Etgar 36

Over the summer of 2022 I had the honor of embarking on Etgar 36: a program designed to help break the cycle of polarization gripping America by bringing teens from across the country to meet with political leaders and organizers from across the political aisle. Below are some of the excerpts from the journal I kept that summer. It was a meaningful experience that has fundamentally shaped the way I look at the world and political discourse.

Group discussion regarding healthcare and medical coverage

Gadi Stieber with Senator Jon Ossoff

“We began our journey in Selma where we learned about the march from Selma to Montgomery along with the lives lost in Selma before Dr. King thought it worth the effort to come to Selma as it was such a small town of only 20,000. While there we spoke to Lynda Blackmon Lowry who was the youngest person to march from Selma to Montgomery at only 14 and celebrated her 15th birthday on the march. She was a survivor of Bloody Sunday and had a very powerful speech talking about slurs and how they should have no place in music nor in conversation as if “we want equality it means we can’t have no double standards” she had said that if you could find someone who could explain it to be affectionate she’d love to hear it as it was made for the denigration of Black people. We then walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the same bridge in which Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, and the final march in which 300 people including Dr. King and John Lewis marched 54 Miles over 5 days. “

Edmund Pettus Bridge

“We started off by talking to the California chapter of Health Care for All where we talked about single payer healthcare and it’s benefits, while there we saw the US ranked first in preventable deaths that healthcare could’ve prevented along with us spending more than twice as much per citizen (12,000 per citizen) as our Universal Healthcare counterparts which have reduced spending because everyone contributes. I believe a single payer system could work as it forces everyone to contribute and if something doesn’t work, the rich can’t go get private, giving incentive to everyone to better it which I think is what would make it work is that if someone doesn’t have access, we all don’t, giving us reason to care.

After that we talked to Republican “Never Trumper” Patrick Jones, who talked about how became moderate because of Trump and his radicalization of the Republican Party and now is trying to rally republicans to vote liberal or moderate simply to stop candidates like Marjorie Taylor Green or Madison Cawthorne from being elected which I found very inspiring that someone saw that his party didn’t reflect his ideals and instead of holding his nose and carrying on he stood by his morals and changed his affiliation”

Meeting with Patrick Jones.

“After a two-hour drive into Ohio this morning, we arrived at Kent State University, where 9 students were injured and 4 were killed during a peaceful protest to the Vietnam War. We met with Chic Canfora, a student at Kent State during the 1970s whose brother, Alan, was shot through the wrist during the riot. She explained to us the exact events that took place on May 4th. After days of nonviolent protest following President Nixon extending the Vietnam War (non-violent protest that brought the Ohio National Guard onto their campus), the students decided to have a peaceful protest using nothing but flags and their own voices. Nobody was going to get hurt. That was, until the national guard opened fire on the students for 13 entire seconds.

Hearing this while standing on the place where it happened was heartbreaking, especially since I had never even heard of Kent State University before today. This seemed to bring us back to what Chic told us at the beginning of the talk, that when receiving letters from friends in the war, she was shocked to find that people did not want war, and that people just wanted to come back home. Chic also said that she wasn’t taught anything about the war in school. This connects directly to my experiences, as we’re closed off from so much information that our schools just aren’t teaching us. Whether that be gruesome but important history, or simple sex-ed. We need to be taught more of the truth, and we need to stop hiding from it.”

Plaque at Kent State University.

“We kicked off the group portion of the day by taking the subway down to Battery Park. Once in Battery Park we began to talk about the American dream and what it means to us. I said that the American dream to me was the ability to have autonomy over myself, the ability to express my beliefs freely, and have equal justice under law. We then talked about when our ancestors came to the US and whether or not we were our “Ancestors wildest dreams’. I said that I think I have fulfilled my fathers side of the family who were able to escape from germany before the holocaust, and I think that by going to school and practicing judaism I am fulfilling that dream.

From there we would walk to Wall Street where we would talk about the Occupy Wallstreet movement and whether or not we think our current system of economics is working. I would say that I thought it is a failing system when bankers have the ability to completely destroy our world, be it through skyrocketing rent, or increasing the price of healthcare. I said I think that the monopolies in the market need to end as they have become so powerful that they can cause utter destruction and we have no choice but to use them”

Group discussion at Battery park