At last week’s TEXxMileHigh gathering at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Governor John Hickenlooper made a simple request of the people of Colorado: Teach one child how to read.

He told the 1600 or so gathered to hear “20 of the state’s leading thinkers and doers” that half the third graders in Colorado can’t read. “If you can’t read, what can you do?” Hickenlooper asked.

He challenged everyone in the room to go to their local school and volunteer to teach a child to read.

The day-long symposium was focused primarily on themes of sustainability and working together to solve common problems. Speakers were also focused on inspiring audience members to get involved in the world and take “inspired actions”.

What is TED, you ask?

From the TED website:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

TED has taken off in the last few years as many TED speeches have been posted online for free viewing. Most speeches run from 5 to 15 minutes, making them accessible even to harried Americans.

TEDx is a local version of TED, organized by local people for local audiences.

A few random thoughts from this year’s Denver speakers:

Bernard Amadei, professor of engineering at CU Boulder and founder of Engineers Without Borders, said the world will not be rid of outer poverty until it vanquishes inner poverty.

He said every person needs a personal mission statement.

Hickenlooper said the United States is unique in that “we own our government. If you are dissatisfied, you have the control to change it.” He challenged people to turn their enemies into friends and to avoid negativity.

Quoting Lincoln, he asked “Do I not conquer my enemies when I make them my friends?”

He said 80 percent of political advertising is negative, but that negative ads only work in the short-term. He said when he began running for governor in January 2010, he initially led in the polls by 10-12 points but as soon as negative ads began airing against him, the race tightened to dead heat, where it remained until the other candidates self-destructed.

In politics, he said, no one cares about the long-term, but only about the next election. “At this point in history,” he said people can disagree but ultimately need to work together. “We don’t have the option to tear each other apart,” he said.

Robyn O’Brien, author of “The Unhealthy Truth” about the state of food in America recounted her tale of going from food industry executive to the mother of a child with food allergies to healthy food activist.

She challenged audience members: “Each of us has something we are uniquely good at. Combine that with something you are passionate about and you have rocket fuel,” she said.

Casey Sheahan, president and CEO of Patagonia, talked about his company’s drive to be more transparent so that customers can learn online exactly how products are made, from what materials, and using what kind of labor. He said people can view their factories online.

Beseeching people to generate less waste and walk more lightly on the planet, he said, “We want you to buy less stuff from us.”

Olympic skier Jeff Olson noted that there is “a big difference between success and fulfillment.”

Perhaps echoing Olson, fellow athlete Allen Lim, director of sport science for the Radio Shack professional cycling team, said that “Ambition is very easy to hide behind until one day you realize that is all you have.”

He challenged people to “reignite” their passions.

Talking about corporate change, longtime Colorado sustainability advocate and author Hunter Lovins said “Hypocrisy is the first step to real change.”

By which she meant that corporations often begin claiming to be
green long before they really are and that as they see consumers respond to their green message they actually start becoming more green.

Below are videos from two national TED events.

Here, Jackson Browne sings “If I could be anywhere”.

Here, in what is billed as the greatest TED talk ever sold, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock talks about the insidious nature of branding and corporate sponsorships:

The Heart sisters sent a statement to EW.com Friday morning:

“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late ’70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”

The McCain campaign could soon run out of inspirational rock anthems if the Republican’s “ownership society” includes getting permission from a song’s owners.

A week ago, Van Halen objected when McCain introduced Palin to the strains of “Right Now” at a Dayton, Ohio, rally.

Van Halen management tells us the band had no idea McCain was planning on using “Right Now” during his big entrance in Ohio telling us, “Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given.”

Earlier in the campaign, musicians Jackson Browne, John Mellencamp, and Rep. John Hall, a New York Democrat and founding member of the band Orleans, asked — and even sued — the McCain campaign to stop playing their music.

After a New Hampshire town hall meeting in June, McCain blasted “Still the One” to celebrate that state’s longstanding support for the Republican. The next day, Hall fired back:

“This is yet another example of John McCain not learning anything from George Bush’s mistakes,” Hall wrote First Read in an interview over e-mail. “First, McCain adopted Bush’s failed policy of an open-ended war in Iraq, then he wrapped his arms around the failed Bush economic policies that have put the squeeze on middle class families. Now, he’s making the same mistake George Bush made illegally using a copyrighted song without asking either the writers or the performers for permission.”

… Hall, in fact, who was elected to Congress in 2006, demanded Bush to stop using his song in 2004, issuing cease-and-desist letters to the sitting president’s presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee.

“What is at issue here is Senator McCain’s use of the song to try and advance an agenda that I do not support without respecting copyright law and intellectual property,” Hall continued.

Hall and the other members of Orleans allowed Hillary Clinton to use the song at her rallies this year.

Die-hard Democrat Mellencamp asked the McCain camp to stop playing “Our Country” and “Pink Houses”at rallies in January. Rolling Stone noted the irony of McCain using the populist rocker’s tunes:

Not to mention that the far-right types whose votes McCain is seeking won’t love the mildly progressive lyrics to “Our Country,” which call on the government to “help the poor and common man” and suggest that “there’s room enough here for science to live/ And there’s room enough here for religion to forgive.” And does McCain really want to associate himself with those “Pink Houses” lines about the “simple man” paying for the “the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill”?

Iconic singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, famous since the 1970s for his activism against nuclear power, sued the Republicans and John McCain when his “Running on Empty” appeared without his permission in a campaign ad about high gas prices.

The lawsuit claims the song’s use was an infringement of his copyright and will lead people to conclude he endorses McCain. The suit says Browne is a lifelong liberal who is as well-known for his music as for being “an advocate for social and environmental justice.” …

Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio party, said the ad was pulled when Browne objected. He called the lawsuit a “big to-do about nothing.” …

Browne’s attorney, Lawrence Iser, called the ad’s use of the song “reprehensible.”

The 59-year-old singer claims his reputation has already been damaged and is seeking more than $75,000 in damages.