Monthly Archives: May 2015

Ideas

Civic Idea of the Day: 3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Giving Up Civic Hope

Unfortunately, many of us are beginning to resign ourselves to the belief that healing some of the great social ills of our time is impossible. But most who believe that haven’t yet gotten their hands dirty trying to help. So here’s three questions to ask oneself before saying “we’ve already tried and failed.”3questions

1. Are you serious?

To be serious about solving a public problem means that you actually care about solving the problem. When helping to solve public problems, we are tempted to care more about personal things: mimicking the style and affect of an activist subculture, affirming our own innocence in opposition to social ills, or scoring points in the eyes of our peers. To be serious is to not give into these temptations. To be serious is to be strategic: thinking, experimenting, and analyzing about what needs to be done to solve the problem. Many times, being serious means being willing to do something uncomfortable, like thinking about what the “other side” values and speaking to them in their own language.

2. Are you ready to devote time?

Time is the currency of public problem solving. If enough people are not willing to devote enough time each week to help, the problem will not be solved. A good practice for getting involved in helping to solve a public problem is to start by committing to set aside a certain amount of hours per week (or per month) to the task. It’s even better if you routinize it — “Every Thursday night, I’m going to devote two hours” — because you will get into a rhythm and be less likely to go back on your commitment.

3. Are you ready to turn that time into a project?

The time you devote can be wasted if it is not organized into a project. At the beginning, it might be good to not have a project: taking that time to explore and learn and follow your curiosity will help you discover how you can be helpful. But, eventually, you have to transition away from always following your whims and towards laying out a direction and set of first steps you hope to accomplish.

If you start answering yes to these three questions, the hope starts pouring in. If you start thinking seriously about how to solve a public problem, you start reading the news differently: you start to have a proactive optimistic attitude instead of a reactive cynical one. If you start setting aside time for this work, whole new areas of your imagination are opened up during that time and tasks that seemed too out of reach start seeming doable. If you turn your work into a project, you start respecting your civic self more: you start believing that your ideas are worth listening to and might just be helpful; you start looking at your work and thinking “woah, this is real!”

So, before you give up hope about some public problem, give this a try for a while: get serious, carve out some time to work and start thinking about that work as a project. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the joy and civic hope that comes from it.

Political Projects

StrongReturns.org Oral Histories

We just finished our StrongReturns.org Spring 2015 tour.  Our proudest byproduct of the tour — excepting the wonderful connections made with a variety of prison reform organizations and student leaders — were six oral histories we made of formerly incarcerated folks we met along the way.  Here’s the six:

William T. Lawson describes growing up in D.C., his time incarcerated, and his work with the National Homecomers Academy:

Bill Smith describes growing up in the drug culture of Waynesboro, VA, his recovery through a Drug Court program, and his work helping fight the meth epidemic in his community:

Carl Route describes growing up in Albany, GA after integration and the “life sentence on the outside” all felons have to face:

Pastor Kenneth Glasgow of Dothan, Alabama talks about the revolving door of prison, the importance of treatment over incarceration, and his work as the co-founder of The Ordinary People Society:

Deborah Daniels describes growing up in Birmingham, her experiences in Alabama’s Tutwiler Prison for Women, her work with Prison Fellowship Ministries, and her plans to form an Offender Alumni Association:

Patrick Young, who spent a decade in the Louisiana prison system, shares stories from growing up just outside of New Orleans, describes how Hurricane Katrina was experienced inside of prison, and explains how education is the key to rehabilitation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Mcq3DyfoQ

Ideas

The Soul of Facebook Venting: Empowered Alternatives to Ranting Online

I had an essay published recently in Front Porch Republic​ on better things to do than rant online. Take a look to read one guy’s take on the spiritual origins of Facebook rants as well as the case for a small, empowered alternative to venting: philanthroventing, donating $5 to a positive organization or leader every time you’re mad about a news story: 

I know I am not alone in experiencing the Facebook venting cycle:

1. First, a glowing screen that you are reading or watching projects some news that upsets you. Perhaps it was news from a cable channel that is engineered to ceaselessly produce anecdotes designed to upset you. Perhaps it was news from a comedy show whose most popular bit is to aggregate upsetting quotes from those cable channels. Perhaps it was news from a viral media website who curates clips from those comedy shows about that cable channel’s quotes about those upsetting anecdotes. Whatever the source, the process begins with a glowing screen making you upset (with, of course, the source raking in the advertising revenue).

2. Next, a tension builds inside of you. You cannot stand the thought of living in the same world where that news occurred or being part of the same human community as the person who committed the upsetting act. You feel like you need to do something about it all. You sometimes even feel as if you cannot continue your daily work or see your friends or care for your family until this tension is resolved.

3. Finally, you release the tension by posting a link and rant to the ever-present release valve that is your Facebook status update box. Some rants are long-winded, but even short bursts – like “This is horrible!” “I can’t believe this is happening in 2015!” or “Kids these days!” – do the trick: you have “raised awareness,” you have declared your opposition to the upsetting news, your conscience is cleared, the cycle is over and you may continue with your day.

…

Perhaps Bottum’s interpretation of our spiritually “anxious age” explains that deep tension that builds up when the news upsets us. Perhaps we see in those upsetting anecdotes a post-Protestant demon — social sin peeking out from behind the social order. Perhaps the tension that must be vented is our uncertainty in the presence of such sin: Am I going to be tricked by this evil or am I going to be aware enough to see it at work? Am I going to become part of it or am I going to reject it? Am I on its side of the great divide or am I on the side of the redeemed?

Facebook venting resolves this uncertainty. By pasting a link to a news story and properly identifying the social evil at work – “This is racism!” “This is bigotry!” “This is evil!” – you stand at the digital altar and testify to your awareness of social sin. By ranting against the news story, you validate that you have rejected this sin, broadcasting that you belong among the redeemed. When you click submit, your uncertainty about your moral goodness is temporarily washed away: you can proceed with confidence that you are one of the elect.

Read the whole essay — “The Soul of Facebook Venting: Empowered Alternatives to Ranting Online” — here.