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Founder of Cat Ladies for America, comedian, and angry optimist, Blaire Postman, conducts real-talk, claws-out interviews with people trying to make things suck less in new and different ways.
you have a lot of titles you've done a lot of things sir
you go by Reverend Tillett
your your eminence
your holiness some something okay
so cool just keep it humble
this week's guest is Reverend Stephen Tillett
also known as Pastor t
democratic candidate for Maryland's 32nd District
welcome Pastor t
thank you good morning
it's good to be with you and I appreciate it more than you know
when you were doing your intro
and you said you're trying to make things suck less
I'm on I'm on
I'm on board with that because the thing
things suck so badly in so many places right now
whatever we can do to make things suck less
let's do it which
let's start with whatever is around us
right so at the
for 100% well
I'm glad it's not gonna be a contentious interview
before we get into some of the issues
and why you're running for the state Senate in Maryland
in the 32nd District
I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about your background
because you are a pastor
but you've had a whole other career before that
could you tell us a little bit about that and where you're from
sure so I
I spent my life serving people as a pastor
a veteran community leader
and I'm running
to make sure that their voices are heard when decisions are made
so I was born and reared in Washington DC
um I understand that from my wife
that I'm one of the few people that uses the term reared
but my mother was an English teacher
so that's what she said that's what I say
in Washington DC I've been a pastor for 36 years um
the last 28 of them in Maryland
Baltimore and then Annapolis
been in Annapolis for 22 years
um I have um
had three kids now two
my son passed away so two daughters
two grandsons um
so I have grandkids and then I have a 13 year old in 8th grade um
just finished taking care of a 102 year old
my mother who
whom the Lord promoted finally on uh
March 8th after a wonderful life
um and just trying to serve uh this
this is the season I think
especially the season that's going on in this country
for people that are not concerned with politics as a career
and trying to you know
kind of make moves and see what comes next for me
and next for me and instead
my mission is to be your voice in the room
when you were serving in the Air Force uh
were there any lessons that you Learned
that you think are particularly applicable right now
and they might be positive lessons
they might be negative lessons
so when you're in the military
kind of sort of like being on
in a team sport you have to kind of look past that
I also for a while
served as a chaplain for the university of Maryland
Terrapins football team but when you're in
when you're in that room did you have a lot of
did you have good luck we
how was their how was their record
they made some bowl games while I was there
okay alright
just I won't attribute that to me but they did
but so when you're
when you're you're
you're on it it's being in the military
you were saying it's like being on a team sport
yeah it's like the team sport where you look around the room
and you have people from all different backgrounds
all walks of life different parts of the country etcetera
different um
faith backgrounds or no faith uh
etcetera ethnicities
and so you have to make the decision to work together
because you never know when you might be back to back with that person
in a challenging situation
and you don't have time to ask them what party they're in
what their ideology is or any of that
anything of that nature so
the military really taught me how to function and operate
in a diverse uh
situation and then also in my first uh
pastoral appointment I was in Washington DC
so I'm a 30 years old I'm a rookie pastor
not just wet but drenched behind the ears
and they send me to a
and a majority white elderly
southern white congregation
and so on its face you're like
that's not gonna work
but the Lord knit us together like family for six and a half years
and so I Learned that about the sameness
the fundamental sameness of people
when you look past this this um
one quarter of an inch or one tenth of an inch of our exterior
we are very much uh
the same
and so that sounds like you've uh
those were big important lessons to learn in your life
and then so
but for the past um
several decades you've been a pastor in and around
we'll call the DMV you've been in Baltimore
you were started in DC as you just mentioned
you've been in Baltimore now
you've been in Anne Arundel County for a number of years
and you know the
the it's an interesting track
because
the district that you're looking to represent in the Maryland Senate
my district is is a well gerrymandered district
so I don't have any one community in its entirety
so it starts off on the northern end up by BWI airport in Linthicum
so I got part of Linthicum
and on the southern end down by a Laurel racetrack
so we've got and bits and pieces in between
and so what are the issues that you see
it's it's Arundel for people who aren't in and around uh
Maryland or Washington DC or Baltimore
it's um
a bit of a bedroom community
there's a lot of people there who are commuting
either to Baltimore or to DC
but it's also right outside Annapolis
so that you know
that's a lot of people working in the state government
um Annapolis has
you know its own
you know economic base
and it's its own jobs and its own economy and um
you know you've got BWI right there
which is our our transit hub
that's where I fly out of
what is important right now to the people in your district
well as
as you know not just in the 32nd District
but throughout the state of Maryland
there's a great concern with a utility costs
because in in
in an unexplained hold on
it's kind of unexplained the cost
it just keeps going up your electric Bill
I mean my last electric Bill
and I and look
and I've got solar panels
our last our last B&B Bill was $700 now
oh wow
right but
but of course you know
sometimes the solar panels were covered in snow or whatever
so they didn't get to do as much as they do in the summer
but still the the people's um um
utility bills are going up
food costs are going up and so the cost of living is significant
and actually I was in a meeting yesterday where
where someone was discussing the fact that there's sort of a
a drain happening in the state of Maryland
where people are leaving
largely for affordability reasons
because we are having affordability challenges
so making life more affordable for everyone in the state
certainly for our veterans
as I'm a military veteran
for our seniors um
just so that people can not just survive
not just barely scrape by
but thrive and
and one thing Blair
I want to say is that um
one of the groups I work with
so I was president of the Anandale County branch in ACP
also was co chair for a number of years
with act anandale connecting together um
which is a multi ethnic a multi faith group in Anne Arundel County
that's done a lot of good work especially
you know you mentioned housing
we can we'll get to that
and also I was a tri chair with the Maryland Poor People's Campaign
and one thing that political campaigns miss all the time
I think is they target their campaign to who
the middle class middle class
middle class middle class
but as we saw
as the federal government began to assault people financially
and in their careers policy
violence against people who go to work every day
working hard fulfilling their mission
and so middle class people lost their jobs
and it doesn't take long to fall from the middle class
into a more challenged situation
or even poverty so my point being
statistics show us that 40%
four out of every 10 of our fellow Americans
four out of every 10 of our fellow Marylanders are poor and low wealth
and so we need to direct policy that's going to help them to
to elevate them because as the saying goes
a rising tide lifts all boats
and it's so it I agree
and also anyone who has spent any time in Maryland
especially near DC in the
in those bedroom communities
but not exclusively in DC
there's all kinds of affordability issues
I mean people
sometimes I hear folks complaining
as just an example these younger folks
they don't want to come into the office
I'm like well
these younger folks probably live an hour
they might live an hour away
commute from the office you know
they don't have the transit systems that you would like
it's expensive to drive the traffic is atrocious
and so they're spending hours of extra time that
you know when I moved to DC
in the suburbs of DC and I was going to a job
I didn't have a two hour commute
you know one way or an hour and a half commute
and so you know and
and why is that it's because it's it's
it's so hard to afford a place to rent
forget by rent a place that's so
you know near where people work and where they have to be
and near the transit and everything else
and what it's I
I've heard recent I've heard this a few times
but I heard it in a recent interview I did
that everyone is everyone in America
is way closer to being in poverty than being a billionaire
it's like
not even close and I have been in my own
I was lucky and had some support systems
but I years ago
had a business go out of business with the um
housing crisis era of you know
2008 2009 and
you know I was having my water turned off and had to
you know leave my house
and I had to do you know
lots of being poor is very expensive
and
I wonder if you could tell us some of the ways that you've worked on
that you would like to bring into the Maryland Senate
for the people you represent
to make being disadvantaged economically
not this impossible quicksand
that is so hard for people to get out of
right right
the quicksand quicksand
a poignant use of words there
seriously because it's like quicksand
you're struggling and the more you struggle
the farther you sink um
there's a message on the back of the Poor People's Campaign shirt
that says fight poverty
not the poor and it often seems as if policy making
policy is a choice and when people say
well we can't
it's not that you can't you won't
it's a matter of willpower
and if you are more concerned
with giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires
tax breaks to corporations and poor people
well good luck with that
who are you serving
you're serving one or 2% of the population and telling the other 90%
good luck with that and that's not the way you govern
so one of the things that I would like to do is to have sort of a
a poverty uh
measure if you will
to see when we're looking at legislation
and some things may not affect poverty at all
but in others instances
cause they always have an economic footnote when bills are
are legislated so people know how much they're gonna cost and
and how they'll fit in the budget
there also needs to be a poverty measure to determine
will this make life better or worse for people who are struggling
because there are a whole lot of people like you
who had their water cut off
or gotten that that uh
mail from B G N E or
or phone company whatever
in the pink envelope which lets you know your stuff's about
about ready to be cut off
and it shouldn't be like that
things don't have to be that hard and expensive to get turned back on
by the way oh yeah
as a you know
as if you did as if you didn't have enough money for your Bill
and now oh
by the way to turn it back on
we're gonna need more money than you already didn't have
we all want everybody to care
because it's the morally right thing to do
but also sometimes we live in a busy world
everyone's trying to survive
and we are we are in an onslaught of information
not always uh
by the sources we choose
when things help people who are experiencing poverty
doesn't that also help people in some ways in quality of life and
and it helps everybody that does not
as I said a rising tide lifts all boats
if you're helping people who are struggling
you're not taking anything away from people who already have
from people who are doing well
but you're elevating those
and then the other thing it just
in terms of our tax policy
is that we
we bend over backwards trying to take less money from people who
frankly should be paying more
and so as a result
the burden of carrying the state of Maryland
the burden of carrying the United States of America financially
falls to the lower nine the other 98% right
the you know the
the lower 90% is socially
economically
and you're making life easier for the people that have wealth
and that's not the way it should be
I'm not saying that by the time we're done with them
wealthy people should be struggling
but I am saying I'm not you know
if you've made $100 million
you know you should be able to live on
on 90 or you should be able to live on 80
it it just shouldn't be that hard
rather than expecting the person that's working two or three jobs
just to try and keep a roof over their head
feed their kids etcetera
and they don't have time to spend with their kids
cause they're always working uh
that instead they are paying their fair
that everyone pays their fair share
and that's not what's happening
they you know it's it's
I think it's just hard for some people to remember all the time that
like do you want better roads
all those big corporations
Amazon uses our roads like crazy
everybody you want better roads
because they got these big old trucks running all over the place
you know they should pay for those roads
and that makes it easier to
for people to get to work
I got a flat tire going up 83 a couple of weeks ago
you know I had to get a chance
you know I wasn't the only one
you know
you know the weekend I'm talking about
it was one of the one of those craters
one of those craters this is no shade
this is no shade this is like the I nothing
it just was like
barely melting it no
shade to Mary Scott I'm just saying
you know so like there's
if you want things like that to get fat fixed better
faster and work for everybody including
you know your middle class
working class you know
experiencing poverty unemployment
whatever it might be if you want to have better transit
if you wanna have better everything
then we need people to pay their fair share
so what are some things that specifically maybe um
the Senate didn't do this
or isn't gonna take care of this legislative term
that you would have wished they would have included
well I was a proponent reluctantly
for redistricting now we
now we know that the way the country is designed
the census the decennial census
every 10 years is taken in the year ending in zero
and by two years after that
they're supposed to be able to
based on that information
do the redistricting every 10 years
of course in this instance
we had somebody in Washington
who demanded that some people who listen to him
redistrict in the middle of the decade
you're more polite than I am
Pastor t
hahaha
and I like that hahaha
my mother my mother would be
my mother would tell me to
I should take some lessons
I probably should
well my mother here
here's what my mother would say
so sometimes if I would say that I was pissed off about something
and she would say I should not use that
so now
I say that I've reached a high level of passivity
so I've reached a high level of passivity
with people trying to Jerry rig the system
so that it works to their advantage
that elections are only fair when they win
and if they don't win something's wrong
so you're trying to um
redistrict in the middle of a decade um
and so many people in the state of Maryland thought that
Maryland should play its part
because with the last thing we want is for uh
after the 2026 elections assuming that there's not some
uh made up national emergency and they cancel elections
yes shenanigans uh
or General Potter and mass would say horshacky um
that that uh
Colonel Potter but that yeah yeah
so assuming that their elections
Maryland would be
have to look ourselves in the mirror if we came one vote short
and so Mike Johnson is still speaker of the house
and they're still passing crazy legislation
such as or just no oversight
just no the save act and no oversight
correct so um
so I supported that um
just from conversations I've had
it seems to me that they knew back in November
they didn't want to support it
but of course the excuse in January and February is
we don't have enough time to do it
but dude
you knew in November the governor wanted this
you knew that a a majority of Marylanders thought it was a good idea
not because it's great policy
but because it was necessary to defend ourselves from the onslaught
from the federal government
and yet they chose not to do it
so being a voice on the Senate floor for will rather than won't
for can rather than can't
just to say this is a matter of willpower
and we can do the right thing
it's always time to do the right
time to do the right thing
but we can do the right thing
if we're willing to commit ourselves to it
I think what and I
I am full disclosure
I was all in the first the reason we started this podcast
is because
I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of the time with the governor
in February to
and I got a little bit more out of it
I'm like well
now this is a podcast um
because everything I do is just excruciatingly well planned
and I that was
that was sarcasm
and um
but so I and we talk about redistricting
and what I find infuriating is the gaslighting that comes from um
the Senate President Bill Ferguson
who I live in his district
um he does not have a lot of um
public comment events town halls
that sort of thing um
I know that sounds very sort of
you know old
old fashioned but I think that they're important
especially when we're talking about something as important as this
and he went through a series of reasons
there was always like
every week or two there was a different reason why he couldn't do it
which just made me very suspicious
but what made me really angry were this number of senators
democratic senators
who would not say publicly either way whether they supported it or not
the majority of senators in this
in the Maryland Senate wouldn't say if they supported it either way or
I support it if we do it this way
put your own caveat on it
most of them refused to say it
and that is what makes the people of Maryland
and anywhere with a similar situation in the US
to think that they just despise the political or the electoral system
because right
they elected you you have it
you guess what it is your job to make decisions
and sometimes you're gonna make a decision that maybe most people like
but a lot of people don't
or vice versa and so I
so do I hear
do I hear you saying that sometimes people just need to grow up hair
and do need need need
yes I
yes you do
I am I am
I'm also comedian and I could say it in worse language than that
but the I I
I really the lack it's
I don't call it courage
and so I heard stories about this state senator was told that they uh
they wouldn't get this kind of money for their district if they
not if they voted for
if they came out publicly to put the vote on the floor
and if that is the kind of
excuse me and excuse me to your mother
uh god bless her
uh that's the kind of bullshit that people find infuriating
because now first of all
if the if the Senate president is
is threatening your district
I think your district should know about that
and I also I think your voters should know about that
and I also think that sometimes
even when they do that you have to call your
their bluff'cause that's what you have to do with bullies
I mean bullies
we see it down in Washington
DC right now you
it's amazing what happens when you stand up to a bully and tell them
no there's a lot of extra bluster that happens
and then they tend to move on to try to find a softer target
anyway that was just me getting angry
um so that was not interviewing you
that was me
but you remember when there was a gathering
I think of governors with uh
with the the occupant of the White House and the governor of Maine
God bless her he was trying to
trying to force um
some of his policy on her related to um
trans kids or something and it's like
so it's almost like this this misadministration is using trans kids uh
as the new Jews in Hitler's era
it's like we need to target them so everybody can be
it's like do you not realize
first of all they're human beings
they're somebody's kids number two
do you realize what a small number of people that is
that they're getting all lathered up about
but anyway so he brings that up
and the governor of Maine is kind of shaking her head no
and he's like you're not doing that
and she said well
something about what's gonna happen
and she just said I'll see you in court
and guess what and I wasn't mad at her at all
because that's how you deal with a bully
and especially if you wanna
if you wanna bully 50 people
the 50 governors of the 50 states
you wanna bully 50 people
if the governors would just have the testicular fortitude to say
we ain't doing that what's he gonna do
you can't sue everybody but that just requires political courage
and they lose and they lose in court all the time
the yes
they do the MAGA administration
the Epstein case they lose in court a lot
so it's just they're just hoping that the process is what keeps
intimidates people from pursuing that line
so sorry I took us down a rabbit hole around redistricting
you don't show up to a knife fight with a butter knife
we don't want any fights and any knives
but it's a metaphor and the point is we
we just couldn't let people like
redistrict everywhere and like
openly cheat if I am at
I'm not a gambler so I'm gonna mess this up
but if I am at a poker table and I see everyone cheating
and then the dealer says like
okay call
you know you know
money in the pot I'm not gonna keep throwing my money in the pot
I know everybody's cheating
I'm gonna do something else
it is not being magnanimous
it is not being honorable
to sit around and let people steal democracy by cheating
it seems as if you've spent a lot of the last few decades
between your work as a pastor
between act be uh
probably through the um
the Maryland Poor People uh
coalition on affordability
is there anything that you would
wished the state Senate had brought up
or the legislature generally had brought up um
in this legislative session that they didn't
that you would push for when you're elected
well one thing that we've done in Anne Arundel County that I wish for
and hope that the rest of the state will
will embrace is so County Councilman Pete Smith
who's running for a county executive in Anne Arundel County
passed a a tiny homes Bill
a cottage homes Bill and essentially
essentially
what that does is it builds a house that has smaller square footage
but you know
most people don't need to live in a mansion anyway
smaller square footage
but it allows you to get your foot in the door in the housing market
so that eventually yes yes literally
literally and figuratively
so that you can then eventually
when you move somebody else who needs that can get it
and then you can use the equity from that
to buy something a little larger
right as opposed to
and you talked about people having to drive an hour or more to work
and I think about the fact that there are people who work in Maryland
who live in York Pennsylvania
people work in DC
I got a friend I grew up with a few blocks away in DC
and she and her husband live in York Pennsylvania
but she works in Maryland and DC
but it's it's less expensive there
and so unless we want to have a brain drain and and
and talent drain and population drain
leaving the state because of unaffordability
we need to
and I think that the state legislature should make it easier
not harder
uh for state
for county planning boards and commissions and what not
planning and zoning folks
to set aside pro um
quadrats of land areas of land
of property that can be used to build cottage homes
so that then you will meet the needs of hundred
hundreds and thousands then
of people that need housing
so that you know
you you
you look at the you
you look at the problem and you say
what can we do to fix it people don't have housing
well dang it
then figure out a way to get them housing
and the kind of housing too
because it's what you're talking about
they're like smaller homes or cottage homes
you know but if you're
especially if like
if you're in your mid late 20s
early 30s maybe you just got married
maybe you're gonna have a kid
maybe you want more than three cats
you know I only have three
maybe I want seven you know
whatever you want you want um
but you want you
you don't want to be in a one bedroom apartment necessarily
and also like
you just you just want a place that's like
nice and clean and safe and it's got like
you know maybe it's got like one of those little notches in the shower
like you know
I got a notch in the took me many years to get a notch built in
notch in my shower I was in my 50s
but I excited about it now
and so you know
just like a little couple things that's modern
and it's like oh
this works the Wi-Fi is up to date
cause this home isn't from like 100 years ago
and um
when we when we build those houses
that's great and that's important
but a lot of the building that goes on
and I don't have the stats
I'm not gonna be the expert
you are I'm just looking
even in Baltimore I live in Little Italy
I live not far from the harbor right
so there's there's
there's all these there's a few little buildings
and they've renovated it and they've turned
like some of the row houses into apartments
which it should be like you know
it totally makes sense or they're building other buildings that have
like affordable housing
but then they have something over here
that they wanna make this enormous high rise
and it's all gonna be like
I just not literally just Airbnb's
but you just kind of get that vibe like okay
this is just for these are not going to be affordable rents for anyone
and Baltimore needs nice clean
you know cozy housing that people can get into as their first place
either as a renter on their own
or as a buyer and they need it to be at certain price points
and we should be able to do that
it feels like we focus a lot on these these um
these much more expensive properties
that is not helping most of the people luxury
luxury penthouses and luxury apartments and that kind of thing
and everybody can't afford that
and so again
that's what I'm saying that we should have
as a matter of primary focus
caring for the needs of those who are struggling to help them elevate
and again people want to say
well poor
poor people are lazy people
poor people are some of the hardest working people
you don't know you don't know them
because they're serving you
they're serving you at your
at your table or uh
setting up the the
the produce section in the store and
and you know
putting groceries on the shelves or whatever
so you don't recognize them
you could be there's a there
I think there is an this is vibes
this is not research this is just scrolling through things
I think there are way more people who are I
you know when I was going through all that stuff
now it's been almost 20 years
gosh lucky for me
and things turned around and blah blah blah
but I had a lot of degree
you know like
it's like okay
I went off and I was trying to build my own thing
and I wasn't doing that at the time
but I feel like there are a lot of people in what we
you would have considered again
going back to middle class and or white collar even
who are making six figures or more
who are much closer to this situation
they may not talk about it because they're embarrassed about it
but maybe they have student loans
maybe it's any kind of medical debt
and they are you know
and now B G
and E prices are going up
and they are strapped they're doing it
but you know
if something big happens
and something big can always happen to any of us
it doesn't feel like they have anywhere to go
so when life
when life happens and you end up
and you end up in your parents basement or whatever
it's like I'm 37 years old and I'm still in my mama's house
you don't want that you love mama
but you want your own space
they're not lazy they're not lazy
they're trying to live yes
in our state you're running for state Senate
what can we do to make things like be our electric uh
our energy prices more affordable
let's start there and then I have a couple other examples
so I I would need to do more research
on the particulars of how it can happen
but it seems to me there needs to be some kind of cap
that the uh
utilities folks cannot raise your rates
more than can be justified
and they can't continually keep doing it
because it seems that they just keep raising the race
and it's like well
what's the rational for this other than we can
you have a monopoly
so when we look at utilities
they don't have competition
competition would be great
but they've kind of muscled everybody out
so now they get to charge you what they want
so the Legislature has to step in and say
you will only be able to raise X amount of percent
with this level of documentation as to why it's warranted
and you will only be able to do that X amount of time times
within a certain number of years
so that it's not that you're being whipsawed
and every time you turn around
they're raising the rates more
so that's something that the Legislature can do
but again it's a matter of will
and of course if you're getting too many donations
I guess from BGN and
and those folks maybe you're less likely to do that
and Blair
here's one other thing that I really feel is important
um there is a civic responsibility for we
the people to stand up for themselves too
a lot of people think that their civic responsibility ends
begins and ends with voting
I say no
no no no
there there are several steps to the process
you have to register to vote
you have to get educated on the issues so that when you vote
you vote intelligently for people that support the
the issues that matter to you
and then after that you show up and hold them accountable
they don't get a 4 a two year
four year six year pass after you voted for them
you need to be on them and conversely
we as elected officials should be able to call on our folks and say
okay you all sent me here to do a job
I need for you guys to fill up some buses
and show up in this hearing room on this day
at this time prepared to testify on your
in your own behalf for your own best interest
so that we are working as a team
you elected me to be the voice in the room
but you know what they say
if you are just if you're out walking by yourself
you're just out for a walk
you're either in a march or you're out for a walk
I wanna look around and see some people who are ready to help
advocate for the their own best interest
and so I'm gonna keep you informed
I'll give it to you straight
I'm not gonna you know
try and pretty it up like
here's what it is I know it stinks
here are things we can do to fix it
but I need you to show up for yourself
in person stuff really moves the needle
in a way that I think people don't always appreciate
but if you can't do that right now
there's a lot of other ways to get involved
but you can phone calls are important to your leaders
emails you know
that are important to your leaders
and we have a lot of links in our bio for everybody
of different ways that different resources we have for initiatives
for people who are looking for what's important
or to find your representatives and how to contact them
the links are in our bio
when we're talking about other kinds of affordability
I mean healthcare
healthcare healthcare
and whether that is the elder care for your mom
or just if you break your leg or if you just want to get a mammogram
or you just what
I mean you
you would think they'd be tripping over themselves
to get everybody preventative care
you know um
just because of what because of the cost savings
which is allegedly what we all
what they all care about right
so when people are saying we need to cut costs
so what what can you do from a state Senate standpoint um
to help push for affordability in this state
when it comes to healthcare or access either
any site anything
anything on healthcare right right
so healthcare healthcare is one of our points of emphasis as well
I wanna go to another state
to Massachusetts when they had a Republican governor
Mitt Romney and they called it Romney care then
and they say that there are a lot of elements of Romney care
from Massachusetts
that were utilized to develop the Affordable Care Act
also known as Obama Care
so there are things that we can do in Maryland
I mean we got hospitals out the wazoo
like the half dozen of more involved
some of the best in the world
which because my healthcare just got in a fight with one of them
I can no longer use one of the best ones that's up the block for me
but yeah
I mean so what can we do
we've got great facilities here
right great
yes so we need
so we need to uh
establish a financial system
where people are not required to
to have to file bankruptcy in order to get care
or to be so sick that they eventually need to go to the er
and then it's farther down the road that if they just been able to get
well care well
patient care you have an annual
annual visit so how about that
that annual uh
physicals
that cost will be absorbed
so that that's nothing you have to pay
cause I know with insurance policies that I've had over the years as
as an employee for the United Methodist Church
or the Air Force or whatever um
that I could um
get an annual well
patient care get an annual physical for free
how many people could they do that for
catch something very early
save their lives
and it's funny that they talk about
well that's socialism
and there's so many aspects of socialism
in the way that our government functions
I'm not even gonna get into it
but I will just say public roads socialism
public roads there you go
I'm a trekky
okay Mr
Mr Spock said
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one
and if we just ran our government like that
to take care of the needs of the many
it would be it would
the level of satisfaction would increase
people would have livable wages
oh well
that's too much if we raise
if we raise minimum wage then businesses are gonna close
that is a lie businesses have never closed when
you know because of raising minimum wage
and minimum wage is minimum
is it enough to live on a livable wage in the state of Maryland
the last time I was assessing it is around $28 an hour
well that's too much
dude you make $100 million a year
why does somebody making $28 an hour bother you
so that's what I'm saying
that we need to direct our policy making toward most of the people
rather than a few of the people
and not allow ourselves to be bought off by a few of the people
so most of the people don't get served
that's why I'm running to be the voice in the room
so that when they anybody comes at me with some bubbles or whatever
I'm no
no no
I'm not it that's not why I'm here
I'm here to represent I'm here to represent you too
I mean I'm here to serve everybody not just you
and your voice is one that is quite skilled
I can tell you have
you have pastor voice capabilities
I can tell just from this interview
so it would be a heck of a voice
I'm sure
so why you
what's
distinguishing you from some of the folks that you're running against
all right I want to be
don't be I don't want pasty t
be just a little bit you're not being bad you're just being honest
I don't want to be just another system politician
who is going there to figure out okay
what can I do to advance myself
so I'm here and then I can start to get seniority
and I want to angle my way to be chair of this subcommittee
and then chair of this committee
and then in leadership
my focus is serving we
the people in the 32nd District in the state of Maryland
right now that's the focus
another area of concern in the country right now and in the state is
is data centers
and you know
because they want to put locate data centers in particular places
but this country has a history of putting things that may be harmful
in communities that are lower socioeconomic communities and
you know if your water becomes toxic
I would say more than a history
I would say almost always that is where they are
a pattern yes
it's a pattern
and so while technology is important
it shouldn't come at the expense of our communities
so I'm while I support smart growth
we gotta get things right and use clean energy
and make sure that local residents benefit
so that you're not just putting it in this particular say okay
it's almost as if you wealthy people
if you like this idea so much
then why don't we take out your community pool
and put this data center in your neighborhood
and see what they have to say
about it now
we know they're not gonna do that
but the thing is when you are contemplating and envisioning
and designing this data center
how would you want to design it
if it were going to be in your neighborhood
and you can look at some of these places in Tennessee in particular
I think that have had
you know burning off fuel constantly
there's noise pollution constantly
there's all kinds of smoke in there
and one we don't know that there's
once the thing is built we don't know where the jobs
for the people in the community are coming for that right
and that second there's a lot of people
it's not that um
it's not that AI will evaporate and disappear
but this idea that it's suddenly going to make everyone like
their new jobs and new careers
and everyone's gonna benefit
and it's they're spending all these billions of dollars
it's because they wanna make money
and they already spent a lot of money
I would just like to point out that I believe yesterday it was quietly
but not quietly enough I guess
uh announced
it was announced by meta yesterday
that they are shutting down their metaverse operation
that they have spent something like 80 or 100 billion dollars
producing where everyone's gonna live in the cartoon world
and we're gonna have cartoon money and cartoon friends or whatever
I don't know it's honestly
I mean he changed the whole name of Facebook's parent
company to meta for this
they're shutting the whole operation down by June
and he has said out loud this is just one example from one of them
he has said out loud like
you know there's a lot of people
a lot of money is probably not gonna get
you know come back to
a lot of these companies they're all just in a race
they have the extra money to spend because they hoard it
so they have they're trying to get to be the one or two
or three companies that are really relied on for this stuff
it's like
so we're spending all this money on it
and to put it here we're taking
using all this water and all this pollution
we're not really thinking about the repercussions on our local economy
and our environment and everything else
there's no guarantee that all these things are
are gonna be around and what do you do with an empty data center
when nobody's using it anymore
because some of these companies have gone out of business
what do you do with it then
okay how about
how about we retrofit it and use it for housing so the people
that's actually
that's actually first of all
way better for the environment too
yeah but maybe we could cut out the middleman haha
we could cut out the part where we have the AI data center in there
we need our technology to grow
there's great things possible
I can understand the great things
but it has to be regulated
you cannot let these guys be cowboys
put it anywhere and burn off whatever
you know just do whatever environmental damage they want to do
and it's gonna affect the people who live there
and you just you can't do it
even when we like people
we have to be able to say like
hey governor
what's going on with these data centers
I was gonna say
and if your campaign has been supported by some of these people
it's like OK
I need you to explain it to me like I'm a 12 year old
why this is necessary why this is necessary
and then after that after you've explained it to me
then you need to
here is the metric that I'm gonna use to determine if I support it
and if so identifying a place where it will cause maximum benefit
and minimum of harm
are there any are there
speaking of which though
are there any entities organizations
companies that you're not taking donations from
so I don't anticipate until after you say it hasn't been a problem
as of yet it has
it has not been a problem
and even when um
when I am a state senator
and then at that point
people come calling and they want to see if you'll
you'll do business I'll sit down and talk to anybody
but I'm gonna ask hard questions
your answers need to make sense
I'm going to uh
using a biblical study kind of term
I'm gonna prove text what you have said
and get some receipts from some experts
and see if what you're saying makes sense
and if so the best way to do it
if it doesn't make sense or if it is
uh
it's a process is gonna lack integrity or cause harm
I'm sorry I will not be able to support you
that that's
that's the way I'm gonna evaluate it
so I will I will not
you will not be able to buy me
you you were
uh the head of the inner Randall N W a C P
for a number of years how does that inform your work
and what's an important lesson that Marylanders need to understand
that a lot of us don't understand
so one of the main things when you're with the NACP
is that people look to organizations like that
when they have some difficulty
often with the law with law enforcement
with the criminal legal system
and so people would file complaints
we would have attorneys that work with us
that would evaluate them and offer some counsel
or direct them to attorneys who could help them
criminal legal system and there's a difference
between calling it the criminal justice system
and the criminal legal system
uh many people don't call it the criminal justice system because
unfortunately it is often not
just you look at the um
disproportionate number of brown people who are incarcerated
with respect to what their actual proportion of the population is
something's wrong here this seems intentional
that the criminal legal system will become more just um
one of the bills that um
has just been passed and I was in a meeting last night
and they were celebrating
prevents or very much tries to prevent
incarcerating children who are under the age of 18 with adults
uh huh uh huh
that's been a big push this
it's been a push for a while
but this this legislative session
they finally got it done they're finally getting it done
you know but who thought that was a good idea
how many things did we think or say or do when we were 14 15
17 that we would no more do now than the man in the moon
forty forty
but but I'm saying
so you make mistakes when you're younger
but that we want to have a criminal legal system
that is focused a lot more on preventing recidivism
on pouring into those folks while they are away
because most of them are coming back
and we don't want them to recidivate
when they come back well
they'll be out and they'll be out long enough to do something else
because we make it hard for them to get housing
to get student loans to get
you just have this long list of things
so you let them out but they can't develop their life
live a life have a business
have a way to support their family
because they're all these obstacles
so having a criminal legal system
that's actually just makes a difference
is there anything we can do that you think it
legislatively in this state
that would be helpful in addition to what they're doing now
sure so Blair
as you were talking two words came to mind
for profit
we have for profit for profit healthcare
we have for profit incarceration
for profit prisons it's like this should not be a growth industry
because if it's for profit
then you have rational
for as many people as possible to get caught in the suck of life
and never be able to if you can
think about water swirling around in a drain that they can't get out
and that's not the way it should be
so I would like to sponsor a Bill
you're familiar with Brian Stevenson and the Innocence Project
I've heard of the Innocence Project
he he did as much as he could to help uh
defend people who were wrongfully incarcerated
and then you have the Innocence Project
which is trying to get people out
that when you look at the the uh um
transcript from the court case or whatever
they locked you up for this
so that there would be a process for people number one
to expunge without it costing them an arm and a leg
something that legislatively
we can make available to them
and then number two if there's somebody that has been misincarcerated
they don't belong there that there is enough of uh
a record that shows that an error was probably made
then we as the system
need to be more aggressive in trying to undo harm
to undo errors if we made an error
don't push back against it
but correct it
sometimes you just have to say
my bad I made a mistake
I was wrong and maybe as a husband
I'm cute to do that you know
when you're married you want to stay married
you have to learn how to say
my bad I was wrong
but we need to do that as a society
you actually are wrong sometimes
also the husband is wrong sometimes
I was just oh absolutely absolutely
and sometimes
and sometimes wives are wrong too
okay
it's crazy talk
and one of the challenges that we're having
in the United States right now
is that you have people who are trying to turn back the clock
to a time when it was all good for them
but someone who's a legal expert was doing an assessment
and saying that this Supreme Court
is the most conservative Supreme Court since the 1930s
so if we think back to the 1930s
which was 95 years ago if we think back to the 1930s
who was life great for in the 1930s
and for whom did life suck in the 1930s
women people of color etcetera
well life wasn't all that great for us
so why would you want to go backwards
if you look at other countries
Germany post um
Nazis
um South Africa
to a degree post apartheid
they had truth and reconciliation commissions
they dealt with actual history and actual facts
you confess what was done that was wrong
as opposed to gaslighting
sweeping it under the rug
taking exhibits out of museums
acting like it didn't happen when everybody knows it did
and and
and that's why the truth is important
the truth matters facts matter
history matters and so we need to be about telling the truth
even if it's an uncomfortable truth about ourselves
and something else
that is very much on the mind of people across the country
but for a lot of reasons especially in Maryland right now
is all things surrounding ice and ice
immigration reform and I just think that
for somebody who has worked with the nwacp for so long
that has so much history I mean
from Thurgood Marshall I mean
just so much experience and more than maybe
maybe any other organization in the country
about dealing with the criminal side of
of social justice and how they use
they try to make things criminal in order to oppress people
make things criminal in order to keep people down
or to keep the status quo the way they want
so what do you take from those lessons for this
sort of a slightly different incarnation
maybe more just blatant incarnation of um
when we're looking at the ice era right
um
well
the first thing is
I find it troubling that people who were found guilty of crimes
put in jail for an insurrection against the United States
for rioting on on
on the Capitol grounds for beating and assaulting police officers
get pardon for their crimes
and then are offered signing bonuses to now become law enforcement
so law breakers now being put in a role of law enforcement
to wear masks and have no accountability
and to mistreat and abuse people
the fact that there is this huge hypocrisy
where people who claim to be so called Christians
but they don't but the Bible is a book of suggestions okay
so what the Bible says about how we're supposed to care
deal with widows and orphans
deal with immigrants uh
and and quote foreigners
and you should treat the foreigner as you treat your native born
that's what the Bible says
and these people who came here and
a slight rabbit hole ha ha uh
and so you're
you're on stolen lands built by the labor of stolen people
and now you wanna tell everybody else you can't come
and you're the foreigner you can't stay
so it's wrong and when you're trying
when you're separating people from their loved ones it's
you don't they don't
are not allowed to have basic human rights
you're trying to ship them off to countries they're not from
countries you can pay off that
you pay and
and if you're paying a country
$20 million to take some of our criminals
or more or more often people who just violated misdemeanor violations
of entering the country illegally
that's a misdemeanor not a not
not a felony
somebody put that 20 million dollars in the pocket
because that 20 million isn't paying them to keep these people
and so it is just morally wrong and reprehensible what you should do
instead of firing immigration attorneys
how about you have more
you have more immigration attorneys and more immigration judges
which to his credit President George W
Bush tried to do in his administration
so you have a Republican from a border state who's trying to say
well here's something we can do to deal with this immigration backlog
and you refuse to do it because then you lose a campaign issue
how about doing the right thing
so we're not sending a five year old girl
who's a born of immigrant parents being treated for cancer
you cut off her cancer treatments
which now you're no longer funding
cancer research hello
and you send her back to her home country
when her people are here to die
that is wickedness in high places
as we would say from scripture
it's Ephesians chapter 6 but that's wickedness in high places
and we cannot allow that to continue unchallenged
I close with this
I'm also a Marvel guy
and in the Daredevil series
if you're both a Marvel guy and a Star Trek guy
I have a guy who lives with me
my husband your husband
at the end of the last Daredevil um
episode last year and waiting for the next one
and you know
the kingpin has he's a crook
but he's the mayor of New York
engaging in criminal activity
has gangs of thugs to supposedly reduce crime etcetera
and there was a point at the end of the movie where Daredevil said
you have to resist
rebel and rebuild
and that's the mode we're in right now
that's a hashtag I use we have to resist
resist evil resist wickedness in high places
resist policy violence against poor people
against um
powerless people and then rebel and then rebuild
because we're gonna have to rebuild
and what we rebuild this country into
needs to be better than what we've come from
so that Lord willing
this can never happen again
well sir
Pastor t it's been a real pleasure
thank you for taking all this time with me and um
first of all where uh
can people find you
what's the best way to find out about your campaign
friends of Stephen tolet.com
and that's Stephen s t e p h E n
tolet t I l l E t t if you go to friends of Stephen tolet dot com
you'll see an opportunity to volunteer for the
support the campaign you'll see some of our policy initiatives and and
and and prescriptions for
and areas of focus and if you want to donate to support the campaign
since you know that
they're not any wealthy people that are gonna give me money
if you want to give some because you little bit
little of time rest to each if they're able to you
if I'm speaking to you we could use your support in that way as well
so that on June 23rd we will be victorious and be headed
we pray toward a term in the state Senate representing District 32
I will tell you that um
I didn't ask you this cause I think you know the answer
um no cats in your life
but no cats I think somebody on your staff has cats and found me
so maybe Devin OK
I think yeah
I think Devin has cats so OK um
as I said to somebody else uh
last in an interview a couple weeks ago
we do not exclusively interview cat ladies
cat daddies
cat folks
and our uncatted allies but we know
are you an uncatted ally
we consider you an uncatted ally who are trying to do things
make things suck less in in new and different ways
and so but I will tell you that I end every just
you're gonna do your best
you're a man of dignity you've been in the Air Force
you've been a pastor this is not that dignified
I just say uh
claws out and then we do a little meow
so you're gonna do a little meow with me
the governor really
he went lying so um
I get to say claws out and then meow
as a little goodbye to the people
alright so three
two one
claws out meow
you know what perfect