Lessons about Change for Mr. President from Isaac Newton

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Are the times a changin? Chilling is the idea that if Mr. Obama had no active resistance and was able to shift things at will we in America and world wide would still be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.  Until we common folk see the game for what it is and decide to exercise our will and grasp the power we have, morally, economically and politically; grasp the empowerment at our fingertips things will not significantly change. 

For example, economically why anyone who is not rich would side with "trickle-down" economics is beyond me maybe someone can school me here. It doesn't trickle down and do what it theoretically is supposed to folks.  The Reagan success wasn't necessarily a success.  I would even venture to question why many of the rich would think this is a good long range idea.  I guess the cynical answer to the question how much is enough is the reason.

According to Kimberly Amadeo

 If trickle-down economics worked [during the Reagan Administration], then lower tax rates during the Reagan Revolution should have increased the lowest income levels. In fact, the exact opposite has occurred. Income inequality has worsened. Between 1979 and 2005, after-tax household income rose 6% for the bottom fifth of income earners. That sounds great, until you see what happened for the top fifth -- an 80% increase in income. The top 1% saw their income triple. Instead trickling down, it appears that prosperity trickled up! (Source: Steven Greenhouse, The Big Squeeze, pp.6-9)

Much of our public and economic policy is driven by two things.  Firstly is the idea that you too can be rich and in the upper echelon, the top 5 to 1 percent and secondly is the idea that we don't want anyone getting anything handed to them.  "Why should I work my fingers to the bone and the "Blank" family get paid sitting at home watching All In The Family reruns?
They both lead to misguided public policy based on myth perpetrated by our American roots individualistic personality."
Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters Around you have grown
And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you Is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'

In which direction do we see change going?

"The researchers at Pew Social & Demographic Trends aren't holding back in their new report on the middle class. It calls the last 11 years, "the lost decade" for the country's middle class.
The highlight from the report issued today is that the middle class is poorer, earning less and shrinking."-The Two-Way, NPR news blog, Sept. 5th 2012

Many people who voted for Mr. Obama have voiced disappointment in the amount of change his administration hasn't enacted.  Perhaps many of these folks are single issue voters, perhaps they are unaware of the significant changes he has attempted to enact.  Many of us know his changes aren't new but what is new is that he has brought the power of the presidency to bear on issues many have been trying to change since before Mr. Obama was born.  Some may be unaware of what change he managed to enact and perhaps they were absent the day guest lecturer Isaac Newton taught PoliSci 101.  Attention class!

Newton's Laws of Socio-political MOTION 

First Law:

·       A Situation, Policy, Object, Dilemma, Train Of Thought, or Malaise, (SPODTOTOM)

             [Which is] at rest remains at rest until acted upon by a force.

·       A SPODTOTOM [which is] in motion continues moving in a straight line at constant velocity until acted upon by a force.

Also called "Law of Inertia"

Accelerated motion

Newton's Second Law:

F = ma

Acceleration of a SPODTOTOM is directly proportional to the net force acting on the SPODTOTOM and inversely proportional to its mass.  Translation: the more force you apply to a, SPODTOTOM over time the quicker the SPODTOTOM will move or change direction.  The denser the SPODTOTOM the slower the change.

Newton's Third Law:

Whenever  New Ideas, Situations, Policies, Objects, Trains Of Thought, etc., exerts a force on a  SPODTOTOM, the  SPODTOTOM  attempts to exert at least an equal and opposite force on the first in an attempt to eliminate it and continue the status quo.

 The Times They Are A Changin- Bruce Sringsteen:

 Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

I Post Therefore I Am?

WWDD? (Rene Descartes by Frans Hals)

An article by Vibhu Norby entitled, Why Social Media Is Endangering Our Future, starts out saying “Everybody wants to be famous, Nobody wants to be nameless, aimless” "... Because to be searchable and indexed on Google is to be, we are in need of exposing our lives more and more on public channels to permanently plant ourselves in the memory of the Internet.
 Nobody wants to be forgotten. We are losing control over our content as well as how we are represented online. That power is entirely in the hands of social media and search companies".

Today a very good friend posted on facebook the following, "If you aren't writing to be immortal, you are wasting your time and ours."
Another friend and blogger  at Have Coffee Will Write  replied that he writes to understand what he thinks.  I then read a blurb about designer Philippe Starck at Design Within Reach.  In a video at the site Starck states what I believe that everything worth doing should start with mission and that mission informs goals and objects which in turn express the mission.  I think this can be and perhaps should be applied to just about everything. 

One of my clients has enlisted my services to market and advertise for their company.  Early on I learned the client had no defined company mission.  They had products but as far as I was concerned would have a difficult time reaching an intended audience/clientele, developing a niche and their brand without a reason for being.   In our initial meeting I inquired "why do you do this, what drew you into this particular realm, what services do you provide" and so on.

Perhaps ironically, I've never written a mission about why I write or more to the point of this muse why I post to social media.  I have a personal facebook and two fan pages, Google+ personal and biz, I try to stay on top of two blogs and I am leaving one or two things out.

 I do have a personally mission statement I pull out every now and again and peruse to see if I'm on track and if things have shifted,changed or expanded.  It is at the end of this piece.

Am I one of the everybody that wants to be famous of whom Norby speaks?  Do I not want to be aimless nameless?

I don't agree with Vibhu Norby that "We are losing control over our content as well as how we are represented online. That power is entirely in the hands of social media and search companies."
I believe that whatever control we don't have we have never had and that if nothing else John Q. and Alice P. Public have more access to the entire world than ever before.  A case can be made for the fact we don't know and do not exercise what control we have.  This stance may bespeak my ignorance in this area but perhaps it is more that Vibhu may not understand the significance of the fact that "anyone" has access to "everyone."  It certainly was not the case as I was growing up in the 60's.  If you were not associated with a powerful publisher whether it was McGraw-Hill or the Cleveland Plain Dealer not many would ever know your thoughts existed, the access did not exist.

For some time I've been thinking about things I want concerning work and employment and recently I have concluded that my ability to write and high order thinking can possibly pay some bills.  Thus far things I want from writing are basically in my personal mission.  I never want to be complicit in  an organization's actions  that don't have the goodwill of public in mind.  I don't really even want to work for organizations like this however I find this is very difficulty to avoid.  I've found no matter how good an organization is on paper it is given to those in charge and directed and informed by their ethics and morality or lack there of, there understanding of the world.  This is one issue that kept me out of advertising years ago that back then I feared I didn't have the integrity one really needs in advertising.
 Now I have the integrity and the experience if not wisdom to lay a foundation for everyone to glean and hold up to scrutiny for their own good and the good of the organization.

One organization was a bit dismayed because I sent a treatise of sorts concerning a project in which I might become involved.  After deciding to work with this organization and the organization deciding to work with me I received a call from the HNIC questioning my ability to communicate coherently in writing.

So as of recently one reason I write is because it will pay bills, but once again why social media write on a personal note?
I think writing to become immortal may be part of the equation.  If I want to write to understand what I think and I think too I do I would need less of an audience than I am trying to reach.  Do not we all think about posterity and legacy? Some people will leave property, money, goodwill in their name a legacy of community service and all of these can be comprehended through social media.  Some will leave an often used piece of art like a watch, a homemade recipe or literary legacy I think that is sublime.

Foremost in my thoughts however I use social media because I love to discuss and share and hear what others say that might inform and grow my world and social media satisfies this desire with immediate gratification.  As immediate as it is it also affords one the opportunity to go back to a discussion one may have been too emotional about to listen to initially.  You can come across discussion you didn't even participate in even weeks and months later after it was posted.

 I also believe that there is a process whereby folks including myself can continue to become or be thinkers about their lives, how they connect with a diverse world and what they can add to the planet.  One of my bents is global thinking toward a win-win in everything I encounter. It can't always be done but one can come closer to accomplishing it if one has it as a goal from the outset.

Civility is a huge issue with me and I believe incivility rules in these United States.  I think incivility and intolerance walk hand in hand down the path to the dumbing of America, prejudice, racism, poverty, add your own ism and are steeped in selfishness ergo no win-win.

  If we can change our language we can redirect our thoughts and actual talk to people toward consensus, understanding and a more sustainable and livable society.  The term "quality of life" comes to mind.  I'm not saying lets all hold hands and kumbaya.  I am saying there is a big difference between saying "if you are a Republican you are an idiot," and "I perceive Republican ideology to be thus and so and I disagree with it on points a,b,c for reasons e, f, g."

In the past I've tried to excuse myself and others for sensationalism because it is just a statement that gets attention and starts a conversation, blah, blah, blah but I think we should develop a distaste for such language in public forum and shy away from it. It may be that many who engage in this language have an aversion to truth and knowledge and a diverse points of view endeavoring to put themselves at the center of their universes and yours too....ergo no win-win..
How well am I doing?  I have a ways to go or I would have left out the HNIC comment.
So I perhaps said all of this to conclude that I write using social media to change things for the better and probably to leave my mark.
So I am waiting with proverbial baited breath to hear why you do social media voodoo you do so well.
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Short Version: Mission

·     Congruency

·     To love God (the Divine) and my enemy

·     to be content to enjoy life

·     Breathe in/ Breathe out and let God Breathe out then Breathe in, so my soul does breathe in/ breathe out. 

Mission

·     Congruency for myself, for other people and for organizations and alliances.

·     To love God (the Divine) with all my heart by manifesting a passion for El Shaddai’s (Ultimate) truth, for compassion and for service to others.

·     To love God (the Divine):

o   with my entire mind by renewing it with eternal principles for living true to myself, by recognizing the win-win scenario that may exist in every circumstance I encounter.

o  With all of my soul by acting on what is on my mind and in my heart and by obeying that “still small voice” within me.

·     to be content to enjoy life by understanding that the living and praying into the journey is the key to real joy.

·     I will always be where I am supposed to be no matter what the circumstances may suggest. Circumstances are always subject to change that is to say that change is their master.

I have an adage that I keep in mind that; Breathe in/ Breathe out and let God Breathe out then Breathe in, so my soul breathes in/ breathes out.  For me Breathe in breathe out is more than a metaphor. I had this epiphany while meditating and playing my didjeridoo. 

We breathe in what the earth expels and the earth breaths in what we expel as toxic.  I remember when Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns moved the team to Baltimore and of course Browns fans were angry, to me short sightedly angry.  In a larger picture where Cleveland and Baltimore are a unit or connected what seemed bad for Cleveland was good for Modell and Baltimore and ultimately not bad for Cleveland.

Honest Talk with Yourself

I've been having a very interesting discussion with my brother Jeff over at, Have Coffee Will Write.  He is one of the more well read folks you will ever meet, sincere, an excellent writer.
 We have been soul searching as we deal with the death of Trayvon Martin and uncovering some interesting tidbits.  Love and respect imbued  and I might add received rebuke flow both ways.  I appreciate the different point of view as I think we perhaps both allow our opinions to be jostled around.  


Can our society, as opposed to our nation, move forward without soul searching, true dialogue and even confession?  I don't see how we can.  Can we improve others before we have improved ourselves?  How can we improve ourselves if we have refused to see ourselves as we truly are?  How can we see ourselves as we truly are without coming to terms with the warts and all?  Can we come to terms with that when all we recognize is the euphemism, "warts and all," the truisms like, "oh everybody does that, nobody's perfect," our whatever we tell ourselves to excuse our lack of love our neighborism.  Our "warts" cause us to consign folks to death and poverty as we say, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled; but give not to them the needful things for the body."(James 2:16)

So often I hear things like, "My parents came to America looking for a good life with only $2 between them; they made it, I don't see why those people can lift themselves up."  The bottom line falsehood is I "raised myself up by my own bootstraps" or I built the house I was born in, I got mine now you get yours, ignoring the uneven terrain.

  In the past I've just given up on such ubiquitous ignorance.  I am not even surprised any more that it still exists.  This basic lack of understanding and in my opinion lack of  basic decency, because it is so ignorant... choosing to ignore it is not relegated to "race," or class, or religion or gender but we all identify with our special interest groups and point at the shortfalls in all of the other groups thus making ourselves just like them.  So sadly much of the time I have to name myself among the careless.

I now realize that in life, in living and navigating through this world that the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it and narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.  There are few who find it because there are few who seek it out.  Being comfortable at the expense of others is so easy, so easy.  I check myself more and more to make sure I am on the right path going through the right gate. I cannot answer for you nor can I judge your heart but I can proffer the question; are you?

2-1-1 Food

Free Food at a Price

My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19.  Today God supplied my need to humble myself.

July 12, 2011.  Today my wife and I went to an emergency hunger center in our neighborhood, (see video at end of this blog) in Cleveland Heights.  Inside we were met by a dour man in his 60's, standing in front of a desk, face snarling, slightly slouched over, one hand in his pocket seemingly sizing up the scum as he looked up peering over his glasses at us.

"Take a ticket he barked," as our eyes met.
 I felt trapped in a "Where's Waldo" episode, only Waldo had a whip,and the  stopwatch was racing to zero, as my eyes frantically raced up and down, back and forth across the room until I found the number 7 on a dowel of numbers on one of the walls.  "Oh look honey," my wife exclaimed, "only 7 people in front of us!"
An elderly lady had entered the room.  "You're the only ones here," she explained.
"Okaaaay, so why do I need a number," I thought.  I was fearful to broach the topic, even just out of curiosity, we sat down and the surly man began to ask questions to ascertain how provably poor were we .  We supplied the proper documents while an upbeat, friendly man named Bob handed me a bag of fresh green leafy stuff and a bag of lettuce with peppers in it.   We agreed that the green stuff  was most likely Swiss Chard. 

There were also baggies of sugar, flour, instant coffee and canned items on the desk.  He stood briefly in the doorway behind the dour, surly gent seemingly apologetic.  Was he apologizing for Mr. Surly or for my being there?

 I didn't have my child's social security number with me but Mr. Surly assured me I could bring it  when I came back.  The thought of returning had not occurred to me.  At one point my wife and I stumbled over information Mr. Surly requested, "Now look," he chastened, "I can't hear both of ya talkin at the same time!"  The sweet elderly woman interpreted "We both have trouble hearing."

I felt my eyes widen so I picked up a flyer advertising a community meal at the church housing this food center, to bow out of the info gathering.  "Oh you ought to come to that, the food is really good!" the sweet older lady chirped.  I then eyed another piece of paper.  "A lot of places on that list have really good food too but you need to call and make sure the hours are correct, this list may be outdated," she cautioned.

Not knowing the procedure it occurred to me maybe I should've brought a packing box, so I decided to take the few things on the desk and the greens to the car. Two others had come in during our interview, a lone woman and a young woman with a small child.  The little girl had apparently not received the memo about not making eye contact and we studied each other on my way past her.    A woman in the passenger's seat of a car stirred when I came outside.  Today the recipients of free food handouts, seemed too intent on avoiding eye contact, or was I projecting?  I leaned out of my way, like Michael Jackson in "Thriller" into the driverless car, to make eye contact with the woman who smiled sheepishly and replied to my hello.  There I'd done it!  I'd broken through the invisibility cloak!

I returned inside, like a convict to the electric chair, hearing the voice of another inmate,  loudly addressing a cell phone as if straining to be heard over the din of an imaginary crowd in the tiny room.  "Uh huh, well I calt chu the otha day and told you I wasn't doin' nat.  Listen I'm over at da food place.  I had my money come in an' I'm goin' to da sto'.  You want me to pick you up anythang?"

She was obviously not a novice.  She was serenely oblivious to the rest of us.  She was seasoned enough to owe obeisance to no one.  There was something to admire there but did I want to become a regular?

 

The Bounty: sugar, flour, 2 bags Jack Rabbit pinto beans, 1 bag of Diamond rice, 1 jar of Hampton  peanut butter, 2 cans of Hudson sweet corn, 2 boxes of Tabatchnick 1% milk, one box of cream mushroom soup, 1 can of Hart sliced potatoes, 1 bottle of SunPac orange juice, 1 baggie of sugar, 1 bag of flour, 1 plastic tin of Giant Eagle Itty Bitty brownies "($3.99), 1/2 pound cake, a 2 pound loaf of bread, 2 bagels, 2 muffins, 4 small whole loaves of bread, 2 cans of Port Royal tuna, 1 can of First Harvest sliced peaches, 2 cans of Family Pantry chicken noodle soup, 1 can Estofado Verduras (stew), 2 cans Delmonte leaf spinach, 1 can Lady Liberty pear halves, 1can of Mothers Maid apples, 1 can of Beckman's greenbeans. 

See you Thursday?