INTERMISSION II

Speaking Out...

Psychology Today

The Psychology of Racism

Racism is a sign of a lack of psychological maturity and integration.

Steve Taylor Ph.D.
Out of the Darkness
Posted Jan 19, 2018


Racism has been—and unfortunately still is—such a prominent feature of so many human societies that it might be tempting to think of it as somehow "natural" or "innate."

Indeed, this is the conclusion that some evolutionary psychologists have come to. Evolutionary psychology tries to account for present-day human traits in terms of the survival benefit they might have had to our ancestors. If a trait has survived and become prevalent, then the genes associated with it must have been "selected" by evolution.

According to this logic, racism is prevalent because it was beneficial for early human beings to deprive other groups of resources. It would have done our ancestors no good to be altruistic and allow other groups to share their resources; that would have just decreased their own chances of survival. But if they could subjugate and oppress other groups, this would increase their own access to resources. In these terms, according to Pascal Boyer, racism is "a consequence of highly efficient economic strategies," enabling us to "keep members of other groups in a lower-status position, with distinctly worse benefits." (1) Another related idea is that to see one’s own group as special or superior would have helped us to survive by enhancing group cohesion.  READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

A Police FREE Society

The president of the Minneapolis City Council, who went viral for saying that calling the police when your home is broken into “comes from a place of privilege,” has said she wants a “police-free society.”

Speaking on CNN’s "Cuomo Prime Time" Monday night, Lisa Bender took the idea of disbanding the police a step further.

Host Chris Cuomo told her: “When you say you see someday being police-free that sounds aspirational, a utopian concept where nobody’s committing any crime, because as long as these communities are being preyed upon, both from within and without, there’s gonna have to be good men and women willing to step up to keep people safe.”

She replied: “I think the idea of having a police-free future is very aspirational, and I am willing to stand with community members who are asking us to think of that as the goal.”

Read entire article...

Phone Calls

Because we have been getting so many robo and telemarketing calls, my wife and I decided to add CALLER ID and even though we know (for the most part) who is calling, we still do not answer the phone unless we know who is calling like the doctor's office reminding us of our appointment...

Instead of getting 15-20 or more calls each day, we are down to about 5-7 which is still unacceptable but since we don't answer it is manageable...  at least for the time being.

We used to answer the phone and dick around with the caller who was usually from INDIA but after a while even that got tedious.

NOT ANSWERING is the best approach...  at least for us...

America's Democracy

A Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.  It can also be seen as  control of an organization or country by the majority of its members.

A democratic republic is a form of government operating on principles adopted from a republic and a democracy. Rather than being a cross between two entirely separate systems, democratic republics may function on principles shared by both republics and democracies.

In other words:  the general public gives power to ELECTED OFFICIALS to operate on their behalf...  and, the general public elects a President rather than a MONARCH.

In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. Each elector gets one electoral vote following the general election. There are a total of 538 electoral votes and the candidate who get more than half or 270 wins the election.

Originally, the Electoral College provided the Constitutional Convention with a compromise between the popular election of the President and congressional selection. ... The 12th Amendment—ratified in 1804—changed the original process, allowing for separate ballots for determining the President and Vice President.

Since President Trump DID NOT WIN the POPULAR VOTE but WON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE.... DEMOCRATS DO NOT BELIEVE that he is the LEGITIMATE President of the United States... and, this belief has resulted in the MAINSTREAM MEDIA being against him with everything he does or does not do...

DEMOCRATS do not recognize the CONSTITUTIONALITY of his Presidency... even though he was CONSTITUTIONALLY elected...

PRETTY MUCH, our country is DIVIDED 50/50 because of the 2016 Presidential Election and will continue to be DIVIDED should Trump get re-elected in 2020...

DO WE RESTORE THE DIVISION BY REMOVING TRUMP IN 2020?

What will happen if we do remove Trump to restore the balance?

1. Government Regulations will return to businesses
2. Business will restrict their operations
3. Taxes will increase
4. Funding of our military will decrease
5. Healthcare for all
6. Free education for all
7. Prices will increase (maybe inflation)
8. Stock market will not grow as rapidly
9. Unemployment (after COVID) will gradually increase
10. Congress will again accomplish nothing
11. Terrorism will increase globally
12. China will grow their economy and military
13. North Korea will acquire nuclear weapons
14. Russia will expand their territory
15. Trade Deals will start to deteriorate
16. America's Wealthy will hide their money from taxes
17. College Degrees will be a dime-a-dozen
18. Law Enforcement Personnel will SHRINK
19. Illegal Drug Traffic in USA will increase
20. Illegal Immigration will increase

Out For Breakfast This Morning

My wife and I decided to go out to breakfast this morning again because we felt pretty safe at the restaurant we went to last week...    so, we went there again...  mostly whites patronize this restaurant and every once in a while we see a black individual or family but not often.  This morning, while we were waiting for a table, a black man cam in by himself and we eventually sat beside him outside on the patio which did not bother either one of us one iota...  but, this was my impression of him:

• late 30's, early 40's
• large link gold chain around his neck
• about 6 feet tall, 200 lbs, athletic build
• wearing a basketball jersey and his arms were full of tattoos
• his tennis shoes looked bigger than his feet and were half way laced up
• close but hair and clean shaven, wearing a baseball cap turned around backwards
• he was wearing a pair of baggy nylon gym pants with the waist pulled down to the middle of his ass

I never heard him speak and by all accounts he behavior seemed normal and he also appeared to be very polite with everyone with whom he made contact while I was observing him.

My first impression was:  this is not someone I want to get to know...

First of all...

• I dislike tattoos and believe that people who support tattoos have low self esteem issues
• I also think that tattoos make the individual look dirty and unclean
• I think someone who wears a baseball cap backwards looks like a fool
• I think someone who wears his pants down below his waist looks like an idiot
• I immediately have no respect for this person

LET ME POINT OUT HERE...   if this individual that my wife and I saw this morning was WHITE, I would have formed the same opinion...

MY CONCERN:  If our Federal Government tries to get me to stop thinking like this because it is contributing to racial inequality, then I am going to tell our Federal Government to take a hike.  I have every right to believe like I believe and to express my beliefs in a reasonable professional manner.

Morning Coffee

Everyday: I learn something new...

Last week, I finished replacing the decking on our backyard deck that surrounds our above ground pool, at a cost of about $150...  the task as mention in a previous post took me a week whereas someone who knew what they were doing could have completed the task in a day.  This afternoon, I went to collect all the replaced wood to carry to the street for pick-up when I noticed some of the boards were turned over and looked almost brand new, only slightly weathered.  I went to the garage and got my sander and began sanding some of this old wood that I was planning to throw away and realized probably 80% of better was reusable.  I have a storage area under the deck so I put the wood down there for future use.

I realized then and there that in the future instead of removing the old decking and replacing it with new decking, I am going to see if I just cannot flip it over and screw it back down and see if it will last another few years.  The original decking lasted over 10 years on one side, so it might just last another 10 years on the other side.

THIS and THAT

How Do You Do... What They Tell You... You Gotta Do?

This is one of the biggest complaints that I have about the College/University Educational System in America especially in the area of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

From the Harvard Business Review:
Our research also pointed to six leadership skills where practice was particularly important. These are not mysterious and certainly aren’t new. However, the leaders we talked with emphasized that these fundamental skills really matter. 

Aspiring leaders should focus on practicing these essential basics:

1. Shape a vision that is exciting and challenging for your team (or division/unit/organization).
2. Translate that vision into a clear strategy about what actions to take, and what not to do.
3. Recruit, develop, and reward a team of great people to carry out the strategy.
4. Focus on measurable results.
5. Foster innovation and learning to sustain your team (or organization) and grow new leaders.
6. Lead yourself — know yourself, improve yourself, and manage the appropriate balance in your own life.

SO...

first of all, these are not Harvard's ideas or suggestions but the suggestions from several already successful business executive...

second, "How to implement" must be assumed.

SO AGAIN...  we have this nice list from a prestigious educational organization and we return to work and decide that we are going to implement right away...

Note...  key words will be highlighted

NUMBER ONE:  Shape a vision that is exciting and challenging for your team. 

I know how to shape a vision because I looked it up on the internet.  VISION means:  the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom.

HOW TO WRITE A VISION STATEMENT

Tips for crafting your vision statement

1.      Project five to 10 years in the future.
2.      Dream big and focus on success.
3.      Use the present tense.
4.      Use clear, concise, jargon-free language.
5.      Infuse it with passion and make it inspiring.
6.      Align it with your business values and goals

Source:  www.businessnewsdaily.com

Now, I have a whole lot of other factors to consider first in order for me to become a good leader and have no idea how long all of this is going to take...  and, if I have the time...  patients...  and money to pay my workforce to keep working while I learn to become a leader to them and/or for them.

OF COURSE...  this has been exaggerated to make a point.   And, I attended GRADUATE SCHOOL for two years where I received an MBA from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC and while my professors gave me many pieces of valuable information and many tools, they never really told me how to implement any of those ideas and tools (although one cannot really implement a tool) other than VIA CASE STUDIES where we read about how others did it, and were either successful or not successful hoping that by OSMOSIS we would become enlightened.

WHAT WORKS FOR ONE DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK FOR ANOTHER...  I learned that concept before I took my first step into Graduate School.

A LEADER LEARNS through EXPERIENCE not through BOOKS...

A STRATEGIC PLAN for example, is easy to write by one person and can be done over a weekend.  It is slightly more difficult to write, if one has to work with half a dozen managers or so and could take several weeks.  It becomes quite a formidable task to complete in an aligned fashion when one includes the inputs from the supervisors and workers that report to those half a dozen managers and could take 6-9 months to complete, perhaps longer...  and, if by some wild chance a STRATEGIC PLAN is eventually completed...   it is damn near impossible to IMPLEMENT unless the entire day of several people is focused on making sure that everyone does what the STRATEGIC PLAN says that they are going to do...  OTHERWISE THE STRATEGIC PLAN WILL NEVER BECOME IMPLEMENTED 100 PERCENT...

But, the College/University textbook authors don't share that tidbit of knowledge with you...

If you have read this far...  then you should completely understand the title of this article.

Final Question:  Why do we think that a LEADER should always be OUT IN FRONT of the team?

LEGISLATE THIS...