Thank You for Another Great
GameChanging Ideas Festival
A summary of the day
Agreement and disagreement ran through the aisles, we brought people to crossroads in their thinking, challenged opinions, and pushed critical thinking as much as we could to hopefully bring our community members to a place where we can share ideas so that we may acquire wisdom and develop a vision for a better democracy.
Has the American Dream changed? Is the American Dream even a reality, a possibility? On October 5th we asked five people to join us in our pondering of what condition the American Dream is in: Casey Gerald, Nate Boyer, Kate Bischoff, Aparna Nancherla, and Mark Trahant. Through the lens of the ‘Four Freedoms’ speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we began to dissect how these Freedoms impact, affect, and play into this iconic idea of achievement and aspiration.
To begin this grand discussion, Susan Marie Frontczak portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt and spoke about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the way these freedoms are embedded within the Declaration.
In his interview with Mark Trahant, Nate Boyer described how the Freedom of Speech is reserved for every person and how we should attempt to understand those we disagree with, to see the world through their eyes so that we can work on the problems we face together instead of apart.
Casey Gerald tackled what it means to want in this country. To have wealth is a means for a better life, this is true, but it is not wealth that defines the American Dream. The dream is a tricky and dangerous thing; it can quickly and unseeingly turn into a nightmare. Much more important than any of these described freedoms is one that is not much spoken about, the ‘Freedom to Be.’ When we lose ourselves and when we lose others in our race to summit the American Dream, we often lose the most important freedom we have; the freedom of individuality.
Kate Bischoff mentioned a similar idea in her discussion of the Freedom of Worship; “the Freedom of Worship is essentially the freedom to be yourself;” a freedom from being placed into a mold that conforms to what is easiest, to what is popular. The American Dream is not a static image in the mind of every American, rather it is what the individual American thinks of the American Dream that is actually what constitutes it.
Aparna Nancherla sat down for an interview with Humanities ND Director Brenna Gerhardt to unveil how the Freedom from Fear is experienced in the sphere of comedians. In her experience with stand-up comedy, audiences are a lot more divided than ever, there’s a lot less room to hear out a different side. She tells us that “if you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention,” but to not face this fear is to deny ourselves our ability to overcome those fears, which we are all fully capable of doing. If we could see this ability we have to overcome our fears; fears of being disagreed with, of standing out, of being booed off stage; then we can connect with one another and strengthen our nation and our communities and our relationships.
Mark Trahant takes on disruption in democracy describing how he has adapted to the ever-changing world of technology and how our way of reading and consuming information has changed with this technology. Mark describes the way Native Americans have always been disruptors in their own right and his way to continue this tradition of disruption with his news platform, Indian Country Today.
With appearances by Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty and an outro played by the Century High School Patriot Band, the love of our great country and the possibility it contains was spread wide through the audience.
Has the American Dream changed? Is the American Dream even a reality, a possibility? On October 5th we asked five people to join us in our pondering of what condition the American Dream is in: Casey Gerald, Nate Boyer, Kate Bischoff, Aparna Nancherla, and Mark Trahant. Through the lens of the ‘Four Freedoms’ speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we began to dissect how these Freedoms impact, affect, and play into this iconic idea of achievement and aspiration.
To begin this grand discussion, Susan Marie Frontczak portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt and spoke about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the way these freedoms are embedded within the Declaration.
In his interview with Mark Trahant, Nate Boyer described how the Freedom of Speech is reserved for every person and how we should attempt to understand those we disagree with, to see the world through their eyes so that we can work on the problems we face together instead of apart.
Casey Gerald tackled what it means to want in this country. To have wealth is a means for a better life, this is true, but it is not wealth that defines the American Dream. The dream is a tricky and dangerous thing; it can quickly and unseeingly turn into a nightmare. Much more important than any of these described freedoms is one that is not much spoken about, the ‘Freedom to Be.’ When we lose ourselves and when we lose others in our race to summit the American Dream, we often lose the most important freedom we have; the freedom of individuality.
Kate Bischoff mentioned a similar idea in her discussion of the Freedom of Worship; “the Freedom of Worship is essentially the freedom to be yourself;” a freedom from being placed into a mold that conforms to what is easiest, to what is popular. The American Dream is not a static image in the mind of every American, rather it is what the individual American thinks of the American Dream that is actually what constitutes it.
Aparna Nancherla sat down for an interview with Humanities ND Director Brenna Gerhardt to unveil how the Freedom from Fear is experienced in the sphere of comedians. In her experience with stand-up comedy, audiences are a lot more divided than ever, there’s a lot less room to hear out a different side. She tells us that “if you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention,” but to not face this fear is to deny ourselves our ability to overcome those fears, which we are all fully capable of doing. If we could see this ability we have to overcome our fears; fears of being disagreed with, of standing out, of being booed off stage; then we can connect with one another and strengthen our nation and our communities and our relationships.
Mark Trahant takes on disruption in democracy describing how he has adapted to the ever-changing world of technology and how our way of reading and consuming information has changed with this technology. Mark describes the way Native Americans have always been disruptors in their own right and his way to continue this tradition of disruption with his news platform, Indian Country Today.
With appearances by Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty and an outro played by the Century High School Patriot Band, the love of our great country and the possibility it contains was spread wide through the audience.
