Saturday, January 23, 2010

I Need A Hero



Today I want to shed some "lyte" on heroism. Haiti is in the news and I find myself focusing not on the tragedy, but the incredible bravery of the Haitian people. Every hour, another story comes out about a family or neighbor or passerby digging someone out of the rubble, often with their bare hands.

We are prone to think of heroes and heroines as someone extraordinary, but all over this planet, every second, there are quiet acts of incredible courage being acted out. These acts are not reported on, or rewarded, or celebrated, but they are happening nonetheless.

People are facing and overcoming incredible odds and challenges. Surviving cancer. Confronting injustice. Sharing resources. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their savings, and their homes, yet they get up every morning with the conviction that today is the day that they will find employment, get back on their feet financially, and begin again.

I think the best definition of bravery is being scared, but doing something anyway. I want to recognize all the heroes out there that are truly demonstrating what humanity is all about. If you know a hero, take the time to thank them for their courageousness and sacrifice. It isn't always a crisis that brings out the best in us, but just the ordinary that highlights the extraordinary.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Lost And Found


I want to shine some "lyte" on themes today. I was listening to NPR on my way to giving blood this morning, and they were talking about what to call the first decade of this new millenium. Now, I know I have just come off sounding like the intelligent, philanthropist I'd like to be by revealing that: A) I listen to public radio, and B) I give blood, willingly. Let me set the record straight, I like NPR because it makes me look smart, and I gave blood to get a free t-shirt.

Anyway, they were taking calls about what to call the decade that was from 2000 to 2009. I would like to humbly propose that we call the Lost Decade. And no, not after the wildly popular TV show, so popular that it's season opener caused the White House to reschedule the State of the Union (allegedly). No, I think it should be called the Lost Decade because that is the reoccurring theme of those ten years.

We started with the inauguration of George W. Bush, whose selection to the presidency by the Supreme Court, demonstrated that the quaint idea of every vote in this country counting was gone. The bursting of the dot com bubble showed us that technology did not hold all the answers and the supposed level heads of the free market were subject to the kind of mood swings that only teenagers are supposed to have. (A lesson we failed to learn from to our peril.)

This lesson was repeated when Enron, WorldCom, and others showed us that it was entirely possible to fool all of the people, all of the time. Their accounting fraud caused not only the loss of money, but our collective loss of trust in the very foundations of capitalism.

Then came 9/11 and we forever lost the image of our country as being invulnerable and safe. We then witnessed the aftermath to 9/11, when our government lost its collective mind and we all lost our civil liberties and our right to privacy. We then lost our standing in the world when we invaded Iraq in 2003. Our first and hopefully last pre-emptive war; where we decided that a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 was, in the seriously deluded minds of Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush, the central front of the war on terror.

We then proceeded to watch in ever-increasing dismay, the loss of lives. Our soldiers, innocent Iraqi citizens, people with the incredible misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We watched our country lose it's moral standing with the publication of the pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib prison. And we lost our respect for our leaders as they showed that government was not about stewardship, but all about power.

Then came the elections of 2004 where we witnessed the spectacle of a bona fide war hero being convincingly labelled a coward, and over half the country buying the story lock, stock, and barrel. Some of us lost our belief that the truth and facts mattered.

The losses in Iraq continued. There were other smaller, but extremely well-documented losses: Anna Nicole Smith, the attempt to privatize Social Security, and the ability to board a plane with more than 3 ounces of liquid in your carry on bag.

Homes began to lose their value. We were all told that the fundamentals of our economy were strong, and those mortgage-backed securities were too complicated for us to understand. We just had to trust that the smartest guys in the room had our backs.

Then the losses began to escalate. Homes weren't just losing value, families were losing their homes. Seniors were losing their retirement savings. Millions lost their jobs. And even the smartest guys in the room were losing their private planes, vacation homes, and stock portfolios.

But the decade ended with a loss that most of us could live with; George W. Bush left the White House, and new guy with a new attitude moved in. Many adherents of the old regime lost their power, but have found audiences on Fox News.

I am confident that this coming decade will be better. I am hopeful that this will be a time of gains: gains in our economy, our trust, and our confidence. But I am doubtful that we have learned our lessons. If we don't learn the hard taught lessons of sustainability, accountability, and responsibility, we stand to lose it all, all over again.