San Diegans honor Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

S1: On this MLK Day , a conversation with the keynote of the All People celebration.

S2: We are in fact all in this same world house.

S1: I'm Jade Hindman. This is KPBS midday edition. More details about a lawsuit involving the public defender's office. And discrimination.

S3: The idea that the county would continue to pay our taxpayer dollars and keep someone in their job who's admitted to this kind of gross unethical misconduct is shocking to me. And again , I'm just speaking personally.

S1: A look at how composting in San Diego will work. And we'll talk about the Museum of US. That's ahead on Midday Edition. In honor of Reverend Dr. Martin luther King Jr. Many san diegans gathered this morning for the 35th annual All people celebration. This year's keynote speaker was Steve Phillips , a national political leader , best selling author and columnist. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Brown is the New White How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority. And his latest book , How We Win the Civil War Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good. Midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken spoke with Phillips ahead of today's celebration , which was centered around Dr. King's words. Let's build bridges , not walls. Andrew started by asking how Phillip's keynote connects to that sentiment.

S2: So one of the core messages of Dr. King that I want to lift up in our talk is from the last book that King wrote , which was called Where Do We Go From Here ? And the last chapter of that book is called The World House. And so he refers to the interconnected nature of people all over the globe. And so I think this concept of bridging across borders , across boundaries , across identity to all live in , and we are in fact , all in this same world house. And so that's , I think , what I want to try to share in my in my remarks. And Martin Luther King Day has long been known as a day of service. I'm curious , can you talk a little bit about the meaning behind the holiday and in how public service became such a central part of it ? Yeah , I would say service and also action and activism. And so one of the speeches , one of the leaders , frankly , who was influential , my own development was Reverend Jesse Jackson , who was with Dr. King at the time of his assassination. And we brought Reverend Jackson to speak on Dr. King's birthday when I was in college. And he talked about here this theme of the unfinished business of Dr. King and how at the time of his death , what he was working on was the Poor People's Campaign. And he was really trying to bring attention to the realities of economic inequality and the imperative , the moral and social imperative of trying to address and redress poverty youth in this country. And so service , I think , is a definite aspect of it. And at the same time , I think King was fundamentally an activist and an advocate and a change agent. And so really going beyond addressing the symptoms that we face as a society and looking at systemically , structurally , how he used to talk about not just flinging coins at somebody asking for money , but actually looking at the structure of a system that produced people who have to ask for money. And so that , I think , is the ultimate testament and legacy that King left us. And now we have a new Congress that's just gotten underway. And it got started just hours after the second anniversary of the January 6th insurrection. How do you see the health of our democracy two years on from that day ? Well , we have a democracy , so that's a good starting point , which was not a given on January 6th when you had the not only the sitting president of the United States , but the majority of the members of the Republican Party voting to , in essence , overthrow the elected government of the United States of America , voting to reject the electors that had been affirmed by 50 governors , Republican and Democrat , and trying to block the peaceful transfer of power , which is a cornerstone of democracy. And that was very much in play on January 6th , 2021. The good news is that didn't happen. The bad news is how close we came to it happening. And then Reverend Raphael Warnock , Senator Warnock has offered up the juxtaposition. Reverend Warnock is the literal successor to Martin Luther King at Ebenezer Baptist Church. He preaches Americans are in that was were Dr. King was the minister. And he talks about are we going to be a January 5th country or a January 6th country ? And January 5th , the country sent to the United States Senate , successor of Dr. King , African-American and the first Jewish senator , certainly from the South and from Georgia , Jon Ossoff. And then on January six , we had the insurrection. And so with this choices before us as a country. And so I say on that to say is that the state of the democracy is fragile , but it exists. And so that's encouraging , but it's fragile. So we have to remain extraordinarily vigilant and active to defend it and protect it and expand it. And on that fragility you just mentioned , we've heard discussion recently about how our country may be headed toward a civil war. But in your most recent book , How We Win the Civil War , you make a much different argument , don't you ? Right. I argue that the Civil War never ended and that the Confederates and their ideological and genealogical heirs have never stopped fighting The essential cause of the Civil War , which is the existential struggle over Is this going to be a multiracial , multicultural democracy , or is this going to be primarily a country for white people ? And that battle continues to this day. And what I try to show in my book is that there has been a consistent and unrelenting effort to preserve that dynamic and that framework for the country , starting with 1877. HAYES Tilden Compromise , where the contested presidential election was decided by agreeing to give the South back to the slave owners and to pull out the northern troops that were protecting people of color , which in essence reinstated , legalized. Is racial segregation within the South. For almost a hundred years. And so we've only even been a democracy since 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed. And that's been continuously under assault from those who want this to be what I described as trying to make America white again. And last year , the Biden administration made a strong push for new voting rights legislation , but it ultimately stalled in Congress. Where does that effort stand today and where do you see it going from here ? Well , I think it's we're not doing enough or not doing enough with enough urgency and intensity. So Biden has done some good things , sort of using the bully pulpit to give speeches and draw attention to the challenge defense of our democracy and to the threats of our democracy. And so that's been useful and helpful. But as I was coming to people , if it is in fact , as existential a battle , as he has said in his speeches , which it is , shouldn't we be fighting harder ? We can't limit our efforts to be able to pass a single piece of legislation in a body that has , you know , tepid at best support for expanding voter voter participation. So we at every different level , we need to be active. And I think the president and all people who have any kind of leadership platform should be aggressive and active. You know , I think we need to have a million precinct captains in this country who are promoting democracy and talking to their neighbors on the regular , making sure people are registered to vote , making sure they get out and actually vote. And on President Biden , in progressive political circles , you're hearing a lot of discussion on one central question , and that is , will he run again in 2024 or not ? I'm curious what your thoughts are on that. But also , if he doesn't , who are some of the faces that you have your eye on who may be looking to run ? I hope Biden does run. I feel that the damage to the country done by the prior president is going to take longer than four years to clean up. And I think they are doing a pretty good job of putting the government back together again and making it function from people who are basically assailing the government. He has a demonstrated a breadth of coalition that would , I think , be formidable electorally in 2024. But I also feel that there does need to be a healthy and constructive debate within the Democratic Party around priority and direction and strategies in terms of what the right way to move forward. You know , I look at , you know , people , you know , like Cory Booker , who he ran in 2020 in terms of really has the breadth of communication skills to be able to communicate with a lot of people in business in the more moderate sector , but also to tie today's current issues to the historic civil rights issues within the context of the struggle for racial justice and inspire people to be more dedicated and committed. I still think that someone like Stacey Abrams has great potential and talent and leadership within this country and personifies the new model of leadership , both substantively and symbolically , in a country where every single president has been a man and 45 of them have been white men. To have somebody like Stacey Abrams , who both comes from , understands and organizes in communities of color and among women , etc.. And regardless of whether Biden decides to run or not , there is a good chance that the Democratic primary will look much different than in the past. There's an effort to replace the first date on the Democratic primary calendar , Iowa , and replace it with South Carolina. How would that impact not only progressive political power but also our democracy at large ? Well , it's a very encouraging and long overdue step that in a country that is 40 plus percent people of color and a party that is nearly half people of color , to be having the most important and inaugural electoral contest be in a state that's 90% white is not good politics and it's not good policy. And so then all the candidates have to understand and appeal to the issues and the constituencies of what is objectively a fairly narrow slice of the actual population and definitely a fairly narrow slice of the progressive coalition. So if in fact , they go to South Carolina , which is where the Democratic Party consists of 60% African-Americans , the issues and the priorities that are going to have to be mastered , as well as the skills and the language and the messages that can speak to that community will be very different. And that will be very important for Democrats to have the full electoral strength that they're going to need and that they had , particularly during Obama's candidacies , where you had very strong , enthusiastic turnout of African-Americans. So it's an extraordinarily significant and promising development. And in June of this year , a final report from California's reparations task force is expected. It to lay out what reparations may look like for African-Americans in the state. I'm curious what you think about the effort and if you see it in any way as a continuation of Dr. King's legacy ? Oh , it very much is so. And I'm really glad that they're doing it. And I'm really glad they're advancing even beyond the policy prescriptions themselves. But the question itself and so I try to address this in the epilogue of my book , where I talk about a new social contract in that , and I reference their Dr. King's message and focus on poverty and pursuing a guaranteed income. So there is a national movement now around Mayors for a Guaranteed Income launched by former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs. And there's dozens of cities across the country , including San Diego , which are doing guaranteed income programs that are manifestations of King's policies , prescription and vision. And so that is going to be a critical piece. And so fundamentally , what I try to address in my what I say in my book is the beyond. And let's not get tripped up around the specifics of any particular policy or manifestation. But really the fundamental question is what is owed ? And there is an article in The New York Times by Nikole Hannah-Jones after George Floyd was killed with that theme of what is owed in a country where the wealth was created on land , taken from the indigenous communities and worked to become quite profitable in terms of the cotton that was , you know , grown and then sold by African-American slaves. But they were not able to participate in that wealth creation. And so there is a it a fair and just and democratic society. We would grapple with that question around what is a particularly given the persistent inequality that has been an outgrowth of that history of exploitation. So California can help to focus and galvanize the conversation in this country. And it is very much a long overdue conversation , and it's absolutely a continuation and an extension of the work that Dr. King was doing , which I says at his death was working and the Poor People's Campaign.

S1: That was Steve Phillips who gave the keynote address this morning at the 35th annual All People celebration honoring the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. He was speaking to midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken. You're listening to KPBS Midday edition. I'm Jade Hindman. Court transcripts show San Diego County public defender Randy Mize admitted under oath last month that he signed off on an investigative report knowing it contained false statements. KPBS investigative reporter Amita Sharma has more.

S4: Mies's admission came during the December trial of former deputy public defender Zach Davina's successful wrongful termination lawsuit against the county.

S3: He was , of course , under oath , under penalty of perjury , and he acknowledged that when he signed and approved the official investigation report into Zach's complaints of discrimination and harassment. But when he signed it , he knew it was false.

S4: Davina's lawyer , Chris Merritt , says that investigative report was the result of the Public Defender office's H.R. probe into Davern , his firing. The superior court jury sided with Davern in his case and awarded him $2.6 million in damages. The trial transcripts show Miles repeatedly acknowledged he knew that four of the five supervisors who sat on Davina's ten year review panel had made false statements. Panel members had known of a complaint Davenport took to a colleague after appearing before the review panel , but they told the investigator they hadn't. According to the transcript , Latimer then asked. And you didn't do anything to correct them , did you ? Myers answered , I missed it. Let me follow up with you. Missed something that directly bared on one of Mr. Davina's specific complaints of retaliation. Mies responded , I did. He also acknowledged reading the full investigative report before signing it. Mies did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the 14 year review panel supervisors Minyon Hiltz , Frank Barone , Sherry Stone and Joe Super. Davina , who is gay , says a supervisor on the ten year review panel , opened by asking him whether he was too flamboyant and animated and if that hurt his clients.

S2: And it became very clear it wasn't a question of what is actually professional or what is actually right as a public defender.

S4: Mize and the other supervisors labeled Davina's complaint a breach of confidentiality , according to court records. Mies acknowledged during the trial that the so-called breach had been discussed with those same panel members at a meeting on November 2nd , 2020. And they were angry that Davenport disclosed what happened at his tenure review. But that's not what four of the five review panel members told the HRA investigator. They said they never knew that Davenport had complained to Enriquez about his treatment. Ludmilla has harsh words for Mies.

S3: Any senior public official doing something like that should immediately lose their job. The idea that the county would continue to pay our taxpayer dollars and keep someone in their job who's admitted to this kind of gross unethical misconduct is shocking to me.

S4: Latimer urged the county Board of Supervisors to take strong action.

S3: I hope that the Board of Supervisors will conduct an internal investigation , preferably by some outside law firm , that is not tainted and can hopefully make some findings and conclusions and recommendations on what should happen not only to Mr. Mies , but the entire senior leadership of that public defender's office.

S4: KPBS reached out to the county administration and supervisors for comment. They said the matter will soon come to the board in closed session. And so it's inappropriate to comment at this time.

S1: That was KPBS investigative reporter Amita Sharma with her latest on the case of Zack Davenport , the former San Diego public defender who recently won his wrongful termination case against San Diego County and was awarded $2.6 million in damages. And Amita joins us now and opens her Reporter's Notebook amid the high Jade. You've been writing about this case since November.

S4: Jade Davila is gay. As you heard in the report , when Dafna went before his ten year review panel in September of 2020 , he says that one of the first. Questions he was asked , as you heard , was whether he thought he was too animated and flamboyant and whether that hurt his clients. He said that that was basically the line of questioning that persisted throughout his review. So afterward , he was so upset that he went to a colleague and he confided in her and he complained that he felt discriminated against , that he felt harassed against that colleague a few days later , took what Davina had told her to her supervisor. And as it happens , it's that supervisor who happened to sit on Davina's tenure review panel , and she is the one who asked Davina the question about being too flamboyant and being too animated. And that supervisor went to her fellow supervisors and mys and complained that , quote , Davina had breached the confidentiality of his tenure review panel. In addition to being told he wasn't a good fit for the office. That was one of the reasons outlined on why he was fired. It was because of that so-called breach that. And then just to rewind a little bit , the supervisors on that tenure review panel and public defender Mies discussed David , his breach on November 2nd , 2020 , and they were upset about it. But when that investigator interviewed them days later and asked them if they had known about the breach , four of the five supervisors said they did not. Those were the false statements that went into the investigative report. Mies read that investigative report he made suggested changes , but he didn't correct those statements and he signed the document. He admitted on the stand he knew the statements were false and signed the document anyway.

S1:

S4: I reached out to them late last week and the new chairperson , Nora Vargas , Supervisor Nora Vargas , her office did get back to me as well as the county administration. And they said that this is a closed session item and that it would just be inappropriate for them to comment. I want to add , though , that it is the chief administrative officer at the county. Her name is Helen Robbins Meyer. She's the one who has authority to hire the county public defender. I feel like I should say that the people of the county are in a bad box right now. The Board of Supervisors and the administration have to decide whether they're okay with public defender Mies signing a document he knows contains false statements. They have to decide if they're okay with four supervisors in the public defender's office making false statements to an investigator. And if they are , then they have to be okay with the message the public just might take away from inaction on this issue. The message being this is how we roll here. And that deputy public defender is if you complain and it's hurtful to management , we will find a way to get rid of you. So the county , I'm guessing , is gaming this out right now. If you do nothing , it can have a pretty insidious effect on the county's reputation. Hmm.

S1: Now , there's another outstanding lawsuit against the public defender's office. Can you tell us about that ? Yeah.

S4: So that lawsuit is by a nother former deputy public defender , Michelle Reno. So the office fired her around the same time as Davenport. Her case is similar to Davina's. She's alleging that she was penalized by the office for her work with Black Lives Matter during her own time. Like Davina. She complained about comments that Supervisor Cheri Stone made to a colleague that she considered racist. And Stone sat on Reno says Tenure review Panel Stone sat on Davina's tenure review panel. The interesting part about this is that several of the jurors in Davina's case said after the verdict that they didn't find any of the county witnesses to be credible. That poses a huge problem for the county if they move ahead with Reno's case , which is set to go to trial next month , the county is going to have to call some of the same witnesses that Davina's jury thought lied on the stand. So , as I said , the county is. In a bad box right now.

S1:

S4: They say that this kind of thing has been going on for a long time. You know , if you complain in an effort to improve the work environment in the office , then it's not taken in the spirit. It's intended that deputy public defenders are then on the receiving end of some retaliation.

S1: This is something I know you'll be following. I've been speaking with KPBS , investigative reporter Amita Sharma. Amita , thank you.

S4: Thank you , Jade.

S1: This Wednesday , some San Diegans will put out their shiny new green beans , and for the first time they will include food waste. It's part of the city's new organics recycling program , which began rolling out last week with the delivery of thousands of new kitchen pails and green bins to local residents. The program , which is mandated by the state of California , is part of an effort to combat climate warming carbon emissions. I spoke with Matthew Clary , assistant director of the City of San Diego's Environmental Services Department about it.

S2: So anything that was once alive , which includes non treated wood waste , fruit , vegetable peels , coffee grounds and filters , plate scrapings , including cooked foods , food soiled paper napkins , plant clippings or other yard trimmings can all go in the green bin.

S1: There are lots of items now that are packaged in compostable material. I'm thinking about some produce bags , coffee filters and takeout containers. But those those can't just be put in backyard compost bins. They require industrial compost or so. Well , those types of things all be compostable through this new program.

S2: Unfortunately , they won't. Anything labeled compostable is incompatible with our processing system , especially plastic bags that some folks might want to use to line their green bins with or their kitchen pails. With those plastic bags labeled organic don't compost at the same rate that our our facility processes food waste. So it'll end up with contaminants in the finished product that we want to stay away from.

S1:

S2: It's best to layer your organic waste so it prevents the bin from getting yucky , for lack of a better word. If you put some yard trimmings or some plant dripping clippings in the bottom of the bin and then layer it with food waste and then layer it with another layer of plant or organic trimmings , it'll keep the bin clean , which is what we really want our residents to be aware of so that the bin doesn't get yucky and gross.

S1:

S2: And this is one of the easiest things we can do to curb climate change. So all residents will be required to participate.

S1:

S2: The city will start with an education first component of enforcement. And as we move further into the future , there will be enforcement actions taken for egregious offenders. But most immediately , the city will be participating in a education first approach.

S1:

S2: We'll be walking neighborhoods and looking in refuse bins and determining if there's any organic waste that is that's in those black bins.

S1:

S2: As I stated , the city is going to take an education first approach. But the regulations imposed by Cal Recycle will require fines effective beginning in 2024 if people don't comply.

S1: You know , one thing I thought about is these bins full of rotting food , possibly attracting animals like raccoons.

S2: The other thing the city has done , once this program is rolled out , the bins will be collected weekly for those residents who currently receive organic waste collection. It's it's every other week , which is similar to the blue bin recycling program. But we are moving toward weekly collection for these green beans to prevent any sort of vectors from contaminating the bins.

S1: And , you know , some homes already have green bins.

S2: And for those 40,000 homes that currently have green organic bins and serviced by the city of San Diego , they will know when to start organic recycling when they get their kitchen waste bin , their food pal. And once they receive that food pail , that will be the sign for them to go ahead and put all food waste into that green bin and to inform them that the collection will move from every other week to weekly. Hmm.

S1: Hmm.

S2: It affects all residents and businesses throughout the city.

S1:

S2: Initially , once the roll out is complete , we are anticipating to triple that and compost about 90,000 total tons.

S1:

S2: So the investments the city has made in the Miramar greenery , we've actually been composting food since 2016. And we we do that with a process called covered aerated static pile system , and that breaks down food waste in a covered and controlled system. The process infuses air and maintains a specific moisture content to break down and process organic waste into nutrient rich compost. On the finished product is a nutrient rich soil amendment that is produced without the byproduct of methane. So the city currently processes about 90,000 tons of organic waste annually , and we are in the process of constructing a organics processing facility , which will be a a facility that will take and process organic waste and move that material through those covered aerated static piles more efficiently and effectively. That project is expected to be completed in 2024. But until then , the city has capacity at its current greenery to process the anticipated organic waste.

S1: Mm hmm. And as we mentioned , the organic waste recycling program is part of a state law , Senate Bill 1383 , which was supposed to go into effect at the beginning of last year.

S2: Calorie cycle is fully aware of the hurdles that the city of San Diego face , which included not having all of its residents , subscribe to the organic waste program. Additionally , the city had to purchase additional vehicles to collect the waste we had to a higher sanitation drivers to drive those vehicles , and we had to put a contract in place to purchase those additional containers that were busy rolling out this week. Council was aware of these obstacles , and many other jurisdictions throughout the state are having similar issues. And because we've we've been in contact with them and because we've been working with them there , they're not concerned about the 2022 deadline , the January 1st , that that's when the regulations took effect and enforcement begins in 2024. So we're firmly in the implementation phase and we're we're we're well ahead of the rollout schedule for four city homes. The biggest issue we had was the purchase and receiving trucks. We purchased our trucks in July of 2021 , and we're just now starting to receive those trucks to support this program. So the city of San Diego is competing with all the other jurisdictions and all the other waste collectors who had to go out and purchase similar vehicles to do this work. And it's taking quite a bit longer to receive those vehicles than we had anticipated.

S1: And coming back to the process itself , the city says this is the single fastest and easiest way to combat climate change.

S2: And methane gas is one of the largest contributors to global warming and greenhouse gases. So anything and anything permitted from disposal to the landfill will help prevent methane gas from getting into the atmosphere.

S1:

S2: Jada. And I know that we've discussed that at this point. I can't answer that question. Okay.

S1: Okay. The roll out continues into the coming months.

S2: So residents can go to organic waste , recycle SD dot org. And on that website there is a schedule. So if you are normally if you normally get your trash collected on a Wednesday , the rollout. Or green beans will be this January and February. And if you normally get your trash collected on a Tuesday , the rollout for green beans will be in July and August.

S1: I've been speaking with Matthew Cleary , assistant director of the City of San Diego's Environmental Services Department. Matthew , thank you.

S2: Thank you , Jade. And.

S1: You're listening to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hyneman. The Museum of Man became the Museum of US in 2020 , and now it's reimagining one of its core exhibits. Race. Are we so different ? The goal is to shape the new exhibit through the perspectives of our local communities. So the museum is inviting the public to share their thoughts on the current exhibit. KPBS arts reporter Beth ACCOMANDO speaks with the museum's director of development and external communications , James Hadden , and exhibit developer Melinda Bernardus about the changes.

S5: James to begin with. I just wanted to ask you about the name change for the museum.

S2: But really , the idea of a name change has been around for decades. Even back in the 1990s , there was a lot of input from the community that said this kind of idea of man being the proxy word for mankind was a very gendered and antiquated use of the language , and people didn't feel included with an institution with that kind of name. So there had been discussion for decades , and when the pandemic happened , one of our goals as an institution was that we wanted to emerge from the pandemic as a better version of ourselves. Our identity should really be matching the work that we're doing. And this old name no longer matches what what we're doing as far as an institution. And so it's it's time to make the change. And we've really had a really great response from that , from the public.

S5: And give us a little history of the museum in terms of when it was started and how it was kind of started and what was the original mission statement for it.

S2: The museum was founded in 1915 for the Panama California Exposition , so it was always housed in the California building here in Balboa Park , and it was always an anthropology museum. And so the way I tend to describe it in my mind is that as an anthropology museum , it really was taking an academic approach at looking at cultures , especially ancient cultures , and really kind of producing exhibits that were three dimensional ethnography of those ancient cultures often. So it's a very academic approach to that. And those exhibits were really developed by curators who were not , for example , descendant members of those communities. So quite often male academically trained folks who were looking back or at other cultures and producing exhibits and programs around those. So that's really what the the museum did for decades.

S5:

S2: Then there was a strategic plan developed , and the mission in 2012 was officially voted on to be inspiring human connections by exploring the human experience. First of all , we really want to look at issues and stories across cultures and time that really impact all of us on our day to day lives and a really a special kind of focuses that is that we're really looking at the stories from communities that have been overlooked or silenced in the past. So we don't focus so much on every human story. What we're really trying to look at are those stories that have been silenced or not really looked at in a truthful way in the broader , dominant culture.

S5: And I want to bring Melinda into the conversation. And Melinda , first of all , tell us what you do with the museum.

S6: I am the exhibit developer. And so what I do is I work with the communities in A that are associated with any given exhibit that's being developed , and I learn their perspective , work together , collaborate , and we develop the content that becomes the script , the heart of what is experienced in the exhibits.

S5: The museum created a race exhibit back in 2015 , and in some ways that feels like a very different time.

S6: That original exhibit , it was telling a comprehensive story about race and how are we different. So currently , the current exhibit to move forward a little bit because 2015 feels like a lifetime ago in terms of conversations around race on a local , national and international level. So now we're giving it an update and one can build upon the different understandings about how race affects our movement in the world. Coming from some of these larger conversations that have evolved since 2015.

S2: You know , the exhibit does a really good job about talking about that. The concept of race is a cultural concept. Biologically , we're all the same. The gene that creates a skin color change is is no bigger than a gene that creates an eye color change , for example.

S5: So museum exhibits are often curated and designed by scholars and. Experts , but you're seeking public input on redesigning this race exhibit.

S6: But we are challenging the notion of who the expert is. So we want to include lived experiences and support them with the ideas from scholars , from artists and experts who allow us to see and think about our shared experiences in different ways. So in terms of how the public can contribute , they can do that in a few different ways right now. Through mid February , we have public surveys and interviews that are being conducted at the museum. So if you are interested in offering in-depth feedback about our current exhibit , you can come down to the museum and see the race exhibit. And in exchange for an hour of your time and your thoughts , the museum will give you $50 and membership for a year. Alternatively , we have a five minute visitor survey where you can anonymously contribute your thoughts on an iPad in the exhibit , and we'll give you a thank you pin for that. But both of these options are available now through mid February and we will be taking that input. I will be reading that. We'll be working collaboratively with our the community and interpreting that and supporting that with content from scholars , experts , etc.. It's important to extend and engage that conversation in ways that continue to serve to be inclusive , intersectional and reflective of what people are actually experiencing and understanding about how race affects their lives and those around them. So although the current exhibit is really clearly pointing out that race is a cultural construct , the way race affects us individually is something that continues to shift change and why we are developing the exhibit with public input where people have the opportunity to share their experiences with us , to be included both in the redesign and to contribute in being represented in the resulting exhibit.

S5: Well , I want to thank you both very much for talking about the Museum of US.

S2: Thank you so much.

S5: Thank you.

S1: That was Beth ACCOMANDO speaking with James Hadden and Melinda Barnard as from the Museum of US in Balboa Park. People can make an appointment to be interviewed by the museum by emailing Museum at Museum of US dot org.