WS to IL: "YOUR Turn to Step Up!"

I've been known to clip an article -- or two (!) -- out of the newspaper.

This sometimes leads to organizational challenges. (What to do, for instance, with the great article on Russia's introduction of Cyrillic web domain names?.)

But the really good clippings help tie the world together neatly. For instance, when the end of the year comes, I reach the last pages of my desk calendar, and I discover a folded up clipping from a year ago -- William Safire's annual "Office Pool" column. You know the one I'm talking about -- the virtuoso column in which Safire would show that he not only knew how to comment on last week's news, but could do a pretty good job of predicting what would happen for the next twelve months!

Every prediction, like the one below from "Office Pool, 2009", was in the form of a multiple-choice question:

Toughest foreign affairs challenge will come if:

1. Afghanistan becomes "Obama's War" or "Obama's Retreat"
2. Iraq backslides into chaos after too-early U.S. withdrawal
3. Depressed Russia moves on Ukraine
4. India-Pakistan fighting breaks out

Safire, always a mensch, would step up to the plate and indicate his predictions at the end of each year's column . . . thus setting the stage for him to lead off the next year's installment with crowing or crow-eating, depending on his success. (I was always happy if I could even come close to his success rate.)

Alas, we lost William Safire this year, and there will be no "Office Pool, 2010." Of course, if we really wanted to honor him, we would step up to the plate ourselves and -- perhaps in the spirit of the Lexicographic Irregulars? -- swarm over the problem, providing a Web 2.0-sourced "Office Pool, 2010" of our own!

For me, doing so feels particularly irresistable, since it is nearly certain that any Safire-produced "Office Pool, 2010" would have contained at least one question about developments here in Illinois.

So . . . perhaps I'll take the first crack at it . . . .

Office Pool, 2010

In the year's most hotly-contested Senate-seat battle, Illinois voters:

1. will turn out in droves to elect a "whip-smart do-gooder" who is all experience and no baggage
2. will finally turn their backs on the politics of PAC money once and for all
3. will turn off the Blagojevich trial and tune in to the Cubs instead
4. will adopt a new state song
5. all of the above

Well now . . . I think I know how that question is going to end up! (Maybe this prediction-writing business isn't so hard after all?)

What about you? Are you ready to step up in 2010?

Who's The Boss? (Hint: Follow the Money!)

No one feels more gratitude to the pharmaceutical industry than I do. I start each morning taking a little green pill, and I am thankful to everyone involved in bringing it to me -- the research scientist who discovered it but also the sales reps who get the word out and the finance people who figure out how to keep the labs open year after year.

No one is more supportive of the role that lawyers play in our society than I am. One of the most rewarding phases of my career was when I was working in patent licensing, which functioned hand-in-hand with the system of patent prosecution and patent litigation. Hell, I put my kid through college doing that work!


No one believes more deeply in the value created by the trade and investment community than I do. I spent the first dozen or so years of my working life flying around the world negotiating trade contracts, and in particular was deeply involved in China trade issues. I strongly believe that, by doing so, I not only earned money but also participated in building peaceful, productive interactions between the U.S. and other countries, including some with cultures that are very, very different than ours.

Pharma and other innovation industries . . . lawyers and the court system . . . trade and investment . . . I want my representatives to understand these fields, and spend a lot of time listening to people in these fields, to learn about their needs and perspectives.

However, I also want them to remember who they work for.

We've got a Senate election coming up in my state, Illinois. Money is a huge issue. I've decided that my top priority is selecting a candidate who knows who "the Boss" is. That's why I'm taking a hard look at these websites:

Mark Kirk campaign contributors

David Hoffman campaign contributors

We ALL have a part to play in making the system work in a way in which our candidates do NOT have to find a few "bosses" with a lot of bucks. More about that in a future blog post . . . .

The World Turned Upside Down - Huff Post, Wash Post, and Twitter

"The World turn'd upside down"

A month or so back, I said I was bound and determined to figure out "this Twitter thing." Recent work I've been doing to promote the great Guantanamo film The Response has opened my eyes about Twitter, and a lot of other things . . .

I've been having a lot of little "Aha!" moments as I try to get the word out about screenings of The Response on Twitter. For one thing, I discovered that there is a whole group of people who are actively passing along the latest news about Guantanamo (and a whole range of other civic affairs), and they can be found by searching on Twitter. That in turn leads you to certain "hubs" who distribute and redistribute ("retweet") the news on a particular topic. The interaction between the hubs and the "spokes" allows for incredibly rapid dissemination (and *digestion*) of the right information by the right people at the right speed.

Hence, a big event for me was asking one of those "hubs," GuantanamoAndy, to spread the word . . . and within minutes seeing:

Tymlee RT @Tosfm: @GuantanamoAndy Excellent film on Gitmo - #TheResponse - shortlisted for Oscar in shorts film category - http://bit.ly/6HQFDM ...

heyjude408 RT @Tosfm: @GuantanamoAndy Excel. film on Gitmo - #TheResponse - shortlisted for Oscar in shorts film cat.- http://bit.ly/6HQFDM - Pls RT

Tosfm @GuantanamoAndy Excellent film on Gitmo - #TheResponse - shortlisted for Oscar in shorts film category - http://bit.ly/6HQFDM - Pls RT

My messages have also been faithfully re-tweeted by "Satyagraha_ji" -- who has 3,672 followers on Twitter, all of whom, one can infer, are interested in social justice issues associated with Gandhi's concept of satyagraha.

The world really is changing -- public discourse is being shaped in an entirely new way. And from where I sit, it looks like power really is getting back into the hands of ordinary people! For about the past 20 years, my sister, Elaine Scarry, has been talking about the model of Paul Revere for how we manage information in a democracy. Now I finally understand how very true that is!

Another eye-opener for me has been the way in-person meetings, blogs, individual websites, Facebook, and Twitter all interact together. To get a taste of that, just decode this Twitter post:

hoffman4IL An earnest, skeptical voter in Evanston gives @hoffman4IL a chance, and becomes a supporter: http://bit.ly/6thAu2. Thanks, @Scarry!

This post is by the Hoffman for Illinois ("hoffman4IL") campaign, telling its followers about a blog post ("http://bit.ly/6thAu2") by me ("an earnest, skeptical voter in Evanston") describing how I became a supporter, and indicate my Twitter address ("@Scarry") at the end. Hoffman is going to be great for Illinois, not least of all because he understands how to use new media to pull people into the conversation.

But the biggest single eye-opener for me came this morning when I was trading emails with Washington Post reporter Peter Slevin. I expressed amazement at the 286 comments that people had appended to his piece on the use of the Thomson Correctional Center to house Guantanamo detainees. (That's a lotta comments!) Peter said, "Yeah, well, that one got picked up by the Huff Post . . . ."

The Huff Post? Determining who talks about an article in the Wash Post? About a issue in northwest Illinois?

The World turn'd upside down:
OR
A briefe description of the ridiculous Fashions
of these distracted Times
By T.J. a well-willer to King, Parliament and Kingdom
London: Printed for John Smith 1646

Maybe it's because the Paul Revere metaphor was fresh in my mind, but Peter's story, and the 286 response, and the role of new outlets like the Huff Post in changing the whole game, reminded me of the history fact we learned in high school: about how at the surrender of the British to the American forces at Yorktown, the band played an old tune called "The World Turned Upside Down."

Well, if this is another revolution, I for one am all for it. (It turned out pretty good the first time . . . . )

(For more on the Thomson story, see "Why Illinois is Central to America's Response to Guantanamo.")


Related posts

I've started to organize some of the practices I've discovered, starting with the ten "guideposts" below. I'll expand on these from time to time, and hope to spur continued conversation with all of you!

(See Twitter: Scarry's Ten Guideposts )












As I read the article, I kept hearing echoes of lessons that I have been learning in the last several years as I have worked to communicate online about peace and justice issues. Herewith the top of my hit parade, with reference to stories from the USA Today newsroom . . . .

(See Social Media: If It's Good Enough for USA Today, It's Good Enough for Me )

I've realized that when we ask ourselves, "What is it that we hope people will do?" we must include an element of recursivity: One of the things we want people to do is to involve more people in doing it. In a way, that element of recursivity -- dare I say "evangelism"? -- defines what it means for people to really become part of a movement.

(See Invite More People into Activism! (Pass It Along!) )

I Have Seen The Future -- His Name Is David Hoffman

David Hoffman clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

But if you're like me, you demand more . . . .

Yes, he's had a long career as a prosecutor. He's got all the right degrees, and has done various kinds of government service in Washington, D.C. He even has a remarkable "Mr. Clean" personna as the Inspector General of the City of Chicago -- one who has been willing to stand up to Mayor Daley. And yet . . . That's all fine, I thought, but now let's hear something that's truly senatorial."

And goodness knows we need somebody senatorial. We can only coast for so long on the euphoria of having given the nation Barack Obama. We need to fill that seat. Phantom limb syndrome is starting to set in.


So I went to the "Hoffman for Illinois" reception in Evanston this morning determined to be a tough sell. However, David was only talking for about two minutes before I started to feel my guard go down. He is the kind of smart, likable, articulate person who immediately makes you feel comfortable. After seven or eight minutes, I started to feel optimistic, and I could feel the mood in the room getting warmer by the minute. And after about fifteen minutes of listening to him, people were smiling, and heads were nodding, and it dawned on me: this is okay! . . no . . . not just okay . . . this guy's got it!

We all come to candidates with particular areas of interest, and I'm no different. So my ears really perked up when David talked about his experience reducing the homicide rate in Chicago -- both through traditional prosecutions as well as through more experimental "community policing" approaches. I also thought his views on the role of government in improving the credit environment and encouraging new business formation were very sensible. And so was his understanding of the impact of health insurance costs in constraining business expansion and new business formation.

What I liked most about him was his qualifications for tackling what is, in my opinion, the biggest problem facing our country: how to wage the War on Terror. In my opinion, the U.S. Senate needs to get out in front and lead on two enormous questions:

• is fighting terrorism fundamentally a military operation? or a law enforcement operation?


• do old-fashioned notions of "Constitutional rights" still apply when you're fighting terrorism?

Hoffman certainly seemed smart enough and serious enough to be great at addressing those questions. And then it occurred to me: Hoffman is ideally qualified to take on those questions: his career has been all about law enforcement and constitutional law!

So: in my opinion, Illinois, and the country, will be very well-served by having a senator like David Hoffman.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Hoffman did allay the assembled crowd's concerns about Rehnquist. "Supreme Court justices tend to have both conservative and progressive clerks. I was the progressive one," he said.

Thank goodness, I thought. Heaven forbid that we elect a senator who clerked for the wrong Supreme Court Justice!