Saying Another Goodbye

Memorial service last Saturday afternoon for Judy Keeney (April, 1944 to November, 2017). She and husband Ed Sommer had been members of our Warrenville, Illinois church for some years. Both in failing health, Judy moved Ed to a continuing care facility near her family in Portland, Oregon. She moved in with a daughter and grandkids. Both Ed and Judy lived in Portland since 2016. It was a hard adjustment for them and all of their friends in Warrenville, too.

Judy was a talented, loving, intelligent woman. A professional actress, classically trained pianist, and mother of three from her first marriage. She was one of those people who found joy and interest in most everything. She did things, tried things, and read widely. She thought through complicated issues and engaged others in conversation. She changed peoples’ lives with her infectious humor and easy personality.

Her family planned her memorial service. They brought it to Trinity Lutheran Church in Warrenville where Judy and Ed had been very happy. The remembrances were notable and memorable. Humorous, too. A family well attuned to the world and the times. Just like Judy nurtured them to be!

In the pew bulletin for Judy’s service were these two quotes. Her children knew they described Judy to a T. The first quotation is from Erma Bombeck:

            “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a  single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me.”

The second quotation is from Leo Buscaglia:

            “To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk being called sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self. To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naïve. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure.

            But risks must be taken because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live. Chained by his attitudes, he’s a slave, he’s forfeited his freedom.

            Only the person who risks is truly free.”

The Bombeck and Buscaglia quotes are perfect for Judy. She was  a renaissance person well read, beautifully educated and deeply involved in life. She taught her children well, saw to their education – both secondary and college. She gave her kids freedom to explore life so they could make a life uniquely their own. No copy cats in the Keeney home.

Judy was a keen thinker, too; she weighed in on public opinions and critiqued those that were not well thought out. She was not opinionated but a worker of opinions to discern fact and truth.

We miss Judy, and Ed, too, now that Portland is his home. But both are in our minds and present in our lives through memories. We will remember long and fondly the quality of interactions they both provided their friends. Judy’s insightful conversations will remain a light in our room of memories of her.

Bless you Judy, and Ed, and all the Sommers-Keeneys. You were blessed with a special person in your lives. Ours, too.

January 18, 2018

                       

Opposing Views

The middle east. Palestinian and Israeli discussion points. Debate points? Heated argument points? No points? In the end the latter is as good a conclusion as any, isn’t it?

What progress has been made in the Palestinian/Israeli gridlock? None. Zero. Nada.

And that’s what we all get if we don’t listen to one another and offer a compromise of some value to the opposing side. If peace is what you both want, what will you give up to get it?

That is the question; that is the problem to solve.

And still, neither Palestinian or Israeli leaders are willing to give an inch.

On the one hand, Israel has more than the Palestinians and can give up something. Palestinians, on the other hand, have very little to offer.

Well, that’s not entirely true; they can and should offer a stop to the war-like hostilities. The primary problem with that, however, Palestinian authorities don’t have much control over those hostilities. They could work harder to gain that control, but ultimately it comes down to the trust of the people. Little trust exists. That’s what happens when ignorance is allowed to stand unopposed over generations of time. Hardcore hate develops. Not fertile ground for peace.

Yet, when we look over the language of this posting so far, we talk of the Palestinians, not Palestine. No such country exists. In my mind, that’s the core issue. Israel was formed by international authorities in 1948. It was formed from land once belonging to Palestine. That nation ceased to exist at that time; the Palestinian people and culture remained, of course, but not their nation in name or territory.

Warring ideologues' – mostly along religious demarcation – took issue with Israel as they always have. For thousands of years people have been against the Jews. Period. They could not bring themselves to support a nation named Israel. The hatred spanned millennia.

Along the way, the economics of oil, politics, and international skirmishes of larger powers, confused the dialog further. Today peace is still the hope of many, but continuously frustrated by those who win in a peace-absent space. Too many don’t want peace for their own selfish reasons.

This is why Israel does not trust the process of peace. They know that too many ‘others’ want Israel to go away; and those powers continue to upset the peace process.

This is not about America. It is not about Palestinians. And yet, if the Palestinians do not have a country of their own name, peace will continue to be hopeless. Palestine is a nation yet to be re-formed and well established. It ought to be. Then international powers should support Palestinian peace within its borders. Only then will the ‘other hostiles’ be pushed away long enough for Israel and Palestine to learn how to trust each other; maybe not completely, but enough to make glimmers of peace possible? Palestinian homelands should be shared with Israel for a buffer of peace; Israel should share its economic success and empower the people of Palestine toward self-sustaining economic power. Higher standards of living for Palestinians should bring dreams back to life. And those are the fuel for lasting peace.

First, get the non-Palestinian thugs out of the equation. Then work for a Palestinian state. Then lets resume peace talks.

It would also help to remove Netanyahu from his boisterous perch. With him in authority, no peace will come to anyone in the region.

Now, where was I? Opposing views. How such keep us from the peace or objective we desire.

the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is instructive on other conflicts. Those within America? How might those be described? And for how long will desired ends of all of us be denied until those nasty opposing views will allow gridlock to melt away?

Is it time to eliminate political parties in our nation in order to get representational government and processes back in productive action? I wonder. I wonder if either political party today is capable of governance. They certainly aren't capable of compromise. And that's at the heart of the issue.

January 17, 2018

Getting Away with Doing Nothing

Boy am I busy! And you as well!  I know, I know. You say that every day, week after week, month after month. I as well say similar things.

I know I’m busy. I know because my calendar records the appointments, the doctor appointments, the schedule outside the home. The desk is stacked high with files current and new. The beauty is tossing these files in the garbage when done, because the record is on electronic media. So not many old files lying around unless they are clients who gave up on themselves.

The phone is busy, too, but I don’t often answer that. I let messages go onto the service and read them later once screened for sales or spam calls. I know I’m busy because there is so much more to do; those realizations come from being engaged. New requests don’t often come from doing nothing.

Having said all of that, what’s with the title of today’s blog?

Well, it’s like this: a lot of people say they are busy but don’t seem to really be engaged in what they are doing. They seem to have time on their hands. In other words, they want to be busy, or would be if they said yes to requests. They don’t, so they really aren’t very busy. And I’m calling them out on this.

Look, this blog says over and over that this country and the world belong to all of us willing to get involved and work for good ends. We can’t complain about the world or the status of the nation if we aren’t lifting our end of the load. What gets done in this world is because of people willing to get involved and doing the work. It is that simple. My claim is, if enough people do this our nation and world will not be so broken.

I’m doing my end of things. What about you? If you are too, then who is not doing their share?

A lot of people on social media claim wisdom and knowledge; how many claim doing the good work? A lot or only a few. Sure some will want you to think they are busy doing the good things, but probably they aren’t. That’s a sorry state for all of us. We all pay for this lack of engagement by all too many of our fellow citizens.

All you do to prove this is ask others if they voted for trump in the last election. Are they responsible for the doofus to be in office? Do they take responsibility for this travesty? Or do they demur? Say they voted for someone else, not trump. Well, did they vote for one of the two minor losers, then? Or did they support Hillary in order to avoid a calamitous trump white house? Voting for someone other than Hillary did, in fact, elect trump.

If you are a trump supporter, how prepared on the issues were you prior to the election? Did you understand the consequences of electing trump? Did you get it then, or now? Or do you think the nation’s sinew will heal itself regardless of trump?

If you believe the latter, you have more faith in America than I. I didn’t think we would be so senseless as to elect anyone like trump. But we did. That surprise is wholly mine. Maybe yours, too.

Don’t tell me you are a trump fan and supporter and remain so. You have your own surprise in store for you. And it will be all yours. Because the 1% wealthy blokes don’t read this blog, I know you are not wealthy. You might be a wanna be; but then you will learn you are a won’t be.

That’s not the only surprise in store for you. Mark my words. These lessons are hard. They come from much work. When that happens you won’t get away from not being busy. You will be.

January 16, 2018

Psst! I’ve Got a Secret

Sort of a secret. For continuing readers, it’s not much of a secret. Here it is: I write this blog to clear my mind of ideas that clog up the works. While doing this daily task, better ideas push to the surface. Sharing them is fun. It also informs my own brain. Logic often takes over and discoveries pop up. That makes the process even more fun.

Clogging up the works was not the only problem. I felt powerless over public discourse. What we read, hear and see is provided by others – mostly people with an axe to grind, a dollar to make. In the long run, we become numb to the messages. In the short term, we become irritated at the nonsense spewed.

I know; I’ve spewed my own share of nonsense. I must admit, though, I have done so as a means of venting my own frustration. I hope I’ve made that clear over these past several years.

Some have asked me why I write this blog daily. The answer is simple: the noise in the public square of opinion never shuts down so my mind doesn’t either. And so I write to make sense of it all.

Making sense of things is what I do. I have done this in my career as well. Study circumstances and current problems – of organizations or business firms – and then determine what actually is wrong, if anything, and what the options are to address those problems. It is a challenging thing to do but very rewarding intellectually. Over time I became able to see things many people couldn’t. That gave clients a fresh start to work through challenges and become more successful.

Although not the same thing, public issues are also logical and capable of being addressed productively if enough of us think through the issues. I have come to believe that we all need to lend a hand to identifying the most important issues we face and then decide to do something about them. This is not impossible work. What is impossible is the intractable behavior of our elected officials who give in to the ideological argument. This inevitably leads to gridlock.

Gridlock. Nothing gets accomplished. The troubles just stew in place and create more complex troubles. Seems infantile to me.

Why not attempt to make some sense of this and move on?

So I write this blog. It is my exercise. Perhaps in futility; perhaps not. It helps me cope to air my thoughts. It makes me accountable for what I think and write.

Of course I get reactions; most are positive; some negative; the silence from others tells me either the issue is unimportant, or they agree with the position in the main.

Negative response is fine. At least the naysayers are not dead or in a coma. Why they prefer to personalize their comments remains a mystery. At least I’m honest and stand up for what I believe and think.

After all, this is an exercise in identifying ideas that might work. They might not, too. The mix of them, however, can be very fruitful in uncovering other ideas that work. That’s a good thing. Just because I didn’t think of it doesn’t make it wrong. It just makes me slow!

So, join in the conversation. Be polite. Be supportive of the efforts of others. And hope that together we make a difference.

Even if we don’t, my mind is at peace. And still working on those problems we share!

January 15, 2018

Gas Pump Prices?

We are fortunate in our neighborhood. Two new gas stations from large independents (Thornton’s and Speedway) are waging a price war against Shell, BP-Amoco, and Mobil-Exxon. The result? Pump prices have moderated a good bit in the past two months or so.

When the international gas barons dictate a price of $2.80 a gallon, the others are offering it at $2.50. That has disrupted the oligopolies’ pricing structure. Yes; they have lowered their prices, too. 

Driving in the larger region we note the much higher prices. And we also noted the singularity of those prices on holiday weekends: $2.80 per gallon everywhere, except of course, our locals. That got us through the holidays without having a stroke over high gas prices!

But now, international oil prices are rising quickly. $2 per barrel just the other day. Another $1 two days later. Still rising. That has caused a spike in gas pump prices. We are already seeing them; but our local independents remain at $2.50. How long they can hold out at this level remains to be seen. But we have hope for them!

The larger issue is why we continue to rely on oil and its by-products without serious effort to replace this form of energy in the long term. We’ve wrung our hands over the finite nature of oil supplies. They are bound to run out. Meanwhile, however, let’s price the current product as though it were disappearing from the scene. Make it seem scarce so the suppliers can boost the price. And take advantage of the public!

If oil is a finite resource, then act like it and invent its replacement. Whisper it so the oil companies don’t have a fit and spend vast fortunes buying politicians to stand in the way of such progress. Who owns our country? You and I? Or a bunch of oil barons and bankers?

I think we need to call a halt to this smoke and mirrors routine. Let our scientists loose to discover the next generation of energy for transportation, home heating and cooling, industry power, and so forth. That energy source is out there. A lot is already known. We are lowering the demand for oil consistently. Eventually it will be replaced, because it is a finite resource; we will have to replace it entirely.

So let’s get at this task now. What are we waiting for?

You know the answer to that question, don’t you? It’s in your gut. You know we are being played for fools. Public funded research in this arena is being pinched off. The oil barons don’t want to upset their money machine just yet. They will find their own replacement, thank you; that way they can control the energy markets going forward just as they have looking far into the past.

What schlumpfs we are to let this happen generation after generation.

Where are our standards? Where is our leadership to change the future that will benefit all of us?

Now that’s an interesting question. What might the answer be? Hmmmm?

January 12, 2018

Request for Proposal

If you are in business - or government - you have heard this term – ‘request for proposal’. When a firm wants to buy a service or product, it sets out a list of specifics about the intended purchase: what do they need exactly? What specifications fit their situation? How many of the items, or duration of the service, are needed? When is delivery desired? If a service is involved, what are the qualifications of the people who will deliver the service? What experience or expertise need they be able to demonstrate to be more certain the service will be as expected? If products are involved, what determines the quality desired? And so on. RFPs are a standard operating procedure.

Why aren’t they standard operating procedure for you and I as voters when we consider a candidate for public office? Do we think of a ‘request for proposal’ before considering the office to be filled? Is the campaign process, party nomination and all the rest, a substitute for an RFP? Or might that process be tainted by special interests through and through?

I think we know the answer to that question. And I also suspect that we Americans do not think logically or analytically about potential candidates. They come our way, we think about them and we consider alternate candidates. Over a period of months, we decide who will get our vote on election day.

What we ought to be doing is filling out an RFP months or years before an election and identify the traits, experience and talents needed for the position to be filled. Just like finding the right candidate to fill a job in a company, or finding the right vendor to serve our needs at home, we think seriously about the qualifications and talents the ‘ideal’ candidate should have. These ideals define what we are looking for. Do we even know what this might be when applied to a political candidate?

I think not.

Emotional attractions become a norm. I liked Hillary for president in 2016. I trust her, like her understanding of issues, appreciate her academic grasp of the issues as well, and am amazed at her talents and energy. Same for Bernie Sanders; I like him and appreciate his talking about many issues in fresh ways. So too, Oprah; she is larger than life, happy, insightful, intelligent, seeks understanding of complex matters, and is logical and commonsensical in her conclusions.

We could expand this analysis to other candidates and personalities, but let’s keep this simple. Sanders was not my candidate in 2016 because of three traits: too old for the demanding office and not likely to survive one term of 4 years, let alone 8 years. He is also far too liberal; and he hasn't built collaborative partnerships with others to advance his and the nation's agenda. Oprah has no experience in governance matters and the protocols and arcane processes involved. [Kindly remember this evidently is not high on the needs list for those who voted for trump!] I like Oprah but that is no reason to vote for her.

Hillary I voted for. She has the credentials to do the job and to do it well. I did not then, or now, believe she is guilty of anything. She is one of the most investigated persons in politics and never was found guilty of anything. The hullabaloo was pure political noise to distract voters. And it worked! Sad, but true.

Rather than fall prey again to such nonsense, why don’t we just set out the qualifications we think a successful candidate ought to have. Then let’s find the talent to fill the position. You like business people for government jobs? Then follow this process in finding the right person. Do what they do to improve their chances of finding the right person. Just remember trump was never subjected to this sort of analysis. He was the man with the money and wrote the definitions of qualifications and performance standards. Those were never applied to him, of course; he was in the driver’s seat.

So, lets construct the list of qualifications a person in our government ought to have:

1.     Educational preparation for office; specifics that should be included

2.     Experience indicative of suitability for office; scope of operations managed, level of authority exercised; successes documented in performing such duties

3.     Personality, ability to get along with diverse peoples and opinions; demonstrates ability to creatively solve problems with and among such diverse peoples

4.     Adaptability to circumstances; can learn ways and means to manage challenging issues and processes; learns pre-existing protocols and rules of the governmental unit applied for; can successfully use same for success in governance assignments and tasks

5.     Vision for future; demonstrates ability to sort through the chaff of political noise and focus on what is important for the good of the American people and the global community; not a purist in self-interest or narrow nationalism

Well, that’s good for starters. I’m sure we can find more elements to include later. For now, what do you think? Might this be a template for calling forth good candidates for the governance jobs we place through elective process? Might this be a better method than our current one?

Please share your thoughts.

January 11, 2018

Building the Agenda

The agenda is the list of things, the topics, you think we should be thinking about and doing something about. Here’s a short list I think about:

a.      Public Education: excellence for each student at their level of readiness

b.     Public Education: commitment to help each student throughout their life and support their needs appropriately; adaptability to self and change for their good and that of society; well into their adult life span

c.      Foreign Affairs: people to people ought to rule our path forward; goodwill among all peoples and peace throughout the globe are the twin objectives. Now to find the people and methods to make this happen; this is not an American globe, nor a Russian one; it is a globe for and of all peoples everywhere; share the trust; be generous; be proactive; a peaceful world benefits each and every one of us

d.     Role of Government: government does the work we cannot do for ourselves: research health, science and social issues to make things better; maintain order among us and diligently pursue a shared, quality of life among us all

Just about every other issue imaginable comes from these four topics. If I missed something, we can add it to the list or sub list in time. Frankly, these four are core issues that drive much of everything else.

I say that, because even among those who would normally agree with me on many issues, some of them do not trust government, schools, even education. They say education is indoctrination. I say that is not education; that is propaganda and the teaching of it.

Education to me is the unfolding of a person’s ability to know and interact accurately with his/her surrounding reality. To know one’s self is to also understand one’s environment. None of us are alone; we are one of billions; we must know how to get along with others. And we must learn how to be uniquely ourselves without taking anything away from another living being.

History is our story – yours and mine and everyone else’s. It is a running documentary of events and interactions of peoples in time. What that documentary means will always be open to analysis, research and probing for truth and meaning. It will often mean different things to different people at different times. It is not just the unfolding of meaning to me, or to you; but to everyone else as well. The timelines of that meaning are different as well because of the endless unfolding of the timeline itself. In this moment you understand X; in the next moment your understanding may have changed. For me as well. And so on.

Propagandists attempt to sell their version of truth to you for all time. It never changes. It always holds its position relative to everything else. Well, that should be the largest clue for you and I that we are hearing propaganda and that it is likely false.

If your education is not free and open ended, it is not education; it is indoctrination. No doubt there are those who teach in this manner. My best teachers did not act this way. They pulled from me my thoughts, my observations, my intellect in making judgments of truth and logic. That’s how I learned about the world. You too?

We need to be certain that all of our kids learn the open-ended way as well. This is the doorway to exploration and discovery that will find the most and best for each of us. And our society and global community. This is the path to universal inclusion, too. Think about that. Let it sink in deeply.

A peaceful world requires attention to inclusion and adaptability to different cultures. We are not the only people on earth. We share this planet with everyone. If we can make things better for those less fortunate, we should do so. If war is the only way to maintain order, we need to find a better way. Inclusion creates massive alliances to maintain order. Alliances come from trust and friendship. Reaching out and embracing each other builds those alliances that matter.

Isn’t it time we focused on these core issues to improve on our world experience? And counter/resist those who have noisy opinions and propaganda?

 I think it is time. You?

January 10, 2018