The air was smoky. Yesterday morning, about 10 minutes after getting aboard the “el” bound for downtown Chicago, my wife, Bridgett, and I detect a mysterious cigarette smoke. We can’t identify the source. Figuring it must be some covert sneak-smoker we’re not able to spot, at the next stop we scoot onto the platform and […]
Category Archives: Crisis Communications
Sadly, race hustling, affinity hustling and identity hustling of all kinds are alive and well. It’s vital to be on the look-out for them, and for the ‘enemies from within’ who perpetuate them.
I have been an Independent politically for my entire life. Neither of the major parties has won me over enough to identify with either. There are good policy views on both ends of the spectrum, and there are good people on both ends, too. However, the Republican Party has a long way to go in […]
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Not long ago, I provided counsel to an organization subjected to what they believed was a social-media smear campaign. In a nutshell, a former organizational member—terminated about 18 months earlier due to various professional shortcomings—began making allegations that the organization felt consisted of half-truths, distorted depictions, and outright falsehoods. There was a distinctly racial tinge […]
You are passionate about an issue. You inspire and organize others who are likewise passionate. To spark change, you need to persuade someone else—an individual or a group of people—to see things your way. What do you next? If you confuse “like-minded” with “carbon copy,” you may make the mistake of committing cut-and-paste activism. That’s […]
During this COVID-19 era, any trip through the commercial corridors of Oak Park, Illinois—my community along the western border of Chicago—has revealed its potential as a post-apocalyptic movie set. But here in my town—and wherever you are, within your community—there is a simple mathematical principle that empowers us to revise the script: shop locally, as […]
Above two letters in today’s print edition of the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest was a most apt banner: “Setting the bar higher.” One letter was written by Oak Park Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb, in which he apologized for Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla’s slanderous public attack last week of a resident in the moments […]
Social justice warriors can be their own worst enemy, especially when they resort to crying wolf all too quickly.
This was no momentary outburst, but a sustained table-pounding, finger-pointing diatribe that occupied the better part of four minutes. The irony and hypocrisy are thick; the topic was the diversity statement—wherein the board affirms its commitment to, um, a variety of viewpoints, among other lofty aspirations.
In my latest installment of “As the Jussie Smollett Debacle Turns,” I closed with this thought: If there is sufficient evidence to convict Smollett of these charges, then his sentence should be stiff enough to deter others from trying anything similar. That was one humongous “IF,” as it turns out. Hot on the heels of […]