Promise of Democracy 250th Summit<\/a> on Wednesday, July 15 and Thursday July 17.<\/p>\nThe two-day event will bring together policymakers, civic leaders and educators for a rousing discussion on how we can build a more robust and equitable democracy. The summit will both celebrate the first 250th years of American democracy and consider what the future holds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the middle of the fun and all the other goings on in Philadelphia this summer, we wanted to remind people the reason for the season,\u201d Cristella says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are feeling inspired by all the celebrations, if you\u2019re feeling down on America \u2014 whatever this moment means to you \u2014 I think there\u2019s something for you here. It will hopefully get you thinking, or help you learn something, or inspire some new action to take for your community.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll kick off on Wednesday with a VIP reception and a keynote address from Meacham that will consider today\u2019s debates over democracy, leadership, civic trust and national identity through the prism of our country\u2019s past. Afterwards, there will be a reception for attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s able to put the current American moment in historical context,\u201d Cristella says. \u201cWhen we were thinking about who could kick this conversation off and ground us in American history, there was truly no other person we wanted to have to do that and anchor this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a series of five panels will explore the rule of law, how media affects trust in democracy, voter apathy and how to reduce it, combatting polarization, and how to restore checks and balances to government.<\/p>\n
Speakers include Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters of the United States; U.S. Congresswomen Chrissy Houlahan and Mary Gay Scanlon; National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial; and Swing Voter Project Creator Rich Thau. The event will conclude with a keynote conversation between writer and author Roxane Gay and former New York Times columnist David Brooks. The conversation will be moderated by WHYY\u2019s Cherri Gregg.<\/p>\n
Tickets for the panels on Thursday are currently sold out, but they will be recorded and available on The Philadelphia Citizen and WHYY. You can still buy tickets for Meacham\u2019s talk Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Cristella hopes the event will spur ongoing conversations about democracy and how people can use their voice to become more civically engaged. They\u2019ve invited educators to the event to help keep the dialogue going in classrooms and they hope \u2014 by sharing the sessions widely online \u2014 they will be able to reach a broader audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a conversation that we\u2019re kicking off,\u201d Cristella says. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely one that will continue and we hope to bring in new voices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Committee of 70\u2019s The Promise of Democracy Summit<\/a> will take place on July 15 and 16 at The National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania. General admission tickets for the kickoff event on Wednesday are $250. VIP tickets are $1,000. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgNjAwIDM5IiB3aWR0aD0iNjAwIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjM5IiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"\/)
MORE CITIZEN RECOMMENDS<\/p>\n
Historian Jon Meacham speaks during a discussion with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, not pictured, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on January 6, 2022, on how “to establish and preserve the narrative of January 6th.” – The event marked the first anniversary of the US Capitol insurrection, the violent attack by Trump supporters that has fundamentally changed the Congress and raised global concerns about the future of American democracy. (Photo by Al Drago \/ POOL \/ AFP) (Photo by AL DRAGO\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2017, Lauren Cristella remembers feeling a bit defeated. National rhetoric was growing increasingly partisan and ugly.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67727,4158,69,71,70,9511],"class_list":["post-239291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-committee-of-seventy","tag-democracy","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-the-citizen-recommends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}