It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:44
Good morning Las Vegas. It's Zandra Pollard. It's where I am. Is the name of the show. The focus is mental health and wellness today. No Kings Day is what we're talking about. Civil unrest in our atmosphere, right? So no matter where you are, there's civil unrest, unrest happening, unfortunately, later on today, because show starts at 730 so there'll be lots of protests today. Here locally in Las Vegas, it will be downtown. So today I have West knight in studio. He's our audio engineer, and he is chiming in on the conversation. Also am is back to give us some of his opinions on what's happening, guys, yo, there's been so much happening, so fast, so quick. Yeah. But who's

Wesley Knight 1:47
surprised? Not me. Not at all,

Zandra Polard 1:50
man. You know, I kind of thought before the no Kings Day, I was thinking like, oh, I don't think you know, the protests are going to come all the way here to Vegas, you know, I don't see too many protests or things, you know, people really getting involved. Mostly, you know, money town, yeah, tourist town, yeah, you know. So I was happy, yeah, that the community is getting involved.

Wesley Knight 2:17
Yeah, absolutely same, yeah. So

Zandra Polard 2:21
I don't know how old you guys are. Well, I'm not disclosing my age, but I will say that I was around during the Rodney King unrest in Los Angeles, yeah, and so I get asked about that by my kids a lot. Yeah, they're always interested to know I've written papers in school about it. This is not like that, none at all. Yeah, much smaller, much, much smaller. But the things that people have to deal with, you know, families are being broken apart, right? And then how do they deal like, I don't even know if there's any setup for therapy for professionals to deal with these families

Wesley Knight 3:12
that are getting broken apart. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's difficult to broach, because it's inherently, I feel like it's a complex issue. So it's like, how do you begin to talk about that therapeutically, let alone like you can't do it without directly talking about the stuff that's still actively going on that might still either be triggering or otherwise, just like too recent for people to like, you haven't processed it yet, like it's ongoing. You know,

Zandra Polard 3:43
it's complicated. I hope they set some things up.

Wesley Knight 3:47
Who's to say? Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure, like, local groups are mobilizing. But those are things are so local, it's like we probably haven't heard about them yet.

Zandra Polard 3:58
If there's anyone listening, who is planning to mobilize something to help the community with mental health services related to immigration, my social media handles are, it's where I am. LV. Also, can I get my phone number? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, the phone number is 702-622-5192, so all mental health professionals who can hear me, or someone who would like to refer one to me, I'd love to have you on the show. 702-622-5192, now am, what have you dealt with in your generation? That is anything anywhere kind of close to the unrest we're dealing with now? Well,

Daniel Isaiah Elias 4:46
I feel like our generation in particular, we we've had especially with the BLM protests slash riots, because that shook the world in the middle of a pandemic. Right? You know, where you had no choice but to be a part of or watch what was happening. And I was in the middle on the front line of those protests. Oh, really, you know, I've seen it firsthand. I've seen I don't think a lot of people get that opportunity to be able to see the like, the the the truth of kind of what America can be, sometimes our political turmoil, or however you want to look at it, but you know, I've seen the hostility that, you know, this country can act with, and I've seen, you know, people literally shot in the face by police. Oh, wow. I've seen, you know, the streets set on fire. I've also seen the civil unrest in people, you know, burning down buildings and looting. I've seen these things with my first hand. Yes, me as well, yeah, my own eyes. So that gives you really like a just a really like, sort of solid and established viewpoint, sorry, really solid and established viewpoint on on where we are in America. So to for us to be in this place again, I don't want to say I'm not surprised, but I am actually very surprised, because I don't know we didn't think, I didn't think would be that bad again, you know people, but history repeats itself. Yes, just thinking that, yeah, history repeats itself. And, you know, people don't change. I mean, I think people grow and evolve, but I don't think people change. And that continuous battle between that fight for freedom is always going to be here in America, that right to protest, you know, that right

Zandra Polard 6:38
to Well, I don't know. I hope it stays,

Wesley Knight 6:40
yeah, and they'll find every excuse to criminalize otherwise, like legal behavior, just because, you know, so, no, it's tricky. I think, I think it's not that, it's not whether or not people change. It's that if circumstances don't change, if the systemic stuff that affects everybody, like regardless, you know, the stuff that actually gets us out in the streets and raising our voices and raising our fists and stuff. When those things change, when, when, when the people protesting have those needs addressed, and there's no longer that need or that that desire and that like fire to have to stand up and say something, then we'll see a change. It's not that the people change. It's not the people got with it.

Zandra Polard 7:23
There's always going to be injustices, correct? Yeah, because everyone has a different worldview. That's right, right? I mean, even with, you know, you look at Democratic or Republican, you know, somebody's always the villain, yeah? And someone, you know, people always choose a side, and no matter what side they choose, you know, they defend it.

Wesley Knight 7:45
Yeah, right, right, you know, yeah. And I, I think, I think in in these times with what, like the collective like, the collective motive for this is because we're seeing human rights violations happening, and so I think this is a, it's, it's ghastly to say, but it's a, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a living example of of it being bigger than a political affiliation. It's bigger than, I'm like, What side is right or wrong on the types of issues that you can debate. I don't think, I don't think human rights are debatable in the sense that one side would be advocating that someone, by nature of, you know, circumstances or skin color, like skin color, yeah, stuff you can't control, stuff you're just born that way. We're all human, and in that sense, like it's either you want people to have equal and equitable rights and access and all these things, or you simply don't. And I don't think that that's honestly a defensible

Zandra Polard 8:52
position. Some people are so consumed with protecting their resources that they can care less, yes, about the next man,

Wesley Knight 9:00
right? And they don't. And they so to the extent that they don't realize that that selfishness actually shoots themselves in the foot, maybe not immediately, maybe not in the short term, but in the long term, in the bigger picture,

Zandra Polard 9:14
yeah, I believe some people don't even realize. No, they don't. They are, you know, no,

Wesley Knight 9:17
they don't. The class consciousness is not exactly a popular thing in this country, uh, depending on how, how you want to talk about it, and what context, like historical context, we can talk about anything. But in, like, the active present day, in the moment, it's like, that's like a taboo or scary thing, anything that can, any language that can empower a common person or a disenfranchised group is considered dangerous by by the people that we are protesting like we're not. We're not up here and saying what we're trying to say and send a message we're trying to send for no reason. You know,

Zandra Polard 9:58
in my day. They called him the man

Wesley Knight 10:02
you know, and that's still, that's still very true, his saying, we don't learn, you know, history repeats itself, and that's because, you know, those who are the other, the other phrases, those who do not learn history, or do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean,

Daniel Isaiah Elias 10:17
I think this is what it takes. It always takes people, the people rising up and using their voice and their right to to protest, yeah, where things to, you know, have an effect and essentially change. Yeah, it has to be that way. And it may not be to the to the level of where we want it to be every time, but I think we have a tendency to get too comfortable, you know, with the standards of our society, yeah, and I think we need, like, sometimes you need that resistance in order for things to to evolve.

Wesley Knight 10:47
We normalize some pretty horrific things. You know, that's kind of what I see. Like, we can we get used to it because we get worn down, you know, the same thing. I mean, it's it. We see it as we're talking about civil unrest. It's like, why are we, why do we have this unrest right now? Well, it's because we are seeing like the second that the this administration took effect, it was just immediately destabilizing tons of stuff that we've always frequently had and always took for granted, and we're used to things running a certain way, and then when you start knocking on a bunch of pillars to try to knock them down simultaneously, you know, you you create the kind of chaos that, you know, that just makes it difficult for all of us, you know?

Zandra Polard 11:34
Well, I just don't, I really can't wrap my head around the other side. I mean, it hasn't even been six months. And I think someone I talked to they, I think they were happy that Trump was doing what he said he was going to do were the words I was told, yeah, yeah, and it's like, at any cost,

Wesley Knight 11:59
right, right, right, oh, at least the guy didn't lie to me, right? Yeah, well, he's lying. No, no, exactly. See, this is the, this is the, always the trick of the conversation, right? Because there's, there's knowing that someone is following, like, the, how do you put it? Orders, the orders, yeah, he's, he's he's saying, Oh, he's Oh. He always falling through in his promises. It's like, well, he's saying that, but you are assuming that you're the audience. He's actually speaking. Yes, he's not. He's not speaking for the common person. He is speaking right for everyone in his you know, top 1% little bubble, top 10% of earners, if we're going to be generous, and that's all that. These are for the tax cuts only benefit the the ones that already have, and they put that financial burden on the rest of us who are working class people, absolutely, you know what I mean? So it's like, it's like, yeah, always, do you said always, you know, they say, at least he's telling the truth, at least he's doing what he said. And I can't remember the exact quote, but there's something to be said for people. Will people will flock to or vote for somebody who is telling them the whole truth, not the whole truth, but telling them it's like, it doesn't have to be the it doesn't have to be a good truth, but it has to be something that they can easily identify with and believe, yeah,

Daniel Isaiah Elias 13:27
yeah. I feel like one thing that COVID In the BLM kind of that whole, that whole time, yeah, 112, punch, one thing that that really, that really stood out during that time the bar was set, that it's not about black versus white, it's not about skin color. It's really about the haves versus the have nots. Exactly, that's really what COVID really, I think, identified. And I think in this point in time, if you think it's about, you know, you being Hispanic or illegal or an immigrant, it's not, yeah, really about that? No, those are smoke screens. Those are all smoke screens. It's really just about the haves versus the have nots. And Trump has continued to continuing to push that agenda. Yeah? And whether he says it or whether he doesn't, his actions show

Wesley Knight 14:07
that Yeah. And historically, it's backed up too, because that's, that's, I'll call it what it is. A lot of people are afraid to say it, but I think you say it. Say it. Thank you. I think accurate language is important. Fascist behavior is a classic classic behavior of fascism is you create groups of others that you scapegoat for all your issues and and we've heard these. I'm going to say these phrases because they're the ones that came up for these respective problems, for these respective moments, when, when back, back in the in the 20s and 30s and 40s. And Hitler was saying the the issue was Jewish people. It was called the Jewish question when we were dealing with the the the heart of civil rights in the 50s and 60s, saying it but. Like they called it the Negro Problem. You know, nowadays they're going after both of those groups, but also now trans people and queer people, and that's called the trans debate. There's always a phrase to dehumanize simultaneously dehumanize those other groups, those already marginalized and oppressed groups, and then also use those phrases where it's like, Oh, I'm just asking questions. Oh, it's just a it's a conversation. Oh, I'm just trying to understand. And it's like you're splitting hairs and playing devil's advocate, and you don't have a defensible position if you were to use the real, accurate language. But smoke screen. We're going to call it something that it's not, and then propose that as the quote, unquote truth, and it's really not. It's an excuse for, like you're saying, for the haves to get more, and for the have nots to live with less. And frankly, they don't care if, if the working class and the have nots ever get enough to live like they were with the caste system, you know, yeah,

Zandra Polard 16:11
pretty much eventually there will not be enough employment. You know, there's not going to be a middle class. I mean, I've said this for us.

Wesley Knight 16:18
There's barely one now. Yeah, it's rich or poor. Again, again. COVID just accelerated so many things, socio politically, socioeconomically. I mean, I think, I think everything was said kind of through action when COVID happened and we saw the response. Now, I'm not an economist. I'm not even I have a journalism degree. I'm not good with with the money, numbers and stuff like that, but I am good with concepts. And I think it says something that if we are the country with the highest GDP, Gross National gross domestic product in the world, and we had some of the worst global response by comparison to the COVID pandemic across the globe, that's, that's a policy failure. That's a that's a systemic failure, but it's only a failure depending on who like what you consider success, like, the second that the economy was able to start, like, ramping up again. Everything, according to, you know me, whoever you know, mainstream people, normally people, they said, Oh, the economy's back. We're fine, we're fine, we're fine. And I'm like, I don't know about that. Yeah, sure,

Zandra Polard 17:36
all this smoke and mirrors stuff, yeah, yeah. What's going on with the virus that's going on now, there's a huge virus issue, yeah, and no one's talking about it.

Wesley Knight 17:48
It's, um, I think. I don't, I don't, I'm not. I'm gonna put it out there this way. I don't know enough to know exactly what a new virus would be, as much as a new variant, a new variant, because it's like, if you don't contain an original, quote, unquote, original virus, because everything mutates. I'm not, not conspiracy now, shingles, yeah, right, exactly, families of viruses, the way medicine, like just medical stuff, works. So basically, if you don't curb that original strain or infection, like we did not curb accurately and contain COVID, it's going to spread, it's going to mutate. Those are going to have half lives. Those are going to create strains that have different it's just the way the flu works. You know, flu vaccines get updated, because the flu changes as it as it exists over time. Seems like do

Zandra Polard 18:38
you think? But going back to the smoke and mirror thing, like, what else do you think is out there that's being hidden from the public? I say one would be another variant.

Wesley Knight 18:51
I don't think is being hidden. I think it's because when to connect that

Zandra Polard 18:56
paying attention to what's going on, because we're so busy looking at this phone, doing what he's doing? Yeah, he's sending out the National Guard, really?

Wesley Knight 19:06
Yeah, unnecessarily, 2020 trying to force, trying to force Marines to deploy as if, as if they're called to do that, as if that's their job. What else

Daniel Isaiah Elias 19:15
happened in 2020 What were you National Guard was? National Guard was out in 2020 but I don't, I don't think anything necessarily is being hidden. I think we're just very distracted. Okay, we're in the age of information. Yeah, and find which what it is you need to find. I was just gonna say, very

Wesley Knight 19:31
accessible. I was just gonna say, it's information, it's distraction. Like I said, you have you knock at all the pillars all the time. You're gonna create a frenzy. But third about that about like we don't hear about this stuff. We were hearing about stuff at a certain point. Sometimes we hear about medical stuff. Sometimes we don't. We did a lot during the pandemic. We don't anymore. They act like COVID is was defeated and it wasn't. You

Zandra Polard 19:56
can't even find PPE anymore. Yeah, yeah, right. Like

Wesley Knight 20:00
it, what it is, it goes part and parcel and hand in hand with what you're what we're talking about, where, if you intentionally destabilize the systems that are built to actually keep us safe, then of course, those systems are not going to be able to function in the ways that we're used to them benefiting us, the way and the way I'm thinking about it, with disease and COVID and everything CDC stuff, when you defund medical research, when you when you fire people whose jobs it is at the CDC and these other health organizations to be the experts, have the information, convey the information, conduct the studies. I mean, research is being as being pull. Research funding is being pulled on tons of stuff. Data is being, I won't say, like altered, but just not allowed

Zandra Polard 20:50
to be simple stuff, like my fruits and vegetables,

Wesley Knight 20:54
exactly. I mean, we're just, we're dealing with this egg recall thing you've heard about that. I mean, which is such a distraction in such a who's really, really worried about

Daniel Isaiah Elias 21:03
eggs? Yeah, I mean, it's salmon, it's salmon salmonella. Salmonella is serious salmonella. But I mean, like, I'm referring mostly to the price of eggs. Oh, the price.

Wesley Knight 21:12
Oh, that's why I brought it back. Well,

Zandra Polard 21:13
then you don't cook, because I'm gonna tell you, when you cook eggs are important, especially if you bake, yeah, you put eggs in almost everything.

Wesley Knight 21:24
And yeah, so sorry. I brought it up thinking about the recent salmonella, salmonella outbreak. But you're right, because the price part, literally, it starts. You started with a with a with a thing about eggs being expensive, and now it's coming back to a health issue, because the eggs are now infected, and the eggs are having an issue with that because, you know they're going after regulatory bodies. You know they're destabilizing and taking away OSHA, their RFK is replacing everybody on advisory panels with anti vaxxers that are in his pocket because it behooves them and their agendas at the literal expense of all of our health, all of our lives, all of our you know, trusted sources. You know these people are in the positions they're at in these high academic or government, state, local, federal, whatever levels, for a reason. You're supposed to be there because you care. You're supposed to be there because you have the the background, you have the information. Did you

Zandra Polard 22:20
hear about the meat plantation? Well, what about nasty so ice came in a few days ago and basically did a raid, and the meat plantation is, I think it's chicken. No, it's steak. Oh, my steak, I bet. Yeah. And then I was saying earlier about being worried about the fruits and vegetables. Yeah, they're also, you know, rounding up people in Oxnard, you know. So what about all of those fruits and vegetables? Oxnard is very well known for their strawberries. Okay, okay, so what happens to that fruit that's not being picked

Wesley Knight 23:02
Exactly? It's gonna exactly what you're right, exactly. And then how are the fruits and vegetables gonna go exactly what you think? Yeah, yeah, all of these, they're the the the lie that they're the lie that they're selling is that an immigrant is your enemy. Some a person's legal citizen status is the problem, and that if you're anything darker than like, like a white person getting a tan, then you're a suspect and and that's not like, that's, that's, it's all made up off of lies that somehow these people, these groups, that some random detail about them inherently makes them, dehumanizes them, makes them a criminal, makes those in power to keep those in power

Daniel Isaiah Elias 23:53
Exactly. What do you think? Why do you guys think that's such an issue here in America

Wesley Knight 23:57
because we were built on because all the white people came here. There it is where we were. I was just having this conversation with a friend, like an hour ago, America. And this is my opinion. This is my opinion on anyone else's America, if you look at it historically, is what you'd call a proto fascist country, because when you look is later down the line at Hitler and Mussolini, their biggest influences for their like platforms that were inhuman took their biggest chunk of inspiration from Western politics, which means our politics, they look to the way that America was founded, organized and what was done to put, you know, bigoted systems in place to create these issues. It's colonization being the problem and the natives being genocided. That's one part of it. White people didn't made up a hierarchy they put themselves on top of so they didn't have to do the grunt labor and and. In the slave trade, and it happened and everything and and then black people got scapegoated and built the country, and then get told that they're not citizens. And it's like, that's, that's not true. That's, that's, that's, that's a bunch of crap. So that basically, that's, that's the thing. It's just, we're, we're not, we didn't be like, the whole people are talking like, oh, fascism just showed up, or it came to our door. It's like, no, it's, it's been here. It's

Zandra Polard 25:27
being a fascist died in the wool of our What do you think about the no Kings Day?

Wesley Knight 25:31
I think it's the best today. I think it's the best chance we have to to to speak up, speak out, and regardless of what happens. I mean, you a protest is not a protest if it is not somehow disruptive. Polite society does not like that. Most of American society doesn't like that. But nobody, nobody gained rights by appealing to an apparent benevolent oppressor. That's an oxymoron. There's no such thing as a benevolent oppressor, right? You know, oh, my, I, you know, oh, you know, my, my slave master is good to me. It's like, okay, you're still a slave, though, you know what? I mean, you know, whatever. So it's, it's that kind of a thing. It's like, they're gonna demonize us regardless of what we do, because there's no such they're saying we'll be peaceful. We'll be peaceful. What they want is for us to be complicit, to be quiet and to be quiet. Just take it. And it's like, no, we're not, we're not going to do that like

Zandra Polard 26:34
and you know, the National Guard coming out, you know, people started acting up when they came and, you know, I have to tell you, during the Rodney King riots, when they gave us that curfew and told us we had to be announced, they meant that. They meant it, yeah, I went across the street. I was at a friend's house, and she says, Oh no, don't go home because the curfew is sitting. I said, Well, I'm just going across the street, right? We're in a residential area, yeah, yeah. Oh no. Soon as I hit that street to cross it gun right in my face.

Wesley Knight 27:07
Oh yeah, yeah, everyone's a suspect at that point, which is, you know, everyone's automatically guilty of something.

Zandra Polard 27:15
I'm so glad they let me, you know, go. You got lucky, yeah? I got lucky. I was able to go home, yeah, yeah. But I thought I was cool. I was smoking cigarettes back then too. Yeah. I was like, I'm smoking my cigarette. I'm going home, yeah, so what, so what, yeah. What is it called M 15, yeah, M 16, M 16, yeah, yeah, right in my face, yeah.

Wesley Knight 27:37
And that's what they'll do that they're um, you know, police are just the was, what was the phrase that I thought of the other day? It was that police are the willful enforcers of an oppressive system, and so they'll, you know, you hear the line all the time, oh, I didn't make the laws I you know, I just enforce them. Well, you're you chose that job. So

Zandra Polard 28:05
everyone be safe out there, you know. Let's get this protest going. We're right there with you. Any last words, anybody before we go?

Wesley Knight 28:16
I'm good. I'm out of here. I said, what? I said, yeah,

Daniel Isaiah Elias 28:18
yeah, I think I'm good as well. I mean, I think I would say, take this opportunity in this time to educate yourself. You know, we live in the in from the age of information, and we have the ability now to take the power into our hands.

Zandra Polard 28:31
All right, Power to the people. This is Sondra Pollard, it's where I am. I am here every Saturday at 7:30am we'll talk next week. Thank you. Bye. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai