So last week on the program we talked about this rivalry that's currently brewing between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders specifically when it comes to the issue of health care and according to a Washington Post article Biden's team reportedly told Bernie Sanders team to quote bring it on when it comes to this health care debate Which I think is foolish because health care is arguably Bernie Sanders greatest strength But nonetheless, they think that their guy Joe Biden can best Bernie here Now to give you an update fast forward a week later. How is this going? How is this debate playing out? Is Joe Biden really communicating a more clear vision for the future of America when it comes to health care? Well, expectedly. No, he has completely and utterly face planted because at a rally in Iowa He had the chance to articulate his vision for health care reform in America And here's how that went according to Mark Caputo of Politico Joe Biden has a health care plan But doesn't quote have the time to completely lay out all the details yet There's time for relatively lengthy anecdotes about how his dad long ago was unable to secure a loan to help send him to a School he wanted to attend and time to describe a New Yorker cartoon that hung in his office or to praise President Obama to remember the untimely death of his beloved son Bo and a crowd favorite to bash Donald Trump in other words if it comes to platitudes and personal stories Joe Biden has all the time in the world to talk about that But when it comes to health care policy a Policy that is the number one issue for a large portion of Americans. He doesn't have time to talk about that So what was the point of you challenging Bernie Sanders? Why did your team? essentially instigate this debate and this rivalry if you don't even have time to lay out an Alternative vision to Bernie Sanders because we all know Bernie wants Medicare for all and you clearly disagree with that So what's your vision? He doesn't have time politics is about policy, but he doesn't want to talk about the one thing that A presidential candidate theoretically should want to talk about and to be clear It's not just health care where Joe Biden is completely empty and vacuous because he also has a proposal for college debt But no specifics on that either because quote. I don't have time I don't want to keep you standing any longer He said this to a crowd of people in Iowa the former vice president's ideas on climate change and foreign policy Also a work in progress So he didn't choose to run because he has this Policy agenda that he wants to implement to help Americans. He's running because to him politics isn't about policy it's about personality and persona and him challenging Bernie just contributes to this narrative this character that he's building this Straight-talking no-nonsense tough guy who will put anyone in their place because he's just so tough But I mean in actuality. He's someone who doesn't care about policy is completely devoid of substance and People like him presumably because he just gives people the feels that's it He talks nicely he talks about platitudes and he makes people remember the time when American politics was a lot more stable During the Obama years and to support Joe Biden You tacitly have to admit or even explicitly in some cases that you actually don't give a damn about policy and the reason Why he has so much street cred the reason why he's so arrogant and Wants to challenge Bernie when it comes to health care Even if he doesn't even want to talk about health care is because he has elites He has cable news pundits and celebrities backing him up for example watch this interview with Alyssa Milano on MSNBC She literally admits that it's not about policy that policy isn't why she's supporting Joe Biden over Everyone else in the field you have what 20 plus candidates now She's choosing Biden not because he has the best policies because to her policy doesn't really matter so much look There's nobody in the world that wants progressive policy to be set in place more than I do But this primary to me is not about policy. It's about beating Trump period That's it end of story. We need to nominate someone that is going to beat Trump and bring honesty and integrity and Dignity and truth Back to the United States of America empathy compassion all these things that I want to teach my my children growing up in this great country We need someone that's gonna represent that to the best of their ability and and and fight Trump and and you know I can't I it's not about who's gonna make the best president It's a really about who's going to beat this man this horrible horrible President now ask yourself this why would someone like Alyssa Milano who is seemingly intelligent support someone a Political person when they don't actually want clearly to lay out their policies. Well, think about it. She's comfortable She has economic security so regardless if Joe Biden or Donald Trump wins She's gonna be doing just fine And this is why a lot of celebrities support these vacuous centrist politicians George R. R. Martin also supports Joe Biden claimed that his Introduction video or his announcement video if you will was completely kick-ass and he loved it and ask yourself Why would someone like George R. R. Martin who's clearly a genius who's brilliant who's extremely creative would support someone as Empty as Joe Biden. It's because he's comfortable when you look at the net worth of these individuals They are so comfortable that it doesn't matter to them what Joe Biden says He's going to do or what he's not going to do they support him because he makes them feel good Just hearing his voice really harkens back to the days of the Obama era when Democrats were in power So the reason why these people don't care about policy and they don't care that Joe Biden is not talking about his ideas They don't care that he literally said quote I don't have time to talk about healthcare is because they're extremely comfortable now if people actually looked past all of these Analyses from celebrities and cable news pundits They'd see that Joe Biden is nothing more than not just an empty suit But a shill for the health care industry because when you look at reports from Vox for example It's clear that the health care industry is literally betting on Joe Biden to save their ass They literally view him as a savior basically the last choice or the last person who could save the country From Medicare for all juxtapose what we hear from the health insurance industry About Joe Biden and all the nice things that they have to say about him with what we hear When it comes to Bernie Sanders and how the health care industry responds to him Well, we know that when he reintroduced his Medicare for all bill health industry stocks tanked and on top of that investors were shook and insurance providers that offer Medicare Advantage plans felt compelled to increase benefits just to prove to Bernie Sanders who they are Terrified of that. They're not completely useless and you know, maybe they don't only care about profit Maybe they're willing under the right amount of pressure to adapt and increase benefits So that's how the health insurance industry responds to Bernie. Please don't kill us. But when it comes to Joe Biden Please save us. He's the savior. But yet He can challenge Bernie to a debate on health care and then the next week say, you know what? I don't have time to talk about policy and he still gets support It is Unbelievable Joe Biden is as vacuous as politicians nowadays Can possibly be and the only reason why this passes is because people still look to the Obama era with rose-colored glasses They view it nostalgically But I hope people will realize that Joe Biden lacks vision He may seem like he's a tough guy He may huff and puff but in actuality, none of that means anything if he's not willing to be a tough guy and Stand up to the special interests who he needs to stand up to so for example Listen to what Bernie Sanders says about health care in an interview with ABC he was asked about Medicare for all and He described exactly what's wrong with Joe Biden's approach because what Joe Biden wants is to maintain the status quo Here's what Bernie Sanders says to that Biden says that he would like to see a more incremental approach fix Obamacare provide a Medicare option for anybody But allow people to still have some have private health insurance if they want why not do an approach like that? I'll tell you why because the system today is truly dysfunctional We have 34 million people with no health insurance even more who are underinsured The drug companies are ripping us off every day charging us the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs And yet at the end of all of that Jonathan We are spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country That is a situation that really cannot be defended. You can't spend so much money and get so little value Medicare right now is the most popular health insurance program in the country But it only applies to people 65 years of age or older all that I want to do is Expand Medicare over a four-year period to cover every man woman and child in this country It will save the average American a significant amount of money give them freedom of choice with regard to the doctor or hospital They want to go and substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs, but to do that You would eliminate private health insurance for basic needs. Yes So what do you say to the firefighter in Iowa who has a health plan that they like? And doesn't want to give up that what I would say is there are tens of millions of people Every single year who change their health insurance programs. They may leave their job their employer may give them a new set of policies new company And what I would say is that if you want stability If you want a better program a more comprehensive program with no deductibles with no Co-payments with no premiums which will cost your family less support Medicare for all but 180 million or so people have But every year tens of but the only difference and I look we are taking on The insurance companies and we're taking on the drug companies as you know, they formed an organization They're gonna spend tens and tens of millions of dollars trying to frighten the American people The only difference that people will see In a Medicare for all as opposed to united health now the guy who runs united health I think made eighty three million dollars in profits last year and not in profits, but in personal compensation He does not like Medicare for all I can understand that the guy was head of Etna put a deal together with CVS a merger made $500 million in the merger. He does not like Medicare for all. I got it But for the average American the only difference you will see is a change in your card It will say Medicare rather than a united health of blue cross So what you just heard there was someone with an actual vision who has a very specific plan to stop medical bankruptcies to stop deaths in This country due to either a lack of health insurance or due to someone who has insurance But they need a particular procedure that would save their lives But their health insurance company doesn't want to pay for it. That's someone with a vision That's someone who is not just educating people about what to expect with his policy But educating them about the propaganda that is being disseminated at the behest of health insurance companies He's explaining that look these companies have a financial interest in existing obviously So they're going to tell you everything they're gonna fear monger and make it seem as if Medicare for all isn't in your best interest But let me tell you why this is in your best interest So Bernie Sanders is able to respond to all of these objections because when you have a clear vision You're able to hold that vision up to scrutiny But Joe Biden he doesn't have time to talk about health care not because he doesn't have enough time I think that it's obvious when you're running a presidential campaign all you have is time to talk about policy But he just doesn't want to talk about policy because in order to talk about his vision He'd essentially have to defend the status quo which he wants to do But that's indefensible when you have a system in this country even post obama care where individuals Thousands of which are dying every single year are going bankrupt. That is indefensible But contrast that with Bernie Sanders and he can defend his vision because he has a vision that actually works And he's not doing it because he wants to appease the health insurance industry and his donors He's doing it because this is what he knows needs to happen in order to stop the health care crisis in this country So listen to the way that he responds to objections to Medicare for all or some shortcomings Potential shortcomings hypothetical shortcomings that it may have there are some trade-offs on them You know people gonna be able to see the doctor you can guarantee can you make that guarantee? Absolutely? Abominate you'll be able to see you'll be able to keep your doctor absolutely look the truth is right now You may have an insurance plan That the doctor you really like is not on that network. You cannot see the doctor You want on in many cases under the current plan under Medicare for all freedom of choice with regard to any doctor any hospital You want to go to well, what if everybody wants to see dr. Sanders here in the morning and there's what more people That's the same problem you have today if you have a very popular trade-offs though, right? But that's look if you'll have a really popular look Every other major country on earth in one form or another has a national health care plan in every instance They are far less expensive than is the case right now So if you have a popular doctor right now under your current policy, it may take you a while to get in there But under Medicare for all freedom of choice with regard to doctors with regard to hospitals Substantially lower prescriptions from course we cannot defend John But in fact we cannot sustain a system in which the cost of health care continues to soar and we spend so much more Than any other country and by the way our health care outcomes Terms of life expectancy in terms of dealing with many diseases. It's not particularly good compared to many other countries So what he's doing here is incredible He is educating people and this is something that no other politician is really doing He's saying look all of these potential objections that you're bringing up. These are issues that exist currently Oh, you want to see a specific doctor or you need to see a specialist? Well, if that individual is not in your network too bad, you can't under our current system Oh, there's a really popular doctor and everyone having coverage will make that individual more difficult to see That's still kind of kind of an issue. I mean me personally I have a doctor that I was recommended by someone in my family that I have not been able to see because This individual has been booked since forever So what he's doing is he's explaining that all of these points that are being made against Medicare for all They're nothing but propaganda. It's bullshit So this rivalry going back to the beginning of the video that was initially referenced last week by the Washington Post This is just a microcosm of a bigger issue because this isn't just about a debate between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden when it comes to Healthcare, this is a fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party You have one individual that makes people feel good that wouldn't really do anything to change their lives But celebrities and elites love them, but then you have another individual who is new someone who is introducing things that are unfamiliar to us but would actually fundamentally change our lives and Take the party in a new direction get them off of this pro corporate trajectory, but yet it's all about personality in Politics nowadays, it's all about the person who has the correct persona. Who's the right character to take on Donald Trump? Well, guess what? This isn't just about who can defeat Donald Trump This is about who can change the country because that's what matters most when it comes to politics because I hate to tell all of these centrist this but if you feel uncomfortable with the president Donald Trump now imagine The offering we'll get from Republicans after another four to eight years of neoliberalism We'll get someone far worse than Donald Trump a president Louie Gohmert or a president Ted Nuget Because as you can see the Republican Party is becoming more and more cartoonishly evil Because they have answers for people who are desperate due to neoliberalism What neoliberalism does is it breeds radicalization because it strips people of their dignity Economic security and they end up opting for someone who's a demagogue who's gonna tell them Whatever who will say it's it's the immigrants who are making your life miserable and They will be susceptible to that message So long as we keep getting Democrats who aren't offering an alternative vision What we all know what's easy to see if you're a normal American the current trajectory that we're headed on is Not even manageable. We have climate catastrophe We have health care crisis in this country where every single year thousands of people die and if we don't change course drastically Then things are gonna get a lot worse Americans know that and they're willing to opt for anyone who is Saying we're going to do things differently. Even if it's in the wrong direction They just know that change is necessary and they may not necessarily be able to grasp the intricacies of what's going on and what's happening But if Democrats don't understand that if they don't grasp What they need to do the country and the party long term will be worse off So when it comes to this rivalry between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, there's no competition But what's sad is that Joe Biden can be arrogant and say bring it on Bernie I'll debate you on health care even if he has no policy proposals Even if he cannot compete with Bernie because he has the elites and the celebrities and the pundits to back him up And it's sad so obviously if you truly want to be Donald Trump and more importantly defeat fascism and white supremacy and Republican Party extremism you've got to go for someone with the real vision and there's one person in this race that truly Not just has an alternative vision, but has a very specific plan as to how he's going to carry that out It's Bernie Sanders


Welcome to All Hands Update. Here's what's happening around your Navy. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mavis met with his leadership team to discuss the services enlisted rating titles or view. During the meeting, the C&O and McPon agreed to develop a new approach to enlisted ratings that provides greater detailing flexibility while translating more clearly to the American public. A U.S. Navy MH-60 Sierra helicopter crashed in the James River in Norfolk during a training mission. The crew members were rescued and transported to the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Start Group entered the Mediterranean Sea and supported U.S. national security interest in Europe. The Start Group is the centerpiece of the Great Green Fleet using energy conservation measures allowing ships to go further, stay longer, and deliver more firepower. You can read more about what's happening around your Navy at navy.mail.


What you gonna do with all that junk? All that junk. I'm gonna get you junk. Get you love drunk. Got my hums. My hum. My lovely lady lumps. Check it out. I'm drunk like Paws Crazy. I'm drunk with Paws Bailey. I drink every night. And they drive me all these ice. And I cook you and good wine.  I'm Rick. Today we got a food video. Oh that's a... Indian street food tour in Chennai. Cool. This is by the Food Rancher. We've seen many Fitty videos. We have. He's a lovely guy. He seems very authentic. Best food in India. Best curry. Come on. You can't claim that. From one region. Out of your mind. Check it out. James, I am in Chennai, India. We're going for a full on street food tour of the city. A lot of it is unplanned. I have a few ideas. We're gonna explore. See what we can find. Check it out. Check it out.  So will Rick's mom. It's home to a huge selection of southern Indian specialties and street foods. You can explore the city by foot and be in constant amazement of what's around the corner. With countless delicious foods and many friendly vendors to chat with, you will fall in love with India. One of the challenging parts of traveling to a new country is figuring out communication and respect with the locals. I'm just learning to do this here in India and it's weird how I've been using this accent without even knowing. Has that ever happened to you while traveling? I decided to learn Hindi when I come back next year. This is the new frontier for food ranging. And if the banana man at the end makes a smile, let me know below. Hello! What is this? Milk. Can I try please? How much? 10 rupees. Okay. I think this is like milk from the cow that just gave birth. Is that the stuff we ate on the beach in Mumbai? That's what I hear. That's basically come here. That's what we ate on the beach in Mumbai. It was baby cow milk. Oh yeah. It's sweet. Very nice. That's nice. Thank you. It's good. It's just like biting into a jelly almost. Five please, please. Okay. What is that? They look like lozamosas. Okay. Thank you. My first time. My first samosa. Number one.  Mmm. He doesn't care. Actually it's just so soft. It's really oily. That batter is really thick. From the filling, there isn't much in there. So that was mediocre. We're going to keep seeing. Good. We're going to keep just finding some good stuff. Just walking by. Found a little Indian sweet shop. There's so much stuff here. I don't know what a lot of it is. So we're going to ask the server see what we can get. Try some of those flavors. What is this here? Oh. That's the stuff. I think we've had that. Yeah. That's the stuff. We just had the other night without the yogurt. And Rani mentioned it. I ordered. That she usually eats it with a yogurt. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Wow. Do you know what is inside here? Chickpeas. Do you know what is inside? Curd. Curd. Vegetables. Vegetables. Like cauliflower maybe. Carrots. And carrots. Carrots. So carrot. Carrot. Carrot. Onion. Tomatoes. Cilantro. Coriander. Coriander. And some crisp. There's so much in there. I have no idea what it's going to taste like. Looks like there's chickpeas in there. Let's try it out. That looks delicious. It tastes like it's very sweet. Tastes a little fruity and spicy at the same time. Like a little bit of a curry powder flavor. Yeah. Chickpeas. And after that amazing sour and sweet chenna masala with yogurt, I found a man cooking up fresh tomato chutney on the street with an assortment of snacks to dip it in. So this is a fresh chutney that he's making. Can I try one of these? Can I try one? Oh, thank you. And chutney. Can I try chutney? We're going to get fresh chutney on it. Fresh from the wok. Thank you very much. Let's take a look at this. This is like a deep-fried... Looks like it's deep-fried onions with some greens. And I've got some fresh chutney here. Dip it right into that chutney. I've never tried this before. This is going to be fun. It's going to be hot. It's actually really nice. It tastes like deep-fried dough. Yet crispy on the outside.  They've got that caramelized flavor. With a tomato chutney. Soon after I made my way to the world-famous Biryani and curry house of Chennai. Tala Pakati. I'm so excited right now because I am at a special Biryani joint here in Chennai. And this is the day I've been looking forward to for the last 28 years. True authentic Indian cuisine in Chennai. Let's go try it out. Oh, this is like the best thing. That bread looks amazing. Get some rice. Oh, that smell. Oh, that smell. That mutton? Looks like it. Yes. Oh, mutton chop. Mutton chop. Thank you. Right on the banana leaf. So I have a full-on Southern Indian feast here. I have a mutton stew right on the bone. Oh, and there's one more. There's one more. And fran masala. I'm honestly speechless. I don't know where to begin. Lamb brain omelette. Full of curry leaves. See those curry leaves in there? Looks good. It's just like an omelette. With lots of black pepper. And the brain is really, really smooth. It's not gross. This year, the chicken in Chennai. That smell is just driving my mouth crazy. It's watering. This is a staple food. This is the mutton biryani. And that smell. I can smell cloves. I can smell cinnamon. Cardamom. Oh, there's star anise in there. Oh, it's so, so hot. It's so good. So far, this is the meal that's made me realize South Indian food is the pinnacle of my lifelong food-ranging journey. Spicy pack mutton biryani rice. Thick and spicy curries. Fall off the bone mutton. And soft parotta bread, eaten by hand, left me in another world in a state of bliss. That's so good. And just by exploring the street, you'll find countless snacks and meals that stalls frequented by hungry and busy locals. So I'm at a local neighborhood here in Chennai, and one of the things I really want to try here is a puri, which is like a local Indian crisp. And they serve it with a chutney or a curry. One puri, please. Yes, please. Puri is a famous snack in India. Usually accompanied by a light curry or dal. And here, they gave me two extra puris for free. Chickpea curry. Tomato chutney. Wow. Thank you. Thank you very much. This is the puri. I'm going to get it right. I'm just going to get it right into that tomato chutney. Oh, it's soft. Mmm. Very nice. Very nice. Yeah. I like that tomato chutney. It's slightly spicy, but it kind of tastes like a vegetable stew with a little bit of spice. Canada. I thought so. Chennai food is very good. Southern Indian food. It's very nice. Try it in Delhi. Yeah. This is good. My first time. Trevor. And you? Nice to meet you. Yeah, come for food. I love the food here. Next, I stumbled on a delicious masala spice tea stall and made friends with a rickshaw driver and a fruit seller. I found the locals in India so friendly. Good. Thank you. Canada. Canada. I come to Chennai to eat. Can I try one masala tea, please? One masala tea. One masala tea. Oh. Thank you. So, we got the fresh masala tea. Masala powder in the tea. It would be a try stand out there. Masala mixing in the tea. Oh. My first time. I've never tried masala tea before. They got it behind them. Very nice. It tastes like a little spice in there. A little bit. It tastes like a milk tea with just a touch of spice. I am auto. Oh, you're auto men? Yeah. Banana. Oh, banana. Banana. Okay. 10 rupees. One banana. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I feel like you're getting ripped off. Banana and tea. Thank you for framing me. Good food here. Good food. Good food. Yeah, very, very nice. Masala tea. Masala tea. Thank you. Hey. What do you got on the tea there, guys? Very good. I'm having a wonderful time here tonight. Thank you so much for watching my food and travel videos. Please leave me a thumbs up and a comment down below. Subscribe if you haven't already. This is an awesome city. I'm moving on to Hyderabad next and we're going to try a lot more food. Hyderabad. Hyderabad. I like him. I do too. I love his genuineness. He seems like a very genuinen like he's. Genuineness. Like you said, it was my zoom, Nathan Karns. Yeah, a lot. Everything's so passionate. I love, you know, it's great to have somebody like, say, Gordon Ramsay going through and talking about all the nuances of the expertise because the man just knows everything about food. What I love about him, he just like, all of his responses, everything he tastes. It's one of two things. Very nice or just, mmm. It tastes fruity and a little spicy. Yeah. And I love that he just doesn't have any other way to communicate his experience. It's just the joy in his face. He was really great. Food looked incredible. Incredible. I can't wait to try South Indian food in South India. Yeah. What a concept. It always happens, especially because obviously we both can do different voices and different accents. So it's kind of just slips in. The thing I noticed when we were in India, obviously it knows the two. I did the head nod. It just kind of naturally, just kind of naturally happened. Yep. And I said, I think, ha, nose. I know Bengali says hey. Yes. But like Indians say like, what is it? Ha. I said that a lot. It makes sense. When we're ever with our landlady, she loves that my natural responses right now just interactively with Indrani are, instead of saying yes about something, it's ha. And I, the three, the ha, that and I will regularly, especially if I'm surprised by something, she may do something that I'm like, what the heck? And I'll go, this is a constant now. Yeah, I do this a lot too. Yeah, constant.  That's an insult. That's an insult to mom. You will get in trouble if you say, ha. And they'll be like, excuse me. It's really funny culturally because Indrani did this all the time. She still would if she's at home and it's a Bengali thing. She'll be on the phone with me when she was back there in Kolkata and she'd call for her mom, which is ma in Bengali. It's ma. But when she calls for her, she would say, hold on one second. Ma. You don't yell. You don't yell at your mom. Three times. Standard. It's crazy how different cultures are. If you yell from another room. Oh no. I'm talking like South America. South America. In the United States. In that culture.   No. To come get you. It is a cardinal thing. Very bad. Which is funny. No. You get smacked across the face. If you ever go, what? Yeah. But it's true. That comes from a person who's empathetic and who is naturally inclined toward wanting to it's called mirroring in the public speaking world. And it's actually something you do to make people feel more comfortable. It's not done as mocking in any way. If you ever catch anybody who isn't Indian in India who's suddenly picking up those things it truly is a sense of endearment that they've picked up an affinity for you. Yeah. I don't know if you saw my post. I did. I didn't show it to her when I looked at it she was asleep and I saw there were a lot of comments saying if you're in a fair hundred it's kind of like a cake cup. Essentially. But if you're in a pinch it's not bad. It's not bad at all. We either make it either just standard with the tea leaves and then a little milk and sugar or we'll add the ginger and cardamom but that's it. If we're not making it ourselves and we're at Griffith Observatory we are daily in places thinking we see street vendors all the time here because that's a big thing for a lot of the Mexican folks here in LA as they set up fruit stands there's food trucks that form people in America tasted it. I think it could become a big thing here. They might have it down in Little India here. That's true. They might have it down there. But it should be everywhere. Street Chai. It was a great video. Let us know what other food videos we can react to. And what other food should we try? Maybe we should do a new food video. It's just hard because you can't find a lot outside of North Indian food here. I thought of a street food thing. I think if we have, I'm not remembering it. I don't think so. If there's different regions of street food that we haven't seen at least send them to us. They always make me hungry. Let us know down below.


This lesson is computational thinking. Sometimes learning a new game can be tough, right? At first it might seem really confusing, and sometimes there's no one there to teach you the rules, so you have to figure it out on your own. The good news is that you can get better at figuring out things on your own when you know a few thinking tricks. These tricks are unique ways for looking at and solving problems. In this lesson, you'll learn about four tricks to practice them with your friends to figure out the rules to a game. When you break down a big problem into smaller pieces, you're using your brain to decompose the big problem. Once we've decomposed the big problem into several smaller problems, we can go on to our next trick, which is called pattern match. And that's when we look for similarities between things. Once I find the things that are the same, I can figure out what things are different. And when I remove those differences, that's called abstraction. And after I have figured out the steps to solving a problem, I can put those steps in a specific order called an algorithm so that anyone can use my directions to solve that problem. We're going to use these four steps to figure out how to play the game with no rules. So by the end of the game, you'll be able to play something and get something that looks like this.


فشرف بل اشتغالي بالعلم ولا تبغي به ما عشت يا دابا دلا وياله من شراف عظيمي بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل واشد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحق وهو يهد السبيل وأشد أن سيدنا ونبينا محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد إن شاء الله تعالى The topic that I will be speaking about is the virtue of knowledge بإذن الله الكريم My beloved brothers and sisters Before I start talking about the topic at hand I first wanted to say May Allah SWT reward the brothers who invited me Because the messenger ﷺ he said In the Hadith of Imam Ahmad narrated in his Musnad Abu Dawood in his Sunnah Imam Al-Bukhari narrated in his Kitab أدب المفرد أن شغم محمد ناصر الدين الألباني authenticated this Hadith لا يشكر الله من لا يشكر الناس That the person who does not show gratitude To The people has not shown gratitude to Allah SWT So the brothers who invited me and brought me over May Allah SWT reward them And forgive them for any shortcomings and mistakes that they've ever come with Allah SWT he praised the Quran Allah praised the Quran Allah praised knowledge And Allah SWT in many verses He has spoken highly of what knowledge is ابن القيم He wrote a book called مفتاح الدار السعادة And this book مفتاح الدار السعادة is a book Where ابن القيم wants to speak about two things Two things The first thing that ابن القيم wants to speak about is Virtue of knowledge And what ابن القيم does is He mentions 153 virtues of knowledge You know the فضائل of علم 153 After ابن القيم finishes mentioning The virtues of knowledge He goes and speaks about The concept of إرادة having a drive and a motive And ابن القيم summarized it in one word He said that every salik Every person who wants to Transcend And grow And move Two things is what he needs The first he said is هما ترقيه Aspiration that lifts him And the second he says is what علم يبصر هو يهديه Knowledge that guides him So there's no individual You see except those two is what's making him do things He has knowledge of what he's doing And he's also driven And for that those two are what We ask Allah to allow us to have In صورة الفاتحة When we say إهدين الصراط المستقيم Or Allah guide us on the straight path The path that straight is a path That has combined between what هما ترقيه و علم يبصر هو يهديه Because Allah tells us in Na'bas غير المغضوب عليهم للضالين And the مغضوب عليهم آهوه The يهود And the ضالين آهوه What is it that the يهود fell short on? They had علم But did they have هما ترقيه No they didn't What about the نصارة They had هما Aspiration They had implementation But what was missing from them علم and knowledge لذلك the person he wants To combine and gather Between these two So I'm not going to be speaking about In this lecture هما and aspiration بسي But I'm going to be speaking about his knowledge الله says in the Quran سبحانه وتعالى قل هل يستوي الذين يعلمون والذين لا يعلمون And according to the scholars of grammar They say this is called استفهم بمعن النفي And I'm not going to be too technical الله is saying قل هل يستوي الذين يعلمون هل they It's a question This is called استفهم It's called استفهم In question But the The intent behind the استفهم Is already a negation Allah is already negating it Meaning Allah is trying to say اي لا يستوي الذين يعلمون والذين لا يعلمون They are not the same The ones who know And the ones who don't know They're not the same The reason why they're not the same Is شرعانا اقلا And they're not the same In the شريعة Are they both the same? Impossible And in عقل وايز Do you see the same A person who knows And a person who doesn't know Do you see them the same?  The opposite You'll be very angry And you start fighting back Even if you are ignorant So no one likes To be referred to as ignorant And everybody likes To be referred to As a person of knowledge And that is enough To tell you How high knowledge is ابن القيم In this book That I mentioned When he stated 153 virtues Guess what virtue Which ayah he started with This ayah That I'm going to mention now Which is شهيد الله أنه لا إله إلا هو والملايكة وأولو العلم قائما بالقص Here Allah says شهيد الله We have three things In this ayah That ابن القيم mentioned أجل شاهد وأجل مشهود به وأجل شهاده This ayah says Three things are noble First look at the ayah شهد الله أنه لا إله إلا هو Allah testifies رب الأرض والسماء He testifies He bears witness to what That there is none worthy of worship Except Allah Allah is the first one Who testifies to that Then Allah says سبحانه وتعالى وقول العلم قائما بالقص After the angels شهيد الله أنه لا إله إلا هو والملايكة وقول العلم Allah mentions the angels And then he mentions after that who أولو العلم Allah used the scholars as a witness That even they testify That there is none worthy of worship except me And Allah would not use them If they are not محلو ثقة If they are not reliable ولي ذلك the scholars They have a tazkia from Allah ولي ذلك some of the Authenticated حديث من عبد البر Mentioned in his Kitab جامع بيان العلم وفضله يحملوا هذا العلم من كل خلف عدوله ينفون عنه التحريف الغالين وانتحار المبطلين وتأويل الجاهلين Some of the scholars authenticated this حديث even though Chain wise this week They use this آية as a witness for it And they said this آية as a Shahid for it It strengthens this narration What's this narration This narration says يحملوا هذا العلم This knowledge Do you know who's going to carry it? عدول Do you know who's going to carry it? عدول are reliable people A people who have high integrity So Allah is saying That the scholars are عدول The Prophet is saying that And Allah is saying it here So they strengthened that narration Based on the آية And the Hadith The Ulama have a tazkia from Allah You know when you want to go to Medina University You ask for a tazkia You say I want to Shaykh and you want me a tazkia The Ulama have it from Allah سبحانه وتعالى And there is nothing My beloved brothers and sisters That the message was commanded To ask Allah to increase him In more than knowledge وقل اما قل رب زدني علما قل رب زدني علما او الله اما وقل رب زدني علما او الله Increase me in what Knowledge ولذلك آية has a The آية has a powerful meaning Nowhere in the Quran Did Allah tell the Prophet To say increase me in dunya Or in wives Or in children Or in just knowledge And you all know that the first verse That came down in the Quran is what What was the first آية that came down اقرأ Read So where a nation who reads Where a people who give importance to knowledge And give understanding to knowledge Also Allah سبحانه وتعالى He specifically exclusively Restricted The scholars to only have attained خشية And no one else Says سبحانه وتعالى إنما يخش الله من عباده العلمة That the ones who have attained خشية Are only the علمة And this word that Allah used Which is إنما يخش الله من عباده العلمة او الله is مفعولم به It's an object The object has come before The subject The object which is the مفعولم به Has come before The فعيل which is the subject And the reason I'm telling you this is because This is where the exclusivity comes Allah is trying to say That there is no one Who has attained خشية Except the علمة Now if I ask one of you guys What's the definition of خشية What would you say Fear right That's an incorrect translation Even I said it but that's the only translation we can use What about خوف فيا So what's the difference between خشية and خوف in translation أبو تيم is your translator I've been seen on YouTube He's the one who translates for the مشايخ when they come خشية the difference between خشية and خوف is what خشية is فيا with knowledge خشية means خوف مع العلم But خوف doesn't have علم with it Are you with me As the Imam of Qarafi mentioned كتاب الفروق برأس many people because they don't have knowledge they do mistakes in their religion mistakes that can't be tolerated due to ignorance A man entered the professor I said he missed it And he prayed And he came to give the prophet سلام And then he said سلام عليكم And then the prophet said to him ارجع فالصلي فإنك لم تصلي Go back and pray for you I have not prayed The man He went He prayed he came back سلام عليكم The prophet سلام عليكم ارجع فالصلي فإنك لم تصلي I kept telling him to go back until the man came to the prophet And he said والذي بعتك بالحق نبي ما أحسن غير هذا فعلمني The man came to the prophet And he said to the prophet والذي بعتك بالحق نبي And I swear by the Lord who has sent you out as a messenger as a prophet ما أحسن غير هذا I can't perfect the prayer more than that فعلمني فعلمني أعجبني And then the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم أخبره how to pray ما كان المشكلة أن هذا الشخص جهل اجنور So the person has to make sure that they lift ignorance from themselves that they learn that they educate themselves and they come to the حلق the circles that are being taught علم has been taught Come and learn ولي ذلك الله سبحانه وتعالى He prayed هد هد In the Quran because he had knowledge ولي ذلك ولي ذلك سليمان He only left the killing of the hood You guys know hood right is the bird What did the Sulaiman say مالية لا أرى الهود هودة أم كان من الغائبين لو عذبنه عذابا شديدا أو لا أدبحنه أو لا يأتيني بسلطاني مبين I'm gonna kill this bird But it has to come with me unless it comes with me what حتى أو لا أدبحنه أو لا يأتيني بسلطاني مبين He's looking for يبن عباس said that wherever the word سلطان comes in the Quran it means حجة عباس This is called قاعدة كلية مطردة قاعدة you need to memorize wherever you read the word سلطاني in the Quran it means حجة according to بن عباس So what does نبيل what does هود هود have to come with for it to be saved from killing يا حجة What's the حجة هي علم علم علم So what did she say when who to came when the who to who came it said to سليمان What is it that he said to سليمان ها What did he say to سليمان ها It's not a rhetorical question It's a direct question I want an answer What does it say specifically أحط بما لم تحط به I mean شيء يم بسبب إن يقيد وجدتوكة I have come to you أحط بما لم تحط به I have come to I've encompassed أما I've come to I've gained I've gained a knowledge in a matter which used to a man haven't gained ولدالي قبنو الخيه It mentions a story قبنو الخيه من كتاب مفتاح لسعادة that a teacher was one day asked a question A teacher was asked a question And a student was sitting there When he was asked a question إذا كنت تقول لا أدري ، ستذهب و ستحاول المعرفة كما يقولون أن أفضل dream is half the bottle صح؟ عندما تحاول المعرفة أنت تأتي مع أفضل المعرفة all you just need to do is achieve the next half عندما تقول أنني لا أعرف أنت ستذهب و ستحاول لكن إذا كنت في محاولة تعتقد أنك تعلم أنت لن تحاول المعرفة هذا هو ما يعني لا أدري أيضًا ، المعرفة قال لا أدري قال لا أدري المعرفة يقول المعرفة who doesn't say لا أدري أصيبت ما قاتله أصيبت ما قاتله if you don't say لا أدري you're going to be destroyed anyways the teacher said لا أدري the student stood up and he gave an answer broke the Missella down and he said I know and he answered the question when he answered the question the teacher got angry how could you answer a question I said لا أدري I don't know and you come and you answer it and he said to his teacher you are not better than Sulayman and I am not lower than Hudhud Hudhud said to Sulayman أحط بما لم تحط به وجئتك من شيء بسبعين يقين وجئتك بسبعين وجئتك منسبعين بنبعين يقين أحط بما لم تحط به I have encompassed and I have gained an understanding and knowledge of a matter which you haven't and this the scholars they say it's called تفضيل مقيت sometimes the teacher may not know a matter and the student knows it's called تفضيل مقيت the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم يثاني النحالي ثاني مام البخاري أثماري بلا عفاني رضي الله تعالى عنه خيركم من تعلم القرآن the best amongst you is what the one who learns the Quran and he teaches it the Quran is the significance the significance of the Quran is because it is علم so the best amongst you whoever learns the علم of the Quran in the Arabic language brothers the word خير it used to be أخير أخير لكن سقطرتي الألف the elef was dropped because of the excessive usage of the word so now we don't say أخير anymore we just say خير but when the Arabic language the word comes in أفعل أخير what does it mean it means that this is the highest for example you say طويل أطوال قصير أقصر are you with me brothers طويل means tall أطوال means tallest خير here means the best the best خيركم من تعلم القرآن the one who learns the Quran some people thought now what it means that learning the Quran they thought it meant just the wordings and that's not the case إبن القيب mentions in his it means learning the wordings and learning the meaning and teaching it that the person learns the حروف يقيمون حروفة they've learned the حروف the wordings والذين أمنوا good what does it mean you can read like حصري good no problem but what does it mean so you have the حروف and you have the معاني with you يا إخوة صح so the خيركم من تعلم القرآن والذلك عبد الرحمن أو عبد الرحمن السلم the student of عثماني بن عفان he said ما أقعدني في مقعد هذا 60 years he sat in kufa 60 years and by the way he's the one who narrated this from عثماني بن عفان and all the narrations go back to him عبد الرحمن السلم his name is عبد الله من حبيب عبد الله من حبيب he said this chair I'm sitting in 60 years he was teaching the Qur'an guess who he taught the Qur'an to حسنة حسين he's a tabi' he taught حسنة حسين the Qur'an his name is عبد الرحمن السلم عبد الله من حبيب and he said ما أقعدني في مقعد هذا nothing made me sit in this seat I'm sitting for 60 years in kufa to teach the Qur'an except the hadith I heard from عثمان that he heard from the messenger that the best amongst you is the one who learns the Qur'an and teaches the Qur'an and as you know brothers فضل كلام الله the virtue of the speech of Allah سبحانه وتعالى على سائل الكلام كفضل الله على خلقه الله's speech is the highest of those speeches right from all the speeches of the people the way Allah is higher than his creation his speech is higher than the creation speech so sometimes you see a student of knowledge he's memorizing متون he's memorizing a book written by a scholar but he hasn't memorized the Qur'an and this is the the speech of Allah سبحانه وتعالى it takes precedence over everything if you're gonna memorize something first start with the Qur'an because there's nothing more virtuous than Allah سبحانه وتعالى's كلام also the messenger he said وَرَثَةُ الْأَنْبِيَا الْحَدِثَةَ وَبُدَرْدَةَ في مسلمة محمد من سلك طريقا يَلْتَمِسُفِعِ الْمَنْسَهَلَى اللَّهُ وَطَرِيقَنِ إِلَا أَخِلَ حَدَّةَ حديث that concerns me here is وَإِنَّا الْعُلَمَا وَرَثَةُ الْأَنبِيَا that the scholars are the inheritors وَإِنَّا الْعُلَمَا وَرَثَةُ الْأَنبِيَا right now brothers what is it that we're doing right now it's a circle of knowledge benefits and knowledge is being given we're sharing amongst ourselves the prophet's inheritance are you with me would any one of you here be absent from your father's inheritance if your father died and there was a gathering in which your father's inheritance was being given and it was being divided would you be absent from it when it had like Abu Huraira he used to stand outside the masjid and he would say to the people outside ايو هالقوم people the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he would say inheritance is being given out the prophet's inheritance is being given out in the masjid so people come running they come they look يا Abu Huraira what is it that you're talking about nothing is being given out and he said what did you see he said it was so circles of knowledge people just studying Quran here this حلقة ذاة حلقة ذاة and he said that's the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم's inheritance so pay attention brothers what is it that the scholars inherit from the prophet يا علم نقل some people my beloved brothers and sisters have fallen short in this matter they only thought that the scholars inherit from the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and knowledge and that's not only it they even inherit from the prophets the rite the حقوق that the Anbiya have لديهم خارج من حقوقهم. هل أنت معي برد زيبن القي يمتلك هذا؟ أنت لا تستطيع أن تتحرك السكولة. شخص who carries knowledge. The rights that he has inherited from the Prophet is that you respect him. You honor him. The poet he said إذا أفادك إنسان بفائدة if a person benefits you a benefit. And you learn something from him فأكثر من شكراه أبدا both ways is narrated. فأكثر شكراه أبدا he always have gratitude towards that person. وقل فلان جزاه الله صالحة أفادنيها وألق الكبر والحسدة and always say this person has benefited me a lot. He has what? He has benefited me a lot and get rid of arrogance and jealousy. Today what you see brothers is you're in this city you have brothers who are teaching you guys you have Abu Tamia you have other Talabatul علم who come over and they here to teach you guys and benefit you guys.  Showing gratitude and saying جزاه الله خيرا ولي ذا لك الوضع as he said وعلمه الرماية كل يوم every day I teach him archery فلما شتد ساعده رماني but when he became tough every day I'm teaching him how to use the archery I'm like put your hand up are you straight? yep get it pull it have you pulled it? let it go now and I teach him when he learned how to do the archery he turned it on me and he started throwing the arrows at me this is what the poet said وَكَمْ عَلَّمْتُ وَنْهَوْمَنِ how long was I teaching him نظم القوافي I was teaching him how to write poetry فلما قال قافية هجاني and when he constructed the first poetry because he directed it at me the person who taught him it and this is the reality of so many students of knowledge how are you going to learn knowledge? how are you going to reach somewhere if the person who taught you how to know the difference between باء and تاء the person who taught you it when you learnt it you now throw everything at him you're never and many people what happened to them حرمان العلم knowledge has become prevented from them is because they didn't express a show respect to those who taught them I'm going to finally conclude by saying and mentioning what is it that allows a person to become knowledgeable or what allows a person to become a strong student of knowledge how can one attain knowledge there's a poet who combined things that allows a person he said first of all brothers as you know knowledge is too big and it's vast and you will never ever be able to get to the bottom of it أعط العلم كلك give everything you have to knowledge money, wealth you lose everything and knowledge will do what when it sees you going off it will give you something in return knowledge will give you something in return not everything are you with me brothers but you have to give everything your wealth, your children when it's like some of the salaf people would come up to them and say I want to become علماء الحديث I want to study and they will say to them أبشر بالفقلي لا يفارقك blood hiding poverty that's never going to leave you you taking the path of seeking knowledge you're going to lose everything you own now has become so the person should know when he wants to learn the hunger and the drive and the motive those are going to close on you obstacles but as Ibn Al-Jawzi said وما انتكون العليا هما تنفسي فكل العليا القافي محبب when your aspirations are high and it's in the sky guess what every pain that you go through while you're trying to attain that ultimate goal you enjoy it and sometimes you sit down and you remember a mark that happened on your body you say wow I remember the scratch it was a day I was going to a lesson in Sahih Al-Bukhari I fell down and I slide in قدر الله ما شاء الله this what happened you'll enjoy everything because you had a drive you had a huh you set yourself a goal and everything that happened through that course you'll enjoy it the poet said فماحا والغاية وفي ألف سنة شخصون فخود من كل فن أحسنة بحفض متن جامع للراجحي تخوضه على مفيد النار صحي تو things he mentions two things if you want to become a student of knowledge do you want to learn brothers sisters do you want to learn do you want to become stronger in knowledge two things is all you need to do بحفض متن جامع للراجحي memorize a metn which is معتمد sit down يا إخوة if you think you can attain knowledge without memorizing طلبت محالة if you are looking for the impossible you are trying to attain the impossible الله says about the disbelief what did He say وَلَّذِينَ كَفَرُ عَمَالُمْ كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيرَ عَرْتِينَ حَسَبُهُضَّمْ عَنُوا مَا is this what it is it's a mirage you're driving you think the water is ahead of you يا أخي it's a mirage it's a mirage to attain knowledge without memorizing is محال it's impossible so you have to memorize and now many people are going to say I memorize there's many mistakes that people fall into when they're memorizing the first thing is you're memorizing a matin which is غير معتمد scholars memorize books don't become a person who says to himself I'm going to create a new book a new منهجية of what to memorize يا أخي don't ترجم نجاة ولم تسرق مساركة إن السفين لا تجري على اليبس are you looking for success success is a path it's got a road you have to take that path for example do you guys know have you guys heard of this book الفيئة الممالك الفيئة الممالك is a grammar book it's a thousand line written by Jamaluddin ابن مالك رحمه الله يا كلام منالفط ومفيد وكستق وسمون وفعل وثم وحرف ونيل كلم واحده كلمة والقول عبوة كلمة وبيع it's a line poetry one thousand there's another book called الفيئة الأتاري have you guys heard of that book I'm sure no one's going to say this now there's another thousand lines of poetry in مصطلح sorry in the same science نحو one is متن which is معتمد the scholars memorize that book one is another thing it's another book but scholars don't memorize it it's not known so when you're memorizing don't say you know what I'm new, I'm going to start I'm going to memorize الفيئة الأتاري يا أخي memorize the books that العلمة rememberize the scholars they memorize this book you memorize the books that scholars memorize the second thing is when you're memorizing that book يا إخوة look for the best publication نصق محققة you look for the best publication of that book that you want to memorize if you're memorizing a book and that book you're memorizing is a bad publication what's going to happen to you so many سقطات are in it so many letters are missing from the copy that you're using يا إخوة when something goes wrong in your memorization it always becomes wrong it's hard to get rid of it the second thing that the line of poetry mentions is what بحفظ المتن جامع اللي الراجح تأخذه على مفيد تأخذه على مفيد ناصحي you take it to a person who has aaliya a person who knows the field you take it to a teacher who's solid and is grounded and you say can you read this for me this book إن شاء الله I heard you're very good in grammar you're very well grounded you know نحو very well can you teach me this book and he goes no problem bring it to me with those two with those two the person becomes a strong student of knowledge now the last point that I want to say brothers is that why are you seeking knowledge what's the purpose what's the purpose that you're learning for the poet he said تقصدوا أربعة قبل ابتدى تعلم لكي تفوز بالهدى أولها الخروج من بلالي وثاني نفعو خلق للجلال وثالث الإحياء للعلوم والرابع العمل للمعلومي فو things is why you want to learn knowledge for if these four objectives and these four goals is not why you're learning knowledge for then there's a problem why you're seeking knowledge for فلتقصدوا أربعة قبل ابتدى تعلم لكي تفوز بالهدى four things that you have to come with when you want to embark on seeking knowledge the first one is أولها الخروج من بلالي the first one is you're learning to get out of جهل and in misguidance you're learning for yourself you're learning because you're sick and tired of being ignorant ignorance is a مرض it's a sickness the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did he say to the companion why didn't you ask إذا لم تعلموا فإنما شفاء العي السؤال the cure of ignorance is asking and learning so the prophet said the cure ignorance is the sickness that needs a cure the first one the reason you're learning is for yourself وثاني نفعو خلق للجلال and the second reason is you want to benefit the people around you you want to help your community you're not learning your knowledge so you can become a bus driver not that I'm saying anything about bus drivers just in case there's somebody who's a bus driver here يا إخوة I don't want to get stopped when I'm walking out of the misguid I'm saying that you're learning the religion for what reason وثاني نفعو خلق للجلال you want to benefit the people around you وثالي ويأثو الحيائي للعلوم the third reason why you're learning it is you want to bring convolution to this knowledge you're reviving the knowledge some علوم يا إخوة is died out people are not studying it anymore who can put their hand up today and say you know I actually go out my way and I study علم الفرأيط inheritance or I even study right now مصطلح الحديث or I study ورقات many people can't say that these are sciences that are really dying out in this era and time that we are living in that even sometimes و when I just use some key terms when I throw in my lectures, people's faces are like People don't like when something becomes a bit more technical Last but not least is العملول المعلومي The fourth reason is to implement the knowledge you know You're learning so you can implement it So you can come with عمل صالح righteous actions So I equate the word my beloved brothers and sisters The best of speech is ماقل ودل فهذا أصحبه كبير لكن هذا أصحبه ويأخوتي الكرام أخيتي والكتابة ويظهروا على رائع على الأردن أطلب ولاتدجر من مطلب فافت الطالب أن يضجر أم تر الماء بالتكراري في الصخرة الصمائي تتأثرة على الأردن أطلب أردت تجري المعلم ولا تضجر من مطلبين لا تصدر من المعلم من المدين أن تحاول أنت تريد أن تكون أسكولة لا تصدر فأفة الطالب أيضا المعلم الأكثر يجد أن تصدر أما ترى الحبلة أما ترى الماء لا ترى الماء بالتكراري أعلم أن الماء يترى في ماء في صخرة الصمائق الأثرى هناك ماء في هنا الماء يترى لعنين إذا كنت ترى الماء يترى يجعله يحاول الماء يترى يترى يمكن أن يترى ماء لكن يتكراري ماء إذا كنت تحاول أن تترى again go to it you didn't go in again you went into it بالتكرار you're gonna finally get through to the book and do not give up I hope my speech was summarized it was to the point any mistakes that I might have come up with any incorrect speeches or any error any fault that I might have come with it's from me a shaitan and Allah and his messenger are free from it سبحانك اللهم بحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله أستغفرك وأتوب إليه


Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us at the Straight Talk Remont Show. I'm Bruce Wilson, Executive Director. And before I start talking to our wonderful guests here, I wanted to give you some updates. First of all, our Art So Wonderful Art Gallery at the University of Vermont is going on incredibly well. It's a performing center as well. It's over 5,000 square feet. And come check it out. It's so much beautiful art from artists from around the state of Vermont. What we've had in there for performing is a Youth Symphony Orchestra, Jack Hansen Jazz. We had just had a Latin dance there. How incredible was that? A lot of people came and Shelton Vineyards is one of our sponsors. They had a good time there. We've given out Raffles. So look at our website, Art So Wonderful, and see what our next upcoming event is. Actually, in August, we're going to have a big comedy show at the Marriott in Burlington. It's going to be incredible in the Harbor Room. You know, we do a lot of cool things, and we want individuals, youth and families or any member, to get involved in what we do. You know, we don't charge you nothing. We just want you to be helping with your goals and your aspirations in life. So here we are here. So we're here with Tom Flanagan, Burlington School District Superintendent. And what a pleasure, man, to hear you talk about your wonderful kids at the Burlington High School and the school district, you know, the things that you're working on. So for many, many years, oh, God, a lot of years, I've worked with your Burlington students and the principals and superintendents. And one thing I normally or I still normally still do is work with your students around helping them get community service opportunities. Put on any 10 hours each year to graduate. And so we give them student opportunities to work with our programs. A lot of our students from our youth board president go to your school and we have youth advisory boards who make the decisions on our programs, projects and events. And so I'm very happy to say that Burlington High School is our, you know, most of the students from Burlington High School work with us.  And so this is your first year. This is. How high was that with you? You came into college, right?  I came in in July. July of this past summer. Yeah, it's been a great year. I mean, I think the one thing that I was really fortunate about was to be able to have some time last spring to be able to meet lots and lots of people. We were virtual. The world was virtual. So I had the opportunity to get on a million zoom meetings. Met with over 50 people from Burlington. I asked three questions. I asked people what were the strengths of the district? What were the needed improvements? And what were those opportunities? Wow. So I learned a lot. I learned a lot. So since you said that, what are some of the strength answers? Yeah, the strengths, people told me the strengths that they felt we had in Burlington were the diversity of the community. Number one, almost everybody started there. And then I heard from lots and lots of people about the strengths of the engagement of the community. The community was very engaged and wanted to be a part of decision-making and a part of the school and the way that the schools function. And then, you know, there were a variety of other types of strengths that I heard from people. But a lot of people really gave a shout out to the staff, people who are working in the buildings and the commitment of our staff.  We were in a really tough, tough place. Happened, right? Yes, we're just coming out of it.  I have a meeting, you know, I asked them please cut it back, you know, so they did it in two hours. And just last, well, two weeks ago, we met in person. So how wonderful was that? Because that's the type of person I don't like to meet in person. I like to talk in your face, whatever you know. But God, those zoom meetings, man, they get you down. I can't stand them. I only have one more, one more to do, and I'm going to do it with a person, Dr. Jane Morgan. We're going to talk about the COVID-19 vaccinations and all the things she talked about on LinkedIn. Right, right. So I'm happy to talk with her.  Absolutely. And we're going to talk a little bit about that. And hopefully, we'll get it right, you know what I'm saying, because when I came in Vermont in 1989, it was the widest state in America. And the people who looked like me really didn't feel like they were part of Vermont or part of Burlington in a lot of ways, you know, because there was nothing really offered to them. There was nobody really could understand their language, you know what I mean?    And I know you're going to get it. Two of your students are right in the audience. Where they at? There they go. What's your names again? Olivier. And Jermaine. Jermaine from Bronson High School with a town meeting studio getting some work in. Thank you guys for being here. It's good to see them. Second day of summer. Second day of summer.  Well, anyway, so it's good to know that you believe in that, you know. And like I said, I sit on a, I live in Winniesky, so I sit on a Winniesky, I guess, school district, racial and anti-racial advisory, you know. And they got a lot of different things that they're working on. So, do you have resource officers in your school? So, we have a... I know you did. We did. We did. We, right before I got here last summer, there was a big question about the resource officers and whether or not we were going to continue to have resource officers in our school. And so that was a big question that came up with the activism that was happening downtown and the advocacy to think about how we're allocating our resources, right, towards students' mental health and well-being, really listening to our students, particularly our students of color, around how they feel about having police in the building. I was new to the community, so I wasn't sure how they were operating in the community and what it looked like in our schools. And so, one of the things that the school board did actually before I got here was asked me to commission a study on our school resource officers and what they did, what the memorandum of understanding was and what that all looked like and to make a recommendation on what we should do moving forward. So, I asked our director of equity. So, one of the things that I did right away when I got here, right before I got here, was created two new offices. So, we had a director of equity and safe and inclusive schools, director Sparks, who was working on a number of important initiatives. And what I did was I asked him to become the director of equity and to report directly to me and I gave him an office. So, he has a group of people in a budget who are working for him now. Now, Henry Sparks has been a friend of mine for many, many years and his wife. Yeah. So, director Sparks put together a group, a task force to review our relationship with school resource officers and the memorandum of understanding and really understand and kind of look at that. And that was a community-led process. We had a parent and a student who were co-chairs. And we ended up with a recommendation. It was a deep study of where we are. We heard from students. We heard from the community about their thinking about school resource officers. We had principals. We had school resource officers. We had students, community members and families on that task force. And they ended up making a recommendation this spring. And that recommendation said that we would move from having two. We used to have two school resource officers. That we would move from having two to one. And those two school resource officers used to be stationed in the building, right? And so, the recommendation from the task force was that they would no longer be stationed in the actual building. That they would schedule visits, right? To help schools work through their crisis plan or work through drills that they have to do. Some of the mandatory stuff that we have to do to make sure that we're staying safe. That they would continue to do that. And so, that recommendation was made. We have to develop a new MOU to really articulate what that will look like moving forward. But in the meantime... And that's a memorandum of understanding with who? The agreement between the city and the school department. And in the meantime, though, we actually have... One of our school resource officers is not operating as a school resource officer now. And another one was promoted. So, we did end the year without having school resource officers in our buildings. And we have to work on what the relationship would look like moving forward. Well, thank you for getting those studies and promoting Henry Sparks, Director Henry Sparks, and working with the resource officers and the community to create ideas and how you're going to move forth. One thing in the ministry what there are a lot of schools, a lot of schools too, are trying to do are having a restorative justice in their schools, as well as still using resource officers, but they use restorative justice in social service members, like social work individuals. Whereas students or individuals who are going through some situations can talk to go through restorative justice panel to determine what their harmony might be committed to a community or individuals to make amends to those individuals or a social service person who can help them. I guess it's all mental health. We all have mental health stuff. We all have work, right? I'm going to go on this couch. Tom, talk to me over here, please, man. I need some help. But anyway, I think that's a good way. For me, I was born and raised in Chicago and even though I went to for a year and a half, a regular public school, I went to a private school downtown in Chicago. But we had resource. We had police in high school, like in the school. The thing about that really, I don't know some of my advisory members that I sit on in the immunities go and might agree with this because one of the things they want our resource officers to do is dress down. There were sort of pieces, I mean, disciplinary pieces might go to the sort of justice as well as a social service person talk to the individual. But for me, I've been working with SS police on our national night out and every resource officer, he's dressed down, but he don't care his side out. For me, I guess come from Chicago and I really want somebody in their school that like a resource officer with a gun on his side, I really do personally because, I mean, you know, you can't compare nothing, or you can compare other school shootings to that, but, you know, one officer may not be able to stop the trouble, but he do know a protocol what the drills are if that happened and he knew who to call and he maybe get a couple shots to help on somebody who's shooting for me, I just somehow just want to keep that part, you know what I'm saying?  Yeah, I would just say that it's my tiny brain that's working. No, but I think our task force is in a middle place with their recommendation, right? We had to, we could have said we're gonna not have school resource officers, they landed with one who would keep a close relationship with the district, work closely with the district and continue that relationship and that support that they provide us. So we see them as a partner, we definitely want to continue to partner with them and we've prioritized restorative practices, so I told you I met with lots and lots of people in town and I asked everybody what the promising opportunities were and the one thing that really stood out to me was restorative practices. So we're committed to restorative practices and that's the thing that, you know, we put, it's our number one goal is that our communities are restorative. I'm proud to say in 1989, I'm a founding member of creating a community just around the state, starting in Browlington. So I believe in the principles and I believe in making amends to the community or individuals that you fit in restorative way and circle in this restorative way, you know, and so that's a good, I believe in that, you know, totally. So, you know what I had an interview with Sean make man in My mentor. Your mentor. I'm gonna tell him that. We also have some coffee up to date coming up. But to talk to him about he's have a situation where he's built an incredible school. God, he had, I think, three to four year olds into his, also within the school to something, an age group and when you go past that school now, oh my God, it's incredible it's a whole new, admitted to their building. It's like it's an incredible addition. And so I said to him, I said, I said, Tom's got to build a whole new school. So Tom, God, man. You've seen our buildings, beautiful. I love that school. I know my way around that school, man. Bro, you know, not as much around the technical school, but I do know I do my way around and I work with Rosa with some other things. She's with the technical school and some with youth around with the DEA and different things about how we can keep you safe around drugs, drug prevention and things like that. But anyways I love VHS, man. I know my way around that school. I have dancers in the school we have youth advisory meetings and I don't know how many graduations I went through for, you know, kids who have been on my youth board. Man!  What's the problem Tom? So we learned, I got a call maybe five or six days before school started there was a problem. Wow, man. Yep. We were preparing for COVID so I was thinking there's a something with COVID. And it turns out no air quality PCBs I had never heard of PCBs before. Me either. What'd that mean? I don't know that. Polychlor... I don't know Some, but it's a chemical that has chemical that was used up to the 70s in building materials. Oh, really? Yes. Like the plaster or the bricks? So it was used in where we found it it's used in a lot of different materials it's kind of an oil that's used in some materials and where we had it was in the window caulking. So around the windows, keep the windows in there were PCBs in the window caulking we learned about that and that's the first place that we learned that we had those PCBs and this was all the reason we learned about it was because we were doing a renovation so when you do a renovation you have to study the building we started studying the building they looked for PCBs and they found them they found them in the window caulking and then they kept looking they found them in the wall so what happens with the PCBs they can move so they spread into the walls well then we learned that they also can be in lights in the light ballasts in lights made in the sevens and then we most recently learned that and this was what pushed us over the edge to make the decision that we're going to have to build a new building we found that they were in the glue underneath the floor tile so the glue stuck the tile to the concrete and they have sunk into the concrete they're in the floor 1963 so they're in the walls they're in the floor they're in the ceiling they're in the air, they're in the soil they're everywhere so we learned about this problem and that they could be airborne back in the summer and so we did some testing we learned that there was possibility that they could be in the air we wanted to get the testing done before school started so we got testing back from F building where BTC is in the back and there were some very high numbers there in the thousands one room up to 6,000 so they were some really high and they measure it in nanograms per cubic meter per cubic meter and the Vermont Department of Health's screening threshold is 15 nanograms per cubic meter and so we had some classes in the thousands so we had to close the building because we didn't know what the rest of the tests were going to show but we knew the F building was extremely high but then we did more testing we came back and we learned okay the Department of Health has a screening threshold and so does the Environmental Protection Agency so the EPAs was between 500 and 600 so we had some in the thousands and then we had some coming in some rooms coming in, they test areas some rooms coming in in the hundreds and so we were under the EPA threshold so we pulled the EPA, the Department of Health our experts who are studying this and no one thought it was safe to be to be in the building so that led us to downtown BHS it took a while to find it but we learned about it in May Season and off we were awesome, one of my good friend and so glad that he had that location for you guys and so how students are, what are they saying about this building? I was there the first day, I've been there quite a bit and everyone was wearing masks but you could still see the smiles on their faces what we heard from students really loudly was they wanted to be back in school and so just to be back in school even if it's a quirky building they wanted to be back in school and so students were happy we do have some noise mitigation, some noise stuff we have to work out but it's a nice building it's built around the escalators there's a central location the old high school was spread out they love that escalator stuff there's a good community there so I took a tour I took a tour through there and I'm like dang I didn't see it was right there I used to get my shirts so what do you think? I'm like where's I see no, I think that you know I thought the ceilings don't go all the way up at the time there wasn't no doors you put over doors there 50 doors in there now so I think it's good, it's a good location and so one thing that I've been working with individuals around youth what I do is help youth with safety and safe places to be with there's no drugs not called tobacco I had open up youth centers around the state called the chill out center in loft 89 and living rooms for free for all the different around the states all the malls and all around the pretty much all around the state and so I know for a fact Burlington helped me help I had one in the Burlington mall where L.R. Bean was almost 8,000 square feet but anyways I know for a fact the reason why I did that because I wanted to give my safe place to be where there's no drugs not called tobacco as well as have a place where they're sitting chill and do their homework and have tutoring and computer and what you do safe places where you do and one of the reasons because they used to hang out downtown right down on church street marketplace and some students would call they would be sitting there smoking or cussing or all these things so that's one of the reasons why I wanted to give my place to be and a report from at the time Ron Redmond said that kids don't hang out downtown the police said they had less tickets to smoking so they had a place to go they had a place to go and so now I'm thinking dang these wonderful kids when it's summer they're going to go straight home good thing the bus station is right there are they going to go straight home or are they going to hang out downtown on church because I know for and I've been watching I've been kind of just seeing just for me just do my own do diligence and I'm trying to figure out do we need to do something more of after school programs or or something else outside of the school now one thing I know about after school which is awesome every school should offer them but a lot of kids who I work with and I'm more of the a lot of them are economically challenged living in a higher environment all of you far and high risk don't even every single one and tend to not follow the rules and so those are the ones that we want in part of in a safe place because when you don't see them you want to know where are they and what they're doing in the woods having unprotected sex or risky behavior or maybe in somebody's basement or something doing and so for me I always know when we have events for you we always have over 300 and so I can see 300 kids in the room at least I know maybe it's still going to be something in those places I know they're there and they're safe so when I don't see no kids it bothers me because what are you and what are you doing maybe we should maybe get rushed to somebody or Bonnie do a survey what do you do at the school? I can feel better so what school programs do you have so one of the one of the things that has really held us together as a community this year has been sports sports was the one place students could be out close together running get in their energy out and being in a kind of supportive and productive place of sports sports were really important for us as a community we won the state championship soccer game we have the fields we can still use them we won the state championship of soccer boy soccer lots of really good sports were really important for us and then there's a lot of after school activity happening too after school coordinator and after school coordination of activities I was really excited at the end of the year to be a part of the social justice book club we read a book called Dear Martin where we had really deep conversations about systemic racism and how that plays out in our country and how that plays out in our city and what the youth and the things that we should do so that's one example of an after school club that's really positive and I would encourage students to be a part of that that's right I think after school is definitely a great opportunity for students to connect with peers and also with adults in places that are not necessarily you know with the whole class you can build relationships you can do a little bit more we're also excited about the summer we've got a lot of summer activities going on so one of the things that districts across the state and country are getting right now is funds through the recovery through recovery the American rescue plan so we're getting recovery what the state is calling recovery funds and they asked us to really think about how we develop summer programs so we have a bunch of really exciting summer programs that we're going to be offering this summer we have a racial justice institute first ever it's going to be kicking off this year Autumn Bangora and Director Sparks again working on that piece we have a bunch of partnerships with local partners, the Boys and Girls Club King Street all the local partners the Brooklyn City Arts and Flint Theater so lots of opportunities that are available and that's going to continue next year with after school programming I think there's a huge opportunity I also think being downtown gives students an opportunity to do other things right it's good for business going to get coffee but also you want to go to the Flint to do an apprenticeship no doubt about it no doubt about it we've been a member of Flint for many years with our PAC program we've been bringing students there for how many years so that's a great opportunity but even more if you're running programs we run programs all the time but we do we've done over 700 events in this city in this state actually so racial justice that's awesome how do you relate to it about the saying that you believe in equity and inclusion what does that mean to you how does that work with racial justice so when I came in one of the things I heard in all those interviews was a commitment to equity and a commitment to engagement and a commitment to what we call what we're calling deep learning experiential learning project based learning learning that has depth that can connect to so we in my 100 day plan and my team this year has been really focused on these three priorities of equity engagement and deep learning and what we're trying to do is really make decisions that are based in fighting inequities so one of the things we did right off the bat with the way we needed to operate in COVID we couldn't have all the students so we had to go and students alternated we was doing that before that for COVID wasn't it well that was for high school where they alternated but they were in school every day so in elementary and middle school students were only in school in the very beginning every other day so one of the decisions we made as a team that was an example of the commitment to equity is making sure that students with IEPs students who have disabilities and students who are English learners were able to go to school four days a week and that was a decision about resources let's make sure that the students who need us the most all students need to be in school every day particularly our students who are learning English and who have IEPs need need more right we need to support them more so we brought them in four days a week we also set a series of six goals and all those goals have and have a measure to reduce a disparity to reduce so the first one is that our schools are restorative and the goal is to reduce suspensions for students of color so that's about building restorative practices so that we are not having to suspend it was a strange year this year because of COVID so fewer students in school many many many fewer that would lead to suspensions so we'll see next year about our commitment there but that's one example of how we're going to do it and it's not doing brand new things the district has been committed to restoring practices this isn't brand new but it's something that people want to keep doing and it works so it does work so many bad things that people can say COVID it was the worst thing ever and I think it was the worst thing ever but my degree I always got to find out what's good with something that seemed to be bad or that was bad I always got to find out what's good about it and so I thought about it when you said that like working together they just want to be back in school and this one relationship there's a little low risk because I think it can have to do a lot with COVID people don't understand anything they can look at social media they heard about Black Lives Matter they heard about how the world is all these people dying they might have been affected by people in their family who got sick and maybe passed on and how pitiful is that but I think if I look at what's good you got to find something that's good about it you have to I think people have come together a lot of people have volunteered their time to understand a lot of things understand the issues more about what's going on with certain things that they might have looked at like equity inclusion or racial justice looking at Discovery Channel and say wow I only got rolling green mountains green grass just things that we got smarter on you might not want to be in the house but we've learned so much I think what happened was what it does for me because I'm always doing some of the things I do and so I had a calm came over me I'm more like and now I'm calm even though I need to do that thing I need to kind of take this person I need to send this email I got to do these things I'm like calm me down because first of all you can put that if you want to but you want to do some events in the park who's going to come bro who's going to come nobody can come right now in an over scheduled world sometimes it's good to have a break so I think my last thing on that is and you can answer that I think that people are more understanding we see people on the street they're more like how you doing throw it up the air bowls come on we can high five now that's right I need a hug too bro that's my thing we'll do that after the interview alright I feel so here we are we're the first ones telling me the show in the studio baby we're back man we're winners we're always winners we're back in yes I think so I'm new here but community felt so strong and I think the community really rallied around our schools and rallied around the city we were a very safe place to be in school in Burlington this year I give huge props to our teachers and our staff every day they're coming to work it's scary you're right there you're close and in person and they really rallied all of our staff so I'm grateful for them grateful for our parents sticking with us and students I've seen a lot of schools I was in DC public schools 110 schools I saw all the schools I've seen lots and lots of joy in the classroom this year students just happy to be together happy to be learning teachers being very positive I've been really impressed by what's happening I know we have work to do we have a lot of work to do in a lot of different places I think we have a lot of really great people who are really committed I don't know if it has to do with COVID but the community was strong and really pulled together I think it was a time like Michael just a man in the mirror type deal you know what I mean how often do you see the man in the mirror you weren't rushing to grab the coffee let me look at my teeth cut out your hair we had a chance to stop let me put that little hair back this way kind of look in the mirror a little time I was at Burlington High School and either Munozki and some other high school wow when you see those kids together they're just like wow they're from all everywhere around the world they all hang out together how wonderful is that what a huge asset I don't see them wrong that's where it should be it's not the way it is it seems kind of weird because I'm from Chicago it seems kind of weird to see that I'm just so happy to see it I'm sitting there like melting watching them they laugh having a great time the community is amazing I've been really impressed with our students and the way that they've come together and just how positive they've been throughout it all we're fortunate to have 48 different languages from our school our multilingual students bring so much strength to our community and I think that we need to continue to make sure that we're supporting our students our families we have a wonderful group of multilingual liaisons I've been fortunate to meet I met with all of our groups of multilingual families in the beginning of the year and I learned from them the things that they wanted me to know wanted me to focus on and I had the chance to meet with them again at the end of the year we did a series of five different meetings and I've just learned a lot and I learned that they really want us to challenge their children they want us to engage them call on them have high expectations for them that's one of the traps high expectations for some students well that's just some because it just came back to me how did the students the virtual classes how did that work did they pass I don't know ask Olivier not the virtual classes they were tough really hard really hard virtual 3 o'clock I got to tune in did I study you know they were hard I visited some classrooms it was really challenging I think for everybody for students, for staff you know question of cameras, should cameras be on should cameras be off, can cameras be on it was really hard I love that star 6 star 6 star 6 or you bring up your own it was really hard we're fortunate to be out of that now I'm so happy so now you didn't say though so do you have to tear down the school or are you just going to pick away and shell it out we're doing a site assessment right now so the site assessment is where we look at across the city that's the first step where can we build on the property at 52 Institute Road which is where the old BHS is but we don't know exactly where we can build there we will have to take the building down yes I think it's more likely that we're not building on that same piece of land where the building currently sits there are other spaces in front of it and other spaces we've looked at in the past down in the baseball field so we don't know exactly yet where it would be but anywhere on that land is a possibility right now you can put a parking lot over there where the school is you can switch it around this is about the last thing here you can add anything you want to so my organization the service really incorporated created youth on boards for the city of Burlington they sit on police commission school boards and so we just amended the resolution our youth board president Veronica Lindstrom who goes to your school she's a sophomore and I and counselors Max Tracy, Bryant Pine Zariah Hightower Karen Paul Jack Hanson we're known as sponsors so it was unanimously approved to do amendments to add more boards and commissions which is awesome because I believe you should be on boards that's why they're on my boards that's why I've been doing this work for getting youth on boards and other cities going to sign on too like on South Burlington when you see I work personally in our organization primarily with Chitty County cities so we're going to have youth on boards all of these places that they already said okay Bruce, let's do it so we just got that done they just sent me the resolution with the mayor and everybody Veronica Lindstrom who's a student at your school talked to the city council they wanted me to say something and she just told me why it was important to be on youth being on boards and what's important to you Superintendent Flanagan is that we're going to be coming into we want to come into the Burlington High School and recruit students to be on these boards and so we're working with Pet from Cedar right now because she's our liaison through the city to help create application process timeline what's the job description for planning commission teaching school board so we got to get all of those job descriptions and be able to put it down in a small way on some paper sit in your school and recruit you I'm always boots on the ground so it's got to be part of that making announcements doing maybe some video or something or come in doing something cool in the school and getting youth on boards and so I want and I can get Brian to talk to you about it as well I want you to be a part of this because it's very important to have youth on boards and making decisions on the programs and projects and events that's them creating agenda items where they can say if they're on the finance committee which one of the things we learn come on but you are youth on the finance committee and they go all over the thing and they go out to the city or somebody some contract so you're like this you know yeah yeah okay I'll vote for that so how boring is that the good thing about it is that you can put in your platform scholarship from college put in your resume these wonderful things you've done it will help you grow you can get some places for doing it but it's meaningless it's time wasted to talk about what our organization is to make sure that she's going to be working with right hand by hand with CEDO so CEDO and her and people who own the commissions they'll meet with them and talk about well how was your day, what did you do so they'll be connected but the main thing is that we want youth to come up with agenda items if you got $200 left in that finance budget and figure out ways how they can use that money for their peers somehow you know education or seminars or playing on the school have some Ben & Jerry's you know whatever you know so now we want them to create they're going to be more creative and have their own agenda items that's what youth board they need to make do that for things that they sit on so that's going to be important good let's do it we have two students on our school board now like I said one of the individuals who led the SRO task force was a student, a BHS student and actually one cool thing that's happening now down at BHS is we're working with the Harvard Graduate School of Education and they're helping us build lessons that are deep learning and we're actually bringing students in maybe they're now they're in there this afternoon working with teachers and kind of giving feedback and being a part of the development of the lessons that they're going to get students need to be given the space the opportunity to have leadership in a way that really directly impacts their experience they'll fly and give us the best information we ever wanted if we just give them the space to do it especially when we make a decision about them nothing too like how important is that that's so important I learned that years ago because I had youth from Boards in 2000 I had them on my board in 2001 we started doing youth from Boards in the city of Bronson in 2003 it kind of fell off because the youth was bored being on the finance team but you get prestige from them you say you can bid on college like that doing jobs like that but you want to have an impact no doubt about it I'm excited about that let's do it it's all done now we're just moving into the process I don't know what it is but I'm sure Veronica and Pet will figure it out for you you might have ideas and Max Tracy Brian Pine and those guys want to be a part of when we sit in your school they want to sit there too and talk to you Brian is not a counselor anymore he's a CEDO director thank you Brian for taking that job you're my friend we good baby so I'm glad he took that job so they can vote to get another person but we have enough counselors to do that he done already but I also told Karen Parr was out there with Pain Black Lives Matter she orchestrated that and put it all together and she was out there just painting like crazy and then I told her and I suggested to her that we need city counselors every single one of them to be mentors to our youth form boards because they need to hang out with you you need to help them with some of the decisions they need to talk to you about I'm on a school board I'm on a Proxen Rex advisor what do you think this is some of the issues they need to talk to them about some of the answers they need to answer maybe they can help them with it and she was like oh man she was so happy that I said that and I already told all the ones that sponsored anyone that needs to do it but it was so important that you have a person like city counselor because for me it's about building building of youth into a successful person in life and if you got to you work with city counselor, you work with businesses you work with communities, you sit on boards you work with the schools you're doing community service opportunity there's nothing to do with those youth commissioners on board they have to create community service opportunity and that wonderful working with student life whatever in your schools help these students get their 10 hours oh man so we're going to I'll tell you because students just come to me they graduate in May or whatever Bruce I need 40 hours I'll say when right now, I don't want to graduate are you serious? you need to spread it out you need 10 hours a year you need you got to be hit you messed up we're not at work too we help shop on our youth center give them some powerful stuff for themselves in life it's so important though if we want our students to be civically engaged when they leave us we've got to give them opportunities when they're with us we don't want them to say we're a superintendent flat again he did this and we're going to scrap everything that he did we want them to say the other thing is when students say they want something when they've put the effort in to research it to come with a recommendation it's hard to fight that there's power there you got anything to add you've been an incredible guest Tom Flanagan, superintendent of the school district the school district of Burlington you got a lot of work thank you Bruce I'm a mother come on you're awesome thank you for tuning in to State Talk to Marks great talk with Marks Joe, see you next time