the road to the white house

Can you think of a time when you went to work every day with a full heart and clear eyes?

I find myself in this unique position now. I started working on the Obama campaign's technology team mid-February, and the immersion into this whirlwind digital and political life has been incredible. Part of that experience is working with the smartest, most creative people you ever could hope to assemble in one given room. The other part is knowing you all are focused on accomplishing a purposeful, singular mission: to re-elect the president. Lofty goal, this. And yet, not out of the question.

I'm not going to try to convince you to vote for him. The web has plenty of resources you can use to inform yourself thoughtfully and earnestly, including Obama for America's own Truth Team, and I hope you ask yourself a lot of questions that need carefully researched answers in the months leading to the election. As citizens, we never should demand less than that of ourselves. I've done it, and I continue to do it, and this is why I've committed myself completely to this work for the next 9 months.

But for those of you who are committed to helping us, I want to tell you – we believe in our president. We're working long hours on strings of days to ensure he has another four years to complete the work that needs completing – protecting our environment, moving our economy further down the road of stability, and ensuring that the code of laws that govern our country are just, fair, and purposeful.

To help us meet that successful end, I've established a fundraising page on barackobama.com. I invite you to chip in any amount that you can give – whether it's $3 or $30 – because every cent counts, and we're running a lean campaign to ensure that it goes as far as we can make it go.

I also invite you to join our groups of volunteers who are filing into the field offices we've established around the country to do grassroots organizing and voter registering. These are the real heavy lifters of the campaign – your neighbors, family, and friends who want to make sure you know where to vote, when to vote, and what you need to vote. They even will help you get to the polls if you need assistance. And they always can use more dedicated voices to further our progress.

A campaign starts with one person. It ends, truly, with one person. We can help him get there, but we have to go together.

Please give today. We're counting on you.

care

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991)

I feel this ferociously. If you don't give a damn – who do you expect will?

It's exhausting even to consider directing energy to every cause in the world that needs help. And the world needs a lot of help, from famine to war to genocide to refugees to natural disasters to lack of water to lack of medical supplies to homelessness to the overpopulation of and lack of housing for strays.

That list sounds daunting. It is. So pick one. Or two. Focus on them hard; carve out time in your life to set toward changing those problems. Give them everything you have in those gaps of space. Give them all your talent, your thoughtfulness, your humility, your fire. Your help.

Ask the right questions to help solve the problems. Or ask the wrong questions and learn why they don't matter. But push things forward. Always, forward.

The world can't wait. Your community can't wait.

Don't take a number. Take a stand.

oh, chicago

I haven't been able to spend nearly as much time as I am used to spending outside, wandering the city. But I did yesterday, after the storm, just briefly. We had a micro-burst of lightning, hard rain, and the pop of a beautiful rainbow just outside the office’s east windows. It was beautiful. The promise of spring.

'the best, worst, smartest, dumbest part of SXSW'

The reality is that the homeless make us uncomfortable; so much so that it is simply easier to ignore them, to look away, or to cross to the other side of the street. I live in a small neighborhood in New York which has a relatively large homeless or semi-homeless problem, most of them alcoholics, so I’m familiar with my own complicated feelings. It’s not that I don’t want to give them money: indeed, I’m happy to. But I don’t want to feel bad, or to think about their lives: I’d rather give them all of the money in my wallet than have a conversation with them because humanizing a person makes them hard to ignore, to walk away from. That is part of what I think is at the center of the outpouring of negative feelings about this marketing stunt.

It seems, however, to be a basic truth about our advertising-driven society that in order to raise awareness of serious issues, we sometimes have to verge on exploitation, often sadly for commercial gain.

The Verge

A good point here. But I disagree with the article's statement (not quoted here) that the "homeless hotspots" work is humanizing. If BBH Labs wanted to humanize the homeless, they would have made them employees, not objects of alms. They would have trained and empowered them to run their own business. And they wouldn't have labeled them as "homeless hotspots" – rather, they would have bound the messages of a person providing a service with a person trying to earn a living in a dignified way.

To humanize means 1. make (something) more humane or civilized 2. give (something) a human character. How can we claim that calling one a location is humanizing? How can we claim that calling out one's gravely unequal socio-economic status is humanizing?

We humanize those who need help by empowering them – literally, giving them power to make a change in their own livelihoods. In this instance, it would mean creating a micro-business that the homeless could be proud to handle. Something they could OWN, that they could claim as their work. And we don’t need to raise awareness. We need to extend an initial commitment beyond the hum and bright lights of a once-a-year festival. Because after the food carts and buses and fliers and anxiously typing, harried hangers-on disappear, fading into their hometowns across the country – the homeless are still homeless, and once again, without help.

'beautiful people do not just happen'

the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. these persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with a compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. beautiful people do not just happen.

- elisabeth kübler-ross | via texturism

This times one million. A reaffirmation to the daily practice of being a good human.

Hear it as a voice note on Soundcloud.