Larry D. Lauer

He made his case very well at a press conference yesterday. He thinks he should and can finish the job he started. He thinks the job will be too complicated for someone else.

But he did look frail… and has been looking and acting frail for some time. What’s more…he thinks only HE can win the election.

However, it might be just the time for someone with “fresh thinking” to represent the U.S. A person with foreign affairs experience and knowledge would be welcomed by NATO members. And I bet NATO members would even help this person succeed. This person should have a strong commitment to the idea of NATO and be prepared to champion its cause.

Biden’s knowledge should not go away. He should always be available to counsel his replacement. In fact, he should help with the transition, and announce his willingness to play a roll in it.

Democrats in general have been much too timid. They need to make much more noise… and therefore make news in Texas and Washington.

President Biden often looks tired and sounds much too timid.

In a Senate race close to home, U.S. Representative Colin Allred needs to get much more aggressive if he is to win against Ted Cruz. Here are some ideas.

Allred should talk about ways Cruz has been ineffective in the Senate… even how he is not liked by many Senators

He should also talk more about supporting teachers… how the public schools need more support than they are getting from Republicans in Texas.

He needs to talk more about how Cruz is a member of the Texas Republican team in Texas who have established the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation… causing doctors to fear the consequences of providing what they believe to be necessary healthcare.

Texas also needs to make it far easier for everybody to vote… most especially minorities. Allred should champion this cause.

Texas government needs to take total control of electric power… fixing current problems with some of the surpluses going to tax cuts… which have also been used to attract businesses to the state. Allred should also champion this.

Both State and National Democrats have not been aggressive enough… making noise and news… by calling out the consequences of those currently in political power. This takes both courage and energy.

When Gov. Abbott began using the term “school voucher” many suspected that he really had in mind using public funds to expand overall thinking about school choice,,, which would also favor well-to-do Texas citizens, broaden acceptance of the whole idea, and thereby reduce the funding needed for public schools.

Talented teachers must be rewarded for their good work helping their more troubled students find ways out of poverty and the influences or alcoholic parents, drugs, and neighborhood gangs. This is especially important today! Powerful Texan Republicans must wake-up to this critical need.

The tradition in American democracy has been to use public money to fund only public schools. Today, they desperately need more funding. Private schools have always done just fine.

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What is it?

I was serving on the chancellor’s staff as a communication advisor to his vice chancellors. I noticed that universities were becoming more competitive, and many were using simple slogans to differentiate themselves. I thought that there was a need for something more “authentic.”

I imagined that small groups of students, faculty, staff, and community leaders could discuss what made the institution truly authentic. A task could then be formed to communicate the results.

At the time we found that the institution was large enough to provide many choices, but small enough to feel more like a smaller college. That became our differentiating message.

I began to write books about “how to do it,” and with the help of my international professional association, The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), I was able to travel around the world talking about integrated marketing,

Reporting comments from other news sources should be seen today as “old school” journalism. This only amounts to providing free publicity for those other sources.

Journalism today must become a search for truth, with a commitment to report it wherever it is found. In fact, some seriously concerned people have recently told me they blame todays news media for creating more problems than they solve.

News organizations today still struggle to report both sides, They appear be creating more controversary to hold our attention. This has led to grooming journalists and TV anchors to become more entertaining, filing shorter news reports, and more and shorter ads, They have simply become fast talkers.

Picking up the pace appears to have become the formula for profit-making journalism, along with bringing entertainment stars alongside journalists who are now acting like stars themselves.

Finding truth and reporting it must become the focus of today’s journalism. Making news entertaining, and rationalizing it as a consequence of new technology, is not what todays information consumers need or want. When journalists find truth they must also have the courage to report it.

When students speak out on news-generated issues they almost always make action demands on the administration. This is a time to arrange opportunities to listen.

Whether it’s Vietnam or the current situation in Gaza, it will very likely play out about the same. As news reporting progresses, both opinions and demands become more informed. This is how meaningful dialog can emerge.

Problems appear when nonstudents try to become the protest leader. The institution should have been working ahead to inform their students about this possibility. Current students must already know how they will be protected from outsiders. Taking over buildings will not be allowed. Access to conversations with administrators, even the president, will be allowed.

Recent protests have fundamentally been antiwar protests, along with concerns for the welfare of the many Palestinians who are not connected with the extreme methods of Hamas, In this case many students in time will likely become two-state solution advocates, and will participate in good discussions about how to achieve it.

Experienced college Presidents constantly deal with political pressures from trustees, alumni, parents, and student leaders about issues in the news. Most have learned to be good listeners. They will see these moments as good learning opportunities.

It has always been a special feature of our American democracy to support pubic education.

Public schools today need much more support to retain talented teachers; to offer competitive salaries when hiring; to provide rewards for teachers who are able to help troubled youth with problem families, gang pressures, and to escape poverty; to improve teacher retirement programs; to provide safe and secure school environments; and to upgrade the performance of administrators, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and everyone else working in the system.

Recent legislation requiring schools to improve security without providing money to pay for it is unacceptable.

Withholding public school support until after the voucher program is funded is also unacceptable.

Private schools are an important part of American education.

But using tax money to provide vouchers to help pay private school tuition is simply not in the tradition of our American democracy,

Why is truth so difficult to find?

TV news is not helping. In this increasingly more commercial world TV reporters and anchors, have given in to the temptation to groom anchors as stars (Lester Holt, “the Anchor for America!”), stories to make more room for more and shorter ads, to make news more entertaining, and to talk faster in order to enhance the overall dramatic appeal. Wasting screen time (giving oxygen to) or quoting someone with simply an opposite opinion should give way to featuring someone who is spending their day focused on finding truth. Such people might be found in major and local print publications.

Fundamental issues to explore:

Should the news media help every citizen develop personal “talking points” to facilitate explaining truth as they see it?

Have there been politicians in the White House with a casual view about handling classified material, What evidence can you site that this is true?

Should easy voting be available to each and every citizen?

Is it possible to believe in “right to life” and still accept reasonable medical and emotional exceptions?

What should be these exceptions?

Should we accept that from the get-go the US has always been a diverse society, and build on that tradition?

How can we get control of the impact of climate change?

What are the gender issues that most concern you?

How do we control borders and develop immigration policy at the same time?

What do you think about redistricting?

Do we have the right to influence the impact of social media on young people, and society as a whole?

Is democracy worth saving?

What are your thoughts about removing books from libraries, to protect young people and parents from their content?

What factors lead to autocracy and dictatorships?

How do social divisions and anger lead to violence?

What else?

When autocrats won… democracies were lost.

Gerrymandering is when a party in power redesigns voting districts so candidates from that party are very likely to win elections.

Both parties have done this.

This process allows a small number of politicians currently in power to hold on to that power.

It also creates fertile territory for extremists to take over the party, win elections, and remain in power.

A single party controlling elections is the biggest threat to American democracy we have.

This is how democracies can quickly become autocracies… and eventually dictatorships.

So what can be done about it?

Well financed, democracy-committed, and talented candidates from both parties need to be urged to run for office… and then all democracy-committed citizens must vote!

I was teaching a television production class at the University of Iowa in 1965. While there I discovered Marshall McLuhan’s book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, and quickly realized how powerful television was about to become. McLuhan’s writing convinced me that television imagery would change how and what people thought about the world, how families functioned, who could win political campaigns, how governments worked, how news was reported, and much more. I wanted these students to understand the potential power of what they were learning to do. So, I started out teaching a “how-to-do it” course… but I soon was teaching an adventure in media ideas course.

“How media revolutions change everything” would heavily influence how I taught radio-TV-film, journalism, and strategic and international communication at TCU; when and how I developed this blog; and the thinking behind the articles and books I would eventually write about communicating and advancing higher education.

Thus, I still believe that a course in “media literacy” should be required in every public and private high school in the country… and that media savvy should influence how every subject area is taught in colleges and universities.