Fast forward to January 2012

Here it is nine months later, and I have a new "big ideas" crew working on many important issues ranging from bullying and hate crimes, educating the public about autism, HIV among young people, making neighborhoods safe, healthy diets, universal healthcare, welfare fraud, hunger and homelessness in the U.S., etc.

Introducing Professor Nancy

Last week I biked the seven-mile Memphis Greenway that runs from Midtown to Shelby Farms. Needless to say, I was tired when I got back to my daughter’s house! 

The “big ideas” ripe for change are just part of my intellectual process and have been for a very long time. I figure if I helped populate the earth with five adult children and grandchildren, my responsibility to create change in the world is huge and never ending. Can any parent do less? 

I am involved in several non-profit groups who work on solutions related to local issues here in Southwest Florida. We try to collaborate with people everywhere and other groups working on the same issues. 

I have been thinking about “big ideas” and diving into action for solutions for at least 45 years! Whew, that is a long time! For example, I actively participated in the very first “Earth Day” in Denver in 1970 when I was working for the Rocky Mountain Center on the Environment. That same year, I marched in my first demonstration for peace and an end to the Vietnam War. This was before I was a parent even. Fast forward, forty one years later, and you find me marching 24 miles in Tampa, Florida to help support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ effort to end slavery and improve working conditions for farm workers in South Florida and elsewhere. 

I do not understand “hatred” because I grew up being taught that love is universal and applicable to everyone.  Today, I am especially sad about the many social issues seeming to arise from hatred. For example, I do not understand why a Christian minister would burn a sacred text of another religion or the why some people insist on questioning our President’s birth place or why people commit hate crimes on gay and lesbian individuals. 

I feel energized and excited about the creative assignments our curriculum committee invented for the new Comp II, and I look forward to a lively and fruitful 10 weeks with you all as we brainstorm creative solutions to big idea problems. I have written papers about “big ideas” in the past and hope to one day memorialize them all in a book.