Message Rain
  • Home
  • About us
    • Legal Entity & Privacy Policy
  • Books
    • a man wearing a dress >
      • About This Book
      • Ordering
      • Excerpts
      • Study Guide
      • Note from the author
      • Bookseller Info
      • Promotional Items
    • Still Life (without the vase)
    • Poetry Looks at Itself
  • Events
    • Workshops
    • Scheduling
  • Blogs
    • Announcements
    • Gender Blog
    • Topic Blog
    • Good News Department
    • Inner Blog
  • Other Products
    • Stickers
    • T-Shirts
    • Buttons
  • Our Messages
    • I don't blame you
    • Please
    • That takes ovaries!
    • Sacred Sexuality
    • We blame Glenn!
  • Support
  • Sister Sites
  • Contact Us

Bigger Surprises Coming?

11/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Perhaps Donald Trump is just as unprepared to be President of the United States as we were unprepared to see him win the election.

I know some people are trying to change the outcome of the election (via recounts or by pressuring the Electoral College).  To me, those efforts will eventually amount to nothing.

I had a thought.  What if, after 100 days or so, Donald Trump resigns?

Oh, come on.  It's not so far fetched.  Here are my reasons why this might happen.

1.  I hear that he keeps making outrageous statements on Twitter.  Perhaps that played well during the campaign, but it's not very presidential.  We expect our President to be calm and assume something of a "Father Knows Best" role, a wise person who can keep our national 'family' on a steady course, not behave like a younger sibling who is always causing trouble.  What if he just can't stand to give up his old ways?

2.  A more serious reason might have to do how much harder it is to get anything done as President versus his experience with power over his various businesses and reality TV shows.  You can't just snap your fingers and expect immediate obedience.  Quick decisions typically do not go well.  There is the vast machinery of government as well as the complexity of relations with other countries around the world.  The fate of billions of people (literally) can be affected.  A chief executive with a short attention span and an impulsive personality is, ... shall I say, ... incompatible?

Perhaps Mr. Trump will just say to hell with it all and go back to making money and living high on the profits, something he obviously enjoys.

​3.  That brings me to the third question.  Can he really leave all his business interests to be run by a third party in a blind trust.  OK, perhaps being President of the United States is such a big deal, that he will somehow force himself to let go of all that.  At the moment, I don't see more than the first few stages in the grief process:  Denial, anger, and bargaining.

4.  The biggest question of all is how he will deal with a critical loss of popularity.  Very soon, it will become obvious to everyone (especially the 60 million people who voted for him), that he will be unable to accomplish most of what he promised during the campaign.  Perhaps some items on his list, such as making Mexico pay for the wall, were acknowledged by his supporters with a nod and a wink anyway.

But the most critical of his campaign promises, that he will "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy and corruption in Washington, is very likely to be dragged down by the very quagmire of government bureaucracy he is trying to eliminate!

After all, we're not only governed by our famous Constitution, a document small enough to keep in your shirt pocket.  We are actually governed by billions of words of enacted laws, judicial findings (aka 'case law'), and written government regulations that result from all that.  The number of employees who carry out those laws and enforce those regulations runs into the millions, all of whom hope to keep their jobs.  Add the significant influence from the so-called private sector and political action committees to the mix and you get a gigantic intertwined morass.  Sweep away one thing and something else becomes an immediate problem.

Thus, as we drift further and further away from his campaign promises, his approval ratings will plummet.  The voters who supported him will become disgusted and disillusioned.  Here was the guy who was going to fix all this and now he's turning out just like the others!  Say one thing and then end up doing pretty much what the last guy did, once you get in power.

Look at what happened to Barack Obama.  We started with thousands of images of his shining solarized face, looking toward the sky in with the phrase "Yes, we can!" beneath.  Does all that optimism now seem foolish in hindsight?  If we had elected Hillary, the first woman, would any of this have changed much?  I seriously doubt it.

​What is Donald Trump's tenacity in the face of this daunting task?  Where will he find the strength to persevere when the results are bound to be so disappointing?  Stay tuned!
0 Comments

Everyday Revolution, Part 2 - The Dollar Coin

11/23/2016

0 Comments

 
Over the last 16 years, I've circulated hundreds of dollar coins, probably over a thousand by now (I've kept some of the empty wrappers, as you can see in the photo).

Why?

​For the same reason that the Canadians and all of Europe has used a coin for their single monetary unit. That's because paper dollar bills wear out in about 2 years or less.  Coins will last 30 to 40 years before they wear out.
Picture
​Every year, we waste hundreds of millions of dollars printing new dollar bills to replace those that have worn out. And every year, we waste millions of gallons of water to make the paper, prepare the ink, print and cut and distribute the bills, and so on.  A huge environmental impact!  So why do we do this?

1.  In 1979 the mint designed a dollar coin that was very similar to the US quarter.  They were the same color, had the same kind of reeded (ridged) edge, and were just slightly larger in size (which was done to lower the cost of converting vending machines and parking meters, etc. to accept them).  Naturally, the public was upset when getting them mixed up with quarters, thus spending a dollar by accident and losing 75¢ in the process.  However, since 2000, newer coins have been minted.  They are a different color and have a smooth or embossed edge.  They look and feel very different from quarters.  If you can tell the difference between a dime and a penny, you won't mistake a dollar from a quarter.  If you find an old one in a roll, don't spend it, just take it back to the bank.

2.  We have the perception that they are too heavy.  Sure, a single dollar coin is heavier than a paper dollar.  But 4 quarters are heaver than a single dollar coin, so if you are using a coin operated device, they weigh less!  On average, most people are carrying only 3 dollar bills at a time, so the actual weight is negligible, when compared to all the other items most people carry around with them.  They are much easier to use in vending machines than paper money, which often gets creased and dog-eared. They never stick together, even when brand new, so they're easier to count.
So, if you want to start using dollar coins, where do you start?

1.  Ask for a roll at the bank window, keep it at home, and take a few around with you and spend them wherever you use cash.  Replenish them in your wallet or purse when you return home.

​2.  If you don't have any on you, and you're purchasing something with cash, ask for them in change. Let the retailer know that you like using them. They might not have any to give you,
Picture
but the more people ask, the more likely the retailer will have them available to use for change in the future.

3.  Ask local government to install parking meters. etc. that can accept dollar coins.  Ask anywhere cash is used, such as for vending machines, coin laundries, etc.  Write letters to the editor, comment on blogs, on social media, etc. that you are in favor of using dollar coins.  Feel free to post the URL of this blog entry as widely as possible.


Our trees, lakes, and rivers ... and taxpayers ... will thank you. 
0 Comments

Life a Journey?  Perhaps not?

11/23/2016

0 Comments

 
I've become fond of this piece.  I've watched it a few times already.  We're moving from the 'treadmill' culture to a new one.  Bring on the music, the dancing, the hugs!

Sure, there are journeys during life.  You move to a new place to live and set up housekeeping there.  But I'm looking to see these things are small parts of the greater dance.

As I've been saying for quite some time, we're moving from one cultural norm to another during these decades:
- from linear to simultaneous (life path to life dance, as in this video)
- from uniformity to diversity (one size fits all to a different size to accommodate each one)
- from static to kinetic
- from hierarchy to network
- from male domination to gender balance and diversity
​- from medicine to health

0 Comments

Learning from where we are now

11/21/2016

0 Comments

 
I just read this entire opinion piece. To me, this represents a change in thinking, or approach, that hadn't occurred to me until I read it.

(By the way, I see the publishing of this opinion as a positive result of the recent election.  If Hillary had won, would we be talking about this topic this way?  I'm not so sure.)

After reading this, I realized how it connects to my theme of getting together with others who are not from your same identity group, listening to them, and finding common ground with them.  We can't do this just by logging onto Facebook or watching a video feed from a news channel we don't normally watch.  It's not that easy.

It involves a face to face sit-down somewhere, and it will take time.  So, I know I'm asking a lot.  But I don't think there is any substitute for it.

I must admit, I haven't taken the time to try it yet.  I'm still pondering exactly how to proceed.  At least I won't have to travel far.  There are communities only a few miles from where I live with people in very different circumstances from mine.  I am still thinking about how to get started.

Perhaps, as I have often said, I might do well to start with learning how other people have done what I'm recommending, then take what I learn from their experience and adapt it to create my own way.
0 Comments

What will change and how that will come to be

11/19/2016

0 Comments

 
A friend just sent me a link to this article about double government. I read the whole thing.

Yes, it's from the mainstream press (The Boston Globe).  In spite of that, I give it a lot of credibility. Of course, it jives pretty well with my take on how government works anyway, so that's my bias. It also jives with my conviction that most of what's 'wrong' these days is not due to nefarious (evil intentioned) people, but is much more likely to be due to incompetence, lack of information, poor communication, etc.

We love to blame people for being badly intentioned. To me, that's the easy way out. I think we feel safer if we think we know the cause of something that disturbs us. But often the truth is much more difficult to conceive of, much harder to accept.

Sure, there are some bad actors out there. But they are in the minority, in my opinion. Most people seem to be well intentioned, even if not always well informed. I do not confuse this with cynicism. Hey, I even get cynical from time to time. But I think of myself as still having a good heart.

Look at how ordinary people react when their town has been struck by a tornado, for example.  The vast majority of people pitch in to help each other find their belongings, get to shelter, and even help rebuild.  Looting and acts of aggression are typically non-existent. These are the good hearts of which I speak.

------------

So, if the subject of the article I referenced above is correct, what can we ever do about it?  If the United States now has about 325 million people, a federal budget in the trillions of dollars, and integral relationships with giant industries, institutions, etc., how can we possibly change anything?  Even most state governments have grown (along with the population they serve) into hopelessly complex bureaucracies that often seem more more interested in self preservation than in serving the public.

The first step in attacking a problem is to recognize the problem itself, right.  OK, I'll go with that.  If most citizens here in the USA don't think they can trust their elected leaders (because they're all crooks, or at least way too self centered), then we have a lot to do to bring about more recognition of the problem!

Here's my message:  It's not bad people, it's asking good people to do a job that they are literally unable to do, then blaming them for it.

When you look at it that way, it's no wonder that most elected representatives who were good at compromise and working things out have left Congress long ago.  They often say "... so I can spend more time with my family."  What they don't say is, "The job has become impossible to do anymore.  I'm being forced to violate my basic principles and sacrifice my own integrity." They don't say that, probably because almost nobody will believe them.  Perhaps it will sound like sour grapes.  Or, we'll ignore them and conclude that they're bowing out now just to avoid losing the next election.   Perhaps we'll tell them, "You just didn't try hard enough!"

I've said this many times before, "Size Matters!"  By that I mean that our huge population alone is perhaps the biggest factor.  How can anyone, or even any congressional committee or any other entity, really understand the needs of 325 million people?  Millions of people who are attempting to honor and respect diversity more and more every day, and thus cannot be served by monolithic government programs designed for a uniform population?

The answer is, it's difficult or impossible.  So what we need to change is not who is in office, but the very ways we govern ourselves in the first place.  Essentially, we are too big to be a single nation anymore.  In fact, we haven't been a single nation for quite awhile now. We're just pretending because we're too in fear of not pretending.  That's my take on it, anyway.

My message is this:  Please don't be afraid.  The shift of power to a more local level is already taking place and it's largely a good thing.  We are not devolving into a chaotic uncivilized mass.  We are constructing new ways to organize ourselves.  We're doing that in the typical messy inexact ways we human beings have always done things.  As mistake ridden and inefficient as it might seem, we're making progress.  The evidence is all around us, if you know where to look for it.

If we devote all our attention to the one man we elected president and how bad he is likely to be, we're missing the point.  He is not the problem.  Please understand that.  He is only a symptom of a dying institution.  And it needs to die, over time.  The President of the United States will eventually become like the Queen of England.  A monarch with symbolic power; head of the country in name only.

It's time to find each other as human beings, not treat each other as mere statistics, the way giant government bureaucracies do.  The best way to do that is to keep what doing what we're doing already: Use social media and other means to discover each other, reorganize ourselves in small groups, stay well networked with others, and make careful decisions.  We are looking to find our place in nature as we change what we eat, how we use energy, and how we live more compatibly with the entire planet on which we live.

It may be easy to conclude that you as a single person can't really make any difference. I submit that, in fact, you are now and always have been the most important element of change.  There's no need to wait to be told by me or anyone else.  The principles are simple:  Connect with others.  Reason things out among you.  Choose love as your most important guiding principle.  Extend your love to include the natural world around us (for we depend on it for our very lives) and make changes at a pace that you can handle.

Easy?  Perhaps not. But possible?  Definitely.
0 Comments

Everyday Revolution, Part 1 - Buying into Mother Nature

11/16/2016

1 Comment

 
I just answered a phone call without looking to see who it was from.  It was a young woman who started reading a script.  She wanted me to choose their company for electricity generation.  She said I could save money on my electric bill by signing up for their really low rate.

At first, I told her I already have a supplier. I asked how their electricity is generated. She told me that it's 20% renewables.

So I said this:

"I have a contract for 100% wind power. I'm sorry, but I refuse to take the self interest route on this.  I don't care if I'm paying a little more. Look, we're facing the dramatic effects of climate change right now.  It's already happening!  And you want me to go with your system that burns fossil fuels to generate 80% of my electricity?  No way!

"I'm with Mother Nature on this one.  Me and Mother Nature are on the same team.  My self interest doesn't cut it, here.  I'm not going to be, ... I just can't be a cheap skate on this.  The health of the planet is a higher purpose than my wallet."

She kept asking if I was sure I wanted to keep paying more.  Finally, she understood my point and we agreed to end the conversation.  "Have a nice day," we each said.

I wonder what's going through her mind as she dials up the next customer, ...

Look, my decision on this won't make the same headlines as who got elected president.  Not by a long shot. But this is how we move the revolution forward! If enough people did what I'm doing (and yes, I know not everyone can afford to pay a little more), then the people building those pipelines across sacred lands, etc. would find their revenue drying up!

Please join me and put your money on the line with your principles. This is everyday power. This is the power that everybody, including the 1% and the big corporations understand like no other. Pull the financial rug out from under them and they will have to listen; they will be forced to adapt, regardless of who happens to be president.
1 Comment

Getting optimistic in the face of a Trump Presidency

11/16/2016

0 Comments

 
For many people, the election of Donald Trump feels like a giant headache coming on.  If you get a headache, you might take an aspirin to ease the pain.  Or, you could meditate, exercise, or get a massage, instead. You could even reflect on how headaches may stem from an internal conflict, a denial of the self.  My point is, these alternatives are meant to treat the causes of the headache, not just the symptoms.

Now that the election is over, we can lament or complain, but the question is: What can we do to treat the cause?  To me, Donald Trump's election is a symptom of something much bigger than he is!  I don't think just fighting his initiatives will really bring about the changes that we really want. So what can we actually do to create positive change?  

The first thing that comes to mind is to reach out to people who are different from ourselves. For example, people of other races and ethnic groups, or people who voted for Mr. Trump, or perhaps those who didn't vote at all. By reach out, I mean to listen to them and find common ground in order to connect with them, rather than try to "sell" our opinions to them instead. I plan to write more about how to do this in blog posts here, in the future.

​Another thing we can do is learn from others around the world. They can certainly show us some good alternatives to what we're doing presently! After all, it's easy to isolate ourselves here in the United States and forget that there are other ways to solve problems.

Rather than fly overseas to visit numerous other countries, there's an alternative: Let Michael Moore do the traveling for us! In his film, "Where to Invade Next," he visits other countries and compares how we do things to how they do them elsewhere. Rather than angry or bitter, I found his presentation very warm and optimistic, as well as humorous and ironic (Michael Moore's forte).  I highly recommend it.

We might not be able to replicate exactly what they do in other places, but there are some amazing models out there to learn about.

Of course there are plenty of other films, articles, and videos, online and elsewhere, that are full of ideas for positive change and action steps. But if you don't know where to start, I recommend starting with this film, then discuss!
0 Comments

By the Numbers - not what you might think!

11/12/2016

0 Comments

 
It's easy to get the impression that Hillary Clinton got more than half the popular vote. Actually, she didn't.  Neither did Donald Trump, for that matter.

I just checked web sites from the Census Bureau, the Election Project, and the Wikipedia page on the 2016 election.  I boiled it all down to this, in very round numbers:

325 million people live in the USA right now
220 million are eligible to vote (most of the rest are under 18)
136 million actually voted

So here's how the 220 million eligible voters actually behaved:
66 million people voted for Clinton

63 million people voted for Trump
7 million people voted for another candidate
84 million people did not vote.


So 'did not vote' won the election by a landslide!

The 66 million people who voted for Clinton are in a distinct minority; 66 out of 220 is only 30%! The same is true for Trump, only about 29% of voters voted for him.  91 million people (41%) didn't vote for either of them. To put it more bluntly, only 29% of eligible voters voted for Donald Trump, compared to 71% who did not.

I'm going to guess that almost all of the 7 million people who voted for another candidate did not expect their candidate to win. We cannot know how many of those 7 million can be considered a 'protest' vote.  What I can say is that voting for another candidate or not voting at all had the same effect on the outcome:  No effect.  

We don't know how many of the 84 million outright refused to vote as a protest, either.  Perhaps some of those actually tried to vote, but were blocked from voting by various hurdles.  I'll bet that more people decided not to vote out of despair with all the problems in government because they didn't expect that their vote would change any of that.  Or they were just so disgusted with the two major candidates and all the negative campaigning that they just saw no reason to vote for either of them (and certainly no reason to vote for any of the other third party candidates).

There may be a significant number of people who correctly reasoned that their one vote out of 220 million eligible voters is so incredibly insignificant, that it doesn't really matter. After all, the odds of being struck by lightning in the US are one in a million, so the odds of your vote counting is 220 times less likely!  Kinda makes the slogan 'every vote counts' seem a bit misleading!

You see, I think it's seriously wrong to blame the 91 million people who didn't vote for one of the two major candidates as being lazy or apathetic.  It think many of them are just as angry or despondent as many Hillary supporters are right now, now that she lost.

My point is, we are not running the democracy we might think we are running, here.  And I think that deserves more serious attention than it's getting. Our system does not really represent the majority of the people anymore.

We can impose term limits (of course, the president is already term limited), or try to get big money out of politics, but none of that will change the fact that one out of 220 million is extremely poor odds at making any difference.  And it will only get worse, as our population keeps growing, with more and more people eligible to vote every year.

​My recommendation is to find ways to focus much more on the local level, through voting or participating in networks or groups or other action, outside of government altogether. The USA has become Too Big To Manage and Too Complex To Comprehend (for most of us).
0 Comments

The Reality TV Effect, ... and what to do next

11/12/2016

0 Comments

 
Latest News: President Elect Trump just said there are parts of Obamacare that he wants to keep.

Wait a minute!  Didn’t he say, “I will absolutely get rid of Obamacare,” during his campaign? Yes, he did.  But now that’s changed. Here’s the link to the story. (Or you can watch the entire interview on “60 Minutes” this Sunday evening at 7 PM, on CBS stations).

This is exactly the kind of thing I predicted, right after he was elected.

So how did I know that?  I knew it because I was somehow able to keep thinking clearly, rather than feel panic or despair.  I reflected on how political campaigns really work; candidates say what they think will get them elected, then compromise on most of it once they get in office because that’s the only way to get anything done.  In that way, Donald Trump is no different.

The difference is, Donald Trump brought art of the campaign to a new level by applying his experience in reality TV.  Reality TV operates on a few basic principles:

1.  The more outrageous the premise and the action are, the bigger the audience.
2.  Overwhelm viewers with a flood of drama and raw emotion; logic and facts are useless.
3.  Attention spans are short.  What you say one minute won’t matter the next.

If you do all this, the press will come to you, you won’t have to go them.  The press wants to sell as many newspapers as possible, without breaking a sweat. You make their job is easy; they can just print what you say and they don’t have to waste any time doing research. You can even repeatedly insult the press itself and it won’t matter!  Meanwhile, traditional marketing plans, on-the-ground organization, and paid advertising are all unnecessary; they're a waste of time and money.  Oh, and one more thing: Be relentless!  Repeat some things over and over as long as the crowd keeps reacting.  Whatever you do, keep making new controversy and new headlines. 

The problem now is that a lot of people took all this seriously.  And not just the people who voted for him.  Many people who voted against him did also.  It was very tempting.  He said some pretty horrible things.  But it was all a carefully contrived plan, a staged act.  Mr. Trump may appear stupid, but don’t be fooled.  Most of the time, he knows exactly what he is doing.

So, now I see a bunch of people on the left who are in tears, angry, despondent, etc., and a bunch of people on the right who think bigotry is now in fashion more than ever.  And that’s a problem.  We need to be calm, aware, and ready to roll up our sleeves to tackle whatever comes next.

So, what do we do about this?  I don't have all the answers, of course, but here are some ideas:

1. If you took the bait during the campaign, it’s time to let go of it, as much as you can.  If you're too upset to do that right now, give yourself a little time.  If you have to cry, scream, pound on pillows, or the like, then go right ahead.  Perhaps a friend can help support you, through the process.  Yes, it was wrong for him to run a campaign like that and say those things.  But we can't go back and change that now.

2. Assume as little as possible and keep paying close attention.  Nobody really knows exactly what will happen next; almost everything is now in play. There are a lot more surprises to come.

3.  Stand firm against bigotry, but don’t get trapped into hating the bigot.  They got dazzled by the campaign ‘show’ just as you did.  They might need a way to save face, believe it or not.

4.  Remember that most Trump voters felt helpless in the face of the bureaucracy in Washington and the big money interests (sounds a bit similar to Bernie Sanders message, right?).  Many Trump supporters just ignored his bigoted remarks because they saw him as the only alternative who could really shake things up in Washington, especially when Hillary Clinton was seen as the only alternative.  Their response to her?  No way!  She won't really change anything.

5. Be ready to ask and listen. If you can do this, you will help all your friends, wherever they fall on the political spectrum.  Fighting is not our game and will just prolong the pain, so do as little fighting as you can.  Staying resentful and bitter won’t help much, either.  Our game has to be based on curiosity, understanding, and love.  If you think someone disagrees with you, active listening, without rebuttal, will probably do the most good. Be like a good reporter and concentrate on getting their story, rather than a debate captain who is trying to win something.  After all, there is very likely to be a real person inside there somewhere, and you might be surprised to find that you both have at least something in common.  You can build from there.

The act of listening and connecting is probably the most powerful thing we can do.  The more people can calm down and think clearly, the less likely some outrageous policy will get passed in Washington.  That's because more people are likely to be onto them and their game.  Our most powerful tool to implement change is a change in attitudes here on the ground.

Ok, this probably won’t be easy.  Democracy is not designed to be easy!  For some of us, perhaps the best advice is: Don’t try this at home!’   Get with others who know how to keep a level head in the face of upset.  Check out classes or information about resolving disputes and making connections, such as from the Public Conversations Project or the Center for Nonviolent Communication.
0 Comments

More Parties to Come

11/11/2016

0 Comments

 
The two party system is just about over, finally! The Democratic Party is going to break apart from infighting as the establishment types have been rebuked (nominating Hillary and losing the election is falling directly into their laps), and it's only going to get worse for them. Meanwhile, over on the Republican side, it's already happened. Their establishment types are now going to continue to fight with the TEA Party (along with President Trump), and their 'arch conservative' factions.
This is all for the good, in the long run. The two parties, firmly entrenched, have stifled innovation, creativity, and diversity for way too long. The federal government has become more and more run by big money interests no matter which party has been in power.
Fasten your seat belts! It's going to be quite a ride! We are already a country of greater and greater diversity, so we've outgrown two parties long ago. Now it's time for them to pay the piper.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Glenn Koenig is the manager of this and other web sites, an author, video producer, database designer, and volunteer.

    Archives

    October 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    March 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly