Participatory Systems
June 25th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Citizen Centric, Institutions, Public Leaders
LONGMONT, Colo. — Services provided by western nation welfare states play a significant role in creating the high quality of life we all enjoy. We don’t like to admit it but facts belie complaints. Gregg Easterbrook, author of The Progress Paradox, declares that the great story of our era is that average people are far better off compared to generations past. The current Great Recession not withstanding, Easterbrook compiles data to support his claim. Here are some of the improvements [...]
Read more...Eating Our Cake
June 14th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Public Leaders, Public Values
Politicians face a conundrum. Their constituents want more government services without paying higher taxes. How should a candidate for office respond? Political strategists have a one word answer: pander. Too often, we voters buy it. Consider these findings from a private survey I recently had the chance to review. Fifty-three percent of survey participants agree with this statement: “Cutting vital public services during a recession hurts our families and economy.” Sixty-one percent of respondents favor an increase in state funding [...]
Read more...Dealing with the downside… and up
June 5th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Culture-Structure, Public Leaders, Technology
What do cell phones, the internet, and the pill have in common? They all are structural changes in our lives that changed our culture. And, they all have downsides… as well as upsides. A spring issue of Time Magazine reported on the 50th Anniversary of The Pill — the pharmaceutical contraceptive that has achieved the status of one name moniker enjoyed by icons such as Madonna, Pele and Lebron. It is hard to argue that The Pill transformed society. National [...]
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...Delusional Power
May 19th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Culture, Education, Public Leaders, Technology
The Texas Board of Education received national attention back in March of this year when it adopted a new social studies curriculum. The decisions of this board used to matter a lot. They matter much less today. They won’t matter much at all tomorrow (i.e. in the near future). Diana Gomez, left, and Garrett Mize, along with other University of Texas students, rally before a State Board of Education meeting in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. (Photo: AP) [...]
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