Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is your program designed
to bring you up to speed
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and involve you in
some of the events,
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developments,
and underlying issues
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relating to religious liberty.
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Of course, in United States,
but around the world also.
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My name is Lincoln Steed,
editor of Liberty Magazine,
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and my guest on this
program, Pati Lawrence.
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You're a, what I
would characterize
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as an advocate
for religious liberty
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and even an activist.
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Yes.
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You're a Seventh-day
Adventist lay person, lay woman.
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And you've taken the
challenge and God has rewarded
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you mightily with
some incredible stories.
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And that's really what
I want to get out of you.
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And the best way to lead
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into this is
something that's current,
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not quite knowing when
this will be broadcast,
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but of recent days,
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the United
States was quite shocked
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when Justice
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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I was trying to
think of her initials.
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A legendary figure.
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In fact, in one
of my other programs,
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I mentioned on a
plane to Australia,
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watching the movie
made of her life story.
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Very dramatic.
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And at the same time,
there was a full documentary,
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all within
months of her passing.
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She was a woman of
some accomplishments.
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And a few months
ago, or about a year ago,
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we decided that we
wanted to get through to her
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and hope that she could respond
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to an invitation to
speak at our Liberty dinner.
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Now it turns out
that she was going through
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another bout of
illness and so on,
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but you've filled
an incredible role
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in making a
contact with her office.
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Didn't you? Tell
me how that worked?
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And again, God is good.
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It's God opening the doors.
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After you and I
spoke about inviting her.
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I contacted my
contacts and I love to say this,
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my contacts at a congressional,
at a Congresswoman's office.
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And I said to him, I told
him what we wanted and he says,
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"Sure, I can help you out.
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We can reach out directly."
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This was the Congresswoman's
district director.
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He says, "Do you have a letter?"
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I remember contacting you,
do we have an official letter?
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You sent it right
over, sent it to him.
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He made phone
calls to her office
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and he provided
me with an address.
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And he said, this
will get directly to her.
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I mean, there's
addresses you can find
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to write are Supreme Court
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and a lot of people online,
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but this was a
different address.
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This is an address
that led directly to,
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she would receive
this in her hands.
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Yeah. Of course, her staff.
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I remember I
tried to hand deliver it
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and got into a lot of trouble.
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The security's tight.
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And I had to hand it
to a security officer
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and I was worried, but he
says, "It will get to her.
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Don't you worry."
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Yes.
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And it was a letter
from the Congresswoman.
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Yes. So I was excited about it.
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We made that contact.
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I believe I sent one
out priority overnight
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and then prayed.
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And I remember you
contacted me and you said,
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"You did receive a reply back."
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Yes. You did. So
that was exciting.
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I mean, it wasn't the
success, but the success here.
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I mean, we didn't get her,
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but the success
was there's a mechanism
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and the contacts were working.
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They were working.
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And this is after
the same Congresswoman,
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her district
director called me one day
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and he's asking me for favor.
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So it kind of
goes back and forth.
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It really does in.
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When you have that relationship,
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it's comfortable
to call up and say,
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"Hey, hello, I need this."
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It becomes that comfortable.
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It really does, informal emails
back and forth, phone calls.
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Or I just, now
I get to the point
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where many of the, and
this is members of Congress
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that I have
developed relationships
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with throughout
Southern California,
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because they're busy also.
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And they know I'm gonna
show up every Wednesday.
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They say, "Pati, you
don't have to call for us,
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just come on it."
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If we're there, you
can come back say hello,
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drop off because they know
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I'm going to
give them something.
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So it gets to the point
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where I can just
walk in to their offices.
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So he called me,
the district director
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for this
particular Congresswoman.
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And he says,
normally they scout for venues
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when they're going to
have a town hall or a big event
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or, they scout.
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But he says to me, "Pati,
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Congresswoman wants to
use one of your churches,
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wants to use one
of our churches."
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So I reach out to Dennis
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and to our vice president
of our Southern Conference
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who jumped on it right away,
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recommended the
church, contacted the pastor.
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We're good.
Yes, we will do this.
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And I said, "Well,
Congresswoman is thinking big.
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She wants a venue.
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One of our churches
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that would hold 200, 300 people.
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Okay. No problem.
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But they gave me a church that
held occupancy of 1,000 people.
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Okay. But that'll work.
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A day of the...
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Although I've
had enough meetings
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to know that you
really want to fill.
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If you've got a 100 people,
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it's better to
have a meeting room
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that holds a hundred
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and it looks full
than to rattle around,
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a 100 people rattling around.
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It looks like it's a
poorly attended meeting.
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But obviously
God's hand was in this.
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Yes, I know.
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God's hand,
because we had no idea.
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Yeah.
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So the evening of the town hall,
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I pull up, I
have so many pictures.
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Every news truck was
there. There was ABC.
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This is
California, channel seven,
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channel nine,
channel two, channel five.
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Even the Spanish news channel
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was out there all
around our church.
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It's lit up, and
I'm thinking what?
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This is our church. I go in.
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It is quickly filling up.
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I spot the Congresswoman.
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I go, we're at
the very front seat.
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She sets up her podium.
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There's also a table
because she has city officials,
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city management
there from the city.
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And I see the Congresswoman.
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She sees me, we
greet each other.
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She says, "Pati, I
just want to tell you.
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Thank you for
letting us use your church."
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I mentioned to
her district director.
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She said, I mentioned to him,
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"You'll find me
a neutral place."
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First she says
without hesitation.
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He says, "Pati
Lawrence, they're neutral."
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And that's
important for them to know.
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Not neutral on
religious liberty,
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but neutral politically.
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We're not a
political action group
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for any party or pressure group.
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No.
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And they know what we stand for
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from the very
beginning of our meetings
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that we have with them.
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And she says, "You
know, I was thinking big.
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I needed a
venue, 200, 300 people."
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And I say, "Congresswoman,
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this venue, this church holds
a thousand people and look,
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there's standing room only.
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Her eyes were so
big. I reversed my shoes.
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I know, I know,
we're looking around.
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It was so exciting
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and these are
people from the community.
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Now what better free
marketing can we get than...
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Yeah.
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How many times can we
have a thousand people
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from the community
to come in without us
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sending out one
flyer or one bulletin?
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Now tell me,
I've heard your story
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of what happened
during that meeting.
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There was some
interesting exchanges.
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Yes. It was not a happy crowd.
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The issue, it's
normally a city issue.
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I think I can mention
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it was about
potholes in the city.
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I know, it sounds,
it is laughable but...
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Well, not
really. But not really.
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Not for this city.
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I guess it's my
program, indulge me,
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I've got a book
called ''Parkinson's Law."
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It's a humorous book,
but with scientific basis
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and one of them is called
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the point of vanishing interest.
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And it says, how
this committee meeting
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to discuss the
nuclear power plant.
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And it's, you know,
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so many billion
dollars and so many cents.
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And it says, nobody
asked how come that odd number.
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And it says,
nobody on the committee
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knows anything about
nuclear power plants.
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So they voted in a moment.
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Then they get down to, you know,
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building some roads in that
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with a bit of discussion
because people understand roads
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to some degree voted
after 10, 15 minutes.
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Finally, bicycle
shared for the employees.
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Everybody knows about it.
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So potholes guaranteed interest.
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Everybody has
opinions on potholes.
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So it would be expected that
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it would be a
very contentious thing
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where to
proportion to the monetary
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and social effect of it.
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Well, in this
town in particular,
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I've driven through this town.
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There's, we're not just talking
a little bump in the road.
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There are huge
potholes everywhere and deep.
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I mean and the reason
that the Congresswoman...
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I've read
articles, these potholes
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that have swallowed cars up.
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Yes.
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This is bad,
almost on every block.
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The reason
Congress on being federal
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took a stand now for this
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is because she's also
on a health committee.
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And when 9/11 is called,
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when paramedics are
needed out in an emergency,
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they're delayed,
they have to slow down.
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They have to
take different routes.
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They're going around the block.
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Now this person's
health is in jeopardy.
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They need to be
there immediately
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and it's taking them
minutes longer to get there.
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So now she stepped up
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and she's an
amazing Congresswoman.
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She stepped up.
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So this is going on
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and it's not a
friendly conversation
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you can imagine.
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The audience,
they're tired of years
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and years and years of promises.
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They're tired of
hearing money's been allocated,
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but nothing's been done.
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That's why city
management was there.
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I believe even
the mayor of the city
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was there in the front view.
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I was towards the front.
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A gentleman gets up.
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I have the picture also.
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I wish I could have
shared some pictures.
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Very tall,
angry, loud gentlemen.
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Now
Congresswoman is at the podium
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and I don't see her
bodyguard anywhere around.
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Her secret service
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or security
person anywhere around.
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Maybe he had stepped away
to restroom, I don't know.
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He starts inciting
the crowd to a riot.
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He starts saying, "Come on,
are we going to stand for this?
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We're not going
to stand for this."
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He was going.
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Now the crowd
starts angrily yelling.
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A thousand
people in the sanctuary
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and it wasn't praising.
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I mean, they are
yelling and screaming.
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Congresswoman becomes silent.
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She doesn't know what to say.
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There's moments of just silence.
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And this man now
starts approaching the podium,
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big over six foot
tall, big man, loud.
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And the crowd, you
can imagine the scene.
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Our pastor of the
church steps forward,
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shields her, she
steps behind him.
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Now our pastor is
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at the member
of Congress podium.
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Now on our pulpit,
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here is our
pastor behind the podium.
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He shields her.
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This was amazing. Now
the crowd is still yelling.
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He's trying to
yell over them to say,
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"Can I have your attention?"
00:10:53.45\00:10:54.78
Can I have, he's
trying everything he can.
00:10:54.82\00:10:57.32
They're not quieting down.
00:10:57.35\00:10:59.02
And I'm getting
where I'm thinking...
00:10:59.05\00:11:00.59
This was an interesting mob
scene that developed, isn't it?
00:11:00.62\00:11:02.99
It just seems so surreal
00:11:03.02\00:11:04.63
because I'm thinking, is
a riot going to break out.
00:11:04.66\00:11:07.30
Really, this
man is still trying.
00:11:07.33\00:11:08.96
Now, this man is
getting closer to the pulpit
00:11:09.00\00:11:11.53
and he's a big man.
00:11:11.57\00:11:13.64
Suddenly the pastor starts,
00:11:13.67\00:11:15.10
he started
saying something like,
00:11:15.14\00:11:16.91
you know, you're
here because we care.
00:11:16.94\00:11:18.84
We opened our
church because we care.
00:11:18.87\00:11:21.21
This is a house of faith.
00:11:21.24\00:11:23.04
As he's yelling that the
crowd starts to quiet down.
00:11:23.08\00:11:26.61
Now, if this
isn't the Spirit of God,
00:11:26.65\00:11:28.75
I'm telling, if
you're not a believer,
00:11:28.78\00:11:30.15
you're going to be a
believer after that night.
00:11:30.19\00:11:31.52
A good reminder to those people,
00:11:31.55\00:11:32.95
that the Adventist
Church, that it's a holy place,
00:11:32.99\00:11:36.79
and not a place for mayhem.
00:11:36.83\00:11:39.96
No.
00:11:40.00\00:11:41.33
And he starts, they
start to listen to him
00:11:41.36\00:11:43.60
because then he
started, when he started saying,
00:11:43.63\00:11:46.03
"This is a house of faith".
00:11:46.07\00:11:49.27
Then they started to quiet down.
00:11:49.30\00:11:51.91
And then he says, again,
00:11:51.94\00:11:53.38
"You are here
because we care about you."
00:11:53.41\00:11:55.84
We opened up and his,
00:11:55.88\00:11:58.01
you could just
hear it in his voice,
00:11:58.05\00:11:59.75
the caring and the upset,
00:11:59.78\00:12:02.12
because this is
a house of faith.
00:12:02.15\00:12:04.02
And he says, "If this
were your house of faith,
00:12:04.05\00:12:06.52
how would you be?
00:12:06.55\00:12:07.89
We would respect
your house of faith.
00:12:07.92\00:12:09.46
Please respect
our house of faith."
00:12:09.49\00:12:11.36
So he's also including
in there that this is us,
00:12:11.39\00:12:14.60
but you know, if it
were your house of faith,
00:12:14.63\00:12:16.20
we respect all of
our houses of faith.
00:12:16.23\00:12:18.37
And it worked. People
started quieting down.
00:12:18.40\00:12:23.00
Amazing.
00:12:23.04\00:12:24.37
They started
quieting and the Congresswoman
00:12:24.41\00:12:25.97
is still just
standing behind him.
00:12:26.01\00:12:27.61
He pretty much took over.
00:12:27.64\00:12:29.38
And then he says,
you know, we care.
00:12:29.41\00:12:31.41
And then he says,
00:12:31.45\00:12:32.78
so I asked for respect
for your Congresswoman.
00:12:32.81\00:12:35.28
You give your Congresswoman
00:12:35.32\00:12:36.65
and your city officials respect,
00:12:36.69\00:12:38.62
people started applauding.
00:12:38.65\00:12:39.99
So this proves that the
Lord is in what you're doing.
00:12:40.02\00:12:41.96
And that faith
00:12:41.99\00:12:43.32
is not a coincidental
matter to all of this.
00:12:43.36\00:12:44.69
No.
00:12:44.73\00:12:46.06
We'll take a break
and be back shortly,
00:12:46.09\00:12:47.43
stay with us.
00:12:47.46\00:12:48.80