Candidate Ben Siegel. So the way it's gonna go is I'll introduce the candidate. who have plenty of time to answer some questions and give his open remarks and at the end, we're gonna open up the floor for some Q and a for the membership and the public. now without further ado, let's give a chance to listen from M E four candidate Ben Siegel. Great Thank you Enrique. I really really appreciate it and to Latino caucus. Thank you so much for having me young Democrats of Massachusetts. It's really wonderful to be able to have a conversation with all of you tonight. look I wanna talk just really briefly tell you why I'm in this race who I am why I'm running and why I'm different and I do wanna touch on what we've seen over the last eight weeks since the murder of George because I really think this idea of racism and it's eradication is so interconnected to everything that's going on in our. And in our systems that if we are gonna make real lasting change that we have to work on eradicating and eliminating racism through that, I hope that's okay and then I'd love for the vast majority of time to answer your questions and thoughts. I know we I think we have a video that's right to go. Why don't we set that up because I think what that is gonna tell you is all of us as candidates. We're pretty close on the issues we're slightly off but our approaches are really different and this video is true to my approach. To running for Congress so with that, let's run it. Our age. Skinny. Our beliefs. goods. our abilities. Loves our country. These are the things they say to divide us from one another, but the truth is there's so much more that unites us and those who benefit from our division and try to make us forget that because they know that together we are. Resilient we are unstoppable and now we must all take a stand now is the time we must lift each other up and now is the time we must come together as one community is our future depends on it. My name is Ben Siegel here I am ready to bring our community together to make real change because I believe no matter what Street what color or creed we are all the for the Massachusetts fourth Congressional District. It's time to stand. To fight for the things we believe in the things that we deserve and that's why I am running for Congress. Hi so on that such a great video band you so much for now if anyone missed that is there any place someone can go yeah absolutely look sometimes when we show that on Zoom and Facebook as you can tell it gets the late especially with my eyes nice and closed or my mouth taken white and open so if you actually want to see it on the regular speech just go right to our website for Congress but I think what you can tell from that video more than anything is when you listen to it that it's all about unity And strengthen community. It's why I got into this race. I got in because I was sick and tired of the divisions we were seeing in this country being divided by race and income who we love what our abilities are sick and tired of seeing the gap between those who have and have not continue to widen and I was the seventh candidate in this race and I didn't see any of the candidates talking about how do we actually come together that we are stronger when we are United than when we are divided, It's the. Theme of our Campaign We the fourth all 34 cities and towns are in this together. It's why I'm still the first and only candidate who's visited all 34 cities and towns. It's why I'm the only candidate who's going to over 20 marches in 15 different cities and towns in our districts and rallies and protests and speaking in Fall River and in in Milford. so look I I believe that the. Foundation of a strong community is access to opportunities right it is everyone is looking for access to opportunity whether you're the wealthiest person in the region or you are the most vulnerable access universally to high quality affordable health care access to affordable education from universal preschool all the way to higher education and adult education access to clean air and clean water access to affordable housing and transportation. In order to do that, though we need a leader who's a bridge builder a unifier, a connector, we need a leader who's in conveniently a Democrat or conveniently talking about diversity, but actually it is advancing diversity. equity and inclusion on a daily basis and we need a leader quite honestly who understands the diverse perspectives of the community, not just racially, but you can graphically and also the and and also the. so. I just wanna make sure everyone we probably should just make sure everyone's muted. Thank you one of the things though, in addition to that and I wanna tell you just a little bit about why I think I'm that leader in that person, but so I'm Latino as many of you know, maybe not all of you listening, but my mom was born and raised in Puerto Rico and by seven generations. in fact, that's seven that we Know of we think it's as high as 11 or 12, and her her family came Spain and Portugal before that, I would be as many of you know the first Latino to ever be elected to Congress in Massachusetts Now, my dad grew up in Worcester third generation We lived in Braintree we were lived in a blue-collar Middle-class family and it I was the only Latina that I was aware of in high school and one of the only Jewish kids in a high. So when we talk about being the victim of bigotry and hatred, although my skin color for sure is a lot lighter than a lot of my black and dark, Brown brothers and sisters, I too was that victim always being told to pick up that penny. you spent all the time, but it was based on ignorance most of it right and so one of the things I did after that and after College is I actually worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the D, Triple C and the Democratic Caucus helping to. A Democratic National agenda I've been a private attorney for the last 15 plus years, where I've been President of the Hispanic National Bar Association For A New England for the last two years, something I'm extremely proud of advancing with Latino interest in the legal community and beyond, But although I've love being a lawyer and many of you know in the Latino community, only five percent of all lawyers are Latina only one point. three percent are Latina we need to. So much better, so I've worked a ton on pipeline when it comes to being a lawyer, but as much as I love being a lawyer, what actually put me to sleep at night in charge, me is the over dozen nonprofits I've sat on in the Latino community and especially in the Jewish community building and strengthening those communities and helping to make sure we create partnerships. I created the first Jewish Latino task force in the whole country for young adults. These are things I'm proud of now as I. To you at the beginning that tells you just a little bit about me cuz I would love to go into more questions. I wanna spend if you don't mind two minutes. that's it on what I've seen in the last eight weeks since the murder of George Floyd and again, I tell you that because I have been in 15 communities in 20 plus marches but there we need to seize this moment. BOM can't be a trend right. It's great. We're going to these marches. It's great. We're going to these rallies, but what are we gonna do next cuz we know. It was the knee of a racist cop that killed George Floyd, but we know that the need of racism has been on the throat of our, especially our black and Brown communities for more than 400 years. So this is the time so this really quickly as an overview of what I think we need to do. Obviously we have police reforming we need to condemn eliminate police brutality racial profiling excessive use of force we need to create National standards and policies for you support. We need to create National certifications and decertification for our police. We need to eliminate police immunity qualified immunity so that that if one officer or God forbid a whole Department violate someone's civil rights, we can hold them accountable. need to demilitarize the police. We need to make sure everyone has body cams and we need to allocate some of the resources we're putting towards police towards education and youth engagement now look if we did all that we're still not getting to the. Of the underlying issues of racism that next layer we need to eradicate the racism that's in all our systems so real quickly take health care look all of us on the on the zoom in on Facebook know that our black and Brown communities are contracting Covid-, 19 to double and triple the rates as the White communities they're getting tested less. They're getting treated less and they're getting less PE and education. We know that 10 percent of K to 12 still don't have Internet and still don't have a device to learn so the education inequality gap is widening. We also know Then in 2019 on the eighth grade math scores in Massachusetts as a state, we finished first, but if you were Latino in Massachusetts, we finished fiftieth this education inequality gap is real. It's the same in housing and transportation and the environment of course now again if we did all of this, we still wouldn't hit what I believe are the four underlining reasons for racism in this country and I'll just briefly mention and then let's open it up and I'd love to have a discussion with all of you number one we have to elect and select. Leaders who understand the diverse perspectives in our community leaders like myself, but not just politicians our teachers and Massachusetts 20 percent of the kids are Latino K through 12 only three percent of the teachers are we need to make sure that our nonprofit for profit at boards and executive suites are diverse, hospitals and police departments number two, I don't believe anyone is born a racist anyone's born a bigot or an anti. We're we've learned that in society so let's unreach that and teach our youth from kindergarten first grade second grade that lies stereotypes and prejudice can turn into hate and far worse now, we also need to teach cultural competency and diversity training to our police and civic and religious leaders number three we need to protect and support the voting rights of all Americans, especially those historically disenfranchised and lastly because. A Middle of this and I hope all of you have filled this out. We need to make sure we fill out our census forms the largest civil most inclusive activity in the world who's data determines equal representation and equal access to over eight hundred billion in federal funds. every year and the Latino community, the black community and children are undercounted and we saw what President Trump said this week for any undocumented immigrants they will not be counted for the abortion of the census. That's Un-American. it's wrong. He doesn't have the authority and it's illegal the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment are very clear. It's just persons residing in States. That's all it is so we need to fight this. so I'm gonna end with that. I'm sorry that when a couple more minutes, then I wanted to, but I would love to have a conversation on the issues that matter to you, most and the questions that are most important to you. Well, Thank you so much for that opening statement. I think we learned quite a bit and we got to see a little bit of who you are and why you're running, which actually leads me to my first question. What was the moment that you said, you know, it's time it's time to run and I have to do it now. it's a great. It's actually a story with it. part of it is sad but you look I've been on Joe Kennedy's steering Committee since before he ran back almost nine years ago, so I knew when he. Going to when he was going to actually. move on and decide to run for the Senate, I didn't actually think about it right away. I waited to see some of these other candidates wasn't gonna be a candidate in the race that I thought actually it wasn't even the issues where are they gonna have the approach that I would have building coalitions best learning and I didn't see it so in November, literally first week in November, I said to my wife, do you think we could do this. I have four young kids. Eight grade or sixth grade or fourth grader in a kindergartener and so we made that decision and then sadly quite honestly three days or four days later, my wife's mom died in a tragic car accident on the way to visit us so that wasn't the time and so we put it to the side we focus on family always has to come first and then at the end of November beginning of December I finally made that choice that no I'm still not hearing what I want in this race and quite honestly I wanna. That ceiling not because I wanna be the first Latino because I wanna open up the door so that every young Latino black Asian American and minority says I can now do that because Ben did it and opening that door and pulling them through is so important. I think we need that more than ever and so that's kind of the beginning of this journey and then I started January 20 first. -first I tell us I'm sorry to hear about the news of your what's family. Thank you Definitely definitely a story there. now to my next question, We know the fourth district is diverse economically socially racially and politically. what we have neighborhoods such as Brookline Wellesley Newman you go down onto community such as Paul River in Bedford at what's what's your plan to resonate among all the communities because of all the. What's your plan to connect in such a time of division? Are you planning on uniting? Yeah. So look number one is you have to understand the perspectives of those different parts of the community right look I grew up in a middle-class family in a suburb of Boston Braintree that is so similar to the rest of the district, the majority of district obviously not every place My dad audited and oversaw a public housing authorities in Taunton and Fall River, so I used to go down there as a kid. My cousins grew up in. Sharon I have cousins in Midway, My brother lives in Franklin. My kids went to school in Newton for a while, and I now they're in Brooklyn, No other candidate has deep connections throughout the district. so that's the start number two is you have to go and listen to the district you have to earn that trust you have to build trust you need to stand with the people speak with the people and amplify their voice. No other candidate has done that already again. I'm the only one who's visited all 34. In towns, I went to 14 different town elections in order to amplify the voices of voters every day I've been to over 15 towns in the district for the marches and rallies. No one else has already been doing that I truly believe where the people's candidate but going forward that's not gonna be enough right so going forward. I have proposed that I would create an advisory board that would meet every four to six times a year that would be comprised of members from. Single one of the 34 cities and towns multiple members that are inter generationally diverse racially diverse and economically diverse because it's not only about listening and understanding what the issues of the day are, but it's bringing everyone together to collaborate to learn best practices and to work together and I need to be the one that brings that together I have a lot of history in this So, for instance I created in the Jewish community, the young Jewish leaders. So the first time in the entire country, someone brought together all the young adults Jewish organizations around one table at that point, we had about 44 of them in Massachusetts, I did it because they needed to learn from each other and trust each other to learn best practices to collaborate and that's what happened and we as a community, The young Jewish community started really working together. We don't have that I can tell you as someone who's spent a lot of time in the Latino community. We don't have that in. Community right we can all work for better together, but that's the motto we need in the fourth district. We gotta work together because we're only as strong as the most vulnerable in our community. I'm glad you touched base on the Latino community because that's transition from my next question you mentioned earlier in your opening that there hasn't been a Latino Congress woman or a man in Massachusetts and you would be the first one if elected. What is your stance on immigration and how are you planning to be to protect the Latino community? Thank you. It's such an important question and I actually put out the most comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform plan actually earlier. So the timing is really good with that look. We know that our immigrants are the soul of our community. We know we're a nation of immigrants. This is both personal to me as a Latino, but it also as someone who's Jewish right, which is interesting right. That's what connects the two groups so much, we know that as a society economically financially, we know scientifically and technologically, we are so much more advanced in collective growth because of our immigrants. so we need to fix our broken system. That seems to be on intimidation and fear and attacks. so how are we gonna do that? cuz those are all words right like so what's the actual plan? so I truly believe we first, we need a pathway to citizenship for a 12 million plus undocumented immigrants that just starts with that we need permanent status for TPS recipients and our Daca students we need to repeal 1320 - five at at the US to decriminalize unauthorized border crossing. Know that that's what created the separation of families. We know that that's what created the backlog in our criminal courts that should have never had that so they can actually focus on real crimes that are being committed. We know that we must make sure that we are accepting and inclusive to all those pieces we need zero tolerance in our immigration policies for unauthorized access now that's just at the larger. Kind of issue right we know here in Massachusetts, there's so many more things we need to do We absolutely need to make sure that all our undocumented immigrants and immigrants in general get unemployment assistance get health care coverage and get their driver's license or at least be able to take the driver's license test. I still think you gotta pass the test to get it. let's be very clear but let's be let's be really honest. This is not just an ethical and moral obligation. This is a financial economic safety and education. Piece as well, we tell our immigrants you all are essential workers you're working in the health care industry the agriculture industry in our grocery in our pharmacies, and then we don't treat their lives as essential We need to flip that entirely. So this is a huge piece across the board So Safe Communities Act. I've spent a lot of time trying to help that in Massachusetts, we need to take that nationally. It's the same with work and family mobility app. It shouldn't just be here in. Massachusetts needs to be nationally, We also have to make sure that our undocumented immigrants in all immigrants are able to get in-state tuition Now we're better at that in Massachusetts, but that's not the case across the country and we absolutely need to do something with ice right and you know for me and I'll tell you this is sometimes slightly controversial someone who's Latino. I believe if we can we need to absolutely stream streamline all. And Ice apart and put it back together with a very narrow mission, which is to make sure to investigate and and prevent human traffickers drug traffickers, gang violence and threats to National security, but because of the leadership we have in place and the rank and file I think that's almost if not entirely impossible And if that's the case, then we absolutely need to abolish it immediately one of the things. To do is de-stigmatize and the label that so many immigrants have that they're criminals. so if you've never met an immigrant in the Midwest and other pieces of this country, you think of immigrants as criminals because of our society because of our media because of the right wing, we need a full-on approach that stigmatizes that as well. Thank you so much for that. Ben definitely can see that you know immigration is a huge issue right now, especially with the current administration up in the White House and it's just someone to step up definitely speaks for as we definitely focus on that as a Latino caucus and always like to make sure that it's well represented when we do have someone you mentioned support for undocumented residents recently in the past two weeks we've seen Massachusetts to sit down at the state House defending. I undocumented residents that Cannot do not have access to driver's license think I saw you at one of the events actually what's your stance on drivers license for a documented President? it's a no brainer right, The absolutely everyone regardless of immigration status. let's be clear should have the ability to get their driver's license. First of all. It's all it's a moral ethical obligation, but it's an economic imperative for this community. It's an education imperative people being able to bring their kids to school and it's a safety issue. Everyone to have that driver's license from a safety issue so for me I honestly don't understand the arguments on the other side to this because it's in there. it's it's in their benefit. It's in the country's benefit and what we need to do is make sure that those against it understand that they're only harming themselves their families their neighborhoods and Massachusetts by not allowing this because I think there's a tremendous amount of ignorance and arrogance And just on. Around this topic, so I was happy to see you Enrique at one of those events down there and I've been by the side from the beginning of the work and mobility family law and several of my organizations and individually. Awesome awesome. Yeah. Yeah, no definitely. it's an issue we have to support the Sanchez doing an amazing job. I just wanna give a huge shout out. They've been there for almost two weeks now if I don't believe exactly two weeks and it's just something that needs to be done and needs to be done right now. I'm gonna ask one more question before we open it up. I'm gonna go with do you support National rent control. Look our housing is a huge issue we know the systematic and systemic racism that's in our housing is going back. It's not just in the last five 1020 30 years. It goes really far back public housing was a huge creation of racism in this country because people were segregated so we need to create housing that allows for low income Middle-income standardized market rate all coming together. This is so important we have to give. To our developers to create a low income and Middle class housing across the board and we have to change our zoning laws to allow for it so even if we were to have National rent control, we still at that alone is not gonna change at everything It will be helpful and I'll be in support of that, but we need to make sure that it's a lot of other things tackling this cuz it's so ingrained to what we have and quite honestly, it's integrated with our transportation systems. We need to create transit oriented communities around hubs of transportation. Look, we know, and this is a little of what you're saying In re, but I think it's very well tied but we know in Fall River, for instance, where there's a larger Latino population. there is up North 20 percent of the residents don't own a vehicle so they need public transportation and if we're gonna help increase their standards of living, we need to give them transportation to the biggest hub of employment in Boston. so yes, South Coast. But let's create housing communities alongside that and train stops so that people also are learning from each other. It's how we combat racism at the same time when people are brought together. So there's a lot of pieces that are all connected to the housing question. Thank you for that event and at this moment I just wanna invite our Facebook audience to please post any questions. I'm looking at the comments right now as they come in live if you have any questions for mister Ben Siegel, please post them on our live feed and at this moment as well, I wanna open up the questions of the panel that we have from the customers of the Latino caucus so many of you Please raise your hand and I'll on mute you. Can you see me? Yeah? Hi Lindsey. Hi. Thank you. Thank you for being here so my question for you is what challenges what are the major challenges that your district faces and like I mentioned that you have a very diverse set of towns that are represented. So what are the major challenges and what are you gonna do to address that situation? Thank you Lindsey for that question. you know what's great about that question and I'll just explain this for those who are not in the fourth district, so we have the wealthiest. Of the Commonwealth is in the fourth right Brookline Newton Wellesley, We have one of the largest immigrant populations down in the fall River Medford Taunton Attleboro Area, mostly Portuguese speaking we have one of the largest Jewish populations in the entire country by percentages 12 percent. Jewish The district is about four percent Latino. We also have the most conservative part of the entire state, so we have a part of the state where. One many towns and cities you know down in some very close so the Lakeville Plainville Foxborough areas right Thieves went to Trump so it is really diverse. on so many levels and look I actually know the answer to what's the most important to people because I went to all 34 cities in towns. so let me give you what the three answers were and tell you this was before coed. So Kobe is the fourth answer to it. Number one was health. Absolutely across the board and it was for small business owners and individuals. we need to make sure we have universal access to high quality affordable health care for everyone, including our undocumented immigrants. we need to pass paid family and medical leave. We can't be the only industrialized country in the entire world, not to have that we need to be able to have our federal government negotiate prescription drug prices under Medicare. so that's health care number two was actually student debt. It's a big issue as. And you all know that Latinos are now going and blacks are now going to College less than they were even five or 10 years ago because colleges inaccessible and unaffordable and even if they go, they can't get a job afterwards that can pay high enough to pay their student debt. So we need to tackle that and I can tell you as someone who went to a private undergraduate Law School And Business School. I still have signific student debt so this is personal. Me number one we need to make sure that any debt that there is that students get the same friendly rates that banks do so right now if you're if you just graduated you're getting your student loans anywhere from six to 11 percent free Co banks loan each other out at one point two to one point six percent we should be having those same friendly rates right number two we need to cap at the smallest percentage. We can a fixed percentage of your income. So somewhere, let's say between five and eight percent, so you're never choosing to a pay my rent or do I pay my student debt We need to make higher education free for our low-income highly subsidized for our middle-income students as well. So this is a big piece for us we have to expand Pell grants and expand work study so that's number two number three quite interesting enough and I have to tell you all this was the shock to me was even our most conservative. Pro-trump people I met in my tour mentioned diversity and so when I when I said that I said back is are you thinking the same kind of diversity? I'm thinking cuz I'm kinda shocked and they said no look it I might different than you on the on your views but our towns and cities, no one 's amplifying our voices. No one is and you may not agree necessarily with my positions, but you have to be helping my towns and cities. and so that's why I said I would create this advisory Why I'm gonna be visiting all the cities and towns over and over again because it's that important and finally under Cove it there's no doubt our response to coveting and eradicating racism is part and parcel. I'm not gonna speak about the racism and peace because I did that in my opening but under covid-. 19 on number one we know our truly small businesses are especially our black and Women-owned businesses have fallen through the cracks were eligible for and couldn't get P funds. Many of you know this but 91 percent of all Latino businesses in Massachusetts are either one or two -person businesses, so they weren't able to be open to get the P funds we need to help them number two. We need to help a child care facilities and child care services. The facilities, mostly owned by black and and Brown brothers sisters, couldn't get fun. And now are ready to be bankrupt, so we need to give them the funds in order to open up so people can go back to work and we need to give them the PE and protection so they can go back to work. It's the same with families like myself with four kids We need if you haven't been working the last couple of months. How are you gonna pay for child care to go and get a go to your job that might be minimum wage? You can't so we need to give families we need to double flexible spending we need to. A child care tax credits and we need to put money in your hands to go specific towards childcare the same with education you're gonna be safe before, but we can't allow the education inequality gap to widen so we need to put money towards Internet access and towards making sure everyone has a device and finally I mentioned it before but just within this context everyone needs to be able regardless of immigration status to get unemployment assistance. it is so curating to me that we say your job. You're on the front lines You're saving lives. you're putting your life at risk and then you can't get unemployment assistance and you can't get health care coverage and we don't have paid family and medical leave so those in the areas that I'm seeing and what I'm gonna do to to fix them. Thank you. Thank you Lindsey for your question what do you want anyone else like to ask a question? I have a question Hi Alex Afleck. Hey, How's it going? yes, I wanted to ask as the son of a Puerto Rican woman you mentioned earlier that you may become a Massachusetts first Latino person in Congress currently Puerto Rico has had the highest poverty rate in the United States as an island has had to weather a hurricane political crisis earthquakes and now widespread unemployment caused by the response to the Corona virus. knowing all. In what ways would you support the Puerto Rican people if elected? Thank you? Alex I've honestly really appreciate and love that question look and you mentioned it all. It's not just Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma that was beyond devastating beyond devastating to the island, but we had the island has been hit by over A thousand earthquakes A thousand most people can't even comprehend when one yes or no this morning, California had one earthquake right in Puerto Rico has been hit by the thousands of it. We need to make sure. Puerto Rico first can get out of its debt and help it through this bankruptcy piece and we need to provide it with not just say we're giving them financial assistance but actually give it to them. We all know that only like 20 percent of the dollars that we're supposed to be allocated to Puerto Rico has actually got into the people right. We know that there has been horrible accountability and oversight by our federal government on their own on their end on this we need to make sure that the people of Puerto Rico. Have the resources to get themselves out of the Island's debt, but that the individuals have have money to help their families food insecurity. I read and I think it's higher than this number 48 percent of Puerto Ricans right now at food and security issues and are using the food pantries and banks we are a country of such extreme wealth that we should be able to be able to help the everyday Puerto Rican people make sure that there's. On their table that they can rebuild their houses that they can rebuild their lives because if we lift their living standards, it lifts the whole island and quite honestly, it's our entire country. I mean we know over 200000 Puerto Ricans in the last two years have moved up to the United States and in the 50 States here right, they're moving there because we're not helping the country there. you know one of the frustrating things in addition, Alex and I wanna connect this for me actually there too one is I didn't even talk about Promesa right, which is how do we have? A board overseeing the everyday the everyday actions of the people of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico has no say in that board. no representation in that board now look do I believe there could be a board That's both mixed of those in the United States who are experts in these areas and Puerto Ricans absolutely, but they have to have Puerto Ricans need a seat at the table Their voices need to be heard and they need to be able to veto the actions by such a board. We need to fix that but the piece I really wanna mention is you know Boston has the only memorial to veterans who are Puerto Rican and the entire country. It's in South Boston and that was vandalized the day before Memorial Day and I was there on Memorial Day to stand with the over 200000 veterans from Puerto Rico who have put their lives on danger so that you and I can stand on their shoulders and be here. I think I saw someone put. That I might have said instead of South end, yes, self and right on Washington Street. so if I said South Boston forgive me, I did I did mean the South end actually my brother lived one Street over almost in Stella above Stds. So I'm not sure why I got that confused but look we need to do that. They're putting their lives on danger and we're not there for them but when it comes to Puerto Rican statehood, I believe Puerto Rico needs to self determine that you know and if they. That they wanna be a state amazing. Let's we need to welcome them with open arms and bring it together. I think we might see Puerto Rico become a state before we see DC because, at least with Puerto Rico, the Republicans think there might be a chance they could get one seat and with DC they're only reason for not allowing DC statehood is there would be three Democrats to in the Senate and one in the House. So I think Puerto Rico if they decide want to be a state, then that's an argument. It can make whether they're accurate or not, but I think it's time for Puerto Rico to make that decision and to move forward either way. Thank you so much. Thank you. Alex. What anyone else like to ask a question? Jonathan Oh, go ahead. Alex Hi Sam Spam Okay I have like a philosophical kind of political question for you. well, I love term limits. I believe in term limits a lot and so I guess my question for you is do you believe that being an elected official as a career someone to aspire to and in that sense, I feel like a lot of times people try to protect this career and not necessarily do what's best for the folks in the district or do you believe being an elected official is an opportunity to serve. And then create a pipeline of new folks who can come in and serve so we're creating democracy at a huge equitable level and that's my question. Do you believe that the career or do you believe it's an opportunity to build on a greater participatory population. Thank you Sam and I love how you framed the whole question I actually struggled with this a lot specifically the term limit piece and I'll tell you why and you'll hear my thinking but let me preface all of that by stating the job of any leader is to find a successor that will do a better job than they will right. So that's all for every member of Congress. Be finding. a pipeline and to be an ally a sponsor and a mentor for other people to be able to come and move forward and take our communities to better places. So I absolutely believe we need to be doing that. Where's my struggle on term limits. Here's the struggle. Look I worked at the D Triple C in the Democratic Caucus being a member of Congress and understanding very quickly how you can have the biggest impact on your community and doing that. Something that takes 123 or four years it takes time so when I see term limits that are like six years or 10 years, I actually am not necessarily for that because I don't think that's enough time to actually bring real meaningful change in the way that Congress works right now, I also think the more likely you can get into some of the leadership. you can go there if they term limits that were around 1520 years, I actually be. In favor of that, so it's trying to figure out what's the right mechanism because quite honestly, if other communities are having leaders that are out there a little longer they just have so much more influence than a lot of our younger leaders. That's not the case across the board. There are always exceptions to that rule, but I think you need to have some time honestly to even understand while you're in there on the ground with Committee assignments in those those pieces that have nothing to do with your. It takes time so that's my struggle. I don't believe someone should be there for their whole career. I don't believe someone should be there for 40 years or 30 years. I'm just not sure where that line is is it 15 years Is it 20 years? I just know it's not six because you know that's three terms in Congress and so I think we can try to figure out some kind of Middle ground, but let me be very clear if as a member of Congress, I am not trying to help figure out. Not just in Congress but in local government state government leaders are a nonprofits. I'm not doing my job. I've done that as President of the Hispanic National Bar Association in New England, I've done that as chair of several other nonprofits, it's the number one thing I look for how do we make sure that whoever succeeds me is far smarter far more empathetic and it's going to most likely take the Organization far further than I. I hope that gave you a sense Sam Thanks Ben. Yeah, of course, Alex I saw you had another question. Please ask away. Yes. so we know that one of your main priorities is eliminating racism and I know that you're referred specifically to systemic racism not only in our penal system, but also it systems the health care housing education transportation. I in for my day job. I'm a community organizer with the city life, which is a Organization, so I wanna bring it back to housing for a moment. And how systemic racism has played out in housing we know policies like redlining policy which allowed refusal of loans and insurance to black and Brown people which was banned 50 years ago, but we still see the the effects of of policies like this in the wealth gap. we see White families make far more than black and Brown. Here in Boston a black family their wealth is around eight dollars while White families. It's in the hundreds of thousands. So what ways do you think we can change our housing system to undo some of the harm done by policies like redlining and you're so right Redline is still happening. in fact, I think there was a report last week that was I think the globe did it if I if I remember correctly, I don't remember who it was but actually went out and interviewed Brookline and I think 20 other cities in towns and found that it was still happening very significant. So look, I think we need to go deeper than just look at housing and I'll tell you what I mean by that. Alex I think like I said at the beginning, No one 's born a racist right, No one 's born a bigot. We teach this and so we, that means that we have this implicit and explicit biases that start to form because of society we need to get to the core of those I think we can actually eradicate racism in our housing A lot of it if we can actually get to the earliest kids, kindergarten first and second grade to teach them about lies Andre. And bias right so that they're understanding those things so that when they are in positions of power or positions of ownership in order to rent or to sell housing, they're less likely to be part of the implicit bias piece, they're less likely to intentionally be bias as well. Now. That doesn't mean we're gonna get rid of all the bad people who intentionally are gonna be like this, but I do believe it's gonna mean we're gonna get rid of a far more and also get. As you can imagine for me and I mentioned mentioned it but I re-emphasize we have to have more diverse leaders in our committees in Congress in state and local government who really understand these diverse perspectives in our community and really not only learn about but understand and talk to people who are affected by things like redlining. We don't have enough of them right now. Some are really trying right. We have some great allies in the state House. There's no doubt, but we need to have far more of those especially in our. Look at our local real estate committees right all the committees in each of our cities and towns dealing with zoning and variances our zoning boards right, They're not very diverse. at all across the board. so if they're not first, how are they gonna understand the solutions that a lot of times are at the local level? we can come up with federal policies, but we need them to work at the local level at the same time, so we have grassroots coming up and we have top coming down from. Who are more diverse, understand it and teach more around cultural competency and bias, and all of that we're gonna have a I believe a very small group of people who are gonna continue with that and then we have to make sure we prosecute that and be stronger against it when it's happening. it's illegal. So why aren't we prosecuting those and I'm not saying we need to put them in jail necessarily. I am not saying that we all know we have a Mass incarceration. So this isn't necessarily about that, but we need to be strong in our minds to them. We need to be strong and actually giving them education forums to learn what they're wrongs are and why cuz what we do now is we tell someone oh you committed redlining or you are biased or you are prejudice or you are a racist and then you say you know, half of them will say no no I wasn't or I didn't realize that And then we either find them or they stop or they don't stop at all instead of actually putting them. And forums to actually learn how to be better citizens and owners and I think if we do that, we're gonna stop the recidivism of the Red lining that we're seeing happening. Thank you. Thank you so much for that question Alex to be mindful of time so that we have about five minutes left we do have time for one more quick question if anyone who likes to step up. now, I have a question Hi Jonathan. Hi how you doing. So my question is you know in the past few days right, It's been a big shift in the US economy by having sure that the jobs and careers of today's students will look different right than those in the past generation. So how would you break down barriers between the the K 12 education The post secondary education and the industry to prepare students and American schools for the future of the economy. I love that economic mobility question Jonathan I've spent a lot of time on this question I put out a robust education plan that you all can go see on the website and we're putting out a robust economic mobility plan at the beginning of next week as well, but let me get to get to your your question, but we need to severely significantly invest in our vocational and technical schools to start we need to create private public partnerships where employ. Are working with our students from day one to help give them the skills and training to get those 20 first century jobs when they when they graduate. that's great for the students. It's great for their families, but it's great. also for the employers we need to put significant resources also with our community colleges and D stigmatize going to a community College. It's a wonderful place let's build those partnerships between our community. And our employers and let's make sure the investments are there, but we also need to make sure we're investing in adults free vocational education. This is a big part of my plan and adults just means you're already graduated from a community College or College or vocational technical school or high school right you're in the workforce. We need to make sure that everyone if they want the skills and training to change industries to change jobs gets that. Free in addition and this is a really important statistic. I think many of you know this before Kobe Massachusetts at 200000 open jobs and a hundred and 30000 people looking for jobs. Why is that there are several reasons, but I'm gonna give you two of the major ones number one what I just said many people didn't have the skills and training in order for us to take those high-skilled jobs that were there. so let's give them that training and skills for free either while they're in school or as you're an adult this is great. Some employers and it's great for the families number two, though, is really frustrating to me. We have a ton of our immigrants actually have those skills and training, but but don't have English proficiency to take those jobs They try to go to English classes, but they have wait list on the English classes and they're not affordable, so we need to provide free and far more English classes so that our immigrants can who have the skills and the jobs can take the jobs that are open already and make sure they can lift up their families. So I think if we start doing that. Really gonna help the economic mobility pieces of our community and many others. Thank you so much and thank you. Jonathan for your question. I think that wraps it up for our for our Q and a I think I'm gonna give you about 30 seconds to just wrap it up. give it a quick pitch. Why you and thanking everyone I guess Well. Thank you. Enrique. Thank you to the Latino caucus and thank you to the young Democrats of Massachusetts for having this conversation with me look If you believe it's time we have a diverse leader in Congress in Massachusetts, then you should vote for me. and help support my campaign if you believe we need a leader who understands the diverse perspectives of the community, then please support my campaign if you believe there were so much stronger together as a community when we are United and divided, then please join our campaign. go to Ben Siegel for Congress dot com Be a part of this movement We the fourth that we have and please vote obviously if you're in the stitches and able to vote either. August 20 -second to the 20 - eight by mail or on September first and I'd love to see all of you join our campaign and help us make the change that we all deserve. We all need and Thank you so much Ben first of all, Thank you for your time. Thank you for being part of our conversation here with why the M a Latino caucus I also wanna thank our Facebook live audience We appreciate you tuning in and we look forward to having you again on our next event so the way the Latino caucus members thank you. we also look forward to speaking with you and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out Ben. It's been an honor of good luck with your election and we look forward to see what you have. Thank you everyone, please stay safe and enjoy the rest of the week. Thank you. Bye.