Hey, everybody, this is a little different intro than I normally do this, for lack of a better term will be a disclaimer, before you get into the episode and listen to it. I was going to delete this episode and never put it out there. I recorded it right after the assault on the Capitol, and was kind of really torn on if I should even put it out there or not, or, or what to do. And I was talking to a new friend of mine, Trish over a Gen X voice podcast and she said screw it, just put the damn thing out there. So your perspective, it’s your jennex perspective, just do it. So I’ve decided to do that. But I wanted to just kind of reiterate, it’s, it’s pretty emotional. I wouldn’t call it inappropriate by any means. But if if you’re over local politics, or national politics and just don’t want to hear it, I totally get it. It’s not a good way to promote my podcast, but you know what? It is what it is, but enjoy. Give me your feedback. And let me know what you think. And I look forward to talking to you guys more here in the future. Enjoy. It’s hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your opinion is tough and a climate where you’re either seen as an ultra conservative or a bleeding heart liberal. But what about our perspective? What about the Gen X perspective? Hi, I’m Tony a latchkey kid from the 80s and 90s. Now I’m in my 40s wearing cargo shorts, collecting Star Wars figures and reminiscing about the days before my first cell phone. The Gen X perspective is for us cut somewhere in between boomers and Millennials are we see things a bit differently. I’m tired of staying silent. It’s time to rant, discuss, unload and debate. Join Tony and his guests as they tackle the topics of Pop Culture, Sports, religion, and yes, even politics. If life’s a Rubik’s Cube, we’ve got the experience to tackle it. Welcome to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo. Hey, how’s everybody doing? Wow. So it’s been a number of weeks here since I put a new episode out. And every time I sit down or get ready to I get shanghaied by what’s going on in the news. And so far, I’ve been struggling with the idea of how to do this podcast about what I’m interested in, and what’s going on in the world, in my life, etc. But what happens is, every time something crazy goes on in the DM news. And all I can think about or focus on is worry. And this isn’t healthy, of course, and which kind of led me to talk about that a little bit today is so a couple episodes ago, I talked about the elections and politics and growing up leading up to elections, I would always get this anxiety. And then the next day you would wake up and life would continue on like normal. Well, for anybody that hasn’t been paying attention, that surely didn’t happen this year. And some pretty disturbing stuff was in the news and and we all watched it unfold on our television screens. And it was crazy and unexpected, but maybe expected by some people. Fuck I don’t know, I just know that it is literally been all consuming. So I run a business. I have employees, I have to, you know, run that business successfully during the time of COVID which is, you know, interesting in itself and seems to in the last week taken a backseat like it somehow is not newsworthy enough in some cases. And it’s been really crazy on how especially our news media shifts their focus based on you know, the topics of the day and what’s actually really going on out there. So we got COVID raging, and we have people raging and, and the rest of us are normal people all say are kind of caught in the middle. For the most part, people don’t want to talk about their political beliefs at all, because they’re afraid of losing friends getting in arguments or shifts. In some cases, somebody pulling out a damn gun and shooting you in the face. I mean, nobody knows it’s crazy. So we’re all kind of, on defense almost and nervous, because you don’t know what people are thinking you don’t want to as a business owner, especially, I don’t want to offend anybody, I want them to come to my business for the business, not for politics, of course, or my personal opinion, which is my personal opinion, it doesn’t mean anything. And, and we’re kind of stuck in this craziness. And I have a hard time focusing on anything else in respect to it. So it’s like, Alright, here we go, you know, now. It looks like they’re gonna, you know, try to impeach or kick out the president, President Trump, and how that works exactly in his last week, if that’s something they can do that fast. I mean, we’re talking about stuff that’s never been done. So people far smarter than me can talk on those subjects and, and deal with it. But I know that as a normal American sitting in upstate New York, watching this whole thing unfold his, as a business owner, as a father, as a husband, as a son, I just want things to freaking calm down and people to get on with it. Get the vaccine, if you want to get the vaccine don’t if you don’t, we’ve elected a new president, let’s move on with that. And if you believe that the election was not right, then vote in four years and get a new guy in there or gal. And, and that’s just what it is. That’s how democracy works. And, you know, the conspiracy theories and all the BS about what’s going on behind the scenes. If there is or isn’t, we’ll never know really the truth. So to focus on something that you can’t prove, you’re just wasting your time, I guess. So I’m doing this podcast today, and putting it out. Because I feel like I got to get this off my chest so that I can start doing other things, not only with the podcast, but with my life, my business, my brain. You know, this morning, my wife gets a phone call that a family friend, and a friend of our business, lost their life to COVID. And and, you know, kind of reality swings back around and smacked in the face. And we got to be able to deal with this stuff that’s coming at us in a million different directions. On top of that, in upstate New York, here, we’re dealing with winter, and no vitamin D, meaning the sun, we’ve been overcast for what feels like a month. And, you know, it’s can be a struggle to function every day and be healthy, and not only mentally and physically. And to do what you got to do, and I feel for, there’s so many of you out there that I know feel the same way. We feel like we want to talk about it. But we want to also get on with it. We want to get past it, we want things to be normal, in whatever normal is in your circle in your world. But I just feel like we got to talk this out. I mean, there’s got to be a middle ground, I’ve always talked and felt like there can be a balance between your beliefs and your neighbors. And that’s what makes our country amazing and diverse. And and what makes us America. I mean, I’m my voice is getting a little shaky, because it’s so upsetting to me, that this is happening, you know, neighbors fighting against neighbors, I mean, people stormed the Capitol. And they squared off against the Capitol Police. And those are their neighbors. those are those are their, you know, fellow Americans and friends, they’re not some, you know, demigod, whatever that you want to take all your anger out on, these are guys and gals that are just working for a paycheck, and they’re in law enforcement, and they chose a fairly noble profession, you know, securing the Capitol and our lawmakers and some people may say, Well, you know, that’s not very noble. But you know, I’m not talking about, you know, more divisiveness, I’m talking about these people. Were just doing their jobs and they were attacked. Our government and our military leaders actually had to put out a memo or a note, which I have not seen personally. But that says, you know, your job is to follow the Constitution and the laws of our country, which means try to figure out how to deal with corralling arresting, you know, defending against other Americans on American soil at home, potentially in all 50 states and our capitals, because armed insurgents, armed Americans will call them could potentially be storming these government facilities to do harm to other other Americans, other people within our country are our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers. I mean, seriously, what the hell? Why are people doing this, I get being upset. But that’s why you elect people to represent you. Now, if you didn’t, if you don’t feel like you’re being represented, then run for office, find somebody that aligns with your belief structure and have them run for office. If you really want somebody there to represent you in there, I mean, local government, in my little itty bitty village of Clayton, New York, I sat on the village board. I participated in local government. And it’s not an easy thing to do. You know, you deal with rhetoric and divisiveness, and people with opposing opinions, and you have to work through that. And that’s, that’s the nature of it. That’s the joy in it. That’s what makes it unique is differing opinions, all coming together, you know, sometimes this opinion gets picked, and sometimes another one gets picked. And you don’t always get your way. You know, we were all kind of brought up the same way with mom and dad, when we were little kids about getting your way or not getting your way, and you don’t always get your way. And that’s okay. And we need to find a way on all levels. And I’ve seen it locally. We, you know, within the last four years, I was involved with local politics. And I saw it on our level in our little village of Clayton, New York. And found myself on the you know, people not physically attacking me but verbally attacking me. And, and we all need to tone it down and talk to each other, I’m far more willing to listen to somebody in, in consider their opinion. If they’re talking to me not yelling at me, or towards me, or threatening me, I think we are all as well adjusted. Adults and humans on the planet tend to react far better to conversation than to yelling on any level, about any topic about anything ever. And I know I don’t have a million freakin followers. And, you know, the general public is going to hear me at large, but so many of you know me and and, and I have seen me go through these politics and the stuff on a local level, but I you know, please take a minute, think about it. You we see what people would consider radicals or crazy people on television yelling, you know, you know, to reelect Trump or that the stupid election was fake or whatever. But there’s people in all of our communities that feel that way, for whatever reason, that’s how they feel. And they need to be heard in an appropriate way. And they may be mad for the next four years. And maybe there’ll be mad enough that in four years, they’ll elect another republican or somebody that aligns better with their beliefs than than Joe Biden in and that’s okay. That’s what our country is all about. But I also have people that live next door to me that are as my interest as you know, bleeding heart liberals. You know, tried and true Democrats. And that’s okay to some of my best friends are Democrats to the core to the tea to the definition. And and I love them just the same and can do you know, I can have a barbecue in the backyard with them I can, I can talk to them about politics and it’s okay to have a different opinion. But more and more Nowadays, people take these extreme stances where if you don’t believe what I believe, then I can’t be in your circle or your friend anymore. And that, to me is just insanity. I would rather have all friends have differing opinions so that I could actually grow and learn something because I may not be right all the time. I mean, I tell my wife, I’m right all the time. And she just rolls her eyes, because she already knows that I’m not. But the reality is, the more people you expose yourself to, the more diverse your thinking is, and you change your mind, we all change our minds over time on many different subjects every day, I’m forced with changing my beliefs about something in some way. And I wish I only wish that this podcast reached millions of people to be able to just get the word out. You know, I’m not going to say you know, love your neighbor and love everybody, or any kind of bullshit like that. But what I am going to say and wish that people wouldn’t freakin listen. Take 10 seconds and take a deep breath. And consider, just consider for half a second, that that other person that you’re interacting with, may be right. Maybe not about everything. But they may be right. And that’s okay. Take a deep breath. Listen to your friends and your neighbors and your opposing opinions, you might actually learn something. Now. I’ve gone on for 16 minutes in five seconds. And it feels preachy. And that’s part of the problem, right? So is my way the right way I’m probably not, is some of what I said. A good way to think about it, maybe for some people. But that, again, is what makes our country really cool and really great is we’re full of a lot of different opinions. And our freedoms allow us to be able to express those opinions. And things have gotten so out of whack that now social media is flexing their muscles, right or wrong. I mean, I’m not one to say. But it’s getting nuts. And now they’re talking about, you know, we’re all holding our breath for the next week for the election or for the inauguration. And you know, nobody knows what to expect other than we see our country turning into an armed state, putting barricades and walls up boarding up windows all over the place. I mean, in some cases that started this summer when you know, the isolated riots in different cities were going on and windows are getting bashed out and people are throwing Molotov cocktails and being nuts and being angry. It it’s just continuing. And it’s different topics. But it’s like, we pick a topic to be insanely angry about and we incite violence and burn shit and go crazy. At least what we’re being shown. And, you know, it’s like everybody’s taking everything to the extreme. people stop talking with each other, and they just talk at each other. And in my generation, the Gen Xers You know, this is really hard, because we’ve been around long enough to see a lot of crazy stuff happen. You know. We were all born on the waning years of the Vietnam War, and went through Desert Storm and 911 And now, four years of Donald Trump you know, the Monica Lewinsky scandal with Huawei Clinton there back a couple presidents ago, you know, in that at the time, we can kind of laugh at it now, you know, sex in the, in the White House and in the Oval Office. I’m generalizing because we don’t need to get into details over that. But, you know, in at the time, that was the end of the world, and you know, disgracing that office? Well, you can, there’s many ways to disgrace the office of the presidency, trust me. And, and that is just chalk it up on a list of bad decisions other people have made that get to be publicized. And and now even the common man is getting publicized for the decisions they’re making, you know, I mean, it just, it’s crazy. And I just wish that the right people would actually hear what so many of us are saying, which is, please take a deep breath, listen to what other people are saying, consider for just a second, that there might be a different opinion, and a different way to do things than the way you’re doing them. You know, our governor is Beloved, actually, in this country, and in some cases more outside of our state than in it for many different reasons. And you can always trust me and pick out something that a politician has done wrong. And what they’ve done, right, so Governor Cuomo has, you know, done what he’s done in regards to the pandemic, and try to keep New York together. In the only way, he knows how I guess, and you may agree or disagree with him, but what I have seen is businesses suffering, and that may be because of his policies or not, but we’re all suffering horribly, because of this pandemic. And now politics. So people are getting torn up beat up every day, the common man, the common business owner, you know, my colleagues and friends that own restaurants are, you know, holy crap. I mean, they’re their livelihood, livelihood of so many businesses, locally, and, and not locally, have just been decimated. I mean, for me, and I’m trying to stay close to home these days, and not travel a whole bunch, but even a couple hours south down to Syracuse, and you start driving around and businesses are closed, boarded up, people have lost their, you know, their savings, all their money, and they’re struggling, we’re all struggling. And some people say, well, the government should you know, if they’re going to close their businesses, they should pay us to sit at home. Okay, I get it, I understand it. And in some cases, I totally agree with it. And then other people say, Let us open up and take a risk. Well, that you, for me, personally, you really got a second guessed that when a guy my age, that I’ve known for years, not close friends with more of a professional acquaintance, dies from COVID-19 in most cases was pretty damn healthy before he got it. You really got to take a deep breath and step back and think about it, again, changing your opinions on subjects based on your experiences, and in the experiences of others around you and different people’s opinions. There’s no easy answer, folks. And and it’s a really hard scary time. So I I implore you to be patient with other people. You know, be considerate the best you can. You know, people are just at the ragged edge right now. You know, I mean, I was in the I was in a store a couple days ago, and someone was screaming at this poor guy that work there because she bought it online. And it said that they had it, and she had to come into the store because they didn’t have it. And what’s wrong with them? And how can they can’t get their website, right? Seriously. Calm down, people, you know that $15 an hour employee or whatever they get paid an hour is just trying, you know, they’re thankful that they’re working, and they’re not thankful that you’re screaming at him over some stupid thing that you’re trying to buy that really doesn’t matter in the whole scheme of things. And we need to just be kind, and, and considerate of other people and what they got going on. I’m really struggling with trying to talk about fun and exciting and neat things about my generation and there is so much cool stuff I got invited to, to be on a be a guest on another podcast. And I will announce that once we get through the interview, and, and get it out there on social media so that you guys can listen to it should be a really exciting and kind of fun time to be on the other side of the microphone. And, and I’m working on trying to get some people to come in to interview as well to change the format around a little bit. And, and get back to talking about really interesting and fun things and educational and insightful. Instead of just being consumed with what’s going on commercially around us every day, that’s really not too damn healthy. And hope to have some fun. Not that talking about this stuff isn’t fun, this is incredibly helpful for me to kind of get it off my chest and maybe get it in perspective by speaking it out loud, and hopefully have imparted something to you. Or maybe this touched a nerve where you want to share the podcast with somebody else. That may be that you think it might help or that they’ll find entertaining or helpful in some way. And that would be awesome, too. This one’s going to be a little on the short side. You know, we’re going on 2530 minutes now. And I want to thank you guys for listening. And hopefully, I can have some cool guests. I’m lining up right now. One is just drop a little teaser, a local Coleman kid because he is compared to me. He kind of a prodigy this this kid was when we were playing video games. You know, our freshmen sophomore years in high school, this gentleman was figuring out how to buy stocks and start his own internet business building webpages and working with municipalities on their websites and found himself scholarships and all sorts of cool stuff. And we’ll hopefully have him on in the next week or two. And we’ll announce that probably on the next podcast, when that’s going to happen and when to expect that which I’m really excited about. And I got some other cool folks lined up that can maybe bring us some interesting perspectives, not only in the genomics realm, but just in general. And we’ll have some fun with it. Again, you guys got some suggestions or comments, please. You know, if you liked the podcast, and you like what you’ve heard, please follow me Leave. Leave a review would be awesome. Or you can email me directly. Tony at Gen X perspective, calm at the end of the podcast. And my closing. It’ll explain how to get me on Twitter and Facebook, my website Gen X perspective.com as well where you can leave comments or sign up for a newsletter if I could ever get around to getting that thing working right and get something cool out there. But please stay strong out there folks. And I love you and enjoy your day. And this is Tony from Gen X perspective. And I hope you have a fabulous day wherever you’re at and hopefully it’s somewhere sunny where it’s better weather than then what I got up here which is horrible, horrible, overcast, cold, upstate New York winter. So God bless you. Have a great day peace. Thanks for listening to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo, where we see things a bit differently. Let’s get social. Find us on Facebook by searching Gen X perspective, Twitter at Gen X underscore podcast and on Instagram at Gen X perspective. You can also find us online at Gen X perspective.com and reach out to Tony directly at Tony at Gen X perspective.com to Maybe you can talk strategy on how to beat Super Mario Brothers three. Don’t forget to subscribe to the jennex perspective wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening