Welcome to Our New Series! | BRIght & Early, BRI’s Student Web Series

0:04 hello young people of the Internet my name is Rachel and I’m with Bill of Rights Institute and I’m here with a couple of my colleagues Gary and Kurt it’s been a couple of weeks since things were normal and the Bill of Rights Institute wanted to still talk to the young people that we talked to you

0:26 through our teachers and we wanted to invite you into conversation with us about the things that get us excited right now so we as people who love history and love thinking about current events we’ve been paying attention to a lot of things happening in the news as you have we’ve been following a lot of things on social media as you have and we have decided we

0:49 want to talk with you about those things that are really inspiring and interesting to us as part of the big community that is on the internet right now so first I wanted to talk to my friend Kirk so Kirk is director of content here at the Bill of Rights Institute and he has been thinking a lot about what it means to comfort people

1:10 right now so Kirk why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you were thinking yes I was thinking about crises so history is where I live and every time something like this happens I immediately start trying to figure out what else has happened that’s been similar and how is it similar or how is it dissimilar and one of the things

1:31 that’s always interesting to see in these situations is how it is our leaders react and how it is that they work to try and get the country understanding what’s going on and comforting them when there’s a lot of uncertainty so we’ve had a lot of different leaders kind of putting themselves in front of the population in different ways right so you have

1:52 Governor Cuomo of New York or the California California legislators or the National Senators or the president all trying to communicate in all these different ways and also you know leaders of classrooms more and more classes are starting to have their classes come back online and I know I would look to a teacher as my leader Gary and I were

2:13 actually classroom teachers for a long time so we are thinking about all of the teachers and all the students out there who are struggling to figure out what leadership means right now how are you a leader both for your class and for your friends but also in your community yeah so in 1933 this was we were in the midst of the Great Depression in

2:34 Franklin Delano Roosevelt FDR had just been elected and he was struggling with all these these kinds of things – there was a lot of uncertainty there had been a run on the banks which means that people had gone all at the same time tried to get their money out much like there’s a run on toilet paper right now and it’s actually really fascinating

2:55 history about the toilet paper runs we might get to so he was looking for a way to talk to the people United States to let them know what was going on I mean back in the 1930s they didn’t have the internet like we’re coming to you now but what they did have was radio so FDR decided that he would get on the radio and address

3:15 directly the American people and let them know what was going on and he did this through a series of what are called fireside chats because he would come into your home and he would be sitting next to you at your fireside as the as he talked through the crisis muscles just hear the voice of somebody like that yeah it is you know in he opens it

3:36 up with this really beautiful or I guess it’s not beautiful might be the wrong word but he says you know let me let me let me find it here he says I want to talk to you for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking you know which seems like a like

3:56 a very boring and kind of an intro but it’s really powerful because he’s it’s the leader of the United States wanting to sit down with you the person who’s sitting next to the radio you know to talk about banking and what’s going on what’s going on and at the time it was it wasn’t as common that people would be so casual with leaders right so right

4:18 now the president tweets all the time you can follow his tweets on Twitter in the 1930s you didn’t have access to the president in that way right Kirk yeah that’s right I mean it was this very intimate and suddenly intimate connection with someone you would ordinarily only see in you know in newsreels maybe or just here speaking and so for for him to

4:40 now be in your home speaking directly to you was this really really powerful moment and he ends with his really beautiful phrase says it is your problem no less than it is mine together we cannot fail which there you know he’s very much appealing to that American spirit that the government is only a reflection of ourselves and the

5:02 government does what is in our interest and we maintain its focus on that by voting in elected officials and being involved in our civic communities and and in FDR was was one of the first to really bring that home through a popular medium like radio absolutely it’s nice because I’m kind of enjoying us just

5:22 hearing everybody talking I miss talking to people and I could see why that would be really comforting to folks to just be here I’m forgetting for a second that I’m just here in my home and getting in trance to hearing about this it’s nice yes absolutely you see that a lot happening yeah I’m sure you young people on the internet are seeing it everywhere all your different communities coming together to provide you with resources

5:43 that are mediated through the internet well radio at the time was the way that that that was the technology available to bring people together in times of crisis just like the internet is the time is available today to bring people to crisis through the internet and I’m sure you’ve been having lots of experiences where you’re looking for a scape right so you’re on Twitch

6:03 following new people or you’re on tik-tok following new people you’re exploring new YouTube channels maybe that’s how you found us here but there are lots of ways to think about what it means to be isolated versus part of the community what it means to be indoors sources out of doors and Gary’s weren’t thinking a lot about what he’s missing in the out of doors you know one of the

6:26 things that I think is really nice that’s happened lately is a lot of museums have opened up or digitized a lot of their collections for people and I have been thinking about I’m not going to happen ORS as often as I would like I’m trying and I really and everybody do that even if it just a little bit of time of the day you know I’m finding people who have dogs are very fortunate because you have to walk

6:46 them um but yeah I was thinking about outside can I can I show you something that I found yeah I would love that okay so I was looking through collections when I was a teacher I loved I used to have this thing called afternoon art history series every week and we would be wherever we were in our curriculum at the time and kind of take

7:07 a look at the art of the time and just see like how it reflected things or what people are thinking about and and I happened upon this one that just really struck me and I found myself staring in it’s called a wild scene by Thomas Cole it’s from around 1831 1832 and I just I think I think desiring to be outside and

7:29 and in America you know I had I had this great cross-country trip once that maybe just really loves the the geography of the United States if you go to all the coasts but you see my I’m just staring at this now because there’s there’s so much to look at when I would do our history series with with the students I would always ask them you know before having any kind of details about it just

7:51 what do you see where’s your eye where’s your eye go I can go right to that waterfall sort of right right right yeah it kind of focuses your eye really light waterfall absolutely but then there’s there’s only one finger know there’s a couple of figures sorry I’m outside because yeah it’s hard but the

8:17 use of the human figures is really interesting too because they’re very very natural right so they’re they’re integrated with the lamb they look to be Native American people’s doing what the Native American peoples would do when they were very connected to the land right and it’s an interesting that the way it’s paid that

8:37 is amazing because the longer you look it’s almost like an illusion that people start popping out the way they would if you were looking at nature I’m already seeing five or six figures actually the longer that you look in there among them also some some animals and there’s um but you’re right that better idea of also our image of of Native

8:58 Americans at the time is sort of captured in terms of you know there’s a certain as you said connection that was thought at the time but then again people question now you know whether or not that’s an interpretation of that but you’re right the waterfall is an interesting part right because just in

9:18 terms of how paintings happen when there’s great contrast it makes your eye go there so it tends to be the waterfall then tends to be the horizon then you see the figure that’s by the tree over on the right because that’s the biggest contrast and then as you go along things start popping out in the same way your eyes sort of acclimate to the outside world when you’re out there this is part

9:39 of what’s called the Hudson River school you probably know that history what is the history of this painting where where what was what was what was the artists name again the Otters name was Thomas Cole and it was it was part of a movement of naturalism it’s coming out of Romanticism a little bit it’s a it’s a time when this idea as you said that

10:01 nature you know is this is it chaos or is it actually better for you this is a time when people are saying like for health reasons you should physically be outside because as humans you know this is a big time period of industrialization and things like that to say like we’re losing something by not just connecting to nature in the

10:22 outside world that state of nature initially I found a great quote by two art historians Elizabeth kornhauser and Tim Bering and they basically described it this way and if you take a look at the painting you see what they’re saying they said this painting is a fine essay in the sublime the rough uncultivated landscape and dark rolling clearing

10:44 convincingly represents untamed wilderness and just makes me think boy I would love to take a road trip across America right now first of all the roads are empty the land there’s something about the land that just continues on there so yeah nice to just get sucked in and out

11:05 you’re this painting and especially I think is a good example of Romanticism there right like because of course would mean romanticism is then sort of idealizing and projecting this idealized version onto something I’m not just you know romance taking the traditional

11:25 rough sense which i think really is evoke in this image and I actually so I live in Washington DC and I’ve actually noticed I’ve seen a lot more young people out and about than I usually do out riding bikes and and going for runs and and playing in their yards or just

11:50 sitting outside reading to get that sunshine and to to you know feel that that sense of that sense of drawing away from sitting in nature but there are lots of different ways that people are doing this across the country right now and I think one of the things that we’re seeing that may be kind of confusing or scary is that just this incredible

12:11 variety of responses so I know Kirk has been thinking a lot thinking about like how very to all of these responses that we’ve seen are and and there’s this interesting thing that’s happening through the internet right now which is that that you know what’s happening in your community through your parents and through your communities but but you

12:32 also know what’s happening in lots of other communities and sometimes that can be very freeing because you can get really good ideas but sometimes that can be kind of concerning because do you are wondering why other people are making choices that your communities aren’t so Kirk you assumed that you had it’s a really great resource to help people kind of see the different responses to the crisis right now yes I’ll pull it up here so this is has

12:56 to do with you know the principle that we talk about as federalism meaning that we live in there we it’s often returned to the federal government but the federal government is made up of 50 states in federalism is referring to that relationship between the national the state and then your local governments and what I found really

13:16 interesting about this map is you can look at each one these states so Indiana here where I’m originally from and you can see exactly how many confirm cases they have and then what actions that particular state has taken to respond to it and this is interesting for me in a couple ways because the the intent that the founders

13:37 had in designing our system the way they did was to ensure as much local control as possible meaning what what is the best choice is often determined by the person who’s closest to whatever’s going on and so here you can see in Indiana there’s 657 confirmed cases I mean they’ve taken all these steps to

13:59 try to limit the further spread of the pandemic um if we go to South Dakota that only has 46 they are taking a little bit of different tact and doing a little bit of different things and so I just thought this is a really cool snapshot of sort of what is what is often sort of this very vague principle in action because you can see based off

14:19 similar comparisons what it is each of these states are doing so I would certainly check it out it’s by a group called AEI which is the American Enterprise Institute they’re a think-tank I’m out here in Washington DC and I believe that they’re updating this dynamically to UM you can also look and see how different states or different cities across the country have seen an

14:40 increase in cases then a few other areas where you can actually go and look at the local guidelines of each one of these areas too so anyway the kind of a kind of a cool government principle in action right it’s nice it’s a good way to visualize data to write because like you said there’s your your mind travels from your town to your state to the

15:02 nation itself and sometimes all that information can get really crazy and you’re right it’s interesting to think you know ultimately that these are different states are making decisions that are reasonable for themselves and rather than one across the board you know news it’s like what is the United States going to do well it turns out the United States has built lots of different people in lots of different

15:22 places and situations and so it’s really nice to be able to visualize how the different states you’re dealing with and there’s certainly shell yeah there’s certainly challenges that come with that approach too and if if you’re interested in debating this topic right now BR I’s think the vote topic um he’s dealing with just this right where were you know it would it be better if we had a single national approach to trying to deal with pandemic

15:44 or are there benefits that come from grappling with this with this issue on a state-by-state basis particularly having to do with school closures right because that’s something that that’s right it’s really really important right now yeah especially for all of you young people in the internet so we there were

16:05 all of these responses and one of my personal heroes mr. Rogers he has this beautiful quote about looking for the helpers but through my work with adolescence my kind of exploitation to all of you on the Internet is not look for the helpers but how can be a helper there are lots of different experiments happening right now lots of different

16:25 communities whether it’s through the internet or through mostly through the internet because of social isolation but there are lots of ways there are groups that you can you can sign up to you to volunteer to bring the elderly food to their home since they can since they’re higher risk there are a lot of groups who are setting up call chains so that

16:45 you can call the elderly and and those who are very isolated to provide resources for them just maybe just to chat the equivalent of what used to happen where people used to go check on neighbors and I don’t know if you do this in your town but we used to go check on our neighbors or during a big snowstorm if we can’t physically go check out the neighbors we can still get the caller reached out over the Internet

17:06 there are millions of experiments happening right now in what’s called mutual aid so in the history of the United States we have this culture of mutual aid which is that when something bad happens Americans almost universally organized independently to meet the needs of their local communities and

17:27 they do then that because they feel it’s their duty and I’m wondering if you feel that duty and and if you do feel that duty how you can go out and help your neighbors and help your community and help your town there are lots of great stories of people doing this and ways doing this Gary Kirk do you have any of like favorite stories you’ve heard of people helping each other out during this crisis I know just a lot

17:51 of teachers who are friends who are sort of formed a nice network for each other and for the parents they know to help parents with you know a lot of parents right now are sort of becoming teachers themselves at home for a little while and so they are just opening up their books and their skills and they’re having visual meetings kind of doing

18:12 quick coaching for teaching and I’m finding they’re all filling their days in ways they’re saying you know I know a little bit about science if you know a little bit about math and they’re all just having their like a free exchange of things just outside of the school that I think is really nice and totally voluntary I actually saw some high school students doing that who are offering to tutor younger students

18:33 through zoom so that might be something I don’t know if the baby-sitters club was a book when you guys were all young but it was when I was young and that idea forming a group that can really support your community with skills you have like maybe offering tutoring for younger younger people in your community / zoom would be a way that you could be a helper Kirk did you have any kind of the stories that have stuck out to you what happened right outside my window

18:54 the other day there was there’s the next door to me is a high-rise apartment complex and there is a more ira at-risk person in that apartment complex whose birthday it was and so there was a group of people who got together it was like 9 o’clock in the morning and they didn’t want to directly interact because of self isolation and and/or social

19:16 distancing rather and so they they stood outside with noisemakers in a big banner that said happy birthday until this person came to the window and then they sang happy birthday and then left the gifts out the front door which i think is a really amazing way of showing community because I think at our heart human beings are social creatures right

19:36 we we we build communities because there is something that we we get from that interaction and that was just a great example of of seeing that I’m in real time but just to echo Gary’s comments I mean I know that a lot of school districts now – or even offering helping to get get school meals out to children the district – would otherwise of half lunches which I think it has been a

19:57 really powerful thing and seeing everybody come to at a difficult time I think is always always a really really special thing to see it’s unfortunate that we that we would go through these events but it’s heartening to know that we all are here for one another absolutely and so on that note I want to thank you for all your time I want to encourage you to be

20:19 the helpers in your communities and let us know what you want to see in this kind of conversations in the future so we’re hoping to be with you through this end into the future as you figure out what it means to be a citizen in 2020 here in the United States so thank you for your time thank you to my my

20:39 colleague Gary Kirk Ben nice to connect it has and we’ll see you next time see you soon you