November 2, 2024 • 22 mins
Get to know Andrew Gomez, The best Candidate for San Diego City College District D
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Poorbody. This is the Brett Davis Podcast coming to you
from Cornado. I'm very honored to have Andrew of course Gomez,
who is running for the San Diego City College District.
D D. There you go. I think it's the words
right out of my mouth. So why did you decide?
This is the first time you ran, But why did
you decide to run for the seat?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Because being from where I'm from, we were never promoted education.
And I went back to school at thirty and I
didn't go to a normal college and went to itt Tech.
But because of going to itt Tech, it got me
a into a great field of military defense and from
there I was able to get a lot. I was
(00:49):
able to trip my life around and then it was
through education. So I wanted to bring more trade schools
back to the communities. I've noticed that McDonald's is going
to go for automation. Yes, So I'm like, okay, some
of them already are, and I'm thinking, I'm like, uh,
City College should be the first one teaching people how
(01:10):
to fix the machines, how to maintain them, how to
set them up. Let's try to get the early jump
on it.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I agree, So tell me a little bit about your
past life because you you didn't have an easy road,
did you.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
No, So I was. I was born and raised.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
In Shoutown, and that's National City.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's actually the borderline between San Diego and National City.
So I was. I was born and raised there. First grade,
I saw the first person, my first person I seen.
I seen somebody odd when you were a first grade
I was the first grade. We lived across the street
from elementary school, and next to the elementary school was
(01:54):
a house where people went.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
To do drugs, kind of like a crackhouse, something like
that dope house.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And then when somebody was really mess up, they would
throw him the alley. And I seen that and seen
somebody die.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Were you even aware at that age what was going on?
I was really.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
My dad filled me in early and he let me know,
and he would always try to go over there and
try to help people wake him up. And it got
to the point when I got to sixth grade. I
was at McDowell science class. We tried citrus ascid, really sour.
It was a big, big jug me be me. I
(02:36):
took it. I put my backpack. Don't know how I
got away with it, but I stole it. And the
whole purpose was when I saw somebody o dean, my
dad went to go help him. I ran over there
with it and I told him put it in his mouth,
and he actually shocked at least three people that way
and woke him up.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It's amazing. It's an amazing story that you went through.
Did you ever or you involved ever with gangs or
anything like that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I grew up with the guys from the neighborhood. I
know them. I still see a bunch of them. I
talk to them. It's nice to talk to them and
to see how proud they are that I I'm where
I'm at and on what I'm doing. Part of the
reason why too, I'm going to City College because a
lot of these guys I know, they're getting out of
prison no skills. It's a whole life in prison, no
(03:23):
skills at all. They get out there totally get a job.
How are they gonna get a job? Nobody wants to
hire them? So why not? When my goal was to
find out when they're getting out of prison and automatically
have them enrolled into a trade school at City College
so we could get them the skills to get them
a job. Because we want to cut down on the
(03:46):
population in prison. Let's get these guys educated. Let's get
them out of the workforce, because if they're not working,
then they go back to selling drugs. And I know
a lot of these guys. I grew up with them.
You know, some of them are like family to me
because they took care.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So how do you feel? So, I mean, your your
biggest reason why you want to run is why did
you decide to run for this seat? I mean, you
could ran for city council, you could have ran for
other things. Why why this seat?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Education?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So you're really brilliant. Believe in strengthening yourself through having
knowledge and finding like a trade or something so you
could be self sufficient.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Here's an example. Two thousand, twenty eighteen, my son was born.
He was two weeks old. Our landlord kicked us out
on the street a couple of weeks before Christmas. Wow,
so my mom, my wife went to go live with
(04:46):
her mom and her sister. I spent the whole month
packing everything I put in his storage. My goal was
to sleep in my car. I was I didn't at
the time. I didn't think I my brother in law
cared for me, and so what happened was my brother
(05:07):
in law was like, here, come sleep on the floor
in my house. Sleeping on that floor was the hardest
thing I ever had to do, being a man with
a newborn baby nowhere to live. I reached out to
someone I worked with at flip Homes and he taught
me everything I needed to know about real estate. I
(05:29):
met a real estate agent. She taught me a lot.
I started learning how finances work. I was able to
start adding way more money to my four oh one
case so I could pull it out as a hardship withdrawal.
I used education to buy a condo in Oak Park
and when my body it was it was October of
(05:53):
twenty nineteen. With the education, I learned so much and
that's why I'm big on education. It was able to
get me out. Another thing. When I was working at
home Depot. I wait I was before the way crash.
I used to be a pressman. Oh wait happened? The
(06:16):
company goes under. I end up having to work at
home home deepot for five years. It destroyed me mentally,
really and spiritually. I was depressed. I'm like, I can't
where am I going to go? I need a better job.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So does it home. People typically pay very well, do
they have good benefits?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
When I was there, I started off at eight fifty.
I had to join a traveling merchandise team. They have
just to get to ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Wow. Almost sounds like a union almost in a way.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It was. And it was the worst place I've ever
worked because people were backstabbing each other just to get
so they could get twenty five cent increase in pain.
I I reached out to I text, I'm like, I
got to do something that changed your life, didn't it. Yep,
(07:11):
I this is how I know God works.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Now they're not around anymore. Correct, No, okay, but I
know a lot of the of the people that did
go there and ended up getting very good jobs. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I was there on the verge of getting my bachelor's
degree when Obama shut him down and I had to
give up all my credits.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's terrible.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And I was working my way and I was doing
what I had to do because I was I told you, buddy,
they were like, oh, you're going to go in debt.
I'm not going to go in debt. I'm going to
get that doctorate. I want a doctorate. I want to
be that guy from shoutown. I said, I got a
doctorate degree.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's amazing, but can you go back still?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I after he shut it down, I tried to go
back and I couldn't do it. I was sitting there
at Southwestern College and it was just the fire was gone.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Okay, maybe it'll come back, but there's different ways to
do things.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah. So but when I reached out to them to
start going it t tech, the lady told me. I
heard her over the phone she said, come in on Wednesday.
I'm like, okay. So I got there on Wednesday, and
when I got there, she was like, no, I said Thursday.
I was like, I know, you said Wednesday. She goes no,
I said Thursday. And it was meant to be because
(08:25):
that's when I met a gentleman that mentored me, gave
me a part time job as a paid internal learned
it so then at home depot went part time gradually left.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh my god, what a relief, huh.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Greatest thing ever. And then I was working full time.
I was working three part time jobs while I went
to school full time, and I got to meet people.
Turned it around and got a full time job while
I was going to school. But that full time job
made me. The first year I worked at a radised
children's hospit it glad I'd worked there, so so many
(09:03):
things that I appreciate when I'm with my son, I
appreciate every moment because of the things I saw there.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I've had my daughter, my daughter's there many times. It's
an amazing place.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
There was times that I left there crying.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Of course. Yeah, no, I get it. I remember seeing
things too. I didn't work there. But what is it
about the College board for San Diego City that he
feels lacking, especially for that D seat that you want.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I hear that they have a great outrage and that
they there trade program is one of the best and
this and that.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I'm like, okay, all the junior colleges in San Diego,
that's what they said.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I'm like, Okay, really, how come I didn't hear anything
about your trade scode program until you told me how
to trace SCOE program At ECCA, do they offer trades? Apparently?
They said they do at ECC, and it's one of
the biggest I'm like, if you're doing outrage, shoutown's right
next to the ECC. It's right there. Yeah, nobody there
(10:04):
knows about that.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
What is? What are they say?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Oh, then you know we gotta we gotta work on
it more. I was like, I been trying to knock
it on doors around there and saying, you know, we
offer this and that.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
War was a response.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Nothing. Hm. They just told me. They go to big
events and then they have tables there and they talk
to everybody and tell them about their city college and
as the great programs they have.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
You know, what I think they need is they need
more stories like yours. More more human interest of people
talking about the pain they've gone through and how they've
had to go through a system that maybe they've offered
a story, a real story of somebody overcoming obstacles where
they've used the trade or whatever the program is that
they're taking there because they think when those stories are told,
(10:52):
I think people are more they appreciate it than it's
more relatable rather than just say well we're a great college.
Why are you great? You know? Right? So you're I mean,
you're you're a walking embodying that and you can see
through you can see through that right away.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
They got some good stuff there. Because when I was
when I got kicked out of UC High school, I
had to go to Garfield.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's a tough school.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I'm so glad that happened. I'm so glad I went there. Man,
I'm so glad I went there. I was a bad person,
but I met a teacher, mister Olson, that he opened
my eyes. Because when I was at UC, I had
a teacher always telling me how I'm gonna end up
dead or in jail before I turn eighteen. All the time,
I always rubbed in my face and I was on
(11:40):
the verge of proven her right. So when I got
to Garfield and mister Olsen changed me and got me
to join a program where I was able to take
college classes and in that so when I passed College English,
I got college credit and two high school credits. Good
and it was it was a beginning process of it.
(12:00):
And that allow me to graduate on time and graduate
with the get my diploma.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Good job. So I would say that you know that
you're involved with this, You're meeting a lot of very
interesting people that care for things that need to be changed.
Seem we're getting more people this election that are tired
of the old stuff, the old talk where nothing's getting done.
If you're elected to the seat, what's one of the
(12:29):
first things that you're going to rally that you're going
to get behind.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
I want to work more with the outrage program, the
groups that they have. Okay, like I said, I want
to go knock on doors. I want to let the
community know.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
So you'll be knock on doors. Yeah, and then you'll
probably have some people help you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yep. And then on top of that, I heard stories
from people that they're taking like Latin studies and the
teacher told them this is that city college that they
were told not to salute the American flag to salute
Karl Marx.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I've heard that, and I've heard about this.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
One thing I'm going to do is I will be
like the undercover boss. I want to sit in classroom
back in like a student, and I want to see
what the teachers say.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, you know, it's interesting. Carl Marx he wrote a
book called a Communist Manifesto, and he was for you know,
all the money going to everybody ensuring it that book
and then his speeches and lectures. He ended up becoming
a multi millionaire, so he kind of went against everything
that he was telling everybody to do. He kept the
money for himself and really he was more of an
(13:40):
entrepreneur than he was a communist, So it's kind of
if you look at that, it's kind of it's a
double meeting. So I don't really believe in Marxism. Mean,
it doesn't work, just like rent control doesn't work. But
I appreciate you talking about what you would do. What
kind of support are you getting in the community, the community,
(14:01):
you know my support. By the way, I think he's
the best candidate running, so anybody that has a chance
to vote for him. He's a really good guy. He's
very ethical, he's hardworking, he knows what it takes to
overcome obstacles. He just he's like an energizer bunny. He
keeps going, he doesn't stop. So I think we need
(14:23):
somebody like him to run for this seat, and we
need more people running like this. I'm sure you're getting
a lot of people saying thank you for running.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. Actually I get a lot of a lot of people,
and I go back to my neighborhood. A lot of
them are tell me thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh yeah, because you're not gonna forget.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Because there they even say they want a better life,
they want they need people to come in and take
care of the neighborhood. And so my district is not
the neighborhood I grew up at. That's not part of
my district. But I do talk to people that I
know from Lincoln Park area and they even said the
same thing, thank you, because we do need to educate
(15:05):
our youth.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Oh we do, and there needs to be mentorship. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
One other thing I want to do is I wanted
to create like a skills test where we're able to
go into the high schools. They take this so we
can know what their strengths are, so when they enter
a college, they know what classes they need to focus
on to develop their strengths and skills.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Them like that. It's called the asdad. You take that. No.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I what broke my heart was when I wanted to
enlist in the Marines, and but I had have severely
bad asthma. And the funny thing was, I was told
by somebody in the Navy if I would have tried
to join the army, they would have took me with
my bad asthma.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Hey the army is there, right, yeah, But I wanted
to be a marine. You know, I think everybody has
a place. Sometimes we think we want something and then
something happens and we go in the direction. But I think,
if you're during that time, did you ever think you
would ever run for office? No?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
See, no I didn't. What got me, what brought me
into learning about politics was Gavin knew some locking down California.
Once he did that, my wife started a salon her
and her friends. Once he locked them down, she lost
everything and I was going in debt, bringing credit cards
(16:34):
to pay her bills.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And to say, trying to salvage it. Yeah, I think
the state owes you guys some.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Money and then on top of that her salons on
life support.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I think the state owes you guys some money for that.
Then to find a way to get that money back
somehow like something. I think they need to try to
compensate you.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It just but good thing though that came out of
it was, like I said, I learned a lot about politics.
And now when people try to tell me, like, oh,
vote for Propy, it's gonna fix roads, and I know,
and I've done my homework, I'm like, why do I
want a nine percent tax increase? Costant livings high already?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, We'll say California doesn't feel that they taxes taxes
basically are the way that they live for everything. The
thing I think it's interesting is they go for they
raise taxes to fix the rope, but then the money
gets lost or you allocated for something else. That's typically
the way California does their laws.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, they always do that. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Well, because they know what they're doing and they know
people that people can sell it better that way. If
you travel with other states, you'll notice that there's no
taxes on the roads over there, and they have better
roads than we do here and we pay way more money.
So on another note, who are the some of the
people that have endorsed you so far?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Carl Demild endorsed me. Okay, he sat me down, talked
to me. He who's He's such a great guy, right
he He made me feel accepted within the Republican Party.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
He made me feel like what I have to say matters.
And you're looking at this, Carl. Thank you. My wife
wants tight thank you too.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
That's very nice. Who else has endorsed you? Beside me
and Carl? Anna Rick with another good person r.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Nh a who helped me with my first fundraiser. Nice
because I'm my own campaign manager, my own finance.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You're the mayor, mayor of a town of twenty people.
You're the mayor of the chief of police, the firefighters, everything, right,
that's your hands on.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I had it was I had to sure, but it's
but you're doing it. It's so rude awakening. I once
I got into the po when I started running put
that way. When I started running, that's when I realized, like,
there's so much to go into this. And if you're not,
if you'd already don't know people and your name's not
(19:12):
out there, you're going to be struggling.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So on a last note, what do you want to
tell people that are watching watching this right now that
maybe you have never seen you? Is anything you want
to one last thing you would like to say?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
One thing I want to say is we have a
lot of people struggling in the poor neighborhoods of San Diego.
We need to get them educated. We need to get
trade schools so they could get going. We need to
get we need to get a trade school where we
start focusing on more technology. I met a guy that
(19:46):
went to a trade school got his truck driving license
who was a gang member and was able to start
the business. So now all he does is hire other
gang members to get an opportunity. We need more stuff
like that to start empowering our neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I'd like to hear more about this guy. Maybe another time.
Maybe you could come in and bring him in. I
think he'd come in and talk to you.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh yeah, I've got to try again. I got to
reach out to him.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Reach out to him.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
He's a cousin of one of my buddies.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Reach out to him and see if you and I'll
and we'll let you interview him.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And then my own cousin started his own his own
plumbing business and he hires people that are ex cons
give him opportunity.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well, and they probably know better. But but those are
all good ideas of things. Let's to say Anna Renwick,
not Rickwood. Did he say Rickwood? You know I probably
said Rookwood. He knows Anna Anna Renwick Renwick really good. Yeah,
of course, And we were just talking about him not
too long ago. But you're doing a great stuff and
(20:48):
I appreciate your running. I appreciate you taking time out
of your business schedule to be here. And you know,
I'm glad that we've gotten the I'm sorry it's taking
so long to get get to fundly do this, but
I but I know your heart's in the right place,
and I you know, I believe in you, and I
know Anna does and Carl does, and so just know
that you have us behind you and we believe in you.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
My day is not busy because when I'm at work,
it's not work because I love my job.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Right, that's good.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I love what I do. I love the things that
I do. To support our navy means so much to me.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Well, maybe you can give us more ideas of what
we can do to improve our military event next year.
Love to get your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Oh, I already can tell you. Gotta we got.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
We got to sit down and write and take some
notes and have so munch. We'll talk about it because
there's a lot to talk about. But I appreciate your time,
and I'm so glad you're running. And and you know
what he took. He took it, he took the jump.
A lot of people talk about doing it, and Andrew,
Andrew's done it, and so I appreciate you and thank
you very much for running, and thank you for being
(21:48):
on my show today.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Thank you for having me Kay, thank you, thank you
for inviting me to your your event.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You're always You're always.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Walcom was amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Thank you, and I look I look forward to talking
to you more. How we can help our you. Everybody,
have a good night. Get out there and vote and
remember Shure this interview because we need to get him
elected because he really does care about the people. He's
a good man. Everybody, take care of God bless it.
Have a good night.
Poorbody. This is the Brett Davis Podcast coming to you
from Cornado. I'm very honored to have Andrew of course Gomez,
who is running for the San Diego City College District.
D D. There you go. I think it's the words
right out of my mouth. So why did you decide?
This is the first time you ran, But why did
you decide to run for the seat?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Because being from where I'm from, we were never promoted education.
And I went back to school at thirty and I
didn't go to a normal college and went to itt Tech.
But because of going to itt Tech, it got me
a into a great field of military defense and from
there I was able to get a lot. I was
(00:49):
able to trip my life around and then it was
through education. So I wanted to bring more trade schools
back to the communities. I've noticed that McDonald's is going
to go for automation. Yes, So I'm like, okay, some
of them already are, and I'm thinking, I'm like, uh,
City College should be the first one teaching people how
(01:10):
to fix the machines, how to maintain them, how to
set them up. Let's try to get the early jump
on it.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I agree, So tell me a little bit about your
past life because you you didn't have an easy road,
did you.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
No, So I was. I was born and raised.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
In Shoutown, and that's National City.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's actually the borderline between San Diego and National City.
So I was. I was born and raised there. First grade,
I saw the first person, my first person I seen.
I seen somebody odd when you were a first grade
I was the first grade. We lived across the street
from elementary school, and next to the elementary school was
(01:54):
a house where people went.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
To do drugs, kind of like a crackhouse, something like
that dope house.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And then when somebody was really mess up, they would
throw him the alley. And I seen that and seen
somebody die.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Were you even aware at that age what was going on?
I was really.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
My dad filled me in early and he let me know,
and he would always try to go over there and
try to help people wake him up. And it got
to the point when I got to sixth grade. I
was at McDowell science class. We tried citrus ascid, really sour.
It was a big, big jug me be me. I
(02:36):
took it. I put my backpack. Don't know how I
got away with it, but I stole it. And the
whole purpose was when I saw somebody o dean, my
dad went to go help him. I ran over there
with it and I told him put it in his mouth,
and he actually shocked at least three people that way
and woke him up.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It's amazing. It's an amazing story that you went through.
Did you ever or you involved ever with gangs or
anything like that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I grew up with the guys from the neighborhood. I
know them. I still see a bunch of them. I
talk to them. It's nice to talk to them and
to see how proud they are that I I'm where
I'm at and on what I'm doing. Part of the
reason why too, I'm going to City College because a
lot of these guys I know, they're getting out of
prison no skills. It's a whole life in prison, no
(03:23):
skills at all. They get out there totally get a job.
How are they gonna get a job? Nobody wants to
hire them? So why not? When my goal was to
find out when they're getting out of prison and automatically
have them enrolled into a trade school at City College
so we could get them the skills to get them
a job. Because we want to cut down on the
(03:46):
population in prison. Let's get these guys educated. Let's get
them out of the workforce, because if they're not working,
then they go back to selling drugs. And I know
a lot of these guys. I grew up with them.
You know, some of them are like family to me
because they took care.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So how do you feel? So, I mean, your your
biggest reason why you want to run is why did
you decide to run for this seat? I mean, you
could ran for city council, you could have ran for
other things. Why why this seat?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Education?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So you're really brilliant. Believe in strengthening yourself through having
knowledge and finding like a trade or something so you
could be self sufficient.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Here's an example. Two thousand, twenty eighteen, my son was born.
He was two weeks old. Our landlord kicked us out
on the street a couple of weeks before Christmas. Wow,
so my mom, my wife went to go live with
(04:46):
her mom and her sister. I spent the whole month
packing everything I put in his storage. My goal was
to sleep in my car. I was I didn't at
the time. I didn't think I my brother in law
cared for me, and so what happened was my brother
(05:07):
in law was like, here, come sleep on the floor
in my house. Sleeping on that floor was the hardest
thing I ever had to do, being a man with
a newborn baby nowhere to live. I reached out to
someone I worked with at flip Homes and he taught
me everything I needed to know about real estate. I
(05:29):
met a real estate agent. She taught me a lot.
I started learning how finances work. I was able to
start adding way more money to my four oh one
case so I could pull it out as a hardship withdrawal.
I used education to buy a condo in Oak Park
and when my body it was it was October of
(05:53):
twenty nineteen. With the education, I learned so much and
that's why I'm big on education. It was able to
get me out. Another thing. When I was working at
home Depot. I wait I was before the way crash.
I used to be a pressman. Oh wait happened? The
(06:16):
company goes under. I end up having to work at
home home deepot for five years. It destroyed me mentally,
really and spiritually. I was depressed. I'm like, I can't
where am I going to go? I need a better job.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So does it home. People typically pay very well, do
they have good benefits?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
When I was there, I started off at eight fifty.
I had to join a traveling merchandise team. They have
just to get to ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Wow. Almost sounds like a union almost in a way.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It was. And it was the worst place I've ever
worked because people were backstabbing each other just to get
so they could get twenty five cent increase in pain.
I I reached out to I text, I'm like, I
got to do something that changed your life, didn't it. Yep,
(07:11):
I this is how I know God works.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Now they're not around anymore. Correct, No, okay, but I
know a lot of the of the people that did
go there and ended up getting very good jobs. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I was there on the verge of getting my bachelor's
degree when Obama shut him down and I had to
give up all my credits.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's terrible.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And I was working my way and I was doing
what I had to do because I was I told you, buddy,
they were like, oh, you're going to go in debt.
I'm not going to go in debt. I'm going to
get that doctorate. I want a doctorate. I want to
be that guy from shoutown. I said, I got a
doctorate degree.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's amazing, but can you go back still?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I after he shut it down, I tried to go
back and I couldn't do it. I was sitting there
at Southwestern College and it was just the fire was gone.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Okay, maybe it'll come back, but there's different ways to
do things.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah. So but when I reached out to them to
start going it t tech, the lady told me. I
heard her over the phone she said, come in on Wednesday.
I'm like, okay. So I got there on Wednesday, and
when I got there, she was like, no, I said Thursday.
I was like, I know, you said Wednesday. She goes no,
I said Thursday. And it was meant to be because
(08:25):
that's when I met a gentleman that mentored me, gave
me a part time job as a paid internal learned
it so then at home depot went part time gradually left.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh my god, what a relief, huh.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Greatest thing ever. And then I was working full time.
I was working three part time jobs while I went
to school full time, and I got to meet people.
Turned it around and got a full time job while
I was going to school. But that full time job
made me. The first year I worked at a radised
children's hospit it glad I'd worked there, so so many
(09:03):
things that I appreciate when I'm with my son, I
appreciate every moment because of the things I saw there.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I've had my daughter, my daughter's there many times. It's
an amazing place.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
There was times that I left there crying.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Of course. Yeah, no, I get it. I remember seeing
things too. I didn't work there. But what is it
about the College board for San Diego City that he
feels lacking, especially for that D seat that you want.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I hear that they have a great outrage and that
they there trade program is one of the best and
this and that.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I'm like, okay, all the junior colleges in San Diego,
that's what they said.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I'm like, Okay, really, how come I didn't hear anything
about your trade scode program until you told me how
to trace SCOE program At ECCA, do they offer trades? Apparently?
They said they do at ECC, and it's one of
the biggest I'm like, if you're doing outrage, shoutown's right
next to the ECC. It's right there. Yeah, nobody there
(10:04):
knows about that.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
What is? What are they say?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Oh, then you know we gotta we gotta work on
it more. I was like, I been trying to knock
it on doors around there and saying, you know, we
offer this and that.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
War was a response.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Nothing. Hm. They just told me. They go to big
events and then they have tables there and they talk
to everybody and tell them about their city college and
as the great programs they have.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
You know, what I think they need is they need
more stories like yours. More more human interest of people
talking about the pain they've gone through and how they've
had to go through a system that maybe they've offered
a story, a real story of somebody overcoming obstacles where
they've used the trade or whatever the program is that
they're taking there because they think when those stories are told,
(10:52):
I think people are more they appreciate it than it's
more relatable rather than just say well we're a great college.
Why are you great? You know? Right? So you're I mean,
you're you're a walking embodying that and you can see
through you can see through that right away.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
They got some good stuff there. Because when I was
when I got kicked out of UC High school, I
had to go to Garfield.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's a tough school.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I'm so glad that happened. I'm so glad I went there. Man,
I'm so glad I went there. I was a bad person,
but I met a teacher, mister Olson, that he opened
my eyes. Because when I was at UC, I had
a teacher always telling me how I'm gonna end up
dead or in jail before I turn eighteen. All the time,
I always rubbed in my face and I was on
(11:40):
the verge of proven her right. So when I got
to Garfield and mister Olsen changed me and got me
to join a program where I was able to take
college classes and in that so when I passed College English,
I got college credit and two high school credits. Good
and it was it was a beginning process of it.
(12:00):
And that allow me to graduate on time and graduate
with the get my diploma.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Good job. So I would say that you know that
you're involved with this, You're meeting a lot of very
interesting people that care for things that need to be changed.
Seem we're getting more people this election that are tired
of the old stuff, the old talk where nothing's getting done.
If you're elected to the seat, what's one of the
(12:29):
first things that you're going to rally that you're going
to get behind.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
I want to work more with the outrage program, the
groups that they have. Okay, like I said, I want
to go knock on doors. I want to let the
community know.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
So you'll be knock on doors. Yeah, and then you'll
probably have some people help you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yep. And then on top of that, I heard stories
from people that they're taking like Latin studies and the
teacher told them this is that city college that they
were told not to salute the American flag to salute
Karl Marx.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I've heard that, and I've heard about this.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
One thing I'm going to do is I will be
like the undercover boss. I want to sit in classroom
back in like a student, and I want to see
what the teachers say.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, you know, it's interesting. Carl Marx he wrote a
book called a Communist Manifesto, and he was for you know,
all the money going to everybody ensuring it that book
and then his speeches and lectures. He ended up becoming
a multi millionaire, so he kind of went against everything
that he was telling everybody to do. He kept the
money for himself and really he was more of an
(13:40):
entrepreneur than he was a communist, So it's kind of
if you look at that, it's kind of it's a
double meeting. So I don't really believe in Marxism. Mean,
it doesn't work, just like rent control doesn't work. But
I appreciate you talking about what you would do. What
kind of support are you getting in the community, the community,
(14:01):
you know my support. By the way, I think he's
the best candidate running, so anybody that has a chance
to vote for him. He's a really good guy. He's
very ethical, he's hardworking, he knows what it takes to
overcome obstacles. He just he's like an energizer bunny. He
keeps going, he doesn't stop. So I think we need
(14:23):
somebody like him to run for this seat, and we
need more people running like this. I'm sure you're getting
a lot of people saying thank you for running.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. Actually I get a lot of a lot of people,
and I go back to my neighborhood. A lot of
them are tell me thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh yeah, because you're not gonna forget.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Because there they even say they want a better life,
they want they need people to come in and take
care of the neighborhood. And so my district is not
the neighborhood I grew up at. That's not part of
my district. But I do talk to people that I
know from Lincoln Park area and they even said the
same thing, thank you, because we do need to educate
(15:05):
our youth.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Oh we do, and there needs to be mentorship. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
One other thing I want to do is I wanted
to create like a skills test where we're able to
go into the high schools. They take this so we
can know what their strengths are, so when they enter
a college, they know what classes they need to focus
on to develop their strengths and skills.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Them like that. It's called the asdad. You take that. No.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I what broke my heart was when I wanted to
enlist in the Marines, and but I had have severely
bad asthma. And the funny thing was, I was told
by somebody in the Navy if I would have tried
to join the army, they would have took me with
my bad asthma.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Hey the army is there, right, yeah, But I wanted
to be a marine. You know, I think everybody has
a place. Sometimes we think we want something and then
something happens and we go in the direction. But I think,
if you're during that time, did you ever think you
would ever run for office? No?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
See, no I didn't. What got me, what brought me
into learning about politics was Gavin knew some locking down California.
Once he did that, my wife started a salon her
and her friends. Once he locked them down, she lost
everything and I was going in debt, bringing credit cards
(16:34):
to pay her bills.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And to say, trying to salvage it. Yeah, I think
the state owes you guys some.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Money and then on top of that her salons on
life support.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I think the state owes you guys some money for that.
Then to find a way to get that money back
somehow like something. I think they need to try to
compensate you.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It just but good thing though that came out of
it was, like I said, I learned a lot about politics.
And now when people try to tell me, like, oh,
vote for Propy, it's gonna fix roads, and I know,
and I've done my homework, I'm like, why do I
want a nine percent tax increase? Costant livings high already?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, We'll say California doesn't feel that they taxes taxes
basically are the way that they live for everything. The
thing I think it's interesting is they go for they
raise taxes to fix the rope, but then the money
gets lost or you allocated for something else. That's typically
the way California does their laws.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, they always do that. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Well, because they know what they're doing and they know
people that people can sell it better that way. If
you travel with other states, you'll notice that there's no
taxes on the roads over there, and they have better
roads than we do here and we pay way more money.
So on another note, who are the some of the
people that have endorsed you so far?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Carl Demild endorsed me. Okay, he sat me down, talked
to me. He who's He's such a great guy, right
he He made me feel accepted within the Republican Party.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
He made me feel like what I have to say matters.
And you're looking at this, Carl. Thank you. My wife
wants tight thank you too.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
That's very nice. Who else has endorsed you? Beside me
and Carl? Anna Rick with another good person r.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Nh a who helped me with my first fundraiser. Nice
because I'm my own campaign manager, my own finance.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You're the mayor, mayor of a town of twenty people.
You're the mayor of the chief of police, the firefighters, everything, right,
that's your hands on.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I had it was I had to sure, but it's
but you're doing it. It's so rude awakening. I once
I got into the po when I started running put
that way. When I started running, that's when I realized, like,
there's so much to go into this. And if you're not,
if you'd already don't know people and your name's not
(19:12):
out there, you're going to be struggling.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So on a last note, what do you want to
tell people that are watching watching this right now that
maybe you have never seen you? Is anything you want
to one last thing you would like to say?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
One thing I want to say is we have a
lot of people struggling in the poor neighborhoods of San Diego.
We need to get them educated. We need to get
trade schools so they could get going. We need to
get we need to get a trade school where we
start focusing on more technology. I met a guy that
(19:46):
went to a trade school got his truck driving license
who was a gang member and was able to start
the business. So now all he does is hire other
gang members to get an opportunity. We need more stuff
like that to start empowering our neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I'd like to hear more about this guy. Maybe another time.
Maybe you could come in and bring him in. I
think he'd come in and talk to you.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh yeah, I've got to try again. I got to
reach out to him.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Reach out to him.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
He's a cousin of one of my buddies.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Reach out to him and see if you and I'll
and we'll let you interview him.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And then my own cousin started his own his own
plumbing business and he hires people that are ex cons
give him opportunity.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well, and they probably know better. But but those are
all good ideas of things. Let's to say Anna Renwick,
not Rickwood. Did he say Rickwood? You know I probably
said Rookwood. He knows Anna Anna Renwick Renwick really good. Yeah,
of course, And we were just talking about him not
too long ago. But you're doing a great stuff and
(20:48):
I appreciate your running. I appreciate you taking time out
of your business schedule to be here. And you know,
I'm glad that we've gotten the I'm sorry it's taking
so long to get get to fundly do this, but
I but I know your heart's in the right place,
and I you know, I believe in you, and I
know Anna does and Carl does, and so just know
that you have us behind you and we believe in you.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
My day is not busy because when I'm at work,
it's not work because I love my job.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Right, that's good.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I love what I do. I love the things that
I do. To support our navy means so much to me.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Well, maybe you can give us more ideas of what
we can do to improve our military event next year.
Love to get your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Oh, I already can tell you. Gotta we got.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
We got to sit down and write and take some
notes and have so munch. We'll talk about it because
there's a lot to talk about. But I appreciate your time,
and I'm so glad you're running. And and you know
what he took. He took it, he took the jump.
A lot of people talk about doing it, and Andrew,
Andrew's done it, and so I appreciate you and thank
you very much for running, and thank you for being
(21:48):
on my show today.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Thank you for having me Kay, thank you, thank you
for inviting me to your your event.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You're always You're always.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Walcom was amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Thank you, and I look I look forward to talking
to you more. How we can help our you. Everybody,
have a good night. Get out there and vote and
remember Shure this interview because we need to get him
elected because he really does care about the people. He's
a good man. Everybody, take care of God bless it.
Have a good night.
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