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- [00:00]
A
We, I think, have dumbed down our society quite a bit. I've noticed that students don't necessarily have information in general about how our country operates, what our country stands for. It relates to the decisions that they make, the quality of everything, when they understand that we the people are the ones in charge. It's not the government. We are. Dr. Kerry Butler is a psychotherapist, educator and the founder of the Texas Patriot Civics and Education. She empowers young people and families through mental health advocacy, civic education and leadership programs that inspire informed, engaged and purpose driven communities. There was a quote that said, if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. That's where growth occurs. So we really should welcome that and see it as an opportunity to grow and so we can embrace that and look at how can we come together and make what we have better and then take a look at where we disagree and to learn from that, figure out the best course of action.
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B
A lot of people say like, kind of people have lost what, you know, America stands for and all these things over the years. Right. So what are you trying to achieve with this?
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A
I'm doing is trying to.
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B
It spans the globe like a super highest cold Internet Elvis. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win the living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan Open Chicago with the lead. Usain Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. Hello and welcome back to another episode. Sat with Dr. Carrie Butler today and we're going to talk about how she's trying to redefine and re educate the youth of today around leadership, around politics, around being patriotic. And I think it's pretty awesome what, what you've got going on. So welcome.
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A
I'm excited so much. This is very exciting. Yes.
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B
So, so I'd love to like just, you know, kind of dive in from the ground up when people hear, you know, re educate the youth, reform kind of how people are being brought up. Right. Like I, you know, I think a lot of people say like kind of people have lost what, you know, America stands for and all these things over the years. Right. So we. What are you trying to achieve with this?
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A
Well, there are several different things. So first of all, I've noticed that students don't necessarily have not just the right information, but information in general about how our country operates, what our country stands for, understanding the difference between capitalism and socialism, communism, and how we should never be talking about socialism or anything else in our country because it relates directly to freedom.
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B
Sure.
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A
And relates to the decisions that they. They make, the quality of everything.
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B
Sure.
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A
When they understand that we the people are the ones in charge, it's not the government. We are. And to know what that process is like. So. So not only learn more about it, but to get involved and feel empowered to, to work with our legislators or to, to, to understand how to have conversations and do it in a way that's not toxic.
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B
Yeah. I saw an interesting stat the other day, like how even just like, you know, the youth have kind of lost interest. And it was showing, like, voting statistics. Right. Over time and how it's changed in the younger populations a lot. Don't vote now because they just. You don't understand it or they're not interested in it. Yeah.
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A
And when you think about our parents and grandparents and how they had a solid foundation. And we'll go back to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. They were in their 20s.
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B
Yeah.
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A
When they wrote that.
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B
Right.
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A
And so we, I think, have dumbed down our society quite a bit. And so I want youth to be excited, first of all, about where they live and their potential and what they can do and that this, it's not only important for them to feel like they can be involved, they need to be involved or we're going to lose our country. Yeah. And I really loved Charlie Kirk. And so as someone who's been in academia for many years, I appreciated what he was doing because I realized that a lot of students are not getting the information. And I'll tell you what really prompted me to do this was teaching. I've taught in university for many years, and there are prerequisites to coming into our program. So when they would come in, declare their major, they would come in, you know, their prerequisites would be economics, political science, history, government. And when they would come into my class to learn about policy, they wouldn't know the differences among capitalism, socialism and communism. So what did that tell me? That told me they're not getting the message. They're not understanding how everything works. So I would have to back up and actually give them some background information before getting into our content. And over time, I realized not just with what they know in terms of knowledge about the government, but their attitude and their affection for our country, I. I really believe is directly related to that. Because if we knew really how. How well put together our country is.
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
That there would be a greater appreciation.
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B
I think it's yeah, it's interesting you say that because I speak to some people, you know, I'm from Europe. Right. Or England. Right. And I speak to, you know, I've traveled the world because of businesses and stuff for the last 10 years and, you know, know, I love, I moved to America, you know, love America. And I, it's just getting my citizenship right now. And some people are like, oh, why do you like America? Like, why do you want citizenship here? And I always joke, I'm like, trust me, there's a lot of, you know, obviously everyone, every person and every country has their problems. Right? Like, that's a part of life is nothing's perfect. But I'm like, it's a lot worse in other places. I know because I've lived in them and traveled the world, you know, and I think, yeah, I think a lot of people that maybe especially younger people, they grow up, see social media and they see, you know, the beauty of Italy or wherever. Ryan. But that's very different to real life in these places and how things work
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A
and I mean, all the way down to like health care and whatnot. And how, you know, in terms of it being in the market economy.
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B
Well, healthcare is easy because in England it's on the National Health Service. And everyone in England hates the healthcare.
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A
Right, right.
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B
You know, and it's always one of those grass is always greener, you know, everyone in England hates it. And then some people in America, well, it's like, they're like, at least you've got it. But everyone in half the people in England now are paying for private healthcare because the health service can't support, you know, it can't support the population. So it's just interesting and I'll give
- [06:43]
A
you an example of that because a few years ago, after I had our daughter, I have a family history of things, you know, in our afflict cancer in my family. And my doctor, who was amazing and she is, she's Asian, she's, she's great and she's very bright. And she said, you know, with your, with your history, you know, I'll be willing to, you know, just take some things out, get you taken care of and so you don't worry. And anyway, come to find out there, I didn't really have any problems at that point until after the surgery. She said, well, actually there could be some beginning stages of something. So we had to send you to, to get cleared by MD Anderson. Well, everything was fine, which was great. But she said, you know, you're really lucky because had you waited a year. It could have been too late. But here's the moral of that story. My doctor was able to make that call. Now, when you go by certain protocols that are dictated by government, you get what you get, and you don't throw a fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And so that's what can happen with healthcare, is that you're not really able to make the decisions that are best for the clients. Well, you can extrapolate that to all. Everywhere. You know, when government is in control, the people aren't. And this is the whole thing about freedom. Right. Is that the people get to make the decisions, and our representatives represent the people. And so there's a great responsibility with that, and there are checks and balances in place. And in order to protect what we have so that people from all over can come here, and I have ancestors that came. We all came from somewhere. Right. And so that we really have to protect it. And another thing I will say about that is when people are seeking citizenship, there's a test involved in that, and it's not easy. And I would venture to say that a lot of Americans cannot pass this. You know, this is.
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B
Well, it was funny because when I was doing my test, I got 100% in mine right here. Brody.
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A
Good job.
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B
But I didn't revise a ton before. You know, I'm more like. Cause I'm so busy. I, like, do things as they come up, really. And then. So, like, the week before, you know, I'm going through these questions, and half the staff have no clue about any of these questions. Right. And then they were like, oh, you know, they were even starting to be like, oh, it's pretty hard, actually. Like, are you worried? And I'm like, no, I always figure it out. And then I ended up getting 100%.
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A
So.
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B
But, yeah, it's funny. A lot of people don't know, you know, some of the basic things.
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A
Yes. And so, I mean, that should be a challenge to us all. If we have people that are coming here from another country, they have to pass that test. Yeah. What are we doing with public education?
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B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [09:17]
A
So, I mean, what I'm doing is trying to not only fill in some gaps, but trying to inspire young people to get involved and trying to almost put the paddles on these local communities to say, we have it within our communities. You know, we can mobilize resources, we can get our youth involved, we can get our legislators involved. Another aspect of what I'm doing is interviewing our legislators so that they can directly have a line to their constituents where there's a little survey on the website. What do you want to hear about? What are your top topics that you want to hear about? What do you want our legislators to brief you on? And then, of course, we have to protect our data and all of that, but then take that information and our legislators can take that on the campaign trail and say, I'm directly communicating with my constituents and also have their finger on the pulse with, you know, here's what we need to be. Here's what my people care about. You know, here's what we need to do. So just having a really nice, neat little package. And I would like to see this in other communities. I would like for local communities to step up. I'd love to see some tax dollars remained in local communities to do this very thing and really help the youth instead of on the back end, you know, when we're dealing with other issues that could have been prevented.
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B
Sure. So I was gonna ask, you know, how do you see the, you know, this growing over the next sort of five or ten years? What's the vision?
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A
Right. Well, I am. What I'd like to see happen more is for. For young people to actually take on some of this and do some student led broadcasts. Right. Okay. And working with the schools to see this happen. Right. And so doing things like that for them to be able to get online. And if they are like for honors students or students, there are all sorts of organizations where they need volunteer hours, be able to get hours for that or whatever the case may be and to get some credit for that so they're motivated to actually plug in and learn more about it. I would really like to see a foundation created where. And I don't make anything right now off of the website or anything like that. I mean, eventually it'd be great to have a patient. But to have the proceeds, anything that we're doing to go to these students so that we can provide scholarships or help them, people that are working hard to do that, something that they really want to do, have some scholarships so they can do internships with some of our legislators or do some other things in the community. And how do we have civil conversations with opposition? How do we get back to being decent human beings again?
- [12:05]
B
That's one thing I've noticed with politics is how it be. You know, it really did, does or has recently. I mean, I guess it always has to some extent, but worse than ever divided the. The nation. Right. And that's, you know, where people have Started to say America's kind of losing itself from the outside, I think, because obviously the news portrays stuff a certain way, but it has got worse in how it's created, you know, that divide amongst friends, even often, you know.
- [12:31]
A
And I think that if we are to bolster of these local communities, we're going to help that unity, to build that unity. And collectively, you know, as a country and being on, you know, the same page, I was just going to ask
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B
you quickly how, you know, as we kind of wrap up today, people are fascinated by this. How do they get involved?
- [12:47]
A
Okay. So as I have mentioned before, I'm not an entrepreneur. I've been, you know, I've been an educator. I'm also a psychotherapist for many years. But I want to work with entrepreneurs, right. So this is, I mean I can do a business plan and all of that, but I need someone that has that expertise. I would like to work with people. What I want to see happen is I want to have like minded people come along. Let's do this together, you know, let's create this initiative, let's work with our legislators, let's make this happen. So that's what I want to see. I need some people that are willing to come along and do this because I'm just a little, you know, you know, I, I'm blessed in my life where I don't. I mean, I have what I need. I have most of what I want. You know what I would really like
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B
to see the mission now. Right. Pursuing the mission.
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A
This is the legacy. I've done this in colleges, I've done community coalitions throughout my career and I love doing this.
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B
Yeah, no, I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool what you're doing and educating the youth on the founding parts of what makes America great. Right. And you know, like, I often talk about the American dream and you know, often people say, oh, it doesn't exist anymore. I'm like, it definitely does compared to other places and you have to work for it, obviously. True. But then also I love the part about, you know, I think I've always, like in school, I was in debate club and stuff like, and I love to debate people.
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A
Right.
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B
You know, I just always have. But I think you can have different opinions and debate people without that meaning you hate each other. So I think that's so, so needed right now. And it's great that you're pushing for that.
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A
Yeah. So our son, on the back of his jersey when he was running cross country There was a quote that said, if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. And I love that because that's where growth occurs. So we really should welcome that and see it as an opportunity to grow. It's like with different cultures, it's different and different difference is diversity. Right. And it doesn't have to be the color of your skin or anything. I mean, diversity is just simply different. And so we can embrace that and look at how can we come together and make what we have better and then take a look at where we disagree and to learn from that, figure out the best course of action and to do that in a way where you can still love people.
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B
Yeah, yeah, totally.
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A
And be different. I mean, imagine that concept. Great.
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B
So last question. People love what you're doing. They're hearing this and they want to follow along, maybe support or read more. Just tell them where can they find you?
- [15:11]
A
Okay, so they can find me at www.thetexaspatriot.org and my. My email is drcarybutler2000mail.com and. But you can find me there. And I'm on social media. Is carriebutler. C A R R I E. Usually have my middle initial M butler. B U T L E R. Great.
- [15:36]
B
And we'll link that below. Guys, I hope you enjoyed that episode and really fascinating stuff here. And obviously go support as always. Keep working hard and have that mission yourself. Right? Build that legacy. Make that change that you want to make. I hope this inspired you to do that. I'll see you guys soon. Take care.