When one lives at times in the Blogosphere, you sometimes get a different view on life, stuff and what’s important. My day job of lawyering keeps interfering with the good work that I do evangelizing ActiveWords and the meaningful connections that I make.
Yesterday my friends Pete Weitzel and his lovely wife Linda were in town. Pete was the keynote speaker at the 20th anniversary event for the First Amendment Foundation
Pete’s talk was about the history of decent people working towards open meetings for government, and all of us having access to the meetings and documents by which government works. He talked about how it is the process that is protected, and why this process must be open for us all to either participate in or have access to.
As I sat in the audience, I realized what heroes, guys like Pete were and are. They recognized that for our Democracy to flourish, that it needs to work for everyone, and to be transparent.
In a parallel path, I was thinking about all of my dear friends being in San Diego for Digigtal Democracy and ETech. with Doc, Ernie, Robert and Ross.
Just before Pete’s keynote, a woman spoke about the group’s goal of creating a new statute, by which the idea of transparency in Democracy would be expanded, and would create a better society for us all.
It was at that precise moment that I realized that the technology that Ross and his team had created was a key to making this all work. That if the collaborative process could be extended to all in the room, to the community and society, then the result, albeit messy in the making, would create a better world.
Sour grapes is when you recognize your own shortcomings in the company of those that have vision and passion, and not having your own life in order so that you can be with your friends and rise with them to great occasions.
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