Politically Speaking: Disaster response
Politically Speaking: Episode 6
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Transcript
Richard Lovette
Welcome to Politically Speaking, an ETSU podcast about freedom and citizenship. Hosted by Dr. Daryl Carter, a professor and scholar of political history.
Each week, we dive into the essential topics of personal freedom and engaged citizenship, exploring what it means to be an active and responsible citizen in today's world.
Join us as we talk politics with members of the ETSU community, asking important questions and seeking meaningful answers.
Dr. Carter
Hello everyone.
Welcome to Politically Speaking.
We're having a special session today to talk about natural disaster.
Emergency response and what happens when the unthinkable occurs.
With me today from ETSU is Rusty Sells, as well as student scholar Skylar Brackett.
Welcome.
Sells
Thank you for having us.
Dr. Carter
You know, this is a rough time for the region. And for certain select states here
in the Southeast, more than people are going.
There are more that are missing. There are others that are cut off from communications.
There are more that have lost everything.
There are others who have family members that are in the crosshairs of this disaster.
From the campus of ETSU, within minutes you could be in Erwin, Tennessee, where you
could see the utter devastation that took place near the hospital off of 26, along
in Old Chuckey.
Where roads were washed out, where people had actually died.
From Johnson County to Carter County, down to Unicoi.
To Washington County. Greene County. Cocke County.
You could see the devastation that this storm, Hurricane Helene, had brought our way.
I want to start with you, Skylar.
Before we get into all of this, where are you from?
Brackett
I'm from Harriman, Tennessee.
So, it's outside of Knoxville a little bit.
A little over two hours from here. A very small rural community. Yeah.
Dr. Carter
And everybody is safe there?
Brackett
Yes.
Luckily, I think the Knoxville region was not hit as hard as this region.
So yes, everyone's safe there.
Dr. Carter
There's a tremendous amount of rain, trillions of gallons of rain that just hit between
Florida and the Appalachians.
So, Rusty, where are you from?
Sells
I'm from here.
Dr. Carter
You're from Johnson City?
Sells
I'm from, I was born in Kingsport, Holston Valley Hospital.
Yes, sir.
Dr. Carter
Oh, wonderful. Wonderful.
Sells
I've spent my entire life here.
Except for the eight years of active duty military that I served.
During Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and I couldn't wait to get out of here and see
the world.
And then I couldn't wait to get back after seeing that this is a pretty good place
to live.
Dr. Carter
Well first, thank you for your service.
And what branch were you in?
Sells
I was in the Air Force.
Dr. Carter
My father was Air Force.
He's retired now. All right, all right.
And all of your family is safe?
Sells
All of my family is safe. I have a niece that was impacted by the storms in North
Carolina, but they're doing well. They lost part of their property.
But they're being taken care of.
Dr Carter
I'm sorry to hear that.
And for our viewers, so many of our ETSU people faculty, staff, students, alumni,
family of family have been impacted here, which is why in part, we're doing a special
podcast session.
Skylar, what high school did you go to?
Brackett
I went to Roane County High School.
It's in Kingston, Tennessee.
Not a lot of people hear about it, but I would say it has one of the best views because
it sits right on the lake?
So, really cool place.
Dr. Carter
And what brought you to ETSU?
Brackett
There were a lot of things that brought me to ETSU.
For one, I really liked the location. I've never been to Johnson City before, and
it feels like a small-town community, even though it is.
You know, Johnson City, and it's a little over two hours from where I grew up.
So, it was kind of the perfect distance for me to experience something new in college
but also be able to go home if I needed to on the weekends.
But above all that, I loved the health sciences programs that ETSU offered, and I
love that.
The College of Medicine was right across the road.
And going into college, I knew I wanted to be a physician, so going to Quillen was
always a dream of mine, and luckily, that's panned out the way I wanted it to be.
But yeah, really all those reasons kind of together made me think ETSU was my home
for the next four years.
Dr. Carter
So, what made you want to be a doctor?
Brackett
My mom, growing up, was always kind of in and out of the hospital, and I, she spent
a lot of time at Vanderbilt, and it was really inspiring seeing just the overwhelming
amount of knowledge for such a rare form of cancer that my mom had, and they had this
overwhelming amount of knowledge and ability to both diagnose her.
But also, the patient care was amazing, and they were able to help her feel better
emotionally and spiritually as well.
And all of those elements combined really inspired me to go into healthcare.
I really like to challenge myself.
I'm a lifelong learner, and so, that's always an aspect that's drawn me to it.
And those are all kind of the reasons I really wanted to be a physician one day.
Dr. Carter
So, when do you start?
Brackett
So, I just got accepted to Quillen.
Dr. Carter
Congratulations!
Brackett
Thank you.
So, I will be starting at Quillen next fall, and I'm very excited.
Nervous, but mostly excited.
Dr. Carter
Well, again, congratulations.
We're very, very excited for you.
And I have to ask, you know, you mentioned patient care.
Is there a particular area of medicine that you're most interested in at this point?
Brackett
Yeah.
You know, I always tell people I'm still up in the air, waiting to go through rotations,
but right now I'm really liking OB-GYN, and I'm very passionate about women's health
and women's healthcare.
And I think being able to also bring life into the world, and that aspect is just
something so fulfilling and rich and amazing in a way that you can't really get anywhere
else.
But other than that, I also kind of like, I'm also kind of drawn to the emergency
medicine side of things, where it's something different every day, and you're kind
of always changing course and being challenged.
So, you know, again, still up in the air, but those two fields are what really interest
me right now.
Dr. Carter
Awesome, awesome.
Well, thank you.
And look forward to hearing all the good things that are going to happen over the
next or years as you go through medical school and prepare for your career.
You know, one of the great things about this institution is that we have a strong
focus on regional uplift.
It's a part of why this institution was created as a normal school in 1911.
And it's also key to our identity now.
And nowhere is that more present over the last or days than Hurricane Helene and the
university's response.
Rusty, can you tell us what you do here at the University?
Sells
Yes. I'm the director of emergency management on campus here at ETSU.
Dr. Carter
What does that mean?
That means basically, you take chaos and try to put it in order.
For the most part, on the grand scheme of things.
I do a lot of planning, try to prepare for anything that could happen on campus, be
it a security issue, natural disasters, hazardous materials incidents, things like
that.
Dr. Carter
Okay.
And what brought you to emergency management?
It was a long road. I'll put it that way.
After the military, I became a firefighter for the city of Johnson City. And I did
that for years and gained tons of certifications.
I'm an advanced emergency medical technician. I'm a state-certified hazardous materials specialist.
I was in charge of the training for Johnson City Fire Department for about three years
and ran the hazardous materials team there, and a position came open with Washington
County Emergency Management.
And I was kind of coaxed into taking that slot and eventually replaced the director
there in 2019, right before COVID hit.
So, I became director, and July of 2019, and COVID took over that winter, and I was
baptized by fire with that response.
So, getting to ETSU was a little different.
Jeff Blanton, who works here, Jeff and I had worked together on some things outside
of ETSU.
He was prior FBI, and when he came to work here, we had the Miranda Lambert concert,
and he asked if I would help plan that.
And then the recruiting process began.
And here I am.
Dr. Carter
So, awesome.
Well, it's just a testament to have somebody of your background, your skills, your
expertise here, as well as President Nolan's ability to build teams, his executive
team, as well as our emergency management team here on the campus.
And when we think about emergency management, I I did a little research over the weekend.
I was just curious if you would confirm for me, when we think about emergency management,
I found some websites that have identified key phases of this, and I want to see if
this is correct.
One is mitigation. Two is preparedness, three is response, and four is recovery. Is
that correct?
Sells
That is correct.
Dr. Carter
How does that work in practicality?
Sells
So, you start by doing threat assessments and trying to figure out what your biggest
threats are.
Threat assessments and figuring out . What your greatest threats are, and you prioritize
those.
And basically you build your plan based on what your largest threats are. Your threats can be anything from, severe weather incidents like we just had, .
We have a railway on each side of the campus.
So, our threat could be a hazardous materials incident through a train derailment.
Not so much anymore that the urban rail yard has has dropped, . You know, the capacity. That they used to handle. We don't have as much coming through here now.
It could be civil disturbances, things like that. So we basically do those hazardous.
Hazard vulnerability . Assessments, and then we build our plan based on that. And
that's once we identify the needs. Then we start building how to respond.
Or you know what our capabilities are, what agreements we need to make with other locals and things like that to help make our response more robust.
One of the things in this area is that most of your response agencies are small.
They tend to be on the smaller side. ETSU we have an in-house Police department.
We don't have a fire department. We fall within the city of Johnson City. Johnson
City Fire Department has strong personnel.
Nine stations spread out all over, you know, square mile radius.
Any one incident that we have that grows outside the capabilityo f what we have and able to respond to, that's where emergency management steps in and ask for those outside resources to come in and assist.
So once it grows outside the scope of what we can handle on our own, the emergency
managers step in, you know, and start start building that more robust response.
Dr. Carter
Now, is that a a ETSU policy or is that a state law?
.
How does that work?
Sells
No, it's not, it's not an ETSU policy.
It's an overall policy.
Everything works, especially like in a situation that we're in now with this hurricane.
It's called the National Response Framework.
So that's from TEMA or a FEMA.
I'm sorry, the federal level down to the state level.
And then that trickles down to the locals, which is your Washington County, Unicoi,
Carter, Johnson.
And then from there that's how your your response is built. Each county is unique,
as you know, Washington County, Sullivan County, are the larger counties in this area.
So that's where the majority of, like, your Homeland Security money comes in. Washington and Sullivan actually monitor and manage The Homeland Security grants.
And things like that that come through this, that the federal government gives to
be able to respond and buy equipment and get training and things like that for this
area.
So now, it's mutual aid is basically what it's called.
And it's just agreements between different agencies to build a more robust response.
Dr. Carter
Okay.
And when we think about these types of disasters, there's a lot of them, right.
They can be fire, they can be chemical.
They can be hurricanes.
They can be earthquakes.
I'm from California, I can remember being in the Loma Prieta earthquake in because
I lived in the Bay area.
And so it just shook everything.
And, you know, I've, I've seen hurricanes from distances.
I've seen the tornadoes in Camp Creek in Greenville in 2011.
Watch from a distance, the coal Ash and, and 2008, December 2008.
So I've seen it a little bit.
Have you ever experienced any type of natural disaster or other disaster?
Brackett
Well, you mentioned the spill in 2008.
That's about ten minutes from where I grew up in Kingston, Tennessee.
You know, so that I remember I was very young when that happened.
I was only six.
So it was just something I heard, you know, parents talk about.
But I think this disaster is the first one where I've been in an age to see the real
impact that it makes and see the devastation caused in the community around us, and
also be able to be aware that, like, we need to band together as a community to do
something about it.
So I would definitely say this is the first one where I've kind of known what was
going on or so.
Dr. Carter
Okay.
And do you know students that were impacted by it?
Brackett
Yeah, I think you're more likely to find a student that was impacted than wasn't impacted
at ETSU.
I mean, everyone either they had house damage - you kind of mentioned this earlier.
Their houses were damaged, their family members, maybe they couldn't get a hold of them for a while.
I'm president of my sorority, and I had a lot of girls texting me saying that they haven't been able to reach out to family members for multiple days.
And some of them had lost their household pets, even, and this was stories.
That we were hearing all across campus as a student government.
And so I think it was really, a wake up call, a call to action.
And, this is something you hear about happening.
You know, you see videos about it. But you never imagine it's minutes from where you
are.
And so I think this was just a really good reminder . That when these tragedies happen,
these whole communities are affected. And right, for this one, it was our own community
and our own students.
So yeah, there was a great impact across campus, definitely from the damage done by
Hurricane Helene.
Dr. Carter
Well, you know, the news started trickling out early in the week that a lot of rain
was was coming, right?
And then by Friday you started getting some reports. But for a lot of people, it wasn't
until Friday night and Saturday morning when it was like, oh my God, there's a lot
of devastation here.
When you think about the the students, you know, you mentioned.
How many of them are impacted.
It makes me think about a recurring theme in this podcast. And for this institution.
And that is the issue of community.
We are a community.
And for those who are listening that may have been impacted directly or indirectly
by this, you're not alone.
There are a lot of other people that have been impacted. And the university is here to help in any way that it can.
And so with that, how is SGA responding?
I know you meet twice a month, right?
Brackett
Yes.
Dr. Carter
So every other week.
So how are you responding to it? Are you partnering with, for example, President's
office.
How does that work?
Brackett
Yeah.
So, we've already done a lot, in terms of responding.
When I woke up last Saturday morning, I was seeing videos myself of the bridge washing
away and people trapped on Unicoi County Hospital's roof.
And I was like, there's just no way that this is happening.
And I started getting texts from other student leaders as well aying, "are you seeing this?"
And we all met that day on Saturday to come up with initiatives for all of last week.
And obviously last week was homecoming week.
And in my position as Secretary of state, it was my responsibility to plan all of
that.
And when this came out that all of this was happening, I knew I wanted to change the intent and the main focus to be service.
And so SGA as a whole, we walked a really fine line last week of bringing in these
service initiatives while also like students were expressing a wish and, and interest
in a sense of normalcy.
So there was a fine balance between that.
But yes, we, we immediately knew we had to respond.
And we came up with some initiatives.
On that Saturday.
And the first one.
Was extending the blood drive.
We always do the blood drive with Marsh.
Every year for homecoming, and this year .
We extended it to two days, which I'm.
So glad we did .
Because we broke a record with donors.
And we had people .
Donate blood on those two days, and that was just amazing to see.
We also partnered with a student.
Organization, Letters of Love, .
And they spearheaded helping people .
Write letters.
To first responders and affected families.
And they helped us write and deliver over letters to those affected.
And first responders.
And that was a really great effort.
By that student organization.
.
Other than that, we obviously.
Have our canned food drive every year.
And this year, we made sure to emphasize.
And really market it .
So that people knew that the need.
Was there for canned food.
And there were over 50, pounds of food.
Donated to second Harvest.
So that was really, amazing to see.
The community come together in that way.
And then, along with all that, we've.
Obviously had our donation supply drive .
All of last week.
Where we collected flood buckets, .
Supplies along with hygiene supplies.
All through the tailgate.
And we were kind of worried.
After the first day or two .
That donations would start to trickle off, but they stayed steady .
Throughout the whole week.
And I think that just goes to show how .
Strong and how amazing this community is.
Like you said, we really.
It feels like a very small town, .
Even though it is Johnson City, and I think it is amazing.
We were also getting donations.
From as far away as Chattanooga.
So that was another amazing thing to see.
Just the community response to this .
And SGA just tried to use Homecoming Week.
As a platform .
To really push, getting help for.
Those that are in need that were affected.
So.
Well, that's wonderful.
And I you know, we have a disaster like this.
People think of food.
Or they think of water or electricity.
.
But they forget things like people need.
Toothbrush, they need toothpaste, .
They need water to brush their teeth.
Or to clean themselves.
They need feminine hygiene products, or they need brushes or, .
You know, diapers for children.
Or things of that nature.
And so, .
You know, our food for our pets.
You know, people forget these pets, but they, they need food as well.
.
You also mentioned, you know, volunteering.
And helping in that space.
And, rusty, that brings me back to you.
And, you know, a lot of people have a big heart.
They want to help, but sometimes they.
They're not like you.
They don't have the training.
And how do you deal with.
The fact that you have good hearted .
People that want to help, but they may be more of a hindrance .
Because of their lack of training?
How do you push them.
In the right direction .
So that they can be of assistance.
And not maybe put themselves in danger, .
And then create a new issue which experts.
Like you now have to deal with?
Well, first and foremost, I'm proud to live in an area.
I mean, we are the Volunteer State, .
And, this shows.
Just in the response that we've had, .
Our folks hearts.
As far as wanting to help each other.
Kind of makes me a little emotional.
Thinking about it.
.
Just because the response is so great.
.
But here on campus, what we're doing, .
Is just getting the word out.
Through podcasts like we're doing now.
.
Last week.
We started doing some training sessions.
I put together.
About a one hour presentation .
To try to give an overview of, of what .
Is happening on the emergency management.
Spectrum, the current status .
Of where we are, at the state.
And the local levels, .
Giving them some ideas on PPE, what.
They need to be prepared for when they.
What is PPE?
personal protective equipment.
So that would be your your safety glasses, N- masks, rubber gloves, .
Long sleeve shirts, pants, things like that to protect yourself .
When you go out into the field.
To do this, this type of work.
And the volunteers, everybody thinks .
That, you got to get out and clean up.
Debris and and all that.
But that's not the case.
I mean, the volunteer spectrum is broad, anywhere .
From somebody that speaks a second.
Language to be a translator.
You know, when the.
When the FEMA folks come in and make it .
A little easier to fill their, their, paperwork out or babysitters .
To take care of those folks kids.
While they're filling that paperwork out, .
Doing paperwork, period.
Just helping.
Get the applications completed .
And getting that stuff.
In, tracking the volunteer hours and, .
The the hours that these folks work .
Are not just beneficial.
For the manpower part of it, .
But they're also beneficial.
On the economic side, .
Because when this presidential declaration.
And I'm pretty sure .
We'll get approved by the president.
Once that declaration is approved, .
It'll be a 75, split, with the state.
It works kind of like a grant does.
So the grant will or the state .
Would be responsible for 25% of that money.
That comes back.
So basically, .
All of these volunteer hours, every hour that you work is worth money.
So as long as that's track, that offsets .
That 25% in-kind portion of of that.
So let me stop you there because our, our.
Viewers, maybe our listeners may not be, .
Familiar with a presidential declaration.
Of disaster.
So how does that work to somebody.
Here in Washington County or Unicoi?
Send a letter to the white House.
How how does the white House get, officially, they request an application.
Yes, yes, I understand.
That's a that's an excellent question.
So this process starts.
As soon as the water started coming up.
The process starts.
So our emergency management folks are in.
What's called an emergency .
Operations center and EOC.
I don't know.
If you've heard that that reference made.
.
Are you see, is in Boone's Creek, .
Near the number one call center.
.
There's certain folks.
That work in that emergency, .
Operations center.
That fill seats, whether it's, .
Emergency response folks, health care.
Folks, infrastructure folks, .
Those are all decision makers .
That are sitting in that room.
And they're calling the shots for this.
So basically, in order for, you to be able to get a president's .
Presidential declaration, it falls under.
What's called the Stafford Act .
And the Stafford Act.
.
Is the framework.
That is, of how assistance is provided .
In a natural disaster.
So in order to meet a disaster.
Declaration, .
There's two things that have to happen.
One is you have to meet a threshold.
In your county.
Washington County's.
Threshold is somewhere around $828,000.
And it's it's based on per capita.
So basically, each individual in the county is worth I think this this year.
It's like $4.
per person.
.
Our last census, we have around 180, folks.
It's a little more than that, but around 180,000.
So that comes out to a little over $800,000.
So basically, once that threshold is met, that $800, threshold and then the state has a threshold that it has to meet as well.
And I think the state's threshold is somewhere around 9 million.
And basically what that does is that takes all the counties and combines them together.
I feel very confident in saying that that threshold will be met.
And before I get too far into that, there's there's two different categories of that. There's public assistance. And there's individual assistance that's it's split into two different categories.
Your public assistance is anything that is owned by a government entity. So that's your roadways, your bridges, your fire stations, your school houses, parks, anything like that that is publicly owned, falls under public assistance.
Your individual assistance is individual property owners.
.
The folks that see the most impact from this the public assistance is pretty easy
because you knock out basically one bridge in Washington County, and you're almost
to that $828, fairly easily.
You knock out to you're over it and we I think we have five in Washington County that's that's out.
So I feel very confident saying that's going to be met.
On the individual assistance it's a little more complex because in order to be eligible to receive that assistance you're supposed to be.
Own a dwelling and be uninsured.
So if you're a renter, it doesn't qualify.
If you're the property owner that has renters, your your property does not qualify.
If you're a homeowner. And you have homeowner's insurance by the statement you don't qualify for even if it's not flood insurance, you still don't qualify.
And that's one of the biggest challenges.
And that was one of the hardest things to accept as an emergency manager is that when these things hit, .
These folks have a terrible, terrible, terrible time getting help financially.
There's a population - it's an acronym. It's called Alice Population. I don't know if you ever heard of the hammer.
So it's, access limited income - I won't say compromise. It's in some end. Well, it could be income compromised. And employed, which basically means
You don't you may own your own home.
You may have a mortgage, you may make or $60,000 year, and you're just barely working paycheck to paycheck.
But you make too much money to qualify for the assistance but you don't make enough to qualify for the assistance.
You fall into that gray area in the center.
And for us as emergency managers, that's that's heartbreaking .
Because we try and try and try and try.
In every possible way .
And all these different agencies out there to try to help these folks.
And it's just no, no, no, I'm sorry.
They don't qualify and it's very difficult mentally for the first responders and the emergency managers that are trying to help these folks.
I mean, I know it's it's even worse for the folks that are experiencing.
Dr. Carter
That's right.
It is horrible.
And for our listeners, Alice, has been promoted, developed, and promoted by United
Way.
.
Full disclosure, I used to be a board member locally of United Way. So, you know,
Skyler, when you when you hear all this, you know, what do you think?
You know, you you haven't necessarily been n the same room with, with Rusty before on this particular note.
So what are your thoughts? Because I think there are people out there that are just regular citizens and they, they're watching their listening on television, radio, internet, etc.
But they're not necessarily in the same room with a, an expert, an emergency response expert.
So what do you think does it, does it change your view of how this works?
Brackett
Well, I've kind of had a peek behind the curtain this past week with Rusty on how
this all worked.
It definitely has changed my perspective because I know the student response that
I was hearing was people immediately - they wanted boots on the ground.
They wanted to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
And I think that's an amazing show of like community spirit and eagerness within our student community is their willingness to go forward and volunteer.
But something we do have to keep in mind after learning this is that you do want to
be a documented volunteer so that the counties are getting the money and the help
that they need.
So that's kind of something interesting that I've learned this week.
After kind of working with rusty, and that's why I'm so thankful they did the disaster relief trainings as well.
We had a couple of those in the Kulp Auditorium, and I believe the first one had over people in attendance from both students and community members.
You can correct me if I'm wrong on that, Rusty, but, that was amazing to see. And so it definitely is a full process on getting this emergency relief.
But I'm thankful that we have people who are qualified, like Rusty.
Dr. Carter
One last one last question, Rusty.
And that is on on infrastructure.
When you think about roads and bridges, schools, things of that nature, public, entities,
you know, there's a lot of talk over the last or years from engineers and others about
the need to, improve maintenance of America's infrastructure.
How did the infrastructure of the region hold up in the affected areas during Hurricane Helene?
Sells
I will say our infrastructure prior to this event was sound okay.
It was very capable.
This this situation is a little different and the fact that our infrastructure was
impacted from infrastructure from somewhere else and when I say that, .
In this particular situation, the way the storm tracked, is it track to the east of
us, and everybody knows that the southeast f us, it's in the mountains of Tennesse
and North Carolina.
Historically, any heavy rains that hit those mountains affect us.
Because that water runs back.
It hits the non the Nolichuckey River. Right now, the Nolichuckey rises.
We saw a significant amount of rain in inches.
But what they saw up on the mountains around Blowing Rock Asheville was in excess
of 20 inches.
That water has to go somewhere, right?
So it flowed back toward us.
So what ended up happening is it was taking bridges out as it came down.
Once the water started getting up, coming down the mountain it was taking infrastructure and houses.
And things like that.
So that debris from North Carolina was actually what was hitting our bridges and knocking our bridges and things.
Like that, a snowballing effect.
It snowballed very, very badly.
I had a couple of really close friends that were on the roof of the hospital in Irwin on Friday. And one of them told me that the scariest part of being up there wasn't just the water rising and them seeing it getting close to where they were standing, .
But it was the debris that was coming down and hitting the building and said it was hitting it so hard that ot was actually moving that hospital and they were afraid that it was going to hit and actually knock it out from under.
So this is just one of those situations to where no matter how how good your bridge is built and how often it's inspected and you know what shape it's in, those bridges are made for vertical pressure, not horizontal pressure.
And when that water hits it and all that debris hits it from the side, it it can't withstand that. And we've seen that.
Dr. Carter
Well, I want to thank both of you for for being here today. And thank you for all
that you do. For the campus and for our listeners, you know, there's unfortunately
been.
A trend over the last week of, some really ugly, negative, myths and misinformation
.And disinformation as it's been out there.
And we would encourage you to go to reputable sources for your for your news, for
your information, East Tennessee State University's website.
But this is a period of you know, what the president talks about in terms of putting
people first.
And, we're really proud of the fact that this institution and its people are so highly
engaged, in this response effort.
And so, Rusty, Skyler, thank you for for being here today.
And for what you do.
And, we wish all the people in the region, well, and, Godspeed.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of "Politically Speaking" an ETSU podcast about freedom and citizenship. We hope you enjoyed our discussion and found it thought provoking.
Before we wrap up, we want to remind you about ETSU Votes, an initiative led by the office of Leadership and Civic Engagement at ETSU. ETSU Votes is dedicated to fostering active citizenship by providing resources and support for voter registration, engagement and education.
Last year, ETSU was honored by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett for our outstanding efforts to promote voter registration. Remember, your voice matters, and participating in the electoral process is a powerful way to make it heard.
To learn more about ETSU Votes and how you can get involved, visit etsu.edu/votes. Thank you for listening.
Be sure to tune in to our next episode as we continue to explore the crucial concepts and topics of personal freedom and engage citizenship. Until then, stay informed, stay engaged, and keep speaking politically.
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East Tennessee State University was founded in 1911 with a singular mission: to improve the quality of life for people in the region and beyond. Through its world-class health sciences programs and interprofessional approach to health care education, ETSU is a highly respected leader in rural health research and practices. The university also boasts nationally ranked programs in the arts, technology, computing, and media studies. ETSU serves approximately 14,000 students each year and is ranked among the top 10 percent of colleges in the nation for students graduating with the least amount of debt.
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