant to the reality of what, of the powers that existed and how easily those rights could be. taken away

I'm very ignorant about a lot of things and I'm trying my best to understand them within the two brain cells that I have left but it's just that the short answer was just no matter where you go no matter how you try to do things the government was built and designed

to stop you I like the idea of relying more on ourselves and like what you like self-governance there are a lot of powers for us to like for creating podcasts for example in holding conversations and I challenge people to hold themselves also to a higher standard of self-governance so I don't disagree like particularly and we this would be a whole another show about the I could stay here forever and I we should do this again we should we should do this again. But when it comes to like the systemic classism and racism that is built into

our systems right now, it's undeniable and those are very difficult conversations. And most times they end up to slow moving processes in government, in legislation, in lobbying, in, you know, making concessions here and it's in these slow moving processes. And what doesn't have to be a slow moving process is somebody doesn't have to tell us how to behave. So collectively, there's a lot of opportunity, in my own opinion, for us to raise our own bar when it comes to self-governance and not just relying or requiring somebody else to tell us that we, you know, like, oh, you should do this. And then we're like, oh, okay, well, the government said that we should do this kind of thing. Yeah. And that's where the key thing is here, is that if you feel

that way, but you don't speak up about it, you're going to stay alone in that. But if you and I and him and everybody here come together and then we slowly spread that, we have community, we have people, we have numbers. And the intention of creating safe spaces for these conversations. So it's not even about like, and you and I set good examples. I acknowledge my own ignorance on a topic. It's not, you know, creating a space where it's not about being defensive or attacking. Like we're, educating and we're learning and I attended a affordable housing so that's a whole another thing but I attended a short seminar on affordable housing and the one piece of it that I will touch on is she was talking about again regarding to just the systemic classism and

racism that still exists and even though it's not necessarily written into HOA is just the way that neighborhoods and development and access to affordable housing which comes with affordable food and quality public education and access to all of those things um in in that you recognize like that the the lack of diversity and she talked about you know how if you go to a city council meeting and they're like you know we should add an apartment building and the people who live in that community who maybe don't want an apartment building in their community are the ones that get to veto yes or no on that vote that that becomes this inherent it's the same thing it's not written at the HOA, but it can't be built here because the people that live here say so. And I, this conversation

of like, you know, wanting to live with, it's like, we are a diverse world. And if you don't want to live with other people that don't look like you, then you're out of luck. There is no longer, like, there's no excuses, no go here. No, we're allowed to convene. And not everybody's meant to be friends with everybody, but nobody's saying that. But we live in a diverse world. And you have to, you have to accept that. You have to accept that. Okay. this is basically Prairie Village right now is what you're describing it's in the real estate world it's a lot of communities and I'm super again Frank Kansas City is experiencing a lot of just outright gentrification right now because we are growing very very rapidly there is a lot of interest especially commercial interest in purchasing Kansas City single family homes and anything else that's available for sale so there's a lot that is happening on a large scale and that is among it you know what would help with affordable housing, not sending our tax dollars for genocide, not buying weapons, you know, maybe, maybe if I'm asking for too much, we can get free education,

maybe free health care. I haven't had health insurance in like more than five years because I can't afford it. Because, yeah, and it's a rip off, honestly. Maybe if we kept those dollars home, we can have a better life. Maybe? I don't know. It might be a radical idea. Maybe if we didn't give tax breaks to billionaires and people who can afford to pay taxes, they should be paying their taxes.

So maybe all these things. I agree. It all comes back to how do we make these changes? Because abolishing the government is not really on the, you know, right now. I think honestly, a lot of that, and, ooh, girl, self-governance. Yeah, we need to speak up. We need to collectively come together and speak up. And what's the strongest power of speaking up you have right now is voting.

Voting, yes, in a broken system, but if enough of us come together and say, this is what we want, this is what we demand, this is what we deserve, and the government and all of the politicians are literal public servants that are supposed to serve their own people, maybe we can remind them of that. And then, you know, maybe change might happen. But we have to do that together. I can't do that by myself and you can't either. Like, we have to collectively come together to create the change that we want in this world because the people we elected are no longer seeking that for us.

So everybody is just, I need my pockets, I need my jets, I need my whatever the heck they do with their money. And they don't care about us. They don't. This very nation was formed under ideals very much like what you. your referencing. There was battles fought, taxation without representation. We don't do that. Those of us who actually believe in democracy and want to hold up these values and

do right by the people, we're being muscled out by money, interest, all right? And while I'm saying fuck you to certain leaders, I got a special fuck you to a certain Ovalent Park State Councilman, my name of Logan Healy, he can fuck off. all right stop calling yourself a Democrat pal well I know that we are going to be closing out on time so much do you have anything else that you would like to share

with everybody before we close out for today girl you don't ask me a question I was like I know I really I would love to have you back on I would love to just sit and it almost felt like I was all over the place because there's so much I'd like to talk to you about well I asked you when I started how much time do you have

yeah so I tried but okay so in terms of Palestine and Gaza and what can we do to help our local Kansas City organizations are putting so much effort and time and labor into trying to help educate the community on what exactly what to do so you want to go and on Instagram and Facebook you're going to go and follow free Palestine KC free Palestine KC and then you're going to follow al-Haddaf, K-C. A-L-H-A-D-A-F-K-C. These are the two

Palestinian-led organizations that are, basically we're doing the work, so you don't have to, you just need to show up. Okay. You just need to show up. You just need to be educated. You just need to come to all of the things

that we're putting together. That is the easiest way to be more informed of policy and what's happening overseas and actually learning from the people that are being, you know, affected by this and what we're doing with City Council and what we're doing with all the other stuff. So there's a lot that goes into that. Education is key. You mentioned the shirts and stuff that I designed.

So I have here on this table for the people who are here. I personally designed a couple shirts and some stickers and whatnot to help fundraise for my family in Gaza because I have 120, plus people that are still there living intense in this blazing heat with very limited food and water and health care and I'm trying to do my part you know survivors guilt we talked about that I'm trying to do what I can on my end to help you know bring something over there their situation is is completely you can't even think about it like even Even if I send them money, there is no cash flow because they have been under siege for the last 10 months with no access, no borders.

So the inflation that they are having to deal with is nothing compared to ours. We have access to everything we want. We have the ability to choose which kind of apple we want. They don't have apples. You know what I mean? So just to get the cash to use, to buy and purchase this. highly inflated food item that they direly need that maybe they only eat one meal a day. It's just like, I can't sleep at night.

Like, it's bad. It's extremely, extremely beyond anything I've ever experienced or thought of in my life. I, like, watch, watch the videos that come out of there. It is, it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. It is hard. the human brain was not made to consume this type of content because it was not supposed to happen. But every other day, I see a beheaded child on my feet and it completely breaks me down.

And then I'm trying slowly to build my strength up again and then it happens again and again and again. And you just, you have to be informed to feel the rage to bring the energy, to bring the energy, that change needs and stay angry and stay informed because that's what we need. That's the fuel that we need. I will say that she's right. Like I, through seeking information, I woke up this morning to a media clip from a bombing on a refugee camp and they packaged a very small little girl. into this white bag and the you know you watch and these I don't I hate to use the word handlers but these gentlemen that are like they're just they're moving her in there's

they don't even they don't share this anymore because this is this is not even the only one in this pile let alone the days and how do you how do you do that and continue to care on because you know the respect is to be able to take care of your deceased and you can't just leave them there and what do you what do you do do and um so i will say with a a strong warning that it is not for the week but if you cannot look at it then look at it like you if you can acknowledge like i can't see this this doesn't make it less real it doesn't make it less real and it doesn't make it change so if you already know that you can't And I don't care who you are or what religion you are, what you believe in,

or whose side of what you are on ever. If you can look at that and say, that little baby deserved it, we're not the same. And there's no communication for us. You can step aside. You can carry on. There is no room there. There's also something, if you could be self-aware of the privilege that you have

to be able to just shut it off and put it aside and go about your day, this is our daily life. My cousins don't even know if they're going to wake up the next day. They don't know where they're going to get their next meal from. They can't turn it off. They can't just put it aside and then, you know, go do their thing and come back. So I feel like at this point, we owe it to them to feel that pain. To witness and feel and amplify their voices.

Emplify their voices by speaking to your friends and family and neighbors. share their videos on social media, literally do anything, anything that you can within your means that will bring light to their plate because we are censored so, so heavily. Thank you, Mena. It's not even funny.

And I'm like, we're showing you. We are being murdered and killed and bombed and asking for help. And then that's being censored because what? look into that I will say that as somebody who was raised Christian that's what bearing witness is

so there's no shield there's no excuse for a blind eye and it doesn't make it go away it just shows like you said that's your privilege and unfortunately we're going to have to cut it off because I have some thank you's to

give before we wrap this up so my first thank you to Heather you've been great to co-host and I look forward to continue to work with you as we make this podcast the best podcast it can be. Thank you. I want to thank all my guests over this friend.

So I'll start with Samantha because she's right here. So thank you. I really appreciate you putting this together. I really do. Also thank you to Megan Spencer, Brian Boy, Mike Pohl, Terence Hayes, George M. Dean. Thank you all. Yes, thank you.

Thank you to KC. Fringe for putting together thank you for allowing us this opportunity to create content in front of a live audience thank you to this building that we're in right now the Independence Boulevard Christian Church you guys are true Christians and unlike some of these people that we've been talking about a special thank you to Hannah our amazing yes thank you very much miss Hannah thank you to everyone who's ever been on the podcast. Thank you to everyone who's ever listened to a podcast and an extra special thank you to one Ben Chernevsky Jr. I call him dad.

Go dad. For those of you probably don't know because I really haven't talked about it. My car has been in the shop for the entire Zia fringe and I want to thank him for letting me use his vehicle during the past week plus. I hope to get that car out of the shop here in a couple days but so thank you dad I appreciate it and and that's all the thank yous and thank you thank you for coming yeah thank you guys very much for coming and join in our so that will wrap up our first live fringe experience thank you and good night good night This podcast is

Unpold for is hosted, produced and edited by Mike Chernefsky. Opening music for our Casey Fringe program is welcome to Fringe, courtesy of suno.com. Outroom music for our KC French program is Fantasia, Fantasia by Kevin. and McLeod at Incompetac.com, licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call us at 816-832-5160. Leave your message or question for us, and if we like it, we will play it on the podcast. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive unhauled for merchandise, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and stickers, and so much more. Go to www.caffeepress.com slash uncalled for pod. Thank you so much for listening.

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