perspectives

Dear President Obama: Considering MORE War

Dear President Obama,

It is the eve before your Afghanistan Policy Speech. Like millions of other Americans that supported your election and have put faith in your leadership judgment, I remain hopeful. However, I am saddened about what is to become a new phase of US aggression, if press reports are correct. We didn't elect you to be a new "war president," and I agree with many others that you will wear this mantle, if you proceed as it appears you are planning to do with an expansion of the war, risking more lives of America's men and women --- forever changing the lives of their families. President Eisenhower made it clear, "...War never solved anything."

I also know we are not the only ones bracing ourselves for the delivery of your policy message. The whole world is watching. Many of them, who have believed in your leadership and continue to look to you to deliver on your promise of change are waiting. I can't help imagining the Afghan people --- mothers and fathers --- children old enough to understand whatever rumors are meeting them --- worried and scared at reality that the US once again is staging to show its military might, destroying more of their homeland and killing more of their innocent men, women and children. Collateral damage we have rarely even acknowledged in this war.

Why? There must be a better solution than more WAR.

Last night, I read a passage from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I wish you could read before you deliver your message from the podium at West Point about expansion of the War:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
(A Time to Break Silence, April 1967)

"A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: 'This way of settling differences in not just.' This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense... War is not the answer..." 

I remain grateful for not personally knowing the experience of WAR in my lifetime... However, I admit I'm also haunted by a message left by someone with a credible opinion, Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, well-known as America's MOST decorated soldier. He told us...

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in life."

With great hope we await your message. Bring our troops home, save lives, save money we don't have, and STOP THE MADNESS of WAR. These are my greatest hopes. Please do the hard, more courageous act of doing what is RIGHT for our country, our troops, and for the world.

Respectfully,

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, president, and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies
author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

PHOTO CREDITS: An Afghan man looks on as he stands at a bus stop in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)

Personal Responsibility: Changing the World

Reflective Audio Program:
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:
It's Role in Creating a Better World
...a virtual online dialogue with nine Berrett-Koehler Authors

News Flashes...
St. Valentine's Day 02/14/09
Afghanistan: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Marc J. Small, 29, of Collegeville, Pa., died Feb. 12 at Faramuz, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion...

Iraq: U.S. Confirmed Deaths
Reported Deaths: 4243  |  Confirmed Deaths: 4242   |   Pending Confirmation: 1
DoD Identifies Army Casualties (4 of 4) --- Pfc. Jonathan R. Roberge, 22, of Leominster, Mass...died Feb. 9 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle.

Source: http://icasualties.org/ Thank you!

The news today in Afghanistan and Iraq and places around the world paralyzes the mind with disbelief.

Oh, I want so much to be a part of changing this world, don't you?

Leaving just a little imprint on creating a world that works for everyone.
If we just thought more about each other;
About people we don't know or can't see.
If we just became a little more conscious and aware
About what is happening around us every day;
Across the world and in neighborhoods we can't even imagine.
If we listened more; objected more; paid attention more;
Spent more time thinking through the implications of our actions
and behavior day to day, choosing what's most right for a better world.
If we took time to be informed and to teach others.
If we were committed to loving our neighbors...

What difference could these small changes make?

It overwhelms me sometimes---I feel helpless and worried.
The small acts of one person seem so insignificant when
you look on at the mess we are in --- a mess we all collectively
shared in creating...


Then I recall this story...

The Starfish Story
by Loren Eiseley

"I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.

As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."

As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."

The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."

I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea."

What small difference will you make today? tomorrow?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

Learning from Gandhi

In several places in my home, I have small framed signs with one of Gandhi's messages strategically placed to catch my eye during the day, "My life is my message." It is interesting how those five words have shaped so many days --- so many actions --- so many decisions. They place the question of rightness to every action and decision. It is humbling on many days to realize that my humanness has kept me from living up to this proclamation in the way I wished I had.

GANDHI's Message
The story goes like this:
Gandhi remained silent one day a week. He was traveling on a train on the one day a week when he did not speak. A journalist came up to his window, screaming out to him, "Do you have a message for me to take back to my people." Gandhi scrawled a few words on a piece of paper and put them up in the window... "My life is my message."

Over the years as I've thought alot about the commitment this message takes, I realize that if each of measured our behavior by it every day with a new kind of consciousness about all we do, we could change the world in short order, don't you think? How many things would be different throughout the world? Think of it.

In my book, Putting Our Differences to Work, recount Gandhi's warning to us about the personal traits that are the most perilous to humanity. Imagine how we could change the realities today by changing and measuring our behavior and actions. I also introduce Five Distinctive Qualities of Leadership and propose each of us add them to our portfolio. The one that seems to embrace all the others is "make mutualism the final arbiter" for all actions and decisions (e.g., behavior, products, services, profit-making) measured by just six powerful words:

Everyone benefits; no one is harmed.

With this conscious shift in our thinking and actions, we could reverse those personal traits that caused Gandhi worry. Think of it...

• Wealth with Work
• Pleasure with Conscience
• Science with Humanity
• Knowledge with Character
• Politics with Principle
• Commerce with Morality
• Worship with Sacrifice

How does your life stack up and contribute to these virtues?
I leave you as I ponder this question myself.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

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Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
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Putting Our Differences to Work was selected as as among
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First Presidential Debate: Obama

With our country screaming for our attention on every front and the world looking to us for leadership, the long awaited First Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain was a top priority for this Friday night at my house. Seeing them side by side affirmed for me that we need fresh new thinking and a whole new style of problem-solving and approach to the presidency.

Even Pat Buchanan described McCain's style as mean, contemptuous, angry and a tough character. Other descriptors of McCain's body language were hunched, "look 'em in the eye," snarly --- yet, he never found the "big leadership" moment to give Barack Obama the courtesy of looking at him. McCain came across as rude and disrespectful --- Enough! We can't afford another "rough around the edges" president not at this time in history with so much at stake and so many relationships to repair around the world.

In contrast, Obama brought a whole new approach and leadership command of issues --- a fresh, visionary leadership strength that we've not seen in a long time in this country. He is emerging to a new height as the Change We Need to lead our country!

So tonight I celebrate Barack Obama debuting a beautiful new original oil painting (24x30) by Sally K. Green, Bay Area Artist. Learn more at www.sallykgreen.com.

Reflections the day after the night before...

• Grading the First Debate - Time
• Canadian Perspective - Toronto Star
• The First Debate: A Win for Obama - New York Times
• Sharp Jabs Mark Debate - Kansas City Star
• European Perspective - BBC

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

IRAQ: Violence abated? It depends on your...

On CNN, I just heard a whole segment on how violence had been abated in Iraq.

I suppose this depends on one's definition of violence. 37 US/UK/Other Soldiers died this month in first 27 days. 505 Iraqi Security Forces and Civilians died so far this month. ...and these are just the ones reported.

The story below is buried in today's news on the back page somewhere. Perhaps you missed hearing that people like you and me, on their way to work, were killed. According to U.S. officials, US warning bullets ricocheted and might have killed at least two or three people and they weren't terriorists. I guess these excuses suggest that these deaths don't count as violence either:

Shootings at US roadblocks Kill 5 Iraqis

By LORI HINNANT
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. troops fired on vehicles at checkpoints in Baghdad and northern Iraq, killing a child and at least four other people, the military command said Tuesday. It also said it was checking a report an American patrol shot at civilian cars near a Baghdad bridge, killing two Iraqis.

Roadblock shootings have consistently fed anti-U.S. sentiment among many Iraqis since the arrival of American forces in 2003. U.S. troops have been hit by suicide car bombs numerous times since 2003 and act quickly to protect themselves when a driver ignores orders to stop.

Also Tuesday, two American soldiers were killed in an explosion in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. They were the first U.S. combat deaths reported in five days.

The roadblock shooting in Baghdad took place Tuesday morning in a northern neighborhood known to be a Shiite militia stronghold as a minibus driver picked up employees of the Rasheed bank, Iraqi police said.

U.S. troops fired warning shots when the bus reached the checkpoint and tried to drive through, killing as many as four passengers, including three women, police and hospital officials said.

"As I understand it, some of the warning fire ricocheted and may have killed two to three individuals," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.

What do you think?

What counts as violence today?

It makes my heart hurt.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com
http://www.debbekennedy.com

WAR & PEACE: Taking a Second Look at Ourselves

I've been short on perspectives lately. Oh, I don't mean I'm short on opinions. We all have plenty of those, but watching the war, destruction, senseless killing, and rumors of more has left me numb. Listening to news that you know is propaganda, half-truths, outright lies, or never told at all leaves me feeling we've all been duped for longer than we know. Perhaps, things have been this way all along, but I've chosen or been influenced to see the good that is there; to dream a bigger dream. I also realize that perhaps this is what life is for --- a laboratory of living and experiencing that leads to being confronted with your own values in the face of injustice and other sorrows.

What has become so real to me since the beginning of the IRAQ War, and other misjudgments, injustices, long-term failed leadership, and broken systems that have been revealed since, is that we as a nation, and has people, need to take a second look at ourselves and what we've allowed ourselves to become.

As I've written before, for reasons I cannot explain, I have always been drawn to old books. The books I like are not necessarily classics, but instead ones that someone wrote from the heart about life and lessons learned in their time. There is something comforting about discovering that people before us struggled too. They lived and experienced, leaving us with their wisdom.

In a book written nearly 60 years ago, Take a Second Look at Yourself by John Homer Miller, he shares a poem about three monkeys talking about us humans:

Three monkeys sat
In a coconut tree,
Discussing things as
They're said to be

Said one to the others,
"Now listen you two;
There's a certain rumor
That can't be true,

That man descends
From our noble race.
The very idea!
It's a dire disgrace.

No monkey ever
Deserted his wife,
Starved her baby,
And ruined her life.

And you've never known
A mother monk
To leave her babies
With others to bunk.

And another thing
You'll never see,
A monk build a fence
Around a coconut tree

And let the cocoanuts
Go to waste,
Forbidding all the other
Monks a taste.

Here's another thing
A monk won't do---
Go out at night
And get in a stew.

Or use a gun
Or club or knife
To take some other
Monkey's life.

Yes, man descends---
The ornery cuss---
But Brother, he didn't
Descend from us."

--Author Unknown

What do you see in taking a second look at yourself and our nation?
I welcome your insights.

Debbe Kennedy
Founder of the Global Dialogue Center

Come visit us ... www.globaldialoguecenter.com

IRAQ, BUSH and LINCOLN: Lies, Truth and Leadership

What is in the consciousness of a man that can come on the world stage and speak for 17 minutes in lies, half-truths and language designed to hoodwink anyone listening. It was disheartening to listen to President BUSH's address to the American people about the IRAQ WAR. He has never been truthful, but like a "father" in a dysfunctional family, the co-dependent daughter keeps thinking, "This time, perhaps he'll change." Not a sign of it last night.

Aren't you tired of living with the vision of a self-proclaimed "war president" and all its negative implications and fear generating political tactics at others' expense?

I listened to the General David Petraeus' testimony this week on C-SPAN and it was not what one would have expect from the commanding officer in Iraq --- a clear report with RESULTS against PLAN with a clear strategy forward and defined NEXT STEPS. He is obviously been politically abused as a shield for BUSH's sham. The pain on his face showed. His honesty when called upon to give it helped one see he was doing as ordered. However, what we heard from BUSH took the IRAQ WAR propaganda coming out of the White House to new levels of sham and shame. It was clear that BUSH's speech writer cherry-picked half sentences and words taken out of context to create a deceptive picture of the TRUTH in IRAQ and its implications.

A New York Times Editorial, No Exit, No Strategy, described it well:

"This was the week in which Americans hoped they would get straight talk and clear thinking on Iraq. What they got was two exhausting days of Congressional testimony by the American military commander, hours of news conferences and interviews, clouds of cut-to-order statistics and a speech from the Oval Office — and none of it either straight or clear.

The White House insisted that President Bush had consulted intensively with his generals and adapted to changing circumstances. But no amount of smoke could obscure the truth: Mr. Bush has no strategy to end his disastrous war and no strategy for containing the chaos he unleashed.

Last night’s speech could have been given any day in the last four years — and was delivered a half-dozen times already. Despite Mr. Bush’s claim that he was offering a way for all Americans to “come together” on Iraq, he offered the same divisive policies — repackaged this time with the Orwellian slogan “return on success.”

The sad part is that as Chris Matthews said last night, the goal of the speech was to hoodwink at least of 1/3 of the American public with his speech to keep this his war going, because it paralyzes the Congress to move beyond his VETO power. How did we ever allow our country to be run by such incompetence and corrupt lust for power as we continue to witness? Last night as I listened, it seems Mr. Bush has lost it --- no one in a right mind could without conscious get up on the world stage and deliver that speech full of lies. It was almost embarrassing to listen, imagining the world was listening. Chris Matthews summed it up nicely saying something close to this (forgive me Chris for not quoting directly): Our soldiers are not fighting for the Iraqis; they are not fighting to protect the American people; they are fighting to sustain BUSH's failed policy.

CASUALTIES THE HEAVIER BURDEN ON OUR NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
The heavier burden we all share is that allowing this war to continue under false pretenses rests on our collective conscience. How can anyone support BUSH's failure policy. While the "The Surge" was going on and Mr. BUSH was on vacation, along with the IRAQ political leaders and NO MEASURABLE RESULTS was achieved --- 649 US (608) and Coalition (41) soldiers died and 3890 US wounded and maimed --- and 11806 Iraq Security Forces and Civilian Deaths resulted ---- and these are just the ones devoted volunteers can piece together from DOD reports. Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties

______________________________________________

IRAQ BODY COUNT
See a comprehensive indepth analysis at the UK-based IRAQ BODY COUNT. As they quote at the top of their site from General Tommy Franks, "We don't do body counts." It was founded in 2003 by volunteers in the UK and US, who felt a responsibility to ensure that the human consequences of our military intervention in Iraq were not neglected. The service they provide is remarkable. They list three ways to contribute. Learn how you can help.
_______________________________________________   

PRESIDENT LINCOLN: Reflections from a War-Time President
In a old book that fell into my path written during WWII written by John Homer Miller (Take a Look at Yourself), it shares two stories about President LINCOLN. I ran across it by-chance this morning. It was comforting in a way to know that LEADERSHIP did exist. With what we've had to watch in our political leaders in recent years, one gets concerned that you never did see things rightly. President LINCOLN obviously ran his presidency with a different approach and thinking about his enemies:

"During the War between the States an elderly lady rebuked Lincoln for speaking kinds words for the South. 'Why do you speak well of your enemies,' she demanded, 'rather than destroy them?' 'Why Madam,' replied Lincoln, 'do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?'"

"Near the close of the Civil War some wounded soldiers of the Confederacy were kept prisoners at City Point. Among themselves they discussed bitterly the man whom they believed had brought on the war of rebellion. One day, Mr. Lincoln came to City Point. He went among the soldiers of the Northern army and did not forget the Rebel soldiers being cared for in the ward near by. After Lincoln had departed, one of the Rebel soldiers sat up in bed exclaiming, 'Is that the kind of man we have been fighting against for four years? Why, he even recognized a Rebel and treated him as well as any of his own. If God spares my life I will never again raise my arms against the United States Government."

What do you see in the contrast between LINCOLN and BUSH in these anecdotes?

How are you working to stop IRAQ WAR?

Debbe Kennedy
Founder of the Global Dialogue Center

Come visit us ... www.globaldialoguecenter.com

Double Stardards? Consequences for Breach of RULES

The breach of standards that resulted in nuclear warheads being mistakeningly flown over the U.S. appears once again to demonstrate how out of control the administration of our country has become.

It certainly raises a few questions to consider.

What do you think?

Background:
An Air Force B-52 bomber carrying six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads flew across the central United States last week after the nuclear weapons were mistakenly attached to the airplane's wing, defense officials said today.

"Essentially, this is an issue of a departure from our very exacting standards," said Lt. Col. Edward Thomas, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon, who declined to confirm that nuclear warheads were involved. "The Air Force maintains the highest standards of safety and precision, so any deviation from these well-established munitions procedures is very serious and we are responding swiftly."

The incident, first reported by the Military Times newspapers, which reportedly prompted the senior leaders were prompted to relieve a munitions squadron commander of his duties. Other airmen have been barred from performing duties related to munitions pending the outcome of the investigation. Source: Washington Post

SERIOUS QUESTIONS:

1. US Example for Other Countries
Haven't you heard lots from BUSH blaming others' carelessness and the urgent need to halt proliferation of nuclear weapons in regard to their countries building them?  We already have them. US has one of biggest bunches of them I believe. Why is it okay for us to have them and be careless? Where is the leadership here?

2. Commander relieved of his duties for the breach of standards.
If a "breach of standards" of a serious nature deserves consequences of being removed from one's command, why have BUSH and his administration --- after long lists across domestic and foreign fronts of careless, reckless "breaches of standards" with sweeping implications, illegal activities and the deaths of tens of thousands and millions displaced from their homeland --- not resulted in them being relieved of their commands?

Do we have double standards? What's your thinking?

I would love to know what you think and any other questions you think this situation raises.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies
www.globaldialoguecenter.com

IRAQ: A Racquet with Secrecy of Human Costs

The headlines are everywhere: Secrecy Shrouded Bush Trip to Iraq.

Secrecy seems to be a repeated pattern in the Bush Administration actions and behavior. Go for the surprise; show up for the staged show. Today, White House officials reportedly bristled at the idea that the trip was a publicity stunt.

The question they need to ask if how their actions, history and execution might have left such impressions?

"There are some people who might try to deride this trip as a photo opportunity," Perino said. "We wholeheartedly disagree. This is an opportunity for the president to meet with his commander on the ground and his ambassador on the ground. ... And he will be able to look Prime Minister (Nouri) Maliki in the eye and talk with him about the progress that is starting to happen in Iraq, what we hope to see and the challenges that remain."

The secrecy we live with has permeated every aspect of American life and we keep allowing it to hoodwink us as our human treasure and tax dollars are spent for greed and corruption as the expense of people here and there.

One of the Bush's secrets are the facts about the dead, maimed, wounded and displaced in Iraq. Oh, we occasionally hear the soldiers death total via the media --- and we show a picture up on the screen of some young life gone; and occasionally, we hear a profile of wounded soldier, but none of these paint the gruesome picture of the impact this war has had on soldiers and "collaterals". This would seem to be a key part of any status report.

Have you heard Bush personally give the American people a clearly stated assessment of the status about the lives loss and sacrificed in this war that is costing billions every month?  This would seem to be key accountability requirement.

The totals are shocking...

IRAQ WAR STATISTICS

158,509 wounded and medical evacuations

3740 dead - 118 self-inflicted 

77,808 Civilians reported killed by military intervention
(named and identified victims of the Iraq war by Iraq Body Count
New recent events

2.2 Million fled Iraq for Jordon or Syria in last four years

"The mass exodus and internal displacement of people have been brought on by escalating sectarian conflict combined with the presence of foreign troops. United Nations refugee agency spokesperson as saying that massive displacement of Iraqis, internally and externally, continues unabated, causing a great deal of suffering and uncertainty. Estimates put the number of people fleeing the violence at 2,000 daily." Source: Relief Web - Act Communications, Geneva, Switzerland.

Why is this administration left without accountability?

In the classic anti-war book, War is a Racket, written by someone who earned the right to provide a trusted perspective, Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, known as America's most decorated soldier, wrote in 1935 what remains true today:

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies
www.globaldialoguecenter.com

Revisiting THOMAS PAINE's COMMON SENSE Wisdom

RELATED AUDIO PODCAST: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:
Its Role in Creating a Better World
...a virtual online dialogue with nine Berrett-Koehler Authors
John Perkins, David Korten, John Renesch, Angeles Arrien, Alex Pattakos, Charlie Derber, Lee Drutman, Stewart Levine join me in dialogue.

Every time I write about my questionings, I can't explain the uneasiness I feel. I've never considered myself a person who blames and complaines --- far from a typical activist. Oh, I have my opinions, but mostly the things I set out to do have been governed by what I thought was the right thing to do. Over the years, I admit the meaning of what is right has changed.

Perhaps, this idea of thinking, questioning and exploring ideas from others outside my seemingly mainstream thinking is relatively new to me. As Emerson said: "What is the hardest thing in the world? To think."  I'm assuming many of you out there may share this same sense of things yourselves.

When I was growing up, I was taught to not make waves (not lady-like), don't question those in authority or never be disrespectful of anyone or anything. These values served me well for the most part. I did do a little protesting in my early life, but in retrospect, it came more from following the flow of all that surrounded me vs. some deep philosophical conviction. In more recent times, as I have been called upon to lead change as a woman, I used a different skill. If I needed to step outside the boundaries of those early values I was taught, I relied more on what I would term INFLUENCING A POSITIVE OUTCOME, instead of making waves. My mentor, who encouraged and coached me, was right. This skill is invaluable --- it often asks more of you --- but INFLUENCE in a positive way can move mountains and create a situation where everyone wins.

The past six years has been an awakening for me. A lot of things I've believed in, and never questioned, have shown up to be myths. I've begun ranting and raving in front of my TV over the short-comings of our government, which hasn't been hard with situations like Katrina, abuses of power and a war gone out of control before my eyes with perhaps 100s of thousands of lives lost and human treasures of our own. Meanwhile, we sit seemingly helpless to stop this situation gone wild and crazy with its power.  It appears our founding fathers never imagined we would allow our country to be led by such incompetence, disregard and disrespect for its citizens or that we would be so complacent in our comforts and consuming. Stirrings. As I've been presented with new ideas and begun to think and question, I have realized that that there is much more going on here, and around the world, that was different than it appeared (past) and appears (present). Things I TRUSTED, I discovered were not trustworthy. These are different times. I see things now. Do YOU? They make me sad. Some days they worry me. I find that I feel a bit like my knees wobble when I speak out even like I am here, but I'm committed to practice in my own way and compelled to do it. These times call for leaders of all kinds to stand up for what is right in any way we can, when we see so much is not right. Who else is there to stand up, if not us? It is clear, we need to use spans of influence to sound the bell strongly enough that perhaps it will stir a few citizens to reconsider a few things for themselves.

REVISITING THOMAS PAINE's COMMON SENSE Wisdom
Yesterday, I found a newly published copy of COMMON SENSE by Thomas Paine. It was sitting on the counter when I went to pay for a book at a small bookstore. The quote on the front jumped out at me:

"When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir."

Stir? Yes, that describes what I see in myself and many others, we are stirring --- how ever slowly it seems, there are clear signs we are stirring as a nation of people. The world is stirring. I hope I am right.

Thomas Paine's wisdom seemed to echo into our reality today as I opened to the first page. He wrote:

"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour, a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Times makes more converts than reason."

Time for me is converting me to see with open eyes that the country and our world sit here in peril and I am one of those as you are holding the responsibility for its future.

I was also taken immediately by Thomas Paine's wisdom about the differences of SOCIETY and GOVERNMENT. Ideas we've all forgotten if one measures the out of control abuses of power we have witnessed in recent years. Here is a refresher from Thomas Paine:

"Some writer have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.  ... Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country with government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer...

Where I do think we can be different in recreating a better country and world than we know today is in HOW we go about it. Our generation has collectively witnessed the results of what six years of leadership, with a bent for aggression and violence and power. Violence does nothing but kill, maim, destroy and bring more violence. It makes people desperate and inspires their hate.

I think we need clear, fresh new thinking and a change in our national collective consciousness --- in our global consciousness. Albert Einstein certainly affirmed this when he said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." Violence, war, greed, corruption and abuse of power have not worked well for us. Instead, it seems to me that we have to join together to reclaim our world by our actions, behavior and conviction --- we can start right where we are. We can speak-up; speak-out --- we can use our individual talents in our own spans of influence every day. There is strength in numbers and I believe that we have a powerful force of people wanting a new more economically just, socially peaceful and environmentally respectful, yes?

I have no intention of trying to change your mind to be just like mine --- what I do hope is that you will consider what's in your mind, rethink for yourself, consider some outside perspectives, perhaps even radical kinds of thinking that others put on the table --- dare to listen; it costs nothing ---- and then form your own informed perspective. It is doubtful to me that what you think will not be shaken when you finish this time of self-examination.

We have a long road ahead, but we are a society --- broken perhaps at the moment --- that with a slight shift in consciousness and a little more mutualistic thinking about one another, could be the generation that became the tipping point. This is a time for us to do our best thinking. Then we need to turn our stirrings into action.

The journey of a thousand miles, begins at your feet." --- Lao Tze

May we take a bold step.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
www.globaldialoguecenter.com