Unknown: This episode of Alaska insight was recorded on March 17, and was edited for broadcast at this time.

Lori Townsend: What does it mean to be an Alaskan, beyond physical distance?

What else sets us apart from other Americans?

And how can we all contribute to making the future better for every resident of our state?

Unknown: Just think that there has been some things, some foundations that have been laid that make things unfair.

And we all need to look at that together.

Lori Townsend: What will it take to create a more equitable, Alaska?

We'll discuss that idea with our guests tonight on a special edition of Alaska insight.

The PBS project American portrait is a nationwide storytelling project.

During the last year people from across the country submitted videos that offer a glimpse into their lives and the things they care about.

Let's take a quick look at what the program is about.

Unknown: I was raised to believe despite where I came from, I could literally be anything I wanted to be a want to leave a legacy in the song center, right?

I was born and raised in Las Vegas, I go to the University of Arkansas, My office is the great outdoors of Alaska.

I love bringing other people together that feel like I'm doing something important.

I had loving supportive family members who pushed me to dream big.

Lori Townsend: There are a number of great Alaskan contributions to the videos that have been collected by the American portrait project.

And throughout the hour, we'll see some of them.

Alaskan shared personal reflections on a range of topics from the importance of family traditions, to subsistence to celebrating work, love and adventure to advocating for working together to end racism.

Alaskans have a lot of kendu spirit and a deep connection to the state.

Let's explore some of what it means to be an Alaskan in this time of social and political unrest, and how we can come together to create an Alaska that is a leader in the nation for equity, health and wellness.

Joining me to talk about how we can achieve these goals for our future is Cheryl Williams program coordinator with the Alaska humanities forum.

Andrea Fuad tie to Amala tie is a youth teaching fellow with storyworks Alaska.

Janell Everett is the director of recruitment for Illa saga college.

Les ghera is a former state legislator, and Jacqueline estus is a national correspondent for Indian country today, and a longtime Alaska journalist, welcome all of you.

Thank you so much for being with us this evening.

We know that Alaska has a lot of strengths.

Let's start with some thoughts from our guests about what they consider to be Alaska's biggest challenges.

jenelle start us off, where are the areas of concern for you?

For Alaska's future health.

Unknown: Thank you, Laurie, for having me.

I think the first thing I would look at is the sense of community that it appears no longer exists in Alaska.

For many years, I felt that when I first moved here, and that seems to be lacking now, so if we could get back to the sense of we're all in this together, and what affects one Alaskan affects all Alaskans.

I think that we can move not just our state forward, but our country as a whole.

Lori Townsend: Alright, thank you.

Maybe we'll drill down a little bit more in a while about your thoughts there about today versus years ago, Unknown: Andrea, Lori Townsend: how about for you?

What do you see as challenges for the future of younger Alaskans?

Unknown: I thank you for having me as well.

I think just like what jenelle was saying.

Even just being in the youth and everything is not the same or as mad as ish.

It's not.

It's not how I should be, you know, how we are now.

I don't think it will benefit our future.

You know, we need to make a change as soon as we can, you know, the sense of connection and that feeling of togetherness, you know, with everybody.

I think that's where it's really lacking as well.

And yeah.

Lori Townsend: So you think there's a lack of coming together.

Other view see that quite a bit?

Is Do you see that more in people that are older?

Or is that also true for younger people?

Unknown: No, I, I strongly believe that is in the youth to be honest, we're a lacks the sense of community, to be honest.

I think the older folks, they had it down packed with, like, come together and all of that, but I don't know something, something with the generation coming up, something happened to us.

And I just think we need to fix that before it gets any worse, if that makes sense.

Lori Townsend: That's a really interesting insight for us.

And hopefully, we can talk a little more about that.

Less, let's turn to you now, as a former state representative, is it our fiscal situation, or another area that is most concerning to you for the state's future?

Unknown: A fiscal situation is just math and just takes the courage by leaders to deal with it.

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about is other than coffee is what's going to give people a chance in life to succeed, right?

Whether or not you're born with privilege, or not born with privilege, the thing that drives me and the thing that concerns me is whether or not people are going to have a chance at opportunity and a fair shake in life.

As I see class sizes get bigger as I see attempts to get rid of what little pre kindergarten we have in the state, we rank in my bottom 10 in the nation and pre kindergarten, when all the studies say that you'll earn more, your chances of graduating high school and college are greater your chances of staying out of jail are greater when you enter into grade school and kindergarten ready to read and ready to learn.

And those things, the things that give and grant people the opportunity to be successful in the world are things that right now we're lagging in, and that are being cut away rather than rather than grown.

So people have a real chance.

Lori Townsend: All right, thank you, Jacqueline, let's get your initial thoughts here.

Where are the pinch points as you see them that hold us back?

Unknown: Well, it's kind of the whole ball of wax.

Oh, gosh, that's my phone.

Sorry.

So um, I mean, we're one of the wealthiest states in the nation.

And yet, we're in a recession.

And we've been losing 1000s of jobs every year for years.

And I feel like some of the critically important infrastructure, the systems are either broken or they're falling apart.

And two that come to mind are the state ferry system?

And then, um, gosh, I forgot my second thought.

Anyway.

Criminal Justice, I'm sorry, I was distracted by my phone.

So um, the rates of incarceration, and the people who were in prison and how long they're in for and that kind of thing.

Lori Townsend: All right, thank you.

So this, the very infrastructure systems that we have, you see crumbling, les was talking about the need for education to help lift people up.

Cheryl, let's turn to you now.

You've been bringing Alaskans together through a humanities forum project called conversations across generations, I was honored to be part of that first group.

There's a lot to explore about this.

And hopefully, we'll get into some more of that throughout the hour.

But when you reflect on what you've been hearing from these cohorts that the humanities form is brought together, what stands out to you as our challenges as Alaskans, for our collective future?

What did you hear in those conversations, and of course, your own thoughts.

Unknown: All combination of both Lori and I would be remiss not to thank you for this opportunity to share tonight, the revelation that racial equity is a lifelong journey, and that it's not linear.

We really have to understand that these conversations are ongoing.

It's not a one and done.

You need to engage you need to engage with people who don't look like you who don't think like you, and most likely disagree with their whole heart and mind with what you want to say.

So it's learning how to have these conversations and have them in a way that's productive.

And everyone feels that their voices are heard.

And not necessarily understood.

But you're given the the empathy and the respect to have your opinion.

You know, at some point thing people think you have to change somebody's mind.

You have to have them, care for you.

First and foremost, you if they don't care about You, then they won't make decisions that will affect change in a positive way.

And the more we have these conversations, the more it's uncovered, that people want to be heard.

Lori Townsend: You know, I really liked the way you put that, that we have to learn how to have these conversations that it doesn't.

It's not an easy thing to sit with people of different generations, different ethnicities, and talk about sensitive and sometimes tough issues.

And so learning how to have those conversations, as you said, to be heard, maybe we don't change minds, but at least if we're respected and heard, that's a wonderful step in the right direction, to more harmony.

Thank you, Cheryl.

Now, let's consider our own identity.

What does it mean to all of you to be an Alaskan?

Is that your cultural connection family, the beauty of the state fishing for salmon, perhaps?

And what sets our state apart from others?

Both what you see as the positives and the negatives?

Cheryl, I'm gonna stay with you.

What does being Alaskan mean to you and what sets us apart both the good and maybe they're not so good.

Unknown: You know, I hate to lead with the not so good.

But you know, the army brought me here.

And I was kicking and screaming when I showed up, because I didn't know how to live in an igloo.

But guess what, that was not the case.

And now I'm living and loving and, and happy to be here.

The the idea that we're so far removed from the flagpole, you know, we have terms for lower 48.

And I heard somebody say, Southern 48, the other day, we are outside or outside.

Yes.

And those who are outside are free thinkers, we don't have the boundaries of the folks that are locked into a system.

If something's going to start, it's probably going to start in Alaska, if there's going to be an idea that someone can do whatever they want to do, the way they want to do it will probably be in Alaska, we are just that kind of bold and brash.

And we can handle the elements.

So we think we can handle everything else, which it's why it fits me perfectly to be here.

You know, three brothers, one sister, and who's the one that joined the army.

So this is the land of the brave, the bold, and the ones that don't see challenges, they see opportunities.

Lori Townsend: Alright, that's a really interesting thought about an idea starting here that we know that there's a lot of free thinkers and libertarian leading folks in Alaska, a lot of people that came to Alaska to hide out from others, because they just didn't want to be around other people.

So I can see where you're coming from.

From that perspective.

Jacqueline, let's turn back to you.

Being Alaska Native means your connection to Alaska is of course different than those of us who migrated here.

But you've lived in other places, too.

How does your home state compare?

Unknown: Well, I'm, you know, it's I've gotten to the point in my life where I'm almost trauma sick.

As soon as I leave the state, I feel deeply connected to Alaska.

And I love it here.

I saw some webinar where somebody said, and they were complaining, and he got offered a job in Alaska.

And they they were acting like it was they were being sent to Siberia.

And my perception of Alaska is so different from that.

And like I said, I just love it here.

So when I go outside, one of the things that strikes me is the lack of wilderness.

And then how everything is this, there's not very much character, you know, if you go to, especially if you're on business trips, and you're kind of from the airport, to the downtown to a hotel, to a conference center, and so on and so forth.

That's not a great way to see a city.

But you really come away with a sense that a lot of the lower 48 metropolitan areas are very similar to each other.

And I think we're different.

I think we're unique.

Lori Townsend: I agree.

I think we are as well.

Thank you, les, your thoughts about what it means to be an Alaskan.

And what you see is our challenges compared to other other states, other parts of the United States.

Unknown: I think what it means to be Alaskan is in part different for everybody else.

For everybody, I think we all share the love of the beauty that we have in the state.

We share the love of the community we have in the state.

I think people if left to their on to their own, would be able to solve problems but With the beauty if you think about our Alaska, which has the last great wild fish runs in the world that has the amazing wildlife in game, when you think about those things, and I've been lucky enough to, even though I grew up in difficult circumstances through foster care, I've been lucky enough to be successful enough.

But I think about those things, enjoying the outdoors requires that you be able to buy a pair of hiking boots and a fishing rod, or a rifle if you want to go hunting.

And there are so many people in Alaska, especially in the urban areas, but in the rural areas, well, especially in rural areas, too, who grew up with very, very little.

And so often people can't enjoy this beautiful place that you see on TV, the hiking in the mountains, or the fishing or the hunting or the wildlife feeling, or the travel around the state without money.

And and and that goes back to what are we going to do to make sure people have a fair chance to opportunity to succeed.

And when you succeed, that helps you enjoy the state with a pair of hiking boots with a fishing rod, with the ability to take a flight up to maybe no gnome or Kotzebue or see some of the places around the state.

The enjoyment of Alaska is in part related to your ability to access Alaska.

And if if we don't have a society that gives people the education and tools they need to succeed in life.

It hurts me to be out there in the outdoors and see a lot of middle class people but not see people who grew up in poor urban areas or poor rural areas.

Lori Townsend: Do you think that that's is that disparity larger here than in other states, because those things are certainly true in other parts of the US as well.

Unknown: I think they're, they're large.

Like I said, we do very badly in a number of categories, we ranked number one in so many different categories, from child abuse, to domestic abuse, the things that impact children in a way that they grow up with, with a burden that they may never overcome.

And then you add to that, the lagging education system that could be much better and used to be much better, and a university that trains people for jobs so they can succeed and get the jobs that enable them to get to the outdoors and to get to the beautiful places.

And that university is being decimated at a time it should be growing.

You know, we should make sure we have quality education that is affordable for people so they can succeed.

And we're taking steps and steps backwards in the last few years on those things.

And I worry and you see people leaving the state because of that, because they don't want to raise their children without knowing there's a commitment to public education in the state.

And they see a university that trains people both for jobs and degree programs being decimated.

And I just when I'm out there in the wilderness, you know, I've been lucky enough to be able to by the things that get me out there.

I don't see people who, you know, of all backgrounds, I don't see enough people I think who grew up without privilege out there.

Lori Townsend: Alright, thank you, Andrea, let's turn to you as a young indigenous person, what are your thoughts here about both what it means to be an Alaskan and what you see as some of our challenges compared to other places?

Unknown: Yeah, I think that to be an Alaskan, I don't think it really has to do with cultural, like background and things like that.

But I do believe that being Alaskan means like, loving the lifestyle, and you know, like the fishing, just loving what Alaska has to offer.

And I think that some of the challenges though, just like les mentioned, we rank we ranked number one in a lot of good things where we also rank a lot more in the negative areas.

And it's, it's probably one of the biggest challenges, especially because we're, we're a state that nobody really like knows, but if they hear like, we're number one in like, domestic abuse and stuff like that, nobody's gonna ever come here and nobody's gonna want to like, look into Alaska more.

So yeah, you know, I, Lori Townsend: I really appreciate your thoughts there because that's something I really agree with you about the fact that we have such terrible rates of violence against women, holds women back from, you know, holds the state back from attracting professional women to Alaska.

And so it's important for us to address those things and change those.

Thank you, Andrea jenelle you didn't grow up here, either today, but you've been here for a lot of years and lived in Different parts of the state.

What do you feel is your identity as an Alaskan?

And what do you see as the brightest aspects here?

And what's kind of bleak?

Unknown: Well, first of all, first of all, I wish I had come here sooner.

And I'm kind of sad that I didn't.

I'm a transplant.

But I think I also am kind of selfish in that.

I don't want to share the beauty of Alaska, the people, I don't want to share that with people from the outside, which makes me very selfish, but at least very honest.

I think what makes me an Alaskan, is that coming here, I was reminded of what my parents had taught me, which is sharing, caring, taking care of each other, looking out for each other things that we're supposed to do.

And in the rural villages that I've lived in, because I love living in rural Alaska, they talk about their their cultural values, and their values are the values that my parents taught me.

And so I'm able to embrace and really enjoy the places that I've lived and absorb the culture and be welcomed into the culture, which for me, is a really big deal.

I live in Barrow and we have whaling here.

And the first time I got to help with a whaling crew was by accident, I went over to talk to someone in the person I wanted to talk to said, Hey, get over there and help with this, we're going to do a community feed today.

And they put me over with a teenage girls.

And even though that was the kind of the lowest of the jobs, I felt very honored, because I was asked to do this.

And so that along with just other places that I've been in, the people that I have met on this journey, have been amazing.

And they embraced me, and allowed me to get into their culture and learn.

And that's been fantastic for me.

Again, I just wish I had come here sooner.

But um, as Cheryl said, Everything starts here in Alaska.

And that includes the really, really cold temperatures that we have, as you know, we've been going through some minus 65 degree windshields this winter, and I love it.

But I then get to call my family on the east coast and say, Hey, you got some cold weather coming?

Get ready in about 10 days.

But every everything here is just, it's bigger.

And I think we're better than everybody else, which, again, sounds so selfish.

And so I don't know.

But I also think that, you know, when I went back to going back to the fact that this use, there used to be a sense of closeness here, that doesn't seem to be here anymore.

For instance, the the earthquake that happened in Anchorage, nobody died in that earthquake.

That was amazing to me.

But if there have been major tragedies, who's going to want to come and help us, that's why I always ask, who's gonna want to come and help us and if by chance, we have a tsunami here in Barrow, this time of year, who's gonna want to come to the Arctic, and help us I think people from other parts of Alaska would, but maybe not most people from the lower 48.

So, um, for me being an Alaskan is that I get to learn and envelop myself in different cultures that have the same values that I was raised with, even though I wasn't raised here.

Lori Townsend: Right now let's watch part of one of the Alaska video submissions, and then we'll discuss with our panelists how the pandemic has affected the lives of Alaskans.

This clip is from Joshua and anchorage resident and filmmaker, he is answering the prompt my life right now.

And he describes parenting during the pandemic.

Unknown: It's really interesting because I have the kids here at home where they're in virtual school right now.

Well, first of all, my daughter is very, she's pretty independent with their schooling, I see her setting up zoom sessions with friends and the recording a podcast or they're starting a band or she's taking art classes on YouTube.

And my son, he he has needed a little more attention.

I think that's something that that is creating an interesting dynamic, just in in our culture right now is what about the parents that can't be there to one on one with their children to tutor their children, and then you have your parents that can just hire a tutor, which has really created a class distinction.

They haven't been able to see their their grandpa on my side, or their uncles.

And what we did is we started playing Dungeons and Dragons on zoom.

Lori Townsend: This is an area where we can hopefully start to better understand how difficult the pandemic has made life for some Alaskans and how those difficult These may be different depending on your ethnicity, less how has COVID affected your life and work?

And what are your observations regarding the effect on others you've been involved in, as you were speaking about earlier in advocating for improvements to Alaska's foster care system.

So working on behalf of kids who don't have the same family support that many of us do.

Unknown: Yeah, well, I think the last statements are right there.

If we didn't already know it COVID has revealed the sort of class and income disparities throughout the country.

But in Alaska, if you don't have internet, how did you participate in zoom school?

If you have slower internet, internet, how did you participate equally in zoom school?

If you had a parent who didn't have the luxury of being able to work at home?

How did that child get the support they needed to get through school, the income disparities even go through today to the sort of vaccination vaccination phase where, you know, it's not really a secret that those middle and middle class people and, and others, I think, are getting vaccinated at a much higher rate.

And that's a national thing.

So COVID has has sort of exacerbated, I think, the disparities that we have in terms of wealth and income in the state.

I know I go to the anchorage neighborhood health clinic and, and they ever had a very hard time getting vaccinations to the people with at the lowest income levels.

And, you know, middle class folks are all talking to each other on Facebook or and, you know, have the sort of social media networks that tell them how to get in line for a vaccine and all that sort of stuff.

And COVID has just been it has to have been more difficult for people who live in smaller places with less resources.

And certainly the foster youth that I work with, have struggled like crazy.

There you have people who are living paycheck away from maybe not having a place to live.

And, and a lot of people lost their paychecks during COVID.

For sure, Lori Townsend: absolutely.

Cheryl, how about for you and your family has COVID affected your work your family members, your friends.

Unknown: I have family and friends in every socio economic bracket.

And as a result, just what was described by, by Les has happened throughout.

So I am one of the few that's fortunate enough to work from home.

But I have to work for folks who can't get to the computer like less described.

So changing work, distribution of information, knowledge connection, we have been revisiting in some cases, old school paper, you know, what, there's a novel idea, going back to pen and paper to communicate with each other.

My family, I'm Jamaican by birth, and proud to be American, but my family's International.

And going to zoom has been a blessing for our family to connect in a way that we haven't been doing in the past years.

Since we're spreading further and wider.

We're now from Beirut, to Jamaica, you know.

So when it's the family that is still in Jamaica with a slower internet, or they have more than five faces that want to get on the camera to say hi.

Or it's, you know, the the PhD in New York and Columbia, having to draw pictures to explain some of their more heady ideas to the rest of us.

So it's using resources in different ways.

It's reimagining what communication feels like to people.

It's understanding how important connection is to everyone.

The the idea that I can see how tall you are, Laurie is a big deal for me.

Somehow my mind will associate that with different things.

And I miss like most of us the human connection, but because we've had to rethink how important it is.

The The phone is actually being used as a phone these days.

Right?

And you're you're wanting to hear voices, you're wanting to see people when they're talking to you.

It's it's going for something deeper and more to the essence of who we are is what the money affects those connections.

But all across the board.

We want to Maintain connection.

So when I got a letter in the mail, I was so excited, because that's the kind of world we are revisiting right now.

Lori Townsend: It's true.

Some of the, as someone referred to it the dirt road of the communications highway are old fashioned letters, but it's often nice to visit that road sometimes.

Jacqueline, your thoughts?

What do you see in here in the Alaska Native community about the stress of the pandemic and how it's affected families work?

Certainly with the history in Alaska, of a century ago, when, when the Spanish flu pandemic, so greatly decimated populations in rural Alaska, and that those stories passed down and memories affected people during this pandemic, just the stress of that, of that collective memory.

So what are you hearing in the community about the economic and also psychological stress of what's been happening?

Unknown: Well, I think I mean, I appreciate that you brought up the history of pandemics among Alaska Natives.

Because those came up.

I mean, I, I noticed them particularly when, in the Bristol Bay Area, communities were having town meetings talking about the fishing season that was coming in the 1000s, of fishermen, and seafood processing plant workers who are going to be flooding into the area.

And everybody was really frightened at the prospect of people because we didn't have very much COVID here, then this was back in June, everybody was really frightened at the prospect of people coming in from the lower 48 and bringing this disease, which seemed to spread so easily and so quickly.

And I mean, people at these town meetings, were actually saying, let's not have a fishing season, even though that's where they get all of their annual income.

And so and it was, and what I heard from community after community was that they wanted to protect their elders as the repository of, of language and culture.

And, and people placed a lot of value on what their elders meant to the community, or mean to the community.

So that was happening on you know, outside Anchorage, my relatives here in Anchorage were really hurt by having their income dramatically reduced.

And they were, you know, living on unemployment.

And then people move or shut down, or it went to, you know, the buses weren't coming as often libraries closed.

And there were a lot of resources like that, that lower income people make use of that became unavailable.

Lori Townsend: Thank you for going over some of those impacts across the state.

Andrea, how about your observations, especially in relation to education during school closures?

And how students are doing during this time?

Who do you see thriving and who's struggling?

Unknown: Um, yeah, so with the education system, as with everything, I'm on zoom, and all of that, I think it just forced us kids to like, be basically learn, try to learn for ourselves, if that makes sense.

Like, although the teachers try their best, you know, to give us the best, you know, lessons and try to get us working with them.

It's not the same.

And I think other kids and other students actually can agree with this, that they're not learning as much as they did in class, you know, and, yeah, I think, but I do think that, you know, with everybody slowly going back to school, it did create this.

I'm not sure what to call it with a decree like this assignment for all the kids, you know, to have that social interaction again, because our generation is mostly like, we grew up on phones and stuff.

So before the pandemic, everybody was just like, to their fault, you know, walking around school on their phones, but now, when I got to see kids at school, everybody, like, I didn't see no phones at all, everybody was just interacting.

And I think that was one of the one of the best things that came out of this pandemic, you know, everyone, everyone's living life in the moment and all of that, but I don't think I would say that I can see who's struggling and who's not struggling.

I think it's just a matter of the students themselves, you know, if they're actually putting in their To get the education that's given to them, Lori Townsend: it's so great to hear you say that you saw people connecting on that human level with each other instead of being three feet away and texting each other.

That's fantastic.

A very small but significant bright light in otherwise pretty bleak situation.

And it sounds as if there's a new appreciation for teachers and helping in your education as opposed to trying to do it on your own.

So those are all positives.

Janell, how is the pandemic affected your work as a recruiter, you go out to villages, trying to get Alaska Native students into a college track at illa saavik.

Have you been able to do any of that?

Unknown: I stopped traveling last last February, was when I made my last trip, I was scheduled to do several village trips and several trips, for recruiting after that, but that all shut down.

It's been difficult for me, and what I said initially was, and I continued to say, God meant for us to touch each other and be able to see and talk to each other.

By the way, who knew that kids would want to actually go back to school?

You know, but I'm seeing a lot of that.

Teenagers and with kids in general.

Um, for me, as a recruiter, it was difficult.

But we have already offered a lot of our classes online here on this topic.

And so the idea that we had to then take some classes, like our construction trade classes, and our workforce development classes, and figure out a way to put those online, it was challenging, but our faculty did it.

It was, it was it was difficult.

We have very slow internet here in rural Alaska.

And I'm sure not just here on the North Slope, but across Alaska, in rural areas, they're slow internet.

And it's ironic, because last week, and we start your college met with the North Slope borough school district, and they were talking about challenges to the students.

And one of those challenges was this low intranet.

For me, the fact that I can't go out and talk to kids and interact with them.

And you know, just walk into a school and especially with teenagers, or talking to teenagers and being able to recruit them.

And it's just it's been difficult, because that's my job is to be able to go across the state.

And, and I'm not just Unfortunately, not just here on the North Slope, but it's always metlakatla.

And I was calling last week saying, Are you guys open back up, because you want I want to make you my first visit.

This needs to be the first place that I go.

So it's been difficult here.

We were very fortunate here at elite soccer college again, because we all kept working.

They look, the college administration, made sure we all had laptops, if we needed printers, they got printers, some of the IT guys would say ladies are coming to our homes, or they would send it home with us and say, I'm going to talk you through how to hook it up.

For me, that's a big deal.

Because I would say no, I need actually someone right here in my room because I can't do this.

But we were blessed that we kept working.

Now, I have a niece in Alabama.

She's a single mom, and she had to make the choice, do I you know, keep my son out of school or and keep working or her and stop working?

Or do I send him to school?

And so that I can go to work?

And I said to her, I will pay for whatever you need?

Do you need faster internet?

Does he need a laptop, tell me what he needs because I don't want him to fall behind.

And fortunately, we were able to work together.

And my family as a whole, we were blessed because we all kept working.

And we pitched in to help her as best we could.

Whenever she whenever she needed it.

Um, you know, there was a joke that when when when COVID first hit in the schools closed down, there was a joke that parents were angry at the teachers, because going to those parent teacher conferences, the teachers were talking about what great kids they had.

And after three months, the parents were wondering whose child they were talking about, because now they spent nearly 24 hours a day at home with this child and they're wondering, whose child when you're talking about because mine is not the angel that you said it was?

So it's been very interesting.

And Laurie, for me the satisfied of this pandemic.

And what it's doing to our kids is seeing the faces and little three and four year olds who have no clue why all of a sudden someone has strapped this thing onto their little faces, and they have to pair it and it's just so sad but we're going move through this and you know, we're gonna keep we're gonna keep going, it's all gonna be okay, is what I'm telling myself.

You know, jenelle, I