Take a new look at founding of the USA

Over the past week I watched all six episodes of the Ken Burns's Documentary titled "The American Revolution".  Find it here. 

I hope you'll also find time to watch this.  Understanding our history offers a chance to influence our future.  Below are a few articles that I've read that dig deeper into the documentary, and share links to additional reading.

"Ken Burns' The American Revolution: 10 Big Takeaways from the Directors (Exclusive) - on Military.com - click here 

From the Reader's Digest: "I Watched All 12 Hours of Ken Burns's Revolutionary War Documentary So You Don't Have to - Here Are the 12 Most Interesting Things I Learned" - click here

From the Smithsonian magazine - "Ken Burns Says His New Documentary Forced Him to Revisit Everything He Thought He Knew About the American Revolution" - click here

NPR/WBEZ Chicago interview with Ken Burns "voices the founders overlooked" - click here

The documentary also emphasized the roles of Black Americans (both slave and free) and of Indigenous nations in the American Revolution. Here's one article that describes the role of Native Americans.

Another article: "Unsung Patriots: The Contributions of People of Color in the American Revolutionary War" - click here

Throughout the Ken Burns's documentary there was a revelation of the self-interests driving many leaders of the revolution, including Washington.  This article on AlterNet, is titled "Did the Founding Fathers lead the American Revolution for t he Pursuit of Liberty - Or Personal Greed."

The articles above did not include much about the role John Adams played, in "influencing" the rebellion and subsequent Declaration of Independence.  This article outlines his involvement.  I include this because when I watched the first episode and saw the role John Adams played, I thought of FOX News, and talk radio shows such as Rush Limbaugh, and how they have influenced the actions of today's Republican Party.  

The final 15 minutes of the concluding episode showed how much the founders feared that the government would be taken over by a despot (Trump?).  

This quote is from a US History Collection on LumenLearning.com.  "In our opposition to monarchy, we forgot that the temple of tyranny has two doors. We bolted one of them by proper restraints; but we left the other open, by neglecting to guard against the effects of (the people's) ignorance and licentiousness."   This quote is from a US History Collection on LumenLearning.com. click here

I'm finding that there are a lot of websites with information about the American Revolution and early US history.  Here's a page on the Library of Congress website titled "The American Revolution in Context"

Several years ago I created a concept map that could be used as a study guide to a book titled "Uncharitable", by Dan Pallotta.  You can see it below:

I wonder if anyone has created a similar study guide for the ideas included in the Ken Burns documentary, with links to the articles I listed above.  If you have such a resource, please share the link in the comment box.

I've been posting articles on this blog since 2005. In the 12 years prior to that I shared them in visual essays on the www.tutormentorexchange.net and in printed newsletters.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving I want to thank everyone who has volunteered time, talent and dollars to help me over the past 50 years.  And, I want to urge you to form learning groups and dig into my archives, then create your own media to share what I've been sharing.  

Become part of the effort needed to create an "informed population" that the founders realized was needed for their democracy to work.

Let's connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms. (see links here).

Next Tuesday,  December 2, is "Giving Tuesday" when nonprofits throughout the world will be seeking donations.  I'll be sending small gifts to five Chicago tutor/mentor programs, plus to Wikipedia, the Internet Archive and Illinois Wesleyan.  I encourage you to browse my lists of Chicago tutor, mentor and learning programs and pick a few to support. 

I also hope you'll look for the HelpT/MI and Support Dan's December 19th Birthday pages on the www.tutormentorexchange.net and make December contributions that help me continue this work in 2026.

Target holiday and year-round giving to high poverty areas

 On Sunday the Chicago SunTimes and WBEZChicago published a story about how life expectancy in some neighborhoods of Chicago is much lower than in others.  Below is the map that was in the SunTimes story, and which can be found on the WBEZ site. 

I included some text from the article with the map.  The top paragraph says, 

"In a city with a deep history of segregation, Chicago public health officials view the gap through the lens of race. They say four main drivers — heart disease, homicide, opioid overdoses and cancer — fuel shorter lives among Chicagoans who are Black compared to residents of other races. In many cases, these deaths are preventable."

The bottom paragraph reads,

"In West Garfield Park, merely living is much harder than in most parts of Chicago, according to a “hardship index” that incorporates unemployment, income and other factors. Around 40% of households make less than $25,000 a year, data shows. The majority of residents are unemployed or stopped looking for a job"

I've been writing about this for over 20 years.  In 2008 I followed a SunTimes report titled "Schooled in Fear" with these articles. 

As we began 2025 I wrote an article titled, "Inequality. So much data. So little change."

In that article I included this Chicago Tribune story and map from 1994.

This is not a new problem.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, then the year-end holidays, I urge you to form a study group and start reading some of the articles I've posted on this blog, and some of the information I've shared in this section of the Tutor/Mentor library.

Then read some of my articles about philanthropy, such as this one.

And read my invitation to universities, such as this one.

I created this concept map several years ago to show that youth, families and schools in areas of persistent poverty face many challenges.

Helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods is one way to provide extra support that helps kids through school and into adult lives.  It's also a way to increase the number of adults from beyond poverty who become personally involved, through the bonds they form with the kids they work with.

But each node of this map points to issues that need to be addressed concurrently.  It's a huge challenge and something that won't be solved in a short term of any single elected official.  

What I've been doing as a one-man operation since 2011 and a small organization since 1993, needs to be owned by one or more universities in Chicago and other cities so an on-going input of student manpower and talent can do the work of a Tutor/Mentor Connection, and learn habits that they can use once they graduate, and for the rest of their lives, to help reduce these challenges and create a brighter future for all of us.

That ownership can come if one or more wealthy donors provides the multi-year funding needed to make it happen.  

As you celebrate the holidays, think about what's shown in the graphic below.

Everyone celebrating with you represents different talents, skills and resources that could be part of a long-term strategy.  Many have people in their own networks who also have these skills. And some may know a "super hero" who would make a major gift, if they were asked.

Read the articles. Share them. Start a study group. Pick neighborhoods to support. Pick organizations in those neighborhoods where you can offer time, talent and dollars.  Identify and elect legislative representatives who will create policy that mobilizes and distributes an on-going flow of operating resources to EVERY neighborhood with concentrations of persistent poverty.

Do this and you'll also connect with people and ideas that focus on saving our Democracy.

Thanks for reading. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky or any other platform that I show on this page.

And, if you're able help me celebrate my December 19th, 79th birthday with a gift that lights a candle on my cake.

Or a gift to my on-going Fund T/MI campaign. 

Map your network! New example.

Last week I shared an example of mapping networks to learn who's involved and to help members connect with each other.

Today I found another example.  This is the Global Futures Society Network Map, which was shared on LinkedIn by Victoria Mulligan, in this post. I'll share a few screenshots.

This view can be seen at this link. 

At the right is a great explanation of how to use the maps.  It starts with a statement of purpose, saying:  "The Global Futures Society (GFS) Network Map is a strategic tool designed to visually represent the member organisations, and individual members in addition to the relationships between them. In a field as diverse and dynamic as foresight, it can be challenging to track ongoing projects, partnerships, and initiatives. The GFS Network Map addresses this by offering a clear, interactive view of how the membership are connected, what they're focused on, and how their efforts contribute to shaping the future."

Here's another view: 

This shows text further down on the right side, that explains what data is shown and how to use the map.  Across the bottom are some search parameters.  They are 1) connected; 2) communicating; 3) coordinating; 4) collaborating. Click any of these and the map reformats to show that data.

On the lower left is another menu. In this case I  selected "academic, or research institution" and "non-profit organization".  The map below shows that view.

The map shows these people and how they are connected to each other.  Note: my screenshot only shows a portion of that view. You can zoom in and out on the Kumu map to see information in much greater detail, or to get a wider perspective.

Here's another view:  Click on any node and at the right you'll find information about who they are, what organization they represent and even "requests to give or share information". 
 

In this case I've singled out Victoria Mulligan, who was part of the team that created this platform.

In the article I wrote last week I showed how a GIS map was used to show where people were doing research.  The Global Futures Society map also has a GIS feature. It shows connections like on the Kumu map, but on the GIS map. See the example below.

Click on any node to learn who it represents.  This has the same filters on it as the KUMU map uses. Zoom in closer to see who is from Europe, the USA, South America, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.  I've not seen anything like this before, but since KUMU offers this feature I suspect I see more in the future. 

Here's one more view.  I circled the menus at the lower left and the lower center.  In the upper right are menus that enable you to choose what view you want to use.

I could spend a lot of time exploring this map and still not find everything that's included.  What I'd love to find is a set of blog articles written by people who are exploring the maps and using it as Victoria Mulligan wrote in her LinkedIn article:

"I’m pleased to say we ended up creating something really exciting, and have now designed and produced these “network maps” for a number of organisations - charitable, philanthropic and global industry groups. They’ve come to us not just for the pretty visualisation (isn’t it pretty though?) but because it’s now the best way of showing where your network is strong, where there are bottlenecks and whether any one organisation has too big a role (or too little) - that their fortunes will affect the fortunes of the whole network. 

Who does this map suit? Anyone working with a network of individuals or organisations working towards a common purpose. It’s particularly useful for funders and industry associations who want to measure progress across multiple fronts, and to understand where there might be challenges. Until now these challenges felt invisible, and tended to be stuck inside the heads of those working on the front lines - we're so proud that this tool can help them articulate their day to day barriers and point to opportunities to help their network thrive!"

Visit Victoria's website at this link. 

I highlighted what I've been focusing on for many years.  How can an intermediary, or member of a network,  understand who's involved, who stays involved, and who's missing?  If they know who's missing (a skill, or a representative of a key network), they can target that person or group with invitations until someone joins.  How can they connect beyond being one face in a big crowd at an event. How can these connections grow stronger over time, and have a greater impact on the work they all are doing? 

I included this "How can we do this better?" graphic in my new post on Substack.com.  

I think one way we could do more to help kids in high poverty areas is to use mapping tools like shown here and in my other blog posts, to understand who's involved and to recruit those who need to be involved.

Are you doing this?  Read what I wrote last week about mapping universities.  Such research should identify faculty and departments where students are learning these tools and who might support their use in area nonprofit and social benefit organizations.  

What if this were a project within a tutor/mentor program, showing volunteers who were involved, and who had been involved in past years?  Could youth in such programs learn to build and maintain such maps?  

If you have examples, please share them.

Thanks for reading this. 

Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon. Better yet,  please represent these ideas on other platforms where I don't have an account.  

And, if you're able to help, please visit the contribution links on the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net site and send a year in donation.

Engaging Universities - Who's Connected?

In 2009 Chris Warren, a Northwestern University graduate and Public Interest Fellow at Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, created the concept map shown below and shared it in an article titled "Mapping Northwestern University for Tutoring/Mentoring Programs". 

He wrote, "So as I've mentioned in previous posts, Colleges and Universities are full of valuable assets for Tutor/Mentor Programs like ours. They are chock full of smart and engaged people who want to make a difference. However, for better or for worse, universities are multifaceted communities, with a wide variety of buildings, departments, offices...etc. They also have an unfortunate tendency to be composed of various organizational silos that inhibit communication between different parts of the university. In fact many a program coordinator has been frustrated by the seemingly endless amounts of emails and phone calls necessary to reach the right administrator who can actually begin to help forge a mutually beneficial relationship.

Therefore, after facilitating a workshop about ways to constructively engage Northwestern University at our May Conference, I decided it would be beneficial to put together a concept map of all of the different parts of NU that could help a tutor/mentor program like ours. From the various service learning, work-study, internship and practicum opportunities available for non-profits to secure skilled and committed volunteers to the various philanthropic wings of the university, consider this map a guide to the assets of Northwestern University."

Unfortunately, Chris was with us for only one year and no one at Northwestern picked up his work, and kept updating his concept map.  So, the silos still exist.

I wrote an article earlier this year showing my 30-year effort to build strategic alliances with universities. In that, I pointed to a strategic plan developed in the early 2000s by students at DePaul University, and intended to be used by faculty and leaders at universities.  

You can see in the title that this was aspirational. I called it "A Vision of What's Possible".   In the slide below I show a "vision" of a university being the first, or second, resource that anyone in the world visits to learn about poverty and the roles volunteer tutors/mentors can take in helping children grow up safely and move through high school and college into careers."

In this slide I show that "The ABC University T/MC site will unite all stakeholders around actions that help youth move toward careers."

And in this slide I show a benefit to the university that adopts this strategy.

These are just a few of the many slides in this visual essay. I hope you'll view the entire thing and share it with MacKenzie Scott or other billionaires who are making multi-million dollar gifts to universities. It takes only one of them to make this a reality.

So, how might this be done? How would anyone know who was doing needed work in different silos?  Here's a potential answer.

Above is a view of an "Interactive Research Map" created by a team at the University of Central America in El Salvador.  You can view it and find a research paper that describes how it was built and what its purpose is at this link. 

The project is caled Micelio (in Spanish) and Mycelium in the English translation.  On the home page it's described as a platform that "seeks to promote collaborative work among researchers and research networks, in order to share the  University's scientific output with the academic world and highlighting the importance of knowledge exchange within a single network."

Open the interactive KUMU map and you can search by any of the topics shown across the bottom. Here's one view.

You can zoom in to enlarge the map and you can click on any icon to see connections between it and others, as well as a text description showing who that person is.  

They also have linked the data they are collecting to a GIS map that shows "where" the work focuses on.

The project developers wrote, "This tool provides users with the ability to visualize the geographic distribution of research projects, thus enriching the user experience and offering a broader perspective on the geographic impact of the research conducted."

I began creating maps to show who was participating in Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in the late 2000s.  The November 1988 conference map is shown below.

And, in 2010 I began to try to show connections using network analysis maps. One example is shown below. 

The volunteer who built the Tutor/Mentor Conference website in the mid 2000s created an on-line registration form that collected information showing what zip code the person came from and what type of organization (program, university, business, etc). With that, these maps could be created. Visit this website to see these maps and graphics. 

Interns from Chicago area universities worked with me in 2010 to create the network analysis maps, and teams from Indiana University did research projects in 2014 and 2015 that used the data to create new maps. You can see their work in this article.

Unfortunately, the work was being done by myself and interns working with me. It was not sustainable. I've found no example where someone within a university is collecting this type of information, or the information Chris Warren shared on his map, and used it to build connections and foster collaboration within a single university and across many universities, as I've envisioned in the  University T/MC strategic plan. 

Thus, I'm thrilled to connect on LinkedIn with Kevin Amilcar (Kevin Gutierrez) who created the KUMU maps for the Micelio Project.  He shared this report with me. Since it's in Spanish I used Google Translate to create an English version. Once Kevin's team has approved it, I will share it here.  This is an example of what's possible, and has commitment from within a university.  

The report shows an intentional effort to share the Micelio project and recruit more participants. This is the type of work students in a University T/MC could be doing on an on-going basis.    

The report states, "The implementation of Micelio as a centralized platform for managing research outputs has proven to be a significant technological advancement for our institution. This tool has enabled the efficient management and dissemination of products that, until a year ago, could not be managed on any institutional platform. These products include researcher profiles, projects, research studies, and datasets. The value of this implementation lies in its ability to facilitate the organization of and access to critical information, which in turn fosters greater collaboration among members of the academic community. The growing participation and interest in the platform demonstrate its relevance and potential to improve the visibility of research and promote knowledge sharing. 

Furthermore, Micelio has transformed how research results are managed internally, providing a crucial data infrastructure that not only optimizes internal processes but also expands opportunities for dissemination and external collaboration. This change not only improves operational efficiency but also positions our institution as a leader in academic knowledge management, thus contributing to the strengthening of the research ecosystem in academia. To this end, a workflow is proposed that aims to be replicable by other academic institutions for managing scientific work. This process diagram seeks to illustrate the life cycle of a research project, from its planning to the self-archiving procedure in Micelio." 

I'm working with another IVMOOC team at the University of Indiana this fall, with a goal that they could create an on-line event registration/network analysis form that could collect the type of data included on my maps, and Kevin's maps, and could be easily fed into platforms that create KUMU maps, and GIS maps. 

If such a tool were freely available, would it be  used?  Do other universities in the USA or the world already have a project similar to Micelio?  If you know of one, please share the link below or on LinkedIn.

11-17-2025 update - The Global Futures Society's Network Map does much of what I envision. https://kumu.io/gfs/gfs-mapping#gfs-map

11-18-2025 update - This is a map showing four departments of the University of Navarra - https://en.unav.edu/research/mapa-tematico

This is a 1994 article in the Chicago SunTimes showing how I left my corporate job for a career of helping kids in high poverty areas.  It includes one of the first maps we created to show where poverty was concentrated in Chicago, and where existing volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs were located. You can see more stories generated by this strategy on this page. 

Imagine how much attention a University T/MC could generate if it adopted the ideas shared in this article.   That would be a good thing. 

Here's a recent example of a major donation to a Chicago university. I hope the research team is reading some of my blog articles! 

Thanks for reading. I hope you'll connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.  You can find links on this page.

Furthermore, I hope a few will give support through my December 19th birthday campaign or annual Fund T/MI campaign.  See links on the www.tutormentorexchange.net site. 

By the way, I'm still connected on Facebook to the student shown with me in the 1994 article. She's now a mother with one son in college and another finishing high school, has two Masters degrees, and a great job.  That was our goal when we created Cabrini Connections in late 1992 and launched it in January 1993. 

Veterans Day 2025

Tomorrow the nation will once again celebrate Veterans Day, to honor all who have served in the United States military -- in wartime or peacetime, living or deceased.

I've posted a Veterans Day article almost every year since starting this blog in 2005. You can see many at this link.  

In most of those articles I also show ways to honor service and sacrifice in how you use your time, talent and dollars to help make the USA a better, safer, healthier place for ALL who live here.  Some of my articles were turned into videos by interns who worked with me in past years.  You can view the "War on Poverty" video at this link.

I don't have a section of the Tutor/Mentor library dedicated to understanding challenges facing Veterans. I added this article today. I also added this article. I found both of these by a simple search.  Maybe one of you can point to a more comprehensive, reliable, resource.

I also did a search to find a few articles showing how Trump's DEI purge in the military puts U.S. national security at risk.  Here's one.  Unfortunately, you can find many more similar articles with a simple web search. 

I was in the US Army from 1968-1971 and spent a year in South Korea. I was never in combat. I'm not sure I was that great of a soldier, to be honest. However, I did receive the Amy Commendation Medal in 1971 and an Honorable Discharge.  I've used much of what I learned in my Army Intelligence training in the tactics and strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC, and in the two direct service programs I led between 1975 and 2011.

In 2001 I received an honorary PhD from Illinois Wesleyan for my work, partly thanks to what I learned while in the Army.

If you read many of my articles you'll see that I call on others to help gather, organize and share information that others can use to make better decisions on how they use their time, talent, dollars and votes to create a better, safer, America and World for ALL people, not just the rich.

You honor veterans for what you do.

Thanks for reading.  Let's connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, Substack and other platforms.

I've launched my annual December 19th "Birthday Campaign" where you can support my work with a gift.  And I continue my on-going Fund T/MI campaign.  Please help if you can.

Giving Tuesday, 2025 - Are You Ready?

Are you ready for Giving Tuesday, 2025? Since 2012 this global giving event has tried to unleash the power of radical generosity, drawing donors to social benefit and nonprofit organizations throughout the world. This year it will be held on December 2nd.

Is your organization ready?  

Visit this page to learn more. 

Since 1993 I've maintained a list of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs and plotted locations of more than 100 on my map.  My goal for the past 32 years has been to help programs in every poverty area get the support they need to connect kids and volunteers in on-going learning and mentoring, not just a few high profile programs.  

If you look through the list of programs and visit their websites, you can usually find a donations page.  I'm not sure you'll find a special Giving Tuesday page.

I wrote a long article about Giving Tuesday in 2023 and shared images of several Chicago youth programs to illustrate how people beyond the nonprofit organization could be using their media and influence to draw attention to this event, and to the various youth-serving programs in their community.  I hope you'll read it.

I wrote another long article in January 2024, showing my goal of creating platforms, like Amazon.com, that attract volunteers, donors, parents, media and others to lists of youth serving programs and to donation pages that encourage giving and aggregate information about how much is being given to individual organizations, and to different neighborhoods.

In that article I showed one giving platform, attracting donors to Democratic candidates throughout the USA.  That's an example of what type of platform could be created to draw attention and donors to all of the various youth-serving programs in Chicago or different places.

Does anyone have something like this yet?  If yes, please share the link.  In the meantime, look at how other nonprofits are using their websites and social media to attract support. Borrow from good ideas. Share you own.

Every November since 2011 I've launched a campaign to attract funding to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, by giving a gift to recognize my December 19th birthday.  I'll be 79 this year and with your help I'll reach 80 and still be doing this work. 

I'll still promote this on-going Fund T/MI page, too. 

Thanks for reading. Good luck on your year-end fund raising. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram and/or Mastodon to share your ideas and your websites.