For those who think Democracy should be
a collaborative experience.
August 17, 2009
Communication step one – stay calm
Dan Mulman is a voice of reason in a world that needs it very much. He uses an example that is familiar to many of us – delayed flights – to illustrate the destructive effect of verbal hysteria on problem solving. You can read him here:
http://www.danmulhern.com/wordpress/2009/08/at-the-boarding-counter-panic-and-abundance/
July 29, 2009Political PowerPhrase: Let’s look at the actual text
What do you say when someone goes on a rant about a potential bill that is more based on fear and manipulation than it is on fact?
My reader Lee sent this in.
Friends and relatives have been emailing me frantic rants describing the impending horrors that will fall on all of us as soon as “Obama’s healthcare” reform legislation passes.
I reply by asking that we “look at the actual text” of the draft bills being considered, and include a link to the text.
I then go into a detailed and specific fact-based analysis of their concerns, based on what the draft bill actually says, rather than the hyperbole and demagoguery surrounding it.
Even if Lee gets no takers, I read this as a success story because it shifts the dialogue away from fear mongering, even if it doesn’t move it into factual considerations.
For more Political PowerPhrases, get my eBook Unite and Concur: How to stop arguing and start talking about politics.
May 20, 2009Inclusive prom policy – or over-protective?
The Detective Mom posted a thought-provoking article about protecting kids from disappointment. She asked whether we want to go as far as one school did to keep kids from feeling left out. They selected prom dates by lottery.
On the face of it, the approach sounds overly protective. And blogger Kris Porotsky talks about how disappointment can build character.
However, a closer look leads me to believe that the school found a way to make the prom more inclusive. They found a way to add to the sesne fo commuity. The found a way to turn an event that can be divisive into a uniuted experience.
If all dates were selected by lottery, I’d object. This approach strikes me as having many unifying side benefits. Read Kris’s post and the article and tell me what you think.
October 7, 2008Change the subject back
it’s odd to watch pundits ask if political candidates will be able to change the subject of national dialogue as if they have no role in allowing it to happen.
But it’s stranger still when we as citizens, we who have everything to lose and nothing to gain by poliitcal theater and distractions when we face serious real issues, allow our attention to be redirected to some bright shiney object when we have so much we could and should be talking about.
Politicians attempt to talk about what they want to, but we need to keep our conversation focused on what matters to us.
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Related posts which may interest you
- Poison Phrase ~ If you believe that, you’ll believe anything
- Communication Question – talking with your political opposite
- Inclusive prom policy – or over-protective?
- Congressman Lee Hamilton’s advice to the consensus-starved
- Across party lines ~ Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson Unite and Concur on Climate Change
Dare to desire
What is your vision of a perfect world? I’ve captured mine in a flash movie, A World of Truth.
Many people refrain from creating a vision of what they want because the reality is so different that the discrepancy is too painful. But if we can’t even picture what perfection would be, we’re doomed. We can never make it happen.
So fill in the blanks with your own vision – imagine a world where…
Dare to desire a better world.
I invite you to fill in the vision of my flash movie with the world you envision.
June 10, 2008“What you don’t know CAN kill you”
Quoted from Journalist Bill Moyers.
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Related posts which may interest you
- Political PowerPhrase: Let’s look at the actual text
- Priorities ~ Bowling for distraction
- Get real ~ You can wish your candidate had more experience AND still support him or her
- SpeakStrong in Politics: You don’t miss what you don’t see
- If you wish they’d think more like you do, you need to be able to think like they do
dare to care
I read an article this week about bystanders who ignored an elderly hit-and-run victim. I was ready to move on to another article when I realized – the bystanders weren’t the only ones who were chillingly unresponsive. I had read this article without responding emotionally. I had felt no sadness for a world where people show so little caring.
On closer inspection, I realized the article had triggered emotions, but I automatically shut them down so quickly that I hadn’t noticed they were there.
Why would I shut myself off from what I feel? Why are we afraid to care? Could it be that caring would be overwhelming? I think of a friend who watched an NPR documentary about plastic in the ocean and felt an urgent need to solve the problem. She was painfully aware that she was just one person, and what can one person do about plastic pollution twice the size of Texas? And even if she could solve the problem, there are so many more problems to solve.
I’ve been paralyzed into inaction. I once stood helpless with a circle of people around a man who apparently had a heart attack. The irony was, I was on break from a CPR training class. I was sick at heart for weeks – but it was a wake-up call for me to get the courage to act.
There are no guarantees that we can solve our problems – but if we stay paralyzed, it’s certain we won’t. If the people who exploit are the only ones motivated to play, failure is guaranteed. You are responsible for your actions – not the results. Dare to care – and do what you can. That’s all anyone can ask of you.
dare to hope
There was something about the combination of elements that inspired me. Amy Goodman showed clips on Democracy Now of Barack Obama declaring himself the nominee with Leonard Cohen’s Democracy playing. I felt my heart swell with a glimmer of hope for a new day.
I mentioned it to a friend who said, “I’m not letting myself feel hope. I’ve had my hopes dashed too many times.”
I can understand how anyone who had involved themselves in politics would feel an unwillingness to hope. I’m sure many Clinton supporters are feeling their hopes dashed these days.
Yet we must keep hoping. As my assistant Michael says: hope should never be dashed, only expectation.
So while it might seem risky to hope, I encourage you to nurture the hope you feel. Because hope is the only hope we have.
Here’s Democracy performed. See if it doesn’t create a glimmer of hope in your heart.
June 1, 2008Old school politics ~ Obama supporters vs. Clinton haters
I read pages and pages of blog posts about Clinton’s RFK comment before someone pointed out an obvious point that I had missed. Many commenters referred to Obama supporters as if they were all alike, and as if they were all Clinton haters. I hadn’t notice the conflation until someone noted,
I am an Obama supporter, but I do not hate Clinton. Please do not equate the term Obama supporter with Clinton hater.
Thanks for that sane request! And to think that I write about this stuff and the conflation slipped past me!
Unite and Concur Pressroom