The William W. Treat Lecture series is presented by New Hampshire.

Civics, and my name is Susan Leahy.

I'm the chair of the Board of Trustees this year, and New Hampshire Civics will be featuring three lectures focused on the importance of civility in maintaining a healthy democracy.

And today, I welcome you to the first lecture, a conversation with Governor Chris Sununu, and also featuring student participants in our New Hampshire's Kid Governor program.

Before the lecture begins, I'd like for you to get to know William W Treat the Namesake for our lecture series.

Here is what he looked like.

Bill Treat was a New Hampshire man.

A New Hampshire probate judge, a New Hampshire banker who started a bank here and a diplomat at the United Nations.

His friend and advisor was Al.

Kasassa a distinguished attorney from the sea coast.

He's here today and is going to help us get to know Bill Treat.

It is now my honor to introduce Al.

Kasassa about.

Thank you, Susan.

I have known Bill Treat for many, many years in Hampton.

In his many activities, he was active, as it has been stated in law, banking, politics, and perhaps most important in diplomacy.

He was an author and a founder of the National College of Probate Judges.

He was a founder of a national bank, director of many corporations.

But as I said before, his interest in the United Nations fits right in with what we're talking about today.

New Hampshire Civics.

Bill was elected in 1988 by the United Nations as a United States member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights.

He was dedicated to the causes of human rights.

Bill Treat was a firm believer and meaningful discussion and encouraged the thoughtful exchange of ideas.

It is of the intent of the treat lectures to promote respectful discourse among people of different backgrounds, interests and other areas.

I always enjoyed that.

Bill Treat was one of those man that could walk with kings and talk with everyone.

His knowledge of the political process and his willingness to sit and discuss with anyone was of primary importance to him from one of the books that he has written.

I would like to quote.

Freedom is never an accomplished fact.

It is always a process.

That is why the drafters of the Declaration of Independence spoke of the pursuit of happiness.

The only way freedom can be defended is not by fencing it in, but by and lodging in exercising it.

Need is not to discover national purpose, but to exercise it.

There are those who know who will reply that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind is nothing but a dream.

I think the military would be extremely pleased to be here addressing young people, students with a particular importance in civics.

Thank you, Susan.

For the next 45 minutes or so, we'll explore with Governor Sununu the current state of civic health in New Hampshire, including civility and engagement with current and past participants in our Kid Governor program will join the conversation with Governor Sununu.

And now I'm very proud to introduce New Hampshire's 2023 kit Governor Governor Haydin Simmons, who will introduce Governor Sununu.

Good afternoon.

I'm Haydin Simmons your 2023 New Hampshire kid governor.

My platform is ending poverty and hunger in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire's kid Governor a program of New Hampshire civics means so much to me.

The definition of civics is the studies of duties and rights of citizenship.

It is important that all citizens learn not only their rights, but especially their duties.

My New Hampshire Kid Governor program has given me and 11 year old kid a voice to educate and encourage not only kids, but adults in the state of New Hampshire.

The reason I believe that teaching civics in school is so important is to teach kids that change begins in their community and that everyone takes an active part in not only service projects but in the local government that their voice counts in order to care about civics.

Kids need to learn about civics in our schools.

This year, I have learned a lot about poverty and hunger and what programs both government run and nonprofit are available.

I have learned about the incredible need in my community and what I can do about it.

With the help of my executive counselors, I was able to run two successful food drives, walked for hunger and educated people on the issues we can face together.

I found that more people that can work together, the bigger the impact that we can make.

I do think this program is important because it provides an exciting and engaging way for students to learn about civics.

I hope I am hopeful for our future, as I have learned that kids can and do make a difference.

And now I'd like to introduce our guests.

New Hampshire.

New Hampshire Governor.

Chris Sununu and Laura Knoy.

Governor Sununu was first elected in 2017 and is now serving for his fourth term before becoming governor.

He serves as an executive counselor.

Our moderator is Laura Knoy one of New.

Hampshire's most well-known and well-respected journalists.

For 25 years, Laura was the host of the exchange on the New Hampshire Public Radio.

Today, she is the director of Community Engagement at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.

Could both, Governor Sununu, please come on stage now?

Thank you.

Sorry.

Something.

Well, welcome, everyone, and it's just great to be here.

And Haydin, thank you so much for that lovely introduction.

We're we're just so proud of you.

It's wonderful to see so many people in the audience to talk about this very important topic.

And I'm very grateful to Governor Sununu for giving us his time.

You bet.

So thank you so much for being here.

So what will happen is I'll talk to the governor for about 20 minutes.

And then the real stars of the show our Kid Governors and executive councilors have prepared questions for the governor as well.

So let's begin.

And Governor Sununu at an event on civics in D.C. this spring, you said civics starts with civility.

So how do you define civility, Governor?

What is it?

What is it?

Sure.

No, it's a great question.

This is great.

Thank you guys for having us here.

It's such an important topic, by the way.

Right.

This is what everybody in America is looking for, especially on a national level.

I think we do pretty well here in New Hampshire.

Not always perfect, right?

Not always perfect.

But we do it, I think, better here than most other places.

So I love that.

I love the topic.

So civic starts with civility.

Civility is about inclusiveness.

Civility is about making sure everyone gets invited to the table and feels invited and knows they can throw the ideas out.

Now, you may disagree on the ideas.

You may disagree on the policy.

You can have good, heated, tough discussion.

That is absolutely fine.

That's a very important part of the process.

If everyone always agreed something's wrong.

My wife doesn't agree with me on everything.

So it's not about agreement.

It's more about making sure everyone feels like they have a voice.

They're empowered.

And again, I think in New Hampshire, we do it pretty well.

We're a very from a politics standpoint, we're a purple state.

So the Republicans might be in charge at one point.

The Democrats are in charge of something else, which is fine.

But overall, I think leadership one of the things I try to do is I try I'm not perfect, but we try to make sure that on the issues that are really important mental health, the opioid crisis, education, we in the state House don't have the answers.

We really don't.

We might have a couple ideas here and there, but the answers really come from the public, right?

And so having that empowerment and engagement with the public saying, hey, we're talking about mental health, let's bring a bunch of parents in where the system didn't work for them or their kids.

We're talking about opioids.

Let's bring folks that are in recovery or folks that have family members in recovery where the system didn't work or they're going to you know, the recidivism is high.

Let's find out where those barriers are.

So by making sure that everyone feels like they have a voice, I think that's where it really all starts.

So that's the inclusiveness.

So inclusiveness, inviting everybody to the table is part of civility.

That's it.

I mean, because, by the way, when you do that, you get to know each other personally, right?

When you get to know each other personally, it's really hard to have, you know, just the name calling and all that because there's a relationship built there.

You know, a great example.

I have a lot of examples, but one of the more recent examples is Governor Murphy, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey.

You're not going to find me.

And you're talking about two people that disagree on politics more, right?

We're like polar opposites politically, but we get along great.

We spend time together.

We have dinner together.

He's got a great sense of humor.

We tell jokes.

We talk about our families.

Now, when you build that kind of relationship in the background, I mean, he and I can have good heated debate and discussion, but it's never it it's not personal anymore because we have a personal relationship.

So the more time you spend with the other side, the more time you spend saying tell me more.

That's a very, very powerful words, by the way, when you don't agree with someone aggressively, tell me more.

Explain it to me again.

I'm not I'm not there yet.

Tell me more.

Because what they're going to do is keep talking and keep telling you about their experience and and their background and why they think the way they think.

And boy, that just again, it's empowering to them.

And it says, I care about what we might not agree, but at least I care about.

Curiosity is part of civility.

That's it.

So that actually gets that perfect segue way.

Thank you for my next question.

One definition of civility that we came across at New Hampshire Civics comes from longtime diplomat and policymaker Richard HAASS.

He has a book called The Bill of Obligations.

So instead of the bill of, you know, the Bill of Rights, he has a bill of obligations, He says obligation number four should be to remain civil, he says, adding that civility makes it possible for differences to be reduced or even bridged.

And if not, civility allows for dialog and relationships related to what you just talked to, to continue on other issues where agreement might not be out of the question.

So, Governor, what examples have you seen in your own time in office where civility helped bridge differences so people actually could come together on certain issues?

So I think one of the best examples happened very recently.

So bear with me in Washington, D.C.

The House of the.

House of Representatives is slightly more Republican.

The Democrat.

Right.

By maybe like 20 votes or something.

And you have these extremes on both sides that especially on the extreme right, where right now the Republicans are in control, they are trying to control things that would be very political and making all these high demands.

And everyone said, by the way, in Washington, nothing's ever getting done.

And as we know, very little ever gets done in Washington.

Well, in New Hampshire, our House of Representatives is 200 Republicans to 198 Democrats.

And they said, good luck, governor.

Nothing's ever going to get done.

They're right.

It's split right down the middle.

You'll never get agreement that.

But just the opposite happen with good leadership.

Not only did we get our budget done, we got the budget done with everything from Medicaid increases to more school choice to all these things.

Everybody got a little bit of something because we kind of shunned the extremes, those polar and by extremes.

What we're talking about is folks that don't want to be civil, that are just very I come in with a fixed agenda of my side versus yours.

And I don't want to know who you are.

I don't know why you believe what you believe.

It's my way or the highway.

And both sides have that right.

But when we took our vote on the budget unanimous in the in the state Senate and like 350 out of the 400 representatives, we crushed it on the first vote, consensus vote.

It's never been done before.

So with the most split House of Representatives ever, we actually got the budget, the biggest, toughest bill to pass done because we got time that we took time to know each other every and I'm not saying it's just me, but one thing I do is every week, every other week I bring one of the committees and to have breakfast, just muffins and coffee and orange juice.

And the committee is basically Republicans and Democrats.

No agenda.

Let's just talk.

What do you want to know?

What can I answer?

Maybe I'll ask a question to you or or we talk about issues.

Are we talking about you?

Him?

I don't care whatever you want.

And then we do it again and again and again.

And over the session, we built up relationships.

And at least people could ask me some tough questions and have a sense of where I was coming from.

So anyway, I think the the one of the best examples of civility is right here in our own state.

So because we got it done.

So civility is curiosity.

Civility is listening.

Civility is relationship building.

Muffins and muffins and orange juice muffins and the power.

But I'm more of a chocolate chip cookie guy.

Oh, I get that.

Oh, look, the governor's out there.

I do a lot of social media post, right?

And sometimes, you know, we're talking about, you know, real serious issues.

And sometimes I'm just out in a bakery eating a cookie and I'm maybe support, Hey, you should try this cookie at this bakery.

I'm trying to be kind of pro-business and support a local business or something.

I'm not there to tell everyone that I'm eating a cookie and be like, Oh, there's the photo op, Governor.

They come out, Oh, he's done.

But the point of the photo op is to say, Hey, sometimes just have a cookie, go visit someone, go learn something about a business or nonprofit or an organization didn't know about.

Take time out of your day to experience something else.

And by experience, something else means experience someone else.

Like when you go to a nonprofit, God bless those people because they have the passion and the heart and they believe so strongly in something.

And normally they're getting massively underpaid, but they just believe so strongly in their community.

Well, take the time to go say hi.

What is this organization all about?

What What was your calling?

Right.

Because we all have a calling, I think because New Hampshire is locally controlled and locally managed at the town level and the power of our town meetings, there's nothing more powerful in New Hampshire than town meeting that will affect your life more than than most of the things we pass in Concord.

Because of that, people are empowered.

They get involved in the process way more than other states in the country, and they have to be civil at town meeting.

And I've heard you talk about that.

That town meeting helps people in New Hampshire be civil because that moderator is not going to get that town meeting.

You guys got it.

Let me tell you.

So I've been to a town meeting where I will have it out.

We were talking about recycling and whether we're going to pay this company on a recycling contractor.

This company, everyone wanted the recycling.

That wasn't the issue was what day was to come.

And I'm having this heated debate.

But at the next day, I was going to stand at the bus stop with this guy because he's my neighbor, and that's and so because we had that in a built in relationship, we could have a heated debate over I lost by the way, I lost or we lost.

That gets.

So you said civics is the usual things that you would think of, but also curiosity, relationships, listening.

I mentioned Richard Hayes, by the way, the Bill of obligations.

He will be the next great lecture speaker offered by NH Civics, and I've read his book and I recommend everybody keep an eye out for that because it's going to be fantastic.

You know, Governor, in January of 2020, you signed an executive order of civility in the state workplace, which said the state of New Hampshire is committed to providing a positive public service environment in which all employees, state officials and members of the public and others doing business with the state are treated with respect, civility and professionalism.

I was really struck by that.

Governor Sununu, why did you feel that this was even needed?

Great question.

Two reasons to two big reasons.

Number one, one thing I've always been trying to do since I became governor is create a government that is more customer service orientated, right?

We want people to want to engage with the government when they need it, right?

Government's not here to solve all your problems and all that, but you need to go to the DMV.

That's the notorious one, you know, the DMV lines and all that.

I wanted to have the best customer service of the DMV.

I want the best customer service at the Medicaid office, some of the best customer service for whatever you might need.

And so I wanted to set a tone for the public that we're going to treat each other civil and therefore, you're going to be terrific.

You're not just a number.

We're going to treat civilly as a person, as an individual with a need.

The second thing is, I'm always trying to encourage people to come work for the state, right?

We need employees as much as anybody, and it's hard to get employees sometimes.

And so I wanted folks I wanted just to set that marker, say, look, you know, you we have, you know, decent pay and we have, you know, a good benefits package.

But one of the things, if you look at that, I took out my private sector and working in business, I had 800 employees, you know, getting people to take a job.

One of the biggest barriers sometimes is how much they get paid.

But getting when you ask people what's going to lot, what is going to allow you to stay in a job, it's do I feel comfortable in the workplace?

Am I happy with my environment?

Yeah, yeah, right.

And so I just setting that tone and making sure that folks knew the folks we had to be encouraged to come.

There was going to be accountability to that, too.

So early in your time as governor, very early, you called Democrats ideas on family leave and other issues wacky, stupid, dumb.

Now, sometimes when people get frustrated, they resort to name calling.

Now, you've been in office for some time.

How have you learned to keep yourself governor from reacting negatively when you get frustrated?

That's what I try to.

I would never say that about people.

I don't think I say that about people.

So sometimes sometimes I call it idea wacky or whatever it is.

I'll say this when it comes to I, you have to really separate ideas and people.

That's something that Washington doesn't do, right?

They get into the name calling, they make everything personal and you can't do that.

So when I if you ever I really will say something like that.

And I'm not trying to defend it, but sometimes, well, I'll just say my father said something to me once.

It wasn't the nicest thing in the world.

But he said, when stupid comes knocking at the door, slam, slam at heart.

And what he was trying to say is if there's an idea that is really, really out there that is not just you disagree with, but is almost dangerous to the system is going to be a fundamental change in a negative way to the system.

He said it's okay.

You know, the advice I took from him go the extra mile.

Now, if you do that with everything you disagree with, no one will.

I mean, everyone will think you're just, you know, negative on everything.

I'm a generally a pretty darn positive person.

I really am.

But the few times I've come hard at an idea and maybe I a stupid is not a good word.

Wacky.

Wacky is my polite way of saying, please don't ever bring that up again.

But because there were a few times in certain ideas I've said, okay, I'm going to slam this thing hard now I'm able to do it with just saying something like wacky because I really will do that.

So my hope is that when people oh, jeez, if, if, if a governor is really calling this thing wacky, he must really have a reason for doing it.

So But no, I mean, obviously you got to control.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't even even go to that level.

You know, you have to win the arguments based on facts and all that stuff.

So sometimes we I think we all do this right.

We want to put an extra exclamation point on something.

Now we tend to do it.

The worst part about all this, by the way, is social media, right?

We tend to think that we are like that.

What we used to call the telephone tough guys, people that are really tough with you on the phone.

But when they get in the room with you, they all just they're all super nice to you and all of a sudden, well, now we do that on social media and people can say the worst things in the world.

I mean, that's where civility really started to break down, I believe.

Is that what you think?

Yeah, I think social media.

You're saying that.

Yes, I think it's awful.

I use it all the time.

You know, it's an amazingly powerful tool.

And in that sense, it's wonderful.

And I blame my generation.

Right.

The Gen X, we were smart enough to invent this wonderful tool, but we didn't have the maturity to handle it properly.

I mean, that's really what what it is.

And to this day, it's kind of gotten out of hand with the negativity that's on there and people won't even engage with social media.

What should be a good communicating tool because of all the negativity that's out there now?

Social media was smart, I guess you could say, from a business standpoint, as much as I disagree with it, that sold that was a way to make money.

There was money to be made in the fight.

And that's the that's the shame of it.

And unfortunately, that it took a little while longer.

But then cable news in general, media, I think, learned, oh, wait, there's more excitement in the fight.

It isn't the the so the popular positions but those extreme positions, the most extreme minority positions get more viewers.

They get more hits, they get more likes, they get more engagement.

It gets people fired up in a negative way.

And so, unfortunately, a lot of the money is driven behind that.

But my hope is that the next gen I'm seeing these kids here, it's we screwed it up.

You got to fix it.

And I hate to throw that on you, but it really is.

My hope is that as like my my son is in the fifth grade and my hope is that his generation, because he's kind of coming up with it, he's grown up in a completely digital world that they actually have a better handle and understanding of its value and not ruin it, if you will, and make it more of a great tool.

Well, and we could talk more about that, but I think the kids are probably going to get to some of that as well.

So, Governor Sununu, you work with a lot of people in public office, lawmakers, mayors, city councilors, executive councilors, who stands out as a beacon of civility?

I think like as an individual, yes.

Someone that we should emulate in terms of civility in this.

I'll say this in the state of beacon of civility.

You know, I'll tell you, some of the Democrats I really respect and work with on the other side is like Steve Shurtleff, the former speaker, done us to see the former Senate president Jeb Bradley, who's the current Senate president.

Sure.

PACKARD Right.

Sharon Packard is the current speaker of the House.

He's a Republican.

And one of the first things he did when he got elected speaker was turn to Steve Shurtleff, the Democrat, and named him, I think, speaker emeritus emeritus or something.

Just say, hey, look, we got we're only going to be successful if we do this kind of stuff together.

Right.

And so for the Republican speaker, for the first thing he does turn to the Democrats say, you're with me on this, right?

Like, you don't have to be with me.

But this is New Hampshire first.

This has to be a team effort.

I stuck by that.

What was the reaction in the Republican Party to?

It was great that they got here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They really got like I said, the extremes on both sides will never like any time you're talking to someone politically playing them.

But they're the minority, they're loud, but they really are the minority.

They don't they don't define I mean, they don't want to into the Trump stuff and the Republican Party, you know where it is now because the presidential stuff is like throwing gasoline on the fire.

But really the the extremes of both parties really are the minority, even though that gets the attention, that gets the news, that gets the clicks.

So this is an event on civility and civics.

So I do need to ask you a couple of civics questions, Governor, which I love.

So how do you define civics and what are your hopes for this new law?

This is pretty exciting.

This new law that will require an expansion of civics education in our schools.

So let me let me take a step back before you talk about civics.

Let's talk about our system, because civics is really understanding the systems that come into play where the pushes and pulls are what can be changed, what should be changed, what shouldn't be changed on how to use the system, both as a citizen and as an elected official or as a volunteer, how to engage with that.

And it's all comes back to one thing.

How do we make our community better, right?

What's the system that can make leadership in our communities better, The public aspect of our communities better?

The American system is phenomenal.

It is a it is a rock.

And people set and I'm going to go a little far afield here.

I hear a lot of people say, Oh, the democracy is threatened.

Oh, the system is going to fall apart.

Oh, guys are.

And think of what our system has gone through.

We had a civil war.

The system stood in 1968.

A lot of you do.

I wasn't even alive in 60.

But let's talk about 1960 and I bring this up.

It's actually not that long ago you had assassinations of some of the greatest voices in America, right?

You had the Vietnam War, massive political unrest.

We got through it.

You had you had the 911 external threats to our system, to our foundation as it stood.

We didn't drastically change our system.

It stood the test of time.

You had January 6th, huge assault on the system.

You know what happened the afternoon of January 6th, Congress met and they certified the election and there was a peaceful transfer of power.

The system stood.

And that's why even though I get nervous about the political stuff that could happen and I might disagree with where this country could go with policy, the foundations of our system are actually really, really solid.

So I'm I'm very optimistic in that sense.

So understanding that first, having an appreciation of this amazing thing called the United States of America and understanding the foundations of that system so therefore, we know we can push on it and it it really won't collapse.

It's going to withstand the test of time.

We might not agree with the decisions all the time, but that's different than the system.

And so if I may, what's the last most important foundation of that system?

You run it.

I don't run it.

You run it.

Your vote matters.

Your voice matters.

You can.

The people still have all the power to effect the policy changes within that system.

So that allows for that.

You really want this new this new expanded civics education in the schools.

You want it to be expanded to have people appreciate how strong the system is, but also that they have a responsibility to keep that strength, to keep the strength and to have have a voice.

And again, again, the more you learn about civics, I think it gets back to that appreciation of of civility.

Right.

Well, the system is designed so the other side has a voice.

The other side, from your opinion on something has a voice.

So allow that to happen.

That's a very healthy part of the system.

And then you can take the vote and you can disagree or agree or whatever.

But that's such an important part of it.

But the system is strong.

It's built for the even some of the most aggressive winds that can blow one way or the other, internal or external.

And so I want folks to to be very optimistic.

And hopefully that gets them saying, yeah, this this has withstood the test of time.

This is something to be engaged with, not to be fearful of.

It's not going to all fall down around us when you get too pessimistic, Oh, the world is ending because this side is getting a policy or that guy's getting elected or whatever.

We know this.

So civic education improves civility because you understand how the system works.

You understand that it will stand.

You understand that our country was built on the idea of people getting together in a room and figuring this out.

And if I may, at every level, bad leaders come and go, but they go, right?

It happens.

Bad leaders will come and go.

But the system stands the test of time.

So don't let the again, the leader or the policy or the implementation of what's happening today make you feel any distrustful or negative or pessimistic about the foundations of this country.

And I think the more we engage with civics, the more we learn and appreciate that.

I'm hoping that it empowers more people to get involved in a positive way.

Well, speaking of getting involved, we are so fortunate to be joined by New Hampshire's kid governors and kid executive counselors.

I really want to bring our state's young elected leaders into our discussion now.

It's just great that they're here and they've been preparing their questions for the governor.

So we will go to them now.

And first up is Lola Giannelli.

She was New Hampshire's kid governor in 2019 at the time she attended Sunset Heights Elementary School in Nashua.

Now Lola is in Great ten Nashua High School South.

And Lola, thank you for going first.

And go ahead with your question for the governor, please.

So when I was governor back in fifth grade, I had to come up with a platform and a plan of action.

I chose to stop animal cruelty.

In the course of action we tried to implement was the dog toy club making puppy mills illegal and many other things.

Governor Sununu, please describe an essential element of your platform and what obstacles you faced in putting that platform into action, specifically around the animals, not just in general, like So let me do this.

Let me talk about animals for a second, because when I when I became governor, I will never seven or eight kids I think we talked about.

So I didn't have any pets growing up.

And I love it.

And those are great, but I didn't really know much about them.

But boy, when I became governor, we had a crisis with a massive puppy mill up in Wolfeboro, which was tough.

And we had to had to deal with that.

We had an issue with them wanting to shoot the bears because they were eating trash, which I thought was a mundane thing at the time.

But it blew up into this big thing.

We realized there was these issues around declining cats.

And that actually has come up.

I've been inundated with issues on animals.

So it's and I've learned to actually I love the process, by the way, that there's a lot of passion on both sides within issues around animals.

And one thing I the reason I bring this up as a topic, because I know it's very much at your heart and a huge part of your platform animals is politically agnostic.

I've made a lot of Democrat friends that was in trying to make it, but just because of what we did with animals and animals, our family is something I never really feel how much people really love and appreciate the animals as family.

I had a dog and I have a cat whole thing, so I bring that up because there's issues that you never think are going to be part a strong part of your platform.

I didn't come originally planning, oh, I'm going to you know, I'm going to become governor because we're really going to save all these.

And I didn't even know there were such issues out there.

And so there's I mean, there's like ten other things that we've done with this stuff with the SPCA.

We did stuff with these different groups.

Sometimes the what is nothing.

I found that within specifically the animal world and others, sometimes the groups that are all advocates for getting rid of animal cruelty and taking care of animals and making sure that animals have, you know, are protected and aren't abused and all that sometimes even amongst themselves, they disagree vehemently.

Right.

Some internal dynamics there, which I found very interesting.

One of the obstacles then that you faced is the internal stuff they're not maybe being familiar with it because of your of your upbringing.

And I would say, oh, well, you know, the SPCA, you know, they have an idea to do this.

So, you know, it makes perfect sense.

We'll do it.

And then another animal rights group would come and say, we don't completely agree with that.

I would have said, no, they all have the same vision, but they have a different way of getting there.

So the reason I bring that up is from a civic standpoint is you never know where the battle is going to come.

Sometimes they're internal, but you know what we did?

We made sure everyone had a voice at the table.

Gets back to what you said earlier.

They all had a voicemail and a relationship.

And Lola, we could talk forever.

Yes.

Yes.

You clearly.

Thank you so much for the question.

We really appreciate it.

Next up, we're going to hear from Andrew Swanson.

He's serving as a kid executive counselor this year.

At the time of his election, Andrew was at North Salem Elementary School.

He's now in sixth grade at Woodbury Middle School in Salem.

And Andrew, a big welcome.

And please go ahead with your question for the Governor Hawkins.

Civically managed students such as ourselves support democracy and help bridge the political divide that only seems to be getting deeper in this country.

Yeah, great question.

Well, first and foremost, positivity, right?

Go into everything with a sense of sometimes it's hard to stay positive and really tough situations, but when you do that, it's it can be contagious, right?

Be optimistic, be positive.

Doesn't mean you have to agree, doesn't mean you can't speak passionately on an issue and fight really hard.

But to be kind of passionate and positive encourages everyone else to come to the table as opposed to running to their corners.

I'm going to run to, you know what, all this negativity.

I'm not going to engage with you here because it's just too negative for me.

I'm just going to go home on social media and tear you apart.

Right?

That's what we do too often.

It's really, really bad.

But if we all kind of build those personal relationships, spread a little optimism and positivity and invites everybody else's people, people feel so much more comfortable coming and having a real conversation with you.

And that's exactly how you get stuff done right with one on one with conversations.

Thank you so much, Andrew.

Really appreciate the question.

With our next question is Charlotte Cottee.

She was New Hampshire's kid governor in 2022 when she was a fifth grader at Portland Elementary School in Plaistow.

Now, Charlotte is in seventh grade at Timberland.

Middle School.

A big welcome, Charlotte, and go ahead with your question, please.

Thank you.

I think being civil requires you to recognize that many people may not agree with you, but that you both have valuable opinions.

It means not to give up, but instead try to help others understand where you're coming from and to make an effort to understand them.

What are some ways you would suggest people use to support their opinion while remaining civil?

Great question.

I'm going to go back to the pandemic for this.

The most amazing thing I learned.

Let me I'm going to take a half a step back further than that.

So the pandemic so COVID hits, March 16th hits, we realize this might take a couple of weeks to get out of this.

And within about 48 hours, we realize this is not a couple week problem.

And so I went into my team and I said, look, here's the deal, guys.

Politically, I'm over.

I'm done.

I'm never going to get elected to anything again because I quickly realized I'm going to have to make some amazingly unique, horrible decisions that no one should ever have to make.

And I'm probably going to get everybody upset with me.

But by making the decision early on, no more politics.

We don't care about any of this, anything political.

We're only going to do what we firmly believe is based on data and we believe is right for the state of New Hampshire.

And we'll get through it.

And I figured 2020 will come and there's no way I'll ever get elected again.

But that's okay.

We're going to do right by the state.

But the second part of that was and everything I do is going to be completely transparent.

And I learned very quickly, transparency is the foundation of public trust.

And public trust is the foundation of getting people more actively involved in the process.

So I'm sure a lot of you remember my ad nauseum sometimes press conferences that would go on a long time.

I'm sure I got emails from some of you because I kept interrupting General Hospital because they would go on.

But a lot of you obviously don't remember.

I would stand every day.

I'd do at least one press conference if not too early on.

Everything that Dr. Chan and the team and I were talking about in the pandemic, I would just answer everything and my goal when I told my staff was I said, I don't care how long these press conferences take, I'm going to stay in there till the press ask me every single question they have because I in a crisis, I never want anyone to say, You know what, It's 4:00.

We got to go.

Sorry, you'll have to ask me tomorrow.

No way.

Super transparent, constant information.

And when I don't know, something most important thing you can never say is.

I don't know.

That's a good question.

I. I don't know what I'm going to have to dig in this this evening and get back to you.

And by saying that it led people, it kind of humanizes the situation.

It lets folks know that they're scared.

We're scared.

There's insecurity there.

We're going to get them the information.

We don't have all the answers.

We're going to do our best to get then make the best decisions possible.

But by being super transparent, you know, we say we're all in this together.

Well, we could say that, but I said it's not enough.

I need people to really know what I know and that we are all in this together.

So transparent transparency was the foundation was the of that public trust.

And that is the foundation of, again, getting that civil action and people being more civil in some very stressful, tough, tough times.

I think overall we did really, really well.

I got amazing.

We got elected again, so it must have worked out okay.

But but yeah, by kind of throwing all the politics to the wind, it it was amazingly freeing in a really, really tough, tough time for everybody.

So, Charlotte, thank you so much for the question.

Really appreciate it, Governor.

Next, we have Charlie Olson, who was New Hampshire's kid governor in 2021 when he was in fifth grade at Auburn Village School.

Charlie is now in eighth grade.

And Charlie, welcome.

And let's hear your question.

Go ahead, please.

Governor Sununu, as you may remember, back in 2021, you had to take you had taken your executive council meetings on the road.

I was asked as governor to speak about my platform of childhood mental health.

At the October meeting held at the Institute of Politics, There were people outside the building protesting the COVID vaccine requirements.

As we all arrived, the situation quickly escalated and the protesters demanded to be allowed into the meeting.

Another guest speaker was removed from the building and did not present due to security concerns.

My mom and I decided to stay and witness democracy in action only because there was a large security and police presence.

I did present my speech for protesters, yelled, paced, waved flags and even tried to use what I was saying against you.

A couple of those same protesters did compliment me a job well done.

State police escorted my mother and me to the car.

The entire meeting was ultimately postponed due to safety and civility issues.

This leads me to my question.

Civility is a very ambiguous concept, with many people having very different views of what is it, what is acceptable, how and where do we draw the line in constitutional appropriate behavior, in discourse, debate and protest situations.

So when Charlie was about to walk up to him, I wonder if he's going to ask about the day because you were there, man, that was awful.

It was a rough, rough day.

Now we did the right thing.

We had to postpone meeting postpone the meeting, unfortunately, because it got way more out of control than we thought.

And it was weird.

We had worked our way through the pandemic and it was kind of, you know, later it was about the vaccines, all this, and we didn't mandate anything.

But I remember you stood up there and we were kind of in the back and they said, Charlie's going to speak.

I'm like, Oh, boy, okay.

God bless this kid, man.

You're a rock.

So you are an absolute rock.

And you got through it.

But yeah, there was screaming, I love these these guys are screaming at you.

A little kid who's just talking about mental health, which is such an important issue.

I mean, let's think of the irony there.

People screaming at a child while he's trying to talk about mental health issues.

Right.

I mean, holy cow.

And it was really, really rough.

So I'm sorry, what was the question?

Sorry.

I'm like, I'm getting taken back to that moment because that was that was a really hard meeting, had never been postponed before, ever.

So, I mean, the heart of the question is I can read it again.

No, no, no.

So, so so how do we how do we get through times like that?

I mean, let let me let me just jump.

How do we draw the line believing in the inappropriate behavior?

So, yeah, understand that the system works, understanding that the system allows for people's voices and understanding that you win some and you lose some.

And that is the best part of our system.

If everybody got everything they wanted, it wouldn't be the system would be screwed up.

That's, you know, that's a broke very much of a broken system.

So you have to have the dialog.

So the best way to get through stuff like that is I go back to getting people to understand how good the system is.

There's a time and a place for their voice and disrupting and, you know, shouting down a young kid and disrupting a meeting to the point where government can't happen, right?

These are people that believe in government, but we're going to make sure that government can't happen.

No, that's that's I mean, I don't know how I don't even know how to argue with that type of of of backwards thinking.

It's very, very backwards.

Emotions get high.

I get it.

But there's an appropriate process for everyone, whether it's getting a pothole fixed, your house, Medicaid increases, implemented better mental health for your kids.

Whatever it is, there is a process for all of this.

Maybe two schools in the Department of Education.

Maybe it's something through your school board.

Maybe it's advocating for less rules and regulations around how insurance covers your opioid treatment or whatever it is.

But there's there really is a process.

So every for a public voice in all of this, and I think by believing in the system and understanding the foundationally, it's really strong.

We can encourage people to use the right avenues, use the right paths so they don't feel like they have to come to a meeting and and just, you know, shout folks down.

Yeah, you did great, man.

Thank you.

New haircut, by the way.

Okay, Charlie, thank you so much for the question.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Brutal.

Our next question comes from Connor Nixon, who served on the Kidd Executive Council in 2022.

When he was elected, Connor was at Sutton Central Elementary School.

He's currently a seventh grader at Kearsarge Regional Middle School.

And Connor, great to have you and go ahead, please.

Thank you.

Hello, Mr.

Governor.

You touched upon this briefly, but my question is for you.

Social media plays such a big role in our society today.

And what are your thoughts on the impact of social media on civics sensibility?

Yeah, it's really bad.

It's really it's more negative than it is positive, Right.

So one thing I mean, I'm very proud of is I've never posted a hit.

So, you know, we don't post negativity.

And I'm not just trying to pat myself on the back.

I really do try to lead by example.

I've never run an attack ad.

I don't post negative things on social media.

I try to be more of a promoter and all of that.

Unfortunately, too many people use it for the negative.

Now, I'm also a free market guy.

I believe in the free market.

I don't believe the government should be telling businesses what to do and how to control things.

Now, what's the result of that?

Let's talk about Facebook.

Like five years ago, Facebook was the thing everyone used Facebook for social media, right?

How many of you are under 21 and use Facebook?

Yeah.

Zero.

You know why?

Because people don't engage in that anymore.

It's become this kind of place of political discourse.

Right.

So no one's.

I mean, the sign ups on a place like Facebook aren't working.

So the good news is this.

People react to that.

I don't want to be part of that community.

Instagram.

All right.

Let's talk about Instagram for a second.

Instagram, if you notice, is really not very political.

I mean, there's a little bit of it there, but it's not made for the comments and the attacks.

Right.

Because you you specifically have to dig for an Instagram comment.

It's about posting something out, usually as positive.

If people want to engage in a political fight, it's actually quite minimal.

So the market is responding in Instagram's now what, the most popular social media sites.

So I do believe the markets will ultimately take care of it.

There will always be folks going somewhere for the fight.

I think I hope what's going to happen over time is you'll have true social.

Maybe Facebook, maybe a couple others be where all that argument and fighting is.

And if that's what you want to do, have at it.

You guys go in that room and play whatever the rest of us are going to be over here using the social media platforms that have designed themselves.

And there clearly is a way to do it that minimize the ability for folks to have that constant one on one battle over some ridiculous issue.

And so my hope is that, yeah, there's enough platforms and there's enough segregation, if you will, that if you want to engage in that, you're over there.

But don't mix with us who are trying to stay positive over here.

Now, I suppose on my three things are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and that's it.

That's just that I started doing that seven years ago.

I'll keep doing that as governor, but I'm not going to lie to you like the day after.

I'm not governor.

I'm out.

I'm tapping out on social media and I maybe Instagram, I don't know.

But I'm I can't wait to just not be a part of that at all.

Wow.

That's interesting.

That's a great question.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Governor.

Our final question comes from Kidd Governor excuse me, Kidd Executive Councilor Sierra Boulanger, who serves in this role through January of 2024.

Now, Sierra is a sixth grade student at Namaste Day.

Montessori School in Goffstown and Sierra.

Thank you for waiting to go last and go ahead with question for the governor.

I'm sorry, can we just love that?

The last the last question is coming from someone that goes to Namaste Day School.

So appropriate.

I love that.

I love it.

How do you believe the kid governor program has informed involved the state of New Hampshire civically?

I think it's awesome.

So the kid governor program is not in every state.

By the way, we were one of maybe the second state in the country to really take it on.

And it was my wife, Valerie, that got involved in it very, very early on.

And we took it on.

And I think in the first year for example, we had and they would like, you know, X number of people that have kids in schools that were kind of interested in participating in the program.

And now it's grown like exponential.

I have another program.

It's like kid governor, it's very different.

Gets to governor for a day, right?

I think the first time I tried that, I got like 30 kids around the state that applied.

I think last year I did it.

There was over a thousand applications.

Right.

So the the point there is that by promoting these types of programs, by showing the engagement, by showing that you guys get to come and talk to the governor or go to the state House and talk to representatives and have a real voice and express your ideas and bring those ideas to the table.

I mean, I'm going to go back to Charlie for a second.

You know, you came up with these ideas on kids with mental health, and I said, phenomenal.

I think we put like $3 million behind that guy's ideas.

Why?

Because he was living it.

He was he was there.

Right.

This was somebody that was going through this, where the barriers were, where it was working, where it wasn't working.

And he came up with these ideas and I thought, well, who better to come up with that than someone where the system wasn't working?

So by having you guys participate, I mean, I think we're really trying to go the extra mile to say it isn't just a nice thing to do.

No, this is like there's good ideas here sometimes and we're engaging with a voice.

The younger, you know, I'll call it the, you know, the 14 years old and under have a very perspective on things, and there's a huge value to that.

So I think by engaging with you guys more, you know, again, we can't do everything, can't wave a magic wand and infinite money and all that sort of thing.

But engaging with you guys more, I think, as clearly made the program bigger, which tells me more people want to engage with more people, which tells me more people are getting to those basics of and civility and the foundations of the process and the system and the idea that everyone has a voice.

You don't just have to shout on social media and we do have to be civil and build relationships.

I mean, if you notice, we're not the best part about all this.

You're here, right?

We're one on one.

We're not like trading emails.

And that's one of the biggest problems with all of civility right now.

And civics as well is, again, you can do too much on a screen.

You can do too much online.

It's too easy, frankly, to get by, not be the best version of yourself, but to get by just on a screen.

And sometimes there's a need for that.

And it can be a valuable tool.

But boy, having nothing, how do you build a relationship on a screen?

You really can't.

I mean, we can go back to mental health.

I think that's one of the foundations of the problems that exacerbate mental health, especially amongst kids too much screen time and and all of that.

Now, you can't get rid of screens.

That's a whole different story.

But we have to again, learn how to use them responsibly and manage the time.

But if we're minimum, I always go back to why do I want to minimize screen time for kids?

Because it forces them to have real time with people and that forces them to appreciate the value of a relationship which allows civics and civility to happen.

So this program is all really part of that, because it's about people, it's about individuals, and it's about engagement one on one, as opposed to just, you know, just being at a digital arm's length.

Right.

Which can be helpful.

Useful but not of not to its utmost potential and value in the process of really building future leadership of this state.

I mean, it's wonderful and I expect to see most of these people running for, I don't know, mayor, Governor something someday, whatever they want.

So it's great.

Hampshire Yeah.

Sarah, thank you very much.

It's wonderful to have you.

And that is all the time that we have.

For now, I want to thank New Hampshire Civics for putting this event together.

And thank you also to the Marlin Fitzwater, Center for for Communication at Franklin Pierce University.

They've been great.

Also our friends at New Hampshire, PBS.

It's been wonderful to work with them as well.

Now, I really want to thank both Governor Sununu and the kid governors and kid executive councilors for coming here in the rain to be with us today.

It's just been great.

Thank you guys so much.

And thank you, Joe.