Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
As the pollen dies down, the acs crank up all
across Alabama.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I'm John Mount and this is Viewpoint Alabama on the
Alabama Radio Network. This week we're speaking with Ashley England
from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Ashley, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks for having me. Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I do like living in Alabama. The beautiful, but as
nice as our mild winters are, we pay for it
in the summer with the heat and the humidity. And
by pay for it, I also mean each month when
the power bill arrives. So we're talking with Ashley today
with some ideas about how to keep the house comfortable
without breaking the bank. Ashley, let's start at the thermostat.
I am not setting mine for eighty So what do
I do?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know, I think it's important to remember that you
can make smart cooling choices without having to crank up
the AC. Each degree higher on your thermostat during summer
can save you around three percent on your power bill.
So I always recommend people that you know, set it
as warm as you feel comfortable, but then remember to
(00:58):
also keep your filter clean. That's gonna help maximize the efficiency.
And then to use ceiling fans when you're in the room,
remember to turn them off when you're not there, and
that's gonna help circulate air and gonna help you not
have to lower your thermostat quite as much.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So let's start with the filter for starters. There's different
filters that you can get. There's different thicknesses you can get. Now,
you're AC might only be designed for a one inch filter,
but they make them two inches four inches and different thicknesses,
And I imagine that the greater the thicknesses, that means
that the more surface area. Thus you can slow down
(01:34):
on the amount of resistance it puts in the air,
so you can get more air across the coils.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Right, Yeah, that's right. You know, when you go to
shop for a filter, you want to look at the
NERVE rating. That stands for the minimum efficiency reporting value,
and it measures how effectively that filter castors particles. To
the higher a nerve rating, you're going to get better filterration.
But you need to realize that that's also, like you
(01:58):
just said, it's gonna make it more difficult for air
to flow through the filter, and it's going to likely
make your h BAC have to work harder. So we
recommend you know, you look for a mirve rating around five.
That's adequate for a typical home, and that way you're
not stressing your HVAC system. However, if you have really
bad allergies, if you have a pet in the home,
(02:21):
you might want to look for a slightly higher nerve
rating because your air quality might be more important at
that point.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And Ashley, how often are you supposed to be changing
that filter?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
You know, we recommend monthly. At least every other month
though is ideal. You'd be shocked at how quickly, you know,
contaminance accumulate on that air filter. And here's a little
hack that I recommend for people. You can order them
from websites and set them to just be auto subscribed,
and that way it just shows up at your house
(02:52):
automatically every month. You know, you order your sized filter,
the nerve rating you prefer, and then you don't even
really have to remind yourself. You're to get that reminder
when it shows up at your house each month.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That's a great idea, Ashley. And also if you fail
to change your filter regularly, then what you're looking at
down the road. In addition to decreased FUNC you know,
their increased cost of running the AC is damage to
the coils because you get a bunch of stuff that
builds up on the coils and then you have an
expensive cleaning bill that you have to pay for.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, that's exactly right. You know, we recommend along with
changing out your filter is to make sure you get
that system tune up though. We recommend that in the
spring and the fall, you know, ahead of the peak,
hey to the peak cold. That's going to improve the
efficiency of your system and make sure it's performing optimally,
going to help keep your bills lower. But then the
(03:42):
other thing, like you just said, it's that preventative maintenance,
right your HVAC technician is going to identify and address
potential issues before they escalate into costly repairs. So definitely,
definitely recommend, Like if you have one takeaway, make sure
you get that HVAC tune up to remember that, you know,
the biggest driver of your energy cost is your HVAC usage.
(04:05):
It's typically about fifty percent of the bill is related
to your HVAC, So getting that tuned up is well
worth it all.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And when you talk about that tune up, I would
much rather have it done on a day when it's
like eighty degrees out than have them back out there
to fix something when it's ninety six degrees out.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, that's exactly right, and honestly, your HVAC tech's going
to prefer that too. You know, they get inundated with
calls with those first really hot, really cold days of
the year, and you know sometimes they can't get out
there as quickly as you want. So go ahead and
get the tune up when it's nice and comfortable, and
that way you're not stuck in a pinch.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So when you go to work for the day, you
should leave your fans off because there's nobody to cool.
But what about the where you set your air conditioner.
Should you adjust the temperature up and down depending when
on when you're at home and when you're not, or
do you keep it one constant temperature all day long?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
You know, it really depends on how long you're going
to be away from home. You don't want to adjust
your h back down or up to too much one
way or the other. You know, a myth sometimes people have.
They think, well, I got home, it's really hot. I
want it to feel you know, sixty eight. I'm gonna
set it to sixty and it's going to get cool faster.
(05:16):
That's not true. Your HVAC system is going to run
at the same speed effectiveness no matter how cool you
set it, So don't do that. That's just gonna cause
you know, extra wear and hair on the system over time.
Set it to where you actually want it to be.
But then just remember that if you're going to be
gone for more than say three four five hours, you
(05:37):
might want to go ahead and set the temperature back
a little bit, you know, make it a little warmer
than you would want it to be. And that way
you are going to reduce your cost over time because
you can set it to pre cool your home a
little bit before the peak of the day. So sometimes
that's a good way to save a little bit of
money and save some weard hair on your system. Hey,
(05:57):
I know that it's going to be really hot when
I get home at five PM, so I'm actually gonna
set my system to cool the house. I'm gonna let
it get a little warmer during the day while I'm gone,
because I don't want to waste all that nice cool
erano and being home, right, But then I'm going to
have it set to start getting cool again around three PM,
and then by the time I get home, the system's
(06:18):
not working super duper hard in the middle of the
hardest part of the day.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
This is Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My
name is John Mountsen speaking with Ashley England. She's from
the Tennessee Valley Authority. We're talking about ways that you
can save some money on your air conditioning this summer. Ashley,
what about windows and specifically I'm talking about it. You know,
first of all, if you don't have those double paying windows,
or even if you do, you can also do things
(06:43):
with window treatments, curtains, that sort of thing. You don't
want to let the sun basically turn your house into
a gigantic greenhouse while you're at work all day.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, that's exactly right. Definitely use your window shades to
help you out there. If you have older windows, I
would definitely say getting blackout curtains can be very helpful.
It's going to help reduce the radiant heat in the room.
Block that direct sunlight before it hits the glass, and
(07:14):
that's particularly effective for you know, south and west facing
windows where the sun's coming in, but the other and
then thermal backed. I think I said blackout, But the
most important thing is the thermal backing of curtains or grapes,
and those are most effective when they extend beyond the
window frames. So let me just make sure you got
(07:35):
good coverage there.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And I guess they should also be white, right, because
you want to reflect that light rather than have it
be black and absorb all that heat.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, a lighter color can be
really helpful. Another thing to think about are like window films.
They do sell those. They can reflect solar heat while
allowing light through, and that can block seventy to eighty
percent of solar heat gain. So that's another thing people
might consider. If you don't have the money, say you
(08:04):
have really old windows and you you can't replace them.
You know, window replacement can be pretty costly. Storm windows
can add an extra layer of insulation at a much
lower cost than full replacement, and those can those can
help out too in the winter. Of course, window insulation
pits can be inexpensive, but you know, effective solution. But
(08:25):
again I like to remind you of sometimes folks really
think their windows are like a major cause of you know,
discomfort in their house. But typically windows really are less.
You're gonna get less bang for your buck less ROI
with an a window replacement. When it comes to your
energy bill again, that HVAC system is going to be
the largest driver.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Ashley, What about things like the insulation in your house,
the installation in your attic. If you have not looked
into this in the last a twenty years, that insulation
over time, it kind of it thins out you. Critters
up there, they crawl around, they can press things. How
often should we be looking at the insulation and how
much insulation do we need?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah? Oh, insulation is so effective. I think it's kind
of one of my favorite upgrades to remind people about.
You don't go into your attic a lot. Typically you're
not paying attention. But insulation is essentially acts like a
little bit of a blanket for your home. Its entire
purpose is to block heat. So in the winter it's
(09:25):
going to prevent heat from escaping and in the summer
it's going to prevent heat from seeping into your home. Right,
So highly recommend you look at that. If you live
in a TVA served local power company area, you could
qualify for a rebate for attic insulation from TVA. We
offer five hundred dollars attic insulation rebates. But yeah, really
(09:48):
recommend that can make a big difference on your home
and really is a pretty inexpensive upgrade. And you're gonna
want to talk to your contractor about kind of the
r value and making sure you have enough. And it
depends on the type of insulation with the blown in
or blanket insulation, that kind of thing, but your contractor
can give you great advice for that, but highly recommend that.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So bottom line, if your house was built, say fifty
years ago, and the insulation was installed fifty years ago,
probably it's time to put a new layer of that
stuff down.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yes, that's exactly right. If you haven't taken a look,
you haven't gotten it. I would even say in the
last twenty twenty five years, we've had some updates and
building codes things like that, and you'll want to look
at getting a higher our value insulation.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
This is your point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
My name is John Mountsin speaking with Ashley England from
the TVA. We're talking about some hints to keep your
power bill low this summer when the temperatures are high Ashley.
Let's talk about some of the other contributors do heat
inside the house, ones that are also using electricity, like
your stove. You know, we all like to have we
(10:55):
all like to have friends over and do some cooking inside.
But if you're doing your cooking inside, you're making heat
using electricity while you're trying to cool your house down
using electricity. Would it not make more sense to do
some of your cooking outdoors.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yes, I think heat free cooking is a really great
way for you to just change a little bit of
behavior that's going to save on your bills. Like you said,
anybody who's kind of slaved away over a hot stove
or oven in the summer knows how uncomfortable it is.
You're creating heat while your HVAC system is trying to
keep the house cool, and typically at the very hottest
(11:30):
part of the day, right that late afternoon when the
house is just baking. Highly recommend grilling or even just
opting for the microwave or air fryer meals. Air fryers
can be really efficient. They do not generate nearly as
much indoor heat as your conventional oven or stovetop, so
definitely look into heat free cooking, And in my house,
(11:50):
we plan out our meals on Sunday ahead to the
next rest of the week, and we try in the
summertime to look at at least, you know, two or
three meals we can make that week that we know
won't have us standing over that stover oven.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So we've covered insulation, We've covered where to set the
ac what you should do around your house. I think
we've covered everything. Is there anything else that I skipped
over that we should touch on in terms of how
to save a little bit of money on your electric
bill this summer?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I think the last thing that I like to remind
people about is that timing can make a really big difference.
So running those large appliances like your dishwashers, your laundry machine,
run those later in the evening when it's cooler instead
of again at those peak heat hours. That way, you
know it's not you're not creating heat when your house
(12:37):
is still trying to get cooled down. And thanks to
modern technology, most laundry machines, most dishwashers have kind of
a delay setting, And I just load my dishwasher up
at night and delay it for two three hours and
when it runs while I'm asleep, So just recommend that
you pay attention to timing and try to prepare for
things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Not to mention, if you run it right after you're
done with a meal, then you're in the kitchen trying
to talk over the dishwasher. You can have a go
when you're not in there. It doesn't matter how loud
it is.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
That's exactly right, you know, and it doesn't have to
It's those quiet enough now that they don't wake you
up when you're asleep in your room. So yeah, we
love to just kind of use technology to make our lives.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Better, right, And all of these things we talked about,
these are common sense. You probably could come up with
almost every single thing we touched on today. And the
reason why we're just kind of bringing it up is
just to kind of make it more front of mind
so that you're not so surprised. Even if you do
the budget billing thing, you will pay more if you're
not doing some of these things to try and lower
your bill.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
That's right. And if you're not sure where to start,
you know, maybe you want to understand your homes efficiency again,
you might want to look at taking some kind of
home energy assessment. TVA offers a free deal with yourself
home energy assessment online. So again, if you live in
the TVA territory and you're a customer of a local
power company or a member of a local power company
in that area, highly recommend going to our website site
(14:00):
it's energy right dot com. Take that free assessment. It
only takes five to ten minutes. Ask you some questions
about your home and you're going to get a tailored
list of recommendations for how you can make your home
most efficient and save money. And what also sends you
a free kit in the mail that includes things like
LED light bulbs and filter gaskets, things like that, as
(14:24):
well as a ten dollars Home Improvement Store gift card
to get you started on your energy saving journey. So
really recommend you look into things like that. It can
help you get a better feel for your homes needs
and what you can be doing and an energy efficiency
pace for itself over time. That's what's so cool about.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It cool indeed, Ashley England from the TVA, thank you
so much for joining us this week on Viewpoint Alabama.
Thanks for having me and this is Viewpoint Alabama on
the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mountain. I
think I've mentioned this before on this program that I
am a dyslexic. I spell things differently, I spell things phonetically.
And one of the things that frustrate me therefore, is
(15:01):
the way the English language is very, very difficult to
work with. Especially. I mean, I'm so frustrated. I want
to say enough is enough. And I'm not alone because
we have an author with us, Gabe Henry, who wrote
a book Enough is Enough. Gabe, welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
There is so many rules in English that just they
don't make any sense. They frustrate me. Why do we
have so many different ways to spell so many words?
I guess they're called homonyms, right.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I mean so much of it has to do with
the history of England, the geography of England. It's surrounded
by water, it's this great trade route, and it was
subject to so many conquests and vikings and the Romans
they all conquered over the years, and they all wove
in their languages into the culture. And then you fast
(15:51):
forward a thousand years later and we're trying to make
sense of it. And that's why we have so many
silent letters, so many homonyms, homophones, and so many contradictory
rules that create barriers for people that have dyslexia, people
that are non native speakers, children, and also just basically
anyone that attempts to write in this language.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
And also on top of that, here in America, we
appiled on additional rules and changes in spelling just because
we want it to be different, Like they spell a
lot of words differently in you can like theater or
check or any of these things that are spelled differently
in England than here, even though we're both speaking quote English.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Right, And all these changes came out of the Simplified
Spelling movement, which was this underground campaign that spanned hundreds
of years and that was attempting to shorten and simplify
how we spell in English. So many of the attempts
that we don't you know, we don't see them working today,
but many of these attempts would beat us. Shortened words
(16:50):
like tough you'd spell it tuf or laugh laf or
love luv, and these have been pushed for these hundreds
of us and the reason that we have words like
color without a U, theater ending in er comes out
of this movement, specifically Noah Webster. He was the father
of the American Dictionary, and because he couldn't get his
(17:13):
radical respellings into the mainstream acceptance, he settled for some
moderate changes. So he incorporated words like check without the
que and plow without a ug h. He put them
in his dictionary, and as his dictionary became more widely read,
(17:34):
it became standardized, and now it's American English.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Kay. What about words that they have the exact same sound,
but they mean different things, like they're there and there.
I can see the necessity to respel them differently, But
at the same time, it can be awfully hard to
remember which one you're supposed to use unless you know
the rules.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
I think in the ideal world, those different spellings don't exist.
In the simplest, clearest form of language, they would all
be spelled the same. The reason we have so many
different spellings for them, again is because of the complicated
history of the language, all these influences from different areas
of the world. And then once we realized and during
(18:16):
the Middle Ages, that we needed to standardize our language,
we took all these different strands and all these different
spellings and fused them together and created what we like
to think of as one singular language, but really it's
more like eight languages in a trench coat.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Have you ever seen a interesting skit? It was done
by Gallagher, the guy who smashes the watermelons, where he
was going through and he's going through all the words
that I like that you change one letter and it
changes the pronunciation or it changes the meaning and all
these things.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I know exactly what skit you're talking about. He did
on the Tonight show. He did on the Smothers Brothers,
and he yeah, he goes through words like comb ending
in a bee, numb ending in a bee, and he
talks about what come rhymes with home? Why doesn't home
have a bee? Home rhymes with or home is spelled
(19:05):
the same way as come, come here, but they're not.
They don't rhyme. And I think that his his punchline.
His final word is the word done dumb, and that's
the way he encompasses the whole argument about spelling. It's
that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's dumb. I would agree with you, Gabe, and I
have a feeling that this is not going to get
resolved anytime soon. In fact, it'll probably get more complicated.
One of the things I do also think is interesting
is English seems to be somewhat alone in this in
that Spanish is much more phonetic. I also speak Umpoco Espanol.
German is extremely phonetic, although the words you are like
(19:42):
a mile and a half long. Is it because of
we came over here from England, we tried to separate,
and that is what kind of drove this division.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Every language you just mentioned, German, Spanish. They conquered England
at some point in England's lifespan, and and because of
the contradictory, contradictory grammar and syntax and spelling of all,
England emerged with a language that doesn't follow any It
kind of follows all the rules and none of the
(20:10):
rules at once. So, yes, we are unique in this.
And you can see how unique we are based on
the fact that we have a national annual spelling Bee
and there's a lot of it's aired live and there's
a lot of hoopla around it, and people come to
DC every year for it, and it used to be
aired on ESPN. I mean that's it was almost a
(20:31):
national sport. It is our national sport. They don't have
that in Spanish and German for the very simple reason
that it would be like having a math competition where
you're just adding single digit numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
But I can win at that one. Gabe Henry, author
of Enough is Enough. It's on bookshelves in Amazon if
you want to pick up a copy of it, and
I'm sure it's an easy read. But the question is
did you actually write it in standard English or did
you write it in phonetic English.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I think you'll have to buy it to know the
answer to that question. I can't even remember it well.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I see the cover. You've got all the spellings for enough. Gabe,
thank you so much for joining us this week on
Viewpoint Alabama. Thanks so much John this next segment. I
have to admit when I first started looking into it,
I dismissed it because I thought it was just about
some dance performance. I didn't understand the significance of it
or how it was really the front line of China's
battle for world domination through the control of the message
(21:27):
in the culture. And I'm talking about Shenyin. They were
just in Alabama a few weeks ago, both in Huntsville,
and in Birmingham doing a performance there, MC is a
man named Lee Shi Lamesh. He's been with them for
eighteen years. He's been with them for two thousand performances. Lishai,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Hi, how's it going great?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
And I'm sorry I missed your performance when you came
through the state. Let's talk about Shinyin. What is it exactly?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Yeah, So shan Yun is a journey through five thousand
years of Chinese civilization. And so in a performance, which
is usually about two plus hours, we have some twenty
pieces and each of them is maybe five minutes long,
and there are different stories, different legends, different characters from
literature and heroes from the past, different ethnic and folk traditions.
So between those pieces you have an MC like myself
(22:12):
and we come out and we just introduce the next piece,
just get it a little bit of background, get out
of the way, and then what you have is classical
Chinese dance, a live orchestra, animated backdrops, costumes, and you're
just transported to this other world of China before communism.
This is pre Chinese Communist Party China as we're showing
on stage.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And that's the reason why This is controversial to the
Chinese government because the Chinese government, the pro communist Chinese government,
very much does not want this story to be told.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Why so Nyun is based in New York. We're not
from China. A lot of our performers were, and some
of our choreographers and composers were elite artists from China.
But they realized that they can ask they cannot actually
revive these ancient traditions in China. It could only be
done outside of the control of the Communist Party. Because
the Chinese Communist Party, when it came to power last century,
(23:04):
the first thing it's set out to do was wiped
out all the traditions that were there and bring in
this Soviet import of Marxism and Leninism and Stalinism and
all this stuff communism. And so they did these violent
campaigns like the Cultural Revolution, and they killed sixty to
eighty million people over the course of their rule and
wiped out this culture that had been there for so long,
(23:26):
for thousands of years. And so shan Yun was established
in New York in two thousand and six as a
nonprofit organization by elite Chinese artists from around the world.
Many of them Americans and said, hey, let's bring back
this culture. And so because of that, the Chinese Communist
Party in Beijing have tried to stop us this entire time.
For eighteen years, they've been done doing all these things
to try to sabotage our performance, sending threats, slashing our tires,
(23:50):
trying to hack our website. Our website was just attacked
the other day with ten thousand ips at the same time.
It's been a battle for eighteen years. And they're also
trying to get into social media, mainstream media to try
to smear our reputation. But hey, we're not slowing down.
We're just in Huntsville and in Birmingham. We got eight
companies touring around the world.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
At the same time right now and leisha this activity
that they're involved in, it's illegal, I would think in
this country. So how are they able to flout our
laws and do this in spite of that?
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, and that's a huge question that our administration needs
to face right now because it's part of a much
larger transnational repression campaign, that's what they're calling it, or
they also call it malign influence campaign, where they've extended
their type of dictatorial rule and oppression to the US
and other countries, and the US is probably the biggest target.
(24:39):
And this of course goes to everything from intellectual property
fast to tracking and catching and expatriating Chinese dissidents, despying
on people. We had two Chinese nationals were caught by
a sting operation by d FBI for trying to sabotage
our company here in the US, trying to revoke our
nonprofit status, trying to bribe an IRS official. They're trying
(25:01):
to undermine our freedom. They're trying to tell us what
we can and cannot watch, what we need to think
and believe, and they're trying to do us on social
media platforms. You know, we know about TikTok, of course,
but trying to manipulate and actually so discord within American society.
So this is where it gets really complicated, because here
we have a Chinese performance that is actually aligned with
American values in American freedoms being attacked by the Chinese
(25:23):
Communist Party from China.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
And in the Birmingham area, we actually have quite a
few people who are originally from China. They work in
the research end of a UAB. We have a big
population there, and so this is something that you probably
These are probably some of your friends and neighbors who
they could tell you that they've been in these situations
where there's pressure put on them because they have family
members who are back in China who you know, they're
(25:44):
living here and their lives are being influenced.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Our company is mostly ethnic Chinese, and they're Chinese from
all over the world. You know, I'm surrounded I'm not
Chinese myself, I'm surrounded by I think Chinese people all
day long. And these are people who came to the
United States and our company, and many people like this
around the country came here very talented, highly educated, came
here legally started something, and very entrepreneurial created this amazing
(26:09):
performing arts company. Shiny is the fastest growing performing arts
company in American history, and did this during the time
of a recession, a pandemic and everything. And they've been successful.
And now the CCP is coming after them. And I
will tell you all the performers in our company are blacklisted.
They made that choice that they said, you know what,
we're not We understand the pressure, we understand that we're
(26:30):
against the biggest satalitarian regime in human history that we're
aware of. But we're going to stand up for what's right.
And so they're all blacklisted. They can't go back to China.
Some of my friends here, you know, their elderly parents
back in China. You know, they could not go see
them one last time. They couldn't see their kids getting married.
This is the kind of told that they face for
standing up for what they believe is right. And it's
(26:51):
a big.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Problem in Lesha. It is because this problem is a
lot of us look at it and think where we're
power was to do something about it, but we could
do some thing about it. What what should we be doing.
Who should we be asking our legislators, our the executive branch,
who is it in our government we should be asking
to try and do something about the situation.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Well, that's a great question, I think. So the first
thing I think is it's important to differentiate between China,
Chinese culture, Chinese people, and the Chinese Communist Party, because
what the Chinese Communist Party will do, and we saw
them do this during the pandemic, is they will try
to conslate it. If you're going to say, hey, wait
a minute, where did this virus come from. They're saying, ah,
you're racist, but no, this is a legitimate question. We
can ask if the Chinese Commist Party had something to
(27:33):
do with us, we can ask about your oppression. And
in fact, when we're speaking up against oppression in China,
we're actually siding with the Chinese people. And so they
like to make these concepts up, but really the Chinese
tabast parties and it's foreign to China on Chinese civilization,
and so that's one thing, that's one thing that Chinin
does really really well as we make it clear we're
celebrating traditional Chinese culture and this heritage and the values
(27:54):
which are really universal ideas like loyalty and compassion, integrity
and faith and all these things. And this has nothing
to do with the Chinese Communists Party. In fact, we
have no problem criticizing Chinese Commanist Party. That's the first
thing I think it's really important to understand. And then
I think a lot of this is happening right now
at a federal level, but a lot is also happening
at a state level, and you know, in terms of
(28:14):
our agricultural purchases and Confucius Institutes and the students associations
and all these issues that are being looked at at
a state level in some states Arkansas, Missouri have already
taken measures to deal with this, So I think at
the local level is a really good place to address it,
as well as at the national level. The administration right now,
it's in a really good position to have some people
(28:35):
who are very in tune with these issues. You know,
Rubio has been on top of this for many years,
and we'd like to see the administration take a stronger
stance on transnational repression and really condemn it and try
to find out who's behind these things and send them back.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Alesha Isilmisha, thank you so much for joining us this
week on Viewpoint Alabama. And I will definitely pay more
close attention to things like this in the future, because
I think a lot of times we dismiss it because
we don't understand it, and that's a failing on our part.
And I say mine, but a lot of people kind
of are the same way. We don't understand other cultures,
so a lot of times we don't try to understand
(29:11):
how it actually fits into our world, because when we
allow the Chinese communists to win, everybody loses, not just
the people in China, but the world.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
That's right, that's absolutely right. And we'll be back next year.
And I'm sorry we missed you guys this time, but
we'll be back. We have a whole new show every year.
We usually tour during the winter, so we'll be back
in Alabama. I always love to perform there, you know.
It's such a warm reception both whether and people. We
love it there and so we're looking forward.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
To that next year.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Thank you very much, Lsha, thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
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