Be a Real American - Communicate

Happy Independence Day! We're 241 years old this year, but we only look 24 (those infrastructure patches, and the glint of glass and glow of microprocessors), and we seem to act no older than 2. We're barely on our feet, whopping each other with anything within reach, and babbling out the barest resemblance to rich adult oral communication. Though the means and methods for communication are in more hands than ever in the US, and we who have benefited from the communications technology revolution can share more communication 'product' than ever before; - what is this quintessence of flat phonemes? We can share and share it abounding; but what we are sharing: disgust, rhetorical pig bladders, and the stiffening of social-cultural camp boundaries - just because we can, should we??

It is no accident that modern political campaigns, like the 1968 presidential campaign in the US, resemble ad campaigns for mass market products. One of Richard Nixon's inner circle had been an executive with a large US ad agency, prior to his role in the political campaign - then as White House Chief of Staff. It's no more than a hop and skip from packaging an issue like a product, to the Internet meme that can be dropped into your consciousness over and over - like the fabled "Chinese water torture". Given our appetite for politics that are quick, flashy and sometimes accurate - and since this has been going on since the time of the Founders, at least 241 years old - how can we even agree on core components of being an American, such as PATRIOTISM?

https://www.wbez.org/shows/morning-shift/the-many-meanings-of-patriotism/174e7d25-5c80-4f3c-9c06-e2f2eeadb28d


Since 'communication' also means to 'connect' people, technology or ideas, it seems that connection might be tenuous in this era, when the cultural camps differ on what they're talking about. What is our national message now? Does the American brand, using the current parlance, survive our search for meaning? Because there is such an conflict among opposing sides, or opposing tribes in our national civic discourse, I think speech- language pathologists might be among the Americans who can help make communication great again. It is these professionals, US, who might be among the best qualified to CONNECT camp to camp through clear communication. If you've read this blog post to this point - hey, I may have proven my point already! But let's present the argument for your consideration:

* SLP's are expert in analyzing and decoding messages, and in helping partners in communication learn strategies for identifying and repairing conversational breakdown. We function in these roles similar to anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, counselors, clerics and mediators. When we are on our game, we keep the scientific jargon to a minimum but have our data and sources at the ready.

* SLP's are skilled at communicating dynamically - not only within the confines of the controlled 'therapy room' environment, but they also interact with real people they serve in everyday settings everywhere. There is a lot to be said for training everyday people in the healthy use of a "crud detector", so that the crud might be replaced by - gold? Naw, too heavy. Let's replace it with silicon.

* SLP's are trained to change behavior. Every communication occurrence is different; different relationships among the parties, different motivations, different skill sets. In the clinical outcome selected, whether impairment, activity or participation-based, there is the possibility for growth and healing of relationships.

* SLP's are coached to be clinical, think clinical. Det. Meldrick Lewis (HOMICIDE: Life on the Street) reminded us of that skill set when reminding his Baltimore PD colleague: "You keep everyone at a distance". Personal opinions, relationships with participants, and the emotional smoke that can obscure the information are filtered out - so that the parties might reach their goal.

Sing, America, for better communication! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--XA2OtAPnk