February 25, 2020 • 44 mins
Anney and Samantha sit down with Georgia State Representative Park Cannon to discuss intersectional politics, bills in progress, and running for office.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. Welcome to Stuff. I
never told your production of I heard Radius how stuff works.
So today we and by we I do mean me.
I'm so excited, so excited. Oh, listeners, I saw such
(00:29):
a sight. I had a moment. Okay, but we're so
excited to introduce you to a member of the Georgia
House of Representatives that I have been watching since the
beginning of her career in Atlanta. How it sounds white
creepier than I intended, but hey, I have because it's
been exciting. But her name is part canon and I
will tell you, yes, I got super excited. I got
(00:52):
I kind of fan girls, so you definitely fan girls. Um,
and we know I'm not the best that speech sometimes
and yeah, I fumbled up quite a bit that I
had to restart a few times, and she was very
kind and patient. She was very well spoken. Also, I
feel like this is really indicative of our relationship, which
is antagonistic but beautiful friendship where I just sat back
(01:17):
and to let you struggle. You should terrible. It's such
a terrible person. I really thought it was so sweet because,
as I told you afterwards, normally you see people get
that way about celebrities, but Samantha Listeners, she gets that
way about representatives. I get that way about people who
(01:37):
are a powerhouse. And I love seeing those who strive
to go beyond, even more so when I see someone
who and she is twenty eight, by the way, so
a young un in comparison to myself, as well as
she has been in this game since, as well as
(01:58):
the fact that, yeah, she's very well spoke. And when
I say well spoken, I mean she was ready. She
was ready every question. I had, no fumbling. I was like,
my gosh. And not only that, she and and as
you will hear in the interviews, have some of the
best wit, like even politically when it comes to combating
some of the ignorance that we often see during political
(02:23):
times whatever whatnot. She had some of the best wit,
even in types of reform and types of bills. And
I love that so much because that kind of power,
that kind of level of assuredness of like, I know
this is not going to go anywhere, but I'm making
a statement is amazing to me. And she is one
(02:44):
of our representatives. She is a queer black woman who
is in our House of Representatives in a very conservative state,
So of course we do talk about the fact that
it's turning purple and we're hoping to be able to
be one of those swing state. But we do know
Georgia is very conservative, and we know that some of
the biggest controversies came with the last gubernatorial election with
(03:07):
Stacy Abrams and Brian Kemp, and it's been closely watched,
and Stacy Abrams herself has made a name in combating
voter suppression. So just with all of that, when I
see things like this in a powerhouse like this making
a name for herself in a manner that is so
just inspirational, Yeah, I have moments, okay, and I it
(03:31):
was beautiful to witness Samantha. It really was, and for myself, um,
and I would imagine for a lot of people listening.
It's hard sometimes with politics. It's just it seems like
no matter what you do, it's just constant bad news
and there's no change in hearing from someone like Pert Cannon,
(03:51):
who does have all these intersectional identities and who does
sound so hopeful and like, yeah, she was very positive
and that was so nice to see. Yeah, it was
really refreshing. And we've spoke before about how sometimes change
it just takes a while and it is happening, but
bad news is so much easier to consume and so
(04:13):
much easier to just bring in on yourself. But to
hear her have this positivity and this hope for we're
going to get more people to run and it's going
to continue to progress was really really refreshing. Right, And
before we get into the interview the amazing conversation we had,
we wanted to throw some statistics out there, because you know,
(04:35):
we love some statistics. It's true. So according to the
History Arts and Archive site, there have been over seventy
women of color in US Congress since nineteen sixty four. Yes,
which I got my own chance to geek out about
when Samantha gave me a mystery tag I did. I
was trying to make sure that the site was updated
(04:55):
and I could not find the last updated date. So
you sat there for or fifteen minutes fifteen ish trying
to find the site from me, and I said you
you definitely succeeded. But yeah, the excitement that you had
when you were like, let me find it, I can
do this, I was bored for them. Yeah, I'm like
he loves some research. Research, My girl loves some research.
(05:18):
So there have been going back to this, there have
been thirteen Asian Pacific American women, forty seven African American women,
and twenty Hispanic American women in Congress to this date,
which not the greatest number. No, definitely not the greatest number.
We we can certainly improve upon that, and I hope
that we will. And with those numbers. Patsy Mink of
(05:41):
Hawaii was the first Asian Pacific American woman to be
elected to the House in nineteen s four. Shirley chis
Home one of my favorites of New York, as the
first African American woman elected to the House in nine eight,
and Aleana Ross Latian Florida was the first Hispanic American
woman won the election to the House in nine teen
eighty nine. And for extra credit, the first woman of
(06:02):
color to be elected to the Senate was Carol Moseley Braun,
an African American woman from Illinois in nineteen two, and
Maizie Herono from Hawaii was the first woman of color
to be alighted to both chambers. She was alighted to
Senate in two thousand twelve. Then we have some statistics
for lgbt Q plus representation in politics. According to it
(06:23):
gets Better to org as, there were ten members of
Congress on the federal level who identify as LGBTQ plus
and of those ten, five are women, and of those five,
zero we're women of color. Now, these are outdated, so
changes are coming. When it comes to the state level,
constituents are more represented, which again is another example of
(06:44):
local politics. Pay attention, get involved, don't forget about those.
Local elections are so important. They are very important, and
they're more likely to hear your voice, unfortunately than those
in the federal level. And yes, these statistics that we
just gave you were more on the federal level, but yes,
these local elections are would probably more likely to have
your voice be heard, you being able to be better representative.
(07:04):
So these are wild. Local elections are very very important
and something that we need to be paying attention to. Yes,
check your registration out and vote. And we're about ready
to get into our interview. But first we're going to
get into a quick break for word from our sponsor.
(07:33):
And we're back, Thank you sponsor. So let's get started
with our interview with Park Cannon. I was born park
Cannon named after an actress who I found out ran
for office in Tennessee. Her name is Park Overall. She's
an environmentalist. It's really awesome to think about that. But
I am a member of the Georgia House of Representatives,
(07:55):
which is a part of our state's government. At twenty
three years years old, I stepped off my college campus
and decided I wanted to run for office. I did
not know much more than that I was frustrated about
what was going on, and luckily, when we won our election,
we brought a very progressive voice to the state Capitol.
(08:16):
I am openly queer. I love to make sure that
people talk about intersectionality because I am an abortion dou lah,
a birth doula, and a preschool teacher. And I think
what's also pretty exciting is that last year at the
state Capitol they did an article about fashion at the
(08:39):
State Capitol and they said it was because of alphabetical
order that I was first. But you know, I love
me some fashion. Well, I'm gonna say you're killing this
outfit today, Like the shoes alone is amazing, and they're
hilled black and white, Poka Dot hills and you all
(09:00):
them there, your rainboots. That's even better. I'm like, yes,
this is my type of person because I also only
wear hills and boots most of the time. It's rare
to find me in anything else because I am a
short girl at five five four, so I feel like
I need that little stature, just a little bit, you know,
to go with that personality. But yeah, as your fashion
is on points, so I would definitely say it's not
(09:21):
just because of the alphabetical order thing. Yeah, I was
looking at your stuff and I'm thinking I'm about ten
or so years older than you, and I feel very
much like an underachiever. O my god, the things that
you have done and you're doing right now, it's just incredible.
And again, like I said, I'm fan girling because I
love seeing someone with such drive, um, and you have
(09:42):
so many good things behind you. I love again watching
you campaign. It was one of the beautiful moves. And
you are with the House of Representatives and District fifty eight.
So District fifty eight is in midtown downtown in southwest Atlanta.
I like to call it a reproductive justice district because
you have neighborhoods like Virginia Highland with homes in the millions.
(10:04):
And you have neighborhoods like Pittsburgh, which is literally the
nation's worst representation for UM predatory lending back in the
early two thousands UM within the district as well. So
you have all kinds of folks, all kinds of families,
and I'm really trying my hardest to represent them all. Right, um,
(10:26):
And just for our audiences, this is based in Georgia. Uh.
Like I said, I love kind of coming seeing what's
happening in individual states and and the state level, because
I think that's where it all begins. Obviously, when we're
talking about voting rights and we're talking about voting suppression,
a lot of our voices and all of our representatives
are supposed to have our best interests. And so we
know that state representation is very, very important. And you
(10:48):
are a part of the Georgia state representation because we
have a very international audience. Yes, Atlanta, Georgia, you know,
in the South of the United States. And what we
of course are fighting against in Georgia is the fact
that we are a conservative state, but Atlanta is a
progressive city, right, So I represent them both, yes, And
(11:10):
it's very interesting because we're quickly talking about Georgia slowly
becoming a very um purple state, and then we're talking
about slowly becoming a swing state, and how important it
is that we do keep an eye as we are
slowly changing some ideas and some heads hopefully. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
as it goes spreads out beyond metro Atlanta as well.
I love seeing that. But yes, you are a big
voice and a big representation of that progression. And if
(11:34):
you don't mind talking a little bit about your history,
because I know you kind of dabbled or started working
with Representatives Simone Bell and kind of go back to
that for us. So in like, I was so angry
in our state passed a bill um that was a
part of a federal opportunity to restrict access to reproductive healthcare.
(11:57):
So our state was one of the first in twenty twelve,
and that really took that on to the House and
the Senate, and the governor loved it, and all of
the departments of Public health and community health really had
to change their operating procedures. I felt that was a
waste of taxpayer dollars and I wanted to know who
was responsible. So I got up, you know, put my
(12:20):
college sweatshirt on and went down to the state capital
and tried to get to know my legislator. I figured
I was going to run into a white man. Instead,
I ran into an African American lesbian with locked hair,
and we really became friends. Um. I'm so proud to
know that she found me to be such a pivotal
(12:44):
member of her district that when she decided to resign
her office in she called me and personally asked me
to run for the seat. Now I was twenty three
years old, I had just gotten out of college. I
didn't think I was going to run for office toil
may be after law school, after a career. So we
dropped everything and picked up a grassroots campaign. We had
(13:07):
a month and a half to raise fifty thousand dollars
and to try to talk to two thousand voters. And
the first election we had in sixteen was in January,
so our legislative session, which I was running to be
a part of, had already started, so we felt the
urgency and tried to get us many voters to the polls.
(13:29):
We actually had our celebration party planned for here in
Pont City Market at nine PM because the polls closed
at eight. We left our house at like eight twenty,
gotten this parking lot by like eight thirty, and we
saw the results. We had lost the election by twenty
(13:50):
three votes out of twenty two thousand people. If twenty
three more people had voted, we would have closed the deal.
So we had a runoff election in fed Brewery. I
immediately started serving. The presidential primary was in March, so
we were back on the ballot in March, and once
again on the ballot in November. So if anyone out
(14:10):
there is interested in running for office and someone tells
you you're gonna have to do it multiple times, that's
just a part of the game. And that's how we
got our seat. That's amazing. Yeah, And as you were
talking about to the audience and to the people, what
would your statements be about why it is important that
if you are as passionate and as as we are
all passionate to come out and represent and be a voice,
(14:32):
and especially for those who are women of colored, people
of colored, those in the l g B t q I,
why it's really important right now that that community step up.
Culture change is happening in our communities, and it's also
happening in government. Buildings. If you look at the Georgia
State Capital right now, we just put in uh mom
of a which is for you if you are humping
(14:55):
or breastfeeding. We've never had that before. And this is
because legislators who are female who had tiny's needed to breastfeed,
and they started breastfeeding on the floor of the state capital,
and they started to say, we're doing this because people
can't come here and do what they need to do.
(15:15):
If they want to be a citizen advocate, they have
to choose whether they're going to feed their child or not.
And so there are opportunities for our state capital. I
believe to have gender neutral bathrooms. Currently we don't, and
I believe that only if there are more people with
intersectional identities who are not just say queer like me,
(15:39):
but maybe are moms of queer kids or maybe dads
of trans kids, then that is when we'll see the
tide turn. That's a great point. I love that. So
in your time with the government, yes, we've been looking
at I've been looking at some of your bills and
some of the things that you have been um pushing
(15:59):
and I didn't want to talk about because I love
it and I need to know more about it, the
particular bill of rights. Thank you, Yeah, I want to
know all about it. How you came to come together,
and I decided this needs to be talked about at
the very least as a way of protesting. That's right.
So the abortion ban in twenty nineteen was really just
(16:23):
another day of business as usual at the Georgia State Capital. Um.
Some of my colleagues, who identify as Caucasian and mail
were up to what I consider to be business as usual,
restricting people's rights, not listening to their constituents, and in
fact doing something that is incredibly costly to our state.
(16:46):
They decided that in that day, even though we had
done five or ten direct actions on the state floor
by turning our backs to the speakers, linking arms, bringing
media in, shouting out planned parenthood, not leaving the well
when we were supposed to, and continuing to speak, but
(17:07):
they were still able to get the bill passed. So
we said, as much as you have the power to
go to legislative Council and to what you say is
to write legislation that your constituents want you to write,
we do too. So a few of us black women
legislators went to Legislative Council, and under the understanding that
(17:28):
our constituents had reached out to us about men's health,
we wanted to write some bills, so we did the
Testicular Bill of Rights. We additionally did the Vanishing viagraa Act.
We also tried to create a study committee on a
rectile dysfunction, and we talked a lot about the social
and mental aspects of masculinity that are toxic and in fact,
(17:52):
those are the reasons why we have unplanned pregnancy. Unfortunately,
our bill has not gotten a hearing, but it has
gotten media from here across the world. We are open
to talking about it anytime. I love it. Yeah, as
I was reading it, I think I was giggling, but
I was really excited because I'm like, this is absolutely
the questions that we need to come back to. And
(18:14):
then whether it's actually talking about sexual assault or again
unwanted praying and sees, any of that, these are important
questions that should be addressed. Why aren't men taking responsibility
for all of these actions that are happening. Why is
this being just dumped on two women or those who
identify as women, or those who have vaginas in general,
Why is that so states paid for exact state pays
(18:37):
and its health benefit plan for Viagra Tier one, you know,
get that paid for for active members as well as retirees. Additionally,
you know when we look at what happens when someone
is trying to get a DNA test to prove fraternity,
does the state pay for that? No? So just trying
(18:57):
to pull out some of the fallacies and contradictions of
Georgia Code. I love it. And then as I was
reading through you stuff, you also do a lot of
work with homelessness and housing and displacement. Can you talk
a little bit more about that, because I know it's
always been a crisis, but it's becoming more and more
of unawareness, especially without current administration not really caring about
(19:18):
the underlying issues that echos, socionomical basically economic. Thank you, yes,
you know words, this is my job. Yes, so can
you talk a little more about that please? Certainly? And
thinking about housing insecurity is not just someone who is
sleeping on the streets. Sometimes it is mamas who are
(19:40):
paying for one week in a hotel so her kids
can stay in the area, so they can go to school,
and no one in the school will know what they're
going through. We have been hearing from families across the
state of Georgia, rural, suburban, urban, you name it, who
are facing housing insecure. Most people are able to talk
(20:02):
about that issue when they see it. Um maybe they
see it when they're getting off the highway and someone
is asking for some help, or maybe they see it
when they're at a grocery store and someone is expressively hungry.
But what we don't really talk about is the mental
health aspects of that, in the physical health aspects of that.
(20:24):
So we have tried to coalesce with some of the
organizations that meet people where they are. These are organizations
like community land trusts. The whole point of a community
land trust is to get some land and to hold
it in a trust so that no matter what, that
house on that land will remain affordable. Community land trust
(20:47):
right now in the state of Georgia are so notable
because Georgia is the first state to ever have a
community land trust, beating out Vermont, New York, California, years
and years ago. But we have not done anything to
actually protect those community land trusts and staying affordable. So
this past year we worked with the city of Atlanta's
(21:10):
Housing Department and government relations as well as the Community
Land Trust here in Atlanta, to say what are your
families experiencing? And they said this, they don't own the land,
but they own the house. So when property tax time
comes around, the Community Land Trust is paying for the
land and they're paying for the house. But that homeowner
(21:34):
cannot request an exemption from school taxes from municipal taxes
if they're old enough because they don't technically own the land.
So there are some administrative fixes just like that that
the governor did and signed and felt was fine. But
there are other issues like mental health, protecting veterans, making
(21:57):
sure that trans and gender not conforming you who are
sleeping under the bridge blocks from here because we visit them,
actually have a way to get back on their feet,
and sometimes that can be through a foster care system.
Other times that can be through a supportive family. And
we're trying to make some pathways for folks to get
(22:17):
out of housing insecurity. That's awesome. As I was reading that,
it was really really inspiring, just understanding how harmful gentrification
can be, but how inevitable it often is, unfortunately, and
there's no real solution and seeing things like that, talking
about different types of built how the government canvass or
should be a part of this conversation instead of it
just being based on income or based on individuals. And
(22:40):
it seems like it's hard press but slowly at least
being conversational. Yeah, we're getting there, and you know, I'll say,
one of the most exciting moments I had working across
the aisle last year was with a rural legislator who
told me about when he was growing up, he used
(23:02):
to have bunnies at his house all the time and
he loved his bunnies until he found out they were rats,
and in that understanding, he would support my bill making
sure that people had safe housing. We were able to
pass a bill that is a part of kind of
a tenants bill of rights to say if you report
(23:25):
your buddies or rats to your landlord, they cannot just
go ahead and evict you, which is what's happening in
the state of Georgia. If you report mold or mild you,
or any of the things that are environmental or health
and safety issues, they can actually terminate your rental contract.
I don't find you that. No, I didn't know I
(23:46):
didn't know that, so we changed that bill last year.
I knew that there was some changes happening with the
winners rights. Things I did not know concluded the fact
that we could have been kicked out. And I'm a
renter or so I'm like, what, yeah, what, Wow, listen,
I'm learning things today, Georgia. Okay, but we fixed it.
You fixed it. That's amazing. Um. And then also we
(24:09):
kind of wanted to come background. You were talking about
foster care and such, something that's very passionate to me.
I'm I used to be in social work. Thank you.
Weird statement saying that, because uh, I'm not as of
like last week. That's very new. Um. But I was
working with the Departmentchieval Justice. I worked with foster Care.
I'm also adopted. And I know once again the whole
(24:29):
idea of religious freedom bill is coming back around. I
know that legislators trying to reintroduce it again, and of
course I am more than horrified because there are things
happening around the country that is allowing actual votes like
this to go forward. UM. Can you kind of talk
about what that because I know you've been in there
while they were trying to fight this bill. At the
(24:49):
begin with, as we're coming back to this, what are
some things that we need to be paying attention to.
How do we vocally advocate and physically advocate to fight
against such a bill. When you hear the term religious freedom,
you should think religious restriction. And we're trying to make
sure that people understand. Whether you believe in someone or
(25:10):
something that gets you somewhere, that's fine. We're not trying
to stop people from believing or not believing. What we
want to make sure that we do is create the
separation of church and state. Now, in a state like
Georgia in the Bible Belt, that's really difficult for reasons
(25:32):
like you have pastors running for office. You also have
governmental policies that create a special space in the state
capital for prayer to always happen. So we're juxtaposing people
who believe strongly and people who understand what the public wants.
(25:53):
What the public wants today is for there to be
the separation of church and state. You can look at
even a place that I don't eat, Chick fil A,
they don't even open on Sundays because they understand for
their beliefs that that is what they need to do
on Sundays. Great, do that on Sundays. Maybe if your
(26:15):
Jehovah's witness, do it on Saturdays. Do whatever day you
need to, except for when you are restricting someone else's life.
And in issues related to not only baking a cake
for a wedding, even though that Supreme Court case really
was disappointing to us, all um, but also about adopting people.
(26:40):
We saw this week as well, the Senate dropped the
anti LGBTQ adoption bill. In our words, we know that
research shows that same sex couples are four times more
likely than opposite sex couples to be raising adopted children.
(27:01):
So you're already targeting the group of folks who can
help get the seventeen thousand children out of our foster
care system today. What we want for Georgians and people
across the world to know about religious liberty religious freedom,
which we believe to be religious restriction, is that if
(27:23):
you are able to come to the table on this
conversation and say, hey, love thy neighbor, do not judge,
then we need you right now, right So what can
we do? Because obviously I am someone who is beyond
passionate about things like this, because I have seen firsthand
what that had, what happens to our children when those
types of restrictions happen, and what happens to the families
(27:46):
who oftentimes are more equipped to work with kids who
are a little come from a dysfunctional background. Because the
one thing I've had to tell many of people who
ask me about adoption and foster kind of like, be ready,
these kids are not fee. You're not getting any from
you know the movies. I love that movie. I also
(28:07):
love you any But I'm just saying, but that's the
thing is, it's obviously these are very troubled youth oftentimes,
and we know that after age five, they're less likely
to be adopted. Actually at age three, um, let's be
real honest, and that any child that old has gone
through some sort of trauma. And oftentimes I see people
(28:28):
of the l g P t u I community understand
that and are more equipped to handle or at least
are more prepared to handle such trauma. So with that,
what can we do to continue to make sure our
voices are known beyond just the regular emails? Beyond you know?
What can we do? Yes? Three things? One is registered
(28:48):
to vote? Y'all the deadlines are always happening. You know,
people like who wins the deadline so I can do
it the night before or the day of. Voter registration
deadlines are always happen. Don't worry about whether or not
you're trying to get it for this election or that election.
We believe voting to be a practice registered to votes.
You can see, Oh my polling place is green today.
(29:11):
Oh it was actually purple what I voted last time?
I mean literally, just a practice of knowing your space
when you're going to make these decisions, because these are
the senators that you're voting for. If they have an
incumbent letter by their name, please look them up before
you go. You can see your sample ballot online across
(29:32):
the state of Georgia by just going to the Secretary
of State's web page. The second thing is know that
politicians are playing games with people's lives right now, and
they deserve to be held accountable. Social media is a
great way to do that. To make people understand that
your beliefs are equally as important to your elected officials beliefs.
(29:56):
Even if they have the power to go in and
to write a piece of ledge inislation. You need to
remind them that that is only a fraction of their job.
The main part of our job at the state capital
is to balance the state budget. If you're elected official,
cannot talk to you about the money that they're trying
to get into the state budget for their hospitals and
(30:18):
their schools. And all they can do is talk to
you about restricting people's ability to live in safe and
healthy communities. Please quickly redirect them. Help them understand that
our state of Georgia has the Department of Family and
Child Services and their budget line is possibly about to
(30:39):
get cut. If they really care about making sure that
people have healthy lives, they should be doing a better
job of balancing that budget line. The third thing that
I truly, truly believe that we can all do is
to talk to children. Um. When you're talking to children,
help them understand, um, what it is that you have experienced,
(31:01):
regardless of their age. Help them understand why something makes
you upset. Help them know that they can speak up
if they feel like something is happening. Our children these
days are at age three thinking about gender identity, and
if we would have adults who would just listen and
(31:22):
talk to them and not push religion down their throat
at that moment. With conversion therapy, then they might actually
be Okay, I am excited in the opportunity, you know,
to keep registering people to vote, to keep talking about
the state budget, and of course to keep talking to
children to stop religious restrictions from happening. We do have
(31:45):
some more of our interview for you listeners, but we
do have one markert break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thanks sponsor. Let's get back into it.
(32:06):
As you were talking about voting, obviously, Georgia is very,
very in the middle of all the controversy with the
voter suppression issues as well as the fact of the
giant purge that has happened, which would be also another
thing for everybody, all the listeners to go back and
check make sure you have not been pursed, because that
is very very important obviously, and then also having the
(32:27):
conversation of voting being a right and not a privilege.
So with all of that, can you kind of speak
on a little more Obviously we're coming into a big
year for everything. Can you speak a little more on
that for us to be aware not only of what's
going on, maybe what we should be paying attention to
with that as well, because obviously when it comes to
the lawsuits and all of that, and we know that
(32:49):
Stacy Abrams is a big voice and has started her
nonprofit which is freaking amazing. UM, But just kind of
talking a little more and letting us for the listeners
who may not completely know kind of detail that for us,
that's right. And thinking about voting, I think about people
who have come before me and people who will come
after me. My vote is not about what I want.
(33:13):
It's really about what I have seen and what I
want to see. Sometimes people get so tied up and
voting for a candidate, voting, you know, to make sure
that if that person does not get elected, then I'm
just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And you know,
I'll say, you know, even some of my Democratic Socialist friends,
(33:37):
that was the whole point of the Bernie or Bust mentality.
It was like this or throw out the bathwater and
the baby. And that mentality is really difficult. It is
this cancel culture. It's all of this toxic nature that says,
if something didn't go your way, then just kill it
(33:58):
all together. But in fact, that's not what voting is.
About voting is all about choice and opportunity. When you
go to the ballot in March for the presidential primary,
there will be a bunch of people there. There's also
a write in slot if you don't want anyone write
in who you want to write in, But at least
(34:20):
your vote gets counted. If you understand that your candidate
is not going to get selected right before the election,
or maybe they have a runoff like I did for
their second election, those votes matter even more. We should
be looking out for special elections and runoff elections, but
(34:43):
they're not really jargon that people are used to. They're
used to like, oh, the primary, yeah, the general, But
what about the special elections? What about the runoffs? What
about the times when twenty three votes changes something. Imagine
if you and your apartment building of p or your
block of people said we're going to vote, and you
(35:04):
change the election. I bet you that your ability to
feel more invested in the system would increase. What we
do know about voters right now, which makes me really excited,
is that they're the youngest they've ever been. And even
when they say millennials don't vote, what they actually mean
(35:24):
is we haven't done the data. Yet they're pulling information
from not only forty year old who have ten year
olds and nineteen year olds who are just getting into college.
They can't figure out how to do all that together.
All of the pundits can't even do it, and so
it's a farce. It is not true that millennials Gen
(35:47):
X all of us, that we don't vote. We actually do.
We've been voting in Georgia at three hundred and sixty
percent more than we ever have before. But we're doing
it in a very specific way. We are early voting. Yes,
we're not waiting for election day. So if the election
was supposed to be on this coming Tuesday, this whole
(36:09):
week would be early voting in the state of Georgia.
We'll do it the week before. Get off of work,
get out of your place, go early vote. And that's
really what's going to make the difference in this presidential election.
That's awesome, thank you, I've been taking over. I get
(36:29):
really excited because these are very important ties right now. Um.
I was gonna say ask one too for those who
are considering running, because those who are considering and getting
their their footwet. I'm not one of those people just
so you know, um, what would your advice for them be?
Three things? Of course, One, scrub your social media, not
(36:52):
because you're trying to change who you are, but because
when voters come to look at you, they're looking for
bite sized pieces. They want to understand, Okay, this person
does that, they went there and they served in this capacity.
We know the average you know, like idle on a page. Um,
you know, mentality is ten seconds. If you hold your
(37:13):
phone right now and just stare at it for ten seconds,
you're gonna be bored. So people are not really gonna
take that much time to look at like you're, you know,
post about visiting the Grand Canyon unless you want that
there to prove that you're an environmentalist. Go ahead and
just clean it up so they can actually see you
in the noise of what is the internet. The second thing,
(37:37):
of course, is get a kitchen cabinet of people who
you trust that you can talk to. Your kitchen cabinet
is that thing you open it you're like, hey cheetos,
Hey derritos, Hey girl. You could go in there and
just let it go and no one else has to know.
You need those handful of people who you can say,
did you know they pulled up my yard signs. Again,
(37:57):
I'm so frustrated, and my male piece it and go
out on time and I'm late from an interview and
a shoe broke and all these things, and then you
can zip it together and go in and do the interview.
You need to be able to have that kitchen cabinet
to carry you throughout the campaign. And the third thing
is raise some money. I was a twenty three year
(38:17):
old broke college student when I decided to run for office,
calling all my twenty three year old broke friends who
would say, yeah, I'm so proud of you, am so
glad you're running. This is awesome. I really cannot give
you twenty five dollars. I would take five dollars from
my friends because that's one yard sign, and really thinking
(38:39):
about how you can do exciting things on a grassroots campaign.
We raise money at drag shows in our election because
that was a part of our voter and that was
a part of our campaign. So don't think about raising
money as this yucky thing that is self serving. Instead,
(39:00):
like I said, if you're running for office, you're running
to balance a budget. You should be able to ask
for money. That's the job you're going to do. So
it's really some like job training. Yeah, money, he has
to have that money. It's true, damn money being poor
(39:21):
and now I'm like money. Um, would you like to
discuss anything that we haven't brought up these There any projects,
anything that's specific to you that you would love for
our listeners to listeners to know about, words listeners to
know about. To all the families out there. You know,
I just want to thank you all for resisting. It
is difficult, you know, it's hard. I know that as
(39:44):
a Duela, I'm working with mamas who are about to
deliver or who have delivered right now, and the state
of Georgia has gotten the worst ranking and maternal health outcomes.
As people say, Black women are three time more likely
to die than their counterparts in childbirth. As much as
(40:05):
we do want to educate the public about that, I
believe we should be sensitive and how we do it
because it is triggering. Is traumatizing to tell someone that
they might perish. Um for making this life decision when
you have also restricted their ability to terminate a pregnancy.
So I just want to thank families out there and
the people who support them, and to let you know
(40:27):
that I'm always here in Atlanta, Georgia, rocking out, fighting
for you know, the end to voter suppression and the
continuation of some progressive politics. So I do want to
ask a personal question, because obviously you have a very
heavy duty duty job, heavy heavy duty jobs. What do
you do to give yourself a chance to step away?
(40:52):
What is your outlet? Thank you? Family is definitely number
one for me. I went to college for dance, so
I really like to dance. That can be like in
a class or in a club. You might catch me
come on Atlanta or yes, yes, Friday night, let's do this.
We're gonna be friends, so it's fun. Um. And then
(41:15):
the third thing, of course, is shutting down off of
social media. Sometimes it can be really toxic, and whether
you're in elected office or not, I think we all
need to do that. Awesome, Well, thank you so much.
I've been so excited. I've been telling everybody so yes,
I'm a fan girl over here. I'm really excited that
(41:36):
you are here. I'm really excited that you are our
giant voice for our state and are part of the
fight in progressing Um. Your your heart and obviously your
passion has been an amazing representation of Georgia. So thank you,
thank you, And that concludes our interview with part Canon.
As you can tell, we were very excited and it
(41:56):
could have lasted a lot longer. I did have to
have a couple of moment is all right, chill, Samantha,
it's okay, it's okay. Yeah, it's okay. I loved it.
I loved every second of it. I'm sorry, I'll let
you suffer, but it was a beautiful thing to behold.
And I just want to tell everyone, yes, please get
involved and you never know, reach out, talk to these people.
(42:16):
They will reach back to you and they will have
a conversation with you, and that is very very important
in getting to know who your representatives are. Yeah, yeah,
And I love her story of she just was mad
about who was representing or went to the went to
the capitol and then met someone who then mentored her
(42:37):
chapped her to run and reach out. There's no telling
what can happen if you just put an effort in
getting to know people. In the story, It's true. I
used to tell myself that all the time. I could
either stay in which I would love, but I could
also go out and meet people, and I don't know
what that will lead to. Can be rewarding, sometimes can
(42:57):
be I mean that's kind of how we met. That's
how we met. Yeah. So I just want to say
thank you part for coming in with us and sitting
with us and having such a candid and open conversation.
For those who are thinking about going out and actually
trying to become a part of the voice, being involved
by getting into politics, listen to our advice. That's some
(43:18):
amazing things that you can do, and encourage you to do.
So try represent us. We need you, We need you, yes,
and we need more voices like Park Cannon and in
this which is Black History monthy comes out. Always want
to spotlight women of color who are out there fighting
(43:39):
the good fight, fighting the good fight and doing amazing
things and inspiring all of us. Yes, So, if if
you would like to email us, we would love to
hear from you. Our email is Stuff Media, Mom Stuff
at a heart media dot com. You can also find
us on Twitter at Mom's Done podcast or on Instagram
that stuff I Never told you, where you can see
a very well I'm embarrassing a photo of Heart Cannon,
(44:03):
Samantha and I and I look like I just came
in from a blizzard, but I'm actually just cold. Don't
you want to take a jacket off. Thanks as always
to our super producer Andrew Howard. Thank you and thanks
to you for listening stuff. I've never told you the
protection of Iheartradios how stuff works. For more podcast from
my Heart Radio, it's a the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. Welcome to Stuff. I
never told your production of I heard Radius how stuff works.
So today we and by we I do mean me.
I'm so excited, so excited. Oh, listeners, I saw such
(00:29):
a sight. I had a moment. Okay, but we're so
excited to introduce you to a member of the Georgia
House of Representatives that I have been watching since the
beginning of her career in Atlanta. How it sounds white
creepier than I intended, but hey, I have because it's
been exciting. But her name is part canon and I
will tell you, yes, I got super excited. I got
(00:52):
I kind of fan girls, so you definitely fan girls. Um,
and we know I'm not the best that speech sometimes
and yeah, I fumbled up quite a bit that I
had to restart a few times, and she was very
kind and patient. She was very well spoken. Also, I
feel like this is really indicative of our relationship, which
is antagonistic but beautiful friendship where I just sat back
(01:17):
and to let you struggle. You should terrible. It's such
a terrible person. I really thought it was so sweet because,
as I told you afterwards, normally you see people get
that way about celebrities, but Samantha Listeners, she gets that
way about representatives. I get that way about people who
(01:37):
are a powerhouse. And I love seeing those who strive
to go beyond, even more so when I see someone
who and she is twenty eight, by the way, so
a young un in comparison to myself, as well as
she has been in this game since, as well as
(01:58):
the fact that, yeah, she's very well spoke. And when
I say well spoken, I mean she was ready. She
was ready every question. I had, no fumbling. I was like,
my gosh. And not only that, she and and as
you will hear in the interviews, have some of the
best wit, like even politically when it comes to combating
some of the ignorance that we often see during political
(02:23):
times whatever whatnot. She had some of the best wit,
even in types of reform and types of bills. And
I love that so much because that kind of power,
that kind of level of assuredness of like, I know
this is not going to go anywhere, but I'm making
a statement is amazing to me. And she is one
(02:44):
of our representatives. She is a queer black woman who
is in our House of Representatives in a very conservative state,
So of course we do talk about the fact that
it's turning purple and we're hoping to be able to
be one of those swing state. But we do know
Georgia is very conservative, and we know that some of
the biggest controversies came with the last gubernatorial election with
(03:07):
Stacy Abrams and Brian Kemp, and it's been closely watched,
and Stacy Abrams herself has made a name in combating
voter suppression. So just with all of that, when I
see things like this in a powerhouse like this making
a name for herself in a manner that is so
just inspirational, Yeah, I have moments, okay, and I it
(03:31):
was beautiful to witness Samantha. It really was, and for myself, um,
and I would imagine for a lot of people listening.
It's hard sometimes with politics. It's just it seems like
no matter what you do, it's just constant bad news
and there's no change in hearing from someone like Pert Cannon,
(03:51):
who does have all these intersectional identities and who does
sound so hopeful and like, yeah, she was very positive
and that was so nice to see. Yeah, it was
really refreshing. And we've spoke before about how sometimes change
it just takes a while and it is happening, but
bad news is so much easier to consume and so
(04:13):
much easier to just bring in on yourself. But to
hear her have this positivity and this hope for we're
going to get more people to run and it's going
to continue to progress was really really refreshing. Right, And
before we get into the interview the amazing conversation we had,
we wanted to throw some statistics out there, because you know,
(04:35):
we love some statistics. It's true. So according to the
History Arts and Archive site, there have been over seventy
women of color in US Congress since nineteen sixty four. Yes,
which I got my own chance to geek out about
when Samantha gave me a mystery tag I did. I
was trying to make sure that the site was updated
(04:55):
and I could not find the last updated date. So
you sat there for or fifteen minutes fifteen ish trying
to find the site from me, and I said you
you definitely succeeded. But yeah, the excitement that you had
when you were like, let me find it, I can
do this, I was bored for them. Yeah, I'm like
he loves some research. Research, My girl loves some research.
(05:18):
So there have been going back to this, there have
been thirteen Asian Pacific American women, forty seven African American women,
and twenty Hispanic American women in Congress to this date,
which not the greatest number. No, definitely not the greatest number.
We we can certainly improve upon that, and I hope
that we will. And with those numbers. Patsy Mink of
(05:41):
Hawaii was the first Asian Pacific American woman to be
elected to the House in nineteen s four. Shirley chis
Home one of my favorites of New York, as the
first African American woman elected to the House in nine eight,
and Aleana Ross Latian Florida was the first Hispanic American
woman won the election to the House in nine teen
eighty nine. And for extra credit, the first woman of
(06:02):
color to be elected to the Senate was Carol Moseley Braun,
an African American woman from Illinois in nineteen two, and
Maizie Herono from Hawaii was the first woman of color
to be alighted to both chambers. She was alighted to
Senate in two thousand twelve. Then we have some statistics
for lgbt Q plus representation in politics. According to it
(06:23):
gets Better to org as, there were ten members of
Congress on the federal level who identify as LGBTQ plus
and of those ten, five are women, and of those five,
zero we're women of color. Now, these are outdated, so
changes are coming. When it comes to the state level,
constituents are more represented, which again is another example of
(06:44):
local politics. Pay attention, get involved, don't forget about those.
Local elections are so important. They are very important, and
they're more likely to hear your voice, unfortunately than those
in the federal level. And yes, these statistics that we
just gave you were more on the federal level, but yes,
these local elections are would probably more likely to have
your voice be heard, you being able to be better representative.
(07:04):
So these are wild. Local elections are very very important
and something that we need to be paying attention to. Yes,
check your registration out and vote. And we're about ready
to get into our interview. But first we're going to
get into a quick break for word from our sponsor.
(07:33):
And we're back, Thank you sponsor. So let's get started
with our interview with Park Cannon. I was born park
Cannon named after an actress who I found out ran
for office in Tennessee. Her name is Park Overall. She's
an environmentalist. It's really awesome to think about that. But
I am a member of the Georgia House of Representatives,
(07:55):
which is a part of our state's government. At twenty
three years years old, I stepped off my college campus
and decided I wanted to run for office. I did
not know much more than that I was frustrated about
what was going on, and luckily, when we won our election,
we brought a very progressive voice to the state Capitol.
(08:16):
I am openly queer. I love to make sure that
people talk about intersectionality because I am an abortion dou lah,
a birth doula, and a preschool teacher. And I think
what's also pretty exciting is that last year at the
state Capitol they did an article about fashion at the
(08:39):
State Capitol and they said it was because of alphabetical
order that I was first. But you know, I love
me some fashion. Well, I'm gonna say you're killing this
outfit today, Like the shoes alone is amazing, and they're
hilled black and white, Poka Dot hills and you all
(09:00):
them there, your rainboots. That's even better. I'm like, yes,
this is my type of person because I also only
wear hills and boots most of the time. It's rare
to find me in anything else because I am a
short girl at five five four, so I feel like
I need that little stature, just a little bit, you know,
to go with that personality. But yeah, as your fashion
is on points, so I would definitely say it's not
(09:21):
just because of the alphabetical order thing. Yeah, I was
looking at your stuff and I'm thinking I'm about ten
or so years older than you, and I feel very
much like an underachiever. O my god, the things that
you have done and you're doing right now, it's just incredible.
And again, like I said, I'm fan girling because I
love seeing someone with such drive, um, and you have
(09:42):
so many good things behind you. I love again watching
you campaign. It was one of the beautiful moves. And
you are with the House of Representatives and District fifty eight.
So District fifty eight is in midtown downtown in southwest Atlanta.
I like to call it a reproductive justice district because
you have neighborhoods like Virginia Highland with homes in the millions.
(10:04):
And you have neighborhoods like Pittsburgh, which is literally the
nation's worst representation for UM predatory lending back in the
early two thousands UM within the district as well. So
you have all kinds of folks, all kinds of families,
and I'm really trying my hardest to represent them all. Right, um,
(10:26):
And just for our audiences, this is based in Georgia. Uh.
Like I said, I love kind of coming seeing what's
happening in individual states and and the state level, because
I think that's where it all begins. Obviously, when we're
talking about voting rights and we're talking about voting suppression,
a lot of our voices and all of our representatives
are supposed to have our best interests. And so we
know that state representation is very, very important. And you
(10:48):
are a part of the Georgia state representation because we
have a very international audience. Yes, Atlanta, Georgia, you know,
in the South of the United States. And what we
of course are fighting against in Georgia is the fact
that we are a conservative state, but Atlanta is a
progressive city, right, So I represent them both, yes, And
(11:10):
it's very interesting because we're quickly talking about Georgia slowly
becoming a very um purple state, and then we're talking
about slowly becoming a swing state, and how important it
is that we do keep an eye as we are
slowly changing some ideas and some heads hopefully. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
as it goes spreads out beyond metro Atlanta as well.
I love seeing that. But yes, you are a big
voice and a big representation of that progression. And if
(11:34):
you don't mind talking a little bit about your history,
because I know you kind of dabbled or started working
with Representatives Simone Bell and kind of go back to
that for us. So in like, I was so angry
in our state passed a bill um that was a
part of a federal opportunity to restrict access to reproductive healthcare.
(11:57):
So our state was one of the first in twenty twelve,
and that really took that on to the House and
the Senate, and the governor loved it, and all of
the departments of Public health and community health really had
to change their operating procedures. I felt that was a
waste of taxpayer dollars and I wanted to know who
was responsible. So I got up, you know, put my
(12:20):
college sweatshirt on and went down to the state capital
and tried to get to know my legislator. I figured
I was going to run into a white man. Instead,
I ran into an African American lesbian with locked hair,
and we really became friends. Um. I'm so proud to
know that she found me to be such a pivotal
(12:44):
member of her district that when she decided to resign
her office in she called me and personally asked me
to run for the seat. Now I was twenty three
years old, I had just gotten out of college. I
didn't think I was going to run for office toil
may be after law school, after a career. So we
dropped everything and picked up a grassroots campaign. We had
(13:07):
a month and a half to raise fifty thousand dollars
and to try to talk to two thousand voters. And
the first election we had in sixteen was in January,
so our legislative session, which I was running to be
a part of, had already started, so we felt the
urgency and tried to get us many voters to the polls.
(13:29):
We actually had our celebration party planned for here in
Pont City Market at nine PM because the polls closed
at eight. We left our house at like eight twenty,
gotten this parking lot by like eight thirty, and we
saw the results. We had lost the election by twenty
(13:50):
three votes out of twenty two thousand people. If twenty
three more people had voted, we would have closed the deal.
So we had a runoff election in fed Brewery. I
immediately started serving. The presidential primary was in March, so
we were back on the ballot in March, and once
again on the ballot in November. So if anyone out
(14:10):
there is interested in running for office and someone tells
you you're gonna have to do it multiple times, that's
just a part of the game. And that's how we
got our seat. That's amazing. Yeah, And as you were
talking about to the audience and to the people, what
would your statements be about why it is important that
if you are as passionate and as as we are
all passionate to come out and represent and be a voice,
(14:32):
and especially for those who are women of colored, people
of colored, those in the l g B t q I,
why it's really important right now that that community step up.
Culture change is happening in our communities, and it's also
happening in government. Buildings. If you look at the Georgia
State Capital right now, we just put in uh mom
of a which is for you if you are humping
(14:55):
or breastfeeding. We've never had that before. And this is
because legislators who are female who had tiny's needed to breastfeed,
and they started breastfeeding on the floor of the state capital,
and they started to say, we're doing this because people
can't come here and do what they need to do.
(15:15):
If they want to be a citizen advocate, they have
to choose whether they're going to feed their child or not.
And so there are opportunities for our state capital. I
believe to have gender neutral bathrooms. Currently we don't, and
I believe that only if there are more people with
intersectional identities who are not just say queer like me,
(15:39):
but maybe are moms of queer kids or maybe dads
of trans kids, then that is when we'll see the
tide turn. That's a great point. I love that. So
in your time with the government, yes, we've been looking
at I've been looking at some of your bills and
some of the things that you have been um pushing
(15:59):
and I didn't want to talk about because I love
it and I need to know more about it, the
particular bill of rights. Thank you, Yeah, I want to
know all about it. How you came to come together,
and I decided this needs to be talked about at
the very least as a way of protesting. That's right.
So the abortion ban in twenty nineteen was really just
(16:23):
another day of business as usual at the Georgia State Capital. Um.
Some of my colleagues, who identify as Caucasian and mail
were up to what I consider to be business as usual,
restricting people's rights, not listening to their constituents, and in
fact doing something that is incredibly costly to our state.
(16:46):
They decided that in that day, even though we had
done five or ten direct actions on the state floor
by turning our backs to the speakers, linking arms, bringing
media in, shouting out planned parenthood, not leaving the well
when we were supposed to, and continuing to speak, but
(17:07):
they were still able to get the bill passed. So
we said, as much as you have the power to
go to legislative Council and to what you say is
to write legislation that your constituents want you to write,
we do too. So a few of us black women
legislators went to Legislative Council, and under the understanding that
(17:28):
our constituents had reached out to us about men's health,
we wanted to write some bills, so we did the
Testicular Bill of Rights. We additionally did the Vanishing viagraa Act.
We also tried to create a study committee on a
rectile dysfunction, and we talked a lot about the social
and mental aspects of masculinity that are toxic and in fact,
(17:52):
those are the reasons why we have unplanned pregnancy. Unfortunately,
our bill has not gotten a hearing, but it has
gotten media from here across the world. We are open
to talking about it anytime. I love it. Yeah, as
I was reading it, I think I was giggling, but
I was really excited because I'm like, this is absolutely
the questions that we need to come back to. And
(18:14):
then whether it's actually talking about sexual assault or again
unwanted praying and sees, any of that, these are important
questions that should be addressed. Why aren't men taking responsibility
for all of these actions that are happening. Why is
this being just dumped on two women or those who
identify as women, or those who have vaginas in general,
Why is that so states paid for exact state pays
(18:37):
and its health benefit plan for Viagra Tier one, you know,
get that paid for for active members as well as retirees. Additionally,
you know when we look at what happens when someone
is trying to get a DNA test to prove fraternity,
does the state pay for that? No? So just trying
(18:57):
to pull out some of the fallacies and contradictions of
Georgia Code. I love it. And then as I was
reading through you stuff, you also do a lot of
work with homelessness and housing and displacement. Can you talk
a little bit more about that, because I know it's
always been a crisis, but it's becoming more and more
of unawareness, especially without current administration not really caring about
(19:18):
the underlying issues that echos, socionomical basically economic. Thank you, yes,
you know words, this is my job. Yes, so can
you talk a little more about that please? Certainly? And
thinking about housing insecurity is not just someone who is
sleeping on the streets. Sometimes it is mamas who are
(19:40):
paying for one week in a hotel so her kids
can stay in the area, so they can go to school,
and no one in the school will know what they're
going through. We have been hearing from families across the
state of Georgia, rural, suburban, urban, you name it, who
are facing housing insecure. Most people are able to talk
(20:02):
about that issue when they see it. Um maybe they
see it when they're getting off the highway and someone
is asking for some help, or maybe they see it
when they're at a grocery store and someone is expressively hungry.
But what we don't really talk about is the mental
health aspects of that, in the physical health aspects of that.
(20:24):
So we have tried to coalesce with some of the
organizations that meet people where they are. These are organizations
like community land trusts. The whole point of a community
land trust is to get some land and to hold
it in a trust so that no matter what, that
house on that land will remain affordable. Community land trust
(20:47):
right now in the state of Georgia are so notable
because Georgia is the first state to ever have a
community land trust, beating out Vermont, New York, California, years
and years ago. But we have not done anything to
actually protect those community land trusts and staying affordable. So
this past year we worked with the city of Atlanta's
(21:10):
Housing Department and government relations as well as the Community
Land Trust here in Atlanta, to say what are your
families experiencing? And they said this, they don't own the land,
but they own the house. So when property tax time
comes around, the Community Land Trust is paying for the
land and they're paying for the house. But that homeowner
(21:34):
cannot request an exemption from school taxes from municipal taxes
if they're old enough because they don't technically own the land.
So there are some administrative fixes just like that that
the governor did and signed and felt was fine. But
there are other issues like mental health, protecting veterans, making
(21:57):
sure that trans and gender not conforming you who are
sleeping under the bridge blocks from here because we visit them,
actually have a way to get back on their feet,
and sometimes that can be through a foster care system.
Other times that can be through a supportive family. And
we're trying to make some pathways for folks to get
(22:17):
out of housing insecurity. That's awesome. As I was reading that,
it was really really inspiring, just understanding how harmful gentrification
can be, but how inevitable it often is, unfortunately, and
there's no real solution and seeing things like that, talking
about different types of built how the government canvass or
should be a part of this conversation instead of it
just being based on income or based on individuals. And
(22:40):
it seems like it's hard press but slowly at least
being conversational. Yeah, we're getting there, and you know, I'll say,
one of the most exciting moments I had working across
the aisle last year was with a rural legislator who
told me about when he was growing up, he used
(23:02):
to have bunnies at his house all the time and
he loved his bunnies until he found out they were rats,
and in that understanding, he would support my bill making
sure that people had safe housing. We were able to
pass a bill that is a part of kind of
a tenants bill of rights to say if you report
(23:25):
your buddies or rats to your landlord, they cannot just
go ahead and evict you, which is what's happening in
the state of Georgia. If you report mold or mild you,
or any of the things that are environmental or health
and safety issues, they can actually terminate your rental contract.
I don't find you that. No, I didn't know I
(23:46):
didn't know that, so we changed that bill last year.
I knew that there was some changes happening with the
winners rights. Things I did not know concluded the fact
that we could have been kicked out. And I'm a
renter or so I'm like, what, yeah, what, Wow, listen,
I'm learning things today, Georgia. Okay, but we fixed it.
You fixed it. That's amazing. Um. And then also we
(24:09):
kind of wanted to come background. You were talking about
foster care and such, something that's very passionate to me.
I'm I used to be in social work. Thank you.
Weird statement saying that, because uh, I'm not as of
like last week. That's very new. Um. But I was
working with the Departmentchieval Justice. I worked with foster Care.
I'm also adopted. And I know once again the whole
(24:29):
idea of religious freedom bill is coming back around. I
know that legislators trying to reintroduce it again, and of
course I am more than horrified because there are things
happening around the country that is allowing actual votes like
this to go forward. UM. Can you kind of talk
about what that because I know you've been in there
while they were trying to fight this bill. At the
(24:49):
begin with, as we're coming back to this, what are
some things that we need to be paying attention to.
How do we vocally advocate and physically advocate to fight
against such a bill. When you hear the term religious freedom,
you should think religious restriction. And we're trying to make
sure that people understand. Whether you believe in someone or
(25:10):
something that gets you somewhere, that's fine. We're not trying
to stop people from believing or not believing. What we
want to make sure that we do is create the
separation of church and state. Now, in a state like
Georgia in the Bible Belt, that's really difficult for reasons
(25:32):
like you have pastors running for office. You also have
governmental policies that create a special space in the state
capital for prayer to always happen. So we're juxtaposing people
who believe strongly and people who understand what the public wants.
(25:53):
What the public wants today is for there to be
the separation of church and state. You can look at
even a place that I don't eat, Chick fil A,
they don't even open on Sundays because they understand for
their beliefs that that is what they need to do
on Sundays. Great, do that on Sundays. Maybe if your
(26:15):
Jehovah's witness, do it on Saturdays. Do whatever day you
need to, except for when you are restricting someone else's life.
And in issues related to not only baking a cake
for a wedding, even though that Supreme Court case really
was disappointing to us, all um, but also about adopting people.
(26:40):
We saw this week as well, the Senate dropped the
anti LGBTQ adoption bill. In our words, we know that
research shows that same sex couples are four times more
likely than opposite sex couples to be raising adopted children.
(27:01):
So you're already targeting the group of folks who can
help get the seventeen thousand children out of our foster
care system today. What we want for Georgians and people
across the world to know about religious liberty religious freedom,
which we believe to be religious restriction, is that if
(27:23):
you are able to come to the table on this
conversation and say, hey, love thy neighbor, do not judge,
then we need you right now, right So what can
we do? Because obviously I am someone who is beyond
passionate about things like this, because I have seen firsthand
what that had, what happens to our children when those
types of restrictions happen, and what happens to the families
(27:46):
who oftentimes are more equipped to work with kids who
are a little come from a dysfunctional background. Because the
one thing I've had to tell many of people who
ask me about adoption and foster kind of like, be ready,
these kids are not fee. You're not getting any from
you know the movies. I love that movie. I also
(28:07):
love you any But I'm just saying, but that's the
thing is, it's obviously these are very troubled youth oftentimes,
and we know that after age five, they're less likely
to be adopted. Actually at age three, um, let's be
real honest, and that any child that old has gone
through some sort of trauma. And oftentimes I see people
(28:28):
of the l g P t u I community understand
that and are more equipped to handle or at least
are more prepared to handle such trauma. So with that,
what can we do to continue to make sure our
voices are known beyond just the regular emails? Beyond you know?
What can we do? Yes? Three things? One is registered
(28:48):
to vote? Y'all the deadlines are always happening. You know,
people like who wins the deadline so I can do
it the night before or the day of. Voter registration
deadlines are always happen. Don't worry about whether or not
you're trying to get it for this election or that election.
We believe voting to be a practice registered to votes.
You can see, Oh my polling place is green today.
(29:11):
Oh it was actually purple what I voted last time?
I mean literally, just a practice of knowing your space
when you're going to make these decisions, because these are
the senators that you're voting for. If they have an
incumbent letter by their name, please look them up before
you go. You can see your sample ballot online across
(29:32):
the state of Georgia by just going to the Secretary
of State's web page. The second thing is know that
politicians are playing games with people's lives right now, and
they deserve to be held accountable. Social media is a
great way to do that. To make people understand that
your beliefs are equally as important to your elected officials beliefs.
(29:56):
Even if they have the power to go in and
to write a piece of ledge inislation. You need to
remind them that that is only a fraction of their job.
The main part of our job at the state capital
is to balance the state budget. If you're elected official,
cannot talk to you about the money that they're trying
to get into the state budget for their hospitals and
(30:18):
their schools. And all they can do is talk to
you about restricting people's ability to live in safe and
healthy communities. Please quickly redirect them. Help them understand that
our state of Georgia has the Department of Family and
Child Services and their budget line is possibly about to
(30:39):
get cut. If they really care about making sure that
people have healthy lives, they should be doing a better
job of balancing that budget line. The third thing that
I truly, truly believe that we can all do is
to talk to children. Um. When you're talking to children,
help them understand, um, what it is that you have experienced,
(31:01):
regardless of their age. Help them understand why something makes
you upset. Help them know that they can speak up
if they feel like something is happening. Our children these
days are at age three thinking about gender identity, and
if we would have adults who would just listen and
(31:22):
talk to them and not push religion down their throat
at that moment. With conversion therapy, then they might actually
be Okay, I am excited in the opportunity, you know,
to keep registering people to vote, to keep talking about
the state budget, and of course to keep talking to
children to stop religious restrictions from happening. We do have
(31:45):
some more of our interview for you listeners, but we
do have one markert break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thanks sponsor. Let's get back into it.
(32:06):
As you were talking about voting, obviously, Georgia is very,
very in the middle of all the controversy with the
voter suppression issues as well as the fact of the
giant purge that has happened, which would be also another
thing for everybody, all the listeners to go back and
check make sure you have not been pursed, because that
is very very important obviously, and then also having the
(32:27):
conversation of voting being a right and not a privilege.
So with all of that, can you kind of speak
on a little more Obviously we're coming into a big
year for everything. Can you speak a little more on
that for us to be aware not only of what's
going on, maybe what we should be paying attention to
with that as well, because obviously when it comes to
the lawsuits and all of that, and we know that
(32:49):
Stacy Abrams is a big voice and has started her
nonprofit which is freaking amazing. UM, But just kind of
talking a little more and letting us for the listeners
who may not completely know kind of detail that for us,
that's right. And thinking about voting, I think about people
who have come before me and people who will come
after me. My vote is not about what I want.
(33:13):
It's really about what I have seen and what I
want to see. Sometimes people get so tied up and
voting for a candidate, voting, you know, to make sure
that if that person does not get elected, then I'm
just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And you know,
I'll say, you know, even some of my Democratic Socialist friends,
(33:37):
that was the whole point of the Bernie or Bust mentality.
It was like this or throw out the bathwater and
the baby. And that mentality is really difficult. It is
this cancel culture. It's all of this toxic nature that says,
if something didn't go your way, then just kill it
(33:58):
all together. But in fact, that's not what voting is.
About voting is all about choice and opportunity. When you
go to the ballot in March for the presidential primary,
there will be a bunch of people there. There's also
a write in slot if you don't want anyone write
in who you want to write in, But at least
(34:20):
your vote gets counted. If you understand that your candidate
is not going to get selected right before the election,
or maybe they have a runoff like I did for
their second election, those votes matter even more. We should
be looking out for special elections and runoff elections, but
(34:43):
they're not really jargon that people are used to. They're
used to like, oh, the primary, yeah, the general, But
what about the special elections? What about the runoffs? What
about the times when twenty three votes changes something. Imagine
if you and your apartment building of p or your
block of people said we're going to vote, and you
(35:04):
change the election. I bet you that your ability to
feel more invested in the system would increase. What we
do know about voters right now, which makes me really excited,
is that they're the youngest they've ever been. And even
when they say millennials don't vote, what they actually mean
(35:24):
is we haven't done the data. Yet they're pulling information
from not only forty year old who have ten year
olds and nineteen year olds who are just getting into college.
They can't figure out how to do all that together.
All of the pundits can't even do it, and so
it's a farce. It is not true that millennials Gen
(35:47):
X all of us, that we don't vote. We actually do.
We've been voting in Georgia at three hundred and sixty
percent more than we ever have before. But we're doing
it in a very specific way. We are early voting. Yes,
we're not waiting for election day. So if the election
was supposed to be on this coming Tuesday, this whole
(36:09):
week would be early voting in the state of Georgia.
We'll do it the week before. Get off of work,
get out of your place, go early vote. And that's
really what's going to make the difference in this presidential election.
That's awesome, thank you, I've been taking over. I get
(36:29):
really excited because these are very important ties right now. Um.
I was gonna say ask one too for those who
are considering running, because those who are considering and getting
their their footwet. I'm not one of those people just
so you know, um, what would your advice for them be?
Three things? Of course, One, scrub your social media, not
(36:52):
because you're trying to change who you are, but because
when voters come to look at you, they're looking for
bite sized pieces. They want to understand, Okay, this person
does that, they went there and they served in this capacity.
We know the average you know, like idle on a page. Um,
you know, mentality is ten seconds. If you hold your
(37:13):
phone right now and just stare at it for ten seconds,
you're gonna be bored. So people are not really gonna
take that much time to look at like you're, you know,
post about visiting the Grand Canyon unless you want that
there to prove that you're an environmentalist. Go ahead and
just clean it up so they can actually see you
in the noise of what is the internet. The second thing,
(37:37):
of course, is get a kitchen cabinet of people who
you trust that you can talk to. Your kitchen cabinet
is that thing you open it you're like, hey cheetos,
Hey derritos, Hey girl. You could go in there and
just let it go and no one else has to know.
You need those handful of people who you can say,
did you know they pulled up my yard signs. Again,
(37:57):
I'm so frustrated, and my male piece it and go
out on time and I'm late from an interview and
a shoe broke and all these things, and then you
can zip it together and go in and do the interview.
You need to be able to have that kitchen cabinet
to carry you throughout the campaign. And the third thing
is raise some money. I was a twenty three year
(38:17):
old broke college student when I decided to run for office,
calling all my twenty three year old broke friends who
would say, yeah, I'm so proud of you, am so
glad you're running. This is awesome. I really cannot give
you twenty five dollars. I would take five dollars from
my friends because that's one yard sign, and really thinking
(38:39):
about how you can do exciting things on a grassroots campaign.
We raise money at drag shows in our election because
that was a part of our voter and that was
a part of our campaign. So don't think about raising
money as this yucky thing that is self serving. Instead,
(39:00):
like I said, if you're running for office, you're running
to balance a budget. You should be able to ask
for money. That's the job you're going to do. So
it's really some like job training. Yeah, money, he has
to have that money. It's true, damn money being poor
(39:21):
and now I'm like money. Um, would you like to
discuss anything that we haven't brought up these There any projects,
anything that's specific to you that you would love for
our listeners to listeners to know about, words listeners to
know about. To all the families out there. You know,
I just want to thank you all for resisting. It
is difficult, you know, it's hard. I know that as
(39:44):
a Duela, I'm working with mamas who are about to
deliver or who have delivered right now, and the state
of Georgia has gotten the worst ranking and maternal health outcomes.
As people say, Black women are three time more likely
to die than their counterparts in childbirth. As much as
(40:05):
we do want to educate the public about that, I
believe we should be sensitive and how we do it
because it is triggering. Is traumatizing to tell someone that
they might perish. Um for making this life decision when
you have also restricted their ability to terminate a pregnancy.
So I just want to thank families out there and
the people who support them, and to let you know
(40:27):
that I'm always here in Atlanta, Georgia, rocking out, fighting
for you know, the end to voter suppression and the
continuation of some progressive politics. So I do want to
ask a personal question, because obviously you have a very
heavy duty duty job, heavy heavy duty jobs. What do
you do to give yourself a chance to step away?
(40:52):
What is your outlet? Thank you? Family is definitely number
one for me. I went to college for dance, so
I really like to dance. That can be like in
a class or in a club. You might catch me
come on Atlanta or yes, yes, Friday night, let's do this.
We're gonna be friends, so it's fun. Um. And then
(41:15):
the third thing, of course, is shutting down off of
social media. Sometimes it can be really toxic, and whether
you're in elected office or not, I think we all
need to do that. Awesome, Well, thank you so much.
I've been so excited. I've been telling everybody so yes,
I'm a fan girl over here. I'm really excited that
(41:36):
you are here. I'm really excited that you are our
giant voice for our state and are part of the
fight in progressing Um. Your your heart and obviously your
passion has been an amazing representation of Georgia. So thank you,
thank you, And that concludes our interview with part Canon.
As you can tell, we were very excited and it
(41:56):
could have lasted a lot longer. I did have to
have a couple of moment is all right, chill, Samantha,
it's okay, it's okay. Yeah, it's okay. I loved it.
I loved every second of it. I'm sorry, I'll let
you suffer, but it was a beautiful thing to behold.
And I just want to tell everyone, yes, please get
involved and you never know, reach out, talk to these people.
(42:16):
They will reach back to you and they will have
a conversation with you, and that is very very important
in getting to know who your representatives are. Yeah, yeah,
And I love her story of she just was mad
about who was representing or went to the went to
the capitol and then met someone who then mentored her
(42:37):
chapped her to run and reach out. There's no telling
what can happen if you just put an effort in
getting to know people. In the story, It's true. I
used to tell myself that all the time. I could
either stay in which I would love, but I could
also go out and meet people, and I don't know
what that will lead to. Can be rewarding, sometimes can
(42:57):
be I mean that's kind of how we met. That's
how we met. Yeah. So I just want to say
thank you part for coming in with us and sitting
with us and having such a candid and open conversation.
For those who are thinking about going out and actually
trying to become a part of the voice, being involved
by getting into politics, listen to our advice. That's some
(43:18):
amazing things that you can do, and encourage you to do.
So try represent us. We need you, We need you, yes,
and we need more voices like Park Cannon and in
this which is Black History monthy comes out. Always want
to spotlight women of color who are out there fighting
(43:39):
the good fight, fighting the good fight and doing amazing
things and inspiring all of us. Yes, So, if if
you would like to email us, we would love to
hear from you. Our email is Stuff Media, Mom Stuff
at a heart media dot com. You can also find
us on Twitter at Mom's Done podcast or on Instagram
that stuff I Never told you, where you can see
a very well I'm embarrassing a photo of Heart Cannon,
(44:03):
Samantha and I and I look like I just came
in from a blizzard, but I'm actually just cold. Don't
you want to take a jacket off. Thanks as always
to our super producer Andrew Howard. Thank you and thanks
to you for listening stuff. I've never told you the
protection of Iheartradios how stuff works. For more podcast from
my Heart Radio, it's a the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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Samantha McVey
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