conversation is an engine

Start with the Saint Paul Art Crawl

Do two things to fight big money in politics:

1. Locate the funding sources (start with OpenSecrets.org) for each particular 30 seconds of non-truth you see and recognize how those sources benefit from the twists presented.
2. Stop listening.

Maybe you are tired of fame as our measure of success. Perhaps you’ve begun to realize the Kardashians are famous only for being famous. And that’s on us. That’s our fault—we keep watching, like gawkers at a crash.

Stop clicking.

If you’ve begun to think to think the NFL is a ridiculous combat ritual that channels blood-lust for the masses while siphoning public funding into the pockets of the rich—just tune out.

It’s time we dug deeper to find out what interests us rather than letting business and the business of media tell us what is important. Business and media will begin to get the message when we stop talking about their current media targets. Don’t link. Don’t litter your social interactions with keywords that build others’ businesses.

But that doesn’t mean “shut up.” Instead tell what interests you, whether it’s a local rugby game or the parks along the Mississippi or the Vietnamese Noodle Shop down the street.

We need to hear from each other.

One example: this weekend’s Saint Paul Art Crawl. Go see the crazy and inspiring stuff our local artists produce. The studios themselves are often eye-opening. You don’t have to be some effete arts patron to appreciate a welder transforming car parts into a 30-foot-tall sculpture. You’d have to be entirely heartless to not be moved by the artist who has set up shop in the back loading elevator—to sell her art as she drives the aged contraption from floor to floor.

This weekend: go and do. Maybe even…buy?

You can even get free Metro Transit passes to and from the Art Crawl.

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Image credit: Kirk Livingston