independent media is the hope beakers me a great pleasure to welcome you all to our eighth annual p s r scholarship essay contest you know this is a holiday for our chapter every year we really look forward to it we love the energy we love having the students and their families here and we really want to congratulate each and every one of the ten finalists this during a time of militarism and war we wanted to provide a stimulus for high school students to critically consider and share their ideas on the born in shoes that we all deal with and that we face their thoughts each year have an  ened and inspired us if only our elected officials would read their essays and implement their ideas last tuesday on april twenty four a report titled quote nuclear famine a billion people at risk this report was released at the nobel peace laureate summit in chicago it was written by international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war winner of the hundred five nobel peace prize and also written by physicians for social responsibility the u s affiliate of i p p n w their report showed that even a limited nuclear war for example between india and pakistan would not only bring about immediate death and destruction but it would cause a climate distance disruption that could create a global famine affecting over one billion people the report is sobering it can be found online at the national p s r website that's at p s our dot org it's a sobering report and reminds us of the catastrophic risks of nuclear weapons since its formation fifty one years ago p s r has tried to educate the public and elected officials about the medical and public health implications of nuclear war and other serious threats during the  sixty s at the height of the cold war p s r called for the prevention of nuclear war and work with other groups and collecting baby teeth demonstrating that there was really radioactivity spread in the in the baby's teeth across the entire united states and this was caused by the open air atmospheric testing which the united states had done about a thousand by that time this led to a public outcry and led eventually to passage of the partial comprehensive test ban treaty in one thousand nine hundred sixty three although president obama has articulated a vision for world free of nuclear weapons his budgets unfortunately call for significant increases in nuclear weapons spending our local chapter with seven hundred members we'll continue our efforts with our national p s r office and with other local like minded groups working for nuclear disarmament and for decreased nuclear spending we also continue our efforts working for clean air for clean energy for social justice and for human rights and now gives me great pleasure to introduce dr builders to in our scholarship chairperson oh my gosh what a wonderful turnout thank you all so much for being here tonight it's so important to for the students to know that this many people you know think that what they have to say about the porton issues of our time is important so thank you for being here to validate the importance of their point of view as harry said we've been running this contest since two thousand and five when we first realized that the graduating class of two thousand and five during the entire time that they had been high school night states had been involved first in the war in afghanistan and the war in iraq and we wanted to stimulate them to consider a different point of view than the one they hearing in the corporate media and also from the military recruiters on campus this now is our eighth year and with this year the scholarship awards this year we've been going up every year from starting at five thousand this year total of fifteen thousand so as of this year we will have given out seventy one thousand dollars in scholarship awards this year quite different quotation to quotations by the way are submitted by our members and supporters steering committee narrows down the list and then we send the list out again and the one that was by far the most popular was really timely quote from  twenty twentieth century supreme court justice louis brandeis who said we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both so that is the topic to create a cogent argument on how we should change things so it was quite a challenge to the students this year and we received one hundred eight essays and outstanding essays all right without further ado than we will have our first student and the first student alphabetically also drew number one so our first student contestant today is leah from golden zero high school in garden valley right thank you all for having me liason whose title protecting democracy from the dollar democracy is the foundation the united states was built on over two hundred thirty years ago and it remains the most important institution in america today terrorists and rogue authoritarian regimes are constant threats but little attention is given to the menacing domestic threats that could destroy modern democracy income inequality is an underlying problem in america and america must address in order to continue thriving as a nation according to a report by the congressional budget office between seven thousand nine hundred seventy nine and two thousand and seven the average after tax household income for the top one percent of the us population grew by two hundred seventy five percent the middle class grew at a more sluggish rate sixty percent of the population in the middle of the income scale averaged after tax household income growth of thirty seven percent the average after tax household income in the lowest twenty percent was up by only eighteen percent during the same time period this alarming disparity has gr repercussions on politics in america political gridlock increases dramatically in countries with large differences in income any income inequality this is apparent as us becomes more polarized and partisan over issues that were not previously major concern such as the debt ceiling growth slows when politicians cannot agree on solutions for urgent matters because of party lines if left unchecked income inequality will continue to generate an exponentially wider income gap as a wealthy become wealthier and use or money to influence politicians in a way that will benefit their own interests over the interests of the public corporations already real powerful influence over our representatives and this problem is compound it by the two thousand and ten supreme court ruling in citizens united versus the c and subsequent ruling made in speech not auto workers see if you see by the u s court of appeals the five four decision in citizens united versus the f e c lifted the ban on corporations and other organizations from engaging in independent expenditures allowing infinite amounts of money to be spent on political ads by these organizations the speech now taught or verse the f e c decision determined that donations of political action committees that only use independent expenditures can all be limited allowing groups to donate any amount to a campaign donors only have to be revealed once per quarter by super pacs making the election process even less transparent these decisions mark a momentous and dangerous change in the way political campaigns are financed money should not be the deciding factor in an election but own limited donations are now in grained in the us election campaign by the recent court rulings this will only lead to the wealthy exerting more influence over public officials of for their own interests in order to keep democracy from being perverted or destroyed the us government must take steps to ensure the wealthy do not receive preferential treatment or have more influence and common citizens if action isn't taken the voices of corporations in the wealthy will drown out the voice of the citizens effectively shatter democracy the most essential principle of the united what things are how we are stacking up and you made an interesting comment in your talk you said political gridlock increases dramatically in countries with large differentials in incoming inequality i'm wondering if you could expand on that point a little bit or give some examples or evidence or something like that please will everyone knows like this upcoming election has been extremely polarized republicans and democrats have been going at it harder than usual i mean they've just been attacking each other like a lot it's kind of sad actually that there's and little common ground down between both parties and the parties are often are working together on common solutions that make sense for america just because a democrat o republican opposed it like the u s debt ceiling there is no real reason to block the u s debt ceiling from being raised except to make a political grandstanding and just basically stop obama from being able to do his job as president for having me my essay was titled citizens united and the effect of corporate power on american democracy the choice now facing the united states is between the continuation of our current economic model and the democratic principles as supreme court justice louis brandeis put it we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both brandeis is famous statement came at a time in american history at the resemblance to the present the gilded age trusts were exerting increasing control over american democracy and the gap between the rich and poor was rapidly widening although they are no longer the obvious monopolies of the gilded age the corporate concentration of wealth and economic power in the hands of the few ensur similar concentration of political power as long as the rich hold a disproportionate economic power they will manipulate the law and politics to ensure their interests and stifle true democracy corporate manipulation of the law has become increasingly effective due to the citizens united supreme court ruling the court's opinion that money represents speech a lot of unlimited political contributions to be protected under the first amendment as long as they are not coordinated with the cans campaign this system functionally destroys the power of the people to determine their government even if it can't it does not correlate with the super pac backing him it is still very easy for a pac to follow the candids which is by taking cues from campaign rhetoric or by simply attacking the candids opponents this ensures that the canned it will be beholden to the donors to the super who although allowed to remain hidden from the public will doubtless make themselves and their interests known to him although it would appear that the voter would still have the minimal choice between the corporate interests backing the republican candidate and those supporting the democrats this is not the case because corporations generally hedge their bets by giving to both republican and democratic candidate usually the flood of corporate money into politics will effectively road the basic tenet of our democratic system the ability of the voter to choose a candidate that truly represents her interests citizens united should not be viewed as a single policy was deemed to be overturned rather should be used to reveal the undemocratic effects of income inequality political control whether it is playing the united states since its beginning from the founding restriction of voting rights to white property owners to the corruption of the gil age to finance capitalism and super pacs money interests of all these attempts to secure disproportionate control of american democracy as brandeis another critics throughout history have pointed out economic power will always be exerted to corrupt and influence the political process if we truly take our democratic ideals seriously that is the task of our government and more importantly we the people to constantly combat not just political corruption but also the economic inequality which is its underlying cause you don't you question will come from reverend for youth with more dylan one of the questions that i had as i was reading your essay is how would you as an individual if you could make this determination by the supreme court deal with super pacs well i think that you know i mean there's there's several options that are possible and that people been discussing to deal with the issue campaign finance reform such as like public financing of elections is a fairly good idea something along those lines i think that the really the real dangerous part about citizens united besides the issue of campaign finance is also the assertion that corporations there are the assertion of corporate personhood and the solution that corporations have rights of speech within like the democratic process so i feel like that is the real like sort of philosophical principle that needs resisted of course there's like numerous policy options that we could talk about to deal with the campaign finance because of course politicians do have to finance their campaigns but it should be done in a way that makes politicians beholden to the public rather than to individual private donors yeah so i asked to sum up i don't have one specific policy answer to that question however i would just  like resist the principle that made it possible which is the idea that corporation is an entity that should have an influence in the democratic beautiful ever imagined through freedom of speech each individual is guaranteed to voice groups of individuals and gauge in dialogue with the arguments spoken by the most people being heard most loudly the result is  government would serve the common good while giving consideration to many sides and wall as a government of the people by the people for the people however democracy has long come across the continuing problem a functioning democracy requires that we all be given equal voice instead we live in a society where due to all disparity if you in a few individuals are given booming megaphones and millions of others are only to whisper this wealth disparity has increasingly become a threat to the democracy we all cherish you a supreme court justice li brandeis declaration we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both rings true or than average while there are several ways in which while the interests can oxers exercise undue power perhaps most of the obvious ways is through direct influence of legislators this influence can come in several forms from lobbying to campaign contributions to pamphlets that provide just the right information based on research paid for by the goal of the interests this influence has only been exacerbated in recent years by the supreme court's loosening of regulations and the emergence of super pacs ostensibly while the interest donate without expecting return unfortunately there is little doubt that looking to the next elections politicians feel indebted to their previous donors however we cannot have a democracy until the only debt felt by politicians it is an equal debt to all the represents in addition to unfair influence over politicians while the interest threaten democracy through purchasing control of information the democracy depends on the free on the free and rapid spread of ideas however while concentration jokes democracy with a leash around the flow of ideas the united states in the united states a few conglomerates own almost all of the media in addition to controlling the media the wall they can purchase disproportionate amounts of advertising time hammering minds into their mo into the mold of their version of the story politicians fear the power of the media and individuals unquestioningly swallow it's information the power of the media was seen readily  property in the one thousand nine hundred sixty communications act a democracy depends on a free thinking and informed populace that furthers the common good however such a populace becomes increasingly difficult when the flow of information is carefully controlled by a few so that the public is inundated with certain ideas and almost completely cut off from others unless something is done to heat supreme court justice brandeis  individuals and so drowned democracy your question will come from zach ford my question was in regards to your reference the other folks i noticed throughout some of these essays a lot of new citizens united you decided to use the telecommunications act can you expand upon your reasoning goal the interest which is through their legislators on the legislators which is through the super pacs and i was talked about just as jane dangerous is not just that the influence that they have on these all these politicians it's the influence of the have on us by controlling the information they do they have on us because i think in a democracy a democracy we can't just blame the politicians for being corrupt i think the information of in a democracy it is the people who are responsible and some of the burden falls on us for not being informed about what is going on and being able to walk to the response of that and therefore i think we need to look at the telecommunication as exam of the power of the media and i think one of the biggest examples of that is the telecommunications act because a which media companies are now able to merge is huge conglomerates so they own magazine the same companies such as news corp walt disney time warner they own magazines magazines publishing companies move movies book books all firm forms of media and so they can control information and  also shows that in its wall these companies should have paid for the perfervid receiving the public spectrum because of the great influence they were able to exercise over not just the politicians but over us they were able to receive what they should have paid for for free and only further continue their ability to control not just the politicians but also the information we all  polls and are encouraged to vote the bill of rights assures us of the right of people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances we are led to believe that we all have a voice but is everyone voice truly heard it seems that nowadays the government has turned a deaf ear the pleas of the common man citizens without any extraordinary social standing are fading into a sea of in significance two thousand and eleven was a year of economic hardship for many but while our national unemployment rate was at a peak and annual budget cuts called for a decrease in funding for education general electric paid a grand total of zero dollars in federal taxes and donald trump a real estate mogul and famous t v celebrity swore on national television and was still considered a serious candidate for the republican nomination u s supreme court justice louis brandeis said that we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both these words have proven to be true and are prevalent idea in the current state of our nation the occupy wall street movement created in late two thousand and eleven is protesting for the right to be heard and to be placed before the wealthy in the eyes of the government expresses its indignation at how laws are unfairly skewed to favor those who have money and thus power the movement calls for citizens that are reminiscent of the civil rights protests  hundred sixty s however these protest protesters have been branded as jobless bums hippies and socialist radicals well federal deductions and funds to programs such as planned parenthood and the deprivation of access to affordable health care are excepted actions in the sixty's the fight was free quality and freedom from discrimination based on race today the fight is still about equality it is still about unfair prejudice the discrimination based on social class democracy is defined as a state of society characterized by formally quality of rights and privileges as a self proclaimed democratic nation america should have a government that works in the interests of all its citizens no american should have to fight for the right to be heard every individual should be confident that their opinion makes a difference regardless of the amount of money they have in their bank account it's time for wash it's time that washington unplugs its ears it's time it paid pays attention to the needs of the common man even when it's not an election year after all our government was established by we the people not this not just of the socialites not just the lawmakers and not just the average citizen but by all of us working in unison for the creation of a better nation thank you to your question and i've been i thank you very much i guess as you paint the picture of the positions that you're arguing for or against one of the comments was general electric paid zero taxes and stuff like that if somebody were going to ask people how they find out information like that how would you respond to that how could the average person find out some of these things that the speakers are describing i think a lot of it has to do with just general  awareness we are all aware that we listen to various media stations we listen to the news the media plays a very important role in how we get our information however not many people have access to this information not many people are aware and i think that the important part is also coming through foundations like p s r itself articles that we are asked to write and raise awareness on different issues it's not just that we have to go seek information it's also about people giving information and i feel like since we are working for a better nation all of us together it's our responsibility to not only stand our shell and know the information for ourselves but also to share also to make other people aware also to make sure that people understand issues and that comes through various forms whether it comes to ethics contests like this whether it comes from writing articles and news papers or researching online it's an individual responsibility and it should also be a responsibility that we share with everyone else good evening before i began i just like to take a quick moment to think the sacramento chapter of the fiesta are for forty myself and the other finalists this opportunity to voice our opinions and pursue further education we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both louis brandeis when supreme court justice louis brandeis penned these words our country was embroiled in a backlash against the rule in humanity that was a byproduct of the industrial revolution by the time of his death in one nine hundred forty one america was well on its way  becoming a progressive state and the relevance of his comments might have appeared to be diminished in import but following nearly five decades a purse steady advances in the progressive agenda the reagan friend i screw up an era of robber barons of unspeakable wealth and corporate trust of unimaginable reach a world where child labor was common child labor was common worker safety irrelevant women's rights nonexistent racism was prevalent and the idea of consumerism was in its infancy following the onset of the great depression and the implementation of the new deal progressive's finally found a seat at the table of power over the next five decades of aggressive agenda led to the institutionalisation of unions the racial integration of the military the broad expansion of women's rights the explosive growth of the middle class the creation of social security and medicare safety net and a dizziness of the progressive movement the signing of the civil rights act of one nine hundred sixty four had brandeis lived to see the implementation of the great society he might have believed that gender he had championed most of his life had prevailed but the economic turmoil of the one nine hundred seventy s the excesses of union power and the high taxes required to maintain our government created an environment right pretty election of small government proponent ronald reagan and his embrace of trickle down economic the economic policies of reagan mimicked by every president since have shifted nearly all of the growth and wealth created over the last generation to those at the top of the economic mountain in one nine hundred seventy six the top one percent of americans controlled twenty percent of its wealth in two thousand and seven that percentage had risen to thirty four percent now during the economic boom times of the mid one nine ninety six late two thousand the result of this shift was invisible to most americans whose real wages simply remained stagnant but with the onset of the recession of two thousand and eight this income inequality became painfully obvious to millions of americans in addition to the increased economic might of the top one percent the result of the citizens united decision has treated an environment where influence of the wealthy has never been greater not since the onset of the great depression have brandeis his comments been more relevant unless changes are made both to distribution of wealth and to the influence of the wealthy on our political process in our democracy is indeed in  changes that were really critical that need to be made in the u s today how important is the role of the occupy movement in drawing attention to the income disparities and the changes we need to make today i think it's incredibly important that the occupy movement really opened up the awareness of the common citizen to the fact that there was this great economic disparity and even though millions of americans were already feeling that neal this complement with what was going on it gave a voice to it gave a public voice and let those industries and let those you know business type no there's a lot of unhappiness going on that's not being addressed changes during the ronald reagan and subsequent subsequent subsequent presidents roles have been such as you elimination of the in inheritance tax the decrease of investment taxes and the overall decrease of the top economic tax bracket tax rate and so changes like this make it more difficult for the common citizen to catch up on the board there to be a middle class and so by is taking it gives a voice and brings awareness and awareness is one of the most important things in our society to lead to change people couldn't read until the printing press made books available they weren't as educated so it's it's been an upside down inside out zany ride of romney gingrich cain and bachmann if america has learned anything from the nomination obstacle course it's that money equals speech with the implementation of citizens united vs the federal election commission ruling g o p nominees and their corporate friends stretched democracy passive limits in two thousand and eight the supreme court ruled that corporations and unions are allowed to support candidates and directly most popular lee through unregulated super pacs these their unlimited funds to create and run ads either for or against a candidate twenty new gingrich sponsor casino owner billionaire sheldon adelson gifting more than twenty million dollars to the winning our future super pac the question remains was gingrich in the race because his political skills and character are was out since money keeping him afloat even before the citizens united case candidates use their financial resources to the maximum past experience has shown the candidate who wins usually spend more money than their opponents into in the two thousand eight election president barack obama spent nearly seven hundred thirty million dollars more in his campaign as opposed to john mccain's three hundred thirty million dollars which correlates to mccain's spending three dollars every seven dollars obama spent in two thousand for george w bush spent three hundred sixty million dollars while john kerry raised less than three hundred thirty million with the help of these independent super pacs candidates try to raise enough funds so they are known from sea to shining sea with more than two hundred million eligible voters in america every billboard television radio internet and newspaper advertisement counts the founders of the constitution created only two requirements  president he or she must be a natural born american citizen and at least thirty five years of age however with the intense competition of today's grand old party race wealth might as well be included on the list american citizens should vote for a candidate based on their character and stance on issues not how many ten second television advertisements they can produce super pacs and the unlimited fund raising create an unfair advantage as exemplified by a relationship america democracy is a hoax if the amount of money the candidate invests in their campaign equates the odds of winning supreme power should be vested with the people not the size of someone's wallet american should know who they're voting for and how they're being represented the west the candidates by super pacs and opaque donors hinder democracy the government supposed to be run by the people for the people and while should not be a deciding factor of the presidential election americans must regain what they have lost a fair thank you tiffany your question will come from justice cruz reynoso who certainly knows something about the influence of money on elections most most of us including ioseph of lawyers don't agree with the supreme court but that's a recent opinion i have happen to be a history major most of the years that we've been a republic folk have been able to spend as much money as they wanted to for their kind of age why is this such a tragedy all right well especially with the atmosphere of this year's republican nomination process money seems to be a very big issue like i said in my essay sheldon adelson gifted twenty million dollars to the independent super pac and how are we as american supposed to know whether it's  believes these issues or if adelson who is giving him the money to say these things money really does equal speech because especially in big states like florida and california advertisements cost a lot of money since there are so many people so so money should be regulated and donors should be become less hidden because democracy is the foundation of america thank you and we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both this quote from us supreme court justice louis brandeis seems to be highly a political in today's political climate the occupy movement particular has embraced this idea wholeheartedly in fact one can say is there de facto motto political scientist jacob s hacker and paul pearson authors of the book winner take all politics take the occupy theory a step further reporting that not only does more money equal more in influence but that washington itself has caused this to be the case through policies that favor the rich and destroy the poor but is this really the case or is justice brandeis the cynic the occupy movement misguided and  biased ivory tower academics the answer depends on one's definition of democracy if one defines democracy is simply a governmental system where every person has an equal vote then justice brandeis is indeed a cynic in this case it is possible to have both democracy and a concentration of wealth as wealth does not have an effect on this definition of democracy having more money doesn't give more weight to a vote my mom's vote counts just as much as warren buffet's in this country the illegality of buying votes is so strongly enforced that money c not have an influence in that regard either wealth is simply not a factor in this view of democracy however if one defines democracy as a system where citizens not only vote but have an equal say in decision making and policy creation then the wealthy certainly have a nearly insurmountable advantage and democracy is a figment of the imagination while the actual action of representatives senators presidents and other officials is democratic or as politicians as money is just the end under said money is the mother's milk of politics election and reelection are primary concerns of officials therefore they do what makes their wealthiest constituents happy as these will be a prime source of campaign funding additionally wealthier special interest groups can afford better lobbyists and more of them pushing the ideals of one group over the rest in this view of democracy then wealth is not only a factor but a prime determinant of how much influence one has there by a limiting the equality inherent in the democratic ideal thus democracy is incompatible with a concentration of wealth proving justice brandeis of the correct to regain real democracy in this most vocally democratic of nations we must reduce the amount of influence money has and politics we must allow the rest of society an equal vote voice to the wealthy and we must consider all sides of each policy fairly without simply giving in to money while wealth is so ingrained into american politics that it is seemingly impossible to alter the present situation an effort must be made for change only then can we truly call ourselves democratic upholding our founder thank you for your question will come from reverend fields would more so i enjoyed reading your essay and thank you for presenting it you don't sound that bad you sound really good thank you a lot of what we hear in a lot of what is written is based on the influence of money and politicians so what do you think would happen if we had one term elections at every level money would almost not be as big of a factor at all because they wouldn't be focusing on reelection they would be focusing more on the issue so one term over a one term was if you set a one term like just you can't run again so because you can't run again you don't need to focus on reelection you don't need to focus on courting those wealthy constituents you can focus on the issues at hand you can focus on the issues that people actually care about so one term rule about not being able to be reelected ever opportunity and also our family and friends for coming here to support us so just a little bit of background information about my essay it's a little bit different from all the other previous essays before and  the reason for this difference is because for me i wanted to focus on this degradation of our democracy from a more internal view such that it's not just a problem caused by other people but can also be reflected within ourselves and we ourselves can be the solution although i agree with louis brandeis his statement in light of current cole issues in america i cannot help but notice the contradiction it poses to the basic principles of this country if wealth were equally distributed to all this would imply government control of the economy and essentially destroy our capitalist system but even if the distribution of wealth were to lead to a fairer democracy it is important to remember that capitalism a free market economy is what has been a distinguishing factor of america since its founding and continues to make america one of the leading countries in innovation in fact it is this free market economy that makes the concept of the american dream so appealing to many immigrants like my parents who immigrated from china see that this market economy is the opportunity to get paid not according to state mandates before their abilities and work ethics the ability to gain wealth has always been one of the freedoms americans have been proud to possess to strive for success is what attracts thousands of scientists artists mathematicians and other bright minds to our country's every year however it is rarely disputed disputed that money does yield political power indeed there are so many instances of politicians taking bribes in united states history that the image of politicians in america has been a tainted example such as who tried to steal the cell the senate state seat vacant vacated by president obama and also duke cunningham who accepted bribes over two point five million are examples of politicians who have contributed to this stereotype thomas downey a former u s congressman remarked money doesn't necessarily buy a position but it will definitely buy you some access so you can make your case with money yielding such political influence it's hard to deny that the existence of great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few can potentially threaten democracy however i'm not arguing that the existence of great wealth does pose a threat to democracy but rather that it does not have to be a balazs to in order for democracy to exist although the wealthy are able to offer bribes to politicians and these politicians can take the bribes they can also choose not to although politicians can submit to greed we as informed citizens can decide to vote against them what america needs to improve its democracy is more morally responsible politicians and politically engaged voters not the complete destruction of its capitalist system in america we pride ourselves with the liberty of choice but in the future we should not have only the pride in our ability to choose but pride in our decisions themselves as connie once stated capital as such is not evil it is its wrong use that is evil thank you and what we're seeing now now with that many americans as a result of the citizens united decision are now really asking fundamental questions about how they are with our quick power of wealth distorts and how flanks the democratic power of participation and what you're seeing in many states and many local communities is a movement to overturn the citizens united decision so you're seeing people acting and responding would you favor a constitutional amendment to overturn the citizens united decision one that clarifies that money is property and not speech yes i would favor this i think that in light of the current political issues and the occupy movement bringing awareness that there is this entire wealth gap and this wealth gap is caused in part by these wealthy individuals trying to more influence than the average person i think that it would be favorable to the united states democracy that we do overturn this on that i mean what do we do add this amendment right  but i think the first step is of course to raise awareness and have people more civically engaged to know why we need to do this why we need to reform our system and also what we need to do in the future to solve the issues that our nation  democracy and income income inequality cannot co exist during his time there was a large disparity between the wealthy and the poor and middle class likewise america now faces the widest amount of income inequality and representation in history at brandeis where with us now he would not be surprised at our current state of democracy our political system is now subject to the whims of the wealthy citizens united super pacs backed on millionaires and billionaires campaign contributions made by influential industries and lobbyists all have a bigger hand in shaping public policy in the hundreds of millions of americans that these policies affect it would seem that democracy in america is on the brink of collapse as a struggle to contain the overwhelming influence of wealthy individuals however we must look at the big picture while it is true that the few will be as individual sorry while it is true that the few wealthiest individuals currently hold more influence over our elected officials they are not entirely a poll for democracy to work effectively the citizens living under this government must be willing to actively participate in this battle for influence unfortunately active participation among americans of scares you americans voice their opinions against income inequality and even communicate their grievances on social and economic issues to the legislators that rip they represent them only until recently with the occupy movement and other widespread protests has income inequality been brought under the national spotlight with obama calling it the defining issue of our time in light of this it becomes clear that democracy is still able to be preserved even in the face of record income inequality in an equal representation while the wealthy have the money to influence politicians to side with them we have the voice of an entire country to ensure that the government sees what our country needs and works towards creating public policies that benefit the vast majority of americans who live in this great nation now as the two thousand twelve elections approach we as americans have the power to decide what can what direction our country moves and do we continue electing officials who succumbs who succumbed to the influence of wealthy individuals who wish to advance their own agendas when we sit back grievances or do we use our voice our greatest source of power to send a clear message to our representatives that we will no longer we are no longer willing to accept a government representatives make decisions that solely benefit the wealthy if they hope to continue being in a position of power they must use that power to benefit the american people other was our voices of disapproval were turned into votes of disapproval now is the time to create the democracy that we hope to live in regardless of the distribution of wealth the pow their voices need to be heard and they need to take a position of power how is it that we would be able to do that especially lower income individuals how would we be able to compete with a campaign system which permits so much money to get the message that you soften in correct out front of other voters right so in order for the average american citizen who's not a corporation and who doesn't have millions and billions of dollars to influence a politician and the average that the average american citizen does have a pen and paper they do have access to a computer e mail all they need to do e mail their representative write a letter to their congressman  just things like these these small gestures and if americans as a whole can do that we can make a difference if if a few hundred americans right to their congressman about how they are very pissed off about this income inequality what they're going to do however if millions and millions and millions of americans voice their voice their disapproval of this income inequality then that makes a difference occupy wall street you don't need a lot of money to go out and camp in zuccotti park all you need is a tent maybe some of you could set a clothing and parts by participating in that they basically they made national headlines voicing their disapproval what happened after that what happened when they put in that little money all they did was participate they made national headlines they made barack obama began talking about income inequality and income inequality began the focal point of our nation's agenda so just by participating in these things as as mess in a mess doing that can sway politicians soile elected  help us even if we don't have a lot of money to persuade them thank you intermission is on homestudy academy three the title is too long to put on the program i know you've heard this nine times already to me but i really want to thank you for this opportunity for not just for me but for all the high school students who participate it's a very generous scholarship that i know will come in very handy in the next year we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth conjured in the hands of a few but we can't have both in a perfect world there would be no link between democracy and money in a perfect world it would not matter how much money someone has where the poorest of the poor or the richest of the rich each person's influence each person's vote would count equally in a perfect world sadly a perfect world is not our reality in the real world money and democracy are unfortunately connected the pattern the world over tends to be that the more money one has the more influence on democracy one has to counterbalance this it takes more everyday people to contribute in other ways and also requires elected representatives to really represent their constituents coincidentally i just came across the steps in a book not a book i was reading on the subject but of all things a fluffy romance novel the story takes place in the old west right around the time colorado became a state the hero of the story is the owner of a very large and very prosperous ranch which he wants to make into an empire to do so he is going to use his considerable fortune to influence politics which would i guess somehow make his ranch into that empire this is just a detail that the author used as an obstacle and the hear on heron's path to true up and happily ever after i did not get much thought the time it made sense and it did not strike me as out of the ordinary it was not until i sat down to start writing this essay that i really thought about what his intentions were the fact that i did not think it was strange at the here it was going to use his fortune to influence politics for his own gain says something very disappointing people using their money to influence democracy is not at all out of the ordinary but something we accept as a given supreme court justice brandeis his words are very powerful people with wealth tend to have more influence than those who do not just because this is an accepted fact it doesn't mean that it is right or good it shouldn't be an accepted fact the only way for it not to be an accepted fact is for the current and future generations of citizens to make a choice to make a change if everyone were gar this of wealth steps up and makes the effort to contribute to society to have a voice in society these contributions can provide an influence that may counterbalance the influence of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few for democracy to be truly effective and for it to be an actual democracy it's important for more people to remember and believe that this requires and put from and true representation of all citizens not just a few we are each responsible for minding others but the promise of democracy is a quality of influence regardless of gender color background or tax bracket  make the influence of each individual equal to that of those who could contribute large sums to the us to do that and it really just comes down to those first steps as the previous analyst said you know email right i am really stealing your answer here i'm trying i'm trying to do it it really is just awareness stand up for yourself i guess make your opinion and your reasoning i guess no it's a democracy it's you know all the people not just those who can contribute that many so just take the steps make your opinion known and it will go from there as more and more people start all right i'd now we're going to take about a fifteen intermission a fifteen minute intermission while the judges confer all right will we come to the point where the judges have made their decision before we announce though the first second and third place winners i'd like to ask the judges to come up and we'd like to ask the judges to make any comments they feel might be appropriate and just to warn you that if you don't have a comment then last students to have a chance to ask you a question so hopefully you have a  and i guess we'll go from my left to my right starting with actually one thing about standing up here doesn't mean we know what we're talking about you know at whereas with the students it really did i was very i'm impressed and pleased partly with the passion and the knowledge that the students brought their willingness to really delve into the topic i was also impressed with their graciousness to each other you know let's hear it for that i think we can all have our disagreements along the spectrum but if we're willing to respect him and thoughtfully consider what the other person is saying i believe our political discourse is in good hands i also appreciate being part of this evening and to have the opportunity read each of the s's i want you students to know and those who mentored and parents it was a lively and engaging conversation that we just had so there were there where we appreciated some of each of what you wrote so it was a tough decision right judges it was a tough decision so i'm thank you you're all winners to too want to echo that we thought all of you are winners and that we feel this democracy isn't truly great hands with the quality of students that we saw here today and we felt that you know if we could take a little of each one of your essays we would produce one of the finest essays that this state of california could produce proud to you acknowledged you were very graceful to each other and we want to alledge how powerful we thought your essays were and we just wanted to create one huge essay with comments to show how talented you are and of course we did have a discussion could we give the same amount to everyone is that how you got all of the good said congratulations and thank you again for the wonderful work that you've done  i would just like to thank mr durston here for the opportunity to witness the great presentations and read the great essays that were presented to us all of you did a great job and it was extremely tough  decision and i'll be the first to admit when i was in high school i couldn't have written half that well so good job you're you know all winners tonight and it was extremely difficult we definitely  on on a personal level i loved when presenters and contestants incorporate some of the historical context in a discussion and that was one of the one of things i got one of i've spent most of my life on what phil calls social justice worry about real justice not just legal justice and it gives me great enthusiasm to see that young people will be carrying on with that with that sort of notion  that sort of effort and clearly what you think corporate in your papers makes makes it clear that that indeed that effort will continue with will always have a society full who have a lot of money you have a lot of political power and you need a balance to that cleated essays indicate that you will continue to write that balance of the democracy which we desperately need thank you very much all right and let's have a huge round applause of the judge and all very busy people very distinguished people thank you is based on the nade for continuous perpetual growth it's highly likely that we're already in the beginnings of something much worse than a depression even if bankers and governments won't admit it yet fortunately we don't need to hear it from them we can tell that something is going on we have the internet and we can share information amongst ourselves and thankfully if we try hard enough we could just end up with something much much better than what we have now i'm no expert however i am someone who has done several years of rating on these topics and i really want everyone else to know what's going on and understand the risks and the opportunities it's only fair so let's look at how our banking system really  commonly believed the banks lend out money that they already have from invested savings that would have encouraged a fairly stable system of banking instead we have what's called a fractional reserve banking system this means that banks c almost all the money that gets deposited with them for example when you put one hundred dollars in one bank they lynch ninety dollars of it to someone else who then puts that ninety dollars in their bank now there's one hundred ninety dollars where they used to be one hundred that ninety dollars lent out will also be deposited and eighty one dollars lent again in this way money ends up being multiplied between ten and a hundred times it sounds crazy right less than one percent of the money in the economy is actual minutes and coins the rest are just numbers on computers created as debt the system rapidly increases the amount of money in the economy which feels economic growth allowing most of us the when we first started drilling for oil it was easy to find it just sped it up out of the ground we've only been drilling intensively for about one hundred fifty is and oil is no longer easy to find now we drill down crazy day  ship using expensive and risky technology used to cost one barrel of oil to get about one hundred barrels of oil out of the ground these days one barrel only gets us ten barrels back and declining and that means it's not cheap the truth is we're living on a planet that has finite resources we've always opted to extract the easiest race sources first while using more and more each year eventually the use of these finite resources has to pay back and then decline as their extraction gets harder and more expensive and according to the association for the study of peco oil and gas the global page happened in two thousand and eight now this doesn't mean we're running out of oil it just means we're running out of cheap oil when i first heard about this i thought at least oil is mainly just used to drive around but beyond personal transportation there's transportation the food supply and all our other consumer goods we run off on so not only have we damage the environment so much that we now get hit more frequently by more intense natural disasters we've also used up most of the nonrenewable resources that have been allowing us to live in this high tech world it's as if we're burning the walls of our house to keep ourselves warm it can't continue forever anyway quite apart from pay hoyle we seem to be due for a global depression just because of the debt build up if you add up all the debts in the world it's roughly one hundred and about to get battled out by aliens up until now the way banks have been lending more and more money has pushed up prices of assets like houses and stocks this was possible because in a growing economy debts could be paid back but when debts finally builds to an unmanageable point as they did before the great depression asset prices can and do go down because banks are overextended their land less and because individuals businesses and countries are called they flesh and mains that house prices will eventually go back down towards phrase nable and affordable so if you have a mortgage be aware that you could end up with more debt than your house is worth this sta also means high unemployment high prices for necessities and hard times that's what happened during the great depression and it's what's going on now only this time around the depression will be even more severe because we've never lived in  before and it will be a permanent decline because of peco and the global financial crisis was only the beginning since then much of the world's middle class have been struggling just to keep up with their food fuel bills and mortgage or rent pa and things can only get worse so what can we do in a day flesh unary scenario and the money from bailouts and money printing mostly goes straight into paying down debt which is why our economies have only barely recovered since two thousand and mostly governments big business and the mania are avoiding these issues and trying to keep the status quo alive a little bit longer which will only end up making the crunch harder in the long run as things get w governments are likely to prioritize saving themselves for example by raising taxes and cutting spending rather than helping us and there isn't actually any positive strategy they could use to save us it's also in keeping with the fortunately i've learned it's going to be somewhat arcane the systems just dismantle themselves because there are millions of people around the world busy at work on much better systems we can replace them with the modern industrial world hasn't really given us happiness it hasn't even eliminated poverty most of us have been working way too hot and for a while to finally exhaust the planet and suffer for it why not try having energy security through lower energy use feeling proud of feeding ourselves and making the things we need switching our priorities from independence to interdependence these are changes we can make regardless of whether our governments want to help or not there are other alternatives beyond capitalism and i'm not talking about communism either both presume an industrial system which is no longer feasible or desirable in a world with less race horses and less money year after year if we do nothing we'll end up with terrible living conditions constant conflict and potentially a new wave of high listen and no one wants that the positive option is that we just learn to get along with each other and look after the earth again we can work together to build new infrastructures that can support meaningful particular intensively and organically growing things appropriate technologies have been developed to meet human names like heating and cooling in highly energy efficient ones local currencies that are more equitable and stable o being designed and tested around the world transition town groups are building community and leaning pepper tory efforts to very local this distributed manufacturing is about producing what we name close to home with nifty technologies like it up and there's a group of paper who set themselves to figuring out a positive and facebook way through and working together we can create a better world here and now really my hope is that as the system continues to fall  those of us who find out what's going on prepare ourselves and start whatever local projects and enterprises to prepare our communities that we can so that as conditions worsen we can build community and share ways of growing food and simple societal technologies and plenty more of the people will be very interested in during a time of great financial hardship major economic downturns throughout history have not been happy times and this one is set to be bigger than ever before there are real possibilities of austerity leading to exploitation a rise of fascism and world war three the fact that this time around some of us are aware of what's going on and are preparing for the crash as well as the degree of free communication the internet affords us are the main things we have going for us we all have basic human needs for security and safety and if we're lucky for happiness and fulfillment as well this is happening to all of us and we all have the ability to make choices as to how we handle the future so i'm asking you to place even if this aims outside the realm of possibility at least to some races which check it out for yourself you can decide what kind of future you want to can stop taking steps to make it happen the more of us who start now more likely this transition aides to be pace form and just and perhaps even exciting and promising in the meantime if you appreciate what you've seen and heard hiya play send this animation on to your family and friends the more people who know about this the better off w we harvested about fifteen thousand a year before we harvested about eight so we're almost doubling here and so we just really look forward to a time when you know when we're really able to harvest all of the for trees in the city that aren't being fully vision this is peak moment we're living at a peak of human innovation information wealth and health but we're also at a peak of population in consumption with writing temperatures and declining resources fueled by cheap oil and gas peak moment television bringing you examples of positive response to energy declining climate change through local community act welcome to pick moment i'm saying what are you going about in the summer and noticed in your town or city fruit trees that are just having all their fruit land on the ground and seem to be not harvested news and thought something ought to be done about that why project so the portland for tree project is a small nonprofit organization we started about four years ago and the main thing that we do is harvest for around the city that isn't being harvested by tree owners so people who after trees in their backyard or their front yard or whatever will register them with us and then we organized groups of volunteers to go out and pick the fruit and half of the fruit we pick goes to local food banks in the neighborhoods where we harvest and the other half goes home with the volunteers do it is the homeowner apples or whatever by the time we get there and then you know usually there's you know most trees have kind of a window of ripeness so we try to hit it right at the peak of brightness so usually they're all will have been some fruit that fellow ready and here are some still left on the tree but yeah we do leave some for the homeowner usually up to a quarter of what we total that we harvest but like i said most people don't even take us up on that let's start at the beginning people register say or order word to someone say i see this tree on this lot and do you go about contacting i mean how do you find people's tree yeah so for the most part people are just coming to us they are looking for something to do with their for the oregon food bank which  local kind of large state wide food bank is a big referral for us people call them and say hey what can i do with all this fruit and then the folks from the aryan food bank will call us when we initially started we put the word out through all of the neighborhood newsletters around the city and i think that's how most people found out about us and michelle and now it's to really word of mouth is the main way that people are hearing about us or they'll see us out harvesting fruit and a neighbor's house will say hey i  tree or or a neighbor will notice their tree and we'll refer them to us ok and then this year as a kind of a new thing we're doing tree scouting which is where we have volunteers who are trained basically to do then go out and knock on their door and ask them if they want to share their fruit when somebody registers start the process they register and say i have a plum tree what else what got information do you gather what do you do with that yeah so  basically the information we gather from them initially is of course the location of the tree various things details related to the tree and the fruit what kind of fruit it is how abundant the fruit is how healthy the tree is how tall the tree has a admitting and then and then we basically let them know about our full process which is basically we ask all the registered tree owners to contact us two weeks before the fruit is ripe and that's kind of the way that our harvesting scheduling gets kicked off and then once that happens one of us goes out and takes a look at their tree to where they can talk to after sorry when they contact us two weeks before they get all the way ok then we'll go out and take a look at the tree and it's at that point that we schedule harvest but but yes so the words to their tree and we kind of gather a bunch more information when we come into the site visit but with the initial registration we're mostly kind of gathering basic information about their tree and their contact information we're gathering information about if they're a renter the owner of the property because if it's a rental property we need to we like to get permission from both the renter and the property owner we just moved here two years ago doing about three harvests a week during the harvest season which here in portland usually begins mid july and goes earliest things are like cherries and early plums and then it goes through november the latest thing we pick our which are in november so during this time averaging about three harvests per week and we basically kind of three arrange a harvesting schedule so we'll have one harvest we know we have a harvest to say thursday and saturday and then we'll kind of plug trees and into the harvests as they come on so that's how we organize and so the way that we do our harvesting events is we have what we call harvesting parties which are open to the public anyone can sign up to come and pick with us we reserve half of the slots for people living on low incomes that we were ensuring that people most in need of the fruit will be able to purchase anything and so those we have on thursday evenings or afternoons and saturday morning and then our are kind of our harvest that kind of varies between the time in a day that's our group harvest our group harvest program partners with other organizations that are serving low income or food insecure clients and we organize harvesting parties specifically for their group so the group of them and perhaps more people show up tell me tell me about a group harvest so group harvest so for example in a couple of weeks we have a group harvest scheduled with an organization called joint they're an organization that serves families that are transitioning out of homelessness and they have a lot of programs and services for them and basically just have a group of about ten people come out and they kind of get the group together and we basically organize all the logistics of the harvesting and everything like that so the group comes to the harvesting site and all harvests together so it's not open to the general public the group harvest there just specifically for the group that organization is bringing and then that group then gets to decide what to do with the entirety of the for oftentimes they'll just choose some people will take some home and then the distribute the rest directly to other people in the agency that organization is to increase access to healthy food and to strengthen communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city grown food but yeah really our focus is kind of increasing equity in relation to access to healthy food so recognizing there are so many people in this city who really can't afford to purchase fresh produce especially organic sure and locally grown fruit so just when we saw this incredible abundance of fruit fresh organic fruit that was going to waste year after year we just saw this is a great opportunity to so to make that connection with the food and also just there's so many incredible community connections that happen when a group of people comes together to harvest her in the kind of in the notion of sharing you know and it's not just i'm picking this for myself but where it's i'm picking this with a group of people and we're all going to share it and we're also going to be sharing it with other folks who need it so i should imagine that the volunteers who are part of this have a good feel good about myself sense not only to be outdoors with the trees and the beauty and the good fruit and but with each other and knowing that only they benefiting but other people who are better yeah do good things yeah that's true and you know people come to harvesting parties for all different reasons there are people on one end of the spectrum who are coming just because they heard that they can come and get fresh fruit and they need that for their families on the other end of the spectrum there are people who are coming they're not even intending to take home more than a few apples or something like that but they're coming because they either want to just contribute to the community or they want the experience of harvesting tree or you know for whatever reason and so it's always a really wonderful kind of coming together of people from different backgrounds and also you know that community building piece and i would imagine people would be meeting people that wouldn't otherwise meet and so you're finding common ground  about yeah what do you do about equipment i mean you could have ladder ladders and other things has that done yeah so we basically bring all the equipment to the harvesting site when we first started it was kind of you know here and there we borrow ladders we borrow other things but since we started we've kind of gradually built up our store of equipment so now we have a number of orchard ladders which are really essential  the three legged latter yeah yeah real stable they're really stable on soft ground we also have the regular kind of a frame rubber footed ladders because a lot of our harvesting sites are you know the trees hanging over pavements or whatever  so those are necessary for pavement and then we have harvesting poles which you'll see at the harvesting part either long poles with a little basket on the end they have the baskets have little time figs and things but they're fabulous for apples and pears and things like that and then those are the main to us that we use this year this woman this wonderful woman who is in her eighty's and her daughter is one of our long term volunteers she heard that we were looking for a friend we have like a wish list that we put out in or e mail newsletter and in there we said aprons for harvesting we're harvesting parties we're thinking of basically having  harvesters can have on their bodies water harvesting so they don't have to like have a bag on the ground to me so this woman named mary she's really into sewing and she doesn't have you know a lot of a thing to do now and so she was like i'm just going to make  harvesting aprons and so instead of kind of using old aprons and me king them she did it from scratch and she created a design with us and there in just a ball you'll see them at the harvesting party with their great so they're just basically these handmade harvesting i transported in and out of the food banks also makes it really convenient for us when we deliver food to the food banks because we can take you know our crates of fruit so we bring ten crates of fruit fruit to the food pantry and they can just leave it in the crates and then give us ten phone yeah that's in the main tools that we use yeah yeah folks do folks get some kind of is there is there somebody sort of in charge of that harvesting party sort of directing what people do yeah so we have a fabulous crew of harvest leaders  all volunteers and they have the very beginning of the harvest season well before the harvest season begins we we do like an application process for people to come harvest leaders and then we do a day long training orientation where they are they kind of learn the ropes of being a harvest leader and then our lead our harvests are always led by two harvest leaders who code because there's kind of a lot of logistics and to deal with but also they're mostly keeping an eye out for safety of people on  ders yeah yeah yeah yeah so there are always two leaders at each harvest to kind of in the beginning go through an introduction with all of the volunteers and kind of facilitate that and they talk about the harvesting process how to ripe take it or not i mean yeah it's one can be little different maybe yeah it's different for each kind of fruit but you know they oftentimes people think the best way to harvest fruit is to pull down the fruit but one pointer for almost all kinds of her is you actually the best way to pick is to lift the fruit up or to twist the further and that way the stem stays on the fruit and that if the stem gets pulled off to the fruit that is actually like a little wound on the fur so it won't last  long from the shelf or in your fridge or whatever it is that are to you so little kind of little tips like that based on what kind of fruit they're harvesting the harvest leaders impart on the group we have this year we put together a little info packet which kind of talks about harvesting and write the name for the different kinds of fruit so they have that on hand for the for the for the harvest years and the leaders have on hand and they kind of share that with the harvesters yeah because that's good questions like ripening pears is going to be different than leaders usually suggest people share what they're going to do with the fruit or ideas so that's pretty fun at the end to go through around the group and hear ideas for for what what to do with the food or here what other people are going to do so y are workshops on various topics related to organic methods of fruit tree care in the past when we first started we were just doing basic winter pruning this year we've been able to expand it so and include a winter pruning spring pest and disease thinning summer printing and then in this fall will do a kind of fall cleanup disease and past assessment workshop and we've been able to offer all of our workshops for free for registered tree owners so it's kind of you know to encourage people who have trees registered with us if they are interested and willing and able to learn a little bit more they can come to that we also have a new program this year we've launched called tree care teams where it's small teams of volunteers who basically are caring for clusters of fruit trees in a few different neighborhoods so it's almost like an apprenticeship program sort of  where each small team is led by a more knowledgeable volunteer who kind of guides the team and on each kind of topic does a little classroom session with them and then they go out and take and perform that kind of care on  street so in the winter they like this the same topic of the of the workshops on the winter they did winter printing and then they went back to the same trees and did spring pests and diseases assessment and on and on so it's a year long program and we have four teams this year in different parts of the city and all together they're serving about it's just a small fraction at this point of the number of troops we have harvested have registered i believe it's twelve sites and caring for those sixty trees that are not the owner right yeah exactly i may not be there right so he will yeah and the reasons why each individual site is included in the team is are are varying kind of some folks are not physically able to care for their trees some folks just simply don't have the time you know there are various reasons why folks aren't caring for their trees we do have a couple sites where the tree owners have been actually participating in the team and are kind of learning the skills as their trees are are being cared for and so really the goal of this program is to one is just to increase the health and productivity  of the trees and that we have registered and that we're harvesting and to is to create an opportunity for people who are interested in developing skills for tree care to be able to do that kind of long term in a more intensive way there are many resources in the portland area around for tree care it's a pretty it's a pretty challenging skill to develop it's not like you know growing a tomato where it's that's a little bit more straightforward a fruit tree is a skill that learned over a long period of time because fruit trees you know their life cycle is you know fifty years as opposed to when you're right so in this way we were trying to  an opportunity for people to really see like the full spectrum of care throughout a year and then also our hope is that in future years some of the same people will continue on and i'm going to see the impact of their larger pool of people in the city that have them that knowledge and those skills because currently there really aren't that many people and the few people that do really have those skills you know we we we really lean on them to teach our workshops and and all that kind of thing and things and you know thankfully a lot of the folks in the city who do have those skills are so generous with their time and what they're now saying it's you know it's a small handful so we're trying to to grow the number of people in the city that have those skills actually go back to numbers do you tory tell me how many trees about trees how many you have registered yeah no i haven't and i don't know the exact number off the top of my head but we have over five hundred individual registrations so those are bred so including so one registration could either be one plum tree in someone's backyard or it could be ten apple trees in an orchard  so the total number of registries we have is i think the last time i looked something in the range of five hundred to five hundred fifty probably on average maybe two trees per site give or take so i guess we probably have about a thousand or more individual trees registered to take here and volunteers were happy how large is your volunteer base i mean you've talked about scouts and tree care people and of course the harvest organiz so yeah yeah you know it's been just incredible how many really passionate people have come and participated in this organization so in terms of harvest volunteers this year we expect by the end of the harvest season to have about about four hundred seventy five to five hundred people who have been involved in harvesting that's yeah why don't some that's kind of individual so each averaging so we many volunteers as you had in the season if you have trees raise that's that's phenomenal yeah i have that many people yeah and so those are the folks who just come out and harvest with us we also have a great for volunteers who are taking on more leadership roles or long term gro so that we have about twelve people who are harvest leaders this year and about half of them actually were harvest leaders last year which is great people are coming back and we have ten people who are tree scouts so i mention the folks who go out and do tree registration in our last three to three minutes here and the other parts of this we have uncovered or what you dream for the future ok i'll start with the parts we haven't covered  so i mentioned our tree stewardship program and our harvesting program we also have a community orchard program that we just started this year with the small pilot project it's not too far from here it's just about a mile south so the goal of our community orchard program is to plants and maintain orchards on public lands for the purpose of providing food for the community and providing kind of demonstration and educational opportunities like i mentioned the majority of our trees that we harvest are in private property so this is a chance to kind of bring some more church or trees into the public ground so we just launched that it's a smaller church on a piece of property that's owned by the city and we were in the works of getting a lot of volunteers involved who had a great planting day the mayor came it was so there's a lot of interest in this kind of thing so we're hoping to expand that program year by year and then the other program i didn't mention is our food preservation education program so we started doing food preservation workshops recognizing that ok if someone has a fruit tree and they have three hundred pounds of apples you know if they want to make that  beyond that short window of time when it's right a great thing would be to teach workshops on food preservation so we do canning we do drying freezing cold storage a bunch of  make this what we're already doing really sustainable so then we definitely see a time when you know when the city has a lot of fruit trees both in people's private properties but also in the public realm and this year by the end of this year we expect to have harvested about twenty to twenty five thousand pounds that would have otherwise just gone to waste and rotting on the ground and last year we harvested about fifteen thousand the year before we harvested about eight so we're almost doubling yeah here and so we just really look forward to a time when you know when we're really able to harvest all of the fruit trees in the city that aren't being fully utilized in this fabulous national park boundaries into the west yellowstone region they are then subject to a taxpayer funded management program consisting of his ing them back into the park the introduction of life for these buffalo ca is a fifteen mile haze in one day the hazing starts at denny trick seven miles outside of yellowstone park after a night of rest day two starts another fifteen mile days further inside yellowstone park events like this are executed numerous times every year with your tax dollars today forty million dollars