Genevieve Wood from The Heritage Foundation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Couple of things on my mind. Tonight, in the second
half hour of the show, I'll be talking about cretum.
You've been hearing creatum in the news reports here in
the past couple of days. Cretum. It is a substance.
It can be natural, it can also be chemically created.
It is a pain relieving substance. Many people swear by
it and say it's, you know, at a great alternative

(00:21):
to a man made, chemically generated laboratory uh created opioids,
and that they swear by it. They sw it's wonderful
it did, That's what they say. And there's build a
building demand for more and more people are using it. Well,
the Governor's come out now say we got to regulate this,
we got to make it a schedule one drug. I'm

(00:44):
not sure what the scheduling stuff is all about, but
it's a schedule one drug. And uh, here's I'm not definitive.
It's not like I'm taking a stand, no line in
the sand, nothing like that. But here's my curiosity. We
are legalizing all this other stuff, Why is it suddenly

(01:10):
necessary to make illegal this cretum? It just doesn't necessarily
make sense to me that that and my gut, this
is just my instinct. My gut says that perhaps perhaps
it is to create a taxation situation to generate revenue

(01:33):
for the state of Ohio. And before you tell me
I'm wrong, let me just say this. Lots of stuff
is addictive, but the state makes money on it, so
it's legal. Alcohol can be addictive, but the state makes

(01:57):
money on it. In fact, it wasn't until you relatively
recently ten years ago. To buy this addictive substance, you
had to buy it directly from the state of Ohio.
There were state stores where you'd go to buy your booze.
And now the state allows other entities, grocery stores and

(02:17):
so forth, to operate state stores, so it's okay because
the government's taxing it. Tobacco can be addictive, but it's taxed,
so it's legal. Gambling can be addictive, but we've got
casinos and now we've got sports gaming in the state
of Ohio. Marijuana in some minds can be addictive, others

(02:39):
say it's a gateway drug. But now in Ohio it's
legal both medically and recreationally. So why is kratom suddenly
the bad guy? State Senator Steve Hupman will join me
in the second half hour to have that discussion. He
has the benefit of being both a member of the
legislature and has a medical background, so that should be
an interesting talk first up tonight. You know me, I'm

(03:03):
a traditionalist. I believe that we were better then, whenever
the he then might have been, because what we are
now is not impressive. And remembering that from which you
came is part of our existence. It's how we build tomorrow.

(03:25):
You take the best of what was incorporated into what
is so that you can have something that will be
even better. That is the nature of being an American.
In America, we used to cherish our heritage, grow from
our heritage and remembering those what were universal values? What

(03:47):
was that universal concept of right and wrong and good
and bad? I think is a big part of the
step ladder that gets us back up out of the
sewer that we have become into where we need to be,
so that we can go where we need to go
to be a positive, prosperous society. Again, this constant, this

(04:09):
constant dwelling in the lower levels of existence just makes
normal the lower levels of existence. I said mentioning heritage
and that is intentional because the Heritage Foundation actually has

(04:31):
a billboard campaign. Yes, billboards, there's something else that's traditional
Americana billboards. It'll be running for I believe the next
couple of months, about eight weeks or so, and these
billboards are encouraging those traditional values, those memories of what
was once and probably should be again. I want to

(04:53):
get Genevieve Wood on the line here, a spokesperson with
Heritage Foundation I believe, based in Washington, d C. Genevieve,
thanks for making some time this evening. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Hey, thank you for making the time. It's good to
be with you.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
These billboards people will, you know, obviously mock and say
ah chah billboard. That's stupid. It's but if they were
not effective to some degree, there wouldn't be billboards. That's
what it comes down to. And a few years ago
I don't remember, I don't do you remember the ones
that were that what part of thou shalt not don't
you understand? Signed by God? Which I just thought that

(05:28):
was genius. I have looked over the billboard's Heritage Foundation
is putting out there, and they are exactly I believe
the messages that we need for people today. So just
as an American citizen, let me say thank you to
you and the Foundation.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk about it,
and I love put through all that you're in the
big intro coming into it as well. Look, we're getting
ready to celebrate our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary and
there'll be a lot of looking back, rightly so, cherishing
our history, but we really need to be looking forward.
What do we want the next two hundred and fifty
years of America to look like? And that's really look
at this Billboard campaign is about. We believe we are

(06:06):
on the cusp of another golden age if we seize it.
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity for our generation
to take what we've been given and really make the
most of it and give the next two hundred and
fifty years even better than they've been in the past.
And but you know, we know we can't do that
by ourselves. And if the Billboard campaign is to put
ideas out there, but as you as I know, you know,

(06:27):
there's a website people can go to that we promote that.
They're a campaign called shapeth Future dot com. Shape the
future dot Com. And the point of that is when
people see the bill billboards, they agree with it, or
maybe they don't it, they'll go to that website. They
can tell us one of the biggest challenges facing America.
What's the biggest what keeps you up at night or

(06:49):
what gets you up in the morning. What are the
issues that are driving What are the ones that we
really need to tackle. Because we believe the American people
have always been the answer, and I think there'll be
the answer in the future. So that's why we're doing it.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
One of them hearkens back to the Reagan era, which
I think is a very positive thing for very a
very large portion of the United States of America. It's
morning again in America, and that one is very traditional
farmer on the combine, out in the field, sun coming
up over the horizon, and it is Uh. I don't know.
That one just grabbed me for some reason. I like that.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
I love that one. I love that one. I also
love the one that says, you know, America, we need
more of this. Yes picture, we have a couple of
different ones in are picture of families, because that's good
and that's what America is built upon. The family U
and you know, we can make the argument that the
family has been under attack in this country for a
number of years, but we see that. I think the

(07:41):
American people get that. So that's what these ideas are
there for. To remind people what are the great things
about America? What are the ideas? Because we are countries
sounded on ideas, not you know, not a certain ethnic
group or a certain tradition, religious tradition. It's a country
sounded on the idea of and that all men are
created equal, and those ideas are good ideas. That's what

(08:04):
we want this campaign to remind people of the good
of America. How do we keep it going more of
the challenges that take us off track, and how do
we keep and how do we re engineer to get
to get to the next two or fifty years, as
I said, to be the golden age.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
We need more of this. I think is particularly pointed
because there are so many things that so many of
us can look at each day and say we need
more of this. And I had one of the listeners
sitting me a message earlier on Facebook. He was parking
a fast food restaurant last night in the dark, and
one of the newer trucks pulled up behind him and
had their lights on those And I'm constantly complaining about
these laser beam led lights on new vehicles. And he said,

(08:41):
the guy pulls up behind him with those laser beam
lights hitting in the rear view, and the guy turned
off his lights behind him, and he appreciated the gesture
show much so that as they were going through the
drive through line, he paid for the guy's meal. Wow,
we need more, We need more of this. That message
right there, those positive interactions with each each other we've got.

(09:01):
We've got to talk about those, put them on our
social media and so forth, as quickly as we put
complaints about the carpet cleaner that left a spot.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
That's right. Being encouraging is a great trait, and anybody
can do it. You just have to remind yourself to
do it right. It's easy to complain, and that's not
what we want to do. We want people to remind
it of what's good, recognizing there'll be challenges ahead and
things we have to fix. And I encourage people go
to shape the future dot com, build that build that
out just to give us your feedback. But I mean,
there's this great great opportunity. We've been blessed really the

(09:35):
way know other country ever has.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Genevieve Wood, by the way, is joining us right now
on the Legacytatment group dot com phone lines with the
Heritage Foundation. How do you measure Genevive the effectiveness of
the billboards?

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Is it going to be largely people interacting on the
website or is there any kind of metric out there
you'll be using to see if they're making an impact.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Well, that's surely one of them. But I will tell you,
I mean the main thing. These are running in about
eight different states, marrily in the Midwest, Ohio clearly being one,
but we're also in Florida. And the goal of this
is to help us inform what we do every day,
which is we have first principles that we abide by,
but we try to make sure those principles are entried
into the law and are defended in law, and getting

(10:15):
the feedback from the people that shapes how we do
our jobs. What we promote on Capitol Hill doesn't change
our principles, but it says this is what people are
concerned about, This is what the kind of all the
Americans want to see pass it's going to make their
lives better. And I'll tell you, I'm sure your listeners
are probably familiar with Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from Texas. Billboards

(10:35):
are not running, and she recently complained that she said
she hated the Heritage Foundation with every part of her body.
Because you want to know why we actually do focus
groups and try to find out what Americans care about.
I thought that's what people in Washington.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Should be doing.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's finding out what the citizens of this country think,
what they're concerned about, as I said, what keeps them
up at night, what they think we should be doing
more of, what we should be doing less of, and
that should inform the way our political leaders governed and lead.
Certainly based on principle, but they have to listen to
their constituents, the American people. So that's how we're gonna

(11:12):
measure this. We're gonna yes, it'll be the number of
people that come to the website. There will also be
what were the majority of answers given what's concerning to them?
What are they excited about in the America's future. That's
how we're gonna measure it, because that's how we're going
to inform our work.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Unfortunately, Ms Crockett's point of view is shared far too
often my people in elected office at at pretty much
every level, and they seem to believe that they are
elected to go live on taxpayer dollars because they are
the grand poopas of all wonderful thought. They don't understand
you're not there to do what you believe in. You're
do there to do what we believe in. That's the job,

(11:48):
right and if you can't do that job, you should
probably probably go back to cleaning the fry machine. I
appreciate you. I appreciate these billboards.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I hope we get a chance maybe to talk here
in a couple of months after they've been up and uh,
and maybe talk about you know, what kind of engagement
you got from the public and the positives, the negatives,
the wisdom that came from this and uh. And I
have a feeling we may be talking about a second
round of billboards, perhaps surrounding the holiday season, because I
really believe that you know that that kind of stuff,

(12:21):
when you're sitting in a red light or driving on
a country road, those signs still get your attention.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
They do, they do. I would love to come back.
I'd love how one of my colleagues come back. Thank
you for pointing out the campaign, but also just for
cheering it on. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Shape the Future dot Com is the website Shape the
Future dot com