Frontier Fighters. Frontier Fighters. The daring and courage of a handful of brave pioneers who made the West safe for the generation of today. In 1890, two years after South Dakota was admitted into the Union, an event loomed on the horizon that threatened to completely stop migration into the state. A Paiute Indian with the name of Wavocha had been raised in the home of a white man who was very religious. One night, Wavocha had a wonderful dream. The next morning he related it to another Paiute. He stood in the presence of God, tall chief, and God said to me, Go teach the Indians in all the lands the better ways of living. Tell them to be more peaceful, to live without stealing, or lying, or murdering. Tell them to dance away their sins. Dance away their sins, Wavocha? Yes. So it has been told me in the dream. Is it to be the raindance, or corn dance, or buffalo dance? No. God said to Wavocha, Go into all the lands and teach the red man the ghost dance. In Wavocha's dream, there was a mixture of old Indian customs and the new religious ideas of Christianity. Everywhere this new teacher went, he was welcomed. Soon the teaching spread, and each tribe changed them just a little, until Wavocha could hardly recognize them at the time they reached South Dakota. One of the disgruntled chiefs of the South Dakota Indians was Shortbowl. For years he had been looking for something that would appeal to the Indians, so he could lead them in a general uprising against the whites. He recognized the teachings of Wavocha as the way. Returning to the Pine Ridge Agency, he immediately set himself up as a messiah. He would not teach the ways of peace, but war. His message would be death to the whites. Have not the agents on the reservations worked bad medicine against the red man? Has he not placed around our necks a yoke? Has he not brought the Indian of his birthright and heritage, taken his lands, stolen his food, lied to him and deceived and tricked him?  I will teach you the ritual of the ghost dance. I will place upon each one of you a magical holy shirt. I will teach you the sacred chant of this new religion.  When we have learned the ghost dance and wear the holy shirt, we will move out the cursed reservations. And once again, hunt the buffalo in a bad land.  The message of the ghost dance spread all over the Dakotas. Before many weeks had passed, over 3,000 Indians had secretly left the reservations. The bloodthirsty braves, fired with the messiah craze, began lying in wait for the immigrant trains. Jed, I've got the strangest feeling. If we weren't so close to the Black Hills, I'd say turn back. Now, that's just a woman's foolish fears. If you females ain't a-fretting about one thing, it's another. Jed, what's that a-coming? All fair to ease? More folks heading for South Dakota. What's they doing off the trail? Oh, I don't know. Indians! Get the wagons in the car, girls! I told you I had a feeling! The ghost screaming, we're all well armed and there's 50 of us. We'll be more than a match for them. There's hundreds of red gins are coming. Look at these cliffs! All of them got rifles! Must be an Indian uprising! We'll be massacring all of us! Get the women and children under the wagon! Get them in the wagon and let them make a room for us. There's 500 of those red gins are coming first! Outgrades followed outgrades. By threats, intimidation and massacre, the red men stopped the flow of immigration into South Dakota. The situation took a sudden turn from serious to critical, with the news that... Mr. Governor, Sitting Bull has just joined forces with Short Bull. Bigfoot is being implored to take up the Tommy Hawk. In another month, every Indian in the Dakotas will be on the warpath.  There's only one man who has ever put the fear of God into these redskins, General Nelson A. Miles, and I'm going to ask the government of Washington to send him to South Dakota. MUSIC All the troops in Redness, Sergeant. Quickly after my conference with the governor, we take up the march. Yes, sir. The governor expects you, General Miles. You're very welcome, sir. Thank you. General Miles, Governor. Come in. Your excellency. General Miles, I don't believe I have to apprise you of this critical situation. Unless we can get these Indians back on their reservations, this state has no future. We look to the migration of farmers, minors and cattlemen to build up our population. But the overland routes must be kept open. I believe I know the temper of the red men. Let me have one decisive battle, and their leaders will be ready for a powwow.  But one thing is certain, this Messiah outbreak, this maniacal uprising must be put down. I give you my word, it shall. And, Mr. Governor, South Dakota has a future. Scouts assure us that the chiefs, Yellowbird and Bigfoot, are leading their braves and moving against them. The race we're both traveling in, we should meet at Wounded Knee Creek. Sitting Bull is not just taking up the march. Good. Take a detachment of 50 men. Get to Pine Ridge Reservation and arrest him and his leaders. Yes, sir. If your information is correct, the poor son down tomorrow there should be a pitched battle at Wounded Knee Creek. Don't see hide in your hair are the redskins yet, General Miles? Yeah, they'll be here. Do you suppose they believe all this poppycock about the holy shirt protecting them from bullets? Major, my experience has taught me that an Indian believes in good medicine or bad medicine. The Indian's medicine is all-powerful for good. The white man's for evil. A bull is no respecter of shirts, sir. Well, I hope we get the leaders in the first few minutes of fighting. I don't want to exterminate the Indian. I just want to get them back to the reservations and bring peace to South Dakota. Hey, who's that coming there? One of the Scouts, sir. Well, it's thousand Indians and the Yellowbird and Bigfoot approaching Wounded Knee Creek. Well, they armed with rifles. About one-third are, sir. They're members with bow and arrows and Tommyhawks. A few have carbines. Very good. Give the order to attack. We'll cross Wounded Knee Creek first and take the fight into their ranks. Yes, sir. Ready for attack! Ready for attack! All your firemen, until we cross the creek, signal to fire with me when I take my sword out of it and stab it and point it straight at the enemy. Stay close to them, General. They'll have our ranks in another two or three hundred yards. The order to stop firing. General, you've got a thousand redskins right in the palm of your hand. I've not come to South Dakota to destroy the red men, safeguard and preserve them, save them from themselves. You must never forget, Major, that while these Indians may be troublesome at times, they are wars of the government, children of the great white father in Washington. A writer to see you, General Miles. What is it, Corporal? General, I just come back from Grand River. Sitting Bull is dead. Who killed him? The soldiers you sent to arrest him were fired upon by Sitting Bull's followers. In the fight that followed, Sitting Bull was killed. That's too bad. It makes it all the harder for the government forces when we set down the powwows. The Indians will think I sent the soldiers to kill the great chief. That's all I have to report, sir. Very good. Yes, sir. Well, powwow we must have. Sergeant, sir, send Indian scouts under a flag of truth to all the redskins in the Badlands. Tell them that General Miles wants to set down with them and spoke the pipe of peace. In the name of the great white father in Washington, I say go back to the reservations. Go back to your agency, hoax. I give my word, which has never been broken with my Indian brothers, that you will have good food, kind treatment, and forever live in peace and plenty. This is my word. I have spoken. Sitting Bull is with his fathers in the happy hunting grounds. Bigfoot, he is there too. Yellowbird has joined him. The chiefs are dead. The holy shirt was bad medicine. From rising sun to rising sun, through all the years to come, we will be at peace with our white brothers. This is my word. It shall never be broken. Ended the last armed Indian trouble in the state of South Dakota. The Messiah craze had burned itself out, and prosperity returned to the Badlands thanks to the courage and daring of another great frontier fighter, General Nelson Appleton Miles.


Gail King is an American journalist, author, magazine editor, and former co-host of CBS This Morning as well as a serious radio series Gail King in the House. But let's be honest, the one thing all of us know her best for is her unshakable friendship with one of the richest people on the planet Oprah Winfrey. Also, Michael and I have dropped our own house tour of our new home that we moved into this year so go ahead and subscribe to our personal channel if you want to see where we're living and more of what we're up to. In these videos we don't reveal any addresses and even though I've done a house tour of my own place please do not show up at any private residences because it's not safe for anyone. These two became best friends way back when in 1976 while they were both working at WJZ TV in Baltimore, Maryland. Little did they know that nearly 50 years later they'd still be playing a huge role in one another's lives. I'll get into the details on how as we go along but for now we are going to kick today's tour off with a peek inside Gale's stunning New York City penthouse. Located on East 57th Street and situated on the 36th floor of a prominent Big Apple skyscraper Gale King bought this luxurious apartment back in 2008 for $7.1 million. Boasting 2,530 square feet, Gale's enviable living arrangement includes 12 foot tall ceilings, gorgeous walnut flooring all throughout as well as 3 bedrooms and 3 and a half bathrooms. According to listing details the most jaw dropping spot in the entire home however is her picture perfect master suite that not only features 3 walk-in closets, 2 of which even have windows but an en suite with a spa tub and a separate glass shower. Of course there's also a stunning eating kitchen that comes complete with an entire set of Viking brand appliances as well as a dining room with some unique wallpaper. Better yet for outdoor entertainment Gale's penthouse also comes with its very own 750 square foot wraparound terrace that provides one of a kind views of the George Washington Bridge as well as the city below. A few years after moving into this place Gale teamed up with interior designer Nate Burkis to give fans an inside look at her home. Unfortunately the video clip of that event appears to be lost to time but Gale would reveal during the course of that conversation that she had painted the ceiling of every single room a different color at the suggestion of her longtime friend Oprah. Since then Gale has occasionally provided her fans glimpses of the interior of this home on social media especially during the pandemic era when she was stuck inside with nowhere to go. Just like that time we got a taste of Gale's eclectic decor. Well at least she had a pretty amazing home to recuperate in. We got an even better look at Gale's home when she shared some behind the scenes images from her home studio setup while working from home inside her family room. As you can see from those pictures Gale's taste runs a little off the beaten path. It includes a passion for bright yellow lounge chairs that clash with the rest of her furnishings like those wood paneled cabinets and floors that are covered in patterned rugs. Well want to know something interesting it was actually Oprah who bought this home in the first place. According to her property records it was her LLC listed on the official paperwork. In other words Oprah likely acted as Gale's landlord and this wasn't the first time that they had made this arrangement either. While Gale King's former mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut might not measure up to Oprah's grand 20,000 square foot palace in Montecito, California the one thing that both properties have in common is that technically speaking Oprah owns the both of them. Much like with Gale's New York City Penhouse Oprah's shell company that was listed on the deed to this property when it was bought in 2000 for a ported 3.6 million dollars. Gale got everything Oprah paid for and then some with a four-story colonial home that includes 10,433 square feet along with a two-story front foyer with a grand staircase, six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms as well as three and a half powder rooms. Now considering how long ago Gale used to live here details on the interior are slim but what I can tell you is that the home was said to include deluxe amenities such as four fireplaces, a three car garage, a home theater and a stunning third floor family room with window alcoves as well as a wet bar. In addition to the home's five regular size bedrooms her master suite boasted a gigantic sitting room and dressing room jam-packed with the type of fits that you'd expect to discover in the closet of a woman who's friends with one of the richest people on the planet. With a home this big you'd expect the exterior to be equally spectacular and this property certainly doesn't disappoint. Not only is there a swimming pool with an attached spa outback but there's enough surrounding space that Gale and Oprah could go for a hike together and probably wind up getting lost if they weren't careful. After moving into this mansion during the dawn of the new millennium Gale would own the property for close to 15 years before listing it in 2015 and agreeing to sell it for $3.1 million, roughly $500,000 less than what was paid. I can't imagine Oprah was too pleased to eat that loss but Gale made up for it by stepping up to the plate and providing her home for Oprah to use during a very important interview. Back in March of 2021 Oprah sat down for a highly anticipated and exclusive conversation with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry that was aired in 68 countries around the world. But here's the thing, according to reports Oprah didn't shoot this sit-down meeting at her own home. Instead she used Gale's Los Angeles mansion as the perfect backdrop. That's how Gale became more or less the uncredited star of this two hour discussion which saw Meghan and Harry touch on the difficulties that came along with stepping down as senior royals. They didn't want him to be a prince not knowing what the gender would be which would be different from protocol. As you can tell from all that lovely footage the one area of Gale's LA compound we really got a taste for was its secluded 360 degrees of shrubbery that provided complete privacy for Oprah's Convo. Not only is this stunning courtyard surrounded by epic stone pillars but the greenery is picture perfect. Thanks in large part to those humongous trees and potted plants. Over on social media Gale's also given us a glance at the home's stylish living room which features neutral walls and some lovely pale green accents including a gorgeous floral arrangement displayed on Gale's dining room table as well as some plush and comfy chairs. There are even striking sculptures here which tie the space together. As for the exterior well that's been kept under tighter wraps but thanks to a video Gale shared on Instagram we do know that the front of her home includes some perfectly manicured grass and a smooth stone walkway made in the shape of a cross. We've been ordering them on this thing called Instacart. We've been ordering avocados like every other day. Of course considering what we've now discovered about her previous properties the question is whether or not Gale actually owns this mansion or if Oprah owns some of the mansions. Considering Oprah's immense real estate portfolio I mean the queen of all media might just own this home as well but I'm sure renting it out to her best friend makes her feel even better than if she lived here herself. Plus this way they get to live in such close proximity to one another that they're only ever a short golf cart trip away. Well there you have it everyone that'll bring this look into the homes of Gale King to a close. But before you head out give this one question some consideration. If you are best friends with a billionaire would you let them buy you a home or would you worry how that might affect your friendship? Let me know your thoughts on that in the comments down below. Otherwise like, subscribe and turn on your notifications to make sure you never miss an episode. My name is Kara the Vampire Slayer follow me on Instagram to chat and I'll see you all in the next tour. Bye!


And I got a degree in masturbating Yeah, and this made me laugh because this guy's screen name This graph about college degree attainment amongst different Asian groups in America is going viral right now And we got to talk about it Yeah, jackfruit posted this as well as some other instagrams and there was a healthy debate in the comments section about whether or not college degree Attainment is as necessary as the Asian culture stereotypically makes it out to be joining us for this debate today We've got one of the original hop-hop boys from LA Nelson Chen What's going on man with me not coming from a well educated background and family? I think it's interesting for me to give my perspective for sure for sure. Absolutely. I mean I think there's a really really big variance despite the larger stereotype in America that all Asians come from educated families And our math leads and super brainiacs obviously there's a lot of different shades to it Despite what's put out in the media make sure you like subscribe and turn your notifications and or let's just get into it What does this graph say and hasn't been verified by like scientific studies? All right, so this graph when it was posted it didn't have any sources linked to it So I had to double-check where they got the graph from but yes It is pretty much the same numbers as these other surveys from 2016. I think 2020 So basically this graph goes as follows guys 78% of Taiwanese Americans have bachelor or higher degrees. All right, then it goes to Indian Pakistani Korean Chinese Japanese Indonesian Filipino Bengladeshi Nepalese Thai Vietnamese Hmong Burmese Cambodian Laotian So obviously a lot of their reactions, especially on the Asian pages are coming from Southeast Asians who are like Oh, whoa, like they have a range of reactions Some of them are very proud that they were able to go to college some people are like oh We got to do better and some people are like I'm not we don't need college for us. So of course, let's go through it Yeah, I mean I think the very first comment was explaining it Somebody said you know the ones at the bottom come here on immigration based routes and intentions While the top ones are usually those who got to work stuff got some work studies visas So a majority of them are here for a degree. Obviously, they have a higher percentage I think what this person is pointing to are that immigration waves and patterns and pathways are Absolutely a hundred percent different for every Asian group basically Andrew long story short every Asian group And there's even more that weren't listed on the study have a different journey to the West, right? I mean a lot of these Asians. I don't want to say a lot, but I mean a good portion of Taiwanese and a lot of the Indian People who have high degrees they already came over with some degree It's possible that they were able to emigrate due to a student or a work visa as a brain worker, right? But I know of course that doesn't account for everybody a lot of People from all these countries come over with no money and have made it and gone to college right and done There's so many like variants in different situations because you know how like you can come over with no money But you're educated and then some people come over with no money and they're not educated So people come over with a lot of money and they're not educated There's so much variability Somebody also said that family wealth makes a big amount of difference to a lot of Asian people need a hustle and pay Bills and do not have time and money for college. Yeah I mean if you look at a lot of the groups towards the bottom Some of those are refugee groups, you know, so of course it's tough to yeah I mean you're just you're coming here trying to survive opening up small businesses However, I will say a lot of Vietnamese they are known for their entrepreneurship. They open a lot of small business To be honest, I think a lot of people were surprised that Vietnamese only was at 30% right I was actually very surprised being that low And I think the reason is is because a lot of people just anecdotally in their life probably know a Financially successful Vietnamese person because like we said the almost like the ultimate hustlers man and just like And this was the first comment Jackfruit which I actually believe posted this and is run by Vietnamese people said Vietnamese don't need degrees they open up businesses full of restaurants coffee shops and nail salons and someone said hey man Had two shops and then somebody came in and said Johnny dang man And then somebody else street smarts over book smarts and then obviously somebody else said Vietnamese are huge entrepreneurs Yeah, no, and I think if you look the statistics will pop them up that Vietnamese do own a lot of businesses in America They're very enterprising people. I think they have the highest rate of entrepreneurs now Obviously, there's a lot of good jobs if you work for you know in medicine and text like that where you do require degrees But I think America happens to be a great country for entrepreneurship in running small business, and I would say anecdotally We have a lot of Vietnamese friends and a lot of our Vietnamese friends They are about the cash flow. They're just about like hey man. It makes money. I like it. I have fun with it I enjoy the work. Let's do it like they're like cash flow man. It doesn't have a degree attached to it, man No, what we used to have a camera guy who used to work with us And he was from Vietnam and he would just be like yeah, man. Nah, man. I'd Make money man. It's all good. Um someone said yet somehow all pharmacists at CVS are Vietnamese Yeah, so here's the interesting part guys to be a pharmacist to go to farm school You do not need a bachelor's degree right because farm school is going to essentially be your degree once you make it Through that so yes a lot of pharmacists and a lot of farm techs are you don't need a bachelor's degree to do that All right, the next comment I believe comes from somebody who is Cambodian Somebody said Southeast Asians are low due to being refugees from the Vietnam War and putting got put straight into the hoods and the projects When they arrived in America, but let me tell you one thing They will never get bullied and punked out on the streets like those at the top of the list Someone said hot take commendable and someone said for real man because we fight back to the heart um, I mean Going to there like some of those Southeast Asian people are going to be more into the streets Whereas you know people on the top are more in the books, you know, it's like it makes sense. Yeah, I mean If you guys know Southeast Asian people I think on average and this is a generalization that they are like they're tougher Yeah, so I actually so I actually had to send this uh quote to a bunch of my Southeast Asian friends And there's a variance right some are very very like proper and some are like more uh doing the living life their own way And basically, you know what they said Andrew? They said uh, man, it's not fully true because we still do get attacked But the just the difference is when we get attacked we'll fight back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Um, Andrew, there was uh more comments from like loud people for example, Andrew heartbreaker the loud rapper friend of ours He said damn law us loud people need to do better And then somebody said to be honest, man, we don't even need it I got my degree and never even used it didn't even realize we was all the way at the bottom though What the f And there was other comments like echoing this, you know from people who are like, ah, dang I kind of made it but dang. I didn't even know we was that low. Yeah, I would say that the That percentage is surprisingly low. I guess I guess I I think that's something I think Most people I guess based off their stereotypes They would see like maybe the ranking of this to make sense But I guess maybe some of the numbers to be a little differently Yeah, I would say this um, and this is a comment I think on larger like the economics of america now and I get your perspective on this America is a really interesting country because it's simultaneously the best country to have a degree in because there's all the best tech and medicine here Which you definitely need a degree for but it's also the best country to not have a degree in Like like it's almost like for both pathways It's probably just not a good country if you want to get rich off like government Maybe like, you know, that's like the only difference. You know what I mean? Like there's both I guess there's money in a lot of different lanes in america is what i'm trying to say for sure I think with my experience.  Like, I know I graduated from a four-year college. It took me a while But you know, I never really used my degree for anything after that too So it's like and then for what I do is like more entrepreneurship But like I think in today's time and especially in la You don't really necessarily need to go to four year or need a degree to be successful or make a lot of money Right. I think today's time getting a degree is kind of overrated. Okay. Yeah I mean, I think there's an interesting perspective and definitely like you have pretty valid points too. Obviously No, my parents are you know, uh, you know coming from immigrants family coming to america They the highest edgy level of education. They both had was middle school Right, my parents neither my parents went to high school and then I was never, you know great in school As well, but like I'm not saying like I became super successful But I kind of still did something, you know without having to be like super smart, you know Absolutely, I believe that you're correct in the 2023 economy Certain lanes that don't require a degree the degree would almost like Just be for networking versus obviously tech and medicine You need that knowledge and it also depends in school. What school you go to or what school you got your degree from Nelson, do you feel like a lot of people who come from families who are not maybe super pushy on education? They'll still go to a college just because they know that's kind of like the right thing to do That's the safer thing. Yeah, they want to make the parents proud while you know graduating, you know from college, right? And it does theoretically Put you around other people who are also trying to get jobs in the corporate world Maybe it inspires you to go do the same But for those people who go through college and are not inspired by the job opportunities and they're like You know what I went through that and that actually really wasn't for me So like i'm just going to go do my own thing This girl said andrew cambodian with a degree and she looks like this. So someone said yo, that's cap FaceTime me to prove it And then somebody said actually you're probably kamai chinese and uh, yeah This is just a lot of opinions like we said jackfruit is so crazy because there's just like Opinions from everywhere. This is definitely different than the comments of like a new york times You know what I like about this comment section. It's very real. It's very real people and it's very like southeast asian It's almost like you're peering into how like a lot of southeast asians would talk to each other at like Maybe a kickback or a barbecue and you're in the conversation now So I think it's funny and I think it's like more funny than like maybe if it was like Instagram only about like I don't know chinese people. Maybe I don't know Yeah, I mean I do think that You know because there is a lot of people who are part chinese in southeast asia Like it is true that I guess if you had to stereotypically guess if you have one parent that's chinese and one parent that's not The chinese one is going to be the one stressing school Because chinese people love school But interestingly enough andrew that leads us to our next comment where this girl was like, yeah I'm malay and cantonese and uh, my parents keep telling me to get my grad degree even though I don't even need it at all So this is almost the argument against over education, right? Because it's time. It's money It's effort and theoretically you're deviating from like a path that you're already sure of andrew What what do you think about that argument that like, you know There can be parents that are over reliant on the degrees in education Well, maybe I think this person A lot of people who oftentimes do get grad degrees their parents like maybe went to some type of schooling So their parents went to school to become successful. So that's how they know that you're going to become successful So of course they stress that to you, but if your parents became successful without school, I think Possibly and usually maybe they won't stress school as much So it kind of depends on the parents and how they made it Yeah, the family background matters a lot. Like we said, I know some people who got rich or like not rich but like Upper middle class doing landscaping Some people who became rich doing more like contract merchant middleman sort of like factory import export And then obviously people have a variety of levels of success working corporate You know, you know, I mean like it depends on how high the road uh, wrote up the ladder I guess the lucrativeness of that's that's specialization Do you think that telling kids to get an undergrad degree and then a postgraduate degree and maybe even after Go up phd is a little bit like old school basketball coaching. You know, old school basketball sets You had to move the rock five times To to pass the rock 10 times before you get a shot up 10 to five times to get a shot But nowadays it's different. So it's like Andrew the logic behind between passing the rock five times on our offensive scheme It's not wrong, right, but it's just outdated. Yeah, it is it's like in today's time It's like once you have a first or second really good option. You should take it Moving on Andrew. This person was complaining about obviously Certain groups not even getting listed on here. Somebody said men people didn't even make the list Man, we're a minority of minorities. Nobody ever pays attention to us Someone said chom people are not in these lists. Somebody said where are mongolians? Bhutanese, Tibetans Sri Lankans obviously, uh, thai dom. There was a yeah, there was a ton of groups that got left off Yeah, I mean, uh, I think if you look at different other surveys, uh, Bhutanese and these type of populations will Will show up like especially if you just surveyed, uh, new york, you would actually see even more types of asians possibly But yeah, I mean, you know a lot of asian groups to be honest. They're not they don't even have a Number yeah, they don't have the sample size for for people to survey not Not that it's not important one thing I want to point out because uh, pakistani was actually super high on this list Right and a lot of people may be like, oh like I didn't expect that right But it's like there has a lot to do with like who's coming over from that country Right like not every immigrant population from a country is representative of that country It could just be representative of who from that country was allowed to immigrate So it's almost like a very selective or self-selective population. Um, moving on somebody said, uh, hey, man You guys if you guys don't have college degrees, don't worry because I have two masters And uh, I'm just a teacher and I'm still poor as poor af and someone said yeah, man My cambodian homie is a truck driver that only has a g ed and he has like three cars and his own place That he owns and he got like luxury whips And somebody else said yeah, man, I just did the college thing for a year. It wasn't for me I got into the trades and real estate and I make most more money than most of my college grab buddies Whatever works for you. So this was sort of like, uh, yeah Based on what I that pretty much proves what I said earlier about like you don't necessarily need a degree to make a lot of Money or be successful There's a lot of you know different types of you know fields that you could dive into to you know be successful Yeah, and you know what even now, I mean, I met some people who are uh doing software engineering and they didn't even go to college for it Like they just took a they took coding boot camps, right? Which used to be frowned upon but um, yeah, they take these boot camps that are Do take three or four months, right? But then they come out and they can make a lot of money Yeah, I think it's sort of like filmmaking people used to hire filmmakers from filmmaking school But now it's just like yo, how many projects did you get done?  Like you learn a lot of general education at school But that's not like necessarily specifically execution IRL in that given specialty Exactly a lot of prerequisites that you take during college is like not necessarily for your Life at all right somebody said real talk college is even worth it unless you're going to the specialty field That's why east asians and south asians excel in tech and medical But you just got to focus on what you want to do Yeah, and then there's a comment from uh, some filipinos that were like a The filipinos would even be higher on this list if they took in nursing degrees Yeah I think nursing degrees I don't know if they count this because I think they do because it's bachelor of science of nursing So does that count as a bachelor? It would right coming to defense of degrees though, andre Because I do not want to just be a contrarian channel for the for the sake of it someone said I have my bs and mechanical engineering. I'm about to get my ms and industrial and systems engineering I don't think you need a degree to be successful But it is pretty hard these days to make it without one if you have work ethic and hustle though go for it It's about leveraging your opportunities. I do think that getting a degree and something difficult like stem related It does up your probabilities because like if you can get a degree and something difficult and execute a difficult job Like engineering or uh tech like or medicine like you can get a almost always guaranteed at least a middle level job Yeah, no, I mean, let's be honest. Um, I mean getting put into a school system and trying hard You're linking with professors. They have networking opportunities You get to be trained kind of like in the way that probably the job works So but again, if you are a super big hustler and you're smart yourself I mean oftentimes you'll figure out a different way because because the the knowledge is out there on how to do it Like there's literally websites and youtube videos and reddit forums that will tell you how someone did it without the degree Yeah, I think a lot of it is like how you spend your time in college too, right? Like some people they just like party they like do this they do that and they're just not really like focusing on using the college time To build up their career life. They're just using it on the social side You should use it for both But obviously if you're going to prioritize one realistically to make the most out of college you should focus on a career building Someone said yeah, Andrew the nursing certifications would see the Filipino numbers rise up But also, uh, I'd like to get a bs in the belute studies So just just a classic silly response Somebody also said as a Filipino nurse myself I can guarantee that at least half our listed percentage of bachelors are our bachelors in science in nursing a bsn Andrew, uh, moving on somebody said, uh, I'm beat and I got a degree in masturbating What Yeah, and uh, this made me laugh because this guy's screen name, uh, the picture had a picture of korean rick yoon Playing the hustler johnny tran in fast and furious Of course, and there was a bunch of other comments basically saying, you know I'm lausian or leotian and i'm representing the 16 percent of leotians with my masters Yo, my dad is a cambodian refugee. My mom is chinese and indonesian, but I was able to make it I got two masters. I'm doing well for myself. I'm able to help out my parents So basically other people were coming in there with success stories to show people it's like, yeah Like don't be discouraged by these macro statistics I went and did well for myself and got educated or I still did well for myself and I didn't get educated Exactly, it all depends on what success means to you too. If it's just monetary We already know in america. This is a great place to be a hustler, you know, and you don't need a degree for that So, uh, david what are some of the funnier comments because obviously, you know The conversation got very deep but also very light hearted at the same time Yeah, I mean somebody said, uh, this is like a hennessey scale upside down So, okay It's funny. It's funny somebody said, uh, man cambodian is only so low because half of us graduated in the hood Someone said you got a gangster bachelor degree. Obviously. This is a stereotype guys These are jokes made by cambodians for cambodians. Um, for me, I think there's two things that are noteworthy I saw a comment andra about college debt What do you think about that because there's a lot of talk nowadays that college is overpriced Not specialized enough to guarantee you a career out of it and you could end up in debt paying off Loans even though technically educational loans are lower interest. Uh, how much does that play an impact into this? I think that college is very expensive nowadays, but there's also a lot of supplementary Or alternative education That you can get you're talking about vocational careers. Yeah vocational careers you could take classes on the side You can take uh boot camps. Um, if you're in college, you can there's oh college to me One of the best things about college, especially going into something like a specialized field is the networking that you could potentially use from it However, if you go to a big college and you just make it in there and you just want to do your work Walk in a class and walk out and you think that you're going to get a great job out of it That is actually not true. You still get out what you put in So therefore if you join all the clubs, if you join the networking opportunities, if you join the mentorship programs Do all this and this and kind of uh utilize college for what it is. I think it is extremely extremely helpful However, a lot of people don't and I think also a lot of people they got to look at how much debt they're taking on You know, you have your community college options Nowadays you have cheaper four-year options. Obviously you have your university option that gives you the tailgating at the football game Type experience, but then you're incurring a lot more housing and like living costs for food and board So I just think that people got to calculate and be like, okay Maybe it is good to like if I'm not into school I could just pick the lower price option because I'm going to have a lot less debt Yeah, exactly. I mean I was talking to a girl who wants to go into physical therapy And uh, you know, she's working two jobs right now, but physical therapy school itself is going to set her back a lot And I mean there's just it's there's a lot of different options and getting Into that industry without having to go to that amount of school for it It's like everybody only wanted to become a doctor and you got to go to medical school for it Obviously you can be a nurse practitioner, you know that takes some time But you know, you don't have to have the medical degree for that exactly for sure There's just a lot of different ways out there. Yeah, definitely. I think that this was a good, um post and it sparked a lot of Good discussion. I'm sure the discussion could go on for like hours and hours Please let us know what you think in the comment section below is college overrated. Is it necessary or is it underrated? I mean, obviously, I guess the larger macro trend in the asian-american community is obviously a very very high Value on education, which I think ultimately is a good thing But it just varies on everybody's own personal situation and stats. Um, yeah, make sure you follow Nelson chan And uh, until next time with the hop-hop boys. We out. Peace


The culture at Hydroconstruggles is all about growth and growth is embedded in every aspect of our operations, whether it is in relation to growing individuals, teams, our clients and growing those relationships. Energy, whether that's the energy to drive high performance, great results for our clients and continuous improvement to our social energy and the buzz you feel around the office when you're seeing interpersonal connections being built all around you. Resilient. It has been my experience collaborating with colleagues across different geographies and functions in persisting to deliver the best possible outcomes for clients. Empowering simply because there are loads of learning and development resources for anybody available to utilize and because every single person regardless of seniority, regardless of title are there to help you reach a fullest potential. Engaging, it's a very engaging culture. People really encourage you to not stay in one area, to explore as many things as you can, get to know as many people as you would like. Engaging. I found the top performers within the firm to be very energetic, collaborative and proactive. Also, the firm has a culture that recognizes and promotes people who are contributing and engaged. Motivating. Being involved in the client's strategic growth is very rewarding and there are a lot of great minds in the firm. So it's very inspiring to work alongside them. Vibrant. Because we're deeply committed to delivering great work to our clients, but having fun along the way. Diverse, I think just every day is like different people from different backgrounds, the different industries or walks of life. Inclusion, because we all come from different backgrounds, different practices, but still we come together, work on the mandates, do collaborations, be it consulting or such. International, we are such a diverse and global business. You can walk into any one of our offices and you'll see people from all sorts of backgrounds. Collaborative, because we're always working a team, it makes us stronger. I would say fellowship. Partnership, we build strong partnerships with our clients. I'll pick two, I guess, maybe servant leadership. I believe we lead by following. I've seen Hydric practice internally, what they advise to clients on the outside.


Okay, we're here with Dr. Mike Lehmann at the ARS in Brookings, South Dakota, and Mike, you have a talk that you like to give about an underwear experiment you did this summer. We'd love to hear about it. Well, sure. I guess I'm going to backtrack just a little bit before I introduce the underwear, which everybody's waiting for. Talk to you a little bit about this field experiment. Behind us is a field experiment with plots containing different rotations of corn and soybean, either corn and soybean by itself or corn and soybean with other crops in terms of a four-year rotation, and this experiment has been going on for 16 years. So 16 years, these rotational treatments have been in place. And in this case, by adding diversity and taking a two-year corn and soybean rotation, which is this plot right here, and over here, this plot of corn here is a four-year corn, pea, winter wheat, soy rotation, we've added diversity into the system. And this diversity is diversity of crops, but it's also diversity of crop residues, diversity of root exudates from these crops, diversity of root architecture in the soil. And so diversity is really the focus, crop rotational diversity is the focus of this experiment. And why do we care about rotation, crop rotation? We've done a number of long-term studies on these particular plots, and what we've shown is the four-year rotation actually produces about 25% less nitrous oxide. So you lose 25% less nitrogen as nitrous oxide from the plots. So that nitrogen stays in the ground where the plants can use it later. They also, with the four-year rotation, we were able to increase the soil organic matter about 25% over a two-year corn and soybean rotation. And I forgot to mention all these plots are no-till. So they're all no-till, and then they have a treatment, cropping system treatment of rotation. And so then the third finding, we have the nitrous oxide and the soil organic carbon are all better situated with the four-year rotation, but also the soybean in the four-year rotation has 25% higher yields than it does in the corn-soybean rotation. So all across the board, whether it be nutrients, soil organic carbon, or yields, we're seeing better performance by the four-year system. You know, I can tell you about this stuff, and I can show you the data, but there's not very many visual displays where I can show you the difference between a four-year and a two-year rotation. And so it'll give you an idea of how fast decomposition occurs in the soil.


Images of students in front of laptops, a braille note taker, large print on a screen, a student signs to another, a boy speaks into a headset mic, words appear, working together, computers and people with sensory impairments. A generation ago, personal computers began to make their mark on the world. It was the beginning of an incredible change in the way we do things. For people with disabilities, that change was even more profound. Dan Comden. At the time, people with disabilities, particularly people who are blind, had a chance to compete successfully using the computer. Stephanie. I found that computers opened up a whole new world and I could get a lot of stuff in braille. What I can do is I can use my screen reader to get into a different program. I can type something up just regularly on the computer, hit three buttons and it will be in braille right in front of me on a piece of paper. The program I use, for speech, helps me read everything that, like email, and if I look for information about something, it will tell me the results. They're talking about adaptive technology, software and hardware systems that assist computer and internet access for people with disabilities. The technology that we have available is appropriate for people with a wide range of sensory impairments. Everything for somebody with a minor hearing impairment, or we might do some captioning or special blinking on the screen, to somebody who's blind, who needs speech output, or maybe wants to incorporate speech output with speech input. People with sensory impairment are affected in the way they use vision, hearing or touch. They may have a slight loss of ability, or they may be completely unable to use one or more of their senses. People with visual impairments have low vision or blindness. People with hearing impairments may be deaf or hard of hearing. Those with tactile impairments experience numbness or limited sensitivity, often in hands or fingers. Sensory impairments affect people in a variety of ways, depending on how well they've adjusted to the disability, how significant it is. For me personally, with a significant profound hearing loss, I have issues with communication. Hearing and talking on a regular phone is nearly impossible for me. However, the use of computers lately has really enhanced my communication ability, especially with the use of email. With email, I'm able to communicate with anybody, anywhere, anytime. Some people with sensory impairments may not need adaptive technology for computer access. Others will require significant enhancements. To decide what works best for you, start by determining what you want to be able to do with the computer. Then choose accommodations that help you do those things. It's absolutely vital that somebody with a disability be involved in the decision-making process when it comes to selecting their adaptive technology. They're the experts who know what they need, so it's imperative that they be part of evaluating what's going to be a successful solution. Justin. Adaptive technology has helped me out a great deal. Student. I can get on the internet and access anything I want to with voice output on the computer and it just really helped me out a lot. Computing tools. We'll show you some of the computing tools that people with sensory impairments have used successfully. These are just some of the options. There are always other approaches to try and new hardware and software are being developed all the time. Visual impairments. We'll start with visual impairments. First, a definition. Low vision is a loss of visual acuity while retaining some vision. People may have uniform low vision or they may have variations such as tunnel vision or alternating areas of vision and total blindness. There may be light sensitivity or an inability to see colors. People who are blind have very little or no vision at all. I'm going to an RF support right now. Speech output is the most popular form of access for people who are blind. This software allows the computer to read aloud text, email or web pages. Ryan, a high school student who is blind, uses this type of software. It can tell you all the stuff on the screen and it speaks through your sound card. It's good for surfing the web and doing email or doing reports. I can go into a Word document. I can start typing. It will speak the character as I'm typing it. I can also have it read to me exactly what I have typed so I can know if I made any spelling mistakes. People who are blind use a standard keyboard for input. That standard keyboard also controls the screen reader. Braille output systems are also available for those who need more detailed information than speech output provides. Refreshable Braille displays echo information from the screen to a panel with Braille cells with movable pins. To print materials for later reference, a Braille embosser gives a permanent record. Yeah, about eight minutes. Portable note takers using speech or Braille can be invaluable for people on the go. I'm writing this down. Many people with low vision use screen enlargement software. This enlarges text and graphics displayed on the monitor. You can also use closed circuit TVs or video magnifiers to enlarge printed materials or photographs. This camera has autofocus and can be used with a computer monitor. You slide your paper under and then just fool with the knobs a bit and you can get it as big or as small as you like. For those who are sensitive to light, the enlargement systems can also reverse the screen from black on white to white on black. Enlarge print keytop labels may be helpful for people with low vision who are learning to type. Hearing impairments. I have a question about this word. What does it mean? People with hearing impairments may have partial or complete hearing loss. And for general computer use, there's very little need for adaptive technology. Built-in operating features offer visual alternatives to audio signals. For example, when you get a signal from the computer, like a beep or a honk that says you've done something wrong, then they can make it do something else to show me that something's wrong. I do use captions on my own sometimes in a louder environment. Streaming multimedia is a concern for people who can't hear. Captioning for videos or audio transcribed into text are ideal. However, most content developers don't include this. Some do. Jeffrey, student, he signs. When I use my computer at home, some of the games and so forth and the internet has closed captioning. For immediate conversation, people who are deaf or hard of hearing have some electronic options. One choice is instant messaging software. Another is to use a TTY or TDD device which sends typed messages over telephone lines. The newer TTY or TDD versions allow conversation between someone with a computer and someone using the TTY or TDD. Tactile impairments. A man speaks into a headset mic. Final, fourth quarter projections. Final fourth dash quarter projections. People with limited sensitivity in their hands or fingers may not be able to use a standard keyboard and mouse. Speech input software allows them to control a computer and enter text. If the loss of sensitivity is peripheral neuropathy due to diabetes, there may be vision loss as well. In that case, speech output can be combined with speech input using middleware to connect the two programs. They close attention to the recognition and accuracy of the system. Media allows the speech output software to work with the speech input software. It brings the two together so that the person who is speaking and listening to the computer can have a successful experience. Selecting adaptive technology should be based on individual needs. For education, employment and everything else, it's all about success. The advancement of technology in the use of computers in the last 10 or 15 years has just been phenomenal, especially for people with disabilities. And to see my peers, other people with disabilities, succeed well in school and careers is just a wonderful sight. And who knows what the future holds? Described by Audio Eyes. For more information about IT accessibility, consult www.uw.edu.accessibility. The content of this presentation is based on works supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number 9800324. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Copyright 2015, University of Washington. Permission is granted to copy these materials for educational non-commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged.


Hello, I'm Owen Honey. We know how much you love your home and we're excited to introduce ready-to-renovate with Boulders and Private Property. While this is a series where Boulders and Private Property will share the ins and outs of property renovation and maintenance by taking us through the actual renovation of a two-bedroom apartment, while Private Property and Boulders have come together to make this series a reality. So whether you're a first-time homeowner, rent a property, or are a seasoned investor, this is where you'll find the inspiration and tips and information you'll need to make your home or rental property a space that is not only functional and comfortable, but also a worthwhile investment. To get us started, we chat to the Property and Home Improvement experts. I chat to Roshana Benet from Boulders and Tracy Lee Miller and Chad Viveros from Private Property. So this is the two-bedroom apartment that has been renovated. This is where you'll find the inspiration and know-how for property renovation and maintenance. Welcome to Ready to Renovate with Boulders and Private Property. Roshana takes us through the partnership between Boulders and Private Property. It's been a long time coming. Private Property and Boulders are very much aligned in terms of ethos. We're trying to put the same kind of thoughts into the market. People are spending so much time at home. We're wanting to enrich those spaces as a result and people are very brave now. They're being very creative and they're trying lots of things by themselves for the first time. This small space has so much potential. The property market has remained resilient. Tracy from Private Property explains why this is. So we think it's contributed to three factors really. One, that the market conditions have never been more favourable. In fact the interest rates are at a record low and with zero transfer fees payable on properties under one million. This makes it actually the best buying opportunity in decades. Spending so much time at home during the pandemic has made us realise that our properties are more to mean more to us. We have a renewed appreciation for property not just as a financial stability, a tool for financial stability, but also a place where we can work and play and really express ourselves. So I think this greater appreciation for property has also benefited the industry. And thirdly, we believe that the pandemic has impacted our lifestyles tremendously. So whether you are having to upscale because your family's grown or downsized or perhaps considering moving to another province or country, lifestyle changes provides us with opportunities to purchase. Tracy explains more about the Private Property website. You can find hundreds, in fact hundreds of thousands of properties to buy, rent, sell, whether it's commercial, land, repossess properties or if you're looking for a rental, it's really the place where you can find information tools and inspiration to make really good property decisions. Chad Feveros from Private Property popped in on the conversation to give potential buyers tips on what to consider when choosing a private property to buy. So when we chose this property there were three factors we took into consideration. The first is appeal. We wanted a property that would appeal to a wide range of audience and a two bedroom apartment is just that. The second one is we wanted it close to features that are very, very important to the post-pandemic buy of today. And those features are secure outdoor spaces, close to amenities, as well as affordability. And the affordability factor is taken care of because this property is under a million, so there's no transfer duties applicable. And the last one is we wanted to fix up it. We wanted to show you that you don't need to be scared about a property that doesn't check all your boxes immediately. You can take advantage of a lower purchase price, reinvest a portion of that into a renovation, making that property your dream home. So what is the best advice when choosing to renovate your property? So I'd suggest that they know what they want when they enter into this process. Have a rough idea of what you're looking for. But don't let small superficial things detract from it. Don't let the furniture or the way the property is designed right now. Don't let your preconceived notions of an area or a suburb, a road, a complex take away from the potential specific homes have. And I think that's where our partnership with Builders Warehouse really shines, in that they'll show you how to transform your home into your dream home and do it stress-free, do it within the right budget and do it within the right time frames. Builders walks the entire journey with their customers. We've got lots of inspiration on our blog. We've got rich content there that really gives you so many ideas on how to do stuff. Of course, we have all of the products you need to make that vision come to life. We make sure that we carry every taste and every budget. And then we've got really clever tools like the Get It Done app. You can find contractors to help you execute your vision. And of course, the Gift Registry app, which is a really, really handy tool. It helps you manage your expenses in terms of your building materials with your contractor. And of course, Builders makes it accessible for every kind of customer in the market. You don't have to be thinking that you can't afford it. We've got credit facilities available in various forms. So really, we walk the whole journey with all our customers. This project would not be possible without the designer and of course, the contractor. I also made it to take us through the process of where she gets her inspiration from. When you do a home renovation, always start with planning, get ideas on Pinterest or in magazines and make a lookbook. So you always know what the end result is that you want because it's very easy to get sidetracked by pretty ornaments. But in the end, it won't all work together. And of course, Jean, who has come to supervise the role of Amanda's plan, what does it take? Jean, what are the most important design considerations you had to take into account? Well, from our side, planning. Planning going throughout the site, ensuring that all of the stock has been ordered, ensuring that you get compliant contractors. That sets basically the biggest part of bringing a project of the size together. Planning, making sure all aspects are covered. So Jean, the design came first and then the work came second with all the structural changes that you needed to make in this property. Take us through the main design options that you had to go through in this property. Well, from the garage all the way through to the back door, there has been some type of changes. When it came to the main changes was basically the floor tiling, wall tiling, that has the main effect on the house for myself, especially when you walk through it, as well as the wallpaper. The back garden was the only structural change that we made was building the raised wall. So that was pretty much it going through it and then all of the nitty gritty stuff in between. Renovating is a great way to enhance your home and making it an ideal haven for all your needs. Every property has unique potential that you can use to create the home of your dreams. All it takes are the right partners. Private property is South Africa's leading property website showcasing thousands of available properties for sale and to rent. And Boulders is your one stop destination for your DIY and home improvement inspiration and all the products and materials you'll need. You can catch all the ready to renovates with Boulders and private property episodes on Boulders and private property websites and popular online channels on screen now. Thank you to Boulders and private property and all our guests and thank you for joining us. Get to Boulders, get it done.


Well, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Thursday conversation with the bridge conference ministers I'm here with my colleagues to talk about phasing forward how as we think about The the process by which our churches will come back together in physical spaces What that will look like and we're gonna have some conversation among ourselves we're gonna encourage you to also join in on the conversation asking questions in the chat box either if you are joining us by Zoom in the chat box there or if you're on Facebook live will also be monitoring that platform for any questions or comments that you might have So thank you all for joining us We're gonna start with a three three parts of scripture that sort of ground and shape and form Are thinking about phasing forward as the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ The first scripture is all of these should be well known to most of us I would guess the first is from the gospel of Matthew chapter 25 verse 44 Then they also will answer Lord when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and Did not take care of you Then he will answer them Truly, I tell you Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these you did not do it to me The prophet Jeremiah and the 29th chapter verse 7 says this But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and Pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare, you will find your welfare and Finally from the book of Acts Part of the Pentecost story in the second chapter of Acts verse 46 Day by day as they spent much time together in the temple they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts so those three scriptures have helped form our Ideas thoughts and recommendations for the Southern New England conference and you'll hear more about that in a minute But I'd like to pray a prayer that is from Barbara Glasson the president of the Methodist conference And it's a prayer for the Christian community. So let us pray We are not people of fear We are people of courage We are not people who protect our own safety We are people who protect our neighbors safety We are not people of greed We are people of generosity We are your people God giving and loving wherever we are Whatever it costs For as long as it takes Wherever you call us Amen So I'd like to turn our conversation over to my colleague Marilyn Marilyn Good afternoon. I have some announcements for the good of the order this afternoon As you know, we have canceled the June annual meeting But we do need to meet as a conference. So we have scheduled a tentative date for the next gathering for September 26th, so save the date our annual meeting planning team is making plans for a virtual meeting that day our RIP medical debt Deadline is fast approaching. It's this coming Monday May the 18th We've well over 125,000 dollars so far and that will allow us to retire millions of dollars in Crushing medical debt that can bring a family to bankruptcy. So if your church hasn't contributed Please do so in the next few days All of the money that is raised will go to that effort The council of conference ministers of the United Church of Christ including we three bridge conference ministers have collaborated to create an entire Sunday worship it uses the revised common Selectionary reading for this coming Sunday May 17th, but you can use it for any other Sunday later on if you like The project team is currently working to enable closed captioning And they hope to have it ready by Sunday So if you've already downloaded the worship service and wish to have closed captions be sure to get the latest version and Then my colleague Ken Salati We'll be hosting a webinar tomorrow at 2 o'clock entitled Digital ministry what we've learned and what's next it will be tomorrow at 2 p.m We have some worship leaders from around the conference to discuss what they've learned so far about doing digital ministry and Where we they believe we are headed the panel will include Jonathan Chapman and a flowers Isaac Lawson Jen Macy Ashley Popperson and Alex Shea will so this is not to be missed You can find a link in the five things to know email or in the events Tablet tab on our website As any UCC org You can also catch it at 2 p.m. Tomorrow on the conference's Facebook page And I think that's all I have for today, so I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Don The afternoon I'm going to recap one of the scriptures and share with you the introduction From a document that has been developed by the people I'm about to introduce along with the help of a variety of people on our staff That scripture comes from Jeremiah 29 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and prayed to the Lord on its behalf For in its welfare you will find your welfare This is the introduction This is the time unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes This is a challenging time for all of us We've had moments of creative ingenuity and moments of overwhelming exhaustion We entered it in chaos. We plan to move through it with intention We are not reopening because we never closed We have engaged ministry in new ways and we will move forward in new ways First there is no way to ensure the overall safety of our congregations and communities until there is a trusted vaccine. We know this Second we know that in-person worship in sanctuaries is one of the types of gatherings that is most likely to spread the viral infection In an enclosed room over a length of time the airborne viral particles can reach every corner and six foot or 12 foot physical distancing will not prevent this Speaking and praying and singing aloud, which is so much a part of our worship propels the virus even further than just breathing Using masks limits, but does not prevent the transmission of the disease And in our worship spaces in our churches common surfaces abound with the opportunity for lots of contact And we know that people can be carriers of the virus without showing any symptoms Third, we don't know everything about the virus and its impact on all ages. New information is coming out literally daily That makes it hard to predict trends and safety measures and even the phases we're presenting Fourth, our congregations in many cases are comprised of the populations most vulnerable to COVID-19 And fifth, an outbreak in one of our churches will have an impact upon all of our communities and upon the capacity of our healthcare systems So we've been reviewing dozens of documents and websites on next steps for places of worship The document you're about to see and will soon be on the website is an integration and distillation of those resources tailored for our churches We are presenting it in a phasing forward approach beginning with our current base phase the phase we're in right now And moving through four phases that are tied to local conditions in the guidance of local government and healthcare professionals So let me share with you three points that come from this. There is no one date that can be universally applied across our conference to every church in every community Things differ, local regulations, building size and condition, the age of the congregation, the size of the congregation, the healthcare capacity in the community, the rate and incidence of the spread in that community, those are all changing from town to town Second, the way forward we know is not going to be linear. There is a possibility of new spikes of infection that may return us back into the base phase or the stay home, stay safe requirements So based on all of this based on these phases, these metrics and these guidance and the current trends that we are seeing at this point We believe that in person worship and buildings will need to be suspended most likely through the at least the end of the summer So I want to share with you the three folks have been working most diligently on this particular document. Kate Ostertag, Tamara Moorland and Kelly Gallagher they've all are a part of our staff and they have been collecting the insight and wisdom from across our staff and across our country. I'm going to turn it over to Kelly Good afternoon everyone. It's great to be here. I wish I could see all your faces. I'm Kelly Gallagher associate conference minister for the Central Massachusetts and Franklin associations. I'm grateful to be with everyone. I'm just want to say I'm here to say that we began a couple weeks ago Looking at this idea of what are our next steps we put out a list checklist for the mid pandemic filled with questions inviting all of you to start asking as we consider moving forward The more that Tamara and Kate and I read documents coming out of states and the CDC, we moved into the understanding of phases, which we are going to present to you and which Don just talked about. We are not experts on this. We are, we are here to work and serve and gather and hear and talk and share with all of you. We welcome continued resources and conversation, your questions, your concerns. What we'll present today is an outline. There will be more resources on the website, but we are showing you a snapshot of what we are recommending for our face forward recommendations. We took into consideration the vast array of churches that we have the reality of three states and many counties and many many local considerations. And so we're offering general recommendations and we hope that it will be useful for many. And again, we welcome your resources that you have to share with us as we go forward. And so I will turn it over to Kate Ostertag who has put together this amazing document. So thank you. Good afternoon everybody. I'm just going to walk you through the basic outline of the document, beginning with the base phase I believe that Tiffany is going to get that up on your screen so that you can see it. The base phase is where we are right now. We're in a either a stay at home order or non essential business recommendations are in place. And it's really clear that the case count the COVID-19 case count is not decreasing and not decreasing over the two week continuous span that it would need to an order to move into one of the actual phases where we could begin in person worship. We have some recommendations that are specific to base phase that include online worship only online meetings only, and then spending this time to make the preparations for phasing forward. Those preparations include continuing to use the resources like the resources that we have on the website already the mid pandemic checklist that was mentioned. Continuing to review the CDC guidelines and including those that are the interim guidelines for communities of faith. Continue to monitor your church is why they're closed to see that there aren't any risks that should be attended to. You'll want to consider and plan what the requirements you have for worship leaders that will participate in in person worship during the pandemic. You'll need a plan to develop. You'll need to develop a plan for that in person worship, and it will be considered a considerable task load you want to appoint an administrator or maybe develop a task team. There'll be a protocol that needs to be followed that will need to be implemented and you'll need that task team to put that forth. You'll need policies for health and health screening. And what will you do in the event of a case inside your community. You'll need to be an initial deep cleaning and then they'll need to be ongoing sanitation plans. And of course you'll want to share and develop a communication system to share with your worship. With your worshipers every all those measures that you're planning taking and as they are adjusted. As we look at moving into phase one and you'll notice the phases are very similar. What defines moving forward in phase is a longer period of time where you've been successful at worshipping in person and able to maintain those case counts staying down or trending down for longer and longer periods of time. So in our phase one. First and foremost you've done all the work that is needs to be done through the recommendations in the base phase, and you have confirmed that your state and local governments have lifted those stay at home orders, or essential business recommendations. So with that, check with your local health agent, make sure that you meet the criteria that your case counts have been declining for continuous two weeks that there's widespread available testing and that personal protective equipment is available but there's not any shortages in place. So let's start out in a small numbers to 10 to 25 people and that includes your lay and clergy leadership. And that should probably be prepared that should definitely be paired with online worship it's probably not going to include your whole congregation and there'll be people who have risk factors and won't be able to join in. You'll want to follow all the in person in person guidelines and recommendations those will be available online and they do include no singing and no communion. You'll want to schedule it far enough out once it appears that you're able to move forward that you'll be able to do a dress rehearsal. Nothing will be familiar to the people arriving and people's roles will have changed. Continue holding online worship and encourage those that are at high risk to continue to worship online. Look at holding services outside and when well ventilated areas consider some of the ideas that have come up for a drive in style worship. Be safely organized and always contact your local police and fire departments to check for any local requirements that might be in place. This is a really important piece. The phases as we move into them. We can only move forward or stay in a phase so long as all of the criteria for being in that phase remain true. So if case counts begin to rise or someone in your community tests positive. Then it's recommended that you move back to the base phase, always keeping in mind to post and follow the guidelines for hygiene, social distancing and continue with only online meetings and church offices would remain closed during this period of time. The remaining phases will the remaining to the next two phases phase two and phase three are essentially the same, although we move forward. It means that we've developed confidence in meeting in person. We're able to do so safely. Our state and local community is in a downward continuous trend in our community or worshiping community as a downward trend so mostly what happens is the numbers increase during these periods of phase two and phase three. And when we get to phase four, it means that there is a vaccine that it is that we have widespread inoculation that has been successful. And only then, when there's widespread immune immunity would we be able to return to in person worship. And again a reminder that at any point in time if we have a reversal of that positive trend we have to move back to the base phase. So I'm going to turn this over to Tamara Morland and she's going to help with our wrapping up. Hi, I'm Tamara Morland. And it was a delight to work on this project with Kate and Kelly. Kelly said initially this is a snapshot of all of the material that we reviewed for this presentation. But I want you to know that we will also be available in the days and weeks ahead to answer questions from you to gather information from you, and to continue compiling the best information we can for the churches in the southern New England province. And in addition to being available to you, we hope that you will share this information. Once it's posted on our website, which I believe will happen probably tomorrow, that you share this information with your various clergy groups, lay leadership groups with moderators with communities of practice and with and within meetings that you have so that everyone has a chance to look at this material and see how it can be utilized in your unique church in your community and whatever situations that you may have. In addition to this snapshot, there's a lot more that we have and we couldn't go over all of that today was really too much. The detailed information will be on the website. There's a detailed version of this phase forward. There's also a list of recommendations for in person worship that are much more detailed than what we discussed today and I think that will be very helpful for you to talk about the real detailed elements that you need to think about in your churches. There's also a template for worship. Again, we're not mandating that you do this but we thought it would be helpful to have a template that you can utilize in your own churches as you're thinking about how might we do worship, you know how might what might we do around people sitting and social distancing and how would we do that if we had coffee hour how would we do these various things so there is that template as well. The other thing that we wanted to mention is that our material may be slightly different than others. I think right now people are a little overwhelmed that everybody's putting out a directive for in person gathering. And so we were very careful to select things and to put together something that reflects our culture. That reflects the theology that is pervasive in the United Church of Christ and that complements our culture. So if you hear that other churches are doing different things. We want you to know that that's why we selected these things to present to you and it may be different than you know our neighbors. They have a different theology in some churches and some churches are going to be going back before we do. There's you know and Kent might speak to that we had a conversation earlier today that some people are really inviting at the bit to be in their churches as soon as possible but we've decided to follow these guidelines so that we can be safe and that we can protect those that God has given us not charge over but that God has placed in our sphere of influence and for us to minister to them so I think that's it if you want to if you have any questions. I think Kent will share those questions with us and we'd be happy to answer them for you. So lots of kudos for all of this work that the three of you have been doing and have put into this form of deep appreciation for many people online. One of the questions that's being asked is who makes decisions about what the widespread availability of testing is anybody want to answer that one. I was actually going to ask Don it feels more like a CDC or because a CDC question or how towns are doing with tracking. So Don, can you speak to that one thing I'll speak to is with questions like these. I'm going to keep encouraging you to check with your local health officials. They had the best sense of what the requirements are and how those requirements are best met within your particular region, because the metrics themselves may change from place to place they're the ones who will have the best insight into. Do we have sufficient testing capacity that we feel within our community it's safe to move into a new phase consult with them. If you don't have a local health agent check with your emergency management person in the community, your local police and the fire should know who they are, your local town officials should know the health agent, and you all should know them as well. Get to know them well. So another question is I'm curious about why worship is the first in person activity that you recommend rather than beginning with pastoral care, small group meetings or other in person activities, subject to appropriate things, etc, and holding off on worship until a later phase. So that's one question about why worship against those other things. And then I'm also interested in any guidance you may have on funerals weddings 12 step groups pre schools and other space use. So let's take one at a time one is why is worship the first in person activity that we've mentioned rather than some of the other small pastoral care, small group meetings other in person activities. Anybody want to answer that. Take a shot at that. Kelly and I are on the same rhythm here. I think primarily what we've heard from people is that we really want to get back to worship that people have been very creative and small groups and it's a lot easier to do small groups, virtually. And so the pressure or the, the comments from people in our community has really been I miss being in worship. So our focus was about gathering together in worship. But clearly I think when you look through the documents, it really pertains to all kinds of gatherings, whether it's a funeral, whether it's your meetings and so forth, but our focus initially was on worship. Kelly, you want to add something to that. I guess just that I would say that the question of pastoral care, and any other kind of gathering those criteria would still exist as they would going to the grocery store I mean the the six feet and the, the mask and the gloves and those are the things that pastors will have to be deciding for themselves. You may choose if you can only gather 10 people. Instead of gathering those 10 people for worship, you may see what we're going to have study groups all summer to discuss how this has impacted us in our vision. And yet we would still recommend all the things we recommend for, for consideration if you're going to bring 10 people together at all and they're the six feet, the, you will see all the recommendations there are so whether you're gathered 10 people for worship 10 people for Bible study, five people to vision, all the things that we've put in place or recommended we would recommend the same. So the second part of that question is around offering guidance for funerals weddings, but then that sort of goes into another territory which is user groups of our congregations buildings that 12 step groups preschools other space use any thoughts about that. Kate, that the question of the use of the building doesn't come in until I think the end of phase two or three Kate, I think it's phase two, where we recommend the consideration of opening the building to others. We recommended it in the in what is now the end of phase two to consider it and to consider implementing it in phase three. And the conservative logic there is that the sanitation practices that would be required for worship if you proceeded with worship when amplified by other building use become quite quite complex and very quickly multiple entering and exiting from the building. I think if church perhaps was not going to worship in person that they might have greater flexibility for building use. But if the space is shared, and there would be worship or maybe multiple even scheduled times of worship, then to also have rental groups or maintain offices at the same time. And that looks pretty, pretty extensive to manage. So it's not that it's not a conversation that you couldn't try to have earlier, but there is a great complexity so that was the reason for delaying that some hoping to also hear about children and youth at each phase and when can staff work from church buildings. You may want to speak about children and youth at the phases. Go ahead Tamara Kelly, or you have to unmute. So our faith formation folks have worked really hard on phasing forward documents around youth and Sunday schools and things like that and that will be a resource attached to to our document and on their pages. And so that would be another Thursday conversation they've worked really hard and so that's what I can say. Go ahead I'm sorry Kelly. Was there another part of that question. It's about when staff can work from church buildings. And I think again, when church buildings are open is listed, I think the end of phase two as well. Are there plans to help congregations obtain personal protective equipment, specifically hand sanitizer in bulk. I think that we've discussed that as a possibility but I do think how we might talk about what resources congregations might need and how to how to get a hold of resources like PPE. I do think we'll probably want to include that in some of our research so we will we will try to attend to that. Do you have advice for churches that host other congregations of different traditions within their building. To what extent are we to make the decision about how they return to worship in the building. That's a really good question. Because other churches may want to start earlier. There are some places I think where there are meetings that are being held now but the church office itself is closed. And so I think that that requires a sensitive conversation. With the leaders in the church and those folks that are renting the space, because they are renting your space or utilizing your space. And so I think you share you know what your guidelines are what your practices are and ask that they can adhere to those as best as possible. So, the actual SNEC location where I can direct my church members for this Sunday's worship service. I think that's referring to the Council conference ministers worship service and we will we will run that on our page on Sunday mornings but there also is a link in on the on the Facebook page and is that on the website Tiffany. Yes, also on the website. One of the good questions and responses the challenge that we have discussed related to a limited small number and worship is how we would politely and with an open heart tell people that they can't come. So any suggestions how to manage that that's not what said exactly here but I think that is the question. And that the very people who should not come for because they're in the risk factors, my age group and older will be the people who will want to come they'll be the ones who have been isolated. How do you how would we think that one through that's also in our recommendation document. But you know it might be working with your leaders to determine that you might start that small group with that population and that they have a Sunday, you know then another Sunday might be for you know children and families. So, I think that's a decision for the congregation, you know what your needs are. And if that's a population that you really have identified as a population that has been vulnerable and isolated, it might be that that's the population that you start and remember that we're talking about doing this in conjunction with virtual so that there's still opportunities for various groups to worship. So, you know, while you may have that elderly group or that group that is more at risk in the building, you're still broadcasting your service virtually so that others are still able to participate in worship at the same time just not at the same location. And I just wanted to add to that that I know because this is such a difficult question, it is, I have heard the decision why some churches are choosing to just hold off on worship so those decisions and that division doesn't happen. And so that's another option to say we're all in this until we're all in this so there's a question about resources available to approach stewardship during a longer distance worship period. We do have a group of people working. There's a small group of people that have been working on stewardship issues stewardship chairs are meeting. David Cleaver Bartholomew from our staff and Mary Nelson from our staff are gathering people to share best practices around stewardship. We had an initial finance finance zoom meeting a couple weeks ago we're doing another one of those next week to sort of attend to the stewardship and financial questions so we will attempt to address that. What is the use of outdoor property for food and clothing collection and distribution. We do know that's going on. So again the question of how those who are serving others are practicing physical distancing are wearing masks gloves, making sure that they're observing all those guidelines I think using outdoor space for that. The churches are beginning to talk about with the weather getting nicer, maybe with the weather getting nicer they might want to gather for outdoor worship any thoughts about outdoor worship from the team. We had discussed. Some outdoor worship and some of the same processes that to evaluate ability to worship in person would come into play in planning any outdoor worship, still maintaining physical distancing still having masks still following the basic regulations would be important. In addition to that it would be very important to check with your local officials your police fire to find out if there are any practices that you need to follow or if you need a permit there may be guidelines that you need to consider when when planning facilities, things of that nature. The list is probably almost as long as within person worship for the things that you would likely need to consider to plan on, and to process in order to do that safely. I would also say when it came to the thrift store and food practices that some of that has had come our way and I think that what the recommendation of the team was if I'm not mistaken Kelly was that the groups that do a lot of thrift store work like the Salvation Army and Goodwill and so forth are making some recommendations for how to safely handle thrift and and those are resources that we need to continue to develop and have available. And I would say when it comes to food service outside or inside that you would also really want to lean on your local health agent to determine if you can take whatever guidelines you had or or permissions you had before and apply them to a new situation and during So there is a question someone's requesting Tiffany to flip phase three on the screen again for a moment I think that the person has a specific question about phase three is that something you can pull up quickly well. There we go. Now that it's on the screen I'll ask the person Vicki. What question do you have about that. And while we're waiting for that question maybe to emerge on Facebook live. I think the young man says the Windsor food bank is not accepting food donation gift cards and money only. And as always, I think she makes a great suggestion that we would also concur with it's best to check with your local folks to see what they do before you start a drive obviously you want you want that to be a part of that. And then we see Miller Ola pod says that most organizations are not accepting clothing right now so again this is all before you start something within your congregation out of good will and wanting to do something quote unquote. It's always good to check with local, you know, whatever agencies you'd be working within your own communities to see what they they're looking for and what they what they desire. The check that's needed for live streaming worship is different than what's required for home based services like many of us are doing could you address that. Paul Brian Smith asked and we will address that Paul tomorrow in the digital ministry meeting that's sort of the teaser to get you to come back tomorrow at two o'clock for our conversation we realize that probably for a period of time if not. This will be the way forward will be doing hybrid services live and online services at the either simulcast at the same time, we're having some kind of feature about that. There's a question about the Newman Congregational Church I know Timothy Silva is watching on Facebook and you saw the story that they had made a decision about until a vaccine is developed. And in use they will not be gathering in person, they'll continue to gather online. We may bring Timothy for one of these programs so he can tell you more about that. And so, and how they went into that decision it's both in on our website but also the National Church the United Church of Christ web page also has an article about that so we'll think about bringing Timothy on for his wisdom. And I'm going to create something on that to the first point we make in the introduction is that there is no way to ensure the overall safety of the congregation until there is a vaccine. So, beyond that everything in these phases is based upon the risk, your church is willing to take to its members and to the community and the overall health care system. And this can just be a conversation you can have within frameworks for providing, but the reality that Newman names is that there is no way to ensure safety until a tested and proven vaccine is available. That also raises a question that I've come a couple places in the side. What about if the church as a whole or leadership wants to open but certain individuals and leadership, or staff members feel that by opening they themselves are at deeper risk. And would they possibly threatened and losing their job, or have to make a difficult decision because they do not feel as though this, the safety of themselves, or their family allows them to be present in worship leadership, you have any comments on that. Do we have comments on that. I felt like you just commented. Um, but I, you know, I think that what Don said is, it is right that it, given our polity, given the reality of our churches and the reality of where we are and some churches are rural. Some counties haven't had any cases some that to say, don't worship until there's a vaccine feels like setting ourselves up. To be considered to some as not not seeing the broad picture but I do think that the reality is as Don said that there is no we cannot ensure the safety until there's a vaccine that we know has established widespread immunity. So, but we're we're the United Church of Christ and we're in conversation. I also would hope that you know that in keeping with the scriptures that we began with that the gospel calls us to be attentive to the least of these in our midst. I would certainly hope that no clergy person nor lay leadership person would feel as though they they are being called to place their own personal safety the safety of those they care about up against the decision of the church to try to move forward when they don't feel they're able to. I'm hoping that does not put something in a position of having to leave the church will leave a job. That I don't think would be in keeping with the gospel and I would hope the congregation would be able to have a good conversation around that that that holds our sense of love and compassion and care for each other in the teachings of Jesus in that conversation. And of course the conference stands ready to help you those conversations if needed. So, we want to thank our folks from our staff who've been working long hours putting this document together working collaboratively using a variety of resources including the best of what other churches other denominations and help using CDC guidelines. Using all the resources and trying to assemble it into what we hope will be a helpful resource for for local churches as guide guidelines. I think Don has some closing words and then I will close us out with prayer. Just reiterate some of the opening words in the Congress from our conversation that we know there is no one date that can work universally any longer, particularly because there is such a variety of geography and a variety within our churches. We're not advocating for a date we're advocating for careful consideration in the process and looking at metrics locally as well as as nationally. And that based on all of this, our view of the phases we're looking at the trends we're looking at the information this document. We continue to believe that in person worship in buildings will need to be suspended through at least the end of the summer, as we continue to see how this unfolds around us. And I'll pass it back to you. Thank you once again thank you to Tamara Kelly and Kate for their good good work on this particular thing of phasing forward as the Southern New England conference want to give a shout out to next week's program next Thursday at 130. We have the Reverend Mary Ludy on as our guest. Some of you who've been following Mary's adventures from Spain during the pandemic will be interested in hearing what Mary who's a very captivating lively speaker will have to say about the pandemic and faith. We'll join us. That's a week from today for that and tomorrow again to a clock. We'll have a conversation on digital ministry about what we're learning in in the way in which some of us have become instant experts quote unquote on digital ministry and what we think the future of digital ministry might look for our denomination and for the way forward. So with that, I wish you God's peace, God's blessing, God's compassion. Stay safe. Be well. God be with all of you. Amen.