Daily Archives: 08/26/2013

(Community Matters) I loved the Harry Potter books. Was great being at the station with my nieces. We gave them their first Harry Potter books.

(Community Matters) Always wished I’d been there; can’t miss it this time – President Obama to speak from the Lincoln Memorial. official site

(Community Matters) A super duper 48 hours with the nieces. Hilary & Hannah Tomlinson are sophomores and seniors at OU. They’re both very involved in their sororities, churches and teach at summer camps . . .  so their time as least as hard to schedule as our own. So, all we could find this summer is one long weekend, decided to spend it on planes and in London. Long plane rides, like car trips, provide the perfect settings for just being together.

Lots of theater: The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Book of Mormon, Punchdrunk’s The Drowning Man; shopping; touring (mostly areas rather than traditional tourist sites), food and general just hanging out.

this pic isn’t really fair since we’d left the hotel early am, had been rained on and been running up and down the streets of the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill.  Invited our 11-yo niece, Paulina Sepulveda, to join us but she wasn’t ready – hopefully next time. 

(Community Matters) In Politico’s Playbook

Love hearing that 20- & 30- somethings might be organizing around the rest of us

THE MONEY, HONEY — “20-somethings jump into super PACs,” by Andrea Drusch: “In the past month, … four super PACs were formed by people younger than 35 … Often, the idea is to push back against political parties they say are drifting off course. … It’s a sentiment young super PACs from both parties share: National candidates either don’t align with their views, or they don’t prioritize the issues that matter to them. … For Brandon Anderson’s group in Rock Island County, Ill., those issues are achieving comprehensive immigration reform and reducing government intrusion in people’s lives; two things he says are important to the 20- and 30-somethings … He hopes maybe his super PAC, Millennials for America, will help drum up some younger candidates to advocate for those issues, or at least lend a voice to the issues of an age group he thinks has been shut out of the political system.

“Ragheb Baio, 29, says he started Republican Youth for a Conservative Tomorrow PAC because he was tired of seeing the GOP put up presidential candidates that come off as closed-minded and unrelatable … He and his two partners, also under the age of 30, plan to begin an advertising campaign in the coming months that will encourage Republicans to choose a 2016 presidential candidate with more progressive views on social issues … like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. For other groups, like College Democrats of Ohio, forming a super PAC is about being in control of their money. [Sarah] Ponn says that Pass the Torch PAC, formed by three young founders of a fitness company, will employ the same methods they used to start their now $1.8 million business to promote their super PAC.” http://politi.co/1dHMIz2

REACHING MILLENINIALS (born 1982 to 2003 (roughly ages 10 to 30) — RON FOURNIER, back from book leave, on TheAtlantic.com, “The Outsiders: How Can Millennials Change Washington If They Hate It?”: “The largest and most diverse generation in U.S. history is goal-orientated, respects authority and follows rules. Millennials are less ideological than their Baby Boom parents … and far more tolerant. In addition to famously supporting gay rights, polls show they are less prone to cast negative moral judgments on interracial marriages, single women raising children, unmarried couples living together and mothers of young children working outside the home. While their parents and grandparents preferred to work alone, young Americans are team-oriented and seek collaboration. Wired to the world, they are more likely than past generations to see the globe’s problems as their own.

“Millennials are eager to serve the greater community through technologies, paradoxically, that empower the individual. Millennials witnessed, embraced, and in some cases instigated massive disruptions of the music, television, movie, media, and retail industries. The most supervised and entitled generation in human history, they have no patience for inefficiency, stodgy institutions or the status quo.” http://bit.ly/1dio6za