12-22-25 FULL SHOW - Deborah Flora Fills In For Mandy

Deborah Flora fills in for Mandy! Talking Christmas movies and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy connellyn on KLA ninety one FM.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Say guy, can the Nicety US three by Donald Keith
sad Babe.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Welcome to the Mandy Connall Show. This is Deborah Flora
sitting in for my friend Mandy Connell. A rod in
the studio as well. Indeed, and we are going to
have a wonderful show today, so appreciate your joining me
and tuning in. Want to hear from you five six
six nine zero. That is a text line. We will
be throughout the show talking about Christmas movies. Some of

(00:49):
you may know that my husband and I have a
movie production company. He was a producer with Walt Disney
Studios and left because we wanted to make things that
we really even though there are some good Disney movies.
But we will be talking about that. So I want
to hear from you five six six nine zero. What
is your favorite Christmas movie? You can share a couple

(01:12):
we will get to the enduring age old question.

Speaker 5 (01:16):
Is die Hard a Christmas movie?

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah? I think if you've heard me before, you know
my vote on that. But I'll leave you wondering five
six six nine zero. Want to wish you a very
very merry Christmas week and to all of our Jewish
friends out there, happy last day of Hanukkah. It started
obviously last I believe it was Monday. It was on
December fourteenth, ending today on the twenty second, Praying that

(01:42):
you all are having a truly joyous and most of
all peaceful Honukah season. That's kind of what I want
to kick off because I've been thinking a lot about
what to talk about this season as Mandy Connell is out.
This is Debah Flora sitting in for Mandy. And you know,
obviously some of the biggest stories of the year have
been about the rise in anti Semitism. Are going to

(02:03):
also talk about the rise in attacks against Christians as well,
particularly in Nigeria, and I will be here next week.
We're going to talk about a year in review on
the thirtieth. But I want to kick this off because
this is ending Hanukkah this week. Today it is ending,
and many of you may know that the Anti Defamation
League has found that in the past ten years, there's

(02:27):
been a nearly nine hundred percent increase in anti Semitic
attacks not all physically violent, you know, some basically you know, vandalism,
other things like that, but there have been some very
violent ones, as we know, a couple of ones to
be reminding ourselves of, because as this year comes to

(02:48):
a conclusion, there were college campus riots. There were anti
Semitic riots where Jewish students were made to feel as
though they had.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
To hide and were intimidated.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
We know in May twenty twenty five, a young Israeli
embasicly couple, they were staffers, they were just about to
be engaged. Yar Litchinski and Sarah Milgram were murdered in
front of the Jewish Museum in DC by someone shouting
free Palestine. You know, Colorado was not immune to it.
And believe me, I am going to get to the
good news on this story. But I think this ending

(03:22):
of Honika season today, we all need to remember what
has been going on in our country and around the world.
So in here in Colorado there's been a four hundred
percent increase in anti semitism in five years.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
YEP.

Speaker 5 (03:39):
Got to look in our own backyard and one of the.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Most egregious examples of that was in June of this
year with the Boulder molotov cocktail thrower.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
That was Mohaned Solomon.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
He was an Egyptian national, and my husband and I
went to the Run for Their Lives March just the
week after through that, because that was what was going
on up and Boulder Pearl Street Mall. People were walking
to remember and work towards the release of all of
the hostages from the horrible October seventh attack. But of

(04:15):
course that was in itself attacked by Solomon, who injured
several and eighty two year old Karen Diamond died of
her injuries. We put these together, there are several things
that we need to be looking at, to say the least,
and I want to say that also during this Honka
season last week, many from the Jewish community in Boulder

(04:38):
lit a menora on the same spot where it happened,
and when we were walking with them the week afterwards,
it was a beautiful example of the good that people
can do. When we were walking along, we were walking
along with those who were Democrats, those who were Republicans,
those were agnostic politically, and some were religious people, some

(04:58):
were not, but everyone coming together to say this violence
must stop. The hostages needed to be released and this
is what happened. So we're talking just about this last
day of Hanukah. Some headlines that we need to remember,
and of course the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney, Australia,
where fifteen people were killed and a dozen more injured,

(05:19):
and that was a shooting targeting a Honukah by the
Sea celebration.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
So first of all, to all my Jewish.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Friends out there, wishing you a happy Honukhah and a
peaceful twenty twenty six that I think is something we're
all going to be praying for. But I want to
switch the gears a little bit on the Bondy attack
in Australia.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
The Bondi Beach attack.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
What I find so I don't know dismaying, I guess,
is what was Australia's reaction to this attack. Yes, there
was another tear attack that was sorted by the Sidney police.
Good on them, because there was another planned anti Semitic,
pro radical Islam attack that was planned at the memorial

(06:04):
for the Bondie victims.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
So that is a good thing that's going on.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Because we do need to expose these radical cells wherever
they are and whatever is going on. But what was
the Australian government's position on this. Oh, well, it was
to titan hate speech and gun laws.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
Now, let's just talk about this for a moment.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Because the shooters, a father and his son, owned guns
legally under the current Australian law, so that wouldn't have
changed anything. And Australia already has some of the strictest
gun laws in the entire world, actually ever since nineteen
ninety six.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
For instance.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
They do not believe in the right to self defense.
That is not for them a viable reason to have
a weapon. I want to pause here for a moment.
Some of you may have heard me telling the story,
by the way, if you're just tuning in Deborah Flora
sitting in for my good friend Mandy Connell. But as
a single woman, I'm from Colorado, but I was living
in LA at the time. I ended up with a

(07:04):
stalker and I remember I was told under those extreme
laws that I did not have a right to legally
own a gun.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
There were people that I will not mention who they were.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
In law enforcement, great folks who said, you know what,
go ahead and purchase a weapon anyway, and if you
have to kill your assailant in self defense. We'll try
to get you a short prison sentence. That to me
is fundamentally wrong. No matter what country you live in,
no matter what state you live in, no matter what
city you live in, everybody should have a fundamental right

(07:36):
to protect themselves. And what happened, by the way, well
Israel national gefin Bitten is now in a coma because
he didn't have a weapon to defend but he rushed
the shooters, got shot three times and was not able
to defend himself with a weapon to stop these people.
And many of you know that the Crime Prevention Research
Center has shown that ninety four to ninety eight percent

(08:02):
of mass shootings take place in gun free zones. All
we have to do is look at Colorado to understand
that the Aurora theater shooting. I grew up in Aurora.
That perpetrator, that murderer passed by several several theaters along
the way that were not gun free to go to one.
That was why, because time and time again we have

(08:24):
seen that mass shooters. I'm not just talking about general
crime that happens, gang violence or crime violence. No, we're
talking about those who intend to go to a spot
to inflict as much damage as possible. Ninety eight percent
of that happens in gun free zones. Why because the
people who want to do that are They may be evil.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
But they are not stupid.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
They want to perpetrate as much chaos and damage and
destruction as possible.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
So Australian has this wrong.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
And by the way, as far as tightening hate speech,
let's just remember freedom of speech is a core tenant
to keeping a society more civilized.

Speaker 7 (09:04):
In fact, what.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
Happened during prior to World War Two.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
The German government at that time actually infringed even further
on free speech, allowing them to take control and causing
those who would have dissented against the Nazi policies they
acted against them. That was a precursor to some of
the chaos and the Holocaust that we saw.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
So why are we talking about this.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
We're talking about the end of Hanukkah today and one
of the things that we need to look at. We're
going to get to some more Christmas related topics as well,
but we do need to all come together and look
at this. And we can't tolerate from any source, by
the way, and have to admit and have to point

(09:50):
out that this is coming from both sides that are
extreme and radicalized. There's been a lot of talk. Many
people know about Nick Poin. He needs to be called
out in the highest possible way.

Speaker 5 (10:02):
He is free speech, and that is fine.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
I wouldn't want to take that away from him, but
he needs to be called out for the anti Semitic
rhetoric from the other side. And one of the things
I also want to point out about this conversation is
when we are talking about supporting our Jewish fellow citizens, friends, neighbors,
around our country, around our communities, around our world, a

(10:25):
lot of people like to skew this and say supporting
Israel is not in America's best interest. I beg to
differ wholeheartedly. As the only freely democratically elected country in
the entire Middle East that shares the value of intrinsic
value of every single human being, a country where Muslims

(10:47):
and Christians and Jews and atheists and agnostics all live
together freely. The fight that they are fighting there is
actually keeping that fight from coming here. It's already happening here,
as we've been talking about. But if you haven't seen
any of the October seventh bodycam footage, Hamas bodycam footage.

(11:08):
I encourage you to do so because Benjamin Netnaw, who,
whatever you think of him, he was right when he
said this is a fight between civilization and barbarism. So
got to call it out wherever we see it. I
love this, by the way. George Washington said this in
his letter to a Jewish synagogue in Rhode Island. And
mare's a country that gives bigotry, no sanction to persecution.

Speaker 5 (11:30):
No assistance. That is one of our founding fathers.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
So happy last day of Hanukkah to everyone who's listening
who is Jewish. And now Merry Christmas to those of
you who sellow very Christmas. And they are not mutually exclusive,
by the way, because if you've ever read the Bible,
you understand that Jewish and Christian people share in the
entire what we would call Old Testament. They would call
it the Torah, the Prophets, etc. So it is actually

(11:57):
an important thing to recognize the Judeo Christian founding of
this country. A couple of texts coming in that I
do want to read. Criticizing Jews is not anti Semitic.
It depends on whether or not you are criticizing the
entire Jewish people as a collective that would be very
much by definition as anti Semitic. It is always okay

(12:18):
to criticize individuals because in any group. We in America,
one of our founding principles as judging people as individuals,
not condemning an entire group of people. So it depends
on what you're talking about. And someone else said, it's
Christmas Week, this is your topic. Yes, because it's the
end of han Ko Week, at the beginning of Christmas Week.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
And wishing peace and joy to every group.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
So to continue with this, by the way, I want
to share some good news, which is many people do
remember the historic Abraham Accords were signed September fifteenth, twenty twenty,
led to what many called the Hana Kameracle were members
of the Arab community Uee Bahrain lit a Menora with

(13:04):
members of the israel population, the Jewish community, and that
was a beautiful thing, and that has been continuing to grow.
And I would say on a positive side, this year
has been a year of establishing greater peace around the world.
By the way, I'm a Christian and I love the
fact that the wish the angels gave to the shepherds

(13:24):
was peace on earth, goodwill to all mankind, and that
is important. That is what we're wishing, and that is
what I hope the prayers of those who believe in
praying is for everyone this time of year and going
into the new year.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
By the way, to me, this time of year is an.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
Amazing pause where we can take a moment think about
what peace is about with our neighbor with those around us,
around our world, around our country, and also, by the way,
pray for those who stand in the gap to protect us. Now,
some of these good news stories, you know, the October

(14:05):
peace deal between Israel and Hamas. There's a lot of
work to be done there and we'll see what happens.
But the remaining hostages were returned and that was a
beautiful thing. And by the way, a friend of mine
who lives in Israel sent a picture of when that
day happened. Israel, in many ways seemed to be more

(14:25):
patriotic about America than some of our fellow citizens. They
had red, white and blue that was being lit up
on buildings, understanding and recognizing that this is one more
time where America stood in the gap, just like we
did during World War Two. Okay, switching now to the
attacks on Christians that we need to pay attention to.

(14:47):
I got to tell you big shout out, and I
never thought that I would be saying this. Nothing against
Nicki Minaje or not, but she has really been standing
up pointing out the attacks against Nigerians. And this is
important because if we're going to we talk about peace
on earth, we need to recognize where real fighting is happening.
We will get to Christmas movies. I want to make

(15:07):
sure that you know that, so please text keeps texting
them in five six six nine zero. I'm seeing a
lot of nominees for favorite Christmas movies coming in. We
will talk about whether or not Diehard is a Christmas movie,
and I'll actually get a Rod's opinion on that later
in the program.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
But right now, we're just talking about some of.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
The headlines because there are some reports coming out that
we know about the Nigerian Christians that were being persecuted.
We know that Nicki minaj has spoken out about that
wonderfully working with the current administration pointing that out. And
I got to tell you that's one more place that
I'm praying for peace. In the world, and when you
look at some of the reports, even even here in

(15:50):
the United States, there has been a huge increase in
attacks on Christians and churches and those of faith from
that side of the aisle. And it's something that we
need to talk about and we need to point out
because we all can stand up against this, whether you
are a person of faith or not.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
It's an important thing to realize. We've seen this all
the way.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
Also, by the way, in Europe, recently, several German towns
have canceled their traditional markets this year. And why because
the cost of security is too high.

Speaker 5 (16:27):
That is why this has happened.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
And I remember studying in Salzburg, Austria. I was there
during the Christmas season, went to a Munich market, went
to the market in Salzburg and a couple of other
places around Europe, and was a beautiful gathering people from
all faiths.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
Coming and enjoying the meaning of the season.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
And that is under a threat, that is under attack,
and we need to look at that and realize what's
going on. I'm going to be sharing a lot of
good news about this as well, but just in case
we are not aware of that. As we're talking about
peace of the season. This is happening not just in Germany,
but in France and in other areas as well, and

(17:06):
in Berlin.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
Just recently, German authorities.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
Announced the rest of five men suspected of plotting an
attack on a Christmas market.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
It's time for us all to stand up and say
that this is.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
Not okay, to speak out, call it out wherever we
see it, because this is not a left or a right,
it's a right or a wrong issue. So wanted to
talk about that because that has been one of the
big stories of this year. It is continuing, and one
of the things I hope that you will be joining
me with me in prayer is for Nigeria, where three

(17:43):
hundred young girls were recently kidnapped and we're praying for
their returns. Some have been returned, but usually the ones
who returned are those who denounce their faith. You know,
I want to hear from you on that. If you're
a person of faith or not faith, what do you
think about this? What do you think about the fact
that there's been a four hundred percent increase of anti

(18:05):
Semitism right here in Colorado, nine hundred percent in ten
years in the United States?

Speaker 5 (18:10):
Of America. This is a season where we can all
come together.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
And by the way, I love the fact that as
a Christian, when I tell my Jewish friends Happy Khanikah,
they respond with Merry Christmas, no offense taken. And I
hope that's how we can all enter into this season.
So I want to read one more comment before we
go to a break, and it says this was about

(18:35):
the Australian gun laws, that they have some the strictest laws,
and it said their level of mass shootings is much
lower than ours.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
Well, it depends on how you're looking at it.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
Actually there's been a reduction, but there's also been a
larger number of people being killed in these particular incidents
because there's no one there to stop it. But what
the point is is that stricter gun laws would not
have stopped the shooters in Sydney, Australia.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
So thank you for chiming in.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
I do appreciate that we're going to head to a
break in a moment. When we come back, we're going
to be switching gears here because one of the most
recent headlines is that the Trump administration just lowered the
schedule of marijuana from I believe it's Class one to
class three, taking it from the same level as opium

(19:26):
down to the level as tylan nol with codeine in it.
We're going to talk about what that means. And I
got to say, as a mom of millennial excuse me
of gen z ers, this is a topic that I've
been paying attention to a lot. When we come back,
we'll talk about that.

Speaker 5 (19:44):
Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
Deborah Flora sitting in for Mandy Connell. Luke Nifferatos. He's
the co founder of Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, and
we are talking about the fact that President Trump just
moved marijuana from a Schedule one to a Schedule three drug.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Luke, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (20:04):
Debra, thank you for having me.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
And Merry Early Christmas to you, Mary, Early Christmas to
you as well. Thank you so much for taking time
this week. Well, Luke, you've been talking a lot about this.
Tell us what this means, moving marijuana from a Schedule
one to a Schedule three drug, and what your concerns
are about that.

Speaker 8 (20:23):
Absolutely so, what we're looking at is President Trump has
decided to continue and it's very odd he's decided to
allow the President Biden's rule that he had his Drug
Enforcement Administration draw up during Biden's administration. Along with Rachel Levine,
they basically, long story short, broke a bunch of rules

(20:46):
used throughout a tests that have been used for more
than twenty years to decide which schedule a drug should
be on and basically made everything work so that marijuana
would go to Schedule three from Schedule one where it
currently resides. For President Biden ended up, you know, he
lost the election. This rule was left in limbo at
the Drug Enforcement Administration and Trump has been looking at

(21:07):
it and he decided that he's going to let this proceed.
So there's still some more proceedings to go. This is
going to be going into a hearing at the Drug
Enforcement Administration, so there will be parties such as mine
my organization will be testifying and advocating against this, and so.
Big picture, the reason why this is a bad idea
is because moving marijuana to Schedule three is going to

(21:29):
give the marijuana industry a more than two billion dollar
tax break. They will now get access to tax deductions
for their advertising expenses. And this couldn't come at a
worse time when they're advertising is relentlessly targeting kids in
Colorado and across the country. Their products have never been
more potent, announcing products up to ninety nine percent potency.

(21:51):
The harm that they're doing is substantial. So this is
I think, very bad timing for a decision like this.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I've you and I've talked about
this before on the air and off, and our kids
are gen zers, and thank goodness, they navigated, you know,
their teen years without getting engaged in all of this.
But I've got friends who've talked about, you know, their
nineteen year old sons having a psychotic break or all
these different things. And i think one of the big
things that there's a miscommunication on is what you just said,

(22:16):
how much more potent the THCHC is now in marijuana
than it was quite a while ago. I mean, this
is not your mom's or your dads or your uncle's marijuana.
This is pretty intense. In fact, there are some studies
that have shown a Dutch study that as many as
thirty percent of schizophrenia amongst younger men is linked to

(22:36):
marijuana use. Is linked to also increase in violence, increasing crime.
Tell me a little bit, tell us a little bit
more about that and the trends we've seen here in
the United States.

Speaker 8 (22:49):
Yeah, I mean the trends are pretty concerning, and we're
obviously seeing them much more acutely right here at home
in Colorado. A dear friend, Laura Stack, who now lives
in Castle Pines for Sun, died three years ago from
a marijuana related psychosis event. I know a dozen more
moms right in my communities that I've lived in in
Colorado that have experienced similar tragedies. So we're seeing it

(23:12):
right at home. But also that the studies are showing
this as well. So you rightly noted that Dutch study
they're literally attributing thirty percent of all the cases of
permanent schizophrenia among young men to their marijuana. Yeoh, this
is not the same drug. I think a lot of people,
like you said, they think, ah, you know, what is
smoking weed going to do? But it's literally like for

(23:34):
the last thousand years, societies have known marijuana as like,
you know, a michelob ultra or something, and then all
of a sudden, over the space of ten years, we've
converted michelob ultra to an entire bottle of everclear. Everyone's
using the everclear the entire bottle like they would with
drinking just a michelob ultra. So hopefully that brings it

(23:54):
home for people. This is a totally different drug now.
So you know, marijuana may have seemed harmless thirty years ago,
so today it is now an intensely psychotic drug.

Speaker 9 (24:03):
That the addiction rate.

Speaker 8 (24:05):
So there was a new study that just came out
a few days ago medical marijuana patients. They have a
more than thirty percent addiction rate to marijuana, and you
compared that to oxyconton during the opioid crisis. People are
gonna look this up because you're not gonna believe me
when I say this. Oxycotton's addiction rate was seven to
thirteen percent at the height of the opioid crisis. So, right,

(24:28):
this drug has radically changed. It is much more addictive.
And if this rule goes through, the industry will get
a giant tax break, a huge financial incentive to continue
to push these drugs and make them even worse.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah, it's interesting because the argument, and I'm a free
market person and I hear these arguments obviously from the
libertarian side about just you know, making all drugs legal.
But I think the challenges aren't. Obviously, I've got a
mom's heart towards this. What it communicates to young people,
the misunderstanding of how strong this drug is. Now it
is legal, and you were talking about some some are

(25:02):
ninety nine percent THHC potency in marijuana. Well, in these
last couple of minutes, the other organization, Luke, that you
are executive vice president of is called Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
So I want to end with this, what are smart
approaches to marijuana?

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Because this doesn't seem like it's going to communicate just
how dangerous it really is.

Speaker 8 (25:22):
Yeah, a smart approach to marijuana is to get back
to discouraging drug use. And you make a great point
about the libertarian arguments drug legalization is the least libertarian
thing you can do. It actually brings about the nanny
state in a way that we've never seen in the
history of this country. We're talking about corporations that will
be monetizing the addiction and chemical slavery of Americans, that

(25:43):
people who will be making hundreds of millions of dollars
selling addictive drugs, addicting our use, addicting the public. And
we think we're going to tax them and that's somehow
going to offset that. The cost of millions of Americans
being addicted, having mental health issues, not even having the
short term memory to be able to I have a
school bus or do any kind of you know, a
blue collar job. That's not going to help us at all.

(26:05):
Drug legalization leads us to a total dystopian future. So
a smart approach to marijuana is a smart approach to
any other drug, which is, we need to discourage illicit
drug use. We need to educate people about the facts
of the harms of these drugs like marijuana, and if
it has to be legal, if a state has legalized it,
like Colorado, we need to treat it like tobacco, whereas

(26:26):
it strongly discouraged, is kept.

Speaker 9 (26:28):
Out of public places, it is.

Speaker 8 (26:29):
Not allowed to advertise. We in Colorado are letting this
all over our billboards, We're letting it on the radio,
We're letting it everywhere. And this industry runs the capital
right now, that all needs to change.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
Right Well, It's interesting to me because you know what
I would love to see, and I do believe that
there's ways to thread this needle.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
I'd like to see a greater effort as you're.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
Saying on a public awareness campaign of the sometimes ninety
nine percent potency, what's happening to young people?

Speaker 5 (26:58):
There was a great ad not so long that I've remembered.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Actually it was pretty long ago, but it was just
it was simply about when even when marijuana was less potent,
just about how nothing happens in your life.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
And it was a really great at campaign.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
But instead this is going to give, as you're saying,
nearly two billion dollar tax break that will go into
a lot more advertising to people about the reason to
use marijuana instead of not use it. So well, we're
heading to a break. But Luke, thank you so much
for this information. Where can people find out more? Because
I'm getting texts where people are, you know, asking questions
about the details that you're sharing.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
Where can they find the information that you just shared?

Speaker 8 (27:35):
Absolutely, go to learn about sam dot org. Okay for
rescheduling page. You can see all the information about marijuana rescheduling,
what it would mean, in addition to all of the science,
all of your questions answered. Learn about sam dot org.
We are the nation's top science based organization working on this.
You won't get better information than.

Speaker 9 (27:52):
On our website.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
Well, thank you, Thank you for all you're doing for awareness.
I appreciate Luke, and Merry Christmas to you.

Speaker 8 (27:58):
Thank you, God bless you, Mary Christmas, God bless you.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
Take care well.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
We're about to head to a break. When we come back,
I'm going to read some of your nominations for Best
Christmas Movies five six six nine zero. We'll be talking
about this throughout the show. Deborah Flora sitting in for
Mandy Connell, so we're.

Speaker 6 (28:14):
Switching gears here.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
We're going to talk a little bit.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
About Christmas movies.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
We will continue to talk about them throughout the show,
ending with the big debate of all time.

Speaker 5 (28:23):
Is Diehard a Christmas movie? I have my own vote
on that, but.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
Hey, wander reason of the texts that are coming in,
feel free to text five six six nine zero, five
six six nine zero.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
Going to read some of the nominations here.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
One person nominated, one listener Christmas Vacation. There are a
couple of Diehards. I'll talk about that in a moment.
A couple that stand out that I find interesting because
we started the show talking about one of the messages
of the angels on the Christmas Night was peace on Earth,
goodwill towards all mankinds. So I do feel that some
of these nominations also are interesting because they're set against real.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
Backus, such as Silent Night.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
Somebody brought that up starring Linda Hamilton, and that was
a movie in twenty twenty two and it was set
in nineteen forty four in the r Den Forest during
World War Two. That's an interesting one. Reminds me of
joyeu noel. If you're French, I'm sure I just totally
murdered that pronunciation. But that's also an interesting one because

(29:23):
that one takes place during World World War One, and
that's based on a real story. This was a two
thousand and five war drama film that depicts a Christmas
truce of nineteen fourteen. Has been told in many different
ways during World War One, showcasing humanity shared by soldiers
from opposing sides, and it's a really interesting time where

(29:45):
there was a brief pause in the fighting during World
War One, a horrific battle scene with the trench warfare
and all of that, and singing from one side. A
Silent Night introduced singing from another side, and next thing
you know that they come out and they're exchanging whatever
meager supplies. They had a soccer game European you know

(30:07):
football game broke out, and that is also a really
beautiful moment of when we can see one another again
just as human beings, even if we're on opposing size
of an issue. Unfortunately, of course it didn't last after that,
but it was Christmas Eve.

Speaker 5 (30:24):
So that's a great film.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Some of the other ones that people are bringing up
is Crampis that is one half to be have not
seen that one? The Diehard one is an interesting question.
So I'm going to set this theory out there. A
Christmas movie by my definition, and I am behind the microphone,
so I get to set the definition. Is not just

(30:45):
set during Christmas time or have a Christmas wreath or
putting a Santa hat on a you know, a terrorist
that you just murdered. But no, Instead, for me needs
to be the theme of the movie redemption, the warmth
of this season. Be a movie that if you were
to take Christmas out of it, could it still be told?

(31:07):
And yes, I do think Diehard could be told even
if it wasn't Christmas. It could have been a New
Year's e party, it could have been you know, a
different kind of office party during that attack on the
I can tell me Plaza.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
So that's my view of it.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
But it is right in line with another movie that
people have just brought up, which is Violent Night.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
I also have not seen that one.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Now, if you are an adventure person, you know you
really like action movies. I do think from what I understand,
that is a type of Santa Claus that will do
anything to protect a family during Christmas. So right on
we have a shout out to a classic Christmas movie
holiday in I'm gonna share one in this break before

(31:52):
this break that I want to share that I think
is a surprising one that we really enjoy as a family.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
If you've not.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Seen the movie Klaus Spelled with the k Klaus, it
is a new telling animated movie about the origin of
Saint Nicholas, and amazingly, even though it's a very unique
kind of animation style, very kind of blocky, two dimensional,
it ends.

Speaker 5 (32:16):
With one of the most heart warming moments and.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Is filled with a lot of elements that represent faith
and the real meaning of the season. So that's the
one I'm going to encourage you to see. If you
have not you're not an animated feature person, there's some
others we're going to discuss as well. We're going to
head to a break, but that is our first round
of share your favorite Christmas movie five six.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Six nine zero.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
We will be talking about this each hour as we
are just three days out from Christmas. So as we
had your break. Deborah Flores sitting in from my friend
Mandy Connell. Wishing you a happy last Dave Hanukah and
a very very merry Christmas week, we will be back.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
The Mandy Connall Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
No, it's Mandy connellyn on KLA nine seven.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Say can.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
And Donald your real sad bab Welcome back to the
Mandy Connalls Show.

Speaker 4 (33:26):
Deborah Flora sitting in for my friend Mandy Connell. She
is on break this beautiful Christmas week. Hope yours is
off to a great start. We're going to jump right
into it because a recent headline here in Colorado was
about a school district twenty nine that's one of the
largest school districts in El Paso County, joined with I

(33:46):
believe some other school districts and they sued CHASSA, the
color High School Activities Association the Colorado Anti Discrimination Act,
Katta and Attorney General Phil Wiser regarding they're forcing schools
in Colorado to violate Title nine, violate the executive order

(34:07):
that President Trump put in place, and discriminating against young
women because here in Colorado, school districts have been forced
to allow biological males.

Speaker 5 (34:16):
To compete in girls' sports.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
Well, School District twenty nine led this lawsuit and it.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Was just settled.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Joining me to talk about what this means as Lorie Thompson,
she's a deep forty nine school board member, former board
chaw and now she is secretary of that school board.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
Laurie, thank you for joining me.

Speaker 10 (34:34):
Oh, thank you so much for inviting me and for
having me today.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
You got it absolutely, So tell us a little bit
about the reason why you and part of the school
board led this lawsuit.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
To tell us a little bit about the reasoning.

Speaker 10 (34:49):
Well, the gymesis of it actually predates back to April,
when myself and several other board members across the state
signed the letter to Chassa saying, Hey, we need some
clarification here because we have conflicting bylaws. One by law
said that you will allow trans transgender athletes to compete.

(35:10):
The other bylaw said that if you're allowing boys to
play against girls, that is destroying the intents of CHASSA
and it could suppress participation by female athletes. So we
had two conflicting bylaws, and we wanted to make sure that, hey,
we don't want to be sanctioned if we stood up
for girls and girls sports because biological men are typically

(35:33):
stronger and they're better athletes. And so they just said
they refuse to do it, give us any type of clarification.
They said that it had to be decided at the
federal level. And so that was when we started a
lawsuit which was against CHAPA, against Phil Wiser, and against TATA, saying, hey,

(35:54):
we've got some conflict here in we need clarity. So
I'm really excited about the settlement that was reached with CHASSA.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, it's so interesting to me that they were unwilling
to provide clarity because it's really just setting school districts
up to be either you know, prohibitive from competing in
Chassa's situations or lawsuits or whatever. It reminds me of
a James Madison quote. This is not exact, but he
said the way to enslave a free people is to
create as many rules and laws as possible and make

(36:22):
them as confusing as possible. So school districts want to
know how Yeah, Zach.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
Would not know how to uh, you know how to
continue in this situation.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
And obviously Title nine was instituted to protect girls' sports,
to have an equal opportunity for them to compete in
their own groups. So tell us about the outcome this
settlement and what it means for obviously d D twenty nine,
but other excuse me D forty nine, but other school
districts as well here in Colorado.

Speaker 10 (36:55):
Well, what's really exciting is we had I think there
were four school districts in four schools who joined into
this lawsuit. And the bottom line is it protects both
the athletes and the coaches. Before we risked the sanctions,
like let's say we are playing against a team that
had biological males if it's a girls team for this example,

(37:17):
and if we chose to forfeit, we risked being sanctioned
for unsportsman like conduct. We could have been denied participation
in playoffs. There were a lot of penalties that CHESSA
could have imposed upon us, and as part of the
settlement that is now off the table. It won't impact
our coaches or our students. We would take the forfeit

(37:39):
as a loss, but we're standing up for our female athletes.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Yeah, that's happening a lot around the country.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Do you see a lot of these brave young women
in particular doing what you know, the movement that Riley
Gaines and Jennifer Say have been calling a boy with
a hyphen in their meeting. You know, girls sports should
just be for biological girls. And you know, anyone who's
listening to this, science proves that even in utero, when
a maybe with certain chromosomes is doused with testosterone, that

(38:10):
already begins the increase in muscle density, bone mass, and
even pre puberty it seemed to show a big difference,
and then post puberty even more so.

Speaker 5 (38:19):
It's great that you guys are allowed now.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
To stand up and as I see in the settlement,
maintain separate sports teams for biological boys and girls. Keep
locker rooms and overnight travel accommodation separated, avoid chassa penalties.
And by the way, that one about overnight travel accommodations,
that's a huge situation going on in Jefferson County right now,
where an eleven year old girl was expected not only

(38:43):
to share a room, but a bed with a biological mail.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
So that's a very very good thing.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
There's a lot of confusion out there, Linda, And if
you're tuning in, Deborah Flora sitting in for Mandy Connell,
my guest Lorie Thompson, she's on the D forty nine
school board up. There's a lot of confusion out there.
Why there are too so much there's so much conflicting information.
You know, there was an executive order by President Trump
protecting girls' sports and safe spaces, and yet KATA had

(39:12):
a different policy chess, et cetera.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Can you clarify that?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
You know?

Speaker 10 (39:18):
All I can tell you is that common sense is
no longer common That's the only wagon.

Speaker 9 (39:25):
They have to explain it.

Speaker 10 (39:26):
Even when you look at civil rights, when you look
at the Civil Rights Division, when you look at protective classes.
In protective classes, yes, it does mention gender expression and
gender identity. It also mentions sex. And I don't know
how to square that circle because you have one protected
class that would infringe upon another protective class.

Speaker 7 (39:49):
Right, and so when you look at the.

Speaker 10 (39:51):
Orbitual Title nine regulations. Those were passed during the decade
when I was in high school, and the goal was
to give girls an equal chance to participate in sports,
equal funding, equal opportunity. And now I feel like everything
is being rolled back.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
Well, and I think that's exactly the point. I mean,
I think that you know, uh, transgender athletes.

Speaker 5 (40:14):
Should have an opportunity to compete.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
There could be you know, uh, there could be a
combined category they can compete with their biological sex and
that category. But it is against the fundamental purpose of
Title nine, particularly when it comes to allowing girls to have,
you know, a leg up when it comes to scholarships
for athletes and and all of that. And there's so

(40:39):
many young women who are so demoralized by this.

Speaker 5 (40:42):
Now they're just giving up. And that's not right.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
So thank you for being one of the people standing up, Lorie,
for for you know, this this protection.

Speaker 10 (40:50):
You put the nail on the head too, because in
our fairness and sports policies we specifically state.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
That we have co ed sports fer Yeah, and that's
the way it can be.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
And there can be gender neutral bathrooms, in gender neutral
locker rooms or and many schools do have that if somebody,
for whatever reason doesn't feel comfortable changing next to someone else,
they can change in this place. I mean, I think
of Paula Scanlon, who was Leah Thomas's roommate, who had
suffered sexual abuse, and she was expected to stand there

(41:21):
and change and get in those swimsuits on. By the way,
it takes a long time right next to an intact
anatomical mail.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
And that's just not right.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
That that absolutely bucks what we understand to be protections.
You know, in D forty nine, Laurie, you guys have
had some really big wins parental Bill of rights, standing
up for girls' sports and safe spaces, including with.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
This lawsuit that just got settled.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
However, in the last election this past November, just a
little over a month ago, the board majority flipped.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
Can you talk about that and what this is going
to mean for some of the gains that you guys
have made.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
Well, I can tell you a.

Speaker 10 (41:59):
Lot of the the pro women, pro student policies that
we've passed, I do believe they're going to be in jeopardy.
After we did the fardess and sports, we also did
a bathroom bill, and basically we set up mean we
had boys rooms for biological mails. We have girls room
for biological girls, and then we will have a single

(42:20):
occupancy bathroom available in every building for anyone who needs it.
And this actually is in compliance with House Built two
three Dash one oh five seven from the state of Colorado,
which talks about the need for single occupancy non gendered
restrooms and for safety for both transgendered students or anyone

(42:43):
who doesn't feel comfortable. So that's the first one that's
on the chopping block. The newboard president has put it
on the docket for January eighth, our regular meeting to
see whether or not the new board wants to stand
behind our bathroom bill. We also so did a policy
to comply with State Requirements Policy ACA that has to

(43:05):
do with non legal name changes. And what we put
in our policy is that we needed both parental notification
and consent before we would call a student by a
different gender name at school. I don't know if that
one will come up or not.

Speaker 9 (43:23):
I suspect it will.

Speaker 10 (43:25):
I don't understand how parental notification is considered discriminatory or
that it whose children are they? That's bottom line. Well
I've heard that before, Yeah, Laurie, Yes, that's a very
good question.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
Laurie is referring to my guest Lorie Thompson. D forty
nine school board member, referred to the documentary that my
husband and I made by that title, and that's exactly right.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
You hit the nail on ned whose children are they?

Speaker 4 (43:52):
The parents have the right, the authority, and the responsibility
to guide the upbringing of their children, and then partner
would teach for what used to be that golden triangle
of education without all of these other things being pushed.

Speaker 5 (44:06):
Well, as we wind this up, Laurie.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
You know, as you've talked about this last election, there
was a flip in the school board, and I want
to get to this before we leave. We had to
happen in Douglas County or the last two cycles. There
was so much division within what I would call the
conservative side versus the teacher union driven side or the
progressive side, and we have lost the entire school board.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Basically, is that a part of what happened down for
you all in D forty nine.

Speaker 10 (44:37):
Yes, we have director districts, so you have to live
in a specific area to vote for certain seats. So
both myself and my vice president at the time, I
was the president and Jamie Lindavola was the vice president,
and we each had an opponent that was endorsed by
the Co Education Association, so we had opponents that were

(44:57):
ideologically different, right, and Jamie Lynn's race, we had another
candidate who drew her hat into the ring, which divided
the conservative vote, and Jamie Lynn lost by seventeenth votes.

Speaker 5 (45:13):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 10 (45:15):
And so that allowed the candidate endorsed by the CEA
to go up the middle, and that was a race
that should not have been lost. The woman who ran
against her signing off a little over seven hundred votes
and was warned repeatedly that this would happen, but she
didn't seem to care much. So that's when it comes
to personal ego versus what's best for our kids.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
Yeah, yeah, Well, thank you for standing for what's best
for our kids, as you have helped lead this lawsuit
from D forty nine school Board against Chasa Kada and
the Attorney General that now allows school districts in Colorado
to maintain separate bathrooms for biological girls, separate bathrooms for

(46:01):
biological males, and also then a gender neutral one, as
well as doing that for teams and locker rooms, which
is the way it should be. So if you're listening
wherever you are in Colorado, make sure that your school
board knows that this was the settlement and this should
be policy instead of being in fear of some kind
of sanctions if you actually are protecting girls' sports and

(46:24):
safe spaces.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
Laurie, I need to let you go, but thank.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
You for what you are doing.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
God bless you, and Merry Christmas.

Speaker 10 (46:30):
Merry Christmas.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
Thank you, you got it. Take care.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
Well. That was my guest, Laurie Thompson. She is a
D forty nine school board member, just had a big
win in that there was a settlement of this lawsuit.
I think she was saying maybe eight schools for public
and for charter charter being public, but a different version
that now allows school districts to without a fear of

(46:56):
sanctions or actions from Colorado the state government, maintain separate
sports teams for biological boys and girls, keep locker rooms
and overnight travel accommodations separated by biological sex, etc. Just
common sense. Well, we're going to switch it up. I
want to talk about some good news. I was talking
at the beginning of the show about when we think

(47:17):
about this holiday season, and we think about I love
what the Angel said to the shepherds in the Bible,
where they said peace on earth, goodwill toward all mankind.
And that brought up a starting out the conversation both
on the last day today of Hanukkah, obviously Christmas week
leading up to my favorite holiday of the year, both

(47:40):
as a Christian and as someone who just loves the
traditions as well. But we have to acknowledge that this
year there's been a lot of places where there hasn't
been peace, whether it is a lot of the anti
Semitic attacks, whether it is in Nigeria against Christians and
other places.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
But I want to share some good news, one point
of good news. We're going to share them.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
We'll talk about more as we go forward, but there
is now as we wind up towards the end of
the year, there's information that Bible cells have skyrocketed, and
I think this is interesting. It's up this year by
twenty two percent, and there was a surge, not surprisingly,
just in September. This September versus the last one of

(48:24):
thirty six percent increase in Bible cells. And this is
by the way, as all other book sells are.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Down by one percent.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
So this is the anomaly as people are you know,
not reading as much or you know, maybe listening to audiobooks,
although that could be in this statistic. But what happened
in September, Well, the Charlie Kirk assassination happened September tenth,
and that's why it's not surprising that especially amongst gen Z,
there has been a huge rise not just in Bible cells,

(48:56):
by the way, for them, among gen Z, Bible sales
are up nearly ninety percent from twenty nineteen to twenty
twenty four in just five years, an increase of nearly
ninety percent. Gen Z is also being shown to be
the generation that is more seeking of faith spiritual inspiration.

(49:19):
There are stories of big groups of students being student
led gathering in campuses across the country. No, I'm not
talking about the pro Palestine riots. I am talking about
gathering to have baptisms, Bibles being handed out. And by
the way, whether or not you are a fan of

(49:42):
reading the Bible, I am every single day.

Speaker 5 (49:45):
That's how I start my day.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
It is a book where you take the words of
Jesus in it and talks about loving God with your heart,
your soul, and your mind, loving your neighbor as yourself.
So whether or not you follow that or would call
yourself a Christian, and it is good news that this
younger generation is seeking that kind of inspiration. And when
you think about it, what's happened to this generation? I know,

(50:09):
as a mom of two gen Zers, this generation has
had more done to I would say, mess with them emotionally, spiritually, mentally,
physically and otherwise. This generation grew up with constant apocalyptic
warnings that every five to ten years, there was a
new declaration that the world would end in five to

(50:30):
ten years.

Speaker 5 (50:31):
And that's being pushed back.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
You know, you've even Bill Gates pulling back from the
climate change warnings to say that it's not as bad
as we thought. Actually we need to worry more about
the energy poor, et cetera. But they grew up with
that all the time. You compare that, by the way,
to what happened during the Cold War and when there
was the real threat of apocalyptic nuclear war. We never

(50:56):
said to our children, guess what, you know, the world
could end at any single moment, or your world could
end at any single moment, because that is so much
to put on children. Instead, we told them to get
under the desk. Yes, it was a false a false
reality of security, because we all know that if there
was a nuclear bomb, getting on your desk is not

(51:18):
going to make a difference.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
But what did it do.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
It allowed children to be children and not bear this
huge burden. When we wonder about the mental health issues
of this younger generation, think about what's been.

Speaker 5 (51:30):
Put on them.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
So number one, the apocalyptic warnings about the planet ending
over and over and over again. Number Two, COVID, an
actual shutdown of everything. I remember helping our children navigate it.
And one of the reasons why I was a part
a lot of the protests and rallies that were going

(51:51):
around to reopen our schools is because what was really
happening during COVID, What was the biggest threat to this
generation Gen Z was not dying of COVID.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
We're finding that out now what we all knew that.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Was not the biggest threat to them, but suicide, drinking,
drug use, depression, cutting, things like that increased tremendously. So
this generation that went through all of these different things
is now seeking a higher truth.

Speaker 5 (52:21):
I think that's pretty encouraging.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
Yes, there's a lot of darkness that's going on there.
They've also been, by the way, this generation been told
to question even the most basic pillars of what their
identity is. They're told to hate America, which is part
of their identity, so that's a self loathing. They are
told to question even the biological form that they're in.

(52:45):
And let me say, there are those who do have
gender dysphoria, and those children deserve all the support. But
this was introduced wholesale across.

Speaker 5 (52:55):
The board to this generation.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
So I don't think it's really that surprising, this good news,
and I'm sharing that in the last five years, good
good statistic to share this Christmas Week and the last
five years ninety percent eighty seven nearly ninety percent increase
of Bibles being bought amongst gen zers. I think that's

(53:19):
kind of encouraging because I do believe that book has
a whole lot of good news in it, to say
the least, including the Christmas Story.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
We, by the way, read that every Christmas morning.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
I also want to hear from you, what are some
of your favorite traditions five six six nine zero. Ours
really do fall in line with the real meaning of
the season. We do an Advent wreath and light the candle,
read from Scripture every week leading up to Christmas. Christmas
Eve service at our church, reading the real Bible story
the morning of Christmas. We have all the fun by

(53:53):
the way of the holiday traditions with Santa Claus and
all of that, but always in it with the deeper
measan the deeper meaning of the season. And it seems
like this generation is now searching for that, and I
believe they're gonna find it. I think we're gonna see
a huge seismic shift from just that one statistical loan

(54:14):
increase of ninety percent purchases of Bibles for gen Zers
in the last five years. Okay, we're gonna head your break.
When we come back, I'm gonna read some of your
comments five six six nine zero, continuing our debate about
whether or not Diehard is a Christmas movie, Continuing reading
some of these great movie suggestions, and I also want
to hear from you. What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

(54:37):
Five six six nine zero. Text us at five six
six nine zero. Deborah Floor is sitting in for Mandy Connell.
What are your favorite Christmas movies? Five six six nine zero.
I have to admit I'm more into this than some folks,
because many of you may know that even though I'm
from Colorado, grew up on Lowery Air Force Base and Aurora,
I had temporary insanity, went to Hollywood. My husband was

(54:59):
a producer with Walt Disney Studios, and we have our
own film company.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
And love movies, love good movies. Get very frustrated with
not so great movies.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
I'm gonna share one that I think is an interesting
side note that I'm gonna have Arid join me here
in a moment. I've always wondered why we can't have
a really great movie about the original Christmas story.

Speaker 5 (55:23):
There was the movie called The Nativity.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
It was directed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwick, who I
think it's very talented.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
But here's my problem with it. The challenge is her Mary.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
Who is a lovely actress in a lot of other things,
but she's directed to be a little bit moody. I
call her moody Mary because in her day and age,
Mary mother of Jesus, it was traditional for young girls
at that time to be married at thirteen fourteen years old,
as approximately the age of Mary. Of course, the first
portion of the Nativity Story seems like Mary is more

(56:01):
like in Twilight. In the Twilight series, it's like, oh,
the ang stuff. I don't want to get married yet,
I want to be free. And that was just not
the feeling of the time period. But what I love
about it if you do watch it. Oscar Isaac's plays
one of the best representations of Joseph, and you just
see his heartache when Mary tells him that she is

(56:23):
expecting and she's expecting a child of the Holy Spirit
and it's going to be the Messiah, and of course
he just naturally doesn't believe her originally, and he's heartsick,
and he says, sir, you know why I.

Speaker 5 (56:34):
Chose you, Mary.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I chose you because you seemed like you were pure,
like you were a woman, a young woman seeking after God.
And it hurts my heart. And then as the Angel
appears to him. I'm not giving any spoilers, hopefully you
know the story already, but the Angel appears to Joseph
and lets him know this is in the Nativity Story,

(56:55):
the movie that was made by Catherine Hardwick, and the
Angel lets him know, no, this is true.

Speaker 5 (57:01):
It is okay to marry Mary and raise his child.
And he has this moment where.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
He says, will I ever be able to teach this
child anything? That's why one of my favorite Christmas songs
is actually called Joseph's Lallaby. I think it's by Uh,
I'm not. I think it's Third Day. I can't remember
the group, but it's or Mercy Me, But it's Joseph's
Laalaby what that burden must have been like? And I

(57:28):
think Joseph is the unsung hero. He is the one
that leads them out of Bethlehem before the slaughter of
the Innocence, who leads them into Egypt, who follows and
is led by the dreams, and protects Mary and Jesus
through the story. So that's a mixture review on the Dewtivity.
But I'm gonna open it up to a rod here
Ay Rod, what are your favorite Christmas movies?

Speaker 11 (57:50):
Number One is always going to be Elf. Elf is
So good, Elf one thousand. It's got the best Christmas themes,
it's got the great humor, great music. Obviously, with John
Willilliams Jon Favreau directing, I think it's one of will
Ferrell's best movies, probably just because of the Christmas feel
which is always the number one attribute of a good

(58:10):
Christmas movie.

Speaker 7 (58:11):
It feels like a Christmas movie.

Speaker 11 (58:12):
Has a Christmas right spirit die Hard, which is not
at all we'll talk about more later, not at all Christmas.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
The Christmas movie. I mean, it's interesting because somebody talked about, oh,
there was redemption in the story restoration of you know,
the main character and his wife. Yes, but that could
have happened at anytime. And I agree with you about
Elf because Elf, to me, the first time I saw it,
I thought, good on you, Jon Favreau. You didn't give
into cynicism of modern movies. You you restored the innocence

(58:41):
and the sweetness. And that's why I think it's one
of Wilfair's best role. He is so innocent in it,
even in his romancing of you know, the main character,
his love interests. So, okay, I'm with you on Elf.
Tell me some I was like, what's your favorite Childhood?

Speaker 7 (58:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (58:55):
The Childhood movie is the stop motion of a Year
without a Santa Claus. Yeah, same family as as Rudolph,
but a year without a Santa Claus, heat, miser, cold, miser.
Sanna needs some help with all the group to help
out the Santa Claus.

Speaker 7 (59:09):
So it's it's it's right there in the heartstrings. So
it's always that one.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
And by the way, that one has to be very
memorable because I still know the heat Meister song. I
will not sing it here that the heat Miser cold
Miser song. I know. Christmas there you go exactly. And
I loved Rudolph. I remember when as a young adult
we revisited all of those again. A group of us
got together had a Christmas party, being you know, alone
and away from family, and we watched that one little

(59:34):
drummer boy Rudolph, etcetera.

Speaker 5 (59:37):
So I'm with you on that.

Speaker 11 (59:39):
Yeah, that's number two for me. Number three is going
to be home alone always again. Christmas Spirit, Christmas feel,
all the Christmas themes, a real nice kind of comeback
story for the young spoiled brat kid that realizes his
family and the spirit of Christmas is really what he
wants in life.

Speaker 7 (59:56):
So that's always up there.

Speaker 5 (59:58):
And one note on that.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
One, I would say, the only part I have to
get past at the mom how mean everybody is to
McCaulay Culkin's character. You get passing and then there's all
that rejection resid little jerk. Yeah, and then John Candy,
who never said no to anything. He did that role
of the Polka King, and he did it with They
filmed all of the scenes within one day. And I

(01:00:20):
also heard that the original version had the you know,
the neighbor, the scary neighbor. The older gentleman was a
much more interesting and almost spiritual character. They talked about
how his hand was bleeding on both sides, how he's
sitting in the church, and the scene was cut out
where he talked about how he can't wait to revisit
his wife in heaven when he ends up being.

Speaker 5 (01:00:41):
With her again. But anyway, love that movie. Wish that
was still in there, but keep going.

Speaker 11 (01:00:45):
Yeah, yeah, home alone is always good. Say good night, Kevin,
Midnight Kevin. Number four is one you just mentioned, and
every Mandy listener that's been listening in the.

Speaker 7 (01:00:53):
Last two weeks would know. Klaus is absolutely in my
top five.

Speaker 11 (01:00:57):
It is one that tugs on your heartstrings, really specially
unique telling of Santa Claus in the North Pole and
all that.

Speaker 7 (01:01:05):
So Klaus is beautiful.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
It is beautifully animated. It goes back to original animation style,
and I think it is it's beautifully animated. It's very unique.
Everything is so angular. It is just a joy to
watch and it gets me choked up all the time.
My kids always tease me, they always know that those
are happy tears because I'm moved by that movie. That's Klaus.

Speaker 7 (01:01:26):
I agree now, So my top four is always locked in.
That is always there.

Speaker 11 (01:01:31):
My number five kind of changes a number five as
of right now. And this is for all those that
don't like the animation. I don't care. Honorable mention is
Christmas Vacation, How the Grinch Stole Christmas? The Jim Carrey version.
But number five for me is the Polar Express.

Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
Oh interesting, all or Express.

Speaker 11 (01:01:47):
The animation might be a little bit odd, but again,
the Christmas spirit, the feel of it, it's just magic. Yes,
it's just magical. Tom Hanks one of his top performances,
nonderrated performance because he plays darn near every character during
that movie, from the conductor to the kid, to the
weird guy on top of the train to Santa himself.

Speaker 7 (01:02:08):
It's it's just a great, great movie.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
The story is really great. I am it's going to
lead me now to my Christmas Carol story.

Speaker 5 (01:02:14):
So thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (01:02:15):
A rod Nim agreement. The animation of movies like that.
Robert Zemeckis was the one who really spearheaded. It's kind
of like there was a battle between you know, Digi
Beta and VHS and one one out, and he was
really promoting that kind of animation where you really just
kind of layered over an actual actor.

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
I'm not a fan of it, and I.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
Think it led to one of the scariest Christmas movies,
which was The Christmas Carol that was done in that style.
And I remember I showed it to our kids at
too young of an age, and when you know, the
two children come out from the ghost cloak of I
think it's faminine want.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
They were actually kind of terrified. It was traumatic.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
But hey, heading to a break. When we come back,
we're and to continue this conversation five six six nine zero.
What are your favorite Christmas movies? And we will continue
with some good news about what's going on around our
world and around our country. Don't go anywhere, Debrah Flora
sitting in for Mandy Connell. Happy last day of Honughat
to our Jewish friends out there. This is a time

(01:03:13):
where obviously the deeper meaning of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:03:15):
Is about praying for peace.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
I love the name that Jesus was given by in
the scriptures, Emmanuel God with us, meaning a time for peace.
And that's one of the things that we're looking at.
We've been talking a lot about Christmas movies, some great conversations.
A couple of listener comments I want to put in here,
like this one kind of a weird one, but Ernest

(01:03:39):
saves Christmas is good. I think I saw that once
long ago. Thank you for that outlier there. Here's another
listener when we're talking about Christmas movie, said, so, not
a Christmas movie, but then Nativity seeing from Monty Python's
Life of Brian always makes me laugh. Love that here's
somebody who's pushing back on our theory. A Ron and

(01:04:02):
I both agree that Diehard cannot be a Christmas movie.
This person says Home Alone cannot be a Christmas movie,
and Diehard not be a Christmas movie. Both of them
could happen anytime of the year, along with all of
your other reasons. So here is how we set up
the parameters for what defines a Christmas movie.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
Number one, does it have Christmas in it? Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:04:25):
Okay, so Diehard has that. Number two is it essential
to the storyline? Could it be taken out and it
happened any other time. Thirdly, does it have the feeling
of Christmas? Is it that kind of sense of the wonder,
the joy, the redemption, et cetera. That's why to me,

(01:04:46):
Diehard being released in July originally was an admission, even
as Bruce Willis had famously said he did not believe
it was a Christmas movie. However, Home Alone really couldn't
take place any any other time because not only could
have just been a vacation. I get the argument there,
but this vacation was all about coming back together again.

(01:05:07):
You've got the sideline of the neighbor being re reunited
with his granddaughter and his son of the season. So
nice try, But I get to disagree with you, and
I have the mic your thoughts.

Speaker 7 (01:05:18):
Ern I'll give you one overarching reason why.

Speaker 11 (01:05:22):
And this is gonna make the die Hard stands really angry,
especially those that are college football fans, because I'm gonna
hit you with eye test, just like college football rankings. Yep,
Like you kind of just know if it has that
Christmas feel and if it's a yes or no answer
and your lean is no, you just kind of know.

Speaker 7 (01:05:42):
Diheart, just don't feel like christ.

Speaker 5 (01:05:44):
I can watch it any time of the year.

Speaker 11 (01:05:46):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
I love it, eye test, ear test, all of the above.
And it was released, by the way, in July.

Speaker 10 (01:05:53):
There we go.

Speaker 4 (01:05:53):
That's what we can say about that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:54):
Love some more coming in. Let's see White Christmas. I remember.

Speaker 4 (01:05:59):
White Christmas just brings me warm and fuzzies. This listener said,
I'm old.

Speaker 5 (01:06:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
I just think you're nostalgic. So these are some fun ones.
Another they The Night They Saved Christmas.

Speaker 5 (01:06:10):
I'm not as familiar with that. For me, I've got
to put him in categories.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
One of my other favorite newer Christmas movies is actually
Christmas Chronicles starring Kurt Russell.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
We call him.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Salty Santa, not because he does anything off color. He's
just got that slight edge, Jim. All you have to
do is watch a seam where he's in jail and
he sings, you know, an Elvis Christmas song and a
little surprise at the end. Kurt Russell's real life wife,
Goldie Hahn, plays Missus Glass and my goodness, she does
not touch the Christmas cookies.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
That's all I can say about that.

Speaker 7 (01:06:43):
I just watched that.

Speaker 11 (01:06:45):
Yeah, really enjoyed it, but that musical number in jail
was really cringe.

Speaker 7 (01:06:50):
It was the only part where like, yeah, I still
want to watch.

Speaker 4 (01:06:54):
The second one though, Yes, the second one's not quite
as good. I do think they could have done the
elves a little bit better. I won't say anything more
about that Russell great.

Speaker 10 (01:07:01):
He was.

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
He was a great and I do love the fact
that he never wants to say ho ho ho, but
he does it in a wonderful way. And there's a
great redemption story it. Okay, we're gonna head.

Speaker 11 (01:07:10):
To the break.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
We'll continue this in the third hour.

Speaker 5 (01:07:13):
Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
Debrah Flora sitting in for Mandy Connell.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
The Mandy Connall Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
No, it's Mandy Connallnall on KOA ninety more one FM.

Speaker 6 (01:07:32):
God Frey, Andy Connal, Keith sad Bab Welcome back to
The Mandy Connell Show.

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
Hope that you were having a great Christmas week.

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
And wishing all of our Jewish friends out there a
happy last day of Hanukkah. I know you lit the
last candle last night, but this is the last official day. Well,
we're going to continue more than holiday conversation five six
six nine zero.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
Text your favorite Christmas movie R Christmas tradition.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
Well, continue that later, but right now, I'm so honored
to have joining me Congressman Jeff Crank, Congressman, thanks so
much for joining us today. I appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (01:08:16):
Yeah, thanks for having me, and happy Hanukah to everyone,
and Merry Christmas.

Speaker 5 (01:08:20):
You bet, yeah, thank you saying to you too.

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
Well, you know what, you're winding up your first year,
and it's been a year full of headlines, to say
the least, coming out of DC continuing, you know, obviously
with the longest shutdown, a lot of major changes happening.
Just give us a quick overview of your highlights or
what your biggest takeaways are from your first year in
the White excuse me, in the in Congress.

Speaker 9 (01:08:45):
Yeah, don't get me elected president.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
Hey, you know what, I'm going to start a petition move.

Speaker 9 (01:08:49):
Sorry, you know, no, listen, I mean, what an honor
to get elected to Congress and to serve in Congress.
It's it's been just an incredible opportunity. And we've done
this Congress, honestly, and the left it sees this. That's
why they're so upset. This was one of the most

(01:09:10):
productive congresses ever, and almost everything we did we put
into that one bill and put through in reconciliation because
we realized that the Democrats in the Senate weren't going
to work with us on much of anything. In fact,
there would have been a four and a half trillion
dollar tax increase on the American people if they had

(01:09:32):
their way, but we didn't let that happen. And not
only do we not let that happen, we made those
tax cuts permanent, and we increased or we ended up
adding in some additional tax cuts, as you know, no
tax on tips, no tax on overtime, senior tax exemption,
doubling the child tax credit, the standard deduction is higher.

(01:09:54):
Now all of those things were put in. The American
people are going to feel all of that. They're going
to feel in January, February, March, and April the impact
of this Congress in a way that they probably don't
even anticipate yet.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Yeah, and that's so important because obviously, we know affordability
is a huge issue, not just at this time of year,
but year round. Obviously, you know, you started coming in
along with President Trump's second term after a forty year
high inflation. You know, I'm always talking to people, Hey,
just be a little patient. We have you know, we've
got gas here in Colorado down to under two dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
In many places. Things are going in the right direction.

Speaker 4 (01:10:33):
All the bills you were talking about as well, you know,
elimiting that four point five trillion tax increase that was
being proposed from the other side of the aisle. So
that's all really great.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
We we do know that going into the midterms, affordability
and the economy is going to continue to be a
huge issue. I want to share one detail here because
everybody looks at the federal situation, but here in Colorado,
color is forty eighth in housing affordability.

Speaker 5 (01:10:58):
That's a US News and World Report.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
Fifth in economic It went from fifth and economic growth
down to forty first. So fordability is a huge issue.
But most people don't understand where the lack of affordability
comes from.

Speaker 5 (01:11:11):
Can you talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 9 (01:11:14):
Sure? Well, And you know there's so much of what
the Democrats have done makes it unaffordable. We talked about
Joe Biden's administration. It was twenty two percent inflation in
the four years that Joe Biden was president one year,
it was nine percent inflation. That's the first thing, so
we need to keep that in mind. The second, when

(01:11:36):
Democrats talk about affordability, we've got to keep in mind
they all voted against the bill that stomped a four
and a half trillion dollar taxing. Yeah, so their idea
of affordability is to add four and a half trillion
dollars in taxes onto the American people. So we've got
to frame it first and foremost like that. But boy,

(01:11:57):
when you talk about affordability on housing, look at here
in Colorado. There's all of these green energy mandates that
have been put in place by this radical state legislature
and this governor sign them into law. They add thirty
to forty thousand dollars onto the average cost of a home.
And look, if you want to buy a home that

(01:12:19):
has energy efficient windows and things that over one hundred
year period will return the savings.

Speaker 8 (01:12:27):
That you pay for upfront by adding.

Speaker 9 (01:12:30):
Those windows in, you can do that, but you shouldn't
be forced to do it. And that's my concern. So
I'm actually going to look at some ways in this
new year that we can ye at the federal level
give people in Colorado more choice that if they want
to buy a house for less money and not have

(01:12:52):
those mandates, they should be allowed to do it, and
the governor and the legislature shouldn't be forcing them to
buy more expensive homes.

Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
Yeah, I mean it was.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
Some of the things that are coming down in Colorado
is pretty crazy with the you know, the the mandates
that are being proposed against gas heaters and against gas stoves.
You know, I was talking with someone the other day
that the number one polluter if you care about the environment,
which we all do grumping Colorado. I know you are
an avid out storesman, but the number one global pollutant

(01:13:24):
is actually the poorest countries, the poorest people, a lot
of them in Africa that have to burn bio mass,
you know, whether that's wood or or you know, or
dung or whatever biomass product there is versus the incredible
advancements and innovation in clean energy such as cleaner gas

(01:13:45):
and UH.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
And oil and all of that. So it's and then
it creates the energy pore.

Speaker 4 (01:13:50):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:13:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
So I'm so glad to hear what you're planning on
doing in that way in the new year. Let's talk
about that. Going to the new year, we're going to
be heading into the midterm and that is you know,
we saw the last election this past November. There was
a definite showing up of those who are concerned about affordability,
but maybe do not connect the dots. What do you

(01:14:11):
think that Republicans have to do to keep the control
of the House going into these midterms.

Speaker 9 (01:14:18):
Well, first and foremost, none of us can take it
for granted, right, I have to. We are in this fight.
This isn't a thing that Donald Trump was on the
ballot in twenty twenty four, but he's not on the
ballot in twenty twenty six. Trust me, he is on
the ballot in twenty twenty six, whether his name appears
there or not. If Democrats get control of the Congress,

(01:14:39):
they will roll back every possible thing that they can
and they will be impeaching the president right in and
day out. That's what they will do. So if you
are for Donald Trump, or you're for the policies that
he is trying to implement in America, then you better
be ready to show up and we just you know,

(01:15:00):
freedom and delivered in you know this depth because you've
been in the fight a long time. It's not something
you can let up and say, Okay, we won. You know,
we got our guy in the White House. We will
continually be fighting this battle because they never stopped. We
saw that they redoubled their efforts when they lost control,
when they lost the White House in twenty twenty four.

(01:15:21):
What they do. They doubled down on crazy. They got
Mamdani to run in New York. They have some of
these crazy candidates running all across America. They are marching
on a they are on a socialist march to yeap
over their party and America. We can't let that happen.

Speaker 5 (01:15:39):
We can't.

Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
And the executive orders will only be there, you know,
easily made, easily broken. If these do not have a
chance to become law in the actual Congress itself, well
we're heading to a break, I guess, Congressman Jeff Crank.

Speaker 5 (01:15:53):
But I also want to.

Speaker 4 (01:15:54):
Say, Jeff, thank you so much for serving your constituents.
I was looking at some of these numbers in your
first years, and I even been a full year. You've
taken up eleven hundred cases and gotten those result for
your constituents, delivered eleven million that was owed to your
constituents through either you know, veteran benefits, tax returns, et cetera.

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
So thank you for all you're doing, because.

Speaker 4 (01:16:13):
You know, we've talked about this a lot what true
representative government is and that's serving the people. So thank
you for being a true civil servant, published servant. I
really appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (01:16:25):
Well, it's been an honor. I mean, it's just been
such an honor. And that there's a lot of this
job that isn't fun. On airplane, not so much fun. Yeah,
not so much fun. But I got to tell you
when I get to call someone and say, hey, we
were able to resolve that case for you, and I
call them personally about it. When we do a case
and we resolve it, I call them personally, I tell

(01:16:47):
them thank you. And I got to tell you that
that makes it all worth it. Yeah, inde my honor
to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:16:53):
Thank you, God, bless you and your family this holiday season,
and thank you for all the great work you're doing
in our nation's cap capital.

Speaker 9 (01:17:01):
Bless you as well, dev and to you and your
family have a wonderful Christmas season. And again to all
of people of Jewish faith, I hope you've had a
wonderful Hanukkah. And you know we've got a lot to
be thankful for in this great country of ours.

Speaker 11 (01:17:16):
We sure do.

Speaker 4 (01:17:16):
It's worth fighting for. So thank you for doing that.
And Merry Christmas to you, Jeff, Mary Christmas. Okay, take care.
That was my guest Congressman Jeff Crank, just getting a
little snapshot of his first year and what's ahead. Well,
don't go anywhere. We're heading to a break. When we
come back, want to continue to hear from you. Five
six six nine zero. What's your favorite Christmas movie? You
can also add Christmas song or tradition. We'll be right back.

(01:17:39):
We'll continue this program. I'm Debora Flora sitting in for
Mandy Connell. I realized that this holiday time will we
talk about fun things like Christmas movies and holiday traditions.
There's also a lot of division in our country and
a lot of division and families. Just to share a
couple of statistics, there was a poll by Coleman and
Johnson in twenty twenty four that's said that twelve million

(01:18:02):
families are now estranged. This is all due to this
growing division in our country over politics. Forty four million
have lost a friend over politics. Another survey said in
twenty twenty five, forty four million people have lost a friend,
twelve million families estranged, and one hundred and sixty seven

(01:18:24):
million Americans say they can't talk about politics with someone
close to them.

Speaker 5 (01:18:29):
We've really gotten to that point, and I want to
acknowledge that.

Speaker 4 (01:18:32):
This holiday season some of you may have experienced that
at Thanksgiving over at Thanksgiving table, maybe some empty chairs there.
Certainly when we've got media personalities like Joy Breed and
others saying that it is not.

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
Only okay, but you actually should.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
Estrange yourself from people who voted differently from you. Of course,
she's coming from the leftist perspective on that. You know,
I'm not.

Speaker 5 (01:18:57):
I've been through that. I know many others have.

Speaker 4 (01:18:59):
I've lost family members who will not be at our
traditional Christmas parties this year because of this very topic.
This is one of my hopes for the new year.
I think sometimes things get to a point where it
is so divided that many people begin to realize we
can't continue this way. In fact, I think the biggest
issue that our country face our republic as we're entering

(01:19:21):
into our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary what is the
biggest danger and risk?

Speaker 5 (01:19:27):
I think this is my.

Speaker 4 (01:19:28):
Viewpoint, is that because of the extremes on either end
of the spectrum, the extreme vitriol that's not based upon
principle or policy or any of that sort of thing,
but instead is based on personalities and attacks and division.
And I've seen it on both sides, the biggest risk

(01:19:50):
is that the vast majority of Americans who are in
the center, and I don't mean center necessarily just on policy,
but do not buy into this, you know, basically objectifying
someone just by their political stance and therefore rejecting them.

Speaker 5 (01:20:05):
We've gone from it's okay.

Speaker 4 (01:20:06):
To disagree to if you disagree, then you.

Speaker 5 (01:20:09):
Are wrong, you're evil, You're the enemy.

Speaker 4 (01:20:13):
I hope that what we see in twenty twenty six,
as we have an opportunity to remember what our country
is founded on, this idea that you know, we do
not have to have groupthink, we do not have to
agree with one another. There is more that unites us
than divides us. You know. It's also the twenty fifth

(01:20:34):
anniversary of nine to eleven, when it became very clear
that the enemy out there was actually a group of
people that believes that Western civilization. The American idea itself
should be destroyed. And what is the American idea? That
every single person is created with intrinsic value, therefore individual
liberty and therefore has the freedom to pursue your own

(01:20:58):
unique idea of happiness. That's what I hope and pray
that we find this holiday season and beyond. I hope
those twelve million families that are currently estranged over politics,
those forty four million people who've lost a friend of
her politics, that those dividing lines begin to be healed
as we remember what unites us, not that we have

(01:21:20):
to agree on everything, but we agree.

Speaker 5 (01:21:22):
We don't have to agree on everything other than the
pillars of the.

Speaker 4 (01:21:26):
Constitution, which the Constitution is a wonder in human history.

Speaker 5 (01:21:32):
Daniel Webster said, miracles do not cluster.

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
What has happened once in six thousand years may not
happen again. Holds fast to the Constitution lest there be
chaos in the world. That's a gift we've all been
given this Christmas season and this Honicus season, the Constitution
of the United States. And I hope and pray that
we see as we enter twenty twenty six, that is
the resurgence as we celebrate our two hundred and fiftieth birthday.

Speaker 5 (01:21:56):
Well, don't go anywhere, I'm Debrah floor. We're gonna wind
this show when we come back. Good to have you listening.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
Grinch, which has some such memorable lines, and one moment
in it, by the way, is very timely because there's
an improvised scene where Jim Carrey, as the Grinch suddenly
stops the action, puts on a baseball cap and it
says the USS hoovill in it and begins to direct
Max the Dog, and it's hilarious and many people think

(01:22:24):
it is really an homage to Ron Howard, the director,
but in a way it was an homage to Rob Reiner,
because Rob Reiner was the one whoever since Spinal Tap,
would wear a naval baseball cap. It was not an
actual ship that he was wearing it for. It was
a ship that was a nod to this is Spinal Tap.
But he was kind of Jim Carrey in this improvised scene,

(01:22:48):
honoring both of those directors, and obviously with the recent
absolutely horrific murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, watching
that scene again just made me think, what a generous
moment that was, and how fun and what a talent
Jim Carey is in that movie. So just sending, you know,
praying obviously for Rob Reiner's family during this holiday season.

Speaker 5 (01:23:11):
Can't even imagine.

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
Well, I want to switch gears here because, as we've
been talking about throughout the show, both the meaning of
this season, the inspiration it brings, the season of hope,
prayer for peace, and we're about to be entering into
our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this country, and
so it reminded me of a couple of our shared

(01:23:32):
historical moments. Because as we enter into the new year,
I hope that we remember what we have in common
as Americans. This beautiful freedom that we've been granted, the
price that was paid, and the principles upon which it
was founded.

Speaker 5 (01:23:48):
One of the best gifts we have as.

Speaker 4 (01:23:51):
Americans celebrating Christmas, and one of those, one of those
Christmases that happened two hundred and forty years ago, was
memorialized and it is the portrait of George Washington kneeling
in prayer at Valley Forge. Now, before I get do that,
this is tied in with a very modern story here

(01:24:13):
because Senator ed Marky, by the way, is one of
the latest who is now criticizing the use of.

Speaker 5 (01:24:19):
The flag appealed to Heaven.

Speaker 4 (01:24:21):
The appeal to Heaven flag was the flag that General
George Washington commissioned to fly on the United States Navy
ships in seventeen seventy five, an appeal to Heaven. That
does not mean that you have to be a Christian,
you have to believe in prayer to live in this country.
But that was something when you look at the remarkable
nature of the founding of our country. That was one

(01:24:42):
of the principles upon which it was founded, the idea
that God gave us our rights, and there was an
appeal to Heaven made And I want to point out
where that slogan really took form.

Speaker 5 (01:24:54):
So many of you may know the story, many may not.

Speaker 4 (01:24:57):
But how do we know about George Washingon praying at
Valley Forge and that he is despite some modern retellings,
he was very much a.

Speaker 5 (01:25:06):
Man of faith.

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
Well, there was an actual witness to this situation. It
was Isaac Potts. Isaac Potts was a Quaker who was
against the Revolution, and in the winter of December seventeen
seventy seven he said this.

Speaker 5 (01:25:22):
He was walking by.

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
He was walking on his property, and he heard something
in the woods, And this is what he said. In
that woods, I heard a plaintive sound, as of a
man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling.
By the way is directly from Isaac Pott's journal. He said,
I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly
into the woods. And to my astonishment, I saw the

(01:25:45):
great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword
on one side and his cocked hat on the other.
He was at prayer to the God of the armies,
beseeching to interpose with his divine aid, as it was
a crisis and the cause of the country, of humanity
and of the world. Such a prayer I had never

(01:26:07):
heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying.
And what was the impact of that prayer that we
now see in paintings another Christmas time two hundred and
forty eight years ago the picture the painting of George
Washington kneeling well Isaac Podds, As I mentioned, he was
a Quaker who was against the Revolution, but after hearing

(01:26:28):
that prayer, Potts became an ardent supporter of the revolutionary
cause and eventually became a Senator of the new United
States of America. You know, I think that is amazing.
That's why I do like the appeal to Heaven flag.
I love the fact that courage is contagious, and moral

(01:26:49):
courage is all the more contagious. Another shared history Christmas,
that we have as something that unite, says as a
mayor Americans. December twenty third, seventeen seventy six, two hundred
and forty nine years ago Tomorrow, December twenty third. Many
may know that this was when Washington was encamped at

(01:27:11):
the Delaware River, just suffered humiliating defeats and lost New
York City, and they were facing a far more organized army,
the British Army, the greatest at that time in the world.
They were up against seemingly impossible odds. The new Revolutionary
troops were shoeless for the most part.

Speaker 5 (01:27:33):
They were freezing.

Speaker 4 (01:27:34):
Between September and December, eleven thousand American volunteers gave up
the fight and returned to their families. The contracts for
the rest of the Continental Army were due to expire
on December thirty first, A mere eight days later, and
the American experiment that was barely in its cradle was

(01:27:58):
at risk, and the patriots were losing heart. When we
look at our two hundred fiftieth anniversary coming up and
we think about the time that two hundred and forty
eight years ago at Christmas and what happened, I hope
that we're encouraged to celebrate that which we share. Because
what happened at that point where Washington realized the cause
was almost completely lost, well, he reached out to Thomas Pain.

(01:28:21):
And here's something I love for those of you who
are listening who maybe are not people of faith this
Christmas season. Thomas Pain. Pain was an agnostic, but Washington,
a man of deep faith, reached out to him to
write some words that would rally the remaining troops. So
he reached out to Thomas Pain, who had before written
Common Sense, and that ignited the spark of the revolution

(01:28:43):
that was about to go out. Pain immediately wrote the
aptly named American Crisis on the head of a drum,
since there was no desk in the camp that winter,
and this is what he wrote. These are the times
that Trimen's souls, the summer soldier and the sunshine. Patriot
will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country.

(01:29:05):
But he that stands by it now deserves the love
and thanks of man and woman the heart of the conflict.
The more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap,
we steam too lightly. It is dearness only that gives
everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper
price upon its goods. And it would be strange if, indeed,

(01:29:28):
if so celestial an article as freedom, should not be
highly rated.

Speaker 5 (01:29:34):
What happened?

Speaker 4 (01:29:36):
George Washington asked for that to be read to troops
all over the Continental Army, all over the colonies, and
the rousing pros had its intended effect. The beleaguer troops
were galvanized. They crossed the icy Delaware River to defeat
the Hessians on Christmas night, and on January twod they

(01:29:56):
then defeated the British Army's best General Cornwallis the Battle
of Princeton, em retook New York.

Speaker 5 (01:30:02):
Why is that important?

Speaker 4 (01:30:04):
Because I got to tell you this Christmas season, if
there are no other gifts given, I personally, as a
woman born in this day in this country, feel so
grateful I have more rights than any woman anywhere else
in the world and in history.

Speaker 5 (01:30:22):
I can sit here and talk to you on a
radio program because of.

Speaker 4 (01:30:25):
The sacrifice of those who gave their last full measure
of devotion, both in our revolutionary war and since then
protecting us. I am grateful for our troops. I am
grateful for our first responders who stand in those gaps
as we get to celebrate in peace, and that is
something that we share, whether we agree on certain policy differences.

(01:30:51):
We have been given the gift of a heritage of
freedom that I hope, as Lincoln said, that there will
be a renewed protection of those liberties.

Speaker 5 (01:31:04):
That's up to us.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
So when I think about this Christmas season, I think
of those two Christmases when George Washington was praying at
Valley Forge in seventeen seventy seven, and then when he
gave that call out through the words of Thomas Paine
in seventeen seventy six, two hundred and forty nine years ago. Tomorrow,
what a blessing we have inherited and we get to

(01:31:28):
celebrate in peace. And I do hope if you know
first responders, you thank them. We're going to take Christmas
cookies by our firehouse and our police station this year.
If you know the family of someone who's serving, be
sure to thank them for all that is going on
and all that they're doing standing in the gap. So
I want to end this Christmas movie conversation also with

(01:31:50):
a different sort of a Christmas movie, maybe not one
that you would think of, and I appreciate all that
had been offered. I'm going to, by the way, just
read a list of some of the Christmas movies that
have been shared. Greblins. That's an interesting one. Last Christmas,
the ref red one, Diehard. I'm still on a Christmas movie,
but that's okay, Fatman, Violent Night, Holiday in crampis year

(01:32:12):
without a Santa Claus, Christmas Chronicles, Elf, Silent Night, Home Alone, Nativity,
It's a wonderful life. We watched that on Christmas Eve
usually and all of the Christmas carols, a Christmas Carol,
the many different versions. But there's one I want to
share because I think it's also very timely for the
time that we are in today, twenty twenty five, and

(01:32:32):
that is Rise of the Guardians. Now, many people may
not know Rise of the Guardians, they may not think
of it as a Christmas movie, and by the way,
it's an every Holiday movie because the main characters are
Santa Claus known as North. He represents Wonder, the Tooth Fairy,
sand Man, the Easter Bunny is in it called Bunny.
Jack Frost is in it. But why is it so timely?

(01:32:56):
Because the entire point of the story, it's about the
rise of the Guardians. Now, don't bother reading the books,
they get a little weird. I always share that, and
it's true. But the movie, this animated movie with Chris
Pine as the voice of Jack Frost, with Alec Baldwin
as the voice of Nicholas Saint North. He is Santa

(01:33:17):
Claus in it, and he's got a he's a tattooed
Santa Claus. He's actually pretty pretty amazing. You've got the
Tooth Fairy, You've got Sandman, and you've got Hugh Jackman
as the Easter Benny with a you know, Australian accent.
But what's the point of the story. The point of
the story is that there is a new threat coming.
And each one of these that I mentioned have been

(01:33:41):
chosen by the Man in the Moon obviously a metaphor
for God to be guardians of childhood, the wonder of childhood,
and what do they guard? What does it represent? Because
I think about this at Christmas time, just allowing children
to be children, not burdening them with trying to choose

(01:34:02):
their own identity before they even are allowed to have
a tattoo or drive, or drink or anything else. Being
burdened with this constantly threat of apocalyptic climate change, ending
of our world, all of these things that is too
much of a burden for children. And we could come
together and help them just be children. And what do

(01:34:23):
these characters, these wonderful characters represent, well. Nicholas Saint North
he is the guardian of wonder in children, that's his core.
The Toothbairris he represents memories and protects the memories of children.
Sandman he represents the dreams that children have so they're
not turned into nightmares. And Easter Bunny represents hope, protecting

(01:34:45):
hope for children, their hope that things will be good,
that they can have hope of the future. And then
Jack Frost is the newest guardian and why is he
brought into this? His core is fun and he protects fun,
that mischievous, playful nature that children should be able to
have and not be burdened with the worries and cares
of the world.

Speaker 5 (01:35:06):
Well, why have they been called to this moment?

Speaker 4 (01:35:10):
Because suddenly Pitch Black, who represents the Boogeyman, who represents darkness,
has come back and he's figured out a way to
turn children's dreams into nightmare. And one by one he
is tiring to stamp out the lights of the children
around the world, and is a great metaphor. There's this

(01:35:31):
huge globe in Santa Claus Workshop and has twinkling lights
all over and they represent the lights of the children,
the hope, the dreams, the wonder the memories, the fun
of children, and one by one they start going out
until the guardians have to stand together to protect the
last light that is still shining. This little boy named Jamie,

(01:35:54):
who refuses to give up believing in the wonders of childhood.

Speaker 5 (01:35:58):
I think it's a great metaphor.

Speaker 4 (01:36:00):
Because in this day and age that we are living in,
this season of Christmas and the ending of Hanukkah, with
the last lining of the candle last night, what does
that light represent? Hope, wonder, joy, the things that we share.
And I truly believe that as we head into twenty

(01:36:21):
twenty six, as we look at some of the headlines
that are going on, as we have an opportunity right
here in Colorado to protect kids. There are three valid initiatives.
If you haven't signed them, then signed them. This is
an actual thing that each one of us can do
a real action, not just lamenting on social media, not
just cursing the darkness, but being a part of lighting

(01:36:43):
the light, being a part of standing out those three
ballad initiatives. If you haven't signed them, and you probably
have one. Jen Say is the proponent of it, and
that's protecting girls' sports and safe spaces. We just had
a guest on earlier in the program, Lori Thompson from
D forty nine School District.

Speaker 5 (01:37:02):
They won a lawsuit.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
It was settled by Chassa phil Weiser, the ag and
kata that allows school districts now to protect girls sports,
to allow them to have making sure that there's different
locker rooms that when students are away on field trips,
they are not being forced to share rooms with those
that are anatomically of a different sex. And by the way,

(01:37:26):
if a child's identifying as dysphoric and considers themselves to
be transgender.

Speaker 5 (01:37:31):
It's protecting them to not to be in that situation.
So that is a win.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
But that law, that ballot initiative that you can side,
will protect girls' sports and safe spaces. Another one, and
I've had Mark Ozgeist join me on the program. You
might know him from the Thirteen Hours the Bengazi Heroes.
He's the one who basically should have lost his arm.
It was dangling by the end as he stood up

(01:37:57):
there and protected all of those people in Bengal and
he was through the modern medicine miracles, he was able
to keep his arm. But he's the backer of a
ballot initiative to stop child trafficking here in our state,
color is one of the number one states for that.
Those children who have been lost hundreds of thousands of

(01:38:18):
them by some reports, across our border into terrible trafficking,
they deserve to have their wonder their childhood restored. That's
a way we can be a rising of the guardians,
being one of them. Another ballot initiative, which is the
one that Aaron Lee is the proponent of, that will
stop the irreversible transitioning of children.

Speaker 5 (01:38:43):
I think it's a positive one.

Speaker 4 (01:38:44):
By the way, there was a house build that was
just passed out of the House called Protect Children's Innocent Act.
This follows up on actions by the HHS under RFK
Junior and an executive order by Donald Trump saying it
is time to slow down on this incredibly fast push
of these irreversible procedures on children when studies are just

(01:39:07):
starting to come out showing the incredible damages that are happening.

Speaker 5 (01:39:11):
And eight percent.

Speaker 4 (01:39:14):
Ninety ninety eight percent depending on the study, it shows
that children who are experiencing gender dyspory as young children
outgrowth by the time they're in high school. Why do
I mention these things kind of heavy on Christmas Week
because as we look at the spirit of the season,
as we look at what childhood is about, that hope,

(01:39:36):
that wonder, that protection of that innocence, we can all
rise up and join in and be part of those Guardians.
That's what we can do as we head into this season.
That's why it's one of my favorite Christmas movies. And again,
you can watch it Rise of the Guardians, you can
watch it at Easter, you can.

Speaker 5 (01:39:54):
Watch it whenever.

Speaker 4 (01:39:55):
But that is one I want to mention as we're
in this season, and especially in Colorado, where we can
take a stand on these things, we can turn it
around here. These are not left or right, these are
right or wrong issues. So that's what I'm hoping, That's
what I'm wishing, And I want to share that one
other really good story that I mentioned earlier in one

(01:40:17):
of the earlier hours of the program.

Speaker 5 (01:40:20):
This holiday season, when there is.

Speaker 4 (01:40:24):
So much that the young people in our country and
all of us have had to deal with, I do
personally find great hope, not just in the Christmas story
in the Bible, but so many of the other stories
as well.

Speaker 5 (01:40:36):
Here's some good news.

Speaker 4 (01:40:38):
Even though book sales have dropped by one percent, overall
sales of Bibles are up twenty two percent this year.
There was a surge of thirty six percent in September,
not surprising because that was a month that Charlie Kirk
was assassinating, and he certainly would share and integrate into

(01:40:59):
his common versations everywhere his belief that every person has
intrinsic value. Therefore individual liberty and our liberties were given
to us by God.

Speaker 5 (01:41:08):
That is what makes us unique.

Speaker 4 (01:41:09):
You don't have to be a person of faith to
live under those liberties, but they are different than we've
seen in human history prior to our founding, and amongst
gen Z, the purchase and the ownership of Bibles has
risen in the last five years by ninety percent. There's

(01:41:29):
a lot of people out there seeking hope. There are
a lot of people out there seeking joy inspiration, meaning
a lot of people hurting this holiday season. I'm about
to drop off a Bible to a friend of mine
who's going through a whole lot as a Christmas gift
this year. So my hope is that we can find
that person that needs that encouragement and needs that hope
and reach out to them, Bring us some Christmas cookies,

(01:41:51):
tell him you're thinking of him, Invite them over, Invite
them to your Christmas Eve service, which we are doing
as well. And most of I wish for you this
Christmas week that you do enjoy the peace of the season,
the meaning of the season, the joy and the hope
and healing of relationships in these divided times.

Speaker 5 (01:42:12):
Most of all, I.

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
Want to say, Merry Christmas and God bless you. This
is Deborah Flora sitting in for Mandy Connell.