John: I’m John Dowling and I’m here once again with Model Citizen Sal Ferro the CEO of Allure Home Improvements. Sal, good morning and thank you for talking today. 

Sal: Good morning John. It is great to speak to you. We finally got some good weather in November and it’s nice to see.

John: It’s like August weather, thank God. 

Sal: It keeps our mind off the other things that are going on, like the election that nobody knows who the winner is. 

John: You just don’t know who to believe. A lot of our Model Citizens are voicing different opinions and so I wanted to reach out to you because I know you were really dialed in and you spend a lot of time with many of these people. What do you think is happening because there is a lot of talk about election fraud? Some say Trump won, and other people saying Biden won, what do you think is going on? Can you try to bring some clarity to all this and your opinion?

Sal: I have a tough time believing anything right now. I think the last couple of years have shown us is it is very difficult to believe anything you read or hear because so much comes from social media. However, when you check on it you find that the story is a hoax or fake news. That’s the new thing these days. You hear “fake news” which was never heard that term 15 or 20 years ago, it just never existed.

John: Not only that, but it’s not just social media it is the mainstream media.

Sal: That’s exactly what I was going to say. When we were younger, I’m not trying to age myself, fake news never existed because news outlets prided themselves on facts. 

John: That’s why we all became dependent on the media because we trusted them and thought we could trust them. If somebody made a mistake they would come out and say so and issue a correction, even during airtime. These days it just seems like anything goes.

Sal: I think a lot of it is one-sided reporting. We are not seeing fact-based reporting and lawsuits are flying. This is not the first time the lawsuits are flying in elections. 

John: No, it’s not. We can go back to the Bush/Gore election.

Sal: That’s right. We had hanging chads. When Trump beat Hillary we had lawsuits thorn around based on how things turned out. I don’t think that this is going to go away anytime soon. I think this is going to be a big challenge for the country because it’s not going to be an easy transition. I wrote something to my employees the night of the election that said once the election is over, there is nothing we can control. We all voted the way we voted; it doesn’t matter to me. The next day we are going to go to work and do what we do for a living which is to make people’s homes beautiful and we make our clients happy. We cannot control what we can’t control. We must do our thing, get back to work, and be happy. Whoever wins, we must root for them and embrace them, whoever wins, whether it’s Trump that somehow wins, or if it’s Biden who holds onto the lead. If you are a Trump lover or Biden lover, you have to root for your president. Not rooting for your president because you are anti-Biden or anti-Trump because you don’t like that person and you did not vote for that person, is anti-American.

John: I couldn’t agree with you more.

Sal: I read something that a host on The View said about the 68 million people that voted for Trump. She said they are selfish and went on and on, ripping into these people for voting for Trump because he’s racist or he’s this or he’s that. I sat there thinking, how selfish and narrowminded this person must be. I don’t believe he is homophobic or racist or any of those things anyway, but this host was basically saying that 68 million people are selfish because they voted on the results they felt Trump gave. So then should others say that the people who are voting for Biden are selfish because he’s pro-choice and okay with abortion? Then are those supporters okay with killing babies? That’s just narrowminded.

John: I couldn’t agree with you more Sal. But what we are looking at, I believe, depending on who wins, is a very dramatically different agenda.

Sal: Very different. We’ve got Trump who was planning on increasing manufacturing, lowering our reliance on China, and protecting trade secrets. I think Biden’s agenda more focused on raising taxes as a way of solving some of the problems we have.

John: And everybody knows that just doesn’t work.

Sal: I didn’t hear a lot about his agenda because I don’t think he spent a lot of time focused on it. I think they did a great job of keeping him bottled up.

John: I don’t even know what his agenda is other than trying to accomplish things that are near impossible. I do like Biden. I think he is a wonderful patriot, but at the same time can we really attempt to do some of the things that he suggested with the rest of the Democratic Party? Is that even possible? It would be like some kind of utopia, that would be great, but how do we pay for all that?

Sal: I think you got to take what these candidates say on the campaign trail with a grain of salt and you have to cut it up a little bit. A lot of things are promised. For instance, in a primary, those who win are typically the most right-thinking or left-thinking because those are the people that tend to vote in a primary election. A candidate will promise a lot, knowing full well they are not going to get it all done. In a lot of ways, Biden was the most moderate of all the people in the primaries. A lot of Republicans should not be that upset because he was the more moderate one. I think a lot of the issue with Biden has been his son and those shenanigans. 

John: What politician isn’t lining their pockets in some way or another? They all do it.

Sal: I don’t know. A lot of people I know are pretty darn honest. I would love to believe that they aren’t doing anything wrong, but I think that kind of stuff has gone on. At this stage of the game, it is what it is, and it will fall out when it does. But I think Biden is one of the more moderate candidates and a lot of what he planned and said is to get his base going. Will it be done? Who knows? If the Senate stays Republican, the chances are that a lot of what he wants to do isn’t going to get done. It’s going to get watered down and the Republicans on the right need to just take a deep breath and understand as long as there are checks and balances in our system, things well will always be somewhat moderated. I think that is what took place under Trump by having a House that was controlled by the Democrats.

John: I agree.

Sal: I think that when we are missing checks and balances and have all one party in power, it is never the best thing for our country. We have that in New York State with the Democrats in complete power with the Assembly, the Senate, and the Governor. I’m not sure this is the best thing for New York, to not have another party or another opinion. Look what happened with the Crime Bill. It looks as if Long Island just flipped 3 Senate seats from Democrat to Republican, and they won the additional three Senate seats that were already Republican.

John: Including our friend Congressman Lee Zeldin. 

Sal: We went from three Republicans to six on Long Island and I think that’s based solely on the Crime Bill.

John: Yes, I agree. I think you are right.

Sal: These are the kind of things that happen when one party is in place and they are not taking into consideration other opinions and another ideology. It’s a check and balance that is needed. I’m not telling you who is right, I’m telling you it’s a matter of taking it into consideration the complete society, the complete population and that’s not what’s happening now in New York State. 

Right now, if the Senate stays Republican, everybody who’s jumping off cliffs because Trump didn’t win, can take a deep breath because things will be alright. 

John: Do you think, ultimately, that Biden will win the presidency?

Sal:  I think things are pretty darn good for Biden right now at this moment, Friday morning, it looks like Georgia and Pennsylvania are now leaning towards Biden. I read enough to feel there are some concerns and things that do not seem to add up.

John: Can you talk about those concerns? Because a lot of people hear rumors and those get around and get blown out of proportion. What are the concerns as you see them?

Sal: I don’t want to talk about them because it goes back to what I said before about fake news. I wasn’t there, I wasn’t in the room, I didn’t witness anything. Too many people post things on social media, videos go flying, you jump into the hype and say how unbelievable it is and how you can’t believe this happened, and then you find out that it was fake. Or you find out that there is a different law in Wisconsin that voters can register the day of. You find out that it is not exactly how it was originally portrayed, so rather than speculate, I’m going to say that based on hearsay, it does seem to be that there are some concerns. But until everything is played out, I’d rather sit on the sidelines and pray for my country and hope to God that there still checks and balances in place and hope that everything is legal. 

John: That is what the recount is for.

Sal: The most important thing I can leave you with, out of everything here, is that the Democrats played their card with the early ballots and mail-in, and they played it well. Trump knew it was going to be a problem and whether it was done right I’m not going to debate right now. They played it and they played it well. It may be the undoing of Trump. That’s a political strategy, but in the end, if we find out if there is something that happened that wasn’t legal, if we can’t have legal and safe elections in this country, then we have nothing. 

I am not saying that is the case, but it is the one thing we have as a Democracy. We need to have faith in a legal and safe election with zero fear of any interruption, zero fear of any malfeasance. Otherwise, we become Venezuela, China, Russia, or any of the other societies that we look at and say we don’t want to become that place.

John: That’s the worst-case scenario, absolutely. I’m all in for verification. I’m all for making sure that everything was done on the up and up.

Sal: I have no problem with any of that. At the end of the day, all I want is the real winner, whether it’s Joe Biden and Donald Trump, I just want the legal winner to be in there and whoever that may be, regardless of who I voted for, I am going to root for them because I am an  American first.

John: We’ve got to bring our country back together. We need to work as a team, all the fighting and lawsuits are just inviting it’s hurting everyone.

Sal: That’s true. It’s terrible. The media has to stop fanning the fire. 

John: What kind of example are we setting for our children?

Sal: I don’t blame the officials as much as I blame the media.

John: I think the media is making a fortune off the elections, you know that.

Sal: They’re not making it off of me because I don’t waste my time on a lot of that. I look at it as though it is like the National Inquirer. To me, that is what a lot of this stuff is. 

John: Thank you again for all your input and again congratulations on being a Model Citizen. I look forward to hearing more from you on future issues.

Sal: John thank you for what you do for Long Island, I think you’ve got 400 or so Long Islanders that you have recognized.

John: Yes, we have over 400 Model Citizens since we started.

Sal: Thank you for recognizing all these great Long Islanders. Long Island is a very unique and special place. I’m extremely proud of the niche we have here in New York State. With all our diversification, the different ideologies, and we are able to live and share a place where we are all able to just get along. Whether left, right, or center, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a great and special place to live. Thank you for what you do.