To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It's not about winning and losing; it's about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It's about embracing the pain that you'll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid. I think people think too hard and get afraid of a certain challenge.
~ Summer Sanders
Congratulations to Son of T for championing plain speaking with the comrade style attitude at that tricky latitude - as true leaders are those who help to grow others ...
“Toward Harnessing Language in Support of Intersectionality and Cross-sector Power Building Language is a key ingredient in a winning theory of change. Language can build bridges and change minds. By acknowledging the ability of language to shape and reflect reality, progressive campaigns can become more powerful vehicles for social change, inclusion, and justice. In fact, understanding and applying the authentic language of the individuals and communities with whom we work can be a revolutionary act in itself. Historically, extensive, issue-based language guidelines have remained siloed or proprietary. Some information has trickled up (with some questionable success) to be centralized in the establishment grammar and usage style guides, but this information is far from comprehensive and lacks the voice of the groups being discussed. At the same time, transparent conversations about the power of word choice and phrasing have remained disconnected and difficult to access. In 2015, SumOfUs staff, led by Hanna Thomas, began the compilation of a new kind of guide – one that sparks a conversation about language among progressives. With the help of Anna Hirsch, an independent editor, A Progressive’s Style Guide was born. We invite drivers of progressive change – community members, grassroots leaders, activists, and progressive funders–to peruse the vital movement frameworks, decolonizing usage, and up-to-date word choice and phrasing for current theory of change directions and momentum across groups and issue areas presented in this guide. A Progressive’s Style Guide is explicitly multi-voiced and is created with the following commitments. 1) We combat discriminatory language. 2) We seek advice or more information when we’re unsure. 3) When writing, speaking, or using images, we aim to use examples that reflect a broad range of identities and perspectives.
~ Summer Sanders
Congratulations to Son of T for championing plain speaking with the comrade style attitude at that tricky latitude - as true leaders are those who help to grow others ...
There’s an enormous economic return in making government communication — internally and externally — easier to read. And while documents drive government it can help agencies make better decisions.
Imagine a public sector reform that generated one dollar for every cent invested. That’s a 9900% rate of return!
Fanciful as this sounds, that’s what the Department of Revenue in Washington State found when it rewrote just one of its tax letters in plain English. Its goal was to raise $1.2 million from businesses who commonly failed to pay a particular sales tax. As a result of the new letter, compliance rates actually leapt by 200%, raising an extra $2 million in revenue. Value of plain english
Plain english media dragon “Toward Harnessing Language in Support of Intersectionality and Cross-sector Power Building Language is a key ingredient in a winning theory of change. Language can build bridges and change minds. By acknowledging the ability of language to shape and reflect reality, progressive campaigns can become more powerful vehicles for social change, inclusion, and justice. In fact, understanding and applying the authentic language of the individuals and communities with whom we work can be a revolutionary act in itself. Historically, extensive, issue-based language guidelines have remained siloed or proprietary. Some information has trickled up (with some questionable success) to be centralized in the establishment grammar and usage style guides, but this information is far from comprehensive and lacks the voice of the groups being discussed. At the same time, transparent conversations about the power of word choice and phrasing have remained disconnected and difficult to access. In 2015, SumOfUs staff, led by Hanna Thomas, began the compilation of a new kind of guide – one that sparks a conversation about language among progressives. With the help of Anna Hirsch, an independent editor, A Progressive’s Style Guide was born. We invite drivers of progressive change – community members, grassroots leaders, activists, and progressive funders–to peruse the vital movement frameworks, decolonizing usage, and up-to-date word choice and phrasing for current theory of change directions and momentum across groups and issue areas presented in this guide. A Progressive’s Style Guide is explicitly multi-voiced and is created with the following commitments. 1) We combat discriminatory language. 2) We seek advice or more information when we’re unsure. 3) When writing, speaking, or using images, we aim to use examples that reflect a broad range of identities and perspectives.
We understand that there may be negative blowback to this work and that we won’t be the first to experience it. We affirm that we are aligned with free speech, and at the same time are promoting thoughtfulness and openness about how language is and isn’t used, has been used, and could be used for people and for our planet collectively. Because language is dynamic, changes with our struggles, and is shaped by criticism and the collective construction of social justice, we are compelled to keep building a collective language that liberates us all. As we continue to think about ways to organize this information that are accessible, user-friendly, clear, and aligned with progressives’ beliefs and strategies, we know that in some instances we still fall short – and so, we also invite feedback. We are committed to this work and to remaining in dialogue…”
Now the plotlines of these satires tend to play on recurring themes: ‘bureaucracy’ (and I use that in inverted commas) is about process over content; the triumph of the tactical over the strategic; power games between ministers and officials or between agencies; the preservation or enhancement of position and privilege; the acquisition of resources and status; an aversion to risk — who could ever forget Sir Humphrey saying, ‘That would be very courageous, Minister’ — and, ultimately, a disconnection between the games of power as against a focus on content and purpose. These satires tend to play on the meaningless language of ‘officialese’, where bureaucratic rules and their manipulation conceal inaction, self-interest, and ineptitude. Michael Pezzullo empire rules commonwealth ideas
The most fearful warning of punishment found anywhere in the Bible is contained inRevelation 14:9, 10: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Beast: dragon, woman aman
Now the plotlines of these satires tend to play on recurring themes: ‘bureaucracy’ (and I use that in inverted commas) is about process over content; the triumph of the tactical over the strategic; power games between ministers and officials or between agencies; the preservation or enhancement of position and privilege; the acquisition of resources and status; an aversion to risk — who could ever forget Sir Humphrey saying, ‘That would be very courageous, Minister’ — and, ultimately, a disconnection between the games of power as against a focus on content and purpose. These satires tend to play on the meaningless language of ‘officialese’, where bureaucratic rules and their manipulation conceal inaction, self-interest, and ineptitude. Michael Pezzullo empire rules commonwealth ideas
The most fearful warning of punishment found anywhere in the Bible is contained inRevelation 14:9, 10: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Beast: dragon, woman aman
