Yes We Can

Several years back, when the presidential candidates were still simply potentials, I had said John McCain was the type of guy who'd make me consider going Republican. There is a lot I don't agree with, but there was enough there that a really crazy Democrat could push me to go red.

That was a piece of the reason that this was the 1st election where I really looked at both candidates and asked myself who I wanted to follow. But as the election wore on, I saw what I can only describe as a man destroyed by his own core people and operatives.

After seeing his speech tonight, I have to ask, where was that honor and personal integrity during the crucial election time? Where was the honesty and willingness to stand up for values, even to your own followers? 

I eventually decided Obama was the man for me, but I can't help but wonder where We as a People would be had McCain lead a far less damaging and divisive campaign. Had he ran his campaign the way he concluded it, I believe we'd have an even greater hope to celebrate tonight. It would have been a much more honorable defeat.

But Hope won today, rather than fear, misdirection, and secrecy. Today we move forward, and I can say I have never done so with so much sincere belief and inspiration for what is to come from American politics and the American People in the years ahead.

My friends, foes, and fellow people: Let's do this right, and let's do this together.

Under the Auspice of legality and mass appeal [Revisited]

As I was searching for a favorite photo of mine, I stumbled across an old blog post from November 2005. Three years later, I can see how the exact same post maintains its exact same relevance. As such, here it is in its entirety:

It is especially relevant for any institution with aims as great as making any change, significant or not, to maintain a thriving, diverse, and evolving leadership. I say this because too often it happens that a certain "school" or sect finds itself filling many or most positions of influence and thereby sees it as a divinely or self given mandate to maintain such thinking and ways of operation. The downside of this being the exclusion of other schools of thought, and the participants and power players contained, from holding such positions of power and influence. Under the assumption that said sect maintaining power is in fact maximizing its attention to effectiveness and democracy and ability to Fuck Shit Up (FSU), and under the event that new positions become held by individuals from said sect, let it be said that it thus must also be under the event that said seats are held because the individuals were the best and not because they were from said sect.

In the opposite case, where individuals hold seats not because they were of the highest caliber, but because they hold membership to said school of thought, let it be known that the institution is headed for failure; its goals unattainable, mission unaccomplishable, nature unobservable. As members from excluded schools of thought spread out and look elsewhere, might it be that one should follow them, and not said institution, in the never ending plight to FSU?

A thought.

Georgia on my mind

That and Action.

Do > Think. Act > Talk. Action bias!! EXPERIMENT!! R.F.A./Ready. Fire. Aim. (Tom Peters)

On my mnd.

Paradoxical paradigm shift of underlying issues

I think there needs to be a shift in mentality from "creating tomorrow's leaders," or "creating future leaders" to "creating today's leaders" or "building leadership. Today."
This moves one from thinking about what I'll be able to do tomorrow to What I can do today. Become a presence in your dormitory or co-op. Stand for something on your baseball team. Bringing it to the present tense eclipses more of an Action. Now. mentality, eliminating the tomorrow excuse we all hold so dear. I think that is valuable.