America’s Future is Up to All of Us
Back in August 2005, I wrote an open letter to America where I spoke about the move away from greatness that we’ve made in our country. We can shift the course we’ve been on these last many years. With inspiration and true leadership, we can reclaim our souls and come back to the heart of what it means to be American.
“Leadership is not a solo act, it’s a team effort.”
James Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge
Fundamental changes must occur if America, as we hope she can be, as she has been in part before, is to come alive. No one individual—regardless of intellect, experience, age, race, sex, or any other “qualification”—can create this country anew. Such a transformation will happen only through the work of the millions of us who are blessed to call America home.
Barack Obama is the only candidate of either party who understands this because he is the sole contender who really wants Americans to be fully engaged. Attend any meeting of WNC for Change, the local grassroots effort to elect him as president and you’ll see plenty of evidence of how active and autonomous Obama wants us to be. Come to the local Obama for America headquarters (107 Merrimon Ave.) and see how organized and effective a citizen-driven voter registration campaign can be. The other two candidates view us merely as voters, pursuing us to the polling place, coaxing or coercing us to give them our vote before showing their true colors with rehearsed and hollow “thank yous” and the swiftest of departures.
Barack Obama is unique among those aspiring to be president because his goal is to serve and lead rather than to rule and govern. He believes, as Abraham Lincoln described in his Gettysburg Address “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Though other presidents have encouraged civic participation, Barack Obama is one of those rare individuals who understand that true power lies with the people and that “we the people” must be fully engaged beyond election day if transformational change is to take place. Those heading governments and businesses may craft and enact policies hoping to shift the direction of a country or company, but without the support and follow through of those on the ground, policies never come fully to life. By sharing responsibility with campaign staff and ordinary citizens alike, Obama is developing the leadership capacity of his followers and setting the stage for more powerful and sustainable results because success becomes everyone’s personal mission, not simply his own.
If you yearn for America at her finest—a country where your best is wanted and needed every day; where your welfare is equal to the welfare of all others; where your ideas, your voice, and your simple, consistent presence are valued for the irreplaceable gifts that they are—then Barack Obama is the only person worthy of your vote in this year’s presidential process.
Remember, however, that leadership is not the domain of a few gifted women and men, it is the responsibility of all people, not just the duty of our elected officials. If you are ready to be part of the movement that instills faith in those feeling hopeless, courage in those constrained by fear, passion in those who have lost heart, and inspiration in those without a vision, I invite you to join millions of your fellow American citizens who support Barack Obama. With Obama as president and each of us as fully committed participants in this developing democracy, America can fulfill her potential and be the country we know we can be.
Regaining your faith — with one ride on the Internet’s waves
Have you ever felt funky, been blue, or worried whether we’d all make it ’til tomorrow? I know I have. Now, I’m fortunate that I have lots of ways to levitate myself out of the spiritual lowlands. In case you’re looking for a new mood booster or method of spiritual rejuvination, I wanted to share a brief story from my life.
I wasn’t feeling hopeless. In fact, I’d just had a fantastic week–started new work, took the GRE for entry to graduate school, heard some awesome music on the radio (How Glad I Am by The Greyboy All Stars). Nonetheless, I was delightfully surprised to take an inspiring, hope-inducing surf of the net just because I was unsubscribing to a mailing list.
That goal of unsubscribing from a email list took me to the great social networking site, Zaadz.com. While going about my business, an ad for “WePluribus — We the people. No exceptions.” caught my eye. Cool people making conversation-starting t-shirts in an eco-friendly way. From the main WePluribus page I went to their blog where I read about Bishop Carlton Pearson (a man with an amazing life- and faith-changing story; I’ve heard his story on This American Life before–phenomenal!) and found out about an organization called Common Tables whose objective is to “establish 750,000 small dinner groups that overcome barriers, misconceptions, and fear-based thinking about diversity and inclusion to recognize one single truth – we have much more in common than we do in difference.”
Now I hadn’t intended to find any of these sites except Zaadz, but that’s what happened. And because it happened I found out about some really great folks doing good work in our world and I got an unexpected “happiness and hopefulness booster.” So I share this story for to remind us all of two things.
- There is ALWAYS and in all-ways some great stuff happening in this world.
- Being open to taking a path you hadn’t intended to follow can lead you right to the good stuff.
Stop the catalog avalanche
Watching a recent episode of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, we learned about CatalogChoice.org, an organization helping people who want to extricate themselves from the catalog avalanche that’s buried them and filled their mailboxes to overflowing. Similar to the “Do Not Call” service that prevents you from receiving telephone solicitation calls, CatalogChoice.org helps you reduce the clutter of catalogs crowding out the mail you really want to see in your mailbox.
Benefits of using the free service at CatalogChoice.org
- Reduce mailbox clutter and save time you spend sorting through unwanted mail.
- Help merchants lower their cost of distribution and better target their market. (Who knows, maybe they’ll pass the savings on to their customers.)
- Catalog Choice community collectively promotes the use of best practices in the direct mailing industry.
- Make a huge positive impact on our environment, by reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and the destroyed forests that result from the current annual production and discarding of more than 19 billion paper catalogs.
What effect do catalogs have on our environment?
- Over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.
- Nearly half of the planet’s original forest cover is gone today. Forests have effectively disappeared in 25 countries, and another 29 have lost more than 90% of their forest cover.
- Deforestation contributes between 20% and 25% of all carbon pollution, causing global climate change.
- More than one billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.
- There are other significant environmental impacts from the catalog cycle. The production and disposal of direct mail alone consumes more energy than three million cars.
- The manufacturing, distribution, collection and disposal of catalogs generates global warming gases as well as air and water pollution. Reducing the number of unwanted catalogs that are mailed will help the environment.
Facts above come directly from CatalogChoice.org website.
Remember, if you’re truly wanting to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, get your name on the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service which can significantly decrease the amount of national advertising mail you receive. You can also opt out of pre-screened credit card and insurance offers by using OptOutPreScreen.com or calling 1-888-567-8688.
Hugs are bad for you (not!)
Back in October of 2006, I wrote about Juan Mann who offered free hugs to others because, as he said in an interview, “…everyone just seemed so miserable. So I thought I’d try to do something to just see people smile and cheer up a little bit.” The post about Juan’s free hugs also includes a moving video of the response to his hugs.
Though the hugs seemed to produce wonderful results for the hugger and huggie, authorities were not pleased (maybe because they didn’t allow themselves to be hugged). Now it seems that hugs have undergone another attack by people who don’t want any more affection being shared. An Illinois middle-school student received detention because she hugged two classmates. Yes, hugging people is against this school’s policy.
When did affection and hugging become a bad thing?
I was once a middle-school student and my stepmom was even a high school principal, so I know that “public displays of affection” (PDAs) can be disruptive and inappropriate in a school setting. What I don’t understand is how we allow ourselves to be talked into rules that prohibit kindness, compassion, and amicable ways of interacting with each other.
- If anything, kids today need more affection, not less.
- They need more room to be friendly and sociable with each other, not less room.
- Kids need more displays of love and appreciation, not less.
- Kids, and grown up kids alike, need less fear in life and more freedom.
Hugs are good for you and aren’t something that we should pass rules to prohibit. If anything a rule mandating more hugs would go a long way toward making middle-school — and even the world — a more friendly place. Now go out there and hug someone (and hope that your school, shopping mall, company, or city doesn’t have rules or laws prohibiting your act of love).
Random personal facts (good for trivia games and blog memes)
Back in July, I attended my first ever blogging conference–BlogHer ‘07 to be exact. I had a fantastic time and declared it the “best conference ever.” I stayed at the Hi-Hostel in Chicago and now want to look for great hostels whenever I travel. One of my hostel mates is Adrienne and she’s the creator of Baby Toolkit where she and her husband, Jim, offer “tips, tactics, & gear reviews for parents.” Well, recently Adrienne “tagged” me with the “8 random facts about me” meme (she wrote her own 8 random facts with much humor, so check it out).
Meme Rules
- Post these rules before you give your facts
- List 8 random facts about yourself
- At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
- Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged
Random facts about Shonnie (accurate as of October 2007)
- I am adopted. This has been a blessing in my life in so many ways. I was raised by wonderful parents who were able to provide me with so many amazing opportunities throughout my life. Plus, since the mid-1990s, I’ve been reunited with my birthmom and that part of the family who gave me life. Though I know many people want to have their own children, I think that adoption would help heal much of this world’s suffering as there are millions of children wanting parents and as many people who want a child to love.
I have five wonderful children (That’s cats to you and babies to me.). Bruce and I are blessed to call Chocolate (18 years old), Kaali (13), Attabi (12), Bandit, and Desmond (8, brothers) our family. We are a blended family (formerly “his,” “mine,” and “ours”) who get along very well, love to sleep together, and peacefully share our 1,000 square foot home.- I am a happy, healthy vegetarian. I stopped eating red meat in 1992 when my mom stopped eating it. Chicken and other poultry flew the coop around 1997, and fish/seafood no longer were part of our diet (both Bruce and me follow the same diet) starting in 2004. This is one of the best choices I’ve ever made in my life–for my physical health, my spiritual peace, for the health of our planet (learn why no true environmentalist can eat meat), and for the sacred life of the other creatures with whom we share our earthly home.
- I am an avid trail runner. Since moving to Asheville in 1997, Bruce and I have ditched road running for hoofing it in the pristine and peaceful mountain trails that abound around our lovely town. Most weekends we can be found scrambling up or scurrying down the challenging single-track footpath known as the Mountains-to-Sea trail (learn more about this 900+ mile trail that traverses North Carolina).
- I am a grandmother to two fantastic kids and aunt to two other awesome young ‘uns. Molly and Jack (grandkids) visit us each year for a week that includes a white water rafting trip and at least a few conversations in Pig Latin. Jason and Marissa (nephew and niece) just had their first camping trip on a visit to North Carolina with mom and dad and I know I definitely want more of that kind of time with them in the future.
- My husband, Bruce, is not only my honey, but also my business partner, running buddy, and spiritual soulmate. Though we have a 28 year chronological age difference, we figure that because I act so much older than I am and he is a kid at heart, we average out at mid-forty as a shared age. We met while training for the Austin Marathon back in 1995, began dating in 1996, moved to NC in 1997, and married in 1999. Together we authored, I Do! I Do! The Marriage Vow Workbook (read about this book for couples that want to write their own wedding or commitment/re-commitment vows), and do much of our professional work together.
- I’m chair of the board for Jubilee! Community, a spiritual community/church, that truly practices what we preach. While I’m the most progressive thinker in my family, I’m also the most regular church goer (go figure). This community, though Christian-based, shares the wisdom of numerous traditions and spiritual teachings (learn about Jubilee).
- I’m currently looking for signs from the universe about what path I’m meant to now walk in life. Professionally I’m currently a coach and consultant, though at heart everything I do in work is about teaching. To that end I’m considering if I want to formalize that vocation, and if so, in what particular way will most suit me and best serve the world.
Now, as the saying goes, “Enough about me. What about you?” If you’d like to offer some random facts about yourself, drop a note in the comments area. Specifically, if you’re one of the following folks, please join in the fun by participating in the “8 Random Facts About Me” meme:
- Margot Wurst, adoption triad coach
- Sherri Singleton, health and fitness coach
- Jay Joslin, actor, author, designer, minister, student
- Ben Daniel, progressive minister and writer of spiritual and political commentary
