Don't be the Sheep

For too long our elections have been battles between lions. Like gladiator games, we are all in the stadium (or watching from home) with little to no impact on the outcome. We are the sheep. So okay, sheeple, let’s be clear about a few important truths: 

Republicans and Democrats are NOT the government. 

They are well-funded factions with paid operatives. They are what George Washington warned us about in his farewell address. They are national organizations that select candidates, decide which races to fund, and manipulate election law to secure their own power. 

Political parties are career politicians but that doesn’t mean they know how to govern. 

Political parties are about getting elected. The paid operatives inside the Republican and Democrat parties are strategists. They dice voter data, make judgments about candidate viability, and design and approve those negative ads we all hate. When paid political operatives take the stage, when they rig contests, when they fundraise, they are not acting in the best interests of the voters. They are acting in the best interests of the party. Because that’s who pays them. 

This is not the most important vote in your life. 

Any more than last presidential cycle was. Or the one before that. Politicians drive urgency to earn airtime. They are competing with social media, the struggles of your everyday life, your job, your kids, your sex life for attention. Politicians need your facetime and they get it by telling you how much they matter. This is a job interview and they are candidates. They are not heroes. They are not saviors. They are at best celebrities and at worst grifters. 

Everything is political only if you let it be. 

Suspicious of the accuracy of our voting system? Angry that some people aren’t wearing masks? Scared your business will fail if it stays closed? Don’t trust police to keep you safe? Think the border wall is the only way to maintain our national sovereignty? Everything is political if you let it be. And if you exist in your community, you know that nothing is political. How your neighbors treat you, the local restaurants and theaters and art exhibits that express love and pride, a Friday night football game of cheering fans, and school PTO meetings where volunteers support educators: that is life. Not red and blue states. Not pundits and soundbites. 

You are the power. 

After the smoke clears and the dust settles and mainstream media goes back to reporting on celebrity gossip, you can still enact change in your community. You can volunteer for local efforts to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. You can organize community efforts to solve local issues, let your voice be heard at City and County Council meetings, challenge efforts to gerrymander districts. You can find validated news online and share that instead of echo-chamber propaganda. You can get out from behind your computer screen and realize real life, out there in the world, is less scary than the lions would have you believe. 

You can be the sheep. Or you can be the shepherd. Armed and ready to shoot the lions.

Listening: The Forgotten Virtue of Citizenship

Borrowed from my friend Alex Peterson, a fellow delegate to the Libertarian Party's National Convention in Orlando this weekend.

As good citizens, there comes times that we must listen to our neighbors and act to maintain peace.  In today's discussions that is often a forgotten virtue, and has led to a regrettable situation where two sides are facing off with both believing that the other is exhibiting signs of racism.  Although one person does not speak for a movement, when the leaders of the movement do not call out ideals spoken under their banner that do not match the movement's ideals it is assumed they support them.  This has become a serious issue between the people stating “All lives matter” and “Black lives matter.”In researching this issue, we did find some very valid points about life experiences in our county that really should be fully heard by all.  

For example, we found that the idea of impending victimization to be a serious issue for a wide swath of people when they see anything pertaining to slavery.  This is especially true near government buildings.  We did also find reports of people being stopped an seemingly impossible number of times by the police.  These situations merit further action without question. 

Our American Dream is one of equality and personal prosperity. While the arguments of preserving history have merit, the facts are we can accomplish the same thing by moving those items to museums without having to expose people to that kind of negativity.  

We can also use the present hardware used by police to create systems of civilian tracking that would allow us to identify such abuse of power and hopefully end it before someone gets hurt or killed.  We would ask that the people under the “All lives matter” banner to listen to some of the speeches given at BLM rallies while imagining if your parents and now you had experienced some of those events.  

We would then ask that we respectfully put that part of our past behind us and work together with our neighbors to create a better functioning country for all.That being said, there are also some points that people are making underneath the “All lives matter” banner that have logical merit.  When one searches the internet, we find that there are quotes from media and videos on what are represented as being BLM leaders stating that all white people are inferior and racist.  There has also been enough violence especially considering the children that are dying from it.   

We would ask that the grassroots portion of the “Black lives matter” movement reach out to the charity's leadership and ask why no statement has been made clearing these matters up.  Because of those statements people are really saying “All lives matter” thinking they are educating the person in front of them about racism instead of hearing a cry for help.  It would also be important to ask where the billions of dollars the charity is getting is going.  It would be fair to say that the money was given with the ideal of helping your community; however, it does not seem to be doing so at this time.  If the charity will not come clean on these issues, it is our recommendation the grassroots portion of “Black lives matter” fight for their slogan and money back to use it for actual good.If both sides will step back and look at the merits of the other's points, we would find that because all lives matter we should be removing idols of slavery and putting them away.  We would also find that anyone speaking in a racist manner should be called out for it and better educated. By doing so, both sides should be able to easily work hand in hand towards the common goal.

In clarification of Presidential Candidate Jo Jorgensen's tweet using #blacklivesmatter and therefore being attacked for being a Marxist, I wrote this on the SCLP.org blog. Thanks, Alex, for taking the conversation further by suggesting we LISTEN to one another.

Who’s in?

This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to write a blog on the topic of Love & Politics to contribute to this space. It’s safe here, I promise. You are welcome here. You don’t have to agree with me or anyone else. Just tell us a story. Make a case. Make an effort.

Leave a comment if you’d like to contribute or reach out to me kasie@clemsonroad.com and let's talk.

On Freedom

Shared with permission from my friend Jackie Capers Brown on Facebook:

One of the dictionary meanings of the word freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Another dictionary definition of freedom is the absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. A despotic government is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. Normally, that entity is an individual, the despot, as in an autocracy, but societies that limit respect and power to specific groups have also been called despotic.

On July 4th every year the United States of America celebrates the day that 13 colonies decided to claim their independence from England. 

It is the evolution of this country and what it might become when all citizens are respected and feel they are valued and capable of using their civil liberties to create the change they seek that will cause us to always be at crossroads throughout the history of this nation. This is a normal part of the evolution process.

The United States of America is not perfect, nor will it ever be. Humans are imperfect. Our challenge as citizens, regardless of race, is for us to not lose sight that this democracy can only see better days as we the people unite to respect, value, demonstrate empathy and genuine care and concern for one another.

For too long, we have allowed our country to be run by political parties, special interest groups, big business, wealthy and influential people who have not had our collective best interest in mind.

It's time that we the American people who understand the challenge but are up to it - begin the process of our turnaround in our communities with a focus on UNITY. Finding common ground with people that don't look like us for our collective common good.

The degree in which we can come together and find common ground and address community issues UNITED will reflect the degree to which we can rise up, TOGETHER.

For example, we the people need to use our freedom to decide that every citizen and person in this nation has a right to equal justice regardless of his or her skin color, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc. We need to establish what that looks and feels like and hold elected officials accountable for taking action that makes it a reality.

There is a cost for freedom. There are sacrifices we must make for freedom. There is a level of maturity we must demonstrate to actualize the American dream written in our constitution. 

I believe that each of us has been born for such a time as this.
I believe that all of the divisiveness and hate we are seeing in our country is a mirror reflection of the condition of our country's soul. 

And, unless, we are ready to relinquish the control of this nation to one person or political figure, each of us needs to take time to reflect on how we can use our unique code of greatness towards elevating our country to the next level.

We have to raise our personal standard as to how we will show up in this world and the impact we are having towards creating a better world for the generations behind us.

We cannot continue to live in ways that urge us to forgo the future benefits of becoming UNITED NOW to appease our tendency for instant gratification. It is clear that this approach is causing great harm to the citizens of this country, and the country itself.

IT'S DECISION TIME

I believe this moment in our collective history is calling us to make a decision. Will we step into a higher version of ourselves for the collective good of all?

We have demonstrated during times of great challenges that we can do this. Will this moment go down in our country's history where we decided to rise above our petty differences and find common ground from which we can begin to rebuild and heal in order to move forward?

We can respect our individual differences while honoring that which UNITES us. We can RISE UP and become the people who are capable of living our constitution out loud.

Our individual and collective decisions will determine the fate of our country. The acceptance of this reality provides each of us with the great freedom to choose how we will impact our family, community, and country's legacy.

#freedom #july4th #decisiontime #personalresponsiblity #usa

Thank you, Jackie, for allowing me to share this here and for sharing your voice, your vulnerability, and your love with me. Love and Politics on Clemson Road welcomes you.

About Jackie Capers Brown

Catch up with Jackie's significant and meaningful work here.

Who’s in?

This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to write a blog on the topic of Love & Politics to contribute to this space. It’s safe here, I promise. You are welcome here. You don’t have to agree with me or anyone else. Just tell us a story. Make a case. Make an effort.

Leave a comment if you’d like to contribute or reach out to me kasie@clemsonroad.com and let's talk.

Tears Streaming and Chest High

From my friend Robert Burgess on Facebook:

I’d like to wake up just one morning and not relive black trauma at every moment.

It would be to nice roll over and kiss my beautiful wife, hug my exceptional children and have black grief ignore me for just one day.

But that is not today. Probably won’t be tomorrow. Or anytime soon.

Reality is waking up in a thick cloud of frustration, anxiety, fear and anger.

Reality is operating in that volcanic space at work, in conversations and alone as if things are normal but truthfully there is an F5 tornado swirling around my mind.

Reality is layering those feelings with a pandemic, an economic crisis and a white supremacist President.

The weight is enough to break any aware, lucid human, black or not.

Yet...inequality in Black spaces has evolved our ability to persevere despite the traumatic obstacles. Like ocean fins to feet, it came out of the need to survive and lives on.

The indelible resilience of the black spirit.

That despite the forces arrayed against us, we still kiss the ones we love, work hard for our families and tell grief that we will not be moved and if we DO move, we will march in solidarity, vote like our lives depend on it, advocate for our community and take the action that can no longer wait.

Tears streaming and chest high.

I still wake up with black trauma swirling in the air but I am filled with hope. This hope says I will fight until our laws, our education system, our healthcare system, the environment, the carceral system and economic outlook prove Black Lives Matter.

That in itself feels like a miracle.

Thank you, Robert, for allowing me to share this here and for sharing your voice, your vulnerability, and your love with me. Love and Politics on Clemson Road welcomes your voice.

Who’s in?

This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to write a blog on the topic of Love & Politics to contribute to this space. It’s safe here, I promise. You are welcome here. You don’t have to agree with me or anyone else. Just tell us a story. Make a case. Make an effort.

Leave a comment if you’d like to contribute or reach out to me kasie@clemsonroad.com and let's talk.

Love & Politics on Clemson Road

On January 21, 2017, I attended the Women’s March in Washington D.C. I carried a sign that said, “Because Love” on one side and “Because Hope” on the other.

 

I was there to heal. To understand what the fuck had just happened in the 2016 election when our broken system failed. It failed to deliver a slate of candidates who were (1) qualified, (2) inspiring, and (3) worthy of the great honor of being President.

I’m a Libertarian and I voted for Gary Johnson. Leading up to the election all I heard was that my vote would help elect Trump. Or Clinton. Not sure how that works that one vote for Gary Johnson counted three times: Against Clinton, Against Trump, and FOR the candidate I actually wanted.

But if I’m honest, even Johnson wasn’t the leader I was looking for.

So at the Women’s March I stood shoulder to shoulder with women who were worried about their reproductive rights, about the future of our country, and the lack of decency in politics and in the White House.

In the four years since then we have been on a wild ride. One that has further polarized and isolated us from each other and from what we think our government can and should do for us.

During the pandemic I was horrified at our country’s willing surrender of pretty much every civil right we have. Like supplicants, we looked to our government and begged it to save us. And if that wasn’t bad enough, our government failed. Like big time.

So what now? Where do we go from here?

That’s what this blog will attempt to reason out. Let’s think it through. Let’s talk it out. There are no easy answers and that’s okay. I don’t need easy and you shouldn’t want easy. Easy got us here: sadness, grief, anger, and frustration.

"Easy" – the idea that our politicians could and would fix it, that we “deserve” better, that we don’t have to do the work because they will – “Easy” got us where we are. And this place is at best unsustainable and at worst, a total failure of a citizenry to care for one another.

Something’s got to give.

Let us bring the LOVE. Bring the HOPE. Bring compassion, bring optimism, bring a willingness to roll up your sleeves and do the work. Bring your words and let’s work on this together.

Who’s in?

This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to write a blog on the topic of Love & Politics to contribute to this space. It’s safe here, I promise. You are welcome here. You don’t have to agree with me or anyone else. Just tell us a story. Make a case. Make an effort.

Leave a comment if you’d like to contribute or reach out to me kasie@clemsonroad.com and let's talk.

ROAR!!! Then wait. Repeat as necessary.

I’ve always loved March’s “in like a lion, out like a lamb” dichotomy. On the one side, there’s a fierce restlessness and on the other, a kind of peaceful hopefulness.

It’s not much of a stretch to say I’ve repeated this pattern in my life almost as if, being born in this month, I was given a script by which to operate.

I can be very Lion-ish about certain things. I once identified it as my leadership style. The entrepreneur in me, the would-be punk with mismatched clothes and wild hair, she’s a Lion. Nonconformist, freedom-loving, and willing to debate and argue politics. She’s been woke these last few years after #MeToo, #Resist, and #ShePersisted. She’s been willing to admit her privilege and tried to be empathetic to the journey others are on.

A lion is a pack animal, protective and focused on doing what needs to be done. We’re talking the Nala kind of lion, not Simba the slacker.

Photo Courtesy ScreenPrism.com

My lion side wants to force things, take the lead, share a vision that others embrace and respond to. She’s writing the entrepreneurism “textbook” (more of a digital course supplement than traditional textbook). She sees gaps in the marketplace.

My lion side gets discouraged and frustrated when she can’t rally people to the cause. Why don’t we have more listeners on our radio show? Why can’t we get people to participate in our local authors book club? Why is it so hard to build a tribe?

If you build it, they will come isn’t exactly a business strategy. My lion side knows this. She wants to work, to hustle, to build.

Then there’s the lamb. She sacrifices herself. She accepts a certain kind of dismissal, overlooking, and low expectations. She doesn’t bite back when people say, “If you can do it, so can I.” (Cuz really, fuck that. No, you can’t.)

She smiles with grace and dignity when she’s denied funding for an idea. When she loses a sale. When she’s ignored by decision makers, king makers, in this town. She defers: recommends and promotes others into roles she ought to be Lion-ish about. She gives.

And then she lays down and waits.

And this frustrates my lion side. I want to advocate but am I standing on an empty shore and spitting into the wind?

It’s my birthday month. A traditional month of introspection for me. The year I turned 40 I started a little journal of the “well-lived life” things I was going to do: read more female authors (check), spend more time with family (check), donate more clothing (umm), build Hollie’s scrapbook (umm), submit to more journals (yes, but with sad results).

It’s three years later and I’m no worse off now than I was then. I’ve published a book, earned a full-time faculty position, and established the only school for consultants in South Carolina. I’ve also gotten into some of the habits I wanted to establish like attending live events and blogging more regularly.

This month I’ll be taking stock again. The lamb in me wants to understand where I’ve been and how to course correct. The lion in me wants action.

Rest in peace, sir: The Lion, the Owl, and the St Bernard

This week I worked with my classes on goal setting. To get them in the right mindset of thinking beyond “Get an A” as their goal for the term, I encouraged them to consider the various areas of their lives where they’d like to see some improvement.

We named categories like friends and family, finances, health and wellness, and art and culture. Would they set a goal to spend more time with relatives? To save more money? To work out daily? Or to attend at least one “culture” event per month?

In those goal setting classes, I talk a lot about having a balanced life, one that is rich in relationships, purpose, and joy. A life they would want others to say was well-lived.

Too often over the past few years I’ve had the occasion to think of the end-of-life and the things we say about others after they’ve passed. In each circumstance, I wondered if the work I’m doing daily is building, as the poet says, out of the lumber of my life a temple or a tavern.

This week I learned the man who taught me the very goal setting practice I use in the classroom is nearing the end of his life. He’s comfortable, his daughter says, and at peace. And when I got word through Facebook, I felt pride in the work I’m doing and in the way his lessons have stayed with me.

The Lion

I was a sophomore in high school when Captain Blakeman took the highest officers of our Naval Junior Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) battalion on a retreat weekend for strategic planning for the following year. It was the 4H camp in Front Royal, Virginia, and it was an incredible experience. 

Our first exercise was to self-identify our leadership style. I remember claiming to be a Lion: fierce, bold, and willing to take risks. That may be where the entrepreneur in me lives. The writer, the Libertarian, the nonconformist that wears flannels and t-shirts with my business skirts and heels.

Later, during a strategy session, Captain Blakeman explained how each goal could be broken into three strategic objectives and each objective into tasks we could easily do daily, weekly, or monthly. It was my first experience with itemizing work: what will it take to get us where we want to go? Captain Blakeman’s system explained how to create a plan not only for myself but for any team, any organization, and any effort I was meant to lead.

The Owl

My entire career has been built on itemized work organized in the pattern he taught me all those years ago. Even my personal life follows this intentional exercise. Every January I organize the next year’s vision into a series of objectives to achieve and tasks to perform. I’ve become less ferocious and demanding, and more measured and analytical. I’m Owl-like in middle age.

It’s unlikely I’ll have the chance to say goodbye to Captain Blakeman. I’m not alone in these fond memories of what he taught in his decades-long career as a Naval officer and Naval Science Instructor. It’s unlikely he’d remember me, just one of hundreds of teenagers in whose life he made an impact.

The St. Bernard

In all the reflections I’ve been able to do over those we’ve lost, I’m reminded of the third leadership style, that of the St. Bernard. Caring, kindness, compassion and a willingness to go where others won’t to provide relief and comfort.

On the retreat when he had us self-identify our leadership style according to those iconic animals, Captain Blakeman didn’t tell us that the very best leaders know when to be what. Somehow, I think he knew we would come to that conclusion in our own time.

Thanks, Captain Blakeman. May your journey be peaceful and your rest eternal.