If you haven't attended one of these outhouse races you are missing the fun. This sport doesn't stink and comes from a long line of outhouse athletes. Trained in the backwoods of the U.P. they come into town to contend much like our ancient Greek Olympians (Some might wonder why this sport hasn't made into the Olympics yet. ð). Trenary Outhouse Classics Bring a team up and get in the race! Google Map Link. Stay in Escanaba for eats and treats.
We know that supply chains and emerging threats have come onto the global marketplace. The U.S. has an opportunity to maximize its position by partnering with its two closest neighbors to cover different aspects of the markets. Mexico as a low cost provider and Canada as a resource and manufacturing partner. Drawing some of our firms back from the international market and creating real innovative value in the U.S. is important for our success. (I could go on and on but I got to go get some work done.) From a security standpoint it also ensures we are closely tied to those markets and we have each other's general well being in mind.
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"The Runaway," Norman Rockwell, 1958 Source: NR Museum Runaway teaches a cop how "To See". |
There is an article in Police Chief Magazine that provides a perspective on some challenges law enforcement faces. It ranges from perception to skill set. The digital era will make policing one in which advance technical skills, science, and cognitive flexibility will be required to understand the unique. Leadership can come in many forms and while we glorify a certain kind of leader they are only one type.
Consider some history of the day in National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
You can also watch this motivating recruitment video. Training is adjusting and there will be new skills for a new time (Technology and cultural shifts will require change.) The more good people we have from diverse backgrounds (gender, age, race, religion, education, skills, cognitive, etc...people of shared vision.) the more successfully we can protect our communities from crimes and serve our communities through outreach/referral.
Does your threads of fate spin to a career in Law Enforcement? If you feel motivated by the video below perhaps you should explore that small idea and let it grow. I know some departments that might want to talk to you in their recruitment efforts.
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| Deer Hunting is part of the local tourism so from an economic standpoint and a herd management standpoint we want it to grow. This is a great article. Source: Drawing Detroit |
Right now Santos is in the news for his "embellishments" and seemingly inventing much of his knowledge, background and skills. You can read this article in the Guardian (It seems sort of a Left leaning paper but it has some benefits and some truth to it.). Read In Santos’s district, reactions to brazen lies remain mixed: ‘I might let him slide’ to freshen your memory.
I'm not going to bash Congressman Santos (Sorry I needed to edit) because there was some confusion and I'm unsure if he is a Congressman or not. ðĪ· Santos is the symptom and not the root. This issue might be a persistent problem in our current politics where there are many people working diligently toward honest governance and an unfortunate too many people eating at the trough of tax payer dollars without pushing our nation forward.ð·
"Embellishments" Lead to Intentional Candidate/Election Confusion
We Americans/"Americans" (Someday we may be able to use one word again depending on the choices of our leaders) already have a hard time trying to figure out who is telling the truth, who is trying to help/harm our country, what values our political candidates hold, and what their qualifications might entail. Throw on top of that "embellishments" all over the political spectrum and no wonder we are really unsure of who we are and are not voting for (Leaving us only a blind party vote).
Its an issue of general integrity because we must have the best, brightest, and most thoughtful people in Congress as they are designing, building and sailing this American Ship. Dangerous waters should encourage excellence from our helmsman (Gender neutral term.) because our kids are learning from them and our future options rely on their choices today. (P.S. I know a great place in the U.P. Congress should consider building ships. Sorry...shameless plug for my community. No seriously...I feel no shame in helping my community. I guess multiple birds with one stone.).
Just like a job, if you over "embellish" on your resume you could get fired because of potential loss/miss use of shareholder value (In this case its the American people). I think there should be some punishments for those who intentionally mislead on the paperwork that got them elected. One could make a case that We The People should have accurate info to make informed decisions. (In a weird way we might have elected a fictional character to Congress. I didn't think it was possible but here we are!)
In many ways one could make a moral fraud case out of intentionally dishonest information that led to the procurement of illicit benefits from the American taxpayer (i.e. the little people we forget about once we got to the top.) It kind of makes you wonder how many other Congressman (Used as a gender neutral term.) lied on their documents and paperwork to get jobs and important committee work they may not have been qualified for (Politics seems like such a game. Hopefully they are not rolling the dice on our futures.)?
(Yikes! We may not want to dig into the resume question too deeply. It could open a can of worms. ðŽ However if fate demands it, I would say what would be interesting is if we took the electronic version of everyone's resume at this screen shot moment {digital snap shot} and put them up for researchers and/or an ethics review committee. {We would probably want to ensure no one can go back post hoc edit them. Seems impossible right?} and then conducted a basic audit. We are not talking about small mistakes, or something from years ago, but present/recent "embellishments" that were obvious mistruths and would constitute a type of fraud. Would 1/3rd, 1/5th, 1/10th of resumes contain these major invented "embellishments"?)
We have examples of what happens in other places when people plagiarize and engage in "embellishments". Australian Labor Minister Resigns (Also why I encourage high integrity in higher education.)
What We Don't and Do Want to Happen
We need to change the culture of politics from "anything goes" to professional national management (When our decisions really have impact on the success of the nation and the ability to maintain the health of our democracy through being informed citizens.). I mean we should see some change if our democracy is more important than our politics (As an open question to my fellow Americans/"Americans". Do you think Congress will audit? There might be many reasons not to audit but it would be kind of telling right? Bi partisan committee, fact check resumes as a limited scope effort, punishments for actual embellishments and removal for gross "embellishments". We need the best and brightest at the top and not the most "connected". Sometimes we might need to make more room and correct an error. Perhaps 10% have some form of serious embellishment? We will probably never know. ðĪ Sorry, I sometimes go down these long strings of logic to see where they might end up. I digressed into a flight of fancy. ððððĻ )
I believe most (likely over half) are doing the right thing and doing it the right way. They are working in a culture that accepts certain things that would be inappropriate in other environments. Saying that means that we also recognize there is room for improvement and a willingness to get everyone on the same page so as to improve our national prospects and ensure the torch of liberty continues to shine light on our democracy.
Life Quiz (Disclaimer. Not an actual quiz.)
Life Question: Based on your personal experience and background are you more likely to pick the A.) Fast Track side of the spectrum or B.) Slow track to success? side of the spectrum.
Fast Track (Option A):
-Embellish your resume.
-Press button blindly for party loyalty.
-Represent 5% of society.
-Self-enrich.
-Say yes to everything that will keep me in office.
-Doesn't understand policies and doesn't read them (Someone will tell me what to vote for.)
-Listen only to the rich and powerful to change policies for more donations and money.
-Support nepotism over merit. This comes with the responsibility to remove people in my party that act as the "voice of conscious". (Its a problem everywhere and not just the U.S. Its a dangerous problem and often leads to human atrocities that are judged by history as immoral.)
-Subjective values that apply differently to different people (i.e. will spend more time hating the other side and coming up with one line zingers then doing my job and solving problems.)
-Pretend I'm perfect and have no insight into my behavior. No need to learn new things.
Slow Track (Option E):
-List what you have actually accomplished so Americans can make informed decisions (I would love to hear more about their dreams, visons and goals. If they can inspire, I believe "Americans" + Americans will follow. Oh my! If we keep going on that route I will have to start writing the word Americans as a single unified entity. Oh my!).
-Will consider the full scope of stakeholders needs before voting (Even the ones that didn't vote for me.).
-Willing to give up self gain for national gain in alignment with responsibilities.
-Listen to the needs of the poor and remove road blocks to success (Developing our human capital fully and broadly).
-Take the time to understand polices (I don't need anyone to tell me what I should believe. I will listen to both sides but I have a responsibility to understand how I'm casting my vote.)
-Listen to both sides and take extra time listening to those I disagree with or don't understand so as to better understand their needs and in turn craft better policy.
-Encourage universal inclusion versus exclusionary and divisionary politics and outcomes.
-Regardless of background I want the right people in the right jobs so to ensure my nation is strong and viable. (I would support having someone from another party take an important role if they were more qualified. That is how important we should take our roles and likely the level of decision making needed for the next chapter in this American novel.)
-Holds universal values and applies them fairly to people regardless of race, religion, background or any other superficial smallest worth heuristic projected distortion that has already done serious harm to our country.
-Be humble and understand I still have many things to learn about myself and others.
(Maybe we should have Congress take this little self reflection quiz before they run for office next time. We might be able to make this a Likert scale where they have to select from A to E based on their personal values. A.) 'I'm selfish and in government for the wrong reasons' all the way over to E.) 'I care about ALL people and want my democracy to be healthy.' If we were to further rank their answers we should probably not vote for those leaning heavily to the Fast Track A and vote more for those closer to Slow Track B. At least that would be my suggestion. ðĪ· )
(**That isn't a real study and its just for illustration purposes only.** The whole article is about getting people to think and make improvements to our national governance. A real study would need an actual validated instrument and go through many different trials before its considered to have utility.{ It likely has some construct validity that can be supported in others research though.ð} While we could develop a valid instrument with research, I bet in many cases the answer was decided a long long time ago. See Did They Pass the Marshmallow Test as kids? )
(Most are doing a great job but there is that minority of people who are creating a toxic environment for everyone else and detracts from the free flowing and free thinking environment leaders need to thrive {Thrive not just survive!}. We really have to wonder how and why some ever got into politics in the first place.)
"The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired and kept by men and women who are strong and self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives mankind – men and women who are just, and understanding, and generous to others -- men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves. For they are the rulers and they must rule themselves.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
It's hard to squint your eyes and see a world where people consistently do the right thing and they stand by their most basic American principles. Politics can push us forward or hold us back. While we may have barely made it through the most recent capital sacking event (We can say if we are pre or post extremism yet or what the consequences are if we don't come together.) we are unlikely to be completely done with these false beliefs and somewhat jaded view points from both parties.
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| Le Serment des Horaces Jacques-Louis David What is an oath worth today? (Americans and "Americans") We should be "One nation under God" |
What you will often hear are words like, "I'm representing my people" or "people voted for me and I'm their voice". That is partly true and partly not true. Its' sort of an embellishment of self-righteousness (Kind of like what I'm doing here. ð More to it than that, but its probably partly true. The difference is that I know it while many people around me have low insight into their own decision making processes. Sorry the last part is a truthful pun.) Based on the options available, people vote on what resonates with them. Sometimes there are people doing the right thing, but often we find people just saying things that others want to hear (The ones with integrity are often removed for those who follow the line....and that has already led to problems. It concentrates power and it allows that power to manipulate others. Democracies should be bottom up and have free thoughts and free ideas without bullying, pushing, lying, or taking advantage of others to get our way in adherence to 5% of those highly active. )
Leadership is more than that! I can pull study after study but what does it matter at the end of the day? We must change our hearts about the quality of our leadership and the need to ensure that they are governing for all of the American people and not just the sliver that was mobilized to vote for them. Our politicians are chosen to make wise decisions for us all; sometimes they do great and sometimes not.
If our politicians focus on governing for all the people and the nation versus their followers or party I think we could move through the next challenges with relative ease. If not, well we will bounce back to the same old behaviors that almost lost our nation the first time. An "American" is one who serves their people beyond their parties, beyond themselves, and beyond herd group adherence; at least in my limited mind (We are often more worried about the superficiality of those oaths and not their meaning.)
Consider Who are Wise? (I'm obviously not wise because I say things people don't want to hear.)
What is your Archetype? (Go judge for yourself and then go judge yourself)
Integrity and Leadership (We all have room for improvement. Some of us see where we can improve but many of the people who push to be in politics don't see the need for self improvement as accurately as they should. That leads to all types of erroneous choices.)
America is an experiment and lets not taint, pull the plug on it, or warp it with self interested politics (Applies equally to both parties).
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. 'Apostle of Liberty' - Thomas Jefferson
(Will we get there? Yaaa...but when and how are the questions.) |
Passata Soto The "Night Thrust" Source: Bennerson Little |
