There are so many things we can all be against that it may not be possible to stop them all unless it turns out to be really true that "the best defense is a good offense." When we worked for a large city in Minnesota, many of the neighborhood organizations were against lots or potential problem developments, but we could rarely learn what they were for except maintaining the status quo. Status quoism is, at best, a short term solution in a universe that seems driven by change.
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| may the dawning of a new year, 2019, bring better days
Photo by J. Harrington
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So, what comes next? What are we in favor of? We'd like to see the United States start using individual states, or groups of states, as models of different approaches to some of the common problems we all have. We need to do a better job of structuring problem statements, solution premises and outcome evaluations. Much of what we have these days are idiot politicians and ideologues screaming unfounded "facts" and outright lies as their solutions. What a way to waste time and energy and tax dollars.
Perhaps more than anything else, we'd like to see 2019 be the year that Americans (and the British) came to their senses and realized that strategies based on "winner takes all" are fool's errands. We are firmly convinced that the course humanity is on is not sustainable in the long term and is increasingly detrimental to the survival of humans in the short term. We also believe there are better ways to manage change. In addition to the proposals we shared yesterday, some can be found in the following:
- Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
- The Next System Project
- Solutions journalism, as exhibited in Yes! magazine
and, delightfully close to home, from this morning's Star Tribune, City Girl Coffee is an example of what goes right at Midwest Pantry accelerator .
We strongly suspect that the New Green Deal is something we can support but it, and Medicare for All, each seem to be in states of flux. The strength of our support for the ACA diminished when the "public option" disappeared. Our long-standing identification as a Democrat went away as corporatism, infighting, and opposing Trump became the party's priorities. We hope next year brings a progressive and environmental renaissance, tempered by conservative respect for tax-payer dollars. That's our biggest wish for a Happy New Year! Maybe the past few years have helped us recognize how much we can be our own worst enemy. I'd like to believe that "we're better than that!"
Burning the Old Year
Letters swallow themselves in seconds. Notes friends tied to the doorknob, transparent scarlet paper, sizzle like moth wings, marry the air. So much of any year is flammable, lists of vegetables, partial poems. Orange swirling flame of days, so little is a stone. Where there was something and suddenly isn’t, an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space. I begin again with the smallest numbers. Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves, only the things I didn’t do crackle after the blazing dies.
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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
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