August 31 What Cicero knew He knew this: Who knows only his own generation remains always a child. Another way to put it: if we can’t be bothered to understand the words of others, whether they live now or lived in the past, then they are dead to us. In their words people try to…

July 31 Linkblog via scripts I see that if I run a section of outline outside the calendar area of Fargo and combine it with a script I cobbled together out of pieces from other people’s recently published scripts, I can set up a linkblog that runs from my named outline. Here is the script:…

June 30 Drowning in words and images In 1973, Pete Seeger seemed to predict the early 21st century, but he was just looking around his society when he wrote: “Americans are drowned in words. . . . We’re also drowned in pictures”. . .more information than we can use, more than we can make sense…

To understand social media, it helps to think about how people lived before. So, a story: This true story begins simply enough. The couple, Elise and Otto Hampel, lost a family member serving in a war they did not believe in, a war of conquest. They could not explain away or justify his death. In…

Why are people so disenchanted with their democracy? Lots of reasons, but over a cup of coffee with a friend I might sketch the troubling model of citizenship I often see around me. My story would go something like this: Certain kinds of citizens are essentially silent. They vote, or they don’t vote, but otherwise…

In the public space of Istanbul’s Taksim Square, “strangers have discovered one another, their common concerns and collective voice,” says Michael Kimmelman. “We have found ourselves,” says one Gezi Park participant. They found the opportunity there to work out the character of their shared concerns. [Kimmelman’s video report and article] But for the prime minister,…

Writer Barry Lopez proposed some time ago that a university have a student with appropriate skills receive a stipend to do research, record data, and inform the public about the natural environment of the campus. There would be a title like University Naturalist or College Naturalist. Over time, data about the ecology of the campus…

May 10 Publishing in the past I’m just wondering whether Fargo will let a fellow publish in the past. I backdated this posting quite a bit as a test. Wonder, too, if the RSS will notice it. PS. Testing Jeffrey’s script for adding a tweet link at the top of a post–a success. Now testing…

Just thinking out loud here. Based on my use of the Fargo outliner so far, I have this to say: 1. I tried outlines before because someone I respected spoke up for them in public for years. Until now, I never really got the point. 2. As a outliner newbie, I’m happy about the outlining…

The concept: Build a group of 250 donors who will each contribute the cost of one native spring-flowering tree a year for five years. Plant care-free native spring-flowering trees in great numbers along the river in South Bend. Within a few years the flowering season for dogwoods and redbuds would become very extravagant. The river…