Keystone Reckoning Podcast
The most honest and unfiltered discussion about Pennsylvania progressive politics and policy anywhere. The Keystone Reckoning Project will shine a light on Pennsylvania Republicans at all levels of government in a blunt and brutally honest way, demonstrating that a new messaging strategy can change not only the narrative but, more importantly, the results on Election Day.
Keystone Reckoning Podcast
Sick Day With My Student Ambassador
Sitting across from me today is not only an inspiring young leader but also my pride and joy—my son, Gus White. While nursing a cold at home, Gus took center stage to reveal his journey from the hockey rink to the esteemed role of a second-grade student ambassador at Upper Allen Elementary. With charm and wit, he discussed his strategic campaign for election and the earnest responsibilities he embraced upon winning. Gus's insightful reflections on his peers' mature handling of the election outcome offered a refreshing contrast to the adult world, leaving us with a heartwarming sense of hope in the leaders of tomorrow.
As we delved further into our conversation, Gus's views on leadership and ethics highlighted the meaningful lessons in student politics, from the power of a 'win-win' scenario to the art of compromise. The importance of voting and respecting a spectrum of political beliefs became a centerpiece of our discussion, as we acknowledged the significance of encouraging young voices in our democratic processes. Before signing off, my charismatic co-host shared a fascinating tidbit about the Great Wall of China and teased the potential for weekly segments filled with his youthful insights and delightful facts. Join us for a unique look into the mind of a future change-maker, where the wisdom of a child reminds us of the simple yet profound values we all should cherish.
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Welcome to the Keystone Reckoning podcast. A very special Keystone Reckoning podcast for Wednesday, April 3rd 2024. I have a big time guest with me today. That's right, an ambassador. We were able to secure an ambassador as a guest, so please, let's take this very seriously. We're going to show some serious deference and respect to my guest, second grade student ambassador at Upper Allen Elementary in Mechanicsburg, who also happens to be my son, who is home from school not feeling well today, Augustus White, also known as Gus. Gus, thank you for being on the podcast, Hi, Okay, so Gus is a little nervous, but Gus normally has no lack of things to talk about, so I thought it'd be fun to take a little time from being on the couch not feeling well to come up and just chat for a minute. So, Gus, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm in second grade and I love hockey, and my favorite sport is the Pittsburgh Penguins Nice.
Speaker 1:Cool and you play hockey right? Yes, and are you good? Yes, what position do you play?
Speaker 2:Defenseman.
Speaker 1:Nice. How many goals did you have this year? Five Nice, and how many in the playoffs? Two Nice. The kid's a juggernaut. What can I say? Okay, and you have a very special role in your school. What is that?
Speaker 2:Being an ambassador. So what does that mean? It means you are the sort of like the leader in your class. You stand up for what's right. You mean upstander, you do everything good.
Speaker 1:Right, and how did you get chosen to be student ambassador?
Speaker 2:good Right. And how did you get chosen to be student ambassador? Well, around, I want to say the beginning of the close to the beginning of the school year. We did a vote for ambassador. I was only running against two other ambassadors.
Speaker 1:And so you had an election, and what did you do to? How did you prepare for your election?
Speaker 2:Well, all the all the ambassadors, there was only three running.
Speaker 1:And how many could win? Just one could win, OK. So what did you have to do to win your election?
Speaker 2:You had to fill out a paper saying I will do this, I will do that, I will. I will do anything right. I will do the right thing.
Speaker 1:All right, and then, what did you do before the election?
Speaker 2:There was a vote, but one day when we came into class, everybody had a slip of paper at their seat and there was a box on the carpet and there were three of them and the box said Gus, and then one had the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we won't say the other kid's name, but wait, didn't you have to give a speech?
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody running had to do a speech and my speech was very good.
Speaker 1:Because we worked a lot together. Right, you practiced it and you made a very interesting, very interesting decision, which was you let off with the joke. Do you remember the joke? It was a knock knock joke. You don't remember it, I remember it. You said knock knock gus gus, your next student ambassador yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It was a good joke people liked. And then when it was time for the vote, we wouldn't hear until the end of the day and I got chosen.
Speaker 1:So after people voted, but before you knew the result, were you nervous?
Speaker 2:Very nervous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I know from when I've gotten elected to, things like the day is the worst, right, you're just waiting, everything is done, you're waiting to see who won. Yes, isn't that a great feeling, though, when you win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very great feeling Nice and so OK.
Speaker 1:So you got elected and you know there's a saying that says you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose, which means the campaigning is the fun part, but which means the campaigning is the fun part. But now you had to go to work and do the hard work. So tell me, about what do you do as a student ambassador?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, every month in school we have a community meeting where we go over the recent topics or events at our school and sometimes the ambassadors get to talk on the stage in front of the whole entire school, but those are usually the third graders who do that.
Speaker 1:And you happen to know a third grade ambassador, don't you?
Speaker 2:He was my brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a set of ambassadors in the house, but Atticus's was a lot easier. He didn't have to give a speech or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they just did a vote and then he got chosen. Yeah, and here's something weird His class has two ambassadors, mine only has one.
Speaker 1:Is that maybe because you're like twice the ambassador that he is?
Speaker 2:Very funny.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:But I believe only two kids like five kids ran Like five kids ran and the three kids bought no votes, but Atticus and the other kid tied and vote. Oh, maybe that's why, because they tied, yeah, and you are allowed to vote for yourself, yeah. Well, obviously, yeah, you got to be allowed to, did you vote? For yourself, of course, how many times allowed to vote for yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, obviously, yeah, you got to be allowed to. Did you vote for yourself? Of course? How many times did you vote for yourself? You can, oh, okay, just checking. And did you feel that the election wasn't rigged or anything like that? It wasn't rigged, all right, and so I have a question. After the other kids didn't win, none of them tried to claim that they actually won. No, they didn't like raise up an army and try to storm the school.
Speaker 2:No, everybody was happy, pretty much everybody.
Speaker 1:So they accepted the result of the election? Yeah, so in some ways the kids were more grown up than adults were.
Speaker 2:When they lose an election yes, Nice, that was like when I started to get really popular in my class, so everybody voted Pretty much. Everybody voted for me Very cool.
Speaker 1:Now you haven't let it go to your head, have you? No, Do you have any special privileges for being an ambassador In real life? If you're an ambassador from another country, you have what they call diplomatic immunity, which means you can park anywhere you want. You can't really get in trouble. Do you have that happen to you? No, no special privileges. And if you could pick any one special privilege as a student ambassador that you could get away with anything, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Not getting in trouble.
Speaker 1:But I thought you shouldn't get in trouble anyway as a student ambassador.
Speaker 2:The goal is not to, but even when you do, it's not good.
Speaker 1:It's not good. Can you be thrown out of being a student ambassador?
Speaker 2:Yes, if you do something terribly wrong.
Speaker 1:Has anybody been thrown out?
Speaker 2:No, Everybody's been good.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, that's why I like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and every month, usually on like a Tuesday or Thursday, all the ambassadors meet for a meeting in the morning and we just discuss topics like that stuff, the junior game it's really fun.
Speaker 1:Okay, so do you think what have you learned about being an ambassador? Like, what are the things you need? You said you have to be good, right, and set an example, but like, what are the kind of things, then that you need to show your classmate? Like, what do they expect from you as an ambassador?
Speaker 2:They expect. They expect nice behavior, pretty much behaving like the best in the class, and also they expect that you will be a good friend as an ambassador?
Speaker 1:Do you require them to call you by a specific title? Are you Mr Ambassador? No, so you just go by Gus. Yes, so you're like a man of the people. I like that. You don't let it go to your head.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:That's what I like to hear. So, okay, that's leadership, by the way, not letting it go to your head, right?
Speaker 2:A big part of being a student ambassador is being a leader.
Speaker 1:Nice. So okay, let me ask you this what do you think it means to be a leader?
Speaker 2:It means you stand up, you lead your team or lead like that lead, lead like that.
Speaker 1:Uh, you, you, you don't let anything get in your way.
Speaker 2:So when you say stand up, you don't mean like actually stand up, I don't know like stand up what's right okay, cool and dad, what you were saying was like so every meeting we get about three new pages and our ambassador like binder. You have a binder, yeah, and it has, like usually the schedule, some sort of like I will statements is like kind of like I would just talking about, like I will stand up for what's right, I will blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:And then also there's a word of the month for the student ambassador.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know that. What's the word for this month? Oh, it was more of a phrase. What's the?
Speaker 2:word for this month. Oh, it was more of a phrase this month, but it's think, when, when, and that means like, let's say you want mac and cheese for lunch, dad, okay, and I want pierogies, okay. And we can't decide I want mac and cheese, I want pierogies, then we can have. Then one of us might say well, we can have pierogies today, we can have mac and cheese tomorrow, so you both win.
Speaker 1:So win-win. Yeah. Yeah, that's another word for, that is compromise, right. And that's what in real life, in politics, in government, that's what they want us to do is compromise, work together and find something that works for everybody. Unfortunately, doesn't always work that way in the real world, right?
Speaker 1:that way it's cool yeah, well, but you don't have like like lobbyists. Or you don't have like what is this lobbyist? That's like people that are trying to like give you money and and try to influence what you do, right, okay, you don't have that. No, of course, like, don't anybody offer you like candy to like you know, do a certain thing. I don't, okay, good, just checking.
Speaker 2:You're not allowed to give people food.
Speaker 1:Okay, good to know. Okay, so let's go beyond student ambassador for a minute, which is still super cool, and I, I was very, very proud of you when you got elected because you worked hard on it, right, you didn't just take it for granted. So you know, obviously you know what, what I do in our house. We talk about politics and voting and a lot of different things. So why do you think it's important to vote?
Speaker 2:Because if nobody votes, then there's not going to be a president. Ok, and if voting helps, helps you know what's right, like if somebody heard that you voted for I don't know, Joe. Biden and they also voted for Joe Biden, then that's good. But if somebody voted for the president running against Joe Biden, then that wouldn't be good Right.
Speaker 1:But if someone voted for somebody else because they believed in that person, is that okay? Yes, because is everybody allowed to believe what they think? Yes, right, and we don't disrespect anybody for how they vote. Yes, do we or don't we? We don't Right. We don't disrespect people because they're allowed to vote how they choose. Yes, do we or don't we? We don't Right. We don't disrespect people because they're allowed to vote how they choose, right. Yeah, but is it important to vote? Yes, are you going to vote when you're old enough?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:How often are you going to vote?
Speaker 2:When the election comes Right.
Speaker 1:Very cool. So if you could make any one law right, could make any one law right that everybody had to follow in the whole country.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:What would it be?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's hard.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's hard. All right, let me rephrase it what do you think is the most important thing that's going to matter for you when you're a grown-up Like? If you're like, okay, what is something that like, hey, grown ups right now, don't screw this up for me. When I'm a grown up right, Like, what is, what is that thing that you care about?
Speaker 2:The way money works.
Speaker 1:Which is how Explain that to me?
Speaker 2:When you have money, maybe you want to go buy, like I don't know, a sandwich, okay, and the sandwich costs $5, and you have $5, or you have $6, and you just hand the $6 over. Then you get change back. That makes sense, okay. But sometimes people who are generous, when they don't have the exact amount and they pay over, they say keep the change. I don't want it so that when you pay over that you don't always have to give that change, because that would make everybody's job easier, because sometimes it's a very specific number Sometimes it's not Like you might need to count, I don't know 64 cents.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And you might only have two quarters and a nickel, then you couldn't make that.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Then you'd have to split up a dollar, and now it gets even more complicated.
Speaker 1:That is complicated. Just thinking about it is complicated. Yeah, makes my head hurt. So maybe people should just use their debit cards. That would make things easier. So you want to go. You mainly want to move to a cashless economy Pretty much, right. You want to get to where there's no cash. Yeah, interesting, that's a pretty interesting. That's a pretty interesting take. Uh, is there anything else that you, if you could make a law, that you would make as a law?
Speaker 2:that, uh, if I was the president and I could make a law, one of those laws would be like for any item that costs money, well, if it goes, I would put like certain numbers, like if a different item, like a novelty, toy, a book, and if it costs over that certain amount of money, then they have to stop and they have to take the prices down.
Speaker 1:So like price controls yes, so you have to take the prices down.
Speaker 2:So like price controls yes, so you want to, okay so, but like it's a cap on every different thing, it's like maybe cups. A cup should cost $5. A nice cup could cost $10. But the max might be $30.
Speaker 1:Okay. So this is interesting and, to be clear to our listeners, this is not anything we discuss in advance, like we're just freestyling here. So what I'm hearing is I never would have thought that you'd have been big on economic policy, but you're talking about a cashless economy and controls to fight inflation. Yeah, wow, that is very impressive. You're taking a very economic, populist stance.
Speaker 2:And I came up with that right on the spot.
Speaker 1:I can tell you definitely did. There's no doubt about it. So I think we're about done, gus, are you going to come back and do some more of these?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, I would love to.
Speaker 1:All right, maybe we'll do like a weekly segment. Yes, be fun. All right, gus, is there anything you want to say to the listeners out there before you go? Give me some words of wisdom. No, I have an idea. Give us a fact that people may not know. You love to give random facts from watching YouTube, kids and stuff like that. Is there any random fact that we might not know?
Speaker 2:Oh, if you were to walk across the whole Great Wall of China, that would take over. That would take 18 months. Wow, and I'm just saying, like you don't even sleep, you don't even take a break to eat, like all you do is walk, that's straight walking.
Speaker 1:Yes, impressive. Should we try that sometime? No, no, cool, gus, you were awesome. Thank you very much. Gus is very happy with himself and I think we'll definitely come back and do this again. This has been the Keystone Reckoning Podcast. I'm your host, jesse White, along with special guest ambassador Gus White. Say goodbye, gus.
Speaker 2:Bye.
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