July 21, 2004
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Citizen Change
This could be good. I almost fell off my couch with enthusiasm to learn that Sean Combs has launched an effort to bring out the vote, particularly among youth and minorities. If anyone has connections just about everywhere and bling and street cred to back it up, it would be this guy. I could give a hoot about his music or his clothes, but we need more of this kind of participation in the process. Here’s an article from the news:
SIXSHOT.COM NEWS HEADLINES
Diddy Launches “Citizen Change”!
P. Diddy has just launched “Citizen Change,” a non-profit organization that aims to recruit young voters to come out for the upcoming presidential elections.
“I want young people to know that your vote can change your life,” Combs said in a statement distributed during his annual White Party at the Sony PlayStation 2 Estate this past weekend. “I am asking young Americans to hold their vote hostage and force the candidates to address our issues.”
According to Diddy, education, health care and jobs are some of the key issues the youth needs to address. “Citizen Change” will work to educate young voters on those issues in the months leading to the elections.
The coalition will set up outreach programs in 7 target cities and emphasize the importance of voting in Latino and Black communities. Furthermore, the organization will host events featuring celebrities as well as online outreach, direct mail drives, phone banks and door-to-door solicitation.
“There are only a few people in America who have the energy and enthusiasm to get young people to step up to the plate and get excited and passionate about this election, and I am one of them,” Diddy offered. “The revolution has begun.”
Deep Thought: It’s funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, and they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating.
Today I am grateful for: The Daily Show
Comments (14)
nice to read about something positive….thanks for sharing this….I have been telling my kids to vote this year….
If people who should vote Democratic vote, Democrats win. The biggest thing this year is fighting the Republican lie (spread heavily by their “main man” Ralph Nader) that the parties are the same. We need to get out the vote. Everywhere.
just a note from your comment on bkeller49:
I just need to argue. ADHD is a provable difference in the physical way the brain processes information. And it isn’t “Attention Deficit” at all, the misleading name causes people to not understand it. It’s truly “Attention Discrimination Disorder.” There is, of course, the opposite of a deficit. ADHD people pay attention to absolutely everything. They just can’t easily determine the important from the unimportant. Now, with that knowledge I can go into 95% of classrooms and solve 70% of problems just by altering the physical environment. Of course the single biggest issue: Turning off the damned fluorescent lights (which about half of ADHD folks (more boys than girls) see as flashing, and which provide a constant distracting hum that all kids hear, is the hardest thing for me to sell. But in every classroom 10% of the kids are literally staring at the ceiling.
Having worked for doctors for years I’m very skeptical about all the instant prescribing they do and how easily they ignore the very real issues people face. I don’t mean to imply that I can professionally argue there is no such thing as ADD or ADHD, just that I think there is too much of a rush to categorize people of all ages this way.
We’d do much better with the British concept, that we all lie somewhere on the “Attention Spectrum” from Autism at one end to extreme ADHD at the other. We’d do MUCH better if we created ADHD/LD friendly environments instead of relying on medications for everything. We’d do MUCH MUCH better if we comprehended these issues as human differences instead of trying medically label them as diseases and disorders.
Or if we could just talk about it all using words like “sad”, “anxious”, “blue”, pissed off”, etc. instead of all the labels in words nobody can spell or understand.
I think the ones they used for me were “scatterbrained,” “accident prone,” “absent minded (professor),” and “under-achiever.”
I was kind of glad to get a label, because all my life people have been telling me how smart I was and I’ve managed to fail at so many things.
I also know that medication is a fine tightrope to walk and can do severe damage. I know someone who’s missed over a year of work and had a hellish time because of poorly regulated meds. But for me and my family it’s a very good thing for me to be medicated, because my depression makes me very unpleasant to be around. I could deal with the “absent mindedness” but the “blues” were leading me down a very self distructive path.
How much have you tried counseling for starters?
Oh yeah, and I think P Diddy is pretty cool.
I’ve been in and out of counseling for 20 years. One of my problems was severe hypochondria, I obsessed insanely over every lump and sore in my body, convinced I was dying of one thing or another. It went away almost I started taking Celexa.
In fact it was the counselor I was seeing who suggested that I start meds.
I’m going to back off this topic for now dear friends. We each find our own way that works.
I just wanted to say, the discussion is good. Indeed, the key thing to remember is that we are individuals. Saying that I dislike our “medical model” for disability doesn’t mean I’m against medications that work. I just want the issues understood better, and the solutions to be carefully monitored in the real world, by both doctor and “patient.” With ADHD solutions (meds or not) “Data-based Decision Making” is essential. You need to track baseline behaviors and you need to track results and you need to figure out whether a solution is a net gain or not. I’ve seen awful results from meds, I’ve seen fantastic results from meds. I’ve seen awful results from one med, and fantastic results from the next one tried, or when combined with anti-depressants into effective cocktails. I will say that I’ve never seen real success from behavior modification (with true ADHD) unless fully linked to environmental changes, and the environmental changes can dramatically alter the need for meds (though they can be very hard in many workplaces).
I think the “homogenization” of society (all very similar schools and workplaces) have put extraordinary pressures on anyone that is different. Imagine the nightmare of living in a nation where the President got the whole Congress to agree that every child learns at exactly the same rate… Oh yeah, we do live there.
I missed the ADHD era because my kids are older, and anyone unruly was just unruly back then. I thought true ADHD could only be determined by a brain scan where some differences in, is the frontal lobes, is apparent. If this is the case, then perhaps 75% of the ADHD “cases” could disappear because of mis-diagnosis. I have huge long threads of arguments over Ritalin with other mothers, and even left one board because of it, which has the pharmacology of cocaine. Anway, it’s a topic of some concern, especially since the long term effects of the drugs being used to treat it are unknown. It’s the children I worry about.
Sorry, Lionne! PDiddy is great – it’s always a challenge to get people out to keep a society democratic by voting.
Good for P.Diddy.
I don’t know much about drugs but my natural inclination is to think that if something is askew physically then drugs are a good solution, but if a problem manifests itself due to the environment then change or cope with the environment. But it’s not so simple is it?
On a minor level, when I get a headache, I don’t care whether it’s due to the weather making my sinuses act up or to my job where a parent writes a check to my preschool that bounces and is belligerent about it. I don’t usually have the time to rest in a darkened room with a wet cloth. I just take a Tylenol.
Our world doesn’t wait around for us to feel better. It leaves us behind. Children bear the brunt of keeping up from birth, preschool, elementary and beyond. They must try to fit in but also be the best. I hate Ritalin being used because it’s the moment’s easiest way but I do understand why parent’s feel obligated to use it.