Jon Lowder

Call for Help Feeding the Homeless

The organization in Greensboro that is the sole downtown provider of meals for the homeless on certain mornings of the week and Friday evenings will not be able to serve the remainder of August so Cara Michele of ChosenFast is trying to pick up the slack.  She's looking for donations of food or money and you can read all about it here.  They are concentrating on breakfast for Thursday and Friday, and dinner on Friday.  You can contact her here.

Thanks to Ed for the pointer.

Abundance

In my previous post I mentioned that the kids were away at mission camp last week.  What I didn't mention is that my Aunt Debbie spent five years of her life building the mission camp before turning it over to others and moving to Blue Heron Farm with her husband Steve.  Debbie took up blogging a while back and in her latest post she shared with us how she and the others on the farm are working to identify their community's core values.  My favorite part of the post was how she defined "abundance":

Unpacking abundance: I’ll just start by saying that abundance was my bottom-line value contribution. so I really wanted to see it on our list of three values. Within our small group, and later in large group discussion we referred to abundance as a lofty ideal and a fluffy word. I agree! It’s a leap of faith to believe there is enough. I’ve spent the last five years leading mission camps where we faced head-on the overwhelming needs of Appalachian mountain communities. We did this with limited funds, tools, and mostly unskilled, teenage laborers. Miracles were a daily occurrence. I still believe, more than ever, that there is enough. And I also believe we need a lot more practice around sharing and simplicity so the haves and the have-nots are standing closer together. My life revolves around this very practice.

This really struck a chord with me.  I don't know if it's a form of middle aged crisis or what, but I've been feeling a growing urge to do something...more.  Don't get me wrong, I feel very fulfilled as a husband and father and I enjoy being in the part of my career where I don't feel like a paper-pusher any more, but, and it's a big but,  I wonder if perhaps I could be doing more. 

When I left for college I thought I'd be a teacher, but then I decided against it.  Then I thought, "Well, I'll make my fortune and then teach as a second career.  That way I won't be beholden to anyone and can teach on my own terms."  Can we say naive?  Now I find myself saying, "When the kids are grown I'll have more time to devote to helping others."  Ah, but life has a funny way of replacing one obligation excuse with another and I'm sure when the kids are gone it'll be something like "Well, when the house is totally fixed up I'll..."

As I'm having this conversation with myself I remember something my stepfather, John Garrity, said to me when I was a soon-to-be Daddy who wasn't so sure he was ready.  John said, "If everyone waited until they thought they were ready to have children then there wouldn't be many kids around."  I think the same is true of doing more.  If everyone waited until their own lives were perfect then there wouldn't be things like Mission Camp.

I'm not sure where I'm going to go with this.  I just know that I'm increasingly feeling the need to make a significant change.  I've talked to Celeste about this and I'm afraid I've scared her to death.  She probably thinks I'm going to quit my job and join the Peace Corps, but that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about.  Rather I'm looking at this the way some nutritionists look at losing weight: it's not about going on a radical diet, but about making a lifestyle change.  What can I do on a daily basis to do more?  As Debbie put it, how can I stand closer?

I'm asking these questions because, as I said, I feel very fulfilled.  I feel like I have received many gifts of abundance including good health, a loving family, security (both emotional and financial) and community.  We're by no means wealthy, but too often abundance is equated with wealth and that's just not so.  I won't retire any time in my middle age, but at the same time I don't have to worry about where the next meal is coming from, or whether or not I'll have a roof over my head tomorrow.  Compared to many that's a great deal of abundance and for that reason I think it's important to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who need more.

How to do this?  Right now I don't have the answer, but I'm working on it.

The Disemvoweller

Xeni Jardin is one of the co-editors of Boing Boing.  She posted a piece on Edge.org called Online Communities Rot Without Daily Tending by Human Hands that essentially fleshes out the thinking behind her very descriptive title. (Hat tip to Ed Cone for pointing to it).  Among the very smart things she wrote I found this bit to be flat out brilliant:

Finally, this year, we resurrected comments on the blog, with the one thing that did feel natural. Human hands.      

We hired a community manager, and equipped our comments system with a secret weapon: the "disemvoweller." If someone's misbehaving, she can remove all the vowels from their screed with one click. The dialogue stays, but the misanthrope looks ridiculous, and the emotional sting is neutralized.

Now, once again, the balance mostly works. I still believe that there is no fully automated system capable of managing the complexities of online human interaction — no software fix I know of. But I'd underestimated the power of dedicated  human attention.

I suspect Ed is hunting for a Typepad version of the disemvoweller as we speak.  If I got more than my normal quota of one comment per millennium I probably would.

Support Your Local School Board Member

According to this article in the Winston-Salem Journal one of the members of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Board of Education is spearheading an effort to set up an advisory committee that will be constituted of residents, and not necessarily residents with kids in the school system.  An excerpt from the article:

Jill Tackabery a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board, hears pretty regularly from teachers, parents and students telling her what they are happy about - or what they’re not so happy about.

But Tackabery says she is afraid that she doesn’t hear enough from the 75 percent of Forsyth County residents who don’t have children in the school system.

“I really would like to see more engagement with our school system from folks who aren’t connected to us,” she said.

“I feel guilty asking them for money all the time if they don’t have the information,” Tackabery said. “I’m very proud to say I’m a school-board member, and I think we do good things and I’d like to talk about the good things we do.”

Three school-board members currently have children in the school system.

A couple of things about this article surprised me:

1. I'm amazed that only 25% of Forsyth County residents have children in the school system. I would have guessed closer to 40-50%.
2. I'm also surprised that only three members (out of nine) of the school board have children in the system. I realize that these are political positions that carry a lot of clout in the community, but I'd think that without the added self-interest of having kids in the system that a school board position wouldn't be the most desirable given how much abuse they get, the time commitment, etc.
3. Finally, I'm surprised that there wasn't already a community advisory committee in place.

This is a great concept and in particular it's nice that they're inviting all residents.  Schools make up a huge amount of our local public spending so all residents should have a say in how the schools are run, and since an educated populace is part of the "common good" for the community it's important that the schools have the benefit of the wisdom of all of our residents.

One potential shortcoming could be how they develop the committee.  From the article:

Tackabery said she has asked each school-board member to submit two to five names of possible members.

She is also asking community members to volunteer.

The problem I see with this system is that you'll have personal acquaintances of board members, which doesn't exactly widen their exposure to folks from different walks of life.  Volunteers are great, but experience with other organizations has taught me that volunteers are usually folks who are already more involved or attentive to community projects than average citizens.  I'd recommend that the school board set up a nominating process so that folks who know somebody who may not think of themselves as community leaders but are viewed by their peers as community leaders can be nominated.  It wouldn't be hard to set something up on the school system's website and they could really expand the audience that way.

Finally I think Ms. Tackabery should re-think this:

The meetings would be driven by whatever people wanted to talk about, she said.

“I wouldn’t want to have a set agenda, although what we could do is take a topic, like curriculum, and say ‘What do you think of curriculum? What do you think our children should be taught? What kind of technology do our graduates need to be able to do?’”

Again, drawing from my experience with other groups I will say that this could turn out to be a mistake.  One thing most people hate is having their time wasted.  If you don't have a well structured meeting process with properly defined goals you will end up with a glorified cocktail party that is not very productive.  You will also find that meetings will be driven by the most passionate, outspoken individuals in attendance and that the vast majority will sit on the sidelines wondering why they are there.  They should seriously consider engaging an expert facilitator who will help define the discussion and make sure that all voices are heard.  That will help keep the committee on track, keep everyone coming back and provide the school board with the best returns for their efforts.

All that said, I think Ms. Tackabery is on the right track and I hope they get this thing off the ground.

What is Proper Bank Robbing Attire?

I read this item about a bank robbery in Clemmons this morning because I was just by that bank yesterday.  In fact I go by that bank all the time so the story was bound to grab my attention.  What kept my attention was this paragraph from the story:

The culprit took an undisclosed amount of money. He was described as a black man, about 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 9 inches tall. He was wearing a blue bathrobe, and his face was covered, authorities said.

Talk about the ultimate in business casual!  In days past you could count on thieves to at least wear coveralls, some even with their name tag still stitched on the chest, but today's Felonious Monks don't even bother to get dressed. Truly our world is going to hell in a handbasket.

What's My Responsibility? What's My Role?

There's an ongoing issue at Lewisville Elementary that I've written about a couple of times (most recent here).  I could be wrong but I think the comments on those posts are the only real ongoing public dialog about the situation, and the evolution of those comments have caused me to question my role or, more accurately, the role of my blog in the community.  Let me explain. 

So far I think the commenters on the posts have been polite, and the comments not particularly confrontational.  I honestly think that the commenters have the best intentions and even if they may come from different sides of the issue they also want the same things: better communication from the school and the conclusion of the investigation of the teacher who has been suspended.  That said, here are my concerns:

• This blog is a personal endeavor of mine, something I do for fun and to feed my writing jones.  Normally most of the stuff I write about is inconsequential and goofy, but when issues like this arise I feel compelled to write about it.  Is that something better left to "mainstream media"? 
• So far I think the comments on the posts have been good and in some ways helpful in revealing the viewpoints of some folks within the Lewisville School community.  But I worry that the comments could turn cruel or vindictive and that I'd be facilitating more harm being done.  Do I have that right?   I would certainly delete any bad comments as soon as I saw them, but the cat would be out of the bag for the few people who might see them before I do so.  I could also change my blog's setup so that I moderate all comments before they're published, but somehow that just doesn't feel right.  I've never had cause to worry about it before, so this is new territory for me.  And here's the key question: if someone does write something really negative am I responsible, are they responsible or is it a shared responsibility?  I'm not talking in the legal sense, but in the moral sense.
• As a member of the community I've heard lots of rumors and different sides of the story.  All of this information comes from sources I trust and in a private conversation I'd feel fine in sharing it, but I wouldn't feel right sharing here.  Am I being overly cautious or is this the right approach?
• I've been thanked on more than one occasion for providing this outlet for people to write about the issue.  I'm glad some see it that way, but I worry that others might think I'm doing a disservice to those involved in the issue.  The last thing I want is to add fuel to the fire and I hope that's not what I'm doing, rather I hope that by having a forum to look at this situation we are illuminating it.

The funny thing to me is that when I started this blog I figured maybe some friends and family would read it occasionally. I never dreamed it would be read by others or that it would be used in this way.  On the one hand I'm glad that it is, but on the other hand I'm humbled by the prospects.

Who's Responsible?

I just read a great piece by Seth Godin that essentially says that marketers are responsible for the affects that the products/services they market have on society. From his piece:

If marketing works, it means that free choice isn’t quite so free. It means that marketers get to influence and amplify desires. The number of SUVs sold in the United States is a bazillion times bigger than it was in 1962. Is that because people suddenly want them, or is it because car marketers built them and marketed them?

Cigarette consumption is way down. Is that because people suddenly don’t want them any more, or is it because advertising opportunities are limited?

Others will tell you that if it’s legal, it’s fair game. If it’s legal for Edelman to post a blog called Working Families for Wal-Mart (when it’s really working Edelman employees for Wal-Mart), then they have every right to do so. In fact, they have an obligation to their shareholders to do so. Or so they say.

I believe that every criminal, no matter how heinous the crime, deserves an attorney. I don't believe that every product and every organization and every politician deserves world-class marketing or PR...

Let me be really clear, just in case. If you think that the world would be a better place if everyone owned a handgun, then yes, market handguns as hard as you can. If you honestly believe that kids are well served by drinking a dozen spoonfuls of sugar every morning before school, then I may believe you're wrong, but you should go ahead and market your artificially-sweetened juice product. My point is that you have no right to market things you know are harmful or that lead to bad outcomes, regardless of how much you need that job.

Along the way, “just doing my job,” has become a mantra for blind marketers who are making short-term mistakes in order to avoid a conflict with the client or the boss. As marketing becomes every more powerful, this is just untenable. It’s unacceptable.

If you get asked to market something, you’re responsible. You’re responsible for the impacts, the costs, the side effects and the damage. You killed that kid. You poisoned that river. You led to that fight. If you can’t put your name on it, I hope you’ll walk away. If only 10% of us did that, imagine the changes. Imagine how proud you’d be of your work.

Thankfully I've never had to market anything of social consequence, but I have had to market products that I looked at and thought to myself, "Who in their right mind would spend $x for this?"  In those cases it was extremely difficult to write compelling copy or to enthusiastically sell the product, and honestly I didn't stay with those companies for long.  The flip side of the coin is that I've worked with services/products that I didn't personally find valuable but it was abundantly clear that the customers did, and from that experience I learned to try and work beyond my own biases.  In other words just because I don't like something doesn't mean that there aren't a million people out there who do like it.  Either way I agree with Godin that if you market it or sell it, you are responsible for it.

Cross posted on LowderEnterprises.com.

NIMBY, Local Government & Real Estate: The Best of Blogging

A lot of times, okay most of the time, comments on blog posts are more entertaining than edifying.  People call each other names, make fun of each others politics and generally act like third graders.  However, every once in a while an intelligent conversation breaks out and seems to justify the existence of these things.  For a perfect example of what I'm talking about check out this post at a Little Urbanity. 

The original post is a reaction of David Wharton, the author of the blog, to an article in Yes!Weekly in which the reporter draws a correlation between campaign contributions from real estate developers and the approval of suburban "sprawl" projects in Geensboro.  In the comments a very well informed discussion breaks out about urban planning and the effects that federal transportation subsidies and other factors have on development.  They also discuss if people really want to live in the suburbs and if there's really a market for walkable, mixed-use communities.  It's a really good read and I highly recommend you check it out.  Here's the link again.

The People, Yes. Yes!

A friend of mine in Greensboro, Sean Coon, has been working diligently to get a new venture called The People, Yes off the ground.   Sean has entered The People, Yes in a competition at Netsquared's Technology Innovation Fund that could result in funding for his effort.  Take a moment to check out Sean's post about it here, and then go to Netsquared and vote for five of the proposals that you think deserve funding.  Of course I think you should vote for The People, Yes, but I'll trust your judgement.

FYI, here's The People, Yes mission statement:

Our short-term mission:
To reach out to our neighbors on the other side of the digital divide and provide the necessary training and logistics for enabling a new online community of voices via blogging, podcasting, vlogging, etc. We plan on directly engaging with the homeless community and folk living at or below the poverty line, but will work with any Greensboro resident who would like to publish their point of view.

Our longer-term mission:
Once the collaborative blog platform gets legs, we plan on creating meshed communities of local resident's topical interests, while focusing on engaging both individuals and local businesses to sponsor individual media creators. A large percentage of sponsorship revenue would be funneled back to the content creators themselves, with the remainder going back into programs that support the local homeless community.

More background about The People, Yes can be found here.

21st Century Neighborhood Watch

Over at Life in Forsyth Lucy has a post titled "Another White Van" that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a vigilant neighbor armed with email.  It seems that a man was seen trolling their neighborhood in a white van.   A neighbor noticed him, did a little research on the tag numbers, got a name and thought they found evidence that the driver was a registered sex offender.  They fired off an email to warn the neighbors and the neighbors forwarded it to their friends and pretty soon everyone was on the alert.

Well, it ends up that there the person they spotted had the same name as a registered sex offender but he himself had a clean record.  In addition, he was in the neighborhood with his girlfriend to pick up a dance student and since he'd never been there before he was slowing down in front of houses in an effort to find the right house.   Unfortunately the person who knew this wasn't part of the email loop so didn't know what was going on. Luckily one of the people in the loop found out the truth and let everyone know.

Lucy, who is also a 2004 transplant from the DC area, points out the the Beltway Snipers were originally thought to be a white guy in a white van, but in fact were two black guys in a blue sedan.  Her point is a good one: while it's always good to be vigilant we can often be led astray by half truths and speculation. This case also points out the inherent flaws of email; just ask anyone in the working world to tell you stories about someone left out of the loop for a project or meeting because they were accidentally left off the "cc" list.

Luckily no one got hurt in this case, and it seems that at least one of the neighbors did the right thing by contacting the police instead of handling things themselves.  The police were the folks who figured out it was a case of mistaken identity.  I'm assuming they contacted the driver and found out why he was there  so he might have gotten a little fright when they called, but that's infinitely better than getting a beat-down from a bunch of scared neighbors.