Terry’s Blog About Terry’s Blogs

When I was in college, our committee put flyers under the door to ask students if there were too many flyers coming under their door.  In Montgomery County, Maryland and other jurisdictions, we see studies on whether there ought to be studies.  So I’m going to take license and make this my one and only blog on future blogs – so the early readers of “Terry’s Blog” and “Persons and Programs of Impact” know our intent, however well or poor that is implemented.  After all, what will you do with your extra time now that you won’t see the same political commercial for the 25^th time in one day, or get those calls ID’d as “800 Service” or “Unknown Caller” are really Karl Rove’s boys and girls whose profile on you includes what color underwear you are wearing that day, or get your color brochure from some harmless-sounding source such as “Independent People for Everything Good” that says the opposing candidate planned to mug your grandmother for a Coca-Cola once he gets into office because he forgot to do it last time.

Terry’s Blog, in two doses per week, will cover a wide array of topics making an impact on our society – trends, people, values, and public policy, and with some wonderfully disproportionate attention to youth, who are our future in everything, and drugs and crime, topics that always reveal the worst and best in the soul of America.    Terry’s blog will bring to light some of the forgotten people and underlying forces and suggest some innovative solutions that others may not address because they are politically incorrect or seem too idealistic, such as “Who’s Paying for Your Public Benefits,” or “Why Aren’t Our Leaders Talking About the Poor?” or “Breaking the Link Between Gangs, Guns, and Drugs.” Given the wide variance of beliefs in our initial readership, and my history of not adhering to all things called either liberal or conservative, there will be some of these blogs with which you will vigorously disagree – I hope that piques your interest.  What’s said, will it undercut any future aspirations for elective office because it is too blunt – maybe, but new ideas are the children who will be the adult public policy, and that is more important. You will have your opportunity to comment on these blogs.  I hope you will.  We’ll all learn more from your insightful comments.

New “Persons and Programs of Impact” will appear on our website each month. As for “Persons of Impact,” in thirty years of non-profit work, one thing I learned was the underestimated value of those who shouldered their leadership tasks day-after-day, year-after-year, in effect bringing up the next generations of Americans – the local anointed and appointed leaders, the pastors and police officers, the small businessmen and youth workers in small towns.  So we’ll focus on these.  Second, I have been honored for many years to know those who have served our country, but beyond the service that I believe we all owe thanks to living in a country that is the best combination of freedom and opportunity in the world, there are those who cannot be successful but for the physical and moral courage they must summon up every day – the armed services men and women in harm’s way, the police officers, those working with gang members, the mentally ill, and the dying.  “Persons of Impact” are the inspiration and model we seek to spread.

While we hear so much every day about the major issues of unemployment, war, the deficit, and violence, most Americans know almost exclusively about the alternative solutions to issues that affect them directly, and they know these only generally.  “Programs of Impact” will focus on the innovative and proven models and strategies that address these issues and should get a wider look, including programs in health care, employment, crime and gang prevention, the environment, and religion.

If you are reading this blog you are among the first with such an opportunity – one of my college professors called a test an opportunity!  You can always unsubscribe, but I ask if you would open your email, at least in the beginning, because, I promise, I will never try to reach you under the “800 Service” or “Unknown Number.”