Monday, August 29, 2011

Making Memorial Drive, the entire community a better place

Community service is collaboration that includes everyone working together toward a common goal.

This weekend, I participated in a litter clean-up along the Memorial Drive corridor. Participants from churches, business associations, youth groups, schools and local governments joined me and other elected officials to make their desires for a cleaner community a reality. All were happy to volunteer their time for this important community service project event and eager to see the fruit of their labor.

In my experience, I have found that when we work together not only can we clean up trash but we can do much more to solve many of the problems that plague our neighborhoods. Through this model of collaborative governance based on community involvement, we as a society can move past our differences and start focusing our energies on creating results.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

I want (no, I need) to hear from you!

I’ve decided to wade a little further into the deep waters of technology and social media!

I think that government works best when everyone talks to each other, and I want this blog to do just that—to facilitate communication between my constituents and me and my constituents and each other.

In the past, I worked for a guy whose motto was “No News Is Good News.” He meant that not hearing from him said I was doing a good job. Government, on the other hand, doesn’t work that way. As a state representative, no news doesn’t tell me you think I’m doing a good job. If I don’t hear from you, I’m concerned that you may not know who I am or you don’t know how to contact me. I wonder if you think your opinion doesn’t count. Could it also be you are so busy with your life that what’s going on in government is simply underneath your radar?

I would like to use this blog as a way to address those issues and to provide a mechanism for us to share ideas and information to make our world a better place.

Come along, and let’s help each other!