Local children, tired of hate in U.S. vow to change the world

The 2016 election brought out the worst in people and Americans are more divided now than ever before, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The poll found eight in 10 Americans are more deeply divided now than they were in years past.

“People are fighting on the streets,” said 7-year-old Kaden Brusman. “People can get hurt.”

During anti-Trump protests in Portland earlier in November, at least one person was shot, USA Today reported. Kaden wants to change that. He is sick of the violence.

“We need to be nice,” he said.

The CNN/ORC poll found the majority of the rioting comes after the surprising election night win by now President-elect Donald Trump. 63 percent of democrats are not happy with the results, compared to 47 percent of republicans.

“With the election, with [Donald] Trump and with Hillary [Clinton] and with the fighting in the streets and the freeways getting shut down right by one of the stores I own, and my employees not being able to get to work and all these people who want their jobs being affected by these protesters, how can we touch them and change them?” asked Kaden’s father, Bryan Brusman.

Kaden and his friend, Sarah Hatch, along with their parents, decided that the way to do that was through a video.

“Listen up,” Sarah says at the start of the video before promising to punish adults who aren’t nice by sending them to their rooms without their cell phones.

“We did the video to help people be happy,” Sarah said during an interview with KIFI/KIDK reporter Chris Oswalt. “People have been fighting a lot, so we wanted to help people serve other people by watching our video and then thinking about what they could do and looking around for opportunities [to give back].”

With the help of their parents, Kaden, Sarah and their siblings spent a few hours last week creating their #LiveHigher challenge video. Within hours, it was an immediate hit.

“I came home all excited to tell the family that we hit 3,000 views and that we touched 3,000 people,” Bryan Brusman said.

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That number of views was not enough for Kaden who had a goal to “change the world” and needed to reach more people.

“Kaden immediately looked at me and said, ‘I wanted 8 million by Christmas,'” said Bryan Brusman. “We hope that not only will this video continue to spread, but that it will spread quickly.”

The family has shared the video on Facebook, Instagram and with their friends and family. As of Monday, the video has been shared nearly 6,000 times, still a long way from the 8-million views that Kaden wants to get.

“I think that when a kid sets a goal, it is a lofty goal, but I think if everybody will share the video, it will spread quickly,” Bryan Brusman said. “If we can hit 3,000 views in one day, or two days, what can we do in 10 days or 20 days before Christmas?”

In the video, Sarah issues a challenge to Americans in hopes of reaching that goal, and to change the world.

“So here is what we are going to do,” she says. “I want you to do something nice for somebody every day and share it with us so that we can be inspired.”

The Brusman and Hatch families want viewers to document their acts of kindness in the form of a video and upload it to social media using the hashtag LiveHigher.

“We need to reach out ad try and inspire other people, to look beyond who we are just selfishly,” Sarah’s father Steven Hatch said. “It is amazing what happens when we reach out.”

We’d like to have people share those acts of kindness to encourage, not to brag, but to encourage,” Bryan Brusman said. “I know we feel like we are bragging as we film it and post it. But, it encourages others to get out and do something with their family.”

Everyone involved in the Christmas challenge hopes that not only Kaden’s goal of 8 million views, but his goal to change the world, will be met.

“We live in America. We live in a great place,” said Bryan Brusman. “We should be grateful for the place that we live in. No matter who is president, we need to deal with it and do what is right.”

The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted November 17-20 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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