Comments on GPSEG

Just want to comment on a new organization I recently joined. The Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group, GPSEG. First of all, the "Senior" is a reflection on the level of the members of the organization, not the age; I had to clarify this for my wife who assumes, because I am involved in some terrific "senior" educational seminars in Princeton, that everything I do is associated with this age group.
The GPSEG is one of the best networking groups in which I have been involved. Their philosophy is that networking is a lifelong process, which a number of books and pundits advocate, but this group practices. I have seldom met a more engaging or professional group. I have just joined their "CEO Roundtable" and look forward to mutually sharing business and life experiences that will assist in my advice, usually probono, to early stage companies, of which I have a passion.

Obama Cairo speech June 2009

Well… here I go again. Just as when Obama was elected, I am inspired by our President. I just listened to his speech in Cairo, on Thursday 6.4.09.
And I want to make these comments before I see all of the mixed reviews, as I tend to compromise my positions with other people’s opinions.
(And in full disclosure I do not vote along party lines, and sometimes I do not vote with full knowledge of the candidate’s history. In 2000 I voted for ’43. And in 2004, although I don’t think that ’43 had a strong competitor, I voted for that competitor. And in 2008 I voted for Obama, having followed him for a fairly significant period of time, including getting a sense of how he actually acts as a politician; as was demonstrated by his actions as President of the Harvard Law Review. Some of this information I obtained via the New Yorker and a number of other publications, and communications with people who knew him personally. He was described by one of his advisors, a friend of mine, as other worldly)
Let me go back to my dialogue.
I do think he is somewhat other worldly in the respect that he speaks for values that we hold here in America, and the ideals upon which this country was founded. Ideals that he feels are “human rights” for all people. He speaks with emotional and intelligent commitment. Underneath that I fully understand, by his past behavior that his political actions are based on reality and practicality.
Like my first post, my view of the conditions in this country and the world was lifted by his talk. His vision of fighting extremist (of any religion) and protecting the US; his discussion of Iran; his discussion of nuclear proliferation; of the Palestine/Israel two state solution; and his discussion about women’s right to education, etc, I thought proudly reflect our country’s true position , or at least mine.
That being said, I fully expect that what he said may by an asymptotic dream, but then if one does not have goals, progress will be very, very slow. Nor will it be focused. It will be lucky not to be chaotic.
I thought that his speech had an undercurrent of practicality in that he, like many of our better past president’s reached out to a broad audience (in this case the world) and engaged them. I think the goal is to have them put implicit (and maybe explicit) pressure on some of those factions that he is addressing (pressure on extremist by moderates, pressure on Israel to re engage on the two state solution and Palestine to reduce violence, etc, etc.
Soooo…
I am glad that he is representing our country to the world, and even happier that he is representing human and world values that are appropriate to any individual.
Well, that’s it for now…oh, I did listen to some feedback before finishing this on PBS, and one comment that I agree with is that, yes, his vision still needs details and action and behavioral validation. He needs to tap in on a lot of political capital… which, at this point, seems somewhat unlimited… buy will probably run out of it…sometime..maybe.
(I guess I am not quite done…)_
But, speaking of behavior, he and his administration have, even before inauguration, laid out vision without much detail… received negative reviews subsequently, only to fairly quickly flush out details and implement them with alacrity. And at this point they seem to be having some positive effects.
He has been less than 6 months since he has been president. He and his administration have addressed economic worldwide disaster (with associated industry failures and job losses), two wars, very negative worldwide opinion, Supreme Court justice nominations, etc etc.
So, I will continue to be patient and enjoy the validation of my idealism by President Obama.

Day after inauguration thoughts

the day after the oath administered to a new president ... i am in mcdonalds ... thinking nice thoughts

so how do i attract your attention … other than not capitalizing anything…

i have, much of my life been either prejudiced, or guilty … usually both…

raised, surfing, sailing, and studying, in southern california in a middle class (but what child does not consider his parents middle class) all white all protestant section of l.a. I was immune to racial issues other than listening to the echos of gang and racial violence in other areas of town…

and then college, nrotc, an officer in nuclear submarines where the first taste of racial differences in the usa was being served by philippine stewards …. even as a midshipman i was served i was different …

and slowly the racial prejudices began to form … and i don’t even know why…they just did.. as did a modicum of guilt … you know, why was i better but apparently i was … or i would be doing the serving… i did not realize then that serving is, in fact, a wonderful calling … if it were self initiated…

and then graduate school at stanford, where, there were blacks all three or so of them… matched by all three or so of women…

and there were discussions of racial injustice, military injustice … there were riots there were strikes …

and that started the guilt after all it was my race that did slavery … or so i thought, not realizing that we were, as a species, all complicit …

and re enforced by t morrison et al … there were ghosts and i could not distinguish … nor, perhaps should i that the ghosts were of all of us …

and so yesterday barack hussein obama was sworn in …

and today i venture out of a private club .. i am at mcdonald’s and sitting next to me are two african americans dressed in outfits that used to scare me with their anger, my perception…

and I smiled inwardly at how today we were citizen partners … i no longer was prejudiced no longer guilty … it all lifted