Musings from George

I borrowed this one from an online post that I found by accidental Googling (serendipigle)?

One night, George W. Bush is tossing restlessly in his White House bed. He awakens to see George Washington standing by him. Bush asks him, “George, what’s the best thing I can do to help the country?” “Set an honest and honorable example, just as I did,” Washington advises, and then fades away. The next night, Bush is astir again, and sees the ghost of Thomas Jefferson moving through the darkened bedroom. Bush calls out, “Tom, please! What is the best thing I can do to help the country?” “Respect the Constitution, as I did.” Jefferson advises, and dims from sight. The third night sleep is still not in the cards for Bush. He awakens to see the ghost of FDR hovering over his bed. Bush whispers, “Franklin, what is the best thing I can do to help the country?” “Help the less fortunate, just as I did,” FDR replies and fades into the mist. Bush isn’t sleeping well the fourth night when he sees another figure moving in the shadows. It is the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Bush pleads, “Abe, what is the best thing I can do right now to help the country?” Lincoln replies, “Go see a play.”

http://www.iflipflop.com/2005/09/other-than-that-how-was-play-mrs.html

Already I am happy to witness what leadership means in the new administration. Barack showed up at the end of a tough day to THANK the press corps for their treatment of his new press guy.

Imagine that. A boss who has your back, and actually will work to make your job easier. Hard to contemplate in the world that I work in.

Leadership is the art of getting a group of people moving in the same direction, in pursuit of the same vision, because they think you know what you are doing. Mel Gibson did a great job of capturing that in Braveheart — not presenting himself as a talented saviour, but presenting himself as someone with the needs of the common man (Irishman) as his objective. People followed him into battle, and into death, because they believed in the vision he painted and believed that he himself would die trying to deliver on those commitments.

So much of our “new” economy is based on shallow, temporal commitments — hired hands, not the sons of the founders. So much of our “new’” economy is based on indirect ownership and returns — not on people. So how surprised should we be that the head of an investment bank (Merrill Lynch) gave out billions that weren’t his days before the company disappeared? It’s painless cowardice, and an absence of leadership.

So…think back. What leaders in your life shaped your world, and your perspective? Who really mattered in your life? Send them a letter (or an email) to say thank you. Leadership is sometimes seen most clearly in the rearview mirror.

And to George W Bush, who “hopes” history will be kind to him, I’d like to say: you were a terrible leader. The vision you promoted was based on conviction rather than facts, on wishful thinking rather than experience, and on denial rather than introspection. Good riddance.

Go. Be a leader. Share your vision. Please!!

George

Several recent articles have noted the hardships being visited upon the petro-states because of the recent “collapse” of the price of oil. Budgets based on $100 / barrel oil don’t look quite as good when the price falls to $40 / barrel.

Herewith, a modest proposal. The US has a huge storage facility known as the strategic petroleum reserve, as well as many depleted wells that could be used to store oil. We should set a base price for a barrel of oil, high enough to motivate the development of alternative energy sources and supported by taxes on the consumption of oil in the US. We could effectively agree to pay $60 / barrel whenever it is available, and could sell (draw down the reserves) when it is sufficiently high (say $100 / barrel). Think of the benefits! We’d remain a net importer of petroleum, but would build up US reserves until some point in the future when we don’t need them, as we develop alternatives that can count on a stable market for usable energy. As soon as we reach self-sufficiency, we can effectively destroy the petro-states. And taxes earned along the way would help us reach that stage earlier than our current drift and short attention spans allow.

I know, I know. Nothing about eating babies here . A cheap theft of a classic title. Forgive me the breach, as I truly believe that energy self-sufficiency is one of the most important goals facing the US today. If we did not have to ship money to states that hate us and attack us, we would be a stronger country.

George

Dogs make it simple — when they meet you, they size you up and they let you know what they think of you. They may growl, they may seek shelter, they may just turn and walk away. But you know pretty much immediately how your interview went. Tails wag or teeth bare, dog-smiles or growls come forth, and the relationship is pretty much set.

I wish it were that easy in our jobs. We play nice with people who wish us ill, we avoid the people who blame others for any of their failings or mistakes, we smile when we run into people we were avoiding. We dance around the topic when we know people aren’t getting their jobs done, and we skate around any limitation or liability that may impair someone else’s capabilities. We are anything BUT honest.

So I’m wrestling with a relationship at work that is really causing me to disengage, to work less hard and to ignore some requests. It is very hard for me to distance my reaction from the person, to separate the job from the relationship. At some level I wish I could just growl at the person, to bare my teeth and say “F*** you!” as only an animal can do. But I don’t, because I was raised to hold the door open for anyone behind me and to stand on the bus if ANYONE else doesn’t have a seat (not just pregnant women, but pretty much anyone less capable than I am … and I probably think I am more capable than I am). So, I tolerate others’ non-performance and I pretend to appreciate criticisms or judgments that I believe to be baseless. Does that make me phony? or is it a requirement to be successful in the world today, where we will (and have to) interact with others of varying capabilities.

I am thrilled to see the ascendancy of a very smart man to be President, and am also proud to say that my vote was color-blind and my children are without question color-blind. They go to a pre-school that we POSITIVELY refer to as the United Nations, where every color and religion is present and the teachers reflect the diversity of the students. I wish I had been able to live in the world our kids live in today.

The dogs are really, truly, wonderful. We are happy to be where we are, and appreciate the luck and hard work that got us here.

George

So it’s official that the economy is shrinking (why does “official” so often equate with “obvious”?). Somehow when people lose 40% of their net worth, it affects their willingness to run out and buy yet another MP3 player or yet another pair of shoes.

It would be wonderful if we as a society could pause for a moment, and ask if last year’s holidays full of MP3 players and shoes was better than this year’s. I sincerely think that cutting back on our wasteful spending should help us realize how much we really do waste — Americans more than any other society.

We managed to visit with all of our immediate family in the past three months, and have seen several of them multiple times. Those are the moments that make the holidays worthwhile for me — not the gift cards, not the electronic toys that are going to work for less than a month. I’m terrible about recording the events, but honestly decided years ago that the people who focus on recording their holidays rarely enjoy them (if you don’t live in the moment, you are really only recording _other_ people’s moments).

Barack seems to be on a wonderful trajectory towards a great start as President. His cabinet is both diverse and distinguished, talented without appearing to bend towards loyalty. The malfeasance of Bush’s friends and family employment practices appear dead and gone, and I couldn’t be happier (heck of a job, Bushie!). A few of my conservative friends (yes, believe it or not I have conservative friends) are already salivating over Rahm’s contacts with Blago, and all I can say is that Cheney and his friends sacrificed more than 4000 soldiers in the dirt of Iraq so I am not going to lose any sleep over ANYTHING happening in Chicago today. They think they smell Whitewater Part 2, and all I can say is that I won’t miss Blackwater Part 1 (five of their employees are likely going to prison for murdering innocent civilians, and it is the right result but much later than it should have been).

Into the new year,  I’ll write a separate post with resolutions. Share yours, if you have made any! I’m happy, if heavy; productive, if overly busy; proud, if sometimes annoyed with a child; and optimistic, without qualification, about the changes that I see coming to the US and the world in 2009.

Enjoy the new year, and carpe diem to the new year’s eve.

George

I have sent several emails to friends today relating my optimism and hopefulness that the signal the nation sent last night to the world can become a message more meaningful than war — we want to talk with you, we want to do the right things, and we want to bring our troops home. We don’t need to “export” our political beliefs, and we do need to invest with friends in solutions. I am sincerely hopeful that the problems our country has today do not overwhelm the opportunity to drive change throughout our system, our people, and our world.

I’m not religious, but (choose your favorite deity or rock star) Bless America !

George

My wife doesn’t have a blog (I know, please don’t judge her …) so I thought it would be appropriate to share something that she wrote here (her name is Jaquette too, so this isn’t too far afield). Her note :

__________________________________

I don’t blog so you’ll all just have to read this in email.  I just have to put my thoughts on “paper”…skip it if you want.
 
At 8pm last night, I sat with my 4 year old boy and my 2 year old girl and watched Brian Williams announce that the United States of America had elected its first black president and I cried.  I cried from relief that there was no Bradley effect – relief that we weren’t a nation of closet racists.  I cried from relief that American had picked a leader rather than a politician.  I cried with pride and wonder at the power of our democracy – as someone once said, the worst form of government except for all the others.  I cried for all the African Americans who never dreamed that they would have a president who “looked like me” in their lifetimes.  But mainly I cried because of this:
 
I sat there, telling my son that we were witnessing history, that he would remember this night, and yet because he is so young and so “innocent”, I didn’t want to tell him why.  I didn’t want to tell him that this is a miraculous thing because less than 150 years ago, men with skin the color of Barack Obama’s skin were chained, considered property.  I didn’t want him to know that 40 years ago, people with skin the color of Barack Obama’s were asked to drink out of a separate water fountain, sit at the back of the bus, were intimidated and bullied and murdered not because of their actions but because of their DNA.  I cried because he doesn’t know those things, and now that we have elected Barack Obama, it is possible he and his generation will never think racism is acceptable or tolerable – indeed it simply won’t ever make sense to him.  What he will know is that the most important man in this country, elected by his peers, is black and that is just the way it is.  My kids will grow up in an America that will really does judge a man by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.  Wow.
 
We just proved to the world, with ballots and voting machines, not Apache helicopters and drones and hummers, that we are the most admirable and powerful place on the planet because of our values and way of life.  I have never been more proud to be an American.  It feels good to be a shining example again.
 
PS I saw this in an article this morning and thought I’d pass it along .
 
“What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had,” said Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck’s in Bangkok. “He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president.”

I’m in Bangalore, and it is very different from what I expected. Leaving the hotel this morning, there was indeed a cow comfortably esconced on the sidewalk across the street. Not tied up, just on the sidewalk. Traffic is chaotic and crowded, so I figured a cow couldn’t live very well on the street.

Well, tonight on the way home we passed the cow in traffic. No minder, no halter, no leash … just a cow walking down the middle of the street. it is hard to imagine anything like it in the US. Plenty of thin, short-haired dogs too. Everyone seems to share the space pretty well.

Stereotypes lead one to believe that India is overrun with poor people, crowded and run down. Experience leads me to report that Bangalore is quite beautiful, if not wealthy. It is a city in transition, with new buildings going up and roads being built all around, while other buildings crumble in disrepair. Cubbon Park (as with so many things, named after a Brit who was here long ago) is as beautiful as Central Park in NY, and the trees around our office park are a pleasant reminder of nature. The people I have met have been kind, friendly, and helpful. I’m very impressed.

Hillary says “go Obama”; can’t wait to see what Bill has to say.

george

So long it has been, so easy not to write. I’m developing a theory about how ideas are formed and when they are formed, and I am going to correlate it with the time that blogs are posted.

Just after Memorial Day, a friend asked if I had visited a graveyard. I found it an odd question, since I hate graveyards and have never consciously visited one on Memorial Day. I have really enjoyed visiting Gettysburg, one of the great American graveyards, and hope some day to visit the American forces interred at Normandy. But for me, Memorial Day just revives a certain sense of guilt that I feel for _not_ having served in the military, for never having chosen to give back in that way.

For the three people who have read all of my posts :^) you will remember that I am in favor of mandatory service to your country — military or social, domestic or international. Many of the country’s best people would be better, and many of the country’s most ignorant would be less so, if they served dinner to the homeless or met anyone on the continent of Africa. Yet I didn’t sign up for the Peace Corps, nor did I sign up for the Marine Corps. A summer working for the Youth Conservation Corps convinced me that I could make a lot more money painting houses than I could digging trails, and a short-term focus on profits led to a long-term career in business (and getting an MBA).

But I feel guilty whenever I am face to face with someone who actually sacrificed for our country, and shamed by the grace that Tom Brokaw captures so well in his book “The Greatest Generation”. Men who faced unspeakable risks simply because it was the right thing to do in WWII came back to the US and simply melted into society, asking nothing of the country that they had served. Men who faced equally terrible circumstances in Korea were largely ignored; those who went to Vietnam were actually disrespected. It seems to me that Memorial Day is perhaps the one day we should find a veteran and say “thank you” — for their service, their sacrifice, and for their dignity in giving something that is hard to measure.

Conversely, on Father’s Day I felt somewhat guilty. I have two kids, two wonderful and beautiful kids. Almost any male can be a father, and what I really strive for is to be a parent. People tell me I am a great father, but I still feel guilty when I want to read the paper rather than Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I still want to watch football, even if I don’t actually do so. I’d like to pretend that I have never taken my son to a bar, but it’s true that some of the bars are kid-friendly (and yes, we have invited friends to bring their kids too). So is Father’s Day anything more than a Hallmark excuse? It caused me this year to think about a good friend who employed me when I was a teenager, who had kids of his own but always treated me like a son. He was a role model, a wonderful man who worked to give his employees health care before it was fashionable and because it was the right thing to do. He ran a chain of laundries, and the customer was always first — right behind the employees, who were his real first priority. I learned a lot from him, many things that they don’t teach at MIT or other universities. Leadership, humility, and a willingness to do the right thing.

So, on the Fourth of July we will join a neighborhood parade. We’ll get the Radio Flyer into the parade somehow, with one of the kids pulling it (somehow we will decorate it). This is a time to celebrate the many things that make up the US for us, and we will try to teach our kids that patriotism is not a dirty word and that remembering and honoring those who gave us our many opportunities is worthwhile and necessary. Many have suffered greatly to provide us the opportunities that we enjoy today, and the Fourth of July is perhaps the most comprehensive celebration — of our founding society (many of which fought in the Revolutionary War, but many who didn’t like Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson), of those who kept the country together through one of history’s bloodiest civil wars, and of the generation that led us through the twentieth century and handed us the sole superpower, largest economy in history, and advantages across the board.

Many other countries have done as well (Canada comes to mind), but the Fourth of July is for me a time to remember all the great things that make the US a wonderful place. Celebrate, and thank the many people who made it possible for us to be here today.

George