WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.743 (Applause) 00:00:06.979 --> 00:00:11.363 I'm here to talk about freedom and I'm very excited about it. 00:00:12.105 --> 00:00:15.894 Do you remember the first time you realized that you were free? 00:00:16.996 --> 00:00:18.526 That you're really free? 00:00:19.959 --> 00:00:22.136 The first time I even knew what freedom was, 00:00:22.136 --> 00:00:25.147 I got lost in a library and I was reading stories 00:00:25.147 --> 00:00:27.787 about Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, 00:00:27.787 --> 00:00:31.326 and freedom was so clear and so easy to understand. 00:00:33.335 --> 00:00:36.637 And then I grew up and I got complicated like everything else. 00:00:37.938 --> 00:00:41.251 And I started to look for freedom in everything I saw, 00:00:41.251 --> 00:00:42.778 I tried to listen for it. 00:00:43.295 --> 00:00:47.563 And one day I was driving in the car and I heard on the radio Janis Joplin, 00:00:48.464 --> 00:00:52.209 and she's saying that famous lyric "Freedom is nothing left to lose." 00:00:53.196 --> 00:00:56.496 And I thought to myself, "Is that how I have to experience freedom? 00:00:56.496 --> 00:00:58.373 Do I have to get to the edge, 00:00:58.373 --> 00:01:02.689 lose everything, give everything up to really experience freedom?" 00:01:03.556 --> 00:01:07.048 See, freedom had become this esoteric, cerebral idea 00:01:07.048 --> 00:01:08.688 that I couldn't quite touch. 00:01:08.688 --> 00:01:10.489 It was like love, right? 00:01:10.489 --> 00:01:14.226 You can feel it, but you can't touch it, you can't hold it in your hands. 00:01:15.132 --> 00:01:19.738 And I read this, the great agnostic Robert Green Ingersoll, 00:01:19.738 --> 00:01:21.769 he wrote it beautifully when he said, 00:01:21.769 --> 00:01:25.263 "What light is to the eyes, what air is to the lungs, 00:01:25.263 --> 00:01:29.177 what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man." 00:01:29.816 --> 00:01:33.344 And I thought, "Oh, this is amazing! 00:01:33.344 --> 00:01:36.546 I cannot get enough of this freedom stuff." 00:01:36.546 --> 00:01:39.560 And I kept looking for and looking for in everything I did, 00:01:40.035 --> 00:01:41.466 and so I went to law school. 00:01:42.595 --> 00:01:45.093 And when other people met their partners, 00:01:45.093 --> 00:01:46.868 I met the Constitution. 00:01:47.953 --> 00:01:51.309 I got to know the Constitution and I flirted with it 00:01:51.309 --> 00:01:52.891 and I tried it on. 00:01:52.891 --> 00:01:55.718 I explored the freedom of religion. 00:01:56.978 --> 00:01:59.485 I tried on the freedom of speech, 00:01:59.485 --> 00:02:01.623 and my family would say too much. 00:02:03.937 --> 00:02:08.549 I assembled, I petitioned, I wrote to the press, I even shot a gun. 00:02:08.549 --> 00:02:11.180 I loved it, I loved everything about freedom. 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:12.966 And what I came to find 00:02:12.966 --> 00:02:19.436 was that freedom in the Constitution was very personal, very intimate, 00:02:19.436 --> 00:02:21.850 something different than what they had taught me. 00:02:22.609 --> 00:02:27.476 The Constitution didn't just set up the power of government, 00:02:27.476 --> 00:02:31.102 it didn't just set up the structure or the architecture of government. 00:02:31.102 --> 00:02:32.983 It spoke to me personally, 00:02:32.983 --> 00:02:34.651 it spoke to all of us personally. 00:02:34.651 --> 00:02:36.918 It was our guardian, it was our bedfellow. 00:02:38.263 --> 00:02:43.818 But it wasn't until I started teaching at an open enrollment college 00:02:43.818 --> 00:02:48.880 where students are anywhere from 15 to 75 years of age and even older, 00:02:49.518 --> 00:02:52.194 and they come to a sanctuary of sorts, 00:02:52.979 --> 00:02:55.946 it's where everyone has access to education. 00:02:55.946 --> 00:02:57.760 It's an amazing idea, right? 00:02:58.930 --> 00:03:00.917 And it was really through my students 00:03:00.917 --> 00:03:04.344 that I understood this new emerging idea of freedom 00:03:04.344 --> 00:03:07.277 and what I would come to understand what freedom is now. 00:03:08.226 --> 00:03:11.636 Let me tell you about my students because they're absolutely fantastic. 00:03:11.636 --> 00:03:13.992 They're gritty, they're self determined, 00:03:13.992 --> 00:03:15.926 they're intellectually curious, 00:03:17.001 --> 00:03:20.281 they're self-reliant, they're absolutely beautiful. 00:03:22.917 --> 00:03:26.092 They also carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. 00:03:26.092 --> 00:03:30.331 They are husbands, they are wives, they are sons, they are daughters, 00:03:30.331 --> 00:03:31.722 they are caregivers, 00:03:32.478 --> 00:03:35.981 and they are seeking education carrying all that with them. 00:03:38.082 --> 00:03:40.922 And they come to me and we start to talk about freedom 00:03:40.922 --> 00:03:43.141 and we start to explore the Constitution, 00:03:43.141 --> 00:03:45.417 and they distance themselves from freedom. 00:03:46.362 --> 00:03:49.060 And at first, I couldn't quite tell what was happening, 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:50.716 and it started to reveal itself 00:03:50.716 --> 00:03:54.942 that freedom is a few generations away from my students, 00:03:54.942 --> 00:03:56.376 that hunger for freedom, 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:58.796 to what that feels like, 00:03:58.796 --> 00:04:01.505 and that they also connected freedom 00:04:03.565 --> 00:04:07.118 with some of the ugliness and divisiveness of modern politics, 00:04:07.118 --> 00:04:08.573 that they related the two, 00:04:08.573 --> 00:04:10.444 and so they were shy with freedom. 00:04:11.438 --> 00:04:14.031 So I introduced them to the Constitution, 00:04:15.112 --> 00:04:18.559 and they came to understand what I had come to understand. 00:04:19.377 --> 00:04:21.261 That it was very personal to them, 00:04:21.947 --> 00:04:23.476 very intimate. 00:04:23.476 --> 00:04:26.836 And that the Constitution didn't grant them their rights. 00:04:27.394 --> 00:04:30.206 It gave them a shield, it protected them. 00:04:31.039 --> 00:04:33.771 That they had been free all along. 00:04:33.771 --> 00:04:36.180 And that they didn't have to look that hard, 00:04:36.180 --> 00:04:37.719 I didn't have to look that hard. 00:04:37.719 --> 00:04:39.993 You don't have to look that hard for freedom. 00:04:39.993 --> 00:04:41.560 That it's inside of us. 00:04:43.013 --> 00:04:44.723 And they came to know that truth 00:04:44.723 --> 00:04:47.486 that every single person in this room knows. 00:04:47.486 --> 00:04:51.317 That deep inside of us, each one of us is so magnificent, 00:04:51.317 --> 00:04:53.812 so valuable, so unique, 00:04:53.812 --> 00:04:57.324 that we don't need a constitution to give us freedom. 00:04:57.324 --> 00:04:59.347 We have it as our birthright. 00:04:59.347 --> 00:05:03.559 Not just as Americans, but as the human race. 00:05:04.665 --> 00:05:07.378 And so, as students come to know that freedom 00:05:07.378 --> 00:05:09.007 and they try that freedom on, 00:05:11.241 --> 00:05:14.693 they did it in unique and different ways. 00:05:16.934 --> 00:05:20.193 But they had to come to a realization first. 00:05:20.883 --> 00:05:24.435 That inherent in freedom is responsibility. 00:05:26.251 --> 00:05:28.969 That's pretty heavy, especially for these students 00:05:28.969 --> 00:05:31.979 already carrying the weight of the world around. 00:05:31.979 --> 00:05:34.602 And responsibility has gotten a bad rap. 00:05:37.210 --> 00:05:40.828 We think of responsibility as this weight, 00:05:41.454 --> 00:05:43.554 and that somehow what Janis Joplin said, 00:05:43.554 --> 00:05:45.881 that we've got to get rid of all the duties 00:05:45.881 --> 00:05:49.668 and get rid of all the encumbrances in our lives to really experience freedom, 00:05:49.668 --> 00:05:51.498 and that's absolutely not true. 00:05:51.498 --> 00:05:54.327 And anyone of us at traffics and responsibilities knows 00:05:54.327 --> 00:05:58.602 that to embrace responsibility is probably the most freeing thing 00:05:58.602 --> 00:05:59.892 that any one of us can do, 00:05:59.892 --> 00:06:02.279 because then you can chart your own course, 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:04.169 you can set your own sail, 00:06:04.169 --> 00:06:07.571 you can choose a life that speaks to you. 00:06:08.499 --> 00:06:11.446 And so students, once they discover their freedom, 00:06:11.446 --> 00:06:13.148 once they define freedom, 00:06:13.148 --> 00:06:15.430 they have to embrace responsibility. 00:06:16.359 --> 00:06:21.890 And that responsibility first means to love and respect themselves, 00:06:22.281 --> 00:06:26.298 and then freedom directs them to respect others, 00:06:26.298 --> 00:06:30.961 to tolerate and to be kind and to exalt civility. 00:06:30.961 --> 00:06:33.453 Because freedom, no matter what we define it as, 00:06:33.453 --> 00:06:35.488 no matter how it comes out, 00:06:35.488 --> 00:06:36.916 has never meant 00:06:38.844 --> 00:06:41.921 to be less than those tenants of humanity. 00:06:44.418 --> 00:06:46.697 And so, once they embrace freedom, 00:06:47.880 --> 00:06:51.066 and they feel the responsibility, 00:06:51.066 --> 00:06:54.719 it leads them to the most amazing places. 00:06:58.126 --> 00:07:00.109 It leads them to service. 00:07:01.675 --> 00:07:05.514 And I just want to say that these students know, 00:07:05.514 --> 00:07:09.349 and I know that the Constitution is flawed, 00:07:09.349 --> 00:07:12.149 and it's flawed in its design and its application. 00:07:12.886 --> 00:07:18.081 But there's a tenderness and grace that it offers each of us. 00:07:18.081 --> 00:07:20.854 And when you can find that you're a bit of freedom 00:07:20.854 --> 00:07:22.032 in the Constitution, 00:07:22.032 --> 00:07:23.938 you can find that intimacy, 00:07:23.938 --> 00:07:26.707 it leads you to the most amazing places. 00:07:27.758 --> 00:07:29.111 One night, I couldn't sleep 00:07:29.111 --> 00:07:31.622 and I did what all the literature says not to do, 00:07:31.622 --> 00:07:33.760 I opened my email in the middle of the night 00:07:33.760 --> 00:07:36.044 thinking that was going to help me sleep, right? 00:07:36.044 --> 00:07:37.529 And I received 00:07:38.625 --> 00:07:41.557 an email from a student I had had a few semesters ago. 00:07:42.298 --> 00:07:46.470 And the email was both an apology of sorts and a manifesto of sorts. 00:07:47.261 --> 00:07:50.991 And in the note, he revealed to me 00:07:50.991 --> 00:07:54.029 that he had not been sober much of my class, 00:07:56.025 --> 00:07:58.913 but that he was on his 30th day of sobriety, 00:07:59.984 --> 00:08:05.425 and that he was reconnecting with a son as a man, as a father, 00:08:07.257 --> 00:08:09.507 and that he was using the one piece of my class 00:08:09.507 --> 00:08:13.002 that he remembered about freedom to claim his life back, 00:08:13.002 --> 00:08:16.143 to make his life his own. 00:08:17.513 --> 00:08:20.664 And I realized it was that unique expression of freedom 00:08:22.089 --> 00:08:23.661 that was really emerging. 00:08:24.338 --> 00:08:26.707 It wasn't the stuff of government, 00:08:27.551 --> 00:08:29.543 it was the stuff that was inside of us. 00:08:29.543 --> 00:08:33.263 He was taking his freedom and claiming a new life. 00:08:33.263 --> 00:08:36.717 He was not just breaking the bonds of government, 00:08:36.717 --> 00:08:39.192 he was breaking the narrative 00:08:39.192 --> 00:08:42.819 that all of us have of past hurts, past abuses, 00:08:42.819 --> 00:08:46.770 societal cues, disenfranchisement, whatever comes with us. 00:08:46.770 --> 00:08:50.502 He was using his intimate relationship with freedom 00:08:51.684 --> 00:08:54.354 to express himself, to claim his life. 00:08:54.354 --> 00:08:57.487 But then, he ended with a piece 00:08:57.487 --> 00:08:59.967 that is really the piece that speaks to me, 00:08:59.967 --> 00:09:02.938 that's really the piece that I want to share with you today. 00:09:03.986 --> 00:09:06.917 He had used his free will to claim a sobriety, 00:09:06.917 --> 00:09:09.686 he had used his free will to connect with his son, 00:09:09.686 --> 00:09:15.282 and then, he asked in closing where he could serve others, 00:09:15.282 --> 00:09:17.165 where could he dedicate his life. 00:09:17.165 --> 00:09:19.171 So, as exhausted as he was, 00:09:20.957 --> 00:09:22.805 he was seeking to serve others. 00:09:24.417 --> 00:09:29.077 And that diversity of freedom is seen in almost all my students. 00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:32.410 That when they come to find freedom, 00:09:32.410 --> 00:09:35.261 it could be the artist that seeks to express themselves 00:09:35.261 --> 00:09:37.921 and celebrate or heal using their art, 00:09:37.921 --> 00:09:41.761 it could be the entrepreneur that's seeking that economic liberty, 00:09:43.537 --> 00:09:46.046 it comes out in all different ways, 00:09:47.697 --> 00:09:49.987 but it always leads to the same thing. 00:09:49.987 --> 00:09:53.057 When we define freedom, however we define it, 00:09:53.057 --> 00:09:56.810 it embraces responsibility and it leads to service, 00:09:56.810 --> 00:09:59.773 and that is the transformative nature of the Constitution, 00:09:59.773 --> 00:10:03.238 and it's a much different story that any one of us have ever been told 00:10:03.238 --> 00:10:04.556 in civics class. 00:10:07.651 --> 00:10:09.892 So, I see my students when they come in 00:10:09.892 --> 00:10:12.298 and they define their own freedom for themselves, 00:10:12.298 --> 00:10:14.254 and they embrace responsibility, 00:10:14.254 --> 00:10:16.777 and they serve others in the community, 00:10:16.777 --> 00:10:18.484 and they serve in our community. 00:10:20.982 --> 00:10:23.263 That freedom of expression 00:10:24.001 --> 00:10:28.458 adds to a national murmur that we all are listening to right now, 00:10:30.642 --> 00:10:35.776 that our institutions are gracefully trying to navigate, 00:10:36.473 --> 00:10:39.877 where we have to take these freedoms that are individual to each of us 00:10:40.688 --> 00:10:42.612 and they compete, 00:10:42.612 --> 00:10:46.970 and we have to figure out how to resolve that conflict. 00:10:46.970 --> 00:10:51.254 And so, those freedoms of expression are meeting that national murmur, 00:10:51.254 --> 00:10:52.537 and they're coming together 00:10:52.537 --> 00:10:54.967 and they're part of this great movement of change 00:10:54.967 --> 00:10:56.403 that we're all living through. 00:10:57.842 --> 00:11:01.076 That freedom doesn't just belong in the books, 00:11:01.076 --> 00:11:03.927 it doesn't just belong in the parades, 00:11:03.927 --> 00:11:06.169 that it belongs to each of us individually, 00:11:06.169 --> 00:11:08.701 and that it always drives us to responsibility 00:11:08.701 --> 00:11:10.771 and always drives us to service. 00:11:10.771 --> 00:11:14.856 And that is beautiful and transformative. 00:11:17.659 --> 00:11:19.981 And it's not just an American ideal, 00:11:19.981 --> 00:11:23.434 it's a universal and shared idea. 00:11:23.434 --> 00:11:27.052 So, next time, when we hear the debate 00:11:28.471 --> 00:11:29.857 about other countries 00:11:29.857 --> 00:11:32.370 and other individuals seeking their liberties, 00:11:33.784 --> 00:11:35.782 perhaps we can open ourselves 00:11:35.782 --> 00:11:39.383 that that's not just the stuff of economic crises, 00:11:39.383 --> 00:11:42.223 that that is the making of human rights. 00:11:44.609 --> 00:11:47.861 And I know that we like to see grand gestures of change, 00:11:47.861 --> 00:11:51.289 and that we look for these big pictures 00:11:51.289 --> 00:11:54.050 of how the world is changing and how freedom should look, 00:11:56.173 --> 00:11:58.911 but I think that we see 00:11:58.911 --> 00:12:01.076 the most beautiful expressions of liberty 00:12:02.117 --> 00:12:05.319 in the quiet everyday expressions of service, 00:12:06.356 --> 00:12:08.670 and that those service change the world. 00:12:10.359 --> 00:12:13.995 And I'm excited and turned on 00:12:13.995 --> 00:12:18.577 to see where the whispers of the Constitution speak to you, 00:12:18.577 --> 00:12:21.424 how they reveal your freedom and your service. 00:12:22.558 --> 00:12:23.610 Thank you. 00:12:23.610 --> 00:12:28.503 (Applause) 00:12:28.503 --> 00:12:30.736 Elizabeth Markie: Could you stay just a second? 00:12:30.736 --> 00:12:31.920 Tara Hechlik: Okay. 00:12:32.167 --> 00:12:34.244 EM: So, Tara, I would imagine 00:12:34.244 --> 00:12:37.652 that you get asked a lot of questions about the Constitution. 00:12:37.652 --> 00:12:39.098 Do you mind if I ask a couple? 00:12:39.098 --> 00:12:40.405 TH: Of course! 00:12:42.804 --> 00:12:45.974 EM: I'm wondering how free are we in America? 00:12:46.555 --> 00:12:49.453 TH: This is actually a question that a lot of my students ask 00:12:49.453 --> 00:12:52.412 because we think we're the barometer of freedom, 00:12:52.412 --> 00:12:55.726 that were the gold standard, yeah? 00:12:55.726 --> 00:12:59.733 But there's a number of indexes that we know of 00:12:59.733 --> 00:13:02.805 that actually indicate that, in terms of economic liberty, 00:13:02.805 --> 00:13:05.229 which is the basis of a lot of our freedoms, 00:13:05.229 --> 00:13:07.664 we're actually twelfth in the world, 00:13:07.664 --> 00:13:09.641 and when it comes to civil liberties, 00:13:09.641 --> 00:13:11.691 those are the liberties that we really like, 00:13:11.691 --> 00:13:15.000 that we're really close to, we're actually 21st in the world. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.917 And that's because this idea of freedom that we're talking about, 00:13:18.917 --> 00:13:20.352 that we're defining, 00:13:20.352 --> 00:13:23.907 other countries have picked it up where we started and they ran, 00:13:23.907 --> 00:13:27.865 and they learned from those weaknesses and those errors of our ways, 00:13:27.865 --> 00:13:29.144 and they exalt it. 00:13:30.257 --> 00:13:34.895 So, to answer your question, Elizabeth, we are free, 00:13:34.895 --> 00:13:39.362 but our colleagues in other countries 00:13:39.362 --> 00:13:42.142 are actually developing freedom in a much different way. 00:13:44.658 --> 00:13:46.860 EM: I have one word. TH: Okay, okay. 00:13:46.860 --> 00:13:48.004 (Laughter) 00:13:48.004 --> 00:13:49.543 EM: One more question for Tara. 00:13:50.029 --> 00:13:53.772 Does the Supreme Court decision regarding marriage 00:13:53.772 --> 00:13:58.300 mean that the First Amendment of freedom of religion isn't important? 00:14:00.016 --> 00:14:02.954 TH: So, you've all been watching the news, yeah? 00:14:02.954 --> 00:14:06.176 We've got a Kentucky clerk that is sitting in jail. 00:14:07.482 --> 00:14:11.747 And we have a lot of rhetoric about the freedom of religion 00:14:12.363 --> 00:14:16.052 that somehow the Constitution belongs to conservatives, 00:14:16.052 --> 00:14:17.821 or belongs to liberals. 00:14:17.821 --> 00:14:21.248 And what our Supreme Court has said in June 00:14:21.248 --> 00:14:23.458 is that it belongs-- 00:14:23.458 --> 00:14:25.168 liberty belongs to you, 00:14:25.168 --> 00:14:27.935 but that no liberties are above each other. 00:14:27.935 --> 00:14:33.597 So that the freedom of religion does not trump equality, 00:14:34.260 --> 00:14:37.334 and one brand of freedom of religion does not trump the other. 00:14:38.118 --> 00:14:40.172 So, I think what we're discovering 00:14:40.172 --> 00:14:43.568 is that equality is paramount with liberty. 00:14:44.284 --> 00:14:45.324 Right? 00:14:45.801 --> 00:14:49.522 And that we don't have to compete those liberties, 00:14:49.522 --> 00:14:51.243 we just have to exalt equality. 00:14:52.681 --> 00:14:53.681 EM: Thank you, Tara. 00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:55.261 (Applause) TH: Thank you.