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Category: Common Good Page 2 of 5

What Ever Happened to Integrity and Service In Our Leaders?

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On November 30, 2018

In Civil Discourse, Common Good, Service, Social Responsibility

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: wikipedia

Our 41st President, George Herbert Walker Bush passed away quietly at his home in Houston this past evening. He was 94 years old. His legacy is multifaceted yet in contrast to today’s political discourse his integrity stands out. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s described Bush as “great in his character, leading with decency and integrity.”  Integrity defined by linguists focus on two character elements: adhering to a set of moral principles and character definition.  Integrity is seen in leaders who are humble enough to continuously learn from their mistakes, listen to others and are honest to themselves and others.

Former President Barack Obama noted about President Bush’s life that he was:

“a patriot and humble servant with a legacy of service that may never be matched, even though he’d want all of us to try.”

“While our hearts are heavy today, they are also filled with gratitude. Not merely for the years he spent as our forty-first President, but for the more than 70 years he spent in devoted service to the country he loved.”

Bush demonstrated a level of dedicated service to his country that few have matched. He was the youngest Navy aviator to fly in WWII.  Shot down over the Pacific he was rescued. Later he continued a career of public service in the House of Representatives, Ambassador to the U.N., U.S. Envoy to China, Director of the CIA and Vice – President among many positions he held in 70 years of public service.

His service did not stop at his one term presidency.  One unusual partnership developed 20 years after his presidency with the man who pushed him out of office, Bill Clinton.  In 2004, Bush’s son George W. Bush asked his father and Clinton to tour the devastation after a huge tsunami hit Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.  They discovered during the two week tour how much they had in common including an unlikely support of several education programs. After Hurricane Katrina in 2008 they two joined together in raising over $130 million in relief.  When the program eventually was not needed, the funds were distributed evenly to the two men who then gave them to charities in the U.S. Gulf coast region. Bush observed on his relationship with Clinton that “politics does not have to be mean and ugly”.  Seems like light years ago from our perspective today.

Reflecting on the recent death of another great Navy flyer, Senator John McCain, it seems impossible to miss that with the passing of these two men our country is losing not just the people but the values of service and integrity they exemplified.  We hope during this coming week of memorials and remembrances that George H.W. Bush’s character traits of selfless service, integrity, honor and a humble love of all people is reborn, not lost on this generation.

Truth Has Lost It’s Most Important Defender – POTUS

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On November 23, 2018

In Common Good, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Power, Democracy, Oil, Self Interest, Social Responsibility, The Press, Wages

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Image: spjla.org

Just before Thanksgiving, the FBI briefed the president on what actually happened to Washington Post columnist Jama Khosshoggi, that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia had to know and give the order for his murder in the Saudi Turkish Consulate.

Instead of defending the constitutional right of freedom of speech and the press and those that work so diligently at revealing and publishing the truth – POTUS defended the brutal killing of Khosshogi.  In a wholly greedy, self-serving, money grabbing (as Dickens would put it) way he talked about how important Saudi oil was to the U.S and for the kingdom to keep buying U.S. arms – killing thousands of innocent Yemeni people along the way.

The Truth lost its most important defender today.  We all lost out to geo politics and power in its most naked way.  The message being sent by our President is: “as long as you keep paying us and buying our stuff you can kill anybody you want and we will look the other way, including journalists”.  Historians will look back on this event as the low point for Truth in this country and the defense of the Press.

Our founding  fathers knew that a strong press was crucial to keep government in check from overreaching with its power over the people.  Jefferson and Madison believed in the American experiment that a well-informed citizenry will in the end make wise decisions about who and how they should be governed.

This president with all his demagoguery, scapegoating, bullying and no respect for the truth has taken the moral level of our country to a new low – in our eyes and the eyes of the world. He passed the 5,000 mark in falsehoods, misleading statements and just plain lies as recorded by the Washington Post this past September.  He has actually increased the number of falsehoods as he was campaigning for candidates he backed to an average of 32 per day from 8 per day up to his 601st day in office.

Journalists are under attack around the world, in the first 6 months of 2018 there has been 47 journalists killed worldwide almost the same number as for all of 2017.

Source: Statista – 2018

With nearly double the number of deaths through June 2018 journalists have a target on their backs.  Our POTUS did not help the situation by sending the message that dictators can kill journalists and there is no consequence.  When worldwide we a renewed focus on the truth, instead we are giving a green light to the creation of lie after lie.

Our national leaders need to be defending journalists throughout the world and in the U.S in particular because they are the investigators, researchers and messengers of truth.  Truth is the fresh air of democracy.  Our democracy cannot survive as a representative government when the truth and those who find and express the truth are under attack.

Congress and our national leaders need to take action to show the Saudi government that we want a relationship with the nation, not their present brutal leader, and the Saudi people.  We must defend the Truth, Liberty and Freedom wherever it is under attack in the world.

Ignorance Over the Common Good? Blind Governance is Dangerous!

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On November 16, 2018

In Climate Change, Coal, Common Good, Corporate Power, Corporate Reform, Environment, EPA

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: washingtonpost.com

Something’s not right.  My grandson is not playing soccer and POTUS nominates a coal lobbyist to lead the EPA?

We all feel it.  Right in the pit of our stomach, here in Northern California, while we are being hurt by the effects climate change.  While not completely to blame, the Butte County fire storm was compounded by global greenhouse gas effects and as a possible cause a spark from an electricity wire.

Something is not right.  As we experience in the Bay Area our eighth day of unhealthy air from the Camp Fire in the Sierra foothills. Those with lung diseases are shut away in their homes, people are not going out. Businesses that depend on foot traffic are seeing losses of 10 – 20 %. Football games like the Big Game, between Stanford and California are being rescheduled to December 1st – the first time that game has been rescheduled since the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Local universities and colleges are closed for classes: Stanford, University of California, Santa Clara University, De Anza College and many secondary school districts.

Yet, our President nominates a coal lobbyist to head up EPA?  The mission is in the name Environment Protection Agency, Not Environmental Destruction Agency.  Coal is a fossil fuel contributing to massive amounts of gas emissions warming our earth. Heating the planet every day.  Here is the path we are on toward 1.5  degrees C and eventual extinction of the human race:

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 11/15/18

My grandson’s soccer game was cancelled last Saturday and will be cancelled again tomorrow due to unhealthy smoke in the air.  Is this the new normal?  We don’t have to support this heresy destroying our environment, our families and our lives anymore!

Why in the world is a coal lobbyist heading up EPA?  Something is very wrong with this picture. Maybe the House Progressive Caucus has it right to camp out at Nancy Pelosi’s office the other day demanding climate change legislation.

We have accepted the status quo too long on climate change.  Industry priorities must come second to clean air, water and the planet period.

The sheer ignorance, lack of wisdom and understanding of science is killing our people, making life a struggle for thousands, shortening life expectancies and reducing the sales of legitimate businesses – all so coal companies that should be shifting their business from fossil fuels to renewables have not made the transition.  We should not be paying for coal company executive mistakes.

We need to be asking at what cost do we keep coal? It is clear the cost is too great.  We need to quit accepting the platitude  ‘it saves jobs’ and replace it with we want ‘live saving jobs’ for all. We can’t accept this environmental spiral downward for the ourselves and our planet. We must return to the Paris Climate Change agreement, renew investments in renewables, focus on clean jobs training and development.  Get on with it now, future generations and our planet are depending on us to make sound decisions and not accept blind governance one day longer.

Voter Turnout Highest in 100 Years As Citizens Start to Care

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On November 9, 2018

In Civic Virtue, Civil Discourse, Common Good, Voter Turnout

Photo: daytondailynews.com

Last weeks’ midterm election had the highest level of eligible voters participating in 100 years.  We need to go back to 1914 to find a comparable time when almost 50 % of the eligible voters did vote.  The turnout was higher than the presidential election of 2016 by 13 %.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 11-12-18

The remarkable shift is in large part due to the Trump presidency making clear that nothing short of the character of our democracy is at stake when we make choices about who our House and Senate representatives will be.

Will we go back to policies borne out of the 1930s toward nationalism, isolationism and trade wars (which led to WWII)?  Or will we move ahead, building a global community, where nations focus policies on a partnership of win – win for all, in peace.

Yet, as the ballots have been counted (though some continuing to be counted and recounted in Florida and Georgia), the political rhetoric between the newly empowered Democratic House and POTUS has started.  Hurling charges and counter charges and threats of investigations right and left.

In spite of the unacceptable behavior our politicians in Washington citizens have turned out in mass to make their concerns known with an ever more diverse House and a few new leaders in the Senate. With a diverse electorate beginning to make its voice known we can begin to build a consensus around the common good.  It is clear that we can’t move our country ahead in many areas including an economy that works for all if we don’t have people engaged.

While campaigns are often heated, with more heat than light on both sides of an issue, at least we see that people care. When people care, and get out and vote they are staking a claim in the future of our country.  That is a good thing and makes us hopeful for the future, even as torturous as it maybe to get to a better place for all in our democracy.

Dignity of Presidency We Can Agree On

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On November 2, 2018

In Civil Discourse, Common Good, Democracy, Families, Public Interest, Social Responsibility

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Image: YourLittlePlanet.jpg

A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, showed that nearly 70 % of all Americans agreed that the dignity of the presidency had been damaged by  POTUS.  Even, GOP members agreed with this finding by 40 %.  Another point most Americans agree on is that the President should be more consistent with previous presidents by a wide margin of 69 %, the majority of GOP members agreed by 57 %.

We look to our Chief Executive to set the tone for national discourse on critical issues facing the country – not abusive language, mocking, and divisive rhetoric most of which is untrue.  It is heartening to see that most Americans see what is happening today as being out of bounds in the dignity and behavior of the present Chief Executive.  Americans still have respect, and support a President who is seen as fair, truthful and exemplifying dignity.

If we can’t get the building of civil national discourse going at the top – let’s start building from the grass roots up.  The following observations on building service in our lives is attributed to Mother Teresa:

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway, What you spend years building, some could destroy overnight.  Build anyway.  The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.  Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you have got anyway. You see, in the final analysis it is between you and your God…anyway.”

Over 80 % of Americans believe in God or some higher spiritual force.  Maybe we start with the universal understanding that as spirit beings we need to be building our communities, families and relationships with each other.

Let’s start building regardless of whether we receive a positive response in return or our motives are suspected.  The world needs nothing less than the best we have to give today to bend the arc of universal justice toward equality and peace.

Our Leaders Set the Tone of Civility, Yet We Can Change It

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On October 26, 2018

In Common Good, Democracy, Electoral College Fix, Public Interest, Social Responsibility

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: cityofhomer-ak.gov

It is next to impossible to have a national conversation toward the Common Good when our POTUS is using threats, invective, fear, hate, mocking and inciting violence as political tools.  The national media repeats all these negative, destructive emotions which invite and give permission to those who would breed and support divisiveness and lack of compromise.  We need to wake up to the fact that the combination of authoritarian politics and instant media will undercut the voices of reason and compromise creating hurricane force headwinds for any reasonable proposal.

Our founding fathers saw that compromise was a critical element in the success of the American experiment which is why they designed a ‘compromise forcing’ structure to our government – Congress, Supreme Court, and President.  They did not want to create a parliamentary democracy as a structure because they saw the majority wielding too much power in both the legislative and executive. Yet the Elite minority and mega corporations run the show in Washington. We have a borderline authoritarian Executive branch, an uncompromising Congress and lifetime conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.  The Electoral College system undermines our democracy by allowing a President to be elected without  a plurality of votes.  The installation of a President who does not represent the selection of the majority of the people sets the stage for more divisiveness because the majority feels their ideas have been left out of the political process. Even worse is the loss of legitimacy toward the Executive branch and the policies and programs it implements.  Citizens then go after these illegitimate policies and those administering them with even more angst applying uncivil tactics to be heard.  Accosting our elected officials, and agency leaders in restaurants by heckling them or otherwise making their normal day to day life miserable is not the way to build bridges of communication, understanding and respect.

What is the antidote to this incivility?  There are at least two things we can do.  First, Melanie Rudd, an assistant professor of marketing t the University of Houston found in her studies on happiness that people felt better after they had done something kind or good for someone else.  This observation makes sense as we all can experience this feeling in our lives particularly if we grew up in a family where our parents demonstrated how service and acts of kindness made our lives happier.  Or, at work when our company leaders support charitable causes ‘doing the walk for cancer research’ etc.

Second,  as in our family or at work our identification with a group doing good things helps to create ‘kindness contagion’.  Jamil Zaki, assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University has studied kindness contagion in depth. He found that kindness can be transmitted , “We find that people imitate not only the particulars of positive actions, but also the spirit underlying them.”

So maybe by doing good things in service to others, in a group we can change the underlying spirit today toward civility, compromise and consensus moving our country forward.

Toward A Solutions Focused National Dialog

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On October 19, 2018

In Civic Virtue, Common Good, Democracy, Public Interest, Social Responsibility

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: better-angels.org

On the right we have a president who mocks a woman who was sexually assaulted at a campaign rally, on the left protesters stalk legislators at restaurants and taunt them while they eat.

What’s happened to our national dialog?  Why can’t we talk to each other in a way that sets up a supportive communication channel leading to solutions?  Abraham Lincoln saw the need for civil dialog to bring a divided nation together in his first inaugural address:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory … will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Recently, volunteers from the left, right and political persuasions across the board were represented at a conversation day hosted by Better Angels in Washington D.C.  The host group takes its name from the Lincoln quote focusing not on changing people’s minds but instead on just helping people to understand and respect each other – on common ground.  The founder, David Blankenhorn, started the group in Ohio after he had become friends with a gay man and changed his position on same sex marriage as a result.  Blankenhorn has developed seven habits of good discourse to keep the dialog on a positive level even in fierce disagreement.  He sees deep polarization due to multiple factors: “The intellectual habits of polarization include binary (Manichaean) thinking, absolutizing one’s preferred values, viewing uncertainty as a weakness, privileging deductive thinking, assuming that one’s opponents are motivated by bad faith, and hesitating to agree on basic facts and the meaning of evidence.”

We underline the last point, agreement on basic facts is missing from much of our dialog today.  As most Americans get their news from non-journalist sources: Facebook, Google, and Twitter.  These social media outlets sprung onto the news stage from opinion based businesses, run by entrepreneurs who are more programmers whose interest is in creating opinion platforms not fact based platforms.  Facebook, Google and Twitter are now scrambling to find journalists and news professionals to rein in the runaway opinions and falsehoods that proliferate on their sites.

As a society we are left with only a few major national newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Washington Post for thoughtful in depth analysis, Major television news organizations are more focused on sound bites than drilling into issues in any depth.  The PBS News Hours does bring in experts from multiple points of view on an issues to create context and deeper understanding of the topic.  Yet, the audience of social media is in the tens of millions while PBS News Hour is seen by a far smaller audience.

Where do we go today? Better Angels, Spaceship Media and Institute for Civil Discourse all host conversations across the political divide.  Yet, it is a huge cultural issue tearing apart the fabric of our democracy.  To repair our democracy and return our federal government to the people requires seeking the common good over all our basic positions – or we can never reach enough consensus to move ahead as a unified society.

The Press Needs To Help Build the Common Good

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On October 12, 2018

In Common Good, Democracy, Internet, Social Responsibility, The Press

 

Image: epceurope.eu

While, it is necessary that all of us be engaged in building the common good – the press establishes the national dialog on major issues.  When the press focuses on reporting problems only, with no solutions, monitoring or follow up we are left with a sense of frustration, desperation and hopelessness.  One way the press can make a difference is to stick up for the people who cannot defend themselves.  Recently, the PBS News Hour, assigned their correspondent to follow a three year old immigrant girl through her process of being reunited with her parents after separation at the border.  PBS by staying on the story, asking the hard questions and continuing to press the administration for her status illuminated the fate of thousands of other children.  A  week ago, The New York Times completed an in depth analysis of the Trump family fortune and how Donald Trump acquired his fortune essentially as a gift from his father paying very little in taxes.

We see these in depth analyses and vigilant reporting as necessary to keep the truth flowing to citizens to help them make good decisions.  Yet, reporting on major topics often winds up being a sound bite of 30 seconds or a few short sentences quoting a Senator or Congressman with very little context.  The text of what the legislator says is scrolled across the bottom of the TV screen in summary form, with no data, context or way to follow up.

The internet makes available a wide variety of reliable research sources such as local, state and federal government agencies, non-partisan research groups and universities. Corporations have finely tuned their decision processes around a simple approach – gather data from all sides of an issue or topic both qualitative and quantitative, analyze the data, look into various solutions, present multiple solutions to decision makers, then decide.

The public today has major issues that need to be addressed by government agencies and their leaders – we need high quality reviews and analysis available to everyone to make good voting decisions.  The old style of journalism focused on a lead to grab attention and then fill in the details later through the body of the story or at the end needs to be examined in the Internet age.  Front page news can continue to present headline stories, yet they should be placed into context, with qualitative and quantitative data, presented graphically for easy viewing, with expert analysis from 360 degree points of view.

The fact there are only a few national newspapers, which fewer people are reading does not help the situation toward building the Common Good. We need Internet providers like Facebook, Google and Twitter to be the next generation of journalists, instead of feeding the fragmentation and opinion masquerading as news.  A quick reading structure to the story, using multimedia maybe thought of as the ‘teaser’, graphics and charts with expert analysis from multiple points of view.  Every story needs to go the next step and focus on how to solve  the problem presented.  Often, only problems are published leaving the reader with no way to take action.  Some stories, do leave Internet links or ways to contribute to a family who had a fire and needs shelter.  Yet, the major stories of our time: climate change, opioid epidemic, workers being left out of the economic mainstream, loss of hope in ghetto areas, or escalating health costs are not covered in an action enabling format. In this blog we have taken a building toward the common good and action approach by starting with a basic issues, providing a graphic of data from a non-partisan source, then follow up alternatives and action to solve the.problem.

The press needs to take responsibility for the fractionalization happening when a constant drone of problems are broadcast to people with no follow up, no facts for building a common understanding, presentation of alternatives and next steps for action to solve the problem.  We need to become a problem solving society and the press in how they communicate issues to us can take us a long way toward a common good building nation.

Building Economic Independence Can End Hopelessness

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On September 28, 2018

In Common Good, Consumer Protection, Corporate Reform, Education, Entrepreneurship, Heartland Economics, Household Debt, Social Responsibility, The Elite

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Image: operationhope.org

The greatest threat to a civil society are people without hope.  They are angry, feel the system is rigged and look for scapegoats as the cause of their poor economic standing. This group left out of the economic mainstreams is located in rural regions where globalizations has taken jobs, and in inner cities where companies have fled to the suburbs. These people that John Hope Bryant calls, The Invisible Class, are off the economic grid, and largely left out of the political mainstream as well except when they demonstrate on the streets when a policy has gone too far.

Economic independence is crucial if we have an economy that works for the 99 % not just the 1 %. To build economic opportunities our governmental policies and programs must ensure a level playing field for all people and support a high quality education for all income levels.

It is about building our society for the common good. It means enabling building enterprises, non-profits and organizations that serve people. Our policies should be about enabling the ability of people to build. We need to rethink our framing of labor from a cost to an asset which it always was. Capital means in the Latin root ‘knowledge in the head’ derived from the capital end of a column at the top in a building.  Poverty is not about money so much as a dearth of relationships and know how to build the skills toward a productive life, where money is a indicator of success.

Somehow the early accountants working for middle age Venetian families invented double entry accounting systems with debits and credits called assets money, land and equipment while labor was labeled an expense. Labor is viewed as an expense to this day because the owner-entrepreneur has to pay employees to work.  Workers have had the ‘cost’ yoke around their necks ever since.  Yet, are employees really a cost?  The staff are the ones doing the work, creating the product or service and solving the problems – money does not create the product or service only people do. CEOs are often heard to say that employees ‘are our key asset’ but then treats them like second class citizens in making policies in the company, gaining a fair share of the profits or enjoying job hours flexibility. Today, Wall Street applauds wages being stagnant for the 80 % while profits go up and wealth accumulates for The Elite.

We need to change our perspective about people and their labor. How do we build an economy that works for all? One way is to focus on enabling, The Invisible Class with economic independence.  Bryant points out that most of these people have credit scores at 550 or below, so they can’t get jobs, buy automobiles, or purchase a home.  In short they can’t participate in the economic mainstream. Bryant’s Operation Hope program teaches those in poverty how to increase their credit scores, start businesses and strategies for accumulating wealth.  By bringing them into the economic mainstream they can begin to feel more confident about their lives and the future. Operation Hope has partnered with Bank of the West who invited Bryant to locate Operation Hope offices inside their branches. Bank of the West in a far reaching vision understands educating prospective customers on the good use of credit and finance will make them better customers and likely to come back for additional services.

We need to learn from programs like Operation Hope, understand its key elements and see how to implement its tenets and power on a major scale like the Marshall Plan if we are to make a dent in the level of poverty in the Heartland or cities.  The only way we are going to increase the size of our economy in a fundamental way is to empower millions of workers who are out of the economic mainstream.  We have more companies going bankrupt then new businesses being started for the first time since WWII. It  is time to recognize we have people who are assets with innovative skills to can build an economy that works for all.

What are our goals as Americans?

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On September 14, 2018

In Common Good, Democracy, Education, Self Interest, Social Responsibility

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Image: bu.edu

We need to come together on what we all want if we are to have a government that works for all not just the rich. What are our goals?  What is our mission as a country?  What binds us together in seeking the common good?

The Preamble to the Constitution provides insights and guidance:

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Let’s look at the first phrase ‘ to form a more perfect union’ – this phrase implies that things are not perfect that the country is a work in progress.  To ‘establish justice’ for all means not a system of justice just for the top 1 % or the privileged.  Justice means that the law is blind to outward power or religion, race, color or other personal factors.  Justice says that equality of justice for all under the law needs to happen in applying the law to all, so the poor, black or others don’t feel the weight of justice on them greater than other people. To ‘ensure domestic tranquility’ we won’t enjoy life, raise families, perform in our jobs, or provide service if our country is in constant uproar or unsafe.  Peace needs to be protected and available to every citizen, including those living in ‘unsafe areas’, they have a right to live in a safe neighborhood too.  Tranquility means the political dialogue between difference points of view is conducted in civility and respect.

To ‘provide for the common defense’ means that we expect our government to keep us safe from foreign aggression and the government – not vigilantes are to keep the peace under the Constitution. To ‘promote the general welfare’.  Key environmental elements of our existence we all share; air, water, land  means we will be strident in protecting our natural resources. We need to support institutions that sustain the general welfare like federal, state and local agencies that ensure we have access to all these environment elements but also, education, health and freedom to travel.

Finally, to ‘secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity’ implies that there is equality of opportunity for all.  We all have differences, we have the liberty to pursue whatever goals we have for our lives, our families and our friends.  We need to ensure that equal opportunities are safeguarded and provided for all regardless of wealth, race, color, religion or orientation. Education is a keystone to our providing a path for those at the lower end of the income scale to apply themselves, get a good education and contribute to our country to the highest level of their ability possible.

Our country thrives as the most prosperous country in the world because we let people be free to follow their dreams and help those who come to our shores to pursue their dreams here.  We need to remember the goals the Preamble to the Constitution sets out to establish through a government by the people. We must become united in these shared goals to make real progress in solving the national problems we face.

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