WEBVTT

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And so that concludes my talk
on how I saved the bees.

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Are there any questions?

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Here's one, how about this.

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Have I ever been stung?

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Yes, I have.

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Quite severely, in fact.

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I was attacked by angry bees and
stung repeatedly in and around my eyes.

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In fact, the eyes you see in my head
aren't really my eyes at all, but

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the donated eyes of my son.

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[LAUGH]
Don't worry, he's alive and well.

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He's back home in Chicago,
probably listening to the radio right now.

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[LAUGH]
Waiting for his dad to return so

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he can have his eyes back.

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Maybe I better explain.

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Yeah, I think I should.

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Let me take you back, way,
way back to the golden

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age of Daley the Second,
almost four years ago.

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[LAUGH]
Well,

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I'm 55 years old and I'm finally happy.

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It might be some kind of delusion but
I don't care.

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I am fat, 55, and finished.

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[LAUGH]
I can pretty much just

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screw around now because all of
my masterpieces are written.

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Don't worry you haven't
heard of any of them.

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Works of true genius are only
recognized by later generations,

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I'm resigned to that.

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[LAUGH]
But even when later generations

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do recognize my works,
that's not really immortality.

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There's no such thing as immortality.

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Even Shakespeare will die someday
when the planet self-destructs.

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So, really the whole concept
of immortality is for suckers.

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It's just the frightened
trembling ego that craves it.

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See in human consciousness, the ego
is the last actor to leave the stage.

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[LAUGH]
What forces him off?

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Silence.

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[LAUGH]
I've had plenty of that.

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But now for me, the last actor has left
the stage leaving only an egoless,

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deep soul consciousness.

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[LAUGH]
That's the real, essential self,

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the universal soul in relaxed,
attentive concentration.

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And it's that concentrated awareness
that I bring to my beehive.

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See, beekeepers, really good ones like me,

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[LAUGH]
have a very special kind of knowledge.

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It's an ease that allows us to draw near

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the hive without arousing fear or anger.

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It might be a gift, but I think it's
something we develop over time.

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Lots of time.

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Did I mentioned that I was 55 years old?

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[LAUGH]
I did?

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[LAUGH] Fat, 55 and
finished, did I say that?

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[LAUGH] Okay, sorry.

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Anyway when I draw near the hive, the hive
tells me what to do, not vice versa.

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I'm no longer in control.

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See, that's what's wrong
with the world today.

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Certain people trying to control everything,

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like some of these
hate mongers in the media.

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You know what I mean?

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That ain't the way it oughta be.

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Love, that's where it's at.

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Acceptance plus gratitude,
that is happiness.

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Let go, live in the moment.

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You find all your desires melting away
along with whatever is bothering you.

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Like my job.
[LAUGH]

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YOU DON'T FIRE ME, I FIRE YOU!

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I FIRE YOU! 

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[LAUGH]
Stop adjusting reality to suit YOU.

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[LAUGH]

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Bloom where you're planted, right?

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Right, Holly?

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I'm planted in the Bridgeport neighborhood
on the South Side of Chicago.

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That's where I live with my wife Ona,
and my four year old son Lukas, and

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that's where my beehive
is in the backyard.

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Did I mention I was a beekeeper?

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[LAUGH]
I am with my own hive.

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The hive came in the mail
as a build-it-yourself kit.

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It was hard nailing those
frames together too.

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The nails would keep
splitting the flimsy wood.

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[SOUND] Shit. Give me the right-sized nails
and clear instructions and I will do fine.

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[LAUGH]
Those greedy thieves at the beekeeping

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supply company wanna send the new hobbyist

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the cheapest shit they can get away
with just to hold on to a few pennies.

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Such clever minds out there just
thinking up ways to screw me.

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[LAUGH]
That's bad karma, man.

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After all, I am just trying to get ahead.

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But anyway,
I finally get my new hive built.

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And my buddy Chip and

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I drive out to Indiana to pick up a fresh
young bee colony, a nucleus colony or nuc.

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I figured handling those bees is gonna be
a lot easier than building that stupid

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hive was.

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After all, bees are part of nature like
me so we'll understand each other.

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[LAUGH]
Sticks and

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nails are not part of nature.

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[LAUGH]
My friend Chip,

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he's about the nicest guy in Chicago.

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He's from California.

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[LAUGH]
Chip takes the frames full of bees

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out of the nuc, and
sets them gently in the new hive.

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Pretty soon the bees have
settled into their new home and

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they're out foraging for food.

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My son Lukas is staying far
away from the bees, but

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I am trying to teach
him to be less afraid.

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Lukas and I love to get on YouTube and

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watch Honey Land,
an old 1930s cartoon about bees.

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In it, a boy bee and
a girl bee fall in love.

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But then a spider abducts the girl bee,
so the boy bee comes to her rescue.

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He stings the spider repeatedly, but
it's not enough so he sounds an alarm.

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[SOUND] And a whole squadron of fighter
bees flying in military formation hone

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in on the hapless spider who, after all is
only trying to live his predatory life.

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[LAUGH]
They sting, and sting, and sting, and

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sting, and
sting the spider until he runs away.

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The girl bee and the boy bee are restored
and there's happiness again in Honey Land.

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But that cartoon lies.

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For one thing, boy bees, or drones,
they don't even have a stinger.

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And a bee can only sting once and
then she dies.

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She leaves her stinger in her victim,
and when she pulls away,

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she in effect disembowels herself.

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There's a lot of her guts stay
attached to that stinger.

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Those guts are her venom sack, which is
a tiny natural syringe full of bee venom.

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So even after she's gone, and off dying
somewhere, the sack still pulsates,

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injecting venom through the tiny
barbed needle of the stinger.

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Also boy bees or drones don't

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live happily ever after.

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A drone's penis is ripped
from his body after mating.

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Staying inside the female while
he drops away and dies, so

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that cartoon distorts the truth, but
it does help Lukas love the bees.

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[LAUGH]
One of my backyard neighbors

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loves the bees too.

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He's a kind, old Chinese man.

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Every time I see him
standing in his garden,

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he gives me a big beaming smile,
points to the hive and nods approvingly.

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He knows those bees
are pollinating his garden and

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will yield him a bumper crop
of weird Chinese vegetables.

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Now the neighbors on the other side of the
fence, they're not quite as enthusiastic.

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"A beehive!?!" That's Angie,
the renter on the first floor.

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Angie is a lifer in our
South Side neighborhood.

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Her father had been a cop in
the machine days of Daley I, and

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she hates to think about
life next door to a beehive.

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I try to reassure her as delicately as
I can, these are Italians bees Angie.

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Very gentle.

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They'll only sting if you really,
really hassle them.

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Since Angie considers herself Italian,

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the ethnicity of the bees
calms her down a little.

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[LAUGH]
Then there's Vickie the single mom that

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lives upstairs.

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She's not so
excited about the hive either.

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Vickie has a Lithuanian last name and

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she can still name some of
the starchy Lithuanian foods.

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She doesn't like it when her Chinese or
Mexican neighbors don't speak English.

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"This is suppose to be America isn't it?

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"Isn't it?

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Isn't it?"

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And she is looking at the hive,
very, very suspiciously.

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"I just don't want my
little Johnny to get stung."

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The kids of the neighborhood start coming
up to me, as I sit on my front steps.

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"You have a BEEHIVE! if we get
stung it's going to be YOUR FAULT."

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My neighbors stop saying
hello as they walk by.

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This disturbs my wife but I assure
her that everything is gonna be okay.

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I love to watch the bees fly out
of their hive to look for food.

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They usually head southwest in
the direction of the old stock yards.

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That must be where the nectar is.

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Anyway, after I've had the hive for
about a week,

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I get a call from our 11th ward alderman,
Duke Ballser.

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>> [LAUGH]
>> Ballser: Yes, hello Mr.

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Kestutis, you got those bees over there.

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I wanna talk to you about that.

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At your convenience, of course.

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Be here tomorrow at 1 o'clock.

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I'm there on time.

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>> Ballser: Yeah hello, come on,
sit down, Mr. Kestutis.

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>> Nakas: Thank you, it's Nakas.

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Kestutis is my first name,
it's a Lithuanian name.

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>>Ballser: Sure, I know that.

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I know a Lugan name when I see one,
I like Lugans.

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I even married one.

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Yeah, there used to be a lot of
Lugans down here in Bridgeport.

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>>Nakas: I know, and I can't even believe
you remember that old slur word for

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Lithuanians.

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[LAUGH]
They didn't used to like to be

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called that.

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I don't know if you know that, but
yes, there used to be a lot of,

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Halstead to Morgan was all Lithuanian at
one time.

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>>Ballser: And they're good people too. Hardly no fights or nothing.

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Now let's see here, you've been over
there on Union three years, right?

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>>Nakas: Well closer to four actually.

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>>Ballser: Don't correct me Mr. Kestutis [LAUGH] and
I see you've been voting good.

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Registered Democrat that's good.

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And I'm looking and you don't pay a whole
lot of property taxes over there on Union.

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That's a nice house you got too.

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I had one of my guys take a picture.

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Is this your house?

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>>Nakas: Well, yeah.

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>>Ballser: Let me ask you this Mr. Kestutis,
you like it over here in Bridgeport?

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>>Nakas: Yes, I do, very much.

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>>Ballser: You need anything done?

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>>Nakas: What do you mean?

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>>Ballser: Street light fixed, stop signs,
zoning variance, building permit,

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extra parking permits, White Sox tickets,
anything along those lines.

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>>Nakas: Well that's really nice of you,
but no, thank you.

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I think I'm fine.

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>>Ballser: If you need anything you let me know,
all right.

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All right, shake brother.

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O, there's one more thing,
this is Bridgeport,

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we don't want no bees over here.

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[LAUGH] All right? You wanna have bees or
anything like that there, 

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you go up over to the North Side and
live over there.

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>>Nakas: I can't afford that.

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Besides, Mayor Daley is encouraging---

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>>Ballser: Don't Mayor Daley me.

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I'll Mayor Daley you, not vice versa.

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>>Nakas: But the green initiative,
City in a Garden, there's beehives

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on top of city hall. 

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>>Ballser: That's got nothing to do with Bridgeport, all right. Now look I'm the alderman here and
folks is pissed Mr.

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Kestutis, if you pardon my language.

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Now all it takes is for
one kid to get stung and

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have an allergic reaction and then
I get big trouble over here.

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What's the green initiative
gonna do about that?

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>>Nakas: But the city is zoned for bees.

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I got a right...


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>>Ballser: Don't threaten me, Mr. Kestutis. I've handled Lugans fatter than you.

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>> [LAUGH]
>>Ballser: Now, Bridgeport is a nice neighborhood.

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But, you know, sometimes bad things
happen over here, and

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even to good citizens like yourself.

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>> [LAUGH]
So, I'd advise you---

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>>Nakas:  Alderman, you asked me if I needed anything,
that I should just ask, right?

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Could we just have a neighborhood
meeting with whoever is complaining so

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I can explain how wonderful bees are?

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>>Ballser: Neighborhood meeting?

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We ain't never had
nothing like dat dere.

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But after a lot of haggling,
he agrees to a meeting the following week.

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I get a lot of my Chicago beekeeper
friends from other neighborhoods to agree,

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to come and talk about the joy of bees.

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I just wish I knew something,

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somebody with clout or
influence in South Side politics.

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And then one day,

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I bump into Arunas Rastkauskas
walking his dog down Morgan Avenue.

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Arunas is from Vilnius, but
he lives in Bridgeport now working for

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the Lithuanian consulate downtown.

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I tell him all my bee troubles, how I
could use someone with clout and so on.

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>>Rastkauskas: Hm, I will be at the reception
tomorrow with Senatoras Durbinus.

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Senator Durbin is who he means.

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Senator Dick Durbin is half Lithuanian,
his mom was Lithuanian.

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So he likes us,
he even has a big round Lithuanian head.

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>> [LAUGH]
>>Rastkauskas: If I could chance to talk with him

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maybe I will tell him about this.

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But I don't know, I cannot promise it.

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[LAUGH] >>Nakas: I understand, pardon me,
it's okay, don't worry about it.

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I can already hear the buzzing of
the angry community residents as I

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approach 11th ward headquarters.

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I open the door to the meeting room and

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somebody shouts,
"HEY there's that bee man! BOO!"

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Alderman Ballser raps his gavel,
>>Ballser: All right, that's enough of that.

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Now look,
I know we should get rid of that beehive.

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But Mr. Kestutis lives over here too and
I told him he could talk to you.

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So please just for these few minutes,
hear the man out and

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then we get rid of those beehives, okay.

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00:16:21.410 --> 00:16:22.640
Go ahead, Mr. Kestutis.

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>>Nakas: It's Nakas.

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>>Ballser: A Lugan is a Lugan.

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00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:30.559
I told you the floor is yours or
don't you want it no more?

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[LAUGH]
I get up in front of the hostile crowd

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of all my bee buddies, only young
Chip has shown up to support me.

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00:16:41.516 --> 00:16:45.380
>>Nakas: Good evening neighbors,
thank you for coming here and

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letting me tell you about
the wonderful hobby of beekeeping.

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00:16:49.780 --> 00:16:52.200
>>Crowd: IF THOSE BEES STING MY KIDS, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!

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I'LL COME OVER THERE AND KILL YOU MYSELF. 

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>>Nakas: Well, I don't think these
bees will be stinging anybody.

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These are Italian bees.

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00:16:59.650 --> 00:17:01.524
Are there any Italians out there?

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A few hands go up. 
>>Nakas: then I don't have to
tell you about your own gentle disposition

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or the easy,
relaxed ways of your relatives, do I?

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These bees are just the same.

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They'll only sting if you really,
really hassle them.

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And wait till you see how they
pollinate your flowers and vegetables.

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And when you get a taste of my
delicious Bridgeport honey,

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you're gonna wanna hive of your own.

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[LAUGH] 
>>Crowd: NO BEES IN BRIDGEPORT! 

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NO BEES IN BRIDGEPORT! 

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The crowd is chanting, rising to its feet,
and beginning to walk toward me.

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Ballser raps his gavel.

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>>Ballser: Sit down. Sit down, sit down. All right.

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Now is that it for the pro-bee faction?

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[LAUGH]
My last friend, Chip,

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bounds to the front of the room in
his California hemp-rope sandals.

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00:17:50.546 --> 00:17:53.437
[LAUGH]
He smiles at the crowd with his

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00:17:53.437 --> 00:17:54.818
friendly stoner eyes.

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00:17:54.818 --> 00:18:00.287
Puts his hand on his heart and
says, "Bees are really, really cool."

287
00:18:00.287 --> 00:18:02.725
He walks back to his seat in triumph.

288
00:18:02.725 --> 00:18:06.092
[LAUGH]
Certain that he's persuaded the crowd.

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00:18:06.092 --> 00:18:10.574
[LAUGH]
>>Crowd: NO BEES, NO BEES, NO BEES.

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Ballser raps his gavel. 
>>Ballser: All right,
all right, that's enough of that.

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00:18:13.291 --> 00:18:16.996
I think we've heard just about enough and
we're ready to make up my mind.

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00:18:16.996 --> 00:18:21.176
 [LAUGH]
 Just then, the door to the meeting room

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flies open, and in walks Arunas
followed by Senator Dick Durbin,

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who declares, "All rise for his honor,
the mayor of the great city of Chicago."

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00:18:32.891 --> 00:18:37.031
Mayor Richard Daley walks to the front of
the meeting room, stands above Ballser,

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looks at the crowd and says

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>>Mayor: We're gonna have bees in Bridgeport, 
that's all there is to it, okay.

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00:18:42.133 --> 00:18:43.411
There's too much at stake.

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00:18:43.411 --> 00:18:47.254
I can't afford no subterfuge from
the peanut gallery over these green

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00:18:47.254 --> 00:18:49.477
initiatives I got working, all right.

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00:18:49.477 --> 00:18:51.557
[LAUGH]
Alderman,

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00:18:51.557 --> 00:18:56.756
you're a good man don't change that.
So the bees stay.

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00:18:56.756 --> 00:18:59.055
He points his fingers at the crowd.

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00:18:59.055 --> 00:19:02.933
>>Mayor: And I don't wanna hear a peep out of you.

305
00:19:02.933 --> 00:19:07.693
[LAUGH]
You owe me.

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00:19:07.693 --> 00:19:08.773
You all owe me.

307
00:19:08.773 --> 00:19:13.750
[LAUGH]
>>Mayor: Let me know,

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00:19:13.750 --> 00:19:17.230
Alderman, if there's anything I can
do. I'll see you at the ball game.

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00:19:17.230 --> 00:19:19.545
Daley winks at Durbin and walks out.

310
00:19:19.545 --> 00:19:21.520
Durbin winks at Arunas and walks out.

311
00:19:21.520 --> 00:19:23.470
Arunas winks at me and walks out.

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00:19:24.860 --> 00:19:25.970
The crowd is silent.

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00:19:27.140 --> 00:19:34.550
Heads bowed but with the big shots safely
gone, they begin to lowly boo and hiss.

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00:19:34.550 --> 00:19:36.070
Ballser: All right, that's enough of that.

315
00:19:36.070 --> 00:19:37.180
You heard the mayor.

316
00:19:37.180 --> 00:19:38.430
We're voting for the bees.

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00:19:38.430 --> 00:19:40.639
[LAUGH]
Ballser raps his gavel

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one last time ending the meeting.

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Chicago democracy has triumphed again.

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 [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE]
 Thank you