Jan 6 2019
This week, I heard wise words from two women who wield their power judiciously, and pondered the technology race between America and China. (Oh, and a Happy New Year to all!)
As The World Turns
No voting, no democracy?
One of the bedrocks of a democracy is for people to believe they’re electing their political leaders without fear or favor. As Americans witnessed the House of Representatives pass the leadership gavel to Democrat Nancy Pelosi, we begin two years of divided government between the Republican and Democratic parties, a check and balance the way America’s founding fathers intended. (I often wonder if a divided government’s pace of deliberation can still best serve a country’s interests when technology and competition are running at supersonic speed…but that’s a philosophical discussion for another day!)
In Speaker Pelosi’s first speech to the House, she deftly quoted the late President Ronald Reagan, a Republican party icon, to remind the entire House of how and why new Americans are important to the lifeblood of the nation:
“As President Reagan said in his last speech as president: “If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.””
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House, 116th Congress of the United StatesAnd as part of their first order of business, the Democratic majority in the House put forth the HR1 bill, a sweeping anti-corruption proposal that, among other things, seeks to restore voting rights to all Americans, and to purge partisan tactics that tip the voting scale in their favor.
Late last year, a prominent South African leader was asked to weigh in on the current state of electoral politics in America. Graca Machel, the widow of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, artfully dodged commenting on the current US president and, instead, asked the larger question of whether our electoral systems are still working for the people.
“As President Reagan said in his last speech as president: “I will escape talking certain individuals and leadership. I will leave that for other people to do it. But I think there is a kind of perversion of the rules through which we elect, which means we select those who should be the best amongst the best precisely to defend and to protect the interests of the majority.
So, if there is one thing I believe we should think about again is whether the electoral systems which we have, are they really delivering in terms of the will of the people, which means the majority of the people? And I’m not talking about the developed world alone, even in our part of the world.
So, let me say the mechanisms and the institutions and the operation we have put in place as the foundations and the edifice of delivering democracy today, I think we should revisit. And to say, are they adequate? Is this the results which we intend? In many cases, I doubt.”
Graca Machel
Mozambican politician and humanitarian, in an interview with CNN's Christiane AmanpourHow China’s politics may help it achieve preeminence in space
There is a lot to love about the idea of American democracy, of the peaceful transition of executive (presidential) power every 4 or 8 years to keep America’s leaders honest, non-extremist, and inclusive.
This week, when China announced that they’d made history by being the first to land a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the moon, an American science news correspondent compared China’s military (and therefore semi-covert and state-sponsored) space program to America’s more civilian space program (albeit with a lot of military facets) which is subject to the whims of political transitions of power and policy priority.
I wonder…and will dig a little more into American history to know for sure…what’s changed since May 25, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy declared that the US “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth?” Does space now hold a “been there, done that” place in the American imagination?
In 2018, the current administration did propose a Space Force, chiefly to address adversarial threats to satellites that are crucial to communications systems. But that feels too remote and abstract a threat, particularly when America has yet to handle critical challenges on home soil, like healthcare and social equity.
Om Is Where The Heart Is
Using art to heal his community
Vijay Gupta is a Juilliard-trained violinist who found his peace and purpose on the streets of L.A. His heart opened to the suffering of L.A.’s homeless community, and began playing his soul-healing music for them.
Working with and for the homeless helps Vijay move through life in more profound ways. I commend this video of his powerful story to you.
News and Views
To podcast, or not to podcast?
I launched a podcast for executives in late 2014, to feature books that dwell on more than the business or tactical leadership bestsellers that every other podcaster seemed to harp on. I believe we’re all here to develop into the fullest possible version of ourselves, and intellectual how-to books are only one part of the personal development picture.
As America’s game-changing presidential elections kicked into gear in the middle of 2015, I realized that my podcast needed to go even deeper, and champion even more important issues of the day, the sorts of issues that I now write about in this Peace Matters newsletter. (We’re all in this life- and world-improving boat together – executives, citizens, thinkers, and creators/innovators – and nobody should sit things out anymore.)
The podcast began to meander and lose steam in 2016, in search of a different North Star. And when the election results rolled in, in early November 2016, I knew I needed to rethink the fundamental premise of the podcast. So I’ve let it lie fallow since Jan 2017. (That’s something that podcasting/marketing experts say you should never do, because you’ll lose your listeners. But I wasn’t sure my listeners would even align with the next iteration of my podcast, so I was willing to risk that loss.)
This week, after 2 years of thinking through what books truly belong on the show, I’m ready to reboot the podcast. I’ve been getting into the technical weeds all week, solving problems like: do I change the podcast intro, do I use the same technology as before, how do I streamline my workflow even more etc.
And I’ve been comforted by an email from a new listener, someone who gets the more soulful essence of what I’d hoped to convey in older episodes. She suggested a book I might feature in an upcoming episode, a book that’s already on my to-read list. What lovely validation that there will be a new group of listeners, eager to hear my new episodes!
I’m grateful, and excited to relaunch the podcast when it’s ready.
In the next issue:
There will hopefully be good news on the US government shutdown front. 🙏 And I’ll share more updates on bringing information and clarity through this newsletter, and via that podcast for executives.
Till then…
Live well and lead large – Maya
(featured image of Graca Machel from face2faceafrica.com.)