Disagreements

As the political campaigns battle on, some thoughts have surfaced I wish to share. 

I had a vituperative email discussion (seems oxymoron-ish, but it isn’t!) with a neighbor who is a conservative, entrenched, anti-government fear mongerer. His fear is real. His disdain for others who think differently than he, visceral. I suspected his arguments would be one sided, mean spirited and distinctly uncivil. I wasn’t prepared for the reality, however!  

Any sentence I wrote was twisted and turned around to mean something unintended by me. Each word was parsed for a second or third meaning. Why the fellow quite frankly took off on every phrase with vigor and spittle. I could just envision him frothing at the mouth. How very unpleasant. And unnecessary.  But I have continued thinking about him and worrying about his well-being.  

I have a difficult time understanding why a person feels as angry as he does. I wonder how he got to that place. Some thoughts come to mind that help understand it.  I know the man to be well into his 80’s. I know he is halt and labored of movement. I know he is a grumbler, has been for some years. Quick of tongue and opinion; not of lent ear.

In short I am getting a picture of an angry old man who has a limited future and is feeling frustrated. Problem is he has been in this frame of mind for several years so why not use it constructively? Why didn’t he use his energy and thinking a few years ago and do something with it? Now time is running low for him. As the finish line nears he is energized more so to spit out his frustration. If only he would give others a chance; hear them, allow them to hear him; share meaning among and between. He might find the situation is not as dire as he thinks it is; or that there is a chance to bring order and sense to it at the very least. But now. He wastes energy. And his time. 

Here are a few reactions I’d like to share. He claims I’m biased for Obama. He claims I’m a liberal who is out of touch with the world. He claims the government under Obama has created the basis for the destruction of America. But when countered with the opposite, he claims he is not a republican but a conservative. Whatever that means to others, it means something entirely different to him, evidently! 

As I countenance the landscape of republican candidates for president, I see no individuals who have brightened the scene or American discussion. I see panderers seeking votes among the lowest of common denominators. I see attackers of American values in the name of those same values; talk about oxymoron!  Lord spare me this drivel. The republicans have done great harm to themselves. Their brand is diminished if not destroyed. If they think they are shining beacons of hope for the nation, they need to sincerely study their image in the mirror.  

I found an image on the Internet of a poster board held up for public view. On it were printed these statements. I think they are quite good as summaries of where we stand at this moment in our political history: 

“Why I support Obama:

1. For 30 years I’ve heard politicians talking about health care reform and he’s the first one to do something about it. The Affordable Care Act removes restrictions on pre-existing conditions, makes health care more affordable for small businesses, raises the age at which children can be on their parents’ policies, removes lifetime caps, and more. With the possible exception of insurance exec’s, who would not want these changes?
2. He ended the war in Iraq and is drawing the war in Afghanistan to a close. Like he said he would.
3. He thinks women should have access to free preventative health care. Why is this still an issue?
4. He believes in equality for all people and signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women get equal pay for equal work and the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
5. He is promoting and investing in clean energy jobs. Finally.
6. He supports education by giving more flexibility to No Child Left Behind (thank you!) and by making college aid more available.
7. He thinks millionaires and billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us. Really, this is a no brainer.
8. Despite inheriting one of the worst economic messes since the Great Depression, he added 2.6 million private sector jobs to our economy, and indications are that the economy is slowly improving. To anyone who thinks it’s been too slow – don’t you know you can’t turn the Titanic around in a day?

I voted for him before and I will vote for him again.”

I think this is an excellent summary of where we are 3 years after Obama entered the White House. Now if Congress would collaborate and move the forward together. Just think how much could be done if we were all pulling our oars in the same direction!

Getting things done because they are needed.

March 7, 2012

An Outline of Reason

Regular readers have encountered my recent read of The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. Rather than blather on about it, I will instead share with you an outline I constructed of the book. This is a roadmap to the gems of insight Friedman provides. Scan it. Look it over again. Then let your imagination run loose (not wild!). Consider reading the book. Then get the book at the library, bookstore, or from Amazon.  I just ordered a used paperback for 36-cents plus $3.99 for shipping! Can’t beat that price.

This is an important book. Don’t miss reading it.

Outline: The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman

Copyrighted 2005; revised 2006 and 2007 for paperback edition

1. How the World Became Flat
1. Snuck up on us; while we were sleeping
2. The ten forces that flattened the world

                                                              i.      Demise of the Berlin Wall, 11/9/89: The New Age of Creativity: when the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up

                                                            ii.      The New Age of Connectivity, 8/9/95: When the Web went around and Netscape went public

                                                          iii.      Work Flow Software

                                                          iv.      Uploading: harnessing the power of communities

                                                            v.      Outsourcing: Y2K

                                                          vi.      Off-shoring: Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions

                                                        vii.      Supply-Chaining: East Sushi in Arkansas

                                                      viii.      Insourcing: What the guys in funny brown shorts are really doing (UPS)

                                                          ix.      In-forming: Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search

                                                            x.      The Steroids: Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual

3. The Triple Convergence:

                                                              i.      Convergence 1: Work flow software and hardware converged in a way that enabled Konica Minolta to offer scanning, emailing, printing, faxing, and copying all from the same machine

                                                            ii.      Convergence 2: horizontal integration of sales, delivery of goods and production of same; just in time inventory; coming together of all 10 flatteners into the flat world, habit, business practices, etc.

                                                          iii.      Convergence 3: New players on a new playing field developing new processes and habits for horizontal collaboration; 3 billion new players all around the globe now rule global economics and politics in the 21^st Century; introducing an era in which technology will literally transform every aspect of business, every aspect of life and every aspect of society.

4. The Great Sorting Out

i.        India versus Indiana: who is exploiting who?

ii.      Where do companies stop and start?

iii.    From Command and Control to Collaborate and Connect

iv.    Multiple identity disorder

v.      Who owns what?

vi.    Death of the Salesmen  

2. America and the Flat World
1. America and Free Trade: is Ricardo (1772-1823) still right?
2. The Untouchables: finding the new middle

                                                              i.      Great collaborators and orchestrators

                                                            ii.      Great synthesizers

                                                          iii.      Great Explainers

                                                          iv.      Great leveragers

                                                            v.      Great adapters

                                                          vi.      Green People

                                                        vii.      Passionate personalizers

                                                      viii.      Math lovers

                                                          ix.      Great localizers

3. The Right Stuff: Tubas and Test Tubes

                                                              i.      Which class to I take to learn how to learn?

                                                            ii.      Navigation

                                                          iii.      Passion and curiosity is greater than IQ

                                                          iv.      Stressing Liberal Arts

                                                            v.      Right Brain

                                                          vi.      Tubas and Test Tubes: mixing/converging arts with education/science: creates innovations, creativity

                                                        vii.      The right country: America has all it needs to be the best in the world; we just have to understand it better and use it

4. The Quiet Crisis: America not aware of its non-competitiveness

                                                              i.      Dirty Little Secret #1: The numbers gap

                                                            ii.      Dirty Little Secret #2: The education gap at the top

                                                          iii.      Dirty Little Secret #3: The ambition gap

                                                          iv.      Dirty Little Secret #4: The education gap at the bottom

                                                            v.      Dirty Little Secret #5: The funding gap

                                                          vi.      Dirty Little Secret #6: The infrastructure gap

5. This is Not a Test

                                                              i.      Leadership

                                                            ii.      Muscles

                                                          iii.      Good Fat: cushions worth keeping

                                                          iv.      Parenting

3. Developing Countries and the Flat World
1. The Virgin of Guadalupe

                                                              i.      Introspection

                                                            ii.      I can get it for you wholesale

                                                          iii.      I can only get it for you retail

                                                          iv.      Follow the Leaping Leprechauns

                                                            v.      Culture Matters: Glocalization

                                                          vi.      The Intangible Things

                                                        vii.      Many Speeds, One Direction

4. Companies and the Flat world - How Companies Cope

                                                              i.      Rule #1: When the world is flat, whatever can be done will be done. The only question is whether it will be done by you or to you.

                                                            ii.      Rule #2: This is an outgrowth of #1: Because we are in a world where whatever can be done will be done, the most important competition today is between you and your own imagination.

                                                          iii.      Rule #3: And the small shall act big…One way small companies flourish in the flat world is by learning to act really big. Imagination is necessary, but not sufficient. You have to be able to implement what you imagine. And the key to being small and acting big is being quick to take advantage of all the new tools for collaboration to reach farther, faster wider and deeper.

                                                          iv.      Rule #4: And the big shall act small…One way that big companies learn to flourish in the flat world is by learning how to act really small by enabling their customers to act really big.

                                                            v.      Rule #5: The best companies are the best collaborators. In the flat world, more and more business will be done through collaborations within and between companies, for a very simple reason: The next layers of value creation – whether in technology, marketing, biomedicine, or manufacturing – are becoming so complex that no single firm or department is going to be able to master them alone.

                                                          vi.      Rule #6: In a flat world, the best companies stay healthy by getting regular chest X-rays and then selling the results to their clients.

                                                        vii.      Rule #7: The best companies outsource to win, not shrink. They outsource to innovate faster and more cheaply in order to grow larger, gain market share, and hire more and different specialists –not to save money by firing more people.

                                                      viii.      Rule #8: How you do things as a company matters more today than ever.

                                                          ix.      Rule #9: When the world goes flat – and you are feeling flattened – reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself. Don’t try to build walls.

5. You and the Flat World
1. Globalization of the Local: The cultural revolution is about to begin
2. If It’s Not Happening, It’s Because You’re Not Doing It
3. What Happens When We All Have Dog’s Hearing?

    6. Geopolitics and the Flat World

1. The Unflat World: no guns or cell phones allowed

                                                              i.      Too sick

                                                            ii.      Too disempowered
                                                          iii.      Too frustrated
                                                          iv.      Too many Toyotas

2. The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention – Old Time Versus Just In Time
3. Infosys Versus Al-Qaeda
4. Too Personally Insecure

     7. Conclusion: Imagination

1. 11/9 Versus 9/11
2. EBay
3. India
4. The Curse of Oil
5. Just One Good Example
6. From Untouchables to Untouchables

March 6, 2012

Labeling Rights

Who defines who you are? How do you come to understand who and what you are in the broader context of society? Is it you? Or is it another person, or group?

It has taken me a long time – decades – to get a handle on who and what I am. There are so many dimensions to personhood to think about before coming to any conclusions. And then the conclusions are perhaps temporary as new data/information/realizations bombard me and upset the balance that defines me at any given moment.

For the most part I am an independent thinking person, active in community, concerned with issues that help me understand how our nation and globe is getting along. I read broadly gathering informational inputs to my process of understanding. Along the way I form opinions, minor conclusions, short cuts that help me remember key elements to an emergent understanding and conclusion.

This process provides room to grow in appreciation of diversity. So many people. So many minds. So many differing points of view. None all-controlling or correct. Each containing wisdom or points too important to throw away. Accommodating the community’s right to express itself singly and jointly.

There are moments, however, which require us to make a decision on an issue and say –“this is where I stand at this moment” – and then move on. Paralysis by analysis can abide only so long. We must move on. Once decided in my mind, I usually hang on to that mindset/position for some time. I still listen to other opinions but will quickly shut them off if they are not respectful or logical. Occasionally a new wrinkle alters my opinion a bit, broadens it, but in the main my position remains somewhat stable.

Thus my point of view is not wishy washy; I maintain a certain level of consistency. But an opening to fresh thinking is maintained as well.

Having said that, it bothers me to be labeled by another person. I can label myself, thank you! I am an independent, ex Republican (of 3 decades now!), not quite a Democrat (but sympathetic currently), middle of the roader. I am not conservative nor liberal. I am in between. Solidly.

Of course to a far right wing conservative that makes me a raving liberal! On the other hand, to a hard left ideologue I am quite conservative. Both views of me are very off base. And rightly so.

Trouble is there are many who attempt to make public policy decisions based on their understanding of where public opinion is. At any given moment that opinion is static; the next moment registers movement to another position. It doesn’t remain the same for long.

No, public policy development needs to be based on solid core values broadly shared by its society. Focusing the policy narrowly helps accomplish this. More broad gets into troubled waters quickly. Keep it simple and focused.

It cannot be conservative or liberal or identifiably belonging to any ideological camp. It must be based on fact and logic. Perhaps that is why I am a middle of the road political ideologist. I borrow from many camps of thinking to arrive at workable conclusions in my mind. I avoid extreme positions unless frustrated and ill-tempered at the moment.

We have to get along well enough with each other to manage the main affairs of our nation. Making no decision is not governance. Making rigid decisions is despotism perhaps, but not American governance. No, we need to make reasonable decisions in a timely manner with lots of monitoring for intended results so we can modify method when necessary. Pretty reasonable approach, right?

Well, others would disagree. They would say this approach is too accommodating and not based on core values. Following the approach, they would say, would lead to our straying off historical principles.

You see where this is going. Indecision. Unwillingness to give an inch. Argument rather than discussion. Debate rather than concerted effort to understand differing points of view. If we cannot hear each other we cannot understand the points we must grasp in order to make compromise. Compromise: a stasis of understanding upon which decisions can be made and work can proceed in an intentional manner.

No compromise, no movement. Gridlock. That pretty much describes our state capital and that of Washington DC. It is not pretty. It is ugly. And we are not hearing each other. Too many entrenched points of view. Too much power and money entrenching the ideologues. Not enough work getting done. Our work. The work of the nation.

Without that work, the decisions, the compromise, our country teeters toward…what? Abyss?

How did we get here? How do we move on to a future that avoids gridlock?

We might start with allowing each other to self label. Don’t assume we know enough about the other party to assign labels. Listen carefully to each other. Build bridges between each person, each point of view. Nurture this process. It helps us be polite, civil and constructive. The opposite is too much apparent.

I am a middle of the road independent. I am a centrist independent American. I am a patriot. I am…….

March 5, 2012

Creating Yourself

George Bernard Shaw said:

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

Think about it. Let it rest softly on your mind. Push it about a bit. Gently. Fly over it, under it, around it. Ponder. Ready?

So much time we spend learning about things, stuff, facts, each other, family, home, times. So much time spent wondering what we’re doing, experiencing. What will we do tomorrow? And the day after that? Damn! What do I want to do? Not just tomorrow or next week, but the rest of my life? What am I? Who am I? Why am I?

The months and years go by as we experience each of them. Not always knowing. Not always aware of where we are headed. Forward motion accompanies us. We are purposed sometimes, often not; unaware of the who and why; to say nothing of the what and how.

Experiences. We gather them. Uninvited mostly. We feel them and live them. Some good enough to repeat, even practice. Until patterns shape before us. The mind beginning to tag shapes; embrace them and keep them; sort them and assign them values. Experiences as life passes; but more…accumulates to role, and function and identity.  Identity. The me. The you and we.

Searching for meaning we call it. Not sure how much searching there is; seems more like looking; passive, not active. Until one day we wonder about it; try to think about it more concretely. The process is repeated until we are active; truly searching; for what?...meaning, maybe. It takes time, but eventually, ever so slowly, searching for self surfaces; and then the search is really on!

Discovery is education. Finding self is education. Testing the limits is education. Learning new things, linking them to others, this is all education. But finding oneself is still passive. It is not shaping or forming or action. It is just searching and finding; searching and finding. And then thinking and expanding the ideas; growing concepts tumble forward from this patterning. It seems like work. But it isn’t. It is passive.

George Bernard Shaw is right. Life is not about finding yourself. That is only discovering yourself, becoming aware of yourself. It is important. It is foundational. But it is not the end.

Shaw had it right by moving on to the next phrase: “Life is about creating yourself.”

It is action, not passive. Creating is an intentional act; a plan coupled with action to make something of the gifts we are given or born with. It is thinking for ourselves. It is reaching out to others and adding our energy with theirs to change outcomes. It is seeing the world for what more it can become and making that happen. Whether we do so for selfish reasons or not adds the dash that will become character. How noble will the self be? We can choose that. We can hone it, shape it and nurture it. To what end? That is the question. It is up to the self to determine; by using the choices and gifts in permutations of blessing the final prize is birthed. What will it be? Become?

Do we ask ourselves to be all that we can be? Does our culture prize this activity? Do we nurture the young to follow their paths with dignity, honor, and purpose? Are we teaching discovery and finding? Or are we agents of creation?

What do we need? What do we deserve?

March 4, 2012

Making Contact with the Other Side

I’m referring here to people who don’t agree with you; not people who have died and passed to the great beyond!  On the other hand, it might be just as difficult.  Let me explain. 

When someone says something to you as though you might be interested in his opinion, you have two choices: hear him out; or tell him you’re not interested and walk away from him. Of course there is a variation: hear him out but ignore him, tune him out and don’t respond.  It’s the same as the second choice only rude and disingenuous.

On the other hand if you hear him out and really try listening to what he is saying, you face a few other choices. Here are some:

• Make notes on his points; outline it so you capture his logic and meaning
• Note which points are not clear or articulate; perhaps they are non sequiters are mean nothing; follow up with him for clarification
• Note the points which you disagree with on a factual or logical basis; these are errors in the other person’s presentation; discuss this with him
• Discount emotional elements which may comprise a diatribe; instead seek what the meaning is; perhaps he is just angry or frustrated; remove as much of that as possible to uncover the truer picture of his points
• Now make a determination of whether you agree or disagree; tell him
• But also note points you’d like more information about and see how this information may expand your understanding of the subject matter.

All of this takes time and discipline. And you may not have it readily available. He may not let you have the time. He may press you or debate you thus obscuring the discipline you are attempting to apply to his ‘argument.’ If that is the case you can give up and walk away, or persist.

Recently I shared with my blog readers a writer of a letter to the editor of our local paper. I’m one of the editors. So I was the one detailed to determine if the letter should be printed. We said no for the print edition, but yes to placing it on our website in a special section of Rants ‘N Raves. He objected to this treatment. I told him his letter’s tone and verbiage were uncivil and disrespectful to other persons; if he kept to facts and ideas, we might change our mind.

The chain of emails that sparked could be used as a road map of disconnected communications. We were talking over and past each other, not seeking understanding. To be honest, he started the chain of invective and accusations, but I persisted in trying to get him to write and discuss his point of view on a logical and calm basis. So far I haven’t gotten very far. I invited him to read Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat; I even offered to share an outline of the book I had written to help him explore the contents of the book before reading it.  He asked me to read Ameritopia by Mark Levin. If I read that book he promised to read Friedman’s book.  I looked it up on the Internet and am not sure I want to read this tome as being far too conservative and blathering. I know the Friedman book is not an ideological snow job; I thought it would be but was pleasantly surprised that it is not. I’m not sure about Levin’s book, though. So I am dithering about reading it.

As I slept on this I awoke with the sense that I still need to connect with this person and try to understand his point of view better.  By that process I’m hoping he may actually try to understand my point of view as well. In such a way we might actually help each other along a difficult path of communication. One can hope.  I haven’t decided what I will do yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Have you had such challenges? Is this as difficult for you as it is for me? Why do you suppose that is? Building bridges. It is not easy.

March 3, 2012

Clear and Present Danger

Who is to say what is a clear danger, an impending catastrophe? Who has the authority to make the statement, a warning to others? Who makes this judgment that conditions have become present enough to suggest…indeed, make apparent…that doom is about to land on us? That something needs to be done to protect men, women and children…and property? 

A quick glance at selected press releases might alarm you; and me. They are designed to alarm. Scanning blogs, Internet, even Facebook, alarms are posted just about everywhere. Who are these authors? Is this public opinion? Is this public service? Is this a sanctioned activity? Or is this the open market of ideas? Reader beware; caveat emptor; let the buyer beware!

Probably the latter. So they have no authority, just the weight of frequency and consistence of message. Does this make the alarms real? Are we to take action to avoid danger? If not now, when? Who do we trust?

Most of the messages I think are attempts to control public thinking. Why the public falls prey to these I have no comprehension. But they do pose a problem. They serve as a distraction from considering what really matters and doing something about that! So what to do? 

Readers of this blog are familiar with my passion to be positive and constructive. We have so many blessings to build on it stuns me that so many people choose to act negatively, tear down, frown, spit angry epithets, and tromp on the feelings and ideas of others. Even achievers are belittled. Education is targeted for attacks. What is red suddenly becomes black. Up is down, and down is up!

Who are these people? Why do they act this way?  I think I have an inkling as to the answer: Could they feel powerless? Do they feel the rug pulled out from under their feet? Are they frightened? So scared they have become disoriented?

Perhaps we should reach out to them? And do what?

Let me share something that I encountered in the last two weeks. While preparing for our next newspaper edition (www.villagechronicles.net) every other week, 8 pages, I received a letter to the editor. It was a vitriolic condemnation of Obama as the worst president in the history of the US. It literally stated that all the negatives that have occurred during his presidency are his fault and he hasn’t done anything about them, hence his conclusion.

I refused to print his letter in the paper. It violated three tenets of our letter policy: too long, abusive of a person, and uncivil.

I did offer to print the letter unabridged on our website in a new section entitled Rants ‘N Raves, specifically created for his letter, and surely the ones that will follow. We only ask that the letters not be offensive. We haven’t created the website section yet, but hope to in the coming week.

The letter writer appreciated my candor but disagreed with my conclusion that his letter was uncivil; he countered it was based on facts. It wasn’t. But I don’t wish to be the arbiter of such distractions. So we will print it, just not in the already too short-of-space printed editions of our newspaper.

The larger question I’m dealing with is this: do we print every person’s opinion regardless of their truth?

Of course if we printed everything the readers would dismiss the items which are patently untrue or stupid, or so we hope! On the other hand readers would have to wade through all the nonsense before finding the nuggets of intelligence. Do we help them with that task, or are we rearranging the playing field against one position in favor of another?

I have noticed that publications receiving a good volume of letters eventually receive fewer and fewer reasoned letters. The lowest common denominator is encouraged to speak up and does! But simply selecting which letters I think should be printed places me in the position of becoming a manipulator. I don’t want the role. I do believe in the free marketplace of ideas. I just despise the junk that is meaningless but takes up space and distracts attention from worthy topics. Oh well; this is an age-old question not easily answered.

If I cut off letters I don’t like I’m as bad as those I disagree with. I won’t fall into that trap. Besides, who is to know if the clear and present danger isn’t us in the first place?

Any advice you care to share?

March 2, 2012

Hope -- Future

Economic indicators are rising. Unemployment was first driven by marginal industries in older technologies back in 2007, and then spread to larger manufacturers as housing markets collapsed in 2008 and 2009. As the mortgage market imploded it took housing sales along with it. And the housing market new and old. Then the recession was on for the long term.

As unemployment increased throughout many segments of the economy, service industry jobs began to disappear. Then as tax revenues began to shrivel local governments trimmed jobs, teachers were laid off, and the once stable local/township/county government employers began wholesale reductions. This spread to states. And the federal government as well.

The first wave of unemployment was in the private job sector. Then the government/public sector joined in and unemployment topped nearly 11%.

Unemployment now is dropping. Although there are badly injured regions and cities still suffering major joblessness, private employers are leading the economy back to growth. National unemployment is still high at 8.1% overall. But this figure will begin to decline as tax collections stabilize at the local and state levels. When that happens, government employment data will stabilize as well and probably begin a return to growth, maybe within the next 12 to 14 months.

In short, the national nightmare is seeing the light of dawn. We are not home yet with a vibrant economy, but the signs are there that it is beginning to come back.

Two topics need to be addressed. The first is obsolete jobs that will not return. The second,  jobs being created are on the cutting edge. This is very much in its infancy and indicates employers are reinvesting in their future.

Let’s go back to that first topic – job obsolescence.  One of the reasons unemployment was so low for such a long time is due to productivity gains. New technology and the adoption of it in communications, organizational structure, and manufacturing allowed a much smaller workforce to do the work of the laid off staff. Second, smaller staffs overworked remaining staff anxious to maintain their employment. Staff burnout however became evident and a return to restructuring and re-staffing emerged slowly. Meanwhile, whole product lines and markets collapsed as newer technology revolutionized who wanted what, when and where. New industries began to spring up.

Just scan the hospitality industry – business travel can be avoided by Skype-ing, emailing, conference calling and many other ways of reorganizing collaboration and cooperation. Adoption of new technology has changed the way we think, the process by which we invent. We are moving forward into the future. This necessarily causes upset in the industries of yesteryear. Employment patterns did shift and will continue to shift.

If you are unemployed or underemployed, or in doubt about the future of your present job, you may learn within the next 6 to 12 months that your past career is gone for good and you need to morph into something new. It may be vastly different, or only slightly. Or you may be employed in a ‘bridge’ job between the old and new. Be alert to your true status. It may be time to make major changes, go back to school, or seek retraining with your employer.

I think that many of us assumed that this recession was cyclical. It wasn’t. Data is now showing that this was a structural recession. We are doing things differently. We are making different things and services. We are adapting to a new world. Finally!  Realizing this fundamental fact is the first step in returning to a healthy, growing economy.

The second topic is creation of cutting edge jobs. This will take time as industry reinvests in the emerging technologies and international markets. America has most often been an exporter of innovation and it must return to it to regain strength in global markets. But to do this our citizens need to understand this as well and prepare for the changes. Educational institutions will need to assist in this process. Many already are. The winds of change are among us and growing in strength. That is a very good thing.

We’ve been talking about the future here. We are moving into it. It will be done. How well is another matter.

We are engaged in a debilitating political season of cyclical elections. This is the season where candidates posture to earn votes. They do this by not talking about issues, but fears. They play word games to cast one candidate in deep doubt as to abilities, while not presenting programs that will serve the needs of the country or region. They lay blame for conditions without any support as to why the conditions came about in the first place. They throw around figures and opinions as facts without any basis.

It is time to focus on the issues we need to repair: education, economic long-term future, and adoption of innovation. We can do this by ignoring political parties. We can do this by focusing on what’s good for our communities in real terms, not philosophical ones. And we can do this by asking candidates to speak about ideas that matter; these include those ideas that will guide us through the new future, not the old past.

Using the previous paragraph has a litmus test for politicians may just show each of us who is the leader and who is not. That should make our choices easier to make in the voting booth.

March 1, 2012