“Letter to Mikey” explores good vs. evil, happiness via wealth vs. poverty, and power vs. faith. The author is not afraid to tackle the big issues of our time, while using a writing style that is understandable and non-judgmental. Kinda like… a father speaking with his son.
LETTERS TO MIKEY: MESSAGES OF HOPE, OPTIMISM, AND LIFE LESSONS
AUTHOR: GLENN CORT, GETTING ALONG ACADEMY – 2025
A Young Adult Book Review by Rosemary Smith, Managing Director – Getting Better Foundation (GBF)
I met Glenn Cort – not by accident – but because our lives were on a parallel projection. You see, we both recognize society has a problem. We’re both concerned parents. We both watched as our kids’ mental well-being, resilience, and bright futures were threatened. We both concluded that a lack of Media & Information Literacy (MIL) may be a culprit. We both read books about psychology, democracy, civil discourse, faith, history, and education to better understand how we can help. We’ve both now dedicated our life’s work to MIL as a mechanism for positive change… MIL as an inoculation for resilience, trust, hope, and peace. It’s probably no coincidence our organizations have similar names… Glenn’s Getting Along Academy and the Getting Better Foundation I manage. It’s no coincidence we both have hope for peace in our nation and our world.
Glenn’s “Letters to Mikey” started out as an essay addressed to his graduating son. He hit the library, committing himself to learning how people become polarized and which solutions had been tried in the past to rectify it. The author realized the renowned experts, authors, scholars, and intellectuals, whom humans have been quoting for generations, have been warning society for 1000s of years… that we forgot important historical lessons. He surmised that to collaborate on the problems facing the next gens, we needed to overlook our human differences… revert to the “Natural Law”. Natural Law (NL) is universal and objective. It assumes that differences in cultures do not matter in establishing basic principles and laws that govern and serve the masses. Clearly, our need for NL and overcoming differences could not be addressed in a card or few paragraphs to a graduating senior. Thus, “Letters to Mikey” turned into a compilation of ideas and a full-fledged published tomb, as well as a mission to establish a learning academy where Glenn’s research would be shared far and wide.
When our Getting Better Foundation first incorporated in 2015, finding other like-minded organizations who recognized the power of and need for media literacy was quite the task. Now it seems we are reaching the tipping point as bright, well-intentioned people like Glenn Cort and social psychologist Jon Haidt who features prominently in Glenn’s book, are coming forward in recognition of people’s need for media literacy to lessen polarization and hate, foster resilience and trust.
Organizations like UNESCO, the European Union, and Getting Better Foundation not only recognize MIL as a solution, but are passionate enough about the greater good, that we are moved to doing something about it… “putting our money where our mouths are” to coin a term from my father’s generation. Coincidentally, the same generation who went to war to fight narcissistic regimes and anti-democratic, oppressive movements, like the Nazis, the Bolsheviks, the Taliban… who all use or used propaganda as a weapon against democracy and peace. Back then, we had real enemies wishing to take what was ours… our land, our families, our gold. Nowadays, there are certainly pockets of our world where women and minorities are endangered, people’s lives and livelihoods are compromised, conflict is raging. There, nations must step in to right wrongs. But for the rest of us, we are exhausting ourselves with imagined threats. Forgetting we are aligned in what has already been sorted out, agreed upon, and written down. Forgetting that together… we are not only stronger, but we can overlook minor differences to solve the problems modern society is throwing at us.
In “Letter to Mikey”, the author posits how we are now “fighting a war of extremes between mostly imagined enemies! And we are doing it based on incomplete or inaccurate information.”
I found it moving and a bit comical to read Glenn’s ah-ha moment upon walking into the library where he had a vision of all the books talking at once… thousands of years of history in a single resounding voice… saying “Glenn, there are common denominators in all our pages. Think about the common themes (and share them with young people whose minds are still forming).”
The library is where Glenn recognized the value of decoding the messaging behind historical texts like those from Socrates, Aristotle, Cicero, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson… where the value of two sides to a story – two different perspectives – checks and balances… find common ground somewhere in between. Nowadays, that middle ground is less represented due to the loudness of the more extreme voices resounding far left or right of the matter. Could it be we’ve forgotten what our forefathers gifted us with…. the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Bill of Rights, and Natural Law?
“Things that could unite a society, such as the natural law get washed away in something that very much resembles a laundry machine spin cycle. This is the society we have now- We are fighting a war of extremes between mostly imagined enemies!” (excerpt from “Letter to Mikey”).
Glenn continues his message of “Hope, Optimism, and Life Lessons for Young Americans and Teens” by recommending leaders of the United States “Do away with the word politics altogether – replacing it with civics.” Glenn and I agree here too.
I recently learned about the state of Nebraska’s unique unicameral legislature while screening “Trust Me” Documentary with Civic Nebraska at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. A unicameral system has only one legislative chamber – instead of most states’ and Congress’ two-house system (bi-cameral). While a two-party system ensures checks and balances, post-elections, it can lead to political in-fighting, and party line voting instead of what may be best for the people represented. Nebraska’s legislature is nonpartisan, meaning there’s no formal party alignment once members are in office. It is efficient, focused on public needs across the entire state, and passes bills with more expedience. There is still a process for the introduction of bills, committee hearings, and floor debate with room to undergo rigorous testing prior to receiving a majority vote to proceed. This is more of what the Founding Fathers envisioned as Natural Law… coming together where common ground exists to foster positive change as society progresses. We humans are smart. New inventions, techniques, and ways of communicating and exploring emerge nearly every day. Cort’s book invites us to embrace these new, fun, imaginative ways of life while remembering the scaffolding which holds us together, allowing for civil discourse to iron out the bumps along the way.
“Letter to Mikey” explores good vs. evil, happiness via wealth vs. poverty, and power vs. faith. The author is not afraid to tackle the big issues of our time, while using a writing style that is understandable and non-judgmental. Kinda like… a father speaking with his son.
For anyone who would like to better understand how “Our world is being pushed and pulled apart by outside forces… without even realizing it.” (Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler appearing in “Trust Me” Documentary), and what we can do about it, “Letter to Mikey” is your next read.