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So Much To Say…
I’m flying from Montana to Washington, DC to speak before the U.S. SenateEconomic Mobility Caucus and the Pew Charitable Trust. Zac Brown is playingon my iPad, the mountains look stunning, all should...
View Article5 Reasons to Move to a Small Town
A recent article in New York Magazine was titled “5 Reasons Cities are Getting Better, and Everywhere Else is Getting Worse”. According to the author, Kevin Roose, “choosing to live outside a major...
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If Common Courtesy Becomes Uncommon
This past 4th of July weekend, David and I did what so many folks do to celebrate our great Nation’s birthday. We took a drive. We always look forward to a good car trip. Indeed, like so many of...
View ArticleThere’s a Tree in the Road!
A few years after moving to Montana, sometime in 2005 or 2006, I was in Washington, DC, my prior home base, to attend a meeting. I’d stayed involved with some boards and other business on the east...
View ArticleBecoming a Better Us
Ferguson, MO, the current ground zero for our great Nation’s much needed discussion of race, has a population of about 21,000. In other words, it’s a small city, like so many of the other small cities...
View ArticleWhen T-Ball Met Twitter
Let me see if I have this right… Scotland almost divorced the United Kingdom without even a basic understanding of what its new national currency might be; comedian John Oliver has usurped the Federal...
View ArticleChairman Bernanke, Meet Rural America. You Share a Problem.
Bet you never thought that those of us in rural and small town Americans would have something really big in common with former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Think again. Mr. Bernanke,...
View ArticleIt’s Not Too Late
I love to vote. Every couple of years, I get joyful about the mere prospect of voting. Absentee, at the ballot box, doesn’t matter. There’s just something about filling in those circles that makes...
View Article10 Small Town Things We’re Thankful For This Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving week, I’ve been reflecting on our move over 12 years ago from big-city East Coast living to a small town in northwest Montana. That move changed our lives in ways we didn’t even...
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A Story From 100 Years Ago. Happy Holidays!
On Christmas in 1914, somewhere in Belgium, soldiers laid down their weapons and commemorated the holiday. Or so the story goes. Christmas 1914 was only a few months after World War I began. America...
View ArticleChoosing a Small Town Life
Rural America is filled with pioneering, adventurous, entrepreneurial, generous folks. You might have read recently that Rural America is in trouble. According to some pretty big thinkers, rural and...
View ArticleShark Tank
July 29, 2015 The other night, David and I caught up on some old episodes of Shark Tank. For those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure, Shark Tank is a television show where entrepreneurs pitch...
View ArticleTruck Dogs
August 12, 2015 I’ve been photographing candid canines in the backs of trucks since moving to Montana over a decade ago. We share them on the American Rural website, because there’s nothing prettier...
View ArticleThe Politics of Scarcity
September 16, 2015 It’s time for all of us across America to have a real conversation about how the fear of not having enough is affecting us Over two years ago, I wrote about what I called then the...
View ArticleSmall Town Sheepdogs
October 14, 2015 I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the tale of the wolves, the sheep, and the sheepdogs. You might recall this story from the movie “American Sniper,” although it originated In Lt....
View ArticleSupport a Local Start-Up
January 27, 2016 Entrepreneurship isn’t just happening in Silicon Valley, Boston, and other big cities I’ve had the privilege of an interesting career. My early work years were spent climbing the...
View ArticleAt the Opera. Yes, the Opera.
Last weekend, I went to the opera. Not just any opera either. I saw The Metropolitan Opera’s spectacular performance of Turandot by Puccini at Lincoln Center. The voices, the costumes, the drama! It...
View ArticleVive la Revolution!
March 31, 2016 LET’S ALL PRAISE THE TRIUMPH OF GOOD IDEAS You’ve heard that we’re in the middle of a revolution right? Not the Republican Party – although admittedly it’s experiencing some pretty...
View ArticleHigher Wages for Affordable Housing?
April 13, 2016 Across America, from New York City to Whitefish, the topic of affordable housing is big Since when did affordable housing become a taxpayer problem and not an employer problem? After...
View ArticleTrickle-Up Economics
May 11, 2016 Economic policies that skew toward the wealthy and big business are often counterproductive So what do you suppose trickle-up economics might look like? I’m not sure yet, but am pretty...
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