Do you fear similar things given what we're seeing? And that, as you pointed out, a lot of people are exiting and resigning as opposed to maybe doing what what Major Watson's done?

Yeah, I mean, so you're not the only one who struggles with the institution.

I'll say we have a lot of, you know, myself, a lot of other vets that are part of common defense across the country that left the military on our own terms at a certain point or, you know, have now come to some of those same spaces of knowing that an unchecked military is also bad, right? Militarism for the sake of militarism, being involved in kind of endless and unjust forever wars is what helps create these types of environments that we've seen.

And so pushing back against that kind of writ large is also part of this, right? Reining in military spending, reining in kind of that militarism aspect that we are, you know, Trying to go be an empire is something that common defense has long fought back against.

We helped end what we were calling America's forever war in Afghanistan with our in the forever war pledge back in 2019 and 2020.

And so continuing that work.

needs to happen regardless of who is in office right we've seen over and over again both because of congress's capitulation uh and lack of a backbone but also just i think the nature of the presidency of wanting to kind of have executive power and do the things uh we've seen this under obama we saw this under bush as well not in the same ways but that kind of expanding of of reach and expanding of being able to do kind of bombs and drone strikes, all of that has to be reined in and that's Congress's job to do that.

So, you know, what's the is there a marching order or is it, you know, just hang on?

Did you get a chance to talk at all with the Vikings pre-draft? And then what kind of led you to making that final decision to come to Minnesota?

Yeah, I had a lot of conversations with the Minnesota Vikings before.

I talked to Chenzo, I talked to Flo, Michelle, the scout that first put me in contact.

That was a great conversation, but they talked to me basically every single week throughout the draft process, which... you know, it was ultimately one of the decisions of why I picked them.

You know, I had a couple of different offers out of the UDF, UDFA way, but I knew in my heart of heart that that's somewhere that I wanted to be.

And, you know, their constant, you know, them reaching out, you know, them wanting to talk, talk about different schemes and stuff of that nature.

It really stood out, you know, through all the other NFL teams that had contacted me.

love that so other than their communication and you know being on the same page with you throughout that process what about the defensive scheme and playing for brian flores you know excites you as a safety you get to do a lot of different things you get to be very versatile um what is it about playing in flora's system that kind of drew you into wanting to be a viking

I think they were trying to pick up a sea cucumber that just escaped its grasp.

You think of a claw game in an arcade or something like that.

But most of those claw games, you're working in two dimensions.

You can go side to front, forward and back, and side to side, and the claw just drops down.

Whereas this, you're working in three dimensions.

Plus, you've probably got a time lag between your input on the claw control and what the claw does.

And then you've got all the pressure of trying to pick something up without damaging it.

And I think it would be a huge mistake to just like make quick decisions because it doesn't come back.

What's the first mistake drivers and carriers tend to make?

Yeah.

So, I mean, you get it down to the most basic level.

It's ensuring that you have a fuel program in place.

Right.

You'd be surprised how many folks are just using bank cards and paying the retail price.

Right.

So what are some of those tools or strategies that both sides should be using to better manage fuel costs in a tight market like this?

Do you think of someone like Renee Nicole Good?

Not at all, right? Like, Re- Renee was doing exactly what so many of our community members are doing, which is standing up for their neighbors and ensuring that we all live safe and peaceful lives here.

The only domestic terrorists that I've seen in Minnesota are the ICE agents who are too scared to have their faces shown because they know what they're doing is wrong, they know what they're doing is illegal, and fully unjust.

They are the terrorists who are coming into our cities, into our communities, and terrorizing our neighbors, our friends, and our families, just trying to get by and make sure that we can put food on our tables for our families, while they're out here kidnapping our friends, kidnapping our neighbors.

For what? Political stunts? Because some orange guy in the White House thinks that they're bad? Absolutely not.

Kristi Noem and everyone who is enabling this kind of tomfoolery and shenanigans, they're the terrorists.

They're the ones who need to get out of our cities and out of Minnesota.

Why are you here tonight as an Air Force veteran?