Using Language, Stories and Identity to Move People To Action Black smoke. Armored vehicles. Pepper spray. Three hundred helmeted police in black riot gear. Lockstep marching, relentlessly forward. Helicopters. Nightsticks. Snipers. Bean bags. Rubber bullets. Sound cannons. Cell phone jamming. Waiting. Drums. Sage. Prayer circles. Tobacco. Song. Unarmed peaceful [...]
Why So Much Reaction To Project 2XXX and So Little About Chorus 2026? I see a lot on social media about Project 2XXX and how bad it is. It is indeed dark. I read a lot about how the president is a Nazi, a fascist, and a dictator. He would [...]
Perhaps this is a cry of existential frustration, but I belong to half a dozen climate non-profits, and I’m noticing a pattern. The pattern could best be called climate atherosclerosis. A hardening of the arteries that may precede death. Or it might just be the cynicism of my old [...]
I am a SWIMMER! When I started in the climate movement I went in search of “magic words.” Something simple that I could say that would motivate others to take action. Perhaps you’ve also wished for those words. I found it was a fool’s errand. Not the search for [...]
... And What We Can Do About It. The election is over. We didn’t get shellacked as bad as we thought. We took a few state houses. Many political and climate leaders are calling it a victory. So we feel pretty good about our efforts. Even though we know [...]
I saw an ad for a Chevy truck last night. It had all the requisite touch points: the deep base male voice-over, the truck driving up an impossible mountain, a female passenger adoring the ride, and by association, her driver. What caught my attention was the line “… equipped [...]
In the late 1950s, Phillip Morris & Co. hired Leo Burnett Advertising to change the image of their feminine filtered cigarettes to make them more masculine. Filtered cigarettes were a technical ruse. They were supposed to be healthier and were mostly smoked by women. Burnett launched one of history’s [...]
