Arggh…she got me.

“She” is Michelle Bernhart, communicator par excellence, and chair of the IABC Social Responsibility Committee. We’ve worked together on the SR Committee for more than a year to launch the SR LINK, a web site focused on SR communications.

In a recent post, Michelle managed to strike me (and probably many others) in a vulnerable spot: our love of bottled water. Although the main point of Michelle’s post is a “greenwashing” attempt by Coke to seem eco-friendly on Earth Day, the post made me confront my own feelings about bottled water.

How can I justify taking swigs of filtered tap water and emptying bottle after bottle that will pile up in landfills? The answer is: Convenience and product performance. Not very altruistic, but if you want to change my behavior, you need to understand my motivations.

Convenience. Water contained in uncovered mugs and cups is not convenient. The water spills. Over the years, I’ve watched many coworkers accidentally tip a cup of water and then have to scramble to salvage printed documents, notebooks and other items from the ensuing spreading puddle. I’ve also experienced the jolt of realizing that, while tossing in my sleep, I’ve knocked over a glass of water from the end table next to my bed.

That doesn’t happen with bottled water. You twist off the top, take a swig, then replace the cap. Nice, tidy, convenient.

Product performance. Most bottled water containers are shaped to fit comfortably within your grasp, and as mentioned above, offer easy twist-off caps to secure the contents between sips. They also are slim-shaped, making them less obtrusive on a table or other surface. That is not the case with the reusable drink containers that I’ve used over time.

I still use the first such container that I received. It was sold in the mid 1990s to employees of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in one of the first corporate “green” campaigns held at places in which I’ve worked. I’m looking at it now. (Yes, even if you’re reading this at 2 a.m., I’m still looking at it–what a design!)

The cup is 6 inches tall by 4 inches wide, which makes it wider and just slightly shorter than Wendy’s biggie-sized drink cup. I know because I’m looking at that now, as well. The FRB Chicago cup came with a plastic lid that my wife threw out years ago. Even when I had the lid, it didn’t protect against spills—as would a Dasani or other bottled water. That’s because it had a hole in the lid for a straw to pass through. When the cup is tipped, water streams out of that hole.

Other reusable containers that I’ve used and rejected in the past usually have some design or performance flaw that makes them awkward to use. Some were too tall, too easily tipped, or came with a straw that seemed to be at least 3 feet long and that dangled dangerously out of the top.

Although swigging from a bottle of water can seem unsophisticated, making a mess by spilling a non-secured cup of water can be just as unsophisticated.

The best solution to me would be to create a reusable container shaped like bottled water, with an easily removable twist off cap that would secure the drink between your sips. I would invent it, but I’m too busy defending myself from disparaging blog posts from Michelle (j/k).

Another question: Why isn’t anyone up in arms about the millions of plastic cups from fast-food restaurants that take up just as much room in landfills?

After a few months of sporting a beard/goatee, I shaved yesterday. I would have shaved about two weeks sooner, but I was invited to deliver a speech that I wrote about beards to a Toastmasters club on Thursday, April 9.

Although the beard is gone (for now), you can decide for yourself whether it made for a good speech by viewing it here.

Jesus Christ isn’t a swear word; it’s the name and title of a human being who is worshiped as both God and Savior by millions of people worldwide—including me.

Today it is not unusual to hear someone say “Jesus Christ” with contempt, using it as a swear word when something or someone upsets the person who uttered the words. If you are one of those people…stop it.

People have used foul language for thousands of years, and this post isn’t an attempt to change that behavior. I swear on occasion, and I understand why people do it. It’s difficult to offend me with most vulgarities—with the exception of “Jesus Christ.”

If you are an agnostic, an atheist or a believer in a spiritual movement other than Christianity, why should you care? After all, Jesus is not your Lord, your savior, your God. You should care out of respect for Jesus Christ. Notice that I’m not saying, “out of respect for Christians.” We could have a good long discussion of how Christians have wronged others. That might give you reason to curse them, but not Jesus.

No evidence exists that Jesus ever did anything in his 33 years on earth that would justify scorn. He led a pure life; spread a message of love and repentance for sin; and healed people who were blind, lame, deaf and crippled. For that, he died a terrible death after three sham trials and without evidence of wrong-doing. Well, he did say that he was the Son of God, but many of us believe it.

Should people around me stop using “Jesus Christ” as an obscenity because I believe that they are defaming my Savior? Yes and no. The answer revolves around decency and courtesy towards the beliefs of another human being.

For example, the next time you’re tempted to use Jesus Christ as an obscenity, picture yourself substituting another name. Say, “Prophet Mohammed,” or “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” or “Buddha.” Picture yourself saying those names with the level of scorn and contempt that you would use with “Jesus Christ.” Picture yourself exclaiming it in a crowd of Muslims, Jews and Buddhists.

Maybe you want to avoid the obvious verbal and/or physical pain that you would suffer from that example. Okay, substitute another person’s name, such as, “Barack Obama,” “Queen Elizabeth,” “George Bush,” or “George Clooney.” These are other good people, not quite up to par with Jesus, but about the best we see at the international level these days.

A final thought about the words “swear” and “curse.”

According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, two definitions for the word, “swear,” are:
1: to utter or take solemnly (an oath)
2: to use profane or obscene language: curse

The same source includes the following definitions for the word, “curse”:
1 : a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one : imprecation
2 : something that is cursed or accursed
3 : evil or misfortune that comes as if in response to imprecation or as retribution
4 : a cause of great harm or misfortune : torment

I don’t use “Jesus Christ” as a swear word because I utter that name with solemn reverence.

On this Good Friday, Christians remember how Jesus was cursed; that is, caused great harm and torment by people who invocated for his injury.

Don’t be one of them. Leave the name of Jesus out of your swearing and cursing vocabulary.

IABC Executive Board Vice Chair Mark Schumann, ABC, just wrote a post about the demise of the Rocky Mountain News newspaper in Denver, CO (USA). I commented briefly on Mark’s blog about my own perspective, but want to expand a bit here.

I was born in 1958 and grew up when newspapers were the dominant source for complete news coverage. Radio news reports, to me, were the irritating, five-minute interruptions that always seemed to come just when I was starting to enjoy the latest rock or pop hits. TV news was visually interesting at times, but otherwise flat and stiff.

Reading the newspaper was a family affair. I remember squirming next to my older brothers and sister, to find a spot on dad’s lap, while he read the Sunday comics to us–and often had to explain the joke. As I grew older, we discussed the local and national news (Chicago is never short of controversial news!), and savored the razor-sharp writing and reasoning of columnists like Mike Royko.

My brothers and I delivered newspapers to earn money. One of the benefits of a morning paper route, that just barely countered the daily 3 a.m. wake-up, was the time spent reading the newspapers after the route was finished. There, in the agency’s poorly lit, barely heated back area, I would sit on a wooden shelf/bench and take my time, devouring just about every word in the two daily newspapers.

As Mark mentioned in his post about the Rocky Mountain News, there was something about the smell of newspaper ink on my hands that I just loved. The ink got into my blood, and I pursued journalism as a college student at Eastern Illinois University.

The journalism professors there were required to have worked previously as a professional journalist. I heard first-hand stories of life as a newspaper reporter: the exciting and rewarding, and the mundane and frustrating. I even got to get ink on my hands again, while helping to print and distribute the daily student newspaper as a fill-in volunteer when the regular press crew or delivery staff weren’t available.

I spent a summer working as an intern at the Decatur Herald & Review. Then when I graduated, I accepted a position there as a reporter/photographer. Although my bosses and coworkers were some of the finest people I have ever met, I left the paper after only one year, because I “wanted to see some mountains.”

I called a college friend and told him that I was planning to move to Denver. That friend said, “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” When he did, he told me that he had decided to move to Denver with me!

We used the Rocky Mountain News to look for work. My friend was more dedicated, and quickly found a very good job. Me, not so much. After a few months spent laboring at some fun, but not lucrative, “jobs,” I moved back to Chicago, leaving behind a love of the mountains and newspapers in Denver.

Just last night, I discussed with my wife whether we should cancel our subscription to the Chicago Tribune. We just don’t read it much, and unopened newspapers too often get tossed in the recycling bin. But there is something about the physical newspaper—and the journalists who worked so hard to publish it—that makes it nearly impossible for me to let go.

But times have changed. Perhaps nothing says that better than the fact that the links I have provided here to the newspapers all go to electronic web pages. You won’t get ink on your fingers from typing in the URLs. Maybe that should make all of us a little sad.

Consider me the proud parent of a spankin’ new website devoted to Social Responsibility (SR) communications. Actually, I’m one of several “parents” of the SR LINK, a website created by volunteers of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

The SR LINK website offers resources and online conversations to advance the knowledge and skills of communicators within the field of SR. Sponsored by IABC, this site is meant to “LINK” us as we:

• Learn about SR and the communicator’s role in shaping organizations’ SR strategies, policies, practices, and communications
• Inform community members regarding SR resources we or others have developed or found helpful: tools, best practices, lessons learned, and case studies
• Network with other communicators through online conversations

And perhaps best of all,

• Know we all are making a difference – by advancing the role of communicators in this important field and in bringing best practices to the organizations with which we work.

That final bullet point is perhaps the most important to me. When Mike Zimet asked whether I would be interested in contributing to this project, I didn’t hesitate to sign on. SR isn’t my primary area of expertise; I have an interest in SR because the end result is that people around the world benefit.

I will continue to do anything I can to help SR programs and the people who devote so much time, energy and money to seeing those programs succeed.

Now I’m asking you to help. Visit the SR LINK and see whether you find ways to contribute a comment, an article, a case study, or something else. The website will remain viable and beneficial only if others join. And when I say “join,” the investment is minimal. We don’t charge money, we don’t require you to register, and we certainly don’t limit participation to any group.

Let me know what you think. We are very excited about the launch of the site, and we know that, just as with a newborn baby, the labor at the front end is only the beginning of the work ahead!