It's Night Side with I'm.
Well, thank you very much, Madison Rodgers, as we embark on a Thursday night.
I was not with you.
Last night, so I just want to thank my friend Gary Tangway, who sat in last night. Obviously, big night last night, Joe Biden made his speech. Sorry that I missed that, but I had a prior commitment which I needed to take the night off. I don't take a lot of nights off, although sometime in early August I will be take you some nights off and.
Then I'll be back.
So just bear with us here. It's the summertime. Everybody needs a few nights off. My name is Dan Ray. I'm the host of Night's Side. We're about to embark on year eighteen, although frankly some could argue that we're already in your eighteen.
The history on this, by the way, is that.
I inherited this show from the late great Paul Sullivan, who passed away unexpectedly in the summer of two thousand and seven. He was a very young guy. He's only
fifty years of age. I didn't even realize how young fifty was at that time, and I was wrapping up my time with WBZTV, having worked there for thirty one years and had finished up on the Savadi Lamoni case, which probably all of you have heard me talk about, and at that time the radio news and programming director for WBZ, Peter Casey, asked me if I'd be interested in doing the eight to midnight show here in WBC, and since I was about to leave television, I said, yeah, I'd like to give.
That a try.
I had done some talk radio early in my career, and so it was around this time. Actually it was a little earlier than I started just filling in for Paul. I began filling in for Paul in May of two thousand and seven, but around this time it was clear that Paul was not coming back to the program. He subsequently, unexpectedly and at such a young age, passed in September, and we continued to do the program as the Paul Sullivan Show.
Again.
When I first started, I was convinced he was coming back, and as it turned out, he didn't, and Peter decided to designate that I would be the permanent host, and then we had to name the program, and it was Peter Casey, then my boss on the news and programming director who said to me, what about calling it Nightside with Dan Ray? Said, Peter, fine with me, if that's
what you want. So as Peter Casey who came up with the name Knightside with Dan Ray, and the first the actual first nights I with Dan Ray took place, it was a Monday night, October first, two thousand and seven. So I don't know how you count it, but certainly, as of October one, twenty twenty four, we will be starting year eighteen, although some might have argued that we've already begun year eighteen because I've been doing this show
for some time. Anyway, I never started this program, and I would like to just take a moment to mention that I always think of my two predecessors, Paul Sullivan and before Paul, David Broadnoy, and I made the comment when I took this show over in two thousand and seven that I was nowhere near as smart as David Broadnoy. I think I can prove that on a nightly basis, and nowhere near as funny is and maybe even irreverent as Paul solve it. And I don't think that I have failed those observations.
They were great.
Talk show hosts and great entertainers, and I have this opportunity to carry on their tradition, and that's what we do here every night of the week. So I just thought to take a moment to reflect on that. The reason I'm also reflecting is that our first guest tonight a little while ago told us that they could not make it, and we will try to reschedule that guest. They were kind enough to tell us in advance that they would not be with us. But we have three
interesting guests coming up. At a fifteen, We're going to talk with Lee Richardson. She's a brain health coach and consultant, a licensed professor, counselor, and founder of the Brain Performance Center, and she says that the presidential election is taking a toll on the mental health of Americans, and I suspect she's correct, So we'll talk about that at eight point thirty.
You've heard of the five fingered discount. Well, shoplifting has skyrocketed by twenty four percent across America, even as many other crimes in several cities have fallen to pre pandemic levels. And we'll talk with doctor Alex del Carmen. Why shoplifting has increased. And then a little bit later on tonight at eight forty five, we'll talk with Justin Green about the twenty twenty four Boston Walk for a praxia hoping
I'm pronouncing that right. Justin has a a praxia, which is not an uncommon but I couldn't call it a rear condition. It's a condition that affects a lot of young people where and this is not stuttering, but where they do not connect the word they want to say from the brain, as I understand it, with their ability to pronounce that word orally.
And they struggle with that. Some grow out of it, some don't.
And Justin Green will explain it to us because it's one of those I don't want to call it a disease, although probably it is technically listed as a disease, but I think I think of it more as a condition, and it's not stuttering, and I don't know if it's I don't think it's related to stuttering. But again, it's one of those sets of circumstances that hopefully, hopefully we
can come up and take care of. So we'll talk about that at eight forty five, and then at nine we will be joined by the president of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association, Larry called Aerone, talking about staffing of the police department in Boston. The police department in Boston has done a great job, and certainly the patrolman of the backbone of that police department, and they do a
great job. They're out in the streets every night dealing with the potential of criminal activity and they never know what they're going to run into, as of course every police officer in America. But it's interesting. New York City, which is a much bigger city than the United States, has about forty thousand police officers. Here in Boston, we're struggling to get back to two thousand. And we'll break that down with Larry Calderone and find out what is
going on. Boston right now is a city that is in a little bit of trouble financially, and we'll explore that a lot in the weeks and months ahead, particularly as we get out of this election cycle, because we'll be pretty soon moving into a mayoral electoral cycle.
And one of the questions is where.
Will Boston find the money to continue to be the great city that it has been for well to some really great mayors, going back to well, you can go back to John Collins and who I never covered with Kevin White who I covered, and Ray Flynn, the Tom Menino, Marty Walsh. So there's there's there's a lot to talk about in that regard, and we'll get we'll get back to that with this conversation tonight, and we will continue to do more of it as as we go along.
So I'm just gonna take a very quick break. We came back to be talking with our first guest tonight. I sometimes appreciate these opportunities just to sort of give you a little perspective of how I feel and where I'm coming from as the host of the show. I just want you to know I'm very appreciative, and I mean genuinely appreciative, appreciative of all of you who tune in this program, and particularly all of you who call the program. Whatever topic we're talking about. I know sometimes
I have disagreements with you, but that's okay. We can have a passionate disagreement. I like to have a conversation as opposed to screaming and yelling at each other. That's the home of the show. This is a show that does welcome all points of view. We've had, god knows some wide points of view. What I don't tolerate is people who just really want to make speeches and us talking points. It's a conversation. It's America. It's North America's
back porch. It's been that way since we christened this program back in two thousand and seven and all it has intended to replicate a metaphorical back porch in the neighborhood where you grew up, and there might be people sitting on the porch and you walk by and someone says, hey, come on up, have a beer or have a cup of coffee or whatever. That's what we're doing here on Nightside. And for those of you who are regular callers, you're
the backbone of the program. For those of you who are new callers, the injection of fresh ideas and fresh voices so stimulates the program. And for those of you who have listened all these years and maybe never summon the will to call the program.
Please feel free any night on any subject that is of interest to you. My name's Dan Ray.
This is Nightside, Rob Brooks. It's back in the control room, back in broadcast headquarters. He's got a few easy minutes here. He doesn't start to get answering those phone calls until after nine o'clock.
But we get back, we're going to talk to.
A very interesting guest who is basically going to tell us that, hey, this election is causing a lot of people unnecessary stress and increasing anxiousness anxiety as we move from July into August. I'll also mention that tomorrow night is the last night in Friday, and as we have done for every month March, April, May, June, on the last night, the last Friday night of the month, which this Friday, Tomorrow night, the twenty sixth of June will be we will conduct a one hour quick snap flash poll.
It is not scientific, but it's a little different this month last month. The contest since we're Donald Trump, President Biden, former President Trump, current president then well currently still President Biden, and Robert Kennedy Junior. Well, one of those candidates has stepped out of the race, and out of course Joe Biden. So therefore the contest tomorrow night will be between former President Trump, Vice President Harris and Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
So it'll be a little different tomorrow night. But it'll be interesting to see how we come out tomorrow night. That's in the eleven o'clock hour on Friday night. And as I think all of you know, despite our wish that you call the program but once a week. Pure are exceptions, but for the most part, once a week at eleven o'clock on Friday night and the twentieth hour of the last hour of the week, everyone gets a clean slight. It's like a hall pass. Okay, so you
can call if you've called earlier in the week. He also been called during the eleven o'clock hour at Friday night. We're back on Nightside right after this.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios, WBZ News Radio.
Our first guest this evening on the Nightside News Update is doctor Lee Richardson. Doctor Richardson is a brain health coach and consultant, a licensed professor, counselor, and founder of the Brain Performance Center, and she reports to us that Pole suggests that seventy three percent of Americans are stressed over the election. We have one of these every four years, Doctor Richardson, Is it worse this year than other years, or is this just the normal part of the quadrennial election roundup.
Well, I think we're always stressed around the election. The family feuds that I hear about during election time are unbelievable. But what's interesting about this is that seventy three percent was reported before the attempt was made on Donald Trump's five, before President Biden moved aside, before Kamala Harris has been
endorsed as the new Democratic Party. So when you think about so much has happened since then, which creates so much more uncertainty and so much more fear, I wonder what that percent would be like today.
It's been a wild week and a half, nearly two weeks. Now.
Why is that every year the politicians say, this is the most important election in the history of the country.
The future of America depends upon this election.
And we've gone through these quadrennial elections now for.
More than more.
Than two centuries, two hundred and you know whatever, it would be two hundred and thirty years or so if you go back into the first elections, which probably weren't really anything near what we're dealing with today. Is it the fact that every one group is saying, we kind of like this other guy because he'll take America in a direction into.
A dark place.
And then the other guy is saying, these people are crazy and whatever. It's gotten really personal, hasn't it.
It really has. And I think what complicates that is the American public has gotten to where they don't educate themselves as much as maybe they could. You know, we have. I mean I got an email today from doctor Mary Trump, from Joe Barden, from j D Event. We're bombarded with information, and that puts me in a stand of, Oh, I don't you know, I don't want to look into that. I don't want to do research. I have too much information coming at me. So I think that one of
the things that we can do is educate ourselves. I mean, what's important to you?
What you know?
Is it gay rights? Whatever it is, that's what's important to you. Research who stands behind that.
Yeah, I'm a little concerned personally about those Russian and Chinese bombers flying off the coast together a couple of days ago, off the coast of Alaska. I'm a little
bit concerned about that alliance. What about my theory that we have stopped teaching the equivalent of what we learned at civics in high school back in the day of the Dark Ages, when you actually learned about the balance of power between the three branches of government and the role of the executive versus the legislative versus the judicial, and the fact that every state has two senators and there's members of the House are based upon their population,
but even little states like Rhode Island in Wyoming, they have two senators, just like California and New York. It's kind of the way that the way the system has been set up. Is there a lot of Well, that's my theory. Do you think I'm off base with that theory? We have we had downplayed civics in high schools across the country.
I don't think you're off based at all. I think you are right on. I think we've gotten away from what's truly important and the system that's in place explaining it. We're into drama and trauma, and that's that's what we want to hear about, and that's what we're going to make decisions on. I think that your theory is right on.
And then the other theory. I've got a couple of theories here.
So I'm not a psychologist I'm not as smart as you are, and I don't understand the way the brain functions, but I do understand how people work. I think also, we have now two teams. We got the Blue team and the Red team.
And everybody in.
The red team listens to the cable network news that reinforces their points of view, and everybody in the Blue team listens to the cable news that enforces reinforces their points of view. And they're in what I call silos, you know, information silos. They're never going to change no matter what happens.
I don't think they are. I think, you know, at some point in time, we heard a little bit of talk about purple, but I haven't heard I haven't heard that word mentioned in a while.
Well, they'll talk about the posters who talk about a purple state, maybe Minnesota or Virginia, whatever, that they have reliably been on this team in the past, but now there's a couple of polls that show that maybe the state might be going in another different direction, whether again it's Virginia, you know, or Georgia or the states that the states that are reliably read you know, they're red states.
And we know that that the election now is really everybody in about forty three states could stay home and not vote and it wouldn't matter because it's going to be decided by the voters in seven states.
Most people don't understand why that is so, but and that's part of the problem.
I'm sure people are watching TV and saying, well, you know, I live in Maine, or I live in Florida, or I live in California, my vote should count too. Well, it will count, but I don't care how you go to Florida. I can call those races right now.
Yeah, And you make a really good point, because I think that's one thing that people have stopped doing is taking how serious their vote is. And it's hard. It's hard to take it seriously when the numbers show. Yeah, you know, it's all about the electoral votes. It's not about Lee's vote.
Yeah, it's the electric What state do you live in?
I live in Texas.
I'm calling Texas tonight will be carried by the Republican candidate.
You are a brilliant man, you know.
But there are a lot of there's still a lot of Democrats who would go to the polls nonetheless, and they should, and the Republicans help so polls, but I don't know. And this is the anxiety, and it does impact our families too as well, in our relationships with our friends and our neighbors.
It's very corrosive.
It's corrosive in my opinion, and I hope you keep studying it and maybe we'll have you back between now an election day. If it's getting worse or getting better either way, that we can call it breaking news.
Fair enough, that's fair enough. Thank you so much for having.
Me, doctor Lee Richardson.
Folks, how can folks follow you? You must have a website or email or something or it's the Brain Performance Center.
How can folks check that out?
Well, you're right, we have the old fashioned website, the Brain Performancecenter dot com.
What's wrong with that? That's the only type website that I understand?
From LinkedIn, you're on LinkedIn as well, but.
The Brain Performance Center dot com.
Everybody can find you there, and you're on LinkedIn as well, Doctor Lee Richardson.
Pleasure to have you on once again, and we'll talk soon.
Okay, thank you, you're welcome.
We get back. We're going to talk about what we call the five finger discount, you know, shoplifting. Well, shoplifting skyrocketed. I don't know why.
Well, and maybe I might take a run at that too, but I'm not an expert. Maybe the price of things have gotten so high that people are saying, you know, it's it's I'll take that chance because if I can walk out of here with whatever.
I don't know, maybe people are running out of money.
Well, we'll discuss that topic right after the break here on Nightside. This is w BZ, Boston's news radio ten thirty on the AM dial. My name's Dan Ray. I'm the host of Nightside. Thanks for listening, Thanks for being there. We'll get to phone calls tonight after the nine o'clock news. Coming right back on Nightside.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
All right back to the phones we go. Want to welcome doctor Alex Dell Carmon.
Doctor Dell Carmon's been on the program before, and doctor del Carmon, here is the talk with us tonight to talk about in uptick, it's more than an uptick, twenty four percent increase in shoplifting across the United States at a time when a lot of other crimes have fallen into pre pandemic levels. Is it all about the economy? Remember that was Bill Clinton's slogan back it's the economy stupid back in nineteen ninety two, James carvi Will talk that way is shoplifting related to the economy.
Good evening and thanks for having me again. So, you know,
many people think that it is the economy. You know, we criminologists look at an array of things that may actually be responsible for the spiking shoplifting cases, you know, for the past six months, and some of it may be related to economic reasons, but some of it may also be related to lack of what we call capable guardians, which basically means the absence of police officers, the absence of security guards at stores, and in some cases, the
fact that some prosecutors are just not willing to prosecute those quote unquote minor cases and therefore they look the other way.
So I'm assuming that many stores, particularly the mom and pop stores, are the ones with shoplifting is going to be have a greater impact. Or I assume that the stores like Walmart and Target and the big big chain stores across the country that they kind of build that in and they also have people they have more people in those stores. But I'm assuming it's the mom and pop stores that are really feeling the brunt of the impact of this or am I wrong?
Yeah, No, that's exactly right. And I think economically many of those very small stores, you know, they don't have not only you know, they have the absence of video cameras, they the absence of the security guard or two or someone that is you know, acting as a quote unquote
under quot or shopper. And sometimes they even have the inability to contact law enforcement because they're so busy handling other matters because of the shortage of personnel, and so they're the ones that are effected when it comes to
the shoplifting cases. But obviously we see the volume in ms in terms of dollar losses with the big stores, right like the targets and the various other stores across the nation where you know, they become the target given the volume and the amount of money that some of those items cost.
Okay, So this leads me to a second line of questioning, and that is that there's a lot of and I think about San Francisco, but I assume it's going on in other cities around the country. I go in now to a CVS, and I noticed that there's more things that are under lock and key that never were under lock and key before. I mean electric toothbrushes and things like that. You can't buy an electric toothbrush unless you get some one of the store clerks to come and open the.
Display case for you.
And I assume that a lot of the shoplifting that has occurred has incurred in poorer communities. And my understanding is that a lot of these big chains are closing up in some of these these these poorer communities. And I read a story today that said that there are now, you know, they talk about you know, food deserts, supermarket deserts, and now pharmacy deserts, meaning the little community that always needs a store and a pharmacy and maybe a post office.
A lot of these stores are disappearing, and people who don't have a car to drive to the mall in the suburbs now they don't have access to the things that they need for day to day life. So there's an impact here. Or are they unrelated?
No, I mean I think they're related. And what we've seen, you know, to your point, you know, San Francisco is probably the best example. The site right here is a city that, although still beautiful and you know, wonderful things to see in San Francisco, you go to downtown San Francisco, as my wife and I did some months ago, and you walk the downtown area and it's completely desolate. I mean you you you know, you'll find that some of these big stores you know, have left, some of the
businesses are no longer occupying some of the buildings. Some of it is because of the pandemic, no question, and many people, as you may recall, moved over to you know, to work from home, and a lot of these corporations never you know, renew the leases because they found it more cost effective to have people off site working remotely. But you still have the effect of the fact that there are so many thefts and so much lawlessness in
some of these areas. In prosecutors that unfortunately, you know,
play play into politics. They look the other way, and police officers quite frankly became frustrated because they were like, well, why am I going to be risking my life to arrest somebody who shut uplifting if the prosecutor is going to tell me that they're not going to prosecute the case and so, and of course now we have what we have in some of those cities, which is either chaos or people demanding that those prosecutors be fired and to reinstitute the law.
Well, in San Francisco, the prosecutor was the district attorney out there was recalled, So there ares in which they can be removed. So how do we turn this situation around? I mean, we can appeal to people's better angels, but that tends not to work. How can we turn it around?
Yeah, well, you know, I think that it's going to be a matter of time before we start seeing some changes. And part of it also is not only the economy, but also the fact that some of these areas need to start, you know, getting filled with businesses again and have that trust effect that we had prior to the pandemic.
And you know, we've seen this in sort of you know, different cycles in the history of the United States, particularly in the past fifty sixty years, where you've seen some of these cities, in some of these urban areas become almost like deserts in the middle of nowhere, and then all of a sudden, somebody picks up an investor or a real estate company may actually buy some properties and reinstitute some degree of attractiveness for investors to come back,
and before you know it, you have those lively, wonderful communities that we had prior to the pandemic. But you know, part of it also is, and I don't want to underscore the lack of importance that this has, which is, you know, law enforcement personnel. We are seeing a shortage of cops around the United States and that does affect, as we call it, the presence of capable guardians, meaning the ability of having people on the lookout that are
going to enforce the law. And so it's going to be years before we see this turnaround.
I'm afraid. Yeah.
Matter of fact, that nine o'clock tonight, during the nine o'clock I will be talking with the president of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association. These are the officers who are on the street dealing with with crimes on a day to day basis, and we are down a couple of hundred or perhaps more police officers from where we should be in Boston, and I suspect that there's a problem around the country as well.
You know, my.
Perspective on a lot of these again small variety stores of bodegas or small restaurants in communities, they're really the backbone of these communities and people need to support them. I go out of my way when I have a chance to support a local business or a local restaurant.
Because if you don't, it's great to have those in your community, and if you don't, they go away. How do we should? Could there be some.
Sort of a public service campaign which would make people realize that you're stealing when you shoplift from a small mom and pop store, or for that matter, when you do any shoplifting, you're hurting your own community in the long run. Yeah, you might have a cardon of free sick you're ats, or you might have a couple of candy bars, but the damage that you do in the long run to your community far outwaghs the minor benefit that you receive when you walk out the door without paying for something.
And boy, that would be wonderful for us to institute some sort of moral compass right among some of these folks that go out there and do this, you know, almost sometimes for a living.
You know.
They we've seen in stores where they're coming in, you know, twenty or thirty at a time, and they just basically rob everything that is accessible to them from the street, and before you know it, they're being sold on eBay for half the price. And you know, they're taking people's jobs away, they're increasing the prices for those of us that go out to the store and legally and lawfully
consume goods. You know, it's really sad. And one thing that I've learned over twenty seven years being a criminologist is that is that, unfortunately, not everyone has the same point of departure when it comes to that level of consciousness and moracle that we wish people had as it relates to, you know, harming others for absolutely no reason at all except to take advantage of them. And I wish that were the case. But I will say to you that you know, communities that are closely knitted, and
Boston is one of my favorite cities. In fact, I you know, even though I reside in Dallas, my my daughter is at BU Law and my sister is a medical doctor there. In fact, I'll be out there tomorrow night in Boston. Great city, great dynamics, great police department. Unfortunately, you know it has not been spared as other cities have with the lack of officers and the fact that,
you know, some crimes are going up. And one of the cities that this particular study covered, you know, as it looked at thirty two cities across the US looking at shoplifting is it was the city of Boston. And unfortunately, shoplifting is going up in your city and will likely continue until we have a moment of turning this thing around.
Well, doctor to common, Uh, congratulate your daughter. I'm an alumnus of Bosh University. Wonderful last century. It's been a while, but very active. And uh ask your daughter as a bu is she there now?
Is she's starting or is she no, she's in her last her last year. Okay, Well when you when you see her, remember this and just say go check out the award winners. It was called the Silver Shingle Award.
It's the highest award you can get as a Boston University Law School alumnus.
And she'll see my name listed. So it was nineteen eighty eight when I received that award.
And we will look for it together because I'll be out there this week.
There's probably there's probably somewhere where it's engraved in something that hangs on the wall, but.
She could find it.
Congratulations to you and your family and to your daughter, and it's always great to talk to another member of the BU Law School family. Thanks so much, Doctor Dougle, Thank you. We'll talk again. We come back on the talk with Justin Green. He deals with a condition called apraxia.
I can do that.
I didn't quite understand until I looked at it today. We'll explain it, and I think you'll find it interesting. Justin has a praxia, but he communicates very very well, and we will. We will explain it all. There's an upcoming Boston Walk for a praxia. I always think these should be called the Boston Walk against this condition new other it's the Boston Walk for this or the Boston
Walk for this. It should always be the Boston Walk against But we'll deal with that with Justin Green on the other side of this break.
Coming back on Nightside.
Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
I learned something today.
My guest Justin Green, explained to us that there's a Boston Walk for a praxia. And I got to be honest with you, I'd never heard of a praxia, but Justin Green deals with this. Justin, I don't know if we should call this a disease or a condition.
I'd love to know what you think. It's apprax your A p R A x I A.
And you said it perfectly. It's a disorder. It's a neurological disorder that falls under the speech spectrum.
Which which spectrum did you say, justin speech?
Well, the speech spectrum spectrum.
So so what it is is I understood, and I did a little bit of research on it, but you're the expert. There's a little bit of a disconnect between the word that that the brain wants to articulate and the manner in which the vocal cords and the and the mouth says the word. Is that it's it's simplest form or is it probably more sophisticated than that?
No, that that that's a great and and I'd also say the jaw okay, the mouth, the mouth, jaw and tongue out of sync with the brain.
Okay, Now, how many people a year are either diagnosed with this?
How common is this condition?
It's a lot more common than I've because I'd never heard about this before.
I think it's very uncommon in my belief. But what happens if you have a thousand people born one person, one person will have it.
Okay, so that would be one tenth of one percent, And you might say, well, that's not a lot, but when you multiply that in a population of three hundred and thirty million people, the numbers are significant. Can people, either through getting a little older, grow out of this circumstance.
With years and years of speech therapy, many people are able to develop, like myself, a unique accent and speak pretty well.
Well, you speak very well.
First of all, justin I'm not patronizing you, but you speak very well. I've inter interviewed you before when you had the mini horses for the folks at the the the Elder Elder care Home last last spring. Tell us about the walk, what can be done here, what the money that's raised, how can people get involved in it?
And yes, thank you, it's a proxya. Hyphen Kids dot Org is the website and it goes across the country and we have it in Boston and the easiest way to do it is Google bought in a proxy of WALK twenty twenty four and that'll make the website. We usually have about twelve to fifteen kids in the WALK. And for like myself, what happens is a lot of people have difficulties saying a lot poly polysylibic words, you get choppy, like I have difficulty with all else ounds
like pools before swine. And this helps research and it also gives speech therapists an opportunity to come to the Pittsburgh office for a week of training for just dealing with a proxia, because what happens If you have one hundred kids with speech impediments, only three kids might have a proxia. So many speech therapists don't even deal with don't have any training in the approxia.
What are the resources in Boston available? In other words, if someone has a child who's listening tonight, or someone themselves who's an adult who realizes that they have this condition, and I have never I'd never heard of it before. I mean, I you know, we've talked about people who stutter.
When I went to elementary school grammar school as we called it in those days, I had two boys in my class who had a bad starter and the nuns were for the most part, pretty empathetic, and we became empathetic because we realized that, hey, they're not stuttering because they want to. They're stuttering because they that's that's the way they have to speak.
But I'd never heard of a proxy.
To be honest with you, yeah, you'd like this. So when I was twenty nine years old, I went back to find tu my speech and the second session, the speed s thearapist gave me a less of ten characteristics. I med them. I said, I have nine out of ten of thees and she smiled, she said, yes, flip
it over. This is characteristics of a proxy. It came out around two thousand and it started getting known, so it's somewhat relatively new, okay, And most speech therapists will be able to have in an office, be able to recommend someone that does have training. And still more, speech therapists can still do a wonderful job. It's nicer if they have training, but if not, the speech therapists with so much research going on, it's wonderful. And I love
the word you use, empathetic. I go my favorite day of the year is to go to the Lincoln Elliott School in Newton in March, I read the kids for the book reading, the community book reading. And when I was in eighth grade, I was the only student the teacher for God Blesses, so Coach Missler let me skip. I didn't have to read a paragraph out loud, and that was wonderful. But I wasn't part of myself. So I kept going back to Speech Helpy as an adult, and now every year I read to the kids and
it's my favorite day of the year. And I tell the kids my story and I tell them Sympathy is nice, Kindness is better, Empathy and compassions the best.
Well, oday, I think you're doing a great job. I'm certainly getting the word out.
But you speak very well, you communicate very well, and I wish you're best of luck with the walk. The walk is in September. What's the date?
September fifteenth?
Okay, So folks can get in touch.
They should go to a proxya ap r a xia right a pr a xia hyphen kids dot com.
And if I could leave one last thing, it'd be wonderful if anyone who like to donate. But my biggest request is when people go to different businesses and there's a service employee that has difficulty talking, maybe stuttering or speaks slowly, try to be try to be patient if they're doing the best they can and if you can come implement them afterwards. You don't make that day. I know anyone's in the US and perfect news can be fired, but that would be my biggest.
Great great to end, great to end on a positive note. Justin is always pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much. We'll talk again. You're welcome. We come back to nine o'clock news Here on ninth second, I'm talking with the head of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association, Larry Calderone, about the need to get more officers in uniform on the streets of the city of Boston