Episode 1: East/West Coast Connection - Building Community, Commonality and Connectivity.

Regina from Georgia and Kerry from Oregon film their first segment featuring Maison Noir, J Dusy and Torii Mor wines, along with commentary about coping and keeping on in the Covid-19 business world.

Protesters tear down the city streets in response to George Floyd's murder by suffocation. Ted Wheeler, the Mayor in Portland is gassed by protestors. In Atlanta, the mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, clashes with the governor of Georgia over mask mandates.

Neither Regina or myself go into Portland or Atlanta after dark, avoiding the downtown areas entirely whether it's day or night. Black Lives Matter. Regina fears that violent protestors give black protestors a bad name. Civil disobedience is what MLK march from Selma to Montgomery. Now that legacy of powerful peaceful protests is being challenged. The President isn't helping, sending the National Guard to Oregon and Georgia, another commonality in our West/East Coast experience. 

Yet we were determined to go forward, despite the seriousness of the pandemic, and peaceful protests being thwarted by needless violence. And this needless violence, perpetuated by people not there to protest by instead create incendiary fuel for riots and even death.

Regina shares how upsetting it is when black people are categorized with those just seeking mayhem. How much this hurts those who value very American right to peaceful protest. It's as if the civility of our society was just set back 40 years in the summer of 2020.

So clearly, no time like the present to shine a light in the darkness highlight the positivity by amplfying diverse voices in the wine and hospitality industry as a peaceful protest of our own, one wine review at a time, we went forward and taped this first show while the National Guard occupied both of our cities because we were determined to literally give some Cheers to Change.