“Shallow words make us shallow and
dumb,” said Cheryl Heller, founder of
design lab CommonWise. “Deep words
deepen us and teach us empathy.”
Heller lamented the rise of “shallow writing”
that she sees rampant on the internet,
juxtaposing an example of a tweet with
a line of prose from Charles D’Ambrosio
and asking the audience which had a more
profound impact. She noted that, over
history, great leaders have recognized
language as the root of change.
Words, she said, are the most powerful tool
we have to create change.
“Let’s use them wisely,” she said.
On a similar note, Kellam Barta, founder of
NDSU Language Diversity Ambassadors,
noted that how we say the things we say
is not grounds for discrimination. And
yes, he’s looking at you “BiZon” fans.
On a greater level, he said, this mindset
can impact our judgment of people
from different regions, countries and
backgrounds.
“We need to stop using language variation
as a reason to discriminate,” he said.
BUILD HEALTHY CITIES
Greg Tehven wrote in the program.
While the talks varied from Millennial
retention to medical advances in solving
a skin disease, a few themes emerged
throughout the day.
LANGUAGE IS KEY
In sessions one and two, we were taught a
bout the importance of language and how
the words we use directly impact the way
we think.
There was also a theme around building
healthy cities, both economically and
culturally. The first speaker of the day, Ben
Hecht, president and CEO of Living Cities,
illuminated the reality of wealth disparity
between white and non-white populations.
With a four-step process, he outlined how
this can change from the inside out within
a city–steps such as using real-time data to
see if solutions are working, engaging the
right people and changing the way city hall
works.
But truly, change must happen inside out
within a person first. It’s called individual
behavior change, he said.
“It requires each of us to have humility…to
get up today and go do something about
it.”
Ian Abston talked about cities too, but from a