Raleigh Hinman and Ty Patton

[00:01] TY PATTON: All right, I am recording. Go ahead, Ty.

[00:04] RALEIGH HINMAN: All right. My name is Ty Patton. We're in Wichita, Kansas. It's April 11, 2022. I'm with Raleigh and he is my one small step partner.

[00:16] TY PATTON: And my name is Raleigh Hinman. It's still April 11. We're still in Wichita. And my one small step partner is Ty Perfect.

[00:28] RALEIGH HINMAN: Ty, why don't you read Romney's bio? Okay. I was born in western Kansas in the mid fifties. I was the fourth of seven children. My dad was a crop duster. When I got out of high school, my dad thought colleges were turning our kids into communists. So I went to art school. I got an associate's degree in commercial art that didn't pay all that well. So after a few years I went back to college to get a degree in mechanical engineering. I've worked in aerospace for the past 37 years. I've been married 40 years. We have two grown kids. What would you like to ask him about? Well, there, I mean, a couple things. But the, I feel like the, my dad thought colleges were turning our kids into communists. There's probably some cool story about that. When you said, hey, I'm going to art school.

[01:21] TY PATTON: No, it was in the late sixties. There were a lot of protests, college students protesting against the Vietnam war. My dad, well, my dad served in four branches of the service, but he was an ex soldier, an ex sailor, an ex pilot, but he was always a marine. And so, you know, it was on the news every night, this protest here, protests there. And he just was just sure that colleges were just ruining our youth, turning them all into communists. And so he wasn't real big on me going to college, but I, and I had an aptitude for arthem. When I was young, all his friends told him what a great artist I was and that we should get me into art school. Wasn't bad. I mean, I truly enjoyed art school. But to make a living as an artist, you have to be an amazing artist. And we've got some here in Wichita. But I wasn't amazing. So anyway, so after trying to make a living as an artist for a few years, I was going, this isn't working. So I got into construction. Because you could make a lot more money as a carpenter than you could as an artist. I worked as a brick tender for years. When I met the woman that would become my wife, she said, don't you think you're a little bit smart to be carrying bricks for a living? And I said, well, I never really thought about it. She said, well, I could be wrong.

[03:20] RALEIGH HINMAN: It's kind of the first test.

[03:24] TY PATTON: That says, she actually suggested that I go to college. And I remembered how much I liked mathematics when I was in high school. In fact, I taught algebra when I was a senior in high school. I didn't do the hard part. I mean, the actual teacher did the lesson plans and grading homework and all of that, but the school board had given him two classes the same hour. He had algebra two and advanced math. Well, he was much more interested in teaching the advanced math class. So after he had line out what we were supposed to be working on, he'd just say, if you have any questions, ask Raleigh. And he'd go into the advanced math room and teach them. I understood algebra pretty well, so, I mean, I could help people out when they were getting into a jam. And so when I started, when I started considering going to college, then working as a brick tender for as long as I did, the errors in design of buildings kind of stood out to me. And I kept telling my boss that if that door were eight inches taller, we could get the forklift through there. He said, you tell him, Raleigh said, when you're the architect, you can make the decisions. But for right now, we're just building the building the way they told us to. And so I was going to go just take some core classes, then go to k state and get a degree in architecture. I started taking core classes, remembered how much I liked math, and became a mechanical engineer and not an architect, which is kind of funny, because now I am the design engineering business process architect for spirit. So it's a different kind of architect, right?

[05:29] RALEIGH HINMAN: Right.

[05:30] TY PATTON: Huh.

[05:31] RALEIGH HINMAN: That's funny. Interesting. Raleigh, why don't you go ahead and read tonight?

[05:37] TY PATTON: It says, I was born and raised in Kansas and lived here all my life. My family is from Chase and Butler counties, and I live in Benton, population 900, with my wife and three boys, ages five, three and one. Generally, I'd save my family, prioritized faith, education, and work ethic growing up, and these are the things that I hope to impart as priorities to my boys. Yes, I think so. Hopefully, faith, education, and work ethic. It's.

[06:11] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah.

[06:12] TY PATTON: So I know I went off about what my dad did. What did your dad do?

[06:20] RALEIGH HINMAN: My dad's an attorney here in town, and so that's why I wound up probably following him into. As an attorney. I've had a weird kind of path, but worn a few hats, but. And actually. So now that. It's funny to hear my update, so, I have four kids now cause I have a little girl that we've added late last year. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. So I forgot to put that in there, but. So my extended family, you know, Butler and Chase county, almost all educators except for my dad, who's an attorney, and then me. But I think that's his dad thing for my granddaddy growing up out. He was in Cassidy, where I lived when I knew him, but he taught. He did a little bit of everything. Fought World War two, but was a teacher, principal, rural mail carrier, lost money, ranching, all that, but just worked, kept working, kept working. And then even though he didn't need to, he was important to him to come back and finish his degree that he got interrupted on the. When he got sent overseas. So he finished his degree in pori estate later in life. I mean, kept after it for years and years and years and years, working and working and learning, working and learning. And so for whatever reason, everybody kind of followed into education. And I mean, for, you know, rural kind of families growing up, I guess I never really thought much about it, but everybody went to college. Everybody went off and had to work. He had to learn. And so my dad, I was actually an education major, too, and then wound up becoming an attorney, and that's how we wound up in Wichita, and then that's where I grew up out in Benton. And then I wound up kind of, I guess, subconsciously was going to be a teacher. I was going to teach history and coach football, and then wound up going to law school. And so here I am.

[08:24] TY PATTON: Take number one, and we'll do this back and forth where he did two.

[08:31] RALEIGH HINMAN: That was the bio one, actually. Okay. What made you want to do the interview today?

[08:40] TY PATTON: The fact that America seems like it's getting more and more polarized, and I'm in favor of civility and people understanding that we're all one. There is no us in them. There's only us. And so the more that we can realize that it's all that, we're all us, the better off I think we'll be.

[09:11] RALEIGH HINMAN: That's well said, and you can ask.

[09:14] TY PATTON: It back to Ty Oh, same question.

[09:18] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yes.

[09:19] TY PATTON: That's easy. What made you want to do the interview today?

[09:23] RALEIGH HINMAN: Raleigh already gave me the answer. A lot of the. I mean, a lot of the same. I mean, the same sentiment. It seems that we're just in this place where, I mean, I don't even like the term discourse because we're not. We don't even have that anymore. It's just this, like, kind of flame war slogans yelling online. It's all, you know, what sounds good for kind of a clip on Twitter or. And so it's just become so disheartening to see that. I mean, there's, to your point, there's no hardly, it seems, conversation about, hey, is this a good idea? It's just, well, who had it? And then I'll tell you if I like it or not. And so to see, you know, the parties kind of flip flop back and forth and kind of have these, you know, hypocrisy moments of, like, you'd be for that, I mean, that's in line with what you'd purport to believe, but the wrong guy said it, and so now you have to be against it. And so it's just, it's, I mean, it's discouraging. You know, you try to think about how things look 2030 years from now, if this is the path we're on. And it's. I just don't see it. I don't see how you. How this is working. Anything done? I mean, it's just we're going to burn the thing down around us fighting.

[10:40] TY PATTON: True enough. I like the idea that whoever came up with this was. It is. It's one small step. It's a great name for it doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal.

[11:01] RALEIGH HINMAN: I agree. I agree completely. Well, I don't know how you feel, but it seems like part of this, too, is just there's no room for what I think, and I hope, maybe, maybe naively even, is what I hope is kind of the majority of people that recognize that we're on a bad path and recognize that there's a lot of common ground and that ultimately, like, the way anything can function is, you know, we identify some priorities and we work, figure out ways to work for them together. But the conversation is so, like, you just, you're drowned out because it's the kind of the loudest, most extreme views get all the attention because that's what's going to drive traffic on social media, or that's what's going to drive engagement. That's what gonna make people mad enough to respond, that, like, there's no room left because it's just somebody says something insane and some of the other side says something even more insane. And so the people that are dominating the conversation are the loudest kind of stupidest. They have no, not even really a platform, necessarily, or any thoughts other than I just got to keep saying loud, flamboyant, aggressive, things so that people notice me.

[12:21] TY PATTON: The more outrageous, the better.

[12:23] RALEIGH HINMAN: Right? And there's nowhere left to go but keep going farther and farther down the trail because we already said something pretty crazy six months ago. So for the new book, you need something even more aggressive or makes people even matter. You're not going to get any traction. So, yeah, that, to me is such a challenging part, too, is just kind of where do you fit in if you don't want to? I mean, if your goal is not just to be a talking head on Fox News, where do you live in the real world where there's conversations can happen?

[12:56] TY PATTON: Yeah, I pretty much just stayed away from Facebook and all of that because it's just annoying.

[13:03] RALEIGH HINMAN: Oh, man. It's just, it's hard to watch people, I mean, people you like or know that just go down these weird paths and you can just watch them and the stuff you wind up, you know, muting people or whatever. But what do you do? Start fighting in comments? I mean, that's what they want, you know, and that's not gonna work. And it's. Yeah, I'm with you there. It's very discouraging in a lot of ways.

[13:26] TY PATTON: You can ask the next question.

[13:29] RALEIGH HINMAN: I'm going to ask number three here. Tell me about one or two people in your life who've had the biggest influence on you. What did they teach you?

[13:39] TY PATTON: Well, I guess it's almost cliche, but my mom, my mom grew up in New Orleans. My dad was in the service when they met and she wanted to get out of New Orleans. Her family was pretty poor and so. But her driving philosophy was to be kind to everyone, always, because you never know what kind of battles they're fighting. And even if they say something out of line rather than just jump on it, it's just like, you don't know. You don't know why they might be in a terrible mood because maybe someone they love is dying. You know, you just, you don't know. And so to always be kind to everyone, I think I've tried to listened to my mom on that more than pretty much anything else. My dad was the other one that you were talking about, work ethic. Believe me, he was all about work ethic. But he was. I mean, he grew up on a farm out in western Kansas in a little tiny town called Kismet and like I said, served in four branches of the military. He loved airplanes. He loved, I mean, he. It was funny, every year in March when it finally the spray season had started, he's like, this is the greatest job ever to be able to make a living, fly on an airplane. By August, when the weather had been pounding on him, because sometimes in western Kansas, it's way too windy to spray.

[15:37] RALEIGH HINMAN: Oh, sure.

[15:37] TY PATTON: And he'd just get further and further and further behind because he can't work. And then it was like, only an idiot would do this.

[15:46] RALEIGH HINMAN: Man. I think I've always been kind of fascinated. Like, crop testers are like a, I mean, that's a rare breed of pilot. I mean, you watch those guys work and it's under power lines. I mean, that's, it's kind of cool, but they're just like, no fear, flying. It's. It's the real deal.

[16:04] TY PATTON: Yeah, he, he buried a lot of friends that were crop dozers.

[16:09] RALEIGH HINMAN: Oh, I believe it.

[16:11] TY PATTON: It's a scary life. He was good at it. He did one time pop over a hill, and it's like, my mom was his secretary, and she had this list of questions that she would go down. Every time somebody would call, they have their field sprayed. And one of them was, are there any standpipes? Because irrigation wells, there's always a big standpipe to regulate pressure. And that guy had answered no, had forgotten that he had just put an irrigation wheel in that field. And so there wasn't one last year, but there's a stand pipe this year. Dad popped over the hill and that pipe hit it right about mid wing on the right side and just took half the wing off. He landed the airplane. I mean, he didn't have a choice. It wasn't going to fly anymore. Then walked over to the farmhouse and they were like, b, what are you doing here? Well, I wrecked my plane. In your field. Oh, that standpoint. And so he called back to mom, said, well, norm, I wrecked the plane. I'm all right. Everything's all right. It was. Insurance covered everything. But it's just.

[17:29] RALEIGH HINMAN: That'S the way it goes, man. Those guys, I mean, they're fearless. I mean, you watch, you watch them go under power lines and, I mean, it's unbelievable. It's cool. I mean, I love to watch them work, but, man, I don't. Nerds of steel. If you're going to do that, I.

[17:44] TY PATTON: Got to watch him work pretty closely along for quite a bit. I was a flagman. You stand at one end of the field with a flag and so he can line up so he could tell where his last pass was. And then you'd walk off so many steps and he'd come around and now he knows where his next pass is. And so that I'd be on one end of the field, my brother would be on the other end, and dad would just back and forth through the field, you know, like I said, we got to see him right up close.

[18:15] RALEIGH HINMAN: Well, heck, yeah. Now, did you grow up in kismet, too? Is that where you.

[18:18] TY PATTON: I grew up in plains. It's a little tiny town 7 miles from Kismet.

[18:22] RALEIGH HINMAN: Okay.

[18:24] TY PATTON: But it's. Yeah. Plains is one of the few towns in western Kansas, small towns in western Kansas that actually has grown in population. DeKalb put a breeding hog farm, and just after I left town in the seventies. But that has, like, given an industry to the town other than farming.

[18:53] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah.

[18:54] TY PATTON: And so that the town plans, when I lived there, had about 700 people. I think it's got about 1100 now.

[19:01] RALEIGH HINMAN: Hey, I mean, there's not many out there that have. I mean, and that's it. If you find someone to come in that can anchor you. But, man, there's towns up there, they're just blowing away, so that's fantastic.

[19:13] TY PATTON: Yeah.

[19:14] RALEIGH HINMAN: Hanging on.

[19:14] TY PATTON: It was an interesting town to live in. Like, at 700 people, everybody knows everybody's business. Yeah. There wasn't going to be a lot for me to do out there. I wasn't going to be a crop duster. My oldest brother was.

[19:32] RALEIGH HINMAN: Oh, yeah.

[19:33] TY PATTON: But, no, I needed to get out of there.

[19:37] RALEIGH HINMAN: You had six brothers? Sisters. How many of them stayed out there? Stayed around western Kansas.

[19:43] TY PATTON: Not a one.

[19:44] RALEIGH HINMAN: It's pretty typical.

[19:46] TY PATTON: No, like, my oldest brother was a. Well, he was a crop duster for a while, and he was an airline pilot. He's retired now. He's an amazing sculptor. He's got a gallery that represents him in Santa Fe, and he can hardly keep them supplied with sculpture. My next oldest brother was an art teacher in Eudora at Y. Lawrence for 30 some odd years. He's retired now, too. My next older brother than that is a stagecoach driver in Tombstone, Arizona.

[20:39] RALEIGH HINMAN: Cool.

[20:40] TY PATTON: Yeah. His nickname is Buzz. And then here I've been an aerospace engineer for 30 odd years after being an artist and a carpenter and a brick tender. Yep. I washed windows for a while, going to college. The KSBT building downtown and the Holiday Inn that.

[21:12] RALEIGH HINMAN: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[21:13] TY PATTON: The big mushroom looking building.

[21:14] RALEIGH HINMAN: Oh, yeah.

[21:15] TY PATTON: Washed the windows on that. The Holiday Inn building was interesting because with that.

[21:20] RALEIGH HINMAN: Right, you had. Top was wider than the coming up.

[21:23] TY PATTON: Yeah. And so getting the swing stage from the ground all the way up to where you could wash those top windows, there's a whole lot of nothing between you and the wall. As you go raising stage, if you're.

[21:35] RALEIGH HINMAN: Interested in doing that. I don't know about that one.

[21:38] TY PATTON: If you would take the next card. Oh, tell me about one or two people in your life who have had the biggest influence on you and what did they teach you?

[21:52] RALEIGH HINMAN: Mine would be my dad. I think he. I mean, I kind of mentioned that, that I wound up kind of following him into the legal field in some ways. But one of the things about, you know, my dad that I've kind of took for granted, I guess, growing up and kind of recognizes I've gotten older. I mean, he's a practicing attorney and made a fine living and worked hard, but he was always around. I mean, he coached my teams. He was there. A couple of younger siblings coached their teams, made it to games and practices and performances. So I just kind of assumed that's the way it worked. And then as you get older and realize how hard that is to make that a priority and, you know, start to get stretched thin and you see people that, you know, I don't have time for that, like, the work schedule doesn't permit or this isn't around. And so that's something that I guess he kind of showed me, but I didn't recognize. And now that, you know, as our kids, my kids are just starting to get into that, you know, got t ball and swim practice and all that, it's like, you know, that was a. That was a conscious choice you had to make in terms of balance that a lot of people either aren't able or aren't willing to make. But that was just the way it was growing up. He was always around to be a dad, be a coach, be there for the family, which was now that, in hindsight, really cool, and I probably didn't appreciate enough.

[23:30] TY PATTON: Yeah, it's amazing how much we realized, how much we didn't appreciate our folks.

[23:37] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah. Yeah.

[23:44] TY PATTON: If you're ready for this. Sure.

[23:45] RALEIGH HINMAN: Here we go.

[23:47] TY PATTON: Well, if there was more.

[23:48] RALEIGH HINMAN: No, I mean, I don't think so. That's the big one for me, was, I'd think. Could you briefly describe, in your own words, your personal political values? There's an easy one now.

[24:03] TY PATTON: Personal political. Oh, yeah. Softball. Let me see. I think that we need to help each other as much as we can. We need to try and be fiscally responsible, and we need to not get too much in the way of people's personal freedom. I guess that's. I mean, there's a. Oh, it doesn't matter. The idea that anybody should be able to do anything they want. No, that's a little too much personal freedom because you're stomping all over people because you want to do what you want. But on the other hand, you got to let people have enough freedom to get what they need to get done, done without too much regulation. On the other hand, when it comes to corporate America, I think there needs to be a little more regulation because there's. Corporations are not. They don't have a conscience. People have a conscience. Corporation is not so much. I mean, the leaders of the corporation may have a conscience, and they're shareholders may disagree with their conscience.

[25:49] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah, that's an inherent conflict.

[25:54] TY PATTON: But.

[25:57] RALEIGH HINMAN: I mean, I think that makes sense. The thing that I've. I don't know. I don't have any sage wisdom on this, but. So we talk about regulation of corporation, right? But the challenge of that has been and continues to be, we set up some regulatory agency. We say, oh, they'll solve it. And then the corporations staff that agency, or the lobbyists bounce back and forth, and then they write rules, and it gets worse. And we say, well, we better. You know, we'll come up with another round of regulations. And so, I mean, you know, at some point, maybe the problem is we keep handing them ways to regulate everybody else and they don't have to play by the rules. And I don't know. How do you attack that? I mean, I don't know what to do with that. Cause I understand that instinct so much. But then it seems like, well, we're just gonna. You know, I mean, you look at, have we done. Have we learned anything after the housing collapse? I mean, none of the big banks felt the pain a lot of the smaller ones do, because they've got another layer of regulation, makes it harder for them to compete. And bank of America keeps chugging along, doing whatever they want. Like, well, do we solve anything, or do we just make it so that they can do it again without any repercussions?

[27:23] TY PATTON: Yeah, since forever. Regulation, there's a loophole.

[27:26] RALEIGH HINMAN: Well, yeah, especially if you get to write it. Right. Weird how that always works out. We ask Boa what they think would be fair to solve it, and they come back with a list. We say, okay, sounds good to us. And then I'll be danged if Boa keeps thriving or created themselves a loophole or something. And so I. I don't know. I mean, it just. It seems like all we've done is facilitate corporations getting bigger and more powerful and with less of a conscience. You know, I don't know that's very discouraging as well. It seems like we're so far down the trail.

[28:00] TY PATTON: Oh, no kidding.

[28:01] RALEIGH HINMAN: Just like kind of turning the keys of the kingdom over. It's like, what do you do? Even stuff we all want. You know that theoretically your political leaders would be on board for we can't get done if the right corporations aren't on board too. Cause it's like, well, you guys can say what you want, but you're just voters. You're not the important people.

[28:24] TY PATTON: Yeah, there you go. That's pretty good. Oh, okay. Well, I think you just did. But could you briefly describe in your own words, your personal political values?

[28:42] RALEIGH HINMAN: Sure. I mean, a lot of the same. I mean, I really, I think that if you're, especially at the federal level, you kind of set the framework up. Right. You're the general referee to say, hey, here's the sandbox. And you try, to the extent possible, to turn people loose to go make their decisions and some good and some stupid, but they're their decisions. And up until you start crashing into somebody else or hurting somebody else. That's what that's, to me is the, those are the bumpers, right? If your freedom is starting to run over somebody else's, well, rights have responsibilities too. And so you're now exercising your rights or your freedoms in a way that's infringing on somebody else's. And that's where the friction is. But within that, you try to turn people loose to solve problems and live their lives and make decisions. And the more that they see the reward or return of that, the better. And so, again, fiscally responsible. That's kind of a dangerous word anymore.

[30:00] TY PATTON: No kidding.

[30:01] RALEIGH HINMAN: Because it can mean a lot of stuff. But I mean, especially, I think, at a federal level, because it's so, anything they do is so, so many unintended consequences. I mean, it's just so big. It seems that they can't kind of react without all these repercussions that from the federal government level, best government is that which governs least, I think, and try to pass stuff down to local, where you have theoretically more control and less ability to inadvertently destroy the whole economy or everybody's lives by making rad decisions. You know, that. That's kind of how I view it, too. I'm very similar in some ways.

[30:48] TY PATTON: At this point. You guys can just keep asking each other questions.

[30:52] RALEIGH HINMAN: You can get into different issues if you'd like.

[30:54] TY PATTON: Those are a couple of suggestions, suggested questions that you can use if you like.

[31:00] RALEIGH HINMAN: Okay. But you can fly free.

[31:02] TY PATTON: Those were the intro questions.

[31:04] RALEIGH HINMAN: The intro question is, cool.

[31:08] TY PATTON: Sid.

[31:14] RALEIGH HINMAN: I was looking at this. Do you ever feel troubled by people with the same beliefs as you, people on your side, or how they communicate those beliefs to others? Yeah, it seems like we're.

[31:30] TY PATTON: Yeah, you and me both get into that a little bit. Yeah, well, that's. I'm a. I'm a musician, and so I've got a lot of musician friends, and some of them are pretty far left and some of them are pretty far right. And it's like, can you guys just stop arguing so we can play the guitar? You know, it's interesting how passionate people can get about a really lame point of view, and it's like. And it's not just on the left or the right. Everyone can get really passionate about. If you sat and thought through what you just said, no one would agree with that. You won't even agree with that.

[32:30] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah.

[32:32] TY PATTON: It'S like, just slow down and think about it. You're pissing me off here.

[32:42] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah, no, I'm with you. I mean, I've been a registered Republican since I'm old enough to vote, and I felt increasingly like, I don't think that I've shifted dramatically left overnight. I went to art school and became a communist or something. But these people that, theoretically, when you look at some of the tenets, it's like, oh, we should be in agreement. But then where we've kind of twisted that or the execution in some ways of, like, where we've decided what that means, like, it's like, I've been kind of left behind. And I think there's, that's why I mentioned that earlier, that there's a lot of people that live in that more realistic space. And it just seems like that, you know, at least in the Republican Party, has decided that it has gonna cater more and more to the loudest, most ridiculous talking points. And so we're obsessed with these things that they're not even, they're not even, like, platforms. Not even. It's not legislation. It's not, it's none of that. It's just, well, who cares? We don't have any ideas anymore. We're just gonna yell. And so, you know, is this it? I mean, this what you mean? I mean, you know, are you, is this how you're shrinking the government, by screaming about masks or something? I mean, you know, you have, you haven't done anything. You don't have any plan. You're not articulating an idea. You're just a kind of, like, trafficking in anger now, because, you know, that'll get, well, yeah, but I mean, you know, our candidate x has added 350,000 Twitter followers. So it's working. And like, well, that's not, we're not accomplishing anything. We're not governing. We're not solving people's problems. We're not even articulating kind of some of these, you know, kind of historic conservative ideals anymore. We're not to kind of advocate of why there's value to them. It's just anger and yelling. Kind of just loud noises for the sake of loud noises. And so I, yeah, I don't, I mean, you mentioned Facebook earlier and that to me is like the most dangerous part. I mean, you could say something on Facebook and try to be moderate, but someone that's on your side may show up to help you and it's like, never mind. I don't actually want that guy. We're not on the same team anymore, you know, because who knows what you're going to get? And I feel, I feel a lot of that pressure in some ways or kind of pressure is maybe not the right word, but just like, you know, I thought maybe there's, you know, you look at people and think, I thought we had some commonality, but, like, you've taken this to a place that I don't understand where we're getting there. And to your point, step back and talk yourself through that. I don't think you believe that. I don't think you really think that.

[35:33] TY PATTON: Yeah, yeah. There you go. It's just listening to arguments. I've got a couple of cousins that are vehement. They're right wing, but they're like, no one, even the right doesn't think what you just said. No one thinks that. It just, I just have to step back. I mean, I get on Facebook, I scroll through, you know, somebody posts family pictures. I like that. As far as making a comment, that's not gonna happen. Like you said, you have one of my friends come in and help out.

[36:23] RALEIGH HINMAN: Is this who you're hanging out with? No, no, no, no. I'm with you now. I will confess to, I get the times that I've wind up in the Facebook fights have been related, like century two and local stuff where there I wind up. And then later I'm like, there's over 30 comments in. Like, I'm not winning here, right? I'm not changing hearts and minds. Like, this is stupid. But, yeah, especially on the national stuff that, and, you know, the nationalization of local politics is like, there's no, you're not gonna solve anything, and it's just gonna make you. You're gonna be madder when you got done, probably more discouraged than when you started.

[37:07] TY PATTON: Yeah, it seems like it's pretty hard to make any headway these days.

[37:12] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah. Yeah.

[37:17] TY PATTON: Here's a good one. Do I ever feel misunderstood by people with different beliefs than me?

[37:25] RALEIGH HINMAN: I don't know.

[37:25] TY PATTON: I don't spout my beliefs all that much. And there's a good reason for that, because I would be misunderstood in a heartbeat. And I. When I was younger, I used to feel misunderstood a lot of. So I got quieter. It does seem wiser.

[37:53] RALEIGH HINMAN: Is the wiser? Yeah.

[37:55] TY PATTON: There's wisdom in silence. I don't know. It just, since it's like the whole world is like an echo chamber. I hang out with people that pretty much see things the way I see them. And you get to thinking that, well, everyone would see it that way. Well, no, they don't. But, you know, I would say I'm left of center, but I'm more center than left. Okay. And the people with the extreme left point of view, it seemed to me just as crazy as the people with the extreme right point of view. And just there was, I think, super bowl. Not this year. Last year, Bruce Springsteen showed up at that little church in the middle of Kansas that's, like, right at the geographic center. And he was talking about how we need the center. I'm going, Bruce, that's pretty cool. I just. If there was a way. Well, that's the deal. Is that, like you were saying, like we were both saying, the center doesn't get any air time because you're not making people mad.

[39:31] RALEIGH HINMAN: There's not enough visceral reaction.

[39:34] TY PATTON: There's no reaction. It's like, well, of course everyone thinks that.

[39:38] RALEIGH HINMAN: Right? No, I'm. Yep, yep. No, that's. I mean, I think of. It's like, in the last couple years, and I kind of alluded to this earlier, that's been so confusing to me about, like, you see the. The sides twist themselves to adopt a position that seems completely out of line with everything else just because that's an opposing viewpoint. And so, I mean, I think of that from, like, a conservative perspective. And I would say I'd live kind of in that same place. Right. Like, I don't think I'm a fascist, and so I'm not. Right, right. But, you know, generally, small government, all that. So I live to a little bit of the right side. But you've had this, like, protest, black lives matter, protests police, all that. That to me seems like a slam dunk, conservative small government. Like, if you believe in a small government and freedom and anti tyranny, doesn't the idea of a no knock warrant kind of offend you? Shouldn't it? And yet that's been a thing that we've kind of twisted ourselves as, you know, conservatives to adopt a super pro, hey, give the police rocket launchers if they need it position that doesn't even fit with anything else that we'd say as a tenant of, you know, of a small government, you know, don't tread on me. Except for if you need to, kind of like, don't tread on me unless know, you need a SWAT team. And so I don't, that to me makes no sense. And yet, because these, you know, kind of police reform, defund the police, which I think is a horrible, horrible hole. We're phrasing, protests were left. Well, the opposite must be the good thing. Therefore, that's what we are on the right. Like, that's a, this is a perfect slam dunk. Like, hey, is this good? Is this in line with a small government prioritize freedom mindset of handing military surplus to our police and just turning them loose with no accountability? Well, no, maybe we should walk that back. And yet couldn't even have the conversation because, well, no way. If we do that, we're just basically leftists. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, even on the same side, I guess. I mean, again, maybe I'm not on the same side like I used to be. I've been left behind in some ways. It seems like that would be something that we would jump up and down yet. And I've kind of, it's like, no, no, no, you're, you're, that's an east coast talking point, Ty.

[42:32] TY PATTON: How could you? Again, those are just options. Oh, that's a good one. What a big Kansan mean to me? That's. I lived in Kansas most. Oh, I'm sorry. What does being a Kansan mean to you?

[42:57] RALEIGH HINMAN: Well, there's what I think it means and what I'm fearing has means or maybe two different things. I've always thought in some ways, I mean, I think of my granddad again. It's kind of like the, kind of, to me, it's like the kind of prototypical cans in his, you know, family came west after civil war, served in the Union. But his, you know, great granddad did his, got done, said a million miles away from that, you know, saw the horrors of civil war, came to Kansas, you know, went out to the, you know, the Flint hills, and you tried to farm and ranch and lost, and lost the farm and got it back and raised kids. And so that's kind of, to me, the Kansas stories are very practical, hard work. There's value and power in betting on yourself doing things, but not in this kind of vindictive way. I mean, it's reasonable to expect that, you know, there's, we're not going to let people starve to death. Right? I mean, you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't let your neighbor starve to death. That kind of practical, I mean, I hate, I don't want to say progressive because that's such a loaded term now. Right? Yeah. But like, that to me was the, like the Kansan is that we're a practical, you know, kind of the sons and daughters of people that had to ride it out in the dust bowl and break earth and understand the value of work. Right. But are fair. I mean, they'd also recognize that it doesn't work if one guy comes in and buys up every tract of ground in the entire county. Cause everyone's, no one can make a living. And so there's always been this kind of practical conservatism, in some ways, I guess, of a Kansan, of, you know, we can, we value, you know, work, but we value solutions, I guess, value treating people fair. I mean, it's a little simpler. Right. You know, handshake still means something. All that, that, to me, is kind of what I would have always envisioned as a little bit different of a Kansas. And I think there's some truth to that. I mean, you, our mindsets are a little different here, sometimes to the good. I mean, compared to other places. But I'm worried that there's this trend of that is becoming more of a, well, everyone's out to get us. We're real America. The liberal elites on the coast are trying to take our way of life. And that dangerous kind of that to me is that's the cancerous outcome of that as opposed to just, you know, being proud of what you are. And that's where I see that. I mean, you see that in our legislature now, all just nonsense that we're tilting at windmills up there about curriculum and stuff, and just one step forward, two steps back, and that's troubling. But historically, I think being a Kansan is something to, to be proud of.

[46:23] TY PATTON: I think so.

[46:24] RALEIGH HINMAN: And for you, what does being a Kansan mean to you?

[46:27] TY PATTON: Well, like I said, I lived here almost my whole life. I lived in Seattle for a couple years just from working for Boeing, but like my grandpa Raleigh was a county commissioner in Seward county, out by liberal for 40 years. And he was the first mayor of kismet, Kansas. And before he was the mayor, he had the grocery store in kismet, Kansas. Well, this was during the depression, and like you'd mentioned, you wouldn't just let someone starve. Well, he had the grocery store. He had all the food, and people were starving. And so he extended credit to people he knew had no chance of ever paying him back until he went broke. And because you can't run a grocery store if you don't have money to buy more groceries, but rather than let the food sit on the shelf and just go bad, I mean, which is if no one can afford to buy it, that's what's going to happen. And so he extended credit, he took trade ins. People trade him chickens for. I mean, he did everything he could. And out of that, like I said, once he was elected to the county commission, he was reelected every election for 40 years. And finally, till he was old and he told him that he wasn't going to run, and he got elected by write in. And so finally the next election, he said, no, really, I'm not running. I can't do this anymore. Both these guys. And he said, the two guys that were actually running said they're both good people. He goes, either one you vote for, you're going to get a fine county commissioner, but you can't vote for me. I cannot do that anymore. And so finally, he wasn't a county commissioner anymore. But my roots in Kansas are pretty deep. Everyone in a five county area knew my dad. He was a crop duster. And so, which, by the way, I couldn't get away with anything when I was a kid because everyone in a five county area knew my dad. If word got home before I did, you know, but no, I think. And specifically Wichita. I love living in Wichita. Like I said, I lived in Seattle for a couple years, and big cities are nice to visit. I don't want to live in a big city ever again. I've known different people around town that have come here from cities that are. They'll tell you right now they're not going back. Wichita is the bomb. It's got good people, and there's people I think do pretty well about looking out for each other in my neighborhood. Like, I know all my neighbors up and down the street. And a couple years ago, there was some crazy road rage shooting some knucklehead fired shots into a van, hit a little kid. But my neighbor had one of those door cameras and got the tag on the car that was doing the shooting. Those knuckleheads were in handcuffs in 20 minutes. But the police came by months later to tell us all that had gone down. And the police officer said, you know, you guys have got a great neighborhood here. He says, there's not many places left where all the neighbors know each other. He goes, I saw it when you were all coming up here. You're all calling each other by name, asking how this is going, how that's going. He goes, that's just rare anymore. And to me, that's like you were saying, that's Kansas. That's people looking out for each other at work ethic. It's all, I think we're in a pretty good place here. I know there's more Republicans than Democrats, but.

[51:32] RALEIGH HINMAN: Well, I mean, who knows, really? Because Kansas is the state that really. You have a lot of Republicans here that would be Democrats in some other places, but it's just that there's the two parties as the Republicans and the other Republicans. And so it's just. Which one are you? So, I mean, there's probably more pinkish bluish Republicans than you'd think, just because that's kind of where our. Where we shook out.

[52:02] TY PATTON: We've got about five minutes left.

[52:04] RALEIGH HINMAN: Okay.

[52:05] TY PATTON: So is there a last question that you would like to ask your partner before we wrap up?

[52:13] RALEIGH HINMAN: I have one. I need to know. The pirate flag lapel pin. It's cool, but I need to know the story on that.

[52:21] TY PATTON: Oh, when our kids were in high school, we went on a caribbean cruise, and one of the places that we stopped was Nassau. And we did. In Nassau, we went to the pirate museum. Well, like every good museum that dumps you out into a gift shop.

[52:47] RALEIGH HINMAN: Sure.

[52:49] TY PATTON: And so there was just, like, a cartoon jolly Roger. It wasn't anybody's real jolly Roger at school. With a headscarf and an earring. You bet. A skull with an earring. Well, anyway, so I get back to work. I've got my brand new Jolly Roger with me, and I took all the tines off of an old, broken down coat rack that I had, and I tied this jolly Roger to it and flew it up above my desk. Everyone that went anywhere that had a pirate history brought me back pirate stuff.

[53:32] RALEIGH HINMAN: You became the pirate guy.

[53:33] TY PATTON: Oh, my gosh, I've got so much pirate stuff. And so several years ago, I wrote a song called Semper Fiasco. Where I talked about piracy being my midlife crisis.

[53:55] RALEIGH HINMAN: It's very Jimmy buffet esque.

[53:57] TY PATTON: Oh, I had so much fun writing that song, but because of all the pirate paraphernalia that I've got and then writing the song, I just become, like, the local pirate. So it's more fun than sports cars, I guess. Or cheaper.

[54:18] RALEIGH HINMAN: Yeah.

[54:19] TY PATTON: I was gonna say.

[54:19] RALEIGH HINMAN: I mean, as far as midlife crisis go, I mean, unless you actually bought a pirate ship or something. I mean, that's probably a pretty manageable one. It's better than two corvettes. Well, and, I mean, that's if you're gonna carve out a niche in Wichita, Kansas. I mean, there's not gonna be any other competition for the pirate guy, so that's pretty cool.

[54:40] TY PATTON: There you go. I was in Matt Field, green, Kansas, one time, and I asked if it'd be okay if my. It was a hot summer day. And I asked if it'd be okay if my puppy came in while I had some lunch. And the lady behind the counter goes, hey, aren't you the pirate guy, boy smoke. Well, I'd forgotten that I'd given her a copy of my cd earlier that has a pirate flag on it. That's cool.

[55:12] RALEIGH HINMAN: The pirate guy. The pirate guy. Matt field.

[55:15] TY PATTON: I'd forgotten all about that. I gave her a copy, that CD, but I think, whoa, I have a reputation. So my question to you, I get, what is your daughter's name?

[55:29] RALEIGH HINMAN: My daughter's name is Hannah. And so Hannah is. We have four little kids. As you know, all ours are adopted. All our kids are adopted. And so when we adopted our third, Caleb, we've always just said. We've never put preferences or anything. We've just said, hey, kids are out there. God has a kid for us. That'll be the kid. And so, little boy, little boy number three turns out to be a little boy. And so at the time. And my daughter just. Or my wife just really wanted a daughter. And so we'd said at the time, three kids, that's probably enough. And I thought, no way. You know, we'll try one more. Because I just thought that she's gonna want to try. Just in case we get a little girl for the. On the fourth, go around and say, no, no, no, we're done. And then a few months went by and she's like, well, I don't know, maybe. And so we, you know, we just. One more time, we'll kind of put ourselves back out there on the list and see if we wind up, you know, getting selected and then got matched with a gal in California. And so along came Hannah, this little girl. And so Hannah, you know, prayed feverishly. We prayed feverishly, but especially my wife. And then along came a daughter for number four.

[57:00] TY PATTON: Four. Four.

[57:01] RALEIGH HINMAN: So.

[57:01] TY PATTON: Aw, sweet.

[57:02] RALEIGH HINMAN: That's Hannah.