The WOR Saturday Morning Show with Larry Mendte - - 05 - 11 - 2024

Episode Transcript

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This is a podcast from wor Nowthe wr Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry
Minty. Welcome to Saturday Morning.On today's show, South Dakota Governor Christy
nom hasn't quite been able to recoverfrom excerpts from her upcoming book where she
details how she shot a dog todeath on her farm. We'll talk with

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South Dakota columnists Seth Tupper from SouthDakota's Searchlight about how this is all playing
out in her home state. Also, New York firefighters, our heroes see
and experience the unimaginable and that takesa toll on their mental health. Luckily,
the organization Friends of Firefighters is herefor them. We'll talk with its

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founder and executive director, Nancy Carbone. That's all still ahead, but first
a look back at the week thatwas. Mayor Adams is upset the Columbia
University is not having a university widecommencement ceremony for seniors because of pro Palestinian
protesters. I believe they should.It's a wonderful experience to graduate from an

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institution, and I don't think weshould allow anything to get in our normal
way of life. We will doour job and if the institutions decide to
graduate their students to celebrate a beautifulexperience with their families, we will make
sure it is done in a peacefulmanner. Is it just me? Or
is mayor Adams suddenly starting to makea lot of sense. The protesters also

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tried to disrupt the met gala wherethey're having a gala where people are being
killed in Gaza. We have tostand up, and that's what we're doing.
There's not going to be any silence. The NYPD kept the protesters far
away and arrested dozens of them,and it took long enough, but President
Biden finally spoke up and condemned antiSemitism. With that equivocation, too many

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people denying, downplaying, rationalize andignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October
seventh, including Hamas is appauling useof sexual violence to torture and terrorized yous.
It's absolutely despicable and it must stop. It was a great speech,

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but it turned out to be hollowbecause he quickly turned around and announced that
he is withholding thirty five hundred precisionbombs from Israel because of their goal to
rid Palestine of Hamas is going totake them into the city of Raffa.
I made it clear that if theygo into Raffa, they haven't gone on

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Raffa yet. They go into Raffa, I'm not supplying the weapons that have
been used historically to deal with Raffa, to deal with the cities to deal
with that problem. President Biden wouldnot be doing this if he wasn't worried
about the Arab American vote in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and the vote
of all young Americans. He's doingthis for politics. But what is truly

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embarrassing is that New York Senator andSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest
ranking Jewish office holder in the country, is supporting Biden over Israel. I
believe that Israel and America have anarm plad relationship, and I have faith

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in what the Biden administration is doing. Shame on him. Remember this.
New York City Schools Chancellor David Bankstestified in Congress about anti Semitism in New
York schools. Keeping school safe isin my DNA. When anti Semitism rears
its head, I believe we mustrespond and we have At issue is the

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number of public school administrators who werenot fired for promoting hate. The one
woman crusade by Marjorie tail Green toOutspeaker Mike Johnson because he approved arms to
Ukraine and Israel failed miserably this week, with Democrats and Republicans voting overwhelmingly to

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keep Johnson. I appreciate the showof confidence from my colleagues to defeat this
misguided effort. That is certainly whatit was. This infighting should never make
it to the House floor. It'sembarrassing. Also embarrassing Judge Wan murchan who
is overseeing the Trump campaign bookkeeping trialin Manhattan, and he let a porn

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actress take over his courtroom spewing salaciousdetails unrelated to any crime. I'm innocent,
and I'm being held in this courtwith a corrupt judge who slowly conflicted.
Take a look at his conflict.It's a disgrace to the city of
New York, to the State ofNew York, and to the country.

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There are two attorneys on the jury. They follow the law because if they
do, this is a mistrial,which is what should happen. And that's
the week that was still to come. South Dakota Governor Christy Noam was a
front runner to join Donald Trump onthe Republican ticket as the vice presidential candidate,

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not anymore. After admitting that sheshot a dog because it wouldn't behave
how's that playing in her home state. We'll find out when we speak with
South Dakota columnist Seth Tupper. That'snext Morning Show with Larry Minty. Welcome
back. If you were a politiciana story that you killed a puppy because

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it was acting up, it's notsomething you normally want people to know about.
But South Dakota Governor Christy Noam putthat story in her book. She
is getting steward by the media andlate night comedians, But how is this
story playing in her home state?For that, we talk with columnists Seth

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Tupper from South Dakota Searchlight. Seth, thanks so much for joining us.
Look, I want to start withI guess the obvious question. What was
Governor Christy Noam thinking? Did shethink this story of her shooting a dog
would be a good thing, thatit would somehow help her? I think
so. Yes. You know,Governor Noam, she has a previous book

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that she wrote that didn't give muchattention. But you know, she grew
up. She was a farm ruraland she kind of idolized her father and
compared him to John Wayne. Andshe has this sort of you know,
rough and tough Western mentality that youknow, you do what you got to
do, and you don't put offdecisions and you know, very pro Second

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Amendment all of that. And youknow, and as you may have seen
in some of the what some peoplehave been calling the humiliation to her,
she's been on where she went anddid a lot of interviews in the last
few days for her book. Shereally defended and said that the reason she
put the story in the book wasbecause she wanted people to know that she
can make the tough decisions and shedoesn't shy away from her responsibilities. And

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so I think she honestly and apparentlystill believes it should have helped her.
Yeah, I'm glad you brought upthe media to her, because it does
seem the more she talked, theworse it got, and she also seemed
to change her defense many times.Is that right? Well, yeah,

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I mean you would think, youknow, when you're digging the hole,
you know, just put down theshovel, But that's that's not really in
her nature, you know, She'ssomebody who goes at things full tilt and
doesn't back down, and they Ithink the more you challenge her, the
more she wants to rise to thechallenge, which obviously did not work in
her favor in this in this instance. But you know, she did.

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She did kind of her story,She did kind of add some things to
her answers as time went on.We did a story the other day that
as she did these interviews, shestarted saying that claiming that everybody in South
Dakota already knew this dog story becauseher political opponents had been using it against
her for years and in South Dakotain journalistic and political circles. The response

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was, what you know, Imean, there are some people who had
heard this rumor about this dog,and it was kind of this weird sort
of rumor that went around in thebackground, But I don't know anybody who
ever saw that this had ever beenreported, that it had ever been used
in a political campaign. And wecalled a lot of her former political opponents
and they said they'd never even heardthe story before. So she was kind

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of backed into a corner. Andthere were some different stories and things that
came out as she tried to defendherself. I like the headline of one
of your stories, it said,what about the goat, because nobody talks
about the goat. She shot agoat too, right, right, and
that was when this all broke.You know, of course, everybody understandably
focused on the dog, because youknow, so many people had a dog,

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had a relationship with the dog,and everybody felt sympathy for this dog.
But you know, in the book, she tells the story of taking
her dog to the gravel pit andshooting it, and then she says,
she's walking back into the farmyard andshe sees this billy goat, And as
I noted in my commentary, apparentlythe goat's only sin in that moment was

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being in the governor's field of viewwhile she was very angry. And I
say the governor. She wasn't thegovernor back then, but anyway, anyway,
right, she had a gun andthat was the gun, right,
and she had been mad at thegoat for it had been chasing her children
around, and she said, it'snot bad. But again, in that
instance, I mean, the onlything you can take away from reading the

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book is that she was in sucha state of anger, or maybe even
such a state of rage that shejust decides, Okay, I'm going to
shoot this goat too, And thenshe takes the goat to the gravel pit
and shoots it. By her ownaccount, the goat jumps when she shoots,
and apparently she only wounds it.She has to go back to her
pickup for another shell, come backand shoot the goat again. And so
I said, so that was mycommentary with saying, you know, it's

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all disturbing, but the goat storyis extra disturbing. And they led you
to believe, you know, we'rein New York, you're in South Dakota.
They led you to believe that you'reonly upset with this story because you're
in New York or you're an EastCoaster, or that this is something that
happens in South Dakota. Please tellme this isn't something that happens normally in

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South Dakota, not the way shedescribed it going down. And you know,
certainly I would say that, youknow, somebody in a rural area
maybe isn't going to be offended abouta story about putting a dog down as
somebody in an urban area. Butthere's a big difference between humanly euthanizing a
dog because it you know, maybeit attacked a bunch of people or something,

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and you know, getting angry takingthe dog out through a gravel bit
and shooting it. You know,and certainly everybody recognizes that, you know,
she could have maybe taken the dogto a shelter and you know,
you know, given it so kindof chance at a different kind of life
other than being a hunting dog orbeing around you know, chickens that had
had attacked or whatever. So soyeah, I mean, certainly there's there's

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a different kind of reaction urban rural, but you know there's a universal this
wasn't the best way to handle thisside of reaction, I think even we
have in South Dakota. We're talkingwith Seth Tupper, columnists for South Dakota
search Light. It seems that ChristyGnome is no longer in the running for
Donald Trump's running mate because of thisstory. It's not playing well nationally,

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as you've pointed out. How aboutin South Dakota though? Does she still
have support there? How is shedoing there? Well, that's what's really
interesting. She's governor for two moreyears and then she's turn limited, and
so you know, there are alot of people say, oh, she
ruined her career, but I'm notso sure about that. You know,
Number one, this is a veryRepublican leaning state. So you know,

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there isn't really any Democrat with anyname recognition or standing who's out there using
this against right now within the state. And she has the next two years
to you know, sort of retreat, lick her wounds, and figure out
what to do next. I wouldstill leave open the possibility that she could
get a job in a Trump administration, even if she's not the running mate.
If he wins, I don't thinkthat's out of the question. You

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know, Donald Trump is a guywe've seen that could appoint her to a
job in the administration just to geta rise out of people. Yeah right,
yeah, what would she get NationalAnimal Control? Well you never know,
but you know it's been rumored maybeSecretary of Agriculture, you know,
something like that, with their farmbackground. But you know, or you

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know, if he doesn't win,that doesn't happen. You know, there
will have a US Senate race intwenty twenty six which the sender currently holds.
That job will be in his inhis seventies by then, whatever he
decides could open an avenue for herto run for Senate. And you know,
whatever has happened here, certainly there'sa lot of people in South Kota
who agree with her on a policylevel, even if they're sort of bewildered

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and not really knowing right now whatto make of everything that's been going on
in the last few days. Now. She also claimed in the book,
there's so much in there that shemet with North Korean President Kim Jong un
would She now admits she didn't.She was forced to admit at that point
that there were errors in the book. That's a big error. Is it
possible that she didn't know what wasin the book and it was all written

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by a ghostwriter? Well, thisto me, yeah, that's the question
we want answered. And I wrotea commentary specifically on this. I mean,
she really owes it, I think, to the people of South Dakota
to give an explanation, which shehas not given. You know, she's
taken, in her humiliation to herto just saying, you know, when
it was brought to my attention,we removed it from the book. And

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you know, when people press her, she says, I don't talk about
my conversations with world leaders, whichjust leaves you scratching your head. I
mean, there's only two possibilities.Either she made up the story and put
it in the book and didn't thinkanybody would catch her, or she was
so disengaged from the process of aghostwriter writing her book that she never did
she didn't know what was in it, and that doesn't hold up because it's

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been pointed out many times prior toall this controversy. She posted social media
videos of herself narrating the audiobook,so presumably she knew what was in the
book. So so we don't know, like, how did this get in
the book? And she's never explainedthat and it doesn't look like she ever
will. But in South Dakota,it would be really nice to get an
explanation of just this is a politicianwho preaches a lot of personal responsibility and

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you know, taking responsibility for yourown actions. And Okay, so a
lot of us are are here askingwhy don't you do that and tell us
how this happened. Yeah, no, that's that's a great point. Look,
I really enjoyed your columns. Ifpeople do want to read them,
where do they go just go toSouth Dakota Searchlight. You can find them
there and we have a commentary tabon the homepage. And then we yeah

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also have if you find any ofour Christine home content, a lot of
it's linked together anytime you find it, so you can read all our work
there. That's wonderful. Again,this is Seth Tupper, columnist for the
South Dakota search Light. Thank youvery much. I really enjoyed talking to
you. Thanks for having me.Seth Copper, columnists for South Dakota search
Light. Still to come on SaturdayMorning. Friends of Firefighters, the charity

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is there for city firefighters suffering mentalhealth problems because of the job. We'll
talk with its founder, Nancy Carbone, will tell you how you can help
the city's firefighters who are dealing withmental health problems. Now more of the
wor Saturday Morning Show and Larry Minty, welcome back to Saturday Morning. Just

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imagine the strain, the stress,the high anxiety of being a city firefighter.
They save lives, but who's therefor them when they suffer from mental
illness because of the job. Theanswer Friends of Firefighters, a nonprofit founded
by Nancy Carbone, who serves nowas its executive director. Nancy, thank

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you so much for joining us.The birth of Friends of Firefighters, I
think is an important story to tellbecause your organization rose up out of unspeakable
tragedy. Could you please explain.I think the best way to describe Friends
of Firefighters beginning is to say itwas a response to a disaster and we

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all came together. But what happenedwas right after nine to eleven I did
visit some firehouses and over a fewweeks and then months, became close with
them by giving them the things thatthey needed at the time. Later in
two thousand and one, close toChristmas time, I was asked to open
a counseling center outside of the firedepartment so that the firefighters could go there

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to talk. And that has growntremendously over the past twenty three years.
So it was our beginning. Sothe counseling center that you set up and
the stories you heard from the firefighters, that's what gave you the idea to
grow this bigger and deal with mentalhealth. I would love to say I
was so brilliant, but to bedrank, the firefighters esked. They asked

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me to do it. It wasn'tan idea that I had. It was
a request from the firefighters. Theytrusted me and they asked me to build
this. But it grew exponentially.More people kept coming and I thought,
oh, well, this will lasta year, two years, maybe three
years. But they kept coming,and now we have a tremendous amount of
firefighters coming for help. Are Weactually have grown three hundred and seven percent

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since twenty eighteen. In twenty twentywe had three counselors. Now we have
ten, and we're hiring more.So it has grown tremendously. It's important
to people to realize, and Ithink they get it from what you just
said. The fact that you keepgrowing is that as traumatic as nine to
eleven was, firefighters deal with awfulsituations and horrible images as part of the

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job all the time. And thatwas a toll in twenty eleven, but
it still is in twenty twenty four. What are some of the mental health
problems firefighters deal with as a resultof the job. We're seeing Anxiety PTS
is sometimes it's a response to somethingthat's absolutely unnatural, hard to get your

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head around. As you said,it's a very dangerous job. They witnessed
horrific events. They are the onesthat go in to save us, so
it's difficult for them to ask forhelp. But we're seeing marital issues,
we're seeing sleeplessness, anger issues,substance abuse, and I always feel that
we are successful when we get thosephone calls from firefighters saying to the steps,

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you save my life. Actually they'resaving their own lives. We're giving
them the tools. You know,it's funny you said that because you have
a quote on your website and Iurge people to visit the side friendsoffirefighters dot
org and it reads, I wouldn'tbe here today if it wasn't for friends
of Firefighters. Where does that quotecome from? That was an officer I

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of course can't give his name.But we get letters and we get phone
calls from grateful clients. I'll callthem that they or their spouse or their
children have come for help, andwe help them by giving them the tools
to move forward and how they canhandle these situations that arise. Sometimes it

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isn't the firefighter themselves, Sometimes it'sthe spouse, sometimes it's their children.
It's a dangerous job, but ofcourse we all know the impact you know
that COVID had on the world,but our first responders were right there,
right there in the front lines,oftentimes very fearful of bringing the virus home,
which they did unfortunately in some cases. So the reality is that the

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reality is that this will always bea dangerous job. There will always be
pressures, but those come home withthe first responders, and what we're trying
to do is equip them with thetools to process the things that they see
in a safe environment where they knowit's confidential, it isn't attached to their
job, it's free, and that'san important thing too. I've really focused

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on taking all the barriers away.So we operate out of an old firehouse
in Brooklyn that the firefighters themselves cameoff duty to build out and restore it
back to its original the firehouse feel. But in doing that we really did
give them their own sanctuary. Wealso do virtual sessions and that's important to

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know as well. You know,you made me think of the fact that
a firefighter by trade is supposed tosave lives, but when they suffer,
who saves their lives? And Iwould imagine your agree. That's where Friends
of Firefighters comes in. Yeah,And you know that's I always get a

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little bit. I guess the wordis uncomfortable when I hear the comparison,
because they're saving lives by putting theirson the line. We're saving lives by
giving them the tools to process whatthey're seeing, what they're doing, and
how it impacts them and their families. So it's not that we put ourselves
in danger. So that comparison forme is uncomfortable. However, yes,
we do give them the tools tosave their own lives, and that's really

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important to note because they do thework, but we guide them. We're
talking with Nancy Carbone, the founderand executive director of Friends of Firefighters.
When do you move in? Imean, is it when you get a
call from the firefighter. Can youget a call from their family, can
you get a call from a colleague, or does it have to be from
the firefighters themselves. I'm smiling asyou're enlisting all of that. The answer

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is yes, it could be anyof them. However, we want the
firefighter or the spouse to call,and they've, of course the parents who
call on behalf of the child.When we get a situation where somebody's called
going in because there's a problem.We really do encourage the member themselves to
call. Part of that is that'spart of the beginning of the process of
getting the help is recognizing it enoughto pick up the phone. We have

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had several instances where firefighters will bringanother firefighter in in hope that that firefighter
will get counseling. So we dohave opportunities for people to come for a
breakfast or presentation. We do educationalpresentations on a monthly basis, and those
are opportunities for firefighters to come inand say, oh, Okay, this
is comfortable, this feels like home. I think I can go ahead and

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get counseling here. So we tryto just demystify the process and take away
the stigma. And finally, Nancy, I guess maybe this is the most
important question, or one of themost important questions. How can people help?
Please? Please please consider giving tous so that we can meet the
need. We're hiring counselors, andof course we meet the funding. And

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I think that the other things wedo events during the year, we do
oftentimes as pro volunteers, but primarilywe need help. We need funding to
continue what we're doing. We arenot only successful, we are growing,
and so you know we're Sometimes theysay it's a victim of your own successes.
I don't see it that way.What I see is that we are

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being benefits from first responders getting thehelp they need, and we need to
grow to meet that need because theworst thing we can do is say sorry,
we don't have somebody to help you, because for a first responder to
ask for help, it's already inMay day when they're calling you, and
the best way to get a holdof you is it Friendsoffirefighters dot Org.
Yes, okay, I'll give theaddress at the end of the show as

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well. Thank you so much foryour time, Nancy, Thank you and
thank you for having me on.I appreciate it. Nancy Carbone, founder
and executive director of Friends of Firefighters. When we come back, some final
thoughts protest deja voux and how itcould ruin Biden's presidency. When Saturday Morning
continues, here's Larry Minty with moreof the WOOR Saturday Morning Show and now

(24:04):
some final thoughts. What is passedhis prologue is the brilliant line from William
Shakespeare. It means that the pastsets context for the future, and sometimes
history even repeats itself. You're listeningto the sounds of an anti war protest

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at Columbia University at Defense Department Venturethe cooperates the university and the studies of
kill and overkill that has resulted inthe slaughter and maiming of thousands of Vietnamese
and Americans. The protesters took controlof buildings to protest the war in Vietnam

(24:56):
in nineteen sixty eight, free probateby fifty six years later, protesters again
take control of a building at ColumbiaUniversity, again to protest America's involvement in
a foreign war. And just likein nineteen sixty eight, those protests spread

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across the country and just kept gettingworse and worse. The protest, the
war, and high inflation made AmericanPresident Lyndon Johnson become deeply unpopular, so
unpopular that on March thirty first,nineteen sixty eight, he addressed the nation,

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I shall not see and I willnot accept denomination of my party for
another term as your president. InAugust nineteen sixty eight, Vice President Hubert
Humphrey would become the Democratic Party's presidentnominee at the Convention in Chicago, while

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the protest outside turned violent. Clubswere swinging, men were hit on the
head, men were arrested. Thisis what happens when people charge a police
line. There were hundreds of injuriesand hundreds of arrests as the protests played
out on television for the world tosee. What's passed is prologue. The

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Democratic Convention this August will be inChicago, Illinois. There have already been
protest in the streets there and theyplan to be there again for the August
convention. If Biden lose the election, the only people responsible are the Democrats
for allowing for allowing this genocide tohappen. The city of Chicago is planning

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to try and keep those protesters asfar away from the convention as possible.
The protest the groups are suing tomake certain that doesn't happen. In the
meantime, protests continue across the countrywith no signs of slowing down as they
play out on national TV. Thathas a profound effect in the polls as

(27:17):
Biden loses support among a group hewas counting on, young voters. Do
you plan on voting for him inNovember? I don't know. Sixty percent
of young voters say they oppose morefunding and military aid to Israel. And
it's not just the young, itis Arab Americans who make up a big
part of the voting block in theswing states of Wisconsin and Michigan. In

(27:41):
twenty twenty, Biden won that groupby seventy percent. Now the majority says
they won't vote for either Biden orTrump. We're gonna go vote, but
we're gonna keep the top of theticket empty. You would skip voting for
president in twenty twenty four, Yes, even if it meant Donald Trump might
win the presidency. If you wereto tell me that my vote would be

(28:03):
the vote whether Biden wins in Michiganor not, I will still not vote
for Biden. It's that much ofan issue for you. Yeah, my
people dying is that much of anissue for me. The possibility of losing
large groups of Democratic voters worry longtimeDemocratic politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders. I
am thinking back and other people aremaking this reference that this may be Biden's

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Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson, in manyrespects was a very very good president domestically,
brought forth some major pieces of legislation. He chose not to run in
sixty eight because of opposition to hisviews on Vietnam, and I worry very
much that President Biden is putting himselfin a position where he is alienated not

(28:56):
just young people, but a lotof the Democratic base. But Biden will
not drop out of the race likeLyndon Johnson did. Biden has been a
politician for five decades and has runfor president four times. He would do
anything to stay in the White House, including turning his back on one of
our strongest allies just as they areabout to win the war by invading the

(29:22):
last Hamas stronghold of Raffa. Imade it clear that if they go into
Raffa, they haven't gone on Raffayet. If they go into Rafa,
I'm not supplying the weapons that havebeen used historically to deal with Raffa,
to deal with the cities, todeal with that problem. Biden is stopping
the shipment of thirty five hundred precisiontactical bombs. He is doing this after

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he promised his full, unwavering supportfor Israel after the October seventh terrorist attack.
We must be crystal clear we standwith Israel. We stand with Israel,
that is, until it becomes politicallyunpopular among key demographic groups to stand

(30:07):
with Israel. Then he won't.Then he'll turn his back on Israel and
the five American hostages still held byHamas like he is doing right now.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton explains the consequencesof Biden's actions. Hamas's leaders and its
last four battalions are hold up inRafa, so Israel has to defeat Hamas

(30:30):
in Rafa to win. Hamas winsif it survives in Rafa, and Joe
Biden has threatened to withhold weapons fromIsrael for fighting in Rafa. Therefore,
Joe Biden objectively favors a Hamas victoryover Israel. Israel has now said it's
going into Rafa with or without Americansupport. Biden just looks like a week

(30:55):
leader who will take back his promiseand turn his back on America's allies and
the irony is America protesters will stillblame him for what happens in Rafa now
and in August in Chicago three threethous time because past his prologue that wraps

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up Saturday morning, the website onceagain to learn more about Friends of firefighters
or contribute is friendsoffirefighters dot org.Hope you have a great weekend. I'll
be back Monday morning with Len Burmanand Michael Rito in the morning from six
to ten. This has been apodcast from woor