Good Will to All

In my almost two-year tenure at Sister Cities International, I've experienced amazing good will. The good will came from our volunteer members across the US and globally, good will from our board and leadership groups, and good will from peer institutions. It's been...inspiring. In the same period, I've seen abject poverty and extravagant riches. All of this demonstrates the dramatic reach of the sister cities movement.

I've witnessed people opening their home to strangers, we've sent delegations to deliver art supplies to children with HIV/AIDS, devised a program to provided the most simple and vital of needs: clean water, and talked candidly with high school students about their life and future in their war-torn country. Each interaction has been revealing, personal, and reflective. This is the power of citizen exchanges.

I invite readers to provide their experiences from the past year. Share the power and impact of your citizen and community diplomacy.

Choice of Words: War & Ideas

The election is over. The presidential transition has started. No matter one's political leaning change is coming. The level of uncertainty in the world is great. With all this as the backdrop, I'm stuck with a reoccurring theme that I can't dismiss.

There was a great deal of ink spilled and pontificating about language and words during the campaign. Yet, there is a phrase in vogue use by some administration leaders that strikes me as fantastically misdirected. It is well documented that the current administration tuned and fine tuned of America's messaging for 8 years with great rigidity. Through formal and informal channels, press secretaries and bloggers alike have maneuvered around the words and language of our international message. But I am stunned that the phrase "war of ideas," a staggering choice of words repeated by the diplomatic arm of our government, continues to enjoy such active and regular use. Words matter. This phrase signals an aggressive state of being that isn't helping our posture in the global audience. I'm hopeful some shifting winds will blow soon and a new set of buzz words will take root in place of this unfortunate phraseology.