John McCrory

Some neat things I discovered or was reminded of over the past few days:

Frontline SMS, a free, computer-to-cellphone text messaging application enabling one-to-one and one-to-many two-way communication.

Dave Winer’s “What is an Unconference” (2006) and “Rethinking the Conference” (2008).

SeeClickFix: deputizing citizens as inspectors of public services and public space.

Social Media Governance’s online database of social media policies.

Dish and Dine, a social network for people who love food

I was in my first real job, 20 stories up in a brown-paneled midtown office building. After two years of recession-forced freelancing, at last I was  employed. But, there was something else I needed.

First day, there had been a few hours of HR paperwork.The I-9 form. W-4. Medical/Dental plan. Retirement savings. Life Insurance: 20 thousand dollars to a beneficiary if I was killed on the job. I put down my Mom as the beneficiary.

I was taken to a room where my picture was taken and few minutes later sent on with a laminated ID card. I was taken to my boss’s office. He talked to me with his arms folded behind his head. He gave me my instructions, told me how I was taking on the job he used to do. He showed me my office: a desk, filing cabinet, computer, and a window looking out on a brown-paneled office building.

Then my boss took me on a tour of the floor to meet my new colleagues. I smiled, shook hands, tried to think of some mnemonic system to remember their names, failed.

I spent that afternoon and the next day learning the basics: how to work the copy machine, send a fax, set up the phone. But, I was still missing something. I went home at night and back to work in the morning on crowded subways, staring into the spaces between people, thinking about all this new experience.

The third day, it happened. I was standing in the doorway of my office, having a conversation with a couple of my new colleagues. A few others came down the hall, joined in. It was me, Stephen, Andrew, Mildred, Sean, and Marguerite. Next thing I knew I was entertaining them with some story, and they were laughing and nodding their heads.

I don’t know what story it was. Maybe the one about getting stuck in the blizzard on I-80 in remote Pennsylvania. Maybe the one about the foulmouthed barefoot woman at the hot dog stand. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that my friends were listening to me and responding, making me feel validated. That’s what I needed.

When you talk to clients, customers, members or employees: are you listening to their stories in a way they know you are listening? Are you validating their stories, and them? Few things are as powerful as simply listening, responding with enthusiasm, and validating.

“A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times”
–Randall Jarrell

At the 1980 Democratic convention, during what was probably the first election I was maturely aware of*, Ted Kennedy conceded to Jimmy Carter in what has become known as “The Dream Shall Never Die” speech. Its closing words were a reminder to all who care about economic justice, the centerpiece of that campaign: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

Now is a time to remember that Ted Kennedy was a longtime champion of universal health care for Americans. Here in 2009, our nation is on the brink of solving or being swamped by a terribly broken health care system. Here’s what Ted Kennedy said about that 29 years ago in the “last great speech of Camelot” — marking its priority by placing it at the crescendo of his speech: (listen at 5:47)

Finally, we cannot have a fair prosperity in isolation from a fair society. So I will continue to stand for a national health insurance. We must — We must not surrender — We must not surrender to the relentless medical inflation that can bankrupt almost anyone and that may soon break the budgets of government at every level. Let us insist on real controls over what doctors and hospitals can charge, and let us resolve that the state of a family’s health shall never depend on the size of a family’s wealth.

The President, the Vice President, the members of Congress have a medical plan that meets their needs in full, and whenever senators and representatives catch a little cold, the Capitol physician will see them immediately, treat them promptly, fill a prescription on the spot. We do not get a bill even if we ask for it, and when do you think was the last time a member of Congress asked for a bill from the Federal Government? And I say again, as I have before, if health insurance is good enough for the President, the Vice President, the Congress of the United States, then it’s good enough for you and every family in America.

Ted Kennedy: \”The Dream Shall Never Die\” 1980

LBJ took advantage of JFK’s death to push through civil rights laws like the Voting Rights Act. Will President Obama be able to seize the moment to create a legacy for Ted Kennedy by getting health care rights established once and for all with a system of universal health care coverage in the United States?

* I was only 11 years old, but I lived in Washington, D.C. where politics is as common a subject of discussion as the weather, even for kids.

How to become an author

Letters to a young writer, 1920

Magdalene College
Cambridge
June 11 1920

Dear Mr. Jones,

I am interested to read what you say in your letter. I must not however reply as fully as I could wish, as I am not very well just now, & cannot do much writing.

But I can give you some advice & gladly do so. The first thing is I am sure to read good and solid books — authors with a real style of their own such as Ruskin, Pater, Stevenson, Charles Lamb, Wells. Don’t read ordinary magazines or poor novels. You will find an interesting essay in Stevenson’s Virginibus Pueresque and if you come across a book of mine Escape & Other Essays you will find an essay on authorship, which contains much of what I should say to you.

Then I should advise you regularly to write a short piece — describe an incident you have seen, or a place you have visited, or a book you have read. Take pains just to get the points that come out clearly in your own mind, and say it all as clearly and simply as you can — don’t try to bring in picturesque words unless they really express what you want to say — and do not try to write in anyone else’s style, unless you do it merely for practice, to see if you can imitate an author you admire. But the point is to have your own way of seeing and saying things, and the closer you can observe and be interested in all that you see and hear, the better it will be. Turn your thoughts inward. One can be interested in things and people without exactly liking them; and the point is not to select only the things you like, for special study, but to see what the truth and reality of all that is going on about you is.

This is all that I can say now, but I hope it may be of use to you. You have my best wishes.

Sincerely yours,

A. C. Benson

next: W. Pett Ridge