Running for Office with Jeff Hilovsky
Today on the podcast I had Dr. Jeff Hilovsky on to talk about his run for Delaware State House. Dr. Hilovsky is retired from the military and from practicing Optometry.
Connect with Jeff from his campaign website below or LinkedIN
Facebook: @vote04jeff Email: vote04jeff@gmail.com
Podcast
Episode 188: Running for Office
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to crystal podcast on ICO media today had a great conversation with Dr. Jeff Olasky. Uh, and we talked about his run for Delaware state house. Uh, I, I have a long history with. Both professionally. And then also I’ve gotten to know him personally and on the podcast. So, uh, he is definitely worth your time considering you may or may not agree with all of his policy positions, but I think what you can see with our conversation today is that he is definitely willing to work with people who don’t necessarily agree with him in order to get their perspective.
So I had a ton of fun with this conversation. I hope you enjoy it as always be sure to subscribe to the podcast, write a review, share it with your friends the first time you and I. Uh, let me I’ll start it this way. I’ll just say that the first time you and I talked, I was actually in the ho you might not know this, but I was in the hospital with my wife.[00:01:00]
Um, and we had just had our, um, It would’ve been Mason, so we just had Mason 2019. So she’s our, she’s our three and a half year old now. And I remember we had had it scheduled and I was just playing with the idea of doing the podcast and, and you know, what I typically do is I, um, I kind of I’m if I’m good at anything, I’m good at consistency.
I’m good at deciding I wanna do something. And then just following through with it, that’s probably like my, my best attribute is being is like sticking to stuff. And so at the time I knew like, if, if you would’ve asked me, like, am I gonna be doing this in four years? I’d probably say, yeah, I’d be doing this in four years, but it’s just weird because like the, the technology and the stuff that you do to change and what you learn, you know, I had no idea what I was doing when we talked last time, I was just recording whatever.
We we’d have a conversation with. I’m still kind of doing that well, that makes it fun. Yeah, I think so. That makes it fresh. I think so. So today I wanna [00:02:00] talk about the, my day multifocal for just a second. It has been a really great thing in our practice for our patients who are presbyopes of all areas, but you know, those tricky presbyopes are always the ones that are kind of emerging, where they don’t want to give up any of their far away vision.
But they’re having some struggles up close. And so what, uh, the mighty multifocal has been able to do for us is to allow those patients to transition into a multifocal more easily. And then as we have those patients progress into other levels where they need more ad powers, it’s been a nice, smooth transition.
So the ultimate hurdle that we’ve seen in our practice before the, my day multifocal. We’d have patients who would resist any transition to a multifocal lens because of that distance blur. We just haven’t seen that. So if you haven’t started using Mida multifocal in your practice, I would encourage you to start check it out, uh, contact, reach out to your Cooper reps for those trial lenses, uh, and commit to MyDay multifocal for your patients.
I think they’re gonna like it. [00:03:00] If you haven’t checked out Macia health yet for your patients in category one through category four, I think there’s a lot of evidence that you should be considering. The first is if we just look at a reds two and what they, they talk about, MACI health is a, so for patients in category three and category four, um, AMD Macia health is a great option for them that follows that entire, um, that entire protocol.
And it also add. Meso Z Ising to the mix, which if you look at some of the evidence, I believe shows me that it’s going to thicken the macular pigment better than without meso Zanine. It also uses the, a correct, a reds two dose of zinc, uh, at 25 milligrams. And so you don’t have to worry so much about the potential side effects of zinc.
The other thing to, to think about. And it’s beyond the scope of this, although you’ve probably heard me talk on other podcasts, is that in patients in category one and two, there may be some additional benefit, uh, to supplementing them with something that may be a little bit less than the, a reds two. So you don’t have to add as much to it.
And that’s where I use the Mac health LMC three. [00:04:00] And so I think if you haven’t done this yet, I’d consider Mac health in your practice and for your patients. And it’s been great for my patients. Um, and we really feel like we can have the ability to, uh, help those patients in all categories of macular degeneration.
So the reason I wanted to have you on today was mainly because, you know, I am excited for you. I, I want to hear about your campaign, you know, so for everybody that doesn’t know, um, I’m gonna give, you can go back and listen. I think it’s probably. Three or four, maybe five that, that of the entire show. And, um, and so they can kind of hear Dr.
Halo’s background, really, uh, Jeff, what you were doing at the time. And I, I assume that you’re still doing it is helping, you know, helping with leadership with high school students, but you have this really extensive background in the military as well as optometry. Um, and now. Your third career, maybe even fourth is gonna be politics.
So politics is kind of a nasty [00:05:00] business. Tell me why you want to be involved.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: You know, I was, uh, I was asked to, to do this because, uh, I am a, a frequent commenter on, uh, things that happen in our area. And so I will send out a blast, email to five or six representatives that I know. And even some that I don’t know.
And I say, you know, here’s, here’s what, uh, my read on this is. And, and, and so then I research it a little bit and I, I build a fact base for my opinion. And then I submit it. So the, so the, uh, the emails are usually long and they’re detailed. And so, uh, I sent out one about job creation. I got a call back from, uh, you know, a guy that I know he’s a state representative.
And, uh, we talked for a while and then he said, tomorrow, this is like in January, he said, tomorrow what’s gonna happen is you’re [00:06:00] going to be part of a new district. And, um, you know, although I appreciate your emails and the depth at which you, you know, dive into things. I think it’s time to put your money where your mouth.
and, and I still wasn’t getting, and I said, so what, what, what do you mean? He said, well, you need to run for the office at all. No, no, , I’m not gonna do it. So, um, so he said, well, let’s schedule another call. Think about let’s schedule another call. So two weeks later he called again and, and we had a, a very interesting conversation and, um, still wasn’t sold.
And I said, you know, um, I’m gonna think about this, but maybe I need to meet some other people and talk to. So my wife and I had breakfast with a couple of other, uh, rep one Senator and one representative. And, uh, that was, that was neat. Uh, but really when I decided to, to do this is whenever I was on the floor playing with my grandkids.
And for some reason we were having a happy time, you know, and laughing and giggling and whatever. And it hit me [00:07:00] that five years from now, 10 years from now. And more when they’re entering, you know, age of, of reason in adulthood, they may have a, a dumpster fire train wreck of a society. And so, um, what is it that I could do?
So, you know, I don’t want them to say grandpa, you, you were, you were pretty vigorous at that age and you were pretty smart and how come you didn’t do anything to help us. And now we have to deal with these problems that are almost ins surmount. And, uh, we don’t have choices. And so, uh, I think everybody deserves to have choices.
And if you don’t have them, then you don’t know what you don’t know, but when you have them, you have an opportunity to have freedom and Liberty. And so, um, I said, okay, that’s the deal? That was the, that was the linchpin that got me into this, uh, this whole situation.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: So the, the, um, The dumpster [00:08:00] fire that you see the potential for a dumpster fire that you see run down.
Because cuz you know, again, I believe that most of our politics is local. So as we can kind of get, we, we get, we get focused on what’s happening nationally and that can be distracting to us. But then. The real places we can affect change in a community, as you know, is by shrinking that sphere down and down and down and down.
And so describe your community, um, specifically, describe the situation in your state, uh, that, that you see as, as being the potential for dump dumpster fire esque that you need to be able to shift now from describe that to us.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: Well, I think that, uh, you know, you’re right tip O’Neil said all politics is local.
And so here we are. However, there are, uh, you know, bad policies or, or poorly thought out policies lead to bad outcomes. And there, there are several [00:09:00] things here. For example, um, our schools, Delaware used to be ranked number. By whatever ranking that was by whomever did the ranking, but it was sixth. And so the same people did the same ranking now.
And 20 years later were 37th. How was that possible? Delaware’s in a
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: affluent state. Isn’t it? I always think of it as being a very affluent state. Is that not the case? Well,
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: you know, I, I think, yeah, there’s, I mean, we have beach communities, which, you know, there’s multimillion dollar homes along the ocean.
There’s multimillion dollar homes slightly in. Uh, there’s a very strong, uh, agrarian economy. We have, you know, we’re, we’re a big, uh, poultry producer. We produced 221 million chickens last year. Uh, we do quite a bit to, you know, feed the nation in that regard. Uh, in addition, we have, um, uh, 230 farms and 42% of the, uh, land in Delaware.
The land mass in Delaware is agriculture, [00:10:00] but something happened along the way to the school system. And so, for example, I, I, uh, present my leadership program as, as a complete volunteer in three high schools. The math competency in those high schools is the, the highest is 29%. And you just have to shake your head and say, what, what is going on here?
The English language arts competency is 55%. And that’s a head scratcher. And you say, how is, how is that possible? What did we do? Well, I think that we moved away from the three R’s, you know, when you concentrate on other stuff, you take away the benefit of solid math, solid reading, solid English, solid social studies, history, physics, uh, and civics.
That that is not. Not being routinely [00:11:00] taught and, and I, and I think that we’ve, we’ve messed with the social media stuff. Um, and, and there are influencers, um, both, you know, internal and external that, you know, with, with screen time being so high with the, the children. And the, um, you know, problem with the, uh, nuclear family and, and the, uh, you know, some may say intentional destruction of the nuclear family by, from for a lot of reasons, you have one parent households and there’s like 17 million, one parent households in this country.
And so if you have 17 million, one parent households, that means the mom, the dad, uh, or whomever is guarding, or the guardian is providing for that, that child. and, uh, providing for themselves and maybe other children. And so they’re going paycheck to paycheck, to paycheck. And so how is it that you can get ahead?
Well, you, you know, you get ahead by stopping the nonsense and, and you [00:12:00] say that there, there are reasons for actions and if you, uh, can, can mitigate those reasons and you, you know, when it starts, in my opinion with the schools, we are educating the next generation of leaders, think about that. And so right now, they.
No say they have no vote. They have no opinion. They show up. And what they expect is the leadership in the schools to do the right thing and then the next right thing, and then the next right thing. And that’s my definition for leadership. And when you have people concentrating on things other than, okay, we’re gonna take 15 minutes out of your math class and we’re gonna talk about some social issues.
And, and, and that is, uh, pervasive, especially in the Northern part of the. For example, the, the, the school administrator of the year has the worst school district in the state let’s award that that’s like, get a, getting a trophy for showing up what, you know, what’s, [00:13:00] what’s
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: the re rationale for, for that, uh, award then in your, in, in what has been broadcast of why they win that award?
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: You know? Um, I think that that, that is a home. Award. So that’s within the education system. And so educators look at that, they decide it and then they vote. And I guess it’s, uh, you know, it obviously not based on, on performance, so it has to be based on something. And when you have, you know, maybe a lot of nothing and you reward that, nothing that perpetuates the nothing, right?
If your lid is mediocre, then on your best day, you’re gonna be mediocre. There’s no, there’s no, the culture for excellence. Is is gone. Another
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: example. Well, I, I mean to play into that point, I mean, I was listening to, uh, um, I don’t know if you listened to vena Persad, he’s he’s kind of, well, he’s no question.
He’s a lefty. No question, but he’s, uh, he’s a very, he’s a. Oncologist and, um, [00:14:00] and he is great. He, it’s definitely worth your time. He’s a lefty, but he’s very sane, right? From a standpoint of, he wants to know about evidence-based medicine. He wants to know how this applies to clinical practice, et cetera, et cetera.
He’s been, you know, um, so my point is, is that what he was talking about recently? Um, was that something like 26 medical schools have completely waived the requirement of an MC. Uh, to enter into medical school for certain populations that are, uh, and, and I, I think about that, I’m like, well, if it’s, if it’s important, it’s important.
If it’s not important, it’s not important, right. If it’s not important to creating good doctors who can pass, you know, the boards and, and get into residencies and perform well in residencies and take care, really just take care of patients, then it’s not important. But, but to, to waive it, because I mean, it just seems like I had, um, I had, um, Uh, Adam Ramsey on, um, in [00:15:00] 2019 I think.
And, uh, I had him on a couple times and, um, he, he didn’t, I mean, uh, I understand the goal. I understand the, the goal of increased diversity. Um, and I agree with that goal. I think it’s, it’s wonderful to have representation from, uh, you know, the, the groups who are. Part of the population. Absolutely. And I, and I think if I re if I’m remembering our correct our conversation correctly, he wasn’t an advocate for, for reducing, um, you know, for reducing, you know, um, kind of standards of letting people in.
Uh, but, but to kind of, to your point, I think what this brings up is is the, I think the overarching concern I have is are we, are we awarding things that. Worth worthy of awards. Are we focusing on issues that we can’t either control and really aren’t that big of an issue, uh, for the, for the sake of, uh, or in [00:16:00] spite of the.
Um, betterment of just kind of what you’re just talking about is the normal, like, okay, you show up on time, you get up, you work hard, you turn your tests in on time, or you turn your papers in on time. You study for a test and that test is gonna be graded. And if we don’t do well on that test, then we’re gonna have to have some internal reflection and there’s gonna be some pain.
And I I’ve seen this. I mean, I’ve seen this in, in, um, in men that I know very closely that, uh, when you remove enough reward, legitimate reward from their lives, then, and they never have to have legitimate wins, you steal their ability to be men. I don’t know so much about women. Right? I think it probably is the same thing for them as well.
But, um, but like the men I see where they struggle to be men. Or have in the past it’s because they, they have been stripped of their ability to win and their wins [00:17:00] are not real wins. Their wins are, you know, they, they didn’t really have to work for that. And they know it, they know they didn’t. Um, and, and then it robs them.
It robs them of the ability to be the man. right to be the man. And so, anyway, that’s a huge, I mean, we’re kind of off topic, but I, I, I think we’re, we’re really not because I think what you’re talking about is the ability to, to succeed. And there is this classic structure that, that does need to exist. Uh, it doesn’t mean we can’t talk about those things and get excited about them and, you know, wanting to have a better society for more people.
I, I, you know, I would generally, um, be classified by most people as a. Relatively, if not quite conservative person, but I do want, I, I want more people to rise up. I believe that more people can rise up, but I don’t think that what we’re doing to your point, what we’re doing, um, is allowing people to rise up.
Uh, and, and through the, through the fire is what is how things are forged. And we’re [00:18:00] not allowing enough fires, uh, in, in controllable ways. We’re allowing this just complete disorganization and saying, well, that’s the fire, so we’re gonna, and you can’t get out of. But we’re gonna pull you out of it and then you just don’t have a win.
Well, I think,
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: you know, part of this goes to problem solving and, um, and those type of skills. And, you know, if you, if you have a predetermined outcome and you have, uh, distractors along the way, Then you’re going to be able to reach that predetermined outcome because the distractors are purposely in the way.
Hmm. And, and so I think, hold on Jeff, if
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: we need to, I’m not that fast. Okay. Back up a little bit. Let me wrap my head around what you just said one more time. So say that again. So if
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: we, if we have enough distract enough distractors, uh, you have a predetermined, you, you, you have a goal. Okay. And the goal is set set for this.
And, and if you have enough distractors along the way, Then your, you [00:19:00] can control the outcome because of the distractors. But if the pathway is clear, if the highway is straight and long and wide, then you have an opportunity to achieve your goal in a much faster way. So I’m not saying that that anybody has, has, is not working hard.
Agreed, agreed. What I’m saying is that the, the focus. Is has been shifted away from achievement, uh, and ex a culture of excellence to something less. And, and, and this goes not only in the schools, but Delaware used to be a big manufacturer, big manufacturer. Uh, we, we had, um, I’ll, I’ll tell you about that.
The email that I sent out in January, I was reading the wall street journal on page two, the wall street journal. They said Tennessee, 141 billion. Worth of revenue per year, per year because of their auto manufacturing. Well, Delaware used to manufacture Chryslers and they used to manufacture Corvette’s and it’s a pickup trucks, and now they [00:20:00] manufacture zero.
Why is that? Well, it’s the choices. And this is going back to the why, the choices that the politicians have made. to support certain groups that say, in order for us to work, we need this, this, this, this, this, and this. And that’s it. That’s the game. That’s the game changer. And the second policy that, that pushes that is, uh, energy.
So Tennessee has reasonably inexpensive energy and they have a workforce that says, you know, what if I could. $36 instead of $40. That’s what I’m going to do. And I’m gonna be happy with $36, cuz that’s still close to a hundred thousand dollars a year with the benefits. And that pushes me over that. And where in Delaware they’ll say, Nope, sorry for your luck.
We’re not gonna do it. Not gonna consider it. See it later by. And that is because of, uh, you know, local changes. And so our economy has suffered. Now. We have a very vibrant, uh, very bold [00:21:00] service economy because of all the beach activities that we have here. Uh, especially in the county that I live in, but those jobs generally are not going to pay as much as a manufacturing position.
And these are purposeful decisions. Uh, another thing we, we are about to become a, our state is going to become a zero net energy producer, zero zero, no power generation. We’re gonna buy it from everybody else. We’re gonna buy it from Pennsylvania. We’re gonna buy it from Maryland. We’re gonna buy it from New York, New Jersey, wherever.
And the problem with that is, is that when you have no control, then you have no control. And so, um, you know, and these, these are this, this is not coming from me. This is just not making it up. These are policy decisions that I’ve been following and there are just head scratchers. So you say, holy smokes, you know, what, what is the goal here?
But at the same time, you know, our governor has, has signed like the 30th month in a row of, of an emergency [00:22:00] situation here in Delaware due to.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: I oh, you’re still in emergency. You’re still in a COVID emergency.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: We’re still in a COVID emergency. Yeah. I, I mean, I mean, you just have, they put, have
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: they put boundaries on why, uh, on when that emergency is no longer an emergency?
Well, you know,
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: that’s the governor’s prerogative and, and one part of the state legislator is saying, come on, come on. and, um, but you’re a blue
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: state, you’re a blue state. And from what I’m gathering, you’re, you’re kind of, uh, you probably have an R behind your name. So tell me about, um, what is the caucus gonna look like?
If, if you, if you are successful, what kind of impact do you have within the house? So right now, the house, how is it split up? And, uh, what’s the anticipation. If there is sort of a red wave based on kind of the, the national sense that, that everybody’s getting right now, tell me about.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: Well, the, uh, the Senate in Delaware is, uh, super majority.
Hm. And the house needs to [00:23:00] pick up six seats. So they don’t have a super majority in the house. Uh, but there is a majority. And so we need six seats to, to, um, you know, change, change the direction. So wait Republicans
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: have a super majority in the Senate now? No, no, the Democrats do. Yes. And the Democrats ha need six more seats.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: To have a super, the Republicans need six seats in the house in order to prevent, uh, prevent super majority to, to, to stop the landslide. Um, and, and really, you know, um, there have been politicians just recently, this, the session ended on June 30 and they passed some very controversial and perhaps unconstitutional, many think unconstitutional bills and their reaction was.
We don’t care. We, we know that this is unconstitutional, Sue us.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: And what’s the pulse of the, of, of, um, Delawareans. Is that right? Well,
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: well, uh, you know, I’m in a primary and so right now I’ve been [00:24:00] campaigning to, uh, a very, um, uh, receptive audience. And so as I go door knocking and, uh, and I talk about issues.
Okay. The, there is a lot of just outright disappointment, um, and some things even stronger than that, they they’re just so, you know, they just say, come on, you know, we don’t wanna live in this environment where, um, you know, everything is, is counter to, uh, what we believe in and, and, you know, I, I like balance.
I think that balance is good. And so there are some things that, uh, you know, the progressive side of, uh, of nature, uh, you know, pushes society in one way. And then the, the people who are not progressive in that way, they say, well, wait a minute, can I challenge you on that? And so then where where’s that mean maybe a little over here, but it it’s not over here.
So we get closer to, you know, where mainstream people say, you know, I like this [00:25:00] and the same with the other side here, we are way over here. And. man. Well, this is a, we have to have this. And then somebody from this side says, well, wait a minute. Let’s, let’s talk about this. And unless you have that type of situation where there is willingness to talk, uh, for example, they have the hearing and for people who, um, oppose some of the policies of the majority, they get one minute to speak one minute.
So, so, so you look at that and say, well, why even have a hearing. And, and in fact it took almost, you know, like an act of Congress for the legislature to actually start to have hearings again, because there was, you know, some fear of the, and it was virtual, everything was virtual. And so, you know, when you’re not there, when you’re not participating.
Represen a form of government
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: so much easier to shut somebody off. I mean, I absolutely, I think, um, in, in some ways I’ve been able to have these conversations more frequently with peop [00:26:00] people, um, virtually, but, uh, I really like to people who are willing, who are, who completely disagree with me, completely disagree with me.
One of my, my most favorite things to do is, is to talk to them, not to, I think there’s this misconception of, um, I ask a lot of questions when I talk to people that I disagree with. And, and it’s not because I necessarily want to change their mind. Although my sense is if I ask enough questions, um, then maybe they’ll be thinking more like me, uh, if I ask the right questions, but really I wanna understand where they’re coming from.
And in, in a lot of cases, um, I wouldn’t say my position is so much softened, but I gain so much more perspective. It, it is. It’s just valuable to me. Like I I’m, I, I know I could be wrong on a lot of the things I think I probably am, but, um, but like it, it is, there, there is a truth. and then there’s somebody [00:27:00] your perspective.
And there’s my perspective. And if we can’t communicate about those perspectives, because I draw a line in the sand and you draw a line in the sand, then we get nowhere, just what you’re talking about. But if, if we can say, look there, we know that there is a truth, a real truth, the real truth of something.
And you come at it from one angle and I come at it from another and we’re both, you know, we’re both trying to get to what is the actual facts in this case? You then that’s everybody wins. Right. Everybody wins because then we can walk away and say, look, yeah. Okay. I was, I might have been, I might have been not thinking about this in all the ways that somebody else might think about it.
And, um, and that’s what you’re describing and, and we don’t have much of that anymore. We don’t. Yeah. And, and, you
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: know, I think that there’s, there, there are a lot of reasons for that. And, and I think that what we, uh, you know, must decide is on, on an individual basis. You know, all politics is local and all [00:28:00] decisions, you know, can be individual.
And so when, when groups get together and they decide that this is the way it has to be, and this is the way it’s going to be, and the train leaves the station and they’re in the majority, well, then the train is left the station. So I think that, that there needs to be, you know, a, a more balanced approach.
And I think that, um, you. People have ideas and, and they deserve to be heard and those ideas need to be, uh, you know, then detailed. So I have an idea. Let’s do this. Well, how are you gonna support that? Okay. Here’s boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Have you thought about this to your point? Have you thought about this?
Huh? You know what? No. So let’s, let’s now, now add this layer to it or subtract a layer because you know what, that may be, uh, objectionable to some people. So I think that that reason. Is is good. And we need to, you know, consider, uh, you know, fact based [00:29:00] and, and what we’ve, what we’ve found. Um, just my research shows is that, uh, unfortunately a lot of people, um, remain uneducated as a choice.
And, uh, you know, they’re, they’re very, very, um, steadfast in their partisan belief one way or the other, and they remain uneducated and, and it’s almost like, please don’t confuse me with the. because I have an opinion and my opinion is what guides my life, not the facts. And so empirical data then means less and less and less.
And, and yet we we’re asked to lead and to make decisions based on the good for all people. Not just Democrats, not just Republicans, but the, but the good for all. And if it’s based on your feeling versus fact based reality, Then I think that this is where we get into trouble. And so I, I, you know, it’s almost like everywhere you turn, you know, uh, I mean, you know, going back to [00:30:00] the farmers, we have so much agricultural land and, and yet that we know this is how it’s gonna affect the local level is that fertilizer, the fertilizer price has gone up 30% diesel fuel has gone up, you know, two bucks or two 50 a gallon, depending upon where you.
So when you, when you still say, um, boy, you know, let’s talk about farm prices. Um, well let’s, let’s go to the grocery store and figure it out. And I think that all those things have those, those poor policy decisions, uh, you know, start at the, at the top. And, uh, when they filter their way down, who gets hurt and, and who’s affected the most are the people who may need.
You know, the resources, the most,
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: you know, Jeff, I, I, um, I wanted to ask you, uh, so you brought up a, a couple issues, we’ve you and I have explored the, um, the school issue pretty much in depth. I think there’s probably a lot of [00:31:00] other ideas that you have, but I wanna hear so that people that might be listening that may want to, uh, support you.
Um, I, I want, I want them to hear, okay. Okay. You’ve identified a problem. You’re gonna be zero, um, net. Uh, energy in Delaware problem. That’s what you’re identifying solution. Jeff OVS. What do you do to fix that? What’s the, what’s the main thrust that has to be done to fix that. How do you con how do you convey that message?
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: Well, we look for the reasons why first and, and on a first blush on the first, first swap, uh, swatch through this, it appears that the, uh, the energy conservation decisions. Have been made, um, you know, irrespective of the facts. And, and for example, there was a manufacturing steel manufacturing plant in Delaware that left a number of years ago.
Why did they leave carbon transfer? And so now they [00:32:00] operate outta who wouldn’t
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: understand carbon transfer.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: So, so there’s the, you, you can, you know, kind of say that you don’t pollute if you, um, Uh, if, if you produce so much carbon and the carbon is, is, is, uh, too, too much for the atmosphere as defined by whoever makes those, those, um, metrics.
And they say, okay, this is, this is too much for the atmosphere. And so you have to do something to offset it, stop that. And, and so, uh, they, they modified their plant and it wasn’t good enough. And so said, well, you know what? Um, We’re gonna leave because now the, the, the cost of doing business here is too expensive.
So they move their, their factory to Saskatchewan Canada. The carbon produced at this Saskatchewan Canada plant is the same, [00:33:00] and yet who lost the job. So, so the, the net for Delaware is yes, we cleaned up the atmosphere. We did, however, , you know, if you just go to Saskatchewan, Canada, they, they they’re the same emissions.
And, and, and so, you know, this, these type of policies make no sense. It’s like lipstick on a pig. You know, if you, if you decide that you wanna make a decision and, and make it better, then make it better, make, make, make it better for everyone. Okay. Instead you shift.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: So I’m gonna push you shift. I’m gonna push you, Jeff.
Okay. So decision was. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna play the other side decision is we need to, we need to reduce our carbon emissions. Mm-hmm um, so this company goes to try to comply. Well, they can’t comply and, and we’re happy because now we were able to reduce carbon emissions. Um, how do we, how do you come to the table to say, convince me that I can reduce carbon [00:34:00] emissions and still not make it so onerous on this company so that they are gonna leave.
What’s the, what is the middle ground?
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: Well, I think we have to go back to the facts and, and, and let’s say that this company is going to stay in business somewhere and it’s gonna go somewhere. And so then the realization is, okay, what is their net effect gonna be? And how is it that we can work with this company to save the jobs?
Let’s say they had, and I don’t know how many jobs they had, but let’s say they had a hundred people working there, maybe more, maybe less. And so there’s a hundred, a hundred jobs. Um, it creates this effect on the economy and this effect is necessary in order to keep the neighborhoods a viable, the school’s viable, the, the, the churches, the small businesses, the, the, everything, you know, going, and when you take those a hundred people out and you take the maintenance workers, the people who, who then, you know, support the building structure of the.
and then you take the mom and pop restaurants [00:35:00] who provide lunch for the people who are at that. And you, you just eliminate all that, then you’ve dead in the economy. And so now the effect is here and the carbon may be here. So if, if we look at that, is there a way then. To look at all those facts and, and look at the, from the 30,000 foot view.
And as you get closer and closer to the ground, you have now a 10,000 foot view. Now you have 3000 foot view and now you’re down on the ground and you say, okay, I think that maybe we can work this out here so that everybody wins. And, and so we keep the plant and we look at the science and if the science is one sided science and we’ve had history of that.
And so if the science is one side, Is there new technology think about this in 2007, there was the first iPhone. Right. And where are we now? Just a few years later, you know, and we’re, we’re looking at quantum computing, we’re, we’re looking at, um, [00:36:00] you know, augmented reality and artificial intelligence. And so how is it that we can put that kind of thing to those, those pieces to work and strategize a way to figure out what, how, how can we keep this here and keep everyth.
You know, neutral. And, and my, my guess is, is that, um, you know, that wasn’t done because the heels were dug in the sand and say, we’re gonna keep this carbon level. And, you know, no matter, you know, it, Saskatchewan is west of Delaware, so the air is gonna come west to east. Right. So there you go. Uh, and it’s the same air.
Yeah. Um, so I, I don’t, I don’t understand that. I, I, I think that, um, you know, I’ll, I’ll admit that I have to learn more about this. , but that doesn’t change my opinion on how the problem is solved. And that is you have, you have a situation. We need all the available facts as, as, as much as we can get them.
And then we need decision makers who are willing to say, you know what let’s do what’s right. For a while, instead [00:37:00] of what is expedient for the political process, let’s do the right thing and then the next right thing and the next right thing. And then when you get to that point, you have a hundred jobs still in.
And the next generation of workers are gonna work in that plant. There’s gonna be a hundred jobs and maybe G was, they can expand that plant because they they’re adding value to, you know, their customers. And maybe now it’s 125 jobs. Well, we’ve lost that opportunity. We’ve lost it with the Corvette plant.
We lost it with the pickup truck plant. We lost it with the Chrysler plant they’re gone, they’re gone. And yet other states say, you know, um, I think there’s a way that we can figure this. Because there is manufacturing there and we’re, we’re losing it in drove so that that’s, that’s, that’s a big issue.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: So, Jeff, I, I wanna give you an opportunity.
I think, I think that you’ve outlined that well, I I’ve already, as you’re talking, uh, I’m not gonna provide solutions for what Delaware should do Del Delawarean should do, but. You know, I, I think there’s a lot of room for give and take. And I, I would agree that the, the idea of having people from both [00:38:00] sides represented enough where they have some skin of the game makes a lot of sense.
I’ve always thought so. I mean, um, and so, uh, so tell, so tell our audience, um, how they can support you, how they can learn more about you and, um, and where they can find you.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: Well, I have a website. It’s uh, www.vote. The number four, Jeff. Do. And you can reach me on Facebook at, uh, vote zero four, Jeff and my, uh, email address is vote zero four, Jeff gmail.com.
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: Dr. Jeff Olasky. Thanks so much for coming on. This is a lot of fun. We’re gonna have to do it again. And I guess I’ll see you soon in the next couple months.
Dr. Jeff Hilovksy: I absolutely. And, and thank you so much for what you do, Chris. It’s important. Keep doing it. And, uh, you know, you’re, you’re making an impact. Thanks
Dr. Christopher Wolfe: so much.
[00:39:00] It was awesome. Thanks, Jeff.