Citizen University TV

Lessons in civic power with host Eric Liu

About Citizen University TV

Citizen University TV offers an up-close look at lessons in civic power and engagement.

Eric Liu is founder of Citizen University and executive director of the Aspen Institute Program on Citizenship and American Identity. He was a speechwriter and deputy domestic-policy adviser for President Bill Clinton. He is the author of You're More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen's Guide to Making Change Happen and A Chinaman's Chance, and co-author of The Gardens of Democracy and The True Patriot. For 11 years, Eric interviewed hundreds of Seattle's leaders for Seattle Voices on Seattle Channel. He is a regular columnist for CNN.com and a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com.

Citizen University TV: What We Celebrate at Civic Saturday

12/7/201959:29

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.

3481907