VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE  #137  
AIR DATE  08 28 2020   
TRANSCRIPT

 
OPEN  ((VO/NAT)) 
((Banner)) 
Building Trust
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition))   
When people were yelling and screaming “All lives matter. 
White lives matter.  You are racist”, 
threatening dogs and guns, I was hurt but my other emotion 
was, “This is why we're here.  This is why.” 
((Animation Transition)) 
((Banner))
Supporting Community 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
General stores were, you know, cornerstones of their 
communities all over America and I'm hoping that's what, 
you know, Fort Defiance can become too.   
((Animation Transition)) 
((Banner)) 
Gaining Muscle
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
To be able to go in and exercise and create something that 
you cannot buy at the doctor’s office, that’s a lot of power.
((Open Animation))  
 

BLOCK A 

 
((PKG))  PROTEST IN A SMALL TOWN   
((TRT:  09:27)) 
((Banner:  Protest in a Small Town))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Deepak Dobhal))
((Map:  Minerva, Ohio)) 
((Main characters:  1 female; 1 male))  
((Sub characters:  2 female; 1 male))  
((NATS))   
((July 7, 2020)) 
Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.   
All lives still matter.   
Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.     
All lives can't matter till Black lives matter. 
Just go home.  Just go home.  Just go home.   
Black lives matter.  
Blue lives matter.  Blue lives matter. 
All lives matter. 
Just go home.  Just go home.  Just go home.  Just go home.    
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
They just burned a Black Lives Matter flag.  That's alright.  
That's alright.  They can do that.  They can be disrespectful.  
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
There was no need to disrespect them. 
It was very clear to me quickly that we were not dealing  
with a hostile group of people who were here to wreck  
and pillage things. 
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
I went there yesterday not exactly knowing what to expect  
but knowing what I'd seen on TV, a large crowd of Black 
Lives Matter protesters. 
And not only that.  From what I've seen on the TV and media
and news, a violent crowd of Black Lives Matter 
protesters.  So that's why I went prepared and to help stop  
any damage to my friends and families and businesses there 
in the town. 
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
When I got there, that isn't what I saw at all. 
I would say they numbered 15 to 20, plus or minus a little bit. 
Just young people wanted to get their voice out. 
((NATS))  
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
Yesterday, in Minerva, was definitely a day I will never  
forget.  We had a relatively small group and they definitely  
outnumbered us  
and I would say a solid percent of those people had at  
least an AK or a rifle, like a huge gun.  
It was an intimidation tactic. 
((NATS)) 
((Bianca Houze, Bartender)) 
I don't necessarily believe that the people with guns were 
there to intimidate. 
We were there to protect anyone that needed protected 
whether it was BLM or a Minerva citizen or an officer. 
We wanted to make sure that if that force was needed that  
we were there and ready.  It had nothing to do with  
intimidation. 
((NATS)) 
Black lives matter.  Black lives matter.  Black lives matter. 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
I thought a lot of the people that would show up would be 
like me, would be carrying their weapons and would be  
there to protect their community.  Not to antagonize.  
Not to throw gas on the fire. 
((NATS)) 
All lives matter, just not Blacks. 
All lives matter, just not Blacks. 
All lives matter, just not Blacks. 
Now go home to your mommy's basement. 
Go home. 
Go back home to your mommy's basement. 
Go home. 
((NATS)) 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
What they're doing is a right that myself and every other  
veteran secured for them.  The right to protest.  
The right to march.  It's not a problem. 
((NATS)) 
Black lives matter all day, every day. 
Black lives matter all day, every day. 
((Bianca Houze, Bartender)) 
Most of the BLM protesters were from out of town.  They  
were not people that live in the community.  There were  
a few that are from 
Minerva.  I don't understand why they're coming to a  
community that is not their own. 
((NATS)) 
I don't know what you came to do.  
I don't know what you came to do. 
But I came here to protest.  
Protest. 
Minerva is here to protest. 
Protest. 
Black lives matter.  
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
We protested in 
Minerva because we got quite a few requests to be in  
Minerva.  There 
are biracial and Black children that live in that community  
who feel uncomfortable. 
((NATS)) 
Black lives matter.  
((Ashley Marie, Vice President, Ohio Community 
Coalition) 
In Minerva and other small towns, we go educate people and 
try to have 
people that are afraid to stand up to come out of their  
houses and be on the street with us.  So, it's more about  
unity and not division. 
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
Typically when we're in bigger cities, a lot of the issue stems 
from  
their police.  
In Minerva, they don't have a big police brutality issue.  So, 
when we're here in Canton, a lot of the things that we say 
are, you know,  
“Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go.”   
Or  
“No justice, no peace, no racist police.”   
We did refrain from those types of chants yesterday. 
((NATS)) 
Ohio is my home. 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
One of the bigger, you know, messages that we were getting 
at  yesterday is that the color of my skin shouldn't matter 
but it does.  
((NATS)) 
White people are being violated too.  
They are. 
You say Black lives matter.  It's all lives matter. 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
When somebody says Black lives matter, small town  
America  
hears ‘only Black lives matter.’  I believe that's where the  
Black Lives 
Matter gets off track with your middle American people. 
Unfortunately, I do believe that racism still exists in America. 
I think 
it's not the way people envision it.  When I say people,  
I mean people 
like myself, your everyday white person.  Okay. 
We have no animosity towards any other groups of people,  
any ethnicities. 
But the racism is so ingrained that we don't even realize  
we're doing it.  
In my opinion, Mr. [George] 
Floyd was murdered by that police officer right  
there on video.  And it hurt me.  It hurt me very badly that 
this happened in my country, a country that so many people 
from the very beginning have sacrificed, some of them all,  
everything, their lives, to make a different kind of country. 
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
When people were yelling and screaming, “All lives matter. 
White lives matter.  You are racist”, 
threatening dogs and guns, I was hurt but my other emotion 
was  
just kind of, “Wow, this is why we're here. This is why.” 
((NATS)) 
All lives can't matter till Black lives matter. 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
When we say Black lives matter, we're not saying only  
Black 
lives matter.  We're simply saying that there is a crisis in the 
Black community.  We need to do what we can in our own  
cities to make a change. 
((NATS)) 
Thank you so much. 
((Scott Kiehl, Controls Engineer)) 
The way that they conducted themselves was very  
instrumental in  
changing a lot of people's minds.  There it is, right there.  
“People that showed up 
probably were not going to burn our town down.  But you  
don't know unless you show up.  
There were people there saying the N-
word.  There was some old guy that said it over and over  
again 
and I wanted to smack the F*** out of him because that's  
wrong!” 
((Bianca Houze, Bartender)) 
There were the few 
that were not a good representation of this town. 
((Josh Calhoun, Oil/Gas Facility Operator)) 
Towards the end though, it did have positives, like  
everybody did  
start talking.  There were positive talks at the end. 
Even though people were still coming in the back and still yel
ling and having their opinion, 
there were still positive talks that happened.  
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
The conversation that we had today was important.  We 
ought to see where they were coming from civilly, civilly.  A 
lot of people, when we have come as protesters, all they 
want to do is riot.  They are the rioters.  Today, there was a 
different story.  They protested their city.  We protested our 
message.  We did what we had to do.  We all upheld our 
First Amendment right and I'm very proud of Minerva for 
doing that.  So, make some noise, Minerva. 
((NATS)) 
((Sierra Mason, President, Ohio Community Coalition)) 
Whether the outcome was, you know, they were still mad, 
we didn't feel like we got through, we got through.  
Whatever the outcome was, there was an open dialogue and 
that was very productive. 
((NATS)) 
 
 
TEASE  ((VO/NAT)) 
Coming up….. 
((Banner)) 
Fulfilling a Need 
((Shopper, Fort Defiance)) 
I'm so happy that they are doing what they're doing.  I mean, 
to be able to access like really nice produce, high quality 
fish, meats, kind of do the market shopping that other 
neighborhoods have but we don't have in Red Hook, I think it 
really fills a hole. 
 
 
BREAK ONE 
((ANIMATION EXPLAINER -- W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, 
PHOTOS))  
US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2020 
NOMINATION CONVENTION 
Presidential nominating conventions do not date all the way 
back to the early days of the United States.  Back then, 
political parties held caucuses where small groups of party 
leaders chose the candidates.  It wasn’t until the 12th 
presidential election in 1832 that parties held conventions to 
select their candidates.  There were occasional surprises 
over the candidates selected at conventions.  Some 
conventions took a long time to name a nominee.  In 1924, 
the Democrats spent 16 days to take 109 votes to nominate 
John Davis, who wound up losing the election to Republican 
Calvin Coolidge.  Modern conventions move quicker than 
that.  Most of the delegates are awarded to candidates 
through state caucuses or primaries and the nominee is 
known before the convention begins.  Conventions still 
deliver an occasional surprise.  Nominees often name their 
pick for Vice President at a convention.  Because they are 
televised, they attract the attention of voters trying to decide 
how to vote in November.  The COVID pandemic has forced 
both parties to change plans for 2020 relying more on virtual 
settings without large crowds of faithful party in attendance.     
Who can vote in the US Presidential Election? 
To vote in the US presidential election, a potential voter must 
be:   
a U.S. citizen, 
18 years old on or before Election Day, 
And meet residency requirements, which vary from state to 
state. 
Potential voters must also be registered to vote by their 
state’s voter registration deadline.   
Non-citizens, even if they are permanent residents, cannot 
vote in US presidential elections.  Some states also restrict 
voting for those with felony convictions or people who are 
mentally incapacitated.  
For the general presidential election, US citizens who reside 
in US territories also cannot vote.   				 

 
BUMP IN  ((ANIM))				  
 

BLOCK B   
  
 
((PKG))  RESTAURANT TURNED GENERAL STORE   
((TRT:  04:50))  
((Banner:  A Pandemic Pivot))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Aaron Fedor)) 
((Producer:  Kathleen McLaughlin)) 
((Editor: Stefan Pildes))  
((Map:  New York, New York))    
((Main characters:  1 male))    
((Sub characters:  2 female;  1 male))   
((Popup Banner:  As much as 40% of New York City 
restaurants are projected to go out of business this year due 
to the pandemic))  
((NATS))
((Courtesy:  John Frizell)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
I'm St. John Frizell.  This is my restaurant Fort Defiance on 
Van Brunt street in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn.  
Fort Defiance opened in 2009 and we have served 
breakfast, lunch and dinner here for 11 years.   
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
In late March, I started to order vegetables for the store, 
really for myself.  And I put a post on Facebook to see if any 
of my neighbors wanted me to get them some, too.  And a 
lot of people responded because they were afraid to go into 
supermarkets at the time and online delivery was sort of a 
mess.  So, a lot of people responded.  I ordered groceries for 
all of us and it just kind of went from there.  
((NATS)) 
((Red Hook Resident))  
When the pandemic shut everything down, it was actually 
my daughter who found out that they had turned into a 
general store, basically.  And so, I started coming over here 
and getting stuff for my two daughters who live in 
apartments, separate from us.  Great salmon, eggs, you 
know, milk, great produce, really good avocados, lemons, 
limes.  Stuff that is running out at different moments all over 
the city, they seem to be able to keep a semi-steady supply 
of.  I mean, we're all making do.  
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
There was a reason that we chose the name General Store. 
General stores were, you know, cornerstones of their 
communities all over America.  And I'm hoping that's what, 
you know, Fort Defiance can become too.  Everyone's sort of 
doing things in a different way now, like our vendors, who 
sell us meat and fish, are used to sending us, you know, just 
20-pound [9 kg] boxes of stuff and now they're breaking it all 
down and packaging it, labeling it.  I mean, everyone is 
learning how to be more consumer facing.  You know, we're 
all going through this together and you know, figuring it out 
and surviving together.  
((NATS)) 
((Red Hook Resident)) 
I'm so happy that they are doing what they're doing.  I mean, 
to be able to access like really nice produce, high quality 
fish, meats, kind of do the market shopping that other 
neighborhoods have but we don't have in Red Hook, I think it 
really fills a hole. 
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
Early on, I sent out a survey to my customers, 40% of them 
replied to the survey.  We're talking about hundreds of 
people, which is amazing.  Every day I was getting emails, 
you know, thanking us for providing this service, which 
seemed crazy to me because we were making money from 
selling these groceries, but people were not only happy to 
pay us, but they were just so thankful that we were doing it.  
That gratitude really just kept us going and really helped to 
guide the path of this business.  
((NATS)) 
((Red Hook Resident)) 
I've been coming to Fort Defiance for about five years.  It 
was one of the places that when I first was considering 
moving to Red Hook, I kind of wanted to get a vibe for the 
place and what would it be like to live down here.  And Fort 
Defiance, I think is sort of a….definitely gave me the sense 
that there is a community, that there's really good food and 
there's always someone amazing and interesting to get into 
some random, wonderful conversation with. 
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
To be honest, I'm really excited to get into the general store 
business.  I really like buying products to sell to my 
customers.  I love talking to them about it.  I love the quality 
of the goods that we're getting here.  And honestly, there's 
not a business like this in the neighborhood now and I think it 
could really find a permanent hold here and, you know, be 
as much a part of the community as Fort Defiance was as a 
restaurant.  Water is free.  We've got Milk Bones out here for 
dogs.  So, you know, come by and say, hello.
((NATS)) 
 
 
TEASE  ((VO/NAT)) 
Coming up….. 
((Banner)) 
Heavy Weight 
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
We worked out, we ate and we shared knowledge that we 
gained and we did what the men did because that’s all we 
knew what to do. 

BREAK TWO									 
BUMP IN  ((ANIM))				  
 

BLOCK C  
 
  
((PKG))  FEMALE BODYBUIDER   
((TRT:  05:00)) 
((Banner:  Iron Woman))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Genia Dulot)) 
((Editors:  Genia Dulot, Philip Alexiou)) 
((Map:  Las Vegas, Nevada)) 
((Main characters:  1 female))  
((Sub characters:  1 female)) 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
There was this strange phenomenon where people were 
like, “You got biceps.  You must be a man.  You have 
muscles.  You’re a man.”  And most of us were like, “No, we 
work out.  We’re strong.”  And we had to learn to understand 
and manage this creation of this new female.    
First, we had Marilyn Monroe, Twiggy, Playboy Mansion.  
And then all of the sudden, women started getting muscle 
and bigger and stronger.  We had a whole new breed of 
species of women.  
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
Let’s go back to the late 1970s, early 80s.  This is where it 
started.  We were in the gym.  There was few of us.  Little 
tight-knit group of people.  A couple of girls and a lot of 
men.  It was a culture.  We worked out, we ate and we 
shared knowledge that we gained and we did what the men 
did because that’s all we knew what to do.    
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
When we started competing, men’s bodybuilding, women’s 
bodybuilding, women, one color, same colors, you know, 
two-piece swimsuit, no makeup, no nothing, bag over our 
head.  It was about the muscle we created.  End of 
story.  Kane figure in bikini.  The crystal swimsuits, the nails, 
the hair, everything.  That’s what they did.  They finally 
brought the femininity into our sport.   
We have now six divisions today for the six different levels of 
muscularity that women wish to develop.   
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
We’re going to do lat pull downs for our backs to make them 
wide.  Start with 120 and then we’re going to drop to 85.    
When I went over there in 1995, the USAs, the girls were 
already using the drugs really heavy.  Because we trained 
like men, we did the same drugs, not knowing that the side-
effects of the steroids back then happened to be male 
transitioning, you know, where you chemically turn into a 
man and you get the male side-effects.  
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
The vocal cords are muscles.  They’re involuntary muscles 
and they are based on resonance.  The thinner they are, the 
higher the voice is.  The thicker they are, the lower the voice 
is.  And because the steroids thicken all muscles in your 
body, your voice goes.   
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
It started getting lower in the mid-1990s when I started using 
more and I was getting heavier into national level shows.  
Laser hair removal, all the spa techniques that we have 
today to make ourselves look pretty, didn’t exist.  And I was 
backstage at pre-judging, watching girls shave their 
faces.  Five o’clock shadows before they put their makeup 
on at 10 o’clock in the morning and the voices were low 
enough that I actually turned around not knowing if it was a 
guy or not coming in.  That was the first time I was exposed 
to that level of the hormone use in women.  I was horrified 
and I’m like, if that’s what it takes to get your pro card, I’m 
going to stand down and just create this, because this is 
what I like.  I like looking like this.  I’m 56.  I’ve been doing 
this for 40 years.  I’ve pretty much looked like this, little bit 
smaller versions of me, for 40 years.    
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
To be able to go in and exercise and create something that 
you cannot buy at the doctor’s office, that’s a lot of power.  I 
can walk into any room, any place, any time, and people 
stop.  You may have your Ferrari keys with you or your 
Lamborghini keys, but when you and I walk in, guess who 
they’re going to look at?  I inspire so many people.  I can go 
pick up a 100-pound [45 kg] dumbbell and start just doing 
rows with it and the girls are like, “Wow, if she can do that, I 
can do that.”   
((Mira, Bodybuilder)) 
I forget how old I am because, you know, nowadays I mean 
there’s 50/50: people who take care of themselves and 
people who don’t take care of them.  And people like me and 
Gina and a couple of other women over here, we’re over 40-
years old and then, you know, if we walk in a room, we make 
21-year olds look crazy.    
((Gina Jones, Bodybuilder))  
We had Amazon warriors.  We had women who took things 
to the nth degree.  We have women who are Navy Seals 
now.  We have women that the military finally realized we 
can do it too.  I’m still a woman because this is something 
my soul is inside of.  I still feel feminine.   
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
 
 
((PKG))  SINGING GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE   
((TRT:  02:29)) 
((Banner:  The Bridge that Sings))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Matt Dibble)) 
((Adapted by:  Philip Alexiou)) 
((Map:  San Francisco, California))    
((Main characters:  2 male))  
((Sub characters:  1 female))  
((NATS))   
((Courtesy:  Mark Kreuger/Twitter))  
Oh dude.  
It's like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 
((Courtesy:  @roamingrecord))  
((NATS)) 
((Anna Klafter, San Francisco Resident))  
((Courtesy:  Zoom))  
I watched the video and I was like, what a crazy sound.  And 
then after it ended, I like heard the sound in the 
background.    
((NATS)) 
((Courtesy:  Anna Klafter))  
It’s quite loud actually.  Since then, I’ve been hearing it 
almost every afternoon or evening.  
((NATS)) 
((Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, Public Affairs Manager, 
Golden Gate Bridge District))  
((Courtesy:  Zoom))   
The Golden Gate Bridge has started to sing.  The new 
musical tones that are coming from the Golden Gate Bridge 
are known as an evitable phenomenon  
((NATS)) 
((Courtesy:  Golden Gate Bridge District)) 
that stem from our wind retrofit project.  It happens during 
very high winds.    
((Courtesy:  Zoom))  
((Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, Public Affairs Manager, 
Golden Gate Bridge District))  
We’ve been replacing handrail on the west sidewalk with 
new railing that has thin vertical slats that are designed to 
run more air to flow through them.  One effect of that is that 
the bridge now at very high winds and with specific angles 
sings or hums.   
((NATS)) 
((Courtesy:  Bowen Dwelle/Instagram)) 
((Courtesy: Mark Kreuger/Twitter)) 
((Courtesy:  Golden Gate Bridge District)) 
We knew going into the replacement that the bridge would 
sing during high wind events but what we didn’t know was 
just how loud that might be.  
((Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, Public Affairs Manager, 
Golden Gate Bridge District))  
((Courtesy:  Zoom)) 
Some people love it and find it soothing and 
meditative.  Others have found it somewhat unpleasant.   
((NATS)) 
((Courtesy:  Mr. Bill))  
((Mr. Bill, DJ & Electronic Musician))   
((Courtesy:  Zoom))   
I moved to America like five or six years ago to pursue my 
music career, which is basically DJ’-ing or and writing 
electronic music and playing it at clubs and stuff like that.  
((Mr. Bill, DJ & Electronic Musician))   
((Courtesy:  Zoom))  
So, I rode my bike like right into the middle of the bridge and 
then I just took a field recorder with me and recorded it and 
then turned it into music.     
((NATS)) 
((Mr. Bill, DJ & Electronic Musician))   
I was just working on a few tracks at the time   
((Courtesy:  Zoom)) 
and that one just happened to be slightly closer to being into 
the key of the bridge.  
I’m not sure, I might use the sample like here and there and 
a few other tracks maybe.  The thing that I found the most 
interesting about it was that they were doing all this 
construction and didn’t realize until the very end that it was 
going to make this huge resonance and now it’s just like this 
hum that just emanates through the immediate vicinity of the 
city around us. 
((NATS))
 

CLOSING  ((ANIM)) 
voanews.com/connect		 

((PKG))  FREE PRESS MATTERS  ((NATS/VIDEO/GFX)) 
((Popup captions over B Roll)) 
Near the Turkish Embassy 
Washington, D.C. 
May 16, 2017 
President Erdogan’s bodyguard attacks peaceful protesters  
“Those terrorists deserved to be beaten” 
“They should not be protesting our president” 
“They got what they asked for” 
While some people may turn away from the news
We cover it  
reliably 
accurately 
objectively 
comprehensively 
wherever the news matters 
VOA 
A Free Press Matters
 
 
BREAK THREE								 
BUMP IN  ((ANIM))		

 
((PKG))  FREE PRESS MATTERS  ((NATS/VIDEO/GFX)) 
((Popup captions over B Roll)) 
We make a difference 
When we unmask terror
When we explain the impossible
When we confront an uncertain future 
When we give voice to the voiceless
The difference is Freedom of the Press
We are the Voice of America where
A Free Press Matters		 
 
 
SHOW ENDS