Hello Democrats! Are You Listening?

Last night at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, Bernie Sanders, Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren made great speeches, sharing goals of the Democratic Party and calling on voters to make Hillary Clinton our next President.

I wonder if each of them, and our four 2016 Presidential candidates, sees themselves as a powerful force traveling through the universe of time, pulling others along as they go.

Do they have a graphic on their web site communicating this idea? 

I created the graphic in the middle of this pie chart in 2011, and shared it under a titled of "How can one person change the future?"

I used it again a few weeks ago when I introduced myself for the 2016 Connected Learning MOOC (#clmooc).

I've combined the graphic with a pie chart to illustrate that while I focus on urban youth and poverty, with volunteer-based, tutor/mentor programs being the form of engagement, that I feel has the potential to bring people from rich and poor neighborhoods together around a common goal, there are other issues of equal importance.

A President needs to have a gravity that pulls people into each slice of this pie chart, and that supports leaders who are as focused on the environment, water scarcity, public health, immigration, world peace, etc. as I am on urban youth.

It seems that much of this campaign is being fought using 140 character sound bytes which shout, but don't educate. To be fair, I'm finding many Tweets, Facebook posts and media stories that point to a wealth of information. I just need to find time to read some of it.

In 2012, during the last Democratic Convention, I wrote a blog article titled "Building Learning Communities-Test  Your Motivation."

In that article I include links that draw readers deeper and deeper into my web sites, and the library of information and ideas they contain.

If any of the four 2016 Presidential Candidates were following my strategy, they'd be pointing to their campaign web sites, where the party platform and goals would be easily read and understood.  However, those web sites would then have graphics, like I show in the data map below, that draw visitors deeper into information that they can use to become partners to helping whomever gets elected, solve some of the complex problems and critical challenges that he/she will face over the next four years.

In the middle of the 2012 article I wrote, "Here's the test. Are you still reading?"

Are any of the people running for office, or their researchers, friends and/or advisers listening?   It does not matter what  public office you are running for. Your role as a leader will be measured by how much you influence others to follow your example, and go in the direction you point them.