Clare Consultation, LLCWhen our Greatest Hope is Boring
There is a quickening in human consciousness. Yep, right here in and among the species of which readers, bloggers, warriors and prophets are a part. I saw this quickening on the road and still see it daily. I heard it in American voices across the 100 days of the EX:Change interviews and daily I continue hearing it. A quickening is an acceleration, a vitalizing, a coming or returning to life. Ours is… 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
Change: Who Cares?
So here we are, lots of us feeling somehow betrayed with many of the most vocal folks on both ends of the conservative/progressive spectrum heavy into tape loops of public diatribe. The change just isn’t right. It falls short. It isn’t giving the same feel we signed on for during the campaigns. The pressing issue here in the middle of the EX:Change project is finding the right words to answer a question… 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
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
Community: A Change from the Disconnect
It is very counter culture in a weird way to talk about all of us being good friends and helping each other. Rabbi Ariel Stone I’ve just watched a man in his 60’s, I’d guess, getting on his bicycle. Earlier he came into this café, his body bent nearly to 90 degrees, maybe 110. He used a cane to walk. He ordered, took his breakfast roll and coffee and left. Maybe… Read More
American Connections
“It’s as old as humanity itself. Literature is filled with stories about the warriors who come face to face and discover that they’re actually destroying themselves.” Andy Walton This morning I had separate conversations with a sustainable energy professional, a poet, a Starbucks barista, a wildlife biologist and an ex-offender. All are Americans. All spoke of matters central to their lives. They were regular conversations, nothing special. The kind of chit chat… Read More
So, where do we go from here?
“I think change is trying new things and trying to see if something works for the better or for the worse. ” Alcena, HighTech High LA Yesterday, Bob Herbert used his column in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/opinion/09herbert.html?th&emc=th to lift the curtain on the economic numbers behind the ‘average. ’ On average, as reported this past week jobless rates were vastly improved – i.e., decreased. Herbert quotes a recent Center for Labor Market Studies report:… Read More
Water
3-13-2009 A bench facing the Hudson Manhattan Island It’s Friday the 13th. My interview schedule has fallen apart due in large part to equipment weirdness. Symptomatic, maybe of it being Friday the 13th? Whatever the case, I’ve given in and am now sitting in the 40 degree sunlight – all wrapped up and warm. I’m looking at the Hudson River, the way the afternoon light shows off its silver and enduring majesty… Read More
Coffee Klatch as Foretold by Mayme
2-22-2009 A hill in Searcy County, AR Over the past month, I have listened to people in pre-arranged interviews and impromptu conversations. Both ways of meeting and talking have revealed American insights and wisdom richer than I could have imagined. Of the second kind – the impromptu chats – a good number have taken place in coffee shops. [True confession: I’ve officially given up giving up coffee until I’m off the road… Read More