Tonight on WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories, what can history teach us about climate change?

Plenty says historian and political scientist Ray Peterson, his take on harnessing the past to make better decisions today.

And a one chair boutique salon where creativity, friendship, and personal connections are shared every day.

Also, who wrote The Pledge of Allegiance?

One upstate New York village says there's no debate.

Your stories, your region coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories.

Funding for WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories is provided by the Statewide Community Re-Grants Program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the St.

Lawrence County Arts Council.

Carthage Savings founded in 1888 offering VA, FHA, seasonal and rural development mortgage products, providing financial services to Northern New York from offices in Carthage, Clayton, Croghan, and Watertown.

Online at carthagesavings.com.

Good Tuesday evening, everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories.

I'm Michael Riecke.

As communities across the North Country and Eastern Ontario grapple with climate change, rising energy demands, and questions about sustainability, can the past help guide the future?

We posed that question to historian and political scientist, Ray Peterson.

He spent decades studying the relationship between energy policy and community action.

He joined me in the studio to explain the lessons history offers us as we consider the choices ahead.

What can America's past teach us about a changing climate today?

That is the focus of our conversation and we're joined by Ray Peterson.

Once again, Ray, historian and political scientist, thank you for joining us.

Well, thanks for having me.

You brought something with you today.

I brought my doctoral dissertation, a copy of it, 500 pages, loads of work.

It was based upon the situation in the early 1970s when New York State had plans to build 24 large additional generating plants, most of them nuclear.

They were going to be mostly cited along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, along the St.

Lawrence River.

There would've been four at Camp Drum.

There never could have been a Fort Drum expansion.

And because of citizen effort and engagement, only two of those plants were ever completed, built, and only one of those two went into operation.

The one on Long Island was $5 billion was spent on it.

They never opened it up because of the problems of evacuating Long Island in case it was a nuclear accident.

The one locally was nine mile two.

It cost 17 times what it was supposed to cost from the initial point of construction.

And it helped to bankrupt Niagara Mohawk and there were some issues that went along with that in terms of how there were changes in regulation that compromised safety.

So my focus was on the citizen efforts because what happened in the 1970s because of wars in the Middle East and the Iranian Revolution toward the end of the decade is people conserved.

And from the beginning of those, that forecasting will need this many plants, by the end of the decade it was clear there was a need for those plants.

The connection today, every part, every part of our lives is history.

It'll be so in the future.

There's a push to have a new generation of nuclear plants largely to function, to to fuel AI data centers.

It's not needed.

And we've already seen significant cost overruns in those.

I want to go back to the American history part.

The phrase "United States of America" appears first in the Declaration of Independence toward the conclusion.

And the "U" is lowercase.

They were united in this effort, but the "S" of uppercase, there were 13 separate countries basically.

So we're struggling to promote unity ever since.

And when I discovered in my research that there's, it didn't originate with me, the idea, there's a hard energy path that would emphasize nuclear, more fossil fuel.

And there's a soft energy path, which would use renewables, clean energy, and much citizen engagement and efforts that actually provide benefits to communities.

I want to stop you there because we're, we're having this debate today, right?

Yeah.

Soaring energy costs.

The need for energy is growing as you noted.

And there are plenty of opinions about how we should approach next steps and the urgency at which we need to do that.

So, where does that citizen involvement come into play as we have a new debate about energy in the state?

Well, the citizen energy now is mainly about stopping us hurdling toward the hard energy path.

And the danger that's happening now with this hard energy path is that the ability of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department to regulate the construction and operation of nuclear plants safely, it's being compromised.

People who have made safety first have been forced off the NRC.

The regulations are cut to, minimally.

So it's citizens effort.

This is First Amendment stuff to oppose that activity.

And the more general situation is that continuing all over the country and all over the world, people are engaging in local efforts for renewable, building their own generating plants that are not only cleaner and safer for the environment, but they provide tremendous economic benefits.

So there's various, you know, it was after the dissertation.

So much of my work since then has been on these community energy efforts.

Osage, Iowa is the model, you know, the, gold standard.

Community of 3,500 people.

They use energy efficiency basic stuff, insulation, better windows, lighting, that sort of thing.

Save $1.1 million a year.

I came back from visiting there some time ago and said, "Well, what are towns roughly 10 times that population?

What would we do with an extra $11 million to use wisely to develop the the city?

Multiply that by another three times.

What could we do with $33 million for Jefferson County alone?

Places like Leicester Prairie, Minnesota, Osage, Iowa, Cortez, Colorado, Washington State, used it to create new jobs.

In fact, one study said there are 24 million jobs that could be created if we went in the direction of of promoting renewables and energy efficiency.

You used that term soft energy.

Give us, give us some examples of what that approach looks like.

- Here's the Jeffersonian part of it.

It's empowering people to engage in taking charge of their own lives and their own communities' futures.

So the soft path would evolve - I'll hold up an example here.

Greg Powell is from Vermont.

Power from the People is his way how to organize, finance and launch local energy projects.

If there's a particular resource like the Black River that could be used to generate power for the region, you use that resource and keep the benefits of that in the region.

These are non - these are not for profit.

And this is very important to note.

Here's another example.

I'd like to show these off.

In the westernmost county of of Massachusetts, they have Berkshares, local currency.

You can spend these in hundreds of businesses throughout the area.

This one is Robin Van N. She's established the first community supported agriculture system.

And the $1 bill is the local indigenous tribe, the Mohican tribe.

They wanted to honor that.

Every denomination was a, featured a local hero, someone who was born or lived a better part of their lives in that county.

W.E.B.

Du Bois, the founder of the NAACP, is on the five.

Herman Melvil was on the 20.

I didn't want to spring for... Norman Rockwell is on the 50 because of the museum there in that part of the state.

So it's that effort that mobilizes people.

Transition towns started in the UK about 20 years ago by a guy named Rob Hopkins.

There are hundreds of them all over the world.

They are committed to encouraging resilience in the face of any type of threat.

Communities that engaged in this did well through the financial crash of 2008.

And they are committed to resilience in the face of climate change, peak oil.

Leicester Prairie, Minnesota, 30 years ago, over 30 years ago, developed a rideshare program after Iraq invaded Kuwait and said, "We don't have to have oil from the Middle East for our needs."

So that's what can happen.

And there's spillover.

Once you have success in one area, you get, say, "We can do this, " and we move into another area.

Washington State did this with energy, and then they moved into water conservation.

I interviewed the director there and he said, "Yeah, we're going to move into as many areas as we can find saving, and reinvest the savings in the for the benefit of all the citizens of the state."

The topic of climate can be so divisive and, and has been for, for many years.

How would, how would Jefferson approach that and how would he encourage Americans to shape what's next for energy's future?

Jefferson faced the challenge that the Constitution, which he had no part in writing, he wasn't even in the country.

The challenges to majority rule.

He would acknowledge first that clear majorities want activity on, action on climate change.

They want better education.

All of these things across the board.

So what you have to do is to organize.

He didn't like it, but he had to invent the political party as a way of getting majorities in Congress, in the presidency to move forward.

If we compare budgets, my doctorates is actually in public policy.

If you compare policies of recent administrations by political party, the differences are stark, unmistakable.

So the last piece I would want to make sure to touch base with is the spending.

The current budget for the military for defense is a little over a trillion dollars.

There's a request to up that by half again with $500 billion.

For for five, I'll just stick with the 500 billion additional.

That would take care of close to two, close to a billion households with solar electricity.

There are only 133 million households in the United States who could take care of a lot of the rest of the world.

And just imagine if that many households, particularly poor households, had access to clean and safe reliable energy.

- Probably affordable is a word that a lot of People - Yeah, that's the thing.

Well, the sun's going to be there.

Wind will be there.

It's the storage is the technological issue, but the technology is not the solution, the ultimate solution.

The solution is engaging our intelligence and our activity.

Inspire people to come up with their own creative solutions for their communities and their regions.

Fascinating, Ray.

Thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

Kira Shave built her one share boutique salon, Kirisma, to create a space where trust, connection, and individualized service are at the center of every appointment.

For Kira, hairstyling is more than just hair.

It's about developing meaningful relationships built on trust and confidentiality.

And it's about supporting clients through life's challenges.

Kara always knew she wanted a career that combined creativity with independence.

She loved expressing herself through her work and building something that was truly her own.

Becoming a hairdresser gave her that freedom.

Today, she runs a one chair boutique salon, a space she created intentionally where every client feels seen, heard, and cared for.

I always had a small boutique hair salon.

This downsize came from during the pandemic.

I didn't want to be downtown anymore for different reasons.

I had some family things going on and we were shut down for a while.

So this one came available on the fly and I just said, "I want to do this. "

And offer more of a one-on-one service with my clients because during that time they felt very comfortable that way.

And it just kind of kept going from there.

At Kirisma, everything begins with one chair.

It's where clients sit down, not just for a haircut, but to relax, recharge, and feel their best.

They trust her skill, her creativity, and the care she brings to every appointment.

For Kira, that's what makes this work so meaningful.

The hair is a big trust thing.

It's very important to people.

If you want them to return, they have to trust you.

And it's confidential too.

A lot of things that people are sharing with you are personal and if you were repeating those things or you weren't doing a good job of their hair, they won't return.

What I like is the trust when somebody doesn't like something and they can tell you, "I would really prefer this next time," or giving you the opportunity to change it.

They're honest with me too.

I've had people even, they're not even doing my hair.

They'll say, "Oh, I like your hair better this way."

Or, "Oh, you know, you've changed it. "

I love sitting in Kira's chair.

She makes me feel at home.

She listens to me when I'm having troubles.

She is very attentive, very kind, very caring.

You come in the door and she has a big smile and always a hug.

Walking into Kirisma does feel like coming home.

It's the warmth, the welcome, the familiar smile, and the simple joy of being cared for.

In this space, relationships grow naturally and over time, so do the conversations.

They're shaped by trust, comfort and shared moments.

It just happens.

It's a personal place.

They're having personal service done.

You are close.

You're having eye contact.

You're in that mirror.

They're in a, you know, it's vulnerable.

They have a tape on.

They're looking at you, you're looking at them.

And when you see somebody or you're spending a couple hours with somebody, you generally get to know each other.

Some people are quiet.

Some people, we really engage a lot and I've opened up to them as well.

Like they know a lot about me too.

It naturally happens.

Moments like these speak to the heart of what Kira does.

But behind every meaningful connection is skill, training and experience because great hairstyling isn't accidental, it's intentional.

And her clients are proud to share where it comes from.

Kira's more than a hairdresser.

I've sent many people here from my work, from outside of work.

My mom came.

It usually starts by people asking me, "Amy, where do you get your hair done?

I love the color.

I love the cut."

And I say, "Kira."

And I say, "Go to Kira.

She will listen to you and she will be real with you.

She will tell you if your ideas are good ideas.

She'll ultimately do what you want, but she'll make sure that you know that your choice may not be the best choice for you.

Every great style at Kirisma begins with listening, asking questions and being honest about what someone wants, what will work and what will help them feel their best.

It's a balance of creativity, experience, and trust.

I consider lifestyle and the consultation in the chair is so important because they could come in all these pictures, especially with AI today, hair's curled, Instagram, all these photos.

Are they going to wake up and style their hair that way?

So I try to find a way that we can meet in the middle on it.

And if they're like me, they'll have their hair on a ponytail or bunt a lot.

So as long as they know that truth and they're happy with it, I do what they want done.

And it seems every style comes with its own story.

And sometimes those stories stay with her.

In a one chair salon, there are no distractions, just time, connection, and trust.

Kara listens, she supports, and sometimes she carries those moments home.

But even on hard days, a little care and confidence can help someone feel whole again.

Of course you feel special sharing things together over the years and it goes both ways.

It really does.

But I went home sad and thought about things after work that I shouldn't.

There's a lot of problems out there in this world so try to keep it light, but hey, somebody could be feeling really in a bit of a rut and a new style or a new way of styling things or just a new color can pick people right back up.

I feel the same way.

I feel the same way.

Like I always feel great when I have my hair done.

There's something simple and joyful at the heart of what Kira does.

She loves her work.

She loves her clients and she's grateful every day for the community that has grown around that chair.

Because for Kira, this isn't just a career.

It's a place to laugh, to connect, and to spend her days with people she cares about.

It's fun.

It's all fun.

I mean, how many jobs do you get to chat with your friends and, and have fun styling hair, listening to music?

I'm still loving this very much.

For WPBS Weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.

Every day, millions of Americans recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but few know the story of the man long credited with writing it or the small New York village he once called home.

As part of our America 250 series, WPBS Weekly's Emily Mike takes us to the Livingston County Village of Mount Morris, where the legacy of Francis Bellamy lives on despite a lingering debate over who really wrote the pledge.

Children all over America say it in school every day.

It kicks off government meetings.

But did you know the Pledge of Allegiance was born in a small village in Western New York?

Welcome to the Village of Mount Morris, the birthplace of Francis Bellamy, creator of the Pledge of Allegiance.

A village of just over 4,000 people.

Mount Morris can only be described as small but mighty.

Despite its size, the village is home to a tight-knit community that values its roots.

You may be wondering, how did this small town man get to write the pledge used across the nation?

Livingston County historian Holly Watson shared a little more about the pledge's origin.

So the pledge was originally written in 1892 as kind of a result of a new patriotic campaign by the Youth's Companion Magazine.

Francis Bellamy, the man of the day, was an editor at that magazine and he was apparently tasked by his boss to create the a salute to the flag.

However, there's more than one history buff in Mount Morris.

Yale student Ellie Lonsberry lives in Bellamy's childhood home.

And history has remained an important part of her life.

This town is filled with old houses.

It's filled with houses coming from this time period and in any one of them you can think of the history that was here.

But when you're told this is a place where history happened, you look for it.

School superintendent Greg Bump is proud to hear the pledge every morning, noting the pledge's impact on students, especially those connected to service.

You know, Mount Morris is a special community and you know, as when we walked by, you know, our veterans, you know display that we had in the hallway and you can see just the vast number of people from Mount Morris that served our nation and, you know, from the Civil War on, that there are so many connections.

I do think that this community, you know, understands service and country and that the flag has a special meaning, you know, not only in the communities, but in, you know, our family's households.

Bump's son Charlie just finished the sixth grade at Mount Morris Central School.

When asked how reciting the pledge each morning impacts him, Charlie replied.

It makes me feel like we're honoring all the people in the military because they're fighting for our country.

It's something that means a lot more to me.

Established in the village, but debated in some states, there is some controversy around whether or not Bellamy actually wrote The Pledge of Allegiance.

A discovery found in a 2022 newspapers.com article cast doubt on the true author of The Pledge.

Years before Bellamy claimed its creation, a student in Kansas published a near identical version of the pledge for a flag raising ceremony.

What supposedly happened at the time, there was a school boy in Kansas who very eerily and ridiculously is named Frank E. Bellamy.

No relation.

But this boy supposedly claimed to have sent the pledge in two years earlier to the Youth's Companion, this magazine where the pledge originally was published in September of 1892.

And he said two years before there had been this patriotic writing competition, he had submitted something and never heard back about it.

And then two years later saw this pledge that he claimed were his words published by the magazine that didn't credit him.

So Kansas, ever since 1892, this state of Kansas and everywhere in it has claimed the schoolboy Frank Bellamy as the author of the pledge and they've stood by that claim ever since.

The only difference instead of indivisible, Frank E. Bellamy used the word inseparable.

Putting eerie similarities and questions about who did it first aside, Bellamy and the Pledge make up a pivotal fraction of Mount Morris's identity.

Even today when the pledge was first written, Bellamy's draft could have been used for any country read as follows.

I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

In June, the village hosts a weekend celebration for the man that puts them on the map.

Greg Bump used Francis Bellamy's annual Glory Day celebration as a unique way for the community to stay true to its beginnings and honor the present.

Not only is Flag Day celebrated here at school, but there's a whole event in the community and now they call it Francis Bellamy's Glory Days.

And it has the parade on Main Street.

It has, you know, the fireworks at the end of the day.

It's something that's really special and it's something that brings our community together.

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, it's important to remember that even the smallest of villages can hold big history.

In Mount Morris for WPBS Weekly, I'm Emily Mike.

That does it for this Tuesday night.

If you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we would love to learn more.

All you need to do is drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now.

Join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

Until then, take care.

Funding for WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is provided by the Statewide Community Re-Grants Program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the St.

Lawrence County Arts Council.

Carthage Savings founded in 1888 offering VA, FHA, seasonal and rural development mortgage products, providing financial services to Northern New York from offices in Carthage, Clayton, Croghan, and Watertown.

Online at carthagesavings.com.

The challenges to majority rule.

He would acknowledge first that clear majorities want activity on, action on climate change.

They want better education.

All of these things across the board.

So what you have to do is to organize.

He, he didn't like it, but he had to invent the political party as a way of getting majorities in Congress and the presidency to move forward.