Posts tagged politics

I am incredibly moved by the outpouring of support from friends and other family members who watched as the Boston Marathon bombing story unfolded, knowing my family and I were there to see my brother Morgan race his third Boston Marathon (and post a personal record for the course of 2:46:55!). I am also incredibly moved by the outpouring of kindness from strangers, both on the ground in Boston and online.

Many people have asked privately whether I plan to write about my experiences over the last few days. The answer is “yes,” but this post will not be it. I just wanted to note briefly for the record that today is when the hard part has begun for me. I spent the day of the attack and yesterday just trying to get a story told, to get information out when people couldn’t get it easily, to make sure my family was safe and accounted for, and able to return home from Boston, literally in one piece without other incident.

I haven’t yet had time to myself to process what happened, and it has begun to hit me like a ton of bricks today. I have vacillated between thankful/relieved and tearful/angry/confused. I absolutely lost it after working out with my trainer this morning, and she asked me, like she does every week, “How do you feel?” Suffice it to say, I heard something a little different when she asked this week.

I’m disappointed in the bickering over whether or not the president used the word “terrorism,” in the race-baiting at Salon (and the reaction to that race-baiting, thereby elevating it), in the quickness with which people have sought to blame this group or that group, or to speculate on the causes of the attack, when none of us really have any information, and the investigation is less than 48 hours old.

I know that the right thing to do is to pray that God bless, keep, and forgive whomever is responsible for this. That is a difficult task today. I’m grateful to a former colleague who offered the following words:

The closer we are to the situation or the person that wants to hurt us, the harder it is to pray for them. I have found the best place to start is realizing I can’t offer this forgiveness alone and ask God to soften my own heart so that I may pray for them; but also express my gratitude to him for continuing to forgive me.

Please keep the wounded, the deceased, their families, the first responders, and the City of Boston in your prayers, and please take some time this week to donate blood to the American Red Cross. Find a donation center here.

I have apparently fooled the right people into thinking I have something valuable to say about messaging and content, and they have in turn invited me to speak at Campaigns & Elections’s 2013 CampaignTech conference in DC next week. I’ll be speaking at 2:00 p.m. Eastern next Friday, April 19. Here’s a little information about my panel:

CONTENT IS KING

Are you creating the right digital content for your goals? How can political organizers and campaigners produce the kind of content that attracts an audience? What do you need to do to position your group or campaign to be a media producer and content creator, crafting headlines of your own instead of chasing them down in the mainstream media?

Frankly, I have no idea what I’m going to say yet, but it looks like I have a week to make something up. At least I’ll be joined on my panel by fellow CRAFT | Media/Digital alumnus Daniel Huey who, if you look closely, slightly resembles Sam the Eagle:

If you’re in DC, or you’re planning to attend, please come and laugh at my jokes. Or should I promise to not tell any to get you to come?

Whether you laugh or not, if you do come, please introduce yourself. I want to shake the hand of anyone crazy enough to have read all the way to the end of this post.