Clare Consultation, LLCListening 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
Spirit & Faith
“We change up above, on our surfaces, but there’s that underlying constant that travels through all the changes. It’s something I don’t really have the words for. The only concrete thing I have, which isn’t concrete at all, is that deep soul feeling.” Lauren Kraakevik It’s an overcast but warm spring day in Portland, OR. I’m back down the street in the corner Starbuck’s where the staff have been so consistent in cheering… Read More
Easter and Reaching Across the Aisle
Yesterday a friend sent a text. Charles is a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian from North Dakota who has for years been the lead public relations executive for a local non-profit. He was asking if I knew of Easter celebrations in town. Then there was Mike’s status update on Facebook. Mike is Jewish and he was wishing all his Christian friends “a wonderful and redemptive Easter.” This morning in a small gathering, Julie, a mom… Read More
Dayenu: You gave us freedom, and that would have been enough.
“Maybe the most empowered change is to work to be less ignorant. We’re all ignorant and it’s a life long struggle. If we commit ourselves to do our best to be wrong less frequently, well, that’s about the best we can do.” Peter Frishauf Last night I sat at a table with eight dear friends from two families. Four of them are teenagers. The rest of us are parents – you know,… Read More
Voices in the Change: Health Care Reform
“The principle of taking care of our children is vital. I can’t accept that we wouldn’t want to take care of our own children. As a country, they are our children. They are our future. If we take care of them, we’re making our lives better.” Rudy Suwara San Diego, CA 03-21-2010 “And now the House is coming into session. Thanks for being with us.” CSPAN commentator “The long waiting is over. … Read More
“I can’t do this alone.”
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” Howard Zinn Last night in the State of the Union Address, President Obama said these five words. “I can’t do this alone.” He said many notable things. Two in particular match well with what many of the people who make up the 100 voices of EX:Change were saying this time last year. The public officials elected by… Read More
EX:Change 2.0
He could say, “We need change. We need change. I’m going to change this.” He can say all he wants, but actually without the people out here, nothing’s going to change. Art Garcia Jan 21, 2009 A year ago today headlines read: “Antarctica Is Warming,” “Relatives Say Peltier Beaten Following Prison Transfer,” “Israel Completes Gaza Withdrawal,” “Brazilian Midfielder Kaka Stays Put,” “Sen. Kennedy Hospitalized After Suffering Seizure.” Then there were… Read More
The Heart of Dixie
2-27-2009 Town Square Decatur, GA Here I am in the heart of Dixie. This is where my mother was born, as was her mother, and hers. I know the South. It helped raise me. All my young life we navigated the summer highways between TX and GA to visit relatives. The journey became second nature. Over time it went from a three day trip in the late 60’s to a one day… Read More
Cattle Trail
2-18-2009 Kerrville, TX SCHREINER UNIVERSITY CFO’S OFFICE (MY LONG-TIME BROTHER-FRIEND, FRED THE VP) The interstate from Albuquerque, NM to Kerrville, TX is … well … long. On either side the land is vast and mostly empty. Exception springs from the brief chorus of rush hour and billboards in Las Cruces and El Paso – fraternal twins of Mexico and the Territory of New Mexico (what we’ve known as the state by the same… Read More