Today, we are celebrating our return from spending time with our children for the summer and so much has happened since we were last with you in real time! So, in this show we are going to recap some of our topics from our previous episodes, and also catch you up on our summers!

We’re also going to be sharing some of the exciting things we have in store for you this fall. So, sit back, relax and join us for this conversation so we can catch up!

“We don't want to get to that point of needing to be so powerful that we destroy people in order to get what we want.” - Sara

Show Highlights:

There are vast discrepancies in state education standards for teaching about slavery. We discussed this in episode 18 as it relates to who controls history.
Our societal structures have been impacted by slavery, whether schools want to teach about it or not.
Texas now teaches more than 5 million students that the Civil War wasn’t just about slavery, but rather it was more about economics and sectionalism.
It doesn’t make sense that social studies is required for all students, but it doesn’t have the same national standards for what is taught as math and science do.
Kids in the US learn about slavery differently depending where they grow up.
Most schools begin talking about African Americans in US history at the point that they are already slaves. When you begin at the point that someone is already dehumanized, you really never see them through a different lens. In order to see them as human beings, you have to start the journey before they were dehumanized.
As a country, we still struggle with issues such as kneeling athletes, criminal justice reform, birthright citizenship and Confederate statutes because we haven’t been taught the context of how those things tie directly into slavery.
Plantation tours have taken on the task of educating the public about slavery, but the public is pushing back and saying they don’t want to have to see the impact of slavery included in the plantation tours.
We don’t need to take slavery personally and get offended that it is an ugly part of our history.
In Ep 11 and 12, we shared the real history of the KKK. Those shows are definitely worth listening to, if you haven’t had a chance to catch those yet.
It took Paypal six days to suspend an account raising money for a branch of the KKK. Even after it was flagged by an anti-bigotry campaigner, it still took almost a week for Paypal to take action.
Your right to freedom of speech as laid out in the US Constitution ends when it infringes on others.
Private companies, like Facebook, Paypal, Instagram, etc. have terms and conditions for the use of their platforms, but they can’t always catch everything that’s inappropriate.
Remember the discussion we had about Stapleton, CO wanting change their name? Even though Stapleton was a former Mayor of the town, he was also a KKK member, and used that fact to help him get elected. The town recently voted overwhelmingly (65% to 35%) NOT to change the name.
Our first listener suggested guest, Caster Semenya, has lost her appeal to participate in her sport without taking drugs to alter her body’s natural hormonal state. You can learn more about her story by listening to episode 22.
We had an episode about the citizenship question possibly being added to the census, and while that did not happen, we now have the Trump administration making it more difficult to obtain birthright citizenship.
It’s been estimated that the changes to the birthright citizenship rule would effect only about 100 people annually, but for such a small impact why go down this slippery slope?
We talked about the separation of migrant children at the border, and while that issue hasn’t completely resolved, the administration is now ending protection for migrant children getting lifesaving medical treatment in the US.
It’s hard to understand how we can send sick children back to their home country and deny them medical treatment, knowing that decision will be a death sentence for them. It’s really heartbreaking.
Find out our individual lessons learned and takeaways from spending this summer with our children. This includes the impact of visiting Hiroshima and the kid’s reaction to it and how taking kids to countries where they didn’t speak the language impacted them.
This fall, we have so many exciting plans for the show! You’ll have to listen to get a sneak peak!