The Land of the Free, and the home of the Brave.

So, it is almost election time 2008 folks. In many states there are items on the ballot that both sides are fighting desperately to win. In the bigger picture we are voting for our next president. I admit I have been a political junkie this election. I watch  CNN almost everyday, at least for a little while. I listen to NPR everyday. And I occasionally check out the BBC to see what the overseas chatter is saying. Regardless of your political views, this is a historic election. We have had the first serious female presidential candidate, the first african american candidate, and the second female VP candidate. It is a big deal.

I was scanning the news sites this morning and saw an article that made me think a little more about this country. This actually happens quite a bit with me, but this morning I decided to write something down. Maybe it is the extra hour of sleep last night. Anyway, in Ohio a man shot at a couple of teens who were trying to deface his McCain/ Palin sign in his front yard. His is the only one on the street where he lives that has a McCain/Palin sign, and the teens were african american. Apparently, this is not the first time the teens have vandalized his political signs this year. One of the boys was hit in the arm.    

What got me thinking is how far we are from living the idea of the "Land of the free, and the home of the brave", and "All men are created equal". Here in California, Proposition 8 is the big news. If you vote yes you define marriage as ONLY between and man and a woman. A no vote allows same sex marriages to remain legal in CA. There are so many things about Prop that has me frustrated. But the main point is that one group of people are trying to deny another group of people from having certain rights, and preventing them from a pursuit of happiness. And much of the case against same sex marriage is based on religious beliefs.

Now, we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion here in the United States of America. What I see so often is one group of people wanting to secure their freedoms at the expense of another group. It could be with regards to religion, sex, money, land, etc. But one group is almost always trying to gain "power" by limiting another group's "power". As if somehow one group has a more just cause or more of a right to have x,y or z than another group. I believe that if here in America, people could recognize that they are able to say what they do, and believe in what they do because they live in America, AND that everyone else has that same right, AND they kept this in mind at all times, this would be a much better country.

Voltaire is attributed with saying, "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it". What if people kept that in mind while also trying first to understand, then to be understood, when it came to dealing with those who think differently. Imagine if our political leaders actually sat down and talked about things by trying to first understand what the other person really meant. And while doing that, actually listened to the other person, rather than partially listened and meanwhile plotted their response.

Imagine if the amount of time and effort people spend trying to prove other people wrong, was instead put into trying to actually solve problems. Wally Minto once said, "Saying someone else is wrong, does not make you right. It just makes you wrong in the other person's eyes". People seem to be more interested in being attached to the problem, or concept, than actually finding a solution. Many years ago, I learned a very powerful idea. Don't be attached to how you think things should be. Sometimes, another way IS better. It would be a great day if our political, business, and religious leaders started with the end in mind. Not the end of the world, but with the idea that they should all be doing everything they can do to create situations that love all children of all species for all time. PERIOD. And they need to keep the idea that their actions will affect people 7 generations from now. If people could stop always trying to be correct, and work towards helping ALL people in this country so that would could manifest a true land of the free, home of the brave and allow, and even encourage all people to develop liberty, happiness, and sustainable abundant growth.          

The need to reconsider how we design things.

Today on NPR I was listening to an interview with Edward M. Libby, the new CEO of AIG, regarding AIG and the 120 billion dollar bailout they received from the Government and the changes they are looking to make. Libby was using the metaphor of AIG, and all big companies, being a battleship or aircraft carrier. His point was that AIG is a huge corporation and changing course is not a quick process, so do not expect any big changes in the near future.

Since I had spent part of the afternoon, before listening to this NPR piece, reading about systems theory and cradle to cradle design theory, I was in the mindset of redesigning processes. As I thought about the metaphor of a large ship being unable to adjust course quickly, I thought that this is a design problem. I also think the whole economic situation is a design problem, but that is for another entry. Anyway, if a large ship is too unwieldy and not an effective model, what might be a better paradigm? From a business context I was thinking of a group of smaller more agile watercraft as a metaphor. If a flotilla had a single boat in charge, its location would be fairly unimportant regarding its ability to provide leadership and communication. I can see a corporation resembling a flock of sandpipers moving in unison across the beach.

The lead boat could be at the front of the flotilla, in the middle, or on one side. And if a boat in another location of the group spots an issue, it could signal a warning to the lead boat. Then the lead boat could either relay the information, or each smaller boat could call for a whole group movement in a crisis. The model is more reactive, more fluid, and each boat can have a certain degree of individuality within the the larger model.

To continue the metaphor, each small boat could be a department or branch of a corporation. With a greater degree of agility and responsiveness, each boat and the entire flotilla, would be able to respond to a variety of challenges with a very different results to that of an aircraft carrier. It would take a degree of thought to redesign a corporation to resemble a flotilla of smaller crafts rather than the gigantic vessels they currently represent. But what are these CEO's getting paid millions of dollars to do? If they put in some effort into retooling and redesigning their corporations, I believe this huge corporations could weather financial situations like we are facing currently. I feel that it is time for our corporations to go through an evolutionary process. It is time to change.    

Here is the link to the piece, and another related story:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/22/corner_office_liddy_transcript/

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/22/too_big_reich/

It is a design issue.

It is the final rush of political hoopla leading up to the election for our new president. I must say, I was a little upset with comments by Gov. Palin about Obama associating with Ayers. At a time in United States history when we are facing economic collapse, having our military be overstretched, and people loosing their homes, having politicians sling fear-based comments rather than offering us plans for their presidency is shameful.

My position, is that we need new designs for how America functions and operates. This would not be easy. However, continuing to follow the easy path will continue to produce erratic solutions, and an unstable economy and political structure. People, all of us, need to realize that in order to truly change the way our country is progressing will take effort on all of our parts. We cannot leave the future of our country to the politicians, and wall street alone. These people are the definition of doing the same old thing and getting the same results. There are answers out there.

William McDonough in his book Cradle to Cradle, provides a new vision for how we think about how we do things. He and his co-author use the ecological model of there is no waste in nature. In nature the waste of one organism is food for another. We need to take that concept and apply it to how we do business, build everything, run our government, and design our infrastructure. It will take work, take time, and effort. However, in the long run, we will end up with a dynamic and abundantly sustainable framework to lead our country, and the world, in to the future. It is time for a dramatically different way to approach how we do things.  

walking the road

Yesterday I was headed to town to the local market on my way to feed a friend's horse. As I was coming into Pescadero flats I saw a young man walking on the side of the road headed my way. He was hitchhiking, and as I slowed down to pick him up I saw that he had a small sign that said "When did we stop trusting people". He works at one of the local Environmental Education programs here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. 

We talked for the 15 minute ride down to Pescadero, his name is Mark and he is in his early 20's. He was so full of idealism and the energy to change the world. I remember being that way. After I dropped him off and continued on my way to do some food shopping, I began thinking about why that energy seems to fade over the years, I know it has in me to an extent. Had I learned that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down and simply adjusted my actions, or had I spent the time to learn to see from other sides of topics I was passionate about? 

When I was Mark's age I was definitely opinionated. I railed on against things like hunting, evangelical Christianity, human rights abuses. Now keep in mind I did not actually do much to change those things, I was more of a vocal challenger of ideas than an activist. I still have a lot to say on the world today, and often come across as a tad passionate about stories in the news, just as my girlfriend.

So, why do many of us "loose" our passion or energies around topics we are so passionate about as young people? Is it taught to us? Are we domesticated as we grow older? If you look around at the people in your life, how many are still as energized about life, and sucking the marrow out of each day? I had a chance to work with a group of 6th graders last week and being around their energy and zest for being a kid was an amazing tonic to be around. I highly recommend hanging out with kids for everyone who is feeling a little jaded about life.   

Tunes in my head.

     There are times when a tune or song will enter my head, apparently from nowhere. It may be an actual piece of music, or it might be a "tune" of thought about a specific thought. This morning it was the tune of electric cars.

  On NPR this morning, there was a piece about the California Legislature voting on whether to reduce the number of zero emission vehicles required for car manufactures to sell in California each year. It got me thinking about about people's resistance to change, even if the change has the potential to lead to positive growth and sustainability. Growth and sustainability is another thought trial I have traveled down, but that is for another journey.  

  So, main stream industry and government seem to be resisting changing our current paradigm of operation to a system that could make substantial changes in the quality of our environment, and as a result the quality of our lives.

  Now, I know that moving away from a fossil fuel based economy could reduce the amount of short term economic gain for numerous companies. And, I also believe that if people, organizations, and governments decide to make a change, and do so intentionally, a change away from fossil fuels to alternate power sources could not only make drastic improvements in our environment, they could also create opportunities for abundant economic sustainability.

  Do I know what the changes would look like? No. However, in the creative process, you do not always get to know what the answers will be at the onset of the process. I do feel that we, and by we I mean all of us, need to make a decision to change.
     The word "Decide" originally came from the word meaning "to cut off from". We need to cut off from the path of relying on fossil fuels as the main source of our energy needs IF we as a people want to develop in a sustainable manner. Just some thoughts born of a tune on electric cars. See you on the trails.