Citizen University TV Seattle Channel

Built on a sense of shared community responsibility, Civic Saturday talks politics, the future of our youth and baseball! Citizen University's Civic Saturday Year in Review looks back at the best of 2019.

As we celebrate this season of gratitude and forgiveness, Eric Liu adds three things to celebrate: our presence, our openness, and our heritage. Liu says presence matters because it's getting too easy to retreat into small circles of comfort. He says openness is to be celebrated because open and inclusive societies tend to outperform and outlast closed, exclusive ones. And when it comes to celebrating our heritage, he advises us to have an open mind, saying "Who we are as Americans is this: a people ever arguing over who we are as Americans."
Liu's address was delivered December 7, 2019, at the Town Hall Forum as part of Citizen University's Civic Saturday, the civic analog to a faith gathering.

Eric Liu says we are all "gardeners" of our democracy and our community. He says we ought to pay more attention to our roots and root systems and know what it is we believe and why. Liu believes we are a mixed, intermingled group of gardeners tending a mixed, intermingled plot. He admits it's a complicated concoction, but if we tend it just right the result could be new forms of civic responsibility. Other speakers include Citizen University's Jená Cane and Taneum Fotheringill, and poet Ebo Barton.

This address was delivered at El Centro de la Raza as part of Citizen University's Civic Saturday, the civic analog to a faith gathering.

Civic Seminarian Kristin Leong leads a special presentation of Civic Saturday, introducing guest speaker Aliyah Musaliar, a first-year student at the University of Washington. Musaliar reveals her turmoil as she wrestles with the only question people seem to be focused on: What are you going to be? And that leads to even greater anxiety for Musaliar since the predetermined path her parents envision does not align with her own interests. This, she says, is the reality for many members of Generation Z. "We're told to dream big, but those dreams need to be kept in check by how the market is fluctuating," said Musaliar in an address delivered April 27, 2019, at Hillman City Collaboratory as part of Citizen University's Civic Saturday, the civic analog to a faith gathering.

Eric Liu refers to America's favorite pastime, baseball, to help answer the question, what does it mean to be responsible? He says there are two ways to interpret this. First, what is it we should expect to be blamed for or held to account? Second, what ways are we living up to obligation or expectation? He says both are at play as our political culture has increasingly favored one definition over the other, often with negative consequences. Liu says to move forward we need to recommit ourselves to our duties: to connect, cultivate, circulate, and question ourselves. Liu's address was delivered April 6, 2019, at the Impact Hub Seattle as part of Citizen University's Civic Saturday, the civic analog to a faith gathering.

Citizen University visits El Centro de la Raza for a special edition of Civic Saturday. As the country celebrates Black History Month, host Eric Liu cites the readings of abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglas to provide context to the term liberation. But Liu goes a step beyond, exploring the full arc that runs from slavery to liberation to freedom. He reminds us that liberation is not freedom. Liberation is only the removal of oppression. Freedom, on the other hand, is much more than the removal of restraints. With freedom comes great responsibility. Liu provides a vivid example, sharing a personal story from his childhood in upstate New York. Civic Saturday is the civic analogue to a faith gathering. It celebrates the American civic tradition with a "Beyond Liberation" address by Liu, special readings, small-group discussions and reflection.