Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Come on, tell

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me what's going great

Dave Washington 0:50
day, Las Vegas. Great day. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington. I know I got a kind of little raspy voice. I had to take some medication before I arrive here. I hope everyone out there in radio land is doing well. Thank you. Wes for getting me hooked up this morning or this afternoon. I should say that's the taping y'all you know we we don't even try to hide it anymore. Well, I don't, anyway, quite a couple of quick announcements before I get our first guest on birthdays. Once again my wife Marsha, my lovely wife Marcia, was last month and this month. Guess who? We celebrated me 75 three quarters of ascension. I look at our second guest sitting out there in the control room, giving me a thumbs up. He was there as well as you miss Evelyn, to celebrate my 75th year on this earth at three quarters of a century. And believe it or not, my former boss, in fact, the city manager Virginia Valentine who, who appointed me to fire chief, she gave me a card. It says 75 years ago, back in 1951 things that were going on minimum wage was 75 cent, wow, a new house for 900,000 new car. Teen 100 a gallon of gasoline. 27 cent gallon of milk. 92 cent movie ticket. 53 cent poor. And the average per year income was $3,515 $3,515 Oh, my goodness. How things have changed. My, my, my, the world has changed in 75 years in some ways certainly good, in some ways bad. I certainly want to express condolences to those folks over in the Middle East in particular who've lost their lives. And last count, I think it was seven, eight American soldiers, and then we had a building hit twice, not once, but twice with with students. And I just learned today. And again, I know Jason has already given the disclaimer, because I do not speak for the university. I speak for me, Dave Washington, and it's just a sad state of affairs when we a building is hit twice with over 100 students in there, I'm talking about young people, and then just find out today that they were the children of officers of the military. And that's just just as shameful that all this is going on. So condolences to all those who have lost lives, to include those in the Middle East golf events. As you guys have heard me say over the last few weeks, we have a couple of golf events for the Carl Holmes executive development institute. One here April, 8 and ninth in the actual scramble tournament is on the ninth. We are looking for golfers, and you can look us up on the Carl homes executive Development Institute's website, and you can see that information because we're trying to get about 5060 golfers who participate. And this is a fundraiser for our scholarship program, and it's in honor of two of our ancestors, both chief officers Herschel claydy and Spike Jones. So we hope we'll get a lot of participation, and certainly I would be remiss if I did not just talk briefly about my birthday celebration. We did it on two nights, Friday and Saturday this past week. Why two nights? Well, the venue only hold 100 people, so we did a Friday and Saturday, and it was very successful. And I'm compiling numbers that I'll report on air, because I want people to clearly understand it was a fundraiser for the Carl homes executive development institute, their endowment, also for the look back program, and for one organization is actually housed here is the Dr Bill Sullivan and Sharice Sullivan Foundation, housed here at UNLV, and it'll help to feed the program or give dollars toward the upper bound type program that's been going on for years in out here at UNLV. So with that. It, I again, welcome everyone and pleased that everyone is out there, hopefully healthy, and I'm going to bring on our first guest. And what an outstanding person she is. And I asked her to come because I know she's got a major event. But before you do that, Evelyn, would you tell people who you are, where you're from, and what branch did you serve?

Evelyn Pacheco 5:21
Well, again, I want to say thank you, and yes, and I was there for his birthday. Everybody. I know you're all jealous, but I was there and it was beautiful. The food was good, and everything, the people were nice. And it was such a nice, nice evening on Friday to help and to be there. And I was honored to be there celebrating with you your 75th and so very much an honor. And again, my name is Evelyn Pacheco. I am army Thank you everybody. Army vet, and I'm doing a lot of good things out here. We go to US vets every second Monday. We go over to us vets right there in Bonanza and Las Vegas Villa Boulevard. And we go there just to make sure that the vets that are there have resources, have what they need, if they need claims and they need to any, any, anything, right? We're just there. We sit out there for our and we've been doing it every, every second, Monday at 10am so if you're interested in coming down and doing some more service and just sitting there and talking to them that that's, you know, welcome to and

Dave Washington 6:35
you know, whatever you know, what, Evelyn, you know, what I think I'm going to join you one of these second you say second Monday of the month?

Evelyn Pacheco 6:44
Yes, second Monday at at 10am at US vets, I consent. We're called Nevada sisters united. Me Sergeant Dixie and Donna created this nonprofit. But it's we don't go there to interrupt what US vets is doing. We just go there to add, right? We're just going there to add. And I want to say to you, too, for you and your daughter, you donated cookies that we do on our first Tuesday of the month at the VA, when we go do hospital visits at the VA. And thank you, because everybody loved them. Cookies.

Dave Washington 7:18
Oh my gosh, that was our daughter, April. That's her tea cake thing. I think it's a family recipe that goes back many, many years. So I know you just such a busy lady, and you got some outstanding events coming. Everyone in particular, give our listening audience some detail on it, if you would.

Evelyn Pacheco 7:39
It's girls learning about trades, and we're partnered with with Marcus and his the organization they are strong future technology training center at historic West Side school with City of Las Vegas. And it's so important that we're not just talking to the adults about trades, but we need to start planting the seeds. And I know everybody says, Oh, 12th grade. I believe we need to be starting it earlier than that. By 12th grade, you kind of know what you're doing, what you're not doing, where you want to be at and people are like, Oh, but it's too soon. If you do it in high in junior high or grade school. I don't believe that. I believe we need to plant the seeds and let yes and let this community know that you can make over 100,000 a year by getting to these unions. And there's like 14 unions. So our event is Saturday, March 28 from nine to one at historic West Side school, and we're going to have hands on activities. We're going to have a IBEW. 357, is involved. 565, plumbers and pipe fitters, unions involved. We have carpenters. And this the guy that we have is from Canada. He's going to talk about what he does with woodworking and all that. We have some donations coming from HPn and Tony's house. And fasteners is donating something for the to the young ladies too, but it's six to six through 12th grade ladies. March, 28 9am to 1pm and if you would like to be part of it, and you have a young lady that you know would like to be part of it, you can email me. At Evelyn at Nevada, spelled out, W, I t.org, so that's Evelyn, e, v, e, l, y, N. At Nevada, spelled out, W, I t.org, is not just for veterans. Is for for all women, and we hope the youth and the men were getting in trades too, but it's annual. This is our second time doing it, and I just want to do a shout out to to Marcus, because he's been really heavily involved in helping Nevada women trade.

Dave Washington 9:52
All right. Well, we'll get you back on again sometime, probably several more times this year, because one thing I know about this young lady, and I'm staying this. To our listening audience, she is a firecracker, and she makes things happen, and when she gets it, gets a roller she's gone. So thank you, Evelyn. We'll talk to you again in the near future.

Evelyn Pacheco 10:09
Thank you so much. Thank you again. Happy belated. All right, thank you,

Dave Washington 10:13
and happy birthday to you. Upcoming Pisces,

Evelyn Pacheco 10:15
yes, Saturday, 61 Pisces in the house. All right, yes. All right, thank you.

Dave Washington 10:22
All right. We'll this Veterans Affairs on 91.5 jazz and more, and we'll be on the other side with brother Jeff. We'll have some conversation about a couple things that he thinks is important to share with our listening audience.

Dave Washington 10:40
Once again, great day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs plus some 91.5 jazz and more. In the second segment, we have Jeff Burris teas, a godfather and a good friend of my daughter, April. And destiny is his goddaughter. Outstanding Individual from our community, and he was at the birthday party gathering this past weekend, and he had an emissary come to I said, I'm not entertaining you about Jeff, and this is we're on the air now, Jeff, do you know I just blow people, right? I know you want them kind of guys. I say, Jeff knows me, has my number. He don't need, he don't need to know go between. And sure enough, you fired me up that. I said, there he is. I say, I know, yeah, man, but we appreciate you being here, and we know where you were. You born and raised.

Jeff Burist 11:27
See I was. I was born in Texas, but I was six months old when they moved me here. So Texas is on my birth certificate. Shout out to Texas. I still claim Texas. Absolutely. I've been in Vegas, 58 years. We're in Texas. Childress, okay. It's right in between nothing and nowhere. I heard that. Don't look for it on the map.

Dave Washington 11:51
It's a baby boy. So where'd you go to school? At? Oh, the

Jeff Burist 11:54
ranch Rancho High School. Rancho High School, class of 85 Rancho.

Dave Washington 12:03
That's great, man. So we're, were you involved in while in school, anything in particular, athlete or any

Jeff Burist 12:10
No, you know, I had, I had corneal transplants as

Dave Washington 12:14
a baby, as a youngster, one in 83

Jeff Burist 12:18
and then the second eye in 1985 Wow. So I was involved in track earlier on in football, but after that, it was, yeah, that was out. So, all right.

Dave Washington 12:32
Well, you know, I know you got something very important that you wanted to share with our listening audience, something that you've been involved in for a number of years. So let's get

Jeff Burist 12:42
at it. Hey, when? Thank you for having me, Mr. Washington. I appreciate this opportunity. Yeah, the subject is compulsive gambling and problem gambling that they call it. It is not as well studied as a, a or NA, sure, but the numbers are far exceeding aa now, because they call it the hidden disease. You know, with AA, if you see, you know they're they're lethargic, they're drunk. You know what I'm saying? Well, let

Dave Washington 13:16
me, let me say this real quickly. Then you continue. But one thing I've told my grandchildren, grandsons, Chris and David in particular. And when you look at the NFL and what is that the online where you can wager now, yes, oh yes, it. They said their revenue has jumped by a certain percentage. And I told you got to be careful. You got to be careful. It's easy to get started, man, but go ahead, please, yes.

Jeff Burist 13:45
No, that's an excellent point, because the age group is changing. It used to be, you know, 40 plus women start doing more when they start going through empty net syndrome or something like that, right? But now with the online betting this such this is they're starting in their 20s, and to live with an addiction like this in your 20s is who is that's gonna be tough, you know? So, yeah, yeah. I just want people to be aware and let this be known. I have no ill will against Las Vegas gambling or anything like that

Dave Washington 14:27
major, major

Jeff Burist 14:30
industry thrives off of That's right, I'm just for the people who are who have gone too far. You know what I mean, and how it affects the family, the community and everything, it's something to just be aware of.

Dave Washington 14:47
Oh, I agree 100% I can tell you that. And I, you know, I'm a very open person. Transparency is me. You look in the dictionary, you might see my picture. Let me tell you something. I have drink and I have. It and gamble. And one thing I do every so often, particularly drinking, more so than gambling, I would just stop for a month or two. Oh, you, oh, you got too good. You don't want to have drink. No, I'm making sure I can control my body, because if you just smart, I know. I know some guys, they got to get up with it, man. They go to bed with it and get up. They got to have, got to have me a cold one, man, please. So I that's, that's how I keep control of myself in terms of the discipline that one needs otherwise, man. And then you got a wife like my wife ain't gonna let me miss that we miss no house, no no power bill. That ain't finna, happen, you know, you know, Marshall, excuse me, you got the money to pay the bills. So what are your thoughts overall on and where are you participating in that, in that whole industry right now, or in that, well,

Jeff Burist 15:53
right now, I am proud of myself about this. I'm the first African American trustee gamblers, anonymous, Southern Nevada, something I'm very proud of. And my thing is, just in my circle of influence, sure, I talk about my experiences with the gambling and the road it took me down right. Other than that, I was a part of when they had what they call an IOP to some outpatient program that they have resource for people who think they may have a problem but are not sure, might want to go down there and check that out. The cost is minimal.

Dave Washington 16:37
Yeah, there's someone else I have been meaning to get her on the show. Oh, my goodness, I'm trying my you know, when you get old man, your man start blink. But she is the former. I guess she would say former because her and her husband or divorce. But Mayor Goodman's daughter in law, she runs a program, and I saw her and her daughter at the mall about four or five months ago, got her car and lost a dog on car. But I'm gonna look up, because she runs a program, particularly with this dynamic in it's what her organization does, man, and it's similar to what you're talking about, because people get in trouble without realizing before you know it. Man, you got all kind of issues, because it's gonna compound itself. It's obvious, man, if you ain't paying one bill and you're gonna try to take some from it's just gonna compound

Jeff Burist 17:28
Yeah, but see, and that's with that rational state of mind when in gambling mode, all of that goes out of the window.

Dave Washington 17:37
That's a very that's a good point. See, I've said you'll be irrational. Just say, Hey, man, all this stuff you talk about, Dave was

Jeff Burist 17:47
even think about that. Yeah, that sounds good with a rational state of mind. But when you're in what they call the action of gambling, that no thought process like that whatsoever, the only thing is, I gotta get back what I lost. Or sometimes it's not even sometimes it's just playing, right? You know, because there's two types of gamblers, the action gambler, dice on the dice, like and then the escape gambler, far more on the machines. And this, that and the other. But the crazy nuance about the escape gambler is they are escaping zoning out, right? But at the same time their mind is being stimulated. So that's like, that's a double whammy. You know what? I mean, interesting. So something that's you're using as a sedative is actually stimulating the mind. And it's, it gets deep.

Dave Washington 18:45
You know, until your point, I have had a friend. I certainly would not disclose that person's name on these airways, but I can tell you, I saw that person when three royals and Lee broke. I'm like,

Jeff Burist 19:00
I'm doing a double take, Man, you ain't got to talk about Don't say my name. That's a part of my story.

Dave Washington 19:08
I'm shaking my head like you could have took one of them home. At least I see the person hit three of them and lead broke.

Dave Washington 19:17
It happens

Dave Washington 19:18
more times than not.

Jeff Burist 19:20
Yeah, more you be surprised. You know, like people see athletes who went broke.

Dave Washington 19:29
So how does one make contact with and get involved with your program?

Jeff Burist 19:36
They could just go on the website, the GA SN website, okay? Gamblers, anonymous, they can go that way. They also have the Nevada Council on problem gambling. They can do that way. Dr Hunter and God rest his soul, but he still has a program, an IOP intensive outpatient program, that's still going on, that is helping people in the community.

Dave Washington 20:00
So, and I'm because I have no, no experience at this, but so is it's more psychological. Or do they give you, prescribe you some kind of medication and kind of calm you down, or make you move away? Or how's that done

Jeff Burist 20:14
with our program? There's no medication or anything involved. But some people who go through their regular doctor, they may prescribe them medication, okay, yeah, but it's just all cognitive therapy from from what I do and the IOP, what it did was help me learn about the brain. I did not realize how powerful the brain is, and the dopamine and the serotonin and all that stuff that, what with the near winds and this, that and other it like breaks your brain. So what the dopamine is supposed to be doing now it's not doing is doing the opposite, right? So it goes, Oh, my God, there's so many duos. This is crazy.

Dave Washington 21:09
So are you meeting individually with someone, like a counselor? Are you meeting in a group,

Jeff Burist 21:15
like a setting? Yeah, it's a group setting, like, aa, it's totally, you know, up to you when you want to go this, that nobody's making you do anything. It's all based off suggestions. As I've heard in the program when I came in 19 years ago, I want to give myself a shout out for March 4 was 19 years for me. Oh, wow. Congratulations from the back, right? Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate Yeah, and

Dave Washington 21:44
I'll say this, if y'all saw what kind of car you drive, you

Jeff Burist 21:51
know, yeah, I definitely would not have that. I was still

Dave Washington 21:54
so when one goes in on their own, they go in and do and I had that long pause, I know Wes come. He said, Stop pausing like that, man, you got to be talking you on radio. Look, when you go in, you just kind of do that introduction thing. And, and people just do, they just talk about what's what's happening with them, what happened to them, and and, I guess, seek other ways of possibly getting themselves released from this illness.

Jeff Burist 22:30
Well, yeah, they come in and the format of a meeting, there's a place where they ask, are there any new members? Okay, and then that member will be acknowledged, and then they will ask them if they would like to share about their experience. Some will, some will, you know, and it takes a lot of courage to make that first step. So I applaud those that make that happen, but then they get a little relief, because they get to talk about it, right? They finally get a chance to breathe per se, and the feeling of despair and anger and all of that goes away just and then they forget, and they might not make it to another meeting again.

Dave Washington 23:24
So again, you mentioned, it's all voluntary. Nobody's gonna force you to come. So is it like, oh, come as many times during the week, or is it set so many times per week that these meetings are available to a person?

Jeff Burist 23:40
It's recommended by the literature in the program to attempt to make 90 meetings in 90 days. Okay? And that's because anything less than that, then the disease will make a decision for you. They figure it takes at least 90 meetings, 90 days to get some clarity of mind, right? Yeah, to make as we were talking about rational decisions instead of impulsive decision,

Dave Washington 24:06
right? So they recommend 90 days.

Jeff Burist 24:11
But, you know, right? But the main thing is, is meeting makers make it. You know, I'm 19 years in. I still go to meetings. I don't plan on ever stopping, because I've experienced what the program is promised, and that is happy, joyous and free. And that's what I am today. Is happy, joyous and free.

Dave Washington 24:38
This is great. That is great, but we still got five minutes. I just got the signal from West. So what would you suggest to a person again that may be out there listening today, because we know veterans and others have these issues, what would be the first step that you would suggest that one you know. Or recommend that they do. I would

Jeff Burist 25:01
recommend that they call the hotline. Okay, yeah, they have a GA hotline. Get some information about the program, different programs that they have here in Vegas, and to just seek help, you know, reach out to a friend if you need to, to help you with the process. Interesting.

Dave Washington 25:18
So, so first step, you call that hotline and they'll kind of give you some some recommendations in terms of meeting places. Is there multiple meeting places in our county?

Jeff Burist 25:29
Yes, there's, there's meeting places all over the Las Vegas Valley. We have them in Mesquite as well.

Dave Washington 25:34
So yes. And I would imagine that they vary in terms of the size of the groups.

Jeff Burist 25:39
Oh, yeah. That's always, you know, there might be four people at this meeting, 30 people at this meeting. You never know.

Dave Washington 25:47
But, and I would imagine that it makes sense to find your comfort zone in terms of a meeting group. You may think I want to stay with this or not, you know, oh yes, you can move

Jeff Burist 25:59
and yes indeed. Because if my thing is this, if you're not getting fed where you're at, why go right? Yeah, so make sure that you're comfortable in the place that you want to call your home meeting and to to help that person be comfortable with staying in the program, right?

Dave Washington 26:21
Once again, for those who are just joining, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz. And when we have Jeff versus he's talking about gambling, anonymous type stuff, man. And I think it's very important what he's sharing, so continue. Yeah.

Jeff Burist 26:35
And then I don't want to you know the politicians and the people in the gambling establishments think I'm bashing them and they're not losing money, because we're still, I'm still, as you see, my car, the money is still staying in the community, right? Because I'm still spending money, just not with that thing. And in my book, caught in the shuffle.

Dave Washington 26:57
Oh, you've written a book. I've written a book. Oh, please,

Jeff Burist 27:01
there's a segment in there where I talk about, will people think that they're not affected by compulsive gambling because they don't do that.

Dave Washington 27:10
We can't talk about the price of your book, but we can tell folks not even I haven't even, oh, you're getting ready to put it out. You have put it out. Yeah, okay. Oh, that's excellent, man, because

Jeff Burist 27:20
I've written for two years. I just been dragging my feet.

Dave Washington 27:23
I've written one book. I've got I read it. I've got three in the hopper, just getting back and sitting down and working on it. And then I'm looking over there where I don't even want to mention AI, he might throw a book at the screen, but, you know, some people say they'll take AI and it helps them. But I want to write from my own perspective, and that's, that's just some I know. I know it's something that's very, very helpful, because I know a number of people, to include my good friend and boss over that the Wellness Center, Frank car, he uses AI to do certain things that he's working right, and he said it take him from eight hours to four hours to do certain things. But there's, there's certain things to me that I don't think AI needs to be involved with, and I know Wes as well as my granddaughter, in particular. Look at the energy that this thing is drawing, and it's and it's gonna have an effect on our environment. What are people thinking?

Jeff Burist 28:17
Yeah, that's an interesting point, because we're now having, there's a conflict of interest with Zoom meetings versus in person, you know what I mean. And we just came up with the decision that, hey, however people want it, we just want to make sure that it's provided for them absolutely so they can get the help that they need Absolutely.

Dave Washington 28:39
All right, will any closing remarks you want to share with our listening audience, and when you gonna get this book out? Because I'm gonna tell you, a lot of people stayed on me till I got the first one out.

Jeff Burist 28:50
You know what I'm gonna call angel. She's good at editing. Oh my goodness. And her book was so amazing, and yours as well. We were talking me and April were talking about your book, because I was telling them like, I've only seen your dad one way. You know, always calm, cool and collected. Then I read the book, and I was like, oh, wait a minute. This is a quiet storm.

Dave Washington 29:16
Well, again, Jeff, I appreciate you coming, man, because I think, once again, what you have shared, I think, is going to help someone out

Jeff Burist 29:22
there for sure. Ben, thank you for having me, and it's just, thank you, Mr. Washington. All right, that's

Dave Washington 29:27
just affairs is out. You

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