Social Justice - A Conversation

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This is a k, u and v 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.

Unknown Speaker 0:18
Hi, I'm Charles Stanton. I'm on the faculty of the Honors College of UNLV. And the Boyd School of Law.

Unknown Speaker 0:24
Hi, I'm Gabriela Tam, I'm a fourth year accounting student.

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And welcome to social justice, social justice, our conversation a

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conversation.

Unknown Speaker 0:36
Well, good evening, everybody. I'm Charles Stanton. My partner here with me is Gabriella Tam, hello. And we're starting the third year, we're going into the third year of our program here, which is kind of exciting. Where we're just wanted to express, you know, thanks to all the people who have been supportive of the program over these over these years. And also to thank to thank our wonderful crew here. Dr. Ridley, certainly, Jason, and our engineer par excellence, who really has made doing this program a pleasure. And he's been enormously helpful to us. So we want to give him full credit for for the sound that comes out of our ears, out of our mouths and into your ears. We wanted to start we wanted to start the program today, we've been away for a while, just talking a little bit about what happened here. On the eighth of the eighth, this is the sixth of December, regarding the shooting here. And, of course, it was, I think, for all of us a very traumatic event. And one that will always be, I suppose part of our university. And, you know, obviously, we all have great support and feelings of great sadness, and also feelings to be totally supportive of the families of the people who were, who were killed. And also, and also of students and faculty here as well, trying to deal with the situation. I think that one of the results of this catastrophic Act, is that I think it's made us more aware of the preciousness of life basically. Yeah, you know that, you know, every day that you get up is a good day. And a lot of times, you know, we think that you know, in life that we're deprived of certain things, but as long as you're alive and able to do things that are positive and constructive, you've been given a great gift and a great blessing. I'll turn it over to Gabriella because I'm sure she has some very interesting insights as well on this. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 3:18
I like that day. I just remember, like, it was weird, because I was getting ready to come here to do the to film the podcast and obviously see the professor and take, like one of my last classes with him. And I just get like this text message. Like, there's an active shooter on campus. And I was like, oh, like, maybe it's like a like a drill. Because like, usually we'll get those messages all the time, like the students. And it's been it'll be like, Ah, it's just like a drill. Like, just like, make sure the texts are working. But no, it was like, serious. And then it was revealed that it was at BH and like, like, I have, like, friends there. I've like my family is there. And I just, like started freaking out and I started texting like, everyone I know. Like, are you okay, like, where are you? Like, are you home safe? And I was getting the same like, I was being not spam, but I was getting like a ton of messages like even from like, my co workers who aren't even in the same state as me. They're like, are you okay? Like, I know, like, I heard that there's a shooting like at your campus. I was like, Yeah, I'm okay. Like, I'm home. And then the second thing I did, I called you I was like, I was like, Are you on campus? Like your Are you home and you're like, No, like, I'm literally about to like leave right now. I was like, like, don't go like, there's like an active shooter on campus and stuff. And it's just like, it's just so scary cuz they're, my friends were who were there. We're like, we're like sheltering in place and you can hear the shots. You can it's like so it's so scary. And it was just yeah, very traumatic day for for all of us. This campus. Yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 5:01
we'll certainly, you know, the fact that everything was locked down for so many hours. And nobody could go anywhere. Yeah, and not, and not really being able to know exactly the magnitude of the of the act and whether there were other people involved in it and the whole thing. I was fortunate enough to basically get in touch with almost everybody in the class. Yeah, out of the, I guess it was 18 or 19. People, I probably got in touch, either by text or by phone with, I would say, like, 16. And then, later that day with the other couple of people that I hadn't, I hadn't talked to. So the question is, if there's a few things that stand out to me, obviously, you know, the security concerns of all of us, I think, are being worked on to be addressed, I think in a very aggressive manner, which is good. You know, I, you know, my I started my first class at the law school. And it was it was it was secure. We had a number of very fine police officers in there in various parts of the of the building, who were, you know, keeping on top of everything. So that's one thing that I found very gratifying.

Unknown Speaker 6:41
I mean, I feel like it should have been kind of in place earlier, because there are, you know, kids on campus, and we are an open campus. But, I mean, at least at least we're getting it now.

Unknown Speaker 6:53
Yeah, yeah. Well, at least we're getting it now. I think despite the the catastrophe of what happened. I don't think I'm saying anything extraordinary when I say that, without the very fine reaction and actions of the of security around here.

Unknown Speaker 7:21
It was quick, it was very quick saved.

Unknown Speaker 7:23
Probably an innumerable number of lives. Yeah. And people who could who could have been harmed. One of the things that struck me, in this whole situation, is the familiarity of it. That, that as a society. It has become a regular commonplace event. And this is what I find profoundly disturbing. I don't say that. I don't say that. People don't don't feel sorry for what happened or that they're, they don't feel badly for the people who were killed or badly for the families or any of that. But what I do think and I'm very troubled by is how these repetitive acts are met with almost like a programmed response. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:25
exactly. Exactly. It's like, like, I understand, I understand where the program response is coming from, because it happens so much. And that's what makes it so sad. Like, I think there was another like, school shooting like, not like sometime after hours, and it's just like, Why aren't these people tired of hearing this? You know, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 8:50
Yeah. Well, that's that's the question. That's the national question, though. The National question is, When will our country through its representatives address the fact that of all the nations in the in the civilized world, that we are the leader of the pack, in this monstrous statistic of innocent people being killed repetitively, and nothing is done about it? And I think and I hope that one of the things that may come out of this tragedy is the actions of faculty and students, not not just in our university, but everywhere, everywhere, to to really start speaking out more aggressively, and acting more, acting more in what's more earnest, about setting up a system of reasonable and proper regulations of Gods Yeah. When you look at the statistics in our world, and you go through the major nations, we are an outlier. Yeah, we have so many more killings of this kind by multiples than any other country on Earth. So we have to look at we have to look at, what's the reason for that? And what's the cause of that? And why, why nothing is done about it. Now, I believe that the vast majority of people in this country would support legitimate gun safety gun control. Yeah. But there's the Congress has no seemingly inclination to move ahead on this thing. And I think a lot of that has to do with the NRA.

Unknown Speaker 11:00
And these businesses. Yeah, well,

Unknown Speaker 11:03
I was talking in the first class of the law school, I was talking with the students about how our Congress is not the Congress of the people that don't represent us. I mean, if you look at the major issues of our time, whether it be abortion rights, whether it be voting rights, whether it be gun and gun safety legislation, none of these none of these issues seem to be addressed. So you have on our country then basically a small group of people of course, of course, supported by our court system that's run amok basically, that you that basically, this right of the Second Amendment is unless an unlimited, right, and that a weapon whose only purpose is to kill as many people as possible, in the shortest time as possible. is a God given an inalienable right, which is insane.

Unknown Speaker 12:17
Like, I understand, like, we've talked about this before, like I understand like, like, Was it like pistols and stuff like for for Home Safety use? What what is the reason for the automatic rifle in your in your closet? You're gonna, you gotta get like, every piece of their body or something. Like, yeah, just it doesn't make sense.

Unknown Speaker 12:37
Yeah. Well, I think I think that what you're saying is, of course, true. Because if you look at gun safety and the use of a gun, the Constitution says that you have the right to bear arms. Yeah. Now, of course, when the Constitution was written, He all many days, many years, eons ago. It was it was written in a completely different continuity in a different era. Because

Unknown Speaker 13:08
zactly like, it's like, you have to think of like context of what was written.

Unknown Speaker 13:13
And was that in that day, when they when they were fighting the the imperial rule of Britain and King George, it was to summon a militia, to be able to try to effectively fight a British Army, and of course, the British Navy, who were one of the great military powers at that time. Yeah. And, of course, of course, also the fact that because of the way people lived in those days, we didn't have supermarkets, we didn't have all those things that people would need would need rifles would need things to to find time for games on. So well, that's cool. That's, you know, acceptable. But, as you say, the gun today that they're allowing people to get

Unknown Speaker 14:09
has no purpose. And it's also so different from the guns that they were using before of

Unknown Speaker 14:14
course, of course, yeah, like, yeah. And then and then then on top of that is the ammunition the ammunition that they have is ammunition, most ammunition, most ammunition like if you remember the, you know, the situation was and the Alec Baldwin situation. Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I Well, he fired the bullet. The bullet went through that the woman who was the cinematographer, and then hit I guess, hit the director. Okay. Well, that's the way most of the ammunition is designed. But this ammunition is designed to basically not just kill as many people in the shortest time as possible, but also to basically Excel Load inside the person that's been shot and cause all kinds of like ruptures, ruptures and terrible things that happen. So. So again, again, what would be the justification for it? I think that the, I think that the, if you want to call it the progressive movement, or the liberal movement or whatever you want to call it gun safety more, I think has has been ineffective. in its in its lobbying, to get gun regulation. Yeah, I think everything that there was a, there was a man I used to who's a mentor to me. And he believed in the kiss theory. And the kiss theory basically, is, keep it simple, stupid. Don't overlook that don't overwhelm people with 9 million ideas. Yeah, get to like very basic ideas. And the most basic idea that you could talk about is this, that the right to bear arms guaranteed in the Constitution is not the right to bear any arm. And I think that's what's been missed. And, and what they need to do basically, is bring forth before the Congress, the evidence of all of these killings, and the people who have been killed and all the rest of these things. And compare that and compare that to the people who have used their guns to protect their home or family or stuff like that. Yeah, and show the disparity to show the disparity. And you say to yourself, Well, that wasn't what the Founders intended. You know, they're always talking about, you know, and when that when the Supreme Court makes these decisions, and you know, they're there. They're textureless, there are people who they go by what the written word is, that's,

Unknown Speaker 16:54
you know, yeah. Actually, the founders wanted this. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 16:58
Or at least, or at least they say they do. Yeah. Now, whether they actually believe that or not, I don't know, obviously, the document was written many 100 years ago, but they're supposedly they're supposedly following the district's the strict writing. But if you analyze the writing, you must also analyze the context, the context and the people who wrote it. So you had all these people, Jefferson and John Adams. And, you know, of course, Ben Franklin, when the rest of the stuff is inconceivable to me, that those men would have been, you know, allowing or enabling people to walk around with these lethal weapons. Yeah, it's, it's completely incomprehensible. And, you know, that's why that's why I think they need to be more resolute in what they're doing. I also think, and I've said this before, and, you know, it is, I think, true. I think one of the problems that has happened with the progressive movement in this country, and why it's been an effective in many ways, is that the movement has splintered. So in other words, you have all these different issues involving people of color people of people from the LGBT community, people from, you know, the Hispanic community, the Asian community. But the ideal way to go would be to have a unification. Yeah, between all those different groups of people. But not just not just because you get more people to learn about your cause. Because we're very insular in this country in many ways. And by that, I mean to say, even with social media, and and, you know, all the, you know, different ways of communicating Yeah. We're very in a sense, provincial, like we, we each have our issues.

Unknown Speaker 19:13
Yeah. And we feel like our issue is the most important issue.

Unknown Speaker 19:16
Exactly, exactly. So, what needs to be done really, is that there needs to be unification. Why? Because unification would lead to voting power. So even though there might be differences, visa vie, you know, what particular issue these people espoused? Ultimately, all those issues would coalesce around justice. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 19:44
we all have the same enemy. Exactly. We all have

Unknown Speaker 19:47
the same enemy. And I think there was, I think it was a guy who was a cartoonist who said the enemy is us. Because Because, because of our own inertia. Yeah, like, for example, give you a perfect example. The Texas school shooting. Okay, Texas school shooting was in May of 22. Were in January of 24. We still don't have a report on it. How is that? How is that? Why is that? Well, because because the people in the government have disdain for the people they're supposed to serve. See, that's one of the things I think that the conservative, the conservative voting bloc, and people who support what they think is conservatism are misguided on the idea, the idea that these people who are, you know, aspiring to be president again, and this whole thing? Yeah. They're very deluded in thinking that this gentleman, and the people who are working for him are for the white middle class as that's totally ludicrous. Yeah. They're not for those people, or they're using those people. They're using those people to get themselves into a position of power. But to actually do something for people. They're not into that. If you look back, the major strides that was made over the last 1015 years was Obamacare. Obamacare was not a program that was espoused by the Republican Party. It was a program espoused by the Democratic Party. What was the major? What was the major policy initiatives of the last 1015 years from the Republican Party? It was the tax cut. Yeah, but the tax cut, the tax cut didn't benefit the white middle class, or the black middle class or the poor? or what have you. It benefited a very small segment of people, the donor class of people that put the Republicans in power to pass that tax cut. So when you see these people go out there, and they're talking about, you know, make America great again, and all the rest of this stuff. That has nothing to do with you.

Unknown Speaker 22:22
Yeah, it's not make America great again, for you. It is for the it is for the point 000 1%.

Unknown Speaker 22:29
Exactly. Right. Like, yeah, and then and what they've done very cleverly, is they've played these people off against one another. Yeah. So they have you have this division in the country. And you know, people don't want to talk to one another, and all the rest of it stuff. But if they returned to what we had, from 16, that's funny, they're not gonna get anything out of it. You know, they can say, well, you know, you know, the election is the election is legitimate, because, because he won now or what have you, but okay, so he won, what is he going to do for you? Waiting for you. He seconds. All the majors. I say this, I say this, you know, unequivocally, all the major social programs in this country, were programs that were created and passed into law by the Democratic Party. That is so deep. So you have you have the whole new deal with Franklin Roosevelt. You have the Voting Rights Act and the Great Society with Lyndon Johnson, you have, you know, the Obamacare, you know, aid to dependent children. And that's another crazy thing, you know, and it really struck me there was a story, I guess it was yesterday, a couple of days ago in the paper, about how a lot of the states now are going to cut back on the food programs for the children, just like 13 or 14 states. And now the government, the government has to try to make up the deficit of those food programs.

Unknown Speaker 24:11
Wait a minute. I mean, this is okay. I guess. Thank you. Yes. Is it the same states that are banning abortion? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Like, yeah, save the kids, but also don't give them food when they come out of the womb?

Unknown Speaker 24:27
Yeah, no, it's, well, it's the the SNAP program. And, you know, they talk about the thing that gets you to about it is like, a does a guy with him, it's him Alberta. Some numbers just come out with a really fascinating book about the evangelical movement. And he was he was he he's, he's a Christian. But he was talking about how the evangelical movement has in a sense, abandons what it's beginning of its essence was was no belief from God and reverse these things, Yep, I agree, you know, And now and now going into this and going into the politics that you know, as their as their main thing. But if you look at if you look at all these states throughout the country, what would be more unChristian, like Benson's deprive a little child of food? Exactly.

Unknown Speaker 25:26
I mean, it's not crazy.

Unknown Speaker 25:27
I mean, that's pretty basic right? Give me some need, right? You know, like,

Unknown Speaker 25:31
everyone has to be Christian. But don't give these kids food. Yeah, like, it doesn't it doesn't make that to me. Like it will never make sense. Like, how can you call yourself a Christian? But you're doing all these things are like very unChristian, like, very, like, not what like God told us to do?

Unknown Speaker 25:48
Yeah. What's interesting, too, is like, you know, when you see like, the commercials that they do, like for Shriners Hospital, of course, at Yeah. And St. Jude hospital. And of course, you know, Jeff Bridges is very much involved in, you know, this food program for for kids. Yeah. And he had never, he had never done any ads before. This is the first thing that he's done. And I'm all for that. I'm all for I'm all for, you know, doing those things, because I think they need to be done. Yeah. But it raises the question, though, it raises the question. We have, we have spent so much money and so much time on trying to restrict the rights of a woman to have autonomy over a body. But we can't spend any money for, as you said, the children that are born. Yeah. So there's something like really haywire there. There's something disturbed like,

Unknown Speaker 26:52
what, what do you want us to do? What do you want us as US citizens to do? Uh, you know what I mean? Like, you take away our, our right to have an abortion. So we have to have these kids. But you can't give us supplies to feed these kids.

Unknown Speaker 27:08
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's it's very, very troubling. And I think I think, you know, the decisions of the Supreme Court are extraordinarily troubling. Yeah. And I say troubling, I say troubling, not in the not in the sense that, you know, you know, people are people are appointed to the court, because of their political views. Yeah. Nobody gets there. Who's just you know, a person who's an idealist. Yeah, they will have their they will have their priority. And they all have their, you know, agenda to achieve. I understand all that. Yeah. But what's troubling is their lack of ethics, regarding, you know, voting on cases where they are compromised, because they have involvement with people who gave them money, or trips, or gifts, or whatever it is. And these are the people who were supposed to be deciding what is right and what is wrong, as the final arbiter of justice in this country as a joke, it is a joke. I mean, you know, when you when you just, you know, see these people and that guy's flying around the world. He's getting all this money that they're paying for his RV and something like that. And, you know, all these people should be recused from these cases, especially, especially the, you know, the criminal case that's coming up. They should not sit on that. But but the problem is that there's no one there's no one to answer to. Yeah. And when you have when you have that kind of power, I think it was Carlisle who said it, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Yep. And that's what and that's what we're dealing with. But we hope that you know, to these broadcasts, try to make people aware that, you know, all is not as it seems that, you know, you can hear slogans or what have you or television commercials or political commercials. But the question is the bottom line what actually will these people, what do they want what they will do for you? Yes, exactly. Right. But it's it's been a it's always a pleasure to be to be here with Gabriella and we hope that you've enjoyed our program. And we look forward to speaking to you next week. And everybody be safe. Thanks

Unknown Speaker 29:30
for listening.

Unknown Speaker 29:31
Good night.

Unknown Speaker 29:33
Thank you for listening to our show. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at tangi one that is T A N G, one at UNLV thought nevada.edu. Or to contact Professor Charles satin at charles.stanton@unlv.edu See you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai