And now the.

490 with Gretchen de Bakker might kill them.

And Kevin Mullin.

Oh, oh!

Welcome in to the 419 powered by GT, presented by Retro Wealth Management.

I'm Kevin.

Mullin.

Gretchen Becker.

Matt Killam we have an exciting show today with an exciting guest.

Know, every now and then we have guests that we have to introduce to people.

This is one of those rare moments where we certainly don't have to introduce, our community to this guest.

We're really taking it up a notch.

That's that's right.

Yeah, that's right.

We're going to be joine by Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.

Very exciting.

Going to be an incredible conversation.

Excited, to do that.

I don't know if she realizes what she's signed up for yet.

There's no way she does.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She might need to be firing her entire staff.

When, when I got the text message from one of the folks on her staff.

Yesterday saying, Marcy is on with you tomorrow, right?

I wanted to reply back with, Who is?

You know who you texted, right?

Like, yeah, you you texted Kevin, right?

But it's an important time, and I know we're going to get to it, but in terms of a hyperlocal local.

Fix, which is the show's theme, and there's no greater champion of all those things on a micro, macro level.

And also, I finally would get to talk about the policy that I am interested in, which is, why I have to immediately go shovel my own snow.

The pressure.

That's a city policy.

That's right.

Well, I don't I need to talk to somebody.

I want to put the system on.

You know what?

Matt is not afraid.

To just put the system.

On going right ove the top and say, you know what?

This might be a local issue, but I'm taking it straight to Washington, D.C.. So you're target is you want.

People that need to walk on the sidewalk to not be able to do the freedom.

Freedom of choice.

My choice is negligence.

So nice.

Oh, my goodness.

And it's the season, to do that.

Yeah.

You know, or not, we can literally, you know, we talked about it yesterday, right?

It'll be 61 day.

25.

You know, the next, you'll have a forecast saying it's going to be fine tomorrow when you wake up and there's, you know, 3 or 4in of snow on the ground.

Sure.

My kids are in that in in the, the time where, when there's snow in the forecast, my youngest is all in o all of the superstitions, right?

It's ice cubes in the toilet.

What?

What spoons?

Yeah.

Under your pillow and pajamas inside out.

I've never heard of any of those.

Yeah.

Matt' going to write those down.

Yeah.

And so.

And we're to get a snow day.

To get the snow.

Okay.

That's right.

And they didn't have one this week when it snowed.

No, they had one last week.

Okay.

So they have one last Thursday.

Okay.

They had a snow day.

Well, that's nice.

And the has been less.

No no no, no, he literally grabbed spoons and ran and put hi under every pillow in the house.

Oh my gosh.

He was making sure everybody I had to wear my pajamas inside out.

Here's Kevin trying to have cereal.

I know, I know, but there's no spoon.

They're all under the pillows.

We had to go get them later in the day, but they got their snow day.

The superstitions were sure, so.

It's hard not to walk by my house.

Well, I get my wife's a teacher, so she's also pro snow Day as well.

Yes.

So it works out that they're all at the same school together.

Yeah.

So when there's a snow day, the whole family wins.

Yeah.

I do think tha that's the interesting paradox.

When you're a kid you think that you assume that the teachers want to be there because you are.

No, they're putting spoons everywhere.

That's right.

I will say I do remember talking to my wife before the holiday.

They had a snow day the one tim right before the holiday break.

And so they they were closed.

The last day of the first semester.

Oh, wow.

And she was upset about it.

My wife was upset about it.

And and al the teachers were just beginning to get friendly when she got the presents.

When they came back.

Yeah, but they had planned on, you know, gifts to the kids and celebrating and and being abl to have that kind of last moment to say goodbye before the break.

And they didn't get it.

So it's I appreciate my wife actually does enjoy.

Yeah.

Being ther and being in the classroom.

So.

All right, when we come back, we will be joined by, somebody that, as we said, needs no introduction, but we'll probably give her one anyway.

We'll be right back with Marcy Kaptur on the 419.

Support for the 419 comes from which wealth management, where we understand that your financial path is personal advisory services are offered through Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC, securities offered through Capital Investment Group member Finra and SIPC.

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Thank you.

Introducing the Local Thread, a community news series uniting voices and storytellers from across the region in partnership with La Prensa, the Toledo Free Press, the Sojourner Truth, Toledo Public Schools, and veteran journalist Gerry Anderson.

The Local Thread brings you stories and conversations that connect our community here at weeknights at seven on FM 91, with early access on podcast platforms.

Each morning, the local thread only on GTV.

Welcome back into the 419.

It is a sort of Mayor Monday edition of the 419 on a Tuesday, and instead of a mayor, we have Marcy.

Marcy Kaptur.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you Kenneth.

It's a pleasure to be with you.

I'm proud of PBS and I'm proud of this station.

Well, and you grew up not far from here, which might be the right place for us.

Matt always likes to start at the beginning of a story, which, you know, let's let's start there.

So, you know, obviously grew up not far from, where we're recording now.

Yes.

In Reynolds Corners it was actually Adams Township.

It wasn't Toledo then.

My first big political fight was the annexation fight.

And as a kid, I watched my parents and our neighbors and how that all came down, and probably why I ended u running for Congress in the end.

But, it was, this is a truck garden area.

All of Toledo is so rich, in the soils because it was the drain black soil.

Right.

And so dad, ran his own business.

He was an independent, produce man.

And, his mo had run a little family market, Polish market over in, the junction area.

And then dad and mom operated a store in Rossford, Ohio.

But we were close to the farmers out here, in the western part of what is now Toledo.

So the soil is very rich.

We're probably one of the few communities in the country that grows corn inside the city limits, till this day.

And, so, it was, just a wonderful way to live, and, very humble beginnings.

The church that we've always attended, was actually a mission church in those days.

And because of the Franciscan sisters and, very dedicated, clergy and my own denomination, I was fortunate to be able to go to school and get a education, go on to high school.

I seen or saw and, first person in my family to graduate from high school.

My brother became the second he went to Rogers.

He went to Rogers and, so.

We that over him.

He held it over me.

He.

We're totally different professions and, but kind of.

That's always been our stomping ground near Smuckers, near, Strand's, PCs.

Hastings, Reynolds corners.

Yeah.

A working class community.

And, then they came through and, you know, they made, route 20.

Now the, Medal of Hono highway all across our country, but it goes right through our neighborhood, right up to the turnpike.

So it's the main turnpike exit from, I-80 90 all along Reynolds Road.

Marmee, the Andersons, the.

I still remember when the Andersons had their own, store there.

I miss that.

Sure very much.

We have a family connection.

You were a classmat of my dad's.

That little flower?

Yes.

My father was a parishioner until.

Smartest man in the class.

That's what he.

Was.

Very intelligent.

Yes, that's what he keeps telling me.

About, you know, Marcy, he thinks obviously the world of you, you remain, friends to this very day.

But I out of curiosity, I know that his take on this, already.

But.

But you were the studen with your hand up all the time.

You wanted to make a change.

You wanted to be an advocate for your neighborhood.

What was elementary school, Marcy Kaptur like?

Well, in those days we really didn't have a school.

Our first grade was i the basement of the old church, and one of the many fights I've lost in my life.

I didn't want to rip the old church down, but they ripped it down.

And, but that's where we had music lessons, and we we, downstairs, we were just in this little class room, you know, it wasn't fancy.

Then the second grade we were in what is today, the priest garage that they've just changed into the Saint Vincent de Paul Center.

But anyway, it was it was a mission church.

It wasn't a lot of wealth out there.

And I still remembe going to school in the morning.

And there was a farm across the street, and you could the lilacs would bloom in the spring.

And I still remember the scent of the lilacs.

It was just so beautiful.

But they raised chickens.

And so when the wind would.

Blow back here, you were standing.

Yeah.

But always just.

Just such wonderful people.

Yeah.

Talk to me about that.

The neighborhood.

Again, I this is one of the best things about living in the town or the region we live in.

But the neighborhood to you, what were the kids like?

What did you all do?

Oh, so great.

It was just around the corner from us.

So Skyland Schoo today, it's called Common Space.

But in those days, it was the grade school, the public grade school.

It was right around the corne and they had the baseball field.

And, one man, the man that lived across it still does, NGC ambas, who's an expert in landscape, he, said to me when my brother passed, he said, Marcy, your brother was the only guy in the neighborhood that hit the ball over the school and over Reynolds Road.

He was so strong.

And he said, but you know what he said?

He never made the rest of u feel like we weren't important.

And I. I started to cry.

Sure.

But that's something that I think that you, It was just fun.

Yeah, it was just fun to be the.

We knew all that.

It was just you and your brother.

Yeah.

Yes, in our family.

But then across the street, we had the Schweitzer family, and their dad was a He worked at Champion sparkplug, but he had this big Oldsmobile, I think it was.

And he would take the kids in the neighborhood, in the backseat and on Penn Road, where they had these big hills and.

And road.

Yeah.

He would go down at the, you know, down and we would just laugh.

Yeah.

I mean, we knew all the neighbors, the halls next door to us, all the people were employed in factories or pharmaceutical companies.

And we played together.

The rule was be home by 7:00 when the street lights go on.

You're in big trouble.

Yeah.

That's right.

And all the neighbors agreed it was a neighborhood.

The street lights were the sig when the streetlights came on.

And natural resources, too.

Or we.

We'd hear my mom's whistle.

She had this whistle that she put, and we heard that no matter where we were in the neighborhood, we all had to.

They didn't have any friends.

So they were in the backyard, but I do I don't want to put you on the spot here.

But I do think this is an opportunity to talk about complex issues.

The assumption baseball team was it was a group of cheaters.

And I want you to look at those comments.

That's real.

I represent that area now.

So I have to be the best.

But what I didn't understand, the Helfrich family, I was very, very athletic.

Sure.

And so, they founded, Mr.

Helfrich remain.

Helfrich founded our little flower girls baseball team.

Okay.

This was before.

What was that movie about with the.

No, no, no.

See what.

Triggered their own.

Stay?

There you go.

Know I love that show.

A League of Their Own.

And there we were.

We were all set up, and, we go out there and we lost.

I think it was like 19 to 0 or 19 to 2 or 17 to 1, whatever.

It was just a couple touchdowns.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I thought.

But looking back, I mean, we had the best time.

It didn't matter.

Yeah.

That we didn't win.

It was so much fun.

And I can still hear Mr.

Helfrich saying, come on, Marsh, round it, round it.

Go to home, go home.

You know.

Were you competitive?

I mean, were you kind of always.

I was athletic, I suppose I was my favorite sport has always been ice skating.

So that's kind of a, different take.

We used to ice skate at, Sleepy Hollow doesn't freeze over anymore.

Yeah.

Oh, people don't believe that climate change is actually happening.

But it is.

Yeah.

In the dry west in our country the Colorado River doesn't have enough water for all the people that want water out of it.

So the country's about to go through, a, set of community meetings to try to solve massive problems like that in places in our country.

That's part of my job as a congressman.

But, the, for us in our area, we had food that used to work with the farmers all along, Hill Avenue.

They had, the Kyle family had a store on airport and Reynolds and that area.

Now we have strains, we have almonds.

We have all these companies still selling there, but, I, I worked with dad till midnight.

He was, you know, 11:00 at night.

He closed up and we sold.

And this is a big, big, interest of mine to go local.

Why is it that the children in our schools here, the food they eat does not come from our area.

When we can feed ourselves because we have an organized to that end.

And it's not the best food, it's what we send in here.

But I'm trying to work with all of our farmers in the region to find a way for those that raise cattle, for those that, produce milk, for those that have grains and farmers markets, fruits McQueen's was the first company in our area to get a contract to actually put their apples into the school food program that.

I have visited.

There.

Yeah, well, we wan to support our local agriculture and the state of Ohio.

Even though it's a big agricultural state, it doesn't see local.

When did you was there an moment?

There has to have been a point where the baseball star, in decided that to be an advocate, when did you decide that this was your calling?

Your vocation?

Because you could have done probably anything.

Right?

Right.

And this path.

Well, I changed my life to run for office.

So talk to us a bit about that.

You.

You're now a tireless representative of our region.

But that was a series of decisions.

Or you were in class one day.

You're walking home or talking to your parents.

Is there a singular moment or a series of moments that made you want to make this change?

Well, I think our mother and father, our mother worked for champio sparkplug, during World War two.

And her utter dedication was that every plug she made was perfect because she kne if she didn't, a pilot, a U.S.

pilot would die.

She was so beautiful.

Know what's her name?

Anastasia.

Yeah.

Beautiful name as well.

That's.

You were close.

Very.

Yes.

You'll get me on that.

Horse that I mean.

But that that connection that, that thought process of this thing that I'm doing has a significantly greater impact, right?

That that butterfly effect of this sparkplug keeps that plane in the air, which keeps that pilot safe, which brings them back to their family.

Where I'm serving others.

Yeah.

And I think that it's a clearly that is a lesson that that rubbed off on you.

Right.

And it was life was hard because we're from a working class family.

So mom didn't get her high school degree.

She should be in Congress, not myself.

And, she, did not get her high school degree until after she went on Social Security.

She went back to school, and she achieved that.

And she was so intelligent.

Our father, he worked so hard.

Yeah.

And, when you run your own store and you have to, you know go to Georgia and get watermelon or all these things that he had to do to make his store function.

It was in Rossford, Ohio.

Best sausage across the street from Levy Glass and all the people we met.

I met people through dad.

He would take us to the markets downtown in Toledo, where we would buy the food and buy the supplies.

We went out to local like in those days.

There was a Bill Kilgore was over in North Toledo, and he was the German, store owner.

And we would get his hot dog and we'd take him to our store, you know, so they worked together.

So I sort of learned through dad, my brother and I were always at his side and his truck, those were the greatest days.

Just driving in his truck with him.

You know, and, his brothers, were veterans, all of them.

And, Uncle Pete would help us to learn how to skate.

And there were big barrels dow in Sleepy Hollow on those days.

They would bring in.

They would, so you could warm yourself up when you get cold on the ice.

Yeah.

And I can still see those flaming barrels, at Sleepy Hollow.

And, so the, my brother and I, we just it was such he was a great, great athlete.

And, ultimately, racecar driver, patent holder for his own invention that I remember going with him.

You say what got me involved in politics and all that?

All these experiences.

My brother, when he got one of his motorcycles, we were up on one of the roads that they just tired and, he put me on the back seat, you know, and he got he went 100 miles an hour.

I decided I did not want to b no in the motorcycle business.

Right to Congress.

But his but but his steadiness.

Yeah.

He was so steady.

Yeah.

And I think just bein in a family that stuck together, no matter what and to have all thes supportive institutions, your, your school, your church your neighbors, your community that made you strong and, it also educated you as to what was happening to people.

And I, I saw a great deal of that.

I was with da took me when our grandfather was mom' dad was very ill.

In those days.

We didn't have you, TMC didn't exist.

And our grandpa, who was very ill, and I went into the place where he was staying with dad and da goes, he's getting out of here.

And we went to the county in those days, and they had a special hospital, not great but it was better than the other building he was in.

And it just said tha our parents never protected us from learning about life and death.

And, and we grew up with them and, safe under their umbrella.

Right You know, that is so precious.

And I worry about our children.

If I were a billionaire, I would found a school here for lonely children.

And, children who are cast away or don't have a chance.

And it's a big issu in every city in this country, every community I don't care where you're from.

But we were blessed.

And, with those.

Not just those memories, but what they taught us every day of our lives.

We're talking with Marcy Kaptur.

Marcy, you had mentioned that when you got into public office.

It was a change of career for you.

Yes.

When we come back after the break, I want to talk about that early career and those early days.

In public office.

It's the 419.

We'll be right back.

To me, community means.

Connecting to others.

What will it really take to bring peace to Toledo's neighborhoods?

I love it here.

Yeah.

We're a community.

Committed to education.

Discover new ideas, dive into exciting subjects, and engage with the world around you.

It's all chapters in a book.

I would send them personally a t shirt Crime Doesn't Pay in the Old West and pass it on.

That's how we cleaned up the neighborhood.

Bring you back memorie that you don't think are there.

You know.

Public media invites you to get.

Out and play day.

The people of Toledo have really become family.

You know, they walk in and it was just like, hey, it's so good to see you.

Hello there, and welcome to a public media town hall meeting.

The where you come to watch, listen and learn.

I love PBS kids.

Welcome back into the 419 Powered by.

We're talking with Marcy Kaptur.

Marcy, you had said in the las segment that when you, got into public service, elected office, it was a changing career.

What was the early career?

So Saint Ursula then.

Ma.

Straight into the UFC.

Well, no, it was a different path, but I went to the University of Wisconsin, on a half scholarship, and, I had graduated from senior slot.

And, remember that period of time, during the 1960s was the start of the Vietnam War.

And I had come from a family of veterans all the way back to World War One.

And, so I saw through my uncles the price of war and, but I saw that my brother could be drafted in a war that Congress, a gutless Congress, had not voted for.

And where we lost, ultimately over 55,000.

And when they came home, more than double that by their own hand.

They didn't know what they fought for.

That had a major impact on me in my sort of formative years in college, and no one in my family had ever gone to college, and went to this place in Madison.

I'd never been to Madison.

I had the best teachers, best professors.

I my hardest decision.

And as a sophomore, will I go into medicine or will I major in history and President John Kennedy and I then at Saint Ursula, was assassinated.

That had a major impact on my life.

I'm a Roman Catholic.

I don't go to Congress because of that, but he was a Roman Catholic and the first Roman Catholic ever electe president of the United States.

And I can still remember the moment at Cedar Slope when Sister Gertrude got on the microphone and she said, everybody come to the gym.

And, it was either the gym or the chapel.

I don't even remember where we went.

But when they told us, everybody just wept.

It was, it was an out-of-body experience.

Right?

Totally.

So that had a major impact on me as a person.

And, the people of our country, I never saw my father weep.

But during that funeral, and so that had a huge impact on our family.

And I went to college.

I heard Kennedy's message, asked that what you can do, what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

And that always stayed with me.

And so in college, during the Vietnam War, some of my dear friends, from this region journeyed, no longer living great soldier came home with wounds that he bore his whole life.

So all those things happened, right?

It became personal.

And then, I went into I grew up in the civil rights era.

The civil rights bills were passed, and I ended up majoring in city planning, history, city planning.

And to I said, I know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to rebuild America's cities after what happened and to try to help.

And I spent my life doing that for a number of years.

I went to work for, President Carter when he was president here in our region we just dedicated the 300th home built by habitat for humanity after he lost his election, because of, that's another story.

But anyway, he did as a, former president.

What?

He could not get done as a president.

Right.

And he worked in the field of health.

He worked in building habitat for humanity all over our country.

And, made America conscious that we had to be energy independent here at home.

And that is something I have dedicated my life to as well, so that we don't go to war over oil again.

We have to remember that, anyway, so that's kind of serious, but, I, through college and then, I worked in my own community here as a city planner for many years.

I'll just say to people who are listening, one of the greatest achievements was when I 475 was built.

I didn't do that.

But the people who were in charge here made sure that it was dug out so that, the fumes from the expressways would not permeate as much as they would have had they.

None of that grade.

So when you when you go on 475, realize and and 75, you'll realize what they did back in the 50s in order to build a more livable city.

And, Gretchen is, getting on for 75, applying her makeup.

That's something.

That makes the city safe as well.

Let me ask.

In.

The noise.

The noise.

This your career as certainly a calling.

But was there ever a time.

I mean, you are a human being, right?

Did you ever feel like, I don't know if can do this or do I belong here?

I mean, a little flour to Wisconsin and then to Washington, DC.

You know, there you always knew tha this was the right thing to do.

When you walked into the when you walked into sin.

Ursula.

Right.

It's an all female classroom, right?

It's an all female school.

So leadership opportunities are clearly encouraged and pushed on.

The females I got to believe when you showed up in Washington, DC the first day that you probably weren't welcomed by everybody there.

I mean.

83.

Right?

Right, right.

There were about two dozen women in Congress.

Then it's changed.

But, looking back at Saint Ursula, sister, Kathleen, Pat and sister Justine, they they were the first.

I went to Washingto for the first time with my class in high school, and I still hav that on my wall in Washington.

You're kidding me.

No.

No.

And we stood in front of the Capitol.

So there's this picture.

Yeah.

And, I think about that.

Or, I didn't know in those days, sister Justine's or.

Excuse me, Sister Kathleen Patton's brother was a really important person in the Air Force.

I didn't know that.

And so, But she was just a she ended up being a very important person in her order, and, But anyway, that was the first trip.

So when I got that the second time, and I was a member, sworn in as a member of Congress, the greatest part was the speaker back in those days was tip O'Neill from Boston.

Yeah, I love that guy.

Yeah, he had the biggest hand I've ever shaken.

His hand was the size of a baseball on it.

Yeah.

And, he was.

He came from a background like I did.

He was much older than I was at that point, but, from the working class of Boston, and I just.

But there was a panic.

You always felt lik this is where I'm meant to be.

Yeah.

And Claude Pepper from Florida, who was such a big supporter of Social Security, they were like my uncles.

They were.

And, so there were enough people there, and then many, many world War Two veterans in the, first Congresses that I served.

And they were remarkable.

Well, I kind of wanted to ask you a little bit about that, because I think of all of your accomplishments, everything that you've done for northwest Ohio, since 1983, probably one of the things you will be remembered for, certainly one of them is your tireless effort on the World War Two memorial, which was a decades long, 15 year long project.

And anyone that's been to Washington, DC knows how absolutely spectacular that monument is.

Right?

The impact of your uncles and parents and these individual that you first met at Congress, I'm sure contributed t your interest in that project.

And, you know, it's that effort which lasted from 1987 until 2004, when we dedicated, taught me so much about Congress, because you learn every year.

I'm still learning about th country, about the Congress, but it was a shock because that was something the American people wanted.

It's we introduced the first bill in 1987, and the idea came from a man from this district.

Pete Durbin, excuse me, Roger Durbin, his father.

And, I met him at a fish fry out in, Jerusalem Township.

And, as I said, you.

Guys in the country.

But anyway, who, Congresswoman Kaptur, why is there no World War Two memorial in Washington?

He put his hands like that, and I could see these little glasses gleaming somewhere in the distance.

You know this person, I thought, well, he's rude.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

But.

But he was also right.

But he was right.

He was right.

An American so intelligent, and I because I answered him, I said, well, sir, I think there is one.

Oh, yeah.

What is it?

I said, well, you would, you know, that's to one service in one battle.

I can still hear.

And I said, well, now wait a minute.

Arlington.

He goes, no, nothing.

And he had traveled the world.

He had served under, in tank command, in Europe, in France, in one of the worst battles of Saint Lo.

It was just.

And, so he remained a friend.

He did not live to see the memorial dedicated, but we had a big picture of it in front of his, chair.

That's a whole nother story about everything related to that.

The point is it took us so long, and I really it took us thre presidents and six Congresses.

And I say to to students when I don't think it happen fast, even things the American people want this Congress takes forever.

And so we lost.

We were losing veterans every year.

They wouldn't see it.

You know.

But since the dedication, over 100 million people, unbelievable have gone there.

And I'm still working with the friends of, the memorial because the one piece I couldn't complete and which they denied it, the Department of Interior denied it was the history of why we fought.

It wasn't just that we fought, but why.

Why?

And I wanted to create a bunker where people could go in and look at movies and different things, so they would the younger generation would understand what was the 20t century's greatest achievement, the victory of liberty over tyranny.

Okay, now, what's thi century's greatest achievement going to be?

I can't answer that and trying to make a difference in this century, too.

But, that's the part that bothers me now.

There have been some apps that have been done and so forth, but I think that the country, that's an unfinished work and it could help the American people logistically.

When you when you arrive in Congress, one of the things that I think a lot of people don't know about, I don't know about, is how do you who tells you, who tells you, like.

Where are you?

Here's the bathroom.

Where are you going.

To get like an apartment.

Do you stay in there?

Do you travel back and forth constantly?

Like who teaches you about what you're supposed t wear, what the decorum is like?

How do you get all of that a you're walking in to Congress?

This is sort of hard hitting questions.

I think it's interesting.

Well, you can tell by just watching it.

A lot of peopl don't know what the rules are.

So that's, that's, that's yeah.

That's.

A very fair point.

Yeah.

Well, I guess in the old day they had spittoons and they had, you know, place to put their cigars and all.

But, anyway, when you get there, there is a House administration committee and staff and, you have to pick your number, you know, which room you'll get of the rooms that the other members have vacated.

Okay.

For women, there weren't even bathrooms.

Tip O'Neill.

Because of tip O'Neill.

There was actually a bathroom installed.

And a room converted for women members.

And, Oh, kind.

And, yeah, that's, that's a whole other story, but, the, you have to then there are formal procedure for which committees you get on.

And my first committee, I went on Veterans Affairs and there's still a picture.

They that in my office there I am, all men.

Yeah.

Are you.

Serious?

And they were so nice.

They were so nice.

We had a chairman fro Mississippi, Sonny Montgomery.

Great guy.

And, the I just have to tell this story because of the Vietnam vets and Agent Orange, one of the many bills I've been involved in, deal with health care.

And, our veterans who had fought could not get health care for Agent Orange.

I had neighbors who were dying of tumors, sof tissue tumors and so forth.

And, so we wanted to pass a bill that they would be eligible to go into the VA for diagnosis and treatment, and they couldn't.

Can you imagine that?

No.

And, they had, had to put Agent Orange, stirred up important things.

And, but Doug Applegate, a congressman from Steubenville, Ohio, during the debate when we were fighting the opposition to this, said they said, well, you can't pass this to give them any kind of medical diagnosis because it's not proven that Agent Orange causes cancer in those days.

Okay.

And he said there's a difference between what is scientifically provable and morally right.

I'll never forget that.

And I have used tha in my own assessments of late, when we passed the legislation for toxic substances, for veterans who fought in Iraq for example, and in the Middle East, when they breathed in all these fumes from the oil rigs.

I've been in Iraq, I've been in Kuwait, I've been all over the world, and I have seen what our people have had to bear.

And so, we were able to pass legislation, here, based on a family's experience from, Erie County, Ohio.

We now have the Toxic War Vets Act, and over a million of our soldier have been able to be assessed.

And so I just put that it isn't easy to get these things done in Congress.

And you're like, you shake your head.

Yeah.

You should you the what's the matter with these people?

And they simply don't know they haven't lived it.

I, I watch I watch these hearings and you know, you ever think about you know, Gretchen, you're an attorney, right?

That the legal ease of like reading a legal document and it's like, well, this doesn't make any sense to me.

I watch the hearing and the procedural pieces of it.

I just can't imagine day one, you know, like, what is that?

You know, to your point, Gretchen, what's that cheat sheet look like to say, hey, if you want to, you know, object to something if you disagree with something, here's how you do it.

If you want to say something or reject something, here's how you do it.

This is how much time you get to, you know, to share your point and what that looks like.

And I just think, you know, I, I can't imagine that learning curve.

And it's I had this conversation years ago with, a friend of ours that's an elected official, and I, you know, I said I, you know, at the time I had said to him that I don't believe in career politicians.

And he said to me, and this was before my own health issues, said, do you believe in career cardiologists?

And I hadn't thought of it that way.

Do you I do I do now, I do now, and I've got the same one.

Yeah.

Marcy, when we come back, I want to talk about, certainly there was a documentary.

I want to make sure we talked about that, but I also want to talk about kind of jump, to a little more present tim and talk about some of the work that you're doing now and some of the fights that that Toledo needs to be involved in.

Certainly as it relate to, our region as it relates to the Great Lakes, as it relates to agriculture, as it relates to, CTE, and local media as well.

But we'll be right back.

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Welcome back into the 419.

Normally this is our in a normal week.

This is our Mayor Monday segment.

But because of Martin Luther King Day yesterday, it's on a Tuesday.

This is an opportunity for us to kind of just zoom in on different communities in the region.

But we had an incredible opportunity.

To spend our time today with Marcy Kaptur.

And so it i a, Marcy Monday, on a Tuesday.

Tuesday.

And so let's just basically, we've essentially reached the point where the segment that I'm trying to describe does not exist in any, in any way at all.

And our friend and co-host, Matt Killam had to leave a little bit early for work.

So we we have his picture here instead.

You know, we were talking during the break about, about the importance of local, the importance of, of small businesses and the idea that, you know, when when we lose, a family business, that, that, you know, a lot of times, a lot situations it isn't just that that business goes away, but that service is entirely removed from our community.

You had mentioned, a couple of them.

I mean, what what is, from your perspective, at a federal level?

What what can be done?

What what should be done from from DC and and what can we do here in northwest Ohio to try to protect the, the, the local and hang on to that as much as we can?

Well, first of all we have to be dedicated to that.

And people have to be conscious of it.

So if you can raise, awareness among people, wealth in our countr has become extremely stratified.

The middle class is struggling.

Those that earn at the bottom of the income scale.

Honestly, I don' know how some of them make it.

Really.

And so, it's too stratified.

There are too few that have too much, in my opinion.

And it's the same fight our mother had when she helped to become, she was secretary of the United Auto Workers at her plant and was involved in, writing the first union contract.

Why?

Because you can't work for nothing.

Prices have gone up.

And, if I look at agriculture and some of the farmers I used to know who aren't any longer there.

I have seen something happening in our country.

And it isn't just my district that across the country that is extremely unfair to our local producers.

So, that's a whole jus agriculture you're walking down.

That would be a long, long discussion.

But we have to be conscious of local because that's power to people that are your relatives, your friends, your neighbors.

And when I see these companies dissolve or shut down, and I've spent most of my career trying to save the auto industry, the steel industry yesterday is with the copper industry trying to save the spine of America.

Industry.

Both for what we're able to do, but also in times of war.

We must have them.

We cannot, allow other countries to take our intelligence away.

And in many cases, that has happened, we've had to restore look at just, you know, computers and so forth.

The componentry.

So helpin the local people be successful, including our farmers, including our industrial workers, is absolutely number one.

So if you look at, well, how do you help with that?

Well, we could hav some better people in Congress.

But if you look at route 24, which we built a few years ag with the help of lots of people from Port of Toledo to the Indiana border.

Why did we do that?

We did that in order to help transportation and advance industry, whether it's agriculture or traditional, industrial plants, and everything in between.

And what just happened last night?

I was with the Wheeling Company, and $27 million or 24, 27 is being invested by their parent company, and they are going to expand copper production here in our region, critical to the country, critical to the workers.

They'll hire more people.

Also in defiance, Ohio, a major paper company is moving in.

Why are they doing that?

In the defiance largest, economic development in defiance in its history.

US 24, there's, transportation.

Transportation.

So we've modernized every federal roadway here.

That's why Jeep is still here.

If you look at the port of Toledo, the developed we could use more concentration of energy, of effort, thinking about expansion of the port in the industrial built near our port.

We need a major plan just for that.

We can't let it pass.

I want to, on the port.

There was.

And I'm going to get the story wrong so I'm going to let you tell it.

But, I mentioned in the break that I involved with Toledo Rotary.

I know that, one of the projects of rotary is Mesa, an organization called Medical Equipmen and Supplies Abroad that takes, you know, expired, retired, medical equipment, puts it in shipping containers and gets it out, to, you know, largely Central American countries, but also, send them to Ukraine.

I know that there was a conversation about trying to get supplies to Ukraine.

Out of the port of New York.

And there was such a delay, and you jumped in and said, what about Toledo?

I after World War Two, President Eisenhower, a great general and a great president, buil the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway from Duluth, Minnesota, all the way connecting the lakes, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie.

Then we go to Lake Ontario, but then up into Canada.

After you get through Buffalo, you go up to Canada, out to the Atlantic.

Why did he do that?

Interesting.

He knew when the war was over, the job wasn't finished.

And America created NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The other night I was just with the ambassador from Denmark and Greenland talking about, the current issue, relative to Greenland and the administration.

And but President Eisenhower knew that the pieces of broken humanity had to be picked up, and it wouldn't happen in a year or ten years.

And he created NATO General Omar Bradley.

I'm saying this so people read books and they think about those who came before us.

What did they do?

They created the largest umbrella, defense umbrell for liberty in the world, NATO.

And we are a member of that.

So but that pathway, shortest distance over the glob to the ports of northern Europe.

President Eisenhower, and was dedicated in 1958.

Queen Elizabeth came in for that dedication.

And I now co-chair the Great Lakes Task Force.

So yes, I have this district, but my job is bigger than that, right?

And I have many colleague from Wisconsin, from New York.

All of us work together.

It's bipartisan, never gets any publicit because it's not controversial.

But we're trying to invest in our region to make local stronger, to make it stronger.

So our Port of Toledo is extremely important to us.

I wanted in terms of Ukraine.

I co-chair the Ukraine caucus also.

I understand the threat of Russia and everyone should because Russi used to extend way into Germany.

I was with German businesspeople last night for investing in our region here.

I'm so grateful.

At Wieland Copper and, they're wonderful.

And, we were talking about some of the threats by Russia to Europe.

They're very aware of what's happening.

Those are our closest allies.

The Saint Lawrence Seaway, Great Lakes, Saint Lawrence Seaway.

It goes up through Canada.

They fought with us in every war.

We have to respect our allies and help Ukraine.

So the Great Lakes, I wish could have had, like a big caravan, that would take goods, like you say, and, dock them at Bremerhaven or Gdansk and then move them into Ukraine to help the people there.

I wish we could.

I wish we could make that happen.

I still I still hope for that to occur.

And they need it now more because they've suffered so much over these long years of wa since 2014, the first invasion.

And, since this is television, I'll just say in 2014, there was the Olympics in Sochi, first Olympics that were ever held in Russia.

Right?

The world was saying, now let's maybe move Russia into a different mode.

Not always attack not always take over, countries.

What was interesting about that Olympics, it was broadcast all over the world.

What?

The world didn't notice was that the a leader, then leader in Ukraine, who was a Russian, goon, was ousted and Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in that year of the Olympics, masked by all of the media and everything.

Yeah.

Yes.

So, they've been fighting since 2014.

Not, they keep saying, you know, 20, 20, 20, 21.

No, it's been over a decade now.

So medical supplies, Europe is taking a larger role in supplying them with, with weaponry and so forth.

Interestingly what they really want is F-16s and of course, that's wha our unit, our 1/80 Fighter Wing, which is a guard unit, one of the ten best fighter wings in the country.

And it has taken them about 4 years to get up to this level.

And when I compliment the pilots and their command structure, you know what they say.

They say it is in us.

It's the maintainers, the individuals you never see on television who are working to tool, to fix, to maintain those jets for liberty.

It's the person working on the spark plug.

That's right.

It's the person working on this.

Exactly.

When you think about your job as a congresswoman, that you are the longest serving female congresswoma in the United States Congress, and you think about just last year, you brought 50, some 50.5 million, dollars back to the Northwest Ohio region.

When you think about that part of your job and what you want to focus on in all of these projects and all of them that need money support.

How do you how do you figure it out?

You certainly must be working with local, regional partners at all levels of government.

What is your thinking on those on how to find those dollars an bring them back to the projects in Northwest Ohi that benefit the residents here?

All right.

Well, first of all we have to have economic growth.

And I've spent so much time on that in my career.

Our automotive industry is still very stressed.

Our trucking industry, our rail industry, the, we need to we need to have really good planning.

That was my.

I'm a city and regional planner by training.

We have to have a center here.

The, Department of Transportation creates organizations like the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments.

Those are really important.

The Southeas Michigan Council of Governments.

We need to be working more closely and more fiercely and identifying ways in which to advance the economies of the economy in different sectors in our region.

So, in heavy metals, look at what we've been able to work with.

Material on, beryllium, beryllium, copper.

We are the heart of industrial America.

Magnesium, titanium, all the um's aluminum.

We have to have more of a focus to see that okay, than in agriculture.

The, all of our counties that I represent, more than half the crop now goes into fuels because many years ago, and I think more we should have more connection between agriculture and medicine.

We have the only medical university in all of North, the whole quadrant of Ohio, right here at UT EMC.

We have to think about agriculture and medicine.

One of the presidents.

When I was first elected, all o our hog industries were going.

Our farmers were going bankrupt.

So I said, what else can we do with these animals?

And we ended up working with the Piper family over in Ottawa County, raising sterile hogs.

To this day, the valves from those hogs ar being transplanted into people.

And I said in my audience, this one guy goes, I got one.

I said, oh, okay You know, this.

Is really great.

So we and farm we're the only pharmacy school in Northern Ohio.

Think about that.

Not even Cleveland.

I represented Cleveland for a long time.

So I think we have to think pharmaceuticals in medicine in a different way.

Why?

We have such a problem with diabetes.

It's a whole nother subject, but.

But our medical university and agriculture and pharmacy, they have to connect.

We have to make medicine.

We have to make products.

We've done that with job stockings.

There's other things that we've done.

We could do so much more.

We have about two minutes.

My.

Yeah.

And I want to just ask you one thing about the world writ large.

You know, people are hurting and they're afraid and they don't understand.

Many people don't understand what's happening or how the things that are happening are people in our communities are, are struggling.

And that just seems like bombardment of this negativity.

And one bad news after a day, you know.

When you were trying to focus on positivity.

Right?

How do you how d you want to keep doing this job and how do you, how do you stay engaged?

How do you stay, positive with what's happening and your role in it?

Because I see the forces at work that want to destabilize this country.

And, there's a book I recommend people read called Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder.

It's probably the best work I've ever read on World War Two, and I've read a lot of them.

It helps to explain forces at work in the world that are impacting on us.

I believe that the new electronic communication, that our children are watching and everybody's watching.

I've seen what I, what children say to me in this community and messages that they receive that are untrue.

Untrue.

We are being gamed electronically.

I don't want to say all of it is, but you have to be so discerning.

But if you're if you're not discerning, you get sucked into a point of vie that could be completely wrong.

So I think that we have to, my job, I take an oath t the constitution of the country.

That's my boss.

And, so to form a more perfect union to establish justice and its institutions.

I think there are some forces at work in our country that want us to revert to violence.

We can't do that.

We've just commemorated doctor.

Reverend Martin Luther King.

He taught us something.

He taught us about peaceful protest.

There are forces at work to want us to be violent.

We can't go there.

March.

We have to be smarter.

Thank you.

Thank you for the time today.

You have so many stories.

Just one of the many stories that you've shared with is through a documentary, that was produced by, our very own Shane Hitler.

Freedom never means surrender.

So you can check that out.

Means never surrender.

I'm sorry.

Freedom means.

Never.

Surrender.

Marcy, thank you so much.

On the International Tele award for documentary.

That's a big deal.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

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Welcome back into the 419.

It's a mayor Monday edition on a Tuesday, and it was a marcy Monday edition on a Tuesday as well.

It is.

That nickname is not going to stick.

No, I know, that's fine but you know what?

We'll stick.

And we didn't we didn't get to today, but Gretchen's wacky quiz will start.

That's right.

Yeah.

A rare, segment without our co-host and comedy relief.

Yes.

Matt Killam.

He's still here in spirit.

Still here in spirit.

But I feel like it's better.

I mean, I'll let you be the one to deliver that.

Deliver that message.

It's it's not lost on me.

The, the generosity of, Marc and her time with us today.

I, I can't believe the attention that the level of detail and specificity and the stories of her childhood.

I don't know that I could tell you the last names of my neighbors today.

I think she relies on and has always the story of her, her family and her life when she grew up throughout her entire throughout her entire career, political career, and truly remarkable to have access to have that lengthy of a conversation with a sitting member of Congress is pretty, pretty exciting.

Absolutely.

And Marcy, you know, he's currently running for office.

We have reached out to a Republican, candidate for that seat as well, to invite them to be a guest on the program.

And we have not heard back yet from them.

But when we do, we look forward to having them scheduled to get a chance to know a little bit more about them and their background as well.

It's the 419 powered by GT, presented by Retro Wealth Management.

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