Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are America’s core ideals. In Episode 1, Bonnie Boswell goes to Philadelphia where high school students and teachers learn how to tackle today’s challenges by understanding how the founders created consensus. Next, Bonnie is off to Denver where people on both sides of the gun issue are finding common ground to help reduce firearm injury.

Bonnie Boswell travels across the county to talk with people learning how to make the American ideals of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, enshrined in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence, a reality. In Episode 1, Bonnie travels first to Philadelphia to interview participants in the Second Young People’s Continental Congress(YPCC). Teachers and high school students from across the county convened for four days, walking the halls where our founding ideals debated, adopted, and drafted. They learn the founders had many disagreements but put their differences aside to create a new nation. YPCC participants said they want to carry this inspiring lesson back to their hometowns.

 But what happens when values such as “liberty” represent different things to different people? The hotly contested gun issue in America is an example. Bonnie learns that the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative (FIPI), started by Dr. Emmy Betz at the University of Colorado Medical School, is helping bridge the divide. Bonnie goes to Denver and talks with Amanda Wilcox. Amanda’s 19-year-old daughter, Laura, was shot and killed by a mentally ill patient at a clinic when the family lived in rural Northern California. Bonnie also interviews Edgar Antillon, CEO of Guns for Everyone. Both Amanda and Edgar are on FIPI’s advisory committee. Both want to reduce firearm injury. Amanda and Edgar say while they don’t always agree on policy, they want do want to understand each other better. In both Philadelphia and Denver, we learn having courageous conversations with people who have different points of view can be a starting point for helping Americans come together.

“Beautiful and Masterful” – Herbie Hancock