Hi, my name is Sandy Baird and we're here for another session of the Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement, Vicki, and we're talking tonight about town meetings and what happened in Burlington last night. Let me begin by saying that a little bit about why I think that town meeting is such an important topic. I think town meeting originated, the idea of town meetings originated really in Athens and Greece prior to what we call now the BCE, before the common era or before Christ. And town meetings existed in Athens and as far as I know, in other Greek cities, as far as I know, there were no real ideas of democracy or town meetings prior to that. For instance, in the other civilized parts of the globe at that time, which were China, Africa, and the New World, although I don't know much about the New World in particular. But town meeting was the idea that every man at that time had the right to speak and decide the policies of their city. And there was no overriding state that would tell the towns what to do, that major decisions were made in a face-to-face democratic tradition where people had the chance to debate with each other and to come to some consensus about what the policy would be. Those city states, Athens, Sparta, and other city states were essentially units on their own with no overriding federal government. There was no idea of Greece or a Greece federal state. There were only city states, Athens, Sparta. And there were many, many differences between them. I was just reading in a book that I picked up the other day called Metropolis, how Athens believed in citizen-to-citizen exchange, a lively politics. And that is where the word politics comes from. Politics comes from the word polis and the city, the town meetings in Athens and so forth. Those were called poli and Athens was a polis. And that's where politics come from. The idea of direct face-to-face discussions, debates, and then coming to some kind of a decision mainly about policies, how you would govern your own town. It was very different. So in our tradition, that would be called a direct democracy. Everybody heard that word before? Direct democracy. And that's the difference. Our system, at least nationally, is not a direct democracy. We call the United States a democracy, but it is not a democracy. Everybody know what legal form the United States does take? What is the legal form? It's on every citizenship test, by the way. Republic. It's a republic, I said that right. And what's the difference between the two? Okay, so you have direct democracy, town meetings, face-to-face. That's why I think that this COVID thing is so lethal to town meetings, actually. However, so that's direct democracy. The United States adopted sort of part of that tradition of town meetings, which I'll get to in a minute. But what is the national form of our government? It's not a democracy at all. It's a republic. And if it's important, a republic, I think, is an improvement over kingdom and monarchies. But what is a republic? What is the key difference between that and a democracy? It's a representative. Yeah, it's a representative. In other words, every two, every four years, we go to the polls and we elect somebody who will carry out our mission of face-to-face or rather direct democracy in the state house. We get a chance to talk to each other, have debates, and then they vote on policies. And we vote them to do that job for us, right? And that's really a republic. But there are still very few republics in the world, if you think about it. Republics exist largely in the European world, in the New World, in the Americas, and in the United States. And not so much in Europe. And not so much in Europe. But it's still mostly monarchies, okay? So a republic is based on the notion, as Abraham Lincoln described it, of of, by, and for the people, sovereignty comes from below up to the top. We consent to our government. We don't think we do, but we do every four years, right? It doesn't feel like that often. But that's the theory of a republic. Democracy comes from below up to our representatives. We vote for those guys. But still we have control over, supposedly over our government. And we consent to being governed, don't we? So which is the most active democracy at the moment? What country? You tell me. I don't have an opinion. I don't really have an opinion because I don't think, well, I think Westford is the most direct democracy. Westford and, you know, Montgomery and Richmond and the towns of New England. Another really critical thought to have about direct democracy is that they, direct democracies exist in New England only. Did you all know that? Town meetings did not in any other country, what? And not in any other country. Not in any other part of our country. No. But it occurs in Switzerland. Does, yeah. And Switzerland even has militias that are citizen militias. Everybody in Switzerland has to have a gun for self-defense. And for, that's what their armies are. Switzerland does. But you've got to remember something about Switzerland that's very interesting. Switzerland has never been a monarchy. Switzerland is a republic and has been forever. All of the other European countries have been monarchies or are still monarchies. And I really want to point out something. And it's really why I love, in a way, I love the United States for this reason. We got rid of monarchy, right? Yep. Okay, so monarchy means the rule of one monarchy, the rule of one person who is who passes on his title to his children, right? You do not consent in a monarchy to the rule of a monarch. It is God given in a way. A monarchy results from somebody being born into the monarchical family, right? England can call itself a democracy. It's in no way a democracy. I had a big fight with a student in my class. An ongoing fight with this kid, because I said there's only one monarchy in the whole new world. And by the new world, everybody knows what I'm talking about. The new world is North, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. That's the new world. There isn't, there's only one monarchy in the new world. Canada. Canada, is it? Canada, is it?  What?  It is the head of the state. This is a fight we've been having for years. Canada is a ruler. Let me make my point. Let me make my point. You say monarchy is rule of one. What about parliament? I see that. Tomorrow, parliament can say screw the king, screw the queen. They no longer have any say in anything. That's not correct. But let me finish my point about my student. So I was always fighting with this one student about Canada being a monarchy or not. And he would always say what Barry says. Well, the queen of England can pro-robe the parliament. In other words, a queen can and has done that. She could write quite recently, right? The queen of England can say the parliament's not meeting right now and suspend it. OK, when I said that to my student, he kept arguing me all the time, blah, blah. So I said, OK, so he finally, under my direction, took students both to Quebec and Montreal and Quebec City, and then he took them to Ottawa. He, you know, I prepared the trip. He goes to Ottawa and he's given a pamphlet. He walks in the door of the parliament. He's given a pamphlet called, says Canada, constitutional monarchy. So I won my fight with him. But the point is, is that Canada's head of state is still the monarchy. As is, I think, Australia voted to keep the monarchy and so forth. It's true what Barry says, that parliament has something to say about stuff, certainly. But the queen can decide to pro- to get rid of the parliament, to suspend the parliament. And the queen is still technically the monarch of the whole empire, really, the whole British empire and the Commonwealth. And I'll tell you how did, in the New World, how did these countries that have been established, why, and how did they become even republics? They became republics by throwing off the monarchy and creating republics. That was true in the United States when it had the revolution between 1776 and the beginning of the Constitution in 1781 and then 1887, we became a republic deliberately so, right? Or not, did we? I mean, do you all agree that that happened or not? I mean, many, many, I think, very progressive people do not agree that the United States has even had any progressive past. That was a revolutionary transformation to me during the American Revolution when we decided as a people to become a republic rather than a monarchy. Because George Washington could have. He could have been a monarch. And he chose what? What did he choose at the end of his two terms? Anybody know? He chose to go home and be a gentleman farmer and have an election. He could have been, he could have been a monarch. Many people within the revolutionary movement wanted him to be a monarch. And he chose not to. That happened in the United States when it became the United States. It happened all throughout Latin America. And Robin knows this, right? About Simon Bolivar, who took a revolutionary tradition throughout all of South America and all of South American countries are republics, correct? Yes, no. People know that. And the reason that they did was that they defeated, first, the United States defeated the British monarchy. Second, all throughout Latin America, the Spanish-speaking countries threw off the Spanish monarch. Brazil threw off the Portuguese monarch eventually. And throughout the Caribbean, especially in Haiti, Haiti became free and independent black republic by defeating the French. OK, so the Republican movement really swept the New World and many parts of the European world. But the only place that has direct democracy, town meetings, is really in New England. And I guess Switzerland. I don't know, do you know any other places that has direct democracy of town meeting? No, I don't know. Anyone else? And again, the tradition of town meeting is really, really, I believe, important. You might argue that Athenian democracy didn't work because it didn't include women. That's true. It didn't include slaves. That's true. Like our initial republic also didn't include women or slaves. However, as time went on, the American republic eliminated slavery. And it also included women in the Polis or in the republic. But only in town meeting is there in this country a direct democracy. Lou, are you going to say something? Yeah, I wanted to ask, why didn't it go beyond New England town meetings? There are many reasons. But I mean, it's a very interesting historical question. This part of the United States, New England, is the oldest part of North America, at least of the English-speaking North America. There were settlements and colonies in South America. But New England was the first place that established real settled areas of Anglo funds, people who spoke English. At that time, it was like the end of the Middle Ages, in a way. And the European towns always had revolved around the church and kind of a marketplace. And that's the kind of model that was set up in New England. So there was a whole sense of having a town and having communities that would cooperate with each other and form this new society. But the land, really, in the town also had a lot of commonly owned areas, public areas. But as settlers went west, what do you think they were looking for? That wasn't in New England. They were looking for land, right? And so what they did, at least as they went west, is land became more or less a commodity. And what would happen is people settled in the west, they established different kinds of, they didn't really establish communities. Often they would establish a homestead or a farm with acres and acres of land. And village life wasn't as important as it was in New England. So New England had the whole notion of a town and community. But as people went west to collect land, it became more of an idea of a homestead farm with a lot, a lot of acres. And many times, especially women sitting in their houses alone and often stir crazy, right? So it just, it also was the whole idea that land was to be profitable, rather than to be owned and operated by a community of people. But all of it involved, of course, especially west, also in New England, taking away that land from the Native Americans, right? And that happened in New England through wars with the Indians and wars all over New England as well. But the New England patterns of settlement were very different than settlement as it moved west. And so that was the government that existed. Another reason, of course, was in New England, the government that existed was in London, way away, correct? And so the local government was much more able to operate as a local government free of the restraints of the imperial power. Then as it went west, it was really governed by Americans more and more, and it was homesteading, which was a creation of like one house in the middle of all these acres of land to be worked as a farm and really developed in a totally different way. So I just want to mention one other thing before I let Barry chime in about what happened yesterday in his town meeting or what happened. Maybe I don't know what you did in Richmond. When I was in the state house, there were some traditions that were kind of left from the town meeting that operated in the state house. One of them was, and I remember thinking that it was a good idea, one of the things that you could only vote and talk if you were sitting in your seat. You had to be, it was, there was no proxy, there were no screens that you could press buttons and show how you voted. You had to be in your seat in order to vote and in order to talk, similar in town meeting. In a town meeting, unless until COVID, you had to be at the town meeting and you had to raise your hand and you had to vote in public, as far as I understand it. I went to a town meeting a couple of times. The last one I went to was with Ike actually. I went out to the Richmond town meeting and as far as I know, Ike, that's the way it happened, right? That you had to be there in order to vote. No Australian ballots, in other words, no mail-in ballots. No ballots at all, right? Oh, in Richmond, we did have Australian ballots on the major, major money questions. That was all set, as well as the select board members and all that stuff. It's all been pushed over to Australian ballot, unfortunately. Can you explain or Barry maybe can explain what it means? Because Grant asked me to. Australian ballot is a written ballot, correct? Right, it has to be passed by the select board and agreed to so many weeks before the town meeting and you go in and you vote, you put your check mark, yes or no on this or that item or that person. Is there debate? Is there debate? There's no debate about any elected officials anymore and there's no debate about the major expenditures. Those debates happen beforehand. Unfortunately, one of the losses in not having the town meeting, of course, is that you could go to a town meeting and not be sure which way you want to vote, and you could listen to both sides of an argument and maybe get educated to a better decision. But Frontport Forum has supplanted a lot of that and it's done a good job here in Richmond. The Frontport Forum in Burlington has done a good job too, except that you don't vote on anything after you listen or after you read all the stuff that's on Frontport, it doesn't lead to a vote. At least I think it's good about education, actually around the issues, but town meeting, there would be a vote at the end and you'd have to vote in person and by voice, right? Okay, Barry, why don't you? Anyway, so all of this, it seems to me, has been altered, if not totally. I would hate to say that, I hope it's not true. I wonder about the future of town meetings, there's been numbers of criticisms about town meetings, number one of which people don't show up a lot, and there has been the attempt often to do all this by ballot, which of course has been done this year, I believe, but maybe Barry and I can tell us what happened to town meeting this year because of COVID, I guess, right, Barry? Yeah, well, this year we didn't have town meetings, we had an Australian ballot. Let me start by describing an ordinary town meeting in Montgomery. The Select Board and the Budget Committee prepare a proposed budget and it's got many, many line items. We go over them and any one of them can be changed from the floor, there's debate if anybody wants to debate. We also vote on salaries. We vote for candidates and there's no, the nomination process comes from the floor, somebody nominates a person for the Select Board or Planning Commission or whatever, and then there's a vote. Certain positions are required to be by paper ballot and Select Board, the only one I can think of off hand, probably also a treasure and town clerk, but we don't have town clerk anymore, we've switched to municipal clerk, which means the Select Board appoints the clerk and controls the job. Let's see, so, but on any item, let's say we're discussing whether or not to approve a budget to go to approve a contract with the Sheriff's Department for police services. When it's ready, after the discussed and something like that will be discussed for an hour, somebody can make a motion to, what do you call, for a paper ballot, it has a more formal name than that, and I forgot what it is, but somebody can move and if seven people stand requesting paper ballot, it will be done by paper ballot. But in general, there is discussion and debate among citizens, correct? It's every, yeah, everybody there, the only people who can talk are residents of the town unless voted, unless approved by the floor. So for instance, our state representative who lives in Enosburg wants to make a statement about what a great job they're doing in the state house. She needs permission from the floor to do so, and we always give it to them. Yeah, because she's not a resident, right? Not a resident, yeah, she's in Enosburg. How about you, like, what happens in the normal town meeting? Well, Lee, so much of it has already been supplanted by the Australian ballot here at Richmond. I mean, all the big money items, the bonds, the election of various officials, they feel like it allows more people to vote because they can't come to the meeting because it's on a Tuesday when people work. So, you know, it's already, we've lost a lot here at Richmond. Right. Okay, so what does get discussed, like, what does get discussed there? What does get discussed there, they, that's a good question. Some of the budget ends up being discussed even though it doesn't get voted on and things get discussed in other business and other business in Vermont is a long history of affecting the towns, the state and the nation. I mean, 150 towns voted for the nuclear freeze in Vermont and affected the nation. The town of Weston, my father and some others voted, brought up in the other business that we should get out of El Salvador. And it passed and they, the ambassador to the U.S. from El Salvador came and spoke to us and we came up from Brattleboro at that time and packed the place. It was quite an event. Amazing. And I brought up a couple of years ago. I said, I didn't want F-35s flying over Richmond for the fourth of July parade or it was actually F-16s at the time. And we passed it, but it was passed by like 70 to 50, something like that. There weren't that many people left at that time but it caused an uproar in the town. Well, I remember once hearing that Brattleboro voted, remember the town meeting voted to indict George Bush. Remember that? Because they regarded him as a war criminal. So they basically said Bush better not come here to Brattleboro, we'll arrest him anyway. And also- So much they know about the legal process. Yeah, the nuclear freeze, that was back in the 90s, or 80s even, I think. And I remember that was to freeze nuclear power, wasn't it, as well as nuclear weapons or not, both? No, it's just the nuclear weapons. Okay, but I remember then that there was, I went to New York after that vote, City, where there was a big march against nuclear power and there are 39 or so towns from Vermont that were represented in that march. It was terrific, you know? And they all had come from the towns of Vermont who had voted. See, that's another thing that is totally absent, I think, during COVID is that at a town meeting, there are usually a chance to debate national issues. And it has no binding effect like Ike and Richmond because they voted not to have after F-16s fly over Richmond. I mean, it's a very little way to enforce that, correct? I mean, as far as I can tell- So did they fly? What? Did they fly that year? Oh, did they? No, they- They didn't fly, right? It ended up being canceled. Well, for the July parade ended up being canceled. Oh. Was it? But they, yeah, because of COVID. Oh. Oh, most recently. It was a year before last. And so last. But the year before that, they had flown over for a very long time. Right, and I had a chance to discuss that though at the town meeting. Isn't that the one that I was with you at, Mamie? Yeah. Yeah. You could discuss these issues with citizens, ordinary citizens. It wasn't governed by party. It wasn't governed by anything, except that you were both common citizens of that town and that you could debate it and then have a voice vote that is very different than having a Republican sending off your politicians to make decisions often that end up not being what you want them to decide. Anyway, Barry, what are we gonna say? Barry? Well, let's see. There's another element of direct democracy that I believe is in every town in Vermont. The legislative body passes an ordinance. It does so without any say so on the part of the residents. But if people get put together a petition and in the smaller towns, it's 5%, which is fairly easy to obtain if there's a popular dissent. If they put together a petition to rescind the ordinance, the select board must hold a meeting to vote on that. And if the ordinance is defeated, it's done with. It's not in effect. And I believe that is possible for many things that are also decided at town meeting. And because it was being held, the select board, rather than putting it off till May when there was a good chance we could do it outdoors at least decided to do it by Australian ballot. I was against that. Didn't really have the opportunity to express it to the select board prior to them making the decision. And I need to double check the statute because if we can vote to rescind what was done at town meeting other than the elections of officers, I think I'm going to put together a petition so that we can have a town meeting at a time when people can, when it's a real town meeting. I agree. I agree. Lou, you had experience with town meetings. Yeah, pretty long time ago though, Sandy. So what? So what? Everything's a long time ago. Everything democratic seems a long time ago. Well, I don't know. The memory seems a long time ago too. Yeah, I just remember loving being there and listening to everybody talk about important things about their town. I remember that there was some, the fire department was really low on funds and they, I remember them asking the community to help in whatever way they could. And so, I know what we did was, I inherited some furniture from my mother-in-law and we gave it to the fire department to sell. And so raised some money for the fire department and other people contributed too. It was not unusual in Montgomery to spend 40 minutes debating whether or not to give $50 to the Humane Society. Right. Well, there couldn't be a better organization though than the Humane Society, right? Joe Anant... You want to get into a 40 minute argument about that? Yeah. Well, I'm sure you would be capable of doing that, Barry. Anyway, Joe Anant and Tim, did you ever go, do you go to your town meetings in Underhill? We haven't gone in a while, but we used to go religiously and of course, it was always a place to gather, to see socially... That's right. Yeah. But then of course, right, there was always, there were always a couple of personalities that shone, that kept on going. Or didn't. Or didn't. Or didn't. Or didn't. But it got them up and... But that was kind of what made it so close because you could talk to people, you could say to the person next to you, is that guy going to go on for another 10 minutes or 15 minutes? When do we have a lunch break? But it's true that we did discuss things like giving money to the fire department or the library issues, what could be done to make it more responsive to the community. I mean, those kinds of things that people felt like they were really participating in. Right. And that was what I remember of it. Right. How about you? Lou? Lou, what are you gonna say something? I'm just wondering, Joanne, do they still, do you still have town meeting in Underhill? Oh yes, until this year. This year, now we did not have one. But last year, they did. And we assume that they'll go back to it. I don't know. I hope so. Beth, were you gonna say something about Newport? She's from Newport.  Newport was fascinating. It was a very long time ago, but I remember an incredibly heated debate about whether or not to put fluoride in the school's water. And that happened in Berlin, so yeah. It was a really big deal. And I felt at the time, you know, it was there were people who talked about conspiracies and it was a byproduct of world... Nuclear or something. Nuclear aluminum. And I really didn't feel like I knew what the facts were from the discussion. And we had to vote. We had to decide. And what did you decide, if you don't mind my asking? I got, you know, this was 40 years ago. I think we decided to, in the end, there was someone who was very passionate about not doing it, but then the school nurse said we should do it. And I think the town then decided to vote in favor of it. But I also remember a conversation that really surprised me with some of the residents of Newport Center who said, we do not want our taxes for our school, the money that we spent on the school, to go to the library because we don't use the library. There was no sense whatsoever that the library was a resource for anyone other than the students for the homework. It was very, it was interesting. Was that the school library, Beth? Yep. Not the, no, no, it was the public library. Yeah. That what, what was the point? The students had what they needed at school. And so there was no sense that there was a need for a public library. Not everybody felt that way, but some people did. And it was just surprising to learn how people thought about things. Yeah. Yeah. So that was Newport Center. Okay, so was there, was there an existing public library that they were debating whether to continue funding or is it the start one? It was all, it's all coming back to me now. It was whether or not to support, to provide funds to the library in Newport, which was the community library. The thing I really appreciate and that I find I'm just kind of heartbroken about the lack of public spaces during COVID in particular, but in a city like Burlington, public spaces have been hugely diminished in the first place by development. But secondly, during COVID, there's almost no chance to have person to person direct meetings with each other. And I feel like I'm probably one of the only people that feel that way, but I've always thought that democracy can only thrive if you have vital thriving and vitally engaged public spaces, like libraries, like public schools, like public parks. And I guess that's why I thought that this discussion also could be important because during COVID at least, town meetings have virtually evaporated. Although I did hear five town meetings that did gather on the floor. Did anybody else hear that news? Yes, some of them. Now, if they could do it safely, I'm hoping other towns can do it at least soon, right? Well, some have postponed them, haven't they? Have them in April or May so that they can have an open. Is that true, Janet? And we're having outdoors. And outdoors, Barry? Yeah. Yeah. Because the beauty of a town meeting is everybody's equal, right? In town meeting, everybody's, you don't have political parties necessarily. Everybody is equal, correct? Yeah. Supposedly.  I mean, they don't get to influence through their money either. They have to have one vote like everybody else. So it really is not only public and open debate, but it's also very, really democratic, right? Yeah. And if you were a really, really good pie maker, you had more power then. That's right. You bring cookies to the meeting. If you're a really good, what? I missed the word. Pie maker. The maker of pies. Pastry. Oh. 3.14159. Yeah. So what's going to happen? Are we going to go back to town meetings next year? Yeah. Of course. I think so. Okay. Jim Kondo seems to like it this way, but we'll see, right? Jim Kondo is the secretary of state. What do you base that statement on? Because he so quickly moved to mail-in ballots, rather than thinking of ways around that to have open town meetings. So from that, you're assuming that he's, that he's a favor of doing it that way. You're saying that. I'm saying, I think what you said, I'm thinking we need to express our views and insist on the rebirth of town meetings. Would you like? Well, I'm going to try to bring Montgomery's this year back from the dead. Good. If I can. Yeah, Joanne. No, I'm just saying, I think that people in most towns are assuming that this is a temporary situation and that they're going to be able to have their town meeting next year. I don't think anyone wants to give that up. I don't either, but I think we might have to remind people of that pretty thorough going wish to keep town meetings as they are. Ike, what do you think? You even talked to the select board about it, haven't you? I have. Yes, I have, but I talked about the Australian ballot taking away some of the more democratic elements of the town meeting, but the intent of everybody in government and Richmond is to go back to town meetings as soon as possible. And they're apologetic for what had to happen this year. I do feel that. Did that happen last year too? I can't remember. Was it COVID last year or not? No, no, no, we had our town meeting. What about the fact though that, I mean, I think there's a tremendous value in that face to face in the community getting together. I, you know, moving from Newport to Burlington, missed that. But then how can we create a hybrid that allows people who have not had the opportunity to participate in their town government because of access? How can there be a hybrid so that they can do that as well as continuing the old model of getting together in person? Why can't you zoom for those people who can't be there in person? Right, I mean, we just, that's the hybrid that I need. Yeah, right. I mean, if people truly, if they live too far away, there's no transportation. I'm hoping that those people have some kind of a device that they can zoom in. I have had the horrible realization that many poor people don't have computers. They don't have the ability to zoom in. I had an experience today with an African woman who, you know, she was told by the court to zoom in and she doesn't have a computer. I had to tell her, you better come to my office and we'll do it together. But what do you do about poor people who don't have computers or the ability to do any, they don't have either transportation or computers to get to a town meeting? Right, well. One thing that middle sex has done according to the moderator, excuse me, in previous years they have their town meetings on Tuesday at 5.30 so that people coming off of work can make it there. And if they have limited time, they agree that at a set time, like 6.30, they're going to start voting on budget items and just skip some of the preliminary stuff that can be tossed off and done later so that those people who have limited time can come in for those. So that's one way of increasing availability for some folks. You're not gonna get everybody. Well, a lot of people aren't even interested. So they should be allowed to pursue their own interests and not come. I don't think that there's any mandate to be a citizen if you don't want to be. You just have to do it yourself. I'm surprised that in the list, the signup list for the expungement clinic. Yeah, oh my God, yeah. How many, there wasn't anyone who said no, they didn't have access to a computer. Every single one did. But we're not gonna do it on the computer. Well, it's gonna be again, a hybrid. Many of the people on the expungement clinic are gonna come to AALB and they're gonna use the phone. Right, well, I was just glad to see how many people have access. I wonder if more people have got access to computers because of COVID, were schools or children given access to computers where they didn't have them before? Or one, I just don't know. They gave everybody, didn't every student a computer? Did they, you know? I don't know about the students, but the Senior Center for Richmond Huntington and Alton received a grant to buy like 500 Chromebooks to give out to folks who can't afford computers. And it doesn't mean they can pay, they can't pay the monthly service charge. Right, that's true. We've included some teaching to try to help folks get online and understand it, but the Chromebooks allow you to get on to different video conferences and stuff where you can. But then that takes us to the issue of broadband. Yeah. Right, right there, pretty much. So, Beth, can I ask you a question? It's not totally related. But what do you mean by broadband? Do you mean like something like a Burlington telecom system? I mean just being able to hook up to the internet, period. Yeah, right. At a minimum speed. Yeah. Like I, my services do constipated communications, which took over from Fairpoint. And I don't seem to have any trouble on Zoom, except sometimes when people are talking, it sounds like it's dragged out. I don't know if that's from their end or my end, but Zoom seems to be okay. YouTube seems to be okay, but some things, it's just every half a minute or so, the video stops. Yeah.  I forgot, but that's cashing. You know, it's loading the cash. Well, but anyway, I mean, I think technology is fine in some instances, but there's nothing like face-to-face, I guess I would call it face-to-face, kind of organically, organic meetings between people to, I mean, first of all, it alters your mind. When you have to see somebody face-to-face, you're probably not going to end up hating each one. You might end up hating each other, but it's often bringing much more understanding to me than technology is capable of doing, although I agree with Beth that in some situations, it has to be a hybrid in order to make it. Yeah. You know, it's so interesting that there's town meeting, there's town meeting, and then there's the day after town meeting. Yeah. You may learn something that you didn't know about the person that works at the local corner store at a town meeting, which might change your opinion about them, but you still need to live with them the next day. So it's really interesting effect on the community as a whole and how to continue living together. And working together. That's funny. Yeah. Agreeing to disagree on how to get along. Yeah, are you right? Absolutely. Okay, I don't know whether we should particularly comment on the Burlington vote or not, because many of you are not from Burlington, but I did say that maybe we could share a few reflections about it. And anybody have anything to say about it? As you know, Mayor Weinberger won by 129 votes, that the charter changes were all passed. What were they? One of which is very controversial, but first of all, can I just say a few words when I woke up thinking, man, that was a squeaker from a row. This is, I bet you this is gonna be his last term. And the surprising thing was the strength of Max Tracy, who is not a particularly personable person, I guess, or not to me anyway, and that he is a progressive. And I think he'll probably be the next mayor. The charter changes were to me, one of them, some of them I didn't approve of many of them, but one of them that was the most controversial was the one that said landlords had to have a cause to evict somebody. So that means, if a landlord like me, I couldn't just, I have an apartment downstairs that my daughter now lives in and has for a very long time, but I have rented it. But it would mean that I wouldn't be able to simply kick somebody out that I didn't wanna be there. If that person had paid the rent and he hadn't destroyed the property, you would not be able to kick him out. You don't have to renew the lease, don't you? And also even if, exactly you cannot stop a lease either anymore. So at the end of the lease, you must re-up the lease? Yes. Yes. Re-up the lease or is it a month to month after that? No, you gotta keep them there. I know, but if you have a one-year lease, it expires on the 13th month. You can't kick them out without a cause, but must you sign a new lease with them? It's not clear. It's not clear. It's not clear. Not clear. Anyway, all of these changes have to be in, there's another tradition in Vermont, which is a bit questionable in my mind also that these charter changes have to be approved by the legislature anyway. And I would doubt that the eviction one will be approved by the legislature because the legislature like the city of Burlington has a lot of landlords and the landlords really don't like this, this. You think it will not be approved by the legislature? Correct, not that one. I don't think so. And the reason is, is, but well, first of all, I think most of many Vermonters put it this way, regard private property as the, that the owner has the right to do with his property or her property as they wish, which means getting rid of a tenant that you don't wanna be there. And I think most Vermonters probably think that way, maybe not, maybe I'm wrong. But if you look at the vote in Burlington, I was surprised it's not just that it passed, but how much it passed by. I am too. Burlington is a heavily rental city. Yeah. What was the vote on that? That's who the prog's organized. What, Barry? What was the vote on that? I don't know about that. It was pretty heavy though, right? 60 something to 30 something. Okay, you know, I had an interesting comment from one of my more conservative friends today who said the following. If you look at where Morro dominated and where Max Tracy dominated, Max Tracy took the wards that are full of tenants. Yes. And that's where the just cause eviction also really triumphed. Correct. Where Morro triumphed was places where people have to pay property taxes. So he said, my friend, when you look at the tax payers, which should be the property owners who pay property taxes, they voted for Morro and they voted against this just cause eviction. Tenants in those wards where the tenants predominate, that's where Max Tracy won. Well, that makes sense. And that's where the just cause eviction won also. Now, so in other words, this issue showed to me a class divide in Burlington paying tenants and people who own their own homes. Yeah. Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not saying that, but it's true. Max Tracy took what I call the Bolshevik wards. He took wards two, three. What else? Anybody know? He took the poor wards. He took the places where they, and my ward, ward one, where there are tenants, students and low-income people. Those are the wards that he predominated in and Morro did barely, however, in wards where Lou lives. Beth, did he take your ward two, five? I don't know. I didn't look by ward. I haven't done it yet. You can't believe you didn't look Morro. What? Morro took, he took my ward heavily. Remember, my ward is a student ward. This is, I live in tenants' bill. Okay, so one, four, and seven, and eight. He took the suburban kind of, uh... Who? Morro. Morro took the more... I must have taken this ward, I don't know. Grant, what ward do you live in? Five, which is the south end. South end, and Morro took that, I would assume. I can't believe he didn't, I didn't see the figures, but I can't believe he did not. I'm in the same ward, and I just don't know actually what... But Joan Shannon, who's a Democrat and a fairly conservative Democrat, did win in your ward. Yes, we got a lot. Against the progressive. So, Burlington is this odd situation because we don't have three parties, ranked voting one also. But, you know, we don't have three parties in Burlington anymore. We have two parties. Two wings, basically, of what would normally be the Democratic Party. The progressives and the Democrats, those are the... There are no Republicans, they've all vanished. Sandy, if the legislature agrees to rank voting, how is that going to affect politics in Burlington? I don't know anymore. It would have been at one point that you had three parties, but we don't have three parties. It's also only for the city council, right? Right, and it's only for city council races anyway. So, at one point, how I regarded ranked voting, and I'm against it, by the way, how I regarded it was a way that a third party got an unfair advantage. If you'll think about what happened in Burlington through ranked voting, the person who came in third was Bob Kiss, but he became mayor. And everybody goes, what? How did that happen? And that's why it was repealed. And that's why it was repealed, I think. Okay, we don't have three parties anymore. We have two parties in Burlington, the Pragues and the Democrats. There's not a Republican in sight, so I have no idea how it's gonna affect Burlington. Yeah, Beth, how do you think ranked choice voting will affect Burlington? I don't know, because I haven't thought about it in terms of city council. I should have realized sooner, and I can think about it in terms of like a mayor's race. Yeah. I think that the mayor's race would have come out differently. Yeah. If there has to go. How so? How would it have? I think that Max Tracy would have won. How? I think it was likely that some people who voted for Ali might have chosen, but I don't know. I'm just, I hope you can see what he won on the first round. Yeah, Maro won on the first round. He's on the first round. Right, right. So he didn't have to go to another round. No, but he didn't get 50%. Yeah, but you only need 40 in this town. Right. Yeah, you only need 40. So there won't be a runoff, because he got 40. So this is what happened in the rank vote, in the IRV thing when KISS won. Right. You knew it was gonna happen. Okay, so in KISS's race, you had KISS, a progressive.  And then you had Mont, Andy Montrell was a Democrat and Kurt Wright was the Republican.  And that's what happened. Mm-hmm. They're never gonna vote for each other second because they hate each other. They're Dems and the Republicans. And they didn't vote for Kurt. So Kurt came in first. Then there was, and did not win. He didn't get 40%. He came in first. So then there was a recount. Did not win. And then Montrell came in second. Did not win. But did not win, because he didn't get 40%. Plus, I think people just don't know how the system works in terms of, okay, given that I like this candidate and honestly, I don't want any of the other candidates. If you vote for first choice, the same person for second choice, the same person for third choice. I don't know if you're allowed to do that or not effective. So it makes voting complicated for people to really understand the effect of their vote, I think. That's exactly one of the big troubles, was it? In my experience, you ask somebody to explain exactly how it works and they can't. Well, that's one thing I was gonna ask. Exactly, it's very confusing. Yeah. I like that. One thing about voting for your candidates, you can bullet vote, but you get to vote only the first round, then you're out. Then you're out, right. But anywhere reruns, you're out because you lost your vote on the first round and that's it. And it doesn't keep counting after that. I'm very against it, as you can tell. And it was a catastrophe the last time we had it. And it's a bad news that it passed this time. Lou and I were really against it. I got a little trophy for leading the debate, you remember that? Yes. Man, oh man, because I knew that what would happen would be that KISS would win that way. So I regarded it as a kind of a gimmick to elect a person who didn't come in first. Kurt Wright came in first and he came in first the second time. He just didn't get 40%. Yeah, I don't, you know, one of the things that's interesting, Sandy, when we were debating this last time was not COVID time. Yeah. We went around to different awards and talked to different people to try to give them another perspective on the ranked choice voting that maybe people hadn't thought about. And I think, I don't know, did anybody else hear any debates about that? What were the pros and cons? Did anybody hear that? Before the election? On my front porch forum there was, including me, but there are other people too that had some of the biggest pieces about ranked choice voting. So in every case, very against it on my front porch forum. But anyway, that one and that will be, that I probably think might be approved by the legislature. But okay, so it's only for the city council races, which nobody even, two people don't often run in a city council. Like my guy, Jack Hansen, he's never opposed. What's it, who's gonna rank that one, two, three? It's insane. Anyway, so that's everything past all, including this weird, Beth, how about the electric one? I'm glad it passed. I think it's- But what is it? It doesn't really mean that if you don't switch, you're gonna be fine? No, no, not at all. And that's, you know, that's the only, my only problem is how poorly people understand it. Yes. You know, but I think that, and I don't think it's very well-developed, but I think in concept, it's the right thing to do for climate change. And I think it'll have to get, well, yeah, would have to get more fully developed to go to the legislature. I think, okay. I don't think that you can develop- Appreciate it. Carbon neutral. We develop something to put, I think it has to go to the legislature as is, but I don't- As it is, yeah. Anyway, so Moral is a squeaker, 129 votes. I think it means that he's gonna be rather a lame duck mayor. He's very weak at this point. A friend of mine said that probably what's gonna happen is that we're gonna have like two mayors, Max Tracy and Moral butting heads 100% of the time. Doesn't seem really great to me, but I think that's my thought. Anybody have any different thoughts before we close for the evening? Yeah. Moral, when he conceded acknowledged that he had work to do to cooperate with the progressives, Max Tracy in his concession said not a word about cooperating. All he said was, oh, I lost by so little. I'm really sad. I was so hard to lose. He had not one word of handing out a hand to welcome Moral acknowledging good faith that he had won. That's a really interesting analysis because that's the way city council has been for the past how many years. It's really, it's like so painful. And this whole development agreement that's gonna happen, that's gonna be, they voted to do that, but I think they're gonna be increasing problems about that. And I don't think that the progressives wanted to approve it either. So I think that, and I happen to think that the city is in deep trouble financially as well. And unless they cooperate, I just think the city's really, really in trouble. And I'm sorry to say that because I love cities. I really love cities. And I was downtown today, I got my haircut. And a lot of empty clothes, businesses, the streets are pretty empty, a lot of parking spaces. Something's gotta give, it seems to me. But anyway, thank you all. And I'm so glad that we had this discussion about my favorite form of government so that we could go. I would love to have, for instance, real debates, which is not possible in our city, but I'm happy that you guys can still do it. Alu, what are you gonna say? No, I've got to just say that we had a little bit of a debate and it's not impossible to do it via Zoom, much better in person. So looking forward to springtime, maybe when we can do this in person. Yes, okay. Well, thank you all. Thanks for those thoughts of you from the Hinterlands for showing up. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Not Zoom. Yeah, I'm glad you did. Yeah, thank you. Bye, everyone. Bye.


Good morning everyone. Now we will be discussing about communication and identity construction. A topic that I believe most of us are conscious and wary about especially with today's age. A lot of the millennials, a lot of the younger generation are actually quite confused about who they are as individuals. So before we start with our deeper discussion on the different theories of identity, we have to first discuss the three dimensions of the self. These are actually very integral in order to make us know and appreciate ourselves better and to make us realize that our self is not just what we see in front of the mirror. There are actually different dimensions to our one self. So first we go now to the material self. Obviously when we talk about something that is material, we talk about something that we see, we talk about something that we something that we can feel. When we look in front of the mirror, this is the material self that we have but more than just the material physical face that we have, we also talk about your body movements, the gestures that you have, how stiff you are, how confident you are when you're walking, the kinds of voice that you use, all of these are part of your material self. But we move on and we now discuss the second dimension which is the social self. So when we're trying to discuss the social self, we have to keep in mind that when we try to discuss ourselves as human beings, we're not only referring to ourselves as what we see in the mirror. We also try to include what do people know of us? Are you someone who is known as a loner? Are you an anti-social? Or are you someone who is very good with communicating with other people? These different categories of yourself or how people know you to be you are also considered as a social self. But we also have the more important one and this is normally the one that we neglect the most, the spiritual self. So before we move on, we have to discuss first, when you talk about the spiritual self, we're not actually referring to something religious or something transcendental. We're only simply referring to the mechanisms in our brain, the mental processes, the thought processes that we have because this composes our spiritual self. So we discuss here, what are your values? What are your aspirations? Most of you are in freshman or probably graduating and a lot of you probably don't know yet what you want to pursue when you graduate. When we talk about the spiritual self, we also discuss what are your belief systems? What are your ideologies? The things that compose the abstract parts of yourself and the things that you want to pursue later on. So when we look at these three concepts of the material, social, and spiritual self, we have to keep in mind that we could have some downsides if we focus too much on one aspect. Say for example, a focus on the material self. We are running the tendency and we see this a lot, especially with the onset of Instagram or Facebook or Twitter and the incessant need and tendency to just take a picture of yourself in front of the mirror or take a lot of selfies. A focus of too much on the material self will have you running the risk of being a narcissistic individual. On the other hand, people who focus too much on the social self are running the risk of becoming known as people pleasers. Why do we say this? Because when you focus too much on the social aspect of yourself, what you just want to do is simply to be able to please other people. Sometimes even to the detriment of yourself, sometimes even if it is too hard on your part already, but because you want to keep on pleasing whatever it is that other people are asking from you, then you are running the risk of being known as a people pleaser. On the other hand, and this is where the problem lies, a lot of people are focused on the material and even the social self, and they are sometimes forgetting the spiritual aspect. If we do not know ourselves or sometimes if we only know ourselves only through what we see in front of the mirror or we only know ourselves only because of what we hear from other people say about us, then we are running the tendency to fall into a lack of knowing our self concept. And with these, we will see a lot of problems that may arise as we progress. So we now move on to the, these are several concepts in relation to the concept of the self that we all know, we all hear, we all throw around these words, but what do these words actually mean? So we will briefly go through this one by one. First we had the concept of the self or what we call a self concept. Self concept is these are the things that you know about yourself, but the one thing that we have to remember and one thing that I always tell my students to keep in mind when we discuss the concept of the self concept is that you have the power to choose whether you want to integrate that concept of yourself to yourself. So what do we mean by this? Sometimes you hear some people, they say some things about you that you don't necessarily agree with, things that you won't say that, I really don't understand this, or someone is gone, that's not really me. So when we discuss the concept of self concept, we have to keep in mind that you have the power, you have the agency to decide whether or not you want to make that narinigmo saiban tao as part of your self concept or not. So in short, we should not be hearing or we should not be caught off guard saying that eh, eto wa huwe kasi iti sinabi naiban tao to huzakin. So we should not be falling under the trap simply because we have the capacity and the agency to stop and not retain it as part of our self concept. Next is we have the concept of self awareness. So dito ba ka medyo pumasuk yung concept na yoga or transcendence and things like this. But when we talk about self awareness in relation to self concept, this only refers to what we know of our self. So if you, most of you I believe have gone through a case 11 and 12 already and you probably have heard of the Johari window. So what is the significance of the Johari window here? The Johari window will has four pains. So we have the open pain, the blind pain, the hidden pain and the unknown. So the open pain discusses the things that you know of yourself and what other people know about you. So this refers to your name, your age, where you live, what you look like. These are the things that you don't keep from other people because it's pretty obvious already. And the next sense we have the hidden pain. For the hidden pain, we talk about the things that you know about yourself but you are hiding from other people. So probably some people have the hidden pain as the biggest of all the four pains simply because they have a lot of things that they keep to themselves. The things that you know the deepest darkest, the things that you are very worried that other people find out about you. So a lot of people try to keep the hidden really hidden. The third pain is we have the blind the blind pain. So from the term itself it's blind meaning we are blinded to it. These are the things that other people know about us but things that probably are we are not really aware about ourselves. So how would you know what you put in the blind pain? Normally this would come about when you ask other people. So whenever I have my students do the johari window, sometimes they get surprised and they always tell them that they shouldn't fight or quarrel with the one who has included things there because sometimes we're not just aware that we're doing things that might be wrong or might be problematic to some people but it's good that we hear from other people because then we become more aware of it and there's something that we can do to change it. And then the last pain is the unknown pain. What do we put? You don't know it. I don't know it. No one knows it. So what are the things that we include in the unknown pain? So we put here the things that our future. We don't know what our future is. We don't know the time of death. We don't know what career you will have five, ten years from now. When you graduate, will you immediately go to work or will you be someone who's going to be a bump for seven months like me? You know, things like this. So these are the four different pains that when we are more aware of it then we will be able to manage our self-awareness more. So the third one is self-confidence. It's one of the buzzwords that we keep throwing around. So what are we exactly referring to when we talk about self-confidence? Self-confidence refers to your belief in yourself. This is how you feel that you are able to handle yourselves in certain situations. Your belief in your ability to do something. That's what we call as self-confidence. So normally, when self-awareness is lower or you don't know yourself much then it will follow that because you don't know yourself much you don't have the confidence to do things because you don't know what your weaknesses what your strengths are. It would be harder for you to grapple with it and it would be harder for you to address what your weaknesses are. So for this we have, so might give a natin from self-concept down to self-awareness which will hopefully lead to self-confidence and the next is to have self-esteem. Self-esteem is simply the value that you put on yourself. This is the value that you place on yourself simply because you believe because you already know what your strengths and your weaknesses are. You know what the things that you have to work on are so because you already know all of these things you are now more able to believe in yourself and to put value or esteem in yourself. With all four discussions here would become these are all mood points if you are not able to discuss self-understanding. Self-understanding is very very important and for me I believe that of the five this is what we have to really sit down and understand well about ourselves. So what is self-understanding? Self-understanding simply means that this is our healthy view of our self. So when we talk about a healthy view of our self we're referring to both the good and the bad. We talk about the what are the worst things that you have done in your life, what are the best things that you envision yourself that you could do and this is a whole wide spectrum. So when we talk about self-understanding what we have to keep in mind here is we're not just trying to understand or to keep in mind that I etowako you just discussed all of the good things. When we talk about self-understanding we also have to keep in mind that oh oh i kauto pero i kautin to. So it's a whole spectrum of things both good and bad and for us to be able to keep ourselves grounded in order for us to not be you know to fall into sadness or depression because there are a lot of things unrealistic things that we are pressuring ourselves with one good thing to keep in mind is that we have to be able to understand and accept all good and bad from ourselves. So these are the five different concepts of the self and hopefully it will it has already given you better understanding in order for us to to move along to the other parts of identity construction because it is essential as we will see in what we have the five concepts that we discussed this is a focus on the self only but when we look at the other theories we will see that when we really talk about our identity it's not just really about ourselves only we will see this as we prepare to look at this one. TS Eliot has once said prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet. Prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet so what do we mean by this exactly? Number one we have to keep in mind that when we talk about the face we're not only referring to your physical face that you see in the mirror when we talk about the face well according to to Stella Pink to me the face is the projected self-image this is the face that you prepare the self-image that you prepare in order to project to other people depending on what you want to be perceived by then that is the that is the kind of face that you will be preparing to meet but the important thing to keep note here is that we are also preparing a face to meet other faces that we're meeting and I think this is one thing that we have to keep in mind because the fact that sometimes we're so engrossed with looking at ourselves and trying to be the best kinds of individuals that we are but when we go in with other people we will be surprised that these people have different faces as well so what does it mean we're all preparing faces we're all different faces so that one face that you meet will not always be that face that would it could be a different face on a different occasion depending on the on a different situation it would be different so what is the bottom line here because we are all preparing faces number one we have to keep in mind that we have to have a concept of decorum the concept of mutual politeness mutual respect why because even if for example I am super mad at someone especially when you watch the news now there are a lot of things that will make us mad and it's very easy to just curse at people it's very easy to just to just say that you know they're bobo or something like that but when we keep in mind that we have to prepare our face to meet other faces then we have to keep in mind that what we're doing is actually preparing to meet also the worst in them and because we want to see we are realizing and acknowledging the fact that we all have the worst in us that when we are preparing our face to meet these different faces we are already projecting what we can be the best that we can be so that when we meet that negative one we won't stoop down to that level why because when you talk about our identity construction remember we have to keep in mind when we talk about ourselves it also includes how other people what other people know of us and if other people know know of us to be people who are you know easily angered people who easily lose hope or well that could cause us a problem for us so our self identity as well so we always have to keep in mind that because we are all preparing different kinds of faces we have to keep our best faces up front and when with that statement though we always have to be prepared with keeping our best faces forward then it would seem that what we are actually doing is sort of a it's pretentious to say the least no it could be pretentious but actually what we are discussing here now is the concept of Goffman presentation of self so what do we when we look about when we look at the presentation of self and we talk about geometry simply what this is referring to is the fact that all of us each individual we all have our front stage in our backstage front stage you can imagine when you are in front of the stage you are a different actor you are portraying whatever other elements are there whatever your whatever character it is that you want to portray then that's what you portray so each one of us have our own front stage and this front stage front stage may be different from other people so this is because we have different front stages with different individuals this is where the props come in so when we talk about props you talk about the different sometimes the clothing the artifacts that we have the different non-verbal elements that we have sometimes even how we talk how we walk all of these we are projecting to other people simply because we want to impress them this is where impression management comes in because because as we said a while ago we are preparing a different kind of face to each individual that we need we are trying to manage our impressions on them and because we are trying to manage our impressions on them how I am now in front of you is very different from how I am with my family for example or when I'm with my friends so it depends on who you're talking to then we are able to manage our impressions more effectively but the important thing that we have to keep in mind and I feel that he's also very significant it's our discussion of the backstage so when we talk about the backstage this is where you know when you watch when you watch plays for example or or musicals and then you move back and then the actors can now relax and say that so they can be their true selves already so this is similar to the concept of the backstage whenever when we are talking with other people for example you have a whole day you're in school you're teaching you're being a student you are a student your daughter or son to your parents then those are off-road stage your backstage could be your sanctuary where you are most comfortable where you are most relaxed to be yourself simply because you can be informal with yourself with no with no thoughts of being judged or ridiculed by other people for who you are as an individual and it's also very important to note here that the backstage is very important why because if we neglect our backstage if we regret neglect going back to our own selves and grounding ourselves into who we are then we might all be just about pretenses and impression management without really going back to our loose to who we are really as individuals so it has to be a perfect balance between the front stage and the backstage moving on we now go to the communication theory of identity and as I said a while ago when we talk about the self we're focusing more on the different aspects of our self only but when we look at the communication theory of identity we will now see that actually our identities are not just our own it is a byproduct of other things also okay so what does this mean identity itself is communication identity as communication we should not think of our identity simply as a product of it's not simply that when we talk about identity how you how you communicate with other people how you project the things that go on when you're moving around these are also parts of your identity so identity is not only seen in the as the product or the end goal this is you while you're communicating while you're doing things this is identity okay so there are two very important things that we have to keep in mind here first is the context of social relations and rules so you're a son you're a daughter you're a sister you're a brother you're a what you're a class president you're a classmate whatever those are these are social relations and rules that are sort of imposed upon you by other people and because you are perceived as this way by other people you are internalizing it as part of yourself so we can see this is coming from the outside going in because you're internalizing these different roles these different um relations and and conventions of how you should act coming from other people on the other hand because of the internalized role that we have from other people then we produce our individual identities so now from other people going to you as an individual and then now you as an individual as we said a while ago you have the concept self-concept awareness of understanding all of these things we'll work hand in hand with what we know of other people's impressions of us then the social and in every individual will will merge and then now you are able to act out that social behavior through the communication behaviors or patterns that you have so to speak in according to the uh according to cti what we are referring to here is not just you acting out period because it's very easy to say that we're acting out depending on impulses depending on what comes in our head is how we act but we have to keep in mind that because first and foremost we also take into account society's impressions of us or what they believe us to do how we are supposed to act and it will work hand in hand with our identity and how we view ourselves then now we are able to act out in a more socially acceptable manner under the cti there are four frames of identity so identity that are also all part of your own identity okay so first one is personal identity personal identity refers to who you are as an individual your self-concept your self-awareness how you view yourself personally next is we have an active identity from the term itself it is something that you enact it is something that you perform it is something that you express but you have to keep in mind here that when we talk about an active identity we're not just merely talking about expressions per se but we're trying to to realize that how you express yourself is actually your identity also so they go hand in hand okay and the third thing we have what we refer to as relational identity so your relational identity in relation to okay so first is we have relational identity through first internalizing in relation to what other people know about you you internalize the role next relational identity in relation to relationship with other people so I believe that I I just don't believe but I know that I'm a teacher okay but I'm not just a teacher because in relation to a co-teacher then that's another relational identity in relation to my parent that's another relational identity and this is where sometimes the problem comes in because sometimes if we are not able to manage our identities well they could overlap or sometimes so as a teacher it is my job to to be a bit more strict or stir with my students you know I have a very authoritative voice but when I'm at home with my family with my parents especially and we come into an argument it is very common for me to talk like this and if I'm talking like this in front of my parents it has happened a lot of times already that they scold me for being that way because it would appear that they are not able to manage their identities that could happen when we are not able to manage our relational identities well okay so third is we have through relationships with other identities so you have yeah so for example you are a student but you're also a leader but you're also a sister you're also a what are you a church leader or something okay so we have all of these different identities that we all have to grapple with and lastly we have relationship as a unit of identity so for example we've written here the term couple sometimes if you are known as an individual unit but at the same time you are known also as as the boyfriend or the girlfriend of this person or you are best known as for example as the chairperson of this particular organization then your identity is not just your own identity but coupled with it is the identity of the other unit that you are associated with or it's not the unit in the organization where you are associated with so lastly we have communal identity reflected okay sorry it's communal identity that is reflected through collective identity so what do we mean by this one I have my own identity I have different identities and all of these identities within me that's mine and when I talk to another person this person will also have their own sets of different kinds of identities when you talk to everyone around us we all have different kinds of identities so when we talk or refer to other people we're not just talking about their singular identity but instead we're talking about collective identities that could probably be influenced by by culture by ideologies by belief systems and it's important for us to know what our identity is or who we are talking about because we will be able to manage our communicative patterns better by that okay so next we have the concept of interpenetration so from the term itself penetrate interpenetrate so it's an interweaving off okay but it's not simply an interweaving off but it is actually what we refer to as dialectical interpenetration so the concept of dialectics opposing clashing contradicting and that is what we see when we are talking with other people when we are communicating with other people there is dialectical interpenetration it means to be in madame silang frames and it contradicts it is ambiguous with different frames of other people so we can see why is there a need to study communication because because of the dialectical tensions that may arise with our different frames of identities we have to be able to manage them more effectively and in a way we should not feel bad about this because it is only proof that we are fluid we are dynamic identities they might imagine how boring life would be come you identity to move on forever because you are human beings then obviously we will come into dialectical interpenetration and different dialectical tensions with other people and that's normal this part of life we have to deal with it and hopefully as we keep in mind how important the concept of the other is then we will be able to manage it more effectively okay so we also have the term identity gaps so what are these identity gaps this is the gap right so what i know of myself the different frames that i have and you that's what you know those are the different identities and different frames that you have sometimes there is a gap meaning we are not meeting halfway the discrepancies arise and this will cause communication problems or communication tensions okay so it's important to manage this so when we talk about identity gaps we have to keep in mind that these things arise simply because we have collective or different identities so collective identities refer to the to our identity based on social categorization and group membership here we are it gets a little bit more complicated simply because we have social categories that we call group membership so of course because we all have different ideologies we all have different values and different aspirations excuse me we will tend to form groups or different organizations or different belongingness with people who share similar things and this collective identity should be well and good but let's go back to what we said earlier simply because we have the concept of interpenetration then when one collective identity or one group okay will come into contact with another group and they have very differing very discordant ideologies and views then it definitely they will get into an identity gap and further dialectical interpenetration so this is the problem okay so collective identities refer to basically yeah the different racial ethnic national religious organizational identities that belongs to so many people one person have lots of different kinds of identities and it's normal so we don't have a specific personality or we're not schizophrenic we simply or multiple personality disorder we simply just have different identities so next we go to the topic of intersectionality okay so according to yeah 2015 intersectionalities are how the vectors of difference the difference here refers to the different role categorization different memberships that we have come together how these differences come together simultaneously to produce social identities and experiences in the social world from privilege to oppression so when we talk about our own identity yes we are referring to ourselves but we have to have the concept of the other in keeping with the critical paradigm it is always about trying to forward social change to trying to better the situation of the oppressed of the unprivileged of the disempowered and trying to help give them a space to be able to express themselves better so in collective identities because we will always come into contact with people who are different from us if we understand correctly that we all have our different places or different privileged positions then we will be able to adapt to well when you are communicating with people who are different from us okay so here I am collective identities and power struggles why because we said a while ago that when we talk about other people some of them are not we are all in different planes so okay we are different levels of privilege and because of that there will always be someone who will be more dominant there will always be someone who would be the the sub or the marginalized okay so if you are the dominant this could come in the form of ethnocentrism or sexism it is the looking down on someone simply because you feel that you are the more superior one on the other hand this power struggle may be manifested also in the form of the marginalized so it's not always the dominant lajo can speak okay the marginalized can also speak so how does it happen it depends on how do you reconstruct how they tell and retell their stories the collective stories nala yung narratives ng groupon nila yung narratives for example ng if they are an indigenous group how do they tell their stories so what do they hold and sometimes these are empowering narratives because in their telling their memories these memories become cultural memories that are kept alive in the in the process of telling the story so we see here that when we talk about collective identities and power struggles although most of the time it is the dominant who speaks or it is the dominant who we hear we have to not neglect the fact that even the marginalized have their own way of reconstructing their stories as well okay so what is positioning we are trying to do here is realize and acknowledge the fact that we have our collective identities but we always try to renegotiate my collective identity my identity is not just this one when i am faced with someone who may be um more disempowered or less privileged than i am then i am able to renegotiate my identity in the face of the other person so kong baga hindi mo ii papamuka kong anong meron kakong hindi ita try mo ii renegotiate kong paano ka makabag communicate because you want to be more effective you want to have a more fruitful uh conversation or communication with them so you will have to be able to renegotiate your identity when talking with people with unequal uh power okay so then i second theory natin identity positioning and self other relations actually um according to davis and harry is subject position okay it's not when we talk about the subject position this is identity also but okay say your postmanadaio identity because it has the um when we talk about identity it has the notion that what we are referring to is an essentialized self meaning it is something that is it is innate from us within us it is something that is it doesn't change it is it is there it's innate in you okay but uh davis and harry chose to use the word subject position to refer to the fact that we're we're not just innate innately identified as a particular person okay we have different subject positions why is subject position because we can transfer the locations a subject position incorporates both a conceptual repertoire and the location for persons within the structure of rights and duties for those who use that repertoire in concept on the rights and duties it'll mean if we keep in mind that when we are locating ourselves in this position and there are other people who are located in that position then we have to keep in mind that you know simply being polite to other people what are the rights what are the duties what are the responsibilities that come with being in that particular position depending on where we are located so once having taken up a particular position as so once on a person inevitably sees the world from the vantage point of that position you adapt a different not a different persona but but you adapt a different worldview in keeping with the worldview of the people where you are located in in terms of the particular images metaphor story lies and concepts which are made relevant within the particular discursive practice in which they are positioned simply put when you put yourself in that place you are yes you are bringing with you the things that you know of yourself you're being with you your identity you're different you know whatever self concept you have of yourself but when you go there if we want to have a successful effective communication with the other then what we have to do is to be able to strip them or set them aside and when we talk with them we use their metaphors we use their images we use their stories we use their languages why because it will be we will have a more effective conversation with them if the language that we're using is very different from these particular people then how would you have a successful conversation with them So if you are in a position where you put yourself because you are the one who decides to go there then you have to keep in mind that you have to be able to adapt to them okay why because adapting to them using similar sometimes dressing up the way they are dressing up sometimes speak using the language that we're using sometimes simply setting aside the concept that we have more privilege than them we will have more effective conversations and more effective communication with them why because the understanding and so that that's very important especially when we're talking about positionalities with the concept of the other okay so this is basically okay so when we talk about identity this is what we said earlier yes we are building up from the concept of the cell which is purely you all think you all know what you are but now we have the concept of your identity is not just this your identity will involve other people as well what do we mean how you identify with them how you communicate how you converse with them how you interact with other people who are different from you then that should also form part of your identity okay so because we're referring to the de-essentialized identity meaning identities that are different depending on who we are talking to then we have to keep in mind that a concept of identity and the self are always discursively produced what does it mean you are never the same in any kind of communication situation you are always changed how why by your interaction with the other person so discursively produced you know no matter how much you want to remain as is when you when you talk to other people when you actually truly converse with other people then you are discursively changing yourself not not really changing yourself but you are different in the process why because you're influenced by that interaction okay so since we said here how are you different how is this discursively produced through our use of language okay sometimes we have to modify how we use our language when we're talking to certain kinds of people but at the same time not only is our language different but how we produce meanings what we know of things will become different why because when you talk to other people we get out of our covered zones we get off we get out of our own little bubbles the diversity and means and depending on their stories and our meanings change sometimes especially if the if the story of the other is you can help but we change your meanings about certain things your meaning about life about how you converse will definitely change so this is what we said earlier okay according to the positioning theory the concept of identity is the here it is the now what do we mean by this one your identity is not something that you have established when you were five years old or when you were in high school so when you talk about your identity we're not referring to those things that you have written years ago your identity is here this is now how are you as an individual how are you when you're communicating with other people that is your identity and this is very significant because when we talk about your doing identities what we are referring to here is that we don't just talk about things we do things you don't just talk about yourself as being like this you do yourself being like this so it means that we can avoid being very you know hypocritical individuals that we keep on saying something and then doing something else so according to the positioning theory doing identities will help ground us because it is in our doing that we get to identify with ourselves better we get to know ourselves better and we have to adapt the stories the languages that they use depending on our position then the images that they have the metaphors that they're using the story lines that are using to construct their narratives their place their myths this should somehow be imbibed and we should also use it to tell us why because it is simple baseline respect for them as well we don't ask that anymore we just respect that okay so the concept now of the self and the other we said because it is discursively produced discursively reproduced what happened here in our conversations with other people especially if we try to locate ourselves in locations where where there is very there's a very wide gap between between the dominant and the oppressed must make it a nothing that we are constantly reproducing our identities okay but the important thing that we do what we have to keep in mind here is when we are reproducing these identities we're not just referring to your identities not in our talking to them we know that because we know that these people will speak from their vantage point now we are more able to to empower them to uplift them in order to make them express themselves better at the very least to be on semi-equal playing field when we are conversing with them uh i came up with this referring to the to the theories that we mentioned earlier um basically the identities that we have to do the inter-individual identities which is more social representation on the other hand we have the critical identities which is more discursive in approach okay so let's talk about the social representation actually these two when when we talk about the position theory they are different in what outcome they want okay so for the social representation side they acknowledge that there is an unequal playing field because you have the more privilege you have the lesser privilege and all of these uh different power play power struggles and definitely unequal playing field and because it's an unequal playing field okay so bargaining privilege the dominant because you have you know you're more learned you're more intelligent then more bold to talk more you know more you can say more for the social representation side they acknowledge that these people can also speak we also have the concept of co-cultural groups okay or the who refer to as the minorities so minorities can come in the form of the indigenous groups or the gay, lesbians, poor, these different kinds of disempowered people there is an acknowledgement from from the social representation side that these people are muted okay so because they're muted they try to negotiate identities how the internal struggles they face when they communicate with someone who is different from them but normally the problem is when we talk about the internal and external struggles they always fall victim there is always the implicit notion that because they are poorer because they are lesser then they cannot communicate in the same way or in the same playing field as the one who is more dominant okay so as opposed to the dominant who is the more oppressed who is the has the title of being the oppressor okay so what is the result of this they acknowledge that there is institutional oppressive power okay okay there are different mechanisms in place that are meant to subject us down or control us to make us follow what they want to what they want us to do but the problem here is normally it becomes identity resistance and intergroup separation you know they try to resist they try to they voice out their opinion they try to rebel for example against the government things like that but it stops there okay this is a discursive approach because there is something that can be done to meet halfway the identity negotiation is in the form of persuasive communication using proper rhetoric if you're able to to to provide supporting arguments then it is possible that the other side whom you previously viewed only as someone who you are able to resist now you can see that so it is more towards collaborative partnership through dialogue and mutual identity valuation concept of yes we're different but I will not just keep on pushing what I want and you just keep pushing what you want and be fight over it so discursive approach that hang on me this course so what we will do now is as much as possible depending on the the rhetorical tools that are available to us which will be discussing rhetoric no separation or intergroup separation instead what we will have is hopefully it will result to a multicultural identity with co-cultural or dominant vulnerable selves meaning we don't just see ourselves as distinctly different but because of our conversations with them we get to hear hear their side so in that sense we get a more holistic understanding so now when we communicate even if you still don't agree with their side but because you are now able to understand them then now you are able to tweak or change a little bit of your of your of your rhetoric end goal of this one why we want to to discourse with other people and consider other people and the unequal painful that we have is to be able to see that common ground so it could be all about trying to look for the common ground trying to see where we could both stand you know we all have different ideologies but if you could find the perfect spot where we could both communicate without fighting or quarreling with each other then it would be a successful communication so there hopefully you learn something a little more than the concepts of identity bottom line here is that if you really want to be upians no who have good identity snap something we can be proud of it is all about looking at yourself understanding yourself having a healthy view of yourself but at the same time we do not lose touch from our surroundings why because we have to be grounded in social reality if we know our social realities if we know what other people are going through and we are able to communicate with them and sometimes from their perspective then it could result to more successful and effective communication thank you


This week for the Paragon Projects, Predacessor added Countess through the roster, you can check out some highlights of her on their YouTube. They also added custom games, ultimate voice lines, player reporting tools, camera adjustments and some balance passes, bug fixes and quality of life improvements. OverPrime has a winter event with a winter-themed map and skins. They gifted 11 heroes to anyone who logs in, and they've also done some bug fixing. They also released an appreciation video for the fans.


We're at the Telstraiter to take a look at a play that produced the Titans first first down in the game at Cleveland on Sunday And it's Ryan Tannehill to Deandre Hopkins nice design on this play Yeah, well these first first downs need to come a heck of a lot sooner But just working off different formations stacking receivers whether you can kind of get an information or some tell us a presnap awareness You know working Tajah and chig in there together But just giving the quarterback some options right some run-pass options based on pressure based on the look that they give us But really trying to expand what we're what we're doing with motion And giving the guys some options and again you can see here Before the ball is even snapped, you know that the secondary one guys looking to run one guys looking to adjust And they both kind of go Ryan does a good job taking a peek and seeing what's going on And is able to pull it out of their Tajah's belly and also get a good ball out before you know the guy that that chicks coming across for so You know, obviously we'd like to get chigger cross there a little sooner But Ryan, you know hop does a nice job But drifting away from the guy that that's the relationship that these guys have built is Maybe not just working straight up the field but drifting a little bit to give Ryan an angle and an opportunity to throw You know away from anybody that's kind of coming back over there And a good and you know hops getting up field. He's making a guy miss You know, but he's also getting down and protecting the football when when the Calvary's coming Here's the thing that we need more of we need more guys running out of the stack, right? These are offensive linemen. Here's Tajah. They're there's brew. There's a Hubbard. Excuse me and Dylan But these guys are over here helping our guy out and that's what we need to continue to see That's what we've been we've got to continue to push piles We got a fight for every stinking yard that we're going to get this season So, you know something that we just were able to mix in here Incorporate a little bit more this year And I'll let it run here and you could kind of see the flow Of the action and then given the quarterback some options, you know to be able to hand it off or throw it out there To hop or whoever ends up being out there. Good stuff coach