Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:04 ] Welcome back, Portugal Junkies! Hello! We had tea this morning.
Mark Burns
[ 00:00:09 ] Yeah, it's half eleven, so yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:12 ] I've had two cups of coffee and a tea.
Mark Burns
[ 00:00:14 ] I've had two cups of tea and a coffee. I'm very English. Yeah, so it's a bit early for the wine, but we'll see how it goes. It goes.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:26 ] So, a little story for you guys before we get into today's content. We have been working more on our TikTok page, which I've never really been a TikToker until we launched Portugal Drunkies. Right. But anyway, I've been putting content up there. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Little plug there. But y'all, the funniest story. We had a follower reach out and message us named Meredith. And she sent me a message.
Mark Burns
[ 00:01:01 ] She's freaky enough in itself. Really? Well, we don't hear it often.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:01:05 ] You don't hear Meredith very often. But we also, she sent me a message and she was like, you're not going to believe this, but we moved from the USA to Portugal. And our names are both Meredith and Mark as well. Oh, and here's another thing. They live 20 minutes from us in Portugal.
Mark Burns
[ 00:01:27 ] I mean, it's just crazy how some things happen.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:01:30 ] So I was like, well, shit, we have to do something about this. So we all met up and we had like a seven hour double date the other day. It was really, really fun. We went and had some bites and some wine, and the football.
Mark Burns
[ 00:01:48 ] Yeah, we had that, which was really interesting as well, because Mark is Swiss. The other Mark, the other Mark is Swiss. And we were in Switzerland; we're playing England in the, I think it was the semi? Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:02:02 ] Because it was about a week and a half ago.
Mark Burns
[ 00:02:04 ] Might have been the quarterfinal, which shows how much I watch. And I mean, it was kind of funny because we won. I'm putting that down to the fact that you got shat on. I got shat on by a pigeon. In the market. In the market. And I was walking. I wasn't stood still; I was walking. That's funny. That bird wanted to give you some good luck. It just, right there.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:02:27 ] In the market. Yeah. Covered.
Mark Burns
[ 00:02:30 ] And so I was not going to wash it until England beat Spain and we lost. So it's getting washed. Anyway, that's our story of the day.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:02:39 ] I had to share that with you guys because I just think it just kind of goes to show you that, you know, if you're worried about coming over here and not being able to form community, you absolutely can. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there.
Mark Burns
[ 00:02:52 ] You've got to be willing to just step out a little bit. And if it makes you feel uncomfortable, then that's clearly something new. You should probably do it. And you should probably do it because the worst that's going to happen is you just don't do it again.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:03:01 ] So shout out to Meredith and Mark, not us, our friends, who may be listening, who knows, but we're excited to see them again. So it was a good double date. That was fun. So anyway, yes. All right. So we're here today because we felt like we needed to have some sort of response. Or discussion or emotion or feeling about all the stuff that's been going down in the US and most recently what happened at the Trump rally on this past Saturday, July 13th. And honestly, we went back and forth about this, of whether or not to create an episode about this, because the last thing I want to do is create a more polarizing environment. And then at the same time, I'm so mad over the past nine years of experience that sometimes I want to throw my hands up in the air and just say, 'screw it' and be as open as I can about my opinion about things. And so I feel like I'm always, I've always been that person in this situation. I mean, some would look at me and say I'm a loud mouth about it. But in comparison to others, I would think not so much. Mainly because I don't love conflict. And I especially don't love conflict with people that I care about and people that I've grown up with. And when you're on opposite sides of the line, sometimes that's really hard. Yeah. But we're like in this for years, you guys in the US. And you know, I still have people that I care about. I mean, you know, I'm a big fan of BTSD from 2016's election. If you know anything about me, you know where I fall on the spectrum and have fallen the entire time. And so it's just, we went back and forth. I'm coming back to this back and forth stuff because I don't want to add to the polarization. I also want us to be very honest about who we are and what we think and why we decided to do what we did to move here. Yeah. And how that might influence us. How that might influence future decisions. And all of that stuff is important to someone sitting and listening or sitting and watching this. And so that's the kind of lens we want to come at it today. We are not coming at this response as a bitch session.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:05:46 ] No, definitely not.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:05:47 ] But I am concerned. And I have been concerned. And I had a pretty visceral reaction this weekend to all of that. Yeah. I had a pretty visceral reaction to the Supreme Court decision also. I feel like I'm constantly having visceral reactions these days to what is going on in the US. Yeah. And it's hard. It's heartbreaking.
Mark Burns
[ 00:06:16 ] I think as well the fact that, you know, some people will look at it and say, yeah, but you're not in the States now. So it doesn't really affect you. And I think it does a lot because you still have family. You still have friends. We still have a house there. We still have connections other than sort of people and physical. You know, it's where you were born. So there's always going to be an effect on what ties you to a place. And again, I just think that. You can't just sidestep it. Ignore it. Hope it will go away. Doesn't affect me. You know, some people in our comments already have said, so it was something about, you know, it doesn't even affect you. You're not even here. You're not even voting. It's just like. You're a thicket. You know, quite honestly, anybody that thinks that just by moving from one country to another means that you've totally abandoned and you now have no connection or expectations for what you grew up with. Is completely looney tunes.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:07:31 ] How do you think it does affect us though? Because I mean, obviously we this was one of the reasons why we moved. Let's just be clear about that. If you have been following us, you've seen any of our socials. You know that this is one of the clear and I say this that group they're violent. The administration decisions of the four years they were in power. The lingering effects of the Supreme Court justices that were put into place. The rights that are being taken away. The plans for Project 20/25 that are out. I can go on and on and on. All of these things enrage me. And yes, I would be lying if I said that those things weren't influential in our decisions to move somewhere else and experience a different country. All that to ask you: Do you think that moving here has really has changed much for us?
Mark Burns
[ 00:08:36 ] I think it's changed everything in our day-to-day how we live.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:08:40 ] But I mean, like, politically and being exposed to all of that. I mean, for me. It seems like we have obviously changed. Our consumption, of, of what is happening over there. I feel like when you sit in the US, you're just inundated with it constantly. And you can control some of that. Yeah. And before we left, we were already doing that because it just weighs on me a lot. And I can't pick it up and put it down as much as easily as other people. Um. Here, I do feel like our consumption is different because we're not turning on the news every day. Right. For American news, and seeing all the details of what's happening. That's right.
Mark Burns
[ 00:09:26 ] And I think even when you look at European news. Um. Yes, it got a mention. Of course, it did. Well, you know, why wouldn't it? And where wouldn't it have got a mention? But not to the same, sort of regurgitation. And bias. Or 24-hour cycle of like, this is. We reword the same sentence ten different ways. Yeah, just to keep the news cycle going. And that is something I see as so different over here. It's not ignoring the problem but it's not fueling the rhetoric. Yeah, and some of the commentary. Um. So again, ultimately it. Moving here has changed how we live. Because we're not. It's not in our faces all the time. Um.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:10:13 ] And I think the other part of this. And the part, you know, that drives me insane. About our lack of being able to get our shit together on better gun control in the U. S., yes. I'm sorry. It is. This. Is a byproduct. Of all of the decisions that have been made, and all of the hurdles that have been placed in front of the efforts to try to get better gun control happening in the U. S. But this has been years. It has. Of course it has. But now, you've literally had a former president shot at his own rally. Um. And so. Let me be clear. I am not condoning any of it. I am not going to sit here and be happy about any of this.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:10:55 ] It is. Not at all.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:10:58 ] It's disgusting. It made me sad.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:11:00 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:11:01 ] It made me sad. And some people might look at me and be like. Why are you sad? If you're such a. A. A. A. You know. Opponent of him. You just.
Mark Burns
[ 00:11:14 ] You can agree with. Sorry. You can disagree with somebody. It doesn't mean you want them. Like. Right. Listen.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:11:19 ] I'll be honest with you. If. The worst had happened on Saturday. We would. We would be in a worse. Spot today. For sure. Because. All hell would have broken loose. I would agree with that. So never am I going to wish that. But I. I just. The safety issue. It was a problem for us as well. And so. I'm. I'm trying to pull all this back to. You know. The. The way that. I'm just going to say that group because I'm just done with it. It's like Voldemort. The way that that group has been proponents for violence for the past almost decade. And then all of a sudden we have something violent happen at one of their own rallies. Yeah. To me, it's just one of those things where I wish that they would have a moment of realization. It's not enough that the third graders were killed. It's not enough about Sandy Hook. It's not enough. But gosh. If we have a former president injured, are we going to do anything about it now? And I'm just bringing this back to this. I said I wasn't going to go off but I can't help it, you guys. It's a safety problem for me. And it was one of the number one reasons why we moved here. Portugal is the seventh safest country in the world. Have I felt threatened once here? No, no, no, no, no, no, and no. And there's a comfort level there. I'm not ignorant to the fact that there is crime. Of course, there is.
Mark Burns
[ 00:13:02 ] I mean, we're never going to get away with it.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:13:03 ] Of course, there is, and we live in the second biggest city. Right. But it doesn't seem so 'in your face' as a woman. I feel worried about walking outside when it's nighttime. All of those things. I don't worry about going out in big groups here.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:13:18 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:13:19 ] These are the effects positively and the reasons why we were frustrated in the U.S. In a way that I feel it hasn't helped in their lives that much. A lot of cases that relate to some of the stuff that's been happening recently in the US.
Mark Burns
[ 00:13:31 ] And you know, just to score on that from a safety point of view in Porto, I think since we've been here, I think I can probably count legitimately on one hand that being the most amount of times I've ever seen a police car blue lights go around the town. Whereas back in the US, it's like okay, I can count on one hand this morning how many times I saw or heard a police car doing something in a big city.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:14:06 ] Well, we're in Charlotte, it's not the safest place in the first place.
Mark Burns
[ 00:14:09 ] But that's the point, you can't compare the two places, I know that, I get it. But you can still take a litmus test of like well it doesn't happen the same way in the two places. Yeah. But no, I mean in terms of safety, when you take the dog out at night at 9:30 or 10, 10 o'clock at night, it's dark, the streets are lit, there's absolutely no worry. It's not being ignorant to the fact that something might happen and you're not drawn into this whole blasé affair of well it's fine, nothing will happen. And you're still going to have your wits around you, of course you are.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:14:49 ] I am because I'm a woman and I've been ingrained to be that way. You know why? Because I grew up in the US. Right. That's the truth.
Mark Burns
[ 00:14:56 ] I'm not disagreeing with any of that. I'm not. Let's be honest. It's just such a shame. It really is.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:15:01 ] All of this to say you guys, here's the thing, I'm not trying, we are not trying to make this and Portugal Junkies all about a side or a color or a political affiliation but we're going to be who we are.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:15:17 ] Right.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:15:17 ] I'm sorry. And if you don't like it then you can move on to the next episode. Next. The next podcast that you want to listen to.
Mark Burns
[ 00:15:23 ] Or somebody else that might align with you better.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:15:25 ] I am not going to edit anymore. I'm done with it. I have felt like I have been back and forth for the past decade about what I can say, what I shouldn't say, what I should add to, what I shouldn't add to when it comes to the very democracy that our country was built on. That is what is at stake and I'm not trying to be alarmist, I'm trying to be real.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:15:51 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:15:52 ] And that's how it is. So I'm not trying to like, well maybe I am, maybe I am. If you guys don't like this kind of content, move along. But I want to be who we are and I want to make sure that we are responding as we would because of the decisions we've made to move over here. Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:16:13 ] And I think it would, you know, it would, it wouldn't sit well, certainly with me and with you; I don't believe either. That something as big as what has happened just doesn't get spoken about or gets a glance or a check over the shoulder of, oh that happened, yeah that was bad. Who wants, you know, what are we doing next? It affects us. Yeah. To not address it or to at least to not acknowledge it, that it does affect us. Yes. And it will affect you. And as you said, you know, we want to be, you know, we want to be, you know, we want to be; we know what side of the line we are. We also know what side of history we want to be judged for, for us. Yeah. And I will never, never back down on that side of things because, you know, do I get it right every time on some things? Maybe not. I don't know. But at the same time, I want to make sure that we are, I am very truthful and honest about what's happening in our lifetime. Yeah. Because it will be telling for the next however long it is.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:17:21 ] Well, as an Englishman who moved to the US as an immigrant and then became a citizen of that country, how does that make you feel?
Mark Burns
[ 00:17:32 ] Yeah. I mean, that's a good question. It makes, so for years, growing up as a kid, going through school, 14, 15, 16, one of the things I've always wanted back then was to do law. And I can't remember. I was trying to write in my brain about it the other day as to what the program was that I would always watch in England about, it was a US law show. And it was absolutely fantastic. Every episode was like glued to the TV. And it was fantastic. And I think that was really one of the catalysts of what made me want to have one of my bucket dreams, which was to live and work in America. You know? Because 30-odd years ago, when that was occurring, it was a different America from an outsider looking in. If I step forward to now and sort of having all of that wish of wanting to be there, living and working in America, actually living and working in America through the program and problems that were going on through the election periods and such, and now being here, it's tainted it. You know? It was something that was, I mean, it was always a dream. And I ticked it off my bucket list. And it's a huge one for anybody, I think, to tick off. But it has, it's tainted it through these last years. Because people can't get their shit together to get the sort of thing done. But it's not even, it shouldn't even be a problem. It should just be about humanity. You know? And humanity and humility to say, I was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. I'll do better next time. And work towards a common goal.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:19:33 ] Or, how I feel like it used to be, where it's like, it used to be that we weren't, maybe this is too broad brush. But it used to be how we got things done. Was what separated us on the aisle. Right? How we wanted to get X, Y, and Z done. Now, it feels like a logical compromise is not even on the table. And who suffers? The people suffer. Children suffer. Other people, safety issues. And people that are different. And our rights are being taken away. I can't even. This is why it's hard for me to do podcasts on this topic. Because I just get so frustrated. And, you know, I'm not on the debate team. That's for sure. But I just know that I feel we're just not getting anything done. And we haven't been getting anything done for a while. In terms of the big, huge issues. Yeah. That could help people in America feel more safe. Have access to better healthcare. And preserve their civil rights. And those are the things that I vote on, people. It's certainly not, well, it's certainly not anything else. Right. These are the things that are and have always been the most important to me. And that is why I vote the way that I do. And I, I guess I just, I wanted to make sure that we are clear about who we are. We are clear about how we feel. We're open to other people's opinions about stuff. But I'm just, I also believe that, like, it's gotten to the point where it's so illogical, the things that we are fighting about in the U. S.
Mark Burns
[ 00:21:31 ] It's like, why would that even be a discussion?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:21:33 ] Why is that even on the table of whether this or not, this should not be improved?
Mark Burns
[ 00:21:37 ] Right. How can you say that, you know, this gun law is, is absolutely fine. It's, you know, amendment rights and such. All of it.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:21:46 ] It's just, it's crap. It is crap. And again, I wanted to bring this to the table to talk about today, but through the immigrant lens, because we are, we are now immigrants in a country that is certainly not perfect. But it absolutely solves some of these concerns for us that are not getting solved in the U. S. and it's hard to even think in my lifetime at this point anything is going to be resolved, yeah.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:22:28 ] Or better. And I hope that it is.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:22:30 ] But it is very defeating. And I get it where people are just like, what can I do? I'm one person. I mean, I literally got reamed the other day by some keyboard worker. Talking about how like, oh, you just ran.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:22:45 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:22:46 ] There's so much more to it than that. And I mean, we get that question all the time. And this is what I wanted to bring up here is, you know, how do you think this is going to affect future decisions for us? How do you think that what we've seen in the past few, even just few months leading up to the election, the election itself, what do you feel about that?
Mark Burns
[ 00:23:10 ] The honest answer is I don't know because it depends on what happens. You know, ultimately, if Trump was back in power, that would absolutely affect me not wanting to go back. Absolutely.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:23:31 ] And what do you say to somebody who's like, why do you let one person, one person, you think that politicians really affect your life? I've literally had to answer this question recently.
Mark Burns
[ 00:23:42 ] I think to answer that question from my perspective of the little amount, and I recognize that I don't have the American culture of like history and all of that, but I am a citizen. I have a passport. I have a vote. So I have exactly the same democratic rights as any other American living in America. How, you know, why might it affect? What I do is because when you hear the rhetoric that comes out of his mouth about all of the things that he would change on day one, that just, nothing of that, absolutely nothing of it sits well with me in terms of the oppression, in terms of the withdrawal of services, not just in America, but throughout the world, how it would be seen and felt throughout the world. So yeah, it would absolutely affect. If he didn't, would that stop me going back? No, I don't think it would. So I'm kind of quite clear on me and us, I think, for what we do in the future is affected by what's going to happen in November.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:25:00 ] I think I would agree with that. It's going to influence our decisions for sure. I can't sit here and say for sure. I'm not going back ever if Trump is elected. But I can tell you, I will think twice about my willingness to be there. I don't know. I just, I have a hard time, I don't know, I have a hard time with the civil rights thing. I have a really hard time with, feeling like my rights as a woman are being threatened. And I don't know where it's going. I'm scared of where it's going. And you can, people can, you know, look at that and say, you're such an alarmist. But y'all, history repeats itself. Look at the patterns. Our grandfathers have already fought through this. We don't need to do this again. And they, I'm sure that the whole world was watching the same way that we are right now. And wondering, like, where is this going? What the heck? And this happens and then that happens and it escalates and it gets worse and nobody does anything about it. And that's what happened. World War II. Okay? Our grandfathers already fought this war. And I am worried that that's where we're headed. I, as a person who was taught about World War II and learned about it in school, I literally ask myself, how in the world did they ever let this happen in the first place? Right? How did the world let this happen? And what I'm thinking right now is that we're witnessing it in a weird way, play out very closely again. And yet we're not learning. We're not learning. And I don't know. I just, I, you know, it's funny that I don't remember the saying and I don't remember the quote. Something like, you know, you can watch someone else's rights be taken away and soon it will be yours. Yeah. And that is the truth of it all. And I never thought, I won't say that, I couldn't say never after 2016. But it's shocking to me that we have a country where we're literally reverting.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:27:37 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:27:39 ] Our progression, our progressive mindset about giving people liberties, which is exactly why the country was founded, ironically, we're now reverting. And I just can't watch it. Cory Booker said, if you love her, she'll break your heart. And he was talking about the United States. And that is what always resonates with me. Every time something like this happens, violence like happened, that happened this weekend at a Trump rally, still broke my heart. Even knowing how I feel about all the bullshit.
Mark Burns
[ 00:28:17 ] Yeah, because it's not about the person. It's about the actual act of how is that happening? Why is that happening?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:28:24 ] A father died. Right.
Mark Burns
[ 00:28:26 ] I don't care what color shirt he had on. Two others were injured. It was a firefighter that died. So, you know, ultimately protecting his family. I don't know. It's just, it's a very nonsensical thing to have happened. Yeah. But, honestly, probably shouldn't surprise too many people. It shouldn't. That something like this has happened.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:28:51 ] No.
Mark Burns
[ 00:28:52 ] Because ultimately the writing was always going to be on the wall. It's a matter of time. And that's not advocating for any violence. No, no, no. Not at all. Please, yeah, of course. I think everybody would recognize that in their right mind. But. And I, just one last thing, maybe, is the fact that, you know, in the last two weeks ago, England had, or the United Kingdom, sorry, had its election. Yeah. And it changed from a conservative government from the last 14 years to a labor government. Do I know enough about the labor government of today? No. Do I know enough about the conservative government of today? No. But I do know of them from when I lived there. And so a lot of things, I'm sure, would have changed. But the way in which things change, and this isn't saying, oh, England's much better, and getting people saying, well, fuck them all, go back, blah, blah, blah. This isn't where it's headed. The point I'm trying to get at is it is possible to do the right thing in the right way without violence and handing the keys of Downing Street over to the next person. Within 12 to 24 hours, I think it was. And start again. And I get that governments are different in different countries and all the rest of it. But the spirit of it should not change.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:30:18 ] Yes. And this is right. But it has. But it has.
Mark Burns
[ 00:30:21 ] And that's a real, again, a real eye-opener.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:30:26 ] Well, and so England made a good move. France has made a good move.
Mark Burns
[ 00:30:31 ] I'll tell you what. I mean, France. France. Close. Kudos. Kudos for the way that you kind of switched it around after the first parliamentary. Love it.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:30:39 ] I just really hope that we follow suit. I really do. And I encourage anybody who is listening to make sure you vote.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:30:46 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:30:47 ] Absolutely. We will be voting. And yeah, there's no way. I would literally fly myself home if I had to be there to vote. Yeah, I mean, for sure. There's no question in my mind.
Mark Burns
[ 00:30:59 ] It's the one thing that you can do.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:31:03 ] Mm-hmm.
Mark Burns
[ 00:31:04 ] That can't be taken away from you.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:31:06 ] It gives you a little bit of power back. Right.
Mark Burns
[ 00:31:08 ] Or at least make you feel like you have done what you feel the right thing is to do. So, yeah, always get out there. But again, I think this one went off on a couple of different tangents. Sorry for my tangents. But I think it was important to just talk about the occurrences. Because I think it was important to just talk about the occurrences. Because it does have an effect on us. Just because we don't live in America doesn't mean to say that it's not in us. No. Or with us every day. Because it bloody well is. And if anything, it bloody well is. It makes it even more so because we are away from family and friends.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:31:48 ] Yeah, it's like I want to. And again, we have only been here since December.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:31:55 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:31:56 ] And I recognize that. We are still learning so much about the culture and the politics and all of that. But all of it, right? And all we know is what our experience has been so far and I feel like it has really hit a lot of the things that we wanted in terms of why we were leaving and what we wanted more of.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:32:16 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:32:17 ] But when things like this happen, I literally want to package up my family and friends and ship them over here. Again, not that it's the end all be all, but I'm scared. I'm scared for the future. I'm scared for them. I'm scared for us. I'm scared for what the future holds, especially if November is catastrophic. Yeah. And so, you know, we do get that question all the time. Are you ever going to come home? Is your plan to come back to the United States? Is this just kind of a temporary adventure? And I mean, I can't say. I don't know. But we also knew that coming into it that we were going to continue to be open. You know, we started this journey knowing that like the path to citizenship or the immigration visa process is like a two-year process and then you renew for three. And so we knew that we could probably be here for either two to five years, depending. But, you know, when people ask me that question, I don't know how to answer. And to be honest, waking up Sunday on the 14th. Yeah. And reading about everything that had happened, I would have given you a different answer than a week later after some calming thoughts and some meditation and some bourbon.
Mark Burns
[ 00:33:47 ] And some tea.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:33:49 ] Anyway, we appreciate you guys. And, you know, we're not going to be a political channel. No. But I think that what it is is that it's important that we can't separate the two. You cannot separate having left the United States for the reasons that we did, coming to a different country, experiencing.
Mark Burns
[ 00:34:08 ] Something happening and then not talking about it.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:34:10 ] And experiencing a different country. You start to be critical of your country.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:34:15 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:34:15 ] And you should be. You should be. We all should be. That goes for every leader that we have, every senator, every representative, every local leader. That's our job of the people. To be critical of these people that we are giving our support to and putting them and giving them power and putting them in office. We need to be critical of our government. We need to be critical of our country. Because if we're not critical, it's never going to get any better. Right. And so I hope that you guys look at this episode through that lens and know that we're not trying to be alarmist. And we're not trying to be polarizing, even if we're honest about how we feel. Yeah. But.
Mark Burns
[ 00:34:59 ] But I don't think it can be alarmist. If you connect with us. No, I don't think it can be. It is. In any way alarmist. No. You should be alarmed. Because this shouldn't be anything different to what so many millions of people should be thinking about anyway. So you. You should be alarmed.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:35:17 ] Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:35:18 ] You should already be in a state of, hmm, curiosity. Scared. Whatever it is. But. Enough to make you go to the voting box. That's for sure. Or at least enough to be informed. And not just, yeah. You know. What is it you say? Drink the Kool-Aid. Yeah. You know. Plenty of them drinking the Kool-Aid right now. Yeah. For sure. But. Smile. Hey. But no. We didn't want to make it political. I mean. I mean. We did. It's difficult not to. Yeah. Because it draws on. The reason behind it. We don't want to make this channel political. It won't be.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:35:47 ] But I will say this. If you are hearing what we're saying and you're connecting with us, we absolutely welcome you. And we want to create community with you if you were thinking about doing what we've done. And you know. I. Quite frankly. If you don't connect with what we're doing, bye. See ya. Yeah. And we'll give you a warm virtual hug and say see ya later.
Mark Burns
[ 00:36:19 ] And just in advance of the obvious, when this goes out, just to all of those keyboard warriors out there: feel free to write in because you're so brave, but at least have some substance. And spell your words right. Make sure the grammar's proper. Oh, proper grammar, you know. Just, yeah. Can you do us a favor? And just at least, so that we don't have to try and work out what you're saying?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:36:50 ] Oh my god, I've taken a beating-the past couple of weeks from people, and Mark is trying his best not to be defensive about me, and I just go to sleep. Whatever. But, anyway.
Mark Burns
[ 00:37:02 ] I wanted to say that for the keyboard warriors. Because we all know who you are.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:37:06 ] Y. O. U. Apostrophe. R. E. Okay. Now we got it. Thanks for listening, guys. Yeah. Appreciate it. We appreciate you. Please connect with us. Send us Q&A questions. We're going to be doing those episodes. So if we are not answering a question that you really want to know about. Then send us a message on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube where we are all the time. And. And email at PortugalJunkies at gmail. com.
Mark Burns
[ 00:37:32 ] And there's some new exciting news to be coming out soon.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:37:38 ] You can't tease me. He did. I just did. I don't know. All right. See you guys later, Next time. Keep watching.
Mark Burns
[ 00:37:46 ] Thank you very much. And keep listening. If you're doing it that way. Cheers. Take care.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:37:51 ] Listen up, future expats! For more content about our move, the visa process, Portuguese culture and destinations, and tons of support resources for your own decisions and potential move abroad. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Portugal Junkies.
Mark Burns
[ 00:38:09 ] Stay in touch and help us reach more people by subscribing here and following us there.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:38:14 ] Cheers y'all. Bye.