Free Hellos DC

The first few posts were in the early winter.  We're waiting for the good weather before spreading the word about Free Hellos DC. More soon!

This video from England is a few years old, but it shows that DC isn't the only city where "Hellos" are an issue: "Northerner Terrifies Londoners By Saying "Hello." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0ay9u1gg4

 If you have gone through my thoughts in the first 2 blog entries, and you'd like to make your own badge and print out a page of handouts for people you meet, here are the images I used for you to download. Please feel free to improve on these or make your own versions and post them here!

My thoughts about promoting change in people I pass in my neighborhood on Capitol Hill, involve making it visible to those I interact with that I'm not just being socially aggressive by saying “Hello,” but that this is part of a bigger effort to promote neighborly social interactions. There is a French term “anomie” (also spelled “anomy”) that I think helps explain what underlies the lack of social interactions I experience. Here's what the Oxford dictionary says about anomie: "lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group." eg: "the theory that high-rise architecture leads to anomie in the residents" Vague forces in our modern urban life have produced the cold street interactions that have become all too common. To counteract those forces, we need to focus on what is going on and make clear what vision we have for enriching our daily urban interactions. Here's how I've started off normalizing my aggressive hellos – I&

Although I've lived on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC for 21 years, I still haven't gotten used to walking past another person, on an empty street, and have them act like I'm invisible. I understand that people can have a lot on their minds and be absorbed in thought. I also understand that some young people have to be cautious about interacting with strangers. But I find too many cases where I'm just confused by the way people act! By my general appearence - I have gray hair - I am classified as an "old man." When another "old man" passes me by and looks blindly ahead like a zombie, I can't easily make sense out of that! The basis for my complaint about the level of interactions I experience from day to day is that it's dystopian. If you made a sci-fi movie about a future where people walk around like zombies and don't have any interactions, that future would be cold and sad. Yet, that's my day to day reality here in DC. I can't