September 5, 2025 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So Michael Very show is.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
On the air.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Pretty little lady, I was coming to bread Christian.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We're all gonna be like three little Fanzi's here and
what's Fanzie like?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Come on you, Linda, what's body like? What a wreck
the mundo? And that's what we're.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Gonna be you selling pictures? Couldn't close an umbrella? What's
happening to my special partner? I'm danking now we are
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We had a story earlier a few days ago about
what was described as a ding dong ditch situation where
folks run up and knock on the door and run away,
except in this case, it was an eleven year old
(01:24):
who did it, and as he was fleeing the home,
the homeowners shot and killed him. Now, there's a lot
of discussion about what is the proper proportionate response to
such a thing, and there will be much made of
the fact that he was running away instead of toward.
(01:48):
There are many officer involved shootings where, for instance, someone
runs at a cop with a knife, cop draws and
he turns back. There's a lot that goes into this training.
Adrenaline is pumping. You've got to rely on your training.
(02:10):
But even the best Tom Brady threw interceptions. He skipped
balls to receivers. No matter how many passes you've thrown
with people pulling all over you, it's still a very
intense moment. Now, let me offer as a side note,
I don't believe all of these are truly knock and run,
because there were a lot of videos that they take
(02:32):
themselves and post little idiots where they go up and
kick on the door, and if it opens, they run
in and steal everything they can. If it doesn't open,
they run off. So that way, when they're caught, oh
we're just playing ding dong, ditch ah, you crazy kids.
Y'all don't do that anymore. That's not actually what they
(02:53):
were doing. And the media is all too ready to
make a George Floyd situation. But I reached out to
my folks at Berna because one of the things I
am a believer in is your own self protection. My
brother was a cop, you know this. I love cops,
big supporter of cops. They're not all perfect, but neither
(03:13):
is Congress, neither is your company, neither is the clergy.
Most of them are doing a good job for the
right reasons and making a difference. In fact, almost all
of them. I would say that about everybody has a
bad day, including ramon most days actually, So I reached
out to them because I am a believer and used
the burner. I used the compact launcher, and I saw
(03:38):
this as an opportunity to talk about how as the
burner folks say, you could have saved two lives, the
boy and the homeowner because his life is forever changed
and could be bad. It is not always necessary to
use lethal force, and BURNA is known as the less
(03:58):
lethal option by are in a dot com. So I
asked them for an expert on the issue and they
offered to me local as it would happen, a former
captain with the Galveston Police Department and also an active
Remax Skydiving team member. Well you ever skydived, I would never.
My son went on his senior trip and he promised
(04:19):
us he wouldn't skydive, and he did. He performs at
Wingsover Houston and other aero air shows as part of
a skydiving team. He is now with Berna while continuing
to fly in skydive and he's a spokesman for national
media outlets. You may have seen him or heard him
talking about active shooter topics and the occasions where a
(04:42):
less lethal option could save not only that of the
person that's killed, but the person who pulls the trigger.
John Scherrard, Welcome to the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Hi, thanks for having me. That's quite the introduction. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Would you like me to go on with the other
more things you'd like me to offer?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
No, not at all dead.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Is there anything about you that would surprise me? Like,
do you have a tattoo on your face? Do you
have an eerie I do not. No.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I try to, you know, maintain a clear and appearance.
Twenty years in law enforce, and I'll do that to you.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So did you set the record at Ball High School
for the forty yard dash for a white boy? Tell
me something about you that's interesting that I wouldn't I
did not.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I'm a I'm also a corporate jet pilot. So part
of my part time gig is.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So we made it fifty seven seconds before you told
us he was a pilot. He usually would normally gets
in there within that first minute.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Normal, Yeah, exactly somewhere. No, I'm actually from the Metroplex areas,
so actually from Dallas, and I moved down to start
working down in Galveson, PD back in two thousand and four.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
What brought you to Galveson PD?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
A job more than anything, really was?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
It was Riley the chief then? Who was the chief
back then?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
No, that was Kenneth mac. Kenneth Mack was a chief
back then, a great chief, loved to work and for him,
he hired me and gave me an opportunity and you know,
try to make him proud every day.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
How long were you Gallaston PD?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I was un till twenty twenty. I actually left in
twenty twenty and then that's when I took over or
actually was hired by Burnet to create the Law Enforcement
Division over there with a couple other guys.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So I met the Burner guys because they were in
they were on the border now Shriff then Constable Jimmy
Fullen was taking PTO and going down to the border
and working from the border, and he and they connected
(06:36):
and they said, Hey, do you know a guy that's
down there we're talking. We want to have him as
one of our national spokesmen. And his name is Michael
Berry and he Michael Berry's is very different. I know
him extraordinarily well protected his family over the years. So
I've known Jimmy a very long time. Tell me, do
you live on the island now?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I don't. I'm actually up in League City. So about
a tasklay between that island in Houston.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Right on, and you're not gonna hear and Hault. You're
gonna pick one and one leone, one and one only.
You get one meal today. You haven't eaten all day.
It's seven pm. Where are you eating? In galls.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
O Jugism every time, August, best selection, great atmosphere, loved owners. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They They have been a sponsor of the show, just
kind of seasonally when they have events coming up, and
I don't do less than a year. I don't agree
to that because then you're too much cycle and I
think confused listeners. Oh sure, but I've made probably three
exceptions in twenty years, and they are one of them
because I think they do such a good job. I
think they're so good. They're they're great for Galison, but
(07:49):
they're really good for the strand they bring a lot
of energy.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, and there's they do a lot of Philanthrophy down
in Galaston as well. I mean, they're heavily involved in
the community and that just you know, just really have
the Galveston vibe down there.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
My kids are eighteen and nineteen now, so we don't
get to do it as much. But we wore that
La Kings or La Kings however you pronounce it across
the street. We wore that place out when they were kids.
We go in and watch that big guy that looks
like the guy in one flow over the cuckoo's nest,
the big Indian guy that makes the taffy. Oh that
was a tree. All right. We'll talk to John Scherrard
(08:22):
about Berna and Lesltho Forest in the case of the
Ding Dong ditch where the kid had to be killed
recently coming up.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
With your photo matters.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
A natural born geting, do you see, Josh Shirard is
kind of a throwback. Hank Junior boseiphas character. The world
has changed and he wants out of a dinosaur give
him his hat. Okay, I like that. That's that's a
nice description. He may or may not. He probably might
name recognize what that means. Josh, are you a Hank
(08:54):
junior fan.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh absolutely, I'm from Texas, Gottaby.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Well, you know you say that there's a lot of
these Yankees that have moved in from Dallas, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I mean I originally when I moved down to Houston,
they called me a Yankee because I was in North
I ten.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So, well, that's exactly how we view it. Yes, of course. Yeah,
you got to be careful these people in the woodlands
moving in and trying to change everything. So so you
know the ding Dong ditch story. They were told me,
They told me you the Barno folks told me you
were perfectly well aware of the case and everything related
to it. How is that How is the result different
(09:31):
in that situation if if the fella has an option
other than his firearm.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, a lot of people when we look at
shootings throughout the country, and this is on the civilian side,
it's also on the law enforcement side as well, when
we really dive down into the into these shootings, a
lot of it comes down to the fact that that
was the person's only option. They felt that that was
the only tool that they had, the only option they
had for response, and so it was either do that
(09:59):
or do nothing. Unfortunately, a lot of times we see
these decisions like in this case, you know that that
decision is extraordinarily flawed because they feel that, well, this
is the only tool I have, so this is the
response that I'm going to have, and then we get
into a situation like this, So you know, that's where
it's so important to have those options and to have
(10:19):
you know, when it comes to force options. Once again,
on the civilian law enforcement side, it's not a one
size fits all, you know, if it's not just it's
either you know, zero or ten, you have to have
you know, those options in the middle in order to
respond appropriately because when it comes down to it, your
response has to be reasonable, regardless of the decision you
make of why you used it, it has to be reasonable. Now,
(10:43):
in this case, you know, we're looking at at why
he may have used it, and you brought up a
very good point in the beginning of the show, and that's,
you know, he doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't
know that they're but he may not know that they're
playing a game of ding dong ditch, you know, and
he may err on the side of caution. But once again,
even if he did that response still has to be reasonable,
(11:03):
and I think we can all agree that in this
particular case, it was not reasonable.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I'm not sure if I'm a juror that I agree
with that, and I'm not sure that I wouldn't love
to take up the case as his defense attorney and
suddenly read off for thirty minutes the current crime reports
of young men attacking people. But I agree with you
that if the fella had it all to do over again,
I can guarantee you he'd rather if Josh Gerard were
(11:33):
handing him a burn a pistol, or a burna launcher
or a Smith and Wesson, he'd shoot the burner. I
feel certain of that fact. And I understand you're a
career law enforcement officer. If I was having this conversation
with my late brother, who was as well, he would
have taken your position as well. You deal with it
(11:55):
all day every day. I don't what do you say
to folks who who say I don't. I can't put
two weapons in my hand at the same time. How
am I going to know which to choose?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Really, it comes down to the numbers, and you know,
and in any situation comes down to the to the
seconds and being in that situation. So you know, not
some Monday morning quarterback anything, but you know you will
have to make that decision if it ever presents itself
to you. But I'm a numbers guy. I'm a data guy,
and when we look at the numbers of situations that
you're likely to encounter. Now, once again, I'm a cop.
(12:30):
I carried a gun every day in my life for
the last twenty years. But I've also carried burna you know,
for the last five But when we look at the numbers,
you know, when we look at justifiable homicides throughout the
US in twenty twenty three numbers, there are about four
hundred and seventy justifiable homicides in self defense across the US.
That's it, over the course of the year. So so
your chance, your your chance of having to use deadly
(12:52):
force to protect yourself, to actually kill somebody, is about
one in seven hundred thousand, that's the chance. Now, when
you looked at victimization or violent crime victimization rates throughout
the US in the same year, your chance of being
a victim of violent crime is about one in two
hundred and seventy. So your chance of having to defend
yourself in some other way aside from the use of
(13:15):
lethal force, is orders of magnitude greater than your chance
of actually having to kill someone in order to defend yourself. Now,
I do not want people to think that I'm here
to replace a gun. I'm a staunch supporter of this
Second Amendment. Like I said, carry gun every day. I'm
definitely I'd rather have it, not need it. Need not
(13:36):
have guy. But with that being said, we have to
take a look at most likely scenarios. You know, as
a swat guy for a long time, and we would
always look at scenarios in two different ways. What's the
worst case scenario, what do I need to be prepared
for worst case? But then also what's the most likely
scenario to happen, And let's make sure we're prepared for
that too, so that we're not just you know, overlooking
(13:57):
the obvious out in front of us. And this is
no different. We want to be prepared for that worst
case scenario, but we really have to take a hard
look at what's most likely to happen and what can
I have and how can I prepare myself for what's
going to happen on a day to day basis and
what I know historically is more likely to happen. So
once again, in this case, having that option, having that burner,
(14:19):
you know, maybe he does make a mistake, maybe it
was just a game, and you know there's some harsh
words exchange, but everybody's okay in the end, and that's
a much better outcome than what we're seeing today.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well, and you know I've presented option one, which is
a guy has has choices between the two. I think, well,
it's maybe not the largest group, but the most number
of people who have responded to me that they bought
a burner was because of the legal in all fifty states,
Because we speak for burner across the country, so I
(14:52):
hear from people across the country where they can't buy
a gun, but they can buy this and it is
a less lethal self defense and that's important, especially for women,
but for both. And the other two things are no
background check, no license required. I believe that we overcriminalize
drug possession and underpenalize violent crime, and we have been
(15:15):
left with a situation where everybody's got a black mark,
which means there is no real ostracization to being a
criminal anymore. If everybody is a criminal, by which I
mean the number of listeners I get who say thanks
for the advice on Laburna. I haven't been able to
carry for X number of years, and now I have
a form of self defense I feel comfortable with. That
(15:38):
is a shockingly high number of people.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That is an absolute market section for us. And I've
had the same experience talking to so many people who
have told me the same thing. Hey, I mean I
screwed up twenty thirty years ago. You know, I was
with a group of kids. We stole a car, you know,
joy rider for a bit. But you know, thirty years later,
I've got a family, but I still have a felony
on my record, and I still cannot protect myself with
(16:04):
a gun, even in a state like Texas where obviously
that's you know, in the vast majority of people. So
you know, it's it's really it's really interesting to to
and and and and really motivating for me to be
able to say, hey, we have a way for everyone
out there, regardless of you know, your your background, or
regardless of your belief system, to be able to get
out there, protect themselves, protect their family.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
B y are in a I am a big believer
Josh Sharad Ramon said, I called you John Chard. I
don't believe that's true. Josh Sharard, thank you for your
service in law enforcement, and thank you for informing people
by this. I think this is important. Thanks for being
agreeing to be our guest.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Excited.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Roger Craigor had a song exactly how it went, but
it was something about me. I don't mind being lonesome,
but I don't want to be lonely. I think that
a lot of people feel alone, if not alone, lonely, disconnected, separated, misunderstood, forgotten,
(17:15):
and it's a hard thing to put your finger on.
I think that there are a lot of people. One
of them might be your brother or your sister, or
your mother or your father, or your adult child or
for that matter, your child that lives under your own roof.
I'm not a touchy feely person, although I probably am
(17:37):
more now than I was when I was younger, because
I realized some things need to be talked about. If
they're not, it can lead to results and consequences you
don't want. But I think there are a lot of people,
and you might be one of them, who feel forgotten
and alone, and there is something haunting about that song.
(18:00):
It was sent to me by Tex Crowley, a listener
who knew Long Haul Paul. I don't know if he's
still alive, know or knows Long Haul Paul, who's a
lifelong trucker who finally recorded these musings that he has
and that's what they are into, these songs, and I've
(18:21):
been listening to him this week, and I find that
they're really powerful in the in the way Johnny Cash
is when the Man comes around. It's powerful because there's
so much more to the song than you're hearing. I mean,
it's a really really deep expression and you feel it,
(18:46):
you just feel it. And I think about how many
people are listening to us in the course of a day,
whether on live radio or on a podcast, who are
long haul truck. That's a tough job, you know. We
take these things for granted. I'm not saying we need
to be running around emoting for a bunch of other people,
(19:09):
feeling sorry for people, But we do spend a lot
of time as a society feeling sorry for people by design,
based on the skin color they were born into, or
the bad life choices they've made, or the consequences there
now suffering for the bad life choices they made, whether
(19:31):
that's prison or a bad job, or homelessness or whatever else.
And I think that. And I'm not saying everybody needs,
you know, a hand up or pat on the back
or way to go, But loneliness and disconnectedness I have
come to learn as I've gotten older, fortunately never having
(19:52):
suffered it, and probably by design. It's a defensive technique
of mine to surround myself other than Ramon, but to
surround myself with people that I love who love me.
And I need that. And I'm man enough to tell
you I need that. I need a wife who doesn't
(20:12):
just live under my roof, but wakes up thinking about
me and goes to bed thinking about me, and in
between occasionally thinks about me and anticipating my needs as
I hope I do for her. I need that that
completes me. And I love having children who you know
you can go to every one of your kids ball games.
(20:33):
Doesn't mean they're going to appreciate it. But I love
having children that I feel I'm connected to and they've
been there for me and I've been there for them.
And how that works and our show team other than
Ramone you know Chad who's been with me for twenty years,
Jim Mudd. I was a fan of him before he
came to the show. So to get to work with
a guy who you were once a fan of his
(20:54):
work is pretty cool. Other than Ramone, Darryl Kunda, who
worked in a position creating awesomeness that I never believed
we could get him on one show, and now to
have him here, and Rachel and Sandy, these brilliant women
who are insanely successful in their own careers in law
(21:16):
and science and technology and logistics, that they would take
time out of their day, unpaid, to volunteer to make
our show so much better. Sometimes I'll give him an
assignment at night or in the morning, and you know
they've stayed up late or got up early and doing
it all for the sake of the show. I mean,
(21:38):
those kind of things make you feel good about yourself.
But the sense of disconnectedness and loneliness that I have
really come to understand probably drives me to go to
the Old Folks Home way more than I naturally would not,
because I would consciously say I'm not going to old
Folks Home today. Why would I do that? Why would
(22:01):
I sit in four walls and watch the astros. I
don't even watch astros at home. Why would I do that.
That's not what I would say. What I would do
is say, hey, I'm going to send an email to
every single one of my show sponsors, at least the
Houston show sponsors tonight and sit down, which I will
(22:21):
occasionally do, and write a personal email to each one
of them. How's your business going? How can I help
you more? What's going right? What's a problem you have
that maybe I can help you solve, what's going on
with your family. It's important to me to manage those relationships. Now,
our sellers manage a relationship, but it's my job, it's
(22:42):
my joy to get to connect with them individually and
do that. So I will set aside evenings that I'm
going to do that. I could do that every day,
every single day. I could do that. I could, as
my brother would say, rearrange my sock drawer. He'd say,
you rearrange your soot drawer more than anybody I know.
For the record, I never rearrange my socker door. I
resent that. Now. I do rearrange my underwear and my shirts,
(23:07):
and I like to bring order to disorder. It gives
me comfort, it gives me pleasure. But I think about, Okay,
he had my mom right there beside him, nagging him
twenty four hours that he don't hanim by nagging him,
So he's probably lonely. So I need to go over
there and break up that loneliness. And you know, I
(23:29):
think about how many people this is not. His story
is not about me, by the way, I'm trying to
share my story in hopes that you will internalize it,
because the story is about you and somebody in your life.
That story from Long Haul Paul, that lament of the long, melancholy, sad,
(23:52):
lonely days of being a long haul trucker with speed
coursing through you. So you can get through this, and
that's not a good thing. You don't need to worry.
But that tells me how many people are going through life,
getting through life, taking care of everybody else, and deep
down inside, they're broken, they're sad, they're lonely, they're alone,
(24:14):
and all it's so easy. It won't cost us a dime.
Doesn't cost me a dime to go sit with my dad.
I asked my dad two days ago, does there anything
I can get for you that you don't have. He says, nothing,
but for my time, there is probably somebody in your life,
maybe you work with them. Maybe it's a family member
that just you taking some time to call them would
(24:38):
save that soul Star. Upon each three trip, at the
end of October is almost closed off, and so Emily
is driving out picking up checks. Our thought is, if
you write a big check to join us for four days,
(24:58):
you shouldn't have to mail that. So Emily goes out
picks them up, and she goes out pick up check
from a woman who's been on multiple of our checks,
of our trips. Before she goes to pick up the check,
woman's been on multiple our trips, and she came on
the Aspen trip last time or the time before, I
can't remember, maybe both of them. And so I go around.
(25:22):
We were out on an outdoor deck, and I go
around on the outside and I said, and I ask
each person some kind of silly question. You know, when
you were fourteen years old, what musician did you most like? Whatever?
Something stupid. So I have a questionnaire that I send
people and they fill it out, and that helps guide
me to share interesting things about them. Because somebody might
(25:46):
have been Elvis's drummer just fill in, but for eighteen
nights in nineteen seventy four, and you're hanging out with
this person and you never know that because they don't
think to tell you that. But if you ask in
the questionnaire, were you ever between the year's nineteen fifty six,
fifty seven and nineteen seventy seven a band member, roadie, dealer,
(26:11):
or doctor for Elvis? Then you get somebody pops up
and goes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I did that. But
unless you asked it right, you wouldn't. So we're going
around and there's a woman named Cheryl Dives, and so
I called out each person's name. I like everybody to
learn their names. We do name tax for everybody because
on a four day trip at the end of it,
some of these people become such good friends that they
(26:34):
then vacation together. They don't need me anymore. They'll send
me pictures of them, you know, on some beach in
Dominican Republic or Mexico or the Mediterranean. And I'm like, well,
I didn't realize y'all knew each other before. Oh no,
we didn't. We met on the Aspen trip. We met
on the Palm Beach trip, and I love that RCC
was that way. There are people who I haven't seen
(26:54):
since the day we close the RCC who they have
dinner more than one month and have never missed a
month since it closed, and they just became good friends
at the RCC. And I'll explain to you why that is.
In society, you got one hundred people, that's one hundred
percent of the people, right, Let's let's use one hundred
one hundred percent. You got the really bad people, let's
(27:17):
take them out. You got the anti social, would never
interact people, Let's take them out. You got young people
they don't want to be around you or me, and
that's okay. And then you got the really really old
people that are just getting through the day. All right,
take them out. So now you left with people somewhere,
(27:39):
If not in your age group, then in a range
it might, you know, y'all could would have enough in
common you could be friends. If you're a couple, you
most likely it's most likely going to need to be
a couple. I we do couples things and we do
guys things, and I don't mix those. And all my
friends understand that. And there's no feelings. My best friend
(28:02):
the whole wide world's Uncle Jerry. His wife Renee would
give me her kidney, I'd give her mind. We love
each other dearly. But when I hang out with Uncle Jerry,
it's me and Uncle Jerry, and frankly, I think she's
glad to have some time with me taking him off
her hands, because she will call and say, can you
come get him? But it's not the three of us,
it's the two of us, and she respects that because
we need our gattame. But anyway, so when you do that,
(28:26):
when you narrow this down to people, and especially for couples,
if you're going to have couple's friends, then you need
both people in the couple to be cool in one
way or another, and then you need those people to
probably agree on most issues. We've yet to have, to
my knowledge, a screaming liberal group come on one of
(28:46):
these trips, because in four days somebody might accidentally say
they love Trump, and if that bothers you, you're not
going to make it. And we go to mar Lago one,
we're there and he comes in, so there's that too.
But in any case, so what we managed to do
is distill out and be left with the kind of people.
So we do all the heavy lifting for you. It's
(29:09):
almost an inadvertent process, but I've come to learn that's
the most important part of the process. We do a
dinner before and a dinner afterwards, so that people, well,
this one, we're doing a dinner afterwards. We haven't always
done that, so that the couples build, because that is
only one of me. I can't hang out with people
every night. But if I can match up fun people,
then you know, you make some friends that you may
(29:30):
not have made. And they may not live in your neighborhood,
or go to your church, or went to your college,
or served in your same branch as the military. So
we're going around the room. There's a woman named Cheryl Dives,
and I've been an emailing her back and forth. And
she's not a young woman, elderly, she's not a young woman,
but she's clearly very active. And so she does all
(29:53):
these things, and I come to find out that she
runs a preserve for pre birds. Now this isn't a
chickadee type thing. This isn't cute ducks crossing over the street.
Everybody stopped with. These are not victims. These are predator birds.
They're bad ass. So I said, I'm introducing her to
(30:18):
the group. This is Cheryl Dives. We've been emailing back
and forth as I have with all of you, and
Cheryl does this with these predators. And she said, my glad,
I have to correct you, just so you know you're
welcome to call me Cheryl Dives. But my actual name
is Cheryl, and I'm not going to say it because
she had an author of my actual name is Cheryl this.
(30:38):
I said, what was that your maiden name? And she said, no,
I dive. I go on diving expeditions. I'm an active person.
I dive all over the world. So her email is
Cheryl Dives that whatever it is, everyone's Internet evy one whatever,
And I thought it was the funnest thing in the world.
So today this morning, Emily is out picking up checks
(31:02):
and she'll send me a photo when she gets to
people gets a check and she sends me a photo.
She's gone to see Cheryl Dives, who her name now
has become Cheryl Dives. That's the running joke. And it's
a picture of Cheryl wearing one of those like a
fireman's glove, and she's got what's called a Harrison's hawk
on it. And Emily doesn't know what to do because
(31:25):
she's a little skittish around crazy animals like that. But
this woman, I don't know how old she is. I'm
not going to guess that's a bad idea. But this woman,
this is a tough woman. She's got this predator bird
on her arm, and this is the thing. She's got
a place somewhere down near like Baycliff, and it's I
don't know, twenty to forty acres and they all live
(31:49):
there under her protective safety. And I've been supposed to
go forever. You want to go with me? Ramon. What's
that restaurant that Ray Brier's likes him? Is it Pier six?
We should go there. Ray always pays, so let's make
sure we bring Ray. He's good about that. I want
to see all these predator birds, you know, there's too
(32:11):
much touching feeling, oh in that cute. I want to
see something that's just Nature's got something that's nature, that's nature?
All right. If there is somebody in your life that
your mere presence, you don't have to spend a penny
your mere presence, And maybe it's just a phone call.
I know they get on your nerves. That's what moms
and dads when they get old. Dude, I know your
(32:32):
kids upset you. They're not living the lives you want
them too. They're not with the person you want them to.
They're not going to the school you want them to,
not pursuing the career you want them to. They's still
your child and you love them. I want you to.
I want you to change your countenance. Take a deep breath,
Oh happy day, put on a good attitude call and
have a good conversation and don't let them ruin that
make it special for that person.
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So Michael Very show is.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
On the air.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Pretty little lady, I was coming to bread Christian.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We're all gonna be like three little Fanzi's here and
what's Fanzie like?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Come on you, Linda, what's body like? What a wreck
the mundo? And that's what we're.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Gonna be you selling pictures? Couldn't close an umbrella? What's
happening to my special partner? I'm danking now we are
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We had a story earlier a few days ago about
what was described as a ding dong ditch situation where
folks run up and knock on the door and run away,
except in this case, it was an eleven year old
(01:24):
who did it, and as he was fleeing the home,
the homeowners shot and killed him. Now, there's a lot
of discussion about what is the proper proportionate response to
such a thing, and there will be much made of
the fact that he was running away instead of toward.
(01:48):
There are many officer involved shootings where, for instance, someone
runs at a cop with a knife, cop draws and
he turns back. There's a lot that goes into this training.
Adrenaline is pumping. You've got to rely on your training.
(02:10):
But even the best Tom Brady threw interceptions. He skipped
balls to receivers. No matter how many passes you've thrown
with people pulling all over you, it's still a very
intense moment. Now, let me offer as a side note,
I don't believe all of these are truly knock and run,
because there were a lot of videos that they take
(02:32):
themselves and post little idiots where they go up and
kick on the door, and if it opens, they run
in and steal everything they can. If it doesn't open,
they run off. So that way, when they're caught, oh
we're just playing ding dong, ditch ah, you crazy kids.
Y'all don't do that anymore. That's not actually what they
(02:53):
were doing. And the media is all too ready to
make a George Floyd situation. But I reached out to
my folks at Berna because one of the things I
am a believer in is your own self protection. My
brother was a cop, you know this. I love cops,
big supporter of cops. They're not all perfect, but neither
(03:13):
is Congress, neither is your company, neither is the clergy.
Most of them are doing a good job for the
right reasons and making a difference. In fact, almost all
of them. I would say that about everybody has a
bad day, including ramon most days actually, So I reached
out to them because I am a believer and used
the burner. I used the compact launcher, and I saw
(03:38):
this as an opportunity to talk about how as the
burner folks say, you could have saved two lives, the
boy and the homeowner because his life is forever changed
and could be bad. It is not always necessary to
use lethal force, and BURNA is known as the less
(03:58):
lethal option by are in a dot com. So I
asked them for an expert on the issue and they
offered to me local as it would happen, a former
captain with the Galveston Police Department and also an active
Remax Skydiving team member. Well you ever skydived, I would never.
My son went on his senior trip and he promised
(04:19):
us he wouldn't skydive, and he did. He performs at
Wingsover Houston and other aero air shows as part of
a skydiving team. He is now with Berna while continuing
to fly in skydive and he's a spokesman for national
media outlets. You may have seen him or heard him
talking about active shooter topics and the occasions where a
(04:42):
less lethal option could save not only that of the
person that's killed, but the person who pulls the trigger.
John Scherrard, Welcome to the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Hi, thanks for having me. That's quite the introduction. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Would you like me to go on with the other
more things you'd like me to offer?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
No, not at all dead.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Is there anything about you that would surprise me? Like,
do you have a tattoo on your face? Do you
have an eerie I do not. No.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I try to, you know, maintain a clear and appearance.
Twenty years in law enforce, and I'll do that to you.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So did you set the record at Ball High School
for the forty yard dash for a white boy? Tell
me something about you that's interesting that I wouldn't I
did not.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I'm a I'm also a corporate jet pilot. So part
of my part time gig is.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So we made it fifty seven seconds before you told
us he was a pilot. He usually would normally gets
in there within that first minute.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Normal, Yeah, exactly somewhere. No, I'm actually from the Metroplex areas,
so actually from Dallas, and I moved down to start
working down in Galveson, PD back in two thousand and four.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
What brought you to Galveson PD?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
A job more than anything, really was?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
It was Riley the chief then? Who was the chief
back then?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
No, that was Kenneth mac. Kenneth Mack was a chief
back then, a great chief, loved to work and for him,
he hired me and gave me an opportunity and you know,
try to make him proud every day.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
How long were you Gallaston PD?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I was un till twenty twenty. I actually left in
twenty twenty and then that's when I took over or
actually was hired by Burnet to create the Law Enforcement
Division over there with a couple other guys.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So I met the Burner guys because they were in
they were on the border now Shriff then Constable Jimmy
Fullen was taking PTO and going down to the border
and working from the border, and he and they connected
(06:36):
and they said, Hey, do you know a guy that's
down there we're talking. We want to have him as
one of our national spokesmen. And his name is Michael
Berry and he Michael Berry's is very different. I know
him extraordinarily well protected his family over the years. So
I've known Jimmy a very long time. Tell me, do
you live on the island now?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I don't. I'm actually up in League City. So about
a tasklay between that island in Houston.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Right on, and you're not gonna hear and Hault. You're
gonna pick one and one leone, one and one only.
You get one meal today. You haven't eaten all day.
It's seven pm. Where are you eating? In galls.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
O Jugism every time, August, best selection, great atmosphere, loved owners. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
They They have been a sponsor of the show, just
kind of seasonally when they have events coming up, and
I don't do less than a year. I don't agree
to that because then you're too much cycle and I
think confused listeners. Oh sure, but I've made probably three
exceptions in twenty years, and they are one of them
because I think they do such a good job. I
think they're so good. They're they're great for Galison, but
(07:49):
they're really good for the strand they bring a lot
of energy.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, and there's they do a lot of Philanthrophy down
in Galaston as well. I mean, they're heavily involved in
the community and that just you know, just really have
the Galveston vibe down there.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
My kids are eighteen and nineteen now, so we don't
get to do it as much. But we wore that
La Kings or La Kings however you pronounce it across
the street. We wore that place out when they were kids.
We go in and watch that big guy that looks
like the guy in one flow over the cuckoo's nest,
the big Indian guy that makes the taffy. Oh that
was a tree. All right. We'll talk to John Scherrard
(08:22):
about Berna and Lesltho Forest in the case of the
Ding Dong ditch where the kid had to be killed
recently coming up.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
With your photo matters.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
A natural born geting, do you see, Josh Shirard is
kind of a throwback. Hank Junior boseiphas character. The world
has changed and he wants out of a dinosaur give
him his hat. Okay, I like that. That's that's a
nice description. He may or may not. He probably might
name recognize what that means. Josh, are you a Hank
(08:54):
junior fan.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh absolutely, I'm from Texas, Gottaby.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Well, you know you say that there's a lot of
these Yankees that have moved in from Dallas, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I mean I originally when I moved down to Houston,
they called me a Yankee because I was in North
I ten.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So, well, that's exactly how we view it. Yes, of course. Yeah,
you got to be careful these people in the woodlands
moving in and trying to change everything. So so you
know the ding Dong ditch story. They were told me,
They told me you the Barno folks told me you
were perfectly well aware of the case and everything related
to it. How is that How is the result different
(09:31):
in that situation if if the fella has an option
other than his firearm.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, a lot of people when we look at
shootings throughout the country, and this is on the civilian side,
it's also on the law enforcement side as well, when
we really dive down into the into these shootings, a
lot of it comes down to the fact that that
was the person's only option. They felt that that was
the only tool that they had, the only option they
had for response, and so it was either do that
(09:59):
or do nothing. Unfortunately, a lot of times we see
these decisions like in this case, you know that that
decision is extraordinarily flawed because they feel that, well, this
is the only tool I have, so this is the
response that I'm going to have, and then we get
into a situation like this, So you know, that's where
it's so important to have those options and to have
(10:19):
you know, when it comes to force options. Once again,
on the civilian law enforcement side, it's not a one
size fits all, you know, if it's not just it's
either you know, zero or ten, you have to have
you know, those options in the middle in order to
respond appropriately because when it comes down to it, your
response has to be reasonable, regardless of the decision you
make of why you used it, it has to be reasonable. Now,
(10:43):
in this case, you know, we're looking at at why
he may have used it, and you brought up a
very good point in the beginning of the show, and that's,
you know, he doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't
know that they're but he may not know that they're
playing a game of ding dong ditch, you know, and
he may err on the side of caution. But once again,
even if he did that response still has to be reasonable,
(11:03):
and I think we can all agree that in this
particular case, it was not reasonable.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I'm not sure if I'm a juror that I agree
with that, and I'm not sure that I wouldn't love
to take up the case as his defense attorney and
suddenly read off for thirty minutes the current crime reports
of young men attacking people. But I agree with you
that if the fella had it all to do over again,
I can guarantee you he'd rather if Josh Gerard were
(11:33):
handing him a burn a pistol, or a burna launcher
or a Smith and Wesson, he'd shoot the burner. I
feel certain of that fact. And I understand you're a
career law enforcement officer. If I was having this conversation
with my late brother, who was as well, he would
have taken your position as well. You deal with it
(11:55):
all day every day. I don't what do you say
to folks who who say I don't. I can't put
two weapons in my hand at the same time. How
am I going to know which to choose?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Really, it comes down to the numbers, and you know,
and in any situation comes down to the to the
seconds and being in that situation. So you know, not
some Monday morning quarterback anything, but you know you will
have to make that decision if it ever presents itself
to you. But I'm a numbers guy. I'm a data guy,
and when we look at the numbers of situations that
you're likely to encounter. Now, once again, I'm a cop.
(12:30):
I carried a gun every day in my life for
the last twenty years. But I've also carried burna you know,
for the last five But when we look at the numbers,
you know, when we look at justifiable homicides throughout the
US in twenty twenty three numbers, there are about four
hundred and seventy justifiable homicides in self defense across the US.
That's it, over the course of the year. So so
your chance, your your chance of having to use deadly
(12:52):
force to protect yourself, to actually kill somebody, is about
one in seven hundred thousand, that's the chance. Now, when
you looked at victimization or violent crime victimization rates throughout
the US in the same year, your chance of being
a victim of violent crime is about one in two
hundred and seventy. So your chance of having to defend
yourself in some other way aside from the use of
(13:15):
lethal force, is orders of magnitude greater than your chance
of actually having to kill someone in order to defend yourself. Now,
I do not want people to think that I'm here
to replace a gun. I'm a staunch supporter of this
Second Amendment. Like I said, carry gun every day. I'm
definitely I'd rather have it, not need it. Need not
(13:36):
have guy. But with that being said, we have to
take a look at most likely scenarios. You know, as
a swat guy for a long time, and we would
always look at scenarios in two different ways. What's the
worst case scenario, what do I need to be prepared
for worst case? But then also what's the most likely
scenario to happen, And let's make sure we're prepared for
that too, so that we're not just you know, overlooking
(13:57):
the obvious out in front of us. And this is
no different. We want to be prepared for that worst
case scenario, but we really have to take a hard
look at what's most likely to happen and what can
I have and how can I prepare myself for what's
going to happen on a day to day basis and
what I know historically is more likely to happen. So
once again, in this case, having that option, having that burner,
(14:19):
you know, maybe he does make a mistake, maybe it
was just a game, and you know there's some harsh
words exchange, but everybody's okay in the end, and that's
a much better outcome than what we're seeing today.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well, and you know I've presented option one, which is
a guy has has choices between the two. I think, well,
it's maybe not the largest group, but the most number
of people who have responded to me that they bought
a burner was because of the legal in all fifty states,
Because we speak for burner across the country, so I
(14:52):
hear from people across the country where they can't buy
a gun, but they can buy this and it is
a less lethal self defense and that's important, especially for women,
but for both. And the other two things are no
background check, no license required. I believe that we overcriminalize
drug possession and underpenalize violent crime, and we have been
(15:15):
left with a situation where everybody's got a black mark,
which means there is no real ostracization to being a
criminal anymore. If everybody is a criminal, by which I
mean the number of listeners I get who say thanks
for the advice on Laburna. I haven't been able to
carry for X number of years, and now I have
a form of self defense I feel comfortable with. That
(15:38):
is a shockingly high number of people.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That is an absolute market section for us. And I've
had the same experience talking to so many people who
have told me the same thing. Hey, I mean I
screwed up twenty thirty years ago. You know, I was
with a group of kids. We stole a car, you know,
joy rider for a bit. But you know, thirty years later,
I've got a family, but I still have a felony
on my record, and I still cannot protect myself with
(16:04):
a gun, even in a state like Texas where obviously
that's you know, in the vast majority of people. So
you know, it's it's really it's really interesting to to
and and and and really motivating for me to be
able to say, hey, we have a way for everyone
out there, regardless of you know, your your background, or
regardless of your belief system, to be able to get
out there, protect themselves, protect their family.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
B y are in a I am a big believer
Josh Sharad Ramon said, I called you John Chard. I
don't believe that's true. Josh Sharard, thank you for your
service in law enforcement, and thank you for informing people
by this. I think this is important. Thanks for being
agreeing to be our guest.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Excited.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Roger Craigor had a song exactly how it went, but
it was something about me. I don't mind being lonesome,
but I don't want to be lonely. I think that
a lot of people feel alone, if not alone, lonely, disconnected, separated, misunderstood, forgotten,
(17:15):
and it's a hard thing to put your finger on.
I think that there are a lot of people. One
of them might be your brother or your sister, or
your mother or your father, or your adult child or
for that matter, your child that lives under your own roof.
I'm not a touchy feely person, although I probably am
(17:37):
more now than I was when I was younger, because
I realized some things need to be talked about. If
they're not, it can lead to results and consequences you
don't want. But I think there are a lot of people,
and you might be one of them, who feel forgotten
and alone, and there is something haunting about that song.
(18:00):
It was sent to me by Tex Crowley, a listener
who knew Long Haul Paul. I don't know if he's
still alive, know or knows Long Haul Paul, who's a
lifelong trucker who finally recorded these musings that he has
and that's what they are into, these songs, and I've
(18:21):
been listening to him this week, and I find that
they're really powerful in the in the way Johnny Cash
is when the Man comes around. It's powerful because there's
so much more to the song than you're hearing. I mean,
it's a really really deep expression and you feel it,
(18:46):
you just feel it. And I think about how many
people are listening to us in the course of a day,
whether on live radio or on a podcast, who are
long haul truck. That's a tough job, you know. We
take these things for granted. I'm not saying we need
to be running around emoting for a bunch of other people,
(19:09):
feeling sorry for people, But we do spend a lot
of time as a society feeling sorry for people by design,
based on the skin color they were born into, or
the bad life choices they've made, or the consequences there
now suffering for the bad life choices they made, whether
(19:31):
that's prison or a bad job, or homelessness or whatever else.
And I think that. And I'm not saying everybody needs,
you know, a hand up or pat on the back
or way to go, But loneliness and disconnectedness I have
come to learn as I've gotten older, fortunately never having
(19:52):
suffered it, and probably by design. It's a defensive technique
of mine to surround myself other than Ramon, but to
surround myself with people that I love who love me.
And I need that. And I'm man enough to tell
you I need that. I need a wife who doesn't
(20:12):
just live under my roof, but wakes up thinking about
me and goes to bed thinking about me, and in
between occasionally thinks about me and anticipating my needs as
I hope I do for her. I need that that
completes me. And I love having children who you know
you can go to every one of your kids ball games.
(20:33):
Doesn't mean they're going to appreciate it. But I love
having children that I feel I'm connected to and they've
been there for me and I've been there for them.
And how that works and our show team other than
Ramone you know Chad who's been with me for twenty years,
Jim Mudd. I was a fan of him before he
came to the show. So to get to work with
a guy who you were once a fan of his
(20:54):
work is pretty cool. Other than Ramone, Darryl Kunda, who
worked in a position creating awesomeness that I never believed
we could get him on one show, and now to
have him here, and Rachel and Sandy, these brilliant women
who are insanely successful in their own careers in law
(21:16):
and science and technology and logistics, that they would take
time out of their day, unpaid, to volunteer to make
our show so much better. Sometimes I'll give him an
assignment at night or in the morning, and you know
they've stayed up late or got up early and doing
it all for the sake of the show. I mean,
(21:38):
those kind of things make you feel good about yourself.
But the sense of disconnectedness and loneliness that I have
really come to understand probably drives me to go to
the Old Folks Home way more than I naturally would not,
because I would consciously say I'm not going to old
Folks Home today. Why would I do that? Why would
(22:01):
I sit in four walls and watch the astros. I
don't even watch astros at home. Why would I do that.
That's not what I would say. What I would do
is say, hey, I'm going to send an email to
every single one of my show sponsors, at least the
Houston show sponsors tonight and sit down, which I will
(22:21):
occasionally do, and write a personal email to each one
of them. How's your business going? How can I help
you more? What's going right? What's a problem you have
that maybe I can help you solve, what's going on
with your family. It's important to me to manage those relationships. Now,
our sellers manage a relationship, but it's my job, it's
(22:42):
my joy to get to connect with them individually and
do that. So I will set aside evenings that I'm
going to do that. I could do that every day,
every single day. I could do that. I could, as
my brother would say, rearrange my sock drawer. He'd say,
you rearrange your soot drawer more than anybody I know.
For the record, I never rearrange my socker door. I
resent that. Now. I do rearrange my underwear and my shirts,
(23:07):
and I like to bring order to disorder. It gives
me comfort, it gives me pleasure. But I think about, Okay,
he had my mom right there beside him, nagging him
twenty four hours that he don't hanim by nagging him,
So he's probably lonely. So I need to go over
there and break up that loneliness. And you know, I
(23:29):
think about how many people this is not. His story
is not about me, by the way, I'm trying to
share my story in hopes that you will internalize it,
because the story is about you and somebody in your life.
That story from Long Haul Paul, that lament of the long, melancholy, sad,
(23:52):
lonely days of being a long haul trucker with speed
coursing through you. So you can get through this, and
that's not a good thing. You don't need to worry.
But that tells me how many people are going through life,
getting through life, taking care of everybody else, and deep
down inside, they're broken, they're sad, they're lonely, they're alone,
(24:14):
and all it's so easy. It won't cost us a dime.
Doesn't cost me a dime to go sit with my dad.
I asked my dad two days ago, does there anything
I can get for you that you don't have. He says, nothing,
but for my time, there is probably somebody in your life,
maybe you work with them. Maybe it's a family member
that just you taking some time to call them would
(24:38):
save that soul Star. Upon each three trip, at the
end of October is almost closed off, and so Emily
is driving out picking up checks. Our thought is, if
you write a big check to join us for four days,
(24:58):
you shouldn't have to mail that. So Emily goes out
picks them up, and she goes out pick up check
from a woman who's been on multiple of our checks,
of our trips. Before she goes to pick up the check,
woman's been on multiple our trips, and she came on
the Aspen trip last time or the time before, I
can't remember, maybe both of them. And so I go around.
(25:22):
We were out on an outdoor deck, and I go
around on the outside and I said, and I ask
each person some kind of silly question. You know, when
you were fourteen years old, what musician did you most like? Whatever?
Something stupid. So I have a questionnaire that I send
people and they fill it out, and that helps guide
me to share interesting things about them. Because somebody might
(25:46):
have been Elvis's drummer just fill in, but for eighteen
nights in nineteen seventy four, and you're hanging out with
this person and you never know that because they don't
think to tell you that. But if you ask in
the questionnaire, were you ever between the year's nineteen fifty six,
fifty seven and nineteen seventy seven a band member, roadie, dealer,
(26:11):
or doctor for Elvis? Then you get somebody pops up
and goes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I did that. But
unless you asked it right, you wouldn't. So we're going
around and there's a woman named Cheryl Dives, and so
I called out each person's name. I like everybody to
learn their names. We do name tax for everybody because
on a four day trip at the end of it,
some of these people become such good friends that they
(26:34):
then vacation together. They don't need me anymore. They'll send
me pictures of them, you know, on some beach in
Dominican Republic or Mexico or the Mediterranean. And I'm like, well,
I didn't realize y'all knew each other before. Oh no,
we didn't. We met on the Aspen trip. We met
on the Palm Beach trip, and I love that RCC
was that way. There are people who I haven't seen
(26:54):
since the day we close the RCC who they have
dinner more than one month and have never missed a
month since it closed, and they just became good friends
at the RCC. And I'll explain to you why that is.
In society, you got one hundred people, that's one hundred
percent of the people, right, Let's let's use one hundred
one hundred percent. You got the really bad people, let's
(27:17):
take them out. You got the anti social, would never
interact people, Let's take them out. You got young people
they don't want to be around you or me, and
that's okay. And then you got the really really old
people that are just getting through the day. All right,
take them out. So now you left with people somewhere,
(27:39):
If not in your age group, then in a range
it might, you know, y'all could would have enough in
common you could be friends. If you're a couple, you
most likely it's most likely going to need to be
a couple. I we do couples things and we do
guys things, and I don't mix those. And all my
friends understand that. And there's no feelings. My best friend
(28:02):
the whole wide world's Uncle Jerry. His wife Renee would
give me her kidney, I'd give her mind. We love
each other dearly. But when I hang out with Uncle Jerry,
it's me and Uncle Jerry, and frankly, I think she's
glad to have some time with me taking him off
her hands, because she will call and say, can you
come get him? But it's not the three of us,
it's the two of us, and she respects that because
we need our gattame. But anyway, so when you do that,
(28:26):
when you narrow this down to people, and especially for couples,
if you're going to have couple's friends, then you need
both people in the couple to be cool in one
way or another, and then you need those people to
probably agree on most issues. We've yet to have, to
my knowledge, a screaming liberal group come on one of
(28:46):
these trips, because in four days somebody might accidentally say
they love Trump, and if that bothers you, you're not
going to make it. And we go to mar Lago one,
we're there and he comes in, so there's that too.
But in any case, so what we managed to do
is distill out and be left with the kind of people.
So we do all the heavy lifting for you. It's
(29:09):
almost an inadvertent process, but I've come to learn that's
the most important part of the process. We do a
dinner before and a dinner afterwards, so that people, well,
this one, we're doing a dinner afterwards. We haven't always
done that, so that the couples build, because that is
only one of me. I can't hang out with people
every night. But if I can match up fun people,
then you know, you make some friends that you may
(29:30):
not have made. And they may not live in your neighborhood,
or go to your church, or went to your college,
or served in your same branch as the military. So
we're going around the room. There's a woman named Cheryl Dives,
and I've been an emailing her back and forth. And
she's not a young woman, elderly, she's not a young woman,
but she's clearly very active. And so she does all
(29:53):
these things, and I come to find out that she
runs a preserve for pre birds. Now this isn't a
chickadee type thing. This isn't cute ducks crossing over the street.
Everybody stopped with. These are not victims. These are predator birds.
They're bad ass. So I said, I'm introducing her to
(30:18):
the group. This is Cheryl Dives. We've been emailing back
and forth as I have with all of you, and
Cheryl does this with these predators. And she said, my glad,
I have to correct you, just so you know you're
welcome to call me Cheryl Dives. But my actual name
is Cheryl, and I'm not going to say it because
she had an author of my actual name is Cheryl this.
(30:38):
I said, what was that your maiden name? And she said, no,
I dive. I go on diving expeditions. I'm an active person.
I dive all over the world. So her email is
Cheryl Dives that whatever it is, everyone's Internet evy one whatever,
And I thought it was the funnest thing in the world.
So today this morning, Emily is out picking up checks
(31:02):
and she'll send me a photo when she gets to
people gets a check and she sends me a photo.
She's gone to see Cheryl Dives, who her name now
has become Cheryl Dives. That's the running joke. And it's
a picture of Cheryl wearing one of those like a
fireman's glove, and she's got what's called a Harrison's hawk
on it. And Emily doesn't know what to do because
(31:25):
she's a little skittish around crazy animals like that. But
this woman, I don't know how old she is. I'm
not going to guess that's a bad idea. But this woman,
this is a tough woman. She's got this predator bird
on her arm, and this is the thing. She's got
a place somewhere down near like Baycliff, and it's I
don't know, twenty to forty acres and they all live
(31:49):
there under her protective safety. And I've been supposed to
go forever. You want to go with me? Ramon. What's
that restaurant that Ray Brier's likes him? Is it Pier six?
We should go there. Ray always pays, so let's make
sure we bring Ray. He's good about that. I want
to see all these predator birds, you know, there's too
(32:11):
much touching feeling, oh in that cute. I want to
see something that's just Nature's got something that's nature, that's nature?
All right. If there is somebody in your life that
your mere presence, you don't have to spend a penny
your mere presence, And maybe it's just a phone call.
I know they get on your nerves. That's what moms
and dads when they get old. Dude, I know your
(32:32):
kids upset you. They're not living the lives you want
them too. They're not with the person you want them to.
They're not going to the school you want them to,
not pursuing the career you want them to. They's still
your child and you love them. I want you to.
I want you to change your countenance. Take a deep breath,
Oh happy day, put on a good attitude call and
have a good conversation and don't let them ruin that
make it special for that person.
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