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Hi, my name is Sarah Davidson and I'm a student intern with the Houston Jewish History Archive at Rice University. Today is Tuesday, October 25th, 2022. And I am joined by a former member of the Houston City Council, Ellen Cohen. How are you today? I'm very well.

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Thank you. How are you? Good, great. Um I'm really excited that you're joining me today to talk about your political career and Jewish identity. So I wanted to start by talking about where you grew up and what your family life was like. Ok, I grew up

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in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio called Shaker Heights. Uh in a very traditional family, uh mother, father, one sibling, five years younger than I in a ultra reform Jewish home. You know, to the point where we had Christmas trees at Christmas and Menorah's and we colored

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Easter eggs and we put eggs on the Passover plate. So, I mean, we covered the whole spectrum and that was a time when Jews were really trying to fit in and not to stand out. Uh my home life was very loving, very affectionate. Um In terms

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of my Judaism, I went to a reform synagogue. It, that point was called Euclid Avenue. Then it changed its name to Fairmont Temple. I was confirmed, I went to a couple of Jewish summer, you know, one week programs kind of um youth group type of things.

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And ultimately, I ended up in a summer camp in Northern Ontario which while it didn't say precisely being a Jewish camp. It Friday nights, we all wore white and we had Hala and I mean, it was clearly a Jewish camp. Um, and that's, that's where I

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went to, I went to public high school shekar, hes high school and, uh, Ohio State University. Mhm. Uh, how did you meet your husband? Remember that summer camp I mentioned, yes, that's how we met. I was, um, 14 and he was 16 and he was from

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Montreal. I, again, I was from Cleveland and we, um, started romance and kept it going off and on, but kept it going. He went to Cornell. I went to all state and, uh, we married two weeks after I turned 20 moved to his hometown of Montreal.

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Mhm. And you lived with your husband in Montreal for several years, right. 18 years, 18 years. Wow. What was the Jewish community like there? It was large. That's it, it was largely conservative and by conservative, I mean, orthodox because in my husband's synagogue which his grandfather

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started, called the Shar Hashemi in Montreal. Men and women did not sit together and the service itself was largely in Hebrew. So it was totally antithetical to anything I had grown up with. Um, a lot of the Jews had come to Montreal as a safe haven

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after the war. And it was, as I said, it was a big population. Um, there was, I think, one fledgling reform synagogue. So it, it was, it was largely Uber conservative. Interesting. I really didn't know that. Um, I know not much about Judaism in Canada. So

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do you know the poet Leonard Cohen, who wrote the song? Do you notice the last name Coen and my last name Cohen. My husband, Lion and Leonard were first cousins. So, you know, it is an interesting family to grow up in Leonard's father and my mother

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in law were brother and sister. So he played a huge part in our lives as well. My mom's last name is Cohen really far back in the future. We must have been related but not sure when you know the, the Cohen tribe. So hundreds and hundreds

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of years back, but somewhere along there. Yeah. Uh I wanna switch gears a little bit. So when did you first become politically active? I, well, you know, that's a good question. It depends whether you define politically active as being in politics or doing something in your

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life, which for which you were able to make changes. So I think you have to define it for me. Are you asking me when did I get involved in running for office or when did I have my first foray into seeing a wrong and trying to

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change it? I'd say the seeing a wrong and trying to change it because I know that came first in your life. It did, it did. So I would say the most dramatic part for me was as uh someone who was in their mid to late twenties.

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Actually, I was 28. At the time I developed breast cancer and I living in Montreal and I didn't know anyone who ever had breast cancer. No other woman never. And I had to have a mastectomy and I had two young Children. And I heard of a

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group in the United States that was started in New York City by a woman called Teresa Laser. And it was called reach to recovery. And it was simply a group of women who had had mastectomies and were doing OK, were trained and they would go into

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a patient's room who was about to undergo it and talk and be there to answer questions. Where do I get a prosthesis? What's my life gonna be like? Well, I have sexual relations again. How do I tell my Children? Um And, and answering those questions, I

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thought that was fabulous. So I flew to New York, I was trained, I came back to Montreal. I went to a meeting of all the surgeons who, of course, in those days were men. And um said, I've got a great program for you. And um, they

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said, you know, essentially losing a breast is no big deal. And we don't want any do, do good women in our hospital rooms. And then I went to the Canadian Cancer Society and told them the same thing. And they said, well, where did you learn about

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this program? And I said, in New York City and they said, we don't want a program that was started in the States. So at that point, I had to decide, do, do I just wanna concentrate on myself? Because I didn't know how long I had to

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live. I just wanna live long enough to see my Children graduate from elementary school or did I wanna step out and make this across the lab and do something about it? And I decided the latter. And so I agreed to do an interview for the newspaper.

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I had my picture taken, which was a difficult step because then everybody knew I had had cancer and breast cancer. Um But I said, yes, I'm gonna do it. I got the message out had a meeting of people, women who might be interested in starting music

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recovery with me. And from then on, we went through a lot. But from then on the program, ultimately, it was in every hospital in Montreal in almost in French and English. And um by the time my late husband and I left Montreal in 1977 and this

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was 69. Um It was going strong. So that was my first, my first opportunity to say, which direction do I wanna go in and do I care about what the results are gonna be? Do I care that people know I have breast cancer, do I care

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being shot down by certain hospitals that weren't gonna take the program initially? I mean, all of those disappointments and I think that helped prepare me for the other small p political things I got involved with and finally for the big p political. OK, I'm prepared to

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run for office. Yeah. Amazing story. You know, and then, and then here, I mean, thank you. I mean, you know, I worked for the Houston area Women's Center for 18 years. And so that was, you know, you're so young, but in those days, you know, women,

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if they were being raped was fault what they were wearing, what time of night they were out. If they were being beat up, it's because of what they said. I mean, we had to at the Women's Center, I was ceo we had to change that attitude.

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We had to, and we had to engage men in the project. I mean, all those things. And so, and so that was another big step, you know about OK, I'm gonna step out there and people are gonna yell at me and all sorts of things. Yeah,

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you really have to, I think, kind of, you know, fight the power of it. It's a really, yeah, like, kind of that uh patriarchal institution. Yeah. So I, so how did you end up in Houston? Uh, from Montreal. So, um, my husband was a third generation

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Canadian. So I figured we were there. I was the, um pr director for the Jewish General Hospital, which incidentally was started because Jewish doctors and nurses couldn't get postings in the other hospitals. So they had to start their own hospital. And I mean, I thought we

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were there for the rest of our lives. I didn't think we'd be coming back. But then the politics of Quebec started to become very in intrusive and invasive French and English against each other. There were either, there were also some um some real serious. Um There

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were some serious murders, there was there in between the French and English and you know, my late husband's name was Lion and lion and I said, you know, our kids aren't gonna come back to Quebec, not under this environment. I was still an American. I never

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gave up my citizenship so we could come into this country. I could bring him in. And um then we looked around the country and uh you know, Lyon was a CPA. So he had transferable credentials. Texas is one. Louisiana was another. Colorado was another. And then

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we looked around and we said there's black gold under the ground there's intellectual black gold above the ground. People who deals with handshakes. We like that. And uh the idea of taking two teenagers was probably not the smartest thing, but we did and they turned out

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fabulous. But, um, that's how we ended up here. And then just to add to that though, couple of years later, line was diagnosed with a tumor in the spinal cord. And so there's an expression coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. So when you asked me

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why we ended up in here, there's something more than just, it was Texas and it was that there was something that said if you get to Houston, you know, when something happens, you'll be in the best medical center in the world. And because if we had

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moved, you know, to New Orleans, which we could have done, I mean, when he was diagnosed, uh he was originally given 18 months and he lived 18 years and if we had gone anywhere else except maybe slow Kettering, um he would have never made it. So

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how, why we moved here? I can give you a whole bunch of serious good reasons but something prophetic happened, fate, coincidence, whatever. What were your first impressions of Houston when you got here? That it was booming. I mean, I think we came in on what was

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the 610 and, and we looked around and they were building or adding to the gallery and it looked like a sea of giraffes, you know, all those, um, machine. What's I'm trying to, the cranes, all those cranes, you know? Oh my God. And that people didn't

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care where you were from. They didn't care whether you had been born here. They didn't care who your parents were. You know, if you said I'll do that and you did it, then they accepted you and that was great. I liked it. I liked the spirit,

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um that we can do it attitude. Um I could say something about the attitude right now, but I'm not going to, I'll leave that for another time. All right. Yeah. Um In 1980 I think you were recruited to be the executive director of the American Jewish

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Committee and you served that session for 10 years. So, can you tell me a little bit more about what that was like? Well, the American Jewish committee, first of all, it was a great job for me because it, we only landed here in late 77. So,

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yeah, I really hadn't had a chance to meet that many people. Someone introduced us to the American Jewish committee and la and I volunteered for a project. So that gave me a little taste. And then when I was asked to apply for the position, uh I

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thought that's great. It'll help me get to know the Jewish community better in Houston. Uh And it's all about human rights and I'm all about human rights and so what could have been better than to deal with the issues, unfortunately, that we're actually dealing with today.

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But, you know, a one's right to choose uh anti-semitism um doing the kind of things that tun la and you know, what we can do to change the world. So it was a great, it was a great organization for me. Great. Yeah. Um What were some

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of your kind of most influential experiences? I'm sorry, what were some of the most influential experiences you had a Yeah, something that really impacted you while you were there? Gosh, it's, that's, you know, you're asking me to go back really far. I don't know about influence,

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but a story that happened, I was also teaching uh Sunday school to seniors at Beth Israel and American Jewish committee was involved in current events and the things that were happening. And at one point I was talking about prayer in school and one of the young

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men, you know, 1617 year old raised his hand and he said he had a predicament because he played football for Baylor High School. And he said before the game, the coach has us pray. And he said, I don't know what to do. He said, because if

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I kneel for a prayer, I feel like I'm being disloyal to my faith. If I don't, I'm standing out amongst all my peers as not doing what they're doing. And I said that was when I had the opportunity to talk about why we have separation of

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church and state, which of course today in 2022 we are fighting again. But nonetheless, I said to him, you shouldn't be put in that position. That's exactly why we have separation of church and state. And he and I and others made an appointment with the Principal

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Bella and explained what was going on and it, it was changed. Wow. So that was, I think, a dramatic time for him and it was certainly an opportunity for me to take what I was talking about and put it into practicality. It's interesting. There's still probably

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tons of instances of that happening today all over the country. Yeah. Yeah. Um I know you also took a trip to Israel during your time at AJ C, right? I did, what was that experience like that? I took a couple. But this, I know the one

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you're referring to, the one that you're referring to is a trip again with AJ C. And I, um I had a, I had befriended a woman whose husband was in the knesset in Israel through AJ C and her husband um was diagnosed with cancer and was

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brought to Houston. And so I was able to help her and do things while he was being treated in Anderson. So consequently, when I took this trip to Israel, I contacted her and she had been responsible for helping raise money for the Museum of the diaspora.

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And she was gonna put on a good big show for our group because I think she was grateful for what I did for her husband and wanted to repay in some way. And so we landed on a, I'm making this up hypothetically we landed on a

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Wednesday or something. And the tour was gonna be on Thursday and I woke up on Thursday morning and got up and the next thing I knew I was on the floor of my suite in my hotel. I got up again. The next thing I knew I

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was on the floor and in the restroom. And so I called her and I said, I don't know what's going on, but I'm, you know, I'm in big trouble and the tour continued, she got me into the hospital in Pita. So for the next 10 days,

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I was in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer in Peda. I'm truly a Sabra because I have a lot of Sabra blood in me for the transfusions. Most important and dramatic thing that happened. There was that the room I was in was a room designed for,

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I think one person, but there were two beds. And after I was there, a couple of days, a young woman came in extremely dark skinned woman, um, from, as it turns out Ethiopia, she didn't speak English. I certainly didn't speak Ethiopian and we couldn't communicate. I'm

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not sure why she was there except that one of the nurses told me that the first airplane ride she ever took was the one that lifted her out of Ethiopia and brought her to Israel because of whatever, why she was there. But, you know, we smiled

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at each other and then Friday night they brought candles, we each had a little table next to our bed. They brought Shabbat candles in and we both said the prayer over the candles in Hebrew. And it just touched me immensely to think that I was connected

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to this woman, this Jewish woman who grew up in the most modest environment. I mean, I found out in, in fact, almost to the point where she was living almost in the jungle type environment. I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. I had all the luxuries

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and privileges of an Anglo woman and North America and she was totally different. And yet for those two or three minutes, we connected and it connected me to my history and it connected me to who I am as a Jewish woman. And it made me see

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Judaism through a different prism that was and I got out of the hospital the day before the trip returned to Houston. Perfect timing. Yeah. Right. It was a great trip. I really love that story. I remember hearing me tell that and I was like, that's just

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such a great story. I love that connection of cross national boundaries. Yeah, me too. Um So kind of moving on from there. You talked a little bit about, uh, becoming the president CEO of the Women's Center, the Houston area, Women's Center. Um, what was that experience

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like there? Ok. Well, but the, it, I served on the board when I was the CEO of the American Jewish committee, I was asked to serve on the board of the Houston era Women's Center, which was a very fledgling organization. And, you know, and people thought

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we were a group of wacko radical feminists, you know, who wore headbands and smoked funny cigarettes. And that, that was not true, not all of that was true. Ok. And it was a, you know, I am who I am. I'm a Jewish woman. So I got

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to do Jewish by being 10 years at the American Jewish committee. Now is being a chance to play out my role as a woman by being ceo of the Houston area Women's Center. And that, as I repeat, you know what I said to you before, that

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was a time when, when women, no one listened to us, there was a time even where in some cases women couldn't even purchase things on their own where women couldn't, couldn't go in and buy a car without the signature of their husband or father. I mean,

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it was, it was, it's hard to believe now, except not so hard to believe now because women are facing some serious issues now. So. Mhm. Yeah. But No, but it was great. It was great. I think I went from, when I first came on CEO, I

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think we had 50 staff and a budget of a million dollars or so. And when I left, we had 100 and 20 staff and a budget of 6.1 million and a spectacular shelter and, and they're doing great things now. They're adding, they're just doing some terrific

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things, but it was great to be surrounded by women too as staff and, and we had some very feminist men and staff as well. But still bright young women who were coming out of college at the time who are really feeling the change and it helped

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like my fires. So it was great. Yeah, I can imagine that being a really empowering environment to be around all these women who are, you know, wanna fight for women's rights. Yeah, great. You know, and you could sit around in somebody's office and, you know, go

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off on a tangent for 10 minutes and talk about whatever it is you wanted to talk about and purge yourself of. So, you know, it was great. Yeah. So then from there, how did you get involved in electoral politics? So capital p politics. OK. So now,

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you understand, I was involved in things that required the passion that I had. Um my husband died in 2004 and I was approached by two gentlemen in the city. Uh Both of them are very active in democratic politics and they, I was ceo of the Women's

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Center. They asked me if I would consider running for the legislature in Austin. And I did what a lot of women used to do. Not so much now, you know, I said, no, no, I don't know enough about, you know, this or that. And, and they

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said, well, le let's meet with us, you know, we meet with us again and we'll go over some more and they brought some statistics and the district they were asking me to run for. Although it, it had a Republican woman representative, it was just barely, I,

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I'm making this number up like 52% Republican maybe. So, I mean, it was a winnable district. And I thought to myself, well, if I run and I lose, I'll still be the CEO of the Houston area Women's Center because, you know, you only meet for five

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months every two years here in the legislature. If I run and I win, I'll be the state representative and the CEO of the Houston area Women's Center. So, you know, that was the risk and I've done risky things up until then and, you know, I'd had

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fingers pointed and, you know, whatever I, I could handle it. If it was a loss, it was a loss. You know, at least I put myself out there. And, um, I had some wonderful support from friends, others from the Democratic Party at large. And uh we

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did it, we, we ran and we won and then we ran and won the second term and then we ran and lost the third term, which there was a complete Republican flip. That was Republican takeover. Yeah. Um What challenges did you face as a Jewish woman

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in politics? You mean in the legislature? Uh did, did you say Judy were you asking about as a Jewish woman in politics? What were some of the challenges he faced? But the first challenge I faced was that I was the only Jewish woman on the floor

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of the house in Texas. There was a Jewish woman who was in the Senate and um and actually she was Republican. I was a Democrat, but I was the only Jewish woman on the floor of the house. I was sort of an anomaly to people like

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who, you know, and there weren't that many women. I think there were maybe 38 women out of 100 and 50. So it was really, yeah. Um I faced, I don't know that I faced anything more as a Jewish woman than as a Jew. I'm not sure

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that the woman who came anything more than all the women on the floor faced. But I remember a bill I was very enthusiastic about and then you had to bring it up before a committee and it was taking place the first night of Passover. I said

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you all. Well, this doesn't work. And, well, that's what we, that's what we planned. And I, you know, totally insensitive to the fact that it was the first night of Passover, I was going home to celebrate Passover with my family. So we finally were able to

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work out a video compromise that I taped uh in those days. I mean, I taped my comments but, and the same thing I face all the time programs that are scheduled on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. And what I try to explain to people just doesn't work.

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I mean, and respectfully, you wouldn't schedule it on Easter or Christmas. So, you know, you have to, we're on the calendar for just the first days of those two holidays. Um At one point, for example, there was a meet the candidate forum in Houston and there

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were four or five of us invited and it was scheduled for one of the high holidays and two of us were Jewish, you know, can't you move it? You know, the race for the cure was scheduled one year and either Yom Kippur or um Rosh Hashanah

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and I had been the honoree, I guess the year before. So, and they scheduled race for the Cure on the High Holy Day. Hm. So it's all about education and which I did. I mean, that's what I've done for my, my, the staff I have now,

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I had, I mean, I'm retired now. They are so sensitive to those things. I mean, one of them is presently, a couple of them are presently working for the county and one of them was telling me that she had to remind people, you know, you better

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check that calendar and make sure it's not on a Jewish holiday and she's not Jewish. Yeah. They, they still scheduled tests at rice on Jewish holidays. I remember I had a test on Yom Kippur and we was like, oh, no, that's why I had to reschedule

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it for another day. It's just, it never, you know, and again, it's not as if it's hidden. I mean, you look at any calendar now and it's, it's, you know, recognized as a, as a holiday. Exactly. Yeah. Uh Yeah. Uh another question I have is so

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as a city council member, what do you think was your most important accomplishment? Well, there were a number but I, I let me just digress for one moment because, um, being Jewish on city council was also a challenge. I was the only Jewish person. Uh And,

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but at that time I was the only a council member that was Jewish and, you know, I felt it incumbent on me to educate as well to make sure that if my, my, if I wasn't coming in, I was just on Yom Kippur, which I wasn't

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that my office is closed. Not that the non Jewish people working in my office came in, but the office was closed and that the message on the phone didn't just say we're closed. It said why we were closed and what holiday it was. And um you

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know, at Hanukkah, if everybody else was putting out Christmas candies, which was fine and lovely and Christmas trees outside whatever on tables outside their office. I was putting a menorah and I was putting donuts and explained why we fried doughnuts. Um I just felt it was

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important to do that. So by way of, and then I was Mayor pro TEM, I was able to also have a strong effect. Um And mayor turned it to his credit and I'm very fond of him. I love working with him. I mean, he would always

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introduce me for something and say the first Jewish woman to be woman to be Mayor Pro TEM of the Houston Houston, Texas. He liked that. It's funny. Um but the accomplishments were, there were many, I mean, I helped pass the Houston Equal Rights ordinance, um which

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unfortunately, of course, was overturned later because people turned it into the bathroom bill. Um It's almost high. I was able to raise a fee so that we put it towards rape crisis programs and others in uh in the city, I did the same thing in the

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state. Um There were, there were just so many different things, you know, I mean, it's hard for me to articulate which particular issues were just just being there representing my district. I mean, that was the, the key issue. Yeah. Um I really get that as kind

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of like a, you know, it was a altogether your time as city council member kind of, you know, working towards those goals instead of like one specific moment. Yeah. So this question is probably a little bit hard to answer too. But uh what do you consider

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to be your greatest success? My greatest man, that's hard. And, you know, reach recovery was really important. Building the first, you know, significant shelter and he didn't, it's really important. Um I think, I think in the long run, if I think back on my career and

00:30:25.040 - 00:30:43.979

my life, I think starting breast cancer program is probably my biggest success to provide women, women with hope. I mean, even now I'll be somewhere or I'll be asked to give a speech on something and just standing up and saying, I'm a 53 year breast cancer

00:30:43.989 - 00:31:03.050

survivor. All I have to do is say that sentence and there are a group of people in the audience that are given hope. And to me that's, yeah, that's what it's all about. Yeah, it's really, yeah, it's really powerful. I think that kind of, you know,

00:31:03.060 - 00:31:26.239

uh hope for the future that you instill in everyone listening. Yeah. Yeah. Um So how do you think your Jewish identity has influenced your politics and advocacy? It's hard to say because, uh you know, growing up reform I said, you know, I, I grew up in

00:31:26.250 - 00:31:41.099

a home which was, this is the right thing to do. I didn't know that it had to do with Takuma Alum. I didn't know what the Jewish philosophy was. I mean, I never just knew, I just knew that my parents were good people and they helped

00:31:41.109 - 00:32:04.339

others and, and my Jewishness, my depth of Jewishness came later, my depth of Jewishness was, was part of lying in a hospital bed and looking at someone who didn't look like me and knowing that we were sounds silly to say, but I mean, it seriously, we

00:32:04.349 - 00:32:23.439

were sisters. I mean, we really would going back however long. Um And, you know, I spent a fair part of my life fighting in on separatism working for American Jewish committee. So, I mean, traditionally I was involved in that, I just learned a lot. I, I,

00:32:23.449 - 00:32:39.599

I'll, I'll give you a sort of a little funny anecdote. Um, after I was elected to the legislature, I got a call from rabbi David Lyon at Beth Israel that he wanted to see me. And we, I tell the story this way and I say, you

00:32:39.609 - 00:32:52.160

know, when you get a call that the rabbi wants to see you sort of like sitting in seventh grade and the principal wants to see you, right. Uh oh, what did I do wrong? And so, ok, so I, um, and I made an appointment to go

00:32:52.170 - 00:33:09.050

in to see him and he sat down and he congratulated me on my election and he said, I thought maybe we could take a little time and talk about what Judaism says about leadership. And we had a wonderful session just and I learned from that and

00:33:09.060 - 00:33:28.380

he's been a wonderful teacher for me about my own face and um something will happen and we'll be able to tie it back into being Jewish. Yeah. I'm just curious, what did he say about Judaism leadership if you remember any of that conversation? Just to, I,

00:33:28.390 - 00:33:46.800

I don't remember per se. I actually wrote it down. I've got it in one of the speeches but, you know, just the, the obligation you have and to listen to other people, you don't know everything just because you're elected, you have the wisdom of people around

00:33:46.810 - 00:34:04.989

you and you have to be thoughtful and in the perspective of listening to them. I remember that part. Um mhm. I mean, he just, I can't, you know, I can't give you any more specifics. But yeah, I totally understand. Um I think I have a couple

00:34:05.000 - 00:34:20.000

closing questions and they're a little bit broad, but I just, yeah. Uh So what do you think of the state of Texas politics today? And I know this is a loaded question. It's a bit of a loaded question. But I just want to hear your answer

00:34:20.080 - 00:34:37.909

you. It's deplorable. I mean, I can answer you in one word. It's, well, two words. It's deplorable. Um, I'm, and, you know, we've been talking, we've been talking about, um, a woman's right to choose. We've mentioned in other things, things that happened 50 years ago and

00:34:37.919 - 00:34:59.520

now we're fighting it again. I think that, um, I think anti Semitism is on the rise in the state. That's horrible. Um, I'm, I'm discouraged that and I'm an optimist by nature and I'm not sitting here as a pessimist, but I'm discouraged, I'm discouraged in terms

00:34:59.530 - 00:35:14.219

of leadership from both parties. I might add, there are, you know, I am a democrat and, um I'm proud of a number of the people that are running. I want to see more people run and I understand why they're not. You want your life destroyed by

00:35:14.229 - 00:35:26.290

crazies. I mean, that's what happens. I mean, even when I ran the first time and I was widowed at that time. So I didn't have lie until, you know, since, I mean, if he had been alive, I obviously would have consulted with him about whether I

00:35:26.300 - 00:35:43.580

was gonna run, but I had to consult with my kids and the politics weren't that dirty then, but still, you know, they would drag up something or do make up something and the things that are going on now are so, uh they're just filled with lies

00:35:43.590 - 00:35:59.600

and it's, I just iii, I don't know how to answer it except that I don't want people to give up I don't want people like you to give up and your friends because that's the only hope we have. I will keep fighting. But my friends and

00:35:59.610 - 00:36:15.479

I are tired and, um, we need to know that you're there. I mean, we're looking at a race, we're in the midst as this, as we're taping this, there's an election going on and as I understand it, particularly in Texas, particularly in Texas. But, you know,

00:36:15.489 - 00:36:34.399

the only way, uh I don't want to make it so prejudicial, but the only way Democrats and, or people who are passionate about the issues we care about are gonna win it for young people like you to be registered and vote, particularly young women. Yeah, I

00:36:34.429 - 00:36:50.179

actually voted for the first time yesterday, which is very exciting. I felt very happy walking out of the 999. Yes, I, I was, I was sitting there and I was like, this is a lot of, this is a lot of, it's the longest ballot I think,

00:36:50.189 - 00:37:04.969

not only in Texas, but I'm not even sure if it isn't the longest ballot in the country. Nine races. Yeah, I was very surprised. I did not know there was 99 races. So, yeah, we're working on another project right now for voter education at Rice. So

00:37:05.179 - 00:37:20.439

it's been, it's, it's hard to make anything though that is comprehensive but good for you. I mean, but, but we rely on, on we meaning people, my age rely on and you all to be out there and vote. I mean, that's, and I mean, that, I

00:37:20.449 - 00:37:40.679

don't want it to sound so democrat republican because, I mean, I served on the floor of the house with Republican and particularly one Republican woman. She and I were very good friends. Um, you know, I just, I just, I am so concerned where your religion is,

00:37:40.689 - 00:38:01.280

the religion we should be practicing. You decide what books we should be reading you. I mean, that's all our rights are threatened. Yeah. My final question was, do you think there's any hope for Texas future? But I think you've got, there is, there is, of course,

00:38:01.290 - 00:38:15.939

there's hope. There is. As I said, I'm an optimist. There is hope. There's no question. And this is not the worst time in this country's history, I can't say for Texas, but this is not the worst time in our country's history. So, you know, we'll make

00:38:15.949 - 00:38:37.979

it through. Um, but with, but people have to share the passion. They really do. Um, all people. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Um, I really like that last part. I think that's a great way to wrap up this interview. Um I'm really glad I could talk to you

00:38:37.989 - 00:38:53.330

today. I feel like I learned a lot and it was a really great, uh, exciting opportunity. It's, I'll tell you sitting with you gives me hope so that you did me a favor by being such a enthusiastic young woman. And knowing that you voted for the

00:38:53.340 - 00:39:08.810

first time yesterday makes me feel great. You're not gonna have to do you feel good about yourself when you walked out, I felt very proud and I felt very accomplished. Like I was glad I got to vote for the first time. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank

00:39:08.820 - 00:39:20.699

you so much for meeting my pleasure. Sarah, you're delightful and I have faith when I spend time with you. So it's good. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, let's hope.