Serious About Climate Change? Do This!

If it matters, it'll be a special part of the program. So if we, as a nation, are serious about changing our culture to combat the challenges of climate change, we'll create an infrastructure that permeates our programs from civic planning to regulative policy to education.

What better way to get students thinking about it than by having a very visible Student Climate Convention at all levels of school: Middle, High, College.  Whether aligned with city/county/State, or by State and National representative districts, gathering students for conventions at all levels of government organization would be a great way to involve a significant portion of our next generation.

Every homeroom is represented in a school-wide club who's purpose is to increase awareness of how our lives are connected to both the current environment at so many levels, and what we do on a local scale can contribute to helping and hurting.  [Colleges could do it by major.] The schools would elect a representative team from their school to attend the county convention.  That convention could be a 2-way communication from the scientific/academic, industrial, and government entities pushing the latest findings and initiatives, The schools would present the initiatives at their schools, and elect a team to represent them at the state level.  The state convention would have county representation and do the same thing at that level.  Finally, the states would send an elected team to the national convention.  It could garner the same sort of media interest as the states came together to gather opinions and trends, pick some best practices, collect the information and publish the results and findings in an Annual Youth Climate Change State of the Union.

That's just an initial idea -- there are lots of ways to cascade from school to national levels, and there are lots of different formats to build it.  If we can do March Madness with something as inconsequential as collegiate basketball and the college bowls with football, we can certainly do something similar with human relations.  Wait, I mean climate change.  Add a competitive component?  A prize component?  Ask some producers how they could make this meaningful.  Having educators who are sponsoring student groups would be like the coaches for sports teams.  Building capacity within each school to bring that intimate connection between our individual lives and the whole earth to all of our areas of endeavor is not such a stretch.  We can do this.

A Real Global Power for Good

Hey, Elon Musk, Google, and Starbucks.  You've got something going: you project an image of conscientiousness as corporate entities.  A couple simple thoughts from an outsider:

1. It's good for business, I think. I doubt those actions, in themselves drive away a statistically significant number of customers.  I suspect that it does attract a significant number of customers.  It certainly impresses me and makes me feel better being a patron (not that I'm in a Tesla yet, but if that were my bracket, I might be).  So, it's good for the bottom line.
2. I can't tell if it's a net increase in profit.  But you should know (and if you don't you should measure it with enough rigor so that you do), and when you do know, you should share that with the world.  If it costs you more (insofar as it's measurable), it will either help spread the practices or demonstrate real commitment, and improve your global image, which is everything, isn't it?
3. Your continual movement while maintaining your core vision/business is impressive and good luck continuing.

So here's the suggestion.  Like Gates' attempt to induce other billionaires to pledge to find concrete world-improving ways to spend their excess, why not create a simple array of principles that companies could join that balances out sustainable business with sustainability, integrity, and improving the world -- especially for the most in need.  

One major component is transparency regarding your fundamental business.  The way Google makes their search frequency and data available to a great extent.  The way Tesla opened its patents.  And the deliberate shift to really help and empower all employees.  Like Starbucks' attempt to help employees finish college degrees.  The way Google relaxed its college degree requirements for its software engineers.

What got me thinking about this was imagining the graphs of Starbucks drinks sold by time of day while reading the Atlantic article about Starbucks college benefits, and wondering how interesting it would be to see how different variables (location, time of year, season, holidays, etc.) affect sales.  I understand that traditional business wisdom might suggest the proprietary nature of this type of data could be valuable and ought to be held close to the vest, but in the spirit of universal enlightenment, and being able to satisfy curiosity and inspire new thinking, how awesome it would be for Starbucks to broadcast some of these types of analyses that surely they do for their own business purposes.  And do so for the mere sake of adding to the the understanding of humanity, even at the expense of competitors using that information for personal gain.  But how cool would an attitude of "Game On!" be, when now you're challenging the world to do it better.  Sure, you could hold back, but you would be upping your game, too, by ensuring you were giving your team the opportunity to optimize your own use of data to better serve your customers.  Again, I think the people who took note of your doing so would further increase their loyalty and patronage.  Especially as you continue to push your service and product quality and value.

So, the idea that a company make the overall edification of the world a meaningful and substantive part of its business plan, particularly those who they serve, employ, or somehow interact with, though I believe moving to aide others outside that bubble is great, too, if not a little arbitrary and perhaps suboptimizing compared to doing something more aligned with the core business competency(ies), would be a great club to be part of.  Like being a member of the BBB, its not everything, but it's something and if companies made it a habit to expend some of their time and energy creating increasingly important ways to serve humanity both through its business and additional ancillary ways, for real and not as a PR or promo gimmick, and if it created a bandwagon that companies could jump on, the potential to change culture could snowball into something astounding.

So some CEOs of the top global corporations who are already making waves in this area got together and drew up some guidelines to be "One of Us", and established a team to certify companies, and the could add another superscripted symbol to their names (like tm or copyright), with that symbol on their homepage bringing them to a link of the description of their humanitarian program...  Well, the possibilities are broad and abundant.  Do it, guys!

This goes beyond the Ford Foundation, which does some laudable things.  It's not setting aside a percentage of profits for philanthropic purposes.  It's building this idea of service leadership and service living into the company norm.  Visibly, transparently, and deeply.  This could be done and it could make the world more than just a little better.

Vets

I'm celebrating Veteran's Day's Eve by watching American Sniper.  Just so you know, other than the little bit of risk in flying itself, I've never been in real harm's way.  My service happened between the first and second Gulf wars, so other than a very little surveillance in a relatively quiescent Iraq and normal Persian Gulf Ops in the 90s, I never faced live combat.  But watching these cinematic accounts without my filters (Black Hawk Down, Lone Survivor, Saving Private Ryan, et al.), it clarifies a few simple, excruciating truths.

1. We pay dearly for war.  It's our last, worst (and sometimes necessary) option.
2. The families pay. With every soldier, sailor, or airman who suffers loss of limb, life, emotional health, their people suffer just the same.
3. We are all a family, and when you take care of your own family, you're on the front lines of keeping our country strong.  When you take care of others, by whichever vehicle you choose, you're serving a greater good as well.  Thank the good Lord we don't all have to take up arms.  It's intense, damaging, sacrificial and courageous.  But you can do your fair share.  Not by clicking on something, but by actually engaging in real ways.  Get out of your seat, out of your comfort zone, and find your own path to giving in support of the greater good.  Find at least one way to take up your own cause and give until it hurts you enough to feel it, and know it's a small act compared to those who have given it all, or at least the best of themselves in support of the rest of us.

American fighting men live with modest pay (look here), frequently away from their loved ones, and often with severe risk.  We owe it to them to find a way to support them.  Even if you don't directly support a military organization or one of the many nonprofits helping them out, do yourself a huge favor and get some skin in the game.  You will NOT regret it.  Below are a few off the top of my head that deserve a piece of your productivity and some of your family's fortune -- after all, the signatories of The Declaration of Independence, our civic ancestors, made this pledge: "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." With that sentiment, they created our country and way of life.  As inheritors of this legacy, we at least can afford a portion of our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Here are just a few ways you can participate in a real way to be part of the solution:
Contribute volunteer time or money to the USO, Support Our Troops, AMVETS, Wounded Warrior Project, The American Red Cross - Support our Military Families, or go to Charity Navigator and find a cause that resonates with you and meshes with your lifestyle and values.  And hey, bring your kids along for the ride, or even let them help you pick the beneficiaries of your efforts.  They learn from what you do more than anything else in the beloved world.  Your actions will be their pole stars.

Rich, Radical Philanthropists to Manage National Savings Fund

I just heard a story on NPR about a giant investment fund for Great Britain involving a law to have employers opt in for their employees.  And there's talk about doing it in the US.

But who would manage such a huge, tempting fund where it could be exploited or frauded for personal gain?  How about someone (or their foundation) who has so much money they're going to give it all away, who would have no interest in amassing any more personal wealth, and who has a foundation already established to save the world?  They might even do it for free if they believed in it.

Honest Abortion

Enough rhetoric.  Enough politics.  Enough polemics, hyperbole and melodramatics.

Abortion is a hard decision, it's traumatic, and it should be prevented, avoided, and obviated at every opportunity.  No one wants an abortion, even someone who wants an abortion.  They want an abortion ONLY because fear  a greater pain for the future baby than the pain of killing their unborn baby, their own death, or some social stigma (caused by the expectation of being judged by their imagined society for unwed motherhood or other, or fear of the death of their livelihood).

You bitches and sons of bitches who try to shame people into not getting abortions should figure it out. Pray for a cessation of your displaced anger and aggression and for the ability to stop your egregious judgment. If you really want to stem the tide of abortions, get off your arrogant high horse and apply all of your energies in that area to 1. Educating people about the options, 2. Making people who might want to abort understand that you will adopt their baby (or find a good family who will), and find every other option for the future born baby that will make carrying the baby to term a REAL option for the reluctant mother!  If that means supplying the means to support her through her pregnancy, fighting for additional employment rights for pregnant women. Don't bury your big head in the sand and pretend your anti-birth control stance is not a ridiculous contradiction to anti-abortion.  Anti-birth control and anti-abortion requires a suspension of your natural intelligence tantamount to intentional ignorance which flipping off your Creator, "Um, thanks for the brains, but I'm not interested in using them."  If you want people to be abstinent, than you have to somehow be involved enough in the lives of your target (through building trust through love and caring) that they can hear you and want to follow your counsel!  Are you willing to take up that cross or are you just a blow-hard trying to impose your righteousness on others.  Own your bullshit and live with integrity.

On Muslim Presidents

Anyone who believes their religious faith beliefs should be part of their governmental professional agenda should be summarily removed from office.  Christian, Muslim, Jew -- as an elected official at any level of US government, your job is to advance a Constitionally sound platform that serves every person of every religion or no religion.  So if we allow Christians to hold office presuming they can separate their religious faith from their official responsibility (which we do), we necessarily will allow people of any other religion to hold office.

If you believe your religion in such a way as to promote an exclusionary agenda against non-believers, then no.  Get your ass out of the public policy game.

Most religions, the big 3 for sure, have somewhere in their orthodoxy, a strong anti-out-group bias.  They've all persecuted and been persecuted.  But if you hold to that dogma tucked away in your creed which actually contradict the real center of your religion (love your neighbor), then you should seek other employment than public service. If your interpretation of your religion does not consider all people equal in dignity and respect under the law, you need another profession.  How many ways can I say it.

If adhering to a religious principal that demands you in any way to diminish others because of their religious beliefs (or lack thereof) is important to you, stay away from government!

Kennedy went so far as to make a public statement that he, as President, would be beholden only to the nation as his guiding star:

     "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.     I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials; and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."

The case for Muslims: Because there is a significant number of Muslims around the world who cling to violent and exclusionary principals, and including in our own country, people naturally, if unfairly, associate all Muslims with this practice and belief system.  The gut reaction is to fear (and hence, discriminate, denigrate, hate, fear, mock, or otherwise react against) all of them.  It's an embarrassing and unAmerican stance.  Those of higher character will not succumb to that intellectually and morally weak reaction, but maintain that it is not Islam or its practitioners per se that need to be feared, but those who choose to (or just do) interpret their religion in such a way that promotes violence against those who believe different.

Stay strong, people.  Stay smart.  When you start making decisions and policy based on fear, you tread dangerously close to being that which you hate.

Chase that kid out of his den of technologiniquity

We'll pretend to remember when everyone used to play outside all day, riding bikes, baseball, kick the can, catching fireflies, climbing trees, sneaking in the neighbor's yard for crab apples, riding motorcycles, racing canoes and hunting.  And forget all the kids who stayed inside all day watching tv, reading, doing little nothings, because the people posting all those memories online were the ones doing it and the people not posting it (among others) didn't.  There have always been the sloths, and now with the allure of the new brain-stroking activities, indoors and online, a larger percentage of today's kids are doing it.  So it's not a matter of quality so much as quantity.

How do we get young people to get their asses out there and do things that are challenging, active, enriching and fun?  Simple.  We take them in some cases.  We let them in other cases.  We set the example and we live it ourselves, and we drag them along, and fuck their protests, because they will more than thank us when they grow up.  They'll perpetuate it, they'll appreciate it deeply, they'll perform better and live a better life.  Let them bitch and moan while they're hiking up a boring old mountain.  Let them pine for their iPhones while they try again to get up on one ski.  Let them wish they had a wireless connection and device while they sit around the campfire and recall the first time they caught a fish and catch a glimpse of a shooting star and the Northern Lights.  Race them across the field, throw the football with them and shoot some hoops, take them to the firing range and show them how to get the fire roaring with a single match (or a couple sparks).  Quit your idiotic lamentations and start an adventure club where you actually share some opportunities with the local youth, partnering with a community foster-care support non-profit and be part of the solution instead of a squawking tree, rooted to your easy chair, like I am now.

Where Wealth Redistribution Lies

You hear the negative tone from the Right repudiating wealth distribution as a socialist corruption of democracy and capitalism.

Here's the question: Are they stupid, blind, or obfuscating?

Let's go with reality instead of philosophy for a second.  The real story of wealth redistribution is the shift of wealth from the lower and middle class to the wealthy over the last 50 years.  When the rich control politics which influences government (which makes the rules about taxes and their distribution, fiscal policy, minimum wage, labor law, etc.), it's just what I'd expect.  They end up getting richer and more powerful on the backs, and from the pockets. of the rest of us.  Wage inequality and the wealth redistribution in this country is out of control (to use technical systems analysis jargon).  If it keeps up, it's a positive feedback loop that will continue to weaken America (against a hypothetical potential of what it could be) until the top-heavy wealth distribution leads to increasing desperation and it tumbles.  Trickle down just didn't really work, did it.

The smartest long-term action for the currently wealthy is to change course and increase the wages of the poor and lower middle class to help more of them reach financial stability because their collective confidence in their situation creates economic stability instead of slaves that will eventually check out (happening more and more when you look at the unemployed, no longer looking for work, which turns them into bigger burdens).

What are the odds, though, of the wealthy (who hold corporate purse strings) voluntarily shrinking the wage gap between the higher and lower wages within their control?  Keep margins the same, but switch the salary scale way to the left of what it is now.  Costco versus Walmart.  Starbucks versus McDonalds.

An Old Man's Review of "The Martian"

The Martian does two things exceptionally well: science and suspense.  Because of the latter, it was hard to put down, and because of the former, I wasn't put off.  For a lot of people out there, those two things are enough, and like "Gravity" and "128 Hours," it would make a very watchable 2 hour movie.  Given its timeliness, with the Mars mission somewhere lurking in the public discussion and imagination (waiting to explode, someday, I hope), it could be a great box office success, and even, significantly, a catalyst for bringing the real plausibility of a manned mission to Mars higher in the zeitgeist.

If you're a person who grew up on the near-entirety of Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Clark, Tolkien, and King, there's one of two things you've grown to expect from a really epic work: story.  And characters.  Well, this one's got some good stuff, but not those.  He's most like Clark in his strict adherence to hard science.

Another plus was Weir's use of believable potential challenges deriving from the setting itself and natural course of events to drive the action without invoking unlikely externals.  Nicely done, Andy!

But as literature, it left me wanting.  In "128 Hours," (I didn't read the book), the flash-forward in his vision to his child was a powerful and memorable part of the movie for me, and perhaps when they make the movie, they'll find a way to humanize Watney (the main character) way better than Weir did in the book.

The kicker: I'm pretty sure if I tried my hand at writing a sci-fi novel, it'd end up more like this book than one of the masters', who are able to work their magical wordsmithing to get me inside their characters and their worlds, and because they had more to work with (outside abject reality, which Weir stays well inside), they were able to make me co-create the other-worldliness into something realer.  Mars is enough like a desert, enough like the moon, enough like something I know that it brings the real world in with it when invoked.

Another cool thing about The Martian is that it can be buzzed through in a day for someone who knows science or just trusts Weir's math (which I did, no reason to re-calculate anything) and the science, which is also something I'm familiar enough with to follow along fine.  It's a nice lightning-fast read that lets you read it as a break from whatever else you may be in the middle of, so that's cool.  But it's not one of those books that breaks my heart from being over because I want to spend more time in its world, which I use as my own personal hallmark of a masterpiece of literature (for ME, not for the world).  I think that's more of the bottom line -- literature is what it is to an individual (or even a small following) and the collective is much less meaningful.

It's Messy. Get To IT!

The history of life on Earth is messy, wasteful, bloody, painful, and constantly changing.  But it's mesmerizing, awesome, sublime, elegant, beautiful and unlikely.  Yes, it is all of those things, and human society is all of those things.

Today's world evolved through tooth and nail, extinction and explosions, famine and flood, drought and deluge.  Each still living organism sufficiently adapted to have survived until today, and there's no guarantee for any of us for the next millennium.  Any of us (fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, etc.) could be gone in the geological blink of an eye, and any of us (individually) could be snuffed out tomorrow.  But one thing is common -- all the surviving species so far had to, at some point in their lives, fight to the death for our place in the ecosystem.

Society is like that.  Different ways of living, models for community, and modes of thought have ebbed and flowed, risen and fallen, been invented and become extinct, using the same fundamental dynamic as life: the most adaptable for a given environment is the one that survives.  It's in this invention and adaption/adoption and the competition for dominance where the interesting things happen, and it's happening right now in every aspect of modern human life.  The species is healthy when people are striving for something, for their survival, and whoever strives hardest, is willing to join the fray for the sustainability for their ideas, to help them propagate and thrive, will dominate.

My question to you is which ideas are you out fighting for?  How hard are you fighting?  If enough of us are willing to sit by and let the elite, the desperate, the enlightened, or the others do the fighting, if we don't choose an ideal we'd like to see flourish and get behind it, those ideas will wither and die.  We are most alive when we are in the arena, we are most at peace when we are struggling for what we know to be a worthy cause.  Are you in?  Or are you on the sidelines watching.  Pick up your tools and get building.  Get on the bullhorn and lead.  Grab your bat and step up to the base.  Take up your cross and follow.  Whatever your favorite metaphor, the more people representing what they deeply believe, the better we'll be.  As real members of the chain of life still inhabiting the planet, the fighters will own the future and either make it better, and the idle will hasten our demise.

Use your limited tenure to advance your cause, and if you don't have one, open your eyes and ears and let the one that makes your blood boil, that raises your hackles, that makes you cry, or that brings you to your feet with a shout, drive you.  Get into it, learn more, and get to work.  Get off the damn couch, get your butt out into the real world, with your community action teams, your legislative working groups, your staff of volunteers building something, your horde of volunteers cleaning up the estuary, your neighborhood watch watching for crime, your church group gathering blankets for the homeless, your art co-op creating posters to spread the word about injustice, your design team to create the new school, your youth-group teaching teens about savings accounts and budgeting.  You name it, there's something you can give to be part of a solution.  Yes, your main occupation is often a great goodness, and unless your job is directly improving policy and process, there is something you are particularly suited for.

There will be casualties on both sides, but letting evil (however you see it) win is a bigger casualty for all.  No cutting yourself slack because life's hard.  No cutting yourself slack because life is easy.  Join your cause and advance it with gusto.  And if you find out you're fighting the wrong battle half way through because you learned more, broadened your perspective, saw the light, then cut your losses, undo your damage and get on the right side.  It's through the fight that you know -- like the soldier who now fights for peace, the former racist to now teaches acceptance, the gangster who helps children avoid his mistakes.  Fight to make your community, or state, or country, or mankind better because of you and for your children and mine.  If you don't fight, you may not suffer, but your progeny will.  Face the fear, take the risk, and when you do die, you'll be in heaven (which I define as dying with a smile in your heart (if not on your face) for having done your best to better your world and pay back the universe for blessing you with the sublime gift of life.

You can do all that while giving your family all the love they need when they need it -- it's not an exclusive proposition.  In fact, if you are not living to your potential, you're not doing a very good job of modeling and teaching your children what it means to truly live.  That's your job as a parent. Get to it!

Some, A Lot, Most, All Americans

America needs all sorts of people.  We need some bold, innovative entrepreneurs.  We need some prudent and thoughtful caretakers.  We need some independent, spirited individualists to fight for their rights (and everybody's through their courage).  We need some bleeding-heart, compassionate folks to tend to those less fortunate.  We need some insightful and effective leaders to cope with our problems and move ahead with confidence aforethought.  We need some focused and brave soldiers and police to defend us from harm from abroad and at home.  We need a lot of us to find our life-work in understanding and solving the many problems caused by human interaction with our environment, through scientific, engineering, education and project management means. We need a lot to work toward our physical and mental health, with a strong bent toward prevention.  We need a lot of us to passionately and skillfully educate our children to be their best future selves.  We need most of us to recognize that we're all in this together, to recognize the strength of our nation rests on the aggregate strength of all of us.  We need most of us to see that creating desperate, dependent, insecure people will sap the life-blood resources as we deal with more of them driven to criminality, dependency and chronic health maladies.  And we need most of them do do something about it.  We need all Americans to call upon their optimism and ability, to follow their calling and thrive by serving their fellow beings.  We need all Americans to raise their kids with tons of love and patience, to let them learn to struggle and overcome, to value learning, and to follow their own life path like they did.  We need all Americans to respect our differences and others' right to do their own thing.

I know there is no clear line between what's good for a society and the rights of individuals.  Or where a child's rights and their parent's right should be drawn, or where freedom to practice religion and child well-being (as in the case of Christian Scientists who deny standard healthcare to children, or genital mutilation).  I know the sensibilities about what is permissible (and what is not) changes as society winds its way through the philosophical shifts that naturally happen as a people interact with ideas over time.  I realize that, in the era of increasing globalization, as cultures continue to swirl around and within each other, we will continue to undergo development, often unpredictably.  As Americans, we will continue to navigate and refine where we come down on issues, but we all need to keep our perspective broad and deep, with our ultimate goal to allow us to live a life well spent, whatever that means to each of us.

No hurry, let's get it right.  Let's build this thing.  All of us.

Raising Your Children in the Age of Rapid Climate Change

It's a comin' and there ain't no stoppin' it -- the times they are a changin'.

Read this:

When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job: Among many climate scientists, gloom has set in. Things are worse than we think, but they can't really talk about it.

So, given that we're going to be living in a very stressed out globe, how do we raise our children in such a way that they're good to go throughout the very real potential for major economic and social upheaval?

Well, I'm glad I'm thinking about it now, and I believe the more people who go this way, the better we'll all be because for every well-suited survivor, that's one less desperate (and therefore dangerous) helpmate.

• Comfortable migrating
• Living small, but with all you need to make it big.
• Psychologically fluent -- getting along with troubled people is going to be really important, so every skill you can muster to have people not want to kill you is going to work in your favor.
• Skilled at how the world works, physically, socially, politically and economically.
• Indefatigable sense of humor!  How important will this be to maintaining a positive attitude when the shit hits the fan.
• Multi-lingual.
• Survivalist practice
• Medical training?
• Adaptable
• Comfortable with their own mortality.

I'll explain these next time I have a minute, but I'm going to bed because I'm getting up early tomorrow.

NOTE: not only are these good for the environmental apocalypse, but for any major life-threatening challenge we face, like life-threatening illness, relationship nightmares, any manner of natural disaster, zombie scenarios, deadly viral pandemic, etc.

Big Eating, Let's Retire This Abomination Already

Whether it's the 125 ounce steak at Ward's Steakhouse in Milwaukee or Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest, there is no purpose for seeing how much a person can eat.  As we move toward conservation of energy and resources (still, after starting 40 years ago), and as we work to combat obesity in America, and as we would, naturally, want to work toward a more perfect union, could we ditch the glorification of wasteful, unhealthy practices?

I have an idea: instead of encouraging these, let's put our excess energy literally and figuratively not where our mouth is.  There are a hundred possible alternatives -- many of which would give us a deep satisfaction to the cores of our souls.  In direct opposition to throwing away good food, how about helping with any of the anti-hunger initiatives from soup kitchens to food drives to school lunch programs for needy children to helping homeless people find the means to get off the street to mentoring young people on healthy life-affirming habits to donating day old baked goods and unused produce and expired food to those who need it.

In any event, if you would please pick something that serves your soul and your fellow travelers, you'll be be on the winning side of your deathbed reflections.  I know that's not for everybody -- it's easy to convince yourself that you did what you could, but when it comes to seriously facing your mortality and the honest legacy you left to mankind, you'll be giving up the sublime peace that comes from a life well lived.  If you're the religious, afterlife type, then you know there's no escaping the selfishness, Pontius Pilot-esque self delusion you go for when you're meeting your Maker.  If you're the humanistic, secular type, you've got nothing to work for except the to-the-core integrity that frees your conscience of stress.  OK, that's a little touch-feely, but it's also true.

Happy Birthday, United States

Let's celebrate the Declaration of Independence.  Let's read it.  Let's think about it, have an opinion about it, try for a minute to forget who we are and join the frame of mind of the desperate state of the men who had "had it up to here" about the way they were being treated by their authority figures.  Certainly we can relate.  With few exceptions, we've all worked for (or been subject to) an authority who was having a hard time hearing and acting on problems you're having.  And when that's the case, you either continue to suffer to your own detriment, or you step up and make a stand.

And the nascent states did that.  We admire that because we would like to think we had the same level of courage -- to stand up to wrong.  When the wrong is great enough, meaning when it becomes a matter of life and death for some, or a matter of thriving or withering of great swaths of people, then the stand we're willing to take has to be proportional.  For a people who had the audacity to come to early America and brave the wild, it was maybe of their nature to take care of themselves doing whatever it takes to survive and own their existence without compromise.

After a hundred years of struggle to make it work, an existential civil war, a couple all-out efforts to help the rest of the world and protect ourselves against the forces of tyranny in WWI an II, we've been able to settle into the comfort of the greater part of a century of relative prosperity for most, or if not actual leisure, then enough of it to get a little soft.  We want our children to have it a little soft, easier than ourselves.  Should we?  I guess the question I want to ask of myself is, "Do we have it in us anymore to do what it takes to preserve our integrity as a nation?"

We have some long-range (relatively speaking) existential threats, and are enough of us ready to "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."?*

Having grown up curious and literate, I've exposed myself to and studied no small proportion of the main ideas defining our lives as humans and Americans.  That's a luxury many of us don't get because of our socio-economic circumstances don't support.  A shame, since as a nation, we certainly have the wealth to erase that deficit.  Why don't we have the will?  Is it that the well-to-do, the accomplished, the wealthy don't have the breadth of vision to look deeper?  Or they've absorbed some of our ideals (individual rights, reaping the benefit of hard work), but not others (giving back to the community, strength of our nation arising from the collective ability to thrive), so the selfish side is overemphasized?  Are those that claim this is a Christian nation so consumed with the perceived threat to their ability to believe as they wish that they're blinded to the fundamental notion of Christianity: your purpose is to love (and serve), not horde and amass wealth?

The bottom line of the Declaration of Independence is pledging our lives, fortunes and sacred honor for the good of the people of America.  How far have we drifted from that ideal?  How far have I, personally, drifted?  Or have I ever EVER internalized that when I think of myself as an American?

Do we have it in us as a nation to face our threats with enough force to defeat them?

Our real threats, it seems, based on what I've been absorbing through the national rhetoric and information outlets are, in no particular order: Climate change, wage inequality/economic stability, globalization, mass human migration from war and unrest, splintering of our national culture.  Maybe you can think of more, but I have this irrational belief that together, with enough a sense of conscious agreement and cooperation, we could reduce the threat or find ways to effectively cope to the point where we felt it wasn't going to do us in.  How do we get there?  Ah, let's step up our game and figure that out.  Together.

Birthright

I was born a white boy of modest means, narcissistic and wanting to be pious.  Wanting to do good for some unconscious, or at least unexamined, motivation to make people respect the person I would be.

We all have different faculties, various levels of intelligence in different parts of our mental landscape, and my epigenically determined topography turned me into my particular brand of automaton.  And so it was until whenever it was when I started to get a hint of that the key to unlocking the mind, like unlocking the phone, involves hacking into the programming.  Until a person challenges the algorithms (fundamental belief systems) on which they operate, they remain zombies, of a sort.  The Matrix, as it were, is more real than people believe.  Unplugging requires both an act of courage and defiance.  But it's a very special brand of defiance, not against any legally recognized entity, but against the habits of a lifetime since mom and dad and authority and the social machine have imprinted on your one's life.  The courage comes in facing the unknown -- what has been a companion for years, a go-to set of values and rules, regardless of whether they've lead to any sort of tangible success or not (depending on the most basic idea of what success might be), and abandoning it for what?

When I was unlocked, I had had a few years, a few key life experiences under my belt, and a whole lot of learning to draw from -- exposure to such a wide variety of ideas from science, science fiction, literature, philosophy, human nature. . . making it a more seamless process than it is for most, perhaps.  It was catalyzed by some emotional trauma in the form of a near simultaneous divorce and consequent move, major career change, and etcetera, leaving me without the stability I'd had before and so the freedom(?) to embrace a fundamentally different ideology.  Not everybody gets that chance, and I suppose I wouldn't wish it on anybody, because that level of upheaval in one swell swoop is not necessarily what I'd call a pleasant experience.  But the sooner I stopped judging the new array of experiences, the sooner the pain ceased.  And the sooner the ineluctable and unique peace that comes only from substituting will to awareness.  Because will is an effective blinder to what they world is offering you.  And what the world offers is simply this: The opportunity to approach your circumstances with honesty and fearlessness.  Not recklessness, not brazenness or bravado, but the faith that there is no absolute imperative to meet any arbitrary expectation, yours or others'.  Your expectations have served their purpose (getting you here) and may now be retired, and theirs, you no longer need to heed because their expectations are for them to deal with, not you.  You've got a life to lead, and their boxes are no longer constraints (blinders, fetters, hand-cuffs, bars, thumb-screws) that need to be heeded).

All that stuff put me here, today, in 2015 San Diego, and to do what with in this tiny plot of world I inhabit.  So, what am I going to do?

Forgive the White Racist Shooters?

I saw a post today that asked if the black community should stop forgiving white racists (as victims' families did publicly in the wake of South Carolina).

We might first remember that forgiveness is not a selfless act that absolves someone of any wrongdoing.  It's a selfish act that allows the forgiver to love again.  Holding resentment, consternation, contempt, disapproval (judgment), or hatred in one's heart lessens, weakens, sickens the person with those feelings.  Forgiving, real forgiveness (not saying it or wanting to forgive, or saying "It's OK" or any other equivocation) allows a person to proceed with a clear, unfettered, or conflated agenda of rational action.  Forgiveness lets someone love again...not just the ability to love the person being forgiven, but to love at all.  Someone clouded with hatred, even a little, can no longer love unconditionally.  Try to love someone deeply while thinking about that which you hate.  Sort of tough, huh?  I can imagine the mental gymnastics someone would be able to perform and do it -- schizophrenia level.  Forgiveness, like contempt or hate, does nothing for they who wrong you.  It only works its magic (or poison) in you.

Anyone who's ever felt the palpable lifting of a burden when they've actually forgiven a major transgression against them knows what I'm talking about.  If you haven't, this might not resonate.  That's OK.  I wouldn't wish that sort of thing on anyone.

So my answer is, if a person can find a path to honest and complete forgiveness, take it.  It's not like you can forget the hurt or pain that was caused.  But if you're lucky, you can avoid multiplying it by finding a way to forgive.

War Death Perspective

If the same percentage of the population of the United States that were killed in the Civil War were compared with today's population, the death toll would be 5,500,000.

The number lost in 911 was around 3000, or 1/20th of 1 percent of the Civil War casualty rate.  If we add Iraq and Afghanistan, that's another 6700 (or another 1/10th of 1 percent of the Civil War rate).

So for all three, close to 1/5 of 1% of the Civil War.  One fifth of one percent.

And for all that, for those who lost a loved one, it's as bad as it could possibly be for those.  How many of us even KNOW a single person who was killed in one of the last wars.  Being a former military officer, I do know some of the dead casually, but no close friends during the last couple wars.

If each of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was close to 50 unique people, then that brings the total close friends or relatives that have experienced war loss to 10%.  We're more connected that in the civil war, but if each of the dead were close to 20 people in the Civil War, 40% lost someone close to them. 1 in 10 versus 4/10 makes a big difference in the national sentiment.

Uploading Your Consciousness into a Computer: Alt-you

OK, so if it could be done, the problem would be that there would be 2 "yous."  The original -- you sitting there with all your memories and thoughts hooked up to some kind of brain-copy machine.  And then there would be Alt-you, on the computer.  Assuming you could copy but not just cut & paste.

So, as you sit there, the Alt-you could, for all intents and purposes, act and think as you do/would, and if it were then in a robot or somehow then reprogrammed into the Alt-you human brain, two people, you and him.

So, the one made immortal at that point would be the other one, and you'd be sitting here in with your individual unique consciousness, still watching this other person/entity, who may be very much like you, but is not you, because you're still there, in your head.  And you'd be seriously jealous, because as you continue to deteriorate and die, he/she'd be out there living their new and continued life!  They could even do your job and be the parent of your children and the excellent spouse you are to your life partner!  And you'd again, be watching as the outside person.  You'd have the peace of mind, I guess, that Alt-you would be the same as you to everyone else in the world, and could continue being you to everybody.  But again, it's the other you, and there's no way to get this current you outside your head and into any other consciousness, is there?  As intimately as you are connected to your own neurons, those are the ones that make  you feel like you with your own memories and consciousness.  And you'd still die, just like you would have had you not uploaded yourself into Alt-you.

And the new you that you had thought you would become would be Alt-you's (Alt-yours?).  To the world, you could almost be considered to become immortalized, but to you, yourself, sayonara!

But, brain transplant -- taking your brain and putting it into some healthy new body or fully hooked-up, robotic brain-vessel.  I suppose that's the better route, right?  Because then, it's still be the original you in there.  That'd be good.  Until you were finally ready to let go and surrender.

Police are Human. But Good Humans, please.

Police need to be better (on the average) than the people they're arresting, right?  They should, on the average, be a better behaved than normal folks while on the job, exercising the public trust to enforce the law.  When off the job, they should be like us, but still not criminal.  "Oh, you're doing 75 in a 65?  Yeah, well, no problem."  But if you're going to wear the badge, you can't be committing felonies, stalking people, abusing your families, going off the deep end.  We need emotionally healthy people exercising power over others.

So, if they commit an honest error and maintained their and the perp's dignity, and are like, "My bad,"  we should be like, "No, I got you, man."  But when they are arrogant, scofflaw-ish, thuggish, or negligent, we should be rightfully, "Oh no you didn't!"  On duty, they need to be held to higher standards than the civilians.

How does a police officer act to the suspect who doesn't answer questions?  Well, of course they're not going to like it because it gets in the way of their doing the job.  How should I act to the police officer who does not offer and does not answer when asked why I'm being pulled over or detained?  When I heard the tape today of a black man being pulled over and asking why he was being detained over and over again, only to be met with silence, I can no longer be on the side of this officer.  I WANT to be on the side of the police!  I WANT to believe that the police officer was being a good, honest person like me!  A trustworthy and effective law enforcement program make me feel safe and protected from those who would do me harm.  Anything that puts that into jeopardy makes me want to prepare to take my protection on myself, get a gun, and makes me skittish if I'm ever pulled over for some minor infraction (like jaywalking or taillight).

Partial Water Solution -- Start from basic rights.

From a residential standpoint, can we start by agreeing on a minimal amount each person needs for basic living?  Say, 3 flushes, 5 gallons for shower, 2 gallons for cooking, 5 gallons for cleaning, 5 gallons per week to wash clothes.  Whatever it is, for every man, woman, and child in a household, that should be granted for a flat and affordable, administrative fee (the water itself, free). Say $5 a month?  $10.  For every gallon after that, you pay a higher rate up to double the average usage amount.  When you hit triple, you pay a way higher rate.  Quadruple, way higher. If you want to use 10 times the amount of water a person needs to live a reasonable, basically hygienic life, you need to pay whatever it takes to provide the additional infrastructure (water, energy to move or process it, additional through-put, administer, etc.)

So if you just can't do without your own swimming pool, fine.  But you're going to pay for that luxury.  You want a big yard that sucks water?  You pay more.  You want to provide some of your produce from your garden and fruit from your trees?  Fine, you pay more.  You want to wash your car at home?  Pay for it.

That way, people who are saving absolutely, not compared to some arbitrary "historical usage" or whatever other unit not based on the human right to water, That way, the homeowners are incentivized to conserve or literally pay for the infrastructure to produce more fresh water for luxurious purposes.  And the economically struggling are not gouged.  The conservative minded can spend their money on other luxuries, like travel, solar panels, etc.

Egregious Rush To Judgment

Egregious rush to judgment?

Tell that to the black men killed by police who have immediately judged and killed them on the street.  Are you trying to tell me there wasn't enough evidence to bring the officers up on charges?

Please.  Who are you trying to convince?  "... for something that my simply be negligence?"  Please.  I can't even hear you when you say that.  It fails the reasonable man (person) theory.  You are clearly being political.

Suppression and Its Devastating and Inexorable Effects

When a human experiences a severe trauma while young, it will manifest itself in unpredictable ways, but it will.  PTSD is real and almost always negative, frequently severely debilitating.  There is no ignoring it.  We're still learning how to treat this disorder, but it seems addressing the root cause is critical, as well as managing the symptoms and destructive damaging behaviors.

A country or a people is the same way.  When it has undergone serious trauma, like Slavery and the Civil War which sought to end it, the healing is going to be a long-term endeavor, and not directly dealing with the deep wounds requires taking an unflinching look at the lacerations and inflammation is not enough, just as in a physical injury.  Risk of infection exists with the potential to deeply harm the nation.  I believe inadequate healing is what we are suffering from, and any denial will leave diseased tissue.  It requires a solution that, like a general antibiotic that travels throughout the whole organism, it heals the infection nation-wide.

Maybe someone wants to develop a cancer analogy that works.  But the unrest in and around the country are, in my view, a natural flare up from a function of our inability to truly look at who we are as a nation, what we've done to wrong ourselves, and do what it really takes to return to full "mental" health as a nation.

We are suffering because we have continued to impose suffering on sectors of our population, and the protests are a natural expression of pain.  We know it's there, and it's not going away until we, all of us, bring our full resources to bear.

I'm an intellectual

In full disclosure, I've always been one and it drives my behavior.  I hope I've mostly grown up from the childhood notion that being smart is important because in children, it leads to their need to impress people so they can be the good boy or girl.  Now that I think about it, I see it mostly in boys, more rarely in girls, and most often in people who are trying to convince themselves that they are smart because someone (or an undefined everyone) has convinced them that they're supposed to be smart which is interpreted as smart is good.  So there are many precocious and pompous little smarties out there, and sometimes they take it into adulthood with them, which is just a little sad.

It's simple, I think.  The inherent satisfaction deriving directly from understanding something.  The little and big aha moments are intrinsically rewarding and significantly rewarding.  Intrinsically in the most direct sense -- not simply because they contribute to edification, but like the click of satisfaction from putting in a puzzle piece or clearing 4 lines of Tetris.  That too, but more.  That part is nicely self contained and serves its own immediate purposeless purpose.  But they add up to another phenomenon -- the broader grokking of broader swaths of the human condition and natural world.  As more of the oceanic breadth of what can be understood is filled in, the ability to see the more universal patterns that apply in multiple domains brings on a meta-comprehension of things which transforms the nature of knowing things.  It's quasi-spiritual in nature, and can conflate with the actual spiritual in nature.

I like to remind myself of a specific time in my life, in ways a little embarrassing, and but unregrettable phase in my growth where the feelings invoked by this, perhaps because contemporaneous with multiple tectonic shifts in my personal situation (ending of a 10 year marriage and a 10 year career) manifested as a supernatural spiritual event.  A year later, my interpretation shifted again to a more grounded interpretation, but that meta-comprehension "puberty" phase is recognizable in others.  It is beautiful to behold from the inside and the outside, and you'll consider yourself fortunate, I believe, if you are blessed with the opportunity to experience it.  Expect to find yourself at a loss for words trying to share with others what you're going through.  Suffice it to say, it left me with an utter appreciation for why people go off the religious deep end -- it feels very much like a religious ecstasy and the vocabulary of the spiritual is the only way I knew to describe the experience.  It provided a Rosetta Stone for interpreting the world's wisdom texts, and reading them now resonates in a way it never could.  Had I known then what I know now, I'd have been able to interpret my Catholic dogma in a way that would have allowed me to stay in the church with complete integrity.

Speaking of which (the crisis of faith), it's not much of an intellectual journey if you never have one.  Breaking away from the simplistic childhood understanding of life demands a break with faith.  Without it, one cannot truly "own" one's beliefs.  They're borrowed until they've been challenged by the best arguments ones faculties can bring to bear.  What emerges from that onslaught intact are the starting point for reinterpreting the world as an independent mind.  Using all the tools -- observation, induction and deduction, experience and experiment, and feeding the machine gobs of information to be digested -- enables mature intellectualism and can become a formidable vehicle for playing about around in those rarefied airs of philosophy.

Being an intellectual, I want to know and understand.  It begs for time to read and write and discuss, which takes time from other endeavors.  When those other endeavors are providing fodder for intellectual exercise, like learning a new job, or even engaging in mindless and healthy activities like digging or washing dishes or aerobic exercise, it can feed the machine.  But that middle ground which tasks the brain just enough, like child-rearing or teaching, puts intellectual playtime on hold.  Sure, there is mental activity and creative juice flowing a little, and it can keep a mind from backsliding, but once the learning curve from those activities shallows, it hobbles most intellectual growth in areas outside those being conducted.  I mean, being a teacher, I could continue to become a better, wiser, more intellectual and effective teacher.  And if it were just teaching, I could probably find the time outside of work to enjoy feeding myself from the multitude of intellectual topics and activities upon which I like to suckle.  But the parenting thing -- I can feel quite acutely the diminishing effectiveness of my parenting when I'm fully engaged in intellectual pursuits.  The perfect example is this little piece of writing at this moment.  Writing is an important and unique part of processing and both defines and is a fruit if my intellectualism.  While my wife is out with the kids alone today, shepherding them from event to event, which is fine, but I know when I'm along on these normal, routine childhood-defining activities with my kids, there is benefit to them as they have one more person to co-experience it with, another hand to hold, another being to love and hug, another person to push them on the swing, another set of eyes to watch them explore independently so they can go a little further on their own (without coming to lethal harm) before turning their eyes back to make sure they're family is still around.  And I also enjoy that role and what it offers my children.  The tradeoff is clear, and we do spend a LOT of time together as a family unit, and it's worth it.  But.  But the opportunity cost is dear.

We all are varied in our values.  I value doing right by my children more than feeding my intellectualism.  So I can deny it more often than someone who, for whatever formative and (epi-)genetic reasons, has a different balance, tipped more toward something else and away from domestic obligations.  And I don't judge them for it.  In a way, I envy them but I accept that, for me, I would regret not being involved enough in my children's lives to believe I did my best to support a healthy and salubrious developmental experience.  And as part of that, I DO have to give a nod to this intellectual drive, as well, or I'm not honoring who I am and my particular gifts.  I want to give the rest of the world a little of the best of myself, too.  And I acknowledge that helping my children become the best they can be (whatever that means -- a topic for another day) also serves the world at large, so there's that.  Maybe my last word about parenting.  Children learn most by watching, and especially the behavior of their parents, and the smart ones learn even more when they reflect (as adults) on their parents when they were children.  So as a parent, they will gain most (I believe) from having seen me live an honest life, and do what I can to apply my best talents in service of the world.  Setting that example, and talking with them about it when they reach their own age of reason, may, in fact, be the single most formative and beneficial experience possible.  Particularly if I've been there enough to form that solid, trusting and indelible bond that everything I know tells me matters.

Football in Modern America

Interesting for those keeping track.  When organizations are finally forced to face their truth, the whole thing changes and becomes healthier.  It's no mystery why the default is to deny, obfuscate, and lie.  But when the damage reaches its tipping point, the industries in question can actually start making things right.

Toyota and it's accelerator problem.  Police departments and their racism.  Cigarettes and their cancer.  The financial sector and their myriad fucking games.  Exxon and BP and their oil spills.  The Republicans and their white privilege and anti-intellectual bullshit.  (I am an innovative conservative at heart but because of the Republican leadership and a great majority of their members, I will never be one as long as they support idiocy).  And the NFL and its head injuries.  OK, some of the organizations haven't reached their tipping point yet, but someone who cares needs to keep the pressure on.

Organizations are like adolescents or arrested adults in their behavior.  With some exceptions, of course.  But the teenager who lies to avoid trouble from their parents. . . A fully actualized adult sees it and remembers what it was like.  But has learned that it is always less than.  The real, actual results of engaging in the behavior that induced them to lie, and the ultimate result of the lies sets them back because it leads to inefficiency, damaged reputation, disrespect and dishonor.  Which, in the end, leaves the kid (and organization) years behind in realizing their potential as aware, conscientious members of their community.

Just like people, when people finally face their fatal flaws, they can do amazing things, inspire incredible devotion and respect, and improve their ability to accomplish a well-considered and worthy goal.  Until that day, they are burdens and liabilities.  The world is fraught with risk and there will be errors, mistakes, lapses, and bad-hair days.  But an entity practiced in (not spinning) meeting those missteps head-on with integrity save themselves the additional distraction and time of dealing with their inevitably discovered lies, half-truths, deceptions, and machinations.

So bringing it back to football in America. . .

The glory and remuneration of being a football star in America and the function football can fill in our national schema are worth the reduced health of the players.  There are not that many players.  Compared to the public at large, if there are 1700 players (note 1) at any given time, and an average career between 3.2 to 6 years (depending on whether you believe the Players Association or the NFL).  The attention and prestige these players receive are way beyond their effort relative to other hard-working professionals.  And yes, as a group, they are exceedingly hard working!  But still, there are at least 3200 teachers, nurses, police and firemen... who work as laboriously and make a comparative pittance.  Not fair.  So the fact that they are at much greater risk for injury and health compromise is help to balance the tableau.  They get paid the RIDICULOUSLY big bucks for it.  The thing that would make it completely fair is if the NFL were transparent with what they know about injury rates, the scope and depth of the risk, and a real disclosure of just what the players are (statistically) getting into.  Then, when the players, with their trusted advisers, make the decision to play, they are doing so with eyes wide open and can honestly sign the waivers that absolve the NFL from punitive punishment, and everyone is there with a full understanding and acknowledgement of what the deal is.  Even so, this should in no way be an argument against making the game as safe as possible for the players, but it needs to be a violent and tough sport for it to serve its purpose.

It's fun, it's entertainment, but it serves another purpose, as well.  It allows we regulars to project our violence onto them in the arena, and provides a psychic outlet for some of those tendencies allowing us to lead our lives with a little less violence.  And it has the potential to serve that purpose even more, like the Roman gladiators, sanctioned boxing, horror movies, etc.  We can subjugate some of our macho angst by observing our football players to live it for us.  Now if we could find a way to let more teams win more often . . .  Allowing the 1700 players to be a cathartic outlet for 150 (give or take 50) million may be worth it.  Not to mention the general emotional engagement and entertainment value.  So, yeah, let's keep on having football, but let's get the damn NFL to come all the way clean NOW so the sport can live on with integrity.

Note 1: http://www.besttickets.com/blog/unofficial-2013-nfl-census/

Kevin Spacey versus Billy Collins

Listening to Billy Collins on A Prairie Home Companion last week and tonight on YouTube, I heard the similarity in their voices -- both the timber and tone, and the accent.  They don't have distinctive accents, but they sound like they could be brothers.  So I looked up their bios and found that they both came from the New York City/New Jersey area (White Plains) and both spent some of their formative years in California.

What can I say?

I think at times everything has been said about things in general, or at least more than can or should be digested.  There's the local news and traffic updates that are helpful, and the schedule of events for the upcoming week, of course.  But in books and magazines, I wonder if taking a year off from new production might make us better consolidate or summarize the mountain of new every year and give us all a chance to catch up on the last decade of new.

I think of the several books about creativity or public policy, the authors of which could all just get together to work through their various points of view, cut through the chaff and to the bone to put together a more concise and balanced whole.  Let the bulk of the background reasoning be relegated to online appendices (with the shorter version in the published pages, of course).

When I think of putting my not small bundle of thoughts together for public consumption, this is my thinking.  Where would my voice add something of value to the din and cacophony?