Times to Remember

I could tell by the look on his face, something was terribly wrong. It was just after lunch at Russell Sage Junior High School, in Forest Hills, NY. We were heading to Mrs. DeBarcza’s art class when I locked eyes with Mr. Heitner, our usually cheerful science teacher. He had a look I had never seen before. As a 12 year old I could see that he was concerned for us, his students, but it was not the usual sort of student-teacher attention; it was much bigger. When I asked if everything was okay, he answered, “Just go to class. There will be an announcement in a few minutes”.

A few minutes later, our principal, Dr. Charles Tanzer, got on the PA system and told us that

President Kennedy had been shot, in Dallas, and was being rushed to the hospital. Not long after that announcement, the school dismissed us and we all went home. JFK was dead. The date was November 22, 1963.

If you are a certain age, it is a day you will never forget. Forty five years later, the memory is vivid, indelibly etched and still painful. After the assassination, television news became our national focal point. Continuous coverage replaced regular programming. We watched as a tall Texas lawman, in a white Stetson hat, recoiled helplessly as Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV. And we followed the new president, LBJ, as he took charge of a nation in mourning.

A few days later, we heard Senator Mike Mansfield describe the First Lady’s reaction at Parkland Hospital, where President Kennedy was taken, mortally wounded. He told us that Jackie Kennedy, “took a ring from her finger, and placed it in his hands”. And we watched young John Kennedy Jr. snap a salute to his father’s flag draped casket.

As we approach Thanksgiving, these memories remind us that our resilience as a nation honors those who do great things. As we remember JFK, those old enough to remember December 7, 1941 inform our lives with recollections of that time and the war that followed. And for the current generation, we will remember September 11, 2001, decades from now.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect, to give thanks and look ahead. Our current moment is perilous, even though we are not experiencing a single cataclysmic event with a specific date to recall some day. We’ve elected new leadership to guide us through our economic crisis. The trials of the months ahead will test us and require perseverance and sacrifice. The consequences of unemployment, diminished savings, and collapsing credit, profoundly affect the lives of many.

For those who gather and present the news, opportunities to tell compelling stories with real substance form the foundation of history and can rise to the level of literature. Those who are up to the challenge can serve an important role in bringing about a turnaround by informing the public and holding officials and business leaders to high standards. When news organizations do their best work they help us through difficult situations; they draw us closer as a country when we are most vulnerable. This is such a time, even if nobody is attacked, nobody is shot, and planes keep flying without interruption.

Update from August

Back on August 14th (third one down, after you click), we mentioned a young man we know, who tried to get a political piece published in a major newspaper, before the primaries began. Despite his vision and analysis, recognizing early who the eventual presidential candidates would be, no paper picked up his entry. Well, today's Wall Street Journal includes a piece by him. Well done, Robbie!

This highlighted link will take you to his article. Robbie and I disagree on who was the right choice in this election; I was for Obama. But I'm encouraged by Robbie's commitment and so many other young people who got involved.

A Way to Grow

The economic collapse that affects nearly all of us bears particular burdens for me and those like me. I am self-employed but also looking for work. During the six years that my one man consulting business was thriving, I put aside enough to get through the occasional downturns of any business cycle. As the international economic crisis grows longer and deeper, our best laid plans face new challenges. But that is how we grow, individually and as a society.

I am encouraged by Obama's election and new ways of thinking that his victory represents. Last Saturday, the group I worked with on the Obama campaign, from California's 53rd Congressional District (Central San Diego County), gathered for a victory party and celebration. This group did extraordinary work. Between dozens of phone banks and canvassing trips to battleground states, our group made a real difference.

Our group leaders gave each member of the team a gift. It is a book by Daniel Pink, called A Whole New Mind. The sub title is: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.
This resonates with a blog I wrote, months ago, about Apollo being better than Jupiter as a leadership model for the future.

Of course, life and business, relationships and commerce, present complex challenges that are seldom solved by one extreme or another. The point, though, is to allow new ways of thinking to shift to the more sensitive and enabling models, away from the winner take all, top down, command and control way of doing things. Command and control still has a place in certain situations but for many organizations it is increasingly inappropriate.

Servant Leadership is at the heart of these new approaches. In a previous blog, Fixing TV News from The Inside Out, (it's third down on the page, after you click this link) we explained this approach. My own business of TV news and internet news is suffering deep cuts and dark days of revenue challenges that displace thousands of workers. Some of it is a consequence of the overall economic situation. But it is also a reflection of doing business in old ways for far too long.

Our challenging times invite positive outcomes and offer new possibilities. With today's technology we can all be producers. Each of us can create blogs, stories, movies, and news content. The exhilarating possibilities of these moments in time encourage real growth and creativity. If Mr. Pink is correct--and I believe he is with a few caveats--the right brain future is ours to embrace.

Media Missing on Story that Matters

With Boomers and their parents aging, the media is MIA on a story that should strike fear in, and may impose financial consequences for, everyone but the very rich and the most needy.

We live in an age where aging in America creates costs that can destroy a life’s savings even when the economy is thriving. Living longer means having enough money—or assistance—to insure a safe and secure existence in our “Golden Years”. I use that gilded term because somebody I met recently derisively referred to “seniority” this way, “Golden Years, what a joke,” she said. This woman, in her late 60s or early 70s, was caring for her husband, the victim of a massive stroke. We met during the dinner hour in a nursing home in Queens. I was there because my mother was recuperating from a short illness. My mother’s stay was only a week and was covered by Medicare. But if she had required longer term care, Medicare would eventually stop.

For the victims of Alzheimer’s Disease, or a massive stroke, or debilitating cancer or heart disease, long-term care costs can wipe out a life of savings in months or a year or two. Long-term care insurance is one option but it, too, is fraught with pitfalls, problems and misunderstanding; it’s also quite expensive and doesn’t always cover what policyholders expect it to include.

The long-term care dilemma is going to be—in many cases already is—a massive problem for our society. Typically, what happens is that at some point Medicaid kicks in and takes over the payments for nursing homes or homecare. Medicaid—MediCal in California—is government insurance for those with limited income and assets. Elder law attorneys and social workers can help with “Medicaid Planning”. That nice euphemism is code for sheltering ones assets before they run out and you, or your heirs, are left with nothing. Until you have to deal with these issues, usually because of a loved one’s illness, you just hope you never have to deal with these issues. As life is extended, often well into the 80s, and not uncommonly the 90s, these issues will become more burdensome for individuals and society.

As a news story, the impending long-term care crisis barely registers. More immediate stories of this ilk include Medicare costs and Social Security problems, and the need for some form of national health care policy. Government and politicians will not tackle long-term care without more public awareness and pressure. Eventually enough people will suffer because of this lack of a clear-cut long-term care policy. In the meantime, news organizations are missing an important story that if told properly can inform and influence public policy before too many families suffer. A serious illness takes the gleam off the Golden Years but a good understanding of these issues and proper attention can salvage some of the luster.

For an editor, news executive, or reporter, this is a great story. It has real people; it mostly affects the middle class because the poor get Medicaid and the rich can afford the care; it is a story that matters and can make a difference. So instead of doing another story about dollar bills being tainted with cocaine, or genital plastic surgery and grooming, let’s cover something that really matters and can make a difference.

Covering the economics of health care requires good story-telling skills and finding engaging, human, examples to illustrate the issues. It is more difficult than police scanner news, but readers, viewers, and web surfers will pay attention if the stories are interesting and well presented, whatever the medium. During my years as a news director, whenever we covered health from the economic perspective we got a ratings spike. Properly produced and promoted you’ll get ratings (or readers or users); you will be doing a service for your community and country; and you’ll feel good about the work you’ve chosen to make your living.

A Visitor's View from Greenwich Village

So Barack closed the deal and did so in convincing fashion. Not only did he win, as we now know, it was a landslide. It seems that the politics of fear and division did not work this time. The Rove style scare game just didn't have enough traction. And the Palin gambit served only as a momentary lift once the voters discerned that she represented little more than an attractive package disguising a nearly empty bag.

As we stood in Greenwich Village the other night, all the rhetoric about real Americans vs. the urban elites seemed more surreal than ridiculous. On a beautiful autumn evening, the corner of Sixth Avenue and Bleecker Street was alive, well, and calmly going about its business, real Americans beginning the first weekend after electing the next president. Surely this sophisticated neighborhood known for tolerance and open mindedness, in a most sophisticated city, would be the sort of not so real America that the McCain campaign tried to separate from its supporters. But a rural resident with conservative values would probably be more amused than threatened on this street corner on this night.

So we go on. The red states are a bit fewer and bluer and President-Elect Obama is about to inherit the daunting task of turning around the economy and fulfilling his promise of uniting the red and blue into something I would describe as a beautiful purple. Close up, Greenwich Village will still be blue and rural Georgia will still be red. But as we pull back and attempt to soar high and see with eagles' eyes, the view below must start to blend into a united hue where we enrich each other under the leadership of the man whose white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya gave us the gift of hope and promise.

Election Day, Finally!

The campaign of a lifetime is almost over. Walking to our local polling station this morning I noticed an interesting bumper sticker. Where I live—Coronado, CA—is mostly Republican with a large number of retired and active military. The bumper sticker on an older SUV across the street from our polling place was one of those oval shaped stickers that said: W 04. Neatly placed over the sticker was a round Obama-Biden sticker, placed so it was clear that this was a Bush voter who was not voting for McCain. We’ve also noticed that our usually Republican little town has as many—probably more--Obama lawn signs than those for McCain-Palin. This is based strictly on our own observations, clearly unscientific. It will be interesting to see how close the presidential numbers are in Coronado.

Coronado has hosted several well attended phone banks for Obama, drawing people from all of San Diego but with strong participation from Coronado itself. If Obama wins, the most interesting thing may be the number of Republicans who crossed over to vote for him. The Reagan Democrat phenomenon of the 1980s may have a 2008 version in Obama Republicans. The reasons will be different, of course. But the damage done to the GOP by W and his team clearly stings and will help re-define what that party must do in order to be relevant, again.

As stated last week, the challenge for Obama, if he makes it, will be to unite all of us. As he eloquently stated: We are not red states and blue states, we are the United States.

Whatever happens today, I will welcome the end of the campaign. Yes, it has been exhilarating and engaging. But there is so much work ahead, for whoever is elected; beginning that work cannot happen quickly enough.

The elusive idea of the great man or woman evokes a combination of hope and skepticism. The last political figure who I personally felt had the potential for greatness was Robert F. Kennedy. My initial response to him, as a much younger man, was more skeptical than hopeful. But as we watched him grow and define the late 60s in clear and eloquent fashion we saw the vision he defined as achievable and inspiring.

At this point in his career, Barack Obama is a long way from greatness. What is exciting, however, is his enormous potential. More than any other political leader since RFK, Barack has the skills, temperament, intelligence, and coalition, to become a great leader. The numbers look good for him, but we know—too well—the only numbers that really count are the votes—specifically, electoral votes. As we await the outcome of today’s election we are at one of those historic moments where everything is about to change.

Perhaps Obama’s great contribution, thus far, is that for many voters, hope is more real and deserved with this man than the normal skepticism that for too long has defined the political process. If those many voters are numerous enough to give Barack Obama and Joe Biden an electoral majority, our hope for great leadership may finally be realized. We’ll try to keep our journalist’s skepticism in balance, at least right now.