When Good People Do Nothing

The Price of Loyalty?

Have you been in a situation where the boss asks you to shade the facts, look for stats to support their case or conduct research that is meant to support a predetermined assumption? Yeah, I've been there in public broadcasting. Nothing I did for my bosses rose anywhere near the level we've experienced in the last four years.

The text below is from an op-ed piece in the NYTimes. Erica Newland worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department from 2016-18. Her job was to make Trump's attacks on the justice system and democracy more palatable to the courts. Her posting is a Mea culpa for not doing more to push back. She regrets enabling Trump. Her efforts the last two years in the justice department to mollify Trump have led to guilt. They weren't worth it.

Before the 2020 election, I was haunted by what I didn’t do. By all the ways I failed to push back enough. Now, after the 2020 election, I’m haunted by what I did. The trade-off wasn’t worth it.

In giving voice to those trying to destroy the rule of law and dignifying their efforts with our talents and even our basic competence, we enabled that destruction. Were we doing enough good elsewhere to counterbalance the harm we facilitated, the way a public health official might accommodate the president on the margins to push forward on vaccine development? No.

No matter our intentions, we were complicit. We collectively perpetuated an anti-democratic leader by conforming to his assault on reality. We may have been victims of the system, but we were also its instruments. No matter how much any one of us pushed back from within, we did so as members of a professional class of government lawyers who enabled an assault on our democracy — an assault that nearly ended it.

We owe the country our honesty about that and about what we saw. We owe apologies. I offer mine here.

Perhaps hope for the future lies in part with people like Erica Newman's willing to step forward and take responsibility for their actions. A lot of damage has been done. There are many who will never believe the facts. They've fallen down the rabbit hole of an alternate reality.

Where do we go from here?

If you do nothing in a difficult time,

your strength is limited.

Rescue those being taken off to death,

and save those stumbling toward slaughter.

If you say, “But we didn’t know about this,”

won’t He who weighs hearts consider it?

Won’t He who protects your life know?

Won’t He repay a person according to his work?

-Proverbs 24

 John Stuart Mill said in 1867: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” 

The consequence of doing nothing is all around us. So many have died unnecessarily from our 21st century plague. Discrimination, racism and hatred is rampant. Children are separated from their families. People legally seeking asylum from violence are made to wait in squalid camps outside our borders.  The fouling of our air and water. Voter suppression. Attempts at subverting the election. There's so much more. The list of wrong doing seems daunting. 

It is not time to shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh well." Our system has worked because of checks and balances, That system has been under attack for quite some time now. The fruits of that strategy have come to a head under Trump. Pushing back, ensuring the checks and balances, needs to be applied against the abuses of the past and into the future.

Scorched Earth?

 Evil had a scent, bitter and pungent, like the scorched earth after a forest fire. I'd been living with the stench long enough to recognize it anywhere. - Author: Lisa Kessler

Peaceful Transition?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the largest cybersecurity breach Washington has ever seen.

The comment, made almost as an aside to a conservative radio show host, was the first time the Trump administration went on the record to blame the Kremlin for the recent hacking that infiltrated dozens of government and private systems.

But because President Trump has 30 days left in office, national security officials say the U.S. response will likely fall to President-elect Joe Biden. That became even more clear when Mr. Trump insisted on Twitter that “everything is well under control” and suggested that it might have been China rather than Russia that carried out the hack.

And given the intensity of the attack, it may be months before Mr. Biden can trust the systems that run much of Washington. -NY Times People who know what they are talking about say it is most likely the Russians, but not Trump. Is it to provide cover for Putin? Is it vindictiveness by Trump?  Both?  The craziness doesn't end. It just one more episode in a never ending stream of crazy. Friday night at the White House, there was talk of sedition. Flynn and others are urging Trump to declare martial law to overturn the election. Is Trump capable of sinking so low as to destroy our Republic? Consider this... Hillary Clinton recalled the 2017 Inauguration in a 2019 interview,  "I had hoped to hear Trump make an attempt to reach out to non-supporters." “I hoped I would hear a little of that, I didn’t hear any of that. And that carnage in the street and the dark dystopian vision. I was sitting there like just, wow. I couldn’t believe it. And George W. Bush says to me, ‘Well, that was some weird shit,’” she recalled. We've gone way beyond weird to dangerous.

Bad Leadership

Adept Leadership

We've seen several major events since 2001 put new challenges in the path of Public Media. It's become clear leadership needs to be ready to adapt and change. 

Public Media is going through leadership churn. Retirements, demands for diversity, social media disruption, changing audience demands and usage are all putting pressure on leadership.  There's plenty of advice on good leadership skills.

Five Qualities of Effective Leaders

• They are self-aware and prioritize personal development. ...
• They focus on developing others. ...
• They encourage strategic thinking, innovation, and action. ...
• They are ethical and civic-minded. ...
• They practice effective cross-cultural communication. -northeastern.edu

The qualities above depend on inclusion and partnering with co-workers to have any chance at success. Listening skills and engagement are of paramount importance. Looks easy enough, right? Not so fast. I've found that I often trip over myself. There are certain traits that might stand in the way. I've observed them in myself and in others.

I read over a synopsis of  "Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters by Barbara Kellerman and thought, "Oh my God!" We've been living this for four years, but then I applied the brakes. The reason these seven traits register is we're all capable of displaying any or all of these characteristics. These traits are applicable to public leadership, but there are direct applications for public media leadership.

The good news is these are learned behaviors, we can teach ourselves to set them aside for better behaviors and become better leaders.

INCOMPETENT

The leader and at least some followers lack the will or skill (or both) to sustain effective action. With regard to at least one important leadership challenge, they do not create positive change. (40)” “Incompetent leaders are not necessarily incompetent in every aspect. Moreover, there are many ways of being incompetent. Some leaders lack practical, academic, or emotional intelligence. Others are careless, dense, distracted, slothful, or sloppy, or they are easily undone by uncertainty and stress, unable effectively to communicate, educate, or delegate, and so on.

RIGID

The leader and at least some of his followers are stiff and unyielding.
Although they may be competent, they are unable or unwilling to adapt to new ideas, new information or changing times

INTEMPERATE

The leader lacks self-control and is aided and abetted by followers who are
unwilling or unable effectively to intervene.

CALLOUS

The leader and at least some followers are uncaring or unkind. Ignored or
discounted are the needs, wants, and wishes of most members of the group
or organization, especially subordinates.

CORRUPT

The leader and at least some followers lie, cheat, or steal. To a degree
that exceeds the norm, they put self-interest ahead of the public
interest.

INSULAR

The leader and at last some followers minimize or disregard the health and
welfare of ‘the other’ – that is, those outside the group or organization
for which they are directly responsible.

EVIL

The leader and at least some followers commit atrocities. They use pain as
an instrument of power. The harm done to men, women, and children is
severe rather than slight. The harm can be physical, psychological, or
both.

from: http://www.theocentric.com/ecclesiology/leadership/bad_leadership.htm

Barbara Kellerman is an American professor of public leadership, currently at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. -wikipedia

Count The Votes All The Votes

The Election Is Over

The results are in. Trump is still whining. He says he had an early lead. Because of that, he won. 

Sorry! It doesn't work that way. To quote Yogi Berra ,“It ain’t over till it’s over” --  In baseball you've gotta play the whole game. In racing you've gotta finish first. The early lead doesn't matter. In elections you've gotta count all the votes.

When my son was three, if he was losing at a game, he would end it and declare himself the winner. It was funny. He was three. He's an adult now. He doesn't do that anymore. It leads me to believe Trump never grew up. 

I remember waiting for election results growing up in Wisconsin. Early results came from rural counties, and Republicans would always have a big lead. I asked my father if this meant the Republican candidate was going to win? He said no. We had to wait for the vote to be counted in the cities. We had to wait for all the votes to be counted. 

Because of that, none of the candidates would look at the early results and declare victory. They knew better. 

Win or lose, the candidates accepted the results. Winners were gracious and talked about uniting the people. Losers conceded and talked about how they were grateful they got a chance to express their views. And just like in sports, they declared they would be back next time stronger than before.

So, what are we getting now? Conspiracy theories and threats of violence. He's saying the results had to be rigged. After all, the candidate from the other side couldn't possibly win based on the merits of their policies. They're flawed because of their age or gender or religion or race.

"What Berra meant was that we need to stay aware, to stay focused, and most important, not to give up. Stand for your values, stand up for yourself." -DAVID L. ULIN LA TIMES

I can only work for, and hope for, a return to the sanity of that earlier time.

COVID in College

 Higher Ed Super Spreader

The virus is not confined to campus. According to statistics provided by the NYTimes, the rate of deadly cases has doubled in college towns. The numbers are increasing the most among the adults who live and work in the community. The students are spreading the disease beyond campus at an alarming rate.

"Some hoped a spike in coronavirus infections on college campuses this fall would be limited to students, for whom the risks are minimal. The death rate in college towns like East Lansing, Mich., above, paints a different picture.

Since the end of August, deaths from the coronavirus have doubled in counties with large college student populations, compared with a 58 percent increase in the rest of the nation, a Times analysis found. Few of the victims were college students, but rather older people and others living and working in the community.

Since the pandemic began, a Times survey has identified more than 397,000 infections at more than 1,800 colleges and universities. At least 6,629 of those reported cases are people in college sports. But the true number is most likely higher."

COVID Testing and Politics

 

Partisan Politics May Be Killing Us

There are three main reasons why we don't have easily accessible rapid testing.  

The first is out of abundant caution. The second and third have nothing to do with caution. They are about ideology. That ideology is putting all of us at risk.  Of course, the Trump administration is focused on overturning a free and fair election, instead of the health and well-being of Americans.

Why isn’t the U.S. doing more testing? There are three reasons.

1. The F.D.A. has been slow to grant approval for new tests. 
2. The Trump administration has been slow to spend the money that Congress has allocated for testing. 
3. And Congress may need to allocate more money; mass testing could cost a few billion dollars a month — still a small fraction of the cost of recent proposed virus bills.

-NYTimes

Three Observations

1. The Trump administration is focused on subverting a free and fair election, instead of the health and well-being of Americans.
2. Conservatives are more concerned about the bottom line than people's lives. 
3. A Little leadership would be nice. Set the ideology aside and do what is best.

Follow the Science

Testing will remain important going forward, Yes, we are on the verge of several vaccines, but we are months away from getting anything close to full coverage.

Dr. Fauci has spoken several times about the importance of testing. 

Importance of testing: 

Testing is the first step for contact tracing -- a tried and true public health approach that involves identifying cases quickly, isolating and treating those people, identifying their contacts and testing them to see if they need to be isolated or quarantined.

“But deep down perhaps I should have been much more vocal about saying we have really, absolutely, got to do that,’” Fauci said. “I saw that it went nowhere and maybe I should have kept pushing the envelope on that.”

Testing is important because otherwise cases spread silently, Fauci noted. “What is going on now that you don’t recognize becomes a case a few weeks later,” he said.

“That becomes a hospitalization a few weeks later. That becomes intensive care a few days later. That becomes death a few weeks later.”

Fauci said he was hesitant to talk about his regrets for fear his statements would be taken out of context as sound-bites. - Associated Press

There were over 218,000 new cases in the US on December 9th, and over 3,000 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University, 

Good Leadership

Leadership and Management

There's a difference. (I had to look this one up.)

This is what I found at the Harvard Business Review:

Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual's ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.

I've worked for bad managers. They were all about power and control. They offered  monetary gain (greed), and followed with fear (retribution). In other words, do what I ask or face the consequences. The article by Vineet Nayar   in the Harvard Business Review points out the difference. Here's what he came up with.

Counting value vs Creating value. You’re probably counting value, not adding it, if you’re managing people. Only managers count value; some even reduce value by disabling those who add value. If a diamond cutter is asked to report every 15 minutes how many stones he has cut, by distracting him, his boss is subtracting value.

By contrast, leaders focuses on creating value, saying: “I’d like you to handle A while I deal with B.” He or she generates value over and above that which the team creates, and is as much a value-creator as his or her followers are. Leading by example and leading by enabling people are the hallmarks of action-based leadership.

Circles of influence vs Circles of power. Just as managers have subordinates and leaders have followers, managers create circles of power while leaders create circles of influence.

Leading people vs Managing work. Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.

Poor management is top down control. Good leadership enables. As a leader I strived for a democratic and hands-off approach: generally preferring to share the overall goal and let my reports determine exactly how to complete their work. I valued competence and decisiveness.

Did it always work? No. Perhaps, it was my weakness. At times I neglected to listen to differing opinions once my mind was made up. It's a humbling experience to take ownership of one's own mistakes. Mistakes are an opportunity for growth.


Good leadership qualities are all about:

• Integrity.
• Ability to delegate.
• Communication/Listening.
• Self-awareness.
• Gratitude.
• Learning agility.
• Influence.
• Empathy.
• Courage.
• Respect.

Try it. The transition to leadership won't happen overnight, and like most things in life, it will take a continuing effort to reapply the these ideals.

The past twenty years have seen a constant transitioning of challenges. Good leaders don't try to go it alone. They value the talents of those around them to help make the transition. In Public Media the challenge will be how to maintain listenership and engagement after the time of Trump.  

You can read more about this issue by clicking on this link.

Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders

Motivating Generosity (The Home Edition)

 

It Starts With You

You are responsible for the world that you live in. It is not government’s responsibility. It is not your school’s or your social club’s or your church’s or your neighbor’s or your fellow citizen’s. It is yours, utterly and singularly yours.
- August Wilson

May we be committed to personally carrying out the actions that create a more just world.         - Sojourners

This is not about blaming the victim for their plight. Indeed, there is a movement that explains poverty and despair as a form of karma or cosmic justice. Among Christians this would be predetermination.(Not all Christians believe this.) It would be expressed as, "You get what you deserve." This is about the individual taking responsibility for making the world a better place, a personal responsibility.

Maybe this passage from Genesis helps explain. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 

- Genesis 2:15 (NIV)

Waiting for others to be generous in your place, may mean we're all going to wait. Besides, we cannot control the actions of others, only our own actions. 

Perhaps, the example we set will motivate other toward generosity. How can we become more generous? I found "Ten little ways we can become more generous". by Joshua Becker. Here's what he suggests:

Consider the benefits of generosity. Generous people report being happier, healthier, and more satisfied with life than those who don’t give. Generosity produces within us a sense that we are capable of making a difference in the world.

Embrace gratitude. Make a short list of the things in your life for which you are grateful. The most important step you can take to become more generous is to spend more time thinking about what you already possess and less time thinking about what you don’t.

 Start really small. If you’ve never given away money, start by giving away $1. No matter what dollar amount you choose, jump right in with something small. You can afford it… and that little push can help build momentum in your life towards generosity.

Divert one specific expense. For a set period of time (try 29 days), divert one specific expense to a charity of your choosing. You may choose to bring a lunch to work, ride your bike to work once/week, or give up Starbucks on Mondays (wait, make that Thursday). Calculate the money you’ll save and then redirect it to a specific charity/cause. 

Fund a cause based on your passions. There are countless charities/causes that need your support. And some of them are directly in-line with your most compelling passions.

 Find a person you believe in. If you find that you are more easily motivated and shaped by the people in your life rather than organizations/causes, use that tendency as motivation instead.

Spend time with people in need. One of the most effective antidotes for non-generosity is to make space in your life for those who actually need your help. After all, it is a very small step to go from knowing somebody in need to helping somebody in need. Rubbing shoulders with the poor just may change your impression of them forever.

Spend time with a generous person. 

Live a more minimalist life. Intentionally decide to own less. Oh sure, living a minimalist life won’t automatically make you a more generous person, but it will provide the space necessary to make it possible.

Motivating Generosity

  

“Generosity: The habit of giving freely without expecting anything in return.” Anonymous

In public media, we always talk about generous support (Thank you for your generous support), but what motivates people to be generous? 

Reaching back to an article from 2016 published in Greater Good Magazine, I found motivators behind giving to help people who are suffering. The article by SHARON BEGLEY, "What Motivates You to Be Generous?" focused on a 2016 study on compassion meditation and generosity by researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

Here are some of the key points highlighted by Begley

• In general, in compassion meditation, you focus on suffering individuals, then groups of suffering people, then all of suffering humanity. In each case, you express the wish that they be free from suffering. 
• Researchers found that greater distress predicted greater generosity. But so did these factors: thinking the person was blameless, believing a donation would actually help, and feeling warmth toward the sufferer. 
• Generosity does not seem to be an instinctive, default behavior. It is a learned behavior. 
• Generosity wanes if people perceive the world as full of threats and looming scarcity rather than of abundance and security—one of the individual traits most predictive of individual generosity.
• Perhaps the strongest message from the science of generosity is that the more adversity someone has experienced, the more compassion she feels and the more generous she’s likely to be. 

The application here is for the consequence of famine, fire and other catastrophes.  Then, what could be applied to public media fundraising? Nothing we do comes even close to the tragedies and suffering after an earthquake or hurricane.  

 

Try This

After convincing potential donors of  your unique value proposition:

• Convince them the donation will actually help.
• Appeal to their loyalty toward your institution and your content.
• Stay away from messages of doom and scarcity.

Notice the quote. There's nothing in there that implies the donor wants a coffee mug, tote bag or t-shirt.

(The tote bag and t-shirt, on the other hand, are great advertising, increasing awareness of your brand.)

Trump's Seeds of Doubt

He keeps us looking in the wrong direction.

There are two major crisis unfolding at once. They're related. COVID 19 is spreading at an alarming rate and the economy will tank because of it.

Where's our leadership? The guy at the top is focussed on subverting the election.

Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a longshot bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. -AP

Trump has spent the three weeks since Election Day sowing doubt about the reliability of the vote, attacking election workers and insisting that he won states that he did not win.

The president's scattershot legal approach appears aimed more at undermining confidence in the election than actually changing the results. Biden's lead in Michigan is more than 140,000 votes, and the Democrat leads in Pennsylvania by roughly 80,000 votes. -The Hill

Instead of leading during the second surge of COVID19, we're getting golf outings and tweets. We're also facing a steep decline in the economy. The pandemic and the economy are intertwined. The economy cannot be fixed until the virus is under control. That's why the Fed is urging another stimulus. The consequences of not focusing on the two major crisis we face are dire.

This was in the NYTimes:
The research firm Moody’s Analytics predicted that the economy would shrink during both the first and second quarters of 2021, and the unemployment rate would approach 10 percent next summer, up from 6.9 percent last month.



By The New York Times | Source: Moody’s Analytics


Many Americans would draw down their savings or struggle to pay medical bills. Some would lose their homes and go bankrupt. Recessions cause permanent damage to people’s lives, which is one reason that Fed officials and many economists support further stimulus.


A lack of government support, Powell has said, may lead to “tragic” results with “unnecessary hardship.” Loretta Mester, the president of the Cleveland Fed, has called the lack of another stimulus package “very concerning.”

So what's it going to be? Actual leadership or the partisan divide?

What's Next?

What is Life

I've been within a whisker of death a several times. I've met two sharks up close and personal. One knocked me sideways. The other glided past me as I put my foot up the ladder on the side of a schooner. I've been hit eight times in auto collisions. I was in an airplane that started to roll sideways 250 feet above the ground. Another plane was almost hit by another. We were within feet. Every time I've walked away. It makes me wonder, because I know I am only here for a short time. This is all temporary. 

After all that?

9/11

An economic collapse brought on by power and greed

Jobless and underemployed

A pandemic

What's the point? Is there a purpose to all of this?

One thing for sure, I am not in control. Something else is and it is all quite humbling. Perhaps I'm here to do more. Maybe something more is expected. I'm open to that. I hope my eyes are open. I don't want to miss it.

Freedom of Speech

 It doesn't mean you can say anything you want.

I can remember mom saying, "keep a civil tongue in your head," and " Is it too much to ask you think before you speak?"

It's in the bible too. This is from Proverbs 16:23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,and their lips promote instruction.  27 A scoundrel plots evil,and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.

Steve Brannon may have stepped over the line.

From multiple sources...Twitter permanently suspended an account belonging to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon after he suggested Thursday morning that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded. His comments were made in a video posted to his Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts. 

 Is it a freedom of speech issue? Not if it puts individuals in imminent danger.

So...here are the exceptions. Categories of speech that are given lesser or no protection by the First Amendment (and therefore may be restricted) include obscenity, fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial speech such as advertising.

Along with communicative restrictions, less protection is afforded for uninhibited speech when the government acts as subsidizer or speaker, is an employer, controls education, or regulates the mail, airwaves, legal bar, military, prisons, and immigration.  Wikipedia

Are we allowed to say anything we want on line without regard to the consequences. Are the platforms we use liable for the content we provide? According to talksonlaw.com, But guess what? Facebook, Twitter, the other social media platforms are not the government. They are private sector entities, and therefore, they have no First Amendment obligation to protect your freedom of speech. To the contrary, they have their own First Amendment rights—their media right. 

Should freedom of speech be limited on social media? 

(a) It is the policy of the United States that large online platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, as the critical means of promoting the free flow of speech and ideas today, should not restrict protected speech.May 28, 2020 -whitehouse.gov

What speech is not protected? Categories of speech that are given lesser or no protection by the First Amendment (and therefore may be restricted) include obscenity, fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial ...advertising. 

It seems Bannon crossed that line. Subsequently, his lawyer quit.

Count Our Votes

From Slavery to Jim Crow to The Southern Strategy

Voter suppression is nothing new. Threatening and acts of violence to prevent people in this country from invoking their right to vote is not new. 

This continuing suppression of the vote was spawned by Jim Crow laws and continued through the southern strategy of the Republican party and embraced by white southern evangelicals and Trumpians. 

Through gerrymandering and a conservative court, barriers to voting by certain groups of US citizens have been put in place In the past ten years. Several states, north and south, have passed legislation restricting the right to vote.

I found this on the History Channel. 

The 15th Amendment granting African-American men the right to vote was adopted into the U.S. Constitution in 1870. Despite the amendment, by the late 1870s discriminatory practices were used to prevent blacks from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that legal barriers were outlawed at the state and local levels if they denied African-Americans their right to vote under the 15th Amendment.

Is history repeating itself? Maybe not. Perhaps, the issue has never been resolved. The deeply-seated racism that feeds voter suppression has been there all along.

Now Trump supporters are turning to threats and potential acts of violence. 

"Two armed Virginia men who were arrested Thursday outside the Philadelphia Convention Center were "coming to deliver a truck full of fake ballots" to the city, CNN affiliate KYW reported, citing prosecutors.

The center is one of the places where election workers have been counting votes from the 2020 general election, which includes the race for president."

True leaders are calling for calm. Let the process play out, please!