Trust Your Voice

Patricia Rucker is a first generation American citizen, born in Caracas, Venezuela, coming to the US, Montgomery County Maryland, in the 80s when her father  was assigned by Agence France Presse to the Washington DC desk, eventually becoming its Latin American Editor. 

She is the co-founder and former president of We the People of West Virginia-Jefferson County. And became a West Virginia State Senator serving in the 16th District.

In this episode she breaks down Venezuela pre and post Hugo Chavez. We discuss how Venezuela went from being the 4th wealthiest country, to drowning in poverty. 

Our goal is to offer unbiased fact based information that acts as a starting point for you to get involved and have a larger positive impact on your community.

When it comes to civic and community leadership most of us don't know where to start and we definitely don't feel we have all the facts. That’s why each episode of The Civic Leader goes beyond the headlines to bring you facts and data points that will help you understand the role of business, government and its citizens to solve society's greatest challenges.  

3:15 Venezuela’s Transformation Through Patricia’s Eyes 

5:15 Why Talk About Venezuela  

8:15 What Life Is Like in Venezuela 

12:15 Why Talking About Venezuela Matters 

14:00 Hugo Chavez’ Campaign Promises 

22:15 How Government Mismanagement Brought the Collapse of Venezuela 

25:30 Venezuela’s Nationalization 

30:00 Freedom of Speech in Venezuela 

32:15 Suppressing the Opposition 

37:30 The Oil Curse 

45:00 Healthcare Problems in Venezuela 

51:15 The Refugee Crisis 

57:15 The International Response to Venezuela’s Downfall 

1:08:30 How to Get Involved and What We Can Do   

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Karen is the CEO of Bridge Communities, and President and CEO of AIW Group. She has more than 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience. As VP of nutrition, she led McDonald’s negotiating team with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. A champion and thought leader in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership, she is an accomplished keynote speaker and soon to be a published author.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-wells-ab8708126/ 

0:50 - Karen’s Background (She’s Kind of a Big Deal!)

8:00 - Case Study: Kimi Gray 

11:00 -  Some Historical Context

13:00 - Poverty in America by the Numbers

17:00 - 4 Categories of Poverty

22:15 - The Role of Government in Alleviating Poverty

28:00 - How the Human Factor Complicates Policy

35:50 - Challenges and Areas for Reform

46:00 - The Poverty Trap & the Income Leap

50:50 - The Local Approach 

1:02:00 - Measuring Income Disparity

1:06:50 - Universal Basic Income and Minimum Wage

1:17:10 - The Importance of Mentorship

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Kim Borchers is the President and Owner of Bird Dog Recruitment & Consulting LLC. She also served as the Executive Director of Leadership Development at a National Think Tank called The Foundation for Government Accountability. She’s spent 20 years in grassroots movements and was Chief of Staff for Governor Sam Brownback in Kansas.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-borchers-8758385/

5:45 - How to successfully engage with your community

9:00 - Introduction: What is civic engagement?

9:50 - Benjamin Franklin on the responsibility of citizens to protect the republic

16:50 - Eric Liu video: why ordinary people need to understand power

17:20 - Putting it in Context

19:30 - The values promoted by civic engagement

27:30 - Democracy in America by Alexis de Toqueville

34:10 - Free To Choose by Milton and Rose D. Friedman 

36:30 - Current Challenges and Areas for Reform

40:30 - The courage to elevate the conversation

41:40 - Media and the dangers of confirmation bias

59:30 - Citizen academies

1:07:30 - Path to civic leadership

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As Thomas Jefferson remarked to James Madison, “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people…They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” Yet the U.S. Constitution does not address education directly, and there is much disagreement around how we, as a nation, should ensure both the quality and equality of our education system. The Policy Circle brief up for discussion this week is Education K-12, and Sylvie and Beth tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our education system. Do we need a Federal Department of Education, or should the question of how best to educate children be left entirely to the states? How should educational funding be spent, and how can we ensure equity in the distribution of that funding? Why do our national test scores rank so far behind other countries? How can we, as individual citizens, help fix these and other problems in our educational system? We hope you’ll read along, and start a discussion of your own.

Beth Feeley is a freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist in Wilmette, Illinois, working mainly for nonprofit organizations. She served as launch director for 1776 Unites at the Woodson Center. She is also the co-leader, along with Sylvie Legere, of the Rose Friedman Society Policy Circle. Her work has been published in National Review Online and The Federalist. Beth also runs a local civic organization, New Trier Neighbors, which promotes common sense policies in local government. Beth lives in the north suburbs of Chicago with her husband and three children. She is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio (B.A.) and Northwestern University (M.S.).  

https://1776unites.com/contributors/beth-feeley/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-feeley-132a8a61/

5:50 Historical overview of education in America

16:31 Educational spending vs. results

23:00 Funding gaps across schools

26:10 U.S. student performance as compared with other countries

30:30 Teaching quality matters: teacher performance & pay

40:10 The real story behind declining teacher pay

44:00 Protecting the gains from early childhood education

48:30 Rural education - getting our national priorities online

49:30 Lifting the stigma on Technical Education

53:00 Combating summer loss & rethinking the school calendar

55:10 Who’s in charge of U.S. education?

1:00:30 How can we help? Principles of reform & what you can do to make a difference.

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Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy. When the voting public loses confidence in the sanctity of our electoral system, our entire political system is in jeopardy. This brief covers the set-up of U.S. elections, common types of election fraud, and ways active citizens like you can help ensure election integrity.

Our goal is to offer unbiased fact based information that acts as a starting point for you to get involved and have a larger positive impact on your community.

When it comes to civic and community leadership most of us don't know where to start and we definitely don't feel we have all the facts. That’s why each episode of The Civic Leader goes beyond the headlines to bring you facts and data points that will help you understand the role of business, government and its citizens to solve society's greatest challenges.

2:58 Election Integrity in 2020: why it’s as crucial as it is challenging

6:27 Election Day: An Overview

7:48 How Elections Are Organized & Run

8:12 What is a voting precinct?

12:14 Technological advances in voting and the new challenges they pose

18:01 Two important roles at the polls: election judges and poll watchers

23:17 Election Fraud

25:46 truethevote.org

26:32 What does election fraud look like?

32:58 Why 100% turnout in any precinct raises red flags

34:40 What You Can Do

39:30 Requirements to be an election judge

44:38 How to become a poll watcher

51:52 Poll Watching at Nursing Homes

1:00:04 Closing a precinct

Explore the full election series.

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The Civic Leader is a podcast for active U.S. citizens who want to stay informed and get involved in politics. Each week, our host and a distinguished guest read and discuss a brief on a topic that affects us all. To stay updated on the podcast launch and upcoming episodes...

Subscribe to TCL on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR03IkIycQdu5B-4b8xsDyg