Assessment of the 1994 Legislative Session: Guns, Gays, Gambling, Economy, Ethics
Price of Paradise · Hawaii Public Radio · aired 1994-05-01
Guests: Matt Matsunaga (State Senator); Barbara Marumoto (State Representative)
Duration: 00:30:31

[00:00:00] Randall Roth: terms of the state, Barbara Marumoto, a Republican representative, who's in her 16th year as a lawmaker, and who recently was named Legislator of the Year by the National Republican Legislators Association. And Matt Matsunaga, a Democratic senator who's in his first term of office. He was listed by Honolulu Weekly as one of the six best senators in Hawaii. Welcome, Matt, Barbara, welcome to the show.

[00:00:22] Matt Matsunaga: Good morning, Randy.

[00:00:23] Barbara Marumoto: Nice to be here.

[00:00:24] Randall Roth: Well, what do you think? According to a lot of what I saw, the 3 G's seem to dominate things, guns, gays, and gambling. Matt, is that a fair assessment of what went on?

[00:00:35] Matt Matsunaga: That's a fair assessment. I was talking to one of my partners at my law firm and she said, well, how did the session go? And I said, well, it was pretty much guns, sex, and money. And she said, well, what about the legislation? And it's true, that I think we were pretty much fixed on on those three issues, unfortunately.

[00:00:52] Randall Roth: Barbara, is that your perception?

[00:00:54] Barbara Marumoto: Definitely, we thought there was too much emphasis on the 3 Gs. From my perspective, I wanted a little more emphasis on the 4 Es, which is the economy, the environment, education and ethics. And I think we could have spent more time on those issues, but really as a member of the finance committee, I was more concerned about the the tight budget we had this year. And so it never seemed like we had enough money to cover all our needs.

[00:01:25] Randall Roth: Well, let's get the 3 Gs out of the way. What did the legislature end up doing with respect to gun control, Matt?

[00:01:32] Matt Matsunaga: Well, with gun control, basically, the bill that came out of conference and that was passed will impose strict liability upon gun owners. If somebody uses their gun and hurts somebody else, the owner is strictly liable.

[00:01:49] Randall Roth: Even if the owner wasn't really at fault so far as that particular accident was concerned?

[00:01:54] Matt Matsunaga: That's correct. Unless the owner can show that he didn't know the gun was stolen, and he or if he did know it was stolen, he reported it right away.

[00:02:03] Randall Roth: So it's putting more responsibility for any inappropriate use of a gun on the owner.

[00:02:07] Matt Matsunaga: That's right, and hopefully this will encourage people to buy safes or vaults where they store their guns to keep them from curious kids. Another thing it it will do, will allow forfeiture of vehicles, and this provision was aimed at drive-by shootings. A lot of times, kids, you know, you have three or four or five kids in a car, and there's a drive-by shooting, and prosecutors can't necessarily prove who was responsible for shooting. And this way, they can they can seize the automobile, and a lot of those kids, I'm sure, cherish their autos. Another thing they did will be to tighten the permitting requirements. Under current law, if you buy a handgun, you have to register each and every handgun. But if you buy a long gun, you just buy a license, which is good for one year, and you can buy as many rifles or shotguns in that one year period without registering each individual long gun. And what this is going to do is going to require each long gun to be registered also, so after handguns.

[00:03:12] Randall Roth: If someone's amassing an arsenal, then presumably, it'll be known.

[00:03:16] Matt Matsunaga: That's right, that's right. And a couple other things, one is to require more education and training for people that buy guns and number two to allow seizure of firearms from people named in restraining orders involving domestic disputes.

[00:03:35] Randall Roth: I see. Barbara, what did you think of that gun legislation that eventually emerged?

[00:03:40] Barbara Marumoto: Well, the senate originally had wanted a gun ban, and the house version did prevail, which is more or less a registration, so it's the more conservative version. Yet, I think it's a step in the right direction. I was very happy to see the training component in the measure because I think if you really educate people about how to store guns, how to care for them, how to keep them away from kids, and the bottom line is that we'll it'll be a safer society. So I'm very happy about that aspect of the gun bill.

[00:04:11] Randall Roth: What about gambling? We didn't get legalized gambling, but Barbara, I know that was discussed from time to time during this session. Why wasn't gambling legalized?

[00:04:22] Barbara Marumoto: Well, that bill floated up in the senate and it died in the senate before it ever did get to the house, or perhaps if it got to the house it was never heard. It was never an issue it did pass out of the senate. And I don't remember what the vote was. Can you do you recall?

[00:04:38] Matt Matsunaga: It wasn't that close.

[00:04:40] Randall Roth: Well, let me ask, how would you have voted on that, Barbara?

[00:04:43] Barbara Marumoto: I think I would have voted no on the gambling issue whether it's on off-being onshore or offshore. I think we're not that desperate for money, although the money was very tempting. I just don't think we need that in our society. Uh there's always the danger of organized crime surfacing with the gambling, and if anybody wants to gamble, they're free to go to Las Vegas.

[00:05:09] Randall Roth: But I I share Barbara's view. I would have I did vote no on the bill, and my reasons for voting no are well yes this might be um additional economic development and revenue. Is it really new revenue or are we simply going to increase revenues, but also increase expenses by just as much if not more? And by increasing expenses, we we'd have additional expenses in um welfare, social costs, uh law enforcement, and additionally it might just be a redistribution of the money. In other words, instead of people going to the um you know, the the shows in Waikiki, maybe they go gambling and our local um entertainers and local uh vendors would suffer, I think.

[00:05:51] Randall Roth: Now, I know that the bill didn't make it through and so obviously the two of you aren't alone. But I'm wondering, would you say that that the view that the two of you have just shared, Matt, is is that the prevailing view, is that the way most people in the legislature look at it?

[00:06:04] Matt Matsunaga: No, I I think well, it passed out of the senate so obviously a majority of the senators think that gambling is a good idea and I think that's probably fueled by our senate president's um pushing this measure. Uh I think the reason why it failed and um Barbara, maybe you can correct me, but I I think the house decided not to uh pass it out or even hear it because the governor came out strong with a mandate, um I will veto this bill if it comes out.

[00:06:30] Randall Roth: Would that have been a decision by one individual member of the house, Barbara?

[00:06:34] Barbara Marumoto: Well, I don't know who really decided that the bill would not be heard, but obviously leadership must have decided uh against hearing it and they heard the governor's threat of a veto. Uh it was um uh a close call in Bingo uh a year or two ago. Bingo was defeated by one or two votes. So it it's hard to say which way this bill would have gone in the house.

[00:07:01] Randall Roth: Mm, you think it'll resurface that this will be discussed again next year?

[00:07:05] Barbara Marumoto: In various forms, there's always discussion about horse racing or paramutual racing, casino, gambling, lottery, bingo, who knows.

[00:07:14] Matt Matsunaga: And I think Randy, since you mentioned, I think because it was um Senator Mizuguchi's idea, I think um we can pretty much expect to see it again next session.

[00:07:23] Randall Roth: Okay. You're listening to the Price of Paradise radio show. I'm Randy Roth, and my guest this week are Republican state representative Barbara Marumoto and Democratic state senator Matt Matsunaga. Well, the third of the 3 G's is gays and obviously we're talking about same-sex marriage. Uh Matt, can you tell me just what happened? What what you what emerged from the legislature this year?

[00:07:45] Matt Matsunaga: What emerged from the legislature is a bill that um attempts to prevent same-sex couples from obtaining a marriage license. And it also sets up a commission to look into um the benefits that opposite-sex couples have and same-sex same-sex couples do not have because they're not able to get married. And the rationale that the bill sets forward is that this matter should not be decided by the Hawaii Supreme Court. Um the bill tries to um present compelling state interest that um this should be a matter for the legislature because it's a policy matter and the supreme court should butt out. Um I I'm very much disagreed with the bill. I don't know if you want me to go into my disagreement now or

[00:08:35] Randall Roth: Why don't you? And and some of our listeners may have seen the uh piece that you and I guess with Bert Kobayashi and Andy 11, right? The three of you um wrote a piece where you were saying that what the legislature was talking about doing and eventually did, was a mistake. Could you tell us just in summary form why it's a mistake?

[00:08:54] Matt Matsunaga: Sure. Basically, we in the legislature do have policy making responsibility, but we have to exercise our policy making authority within the bounds of the of the Constitution. And when we go outside the bounds of the Constitution, it is up to the courts to say, hey, you guys are acting unconstitutionally, we're going to bring you back in. And that's exactly what happened in the Bear V Lewin case.

[00:09:18] Randall Roth: And that's the supreme court case you were mentioning earlier.

[00:09:21] Matt Matsunaga: That's correct. And so what what this bill is doing is basically um arguing the same arguments that the Attorney General raised in the Bear V Lewin case and which were rejected by the Supreme Court. And I think it's an entirely inappropriate function for the legislature to engage itself in. Um for the for the proponents of the bill to say that the legis the courts should not get involved in policy, they're simply missing out on the history of of civil rights legislation that evolved through the courts.

[00:09:52] Randall Roth: Was this uh political grandstanding or do the people who supported this feel that it really would make a difference, this legislation?

[00:10:01] Matt Matsunaga: That's hard for me to say. I think the um I take the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Ray Gralti for his word that he honestly felt that it was a proper exercise of the legislature and um in part, driven by the uh uh the very vocal majority of people who wanted to see some legislation passed out.

[00:10:21] Randall Roth: Barbara, what's your slant on all of this?

[00:10:24] Barbara Marumoto: Well, I'm not a lawyer and uh uh Matt speaks of this from a uh legalistic point of view, a civil rights point of view. Uh I think I would prefer the legislature to set policy and and drop the laws and I question whether one judge should do this. I think he's way ahead of his time. I think Hawaii is a very tolerant society, but I think a lot of people are just not ready for this and especially Middle America. And uh we are a tourism state. It's very important to our economy. If we are the first state to allow same-sex marriage, I foresee us having uh becoming the gay capital of the United States and I I'm afraid it might detract from our um image as being a family destination. So I I was a little wary of it. I would hate to see Hawaii become the first state to go this route.

[00:11:16] Randall Roth: Now when you say you'd hate to have one judge decide that, you're saying one judge because it was a 3 to 2 decision, or do you think there's one justice in particular?

[00:11:23] Barbara Marumoto: Well, it was 3 to 2. It was 3 to 2 but I think uh Judge Levenson was the leading jurist on this issue.

[00:11:31] Randall Roth: I see. Um what about the recent strike? The HGEA strike. Barbara, is that something that the legislature was at all involved in or should have been involved in?

[00:11:41] Barbara Marumoto: I think the um it's a management uh function. The Office of Collective Bargaining uh was involved with the negotiating, but it was really the decision of the union to uh go out on strike and I think they had to incur the wrath of some of the other unions that had settled for 2% 2% um increases. And the HGEA took a chance and I I think they won because they got more than that.

[00:12:06] Randall Roth: Hm, is that the way you see it, Matt?

[00:12:09] Matt Matsunaga: Well, I think there's there's no winners in a strike. I think everybody loses, the public loses and the employees don't get paid for that period when they're on strike. Um I I to answer your question though, I think the Barbara's correct that it is the um administration's um ball and that the the legislature's job is to um wait until the collective bargaining agreement is is entered into and then ratify or not to ratify that.

[00:12:35] Randall Roth: Mhm. Now just while we're on uh unions in general, an issue that's come up a lot in different conversations that I've been a part of lately is the notion that principals of schools perhaps shouldn't be in a union. Is that something that the legislature has looked at in recent years or is that something that you think would have a chance of going through the legislature to to deal with this question of whether principals should be um prevented from uh being in a union, a union that would have the sorts of rules that we're looking at now?

[00:13:04] Matt Matsunaga: I think the Education um Committee in the Senate definitely has looked at that issue and um I think the if you look at the bill that emerged this session, the Omnibus Education bill, there are so many different um components of it. Um I I'm not sure why the bill does not include a provision that you spoke of. I know this has been a pet peeve of you for for many years. I've heard you say that principals should not be in unions, but I think um [unintelligible — audio glitch] unions um highly object and it's a lot tougher to build consensus on an issue um when when you have such strong objections coming from HGEA.

[00:13:43] Randall Roth: Right. So that wasn't a part of this uh omnibus education bill. Uh Barbara, can you tell us a couple of things that that were a part of of that particular bill?

[00:13:52] Barbara Marumoto: Well, uh I think the public will take notice of it because there's a provision in there uh which calls for constitutional amendment to change from an elected to an appointed Board of Education. And this is a big step and I don't know whether the public will be in favor of it. Uh but on the other hand, they have several months uh until September to be able to study this issue, discuss it, learn what it's all about and the the ramifications of it before they decide whether they want to abolish their elected board and then step up to an appointed board. So that was a one of the key features of it.

[00:14:30] Randall Roth: But before you move on, what's your personal position on that? If if it were up to you, would you have an appointed or an elective board?

[00:14:37] Barbara Marumoto: You know, I think I I would prefer it to be an appointed board then have the Governor um um appoint also the superintendent so that the Governor becomes accountable for the success and failures of the school system. But I think most people favor an elected board and we'll probably go in that direction. That's a prediction.

[00:14:59] Matt Matsunaga: I think the proponents of the elected board say that it's the only way for the public to have direct input into the uh board members. Um they also say that what we don't need, I mean what we really need is more education about the the Board of Education candidates. I know a lot of times people don't know who they're voting for on uh an election time and we really uh should move in one direction or the other.

[00:15:21] Randall Roth: Well, Matt, do you agree generally with Barbara that it would probably be better to have an appointed board, but that probably the people will want to keep it an elected board?

[00:15:30] Matt Matsunaga: Well, I I see merit in both arguments and um I have a really tough time um deciding which which would be better for for the for our educational system, and I think it's a good idea to leave it up to the voters and see what they say.

[00:15:43] Randall Roth: Okay. Barbara, what else is in this omnibus education bill?

[00:15:47] Barbara Marumoto: A second constitutional amendment to make the Board of Education policy making only, whether elected or appointed. And I think uh people could study this issue and I'm I'm really not decided myself which way would be better. But um a third feature of this bill that you might be interested in is that uh it really is a school empowerment bill and puts a tremendous amount of responsibility on the schools and the school complexes. And it weakens the um bureaucracy, the district offices, the state superintendent's office, and it will move a lot of personnel um to be at the discretion of the school complexes and the schools and and the principals and it gives them a lot more power, too. And the individual schools, if they are well organized and know what they want. So it's a real change in direction. It's a very bold move.

[00:16:41] Matt Matsunaga: Mm, and it's also going to give an opportunity for 25 schools to become um school-centered schools, which will allow them a lot of autonomy.

[00:16:50] Randall Roth: I get the feeling that both of you feel that this Omnibus Education bill is is a very good bill and presumably you're hoping that it'll be signed by the Governor, Matt?

[00:16:58] Matt Matsunaga: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[00:16:59] Barbara Marumoto: Yes, I think we've got to loosen up the um uh hold of the bureaucracy in this particular area.

[00:17:07] Randall Roth: Mm. What about worker's compensation? I know that there was a bill that would have frozen the current rate and that didn't go through, and there were a lot of people who were talking about the possibility of of reforming the whole worker's comp system. Um, Matt, what what happened?

[00:17:23] Matt Matsunaga: Oh, what happened is, um, I think there was strong opposition uh to workers com to some of these proposals set forth by um some of the labor organizations. And I think it was uh Senator Brian Kanno was having a very tough time building a consensus on what the best thing to do for workers comp uh is. I think he and um that his house counterpart, uh struggled long and hard to come up with an acceptable package but they just couldn't do it.

[00:17:52] Barbara Marumoto: Barbara, do you have any strong feelings about that? Oh, definitely. This was a very important issue to me. I was hoping that we would get some reform in this area because it's very expensive for our um uh businesses, and and um uh we passed a very good bill from the house into the senate and it didn't fare well there. But uh it would have um uh made some changes which would have, I think, helped a lot of the workers.

[00:18:19] Randall Roth: And just to tell you how important it is, I think the um businesses are going to face something like 20% increases in worker's comp rates. And and Representative Stagmeier and I had done a um briefing on a survey that the Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Council had um done to all its members, and worker's comp reform was very, very high on a lot of businesses' minds. You're listening to the Price of Paradise radio show. I'm Randy Roth and my guest this week are Republican state representative Barbara Marumoto and Democratic state senator Matt Matsunaga. Well, Matt, what about the the political intrigue, the internal politics in the Senate? Uh especially at the beginning of the session, there was off an awful lot in the newspaper about

[00:19:00] Matt Matsunaga: the the inside maneuvering to see who would end up the head of the Senate. And um, just wondering what your thoughts are about how all of that played out.

[00:19:08] Randall Roth: Well, it was a very tumultuous first year that I had in in 1993, and, you know, at one point we saw uh four different Senate presidents, you know, because some Right, but succession Yeah, yeah, just someone an interim basis and it was uh just an amazing um series of events. I think things have definitely calmed down. Um I think for a while the house must have felt neglected because there are hardly any articles about the house when all the Senate struggles were going on. Um, but I think all in all things did settle down under the current Senate president.

[00:19:42] Matt Matsunaga: It seemed to me that when things did settle down, Senator Matsuura found himself uh banished to the pointless forest.

[00:19:49] Randall Roth: Yeah, and that's very unfortunate. Senator Matsuura is um in my mind, one of the finest, if not the finest legislator and somebody that I've um been able to learn quite a bit from. Um, unfortunately, as is true in many reorganizations, the losers end up with uh very little, and uh that's what happened to Senator Matsuura.

[00:20:10] Matt Matsunaga: Barbara, anything interesting uh so far as the political intrigue on the house side this year?

[00:20:14] Barbara Marumoto: Well, the house side has been very quiet and uh stabilized uh under Speaker Joe Suki. Uh I think the Republicans have been cheering uh Senator Matsuura on, um and I think there's a couple of big changes that have occurred as a result of his investigative committee. Uh I think things will never be the same again at the employment retirement system, and I think they've got a committee that are is now looking at investments and uh I think they'll have to do a lot more of their business in the open now. Uh in the area of contracts and nonbid contracts and sole source contracts, there's a new procurement law, and I think it finally passed because of all the attention paid to non bid contracts. So, I think this is a testament to the work of his committee.

[00:21:04] Matt Matsunaga: And actually, one of the disappointments that uh Senator Matsuura shared with us on the Senate floor the last day was that not one single proposal that came out of um his committee to reform the ERS passed.

[00:21:16] Randall Roth: And he was very disappointed about that.

[00:21:18] Matt Matsunaga: Matt, what's something that we haven't talked about that you're either happy or sad about because it happened or didn't happen. What's something uh that's gone on in the legislature these last four months that uh is worthy of note that we haven't talked about?

[00:21:32] Randall Roth: Well, I think I'm sad and disappointed that um we weren't able to enact any bills to um help our telecommunications industry. I think if you look at one of the ways that is is a surefire way of um diversifying and strengthening our economy, it's it's clear it's in the telecommunications industry. It's a clean industry. It it's it's high tech and would provide um high paying jobs for our people here. And it's it's unfortunate that people want to wait until um for for the PUC to come up with its um recommendations on what to do to bring more competition in the telecommunications industry instead of moving in the right direction. I mean, we're seeing it on a nationwide, we're seeing Vice President Gore push uh more competition at the federal level, and it's coming. It's coming. It's just I wish it would come a little quicker.

[00:22:24] Matt Matsunaga: Barbara, we just have about a minute and a half left. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think is worthy of note?

[00:22:30] Barbara Marumoto: Well, I think we're lacking a little vision in the legislature and the state government about building a society for our future for our kids, and I'm really sorry to see that education did not get more uh much more money. They they did not get cut, but they need more funds to keep going. The university is an area that needs a lot of attention, and if they're a status quo budget, then it really hurts the the university from the from a know cleared down to the community college. I think a lot more money could be put toward our private providers, the ones who provide our social services, uh for the state, like for instance, in the area of child abuse. And I think we should provide them more resources, but the next governor will have that opportunity to reorder the priorities for our state.

[00:23:16] Matt Matsunaga: Matt, any parting thoughts?

[00:23:18] Randall Roth: Um, I just want to express my gratitude allowing you uh allowing me to share uh this time and it it's been a pleasure working with um Representative Maramoto. She her district um includes some of my district, and I think uh despite our our differences in party, uh it's been a pleasure working with her. She and I have been able to do a lot of good things for the district.

[00:23:40] Matt Matsunaga: That's great. Well, in the couple of seconds that we have left, what grade would you give this year's legislature, Barbara?

[00:23:48] Barbara Marumoto: I a C minus. How's that?

[00:23:50] Matt Matsunaga: Okay. Matt?

[00:23:51] Randall Roth: I'm an easier grader, a B.

[00:23:53] Matt Matsunaga: Okay. My guests this week were legislators Matt Matsunaga and Barbara Maramoto. This week's show was produced by Suzy Roth with technical assistance from Mark Wagner. Next week, my guest will be Governor Wahay, director of planning Harold Matsumodo, together with David Callies, a land use legal expert whose provocative new book on land regulation in Hawaii has created quite a stir. It's sure to be interesting and I hope you'll join us. You've been listening to the Price of Paradise Radio Show. I'm Randy Roth, Aloha. what you're doing, and uh, good luck to you, and I hope all of your shows are sold out.

[00:25:21] Randall Roth: Thank you very much. Come see us.

[00:25:22] Matt Matsunaga: See you at the Diamond Head Theater, 8:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

[00:25:25] Randall Roth: Yeah. Thank you very much, gang. Thanks. Bye-bye.

[00:25:27] Matt Matsunaga: God bless Wolf Gang. That's just a lesson for all you listening out there. You could call in and talk to us about another theater troop, and that would be great.

[00:25:36] Randall Roth: That's right. Hey, now I I hear you I hear you guys have a very strong influence from the National Theater of the Deaf. Is that true?

[00:25:40] Matt Matsunaga: Yes, and right now I just like to say Thank you. Don't get it. Exactly, Man. Aw, it's not that. Yeah. You want more sunburn? No. I'll give you sunburn, pal. No. That's right. Okay, 955-8821 if you have a question for the Reduce Shakespeare Company, or an obscure trivia question concerning Shakespeare.

[00:25:58] Randall Roth: Or date. Yeah. Or date. They're looking for dates while they're here in Hawaii. They'll be here for a few more days.

[00:26:02] Matt Matsunaga: That's right. You were talking what? About the complete history of America.

[00:26:04] Randall Roth: That's right. That's right. Which we wrote in London. And it premiered 14 months ago. We've toured it all over the United States. We've done it in Canada, Ireland and Great Britain.

[00:26:13] Matt Matsunaga: Mhm. And, yeah, we're taking it to the Kennedy Center. We did it to the we just we performed at the Lincoln Center Series Fun Festival last summer and, and got a great review from the New York Times, which was only fitting because we paid good money for it. I mean, it was But we learned some amazing things I thought about American history in researching the show. Yeah.

[00:26:28] Randall Roth: You know, like well, the most shocking one Did you realize that there's a cult of dyslexic devil worshippers in the Ozarks who sold their souls to Santa? Yeah. Did you know that? I didn't know that. I mean stuff You just they don't teach you that kind of stuff in school. No.

[00:26:40] Matt Matsunaga: No, they don't. It was very shocking. How is that show structured? I mean you can you you obviously try to condense with 300 years of history or 250 years. That is so Eurocentric. 300 years. Weren't there people across the bearing Land Bridge 50,000 years ago, I think. Yeah. For goodness sake, we go all the way back. We go back 50,000 years with the first people who walked across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia into North America.

[00:27:04] Randall Roth: And all the way up to I think um, what Tanya Harding whacking Car on the knee. Yeah. Until till Michael Jordan playing baseball. That's right. That's right. And actually Richard Nixon's death. That's right. Um Yeah. Oh, a cutting edge then. Oh, very cutting edge. Yeah. We like to make fun of as many dead people as we can. Yes. Richard Nixon and Kurt Cobain get a lot of uh new material. That's right. Aha. So, uh how is that show structured? Well, we start uh we sort of have a false start. We start with that great Australian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. That's right. And uh and then Matt correctly points out to us that we've skipped, you know, the people who are coming across the Bering Land Bridge. So we sort of go back and pay tribute to the Native Americans and then it's New World to New World Order. So we sort of deal with each time period um in sort of the media of the time. So at the revolution, you know, it's the town crier. And then as we get into the '20s and '30s, it's radio, and then we finish the Cold War with sort of the film noir detective scenario. We do a Lewis and Clark as a vaudeville routine. Uh we do a slideshow of the Civil War, the American Civil War, because the Civil War was I mean, like Vietnam, that first came into people's living rooms on television. Civil War was the first war of which we have actual photographic records. So we presented a pretty factually accurate uh slideshow of the Civil War. Yeah. That we that we call Civil War. The Civil War, the slideshow. Yeah, that was the best title we could come up with. Yeah. We like it. It's a good one. I think.

[00:28:23] Randall Roth: You know, I wish somebody named Maria would call. I'd love to talk to somebody named Oh, it would be so cool. A Maria. How do you How do you spell How do you get a call like Well, what do you What do you call the wind? Maria. Oh okay. Well there you go. That's right. Okay, we have Maria from Honolulu. No way. That's magic. We can make it happen. You think it's magic? Okay, coincidence. Maria, you decide.

[00:28:43] Barbara Marumoto: Are you guys gonna keep talking or are gonna let me talk? Oh! I wanna know you gonna do this program in another language or are you just gonna do it in English so we can understand it? And are any of you single? Wow. Well, we're all single today.

[00:29:01] Randall Roth: That's right. That's very good. I was once double but now I'm single. That's right. He was separated. What What language would you like us to do it in? Any language. I understand all languages. Oh, very good. Well, then English would be perfect for us. Yeah. Oh no. Let let's do it in another language. I'll do it in What do you want? Anato. What about the Hebrew? Oh, well I already did to be or not to be. I don't know No, hang on. Hang on, I'll do it in French.

[00:29:36] Barbara Marumoto: I understand everything. Yeah. Very good. You guys are very funny. Very funny. Thank you.