Marching Into Spring

Good Morning and a Happy March 1st !

I can't believe that we are through the better part of the Winter.

I am excited to tell you about what is happening with my City Council Campaign.

I am running for the open At-Large City Council seat .

I have the website up at www.hartforcedarrapids.com- Please come and visit the site! Look forward to the changes that will take place on the website.

I have a Facebook fanpage- HartForCedar Rapids- Please start conversations about issues that you are passionate about. I encourage conversation, lively disagreements and please feel free to fact check me on anything I say.

I will be gathering signatures for my nomination petitions in March. I will post the areas I will be door knocking in on the campaign calendar on the website.

We have a committee number with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Board and are able to receive donations through the Paypal site.

Feel free to contact me anytime by email: hartforcedarrapids@gmail.com

or give me a call and leave a message- Ruth Hart 319-431-6691

More news to come!

Have a great March!

Ignite Community !

Creating a Movement vs Running For Office

I am incredibly excited as I look over my community website. Cheryl Boots, a local website developer has come through in a major way?! Kudos to Cheryl and her creativity.

When I talk about "Hart For Cedar Rapids", I talk about a much larger canvas than a political campaign. Political campaign serve to promote a person, their ideas and solutions and seek to convince you to cast a vote for an individual. What I hope to achieve really has more to do with creating a citizen movement.

Movements are not dependent on the charisma of an individual. Movements are about living, breathing groups of people who share a dance with a specific purpose. In this case, the purpose is to ignite a passion for citizen involvement in all areas of the corridor!

We talk about innovation as though it is a new thing. Cedar Rapidians have always innovated. The people of Cedar Rapids are talented, gifted and passionate about the communities they live, work and play in.

Listening to all of the voices allows us as a community to grow and learn from each other. Please join me as I spend time listening and learning from our greatest resource, our people!

New Year's Resolution- Blog Now!

Good Morning !

I have tied myself to the chair and I am penning my first blog post of 2011.

It is not that I have wanted to avoid blogging- it is that I have wanted to avoid the task of

blogging.

I am reading Linchpin by Seth Godin. Linchpin is a rare book that makes me want to change my life. I want to jump out of my seat and create art. I become immersed in possibility and power. I resonate to the core with hopeful energy. I think great thoughts!

If merely being inspired were enough to change the world, I would have no problem. I am so inspired that I am walking on air. I want to go out and announce to the world that we can and will have the best year to date. We will create coalitions of engaged people who live their passion. Neighbors will come together for the improvement of the places they live and will made their voices heard. This time it will be different and sustainable!

Hope is not a method!

The actual work of creating community is a little less elegant. In fact, it is downright chaotic and messy and tentative and never completed in a day. It is made up of a million small conversations where you are not even sure the other person is hearing you. It is made up of a thousand people telling you no. It is about taking risks, looking clueless and putting yourself out there for the benefit of our family, friends and the larger community. In short, it is about being willing to be vulnerable.

I am passionate about creating hundreds of small community enclaves where leadership is organic and comes from the most unexpected places. People are waiting in the wings to take on leadership roles. We have so many talented women and men in the corridor. There are so many things to be thankful for in our community.

Let's find a way in 2011 to embrace the passions and diversity that make Cedar Rapids a Linchpin for the Corridor and beyond.