MANY VOICES, ONE CALL
Many Voices, One Call is SUNY Schenectady's student-centered podcast for courageous, honest, open, and unscripted conversations about all those things that move us, make us curious, and concern us -- as students, faculty, staff, or simple, as people!
MANY VOICES, ONE CALL
Many Voices - One Call: Season Five/Episode Five: A Future Worth Working For: What Young People Want to See in Politics!
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Youth's faith in the political system is fraying; many of them "feeling underrepresented and underserved," as a recent Tufts Circle survey reported. Concerns about the high cost of living and their own job prospects, frustration with the two-party system and national politics, and distrust of elected officials shape the thinking of many 18- to 29-year-olds today, as numerous studies have documented. We wanted to learn more about what might be behind these findings, and get a sense of what students at SUNY Schenectady are thinking.
Join student co-hosts Ashley Lucie Lumbala and Sion Hardy, and faculty co-host Dr. Babette Faehmel, for a conversation with Warren Baynes, History Concentration; Joseph Holmes, Biotechnology; and Josiah Tanner, undecided, as well as Joan Fucillo with the League of Women Voters of Schenectady, and Jeremy LaMaster, Fiscal Director and Grant Administrator for Workforce Development and Community Education at SUNY Schenectady, and a regional organizer for the Kamala Harris campaign in 2024.
We apologize for the low quality of the audio recording in the first few minutes! We can assure you that it gets better quickly!
Studies mentioned in the episode:
The documentary "Majority Rules 101" by Unite America can be found on the organization's website.
The views voiced on this episode reflect the lived experiences and uncensored opinions of the guests; they do not necessarily capture the full diversity of attitudes within a larger community, nor do they express an official view of SUNY Schenectady.
Welcome And Why We are Here
Babette FaehmelWelcome to episode 5, season 5 of Many Voices, One Call. SUNY Schenectady's Civic Engagement Podcast. I'm your host, Babette Faehmel, history professor here at the college. And with us today are first of all the two student co-hosts. Ashley.
Ashley Lucie LumbalaI am Ashley, student co-host. I'm a student here at SUNY Schenectady, and my major is computer science. I'll actually be graduating in May.
Sion HardyMy name is Sion. I am one of the other student co-hosts, and I am a student education major as well as an artist. And yeah.
Babette FaehmelAlright. So we are here today because there are disconcerting signs that young people are rapidly losing faith in the current political system and elected representatives and also feeling pretty pessimistic about their economic prospects. For instance, a 2025 Harvard Youth Poll found that only 13% of youth feel the U.S. is generally headed in the right direction. A 2024 Tufts University survey found that only 16% of young people feel that democracy was working for them. There's also the research organization SSRS. They report that six in 10, so that's 60%, of college-age youth rate the US economy as bad, and an overwhelming 87% say they are worried about the economy. Then also, a 2023 Gallup finds that the decline of trust in institutions like Congress or the media, which actually had been going down for years, was now exhilarating. So basically, a lot of youth feel underrepresented in politics and by politics, by politicians. They worry about their jobs and they distrust institutions and actually even democracy itself because they just don't think the system can secure their future.
Ashley Lucie LumbalaTo talk about what might be behind these numbers, but more importantly, to open up an important an opportunity for dialogue. We have invited guests. Firstly, we have students. Could you introduce yourselves?
Warren BaynesHi, I'm Warren, and my major is history.
Josiah TannerMy name is Josiah. I'm currently undecided.
Joseph HolmesMy name is Joseph, and I'm currently on track for biotech.
Ashley Lucie LumbalaOkay. And then we also have guests who have dedicated themselves to promote civic engagement. Joan and Jeremy, could you introduce yourselves?
Joan FucilloUm, Joan uh from the League of Women Voters of Schenectady County.
Jeremy LaMasterMy name is Jeremy. I'm the fiscal director here at SUNY Schenectady for the Workforce Development and Community Education Division. I also was a regional organizer in central Pennsylvania for the Harris campaign in 2024.
Students Describe Politics Right Now
Babette FaehmelOh, okay. Wow. So um for the students who who are here, including Ashley and Sion, how do you... how do you generally feel about politics?
Warren BaynesUm it's very messy right now. Very, very messy. And I don't think a lot of people understand how bad things are starting to get in just in general, like not maybe not statewide, but you know, nationwide, it's starting to get a little weird and a little iffy. Um where a lot of boundaries are being crossed, where they probably shouldn't be crossed, and you know, people are just acting like things are normal and they're not.
Babette FaehmelSo you so you feel like generally things are just chaotic or yeah, I think they're very chaotic right now. Jim, just if you are nodding.
Joseph HolmesI agree wholeheartedly with Warren. Um the all the necessary components I feel are there. It's more so giving us the tools and actually showing us how we can be effective in utilizing those skills. So not only, you know, so we can benefit from them as well as actually promote democracy. I mean, that's something that we should be able to do and not feel constrained about or have to hold ourselves back because this is just the current climate of everything. It's so polarizing, it's either left or right, it shouldn't be that way.
Babette FaehmelAnd and um, how about the others?
Josiah TannerOh, um going back to your like overarching question, like how do you feel about politics? Uh like yeah, um, I enjoy them a lot. Um I I like um analyzing like the cause and effects, like looking at like, oh, that's why this occurred, and just always keeping up to date. I don't in our generation, I don't think we like to stay informed as much, and we like to like we were talking about in our class, we really do like to confirm like what we already think is true, which I don't enjoy that. I like always I like something combating my opinion a lot so that I can see a new perspective.
Babette FaehmelSion, Ashley, how do you feel?
Ashley Lucie LumbalaI think it's interesting. I think it's interesting because um everything every single thing that is done in politics doesn't just it doesn't stay unwritten. It's something that will always contribute to the history no matter what. So I I I I like that interesting part of politics.
Babette FaehmelUh-huh.
Money First And Public Needs Last
Babette FaehmelAnd you? Sion?
Sion HardyUm for me, one thing that pops up to mind immediately is that I feel that there's an overemphasis on like profit and the importance of money over like actual quality of life and what is needed for the people. Like, even if you look at the change in quality of products, a lot of times there it's like um a lot of companies will use cheaper materials that are actually more harmful rather than like actual quality materials just for the sake of profit and things like that. And I feel like that's like a reflection of a big problem that goes on when it comes to economics. Like, even if you look at a bit some of the big issues within politics, a lot of it has to do with like budget cuts and things like that. So I feel like money is a big issue to look at when it comes to politics.
Babette FaehmelSo it's it's more it's not just politics, it's just in as in general the whole like a lot social values, you mean like political values and priorities.
Sion HardyYeah.
Babette FaehmelOkay, yeah.
Joan FucilloUm the League of Women Voters is nonpartisan, and we do not support candidates, and we do not support political parties. But we are a good government group, and we are deeply concerned about everything all of you students have and co-hosts have raised today. Um money and politics is it's terrifying. It's just a it's it was a tsunami this past election cycle in 2024. Um and you know, and where the cuts are being made so people can line their pockets is even more terrifying. So uh...
Babette FaehmelCan you say a l a little bit more about that, where the cuts are being made?
Joan FucilloHealth care, um education, childcare. Um, you know, it's it's ...
Jeremy LaMasterClean energy.
Joan FucilloClean, green energy, yeah. The other thing that can be really is um disheartening is that some politicians will start to greenwash and say, well, we're for this, but then turn around and defund it.
Babette FaehmelOkay. So and that has come out in some of the surveys too, like kind of like distrust of institutions and a distrust of politicians.
What The League Of Women Voters Does
Babette FaehmelBut you know what? Actually, um, before we go on, could you just like say a few words uh more about the League of Women Voters? Because if people have never heard about the League of Women Voters, they might think like, why do women voters need their special league?
Joan FucilloWell, it only took us, you know, um, what was it, 125 years to get the vote. Um we started uh uh the League of Women Voters was uh also part of the whole the suffragist movement and um the uh abolishing slavery, the movement to abolish slavery. So they kind of went hand in hand. Um of course, uh, we had to wait, and we started in the 1840s, we got the vote finally in 1920. Um and when that happened, and this is really to the credit of the of the people who were involved in this, is they said, no, we're going, we're keep, we're gonna keep going. There's so much to do. And they morphed or segued into the League of Women Voters. Um Union College, uh our Schenectady County's League was formed at Union College in 1925.
Babette FaehmelOh wow.
Joan FucilloUm yeah, the president's wife had women to tee and had a guest speaker, and everybody signed up after she finished. And the first thing they did was study city government.
Babette FaehmelUh-huh.
Joan FucilloSo we're really rooted in good government. Um we register voters, but that is uh really um second to voter information.
Local Power Versus National Spectacle
Jeremy LaMasterAnd I think too, that's a great point to highlight that it really started out of an interest in local politics. And I think that was the response I was trying to formulate was part of the focus, and I think some of the research you shared is really focused on national. And I think to that effect, national has very much overshadowed the power that can occur within local communities. For me, you know, in my work on the Harris campaign in central Pennsylvania, I definitely became way disillusioned. I, you know, definitely the state of the Democratic Party on a local level was very disappointing. It really did not live up to the expectations of actually, you know, trying to build up communities, to advocate for policies, um, and to try to build community. It still very much was focused on this sort of celebrity and fundraising ethos. And it was really disappointing and to not see our local sort of political parties actually working on local issues, just having this focus on electoral politics. And so I think for me, the the disillusionment and a way to kind of address that is to kind of push people a little bit more towards local work. And then what can you do in the spaces you're in? And not everything has to be electoral politics. Every institution we have has some form of policy, procedures, and rules, even here at SUNY's Connectity. You know, if there's policies that you don't agree with, you know, US students definitely have power to change that. And I think it's important to think it's not just those those electoral, you know, institutions. There's other institutions that you can have political influence on for things that you care about.
Babette FaehmelYeah, and it also seems that I mean you just confirmed some like the impression that I think a lot of people have that the political organizations, the party organizations, they're very top-down. I mean, they I don't know how many fundraising texts they get a week, but like there's not it just does that just seems to be my role from their perspective. Like give money and go vote, which is like democracy is so much more, right?
Jeremy LaMasterOr show up for a rally or you know, a party kind of thing.
Fundraising Culture And Broken Promises
Babette FaehmelYeah, exactly. Um so Joan, you you mentioned the the role of money in politics, and and you said that it was like out of control this last election. Um is that is is that new or is that kind of I I d I don't know.
Joan FucilloI haven't studied that issue. Um it seems to me though that um unl unless there was some golden era, it's kind of always been that way. You know, people get into office, they want to hold on to their jobs, um they they start to think that you know maybe they're more qualified than anybody else. And um, but yeah, I I don't think there's anything that new under the sun with this. I think it's just more extreme.
Babette FaehmelUm what and and what what do you think is the uh effect of all that money in in politics?
Warren BaynesUm I would just say just distrust from the public in general because now we just see like what you actually stand for. You don't actually stand for politics, you stand for money. And that's a really big problem. And that's actually probably what you guys are all talking about. Like these people don't stand for politics to change things, or like how can we get money to do this? And it's like they're just doing absolutely nothing. Uh-huh. Just in general, nothing.
Babette FaehmelOkay. So so so so you like um you're saying that at least it looks like there's not much more happening than fundraising.
Warren BaynesYeah, like they'll every year they'll go and raise more money than they did the last time, uh-huh, and then less will get done. Uh-huh. And it's like, okay, so what did they raise money to do?
Babette FaehmelUh-huh. Uh-huh.
Warren BaynesAbsolutely nothing.
Babette FaehmelYeah, I say I think I like I I recall reading some articles about how basically politicians nowadays, like the but but on the national level, on the national level, spend more time fundraising than they actually spend time meeting with constituents and meeting or like meeting with each other, like to debate political proposals and legislation.
Josiah TannerI think this has to do with our system though, because like we can really capitalize off of anything. If there's a market for it and there are people who are willing to give their money towards it, you can capitalize off of it, and there are no guardrails at all, which is like terrible, but that's...
Babette FaehmelJoseph?
Joseph HolmesLike, where is the line drawn between somebody's personal gain and the betterment of their community? Like, in that sense, that furthers my distrust of the system. As much as I want to be a part and want to participate and function, it's so hard when this is all that I have to constantly be aware about. These are my parameters as somebody trying to contribute. To me, it's kind of baffling.
Babette FaehmelI mean, it is it is baffling, but Jer Jeremy, do you just um brought up the the importance of distinguishing between local and national, right? So I because I mean these these huge sums, they are definitely a factor in national politics. I don't know how much it costs for to run for a seat in Congress, but it's like insane. It's just like really like, I mean, I don't have an exact number. Um, and a lot of it is um related to like the way in which campaigns are funded. And I don't know like the long sorted history out of the top of my head either. Um, but that those are if it's if it's about policy, that also means that it can be undone, right? So one possible way of getting out of this morass of political, I don't know, non-action and non-representation might just be campaign funding reform. Um, so why why do you do you have any kind of impression on like what is happening on that level or if there's any any will to do that?
Josiah TannerProbably not, because people are keep being incentivized to still do it. If there's no if there's no incentive to not do it, I don't think people are not gonna do it, right?
Joseph HolmesRight. Like something that was mentioned earlier was um, you know, how they'll present one idea and get our backing for that and then immediately get into office and rescind those things. So that just furthers, again, like back to the monetary value. It's like again, where are these people gonna draw the line? Because you want to do this for the people, you preach that to us, but then when you get into office, all the things you did to, you know, acquire us as a mass and push things forward, it kind of goes to waste because now we put this trust into you for what?
Ashley Lucie LumbalaExactly. They bring up a lot of people's hopes and then they make a whole lot of promises. Once they're in power, we don't see those promises being fulfilled, we don't see the accomplishment of what they have said. And I wonder why.
Jeremy LaMasterAnd they're sneaky about it too. One thing I remember from the Harris campaign was our platform on abortion and the commitment to if Congress passes legislation, I'll sign it into law, kind of knowing that the likelihood of Congress actually passing anything related to abortion uh was not realistic. And so it's a way to kind of speak to the issue and show that you are for the issue, but then not actually materially doing viable things to protect abortion rights in the United States. If the only stance is if Congress passes it, I'll sign it, does not do anything to support people now without Roe v. Wade.
Celebrity Politics And Civic Education Gaps
Babette FaehmelSo I'm just wondering, uh but I I think it seems to me that we are also, I mean, we are going by like what's visible, right? And and and I think what we are oftentimes disregarding is that what we see, like I don't know, are the sausages. The sausages are being made, but we don't look at the sausage factory, right? All this kind of like process of it. And right now there are just not a lot of sausages being made because there's something, I don't know, like stuck up in the sausage making machine. Um, and I think part of the problem is also that um I don't think we have really honest discussions about what politics looks like. Um I mean, just like when I when I think about like campaigns, campaigns on a national level, right? It's always about these amazing candidates and their purity and their their amazingness. There's just like we seem to have the same culture in politics that we have in like Hollywood, like celebrity culture. Um and and like you are, I don't know. This also seems to be, I mean, part of it is cultural, it's just like things change, but it also seems like we are allowing people to make fools of ourselves.
Warren BaynesUm, I agree with you. I think like even when Ronald Reagan got in there, that is like when you really started to see it, and then when it happened with Trump is when you start to see it some more of like, why are we letting people who are not educated and kind of have no clue what they're doing into the White House? What are we like, what are we doing? And then people just are okay with it and they just go, oh, okay, we'll just vote it out the next time. And it's like, but then the next, but then the time after that, something bad's gonna happen, you know, the same thing's gonna happen.
Babette FaehmelOh, so you're referring to the fact that b oth, Trump and Reagan were, like, celebrity personalities on TV before they became um presidents?
Warren BaynesYeah.
Babette FaehmelUh yeah, okay, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but uh, but I also have to say, like, with but all of them, like not just not just um those two, but but also I mean Obama and the big change candidate, and like so um inspiring and
Jeremy LaMasterHope!
Babette FaehmelRight? Hope! And posters being made um of them, and it just seems so celebrity focused. And and also, I mean, I don't know, with with Biden, he wasn't in the news, or I mean he wasn't so visible, but there was still, I don't know, no like a lack of actual honest engagement with voters as real intelligent people who can handle the truth, who can who can deal with the fact that things are hard and that we cannot have the we would like to work on this piece of legislation, but how that goes, how how what the process is, right? Because I mean how many people actually know the anything about the process? Right. Well, would I mean would do you do you get the impression that people like your peers, they had an okay...
Joseph HolmesI think education when it comes to voting is something that needs to have way more of a focus because I feel like like a lot of things happen that are negative because of a lack of knowledge. And when you educate these people, it'll actually promote a different way of thinking. And it kind of it speaks now because we're having this conversation about hey, this popularity, the way these people are viewed, incentivizes who votes for them.
Babette FaehmelRight.
Joseph HolmesWould it always be like that if we looked at legislation or the things that they actually backed versus who they are as an individual?
Babette FaehmelAnd I mean, if we don't, if you don't know, like if we if we don't understand, if we don't understand the process and what it entails to actually get anything done, and also the things that are actually probably being they're probably they they get done. It's just not flashy. If we don't understand that, then of course the frustration arises, and then the reflex, and that's another thing, right? Like then this sort of like this whip whiplash, like okay, so these bums are now out, and the next bums are in or something like that, and if they don't deliver, then we have another group of people. And that's that cannot be healthy.
Babette FaehmelJoan.
Joan FucilloDo you think that um the fact that any kind of change really is incremental? That's what's built into our system. And do you think any politician who would uh uh say on the uh on the stump, "Well, I'm for incremental change" - you would throw rocks at that person. So ...
Babette FaehmelRight, exactly.
Joan FucilloSo but but that's the honest truth. You have to compromise, you know, when you get in office, you have to talk, you have to compromise, you have to be willing to do that. I I see um like uh Congress, it's more about grandstanding. I mean I used to really enjoy, you know, kind of hearings. Even they'd have some experts or you know, questioning people, and and now it's just you know, gotcha moments, and that makes a you know a good clip, but it's not legislating.
Josiah TannerI think that's due to like people not having to critically think. So then they see those gotcha moments and it's just like, oh well, gotcha. And it's like, well, you didn't put any thought well, you didn't put any thought behind why he got got. Like, I I don't like... Yeah, people people the lack of critical thought nowadays um I was playing like old video games and stuff and I'm just like, man! You had to like it's these games are hard like they had to really think about what they were doing and just like like like and if you didn't know what was going on you had to go inside of a book whoa a book and then like look and read and like that would process and make you start critically thinking about stuff so it's like we just don't have those same processes today that actually start like trying to make you think and like engage and stay curious which just ...
Ashley Lucie LumbalaAre you saying that... um the reason why the population is being duped like they vote for somebody and they're not and they don't see what they were promised is because there's a lack of knowledge, a lack of information?
Josiah TannerYeah
Ashley Lucie LumbalaOkay so I wanted to ask um Joan since you're in the I'm sorry it's the "legal"...
Joan FucilloLeague of Women Voters.
Ashley Lucie LumbalaDo you have a platform that gives like um voting information or something like that?
Babette FaehmelOh yeah.
Ashley Lucie LumbalaBecause maybe maybe there's also a lack of that and maybe that's why a lot of people...
Joan FucilloIt's it's again it's it's it's not a snap answer. It's it's a you know it's a page you know or two pages or five pages you know telling telling people why an environment like we have an environmental task force in the state we have um and people who are very dedicated that people who are very dedicated to studying healthcare um voters rights um we're always trying to take deep dives into the issues of the of of our time especially you know when focused in our state and um it's uh frankly it can be a yawn.
Jeremy LaMasterAnd I would add to that too in in my work and meeting with voters and trying to you know earn their vote I again was also kind of surprised the ways in which people sort of decided who they were going to vote for. And a lot of the people I encountered it seemed to have come from some sort of uh visceral place and not necessarily from like a I don't want to say intellectual but not from a critical thinking place. One group for me the biggest kind of key for that was almost all voters uh were kind of saying that the economy is was their top concern. And during that campaign if you sort of engage them in that topic they didn't have anything of substance to say about the economy or policies related to the economy of either candidate. What they would say is well this one is uh a good negotiator and this one the other one is not and that was actually ended up being a code for this one's a man and that one's a woman. And it was and it became very clear that sexism was actually a lot more relevant of a decision making point than people were actually going to say out loud. They had code words or different ways to say that. And so even with like information and education I still kind of have reservations that some people vote in ways that you know are just aligned with values that I'm just not even familiar with. And so that I found as my big struggle because I'm ready to have a conversation about the economy with you or have a conversation about abortion with you. But if you already have some deep-seated different values about that at a visceral level there really wasn't a lot of room to convince people to change their vote or even vote in the first place.
Babette FaehmelSo I mean it's a lot about feelings right like the vibes like this I get a bad vibe from like that person or a good vibe from from that person. And I mean part of it's once again back to the celebrity culture and feelings and like I don't know like like the signal words right and and I kind of like that's on us to to not be that shallow um yeah ...
Jeremy LaMasterI don't I don't know how to counter that or or how it's the you know because like I wish we could just educate people and to
Warren Baynesbut they don't want to be
Ashley Lucie LumbalaYeah
Warren BaynesThat's actually really a big problem. They people actually don't want to be informed. They'd rather walk around and just be like I don't care that doesn't concern me.
Babette FaehmelYou think? Hm.
Josiah TannerOr have somebody else do the thinking for them which is kind of like...
Warren BaynesLike, if you're oh sorry go ahead
Josiah TannerNo no no which is kind of like where AI starts coming into like the picture because a lot of people would actually I saw this a lot of people would like rather just have like AI just think for them and process all their like reality instead of like them actually critically thinking
Babette FaehmelI mean and before AI it was social it was like the "the internet" - Google ...
Warren Baynesright
Babette FaehmelGoogle gave the answers. Um... yeah... but, um Sion, when we were talking like weeks ago first time about having a podcast about this kind of topic you said something about just the negativity in politics and that that was really, I don't know, off putting ?
Sion HardyYeah. I feel like I hear this concept a lot about um like politicians especially when it comes to like the president and things like that just being like a figurehead or like a puppet for like deeper agendas and things like that. So I feel like in a way sometimes politics can feel like a form of manipulation and I think that that can be very off putting to people and I also feel that if a system is meant to like include people and benefit people then the results would like naturally show that and like it wouldn't be such a struggle. So I feel like when it comes to like the evolution of politics in the future I just hope that we can be more open-minded about like what's possible for the future and kind of like think outside of our paradigms of the way things already are especially if they don't seem to be working as well for everyone.
Warren BaynesUm yeah just to add on to what she said the media definitely like has a big part to play in of how people are presented like politicians and stuff they make them seem like they're worried way more important than they are but in reality like we say they're really not. They're people who are supposed to be doing their jobs and they're getting like getting put in the newspaper for just doing their jobs. Like we don't put people who fix houses in the newspaper for doing their jobs. We don't put people who nurses like who you know who did a a double all week in the newspaper. We put like people who are like oh this dude finally fixed potholes congrats and it's like, really dude?
Jeremy LaMasterLike and I was gonna say to Sion's point too the trying to think outside the box and I'm curious to see what Joan uh has to say about this regarding the history of voting is that voting rights have changed and the way we do vote has changed over time and can continue to change as we sort of move forward.
Ranked Choice Voting And Open Primaries
Jeremy LaMasterOne of the more recent things that I've seen get a little bit more traction that speaks to the negativity that is sort of part of this like celebrity gotcha culture is the idea of like ranked choice voting. And so that is something that's been adopted in a few states and a few cities and I think prominently more most recently in New York City that by having Rank C hoice Voting it does force candidates to approach the conversations in certain ways because they're not necessarily it's not a all or nothing it is kind of more in that compromise space and and so you know I'm not familiar with the history but I imagine like the right our right to vote has evolved over time.
Joan FucilloOh yeah oh yeah it has it's become you know women can vote and and uh um the Voting Rights Act when when that passed that was a huge deal um because uh you know certain parts of the country they were preventing black people from voting by um giving them tests you know um anyway uh I think ranked choice voting is great and I hope and that and open primaries I think the two go hand in hand.
Babette FaehmelFor our listeners, can you guys explain what ranked choice voting looks like and that maybe also the open primaries we might need to okay well I can do open primaries.
Joan FucilloI'll try ... Um an open primary means that you can be a Democrat you can be a Republican you can be whatever you can have no party if you get this X number of signatures and support you can be on the ballot. So everybody gets listed on one primary ballot. So June primary day is not just uh you know you got three choices of you know Democrats you know or no one else is running you know in a primary no one's opposing anybody else so it it gives you um a whole field and you pick your top four out of that and the people who get there they end up in the in the runoff in the election and then um when you go to the polls you are given the piece of paper it has the the four candidates and you say well this is my favorite person but you know in a pinch this person would be my second choice so you can't you rank them in each way and then they sort of churn through those numbers and and uh whoever gets the most votes win and it's not always necessarily you know your first choice or my first choice or anybody's first choice but it's whoever and it's sort of like the public is compromising among itself the voters are compromising.
Joan FucilloA great um documentary called Majority Rules you can find that online uh half hour um is a good one short it shows how it worked in Alaska uh in 2022 and um the Unite New York is an organization that is working for that so uh well
Babette FaehmelWe'll put that in the show notes
Joan FucilloUm yeah and uh um they're working in the city of Albany now to get ranked choice voting
Babette FaehmelOh okay. Cool! I mean it's also it would increase uh like turnout, right? For for the primaries, because that that's the other issue ,right? Because, like, turnout for primary elections tends to be much lower than for the national election and the people who are turning out are kind of like the more politically intense and those um
Joan FucilloAnd extreme
Babette Faehmelyeah exact exactly oftentimes extreme and those and then we get the like the the respective candidates ...
Joseph HolmesIt's just a matter of um you know will reducing the amount of combativeness that is just formed by you know innate opinion is that really will that make us progress like how far is that gonna get us ?
Babette FaehmelOh you mean , we become too compromising?
Joseph HolmesYeah like it's a good thing don't get me wrong I'm all for that because the climate of just talking about the topic again does come with a lot of negativity but it's a matter of how the breakdown is presented. Like you can remove bars right you can remove barriers you can remove a lot of things to make people more comfortable but again without proper education without you know teaching them how to articulate and get to where they want to be and say what they want to say in the right spaces, how much of a difference is that really going to make .
Babette FaehmelAh. Okay so are you are you saying that it's not necessarily an an um desirable goal to have more people out voting?
Joseph HolmesIn a way yes. But
Babette Faehmelokay, okay...
Joseph HolmesBut in it has to be more focused. Like, ranked voting sounds great. Uh I can see and hear why it's effective uh but at the same time it's still a little like like...
Joseph HolmesNot everybody's gonna have a definite answer and I understand that I I've been there I am still there I don't know where I want to put my faith right especially when it comes to putting it in another person ,um but just removing those barriers and then creating more trust how do those two things go hand in hand ? Because yes making it a less you know intimidating conversation is great but actually giving it a focus and direction to get people to express themselves is more so another issue that exists within that. So by doing that you you know you again you create the positive space but how many people are still going to say what they want to say?
Babette FaehmelWell I mean in in a way the more the more open like okay so speaking from like the founders ideas about how this will work right I mean I think it was Madison who thought or who wrote about like um the more people come out to vote the more we like the they will like the extremes will cancel each other out. So it's like it's it's okay to have extremes as long as you have a very very open franchise and of course because this was like in the 1700s it was like white men um but but still a lot of them so so I but I I see I see what you're I think I think I what how I understand what you're saying is that you that you think it cannot just be about removing barriers. It has to also come with building up trust and it has to come with building literacy right about how things work.
Start Small With Local Wins
Babette FaehmelJeremy you will eventually get to that explanation of rank choice uh voting ...
Warren BaynesU m I agree with him and I think another thing that we can do to start like holding politicians accountable in terms like in terms like that is not think too big. Like we're asking to do very basic things not fix this whole thing that's been a problem for years. We're asking them to do small things small steps first and then we work your way up like like you said uh like Jeremy said locally you don't want to ask them to do a whole bunch of stuff that you probably know they really can't do. I mean that sounds bad but like you know start off very small so that way you can start restoring your faith like oh they did it or you know we asked them to put trash cans in some areas they did it we asked them to do this they did it there were street lights that were broken they fixed it. Stuff like that. You've got to start off small before you want to go big and you want to change a whole bunch of things.
Jeremy LaMasterYeah I think and I think Troy has exemplified a little bit of this with when it comes to mass surveillance they've approached city council to advocate that they cancel their contract with Flock cameras and to remove Flock cameras from Troy. It's an ongoing campaign and it seemed to have gotten a lot of public attention and traction but it was very focused and specific to a contract with the city council and it wasn't focused on we need to get NSA or we need to do reform on a national level
Warren BaynesExactly
Jeremy LaMasterto get this made to be illegal. We're gonna do in our city we don't want these cameras and we're going to identify the ways in which we can get rid of them. And so I think like you said like trying to be creative looking at those small steps is is definitely an effective way to to address these issues because you're right there's not no one is really going I mean for me it is interesting saying this like oh no one can snap their fingers and change policy. However in our current environment I think that obviously there is a lot of executive power that can be wielded unfortunately and so you know I don't want to be disingenuous that you can't snap your fingers and change things but um you know typically I'm losing my thoughts so
Babette FaehmelBut that's also kind of a little bit performative, right ? Because I mean you can snap your fingers all day long but if nobody jumps then then also that's I mean not not much happening there's a lot of signaling and um polemicizing and and not just I don't know like not just from the executive office but in general. So but but once again um that's kind of on that it is it it comes back to us right we need to probably then also pay more attention to what is happening in Troy or like if we're liv living in Albany or in Latham or it's going to be which we to be perfectly honest are we doing that? I mean because I don't think most people do.
Warren BaynesBecause I mean like I don't I don't see that represented on most people's social media feed right and that that also plays a role there was a I keep up a little bit what they do in Albany because um they're always doing something really weird super duper weird like they're they're always doing something weird that was slip under your like your nose if you don't pay attention or slip slip through if you just don't pay attention so I always make sure to at least check the local news just a whole bunch of sources just to make sure you know what's going on because if you don't know what's going on you really can't complain about what's about how the current thing is if you if you don't even understand the beginning. You're complaining about it now but you know you weren't there when it started.
Babette FaehmelYeah. Joseph you're making, you... you're nodding ?
Joseph HolmesI agree and it like the approach needs to be um you know very very local and I what I appreciate about that is that you know in educating people and having like you know the progressive very slow steps to earning trust will be very beneficial because it is restoring faith. It is placing a person in a position to show that hey we hear you we value what you have to say I'm gonna go out and do that and following that with an education you now kind of have an understanding of what the individual in power has to go through. And I feel like that's something we overlook a lot because policy change does take time. It's all a matter of time and how that person orchestrates and moves and works around delays and setbacks it does take a lot.
Warren BaynesAnd it's boring it's very boring I mean changing something is very boring and sometimes when you reach the change it won't be this extravagant thing. It'll just be as is like oh this is just it now like this we don't have to sit there and get loud about it anymore. It's just there and this is what it is. We're very result oriented people.
Joseph HolmesYes that's just how we function.
Babette FaehmelRight right we are ...
Ashley Lucie LumbalaI think these are important points um like what you're talking about you said it's because you look into it you look you look and you say okay I want to go into the local news and see what's going on like what's happening. You have no idea this is so important that things should start from first of all the population. Things should start from the people that are actually living inside the nation. And also you you guys talked about how it should be you people should have a more local view like think about what's happening in their city before deciding to change things nationwide before deciding to go before deciding to go to the White House and say okay I want this to be done now and there like look at where you live at look at where you live at first. Look at how what's going on in your own city you don't know what's going on in your own city. But then there's also something that I wanted to bring up there's a lot of distractions too
Babette FaehmelYeah!
Ashley Lucie LumbalaThere's a lot of distractions like instead of you thinking about the fact that um I'm just gonna give an example like your street has no lights there's a whole lot of distractions there's a lot there's social media there's um there are politicians saying things left right left and right, so... How do you think people could counteract that and actually stick to what's important and not be distracted by let me just like what people say or what they hear?
Babette FaehmelI mean it's such a I mean it's so so complex and so so so that's such a big hurdle because people it's not just a distraction by social media it's also that everybody needs to make a living and it takes like it's a full-time job to make a living or double like twice like two full-time jobs. Um and I mean like Americans work a lot! Um and and especially the people who are underrepresented probably ? Um work a lot um like people who are low income and like working parents and I mean our our students like most of them most of them work and then on top of that you are supposed to pay attention to what's happening in local government? That's very that's that's really um quite the ask but on the other hand just like I I mean if you and okay I realize it's an exceptional kind of not like skill or talent or anything but it's like a kind of like weird kind of interest to be that interested in politics because I think it's actually like a minority of people who really who really pay attention just for because it's their passion. But maybe the system can also make it a little more clear and easy like first of all clear how processes work and easy to get the get good information. Sion?
Sion HardyYes I agree with you I was thinking about that because I feel like one big complaint about like the American education system is that a lot of people feel like what we learn like from K through twelve is not really teaching us about real life or preparing us for real life. So I think that incorporating the some of these really important things into the education system could at least like open the door for more awareness and like maybe spark more people's interests, especially children, when they're so impressionable, it could like guide them into a direction about like really seeing and believing that they can play a role in affecting change in the system.
Babette FaehmelLike more educating people to be informed about how they can participate and how they can contribute. So it's more like to actually treat people seriously as citizens and with with a say and a role and not just as consumers, right? I mean I think I think the consumer angle is like you are supposed to consume social media, you are supposed to consume political news, you are supposed to consume all sorts of things. But what are you actually supposed to do?
Joan FucilloYou I I think you have to feel that you have agency that you have the right to do this. And I think that's really I mean like you said earlier that uh a few minutes ago the so many people feel overwhelmed.
Babette FaehmelYeah.
Joan FucilloUm that they need to um and I'm not saying you shouldn't feel overwhelmed because it's terrible now... I'm well retired. So I have the luxury of writing those letters and calling those people and writing an up and you know and and working for the league. And I think that um you know that's it it it's like I said it's a luxury but um I hope you can find some way to understand how important you are and how important your voice is especially on local issues and that you you can affect change or you know you can bring an idea to the League anytime. And we may have a committee for that, who knows.
Babette FaehmelA nd that is uh exactly that's local yeah yeah absolutely absolutely and in person? Right? Um...
Josiah TannerI think of the like the American dream, the pick yourself up by your bootstraps kind of contributed to that individualistic like ideas in America and um the people and people aren't like very concerned about like so people aren't going to be like very concerned about politics because they're sorry they're too focused on like me me but in while they're working they don't see anything that's contributing to um the the space around them like the community around them in like an actual physical like tangible way.
Babette FaehmelYeah and the way in which we kind of like think about the American dream is basically just accumulation and individual success I actually don't think that's necessarily how it was like got it out because that's a kind of like old concept and we used to have much more of an of like an idea out there that politicians should also like really be um like thinking about the good of of like the the common the the the the like the common good the common good right
Jeremy LaMasterAnd even our wealthy people used to have that same ethos you know every you know famous building named after a Rockefeller or whoever it's at least the billionaires back then were philanthropists to some extent and did some investment in public good but it it's definitely not no but as a as a historian I kind of like it's it's like sort of logical for me to to say that but it's it's I I really mean that I think sometimes we accept the presence as the only thing that can ever be even though it's the present and it's new and it has not always been like that.
Babette FaehmelBut we also we are not looking we're not looking for that we just accept that this is it and this will be how it's gonna continue. I mean we constantly have these conversations right when we are like when we are talking about well capitalism okay so yeah people just want to make a profit and that's why they will act like that but no I mean like some people like a lot of people are generally concerned about the social impact of their actions and they act accordingly it's like it's not everybody is greedy. Money doesn't always rule the world I mean yes of course it's super super important but like it's not the only thing that's important to people and it's not the only thing that runs the world. So I don't want to sound like a blue-eyed naive optimist but I just don't accept that. And Sion you got you actually had some great comments earlier um when we met about the episode about how maybe it need it really needs like a values we thinking that we need to like think about what kind of economy would allow us to be at peace and like have time for leisure and art and family.
Rethinking Work Values And The Economy
Sion HardyYeah I think that our culture has a big thing to do with it like um I feel that we're kind of forced into like behaving and conforming into a certain way because I think that when we're young we're not really like fully informed about like the way the system works and things like that. But we have these ideas of how we want to live as adults like oh I want to own a house and a car and stuff like that but then when you become an adult and like it's hard to get a job to actually afford those things and notice the different ways that like politics and societal structure affect your behavior you're kind of like forced into conforming to the system and like that can make it hard for people to really imagine something different.
Babette FaehmelYeah and there's like it's hard it's also so hard to distinguish between what do I actually want for happiness and what do I want because everybody tells me that this is what you're supposed to want right like it's kind of like the comparison constantly especially with social media it's rampant. And before social media it was the neighbors like the Joneses or whatnot. But yeah um like just having more things doesn't necessarily make you more fulfilled Jata the stigma around change is arguably just in of itself one of the biggest problems we face as people because it's so true that once you're taught something is a certain way you go out of your way to complete it or view it as that you don't really want to take yourself out of that and view things from another perspective.
Joseph HolmesI don't know why that is but it's definitely a large problem that needs to be recognized because again we do have dreams we do have aspirations we do see what we're supposed to have or think we want and now in attaining those things you don't realize how much of it is circumstantial and yeah that's a big thing.
Babette FaehmelYeah I mean I I remember reading a lot around well after the COVID pandemic after we returned to work and whatnot and then there were some issues there were a lot of issues with retaining work the employ retaining employees attracting like good employees a lot of discussion about how your generation of like soon to be college graduates are no longer putting up with this kind of like self-exploitation economy where everybody's just expecting you to work like from from what is it dawn to dusk or like cradle degree cradle degree from like from from nine from from I don't know from five to nine um like this these kind of crazy hours.
Joseph HolmesSo much of it is given to a corporate lifestyle. For me my position and where I'm at it's a very large corporate chain and it's so crazy to say that I can feel pressure from so many positions above myself to perform a certain way when I'm not even rewarded for when I do well. Right. It's like don't don't ask this of me one if it's not incentivized but two mean what you say uh actually provide what you want for your employees. You say you want us to have a nice relaxed leisurely filled life what about the workload you give us what about the things you ask of us actually make that feasible?
Babette FaehmelHuh huh I mean and even if you have like an employer who who says that because I I don't think that's even um common that like there is this kind of like I don't know like employers accept a caretaker responsibility for their employees um I mean I'm fortunate to work in public public like a public institution public service kind of like some something similar to that um but yeah in in in like the private market seems not really a lot of like caretaker responsibility out there. Warren ?
Warren BaynesUm I kind of agree with them is that like a lot of people just don't care either like they just don't want to do that stuff. And they're just very very concerned about themselves and her too and um Sion, um, Sion, too. And they're just very concerned about themselves and their brain is so in my opinion their brain is like genuinely so fried from just being into a system that they've always just grown up on and been a part of and now like you said it's really hard to imagine oh what what would like what would life look like if I didn't have to do this every day. And if I didn't have to wake up like this and if I do have time off and you know so many people just it's really it's really hard for them to just imagine that even even like even me sometimes like sometimes I'll look at something I'll be like oh I never knew you could just do it like that. I think we all do it sometimes we go oh we can do it in a whole different way but some people don't even know there's a different way to do it.
Babette FaehmelYeah I mean, we're not exposed to it um yeah the information isn't out there like more easily like we have to like really look for different communities different times different countries.
Warren BaynesExactly
Josiah TannerI think like um the lack of education is very very like it's it's a huge issue in this country. I feel like you you get incentivized to be uneducated in this country there are like many examples of of it just especially on social media like you can you can see how like if you're uneducated you somehow do better in in the space which is insane to me. But um yeah I guess that's just how it is that people don't like our country wasn't isn't built to critically think anymore. Like that's been taken away from us and I think it's a shame.
Babette FaehmelBut on the other hand there is n has never been more information out there and we just I mean and and I I I see that too like there's so much information out there but then there's almost an um like an incapacity to work with the information responsibly and to process and kind of like like interpret the information. So it's overwhelming it's just there's just too there's too much too much input too much data.
What Students Want From Leaders
Babette FaehmelSo to to kind of like to get to the wrapping up of like at some point of of this episode if you had like a magic wand or if you have like if you had the ear of decision makers what what are your like your like are soon to be graduates of college what are your priorities for for society for the economy for politics Joseph?
Joseph HolmesTransparency. Transparency give it to us in a way that's unfiltered so that way the you know the our expectations for you are realistic. Like don't sugarcoat don't fluff because now you're creating this like okay so you said you're gonna do this let's get it done it doesn't happen and I'll look at how that backfires on you.
Babette FaehmelYeah do you think the people can't handle transparency?
Joseph HolmesNo but that's a big part of why education is going to be important because sometimes the honesty is going to be brutal. It's like if you tell a person they're gonna have to wait 60 years to see this and this might be outside their lifetime and they can only hope that for their their next generation yeah that's a lot to hear.
Babette FaehmelYeah.
Joseph HolmesBut at least you know it's in the works. Okay. And that means something.
Babette FaehmelI mean like think back about the League of Women Voters right I mean like how how long have women been working for the vote and they some some of them started working for the vote when they were young and they never saw it coming and the same with like the like civil black civil rights black freedom struggle.
Josiah TannerI think that goes back to like individualistic like tendencies within America though because like we're we can't look ahead in the future and if we do it's just like oh well it's not benefiting me so why why not do it.
Warren BaynesThat's actually probably the biggest problem we have too
Babette Faehmelshort term thinking?
Warren BaynesYes. Very short term thinking where it's like I think you said this earlier where people don't think about the betterment of society. They literally just think of what can be right there in the next maybe two to five years. They literally cannot imagine well maybe we should put a plan in place that takes like 30 years. They used to plan cities for years. They used to plan things like they used to plan things that took so long and some some of the things that are still in effect now that they plan from way back in the day and they don't just do that anymore. They're just so concerned with oh well what can we do within the next two to five years like I said.
Babette FaehmelYeah yeah so do I if Joseph wants transparency, um you would want more communal thinking and long term planning and like even if that means sometimes short term sacrificing ?
Warren BaynesRight
Babette FaehmelBabette Faehmel
Okay. A ll right. Josiah?
Josiah TannerIt's kind of same with me .
Babette FaehmelHuh?
Josiah TannerSame with me. Yeah.
Babette FaehmelSame with you? Okay. Sion, I think for you it would be a life more nourishing, restful, but not as in just not doing something but maybe like more about values ? Is that do I understand that correctly?
Sion HardyYeah like I would say um education but in a but like not conditioning like education.
Babette FaehmelLike education that's like really making turning people into thinkers and not compliers and conformers.
Sion HardyYes.
Babette FaehmelBabette Faehmel
Okay okay. All right. Ashley?
Ashley Lucie LumbalaThat's also something that I I'd like to say because looking at politics not only here internationally but even international um there's a lot of I don't know how to explain this but there's a lot of this is how it's supposed to be done. So I would like people to unlearn certain things and get people to see a new perspective of how things could be done. A different perspective from what they know.
Babette FaehmelRight. And learning a lot and like dreaming but not thinking it's just a dream.
Ashley Lucie LumbalaBecause you would hear somebody say but this is how it has been done in the last ten years. Wow how wow you can't change it now. But they could and that new perspective or that different perspective could change something somewhere.
Babette FaehmelRight, right and I mean we have done that it's just like I mean we we need to also kind of like look back at and look at other countries and just think of like be inspired by that what has been done and what is being done and we don't have to necessarily always accept like the status quo that kind of thing. Okay yeah I like that. So and and what and what what would you say are your greatest concerns greatest fears it's like um everybody kind of hit on it already it's just the living your life on autopilot and just feeling like the only way to progress is to conform.
Joseph HolmesOne thing that scares me a lot about life is complacency. Like I don't really ever want to grow complacent in a way where I feel like I can never progress and that stagnant mindset just is if it scares me in all honesty.
Warren BaynesPass I'm I'm gonna have to come up with that give me a second.
Josiah TannerLike a consensus reality like people can't agree on things anymore man. Like it's so something that happens right in front of you people can have various different like outlooks on what happened in front of you. Like I just saw me and you just saw something both with uh two eyes and you're just like I don't know it's just like no consensus in reality anymore. Um no no um no more like debating people can't debate anymore either people people don't like to hear other and if we fight we fight but at the end of the day let's go let's go out somewhere let's go to a bar like, I don't know...
Babette FaehmelAnd we used to be able to do that much much more when we were like more meeting more often in real life and not just like like behind screens and stuff like that. And before we became so polarized I mean that's like probably I don't know I don't know how many articles have already been written about why how how how polarized we are why we are polarized and um how to get out of this mess right but I I think you like the the the kind of like sort of the fact that we exist in different like we are we are just encountering different informations information s through streams or whatever like there's just um different realities that are almost existing parallel because of the bifurcated and like like I don't know this fractured media landscape. And that scares me. That scares me because if people just believe in different things then then like how are they supposed to talk?
Joseph HolmesYeah there's no room for discourse. It's like people take an opinion and argue it as if it's fact. You need to argue understanding like I may not like what you have to say but at least if I can come to a consensus as to why you're saying it that helps me accept it more. Even if I may not agree.
Babette FaehmelYeah yeah exactly I mean I sometimes like have like emotional responses to what people say because it just triggers something but then I like step back and try to understand like I try to picture what reality and what experiences have shaped that. And it's work. It's not easy and I I mean I wouldn't I would say that I often fail to completely do it but we have to try more. Warren?
Warren BaynesUm I would say probably a big concern of mine just for the future is corporatism and there's the way the way where it's going right now it feels like it's not slowing down. It's like ramping up even more we said this in the beginning that like more money is being dumped in more and more and more people are being disadvantaged and disenfranchised on the government from by the government and you know it just makes people not want to vote not want to participate and it can lead to somewhere you probably don't want to go where people don't want to vote don't believe in a system and they don't care about the system and they're disenfranchised disenfranchised and they feel like what do I have to lose anymore? I don't think I think I don't think we're heading there like right right now but I think if it keeps going it'll get there to where people are like what do I have to lose they don't care about us anymore.
Babette FaehmelYeah yeah definitely um so Joan and oh Ashley and Sion . Did anything more well
Ashley Lucie LumbalaI think I share the same views with Warren.
Babette FaehmelFor young folks how can they stay informed get involved what are the best ways?
How To Stay Informed And Take Action
Babette FaehmelOh did you just want to ?
Warren BaynesUm one thing they can do is start building communities with each other. A lot of people they use social media but they're really not connected to people no they'll like they're not connected to people they don't know what's going on they've never even talked to people within their community some people don't even talk to their neighbors or anything like that and that's just something that a lot of young people don't want to do like I'll I'll admit it a lot of people my age they don't care to talk to other people like they don't want to do that stuff and it's like we're not we're not gonna get anywhere not saying anything.
Babette FaehmelI know yeah absolutely absolutely and that's that's something that becomes very clear like even in the classroom right people people no longer talk they are constantly staring at their phone and um it's and I I I kind of like I I feel the same way with phone calls like the the idea of actually calling a person on on my phone now is just like traumatizing. But but it doesn't have it it used to not be right just like we you can't like we can return to more actual physical in real life interactions just not gonna be as comp as as easy but life wasn't supposed to be easy.
Jeremy LaMasterAll right um Joan and Jeremy? I think can you restate the question one more time?
Babette FaehmelI I was asking about like ways to for young folks to find easy access to good information and also ways to participate.
Jeremy LaMasterI think I think young people should question everything and I think that's going to be at the core of it I think we've been so enmeshed in our current systems that are not working for us. And so I think we need to have a little more courage in really thinking outside of the box. I mean even when it comes to electoral politics that is not the only way in which you can organize a society it's not the only You can inform a community. I was thinking a little bit while we were talking about the Haudenosaunee tribe or Iroquois who used to inhabit capital region, and their leadership system, you know, was based on different gender politics, but it it was a different type of representative democracy of multiple different tribes that actually inspired Ben Franklin in the formation of the United States as a represent representative democracy. And so I would say like we don't have to live this way, we don't have to be organized like this. And and we do have the power to make changes wherever you are, just don't accept it. I think it's it really you just gotta question everything and just don't let people tell you it has to like we don't have to have electoral politics as the way to run our society. We can have something different. It's been done before, it's being done differently currently in our world. Um and and I think to that point, then too, it it really is the I'm thinking of the phrase think global, act local. Um it's from Charlotte Bunch, who was a feminist who really helped with the formation of UN women in the 90s. And it's really an ethos that I I think is really important that you do have to work with what's in front of you, but also just be mindful that you are you share a planet with a lot of other people at the same time. Um and so we can't we can't be all on our national level, we can't be consumed with national or global politics, but at the same time we can't ignore it either.
Babette FaehmelSo right, that's that's a really good point, and also just like look around and like read about the way in which societies have been organized. I mean, I'm just like there are all sorts of communities where poor people have organized and um like like there was more participatory democracy, and these these examples exist if you look for them.
Jeremy LaMasterOr like what just happened with the youth revolution in um Nepal? No.
Babette FaehmelYeah, was it? Wasn't it?
Jeremy LaMasterI'm not remembering.
Warren BaynesYeah.
Jeremy LaMasterWas it?
Warren BaynesIt was Nepal, it was Nepal. I'm pretty sure it was. And they uh they elected like a very young person there, and they did it through uh text messages too. Yeah, they did it through like a tech, yeah. It was it was the most they say the most Gen Z thing they ever did was like literally like they did it all through text messages. Overthrew the government, yeah. Yeah, they overthrew a government and they like elected someone, it was a woman too, I believe, and they elected her through Discord.
Babette FaehmelWow. Oh my god, I need to I need to check that out. Okay, Joan, some um like easy pathways for youth to figure out how easy pathways they can be boring but like easily accessible. They don't have to be flashy. We have enough flashy. We have we want to be we need to be done with flashy. Yeah.
Joan FucilloWell, um we're we uh go and register voters at high schools now, and um last year we had a a very good um turnout and result. Um this year it's a little it's gonna be a little messier, but um we are going there, going to community colleges and going to GED classes to register voters, but mostly to talk to them about why they matter and why vote. And and I really feel that that's people have to understand that they are important. Um even if the rest of the world is is telling them, you know, telling them otherwise that that um you you really, really matter because in the end, the only thing that will change politics is your vote. Because that's the only thing they count. They don't count your rallies, they don't count your signs, you know. You have to go vote. And and at the local level, you can go and uh go to your city council meeting before it gets too late.
Warren BaynesWhat I said before it gets too late and like I said, you know, it'll just progress and progress and there's a point of no return.
Joan FucilloWell, you know, we we um trying to uh you know do as much as we can. And uh I know you're all doing as much as you can too. I mean you're you're an amazing group of people. Thank you.
Thanks Credits And Where To Listen
Babette FaehmelAll right, well, on that note, um once again, thank you so much for coming out and having this conversation. Um so Joseph, Josiah, Warren, um, Joan and Jeremy, Ashley, Sion, thank you. Like like always. Many Voices, One Call is made possible thanks to the generous contributions of the SUNY Schenectady Foundation. The recording of the podcast is supported by the School of Music, our student editors Michael Sevier, Beau Greenwood, and Kalix Sausville, and of course Professor Sten Isachsen, Heather Meanie, Karen Tansky and Jessica McHugh -Green deserve credit for promoting the podcast. Thanks also go to Vice President of Academic Affairs Mark Meachem, College President Steady Moono, the Student Government Association, and the Student Activities Advisor. Please stay tuned for more episodes like this on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.