CommunitiesDispatches From The Heartland 
John Creighton learning lessons from small town life
Friday, November 20, 2009
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Photo: twobitme (Flickr)
Americans Are Accidental Extremists
posted at 1:24 a.m.
We didn't mean for it to happen. But, we Americans are becoming accidental extremists.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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Photo: noticelj (Flickr)
A Citizen Centric World
posted at 8:21 a.m.
We're in an era in which we don't need institutions as much. We can get things done by ourselves.
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
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Photo: rjones0856 (Flickr)
Culture Follows Structure
posted at 9:13 a.m.
New infrastructure, technologies and policy change people's behavior, which changes social norms and values.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
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Photo: litherland (Flickr)
Why Do People Hate Insurance Companies?
posted at 8:18 a.m.
Why do people who have benefitted financially from their relationship with health insurance companies still hate these companies?
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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Photo: FrankLong (Flickr)
Sir Thomas More v. Stephen L. Carter
posted at 8:52 a.m.
Sir Thomas More sought to preserve his life through silence. Stephen Carter says integrity requires one to speak openly. Who's right?
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Sunday, November 8, 2009
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Photo: by Flickr user jbcurio
Too Few Politicians?
posted at 9:05 a.m.
There are nearly 30,000 fewer governing bodies today compared to 50 years ago. Yet, the population has doubled. Who is learning to govern?
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
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Disingenuous Questions on Facebook
posted at 8:33 a.m.
I'm not opposed to Facebook surveys. But disingenuous questions cheapen public discourse.
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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Oh Yah... It's Election Day
posted at 8:25 a.m.
The communal aspects of Election Day are all but gone. Participating in elections are one more thing we do alone.
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Sunday, November 1, 2009
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Do You Feel Less Free?
posted at 9:32 a.m.
Peggy Noonan says American's feel less free. People tell me they're overextended and overwhelmed. That's different.
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John Creighton
John is a student of community life and public leadership. He does research, writes, speaks ... more
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John is a student of community life and public leadership. He does research, writes, speaks and advises public leaders on strategies to activate citizens to take action.
John's professional journey includes twenty years work with public-oriented organizations including the U.S. Bureau of Primary Health Care, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Kettering and C.S. Mott Foundations, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Demos Public Works Project and many Pulitzer prize-winning newspapers. John is the former director and senior fellow with The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. As founder of Conocer, John designed a peer-to-peer learning netweork for forty-plus primary health care associations around the country. He began his career working on the staff of two Kansas gubrenatorial campaigns.
John is author or more than forty reports and articles. He has been a keynote speaker for groups ranging from the Western Governors Association, Nature Conservancy, National Association of Secretaries of State, Mid America Press Institute, Greater Midwest Association of Primary Health Care Centers, and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
One of John's joys are the opportunities to interview Americans from all walks of life. He has had the privilege to sit down with such diverse groups - in such diverse places - as executives in the World Trade Center; community health care workers in South Carolina; AME church members in Atlanta; ranchers in North and South Dakota; union members in Flint, MI; casino workers in Las Vegas; newspaper reporters in Baltimore; media pioneers in California, and countless others in 42 states.
John grew up in a small town on the Great Plains where he learned community is not a concept but a rewarding, and practical, way of life. John is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He and his wife Joni are raising three children in Longmont, Colorado where John serves on the school board.