Paulmichael Interviews on X96 Promoting Education Town Hall

Bill: We have a guest in the studio. It's Paulmichael Maxfield with the Indivisible Utah Alliance Coalition and Take Action Salt Lake. You were here a while ago to promote a town hall with Senator John Curtis and you're gonna do another one with Senator John Curtis, or with or without the senator .

Paulmichael: With or without. So last month, during the Senate recess we organized a health care town hall. This month, this coming Thursday April 24th at 7 p.m. at the downtown city library auditorium, we're organizing another town hall. This time we're focusing on education, and we've invited senator John Curtis to attend. We sent him a formal invitation, and we scheduled this town hall during a Senate recess break.T he time when he's supposed to be working with his constituents.

Bill: He should be home, you know, speaking into the constituents. So it's gonna be about education, and you have some special guests for this town hall.

Paulmichael: Yeah, boy, do we have a great lineup of speakers? S,o we have senator Kathleen Riebe and she's a member of multiple senate education committees, and she's also an educational technology teacher. We have Senator Nate Blouin who can help us understand kind of the local political escape around education, and we have John Arthur, teacher of the year

Gina: Yeah he's great. I follow him on Twitter.

Paulmichael: So glad you do yeah, he's great This is kind of our dream team of speakers, and we think these guys are gonna be able to really help people understand what's going on and what they can do to help.

Bill: This Thursday the Salt Lake City Library, and that theater there, now this the last town hall you had with or without John Curtis. Without, turned out to be without, but you had a good turnout for that.

Paulmichael: Amazing turnout. We saw 330 people And that's a lot. These are ordinary citizens coming together to have a real honest conversation about the issues that matter. You know, I just have to say to you guys: Thank you sincerely, thank you for your support, for giving us this platform, for helping us apply steady pressure, and most of all for reminding us that at the end of the day democracy works when we all show up.

Gina: It's our our listeners too. They hear your message and they respond.

Paulmichael: They came. It's amazing.

Bill: Did you have any reaction at all from the Senator Curtis's office?

Paulmichael: We did not.

Bill: Now I saw something that I see you promised to take him out for ice cream if he goes?

Paulmichael: Yeah, it still holds, and you know we mean it we said before that we're not here to just to yell at him.

Gina: You would like him to come and have a conversation

Paulmichael: Yeah, and you know here's why. Town halls are where democracy comes to life, where everyday people bring their hopes and their worries and their truth into the room and where elected officials stop talking and start listening, where leadership is performed- Not performed, it's practiced. You know you want to build trust? Show up. You want to understand your community? Listen. That's how democracy grows stronger. Not from behind a desk, but face-to-face heart-to-heart, one conversation at a time.

Bill: I see you're asking people to register if they can?

Paulmichael: That's right. Yeah,

Bill: You can get an idea of how many people-

Paulmichael: That's right. Yeah, you can go on takeactionsaltlake.org to find the mobilized link. You can also go on utahalliancecoalition.org Both of our organizations have Facebook pages as we,ll and Yeah, we'd love for you to RSP P, but it's not required.

Bill: You can just show up as well. Yeah, so it's this Thursday the Salt Lake Library, and the focus will be education and perhaps the senator Curtis will show.

Paulmichael: Yeah, I hope so.

Gina: Well, I wouldn't count on it.

Paulmichael: We have a great lineup, you know, and I hope he does because right now we need real representation more than ever because our government isn't just drifting. It's careening. They're trying to eliminate the Department of Education. Yeah, they're gutting Head Start and slashing Title I, the very programs that give low-income kids a fair start and end multi-generational poverty.

Bill: I didn't I forgot to mention that in the news today it was announced the Administration announced this morning that they're just gonna stop all Head Start.

Gina: Which head start is so important.

Bill: Wwhich is crazy. t's a venerable program. It's been there for years and years and it's very important. It's been proved to be very effective. Well, let's just cut that out

Kerry: Yeah, it's because billionaires need their tax cuts.

Paulmichael: That's right, you know and I have a question for senator Curtis Senator Curtis, how many Utahns do you think want to make it harder for low-income kids to get an education? Yeah, you know, do you senator Curtis want to make it harder for Utahns to get an education?

Bill: We want to keep them dumb

Paulmichael: I you know, I think I I know why senator Curtis isn't holding town halls. Let's be honest. I think we all know why. He's deeply worried about the optics. Because you know, here's the truth if he walked into a packed room and got booed by hundreds of frustrated voters. It wouldn't just sting, it would go viral.

Bill: I would, listen Paul Michael. I would say this. It's not just that. It's that he does, when he doesn't have any good answers to the questions.

Kerry: And if you were to answer them honestly, he would get threatened by the rest of his Republican constituents. That's how it operates is threats,

Paulmichael: You know and leadership isn't about comfort. It's about courage,and courage means showing up. You know, so senator Curtis has a choice. He can either lead with courage or be remembered for his cowardice

Bill: It's this Thursday. The Salt Lake City Library. Speakers Nate Blouin. There's Kathleen Riebe and who is the teacher of the year, John Arthur? Yeah, that's this Thursday. And what time is it?

Paulmichael: It's at 7 p.m.

Kerry: 7 p.m. And at the very least it's a great place to meet like-minded people

Paulmichael: It was great to hear everybody's kind of thoughts, what they were concerned about with the suggestions that they had.

Kerry: As this is going on, you just feel so alone. Until you go to one of these, you know rallies, and you see that I'm not alone There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other people to feel the same way.

Paulmichael: Yeah We're all watching what's happening to our teachers, to our schools and universities, to social security, to Medicare, to Medicaid, to 401ks, you know, and you know, there's a lot of people that are not just worried. They're scared, and they're not just frustrated. They're exhausted and heartbroken.

Speaker 4: Yeah, so Thursday night at the library, what's the website again?

Paulmichael: You can find the link on takeactionsaltlake.org You can also find the link on Utahalliancecoalition.org and on both of our Facebook pages.

Bill: All right. All right Paulmichael Maxfield, thanks so much .

Paulmichael: Thanks for your support.