ACORN Dharavi Diwali Party
There is a common saying about how important it is just to “show up” in making things happen. The corollary to that should be “finding it,” which is how I felt trying to navigate a cab through the...
View ArticleThe Wild Ride of Cowboy Canada
After 12 hours in New Orleans my daughter dropped me at the airport for the milk run to Kamloops through Chicago and then Calgary. I’m caught in a culture warp between Thailand, India, and now North...
View ArticleLocal Leaders Rule
A phone call from Springfield, Massachusetts early in the morning and then a morning spent with more than 100 local leaders in the southeast region of British Columbia, who were activists and stewards...
View ArticleMeasuring a Months Movemebnt
Being on the road and out of the country for a month is a bit of a Rip Van Winkle moment despite the best intentions and mainlining internet to keep connected. Some notes. • Still seems to absolutely...
View ArticleSustaining Majority Unions
Philadelphia It was a lot of fun to be the guest speaker at the annual Labor Lawyers reception to support Philadelphia Jobs with Justice. It was a good, there were people, old friends and comrades...
View ArticleHunkering Down for Immigration Reform
Washington Being around the DC area gave me an opportunity to ply friends and associates for information on what might be happening to some other critical efforts for reform now that health care is at...
View ArticleElection Lessons from the Hudson
It’s a small sample, but the Virginia bellwether and the deeply blue state New Jersey went hard Republican and in Jersey tossed a Democratic governor looking for a second shot. Across the river, New...
View ArticleBuycotting
Any "protest" that has too many names is bound to be questionable, and that seems the case with some of the efforts to direct consumer consumption along political paths. Among the assortment I saw...
View ArticleCredit Card Rips
There is a lot of talk about reforming credit card fees and rates, but a lot of this seems just that: talk. The House Financial Services Committee chaired by Barney Frank has talked about capping...
View ArticleAdult Learners
Springfield Raising money for the international work and getting Citizen Wealth in the hands of readers is an interesting grind on college campuses these days, especially for a two-time dropout on...
View ArticleUMass and Round 2 with the Tea Baggers
Once I showed up at Gordon Hall at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Professor Dan Clawson and others shared with me a message they had printed from the internet of the 9/12 projects strategy...
View ArticleLearning at Williams
I did two short hitches at Williams College before going over the fence for good a long, long time ago, so it was with mixed feelings that I returned to talk to a couple of groups of smart students...
View ArticleTV with the Tea Party
Bill Gunn, the leader of the Western Massachusetts 912project.org and Tea Party protestors at my presentations at Springfield College and UMass at Amherst, had written me an email and invited...
View ArticleBarney Frank Among the Faithful
I didn’t like paying for the privilege but the chance to hear Congressman and House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank pontificate to the faithful at the annual dinner of several small...
View ArticleLouisiana Shrimp
New Orleans More than 20 years ago every month or so I would drive from New Orleans across the River and down to Bayou Lafourche until I got to Galliano, then I would pull into a lot paved with oyster...
View ArticleMemphis Developer Giveaways
Even though I wasn’t speaking at the University of Memphis about Citizen Wealth until Monday evening, it was worth flying in the predawn on Sunday to be able to take advantage of Professor Ken...
View ArticleMemphis Tea Party Blues
The lecture was the 2nd in a series commemorating the 100th anniversary of city planning in America, so 40 years in hundreds of city streets and Citizen Wealth and its themes were perfectly suited to...
View ArticleMortgages Underwater
New Orleans The Wall Street Journal published a chart in Monday’s paper based on information from First American Home Core Logic, a real estate information service in Santa Ana, California in Orange...
View ArticleFood Stamps are Normal
New Orleans Food stamps are a part of growing up, and in fact may be more common in the American experience than apple pie. Being hungry in childhood also seems to be something commonly shared...
View ArticleFood Stamp Stigma
One day I write that receiving food stamps is the "new normal," as we say in New Orleans, and the next day there's a front page story in the Sunday Times by Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff with a...
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