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Parallels with the Past


((PKG)) Historian - Selika Ducksworth-Lawton
((TRT: 04:36))
((Banner: Final Thoughts))
((Camera: Gabriel Weiss))
((Video Editor: Lisa Vohra))
((Map: Eau Claire, WI))
((Main Characters: 1 female))

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
2020 has taught me to be a better teacher and it’s taught me to
be a better team member. You know, it’s one thing intellectually to
say, ‘I’m teaching the Red Scare. I’m teaching World War I and II.

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))))
I’m teaching the Spanish Flu. And it’s another thing to be living
through it and say, ‘Oh, this is what my ancestors went through.
This is what they were thinking. This is what they must have been
feeling.’ And it’s made me more empathetic to the suffering of
others, but it’s also helped to see that we haven’t changed as
much as we want to think we have, and that these currents and
patterns of human behavior, it’s reinforced that they repeat. But
it’s also given me a lot of faith that we’ll overcome it. We
overcame the first Red Scare. We overcame the second Red
Scare.

((NATS))
Until this moment Senator I think I never really gaged your loyalty
or your recklessness.

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
This is the third Red Scare and we’ve lived through this kind of
division before. It’s also made me bolder about speaking my truth.
And stronger when people push back on it to say, ‘No, here’s the
evidence, this is my truth, and I can’t help it if it’s not what you
want to hear.’

And I think that, you know, 2020 has been a year where we’ve
had to begin to engage in very difficult conversations.

((NATS))
We are one of the poorest counties in the state of Texas.
As a doctor like myself in a small community we can’t get funding.

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
The pandemic has taught us how much we need these social ties
to people. We need other people, we need the community and it’s
also taught us that the discipline that we took for granted in this
country, we can’t take it for granted. We can’t take democracy for
granted.

((NATS))
All lives can’t matter until, Black Lives Matter. All lives can’t
matter until, Black Lives Matter.


((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
So, we have to think about how do you go around the obstacle
and not through it. How do you lead people who don’t want to
hear an uncomfortable truth, to be able to deal with it? How do
you get them to understand that everyone deserves respect no
matter what they’ve done? It has been a hard year.

((Courtesy @3:14: Selika Ducksworth-Lawton and/or Luong
Huynh??

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
I have lost family members to COVID. And we’ve thought a lot
about mortality and a lot about how do we leave this world better
for people and how do we get fiscal stability for people.

((NATS))
I’m the head of this house, but I have been paying with my
savings. At this moment I am literally waiting for the sheriff’s to
show up at my front door to remove me.

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
And I think to have those conversations in our small circle and try
to make the place where we live better.

((NATS))
This is a woman that she hasn’t had food for several days.
I’m here by myself.

((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
If everybody does that, we can get it to reach out and hit the rest
of the world. That sounds really optimistic and everything but, you
know, I’m not the President of the United States. I’m not in
Congress. I don’t have money to pay for access. So, what I can
do is do what I can do here. And get with like-minded people and
continue doing that, and maybe we’ll drag the politicians along.
That’s the best we can do.

Tease 1
((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
We haven’t changed as much as we want to think we have, and
that these currents and patterns of human behavior, it’s reinforced
that they repeat. But it’s also given me a lot of faith that we’ll
overcome it.

Tease 2
((Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Historian, University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire))
How do we leave this world better for people and how do we get
fiscal stability for people. I’m the head of this house, but I have
been paying with my savings. At this moment I am literally
waiting for the sheriff’s to show up at my front door to remove me.

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SM
MD
LG