The Coolest dog in Charlotte (02-22-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:27] them. just an event organizer. Now you're in charge of the whole thing. So first off, and either one of you can take this, what is the Kiwanis Club for people who don't know, what does the Kiwanis Club do, what's your history? Whoever wants to take it. I'll go ahead and take that. So Kiwanis is a global organization and we have branches

[00:01:41] all around the world. We're in over 50 countries of the Kiwanis Club in Charlotte. Is there another, are there other Kiwanis, and I learned this last year, I think, right? Y'all are called Kiwanians? That's correct. I got it right, okay. Yeah. And so are there, how many other like chapters are there around the Charlotte area? So in the general Charlotte area, we have about five clubs.

[00:03:00] Okay. So, but you know,

[00:03:01] when you get outside of the city,

[00:03:03] almost every town has their own Kiwanis Club.

[00:03:06] Okay.'s right. Right. So, so. Go to the website, vote for the dog, and one dollar equals one vote. Okay, so you register your vote, or you register your dog. That's the first step. First step, well, have a dog. Second step, know about the contest. Third step, then go to the website.

[00:04:20] And I know you've got a specific website called gogofotocontest.com,

[00:04:25] but you can also get there by going to charlotte-kawanas.org.

[00:04:29] That's correct. up so yeah there's there's no rules there's a couple I think I saw a German Shepherd named Sophie who had some pretty cool shades on I think that's gonna get some votes uh-huh but but you mentioned you first of all have a dog you can't participate without a dog you can just vote right now or you can you could sponsor our event we have some sponsors Tyler to construction the Suffolk punch WBT

[00:05:41] big-counter show Queen City K9 the K9 so we're we're still you know

[00:05:46] soliciting for sponsors and things like that but a lot of folks just you know I think his title is Lead Dog. Anyway, so his dog Waffles is on the label of the beer. So there you go. So I was going to get to this next then, which is what do you win? I mean, yes, you get the bragging rights. And is there a sash involved? Do you get to like ride in parades? Like what is the, what's the award for the, for the coolest dog in Charlotte?

[00:07:00] Well Suffolk Punch is going to brew a beer to the winner's liking, whether it's a Pilsner

[00:07:05] or a Lager.

[00:07:06] Your dog will be on the backside of the can. So you get a pretty big photo of your dog on the can there as well. And then the top 10 also get a small little photo on the can itself. So really, 10 dogs get to be featured on the can. So if you enter the contest, you've got a chance of making the can.

[00:08:20] Right. So you may not get the whole waffles ale. It may not be named after your dog with of Oakhurst Steam Academy and Rama Road Elementary, correct? Yeah, that's correct. Okay. This is one of the things that we talked a little bit about this, and if you guys wanna stick around, we can talk about it after the break, which is, I always say if we want, I'm a limited government guy, if we want government to do less, we have to do more.

[00:09:40] And I view this as the civic organizations

[00:09:44] and the work that you can deposit and withdraw

[00:11:00] your cash whenever you want and it all starts on March 11th.

[00:11:04] Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and then place your bets on your favorite And we've gone over a lot of the details and we were talking off air and I intend to go into this more in depth in a minute, but the role that civic organizations play in our society. And I'm not just saying this because you guys are here. I've been a believer in this for a long time ever since I kind of got exposed to Alexis de Tocqueville and his writings on this matter.

[00:12:22] So for people who aren't aware of what Kiwanis,

[00:12:26] or what Kiwanis club members, Kiwanians do, And so each year we have a theme of sorts. So our theme this year is the power of one and fun. And you talk about becoming a member. Well, our organization, we have over 50 members and we're growing it a lot this year, but it is about the power of one.

[00:13:40] So every Kiwanis member decides what he or she wants

[00:13:45] to get involved in.

[00:13:46] It doesn't take a lot of time. to a much bigger overall impact that we can do as a whole. Do you have anything you want to throw at you as the former president of this club here? Do you have anything to add to that? Well, I also co-chair membership too. Oh. And then tomorrow morning we're going to a school and we're recognizing 60 terrific kids that go above and beyond what they do and the teacher recognizes them. And it's a powerful thing to see this kid

[00:15:04] hold a little certificate up and a gift card and from right? They're all struggling with membership. And I think part of it is our society as a whole, people are busy, they feel like they don't have the time, right? Well they have to scroll. They have to scroll. They have to do all this kind of things. They spend three, four hours a day scrolling. They have no time. Exactly. And that's the big misnomer, right?

[00:16:24] Because it doesn't have to be a lot of your individual time. We have events throughout the year to serve and give back. Yeah. The website is charlotte-kawanas.org. It is the coolest dog contest. The Charlet just do a search for coolest dog Charlotte, and you will find it. Mark Popelman and Charles Holler, thanks so much for your time, guys. Thanks for the work that you're doing. And the contest is open, so register. Oh, I just got an offer.

[00:17:41] Somebody is willing to rent me one of their dogs.

[00:17:43] Thank you, Mark.

[00:17:44] I appreciate that.

[00:17:45] I don't know if I'm that.

[00:17:46] Look, I don't need the dog. supplies and educational materials that you'll need for any kind of emergency. In Waynesville and always at CarolinaReadyness.com, veteran-owned Carolina Readiness Supply. Will you be ready when the lights go out? 704-570-1110-1800-WBT-1110. The email is Pete at the PeteCalanerShow.com and on Twitter at PeteCalaner.

[00:19:04] And even if you don't ever interact with me over on the Twitter machine, you can see collaborate, and in that process, develop into citizens capable of upholding the democracy. In using sociologist and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville, using his words, and reading what he wrote about America 150 years ago, it's tempting for a lot of people to

[00:20:23] emphasize the affirmations that he example, they form an association.

[00:21:44] Everybody probably has heard some form

[00:21:46] of this observation contributions or impact. But the second role that Tocqueville saw associations playing is less familiar of collaborating to try to fix problems in the local community, they're not so great. Right, not so great. It's a skill that's got to be developed. And the only way you get to develop it is by doing

[00:24:22] it, by participating in these associations. The only way opinions and ideas can be renewed, a lot of Americans becoming increasingly isolated in their individual pursuits would give up any claims on being citizens who were concerned with the well-being of their fellow man in the public life that they shared. Does any of that sound familiar? Like for right now? He was concerned that people would instead submit to a paternalistic or a despotic central government that would rule over them as a

[00:26:46] to Tocqueville and civil society and the foundations of democratic citizenship.

[00:26:56] And we hear an awful lot nowadays about the democracy, right? And it seems like a lot of people just think that that responsibility to some other entity far away. You see this same sort of mentality develop in the argument over taxation.

[00:28:20] Oh, well, I don't need to donate any money because my taxpayers are doing it.

[00:28:25] I don't have to donate any of my of stuff. This is the thing that the local government should be doing,

[00:29:41] whether it's your HOA, it's a civic organization,

[00:29:43] it's the town council, whatever.

[00:30:48] lose the idea of association. This is the endless vicious circle of cause and effect. That's what Tocqueville said. The more government replaces associations, the more individuals

[00:30:53] will need government to help them. They lose the idea of associations, and it creates this

[00:31:00] vicious cycle of requiring more and more help participate in them. But here's the problem. You get so large like that, you've lost the very thing that made you