Tag Archives: personal responsibility

Good Neighbors Are Earned

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Where to begin? If local communities are to serve as the foundation for healing the American spirit and reclaiming our sense of purpose, we must learn to make them strong – dependable, trustworthy, and resilient.

Many of us are not well acquainted with our immediate neighbors, much less those around the corner or down the road. If we want good people to depend on in a serious crisis, this has to change. Many problems are more easily resolved when we team up with others. Think food security, or friends we can trust when the banks close or the power goes out.

I have shared my concerns with you about the critical role of local communities. I have explained why I believe local communities and networks of communities will become the essential platform on which Americans reorganize themselves to identify common values, plan a common future, and forge a common purpose.

Building on the solid ground we foster in neighborly relationships, community is the only place in these extreme days where we have both the ability and the opportunity to control our destiny.

As each of us looks around and assesses our circumstances, how can we begin?

Those of you who are naturally outgoing will find this discussion simplistic. But for others the challenge of reaching out to strangers and proposing a common endeavor will be imposing.

There are several kinds of challenges to consider. These include: 1) getting acquainted with strangers and developing friendships, 2) explaining our motives honestly and our ideas effectively, 3) cooperation in addressing local needs, and 4) proposing more ambitious endeavors.

Community-wide efforts can include a wide array of possibilities. For example, these might include local security considerations, growing and preserving food, educating children, initiating small business enterprises, and troubleshooting technical problems that require creative thinking or specialized skills, such as electrical power, safe drinking water, and waste disposal.

All these possibilities can be placed on the table when we are first getting acquainted. Hearing a range of possible benefits for engaging in mutual assistance can jump-start resistant minds.

However, it is probably best not to try to fix all the ills of the world on the first visit. Unless you already know someone well, the first step will be to get acquainted and to find reasons to spend more time together. A warm, friendly first visit can be the basis for later, more substantive engagement.

Always begin interactions by inviting people to share their feelings and views before you do. This will provide you with a basis for effective engagement, and it will make them more receptive to you. Do not pry or press. But, if you can get another person talking, you will find them far more open to hearing from you.

Once new acquaintances begin to warm to you, invite them to think with you about ways the community can be improved. Invite ideas, and then suggest some of your own. If you find an opening, share your hope.

Try to avoid or downplay the more serious political or emotional issues, if possible, until you have secured a stronger positive connection.

If you meet unreceptive people, don’t push. Be friendly, stay in touch, and make yourself useful. As time passes, watch for ways to demonstrate the practical benefits of a mutually supportive community.

Soon we can begin to introduce people to each other. Small social gatherings can help people get acquainted. While remaining informal, we can introduce ideas by floating questions. What problems or unmet needs do we know of? Who has skills? What skills would be we like to learn? How can we assist one another?

As we come to know one another better, we can begin to discuss our willingness to rise above our differences when needs are great or the stakes are high.

First we are human, then we are neighbors, and, finally, we are Americans who care. As individuals we can be none of these things in isolation.

The future is of immense importance – but reality begins at home.

Tom

Next week: Finding our strengths.

Compassion is hard…

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Sunrise 1-x

“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it….

“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain…. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

–Henri J.M. Nouwen

Lessons From a Painful Past

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The 20th Century brought an immense wealth of marvelous advances into the world – scientific, intellectual, cultural. Yet it was a century of appalling violence, the most destructive in all of human history. An estimated 167 million to 188 million people died at human hands.

The century that produced communism, facism, and nationalism also saw the invention of highly efficient weaponry, and a willingness to direct it against civilian populations on a massive scale.

Perhaps it would be wise for us to look at our current problems in historical context. Will we, as Americans still enjoying the relative isolation afforded by two great oceans, recognize how easy it is for terrible things to happen?

A balanced perspective would lend wisdom to our endeavors and offer important lessons. At the present historic turning point humankind can least afford to repeat the horrifying errors of the past. And how easy it would be to do.

In his 2006 book, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, the historian Niall Ferguson, who I have introduced to you previously, wrote that “the hundred years after 1900 were without question the bloodiest century in modern history, far more violent in relative as well as absolute terms than any previous era. . . . There was not a single year before, between or after the world wars that did not see large-scale violence in one part of the world or another.”

I believe Niall Ferguson’s analysis is of value to us because he departs from the typical explanations blaming weaponry and fascist governments, as significant as these were, and instead identifies ethnic conflict, economic volatility, and declining empires as the true causes.

In short, he reminds us of our human vulnerability to emotional insecurity, fear, and tribalism.

The “confluence of crises” I am writing about involves elements of all these things, but also a range of newly emerging concerns that have become apparent more recently, and are related more or less to the material limits of population growth, environmental and resource sustainability, and the capability of technology to maintain critical systems or mitigate major problems.

In every case, regardless of the particular nature of oncoming crises, the challenges we face as individuals and families come into focus as we respond to immediate threats. And, as Dr. Ferguson points out, it is the overreaction of people under pressure that leads to the most terrible violence.

It is my view, as most readers know, that our local communities are the only place where we have the capability and reasonable hope of controlling our lives going forward.

The difference between a violent past and a civilized future will depend entirely on the manner in which we relate to one another, approach problems, and organize our local affairs. In a word, the distinction between past and future will be our attitude.

Community-building is the context in which we can best respond, creatively and constructively, to the degradation taking place around us. It can provide us with the means to build trust with friends and neighbors and to take responsibility for meeting local needs and addressing local problems.

Here it is that we can undertake to work together for the greater good as loyal compatriots. Here it is that the real needs of real lives can be identified and addressed.

And, it is in the process of problem-solving and working shoulder-to-shoulder that we can begin to know, understand, and influence one another.

We must be realistic. Great numbers of people remain under the influence of ingrained prejudices of ethnicity, gender, religion and class. This will only change as we rise above our differences to address the felt-needs we face together in a difficult world.

Patience and determination make many things possible, but necessity brings everything sharply into focus. Interpersonal alienation wanes as we identify common concerns and develop a deepening sense of unity around common purpose.

Tom

Next week: Seeing the end in the beginning

A note to readers: You may find related chapter drafts posted on this site of some interest. See especially Chapter Six: The Ground of Freedom, and Chapter Nine: The Individual in Society.

The Bedrock of Ethics

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During the past week we learned that the website AshleyMadison, which caters to cheating spouses, faces threats by hackers to reveal the names and personal details of as many as 37 million customers if the site is not taken down.

Soon after these revelations were made public it became apparent that popular opinion supports AshleyMadison and views the web-based service as a victim of injustice.

Here we have a classic example of the deeper, underlying crisis I wrote about a week ago.  I submitted to you, dear readers, that we are witnessing a stunning loss of personal integrity – a broad failure of honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility on a societal scale.

I suggested that this is a deepening quagmire that influences our institutions, our government, and our lives at every level, and will certainly play a key role in every one of the diverse, oncoming crises that presently loom before us.

Clearly, there has been a loss of ethical grounding to such a degree that no amount of righteous exhortation will have any useful effect.

In my view, the institution of marriage plays an irreplaceable role in securing the foundations for social stability and well-being.

While marriage may not be for everyone, it is impossible to imagine how civil order could be maintained in a productive society without the values and virtues and civilizing influences that are inculcated in each generation by stable marriages and responsible, caring parents.

Marriage is not easy. It is the hardest thing many of us ever do. But, when we understand the importance of it we persevere, and seek the profoundly personal rewards of an integrity that comes with age.

What exactly do the clients of AshleyMadison and their sympathizers not understand? Can they not imagine the strength and resilience of that stronghold of safety and well-being that is a true and honest marriage? Do they believe themselves incapable of this? Or, does the shame and sorrow of infidelity simply represent a fleeting capitulation to personal failure?

Clearly they fail to understand how and why a civilized world must depend on trust and responsibility, or to recognize the integrating role of marriage when it is woven into the fabric of life.

What utter devastation there is in the emotional wasteland of a socially disintegrating world!

How will we address this problem?

One cannot put out a fire by aiming a fire extinguisher at the flames as they flicker in the air. A fire can only be extinguished at the site that is burning.

Attacking the flames will accomplish nothing. People do not respond well to preaching or finger-wagging, especially when their perspective feels good to them and seems quite rational.

It is for this reason that I have drawn your attention to the potential safety and dependability of our own communities – if and when we do the basic work of opening communication, inviting cooperation to address local needs, and building trust.

In my view, community-building is the only context where honest listening and learning and soulful change can take place on a meaningful scale.

We must learn how to make this happen. I do not believe it can happen anywhere else.

Until the wayward and the lost discover that their lives and well-being depend on the security and stability of their local communities; until they recognize the necessity for trust and responsibility in their own comfort or survival, the wisdom of values and virtues will be lost on them.

These great lessons will not be learned and understood by our friends and neighbors without a struggle. We will have to engage patiently, intimately, to work through the hardships of survival and community development together one step at a time.

Principled truth can only be introduced gradually, honestly, effectively, in the context of the tests we are subjected to as loyal compatriots.

No, it will not be easy. Discipline is never easy on the threshold of change. But with an understanding of purpose comes true freedom, and the struggle to get there will be at least as rewarding for the teacher as for the taught.

Tom

Next week: Seeing the end in the beginning

A note to readers: Please note the chapter drafts available on this site, especially Chapter Six: The Ground of Freedom, and Chapter Nine: The Individual in Society.

The Deeper Crisis

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We live in extraordinary times. Having entered a period of successive and interacting crises, we are challenged to pull together as a people, to clarify our purposes for safeguarding the integrity of our nation as a democratic republic, and to determine effective means for doing so.

I have commented here that we face a range of diverse crises, all emerging into view at virtually the same time. We have reviewed a number of them very briefly on this blog, and several at greater depth.

Some, like the continuing financial crisis, have impending implications. Others, like the unrecognized instability of complexity in today’s digitized world, remain hidden, but may well provide the trigger that sends things into freefall.

(See blog posts: February 6, “Why the Bankers are Trapped”; February 13, “Insolvency and Devaluation”; February 20, “A New Kind of Crisis”; and March 13, “The Hidden Dangers of Complexity.”)

I have placed emphasis on the coming financial storm because it hangs over us now, waiting for a trigger.

The too-big-to-fail banks are now bigger than they were before they helped bring down the economy in 2008. The federal debt has risen by 83% since that time. We see an increase of low-paying service sector jobs while our economy continues to lose higher-paying jobs.

The stock market has shot upward with no foundation in economic reality, and has now reached irrational valuations not seen since just before the 1929 panic and the dotcom crash of 2000.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which is the central banker to the world’s central banks, announced recently that central bankers will be out of options when the next crisis hits.

Essentially confirming my points in the February blog posts referenced above, the BIS suggests that the major central banks have mismanaged the situation to a large extent because they don’t understand it. Previously “unthinkable risks,” they said, are coming to be “perceived as the new normal.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also released a report recently, stating that “key fault lines” are growing across the US financial landscape, and that “new pockets of vulnerabilities have emerged.” The largest and most interconnected banks, the IMF concludes, “dominate the system even more than before.”

As imposing as this unfolding drama appears, in my view there is a more fundamental crisis. And, it is clearly visible behind all the others.

I have written here, (as recently as June 26), of the stunning loss of personal integrity – honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility – we have witnessed in recent years. A profound collapse of moral standards has taken place on a broad, societal scale.

This is the deeper crisis, and it may ultimately be responsible for the general deterioration that is dragging civilization to its knees. I say this because trust and responsibility are the basis for the sound functioning of human affairs, and lack of them has led to crippling disorientation and disorder.

Why has this happened to such a broad extent? Certainly we have lost the ethical and intellectual foundations that have contributed to stability in the past. But, why? We are intelligent people. What happened to good judgment? Where is common sense?

Have we walked away from responsibility believing that honesty and fairness limit our freedom? Has the daily bludgeoning of mass media warped our minds and stunted our capacity to think for ourselves?

Whatever the reasons, we are now reaping the whirlwind. For a world where many young people have grown up with little effective parenting, and many of their elders have lost any meaningful grounding in values or virtues, there will be no guidance available in the chaotic upheavals that lie ahead.

Analyzing and explaining the prospective dangers we face is beyond the scope of this blog and book. Rather, I seek to gather Americans around a constructive response that is rooted in our local communities, irrespective of unpredictable events.

Tests that require us to pull ourselves together and rise to our full potential might actually be the only antidote to the toxic cocktail of partisan negativity that is poisoning the American soul.

Stability requires and integrity demands a rational and compassionate response to the downward spiral of social and economic deterioration.

Tom

Next week: Responsibility, personal and practical

A Confluence of Crises

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The United States and the world have arrived at an historic turning point. We face a formidable array of complex crises. The challenges are diverse, profound, and mutually reinforcing. Some will impose themselves suddenly, others gradually, but all will ultimately converge as they impact our lives during the coming years.

Most Americans are aware today of certain dangers and other highly politicized concerns, which appear against the backdrop of deteriorating economic conditions and growing civil disorder. I do not question the importance of these issues. Rather, I draw your attention to additional significant, but perhaps less obvious threats that we should all be aware of.

I have posted a list of many of the dangers and dilemmas we face, (see June 26 blog: “Crisis and Opportunity”), which are emerging into view at virtually the same time: social and economic, moral and material. Some are specific to the United States, but most involve global socio-economic, financial, geopolitical, and environmental systems, which are essentially ungovernable and beyond our control.

Perhaps some might once have been governable – in theory. But, it is too late now.

Many are material in nature. One sobering example is the vulnerability of structural systems in the United States to cyber-attack or, in certain cases, power failure.

Such a crisis could easily cut off all telecommunications, broadcast media, the internet, air-traffic control, emergency services and hospital functions – without warning. It could disrupt distribution systems, leaving supermarket shelves bare. Damage to the national grid could be so severe that it would take days or weeks to repair.

In this confluence of crises, the fabric of civil society and economic order will be challenged. Systems and structures could come unraveled in a self-perpetuating chain of events.

The interrelated complexity of the world is the function of what is known as a “whole system”. We are experiencing a multi-dimensional crisis of the whole, possibly leading to a cascading collapse.

Our response must, of necessity, be rational, principled. Our salvation will be in our comprehension of the ultimate integrity of the whole, a reality both physical and spiritual. And here is the crux of the matter. Behind the material problems is a silent, central and transcendent crisis that is of ultimate significance.

This is a crisis of a different kind, and it will determine the eventual outcome.

I speak here of the loss of moral compass, the absence of ethical and spiritual grounding that precludes personal responsibility and accountability, and an abdication of reason that threatens the very foundations of civil order.

This is the most profound crisis – and the most dangerous — because it represents a subversion of the integral order of human culture and civilization.

Whatever our particular religious tradition or philosophical grounding, the difficult years ahead will demand a steadfast commitment to the highest ethical standards, to consistent moral responsibility and a compassionate readiness to cooperate with others.

Our ability to engage constructively with our neighbors will be essential. While there is much we will not agree on, we must learn to work together, to listen respectfully, and to translate our differences into language that can be understood and respected by everyone.
We will be dependent on our local communities to be safe and trustworthy.

A few days ago I posted an important quotation from John Adams. Scroll down and take a look at it. This is the bridge that must be crossed. When things get bad enough, this will happen again.

A quiet but courageous and visionary leadership will be called upon to facilitate this transit – to gather Americans together, to learn what needs to be learned, to meet local needs and resolve local problems.

We face a dangerous passage through a chaotic transition. Many will turn to violent rhetoric and extremist philosophies out of failure to recognize the integral order.

An American leadership that is true to its roots will stand firmly against such mental weakening, because the violence of sedition, whether it comes from above or below, will threaten the loss of everything this nation has meant to the American people.

The quiet American leadership I speak of is you, dear reader. We have no one to depend on but ourselves. If we prepare ourselves mentally and morally, the rest can be sorted out.

Tom

Next week: New dangers, intelligent responses

Unless we love the truth…

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People 3

“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth we cannot know it.”

–Pascal

“Truth exists; only lies are invented.”

–Georges Braque

The doorstep to wisdom…

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People 14

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

–Thomas Jefferson

“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“People only see what they are prepared to see.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Living with Differences

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It can be difficult to work with other people for a variety of reasons. Some difficulties are easier to overcome than others. Often we can connect with people with a little creative sensitivity. But, sometimes it can require a great deal of patience and determination.

Why should we make this effort? There are critically important reasons to rise above our differences. To secure the safety of our communities and to resolve local problems, we will need “all hands on deck.” And, to seek a vision for the future that we can all get behind will require that we actually listen to and understand one another.

It is not necessary to compromise our personal views and beliefs. We each must maintain our personal dignity, integrity, and a confident sense of self.

That said, we will increasingly find it necessary to work with folks we may not feel comfortable with at first. The challenge is to be both self-confident and respectful as we engage with others to in the context of community.

Robert Heinlein made the point clearly when he said, “I never learned from a man who agreed with me.”

Coming to understand the personality and perspective of another individual can be useful in itself, even if no possibility of agreement exists. It can be the means for crystallizing our own thinking and beliefs. And, if we approach it as a learning opportunity, we have much to gain from one another in knowledge, skills, and experience.

Aristotle is believed to have said that “it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

Well, Aristotle did not go to high school, and neither have some of us. But, it is our job to figure out what he meant and learn how to do it!

It is important to respect the integrity and sincerity of every other human being, allowing our differences to exist freely in their own space, distinct from the roles of community-member, teammate, or friend.

Suppose we find ourselves dealing with a person who presents us with special challenges – perhaps someone who does not believe effective community to be possible, or who values their privacy to an extreme, or who just seems unreceptive?

It is almost always possible to work with someone who we find difficult if we are patient, creative, and open to finding a way.  It is important to understand from the beginning, however, that in such circumstances we cannot allow ourselves be emotionally needy or easily disheartened. Such an effort calls for a pleasant attitude and a generous spirit.

Often it is impossible to know why a person remains distant or unresponsive despite our best efforts. But, pain is often hidden there, whether it is conscious or not. And, caring will always give solace, however silently it is received.

The wise do not impose themselves until they obtain a hearing. If, however, we are able to plant the seeds of community in the fertile soil of the human heart, and water them gently with loving kindness, we may not have to wait long before their green shoots spring forth into the light of day.

When we make ourselves present in the life of another without expectation or demand, healing can take place without our knowing – until the dam breaks and the feelings flow.

We need not do more than simply be as fully present as that person will allow, and wait patiently in kindness until a response comes in the fullness of time.

It might take days, weeks, or years. But it will come.

In a little book called The Miracle of Dialogue (1963), the Christian theologian Dr. Reuel L. Howe wrote that “every man is a potential adversary, even those whom we love. Only through dialogue are we saved from this enmity toward one another. Dialogue is to love, what blood is to the body…. When dialogue stops, love dies and resentment and hate are born. But dialogue can restore a dead relationship.”

Tom

Next week: Understanding the Long Crisis

The Power of Teamwork

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As we make our way forward through this long crisis, we can expect an erratic path to the future. The sequence of events will be unpredictable. Progress toward our ultimate goal will be diverted and delayed by repeated shocks and disruptions.

We must shore up our spirits and brace ourselves for frustrations. Sharing vision and purpose with others will steady our course – and our nerves.

Community spirit, and the success of communities in determining shared purpose and strategies for coping, will be critically important. This can only happen when we rise above our differences and come to understand and trust one another as friends, neighbors, and allies.

Readers are quite right to question how I can expect the intense antipathy and incivility current among the American people to allow us to actually sit down and attempt to understand and cooperate with one another.

You may think the idea impossible, even absurd. But, as I have tried to explain, we have no choice. Our failure to do this in good faith could result in the absolute loss of the American Republic and everything it stands for.

I think it interesting that our young people can commit themselves to discipline, teamwork, and decisive action in the armed forces – while the rest of us appear unwilling to exercise even basic civility, much less the generosity and loyalty that have characterized the American tradition.

It is not necessary to compromise our personal views and beliefs. The challenge is to be both self-confident and respectful as we engage with others to resolve local problems. This may require that we adjust our attitudes. Can we come to terms with one another as teammates and compatriots committed to the fundamental integrity of the nation?

No cohesive effort can be mounted, much less succeed, if we cannot get ourselves onto the same page. This is not possible if we cannot listen with understanding and communicate with civility.

The way we handle working relationships and resolve local problems will be the first stage in preparing for the future. A right attitude for dealing with an immediate crisis, as I suggested in an earlier post, will probably be the right attitude for working with one another to build a better future.

There will be confusion at times, and a failure to fully comprehend the nature of problems. Many of us are demoralized or under immense pressure. Those who have the presence of mind to engage in problem-solving will need to step forward to engage and pull people together.

Working with people can be one of the greatest tests in life. To assist readers in approaching the challenges of working with people – including those who are especially difficult to work with – the forthcoming book will offer supportive guidelines for a variety of conditions and circumstances. These will include:

1) Overcoming personal differences to build trusting personal relationships.
2) Facilitation of public meetings.
3) Group decision-making where differences of perspective or opinion are present.
4) Addressing conflict by means of an approach known as conflict transformation.
5) Working in groups to plan and execute projects.

I expect you are wondering what I mean by “conflict transformation”, mentioned in #4. This is a practical approach to conflict developed by John Paul Lederach and others. His book is The Little Book of Conflict Transformation.

Conflict transformation looks beyond resolution of the obvious issues on the surface of a conflict, to recognize and respond to the deeper factors that simmer below the surface – the roots of a conflict. It seeks first to understand and address perceptions and underlying causes; second, to reduce adversarial confrontation; and, third, to address the human needs relating to the conflict and to invite participation in finding constructive solutions.

I will try to give you a brief taste of my own thinking on building trust in personal relationships next week. Related commentary may appear in future blog posts, but to gain access to a range of practical tools and guidance you may purchase the book when it becomes available.

Tom

Next week: Building strong working relationships

Note to readers: A table of contents and several chapter drafts from the forthcoming book are posted on the blog site. See especially Chapter One: American Crucible and Chapter Six: The Ground of Freedom.

Wisdom at the Heart of America

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Community is the seat of civilization, made genuine because it is personal. It is in our local communities that we engage one another face to face, cementing trust, tending to needs, learning patience and responsibility. And, here among friends and neighbors we can find the confidence to envision the future and look forward from the disorder of the present.

Our strength comes with diversity and our readiness to rise above our differences to build a vibrant, welcoming and free-spirited society. This is the essence of our heritage, our humanity, and the source of the nation’s greatness.

Trust and responsibility don’t just appear by good fortune. They are formed in the trials of necessity and hardship, and inspired by vision and purpose.

Like marriage, a commitment to community forces us to mature as adult people – emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Perhaps this is why so many avoid participating fully.

There are, however, other reasons for pledging ourselves to local responsibility. Beyond the boundaries of family, community is that place where immediate needs present themselves and must be resolved.

Americans have abdicated personal responsibility for these aspects of civilized life for a long time, and we have done so at our peril.

It was not always thus. Prior to the American Revolution, and for close to 100 years afterward, Americans gravitated easily, even impulsively, toward decentralized local governance and an independent frame of mind. We managed our own affairs in cooperation with our neighbors and accepted regional autonomy as a natural condition.

Civil society flourished in nineteenth century America, a vibrant force documented admiringly by Alexis de Tocqueville in his two volume commentary, Democracy in America. Americans created an immense variety of civic organizations to address every conceivable interest and social need. Citizens did this on their own initiative, inspired by their sense of belonging and the spirit of the times. There were few restrictions or restraints.

An American return to community, both in spirit and as a practical matter, is as important today as it has ever been. It can only be in direct engagement with our neighbors, and in all the spheres of problem-solving, that we will learn the skills of living and working productively with one another.

As Americans, we have been here before and we can do it again.

There are those who argue that the decentralist tradition of the American past represents an ideal to which we should aspire. Indeed, this is an attractive vision. Yet, I think it should be apparent for all to see that there must be a balance struck between a nation of fully engaged local communities and a competent and trustworthy central government that respects the primacy of local responsibility.

At the present juncture, as I wrote last week, it is difficult to imagine a limited central government managed by mature adults who are prepared to protect both our freedoms and our security. But, that is what we need. Without law there can be no freedom.

Rejecting centralized governance as something impossible to limit implies tremendous trade-offs. I believe that a valid and well-reasoned vision of limited government can come from local communities, the seat of wisdom at the heart of America.

How will this happen?

We can only accomplish this by means of a severe discipline anchored in a community-based culture. It will take courage and vision. Those who understand trust, moral responsibility, and constructive action – and who recognize the very high stakes involved – will build the foundations for an American renewal.

The best and the brightest will be leaders who serve with humility and little recognition.

It will be a gradual process that depends on each of us to reach out across differences of tradition, politics, and culture to influence hearts and minds, to form friendships and to truly understand one another.

It will take time because we will be initiating transformative change close to the heart of America, a profound influence on our cultural identity that partisan politics will be powerless to resist.

Tom

Next week: When big is not better.

Honesty

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Coast 2-x

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

–Thomas Jefferson

“I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.”

–George Bernard Shaw