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00:06This democracy has been around for over two centuries for a reason, but then what?
00:12It doesn't matter whether or not you're a Republican, Democratic, Independent,
00:15whether you're in the Green Party, you know, it doesn't really matter as long as you're here
00:19for America to be better.
00:20Bucks!
00:21San Ignorant!
00:21Not Bucks!
00:22San Ignorant!
00:24Democracy doesn't just happen automatically.
00:25It's based upon a whole series of assumptions and norms and practices that is built in to
00:33making it work.
00:34The end goal is the same.
00:36We want a fairer society, a more prosperous country.
00:40We want a better place for our children to live, a better future.
00:43We want the same things.
00:46America's never been about what can be done for us.
00:48It's about what can be done by us together.
00:51There are so many good things happening in our country.
00:53They're getting very little attention, and if people only see the worst, then they start
00:58to act that way, and we can definitely do better.
01:01Government isn't where all the power lies.
01:03The power exists with the people.
01:05We need to invest our time and efforts in democracy.
01:08The one thing we have in common is our American-ness.
01:12And we've got to develop that, and we've got to educate about that, and we've got to think
01:15hard about what makes us Americans.
01:30Throughout this country's nearly 250-year history, the essence of democracy has often
01:36been challenged.
01:37The debate over what it takes to maintain a government of the people, by the people,
01:42and for the people is robust.
01:45Fundamental freedoms, equal rights, free and fair elections are all signs of a healthy democracy.
01:51But growing polarization and unprecedented political events are eroding confidence in the well-being
01:58of America's democracy.
02:02If you look under the Constitution, the executive branch, the judiciary, the Congress, the entire
02:08federal system, the states, the cities, and so forth, I think they would deserve to feel
02:15pretty good that this experiment that they launched has lasted and has succeeded in so many ways.
02:23No one is born in this country with genes that somehow understand and internalize what a
02:30democracy is, why it's valuable, what's expected of them as a citizen.
02:35We've got to teach it, but we're not teaching it.
02:37We are failing to pass on the culture, the political culture of democracy, and that to me is the real
02:45warning.
02:46Richard Haas is a veteran diplomat, frequent media contributor, and author who recently stepped
02:51down after 20 years as president of the Nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, where he remains
02:56President Emeritus.
02:57He's advised both Democrats and Republicans on global issues and foreign policy.
03:02But now Haas is turning his attention to matters more domestic, and what he says is one of the
03:08greatest threats to this country, the stability of our democracy.
03:12The Bill of Obligations, the Ten Habits of Good Citizens, lays out a framework for examining
03:18and reintroducing ideals that advanced America's democracy over the past two and a half centuries,
03:24ideals that Haas says, if ignored, could stand in the way of progress.
03:29I'm worried.
03:30We're off the rails.
03:31The good news is we can get back on the rails.
03:33There's nothing that's happened that's irrevocable or irreversible, but there is something amiss.
03:38You really call it a crisis.
03:40Is that the appropriate word?
03:42Are we in that level now?
03:44We can argue whether it's a crisis or not, but if you're not worried, you're not paying attention.
03:49I don't think any of us has the luxury to be sanguine about the state of, future of American
03:55democracy.
03:56And if you value it as I do, as you do, as I hope everyone watching this does, they should
04:02be worried
04:03and they should basically say, we can no longer assume that after 247, 248 years, it's going to be
04:11around here for another 10, 20, much less 248 years.
04:16Those who are worried are doing something and are helping others do the same.
04:19From media literacy and being civil to respecting government service and putting country first,
04:25everyday Americans from all walks of life are responding to the challenge of preserving democracy.
04:31They're volunteering in their communities, becoming more informed and working on being
04:35more civil and talking with each other.
04:43When de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, he traveled around the country and Americans were
04:48meeting with one another.
04:49What impressed him so much is the word he used was associational.
04:53I think it was the idea that Americans would associate.
04:55They'd meet and they would talk things through and they'd come into the town square, literally,
04:59or to a town meeting hall or a church.
05:01And that's where civic interaction took place.
05:05And it's taking place now in places like Dearborn, Michigan, where two long time media adversaries
05:11learned that through polite and respectful disagreement, there was still room for relationship
05:17building and lasting friendship without abandoning their principles.
05:21Welcome to the Civility Project.
05:24Steven Henderson and Nolan Finley started the Civility Project in 2020, hosting dozens of sessions
05:30over Zoom.
05:31Now they go on the road, teaching others how to do the same.
05:37People feel badly about politics.
05:40It's not just they feel divided.
05:42They feel mentally strained and exhausted.
05:47And we resonate to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who, and I'll paraphrase,
05:52who said, you know, we hate each other because we fear each other,
05:55and we fear each other because we don't understand each other, and we don't understand each other
06:00because we don't talk to each other.
06:02And our goal with this Great Lakes Civility Project is to get people to talk to each other.
06:11Thanks.
06:11It's a great event on a rainy night, and we appreciate you all coming out to listen to
06:18a conversation we've been having now with community groups of all sorts in all different kind of places
06:26for three years now.
06:28Steve's a progressive.
06:30I'm a conservative.
06:32People have remarked that, well, you two are friends despite your political differences.
06:39And I was thinking about it as maybe that we're friends because of our political differences,
06:45because it's those differences that sort of forced us to engage and to learn to engage in a productive, civil
06:53manner.
06:54Uh, everything in our culture right now seems to encourage the idea of winning in politics
07:04or culture or any of these things that we that we want to talk about, right?
07:08You've got to vanquish the other side.
07:12And so Nolan has this great phrase he uses all the time, conversations aren't competitions.
07:17We both believe very strongly that our approach to policy making and governing is the right approach.
07:26And yet we have been able over these years of our long friendship, which predates the Civility Project,
07:35to have productive discussions.
07:38You know, when we started the Civility Project, that's where we said we wanted to start the exercise, right?
07:43Uh, getting people together just to talk. Talk about who you are and where you're from and,
07:50and how you form the values and opinions, uh, that you have.
07:55And you are? Sabrina? Sabrina, uh, my name is Noah.
08:01Noah? Noah. Noah, okay.
08:04I was raised in a Catholic household, had five brothers and sisters, went to a parochial school.
08:11I come from the Muslim household, so most of the values that I learned...
08:16Our motto here at the Great Lakes Civility Project is that, you know, all good people come to their opinions
08:23in the same way.
08:24They take the data, the information, uh, available, and run it through the filters of their own experiences and personal
08:31values.
08:32I think a way to fix that is just make birth control affordable.
08:35The value is understanding things from a different point of view.
08:39Right.
08:40Maybe learning something that you didn't think of before.
08:43I just came here...
08:44I don't think we can necessarily even tell that people have changed at the end of it.
08:50But you can see the wheels turning for a lot of folks.
08:53I believe it takes, uh, brave vulnerability to even sit in groups and have these conversations.
09:04You're going to be awkward, uh, and it's okay.
09:07Uh, just don't be afraid to make the attempt.
09:12Don't be afraid to try.
09:14I mean, it's, it's worth the effort to try.
09:18I'm thinking back to school board meetings in the past, I don't know, two years or so since the pandemic.
09:25This was the scene at the school board in Loudoun County, Virginia,
09:29during a public comment session on racial and transgender issues.
09:33You need to be arrested!
09:34This is how we couldn't be!
09:36A shouting match over masks.
09:38Parents on both sides of the mask debate.
09:41What is taught in a classroom, how children are instructed to be masked or not, have been some
09:49of the most contentious debates that people have had in public, on camera, in front of one another.
09:55When you see those kinds of videos, how do you get people to fulfill that obligation to be civil?
10:02I want people in the school board meeting or in the city council or in the Congress of the United
10:07States to practice these kinds of behaviors.
10:10That's where it counts most, uh, and that's why I think we have to model it.
10:14People who have responsibilities in terms of authority also have responsibilities to model
10:19behaviors.
10:20And they ought to be called out when they don't, but that's on us.
10:23If an elected representative behaves abominably, why are we then voting for that person?
10:29You know, that old line, to whom much is given, much is expected.
10:32We ought to expect much of those people in our society who we've entrusted with significant
10:38authority.
10:38If we don't and they behave badly, that's on us.
10:46One of the obligations that seems so simple, but I've found is increasingly complicated,
10:53is just to be informed.
10:55Where information flows, where it comes from, what kind of information somebody gets,
11:00whether they're seeing the context, whether they have perspective,
11:04whether it's a fact or an opinion.
11:06I mean, there's so many different ways that people are misinformed or intentionally disinformed
11:12that the debate in the country seems like people are just kind of talking past each other.
11:18Think about it.
11:19We are living in a moment in history when there is more information
11:23available to more people on this planet than ever before.
11:26And when information comes at you or me or anybody, it doesn't have a little yellow stick-em,
11:31a post-it note saying, oh, by the way, this is trusted.
11:33Oh, by the way, you can safely ignore this.
11:36Information doesn't come tagged.
11:37There's many more sources of it, many of which are not edited,
11:42many of which the quote-unquote facts aren't facts.
11:46We also don't teach it nearly enough in our schools.
11:49It's interesting.
11:49In places like Finland, now when it's coming to New Jersey,
11:53this idea of information literacy to help people understand what's a fact.
11:58How do I know a fact from, say, an opinion?
12:01Because these things aren't self-evident.
12:03New Jersey will now require public schools to teach media literacy.
12:08Training students to identify fact from fiction.
12:11Delaware State Senator Sarah...
12:12California classrooms will soon be getting a new core subject, media literacy.
12:18At least a dozen states have enacted bipartisan media literacy standards,
12:21lessons that help people understand how to tell fact from fiction,
12:25what's a trusted source, and what's good information.
12:28Information literacy classes are not yet a staple of American education,
12:33but that isn't discouraging people from doing something about it.
12:36In Florida, Bella Ote is tackling digital media literacy with her peers.
12:41The high schooler is part of MediaWise,
12:44a national teen fact-checking network run by the Poynter Institute.
12:48I'm Bella Ote, and I'm a senior at the Academy of Holy Names.
12:52I am a filmmaker, I am a fact-checker, I am a student, and a happy one, I guess.
13:02I think everyone's entitled to have their own opinion,
13:05but it's important that it has information backing it.
13:08The Satanic Temple is an organization that aims to establish after-school clubs...
13:15I think that social media allows for people to have voices who wouldn't have it in the first place,
13:20and that's a beautiful feature of it, but I think it also allows for misinformation to spread,
13:25and that's, it doesn't take away the pros of social media,
13:28it just gives us something that we have to be cautious of.
13:31Young people, they're not going to newspapers to get the news.
13:35Young people spend a lot of time watching influencers, or celebrities, YouTubers,
13:41people who are not experts in their fields, but are able to speak with emotional language
13:46that is many times filled with falsehoods and misleading narratives.
13:52So what we wanted to do today was just,
13:54first I think just if anyone has a pitch they want to talk about.
13:58So what we did is create this digital newsroom of teens who were finding
14:04potential misleading posts on Instagram or Snapchat where they exist online.
14:09Hi everybody, it's Lauren, and welcome back to Is This Legit?
14:12So the show is called Is This Legit?
14:14And when I first saw it I thought it was kind of a funny title,
14:16but it's, it's grown on me, I love it.
14:19Um, I think that the title is reflective of our purpose,
14:23which is to try and remain appealing to younger audiences.
14:27It's important that we have resources where students can feel like they're being
14:30talked to rather than lectured to.
14:33It was really scary when Buffalo Bill safety DeMar Hamlin collapsed in the middle of an NFL game.
14:40Thankfully, doctors say he's doing well and hanging with his friends and teammates.
14:45But that hasn't stopped a lot of people from pushing theories about what caused this unexpected condition.
14:51So each of the fact checkers, they find their own claims on TikTok or X, formerly Twitter,
14:59or sketchy news sites they might come across.
15:02They burned vinyl chloride and when you do that, it releases...
15:05And then they come to us and we evaluate the claim, make sure it's fact checkable.
15:09Then they take it from there.
15:10This TikToker, Kate the Chemist, claims there's acid rain in Ohio, but is this true?
15:15A lot of the videos that we create with the Teen Fact Checking Network are based around
15:20three questions that were developed by the Stanford History Education Group
15:23when someone sees something potentially misleading online.
15:27First, let's see who's behind this information.
15:29Who's behind the information? What's the evidence?
15:32Keep an eye out for links, articles, studies,
15:35literally anything that backs up and supports their claim.
15:38And what do other sources say?
15:39According to the Pew Research Center, guns are responsible for a large portion of children's deaths.
15:43And while fact checking this misinformation,
15:46they are teaching other teens how to do it themselves.
15:50Here's a quick tip. Do some lateral reading.
15:53That means leaving the site...
15:54We're trying to teach you what we've learned.
15:56The tweet doesn't provide any sources at all, which is a red flag.
16:00You don't have to be like the smartest person in the room or
16:02you don't have to be the most experienced person in the room to be able to fact check.
16:06This is a group of incredibly precocious young people who joined MediaWise
16:12because they were passionate about fighting misinformation.
16:16Now to our rating. This tweet is not legit.
16:21Therefore, we rate this claim as mostly legit.
16:23So we rate Ramaswamy's comments as needs context.
16:27I get really energized when I see what the Teen Fact Checking Network is into
16:32because it gives me hope about the future and about, you know,
16:37how invested young people are in what's happening in this country.
16:41I think that misinformation can be the downfall of the country.
16:45By not being able to trust one another, we're incapable of hearing each other out.
16:49We're incapable of learning from one another and hearing from different perspectives.
16:52And that's what this country is built off of.
16:55I think that MediaWise provides me with a national platform.
16:59It's a great way to give back.
17:00And it's also an empowering way to feel like I'm doing something that, you know,
17:04there's not a lot of opportunities for teenagers to be able to make a big impact.
17:14Here in the Senate, only we can decide what our new normal is.
17:21And we ought to get to know one another.
17:23We don't know one another.
17:25We don't have to let circumstances dictate our future.
17:30Let us once again become a body of respect, humility, cooperation, achievement, and yes, friendship.
17:41That can and should be our new normal.
17:46You write about valuing norms.
17:48And I wonder how we should be striking a balance.
17:54One of our norms, for example, is this peaceful transfer of power.
17:58So help me God.
18:01It's literally an image that I remember seeing.
18:05Wow, this president just handed over control to the next one.
18:08And they're actually walking hand in hand, literally handing over the keys and inviting them in.
18:13And then there have been other norms that we as a society challenged.
18:17Why shouldn't women have the right to vote?
18:21Why shouldn't people of color have the right to vote?
18:23And that's really through challenge of those norms that we became a better society.
18:27So how do you figure out which norms to value, which norms to challenge?
18:32Often situations begin as norms because some individual or group of individuals say this is a value.
18:38When the United States was created as a country, first president, obviously, George Washington,
18:43there was no restriction that he could only serve two terms.
18:47Washington thought it was important to establish the norm that presidents only served two terms.
18:52He stepped down even though people wanted him to stay.
18:55He didn't want to create, if you will, the king of America.
18:58FDR then served nearly four terms.
19:02He was elected four times because, in some ways, of the Depression and World War II.
19:06But afterwards, we said those were special circumstances, but we cannot ever allow that to happen again.
19:12And we passed an amendment to the Constitution limiting to two terms.
19:17Basically, the norm wasn't strong enough.
19:18We have the norm of the peaceful transfer of power.
19:21We didn't live up to it in 2020.
19:24We saw it with January 6th.
19:25We saw it with the refusal to concede, to accept the electoral results.
19:29You can't write that into law.
19:31That's something we can and should expect of our political leaders.
19:36I think norms are great when they make sense and we can get people to voluntarily live up to them.
19:42When they won't, we've got to ask ourselves, should we change the law?
19:46You also raised the totally legitimate thing is what happens when values change or thinking change,
19:51say, about gay rights and so forth, gay marriage.
19:54As a society, we've been willing to say, look, this was a norm in one era about marriage.
19:58Now we're going to have a different one.
20:00And if we have to formalize things and laws and so forth, we'll do it.
20:04Again, democratic societies have the structural advantage of change.
20:09That's how democracies ought to operate.
20:11No one ever thought the rules and the norms that were established two and a half centuries ago
20:18were going to be all we would need for time immemorial.
20:22The challenge with a democracy, though, almost any institution,
20:25is how do you balance innovation and preservation?
20:29What about our political DNA do we want to preserve and protect?
20:33And where do we have to adapt and change?
20:36One thing is rather than giving up on it, how do we improve it?
20:39It ain't going to get better by itself.
20:40So I would say if you see areas of American society that are flawed,
20:44you see aspects of our economy, our government that are flawed,
20:48you can't then sit back, or you shouldn't sit back,
20:50and assume it's going to sort itself out, get involved.
20:58One modern model for getting communities more involved,
21:01a process called participatory budgeting.
21:03It encourages voter involvement by allowing community members to
21:07cast their vote on how to spend part of a public budget.
21:10The hope is that early engagement will yield long-term commitments
21:14towards self-governance and participating in all elections.
21:18Residents in Evanston, Illinois, gave it a try,
21:21deciding how to spend $3 million of the city's American Rescue Plan Act money.
21:28My name is Matt Oren.
21:30I'm the participatory budgeting manager for the city of Evanston.
21:33Hey, Shelly. Hey, come on.
21:35How are you?
21:35It's okay.
21:36Perfect timing.
21:37We're right down the hall in Bobby's room.
21:39Let me, let me come with you.
21:40And today is a second project expo for the participatory budgeting process.
21:46What's going to happen today is several of the budget delegates who developed proposals.
21:52They spent seven months with us working hard to make a huge list of ideas into a list of 20
22:00proposals for the community to vote on. So this is their opportunity to meet with community members,
22:04tell them about their proposals, and an opportunity for community members to learn more and vote.
22:12We have over 300 people come to our events when we were collecting ideas.
22:17We collected over 1,300 ideas for how this money should be spent.
22:21The very first time that the city of Evanston is doing it, I believe that every single demographic
22:26that is represented in the city of Evanston are represented today.
22:30And everyone's vying for a part of that $3 million.
22:35Roughly half of the people who have been engaging with us have not participated in a city meeting
22:41before or talked to a public official before. So these are really people that aren't,
22:46haven't engaged before with the city that are engaging now, which is really exciting.
22:52It's a really great initiative for ideas and initiatives that would normally not be funded.
23:00It's really giving power back to the community, and I think that's amazing.
23:04When I started doing this, we didn't really know what was going to happen, right,
23:09doing a participatory budgeting process. If people don't come and people don't help us,
23:13it doesn't work. People showed up consistently. Most of the folks here came to seven meetings,
23:19over the course of seven months. They had additional meetings with city staff to help
23:24develop their proposals into something that can be implemented. I think in a democracy,
23:30it doesn't work without people, and this is a microcosm of that.
23:36I guess it makes me want to participate a little more because I feel like this might actually make
23:42a difference in the Evanston community. I think this is real democracy. I think this is
23:47democracy at its finest. Everyone say participatory budgeting. All right, got it.
23:57There's a project in Illinois, participatory budgeting, where people get to decide on
24:04how to spend some portion of government funds. What do you think the impacts are?
24:09I like when people do these projects. They come away from them with a better appreciation that,
24:15gee, politics can be hard. But also, politics can be interesting. And I can often, by participating,
24:22get a little bit more than I can as a bystander. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Democracy requires
24:29people to suit up and get on the field. The most important thing is to be a voter, to be
24:34an informed
24:35voter. This country was founded on people fighting for the right to vote and govern ourselves. I continue
24:42to be stunned when so many Americans who have that right don't exercise it. The stakes are enormous in
24:49these elections. The differences are real. The consequences will affect their lives. So I want
24:55Americans to get informed and then to vote. Across the ages, there have been many examples of compromise.
25:08The Great Compromise of 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, set up the two houses
25:14of Congress and established the Electoral College. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was debated furiously
25:21before a compromise bill passed the Senate. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed at the White House
25:28by President Johnson. The 1983 Social Security Act, finalized through a quiet agreement between House
25:35Speaker Tip O'Neill and President Ronald Reagan. This is indeed a happy day. Well-known political adversaries.
25:43None of us here today would pretend that this bill is perfect. Each of us had to compromise one way
25:48or
25:49another. But the essence of bipartisanship is to give up a little in order to get a lot.
25:54After compromising on some gun restrictions, Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut was able to
26:00pass legislation that went into effect in 2023. We are very proud to have an agreement between 10
26:08Republicans and 10 Democrats in the Senate to pass the most significant piece of anti-gun violence
26:16legislation in nearly 30 years. There's several arguments for being open to compromise. One is
26:24it's just possible, it's good you're sitting down, that the person on the other side may have a point.
26:28You may actually learn something. You may actually change a little bit. I love the relationship between
26:35Justice Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg when they're on the court. One was a conservative, one was a liberal or
26:42progressive. And they found that their interactions actually strengthened their own thinking,
26:46strengthened their own writing when it came to opinions. I love that as an example. So often
26:50people have to be willing. And Ronald Reagan was really good about this. He used to stand up and say,
26:54hey, take half a loaf. That's today. Maybe next year I can get another slice of the loaf and work
26:59with that.
27:00Again, I understand it's hard. Often you're rewarded for refusal to compromise, but refusing to compromise
27:05often means you don't get anything done. And you've got to ask yourself, is that really the best of all
27:10the available options? Often not. And I think for politicians, if they do compromise, and I learned
27:17this from working for 41, George Herbert Walker Bush, it's not enough to do the right thing. I think when
27:23political leaders compromise, they've got to stand up and explain why they did it.
27:27And let us ensure that America stands before the world united, strong, at peace, and fiscally sound.
27:37But of course things may be difficult. We need compromise. We've had dissension. We need harmony.
27:45We've had a chorus of discordant voices. Here were the options I was faced. And I know some of you
27:50aren't going to be happy with me for compromising. But here is why I did it. Here is why I
27:56think we are
27:56better off despite all the imperfections or limits or flaws of what was agreed to. So the more you
28:02compromise, the more you have to explain and educate.
28:13If we want to have a democratic society, we can't not teach our kids about how it works. We left
28:19off
28:19with 13th, 14th, and 15th, the reconstruction amendments. This is my 21st year teaching. I taught
28:26just about every social studies class you can imagine. Congress changed dramatically its
28:33composition in the first two election cycles after the 15th amendment was passed. 20% of the members
28:39were African American. And then the southern states were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we got to figure out
28:44what to do. Government is by far my favorite class to teach. Of all the classes, I think it's the
28:51most
28:51practically important class. Very problematic and had a huge shaping impact on society then and for
28:59generations afterwards. And you could probably say it still has an impact on us today. The simplest
29:05thing that I hope for is that when they leave here next year, they go and vote. Beyond that,
29:13you know, I really hope that they understand the general process and I hope that they are able to
29:19realize that the voting that they do, that the people who they elect are writing legislation that
29:25is going to shape their lives and their children's lives. And that's the future of the United States.
29:29Why hasn't it been added? The founding fathers believed that without education, there could
29:36not be successful democracy. Up until the 1960s, American high schools required up to three courses
29:42in government and civics. I'm so glad I'm an American.
29:46But in the last half century, civics education has eroded. A 2022 civics assessment known as the
29:53nation's report card showed a dip in civics and history scores among eighth graders over a four-year
29:59period. It was the lowest recorded score since 1998. We are failing ourselves by not teaching and
30:07requiring civics in our schools and in our colleges and universities. That is fixable. That is correctable.
30:14We have the ability to do it. There's no excuse not to do it.
30:19Something has happened over the past 30 or 40 years
30:23to diminish the importance of education in our system, our government, our values.
30:31I remember taking a course in high school called Problems of Democracy. I wonder if that even exists
30:35anymore. In September, Independent Senator Angus King of Maine and Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma
30:41introduced a bill to strengthen civics education nationally.
30:45I don't think people are coming up generation by generation who have that kind of gut-level
30:54understanding of our constitutional system, and it leads to the problems of a declining support for
31:01democracy, declining support for elections. Elections are the most fundamental check and balance in the
31:07constitution. Regular elections. And if you have a lot of people that don't have that sort of basic
31:15feeling about elections and about the constitution and how the system is supposed to work, and it's supposed
31:19to be cumbersome and difficult. I think the framers succeeded beyond their wildest dreams sometimes,
31:25but it's really important to have civic education. So we've got Angus King from Maine, I think James
31:36Lankford from Oklahoma, trying to put out a civics education legislation. Think that'll work?
31:42I think civics education legislation is a start. If you were a parent and you had a child going to
31:48school,
31:49whether it's middle school, high school, college, you would say to the school, the school authorities,
31:55you are responsible for making sure my son or daughter can read, can write, can do basic math,
32:04can think critically, can use computers in this age of technology. Why is it any less important that these
32:11schools don't prepare them to be citizens in this democracy? Isn't that the obligation of the schools?
32:17So I would love to see that mandated at schools at every level. I think they ought to understand
32:26what is a democracy. I think students ought to learn the value of democracies, the strengths and the
32:32weaknesses. It's the kind of thing we're talking about. Students ought to understand the rights but
32:36also the obligations of citizens. And while there are efforts to bolster knowledge of how government
32:43works inside classrooms, other organizations are working to pick up the slack in other ways.
32:48The nonprofit organization Do Something is encouraging young Americans through the lens of
32:53civics and democracy to impact their communities and their future.
33:01When you guys think of the word democracy, what do you think of?
33:05Voting. Voting. What else? For the people. For the people.
33:09You hear the term democracy and it feels like, what does that actually mean? And does that relate to me?
33:15Unity. Empowerment. Empowerment. The right to live. The right to live. Okay, are you a poet?
33:22What we know to be true is young people are incredibly passionate about what's happening
33:27to themselves and what's happening in their communities. Things like health and security.
33:31And yet, if we don't help them understand or, as I like to say, demystify democracy for young people,
33:38respectfully, they're never going to get the change they seek.
33:42The questions in front of you are the questions that we've been asking young people around New York City
33:46about, you know, what they want to see change in New York, what they love about their community.
33:50When I describe Do Something, I say that we're essentially supporting young people in doing
33:55something in their communities around issues that they're passionate about.
33:58How would you say if you had the power to change that, what would you do?
34:02So we are all about trying to give them the tools, the knowledge, and the skills to be able
34:06to do that more effectively.
34:08Maybe I would go towards trying to add it to a ballot measure.
34:15And so through Do Something's platform, young people come and they get engaged on the causes
34:20they care about, and we get them to take action, not just like wagging their finger and complaining,
34:24but actually saying, oh, if there's someone in my community who needs books or someone in my community
34:30who needs food, then I can really be a part of that solution, right? So it's getting the young
34:34person to go from caring about cause to taking action.
34:38From all these events, we will have talked to like almost a thousand young people.
34:42Who is here that care about their community?
34:45We feel like the more that they can find their own voice and see their role in democracy
34:51and take leadership and take action, the more that they will feel a part of it
34:55and more likely to be actively engaged.
34:58And most importantly, we want to make this place better.
35:01Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Better starts with us.
35:12The whole concept of being a brother's keeper, a sister's keeper, we have obligations to one
35:17another in this society. And if people do not succeed in this society, that's going to have
35:22implications for us. So even if it's even if you're not motivated by a concern for your fellow
35:26human being, you should be motivated by self-interest.
35:29In 1980, tragedy motivated Candy Lightner to push for tougher penalties for drunk driving
35:35after her 13-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. She formed the grassroots organization
35:41MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which grew to more than 400 chapters around the world,
35:48passing drunk driving legislation, both at state levels and nationally.
35:53MADD's lobbying efforts helped raise the legal drinking age to 21.
35:57I love Mothers Against Drunk Driving for several reasons. One, as you say, it's a great way of
36:02promoting the common good. It's a way that you don't drive drunk. It helps you. But at least as
36:10important, if not more important, it protects other people. So that gets to the core of the common good
36:17idea. Food pantries, public parks, mass transit are also examples of the common good. So are libraries.
36:24By the 1800s, free public libraries were commonplace. Over the centuries, they've evolved by providing
36:31additional resources for the public, well beyond books. In 2023, New York's Brooklyn Public Library
36:38celebrated its 125th anniversary, drawing thousands of new members to its libraries by showcasing a
36:45cultural icon. Libraries have always been part of the common good. We're one of the most democratic
36:50institutions around. We here at Brooklyn welcome millions of visitors a year to our thousands of
36:58programs and the real connection we make is what does the community need and that's why we want to do
37:04this work. I came here today to come specifically to for the exhibit, the Jay-Z exhibit. I have been
37:15a big fan
37:15and really excited that this exhibit is here in Brooklyn. There are 13 limited edition Jay-Z library
37:22cards, one for each album that he created. I didn't know there was a special card, so it's a nice
37:28added
37:28bonus. I also got the inside scoop that if I go to different library locations, I can possibly get the
37:35other card. So I think I'm going to take part in that. Yeah, I'm so excited to get it because
37:39I heard
37:40it's a limited card. Jay was given his library card as a young kid in school and told about the
37:50library
37:50and obviously he's a writer, right? I mean, Jay's the first rapper to ever be inducted into the Songwriters
37:56Hall of Fame. So there's a lot of synergy between him and the library. Jay-Z's a Brooklyn guy. For
38:05us,
38:05it was a natural connection and Jay-Z is such a wordsmith. We are up to about 55,000 card
38:13signups
38:13and about 33,000 of those are brand new users, people who had never had a BPL card before. So
38:19we're actively engaging those folks to say, you know, you got this great library card, but don't
38:23forget about all the amazing services you now have available at your fingertips with that.
38:28This is for the people, right? It's a public place. Again, the common good of being able to reach
38:33people, the common good of being able to reintroduce the library to people who potentially may have
38:38thought that it wasn't for them. I hope that this exhibit has shown people that we're welcoming and we
38:45want you to be here and you belong here.
38:56Political violence has been part of America's history. Presidential assassinations, Jim Crow violence,
39:02bombings by activist groups. Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. influenced the
39:08growth of peaceful protest and nonviolent resistance during the civil rights movement.
39:14We've had very good historical examples where nonviolence has worked. Obviously, I'm thinking
39:20from Gandhi to MLK Jr., but right now, I don't know if it's the distance between those historical
39:28events and today, a different set of conditions on the ground, but people are much more open to the
39:34idea of fighting fire with fire and saying, this is how the other side wants to play it, fine,
39:41then we need to do this too. What's the problem with that?
39:45Because if fire leads to more fire, we're all going to be caught up in the burning building and
39:51the building's going to be this country. The introduction of force is just going to invite
39:55or trigger the use of force against it. It's almost like Newton. For every action,
39:59there's an equal and opposite reaction. If people introduce force and violence into the political
40:05space, it's going to be met with force and violence.
40:08If, as Haas says, fire leads to more fire, the events of January 6th would be the kindling.
40:15Politically motivated violence is on the rise. From Senate hearings in Congress...
40:20Sir, this is the time, this is the place. If you want to run your mouth,
40:24we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.
40:27Okay, that's fine. Perfect.
40:28You want to do it now?
40:29I'd love to do it right now.
40:30Well, stand your butt up then.
40:31You stand your butt up.
40:32Oh, hold on. Oh, stop it.
40:35To city council meetings
40:38and threats against politicians and their families.
40:41We're just learning about a home invasion at Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco residence.
40:46Resisting violence has become a formidable challenge.
40:49The challenge is to make this experiment work with both things we need to do,
40:54but also things we need to avoid. And one of the things we need to avoid
40:57is political violence becoming more commonplace. There'll be no winners if that were to happen.
41:06So we've got to have political leaders essentially delegitimizing it, religious leaders delegitimize it,
41:14teachers not only delegitimizing it, but imparting the skills.
41:18So young people learn how to disagree without the disagreement spilling over into violence.
41:30You say that one of the obligations is to respect government service.
41:38And for a lot of people at the ends of the political spectrum right now,
41:43they would just say, why? I don't respect this government enough.
41:46Government's not a choice. Government's out there. We've got tens of millions of people at the federal
41:52level, the state level, the county level, the city level. So government's a fixture of life.
41:57I love the idea that talented people have a stint in government. We have an all-volunteer military.
42:03I think that's just fantastic.
42:06MILES O' Active service members, national guardsmen, veterans and reservists,
42:10more than 1.3 million Americans are members of the United States military.
42:15But government service goes beyond the armed forces. Federal, state and city jobs are accessible to
42:21everyone. They include public service jobs like the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, now in its 30th year.
42:28One program, Lead for America, gives members the chance to serve in communities they call home.
42:34I'd love to see more talented people do public service. California has recently introduced public
42:40service options for young people. And you go serve the community or the state. It's a great
42:45educational opportunity for them. It's a great opportunity to improve the, the society.
42:52In both big cities and rural towns, young people are taking the lead and returning home
42:57to serve their communities. For one young Iowan, it's also an opportunity to both serve and to
43:04bring an awareness of his culture to others.
43:10I wanted today, through the beautiful power of digital media,
43:18to bring the Sikh community from Des Moines to you. My name is JJ. I am an Iowan. I'm a
43:28Sikh American.
43:29And I am an American Connection Corps member.
43:34This is a bracelet that represents Sikhism and my culture.
43:39So today, I was able to bring digital stories from the Sikh community in West Des Moines to West Branch,
43:48which is a rural community. I remember reading something about Lead for America.
43:56And the whole shtick was, we will fund your work if you come back to your hometown.
44:05And I was like, what? That's amazing.
44:10Now, as an American Connection Corps member, I'm dedicated to using digital medium to tell stories.
44:19Hi, my name is Abe Polstein, and I'm an open book.
44:23I think what's beautiful about digital storytelling is it's inclusive, it's accessible, it's sustainable.
44:30My family and I have fled the war-torn country of Bosnia.
44:34In some ways, it allows folks to be in the same room who might not always have that opportunity.
44:40But, you know, the end of the journey, we found freedom.
44:46And that's what I love about the service I'm involved in, it's connection.
44:51And when you can connect people together, it takes on a, that connection takes on a life of its own.
44:57Part of my culture.
45:00We're seeing a lot of acknowledgement on the importance of service and the role that service can play in building
45:08the country we want to see.
45:10I'm committed to Iowa because it's home.
45:25You know, throughout this book, you're asking people to put the country first.
45:30Sounds simple, but define it.
45:32Can I just confess, I find it depressing that I even had to mention it.
45:37I would have thought it was pretty self-evident.
45:39Yeah.
45:40But when I get up in the morning and I turn on television, I read the newspapers, I see glaring
45:44examples
45:46where people in our public life are not putting the country before party or person.
45:51And a lot of them know better.
45:53You know, right now there are going to be people who would say that January 6th was, in their opinion,
46:02putting the country first, right?
46:04That they feel so strongly about their vision of what this country is that they needed to do that.
46:16And I've heard that from several people.
46:18Those who went into the Capitol on January 6th, they all thought they were patriots.
46:23Right.
46:24What I fall back on when I hear that is a quote of Ronald Reagan's.
46:28It was in his farewell address.
46:30And he said, patriotism is good, and he applauds it.
46:33And then Reagan says, but patriotism in and of itself is not enough.
46:38What Ronald Reagan then went on to say is we need informed patriotism.
46:42And the problem with the people on January 6th is what they were doing was not in the traditions
46:47of this country.
46:48That's not how we promote or pursue our political ends in this country.
46:53Informed patriotism say there's a way to go about promoting or advancing your political agenda.
47:00It doesn't involve violence.
47:02It doesn't involve attacking police officers.
47:04It doesn't involve invading the space of Congress.
47:08There's legitimate lawful ways of advancing your political agenda.
47:13And that's what American politics are all about.
47:15Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox is working to put country before partisan politics.
47:21A chairman of the National Governors Association, he's launched the Disagree Better campaign to
47:26encourage fellow governors to disagree in ways that find solutions and solve problems.
47:32So there's lots of metrics that we're looking at.
47:34He first found success with this concept in 2020 when he and his political opponent,
47:39Democrat Chris Peterson appeared in a campaign ad called One Nation, which highlighted their shared
47:45values and put partisanship aside ahead of their election.
47:48I'm Spencer Cox, your Republican candidate for Utah governor.
47:52And I'm Chris Peterson, your Democratic candidate for governor.
47:55I've been concerned about toxic polarization in our country for a long time.
47:59In 2020, I was running for governor at the same time that Trump and Biden were running against each
48:05other for president. And I was very concerned. My friend said, why don't you do something about it?
48:11So I thought about it all weekend and had this crazy idea to reach out to my opponent, the Democrat,
48:16who I was running against, and say, you know, why don't we film an ad together?
48:20We are currently in the final days of campaigning against each other.
48:24But our common values transcend our political differences, and the strength of our nation
48:28rests on our ability to see that.
48:30We are both committed to American civility and a peaceful transition of power.
48:35And we hope Utah will be an example to the nation.
48:38Because that is what our country is built on.
48:40The ad went viral in 2020 in ways we didn't expect.
48:44We've asked some fellow governors if they would be willing to do this.
48:48The response has been very positive.
48:49We're committed to disagreeing better.
48:51Like in 2019, when we came together to end the Kansas City economic border war.
48:56Be curious. Ask questions. If you still disagree, that's okay.
48:59But you might find that you aren't as far apart as you think.
49:02It's not about showing the other side how wrong they are.
49:06It's about what's best for America.
49:09You may be a Democrat, I may be a Republican, but we're both Americans.
49:13That's our common identity. And if we put country first over party,
49:18that allows us now a framework to start to work together to solve problems.
49:22My name's Spencer Cox.
49:23And I'm Chris Peterson.
49:25And we approve this message.
49:27There are so many good things happening in our country.
49:29They're getting very little attention.
49:31And if people only see the worst, then they start to act that way.
49:35And we can definitely do better.
49:37You know, American democracy is not going to be protected or preserved or saved by some individual
49:43coming on the political scene who's going to wave a magic wand and somehow say,
49:48okay, say and do things, and then American democracy will be fine for another 250 years.
49:53It doesn't work that way.
49:54It's going to work.
49:56It's going to be protected and preserved and saved because hundreds of millions of Americans
50:02are going to do the right thing.
50:04They're going to push back against violence.
50:06They're going to get involved.
50:07They're going to get informed.
50:08They're going to look out for the common good.
50:10They're going to ask that civics be taught in our schools.
50:13They're going to support programs of public service.
50:16That's the way this democracy has evolved over the centuries.
50:20And that's the way it's going to last and do well for centuries to come.
50:25Through democracy, everybody can, ideally, everybody can be involved.
50:30Young people are entering office.
50:33Young people are being elected.
50:34Things are changing.
50:36I'm definitely going to speak to my parents and my family about,
50:39you know, voting and the importance of it,
50:41because it's important that, you know, our voices are heard too.
50:45Even though that our main goal is not the same, our purpose is the same.
50:49We all want the same thing.
50:51We all want to live better.
50:52We all want to feel better.
50:53We all want for people around us to be healthy, be thriving, to live.
50:59It's not just our elected officials that help run this country.
51:03It's the people that are walking the streets every day.
51:06It's you.
51:08It's me.
51:11Democracy was meant to be adaptive, but it was also, as I like to say,
51:15meant to be a full contact sport.
51:17And we need everybody playing in democracy,
51:20participating and making their voice heard in order to make it our own.
51:25As history shows us, democracy is not easy.
51:28It takes sustained work.
51:30The good news, there are signs from every corner of each state that
51:35Americans care about democracy and are finding ways to help preserve it.
51:40I'm Hari Sreenivasan, and this has been A Citizen's Guide to Preserving Democracy.
51:47Let us know in 9 weekly one-week morning.
51:53We'll be back here at Oregon
51:53in 10 Shot Station.
51:54We'll be back here at Oregon Overview in 839.
51:56We'll be back here in tom Emoren Kim.
51:57Bye-bye.
52:01If you realize this morning,
52:03uh,
52:06hit this evening,
52:06then we'll be part of King Clip for uk Cafe.
52:07We'll be back here at Oregon Overview in 2001.
52:14Got to find out for it'siviocaties.
52:15The可以 Robin Blenh
52:15in purple смотреть.
52:15I watched itbreed by myself.
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