As was brought out in our previous conversation, (Genius Wakes Up and Yawns), what we need now, perhaps more than at any time in our recent past, is strong, wise, intelligent leadership.
"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."
"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"
What are your thoughts about such an approach to leadership?
Have you personally experienced such leaders in your life (personally or in business)?
What could you do, regardless of your roles in life, to exhibit such leadership?
It will naturally be tempting to point at our national and international challenges and bemoan the fact that our leaders are not acting in our best interest (that's a natural point of debate). More interesting, though, is to apply the principles of servant leadership to ourselves and our lives (the world which we interact with and impact each day). How might we be servant leaders? What ripple effect could such leadership generate?
Christopher
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Lead, follow or get out of the way, I hear my drill sergeant’s words echo in Thomas W’s call for a white knight to fulfill our collective wish to be saved.
ReplyDeleteEvery day President Obama throws out another proposal attempting to save a sinking ship, and while the attempts are moving in the right direction, the political game is rendering many of these plans to only help some of the middle class in the case of mortgage relief. Today he tries to let bankruptcy judges mandate relief to help the rest of us. But the reality is that these homes are upside down to the tune of 30% plus, and no one is willing to give up that amount of money. What's refreshing is that he is attempting to lead which leaves me with a sense that he really cares about people.
But as Christopher calls us to look personally at our own leadership, I reflect on how I am of service.
My dad always told me to show up, to make a difference in other peoples lives because that’s where true satisfaction comes as we are personally strong and then we reach out to help other people.
In my job I am looking to find a way to help more businesses out there in a down economy, helping small business owners find ways to retain customers and do so without the upfront cost that regular loyalty and marketing program require. My passion to help small business owners landed me with a company that has been doing it for 20 years.
As I look at a lost mortgage, our divorce papers signed. I am looking to heal my family. This weekend I am helping my ex wife get into a three bed room apartment and have committed to pay the difference so that she can afford a better living situation. How funny that I fought alimony in the divorce battle only to give her the money anyways. I am paying down all her debt so that she can be free to grow her career. I am helping her get into a degree program, adjusting my schedule to allow her more free time for school, yet not requesting my child support payments be lowered. I find her at her house, struggling to deal with her many emotions, she is attempting medication to calm her Bi Polar condition and counseling to be a better mom. My many years in motivational seminars help me to be a good listener so that she may speak her mind and find peace, my guided question based therapy gently helps her see the lessons her own ego has been hiding.
I remind her that while we may not be able to live together because of our childhood trauma’s and our own mental disorders, with medication, counseling, time... we will raise our children in a loving world, teaching them the value of service & unconditional love are the signs of a great leader. This is the white knights they could be in their own life for themselves and the many people they will touch on the road of life.
Love is what you choose to be
Tom G
Anita added a comment to the last topic, which I think is particularly appropriate for this conversation. I am re-posting it here so that we can include it in our thought process:
ReplyDeleteAnita said...
Thomas W – my question for you following your comment is whether a mom tucking her child in isn’t a leader as well as a loving presence or, conversely, if the knight doesn’t love as well as lead?
The hospital I worked in almost ten years ago had embraced the servant leadership approach. I have to say it was the most remarkable place I've ever worked. Had I known how rare it was, I would probably have never left.
ReplyDeleteSeeing our managers and the doctors treating not just the patients, but all of us with that level of consideration made all of us want to be better at everything we did.
Now, in the years since then, I've allowed myself to become disenchanted with so many places... and so much in life... It seems that I forgot that I can be a servant leader too... no matter where I am.
Thanks for the reminder,
Jonnie
How can a leader be a servant? Seems like a contradictory concept to me. Is this a religious movment of some sort? In times like this, don't we need leaders who lead and people to follow?
ReplyDeleteVictor, not sure what your fixation on religion is about, but the Greenleaf Foundation is comprised of leaders from top companies around the world. Its concept is simple: Help leaders hold themselves accountable for leading in the best interests of their organization, its community, customers, and people.
ReplyDeleteThese principles are becoming foundational leadership principles in a growing number of comapanies. In times like these, it would seem that this approach to leadership is more necessary than ever. With that in mind, I'm curious. Why do you see a contradiction between leading and serving?
I will be honest with you, as disheartening as it may seem to some of you, my friends, the point of view expressed by Victor came up in a recent meeting of global leaders in my past organization.
ReplyDeleteChristopher, as you know from discussions you had with our company over the last few weeks, different parts of the world see leadership very differently. Those divisions of our organization that were based in Northern Europe and even more so in the U.S. saw a leader as more of a rugged individual who made tough choices, often on their own, and then led and inspired their "troops" to the "top of the hill." Those are precise definitions used by some of our people and they resemble Victor's comments.
For many of us leadership was viewed as a person who had the wisdom to access the group intelligence, meet with others in responsible roles and then to arrive at a decision that was best for the entire organization, the division in which it was impacting most directly, the people, the customers, the environment, and the future. It is not generally easy to arrive at decisions quickly.
What was most curious to me was that those who saw leadership as more of an individual pursuit, said that the type of leadership I just described was a sign of weakness or poor leadership. Since Victor appears to view religion as a form of weakness, I am thinking that this is why he felt servant leadership must have been of religious origin.
Not surprisingly, those who favored this latter type of leadership described the rugged individual as cavalier, careless, and short-sighted.
I can see I have a bias that the latter type of leadership is more aligned with servant leadership. So my question is this to all of you: Do you believe a strong individualistic leader can truly model servant leadership?
Your input will be valuable to add to an internal discussion we are having in our organization and may even lend insight to my former colleagues as well.
Kind regards,
Silvio
We can call it what we like, or what we know of leaders in our world.
ReplyDeleteThe Ann Rand laiser-faire model of leadership as been programmed into our collective capitalistic minds as the only true way to be in a world where liberals and conservatives alike take advantage of any weakness or loop hole that might keep greed alive.
But its still greed by any other name, and current economic affairs paint a picture that greed while good in the relative short run, will not let a nation succeed over years. That’s why Russia and China patiently waited because they knew that they have survived thousands of years, and our greed moral system as only a chance to shine until the greedy people self collapse.
Our nation as only been around for 200 years or so...
The things that make us want to follow a leader is compassion, caring, helping us be fair and when we can't they give the final judgment but with compassion.
But since we also want to follow leaders who shift blame off our back, someone like Hitler can come in and make us feel like they care about people; about us, but in reality they change and show us that we were fooled again.
Bottom line is if you don’t care about people, you’re not interested in serving people, and then you’re just a dictator by no other name.
And if that is what the scientific mind finds as the sign of a true leadership, then our education system is worthless.
Thomas, I appreciate your comments and think that you've made some powerful statements for us to consider.
ReplyDeleteI would like to take exception, however, to the notion that the scientific mind finds as a sign of true leadership the individualistic, hierarchical approach you described.
The scientific mind, at least according to my thinking, would observe that there are multiple styles of leadership adopted by various cultures and segments within cultures and that most (if not all), while working for a period of time, do not work in all instances.
Thus, it would appear, one might deduce that a certain agility is required of us in order for us to readily adapt to the most effective mode of leadership required under any given situation, period of time, or geographic or culture location.
The on-going challenge I encounter as I work with individuals is one of willingness. Many of us allow our "need to be right" to supersede the call to adapt. It appears that we have come to believe that being right is worth dying for, even in those instances when it clearly is not (as seen, at least, from a more historical or objective perspective).
As has been the case throughout the evolution of the various biological species on our planet, the rule of survival is simply this: "Adapt or die!" Or, as a professor of mine once said, "Those species, individuals or groups who fail to adapt, do themselves and the rest of their kind a favor by dying out."
One wonders what our species will elect to do.
Curiously waiting,
Dot P.
Dot P:
ReplyDeleteI should not have said the scientific mind, it’s just the recent posting, and so many of my scientific friends keep telling me its religious dogma that is to blame for our problems, but it’s this line of argument that is the very problem.
I think you’re right to point out that in order to be right, we all sacrifice everything. It is the human condition to want to look good, avoid pain and seek pleasure.
There are many types of leadership, but being of service to others is the best possible human being any of us can be. In order to help others over time, you must clean up your own house, which allows you to be free to make a difference in the lives of others.
In Jim Collins book Good to Great. He examined what makes a company great, and the results showed that it was a selfless leader who thought of the company first that made companies great.
Jim proved all the lies of leadership and corporate successes are wrong:
The myths of change, crisis created success, stock option incentives to motivate the best employees, fear drives change, that you can buy your way to growth, technology break through made it happen, ect.
If you want to learn more about this, and what makes a great leader, not the standard tag line of greed and trickle down economics, then please read:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/51/goodtogreat.html
Atlas Shrugged not because we demanded too much of him/her, but because the world it chose on his/her back could not take the collective free market greed that seemed to be the answer to trickle down wealth so everyone would benefit.
Come on people, you know this to be true in your heart, yet we still want to blame it on religion, on the government. If we don't wake up, we will vote another Bush or even worse a Hitler back into our lives. When will this madness stop that we value an illusion of strength over service in our leaders.
The very lie of the knight on a white horse coming to save us is the lie that got us into this mess in the first place.
I'm finding this discussion to be wonderfully naive and yet oddly inspiring. I find myself vacillating rapidly between laughter and tears (I, of course, jest -- those who know me have to realize I do not show my emotions).
ReplyDeleteMuch of what you aspire to, my fine colleagues, is of genuine merit. Leadership of the nature you describe is, I believe, of the utmost importance during times such as we now face. It could be suggested that our new (some say idealistic) president is endeavoring to model this very approach.
Sadly, this is not the way of our world. While corporations may be able to create such cultures and insist upon an elevated leadership style as a condition of employment, the world-at-large and, in particular, leaders entrenched in our governmental and other bureaucratic bodies, have no interest (or so it would appear) in holding themselves to such standards.
If ever there were a time when the interests of the many need to outweigh the agendas of the few, this is such a time. As each day goes on I find part of me deepening in my cynicism, while yet another more hopeful aspect of my nature, holds out the possibility that we will rise above our greed and limited intelligence to surprise ourselves with the ability we have to create solutions once our eyes are fixed on the real prize.
Uncharacteristically whimsical,
Thomas W.
So Thomas, it's easy to throw stones at glass houses. However, the real question is, how is that you demonstrate servant leadership? Because from what I hear, that is actually a significant part of your life.
ReplyDeleteI do realize that my acerbic nature may render it difficult for one to imagine that I am committed to providing service with the high-minded ideals of a servant leader.
ReplyDeleteTruth is, however, my day-to-day interactions have long since evolved from those of being purely self-centered to that of asking "not what my country can do for me, but what I can do for my country." For me such service is my business and my avocation. Nevertheless, you are right to have inquired, since I so regularly cast aspersions upon others.
Respectfully,
Thomas W.
Well... this topic was sure to pique my interest... and I had to ask myself if our rockin' host was attempting to get me to come out and play. He and I ran 'round and 'round on this topic in times past.
ReplyDeleteIn any case... long story short... I came back after months of life altering experiences in Southeast Asia... and in spite of promising myself that I would not return to the normal corporate environment... I did!
Christopher knows... I think... from when he saw me a few months back... that I've changed... both in terms of what I expect from the Corporate Mothership... and as to what I'm here to do. (For grins... I went back and read some of my remarks from last year... when I was freaking out... and I laughed my ass off... I was so out of harmony with my own soul... no wonder I was on the verge falling off into f**king oblivion.)
I'm here on our trippy remarkable blue planet to serve... plain and simple. No matter where I find myself that's my job... my call.
I remember arguing with our blog boy here about the point that taking on such a role was only fair and possible if the other side was willing to play along. Now... after a whole lot living crammed into a small period of time I realize that my attitude was simply a sorry-damn excuse.
So I reiterate... my job is to serve... no matter where... no matter what. Knowing this has made life so much simpler... and so much more full of grace.
It's beautiful to be with you all again!
Love, peace, and rockin' roll,
JJ
Oh my goodness, JJ! I've been out of town and just returned to read your comment. Welcome home, dear one. I'm so delighted to hear from you and have you join us. I think the words you've shared with us are wise indeed.
ReplyDeleteIn actuality, they are an answer to a prayer I've had in my heart for months now as to how to respond to the situations in our organization.
"My job is to serve, no matter where, no matter what!" Yes!
With joy,
Anna
Isn't it a shame that the executives at AIG didn't take the same approach by turning down their bonuses? Such a different story would now be circulating in the press had they done so.
ReplyDeleteHowever, now that the opposite has occurred, how might we as servant leaders respond? Puts the shoe on our foot -- I love where this could lead.
Love to hear your thoughts,
Rachel
Thomas W:
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of your service and your quick wit when I ran across this quote:
C. S. Lewis said:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Best,
Tom Gallagher
Rachel:
ReplyDeleteIf I was working for AIG….
There are leaders in the group of employees that got bonuses at AIG, but there are others that are just finance people trying to make a living.
If I had a high priced finance job, I would have an equal amount of bills that need to be paid for the cost of living that I have become accustomed to. My contract would promise me certain bonuses, and maybe I feel I didn’t do so many derivatives security deals compared to others, and that I didn’t know that as a result of the mortgage and banking collapse, that these untested securities that are backed up by maybe 1% of the actual value would cause the collapse of the entire world economy.
So at that point, I would feel that I need to change jobs or if I was going to stay with less money now that people don’t trust AIG, I would still need these bonuses to pay the bills. Now that we are changing from the old world paradigm of unlimited money making, money on top of money, backed by nothing.
But in order to bring about a change in the world, I, as a follower and worker bee; I am not in a specific leadership role, but I am a leader in other senses of the word, in that case I would need to give the money back out of ethics that this money was not mine, its tax payers dollars.
The other side of this is that lots of people are making money on this bail out that isn’t fair, and those people will get off scot-free, and all I wanted was a bonus that was in my contract. If they don’t want to pay me a bonus because the company went down, I would expect them to fire me, especially if most of these failed deals were tied back to me. But then that’s the beauty of the securities, they can’t even find the original contract for the property that backs the empty finance deals.
The bottom line is we need to not just expect our leaders to be of service, but all of humanity to adopt a new way of being in the service of each other.
Best,
Tom Gallagher
I must confess, my colleagues (for this is one of the rare places where I freely express myself), that I am baffled. Never in all my years have I seen a puzzle with so many missing pieces as we now experience.
ReplyDeleteI have ruminated for the past week about the multi-faceted complexity of our current dilemma and have come to the stark realization that no one really knows how to get us out of the situation we are currently encountering (I professed this earlier, I realize). Yet it is this realization (which resonates deeply in the depths of all of our minds regardless of our willingness to acknowledge it) that is leading our politicians to behave even more badly than ever. Finger pointing has reached an all-time high in Washington and in the populace as well.
It is this precise failure or unwillingness for us to each and all take responsibility that will send us headlong into the precipice, if we do not change out ways. Young Thomas illustrated this point profoundly when he made the case for why the "worker bees" at AIG might feel justified in keeping their bonuses.
That he said, in the end, that his own personal ethics would call upon him to return the bonus, is most laudable; that he called upon us to "adopt a new way of being in service to each other" is inspirational. That our fine young Gallagher also saw himself and others like him as mere "worker bees," however, is utterly frightening and tragically repugnant.
Have we adopted a caste system in our nation? Has the mindset of our people been depleted to the point to where we are now ready to return to the feudal system? If this is so, then we are doomed, I fear.
For while the individual determination of a single person is great, the power of the populace to bring about change through its combined will is exponentially greater.
Until we understand that our future is in each of our hands individually and in our collective grasp, then "we the people" we will continue to allow ourselves to be numbed by the on-going anethesia of the news media (be it liberal or conservative).
It is time to wake up!
Our future is in our hands, my noble friends. Let us think and act accordingly.
Thomas W.
I would suggest, dear Thomas, that servant leadership calls to do just what you have suggested -- to wake up and get involved. We are at a crossroads. If we wait for the awakening to occur prior to joining in, it will never occur.
ReplyDeleteThe question, however, that now comes up for me, if I am honest, is: So what do I now do, to live out being awake? How do we act, without simply playing into the fear game?
Looking for inspiration,
Anna
Thomas W:
ReplyDeleteWhat else was I to think of my self in a system of insider trading and things only rich dads knew about?
At the risk of pointing fingers because it was frightening and tragically repugnant of myself to think this way for you, but lets really look at the caste system of America, a land of credit card slavery and glass ceilings.
I should have tried harder in school, but my dad chose to be a CIA man and linguistics professor travelling all over the world exposing me to many languages and cultures.
I might have been great with such a powerful father and childhood, right?
I made it through high school with all those transfer credits from the many schools, finished my Army service to get a GI Bill to help me go to college.
The rules of the game in college are that if you need student loans, you can't retake classes or at least not if you need more loans next semester.
The wealthy kids retake the classes because only the B or better grades get into grad school.
If you make it through grad school then you have to be able to work for free to get some experience on your resume, and your degree doesn’t really apply to the real world, but at least you know how to learn and research.
A worker bee, “a working class hero is something to be”, John Lennon’s song rings out, it’s not a bad thing, but a little different then what the American dream has been selling.
But most of us ended up with 20K in debt to the “Farm” university systems of America, putting us through a machine, like high school, with average learning going on. At least college now days was available to the masses.
That same time period, the credit card companies hit us up on campus, and launched us into a small 6K credit card balance.
As time moved on with family, kids, a mortgage loan, the credit card debt grew to 20K.
Someone who makes an average income, paying minimum on that high interest’s debt would be a slave for life.
Now, for me, a turn of events, tragic loss of two grandfathers, my father, divorce and loss of our home mortgage would leave my brothers and sisters with just enough money to pay off all that debt.
Now that I am older and single, I still have hope, I can go back to college, pay for the classes I did poorly in, with a higher grade point average, finish grad school, and now at least I have some experience.
But as I look at this rat race, the mess that all these insiders created by investing in things that had very little real value, I simply want to spend time with my kids and hopefully prepare them for a world of carrots and sticks.
Or a great world of Hope that was created by people looking for a world without oil consumption, that we are not just a throw away society that consumes, but actually is encouraged to reuse the finite materials we have left on this planet.
“A working class hero is something to be”
Best worker bee ever!
Tom Gallagher
Hello all (misfits, curmudgeons, academics, lovers, friends, partners and corporate drones). Good morning to you --
ReplyDeleteThough I have been perusing the blog off and on during the past couple of months, I haven’t felt compelled to contribute. I have been slightly puzzled by this my own unwillingness to so much as even ponder the issue of servant leadership as I typically am one to engage myself in most debates related to any aspect of social consciousness (or lack thereof) with gusto and enthusiasm… I ended up, however, deeming this particular issue a chicken vs. egg debate and wrote it off without further contemplation. Until this morning.
While singing along with the ever-present soundtrack of my mind as I enjoyed my shower, Paul McCartney (who is not exactly a regular on the ‘show’) popped in.……‘When the brokenhearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer…’
Right! My mediator self toweled off, made my coffee and kept thinking about that line from ‘Let It Be’….. Whether I choose to be a leader first or a servant first, I am inevitably a human being first…..with human foibles and fallacies, feelings and flaws. Brokenhearted or victorious, wounded or healed. A power hungry leader may provide poor or demeaning leadership, but so may a resentful servant. A dominatrix dictator may cause unspeakable harm upon a population, as may a passive aggressive mother who deems herself a servant to her family while performing domestic chores….
In Christopher’s original post, Robert Greenleaf was quoted saying: “The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature”.
I disagree. I do not believe the leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. They are, in my mind, exactly the same type. They are both accomplishing what they set out to accomplish. From different foundations maybe, and perhaps with different intent, but the “shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature” make them human, not extreme. Defining concepts and categorizing varieties is a practice that can be more divisive than it is helpful. What really counts isn’t whether you aim to lead or whether you aim to serve…..What counts ends up being where you end up….
The pragmatic in me hear myself say these things and automatically label myself a ‘hopeless romantic’ or ‘faded hippie’, but at the end of the day my mediator motto still stands – ‘You can be right or have a relationship.’
If we can embrace our individual strengths and weaknesses - as leaders and as servants…well, there MAY just be an answer. Let it be.
Here we go; finally the regulation on financial companies is coming...
ReplyDeleteThe Obama administration is proposing federal regulations for all trading in financial derivatives, exotic financial instruments such as credit default swaps. The larger Hedge funds would be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Possibly the Federal Reserve would be responsible for running a systemic risk regulator to monitor the biggest institutions.
The last idea is possibly the boldest and potentially the most destructive, which is the right to take over non banking finacials companies like Hedge funds or insurance companies if they get close to failing again. In a take over, those bonuses wouldn’t be paid out. I can hear the conservatives saying government will mess this up too!
I am hoping for a world where we don’t need to use oil, and our economy is based on long term and conservation of resources.
Best,
Tom
"Let me be clear," Geithner told the committee. "The days when a major insurance company could bet the house on credit default swaps with no one watching and no credible backing to protect the company or taxpayers must end."
Anita,
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point -- and it sounds good on paper -- not sure, if it works in actual application. I'll have to think about it some more (recognizing that I most assuredly have a bias that I'll be working to drop or at least lower so I can see past it).
Having witnessed a lot organizations go through various leadership cycles, it seems that those who at least attempted to have a longer range picture in mind; and who led from a standpoint of what appeared to be best for the entire organization (as opposed to a handful of those poised to take advantage of a short-term, yet long-term detrimental profit, for example), got to a healthier place on purpose.
I suppose I'm simply skeptical and have a belief that the result bears out our intent; or to put it another way, that having our intent clear before we move increases the odds of our getting where we really want to end up.
But that's just my initial impression. More later (would love to hear thoughts of the rest of the crew as well).
Thanks for the opportunity to look more deeply into my beliefs.
Christopher
Anita:
ReplyDeleteI am very confused by your post. It’s not clear to me what you’re saying, but I love the way you say it. I believe there will be an answer once we are free from our many illusions to be with the question long enough to hear its infinite solutions.
We are not ignorant, as Christopher points out, we know that intentions program our sub conscious minds to make us come up with answers and stay on track where normally humans are distracted with the limited abilities of our conscious mind. The long term companies that Christopher worked with that had good intentions for the future and set out their intent to guide them are the most successful business that will go from good to great, as do their leaders.
Our current state of affairs is with a president who is trying to be a servant leader, but with his back ground in politics, knows he has to give a lot to get anything from this corrupt system. While is intentions are noble, the reality is the banks and credit cards companies have more bad debt on their books then we can bail them out, so we are continuing business as usual till the final depression of the US economy sets in to force the temporary nationalization of banks to reveal the amount of toxic debt. The Obama administration is doing some regulation to stop this inflated financing from continuing with no regulation, but they continue to treat the finance people like Gods.
Simon Johnson said "From 1973 to 1985, the financial sector never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits. In 1986, that figure reached 19 percent. In the 1990s, it oscillated between 21 percent and 30 percent, higher than it had ever been in the postwar period. This decade, it reached 41 percent. Pay rose just as dramatically. From 1948 to 1982, average compensation in the financial sector ranged between 99 percent and 108 percent of the average for all domestic private industries. From 1983, it shot upward, reaching 181 percent in 2007."
This type of growth is making money out of thin air, that should not be legal and the era of big banks that can control our government must end or there is no room for servant leaders, only the oligarchs and dictators in government to take care of them.
There is an answer, in fact many, but we don’t listen, we never listen, and we are not listening now.
Best worker be ever
Tom Gallagher
An interesting note, its my humble opinion that we were a plutocracy and now have become a kleptocracy, but with the recent online questions for President Obama, questions were voted on to make the top of his list to be answered, and it appears that the general public wants us to become a narcokleptocracy by legalizing cannabis and taxing it.
ReplyDeleteMy mom tells the story of traveling to Dachau on the Holocaust Remembrance Day; never forget that humanity can do this again.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my family is not Jewish by birth, that we are Jewish souls sent here to be of service.
Pauline Jones Gallagher said, "DACHAU...
We were living in Zurich where your father was teaching in the Rudolph Steiner School. We were living in a Swiss farmhouse. Your father took the train into town with Kalani and Robert, who went to the school with him.
On a day off, we went into Zurich and visited a book store. We bought some books, including The Rise and fall of the Third Reich.
Your father decided to drive up to Munich to see the sights mentioned in the book, including the "Hoffbrau Haus" and Dachau.
We met some Americans service people and stayed in their apartment in Munich.
We drove out to Dachau.
It was a life-changing experience.
We walked in as ordinary people, and left with a mission...you tell me...we walked in alone and left, escorted by souls with a mission.
We left immediately for Spain, where your father had a job teaching at INAS.
In the spring, we left Spain, headed for Israel.
We drove up through France, Italy, and sailed from Brindisi aboard an Italian liner bound for Haifa. In the ten days we spent traveling through Israel, we had become Jews.
You explain it.
We sailed out of Haifa as they celebrated Israeli Independence Day, with lights in the harbor. We landed in Greece and drove north through Greece and Yugoslavia, into Germany, where we put the car on the boat for America and took the train to England. We flew from Heathrow for America. We stayed with Carole and Sam in Utica, New York. When our car arrived, your father picked it up in New York and we drove southwest across the US.
We held the intent to return to Israel. It was 1972."
We returned for almost three years in 1979 (up to Israel), only to leave again.
I was three years old, what an amazing life being raised by a traveling language professor in the 70's.
I pray that transformation arrives so that Israel, Palestine, Iran, USA find common ground in our attempt to learn to balance our consumption so that we have a world left worth living in for our children.
I spent 6 years in 90's living in Germany; I remember talking to the German soldier’s, that's how I learned to speak. So many amazing stories.
We can never let a Hitler or any man/women leader have enough control to convince us that a group of any human beings is worth killing off. Our genetic code for future generation will depend on all of us being around.
I wont get into specifics about the US or even the world of today really - just reading over some of the comments proves what we all need to admit - America MAY still be one nation, but unified and supportive of itself, AS A WHOLE, it has LOST.
ReplyDeleteI agree COMPLETELY with the start of this: there's are basically two types of people in existence - those who want to give it all away (but reality of human need to function interferes) and those who want to get it all together (though NOTHING...and I mean literally NOTHING will EVER be agreed upon by every human under the sun). You can label them "givers" and "takers", servants and rulers. Some notes just to think about. A servant CAN rule, but will never RULE OVER. A ruler CAN serve, but will only truly serve HIMSELF/HERSELF (even if through those he/she cares about, showing a lack of care for the rest of us). The future of society will return to almost medevial concepts in a high-sci-fi world - some might use Socialism or Religion to more specifically define them, but the head men of business and society will again be the extreme-ended people who want it all, or want EVERYONE to have "it"....LIFE.
It's not a game, but people have been playing with it, and hurting other people's lives because of it. They WILL be forced to stop. Bless you all.
As we looked at our collapsed world economy, the nations that produced real goods, not just focused on being an information economy, these nations grew strong, but chose to invest in the US, which wasn't producing real things and cooked their books still to this day not revealing the toxic debt.
ReplyDeleteThe question in this video produced by Sundance films is how do you give a billion people in China homes without destroying the world. The answer was that we might recover our world economy, but will humanity survive another waster production world economy.
The answer is Waste=Food. Listen, learn and share.
We could end world hunger & stop population growth if we fed the world, but the elite will not let the food in and lose their power.
WASTE = FOOD
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaVC9C2fMps
Much Love, Who I am, is love.
Thomas Melville Moki Moshe Gallagher