Angela Suerig and Mary Martin
Recorded
July 31, 2023
Archived
July 31, 2023
01:15:46
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
osh000025
Description
Rae Suerig (53) and Mary Martin (70) sit down at the Teton County Library for a One Small Step Conversation. Mary is the chair of the local GOP and Rae is now a progressive. They find common ground in discussing their creativity, their small town upbringing, and their care for community wellbeing.Subject Log / Time Code
Rae Suerig (RS) explains to Mary Martin (MM) why she signed up for One Small Step.
They lament about over-tourism in Jackson Hole, and MM shares her memory of when Jackson would nearly completely shutter from Labor Day through the beginning of winter.
MM talks about creativity in her life: sewing, costume-design for theater, quilting, cooking.
RS and MM talk about growing your own food and the short growing season in Jackson.
MM asks RS about her religious faith, and RS discusses her values, questions, and evolution in her religion and spirituality.
RS talks about the benefits and challenges of homeschooling her children.
RS reflects on the influence of her grandmothers on her life in teaching her love and generosity.
MM says her parents taught her to feel gratitude and shares the influence that one of her bosses had on her to look for opportunities for growth and supporting others in their growth too.
MM mentions that Moran, Wyoming was once Elk, Wyoming and changed due to the installing of the dam at what is now Jackson Lake.
RS discusses a transformative moment in her own politics through education at Southern Utah University and specifically with professor Dr. Kay Cook.
MM describes her conservative political values.
MM talks about the low-income senior housing program in Teton County (TC) that she developed as a model for others in the US
RS asks MM about disagreement within the Republican party and MM talks about seeing "bullying" in her party.
After MM mentions the song "In a Small Town" by Jason Aldean, and RS responds that her own experience of growing up in a small town instilled in her a different sense than she heard in the lyrics of Aldean's song.
RS talks about the presumptions made about people who live in the countryside
MM talks about the "In a Small Town" song as a metaphor for Republicans. She references violence and destruction in political riots.
RS talks about revolutionary moments in US History: The Boston Tea Party, Women's Suffrage as being riots that resulted from people resisting overreach of government.
MM counters that Republicans supported the end of slavery and that social services today remind her of another kind of slavery. And talks about the overreach of government.
RS and MM find common ground in their own experience working with Meals on Wheels.
MM shares her respect for RS in her care for her family
Participants
- Angela Suerig
- Mary Martin