Thankful, Thoughtful, Clear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGcAHb6qTiU The Candace Owens Show on Prager U Candace Owens talks with Taleeb Starkes, author of Black Lies Matter. Hopeful, intelligent, refreshing. Listen to a coherent discussion about the state and future of Black America you will not hear from mass media sources.
No matter your politics, it’s always good to be an American.Daniel Tamashiro, CC, Miliani Toastmasters Photo by magdiel-lacoquis on Pixabay.
Self-determination:free choice of one's own acts or states without external compulsion-Merriam-Webster Dictionary Nothing prevents self-determination. Nothing. You decide who you are by what you do. Photo by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash Blaming our situation on the past prevents us from succeeding in the present. And we cannot hold ourselves accountable for who we are or… Continue reading Exercising Our Right to Self-Determination
Limited moments spin away while we busily attend to details and dive into our phones. Zap! The kids are moving out, getting married, starting careers. Zap! Someone suffers a stroke, someone falls, what is our plan for aging? Zap! We’re gone. image by Ann Fisher on flickr Sit down with someone you know who is… Continue reading Connect and Endure Through Stories
I’m 48. Music from my youth that every American of my generation remembers fondly includes: PrinceMichael JacksonJanet JacksonWhitney HoustonHuey LewisMadonna Was this the last time everyone had a common musical lexicon? The decline of radio, rise of iTunes, and mushrooming mp3 players meant increasing musical personalization. By the time I finished college in the mid-90s,… Continue reading Lost Unity: No More Generation-Defining Music
What is Old? Is it 50? 60? Surely 70 or 80 is old. Or is it? My running friends Mike, Keith, and Tom, are all in their mid-70s. All regularly run distances longer than ten miles; two also run trails. They are faster, with more mileage than most runners of any age. Most of my… Continue reading Old is a Mindset, Not a Number
On this Veterans Day, I recommend Breach of Trust by Andrew Bacevich. The author posits that our reliance on 0.7% of the American population to carry out all our military efforts undermines our decision-making, our leadership, and our principles since nobody else has “skin in the game.” The Vietnam War was fought by American actors,… Continue reading The Bleeding Few and the Oblivious Many
[This was my fourth speech in Toastmasters, Understanding Your Leadership Style in Pathways, completed in 7:21.] I’d always thought of leadership as someone who swoops in to inspire everyone with a rah-rah speech, works the room, and then gets out of everyone’s way so they can do the job. The leader is the face of… Continue reading Leadership: Sun, Shark, or Magnet
Have you read anything here you disagreed with? Great! It means you are hearing another viewpoint—congratulations—and I am reaching a varied audience. Your viewpoint is valuable. It’s hard to say and to hear “I don’t agree with you” because we all just want to get along. However, meaty, memorable conversations have a civil back-and-forth with… Continue reading Agree to Disagree: Challenging Our Assumptions
We are letting freedom and free speech slip through our fingers.
