Out of the Mouths of Babes

Innocence can be more powerful than experience. - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

We've let the blade of our innocence dull over time, and it's only in innocence that you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage. - Sean Penn

Speak the truth even if your voice shakes. - Maggie Kuhn

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

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Applause erupted from the crowd as the President of the United States stepped into view on the stage, flanked by a number of community and organization leaders.

Waving to the expectant crowd of men, women and children, he stepped up onto the dais, beaming to the jubilant crowd before him.  He extended his arms up high before him and addressed the room.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you”, he said in slow, measured tones, the smile never leaving his face.

The applause grew louder and he stepped back for a moment as he took in the energy being shared with him.

He paused, stepped up to the microphone again, extended his arms and gestured slightly with his hands as if gently asking for quiet.

“Thank you”, he said again.  “My friends, today is a historic day.  After months of difficult negotiation with many of the fine men and women you see before you, I am pleased to be able to announce a number of initiatives that will make this country stronger and better prepared for its great future.”

The crowd went silent in expectation, hanging on his every word.

“My friends”, the President continued, “Today I am proud to make the following announcements.  In recognition of the great strides we have made with our LGBTQ community and in conjunction with the great strides we have made together with the Supreme Court, I am proud to announce a significant revision to the 16th Amendment of our Constitution.  This revision will allow LGBTQ couples who were prevented for years from marrying to retroactively claim benefits they should have been able to claim on their income tax.  The benefits are being calculated now and payments are expected to be rolled out within three months.  In order to make up for lost opportunities and past discrimination, we will also be passing a law providing for preferential hiring practices that will be mandatory for all companies and our government to abide by when hiring LGBTQ citizens moving forward.”

He paused as the room exploded in applause.

The President paused for a moment and smiled before holding up his hands again to quiet the crowd.

“In addition”, he continued, “We are working with a number of groups such as the NAACP and others to finally rid our great nation from some of the negative parts of our past.  Effective immediately, all references to slavery in the past as well as racial oppression will be removed from our landscape.  Congress is preparing a resolution to make all references to the Confederate Flag illegal in our great nation.  The Secretary of Education has committed to removing all references to the civil war that ripped our nation in two from our history books and within 5 years, that terrible part of our history will never again be taught to our children.  Representatives from Hollywood, television media and other groups have committed to never again making or showing movies that reference the civil war.  And finally, the Jefferson Memorial, statues of leaders from the South and other monuments will also be torn down and we will soon be free to forget the scourge of our past that was racial oppression.  We are also working on a series of reparation payments to be made to all of the citizens of this nation who have, through themselves or their ancestors, ever been a victim of racial prejudice.”

The crowd applauded again although this time there were a few cries of dissent amongst the applause.

The President cleared his throat and continued to speak.  “Working with our religious leaders”, he said, “We also recognize that references to God and religion within government, whether it be on public buildings, within the wording of our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence or other works, are offensive to those of different faiths or of no faith and will be removed effectively immediately.  We may take other action in this area as we see fit moving forward.”

The applause that followed was much more diminished as people began to look at each other with some concern.

“Effective immediately, we will also reduce the penalties for soft drug usage, recognizing that lighter drugs such as marijuana and similar drugs pose no threat to the safety of our nation and that our citizens should be allowed to relax in ways that pose no threat to others.”

A rumble started to manifest within the crowd amidst a few hoots of support.

“And finally”, said the President, “We recognize that our immigration laws and polices are far too strict and are preventing many great people from entering a nation that was built by immigrants.  Pursuant to this, I am asking Congress to remove the need for any background checks for anyone wishing to come to our great nation.  I am asking that this amnesty policy be limited to a trial period of five years as we welcome people from around the world to our great nation.  If Congress is unwilling to provide this as I requested, I will invoke executive privilege to make it happen.”

Light applause greeted the announcement.

“We have always been a great nation”, concluded the President, “And I believe that these initiatives and others will make us stronger and will help us to be less divisive as a people moving forward.”

Silence filled the room for a moment but was broken by a small voice near the front of the room.

“Excuse me, Mr. President”, the small voice said.

The President looked into the crowd before identifying the source of the polite request, a young girl of maybe seven or eight years of age, with her clear blue eyes staring up at him earnestly.

“The young lady in the front has a question”, the President said to the audience, “Please come up and ask me anything you want, young lady.”

Secret Service agents found the young child and escorted her up to the stage.

“What’s your name?”, the President asked gently.

“Sarah”, she replied quietly, suddenly overwhelmed as she stared at the hundreds of people before her who looked up at her in silence.

“And what would you like to ask me, Sarah?”, the President asked as he smiled.

“Well”, she said, suddenly becoming shy and looking nervously at her feet.  “My mommy and daddy have been without a real job for a few years and I was wondering what you are doing to help them.  My daddy fought overseas and he struggles a lot with stuff that happened over there.  He tells mommy that what we did overseas puts us in more danger at home from people who want to hurt us.  Mommy works for an electric company and I heard her tell someone that bad people can use the Internet to make our electricity stop working and then we would all be in danger.  We also studied in school that countries are in trouble around the world because they can’t pay borrowed money back and if they can’t pay their money back, bad things might happen to the whole world.  Plus we learned that a lot of countries are building bigger bombs that could blow everything up.”

She paused nervously.

“I guess what I am asking is that while all of the things you are talking about are very good for some people, I am very afraid of the future for my mommy and daddy and me.  Can you tell me why we shouldn’t be afraid for our future?”

She paused as tears began to well up in her clear blue eyes.  “Who will take care of us, Mr. President?”, she asked quietly.

The President paused and the room was deathly silent in anticipation of a response from him.

“You are a very smart young girl”, the President said, smiling as he patted her on the head, “Your parents must be very proud of you.”

He gestured to Secret Service agents to take her back to her parents.

As they approached her, she turned to the crowd who stared at her in silence.

“Can anyone answer my question?”, she asked quietly.

No answer was offered as she was escorted off the stage.

To be continued.

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© 2015 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

All of the scenarios described in this fictional account have actually been suggested or recommended by different groups (with the exception of new nuclear weapons development which is already under way).  I thought the confluence of a few of these things would make an interesting story as perceived from the viewpoint of the young girl.  There are many things I could have added – I named a few for the sake of brevity.

Guaranteeing equal rights under the law is important as is the need to make right the mistakes of our past but let’s not lose sight of the many other important things that need to be addressed at the same time.  Failure to address them will impact all of us no matter what rights we have earned or have been bequeathed and regardless of any affronts that have been corrected.

The media and politicians seem singular in focus when it comes to things that are easily solved.

I think the things that are not so easily solved are equally important.

What do you think?

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

Politics–Converting a No Into a Yes

It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. - Samuel Adams

The average voter has to hear a point seven times before it registers. - Paul Weyrich

The political and media fight to convince Americans to attack Syria continues unabated, being driven by passionate pleas from President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry.

Since many people thought that their initial reaction to reject the strike seemed like a no-brainer, many have wondered why the appeal to attack Syria has not only continued unabated but appears to have escalated.

They forget that politicians are using a tried-and-true technique that commonly turns a passionate “no” into an equally rabid “yes”.

Here is what the process looks like (click on the image for a larger version of it).

It’s an iterative battle, with each proposal using information gleaned from the previous rejection and playing on people’s emotions as I wrote about in Anger: Setting Yourself Up For Manipulation. 

Occasionally, if the message recipient is particularly resistant to the message, more than one iteration may be necessary within each of the steps shown above.  In addition, some steps may occasionally have to be revisited if something new is added to the message that introduces resistance that was not previously expressed by the message recipient.

Each proposal not only factors in the responses from the previous proposal but includes a lot of additional information that is misleading or which overloads the recipient so that they cannot create the space necessary to properly evaluate the proposal before them.

Each iteration also gets more complex, the stakes get higher and the deadlines become more critical (at least as suggested by the politician).

It is a battle of attrition … one which the average citizen eventually loses (most times, not all) because they don’t have the resources to keep fighting, the information to make an intelligent choice, the time to keep fighting or because they are so worn out just trying to survive their own battles that they don’t have the energy to fight something which they have become convinced is not a big deal to them anyway.

Such techniques are not limited to the Syria issue.

In fact, it’s the common technique that politicians use to bring you to their viewpoint instead of the other way around, the latter being a more appropriate, more effective form of representation “for the people, by the people”.

Who will win the battle?

It depends on how badly each side wants to win their side of the argument and whether or not someone else enters the conversation with an idea that either works for all parties involved or derails the original intention of one side or the other.

What side of the battle are you on?

Would you recognize the signs that the other side is changing your position even if it against your fundamental beliefs?

Are you sure?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum – September 9, 2013 – Resisting the Cycle

I would be remiss in my thoughts if I didn’t share a brief musing on resisting the cycle described in this blog.

Many people are susceptible to the traps described in this blog because they respond with emotion (not to be confused with passion) instead of data / facts.

If one responds with requests for data / facts (or responds with data / facts to challenge the original assertions), one has a better opportunity to get to truths and to be able to make effective choices based more on truth and less on emotion.

People who hide behind “everyone knows this”, “it’s protected under national security” or something similar or who respond to data or requests for data with sharp emotion don’t have facts.

When they don’t have facts, they aren’t worthy of your time, your influence or your support.

And when you can use their own data against them, that’s even better.

It reminds me of the apocryphal story of the man who was solicited in the mail by a fraudulent evangelist who promised that for every $100 that the man sent to the evangelist, God would reward him in kind with 7x the donation from unexpected sources.

The man wrote on the donation card “If you truly believe that God rewards people in this way, why don’t you send me $100 a month and you will receive $700 as you describe”.

He never heard from the evangelist again.

The Alternate Reality of Politicians

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation. - Adlai E. Stevenson

I have always been fascinated by the alternate reality that politicians live in.

Take for example, The Minister of Municipal Affairs in Alberta, the Honorable Doug Griffiths.

When asked to comment on Opposition Leader Danielle Smith’s plans to hold a town hall to once again express anger over the RCMP and their seizure of weapons in flood-ravaged High River, Alberta, he made an interesting faux pas when he said:

“I am sick and tired of people like her going around trying to blame people when we’re still trying to rebuild the community. It’s fucking embarrassing.”

One of the rules of politics (and business) is that you never let your opponent see you sweat.  As the Opposition Leader, Ms. Smith is paid to represent her constituents, lead her party AND get under the skin of the government.

When a member of the government drops the f-bomb as a result of her actions, the Opposition Leader can only think “mission accomplished – what else can I do to to continue this momentum?”

In addition, in the business world, such words issued against a colleague would immediately motivate HR to investigate – requiring an apology at best or other disciplinary action, including termination.

This rarely happens in the political world.  Even when an Alberta member of government was found to be using his government influence for the benefit of his own company, he was found to be guilty of unethical behavior but not illegal.

I guess it comes down to realities and rationalization. :-(

And finally, we are always loudly trumpeting anti bullying / anti intimidation legislation, especially legislation designed to create a better world for children.

But it doesn’t matter how much legislation we pass to encourage people to treat others with respect.

People model what they see

Unfortunately, politicians can pass legislation that promotes one idea while living another and not see the difference between them.

Meanwhile in High River …..

Ms. Smith held another town hall in High River where angry residents had another opportunity to vent the anger they have vented repeatedly, the only difference being that this time, they had an opportunity to vent it towards representatives of the RCMP.

The reasons for their anger have been documented and expressed many times since June so I’m not certain that another round of yelling and screaming “moves the ball”.

In the real world, upon first capturing the essence of a problem, a problem solver says “I hear you loud and clear.  I will do what it takes to get this resolved and will report periodically on progress or ask for your opinion should we reach a point where decisions needs to be made”.

But in the political world, while Ms. Smith may have taken some actions on behalf of her constituents, she is still focused on the importance of whipping up anger.

The time for anger has passed.

What matters now is focus on execution and results that benefit the people of High River.

Continued anger and outrage in lieu of results only benefits the politician who encourages it.

In the real world, anyone who has their marching orders but continues to convene meetings to revisit their marching orders will cause people to think:

• Did this person not hear us the first time?
• Does this person not know how to solve this problem?
• We have already expressed our anger over this – why does this person want us to keep revisiting our anger instead of solving the problem?
• Why are we wasting our time rehashing everything we already know?
• If we meet enough times, maybe we need to turn our attention to the person who keeps reconvening us.

But this is not the real world.

This is politics, where anger and obfuscation are often more useful than results, as I posited here - Anger: Setting Yourself Up For Manipulation.

Ms. Smith knows what the issues are, she knows the anger that is simmering amongst the citizens and she knows what is at stake.

All that is left are measurable results that benefit citizens – the bane of many politicians.

And speaking of producing measurable results that benefit citizens ….

President Obama is insisting on the need to perform a military strike against Syria when he, John Kerry and their many political and military advisors cannot publicly identify the actual threat to America, the benefit to America in carrying out the attack or the downstream ramifications of what might happen should an attack be launched.

And as I listen to them play chess with our safety and our lives yet again, I think of the 15 close friends that I lost in the World Trade Center almost 12 years ago and the thousands of loved ones who were lost on that day and in the wars that followed.

When politicians use our security, our well being and our lives in the grand scheme of the strategy game they are engaged in, they do it with lots of upside and little downside … for themselves.

My friends cared little for the political, diplomatic and military tit for tat exercises that ultimately produced their death.

Meanwhile, the people who participated in the events that led up to 9/11 have moved on to bigger and better things, safe behind the security only available to those who play God with the lives of others.

The bottom line

The greatest challenge in our world is that the definitions of reality in the real world and the political world will continue to diverge until all politicians are forced to live the realities that they create for others.

Only then will they realize what needs to be done and how quickly it needs to be done in order to create a better world for everyone.

As James Freeman Clarke once said:

A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum

Minister Griffiths has apologized for his use of the f-bomb as noted earlier.

The US Election and the Real Energy Crisis in America

It is with a sigh of relief (of sorts) that I see the current election campaign coming to an end in America.

It has been the most partisan, nastiest, information-less, information-twisting, spin-filled, hate-filled campaign that I have witnessed in my stay on this planet.

This campaign has truly brought out the best and the worst in many citizens in the great nation that is the United States of America.

It is also a reminder to me of the real energy crisis in America.

I hear that we need to be more energy-independent, that we will have an energy crisis if we don’t figure out more ways to be self-sustaining.

However, the real energy crisis is in how much negativity we are embracing and spreading, in this election campaign and in Life in general.

A shortage of petrol is not our issue.

A surplus of vitriol is the issue.

And as long as we drive our selfish wants and needs first and foremost and we are willing to beat people physically or verbally in order to drive our agenda with little respect for the opinions, ideas and needs of others, our situation will continue to get worse and not better.

“Democrat or Republican – A Difference Not It Makes” – Yoda

As Americans go to the polls today, it doesn’t matter if the winner is Democrat or Republican.

To think that one man with a few specific party ideals will magically transform the nation overnight is naive and dangerous.

2008 should have taught people this.

The country has an inertia that cannot be changed by the actions of a few people on the Hill.

It’s like a swimmer deciding that they can change the direction of a cruise ship by swimming up to it and pushing against the bow with their pinkie finger.

What matters is that the winner, either the incumbent or the challenger, put personal and party needs behind them and do what is right for the nation.

And that we lay our personal wants and needs aside, stop yelling and hurling insults at each other and work together with our lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, to create a stronger nation and a stronger world.

Because if we don’t, our future looks far more uncertain than our present and may include some very real, very frightening scenarios.

Are you prepared to allow that to happen?

Are you willing to condemn your children to such a future – a future that you created because you couldn’t get past your disdain for the beliefs of your countryman in order to create a better world?

I didn’t think so.

But words are cheap.

Let your actions be so loud that no one can hear what you are saying.

Why wait for others to create a better world and be constantly disappointed in their efforts when we have a better chance to create one by working together and holding each other accountable and responsible for a better result?

It’s not up to “them” to create a better world.

It’s up to us.

All of us.

Create a great day – because merely having one is too passive an experience.

And if you live in America, get out and vote.  It is a privilege that many in the world will never have the opportunity to experience.

A privilege that should be the foundation of something to build a brighter future upon instead of something that divides us.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

POTUS – The Impact of Lower Standards

After the Supreme Court ruling today that President Obama’s Healthcare Plan would stand, there were three tweets from the Democrat camp that really surprised and disappointed me.

The first was from Patrick Gaspard, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee:

The second is from Greg Greene, the Media Outreach Director for the Democratic National Committee:

Being gutless about standing behind what he said, Mr. Greene deleted the tweet when it started to circulate around the web.  Unfortunately what is said on the web is forever, even if the source is deleted.

The third, and most surprising, was from President Barack Obama’s own twitter account:

Now don’t get me wrong.  Having worked on Wall St. for many years, I am not a prude by any stretch of the imagination.

However, hearing the President of the United States (or someone speaking on his behalf) imply the F word in an apparent taunt to citizens against Obamacare sets the bar to a new low in my mind.

No President is perfect and in private, Presidents have no doubt had much to say that reflected their gratitude for certain slices of America and their disappointment (or disgust) with other slices.  However, I’ve never seen a President so confident that he (or one of his representatives) would insult or taunt Americans.

In fact, in an election year, we usually see Presidents and candidates alike try to balance keeping everyone happy, promising what they can deliver while being vague and elusive (but without a definitive no) regarding things they can’t or won’t deliver.

When phrases such as “bitches”, “mother f’ers” or “still a BFD” are used, it lowers the sense of decorum and dignity of the Office of the President, the Office that represents the values and ideals that America stands for.

Values like courtesy and respect.

When the bar of respect is lowered, the nature of the dialog between the Office of the President and citizens changes also.  With the veneer of decorum and dignity further tarnished by these tweets today, I was amazed at how many people on Twitter responded by throwing the F-bomb right back at the President.

I remember a time when few people would dare say such a thing to the President.  Whether you liked the man in office or not, and whether you swore about him in the local coffee shop or bar, if you were addressing the President, you had the respect to address him as Mr. President.

It seems that once the bar was lowered by the POTUS (or his campaign staff), the level of conversation and dialog took on a new disrespectful tone.

And in times like these, with many challenges still ahead of us, this is not the time to establish a diminished standard of dialog that produces nothing but taunts and insults.

We still need to pull together and set the standard for decorum, dignity and respect to solve these challenges and to provide an example of citizenship and leadership that we want our children to model.

It is, after all, their future that we are creating, both in our choices of word and action today and the standards by which we wish them to live by tomorrow.

Standards that are established by how we live today.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS I’m aware that the twitter account for the President is shared by the President and his campaign staff and because of this, every tweet that appears isn’t necessarily typed by the President.

However, if I authorize someone to post tweets on my behalf, I make sure that such persons are in resonance with my values and beliefs since they are representing my values and beliefs with every message they post.  I am also responsible for any content that appears and if negative content is presented, I am required to address the matter appropriately.

For this reason, every tweet that appears under the President’s twitter account in fact represents the President’s values and beliefs unless he takes action to the contrary.

Democracy–Be Grateful For It

Watching the Alberta election unfold and the US election get into high gear and seeing the highlights and lowlights of the various leaders and candidates, one thing comes to mind for me.

For all the warts in the political system; controversies, disappointments and other things that drive us crazy, make us angry and everything else, democracy is still a pretty cool process to watch in action.

Despite all the stuff we like to complain about in coffee shops, on blogs, on call-in programs or in social media, we are still very fortunate to have choices and to be able to openly explore and discuss those choices.

When the Occupy Wall St. movement was going in full swing, I was told by a number of people that our system had become either too fascist, too socialist or some other “ist” word.  They fail to realize that if we were one of those “ist” societies, they would have been jailed or shot long before they could have complained about it.

Meanwhile, Albertans today and Americans in 7 months or so will go to the polls and dutifully select the candidates and parties that they think will lead them.

And while we like to complain about how a lot of politicians let us down routinely, when I think of the alternatives, I can only bow my head in gratitude for the system we have.

No system is perfect, not even democracy.

Regardless of who we elect, even the ones that disappoint us, in the end they are their because we had the opportunity and the freedom to put them there.

THAT is a pretty awesome power to consider and with it comes significant responsibility.

And so whether tomorrow provides Albertans with Premier-elect Smith or Premier Redford (apologies to the other guys who won’t make it) and whether November provides Americans with President Obama (round 2) or President-elect Romney, the power is still ours to determine the future of our province, state or country and ultimately our world.

Having made our choices and regardless of who wins, we must support the leaders and their plans to make our world a better one.  Undermining them in office prevents all of us from creating a stronger society.

If in the end we don’t like who we have chosen and what they have produced, we can change our mind again in a few years and hopefully get it right (or at least better).

This power is ours and unless we screw things up really badly, it will always be ours.

In a world where many people couldn’t dare to dream of having such power, who wouldn’t be grateful for the opportunity to have as much opportunity to change the world as we have with a single vote.

Let’s make sure that the world we create with such power helps more people see the unlimited potential in the world and their unlimited opportunity to contribute to that world.

By doing so, we will have leveraged democracy to its ultimate potential.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum: April 24th

Ms. Smith’s comments after a significant loss to Premier Redford and the Progressive Conservatives are a sign of what makes some people cynical of the system.  The correct response after losing would have been something along the lines of “We look forward to serving the people of Alberta, keeping the Redford government honest on behalf of the people of Alberta, etc” and leaving it at that.

Instead, her closing comment “We look forward to defeating the Conservatives in 2016” shows a naïve dismissal of the next four years or a focus on winning an election instead of accomplishing the best things possible for the people of Alberta.

And you know what they say about wishing your time away.

The Power of Misdirection

Many of us have been amazed by magicians over the years who do things that seemingly defy the laws that govern the universe.  Of course most of us know that the brunt of their talent lies in the art of misdirection, where our attention is focused on one thing in order to distract our attention from another.

Unfortunately, many people are using the sad case of the Trayvon Martin death to perform their own act of misdirection.

A lot of politicians, including the President, have stepped in and made this case one of national importance.  A lot of people are calling for national protests, some even able to describe blow-for-blow what happened on the night in question which is pretty amazing given the lack of witnesses. Due-process in America, which says “innocent until proven guilty” seems to have fallen by the wayside and been replaced by a national “conviction-based-on-emotion” process.

Sadly, people like Reverend Jesse Jackson use this opportunity to pull out the race card, saying things like “Blacks are under attack.  Our disparities are great.  Targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business."

These are dangerous words that fuel hate. If you want evidence of what type of hate this fuels, note this:

A handful of members from the New Black Panther Party rallied in Sanford on Saturday and offered a $10,000 reward for Zimmerman's "capture."

"It's time for us, as black men, to take justice in our own hands. If you won't give us justice, we will have to take justice," said Florida organizer Mikhail Muhammad. "An eye for an eye. A life for a life."

The President made it the ultimate case of national importance saying that if he had a son, he probably would have been just like Trayvon.

Such words introduce unnecessary complexity into an already tension-filled situation.

There appears to be hundreds of millions of legal experts in America all of a sudden who know how this case should be handled.  I wish I could say I was one of them but I am not.

Did the police handle this event properly?  I don’t know.  As is often the case with the Internet, truth is almost impossible to see in the fog of exaggeration and intentionally-incorrect information.

The person  being considered the “criminal” made a 911 call and allegedly has suffered injuries as well and so without witnesses, it is difficult to say if this was a cold-blooded, racist-driven killing or an act of self defense.

Meanwhile, groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence indicate that as many as 100,000 people in the US are shot or killed every year with a million having been killed by guns in the US since the assassination of Martin Luther King.

And yet, and no offense to the memory of the young man who was killed, the nation has become gripped with this case.

Which, for the President, is the perfect situation.

For as long as the nation is distracted by this case, fewer people are looking in his direction and wondering how we will maintain job growth, how we will address the nation’s still-growing national debt, how we will address our energy self-sufficiency needs, how Europe’s still-unsolved debt concerns affect us or what our military role on the global stage should be moving forward.

I’m not suggesting for one minute that the death of this young man is something the President delights in.  I’m sure that the President is as shocked and saddened as any of us when another young person is cut down before having a chance to live their dreams.

However, the hate-laced rhetoric that fills the media “air-waves” is not helping us get to the truth in this case nor is it helping us stay on track when it comes to solving the larger challenges in the land.

Nor do I see the President, as the leader of America, calling for calm so we can get to the answers.  This is where the importance of strong leadership manifests - to keep us on track in times of challenge instead of allowing the flames of hatred or fear to be fanned.

And so if you’re a leader with a mixed record of solving America’s problems, sad stories such as this one are the perfect misdirection - a distraction from what needs to be solved in America.

Unfortunately, as long as people are screaming at each other, threatening each other and not listening to one another, the opportunity to heal the land and make it stronger is lost.

Instead of fanning the flames of hatred and racism, which Reverend Jackson is doing and the President is accidentally (hopefully accidentally) supporting, we need calm dialog, exchange with purpose and collaboration towards a better America

But is America capable of this anymore?

I’m not sure I know the answer.

Do we have the leadership to guide us toward that better America, where deaths like Trayvon Martin’s don’t happen or people don’t get skewered before process is served?

I’m not sure I know the answer to that either. 

But what I see in our leadership today offers little comfort.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS

Food for thought:

In recent months, the media has been reporting that the President might have difficulty carrying the African American vote as a significant portion of African Americans had become disenchanted with the President’s results-to-date.

Now think of this.

On an earlier blog, I noted a disturbing quote by Hermann Göring that I will quote here:

At the Nuremberg trials, Göring made this observation:

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

When I think of the African American vote and I think of Reverend Jackson’s comment “Blacks are under attack”, I can’t help but think of Göring’s quote.

Sometimes, the more evil action is not to have committed a crime or even to support / endorse the crime but to take advantage of the crime for one’s own purposes.

It is also the most subtle of evils.

But that is conspiracy talk.

Isn’t it?

Whose Eyes Do You See the World Through?

I remember a comic strip years ago where a fraudulent evangelist was hosting one of his high-energy church services.  His altar was at the top of 10 or 15 steps and he invited people to climb the steps to be healed by him.

A man who had spent his entire life walking with the aid of crutches came forward and with great struggle, ascended up the stairs to the altar and begged for his legs to be healed.

The phony evangelist spread his hands, yelled “Be healed” at the top of his lungs and kicked the crutches out of the hands of the man.  As the man stumbled, tumbled and fell down the stairs, arms and legs going everywhere, the preacher yelled out “He’s not only walking, he’s dancing” to which the congregation responded with cries of “Praise the Lord”.

The congregation saw what the evangelist wanted them to see - they were seeing the world through his eyes.

The man with the crutches saw a different reality.

The danger of seeing the world through the vision of others

Sadly, many of us spend most of our lives looking through the eyes of others.  We seek to live values as defined by others.  We choose to accept the “knowledge” of others instead of learning it for ourselves.  We allow people to make sure that their needs are met before considering our own.  And then there is the most insidious form of opinion-forming of all; when we allow others to form our opinions of ourselves.

People in the business of manipulating others count on these things, whether they be people like the fraudulent minister described above, a corrupt business person, a politician serving his or her needs instead of the needs of their constituents or any self-serving individual.

They make it look obvious to everyone that what they proclaim is the truth and if we disagree with the truth, then there is something wrong with us.  Even worse, they convince many around us to think the same way such that eventually, many are afraid to think for themselves with the fear that their idea will be alone, defenseless and considered incorrect at best or idiotic (potentially treason-like) at worst.

What triggered this thought was President Obama’s announcement the other day that all the troops in Iraq were coming home by the end of 2011.

He reiterated that he had kept a campaign promise made during the last election to bring the troops home and now Democrat supporters are rallying around the fulfilled promise of the Commander-in-Chief.

The only problem is that this isn’t quite what happened.

The truth is that the US was negotiating with Iraq for American troops to remain in Iraq (counter to the President’s election promise), some of whom to serve as advisors to the Iraqi military and some to serve as a deterrent in case Iran wanted to cast a covetous eye in the direction of Iraq.  With the failure of the negotiations and the demand by Iraq that the soldiers leave practically immediately, the President is spinning the diplomatic defeat into “bringing the troops home as promised”.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan announced this weekend that should the US take a strong stand against Pakistan for perceived “lack of support in the war against terror”, then Afghanistan under President Karzai would immediately side against the US to defend Pakistan.

With friends like these …….

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the US taxpayer an estimated $1.3 trillion with more than 4,00 killed-in-action and 32,000 wounded.

And at the end of the human and financial sacrifice, we are being asked to embrace the positive results that the politicians see.

The only challenge is …. are there really any positive outcomes to see as a result of these actions?

Yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead, something President Obama noted as a victory the other day.

And yet, if this is the primary victory that we cite after all of the sacrifice, surely there has been no more expensive manhunt in world history than this.

Looking through different eyes

If you are a politician, you tell us that Al Qaeda’s ability to wage war has been practically destroyed while asking to be reelected as a protector of the people.

If you are military leader, you tell us that we shouldn’t be so confident, that the enemy is more complex than ever which is why you are asking for permission to build better weapons.

If you are the Department of Homeland Security, you tell us that never before have we been in greater danger at home, thus justifying the need for sweeping changes in personal and physical privacy to assure the safety of the public.

If you are someone on Wall Street making millions each year in salary and bonus, you tell us that bailouts and such are necessary to preserve the American (and in fact the global) system while tightening the screws on the average citizen who can barely survive from one day to the next.

With these and other concepts, many Americans fight each other in coffee shops, the media and lately, with #OWS, in the streets over the truth of these and other statements and their ramifications.

But whose opinions are being used as the basis for the debates?

I find when I discuss these and other issues with people, they often can’t give me their own opinions.  You can usually pick these people out – when they state an opinion and you ask “how do you know?”, they usually get very angry or frustrated and rely on intimidation instead of logic and knowledge to make their point.

In the end, many of them don’t give me their own opinion but rather, they give me someone else’s …. the world as seen through the eyes of the people striving to direct them toward someone else’s preferred outcome.

We can do better – an informed opinion is a powerful one

As long as the best opinion we have is someone else’s, we will never have a chance to create a better world.

If instead, we look through the eyes of the downtrodden, the impoverished, the homeless, the hungry, the abused, the war widow, the fatherless / motherless child whose parent was lost in war, the hardworking person who lost everything through no significant action on their part, etc. , we have an opportunity to see a different world.

Once we truly see it, only then we can change it.

It is true that everyone’s perception is influenced and tainted by their own life experiences.  However, if we are going to allow our opinions to be formed through the eyes of others, then let’s choose the eyes of people whose vision reflects a greater sense of reality for the average person.

And maybe then, even if we insist on not forming our own opinion, we can at least form an opinion of greater value than many of the opinions we are forming or that are being formed for us.

A Great Correction is sweeping through the world, carrying with it a momentum that cannot be stopped.

While it has a life of its own, I believe the result, whether negative or positive, is still within our ability to direct.

Whether we choose to make it a positive or negative result depends on whose eyes we are looking through.

Which in turn determines whether we will truly be dancing at the foot of the stairs or lying at the bottom of the stairs in a crumpled heap when the Great Correction reaches its climactic conclusion.

If nothing else, look through the eyes of our children and then ask ourselves if we are making the right choices.

And then go make them.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Occupy Wall St.–Good Intention, Wrong Address

As a Wall St. guy for many years, I look at the current Occupy Wall St. movement with a mix of sadness and concern.

I am saddened by the fact that in the most enlightened country in the world where there is more than enough to go around, there is the need for such demonstrations.

As I have often mused, we don’t have a shortage of things in the western world.  We have a shortage of appropriate distribution of the things we have.

There’s a big difference, one not easily changed by yelling at the people who have those things.

But there is something I am concerned about beyond the need for demonstrations.  I am concerned about whom we are directing the demonstrations towards.

Most People Are Not Breaking Any Laws

Despite the existence of the Bernie Madoff’s in the world, most of the people working on Wall St. are not breaking any legal laws.

Yes, it is true that some of them may be guilty of breaches of appropriate moral or ethical behavior (depending on who defines the bar for such behavior).

However, most of them are doing what almost any human being would do.

Many human beings, including many who are protesting on Wall St., would leap at the chance to make obscene amounts of money if given the chance AND the opportunity were within the confines of legality.

So it’s not a question of people and corporations making too much money.

It’s more a case of “they are making the money and I am not”.

When we really examine the root causes of the perceived evil on Wall St., there is something else that is important to consider.

We Could Have Fixed This A Long Time Ago

Many of the things that Wall St. is doing now were being done by the same individuals before the massive bailouts that saved them.  We knew about it then and bailed them out anyway without demanding significant change in how the organizations executed.  It seemed that at best, the changes we asked for in corporate execution were more around managing public perception than controlling human greed.

The bailouts therefore didn’t correct a behavior but in fact rewarded one.  It sent a message that “what you are doing and how you are doing it is fine.  You just got a little unlucky and so we’ll help you.  Carry one with business as usual”.  So when I see a President who helped architect the bailouts now siding with people who are against the bailouts and big company in general, the word hypocrite sadly comes to mind, with all respect due the Office of the President.

Business, like nature, is self-correcting.  In the grand scheme of things, when a company executes poorly or immorally, it goes out of business and others learn from the mistakes.

However, when we bail out companies, we are condoning and reinforcing a behavior.  The notion of “we needed to do this to avoid a larger catastrophe” doesn’t fly with me.  The average American is struggling anyway and the threat of a larger catastrophe hangs over us despite the money invested in the bailouts.  The bailouts didn’t prevent the inevitable – it postponed them so that they could eventually manifest on an even larger scale later.

Meanwhile the corporate behavior of the bailed out companies continues larger and more aggressively than ever.

So Who Should We Be Protesting Against?

Think of this.

Some of the protestors are protesting corporate greed, some are protesting our involvement in wars, some are fighting for better living allowances, etc.  The ones fighting the very existence of corporations don’t get my sympathy when I see them using their iPhones and iPads to get the word out.  How would they get the word out if Apple, one of the most influential corporations in the world, ceased to exist or had never existed?

However, when it comes to corporate greed, the corporate greed was rewarded, condoned and reinforced by government bailouts.

Wars, whether rightly or wrongly, are a government concern.

Living wages, whether realistic or not, are a government issue.

And with that, I would conjecture that the right place to be having a demonstration is not on Wall St. but in front of the Capitol Building, the White House and equivalent buildings across America.

It’s like having a protest on the front lawn of a lottery winner because you think lotteries are immoral.  You’re barking up the wrong tree – you need to go to the people who authorize and control the lotteries in the first place.  After all, anyone offered millions of dollars would happily accept it.

Demonstrators – A Gift From Heaven

But moving the demonstrations won’t happen as long as the President and other leaders now side with the demonstrators, fueling and encouraging their misdirected anger.

After all, if I wanted to distract people from my contribution to a problem (with the bailouts and such) or my inability to solve the current problems in the country, demonstrations against a scapegoat such as Corporate America are a gift from heaven.

In fact, if I was the President right now, I’d be issuing a sigh of relief.

I believe the President does care about solving the country’s challenges.

But if the attention of the protestors can be redirected elsewhere, at least for the time being, that’s one less thing the President needs to worry about …. especially with an election on the horizon.

If you want real change in America, you need to get to the root causes of how we got here.

And that includes holding the right people accountable, even if that means moving your protest from Wall St. to Pennsylvania Avenue.

When the true parties responsible are not held accountable, our dream of solving the difficult problems we face today are just that … dreams.

Dreams that can turn into real nightmares if we don’t solve them quickly and appropriately.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS I was reading the Declaration of the Occupation of New York and saw some things in there that reinforce my concern.

Looking at a few items in the declaration (quotes in italics) with my comment following each.

“They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give executives exorbitant bonuses.”.

Why would you be angry with the company that accepted the bailouts and not be angry with the group that issued them?

“They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.”

This is more of a matter for governments and educational institutions to solve, not big corporations.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

I admit that the press can be biased one way or the other but I am not aware that the military is preventing freedom of the press.

“They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.”

Uh … what corporations are murdering prisoners?  I missed that headline.

Now to be fair, there are some valid points in there as well.  But one needs to keep everything factual and focused, otherwise people will focus on the stuff that is not, thus discrediting the movement in its entirety and negating the opportunity to fix the stuff that needs to be fixed.