Community, Trust and Problem Solving
July 8th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Boston, Community, Public Values
LONGMONT, Colo. — I was walking from Boston’s Charles Street T (subway) to our apartment when the power of anonymity hit home for the first time. I was on my regular graduate school meal plan at the time: Cheerios for breakfast; peanut butter sandwich for lunch; a Happy Hour supper (two dollar beer and free cheese, crackers and chickens wings), and a Snicker bar to hold me over for late night studies. I broke out the Snicker bar on my [...]
Read more...We Are Free
July 3rd, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Community, Culture, Longmont, Public Values
LONGMONT, Colo. — The Longmont Orchestra is playing again this year in Thompson Park to celebrate the Fourth of July. It’s one of the traditions I love about this holiday. My family makes a point of staying home for the Fourth so we can join our neighbors to celebrate America’s birthday. Similar celebrations of picnics, music and fireworks will take place across the country. The Fourth and Thanksgiving are the two uniquely American holidays. The Fourth of July is one [...]
Read more...Podium View
May 29th, 2010 by John Creighton in Photo Per Day
Tags: Community, Longmont, St. Vrain
My view of Longmont High School graduation from the podium. I was on stage in my role as a member of the St. Vrain Board of Education.
Read more...Taking Back Our Nation Begins at Home
May 28th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Atwood, Civility, Community, Public Leaders, Public Values
The Tea Party Movement is the most recent vehicle people use to express their anger toward government. The 1992 Ross Perot campaign for President was a vessel for similar discontent nearly twenty years ago. Concern over surging national debt fuels the Tea Party now and Ross Perot in the early 1990s. It was twenty years ago that The Harwood Institute released the report Citizens and Politics. This report was covered by nearly every major news outlet in America. It was [...]
Read more...Required Civic Virtue
May 2nd, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Civility, Community, Longmont, Public Values
I have written before that Americans are becoming Accidental Extremists. Dan Yankelovich, one of the pioneers of public opinion research, discussed the negative consequences of “self-isolating communities” in a speech to the Drucker School of Management. He said Americans are subjecting themselves to group-think, which erodes America’s historically unique ability to solve problems. This is, he says, one of the critical symptoms plaguing public life. Self-isolating communities exist in our great metropolises and our smallest towns. But, people living in [...]
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