If I could figure out how to make a living from this, I’d spend my whole life promoting One Laptop South Florida. That’s how much I love it; that’s how much I believe in what we’re doing.
Let me take this opportunity to thank Whole Foods in general and particularly Damien Garcia, Team Leader of the Whole Foods store in Naples, for throwing a “5% Day” for us, and for our partner Big Brothers Big Sisters.
You’ll be hearing a lot more about Whole Foods and Damien in future entries of this blog.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Paul Newman
The following article is from Ethics Newsline, from the Institute for Global Ethics, which I have recommended once or twice (or a dozen times) in the past. It's about Paul Newman, my favorite Bleeding-Heart Capitalist. I share it with you because toward the end of the article there is a lead I'm about to follow that will tie in nicely with the Adam Smith Award for Socially Conscious Businesses, which The Naples Institute will be unveiling quite soon. The lead is the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. I'll report back when I've learned more.
Wall Street Journal piece recalls Newman’s involvement with activism, urges business leaders to keep giving even in tough times
NEW YORK Last month’s death of Paul Newman at age 83 promoted two proponents of corporate giving to examine the role of ethics and philanthropy in the actor’s career.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, John C. Whitehead and Peter L. Malkin recalled: “Paul used to joke that he had to keep making movies to support all of his philanthropic projects — and that wasn’t too far from the truth. To millions he’s perhaps better known as the face of Newman’s Own food products than he is for his superb performances in ‘The Hustler,’ ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ ‘The Verdict,’ and scores of other films.”
“What many may not know,” Whitehead and Malkin note, “is that he donated 100 percent of post-tax profits and royalties from the Newman’s Own company to charities worldwide — more than $250 million to date. He was also passionate about the Hole in the Wall Camps he helped found for children with life-threatening illnesses, and he was deeply involved with a variety of other innovative nonprofit organizations including his most recent undertaking, the Safe Water Network.”
Whitehead and Malkin were among the corporate bigwigs Newman approached in 1998 to form the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, which has grown to include more than 150 CEO members from 150 corporations and is responsible for more than $10 billion in annual corporate giving.
Whitehead and Malkin concluded the piece by urging business leaders to learn from Newman’s example and maintain or increase corporate giving programs in today’s turbulent economic times.
Wall Street Journal piece recalls Newman’s involvement with activism, urges business leaders to keep giving even in tough times
NEW YORK Last month’s death of Paul Newman at age 83 promoted two proponents of corporate giving to examine the role of ethics and philanthropy in the actor’s career.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, John C. Whitehead and Peter L. Malkin recalled: “Paul used to joke that he had to keep making movies to support all of his philanthropic projects — and that wasn’t too far from the truth. To millions he’s perhaps better known as the face of Newman’s Own food products than he is for his superb performances in ‘The Hustler,’ ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ ‘The Verdict,’ and scores of other films.”
“What many may not know,” Whitehead and Malkin note, “is that he donated 100 percent of post-tax profits and royalties from the Newman’s Own company to charities worldwide — more than $250 million to date. He was also passionate about the Hole in the Wall Camps he helped found for children with life-threatening illnesses, and he was deeply involved with a variety of other innovative nonprofit organizations including his most recent undertaking, the Safe Water Network.”
Whitehead and Malkin were among the corporate bigwigs Newman approached in 1998 to form the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, which has grown to include more than 150 CEO members from 150 corporations and is responsible for more than $10 billion in annual corporate giving.
Whitehead and Malkin concluded the piece by urging business leaders to learn from Newman’s example and maintain or increase corporate giving programs in today’s turbulent economic times.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Customer Service and your Organization
As most of my regular readers know, I’m a customer service author and keynote speaker: it’s been said I wrote the book on customer service, but that’s only half the story. I wrote the two books on the topic. At least, my favorite two.
So imagine my surprise when I learned last Wednesday that it was customer service week. Customer service week!
Every week should be customer service week! What is wrong with people!?!
*****
I find the following rich in ironic humor.
I was reading a local paper this weekend and found a story on a local “nonprofit” (knowing how this group operates, I beg to differ) that offers coaching to the boards of other citizen sector orgs.*
Here’s the funny part, speaking of customer service: “Physician, heal thyself!”
The first thing I want to know when I hire an expert consultant is, does this person live what she teaches? If you’re a wealth advisor, are you wealthy? If you’re an ethics trainer, how ethical are you? If you’re a management consultant and teach corporate culture, how healthy is your own firm’s culture?
So if you teach boards how to function most effectively, my question for you is, how well-run is your own organization?
For instance, do you know if your executive director is seen by her peers at other influential organizations around town as unprofessionally discourteous? Are you aware that your organization’s #2 is downright surly?
Do you know that quite a number of leaders in the nonprofit community resent your organization and even have a disparaging name for it, "The Predatory Foundation," because word on the street is that your organization is quite savvy at shaking affluent donors down for money, but much less dedicated to actually helping the community you are charged to serve?
Actually, to this organization’s credit, they do know that their #2 is a Bitch with a capital B.** I spoke with last-year’s board president. She confided as much without my having to name this “lady” first. I also spoke with another board member about this, who confirmed her colleague’s assessment.
…Which of course brings me to the question, “If you know one of your staff is unpleasant and making enemies all over town, why don’t you fire her post-haste?”
I'm not timid, so I actually asked both board members that very question. The former president said, "She'll be retiring in two years."
Okay, guys, give her early retirement!
That is today’s leadership, culture, and customer service lesson. If you have jerks representing your organization, fire them. Don’t feel bad about it, because we all choose our attitude, and jerks can choose to be nice if they like. So can them, right away: today. No warning - we learn to be nice before grade school; we shouldn't need a warning! - just get it done.
Only then should you advise others on how they can run their own organization.
The Predatory Foundation lacks authenticity. Steer clear, at least until they get their own house in order.
*There are a number of groups around town that do that, so hopefully I’m being vague enough that this group won’t feel implicated. In fact, their leaders will probably read this and cluck-cluck-cluck at the “other” organization I’m writing about.
**If she were a man, I would call her a Dick, so please don’t come down on me as sexist.
So imagine my surprise when I learned last Wednesday that it was customer service week. Customer service week!
Every week should be customer service week! What is wrong with people!?!
*****
I find the following rich in ironic humor.
I was reading a local paper this weekend and found a story on a local “nonprofit” (knowing how this group operates, I beg to differ) that offers coaching to the boards of other citizen sector orgs.*
Here’s the funny part, speaking of customer service: “Physician, heal thyself!”
The first thing I want to know when I hire an expert consultant is, does this person live what she teaches? If you’re a wealth advisor, are you wealthy? If you’re an ethics trainer, how ethical are you? If you’re a management consultant and teach corporate culture, how healthy is your own firm’s culture?
So if you teach boards how to function most effectively, my question for you is, how well-run is your own organization?
For instance, do you know if your executive director is seen by her peers at other influential organizations around town as unprofessionally discourteous? Are you aware that your organization’s #2 is downright surly?
Do you know that quite a number of leaders in the nonprofit community resent your organization and even have a disparaging name for it, "The Predatory Foundation," because word on the street is that your organization is quite savvy at shaking affluent donors down for money, but much less dedicated to actually helping the community you are charged to serve?
Actually, to this organization’s credit, they do know that their #2 is a Bitch with a capital B.** I spoke with last-year’s board president. She confided as much without my having to name this “lady” first. I also spoke with another board member about this, who confirmed her colleague’s assessment.
…Which of course brings me to the question, “If you know one of your staff is unpleasant and making enemies all over town, why don’t you fire her post-haste?”
I'm not timid, so I actually asked both board members that very question. The former president said, "She'll be retiring in two years."
Okay, guys, give her early retirement!
That is today’s leadership, culture, and customer service lesson. If you have jerks representing your organization, fire them. Don’t feel bad about it, because we all choose our attitude, and jerks can choose to be nice if they like. So can them, right away: today. No warning - we learn to be nice before grade school; we shouldn't need a warning! - just get it done.
Only then should you advise others on how they can run their own organization.
The Predatory Foundation lacks authenticity. Steer clear, at least until they get their own house in order.
*There are a number of groups around town that do that, so hopefully I’m being vague enough that this group won’t feel implicated. In fact, their leaders will probably read this and cluck-cluck-cluck at the “other” organization I’m writing about.
**If she were a man, I would call her a Dick, so please don’t come down on me as sexist.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Paul Newman, 1925-2008
To most people, Paul Newman was one of the greatest actors of all time; granted, I loved his acting, too. But to me, his importance on this earth comes from his giving - hundreds of millions of dollars from his for-benefit corporation Newman's Own. He is an inspiration to me as few others will ever be.
For more on Mr. Newman, visit www.savvycapitalist.blogspot.com
For more on Mr. Newman, visit www.savvycapitalist.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Social Justice and Leadership by Edward Morton
The caliber of talent attracted to The Naples Institute (www.institutenaples.org) continues to amaze me. One of our newer members, Ed Morton, wrote the piece below, which he was kind enough to share.
Take out mention in the last two paragraphs of Collier County, and this speaks for all humanity, across the globe.
Social Justice and Leadership
By: Edward Morton
Leadership has been read about and analyzed from every possible point of view. My belief, however, is that when reduced to its essence, leadership can be defined by one word, influence. It is through influencing others that we collectively achieve the more meaningful things in life. Leadership is not a trait but a process whereby individuals influence others’ opinions. By influencing the opinions of others, leaders effect change within their organization and community.
Social justice has been defined in a variety of ways. It’s most common definition is the creation of an economic and social environment which protects and insures human dignity. Some seek to define social justice in terms of the redistribution of wealth while others in terms of nothing more than economic opportunity.
When many of us think of justice, we tend to think of what we may claim from others. This is an individualistic and narcissistic view of justice. But there is another instinct which has a broader sense of justice – social justice which shifts our thinking from what we claim from others to what we owe to each other.
Social justice is about duties and responsibilities, about building a better more compassionate community. Within this enlightened perspective, social justice is the obligation which falls upon us individually and collectively to meet the reasonable expectations of this community’s citizens so that they may realize and exercise their fundamental human rights. If social justice is to be a hallmark of this community, then we must fulfill our obligation in social justice to all of our citizens in terms of healthcare, housing, education and general welfare.
Our community and its leadership are undergoing a test. It is a test in the sense that we will be measured by the comprehensiveness of both our concerns and our actions. We will be judged by those that come after us in terms of what we actually accomplish and not our patronizing rhetoric.
All of us who constitute local leadership must look beyond special interest claims and partisan differences to unite this community in a new commitment to meet the economic and social conditions of our citizens.
We must recognize as was suggested by Adam Smith in his seminal treatise on ethics and capitalism, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, that our individual and collective existence is best protected by adopting a commitment to social justice. Smith implied that by avoiding the obligations imposed upon us by social justice we legitimize an ever expanding role of the state. Eventually, sufficient wealth is confiscated by the state to destroy free enterprise which alone gives rise to our freedom and liberty. Thus, it is in our own enlightened self interest that we join together as leaders (from both the public and private sectors) of this community and address the inequities brought upon by the unique challenges of living in “paradise”. We are indeed blessed that we live in a community where so many willingly give of their time and treasure; however, private initiatives will not suffice.
In the 21st century, as our social order has become increasingly complex, we must recognize that a proper sense of mutual responsibility requires, no demands, a greater presence of our local governmental leaders in insuring that all of Collier County’s citizens realize their human potential.
Let we who call ourselves the leaders of this community take a vow. A vow that we will do all that we can, individually and collectively, to dedicate ourselves to addressing the social and economic needs of all who call Collier County their home. That we from this day forward, will influence those around us to believe that what we do unto others we do unto ourselves. Social justice demands nothing less.
Take out mention in the last two paragraphs of Collier County, and this speaks for all humanity, across the globe.
Social Justice and Leadership
By: Edward Morton
Leadership has been read about and analyzed from every possible point of view. My belief, however, is that when reduced to its essence, leadership can be defined by one word, influence. It is through influencing others that we collectively achieve the more meaningful things in life. Leadership is not a trait but a process whereby individuals influence others’ opinions. By influencing the opinions of others, leaders effect change within their organization and community.
Social justice has been defined in a variety of ways. It’s most common definition is the creation of an economic and social environment which protects and insures human dignity. Some seek to define social justice in terms of the redistribution of wealth while others in terms of nothing more than economic opportunity.
When many of us think of justice, we tend to think of what we may claim from others. This is an individualistic and narcissistic view of justice. But there is another instinct which has a broader sense of justice – social justice which shifts our thinking from what we claim from others to what we owe to each other.
Social justice is about duties and responsibilities, about building a better more compassionate community. Within this enlightened perspective, social justice is the obligation which falls upon us individually and collectively to meet the reasonable expectations of this community’s citizens so that they may realize and exercise their fundamental human rights. If social justice is to be a hallmark of this community, then we must fulfill our obligation in social justice to all of our citizens in terms of healthcare, housing, education and general welfare.
Our community and its leadership are undergoing a test. It is a test in the sense that we will be measured by the comprehensiveness of both our concerns and our actions. We will be judged by those that come after us in terms of what we actually accomplish and not our patronizing rhetoric.
All of us who constitute local leadership must look beyond special interest claims and partisan differences to unite this community in a new commitment to meet the economic and social conditions of our citizens.
We must recognize as was suggested by Adam Smith in his seminal treatise on ethics and capitalism, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, that our individual and collective existence is best protected by adopting a commitment to social justice. Smith implied that by avoiding the obligations imposed upon us by social justice we legitimize an ever expanding role of the state. Eventually, sufficient wealth is confiscated by the state to destroy free enterprise which alone gives rise to our freedom and liberty. Thus, it is in our own enlightened self interest that we join together as leaders (from both the public and private sectors) of this community and address the inequities brought upon by the unique challenges of living in “paradise”. We are indeed blessed that we live in a community where so many willingly give of their time and treasure; however, private initiatives will not suffice.
In the 21st century, as our social order has become increasingly complex, we must recognize that a proper sense of mutual responsibility requires, no demands, a greater presence of our local governmental leaders in insuring that all of Collier County’s citizens realize their human potential.
Let we who call ourselves the leaders of this community take a vow. A vow that we will do all that we can, individually and collectively, to dedicate ourselves to addressing the social and economic needs of all who call Collier County their home. That we from this day forward, will influence those around us to believe that what we do unto others we do unto ourselves. Social justice demands nothing less.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Volunteerism on 9/11 - 7 years later
As my regular readers can gather - and as you can see by my membership on the board of Volunteer Collier (link to the right of this column) - I am a firm believer in the benefits of volunteering to help out in one's community... or even traveling to do it abroad.
Below is a clipping from today's Naples Daily News.
NAPLES — A wave of volunteerism swept through the country right after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
From giving blood to becoming involved with community service groups, Americans turned out in droves to make a difference.
Seven years and a sluggish economy later, some wonder if the volunteer fervor has died down.
“People do get discouraged and disheartened (in bad times),” said Sheila Phillips, administrative director for NCH’s Community Blood Center. “We are very cognizant of the challenges that are facing everyone.”
For the rest of the story: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/sep/10/maintaining-volunteer-spirit-after-9-11-remains-ch/
Below is a clipping from today's Naples Daily News.
NAPLES — A wave of volunteerism swept through the country right after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
From giving blood to becoming involved with community service groups, Americans turned out in droves to make a difference.
Seven years and a sluggish economy later, some wonder if the volunteer fervor has died down.
“People do get discouraged and disheartened (in bad times),” said Sheila Phillips, administrative director for NCH’s Community Blood Center. “We are very cognizant of the challenges that are facing everyone.”
For the rest of the story: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/sep/10/maintaining-volunteer-spirit-after-9-11-remains-ch/
Sarah Palin: Teddy Roosevelt or Dan Quayle?
Fighting for social justice, the credo of The Naples Institute, is ingrained in my very soul. You can't stay completely out of the political fray if you really care about making the world a more just place.
I have been nominated for a fellowship with a prestigious international organization. One of the conditions of acceptance is that I will be forced to stifle my political views. I have agreed to live by that, but they haven't chosen me yet. This may be my last chance to weigh in on the 2008 election!
Collier County, home of Naples, has 100,000 registered Republicans, 50,000 Democrats, and 50,000 Independents. Suffice it to say, I have quite a number of friends who are going to vote for McBush this year. As Mom always says, "What are ya gonna do?" I'm certainly not going to let it get me down.
I'm voting for Obama because I think he will do better for our economy and national defense - for one thing, he is dedicated on finding Osama Bin Laden and fixing the mess we've allowed to fester in Afghanistan. Bush has had long enough, so I'm not going to support his crony.
The following is an email exchange with a dear friend here in Naples.
The Friend passed this along:
Who Am I? Guess who. I am under 45 years old, I love the outdoors,I hunt,I am a Republican reformer,I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,I have many children, I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office. Did you guess? I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.
My reply:
_____, come now! TR was one of the best presidents we've ever had, a charismatic leader. He was an outcast from his own party because he was a progressive who wanted to advance human rights and fight big business's Robber Barons and trusts (monopolies), not the opposite. New York was one of the most populous states in the Union; Alaska only has 700,000 people.
By contrast, Sarah Palin is the worst VP pick since Dan Quayle. Here are a few of her faults:
* She is anti-woman's rights and anti-environment.
* Among her anti-woman's rights acts was selecting a police chief for her town who charged rape victims for their rape kits. The state of Alaska had to pass a law against that specifically because of Sarah Palin's town.
* Her lack of experience means that McCain can no longer use his best weapon against Obama, which is Obama's lack of experience. (Thankfully!)
Sarah Palin repeatedly lies about her acts as governor. For instance:
* She claims she fired her chef, but all she did was reassign her. That lady still works for the state of Alaska.
* She claims she is a reformer, but she hired a lobbyist who got her town of 6,500 people $27 million while she was mayor.
* She claims she sold the governor's plane on eBay, but the state actually sold it through a plane broker.
She is not only a liar; she is also corrupt.
* She charged her state $17,000 for lodging and a per diem for nights she spent in her own home while governor.
John McCain used to be a man to admire, despite his stand against a woman's right to choose. Bush and Rove broke his spirit in 2000. Now he employs many of the consultants who reported to Rove and helped orchestrate his defeat in the 2000 primary season against Bush. He has voted with Bush 95% of the time, but he claims to be a reformer. He is a third term for Bush, and nothing more.
I love ya to death, _____ - you're one of my best friends in Naples. But you've got to change the channel from FOX "News" to something a little less biased. Might I suggest the Daily Show and Colbert Report? They're biased, but at least they don't pretend to be "fair and balanced."
Go Obama!
I have been nominated for a fellowship with a prestigious international organization. One of the conditions of acceptance is that I will be forced to stifle my political views. I have agreed to live by that, but they haven't chosen me yet. This may be my last chance to weigh in on the 2008 election!
Collier County, home of Naples, has 100,000 registered Republicans, 50,000 Democrats, and 50,000 Independents. Suffice it to say, I have quite a number of friends who are going to vote for McBush this year. As Mom always says, "What are ya gonna do?" I'm certainly not going to let it get me down.
I'm voting for Obama because I think he will do better for our economy and national defense - for one thing, he is dedicated on finding Osama Bin Laden and fixing the mess we've allowed to fester in Afghanistan. Bush has had long enough, so I'm not going to support his crony.
The following is an email exchange with a dear friend here in Naples.
The Friend passed this along:
Who Am I? Guess who. I am under 45 years old, I love the outdoors,I hunt,I am a Republican reformer,I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,I have many children, I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office. Did you guess? I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.
My reply:
_____, come now! TR was one of the best presidents we've ever had, a charismatic leader. He was an outcast from his own party because he was a progressive who wanted to advance human rights and fight big business's Robber Barons and trusts (monopolies), not the opposite. New York was one of the most populous states in the Union; Alaska only has 700,000 people.
By contrast, Sarah Palin is the worst VP pick since Dan Quayle. Here are a few of her faults:
* She is anti-woman's rights and anti-environment.
* Among her anti-woman's rights acts was selecting a police chief for her town who charged rape victims for their rape kits. The state of Alaska had to pass a law against that specifically because of Sarah Palin's town.
* Her lack of experience means that McCain can no longer use his best weapon against Obama, which is Obama's lack of experience. (Thankfully!)
Sarah Palin repeatedly lies about her acts as governor. For instance:
* She claims she fired her chef, but all she did was reassign her. That lady still works for the state of Alaska.
* She claims she is a reformer, but she hired a lobbyist who got her town of 6,500 people $27 million while she was mayor.
* She claims she sold the governor's plane on eBay, but the state actually sold it through a plane broker.
She is not only a liar; she is also corrupt.
* She charged her state $17,000 for lodging and a per diem for nights she spent in her own home while governor.
John McCain used to be a man to admire, despite his stand against a woman's right to choose. Bush and Rove broke his spirit in 2000. Now he employs many of the consultants who reported to Rove and helped orchestrate his defeat in the 2000 primary season against Bush. He has voted with Bush 95% of the time, but he claims to be a reformer. He is a third term for Bush, and nothing more.
I love ya to death, _____ - you're one of my best friends in Naples. But you've got to change the channel from FOX "News" to something a little less biased. Might I suggest the Daily Show and Colbert Report? They're biased, but at least they don't pretend to be "fair and balanced."
Go Obama!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Crucible of Leadership
The following is from Jim Fisher, one of my co-Founders at The Naples Institute. Jim knows leadership like no one else, so I found this email, directed at a third party but shared with me, to be particularly telling.
The person Jim writes to is a retired Naval officer who is running for local public office. He asked Jim for advice on his run; here is the result.
Dear ____,
You have brought value added to whatever you have done. You're creative, energetic, and, yes, impatient, but we need that in people who run for public office. [I'm a big believer in the efficacy of impatience!]
You are not only a proven leader in the military sense but more importantly, I do believe, a proven leader in the volunteer sense.
When I was a psychologist with Honeywell, I tried to get some executives who led with position power rather than persuasion, practicing the leadership of browbeating people into submission, to do volunteer work.
Volunteers have no other power than what associates give them. This accrues from the power of their personality, the social skills of connecting, and ideas.
None took me up on the challenge.
I saw very good engineers who became program managers, which is a complex administrative challenge, eventually win promotion to being directors or above.
As soon as they became directors, they became horses asses not unlike the horses asses who had been their bosses.
What is ironic about this is that these same people often came to me for counsel complaining about the cavalier and insensitive style of their bosses, only to replicate them almost to perfection once elevated.
You have had command in the military. A US Army Colonel has great power because he is the same as a US Navy Captain, and a captain of a ship is God incarnate, and no one differs with him. Believe me, I know from the experience of being a member of the Flag Ship of the Six Fleet in the Mediterranean.
You went beyond that status of position power to extensive volunteer work in this community over the last several years, and have proven to me that you've learned to command without protocol or authority. Instead, you have led with your ideas, intellect, persuasive argument, and excellent organization skills.
If you want to truly master the art of leadership, try leading volunteers. For this alone any career person should give her time.
The person Jim writes to is a retired Naval officer who is running for local public office. He asked Jim for advice on his run; here is the result.
Dear ____,
You have brought value added to whatever you have done. You're creative, energetic, and, yes, impatient, but we need that in people who run for public office. [I'm a big believer in the efficacy of impatience!]
You are not only a proven leader in the military sense but more importantly, I do believe, a proven leader in the volunteer sense.
When I was a psychologist with Honeywell, I tried to get some executives who led with position power rather than persuasion, practicing the leadership of browbeating people into submission, to do volunteer work.
Volunteers have no other power than what associates give them. This accrues from the power of their personality, the social skills of connecting, and ideas.
None took me up on the challenge.
I saw very good engineers who became program managers, which is a complex administrative challenge, eventually win promotion to being directors or above.
As soon as they became directors, they became horses asses not unlike the horses asses who had been their bosses.
What is ironic about this is that these same people often came to me for counsel complaining about the cavalier and insensitive style of their bosses, only to replicate them almost to perfection once elevated.
You have had command in the military. A US Army Colonel has great power because he is the same as a US Navy Captain, and a captain of a ship is God incarnate, and no one differs with him. Believe me, I know from the experience of being a member of the Flag Ship of the Six Fleet in the Mediterranean.
You went beyond that status of position power to extensive volunteer work in this community over the last several years, and have proven to me that you've learned to command without protocol or authority. Instead, you have led with your ideas, intellect, persuasive argument, and excellent organization skills.
If you want to truly master the art of leadership, try leading volunteers. For this alone any career person should give her time.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Choice or Life...? Two Different Conversations
Belonging to a think tank has its advantages, among which are stimulating conversation. This morning some of my "junta" and I were discussing teen dating habits (all present are parents). The topic wandered to the matter of "Pro-Choice" or "Pro-Life." Particularly apropos this election season.
Before I continue, allow me to say that, because I am a man, I shouldn't even have a say in this matter. Let's let women decide what is best for women. I would be happy to abide by their decision.
Seriously. Men should butt out.
Sadly, many men choose to butt in. So, I'll share my views.
The problem is that, as is often the case, the two sides rarely even address the other's concern. To some of us, the issue is a woman's basic human right to control her own body. Rarely does the question of right-or-wrong in ending an embryo or fetus's life come into the conversation. The other side talks about the embryo or fetus's right to be born, and ignores the woman in whose body it is growing.
The thing is, women will get abortions regardless of the law. If McCain is elected and the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs Wade, those who can afford it will fly to Canada or Europe to have their abortions done safely; or if the law allows and the family doctor is also a friend, as in my grandmother's case in the late 1930's, her doctor will claim that the woman is mentally unfit to keep the baby; he will then provide a legal abortion close to home. Those woman who do not have the connections or the money will opt for a back-alley coat-hanger abortion, or perhaps carry the child to term and leave it in a dumpster. This is the Law of Unintended Consequences; as with all laws of nature, there is no legislating it away.
Since Bill Clinton took office, the proponents of choice have at least said, as Obama so masterfully put it last night, that we should all be able to agree that we should have fewer unwanted pregnancies in the first place. This places him in the center. Now McCain has to choose to join him there, thus making this a non-issue in the election, or stay on the far right.
As with many Americans, I would like to see an end to abortion - through prior birth control - rather than through legislating away a woman's right to privacy and choice.
There is indeed a way for us all to win in this divisive issue. If only we had the wisdom to listen to what our opponents have to say about the matter.
Before I continue, allow me to say that, because I am a man, I shouldn't even have a say in this matter. Let's let women decide what is best for women. I would be happy to abide by their decision.
Seriously. Men should butt out.
Sadly, many men choose to butt in. So, I'll share my views.
The problem is that, as is often the case, the two sides rarely even address the other's concern. To some of us, the issue is a woman's basic human right to control her own body. Rarely does the question of right-or-wrong in ending an embryo or fetus's life come into the conversation. The other side talks about the embryo or fetus's right to be born, and ignores the woman in whose body it is growing.
The thing is, women will get abortions regardless of the law. If McCain is elected and the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs Wade, those who can afford it will fly to Canada or Europe to have their abortions done safely; or if the law allows and the family doctor is also a friend, as in my grandmother's case in the late 1930's, her doctor will claim that the woman is mentally unfit to keep the baby; he will then provide a legal abortion close to home. Those woman who do not have the connections or the money will opt for a back-alley coat-hanger abortion, or perhaps carry the child to term and leave it in a dumpster. This is the Law of Unintended Consequences; as with all laws of nature, there is no legislating it away.
Since Bill Clinton took office, the proponents of choice have at least said, as Obama so masterfully put it last night, that we should all be able to agree that we should have fewer unwanted pregnancies in the first place. This places him in the center. Now McCain has to choose to join him there, thus making this a non-issue in the election, or stay on the far right.
As with many Americans, I would like to see an end to abortion - through prior birth control - rather than through legislating away a woman's right to privacy and choice.
There is indeed a way for us all to win in this divisive issue. If only we had the wisdom to listen to what our opponents have to say about the matter.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Hiroshima, August 7, 1945
On this day in 1945, we dropped the first of two atom bombs on Japan. World War II ended days later.
My friend and co-founder of The Naples Institute, Jim Fisher, shared a piece about this event from his memoir-as-novel, In The Shadow of The Courthouse. He was a child at the time, and questioned the jubilation of the adults around him as they heard of this bombing of civilians.
My immediate reaction to any perceived criticism of the atom-bombing of Japan in 1945 is quite visceral. My blood began to boil as I started reading Jim's missive. There are some truths the defense of which I take as a defense of all I hold dear: the sanctity of our Constitution, the righteousness of the Union in the Civil War, the treason of the Confederacy, its leaders, and its entire population in the same, the need for Good nations to act swiftly and decisively to protect the weak from genocide, as in the Balkans in the 90's or Darfur today, and the bombing of Japan in 1945 among them. The fact that there are those among us who question my positions triggers the "fight" part of my fight-or-flight animal response in a way that rarely happens in other situations. After all, I am an adult, and in most other cases I can control my baser emotions, such as rage or jealousy.
I have taught English to hundreds of adult Japanese students, and the fact that they look upon themselves as innocent victims in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki appalls me. To this day, Japanese school children are not taught of the horrors of the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, the Korean "Comfort Women," or any of the many other atrocities perpetrated by their citizen-soldiers. They have no idea that their military equipped hundreds of thousands of women and children with hedge-clippers and garden rakes to combat the invading Americans; that all of them were expected to fight to the death for their emperor. Indeed, they are taught in school that the US was the aggressor in WWII because we cut them off from oil and rubber imports - why is never mentioned - and their nation would have crumbled had they not "defended" themselves. This travesty is akin to German Holocaust denial, but on an intentional cultural-wide scale.
The bombing of Japan is all the more important to me because of my own father's experience. He turned 18 in November 1944, and signed up for service that same day. He went through basic training to head off to Europe, but had an operation that kept him stateside. His buddies sent him letters from the front. When he had finally recovered, he was redirected to prepare for the invasion of Japan instead. He knew very well that he likely would have been among those estimated hundreds of thousands or one million American servicemen expected to die in the case of an invasion of the Japanese home islands. In all probability, I write this blog entry only because Truman ordered bombs dropped on Japan.
...But it has always bothered me that we chose cities rather than military targets. I haven't got an answer for why that was okay. And so, as I read Jim's piece, I ordered myself to simmer down and let his words sink in. They didn't change my mind about how we ended the war, but they did reinforce my belief that we erred morally in choosing civilian targets.
As always, your thoughts are warmly accepted: ted@naplessocialaction.org
My friend and co-founder of The Naples Institute, Jim Fisher, shared a piece about this event from his memoir-as-novel, In The Shadow of The Courthouse. He was a child at the time, and questioned the jubilation of the adults around him as they heard of this bombing of civilians.
My immediate reaction to any perceived criticism of the atom-bombing of Japan in 1945 is quite visceral. My blood began to boil as I started reading Jim's missive. There are some truths the defense of which I take as a defense of all I hold dear: the sanctity of our Constitution, the righteousness of the Union in the Civil War, the treason of the Confederacy, its leaders, and its entire population in the same, the need for Good nations to act swiftly and decisively to protect the weak from genocide, as in the Balkans in the 90's or Darfur today, and the bombing of Japan in 1945 among them. The fact that there are those among us who question my positions triggers the "fight" part of my fight-or-flight animal response in a way that rarely happens in other situations. After all, I am an adult, and in most other cases I can control my baser emotions, such as rage or jealousy.
I have taught English to hundreds of adult Japanese students, and the fact that they look upon themselves as innocent victims in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki appalls me. To this day, Japanese school children are not taught of the horrors of the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, the Korean "Comfort Women," or any of the many other atrocities perpetrated by their citizen-soldiers. They have no idea that their military equipped hundreds of thousands of women and children with hedge-clippers and garden rakes to combat the invading Americans; that all of them were expected to fight to the death for their emperor. Indeed, they are taught in school that the US was the aggressor in WWII because we cut them off from oil and rubber imports - why is never mentioned - and their nation would have crumbled had they not "defended" themselves. This travesty is akin to German Holocaust denial, but on an intentional cultural-wide scale.
The bombing of Japan is all the more important to me because of my own father's experience. He turned 18 in November 1944, and signed up for service that same day. He went through basic training to head off to Europe, but had an operation that kept him stateside. His buddies sent him letters from the front. When he had finally recovered, he was redirected to prepare for the invasion of Japan instead. He knew very well that he likely would have been among those estimated hundreds of thousands or one million American servicemen expected to die in the case of an invasion of the Japanese home islands. In all probability, I write this blog entry only because Truman ordered bombs dropped on Japan.
...But it has always bothered me that we chose cities rather than military targets. I haven't got an answer for why that was okay. And so, as I read Jim's piece, I ordered myself to simmer down and let his words sink in. They didn't change my mind about how we ended the war, but they did reinforce my belief that we erred morally in choosing civilian targets.
As always, your thoughts are warmly accepted: ted@naplessocialaction.org
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
"Co-opetition"
I have a new favorite term from my friend Lois Bolin, Ph.D., co-founder of Naples Backyard History (www.naplesbackyardhistory.org). Instead of "competition," organizations in the citizen sector are wise to practice "co-opetition." I love it!
I'll tell you, the caliber of people Jane and I have fallen in with since moving to Naples is mind-boggling. (And no, it isn't because a friend came up with a catchy term.)
Building on the concept of co-opetition...
Everything Jane, Michael, and I have done with Naples Social Action.org over the past 1.5 years has been to bring the citizen sector together. We've encountered a lot of push-back from folks stuck in the old-fashioned paradigm, but rather than butt our heads against the wall of these human obstacles, we try instead to just move our attention to those who have a more enlightened view.
I see this "Us versus Them" attitude as akin to jealousy and/or mistrust - and you know what they say about mistrust:
Those who do not trust others are probably not trustworthy themselves.
My view of cooperation is that we in the citizen sector aren't fighting over donors and dollars. The actual fight is to get a potential donor to open his wallet in the first place. As the largest study of its kind from Indiana U. showed, people of high net worth who donate at all always do so to multiple causes - so the term "my donor" is nothing more than flagrant ignorance.
Lois and I both come from a business background, so this accountability concept (and its practice) is easy for us. Through The Naples Institute, we're creating an Ashoka Support Network here in Naples. Ashoka (www.ashoka.org) is committed to tearing down the artificial, imaginary gap between "nonprofits" and "for-profits." We're actually all on a continuum, with straight-out charities on one end, profit-only corporations on the other, and plenty of organizations all in between. We all have to operate by the same rules of accountability and results, though, in order to run well. Sadly, many in the citizen sector have no understanding of this - or no education in it.
...For that matter, many in the "for-profit" realm don't get it, either. What is a consultant gonna do?
I'll tell you, the caliber of people Jane and I have fallen in with since moving to Naples is mind-boggling. (And no, it isn't because a friend came up with a catchy term.)
Building on the concept of co-opetition...
Everything Jane, Michael, and I have done with Naples Social Action.org over the past 1.5 years has been to bring the citizen sector together. We've encountered a lot of push-back from folks stuck in the old-fashioned paradigm, but rather than butt our heads against the wall of these human obstacles, we try instead to just move our attention to those who have a more enlightened view.
I see this "Us versus Them" attitude as akin to jealousy and/or mistrust - and you know what they say about mistrust:
Those who do not trust others are probably not trustworthy themselves.
My view of cooperation is that we in the citizen sector aren't fighting over donors and dollars. The actual fight is to get a potential donor to open his wallet in the first place. As the largest study of its kind from Indiana U. showed, people of high net worth who donate at all always do so to multiple causes - so the term "my donor" is nothing more than flagrant ignorance.
Lois and I both come from a business background, so this accountability concept (and its practice) is easy for us. Through The Naples Institute, we're creating an Ashoka Support Network here in Naples. Ashoka (www.ashoka.org) is committed to tearing down the artificial, imaginary gap between "nonprofits" and "for-profits." We're actually all on a continuum, with straight-out charities on one end, profit-only corporations on the other, and plenty of organizations all in between. We all have to operate by the same rules of accountability and results, though, in order to run well. Sadly, many in the citizen sector have no understanding of this - or no education in it.
...For that matter, many in the "for-profit" realm don't get it, either. What is a consultant gonna do?
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Laptop South Florida
Laptop South Florida (LSF) is the name of the organization we are forming to bring OLPC laptop computers and our own unique* teacher-training to the children of Immokalee this summer. The pilot is going strong, under the guidance of Naples Social Action - especially of Jane, who is lead teacher and acting executive director of LSF.
I suppose if Jane is acting executive director, that makes me acting chairman of the board - even though we haven't officially named a board yet, I have gathered 11 folks to be on it.
In filing for our 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, I had to produce a budget. I sat down and came up with a $2.9 million plan, mostly for teacher-trainer pay and to cover the cost of laptops. There is minimal administrative and overhead built into it, mostly in the form of fundraising and marketing: it takes money to make money, even (or especially?) in the citizen sector.
$2.9 million may seem like a lot of money, but our plan is to give computers and training to tens of thousands of kids in South Florida over the next few years. If you look at the money this community generates for charity each year, it's a drop in the bucket. The Philharmonic Center for the Arts ("The Phil"), for instance, is said to have a $90 million endowment. Art is important for a community, absolutely. But not nearly as vital as education. These children we're working with are the artists, museum curators, and wealthy philanthropists of the future. They'll be our doctors, lawyers, inventors, political and business leaders.
Or we can leave them as they are, and half of these wonderful, brilliant, inspired children won't graduate from high school. Some will join gangs and deal drugs. Others will get pregnant at 16. Two or three million dollars isn't such a huge amount when viewed from that perspective, is it? We should actually set our sights much higher - but this will do for a start.
*I have resigned from the board of the Waveplace Foundation, for reasons of my own. True, Waveplace taught our teachers how to use software called Squeek eToys, which we are using in the Immokalee pilot. We are grateful for their help, and they have been paid for providing it.
I call our training unique, though, because it became apparent early on that Waveplace training, while adequate for the teachers, was not geared toward 8- and 9-year-olds. Our teachers had to completely recreate the training course for these children. What they have done in this summer program uses eToys, yes. But it is dramatically different from - and far improved over - the course that Waveplace created.
Squeek and eToys are both open-source, Linux-based, software programs. Waveplace did not invent them, and because they're open source, everyone in the world "owns" them. It's one of those commie Internet things that I don't fully understand, but that I do enjoy.
I suppose if Jane is acting executive director, that makes me acting chairman of the board - even though we haven't officially named a board yet, I have gathered 11 folks to be on it.
In filing for our 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, I had to produce a budget. I sat down and came up with a $2.9 million plan, mostly for teacher-trainer pay and to cover the cost of laptops. There is minimal administrative and overhead built into it, mostly in the form of fundraising and marketing: it takes money to make money, even (or especially?) in the citizen sector.
$2.9 million may seem like a lot of money, but our plan is to give computers and training to tens of thousands of kids in South Florida over the next few years. If you look at the money this community generates for charity each year, it's a drop in the bucket. The Philharmonic Center for the Arts ("The Phil"), for instance, is said to have a $90 million endowment. Art is important for a community, absolutely. But not nearly as vital as education. These children we're working with are the artists, museum curators, and wealthy philanthropists of the future. They'll be our doctors, lawyers, inventors, political and business leaders.
Or we can leave them as they are, and half of these wonderful, brilliant, inspired children won't graduate from high school. Some will join gangs and deal drugs. Others will get pregnant at 16. Two or three million dollars isn't such a huge amount when viewed from that perspective, is it? We should actually set our sights much higher - but this will do for a start.
*I have resigned from the board of the Waveplace Foundation, for reasons of my own. True, Waveplace taught our teachers how to use software called Squeek eToys, which we are using in the Immokalee pilot. We are grateful for their help, and they have been paid for providing it.
I call our training unique, though, because it became apparent early on that Waveplace training, while adequate for the teachers, was not geared toward 8- and 9-year-olds. Our teachers had to completely recreate the training course for these children. What they have done in this summer program uses eToys, yes. But it is dramatically different from - and far improved over - the course that Waveplace created.
Squeek and eToys are both open-source, Linux-based, software programs. Waveplace did not invent them, and because they're open source, everyone in the world "owns" them. It's one of those commie Internet things that I don't fully understand, but that I do enjoy.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Property Tax Break vs. High Property Values. You can't have both.
Scenario: You sell real estate, you own real estate you'd like to sell, you're a developer who'd like to sell homes, or you run the local Chamber of Commerce and want to help the local economy, which has been in a deep slump lately.
Question: Should you support Florida Constitutional Amendment 5, which will eliminate the state property tax (which is devoted to public education), or should you oppose it and try to keep the tax?
Answer: If you are short-sighted and look at property values from a very narrow perspective, vote for the constitutional change. This logic holds that people will be more likely to buy homes in Florida if there is no property tax. More buyers, of course, equals a tighter market, which equals higher prices.
If you understand economics in general and property values in particular, vote against Amendment 5 and keep the property tax. Why? Because the #1 influence on the value of a home is the quality of the local public schools.
Better schools = higher property values. That's more money in your pocket, plain and simple.
Amendment 5 claims to "replace" the tax revenue generated by property taxes with revenue from elsewhere - probably a 1% increase on the state sales tax. Experts report that the result would actually be a $9 billion shortfall. This isn't merely changing where the money comes from. It's going to bring in less money, and our schools - and home values - will suffer accordingly.
Why should affluent senior citizens care? Poor schools = low-wage jobs = high crime.
I have gotten active in the all-important drive to bring high-wage jobs to Southwest Florida. I'm senior partner in a new venture fund (http://www.niavg.com/) which is dedicated to exactly that, so my money is literally right where my mouth is. Why? Because higher-wage jobs will transform our economy, thus taking pressure off of the social-service nonprofits Naples Social Action works so hard to help. We'll have fewer "working poor," a term I find obscene - if you work an honest week, you shouldn't be poor come Friday!
The thing is, the first question a high-wage employer asks before opening up shop in an area is, "How well-educated is the workforce?" The first question a potential high-wage/high-skill employee asks before relocating to an area is, "Will my children get the kind of education that a parent like me demands?" If the answer to either of these is No, then guess who ain't moving to Southwest Florida? And guess what that means for our property values?
"Common sense is the rarest of commodities," as a sage once said. So too with understanding of economics. Please, don't get bamboozled by people who themselves aren't very bright. If someone tries selling you on Amendment 5, remember the swampland scams that Florida used to be famous for, and back away - quickly.
Your wealth depends on it.
Question: Should you support Florida Constitutional Amendment 5, which will eliminate the state property tax (which is devoted to public education), or should you oppose it and try to keep the tax?
Answer: If you are short-sighted and look at property values from a very narrow perspective, vote for the constitutional change. This logic holds that people will be more likely to buy homes in Florida if there is no property tax. More buyers, of course, equals a tighter market, which equals higher prices.
If you understand economics in general and property values in particular, vote against Amendment 5 and keep the property tax. Why? Because the #1 influence on the value of a home is the quality of the local public schools.
Better schools = higher property values. That's more money in your pocket, plain and simple.
Amendment 5 claims to "replace" the tax revenue generated by property taxes with revenue from elsewhere - probably a 1% increase on the state sales tax. Experts report that the result would actually be a $9 billion shortfall. This isn't merely changing where the money comes from. It's going to bring in less money, and our schools - and home values - will suffer accordingly.
Why should affluent senior citizens care? Poor schools = low-wage jobs = high crime.
I have gotten active in the all-important drive to bring high-wage jobs to Southwest Florida. I'm senior partner in a new venture fund (http://www.niavg.com/) which is dedicated to exactly that, so my money is literally right where my mouth is. Why? Because higher-wage jobs will transform our economy, thus taking pressure off of the social-service nonprofits Naples Social Action works so hard to help. We'll have fewer "working poor," a term I find obscene - if you work an honest week, you shouldn't be poor come Friday!
The thing is, the first question a high-wage employer asks before opening up shop in an area is, "How well-educated is the workforce?" The first question a potential high-wage/high-skill employee asks before relocating to an area is, "Will my children get the kind of education that a parent like me demands?" If the answer to either of these is No, then guess who ain't moving to Southwest Florida? And guess what that means for our property values?
"Common sense is the rarest of commodities," as a sage once said. So too with understanding of economics. Please, don't get bamboozled by people who themselves aren't very bright. If someone tries selling you on Amendment 5, remember the swampland scams that Florida used to be famous for, and back away - quickly.
Your wealth depends on it.
School Vouchers: Here we go again!
Following are excerpts from a June, 2005 article on the previous effort to destroy the Florida public school system and the US Constitutional decree for the separation of church and state. The good guys won that round because of the Florida constitution.
The result? Jeb Bush and his right-wing zealot cronies are now attempting to re-write the Florida constitution, apparently believing that if you don't like losing the game, change the rules. Even worse, they are using misleading language in two ballot initiatives (7 & 9) to do it - so even if one ammendment fails, the other may make it past duped voters.
From June, 2005:
...in a case that will determine whether the state can continue diverting much-needed tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private, mostly church-run schools.
In November 2004, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program represented a scheme by which government funds were used to support religious institutions, in violation of Florida's 137-year-old Constitutional prohibition specifically barring aid to religious institutions. The appeals court upheld two earlier decisions striking down vouchers that were issued by a three-judge panel of the same court and by the Leon County Circuit Court.
"What is at stake in this case is one of the very essential founding principles of our government - that no one should be forced through the tax system to finance religious institutions whose beliefs they may not share," said attorney Ron Meyer, who is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit. "Of course, it is profoundly important that parents have the right to send their children, at their own expense, to schools of their choice, including schools that share their religious values. However, taxpayers should not be forced to finance religious institutions with which they do not agree."
For the whole story: http://www.aclu.org/religion/govtfunding/16266prs20050606.html
The result? Jeb Bush and his right-wing zealot cronies are now attempting to re-write the Florida constitution, apparently believing that if you don't like losing the game, change the rules. Even worse, they are using misleading language in two ballot initiatives (7 & 9) to do it - so even if one ammendment fails, the other may make it past duped voters.
From June, 2005:
...in a case that will determine whether the state can continue diverting much-needed tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private, mostly church-run schools.
In November 2004, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program represented a scheme by which government funds were used to support religious institutions, in violation of Florida's 137-year-old Constitutional prohibition specifically barring aid to religious institutions. The appeals court upheld two earlier decisions striking down vouchers that were issued by a three-judge panel of the same court and by the Leon County Circuit Court.
"What is at stake in this case is one of the very essential founding principles of our government - that no one should be forced through the tax system to finance religious institutions whose beliefs they may not share," said attorney Ron Meyer, who is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit. "Of course, it is profoundly important that parents have the right to send their children, at their own expense, to schools of their choice, including schools that share their religious values. However, taxpayers should not be forced to finance religious institutions with which they do not agree."
For the whole story: http://www.aclu.org/religion/govtfunding/16266prs20050606.html
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Midnight Basketball
As I've mentioned on my previous blog, I'm friends with a diverse number of individuals, some of whom are way to the left of me, others even farther to the right (to be fair, I'm not as centrist as I used to be). A number of us, the leadership group of CFI Naples, carry on a wide-ranging email conversation at all times - there are roughly a score of us, six or seven of whom weigh in regularly on whatever the topic of the hour happens to be.
The most recent exchange related to "cradle-to-grave" socialism versus corporate welfare. One member of our group said that when the government helps a company, the stockholders (you and me, if we choose) benefit. He then went on to say, "How do you invest in Midnight Basketball?" What follows is my reply:
The way we invest in Midnight Basketball is by paying taxes or, as I'd much prefer, giving money to charity.* Our return on investment is when the kids involved don't carjack us; instead, some of them will go to college and one of the companies you mentioned will hire them to invent a breakthrough product that will make our lives better and bring the stockholders a nice fat profit.
*What I'm trying to have a little, tiny influence over through my nonprofit efforts is to increase the total dollar amount that individuals and corporations donate. With sufficient funds from the private sector, there would be no need for the government to provide most social services. Not only can the citizen ("nonprofit") sector often operate more efficiently than the government, but by choosing where we'd like our money to go, we are applying the strength of the market to said programs. If people want to invest in midnight basketball or food stamps, they can. If they'd rather invest in Junior Achievement and cancer research, then they can do that instead.
The most recent exchange related to "cradle-to-grave" socialism versus corporate welfare. One member of our group said that when the government helps a company, the stockholders (you and me, if we choose) benefit. He then went on to say, "How do you invest in Midnight Basketball?" What follows is my reply:
The way we invest in Midnight Basketball is by paying taxes or, as I'd much prefer, giving money to charity.* Our return on investment is when the kids involved don't carjack us; instead, some of them will go to college and one of the companies you mentioned will hire them to invent a breakthrough product that will make our lives better and bring the stockholders a nice fat profit.
*What I'm trying to have a little, tiny influence over through my nonprofit efforts is to increase the total dollar amount that individuals and corporations donate. With sufficient funds from the private sector, there would be no need for the government to provide most social services. Not only can the citizen ("nonprofit") sector often operate more efficiently than the government, but by choosing where we'd like our money to go, we are applying the strength of the market to said programs. If people want to invest in midnight basketball or food stamps, they can. If they'd rather invest in Junior Achievement and cancer research, then they can do that instead.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Kennedy in Defense of "Liberal"
Funny, I've never thought of myself as a liberal, and I've never been a big fan of JFK's. But today a friend shared this quote, which somehow I'd never read before. Enjoy!
"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.' - John F. Kennedy
"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.' - John F. Kennedy
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Florida Schools Improve Dramatically!
When I began paying attention to the rankings of Florida schools a few years ago, we were at a disgraceful 48 out of 50 - third from the worst.
When I checked again, I believe 2 years ago, we were at 35. Incredible improvement, yet still abysmal.
Now we're 14, improved from 31 just last year! At this rate, we'll be able to be proud of our public schools in just another year or two. To be fair, though, I am proud of the state's strides already. That's an amazing clean-up job in a short period of time.
If every state in the union competed to be in the top 3 every year, I think we'd have nothing to complain about in our schools in a very short time. Just getting educators, voters, and legislators to set top-ranking as a goal... that is the challenge.
If someone can be the best, why not you? And when it comes to educating our children, what is more important?
The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) ... June 16, 2008
Guest Opinion: Eric J. Smith: Student achievement rises in Florida
By Eric J. Smith
With the help of Florida's hard-working teachers, a decade ago we began building the nation's leading accountability system. Improving student achievement was difficult, because no indicator of student performance existed. However, the results are clear. Florida has improved 17 places to 14th in the nation, according to Education Week's Quality Counts report. Florida's ability to improve student achievement each year rests on the... [click for full story] http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_theme=aggdocs&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=LNNB&p_docid=121695451B2BD750&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%20121695451B2BD750%20)&p_multi=FMNB&p_nbid=O55H4CVEMTIxNjIyOTgzNC40MjEzNDoxOjU6andlc3Q
When I checked again, I believe 2 years ago, we were at 35. Incredible improvement, yet still abysmal.
Now we're 14, improved from 31 just last year! At this rate, we'll be able to be proud of our public schools in just another year or two. To be fair, though, I am proud of the state's strides already. That's an amazing clean-up job in a short period of time.
If every state in the union competed to be in the top 3 every year, I think we'd have nothing to complain about in our schools in a very short time. Just getting educators, voters, and legislators to set top-ranking as a goal... that is the challenge.
If someone can be the best, why not you? And when it comes to educating our children, what is more important?
The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) ... June 16, 2008
Guest Opinion: Eric J. Smith: Student achievement rises in Florida
By Eric J. Smith
With the help of Florida's hard-working teachers, a decade ago we began building the nation's leading accountability system. Improving student achievement was difficult, because no indicator of student performance existed. However, the results are clear. Florida has improved 17 places to 14th in the nation, according to Education Week's Quality Counts report. Florida's ability to improve student achievement each year rests on the... [click for full story] http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_theme=aggdocs&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=LNNB&p_docid=121695451B2BD750&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%20121695451B2BD750%20)&p_multi=FMNB&p_nbid=O55H4CVEMTIxNjIyOTgzNC40MjEzNDoxOjU6andlc3Q
Monday, July 14, 2008
Magical thinking on education, vouchers
By Diane Roberts
St. Petersburg Times Sunday, June 15, 2008
This week's summit — as sponsors call it — of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education might seem like a mere "school choice" pep rally with a bonus excursion to the Magic Kingdom, but it's happening at a time when the Legislature has decimated school funding. Moreover, this is an election year.
Headliners at the conference at the Disney World Contemporary Resort include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, a slew of usual suspects from the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, plus Barbara Bush and state Senator Dan Webster, whose valedictory piece of legislation was a resolution instructing Floridians to pray away hurricanes on June 1.
And, of course, Jeb Bush himself.
Three of the nine amendments Floridians will vote on this November will determine the course of public education in this state. Amendment 5 gets rid of local property taxes designated for schools, requiring the Legislature to raise sales taxes or perform some other voodoo economics to make up the funding gap. Amendments 7 and 9 would demolish Florida's separation of church and state and repeal the part of the Constitution that calls for a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education." The state would simply be obligated to provide education "fulfilled at a minimum and not exclusively" by public schools.
Out of office ain't out of power — Amendments 7 and 9 come courtesy of Jeb Bush and his band of true believers.
Some history: While he was governor, Jeb Bush drove an ideological tank through Florida's schoolyards, taking command of education from pre-K to postgrad, imposing the FCAT, penalizing "failing" schools, declaring war on the teachers' unions and forcing vouchers upon the state.
But Florida courts deemed his "Opportunity Scholarships" unconstitutional on the grounds that they violate the separation of church and state, channeling taxpayer money to religious schools and because they undermined the requirement to have a uniform public education system. When he left office in 2007, it looked like Jeb Bush had lost.
But if at first you don't succeed, start your own right wing think tank. Raise money. Work with allies in Florida's Republican oligarchy to stack the relevant boards and commissions with your supporters. If vouchers are unconstitutional, then change the Constitution.
Instead of working through the elected Legislature, voucher proponents turned to the unelected Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. The commission, a 25-member panel made up of gubernatorial and legislative appointees, appears only every 20 years. It is charged with examining the state's budget structure and coming up with new ways to find the money to address the state's needs.
Installed on this year's commission were a few token Democrats, such as former Senator Les Miller and former FSU president and American Bar Association president Sandy D'Alemberte, but mostly trusty conservatives like former House Speaker Allan Bense and Bush administration retreads Brian Yablonski and Greg Turbeville, among others. The commission's chief Bush cheerleader was, however, Patricia Levesque, Jeb's former deputy chief of staff and executive director of his foundation.
Levesque is hostile to public education. She's a graduate of Bob Jones, the Talibanesque South Carolina college where mingling between the genders is policed, dancing is verboten and interracial dating was banned until 2000. But like her boss and his allies, Levesque couches her educational radicalism in the kinder, gentler, more politic language of "reform," "options" and "competition." She and other voucher advocates are smart enough to game the system. Amendment 9, the one that guts the constitutional imperative to provide a "high quality" education in favor of minimal funding for schools, also orders that 65 percent of school funding go toward "classroom instruction."
Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, points out that most schools already spend 65 percent or more of their budgets on instruction, and the amendment language is just a "Trojan horse" to sneak vouchers inside our education system. "They had to obfuscate the purposes of both Amendments 7 and 9. Most people don't want vouchers."
Indeed, a recent Quinnipiac University poll shows that only 38 percent would approve a vouchers-only amendment. But if you throw in the spurious "65 percent solution," 63 percent of voters would say yes. Bushites on the commission are shocked! shocked! at accusations of sneaky tactics. Greg Turbeville, who proposed Amendment 9, says that since it deals with both spending and policy, "It made perfect sense to combine the two."
Now, you may be wondering why a commission charged by the Constitution to periodically examine "the tax structure," assess revenue sources and figure out the state's fiscal needs, is fooling around with education policy. Levesque and Turbeville argue that since education is a huge part of the Florida budget, education is fair game for the commission. "School spending is well within the realm of the budget commission," says Turbeville.
Dexter Douglass, the well-known Tallahassee lawyer, constitutional expert, and former general counsel to Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles, begs to differ: "They don't have authority to do what they did." The Florida Education Association concurs. It has filed a lawsuit contending that the commission overreached in its attempts to do an end run around both the courts and the legislative process.
But however the legal challenge shakes out, however the vote goes in November, the problem remains what to do with Florida's increasingly stressed, grievously impoverished schools. Jeb Bush argues that parents should be able to remove their children from bad schools and use state money to send them to private or parochial institutions. In a May 6 opinion piece for the Times, the former governor claimed that with vouchers "all schools got better."
This is magical (perhaps "ideological" is a better word) thinking. Taking money away from one of the worst-funded school systems in the nation to feed private schools — schools which do not have to test their students, administer the FCAT, or meet minimum standards, schools which are not accountable to the taxpayers whose money they spend — is hardly a prescription for improvement. We've had a strong separation of church and state since 1838; dissolving that opens up not so much a can of worms as the whole worm farm.
The Bushite argument goes, don't worry, the Legislature will continue to fund public schools — sort of. These are the same people who said they'd "hold education harmless" this year, then turned around and cut $891-million. Dexter Douglass isn't buying it: "Jeb Bush set out to destroy public education in Florida." Given his determination to shift public money to private institutions, it sure begins to look like that.
Diane Roberts, a former member of the Times editorial board, is professor of English at Florida State University.
St. Petersburg Times Sunday, June 15, 2008
This week's summit — as sponsors call it — of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education might seem like a mere "school choice" pep rally with a bonus excursion to the Magic Kingdom, but it's happening at a time when the Legislature has decimated school funding. Moreover, this is an election year.
Headliners at the conference at the Disney World Contemporary Resort include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, a slew of usual suspects from the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, plus Barbara Bush and state Senator Dan Webster, whose valedictory piece of legislation was a resolution instructing Floridians to pray away hurricanes on June 1.
And, of course, Jeb Bush himself.
Three of the nine amendments Floridians will vote on this November will determine the course of public education in this state. Amendment 5 gets rid of local property taxes designated for schools, requiring the Legislature to raise sales taxes or perform some other voodoo economics to make up the funding gap. Amendments 7 and 9 would demolish Florida's separation of church and state and repeal the part of the Constitution that calls for a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education." The state would simply be obligated to provide education "fulfilled at a minimum and not exclusively" by public schools.
Out of office ain't out of power — Amendments 7 and 9 come courtesy of Jeb Bush and his band of true believers.
Some history: While he was governor, Jeb Bush drove an ideological tank through Florida's schoolyards, taking command of education from pre-K to postgrad, imposing the FCAT, penalizing "failing" schools, declaring war on the teachers' unions and forcing vouchers upon the state.
But Florida courts deemed his "Opportunity Scholarships" unconstitutional on the grounds that they violate the separation of church and state, channeling taxpayer money to religious schools and because they undermined the requirement to have a uniform public education system. When he left office in 2007, it looked like Jeb Bush had lost.
But if at first you don't succeed, start your own right wing think tank. Raise money. Work with allies in Florida's Republican oligarchy to stack the relevant boards and commissions with your supporters. If vouchers are unconstitutional, then change the Constitution.
Instead of working through the elected Legislature, voucher proponents turned to the unelected Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. The commission, a 25-member panel made up of gubernatorial and legislative appointees, appears only every 20 years. It is charged with examining the state's budget structure and coming up with new ways to find the money to address the state's needs.
Installed on this year's commission were a few token Democrats, such as former Senator Les Miller and former FSU president and American Bar Association president Sandy D'Alemberte, but mostly trusty conservatives like former House Speaker Allan Bense and Bush administration retreads Brian Yablonski and Greg Turbeville, among others. The commission's chief Bush cheerleader was, however, Patricia Levesque, Jeb's former deputy chief of staff and executive director of his foundation.
Levesque is hostile to public education. She's a graduate of Bob Jones, the Talibanesque South Carolina college where mingling between the genders is policed, dancing is verboten and interracial dating was banned until 2000. But like her boss and his allies, Levesque couches her educational radicalism in the kinder, gentler, more politic language of "reform," "options" and "competition." She and other voucher advocates are smart enough to game the system. Amendment 9, the one that guts the constitutional imperative to provide a "high quality" education in favor of minimal funding for schools, also orders that 65 percent of school funding go toward "classroom instruction."
Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, points out that most schools already spend 65 percent or more of their budgets on instruction, and the amendment language is just a "Trojan horse" to sneak vouchers inside our education system. "They had to obfuscate the purposes of both Amendments 7 and 9. Most people don't want vouchers."
Indeed, a recent Quinnipiac University poll shows that only 38 percent would approve a vouchers-only amendment. But if you throw in the spurious "65 percent solution," 63 percent of voters would say yes. Bushites on the commission are shocked! shocked! at accusations of sneaky tactics. Greg Turbeville, who proposed Amendment 9, says that since it deals with both spending and policy, "It made perfect sense to combine the two."
Now, you may be wondering why a commission charged by the Constitution to periodically examine "the tax structure," assess revenue sources and figure out the state's fiscal needs, is fooling around with education policy. Levesque and Turbeville argue that since education is a huge part of the Florida budget, education is fair game for the commission. "School spending is well within the realm of the budget commission," says Turbeville.
Dexter Douglass, the well-known Tallahassee lawyer, constitutional expert, and former general counsel to Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles, begs to differ: "They don't have authority to do what they did." The Florida Education Association concurs. It has filed a lawsuit contending that the commission overreached in its attempts to do an end run around both the courts and the legislative process.
But however the legal challenge shakes out, however the vote goes in November, the problem remains what to do with Florida's increasingly stressed, grievously impoverished schools. Jeb Bush argues that parents should be able to remove their children from bad schools and use state money to send them to private or parochial institutions. In a May 6 opinion piece for the Times, the former governor claimed that with vouchers "all schools got better."
This is magical (perhaps "ideological" is a better word) thinking. Taking money away from one of the worst-funded school systems in the nation to feed private schools — schools which do not have to test their students, administer the FCAT, or meet minimum standards, schools which are not accountable to the taxpayers whose money they spend — is hardly a prescription for improvement. We've had a strong separation of church and state since 1838; dissolving that opens up not so much a can of worms as the whole worm farm.
The Bushite argument goes, don't worry, the Legislature will continue to fund public schools — sort of. These are the same people who said they'd "hold education harmless" this year, then turned around and cut $891-million. Dexter Douglass isn't buying it: "Jeb Bush set out to destroy public education in Florida." Given his determination to shift public money to private institutions, it sure begins to look like that.
Diane Roberts, a former member of the Times editorial board, is professor of English at Florida State University.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
"Three Cups of Tea"
I had the pleasure to meet Greg Mortenson here in Naples last winter when he appeared for a WGCU interview and books signing at Mina Hemingway's* bookstore (which, let me add, I highly recommend.)
I met Greg and then I read his best-seller, "Three Cups of Tea," about his adventures building schools in the most remote Pakistani and Afghan villages.
I'm thunderstruck by this humble man's world-shaking accomplishments. So much so that I proudly nominated him for an Ashoka Fellowship just last week (http://www.ashoka.org/). "Dr. Greg," as he is often called in the Himalayas, is on track for a Nobel Peace Prize. You read it here first.
To learn more, read this Op-Ed Column in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13kristof.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Excerpted from the NYT piece:
"So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration."
Militarily, I'm no dove. But this article - and the book itself - makes you think. It seems Mortenson has found a more effective way of keeping us safe from terrorism.
*Yes, that's Earnest's granddaughter. Welcome to Naples.
I met Greg and then I read his best-seller, "Three Cups of Tea," about his adventures building schools in the most remote Pakistani and Afghan villages.
I'm thunderstruck by this humble man's world-shaking accomplishments. So much so that I proudly nominated him for an Ashoka Fellowship just last week (http://www.ashoka.org/). "Dr. Greg," as he is often called in the Himalayas, is on track for a Nobel Peace Prize. You read it here first.
To learn more, read this Op-Ed Column in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13kristof.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Excerpted from the NYT piece:
"So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration."
Militarily, I'm no dove. But this article - and the book itself - makes you think. It seems Mortenson has found a more effective way of keeping us safe from terrorism.
*Yes, that's Earnest's granddaughter. Welcome to Naples.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Social Entrepreneurs
The line between for-profits and non-profits is disintegrating.
Investments in people [from The Financial Times]
By Sarah Murray
Published: June 7 2008 02:19
The next few years could see a shift in emphasis in the non-profit world – at least, if the work of organisations supporting entrepreneurs is an indication of the direction the sector is taking. “Philanthropy is one of those wonderfully antique words that we will stop using in 10 to 15 years,” says Bill Drayton, who founded Ashoka and pioneered the idea of identifying and investing in entrepreneurs. “The business/social boundaries are simply collapsing.”
As models such as venture philanthropy, microfinance and social entrepreneurship are embraced by non-profit organisations, and corporations start to focus on social issues, the barriers between the business and non-profit sectors continue to erode.
Click here to read the rest of the article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/771993f0-3423-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F771993f0-3423-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fashoka.org%2F&nclick_check=1
Investments in people [from The Financial Times]
By Sarah Murray
Published: June 7 2008 02:19
The next few years could see a shift in emphasis in the non-profit world – at least, if the work of organisations supporting entrepreneurs is an indication of the direction the sector is taking. “Philanthropy is one of those wonderfully antique words that we will stop using in 10 to 15 years,” says Bill Drayton, who founded Ashoka and pioneered the idea of identifying and investing in entrepreneurs. “The business/social boundaries are simply collapsing.”
As models such as venture philanthropy, microfinance and social entrepreneurship are embraced by non-profit organisations, and corporations start to focus on social issues, the barriers between the business and non-profit sectors continue to erode.
Click here to read the rest of the article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/771993f0-3423-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F771993f0-3423-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fashoka.org%2F&nclick_check=1
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Laptops in News
Here are three local stories on our efforts in Immokalee:
July 4 - http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080704/NEWS01/807040402/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
June 29 - http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jun/29/program-educates-children-through-computers/
May 2 - http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/may/02/immokalee-children-get-free-laptops-education/
July 4 - http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080704/NEWS01/807040402/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
June 29 - http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jun/29/program-educates-children-through-computers/
May 2 - http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/may/02/immokalee-children-get-free-laptops-education/
Laptop news
Here's part of a story from www.eSchoolNews.com:
Just last month, fourth-graders at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association Community School in Immokalee, Fla., received XO computers from the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. It was part of a 10-week pilot program that began June 1.
Redlands joins South Carolina's Marion County School District and the Birmingham, Ala., school system in deploying low-cost ($200) XO laptops to students in the United States. Just this week, the Birmingham school board voted to accept the remaining 14,000 pre-purchased XO laptops from the city to give to elementary students after a pilot project with the first 1,000 laptops proved encouraging.
And in the latest example of the mini-laptop trend, FUSD [Fresno, CA] is deploying nearly 10,000 Mini-Note PCs from Hewlett-Packard Co. to students in grades two through 12 this fall.
"The teacher feedback from the pilot [at FUSD] was a lot more positive than we expected, considering the technical challenges of putting 1,000 small wireless laptops in 57 different classrooms," says Madden. "The creative ways our teachers and students took advantage of the computers at every grade level in every subject was absolutely amazing. At the end of the pilot, our teachers wouldn't give up the laptops when we collected them for refurbishment, unless they were assured that they would be returned in the fall."
For the story in its entirety: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=54502;_hbguid=d13a6db2-c165-415a-9bac-d9d16864407f
It looks to me like there are some school systems that are much further along than we are here in Collier County. I guess we have our work cut out for us to catch up!
Just last month, fourth-graders at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association Community School in Immokalee, Fla., received XO computers from the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. It was part of a 10-week pilot program that began June 1.
Redlands joins South Carolina's Marion County School District and the Birmingham, Ala., school system in deploying low-cost ($200) XO laptops to students in the United States. Just this week, the Birmingham school board voted to accept the remaining 14,000 pre-purchased XO laptops from the city to give to elementary students after a pilot project with the first 1,000 laptops proved encouraging.
And in the latest example of the mini-laptop trend, FUSD [Fresno, CA] is deploying nearly 10,000 Mini-Note PCs from Hewlett-Packard Co. to students in grades two through 12 this fall.
"The teacher feedback from the pilot [at FUSD] was a lot more positive than we expected, considering the technical challenges of putting 1,000 small wireless laptops in 57 different classrooms," says Madden. "The creative ways our teachers and students took advantage of the computers at every grade level in every subject was absolutely amazing. At the end of the pilot, our teachers wouldn't give up the laptops when we collected them for refurbishment, unless they were assured that they would be returned in the fall."
For the story in its entirety: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=54502;_hbguid=d13a6db2-c165-415a-9bac-d9d16864407f
It looks to me like there are some school systems that are much further along than we are here in Collier County. I guess we have our work cut out for us to catch up!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Food for Thought
"The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves." - Plato
Monday, June 23, 2008
White Hat/Black Hat
I'm pleased with the Supreme Court's decision on Habeas Corpus. For one, we haven't declared war and we aren't fighting against a nation. The reality of this situation we're in is that it may never end - certainly other nations, such as Spain (ETA), Great Brittan (IRA), and Israel, have all had intractable terrorism for decades on end; we've had home-grown terrorism here in the form of lynching/KKK, burning of black churches and synagogues, and abortion-clinic bombing and shootings, that have ebbed and flowed, but have not fully ever left.
My point is, putting an enemy combatant in prison for the few years of a conflict is one thing; the people we have detained in Guantanamo and elsewhere may remain there their entire lives if we don't treat them as criminals with basic human rights rather than enemy soldiers with, arguably, fewer human rights. Then what if there is even one innocent detainee in that mix - though statistically I'd imagine there must be more than one. Part of the very fabric of our nation's legal system is that we would rather let ten guilty men free than incarcerate one innocent man. That is the America I am proud of; it's the America that a tyrant will never understand.
I brought up something at the last CFI meeting which I think some on the right, driven by (understandable) fear, fail to acknowledge: that we are a nation that sees itself as moral, as the guys in the white hats, and part of our history (especially in the 20th Century) has been for the rest of the world to see us that way as well. The terrorists killed roughly 3,000 innocent people on September 11, 2001, and that was one of the darkest days of our republic. But what we have done to ourselves since that day has been far more detrimental than anything they could have done: our leaders have traded our white hats for black. They have turned us into bullies on the international scene, and have turned most of the world against us - perhaps not against our people yet (thankfully!) but certainly against our government.
No one is prouder to be an American than I. I am proud because we are Good, not because we are strong - although I argue that our strength comes first and foremost from our moral authority. America does not hold people without right to trial, does not torture, does not commit rendition to skirt our own human-rights laws, does not invade countries based on trumped-up intelligence and without just cause.... These are all things that Evil countries do, immoral countries. If we are indeed evil, then what do we have left worth fighting for?
I firmly believe that we can protect our nation from another 9/11, or even worse attacks, while obeying the laws and morals that have made ours the greatest and strongest nation on Earth. I don't think morality is an indulgence appropriate only when things are going our way.
My point is, putting an enemy combatant in prison for the few years of a conflict is one thing; the people we have detained in Guantanamo and elsewhere may remain there their entire lives if we don't treat them as criminals with basic human rights rather than enemy soldiers with, arguably, fewer human rights. Then what if there is even one innocent detainee in that mix - though statistically I'd imagine there must be more than one. Part of the very fabric of our nation's legal system is that we would rather let ten guilty men free than incarcerate one innocent man. That is the America I am proud of; it's the America that a tyrant will never understand.
I brought up something at the last CFI meeting which I think some on the right, driven by (understandable) fear, fail to acknowledge: that we are a nation that sees itself as moral, as the guys in the white hats, and part of our history (especially in the 20th Century) has been for the rest of the world to see us that way as well. The terrorists killed roughly 3,000 innocent people on September 11, 2001, and that was one of the darkest days of our republic. But what we have done to ourselves since that day has been far more detrimental than anything they could have done: our leaders have traded our white hats for black. They have turned us into bullies on the international scene, and have turned most of the world against us - perhaps not against our people yet (thankfully!) but certainly against our government.
No one is prouder to be an American than I. I am proud because we are Good, not because we are strong - although I argue that our strength comes first and foremost from our moral authority. America does not hold people without right to trial, does not torture, does not commit rendition to skirt our own human-rights laws, does not invade countries based on trumped-up intelligence and without just cause.... These are all things that Evil countries do, immoral countries. If we are indeed evil, then what do we have left worth fighting for?
I firmly believe that we can protect our nation from another 9/11, or even worse attacks, while obeying the laws and morals that have made ours the greatest and strongest nation on Earth. I don't think morality is an indulgence appropriate only when things are going our way.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Oil Woes
On high oil prices:
What concerns me most is a protracted and deep recession that, as a colleague of The Naples Institute so rightly points out, will hurt most those who can weather it least. It's unfair and unnecessary; if our Washington leadership continues to do nothing of meaning to counter this, then we don't really have any leadership in Washington, I'd argue.
What concerns me second-most is that oil prices will come down far and fast (in of itself a very good thing), and that the result will be that the American consumer - all of us - will forget right away that this crisis ever happened. That is exactly what happened after the oil crisis of the 70's; all one need do is look out the window at the size of our homes, vehicles, and urban sprawl to see this.
Houston of all places is leading the country in redistricting to bring people in from the suburbs and also to create mixed-use space, and is vastly increasing its commuter rail system over the next 3 years (now that's fast!). The mayor says that it isn't governmental coercion that is behind this, but consumer choice - the best possible situation, I think liberals and conservatives can agree.
What concerns me most is a protracted and deep recession that, as a colleague of The Naples Institute so rightly points out, will hurt most those who can weather it least. It's unfair and unnecessary; if our Washington leadership continues to do nothing of meaning to counter this, then we don't really have any leadership in Washington, I'd argue.
What concerns me second-most is that oil prices will come down far and fast (in of itself a very good thing), and that the result will be that the American consumer - all of us - will forget right away that this crisis ever happened. That is exactly what happened after the oil crisis of the 70's; all one need do is look out the window at the size of our homes, vehicles, and urban sprawl to see this.
Houston of all places is leading the country in redistricting to bring people in from the suburbs and also to create mixed-use space, and is vastly increasing its commuter rail system over the next 3 years (now that's fast!). The mayor says that it isn't governmental coercion that is behind this, but consumer choice - the best possible situation, I think liberals and conservatives can agree.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Waveplace Pilot in Immokalee
The following is from the Waveplace Foundation e-newsletter. This piece was written by Waveplace's founder and president, Timothy Falconer.
As I write this, I'm flying home from our first Waveplace mentoring workshop, held in Immokalee, Florida. Over the last five long days, I taught our new Squeaky Tales course to a class of eight adults, most of them teachers. The week was enlightening and exhausting!
We also started our third Waveplace pilot with a whopping 42 fourth graders, each of whom received their very own XO laptop. I led the class with a projector and microphone while the eight mentors worked with smaller groups. The kids were absolutely incredible: well-behaved, motivated, engaged. The mentors were equally amazing, working as a cohesive team, guiding each child's discoveries while keeping things fun. We're expecting great things from the next nine weeks. I'm hoping we learn as much as the kids.
Our filmmaker Bill Stelzer recorded the whole week on video, both for our upcoming documentary and for our courseware DVDs. Our own Mary Scotti spent the week as well, learning Etoys for St Vincent. Best of all, Larry Abramson from NPR spent a full day with us, so keep your radio tuned to hear his story on Waveplace in Immokalee.
Special thanks to Tithe and More, who funded half the Immokalee pilot, and the Collier County Migrant Student Summer Program, who funded the other half. Thanks also to One by One Leadership Foundation and Naples Social Action for putting it all together.
Immokalee is a study in contrasts. With almost half of its population living below the poverty line, it ranks as one of the poorest areas in the United States, though nearby Naples ranks as one of the richest. Immokalee's migrant farm workers pick 90% of America's winter harvest, much of which goes to our fast food restaurants, yet many workers stand in line to receive food themselves since they cannot afford to feed their families. Your ketchup packet likely came from an Immokalee worker who was paid $50 to pick two tons of tomatoes.
Our shared hope is for a better future for the children of Immokalee. This week in class, it felt more than possible.
To learn more about Waveplace Foundation, on whose board I serve, visit www.waveplace.org.
As I write this, I'm flying home from our first Waveplace mentoring workshop, held in Immokalee, Florida. Over the last five long days, I taught our new Squeaky Tales course to a class of eight adults, most of them teachers. The week was enlightening and exhausting!
We also started our third Waveplace pilot with a whopping 42 fourth graders, each of whom received their very own XO laptop. I led the class with a projector and microphone while the eight mentors worked with smaller groups. The kids were absolutely incredible: well-behaved, motivated, engaged. The mentors were equally amazing, working as a cohesive team, guiding each child's discoveries while keeping things fun. We're expecting great things from the next nine weeks. I'm hoping we learn as much as the kids.
Our filmmaker Bill Stelzer recorded the whole week on video, both for our upcoming documentary and for our courseware DVDs. Our own Mary Scotti spent the week as well, learning Etoys for St Vincent. Best of all, Larry Abramson from NPR spent a full day with us, so keep your radio tuned to hear his story on Waveplace in Immokalee.
Special thanks to Tithe and More, who funded half the Immokalee pilot, and the Collier County Migrant Student Summer Program, who funded the other half. Thanks also to One by One Leadership Foundation and Naples Social Action for putting it all together.
Immokalee is a study in contrasts. With almost half of its population living below the poverty line, it ranks as one of the poorest areas in the United States, though nearby Naples ranks as one of the richest. Immokalee's migrant farm workers pick 90% of America's winter harvest, much of which goes to our fast food restaurants, yet many workers stand in line to receive food themselves since they cannot afford to feed their families. Your ketchup packet likely came from an Immokalee worker who was paid $50 to pick two tons of tomatoes.
Our shared hope is for a better future for the children of Immokalee. This week in class, it felt more than possible.
To learn more about Waveplace Foundation, on whose board I serve, visit www.waveplace.org.
Welcome Back!
This blog was left in hybernation for quite some time while I wrote on a different blog (http://www.tedcoine.blogspot.com/) that was a combination of my thoughts on charity and on business.
Alas, the two categories have different constituencies. So, I'm back to two blogs.
If you want to know my thoughts on business and leadership, please visit http://www.savvycapitalist.blogspot.com/.
Alas, the two categories have different constituencies. So, I'm back to two blogs.
If you want to know my thoughts on business and leadership, please visit http://www.savvycapitalist.blogspot.com/.
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