ScottSilver.me

5/9/17

Dear Ellie,

Boy am I proud of you. You’ve had a rough couple of days, dealing with friend stuff, but you’d never know it being around you. You’re still the sweetest, smartest, most confident, self-assured kid.

Today you came home from school, and immediately got your homework out, knowing that you’d have to do that before any fun stuff like TV. You didn’t want to go to batting practice and that was ok, so the plan was homework, outside and then TV. But first, we had to talk about the past couple of days.

First, I asked you to tell me what happened. You did (you gave me the short version), and you made it clear that it was no big deal. I had you tell me everything. And then I reminded you who and what you are. That you are the best. The kindest, sweetest, and happiest. The strongest. I told you that you have so many adults who love and care about you. I made you list some. Then I reminded you why people are mean: cause they are unhappy with themselves.

After that you did some homework, and then took a break and played piano and messed around in your room. Then you finished your homework and told me you were ready to go outside. We decided we’d play basketball and throw the football. So we did. And you’re so good. Like really.

You dribbled and passed the ball like a pro. Like, you’re actually good. First we did bounce passes and yours were perfect. You even tried to copy my follow through, with both of your arms extended in front of you. Then, I taught you baseball passes for when you get a steal and a fast break, and you wanted to keep throwing them. You killed it. And then you wanted to play defense and steal it from me, which you were also good at. Then, you practiced your shot.

You also asked me who invented basketball and why. I told you it was James Naismith invented basketball and that he probably came up with it cause he was bored and looking for something to do for fun. We broke down the name, and tried to imagine what the beginning of basketball looked like. “Think about it: basket…ball.” You got it.

Then you asked me how inventing was invented. I told you about the saying: “necessity is the mother of invention,” and then I had you try to figure out what necessity meant. First, you sang the song “Bare necessities” from the jungle book. I sang with you. Then, I asked you what it the word “necessity” sounded like and you said “necessarily?” I kept pushing, and finally we got to “necessary,” which you explained meant that you *need* it. You got it.

When you need something and don’t have it, you figure out how to get it. We talked about cars and what need inspired them: gotta go somewhere and don’t have a lot of time. We also talked about bagel slicers.

Then we got the football. And you went right for it. You threw a wobbly spiral on your first try. It was awesome. Then you went like 10-15 feet in front of me and told me to throw it for real. I did. You caught it. I told you what form to use, and you did it. Really well. After we threw for a few minutes, you asked me what sports I played and I told you. When I told you I ran track, you said “that’s how you’re so fast!” and you smiled. Then you told me you were fast and you took off running. Then you twisted your ankle and cried. We came inside and I set you up on the couch, with your foot elevated and iced. I made dinner.

After dinner we went upstairs so you could take a shower. On the way upstairs, you asked, “I have one question…can you look up how the earth was made?”

While you were in the shower sang and danced. You also told me why you don’t even sweat the girls who give you a hard time. “The jokes on the person who’s being mean; not the person who’s being kiiiind!”

Then we got dressed and ready for bed. And you asked to see a video about how the earth was made. We watched it. You were captivated, and you explained it back to me brilliantly.

After that, it was about time for sleep. But first, we had to do some reading. I picked “What to do with an idea,” a personal favorite of mine, as you know. We talk a lot about ideas and dreams and inventing, don’t we?

At first you didn’t want to read that book, but once we started, you got into it. You made the connection between ideas and inventing. And it took a minute, but you understood the author and illustrator’s choice to portray the idea as an egg, and to talk about feeding the idea, and playing with it, and nurturing it.

Toward the end of the story, the main character’s idea came to life, and your face lit up. It reminded us both of one of my favorite matters of fact: everything that exists in the world started as somebody’s dream or idea.

When I said that, you asked if the earth was someone’s dream or idea. I could have done the whole god thing, but that’s not my style. I explained that all of the elements just exist – and that they weren’t man made.

‘Man made?’ You looked at me sideways. “Made by man and woman, I mean.”

“Yea girls invent things, too,” you reminded me with a confident smile.

We had the best day.

I love you Ellie and I’m so proud of you. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Love,

Daddy

Momentum oftentimes begets momentum when it comes to sustaining waves of progress, but the sparks that actually ignite movements for meaningful, transformative change come from moments of unbearable discomfort and anguish.

—

In 2008, immediately following the election of Barack Obama, I, along with my good friend Zach Maurin, sat, giddy about the results, and awestruck bout how we got there, as there was a STARK difference between the election we had just witnessed, and any other election we had ever seen.

For the first time in our young, politically-active lives, we, the young people, were invited — and actually encouraged — to participate in the political process. Usually, the conversation took place above our heads and behind closed doors. Everyone was old, everything was boring, and we figured whatever happened was gonna happen. But throughout the course of the exhilarating 2008 race for The White House, things were different. Because of a number of things (the youth and dynamism of Barack Obama, the novelty of social technology, the particular reliance on digital media as a strategy for the Obama campaign, along with a number of other things), we had politicians and pundits, reallllllly wanting to know what we were thinking.

That was cool and we were instrumental in delivering the election to President Obama, whatever whatever, but immediately following the election, the music stopped, the room emptied, and the party was over. The print, online, and television media were again the province of the adults. And pretty much every politician was still a person with white hair.

As Zach and I sat down, rehashing the campaign over beers, we couldn’t help but wonder where all of that momentum would go. How could we keep people engaged and keep the conversations going?

By the end of the night, we figured out what we needed to do: build an online news community JUST for millennials. If we were no longer asked to participate in the adult conversations, then we’d have to start our own, and invite everyone. And so, The Daily Get Up was born.

In my first post for The Daily Get Up (below), I made the case for why something like it needed to exist. When I published this post initially — and subsequently launched the site — people flocked to it. At its height, we had a core of 25 or so millennials contributing to the site regularly, and readership in the tens of thousands (which wasn’t bad for a bootstrapped startup with a soon-to-be-father solo founder, but ultimately, for a whole host of reasons (which I’ll discuss in future blog posts), The Daily Get Up didn’t live up to its potential, and I decided to shut it down.

The Obama years were marked by tremendous progress, for sure (the Affordable Care Act, ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris [climate] agreement, etc.), but I can’t help but wonder how things would have been different if we had not been enjoying a period of relative comfort as a society.

Of course I can’t be sure, but I’m inclined to think that if more people were more uncomfortable, that we all would have pushed even harder to make more [dramatic] changes to our laws and society.

…Well, we’ve had our time to be hopeFUL, and we made some great progress, but now many of us are feeling hopeLESS. While on its face, it’s frustrating and sad to think about how excited we were then and how defeated we are now, I’m actually kind of inspired. I think we might just be uncomfortable, anguished and disgusted enough to get motivated. In 2008, momentum was on our side, and we didn’t have to work very hard to keep things moving. But now…now we don’t have a choice. We either adapt or we perish. So let’s get to work.

Below is the first post I published on The Daily Get Up, announcing it’s arrival. Interesting to read eight years later. A lot of the problems and the circumstances remain the same, but the tone is different and the stakes are higher.

Dear World,

Ready or not, here we come!

We are the Millennials. We are the next great generation and we’re a force to be reckoned with. Born between 1977 and 2000, we are the largest living generation in history–bigger than the Baby Boomers. We are 80 million strong, we account for $1 trillion dollars in buying power, we voted in record numbers in the 2008 election and we’re determined to make the world a better place.

We have unique values, needs, characteristics, and perspectives. We’re hopeful and optimistic, civic-minded, and community-oriented. We’re expressive, more-than-tolerant and environmentally aware. We’re do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs, meaning-seekers and conscious consumers. We’re entirely connected and we want to be engaged, but nobody is talking to us; we’re still stuck at the kids’ table.

In spite of our size and our spirit, our generation is often underrepresented or misrepresented in the mainstream media. We’re effectively boxed out. Every now and then, someone will ask (usually in a glib tone), ‘what do the young people think?’ They’ll listen–or maybe they won’t–and then they’ll go back to reporting the news. And they’ll do so without asking questions, without a critical eye and without any regard for what is at stake.

For too long, the corporate media has been complicit in creating our American culture of ignorance. They’ve been committed to delivering or paraphrasing partisan talking points, telling you who is winning the horse race and in an attempt to report something real, they’ve recently resorted to “checking in with the folks on Twitter or Facebook” for original thoughts or ideas.

When traditional media outlets do this, they are not doing their jobs. It’s unproductive, disingenuous, and extremely dangerous. For our generation, this kind of toothless, spineless, frivolous, and irresponsible journalism is no longer acceptable. We’re sick of being talked down and lied to. We’re way too old for this nonsense.

Our generation is growing up. Many of us are actual adult humans. We have jobs (hopefully–although 30% of our generation is unemployed), we have families, and we have children. We have bills, mortgage payments, student loan debt, credit card debt, and in many cases (more than you hear about) mountains of unpaid medical bills.

We’re real people with real concerns…and there is a lot to be concerned about. We’re fighting two wars, we’re in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the environment is deteriorating, our health care system is in need of urgent care, and the world is running out of essential resources for us to exploit (tongue-in-cheek). On top of that, the historic election of Barack Obama, America’s first black President, awoke a sleeping giant that, contrary to popular lore, has never been slain: Racism. The problems that we’re facing are far from ordinary and they will not be solved with tweaks and touch ups.

These extraordinary problems will require us to re-think the way we do everything—to re-imagine ailing industries and to rebuild decrepit institutions; to move past partisan and ideological politics and to embrace common sense and common good solutions.

Although many politicians and pundits are convinced that these are problems that we will inherit, these are our problems to solve RIGHT NOW.

So what do we do when we’re deliberately left out of the conversation? How do we band together to exert our influence to really make a difference? What needs to happen for our generation to have a voice and a seat at the table?

It’s time for us to get up and do something. If we can’t join ‘em, we’ll beat ‘em.

The Daily Get Up is the first and only comprehensive media outlet created by and for Millennials. It will offer a Millennial take on the news alongside blog posts and commentary from the most thoughtful and intelligent journalists, thought leaders, activists, public servants, celebrity personalities, military veterans, industry experts and citizen journalists. It is an independent, accessible and diverse space where people and ideas will come together to change the world. It is a place where our generation, along with members of other generations, can connect and engage in meaningful conversations in order to move the things forward. And it is a platform for promoting and collaborating with individuals and organizations that are already doing amazing things.

The Daily Get Up is THE voice of the next great generation. It’s time for us to be heard.

Best Kid Best Day

My 2008 election enthusiasm revisited