Tracee Adams and Scott Sellers

[00:00] TRACY ADAMS: My name is Tracy Adams. I'm going to skip my age because, you know, age is just a number. Today's date is November. November 13th. Friday, November 13th, 2020. I'm located in Wichita, Kansas. The name of my partner is Scott and our relationship is one small step partner.

[00:25] SCOTT SELLERS: I'm Scott Sellers. I just turned 40. Today is November 13, 2020. I'm in Goddard, Kansas. My partner is Tracy and she is my one step partner.

[00:45] TRACY ADAMS: Scott, why did you want to do this interview today?

[00:51] SCOTT SELLERS: I actually had a friend that asked me if I'd be interested in doing an interview and my initial response was no. The. I'm, I'm worried that, you know, when me and my friends sit around and talk about, you know, politics and we obviously agree and it's easy to, to talk to people that you mostly agree with and if you have a fact that you know is a fact, but nobody's going to go out and search Google and verify for sure that your fact is correct or incorrect. And to take a step and do something like this, you're a little, I'm a little concerned that you're going to find yourself in a position where.

[01:46] TRACY ADAMS: You.

[01:46] SCOTT SELLERS: Know, you, you could be ill prepared to answer any questions, I guess that, you know, that you've been, you know, told forward and backward that you just know in your heart is right. You know what I mean? And so my initial response was no. But I think people need to do this kind of thing and understand that. I think when we talked earlier today that we have more in common than we were kind of willing to admit most of the time. The way to get to that commonality isn't always the same or the end result. So why did you want to do this interview today?

[02:35] TRACY ADAMS: Well, I wanted to do the interview. I saw it on probably KMUW or NPR website and I thought, yes, absolutely, I want to do that. I feel that the country is so polarized, but only as relates to polling, if you will. I think that we as neighbors on the same street, as citizens walking through the same grocery stores and all, I feel like we all have things more in common than we do have indifference. I think that the media expounds and uses those to keep us at odds with each other. And the only way that we will as American citizens and fellow American citizens be able to get beyond it is that we have to have these kinds of conversations. I firmly believe, and I've lived in so many other places in my life, that we all have more things in common than we have different. So I just, you know, I Guess I'm out to prove my. My thesis.

[03:42] SCOTT SELLERS: Sure.

[03:44] TRACY ADAMS: So let's see here. I'm going to read your bio, Scott, and it reads as this. I'm a hardworking husband and father. I grew up in Derby, Kansas. Just wanted to provide the best life for my family and raise my children to respect others. And that's all I got. So here's a danger, Scott, with that, and that means you have to fill in the gaps.

[04:10] SCOTT SELLERS: Yes, ma'am. Yeah. And so I apologize. I don't know that that was not a technical thing. I remember writing that, and I must have just got sidetracked and thought I was done. I guess raise my family, my children, to respect others and just kind of want to be respectful people and I guess, I don't know, teach them how to be as successful as they're capable of being. I didn't really know what to expect, what this bio was going to wind up being. I mean, if you want to know more about kind of. I grew up in Derby. I've got a huge family. My mom has seven brothers and sisters and my dad has 11. Now, most of those. Yeah, most of those, I don't know. They all live in Pennsylvania or scattered around a little bit. So I have a massive family. I'm very aware. I wouldn't say close necessarily to all my family. On my mom's side, it's like after grandma and grandpa pass away, they kind of. You kind of separate out a little bit. And there's still some. I wish that my mom was as close to her family as. As I see. I guess I see a lot of families that are, you know, sisters and brothers, siblings or whatever, they are close. And I don't feel like my mom is. And so I don't have the best relationship with my cousins and stuff, just because we're kind of doing our own thing, you know. But I have a little brother that's handicapped, 100% mentally disabled, not. Not capable at all taking care of himself. And so growing up, it never made sense to me. Like, okay, I have this little brother that I am 100% incapable of having a relationship with. Like, I mean, a meaningful. Where we can talk and communicate, and they have several and they take it for granted. And it always drove me nuts. And so that's kind of history. Grew up in Derby, and now I graduated high school and decided that college was not for me. My dad got a master's degree, and I don't feel like it did anything for him. He worked for Southwestern Bell his whole life, and Honestly, looking back, I know what it did for him in his career. I don't know how to say this. Like he was in the military, it helped him advanced his military career. It did not help him advance his career in the corporate world. And so to me it felt worthless for him to spend the time to go to get a master's degree. And I just don't feel like there was any major benefit. So when I graduated I'm like, you know what, I can make my own go of it. I want to own my own business someday. And you're all filled with hopes and dreams when you're 18 years old. And so I just went out and worked, I worked my tail off and I've been with the company that I'm with now for 17 years and fortunately I've had an opportunity to kind of take an ownership role. Ish. I'm not literally an owner, but I'm treated kind of as one. I get to do what I want with the business that I oversee. If I want to spend money on advertising, I rarely get any resistance. And so it's. I feel like I'm in a really good place for, you know, a 40 year old guy with no higher education and just the will to work and go out and make it work. So I don't know if. Do you have any other questions about kind of my background?

[08:30] TRACY ADAMS: No, sounds great. I think we have lots of similarities as I listen to you tell your story, but I think I'll let you.

[08:42] SCOTT SELLERS: Read your bio here. Okay. So I'm a mother of two African American males, born and raised in a small city in northern Ohio close to the Canadian border. Parents were hardworking entrepreneurs and I am the oldest. Between my brother and I, I grew up in a large extended family, one denomination family, which means we all agree on politics and faith. I've not lived amongst my extended family for over 25 years. Since moving away from them, I have learned and grew in faith issues and political areas. I am open to all walks of life. So what was the catalyst for moving away from your, your family?

[09:30] TRACY ADAMS: Initially it was school. I grew up in Ohio and I went to school on the eastern border of the country and at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. And so I initially was school, but. And then after that I moved to the Washington D.C. area and lived there for a long time and finished college and went to law school briefly. And then I got married in my husband's family. Well, my husband took a job in Kansas City at first and then we moved from there to a couple Other cities in between, coming from there. I mean, there to Wichita. And then this is where we ended, but in the middle of going away. So I left when I was 17. I. Yeah, I did not like small. I do not like small towns. I. My family was kind of prominent, which meant that as soon as you said your last name, people knew who you were. And I hated that. And then it was. I. I just desperately hated it. I can remember saying, I can't wait to leave here. So I guess you could say was I was destined to leave. I regret. I don't regret leaving Ashtabula, that's the name of the little town. I miss not being around the extended family because it was the way I grew up. And so my kids did not have that same experience of having aunts and uncles around all the time, cousins all the time. In fact, I didn't even realize that I didn't have sisters until I went away to college. I mean, I didn't feel it. And then people would say, oh, you don't have any sisters? And I'm thinking, oh, no, I don't have any sisters because I always had cousins and all around. And I'm the youngest granddaughter of 25 grandchildren. So I have lots of mamas, aunts, uncles, you know, a lot of people telling me what to do. That's probably why I wanted to leave so bad. So anyway, I. Yeah, so that's why I left. And I'm grateful for leaving. I miss the extended family, But I'm a person of faith and I don't have a problem saying that. And I do believe that it was on, it was God's plan for me not to grow up in that community as. Because when I am going back, I don't see him very often. But whenever I'm back engaged, it's really weird to go back into a time. You know, you've been out and you've done so many other things and lived so many other places and you met so many different places, people and been, you know, confronted and embraced with different communities. And then you go back and be among them. And then it's like going back into a time zone. It's hard to say that because it's going to be recorded and they may hear me say that one day. But it is kind of weird having to adjust the conversations when I go back home or. Or am I around my family and they are all my paternity family. So like you said, I have a large family too. My father had 11 siblings. My mother is actually. And she'll probably kill me for saying this. The oldest of 32 siblings. What? Yes. Wow.

[12:51] SCOTT SELLERS: Yeah. She's the oldest now.

[12:53] TRACY ADAMS: Two different. Two different roles. Her father had 20 plus, and then her mother had 11, 12, or 13. I forget who other numbers go, but she's the oldest of all of them. And, and she. So. But her maternal side, the ones that were by her mother, disjointed, you know, not really connected. And, and so I could kind of see your point about. Take it. And I grew up in. My paternal family is so united, so conscious as a family, which is just drilled in us. And it was hard not for me to not understand why they didn't get it. My mother's side. Why don't you get it? Family is everything and not to them. So I could see your point on how you value family and want other people to have that same kind of value system.

[13:50] SCOTT SELLERS: So do you think. I mean, I only. I have a stepson and a daughter, and I'm curious, like, do you think you were given that family so strong and how do you. Do you think it's just because that was your experience, because it was what was in front of you? Or do you think that, you know, like, I would like for my kids hopefully to have, you know, a bond. And it's tough for them because my stepson's 26 and my daughter's 12. And so there's a big gap there. And I mean, he's out of the house. And I mean, I even think with my dad, with his oldest. Oldest sibling and him. Because there's such a separation in age that, you know, well, when that one is. When that one is out of the house and the youngest one still in the house. You know what I mean? Like, there's. It's hard for them to. They were still close, though. So I'm just curious where, you know, do you. Do you feel like you're super close and do you feel like you. How that was formed? So maybe I can try to provide that to my kids.

[15:06] TRACY ADAMS: You know, there's such a big difference in age. My, like I said, I'm the youngest of 25 grandchildren, and I, you know, I really can't explain how this came about. I know my grandfather, and my grandfather, too, was the oldest of a large family, and so he was revered as the oldest brother to his sisters and brothers. And then my. My father's sisters and brothers all kind of are in that whole nucleus, if you will. I don't really know where it came from, but I know family was so Preached to us all the time. My mom, who is the in law here, she says that the growing up, watching my father's family, she said the Homans always thought they were better than other people. I'm not sure what that means, but what I meant is that why I said that is that it happened years before. You know, it was just they. They were a. Just a tight group of people. Even, you know, when my father and his brothers and sisters were growing up, it was just preached to them about family and. And. And I just kind of grew up in that world. In that. Yeah, my. And I'll say it centered around religion. Faith, though. It centered around faith. And that's why I brought that in, because it so impacted what. Everything we did when I was growing up, you know, I was in a very conservative family, Christian family, and we couldn't wear what girls couldn't wear pants, couldn't cut your hair, and, you know, all those things that you hear. So I guess part of that was like, I was ready to get away from all that, too. And I didn't think of it in a bad way. I just thought of it as in a very confining way. But it was across the board. Didn't matter whose house you went to. Everybody did the same thing. Now, we all cheated. The kids all cheated. You know, we all listen to secular music when we shouldn't have, but we knew we weren't supposed to. And so, you know, it was. It's just. And I guess that's a really good thing. You can. You can really.

[17:27] SCOTT SELLERS: Okay, sorry, you.

[17:30] TRACY ADAMS: No, no. That means you can depend on everybody to treat your kids and do the same thing as opposed to growing up. My kids growing up here, you had to be a little bit more selective about where they went. And my husband and I were in ministry for a long time, so that was still a part of our life.

[17:49] SCOTT SELLERS: I feel like we've. We as a society, we've lost a lot of the Christian faith, you know, there. It frustrates me. I feel like, well, they want to remove the Ten Commandments, right? They want to remove God from the schools. They want to pull all this stuff out. And. And I think we need that, I think, as a society, you know, and everybody. Because it's like all of a sudden there's this freedom from religion movement, and that's not what America has ever been about. It's been about freedom of religion. So you get to choose your religion and you get to practice your religion, and nobody's going to shame you or look down on you for that. And I feel like, I personally feel like Christians are kind of getting that a little bit. We're getting shamed. We're getting. And I don't, don't misunderstand. Like, I'm not a. I don't go to church every Sunday. I haven't. But I believe in God and I believe in Jesus, and I believe, you know, I believe in those things. And I think that the ultimate punishment is what keeps most of society from doing the wrong things, you know, being dishonest and doing harmful and hurtful things. And so I fear that we're getting too far away from Christianity. And again, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not someone that is like telling people you need to go to church. It's not what I do, but, but it's what I feel, you know, so, anyway, well, let's. Who's been the most influential person in your life and what did they teach you?

[19:49] TRACY ADAMS: You know, I read that question and I pondered that because I don't know if I could. If you talk to me in general, you'll hear me say my father. I will quote and talk about my father a lot. And as I listen, I read the question and I thought, you know, who is that person? And I wanted to bring out some, really people that I have a lot of respect for. Doesn't necessarily mean they've. They've most influenced. Influenced my life. And I guess, you know, it was my father. My father was an entrepreneur of entrepreneurs. I mean, every idea he had in both my parents, some good ones, some bad. I respect the fact that you, you said you decided not to go to school and you wanted to start your own business and, and, but now you're working for someone else. But the entrepreneurial spirit, I believe that employers still need that. They may not be the one who signs the checks, but I need to be able to, if I'm not in the. In the office or at the location, know that the business is being ran the way it should be ran. And so the whole spirit of entrepreneurship is ownership and it's value creation. That's what entrepreneurs do. And so my father, I guess it would be my father is because I just thought about it. I'm thinking, you know, I wanted to say all these wonderful people I've met in my life, but not necessarily. I have a lot of respect for them, but did they influence my life? I think it probably was my father. Yeah. And he taught me respect for people. Probably way too much. You know, when I lost my father, last year, July 5, 2019. And some of his friends that spoke at his funeral, one of them, they said we called him Honest Abe because his name was Abraham. And so there was a part of my father which I felt was way too nice to people. He had. He loaned money and didn't ask for it back. And he was the neighborhood go to guy for just about anything you wanted. And I. Some, you know, I think because my father is the youngest of. In his family, I'm the oldest in ours. And so I have. I still play the oldest role even in my family when it comes to him. So he would do whatever I tell him to do. If my mom couldn't get him to do it, all he had to do is ask Tracy. And he would do it because I was his. I was the. I'm the only girl and I was definitely a daddy's girl. So I think it was my father. And he taught me respect and he taught me faith. He wasn't, you know, a scholar or anything like that, but he just believed that God wants us to treat people with humanity and treat people like they belong to God. You know, I probably way too much and probably. And I'm a believer, but, you know, I kind of try to be in the middle of all that, but. So it probably was my father. What about yourself?

[22:58] SCOTT SELLERS: I don't. I don't really know how to answer that either. I think I lost. I want to say I lost my grandpa at a young age, but I was 12, and I feel like he was pretty influential for the time that I had him. We were fortunate enough that, like I said, my family is very close and obviously parents are always going to be hugely influential. But there was just something about. We'd moved in next door to my grandpa when I was. Well, my grandparents when I was like three, three or four. And I can remember going over and grabbing wood for the fireplace and stacking it in and him kind of working me, you know, and that's kind of. He got. I think he got a little pleasure out of like seeing me work because he had a little. A little watch. I don't know. Are you familiar with the song I'd like to Teach the World to Sing?

[24:08] TRACY ADAMS: I think so.

[24:09] SCOTT SELLERS: So that's.

[24:10] TRACY ADAMS: No, no. I had something else in my head.

[24:12] SCOTT SELLERS: Okay, so it's, it's the. You probably know it now. It's the Coca Cola song I'd like to teach.

[24:18] TRACY ADAMS: That's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[24:19] SCOTT SELLERS: And so he had a little watch that would. That I. I don't Know if he just pushed a button on it and made the, the sound. But he, he'd hit the, the button and that the tune would play and he'd be like, all right, Scott, well it's time for a Coke break. And so we go and sit down at the table and we drink a Coke. And he was on the radio, he was really into recording stuff and I don't know all the details, I just know that he was on KFDI long, long time ago. And so he always had a thing for recording audio. And he would love to just sit there at the table and just razz me, just give me the hardest time he possibly could. And he'd record it. And my mom has a audio tape of him asking me if I, if I would be willing to go dig a hole and you know, let's go dig some holes. And, and I would say, okay, well what, what are we going to do with it? He goes, well, we're going to put dirt in it. And he would just, for 15 minutes he would just, let's go. And, and I would just, at my little four or five year old mind, couldn't wrap my head like why would I put dirt in a hole when I had to pull the dirt out of the hole?

[25:34] TRACY ADAMS: Exactly.

[25:36] SCOTT SELLERS: And so he would just, he would always do things like that. And I think one of my younger memories was him teaching me about the Hail Mary. And so we're with Catholic background and explaining to me at the hour of our death and the hour being the hour and the hour being us, you know. And so I just remember him kind of walking me through some things like that in life. And so I'd say for the little time that I had with him, it was pretty, he was pretty influential.

[26:16] TRACY ADAMS: That's super cool. Can you briefly describe in your own words your personal political views? Values assist values.

[26:29] SCOTT SELLERS: So I'm, I want to say I'm very conservative, but I heard a guy make an argument a long time ago, how can you be too conservative? How can you be too for the Constitution? You know, how can you be too, too much for. And so the short version is I'm conservative and I believe in conservative values. And what that means to me is I believe in maximum personal responsibility. And I think abortion is very wrong. And I believe that, I guess everything that you think a conservative believes, except for if somebody believes the conservative is racist just because he's a conservative, I think so. Going to race. There was a lot of conversation about race recently and I've had time to talk about this with several people, I think most of us. And I'd like to know what you think about this. I think most of us are prejudiced, right? Which means that we prejudge people based on what we see. And it's an immediate reaction. It's something that it. It's very, I don't know, basic. Like, it's something that in our head, we see somebody, boom, we make a judgment, and then it's our responsibility to handle that judgment appropriately. And so my comments to people have been, you know, if I see. Forgive me if this offends you, but if I see a black man. And the reason I say that is because I don't like African American. Like, I don't like Asian American. Like, I don't like Mexican American, because I think we're Americans, and I think we should all be Americans. And that's. At the end of the day, that's how I see it. And I don't think that nobody's ever called me a German American. How would you know that? You couldn't know that. And I don't need that. I mean, I don't. I don't expect that. I don't want to be. That's splitting a society into different things. And so anyway, if I see a black man walk up to me and he's dress nice, and he's like, hey, excuse me, sir, flat tire over here. Is there something, you know? Oh, absolutely. Versus a young black guy walks up to me and his pants around his ankles, he's like, hey, dog, I'm gonna have an initial. Different reaction to those two different situations. And so it's not racial. Conversely, if the same young black guy walks up to me with his pants around his ankles, he says, excuse me, sir, I'm in a bad situation. Such and such. Fl. Flat tire, whatever, then my initial response to what I saw is going to be different than, you know, if I heard, hey, dog, you know, does that make sense? And so I'm. Anyway, so I'm conservative, and I believe that. I hate that racism is being used so much right now because by and large, I don't think most people are racist. So go ahead, please. I'm sorry.

[30:15] SPEAKER C: I was just going to say there's so much in there that we could delve into. And I don't know, Tracy, if you have some initial reactions or other questions or even responses that you would like to give about that before we flip it and ask about your. About your politics.

[30:37] TRACY ADAMS: Not at this moment. I don't have any questions for him. I'M gonna let him continue and to, you know, build out his perspective.

[30:44] SPEAKER C: Okay.

[30:45] TRACY ADAMS: I don't want to jump in there. You know, I just want to hear it all.

[30:48] SCOTT SELLERS: No, no, that's. I was. I was kind of done with that question. You know, where I'm at is, like I said, a conservative. And. And I just want to be very clear that just because I'm conservative does not make me racist.

[31:03] TRACY ADAMS: I think that's good. So, Sarah? Yes. How would you like to go deeper on that?

[31:09] SPEAKER C: Well, I mean, it's kind of up to what you are curious about to either know more or how you would like to respond. I mean, are these things that you. Is this a position that you have heard kind of enunciated to you before, Tracy?

[31:29] TRACY ADAMS: Well, I thought it was interesting when you. I asked you about your political views and then you said I'm Christian, which is a faith statement, not necessarily a political statement. And then we went to race. And I think that in the climate that we're in now, there tends to be a categorization that if someone says they're conservative, then the media is trying to tell us as Americans, then that means you're racist. And I don't think that if a person is. Calls himself conservative that they are racist. However, I will say that I would consider myself a conservative. So in real life, I'm a financial advisor. So I deal with numbers and that whole perspective of growth gains and when it comes to money, a lot of times we want to characterize that as Republican, where I am a very, very, very moderate, conservative Democrat. And I am conscious of the fact that because a person sees me brown, that they necessarily think that I am a Democrat because I get a little pushback. I want to push back off of that. So I don't like the fact that when we talk about politics, conservative goes to race and the opposite goes to race. So if you think of African American, you automatically think they're black or African American. I can respect the fact that you don't like the phrase African American, Asian American, but what I would say is that there's a reason why these categories have grown. You know, we used to be black, and then we grew from. And then before that, you know, we were Negroes, and before that we were this and this. So all these category. Categories have grown. And I think it's political. So I think that's interesting that you don't like to have. I don't like them either. I wish I could just say that, you know, I'm American, right? And I do think they're divisive. I do think they begin to break us up, you know, But I want to always remember that the history that played a part. So you and I are in 2020. You've had a great life growing up with your family. I too, but I don't forget that the work that other people have done to get me here, you know, to get me to where me and my family. So I respect that. I agree that there, when we hear the phrase conservative, and especially if it comes from a small town, Caucasian, and particularly male, I think you're racist. Because the media has told us this is the characteristic of the racist. I too think that we all are prejudiced. Unfortunately, racism is taught. And I know you can see when kids are, you know, naive and two and three, they don't know the difference. So they don't even know to be afraid. You know, even if a guy came up to your great or your grandchild at 2 or 3 and his pants are hanging down below his pants and he says, hey, dog, that baby still would not know, right? To be afraid, right? So we all been conditioned.

[35:06] SCOTT SELLERS: That's right.

[35:07] TRACY ADAMS: And I heard you say that if a. Before you even told me about the guy hanging around below his pants when you said, if African American. I don't know, you may say a black guy. But one thing you said that got my attention. You said, dress nice. And I thought, oh, it's the image. And so again, we are, you know, we're still being manipulated by media and imagery. And so, like, you know, we just have to work hard, like you said, to identify these prejudices when they surface in our life. And it's our responsibility to respond with the knowledge of knowing. And that's the only way we're going to get out of it.

[35:50] SCOTT SELLERS: Right?

[35:50] TRACY ADAMS: Because we all been conditioned to it. You know, I grew up, and I put the fact that I grew up in Canada very purpose because I grew up in an all white community. My brother and I were the only blacks in our. My family was the only black on that side of town. And then my brother and I were the only African Americans or blacks in our entire school. So you can imagine our experience. However, I had a good childhood. But we have to be, you know, I just think that we have to work to identify the prejudices that we've been conditioned to operate in, even the racism. And so I know that African American men are not the only ones to walk around with their pants hanging below their yes, ma'am behind.

[36:36] SCOTT SELLERS: Right?

[36:37] TRACY ADAMS: But you put that on us and so, you know, there's that imagery again. And I just like to know, like, why do you feel like if a African American calls you your dog? Because, you know, some of the. I see them all. I see all of them wearing like that. But why is it that you had to categorize it as an African American?

[36:57] SCOTT SELLERS: Yeah. So I think because the way that I framed that whole statement was I'm not racist and how I would act in two different situations and how myself or people prejudge people based on what they see immediately. And then, like I said, it just. I agreed exactly with what you just said, like how we handle that prejudgment, you know, what we do with that, what goes off in our head is not what has to come out of our mouths. And regardless of what either of those two guys dress the way that they are, I am. So I'm a very empathetic person. Right. It's very difficult. It's very difficult for me to just shoe a homeless guy away from me who's asking me for money. But I do. And it's not what I want to do in my heart, but it's what I. So it's tough for me because I feel like I wasn't granted any special situation. You know, my dad worked his whole life and worked hard to put food on the table and give us what we have. And I want to. I want to help people, but I also realized that I had to work for what I have. And if somebody's just gonna stand on the street corner and ask me for something, it's like there's a certain amount of mental issues, right, where people, you know, they just can't get it together, whatever. But I also feel like there's a certain amount of this is pretty easy way to get by. And if that's all you ever desire, if you want to live under a bridge, don't let me stop you, you know, but don't bug. You know what I mean? Don't bug society at large because you chose to live that lifestyle. So you mentioned that you're a financial advisor, and finance has always fascinated me. I've been saving for my retirement since I was 19 years old. And so I've always had a plan to be successful. And so it frustrates me to see people that can't make it. And so, anyway, I know I kind of got off track a little bit there, but I was just trying to point out that I'm not racist. And I do believe that we're. We prejudge People and that we have to handle our prejudgment appropriately, and it doesn't matter who that person is with their pants around their ankles, you know, knees, whatever. But I. I just. I don't know why I went there other than that's what. That's the way we all have to describe it. Right. Because you don't see a. You don't see a bunch of Mexican gangster thugs portrayed on tv. Not that they're not out there.

[40:16] TRACY ADAMS: Yeah.

[40:17] SCOTT SELLERS: You know what I mean?

[40:18] TRACY ADAMS: Right.

[40:19] SCOTT SELLERS: And so it's. Anyway, and. And even, like I said, not that if a guy is dressed that way, that doesn't give you a right to treat them any differently. All my point was, is what you see snaps a judgment in your mind, and then what comes out of their mouth reinforces that judgment, and it still doesn't give you a right to handle it in an inappropriate way. Right. And so that was my only point is it's important to me that people don't think that just because you're a conservative, just because you want a limited government and you want the freedom, like, the freedom to do what you see fit for your life, but you don't have the. You shouldn't have the right to blame other people for your decisions.

[41:19] TRACY ADAMS: Mm. Could I ask you a question about the conservative and. And the phrase you say about small government, and I'm not sure what else you use, but is it your. And I just want. I'm asking out of true curiosity, is it your view that Democrats want bloated government? I'm just asking out of pure curiosity.

[41:52] SCOTT SELLERS: Yeah, absolutely. And so my fear is that Democrats aren't. So there's a. I feel there's a difference between progressives and Democrats. Right. And so I think. I feel like a lot of people don't even know politically where they land on. On the scale. And so, you know, pro. Pro choice versus pro life. Right.

[42:33] TRACY ADAMS: Pro life.

[42:34] SCOTT SELLERS: Pro life is going to be a conservative ideal. Right. And pro choice. And so what frustrates me is that the Democrat platform is trying to say that we are for taking away a woman's right to choose what's right for her body. And that's not the case at all. I think you said you went to.

[43:04] TRACY ADAMS: Law school a little short.

[43:08] SCOTT SELLERS: Okay. And so you have to have standing to go to court and argue a case in front of a court. Correct. You have to have a reason to do that. You can't just say, hey, I think I'm gonna. And so the reason that anybody has standing to go to court and fight for anti abortion laws, not because we want to strip a right away from a woman. It's because we want to stand up for the unborn life. And so a lot of people, they've successfully reframed that whole argument to, well, you're, you're taking a woman's right away. Well, it's not about a woman's right. It's about supporting the innocent life that didn't have a choice in the matter. And so it's things like that the media, I feel like, have reframed. And so I think largely Democrats aren't that far away from Republicans. I feel like that gap is narrowing even. I feel like there's more Democrats that are kind of even moving. Either Democrats are moving towards the Republican side of the aisle or they're moving towards the progressive side of the aisle. So they're going even further away. And that scares me. Like, that scares the hell out of me. I am. There are so many countries in the world that you can go and live in a socialist or even a communist or whatever makes you happy. Why would anybody want to transform the most free country in the world, nobody has freedoms like we do, into something else. And I would be fine with it. I would be like, hey, you guys, do whatever you want to do. If I could go somewhere else and be as free as I am here, but I can't do it.

[45:07] TRACY ADAMS: So. A question again. You said something about Democrats and believe me, I am like 10 seconds away from changing my party. But anyway. But here's a question I do have though you said that is that the Democrats are coming either closer to the Republican Party or going extreme progressive. Do you not see any shift in the Republican Party? I noticed that you saw it as changing and shifting and getting. But it's like you didn't give. Because truly, I know, and I may not be supposed to say this, truly I know you can see that this, the Republican Party of this day is not the Republican Party, the, of Abraham Lincoln.

[45:57] SCOTT SELLERS: Well, I'll, I'll be honest with you. I haven't studied Abraham Lincoln a lot. I didn't, I didn't get into politics until 2008. And, you know, I'm familiar a little bit with, you know, what happened in Reagan's era. And as far as, you know, the Republican Party, I feel like I don't, I don't know, I don't see. Okay, so going back to, I think I said this earlier. How are, how can you be too conservative? How can you be too for the Constitution? And so I don't know that you can move any further right than, you know, maximum freedom, right? Like maximum personal responsibility. How can you. You can't go any further right than that. Now where I think we have a problem with. This is a government problem. This is an elected official bureaucracy like Republican problem. But when you have. I don't like the government picking winners and losers. I don't care if they're Democrats, I don't care if they're Republicans. I do not like them giving tax breaks to these guys. Because Solyndra, perfect example. I don't know if you remember Solyndra. Solyndra manufactured solar panels and they got a huge. I don't know if it was a tax break or a government grant or whatever. And then like three days later they're out of business. What. And that all happened under Obama. And you know, I don't, I don't know the particulars of any of this here. Sorry, I'm going to get off on a little tangent here too. Like the facts should just be the facts, right? Like when you go into accounting, you have GAP and non GAAP and all these different ways of accounting for different things. And it's like, what money in, money out, done. Why does it. And I know there's reasons for it. I know that. And especially when you get the government involved and you have taxes and, and all this stuff is kind of swept into that, but it shouldn't be that difficult. I feel like the government's out of control. I feel like it's because they're picking winners and losers and it doesn't matter. Whoever's in office is going to pick the kind of winners that they want. And none of this ever made sense to me. Why do we have to pay some guy $250,000 a year to legislate on our behalf? 365 days a year. How much legislation do we so.

[48:56] TRACY ADAMS: Well, I guess that goes back to the Constitution, but I know we have our notice here that we're bout up over our time. I do have a question though. How do you feel like we can come back together after this polarized political presidential campaign that we have just experienced?

[49:20] SCOTT SELLERS: I wish I had a good answer for that. I think I. Again, for me, what everything comes down to is I just want to be left alone. I want to be able to do what I see fit for my family and make my own decisions. And I've made some stupid decisions in my life and I've paid for them and I'm okay with it. Like it's it sucks. It's tough. It's. But I think we all need to be willing to accept the repercussions of our actions. And I don't know. I think. I feel like there's a lot of people that feel like they should be picked up and brushed off by somebody for making mistakes. And so I think if we could have conversations like this and. And try to drive people to accept personal responsibility, I think we can all. And I think that's something that we can all agree on, like, shouldn't we have responsibility for our own actions? And so I think if we do that, like, and we can have meaningful conversations where we're not yelling at each other, we're not all fired, because. And it's. It's kind of hard sometimes not to be. You're passionate about the way you feel, and you just want to. I. Nobody's going to change my mind because in my mind, like, there's no other way. Like, anyway, I just. And so I don't know what to do other than try to help people understand my point of view and understand that I'm not trying to force anything on anybody, and I don't want to be forced to be forced to be made to do anything.

[51:14] TRACY ADAMS: Well, I have one more question. I know we're running out of time, so do you base your whole political affiliation on that one issue of abortion?

[51:23] SCOTT SELLERS: Oh, no. God, no. But it's the easiest one, right? Like that. To me, like, it's. It just. It's very, very easy to explain that whole thing. And so not. Not at all. No, I.

[51:47] SPEAKER C: Yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt. I feel I'm interested in also. I know we've gone over quite a bit at this point, but there's so much good stuff that you guys are talking about. Tracy, you're asking that question, and I'm wondering where you're coming from on that particular issue. And I don't know if this is going to be a good spot to wrap it up on, but do you want to. Yeah, go ahead.

[52:17] TRACY ADAMS: I do. I have. And so I am a very fiscally conservative person, being in the finance world. And I understand numbers and I understand budgets and I understand deficits. And so there's a part of me that truly believes in smaller government, truly wants the government to cut back on spending, because I realize that my children, grandchildren are going to have to pay the bill, but I can't make my whole vote, my whole ballot on that one thing, because life in America is more than that. And politics influence and inform Our life. I want my roads to be taken care of. I want our bridges to be restored. I want clean air. You know, I want fiscal responsibility. I'm against government and corporate welfare. So you might find me on this side of the aisle on certain issues and then you might find me on other sides of the aisle. I believe that personally abortion is wrong. However, I know that women are going to get abortion and so if they are, I believe it should be done in a clean, safe environment. My mother lost her best friend for having an abortion because in Ohio it was illegal. So she had to go to some back alley person and she didn't come out the alley. And so personally, I pray that you would choose life. However, I believe that as Americans, the richest and most lucrative, the greatest country on the face of the earth, we should not have women going and losing their life because they made a bad choice. Personally, I believe that there are too many brown and black people that have been funneled through the penal system through legislation to be able to fund other kinds of initiatives. So for that reason I can't be on this side of the aisle. And so I'm on both sides of the aisle. But I did find it interesting that you said the Democrats are moving back and forth and when I asked you about the Republicans moving, you only said to the extreme how conservative they could be moving more liberal. Because I personally believe small government is just talking points. Because I believe on both sides and I did grow up in a political house and my father had a lot of political connections and so I had a job on Capitol Hill. So I know that the whole thing about, I said just the other day, the whole thing about small government, anti abortion, you know, saving the middle class, they're just talking points. If you read the Congressional Journal, you would know that all of them up there are really, in my opinion, in the same bag. But I asked that question because I find it that people find it easier to endorse all the other kinds of things in that party on the basis of abortion. Like you said, it's easy. So I can justify the lie and the buy rate, the deciphers net, the thievery and all that just because it's pro abortion. I mean, not it's anti abortion or anti pro choice. I think that's really interesting. And you said it, it's easy.

[55:34] SCOTT SELLERS: Well, what I mean is it's easy for me to explain. It's something that I've been through in my head so many times. But it's. I have a well thought out argument for why you would want anti abortion. Now, when I say that, I'm with you, like, I, I agree with your point. Like, you don't want people going and having coat hanger abortions. Right? That's not what anybody wants. And so the point is just that we have, we have to take responsibility again for our actions. And you know, I am, I wouldn't even be against an abortion if it was, you know, their incest and rape and stuff. Right? Like, okay, I mean, I don't, I still don't agree with it. And I am 100% with you in the fact that personally, no, I don't think anybody should do it, you know, but it's not my place to tell people what they can do. And my only point was, is that why anybody has a reason to argue on behalf of a pro life agenda. Right. I guess I didn't really state my personal feeling. I just argued why the right has that thought process and how they, how they can even have the ability to go in and argue a case for that. So I personally know, I mean, anyway, I don't, I don't think people should have an abortion. I think children are beautiful. I think it's, it's amazing what a child does in your life. And anyway, that's kind of, I guess that's, that's all I have to say on the abortion deal.

[57:39] SPEAKER C: Well, we have gone over time somewhat here. So, Tracy, if you have a parting thought that you'd like to leave us.

[57:47] TRACY ADAMS: With and we will wrap up, I, Scott, I want to tell you thank you for taking the time to take this, you know, to go into this conversation. I just think we need more of these because what we. It's my theory that we will acknowledge that we mostly agree about most things. You know, my grass might be greener than yours, and you may say yours is greener than mine. That's relative, I think. But for the most part, we want our grass to be cut and our trash to be picked up. We want our kids to have good school and education. We want all of our kids to have opportunities to advance themselves. And that's what these kinds of conversations, in my opinion, reveal, that we kind of all want the same things. How we go about doing it might be different, but I think we all want the same things. So I just want to tell you thank you. And I hope that, I hope that I was not combative and because I have a tendency to be combative. But I just want to say thank you. It was my pleasure meeting.

[58:48] SCOTT SELLERS: No, thank you very much. For, you know, having a conversation with me. And I do not feel at all like you're a combative. I'm not offended. I'm very difficult to offend. But I think you're right. I think more of these conversations, I mean, I. I feel like we could. We could talk for another 45 minutes, but we also have lives, so thank you for doing it as well. And hopefully somebody can get some value out of our conversation someday.

[59:22] TRACY ADAMS: I agree.