Queena Stone and Matthew Watkins

Matt introduced himself.

Queena introduced himself.

Queena asked Matt why he wanted to do the interview.

Matt explaind he was curious as to who he would be partnered up with.

Queena answered she was curious about Republicans and baffled by them and need to understand.

Matt agreed he also used to be Republican and wants to understand what's happened to them.

Queena read Matt's bio.

Queena asked about community service.

Matt explained he was in nonpartisan races, some of his best experiences in local issues were working with nonaffiliated people. Got to work with Republican friends and solve business issues but found.

Matt asked if Queena is Democrat.

Queena said yes but she disagrees with them a lot too.

Matt read Queena's bio.

Matt remembers refugees coming to the US when he was in 4th grade.

Matt asked what it was like to be uprooted and moved across the world.

Queena recalls growing up poor around other immigrants, mom didn't speak English, when they would get sick as kids they'd take them to the pharmacists because she thought they were doctors because they wore white coats. She went to a private Catholic school, grew up with same people through till 8th grade. They got bullied for their Vietnamese school lunches and had challenges intergrating.

Matt asked where in Vietnam did she come from?

Queena explained her mother didn’t have much of an education in South Vietnam and that made her life harder. Queena had to learn.

Matt wondered if he'd driven through her mom's town. He had a map.

Queena asked who the most influential person was.

Matt said it was a sailing group - Brian Charlton who sold everything and brought a boat and he was inspired by them seeing the world and sharing info on YouTube, so he went travelling because of them.

Matt asked influential question.

Queena said it was her high school best friend's mother, Lisa. She convinced Queena to go outside of LA for university, and she convinced me to go to San Diego as it would get her out of her comfort zone and live by herself. She's now lived in 5 different countries and visited 20 different countries. "Travelling is like breathing to me now."

Matt observed their matching travelling values are different to much of the worlds. Matt asked Queena for her political values.

Queena explained her values are based on equity, and based on Denmark. She lived in Copenhagen and saw great social structures. Everyone should have healthcare and basics and everything is so unequitable.

Matt explained his values. Travelling challenged his views. He grew up being hammered with "Democrats suck, Seattle needs to stop telling us what to do" and then at the UW opened his eyes. Parents were farmers, loving shotguns, and thought I was a Seattleite trapped in the Tri-Cities. Politically, I was a mayor for Pasco and be non-partisan, but being pressured to endorse X republican. Still holds Republican belief that best government is the one that governs least. If the neighborhood can figure it out, that would be best. But I know neighbors don't talk to each other. Getting to know your neighbors is critically important.

Queena is fearful rural areas everyone knows everyone and if you go in as a stranger thinks she might be unwelcome. In urban environments like where she grew up - Compton, CA - you have to know everyone. You grow up more empathetic to your neighbor because you're fighting the same fight.

Matt agrees that after seeing big cities around the world, but does think that his time in urban cities in the USA he thinks they're not so social. Never thought of urban American cities of having that sense of community.

Queena agrees European cities are more social. Agrees with the Seattle freeze. LA and NYC maybe. But it's your own perspective that makes it that way, when I walk around the city, I try to say hello to people. It's really about your own perspective and how you choose to have that kind of lens, walking around.

Queena asked if he feels misunderstood by people on the other side of the aisle.

Matt acknowledges that he's not one or the other. Explained Sarah Palin used to come to his community and when I talked to her about the 'other' that bugged her, and he made a deliberate decision that 'the other' isn't a good explanation for people. I've gotten into arguments with friends and families who want to distill me into 'the other side.' I try to have conversations that aren't so binary, in a non confrontational style.

Queena asks how you make a conversation less binary.

Matt explained when people called him as mayor and they cared about a single issue, and if he could get an email, he'd tried to figure out why they care about property rights issues, someone wants to do what they want on their property. Matt would draw an extreme case to show there was a grey to property rights, not just either/or. Because the Tri-Citires are getting together.

Matt asked whether she feels misunderstood by 'the other side.'

Queena said yes, because she felt talked over and not listened to. She feels like she gets typical talking points, not thought about, regurgitating Fox News. Very frustrating and that's why she avoids talking to the other side. I wanted to do this because she is pretty strong about how she feels about things, but always willing to listen - convince me that I'm wrong, but the conversation never gets there.

Matt explained he's a 6"4, and wonders if she's finding it harder in a room with big-small factor, he finds himself backing up to help them feel they can be in the space together.

Queena's husband is 6"2, and she has a small frame but she has a big personality.

Matt asked if there's something about her beliefs that she disagrees with but respects.

Queena says she doesn't agree with government. Joe Biden is doing a good job, economy is doing well, he's getting blamed for the pandemic. We're doing better than the G7 and his policies and a lot of his policies are because of big government. Queena is immunocompromised, Covid is lethal to her, still hasn't had it. So thrilled for the vaccines, and thinks all of these good things are because of big government. We're a big country so we need big government for all the personalities. We need a federal government to remind us of what he can be together.

Matt explained she comes across as a moderate. What she said makes sense. Matt thinks Joe Biden has done a good job - the bar was he's a functional adult, but he's done more. But there's a duality and tension between federal and state government, I think it's a strength. My family has pioneer spirit, but we're a country of 300 million now. I want to be wary and deliberate if we do something in government, I think we should do more like Europeans. He now understands difference between Democratic Socialist and Socialist. History and travel have helped with his edification. Seeing how they're both educated travellers.

Queena explained in Copenhagen she learned about Erasmus, and that to graduate you have to spend 6 months in another EU country and she felt like that was a huge opportunity to learn more and if we in America implemented somewhere else that would make people that would break down barriers in the US.

Matt agreed he wished all US citizens would travel more. Loved walking the El Camino and not meeting a single jerk. He loves Rick Steve and there are a lot of lessons from travelling.

Matt explained he saw the bios as so different, he wished he'd done a bio more like Queena's, he liked hers more.

Queena thought it was cool that he'd already done StoryCorps alumni, but secondly I thought he was not Republican enough for her, because he wasn't for Trump. Because he's anti-Trump she thought he was a good human being.

Matt asked what the biggest challenge the country has right now.

Queena thinks it's the media and social media, it's doing the country a huge disservice. People make decisions from ill-informed places and she's scared about 2024. When she hears the difference between what she's reading and hearing it scares her. TV is just for money and for clicks. Corporate media, cable news. They're not reflecting reality and making people ill-informed that make people vote against their best interests and that could happen in 2024. Can't wrap my head around Trump voters.

Matt never could watch Fox. His go-to is now Washington Post, but tries not to get the filtered perspective. BBC is a great thing for more perspective. Guardian has a slant. The bigger thing for me is how did Germany and Italy become fascist states? I do think we're slipping and becoming more fascist, but at the same time, I see Democrats also saying "lock him up" and it makes its heart sink because they're using slogans. I worry about us about two camps rather than the harder to get concepts of the constitution, and "I'm more Patriotic that you" competition. Wish it wasn't a binary.

Polarization comes from social media and media, gives us talking points. Twitter gave one and the lie spread in 20 minutes, on both sides.

Queena asked why people Matt knows watch Fox News.

Matt thought about that while he was watching Friends. When he sees friends who watch it, they consider it background noise and it's comforting to them. He's asked them to turn it off or leave the room, but there are other analogues to it. You can do the same with MSNBC. Something about the flickering picture on a tv that can get into it.

Queena sees it's not a pursuit of knowledge, it's just comfort and digesting background noise.

Matt asked Queena how she'd like to be remembered?

Queena gave her hypothetical autobiography title "people told me I couldn't do that, but I definitely did."

Queena asked if Matt had learned anything.

Matt keeps going back to the image he had in 4th grade of kids who didn't speak English, and meeting her 40 years later and she's the quintessential American dream, can't imagine her as a foreigner, it's a testament to the daily life, and he would call her a fellow American and bridge a divide.

Queena asked how he'd like to be remembered.

That he's the cliff claven of WA state, he loves this state. Patriot of WA.