Redeeming Hope - February 2006 Archives

February 2006

Mechanisms in public life (14:30) - I want to start today in a place you might think I would not begin: our need to create good mechanisms in public life and politics. The urgency for public innovation in this particular area is great; we need more mechanisms within society to help us produce real change and foster hope within people. My fear is that too often we fail to meet both these tests. Every day people are creating what I am... | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments

Why we need public innovation (18:16) - Folks, we need a new kind of public innovation in our communities if we are to make the progress in public life and politics we all seek. Just last week, a person from California who is working to create change in that state made the following observation: people will decide to join with him almost as a matter of faith, or they will retreat because their rational mind tells them that everything in public life... | 0 Trackbacks | 2 Comments

Can religion bring us together? (15:18) - This past week in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I was asked the same question three different times, in three different places, in a matter of hours: “Can religion bring us together in public life and politics?” My response: Yes, but many on the right, and now on the left, must change. The questions came amid the recent turmoil here and overseas over the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Surely, none of us need to... | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments

Newspapers: Innovate or die (13:56) - At an Alabama event last week for journalists, I was promoted as the “conscience of community.” But my own conscience told me I had missed the mark in my talk. If I could do it all over again, here’s what I’d say about the future of newspapers in America, plain and simple. I want to be clear; I offer these 10 steps because I care deeply about newspapers. I’ve been working with major metro and... | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments

The big Super Bowl winner: Detroit! (13:44) - Take a poll this morning, and most of us will know the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl last night. But they’re not the only big winner today; no, the host city of Detroit is perhaps the biggest winner of all. I can’t recall a city that has gained so much from hosting a big event. Detroit – the U.S.’s poorest big city – was in the news almost every day leading up to the... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

The State of Our Union - Listening to Nobody (12:14) - I watched President Bush and Governor Kaine last night in total shock and awe. Surely, they can’t believe the American people buy what they’re peddling. And members of Congress who keep howling and standing and clapping, surely they must know their posturing is silly. What about the real America? There were three phrases that framed last night’s speeches: “There is no honor in retreat;” America is a “hopeful society;” and there is “no higher calling... | 0 Trackbacks | 6 Comments