Full Transcript for Opening Segment 11/11/26

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Well, it's Veterans Day, and we're all in the house today. 00:00:15 Speaker 2: And I just want to bifurcate this, if I can, Larry and Natalie, because Veterans Day, unlike Memorial Day, how many times have you heard people say, oh, happy Memorial Day? 00:00:26 Speaker 3: No, no, no. 00:00:27 Speaker 2: Schmuck putts. Oh, God, Schmendrick. It's a day we honor our dead, Memorial Day. Honor the dead. Those who actually served in combat, you honor them. Veterans Day is for anyone who ever served. Wartime, peacetime, National Guard, anybody who had any kind of military involvement. And it's celebrated differently in different parts of the country. So, for instance, I found out that in Wisconsin... It's the only state that is not an official paid holiday for government employees. And you would say, gee, I wonder why, Wisconsin. You know, that goes from left to right. That's the one state politically that always vacillates. But here in New York City, I can speak directly to it and actually to New Jersey. I prefer the New Jersey way in many of the areas of the state. New York City, all the kids are off from school. Are they learning about Veterans and Veterans Day? So what I did yesterday, Larry, is I went to the Gray Pupaya. This is right on 72nd and Broadway where a lot of the kids come after high school because they get a few dogs, you know, for less than $ 10 and something to wash it down with. And they stand outside, and these were pretty bright kids. I said, they talk about Veterans Day this week at all, you know, Monday or Tuesday, you know, leading up. 00:01:54 Speaker 3: To the holiday? No. 00:01:56 Speaker 2: Do you know what Veterans Day is? They sort of flummoxed. I say, is there any intent to discuss Veterans Day, do you think? Like in history class, you have current events. And naturally, when I brought up current events, they said to me exactly what my sons have said to me who go to public schools, that they don't discuss current events because it might upset some people. So if we have a Veterans Day holiday where school is out, How is that benefiting a new generation to understand what Veterans Day is, as opposed to what I've seen and I participated in many years ago in New Jersey, some of the smaller towns, where you go to school on Veterans Day and they dedicate the whole curriculum to veterans visiting, coming in, speaking in the assembly, educating the youngsters and even the teachers and the teacher's aides into their. 00:02:51 Speaker 3: Service and the history. Veterans Day. 00:02:54 Speaker 2: So I prefer the New Jersey way. I know the big cities there, they don't do it. Newark, Elizabeth, Patterson, I think Trenton, they follow New York City. But they're the ones who probably need it the most, those kids in the inner city. 00:03:08 Speaker 3: But you can do both. You can talk about Veterans Day. You can honor veterans the day before and then have off on that day. You can say, this is why you're going to have off tomorrow. You can bring a veteran in. I know they'd love to come in and talk about their service. And that's the way you should do it. Because the federal government and the states, they take off. All the government buildings, they're off. But they don't insist that everybody else take off. And the horrible part about it, the worst part about it, if you have a company... And you have a veteran showing up to work today. You didn't give him the day off for all that he potentially did for us or was willing to do for us. Shame on you. Every veteran should be, if they don't have a state law, if they don't make it so that everybody's off, then you should give the veterans in your department the day off. And if you didn't do it this year, I understand. You probably weren't thinking about it. Do it next year. Just everybody that served in your office, everybody that served in your company, just call them in and say, you know what, take tomorrow off. Because why? If you're going to have this special day to honor veterans, do something for the veterans. Do something for the people that served. About one and a half percent of the people actually protect this country. And God bless them. God bless that they're there standing fortress against anything that may happen to this country. They deserve something. Good litmus test. Tomorrow, Larry, there'll be a vote in the New York City Council, which hates the military. They've given millions of dollars to illegal aliens. They've given bupkis. They've given hugats to veterans. 00:05:07 Speaker 2: So Frank Marano, who's a city council person from South Shore of Staten Island, Republican, conservative, has a bill that'll be voted on the floor. If you are a disabled veteran, you should not have to pay property taxes in New York City. 00:05:22 Speaker 3: Makes sense, right? Right. That's great. That's a great law. Disabled, too. 00:05:26 Speaker 2: If you're able, you know, you got to pay property tax. So it's bifurcated the proposed law. I'm going to try to be in city council chambers forever. to name and shame any of those who actually vote against this. You would think, what's your opposition to this? Disabled veterans not having them pay New York City property tax? 00:05:48 Speaker 3: Makes sense to me. 00:05:48 Speaker 2: But there are going to be some in that city council who are going to say absolutely a thousand times no. 00:05:53 Speaker 3: And there are small things you can do today, by the way, to make veterans feel special. If you know somebody in your neighborhood or your family or you know somebody at work that is a veteran, just say thank you. Just say, Thank you for being there, even if you didn't go to war, just in case that you were there to serve us. And you know what else we'd love? We would love to hear from you, not only about what we're talking about today, what should be done for Veterans Day, but also if you served, we would love to hear your story. So go ahead and leave us a talk back.