Amid all the upheavals throughout the world these days – including recent elections in France and Greece, the kick-off of the noisy presidential campaign, and terrorist plots –Maurice Sendak, the legendary children’s book author and illustrator, died. With Sendak in mind, I am writing this week with a simple request: tell me your favorite childhood book.

Last week I was in the small town of Corning, N.Y. to give the keynote speech at the United Way of the Southern Tier’s Annual Dinner. The trip reaffirmed my belief that small towns can – and should – be engines for the kind of change the country yearns for today. But first we must see them as the assets they are.

On Saturday, I was with my 89-year-old mother-in-law, Martha, and my wife, Jackie, in Chestertown, MD. Martha knows ice cream holds a dear spot in my food hierarchy and psyche and had been planning for weeks to lure me to Chestertown with the promise of Stam’s, a local fountain shop since 1886. But when we discovered Stam’s was closed, a series of interactions with two passersby ensued – good reminders of what people are looking for in the country and what each of us can do.

In New Jersey, Prudential received up to $250 million in state aid to construct a new corporate HQ and hire up to 300 new in-state employees. Not bad considering they already have a terrific office some three blocks away. Meanwhile, the plight of individuals in need is another story in America; they are being demonized and squeezed at each turn. All this raises questions about the “welfare” of society and public discourse.

This Sunday night my wife and I went to the new Bruce Springsteen concert: The Wrecking Ball. The last Springsteen concert we went to was in May 2009, not long after Obama took office. So much change from one to the other. Now, like then, Springsteen offers a window into America’s condition – one I believe we ought to look through.

Local leaders in Youngstown, many of whom have been using Harwood tools and ideas, have stepped forward to help lead an effort to understand the city's aspirations for education, and ensure that school reform reflect's people's concerns in the context of the community.

For years I often talked about how Americans had retreated from the public square into small circles of friends and families. That same narrative has persisted in how different groups, authors, and others have diagnosed what’s happening in American public life and politics. But that view of America is now outdated, and a different view is needed if we are to move ahead productively.

I’ve watched in pain as we are all learning about Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales’ alleged massacre of 16 Afghan civilians, including men, women and children. The murders are horrific. And so, too, is the reminder of the strains of war and how we view and treat American soldiers, one of my own ongoing concerns. We must mobilize ALL Americans to provide more support to them.

Maybe I should be writing today about Super Tuesday and the fight among Republican candidates for their party’s nomination. But there’s perhaps an even more important fight of national significance, one that involves Rush Limbaugh. People’s response to Limbaugh’s recent hateful comments is a victory for decency and for standing up to bullies, tyrants, and foul-mouthed, corrosive behavior in public life. We need more of this.

The need for community anchor institutions keeps coming up in conversations and so I want to lay out 7 keys for moving ahead productively. Let me be clear upfront: Communities cannot create change without these institutions, but not all actions will lead down the right path – and many will be downright harmful.

The U.S. has been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and now soldiers are coming home without adequate supports. I’ve written on this topic before, and I do so here again because I cannot fathom how we allow this to happen. We make soldiers carry the body bags of their dead comrades, and then we make those returning home carry their own baggage of injuries to mind and body filled with unrelenting pain.

Reflections from Greg Braylock, Jr. Education Impact Specialist for United Way of Greater Toledo Early in the 3½ day Harwood Lab, the message sank in: organizations that seek to serve people too often know of the people they work to serve, but don’t really know the people they serve. This subtlety becomes the difference between failed or mildly successful plans, policies, initiatives, and programs, and those that are successful, sustained, citizen driven and system supported.