Pandemic of ill will

There seems to be a pandemic of ill will in this country. It's an illness attacking our values.

Historically, America has been a country that led the world in attacking disease. Our approach to tackling tuberculoses, polio, chicken pox, measles and many other community spread diseases have been generally accepted and successful. We have historically shown value for human life. 

Herd immunity as a goal for the end of this pandemic is a shared goal; left, right and in the middle. How we get there is the huge divide. These opposing views are making it impossible to get a handle on this virus.

On one end, herd immunity and survival of the fittest are the same thing. These people tend to see themselves as fit enough to survive, of course. With this approach there should be no mitigation efforts. Everyone is on their own to handle the virus and there seems to be a certainty that the vast majority of people can survive it. Those who don't were going to die of something anyway.

Survival of the fittest discounts or dismisses the impact on the health care system. They are blind to the number of hospitals across the country that are overwhelmed, EMT workers overstressed, morgues overflowing in some regions. Or perhaps they feel this is an acceptable cost. Perhaps they feel mitigation efforts are too costly and are willing to let the cost be paid on this end of our society.

On the other end, herd immunity means a vaccine. A vaccine provides immunity in a controlled way, mitigating the level of illness and death. The problem here is that the vaccine is slow in coming and in actually creating herd immunity on a mass scale. AND many of the survival of the fittest folks will have nothing to do with it.

In between, mitigation efforts are painful and costly. Business shutdowns with no relief are devastating, especially for small businesses. School shut downs spiral families into chaos and financial hardship. Wearing a mask everywhere is a pain in the ass. Fighting one another over all of it is exhausting. 

What has been missing is leadership that is focused on an approach that brings us closer together in an approach to dealing with this pandemic. We all want to get back to some semblance of normal. We all want to survive this thing physically, emotionally and financially.

Number ONE - We cannot overwhelm our health care systems. PERIOD! We use contact tracing to accurately identify the greatest risk of spread and we shut it down. 

Number TWO - We accurately identify the financial impact of number one and provide funding to those who need it to survive. Screw the deficit. If we can go to war with blind cost and cut taxes willy nilly, we can spend money on mitigating a pandemic.

Number THREE - STOP fighting each other. Fight the virus. Act like we care about each other. Be a community.

This is not an unsolvable problem. We can do this. Let's do it!

My Flag in honor of Veteran's Day

 It's Veteran's Day. The country salutes the service of millions of men and women who chose to serve this great country we call home.

It's Veteran's Day. Our presidential election was over a week ago. If you chose to vote, your vote was cast more than a week ago. It's time for the signs to come down. We no longer need to see a show of who you voted for or who you wanted to win. It's done. Election Day was more than a week ago. Your sign is irrelevant now. It doesn't matter who you voted for. Take the signs down. Take the flags down. Take your candidate's name off the side of your buildings and off the billboards. 

If you are a true patriot, your allegiance is not to a NAME, it is to this country. Replace that campaign sign, that campaign flag and that name on your building with the flag of the United States of American. Pledge allegiance to that value of "indivisible with liberty and justice for all." 

If you are a true patriot, fly the flag that represents that country to which you are aligned. Is that the flag of the confederacy? Is that what you believe in? Is that where you want to go? A nation divided and focused on rights of subjugation of certain people.

It's time to take a good hard look at our values. It's time to take down signs and replace them with a flag that represents the aspiration of a much higher purpose. We have much work to do. We have failed to reach those higher aspirations but we really should be united in our desire to keep working toward that end. Take down the signs, the flags, the names on buildings and billboards that spark feelings of division. Get behind a united flag.

My new flag and spotlight go up now! I'm a veteran and approve this message. 

 

Broaden Your News Sources

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a news junky. Seeking a variety of news sources is very important. While they all have bias, I focus on ones that are most reliable and specific journalists with the best reputations. It takes a bit of effort. Just google media bias and you can see where your news sources fall. 

How do I fit it in? First, in the morning I scan the local paper and the Washington Post. Then, while I get ready for work, I listen to NPR morning edition. During the day, I don't pay much attention to news but at the end of the day, I'll watch a variety of news stations. It rotates between PBS news and BBC, CBS and ABC. Then I rarely miss Rachel Maddow as she dives deep into stories with statistics, summaries of local reporting on topics and in depth interviews. Finally, I usually turn on Sky News from the UK to get a world view.

Over the weekend, I try to catch Washington Week on PBS, CBS Sunday Morning and at least one of the weekly news interview programs.

Many sources tend to follow the same story for a few days, so rotating provides a broader view of what is happening. They cannot report on everything. And sometimes one source hits on a story that others are not talking about. My inclination when I hear, "noone else is reporting this" is to ask if they just haven't caught it yet, the story cannot be corroborated, or it isn't fully true. If it interests me, I'll dig into it as best I can. If it seems big, I wait to see if other sources validate it. If not, I just view it with skepticism.

It's a lot of news to take in and I've been criticized for it. And recently when I told someone about the variety of sources I take in, he didn't believe me. So, above, I am explaining how it is possible. I'm not an expert. I can't read every story, every day. Sometimes I don't understand what I am reading or hearing. I'm simply trying to be broadly informed with reliable information. And sometimes, I'll take an hour or two to dig deeper - look for statistics to verify a story or look for local sources that may be better and understand more.

I also listen to real people and their experiences with things that are being reported. This is where real news starts. Ask questions and listen. Think about it - process the information and fact check.

It frustrates me to see people spread misinformation often just repeating someone's talking points or re-posting a conspiracy theory. I wish people would take time to think and do a little home work. Get a broader perspective. Be better informed and when you are making an argument, use reliable statistics, facts and sources.

Yes, all media is somewhat biased. We all are and journalists are human like us. But many among us try very hard to be honest and truthful. We try to be factual. Journalists have been an important part of our democracy for centuries. It's our responsibility to seek information that is reliable. Dismissing them all and relying on a single source is irresponsible citizenship in a democracy. Not everyone will be a news junky as I am hoping people will be a lot more careful about what and whom they believe. 

There are bad actors who are motivated to derail our democracy. Their first step is to have us not believe one another and question facts. We cannot solve problems, our leaders cannot govern, if we cannot even identify facts. It's going to crush us. Please turn off the shock jocks and learn to do some fact checking.

 

 There are some interesting benefits of wearing a mask. A parent recently told me that her youngster typically comes home during the first few weeks of school with a cold or flu. This year she hasn't. 

Another friend who has a family member who is a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh says admissions are way down there. Children are not suffering complications related to colds, flu or other respiratory issues that are typical this time of year.

Another friend was asked by her boss why she was wearing her mask when she was alone in her office.  She's finding that her allergies are less troublesome and it seems it's due to wearing the mask.

Those personal stories are pretty convincing evidence that wearing a mask is effective. We really can slow the spread of Covid by simply wearing a mask.  

Leadership

 As I was driving recently, over the radio came words that have resonated with me ever since. A preacher was talking about leadership as taught by Peter and Jesus. It was focused on being a good shepherd; mindful of the entire flock and ready to lift those in need. He talked about humility and being a service focused leader, ready to help others succeed and thrive.

What have your experiences been under leadership of bosses, coaches, pastors, organizations? As I reflect on the best and worst leaders I've encountered and take measure of their degrees of humility and service mindfulness, I find that the worst were lacking these qualities and the best were examples of great humility and were service minded.

In the worst, the leaders were self serving and gave little credit to those who worked under them. They focused on their "star players" and had little time for the ones they felt didn't meet their grade. They seldom sought input from the group but rather acted as though they alone had all the answers.  They belittled others and would step on whomever they needed in order to get more for themselves.

The best leaders were working right beside you and created a highly collaborative environment. They gave credit openly and they mentored. They were laser focused on the mission and asked for much from the team while working to ensure the team had what they needed to get the job done. They knew what was needed because they asked.  

The best advice I got from leaders still carry me. 

"You don't need to have all the answers but you need to know where to find them." This came from my First Sergeant when I got my sergeant stripes.

"Failure is not an option." This from my favorite boss and mentor and then he would lead or get out of the way.

A service focused leader is humble enough to seek better answers from those he or she leads and do what they can to ensure success. They lift everyone around them. We need this kind of leadership at all levels of our country.

Hate has no place in something better - click here!

Blogging reminds me that a headline may be misleading. It goes back to an old communication theory question. Is meaning assigned by the sender or the receiver? Fact is, the sender has their meaning and the receiver attaches theirs.

If you get an odd reaction to something you said, something you texted or something you posted, it may be a case of mixed up meaning. Is it what we said, how we said it or a word that sparked something we did not expect? Most problematic is that text messages, emails or posted messages have little fluidity. They offer no contextual information - facial expressions, tone of voice or ability to quickly understand a person's response to what we have said.

Another problem is that people don't read beyond headlines and often the headline is not representative of the entire message of the story being offered. Once in a while, someone responds to my facebook link of a blog but I can tell they didn't actually read the blog, just read the headline and thought they knew what I was writing about. 

Context is everything. Context provides us with a broader vision. We cannot get so lazy that we no longer seek context from one another. We cannot stop at a buzz word. We cannot cow to character assassination. We need to talk! We need to talk solutions and why we believe our solution may be best. Then we need to listen. Our solution may overlook something. Their solution may overlook something. If we can talk - really talk - we may come up with a better solution. Isn't that what we all want?

If we separate ourselves to the point that we don't actually talk with the fluidity of context, we are sunk. Headlines are misleading. Text messages across a void are misleading. We need to get together and talk! Teaching our sides to hate is not going to serve anyone well. Hate has no place in something better.

Ask me why I hate....

 If you ask me, "Why do you hate...", let me stop you right there. Spiritually, hatred is something I work very hard to avoid. I am vehemently opposed to some things and very repulsed by some things but I work very hard not to let the hardness of hatred take root in my spirit. Hatred blinds the opportunities of love. Love conquers all. I claim love as the source of my power.

It's very hard. It takes work and discipline. It means disengaging from the flash points - those comments, memes, situations - that could fuel those undercurrents that I suspect everyone has within. It means turning and embracing those things that I wish to be associated with spiritually. Honor, compassion, encouraging one another to reach for better, understanding, kindness, nurturing, truth, consistency, and most of all LOVE.

It is loving to help someone see how they can be better. It is loving to insist that someone be truthful and honorable. We don't do that by name calling or character assassination. We do that by inspiration and honoring them. And sometimes we have to do that by standing back and letting them fall while being ready to reach out our hand to lift them up.

Ask me why I don't hate and I will talk all day. I'll talk about how I see another way. If you ask me why I hate, I may have a question for you. Why do you?