Dead Men Walking Podcast Tom McMillin Michigan State Board of Education Parental Rights & Mandates

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00:15

Hey, welcome back to another episode of Dead Men Walking. All right. We're in it now.

00:21

We are in it to win it. How are you doing, Jason? We sure are, bro. Oh, this is a fun role. Burlham, do you do brah in your text?

00:29

Do you do B -R -U -H? I don't I don't do it in text, but my seven year old son has been calling me daddy brah.

00:36

Oh, nice. He goes, What's up, daddy brah? Daddy, where did you get this? You're homeschooled. You're not supposed to be picking up on the culture.

00:42

Yeah, right. There you go. Hey, man, you know, that's all right. I like it. Well, cool.

00:47

Hey, we're right at the top of the show. This is going to be a fun one, because this episode is brought to you by the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

00:55

What's up? We got the locals here with us and we had a discussion with one of the pastors. They're having a free event on March 18th.

01:02

So book your calendars, mark your calendars. It's going to be on Friday, March 18th. It's going to be it's the

01:08

Rice Lecture Series. It's going to be in Allen Park at the Inner City Baptist Church. Guess who they have as their guest speaker?

01:13

Who is it? Dr. Joel Beek, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.

01:18

I met him at G3 Conference. Very nice. Unbelievable. Guys, this is a free event. So if you're in the area, come up, get registered.

01:25

You can go find out more at D -B -T -S. So that's Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. D -B -T -S -S dot edu forward slash

01:34

Rice. Very nice. And we're going to link that up on the podcast for those guys. I know you're going to be there.

01:39

Five hour lecture. I mean, which. Well, it's like, you know, whatever you want to lecture.

01:45

You're like, oh, geez. Well, it's actually on the current issues of Christianity. Speakers include recognized theologians and pastors with a commitment to the absolute authority of scripture, which we like and we like Dr.

01:57

Joel Beek. So I know I'm going to be up there. I know I think you're going to try to get up there. It's not too far from us.

02:03

So if you're in the area, go check it out. We'll link it up. So thank you. Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

02:09

Oh, yeah. But on the line today and our guest is Mr. Tom McMillan. Tom, how are you, sir?

02:16

I'm doing well, Greg. How are you doing? Pretty good. We are going to get into it tonight.

02:22

I think it's going to be a fun one. I'm going to let Tom give a little bit of his background. But before we do that, you want to get into a little newsy.

02:29

Yeah, let's do that. Are you good over there? We just adjust. Yeah, no, no, no. Sounds and noise. Well, the past couple of shows, I've noticed that my voice is super low on the recording.

02:38

Yours is super loud. So I don't know if we switch the but I don't but I don't know if you're one or two. I wonder.

02:43

I don't know which one you are. We're going to do we're going to do. We're going to do a live test right now. Are you serious? Watch this. Say check, check, check, check.

02:50

You're two. I'm I'm just a loud mouth. No, no, no, no, no. You're fine. Turn me down a little bit. There we go. All right. All right. Perfect.

02:55

Look at that. Look at that, Tom. We can even do sound checks live. There we go. Let's get into newsy news. Here we go.

03:01

News, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, news.

03:09

We got some news. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. What do we got on the docket there, Jason? All right, guys.

03:15

So where do we start? I know. Right. What's going on this month?

03:21

There's so much going on right now. It's just hilarious. But this this is just a yeah, it's not a feel good story, but it kind of is.

03:27

It's kind of good. OK, so Levi's executive resigns over. I can't say the

03:33

C word virus policy stance refuses a one million dollar nondisclosure severance.

03:40

A Levi's executive on track to be the brand's next CEO, resigned and refused a settlement that would require she stay silent about the reasons.

03:50

Once a national champion gymnast, Jennifer, say announced her resignation as Levi's brand president in an essay published on Substack.

04:00

The mother of four had been a vocal opponent of many of the virus. 19 measures which impacted children, including school closures and online learning throughout the pandemic, say, was pressured by her employer and outside groups to stop speaking publicly about virus policies, but was never forcibly silenced.

04:23

She was repeatedly told to think about what I was saying, what she was saying.

04:28

Sure. So, yeah. So anyway, she did not take the million dollar severance, even though it would have helped her family, she says.

04:36

There's people left in this world with principle. Oh, my goodness. And she's not afraid to tell you about it. So, yeah, that was that was a really cool little story.

04:44

I mean, what what are we looking at here? I mean, is this is this something that we need to be loud and proud about?

04:51

Or should we take that million dollar bonus and be like, you know what? Don't even worry about whatever you're trying to do to us,

04:57

Mr. Biden. Yeah. What do you think, Tom? Do you think she made the right decision? Yeah, I think she did.

05:03

I mean, obviously, she she's probably pretty talented, so she'll probably go somewhere else. And there's plenty of people out there that aren't buying this stuff.

05:10

So I think she'll land somewhere that is better for anyway. Yeah. Providentially.

05:17

Providentially. Providentially. There we go. Yeah. Amen. Another reformed brother on the line, too. We're going to get into that a little bit.

05:23

What else do we got, Jason? Yeah, yeah. So here we have we're going to have to touch on this guy.

05:28

Sorry. The Canadian authorities announced new measures in the ongoing conflict with truckers.

05:35

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trudeau, whatever his name is, announced plans to invoke the

05:41

Emergencies Act to end the weeks long protests staged in the capital city of Ottawa.

05:48

Additionally, the Canadian government has backlisted, blacklisted nearly 30

05:53

Bitcoin addresses in an attempt to cut funding to the protesters. The caravan of truck drivers is protesting broadly against virus 19 restrictions and a jab man and the jab mandates.

06:09

The reaction to Trudeau's plans among local officials was mixed. Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, was supportive, saying we need law and order.

06:20

Our country is at risk now, while Quebec's premier, Francois Legault.

06:28

Sorry, but my Pepe Le Pew is not so good. We'll take it.

06:34

Felt this was the wrong direction for Canada posting. At this point, it would not help the social climate.

06:42

There is a lot of pressure, and I think we have to be careful. It wouldn't help for the polarization.

06:48

The truck drivers remain united, vowing not to leave unless forced out.

06:55

Yeah, so I mean, this is crazy. Yeah, we got we have I've heard everything from one hundred thousand dollar fines to people being rolled over in the street by horseback.

07:07

Police on horseback. Someone actually died the other day from being trampled by a horse.

07:14

I didn't hear that. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot going on within the this isn't just like truckers sitting there blowing their horns.

07:21

There's a lot at stake here for Canada. And yeah, I mean, what do you guys what are you guys thinking about it?

07:27

I mean, well, I will say this before we throw it over to Tom. I mean, they are just going full bore on this because now they are absolutely authoritarian, totalitarian.

07:37

I mean, they have they've rewritten their banking laws now for if you give donations and they said it's domestic terrorism, they're arresting people who's bringing them gas.

07:46

I did see a fun video clip of people like 20000 people carrying fake gas cans along with real ones.

07:54

And they said they can't arrest us all. Yeah, yeah. And I posted it to our social media. I said, yeah, the resistance is always a little sneaky and a little.

08:01

So you see this video shot of probably 5000 people all carrying two gas cans, some of them full, some of them empty.

08:08

And the cops just looking like we don't know where to start. Yeah. But Tom, you are a three term state representative.

08:14

You're now on the Michigan State Board of Education, which we'll talk about here shortly. As a politician, this has got to be in a conservative one at that.

08:22

And libertarian, I would say leading this has got to drive you insane, doesn't it? It does. And yeah,

08:28

I mean, it's hard to imagine Canada staying quiet much longer. They're a rugged group of people.

08:34

And I'm I'm, you know, pleased that that they're finally stepping up. I mean, I wish in the

08:40

United States we had something like this. But, you know, we tried this in Michigan. I was one of the people up in Lansing that kind of gridlocked

08:47

Lansing back in like May of twenty first state, I think first one in the country or in the world that really did a you know, started the protests.

08:56

I was there both times. We had they had a they had a sequence, a sequel to. So, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, protests is the bedrock, man.

09:03

So I'd like to know how we get money to them. I don't know. Right. Yeah. And we'll link that stuff up on the usually on our news, too.

09:11

We link that stuff up stuff up on the website. And also when you listen to the podcast, you can click on the things that we're talking about.

09:18

And Jason, I did hear you say I'm sorry about the news. Don't you ever apologize about that good news that you bring?

09:24

Jason, hey, we hear tales, this news for your smorgasbord. You know, there there is there is so much news going on right now.

09:32

And I know people are seeing the same stuff over and over and over. And it's like, yeah, you know, but at a point, you know, we really do have to stop collaborate and listen.

09:42

You know what I'm saying? All right. It's hard to kind of, you know, get the exact scoop.

09:47

I mean, I don't know if we if you guys mentioned other podcasts, but I listen to Tom Woods talk about this because I trust him.

09:53

And, you know, he's got the wherewithal to get the people that are in the know there in Canada. And it seems like it's totally legit.

09:59

It's totally, you know, just people fighting for freedom. So, you know, I think that we need to support them.

10:06

I mean, it's yeah. Yeah. So on our last one here, I'm going to round it out. I do have a little audio clip for the listeners.

10:12

I want you to listen to this. This is in the Oakland School District in California. This is two teachers talking about their transition closets and what they are trying to institute in California in their district and then push it to the rest of the country.

10:27

Listen to this 30 second clip and we'll talk about it. My principal just approved our district's first transition closet. We'll be working with the organization, the transition closet to provide clothes for transgender, non -binary and gender exploring youth who maybe don't have the access or the safety to get those clothes in their personal lives.

10:44

They'll be able to come to school and change the clothes that make them feel more at home and more like themselves. And I just think that's lovely.

10:50

The goal of the transition closet is for our students to be able to wear the clothes that their parents approve of, come to school and then swap out into clothes that fit who they truly are.

11:00

Fit who they truly are. Listen to that, what their parents approve of. And then when you get to school, you can do what you want and swap out into what you feel more comfortable in.

11:10

Right. This made me livid just for the just for parental rights. I mean, government schools,

11:15

I feel like they don't care about your parental rights. And we we posted that on our Instagram and got a got a lot of comments on a lot of people agreeing, though, as well, going, how can you how can you do that?

11:27

You know, it's on both sides of the of the of the aisle fence. Yeah. Fence aisle, whichever side you want to say.

11:33

Yeah. It's like you see people reacting the same way. They're just like, look, my my kids are are being brought up in a certain way, you know, and it's like you hear the you hear the different sides of it as well.

11:48

That people are like, look, this is how I bring up my kid. And it's like if but if you choose the this is how

11:55

I bring up my kid in a biblical manner, that's when the pushback happens. Right.

12:00

It's not on the other side where people are like, oh, they can go in that transition cause they can do whatever. It's like, no, like,

12:06

I mean, hold on a second. Yeah. This is what makes it especially egregious for me. Tom, tell me what you think, because this is going to get us into our discussion.

12:14

It'd be one thing if you're instituting these and it's free of choice. I still wouldn't support it. But to blatantly say, oh, yeah, come to school and what your parents approve.

12:22

And then essentially he's saying secretly without telling your parents, we're going to go ahead and change you into whatever you want to wear.

12:29

I feel like that's just a gross overstep of what the school system is supposed to do. What do you think about that,

12:34

Tom? Certainly. I mean, the subversion of the parents' interests is, I mean, you know,

12:41

I think that and I've been arguing this at the state board, you know, the amount of subversion, they keep wanting more and more money and yet they're so hostile.

12:49

And when I say they, they I always get a tweet or something that, oh, he thinks all teachers are horrible.

12:55

No, I mean, there are some good teachers, you know, yada, yada. But I mean, the system more and more is just opposed to parents, you know, having any say.

13:05

They don't want them to FOIA. They you know, they want to learn what's going on. But then they charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for simple

13:12

FOIAs. You know, they throw roadblocks all over. And then they want more money. And I really think that Republicans, I put out a

13:19

Facebook post and said Republicans need to be held accountable when they're wanting more supplemental. You know,

13:24

I mean, there's one thing, you know, there's the money that they get per child, but then there's supplemental money. Well, they shouldn't be sending any more supplemental money until they get parents' rights straightened out.

13:33

The CRT, this SDL, all these DEI, all these things are dealt with in a way that we approve and the parents approve before, you know, they keep putting more money into the system.

13:46

Yeah, no, I think that I've been arguing that, you know, they like I said, they keep wanting more. And I think more and more people are pulling their kids out.

13:55

And at some point, you know, it's going to get to where they don't want to pay the regular taxes.

14:00

People are going to say, why am I doing this? It's a hostile environment. Yeah. What what happens in that situation if somebody is going to a public school and then they're like, no,

14:08

I'm going to homeschool? Did their taxes also come out of the public? Oh, I love you.

14:14

No. OK, I don't know. No, no, no. He's right. I know there's a wishful thinking.

14:21

OK, OK. They owe me ten years worth of my dad. Twenty years worth. Gotcha. Yeah. No, but Jason, there no.

14:27

But there is a penalty to the local school. They have one less child, so they get less. They get eight grand less or ten grand less.

14:34

Gotcha. OK. And so, you know, the the system, I mean, the denominator goes down by one.

14:39

So everybody is the statewide actually gets a little bit more, you know, you know, a tenth of a penny or whatever, because it's the same money that is put in there from the sales tax, two percent of the sales tax.

14:52

But the denominator keeps decreasing. But that individual school feels the pain. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

15:00

So are we good with the news? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Are any. And that was the news.

15:07

I love your outro. Yes. OK, Tom, let's get into it because we touched on it a little bit. And I know you have so much information.

15:14

And before you tell us a little bit about yourself, I just want to say for people who listen on here, they know that I am involved in politics.

15:22

I always say there's three good ones at the federal level and two at the state. And boy,

15:27

I'll tell you what, Tom, when you were in the house, I was a big supporter of yours. You were one of those one or two that are always hanging around there.

15:33

A Gary Glenn type, a Tom McMillan, a Justin Amash. Those type of guys, they have such great principles and you don't bend.

15:41

Now, that doesn't mean you can't compromise, but you do not bend from your principles. I was really hoping things had turned out differently in your congressional run.

15:49

And who knows? I'm so happy that you're on the state board, though, because we need voices like you on that state board.

15:55

So why don't you give us a little couple minute background of who you are and what you've done? I know I kind of spoiled some of it, but introduce yourself to the audience.

16:03

Sure. Yeah. Tom McMillan. I got involved in politics in 98 because somebody wanted me to run for precinct delegate and we were fighting for the pro -life position within the party.

16:16

So I got involved then. I was I ran I've run several times for things and lost and won.

16:21

And I you know, I've been a city councilman in Auburn Hills for nine years.

16:29

I was mayor for two. I was a county commissioner for two years. I unseated a Democrat in Oakland County, the only one to to do it, to do that in 40 years, 50 years.

16:40

I I was a state representative from 2009, January 2009.

16:46

I won in 2008, 2009 to 2014. So as term limited, then I ran for Congress.

16:52

As you mentioned, I lost 60, 40 in the primary to Mike Bishop. And then

16:59

I ran in 2016 for state board of education. And one was the top vote getter.

17:06

And Nikki Snipe. Here is the other Republican, she won that year as well.

17:11

So she and I sit on it on the board. There's six Democrats. We have eight year terms.

17:18

And so every two years, there's two people up and there's two Democrats up this coming November.

17:24

I'm a CPA. I trade. I own a couple of CPA firms, a statewide one and a national one.

17:30

And do well with that. And so that's kind of I've married and divorced.

17:37

Not my choice. But back many years ago, and I have a 32 grandkids forth on the way. And I remarried and Brazilian.

17:46

I met her online. Christian Cafe dot com. She was in Brazil. And we have two children, 15 and a 12 year old.

17:54

Awesome. Nice. Yeah. So can you help me with my my stock trading taxes by any chance by wash sales?

18:02

And yeah, no, actually, I'm not a tax guy. I don't know.

18:08

Taxes pay a CPA to do mine. Right. So very cool. So, Tom, what got me thinking about you again was some some resolutions that were coming to your board.

18:22

And I know we communicated back and forth. And thank you for that information. Confirming some things, stuff like that.

18:28

It's always good to go right to the source of the people dealing with it instead of trusting what you read or see online.

18:34

And then I what you can't get to what you can't get. It's on the CDC website tonight trying to get some extra info for this.

18:41

And it's like pulling teeth like various. Give me the information, you know.

18:48

What a government website was hard to use. I thought they did everything perfectly and efficiently.

18:54

It's just crazy. Oh, man. Sorry. I cut you off. I'm sorry. You're good. But so can you give us a little update on the on the maybe just for the past year on the

19:04

Michigan Board of Education, some of the resolutions that you've seen in this pandemic and what you foresee going forward?

19:11

I know that I have groups down here. I'm sure you're aware of it. You have parents, you have moms, you have unmasked groups, you have.

19:18

Hey, we need to know what's in the curriculum groups. I mean, we're really seeing an uprising in the public school sphere right now.

19:24

And you're kind of at the I would say the legislative top of that. But you guys kind of set the tone.

19:31

Maybe explain exactly what the Michigan Board of Education does and kind of what you guys have been discussing and considering over the last six months to a year.

19:38

Sure. Yeah, I mean, we you know, we our main goal, our main job is to hire and fire the state superintendent, who then oversees all hundreds of Michigan Department of Education.

19:48

We all that's one of them. The other one is we pass standards. And so I've been trying to, you know, fight against even the

19:54

Common Core back many years ago and still do that. But, you know, standards that come up, whether I mean, we just passed standards on, you know, preparation of middle school and high school science teachers last last month.

20:07

And so, you know, we pass those kind of standards and also educational standards for the students and what's taught.

20:15

Big fight over social studies a couple of years ago that I lost. And so, you know, there's very little mention of anything bad that came out of any communist regime or fascist regime, of course.

20:32

But, you know, we've had some resolutions now. You know, these resolutions don't have any particular power, but they do kind of send a signal sometimes.

20:41

So I've been fighting, you know, CRT and, you know, the six billion dollars that we got from the state or from the feds that, you know, was for the virus relief.

20:52

I guess you can't say the word. And so, you know, and how that was going to be spent.

20:59

And the governor put together, you know, a commission or committee and the head of it came before us.

21:05

And I was really going after him because part of it was talking about had CRT links and kind of things that was kind of encouraging

21:12

CRT pretty heavily. And so I thought have been fighting that or exposing it.

21:17

I mean, when you're in the minority to six, you really try to expose. And, you know, and so I've been doing that.

21:25

We had resolution recently on universal masking and also universal vaccine.

21:33

And surprisingly, two of the Democrats flipped and voted against it. The Dems were brought it for us.

21:39

So it ended up failing. And I think two of them are a little bit more astute politically.

21:46

The others are more. I shouldn't say the others, but I think there's a progressive strain that really tries to push at no cost, you know, whatever the cost.

21:55

And I think a couple of the others were a little bit more practical. You know, and the same thing with Whitmer. There's a reason why she's not pushing for a statewide mask mandate or wasn't for many months.

22:08

It's to the chagrin of some of the left, the hard left. So it's because the election's coming up.

22:13

I mean, we know it's all politics, these decisions. There's no science behind any of it. There's nothing. So, yeah,

22:19

I mean, those are some of the things we've got. We're we're evaluate at the annual evaluation for the state superintendent this coming month.

22:29

And, you know, Nikki and I, we certainly have problems with them. He's he's not he he certainly was hired by the

22:37

Democrats and he's he certainly is performing as they would want. Yeah. And for those listening to you'll hear

22:43

Tom referred to you know, Democrats and Republican and things like that. And I know I just want to let you know, and the listeners, he's not as he's.

22:53

You're referring to that, I would think, because it is a party system up there. Right. You do have two parties. But but I don't know if that's necessarily we're pointing fingers at one party.

23:03

I think we're pointing fingers at ideology, whether it's progressive, leftist, liberalism, Democrat.

23:08

I work with the Democrats regularly or in the past on kind of reducing high stakes testing on things that's kind of unusual for a

23:16

Republican to get involved with. But no, I you know, and I I worked with Democrats when I was in the legislature on, you know, the

23:22

ACLU. I got I got kind of beat up in in my congressional primary. But, you know,

23:28

I worked with the ACLU on issues that I you know, on SWAT raids, you know, transparency and indigent defense reform and, you know, criminal justice reform things.

23:41

So, you know, civil civil asset forfeiture. So, yeah, I work with Democrats quite a bit.

23:46

It's just that, you know, it comes down. There's a lot of party line votes. You know, they got to toe the line or they don't get renominated.

23:53

Yeah, definitely. I had a I had a made up conspiracy that I came up with last month or the month before.

24:03

And I just want to share it with you guys and see what you think. But OK. OK, so check this out. So exactly what you just said,

24:10

Tom. I said back in December, November, I was like, look, everybody, you know, at the at the family function during the holidays,

24:19

I was like, look, within the next three months, the virus is going to be dwindling down.

24:26

Cases are going to go away and everything's going to go back to normal. And then everything's going to be smoothed out.

24:33

The the the stock market is going to start going up around May or June.

24:39

And then and then, you know, by the time November shows up, everybody's going to forget everything that happened in 2020, 2021.

24:48

And, you know, and, you know, the progressive left is going to look like, you know, they

24:54

Darley. Yeah, like they just came up with the perfect answer and everything.

24:59

And then they're going to get voted back in. So what what did you guys take on? What's going to happen within the next 10 months?

25:05

So that is conspiracy. I would say that's conspiracy. Very quickly. All right. I love how you call it conspiracy.

25:11

Tom and I call that politics. OK, OK. That's that's reality. Right, right. Well, what do you so what do you think,

25:18

Tom? Are we going to see? I mean, we're kind of we're calling it right now. Like he said on this podcast, he goes, don't worry, guys.

25:23

Stock market's coming back in the spring. COVID is going to be gone. We're going to be talking about climate change. You said, OK. And it's already trending that way.

25:29

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I don't know. But inflation, unemployment, and there's some things that they can't manipulate too well.

25:35

Or people, the general people know. And I also think that the you know, they want to be able to manipulate the votes or, you know, get the mail in and the drop boxes and the things that, you know, getting the vote, the the ballot out of the hands of the clerks and into the hands of, you know, the community organizers.

25:54

So they want to do that. So, you know, there's going to be a dance here. They're going to maybe they'll ramp it up just before, you know, the ballots are supposed to go out so that they can do some more manipulation of the handling of the ballots.

26:08

But yeah, I mean, you know, and also we knew that, you know, this virus was going to continue to go to where it's more of a cold.

26:18

You know, I mean, I don't know how quickly. I mean, there's still it's still a thing. But yeah, for sure. The latest the latest version or whatever it is, strain is not all that bad at all.

26:30

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we down here. I'm sure you already know my my

26:37

I'll just tell you my my stepdaughter, Aubrey. She just got the mask mandate dropped at her junior high school here in Bedford.

26:48

And and last week, right? That was last week. And, you know, the the the stuff that we were seeing through just I don't know, just through data.

27:00

And I don't want to be a nerd here and nerd it out of you. All the all the stuff that I've seen over the past, you know, a few months or whatever.

27:08

But, you know, the PTSD, the you know, the things that these kids are going through for not being able to see facial recognition of, you know, if somebody's happy, if somebody's sad, you know, or what are there's so many things, you know, that that we're hearing about.

27:26

How are you guys kind of navigating? And I know this is a broad question, and I'm not going to bring it home with like what the question is, forgive me.

27:37

But like, how do you guys really navigate through all of that with a mask mandate?

27:42

And if you're going to implement it again or, you know, take it away and keep it away or like how how does that actually how do you actually say, look, everybody has to have a mask on, you know, like like how does all of that work in the government house?

27:58

Yeah. What's going on with those people in that room? We want to know what's up. Yeah. Yeah. For making some recommendations over the kids, you know, like what?

28:06

Like, I mean, I'm sure it's got to be extremely tough. Yeah. So you're asking how, you know, how do we navigate?

28:14

Yeah. How do you navigate? Just like, OK, we're going to make everybody wear a mask or we're going to take this mask mandate away.

28:20

Like what? Like what? What's the factors? You know, like are there people yelling at you guys and running you down in the streets being like, let me it's funny if you watch the last few state board meetings, we were remote for quite a while, but we started going in person a few months ago.

28:36

And Nikki Schneider and I, the two Republicans are the only two without masks in the whole room. I mean, everybody else has a mask.

28:45

And, you know, they they just want, you know, so I I you know,

28:50

I think that we certainly fight it. I mean, if somebody, you know, it gets into where if it's their livelihood or I know that people feel like they don't have options with education.

28:58

But yeah, I mean, it's it's a battle worth fighting. And I've had superintendents say, you know,

29:04

I mean, now that the the counties are the ones making the decision, which is still really bad, obviously, but yeah,

29:11

I mean, you know, there are plenty of counties that that said no. And I guess, you know, the virus kind of skipped over that county line.

29:19

Yeah, right. So I guess the whole states and to put a to put a finer point on your question, because I'm interested when

29:27

I look at the data, OK, and I'm not a you know, I'm not a nerd, I'm not a doctor,

29:32

I'm not a, you know, a biologist, all these things, but I can read data and I can look at charts and I can look at personal experience and all those things.

29:41

I see something that probably does not warrant masking children for eight to 10 hours a day.

29:46

I guess to Jason's point, when you have eight of you sitting in a room or at maybe before a meeting or during a meeting or when you talk to your colleagues without giving specific names, what is driving, do you think, not only the people you work with on the

30:01

State Board of Education, but also maybe in the legislature or in school districts, what is driving?

30:07

And I'll just say it, it feels like almost like a psychosis of supporting something that just isn't supported by the facts.

30:14

We know masks don't work. Anyone with a brain has been saying that for two years. Of course, the CDC just flipped on that.

30:20

But I mean, especially in children, it's about 0 .004 % chance of them even catching it. Like, what do you think it is that's saying mask, mask, mask, mask when all the data points point against that?

30:32

Well, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think it's been discussed a lot. You know, it's the media. I mean, I think what they read there,

30:38

I think most of them are genuinely convinced. I think some of them want to do their part. You know, it's like they you know, and it's it's ridiculous.

30:46

They feel like. But yeah, I mean, if they're shaming, there's pure pressure.

30:51

I don't know. It's all that, Greg. I it's disturbing. I mean, I think there are people that really were interested in knowing how far they could push it, how far how authoritarian could government get.

31:02

And then they stopped and pushed, you know, and let let back. I think we're it's not the last time we've seen this.

31:08

I think they're taking notes and realizing what worked and what didn't. And they're going to, you know, push for control again.

31:14

I think it's really authoritarian. It's not. I mean, the numbers and they wouldn't give out the scientific data here in Michigan.

31:22

The governor refused to give out what what she's basing any of her decisions on. No data. You know,

31:28

I mean, and I mean, there was just and there was never a once we hit this,

31:34

I'll reduce things. And, you know, it just it's it was political. I mean, I think we've seen that. Certainly it's political.

31:40

OK, let me shift gears here a little bit as we're winding this down. So in the last news segment, we played about that transition closet.

31:49

We're seeing kind of school principals and teachers usurping the authority of parents, in your opinion, as someone who is on the

31:59

State Board of Education and also a legislator, you know, you made legislation for six years at the state level.

32:05

What is the role of principals, teachers, superintendents versus parents?

32:12

Does one serve the other? Does one not have a right to say is it because I've heard it on both sides?

32:17

Hey, look at you pay your taxes, keep your mouth shut. Our job is to educate. Your job is to drop them off and give them food when they get home after school.

32:24

And on the other side of that, you see, no, hey, I'm a parent. I have a right. I pay, you know, your salary, essentially, if I'm a taxpayer.

32:32

Where do you where do you land on that? Well, I mean, the state law section three eighty point one zero

32:38

Michigan law is the natural fundamental right of parents and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching and education of their children.

32:47

So, I mean, it you know, it is a you know, they they should be able to, you know, to direct just like it says, the teaching of their children.

32:56

So they should have you know, the school should be able to accommodate and to listen to parents and really really do what they what the parents think.

33:08

I mean, you know, I guess there has to be some order. Sure. But, you know, the fact that there's not much choice so that, you know, it would be nice if they had, you know, if this school did what the parents said or else the parents could have another option.

33:23

And so, you know, we know they do. They have homeschooling and some private schooling. But if there were some other, you know, paid for public options that were more readily accessible,

33:32

I think you would when you see when you have those situations, they the schools tend to be more caring with the parents think.

33:40

So, yeah, I mean, I think that they the schools really need to be, you know, doing what parents can as much as possible or what they want, but the parents want in there.

33:51

It's it's it's been incredible to see some of these these meetings with the superintendents and the school boards where parents will show up extremely angry, asking why a certain book is in their library, why these kids are getting their hands on things at such an early age, being taught things at such an early age.

34:15

And it's amazing how most of those parents and I'll be honest, guys, it's more women that are fired up than men.

34:25

And it is a real problem, I think, as believers. Yeah. As a believer, I really think that, you know, men, men need to step up, man.

34:34

You know, if we go to Isaiah three, I'm just going to read the first five verses. For behold, the

34:39

Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread and all support of water, the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of 50 and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.

35:01

And I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them.

35:07

And the people will oppress one another. Everyone, his fellow and everyone, his neighbor.

35:12

The youth will be insolent to the elder and the and the despise to the honorable. Now, look,

35:18

I mean, we're in a generation where men are afraid. Men are afraid.

35:25

Not every man, but there are a lot of men out there that are afraid to lead. And there are a lot of men out there that are afraid to stand up for their kids.

35:33

I just encourage every man out there right now to get involved with whatever your kids are seeing at school, whatever they're reading, whatever they are being told, and just stand up and teach them biblically.

35:48

What should be, you know, involved in in their teaching? You know, it is it's just sad to see, you know, a lot of that in our culture.

36:00

But like I said, I digress back to the the parent teacher conferences where, you know, you see these these people standing up and saying, look, why are my children being taught this curriculum that has nothing to do with their development at this age?

36:19

You know, I can I can say that, like, you know, our children definitely need to know about the world.

36:25

That's that's for sure. And we are on a Christian podcast, too. So we have a certain world view.

36:32

But yeah, yeah. But but again, it's it's, you know, these these superintendents that will walk out of those meetings and not do anything whatsoever that that you hear about, it's more or less just like, yeah, just shut, just just suppress this person, whatever they're saying.

36:50

You know, they're not everyone agrees with them. Well, not everyone doesn't agree on both sides.

36:56

But how do we exactly fight the the tyrannical?

37:01

You know, your children are going to be part of our progressive regime. We're going to take eight hours a day of your kid's life.

37:10

And you only get two because you've been at work all day and they have to go to bed to get back up in the morning to come back to our school for 13 years, for 30.

37:19

Yeah. For 13. I'll tell you, it has been encouraging. And, you know, I know you didn't mean that it's a problem that moms are rising up, but no, it's not.

37:27

Yeah, no, we want to see some dads in there, too. We want to see dads and moms, husbands and wives united together.

37:33

I'm raising money for liberty. This group, Moms for Liberty, has been rising up all around the country.

37:38

And it's exciting. Now, I think a lot of these elected officials, Greg, you probably understand what I'm talking about.

37:44

They look at how far out is the elections. And if it's far out, it's still a year or so.

37:50

They think, well, these people all go away. You know, I mean, let them say their thing. Yeah. But Christians and conservatives, you know, they kind of they fight.

37:58

But then they they go back to, you know, and they have families. They're active in church.

38:05

They're very active. You know, we're a very active people. And but it's you know, it's really encouraging.

38:10

I know a lot of people running for school board. The election, the deadlines to run are coming up in April. And, you know, as long as this fervor continues, because they're counting on it, not continuing.

38:21

They're counting on people saying their piece. OK, we heard you now go home and, you know, just do what you know.

38:27

We're not going to we're going to, you know, not care what you think it is. It's it's more and more, you know, and they're calling us parents terrorists, you know.

38:36

Yeah, right. Yeah, put them in jail. Hostility, these people, there's going to be a price.

38:42

There's more and more pulling them out of the public education. And, you know, and there's just people that are you know, they're not going to support additional funding.

38:52

That's what they want. And I think that there needs to be Republicans need to be held accountable if they're going to continue giving more supplemental money.

38:59

That's not not needed. Yeah, absolutely. And look, that's why guys like you are needed.

39:04

I got to you know, I could count on a couple of hands. The guys I go to, I'm not going to expose on the podcast all the things you're involved in, but your name comes up often in my circle of friends just because you're involved in a lot of grassroots things.

39:16

And it's and if you're a believer and and you and you're seeing things happen, then you need to speak up and you need to get involved in those things.

39:25

Part of civic duty is to do that. I think all three of us, I don't want to speak on behalf of Tom too much, but it sounds like we all agree in peaceful protests.

39:33

Yeah, we all agree. Yeah, you're not out there burning things down and breaking windows. Never. You want to drive some trucks through a city?

39:39

You want to go to a peaceful protest at your at your school board? I'm all for it.

39:46

Let's do it. Let's do it biblically. But that brings me to the very last point as we wrap this up, Tom. So we're all believers here.

39:52

What is the biblical response to what we're seeing going on in the schools, in the usurping of parental rights out in California?

40:01

You know, the the virus issues, the masking issues. We see things going in a way that we we say that's definitely not biblical or conservative.

40:12

What's the biblical response to that, do you think, Tom? Well, you know, it really is, you know, the nurture and admonition of the

40:17

Lord. That's what parents are supposed to be doing. And if you're sending your children, you know, there are plenty of of of good schools that, you know, are not hostile to parents that are out there, that are, you know, even government schools.

40:32

But, you know, if you're sending your school, your children to school, you should know what they're doing. And if they're if they're, you know, this transition closet, if these people if they're actually subverting your will and and hiding things.

40:46

I was just at a Moms for Liberty in Ingham, and there were some teachers that were there that are kindergarten kindergarten teachers.

40:52

They said the CRT stuff is going in and we're being forced to teach it. And and I wanted to tell the parents and we aren't allowed to.

41:00

And so, you know, this subversion, I think they need to really understand what is going on. And if it's if it's harming the nurture and admonition, you know, they're being able to raise their children.

41:12

I think they need to pull them out. You know, I mean, I don't and get them in a place, either homeschool or get them in a school that's not going to be hostile to their views and into the what's best for their children.

41:25

I think it's pretty clear. But I mean, the government school should not be subverting. I mean, we should not tolerate it as well.

41:32

You know, we are accountable. We need to be good stewards of our money. Right now, they're taking our money and giving it to these public schools.

41:39

We all whether you have kids or not in public, in government schools need to be fighting and fighting hard and not letting this fervor go down.

41:48

Run for boards and then make sure you're voting the right way in the elections. Awesome. Wow, that's that's great.

41:54

Way to go out, Jason. Did you have anything else? That was awesome. Thank you so much for for jumping on our crazy podcast.

42:01

Yeah, absolutely. As you guys are on, as always, guys, we appreciate you listening to Dead Man Walking podcast.

42:08

You know, I'm kind of upset that, you know, we we I wore our wine I'm dying on Roman's nine shirt tonight and we didn't wear our teach

42:17

CRT in schools, Christian reform theology. We really should have worn that t -shirt that we created that have been perfect for this show, but maybe we'll send

42:25

Tom one. We can snap a picture of him wearing one. Yeah, right. But you guys can get all that merch in a meeting. Yeah.

42:31

Wear your CRT Christian reform theology shirt in your state board of education meeting.

42:36

There you go. Give us a shout out. But you can find all that at DMW podcast dot com.

42:42

Of course, you guys can follow us on Facebook, social media, parlor, getter, all those places. I think we're on rumble now.

42:48

Instagram at Dead Man Walking podcast. We appreciate you guys listening, sharing with a friend. That's the only way that this grows.

42:54

We give all glory to God when we do it. And Tom, we thank you so much for being on. Taking time out of your busy schedule to give us a little update.

43:01

We really appreciate it. It was a pleasure. Anytime. I'm just so thankful for you guys. Thanks so much. Thanks so much, guys.

43:07

Jason, you got anything before we go? All right, guys, as always, God bless. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Dead Man Walking podcast for full video podcast episodes and clips or email us at dead men walking podcast at Gmail dot com.