Fathers and Faith stand at the center of this powerful conversation with Peter Vazquez, Joe Soltis, and 15-year-old Jake Soltis. What begins as a Father’s Day reflection on prayer, family, and raising children rooted in Christ becomes a larger warning about the battle for the next generation.
Jake shares his call to “live loud” for Jesus, Joe speaks to the role of fathers, humility, and family prayer, and the show turns sharply toward Albany’s effort to replace “mother” and “father” in parts of New York law. From the home to the statehouse, the question is clear: who gets to form our children, the family, the culture, or the state?
Fathers and Faith. America does not lose its children in a single moment. It loses them in quiet trades.
A father’s voice for a screen. A mother’s witness for an algorithm. A dinner table for a feed. A prayer for a policy. A home for a system that promises compassion while slowly rewriting the meaning of family itself.
Peter Vazquez opened with Deuteronomy 6:7, a verse that does not whisper. It commands: teach the children diligently. Not casually. Not when there is time left over. Not after the culture has already done its work. Diligently.
That truth framed a Father’s Day conversation with Joe Soltis, Christian businessman and board member of Prayer At The Heart, and his 15-year-old son, Jake Soltis, a young voice calling his generation to “live loud” for Jesus Christ.
Jake did not speak like a teenager hiding behind age. He spoke like a witness. He said his youth would not stop him from bringing people to God. He said his life could be a testimony that no matter where someone comes from, that life can still be lived for Christ.
That matters in a culture where nearly half of American teenagers say they are online almost constantly, where 96% use the internet daily, where 95% have access to a smartphone at home, and where the algorithm often reaches the child before the father’s wisdom or the mother’s counsel does.
Joe spoke as a father who understands that children are not formed by slogans. They are formed by love and truth. By church and Scripture. By nightly prayer. By humility. By repentance. By a father willing to say he is sorry when he falls short.
That was one of the strongest moments of the conversation. Joe did not pretend fatherhood means perfection. He said the opposite. He spoke of apologizing to his children, asking God for forgiveness, and modeling humility in front of the family. In a world filled with public performance and private collapse, that kind of fatherhood is not weakness. It is architecture.
Then the conversation moved into the storm.
Becky Soltis nearly died after a brutal medical crisis involving Lyme disease, lupus, pancreatitis, Babesiosis, gallbladder trouble, and sepsis. Joe had to sit with his children and face the possibility that their mother might not come home. They wept. They prayed. They pleaded with God. And by grace, she lived.
Then, in January 2025, another storm came when Becky suffered a grand mal seizure at home. Jake saw the fear. He saw the need. And he did not retreat into helplessness.
He built.
He learned framing, drywall, flooring, and construction skills. He transformed the family’s unfinished basement into a fitness and relaxation space with a sauna to help lower his mother’s stress and support her recovery.
Faith became lumber. Love became labor. Prayer grew hands.
That is the kind of formation America desperately needs: sons who serve, fathers who pray, families who suffer without surrendering, and young people who believe courage still belongs in the public square.
And that is not wishful thinking. The cultural narrative says young people are unreachable, secular, distracted, and finished with faith. The facts say something more complicated and more hopeful. Barna’s 2025 research found that 66% of U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that remains important in their lives, up from 54% in 2021. Barna also reported that commitment to Jesus among Gen Z men rose 15 percentage points between 2019 and 2025, while Millennial men rose 19 points.
So no, the next generation is not dead. It is contested.
That is why Jake’s witness matters. He is standing in the very battlefield where so many young people are being shaped, distracted, wounded, and trained to conform. He is using the digital world not to perform emptiness, but to proclaim truth.
His message is simple and dangerous to the culture: your pain does not have to own you. Your past does not have to define you. Your temptation does not have to become your identity. Through God, repentance, courage, and a renewed mind, a young person can choose a different road.
That message lands in a hard hour. CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. That is not a minor warning light on the dashboard. That is smoke coming from the engine while the adults in charge argue over the paint color.
Joe then turned the conversation toward Prayer At The Heart and the Million for a Million campaign, calling believers to pray for one million Americans to come to Christ. As America approaches its 250th birthday, the question is not only whether the nation still has power, wealth, or influence. The question is whether it still has a soul.
That first half gave the show its moral foundation: fathers and mothers matter because children are formed before they are governed.
Then the conversation shifted from the home to Albany.
If mothers and fathers matter this much in the life of a child, why is New York moving to replace those words in parts of state law with “gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent”?
The official New York Senate summary for S9316 says the bill “replaces the terms father, mother, and filiation to gender neutral language.” Supporters call it technical. They argue it addresses modern family law issues involving parentage, surrogacy, adoption, assisted reproduction, and disputed legal relationships.
But that is not the whole question.
The question is whether legal complexity requires the state to flatten the ordinary meaning of motherhood and fatherhood. A wise law can make room for difficult cases without insulting the natural family. It can solve legal problems without sterilizing human language.
When the law stops saying “mother” and starts saying “gestating parent,” it changes the emotional temperature of the state. It turns warmth into process. It turns relationship into category. It turns family into a filing system.
Governor Kathy Hochul said she was not familiar with the bill. The sponsors declined interviews. Yet the legislation had already passed both chambers. Mother becomes a clinical category. Father becomes a technical function. Family becomes paperwork. And ordinary New Yorkers are expected to treat it as routine housekeeping.
D’Anne Pye, a young mother, said what many parents instinctively feel: it sounds dehumanizing.
That was the hinge of the hour.
The first half showed the sacred weight of family. The second half showed what happens when government starts treating family language as disposable.
This matters because family breakdown is not theoretical. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that about 64% of U.S. households were family households in 2024, down from 79% fifty years earlier. Census data also show that nearly three-quarters of family households in 2024 were married-couple households. Households are not just private arrangements. They are the first institutions of civilization.
Locally, Youth For Christ reports that 73% of children in Rochester live in single-parent homes, typically led by mothers. That number should stop the room cold. A city drowning in fatherlessness does not need more lectures from distant ideologues. It needs men who show up, churches that mentor, families that rebuild, and leaders with enough courage to tell the truth without filing a complaint against reality.
When homes fracture, communities pay the bill. Schools pay the bill. Streets pay the bill. Police pay the bill. Churches pay the bill. Taxpayers pay the bill. Then the state arrives late, expensive, and arrogant, offering programs to replace what the home was built to provide.
That is the tragic absurdity. The same political culture that weakens the family then asks for more authority to manage the consequences of weakened families. Apparently the arsonist now wants a fire prevention grant. Civilization, somehow, keeps approving the paperwork.
From there, Peter and Bob connected the larger pattern: fatherless homes, failing schools, youth crime, public safety breakdowns, symbolic flag fights, “Vision Zero” slogans, gun statistics turned into talking points, and leaders who seem more comfortable renaming reality than repairing it.
That is the Vanbōōlzalness Crisis in full view: truth distorted, language manipulated, families weakened, responsibility dodged, and ordinary citizens told to accept confusion as progress.
New Yorkers are not demanding colder family language. They are demanding affordability, safe streets, functioning schools, honest leadership, and government that handles basic responsibilities without theatrical self-importance. Families are asking how to survive. Albany is answering with vocabulary renovation.
People are tired of being governed by surprise.
They are tired of bills moving quietly, language shifting quietly, institutions bending quietly, and then being told afterward that nothing important happened. That is how trust dies: not only through corruption, but through condescension.
The deeper issue is not one bill, one headline, or one argument over words. The deeper issue is whether a society still has the courage to name reality.
When leaders rename parents, excuse disorder, obscure crime, politicize schools, distract with symbols, and twist language until citizens can no longer speak plainly, they are not solving problems. They are managing perception.
That is why the answer must begin where the show began: teach the children diligently.
The home is not outdated. The father is not optional. The mother is not a category. Prayer is not retreat. Faith is not weakness. Service is not sentiment. Language is not neutral. Liberty is not inherited automatically.
A free people must be formed. God before government. Family before bureaucracy. Truth before language games. Formation before repair.
A nation that wants stronger children must honor stronger homes. A state that wants stronger communities must stop weakening the words that hold communities together.
- A mother is not a gestating parent.
- A father is not a non-gestating parent.
- A child is not a government project.
Teach the children. Defend the family. Speak the truth. Not someday. Diligently.
Promote your brand on the Next Steps Show, airing on WYSL1040.com's AM 1040, FM 92.1, and FM 95.5 West stations. Discover more at nextstepsroc.com/advertise-with-us or dial (585) 346-3000 to get in touch with the WYSL team.
Have you ever dreamt of sharing your unique voice, stories, or expertise with the world through a podcast? Perhaps you're bubbling with ideas but uncertain about where to begin? The journey from idea to launch can be daunting, but that's where we come in. Dive Into the World of Podcasting with Next Steps Radio PODCAST Network! Visit NextStepsRoc.com or call Peter at (585) 880-7580.
Peter Vazquez:
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. It is the Friday end-of-week show here, and we have great things to talk about.
Let me share another Bible verse with you, if I may. I am going to read it from the King James Version. This is Deuteronomy 6:7:
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
It may sound a little different in that older language, but listen to what it is telling us. There are moments when a generation does not need another lecture. What they need is a witness. They need a father who still believes that prayer can reach where culture cannot.
Father’s Day is coming around the corner, and America is staring at a hard question: who is forming our children?
The home or the screen? The church or the culture? Scripture or the algorithm? Truth or the noise?
Too many young people are growing up connected to everything but rooted in absolutely nothing. Today, for this next half hour, we are going to be joined by a father and son whose story speaks directly into that battle: a praying father, a bold teenage witness, and a family testimony shaped by hardship, service, and a faith that does not collapse.
Joining us now are Joe Soltis, Christian businessman and board member of Prayer At The Heart, and his 15-year-old son, Jake Soltis, a young voice calling his generation to live loud and proud for Jesus Christ.
Joe and Jake, welcome to The Next Steps Show.
Joe Soltis:
Peter, it is great to be with you.
Peter Vazquez:
Jake, thank you for having the courage to join us, young man.
I am going to start with you. I want to quote something you said, and I want you to share with our listeners why these words are so important, especially for fellow 15-year-olds.
You said, “Now, I may look young. I may sound even younger than I look. But that is not going to stop me from what I want to do, and that is to bring people to God. Let us find God, live our life, and live loud.”
Those are bold words for 15 years old.
Jake Soltis:
I have always wanted to make a stand and make a point and change people’s lives. I think me doing it will encourage and motivate other people to do it.
You may have this, you may have that, but it should not stop you from chasing something you truly want. I am a testimony that no matter where you came from or how you live your life, you can always live it for God, and I can motivate other people to do the same.
Peter Vazquez:
You go to school. You have friends. You are in the community. You probably go to movies and other places. How do your peers look at you these days? Society says that at 15 years old you should be on your iPhone, chasing whatever the culture is chasing.
Jake Soltis:
I think a lot of people have different opinions of me, just like people have different opinions of everyone they meet. But I think most people recognize that I am someone they can go to for help. If they need something, they can ask me, and I will not judge them.
Peter Vazquez:
Joe, first let me give you kudos. I have five kids. All my kids love Jesus Christ. All my kids are homeowners and family men. That takes a lot of work and a lot of courage.
Joe Soltis:
It does. That is awesome. I am thrilled you have five kids. I have six. I have five boys and a girl. My daughter is going to Liberty University in the fall, and my son Jake is here in high school.
Peter Vazquez:
Joe, Barna’s Faith for Exiles research notes that one in 10 young Christians are resilient disciples. As a father, what have you found are the key factors that help children make good, godly choices at a young age?
Joe Soltis:
It is very important to love them and love them unconditionally, while also teaching them truth. Love plus truth is incredibly important. That is one thing we have done.
The other thing is that we go to church every Sunday. When we go to church, we witness, and when the pastor is preaching, we hear the Word of God. We read the Word of God, and it speaks to our hearts and nourishes our kids.
When I talk to the kids, I see this love of God and others in them, and that is encouraging. It is exciting to see what the Holy Spirit does.
I never asked Jake to start witnessing, but he is. I set the example, and then they hear what they are supposed to do as we read Scripture together.
Another powerful thing is that, as a family, we pray together every night. We go around as a family and say, “God, Christ Jesus, this is what I am thankful for. Please help in this area.”
We pray with expectant faith. One of my favorite verses says that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to a mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
We instill that verse into our kids. They pray, and they pray with expectant faith. A holy guy once said, “Thank God ahead of time.” That is how we pray. Often, that happens. Sometimes you have to pray hard, and it takes a year and a half, two years, or three years. But the Lord has been really great and gracious.
Peter Vazquez:
One hundred percent. It is the concept of casting your burdens on Jesus Christ because He will handle it. It is also the concept of putting feet to prayer.
Let me share this number with you. Here in Rochester, New York, the county has about 750,000 people. The city proper has about 200,000 people. In the city of Rochester, we have more than 73% fatherless homes. We have one of the worst school districts in the state, and the highest-paid school board in the country.
I think you are proving that a father’s role is extremely important in reducing crime and ensuring that children become contributing members of society. Would you agree with that?
Joe Soltis:
Yes, 100%.
One of the things that is incredibly important as a dad is to love your wife and love your kids as Christ loved the Church, willing to lay down your life for them and sacrifice for them.
The other aspect is humility. We are all sinners. I am a sinner. Sometimes I mess up, and I will apologize to my kids privately one-on-one. Then, in front of the family when we pray together at night, I will ask God for forgiveness for my sin, whether that is losing my temper or something else.
I need to demonstrate that humility. There are a lot of people turned off from Christianity because they were hurt by someone who said they were a Christian. It is important, when you are a Christian, to work hard to love God and love others. If you make a mistake, admit it. Own up to it. Have humility.
I think that has resonated really well with the kids. My dad did that. He and my mom raised four kids, and today, as grown adults, faith is deeply important to all four of us. Church is deeply important. The nourishment you get from a spiritual community is deeply important. You have to model it.
Peter Vazquez:
Joe and Jake, thank you again for taking the time to come on the show today.
Joe, you said something earlier about how situations in life can cause someone to walk away from God. We know statistically that children around Jake’s age and into young adulthood sometimes walk away from faith, especially when it is not consistent in their lives.
A lot of people get angry with Christ when they go through heavy situations like sickness. You guys dealt with something like that. Jake and Joe, both of you leaned harder into Christ and relied on Him through that situation. Is it okay to share that here on air?
Joe Soltis:
Yes, let us do it.
Peter Vazquez:
I believe that a child who sees suffering, or suffers himself, learns something deep. God said you will carry your cross when you follow Him.
Joe, you saw your wife sick. She was nearly dead. She was hospitalized. How did that not deter you and make you angrier?
Joe Soltis:
Sometimes God brings beauty through great suffering.
My wife had Lyme disease and was suffering with it for a long time, but it was undiagnosed. There was a period when she was not quite herself, and it was very hard for her and for our family.
One day she said, “I am not feeling well. Can you take me to the hospital?”
I took her to the hospital, and not only did she have Lyme disease, but we found out she had lupus. She also had pancreatitis, a gallbladder issue, Babesiosis, and a lupus flare in combination with Lyme disease, all at the same time.
It got to the point where it turned into sepsis, and she had less than a 10% chance of surviving.
I sat down with my five kids at the time and told them there was a good chance Mom was not coming home after she had been in the hospital for two weeks.
We wept. We prayed. We pleaded with the Lord to save her life. By the grace of God, He did.
It really brought our family together. My wife is now cured of every one of those diseases except lupus, which we manage. For those familiar with lupus, it is a disease you manage. But the other diseases are eradicated. It has really pulled our family together. It has been beautiful.
Then, in January 2025, totally out of the blue, my wife, who had never had a seizure before, had a grand mal seizure in our home. She lost her ability to drive for six months. When it was happening, we did not know if she was dying. I had never seen a grand mal seizure before.
Peter Vazquez:
Jake, I have to go to break here real quick.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have Joe Soltis and Jake Soltis, a 15-year-old calling for his generation to live loud for Jesus Christ. We will be right back.
After the Break
Peter Vazquez:
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. On the phone we have Joe Soltis, Christian businessman and board member at Prayer At The Heart, and his 15-year-old son, Jake Soltis. These are symbols of courage and fatherhood. Everything we talk about in God, country, and family values.
Gentlemen, thank you again.
Joe, you were telling us about your wife’s grand mal seizure.
Joe Soltis:
She had this grand mal seizure, and we did not know what was going on. EMS came. They rushed her to the hospital. She ended up being released, but we knew we needed to get her lupus under control again because it seemed like the lupus was attacking her brain or nervous system.
That is when my son stepped up and did something incredible for her.
Jake Soltis:
After I saw that, it was really hard because I did not know what it was at the time. I do not think anyone did.
It put something in my mind that I had to do something because this is what God would want me to do.
If God gave me the gift to learn and know how to do things, I would learn how to frame, do drywall, do flooring, and do all of these other things.
So I built my mom a sauna in my basement, which could help lower stress and cause less of a lupus flare. But while I had to do that, I redid the entire basement because otherwise it would not look as nice.
I redid my entire basement, and I built a fitness center, a relaxation center, and a sauna, all to help my mom.
Peter Vazquez:
That is amazing.
I tell my listeners, my kids, and anybody willing to listen that if they are struggling with believing in God or struggling with seeing miracles, all they have to do is ask God for discernment and pray about it. It is all over, and we see it in stories like yours.
Let us talk Gen Z. Let us talk technology and social media. We are running short on time, and I want to leave some time at the end to talk about Prayer At The Heart.
Jake, you are using social media for good. Joe, you are allowing your 15-year-old son to use social media for this, correct?
Joe Soltis:
That is right, and I love that he does it.
Peter Vazquez:
Jake, tell us about it. A lot of parents struggle with social media. Schools in New York State have barred students from using cell phones during the school day. How do you manage it safely and effectively, since so many people view it as negative?
Jake Soltis:
I always knew social media. I used to do a small YouTube channel, so I learned how everything worked.
Then I thought, if I am scrolling and a bunch of people my age are scrolling and seeing thousands of videos a day, why do I not go out there? What is the worst that can happen?
Maybe I can help motivate someone or help someone with something they need. That was my whole mindset. People see thousands of videos a day. I would just be another voice, but I am going to try to make my voice as big as it can be so I can help people.
Peter Vazquez:
Amen. God bless you in that journey. Your voice is already loud. What is your TikTok handle?
Jake Soltis:
My one account got taken down because it said I looked under 13. I do not truly know why. But I have a couple videos posted on Soltis.J.
On YouTube, I am posting a longer video. It is about 22 minutes long. I edited it last night, and it will probably get posted Saturday night. That will be at Jake Soltis Podcast.
Peter Vazquez:
There you go, ladies and gentlemen. Joe and Jake Soltis, calling not just their generation, but all generations, to live loud for Jesus Christ fearlessly.
Joe, I want to shift and talk about the work you are doing at Prayer At The Heart. I have to assume that organization has helped you raise a child who is fearlessly speaking about Jesus Christ.
Joe Soltis:
Jake can give stories about that.
At PrayerAtTheHeart.org, there is a Million for a Million campaign. The goal is that if you know someone in your life who needs a relationship with Christ, who needs the love of Christ, the hope of Christ, and salvation, you go to Prayer At The Heart and say, “I am going to pray for this person: my friend, my brother, my sister, my son, my daughter, my neighbor.”
You pray for them for the next 50 days. At the end of those 50 days, we are praying that as a result of a million people praying, a million people in the United States will come into a relationship with Christ.
The next step is on July 4, when there will be sunrise prayer services all over the United States. People can get together with their family and pray for the United States. They can get together with friends, their church, or their neighbors and pray for the United States.
There is a beautiful prayer guide at PrayerAtTheHeart.org that people can download.
From there, we are looking toward outdoor prayer services all over the United States in the years ahead, with praise and worship music under tents, testimonies, and people being prayed for and prayed with.
We have already had many outdoor tent prayer events. We have seen people saved from suicide, saved from drugs, and come into relationships with God. It has been awesome.
One story that was incredibly touching was through Prayer At The Heart. There was a little girl in the Cleveland, Ohio area named Arden. She was about 12 at the time, and she wanted to commit suicide. She had an encounter with Christ, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and now she is full of joy and zeal. She is beautiful. She is five years older now. It is an amazing testimony.
Peter Vazquez:
Ladies and gentlemen, Barna’s report found that 77% of teens are at least somewhat motivated to learn more about Jesus throughout life. The same report shows Gen Z men saw commitment to Jesus rise 15 percentage points between 2019 and now.
Those are amazing numbers. That is prayer with feet to it.
Joe and Jake Soltis, Jake, I am going to leave you with the last words for our listeners. Any advice you would like to share?
Jake Soltis:
Speaking on behalf of Prayer At The Heart, I have seen crazy good things happen.
I remember we were doing one tent meeting, and one person came in saying God was not real. They had been through something horrible shortly before that. We talked with them, prayed over them, and shared the good news. It helped lead them toward healing and toward seeing what God could do in their life.
I hope other people are able to do the same and see the amazing things God can do through the works of others and through Himself.
Peter Vazquez:
Joe and Jake Soltis, thank you so much for your time. May God continue to bless you and the work you do.
Joe Soltis:
God bless, Peter.
Jake Soltis:
God bless you.
Peter Vazquez:
God, country, and family. That is what it is all about.
Transition to Albany and Family Language
Peter Vazquez:
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. As always, God, country, and family.
We talk about fathers, children, faith, prayer, and the responsibility of one generation to protect another. To me, that has always been the foundation. That is what my father and mother taught me.
Before a child learns politics, policy, law, or government, that child learns the world through the views and examples of mother and father. Through home. Through love. Through discipline. Through sacrifice. Through discipleship. More importantly, through presence.
I mentioned this yesterday. The Senate and Assembly in New York State passed Senate Bill S9316 and Assembly Bill A8382A, legislation that replaces words like father, mother, and paternity with terms like “gestating parent,” “non-gestating parent,” “parentage,” and “alleged parent” in parts of New York State law.
We are shifting from battles in schools to battles becoming law.
To talk about this for a few minutes, I asked a young parent in a generation being confused by what we call here the Vanbōōlzalness Crisis to join us.
D’Anne Pye, welcome to The Next Steps Show, and thank you for taking a few minutes to talk.
D’Anne Pye:
You are welcome. It is good to be here.
Peter Vazquez:
According to New York State, I misrepresented you. You are not a mother. You are a gestating parent. Is that an accurate description?
D’Anne Pye:
No. That is definitely not. I do not even understand why they are trying to change the name to gestating parent. What is the reason? What is the cause?
Peter Vazquez:
The strongest version of the supportive argument is that this bill is not meant to control what families say. It is not aimed at conversations around the kitchen table.
They are saying New York law needs language that fits adoption, surrogacy, assisted reproduction, same-sex parenting, disputed parentage, and modern family court practices.
That is their justification. So you can still say “mom” at home, just not necessarily if you have to deal with something official.
D’Anne Pye:
That sounds like an excuse to dehumanize people for what they are.
Peter Vazquez:
Exactly. It is another trope of the Marxist left. They redefine the meanings of words, including words like parents.
D’Anne Pye:
It is simply gray thinking. Why are names being taken out of our laws? Is that not a form of dehumanization just to make court better for the community? Why can we not just recognize family court as what it is, taking care of the parents?
Peter Vazquez:
This is really geared toward same-sex couples and these other modern family arrangements.
You are not political. You are a stay-at-home mom, and you are Gen Z, correct?
D’Anne Pye:
Yes, I am Gen Z.
Peter Vazquez:
I think that is important because many people in Gen Z do not know about this. I scrubbed the internet right before the show to make sure I did not miss anything, and I could barely find this article anymore anywhere.
D’Anne Pye:
That is amazing. It probably got a really bad reaction, so they hid it.
Peter Vazquez:
Before I let you go, would you share advice with people your age, Gen Z moms, those who want to be stay-at-home moms, who love Jesus Christ, and want to start coming together? We have to call Governor Kathy Hochul and tell her to get off that high horse.
D’Anne Pye:
Prayer. Pray with supplication and thanksgiving. Stay focused.
Peter Vazquez:
D’Anne Pye, thank you for calling.
D’Anne Pye:
Thank you for giving me your time.
Peter Vazquez:
God bless you.
D’Anne Pye:
You too.
Hochul Audio and Legislative Reaction
Bob Savage:
Is it the legislature that decided they want to redefine parenting as gestating parents?
Peter Vazquez:
Yes. The Assembly and State Senate both passed the bills I mentioned. They are sitting on Kathy Hochul’s desk. Here is her response.
Governor Kathy Hochul Audio:
I am not familiar with what was introduced late last night, so I will take a look at it, but I have until the end of the year to review them and make a decision, so I will not be commenting on pending legislation.
Peter Vazquez:
We also reached out to the sponsors of the bill in both houses for an interview or even a comment, and they declined.
Bob Savage:
They are hoping this goes away before the midterm election. They soft-pedal it and sneak it in. That is the operating system of the Marxist left running the state. They think you are stupid. They hide things from you and lie about them until you are distracted.
Peter Vazquez:
The Senate sponsor memo says, “Following the lead of the CPSA, this bill will substitute the more encompassing term parentage for the now outdated terms paternity and filiation.”
The Senate sponsor is Senator Luis Sepúlveda. The Assembly sponsor is Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. The co-sponsor in the Assembly is David Weprin. Again, those are Senate Bill S9316 and Assembly Bill A8382A.
Bob Savage:
They were tapped on the shoulder by the leadership in Albany and told it was their turn to sponsor one of these bills.
Peter Vazquez:
This is what I always say. Huge national fights can become distractions, because every single state representative from our area in the Democratic caucus voted for this in the Assembly and Senate.
Bob Savage:
Because they do what they are told. Democrats are very good at marching along in unison with leadership.
Peter Vazquez:
Governor Hochul says she does not know anything. Are you kidding me? Both houses passed a major piece of legislation, and she is not familiar with it.
It is a good thing we have Republicans watching. It is good we have new leadership, fresh blood, and people paying attention. When people pay attention, we can call these things out.
The Monroe County Republican Party issued a statement saying lawmakers wiped out the words mother and father from family court papers and replaced them with cold clinical terms.
Bob Savage:
That is exactly what Democrats are trying to turn society into: one big cold clinical term.
Peter Vazquez:
D’Anne got it. She said it is dehumanizing. That is from the perspective of someone who is not involved in politics.
Culture, Flags, Family, and Public Life
Peter Vazquez:
These conversations are important. Fatherless homes are too high. Youth for Christ Rochester is doing great work, and they cannot do it alone.
We need more than conversations about what we can do now to put a bandage on something. We need to change culture, like Youth for Christ is doing.
Look at places like Webster and Henrietta. This shows how ideology governs how we live. The town board in Webster decided to put flags on government flagpoles that represent the official status of the work they do. That makes sense. So they took down the Pride flag from the town hall, and there was a protest.
Let me use one of the Democrats’ words regarding those parenting bills: unnecessary.
Not that long ago in Rochester, during the BLM protests, people were allowed to raise that flag in front of City Hall, taking down the city flag and the American flag.
When we pair fatherless homes with ridiculous laws that minimize the family, when government says it does not really see God, country, and family as viable, we start with things like community schools, then Proposition 1, and then changes to the law. That is how we end up with confusion.
That is how we end up thinking government should take up every little whim.
Who someone chooses to sleep with, or how someone identifies sexually, is an issue for that person in the home. Why do people feel the need to discuss that with children and display it?
Bob Savage:
They are manufacturing a fake controversy. Nobody cares about the private sexual practices of other people. I certainly do not want to hear about it.
But they have to stage a false premise, which is that certain people are being suppressed or oppressed, which they are not.
Peter Vazquez:
At the same time, the Monroe County Executive is giving a State of the County address. The state says changing the terms father and mother is technical and does not change what you say at the kitchen table.
But New Yorkers are not sitting at the kitchen table asking whether father should become non-gestating parent.
Bob Savage:
What does that have to do with lunch? What does it have to do with anything?
Peter Vazquez:
That is the question.
Bob Savage:
Anytime a long-standing tradition or mainstream value is suddenly attacked for no apparent reason, the left is at work.
The left judges people by groups. It is identity politics. They redefine groups by changing names. The left always plays with nomenclature, with the use of words, because that starts to erode the fabric of society.
They want people to think there is nothing here worth defending. Then they can attack the institutions.
Public Safety, Government, and Local Priorities
Peter Vazquez:
We need to ask real questions, not whether they should change a title. Are our kids safe to walk through our neighborhoods?
In the State of the County, there was a lot of talk about partnerships, collaboration, Vision Zero, and more money going into services for veterans, which is good.
Bob Savage:
Vision Zero is one of the most asinine ideas. It imagines a point where there are no traffic accidents or car crashes whatsoever.
Do not pay attention to the teenagers that our criminal justice system unleashes on the streets of Rochester, crashing into people over and over again. No, we have to get to Vision Zero.
Peter Vazquez:
And the headlines today are about the flag coming down in Webster. Not Vision Zero. Not partnership and collaboration. We hear those words year after year.
Gary, thanks for calling.
Caller: Gary
Gary:
The Democrats’ whole scheme is being exposed: corruption, money laundering, fake charities, NGOs. Now they have had to adopt what I call the Thelma and Louise strategy, where they know it is over, so they hit the gas and go for it.
Bob Savage:
The difference is they want to take the country over the cliff with them.
Gary:
They would rather take the country down than admit what they have done for the last 80 years and take the consequences.
Bob Savage:
You made an interesting point. There is a parallel between the left, meaning the Democrats, and the fate of the Iranian ruling class. Both know they are in trouble no matter what they do.
Peter Vazquez:
That is interesting because the new Iranian government in exile trying to get control wants a Democratic Party-style government there: no religion, just rules, government taking care of everything.
Gary:
That is why you have this red-green-Islamic alliance now: communists, environmental radicals, and Islamists, all trying to take down the West.
Peter Vazquez:
Gary, I want to switch topics since you called. Local Mayor Malik Evans has been talking about illegal guns. He is blaming not just out-of-state sources, but also suburbs and rural areas because of gun shops in those areas. What is your response?
Gary:
What do they think, that gun shops are selling guns illegally?
I get fundraising emails from Everytown, and they twist and manipulate statistics. They will say gun violence, which is actually the criminal misuse of firearms, is the leading cause of death among children and teens. They manipulate statistics until they get the lie they want.
Peter Vazquez:
And the language.
Thanks, Gary. Appreciate the call.
Deuteronomy 6:7: impress them on your children. Talk about them.
This is Peter Vazquez on The Next Steps Show. Do not let a second go by when you are not a voice for liberty.