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It's Dramos. You may know me from the recap on LATV. Now I've got my own podcast, Life as a Gringo, coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday. We'll be talking real and unapologetic about all things life, Latin culture, and everything in between from someone who's never quite fit in.
Listen to Life as a Gringo on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Hello. This is Hey Dude Shoes. This is an ad. But not for your ears, for your feet.
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Toes, you've hit the jackpot of comfy. Hey Dude, good to go to. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.
And you can go to the iHeartRadio app to get our podcast or go wherever else you might find them. Up next, we have a listener story from Jennie Badger in Texas. Jennie is going to share with us a unique small town story, small town story about the small town she grew up in, and just so happens to be the turkey capital of the world.
Here's Jennie. I was born and raised in Cuero, Texas. It has a population of about 7,000 people and it was known for its turkey farms.
So everything revolves around that. The billboards around Cuero, they not only say turkey capital of the world, they say where America talks turkey. My brother, for example, was Gobbler King in normal high schools. We call that the prom king. The football mascot is a gobbler and I was on the dance team and I was a trotter. The high school student newspaper is called Turkey Talk. It was very normal to us, but now looking back on it, I mean, that's hilarious. There's not a lot to do there.
So, you know, you kind of almost by default get involved in the community. And every few years they would have this event called Turkey Trot. Turkey Trot was a four-day festival that was just kind of randomly held every few years.
There was no rhyme or reason to the years that it was held. And it was really to celebrate the turkey farming heritage of the town. And because Cuero was known for raising turkeys, it was always a Turkish theme. There was always a man and a woman who reigned over the festivities and it was the Sultan and the Sultana. So in 1972, my dad was Sultan Yekret the 14th. And Yekret is turkey spelled backwards. The woman who reigned with him, her official title was Sultana Oryuk.
And Oryuk is Cuero spelled backwards. So they reigned over Turkey Trot in 1972. And I was eight at the time. And I and my brother and sister were my father's pages. So we'd have to hold his robe at public events and stuff like that. And we were dressed in just goofy attire, you know, the upturned toe shoes and kind of, I mean, just as you would imagine, like a Turkish servant. And my dad, who was a small town lawyer, was a very dignified man. He was very kind.
And I always say he was like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, because he was so distinguished and well-respected and never sought the spotlight, never liked to grandstand. And I mean, for four days, he wore a white suit and a red velvet robe that had a border of gold sequins and then this really big hand-beaded turkey on the back of his robe. And he wandered around Cuero, you know, all weekend for different events in that attire.
He was basically the center of attention for those four days. There were coronations. There was a senior coronation and a junior coronation. And so he got to sit up on his throne during the senior coronation while all the young women of the town, you know, like the high school age and older kids bowed before him and did this whole coronation stuff like debutantes.
But we didn't have debutantes in Cuero, but it was the same idea, I suppose. They have a competition with a town in Minnesota. Both towns claim to be turkey capital of the world. So the two turkeys race. Ruby Begonia is the Cuero, Texas turkey that always races in Minnesota. And then they come back to Cuero and race in Cuero and whoever has the best time out of both those races gets the, I think it's called the traveling trophy of the tumultuous triumph.
And they get to carry that thing back and forth between Minnesota and Texas. And then it ended with a big parade with just tons of floats and marching bands from towns and cities all around. It was a huge deal. And its famous newscaster who came down in 1972 and broadcast from Cuero. It was a big deal, especially for a small town. And of course, the entire town was there. My whole extended family, cousins and from both sides of the family. I mean, it was just this huge celebration.
And my cousins who came in from out of town, I remember them sleeping on the floors because we ran out of beds and I had to sleep in a cot in my parents room. It was just a big party for four days. I don't talk about it a lot. I have talked about it with people, but it sounds so insane. One of the reasons that makes it hard to explain is that it sounds a little bit, you know, like inappropriate cultural appropriation, except that I liken it to like a dramatic production where everybody's wearing a costume and playing a role for a few days. And then at the end, you know, you turn in your costume and you go home and you're enriched by it. So I just think it feels very innocent to me because of that.
It was very sad when it was all over. And I don't know if it's just a good place for turkeys to live. I don't know if it provides the ultimate habitat for them.
I don't know. But you know, they're considered the dumbest animals in the world. I loved growing up in that environment. I loved growing up in Cuero and I was sad when that was over.
So it was a lot of fun. And they still have a thing called Turkey Fest that happens every year, but it is a very scaled down version of what Turkey Trot was. And my nephews go back every year with all their college friends. They're well out of college now, but they all make it a point to go back to Cuero for Turkey Fest.
So that is kind of hilarious looking back on it. stories about America. The America Tocqueville witnessed when he came here in the 19th century from France to study the prison system in this country, but found out this country just did stuff, fun stuff, civic stuff. And it was the people that did it all.
The story of the turkey capital of the world. There are some in Minnesota that may disagree here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to our American stories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Go to our American stories.com and give. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot, and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you back. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So, if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try All-Free Clear Mega Packs. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So, the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that All-Free Clear Mega Packs, they have your back.
Purchase All-Free Clear Mega Packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. This is our American Stories and one of our favorite regular segments is our American Dreamer series. And today, Alex Cortez brings us the voice of an American classic. When I grew up, the word depression entered my vocabulary and entered my consciousness. And little did I know, I lived through it.
But I didn't know it was going on because I was well taken care of by loving parents and a family environment. We're listening to Donald Sturm, whose parents were German immigrants that settled in Brooklyn, New York. My father had some securities, owned some real estate in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn or wherever it is, and lost everything and never recovered financially and wound up getting jobs in the restaurant business no longer as a manager because those jobs became few and far between and wound up being a waiter for the rest of his life. He worked hard to bring home money so that he could take care of his family and he did so in a very heroic way.
I never heard him complain. He didn't achieve much financially speaking, but he had a great family and he was a great father. Grew up in a very dense neighborhood in the sense that there was lots of people, nobody had much money. There were five of us in the building. We lived on the, I think the third or fourth floor was a walk-up.
There was no elevator. We had one bedroom. I shared the room with my two sisters. They slept on a bed together and I slept on a cot. So last one in, first one out in order for people to move about. My parents had the bedroom.
We had one bath and you had to get along with everybody to get your turn in a reasonable time. Later in life Donald wouldn't have such considerations achieving financial success that his dad probably could have never dreamed for him. Donald helped lead the billion-dollar conglomerate Kiewit, went on to own many banks and made several appearances on the Forbes 400 list and yet he's never forgotten what life can be like for first generation immigrants like his dad. In about 1989, 1990 when I'm still in Omaha it became apparent that there were very educated foreigners that came to this country and they were licensed, educated doctors, dentists, lawyers in a foreign country. When they come here they're nothing because they don't have the license.
They don't even have the proficiency with the language so they can't even sit for a test because they don't know the English language at that point in time. So that came to my attention in Omaha. So Sue and I decided that we were going to help a goodly number of these people. They will say like a hundred.
I'm not sure. I never really counted. So we started an English as a second language program so that we got these people somewhat proficient in the English language and it worked. So people, a doctor for instance who was sweeping a floor in the jewelry store could take the qualifying exam in Nebraska to get his doctor's license.
The same thing with lawyers and engineers and whatever they were. It was a very successful program to help people help themselves and give them the tools to do that and succeed in life. We really felt good about it but it was very small compared to what we did here in Denver. So after we moved here in 1991 we decided that we were going to try and do that in a much more systematic way. We signed up with the University of Denver to do that in a bigger way. So we provided money, we provided computers, we provided whatever we needed to provide because I had the money to do that. People were so thankful, so gracious about expressing themselves because we helped them get started in a new country, in a new way, in their old profession. Well there's a lot of motivation. So the thought that it's always with me that my father never had that opportunity.
He came over here at a very very young age, was left with his aunt and that's how we grew up and never had the chance of going to school. At the time of our interview Donald was 89 years old and he's still coming to the office each day for a full day of work. I don't want to retire because I don't want to feel like I have nothing left in my life. I got a lot going in my life now. Mentally I feel like I'm 40. I know physically that I'm no longer 40.
I know that there's a termination along the way here. I'm not going to live forever in other words. But I want to use my brain and take medication, whatever I need to stay alive and stay viable, to continue to see my kids grow.
I don't mean grow physically, I'm talking about intellectually, business-wise. I need to spend time mentoring. It is so boring to be contained in your apartment and people like me are not supposed to go to the office. You're supposed to stay home and do what?
I don't know. So I want to continue to do what I'm doing. My doctors tell me I'm chronologically a lot younger than my age. My physical being is good. Notwithstanding the fact I have to take pills.
So I have a lot to look forward to. I have a little gym in my apartment across the street there that I work out every morning. Every morning I'm on the floor for at least 30 minutes exercising and stretching and whatever. At least four and maybe five times a week in the afternoons on the weekends during the morning I work out. I have a bike, a recumbent bike, and I have weights and I do all kinds of things like that.
That takes probably an hour and a half. So I try and keep myself in reasonably good shape. At this age I can't go as far and the other thing you need to do is reconcile with yourself what your new limits are and adjust to them. Adjusting to things that happen or your environment is so important and not being pissed off at it because you can't. I can't dunk a basketball anymore. I used to. So I can't be irked.
I use that as an extreme example by the way. So I want to continue to do what I used to do to the extent I can. I still want to figure out how I can get out of the house earlier in the morning.
How do I am I wasting steps? When I was five years old I was always concerned about how do I do things better and quicker. I still am that way. The other thing that I do is I think when I'm sleeping. I still do that. I still get up in the middle of the night and my mind is running. Unless I have to have to have to have to make a decision on something that's important I won't because I know that if I say muddle through because it's not muddling but if I think about something whether it's I'm thinking about it most of it is I just digest it without thinking about it. I don't know if you know what I mean by that. Maybe everybody does.
I'm not sure. I come up with a better answer. And you're listening to Donald Sturm and what a unique voice and memory. Well it runs deep and he remembers what his own father went through and his own parents went through coming to this country.
I do. It wasn't my parents but it was my grandparents. I saw what a language barrier did to my own grandparents and they insisted that not happen to their own kids. A great American dreamer's voice and in the end a great American dreamer's story and always so many of our American dreamers grateful and always generous.
Donald Sturm's story here on Our American Story. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65 you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare.
Helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop but for small business insurance I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See they're small business owners too so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs which my family we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes just know that all free clear mega packs they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. This is our American Stories and up next Robbie brings us a story that starts in the United States travels around the world and then comes back home. It's the story of Tina Ramirez and her passion for freedom of religion which started at a very young age.
Here's Tina. Growing up in the rural part of Virginia my dad was a doctor my mom he started a little family practice out in the rural part of Virginia and my mom was a nurse midwife and I lived a pretty simple childhood. Back then in the 80s their life was I think a lot simpler we didn't have as much as kids growing up you know to distract us so we played in the woods a lot and went to church and spent time with family and so I was very close to my dad growing up and then when I was about 11 my parents got divorced and so I think that the thing that really kind of changed my life more than anything was that when my my dad left he actually joined the chose witnesses which believes a lot in proselytizing and so he would he just his faith changed and he would often try to convince me that what he believed was right and growing up in the church myself I was very confused and frustrated at the same time and so I started studying theology and understanding well what do I believe. What I remember most is that because his new faith is so different and it what it did was that it isolated him in many ways from our family a lot of us just didn't understand and so that led me to you know you feel the sense of like exclusion or of distance with somebody that I was one of the closest kids to him so he you know I was like daddy's little girl so for me it was just this really difficult experience where you feel like the the person that should be close to you feels the farthest away and you know those are the formative years for a young girl and so feeling that distance from your dad is a very difficult thing. I think over that the course of our conversations and just as the years passed what I grew to understand is that he believes very strongly what he believes and it made me actually feel even more strongly my convictions and know what I was convicted about be able to live by them but it also helped me understand that I can love and appreciate him and respect him and his ability to believe something even if I believe it's wrong or even if he believes that I'm wrong that that's okay and I think that's really the key that that made me somebody that became passionate about religious freedom for all people.
The thing that I see more than anything in the world is that people are afraid of of others somehow because they have strong beliefs or they're passionate or they try to convince you of their beliefs that somehow they're a threat to you and they're not a threat it's okay you know if if you if your beliefs are strong enough they'll stand up the test. In college Tina had another one of these experiences that would propel her down the path of human rights and religious freedom advocacy. I studied at the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg France and that was when I was 20 so I was just it was my last few credits in college and it was a law school class actually so I wasn't even I was kind of young for it but they let me they let me in so and I just remember being in this class with all these law students and being fascinated by how you could use this body of law to really advance rights for people and it was in France so I met people from all over the world I mean there were hundreds of people at this course every summer they go for one month and they just study human rights and then on the side we would have these afternoon courses to learn about religious freedom and through these courses Tina realized she could bring that knowledge to others.
I finished high school in three years I finished college in three years so by 20 I was I was ready to be a school teacher. I was in Orange County California at the time so you know it can be often perceived as a bubble because it was very very wealthy and prosperous area and I wanted them to have a bigger perspective of the world that hey there are a lot of people that just don't have the the blessings and the opportunities that we have and let's see how we can be more globally minded and think how can we stand up and make the world a better place for more people. It was powerful what happened because the students that came out of that classroom that was 2000 the year 2000. I remember having one little boy who was an Afghan refugee and this was before the the war so at the time the the Taliban were destroying all the Buddhist history in Afghanistan there was this historic Buddhist culture there and obviously putting women in the public where they were they were literally stoning them to death and so there was this huge outcry internationally about the rights of women and and religious communities in Afghanistan but at the time I had this little boy from Afghanistan in my class and he would go around and he'd beat kids up and he was a little kid but he he had a lot of anger in him and I was doing testing both pre and post on the impact that the students their both their their differences and attitudes and behaviors before and after the the course that we did to see if it had an impact and this little boy that used to go around being violent at the end of the course that I wrote they all had to do different projects but he he did a project where I asked him you need to look into what's happening to these women in Afghanistan so he did and at the end he wrote a letter to President Bush and he said President Bush I want you to help these women they're like birds in a cage they don't have a voice and they just need help will you help them please and he he was transformed as a person he was not violent anymore in class and I just what I saw there was that this is powerful there's something here when you teach kids human dignity that people have value that words matter that they have responsibilities to one another that really transformed him and so many of my students and I was able to prove that and so anyway my research ended up being used by the United Nations and Amnesty International for their decade on human rights education and it was this really because it was the first data to prove that it had an impact but I saw lives transformed and I was really encouraged by it and I knew that there's something powerful here Tina would eventually start a nonprofit called hardwired founded on the idea that no matter where a person is born they're hardwired for freedom but before she would do that she spent some time in Washington DC before I started hardwired I worked for the US Congress and I helped build a bipartisan caucus to defend religious freedom around the world so we defended people of all faith people of no faith it it was our priority just to defend the principle of religious freedom and freedom of conscience for everyone it kind of been lost in Congress at the time it had become pretty partisan and one faith focused issue and so I spent a long time four years built rebuilding that but basically in Congress you're just you're you're dealing with the after effects and so you don't have the ability really to address root causes a conflict and I think that was probably the most frustrating thing for me is that being somebody that likes to solve problems and be it you know get things done in some way working up in Congress I realized that the people on the ground in these countries that were suffering needed something more they needed people that were on the ground that could defend them immediately because often the suffering that they experienced lasted much longer than it needed to because they were always having to depend on outside help but if they had had people inside that could stand up and defend them kind of like we've had in America historically with our you know founding fathers and the leaders that we have even in our country you can you know and you can go across the street and find someone that's going to defend your religious freedom if it's attacked but in these countries that just doesn't happen and so I realized that the greatest my my greatest frustration up there was why I needed to leave and to do something different and so I did so I did and you've been listening to Tina Ramirez and he is so dead right human beings are hardwired for freedom and she is focused on the most essential of all of the freedoms and that is the freedom to worship as you choose or not and even in my own family the divergence of our way of observing God or not is so well it is just so divergent and it's beautiful and that's how we do what we do here in this country when we come back this remarkable young lady has a cause and a beautiful one.
Tina Ramirez's story continues here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United Healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare Annual Enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65 you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. United Healthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop but for small business insurance I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See they're small business owners too so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs which my family we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes just know that all free clear mega packs they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we're back with our American stories and the story of Tina Ramirez. After experiences early on at home and in the classroom Tina became passionate about making sure everyone had the freedom of religion that we enjoy here in the United States which is why she started her company hardwired to promote what she sees as an essential human right. I mean Iraq is probably one of the saddest cases because when the United States went in the Christian church the Yazidis the Mandaeans all the different minority faith communities there suffered so much and then of course both Sunnis and Shias were killing each other and they still are but the minorities were disproportionately affected even especially the Jewish community there to the point where there's out of like 50,000 Mandaeans that were in Iraq before the war there's like less than 4,000 or 3,000 there right now. So with the Iraq war all of these faith communities were disproportionately targeted and attacked and there were no amount of hearings and legislation that we could propose to really stop that. And so that's what really led me to lead leave congress and to start hardwired which it establishes local leadership in countries where they don't have it to defend religious freedom. And it's more than just religious freedom it's really about helping local leadership understand in situations where people kill each other over religion or they disregard the minority populations and their their needs it's helping them see the value of every person in the society and not being afraid of people of different faiths and beliefs or ethnicities so that they can learn how to work together overcome those fears and mitigate a lot of the conflict so that they can build a country where they can live together in peace. There's a judge who is now in charge of the court that is sentencing all the all of the members of ISIS responsible for genocide but at the time he was a part of our training he was a judge from Mosul who had had to flee because ISIS had overrun Mosul and his family actually all were left behind but he was one of the oldest and so he was able to leave he was in the in charge of the court handling sentencing terrorists and so they knew that he would be targeted if he didn't flee so he fled and he went to Baghdad and when we met him he was in Baghdad and he was he was handling these courts and so after the training he was so moved by what he had learned he's a Sunni Muslim judge he he spent the whole next day going to visit the Yazidi and the Christian communities and telling them I want you to know I'm going to defend your rights in the courts I'm going to help you and then a few months later we train them several times over the course of the year until they can be self-sufficient and so one of the next trainings we did over in Iraq we went back and we saw him we asked him how he was doing and he showed us his cell phone and this image on his cell phone which was a picture of a 17 year old brother being beheaded by ISIS and I was I mean just you know you see that and it's not Americans have had to see it a couple times with journalists and people that that shock our conscience but you know when I work with people who are living risking their lives to defend others it I understand the gravity of of it in a different way I guess because I know that their lives are at risk with what I'm teaching them and then I'm sending them back in these dangerous situations but what he said to me was he said Tina I know that this is a warning but if I don't go out and defend the rights of all people if I don't defend this religious freedom for everyone this is the reality that awaits every person in Iraq he's now become the head judge in charge of sentencing all of these members of ISIS because he didn't give up and I think what it showed me and just I was so encouraged by is that's exactly what we wanted to do at hardwired we wanted people like him we call them defenders of freedom that would risk their own lives to defend the rights and the freedoms of other people even if they disagreed with them but because they saw they were all the same team for the same that they that religion wouldn't be the obstacle to working together that they would see that human dignity is something that could draw them together and work together towards that greater good and to know that we had contributed to that and that our supporters had contributed to that and so many people can be discouraged by the situation in Iraq and what encourages me even in the midst of what's happening there right now is that we built hardwired because when the door closes to outside help there is still hope when we can establish local leaders who can defend freedom for others it would be wrong for Americans to think that we're the you know the savior of the world or the answer to everyone's problems we're not but we have we've been given this we've inherited really this gift of freedom that we can teach others in some ways and help them come out of you know just years of dictatorship and oppression so just after Christmas there was a Jewish you know rabbi's home was attacked and then there was a Christian church where somebody shot at the the parishioners I mean we've but we've seen it with with mosques being attacked we've seen it across the country where people of faith are being attacked and somehow somehow like this holy place of worship for people is not off limits anymore and regardless of who they are and what they believe I find that very troubling because America was really founded on this ideal of freedom for people to believe differently and that that is something that every country in the world looks to us to really champion and right now we're struggling with that and so at hardwired we have been looking at taking the education program that we do around the world here in American schools so one of the things that we do is we train leaders but we also train teachers and so right now hardwired has been able to work with governments like Morocco and Lebanon and Iraq Kosovo several countries around the world to to teach freedom of religion freedom of belief freedom of conscience in their public schools and that's transforming communities so hardwired's releasing a huge study on like documentaries and and resources that these teachers that we're working with around the world have created showing the impact on children and students and communities around the world in really difficult places and our goal is then to take those stories to schools in the United States where where communities are struggling with intolerance and violence and and bullying and we believe that it really is a very important conversation to have in our country right now but I remember when I was a teacher there was nothing out there on this and so the last 20 years I've been developing curriculum and doing things to figure out how we can promote human rights education and education for freedom of conscience but we have a huge need right now and I would love for teachers anywhere that want to be a part of it to join me we have an opportunity now to really take what's happening here in our country and respond here look I grew up without like my college years I wasn't on the internet I wasn't like doing social media during my formative years I grew up where you had to talk to people face to face and even with my dad if you you know look back at him and I had a really significant area of disagreement but we worked through it face to face and so I was able to learn how to be civil and have civil conversations with others that I disagree with from a very early age and unfortunately that's something that's really missing with I think really the use of social media and the lack of personal interaction because it's very easy to like or dislike somebody to unfriend someone and I think that that's changed our ability to interact with people social media can be a huge vehicle for social change and for and for helping people that don't have a voice have a voice and at the same time it can be a huge place for instability and for hate and intolerance and the schools and education and that one-on-one interaction that teachers and parents have with children is so important and valuable and it really there's nothing else that can that you can't really replace that with anything else when you're really trying to teach civility and dialogue and respect for differences and this doesn't mean you have to agree with them it just means do you know how to dialogue with somebody that you might disagree with and respect the dignity of them so that you don't have to lash out with intolerance and violence we as individuals as parents as teachers need to be vigilant to safeguard that next generation and the freedoms that that they will secure for the future and a special thanks to tina ramirez hardwired for freedom go to hardwired global.org to learn more and by the way religious tolerance and freedom well it is the most distinctive feature of this great country tina ramirez's story hardwired for freedom here on our american stories
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-16 09:20:20 / 2023-02-16 09:36:07 / 16
