From Alex Kjerulf:
Recent items
Parking Lot
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Appreciative retail
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 9:05pm PST by Chris Corrigan
NCDD News & Perspectives
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Obama’s Office of Public Liaison to Foster Gov’t-Citizen Collaboration
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 9:04am PST by Sandy Heierbacher
I know we’re all wondering if, how and when the new Obama administration will address the need for meaningful, quality public engagement. Here’s a noteworthy piece of news from a November 14th New York Times article…
“Nearly two decades ago, Valerie Jarrett hired a young lawyer named Michelle Obama for a job at City Hall in Chicago. Now President-elect Barack Obama is hiring Ms. Jarrett for a senior role in the White House.
Ms. Jarrett’s role and title are threefold: White House senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison.
A longstanding member of his tiny core of top advisers, Ms. Jarrett will continue providing him with counsel on a wide-ranging set of issues, she said Friday evening. She will help Mr. Obama manage his relationship with the rest of government, serving as the White House’s point person for state and local officials. Finally, she will supervise the Office of Public Liaison, which she hopes to turn into an active channel for government-citizen collaboration.”
Read the full New York Times article, titled Longstanding Obama Adviser Gets Senior Role at the White House. And let me know if you have ideas for how we can introduce Ms. Jarrett to the dialogue and deliberation community and all we have to offer!
Parking Lot
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Why you should eat at Baan Thai in Victoria
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 7:29pm PST by Chris Corrigan
I’m in Victoria, BC. Tonight we had dinner at my favourite Thai restaurant in the world, Baan Thai. There are two reason why I love it. First the food is fantastic…homestyle Thai food that is slightly to the high end of medium priced, but is worth every penny. And second, if you stay there until closing you will witness a lovely ritual. At closing, the staff pull all of the tables in the middle of the restaurant together and they lock the door and they all sit down together to eat their supper. The chefs lay out a meal of fresh food, not leftovers, all prepared just for the staff. To witness it is to see a business that runs like a family and you quickly realize why the staff are so cheerful and full of recommendations about the food.
On that merit alone, I would support a business like that. So kudos to the owners of Bann Thai…we see what you are doing there, and it adds something beautiful to the world.
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President Obama, more meaning
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 7:18pm PST by Chris Corrigan
Douglas Rushkoff on President Obama:
When there’s a big blackout in New York, especially during the summer, some people take it as a “cue” to start looting. It’s not that the blackout itself makes it significantly to break down store fronts; it’s not that the police are so very busy with the blackout. The lights going out is a cue to behave differently - to release the hidden potential for vandalism and long-repressed rage.
Likewise, the election of a black man to the presidency is a cue that something has changed. As my friend, Ari Wallach explained to me on my new radio show last night, it’s a kind of “shock and awe.” There’s a thoughtful, progressive and black president-elect on the cover of the New York Post. The cognitive dissonance this generates is an opportunity to reprogram. It’s what advertisers and social programmers try to do in pretty much every communication they make. It’s as big a disconnect and reconnect as 9-11 was, only constructive instead of destructive. A narrative is broken; another is born.
I had that same thought…on the morning of September 11, 2001 I realized that one event could change things for the worse and I felt concerned for the fragility of the narrative of who we are. Likewise with Obama’s election I still feel the fragility in the narrative, but I’m encouraged that single events can have positive impacts too.
One last point about Obama for now…I was talking with my friend Dyane, a social entreprenuer and rapper from South Central LA about George Bush’s legacy. He asked the question, what will Bush be known for> In no time at all we had the answer: he was the last white President of the United States.
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News from the feed
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 8:04am PST by Chris Corrigan
Delayed at the Vancouver Harbour by a beautiful fog bank this morning. Turning to my feed readers, here’s what friends have been noticing this week.
- The Mars Lander Phoenix bids farewell via Metafilter
- The New York Times I want to read.
- Rob Paterson on why the current market crises may not be a blip
- Dustin Rivers, who always writes illuminating posts on the deep history of my region, is appearing on a panel about First Nations - South Asian relations in the Vancouver area.
- Jeremy Hiebert muses about Manufactuared Landscapes.
- Jon Husband, from one of his periodic trips to Europe, muses on top-down organizing systems in France.
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To be of use
Posted: November 16th, 2008, 7:47pm PST by Chris Corrigan
To Be of Use
By Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real. -
Why they call it Vista
Posted: November 16th, 2008, 7:39pm PST by Chris Corrigan
I’ve had a Toshiba laptop for a could of months now running a 64 bit version of Vista. Loved it until last week, when it suddenly started crashing and freezing up for no reason. Restore doesn’t work. All the fixes I’ve tried have only staved off the annoyance, but it still keeps happening. I have tio hard reboot several times a day.
They must have called it Vista because you get to gaze out your window so much while it crashes and reboots.
Sucks. I’ve finally gone off Microsoft. The OS was the last piece of sotware I used by them. Ubuntu here we come.
Thanks Microsoft. Your products are unpredictable, heavy and come with no support. And they don’t do what they say they do which is OPERATE as a SYSTEM. Sayonara.
NCDD News & Perspectives
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Shaping the Future of Lancaster, PA
Posted: November 14th, 2008, 10:50am PST by Sandy Heierbacher
On Tuesday (November 11th), I had the opportunity to volunteer as one of dozens of table facilitators at “Lancaster 2020: Shaping Our Future” - a day-long prioritizing and action-planning event for community leaders in Lancaster County. The event was facilitated by NCDD member AmericaSpeaks, and I wanted to participate because Lancaster is only about an hour’s drive away and I haven’t experienced an AmericaSpeaks event since 2002’s Listening to the City event in New York.I had a great time, and really enjoyed the people and conversation at my table (pictured). Lancaster 2020 was different from most AmericaSpeaks events because it was designed specifically for community leaders and not open to the general public. Despite that fact, though, the group was pretty diverse, with a lot of high school student leaders present, as well as folks from nonprofit agencies, businesses and local government.
The event felt like a well-oiled machine to me, as a facilitator (more refined than Listening to the City had been). The 14-page chart I was given before the event (and which was reviewed via conference call for those of us who couldn’t make Monday morning’s facilitator training) provided a clear outline of what my group would be doing when, how the people at my table would be using their individual keypads, and what my laptop recorder should be entering into our table’s laptop for the theme team to consider. Instruction for table conversations usually came from the front of the room, so I mostly needed to reiterate what was already said. And the community leaders at my table were so calm and competent that I suspected they would do just fine without me there at all.
Each of the 300+ participants were given a 26-page issue guide, which provided statistics and other data about various opportunities and strategies for making Lancaster County more prosperous, extraordinary and caring by the year 2020. Lancaster 2020 Steering Committee members had identified four topics to guide the conversation — the well-being of people, connections and collaboration, economic engine and the physical environment — and 5 or 6 “opportunities” for making progress in each of those areas. Under the topic “The Well-Being of People,” for example, one of the opportunities was “Ensure access to healthcare” and another was “Increase healthy behaviors and lifestyle choices.” Throughout the day, participants developed a vision, identified values, and prioritized opportunities and actions.I found the experience particularly interesting because I generally think of AmericaSpeaks’ 21st Century Town Meeting methodology as a “Decision Making” approach and not a “Collaborative Action” approach (see NCDD’s Engagement Streams framework if you’re not sure what I’m talking about). Lancaster 2020, however, was not designed just to provide data to a group of public managers or community leaders; it was designed to get hundreds of community leaders coming up with new ideas for bettering their community and making commitments on the spot — and it seemed to do a great job making that happen.
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Lead facilitators for the event were Carolyn Lukensmeyer, President of AmericaSpeaks, and Janet Fiero, Senior Associate of AmericaSpeaks. It was Janet who first told me about the event and suggested I get involved.
The photos on this page were taken by photographer Russell Frost of Frost Imaging.
Parking Lot
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The benefits of attending to design
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 6:51pm PST by Chris Corrigan
I’m here in Battle Creek, Michigan working with 17 very interesting people who together are planning the 2009 Food and Society Gathering, sponsored by the WK Kellogg Foundation. This is a repeat gig for Tuesday Ryan-Hart and Tim Merry and I, although last year we worked with Phill Cass, Toke Moeller and Monica Nissen as well.
Tuesday and I have been working over the design of this gathering all day today, preparing and chaging and shifting things, going over and over everything, making allowances for shifts in time, for different arrivals and so on, and tonight we’re set. It brings home to me the importance of design.
This fall almost all the work I have done has consisted of design conversations with groups who are hosting meetings. In every case, I have worked remotely with a team of people to co-create the design for our time together. We have been very thoughtful about building in lost of breathing space in agendas, using processes that invite emergence and co-learning and paying close attention to sharing hosting and leadership around.
What I am learning as I do this over and over again, is how much time it takes to get it right, and what the payoff is for nailing it. In my experience I have found that even designing short gatherings well and co-creatively takes at least double the actual time allotted for the meeting itself. If you imagine being an athelete or a performing artist, the analogy is accurate; rehearsal takes time. Even a five minute performance takes months of planning to do beautifully. With this gathering, a 2.5 day conference on the food system with up to 600 people, hosted within a few days of pre-meeting activities, the design will take 4 days of face to face time with 21 people, and an additional 12 hours of webinars all together. We’ll also meet as action teams virtually over the next six months in smaller aggregations to work on the design. And that’s not logistics and invitations, just process design.
The payoff, I have noticed, is a gathering that is co-owned and co-hosted by a team of people who are highly invested in the process. In fact the intensity of doing this work results in friendships that last beyond the work itself and often spin off into other ventures. Quality is born in relationship and relationship takes time and undivided attention. In the grand scheme of things, 5 days of work together isn’t a lot, but if we are to pull off this 2.5 day gathering again, every minute spent in quality counts.
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The benefits of attending to design
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 6:51pm PST by Chris Corrigan
I’m here in Battle Creek, Michigan working with 17 very interesting people who together are planning the 2009 Food and Society Gathering, sponsored by the WK Kellogg Foundation. This is a repeat gig for Tuesday Ryan-Hart and Tim Merry and I, although last year we worked with Phill Cass, Toke Moeller and Monica Nissen as well.
Tuesday and I have been working over the design of this gathering all day today, preparing and chaging and shifting things, going over and over everything, making allowances for shifts in time, for different arrivals and so on, and tonight we’re set. It brings home to me the importance of design.
This fall almost all the work I have done has consisted of design conversations with groups who are hosting meetings. In every case, I have worked remotely with a team of people to co-create the design for our time together. We have been very thoughtful about building in lost of breathing space in agendas, using processes that invite emergence and co-learning and paying close attention to sharing hosting and leadership around.
What I am learning as I do this over and over again, is how much time it takes to get it right, and what the payoff is for nailing it. In my experience I have found that even designing short gatherings well and co-creatively takes at least double the actual time allotted for the meeting itself. If you imagine being an athelete or a performing artist, the analogy is accurate; rehearsal takes time. Even a five minute performance takes months of planning to do beautifully. With this gathering, a 2.5 day conference on the food system with up to 600 people, hosted within a few days of pre-meeting activities, the design will take 4 days of face to face time with 21 people, and an additional 12 hours of webinars all together. We’ll also meet as action teams virtually over the next six months in smaller aggregations to work on the design. And that’s not logistics and invitations, just process design.
The payoff, I have noticed, is a gathering that is co-owned and co-hosted by a team of people who are highly invested in the process. In fact the intensity of doing this work results in friendships that last beyond the work itself and often spin off into other ventures. Quality is born in relationship and relationship takes time and undivided attention. In the grand scheme of things, 5 days of work together isn’t a lot, but if we are to pull off this 2.5 day gathering again, every minute spent in quality counts.
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Three basic lessons from the current financial crises
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 2:36pm PST by Chris Corrigan
Some useful observaions from Clark Williams-Derry at WorldChanging about the current financial crises:
1. Unlikely events are common
2. Markets don’t know much
3. Unsustainable things stop
I especially like the last one. It doesn’t really matter if people believe things are unsustainable or not. If something is unsustainable it will stop, and that’s that.
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Three basic lessons from the current financial crises
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 2:36pm PST by Chris Corrigan
Some useful observaions from Clark Williams-Derry at WorldChanging about the current financial crises:
1. Unlikely events are common
2. Markets don’t know much
3. Unsustainable things stop
I especially like the last one. It doesn’t really matter if people believe things are unsustainable or not. If something is unsustainable it will stop, and that’s that.
NCDD News & Perspectives
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From 52 to 48 with love
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 1:03pm PST by Sandy Heierbacher
I just learned about an amazing project through an email from my friend John Steiner. A blogger and twitterer named Ze Frank is asking Obama supporters (the 52%) to reach out to McCain supporters (the 48%) in a gesture of reconciliation on his blog at www.zefrank.com/from52to48withlove/Dozens of people from all political leanings have sent in pictures of themselves with touching, pithy, or funny messages for “the 52″ or “the 48″ or all Americans written on pieces of paper, like the image shown here. Zefrank has posted these pictures in a long blog post called “From 52 to 48 with love.”
On the main page of his blog, I found this text about the project:
i would love to see a group project where obama supporters reached out to the mccain folk (and others) in a gesture of reconciliation…
simple messages.
perhaps it is naive. the differences are real, i know. but we have to repair the damage done from this election cycle somehow…
the fringes (all of them) have been allowed to dominate our conversations for too long. to create a cycle of hate, ill-will and revenge.
it’s a tough and delicate challenge - if you want to try it - send a pic of you with a sign, or a vid, or anything to ze@zefrank.com
maybe it works, maybe not - i know it won’t speak to many : but i think we give it a whirl and decide for ourselves, yes?Check out the photos at from52to48withlove.
Parking Lot
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Notable posts from the feed
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 11:01am PST by Chris Corrigan
Thought I would start regularly pointing to good stuff that copmes through my feed readers. For the record I actually use two feed readers: Bloglines for my regular reads (you can see my feeds here) and Google Reader for everything else. What I like about Google Reader is that they have a littel “Next” button that you can click to see the next post in your feed in its own context. So that’s cool.
Anyway, after trolling the feeds this morning, here is what struck me:
- James Glave on where the real Green Shift will come from: the middle of the bell curve.
- Rob Paterson on how Obama can use his network for real change.
- Peter Rukavina has been trolling the New Yorker’s digital archives and has discovered some lovely bits about the Shelly Netherland hotel.
- Barack’s Obama photostream on flickr, which came by way of Euan Semple.
- A MetaFilter post about the shocking rise of tent cities in the USA (Update: with some excellent suggestions on what better off people can do to help)
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What to sew on your backpack now
Posted: November 6th, 2008, 1:09pm PST by Chris Corrigan
The single greatest indication that the world has changed since Tuesday is the idea that Americans no longer have to sew a Canadian flag on their backpacks to get respect in Europe. If you really want safe passge, sew an Obama logo on instead.
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Put in context
Posted: November 5th, 2008, 1:21pm PST by Chris Corrigan
From Patrick Moberg
NCDD News & Perspectives
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Penn State-Abington Students Learn the Power of Dialogue
Posted: November 5th, 2008, 1:14pm PST by Sandy Heierbacher
Here’s a nice article from Penn State Live at [live.psu.edu], describing Steve Pyser’s work at Penn State-Abington. Steve is an active NCDD member; he just coordinated (with Janet Fiero) and moderated the Reflective Panel at the 2008 NCDD conference in Austin.
Abington students learn the power of dialogueMonday, September 22, 2008
Lecturer Steve Pyser enlightened many students to the power of dialogue this summer during his Political Science 001 course: “Introduction to American National Government.” Not only did he teach the students about the founding principles and documents of our democratic government, but he also taught them the fundamentals and importance of the dialogue approach of communication in our politically polarized country.
The dialogue approach, in brief, requires participants to suspend their assumptions and judgment and to begin to listen to others. This is different from “debate” where the goal is to voice one’s opinion, period. Pyser taught the students how to work through the process of dialoguing: how to communicate their viewpoints, frame the issues, and finally, to be confident in their beliefs. Students said they felt respected and that their viewpoints were honored.
The students reveled in the freedom and flow of ideas and opinions. All shared their political thoughts and opinions in conversations facilitated by Pyser. Many had never experienced this before; to share who they are, to be able to explain it and not have their ideas dismissed. One student noted that it was the first time that he felt it wasn’t necessary to conform his comments to the beliefs of the faculty member, that he could actually speak from his heart.
Pyser made sure he didn’t reveal his viewpoints throughout the class and prided himself in knowing that no one knew his politics by the end of the course. “My job is to be a facilitator of conversation,” said Pyser, “not to talk about my political viewpoints.”
During the last week of class, as the capstone achievement of the course, the students participated in an actual dialogue titled, “Democracy’s Challenge: Reclaiming the Public’s Role.” Pyser has moderated many public dialogues including: redeveloping Ground Zero after 9/11, determining the future of the San Diego Airport, and citizen voices on the future of Philadelphia and its waterfront development. Pyser has submitted a report on the students’ dialogue to the National Issues Forums (NIF), a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums for the consideration of public policy issues. The results of the dialogue should appear on the NIF Web site later this year.
The benefits of the class were enormous. Since many students didn’t know each other before the class, new ideas and insights were had by all. “The class was all about possibilities…the ‘what if’ factor,” Pyser said. “The full value of dialoguing is a community commitment … respect for others’ opinions, an appreciation for difference, and to be responsible for what you say and how you say it. They came away with a lifelong learning experience.”
Parking Lot
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Welcome back, friend.
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 8:01pm PST by Chris Corrigan
Oh hey it’s you! Hey honey! Look who’s back! Man, we’ve missed you.
How have you been? We’re okay…we’ve been thinking good things for you the whole time you’ve been away. Looks like life’s had it’s way with you. Ouch. Where’d you pick up those scrapes?
It was hard when you first left. We were so there with you when you had your big shock. It was hard to watch you get angry like that. You hurt a lot of people you know. I mean we knew we’d be safe, y’know we’ve known each other a long time, but it was really hard to watch you go through that. We didn’t take personally all those things you said about us. You were angry, acting rash. And now look at you…tired, hungry, hurt and you look like you’re out of money too.
But look, it’s good to have you back. We really have missed you. Things haven’t been the same since you’ve been gone. I knew if we kept the candles burning for you, you’d come back.
Come on in and take a load off. Have something to eat. Take a few days and then we can help you think about how to make things right again. Lots of people are gunning for you right now. You look like you could use a few friends.
I believe you when you say you want to change. It’s not going to be easy, but if you need our help, we’ll give you a hand. Who knows? Maybe the tables will be turned someday!
Alright, take it easy now…you’ve had a long trek to get here. Go slow. Get some rest. We’ll talk more in the morning
Man…it’s good to see you again.
NCDD News & Perspectives
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To-The-Point Resources for Public Officials
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 7:55pm PST by Sandy Heierbacher
Terry Amsler just sent this to the NCDD Discussion listserv (email joy@thataway.org if you want added to the list, or become a member of NCDD)…
Just in case you’re interested – The Institute for Local Government’s Collaborative Governance Initiative has organized and authored about two dozen civic engagement-related articles appearing in Western City magazine between July and December of this year. Western City is the monthly magazine of the League of California Cities and reaches about 11,000 local officials in California. Topics run from planning and budgeting to youth commissions and assessing civic engagement efforts. These are not in-depth write-ups, but are for local officials who generally have only limited time to read the magazine. All the articles may be found, as they are published, at www.ca-ilg.org/civicparticipation.
Also see our new publication, A Local Official’s Guide to Immigrant Civic Engagement at www.ca-ilg.org/ilgpubs. A Local Official’s Guide to Developing Effective Youth Commissions and Guide to Public Involvement in Budgeting are forthcoming.
The Institute for Local Government is the research and education affiliate of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties. The Collaborative Governance Initiative, a program of the Institute, encourages and supports local official’s efforts to engage in strategic, inclusive and effective civic participation efforts.
Best to all,
Terry
Terry Amsler | Program Director
Collaborative Governance Initiative
INSTITUTE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT -
NCDD Member Kai Degner Running for City Council
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 6:55pm PST by Sandy Heierbacher
Andy and I are glued to the TV tonight, as I’m sure many of you are, waiting to see who our next U.S. President will be.
But many others are running for various offices as well - including NCDD member Kai Degner, who is running for City Council in the town of Harrisonburg, Virginia. Some of you met Kai at the last NCDD conference in Austin, or at NCDD 2006 in San Francisco. He’s a young, focused, high-energy dynamo who created the concept of the OrangeBand. Andy just checked, and he currently has more votes for city council than any of the 7 others who are running.
I think it’s safe to project that our Kai will win his well-earned position. You can keep track of his progress at www.dnronline.com/election_results_hb.php if you’d like. Congratulations, Kai!
Parking Lot
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The essence of practice
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 11:57am PST by Chris Corrigan
Enclosure: [download]
I was listening to a dharma talk by Steve Armstrong (listen to it here) on working with the defilements of the mind. He begins the talk by quoting the Buddha who says that the pure mind is radiant and bright and that everything else is the result of being visited by defilements. In Buddhism these include greed, aversion and delusion.
Less important than the dharma content of this talk though is a line that Steve Armstrong said that zinged home with me. He said that when we sit down to meditate, we should not expect to have a “good experience” but rather, we should understand that this is the place where we meet the mind’s defilements head on.
That really resonated with me. It seems an important feature of any practice that one recognize that the reason for practicing is to meet challenge, difficulty and frustration. In that sense any practice becomes a dojo, a place of training. In meditation we sit to discover how our mind works and to work with what we find. In my own martial arts practices of taekwondo and warrior of the heart, it is about confronting physical challenges and fear.
And it made me think about what it means also to be a practitioner of conversational arts. Many of the places I work are difficult places, and I can see now that what makes me a practitioner is that I willingly choose those places because they are hard. That is where I practice, and the practice is learning to use the social spaces between us as people to make good happen in the world.
Practice is not a retreat from the world, it is confronting your sharpest edge. Work, for me, is like that too.
NCDD News & Perspectives
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Clinton Global Initiative U. Invites Student Applications
Posted: October 30th, 2008, 2:21pm PDT by Sandy Heierbacher
Thought some student NCDDers might be interested in this…
The Clinton Global Initiative, a nonpartisan initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation, is accepting applications from college students for the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) 2009 meeting.
CGI U is dedicated to the distinct potential that young people and higher educational institutions have to make a difference on their campuses and around the world. President Clinton will host the second annual meeting of CGI U at the University of Texas at Austin, February 13-15, 2009. Building on the success of CGI U 2008 in New Orleans, the meeting will bring together young leaders, university presidents, and activists to address pressing global challenges in the areas of education, energy and climate change, global health, human rights and peace, and poverty alleviation.
The deadline for early decision applications is November 7, 2008. The final deadline for applications is December 12, 2008. Attending CGI U is free, and travel assistance is available for those who qualify. CGI U actively seeks a range of students who have a variety of experiences, interests, talents, and goals.
In order to attend, all students must make a commitment to a new, measurable plan for addressing a specific problem on their campuses or around the world. Visit the CGI website for complete program information.
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Civic Health Index Shows 80% of the U.S. Public wants National Deliberation
Posted: October 28th, 2008, 11:07am PDT by Sandy Heierbacher
Here’s a great post by Joe Goldman from the DDC’s blog at www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/…
The National Conference on Citizenship just put out its third Civic Health Index. Lots of really interesting stuff, including:
- 87% of the American public support giving every young person the opportunity to earn tuition money by completing a year of national or community service
- 80% of the American public favor holding a national deliberation on a major issue and requiring Congress to respond to what citizens say
- 76% would like to see service-learning (combinations of classroom learning and community service) required in schools
- 67% would strengthen civic education by requiring new tests in the subject
At AmericaSpeaks, we’ve been waiting to see national polling results on what people think about the idea of conducting national discussions for a long time. It’s great to see that 80% number. What is really interesting is that the 80% goes across ideological lines. 60% of Republicans were “strongly in favor” and 70% of Democrats were “strongly in favor.” Support was strong across demographic groups.
Thanks so much to everyone at the National Conference on Citizenship for bringing this data to light. Lots of other interesting stuff. Check it out.
Trackback: www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/wp-trackback.php?p=283
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Publication Not to Miss: “Where is Democracy Headed?”
Posted: October 28th, 2008, 10:55am PDT by Sandy Heierbacher
I’m on a webinar right now about a new Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC) publication titled “Where is Democracy Headed?” The webinar is sponsored by PACE and Grassroots Grantmakers.
Matt Leighninger presented about this new publication during the D&D Marketplace at NCDD Austin. The publication summarizes four years of the DDC’s learnings about deliberation, decision-making, and problem-solving.
Download Where Is Democracy Headed report now.
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Job Opening at CPRN for Director of Civic Engagement
Posted: October 28th, 2008, 10:34am PDT by Sandy Heierbacher
Just found out about this from our friends at the Canadian Community for Dialogue & Deliberation…
Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN) has an opening for a Director of Civic Engagement. This person will supervise a senior researcher, two researchers, and a project manager, and the salary range is $85,000 to $135,000. The position can be designed for a full-time or part-time commitment. While it is important to spend some time in Ottawa, the position can also be designed for someone based in another location. The position can also be designed for someone seeking an interchange or sabbatical opportunity.The Director, Civic Engagement, in collaboration with the President, provides the intellectual leadership of this program to build on CPRN’s pioneering research with respect to citizen involvement in the public policy process. The position requires dynamic leadership that combines exceptionally strong content, policy and management skills with a keen interest in core social values and the evolution of social policy in Canada.
Visit www.cprn.org/doc.cfm?doc=1940&l=en to download the full position description. Applications should be forwarded to hr@cprn.org and include a cover letter stating your interest in this position and your vision for this research area, a detailed CV, two or three of your recent articles which demonstrate your policy skills and the names and contact information for three references. Deadline for applications is November 14, 2008.
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Appreciating one’s teachers 3: Hanns Skoutajan
Posted: October 27th, 2008, 8:29pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
I had dinner with Hanns and Marlene Skoutajan tonight here in Ottawa. Hanns was the my minister at my church when I was a teenager and he was largely responsible for supporting my call which was at one time to join the United Church of Canada as a minister. He was also responsible for introducing me to church politics and structure such that I decided not to pursue my career for that employer.
Hanns and Marlene were a particular anamoly in my upper middle class neighbourhood, where they stood out as the most visible members of the New Democratic Party I knew. They, along with another mininster at our chruch, John Lawson, were my introduction to progressive politics and it is largely to them that I owe my political consciousness raising. Here’s an Op Ed he wrote last month for the Ottawa Citizen. on alternatives to appeasement. You can see that he is unwavering in his commitment to peace.
The name of our church was - wait for it - St. James-Bond United Church, so named because it was the result of a merger between St. James Presbyterian and Bond Street Congregationalist back in the early days of the United Church. The congregation itself folded up in 2005 and the building was torn down. At the corner of Avenue Road and Willowbank in Toronto there is still a great hole where this formative structure in my life once stood. As a gift to me tonight, Hanns gave me one of three bricks that his son saved from the old church. While it seems at first glance like a whimsical gift, I told Hanns that I would receive it as a deep symbol of the foundation that he gave me in life as a spiritual teacher and a teacher of activism in the world.
The most enduring teaching I have from Hanns comes from the benediction he used to give at the end of every service on Sunday. Hanns told me tonight that the benediction actually came from another very well known progressive United Church minister Cliff Elliott by way of Marlene who brought it home one Sunday. It goes like this:
Go into the world with a daring and a tender heart. The world is waiting for you. Go in peace and may all that you do be done because of love.
That continues to stand as a deep motto for me to this day.
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Sarah Palin gone rogue
Posted: October 27th, 2008, 1:50pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
An unnamed source told CNN that “she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party.”
And on Saturday, Politico’s Ben Smith wrote of an emerging “Palin insurgency,” quoting four unnamed Republican insiders who said Ms. Palin blames McCain handlers for her negative image and has “gone rogue.”
When she described herself as “a maverick” what did people think that meant?
At least you couldn’t accuse her of false advertising, for this is how a maverick really behaves.
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The Warrior of the Heart dojo is open
Posted: October 26th, 2008, 11:24pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
I’ve spent most of the last week in some deep practice with my close friends Toke Moeller, Monica Nissen, Caitlin Frost and Bob Wing. The practice we were in this week is called “Warrior of the Heart” and it’s a combination of aikido, other martial arts and art of hosting, a blend of practices and disciplines that leads to great insight about oneself and helps develop the clarity of heart required to develop our own leadership and our personal capacity to host conversations that matter and to act powerfully for good in the world.
Warrior of the Heart evolved from Toke and Monica’s practice of aikido and sword work with Bob. Bob is a remarkable teacher and sensei of aikido and related samurai arts like iaido (the art of drawing the sword). What makes Bob’s teaching so powerful is that he uses the physical work of learning martial arts techniques to raise questions about oneself with incredible clarity and immediacy. To me this is the essence of martial arts practice, but it has been lost in many lineages in the pursuit of physical domination. O Sensei, Morehei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido (the way of harmonizing energy) wrote about his style as The Art of Peace: The Way of the Warrior is based on humanity, love and sincereity, the heart of martial valour is true bravery, wisdom, love and friendship. Emphasis on the physical aspects of warriorship is futile for the power of the body is always limited,
The fastest way I know to describe Warrior of the Heart is that it is a martial art that uses physical techniques to generate questions. We work with our hands, with wooden swords and with partners to learn something about the way we wield power, the way we relate to others, the way we address our fears. You cannot lie to yourself when your body is asked to execute a technique, Those that are afraid of their own power let the sword languish in their hands and they fail to engage. Those who are aggressive and overly ambitious find themselves losing their ground an d their power carries them away. Warrior of the Heart makes these things visible to oneself and then uses the Art of Hosting to tap the wisdom of the collective sensei, the group that is training together, to make sense of the questions that are raised.
And what questions they are! What does it mean to stand in your ground while you are filled with fear? How do you find confidence with your own power when you have no idea how much you actually wield? How do you handle attacks in your life? What does real action feel like, and how do I develop the clarity necessary to act wisely? What does it take to strike decisively in a way that opens space for invitation?
Whenever Toke and I work Art of Hosting trainings together we have worked with aikido and Warrior of the Heart. This week took the practice to another level for me though. Friends and neighbours from my home island joined us as we trained on the beach, in the forest and on mountain tops, and we committed to declaring a Warrior of the Heart dojo open on Bowen Island. It is a dojo that will always be open to anyone who wants to come and train a little together. We can gather anywhere for any amount of time and dedicate ourselves to learning a little together.
Bob gifted us with some bokkens and some support to begin training together, so anyone that wants to join us is welcome. As O Sensei wrote One does not need buildings, money, power or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train
Leave me a comment if you are interested in training together some day. Come visit on Bowen and we’ll take the swords out into the forest and practice a little. And let us know if you would like to be a part of a more intensive practice retreat. We’re planning one for this year and we’ll call the teachers together on Bowen for a few days of deep learning and practice.
NCDD News & Perspectives
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Get Involved in Viewpoint Learning’s Online Dialogue on Health Care
Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:49pm PDT by Sandy Heierbacher
Viewpoint Learning would like to invite NCDD members and friends to get involved in Voices for Health Care, a national online dialogue on health care reform. They would love your thoughts and feedback on this effort - and encourage all of you to spread the word to anyone in your networks who is concerned about improving health care.
The first phase of this project, funded by the Kellogg foundation, has been focused on face-to-face dialogues in three target states (Ohio, Kansas and Mississippi). Viewpoint Learning is now ready to launch an online dialogue to include US-wide perspectives and priorities for health care reform.
There are two phases to the dialogue. It begins with a personal deliberation via an “interactive choicebook” open now through November 14th; then an opportunity for small group dialogue Nov. 18-25. The results of the online dialogue will be reported to decision makers in DC this December – and everyone who completes the choicebook will get a customized participant report comparing their results to everyone else’s.
If you have questions about the project, contact Isabella Furth, Ph.D., Manager of Special Projects at Viewpoint Learning, Inc. Her email address is furth@viewpointlearning.com (some of you may have just met Bella at NCDD Austin!). And visit www.voicesforhealthcare.org to check out the project or participate.
Parking Lot
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How do you map networks of people
Posted: October 21st, 2008, 8:10am PDT by Chris Corrigan
A request to the blogosphere…
I am organizing a large conference and part of the work we are doing as we sense into the need and purpose of the gathering is to understand the people who will be coming. The conference is a gathering for a large national movement, and although we know many of the people who will be there, the purpose of the gathering may be different this year, necessitating different participants.
We have a core team designing the gathering and we’d like to use an effective, relatively quick low tech method to map out and overview of the network of people who would be best to include in the invitation and the conference design.
Any thoughts on an exercise for 15 people to accomplish that?
Thank you in advance, blogosphere.
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How to make fougasse
Posted: October 17th, 2008, 12:25am PDT by Chris Corrigan
As I promised yesterday, here is my recipe for fougasse. Actually this comes from Richard Bertinet’s excellent book Dough: Simple Contemporary Breads. It’s easy and quick and very satisfying.
First the ingredients:
1.5 teaspoons of active dry yeast (or one .25 oz envelope)
18 oz of all purpose white or white bread flour.
2 teaspoons of salt
12.5 oz of water.
It’s important to measure the ingredients by weight to get the proportions correct. If you don’t have a kitchen scale then use 2.5 cups of flour, but don’t pack the measuring cup full, just scoop it out of the container and sweep the excess off the top.
Mix the ingredients together in a bowl until they are well mixed and then turn out on an unfloured counter and stretch and fold the dough for about five minutes, or just until it starts to become stringy and the gluten strands begin to develop. It’s important NOT to add extra flour. You want a wet dough and a light dough to avoid baking bricks. You also don’t want to knead the dough or it will get too tough.
Richard Bertinet’s stretching and folding technique is excellent. Watch this video carefully to see him in action. It develops the gluten and traps a lot of air in the dough. You can watch him do it in this video, where he is working with a sweet dough, but uses the same technique.
Rest the dough for an hour in a bowl, just as he does in the video. As the dough is resting pre-heat the oven to 475. If you have a pizza stone or baking tiles, be sure they are in the oven so they can get hot. If you don’t, you can use a baking sheet. Take a little pan of water and put it in your oven so that it can steam while you bake. This will give the bread a nice crunchy crust.
After an hour, turn the dough out on to your counter, as he does in the video and carefully shape it into a rectangle. Using a dough scraper or a spatula or a sharp kinfe, cut the rectangle in half, and then cut each half into thirds. If you cut them into triangles, you can make a nice leaf shaped fougasse. If you cut them into rectangles, you can make a nice squareish ladder bread.
Next take the pieces like this woman does (start the video at the 4:30 mark), place them on your baking sheet or (a peel if you are using a stone), sprinkle some flour over them and cut holes in them. Make them as fancy as you like, just dont cut through to the edges. Gently stretch the dough so the holes open up. and place the dough in the oven. Bake it on high heat (at least 475) for 12 minutes. The breads are done when they are golden brown and starting to get dark in places. Let them cool on a wire rack and eat!
Happy Bread Day!
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Happy World Day of Bread
Posted: October 16th, 2008, 11:59am PDT by Chris Corrigan
Yay. It is the world day of bread. What a great idea to celebrate the human ingenuity behind combining flour, salt, yeast and water. These four basic ingredients are responsible for more comfort in the world that almost anything else. When I return home from a day of working in Vancouver, I will post a recipe for my standbay easy bread: fougasse.
In the meantime, enjoy the offerings at my favourite bread site The Fresh Loaf (including this excellent Daily Bread recipe, and perhaps even try a batch of no knead bread. If you start it tonight, you can bake it tomorrow for dinner.
Planblog
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Save the bears!
Posted: October 12th, 2008, 12:10am PDT by Tim
You know Michael Arrington loves startups. How else could you explain this outburst of poetry?
Just like a bear in the woods (I imagine) has to slow its activity in the Winter as food supplies dwindle, startups need to go into cash conservation mode to increase their chances of survival when the market slows. They need to be prepared for a hit in revenue, and they know they can’t necessarily go to the capital markets to get money to stay in business.
But to argue that a company should always cut costs to the bare minimum is the same thing as asking that bear to act like it’s Winter in the Spring, just because someday Winter is definitely going to happen. All you end up with is a dead bear.
Well, good luck to all. Especially the bears.
Parking Lot
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Three short pieces of dialogue from the Rupert trip
Posted: October 11th, 2008, 5:22pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
Overheard…
FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Something to drink?
PASSENGER
Tea please.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Sorry, we’re out of tea.
PASSENGER
Damn these hard economic times.
——-
PASSENGER ONE
Hi there! Where have you been?
PASSENGER TWO
Travelling around the United States by train. I made it as far as Arkansas!
PASSENGER ONE
Really?
PASSENGER TWO
Yeah…I did the Arkansas trifecta: the Bill Clinton library, Wal-Mart headquarters and…and…what was the other one…? (scratching head)
PASSENGER ONE
Texas?
—–
CHECK IN CLERK
Are you staying for two nights with us?
GUEST
No just one.
CHECK IN CLERK
Would you like a casino pass?
GUEST
If I wanted to take my chances, I’d have stayed here for two nights.
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My God…it came true
Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 3:45pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
If this past week’s events in the financial world took you by surprise, consider yourself very ill informed indeed. Everyone knew this was going to happen, even comedians. Back in January, this video was posted on YouTube:
Crazy.
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Going deep into Open Space
Posted: September 26th, 2008, 10:13am PDT by Chris Corrigan
Great…so I’m just about to host a three day Art of Hosting workshop in which we will be talking about several methodologies, mental models and design tools, including Open Space. And today, right out of the blue come three incredibly amazing posts from Dave Pollard (who is joining us), Johnnie Moore (who almost joined us) and Jack Martin Leith about the process.
I’m up to my eyeballs in stuff and don’t have that much time to respond, but I can’t resist, so here are some thoughts, kind of randomly blurted out.
First I should say that I’ve never used Open Space to arrive at one solution for something. I don’t know how you could actually. Instead, it’s a process that starts with a complex environment and ends with a complex environment. What happens in the middle is that participants make personal sense of the complex environment and, when we do it well, it accelerates community around the challenges we face. A collective direction can emerge, but I usually find we need to have a more collective process to make sense of it later.
So what does that mean? It means that a group of people gets to work on what matters, finds their partners and away we go. What happens next is critical, paying attention to how people stay together and how we are informed by one another and how we make macro sense of all of it.
And what do I mean by work well? Well, as Dave points out, it is all about the design, and Johnnie, in another post he makes today talks about Dave Snowdon’s thoughts on need. For me need is critical to anchoring any process whether it be OPen Space or anything else. If there is no need, don’t meet, and if there IS a need, then very carefully design the meeting so that we can take best advantage of the people being face to face to meet the need. Under these conditions, when you can idenitfy the need, clarify the purpose of the gathering and invite the right people, amazing things happen. Need provides energy, focus, purpose and willingness.
I don’t know about “objectivity” and facilitation anymore…I suspect that there is really no such thing. I find my own facilitation style to be more informed by the idea of joining the field for a while and offering what I can. In other words, I don’t always come as the neutral party to a group. My approach when things seem to realy cook is to JOIN the group, as the person who can be responsible for the process. That’s a different approach, what we in the Art of Hosting community sometimes call “leading from the field” rather than being neutral or objective. I become another one of the group’s own resources for doing things well.
Now sometimes that means that I take an objective type stance from things, and sometimes it may even mean I take a contrarian stance. I don’t know why we need to have any hard and fast rules about working with groups, except the paramount rule of helping them meet their need, and to do it ethically. Obviously manipulating the outcome without being transparent about it is not ethical in my book. Transparency about what I am doing and thinking is important so people don’t think I’m somebody’s stooge. And I will never take work where my job is to lead a group to a pre-determined outcome that the groups itself is unaware of. The idea of “leading a horse to water” is a job for Machiavellian politicians, not process artists.
At any rate, where things sometimes fall down in processes including Open Space is when a sponsor actually does not know the need, which happens surprisingly often. In one group I’m talking to right now, the sponsor thinks the need is to create a solution to the problem - an organization within a community. What I am hearing from the community members is that the community needs some healing first. There is no basis of good relationship within the community, and creating a structure at this point might be divisive and in the end might not be sustainable. So what is the need here? What purpose of the gathering would best serve? What would happen if we built the thing without paying attention to what the community was saying?
The success of any Open Space or other kind of meeting lies in the design and pre-work, not the simply the skillful facilitation of the process itself. Dave’ points on tweaking processes are really useful in this regard.
Secondly, an important consideration for doing work well is inviting the right people. Dave alludes to getting the mix of people right and I actually agree with him. I have discovered over time however, that sponsors are often not willing to invite “the stranger” into the mix, people whose experience might be incredibly useful, but who aren’t usually invited to meetings. This most often happens when I suggest that companies invite customers to hlep them in conversations about thei products. Focus groups are one thing, but inviting customers into the actual designing process seems totally taboo. It’s as if the Cluetrain revolution never took off other than on the web. In those cases where sponsors have invited surprise and good thinking into the mix, I think the quality of ideas in the market place has certainly risen.
Finally something about time. Dave makes a point that with out the proper time, things seem not to boil. Dave is right and my guess is that he has not been in an Open Space event that has lasted over two or three days. In those events what happens in groups is a tremendous amount of relationship building occurs, the thinking and planning goes very very deep and the results tend to be very well considered and extremely sustainable. I have spent my working life imploring sponsors of Open Space events to give a little more time to things, just another half day, another night spent sleeping on it. Every time we have done so there have been no regrets. When we don’t get the proper time to do good work, it shows. When sponsors are thinking about designing a meeting, time is the biggest investment they make and it has the biggest potential for a return. But if you’re not in the facilitation world, you’d be surprised how many people expect miracles in a couple of hours.
As for decision making and consensus building, one of the delights of this coming week is that Tree Bressen will be with us too, and she excels in this area, especially in decision making within intentional community. I’ve had conversations with her over the years about Open Space and decision making and I sense a rub there for her, precisely because I think this process does not lead to making decisions in the way that other processes do. I’m fascinated by what is about to happen this week at the Art of Hosting here on Bowen Island, as we explore together how all of these things can add to what we are learning about how to best work with groups of people. I’m not above a little heresy and exploration, open to finding new ways of doing better, and I’m really glad Dave took the time to prepare himself like this.
Truly we will be a group of 30 teachers and learners coming!
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Intergenerational leadership in times of crisis
Posted: September 25th, 2008, 9:30am PDT by Chris Corrigan
Building on a note I sent to the Art of Hosting list this morning, and thinking about some of the calls to work across generations this coming year…
Otto Scharmer sent along an email this week:
I just returned from some coaching and consulting work. i am struck by the similarity of experience that todays leaders face across companies, industries and even across sectors. as a leader today, you find yourself in NO-WHERE-LAND. on the one side you have all the tools that you learned from consultants, business schools and other sources of conventional management wisdom. on the other side you have a huge leadership challenge that you currently face. and in between these two things, there is a HUGE GAP. a NOWHERE-LAND. and you find yourself right in the middle of that NOWHERE-ZONE. alone.
the only thing that you can rely on in situations like this is your self-knowing. the deepening of your SELF-knowing. the deepening of your awareness. THAT is, what presencing is all about. to provide a method to collectively CREATE from that NOWHERE-ZONE.
but that technology does not work if you use it with a mindset that belongs to the old toolkit (”problemsolving”). it requires a new mindset. a mindset that is acutely aware of that NOWHERE-ZONE right in front of us, right within us. the awareness of that GAP right NOW right HERE provides a crack where the window to an heightened awareness opens up. without that window open, we cannot cross the distance from self to Self—from no-where to now-here.
This fincancial crisis in the USA, which will soon overtake us all, is both It seems to me that two things have to happen if we are to really shift into something else, even into the conditions that make Bernaerd’s thinking possible. First the old world has to pass away and old thinking has to die as well. Giving $700 billion dollars to old thinkers delays this passing away I think, even while it might be necessary at some level to keep SOMETHING stable. But this bailout was not done with awareness. Yesterday I read in Forbes that a Treasury Department spokesperson said they just picked “a really large number.” That kind of “make it up on the spot” thinking has to die away.
The second thing that needs to happen is that space needs to open up for new thinking, and this is the role of young people and those of us that are a little older who can help it to happen. A new FORM of leadership and organization is needed if a shift to sustainability on a global scale is to take place. This might be the best opportunity in the last generation for that to truly happen, but it won’t happen if we give in to those who say “don’t panic, we’ll get everything fixed up in a a few months/years.”
I’m not panicking nor am I suggesting panic, but I’m also not expecting the old world to die so easily. It’s painful to leave the world you believe in. And the current generation of leadership that got us into this mess, nhas a sense of generational entitlement that is hard to shake. I think that Now more than ever, we need the world to be run by 20 year olds.
And if that prospect frightens you, then take a look at what is happening to your retirement savings (if you have any), or your mortgage (if you have one), or watch what happens to your bank next week (if you live in the United States) and see which scenario is more scary. Doing what we can to assist the generational shift in leadership is an imperative.for our world, and it has to happen before this current generation of emerging leaders is bought in to the old way of doing things. I think the role of Elders now is not to sit on the sidelines and provide well meaning advice. It is to actively work with youth to accelerate their own wisdom and their moving into positions of real power and responsibility, the positions that are about designing this new world.
It’s worth noting that in Canada at the moment there is a very tightly contested election going on between various representatives of the old world order mixed in with some very radically new thinking even in the traditional parties. WHile I think this is maybe not the time for half way measures, it is surely not the time for the status quo.)
I think that is what it will take, and I think that is work we can do in all the communities and organizations where we are working. Where are the new leaders? Who are the people in your organization or community who need to be leading now? If they are on the sidelines, what are you doing to help them get front and centre?
The current generation just spent i’s own inhereitance and that of several future generations as well. We need to save it, and us, from anymore foolishness.
Let’s roll.
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We need a really large number
Posted: September 25th, 2008, 12:11am PDT by Chris Corrigan
That $700 billion bailout south of the border?
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
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Community engagement and leadership
Posted: September 24th, 2008, 3:34pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
I’m putting together a presentation (including some slides) on community engagement and leadership for a gathering of First Nations leaders next month. In the spirit of seeking the wisdom of the blogosphere, I’m wondering if any of you have some thoughts or pearls of wisdom that I could share with this group of people. Here is the proposal that I’m working on:
We’ve moved on.
In the last century, government talked to citizens, and if they were feeling particularly charitable, they allowed citizens to say something back. This was called “consultation” and it had it’s origins in the ancient European model of the ruler seeking advice from advisors before making a decision.
That model has unravelled. We have moved from consultation to citizen and community engagement as we recognize that more and more, people need to be actively involved in the decisions that affect their communities. And now we are finding that the shift continues.
What if we moved from community engagement to just community? What if in First Nations communities we recovered that capacity for community members to work together to design and co-own the direction of their Nations?
It’s possible and it is happening all over the world, in indigenous communities on every continent as people realize that the responsibility for the direction of their communities rests with them.
People own what they design. Community engagement is now about community members designing, deciding and implementing the shifts that are needed in their communities. The days of someone else doing it for us are over.
This shift presents challenges and opportunities for leadership. Old models of top-down, command and control leadership are changing and new models of collaborative leadership and community building are rising to the fore. Leveraging the power of networks and self-organizing groups – even and especially in small communities – is the way forward.
What is community engagement now? What else could leadership be?
So my wise friends…thoughts?
Planblog
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Wozu sind Kriege da?
Posted: September 22nd, 2008, 1:36am PDT by Tim
Keiner will sterben, das ist doch klar
wozu sind denn dann Kriege da?
Herr Präsident, du bist doch einer von diesen Herren
du mußt das doch wissen
kannst du mir das mal erklären?
Keine Mutter will ihre Kinder verlieren
und keine Frau ihren Mann.
also warum müssen Soldaten losmarschieren?
Um Menschen zu ermorden - mach mir das mal klar
wozu sind Kriege da?Herr Präsident, ich bin jetzt zehn Jahre alt
und ich fürchte mich in diesem Atomraketenwald.
sag mir die Wahrheit, sag mir das jetzt
wofür wird mein Leben aufs Spiel gesetzt?
Und das Leben all der andern - sag mir mal warum
sie laden die Gewehre und bringen sich gegenseitig um
sie stehn sich gegenüber und könnten Freunde sein
doch bevor sie sich kennenlernen, schießen sie sich tot
Ich find das so bekloppt, warum muß das so sein?Habt ihr alle Milliarden Menschen überall auf der Welt
gefragt, ob sie das so wollen
oder geht’s da auch um Geld?
Viel Geld für die wenigen Bonzen,
die Panzer und Raketen bauen
und dann Gold und Brillanten kaufen
für ihre eleganten Frauen
oder geht’s da nebenbei auch um so religiösen Zwist
daß man sich nicht einig wird
welcher Gott nun der wahre ist?Oder was gibt’s da noch für Gründe
die ich genauso bescheuert find’
na ja, vielleicht kann ich’s noch nicht verstehen
wozu Kriege nötig sind
ich bin wohl noch zu klein
ich bin ja noch ein KindMusik/Text: Udo Lindenberg
Parking Lot
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Are you reading my linkroll?
Posted: September 21st, 2008, 6:42pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
I’ve been publishing my recent finds and current reading over on the sidebar, which you won’t have seen if you read this blog with a newsreader. Here is the link to the RSS feed for the links. There is some interesting stuff there, things which may turn up later as blog posts, or just caught my attention.
Carry on.
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Alcohol and Aboriginal relations
Posted: September 19th, 2008, 10:10am PDT by Chris Corrigan
With respect to the patronizing incident that took place yesterday during our federal election campaign, whereby a Conservative Ministerial aide said to a man from Barriere Lake: ”If you behave, and you’re sober, and there’s no problems, and if you don’t do a sit-down and whatever, I don’t care. One of them showed up the other day and was drinking,”
The woman who uttered these remarks, Darlene Lannigan, I think will sit down later this week with some local First Nation folks to sort it out, but I thought it was notable that other members of the Minister’s staff apologized on her behalf, rather than her doing it. And anyway, the apology was couched in a condition: ”We also understand these comments were made in a difficult context. That is regrettable. The good news is that the parties have committed to meet later this week, in a spirit of collaboration.”
So hooray that they are getting together. It will help them understand how to behave in “difficult contexts,” like when you are talking to someone who’s skin colour is different from yours.
But this isn’t at all unusual. There is a broad swath of Canadian society, much of it upper crust, that has never met anyone of First Nations ancestry let alone thought about their unconsciously held stereotypes about Aboriginal people. Regardless of the level of alcoholism in Aboriginal communities (and it varies, don’t you know), their opinions are not formed by statistics, they are formed by prejudice. And prejudice has no place in the public service, whether you are a political aide or a public servant.
And while alcoholism IS an issue in our communities, it is a rare occasion to see anyone show up at a meeting, rally or protest drunk. In the 20 years I have been working in the Aboriginal community in this country, I have, only once, been to a meeting where alcohol was served, and that was an economic development confernece where NKMIP winery from the Osoyoos Indian Band provided one bottle of wine per table of six people. I have been to plenty of gatherings with non-Aboriginal Canadians of all political stripes in which an open bar, or a cash bar even, is the highlight of the night. So what is the truth here? What are we really supposed to think when someone of Darlene Lannigan’s stature makes rules about behaviour and drinking for an Algonquin man that I bet she has never made for non-Aboriginal people?
My guess is that it’s not really an apology that Darlene Lannigan needs, but a thorough re-education about alcohol and it could probably begin snd end with her own abstinence, and those of her cronies and friends. And then at Church on Sunday, she can remember the teaching about casting the first stone and all that.
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What is happening to the economy?
Posted: September 18th, 2008, 9:45am PDT by Chris Corrigan
It’s complicated times in the Western world (he says with some irony). If you are wondering what is happening to the economy and why, it’s very difficult to discover unless you are right in it. And this is why I love the blogosphere.
My friend Rob Paterson has not only lived in the high levels of the world of high finance, but has alos been through a stock market crash before, in 1987. As such the story he is telling on his blog is deep and informed, and it’s also accessible. This is because Rob cares about storytelling, and he has spent a number of years now working with public radio and television in the United States helping stations in their effort to create news that is useful. Nowhere has this been more important than now, when the meltdown in the mortgage and now the financing sectors of the American economy has devastated families and communities.
In times like this, it’s important to know where you are. Rob’s writing at the moment is a big piece of theeconomic news I’m getting because it is reasoned, inquisitive and asks the right questions. That doesn’t mean he is preaching good news, but the alarms he are ringing are useful for me, pointing at what I can do personally to set myself well to ride this storm out.
Thanks Rob!
(In Canada, there is a sweet irony to me turning to Rob for this…The Globe and Mail’s business section is called “Report on Business” and is often contracted to ROB. I like my Rob better.)
NCDD News & Perspectives
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New AARP Report on Civic Engagement among Elders
Posted: September 10th, 2008, 7:29am PDT by Sandy Heierbacher
I just got an email from uber-connected Cynthia Gibson (you know - author of Citizens at the Center) about an AARP report that will be rolled out tomorrow as part of the Service Nation event. The report, titled More to Give: Tapping the Talents of the Baby Boomer, Silent and Greatest Generation, is authored by Robert Putnam, John Bridgeland and Harris Wofford.
It discusses the civic behaviors and attitudes of Americans as they transition from work to retirement. The primary purpose of the report is “to spark a national dialogue and movement around the civic engagement of [the Baby Boomers, the Silent Generation, and the Greatest Generation]” and is based on a series of focus groups and a nationally representative survey that was conducted of Americans age 44-79. Download the AARP Report now.
Parking Lot
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Very north Island
Posted: September 9th, 2008, 9:15pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
This morning, driving up to the clubhouse at the Seven Hills Golf and Country Club near Port McNeill, there was a mother black bear and her cub roaming around the parking lot. They took off before I could get a photo.
The journey continues…I’m in Vancouver tonight enroute on a red eye to Toronto and then Ottawa.
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Community organizing is a hoot!
Posted: September 5th, 2008, 3:13pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
Nice find from Kevin Harris who blogged the Republican’s digs at Barack Obama’s community organizing experience:
George Pataki: ‘He was a community organizer. What in God’s name is a community organizer? I don’t even know if that’s a job.’
Then former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered his own snickering hit job. ‘He worked as a community organizer. What? Maybe this is the first problem on the resumé,’ mocked Giuliani.
A few minutes later, in her acceptance speech for the GOP vice presidential nomination, Sarah Palin declared, ‘I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.’
One of the responses from the Obama camp was:
‘Let’s clarify something for them right now. Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.’
Exactly…that is exactly what community organizing is. Republicans do it too.
It’s beyond me why so many Republican politicians find it so hard to be actually funny. Every time I hear “jokes” like this, I just want to draw a little square in the air in front of me whilst rolling my eyes. It’s as if years of country club roasts had conditioned them to slightly off-colour jokes being met with nervous titters.
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Books about being human
Posted: September 5th, 2008, 2:47pm PDT by Chris Corrigan
Recently Karen Sella posted a request to the OSLIST among other places for books that are about being human Today she posted the list.
Here is your new life reading program!
Playing and Reality, D. W. Winnicott
Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, D,W. Winnicott
Sexual Personae: A History of the feminine from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia
The World of Pooh, A.A. Milne
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Graham
The Spell of the Sensuous, David AbramsThe Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality, A.H. Almaas, Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness, Jon Kabat Zin, Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind, Evan Thompson, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Steven Pinker, The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran, and The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams…to name just a few.
Finally, for those of you who enquired, some (and there are so very many) favorite books about being human that I recommend are:
Living Beyond the End of the World, Margaret Swedish
The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
Ornament of the World, Maria Rosa Menocal
Cultural Creatives, Paul Ray
The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida
Breaking Ranks, Ronit Chacham
Better, Atul Gawand
The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra
Sketching User Experience, Bill Buxton
The Miners of Windber: the Struggles for New Miners for Unionization