The Loyal Opposition

S03 E09 March 26, 2025

[00:00:00] Michele: Good afternoon, middle Tennessee. This is Michele Harbin

and Len Assante.

[00:00:26] Len: Hello everybody,

[00:00:26] Michele: and this is the Loyal Opposition coming to you live from

Portland, Tennessee and Sumner County. So Len, what's going on in the news

today?

[00:00:37] Len: Oh man. There is a lot going on in the news. Going on in the

news.

So much so that look at all these papers I had to print out. But what's really

exciting is our friend Mandy Cook is back with us.

[00:00:48] Mandy: Yeah. Thanks for having me back.

Sure. And Mandy's like our. I think we need to rebrand ourselves the indivisible

Tennessee Radio Network. Great. I can just come on and plug every week what

we're doing.

[00:00:59] Len: We're so [00:01:00] good with that. We are. That's part of why

we are here, part of what we do. Indivisible, you guys had a protest, held a

protest at Representative John Rose's Gallatin office last week. Before you tell

us about what's coming up, why don't you tell us how that went?

[00:01:13] Mandy: Yeah. It went really well. We had a good turnout. We had a

good press turnout. We had about 30 people show up, and I've seen stories

floating around. Yeah, I, the media covered it. I had no idea how many people

planned on showing up, so I was just pleased that there were more than a

handful of us.

[00:01:30] Michele: you said Thirtyish or So Yeah,

[00:01:31] Mandy: Yeah, about 30 people came out and John Rose, not

surprisingly, was not at his office. We were instead greeted by Ray Render, his

the lieutenant. Yes. Deputy Lieutenant Michele's buddy. Something. Oh, Ray,

go way back. Oh, Ray. Yeah, so Ray did hold a forum with us, which it was

good to be able to have a platform for people's voices and concerns to be heard.

He really didn't [00:02:00] answer any questions. He just took notes and the

beginning one was a little bit bizarre. He wanted everybody to sign a HIPAA

release, which I think was a little bit of a scare tactic.

A HIPAA release.

It was, yeah. He said it was very standard because that there were, because there

were press in the room. Oh gosh. Okay. We all know that's not true. So we got

off to a little bit of a rough start, but interesting. It was very bizarre. HIPPA.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But then once we got all that BS out of the way, then we

were able to actually have a chance to voice what we're concerned about.

[00:02:34] Michele: Ray is kind and he will listen. Yeah. But he's not who can

invoke real change for us.

[00:02:41] Mandy: Right. So, exactly. Yeah. So we have. I called John Rose's

office. We have showed up at John Rose's office. We talked to Ray Render

about getting on John Rose's schedule to try to hold something like a forum or a

town hall, and it doesn't seem like that's gonna [00:03:00] happen.

And he's running for governor. Yeah, so he has all of Tennessee to answer to

now. So I think if now, if any time, were gonna be the time to show up for your

constituents and Tennesseans in general. It would be now. Right, right. Yeah.

[00:03:17] Len: It should be now. Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so one protest down.

One down. One to go. Right, one to go. Yeah. Tell us about the next it.

[00:03:27] Michele: One protest, take it, one protest at a time.

[00:03:30] Mandy: Just like one day at a time. Because you just, you gotta

come up for air a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So we were tipped off that John Rose is

gonna be at a Chamber of Commerce event. In downtown Gallatin at the station

from seven 30 to 9:00 AM on Friday since he won't come to us.

We're gonna come to him. It's a paid event. We're not chamber members, so we

obviously can't barge in, but he will be able to see us from from the windows.

And then we're planning on [00:04:00] attempting to get him to answer some of

our questions as he exits the building. So our plan is to be there at 8:00 AM and

hold down the fort until we see him leave the building.

[00:04:09] Michele: Do you wanna do another one of these on April 4th? I

wanna do one on April 5th.

That's gonna be the big, Lamberth and Hale will be at the Portland Chamber of

Commerce here. Okay. At, at our, at their new building from eight to 9:00 AM

on April 4th. So I already have a handful of people that are gonna go, they do

answer questions.

It's $10 to attend, but you do not have to be a Chamber member.

Oh, okay. So.

So I'll, I'll give you that link. Yeah, please, please do. If you can push that out

for me, then it would be great to have some progressive voices show up and

question them too. Yep. 'cause they'll be, if you pay to get in, you're in.

[00:04:44] Len: If you pay to get in, you're in. Exactly. Wow.

[00:04:46] Mandy: Okay. Yeah, that's a great opportunity and you just never

know. I mean, you really have to go hunting on some of these. Websites to find.

[00:04:54] Michele: Well, and Chambers of Commerce are a great place

because usually when it's an election or a [00:05:00] legislative, during

legislative season, almost yearly, they do these at least by yearly at the Portland

Chamber with the elected officials.

Yeah. So

[00:05:09] Len: they, and at the Gallatin Chamber, they have a monthly

breakfast where they invite various legislators each month to,

and this, I believe is one of those. So always there are opportunities if you know

where to look, they don't exactly publicize these things, of course.

[00:05:25] Michele: Right, right. The chambers do promote them, but you

know their memberships are limited. Right, right.

[00:05:31] Len: Exactly.

[00:05:31] Michele: Not if you're not a chamber member, you may not follow

your local about local chamber of commerce.

[00:05:35] Len: Sure. You're not gonna hear about it. Alright, so

[00:05:36] Michele: I'm, I'm a member of like seven local chambers of cars.

[00:05:41] Mandy: You got your fingers. Fingers on the dial.

[00:05:44] Michele: Michelle's gonna fingers on the pulse. It's work. It so

happens that I get legislative open.

[00:05:48] Len: Our woman on the inside,

[00:05:49] Michele: that's what we call her, a

[00:05:50] Len: woman on the inside. I got

[00:05:51] Michele: Wilson County, Rutherford County, Tennessee Pride.

[00:05:55] Len: Not Gallatin,

[00:05:56] Michele: not Gallatin yet.

[00:05:57] Len: Not Gallatin yet. Okay.

[00:05:58] Michele: But that's coming, right?

[00:05:59] Len: Alright, [00:06:00] so, Mandy hit it. Summarize one more time

for us. What's, who, what, where, where, when? Yeah.

[00:06:06] Mandy: 117 Main Street, downtown Gallatin in front of the station.

Uh, 8:00 AM maybe until 9:15. We really don't know when he plans to exit the

building, so we're just hoping to, to catch that. And our main ask is that he

publicly denounced DOGE and everything that they're doing, although it feels a

little crazy to be sitting here and saying that because the news cycle is so fast

and now even bigger things are bubbling up. So,

[00:06:40] Len: Exactly.

[00:06:41] Mandy: I guess I just am feeling like, you know what? You wanna

come ask John Rose anything? You come confront him about anything. There

you go. Right. Okay.

[00:06:49] Len: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh, where is, where is his commentary on

the. Lack of national security being, being [00:07:00] enacted by our top

defense officials here. You know, of course, Hillary Clinton had that email

server, the emails right. But gosh, using, what's it, is it Telegram or Signal? I

forget Signal, but using Signal that the Russians could be listening. I don't

know.

Okay. Alright. Well thank you Mandy. And, good luck and we, I'm sure we'll

have you back again.

[00:07:19] Michele: Yeah, we, we will need an update. We, and then we'll talk

about the next protest. Mm-hmm. And well, do you wanna talk about April 5th

real quick?

[00:07:25] Mandy: Yeah. So our, because this is like a national movement on

April 5th, correct? Exactly. Yep. We're hoping to mobilize nationwide.

Nashville will be holding their own indivisible hands-off protest at Centennial

Park.

I think the plan is 12:00 to 3:00 that just got nailed down a couple days ago. So

if you are interested, join your local Indivisible group. You can find them on the

Indivisible website. Type in your zip code. We've now made one for Sumner

County, so we are hoping to get Sumner County folks down to Nashville.

To boost [00:08:00] numbers and really make this a thing. But any area that

you're in, just go ahead and look up on Facebook or the Indivisible website.

[00:08:08] Michele: Are you seeing good response from some of your people?

[00:08:11] Mandy: Yeah, I feel like there's a little bit of a fire lit. It's another

one of those things where. I'm like, okay, what's this week gonna look like? Is it

gonna look even bigger? Is it gonna look smaller? It's just so hard to say

because

[00:08:23] Len: We, we gotta wait and see. We're gonna exactly. And we're

gonna see. Yeah, we're gonna see.

[00:08:26] Michele: Well, I'm excited about it. I, I think it's great.

[00:08:29] Len: Yeah, I'd love to see some protesting.

[00:08:30] Michele: Come on. We have to, we have to capitalize on the

momentum.

[00:08:32] Mandy: Absolutely.

[00:08:33] Len: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Alright, thank you so much, and we

will undoubtedly be hearing more from you in the future. Before our first break

though, I do wanna run down some news headlines real quick. We do have a

full slate.

As we were saying, so much bad stuff is happening so quick. It's hard to keep

up with all of it, but we're gonna. Run down real quickly. Some of the news

headlines from the past week some of them [00:09:00] sponsored by our very

own here in Sumner County. Okay. Alright, here's a good one. A Republican

bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday would give

pesticide and herbicide companies such as Bayer, which makes Roundup

broader protection from lawsuits.

[00:09:16] Michele: I've been seeing billboards promoting that too.

[00:09:20] Len: This is Senate bill 527, would provide legal immunity to

pesticide manufacturers as long as they're federally approved, labeled, doesn't

warn of a disease.

Roundup’s Environmental Protection Agency doesn't. Meaning under this

potential law, the company couldn't be sued for causing the disease measure

past five to six two with Republican support only. House Bill is up for, well,

actually it's up for consideration in the House Judiciary Committee today.

Right now the lobbyist for the Tennessee Farm Bureau said that this bill would

avert only cases involving product labels approved by the EPA. He contended,

companies can't control what goes on in those labels. I. However, Bayer

[00:10:00] has hired the Bivins lobbying group whose political action

committee has given Stevens the sponsor $12,000 in the last five years, the fifth

most of any donor according to political spending database. Okay. We

understand that farmers have a need to use chemicals in order to maximize their

crops. However, opponents of the bill countered it would remove people's

constitutional rights to a jury trial when they're diagnosed with deadly forms of

cancer, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A jury last week in Georgia ordered Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto,

who makes Roundup to pay almost 2.1 billion. That's with a B folks, to a man

who claimed he contracted the disease from using the company's roundup weed

killer. Similar legislation to what we see in Tennessee has already been rejected

in Iowa, Missouri, Idaho, Wyoming, and Mississippi.

Yet Bayer, Monsanto hasn't pulled the product from the shelves even while

facing more than 170,000. [00:11:00] individual lawsuits leading opponents to

say the chemical maker is clearly more concerned with increasing earnings.

Then protecting people. Okay. This is a concerted effort by Bayer to go state to

state and try to get this immunity.

Said Danny Dennis, the president of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association,

[00:11:17] Michele: What better state to start with than Tennessee.

[00:11:19] Len: Exactly, exactly. Here's another good one. A bill, a Republican

bill seeks to dissolve the Tennessee Human Rights Commission. Okay. They

tried this last year and couldn't do it, so they're trying again.

This year. The bill seeks to 10 to dissolve the human's, right. Commission and

in doing so, would dismiss more than 1000 pending cases before the

commission and transfer those functions to the Tennessee Attorney General.

The proposed bill by representative Johnny Garrett of Goodlettsville and John

Stevens of Huntington, would transfer the commission's responsibilities to a

newly created civil rights division within the office of the Attorney [00:12:00]

General.

An attorney general who's known not exactly for embracing similar. Civil rights

and attacking DEI initiatives whenever he has the chance, all pending

discrimination complaints before the commission would be dismissed. Okay. So

the commission's executive director, Muriel Nolan, urged lawmakers to vote

against the bill or amend it to include a wind down period, allowing current

cases to go forward.

Wow. And of course they voted against it so Human Rights Commission sounds

like a good thing. Hmm. Sounds like a good thing. Perhaps maybe instead of

dissolving it, they should fund it adequately so those 1000 cases can get

resolved. How about that? Speaking of funding, we've got the money. The

governor yesterday unveiled his blood supplementary budget.

The amendment to his original budget. More on that in a minute, but the Lee

administration ironically, has told lawmakers that starting next year, which will

be his last year [00:13:00] in office, by the way, they're gonna wanna start

borrowing money for road construction. I. Tennessee has long resisted

borrowing money for infrastructure projects, which has kept the state in good

fiscal position.

But however, depending on who you ask, there's between 39 - 7 billion $ in

backlog of infrastructure projects. Some of those right here in Sumner County.

[00:13:23] Michele: That's why we need pot for potholes.

[00:13:25] Len: Exactly. Pot for potholes. Representative. Representative Behn

offered a great op. It's like the easiest solution ever.

The solution right. Uh, interestingly enough, Lee has overseen one of the most

significant budget increases in state history. $10 billion increased in his watch.

Much muchly due to the economy, but also he has spent much of the surplus

generated by this booming economy on business tax cuts, a huge increase in

education spending vouchers.

Right. Imagine if Lee had come in with infrastructure at his [00:14:00] top as

his top priority instead of school vouchers and tax cuts for big corporations that

reside out of state. Anyway, the budget amendment that has been introduced

includes $20 million for charter school facilities, another five and a half million

for the Department of Safety and Homeland Securities new Immigration

Enforcement Bureau, which was created in the special session.

That's designed to do federal policy and crack down on immigrants. Another

$28 million is going to nursing homes to provide care for needy people. That

sounds great. However, the state has accumulated a billion dollars in that

account, but is only releasing 28 million. The governor's plan also includes

providing money to several organizations that he seems to have a personal

interest in, including Men of Valor, a prison ministry that he has participated in

and a host of, and church groups, for example, for some reason that no one is

able to explain [00:15:00] $1 million is going to the Church of Christ of God in

Memphis.

When Senator Jeff Yarborough said, lawmakers need a clearer statement on the

benefit of funding these organizations. Uh, he was told that one GOP Senator

called those questions nickel and dime stuff and said the admin administration

will explain it on the back end. In other words, after the budget has been

crushed, after the budget has been passed, Senator Yarborough, a democrat from

Nashville calls that idea bad budgeting and bad morality.

Finally, folks, before we go on to our break, last GOP bill criminalizes out-of-

state IDs and undermines state cooperation. Multiple states have passed laws

allowing undocumented people to obtain driver's licenses to promote road

safety and insurance coverage. Tennessee, of course, is going the opposite

direction.

Not only do we want to not give driver's licenses to people, we want to

invalidate out of state licenses issued under these other states, under those

circumstances, and criminalize the [00:16:00] drivers for their behavior of

driving with a license that was issued to them legally by another state. Bill sets

a very dangerous precedent.

First of all, it sounds to me prima facie that it's unconstitutional, violation of the

commerce clause, which is designed to make sure that states abide by

agreements created by other states. I. And Tennessee is willing to re reject the

laws and acted by other states that would create a legal nightmare to say the

least.

[00:16:29] Michele: So there was one good bill that made it out of community.

[00:16:32] Len: I'll leave it to Michele to come up with something good.

[00:16:34] Michele: The, the bill, I can't remember the number, but even our

Senator Hale was a co-sponsor, but it's the Fertility and Contraception

Protection Act.

[00:16:46] Len: And that has made

[00:16:47] Michele: it out of committee.

[00:16:49] Len: That looks like, like it might be on the way to Passage.

[00:16:50] Michele: That would be good if it passed. I think Behn and um Oh,

Heidi.

[00:16:56] Len: Heidi Campbell. Campbell and Campbell were on that.

[00:16:58] Michele: Yeah, there there were some good [00:17:00] co-sponsors.

[00:17:00] Len: So, alright folks, we're gonna pay some bills. We're gonna take

a break. When we come back, it's gonna be,

[00:17:05] Michele: Sally, with Shout Your Cause.

[00:17:07] Len: There you go. You're listening to The Loyal Opposition

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Opposition.

[00:18:00] Len: Welcome back everyone. You're listening to The Loyal

Opposition here in Portland, Tennessee on a beautiful, sunny Wednesday

afternoon, Michele. It is a nice day out.

[00:18:09] Michele: It is a nice day, and I'm taking my kids over to one of their

friend's house after this. And we're gonna do yoga in the backyard.

[00:18:15] Len: Backyard yoga.

[00:18:16] Michele: We'll see how that goes with seven, eight, and 9-year-old

boys.

[00:18:18] Len: Yeah, that sounds like it's gonna be real smooth. So in real

smooth operation, it's gonna be. So in speaking of smooth operations, we've got

a guest.

[00:18:26] Michele: We do have a guest. I'm very excited about our guest. It's

my friend Sally. Say, hi, Sally.

[00:18:32] Sally: Hey Sally. I'm Sally.

[00:18:35] Michele: There's a new song out called, uh, Sally when the Run

Wine Runs Out. Have heard it?

[00:18:40] Sally: I heard that. I heard that recently. Yes.

[00:18:41] Michele: I love it. I think of you when I listen to it too, because it's

Sally. It's talking about Sally. So Sally's here with us today and she has an

organization called Shout Your Cause, which is also a podcast and she is a

social influencer.

With that handle across all the platforms, you can [00:19:00] find her

everywhere at Shout Your Cause. So we wanted to have her on and let her tell

us a little bit about what she's doing. She's also an author podcaster, like I said,

social media influencer. So we're not gonna have any shortage of things to talk

about today.

[00:19:14] Len: Absolutely not. And since we like to shout about our causes.

That's right. We thought this would might be a nice, some nice symmetry.

[00:19:21] Michele: Yep, that's right. So we always start with the first question

is, what landed you in the chair at The Loyola Opposition?

[00:19:30] Sally: Well, Michele landed me in the chair here because Michele

happens to be my tie to all of the.

What would you call it? Suburban counties? Yeah. You know the ones around

Nashville. I live in Nashville in Davidson County and Michele is in Sumner

County and she's gotten me involved in the politics around. Around the area,

basically.

[00:19:51] Michele: Yeah. Me and Sally did some cool things back starting,

probably early fall leading into the election where we highlighted different

[00:20:00] democratic county party candidates from across the mid-state.

And so that, that was a fun project in getting to know those candidates. From, I

don't know, it's like eight or nine counties that we ended up spotlighting.

[00:20:12] Sally: Yeah, we spotlighted that. We spotlighted candidates and then

we also had some on, 'cause we went live several times on TikTok and were

able to communicate that way and talk to people.

[00:20:24] Michele: Yeah. And so Sally and I we met in 2015 and I, the time

she was just, you were just starting out really turning social media into a

business. So, why don't you talk a little bit about your social media journey,

how it started and how it led you to activism online now?

[00:20:44] Sally: Well, I've always dabbled in software and I started dabbling in

marketing software to help out a friend, and it seemed like something that I

wanted to get into and I was really enjoying it.

My career though, I was an actuary for 25 years, and so [00:21:00] I was doing

statistics for insurance, pricing, that sort of thing, and thinking about doing

creative marketing is a completely 180, you know. It sure is. Yeah. Everything's,

everything's different upside down, and I jumped into it. With both feet and left

my career in 2016 and have been going ever since.

I've gone through different phases of teaching also starting the podcast.

[00:21:30] Michele: Yeah. I've been in, I've enrolled in multiple courses that

Sally has hosted conferences that she has hosted. I've learned so much about

brand creation and brand marketing from Sally. And tell us about your book that

is related to that.

[00:21:49] Sally: I did write a book, it's called “Know Me, Like Me, Trust Me”.

Building influence on social Media. And, or at least that's, that sounds like what

the [00:22:00] subtitle is a little bit more. And anyway, the book came out a

couple of years ago and it was a hit. And the being a hit meaning that I've had

customers come to me from that.

So it was a good thing to do. I've just self-published on Amazon.

[00:22:16] Michele: It's a really easy read. So you can find that on Amazon. We

can link that in the show notes. It's got some puzzles.

[00:22:22] Len: Yes, we can.

[00:22:24] Michele: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's great. It's like I said, and it just

walks you through the journey of creating a brand. So how did that turn into

activism online?

[00:22:35] Sally: Everything that pissed me off. I had to talk about it.

[00:22:41] Len: So kinda same here. Yeah.

[00:22:42] Sally: I was so used to talking on social media about anything and

everything that I just couldn't keep talking about politics on my personal page

all the time, and so I decided to create an outlet for it. And Shout Your Cause

has gone from being just an idea to [00:23:00] social media handles across the

board to a full website, blog, podcast, Substack. I’m doing daily things on

TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and growing all the time and meeting

people and being able to highlight what I consider to be either underdog causes

or underdog, situations that maybe don't get. The right education out there for

people to know what's going on.

Yeah. And politics, right. Fits in with it so well.

[00:23:34] Len: Yes. Yes.

[00:23:34] Sally: And I kind of ebb and flow through like maybe I'm

highlighting a nonprofit this month or or I'm highlighting candidates throughout

the election season. But, it. I'm just gonna have to see where it goes next

because the podcast started with me wanting to get the raw reactions of people

when Covid first started in 2020.

[00:23:55] Michele: Oh, wow. I guess I didn't realize that. Wow.

[00:23:59] Len: So you've [00:24:00] been doing it for five years then? Yeah.

Podcast for five years.

[00:24:02] Sally: Yeah. I’m on season eight. Oh wow. Season eight. Okay. 75

episodes, I think.

[00:24:07] Len: Pretty good. That's fantastic. It's pretty, that's fantastic. It's, uh,

there are a lot of podcasts out there, but not all of them last that long.

So that's a, that is a, that is a testament to your, to your work. Is your subscriber

base growing? We're always like trying to get more subscribers. How do we do

that? How do we do that? Are you happy with yours?

[00:24:28] Sally: Probably not. I was happiest with it previously, a couple of

years ago when I really had a lot of traction on my website and everything.

But things changed in my career a little bit, and so I, I didn't put as much effort

into

[00:24:44] Michele: growing that,

[00:24:45] Sally: the digital marketing side of it. But I've got 50,000 followers

on TikTok that I talk to every day, and my Substack is starting to grow, and so

everything is, it evolves and, and it just [00:25:00] evolves over time.

And we'll see just where it goes next.

[00:25:03] Michele: Yeah. And it's crazy how engagement ebbs and flows

across platforms because leading up to the election, prior to TikTok getting shut

down and reinstated we had great engagement on TikTok.

[00:25:19] Len: Yeah.

[00:25:19] Michele: Tens of thousands of views for most every post. And then

we've seen that dwindle, and Sally and I were talking before the show, now

she's getting a lot of engagement on Instagram and I'm getting more

engagement on Facebook.

So it's just, you never know. You have to post on all of 'em and engage wherever

the people are. Yeah. You know? So you just,

[00:25:40] Len: our growth has been Facebook primarily. It has been. That's,

that's. That's where we're seeing the most growth. But in terms of podcast

followers, we're getting, most of them are coming from our website.

They, they land on the website for whatever reason, www loyal opposition

online. And from there they can subscribe to the feed, right? [00:26:00] And the

website numbers tell us that is a big, that is one of the big ways we have of

getting subscribers. Yeah. And I was surprised by that. My focus for, and I

stopped earlier this year because I'm still writing a book.

I'm writing a fiction, historical fiction novel about growing up in a racist family

in West Tennessee. And I'm writing it about a character named Sonny, but it's

really about me to be honest with you. And most of the book is actually true,

but I've grown almost 7,000 subscribers that went, got on my wait list from my

book.

So that's where I focused a lot of my effort on growing. Shout Your Cause and

those people do get updates from me with what I'm doing with Shout Your

Cause now.

[00:26:43] Michele: So that, and that's a great way to grow your following, and

it's something that Attach, Sally has taught is you create some kind of free

download or a wait list for something and people sign up for it.

You capture their email and then you nudge them [00:27:00] to subscribe.

[00:27:01] Len: Okay, Sally, for our listeners we probably should, we like use

your full name at least once.

[00:27:06] Michele: Yeah. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about Sally,

your name

[00:27:09] Len: about yourself and tell us what your website is and what we'll

do is we'll put that out on our website as well and promote it in the show notes,

but if people are listening and wanna get more information about you, let 'em

know.

[00:27:18] Sally: Okay. Well my name is Sally Hendrick, not Hendricks, it's

ICK. Just a single Hendrick. Yeah, just a single one. Hendrick. Even though my

father-in-law is Jimmy Hendrick is there. Really? He is. That's funny. And I live

in Nashville downtown. I was a pioneering family, taking my three kids to move

into a, a loft apartment in the middle of the city when they were nine and nine

and five years old.

So a little crazy. Yeah. But i, my husband is Robert Hendrick. We own rail yard

studios. We make furniture out of railroad parts and I handle some of the

business with them during the day.

[00:27:57] Michele: And they even partner with [00:28:00] Olden here in

Portland. What do you make? Yeah, they build, build, uh, pool tables. Pool

[00:28:03] Len: tables with olden pool, pool tables.

[00:28:06] Michele: Out of old railroad parts.

[00:28:09] Len: Parts. Yeah. So I was thinking of building some kind of like

station in my house for the podcasting and the broadcast and the recording and

all that kind of an audio. I was, and they have all these, ones you can buy

online, but I was like, yeah, it's something cool, something different.

Can you make a podcast? Yeah. Absolute studio desk. Absolutely. Out of

railroad ties,

[00:28:25] Sally: I never know what that man can come up with. He's a great

designer.[00:28:30] Michele: yeah they're, his offices are cool. It's desk and like

beautiful pieces of furniture. And then they have the Railroad Graffiti Museum.

[00:28:40] Len: Yes. It's called the Graff Museum. And we've collected graffiti.

We have about 35 pieces in the collection right now, and we're talking about a

lot of these are the, an entire side of a train car, and we really, I love trains. Yes.

Wow. Cool. We have the famous [00:29:00] scene of Johnny Cash flipping off

the wardens at Folsom Prison. Oh my gosh. That is cool. We have Louis

Armstrong playing a trumpet. We have a lot of really great. Fun pieces.

[00:29:11] Michele: That's so cool. That is cool. The graffiti. Yeah. Lynn, you

would enjoy it for sure? I think so. I think I would. You would definitely enjoy

it.

[00:29:19] Sally: But that's my husband, so I'm on the other side of things

talking all the time.He's drawing and I'm talking.

[00:29:28] Michele: Well, I mean, she runs all the social media for, yeah,

railroad. Railroad. What is it? Rail Yard Studios. Rail Yard Studios. So y'all can

check that out.

[00:29:35] Len: I know nothing about small business, thus the success of TLO

media today. But one thing I have learned is that it's important to have partners

with differing complimentary skill sets, right?

Um, so, you know, if you're not good at sales, but your partner is, if, if you, if

you're great at social media, but your partners is, good with his or her hands,

right? So you to make a good partnership in [00:30:00] business kind, I guess,

kinda like in marriage, you gotta have. Bring different skill sets to the thing.

That's Right. Right, right. Um, I've never been married, but does that, does that

metaphor kind of? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:30:09] Michele: Me and Ronnie are basically polar opposites, so pretty

much,

[00:30:16] Len: but it works.

[00:30:17] Michele: It does work. It works very well. You know, it'd be 20

years dating in August or June. June. So

[00:30:23] Len: 20 years. Yeah. Gee,

[00:30:26] Sally: wow.

Yeah, we're 31. Yeah. Cool.

[00:30:31] Len: Hey tell us about the different stuff you do. Talking about, we

talked a little bit about your social media. What do you, what is the website?

What's the purpose of the website? For Shout Your Cause.com.

[00:30:42] Sally: The website, right. And the podcast is Shout Your Cause with

Sally Hendrick because I'm interviewing people for the most part. Lately I've

been doing news updates because I've been lazy about getting interviews, but

you know, again, like I said before, ebb and [00:31:00] flow between the

seasons and what's going on and what needs to be put out there.

[00:31:04] Michele: Exactly, exactly.

[00:31:05] Sally: And right now the news is probably the most important, the

opposition news, if you will, because we need to hear what the effects of DOGE

and. Trump and all these things that are happening.

[00:31:19] Michele: Yeah. And just like, you know, the, at the top of the show,

all these things that Len always talks about. I hadn't heard all that about the,

about the Roundup.

[00:31:30] Sally: Oh yeah. That's scary. When I was an actuary, Monsanto was

one of our clients.

[00:31:35] Len: Oh, wow.

Oh man. But I can't talk about that. Okay, we'll, we'll, we'll stop you not talking

about it.

[00:31:44] Michele: Let's talk about, let's talk about “Humble Pie”.

[00:31:47] Len: Okay? Yeah. Let's talk Humble Pie”.

[00:31:48] Michele: So, “Humble Pie” is Tennessee historical fiction that Sally

is writing and it's a book. Yes. So tell us about that.

[00:31:56] Sally: The book started out me telling stories about my [00:32:00]

grandmother when she was a child. When I was a child and hanging out with

her. She would tell me stories about her when she was a child.

And the, just to give you an idea, the the wait list chapter, the free chapter that I

give to people is her telling a story about being five years old and begging her

brother to take her down to the crossing. Which was the railroad crossing. And

she had heard, overheard a conversation that a black man was hanging in the

square and she wanted to go and see.

And of course her mother was like, oh, no, no, you cannot take, you know, you

cannot take her down to the square. This is what's happened, et cetera. Well, that

story had been told to be by my grandmother, but when I asked my father about

it, he didn't know about it. And when I asked my uncle, he didn't know about it.

So I did a little bit of research and I found the man who had been hanged when

she was five years old, [00:33:00] so it was a real story. And that just gave me

chances

[00:33:04] Michele: here in, in West Tennessee. Right?

[00:33:05] Sally: It was in West Tennessee and in Humboldt, Gibson County. It

might have been in Trenton, instead of Humboldt where the hanging happened,

because that's the county seat.

But I, I'm not sure. I, I just know that when I wrote the chapter, I centered it

around the crossing because that's where her family had business. We, my

family, uh, they were the, they started the canning industry of fruits and

vegetables in west Tennessee, and they had cotton farms and. Obviously a lot of

help on the farm.

[00:33:36] Michele: Yeah, yeah,

[00:33:37] Sally: yeah.

[00:33:38] Michele: That was the, the times, you know, and so I bet it's been

fascinating going down these rabbit holes trying to research for your book.

Right.

[00:33:46] Sally: It's been very therapeutic. It's been frustrating and angering at

times.

[00:33:52] Len: How long, how long has it taken and how long do you expect it

will take start to finish?

[00:33:58] Sally: Well, I wrote about [00:34:00] 28 chapters a couple of years

ago, and I probably wrote that over about a year, 28 or year, year and a half

maybe.

[00:34:06] Michele: And you were focused? I was very focused.

[00:34:09] Sally: Every week

[00:34:10] Michele: you had, goals you were setting and

[00:34:12] Mandy: Yes, and I was, and I, I was in a writing club every week

and that helped too.

[00:34:16] Len: Ah, yes, that definitely helps. Yeah. Yes.

[00:34:18] Sally: But then I started working with a developmental editor and I

got the kick in the pants I needed. On really focusing the story because I was

trying to tell too many things, too many timeframes, too much going on, and I

really needed to find the flow, a cementing event that covered the entire book

and then learn how to roll in the memories in that with the stories and the

hanging out with my grandmother when I was little because I stayed with her all

the time.

[00:34:54] Michele: Wow. And, and, and, I could probably tell similar

[00:35:00] stories from our family growing up in Alabama, because just being

in the south, sure. You know, Lynn's from New York, so you probably don't

have that kind of history here.

[00:35:11] Len: Our, we had racism. It was just, it was different.

[00:35:15] Michele: Right.

[00:35:16] Len: It was still there. It was just, different. But yeah, no it's when I

came down here it was the culture shock for, in regard to that. And still in

certain places, Nashville, you don't, in the city you don't see it much. But yeah,

occasionally I'd see I'd see some things that like, wow, it just blew my mind.

Even, in the 21st century,

[00:35:35] Michele: yeah.

[00:35:36] Len: You were, so you were talking about earlier when you said,

when Michelle asked you what got this started and you said, everything that

was pissing you off. Was there one particular issue that you started out with

shouting about? Or was it just general anger, or how did focus that?

[00:35:55] Sally: I think it was when Donald Trump decided to run for

president. Okay. [00:36:00] And for some reason I already had this feeling

about him, this intuition about him that So this is the first time? Yeah, the first

time. Mm-hmm. 2016.

[00:36:13] Michele: Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot of people felt that, that's

when I got involved in politics was after he won the first, his first term.

Um, and it's just. It's so disheartening. I does have no way.

[00:36:29] Len: And it's, you know, and it's, it's, it's so strange to me that, I've

met two groups of women in my life, group of women who absolutely despise

the man and women who absolutely love him and adore him and think he's the

greatest thing and considering his track record, track record with women over

the years, and this isn't stuff that's conjecture, this is stuff that's been proven

multiple times in courts of law that have occurred. You would think women

would be turned off by this, that they wouldn't want someone who is essentially

a [00:37:00] sexual harasser who seems to not have the most highest opinion of

women. But there's a group of women out there who love them. White women

helped give women the reelection,

[00:37:10] Michele: well, and then another thing, Sally, I know you work hard

now to get Democratic candidates elected, but you haven't always been like a

die hard democrat. It's not, it's like how you work closely identify now.

[00:37:22] Sally: Right now, yes. I've always been more on the independent

side and for a long time my track record was pretty even across the board.

[00:37:31] Michele: Mm-hmm. Especially in Tennessee. Yeah. 'cause

sometimes you have to, yeah. But

[00:37:35] Sally: not since Obama. Yeah, I, I've, I've been on the Democratic

side since Obama.

[00:37:40] Michele: Yep. Things have really changed in the Republican party.

[00:37:44] Sally: I can consider it John McCain, but when Sarah Palin stepped

up Yeah. I was like, what is this cuckoo

[00:37:51] Len: Exactly. And that, and that's true what Michelle just said.

Things have really changed in the Republican party. Mm-hmm. You know, there

are people who complain about the Democratic party being pulled too far to

[00:38:00] the left by some popular democratic national level, democratic

politicians, but.

I mean, but I think the real story is how far to the right, the Republican party. I

mean, it's become a, it's, the party of law and order and strong national defense

and fiscal responsibility has become the party of, let's see how many people we

can hate, uh, and it's, it's, uh,

[00:38:21] Michele: yeah. And if you look at national debt. A chart of national

debt and how much it goes up under Republican rule.

[00:38:29] Len: Yeah. Yeah. The deficit increased more under Trump than it

had done on under any previous president before that. But, oh, we're for fiscal

responsibility and balanced budgets, well, you don't vote like that, you know?

[00:38:41] Michele: and smaller government.

[00:38:42] Len: And smaller government. Yeah. And so, and of course, doge is,

trying to, end the government as we know it, but. And, and I can see an

argument for smaller, more efficient, leaner government in some cases, right?

But to do it the way they're doing it, just without any analysis or without any

input from the agencies or from the [00:39:00] inspectors general, just going in

and kind of slashing and burning without regard to what it's gonna do around

the world or to people's lives just doesn't seem like the right way to do it.

[00:39:10] Michele: It doesn't. Let's take our last break.

[00:39:13] Len: I guess we have to. Michelle says we're taking a break, so we're

taking a break, paying some bills. Be right back here with The Loyal

Opposition.

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[00:40:56] Michele: Welcome back to The Loyal Opposition, and we are

wrapping up [00:41:00] our show. The hour always goes by so fast. Time flies

when you're having fun. So Sally, to close out with you. Remind everyone

where they can follow and subscribe.

[00:41:14] Sally: Everything is under Shout Your Cause. So TikTok website,

Instagram, Facebook, it's all there.

[00:41:22] Michele: Awesome. She's so easy.

[00:41:24] Len: Substack and Substack. That's a good substack shout. Here you

go. Of all of those, which is your favorite. Gosh, probably the podcast. Really?

The podcast? Okay. Yeah. And TikTok, because I think Michelle would say

TikTok, right? Yeah. I like Daily TikTok, but I love doing the podcast.

[00:41:41] Michele: Sally's great on TikTok. She's awesome.

[00:41:45] Len: I'm not a podcast fan, but I love doing this podcast because

basically because of all the cool people I get to meet. We've had over a hundred

guests on the show, and over the two and a half years we've been doing it and

been meeting some really cool people. And you see. [00:42:00] So much

horrible stuff going on in the world. But then you get people in the show

coming on the show who are doing such good, you know, I keep thinking about

Jason Rogan and him helping the kids in the basketball camp. Right? Yeah.

And, um, you know, all the other people,

[00:42:13] Michele: the F.I.N.D. Design.

[00:42:14] Len: yeah.

I mean the, those two women were so, um, inspiring to me. Yeah. And so that I

may not like listening to podcasts, but I sure do like talking to people on a

podcast. Okay folks, we are almost out of time, but hey, we have got several

announcements that we have to make. First of all, I want to of course welcome

our new sponsors.

As you know, folks, the show is sponsored by Artemis, CPA, who is our new

sponsor. You've heard Michelle doing the ads on the breaks, I'm sure, and the

law offices of Amanda J. Gentry. So we want to thank. Artemis and Amanda for

their support for our show. Next week we have a special show. We're gonna start

a half hour early start at 4:30.

4:30 okay? And this is gonna be our organizing round table. With [00:43:00] the

with Emerge Tennessee and Organize Tennessee. So I think that's gonna be a

really interesting show. We're gonna talk about how to get organized and what

we can do

[00:43:08] Michele: to, and recruiting candidates and

[00:43:09] Len: recruit candidates and what we can do to, energize the

resistance.

Right. This Saturday we, the Sumner County Democratic Party is gonna be

hosting their biannual reorganization meeting, and that's at 10:00 AM doors

open at nine 30 10:00 AM at the Sumner County Administration building in.

Gallatin. And last I heard last night, Michelle, we have over a hundred people

have already pre-registered to attend that.

[00:43:32] Michele: That's amazing. And we almost have at least one person

running in every,

[00:43:37] Len: in all the different offices. Commission district.

[00:43:39] Michele: For the executive committee.

[00:43:41] Len: So I think that Is that including your truly including, yeah. Like

Michelle doesn't have enough to do. And of course finally coming up, we'll be

back next week with our new guests from Emerge and Organize and as always,

check kind over to our [00:44:00] website where you can find out all of the

events that we are hooked up with on our website.

Just go over there and click events. And you can also take action. You can write

your senators, your representatives, your congress people, your, your county

commissioners, your alderman, your city council folks, all directly from the

website. So if something that you heard on today's show. Irked you and you

wanna say something about it, head on over to the loyal opposition.online and

we can help you.

Express your feelings, right?

[00:44:30] Michele: That's right.

[00:44:30] Len: Okay. Alright, well listen folks, we are just about out of time,

so we're gonna say goodnight. For the loyal opposition. I am Len Assante. And

I'm Michele Harbin.

We have been The

[00:44:41] Michele: Loyal O pposition.

[00:44:43] Len: See you next [00:45:00] week.

[00:00:00] Michele: Hello, Middle Tennessee. Welcome to the Loyal

Opposition, Middle Tennessee's progressive radio show, airing the voices of

dissent. In opposition to the Tennessee Republican supermajority and other right

wing extremists, while also spotlighting minority owned businesses and

advocacy groups. Today, we will cover both advocacy and spotlight a minority

owned business located right here in Sumner County with national reach.

All right, folks. So there's a lot going on. Obviously, we live in Tennessee and

it's legislative season. So we always have lots and lots to talk about. Today here

briefly, we're going in just a few minutes, we're going to [00:01:00] talk to Luis

Mata from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, but wanted

to know quickly, a few things going on in the legislature.

The Tennessee Holler reported today that farmers for free trade have been down

at the Capitol trying to let legislators notice the damage that these tariffs are

going to cause.

[00:01:24] Luis: Hi

[00:01:25] Michele: Hi, Luis. This is How are you? This is Michele. You're on

the radio.

[00:01:32] Luis: Oh, thank you so much, Michele.

It's an honor to be on.

[00:01:35] Michele: Awesome. We, I appreciate you so much for taking time. I

know you have been extraordinarily busy these last few weeks.

[00:01:45] Luis: No, the pleasure is truly mine. We have been, fighting against

these imminent threats that our immigrant and refugee communities are facing

across the state.

So, thank you for the opportunity to share about. What we got going on and

how folks can join us in [00:02:00] this fight.

[00:02:00] Michele: Yeah, let's just get started with that legislation, specifically

House Bill 793. This bill states for our listeners that as introduced, it authorizes

local education groups and public charter schools to refuse to enroll students

who are unlawfully present in the United States.

So do you want to talk a little bit about the harm that this will cause?

[00:02:23] Luis: Yeah we've been seeing from trickling down from the Oval

Office down into our state capitol and into our local communities this anti

immigrant narrative that leads to anti immigrant policies. And right now we are

seeing this completely unprecedented attack against our public education with

House Bill 793, which is a direct attempt to strip children from their freedom to

learn.

We see how these lawmakers would rather use children as political pawns rather

than [00:03:00] really fight for Tennesseans, right? Making sure that we have

what we need to put food on the table, put a roof over our head, pay our medical

bills. They are using children as a political scapegoat to cover up their

leadership failure.

And whenever you involve our kids, you know that we're going to come back

and fight back every single step of the way, as we have been doing for over 20

years now here at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. And

making sure that our community's voices are centered, our community's voices

are heard.

We had our immigrant day on the hill last year, where our communities from

across the state were present. To witness the vote in the Senate Education

Committee. The Senate Education Committee looked at our members in the

eyes, children, 8, 9, 10 year olds, and voted to take away their right to an

education.

After they all, [00:04:00] there was

[00:04:00] Michele: lots of powerful testimony yesterday too, correct?

[00:04:05] Luis: Yes, we had our community members, specifically we had a

Fifth grader who came all the way from Knoxville, Tennessee to make sure that

his voice was heard. He was in the crowd with all of us. And making sure that

we're holding the line, right?

And making sure that they look at us in the face whenever they continue to try

to push this disgraceful effort, right? We know that it's in our collective interest.

To ensure that all of us, regardless of where we come from, what our

immigration status is, have a right to an education, because that's what it is.

Education is a right, not a privilege.

[00:04:45] Michele: Exactly, and an adverse effect that I know will affect my

children, who here in Portland, in Sumner County, they attend a Title I school,

and there is a fair amount of Hispanic students in their student [00:05:00]

population. And going back to kindergarten, my daughter, who's in fifth grade

now, she has a bilingual friend who, when she started kindergarten Could not

speak very good English.

And Lila partnered up with her. Her teacher paired them together. And Lila was

able to help her communicate with her teachers and with other students. And

they became really close throughout the year. Now, I have no idea about this

child's immigration status, but if something were to happen and a friend like

that gets removed from her school, what is it going to do to our kids as well?

They're going to be sad to lose their friends.

[00:05:37] Luis: That's exactly right. And this is not just an attack against our

immigrant community, but it is an attack against all Tennesseans, right? We

know that we, the real impacts of this are children having to come up to their

parents saying, Hey, why am I not able to go to class?

Why am I not [00:06:00] able to be on the baseball football team anymore? Or,

Other students, their classmates coming up to their parents saying, Hey, why

isn't Luis in my class anymore? Why isn't he on my baseball team anymore?

These are the very real impact that we're seeing from This completely cruel and

heartless effort here We know that we send our children to school knowing that

their right to an education is protected and secured From a landmark Supreme

Court case that was established in 1982 That all students regardless of where

they come from or immigration status are eligible for free public education.

And what we're seeing from the sponsors of this bill is an attempt to challenge

the Supreme court case.

[00:06:42] Michele: Yes, specifically William Lamberth, who is a Sumner

County Rep, and we talk frequently about on the show, and also our Sumner

County Rep, William Slater, also voted for this legislation in subcommittee

yesterday.

So a lot of this is coming directly from middle Tennessee [00:07:00] legislators

and it's just the other side of it too is when you have an uneducated society,

what does that do to our economy and our communities as well? So then you

have people who end up can't find good paying jobs because they and then they

need federal and state support in order to buy food.

And so it's this vicious cycle that is going to continue to have these rippling

negative effects.

[00:07:32] Luis: That's exactly right. And undocumented immigrants pay over

300 million in state and local taxes alone. They pay into directly the public

school system, right? We have been hearing from the opposition, from

lawmakers, William Lamberth and others that this is a financial burden, right?

That's their justification. But we know that this is nothing more than a political

game using our children as pawns immigrants [00:08:00] are integral to the very

fabric that makes Tennessee what it is that makes this country what it is from

economic lens, societal lens, cultural lens.

We are part of the very fabric that makes this state what it is. I know that I

personally owe so much to my public school teachers who invested in me

without caring what my immigration status was, without caring where I came

from. And thanks to that education, I have been able to have so many

opportunities, right?

The very opportunities that my family and I left everything we knew behind in

Mexico or here in Tennessee. And this is the case for thousands of other

Tennesseans here that are our neighbors, our co workers, our classmates.

[00:08:43] Michele: Employees.

[00:08:45] Luis: Employees, that's exactly right.

[00:08:48] Michele: That was my next question I was going to ask if you

wanted to share a little bit about your story because I did see that you shared

that publicly.

And so this issue hits particularly close to home for you. You are a [00:09:00]

product of Tennessee public schools and look at. Everything that you've been

able to accomplish, the differences that you are making in our society, and I

think it's just really beneficial to the community as a whole to continue

educating all children.

[00:09:18] Luis: That's exactly right. We know that it is in our collective

interest to ensure that all students, regardless of immigration, that they're able to

to learn, right? That they have the freedom to thrive, that they have the freedom

to learn. Regardless of who

[00:09:32] Michele: they are or where they come from. That's exactly right.

That's how I learned English. Was whenever I got here, I

[00:09:50] Luis: was four years old from Mexico. I did not know English. The

first English word that I learned was flag. And I [00:10:00] learned English

because of our public school system,

[00:10:02] Michele: that's right. Wow, the first word you learned was flag.

That's, that gives me chills.

Okay, lastly, let's just real quick touch on Tennessee Immigrants and Refugee

Rights Coalition and briefly state their mission and then let's tell our listeners

how they can get involved. Oh, and I made calls on Monday, by the way.

[00:10:25] Luis: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for joining us. We need all

hands on deck.

We have been around for 20 plus years now with a simple vision to ensure that

all Tennesseans have the freedom to thrive and the freedom to belong. We do

that through legislative advocacy legal services, English classes, naturalization

classes, trainings to ensure that immigrants and non immigrants are able to.

Protect each other, protect our rights, know our rights and folks can join us in

this moment [00:11:00] right now and for the long term we know that real long

term change demands, long term sustainable organizing from folks all across

races, genders, classes, wherever you are, you have a place with us and we

invite you to join us in this campaign we launched The Education for All

Campaign.

With over 50 organizations across the state sending a message loud, the freedom

to learn, you can learn more and take action to help us fight back against this

piece of legislation and education for all tn.org.

[00:11:37] Michele: Okay, perfect. And then, I will tell our listeners it, it was a

very simple process.

Like we just called for 30 minutes in 30 minutes. You could do it as many times

as you wanted throughout the day. There was multiple sessions and they gave us

a short training, a script, and then we were able, they had an. Autodialer. And

when someone picked up, you had their name, you [00:12:00] read them the

script, ask them a couple questions.

And if they were, and these are registered voters and these registered voters,

you just ask them if they were willing to help and then grab their email address.

And then we uploaded that into a Google doc and shared that. back with T I R R

C. And then you guys can reach out to those voters and let them know next

steps.

I thought it was really well organized and super simple and it didn't take up very

much of my day at all.

[00:12:32] Luis: That's exactly right. You can join us whenever you're free to

get plugged into this campaign. Several others that we have going on right now.

But yeah, no, this is a collective effort to Make sure that we're defending our

rights, that we're defending our freedoms and we invite each and every one of

you to join us in this fight.

You can also follow us on our social media pages where we share updates and

things that folks need to know [00:13:00] and how folks can join us. So also

follow us on our social media, at TN Immigrant, where we will have updates.

Other ways for folks to get involved.

[00:13:11] Michele: And then do you know when the next when the official

education K 12 committee will meet to vote on this in the next steps?

[00:13:21] Luis: Yeah, so right now, it has passed the K 12 subcommittee. Now

it's going to the full education committee next week. It's either the 18th or the

19th of next week. Okay, I can look that up and when I make a,

[00:13:33] Michele: I'll make a post and list your social media sites, the

education for all website, the T I R R C site as well as when that bill.

We'll be in committee. And if we can stop it there, it would be wonderful. We

were so close I think they originally predicted it to be an 8 1 vote yesterday, and

did we end up 5 4?

[00:13:58] Luis: That's right.

[00:13:59] Michele: Yeah we made [00:14:00] progress for those of you

listening, if you think your calls and emails fall on deaf ears, they are listening,

they are reading our emails, I even get responses sometimes, so we just have to

keep at it.

[00:14:13] Luis: We have to keep at it. That's exactly right. Every day, every

year, legislative session after legislative session. Election year after election

year, we have to keep at it.

[00:14:22] Michele: That's right. Wonderful. Well, Luis, we hope this is not the

last time we hear from you. We are having a TLO Loyal Opposition Reception

in Hendersonville on May 7th.

It'll be a six to eight time timeline and there will be some familiar faces that you

will know there who would love to see you. People like Megan Lange and Len

from the show. So if you're free, we'd love to invite you out, but otherwise we'll

get you back on the show and keep. Keep amplifying your voice as best as we

can.

[00:14:52] Luis: I'd be honored. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

[00:14:54] Michele: Thank you. It was our pleasure and you have a great rest of

your day.

[00:14:58] Luis: You too. Bye.

[00:14:59] Michele: Bye, [00:15:00] Luis.

[00:15:06] Ad: At the Law Office of Amanda J. Gentry, we are committed to

defending your rights. We have a team committed to helping you navigate the

court system. Whether you've been accused of a crime or you're going through a

messy divorce in custody. Call our team to help you navigate this system. We

are here to protect your rights, to demand your rights, to enforce your rights.

615 604 6263 604 6263. AmandaJGentry. com.

[00:15:38] Michele: And welcome back middle Tennessee to the loyal

opposition. I'm your host, Michelle Harbin, and I am here today. We just

wrapped up with an awesome 15 minute session with Luis Mata from the

Tennessee immigration rights Tennessee immigration, refugee rights. Coalition.

That's a mouthful, but I got [00:16:00] it. And we were really excited to hear his

point of view as he was, he went through the Tennessee public school system as

an undocumented immigrant and was able to receive his public education, go on

to college, and he is doing great things in the community.

He's ran in Middle Tennessee as a Democratic state house candidate, and He's

creating real change, and we need people we need other children to have the

same opportunities that were awarded to Luis when his family decided to move

here for a better life. Let's move on to Jessie. Yay me! Say hello!

Hola! Alright, so I got Jessie and Cecily with me today. Hello. Hi. They are a

mother daughter duo. They have another daughter. They are, they're all, she has

another daughter. So there's often a trio

[00:16:47] Jessie: and then my son

[00:16:48] Michele: and then they have their, and then Jessie has William. I

mean, Edward,

[00:16:53] Jessie: William is Tessa's fiance.

[00:16:56] Michele: That's funny. I also have William Lamberth on the brain,

unfortunately, it's, [00:17:00] he lives in my head right now. Anyways. All right,

Jesse, tell us a little bit about yourself. We want to hear What landed you here in

this seat at the Loyal Opposition? I'm

[00:17:12] Jessie: your friend. That's right. And because we support other

women, we're a women owned business.

And this isn't like the only business that I've owned. So I've been an

entrepreneur my whole life. I guess. I had, let's see, when we lived in Virginia, I

had a web design company. And then after that we moved to Colorado where I

did web design there, did networking, I also did photography there, and then we

moved here from Colorado, and here I've been a teacher, and we've owned

another boutique in photography, and a travel business, and now a boutique, and

I'm still teaching.

Is

[00:17:49] Michele: that a lot? She has nothing on her plate, folks. And she's a

mom of three. One is eight. One is eight. Cecily's 23. 23. And then [00:18:00]

Tessa 27. 27, who is engaged to be married. Yes. So there's lots going on in this

family. Just a little bit. Just a smidge. So let's start with you, you said you,

preface a little bit with how you're not new to the world of entrepreneurship.

Tell us about your experience as a female entrepreneur.

[00:18:19] Jessie: And it's been difficult, and I don't know if but most

businesses in Tennessee are male ran businesses, and there's only 13%, I think,

that are women owned. Only 13 percent women owned.

And of that 13%, 70 percent of that 13 percent are women who have less than

10 employees. So, there's 300, 000 businesses in TN that are male owned and, I

mean, I'm a math teacher but I'm not going to do the math right now but you

know that's, that's pretty Earlier you said it was 5, 400 have less than 10

employees.

It's harder for women to get business loans than it is for [00:19:00] men and I

remember when I went to go get a loan I ended up having to use my savings

because they asked me. Could my husband or my dad cosign for me even

though I have good credit I make enough money as a teacher and other incomes

that I have.

I also had a business plan And it was just the fact that I was female that they

were unwilling. What

[00:19:20] Michele: year was that approximately? That was in

[00:19:23] Jessie: January Are

[00:19:26] Michele: you serious? The bank asked for a male cosigner

[00:19:30] Jessie: for if my husband or if my father could cosign for me Yes,

that was January of this year.

[00:19:35] Michele: And you promptly told them, I'm not, I'm not married and I

do not need a husband.

[00:19:39] Jessie: I said, I said, I'm not married and my father is dead. And they

were like, do you not have any other family members? And I said, I have an

eight year old son. I mean, that's the only other male I know. Would that work?

And they were like, we're sorry, we can't assist you. So, I did pull the money

from my savings to start this business.

[00:19:56] Michele: Wow. What did lead you [00:20:00] to found? You, me in

Tennessee.

[00:20:03] Jessie: I'm a teacher. So I don't make any money. I have a limited

amount of income that I can make. My salary is what all I can make there and

it's not enough. And they raised my rent where I lived again this year. And it's

just making it hard to live paycheck to paycheck.

And I was talking to Cecily and I was like, I can't keep doing this. I'm stressed. I

need to make more money. So I started my own business for that reason.

[00:20:27] Michele: Wow. And, and we so commonly hear stories of women

who are particularly teachers who have to work multiple jobs to make ends

meet.

[00:20:39] Jessie: Yeah. Well, and that's because teachers are the, we're least

paid than everybody else because it is a female dominated field.

[00:20:46] Michele: Yeah, and it's still like, I can't remember what the stat is,

but it's a pretty large percentage less that women get paid compared to men.

[00:20:55] Jessie: Yeah, and at the school I teach, it's all women, and of course,

the head of the school is male, [00:21:00] and the rest are women.

[00:21:03] Michele: Sometimes you have no words. So, tell me about the name,

You, Me, and Tennessee.

How did you come up with that?

[00:21:09] Jessie: Um, I don't know. It was 4 a. m. and I was like, wouldn't that

be cute? It's you, it's me, and we're in Tennessee. You know, we love Tennessee.

We're huge. Just today, Cecily and I went out, even though we're boutiques for

our owners, we went shopping down here at Tipsy Rookie. We went down to

Gallatin and shopped at, was it Honey and Suede?

Honey and

Suede. Honey and Suede Boutique. We made our house way up to Mill House

in Franklin and got some breakfast and stopped in. The mustard seed market

and the gallery on the square and then we stopped out here at Kim's at

Bloomingdale's and did a little shop in there. So we're local people. We really

support locally.

[00:21:45] Michele: I will say you are one of the biggest cheerleaders for small

businesses. When I had my small business and retail store elderberry business

you supported me in so many ways. From not only shopping with [00:22:00] us,

Sharing social media posts and helping to amplify my voice as a business owner

in, here in Portland.

She is not just talking the talk, she also walks the walk when it comes to

supporting small businesses. I appreciate that. We do. I sure should.

[00:22:15] Michele: That's right. That's right. Let's go ahead and take our first

break and then we'll come back with two more segments with Jesse and Cecily

from You, Me, and Tennessee.

[00:22:35] Ad: At the Law Office of Amanda J. Gentry, we are committed to

defending your rights. We have a team committed to helping you navigate the

court system. Whether you've been accused of a crime or you're going through a

messy divorce in custody. Call our team to help you navigate this system. We

are here to protect your rights, to demand your rights, to enforce your rights.

615 604 6263 615 [00:23:00] 604 6263 Amanda J. Gentry dot com.

[00:26:00] Michele: Hello, middle Tennessee, welcome back to the loyal

opposition. I am your host, Michelle, and I'm here with the crew from you, me

and Tennessee, Jesse and her daughter, Cecily. And we've been talking about

her entrepreneurial journey and her experiences as a woman in business here in

Tennessee. Are there any challenges that you faced here that you did not face in

Colorado as a woman on business?

[00:26:27] Jessie: Yeah. Oh yeah, um, there's so many, I don't even know where

to begin with that.

[00:26:33] Michele: Just as a woman in general, not politically saying this.

[00:26:38] Jessie: It's just harder here. It's so much harder here. And here, when

you hear that some woman is doing good in business in Tennessee, you hear

things like, oh, she used her daddy's money or her husband helped her get there.

It wasn't like that in Colorado. In Colorado, we weren't a bunch of girl bosses,

which is a phrase I personally just I hate it because I feel like it takes I

[00:27:00] am not a girl boss. I am a CEO and I should be treated with respect. I

don't call you a boy boss for doing a good job. I love your business.

You're such a boy boss. Could you even imagine? So for me, In Colorado, it

was just so much more people were more welcoming. Accepting. Yes that you,

and you were treated differently. You, you had a lot more respect just because of

the fact that you own the business. And it wasn't really frowned upon the fact

that you were a woman.

You know, especially boutiques here, they're like, oh, everybody has a boutique.

Every woman here is a photographer.

[00:27:31] Michele: Well, and they think there's nothing to it.

[00:27:33] Jessie: Right. Which I have degrees. So, you know, I have computer

degrees. I have a web design degree. I have a degree in information technology.

I have a master's degree in information technology.

I'm working on my education and integration in technology. So I have

technology degrees, which is why I went into teaching when we moved here

from Colorado because I couldn't get into the fields of technology in the south

because it's a male dominated [00:28:00] field. So I was like, well, the next

thing I can do with all of my degrees is I can be a teacher, and that's why I

started teaching.

It wasn't a lifelong passion to teach. Not that I'm not good at teaching, I, I

[00:28:11] Michele: Yeah, you've even gotten some special awards recently.

[00:28:14] Jessie: I did. I got Teacher of the Week, which was really nice,

because that's nominated by the parents, that you get that, and enough people

nominated that I was recognized for the state of Tennessee.

But it's not that I don't enjoy teaching, it's just that I didn't do it out of Wanting

to be a teacher,

[00:28:29] Michele: it was out of necessity to have, yeah, to have like reliable

income.

[00:28:37] Jessie: Yeah. And so when I first got divorced and we were on food

stamps and I needed a way to provide for my family. And so I started substitute

teaching, which then turned into long term teaching.

[00:28:47] Michele: Wow. I'm, I want to tell if anybody that's listening wants to

ask Jesse a question. Our show number is 516 440 6310. [00:29:00] Give us a

text and we'll be sure to try to sneak your question into her. Okay, next up. Okay

yeah. I'm an entrepreneurial spirit like you are an entrepreneurial spirit.

I have, I mean, you know, once I start, I really love starting something new and

getting it up off the ground. Like that is the biggest rush, creating the new

website, creating the new social media pages, getting the word out, finding new

inventory, like all that super fun. And I know you enjoy it. So what is your

favorite element of entrepreneurship?

[00:29:35] Jessie: The people that you get to meet, um, like, for example,

meeting you just at, from,

[00:29:40] Michele: that's how I met you. I came and shopped

in your store

[00:29:43] Jessie: and it's been a great friendship and that, that has allowed me

to meet people. I'm a people collector. I like to collect people. I like to collect

stories,

[00:29:51] Michele: but you like to let them go to, which I admire you for.

I keep people around too long.

[00:29:57] Jessie: No, every relationship has an end and some people

[00:30:00] come into our life just for a little bit and that's either to teach us

something or to teach them something. So it's okay for a relationship to end.

Like, I want you to eat, just not necessarily at my table. Does that make sense?

Yes. So it's okay. We can, and I will still see people that I've ended relationships

with at Walmart or at food line. And I'm like, Hey, how are you? I hope you're

doing great. But our relationship is over and that's okay. It's okay for a

relationship to end.

[00:30:23] Michele: Well, I admire that because I'm a people person to fault and

I do tolerate more than I should.

You know, I

[00:30:31] Jessie: think as women, we all tolerate more than we should.

[00:30:34] Michele: Well, and we've had to not even, you know, whether if it

was a choice for us, but we have had to tolerate more in order to get a leg up,

you know, um, let's talk about how listeners can find you.

[00:30:48] Jessie: Oh, we are on you, me, uh, Tennessee on all social platforms.

So

[00:30:53] Michele: you, me, Tennessee,

[00:30:54] Jessie: TikTok, Instagram. And then

https://youmetennessee.com/website.

[00:31:00] Michele: Nice. And it's a beautiful website. Jesse's done a great job.

And then her social media is really fun. You might even see yours truly

modeling some of the clothes for her. We have fun doing photo shoots, don't

we?

Yeah, yeah. It's really. fun. I purchased a dress from her not too long ago. It was

the music city dress. The, is that what it was? Yeah. And it's like this really cute

pink halter with a bubble skirt that was short length. And it was like a light pink

and I wore it to a wicked theme party that we threw at work and covered myself

in glitter and put my hair up in a bun and had a magic wand.

But I was able to get that off their boutique. So I loved that I had a local source

that I could reach out to and find something for an event without having to go to

the dreaded Amazon or Timu or TikTok shop. I was able to support another

woman here as a local business. So yeah, so let's we'll get all of her links and

everything up [00:32:00] on our website.

I mean, on our social media pages, so you guys will, it'll be really easy for you

to find her. But do you want to talk a little bit about the style that you promote

from the boutique? So it's varied.

[00:32:14] Jessie: Yeah, it's a little bit of everything because we like a little bit

of everything like we were talking before.

I kind of just shop for what I like and then that's what I buy. I'm like, hey, this is

cute or that is cute. We are particular though about the brands that we shop with

and the quality of the clothes that we get and I don't venture out to brands. I

don't know that I don't have a relationship with because I know the quality and

if there's something wrong with the clothes, I can always send those back and

get better clothes.

Everything is inspected by us. We do them. Um, I'm going to look over

everything before we send it out to make sure it's mine.

[00:32:44] Michele: I've seen your videos, expecting and counting and

[00:32:47] Jessie: Yeah, we're pretty meticulous, but um We like the higher

quality clothes just because it's nice and I feel like it's affordable for a boutique

and so What was your question?[00:33:00]

[00:33:01] Michele: Just talking about the style I know there's a lot of boho

chic.

[00:33:04] Jessie: Oh, yeah, so there's boho We've got because we lived close to

Nashville here in Portland. We are the gateway to Nashville, Tennessee So we

have you know, the cowboy culture that's in there We're really, I guess really

boho though, I guess would be the overall.

Yeah, that's the vibe I get, you know. I mean we definitely have some like 90s,

more vintage stuff. We got some plaid skirts

[00:33:26] Michele: in. You know we both graduated high school in the 90s.

You've been calling us vintage, Seth. 20 years is vintage.

[00:33:34] Jessie: Okay, my birth year could be considered vintage. Okay, okay,

so you're vintage too.

Really 2000s is vintage. Alright, you get a pass. We graduated high school. on

the 90s. I got a GED. You know what that stands for, right? GED, get enough

diplomas.

[00:33:46] Michele: There you go. And it led to a master's degree. It does. So,

you know, it doesn't matter how you get there. It's everybody's, everybody's

journey is different.

It took me 10 years to get my two year degree from Ball State.

[00:33:57] Jessie: Hey, it happens that way sometimes.

[00:33:58] Michele: That's how I met [00:34:00] Lynn. That's how I met Lynn,

my co host and the founder of this show. He was my professor at Vol State. And

then I got my master's degree and he later hired me to teach in the

communication department where I taught public speaking and intro to com.

So that, that's our relationship.

[00:34:16] Jessie: You're so good at public speaking, Michelle.

[00:34:18] Michele: Well, yeah, I have a master's in corporate communication

and then obviously I like to talk.

[00:34:24] Jessie: Yeah, me too. Yeah.

[00:34:25] Michele: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Cecily, do you have do you have

anything you want to add about the boutique? What is your role?

What all do you help your mom do?

[00:34:35] Cecily: Um, okay. I help her, uh, set the clothes up to be sold in, um,

different places. I helped her inspect the clothes. I model, too, which I think is

really fun. I help her make

[00:34:46] Michele: You're always so fun and just a beaming light when she's

modeling.

[00:34:49] Jessie: The Bloomingdale's, so she manages that.

[00:34:51] Michele: Oh, yes, that's another place you can find them.

Bloomingdale's here in Portland on 52.

[00:34:56] Jessie: She manages that because I'm at work. So she'll go in and

take [00:35:00] care of that and make sure it looks nice. I am She just learned

this weekend how to manage the social media. So she will be taking that over

for now on to take one thing off of my plate.

[00:35:09] Michele: Wonderful.

[00:35:09] Cecily: Yeah, I'm so excited, actually.

[00:35:12] Michele: Yeah, you're gonna be, you're gonna be really good at that.

It'll be nice. What are you, Gen Z? Yes. Yeah, it'll be nice to have a Gen Z voice

on your social channels. For sure. Yeah they speak a special language.

[00:35:24] Jessie: And I trust her. So I. It'll be fine. Yeah,

[00:35:26] Michele: and it'll be funny and it'll be enlightening and just just full

of light.

I already know.

[00:35:31] Cecily: I mean, I literally, I literally eat, leave no crumbs.

[00:35:36] Michele: Yes, I love that. Alright, folks, we're going to take one

more break. And then we're going to come back and wrap up with Jesse, and

then I have a few other announcements. A couple things in the legislature I want

to discuss, and then we will move on to play, triple play sports.

And welcome back, Middle Tennessee. I'm Michele Harbin. This is the Loyal

Opposition and I am here with Jessie and Cecily [00:36:00] from YouMe

Tennessee, a locally owned boutique and a little bit. During the break, we were

talking about as me as a former business owner and Jessie and Cecily as

currently running a business about how a lot of times people think you own a

retail store or a boutique and you just get to play dress up all day or like with

me, I was just buying and selling food and it was so easy, but talk a little bit

about.

about the logistics and the technical side and everything that goes on behind the

scenes, the accounting, all that goes on behind the scenes to make this boutique

work.

[00:36:36] Jessie: Yeah, so I, I said, that I just kind of shop and buy what I

want, but just the shopping alone can take forever just to pick out the right

materials, to pick out the right clothes that just the things that will fit right in

Tennessee.

[00:36:47] Michele: You have to switch out every season. Yeah.

[00:36:49] Jessie: Yeah. So that, that alone can take forever. Then it comes in

and. You have to unpack everything. Everything has to be weighed. So, let's say

I'm going to ship a [00:37:00] shirt, um, out that somebody has bought. I need

to know the weight of that before

[00:37:03] Michele: So, you can calculate shipping Before

[00:37:05] Jessie: I even do anything.

So, it has to be weighed and once

[00:37:08] Michele: And you have to enter the weight of the box. The

[00:37:10] Jessie: All of it.

[00:37:11] Michele: The measurements of the box.

[00:37:12] Jessie: Right. Before I can ship it, before I can even add it to the

website. So as I'm adding it to the website, it's there. And then there's like, I

have to show you the product. So there has to be photography.

I can use the stock photos, I can take my own photos. And that's a photo shoot

and that takes all day. When we do, um, take that time to do the, the photo

shoots with locals like yourself, it takes us all day to do those and then it takes

me another two or three days to edit those photos. To edit the videos, then

there's the social media managing.

And so we have to have

[00:37:41] Michele: And then you have to get them all onto the website.

[00:37:43] Jessie: Onto the website, manage the social media, get two or three

posts a day on Instagram, Facebook. Facebook and Instagram are, are sisters.

They're not twins, so they each need their own thing. Then you have to do the

videos for TikTok.

And then on top of that, there's the finances of [00:38:00] it. So I need to know

how much money I have coming in, how much money I have going out. How

much more money can I spend? Are customers buying this? Are they not

buying this? Should I do a sale? Should I not do a sale? Where are my

customers coming from when they're ordering online versus the ones that are

ordering in store?

What is better for me to put in blooming deals? And what is better for me to

keep online because everything's not going to fit into my space in blooming

deals So there's so much that goes on behind the scenes that nobody ever thinks

of. I designed the website. When you go on my website, you see the, the slides

that go across the top that talk about, like, the Cecily's favorite collection.

I had to design that. That, that wasn't given to me. That was something I had to

make. And she had to make the graphics for everything. And graphics, the logo.

It takes multi different talents and skills. That she has to apply into everything

to run this. I mean, she's using her degree for the website, but she's using her

[00:38:49] Michele: Yeah, so it's technical, you're a writer, you're a

photographer, you are a brand manager, a graphic designer, and then my

[00:39:00] least favorite Is an accountant.

And, well, accountant I ended up with a book Bookkeeper family with Harbin

Hollow, but inventory management. I hate counting inventory, but it has to be

accurate because if somebody orders something on your website and then it's

really that you don't have it, then that is just embarrassing and you have to

refund the money and you know, it's just, that's a real pain.

So you have to have that, that data has to be accurate on your website.

[00:39:29] Jessie: And, you know, there's a couple of TikToks of us showing,

you know, I was like, Cecily, what are you doing? She's like, I'm counting shirts

because she had been counting shirts all day. And it gets boring to count shirts,

but we had to know how many we had.

[00:39:40] Michele: You also have to check the orders when they come in

because everybody makes mistakes and the manufacturer or the clothing

designer could have made a mistake and gave you wrong sizes. Yeah, gave you

wrong sizes or wrong quantities,

[00:39:55] Jessie: on our website, every clothing has to have a description. So

there's no description that comes [00:40:00] with those when I buy those, that

when you see those descriptions.

[00:40:02] Michele: So you can also come up with a title of every item. Like I

bought that Music City dress, so everything.

[00:40:08] Jessie: Well, Cecily was saying the other day she was talking about.

This shirt or that shirt, and she was using their names, and I was like, I don't

remember what they're called. Like, I'm, I sit down and I name those when I'm

in the mood to name those, when I feel creative.

But I'm not retaining that. Yeah, I mean, I have no idea what I named it. I named

it and I went on. The Aiden top, the forget the picnic top. Yeah, she can tell you.

I was like, I don't know what those are. And, but I had to name all of those, too.

So, there's a lot of work that goes behind it. And the names have to fit the piece,

too.

You can't just be like, Yeah, like that beachy dress I

[00:40:35] Michele: modeled. What is that dress called? The, with the

seashells?

[00:40:39] Jessie: Oh, um, it's. It's Bohemian Sunrise.

[00:40:42] Michele: Yes, see, that's so perfect.

[00:40:45] Jessie: I don't know how she remembers that. I have a horrible

memory. But yeah, so there's so much that goes into the back end of it, just

before you ever get to order it, or you ever get to see the product, and that it

goes through before it's out there.

It's [00:41:00] a lot of, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of back end work.

[00:41:02] Michele: It is a lot of work. Meanwhile, she's doing this out of her

house with two kids still living there. And a daughter with their fiancé who

frequently visit. And I know juggling, I ran Harbin Hollow out of my home

before I got the retail store for Almost two years and so all the shipping and

inventory storage finally, then I got a storage unit for the inventory, but I still

managed all the shipping and packaging and web design and everything out of

my home and it's hard to live at home and work at home and Keep work life

balance.

[00:41:38] Jessie: Yeah, it's my nine to five after my nine to five. Yes

[00:41:41] Michele: So I work

[00:41:42] Jessie: all day and then I come home and I work in the afternoon

And it can be exhausting, but I still do that. And I do our photography on the

side. So I still have another job that I do. But these are things I have to do in

order to make ends meet for my family as a teacher.

I just don't make enough money as a teacher to [00:42:00] make it in Tennessee

today. And I have to have these extra avenues of income.

[00:42:04] Michele: Yes. Yes. Well, thank you, ladies. Thank you for having us.

[00:42:09] Jessie: Thank you.

[00:42:10] Michele: This was such an uplifting topic and episode for a few

segments. But sadly, I'm going to move back for a moment to the Tennessee

State Legislature, because I didn't get to it at the end.

the beginning of the show. I wanted to give Luis Mata as much time as I could

to talk about these immigration bills that are being rapidly moved through the

Tennessee legislature. And something else I'd like to talk, to mention today this

is from a newsletter from the Tennessee Holler. If you're not following or

reading them you should be because they are Well, their, their slogan is, uh, yell

the truth.

They're yelling the truth here in Tennessee, no question. But I wanted to, to talk

a little bit about some other ways things are tariffs. Let's just start with tariffs.

How they're affecting Tennesseans. [00:43:00] There is a group called Farmers

Against Tariffs and Farmers for Tree And they have been down at the Capitol

expressing their opinions.

And they're literally, this is according to Tennessee Holler, Tennessee farmers

are literally holding town halls about how devastating this trade war will be for

Tennessee. Price increases, job losses could cost Tennesseans over 8 billion

annually. And just as a reminder, in Trump's first term back in 2019, he imposed

a lot of tariffs.

And according to JPMorgan Chase, Trump's first trade war hit Tennessee

hardest of all states. Trump is telling us that there will be disruption, and there

definitely is disruption, but it looks like Tennessee had a 7. 3 percent it's hard

for me to read this map, [00:44:00] I need my reading glasses drop in In exports

and the cost also goes up on imports.

We're seeing increased cost for steel and aluminum and lumber that's coming

from Canada. My husband just became half owner of a contractor's business and

then started a second LLC to flip houses and invest in real estate. And so here

we go again. I opened my store in the middle of pandemic and here's my

husband now starting another entrepreneurial journey for us in the midst of all

these tax and all these tariffs in an industry that is going to be deeply affected.

Another thing I wanted to point out that hits home in Tennessee is the Jack

Daniels. Jack Daniels Maker says, Canada pulling U. S. alcohol off store

shelves is worse than a tariff. Canada has pulled all American made spirits off

of their shelves, [00:45:00] so they're not selling any. Which is devastating to

those companies that export from here.

Then here's another article saying the boom times are over. A Fox host even

sounded the alarm that there's a shocking collapse of American spending. I don't

think it's really shocking. I think people can't afford to buy groceries. So it's

here's another quote. It says you feel betrayed, let down, and like you don't

matter.

This is someone summing up her feelings of veterans across the country who

are now wondering how they'll support themselves and their families as

veterans have been flocking to the government after they've been flocked from

their government jobs. And it's just really disheartening. Okay, so that's the

news.

There's plenty more, but we don't have time for it. So I'm going to take the last

couple minutes and give you some updates on [00:46:00] upcoming events.

Don't forget about our TLO reception that we are having to raise awareness

about the loyal opposition in our in our mission here. It's going to be May 7th at

a private residence in Hendersonville.

If you want to RSVP to me or Len via the Loyal Opposition Social Channels by

DM, we can get you that address. I'm holding the flyer up on Facebook. There

we go. So you guys can see it. But we're sharing that information out and we'd

love to have you guys join us. On March 29th, every two years, the Sumner

County Democratic Party hosts a They're reorg.

The Republicans just had theirs here in Sumner County. Now it's our turn.

Anyone can attend. You can only vote for the officers if your last if in the last

primary in 2024, you voted and pulled a Democratic ballot. That's a state law.

That's not up to us, but you can still [00:47:00] come and attend and voice your

opinion and, chat with other voters and meet with other voters.

other local Democrats from Sumner County. That will be at the Sumner County

Administration Building on Belvedere and Gallatin. Doors open at 9. 30,

usually lasts about a an hour, so from 10 to 11. And that's, again, that's March

29th that's Saturday for the SCDP Re Org. The Sumner County Democratic

Party also has pints with progressives coming up next week and on Thursday at

Tailgate Brewery in Hendersonville from 6 to 7.

30 p. m. on March 20th. Those That group has been getting larger and larger,

and they seem to have a really good time. It's always nice to be in the room with

like minded voices. And then, next week, Len and I will be back with Rachel

Campbell. She is the newly elected state of [00:48:00] Tennessee Democratic

Party chair.

We are very Happy to have her on the show. She was previously the chair of the

Hamilton County Democrats, which is the Chattanooga area. So she has been

involved at the local level in Democratic politics for quite some time. We're

very excited about the energy she's bringing to the party. So we cannot wait to

hear from her next week.

And don't forget we come on live at 5:00 PM and then a replay at 8:00 PM

every Wednesday here on 1 0 1 0.7 fm, wq kr. And then you can catch the

replay on our website, which is the loyal opposition on. And then the following

week after the show airs, our show is uploaded as a podcast on all of your

favorite.

Podcast streaming services. So don't forget to air your voice of dissent.

[00:49:00] And thanks for listening to the loyal opposition live from Portland,

Tennessee.

TITLE:

TLO S03E06. Unsure how to deal with the current rush to authoritarianism? Want to get connected with other who feel the same way? This week, The Loyal Opposition talks to Amanda Smith, one of the founders of the Middle Tennessee Blue Dots League. The Middle TN Blue Dots are a safe space for women, LBDGT+, and those who support them. And, as always, your best source for local and State political news impacting you.

SUMMARY:

The Middle TN Blue Dots League exist to not only provide a safe space, they are a clearing house for linking people with resources to cope with the current national crisis. Currently, the Middle TN Blue Dots League is only on Facebook. Search Middle Tennessee Blue Dots League and ask to join. You will find lots of resources for women, the LGBTQ+ community, gun safety, and other issues facing our community. Become involved! Make a difference!

And as usual, we’re the number one source for local news.

Visit our website: www.theloyalopposition.online A one-stop-shop for navigating the current political environment. You will find:

•            Easy link to email your Representatives,

•            Upcoming take action events,

•            A list of Sumner County organizations doing great things

•            Links mentioned in the show,

•            And our supporters and advertisers

SUBSCRIBE!! Don’t miss an episode of The Loyal Opposition. We can be found on:

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Law Office of Amanda J. Gentry

AmandaJGentry.com

Today on The Loyal Opposition your hosts, Len Assante and Michele Harbin,

welcome Jason Rogan, former professional basketball star and proud son of Sumner County.

Jason will doing amazing things for our youth through his Jason Rogan Basketball Academy,

Sumner County’s premier training program. We’ll explore his philosophy for mentoring and

training the next basketball heroes. Jason is passionate about ensuring his students are

grounded in the fundamentals as the pathway to improvement. Jason has classes for all age

groups.

Follow Jason Rogan Basketball Academy on Facebook.

We’ll also discuss Governor Bill Lee’s upcoming State Of The State speech. We’ll talk about

how how Lee is failing Tennessee and Sumner County is several key areas such as:

TN suffers from the second highest inflation rate in the nation.

Our schools are some of the most poorly funded.

TN is several billion dollars short on highway repair funds.

Despite the Governor’s claims, TN has the third highest violent crime rate in the US.

Gunshot wounds are the number one cause of child mortality.

44% of TN households can’t afford the basics.

TN residents pay almost half their income on housing, one of the highest in the nation.

Families struggle while Lee sits on billions in unspent TANF dollars.

And the list could go on. And as usual, we’re the number one source for local news.

SUBSCRIBE!! Don’t miss an episode of The Loyal Opposition. We can be found on:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify Podcasts

iHeart Podcasts

Please support our advertisers and sponsors:

HighPoint Hospice

https://lhcgroup.com/locations/highpoint-hospice/

The Medical Center at Franklin

https://medcenterhealth.org

Law Office of Amanda J. Gentry

AmandaJGentry.com

AM Express

5500 Highway 31, Portland TN 37149, 615-325-1159

Brickyard Cafe

brickyardcafeky.com

Kyle Doris and Medicare Insurance Advisors

621 South Broadway, Portland, TN, 615 325 0064

Sumner Prevention Coalition

sumnercoalition.org

Portland Natural Gas

https://www.cityofportlandtn.gov/262/Natural-Gas

Morty’s Radio Mausoleum on WQKR

Morty replays classic radio programs like 'The Lone Ranger' 'Meteor Man' and Orson Wells'

'War of the Worlds'. Tune in Saturday nights at 10:00 and Sunday nights at 8:00.

This week Len welcomes TNDCCA Chair Jordan Wilkins

This week Len and Michele welcome Students for Education and Music City Jazz Jam.

This week Len and Michele welcome Heather Thomas, Executive Director of TN MOM PAC.

Join host Len Assante LIVE on Wednesday nights at WQKR 101.7 or listen at theloyalopposition.online. This week, we welcome guests Steve Bishir and Cole Shepherd as we discuss a unique program helpingcreate the next generation of Nashville music professionals.

Join host Len Assante LIVE on Wednesday nights at WQKR 101.7 or listen at theloyalopposition.online. This week, welcome guest Sumner Dems Chair Jesse McKinney.