Marriage,
Mastery and the Pursuit of Greater Purpose
I'm writing soon after retirement.
After 22 years at Estrella Mountain Community College, 6 at the
Maricopa Community College District Office, 6 at Northern
Arizona University prefaced by short stints at The University
of Illinois and The University of North Carolina its time to
start a new life. So much to do; so little time to get it
done.
I've had it easy compared to many
Americans and almost everyone anywhere else. Sixth of seven
children born to a family the Great Depression deprived of
everything but a sense of right and wrong and family pride I
had the best of parents. I was raised on a farm free to do
unsupervised important work that contributed to family success.
I was also born healthy and have a close to
obsessive-compulsive work ethic but those aren't the major
reasons I've had a good life. All the above plus marrying
Marylyn Patton, and staying married to her for close to fifty
years, put me on third-base.
No place is perfect but being a
professional employed by The Maricopa Community Colleges was a
lot like being raised by my indulgent parents on our farm. When
I first came to Estrella a colleague named Steve Shriver
facilitated the consensus belief that "We build better
communities one life at a time because your success it our
success." I drank the Kool Aid and seized the freedom to
"Make dreams come true."
I was allowed to pioneer development
and deployment of high quality Internet-enhanced
courses and write and provide
my students with printed, bound desk-references that as
perfectly as possible reflected continuously improved business
and management practices as reflected by continuously updated
and personally published Internet pages; at no cost to
students.
Mistakes cost money. Students
taught by me were also supported by an interactive
on-line career development
program that makes it easier
to make logical career choices and seamlessly attain personal
career development goals.
Partnerships now make it possible for
Southwest Valley parents to send gifted 10th grade children to
Estrella; and for they themselves to complete an associate
degree at Estrella followed by Northern
Arizona University
baccalaureate and master's degrees; without leaving their
Southwest Valley homes. Furthermore, the Northern Arizona
University degrees offered at Estrella help community members
advance in the jobs most Southwest Valley residents
hold.
As a capstone the Maricopa Foundation
established a $1000/year scholarship to be awarded in my name
to veterans enrolled at Estrella Mountain Community
College.
We have been incredibly lucky. Married
the right woman and employed by the best higher education
system in America. It doesn't get better than
this.
What Do Today's Students Think
About the Future of Higher Ed? You Might Be Surprised
Jeff Selingo,
Huffington Post, May 2012
"Do you actually believe in this
stuff?" one of my colleagues at The Chronicle of Higher
Education asked me last week.
The stuff he was referring to were the
disruptive
innovations that are supposed
to revolutionize how higher ed is delivered in this country, a
topic I've been writing a lot about lately.
I had just returned from the Education
Innovation Summit at Arizona State University, a gathering that
had attracted some 800 educational entrepreneurs, CEO's, and
investors to hear talks about the future of education and see
demonstrations from more than 100 companies promising to bring
massive change to the tradition-bound industry.
As I considered his question, I
started to tell him about recent campus visits that had much
more of an impact on my thinking about this subject than the
Arizona conference. In the last month, I have talked with
students at six institutions that represent nearly every corner
of our diverse higher-ed system: Arizona State, the University
of Central Florida, Valencia College, Franklin & Marshall
College, Southern New Hampshire University, and just this week,
Georgetown University.
My conversations with the students
weren't meant to be scientific survey, but rather a collection
of anecdotes and ideas for this blog and my book on the future
of higher ed. The students were randomly chosen by me in some
cases, and by faculty members or administrators in others. I
picked these colleges because they were on my travel itinerary
for other purposes or were nearby.
My goal was to engage the students in
the debates that seem to be swirling around them but so often
don't include them in meaningful ways.
How did they pick a major, out of a
passion or for its job prospects? How do they judge the value
of a college degree and weigh it against its rising price tag?
What's the purpose of a college education? Have they ever taken
an online class or used online resources, like the Khan
Academy, to brush up on certain concepts? Would they consider
taking a massive online course with 100,000 other students if
it led to an alternative credential, such as a badge, as well
as a job?
And because Frank Bruni's column in
Sunday's New York Times was fresh on my mind when talking to
the Georgetown students this week, I asked if majors in
philosophy and anthropology are career-relevant. Or, as Bruni
suggested, should the federal government and universities use
incentives to steer students "into the fields of studies that
will serve them and society best"?
Their answers, in many cases,
surprised me, based on what I have been hearing from both
traditional leaders in higher ed and the people who want to
disrupt the industry. And the students were much more nuanced
in their thinking than they often sound in the news media,
where sound bites and pithy quotes are usually favored over
substance. So now at the risk of doing just that, here are
three of the themes that emerged from my conversations (I'll
tackle two other themes from these conversations in a post
tomorrow):
Face-to-face education matters even
more now. Because these students see the world through
screens (mobile, tablet, and laptop), I expected them to
embrace the idea of online education. Just the opposite. They
want to engage with a professor and with their classmates, they
crave the serendipity of classroom discussions, and they want
the discipline of going to class. Even the adult students I met
preferred a physical classroom. Online "you're pretty much
paying to teach yourself," a Valencia student told me. "It's
like text messages. There's no tone of voice."
That doesn't mean these students
like everything about traditional higher ed. They're over the
lecture, they like the idea of "flipping the classroom," and
they do seek out online resources to brush up on certain
subjects. "A lot of professors are petrified by online
classes," one Georgetown student said. "They really want
to improve the classroom experience."
More career exploration is needed
before college. When describing how they picked their
majors, many of the students described it either as a random
process or a last-minute decision. That's in contrast to the
extended, thoughtful plan some of them had for choosing a
college.
"I had to pick something my last
week of my senior year of high school to put on my college
application," said one Valencia student. "So I said,
What have I always liked to do? I knew as I kid that I liked
Legos and always like to take things apart to see how they
worked. I did research and put that into Google and engineering
came up." So he's now a mechanical engineering
major.
Some of the students described how
they thought they had the perfect major selected only to
discover that it required too much math or science for them, or
that their parents wanted them to major in something more
practical. As a result, a few switched their major and others
hedged their bets and added a second major. The bottom line is
that while college is for exploration, students shouldn't get
to campus to discover something they want to do requires too
much math or some other subject they struggle with.
Majors don't matter. Perhaps a
better question is why we force students to pick a major at
all. The number of majors on campus has proliferated in the
last two decades, but some academics, such as Mark Taylor or
Roger Schank, think we should abolish our traditional notion of
majors and build the undergraduate curriculum around broad
ideas or problems we face, like water and food
production.
Sure, some of the students I talked
with were focused on pursuing a specific profession (marketing,
for instance) and wanted a degree that would give them a skill
set to secure the right internships that eventually would lead
to a full-time job. But most of the students said they were
less concerned with picking the right major than they were with
choosing the classes that would expose them to new subjects or
help them connect ideas across disciplines.
"Coming out of high school, I had
no idea what I wanted to do," said a student at Franklin
& Marshall. He liked film and met the producer and writer
Steven Bochco, who gave him this advice. "He said I didn't need
to go to a big California school. If I came to F&M, he said
I'd learn how to write well and learn how to learn anything,
and that's valuable. I knew I could come here and live out my
interests."
Several students talked about how they
never viewed their major as preparation for a specific job,
given the economy is in a constant state of flux. A few of the
students at Georgetown who interned at banks, for instance,
were struck by the fact that they saw English majors sitting
next to finance majors doing the same job. "As information
becomes rapidly irrelevant in the future, skill sets won't
matter as much," a philosophy and psychology major at
Georgetown told me.
A few international students who were
part of the various groups said they specifically decided to
study in the United States because they live in countries where
students are tracked into specific majors and careers early on.
"I loved studying everything, and I could do that here,"
said a Georgetown student from South Africa.
As you can see, the future of
higher ed should not be a one-size-fits-all online world where
students are directed to a small set of career-focused majors.
That's an appropriate model for some students, particularly
working adults, who might need just a few more credits for a
degree or any credential to get ahead in their careers. We
often talk about how diverse our higher-ed system is, but as we
design the next-generation model, perhaps we should be
listening more to this generation of students to ensure it
remains that way.
How
economic inequality harms
societies:
Richard
Wilkinson on TED.com
We feel instinctively that
societies with huge income gaps are somehow going
wrong. Richard
Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality,
and shows what gets worse when rich
and poor are too far apart: real effects on health,
lifespan, even such basic values as trust.
.___________________________________________________________________________
|
Radio used to
bore me. Politicians would argue back and forth when I just
wanted my music. There was alway a second
opinion.
Being almost 70 years of age what some
consider history seems like current events to me. By 1978
uncontrolled "stagflation" combined with the humiliation
of having let Islamic fundamentalists bully us in Iran made
Americans angry. It was also becoming obvious we lost the war
in Vietnam. Before then we saw America as strong, benevolent
and wise old Uncle Sam who no one messed with. America was
experiencing what I believe can be defined as
"angst."
Ronald Reagan to the
rescue.
The "Great Communicator" had
been a conservative talk radio host and actor and knew how to
project a strong positive image. He made us feel powerful with
his "America has the strongest militarily in the world"
message. His message emerged from Hollywood as "greed is
good."
Business owners worked with lobbyists
to alter the tax code to favor speculation and make the wealthy
wealthier. Companies quickly switched from "defined
benefit" retirement plans that cost them money to "401k
plans" that let them keep part of each employee's salary.
Relocating an American business to a tax haven like the Cayman
Islands became a "good business decision."
Government became a tool for change.
"Deficits don't matter" allowed President Reagan to
commission a 600 ship navy and strengthen the air force and
ground forces. Deregulation of the airlines, union-busting and
deregulation of Savings and Loans Banks quickly happened. It
seemed everyone was making money. Americans were once again
proud.
Collapse of the Savings and Loan
bubble in 1987 made it obvious that the apparent new prosperity
was an illusion. Invasion of Grenada and Panama went well but a
similar invasion of Lebanon ended in disaster. Moving
manufacturing to developing nations and out-sourcing jobs made
it easy to reduce the American business expense of wages paid
to workers. Closing thousands of factories destroyed
communities and eliminated highly paid manufacturing jobs. The
"rust belt" rusted from disuse as unemployment
soared.
President Reagan may have considered
unfavorable reporting responsible for the 1987 recession.
Whether or not that was his inspiration he used an Executive
Order to "temporarily" rescind the "Fairness
Doctrine." Before 1987 the Fairness Doctrine
guaranteed that each political talk show host would immediately
have his opinions rebutted by a spokesperson from the opposing
political party. Knowing one's opinions would be rebutted made
talk show hosts careful and respectful.
We are experiencing the
logical consequence of
President Reagan's suspension of the Fairness Doctrine.
Republican dominated hate-filled talk
radio has a huge angry audience. Middle income Americans have a
legitimate grievance. Anyone not sharing in the financial
economy generated wealth may be reassured by hearing that
they're not being rich is the fault of
"Democrats."
The brutal truth is that this nation
now has a huge income gap. As recently as the mid-seventies
America had a few poor people, a few rich people and a huge
middle class. America has become bipolar with many poor people,
many double-income wealthy households and a declining middle
class. According to CNN Money our wealthiest Americans have
seen their income grow more than twice as fast as middle-class
Americans for almost 30 years. According to David Cay Johnston
Americans with annual incomes near $350,000 are now receiving
the largest share of national income since 1928.
Many people use talk radio as
background noise while driving alone or at work. Thousands of
"target market message" radio stations now make it easy
to only hear opinions that reinforce what one already believes.
Some of the people who support this nation's economic
bipolarity may do so because they constantly hear that if
congress will simply cut taxes on the wealthy, end social
welfare programs that transfer "their" tax dollars to
the poor, and let Wall Street Bankers invest their 401k
retirement fund and the taxes they pay into Social Security
into the stock market that they will become rich
too.
One outcome of repeal of the
Fairness Doctrine is polarization of the Democrat and
Republican parties in ways that make cooperation impossible. No
Senate Republicans voted for the recent Stimulus Package -- an
attempt to restart an economy in large part stalled by
Republican Party promoted policies. In fact Republicans
demanded and got huge tax breaks that may prevent the stimulus
program from working.
Bankers that accepted
"Bailouts" to keep from going bankrupt are paying back
those funds as fast as possible because keeping taxpayer money
means they can not make more than a "paltry" $500,000
per year.
But repeal of the Fairness
Doctrine has had an even more dangerous consequence.
- Radical Republican talk show host
Glenn Beck is calling President Obama a fascist and calling
for "revolution."
- Rush Limbaugh is denouncing
"the statist tyranny crowd in Washington" and
has said he wants the current administration to
fail.
- The Department of Homeland
Security has published a report warning that the current
economic situation may attract radicals into terrorist
organizations or to commit terrorist acts on their
own.
- Large numbers of people are
participating in commemorative "Boston Tea
Parties" as a way to demonstrate against actions
being taken to restore the economy.
There being no "Fairness
Doctrine" makes it easy for right-wing radicals to ignore
the brutal truth. It is the brutal truth that the "Greed is
good" doctrine has driven the world into the worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression. It is the brutal truth that
using our military to launch a "Preemptive invasion" has
bankrupted this nation.
My wiser than me wife says
"Let them talk."
Restoration of the Fairness
Doctrine needs to happen now. Knowing half truths and lies
would immediately be rebutted might prevent reactionary talk
show hosts from spewing irresponsible half truths and hate.
Hearing both sides of each political argument might just make
this nation more like the one of my youth.
BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
January
2011
Last year's controversies were
starting to fade.
Last week only AARP magazine and one
talk show host used passage of SB1070 and the well-publicized
fact that anyone in Arizona can carry a concealed gun to
explain why our economic recovery is falling behind that of
sister states and the nation. Saturday January 8th a crazed
gunman, with a legally purchased semiautomatic handgun, killed
six and wounded eighteen as he attempted assassination of the
Honorable Gabrielle Giffords.
A quick look at our elected officials'
2011 agenda makes obvious what is important to them.
Last week two Arizona legislators
traveled to Washington in an attempt to force repeal of the
14th Amendment which grants citizenship to anyone born in The
United States of America. Sunday January 9th, the day after the
attempted assassination of an elected official, murder of a
Federal Judge and five more innocent bystanders, our
legislators' newly published their 2011 agenda. They intend to
pass bills making it legal for anyone to carry a concealed
weapon on a college or university campus and to forbid
universities and colleges from prohibiting anyone with a permit
from keeping a firearm on-campus in a private
vehicle.
The young man, who murdered six
innocent bystanders while attempting to assassinate
Representative Gifford, was well known by local college
officials. They recently expelled him from campus because of
dangerously disruptive behavior and he was banned from
returning until after having "a mental health clearance
indicating, in the opinion of a mental health professional, his
presence at the College does not present a danger to himself or
others." Being a young man with serious mental health issues
did not keep him from legally purchasing a semi-automatic
handgun a month ago.
Once again we remind companies that
carrying the Arizona brand might be bad for business and we
remind tourists that Arizona is a dangerous place where crazies
carry guns.
We are our own worst
enemy.
WHAT AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM REALLY
MEANS
December
2010
Last month several Republicans said
"President Obama doesn't believe in American
exceptionalism." Unfamiliar with the phrase I did a little
research.
Many of us believe America is
exceptional because it was founded by people with deeply held
moralistic values, has a constitution that lets ordinary people
elect their leaders and has been a land where ordinary
Americans had unprecedented economic, political and personal
opportunity. This is in sharp contrast to countries where
leadership and wealth must be inherited. So many of us believe
any honest hard working person can earn social respect, have an
enjoyable career and own their own home regardless of social
status that we refer to this as"The American Dream".
Many of us also believe our way of
life is the envy of every rational human around the world, a
belief reinforced by the large number of people trying to
immigrate to the United States of America.
Republicans are using an off-the-cuff
remark President Obama made last spring to fuel their attack.
President Obama said…
"I believe in American
exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in
British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek
exceptionalism. I'm enormously proud of my country and its
role and history in the world. If you think about the site
of this summit and what it means, I don't think America
should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of
our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put
into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an
Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe.
We should take great pride in that.
And if you think of our current
situation, the United States remains the largest economy in
the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I
think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined
in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic
practices, in our belief in free speech and equality that,
though imperfect, are exceptional."
Republicans twisted President Obama's
belief that our core values provide America an opportunity to
lead the world towards the light into a "code phrase"
that implies the opposite of what he really
said.
A few years ago Jim Collins published
Good to Great, a report of why some companies thrive
while comparative companies fail. He identified companies that
outperformed what appeared to be equal counterparts over long
periods of time to find out what made them great. He looked at
leadership, how leaders were chosen, how they responded to
adversity, their ability to remain focused on their core
business, corporate culture and the impact of technology.
Business and government exist for very different reasons so I
tend to be skeptical of politicians who tout business
experience as why they ought to be elected. However, this time
there may be lessons to be learned.
Our most recent Republican leader was
George W. Bush. It is common knowledge he led us into an
expensive war in Iraq on false premises, squandered the healthy
treasury he inherited by cutting taxes for the wealthiest
Americans and spawned huge deficits that make it impossible for
us to take care of our most vulnerable brethren. Worse, in just
published memoirs he states it was he who personally authorized
torture in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. He led us in a direction
very different from the values traditionally associated with
American exceptionalism.
When it comes to "choosing"
leaders it appears to me what we have are the best politicians
money can buy. Huge campaign contributions from wealthy
Americans Robert Kay Johnston referred to as "political
donor class families" in Perfectly Legal, and from
anonymous corporations looking for ways to shape public policy
to benefit their shareholders and top executives, have turned
more than half our members of congress into millionaires and
corporate shills. There seems little exceptional about most
current politicians.
Then there is the way in which our
leaders responded to the 911 attack. An exceptional response
would have been to punish the perpetrators while preserving a
way of life people in the rest of the world envy. Instead many
civil rights were suspended and our leaders created an
impossible to pay for never-ending "war on terror" that
cannot keep us safe. Two years ago a suicide bomb failed to
explode in a New York subway, last Christmas an underpants bomb
failed to explode in an airplane over Detroit, last May a car
bomb failed to explode in Times Square and last month bombs
were found on cargo planes headed for America. Eventually a
bomb will explode and terrorists will win if our leaders foment
and exploit fear as a way to stay in office instead of rallying
to our ancestor's belief that America is exceptional because it
is "the land of the free and the home of the brave."
It is a sad fact that the
"globalism" and "free trade" our politicians
insisted would be good for us have in fact been bad for many
middle-class Americans. Making it possible to buy high quality
goods and services for less money than they can be produced by
Americans in America is not of much benefit to people with no
money because they do not have a job. Middle class American
workers now have to directly compete for jobs with people in
developing nations where there is no minimum wage and very few
regulations. America has lost its place as the "land of
opportunity" and is becoming very like an old world
monarchy where a few wealthy people live well at the expense of
everyone else.
What has truly been historically
exceptional has been the ability of a large numbers of ordinary
people to attain the American Dream. Unfortunately America has
become a "plutocracy" with 13,000 families at the very
top doing quite well while most middle-class Americans find it
increasingly difficult to make it unless two family members
both work full-time. One thing Jim Collins learned is that
great companies recognize and address "The Brutal Truth."
In Collapse, a book written by Jared Diamond he
describes historical reasons civilizations fail. In general, a
society starts to collapse whenever a wealthy elite enacts
self-serving policies that make it impossible for its
middle-class to thrive.
There are many more examples that
justify President Obama's position but there is no added-value
in their illustration. Logical discourse was never why
Republicans said "President Obama doesn't believe in
American exceptionalism."
Racial relations have come a long way
and polite Americans no longer tolerate open racism.
Unfortunately racism still lives beneath a thin veneer of
civility. In the last presidential elections candidates running
against Barack Obama used code phrases like "he's out of
step with the rest of us" to energize voters who were
appalled that a majority of voters might elect an
African-American president.
This is just another Republican
Party attempt to popularize a "code phrase" that hands racists
an acceptable reason to vote their true feelings.
ELECTION 2010
November 3,
2010
We know who to blame.
Americans just re-elected the same
politicians who dug the economic hole we're in and they feel they
have a mandate to dig it deeper.
In Arizona we just elected three
ethically challenged men to congress, elected another ethically
challenged man to the office of Attorney General, re-elected
Russell Pearce (author of SB1070) to our legislature and made him
Senate President. Worse we re-elected a governor who doesn't
understand how allowing Arizona to be branded a racist police
state might make it difficult to attract investors or tourists to
Arizona. Republicans being in complete control remind me of the
car-chasing dog that actually caught a car.
Arizona is a mess. Washington may or may
not be.
Democrats still control the Senate and
bills cannot become law without President Obama's signature. Newly
elected Tea Baggers may also disrupt the party of "No" by
fighting with senior more traditional Republicans. More
importantly neither Republicans nor Democrats can now steam roller
the other party. Cooperation will have to happen if anyone hopes
to accomplish anything. But most importantly the Federal
government is led by an intelligent man who accomplished things in
twenty months no former president was ever able to
accomplish.
"We met the enemy and he is us
(Pogo 1971)."
DEATH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM?
October
2010
Growing up we Americans knew this was the
most righteous nation in the world. We believed hard honest work
would lead to personal success and a strong national economy
wherein everyone would prosper.
We united to defeat Nazism and Japanese
and Italian Fascism, to rebuild Europe and Japan, to build
national highway and water systems that were the envy of the
world, to pay for returning GIs to go to college and to build
factories that paid high school graduates a living wage as they
produced goods that were bought by people all around the
world.
President Kennedy launched
America's Moon Shot in 1960.
Nine years later Americans landed on the moon.
Last month the World Economic Conference
convened in Tianjin, China. The 75 mile trip from Beijing
International Airport to Tianjin takes 25 minutes on the new high
speed train - a train that last week set a world record of 287
miles per hour. The conference was held in the new Tianjin
Meijiang Convention Center. According to Thomas Friedman "A
building so gigantic and well appointed that if it were in
Washington, D.C. it would be a tourist site… Your host
reminds you "It was built in nine months."
China used the 2008 global economic
meltdown to fund a stimulus package twice as large as America's
when the relative size of each nation's economy is considered. The
difference in how each nation's economy recovered may be related
to how each nation deployed stimulus funds.
Most American stimulus funds went to
banks in the hope they would avoid bankruptcy and pass-through
tax-payer funds in ways that let home owners keep their homes.
American bankers used taxpayer largess to continue business as
usual in ways that returned record profits to share holders and to
pay huge bonuses to themselves. American stimulus funds were also
used to save Chrysler and General Motors from bankruptcy. A
relatively small amount was used to hire workers to fix decaying
highways and streets and some was used to keep teachers and health
care workers employed.
American stimulus funds made a few of
America's wealthiest families wealthier. Nine years after
terrorists brought down The World Trade Center all the City of New
York has to show are huge holes where the twin towers used to
stand.
The Peoples' Republic of China used
stimulus funds to launch the equivalent of four moon shots.
In two years China…
- Built an ultramodern high-speed rail
system to connect major cities,
- Built a network of ultramodern
airports,
- Ordered 128 American DNA sequencers
to launch its own stem cell genetic engineering
industry,
- Is providing the Chinese automobile
industry with $15 billion in seed money to develop a practical
electric car.
Chinese stimulus funds put laborers,
construction workers, engineers and scientists to work building
infrastructure and industries most Chinese will be using for
decades.
According to Ma Jiantang, Commissioner,
National Bureau of Statistics of China. "China's government
responded rapidly to the crisis of 2008, taking the lead in
achieving economic recovery." "China's GDP growth rate rose far
more than expected, from 6.1% in early 2009 to 11.9% in 2010.
Measures have since been taken to address rapid credit growth and
fears of overheating. I am not worried about the speed of the
economic recovery," he added. "China is looking to
achieving 10% growth in 2010, with CPI less than 3%."
America has a less than 2%
jobless recovery
because most economic benefits went to the wealthiest
Americans.
An ABC/Yahoo News poll conducted during
September 2010 found 40% of all Americans no longer believe in The
American Dream. There are good reasons to be
pessimistic.
"The 10-year period between 2000 and
2010 was an utterly lost decade for most Americans. In
inflation-adjusted dollars of white families declined 5%, the
incomes of Hispanic families dropped 8% and those of
African-American families 11%, an almost unimaginable reversal
after steady decades of progress. More than 12 million people fell
into poverty. Even though the population grew by 25 million fewer
Americans held jobs at the end of the decade than when it
began." Ronald Brownstein, National Journal.
America has been transformed from being a
nation wherein ordinary honest, hard-working people could earn a
good living to a nation wherein the wealthiest Americans are doing
fabulously well at the expense of everyone else.
Is the American Dream
dead?
ANGER-STOKED
ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM
September
2010
Academically gifted students just
received invitations to join Phi Theta Kappa, the International
Honor Society. A nasty-gram from an angry recipient read something
like "I need a job. What makes you think I would spend $75 for
a piece of paper that buys nothing but association with snobs - if
you don't have an answer you're obviously one too so quit wasting
my time."
There is a growing anti-intellectual
movement in America partly because people like Sarah Palin are
trying to incite class warfare and partly perhaps because many
college students, like the writer of the above nasty-gram, have
been forced to enroll in college against their will. Careers these
unwilling students planned to devote their life to have been
outsourced to India, off-shored to China or are no longer in
demand. I just read more than 25% of all Arizonans now live in
poverty. That the world narrowly averted another Great Depression
is of little solace to people who don't have a job.
But what many people do not understand is
that anti-intellectualism is also anti-job development. China,
where most leaders are scientists or engineers, just passed
policies that will translate global warming into green Chinese
jobs. Here opposition from religious leaders, businessmen who are
getting rich selling natural resources (like natural gas being
mined in a way that pollutes the drinkable water supply: eg. T
Boone Pickens), and politicians who pander to such groups as a
way to stay in office have stalled green job development. The wind
turbines sprouting up across America were made in Germany and
Spain.
Ours is a republic and we hope the men
and women we elect to represent us are intellectual instead of
emotional when it comes to policy development. Unfortunately in
Arizona most majority Republican Party leaders seem more
interested in sending nasty-grams to Washington than economic
development: Self-destructive like the student who doesn't
understand being branded "smart" might be an economic advantage
when looking for a job -- on a grand scale that impacts all
Arizonans. Our elected leaders do not seem to understand that
acting in anger creates unintended consequences. Legislators in
both the Arizona House and Senate and the Governor admitted being
surprised that passage of a law that makes it legal for almost
anyone to carry a hidden gun, and an anti-immigration law much of
which was quickly ruled unconstitutional, created an anti-economic
development firestorm.
Anti-intellectualism is especially
anti-job in Arizona where so much revenue comes from tourism. By
definition, when it comes to tourism perception is reality. Recent
statements by the Governor of Arizona and Pinal County Sheriff
make it appear tourists here are in imminent danger of being
kidnapped by Mexican drug gangs even as actual crime rates have
dramatically declined. It should not be a surprise that Europeans
who read travel guides, and Americans who watch the news, avoid
Arizona.
But conventions are the biggest source of
tourism revenue by far. Rightly or wrongly laws passed last year
resulted in Arizona being labeled a "racist police state"
by citizens and governments across America and around the world.
Most businesses do not want their company's brand associated with
racism and violence. According to the Arizona Tourism Bureau more
than 30,000 jobs, 55,000 room rentals and $2 Billion in revenue
have already been lost and it is also reported that few
conventions are being scheduled for future years.
And it is going to get worse unless
Democrats win control of at least one legislative house or the
governor's office.
If Republicans once again control all
three entities they plan to challenge the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States. Their intended goal is to force
the United States Supreme Court to declare babies born in the
United States to parents who are foreign nationals to not be
considered citizens of the United States of America. The likely
unintended consequence, which our elected representatives seem
unable to intellectualize; will be more fuel on the anti-Arizona
firestorm with an increased and even longer-term loss of tourist
revenue and an even greater hesitation by companies to invest in
Arizona.
I appreciate the power of anger for there
is much to be angry about. Sending jobs to places that pay highly
educated locals 10% of what American workers would receive has
made 13,000 American families fabulously wealthy to the detriment
of the American middle class. National policy has favored the
wealthiest Americans since the early 80s.
But the student in question is letting
anger lead him towards a bad career decision. I am convinced that
the decision regarding those with whom one chooses to associate is
the most important decision anyone ever makes. In the words of my
colleague Fred Maihofer, "Joining Phi Theta Kappa will be
the best $75 you will ever spend because for the rest of your life
you will be branded smart." Belonging to Phi Theta
Kappa provides license to associate with smart people.
Furthermore, while I would never
recommend joining an Honor Society as a way to land a job because
that will rarely happen, the Northern Arizona University Dean who
hired me in 1978 and I were both President of the same Honor
Society; Him fifteen years before me.
"HAVING CLOUT IS NOT THE SAME AS
BEING SMART;
HAVING A FANCY TITLE IS NOT THE SAME AS COMPETENCE"
Dr. Rachel Madow,
Annual Phi Theta Kappa
Conference
May
2010
Our elected officials have been busy
telling the rest of the world who Arizonans are ever since Janet
Napolitano departed for Washington. The 2010 legislative session
just ended. Thanks to our Senators, Representatives and
Governor every Arizonan can legally carry a concealed weapon
which is excellent since Arizona has the worst financial
crisis of any state within this United States of America.
Our elected officials have made their priorities perfectly
clear.
- With the exception of a one-cent
temporary sales tax increase, to be voted on later this year,
our legislators' plan is to cut programs and tax cut their way
out of this fiscal crisis.
- Arizona legislators dislike health
care reform so much they gave the Governor of Arizona
permission to spend as much money as she wants to sue the
federal government.
- Kris Kobach who works for a
white-rights organization named FAIR (Federation for
Immigration Reform) assisted Senator Russell Pearce, who
recently apologized for associating with neo Nazis, to draft
the law requiring anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant to
carry papers. The new law also makes it mandatory that law
officers check immigration status of anyone who they think
might not have papers.
- JD Hayword, Republican candidate for
the United States Senate, wants to ban all immigrants and is
especially concerned about people who look Chinese.
- Arizona legislators introduced a
"Birther Bill" to force candidates for federal Office prove
they were born in the United States of America before their
name can be placed on Arizona ballots. Fortunately that bill
never made it to the Governor's desk for her to
sign.
- Most Arizonan's think it is alright
for police to stop and require anyone who looks like an illegal
immigrant to produce papers that prove he or she is a citizen
or legal immigrant. Bishop
Tutu of South Africa, an expert on Apartheid, explained the
danger of that slippery slope.
|
"We lived it -- police
waking a man up in the middle of the night and
hauling him off to jail for not having his
documents on his person while he slept. The fact
that they were in his nightstand near the bed was
not good enough. Of course if you suggested such a
possibility today to an Arizona policeman he would
be adamant that he would never do such a thing. And
I would believe him. Arizona is a long way from
apartheid South Africa.The problem is, under the
new law, the one or two who would do it are
legitimized. All they have to say is that they
believed that illegal immigrants were being
harbored in the house. They would be protected and
sanctioned by this law."
|
It is frightening that this new law will
be enforced by Sheriff Joe Arpaio; An elected top county law
officer who sweeps into one community after another with his army
of deputies to arrest hundreds of legal and law-abiding citizens
most of whom are simply guilty of being brown. The top law
enforcement official in the most populous County in Arizona is
more interested in cultivating his "Toughest Sheriff in America"
image, and establishing a political empire, than in using his
resources to take criminals off the streets.
- The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
eliminated the unit that was charged with finding and
apprehending tens of thousands of wanted felons who have
outstanding warrants for their arrest.
- One of his Deputies violated
attorney-client privilegeduring a trial in court by removing
papers from a defendant's legal file. The arrested and
sentenced Deputy was then treated like a hero by fellow
officers.
- The Maricopa County Sheriff, County
Board of Supervisors and County Attorney are spending millions
suing each other.
- The Sheriff spent half a million
dollars on a bus his office is not allowed to use because it
was illegally purchased.
Add all the above together and Arizona
appears to be inhabited by racist, litigation-happy gun-toting
vigilantes, or that at least that is who the majority of Arizonans
have elected to represent themselves. That the majority of
Arizonans elected these people is troublesome. Most Russians
supported Lenin, most Germans supported Hitler and most Chinese
supported Mao and look where that led. We are on a slippery
slope.
The evidence of collective irrationality
appears to have acquired critical mass. The Arizona Hotel and
Lodging Association reported that 19 national conferences
representing 15,000 rooms were cancelled because of the new
immigration law as of Saturday May 1st. More cancellations, lost
jobs and cancellations are surely on the way. Yet a poll published
May 2nd still shows that when asked "Do you think Arizona's new
immigration law will hurt the economy?" 63% of all Arizonan's
answered "No."
It will be impossible to calculate the
true cost of this state's damaged reputation. There will be no way
to count the people who will quietly choose to shun Arizona. No
one has to call for a boycott - many people with money to spend or
invest will choose to avoid Arizona on their own. I wonder
how having Arizona license plates on my car will affect how I am
treated as I drive around the United States this summer?
"We have met the enemy and it is
us (Pogo 1970)."
ESTRELLA WINS NATIONAL RECOGNITION
FOR
STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP, LEADERSHIP & SERVICE EXCELLENCE
April
2010
Six months ago Marylyn and I notarized
“do not resuscitate” living wills, ordered and
etched our names and dates of birth onto a gravestone and Marylyn
spent hours trying to teach me how to manage our finances. We put
our affairs in order because Marylyn had only a few months left to
live.
January 18th, while everyone else was
celebrating Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, we miraculously
received the gift of life in the form of a new kidney for
Marylyn.
Marylyn and I spent last weekend in
Orlando, Florida watching Marylyn’s Phi Theta Kappa officers
receive the lion’s share of awards at their national
convention. Phi Theta Kappa is the largest honor society in
America with tens of thousands of members in more than 1,200
chapters and millions of alumni. More than 4,000 honor student
officers and advisors were treated to pageantry as only
Disneyworld does it.
Not only was Monika Groomes'
stellar performance as an international officer onstage amazing
but Estrella’s Beta Alpha Xi Chapter won recognition with an
almost unheard-of four major International Hallmark
Awards:
- Phi Theta Kappa Distinguished
Chapter,
- Phi Theta Kappa Distinguished Chapter
President (Yvette Moller),
- Phi Theta Kappa Distinguished Service
(Lucas Byrnes-Norton), and
- Phi Theta Kappa Distinguished
Scholarship (Kevin Riley, Anita Padilla, and Jose
Gonzales).
In addition, Lauren Hansen, Yvette
Moller, and Kevin Riley, who also serve on the Arizona Region
Board, were recognized for being leaders of one of the entire Phi
Theta Kappa organization’s Top Three Regional
Boards.
And Marylyn was feted on stage
“For your dedicated support to Monika Groomes” in
her election to and year as Region IV International Vice
President.
Estrella Mountain Community College
is now known for excellence in student scholarship, leadership and
service.
+ + + +
As Published
Students Accomplish International Success with the Support of
Advisor in Medical Crisis
On the morning of April 12th, Estrella
Mountain Community College’s faculty and staff were greeted
with an email with the subject line: “Congratulations
to our PTK students!” The email was sent by
the advisor of the campus’ Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Beta Alpha
Xi Chapter, Marylyn Bradley. The students of PTK and Bradley had
just returned from the Phi Theta Kappa International Convention in
Orlando, Florida where they were victorious with an unheard of win
of four Hallmark awards and a spot on the top 100 chapter list for
the fifth consecutive year. Accomplishments like these are never
easy to accomplish, but Bradley, and her never-ending support of
her students, led the group to success. However, during the
preparations for this event, Bradley was fighting a war with her
own body, a war that her students knew nothing about.
Bradley was facing End Stage Renal
Disease at the beginning of 2010; her kidneys were working at a 15
percent capacity and she and her doctors had already concluded
that dialysis would not work for her. Through this, Bradley and
her family had come to terms with the fact that she only had a few
months to live. “Marylyn and I notarized ‘do not
resuscitate’ living wills, and ordered and etched our names
and dates of birth on a gravestone,” writes
Bradley’s husband John in an email telling the little known
story of his wife’s illness. “January 18th, while
everyone was celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday,
we miraculously received the gift of life in the form of a new
kidney for Marylyn,” he said. Until that day, the
students of PTK knew nothing of Bradley’s
condition.
“Imagine my surprise when I got
the call that Marylyn was going into surgery and getting a
transplant. I was dumbstruck! I didn’t know she was that
sick,” said PTK President Yvette Moller. “If
anything, this shows her dedication to our success as students.
She never once places the students or PTK in second to her own
personal health.”
This is because during Bradley’s
fight for her life, she had changed nothing in her regular work
routine. She still attended every meeting and answered every
email, call, and text, almost instantly. Moller believes that
Bradley knew if the students would have known about her condition,
they would not have focused to achieve the awards received.
“I think she knew that we would have placed PTK on the
backburner for her, and that’s what she didn’t
want.”
At the 2010 Phi Theta Kappa International
Convention, students won four awards, something that has never
happened before at the international level. Beta Alpha Xi received
the following awards; Scholarship Hallmark honoring Kevin Riley,
Anita Padilla and Jose Gonzales; Service Hallmark honoring Lucas
Byrnes-Norton; Distinguished Chapter President award honoring
Yvette Moller; and a Distinguished Chapter award. Beta Alpha Xi
also received these awards on a regional level in addition to $900
to be used toward student scholarships.
“I have a missionary spirit to
what PTK and community colleges can do in the life of a student.
In many cases, this experience creates a turning point in the life
of students,” said Bradley. While she is still going
through the recovery process, Bradley continues her work as a
faculty member and advisor to students at Estrella Mountain
Community College. In the telling of her story, Bradley wishes to
bring more attention to student success and the leaders that she
has been able to see come out of PTK, but the students of PTK
would like to honor Bradley for all the work that she has done for
students and thank her for the inspiration that she has provided.
“God not only gave her a gift with that kidney, he gave a
gift to everyone whose lives Marylyn will continue to affect in a
positive way,” said Moller.
+ + + +
THAT WHICH HURTS INSTRUCTS (Ben
Franklin)
October
2009
I love learning new things.
Saturday morning Marylyn and I learned "to canvas"
means knocking on strangers doors to ask "Do you have any
concerns about health insurance reform?" We also
learned..
- Few people are home Saturday
morning. Those who were, were a lot more polite than me.
I need to clean up my act.
- Most people aren't paying
attention. Most are probably too busy earning enough money
to buy food and keep a roof overhead to pay attention to
anything else.
- Canvassing is a young person's
job. Even on a relatively comfortable day just three hours
on the street "washed us out." I fell asleep with an
Illini football game on when I should have been screaming at
the television.
Reform is needed.
Eight years ago our daughter went to the
Emergency Room in acute pain, the doctors took one look and
wheeled her into surgery and removed her appendix. Our insurance
company refused to pay since the doctors didn't call and ask the
high school dropout who answers our insurance company phone for
her permission to operate before they operated: we finally
paid-off the last installment of her medical bill this month.
Insurance companies can't be trusted.
Republicans openly talk about killing
reform as a way to regain control of Congress: which is nothing
new. In his just released book Senator Bob Dole describes
sabotaging health insurance reform in 1993 in a self-serving
effort to defeat the Clintons and set himself up to run for
President. Bob Dole now supports President Obama's health care
reform initiative. I voted for this hypocrite.
I wish Saturday had been less a
lesson in brutal truth.
"Arizona teens leaning left"
(Arizona Republic, March 3, 2009).
The Republican party won big in Arizona
this fall probably because Senator John McCain, their favorite
son, ran for President. Republicans are a solid majority in the
legislature where they are using the current economic crisis to
"Starve the beast."
For years an extremely popular Democratic
Governor made it impossible for Republican Legislators to
eliminate kindergarten, social services for the poor and to make
it illegal for a woman to choose abortion. With former Governor
Napolitano in Washington Republicans are completely in charge in
Arizona and cutting all budgets. Actually that's not perfectly
true.
The Arizona Legislature increased Sheriff
Joe Arpaio's budget and kept prison funding steady as they used
the current crisis as an excuse to gut the kindergarten to
university budget and slash social services budgets when stimulus
funds made most such cuts unnecessary. It also appears safe
abortion by medical professionals will soon become
illegal.
Actually our legislature was consistent:
Arizona ranks number four of all states by spending almost 10% of
its entire state budget on "corrections" while ranking
close to last when funding education. Are these facts are
related?
Democrats are in charge in Washington.
Arizona's Republican Senators and Representatives are doing their
best to keep President Obama's plan from bringing relief to this
nation and the world. Arizona's Republican delegates are largely
irrelevant which is probably good if one wants to retain the
two-party system that served this nation well for almost two
centuries.
Older Arizonan's may stave off their
children's leftward lean for awhile but their children are not
ignorant and it is the natural order of life for children to
outlive their elders.
Thanks to The Daily Show, The
Colbert Report and Bill Maher our youth know increasing
taxes of persons who make more than $250,000 per year, and making
it impossible for these wealthiest Americans to hide their money
in tax-shelters in the Cayman Islands and secret bank accounts in
Switzerland, will not be bad for America. Our youth know less than
3% of all small businesses, and 5% of all Americans, make more
than the $250,000 per year.
According to the Morrison Institute
"75% of Arizona's youth are in favor of giving illegal
immigrants a chance to become citizens;" "65% say women have a
right to choose abortion" and "60% say religion
should not play an important role in public policy." In
direct contrast to many of their money driven elders 60% chose
"a job you enjoy" and "a happy
family" as essential to a good life with only 20%
saying "lots of money" is what they need.
"The wages of sin is death"
(Romans 6:23): An improperly used quote taken out of
context seems strangely appropriate given the Republican
propensity to use Biblical quotes to silence anyone who questions
their ideology. I sincerely hope Republican party leaders become
more in tune with what our youth consider important. Otherwise
they will lose any ability to influence public policy and a one
party system will be bad for Arizona and America.
February 2009
How things look depends
on where one sits.
This month I had the privilege of meeting
Joy Feng, a Professor of Finance from Wuyi University in China.
She is here studying the current world-wide economic crisis. One
of a ten faculty member seven graduate student team it is her job
to learn how Americans feel about the current economic
meltdown.
We were able to connect our Chinese
colleague with economics professors and local business people.
University of Nebraska colleagues connected her with nationally
known financiers in Omaha, Nebraska.
The most significant finding was
unexpected - but probably should have been anticipated.
Economics professors and business people have a completely
different understanding of what needs to be done to solve the
problem.
Economics professors, as illustrated by
the CATO Institute, do not think government ought to use increased
government spending to stimulate the economy. On February 9, 2009
members of the CATO Institute printed a full-page advertisement to
espouse that view. Their message was "…we the undersigned
do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve
economic performance."
None of the CATO Professors were from
prestigious business schools. Economists have well paid ivory
tower academic jobs where they are insulated from the real world
comfortable with their theories. Business professors deal daily
with people who are being hurt by the recession. Business people
want positive action now. Local business people are "making
safe investments and tightening their belts."
Some of this nations' wealthiest
corporate culprits, who's reckless greed created the current
crisis, are still spending like drunken sailors. ABC reported that
Bank of America sponsored a five-day "carnival" outside the
Super Bowl Stadium, Morgan Stanley held a three-day conference for
bankers at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Sandy Weil, CEO of
Citigroup used a company jet to fly his family to San Jose
del Cabo to vacation at a $10,000 a night luxury hotel and Wells
Fargo planned a series of "Employee Recognition Outings" in
Las Vegas.
Tonight I listened to Dr. Jared Diamond,
author of Pulitzer Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel in
which he describes why some nations succeed while others remain
poor; and Collapse wherein he describes why nations fail.
According to Dr. Diamond the historical record is clear.
When a nations wealthiest citizens and leaders are as
impacted by decisions as ordinary citizens nations thrive; when
leaders and the wealthy are insulated from the consequences of
their decisions, their society eventually
collapses.
It appears this nations most wealthy
citizens and economics professors see nothing wrong and want to
let the economy self-correct. Lets hope that the fact that
our leaders are elected makes them accountable to the ordinary
citizens who are bearing the brunt of this
crisis.
January 2009
THE SELF-FULFILLING
PROPHECY
Christmas break three generations of
Bradley men drove an old Geo Storm 1,500 miles from Phoenix to
Seattle. A demonstration of faith because we weren't sure that old
car, with more than 235,000 miles on it, would take us where we
wanted to go. We didn't relax until safely parked in
Seattle.
Cars are simple physical things. People
are much more complex being both physical and spiritual. Twelve
year-old Canaan's body is near adult in size. He can't legally
drive but he can read a map and carry on sophisticated
conversation. Thirty-two year-old Eirean is physically powerful,
an excellent driver and a world-class poet. Oldest, I'm physically
the Geo in that some of my parts are showing wear but spiritually
I'm still fit.
Physical things have limited life because
parts wear, seals leak and fenders rust away. Spirituality
outlasts physicality; Ideas are more powerful than
things.
Like three Bradley men our entire world
is on an economic journey of a never before experienced scale. The
economy, like human-beings, is both physical and spiritual. All
economic indicators are as scary as an odometer showing 235,000
miles on it. Is there enough economic resilience left to return us
to prosperity? I believe the answer is more spiritual than
physical.
Seven decades ago there was a similar
economic crash. Factories and farms were still in place, need for
the food and clothing farmers grew and products factories produced
continued to exist. The great depression was primarily caused by a
world-wide loss of faith. The world was spiritually, not
physically, bankrupt.
The Great Depression occurred when all
around the world fear overcame people's faith in their respective
governments' ability to maintain a stable economy that would
provide them an environment that would carry them safely into the
future. Loss of faith led to despair, anger and an irrational
search for villains. World War II was the result.
Franklin Roosevelt rallied this nation
with "… (it is) my firm belief that the only thing we have
to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
A wise and charismatic leader he understood the spiritual
nature of the economic crisis. President Franklin did not change
the physical world of factories and farms. What he changed was
peoples' belief that the economy would improve - so it
did.
Ken Griffin, CEO and founder of The
Citadel Investment Group, LLC, one of the world's biggest and most
successful hedge funds, may have expressed this best. Mr. Griffin
uses both the mechanical precision of mathematical formulas and
human intuition to run his firm. According to Mr. Griffins…
"It comes down to having to make a judgment call."
"…People who are really good at this have great intuition and
instincts." "…The mathematics are important because they
demonstrate you understand the problem but ultimately the decision
about whether or not to take a given risk is really a human
judgment call in every sense of the word."
We now have a young and inspirational
president. Barack Obama's understanding of what inspires modern
Americans, and people around the world, and use of computers and
the Internet to communicate his vision, have rallied billions of
people to his message of hope.
The world is now on a high-risk journey.
Returning to economic prosperity will depend more on people
believing in our new president's ability to lead us out of this
crisis than in this world's bankers being able to control capital
in technicaly rational ways. Spirituality trumps
technicality.