One year contributing to The Washington Times Communities
November 1st, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: WTC
LONGMONT, Colo. — I posted my first “Dispatch from the Heartland” to The Washington Times Communities one year ago. By the numbers, I made seventy-two posts in the past fifty-two weeks. My friend and colleague Brad Rourke recruited me to write for The Communities. Brad is no longer part of this endeavor but I remain grateful for the opportunity he created for me. I am grateful, too, to everyone at The Washington Times Communities who makes this opportunity possible – [...]
Read more...Did Tiger Woods Violate a Public Trust?
December 11th, 2009 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Public Leaders, Public Values, WTC
I have not read one article about the Tiger Woods affair (no pun intended). I’m not interested. I can get along just fine without examining the underbelly of Tiger Wood’s personal life. But, I have heard the noise. It’s impossible to avoid. The Tiger Woods situation prompted me to consider, when should a public figure’s personal life matter? I came up with two conditions. First, does the person hold a public trust? Second, has the person’s personal conduct compromised this [...]
Read more...Community Before Economics
December 3rd, 2009 by John Creighton in Dispatches
My work brings me together with people from all parts of the country and all along the political spectrum. It is one of the things I love about what I do. I am sometimes asked when I am with groups of people who self identify as “progressives” why people from the Great Plains hold progressive politicians in such disdain. I answer their question by asking my own and telling a story. The question I ask my progressive friends is: What’s [...]
Read more...The Institution Gap
November 29th, 2009 by John Creighton in B.O.E.
Tags: Citizen Centric, St. Vrain, WTC
Some people are more institution dependent than others. I have come to believe that this is one of the many growing disparities that exist in our society. People talk about the education gap, the technology gap, the income gap. The same divide exists when it comes to institutions. Some people are dependent upon institutions to do things for them. Other people use institutions to augment what they can do for themselves. The trend is moving toward more people being less [...]
Read more...First Thanksgiving Lessons
November 25th, 2009 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Most American school children learn the story of the First Thanksgiving. School lessons, projects and pageants etch into our collective narrative images of Pilgrims and Native Americans celebrating survival and sharing the bounty of a successful harvest. My mother kept a diorama I made of First Thanksgiving scene in the first or second grade. She placed it on the dining room buffet each November along with other family decorations. We often think about the First Thanksgiving story only as tale [...]
Read more...