>>Good morning an welcome to Global Perspectives.

I'm David Dumke.

Today we are joined by Orlando community leader Dick Batchelor, who has served in a variety of leadership positions representing central Florida in the Florida state legislature, representing businesses and other entities, and also doing a number o international projects as well.

But we're talking today as an author who has just written a new book.

So welcome to the show, Dick.

>>Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

>>So, Dick, tell us about your new book and why you wrote it now.

>>Well, I use a lot of anecdotes, a lot of my life experiences to kind of demonstrate how you can reach across the divide.

Not every time I look, I know my lane.

I know the lane I'm in.

I'm liberal, traditional Democrat.

I know that.

But can I reach across the aisle to maybe a conservative Republican or maybe not right wing Republican, but conservative, economic, conservative Republican and find things we can agree on?

And again, the thesis of the book is basically, how do you set aside those differences?

We call it a road map for community builders.

And how do you bring people together on things?

Let's agree that we don't agree on this and we don't agree on this, and we never will.

But if the issues in the community, for instance, I'm involved Project Opioid the biggest part of the opioid crisis the is the fentanyl deaths, so many deaths from fentanyl.

Well fentanyl does not discriminate Republican, Democrat, NPA, it doesn't matter.

It'll kill you.

As a side, fentanyl is 50% more powerful than heroin.

So we know it.

But if in your community there's a human trafficking problem that is not a partizan issue domestic violence, child abuse, building schools for kids, those are issues.

And I use one example to in 2002, the school system came to me and said, look, we have 136 schools in some state of disrepair.

We have no money, no way to raise the money.

But we've tried six times over 20 years to pass, by referendum, let the voters decide on a sales tax to build new schools.

They all failed every time.

But would you lead the effort?

I said so you're asking me to lead-- [UNINTELLIGABLE] >>For this parade, right?

You know, And so we did.

And the first thing I did in being a Democrat, I asked the late Congressman Lou Frye, Republican congressman, he would be co-chair o the effort with me, and he did.

Then we reached out across the lines.

We had Democrats, Republicans.

Did we have opposition?

Yes.

There's a group called Axe the Tax.

They were Axe the Tax, they were coming after no new tax, the doing of taxes.

But we convened the whole community.

We went to the minority communities and we had Hispanics, African-Americans, faith community.

We reached out to the business communit and brought everybody together and they grew.

If you look at the group we brought togethe and asked you about Proposition A, which I support and Proposition B which they support, we probably never agree on those two issues.

But on this issue we came together, we passed it, and we passed it again in 2013 by 72% of the vote passing a tax number one is a-- >>An it failed six times previously.

>>Yes, but it passed because the community was engaged and there were Republicans and Democrats, a very conservative, been very liberal, but they came together.

So let's focus on what our children need.

So the thesis of the book is say there are many, many examples in including when I was in the legislature, how did I reach across the aisle on things that ordinarily would not find agreement on, but we could find agreement on.

So that's that's the book.

It really is a road map to say if you read this book and want to engage the community, this is a toolkit on how to do that.

>>Yo inject it throughout the book, and I had the pleasure of reading it a lot of your personal experiences of this.

And I want to remind the viewers, you know, your own life, you you move to Orlando at a very young age.

You've seen the community over several decades and you've seen the politics of the community change.

When you were first elected at age 26 Florida state legislature, winning the Democratic primaries tantamount to being elected as a heavily Democratic state at the time, you've seen it's going the other way.

Then you saw it swing into a purple area.

Do these lessons apply to all those different political times?

>>They do, but I'm going to give a caveat and come back to it On the toxicity of our environment.

Back when I was in the legislature, we reached across the aisle.

I mean, again, a number of issues that I dealt with for I passed 63 bills in one session in which you needed bipartisan support for in most cases, but you would reach across the aisle.

Let me give you one example.

There was an institution her called a retardation facility.

It was built in the 1930s, th WPA project, as a TB hospital.

They converted it to a hospital, an institution for people with severe disabilities.

And and I came out and said, we need to close it, not close it, and put the people on the street, but create programs, group homes for people with severe disabilities, intermediate care facilities for one on one client to staff ratio.

There was a lot of opposition on that.

One, the opposition was if you close it down, people lose their jobs.

They had to say no.

They had the jobs, but there would be a more one on one care for these clients that were being institutionalized without receiving any care.

But we were able to get pas that opposition and pass that.

Now, in today's environment, I'll be honest with you, the the toxicity is such as is is paramount.

And we all know that.

And frankly, jumping ahead, it doesn't really matter who wins the election.

The toxic environment is going to stay because it's here.

Right.

But how do you work?

How do you work around that?

Now, the Congress, to its credit, has gotten together on the funding for Israel, funding for Ukraine.

They've come together.

Maybe they'll come togethe on some border security issues this week.

So there seems to b some reaching across the aisle at the federal level.

But the politics are so strident, though, people have been led b what is politically propitious and not necessarily what is good public policy.

What is politically propitious will advance my agenda.

I used to say this about politicians, and I, of course, was one.

You can decide if you want to be well-known for getting things done or you can decide if you want to be well-known for being well known.

There are too many politicians today who do not want to be known for getting things done.

They want to be well known for being well known.

They want their Twitter account X account.

You know, they want their Facebook followers.

So they they want to create the kind of their own audience, so to speak.

And then when you play to that audience, then you you ignore what what really you are there for.

So the toxicity today is more paramount than it's ever been, in my opinion.

Is it more difficult?

I think so, to one degree.

But again, I get back to if you focus on an issue where you can bring parties together there.

Make it apolitical, make it nonpolitical as you can.

And again, whether human trafficking, domestic violence, child abuse.

Building schools for kids, whatever the issue may be, the education should be one.

Higher education should be one.

>>Do you get a sense that the right people are entering public service right now?

And I say this is a is a bipartisan observation.

Even though a lot of people write about self-funded candidates, it's great.

They don't have to raise money.

They have their own wealth.

But you only are getting a certain kind of people.

You came up from a relatively humble background into politics.

Do young people who want to do good for their community have the option of entering politics still?

>>Less and less so be very candid about it.

You know, when I ran for office, you know, I could raise 30 or $40,000 and run countywid and run a successful campaign.

But that was in 1976 or 1982.

So those are many years ago.

But what is happening now that money has become they say money is the mother's milk of politics.

Well, it is, but it's sour.

And I'll tell you why.

It's just so much of it.

One of the very worst Supreme Court decisions was Citizens United, where basically the Supreme Court said the individual's rights are equal to a corporation's right.

In other words, a corporation has the individual First Amendment rights, as I do to free speech, which means corporations now can give unlimited amounts of money.

Unlimited amounts of money, millions of dollars.

One good news, though, was that in a race recently in Maryland, a woman who is a local count executive ran against the owner and the founder of Total Wine, he spent $60 million, $60 million and lost.

So that was a good sign.

But the money has inputs.

That's a highly unusual case that you look here locally.

When I ran for the legislature, I ran county wide.

This is before single member districts.

Now a legislator represents about on sixth of the county list site.

That's about the geographical size of it.

They're spending a half a million to a million dollars for a state House seat, a state House seat that pays $40,000 or so a year.

So, unfortunately, part of the toxicity is drive by unlimited amounts of money.

So again, I say that as a Supreme Court decision, Citizens United is one of the worst Supreme Court decisions other than overthrowing Roe versus Wade.

>>In the book, you also talk about you experience with race relations and the importance on your experience serving in Vietnam, in your understanding of race relations.

Could you could you tell a little about that?

>>When I grew up in North Carolina, my parents were tobacco farmers and sharecroppers.

Really, we didn't own anything, we were very poor.

But our first exposur to any black was a field hand, you know, we were field hands.

They were field hands.

But there was a obviously this is back in the fifties and early sixties, and there was a lot of discrimination, innate discrimination.

In fact, I would hear a family members talk about they were members of the Klan and then I did not meet my first black until I joined the Marine Corps.

James Johnson, the late James Johnson and I talked to him and I learned in the mutual respect, I learned the issues that his perspective, my perspective, we shared.

And then I became very engaged.

When I got back from Vietnam in civil rights issues and ended up just a few years ago as the chairman of the Central Florida Urban League, the second oldest African-American organization in the country.

So and then I recruited blacks to run for the legislature in 1972.

One quick story.

I went to the supervisor of elections and said, we need to have the voter registration books out in the community.

They thought that was a radical idea because if you wanted to register to vote, their contention was, well, you come down to my office between nine and five Monday through Friday.

Well, the working people, whites and blacks, they couldn't take off from work.

So it was very hard for them to register to vote.

Her name, ironically enough, was Dixie Barber.

So I say to Dixie, why don't you have mobile voter registration into black communities and underserved communities?

On the weekend, during the week after hours, whatever she thought was a radical idea.

In fact, her response was this: If you spent time registering blacks to vote befor you know it, they'll be voting.

But but it was honest.

That was that was her attitude.

So I'd always been involved in those kind of issues in the civil rights issues.

>>Well, you've seen race relations change in central Florida, but you've seen central Florida change in a lot of ways.

Obviously, over time from a leadership perspective, you now see those visitor come to Orlando the first time.

Now see very diverse community, not just white and black but obviously a lot of Latinos, a lot of people from all over the world.

What do you how do you see this thi this growth and this progress?

>>I see very, very encouraging, you know, having grown up.

And then when I came to Orlando, still there was prevalent race.

This was the 65, 66 you know, 64, 65 Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act.

But so is a lot of discrimination.

But quantum leap to where we are today.

The community is very diverse.

In fact, the largest chamber of commerce is the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where I've been lucky to serve on the board there.

There's an African-American Chamber of Commerce, which is very prevalent.

There's an African-American Christian clergy, which is about 140 faith leaders that get together.

Never do you see anything happen in Orlando anymore.

The community initiative, let's call it that, where you don't see extremely diverse people engaged in that effort, which takes me back to the whole thesis of the book.

You know, you can set aside your differences and come together and that's what happened, I think, on the race issue.

And I think in the LGBTQ community, that issue after Pulse in this community came together, you had ministers who are extremely conservative in their preaching basically said, but still you know, obviously it's wrong.

We know killing off 49 people is wrong.

But the point I'm making, you had the community come together around the Pulse survivors and Pulse victims.

And so you have people rall around an issue that heretofore you would say I would never see this person at this event or this confab.

>>You see this good story of growth here and even on race relations and in so many other is at the same time you see this toxic political environment that you're describing before is one of the biggest obstacles, people actually just being willing to talk to each other or do they enter or is there a tendency now to enter into discussions on an issue that's contentious school funding where it's like, I want 100, this person want zero?

If we get 50, we can both win.

That idea may not come across anymore.

It's like I have to get 100 or close to it or else.

>>Yeah I make it sure make clear again I know which lane I'm in and anyone who I engage knows I'm a I'm a liberal Democrat, but I can work with you on other issues that should be apolitical and maybe in some cases nonpartisan.

The answer the answer is yes, you can still bring people together.

And but the point I make, too, is not I'm not naive.

There are some people you don't invite to the meeting.

You just don't invite them.

If they're innately toxic and they're not looking to be constructive, you know, you just don't invite them.

I make that very clear In the book, you identify people who want to engage once they understand the issue, understand the goal, you want to convene them from all walks of life.

Partizan, nonpartisan, apolitical, political, whatever it might be.

But there's some people you just don't invite because you do not want somebody in the camp who's really innately toxix.

>>Well you have in there obviously some of the peopl who came to bat for your book.

And on the cover, of course, you include Bill Clinton and Jeb Bush, I think one and two in there, which tells you a lot about who you were able to work with.

What is it that's made you work with peopl from the other party as easily as you seemingly have over time?

>>Well, if if we didn't have again in in the old age back in the legislature.

Right.

We didn't have the toxicity.

I mean, you disagree and of course you debated and things like that, but you didn' have the toxicity in right now.

And I think social media is a lot to blame for it because, you know, you can create your own following.

You can get your own-- >>That's the echo chamber.

>>That's echo chambers.

So people I think I coined this phrase called intellectual laziness, and it could be on the left and to the right if I get up every morning and listen to MSNBC's, for instance, and I regurgitate what they report, and that's where I am.

But you try to introduce a thought to me.

I'm good.

I'm good.

But same thing on Fox and Fox viewers get up every morning, you let the Fox regurgitate what they say.

You believe what they're saying.

You ask, Well, what about or what if you know, I don't want to hear that.

So I call it intellectual laziness and it applies to the far left, the far left and the far right.

>>So you obviously this book's a lot about community, but you've done a lot of work internationally, too.

Obviously, your international experience started by you getting drafted and going to Vietnam, but you have this friendshi with Bill Clinton, for example, and that led you to some interesting, interesting experiences.

>>President Clinton was very good to me.

I did his first fundraiser in Orlando in 1992 and beg people to give me $100 and see what the Governor of Arkansas looked like.

No one thought he could win, Right?

But he did.

And then so he was very generous to me on a personal level.

He invited my wife and I to spend our 10th anniversary in the White House, which we did, because my 11th anniversary was very challenging.

Because how do you how do you up that you go to Waffle House?

Wha what do you do?

Right.

I mean, you can't celebrate that.

But more and more specifically, though, he appointed me to UNESCO in Paris and I worked on the Human Genome Project.

When it first came out, he appointment to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, where we got together with countries which we really do not agree with and try to put together resolution condemning them for their human rights violations.

I was fortunate to actually deliver on the floor the resolution condemning Russia for invading Chechnya.

And here we are all these years later and Crimea and Ukraine.

Right.

So it was interesting how things change and some things haven't changed.

Right.

But really, the most exciting thing the president did he appointed me to a delegation and I went to South Africa and I met with Mandela the night before he was elected.

So that was like and I was in such awe, I don't know what I said to the man.

I think I said, Mr. President, congratulations.

Good to be in your country.

But I was and so I was so awestruck by Nelson Mandela, such a legend that I didn't I didn't say much.

I didn't want to embarrass myself.

>>These lessons you're talking about for building community, do they apply to the international experiences that you had?

>>They do.

But again where it's more toxic now than it is as it's ever been.

But it it is difficult now.

And I mean, we could talk days on end about Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Palestine, what happen after the war on and on and on.

But there's the other.

And then Ireland your good friend, Reverend Gary Mason.

I mean, there's still issues of the conflict resolution that you have to deal with there.

But if you go back to part of the best, Bishop Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Reconciliation Commission was probably the best example of how you can do conflict resolution where people came forward and said, I, I confessed to these murders and say, okay, you just need truth and reconciliation and we need to move along.

It's hard for me to fathom that.

I understand that, but it's hard to find that and get your mind around it.

But it is more difficul that day because the countries and you know what's going on in Russia, what's going on in Ukraine, what's going on in China with Xi.

You know, what's going on in Korea.

It's difficult.

Middle East alone I mean, I anybody who's a world leader, which would be the president of United States, no matter who it is very, very, very difficult challenges, very toxic environment.

But, you know you can either be in the battle or not, and you have to stay in the battle to win.

>>When you see meet someone like Mandela, though, and those lessons, I mean, you know, you're also seeing a statesman that obviously had had this you know, I've read his I didn't get to meet him, unfortunately, but I've you know, I've read his his his books.

Very unbelievable how a man could suffer that much and come out with that perspective.

Do we have that kind of leader right now who reduces toxicity if you will?

I mean, Nelson Mandela, of all people, had every reason to be jaded and have an ax to grind.

And he looked ahead instead of looked behind.

Do we have that kind of leader?

>>No and that's the reason he's a legend.

There's so few of them.

But it was interesting, if you look at Desmond Tutu and his relationship with Mandela what they were able to do, it, it just came togethe and in the galaxy, so to speak.

But I thought Erdogan in Turkey was trying to be that leader.

But obviously it didn't turn out that way at all.

And but the world leader, the stage for world leaders right now, it's not impressive.

But again, we have to we have to convene on these and it's best to convene in an environment where you can.

I'm getting I'm not your name.

It's best to convene in an environment that's not toxic.

You can address some issues that you would go in not agreeing on everything, but maybe come out agreeing on most.

But you have to do it.

There's there is the I think it was Woodrow Wilson who talked about, you know, the, the dustbin that you got to stay in the fight and in the arena.

And in that way I engage people, I think, at the local level because there was so much frustration.

You want to walk away from the world's troubles or maybe the national troubles, but you don't have to walk away from the local problems.

You can identify a problem, set aside your differences, convene and you can get things done in your own community.

Let's sit on the world stag and get it all done and be the the legends that we need.

But locally, you can have a big impact on your community by just coming together.

>>I mean local politics.

You know, there's there's a lot of people assume, you know, when you're doing international politics, you're doing with so muc that it's it gets very intense.

But I've found it's actually more intense at the local level, which i where you spend a lot of time.

I mean, is that kind of rung tru for you throughout your career?

>>Yeah.

But again, again, there may be fear when I say in the olden days when I was in the legislature was easier.

But let me remind people, we were Democrats, we were in charge.

It was a super majority.

Leap forward to today.

It's just the reverse.

You got a Republican governor, a Republican cabinet, super majority of the House, super majority in the state Senate.

And but what I would say too as an observation.

I think the and the toxicity, sometimes intentional were politically driven.

And I'll be honest, I think Governor DeSantis, when he decided to run for president, he really cranked up his personal agenda.

You know, don't say gay, don't have diversity, equity and inclusion taugh in the in the diversity system.

You can't make anybody uncomfortable.

Lot of American history, African-American AP studies are no longer there.

So I think, unfortunately, there's a governor, in my opinion, who picks issues that are personal, innately toxic, you know, to divide people.

And that's unfortunate.

But I see that all the time.

>>So it's some of these lessons just get recycled over over time.

Obviously, you talking about social media is a new factor in this.

What about at the international level, you you working on human rights at the UN?

I mean, a lot of people out of a lot of Americans kind of overlook the UN's importance or dismiss it.

How do you feel having experience there?

>>Well, I think the world organizations, international organizations are very necessary, I think the UN's necessary.

I think NATO's very necessary, as evidence by what's going on in Ukraine.

And also it keeps it keeps you out of the echo chamber, because if you're sitting down, meeting with the head of your NATO or the United Nations or whatever, at least you're in the room, you've got that personal element.

So I think that personal element really abates some of the conflict.

If you can just get the notes, the personal on a different level.

I mean, look, Ronald Reagan, your Tip O'Neill, what do they have in common politically?

Not much of anything at all.

But after 5:00, Ronald Reagan, would call Tip O'Neill, say it's after hours.

I'm not talking politics.

They would get together and have a drink and talk about everything else.

Right.

So they had that relationship.

But I think if you look at it, to leap forward, the relationship that Bill Clinton developed with George Bush, I think was, in fact, George 41, the father.

It was almost like a father son relationship.

And then that transmitted or transferred over to a relationship between Bill Clinton and Bush 43.

And so they had that relationship.

They got together after they left office and raised many billions of dollars for Haiti.

Right.

So they can come together.

So they took their political currency they both had.

Different sides of the aisle.

Haiti after the earthquake needed billions of dollars.

Jeb Bush, 41, and Governor Bill Clinton got together and raised that money.

They came together, did something good.

They used their political currency for good.

If more elected officials were really reflect on themselves and say, I've got this political currency, it's very hard to earn, it's very easy to lose.

Do I want to be known for getting things done or do I want to be well known for being well known?

And that's the biggest decision they have to make.

Use your political currency to do good.

>>You don't anticipate Donald Trump and Joe Biden have a drink having a drink after 5:00 anytime soon?

>>I I don't know, a lot less is not necessarily.

>>Well Dick we just we just have have have a couple of minutes left.

So I want to get your perspective.

We talked a little about central Florida becoming a much more diverse place.

How have you seen the economy grow and what do you see in the coming coming decades for central Florida?

>>Well, I think central Florida, of course, is known for, I think, an education system.

We go the number one university and my alma mater, UCF, FTU it's the number one university in the country, the whole research park, the high tech industry, the technology industry, and of course, tourism.

Farmin is still a part of our economy, but if you look at the growth of it it's going to be really in the technology sector.

In my opinion, tourism sector will always support itself.

And as kid continues to grow.

But I think the business community has come together.

In fact, there used to be a Chamber of commerce and an economic development commission.

They combined now it's OEP and they worked together in recruiting jobs here as as the Florida Department of Commerce.

So I think things are going well here.

But the challenges are, in m opinion, is affordable housing.

People who actually have one some two jobs and three jobs and four jobs in the household cannot afford housing.

So affordable housing is going to be at issue.

The homeless issue is going to be a big issue.

But again, if I had to bring it in for a landing, those are issues where you can set aside your partizanship convene work on affordable housing as Mayor Demings did with his bipartisan members of the County Commission, and work on things like affordability, work on things like homelessness.

But you can come together and do that.

The communities demonstrated they can do that and they have done that.

So that's what I would say in closing is put aside the toxicity, find people can come to a table, different parties convene around an issue in your community and try to solve it.

>>Dick Batchelor.

Thank you so much for joining us today and I encourage everyone to read your book, which is which is quite insightful and and a goo roadmap for community leaders.

>>Thank you very much.

>>And thank you for joining us.

We'll see you again next week on another episode of Global Perspectives.