15 August

When I Get To Be President: Dreaming About My Tweets

by Jon Katz
My Secret Tweet Plan

 

When I get to be President, I will ask my 32 million Twitter followers to help someone every single day. To build a new home for a family whose home was destroyed by fire. To pay for college for a brilliant young kid whose family had no money and who deserved and desperately needed help. To pay the medical bills of a child cancer patient who needed expensive care her parents couldn’t afford.

Imagine that.

I’ve decided to begin preparing for being President of the United States. I feel I have a lot of the necessary qualifications. I just turned 70, I am sometimes described as a blowhard with a significant following online, I spout my idiosyncratic opinion every day, to the interest of some, and the outrage of others. Russian ambassadors would never waste a lunch on me.  I am not well-educated. I have been online for more than 30 years and go online every day. I like telling nasty people to mind their own business or get lost.

I had something of a daydream about this morning, and I thought I could share it. It was about the Twitter feed I would have.

As President, with 32 million Twitter followers, I would have a remarkable opportunity  to unleash the Army Of Good, heretofore a secret to most of the country  – the earth would tremble at an Army Of Good that big.

As President, I would do a number of things, but I have this radical idea about using my Twitter account.

I was stunned this year to learn this simple truth about my humble blog:  when I urge people to help other people online, and do good, they do.

There is little argument or fuss, no Congress to fight with, no legislation required, no media, no cults, debates, cliques, resignations, palace intrigues, bureaucrats or thickets of regulations. Think of the possibilities. I could ask tens of millions of people to do good every morning, and it seems that many of them would. Really?

It blows the mind and alters reality.

I know what I’m talking about. I ask to buy air conditioners for elderly assisted care residents in the summer, and people send me money. And there are air conditioners.

I want to send the refugee kids to the Great Escape or pay for their school tuition, and it happens. Right away.

I ask for for help helping a brave mother who walked across Africa in brutal heat and great danger to save her daughter, she is helped.

I ask for help sending the Mansion residents to a boat ride in September, and it is done. Every time.

This has not failed yet. It feels good from beginning to end. We help people, it lifts all of us up, those who do it, those who receive the help, those who send money, those who just read about it. And it is all done online, with our Twitter account and many followers.

What an a waste it would be to have a following like – millions and millions of attentive people –  and to never use it for more argument or  harm or self-interest (except for once in awhile) or to hurt people. I hope I would be struck down if I ever used it poorly.

I do not  have 32 million followers yet, I am not President yet, but I think of the tens of thousands of dollars we have raised here in just a few months, the hundreds of people we (you) have helped. Think of what we might do if we were working with  32 million followers. And what it would mean if those followers were called on to do good. To help one person, one family, every day.

And as President,  this would be my pledge to you. I would never use my account to attack a person. I would never use my account to promote an argument or divide a community or a country. I would never use it to promote myself or my politics. It could only be used to help a person or persons who were vulnerable, and worthy and in need. To help the poor and offer them hope.

To help immigrants and refugees settle here, find work, furnish their apartments, get the schooling they need it, health care if they seek it.To help the elderly and the poor.

If even a fraction of those 32 million people participated, whole communities could be transformed, many thousands of lives would be uplifted, even saved, think of the mood swells doing so much good without argument every day or hate or cruelty would create, tens of millions of people would get to see some good news every day, would get to help their brothers and sisters every day, would come to love their country for its open heart and generous impulses.

Imagine waking up every morning to lives being saved, children’s lives being transformed, the vulnerable lifted up. Imagine the difference it would make to wake up to that daily miracle, rather than the parade of horrors we see every morning of every day.

It turned out be a beautiful daydream, at times it brought tears to my eyes. I thought of what these 32 million people – it would soon grow rapidly  all over the world – would do to help heal the earth and save the animals. I thought of my Twitter feed answering the call of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si, to recognize that all human beings are creatures of this world, enjoying a right to life and  happiness and endowed with unique dignity.

When media and the digital world, he wrote, become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.  My Twitter feed would embrace Francis’s call to the caring: “We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between  faith and the poor. May we never abandon them.”

And on our Twitter feed, we never would. Just think about living with a Twitter feed like that?

What to do with such a pipe dream? What does it mean?

I think what struck me the most intensely, and drew me up short, is that this dreaming made me want to be President for just a millisecond, and for the first time in my life. Blessedly, it passed as quickly as it came.

What a horrible President I would be, but what a great Twitter feed we would have.

Because I know this is not really just a fantasy or a daydream, and how do I know it?

Because I know this can be done, we are living this dream right here every day.

 

 

10 Comments

  1. I will be the first to vote for you Jon. We have to start more GOOD things in this country and end the hate and bigotry and division.
    Please run!!!

  2. You really put things in perspective here.It would be lovely, wouldn’t it, if the POTUS understood what the real power of communication is and used it to inspire others to do good instead of name calling and boasting about what a ‘great job’ he is doing.

    1. Thanks Patricia, I do drool over the good he could do with that Twitter account, and he would lift up the country. I’m learning to try to use this technology for good, it is very possible.

  3. If only, Jon, if only. Yes, it’s your pipe dream. But look at reality. I’ve been following you for 4 years, after first reading “Izzy and Lenore”, and then your other books. You’ve had a lifetime of struggles, as you’ve shared, but I read your blog every day, and your heart grows bigger and your arms more welcoming every day. You are such an inspiration! You’ve done more in a few short years for those in need than, probably, most of us do in a lifetime. No, no presidency for you, Jon, just keep doin’ what you’re doin’.

    1. Thanks Linda, that is a lovely thought. I think the presidential campaign won’t go very far, I love what I’m going. I appreciate the good words I feel like I’m just getting started. I don’t agree with the media people who say people can’t change at 70 or 71. They can.

  4. When I do something good or positive, I think, Wow, another deed for the Army of Good. Oh that we had Armies of Good at work all day long. I think we do but the Army of Negativity is too strong these days, especially from the Orange Tweeter. I truly believe we will all get past this and the sun will shine again with an even bigger Army of Good.

  5. Once again you have “nailed it”. What an encouraging message to start the day. You encourage me to take responsibility for doing acts of goodness in my world.
    The key is to live with intention and make the most of the time I have been given.
    Encourage someone today. A few kind words might be all it takes to make a difference. Look for opportunity to connect, it could be as simple as a smile and a nod. Send that card, just do what you are prompted to do.
    I look forward to reading your encouraging words, Jon. Keep it up.

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