April 2, 2024 • 17 mins
Sitting across from me today is not only an inspiring young leader but also my pride and joy—my son, Gus White. While nursing a cold at home, Gus took center stage to reveal his journey from the hockey rink to the esteemed role of a second-grade student ambassador at Upper Allen Elementary. With charm and wit, he discussed his strategic campaign for election and the earnest responsibilities he embraced upon winning. Gus's insightful reflections on his peers' mature handling of the election outcome offered a refreshing contrast to the adult world, leaving us with a heartwarming sense of hope in the leaders of tomorrow.
As we delved further into our conversation, Gus's views on leadership and ethics highlighted the meaningful lessons in student politics, from the power of a 'win-win' scenario to the art of compromise. The importance of voting and respecting a spectrum of political beliefs became a centerpiece of our discussion, as we acknowledged the significance of encouraging young voices in our democratic processes. Before signing off, my charismatic co-host shared a fascinating tidbit about the Great Wall of China and teased the potential for weekly segments filled with his youthful insights and delightful facts. Join us for a unique look into the mind of a future change-maker, where the wisdom of a child reminds us of the simple yet profound values we all should cherish.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Keystone Reckoning podcast.
A very special KeystoneReckoning podcast for Wednesday,
April 3rd 2024.
I have a big time guest with metoday.
That's right, an ambassador.
We were able to secure anambassador as a guest, so please
, let's take this very seriously.
We're going to show someserious deference and respect to
(00:22):
my guest, second grade studentambassador at Upper Allen
Elementary in Mechanicsburg, whoalso happens to be my son, who
is home from school not feelingwell today, Augustus White, also
known as Gus.
Gus, thank you for being on thepodcast, Hi, Okay, so Gus is a
little nervous, but Gus normallyhas no lack of things to talk
(00:46):
about, so I thought it'd be funto take a little time from being
on the couch not feeling wellto come up and just chat for a
minute.
So, Gus, tell me a little bitabout yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, I'm in second grade and I love hockey, and my
favorite sport is the PittsburghPenguins Nice.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Cool and you play hockey right?
Yes, and are you good?
Yes, what position do you play?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Defenseman.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Nice.
How many goals did you havethis year?
Five Nice, and how many in theplayoffs?
Two Nice.
The kid's a juggernaut.
What can I say?
Okay, and you have a veryspecial role in your school.
What is that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Being an ambassador.
So what does that mean?
It means you are the sort oflike the leader in your class.
You stand up for what's right.
You mean upstander, you doeverything good.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Right, and how did you get chosen to be student
ambassador?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
good Right.
And how did you get chosen tobe student ambassador?
Well, around, I want to say thebeginning of the close to the
beginning of the school year.
We did a vote for ambassador.
I was only running against twoother ambassadors.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And so you had an election, and what did you do to
?
How did you prepare for yourelection?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, all the all the ambassadors, there was only
three running.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And how many could win?
Just one could win, OK.
So what did you have to do towin your election?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You had to fill out a paper saying I will do this, I
will do that, I will.
I will do anything right.
I will do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
All right, and then, what did you do before the
election?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
There was a vote, but one day when we came into class
, everybody had a slip of paperat their seat and there was a
box on the carpet and there werethree of them and the box said
Gus, and then one had the other.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, we won't say the other kid's name, but wait,
didn't you have to give a speech?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, everybody running had to do a speech and
my speech was very good.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Because we worked a lot together.
Right, you practiced it and youmade a very interesting, very
interesting decision, which wasyou let off with the joke.
Do you remember the joke?
It was a knock knock joke.
You don't remember it, Iremember it.
You said knock knock gus gus,your next student ambassador
(03:21):
yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It was a good joke people liked.
And then when it was time forthe vote, we wouldn't hear until
the end of the day and I gotchosen.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So after people voted , but before you knew the result
, were you nervous?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Very nervous.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, because I know from when I've gotten elected to
, things like the day is theworst, right, you're just
waiting, everything is done,you're waiting to see who won.
Yes, isn't that a great feeling, though, when you win.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, it's a very great feeling Nice and so OK.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So you got elected and you know there's a saying
that says you campaign in poetryand you govern in prose, which
means the campaigning is the funpart, but which means the
campaigning is the fun part.
But now you had to go to workand do the hard work.
So tell me, about what do youdo as a student ambassador?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, you know, every month in school we have a
community meeting where we goover the recent topics or events
at our school and sometimes theambassadors get to talk on the
stage in front of the wholeentire school, but those are
usually the third graders who dothat.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And you happen to know a third grade ambassador,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He was my brother.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, we had a set of ambassadors in the house, but
Atticus's was a lot easier.
He didn't have to give a speechor anything like that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, they just did a vote and then he got chosen.
Yeah, and here's somethingweird His class has two
ambassadors, mine only has one.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Is that maybe because you're like twice the
ambassador that he is?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Very funny.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
But I believe only two kids like five kids ran Like
five kids ran and the threekids bought no votes, but
Atticus and the other kid tiedand vote.
Oh, maybe that's why, becausethey tied, yeah, and you are
allowed to vote for yourself,yeah.
Well, obviously, yeah, you gotto be allowed to, did you vote?
(05:17):
For yourself, of course, howmany times allowed to vote for
yourself.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, well, obviously , yeah, you got to be allowed to
.
Did you vote for yourself?
Of course?
How many times did you vote foryourself?
You can, oh, okay, justchecking.
And did you feel that theelection wasn't rigged or
anything like that?
It wasn't rigged, all right,and so I have a question.
After the other kids didn't win, none of them tried to claim
that they actually won.
No, they didn't like raise upan army and try to storm the
(05:45):
school.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, everybody was happy, pretty much everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So they accepted the result of the election?
Yeah, so in some ways the kidswere more grown up than adults
were.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
When they lose an election yes, Nice, that was
like when I started to getreally popular in my class, so
everybody voted Pretty much.
Everybody voted for me Verycool.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Now you haven't let it go to your head, have you?
No, Do you have any specialprivileges for being an
ambassador In real life?
If you're an ambassador fromanother country, you have what
they call diplomatic immunity,which means you can park
anywhere you want.
You can't really get in trouble.
Do you have that happen to you?
No, no special privileges.
And if you could pick any onespecial privilege as a student
(06:34):
ambassador that you could getaway with anything, what would
it be?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Not getting in trouble.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But I thought you shouldn't get in trouble anyway
as a student ambassador.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The goal is not to, but even when you do, it's not
good.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It's not good.
Can you be thrown out of beinga student ambassador?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, if you do something terribly wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Has anybody been thrown out?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
No, Everybody's been good.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Okay, good, that's why I like this.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, and every month , usually on like a Tuesday or
Thursday, all the ambassadorsmeet for a meeting in the
morning and we just discusstopics like that stuff, the
junior game it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Okay, so do you think what have you learned about
being an ambassador?
Like, what are the things youneed?
You said you have to be good,right, and set an example, but
like, what are the kind ofthings, then that you need to
show your classmate?
Like, what do they expect fromyou as an ambassador?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They expect.
They expect nice behavior,pretty much behaving like the
best in the class, and also theyexpect that you will be a good
friend as an ambassador?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Do you require them to call you by a specific title?
Are you Mr Ambassador?
No, so you just go by Gus.
Yes, so you're like a man ofthe people.
I like that.
You don't let it go to yourhead.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
That's what I like to hear.
So, okay, that's leadership, bythe way, not letting it go to
your head, right?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
A big part of being a student ambassador is being a
leader.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Nice.
So okay, let me ask you thiswhat do you think it means to be
a leader?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It means you stand up , you lead your team or lead
like that lead, lead like that.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Uh, you, you, you don't let anything get in your
way.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So when you say stand up, you don't mean like
actually stand up, I don't knowlike stand up what's right okay,
cool and dad, what you weresaying was like so every meeting
we get about three new pagesand our ambassador like binder.
(09:07):
You have a binder, yeah, and ithas, like usually the schedule,
some sort of like I willstatements is like kind of like
I would just talking about, likeI will stand up for what's
right, I will blah, blah, blah,et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And then also there's a word of the month for the
student ambassador.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh, I didn't know that.
What's the word for this month?
Oh, it was more of a phrase.
What's the?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
word for this month.
Oh, it was more of a phrasethis month, but it's think, when
, when, and that means like,let's say you want mac and
cheese for lunch, dad, okay, andI want pierogies, okay.
And we can't decide I want macand cheese, I want pierogies,
then we can have.
(09:55):
Then one of us might say well,we can have pierogies today, we
can have mac and cheese tomorrow, so you both win.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So win-win.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's another word for,that is compromise, right.
And that's what in real life,in politics, in government,
that's what they want us to dois compromise, work together and
find something that works foreverybody.
Unfortunately, doesn't alwayswork that way in the real world,
right?
that way it's cool yeah, well,but you don't have like like
(10:26):
lobbyists.
Or you don't have like what isthis lobbyist?
That's like people that aretrying to like give you money
and and try to influence whatyou do, right, okay, you don't
have that.
No, of course, like, don'tanybody offer you like candy to
like you know, do a certainthing.
I don't, okay, good, justchecking.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
You're not allowed to give people food.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, good to know.
Okay, so let's go beyondstudent ambassador for a minute,
which is still super cool, andI, I was very, very proud of you
when you got elected becauseyou worked hard on it, right,
you didn't just take it forgranted.
So you know, obviously you knowwhat, what I do in our house.
We talk about politics andvoting and a lot of different
things.
So why do you think it'simportant to vote?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Because if nobody votes, then there's not going to
be a president.
Ok, and if voting helps, helpsyou know what's right, like if
somebody heard that you votedfor I don't know, Joe.
Biden and they also voted forJoe Biden, then that's good.
(11:28):
But if somebody voted for thepresident running against Joe
Biden, then that wouldn't begood Right.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But if someone voted for somebody else because they
believed in that person, is thatokay?
Yes, because is everybodyallowed to believe what they
think?
Yes, right, and we don'tdisrespect anybody for how they
vote.
Yes, do we or don't we?
We don't Right.
We don't disrespect peoplebecause they're allowed to vote
how they choose.
Yes, do we or don't we?
We don't Right.
We don't disrespect peoplebecause they're allowed to vote
how they choose, right.
(11:58):
Yeah, but is it important tovote?
Yes, are you going to vote whenyou're old enough?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
How often are you going to vote?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
When the election comes Right.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Very cool.
So if you could make any onelaw right, could make any one
law right that everybody had tofollow in the whole country.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
What would it be?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Oh, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Uh, it's hard.
All right, let me rephrase itwhat do you think is the most
important thing that's going tomatter for you when you're a
grown-up Like?
If you're like, okay, what issomething that like, hey, grown
ups right now, don't screw thisup for me.
When I'm a grown up right, Like, what is, what is that thing
that you care about?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The way money works.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Which is how Explain that to me?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
When you have money, maybe you want to go buy, like I
don't know, a sandwich, okay,and the sandwich costs $5, and
you have $5, or you have $6, andyou just hand the $6 over.
Then you get change back.
That makes sense, okay.
But sometimes people who aregenerous, when they don't have
(13:12):
the exact amount and they payover, they say keep the change.
I don't want it so that whenyou pay over that you don't
always have to give that change,because that would make
everybody's job easier, becausesometimes it's a very specific
(13:33):
number Sometimes it's not Likeyou might need to count, I don't
know 64 cents.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And you might only have two quarters and a nickel,
then you couldn't make that.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Then you'd have to split up a dollar, and now it
gets even more complicated.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That is complicated.
Just thinking about it iscomplicated.
Yeah, makes my head hurt.
So maybe people should just usetheir debit cards.
That would make things easier.
So you want to go.
You mainly want to move to acashless economy Pretty much,
right.
You want to get to wherethere's no cash.
Yeah, interesting, that's apretty interesting.
That's a pretty interestingtake.
(14:15):
Uh, is there anything else thatyou, if you could make a law,
that you would make as a law?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
that, uh, if I was the president and I could make a
law, one of those laws would belike for any item that costs
money, well, if it goes, I wouldput like certain numbers, like
if a different item, like anovelty, toy, a book, and if it
(14:42):
costs over that certain amountof money, then they have to stop
and they have to take theprices down.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So like price controls yes, so you have to
take the prices down.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So like price controls yes, so you want to,
okay so, but like it's a cap onevery different thing, it's like
maybe cups.
A cup should cost $5.
A nice cup could cost $10.
But the max might be $30.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Okay.
So this is interesting and, tobe clear to our listeners, this
is not anything we discuss inadvance, like we're just
freestyling here.
So what I'm hearing is I neverwould have thought that you'd
have been big on economic policy, but you're talking about a
cashless economy and controls tofight inflation.
Yeah, wow, that is veryimpressive.
(15:29):
You're taking a very economic,populist stance.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I came up with that right on the spot.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I can tell you definitely did.
There's no doubt about it.
So I think we're about done,gus, are you going to come back
and do some more of these?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Oh, yes, I would love to.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
All right, maybe we'll do like a weekly segment.
Yes, be fun.
All right, gus, is thereanything you want to say to the
listeners out there before yougo?
Give me some words of wisdom.
No, I have an idea.
Give us a fact that people maynot know.
You love to give random factsfrom watching YouTube, kids and
stuff like that.
Is there any random fact thatwe might not know?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh, if you were to walk across the whole Great Wall
of China, that would take over.
That would take 18 months.
Wow, and I'm just saying, likeyou don't even sleep, you don't
even take a break to eat, likeall you do is walk, that's
straight walking.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, impressive.
Should we try that sometime?
No, no, cool, gus, you wereawesome.
Thank you very much.
Gus is very happy with himselfand I think we'll definitely
come back and do this again.
This has been the KeystoneReckoning Podcast.
I'm your host, jesse White,along with special guest
ambassador Gus White.
Say goodbye, gus.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Bye.
Welcome to the Keystone Reckoning podcast.
A very special KeystoneReckoning podcast for Wednesday,
April 3rd 2024.
I have a big time guest with metoday.
That's right, an ambassador.
We were able to secure anambassador as a guest, so please
, let's take this very seriously.
We're going to show someserious deference and respect to
(00:22):
my guest, second grade studentambassador at Upper Allen
Elementary in Mechanicsburg, whoalso happens to be my son, who
is home from school not feelingwell today, Augustus White, also
known as Gus.
Gus, thank you for being on thepodcast, Hi, Okay, so Gus is a
little nervous, but Gus normallyhas no lack of things to talk
(00:46):
about, so I thought it'd be funto take a little time from being
on the couch not feeling wellto come up and just chat for a
minute.
So, Gus, tell me a little bitabout yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, I'm in second grade and I love hockey, and my
favorite sport is the PittsburghPenguins Nice.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Cool and you play hockey right?
Yes, and are you good?
Yes, what position do you play?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Defenseman.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Nice.
How many goals did you havethis year?
Five Nice, and how many in theplayoffs?
Two Nice.
The kid's a juggernaut.
What can I say?
Okay, and you have a veryspecial role in your school.
What is that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Being an ambassador.
So what does that mean?
It means you are the sort oflike the leader in your class.
You stand up for what's right.
You mean upstander, you doeverything good.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Right, and how did you get chosen to be student
ambassador?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
good Right.
And how did you get chosen tobe student ambassador?
Well, around, I want to say thebeginning of the close to the
beginning of the school year.
We did a vote for ambassador.
I was only running against twoother ambassadors.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And so you had an election, and what did you do to
?
How did you prepare for yourelection?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, all the all the ambassadors, there was only
three running.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And how many could win?
Just one could win, OK.
So what did you have to do towin your election?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You had to fill out a paper saying I will do this, I
will do that, I will.
I will do anything right.
I will do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
All right, and then, what did you do before the
election?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
There was a vote, but one day when we came into class
, everybody had a slip of paperat their seat and there was a
box on the carpet and there werethree of them and the box said
Gus, and then one had the other.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, we won't say the other kid's name, but wait,
didn't you have to give a speech?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, everybody running had to do a speech and
my speech was very good.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Because we worked a lot together.
Right, you practiced it and youmade a very interesting, very
interesting decision, which wasyou let off with the joke.
Do you remember the joke?
It was a knock knock joke.
You don't remember it, Iremember it.
You said knock knock gus gus,your next student ambassador
(03:21):
yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It was a good joke people liked.
And then when it was time forthe vote, we wouldn't hear until
the end of the day and I gotchosen.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So after people voted , but before you knew the result
, were you nervous?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Very nervous.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, because I know from when I've gotten elected to
, things like the day is theworst, right, you're just
waiting, everything is done,you're waiting to see who won.
Yes, isn't that a great feeling, though, when you win.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, it's a very great feeling Nice and so OK.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So you got elected and you know there's a saying
that says you campaign in poetryand you govern in prose, which
means the campaigning is the funpart, but which means the
campaigning is the fun part.
But now you had to go to workand do the hard work.
So tell me, about what do youdo as a student ambassador?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, you know, every month in school we have a
community meeting where we goover the recent topics or events
at our school and sometimes theambassadors get to talk on the
stage in front of the wholeentire school, but those are
usually the third graders who dothat.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And you happen to know a third grade ambassador,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He was my brother.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, we had a set of ambassadors in the house, but
Atticus's was a lot easier.
He didn't have to give a speechor anything like that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, they just did a vote and then he got chosen.
Yeah, and here's somethingweird His class has two
ambassadors, mine only has one.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Is that maybe because you're like twice the
ambassador that he is?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Very funny.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
But I believe only two kids like five kids ran Like
five kids ran and the threekids bought no votes, but
Atticus and the other kid tiedand vote.
Oh, maybe that's why, becausethey tied, yeah, and you are
allowed to vote for yourself,yeah.
Well, obviously, yeah, you gotto be allowed to, did you vote?
(05:17):
For yourself, of course, howmany times allowed to vote for
yourself.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, well, obviously , yeah, you got to be allowed to
.
Did you vote for yourself?
Of course?
How many times did you vote foryourself?
You can, oh, okay, justchecking.
And did you feel that theelection wasn't rigged or
anything like that?
It wasn't rigged, all right,and so I have a question.
After the other kids didn't win, none of them tried to claim
that they actually won.
No, they didn't like raise upan army and try to storm the
(05:45):
school.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, everybody was happy, pretty much everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So they accepted the result of the election?
Yeah, so in some ways the kidswere more grown up than adults
were.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
When they lose an election yes, Nice, that was
like when I started to getreally popular in my class, so
everybody voted Pretty much.
Everybody voted for me Verycool.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Now you haven't let it go to your head, have you?
No, Do you have any specialprivileges for being an
ambassador In real life?
If you're an ambassador fromanother country, you have what
they call diplomatic immunity,which means you can park
anywhere you want.
You can't really get in trouble.
Do you have that happen to you?
No, no special privileges.
And if you could pick any onespecial privilege as a student
(06:34):
ambassador that you could getaway with anything, what would
it be?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Not getting in trouble.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But I thought you shouldn't get in trouble anyway
as a student ambassador.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The goal is not to, but even when you do, it's not
good.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It's not good.
Can you be thrown out of beinga student ambassador?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, if you do something terribly wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Has anybody been thrown out?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
No, Everybody's been good.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Okay, good, that's why I like this.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, and every month , usually on like a Tuesday or
Thursday, all the ambassadorsmeet for a meeting in the
morning and we just discusstopics like that stuff, the
junior game it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Okay, so do you think what have you learned about
being an ambassador?
Like, what are the things youneed?
You said you have to be good,right, and set an example, but
like, what are the kind ofthings, then that you need to
show your classmate?
Like, what do they expect fromyou as an ambassador?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They expect.
They expect nice behavior,pretty much behaving like the
best in the class, and also theyexpect that you will be a good
friend as an ambassador?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Do you require them to call you by a specific title?
Are you Mr Ambassador?
No, so you just go by Gus.
Yes, so you're like a man ofthe people.
I like that.
You don't let it go to yourhead.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
That's what I like to hear.
So, okay, that's leadership, bythe way, not letting it go to
your head, right?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
A big part of being a student ambassador is being a
leader.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Nice.
So okay, let me ask you thiswhat do you think it means to be
a leader?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It means you stand up , you lead your team or lead
like that lead, lead like that.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Uh, you, you, you don't let anything get in your
way.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So when you say stand up, you don't mean like
actually stand up, I don't knowlike stand up what's right okay,
cool and dad, what you weresaying was like so every meeting
we get about three new pagesand our ambassador like binder.
(09:07):
You have a binder, yeah, and ithas, like usually the schedule,
some sort of like I willstatements is like kind of like
I would just talking about, likeI will stand up for what's
right, I will blah, blah, blah,et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And then also there's a word of the month for the
student ambassador.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh, I didn't know that.
What's the word for this month?
Oh, it was more of a phrase.
What's the?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
word for this month.
Oh, it was more of a phrasethis month, but it's think, when
, when, and that means like,let's say you want mac and
cheese for lunch, dad, okay, andI want pierogies, okay.
And we can't decide I want macand cheese, I want pierogies,
then we can have.
(09:55):
Then one of us might say well,we can have pierogies today, we
can have mac and cheese tomorrow, so you both win.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So win-win.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's another word for,that is compromise, right.
And that's what in real life,in politics, in government,
that's what they want us to dois compromise, work together and
find something that works foreverybody.
Unfortunately, doesn't alwayswork that way in the real world,
right?
that way it's cool yeah, well,but you don't have like like
(10:26):
lobbyists.
Or you don't have like what isthis lobbyist?
That's like people that aretrying to like give you money
and and try to influence whatyou do, right, okay, you don't
have that.
No, of course, like, don'tanybody offer you like candy to
like you know, do a certainthing.
I don't, okay, good, justchecking.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
You're not allowed to give people food.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, good to know.
Okay, so let's go beyondstudent ambassador for a minute,
which is still super cool, andI, I was very, very proud of you
when you got elected becauseyou worked hard on it, right,
you didn't just take it forgranted.
So you know, obviously you knowwhat, what I do in our house.
We talk about politics andvoting and a lot of different
things.
So why do you think it'simportant to vote?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Because if nobody votes, then there's not going to
be a president.
Ok, and if voting helps, helpsyou know what's right, like if
somebody heard that you votedfor I don't know, Joe.
Biden and they also voted forJoe Biden, then that's good.
(11:28):
But if somebody voted for thepresident running against Joe
Biden, then that wouldn't begood Right.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But if someone voted for somebody else because they
believed in that person, is thatokay?
Yes, because is everybodyallowed to believe what they
think?
Yes, right, and we don'tdisrespect anybody for how they
vote.
Yes, do we or don't we?
We don't Right.
We don't disrespect peoplebecause they're allowed to vote
how they choose.
Yes, do we or don't we?
We don't Right.
We don't disrespect peoplebecause they're allowed to vote
how they choose, right.
(11:58):
Yeah, but is it important tovote?
Yes, are you going to vote whenyou're old enough?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
How often are you going to vote?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
When the election comes Right.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Very cool.
So if you could make any onelaw right, could make any one
law right that everybody had tofollow in the whole country.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
What would it be?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Oh, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Uh, it's hard.
All right, let me rephrase itwhat do you think is the most
important thing that's going tomatter for you when you're a
grown-up Like?
If you're like, okay, what issomething that like, hey, grown
ups right now, don't screw thisup for me.
When I'm a grown up right, Like, what is, what is that thing
that you care about?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The way money works.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Which is how Explain that to me?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
When you have money, maybe you want to go buy, like I
don't know, a sandwich, okay,and the sandwich costs $5, and
you have $5, or you have $6, andyou just hand the $6 over.
Then you get change back.
That makes sense, okay.
But sometimes people who aregenerous, when they don't have
(13:12):
the exact amount and they payover, they say keep the change.
I don't want it so that whenyou pay over that you don't
always have to give that change,because that would make
everybody's job easier, becausesometimes it's a very specific
(13:33):
number Sometimes it's not Likeyou might need to count, I don't
know 64 cents.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And you might only have two quarters and a nickel,
then you couldn't make that.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Then you'd have to split up a dollar, and now it
gets even more complicated.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That is complicated.
Just thinking about it iscomplicated.
Yeah, makes my head hurt.
So maybe people should just usetheir debit cards.
That would make things easier.
So you want to go.
You mainly want to move to acashless economy Pretty much,
right.
You want to get to wherethere's no cash.
Yeah, interesting, that's apretty interesting.
That's a pretty interestingtake.
(14:15):
Uh, is there anything else thatyou, if you could make a law,
that you would make as a law?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
that, uh, if I was the president and I could make a
law, one of those laws would belike for any item that costs
money, well, if it goes, I wouldput like certain numbers, like
if a different item, like anovelty, toy, a book, and if it
(14:42):
costs over that certain amountof money, then they have to stop
and they have to take theprices down.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So like price controls yes, so you have to
take the prices down.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So like price controls yes, so you want to,
okay so, but like it's a cap onevery different thing, it's like
maybe cups.
A cup should cost $5.
A nice cup could cost $10.
But the max might be $30.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Okay.
So this is interesting and, tobe clear to our listeners, this
is not anything we discuss inadvance, like we're just
freestyling here.
So what I'm hearing is I neverwould have thought that you'd
have been big on economic policy, but you're talking about a
cashless economy and controls tofight inflation.
Yeah, wow, that is veryimpressive.
(15:29):
You're taking a very economic,populist stance.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And I came up with that right on the spot.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I can tell you definitely did.
There's no doubt about it.
So I think we're about done,gus, are you going to come back
and do some more of these?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Oh, yes, I would love to.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
All right, maybe we'll do like a weekly segment.
Yes, be fun.
All right, gus, is thereanything you want to say to the
listeners out there before yougo?
Give me some words of wisdom.
No, I have an idea.
Give us a fact that people maynot know.
You love to give random factsfrom watching YouTube, kids and
stuff like that.
Is there any random fact thatwe might not know?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh, if you were to walk across the whole Great Wall
of China, that would take over.
That would take 18 months.
Wow, and I'm just saying, likeyou don't even sleep, you don't
even take a break to eat, likeall you do is walk, that's
straight walking.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, impressive.
Should we try that sometime?
No, no, cool, gus, you wereawesome.
Thank you very much.
Gus is very happy with himselfand I think we'll definitely
come back and do this again.
This has been the KeystoneReckoning Podcast.
I'm your host, jesse White,along with special guest
ambassador Gus White.
Say goodbye, gus.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Bye.
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