May 10, 2024 • 53 mins
Alex talks with Sean, who is running for Ashland, KY City Commissioner, bringing up a trove of sensitive topics. While also discussing the issues at hand for the City of Ashland and challenges for Appalachia as a whole. Not only do they discuss politics and why it's such a sensitive subject, but also religion and it's role in politics. As well as, several other issues that not only Ashland faces, but many cities across The United States, like; housing and homelessness, addiction, jobs and the economy, industries changing or leaving cities/towns, and how all those things impact our daily lives. Alex and Sean dive into the nitty gritty about the LGBTQ communties role in both politics and religion and how that may be percieved from different point of views. This episode is the epiotme of sensitive topics and you don't want to miss it!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Hey everyone, this is Alex withIt's sensitive. I'm here today with Sean
Farrington, who is actually running forAshland City Commissioner here in the city of
Ashland, Kentucky, and we're hereto talk about a super sensitive subject called
politics. So, Sean, doyou want to give us like a quick
(00:32):
summary of you and your background andwe can kind of dig into some nitty
gritty issues. Sure, absolutely so. Hey guys, my name is Sean
Farrington again, running for Ashland CityCommissioner here in Ashland, Kentucky. And
I grew up here in Boyd County. I love love this city. I
(00:55):
bought my house here about two yearsago. But I have been Eastern Kentucky
born and bred. I grew uphere and Boyd and you know, I
decided to stick around here and Iwanted to make some change to my home
city, my home, my homestate. Let's see some background information on
(01:17):
me. I work in mental health. I am a mental health counselor for
a very large mental health agency herethat serves the northeastern portion of the state.
I have been working there for goingon seven years now. I love
mental health, getting into the nittygritty of the human mind and really just
(01:40):
being that person that can help thesefolks achieve their goals and be the best
versions of who they are. I'mawesome, awesome, Yeah, go ahead,
let's see. I am a Pescapelion, I'm a Christian, and I'm
very involved in my church. Iserved on the governing board for the church
(02:04):
for the better part of the lastdecade. I served two non consecutive three
year terms. I was also inleadership for that year. I went off
and I was the vice president forthe Executive Council for the episcopal Diocese of
Lexington, was number two in allof the diocese, just underneath the bishop.
(02:25):
And this is where a lot ofmy leadership kind of skills come into
play. And this all ties backinto wanted to help folks and this kind
this kind of pushed me into politicsbecause this seems like the next natural step
to really make some change from people'slives. I was about to say,
(02:45):
religion can be very difficult to navigateat times, especially in today's day and
age, and is even more soin leadership rules. Right, So it's
going to say, ironically, Ifeel like it's setting you up for politics
ultimately. Whether we can consider thatfortune or unfortunate that religion and politics cross
(03:07):
so much, but they're both verypolarized issues. Absolutely, that is true.
You know, I am called bymy faith to serve others, you
know, to treat people as Iwould treat them, you know, the
Golden rule. And it's not justone party that gets to use Jesus.
(03:30):
The other party can as well.And now I am running nonpartisans, so
we'll say that. But my personalviews, I'm very liberal. I'm definitely
on the progressive side of things,and that's all good. But again,
not running as a Democrat or Republican. But my political ideology is definitely more
(03:54):
left and that's okay. Absolutely,But being in rural Appalachia, excuse me,
sorry, I'm gonna cough a lotthat's gonna happen. I don't know
why. It's well, j Season, part of it is you just got
done door knocking, right, Soyeah, I did like a marathon outside
(04:15):
and came in here to record recorda podcast. So yeah, the last
two hours I've been walking all overAshland with my team of folks, talking
to folks. I and I getmy name out there, trying to get
you know, people to say,yeah, I'm going to put sean.
So it's been it's been a goodafternoon. Yeah, that's awesome. You
know, I'm glad you brought upa couple of things here. First of
(04:41):
all, so I'm located in Columbus, Ohio, and for those of the
you listening to the podcast I've gotten, I give them big Midwestern vibe.
But Appalachia is super important because that'spart of our Midwest. And you know,
coming down to Ashley, Kentucky froma big city like Columbus, I
noticed a big difference in how thingskind of work, right, But there's
(05:05):
a lot of similarities more than thereare differences. And the reason I say
this is because I was actually drivingdown here and I was joking with our
friend. It's like how many citycommissioners are running. There's like thirty two
signs out there for different people.There's four positions, if I'm correct,
on for the Ashland City commissioner.But I think the big thing that you're
(05:28):
speaking to today is is you you'renonpartisan for a reason because you care about
the people, right, Yes,and one of the big things facing the
Appalachian Appalachia. Sorry, my Columbusself is going to get this. It's
Okay, I was just finding mytime a little bit. It's all good.
(05:54):
Is the homeless epidemic which we're experiencingin a lot of parts of the
United States right now, and youare very educated on this topic, so
I want to hear a little bitmore from you on it as well.
Okay, yeah, absolutely. BeforeI jump into that real quick, you
were talking about this being nonpartisan andhow it's you know, going out here
(06:15):
representing the people right sure, andI was mentioning that, yes, I
do lean liberal or progressive if I'mbeing real honest, but that doesn't mean
that I'm not going to go outand serve those that are conservative because we
all share values. You know,we're not blue or red people who were
mostly purple. Okay. I wentto a very conservative event the other night
(06:40):
for the National Day of Prayer,and I had a great time and had
some wonderful conversations with people afterwards,and it was so nice. And something
else that I noticed is there wasa gentleman who was houseless, homeless there
at this event, and you hadmyself and folks that I know politically are
(07:01):
not aligned with me coming together andhelping this person, which is so powerful.
Absolutely and this is a vision Ihave for this city and hopefully what
we can do here in Ashland,we can see it trending elsewhere. Right
excuse me, but one of thebig things that I want to do is
(07:26):
look where we can get some statefunding, work with our community resource partners
or nonprofits to be able to openup a fully functional homeless shelter within the
city limits. We have one,now, it's very small. They kick
folks out during the middle of theday and that's not all right. I
like that. But what I envisionis a low barrier shelter that folks can
(07:51):
come in. It doesn't matter ifyou don't have X, y Z.
You're gonna come in. You're gonnaget a hot meal. We're going to
connect you to the resources that youneed to get youself back on your feet.
And there is a land in placeto get you off of the streets
and back up on your feet.This is what we want. Far too
long, have we just let thisentire epidemic go to the wayside? Oh
(08:15):
yeah, yeah, and we justwe turn a blind eye to it.
You know, we're in Ashland specificwe're looking a lot downtown and revitalization and
it's really nice, but we're forgettingabout this entire population of people in town
and we're just like, oh,yeah, we'll complain about them, but
we're not going to do anything toactually fix it. And the things that
(08:37):
we have in place are just bandaids. They're band aids on a bullet
wound. Absolutely we can identify withthis a little bit because for two reasons.
One, I've been gainfully employed bylarge corporations since the age of twenty,
and there have been a couple oftimes in my life that I almost
faced homelessness because, as we allhave, I've seen is the economy and
(09:03):
the cost of living versus wages,is the gaps growing larger. And I
actually posted graphical from the Bureau ofLabor Statistics showing that since nineteen eighty they
just keep growing larger and larger andlarger that gap between income and cost of
living. So being gainfully employed,I think sometimes people will be surprised how
(09:24):
many people are homeless who are working. And on the flip side of that,
I had a family member who sufferedfrom addiction and had issues with overuse
of drugs and alcohol and ended upbeing homeless, and even in a larger
city, he had a bed ata homeless shelter, but during the day
(09:46):
they were expected to be out anddoing things, and it wasn't very sustainable.
And that particular program did have someresources to help connect him to get
him back on his feet, butnot nearly as much, which just you
would think, especially being in alarger city. And so I found that
surprising because I've been guilty of beingthat person, being like, oh,
(10:11):
just go get a job, right, And sometimes that's not the issue at
all, right, And I thinkwhat you said as you hit the nail
on the head is the resources toget people back on the right track absolutely,
no matter what that might be.It's not every person that is experiencing
homelessness is experiencing addiction, right,So for those folks that are, will
(10:35):
link them up with your addiction folks, with our mental health agencies that also
cater to addiction and get them thehelp of the need there. This might
just be somebody who whereas living paycheckto paycheck because they lost their job,
or they could be a small familyliving paycheck to paycheck who now because they've
(11:01):
lost their job, they're out ontheir feet, on their butts and they're
just needing help. So they're downhere at the shelter and needing resources to
get another job, to get housing, to get whatever else they might need.
We all have these different needs.But what this will do is it'll
provide a one stop shop for everybodythat's in need. I like this idea
(11:24):
of one stop shop. This actuallycame from one of my constituents when if
we were talking about this solution tothis epidemic, and he said, yeah,
one stop shop, I think thatwould really work. I'm like,
you know what, You're right,Yeah, it is one stop shop.
So yeah, I think I agreewith that sentiment because I have a family
(11:50):
member who's on disability and she's orderbut she's still able bodied and able to
do stuff. But finding resources isdifficult, especially not somebody who's hipped to
the internet or know where to gofor it right, and being able to
physically show up somewhere to get thehelp you need. One stop shop,
I think is important. And youmentioned housing, and I think that's a
(12:13):
really big issue right now because Columbusis still considered an affordable market compared to
places like Denver and Los Angeles.But we're an up and coming city with
large companies like Intel coming in,and especially post pandemic like housing is ridiculous,
like it's three times what it wasprior to twenty twenty. And I
(12:35):
can sure as heck tell you mywages aren't three times that they were a
pre pandemic. I hear that,you know. So I think we're going
to continue to see issues with housingand all kinds of markets. Ashland's a
smaller city, so you may notbe seeing the same insane prices as Columbus,
but I'm sure it's still escalating likeit is everywhere else the house is
(13:00):
that are for sale. I candefinitely tell you that the prices have increased
over the last however many years,definitely since COVID, and I know that's
been a national trend too, Sowe're seeing it here even in our smaller
populated areas. But you were talkingwith fair housing. One of the biggest
things that we're looking at here islike Reynolds, right, Sure, this
(13:24):
huge demographic here in town. Ibelieve forty some odd percent of folks in
Ashland are renters. I might beoff with that. I'm pulling that out
of thin air right here, butthere's a nice chunk of people in the
city that are renting, and thereis no centralized way to go and see
(13:48):
who's a landlord in the city.We did have an ordinance past where they
were supposed to be on this registry, but that was recently taken up and
repealed because some landlords got mad atwhat me and an organization I'm affiliated with,
the Kentucky People's Union, are fightingfor, which is tenant's rights right,
(14:11):
and we want this registry pass.That way we can start holding these
landlords accountable. And we're not talkingabout the good landlord that's you know,
if there's something wrong with your kitchenstaining, they're going to come in and
fix it. We're talking about thosethat are blatantly ignoring places. Yes,
slum lords. One of the oneof the phrases I really like is absentee
(14:33):
landlord. Yes, yes, theone that doesn't live in the state or
in the city. There is anapartment building here in the city. I
will not name which one, butthe owners live in West Virginia, about
an hour or two away from here, and going through some of these apartments,
the ceilings are literally caving in ontop of the residents. NBC came
(14:58):
down and did a tiny little segmenton what we were doing with the Kentucky
People's Union. And you see thestate of some of these weren't all properties.
But we have nothing in place toprotect these tenants. So they could
go and they could complain to thecity, but we don't have your ALTA,
(15:18):
which is the Uniform Residential Landlord andTenants Act. I believe that's that's
it. It's a buffle, butin essence, it's a tenant's bill of
rights. And with that comes theanti retaliation stuff. There's nothing on the
books for that now, so theycan go and do that and landlord says,
(15:39):
oh, well, we don't.We no longer want you and our
property, and they don't have togive a reason, and and they're gone.
And that's not that's not okay.You know, people are living in
these terrible conditions and we have nothingthere to hold these slum lords accountable,
and that's not okay. I canspeak from the renter perspective because I've been
(16:04):
renting for the last fifteen years andI've been at a lot of different apartments,
living with people kind of situations.Currently, I'm renting a house with
a roommate. Thankfully, we founda private landlord that lives locally owns for
properties and it's not a mega corporation. But even in the larger city we
(16:26):
have the same issue because we havelandlords that live in freaking California. They
don't have any vested interests, they'rean investor, they don't really care.
And it's frustrating from a tenant's perspectivebecause I read through the lease unlike some
people, and there's so much expectedof the tenant and to your point,
you can get kicked out at anytime, but there's not anything that protects
(16:51):
you as a tenant that you're payingX many dollars a month and they're not
providing these basic services, and thenit is with your credit because you get
evicted. And in this case,like if it's a some lord situation,
truly like where you should you know, shouldn't have to be paying for something
that's not livable, but you're youare anyway, and there's no protection there,
(17:15):
right, Yeah, no protection,but yeah, you're absolutely right.
And it's the folks like in yoursituation where we want to make sure that
you have everything that you can know. I was blessed with my last rental
that I was renting. I'm ahomeowner now, but before then I was
a renner and my last landlord,I tell you what I'd recommend to him
(17:37):
to anybody. Local guy owns justa couple of places like you were talking
about with your with your person,and he took care of his property absolutely,
And those are the people I wantto fight for, and because they're
the ones whose names are getting tarnishedbeing a landlord, because you have these
slum lords out here not taking careof their places. And they're probably some
(17:59):
of them I know, at leastin the larger cities, are using shell
corporations, so you don't to findtheir actual name. You have to dig,
yes, which is why we needa registry now. Something that I
go a little bit deeper with withthat registry is having this open to the
public. Is another way too forfolks that are coming in new to this
area because we have some new industryhere. But that's another topic. But
(18:25):
if folks are relocating into Ashland,Kentucky, it is so hard to find
a rental property. Oh yeah,you gotta know somebody, or you got
to just stalk Facebook marketplace because that'syour best bet. Right now, there's
hardly anything on apartments dot Com anythinglike that. But if we get some
sort of like just centralized location forthis stuff, the property is available,
(18:48):
we have the landlord there, weknow what's up, we know what's open,
it's going to be make it somuch easier for folks relocating here and
folks that are already living here thatneed a new housing. Absolutely, I
think that's a great call out ina contrast between a larger city like Columbus
and a smaller city like Ashland.Is I was able to find my home,
(19:10):
which I didn't know was a privatelandlord, but I found it through
like Trulia or Zillo, and that'show I was finding most of my properties.
But because we're a larger city,that's more common to use those kinds
of apps, and people are alittle bit more hip to it because it's
almost a requirement in a city thatlarge, But in a city this small,
you said, Facebook marketplace like it'sthat's a hard thing to stalk and
(19:33):
try to find housing and sort throughscams and all that other stuff. Oh,
yes it is. And it havinga registry where it is ran by
us people here in the city,then that's going to knock out a lot
of that that the scam stuff,and just make it so much easier,
you know, absolutely, So,yeah, and I think you touched on
(19:56):
something interesting there when you said theindustry. I don't even know how to
start with this. So Columbus,I'm very fortunate, has a ton of
different industries coming and we're they're actuallyI've heard are seen articles where they're calling
(20:18):
Columbus like Silicon Hartland. They expectColumbus to be this huge, like central
technology hub because we have so manyresearch like we have research universities like Ohio
State, we have like Bettel thatdoes research, So Ohio has been a
hub for certain things for a longtime. But Amazon has been bringing their
servers in and then Intel's coming intodo chip building, and we already have
(20:41):
like L Brands headquartered there in Windy'sAnd so I never looked at Columbus in
that light. Right, we haveall these mega corporations there and just building
up. So I've grown with Columbus, But there's areas that aren't that fortunate.
Where I can stay in Columbus andI almost have job security because there's
so many things there to be had, whereas with rural Appalachia, that's not
(21:10):
the case. You know. Ithink we see a lot of industry is
leaving and it makes it difficult.And I think that definitely to your point.
You want people to relocate, butthe question might be what is there
to offer? Yes, well,luckily for us, we're in a pretty
good place. So what we canoffer is, well, let me give
(21:33):
you a little bit of a historylesson before when I do that. Okay,
So, being an Appalachia eastern Kentucky, primarily our biggest industry has always
been coal. So the further southyou go, the more it's coal centered.
Ashland this is we had some stripminding up here, but that wasn't
our big thing. Our big thingwas steel, so the coal will be
(21:53):
brought in, and we had abig steel plant here. And then we
also Ashland Oil was located here untilthey moved to Cincinnati, and then they
got bought up by Marathon Petroleum,and that was the whole thing. We
had good industry, and then theindustry left and this left our city on
(22:15):
its own and kind of crumbling down. And you had the good old boy
system with same old politicians in officethat really anytime that they started talking about
the future of Ashland. It wasalways turning around and looking back to the
golden years and how we're going tobring back Ashland Oil or Armco or any
(22:36):
of these other industries. And finallysome of that started to die out because
we've seen a big change in Ashland. You come across that bridge, it's
create with us and we're revitalizing everythingand we're turning more artsy. And it's
nice, and artsy isn't for everybody, and that's all right. But the
idea here is we're making an oasisin the foot of the Appalachian Mountains for
(23:02):
industries to want to relocate here,because, let's face it, any of
these industries that are looking for landto go and build their new mill or
whatever they're wanting to do, they'renot looking to relocate and have their upper
management, their CEO, or anyof their employees in the in the in
(23:26):
their building to want to live ina place where there ain't nothing to do,
right, you know, they're notgoing to move them to a place
that's literally dying, which ten yearsago Ashland looked like it was. You
know, this is a different placenow with concerts and art venues and all
these fun things going on and thisis a good place to be and even
(23:49):
venturing outside of bringing in an enticingnew industry to Ashland, this is a
place where we're living in the twentyfirst century, you know, post COVID,
where lots of folks are working fromhome. Yeah, and we have
got cheaper, cheaper homes that youcan buy. You know, we could
have nice rentals if we can getthat thing fixed. But you know,
(24:11):
relocating here, this is a beautifulpart of the country or the low cost
of living. Yeah, and youcould live like a king here making if
you're making the same type of salaryyou would and say, I don't know
San Francisco right doing something in techor even Columbus with your all's new tech
going on up there, but livingsomewhere a little bit cheaper and doing it
(24:34):
from home, and you're gonna livelike a king or a queen. And
that's just that's awesome. Yeah.So this is a new way of going
forward, and it's just getting peopleto come around to that, because I'll
tell you what. Something in Appalachiathat we have seen in time or two
(24:55):
is a lot of people mostly fromthe cities, and this is nothing gets
Columbus, but I'm going to point. I'm going to go west to Lexington
and Frankfurt, Louisville, Okay,in Kentucky and Kentucky. In case you
don't know your geography, sorry,Ashland is right where Kentucky, Ohio,
and West Virginia meet right there onthe map. And well actually technically it's
(25:17):
Caltzberg, but we're just slightly north. But I who But you have all
these people and they say, oh, we're going to come in and we're
going to do all these things forAppalachia and we're going to make sure y'all
are taking care of right. Uh, you have those people, even former
presidents who want to come down andsay we're gonna save coal. Nobody ever
says coal because the folks that ownthe coal mining and the coal mines and
(25:41):
such. No, it's cheaper tooutsource from China and these other places.
You know, they're not coming back. And that's it's sad because people are
clinging to this, and they're clingingto these outsiders coming in telling us that
they're coming in and say the day, but they're not. And you know,
our former governor had worked talked toa buddy of his. They were
(26:06):
going to build a big alumin amill here. And I'm not going to
speak ill of these people because Idon't want to get slapped with slander.
But that fell through, and wedidn't get that big alumina mill and plant,
and all those jobs gone that wecould have had. We were looking
at this as a saving grace industriesfinally coming back to Ashland. It's gone.
(26:30):
Yeah, yeah, you know,And I think the important thing with
what you're saying, right is,I know when I go to look for
a job, as like a personin the workforce, I'm not thinking why
those companies are here, how theygot here, why they're staying. Like
I said, I didn't have asay in the Columbus growing We've been very
(26:52):
fortunate that our governors for the stateof Ohio and our mayor, even though
historically the city of Columbus has beenDemocratic and our governor has been Republican for
the last several years. Like Iwould say, I'm liberal leaning as well,
but also, you know, there'ssome conservative things. I voted for
Kasik and he's considered you know,right leaning, and I don't agree with
(27:15):
all of his policies, but heis very bipartisan and That's why I liked
him as a governor, and whenhe ran for the presidency against Trump,
I had voted for him because Ilike that he's bipartisan. And the reason
we're talking about this publicly on apodcast is not to polarize stuff, but
because having these conversations and normalizing itis important. And it affects us all
(27:37):
right, because you're talking about housingand bringing companies in an industry and that
doesn't just happen on accident. Companiesdon't just accidentally show up in Columbus are
acchul And and be like, oh, we'll just hang out here. It's
because politicians are out there, andI'm gonna say, in a good world,
not a perfect world, because there'sno such thing, but a good
(28:00):
world, are out there advocating foryour city to bring in companies that are
going to help boost the economy providejobs for the workforce. You Know,
something I was thinking about is noteven just the work from home aspect,
but even if a company would comein and physically be present here, they
might have an easier time filling jobs. And in a big city in Columbus
where there's a lot of competition,absolutely, And so I think this is
(28:23):
where the politics and talking about politicsis important because as both I'm a voter
and a person in the workforce,it's important to me, I'm only thirty
three that there's still a job forme twenty years down the line where I
choose to live and you know,right now that's Columbus, But you know,
for the city of Ashland, youknow there are people who love this
(28:44):
place, or you want to bringin people who maybe want to break from
the big city, especially as thingsare expanding and you're in such that critical
tri state area. You know,it's interesting hearing the coal perspective because I
used to work for an electric carmanufacturer and a lot of the people who
bought those cars were coal advocates becauseit's technically cleaner than like gasoline, and
(29:08):
I didn't know that until I talkedto them. And now I work for
a manufacturing company that makes steel partsand they're still local to the US.
But a big fear is a JapaneseI think it's Japanese company wanted to buy
out the one of the largest manufacturersof steel in the US, called US
Steel, And you're taking all ofthis and outsourcing and it's not just applicable
(29:33):
to Ashland. I'm hearing this inColumbus, right, because that's going to
make people say it makes it cheaper. But then at some point it becomes
more expensive and we lose that workforce, we lose those jobs, we lose
you know, that entire industry.And Columbus maybe that's not so big of
a deal, but to the surroundingareas it is because I can tell you
we have car manufacturers that have stayedthere because park manufacturers are guess what,
(29:56):
park manufacturers need steal. But youknow the same thing happens to Ashland.
Right. You have one industry gowhen it impacts other industries. So bringing
in any industry is important. Right, Yes, it's funny you say that
about bringing in another and one endindustry brings in another. Right. This
is the satellite effect. Yes,yes, it's like you've got the moon,
(30:19):
which is our satellite orbiting the Earth. You've got an industry coming in.
Well, you're going to need X, Y and Z because this industry
needs X, Y and Z tobe able to produce their product. So
it's like a domino effect at thispoint, and it just keeps going and
going and going, and then you'rebringing in these new jobs and these new
(30:44):
people, and these new people aregoing to need houses, and these houses
are going to be sold or they'regoing to be rented, and then next
thing, you know, the economyis flourishing. Yes. Now here's the
thing too. I want to mention, Alex everything that we've talked about today
is nonpartisan, absolutely every bit ofthis because housing, industry, jobs,
all of this affects everybody. Itdoesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican,
(31:10):
independent, a libertarian, green Party, whatever, It all affects you,
me and everybody. And that's whyit's important to go out and have
these conversations about these political quote unquoteissues. And you know, we get
that conversation going because if we keepquiet, ain't nothing ever going to happen.
(31:33):
And we're gonna have these same peoplethat have been in leadership for years
and years and years that have donenothing but let our cities deteriorate down.
It is with good progressive forward thinkingthat we're able to march forward. And
I don't mean that like progressives andlike you know, leaving left, but
(31:56):
progressive as in just marching forward.Man. You know, quit looking back
at the past and figure out howwe're going to survive and how we're going
to thrive. And I really wantto see the city of Ashland thrive.
And I know we can. Iknow it, you know. And that's
what I love about this conversation,right is I'm involved in several community organizations
(32:20):
in the city of Columbus from avolunteer perspective. I've been on several boards
in several organizations, and I liketo think I have an impact, but
it's a huge city. The interestingthing with Ashland, and I have a
group of friends down here, whichis how I met you, is that
saying you can change the city almostfeels more realistic because it is smaller,
(32:44):
and so smaller changes are more impactfulbecause you're a smaller city. You know,
If I drop a dime in thefountain, it's super tiny, and
is I want to make a wholelot of waves. But if you drop
a bowling ball in that fountain,it makes a big wave, right And
if the fat and smaller, itmakes a bigger wave. Right, Absolutely,
And so I think it's for me. It's exciting to hear this and
(33:07):
hear about change and change is afunny subject and I'll actually talk about this
on that podcast eventually. But youknow, change in general. But as
much as we all hate change,change is inevitable, right And when you
say forward and progressive, you're notsaying it in this polarized sense of,
(33:29):
oh my god, it's because youwant me to believe what you believe.
We say it in the sense ofas humanity, we are growing together and
moving forward, in a sense thatit is productive for us because change has
already happened to us, whether weare a part of it or not.
Absolutely, you're wanting to be apart of that change. You are wanting
(33:50):
to be an advocate for that changeand help drive that change and not just
be a silent participant of it.Right. Absolutely, And that's why I
add the kate for voting is becausechange is going to happen whether you go
to that voting poll or not.At least make your voice heard right when
you go vote. And there's alot of resources even in the larger cities.
(34:10):
I know, our Secretary of Statedoes an amazing job posting links to
each of the candidates, and youknow, posting your sample ballots so you
know what's there ahead of time.But voting in every single election is important,
not just these major presidential often.You know, I work the polls
in a volunteer capacity, and it'sthese elections that are not the presidential that
(34:35):
you have, these big offices thatmatter more like the governorships, the mayorships,
the commissioners, because those have themost impact on the direct community you
are in. And if you're notout there getting your voice heard, whether
as a voter in your case runningfor commissioner, you know you're being a
passive participant to change, whether youlike it or not. Yes, a
(34:55):
couple of points to make on thatone thing that I just realize that your
listeners might not know. It's whata commissioner is. It just hit me
so for those of you that don'tknow what a commissioner is, it's like
a city councilman. Okay, perfect. So I was like, wait a
minute, No, we didn't discussthat. Oops. So we do a
(35:17):
city commission style of government here.What that means is we still have a
mayor, but our mayor is morelike a person on the commission. They're
leading the commissions. There's five people, but four commissioners, and we hire
a city manager that does all ofthe day to day stuff for the city
(35:37):
runs the city. Okay, sothe mayor isn't this all powerful? Hello,
And we're you know, one bigbranch of this city government and it's
not like that. It's more ofa team approach and it works well for
us here. So that's awesome.So that was one point I was gonna
make. But something else too thatyou had mentioned is like the these smaller
(36:04):
races being so important. Yeah right, so yeah, whoever the president is
is going to affect me just likeit's gonna affect everybody else. Yeah,
I guess. But on a dayto day thing, No, it doesn't
matter what Biden's doing or Trump orwhoever's president. What matters is what our
(36:27):
city commissioners are doing to bring anindustry to town. What are let's see,
our county commissioners, what they're doingfor the entire county, right and
all these other smaller local ones.And then even on a state level,
you know, like what our governor'sbeen doing. Governor Andy Basheer has been
bringing in stuff to eastern Kentucky.He's been showing up like no one else
(36:50):
ever has. Because I'll be honestwith you, there's a thing we call
the Winchester Wall everything east of Winchester, Kentucky. Nobody gives a crap about.
Wow, it's always been a thing. And Andy has shown up here
he is, especially when we hadthe flooding down in southern southeastern Kentucky and
(37:13):
made sure that funding got sent downthere to help rebuild and he was there
for the folks. And I don'tknow, I'm real grateful for the leadership
we've had the last four years.And so it's Boy County because we voted
for him again, and I willsay that but anyhow, but yes,
(37:35):
So it's these types of elections thatare important because it's literally affecting us,
you know, and people want tojust write them off because it's not the
big, sexy, you know,national presidential election of oh lah lah.
But I'd say it's even more importantto focus on these local elections because it's
(37:58):
our local communities. It's a statehere, it's our own state, that's
a state state here, and that'swhy it's important. Absolutely. I think
that's a good call to acknowledge thatyou've seen your politicians out and about and
that you appreciate that. Because Ifeel like politicians, as much as we
love to hate them, maybeing oneof them. You know, do do
(38:22):
do do good things at times,and it's easy to have a black and
white mentality in the sense of it'sall good or all bad, good and
evil. And I've never met anybodyin my entire life who is all one
or the other. And so whenwe villainize people or put them on a
(38:44):
pedestal in this heroic standpoint that theycan do no wrong, I think that's
where we get this polarization with ourpolitics, right is we hear these messages
the other side is all bad,the other side is all good, whatever,
and then we miss that noise createsthat like environment where we miss what's
actually going on, you know,miss the forest for the trees. Yeah,
(39:07):
yeah, yeah, you know.And I think that's why it's important
to normalize conversations around politics and havethese conversations again, I don't need to
argue with you about who's president andthese weird polarizations and who's the evil doer
like, because that's not real life. It's it's real life, but it's
not. And you know, algorithmson the Internet is convincing us it is.
(39:29):
The real stuff is what you andI just talked about absolutely, and
that's what's affecting us, you know. And one of the things that I've
always admired about you is that you'reengaged in religion and you're working in politics,
but you're also openly gay. Andthe reason I bring this up is
we're in May, we're approaching Pridemonths, so you may sense some themes,
(39:53):
but being a part of the communityis difficult. But I think this
is a good example of if youhave everything you've heard of until right now
on this podcast, you love aboutSean, why does it matter if he's
gay or not? And I thinkpeople love to say, well, if
you're gay, you're not religious,and that's the exact opposite with you.
(40:15):
And that's something that you're is it, Diocey diaceis? Yeah, you're good
the dice. They're going to comefor me. Now. I'll make sure
the bishop gives you a personal call. Okay. Thanks. You know,
have been understanding and accepting of becauseyou were there for the religion. You
(40:36):
are there to do good. AndI think it's important when we're talking about
people. Is as much as welove to use labels, and I just
used a label, you know,those labels don't define all of us.
Right, It's funny you talk onthat too. So something that I say
a lot is I'm not a gayChristian. I'm a Christian who happens to
(41:00):
be gay, right, Yeah,And I say that because I am not.
I am not out there wanting thechurch to have rainbow Pride flags hanging
outside during Pride Month, because thechurch is a holy place outside of the
secular world and this we're here forGod, Okay. Yeah. And now
(41:23):
that's not to say that we can'tshow up Pride, you know, that's
a whole different conversation than we do. But whenever it comes to labels like
that, whenever I'm in church,I am there as a believer in God,
as a Christian. It just happensto love differently, That's all right.
(41:46):
We'll I have in our own personalcalling to the Lord, and some
of us don't. And that's allright too. Like I tell my folks
here in the city of Ashland,we have Christians, we have we have
Jewish folks, we have folks thatare Muslims. We have folks that,
yes, even in Ashland, Kentucky, we do. And we have folks
(42:07):
that are atheists and agnostic and folksthat are pagans, And that's all right,
because again this is America, gostronit and you have that freedom to
practice whatever religion you believe. AndI'm gonna be very honest, it's not
(42:29):
always been easy being a Christian whohappens to be gay, especially in Ashland.
As you and I were talking beforethe podcast about Pride last year,
right, yeah, and you knowI opened Pride. I was of v
MC and I opened the Pride eventin prayer and that was pretty cool.
(42:52):
I love that I tick some peopleoff, That's okay. You know,
I think that polarization, that religioncan't be part of Pride or the OTBTQ
community or vice versa, or can'tbe part of politics, those polarizations in
my mind, and just for theaudience, if you're not sure what polarization
(43:14):
means, because the news has beenusing it excessively, is it means you're
pushing it to one far into thespectrum or another that black and white thinking
that really must be good or eviland there's no gray in between. And
I think if you've been listening tothis podcast thus far, we're really trying
to normalize a lot of conversations toreduce this polarization because at the end of
(43:35):
the day, we're more alike thanwe're different, right, Yeah, And
I think with what you just saidis that maybe people didn't like that,
And I said, that's okay,because not everybody's gonna like everything that everybody
else does. But you weren't disrespectfulto the religion or the LGBTQ community.
So at the end of the day, so what oh, oh, no,
(44:00):
people were mad, but it wasn'tour lgbt folks. It was folks
that are a little bit more conservativethat you brought prayer to. Yes,
that I was a gay man prayingto God and praying for protesters that were
there, So that's where the storyI should have clarified on that, but
(44:21):
yeah, that's who got mad.Actually, they wrote up a story was
on the front page of the paper, and I believe the title of the
story was love over Hate, Andthey talked about me praying for the protesters,
me talking to folks about my faith, and the contrast between like the
(44:43):
message I was giving as a personof faith versus the the just hate that
was being spewed out. But I'llbe very honest with you, most people
that I know that are people offaith, doesn't matter what faith. They're
not the ones screaming. They're notthe ones out there coming into our territory
(45:05):
and screaming at us telling us weneed to repent. They're out there loving
their neighbor and that that is Christianity. That is also many other religions,
and that's all right. But again, like you were saying, we're all
some shade of purple. And evenin my own church, there are people
(45:31):
that are more conservative than I am, and that's all right. There are
folks I know they're not going tobe okay whenever I finally get married in
the church, and I get it, all right. We have two theological
different perspectives on this and that's fine, all right. Oh and for all
the for all you listeners out there, I am newly engaged just a few
(45:54):
weeks now to my beautiful fiance,Cody Blackford, and I love him with
all of my heart and I canwait to make him my husband. Congrats
Sean. I saw that on thesocial media, said I was so happy
for you. Well, but speakinginto that something also like, now,
this isn't gonna be a shpiel forthe Episcopal Church. But what I will
(46:15):
say is we're via media, we'remiddle way. And one of the most
beautiful things that I love is onSunday morning, we can be up there
kneeling side by side, black,white, gay, straight, poor,
rich, male, female, nonbinary. We are kneeling next to each
(46:37):
other as siblings in the Family ofChrist, all receiving communion together. And
that is one of the most beautifulimages that I have of church, and
all the progressive, liberal versus conservativeideology just goes out the window at that
(47:00):
point. And I love that becausewe're all together, because we're all part
of the same human family. Youknow, that's a great pool through for
religion. And I'm a spiritual personand my background in religion is interesting because
I grew up with the Nazarene church. My godfather was a pastor. Then
(47:25):
we were in the Native American community, practice Native American spiritual beliefs, and
that's how I most connected to God. But then I kind of moved away
from that. But one thing thatI personally feel strongly about is religion.
No religion is wrong, it's howyou would like to worship God right,
(47:45):
and even the lack thereof like that'syour personal choice, and I think at
the end of the day, what'simportant for me even if you are religious
or are not religious, listening tothis podcast is the underlying theme every time
I talk to people with religion orthe lgbt community. Is that word I
(48:07):
just said. Community. That's whathumans are built and made for, is
community. We are social creatures,and religion was originally built out of that
sense of community, right, Andyou know, from my perspective, if
you're building that community, even ifI don't agree with everything you're doing,
(48:29):
as long as you're doing right bypeople and not actively harming others, that's
for you to decide, right,you know. And I don't need to
be the same as you because mycommunities may be different than yours, but
some of my communities may overlap aswell. You know, we're both part
of the LGBTQ community. But Iam not a part of the Episcopalian Did
(48:50):
they say that, right, EpiscopalEpiscopal Church. I'm an Episcopalian. Okay,
everybody, it's all right. Butyou know, we you and I
still sat down here and had thisconversation. And even if we hadn't overlapped
in the LGBTQ community. I stillfeel strongly that you and I would have
still sat down and had this conversation, you know, because we're both humans
(49:16):
and we see similarly and differently onthings, and we can agree to disagree
on certain things as well, andI think it's important to normalize that conversation.
Is whether it's politics, or religionor your particular background, it's okay
(49:37):
to be different than somebody else becausethe reality is there are no two people
that are exactly the same. Absolutely. So with that being said, is
there anything else you would like toclose us out with today, Sean?
Well, yeah, there is.It's going back to what you had just
said. Right. Remember I toldyou I went to that National Day or
(50:00):
prayer. Yeah, the other day. The group of ladies that were putting
this on they are a Republican group, right. I was actually advised not
to go to this. I's toldby people not to go and this it's
mostly because these folks tend to notlike our community very much. There some
(50:22):
of them are very vocal. Andwhen you say our community, which well
LGBTQ, okay, I just wantedto clarify, Yes, sorry, folks,
there was that and and we knowwhere I lean. And I was
watching the Commissioner's meeting on my lunchbreak last week and because they live cast
(50:44):
it on YouTube and sitting there atmy desk in my office and I'm watching
it, and one of the ladiesgot up and she invited commissioners to go
and she said, this isn't justabout those of us that believe the same
way we do. This is foreverybody. Prayer is good for everyone.
And this was the Republican ladies.This is one of the Republican ladies.
And that just hit me and Iwas like, Okay, that's it.
(51:07):
I'm going. And that was myfinal, the final straw and final straw.
That was the final, Like okay, here go sean a little sign
from God. And I stuck aroundafter the event and I spoke to some
of these folks and it was Ihad some of the best conversations I've had,
(51:28):
and it was all these unifying topicslike housing in the homeless population and
everything else, like the things thatseparate us, that being gay, any
of that. It's like arguing aboutthe arrangement of the deck furniture and the
Titanic. None of that matters,okay, because we're talking about the things
(51:49):
that actually matter that you know aregoing to affect both of us as people
here and living in Ashland. Andthat was so nice and refreshing. And
I'll tell you something, those ladieswere really welcoming with me whenever I was
there. So so with that,I'm going to end with politics doesn't have
(52:12):
to be as ugly as we seeit on the national news and on TikTok
and Facebook. Politics is us aspeople getting together and doing the right thing,
working together even with different ideas,to make sure that we are all
thriving and living our best lives andno one is being left behind. I
(52:38):
love that, Sean, thank you, thank you, and I will not
ruin it with any other horrible,weird jokes. So with that, I
would thank you everybody for listening toepisode five if it's sensitive again, we
were here today with son very torunning for Ashland City Commissioner and I will
(53:00):
see you guys on the flip side. We have a few more episodes coming
out here quickly, so I'm excitedto share this as well. Go out
there normalize it. Everyone
Hey everyone, this is Alex withIt's sensitive. I'm here today with Sean
Farrington, who is actually running forAshland City Commissioner here in the city of
Ashland, Kentucky, and we're hereto talk about a super sensitive subject called
politics. So, Sean, doyou want to give us like a quick
(00:32):
summary of you and your background andwe can kind of dig into some nitty
gritty issues. Sure, absolutely so. Hey guys, my name is Sean
Farrington again, running for Ashland CityCommissioner here in Ashland, Kentucky. And
I grew up here in Boyd County. I love love this city. I
(00:55):
bought my house here about two yearsago. But I have been Eastern Kentucky
born and bred. I grew uphere and Boyd and you know, I
decided to stick around here and Iwanted to make some change to my home
city, my home, my homestate. Let's see some background information on
(01:17):
me. I work in mental health. I am a mental health counselor for
a very large mental health agency herethat serves the northeastern portion of the state.
I have been working there for goingon seven years now. I love
mental health, getting into the nittygritty of the human mind and really just
(01:40):
being that person that can help thesefolks achieve their goals and be the best
versions of who they are. I'mawesome, awesome, Yeah, go ahead,
let's see. I am a Pescapelion, I'm a Christian, and I'm
very involved in my church. Iserved on the governing board for the church
(02:04):
for the better part of the lastdecade. I served two non consecutive three
year terms. I was also inleadership for that year. I went off
and I was the vice president forthe Executive Council for the episcopal Diocese of
Lexington, was number two in allof the diocese, just underneath the bishop.
(02:25):
And this is where a lot ofmy leadership kind of skills come into
play. And this all ties backinto wanted to help folks and this kind
this kind of pushed me into politicsbecause this seems like the next natural step
to really make some change from people'slives. I was about to say,
(02:45):
religion can be very difficult to navigateat times, especially in today's day and
age, and is even more soin leadership rules. Right, So it's
going to say, ironically, Ifeel like it's setting you up for politics
ultimately. Whether we can consider thatfortune or unfortunate that religion and politics cross
(03:07):
so much, but they're both verypolarized issues. Absolutely, that is true.
You know, I am called bymy faith to serve others, you
know, to treat people as Iwould treat them, you know, the
Golden rule. And it's not justone party that gets to use Jesus.
(03:30):
The other party can as well.And now I am running nonpartisans, so
we'll say that. But my personalviews, I'm very liberal. I'm definitely
on the progressive side of things,and that's all good. But again,
not running as a Democrat or Republican. But my political ideology is definitely more
(03:54):
left and that's okay. Absolutely,But being in rural Appalachia, excuse me,
sorry, I'm gonna cough a lotthat's gonna happen. I don't know
why. It's well, j Season, part of it is you just got
done door knocking, right, Soyeah, I did like a marathon outside
(04:15):
and came in here to record recorda podcast. So yeah, the last
two hours I've been walking all overAshland with my team of folks, talking
to folks. I and I getmy name out there, trying to get
you know, people to say,yeah, I'm going to put sean.
So it's been it's been a goodafternoon. Yeah, that's awesome. You
know, I'm glad you brought upa couple of things here. First of
(04:41):
all, so I'm located in Columbus, Ohio, and for those of the
you listening to the podcast I've gotten, I give them big Midwestern vibe.
But Appalachia is super important because that'spart of our Midwest. And you know,
coming down to Ashley, Kentucky froma big city like Columbus, I
noticed a big difference in how thingskind of work, right, But there's
(05:05):
a lot of similarities more than thereare differences. And the reason I say
this is because I was actually drivingdown here and I was joking with our
friend. It's like how many citycommissioners are running. There's like thirty two
signs out there for different people.There's four positions, if I'm correct,
on for the Ashland City commissioner.But I think the big thing that you're
(05:28):
speaking to today is is you you'renonpartisan for a reason because you care about
the people, right, Yes,and one of the big things facing the
Appalachian Appalachia. Sorry, my Columbusself is going to get this. It's
Okay, I was just finding mytime a little bit. It's all good.
(05:54):
Is the homeless epidemic which we're experiencingin a lot of parts of the
United States right now, and youare very educated on this topic, so
I want to hear a little bitmore from you on it as well.
Okay, yeah, absolutely. BeforeI jump into that real quick, you
were talking about this being nonpartisan andhow it's you know, going out here
(06:15):
representing the people right sure, andI was mentioning that, yes, I
do lean liberal or progressive if I'mbeing real honest, but that doesn't mean
that I'm not going to go outand serve those that are conservative because we
all share values. You know,we're not blue or red people who were
mostly purple. Okay. I wentto a very conservative event the other night
(06:40):
for the National Day of Prayer,and I had a great time and had
some wonderful conversations with people afterwards,and it was so nice. And something
else that I noticed is there wasa gentleman who was houseless, homeless there
at this event, and you hadmyself and folks that I know politically are
(07:01):
not aligned with me coming together andhelping this person, which is so powerful.
Absolutely and this is a vision Ihave for this city and hopefully what
we can do here in Ashland,we can see it trending elsewhere. Right
excuse me, but one of thebig things that I want to do is
(07:26):
look where we can get some statefunding, work with our community resource partners
or nonprofits to be able to openup a fully functional homeless shelter within the
city limits. We have one,now, it's very small. They kick
folks out during the middle of theday and that's not all right. I
like that. But what I envisionis a low barrier shelter that folks can
(07:51):
come in. It doesn't matter ifyou don't have X, y Z.
You're gonna come in. You're gonnaget a hot meal. We're going to
connect you to the resources that youneed to get youself back on your feet.
And there is a land in placeto get you off of the streets
and back up on your feet.This is what we want. Far too
long, have we just let thisentire epidemic go to the wayside? Oh
(08:15):
yeah, yeah, and we justwe turn a blind eye to it.
You know, we're in Ashland specificwe're looking a lot downtown and revitalization and
it's really nice, but we're forgettingabout this entire population of people in town
and we're just like, oh,yeah, we'll complain about them, but
we're not going to do anything toactually fix it. And the things that
(08:37):
we have in place are just bandaids. They're band aids on a bullet
wound. Absolutely we can identify withthis a little bit because for two reasons.
One, I've been gainfully employed bylarge corporations since the age of twenty,
and there have been a couple oftimes in my life that I almost
faced homelessness because, as we allhave, I've seen is the economy and
(09:03):
the cost of living versus wages,is the gaps growing larger. And I
actually posted graphical from the Bureau ofLabor Statistics showing that since nineteen eighty they
just keep growing larger and larger andlarger that gap between income and cost of
living. So being gainfully employed,I think sometimes people will be surprised how
(09:24):
many people are homeless who are working. And on the flip side of that,
I had a family member who sufferedfrom addiction and had issues with overuse
of drugs and alcohol and ended upbeing homeless, and even in a larger
city, he had a bed ata homeless shelter, but during the day
(09:46):
they were expected to be out anddoing things, and it wasn't very sustainable.
And that particular program did have someresources to help connect him to get
him back on his feet, butnot nearly as much, which just you
would think, especially being in alarger city. And so I found that
surprising because I've been guilty of beingthat person, being like, oh,
(10:11):
just go get a job, right, And sometimes that's not the issue at
all, right, And I thinkwhat you said as you hit the nail
on the head is the resources toget people back on the right track absolutely,
no matter what that might be.It's not every person that is experiencing
homelessness is experiencing addiction, right,So for those folks that are, will
(10:35):
link them up with your addiction folks, with our mental health agencies that also
cater to addiction and get them thehelp of the need there. This might
just be somebody who whereas living paycheckto paycheck because they lost their job,
or they could be a small familyliving paycheck to paycheck who now because they've
(11:01):
lost their job, they're out ontheir feet, on their butts and they're
just needing help. So they're downhere at the shelter and needing resources to
get another job, to get housing, to get whatever else they might need.
We all have these different needs.But what this will do is it'll
provide a one stop shop for everybodythat's in need. I like this idea
(11:24):
of one stop shop. This actuallycame from one of my constituents when if
we were talking about this solution tothis epidemic, and he said, yeah,
one stop shop, I think thatwould really work. I'm like,
you know what, You're right,Yeah, it is one stop shop.
So yeah, I think I agreewith that sentiment because I have a family
(11:50):
member who's on disability and she's orderbut she's still able bodied and able to
do stuff. But finding resources isdifficult, especially not somebody who's hipped to
the internet or know where to gofor it right, and being able to
physically show up somewhere to get thehelp you need. One stop shop,
I think is important. And youmentioned housing, and I think that's a
(12:13):
really big issue right now because Columbusis still considered an affordable market compared to
places like Denver and Los Angeles.But we're an up and coming city with
large companies like Intel coming in,and especially post pandemic like housing is ridiculous,
like it's three times what it wasprior to twenty twenty. And I
(12:35):
can sure as heck tell you mywages aren't three times that they were a
pre pandemic. I hear that,you know. So I think we're going
to continue to see issues with housingand all kinds of markets. Ashland's a
smaller city, so you may notbe seeing the same insane prices as Columbus,
but I'm sure it's still escalating likeit is everywhere else the house is
(13:00):
that are for sale. I candefinitely tell you that the prices have increased
over the last however many years,definitely since COVID, and I know that's
been a national trend too, Sowe're seeing it here even in our smaller
populated areas. But you were talkingwith fair housing. One of the biggest
things that we're looking at here islike Reynolds, right, Sure, this
(13:24):
huge demographic here in town. Ibelieve forty some odd percent of folks in
Ashland are renters. I might beoff with that. I'm pulling that out
of thin air right here, butthere's a nice chunk of people in the
city that are renting, and thereis no centralized way to go and see
(13:48):
who's a landlord in the city.We did have an ordinance past where they
were supposed to be on this registry, but that was recently taken up and
repealed because some landlords got mad atwhat me and an organization I'm affiliated with,
the Kentucky People's Union, are fightingfor, which is tenant's rights right,
(14:11):
and we want this registry pass.That way we can start holding these
landlords accountable. And we're not talkingabout the good landlord that's you know,
if there's something wrong with your kitchenstaining, they're going to come in and
fix it. We're talking about thosethat are blatantly ignoring places. Yes,
slum lords. One of the oneof the phrases I really like is absentee
(14:33):
landlord. Yes, yes, theone that doesn't live in the state or
in the city. There is anapartment building here in the city. I
will not name which one, butthe owners live in West Virginia, about
an hour or two away from here, and going through some of these apartments,
the ceilings are literally caving in ontop of the residents. NBC came
(14:58):
down and did a tiny little segmenton what we were doing with the Kentucky
People's Union. And you see thestate of some of these weren't all properties.
But we have nothing in place toprotect these tenants. So they could
go and they could complain to thecity, but we don't have your ALTA,
(15:18):
which is the Uniform Residential Landlord andTenants Act. I believe that's that's
it. It's a buffle, butin essence, it's a tenant's bill of
rights. And with that comes theanti retaliation stuff. There's nothing on the
books for that now, so theycan go and do that and landlord says,
(15:39):
oh, well, we don't.We no longer want you and our
property, and they don't have togive a reason, and and they're gone.
And that's not that's not okay.You know, people are living in
these terrible conditions and we have nothingthere to hold these slum lords accountable,
and that's not okay. I canspeak from the renter perspective because I've been
(16:04):
renting for the last fifteen years andI've been at a lot of different apartments,
living with people kind of situations.Currently, I'm renting a house with
a roommate. Thankfully, we founda private landlord that lives locally owns for
properties and it's not a mega corporation. But even in the larger city we
(16:26):
have the same issue because we havelandlords that live in freaking California. They
don't have any vested interests, they'rean investor, they don't really care.
And it's frustrating from a tenant's perspectivebecause I read through the lease unlike some
people, and there's so much expectedof the tenant and to your point,
you can get kicked out at anytime, but there's not anything that protects
(16:51):
you as a tenant that you're payingX many dollars a month and they're not
providing these basic services, and thenit is with your credit because you get
evicted. And in this case,like if it's a some lord situation,
truly like where you should you know, shouldn't have to be paying for something
that's not livable, but you're youare anyway, and there's no protection there,
(17:15):
right, Yeah, no protection,but yeah, you're absolutely right.
And it's the folks like in yoursituation where we want to make sure that
you have everything that you can know. I was blessed with my last rental
that I was renting. I'm ahomeowner now, but before then I was
a renner and my last landlord,I tell you what I'd recommend to him
(17:37):
to anybody. Local guy owns justa couple of places like you were talking
about with your with your person,and he took care of his property absolutely,
And those are the people I wantto fight for, and because they're
the ones whose names are getting tarnishedbeing a landlord, because you have these
slum lords out here not taking careof their places. And they're probably some
(17:59):
of them I know, at leastin the larger cities, are using shell
corporations, so you don't to findtheir actual name. You have to dig,
yes, which is why we needa registry now. Something that I
go a little bit deeper with withthat registry is having this open to the
public. Is another way too forfolks that are coming in new to this
area because we have some new industryhere. But that's another topic. But
(18:25):
if folks are relocating into Ashland,Kentucky, it is so hard to find
a rental property. Oh yeah,you gotta know somebody, or you got
to just stalk Facebook marketplace because that'syour best bet. Right now, there's
hardly anything on apartments dot Com anythinglike that. But if we get some
sort of like just centralized location forthis stuff, the property is available,
(18:48):
we have the landlord there, weknow what's up, we know what's open,
it's going to be make it somuch easier for folks relocating here and
folks that are already living here thatneed a new housing. Absolutely, I
think that's a great call out ina contrast between a larger city like Columbus
and a smaller city like Ashland.Is I was able to find my home,
(19:10):
which I didn't know was a privatelandlord, but I found it through
like Trulia or Zillo, and that'show I was finding most of my properties.
But because we're a larger city,that's more common to use those kinds
of apps, and people are alittle bit more hip to it because it's
almost a requirement in a city thatlarge, But in a city this small,
you said, Facebook marketplace like it'sthat's a hard thing to stalk and
(19:33):
try to find housing and sort throughscams and all that other stuff. Oh,
yes it is. And it havinga registry where it is ran by
us people here in the city,then that's going to knock out a lot
of that that the scam stuff,and just make it so much easier,
you know, absolutely, So,yeah, and I think you touched on
(19:56):
something interesting there when you said theindustry. I don't even know how to
start with this. So Columbus,I'm very fortunate, has a ton of
different industries coming and we're they're actuallyI've heard are seen articles where they're calling
(20:18):
Columbus like Silicon Hartland. They expectColumbus to be this huge, like central
technology hub because we have so manyresearch like we have research universities like Ohio
State, we have like Bettel thatdoes research, So Ohio has been a
hub for certain things for a longtime. But Amazon has been bringing their
servers in and then Intel's coming intodo chip building, and we already have
(20:41):
like L Brands headquartered there in Windy'sAnd so I never looked at Columbus in
that light. Right, we haveall these mega corporations there and just building
up. So I've grown with Columbus, But there's areas that aren't that fortunate.
Where I can stay in Columbus andI almost have job security because there's
so many things there to be had, whereas with rural Appalachia, that's not
(21:10):
the case. You know. Ithink we see a lot of industry is
leaving and it makes it difficult.And I think that definitely to your point.
You want people to relocate, butthe question might be what is there
to offer? Yes, well,luckily for us, we're in a pretty
good place. So what we canoffer is, well, let me give
(21:33):
you a little bit of a historylesson before when I do that. Okay,
So, being an Appalachia eastern Kentucky, primarily our biggest industry has always
been coal. So the further southyou go, the more it's coal centered.
Ashland this is we had some stripminding up here, but that wasn't
our big thing. Our big thingwas steel, so the coal will be
(21:53):
brought in, and we had abig steel plant here. And then we
also Ashland Oil was located here untilthey moved to Cincinnati, and then they
got bought up by Marathon Petroleum,and that was the whole thing. We
had good industry, and then theindustry left and this left our city on
(22:15):
its own and kind of crumbling down. And you had the good old boy
system with same old politicians in officethat really anytime that they started talking about
the future of Ashland. It wasalways turning around and looking back to the
golden years and how we're going tobring back Ashland Oil or Armco or any
(22:36):
of these other industries. And finallysome of that started to die out because
we've seen a big change in Ashland. You come across that bridge, it's
create with us and we're revitalizing everythingand we're turning more artsy. And it's
nice, and artsy isn't for everybody, and that's all right. But the
idea here is we're making an oasisin the foot of the Appalachian Mountains for
(23:02):
industries to want to relocate here,because, let's face it, any of
these industries that are looking for landto go and build their new mill or
whatever they're wanting to do, they'renot looking to relocate and have their upper
management, their CEO, or anyof their employees in the in the in
(23:26):
their building to want to live ina place where there ain't nothing to do,
right, you know, they're notgoing to move them to a place
that's literally dying, which ten yearsago Ashland looked like it was. You
know, this is a different placenow with concerts and art venues and all
these fun things going on and thisis a good place to be and even
(23:49):
venturing outside of bringing in an enticingnew industry to Ashland, this is a
place where we're living in the twentyfirst century, you know, post COVID,
where lots of folks are working fromhome. Yeah, and we have
got cheaper, cheaper homes that youcan buy. You know, we could
have nice rentals if we can getthat thing fixed. But you know,
(24:11):
relocating here, this is a beautifulpart of the country or the low cost
of living. Yeah, and youcould live like a king here making if
you're making the same type of salaryyou would and say, I don't know
San Francisco right doing something in techor even Columbus with your all's new tech
going on up there, but livingsomewhere a little bit cheaper and doing it
(24:34):
from home, and you're gonna livelike a king or a queen. And
that's just that's awesome. Yeah.So this is a new way of going
forward, and it's just getting peopleto come around to that, because I'll
tell you what. Something in Appalachiathat we have seen in time or two
(24:55):
is a lot of people mostly fromthe cities, and this is nothing gets
Columbus, but I'm going to point. I'm going to go west to Lexington
and Frankfurt, Louisville, Okay,in Kentucky and Kentucky. In case you
don't know your geography, sorry,Ashland is right where Kentucky, Ohio,
and West Virginia meet right there onthe map. And well actually technically it's
(25:17):
Caltzberg, but we're just slightly north. But I who But you have all
these people and they say, oh, we're going to come in and we're
going to do all these things forAppalachia and we're going to make sure y'all
are taking care of right. Uh, you have those people, even former
presidents who want to come down andsay we're gonna save coal. Nobody ever
says coal because the folks that ownthe coal mining and the coal mines and
(25:41):
such. No, it's cheaper tooutsource from China and these other places.
You know, they're not coming back. And that's it's sad because people are
clinging to this, and they're clingingto these outsiders coming in telling us that
they're coming in and say the day, but they're not. And you know,
our former governor had worked talked toa buddy of his. They were
(26:06):
going to build a big alumin amill here. And I'm not going to
speak ill of these people because Idon't want to get slapped with slander.
But that fell through, and wedidn't get that big alumina mill and plant,
and all those jobs gone that wecould have had. We were looking
at this as a saving grace industriesfinally coming back to Ashland. It's gone.
(26:30):
Yeah, yeah, you know,And I think the important thing with
what you're saying, right is,I know when I go to look for
a job, as like a personin the workforce, I'm not thinking why
those companies are here, how theygot here, why they're staying. Like
I said, I didn't have asay in the Columbus growing We've been very
(26:52):
fortunate that our governors for the stateof Ohio and our mayor, even though
historically the city of Columbus has beenDemocratic and our governor has been Republican for
the last several years. Like Iwould say, I'm liberal leaning as well,
but also, you know, there'ssome conservative things. I voted for
Kasik and he's considered you know,right leaning, and I don't agree with
(27:15):
all of his policies, but heis very bipartisan and That's why I liked
him as a governor, and whenhe ran for the presidency against Trump,
I had voted for him because Ilike that he's bipartisan. And the reason
we're talking about this publicly on apodcast is not to polarize stuff, but
because having these conversations and normalizing itis important. And it affects us all
(27:37):
right, because you're talking about housingand bringing companies in an industry and that
doesn't just happen on accident. Companiesdon't just accidentally show up in Columbus are
acchul And and be like, oh, we'll just hang out here. It's
because politicians are out there, andI'm gonna say, in a good world,
not a perfect world, because there'sno such thing, but a good
(28:00):
world, are out there advocating foryour city to bring in companies that are
going to help boost the economy providejobs for the workforce. You Know,
something I was thinking about is noteven just the work from home aspect,
but even if a company would comein and physically be present here, they
might have an easier time filling jobs. And in a big city in Columbus
where there's a lot of competition,absolutely, And so I think this is
(28:23):
where the politics and talking about politicsis important because as both I'm a voter
and a person in the workforce,it's important to me, I'm only thirty
three that there's still a job forme twenty years down the line where I
choose to live and you know,right now that's Columbus, But you know,
for the city of Ashland, youknow there are people who love this
(28:44):
place, or you want to bringin people who maybe want to break from
the big city, especially as thingsare expanding and you're in such that critical
tri state area. You know,it's interesting hearing the coal perspective because I
used to work for an electric carmanufacturer and a lot of the people who
bought those cars were coal advocates becauseit's technically cleaner than like gasoline, and
(29:08):
I didn't know that until I talkedto them. And now I work for
a manufacturing company that makes steel partsand they're still local to the US.
But a big fear is a JapaneseI think it's Japanese company wanted to buy
out the one of the largest manufacturersof steel in the US, called US
Steel, And you're taking all ofthis and outsourcing and it's not just applicable
(29:33):
to Ashland. I'm hearing this inColumbus, right, because that's going to
make people say it makes it cheaper. But then at some point it becomes
more expensive and we lose that workforce, we lose those jobs, we lose
you know, that entire industry.And Columbus maybe that's not so big of
a deal, but to the surroundingareas it is because I can tell you
we have car manufacturers that have stayedthere because park manufacturers are guess what,
(29:56):
park manufacturers need steal. But youknow the same thing happens to Ashland.
Right. You have one industry gowhen it impacts other industries. So bringing
in any industry is important. Right, Yes, it's funny you say that
about bringing in another and one endindustry brings in another. Right. This
is the satellite effect. Yes,yes, it's like you've got the moon,
(30:19):
which is our satellite orbiting the Earth. You've got an industry coming in.
Well, you're going to need X, Y and Z because this industry
needs X, Y and Z tobe able to produce their product. So
it's like a domino effect at thispoint, and it just keeps going and
going and going, and then you'rebringing in these new jobs and these new
(30:44):
people, and these new people aregoing to need houses, and these houses
are going to be sold or they'regoing to be rented, and then next
thing, you know, the economyis flourishing. Yes. Now here's the
thing too. I want to mention, Alex everything that we've talked about today
is nonpartisan, absolutely every bit ofthis because housing, industry, jobs,
all of this affects everybody. Itdoesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican,
(31:10):
independent, a libertarian, green Party, whatever, It all affects you,
me and everybody. And that's whyit's important to go out and have
these conversations about these political quote unquoteissues. And you know, we get
that conversation going because if we keepquiet, ain't nothing ever going to happen.
(31:33):
And we're gonna have these same peoplethat have been in leadership for years
and years and years that have donenothing but let our cities deteriorate down.
It is with good progressive forward thinkingthat we're able to march forward. And
I don't mean that like progressives andlike you know, leaving left, but
(31:56):
progressive as in just marching forward.Man. You know, quit looking back
at the past and figure out howwe're going to survive and how we're going
to thrive. And I really wantto see the city of Ashland thrive.
And I know we can. Iknow it, you know. And that's
what I love about this conversation,right is I'm involved in several community organizations
(32:20):
in the city of Columbus from avolunteer perspective. I've been on several boards
in several organizations, and I liketo think I have an impact, but
it's a huge city. The interestingthing with Ashland, and I have a
group of friends down here, whichis how I met you, is that
saying you can change the city almostfeels more realistic because it is smaller,
(32:44):
and so smaller changes are more impactfulbecause you're a smaller city. You know,
If I drop a dime in thefountain, it's super tiny, and
is I want to make a wholelot of waves. But if you drop
a bowling ball in that fountain,it makes a big wave, right And
if the fat and smaller, itmakes a bigger wave. Right, Absolutely,
And so I think it's for me. It's exciting to hear this and
(33:07):
hear about change and change is afunny subject and I'll actually talk about this
on that podcast eventually. But youknow, change in general. But as
much as we all hate change,change is inevitable, right And when you
say forward and progressive, you're notsaying it in this polarized sense of,
(33:29):
oh my god, it's because youwant me to believe what you believe.
We say it in the sense ofas humanity, we are growing together and
moving forward, in a sense thatit is productive for us because change has
already happened to us, whether weare a part of it or not.
Absolutely, you're wanting to be apart of that change. You are wanting
(33:50):
to be an advocate for that changeand help drive that change and not just
be a silent participant of it.Right. Absolutely, And that's why I
add the kate for voting is becausechange is going to happen whether you go
to that voting poll or not.At least make your voice heard right when
you go vote. And there's alot of resources even in the larger cities.
(34:10):
I know, our Secretary of Statedoes an amazing job posting links to
each of the candidates, and youknow, posting your sample ballots so you
know what's there ahead of time.But voting in every single election is important,
not just these major presidential often.You know, I work the polls
in a volunteer capacity, and it'sthese elections that are not the presidential that
(34:35):
you have, these big offices thatmatter more like the governorships, the mayorships,
the commissioners, because those have themost impact on the direct community you
are in. And if you're notout there getting your voice heard, whether
as a voter in your case runningfor commissioner, you know you're being a
passive participant to change, whether youlike it or not. Yes, a
(34:55):
couple of points to make on thatone thing that I just realize that your
listeners might not know. It's whata commissioner is. It just hit me
so for those of you that don'tknow what a commissioner is, it's like
a city councilman. Okay, perfect. So I was like, wait a
minute, No, we didn't discussthat. Oops. So we do a
(35:17):
city commission style of government here.What that means is we still have a
mayor, but our mayor is morelike a person on the commission. They're
leading the commissions. There's five people, but four commissioners, and we hire
a city manager that does all ofthe day to day stuff for the city
(35:37):
runs the city. Okay, sothe mayor isn't this all powerful? Hello,
And we're you know, one bigbranch of this city government and it's
not like that. It's more ofa team approach and it works well for
us here. So that's awesome.So that was one point I was gonna
make. But something else too thatyou had mentioned is like the these smaller
(36:04):
races being so important. Yeah right, so yeah, whoever the president is
is going to affect me just likeit's gonna affect everybody else. Yeah,
I guess. But on a dayto day thing, No, it doesn't
matter what Biden's doing or Trump orwhoever's president. What matters is what our
(36:27):
city commissioners are doing to bring anindustry to town. What are let's see,
our county commissioners, what they're doingfor the entire county, right and
all these other smaller local ones.And then even on a state level,
you know, like what our governor'sbeen doing. Governor Andy Basheer has been
bringing in stuff to eastern Kentucky.He's been showing up like no one else
(36:50):
ever has. Because I'll be honestwith you, there's a thing we call
the Winchester Wall everything east of Winchester, Kentucky. Nobody gives a crap about.
Wow, it's always been a thing. And Andy has shown up here
he is, especially when we hadthe flooding down in southern southeastern Kentucky and
(37:13):
made sure that funding got sent downthere to help rebuild and he was there
for the folks. And I don'tknow, I'm real grateful for the leadership
we've had the last four years.And so it's Boy County because we voted
for him again, and I willsay that but anyhow, but yes,
(37:35):
So it's these types of elections thatare important because it's literally affecting us,
you know, and people want tojust write them off because it's not the
big, sexy, you know,national presidential election of oh lah lah.
But I'd say it's even more importantto focus on these local elections because it's
(37:58):
our local communities. It's a statehere, it's our own state, that's
a state state here, and that'swhy it's important. Absolutely. I think
that's a good call to acknowledge thatyou've seen your politicians out and about and
that you appreciate that. Because Ifeel like politicians, as much as we
love to hate them, maybeing oneof them. You know, do do
(38:22):
do do good things at times,and it's easy to have a black and
white mentality in the sense of it'sall good or all bad, good and
evil. And I've never met anybodyin my entire life who is all one
or the other. And so whenwe villainize people or put them on a
(38:44):
pedestal in this heroic standpoint that theycan do no wrong, I think that's
where we get this polarization with ourpolitics, right is we hear these messages
the other side is all bad,the other side is all good, whatever,
and then we miss that noise createsthat like environment where we miss what's
actually going on, you know,miss the forest for the trees. Yeah,
(39:07):
yeah, yeah, you know.And I think that's why it's important
to normalize conversations around politics and havethese conversations again, I don't need to
argue with you about who's president andthese weird polarizations and who's the evil doer
like, because that's not real life. It's it's real life, but it's
not. And you know, algorithmson the Internet is convincing us it is.
(39:29):
The real stuff is what you andI just talked about absolutely, and
that's what's affecting us, you know. And one of the things that I've
always admired about you is that you'reengaged in religion and you're working in politics,
but you're also openly gay. Andthe reason I bring this up is
we're in May, we're approaching Pridemonths, so you may sense some themes,
(39:53):
but being a part of the communityis difficult. But I think this
is a good example of if youhave everything you've heard of until right now
on this podcast, you love aboutSean, why does it matter if he's
gay or not? And I thinkpeople love to say, well, if
you're gay, you're not religious,and that's the exact opposite with you.
(40:15):
And that's something that you're is it, Diocey diaceis? Yeah, you're good
the dice. They're going to comefor me. Now. I'll make sure
the bishop gives you a personal call. Okay. Thanks. You know,
have been understanding and accepting of becauseyou were there for the religion. You
(40:36):
are there to do good. AndI think it's important when we're talking about
people. Is as much as welove to use labels, and I just
used a label, you know,those labels don't define all of us.
Right, It's funny you talk onthat too. So something that I say
a lot is I'm not a gayChristian. I'm a Christian who happens to
(41:00):
be gay, right, Yeah,And I say that because I am not.
I am not out there wanting thechurch to have rainbow Pride flags hanging
outside during Pride Month, because thechurch is a holy place outside of the
secular world and this we're here forGod, Okay. Yeah. And now
(41:23):
that's not to say that we can'tshow up Pride, you know, that's
a whole different conversation than we do. But whenever it comes to labels like
that, whenever I'm in church,I am there as a believer in God,
as a Christian. It just happensto love differently, That's all right.
(41:46):
We'll I have in our own personalcalling to the Lord, and some
of us don't. And that's allright too. Like I tell my folks
here in the city of Ashland,we have Christians, we have we have
Jewish folks, we have folks thatare Muslims. We have folks that,
yes, even in Ashland, Kentucky, we do. And we have folks
(42:07):
that are atheists and agnostic and folksthat are pagans, And that's all right,
because again this is America, gostronit and you have that freedom to
practice whatever religion you believe. AndI'm gonna be very honest, it's not
(42:29):
always been easy being a Christian whohappens to be gay, especially in Ashland.
As you and I were talking beforethe podcast about Pride last year,
right, yeah, and you knowI opened Pride. I was of v
MC and I opened the Pride eventin prayer and that was pretty cool.
(42:52):
I love that I tick some peopleoff, That's okay. You know,
I think that polarization, that religioncan't be part of Pride or the OTBTQ
community or vice versa, or can'tbe part of politics, those polarizations in
my mind, and just for theaudience, if you're not sure what polarization
(43:14):
means, because the news has beenusing it excessively, is it means you're
pushing it to one far into thespectrum or another that black and white thinking
that really must be good or eviland there's no gray in between. And
I think if you've been listening tothis podcast thus far, we're really trying
to normalize a lot of conversations toreduce this polarization because at the end of
(43:35):
the day, we're more alike thanwe're different, right, Yeah, And
I think with what you just saidis that maybe people didn't like that,
And I said, that's okay,because not everybody's gonna like everything that everybody
else does. But you weren't disrespectfulto the religion or the LGBTQ community.
So at the end of the day, so what oh, oh, no,
(44:00):
people were mad, but it wasn'tour lgbt folks. It was folks
that are a little bit more conservativethat you brought prayer to. Yes,
that I was a gay man prayingto God and praying for protesters that were
there, So that's where the storyI should have clarified on that, but
(44:21):
yeah, that's who got mad.Actually, they wrote up a story was
on the front page of the paper, and I believe the title of the
story was love over Hate, Andthey talked about me praying for the protesters,
me talking to folks about my faith, and the contrast between like the
(44:43):
message I was giving as a personof faith versus the the just hate that
was being spewed out. But I'llbe very honest with you, most people
that I know that are people offaith, doesn't matter what faith. They're
not the ones screaming. They're notthe ones out there coming into our territory
(45:05):
and screaming at us telling us weneed to repent. They're out there loving
their neighbor and that that is Christianity. That is also many other religions,
and that's all right. But again, like you were saying, we're all
some shade of purple. And evenin my own church, there are people
(45:31):
that are more conservative than I am, and that's all right. There are
folks I know they're not going tobe okay whenever I finally get married in
the church, and I get it, all right. We have two theological
different perspectives on this and that's fine, all right. Oh and for all
the for all you listeners out there, I am newly engaged just a few
(45:54):
weeks now to my beautiful fiance,Cody Blackford, and I love him with
all of my heart and I canwait to make him my husband. Congrats
Sean. I saw that on thesocial media, said I was so happy
for you. Well, but speakinginto that something also like, now,
this isn't gonna be a shpiel forthe Episcopal Church. But what I will
(46:15):
say is we're via media, we'remiddle way. And one of the most
beautiful things that I love is onSunday morning, we can be up there
kneeling side by side, black,white, gay, straight, poor,
rich, male, female, nonbinary. We are kneeling next to each
(46:37):
other as siblings in the Family ofChrist, all receiving communion together. And
that is one of the most beautifulimages that I have of church, and
all the progressive, liberal versus conservativeideology just goes out the window at that
(47:00):
point. And I love that becausewe're all together, because we're all part
of the same human family. Youknow, that's a great pool through for
religion. And I'm a spiritual personand my background in religion is interesting because
I grew up with the Nazarene church. My godfather was a pastor. Then
(47:25):
we were in the Native American community, practice Native American spiritual beliefs, and
that's how I most connected to God. But then I kind of moved away
from that. But one thing thatI personally feel strongly about is religion.
No religion is wrong, it's howyou would like to worship God right,
(47:45):
and even the lack thereof like that'syour personal choice, and I think at
the end of the day, what'simportant for me even if you are religious
or are not religious, listening tothis podcast is the underlying theme every time
I talk to people with religion orthe lgbt community. Is that word I
(48:07):
just said. Community. That's whathumans are built and made for, is
community. We are social creatures,and religion was originally built out of that
sense of community, right, Andyou know, from my perspective, if
you're building that community, even ifI don't agree with everything you're doing,
(48:29):
as long as you're doing right bypeople and not actively harming others, that's
for you to decide, right,you know. And I don't need to
be the same as you because mycommunities may be different than yours, but
some of my communities may overlap aswell. You know, we're both part
of the LGBTQ community. But Iam not a part of the Episcopalian Did
(48:50):
they say that, right, EpiscopalEpiscopal Church. I'm an Episcopalian. Okay,
everybody, it's all right. Butyou know, we you and I
still sat down here and had thisconversation. And even if we hadn't overlapped
in the LGBTQ community. I stillfeel strongly that you and I would have
still sat down and had this conversation, you know, because we're both humans
(49:16):
and we see similarly and differently onthings, and we can agree to disagree
on certain things as well, andI think it's important to normalize that conversation.
Is whether it's politics, or religionor your particular background, it's okay
(49:37):
to be different than somebody else becausethe reality is there are no two people
that are exactly the same. Absolutely. So with that being said, is
there anything else you would like toclose us out with today, Sean?
Well, yeah, there is.It's going back to what you had just
said. Right. Remember I toldyou I went to that National Day or
(50:00):
prayer. Yeah, the other day. The group of ladies that were putting
this on they are a Republican group, right. I was actually advised not
to go to this. I's toldby people not to go and this it's
mostly because these folks tend to notlike our community very much. There some
(50:22):
of them are very vocal. Andwhen you say our community, which well
LGBTQ, okay, I just wantedto clarify, Yes, sorry, folks,
there was that and and we knowwhere I lean. And I was
watching the Commissioner's meeting on my lunchbreak last week and because they live cast
(50:44):
it on YouTube and sitting there atmy desk in my office and I'm watching
it, and one of the ladiesgot up and she invited commissioners to go
and she said, this isn't justabout those of us that believe the same
way we do. This is foreverybody. Prayer is good for everyone.
And this was the Republican ladies.This is one of the Republican ladies.
And that just hit me and Iwas like, Okay, that's it.
(51:07):
I'm going. And that was myfinal, the final straw and final straw.
That was the final, Like okay, here go sean a little sign
from God. And I stuck aroundafter the event and I spoke to some
of these folks and it was Ihad some of the best conversations I've had,
(51:28):
and it was all these unifying topicslike housing in the homeless population and
everything else, like the things thatseparate us, that being gay, any
of that. It's like arguing aboutthe arrangement of the deck furniture and the
Titanic. None of that matters,okay, because we're talking about the things
(51:49):
that actually matter that you know aregoing to affect both of us as people
here and living in Ashland. Andthat was so nice and refreshing. And
I'll tell you something, those ladieswere really welcoming with me whenever I was
there. So so with that,I'm going to end with politics doesn't have
(52:12):
to be as ugly as we seeit on the national news and on TikTok
and Facebook. Politics is us aspeople getting together and doing the right thing,
working together even with different ideas,to make sure that we are all
thriving and living our best lives andno one is being left behind. I
(52:38):
love that, Sean, thank you, thank you, and I will not
ruin it with any other horrible,weird jokes. So with that, I
would thank you everybody for listening toepisode five if it's sensitive again, we
were here today with son very torunning for Ashland City Commissioner and I will
(53:00):
see you guys on the flip side. We have a few more episodes coming
out here quickly, so I'm excitedto share this as well. Go out
there normalize it. Everyone
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.