Obsessed with Conformity

A Modest Proposal

It’s hard to believe that I’ve lived to see the darkest days of this great country. From our struggling economy to our being pushed around by little dictators and cowardly thugs, the signs of collapse are everywhere. In California they’ve even got it on their ballot to legalize marijuana. Which means you could fly to California, walk into a 7-11 and buy a pack of pot. Oh, and then you could go outside and smoke it while walking down the street. The mere vision of this boggles my mind, as it should yours. And if this weren’t enough, there is a strong push by homosexuals across the country to legalize gay marriage. A nation full of soft-brained potheads is one thing. The prospect of this same nation full of married gay people is where the line in the sand must be drawn. 

I wasn’t happy when they took God out of our schools, but somehow we let that pass. We cannot, however, afford to let the unnatural act of homosexual marriage take root here. Furthermore, I don’t understand it. Why would two men or two women feel the need to be wed in holy matrimony when it goes against everything God stands for? I’m not making up the rules - the bible clearly states that a marriage is between a man and a woman. And I’m pretty sure those rules are non-negotiable. Therefore, to be gay and want to be married is anti-God. And anti-God is evil. It’s that simple. 

It’s time to wake up, America.  It is our responsibility to put our foot on the throat of evil and clean this country up. That’s why I propose that we outlaw homosexuality altogether. By making it illegal to be homosexual, we force them all out into the open to the benefit of us all. Since the gays have deemed October as National Coming Out month, we could use this to our advantage. In identifying and controlling homosexuals, we reestablish the Godly principles for which this great country was founded, while also reinforcing our economic infrastructure and ensuring that future generations of Americans aren’t directly influenced by this plague.

Let’s consider some basic facts: 

Fact: According to Gallup, it is estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of all Americans are gay. Shockingly, that means with 300 million people, the number of homosexuals in this country is roughly 45 million. Or more than the populations of Australia, Sweden and Greece combined. 

Fact: Most gay people are well-educated. Given this, there are certainly some positive uses for homosexuals. Uses that extend beyond the poorly conceived mass mobilization efforts of the past, and that can positively impact the rest of our great nation. 

Fact: Since 1988, the United States has shut down hundreds of military bases. Massive complexes brimming with infrastructure. Thanks to Republican foresight, most of these closed bases are still serviceable in terms of their communal capacities. I propose we build on the existing infrastructures of these bases to create something like a closed community exclusively for homosexuals - and then reestablish these bases as thriving economic centers. 

Fact: The media is chock full of stories about violence against homosexuals. Our proposed communities would protect homosexuals from the outside world - so that they can continue living peacefully amongst their own kind. No one is allowed in, and no gays are allowed out. 

Fact: We simply cannot allow homosexuals to marry. Doing so would expedite the demise of this great country.

The point of this proposal isn’t to punish homosexuals. That’s why the closed communities would include every basic civic service that normal America receives. The idea is to provide these people with an environment that is safe enough for quality productivity. From energy to agriculture and from medicine to design, these communities will be run exclusively by its citizens and closely supervised by government employees. Eventually we could even create on-site learning centers for regular Americans to observe homosexual behavior so that we may learn more about it going forward. And going forward, thanks to this proposal, there will be no homosexuals running amok in America. 

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, and giving some pleasure to the rich. Indeed, the economic impact alone, from repurposing decaying military bases, is worth the time and effort necessary to work out all of the details of this proposal - which contains the basic foundation necessary to return this nation to its rightful place on the planet as God’s chosen country where the principles of freedom and justice prevail. God bless America. 

The end.

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Jim MItchem via Jonathan Swift/@jmitchem

Posted via email from Jim's posterous

Confessions of a Recovering Homophobe

We didn’t discuss homosexuality in my house growing up.  In fact, the first time I even heard the term was because of Jodie Dallas, a gay character played by Billy Crystal on the TV show “Soap.”  And although he seemed normal enough, he liked intercourse with men rather than women - and, well, that was kind of gross. So yeah, I understood why we didn’t talk about homosexuality in our house. Besides, there weren’t any gay people in our neighborhood. 

When I joined the Air Force at 18, I had a fear of being in the shower with a gay man during basic training. After all, everyone knew that gay people couldn’t control themselves and had to have sex whenever other nude people of the same sex were present. Let’s just say I never dropped the soap. As it turned out, my fears were for naught – as I later learned that there were no gay people in the military. 

Years later, I finally encountered a gay man. He was a friend, actually. A really nice guy. Good looking. Great dresser. And I had no idea he was gay. But one night, after we’d hit a few (straight) clubs,  we were at his apartment drinking beer when he told me that he was extremely attracted to me and really wanted to have sex. He then began to cry because he knew that I was straight and that there was no way I was coming over to his side. And there wasn’t. In fact, I was so freaked out by the whole scenario that I left his apartment and never talked to him again. And despite my ignorance for another person’s feelings, I learned something valuable that night – that gay people weren’t monsters. 

And so everything changed for me after that experience. 

Today, my wife and I joke that we have more gay friends than straight. Our daughters have classmates raised by gay couples. To us, gay people are no different than we are other than they fall in love with people of the same sex. They’re subject to the same fallibilities and emotions as every other human on the planet. Things like cancer and alcoholism, fear and love. Universals like these don’t discriminate because of sexual orientation. 

Which brings me to a new campaign supporting the legalization of gay marriage, Let Love Reign. 

Last fall, a friend introduced me to Catalina Kulczar-Marin, a talented photographer gifted in capturing the emotion of her subjects that live just below the surface.  It turned out that Catalina was fed up with the inequities of the law concerning gay marriage, and facilitated a photoshoot featuring gay couples in various forms of normal, loving interaction. She asked if I’d be willing to help create a campaign supporting the legalization of gay marriage. I immediately agreed. After many months, and the help of many people, today the campaign officially kicked off with the launch of LetLoveReign.org. 

I don’t know if gay marriage will ever be legalized in America. But I do know from personal experience that enlightenment goes a long way in overcoming fear. I encourage you to visit LetLoveReign.org to learn more about the campaign, to take action for the legalization of gay marriage and for a better understanding of what it must be like to be completely in love with another person, but forbidden to marry them.  

Love is love. It doesn’t discriminate. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my words. 

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Jim Mitchem/@jmitchem

Posted via email from 300 Words

The Rich get Richer and Kohl’s Really Doesn’t Care.

Recently, Kohl’s department store issued a contest to every school in America via Facebook. The rules were pretty simple - register your school and then ask everyone you know to vote for your school so that it can win one of twenty $500,000 prizes. Every person on Facebook was eligible to vote - and everyone was allowed to vote up to five times for one school, but could vote for multiple schools. 

Last night this contest mercifully ended, and the twenty winning schools were announced. There was even one school here in Charlotte that won. A private school with 110 students. And yes, I voted for them. 

One thing that struck me about this contest though, was how flawed it was. If you look at the winning schools, you’ll see that most of them are private. You’ll also notice that most of them are founded on religious principles, but that doesn’t bother me (no really it doesn't - so don't make this about religion). What bothers me is that Kohl’s just gave away 10 million dollars to schools that don’t need the money. Private schools are businesses. If you say you're going to use the money to make your school better, that's a great business move and one that will definitely affect people who can afford to pay your tuition. But don't think for a second that this contest was ever about helping educate children in this country. 

Our children attend a public Montessori school with one of the longest wait lists in Charlotte. It’s a popular choice not just because of Maria Montessori’s brilliant and popular foundational curriculum, but because of an extremely close-knit school community that treats each other like family. Our annual fundraiser occurs when two major events take place at a convention center next to our campus and we charge patrons to park on our grounds. Parent volunteers facilitate this effort and it earns us about 20K a year - every penny of which is poured back into our school. Our school has over 300 students. And we are lucky. Trust me, I’m not complaining that we didn’t get the money from Kohl’s. We don’t really need it. In fact, had we jumped on this contest early and we were the ones in the hunt for the prize - I guarantee you we’d figure out a way to take only what we needed and give the rest to other public schools that really need it. 

So when I see Kohl’s giving money hand over fist to the wealthiest schools in the educational system for no other reason than getting people to click on a Like button - it makes me wonder why Kohl’s didn’t turn this into a legitimate competition based on legitimate plans and legitimate needs rather than a popularity contest that begged you to click a button five times.  

But why should Kohl’s care? This kind of money is nothing to them. So instead of anonymously stashing it into random NFPs to dodge taxes, they’ve just scored a public relations win while developing a massive database in what can only be called the biggest social media coup in history. 

Congratulations to all the private schools who won this contest. You’re popular. And rich. 

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Jim Mitchem (PTO president-elect at Chantilly Montessori)/@jmitchem

Posted via email from 300 Words

“Eat Like an Animal” – My concept for @jamie_oliver’s food challenge

I usually don’t do this, but when 2010 TED Prize Winner Jaime Oliver, chef, had a wish to help “create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” It caught my eye. And my imagination. So I threw my name in the ring as a possible contributor. 

When an email appeared from the TED people yesterday asking for concepts, I started thinking about my kids and how I could get them to eat healthier. Then it struck me – despite potential etiquette shortfalls (and because of them as a fun double entendre), what if we asked children to eat like animals? After all, people, like animals, are just organic beings. And somehow animals in the wild thrive on natural food sources all around them without going to the corner store for a bag of processed cheese puffs. Plus, kids love animals. I know. We have two daughters and lots of pets. More than pets, though, our kids are completely and unreasonably infatuated with animals. And not just pets either, all types. Thanks to our daughters, we’re contributing members of the World Wildlife Fund, routinely visit zoos and preserves and own a stable of exotic stuffed animals. 

When I was a kid, my favorite show was Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I’m sure it was yours too. But at some point in our lifetimes, most of us grow out of this obsession with animals. It’s kind of sad, really.  But if we’re trying to get children to eat healthier, the animal angle might actually work. Think of how much fun kids would have with this. Think of the potential cross-promotions with conservation organizations. Think of kids everywhere choosing an apple over a bag of Doritos because that’s what a spider monkey would choose. 

Click here to visit the competition site and to vote (or rather, 'applaud') the concept. Thank you. 

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Jim Mitchem/@smashadv

Posted via email from 300 Words

BP's Golden Opportunity

Everyone's pissed at British Petroleum. It's ok, you're allowed. Just don't dwell too long in scapegoatism, because the end result is never satisfying. 

Yes, BP was wrong for not having contingency plans in place for equipment that wasn't designed to dig that deep. But we're wrong because we've been too slow to transition away from petroleum dependency. And it's more than just the oil refined to put gas in your car - check this partial list of items created using petroleum. One of the best resources I've found that talks about oil, is a EIA Energy Kids. That's right, a kid's site. Check it out. 

But this isn't about scapegoatism, or how much petroleum we use in America. This post is about the golden opportunity that BP has before them. Eventually we have to believe that the oil is going to all wash ashore, or evaporate, or something else - I don't know, I'm not a scientist. But we have to believe that it will go away and the fish will come back and livelihoods of people will return and history will point back to this disaster as the beginning of a great migration away from oil-based products and toward something cleaner. And you know what? BP can lead the charge. Hell, they've used the pseudo-acronym 'Beyond Petroleum' for a few years now, though after how BP has handled the PR for this disaster, the 'Beyond Petroleum' claim sounds like total advertising bullshit - nothing more. 

But now, they have the opportunity to make good on their claim by directly investing in the damaged areas of the US Gulf coast. By putting people to work on new energy projects. By building whole towns based on new energy. By helping clean the water so that sea life comes back and seafood is safe to consume. By modifying all their existing oil rigs, and leading legislation to ensure that all rigs everywhere (regardless of ownership) are safe for our ecosystem. By being a leader in new energy. By showing us the way. By becoming their mantra. 

Dear BP - accept that you're going to be scapegoated, and plow forward anyway. But with a mission of doing good, not just turning a profit. You're the fifth largest company on the planet. This is your chance to show the world that people and companies can live harmoniously together. Please, BP, commit to doing great things with this opportunity. 

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Jim Mitchem is a father, husband and writer. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.

When Advertising is Evil: BP and the Gulf Coast

If you've paid any attention to television lately, you've likely seen a few commercials for tourism along the Gulf Coast. If not, here's one: 

Here's another one: 

Don't these spots just make you want to get in the car, drive down to Alabama and eat some shrimp? I also saw another one that features, in a prominent role, the Governor of Mississippi and his lovely wife. They're inviting you down to Mississippi, too. Y'all come on down, there's absolutely nothing wrong. 

On the one hand, it's hard to blame them for trying. But at what cost? 

BP (the fourth largest company in the world) has vowed to do whatever it takes to make sure no one along the Gulf Coast is financially impacted by their epic fuck up. This includes producing, procuring and deploying media in at least a few prime time slots (that I noticed) last week. Commercials like the ones above. No, the spots don't have to say BP for us to know they're part of a BP snow job. 

Come on down! Our beaches are clear! Nothing whatsoever is wrong! 

Curiously, I don't remember seeing ads for the Gulf Coast when all the oil rigs were functioning properly. Why is it that my market is suddenly their market? Honestly, do they think people are going to do what they say just because they say to do it during the second break on American Idol? 

Did you see the baby turtles in our ad? Aw...so cute. Come! Quickly! We'd love to see ya!

Can money solve all of our problems? Evidently, BP thinks so. And so do the people who allowed them to run such a ridiculous campaign. You see, we're all just minions. We see, we hear, we act favorably. The numbers say so. But imagine what happens if people flock down there and a nice storm kicks some of that sludge onshore? Betcha people will share that experience with other people. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the Gulf coast and my heart is with everyone affected there. But more than the people, my heart is with the ecosystem we've just altered for a decade or more. A system that only barely includes us to begin with.  

"Drill Baby Drill" is the war cry of the ignorant. Yes, the earth can bounce back from anything we throw at it. Anything. Even nukes. The oil people are right. This rock will continue to orbit our neighborhood star whether we're here or not. Rather, it's the organic creatures that live on the crust that need the rock. Not the other way around. 

This oil spill is more than just the money and tourism. It's about taking a step back and making a rational assessment of the situation. But to too many people, the Gulf Coast is just 20 billion dollars in tourism. Being eco-friendly isn't a priority in most capitalistic endeavors. Except in hindsight. In TV ads. 

Shame on the officials along the Gulf coast who bought into BP's 'throw money at it' logic. Had they thought this through beyond just a knee-jerk reaction, they could have done something useful with the generous BP media buy. Something like my friend Michael Calienes mentioned last week: 

 

Had the officials just said, "That's it then - we've got to write off this year. Let us now get to work on how to respond to this disaster so that next tourist season, our message will have meaning." Oh, and they'd already have a nice budget to build on, too. But no, they took the devil's money and pretzel logic and now they look desperate. Sadly, at this point the only ones profiting from the oil spill are media companies. 

Seafood, sunny skies, tanned and beautiful children running barefoot - and you. Oh, and baby turtles. Come on down! 

***

Jim Mitchem is Floridian, writer and entrepreneur. He and his wife live in Charlotte with their two daughters and many animals. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.

Facebook: Creepy Sexy

When you think about it, Facebook's kind of creepy. Yes, it's brilliant in its core concept as a sharing platform - 400 million users can’t be wrong - but they probably know more about your lifestyle than you’re comfortable with. And when they eventually develop a location-based gaming app like FourSquare, holy moly will they know. (NOTE: The day after I wrote this post, Facebook announced this feature.) 

Just remember this - they can only reach as far into your life as you allow it. This is not to say Facebook’s privacy controls are easy. They’re not. In fact, I’ve always thought that their privacy setting interface was designed to favor their database rather than my privacy. It's cumbersome to navigate and you’re never sure whether what you tweak in Account settings carries over to your Privacy settings and Application settings. 

I understand that data = gold. But over the past year it seems like Facebook has completely sold out and is now turning their back on the singular reason they exist - people. If the settings really are designed to confuse and confound, then they're going to always win because most people will get frustrated with figuring out how to protect themselves, and just give up. But they’ll still use the service because it’s fun, addictive and for God’s sake you’ve got to know what your friend from High School is doing right now! (For the record, I haven’t connected with anyone from that far back in my past. I really have no desire to return there.)

However, in Facebook’s defense, I’m one of those people who would actually *like* appeals that are designed FOR me (rather than advertisers hurling crap in every direction) - and the only way that can happen on the interwebs is to open up our data for advertisers. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently mentioned how this open data model was a good thing for everyone across the internet because of the idea of personalized appeals and relevant content. I agree. However, he also said he wants Facebook to the be center of the social universe. Yeah, that's a little creepy. 

No, I won’t quit Facebook on 31 May, because it helps me share my life with people I like, and I don’t join revolutions just because other people do. Am I comfortable with Facebook managing so much valuable data? Hells no. Frankly, they’re acting like children who hear the ice cream man coming. It's as if they’re rushing to cash in NOW because 400 million accounts may be as good as it ever gets. 

Do yourself a favor - take the time to properly configure your privacy settings or else don’t share anything on Facebook that you wouldn't want people outside of Facebook to see. Because as long as you’re openly giving information away in the digital realm, it’s going to end up somewhere. Whether you like it or not. 

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Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and entrepreneur. He likes baseball and dogs. You can follow him on Twitter @smashadv. And yes, that's him in the image at the top. He refused to pay $20 (minimum) for a decent image on istockphoto. 

Hitting Home - Oil and the Emerald Coast

I am a Floridian. I grew up near St. Augustine, and despite my family moving west to Louisiana and Texas during my teens, I still consider Florida my home state. Before moving to NC on January 1, 2000, my wife and I lived in Florida after I convinced her to leave NJ following 34" of snow in 24 hours during The Blizzard of 96. We were married in Florida and I finished college there (UNF). Our daughters were born here in Charlotte, but between Disney and the beaches, we've sort of adopted Florida as our family's second home. We love the estuaries, the wildlife and the peace and humility that comes from spending time next to the ocean. This year for Spring break we took our daughters to the panhandle of Florida. We stayed at a resort near Destin, but spent our days frolicking in the sand of Grayton Beach. I've been to a few beaches in the world, and while the water in the Bahamas is my favorite, the beach in Grayton is even better than in Maui. 

Which brings me to the oil spill. Sure, no one knows what might come of this disaster, so it's premature to totally freak out. Raw crude spilling openly into an already fragile ecosystem is not a good thing though. And while you can argue that the Gulf of Mexico is resilient as hell, that doesn't change the fact. The idea of oil coming ashore on the beaches here is a real possibility - which would devastate this little stretch of sand tucked in the backwoods of Florida's panhandle. This is my home state. I'm proud that no oil rigs live off of its shores. And I'm hopeful that this current disaster steers clear of them. But mostly, I'm grateful that we had the chance to spend time on the beaches of the Emerald Coast. They really are a national treasure. 

    

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Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, copywriter and native Floridian. He also helps run smashcommunications. You can follow him on Twitter @smashadv

Won't Get Fooled Again

 

So last night I was working up the post announcing the winning name for the Boxman Studios restaurant contest. You can click here for the contest skinny, but basically we used social media to help build community for the brand, and then enlisted this community to name the restaurant. After paring the names down to five on Wednesday and offering justifications as to our thinking, I now had to write a post announcing the winner. 

Only, the announcement was coming a week after our original announcement date because of some delays in legal. And it just so happened that the new announcement date was April 1st. So here I am at the end of the day, sitting in my Lazy Boy with the laptop about to crank out some work, when it dawns on me - tomorrow is April 1st. 

I'm not a big prankster. The coolest (or rather, cruelest) April Fools' scheme I ever devised was the year I hid my girlfriend's car (two blocks away) after she was out drinking hard the night before. I had to report to Air National Guard duty early the next morning (a Saturday), and didn't wake her on my way out. A few hours later, she called me. Frantic. I laughed my ass off. Good times. She eventually married me. 

I decided to write a fake announcement for the Boxman contest and then emailed the client for permission to post it. The first thing I did this morning was run to my email. He agreed. I tweaked the post so that the 'reveal' was located a few lines below the last line of the body of the post, and hit 'publish.' It didn't take long for people to start reacting to the fake name. How dare we completely change the rules last minute? And with such a bad name! Other people got it. 

I contacted everyone who tweeted anything like this and instructed them to view the *whole* post (since the 'reveal' link is below the body of the post). I was laughing my ass off. After all, it was a perfectly innocuous story, and even included a couple of clues (Punky? Really?) A few minutes later, Google's own name change started circulating on Twitter. I thought ours was better (though theirs received more publicity, of course...)

Here's what I learned from this prank. 

1) It's great to have clients who have a sense of humor (thanks, David.)

2) There are many people who are too smart to be fooled, and who don't like being proven otherwise. 

3) If you're really going to do an April Fools' prank, wait until 11:50 p.m. on April 1st because  everyone else does theirs 'First Thing' too, and no one would suspect it so late. 

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If you didn't scroll down far enough in the fake post, here's the post with the actual winner

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and one of the long nine cannons at smashcommunications, a virtual ad agency that started in 2001. Yes, 2001. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv. 

Trigger Words

Last year at this time, I was fairly new to social media and in awe of its mass mobilization potential. To see an idea spread across the world in real time is pretty amazing, but things like that happen here every day. When an event occurs that affects people on a universal scale, pay attention to social media. Sure, there are some people here who could give a rat's ass about anything that doesn't directly affect their well-insulated ego cocoons, but most of us use social media as a way to connect and share with other people who make us feel like we don't have to carry life's burdens alone. It's reassuring to know we're flying through space on this rock with human beings who actually care about each other.

Then it occurred to me that just as with the power of good, so too could social media be used for the power of evil. And I imagined how Hitler might have mobilized masses this space. After all, propaganda is just communications. Just words. 

And so it was a year ago I had the idea to test the power of words in social media. Or rather, to test the power of one word - Love. Because we connect with people in here through words (primarily), I thought how wonderful it would be to test whether one little word with such universal reach could catch fire in this space. It did. 

With the help of a few very important people who believe in the power of love and the power of social media, last April 4th, #ILoveYou was a top trending topic on Twitter, made it into usatoday.com and increased traffic on this blog from about 1,000 views a week to more than 70,000 in one day. Most importantly, for one day last year people were mentioning, posting and reading one word more than any other - Love.

And what's wrong with that? 

In the weeks leading up to this year's I Love You day, this Sunday, April 4, 2010, I thought a lot about what I could possibly write here that explained what we are doing any better than last year's post. But I can't. So I implore you to read last year's post and comments to get an idea of what this is all about. If you know me, you know I'm not the most outwardly lovable guy. But you also know that I believe in the power of words to transform, change, shift and move people toward ideas. I can't think of one negative iteration of the idea of the word love. The beauty is that it means something different to everyone. And it's all good. 

So if you do one good thing this year, commit to doing it on April 4th by posting #ILoveYou once in one of your social media streams. We chose the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for obvious reasons. The fact that so many people around the world will happen to be celebrating peace on that day for other reasons, is pure coincidence. If you believe in that sort of thing. 

Thank you. And on Sunday, April 4th...I Love You. 

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#iloveyouday is a wide-open global communications initiative that is owned by no one. It does have a few chief instigators, however. Please follow, engage and thank Staci J Shelton, Charlie Fern, Molly Block and Danny Brown for helping spread the good word. Also, please follow @ILoveYouDay on Twitter, and become a fan of Love on Facebook. And thank you for caring about each other. 

Jim is a father, husband, writer and partner at smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv 

The Least Worst Option - Revisited

Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC for anyone not familiar with the great state of Mecklenburg) announced last week that because of a 2 million dollar budget shortfall, 12 libraries will close and 148 people will lose their jobs. You can read the story here, and read the original post below. However, less than a week later, the decision was made to keep all branches of the library open. You can read that story here. 

As I state in the original post, libraries are vital for any thriving culture. But I wonder whether just because the public showed up in support of these branches (that were left for dead by the people we trust to manage the budgets), if this was the best option. Sure, it's an emotional victory for regular people everywhere, but it might as well be a bandaid on a gaping wound. Plus, what happens in a year when the budget axe comes down again? Will the board expect to see an increase in traffic/use at these branches to justify them staying open another year? What about services? More than 80 people are still going to lose their jobs, and so the workload for all branches will be distributed across the system. Will the ardent and vocal supporters of these branches be ok with a pretty significant reduction in services? I know this is hard for some people to accept, but whether you like it or not, the idea of a library is less critical to the advancement of learning than it was at any time in history. Yes, we need them. No, they should never go away. But the sad fact is that if a middle school girl who lives in an apartment in the suburbs needs to study at her local branch in 3 years, she's going to have to take a bus downtown. Or find another way to get the information she needs. The Internet isn't going away. Sure, some people don't have access to it in their homes, but that number is probably going to decrease over time. And when it does, less and less people will use libraries as a result. 

I'm happy for all the people who use the branches they were going to close and am proud of how people came together in support of this cause. A win's a win. But come talk to me in a year to let me know if this ends up being the best thing for Charlotte. If nothing else, this simply proves that we are still capable of mobilizing our muscle when we really care about something.

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Original Post from 3/21/10

I'm an unaffiliated voter, so I have no political allegiance. But this isn't the kind of change I voted for in 2008. Also last week, we received even more disturbing news regarding the school system here. Because of money (80 million in the case of our schools). And I blame President Obama about as much as I blame half of the population who are so fucking angry about politics that they do nothing but complain about things without offering sincere solutions. Our money woes go back a lot farther than the current administration. But, whoever's fault it is - it doesn't change the fact that we don't have any money and we can't pay for all the stuff we could pay for a few years ago. If we trust our elected officials to govern in the best interest of society, then we have to believe that what is being cut is the best option, or rather, the least worst option, for the majority of us. However, one of the problems we obviously have to overcome is trust. And I'm afraid that one won't be solved in this blog post. 

Will closing libraries and school programs hurt people? Absolutely. But the world won’t end. Yes, these are schools and libraries we’re talking about. Cornerstones of a thriving culture. And if we had more money to spend, we wouldn’t be talking about it at all. But we don’t. So we must buckle down and be better parents and stewards of culture and decide how to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen again anytime soon. 

So how is it that we just ran out of money? Well, back in our heyday (2007) our plans were for continued growth. But then the wheels came off of the financial system, and Charlotte's growth stopped along with it. And since we can't force people to move here, thus increasing tax revenues, we're left with cutting things so that government can continue to operate. We simply can't spend the same amount of money now as we did a few years ago. Have things been mismanaged? I'm sure they have. We're only human, after all. But pointing fingers right now doesn't help anyone. The real question is, what can we do? 

Shortly after the library announcement last week, groups of concerned citizens formed. They have two weeks to raise the 2 million dollars needed to keep the 12 branches open and the jobs secure. As of today, the group has raised 60K, or about 3% of the total needed. I predict a vocal and valiant effort by regular (poor and middle class) people, but it would simply take a miracle for all the pennies collected from bake sales to amount to two million dollars. And the clock is ticking. Social media can help, but unless Tweets count as cash, no Twibbon in the world's going to generate the revenue needed to keep the libraries open. A local reporter even recommended that the Charlotte Bobcats new owner Michael Jordan step up and save the libraries as a way to get the community to embrace him completely. Evidently, being the best basketball player who ever lived (who also happens to be a native son of North Carolina) isn't enough for us to embrace him as the new team owner. I agree that if the Bobcats (not just Jordan) stepped up with a significant contribution, they'd be heralded as something like heroes. But I don't know if this is the right thing either. Sure, Jordan and the Bobcats (or Richardson and the Panthers for that matter - or hey, what if they worked together to solve this?) could really have a profound impact on the community by paying for these libraries to stay open for another year. But unless they're more involved with the community in general, a generous act like this might only make them appear political. And then what happens next year when the money's still not there and the community looks to an NBA team that's never posted a profit in their history, to bail us out again? 

Another option would be to arrange contracts with the communities surrounding these doomed branches - so that people who live in these neighborhoods can help run the branch directly. But even this is next to impossible without hoards of single income families in each community who can afford to step up and send one adult to help manage the day-to-day operations of a library. And the last time I checked, most of these kinds of households aren't in the affected areas. Nonetheless, if a community really and truly cared about having their library branch stay open, they could certainly negotiate this kind of arrangement. 

Of course we can always opt to suck it up and let these libraries close. In business, when budgets tighten, the fat is the first thing cut. If you underperform, you're gone. Of course there other times when the marketing budgets are the first things cut, but that's a huge mistake as everyone in marketing knows (you can't attract revenue without being actively attractive). Maybe the library closings should be seen as a wake up call for gluttonous actions in the first place? Maybe they're supposed to close? Maybe we're just being too nostalgic? Besides, they're not closing every branch. 

Thanks to the volume of media that most of us have streaming into our homes, offices and mobile devices today, libraries simply aren't as relevant now as they were just a decade ago. That said, we should never get used to the idea of cutting things like library and school budgets as a way to keep our society moving in a positive direction.  

Right or wrong, changes must be made. And we have to trust that the people we’ve hired to manage these things for us as a society, are capable of doing their jobs and making the tough decisions. And learning from them. 

Jim is a father, husband, writer and partner at smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.

In the Name of Love

If there's one thing all humans know from the moment we emerge from the womb, it's that Love is good. It's as clear and simple at that point in our lives as breathing. As we get older, however, the idea of Love morphs into different things for each of us. For some, Love turns into a lust for power or sex or money or electronics or religion or politics or...you get the picture. But this post isn't about your personal definition of Love. It's about the word Love. The idea of Love. 
 
When you consider how much art has been created with the idea of Love as its core concept, we can all agree that this one little word has a pretty huge impact on us. On all of us. Across cultures. 

On April 4, 2009, we conducted a test to see whether Love really could conquer all. And boy, did it. Thousands of people across social media tweeted, posted and mentioned I Love You. This blog received over 70,000 visits, and #iloveyou was a top trending topic on Twitter. More importantly, this one innocuous yet powerful act  changed people's lives - if only for a day. Don't believe it? Check the comments below. 

This year we're not conducting an experiment, we're building on momentum. On April 4, 2010  (a Sunday), we ask that you post "I Love You" in your social media circles JUST ONCE. No, we're not asking you to say you Love Social Media, or Facebook, or Twitter, your mother or even your pet iguana for that matter. And we're not asking you to endorse any religion, ethnicity, brand, holiday or any other possible reason you could conjure. We're just asking you to post "I Love You" once in one of your social media streams.  In Facebook as a status, in Twitter as a post, hell - you can even post it in Linkedin if you want (it's a Sunday, so no one is going to think any less of you for spreading such a positive message).

Why? Because with all of the shit in the world today, we need this. 

We do not seek to own this endeavor in any way. So please, take this concept and run with it. After all, you can't really copyright Love. The only profit we seek is to look into our social media stream and see hundreds or thousands of people sharing an emotion that we were all born with - and to remind each other that Love is still the most powerful force on earth.

Among thousands of others, U2 wrote a song about Love for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It just so happens that April 4 is the anniversary of Dr. King's assassination. Again, this initiative is not an endorsement of any group, ethnicity or religion. But it's a damn fine reason to spread Love on a day that's historically scarred with hate. 

Join us on April 4th by using ten little characters to help change the world. After all, there really is no downside. I Love You. 

Become a fan of I Love You Day on Facebook

Follow @ILoveYouDay on Twitter. 

Lyrics to 'Pride (In the Name of Love)' by U2

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach.
One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

(nobody like you...)

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love...