September 2, 2025 • 33 mins
In the first hour of today's edition of the show, Deborah Flora fills in for Ryan and reacts to the media's cover-up of some important details regarding the recent Minnesota mass shooter.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm so glad though, that you are a part of
this conversation. We started last hour my talking about what
we were being told we were not supposed to talk about,
according to Jensaki and many others in the mainstream media,
and that's actually talking about the details of why things happen,
like the horrendous Minneapolis school shooting, and the reason why
(00:22):
we have to talk about so we can get to
the point where we can discuss what will really keep
our students safe.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So it was a knee jerk reaction.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Blame the guns, blame anyone else, but don't blame the
motive and don't look at what really keeps students safe.
That's why I'm so excited to have my guest with
me coming up right now, a good friend of mine,
Laura Carno. She is executive director of Faster Colorado and
she's also the author of Government Ruins Nearly Everything. Great
(00:53):
title for a book. Laura, thank you so much for
joining me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You got it. You got it.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, we're going to get to Faster in a second,
but I want to frame the conversation by talking about this.
You and I have discussed this a little bit, but
the things that they don't want us to look at.
And it's important, you know, the manifesto being published by
the shooter in Minneapolis. Finally a year later, the manifesto
was published by the Tennessee Star after the.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Covenant School shooting.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It's important because we need to know why these things
are happening and why certain targets are chosen. I shared
in the Last Hour that the shooter in Minneapolis said
that they were excited and looking forward to what they
called the easy target of the Annunciation Church in school.
Let's talk a little bit about that, because you've read
(01:45):
part of that manifesto.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Right, you know, the shooter and this is very similar
to what happened in the Coventry Christian School shooting in Nashville.
The shooter in their manifest esto kind of looked through
some like options that we could it be this school,
should it be this church, should it be this school?
And both of them were interested in what kind of
(02:13):
security there was. And you know, Debora, we have said
for years that having armed security at your place of business,
at your school, at your church, wherever, and having it
known that there is armed security, there is absolutely a deterrent.
And in these two manifestos we see it in black
and white. In this one in Minneapolis at the church
(02:37):
that what the shooter said in his manifesto was and
he was going back and forth between two different schools.
He said, Annunciation, where he ended up going, is less
likely to have armed teachers because it's a liberal school,
if it was liberal or not, but literally was looking
for the absence of armed teachers. Yes, and you go, okay,
(03:02):
So which school I'd rather have my kids in? Somewhere
where a killer knows that there's nobody there, or some
somewhere where they think there might be somebody armed there.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it's amazing because, Laura, we see this over and
over again.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We see it the Aurora theater shooting back in the
day that shooter passed all of these theaters along the
way in that that we're closer to the shooter because
they were not gun free zones and then went to
a gun free zone. You know, you look at the
fact that you know this happened in this shooting East
High School. I report on this when it happened that
(03:37):
that school did not have armed security, and yet the
Denver school board did, I mean, which do we value more.
I mean, I'm poor pretty much everywhere, but children are
most precious and the most vulnerable and the most defenseless,
and we don't want to have anything more like Kender
Castillo being a last line defense or a teacher being uh,
(03:58):
you know, unarmed, literally able to do anything. You know,
the murder was went along in selecting schools, which are
all dropped in the gun free zones. There's a crime
prevention research center, John Lott, and it's interesting and the
numbers may have changed, but the last I saw was
ninety four percent of mass shoots are in gun free zones.
Can you talk about that and confirm that?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, And you know you talk about the Oora theater shooting,
so it doesn't have to just be school shooting, right
talking about the killers. Killers want to kill people, that's
that's their thing. We know a lot about these mass killers.
And if they believe that they are going to be
met with with bullets coming the other way at them,
(04:44):
they're not going to choose that location because it interrupts
what they are intending to do. So they're going to
choose these vulnerable places. And the people paying for it
are our children, And you know, sadly, as we always
see in these cases, it's you know, school staff members
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I have someone that we're close to who was an
administrator at a public high school in Colorado and then
finally quit her job because there was no security between
the front door and her office and one very up student,
just upset student, just march right in, hands in pocket.
Fortunately nothing happened, but there was no protection, and she
(05:27):
she thought, at the end of the day, you know,
I've got my own children to come home too.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So it's the teachers that suffer as well.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
You know, the same research center, and the last I
saw it may or may not be correct, is that
there were no school shootings where teachers have been allowed
to carry to protect themselves and their students.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is that correct, but.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
It's still accurate. Yeah, I'm Retalie glad you brought up
John Lott with the the Crime Research Prevention Center because
what John Lott does, and it's if you've ever met him,
you can you would know this by meeting him. You
love data, and when he makes a statement like that,
(06:08):
it's because they have reached out to every single school
where any of these things have ever happened, and queried
them on what their security protocols were. So they took
out things that sometimes you'll see in the media. Okay,
they're worth three hundred mass shootings this year. Well they're
counting things like what happens in Chicago or people got
(06:32):
killed in one area. So he takes out things like
that that may have happened in the proximity of a school.
But yeah, I mean these schools that have armed staff,
and these are the difference for folks that aren't aware
of the difference. A full time armed security guard is
typically in uniform, a school resource officer law enforcement in uniform,
(06:56):
open carrying a gun, but armed school staff are concealed
and typically nobody knows which staff is armed, and so
that creates a lot of uncertainty for these rampage killers
that are looking to shoot up a school. And that's
what we want. We want them to not know if
they go into that school, who might be their adversary.
(07:20):
And what we do here about all these armed schools,
not just in Colorado but across the country is typically
the community knows that it has an armed policy just
because they do things in the school board and so forth.
So it's out there people know that this is an
armed school, and that's a huge deterrent.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, I think it's very important.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean, these perpetrators, these murderers who look to killed children,
they're evil, but they're not stupid in that the manifestos
have shown how much research they put into it, where
they looked where they could do the greatest level of
shocking and heinous damage. They do a lot of research.
(08:01):
So it is a deterrent that leads us to Faster Colorado. So, Laura,
and by the way, if you're just tuning in Deborah
Flores sitting in for Ryan Schuling. My guest is Laura Carno.
She's the executive executive director of Faster Colorado. Laura, tell
us a little bit about Faster because this is now
getting to the solution part, which we never get to
get to it seems like, and the mainstream media narrative
(08:24):
because there's a knee your creaction, get rid of the guns.
But let's talk about faster because what you just share
is a part of the solution.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah. Absolutely, And so we talk about these schools that
do have armed staffers, and these would be people who
are an employee of the school district. They might be
a principal, a janitor, a coach, a teacher, and nurse
somebody in the school. They are going about their business,
doing their job, and they happen to be concealed caring. Now,
these are people who go through a rigorous vetting process.
(08:56):
They are all volunteers. Nobody's forcing anybody to do this,
and then they have to commit to a really deep
level of training and they have to commit to it
every single year, and that includes passing a test that
is more rigorous than that which law enforcement has to
pass every year in fire and handgum proficiency. And yeah,
(09:18):
we're in our ninth year of doing this now, Debra.
We we're working with schools in forty two school districts.
We've probably at the end of this uh this instruction
year because we're still we're still teaching through November this year,
but will probably be over five hundred people that we've
seen come through our classes. And and when you look
(09:39):
at the number of students and the number of staff
that they're protecting, I probably should add that up someday.
Hits a lot of a lot of people. And so
what we do at faster because this policy is out there,
it is lawful for schools to do this, we make
sure that they have access to the best training available.
(10:01):
All of our instructors are active duty law enforcement instructors,
they're SWAT instructors. They most of them also are competitive shooters.
These are people who are very serious about their craft.
And also Deborah, all of them have children in school
and they they know they will never be there in time,
and they want to train people who can protect them.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, that's so important.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
By the way, you know, tuning in Laura Carno, My
guess Deborah Flora is sitting in for Ryan Shuling.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You know, those are very important things you.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Just debunked, like the most common things I hear when
people get concerned about you know, armstaff and schools. You know,
they go through rigorous training. No one is forced to
do it, more rigorous than even law enforcement. And that
brings us to the next point, because we love our law enforcement.
I mean, they are amazing. But even in the Coventry
school shooting, it took them I can't remember how many minutes.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
To get there.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And I think you shared once the statistic that in
school shooting or a mass shooting even but in a
school shooting, someone has shot approximately every eighteen seconds, So
there's this lag time where that could not only be
a turn, but if it actually happened and some shooter
was crazy enough to go to a school where there's
(11:17):
this deterrent, there's a lag time factor. Can you talk
about that, the role of you know, police SROs, and
then this need for people that are right there.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, and you're exactly right. So this this eighteen second
statistic that's out there, you have to ask yourself. These
are people who go go somewhere with the intent of
killing as many people as they can. The statistic is
it one person shot every eighteen seconds, And you have
to ask yourself how many eighteen second intervals? Am I
(11:50):
okay with? Right? It's my kid in that room. And
picture a school, you know, a school building and there's
a cop in the corner just happens to be walking,
by driving, by getting coffee across the street, whatever. Even
if that call went out instantaneously that there was a
shooting across the road, there are a lot of eighteen
(12:13):
second intervals that are happen, and so somebody has to
be there as close as possible to the point of
attack to stop it. And there is no there's no
substitute for somebody being there, which is why we know that.
(12:33):
You know, if there's an opportunity to have a school
resource officer there, we think that's a great solution. But
we also have schools that we work with stuff or
that do have school resource officers that's big enough for that,
and they have additional armstuff, and those FROs are really
really happy for the backup. They know that they cannot
be everywhere in the school. They also know that they're uniformed,
(12:55):
and the killer will not likely start his crime in
front of the school resource officer because these killers want
to kill as many people as they can.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, and this is a I understand by the way.
I'm a mom.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I understand the knee jerk reaction to want to simplify
the solution to these horrific school shootings to something as
simple as just get rid of the guns. I mean,
what do you be wonderful it was that simple, And
if it wasn't simple, by the way, I'd be the
biggest proponent of it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
But that's not the solution.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I mean, there's there's making sure the back doors are locked,
that they don't get to just go around the SROs.
There's uh, you know, there's all kinds of greater uh
security that needs to have. There needs to be communication
between school districts, like the shooter in East High School
was kicked out of my alma mater of Overland and
there was no communication about that, although there was a
(13:46):
weapons charge against this uh, this shooter.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So there's all of these but.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
This is such a common sense solution to make sure
that there are those who are within the school because
you know, you look at the public high schools, you
can have a soro.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Those are huge buildings.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And then I think about our daughter and one of
her teachers was a former marine who I would not
want his only way to protect himself and the students
in his classroom just simply.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
To be to put his body in the way.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Want to end this interview, And if you're tuning in
Deborah Flora sitting in for Ryan Schuling, I guess Laura
Carno or finally of the conversation that by the way,
somebody don't want us to have what do we actually
do to protect students children, the most vulnerable amongst us
in Colorado specifically, by the way, Laura, because I want
(14:38):
to move now to what people can do if it's
their children's school district they're now wondering about, or their
grandchild's school district. We have the Claire Davis School Safety
Act passed in twenty fifteen because Claire Davis lost her
life in the Rapahole High School shooting. Her family could
not get any answers from the school about what happened,
(14:59):
what was known about the killer, what the school of
tend to protect the students. There's a lot of that's
still going on ten years later. But in this law,
school districts in Colra have to prove that they've done
a basically reasonable care to prevent reasonably foreseeable murders of
their children. What would you say to someone who's listening
(15:20):
in light of that act and light to what faster does.
What should they ask their children's or grandchildren's school district
about the safety and security?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah? These are your children, and you send them to
school to be educated and to be safe.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Bob Schaeffer, up In at Liberty Commons Schools in Fort Collins,
says that it is the right and responsibility of parents
to direct the education and upbringing of their children. It
is your job. These are your children. You are hiring
a school, you have the right to ask these questions.
You have the right to go and talk to your superintendent,
(15:59):
talk to your and so we'll talk to your school
board members and say, how are you going to keep
what happened in Minneapolis, what happened in Nashville from happening
to my child. And when you talk about the Claire
Davis Action, I'm so glad you brought it up, Zebra.
We need transparency in this. Yes, the Davis family isn't
alone in who should have had access to the information.
(16:20):
Every school needs to know what went wrong that school
shootings happen so that they can do a deep dive
on their own school district, their own campuses and say
how do I keep that from happening here? And if
this information is swept under the rugs, that's never going
to happen, and these school shootings are going to continue.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, we have to be able to talk about there's
too much self censoring and pressuring from others.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
So if you're listening and you're.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
About your school district, you have a right to know
under the Clared Davis Act, So find out And then, Laura,
where can people find out more?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
About Faster Colorado.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, Faster Colorado dot org. Check out what we do.
Look at the bios of our team. It's a very
impressive group of people who are doing the education of
these educators to make sure that they can keep our
children safe.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well, thank you so much, Laura. I so appreciate it
and always great to talk about and to talk about
real solutions because we don't just want to talk about
the problem.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
All right, you bet, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
You got it. Take care, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And one of the other things I want to bring
up about this that nobody in the mainstream media talks about, is.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
There are you know, there are.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Attacks immediately on guns, get rid of the guns, as
though that was, you know, just the simple answer, and
if it was, believe me, I'd be about that. But
what we've learned from these manifestos that come out is
that these perpetrators, these heinous murderers, maybe evil, maybe mentally ill,
may have all these other reasons why, but they're not stupid.
(17:55):
They go to places where they know they can do
them most damage. And we've seen in those manifestos, both
Incovenant School and in the Minneapolis shooting. They chose their
target knowing those schools where where children were unprotected.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
You know, I want to bring up one other.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Thing too, because Tim Walls, governor of Minnesota, gets a
lot of black Eye awards, and this is one he
refused funds for non public schools safety and that was
one of the schools, the annunciations schools.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Well, don't when we.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Come back, guess what I'm gonna talk about, Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That is a hard turn from what we're talking about now.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Don't go anywhere. Deborah Flora sitting in for Ryan Shuling.
Back to the Ryan Sholing Show. This is Deborah Flora
sitting in for Ryan Shuling usually in this studio every
Friday at two o'clock where we talk about the intersection
(18:58):
of culture, politics and all of that. But I'm really
happy to be sitting in for Ryan today. I'll be
back on Thursday and again on Monday. But I wanted
to first of all get to some of the textures.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Thanks so much for texting in. I also want to
hear from you.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Be sure to put Ryan at the beginning of it
and text five seven seven three nine. That's five seven
seven thirty nine. You know, we were talking about those who
do not want us to be able to have a unfiltered,
free conversation about what's going on. We heard earlier about
Jensaki basically saying that the most important thing, the most
(19:37):
concerning thing, it seemed like to her after the Minneapolis
shooting was not that it happened, not finding out why,
not having the American people trusting them with the full information,
but instead saying that, you know what, really the most
moret thing is to make sure that certain details don't
get out that would distract from the guns. Well, we
(19:57):
just had a great interview with Laura Carno from Fact
Colorado talking about how we actually protect our children in
their schools, and as a mom, you know what, let's
come together on.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
What actually works.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But what I do appreciate because Jensaki was most afraid
that it would be shared that the shooter in Minneapolis
had an entire manifesto that had to do with hating
so many people because of transgenderism.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I really appreciate this.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Listener texted and said, as a trans person myself, this vile,
disgusting stain talking about the shooter not only on our community,
but the communities of trans gun advocates that people with
common sense they're not worth giving the proper identification, basically
screw their pronouns. The reason why I shared that is
(20:49):
because I'm like, let's not get caught up in all
of that, particularly when the shooter went from Robert to
Robin and then sort of back again. I really appreciate
that because what I was talking about this is not
about all transgender individuals, but there is a subculture that
has promoted and is currently promoting very violent tactics. They've
(21:09):
been radicalized, and there's a whole lot of posts on
social media that many of us aren't aware of that
do put a stain on those who want to live peacefully,
and they even call themselves Trantifa. That just needs to
be called out for those people who are seeing violence
as the only way to go about these things. So
(21:30):
one other listener said, one thing that needs to be
done to save Tabor is to legislate that any fee
or whatever is a tax that needs to be voted
on by the people. Here here I talked about the
economy in Colorado dropping from fifth and economic growth to
forty first in fifteen years. And by the way, a
(21:52):
tax by any other name I used to do Shakespeare
with the Nash American Shakespeare Companies. This is my Shakespearean phrase.
A tax by any their name is still attacked. You
can call it a fee. That's just a way to
pretend that the color of people are stupid and don't
know the difference. And the fees have the fees. That's
in my radio air quotes. Fees have gone up astronomically
(22:15):
at Deborah.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yes, and you named the play. Oh well, you just
ripped off from Shakes. Yes, I can Roby and Juliet.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Rose by other name would smell us sweet.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Thank you, hey, And then next you can quiz me
how much ado about nothing?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
You know?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And all these others. But yes, thank you. Hamlet next,
oh yeah, Hamlet.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
By the way, we did Hamlet with the nash American
Shakespeare Company and we had in it, we had students
from the Inner City huk that were former gang members.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
And you know what they love the most.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
What body count at the end of Hamlet is eleven
bodies on stage.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So there we go. It's a lot. It's a lot.
I happen to work with Iago at day. Oh well,
that's interesting. There you go. Hey, that's enough that all
of you out there let your minds twist.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
There we go, you know what, and I am bic
Pantameter just twist in that phrase.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Thank you Kelly for that insight and that quiz. I'm
glad I passed.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Okay, we're gonna switch it up here because it is
the day after Labor Day and we need to, you know,
get out of the heavy stuff. Although we need to
be able to look at that. And I mentioned Taylor
Swift before the break. Now I gotta tell you I'm
not as Swifty. I'm not even really a pop culture person.
I love classic rock, but I do appreciate the fact
(23:33):
that she is obviously, you know, doing Wonders as an entrepreneur,
has huge followers, and is definitely someone who has great influence.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Right there, I'll say that I.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Cannot quote many of her songs, but that's okay because
the point I'm going to make is not about that.
It is about the fact that her engagement, as we
all know because it's a huge news item. Now to
Travis Kelsey, I know more about Travis Kelce. I got
to be honest, and I have to say, as a
football fan, I'm not really fan of you. Know, stopping
(24:07):
the play by play of the football game to go
up to see if Taylor's.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
There or not.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
But here's where it has now intersected with the relevance
that I want to talk about. Many people know that
the marriage statistics in our country have been plummeting. I
want to start by saying, a huge fan of marriage,
been married to my best friend for twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I think it is awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We did get married a little bit later and one
time as a charm and even though I won't go
where it's going to go, that was a total digression.
But marriage rocks. But that is not what is being
told in the culture out there. So I'm going to
give a couple of statistics. Fifty six percent of eighteen
to twenty four year olds are living with their parents
instead of getting married.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A lot of that's because of the economy. We could
talk about that.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
We can certainly mention it in Colorado. But there is
some good news where the marriage rate has dropped sixty
percent in the last fifty years. There's been there has
begun to be a bounce back from the pandemic arrow lows.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Divorce rates are.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Going down in the peaks of the nineteen eighties, by
the way, divorce was up to around you know, upper
forty to fifty percent.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Many people know that statistic. It's now down to.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Thirty five to forty percent. That's a huge drop. And
you know what, my husband and I could do everything we
can to be bringing that down even further as we
go from twenty five hoofully to at least fifty years
of marriage. But the cultural thing that I find interesting
about this is the question will Taylor Swift and Travis
Kelcey will their marriage choosing to get married influence a
(25:47):
lot of folks?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You know what I say right on? I hope.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So if that's who people look to for influence, I
hope they look to a lot of other things for influence.
Find people who are happily married, talk to them. I
happen to know a whole lot of them. But it's
something that I think is important you look at what's
going on in America and feel free to text in.
I know this is not nearly as heavy as what
we're just talking about. Text Ryan at five seven seven
thirty nine. Do you care the tailor and Travis are engaged?
(26:16):
Do you think it's going to make a difference. Are
you a fan of marriage, but I do think the
fact is it could end up having an impageant.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
It's another thing, by the way, that we need to
look at what's going on in the United States of America.
We're now following in the trend of Europe. Europe has
had a plummeting birth rate, and the reality is now
in the United States of America. Birth rates in the
US have dropped to an all time low one point
(26:45):
six births per woman. No, that does not mean that
there is a six percent of a child born, but
on average, and I think we all can figure out
the math, it needs to be over two percent two
point one for us not to begin to plummet in
our population.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, there's an interesting intersection.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Here, And no Tailor or Travis, if you're listening, which
I doubt you are, I'm not pressuring you to go
straight from marriage to having children. However, that is something
that we need to also model.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Out there as being a really positive thing.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
It's interesting because even some studies have shown that there's
what they call the success sequence, and it leads not
only to people prospering economically, but to greater happiness.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
And it's been very interesting to see this.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Coming from some former you know, feminists who would have
been completely against this before coming in around and realizing
and what.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Is that success sequence?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Studies have shown when millennials, which is this group we
could study on this millennials, when they follow the success sequence.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And what is that success.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Sequence you may ask, It is doing things in this order,
getting graduating with a high school diploma at the minimum,
and then getting a job, then marrying, and then having children.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
When you do things in that order, it's.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Crazy to see what actually is shown When ninety seven
percent of millennials who followed that sequence, they were in
the middle to upper level economically. Those seventy one percent
of millennials who did not do those three steps, they
were in the lowest income bracket.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Now, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Saying go out and get married just so you you know,
somehow prosper But as Timeway started rethinking the cynicism within
our culture, and you know what, saying that Taylor Swift
might actually you know, help younger people realize that marriage
is a good thing. And by the way, the grip
she influences seventy three percent of twelfth grader's only seventy
(28:49):
two percent expected to marry someday, with girls expectations dropping.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
The most sharply.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Well, I say it sounds like a good pop song,
and I hope that that has an impact.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I don't think that those twelve twelfth graders.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Are listening to me as much, but if you are,
marriage rocks, Okay. That's That's about as much as I'll
probably ever talk about Taylor Swift, but.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Just wanted to bring that.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
When we come back, I'm going to share some more
good news about this new generation of gen Z, of
which I'm happy to be raising a couple of them.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
When we come back, We're going to and with some
good news.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Feel free to chime in At five seven seven three nine,
Texas there text Ryan and Texture comments, do you really
think that Travis and Taylor. Yes, I'm going to put
the moves to order. We'll have any impatch on the
marriage rate, don't go anywhere. I'm Deborah Flora sitting in
for Ryan Shuling the Ryan Sholing Show. This is Deborah
(29:48):
Flora sitting in for Ryan. Good to spend this time
with you. It goes so quickly, but I get to
come back and be with you all on Thursday, and
then coming up again on Monday, sitting in for wanted to.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Wind this all up.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
We've talked about some happy topics, obviously, the school shootings.
We've talked about the crime rate in Chicago, the fact
that Colorado is not faring very well on those statistics either.
But then we switched it up and went to Taylor Swift. Yeah,
that doesn't happen very often when I'm guess toasting more
of a classic rock kind of goal. But appreciate the
(30:23):
fact that she's been able to be so successful and
have such an impact, and we're talking about, hopefully the
impact in a positive way, beginning to lift up some
of these institutions that this younger generation has been taught
to be very cynical about marriage, children. And by the way,
it doesn't help when you know there's part of the
(30:45):
culture that wants to call mother's birthing people. I will
take great, you know great. I want to say offense
because we'll get so offended so easily, but hey, you
know what, much more than a birthing person, I am
a mom, thank you very much much.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But you know what, there's some things that I want
to show.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
There's some negative things about this generation, but there's some
very very positive things. So many people will not be
surprised by this latest study that shows that there's a trend.
They there's a study that happens quite frequently and they
track who are the happiest and who are the saddest
demographics in our country. For a long time, it's always
(31:26):
been people that were basically they called midlife. As I say,
I'm not a spring chicken, I'm a summer chicken. But
the midlife crisis usually as the point in time where
Americans would have the lowest point in their lives as
far as their outlook on things, be the most pessimistic,
dealing with some real challenges.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
That way. Well, unfortunately that is not the case.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
It's not that people that are you know, midlife aren't
having crises.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
It's the fact that we put such a heavy.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Burden on Gen Z that they are now the most
sad generation currently in the United States America. You know,
it's really not surprising when you think about it. You know,
there are theories about it, whether it is the economy,
the job market, the cost of living, inflation, all of
those things had been really hard, particularly here in Colorado,
(32:14):
where we dropped from fifth to forty first in our
economic growth. You hear constantly amongst gen Zers, can I
actually buy a home? Will I ever be able to
have the quote unquote American dream? Maybe it's sad. Maybe
it's the fact that we live in a time that
is so divided politically. We've gotten away from the fact
(32:35):
that you can agree to disagree and not vilify the
other person and not be in such.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
A heightened tension all the time. That's part of it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
I think about the fact that gen Z has been
constantly fed a diet of disaster and catastrophe. When you
think about they're told America is bad DEI policy c
or details young people that they should actually be ashamed
of an immutable characteristic. Then you add to that that
(33:05):
they're told that the world's coming to an end every
five years, you know, by the way, real quickly. I
compare that with the fact that children that were being
raised during the Cold War, when there was a real
nuclear potential, they were not told, guess what, at any minute,
you might you know, be wiped out by a nuclear attack.
They were told they'll get under the desk
I'm so glad though, that you are a part of
this conversation. We started last hour my talking about what
we were being told we were not supposed to talk about,
according to Jensaki and many others in the mainstream media,
and that's actually talking about the details of why things happen,
like the horrendous Minneapolis school shooting, and the reason why
(00:22):
we have to talk about so we can get to
the point where we can discuss what will really keep
our students safe.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So it was a knee jerk reaction.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Blame the guns, blame anyone else, but don't blame the
motive and don't look at what really keeps students safe.
That's why I'm so excited to have my guest with
me coming up right now, a good friend of mine,
Laura Carno. She is executive director of Faster Colorado and
she's also the author of Government Ruins Nearly Everything. Great
(00:53):
title for a book. Laura, thank you so much for
joining me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You got it. You got it.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, we're going to get to Faster in a second,
but I want to frame the conversation by talking about this.
You and I have discussed this a little bit, but
the things that they don't want us to look at.
And it's important, you know, the manifesto being published by
the shooter in Minneapolis. Finally a year later, the manifesto
was published by the Tennessee Star after the.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Covenant School shooting.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It's important because we need to know why these things
are happening and why certain targets are chosen. I shared
in the Last Hour that the shooter in Minneapolis said
that they were excited and looking forward to what they
called the easy target of the Annunciation Church in school.
Let's talk a little bit about that, because you've read
(01:45):
part of that manifesto.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Right, you know, the shooter and this is very similar
to what happened in the Coventry Christian School shooting in Nashville.
The shooter in their manifest esto kind of looked through
some like options that we could it be this school,
should it be this church, should it be this school?
And both of them were interested in what kind of
(02:13):
security there was. And you know, Debora, we have said
for years that having armed security at your place of business,
at your school, at your church, wherever, and having it
known that there is armed security, there is absolutely a deterrent.
And in these two manifestos we see it in black
and white. In this one in Minneapolis at the church
(02:37):
that what the shooter said in his manifesto was and
he was going back and forth between two different schools.
He said, Annunciation, where he ended up going, is less
likely to have armed teachers because it's a liberal school,
if it was liberal or not, but literally was looking
for the absence of armed teachers. Yes, and you go, okay,
(03:02):
So which school I'd rather have my kids in? Somewhere
where a killer knows that there's nobody there, or some
somewhere where they think there might be somebody armed there.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it's amazing because, Laura, we see this over and
over again.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We see it the Aurora theater shooting back in the
day that shooter passed all of these theaters along the
way in that that we're closer to the shooter because
they were not gun free zones and then went to
a gun free zone. You know, you look at the
fact that you know this happened in this shooting East
High School. I report on this when it happened that
(03:37):
that school did not have armed security, and yet the
Denver school board did, I mean, which do we value more.
I mean, I'm poor pretty much everywhere, but children are
most precious and the most vulnerable and the most defenseless,
and we don't want to have anything more like Kender
Castillo being a last line defense or a teacher being uh,
(03:58):
you know, unarmed, literally able to do anything. You know,
the murder was went along in selecting schools, which are
all dropped in the gun free zones. There's a crime
prevention research center, John Lott, and it's interesting and the
numbers may have changed, but the last I saw was
ninety four percent of mass shoots are in gun free zones.
Can you talk about that and confirm that?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, And you know you talk about the Oora theater shooting,
so it doesn't have to just be school shooting, right
talking about the killers. Killers want to kill people, that's
that's their thing. We know a lot about these mass killers.
And if they believe that they are going to be
met with with bullets coming the other way at them,
(04:44):
they're not going to choose that location because it interrupts
what they are intending to do. So they're going to
choose these vulnerable places. And the people paying for it
are our children, And you know, sadly, as we always
see in these cases, it's you know, school staff members
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I have someone that we're close to who was an
administrator at a public high school in Colorado and then
finally quit her job because there was no security between
the front door and her office and one very up student,
just upset student, just march right in, hands in pocket.
Fortunately nothing happened, but there was no protection, and she
(05:27):
she thought, at the end of the day, you know,
I've got my own children to come home too.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So it's the teachers that suffer as well.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
You know, the same research center, and the last I
saw it may or may not be correct, is that
there were no school shootings where teachers have been allowed
to carry to protect themselves and their students.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is that correct, but.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
It's still accurate. Yeah, I'm Retalie glad you brought up
John Lott with the the Crime Research Prevention Center because
what John Lott does, and it's if you've ever met him,
you can you would know this by meeting him. You
love data, and when he makes a statement like that,
(06:08):
it's because they have reached out to every single school
where any of these things have ever happened, and queried
them on what their security protocols were. So they took
out things that sometimes you'll see in the media. Okay,
they're worth three hundred mass shootings this year. Well they're
counting things like what happens in Chicago or people got
(06:32):
killed in one area. So he takes out things like
that that may have happened in the proximity of a school.
But yeah, I mean these schools that have armed staff,
and these are the difference for folks that aren't aware
of the difference. A full time armed security guard is
typically in uniform, a school resource officer law enforcement in uniform,
(06:56):
open carrying a gun, but armed school staff are concealed
and typically nobody knows which staff is armed, and so
that creates a lot of uncertainty for these rampage killers
that are looking to shoot up a school. And that's
what we want. We want them to not know if
they go into that school, who might be their adversary.
(07:20):
And what we do here about all these armed schools,
not just in Colorado but across the country is typically
the community knows that it has an armed policy just
because they do things in the school board and so forth.
So it's out there people know that this is an
armed school, and that's a huge deterrent.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, I think it's very important.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean, these perpetrators, these murderers who look to killed children,
they're evil, but they're not stupid in that the manifestos
have shown how much research they put into it, where
they looked where they could do the greatest level of
shocking and heinous damage. They do a lot of research.
(08:01):
So it is a deterrent that leads us to Faster Colorado. So, Laura,
and by the way, if you're just tuning in Deborah
Flores sitting in for Ryan Schuling. My guest is Laura Carno.
She's the executive executive director of Faster Colorado. Laura, tell
us a little bit about Faster because this is now
getting to the solution part, which we never get to
get to it seems like, and the mainstream media narrative
(08:24):
because there's a knee your creaction, get rid of the guns.
But let's talk about faster because what you just share
is a part of the solution.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah. Absolutely, And so we talk about these schools that
do have armed staffers, and these would be people who
are an employee of the school district. They might be
a principal, a janitor, a coach, a teacher, and nurse
somebody in the school. They are going about their business,
doing their job, and they happen to be concealed caring. Now,
these are people who go through a rigorous vetting process.
(08:56):
They are all volunteers. Nobody's forcing anybody to do this,
and then they have to commit to a really deep
level of training and they have to commit to it
every single year, and that includes passing a test that
is more rigorous than that which law enforcement has to
pass every year in fire and handgum proficiency. And yeah,
(09:18):
we're in our ninth year of doing this now, Debra.
We we're working with schools in forty two school districts.
We've probably at the end of this uh this instruction
year because we're still we're still teaching through November this year,
but will probably be over five hundred people that we've
seen come through our classes. And and when you look
(09:39):
at the number of students and the number of staff
that they're protecting, I probably should add that up someday.
Hits a lot of a lot of people. And so
what we do at faster because this policy is out there,
it is lawful for schools to do this, we make
sure that they have access to the best training available.
(10:01):
All of our instructors are active duty law enforcement instructors,
they're SWAT instructors. They most of them also are competitive shooters.
These are people who are very serious about their craft.
And also Deborah, all of them have children in school
and they they know they will never be there in time,
and they want to train people who can protect them.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, that's so important.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
By the way, you know, tuning in Laura Carno, My
guess Deborah Flora is sitting in for Ryan Shuling.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You know, those are very important things you.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Just debunked, like the most common things I hear when
people get concerned about you know, armstaff and schools. You know,
they go through rigorous training. No one is forced to
do it, more rigorous than even law enforcement. And that
brings us to the next point, because we love our law enforcement.
I mean, they are amazing. But even in the Coventry
school shooting, it took them I can't remember how many minutes.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
To get there.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And I think you shared once the statistic that in
school shooting or a mass shooting even but in a
school shooting, someone has shot approximately every eighteen seconds, So
there's this lag time where that could not only be
a turn, but if it actually happened and some shooter
was crazy enough to go to a school where there's
(11:17):
this deterrent, there's a lag time factor. Can you talk
about that, the role of you know, police SROs, and
then this need for people that are right there.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, and you're exactly right. So this this eighteen second
statistic that's out there, you have to ask yourself. These
are people who go go somewhere with the intent of
killing as many people as they can. The statistic is
it one person shot every eighteen seconds, And you have
to ask yourself how many eighteen second intervals? Am I
(11:50):
okay with? Right? It's my kid in that room. And
picture a school, you know, a school building and there's
a cop in the corner just happens to be walking,
by driving, by getting coffee across the street, whatever. Even
if that call went out instantaneously that there was a
shooting across the road, there are a lot of eighteen
(12:13):
second intervals that are happen, and so somebody has to
be there as close as possible to the point of
attack to stop it. And there is no there's no
substitute for somebody being there, which is why we know that.
(12:33):
You know, if there's an opportunity to have a school
resource officer there, we think that's a great solution. But
we also have schools that we work with stuff or
that do have school resource officers that's big enough for that,
and they have additional armstuff, and those FROs are really
really happy for the backup. They know that they cannot
be everywhere in the school. They also know that they're uniformed,
(12:55):
and the killer will not likely start his crime in
front of the school resource officer because these killers want
to kill as many people as they can.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, and this is a I understand by the way.
I'm a mom.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I understand the knee jerk reaction to want to simplify
the solution to these horrific school shootings to something as
simple as just get rid of the guns. I mean,
what do you be wonderful it was that simple, And
if it wasn't simple, by the way, I'd be the
biggest proponent of it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
But that's not the solution.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I mean, there's there's making sure the back doors are locked,
that they don't get to just go around the SROs.
There's uh, you know, there's all kinds of greater uh
security that needs to have. There needs to be communication
between school districts, like the shooter in East High School
was kicked out of my alma mater of Overland and
there was no communication about that, although there was a
(13:46):
weapons charge against this uh, this shooter.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So there's all of these but.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
This is such a common sense solution to make sure
that there are those who are within the school because
you know, you look at the public high schools, you
can have a soro.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Those are huge buildings.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And then I think about our daughter and one of
her teachers was a former marine who I would not
want his only way to protect himself and the students
in his classroom just simply.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
To be to put his body in the way.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Want to end this interview, And if you're tuning in
Deborah Flora sitting in for Ryan Schuling, I guess Laura
Carno or finally of the conversation that by the way,
somebody don't want us to have what do we actually
do to protect students children, the most vulnerable amongst us
in Colorado specifically, by the way, Laura, because I want
(14:38):
to move now to what people can do if it's
their children's school district they're now wondering about, or their
grandchild's school district. We have the Claire Davis School Safety
Act passed in twenty fifteen because Claire Davis lost her
life in the Rapahole High School shooting. Her family could
not get any answers from the school about what happened,
(14:59):
what was known about the killer, what the school of
tend to protect the students. There's a lot of that's
still going on ten years later. But in this law,
school districts in Colra have to prove that they've done
a basically reasonable care to prevent reasonably foreseeable murders of
their children. What would you say to someone who's listening
(15:20):
in light of that act and light to what faster does.
What should they ask their children's or grandchildren's school district
about the safety and security?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah? These are your children, and you send them to
school to be educated and to be safe.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Bob Schaeffer, up In at Liberty Commons Schools in Fort Collins,
says that it is the right and responsibility of parents
to direct the education and upbringing of their children. It
is your job. These are your children. You are hiring
a school, you have the right to ask these questions.
You have the right to go and talk to your superintendent,
(15:59):
talk to your and so we'll talk to your school
board members and say, how are you going to keep
what happened in Minneapolis, what happened in Nashville from happening
to my child. And when you talk about the Claire
Davis Action, I'm so glad you brought it up, Zebra.
We need transparency in this. Yes, the Davis family isn't
alone in who should have had access to the information.
(16:20):
Every school needs to know what went wrong that school
shootings happen so that they can do a deep dive
on their own school district, their own campuses and say
how do I keep that from happening here? And if
this information is swept under the rugs, that's never going
to happen, and these school shootings are going to continue.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, we have to be able to talk about there's
too much self censoring and pressuring from others.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
So if you're listening and you're.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
About your school district, you have a right to know
under the Clared Davis Act, So find out And then, Laura,
where can people find out more?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
About Faster Colorado.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, Faster Colorado dot org. Check out what we do.
Look at the bios of our team. It's a very
impressive group of people who are doing the education of
these educators to make sure that they can keep our
children safe.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well, thank you so much, Laura. I so appreciate it
and always great to talk about and to talk about
real solutions because we don't just want to talk about
the problem.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
All right, you bet, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
You got it. Take care, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And one of the other things I want to bring
up about this that nobody in the mainstream media talks about, is.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
There are you know, there are.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Attacks immediately on guns, get rid of the guns, as
though that was, you know, just the simple answer, and
if it was, believe me, I'd be about that. But
what we've learned from these manifestos that come out is
that these perpetrators, these heinous murderers, maybe evil, maybe mentally ill,
may have all these other reasons why, but they're not stupid.
(17:55):
They go to places where they know they can do
them most damage. And we've seen in those manifestos, both
Incovenant School and in the Minneapolis shooting. They chose their
target knowing those schools where where children were unprotected.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
You know, I want to bring up one other.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Thing too, because Tim Walls, governor of Minnesota, gets a
lot of black Eye awards, and this is one he
refused funds for non public schools safety and that was
one of the schools, the annunciations schools.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Well, don't when we.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Come back, guess what I'm gonna talk about, Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That is a hard turn from what we're talking about now.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Don't go anywhere. Deborah Flora sitting in for Ryan Shuling.
Back to the Ryan Sholing Show. This is Deborah Flora
sitting in for Ryan Shuling usually in this studio every
Friday at two o'clock where we talk about the intersection
(18:58):
of culture, politics and all of that. But I'm really
happy to be sitting in for Ryan today. I'll be
back on Thursday and again on Monday. But I wanted
to first of all get to some of the textures.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Thanks so much for texting in. I also want to
hear from you.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Be sure to put Ryan at the beginning of it
and text five seven seven three nine. That's five seven
seven thirty nine. You know, we were talking about those who
do not want us to be able to have a unfiltered,
free conversation about what's going on. We heard earlier about
Jensaki basically saying that the most important thing, the most
(19:37):
concerning thing, it seemed like to her after the Minneapolis
shooting was not that it happened, not finding out why,
not having the American people trusting them with the full information,
but instead saying that, you know what, really the most
moret thing is to make sure that certain details don't
get out that would distract from the guns. Well, we
(19:57):
just had a great interview with Laura Carno from Fact
Colorado talking about how we actually protect our children in
their schools, and as a mom, you know what, let's
come together on.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
What actually works.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But what I do appreciate because Jensaki was most afraid
that it would be shared that the shooter in Minneapolis
had an entire manifesto that had to do with hating
so many people because of transgenderism.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I really appreciate this.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Listener texted and said, as a trans person myself, this vile,
disgusting stain talking about the shooter not only on our community,
but the communities of trans gun advocates that people with
common sense they're not worth giving the proper identification, basically
screw their pronouns. The reason why I shared that is
(20:49):
because I'm like, let's not get caught up in all
of that, particularly when the shooter went from Robert to
Robin and then sort of back again. I really appreciate
that because what I was talking about this is not
about all transgender individuals, but there is a subculture that
has promoted and is currently promoting very violent tactics. They've
(21:09):
been radicalized, and there's a whole lot of posts on
social media that many of us aren't aware of that
do put a stain on those who want to live peacefully,
and they even call themselves Trantifa. That just needs to
be called out for those people who are seeing violence
as the only way to go about these things. So
(21:30):
one other listener said, one thing that needs to be
done to save Tabor is to legislate that any fee
or whatever is a tax that needs to be voted
on by the people. Here here I talked about the
economy in Colorado dropping from fifth and economic growth to
forty first in fifteen years. And by the way, a
(21:52):
tax by any other name I used to do Shakespeare
with the Nash American Shakespeare Companies. This is my Shakespearean phrase.
A tax by any their name is still attacked. You
can call it a fee. That's just a way to
pretend that the color of people are stupid and don't
know the difference. And the fees have the fees. That's
in my radio air quotes. Fees have gone up astronomically
(22:15):
at Deborah.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yes, and you named the play. Oh well, you just
ripped off from Shakes. Yes, I can Roby and Juliet.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Rose by other name would smell us sweet.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Thank you, hey, And then next you can quiz me
how much ado about nothing?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
You know?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And all these others. But yes, thank you. Hamlet next,
oh yeah, Hamlet.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
By the way, we did Hamlet with the nash American
Shakespeare Company and we had in it, we had students
from the Inner City huk that were former gang members.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
And you know what they love the most.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
What body count at the end of Hamlet is eleven
bodies on stage.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So there we go. It's a lot. It's a lot.
I happen to work with Iago at day. Oh well,
that's interesting. There you go. Hey, that's enough that all
of you out there let your minds twist.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
There we go, you know what, and I am bic
Pantameter just twist in that phrase.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Thank you Kelly for that insight and that quiz. I'm
glad I passed.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Okay, we're gonna switch it up here because it is
the day after Labor Day and we need to, you know,
get out of the heavy stuff. Although we need to
be able to look at that. And I mentioned Taylor
Swift before the break. Now I gotta tell you I'm
not as Swifty. I'm not even really a pop culture person.
I love classic rock, but I do appreciate the fact
(23:33):
that she is obviously, you know, doing Wonders as an entrepreneur,
has huge followers, and is definitely someone who has great influence.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Right there, I'll say that I.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Cannot quote many of her songs, but that's okay because
the point I'm going to make is not about that.
It is about the fact that her engagement, as we
all know because it's a huge news item. Now to
Travis Kelsey, I know more about Travis Kelce. I got
to be honest, and I have to say, as a
football fan, I'm not really fan of you. Know, stopping
(24:07):
the play by play of the football game to go
up to see if Taylor's.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
There or not.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
But here's where it has now intersected with the relevance
that I want to talk about. Many people know that
the marriage statistics in our country have been plummeting. I
want to start by saying, a huge fan of marriage,
been married to my best friend for twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I think it is awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We did get married a little bit later and one
time as a charm and even though I won't go
where it's going to go, that was a total digression.
But marriage rocks. But that is not what is being
told in the culture out there. So I'm going to
give a couple of statistics. Fifty six percent of eighteen
to twenty four year olds are living with their parents
instead of getting married.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A lot of that's because of the economy. We could
talk about that.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
We can certainly mention it in Colorado. But there is
some good news where the marriage rate has dropped sixty
percent in the last fifty years. There's been there has
begun to be a bounce back from the pandemic arrow lows.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Divorce rates are.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Going down in the peaks of the nineteen eighties, by
the way, divorce was up to around you know, upper
forty to fifty percent.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Many people know that statistic. It's now down to.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Thirty five to forty percent. That's a huge drop. And
you know what, my husband and I could do everything we
can to be bringing that down even further as we
go from twenty five hoofully to at least fifty years
of marriage. But the cultural thing that I find interesting
about this is the question will Taylor Swift and Travis
Kelcey will their marriage choosing to get married influence a
(25:47):
lot of folks?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You know what I say right on? I hope.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So if that's who people look to for influence, I
hope they look to a lot of other things for influence.
Find people who are happily married, talk to them. I
happen to know a whole lot of them. But it's
something that I think is important you look at what's
going on in America and feel free to text in.
I know this is not nearly as heavy as what
we're just talking about. Text Ryan at five seven seven
thirty nine. Do you care the tailor and Travis are engaged?
(26:16):
Do you think it's going to make a difference. Are
you a fan of marriage, but I do think the
fact is it could end up having an impageant.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
It's another thing, by the way, that we need to
look at what's going on in the United States of America.
We're now following in the trend of Europe. Europe has
had a plummeting birth rate, and the reality is now
in the United States of America. Birth rates in the
US have dropped to an all time low one point
(26:45):
six births per woman. No, that does not mean that
there is a six percent of a child born, but
on average, and I think we all can figure out
the math, it needs to be over two percent two
point one for us not to begin to plummet in
our population.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, there's an interesting intersection.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Here, And no Tailor or Travis, if you're listening, which
I doubt you are, I'm not pressuring you to go
straight from marriage to having children. However, that is something
that we need to also model.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Out there as being a really positive thing.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
It's interesting because even some studies have shown that there's
what they call the success sequence, and it leads not
only to people prospering economically, but to greater happiness.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
And it's been very interesting to see this.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Coming from some former you know, feminists who would have
been completely against this before coming in around and realizing
and what.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Is that success sequence?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Studies have shown when millennials, which is this group we
could study on this millennials, when they follow the success sequence.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And what is that success.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Sequence you may ask, It is doing things in this order,
getting graduating with a high school diploma at the minimum,
and then getting a job, then marrying, and then having children.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
When you do things in that order, it's.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Crazy to see what actually is shown When ninety seven
percent of millennials who followed that sequence, they were in
the middle to upper level economically. Those seventy one percent
of millennials who did not do those three steps, they
were in the lowest income bracket.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Now, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Saying go out and get married just so you you know,
somehow prosper But as Timeway started rethinking the cynicism within
our culture, and you know what, saying that Taylor Swift
might actually you know, help younger people realize that marriage
is a good thing. And by the way, the grip
she influences seventy three percent of twelfth grader's only seventy
(28:49):
two percent expected to marry someday, with girls expectations dropping.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
The most sharply.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Well, I say it sounds like a good pop song,
and I hope that that has an impact.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I don't think that those twelve twelfth graders.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Are listening to me as much, but if you are,
marriage rocks, Okay. That's That's about as much as I'll
probably ever talk about Taylor Swift, but.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Just wanted to bring that.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
When we come back, I'm going to share some more
good news about this new generation of gen Z, of
which I'm happy to be raising a couple of them.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
When we come back, We're going to and with some
good news.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Feel free to chime in At five seven seven three nine,
Texas there text Ryan and Texture comments, do you really
think that Travis and Taylor. Yes, I'm going to put
the moves to order. We'll have any impatch on the
marriage rate, don't go anywhere. I'm Deborah Flora sitting in
for Ryan Shuling the Ryan Sholing Show. This is Deborah
(29:48):
Flora sitting in for Ryan. Good to spend this time
with you. It goes so quickly, but I get to
come back and be with you all on Thursday, and
then coming up again on Monday, sitting in for wanted to.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Wind this all up.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
We've talked about some happy topics, obviously, the school shootings.
We've talked about the crime rate in Chicago, the fact
that Colorado is not faring very well on those statistics either.
But then we switched it up and went to Taylor Swift. Yeah,
that doesn't happen very often when I'm guess toasting more
of a classic rock kind of goal. But appreciate the
(30:23):
fact that she's been able to be so successful and
have such an impact, and we're talking about, hopefully the
impact in a positive way, beginning to lift up some
of these institutions that this younger generation has been taught
to be very cynical about marriage, children. And by the way,
it doesn't help when you know there's part of the
(30:45):
culture that wants to call mother's birthing people. I will
take great, you know great. I want to say offense
because we'll get so offended so easily, but hey, you
know what, much more than a birthing person, I am
a mom, thank you very much much.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But you know what, there's some things that I want
to show.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
There's some negative things about this generation, but there's some
very very positive things. So many people will not be
surprised by this latest study that shows that there's a trend.
They there's a study that happens quite frequently and they
track who are the happiest and who are the saddest
demographics in our country. For a long time, it's always
(31:26):
been people that were basically they called midlife. As I say,
I'm not a spring chicken, I'm a summer chicken. But
the midlife crisis usually as the point in time where
Americans would have the lowest point in their lives as
far as their outlook on things, be the most pessimistic,
dealing with some real challenges.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
That way. Well, unfortunately that is not the case.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
It's not that people that are you know, midlife aren't
having crises.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
It's the fact that we put such a heavy.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Burden on Gen Z that they are now the most
sad generation currently in the United States America. You know,
it's really not surprising when you think about it. You know,
there are theories about it, whether it is the economy,
the job market, the cost of living, inflation, all of
those things had been really hard, particularly here in Colorado,
(32:14):
where we dropped from fifth to forty first in our
economic growth. You hear constantly amongst gen Zers, can I
actually buy a home? Will I ever be able to
have the quote unquote American dream? Maybe it's sad. Maybe
it's the fact that we live in a time that
is so divided politically. We've gotten away from the fact
(32:35):
that you can agree to disagree and not vilify the
other person and not be in such.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
A heightened tension all the time. That's part of it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
I think about the fact that gen Z has been
constantly fed a diet of disaster and catastrophe. When you
think about they're told America is bad DEI policy c
or details young people that they should actually be ashamed
of an immutable characteristic. Then you add to that that
(33:05):
they're told that the world's coming to an end every
five years, you know, by the way, real quickly. I
compare that with the fact that children that were being
raised during the Cold War, when there was a real
nuclear potential, they were not told, guess what, at any minute,
you might you know, be wiped out by a nuclear attack.
They were told they'll get under the desk
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