NEWS HOOKS #LLAP: Leonard Nimoy, Kanye West and Jihadi John

If you’re using a computer today, chances are you were like me and played rock, paper, scissors and watched Star Trek in your childhood. My father and brother watched it almost daily. I was there watching with them. It certainly was a Sunday television sport, right next to Shirley Temple and The Three Stooges. If you watched that TV series as well, you were surely fond of the character “Spock.” Well, today, I’m sad to say Leonard Nimoy passed of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Whether you’re a doctor or a techie who’s a Trekkie (uh, or do I mean Trekker), today media will be seeking you. Probably all weekend, we’ll all be celebrating Nimoy’s life and remembering how his great career and artistic contribution affected our lives, especially his famous catchprase, “Live long and prosper,” which by the way Nimoy honored this phrase by ending his Tweets with LLAP. Read about it in the Washington Post.

William Shatner, who is famous for his character Captain Kirk on Star Trek, liked to play pranks on Leonard Nimoy for which I’m sure he had to apologize as friends often do. If you’re an expert on forgiveness, friendships or human behavior, today the media may want to hear from you. Asking for forgiveness for puzzling human behavior is in the news again. Kanye West is asking for forgiveness from Beck and Mars on Twitter reports CNN. When public conversations surround celebrity behavior, the media seeks industry experts, doctors, psychologists, communication experts and people with first-hand experience to make sense of it all.

As children many of us we were told this rhyme often, “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you.” Debatable. In today’s cyber-bullying world, that children’s rhyme takes on a whole new meaning. The instant-access news cycle makes sharing upsetting stories about children being bullied national in seconds. If you’re expert in bullying, in all its forms, it’s unfortunately in the news again with a juvenile facing charges this week for a child being beaten in a cafeteria last week.

From pop culture experts to everyday educators, the media reports the news with sources who help us shape the stories to which we pay attention. For example, in global news today, community leaders are trying to make sense of how Jihadi John came to be: How a child reared in the UK could grow into a terrorist. Sources in security services, spiritual development and societal influences can assist the media in helping everyone understand how deep down, every child; every human needs to feel they belong. Here’s how you belong. Your voice, your expertise and your experience matter. We are all trying to make logical sense of our human experience. Speak up. The media is listening. Be heard and … live long and prosper. We will #LLAP, Nimoy. We will.