Chicago Politics

Amerigo Screening and Panel with David McCourt 7.23.26

Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the Amerigo Screening and Panel with David McCourt.

Transcript

1:04 Good evening. I'd like to thank you all for coming. My name is Julie McCourt, and I was waiting for my husband, David McCourt. We produced this film, and I am so honored that you've all come and chosen to see it. It is a journey through America. We interviewed over 1,000 people, and we asked them a very simple question. What's your American dream? What's your hope for the future of America? So 1,000 people, 1,000 different answers. and it was a breathtaking experience.

1:35 We'd like to get to a million voices, so we invite you all to share your American dream with us. There is a website and we'll share that with you. I am a Chicago native, so it is really, really nice to be home. I have to say that I feel so much a part of the city that raised me and gave me so much of a foundation to work off for the rest of my life. And my father, also born and raised here, was fortunate to come through the arts,

2:06 which I know is so beautifully supported in this city, and most recently by Mayor Johnson. He was a father of six and selling appliances with this desire to be a songwriter, and this is in the late 50s, and he was discovered by Barry Gordy. And he went on to great success writing, for once in my life, heaven help us all, touch me in the morning. So I would also like to say that this city is an incredibly creative base and I think we're all lucky to have it. Driving around today, I kept pointing out places that

2:41 maybe my husband and I could come and live, you know, if you'll have me back. I'd like to thank Graciela and Erica and Mayor Johnson for being so generous with their time and being a part of our panel this afternoon. We are going to show a clip of the movie. It is a 45-minute clip and it airs on WTTW on Monday night in its full length, which is twice as long. And one of the nicest compliments we've had is, I didn't want it to end. So it's not that long. And I hope you'll

3:16 be both entertained and find it provocative it really is about community it's about having a conversation with each other that is generous and kind and allows us all to be heard and seen and unafraid to share what's really on our mind so thank you the energy the faith the devotion

4:20 to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten quarters of the world our stories are singular but our destiny is shared go to live in france but you cannot become a frenchman you can go to live in germany or turkey or japan but you cannot become a german or turk or japanese but anyone from any corner of the earth can come to live in america and become and America.

4:51 America was named after Amerigo Vespucci. But America is more than a name. It's both a place A vast place from sea to shining sea. But it's also an idea. A notion that through hard work, anyone of any background might achieve a better life. It's prosperity, it's hope, and it's aspiration. Ask not what your country can do for you.

5:22 Ask what you can do for your country. I've never been as brave as the explorers in the 1400s, like Amerigo Vespucci. But I have been given the opportunity to live an incredibly interesting and fortuitous life. What many would call the American dream. One day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

5:53 I have a dream. My grandfather is a sharecropper. My dad was a roofer, and I'm Captain America.

6:53 Where's the American dream? I've been looking for it. The dream that promised that hard work would be enough, when hard work simply isn't enough anymore. Over two years, I crossed this country, east to west, north to south, and I listened to the voices of hundreds and hundreds of everyday working Americans. Families and farmers, teachers and truck drivers, students and service workers.

7:23 What I heard was honest. It's available to you and everybody else. Take advantage of it. It's there. And what I heard was raw. Being able to get up and not fear going outside without being shot. And what I heard was true. Part of the American dream is knowing that you can party if you want to. You want a beer at 6 o'clock in the morning? Beastie Boys fought for your right to do that. Some of the people I spoke to were experts. But most were everyday working Americans. This is not just a film about the American dream.

7:56 This is a film about America itself. It's about who we are and who we were and who we are becoming and whether that dream still has the power to unite us all. If you're growing into being a titan of industry and more and more people are suffering, you're not growing, you're hoarding. And it all began with a simple question. What is the American dream?

8:27 Let me think. The American dream. Man, I'm still trying to figure that one out. Seems like it's a moving target. is be happy owning your own house have the house with the white picket fence big house white picket fence the white picture fence the white picket fences a white picket fence you know husband wife two kids a dog i don't want to say white picket fence but that seems to be what comes to mind i think the american dream is very much a concept it's an idea it's an ideal and it

9:00 can be true anywhere the american dream is very much inside a person it's not outward you can't touches. Whatever that personal goal is for you, I think that's the American dream. Enjoying a sense of purpose. To be joyful in your community, to be able to feel productive. And have contributed to the society. I don't care who you are. Money does make you happy. You have it. It's not about the money. It's what you do with the money and who you help out and

9:34 your family and bringing up people. I think the American dream is that you might be able to have your kids do better than you do everyone is entitled to have what they feel is the American dream I may not have been born into a wealthy family but a wealthy family should come for me I think it's I feel like it's a joke or something that marks us I feel like the American dream now in my generation is different. I don't think it's as easily accessible or economical to make those achievements anymore.

10:11 Right now, I feel like it's an American nightmare. There's no one that really wants to look out for one another nowadays. The American dream died when I was a child. The idea is you come from a far-off land, come to the land of milk and honey, and you can start a life for yourself. You can own a home, you can raise a family, you can make a business. I think a hundred years ago, all those things were possible. Not only were they possible, they were probable. I don't see that there is a lot of potential for anybody but the enormously wealthy to actually realize their dream now.

10:45 You have to be a certain type of person to even have access to the dream at this point. I don't know. It seemed like we were going up and now it's kind of, it was sold to us. we bought into it but then it never delivered this is grandpa and grandma's house he bought

11:17 this house in 1941 love this house my mother got married from this house like one half bedroom is one bathroom nine of us in this house with one bathroom if you have good credit to buy a house and what does it matter if we make enough money and we can pay some with cash nope they want to have it on credit on loan you come in with cash they're like calling the police he grew his own fruit and vegetables here so he stuck his hands in the dirt if we had string beans on thanksgiving

11:48 they came from this garden if we had potatoes at christmas it came from this garden way back when it used to be if you're a hard-working american you can make your dreams come true whatever that dream is as long as you work hard you can achieve it here in america it was what set us apart from other countries. This is the house that we all grew up in. Nine of us lived in this house. The house is twice as big as it was when you grew up in it because they added to the back of it. We broke so many windows in this house. We hit a baseball right through the Bay Jacks windows.

12:23 All seven brothers and sisters all pursued the American dream and they all got launched right from here. Politicians always say every American should be able to achieve the American dream of owning a home now in order to get that dream you have to make a lot more money and there's a lot more roadblocks i feel like in the way i planted that tree with my father god look how big it's gotten the idea of the dream has improved but the reality of making it happen

12:55 has not it's gone quite downhill i would say tonight new reporting on why the american dream feels increasingly out of reach home prices have skyrocketed for years and the latest report from the national association of realtors shows the share of first-time home buyers has dropped to 21 percent a record loan i have no prospects of owning a home at least not in the near future and i'm in my 30s you know i feel like the american genius coming a little harder for most

13:26 younger people because you know back in the days most people in their 30s my age would have a house But now, it's just the American dream is not so simple anymore. It's just everything's so expensive. So nine of us lived there, and Grandma and Grandpa lived here. And as a janitor, and my father as a contractor, they were able to afford a fabulous middle-class life. I think owning a home these days feels nearly impossible. I've been on my own since I was 18 years old.

13:58 I'm 35 now, and I've never owned a home in my life. It used to be much more affordable to be able to even think about owning your own home. And now people can barely even afford to live alone, let alone afford a mortgage. And I think that that has been really detrimental to people building families. I don't think that I'll be able to afford a house in my lifetime. I think the economic factor is real in that things are getting more expensive.

14:30 and it's getting harder for our communities to take care of each other. You know, if you're going to buy a house, if you're going to support a family, at minimum it's got to be double income. Buying a home for that kind of a level of income is not only a dream, but it's impossible. You know, I think even being able to rent a house. People don't necessarily want or need to have their own home, but just a... A quality piece of real estate, whether that's renting or buying.

15:06 That's a huge part of the American dream, or at least what it used to be. And for us, it seems so unattainable now. I think from an outside perspective, we're chasing something that can never be had. I'm at a university where we're trying to hire professors. The cost of living has gone up, has doubled in the time I've been there. Salaries don't. For college professors, buying a house is priced out. I really don't know how a custodian lives in America today. You know, the search in this documentary is all about those 20 million service workers like my grandfather.

15:43 My name is Tom Spencer. I was a bus driver for 12 years in Boston. The question is, can they afford a house? Can they afford the life that my grandfather and my father had? Homeownership has become a lot harder. It's really out of my reach right now. Do they have to worry every time they have a kid who has a birthday? Do they can't buy a gift and make a house payment? I want to buy something for the family. I can do the payment for the house because it's too much money. Hopefully I can retire with some dignity.

16:14 I think that's what my dream is. That's the search. Can today's service workers live the same life that my grandfather lived? It has always meant so much. That statue, you know that? That beacon in the water, the words inscribed on her the idea that this was a place you could come no matter how you came to live a life where your work mattered, your creativity mattered, where you mattered.

16:58 It's interesting when you look at surveys about the American dream, the people who most fervently believe in it are first-generation immigrants and multimillionaires. The likelihood of a first-generation immigrant doing better than his or her parents is the same today as it was 100 years ago. So there still is very much this idea of the American dream for people who come to this country who start with almost nothing and want to get ahead. When you say the American dream, I think of immediately my dad and him coming to the U.S. from Lebanon in the civil war and how he came with nothing and he worked so hard for many years to make it in the U.S.

17:43 And I feel like America is the only place where you can really do that. I moved to the States just to study English and I decided to stay because I just felt finally like I'm fitting in. Today is a special day because I'm just coming back from getting my citizenship. America was mostly built by people who came from somewhere else. People like my grandfather. From the coal mines to the corner stores. Wave after wave of calloused hands arrived with little more than hope and a dream.

18:13 They didn't just chase the American dream. They mixed the cement and laid its bricks. Today, new immigrants still build our homes. care for our children, and pick the food that feeds us. They start new businesses at twice the national rate. They believe in America, sometimes more than America believes in them. I was actually born in Deadwood, South Dakota, but I grew up on a ranch on the edge of Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

18:44 All of my relatives on the reservation were not able to realize that dream. For them, the American dream was only available to white people. They had terrible health care, very little education, very bad nutrition. They were locked up on land that was not suitable to farming and asked to farm. And still to this day, the American dream has not come their way. The American project, experiment, country is based on so much fragile relationships between all the Native nations and with the land and with bringing black people over from Africa and America as this shining thing up here.

19:34 but the structure that it's actually constructed on is so broken and fragile and unacknowledged. Here in this country, children were getting killed for speaking their native tongue, and their dads, basically, were overseas, the same language, saving this country. Civilizations rose and fell and dispersed before the Europeans ever set foot.

20:06 You know, we have places like Cahokia, which was at its peak larger than London, the year, like, 1100. Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else. Somebody brought you. We were always taught in school about the great American melting pot, that everyone comes here and we all become one in order to achieve a common goal. and I wish that I could still believe in that today. This country was supposed to be the golden ticket for families that needed to get out of wherever they were

20:36 and it's gone now. No, for me, the American dream is, it's meant everything to me and my family. I'm an immigrant, you know, this country was built on the back of immigrants. My father brought me and my brothers to this country for a better life, looking for a better life. And I like to think that I do have a better life thanks to him. Because we are illegal immigrants, we get nothing from the government. When people say that we get benefits and this and that, no, we don't.

21:08 We really don't. My father paid taxes for 25 years. Not once did he get a single cent from the government, even though he had three children in school. We didn't get none of the SNAP benefits or anything like that. My father just literally did everything on his own. We don't ask for much, I feel. we just want a chance to create what we couldn't create in our own countries. My dad, he came here from Mexico when he was just 15. My mom came from a lower income community and they both started a business and found success.

21:40 And now they have me and my two other sisters. You know, we're all college educated and we're doing good for ourselves. On one hand, you have the Ellis Island, everyone's welcome, you know, American dream. On the other hand, you have this Gordon Gekko, Wall Street, money, greed, kind of capitalism version. The two coexisting, me, I don't believe that can happen. A company has four pieces, right? You have the shareholders, the workers, the customers, and the community.

22:13 The problem is average net profit of corporate America. So after you pay your workers, you pay your bills, you pay everything, it's between 5% and 6%. today is between 12 and 15 percent the problem is the profit has doubled or tripled they're not lowering prices to customers yeah they're not giving back to the community and they haven't raised the workers share that same amount greed for lack of a better word is good

22:49 The American dream in the sense that anybody can move up in some top economic class or become president, I said, whatever, maybe, you know, that is a dream. The social mobility has always been relatively good in this country, but there are limitations to the American dream. The American dream is based in part on a market system and the rule of law, the equality of opportunity and all of that.

23:23 But a market system is going to leave a lot of people behind. Well, it is survival that if it is, you have to work for everything that you have, and you have to work to make your life better. Survive. Survive. Survive. Trying to survive. Survive. Staying alive and making it out. It's survival. Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? The American Dream was a promise for an opportunity.

23:54 If you work hard, if you're honest, and if you contribute to your community, you can make it. But some people are working hard, contributing to the community, and they're honest, and they still struggle. If I were writing about the American Dream, I would say that it's kind of got an undercurrent of never enough. You never hear somebody say, you know how much money I have? I have enough.

24:29 It was much easier for us even, you know, 30 years ago. A $400 unexpected medical bill causes bankruptcy in America for most Americans. I mean, when we were growing up with stuff back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, I mean, the dream was there. Is it here now? I don't know. It can be. Yeah, it can be, but they're going to have to work harder. It used to be, you know, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, unchecked freedoms, just ruined it, I guess.

25:00 The middle class has evaporated. I don't think anyone's telling adults that you can be whatever you want anymore. Exposing how polarized this nation is right now. Are we more divided than we've ever been recently? I think a lot of it's because the news, if you watch Fox News and you watch the right-wing news or you watch the left-wing news, the two are completely different countries.

25:31 There's two different stories. I respect other people's opinions, backgrounds, point of view, which should be a lively conversation, a civilized conversation. That is not the case. It's a very polarizing conversation. I've heard of families splitting up because of one side voting for the other. You know, it shouldn't be that way, but it is. It's just horrifying, and it's in my own family as well.

26:02 And we've gotten so that we just can't talk about it. We can't bring it up in order to even be together in the same room. I do think the Internet has left us more polarized and more divided than ever. We know that the algorithms that drive the Internet, they thrive on difference. They thrive on polarization. So as wild and extreme as you can get on your website of people disagreeing will drive the advertising dollars that will be needed to sustain it.

26:38 And it's become a beast, a beast we can't control anymore. We do not allow ourselves to understand that there are more than one answer, right or wrong, and that everybody can have their own view. And now we seem to label each other by our view and we just can't fathom that somebody else has a different view and that they have to be wrong and we have to be right. And I think social media is part of this to blame. I'd say most people my age are pretty addicted to social media and they probably spend several hours a day on it.

27:12 Just looking at mindless content, nothing that's going to improve their life. The Internet, the cell phone, social media has ruined communication. People don't talk to each other anymore. They don't write letters. They do these texts, which are devoid of emotion. It's taken humanity out of communication. The generations that came after me, including my own son, what's your guys' vision of the future? Does it feel bleak to you? And he said, yeah, that's okay, but that's okay with us. I said, why is it okay with you? He said, because it's always been bleak. He said, we grew up with 9-11, we grew up with the 2008 crash, COVID, you know, and we see that capitalism isn't really working, at least for us.

28:00 it is a little bit of a scary time to be having a baby because a lot of things feel really unpredictable and uncertain and unstable but i think it's because there's two different groups of people trying and wanting their own american dream to be the correct one it's broken at the moment and i think other countries are looking at it and my colleagues that work abroad they're It's like, John, what is happening over there?

28:31 It's kind of obvious what's happening. Reach out to space. We, the people, let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening. Let's get back to our founding documents. I want you to redeem the dream. The two sides have the north against the south, or rooting for this team and rooting for that team, and there doesn't seem to be any common ground. And the judicial branch cannot tell me or the president how to conduct foreign policy. And you know that in America, the government doesn't get to use its power to punish speech it doesn't like.

29:02 Our politicians get in office and never get out. They're hanging on to their jobs and they're doing what the lobbyists ask them to do because the lobbyists put them in office. Politicians are... We don't want to talk about politicians today. You know, it used to be that we had vague ideas of what people in different parts of the country might be thinking or what they're like. Now we know what people in Oregon are thinking about people in Florida because it says so right on the Internet.

29:38 Yeah, I do think it's had an impact on it. And I don't think all positive. some people will say it's all your fault you know why did you design this internet i refuse to take responsibility for what other people choose to do with this wonderful vital fabric It used to be everybody would be talking back here to one another. I mean, farmers to kids to whatever, and they were all having a good time.

30:09 And now it's the cell phone. When we moved from a physical world like this to an online world, the sense of community and sense of belonging has been lost. So familiarity builds community. When you become familiar with someone, then at least they're not strangers. Even if you don't like them, at least you know who they are.

30:40 And so when we don't have an opportunity to build that kind of familiarity in person, we never generate a community. To me, the Internet is the worst thing that's happened to this planet since people. I have had people threaten to kill me, threaten to rape me. There's too much of the anonymous behind the phone or behind the screen. You know, I can say this to anybody I want to say it to. But if you were sitting right there face to face with them, you wouldn't say the same thing.

31:14 I try to use it responsibly because I don't want to be a purveyor of hate. So I ask people if they have something to say, let's have a conversation. Call me up so we can talk to it face to face. media and social media and kind of put forth this this vibe that that we're so divisive and at each other's throats i think it has a lot to do with what's happened to civic dialogue in our country but also what's happened to journalism so those forces have become an attack on journalism

31:44 and i i would argue they've even become an attack on truth itself we have too much misinformation and disinformation. It's hard to believe that there's a new generation who have never known a world without the Internet. Growing up inside this digital age, our children are inheriting a country more connected than ever, yet more divided than we've ever seen in our lifetime. They've never had to knock on a door to see if a friend was there. It may be arriving just when a friend was needed.

32:17 Their sense of belonging lives inside a screen. curated, filtered, and sold back to them in pieces. Many feel invisible. They see costs rising, wages stagnant, housing out of reach, and leaders who talk but rarely listen. They're told to work hard and dream big, but they've watched how the game is played, and they know deep down in some fundamental way that the playing field simply isn't level anymore. They watch billionaires try to buy elections,

32:48 go to space, or raise the price of a life-saving drug, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. They doom-scroll all this on their phones while they can't afford the rent, carrying debts their parents could never imagine. And they're growing up in a nation where the American dream feels like a story someone else used to tell. And all because of one little invention. 37% of young people will say, I regularly and reliably feel disconnected, isolated, sad, lonely.

33:23 That was not the case when we were in high school. One of the biggest obstacles we're seeing now in college-age students are those two transitions, going into college because they don't know how to function independently, and then moving into the workforce because, again, the expectations, the communication is very different. In my classroom, I have children from all over the world. We have to do school shooting drills, but in our school we call them safety drills because we don't want to scare the children.

33:59 We don't ever go into detail about what they are. We have to have police come through our school to teach us about what the best thing to do is. And it's kind of insane because there isn't an answer. It used to be we have closets that we would go in and stick screws in the door so that you couldn't open them because they're all wooden doors. They came and said, that's not safe because they can just shoot through the walls. Well, one of the first times we did it, I had a child on my lap in the bathroom and he was so scared, he peed his pants all over my lap.

34:34 And this is a normal school day for him. It's funny to say that we want to traumatize them less, but I think they are just living in trauma. Young people had 18 months to two years of very important socializing time where they spent alone. They weren't able to play ball together. They weren't able to visit together. They didn't date. They didn't connect. We're not taking care to make sure that young folks have the kinds of connections that they need.

35:05 The sense of a community center or the sense of your local bar or your local YMCA or things like that probably have gone out the window with the emergence of technology, people not leaving, people being inside, people, social media. When I was a kid, there were 13 different playgrounds in Carbondale in the summertime. and that have baseball leagues, basketball, checker tournaments, free throw tournaments. You don't have much of that anymore. The distance between the national and local communities, that divide is growing bigger each day.

35:39 And I do think people are paying more attention to the national online community than they are their neighbors. This idea of community, the idea that we're going to have to come together to help each other if we're going to actually succeed in the future. Right now, we are so polarized, so divided. I worry that we can't keep that American dream alive without really paying attention to how we're going to focus on community and make sure we take care of each other locally. Talk about community, the places that are so valuable to us.

36:09 There were what they call third spaces everywhere when I was a kid. Places for kids to go, families to have, little help, public libraries. They're disappearing. We didn't realize when people stopped going to church that we used the church hall for the dance and the big sale and the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. We didn't realize all that stuff. We didn't realize when gaming went online that the bowling alley was going to close and this is going to close and that's going to close. Okay, it happened. Someone has to put it back.

36:39 All over America, it feels like something's brewing. The division is becoming something else. The desire to come back together, to rediscover what America once was. and at the center of it all are artists. We have to rebuild it with new ideas. Can art help? Oh, yes, yes. From my point of view, no matter how divided or discouraged we may seem,

37:11 it's often our artists who remind us of who we are. The painter who puts our struggles on a canvas. The poet who finds words when ours run out. the songwriter who dears to imagine a world better than today. The music that came out of the abolitionist movement, the music that came out of the civil rights movement, the music that came out of the anti-war movement during Vietnam

37:42 was powerful and it fueled those movements. I do think that art and music and artists have an important role in the American dream. I think that there still is a lot of great music, film, art. I feel like it's more important than ever. Kendrick Lamar, the hip-hop movement in America, art is always going to push the boundaries of what is right and what is wrong and call out the injustices that they see.

38:16 I think right now more than ever, we need artists to be more real about the situation. You know, write political music, write music about the struggles of being a young adult in this country. The painting or the song derives from its moment.

39:00 The art comes from society. Every piece of art reflects the very moment in which it was made. So the only obligation that an artist has, I would say, is to their art. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. And the idea that it's March indicates that we're going forward towards what? Hopefully, in this case, it's this idea that we're carrying this truth with us, right?

39:32 What is this truth? It's a divine truth. It's the Lord's truth. The Lord's truth has something to do about me and my brother. It has something to do about me and my brother walking together to carry the truth to some place where it's not currently. I believe a visual artist or any kind of art form, whether it's music or whatnot, we have, like I said, a responsibility to tell the world a story.

40:18 Storytelling, I think, is at the heart how we express that American dream and to some extent how we share what it is to have an American dream. I do believe that art has a role in the American dream, particularly because I think art gives human beings the most feeling. When you're chasing the American dream, I think we're chasing a feeling. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with it, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

40:55 My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. To try to live by the ideals of which we're very conscious and that actually have brought us together and made us Americans. And I think for the most part, we really, you know, still believe in the possibility that a country that has survived genocide, that has survived somewhat slavery as an institution, a country that has survived a civil war, right?

41:37 Those three things alone, a nation that has survived those, I think has it in it, if we mind ourselves, to survive anything. I feel like a lot of the new generations don't appreciate as much or know enough about the American dream or how much people worked hard to get here. The general consensus of the young people I spoke to was that these are uncertain times for the dream. But not all of them have given up.

42:07 All across the country, I met young people starting businesses, joining co-ops, organizing local drives, building things that last. They're skeptical, yes, but also sharper, more awake, more connected to purpose than my contemporaries. They see through the short-term thinking that traps so many of us. And in their voices, I hear an echo of the same promise that built America in the first place. The belief that change isn't handed down. It's made by people who show up.

42:40 Every generation inherits not just a nation, but a responsibility to repair what was broken and carry forward what was good. It is always changing. I feel like there is always a different dream for every single person. And people will always keep fighting for that dream. And in that sense, I'm optimistic. Yeah, I think it's so much harder for young people today. But I also think the young people are so much better than we ever were. And so I think if anybody can meet this challenge, it is them. The American Dream will be different for my daughter because there's more opportunities now.

43:12 There's more to look forward to than a hundred years ago. If you strive hard at what you want to do, you'll make it. Absolutely. And I'm one to say that right now. Do you feel like you can reach the American Dream? Absolutely. And I intend to. Together, we intend to. If everyone felt hopeless and didn't feel optimistic about it, then we're going to lose the spark of change and the spark of progression.

43:42 Things can only get better. I know we've been struggling with a lot of things that have made us feel a lot down in the past few years, but if we're down, then that means we're only on the up and up. So I think optimism is where we're at.

44:22 Sons and daughters, we are the descendants of 40 million people who left other countries to make a new opportunity for themselves and their children. The lamp of this grand old lady is brighter today, and the golden door that she guards gleams more brilliantly in the light. Our nation is the enduring dream of every immigrant who ever set foot on these shores and the millions still struggling to be free. The seed was freedom.

44:53 The founding fathers literally put in the documents, it's about freedom. Liberty and justice for all, and that will have to evolve. So here's how to do it over time. And that's why this song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, felt like an appropriate way to close this journey across America. Because this song has always risen when America was tested. It carried the voices of soldiers who longed for freedom.

45:26 It carried the voice of workers who demanded dignity. It carries the voices of marchers who dream of equality. And it carries me too. Not because it's perfect, because it isn't. Because it reminds us that even in the hardest times, we are still bound together by hope. Still lifted by courage. Still marching towards a promise of something better. Too many service workers who keep our nation running struggle to pay their bills while others prosper. Their voices too must be heard in the song of America.

46:00 their dignity must be part of our dream because America stands on their shoulders and surely they deserve that the world thinks the American dream is in question

46:33 and we're going to prove it's not I think that's the definition of the American dream

47:17 well good evening everyone, how are you all doing tonight? okay alright, you all sound half awake, that's great Let's give it up one more time for this incredible documentary and film, Amerigo. Come on, let's clap it up, Chicago. I have to say, I am deeply grateful for this film that presented some deeply personal stories for the people of not just Chicago,

47:58 but the people of the world who will get a chance to engage. And as a reminder, as Julie indicated earlier, this special preview cut was brought to us by two amazing people. But the entire Chicagoland area will get a chance to witness the full version on WTTW this weekend. And so I would encourage all of you to set your timers to make sure that you get a chance to see the fullness.

48:30 Before we get started, though, I do want to give a special thanks to these two amazing individuals, Julie and David McCourt, and the entire team with the McCourt Entertainment. Let's give it up for them. I also want to thank World Business Chicago, as well as representatives of sister cities that are here today. I also want to thank and give a special shout-out to the Looking Glass Theater.

49:01 How about it, you all? Looking Glass Theater for being such a gracious host and champion of our city and, of course, the wonderful Mag Mile. And always we have to give thanks to the Shulman family at Eli's Cheesecake for always donating refreshments. Every time we have great events in Chicago, you can always expect to get a slice of Eli's cheesecake.

49:36 So we're going to get into this conversation. It's not often that I get a chance to host these important conversations. Usually I'm in a panel seat or standing before the media prepared to take questions. So look out tonight. I have a lot of... Thank you. unfulfilled American dreams that I'm going to get a chance to talk with this incredible, illustrious panel. And so first, let's recognize these great folks that are joining us this evening. So, again, the producer, creator, and just a successful businessman.

50:12 But most importantly, he is the husband of a Chicagoan, Chatham's very own, Julie McCourt. Let's give it up for David McCord. The best decision that he made in his life was falling in love with a Chicagoan. But I will say, Julie, I saw you with that L.A. hat, and I felt a little triggered. So we'll get you right now that you're home. But we're also grateful for ensemble member and the incredible actress from our hosts, the Looking Glass Theater.

50:50 Let's give it up for Miss Erica Ratcliffe. And then finally, the northwest side, state senator, a renowned musician and singer. I believe we took her from the west coast. She found her real home right here in the Midwest. Give it up for state senator Graciela Guzman. So let's get started.

51:21 You know, so I get a lot of flack from certain audiences for talking about how important immigration and migration is to our city. And many of you have heard, you know, my favorite love story, the establishment of this great city. And, you know, I know we heard a little bit of David's story as well. So I would love to just hear about each of your American dreams and what inspires you the most.

51:56 Senator, we'll start with you. Hi, good evening, everyone. Good evening. Buenas noches. I'm Graciela, and often when I talk about my story, I talk about the pre-chapter, because Graciela is my name because there was a Graciela before me that was my grandmother, Graciela Medina, in El Salvador. And my people had to leave El Salvador because of the Salvadorian Civil War. And so that was how our origin story in the United States got to be. But why I talk about

52:29 Graciela as my namesake and, you know, the woman whose blood is in my blood is because one of the last things that she did in this life, besides giving me my name, was to give my dad like the last of what he needed to be able to immigrate to the United States, the last of what she had money-wise, the last of what she had in encouragement, the last of what she had in vision. And so when I think about what his legacy has been, you know, in coming to this country was just to make it, to survive. It was war-torn. He gets to meet my mom on a

53:03 Monday because that was the day that he had the bronco that he shared with his siblings and his friends. So he was the Monday. He saw my mom. He kept coming to the apartment. for many, many months on a Monday till he found my mother again. And then here comes me, right? And so I'm eldest of five kids and the American dream for us was just trying to make it. And 2008, that moment hit so hard because we had spent my entire childhood under the notion that the American dream would get to own.

53:36 Would be to have a home, would be to have something that we would hold, would be to a place that we would close the door, and that would be ours. And in 2008 was when we had just gotten it and secured it right before I went to college was when that dream literally fell apart in the bankruptcy crisis because that was taken away from my family. And out of that pain came a lot of organizing, came a lot of visioning, came a transit to Chicago, which I'm happy to talk about. But to be able to say that out of the sacrifices that Graciela made

54:11 someone who's not on this earth gets to now have a granddaughter who is the first Salvadorian in the General Assembly, right? That out of the sacrifices that my parents made who didn't even get to finish the third grade in their home country, I got to be a lot of firsts, got to be the first one to finish elementary school and middle school and high school and college and get to navigate worlds that are not meant for people like me or like for many of my constituents where we're trying to in real time figure out

54:46 what the dream is because it feels like a mirage in the desert. You start to approach it and it runs away and you find out that maybe it didn't exist. That the savings you had maybe got wiped away as you're trying to afford food or shelter or other things. And so why I say that is for all of the cloud and the dark that I just brought you out of the realness that is the responsibility that I have in carrying what has been other people's dreams for this country and for me and for my siblings, there's also this immense, you know, I think, what can't we do?

55:19 and what that can't we do has been found in neighbors and community and I think a collective that is striving to change the notion of the American dream in this moment where it is under extreme peril but that I would posit to all of us it has been in peril from its start of our country's origin right because for all of our tremendous start in organizing David and I were talking about this right before protest is what ignited the fabric that gets to be this country but a country founded in racism and pillaging and white supremacy and so many things that really

55:55 mean that renaming and reclaiming the American dream is to wrestle with those contradictions in our work so that the revisioning can be truthful to all of the people that we have in it, which is to say that for everything I just told you, I'm up for the challenge. That's why we decided to run in 2023 and 2024. And everything is about what are we going to do with this moment, right? Was it Hamilton that said, what are you going to do with the shot? And with the shot, what is your one shot? What are we going to do with this moment?

56:27 And I think, like, that process is the American dream. So I will stop there because I could keep going. But thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the question. Well, you are certainly welcome. And I think it's appropriate to feel the need to keep going, right? Because I believe that is a part of the dream of America, this unyielding press to remain resilient.

56:57 and that even with disappointment and tragedy that you find inspiration in that igniting of organizing. And so, you know, Erica, when we talk about just the American dream and what inspires you as an artist, you know, as a descendant of the formerly enslaved, What inspires you in this moment, and how does it relate to your definition or experience of the American dream?

57:34 Yeah. Well, you know, I've always wanted to be an artist. So I think when the reality set in of being an artist, the American dream that we, I think we saw a lot of folks all across the country related to that white picket fence, that home, a place called home. I mean, I'm being an artist, so that was never really in the card. But I'm really grateful for being able to, having chosen a path that's led by passion.

58:07 and I also feel like as an artist we tend to carry a lot like art is my activism art is my empathy art is my reclaiming of my voice in my community so I get so fulfilled in my artistry I live out my passion in my artistry artistry and I think a lot about what was said in the film about third space being very important, that is almost the American dream to me,

58:43 is taking care of the people outside of the hard work that I may be doing, the work that I try to do in passion. But when I step away from that, I have to be with people that I care for, that I want for, I want better for. And, you know, in the face of so much adversity that is happening, so much heartbreak, the minute you wake up and turn on the news or open your phone or have a conversation, it's hard.

59:19 And I think what drives me is like controlling what I can control and being being cared, caring for others. And and also just the the idea that in my third spaces that I know that those folks are still cultivating and taking care of each other as well. It's just so important because we have to keep pouring into each other. I'm really affected by that aspect also in the film about how unconnected we are.

59:53 So, like, nights like this bring me so much joy that y'all all said, let's come out tonight and hear about other folks' stories and, like, the impact of that. Like, that's community. Community is so valuable. We cannot lose that. All of the things that we are talking about, racism, the bigotry, all of those things are created to make us feel alone. And we are not alone. We are together. And so, yeah, I think the American dream, sure, maybe one day I'll own a home.

1:00:30 And I'm not from Chicago. I'm from Baltimore originally. Don't hate on me. I claim y'all now and have for years. When I first came here, I was like, this is my city. This is where I need to be. It claimed me right away, and it has only embraced me. And so I just want to pour back into this city, pour back into my home, my claimed home. And I feel like I get to, through my work, through my third spaces, I get to live the American dream, right, a life on passion in that way.

1:01:03 Yeah. Yeah, it's powerful. You know, Erica, I appreciate, because this came out in the portion of the film that we saw, that dreaming in America is attached to discovering your purpose and an act of service through your purpose and creating safer and healthier spaces. You know, David, thinking about healthy spaces, I don't know if people can appreciate how remarkable it is to remain healthy and safe when you have multiple siblings in only one bathroom.

1:01:42 So you're going to – and I'm speaking as someone who is one of ten in one bathroom. So when we talk about healthy, safe spaces, how does that work with that many people in one home? And did this experience keep you inspired or not? Thank you, Mayor Johnson. Before I answer that, can I just say to the great city of Chicago, thank you for having my wife and I here.

1:02:17 And can I say to you, Mayor, I'm not from Chicago, so I don't know what opportunities and struggles this great city has. And I don't know what policies you're putting in place to deal with those, but I do know one thing, that you're a good man, and it's an honor to sit next to an elected official that's a good man. So thank you.

1:02:48 That's a lot nicer than what folks in the film were talking about with politicians. So thank you for clearing that up because I did get a little, you know, uncomfortable during that section. Well, and I have to also say that you're not the first one to say that my best decision was to marry Julie. So everyone knows that one. You know, growing up, we grew up in a very average Irish-American house and community.

1:03:25 and because my grandfather, who was 16 and a janitor, basically uneducated, worked all his life but had a very dignified life, owned his own home, raised our mother, died debt-free. Never once was there a birthday or a first communion or a Christmas, which we all didn't get a little gift. And you saw that man in the film who said, I work hard, but I have to make a decision between buying a gift for my child or paying the rent.

1:03:59 That's not a dignified life, and it shouldn't be the policy in America where we allow people who work hard not to be able to buy a home. It may be a small home. It may be a very small home. But they all should have the right to do that. From World War II to 1970s, the average house was three times the average income, so it was achievable for average people to buy an average house. Today it's eight times, and it's 16 times for a janitor's income, which means we have a policy in America today that says that service workers don't get to own a home.

1:04:40 That's a shitty policy. It's not right. It's not fair. And because we're letting it happen, it's becoming policy. And it's not right. And our average home was a very, very happy place. Although my oldest sister, second oldest sister is here. She left as soon as she could and moved to Chicago and she never came home. And she's been here ever since. And I remember on Sundays when we would call her, my father would be like, everybody has two minutes on the phone because it costs too much.

1:05:17 But those were great happy days. But I'm sure that my father always felt secure in knowing that he owned that home for his family. So no matter how bad his day was, those four walls were his. and if you're going to contribute to your community, and America always comes in number one or one or two and be in the most philanthropic country in the world,

1:05:47 to be in the country that people volunteer the most, in the country where people are willing to help a stranger the most. In order for those characteristics that are uniquely American to survive, people have to have the right to own a tiny piece. If they're going to fight for the country, you have to let them own a tiny piece of the country themselves. And we have to get back to a policy where that's possible. And even if they're fighting for a bathroom, it's their bathroom.

1:06:21 So that's what we need. And we need, and I'll just say it again, We need good men and women to be elected to office, and then we'll get through this. We'll get through this, and we just have to have a policy where success is measured, but what we build and leave behind, not what we take. And my brethrens in the capitalistic part of the community, because my wife is the artist,

1:06:54 I'm the business guy. You know, we've moved from ambition and enterprise to greed and extraction. And that has to stop. And people in business have to call out other businesses for doing that. So that changes. That's one thing that has to change among lots of other of things. So, you know, I'm not, you know, especially confrontational as mayor of the city

1:07:29 of Chicago, you know, but what I will say is, you know, David, with all sincerity, the fact that you're willing to call out, you know, those with means, the wealthiest amongst us to do better. You know, here in Chicago, we do that on a regular basis. And so with that being said, because you are calling out the interest of whether it's big corporations or wealthy folks

1:08:01 to put far more skin in the game, I'm going to sign an executive order declaring you officially a Chicagoan. So there you have it. I'm proud to be a Chicagoan. It's something that your sister always dreamed of. She's like, I thought I got away from him. Now, apparently, I have not. He's back. You know, but this, you know, idea about our values is, you know, this theme that I'm hearing on this panel.

1:08:33 You know, whether it's, you know, Graciela speaking very candidly about the ideas and the hopes that bind us together. You know, Erica, you speaking so openly about the the value of service. David, you're talking about, you know, the value of responsibility. I talk about values in the city of Chicago through the lens of that is the soul of Chicago. You know, we're resilient people. We can be a little stubborn here. Our way is our way. You know, but when it comes to the complexity of the American story, because all of the examples here elevate the convoluted nature of America.

1:09:24 I do want to drill down a little bit more on just the – not just the contributions of the individual story, but what does it mean? In terms of the American dream from the vantage of Chicago, and for David, we'll give you a little bit of room here, you know, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, you know, we think about El Paso, right? These towns that have become places for immigrants, migrants,

1:10:01 descendants of the enslaved who migrated with the Great Migration 1 and 2. And, Senator, I'll start with you again, if that's okay. You know, Chicago's story is very powerful. Electricity came to life here. The skyscraper, it's the city that said keep hope alive. Dr. Keene came to this city fighting for fair housing and said he had never experienced racism worse than what he experienced in Chicago, and that includes his organizing in the Deep South. But he said if we can figure it out in Chicago, we can do it anywhere in the world.

1:10:32 And so when I think about our values, the soul of Chicago reflected in those values, how do you relate America's story and the dream of America through the lens of the story of Chicago? Yeah, I think how I think about the story of Chicago, I think you laid out many of the tenets, right? It's like a city full of contradictions that I think actually feels to me like an iron sharpens iron kind of situation, right? So we are a global, world-class city, but we, like, freaking love our neighborhoods, right?

1:11:06 We love our neighborhoods. We were formed by immigrants, and we were formed by the Great Migration. And all of those things and the juxtaposition that can happen between them, I think, fosters like such a rich conversation, right, between the labor movement that we have here, between organizations by movement, by just like all of that conversation that happens about what kind of city do we want to be in Chicago, right? So acknowledging that all of those are the things that got to make the city, and I think, Mayor, you are in a moment where we're getting to define what it means to both honor what we came from while acknowledging that we want a different reality for this city and for this state and for this nation,

1:11:53 especially in a moment where I think one of the biggest threads, David, that I wanted to bring from the movie was this kind of tension between the individualism and the collectivism, right? And it's a moment that can make a lot of us feel in our fear like it's time to think inward, right? What can I do to make sure that I'm individually okay or that my home is okay or that my neighborhood's okay? And the contradiction of this moment and how the city is going to get to be better and how the state gets to be better and how the nation gets to be better

1:12:24 is actually found in all of each other, right? And I say that as someone who has been up since 6 in the morning because federal overreach is here and has been here and is in my district every single day, is in my district ripping people that are our neighbors, that have fed us, that have taught our children, that have raised our children. And there's something about that moment that says, if we can't figure that out in each other right now, that we all are each other's bond,

1:12:57 that we are each other's business, that how we survive big things is out of that collectivism and that action, what is this moment? It will be wasted if we don't do something with it. And so I say that because I think Chicago is on display some of the finest of collectivism in this moment. Like for me, what gives me hope is neighbors that want to create school watch and school patrol and make sure that laborers can do what they want to do

1:13:27 and the self-determination of what they rose to do in that day. It's in the artist community that I see in my murals, that I see on my trains, that I see in the gardens that my neighbors cultivate because they know that looking at beautiful things is how you survive hard things. And that if you can't imagine a new world, You're definitely not going to work your way out of the world that we're in right now, right? And then I think the movement is like this commitment to the accountability that says we're not just going to talk about it in Chicago.

1:14:00 Like we're going to have to work ourselves into a new social fabric that completely puts in a different end, you know, what capitalism has done to all of us, which is to rip us away from our obligations to one another, to remove the social bond. that means that we can actually fund all of these things, right? So Chicago is doing all of that in a moment that a lot of folks want us to not get it right. And so I think when we get it right in Chicago, we set a model. For one, what does it mean to love neighbor? What does it mean to have a city governance that sees all of that creativity and helps us foster that?

1:14:38 And what does that mean to be folks, whether you are like in any of these traditions or create your own, that say that's what I'm going to wake up to do every single morning? So I'll leave it at that with, I think, the inspiration that, you know, Chicago wasn't also where I got raised, but Chicago is where I think I found like my social consciousness here. Like, I stepped off a train off a megabus, like, in 2012 with, like, two backpacks. And immediately was like, okay, like, this is where my people are at.

1:15:08 And there's something very special about the energy of Chicago that calls people that are looking for that kind of home. But it's also people that calls people into a moment. And this is a moment where if we really heed the lessons of people that helped build this city, we will continue to foster a new city. and I think send a message to this nation that hope is bound in action. Hope is not just bound in us talking about hope. Yeah, that's great. That's great. So, Erica, let's stay there because you, similarly, like Senator Guzman,

1:15:43 you came to Chicago and you said this is home. And when I think about just your art and your creativity, whether it's house music, gospel music, blues, jazz, you know, some of the great artists, actors, actresses that come out of Chicago, the story of America through your experience of Chicago? Yeah, Chicago is really just one of the most inspirational places, I think, to be an artist.

1:16:22 I walk downtown whenever I need inspiration. The architecture, the people, the languages you hear, there's always something going on. It's just easy to tap into the city. So if you're feeling like, hey, I'm not connected, I'm not present in any community, like you just said, there is a way to tap in. There is a garden. There is a book club. There is a protest.

1:16:53 There is a conference. There is something going on that can speak to anything that's important to you. And this moment really feels like it's happening to maybe, it could feel like it's happening to them over there. And if it's happening to them over there, it's happening to you. And so we have to care about our neighbor in a different way.

1:17:25 And again, I think going back to just the inspiration of the city, so many stories of perseverance of Chicagoans that inspire me constantly. I've been an artist in connection with so many different theaters. Looking Glass is my artistic home. If y'all don't have tickets to next season, you need to get them. Prince Hal, a play that we are presenting next year, is about Harold Washington. A huge figure in our political but also just in the humanity of the city.

1:18:01 I'll see you at opening night. Get your ticket. Okay. See all of y'all there. Would love to. But that story is going to inspire change. It's going to inspire conversation. It's going to inspire you to want to do or say or feel different. Art has that power. And so my inspiration is just being able to, again, have conversation, have my activism, have my care for folks be represented in the art that I do.

1:18:36 And I think also we're all artists in our different ways. Seeing and hearing so many of those folks in the film, you just see it on them. You see, like, them expressing themselves from all across the country and all saying the same thing, all saying a similar thing. And I'm just really grateful for that because it at a moment can feel like, hey, there's just no hope. But they all turned the corner together.

1:19:09 It was a really great editing. Right? Where everyone was kind of saying, but here's a solution, and here's a solution, and here's another. and all of those things exist here, I think they're amplified here. Chicago represents for, I feel like, the rest of the country in, like, just such a beautiful way. Yeah. No, that's great, Erica. And, you know, the contribution of Chicago's story through art is just absolutely remarkable.

1:19:39 You know, the arts and culture plays a part of Chicago's economy, right? I mean, it creates thousands of jobs, billions of dollars of revenue as it relates to arts and culture. Third largest, right? And just for the record, David, you know, Erica was talking about this opening night. I do have this idea that I'm hoping that maybe Looking Glass or maybe you can help produce this. I'm thinking about starring in a one-person act.

1:20:12 I have this idea that I'm going to do a one-person act, and I'm going to star as Richard J. Daly. Okay, so seriously, J. Nicole Brooks, who is writing Prince Hal, she's doing a Chicago series. She wrote a play about Jane Byrne, now Harold Washington, so you know. You got a Richard J. coming up? We might have to.

1:20:42 And then opening night at Looking Glass, the story of Richard J. Daly starring Mayor Brandon Johnson, yes. You know, David, something that Erica said that's actually quite powerful, and I don't know if you all caught this, but she talked about the different languages in Chicago. I believe conservatively there are 150 different languages that are spoken in Chicago. And so when we think about just the collection of stories, you've been all over the world.

1:21:17 Chicago's Story and America's Dream? Well, I'll tell you two things. One, when I think of Chicago, I first think of my sister, obviously, and my wife, but after the fire of 1871, when this city was burnt to nothing other than this building here that we're in,

1:21:50 It was rebuilt not back to what it was. It was rebuilt back to the greatest city in America. And that to me represents Chicago. There's a problem. You fix it not to where it was, but to something better than what it was. And that represents everything that's American, to leave everything better than when you found it.

1:22:20 And if we can get back to that, we'll have a great next 250 years. And when Julie and I decided to make this film, we wanted to make it to change the conversation at our 250th birthday, which is a little bit weird that we started counting when the Europeans showed up, to your point, Senator, because there were people living here for 3,000 years before that. So it's a little unfair that we just arbitrarily picked when we got here to decide to start counting.

1:22:55 But it was always to leave everything better than when you found it. And we decided to make this film so that we wouldn't, at our 250th birthday, look backwards but look forward to what do we want America to look like for the next 250 years. And when we traveled the country, I was looking through social media for the comments because I was on, what's it called now, not MSBC, MS Now, MS Now this morning.

1:23:26 And there was people calling me a communist and my favorite is Che Guevara in a suit. But it, and Julie said to me, isn't it funny that these people have all this time to make these comments, but we travel the whole country and everybody was so lovely and nice. There's just this tiny minority of people that have nothing to do but be mean to other people because they're unhappy with their own life.

1:23:58 But if you don't listen to them, you realize how great this country is. And Chicago is a great city, and it proves it over and over and over again. And my wife is a Cubs fan. Yes, yes, yes. Half the audience is not clapping. I will just say. With the exception of some of the recent things that are happening at Raitt Stadium, there are more people here tonight that are usually at Raitt Stadium, by the way.

1:24:30 Well, I'm just saying, as a proud Cubs fan, I'm just saying, I will say this. Listen, we are well past our time, but we have not broken curfew. That's another inside joke for Chicagoans here. Let's just see if we can just wrap this up here. I really wish we could go a little bit deeper here, but, you know, if we can just, I don't know, take about 90 seconds, just with some final thoughts, and we'll start with you, Senator. You know, you had a chance to obviously watch, you know, 45 minutes of what will be a longer presentation.

1:25:04 When this is done again in 250 years, what will be the inspiration 250 years from now that happened today? I think we're seeing it in the makings right now. there's something about this moment like you you feel the electricity of it and i said it in my previous answer what will we make of this moment right at a time where uh wealth inequity has never been greater in this country at the time where we are being asked you know what are our values i

1:25:39 talked about individualism collectivism what will we make of all of that and and i think what gives me hope is that all of the makings of it are there but we're still going to have to stir it up Right. And so what I hope is that, you know, when your descendants make this movie, 250 years from now, that the America that we build has wrestled with everything we just said and decided to leave a better legacy than the one that we inherited, that there is an America where everyone gets to benefit, that we have an America that reckons with our origin story and centers a path towards equity for the future.

1:26:20 And I think one that fundamentally means that people are undeterred in their ability to be themselves, to be loved, to be safe, to have what they need, to be creative, to live in a world-class city like this one or wherever they want to live and have those fundamental experiences that mean that we get to realize whatever makes us us. That's what I hope that we will make of this moment and that we get to document how this moment fostered the next moment because that's the thing about cycles. You know, there's something else that will emerge in 250 years from now.

1:26:51 But I hope that we leave a blueprint for how we can approach that moment. Erica, 250. Yes, let's give it up for us. That's a great response. 250 years from now, what will people draw from this moment? I'm cosigning what you just said. It was so good. yes and to that in the mobilization that is required for that we are turning a corner I feel it and I think we just have to keep driving towards

1:27:23 that the darkest days are behind us and there's so much light forward and we have to take care of the babies so I just pray that that is where we will be in 250 years the sacrifices that we have made that we make and continue to make a payoff tenfold for the babies, all for the babies. Yeah, I love that. And just a freely amendment to yours, I would hope that 250 years from now

1:27:56 that people will hear your story and that artists will be able to own their own homes. How's that? No, seriously, I mean, I think that's important because artists contribute so much to humanity. society, whenever forces attempt to overthrow a government, they go after their art and culture, the literature first. And so preserving those stories and inspiration through art. I was teasing with my wife earlier, because I really wish I could sing. I really do.

1:28:27 Because if I could sing, y'all, I would be bad. You hear me? Y'all wouldn't have to be bothered with me doing what I'm doing now. I would just be touring the world. So your descendants, they're going to look back and they're going to hear the story of your grandfather. They're great, great, great, great, great. 250 years from now, they're going to want to know what did David do to contribute and how they can draw inspiration 250 years from now from your story the way

1:28:59 you've been able to draw inspiration from your grandfather's story. I hope that if we studied history a little bit and we went back to the indigenous people, they had the great law of peace, the Haudenosaunee's. the Indian confederations on the East Coast. And in that great law of peace, one of the premises in it is if you had a really good idea, a policy idea,

1:29:30 and you brought it to the chief, you would have to explain what ramifications that's going to have for the seventh generation. And seven generations now is about 250 years. So I would like to go back to the days when people made decisions in business or in political policies. We asked ourselves, how is that going to affect seven generations,

1:30:00 not how is it going to affect me tomorrow? And if we can get back to that long-term thinking, and I'm not just picking on business people. I'm picking on business people because that's, you know, the coliseum that I live in. So, you know, I've been there. But if we all go back to long-term thinking, get away from the short-term thinking, that would be my hope if I was looking at this 250 years from now.

1:30:31 Yeah, I love it. David McCourt, Erica Ratcliffe, State Senator Graciela Guzman. It's the Looking Glass Theater. I'm Mayor Brandon Johnson good night everybody

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