Happy Thanksgiving!

Given the holiday, we are releasing the President’s weekly address today.  In this video, President Obama calls to our attention the men and women in uniform who are away from home sacrificing time with family to protect our safety and freedom.  He also talks about the progress of health care reform, the Recovery Act, and job creation to ensure that next Thanksgiving will be a brighter day.

I missed last week’s address, so I thought I’d just give you the link.

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While there is nothing to celebrate until job numbers turn around, the President cites the recent dramatic turnaround in gross domestic product as a sign of better things to come. He also applauds the fact that the Recovery Act has now created or saved more than a million jobs.

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The President restates his commitment to small business as key to economic recovery — from the Recovery Act to Financial Stability to Health Reform — and pledges more to come.

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The President discusses ongoing efforts to spur job creation. He also explains why health insurance reform is needed not just for long-term economic stability, but in the immediate future, discussing statistics on how costs will continue to skyrocket and hurt small businesses even next year.

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Recorded literally on his way back from the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the President uses his Weekly Address to recap the progress made during the intensive discussions with world leaders. From an historic agreement to reform the global financial system, to groundbreaking commitments on reducing subsidies to fossil fuels worldwide, to unity in standing against threats to world peace – engagement produced tangible results in several areas.

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With the next G20 Summit approaching in Pittsburgh, the President goes over the progress in stemming a global economic crisis.  He discusses the impact of the Recovery Act, and pledges that “lobbyists for big Wall Street banks” will not prevent real reform for the future, including a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The President discusses a staggering new report from the Treasury Department indicating that under the status quo, around half of all Americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point over the next ten years. He pledges not to allow this future to unfold: “In the United States of America, no one should have to worry that they’ll go without health care – not for one year, not for one month, not for one day. And once I sign my health reform plan into law – they won’t.”

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With Labor Day approaching, the President commits to rebuilding the economy so that a lifetime of hard work leads to a comfortable retirement, and explains his proposal to help to get there.

The President discusses the steps being taken to finish the job of recovery from Hurricane Katrina as the fourth anniversary approaches. He points to local citizens working hard alongside responsible government to make real progress in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and pledges that the lessons of Katrina will not be forgotten.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend an open house to see the Dallas South News newsroom. While I was supposed to be taking pictures for this post, I found myself engaged in some great conversation with various attendees of the event. It was a good chance to meet some new people and network I even got the chance to chat with some college friends I hadn’t seen in a while (shout to the A&M crew).

For those who haven’t been to the website, check it out at www.dallassouthnews.org. This is going to be a good deal for the South Dallas community. Blogging has opened up a different way in which news can be reported. Through it, us little people can have a voice and the real discussions can begin. Shawn Williams, the DSN editor shared an email with his board on how this type of media benefits the community.

Dear DSN Board and Advisory Board,

At the most recent board meeting, a discussion took place around why efforts like Dallas South News are important, and what type of value we bring to communities. I have reached out to a few people across the country leading initiatives on innovation in media to share their thoughts with us about just how significant our effort is at this critical juncture in journalism.

The first person that we hear from is Kelly McBride. Kelly is the Ethics Group Leader at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Florida. More importantly for this discussion, it was Kelly that convened the “Sense Making” project funded by the Ford Foundation, “a yearlong project to help the public develop skills for making sense of news in the digital era.” At the gathering of “sense makers” last Spring, I learned about other cities utilizing local nonprofit news.

Here’s what Kelly had to say:

Humans understand the world through narrative. Communities exist because groups of humans share portions of a common narrative (That could be, “We live on this street.” or “We share the same faith.” or “We fought the same war.”)

The more narratives are communicated, the more effective they become in building communities. Communities are necessary to create positive social change. People may argue about the veracity of these statements, but I believe they are demonstrably true.

Since the dawn of American democracy, we have had reliable institutions that create a common narrative for our communities. Granted these have been flawed institutions that left out huge portions of that narrative. But these newspapers and later radio and television stations, at least had the capacity, if not the will, to tell the stories of their communities.

Today, those institutions are losing their ability to tell a community’s story. As a result the community is losing the ability to address problems and make the world better.

So, other institutions must be created to share stories and to document narratives, particularly untold stories, so that communities can continue to move forward.

Kelly McBride
Ethics Group Leader
The Poynter Institute
kelly@poynter.org
Twitter: kmcb
www.poynter.org

Check out the site and let me know what you think. If you would like to donate or volunteer, email editor@dallassouthnews.org or call 214-485-0683 for more information.
BTW, here a slide show with some of the photos that I was able to take between conversations.