It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Thank you very much, Nicole, and Happy New Year to you, Nicole. First time we had a chance to do the handoff here at eight oh six or so. My name is Dan Ray. As we head toward the midnight hour, four hours of Nightside coming up later on tonight, we'll talk
with some very interesting guests. Not that we won't talk with interesting guests in the first hour tonight, but we will be talking with Massachusetts State Senator Nick Collins about his fiscal fight, if you will, with Boston Mayor Michelle Woop. Then we will talk with an author of former assistant secretary of State. His name is Robert Charles, a New England and native New Englander who worked for several presidents in the Secretary of State's office as an assistant Secretary
of State. And he has just written a new book called Cherish America. And certainly in the wake of what we saw happening in the happened last night or yesterday morning, I should say early yesterday morning in New Orleans, very well timed interview with my guest, the author of Cherish America. I kind of imagine why anybody who lives in this country would have done with that that that fool did in in New Orleans. We'll get to that later. We have four guests tonight in the first night Side News
update of the year. By the way, Rob Brooks is back back in the control room tonight. Welcome back, Rob, Happy new year to you as well. And we will get right to our four guests, starting off with Martin Fien. Now, Martin is talking about and is very concerned about a big increase in the deer population here in New England. Uh and uh, it's a it's a consequence not only to the deer, but it's also in consequence of consequence
to us. He's with, he's the Massachusetts Wildlife's deer biologist. Martin. What's going on with the deer?
You know, in general, deer populations have been rising across a lot of in the Northeast and particularly across southern New England, But in the urban areas around Boston and Worcester and Springfield, we've really seen deer densities rise with restrictions around hunting access.
So as we have prevented or made it more difficult for the deer hunters to get into the woods and bag a deer that obviously has annured to the to the benefit I guess from the existence of the deers, but of the deer. But there are consequentially some other problems, which I assume include deer strikes on the roads. What's the downside? I mean, a lot of people are anti hunting, as you know, and they do not feel it's fair
for the hunters to go into the woods. I don't necessarily abscribe to that viewpoint, but many people feel that way. What do the hunters accomplish and what are we preventing them from accomplishing?
Yeah.
Really, when we're managing deer populations, we're first and foremost doing it from a conservation perspective. When you have over abundant deer, it has really negative impacts on forests. Essentially, the deer when they become overabundant, will start eating all of the new growth when trees are having seedlings growing up the saplings, and so when you have that, you essentially have no ability for new trees to eventually grow up into mature trees. And once you have the mature
canopy fall just with age. If you don't have that force regeneration occurring, eventually you lose really force in general, and so it's really critical when we're talking about suburban areas where already force become a patchwork around all the
different developments and such. If we want to preserve those areas, it's really critical to address over abundant deer Otherwise you lose that habitat for all this species that you have within the understory as well, because each of those little habitats within the understory and the canopy are where all the other wildlife lives. And so that's really the conservation impact. The other thing in Massachusetts, no.
No, I'm sorry, I have a follow up question there, but go ahead.
The other thing that we deal with in Massachusetts is the impact on coastal erosion. So we're already dealing with a lot of erosion due to climate change on Antucket and Martha's Vineyard, but just from regular deer behavior, they end up essentially creating game trails all throughout the areas that they move around the landscape, and on those islands, those game trails become cleve points where the edges of
the islands are already regularly falling off. Here about houses that are having to be moved and really major implications on both islands, and with the deer, we're also seeing them being an additive impact on top of already the impacts from climate change.
So essentially sounds to me like you're describing a political problem that there there has to have been some limitations put on the hunting community, which is a political decision. How does this get get changed, how does this balance get restored?
You know, some of this is certainly political, particularly at the local municipal level that's where a lot of the decisions are made around different kinds of implement restrictions or land access. But some of this is also just an educational piece where many folks come from urban areas where you know, if you're coming from Boston, you may never
have been exposed to hunting in your entire life. That was certainly my case that came from the city of Milwaukee, was never exposed to hunting and really didn't understand how important it is from a management perspective. And that's really what we try to do, is try to work with communities.
The other thing is by really grounding deer management in something that people understand, and that is really you know, providing food to the table and this Two years ago we launched our Share the Harvest program where hunters can actually donate their deer to one of our processors that we pay to have the deer process, and then those
actually go to food banks throughout the state. Through this program, we've now served more than fifty thousand meals across the state and it's really showing to many folks in many urban areas that have never been exposed to hunting how critically important they can be to addressing food and security and not in the state at the same time addressing those conservation needs.
Okay, last question, I don't know if you can quantify this, but either in terms of how many deer should be taken again I'll use that euphemism, how many more deer need to be taken or what percentage of deer need to be increased? Put this in some sort of figures. Are we talking about the difference of a couple one hundred deer will bring everything in balance? Or is it a more significant number than that.
It's a much more significant other than that. So, like our average annual deer harvest across Massachusetts is usually right in the fifteen thousand to sixteen thousand range now, and so really to be able to bring balance in particularly the eastern portions of the state, we would have to see significant rises in the multiple thousands to really just stem growth, let alone bring densities back down to healthy levels.
You're talking about getting it from fifteen to sixteen thousand a year up to what twenty or twenty five thousand a year.
Yeah, certainly into those ranges would be necessary to just stem growth.
Okay, and how can that be accomplished if you have to fight at every local city councilor board of aldermen. Is there something that the state legislature could do with a broad stroke, because it sounds to me like this is a very you see, this is a very serious problem.
The legislative routes. The things that are certainly barriers to hunters include setback restrictions, which are that you have to be at least five hundred feet away from an occupied dwelling to be able to hunt, and that includes even archery. So reducing that setback would really help in those suburban areas. In particular, there's a restriction on Sunday hunting, which is another one that certainly impacts you know, folks who have to work six days a week, not being able to
hunt on Sundays is a major barrier. And then lastly, there's a barrier with crossbows where you can only use a crossbow if you're permanently disabled. And many folks in urban areas where you do have implement restrictions not along the firearm, would hunt with a crossbow if they were allowed.
To be Okay, let's let us do this, Martin. Let me have my my producer get in touch with you. Maybe we'll do an hour on this, because this sounds to me like a much more important problem than I understood. And let's take some phone calls and maybe try to educate people or give you an opportunity to educate people in a more in a longer format, an hour with phone call listener participation.
Fair enough, Yep, I'm good.
Okay, Martin Fien, we will set that up. Thank you very much, Martin Fiann of the Massachusetts Massachusetts Wildlife's Dear Biologists will be back on nights. We have two segments coming up dealing with New Year's resolution resolutions, the psychology behind them and also what do you need to make them successful. We'll talk about those as well as some tips on protecting yourself in large crowds. You should understand why that is so important after what happened in New
Orleans earlier this week. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside. We are back on track here right after this a couple of messages here on w Z Boston's news radio.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the window world Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
All right, New Year's resolutions. We may talk about those later tonight. Everyone makes them, very few keep them. Let's talk now with Professor John Kelly. He's a professor of psychology at Endoclott College, one of my favorite schools. Professor Kelly, what is indeed the psychology behind New Year's resolutions? Why do we feel we have to make those every year because we are so most of us spectacularly unsuccessful.
Well, first, cheth, thanks for having me on tonight, Dan, I really appreciate it. I do think part of it is, you know, it's a custom. So we you know, we're creatures of habit, and so we all kind of feel motivated to just do what other people do. But I agree with you, it's a real problem.
You know.
I was actually at the gym this afternoon, and like every year, it was packed and it was difficult for me to complete my workout because there's a lot more people. And for one month that'll be true or so, and then a lot of people will will stop. So it's definitely a problem. Making resolutions is easy. Keeping them is really the problem. I can speak a little bit more to that. I mean, I think part of it is
that people make resolutions that are are unrealistic. I think we should be looking for sort of what you would call the Goldilocks kind of resolution, not to not to you know, not.
I use that phrase in many respects. Go right ahead, I know exactly what you're going to.
Say, absolutely, you know. And I think just even just the idea of resolutions, I think people I don't know, you know, I think it's I don't tend to make a lot of resolutions. I see it more as you know, it's better to have a kind of a change in
your life. Like people will say, Okay, I'm going to lose fifty pounds and you know, look great for the summer, and that's my goal, and they set this really unrealistic kind of resolution, and even if they were to succeed, it's not something you know that you get to a point, You get to that end point and then you sort
of stop. You know, it's much better for people's health to sort of change your health as a kind of ongoing, kind of permanent change rather than you know, an extreme kind of change that you try to come up with it with a resolution. I think that's the really But by.
The way, by the way, I must say that that is why I endorse Awake. In one eighty I lost thirty five pounds. It wasn't through a New Year's resolution. But the program that we endorse here at Night Side, Yeah, teaches people that it is a long term solution, and it's not just to get somewhere. It's to get somewhere to where your ideal weight is and stay there.
Same way, agree completely, and you're trying to get to a point where this becomes a lifestyle. It's the way that you're approaching is not a temporary thing. And I think that's the problem with resolutions. They're sort of they're not set up that way. At the beginning, the person doesn't think this is going to be temporary. But I think they often set such high high goals and then the isn't like what you're saying, a program that you can follow through to make sure that this actually happens.
Now, when you talked about the Goldielock the Goldilocks solution, it's sort of not too hard, not too not too easy, just right. I mean, some people say, well, my New Year's resolutions would be to climb Mount Everest. They have never climbed the Blue Hills. How are they going to climb Mount Everest? It's it's impossible, or that My new year's resolution is I'm going to brush my teeth at least once a day. Well, here should brush your d at least once a day. You don't need a New
Year's resolution to do that. Are there's some resolutions that you that you advise people that if they're serious, that there's there's some that that are achievable and actually can have a positive impact. Are there any that from your studies have come to would come to mind quickly?
I mean, I think really this is all about expected One of the things I study is expectations. It's trying to manage expectations. So it doesn't really matter what the resolution is, but your expectations have to be in that. Again, that sort of goldilock zone where you're not setting something up. Well, you say, I'm gonna lose fifty pounds in the next three months, but in your head you know this is
never going to happen. Probably you know that, and so you don't have this kind of the motivation is not necessarily there. And the opposite would be something that's too small. I oh, I just want to brush my teeth once a day or something like that. You need some sort of moderately difficult thing where there's constant feedback too. Right, you can see each week or each you know, period of time that you're making progress towards that goal rather than and as you said, right, not that there's a
final goal. And you know it's sort of all or nothing. It has to be kind of, you know, good enough each step along the way, good enough if you get to the gym, even if you don't work out as hard as you intended to, you got there. You know, it's consistency, it's habit, kind of boring in a way, you know, and that but that's what it is. You have to make sure that you continue this on a regular basis.
I call it January. Sometimes at the gym it's Amateur Hour and people community.
I don't like to be too negative about it because I'm hopeful some fraction of those people will will succeed, you know, and get where they want to be. But you're right, there's a lot of people who show up, and you know, it's great that they're making an effort and maybe some at some point it'll actually work, you know. But I think there has to be more of a plan, you know.
And I never did a New Year's resolution on gym going to the gym, but all of a sudden, about ten or twelve years ago, I kind of said, I got to get back in the gym and work out, and so I did, and it's been very consistent. As a matter of fact, in twenty nineteen, the year before COVID, I actually hit the gym three hundred and sixty three days out of that calendar year, which I can never repeat because I'm just too busy. But the one New Year's resolution that I made that came back to haunt me,
and I will admit to this. This has to be I'm guessing maybe twenty years ago I said I'm going to have a dry January, and dry January worked out, and I said, yeah, make it a dry February. What about a drying March? And I got to Saint Patrick's Dany said, let me see if I can get to April first, and unfortunately I woke up one morning with kidney stones. And because really I had not been supplementing, you know, enough liquid, the liquids all my God stayed
away from. I had not you know, supplemented with just water. Yeah, and so I was successful, but too.
Successful unintended consequences, right right, right, Yeah, you.
Got to think about stuff like that even.
And I don't and I don't think it's and I don't think it's a one size fits all. I think that you have to find the right thing for you. And so I think there is no absolute'll here's you know, the Goldilocks thing or something. I mean, I think that's good advice, but I think you know what works, because some people like what you're talking about. Struck the thing you said about the gym. Some people are like that.
They go every day, you know, three sixty five, and they're kind of addicted to it almost, and so long as it doesn't get completely out of hand, it works for them. And if that was you, that's that's the thing. But other people that they can't, you know, that doesn't work for them.
I've cut it back to like I do four or five six times a week, which is which is adequate. And I also think that as you get a little bit older, you need a couple of days of rest every once.
I think that's right. And I think I do something similar, which is say I plan to try to go every day. I say in my head, okay, this week. Every week, I try to say I'm going to try to go each day, but I know that I'm going to miss one or two because of work, because you know, things happen, and that's okay. So if I get there five times or six times, good enough, you know, Because I think
that's another problem people have. They say I have to be perfect on this new New Year's resolution, and when they fail to be perfect, they kind of just let the whole thing go, as opposed to saying, you know, that's good enough, I'm moving in the right direction, that's what you want.
I think there's a phrase life happens. You know, that's the day you have a flat tire, the day that you have to go to the store or whatever. Life Life simply happens, Doctor Kelly. Again, I'm a huge fan of Endicott College, a great fan of Doc Wiley who put that school back on track thirty years ago.
Wonderful buss.
Yeah, it is a fabulous place, a school that I recommend highly for every parent to look at for the kids. And I think the simply the most beautiful campus in all of New England.
If it all it is extraordinary.
Yes, absolutely, doctor John Kelly. I appreciate the opportunity we've had you before. We'll have you back again. Thank you so much.
Thanks, thanks Dan very much, have a good evening. Bye bye.
You very welcome. They had all my friends up at Endicott. And when we get back right after the news at eight thirty, we're going to talk about the things the need that you need to succeed in New Year's resolutions. We're going to talk with them Ober the Boston College faculty about the three things you need to succeed. So if you make a resolution, you want to listen up and stay with us right through the news. My name
is Dan Ray. This is Nightside. It is a Thursday night, January second this year is just the fly and by back on Nightside right after the break at the eight thirty newscast.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's news radio.
So just a moment. A moment ago, we were speaking with professor and doctor John Kelly of Endicott College about the psychology behind New Year's resolutions. We're now I'm going to talk with doctor Matt Popsol. Have I got that correctly, Matt?
I hope, yeah, pretty hose Dan Matt Pepsol.
Yeah, Pepsol, okay, who's a member of the Boston College faculty, an author, a veteran, and a podcaster, and he's going to tell us about the three things you need to succeed when you make a New Year's resolution. I'm very interested as to what those those the secrets to the sauce are here to have a successful New Year's resolution or two?
Yeah, I love it. I love it. Let's do it.
Go right ahead, run the air, go ahead, sir. We're yeah.
Well, I'll tell you that one of the big things I think that a lot of people really want to reconcile is their relationship with work. We spend so much time at work. So many times we talk about New Year's resolutions, having to do everything all other aspects of our life, but I think work is really important for
us to prioritize. And one of the reasons is because work has been weird for a while now, if we think about it, Dan and when you think back to the pandemic, it's been almost five years, but a lot of us are still waiting for it to return to some sort of new normal, and that's just not going to happen. So here we are ready to move on.
And I think that making a new Year's resolution about work, making sure that we're happy, successful, feel like we're making progress, it's a really important component for many of us when it comes to those New Year's resolutions.
So give me the example of the sort of new Year's resolution that someone might make about work. Well.
I think one of the things is that if you're unhappy in your job, that's not a good sign. What tweaks can you make rather than just try to go through the drudgery of yet another year. It's a matter of how can you change up that job a little bit, maybe change your approach, What new skills can you develop, what new contacts can you make. There's lots of different
options we can incorporate in small ways. If we're not ready to make a big change, there's little things we can do and feel that much better because we have to remember what we experience at work, we take home with us, we take into our community, and so we get work right.
There's no question a lot of people still have not gone back to the office, and I know a lot of people are struggling with that. I'm broadcasting remotely, haven't done actually been in studio regularly since before the pandemic. What do you tell people who have been able to work from home, you know, they don't have to go in the office, and all of a sudden the boss says, hey, we've got to get you in the office three times a week or maybe five times a week.
Yeah. It's a real tug of war, isn't it.
I mean, it's so amazing thatlawyers are definitely wanting to bring people back. The question is for what reason are we trying to boost productivity or we're trying to restore the culture in some way. If you find yourself on the receiving end of having to go back into the office, I think it's one of those opportunities to say, how
do I make the most of this. How do I make the most of my time, do the advanced planning right, and just reconcile the fact that, you know, if this is a job that I like, it's company I like, I'm not ready to make a move, how do I really, you know, make the most of that opportunity and realize that you know, this is everything's changing so fast, that's that's just what's happening.
So so is it is it realistic to incorporate these changes that many people are either experiencing now or they experience Is it really realistic to put it in the context of New Year's resolutions? Or or I just look at New Year's resolutions as things that people, after having had a couple of glasses of wine or maybe a couple of beers on the night of December thirty for us, tell their friends that this is what they're going to do, and if they remember them in the morning, that's a start.
But the chances are that very rarely does a New Year's resolution turn into a real significant lifestyle change.
Well, then I think that we'll make of them. Right.
So what happens is when there's this natural energy in tearing the calendar off putting the new one up. And I think New Year's is such a great opportunity for us to really set the goals that we want to have for the next year. And I think sometimes New Year's resolutions are these superficial behavior changes that might have good intentions, but we don't put a real sort of
oom behind them. And I'd rather see us take these resolutions and make sure that they're meaningful to us, not have too many, but make sure that they're aligned with those dimensions of our life that we really want to fix, and make sure that we're making significant progress in them. And in that, I think we can really feel good about resolutions as something more than just a passing fad and something that it's okay if we don't accomplish it.
This is our life we're talking about, whether it's our relationships, our finances, our work, our wellness, whatever it is. You know, use the opportunity of the springboard of New Year's resolutions that everyone seems to naturally gravitate toward, and really lean into them.
Now, have you yourself, without getting very personal here, have you ever benefited from a New Year's resolutions? You know, significantly in terms of your career or your profession, or your livelihood or your your you know, without getting too personally, And have you ever had a New Year's resolution that is memorable in your mind?
Yeah, I've had to go both ways.
And one was when I realized that I wanted there was something bing from my career and I recognized in January that I wanted to do something about it, but I didn't know what it was. And about the summertime of that year, I had spent about six months trying to study what I was going to do differently to change the trajectory of my work. And that's what led me to enroll in a PhD program and to earn my doctorate and really did open up all kind of
new doors for me. But it was directly related to setting that New Year's resolution of identifying a gap that I felt and saying, I don't know exactly what this is, but I'm going to stay on this until I've found my solution.
So that was a successful New Year's resolution. Have you ever had a disastrous New Year's resolution? I mentioned one in the last segment that several years ago, probably twenty years ago, I thought to myself, you know, I'm going to go for that dry January thing, and it kind of worked out and that turned into a dry February, and I said, why not, I'll get to Saint Patrick's Day, and I did, and I thought I can get all the way till April first. But between Saint Patrick's Day
and April first, I developed kidney stones. And I found out the reason you get kidney stones if you don't know incline to get them, is you have not had enough liquid intake. And not that I was a huge drinker, but I had not replaced over time what I had decided to step away from. I wasn't I did. I was able to stick with the decision of to nob don't need a coarse beer tonight, but I didn't compliment that or balance that off with a glass of water
or something like that. So that was one New Year's resolution that I came to regret, and I don't think i've made a serious one since.
To be honest with you, Well, I'm sorry that that happened.
I had not a similar situation, but I can give you one example of my own. I decided that I would do a sit up every day, and I would add one each progressive day. So by January third, I'm doing three setups, then four. I thought you can always add one more setup, right. Didn't come to realize until any about a.
Month and a half later.
This takes a lot of time to sit down in the morning and do one hundred or one hundred and twenty setup, So I did abandon that pursuit. I did not make it to three hundred and sixty five sets.
I would have been surprised if if you made it to Thanksgiving.
No, it right over one hundred, but not far beyond that.
But we down example, where did that idea come from? I mean, that's one that that you're a smart guy. I mean you know, well, thirty day April June and you know of that poem. Thirty days April June or November. Those days add up.
They certainly do well.
There's definitely a prevailing theory out there about one percent better? Can you get one percent better every day? And how those incremental gains really add up over time? And I think that that's that can be true. There's also one hundred push up challenge where even if you can't do that many push ups, there are programs to help you kind of get to that point. I think I probably just went a little too overzealous with it, and I think that far ahead.
Yeah, hundred push ups, Huh. I could see if you said to yourself, I'm going to do one for three days, and then I'll try to do two, you know, for three more days, and you kind of build yourself up slowly. That makes sense, Is that one hundred You get to one hundred push ups sometime in November or late October.
Yeah, depending on your page and how you want to do it. There's ways to train for it.
But I think what we're.
Really talking about, and it's fun to talk about, you know, some of these more entertaining New.
Year's resolutions, but I still go back.
To the fact that people really I see people suffer and struggle when it comes to various aspects of work or life. And I think that new Year's resolutions, which we kind of you we kind of talk about them tongue in cheek, I hate to overlook the potential that they have to actually make meaningful changes in our lives. It's really this call to action to say I've got a whole.
Year to work with.
People really underestimate what can I accomplish in a year If I really stick to it, and so I'd like to really, you know, lean into those New Year's resolutions and may sure that we're putting them to good use.
Well that's great. What do you teach at BC?
By the way, I'm just curious leadership and human resources?
Oh? Is that an undergrad a graduate program?
It's a graduate program at Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College.
Yeah. No, I'm very familiar with PC. We have the admissions director on every year we do a College of ISIS program generally in November or December with Grant Goslin from BC and Bill Fitzsimmons from Harvard, and so I'm very familiar with those programs and BC has done very very well. Have you been there for a whilely, I love your enthusiasm. It's great, Matt. How long have you been there?
I've been working with them for about a year, and I've got to tell you, I just blown away by the caliber of the students, the energy that I get from them, and they're just so anxious to learn, and so for me it's been very gratifying later on in my career now to have gone come up through the ranks and really applied and learned as much as I can about the world of work, but now to be able to give back a little bit. But they're really just such a great group and such a great community
around the school and really in Boston in general. When you think about all of the great education that we have here, there's so much great energy and just intellect, you know, flying around. It's just such a great place. This is just the epicenter of where things are happening when it comes to certainly management, discipline, commerce, finance, all these great things.
I can tell you. You didn't grow up in Boston.
No, I didn't. I grew up in Missouri.
But I married a woman from Cape Cod and dan turned out all right.
I get it. But when you when you pronounce the word commerce, uh, we of course would not pronounce it as commerce. It would be common or something or something like that. So welcome to Boston. Thanks for coming on a night side. It says that you're a veteran as well. Thank you for your service and the enthusiasm that you have, uh is going to serve you well in your career as a faculty member. I couldnot imagine a student being sitting in one of your classes and not be uh interested,
excited and involved. So that's the highest compliment I can pay to a college professor, and I and I and you certainly seem to embody that spirit, which is great, great for you, and it's also great for your students, and it's also great for Boston College. Thanks again, Matt.
We'll have you back, Okay, appreciate Dan, thanks for having me on.
Thank you much, Thank you very much. When we get back, we're going to talk about something a little bit more serious, and that is protecting yourself in large crowds. Obviously, everyone at this point knows what happened in New Orleans about three twenty or three twenty five on New Year's morning. We'll be talking with Matt Horrera, director of Safety and
Security for the International Association of Venue Managers. We'll explain that, we'll explain what you might be able to do to make the chances of if you're ever in a bad situation, being able to avoid the ultimate horror, horrific faith that fourteen people and dozens of others have been badly injured down in New Orleans. Back on Nightside right after this.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Sight studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Carried. Our fourth guest during this nightside News Update hour is Mark Horrera. Mark is the director of Safety and Security for the International Association of Venue Managers. So, Mark, first of all, that's a very impressive title. Tell us exactly what the director of safety and Security for the International Association of Then you Managers does.
Absolutely. Dan, first of all, thank you for having me, and I appreciate your informing the public. So, as a director of safety and Security, my job is I oversee an academy for venue safety and security. So I focus on with the faculty, coordinating efforts to staff an academy that trains venue managers globally on risk management, emergency planning, security operations training, and then I do all the live
security training pretty much globally. I'm at about five hundred and eight, so that I'll do communitywide critical incident training that involves active threat out, the shooter preparedness, predictive behavioral profiling, the escalation strategy and techniques, and then how to build how to build your resilient security posturing teams with the right leadership in place so that they can mitigate against all the different types of risk that both into or outdoor venues could encounter.
How long, has in your opinion, at least in our country, there been in need for this. I mean, I think back. I'm old enough to remember the Texas Bell Tower shooting back in the mid nineteen sixties, which seemed to me to be one of the first you know, public shooting events. Of course, we've seen everything else, Las Vegas, Columbine, you know, the Boston Marathon here back in twenty thirteen. But it's
been about fifty years. Has it not that that that this problem has intensified and and something that now has to be on people's minds when they're out in large crowds.
That's one hundred percent ride. It's we've evolved in not so much in a good way when it comes to active red you know, affecting mass gathering seems to be the targeted choice. That's where the you had the highest probability and regarding risk. Again, what you're looking at is a lot of people think, well, you know what, it's just the terrorists that we need to focus on. Not necessarily true, although the ideology comes from our foreign lands.
The you know, you're talking about political religious motivation, but our homegoing on extremists. You know, we get a lot of encrypted message that comes to our homeland on how to affect mass gatherings and our homegrow vin extremists are the ones that are taking it and running with it, or those that are affiliated or associated with some of these cells of these terrorist groups from from our foreign lands.
So you know it's Jake Papper asked me on CNN one time, he goes, why is old world upside down? At the time it was during COVID. I said three reasons. I said, at the time it was post COVID anger now mixed with political and social issues. Those three things turned our world upside down. And I expressed that we're probably gonna have more mass shootings within a couple of years than there are days in the year. And that is the case.
Dan boy sadly, Okay, so what do you say. One of the things I believe that we're going to talk about is how individuals can protect themselves in large crowds. I saw the video tonight on one of the network newscasts of this fool driving his truck down the street at a really high rate of speed on Bourbon Street, and you see, I saw people who missed being killed by a matter of inches. You've seen that video. I assume today.
I did, Dan, I sure did.
And there were people who literally a nano sacond was the difference between being clipped by the front right fender or front left fender or him missing. So obviously you're going to tell me people should be alert, but give us as much as you can for people when they're out with their family, either going to the movies or going to a Red Sox game or Bruins game, selt
the game here in Boston, or any large event. You've got to keep thinking about real the exits are I assume and what do you do if something bad happens?
Ben This is a really good question because it's not just doesn't pertain to what happened in New Orleans. This is something that happens that anywhere you go. The problem with the world today is we're so consumed, and especially when you look at that younger generation, they're so consumed with technology that they're missing the elephant in the room. You have to be hyper vigilant in today's world, more
so than ever before. You have to know and understand that there's a lot of people out there with unresolved personal experiences and then you may end up being on the receiving end of that. So how do you protect yourself going into these mask at number one? First of all, we have to number one, know that we can't be complacent. Complacency that's the number one thread in the world today. Somebody asked me in all these shootings that that's the threatening fact. I said, no, the number one thread in
today's world is complacency. When you do the same thing over and over again and expect the same outcome, all of a sudden you have an environmental or a conditional change that you never expected to see and you're not prepared to identify the hazard and respond immediately to control or mitigate mitigate the risk. So the question is how do you do that? First of all, you got to take your head out of the sand man' that's the
first thing. You got to know that there's an element out there that it doesn't matter, it does not discriminate, it will affect any life out there. You have to be aware to your point of all of your entry points, your exits. You have to know what type of event and the event type that's being hosted.
You have to read.
You should read up on what are the safety and security measures that are in place for that specific event before you ever attend the event. And again, once you get to the attent, are you looking to the event? Are you looking at the the You know for the longest time, the worst thing that you could say is.
To profile, to profile individuals.
But when I talk about profile, I'm talking about we should be highly highper vigilant on profile and behavior, not people. Behavior that doesn't fit the environment, that doesn't fit the baseline, that's suspicious, those behavioral indicators. That's something that's very suspicious of an individual that should be reported. I always tell you I spoke to eight thousand school children, Dan, and I said, let me explain. I said, I said, once
the bell rings, you can't unring it. So if you see something that's unusual, the Department Homeland Security has the adage of you see something, say something, but do something about it, and let's start reporting it. So being cognizant of all of your exits, your evacuation points, where they located, try not to get yourself hemmed up in the middle of heavy crowd density because, as you and I know, Dan, once that crowd shifts or panics. You're not going to
move the crowd. The crowd's going to move in the direction, and the flow is going to move in the direction that's that it's going, and you're not going to be able to go the opositware or even get out.
Of it for that matter. Question, do you listen, Dan, Dan?
Do you listen to the sounds? Because the vehicle's got to accelerate. People are yelling and screaming. Rather, it's a different scream than an excited stream of just happy, joyful. It is out of tear. When you hear that unusual scream and you hear vehicle accelerating, that is a clue that it's a vehicle coming your way potentially on that roadway.
You have to expect that. Are you looking at your elevated points for potentially someone that's posted up and shooting, because the vehicle might have been a primary means of attacking the mask gathering. But I'll tell you right now, the threat is thinking beyond that. They're looking at how how can I provide a secondary threat vector within that event or that facility.
Now, one of the things that I do a lot, and I know that if I'm walking somewhere and I'm isolated. Uh, and I pass someone passes by me. I sometimes will take a quick look over my shoulder after a second or two to just make sure that individual is continuing to pass by me. And you know, someone will say, well, you're got to be a little paranoid there. Well, I'd rather be a little paranoid than not to be unprepared. And again, trust your.
Gut, Dan, Intuition is the key, and you said it best.
Let me just say this.
Somebody said, you know what, when we implement so many security measures, it makes people paranoid. I said, on the contrary, preparedness beats paranoia. If I give you the tools, Dan to mitigate against all the different types of risk, and I can mentally and visually prepare you and inoculate you the conditions that you could see and give you a plan of action, you're more confident in carrying out your day to day activities that you're less paranoid.
Absolutely, Mark, I appreciated the time and I appreciated the information. I hope people listened tonight because you never know when something bad may happen, and you can't necessarily live your life staying at home. You got to get out there and enjoy and enjoy life, but also be cognizantble what's going on around you. Mark Correra, appreciate your call so much. Appreciate your time tonight, my friend. We'll talk again.
Thank you, Dan, my pleasure.
Absolutely. We get back on to talk with Massachusetts State Senator Nick Collins. He has been in the middle of a pitched battle financial battle with the Mayor of Boston, and we're going to talk with Senator Collins, who has actually, I think made a name for himself and has presented his position pretty effectively. We'll talk about it. It's interesting inside politics at its best.