Clare Consultation, LLCHearing : Listening as Ground-Zero-Mosque : Islamic Community Center
The EX:Change is about listening across differences. Differences in political views. Differences in values. Differences in social circumstances due to income, education, ethnicity, personal relationships, physical ability, age. Beyond hearing what people have to say, it is about listening to get a sense of how life looks from another person’s perspective. We call this communication and it tends to be used to support understanding, cooperation, strong and generative community…stuff like that. The… Read More
8-9-10 — Right on Time
My friend, Jessica, is training for a half marathon. She’s never really been a runner before. Lately her body has gone through a vast transformation. A tall woman weighing in around 200, she’s nearing half her former size. That’s living change. Jessica is training for a half marathon because she can. Her body is ready for something like that. Her primary goal is not to lose more weight. In fact, Jessica is… Read More
Smarter Than We Think We Are
Way smarter than most media and elected officials give us credit. Way! I’ve been spending the past weeks looking hard for ways to get the attention of professionals engaged in the publishing industry in our country. It is, for sure, a culture all its own. As with any culture, there are conventions. There is jargon and there are protocols for what represents communication worth attending to. All of these, at least in… Read More
Ancient Trees and Taxes
On matters of taxation, there’s confusion in our country. Just where does that money go? Another way to say this is to suggest that there’s too little education of everyday citizens on the whole economic thing. How does it all fit together – the business part, the investment part, the tax part, the public interest part? And how do we participate in it for the wellbeing of ourselves, our families, our communities… Read More
Go Ahead, Refudiate … Overly Olbermanize – But Watch Out for Momma
The 19th voice in the EX:Change was Lena Baucum. I’ve found myself quoting her often in these entries. Maybe it’s by chance, but more likely for reasons of her attentiveness. Many of the themes of the 100 voices were given first mention in Lena’s words that early February day in 2009. Just now I ran across commentary entitled The Willie Hortonization of Barack Obama. Ari Rabin-Havt’s blog responds to the effect of… Read More
Here in the Waning Days of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
I was raised by straight parents. I benefited from that. I continue to benefit from living as a heterosexual adult. People don’t ask about my sexual orientation or identity, but there’s no law saying they can’t. I can write this stuff down here and not offend any law or anyone at all. I’ve never been afraid or harassed because my romantic affections go to men. Every bit of that is privilege. Today… Read More
Graduation Season: Your Tax Dollars at Work
“It will be good change when any person in the country has a right to get a good public education and to go as far as they want in advanced education.” Sue Klapstein It’s that time again. May and June – when here in the U.S. the landscape is dotted with the cheers and colors, the pomp and circumstance of graduation ceremonies. Across the country schools, families and communities take the opportunity… Read More
Be the Change
“We need to ‘be the change,’ – Gandhi – ‘we want to see in the world.’ I think we’re ready.” Tara Loyd Remember Tara and Brett from last week? You already know they are good at listening to one another even though they often don’t agree – especially on matters political. A thing they did agree on was the necessity for being active parts of the public changes they want to see. … Read More
Listening Across Difference — We’re all in this together, Pt.2
“We’re not as divided as the media tell us we are.” “Good luck. We need this — to know what Americans are really thinking.” baristas at the Starbucks in York, NE Only two days into the EX:Change road trip the Mini Cooper’s front end came between me and the sturdy steel pole of a highway sign. At the time, I was blissfully if distractedly motoring south on U.S. Route 97, the stretch… Read More
Listening Across Difference – We’re All in This Together, Pt.1
“We’ve been majoring in the minors instead of the majors. We can get back to the little stuff. Right now we need everybody together to deal with the big things.” Tommy Business Consultant, Baptist Church leader, Republican Kerrville, TX In the next few days, I’ll meet with two talented and otherwise fabulous grad students who have volunteered to help me with the ethnographic coding and analyses of all of these interviews. While… Read More