Wesley Knight 0:00 This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Tanya Flanagan 0:19 Good morning and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started. You Tanya Flanagan 0:47 Good morning Las Vegas. Good morning Nevada. Good morning world. Because we are now International. I always think it's very exciting that at least someone somewhere in the entire world thinks to listen to my show is quite a humbling honor. So to that listener, or those listeners, thanks for tuning in, and I hope we continue to grow our audience. To you here in Southern Nevada, warm and sunny Southern Nevada, thank you for tuning in, and 91.5 KU NV for the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan, we are in our final Sunday of Women's History Month. It has been an exciting month of really interesting shows, and I thought I would close out the month with two really dynamic guests who I am honored to be in the company of this morning I have with me, former Clark County Commissioner, former Nevada state legislator, Christian killiani, good morning. Good morning. Chris Giunchigliani 1:35 Rise and shine. Tanya Flanagan 1:37 Thank you for being here. I also have the pleasure of having in the studio with us. The incomparable Dr Tony bond, Toni Bond 1:44 good morning. I am delighted to be here. Thank you for Tanya Flanagan 1:47 coming back and Chris, thank you for joining me for the first time. I can't believe I've been on the air this long and haven't had the pleasure of having you in the studio to talk about politics or just life, trends and changes. But I hope today you all find this conversation interesting, and it's just really to close out the conversation about women, our contributions, our challenges by looking at some interesting thoughts for conversation. So in kicking it off, I have a question to both of you, or whoever wants to talk about it, the pivotal moment in your life that helped define your career path before you do DR bond a little bit about who you are, so we can put in perspective the weight of what you do and then the weight of what Chris has done. Toni Bond 2:32 Sure, so I'm one of the 12 black women who coined the term reproductive justice in 94 and 1994 and and started the reproductive justice movement. And I'm also a professor of ethics at a small Seminary in Ohio where I teach classical in Christian ethics and feminist and womanist ethics. Tanya Flanagan 2:58 And so the pivotal moment in your life that helped define your career path was what? Because that's Toni Bond 3:05 a lot, I think my career path found me, actually, it found me. Tanya Flanagan 3:10 It found me. Did something happen that made you go, this is where I want to do my work. It found Toni Bond 3:17 me in 91 actually, when I volunteered at a rape crisis center and decided to take a position there, doing medical advocacy work, doing crisis intervention counseling with rape survivors in the ER and I did that for two years, got burned out because it was just way too much to see the worst of humanity, day in, day out. And then someone called me and asked me to to be the executive director of the Chicago abortion fund. And I did. I said, Yes, wow. And it found literally, my career found me. Tanya Flanagan 3:57 I understand that kind of hold on to that, let's shift over to Chris. And as I'm listening to Dr Bon talk, I'm thinking, these are two women who have lived a life of servanthood, right, just in different lanes, but yet, both serving the public and giving. I mentioned that you are a former state legislator and a former Clark County Commissioner, but you wear additional hats, and so I don't want to give it all, so I'm gonna do something for you. Well, thank you. Chris Giunchigliani 4:27 Having grown up in Chicago, I'm the oldest of six kids, and my parents moved from the city. My dad left his job as an architect. I'd never planned on going to college. They moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and that was a rude awakening to me, in a way, because I came from the city. I was I love Chicago, and they were selling hay in the Kmart. I was just like, what did you transport me into? And I still remember my parents saying My mom was a waitress, my dad was an architect, but my dad did not graduate till three of us went to his graduate. Education from circle in Chicago and and so it was important education, but it wasn't funded. They didn't have the money in that type and part of it. So I still remember my father and mom sat me down. They said, Hey, there's a little college up the street. Why don't you go see if you can get in? Okay, I you'll meet friends, you'll meet people and whatnot. And I went up to Avila college, and I was able to get in on probation because I graduated from high school a semester early. To work, I was a maid, which was one of the toughest jobs I think I've ever had. So I helped culinary, years later, organize the maids here. So there's always full circles that come back in an interconnection. But when I got into that school, I was assigned a mentor, and Barbara was amazing. And she said, Listen, if you can handle six kids, you can handle children, why don't you look at education? And that's really how I wound up even getting into the field, and then I wound up teaching and getting my degree in special education. So I did that for 30 years here in Clark County. So it's just you never know the person or the question that they put a seed in your mind, and it can bloom. And I always appreciated that she that she gave that trust to me and kind of pushed me without pushing me away. And what was good at that school at that time, it was nursing, it was pre med, and was education, was their main focuses, and it was they found that they would put teachers out well educated, but they didn't like children. They didn't do student teaching until the very end, so they reversed their program. And so my opportunity as a freshman was to go out and volunteer in classrooms, public school classrooms, and that's where I found, I think my calling as an advocate for children that were disabled, and that's really Tanya Flanagan 6:44 how I got my start. That's how you ended up in education. How did the education the component of giving back in that space, shift to elected office? Because, like now, you have an exponential growth on you mentioned being a maid and organizing culinary which is huge. Culinary union is huge here. But I'm wondering what shifted when you were in education that led you down the path that I now need to run for office. Chris Giunchigliani 7:11 It's not one I thought about. I think I have been an activist and an advocate my entire life without realizing that's who I was. And I got involved as a first year teacher in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, I taught two years in Shawnee Mission before moving to Vegas, and my teacher cohort was the president the teachers union, so she sent me out. I became the instructional lead, and I learned about how you can move things through policy, not just through protest and whatnot, even though I love all that. And so I think I would say Lee shank was a guiding factor in my life, that that helped me understand that I had a voice in a variety of different ways. And I learned how to do negotiations. I learned how to organize and do pamphlets, all the little things that add up. 35 years later, that wound up leading me into going into politics, because that's another form of advocacy, just for a broader group with a whole lot of different tents and people in it. So I would say that that and my late husband was also president of the Union, and he he ran, he started the political action program in Clark County, the first teachers in politics with Ted King and Joyce Woodhouse, and that's how I got my start in the political toe of that before I even knew who he was, per se. That's pretty cool. Tanya Flanagan 8:35 It also makes me think about how you two overlap, but you're different because you work to impact people's lives. You work on policy in a different way, and you work on policy so you're like about like the an advocate, an activist, policy, running administratively, changing programs, changing the way people think about how issues affect our lives, and then presenting that probably to someone like a Chris at different levels, right? And then there you are, you know, at one point in the seat. And I guess here I am kind of toggling between the two in my own way. So this is just really neat to talk about. As you talked about where your beginnings were and you evolved for where you are. Now, if you were looking back, what would you say to your younger self, but two versions of your younger self, right? Because we're we're one person when we're young girls, whether you're preteen or you're teenage, and then you're an entirely different person when you're in your late teens, early 20s, and you're in college, and you're making that true self discovery of who you are becoming, or who you think you want to be, but having the totality of life experiences that you have now, what would you say to yourself as a as a young girl, and what would you say to yourself in your 20s? Who goes first on that? Dr, Bond, do. Toni Bond 10:00 I I think I would my younger self. I would talk to my younger self about being more self confident. I did not believe in my own self worth, and that had a lot to do with that I was an incest survivor, so that I had a lot to do with being an incest survivor and being very afraid of everybody in myself and and in my potential, and so I grew up really struggling with who I was going to become. I did not do the traditional way of of of of study, right? I dropped out of high school, one because I had to take care of my mom, but two, because I got very bored with high school, and I'd had a very different childhood. I had a childhood that no child should ever experience. So my childhood was different, and so I dropped out of high school, and I would say I didn't come into who Tony Bond was going to be until my 20s, when I finally said I'm going to go back to school, I'm going to get my GED and I and and I'm going to stop having that hang over my head. And then I decided I wanted to to to be in a profession. I thought I was going to be an attorney and and then I ended up volunteering with a women's organization called The League of black women and got a chance to use my writing skills, and that's how I was actually introduced to the folks at the rape crisis center on the south side of Chicago, because I grew up in Chicago, and that's that you know, as you said, you never know what's going to lead you to the next stepping stone. And that's what led me to working in the women's movement, actually. And that's, that's how I began to find out, you know, my identity, my identity, and who, who Tony Bond was was going to be. Chris Giunchigliani 12:15 Yeah, that's a journey. Unfortunately, I share a little bit of the same path. I was a victim of incest as well and but I was a quiet child, but very responsible. The work ethic. I appreciate that my parents taught me that, because I think that helped strengthen me without realizing what that self confidence was. And I go from the city my grandmother was a racist, and I still, I would refuse to ride on the bus with her any longer, because she never drove, but we always rode the bus around, and she would use the N word if somebody sat next to her, and I would, I didn't know how to tell her that I didn't agree with her, so I just removed myself. And later in high school, I did finally confront her, and she totally was unaware. And I don't want to justify it, she was a racist, but my mom and dad were not. And my mom, we've had our issues, but she was one of the strongest women that I've know, and she always wanted to go to college and couldn't, you know six kids in 10 years. And, you know, just all the stuff that life happens, right? So when we moved to this, well, I have to say my favorite song. I had songs that influenced me as a child. And my first song that I remembered, the first album that I song I heard, and then my parents got me. The album was people by Barbra Streisand, and I still listen to that to this day, because I think we need more compassion and caring and understanding in this world. And then second one, I was thinking this because I went to a play last night they mentioned Janice Ian was society's child, and that was another one that in the back of my head years later, the lyrics made complete and total sense to me. So I would say music in some cases. I'm not a musician. I wish I could play something, but I don't have that talent, but you can appreciate it and support it and do things in other ways. When we moved then out to the suburbs, and that was a rude awakening to me. Yeah, it was, it was different coming from the city, even though I grew up on north side, but it was still very white. We had, they had consolidated the whole high school with four cities around Carpentersville. I can't remember I grew up. So my high school, I went to Barrington high school. So I always qualified people. I did not live on that wealthy side of town, because there were some very well to do, people that were there. But I got an that was my introduction, from Catholic grade school to public high school, eye opening because of what I could learn and the experiences and the difference of opinions, and the teachers were phenomenal. We took an anthropology. Class, and as a sophomore, it was just it woke me up, and that's why I think in the back of my head, I never plan on being a teacher, but public education became very important to me because of that experience, and I think it is the great equalizer, and we have to remember that in the United States is stop this false competition with charters and private and opportunity and all this stuff, and focus on really, where we really equalized America and people's opportunities, and I think that's through public education. Tanya Flanagan 15:31 I think what's really interesting is I listen to both of you share how life experiences, and we know this, but it's fascinating to hear your life experiences, and to put in perspective how they've shaped your path, and then the relativity of that to your impact on other people, and how you focused your work to overcome being victims both of you and each each one of us has probably something that at some point makes you a victim, whether it is super traumatizing, moderately traumatizing, whatever it is, it is crippling to you and as an individual person, we're struggling to overcome that moment in life that may seem like something fleeting or simple to someone else. It could be an insult, it could be an attack of self esteem. Could be an attack on your ability to learn, to adapt, to adjust, to feel confident in a space, but that's still crippling to that person, and you never know how long a person carries that before they find that moment where they can hit the trigger and flip the switch to change direction, to regain control and to compartmentalize the pain that keeps them from trying something new, or for believing you know that they have value, it makes me want to ask you, what would you give as advice to young women? Because it is Women's History Month, and so we have young girls who are the next generation of coming of age, and we're living in a different time, very different than I grew up in, different than either one of you experienced. They are just seeing the world in it's like rapid warp speed, and it's changing every day. And things aren't subtle. They are vivid. Life is bold. Societal expressions are bold. There's very little filtering. So it makes me say, What would you say? I have a two part question this, but my first thought is, what advice do you give to young girls Chris Giunchigliani 17:40 coming up now, I would say, don't confuse friendliness with friendship, and I strive to not be a nice person. I strive to do things by being a kind person. And so for young girls to know that you can be nice, but it's what you do that breeds kindness, and if you do things because it's just feels right to you, and you're kind to another being, you can't stand that person, but you are kind to them, you will be a better person, and you will feel better internal inside, just because you've rationalized that everybody has value, I just don't have to agree with everybody, but I should not do it where I rub their nose in it. And so kindness, and as you said, the self confidence as these young women that find a mentor pick up the phone. It could be a man, it could be a grandma, it could be anybody. That's fine, but to have to build that self confidence, and I have to say it's there. I did reading week again. I try to do it every year at the district, and I had this kindergarten girl. She was phenomenal. I'm like, this girl's going some places, and she was so kind to her classmate, who had just moved here from Cuba. He didn't know any language, and he was sitting in class, and she was she just took it upon herself to sit with them and help communicate and explain what was going on. But she didn't tell him the answer. She made him try to find I thought, oh my gosh, this little girl, but she's not the only one. A lot of the young girls that I came across in the in the classes recently, gave me hope and kudos to their parents or grandparents or whoever is giving them some of that, because you're right. The barrages of social media these days, I would also say, Trust, but verify, no matter what. Don't believe the garbage that's out there automatically, just because. So those three things I would think I would share with a young woman, Toni Bond 19:44 Dr Brown, to that I would add being kind to yourself. I think we raise young girls to be kind to everyone else but themselves, and to give yourself permission to love. Yourself. I have encountered young women, young young to me, in their late teens, early 20s, and you can see how they have been raised to care for everyone but themselves. And I find that oftentimes I have to help them to understand that loving yourself does not mean that you are not caring for other people, but you can't care for anybody else. It's if you don't care for yourself first. And so that would be the most. That would be the first thing that I would I would talk with them about, yes, find a mentor, the power of discernment, being able to really listen to what people are saying to you so that you can really understand who people are. The late, great Maya Angelou said, when people tell you who they are and they show you who they are, believe them, and many times, we don't believe people when they tell us who they are, who, when they show us who they are, and to trust your gut, to trust your instinct. If something doesn't seem right, it's not right. And and this is something my mom and my my grandma always told me, always have your own resources. Don't depend on someone else to take care of you, even when you go out on that date. Make sure you have money to get home. Make sure you have money to pay for your own meal. Don't expect that somebody is going to take care of you. Someone buys you dinner. That's That's nice, but be able to take care of yourself and dream. Have dreams. What is it? Who do you want to be in the world, and what do you want to be remembered for? What contribution Do you want to make to the world? And the last thing I would tell them is something that my mom told me all the time. She said, Tony, you can do be have anything that you want. I grew up thinking that I could do be have anything that I want. And a lot of you know, I've had some folks say, Oh, you were raised spoiled. Oh, you were raised to think that you're better than others. Oh, no. My mom just tried to instill in me that I had self worth, even though I struggled with it, even though circumstances and other people tried to take that surf self worth from me. But she always said, you could do be have anything you want. Tanya Flanagan 22:32 Yeah, I like that. I have not added a lot to the sections of this conversation because I really wanted people to get to hear from you and get to know you, because you're just both so dynamic, but to this one piece, and listening to you, it makes me think if I had anything to add, it would be to a young person, what I would say to her is you are enough, and you are uniquely designed to be exactly who you are and enjoy the journey, appreciate The journey of discovering who that is, what makes you unique, and why it is so Chris Giunchigliani 23:04 wonderful, and why you might change from 30s. And then there's a different career city that comes in you don't have. Yes, you you continually learn. I'm endlessly curious. I can tell you both are. And so, you know, there may be another path out there of doing something that you never thought you were going to touch on, right? I love your your issue of teaching ethics. I was actually trying to put through my leadership program. I wanted to bring ethics back in to the curriculum, but that's like an act of God to get that on, especially even with legislators, but it is a moral code that we don't value enough, and it's not in our curriculum, even in high school, let alone civics education any longer. And so I was telling some young kids yesterday that knocked on my door, and I said, Well, we how we got into the conversation, but it was like, well, all the books are, I said, the curriculum still, the books are all still written in Texas. Don't tell me that they're reflecting Native American women, African American. They don't. I said, heck, I went to a public fit, which is a public theater here that my neighbors actually own, and it was what the Constitution means to me. And as I sat there, I just went, Oh, my God, you're right. I forgotten the black women did not get the right to vote till 1965 everybody assumes women got the right to vote in 1920 I'm like, no, no, that's not in our curriculum. Toni Bond 24:30 Why black men got the right Chris Giunchigliani 24:32 exactly before black women. But what black women did in that short period of time since they did, yeah, Tanya Flanagan 24:39 we've done a lot. Yeah, it's the things that you know aren't taught and the history that is that is suppressed. I like to make sure that while people are listening, if they are super curious about you and want to know more, or just want to see what you're doing, we share any information we can on your social media. How they can, you know, Watch, Learn. Be where you might be if you're doing something interesting in the community. Dr, Bond, anything you want to share on how people can find you, Toni Bond 25:08 sure folks can find me on Instagram and and Facebook at, at. Dr, Tony M. Bond, so Tony with an, I, right, right, d r t o n, i I'm sorry. D r t o n, I M as in Mary bond, because there's another Tony bond. Can you believe it? I cannot, right, Toni Bond 25:30 with an I, yes, amazing. Chris Giunchigliani 25:32 That is, there's no other June killiani, Tanya Flanagan 25:35 well, you know, yeah, I am the Tanya Flanagan that you don't expect when you get Tanya Flanagan, so what can I say? Chris Giunchigliani 25:44 I'm not on Instagram, I am on Facebook, and I do anybody wants to email me. My home address is out there. My cell phone's out there. You can call me, but I use I go by my last name. I'm old school@aol.com so that's g, i u n, C, H, I, G, l, I A n, i at AOL, but, yeah, you can probably Google Chris G something, and then something will pop up. Tanya Flanagan 26:08 So now that we have our social medias out of the way, I want to ask one last question and give each of you a chance to hit it, and it's, what do you think is the greatest benefit or threat to women today? Dr, Bond Toni Bond 26:21 one minute to answer that question Tanya Flanagan 26:23 about maybe less than that Toni Bond 26:25 the greatest benefit, greatest threat, education, greatest benefit for women today, especially black women, there are a lot of black women who are getting their masters in their PhDs, and I'm always saying we need more black women who are PhDs. And the greatest threat, that's Toni Bond 26:47 a tough one. It's luck. It's taking Toni Bond 26:49 I know I feel like I'm on a game show. The greatest threat is letting outside voices influence, influence you. Tanya Flanagan 26:58 Okay, Chris, benefit. The Chris Giunchigliani 27:00 greatest benefit for women this day, I would agree, is having access to education, no matter where, but finding money for those that want to go into the trades, let alone go into university, but having some kind of support system for them, to me, the greatest threat, and it's still disappointing to me as a women activist and is our own, women not recognizing misogyny and sexism, sexism when it is, and not backing up their own and not calling it out, because maybe it's their friend, and they don't the guy is their friend in that case, I think that does a disservice to women. It does a serve disservice to the general public, because what method I have to still educate you, because he called you that woman, and you didn't call him out. Sorry. That's wrong. And so I think the dismissal from other women, of women when they have been misogynized or sexually talked to, and if you think about it, think about what people are saying with Dolores Huerta right now? Yep. So, so, you know, Tanya Flanagan 28:05 it's been a great show. It's been a down to the minute show, folks, thanks for tuning in. I'll catch you next week, same time, same station. I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tonya almonds Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You. Transcribed by https://otter.ai