Best Movie: Zero Dark Thirty or Lincoln?
It’s once again time for the Oscars, and two films up for Best Movie of the Year, both about the nation’s past, do an uncanny job of reflecting the current state of America: Zero Dark Thirty and...
View Article11 Year Old Calls Out Public Officials
Well, here’s a must-see video of an 11 year-old boy calling out the conduct of Dallas City Council members for failing to truly listen to people who speak before them. Young David Williams goes to the...
View ArticleHow Steubenville heals post rape trial verdict
Steubenville, OH is reeling from two vaunted high school football players being convicted of raping a girl from a nearby West Virginia community. This old Appalachian coal community has been sharply...
View ArticleWhy I’m in Newtown, CT
This week I am going to Newtown, CT, where I’ve been asked to help design and facilitate the decision-making process on the future of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the tragic shooting of 20...
View ArticleWhat are college sports really for?
This past week the firing of Mike Rice, Rutgers University men’s basketball coach, brought new attention to a long-term question: what’s going on with college sports? And what does it mean to be a...
View ArticleThe Boston Response: Kindness and Resilience
Yesterday was Patriots’ Day in Boston, a holiday commemorating the first shots fired in the American Revolution. When the two blasts went off at the Boston Marathon, Americans chose once again not to...
View ArticleMaking sense of today’s chaos
Wherever I go I hear the same lament: “These times are crazy. What’s going on?” We all want to know where we are headed and whether that path offers any sense of possibility and hope. The recent...
View ArticleObama’s ‘Bulworth Moment’
President Obama reportedly told close aides that he wants to “Go Bulworth.” The implication: tell people like it is rather than engage in more focus group-tested politics. Here’s what I would hope the...
View ArticleMy ride with the Tea Party
Sitting next to me in the Dayton airport was a middle-aged woman with a Liberty Township Tea Party lawn sign. I wondered where she was going – and why. Then, after I found my seat on the plane to...
View ArticleWhat to do at the Susan G. Komen Foundation
By all accounts, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is reeling. It’s fast losing financial resources and staff, not to mention its most precious commodity of all: authenticity. Crisis communications and...
View ArticleThe Sweet Call of the National Anthem
Last night I attended a Washington Nationals’ baseball game only to miss getting to my seat in time for the national anthem. But as I was waiting outside the ballpark for my daughter to come,...
View ArticleAnthony Weiner, Eliot Spitzer, and Paula Deen
Yesterday, Eliot Spitzer, the former New York State governor who was forced to resign after being caught with high-priced prostitutes, declared his candidacy for New York City comptroller. This...
View ArticleNext Steps for Sanford, Fla.
Trayvon Martin’s parents, along with local religious and civic leaders, pleaded with Sanford residents to react with calm to Saturday’s verdict. The community has done just that. Now, what comes next...
View ArticleHold on: Detroit is not Dead!
The doom and gloom tale of Detroit abounds. But don’t declare the city dead just yet. There’s another story about Detroit waiting to be told, one of resiliency and possibility amid the trouble. This...
View ArticleDon’t Sell Detroit’s Soul
Over the past few days I’ve done a run of radio interviews about Detroit’s post-bankruptcy future. Among the messages I’ve felt compelled to express is the following: While the city faces steep...
View ArticleThe Local Antidote to the Government Shutdown
As the federal government shutdown grips the nation, many people in local communities feel disgusted and powerless to change what’s happening. But we needn’t despair. Here are three basic steps...
View ArticleAmericans’ Gut Check on the Shutdown
The national fiasco popularly known as the federal government shutdown is prompting us to take a collective gut check: will anything productive and hopeful result from this mess? Across the country,...
View ArticleMoving Beyond the Nation’s Impasse: Shutdown Week 3
In traveling the country, I’ve repeatedly been asked: What’s going on with the government shutdown and the country? Are we as a nation falling apart? Now, in the third week of the shutdown, the...
View ArticleWhat is a Public Innovator?
There’s an old adage that half of life is just showing up. Perhaps there’s some truth to that. But what about the other half? For public innovators, it’s critical. One of the key things that...
View ArticleU.S. World Cup Win: A Civic Parable for Our Time
As a huge soccer fan, I was ecstatic about the U.S. National Team’s 2-1 victory over Ghana Monday. As an American, I was struck even more by the words used by the players, commentators and others to...
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