The United States of King Midas...

In case you don't know the story, King Midas was granted one wish by Dionysus, and he wished that everything he touched be turned into Gold. He soon realized that he couldn't eat or drink, because everything he touched was turned into gold. Seeing his despair, his daughter hugged him, and she too turned into gold.

Starving and distraught, Midas begged Dionysus to take back his golden touch and to return everything to how it was. Dionysus made Midas wash his wish away in the river, and restored his daughter. King Midas then lived with less gold, but felt "richer" because he appreciated everything a lot more... He went back to being a regular King (!).

If you see The United States as King Midas, I think there are a few parallels we can see:

1- The U.S. has been king in many areas, but it hasn't been enough; our "golden touch" country has citizens who are homeless, starving, and sick. Our food industry poisons us because it creates more gold for the companies.

2- We reduce our citizens to assets or liabilities depending on whether they are producing or consuming- many of our citizens are virtual slaves, whose sole purpose is to work to pay off debts.

3- We are turning our children into golden statues, teaching them to get money-producing jobs over expanding their minds and finding happiness through their contribution to our kingdom.

The United States has had this "Golden Touch" for many generations now, as the sole purpose for doing anything in our culture is to create money. Just about everything we do has the "does it make money?" question attached, and it justifies products that kill like cigarettes, services that let people die, like health insurance, and entire industries that destroy our planet like logging.

I'm far from being one of these lefty-pinko-commie guys- I thoroughly believe in the profit motive- but I don't believe that the profit motive should be the ONLY question.

I think this generation can be the one that washes the wish for the golden touch from our bodies, and instead go back to the wish of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

If you like this post, you may also like "The Bottom Line Vs. Humanity"

The United States of King Midas...

In case you don't know the story, King Midas was granted one wish by Dionysus, and he wished that everything he touched be turned into Gold. He soon realized that he couldn't eat or drink, because everything he touched was turned into gold. Seeing his despair, his daughter hugged him, and she too turned into gold.

Starving and distraught, Midas begged Dionysus to take back his golden touch and to return everything to how it was. Dionysus made Midas wash his wish away in the river, and restored his daughter. King Midas then lived with less gold, but felt "richer" because he appreciated everything a lot more... He went back to being a regular King (!).

If you see The United States as King Midas, I think there are a few parallels we can see:

1- The U.S. has been king in many areas, but it hasn't been enough; our "golden touch" country has citizens who are homeless, starving, and sick. Our food industry poisons us because it creates more gold for the companies.

2- We reduce our citizens to assets or liabilities depending on whether they are producing or consuming- many of our citizens are virtual slaves, whose sole purpose is to work to pay off debts.

3- We are turning our children into golden statues, teaching them to get money-producing jobs over expanding their minds and finding happiness through their contribution to our kingdom.

The United States has had this "Golden Touch" for many generations now, as the sole purpose for doing anything in our culture is to create money. Just about everything we do has the "does it make money?" question attached, and it justifies products that kill like cigarettes, services that let people die, like health insurance, and entire industries that destroy our planet like logging.

I'm far from being one of these lefty-pinko-commie guys- I thoroughly believe in the profit motive- but I don't believe that the profit motive should be the ONLY question.

I think this generation can be the one that washes the wish for the golden touch from our bodies, and instead go back to the wish of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

If you like this post, you may also like "The Bottom Line Vs. Humanity"

The United States of King Midas...

In case you don't know the story, King Midas was granted one wish by Dionysus, and he wished that everything he touched be turned into Gold. He soon realized that he couldn't eat or drink, because everything he touched was turned into gold. Seeing his despair, his daughter hugged him, and she too turned into gold.

Starving and distraught, Midas begged Dionysus to take back his golden touch and to return everything to how it was. Dionysus made Midas wash his wish away in the river, and restored his daughter. King Midas then lived with less gold, but felt "richer" because he appreciated everything a lot more... He went back to being a regular King (!).

If you see The United States as King Midas, I think there are a few parallels we can see:

1- The U.S. has been king in many areas, but it hasn't been enough; our "golden touch" country has citizens who are homeless, starving, and sick. Our food industry poisons us because it creates more gold for the companies.

2- We reduce our citizens to assets or liabilities depending on whether they are producing or consuming- many of our citizens are virtual slaves, whose sole purpose is to work to pay off debts.

3- We are turning our children into golden statues, teaching them to get money-producing jobs over expanding their minds and finding happiness through their contribution to our kingdom.

The United States has had this "Golden Touch" for many generations now, as the sole purpose for doing anything in our culture is to create money. Just about everything we do has the "does it make money?" question attached, and it justifies products that kill like cigarettes, services that let people die, like health insurance, and entire industries that destroy our planet like logging.

I'm far from being one of these lefty-pinko-commie guys- I thoroughly believe in the profit motive- but I don't believe that the profit motive should be the ONLY question.

I think this generation can be the one that washes the wish for the golden touch from our bodies, and instead go back to the wish of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

If you like this post, you may also like "The Bottom Line Vs. Humanity"

The Bottom Line vs. Humanity

A woman's husband gets a terrible sickness, and is denied coverage from their carrier. The husband dies. The woman says "we were covered, but they decided not to pay- I thought they were here to help us."

WRONG. And that's the problem with our capitalist system:

It's focus is THE BOTTOM LINE- nothing else.

It assumes that the "best" business (meaning the one that helps the most people) will be rewarded the most. Under the classic capitalist idea that would be true, but it is NOT true in practice. I'm a BIG Ayn Rand fan and all of that, but there's no point in arguing theory versus truth.

The ONLY focus of a business is to count the profits, so it gets more investors, who want to grow their profits together, there is NO OTHER CONCERN.

That means if a product is dangerous, but it makes money- it is JUSTIFIED.
If a business kills people (or, more to the point, lets them die), it is JUSTIFIED.

The BOTTOM LINE is never looking out for Humans. It has NO concern whatsoever other than increasing itself. However, in our system, humans are also only looking out for the bottom line.

And it's time to change that.

I am thrilled to see so many companies coming out under the realization that the bottom line is not enough- that HUMAN BEINGS have to come first, and then profits second.

That does NOT mean there are no profits, it means they aren't FIRST.

How would YOU like to take part in something like that?

Try this: CLICK HERE.

The Bottom Line vs. Humanity

A woman's husband gets a terrible sickness, and is denied coverage from their carrier. The husband dies. The woman says "we were covered, but they decided not to pay- I thought they were here to help us."

WRONG. Here's the problem with out capitalist system:

It's focus is THE BOTTOM LINE- nothing else.

It assumes that the "best" business (meaning the one that helps the most people) will be rewarded the most. Under the classic capitalist idea, that would be true, but it is NOT true in practice. I am an HUGE Ayn Rand fan, but theory doesn't match up with truth.

The ONLY focus of a business is to count the profits, so it gets more investors, who want to grow their profits together, and there is NO OTHER CONCERN.

That means if a product is dangerous, but it makes money- it is JUSTIFIED.
If a business kills people (or, more to the point, lets them die), it is JUSTIFIED.

The BOTTOM LINE is never looking out for Humans, but Humans (in our system) are always looking out for the Bottom Line.

And it's time to change that.

I am thrilled to see so many companies coming out under the realization that the bottom line is not enough- that HUMAN BEINGS have to come first, and then profits second.

That does NOT mean there are no profits, it means they aren't FIRST.

How would YOU like to take part in something like that?

Try this: CLICK HERE.

The Bottom Line vs. Humanity

A woman's husband gets a terrible sickness, and is denied coverage from their carrier. The husband dies. The woman says "we were covered, but they decided not to pay- I thought they were here to help us."

WRONG. Here's the problem with out capitalist system:

It's focus is THE BOTTOM LINE- nothing else.

It assumes that the "best" business (meaning the one that helps the most people) will be rewarded the most. Under the classic capitalist idea, that would be true, but it is NOT true in practice. I am an HUGE Ayn Rand fan, but theory doesn't match up with truth.

The ONLY focus of a business is to count the profits, so it gets more investors, who want to grow their profits together, and there is NO OTHER CONCERN.

That means if a product is dangerous, but it makes money- it is JUSTIFIED.
If a business kills people (or, more to the point, lets them die), it is JUSTIFIED.

The BOTTOM LINE is never looking out for Humans, but Humans (in our system) are always looking out for the Bottom Line.

And it's time to change that.

I am thrilled to see so many companies coming out under the realization that the bottom line is not enough- that HUMAN BEINGS have to come first, and then profits second.

That does NOT mean there are no profits, it means they aren't FIRST.

How would YOU like to take part in something like that?

Try this: CLICK HERE.

Today’s Word…Wow!

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Written by: sprytel

Hope for Liberian Teachers have been returned to them this week. 15 years of war saw practically all teachers flee or be killed. Now through HUB’s teacher training program with Phoenix-based StarShine Academy and Youth Action International, hope has returned and a plan to bring education to a country has been fostered.

Spryte Loriano, HUB’s Chief Humanitarian Officer, files this momentous Day 3 report from the Civic Assembly Hall, Monrovia Liberia:

“Trish wanted to ‘wow’ them today, our over 600 student Teachers in the HUB/StarShine Teacher Training.

So we arrived exactly at 10:00am when the workshop was to begin. We arrived through the back door that lets us directly onto the stage. And the four of us – Trish, Jan, Amber and myself were wearing traditional Liberian dresses complete with headwraps! As soon as they saw us appear on stage from behind our makeshift screen, they began cheering, applauding, hooting and stomping for us in appreciation of our outfits! We ran to the front for a big bow, and Trish told them that we wanted to honor them today, and to share ‘our gratitude’ to them for showing up in droves each day! They went wild in appreciation for us – and we all got very teary.

It was a day of continued learning. It was also a day of clarity for them, as today we rolled out our complete plan to them. The topics I covered with them was what they will receive when they are in complete partnership with us, and what we expect of them to uphold their responsibilities to the program.

Here’s the plan: They receive…

Student manuals for each of the students they teach for School Year 2009; Student manuals for each year for those who follow the requirements of the program; the opportunity to receive additional training from StarShine; the opportunity to earn US college credits from Maricopa Colleges (Phoenix, AZ); and a Community Resource Center – a HUB in the center of Monrovia just for them, where there will be computers, internet and additional training provided on an on-going basis, and where they can ‘connect, create and collaborate’ with their fellow teacher community!

The applause and cheering was deafening after reading off each line!

Here’s what we asked of them…

To respond within two weeks, when their student manuals arrive, with the first of the tracking information on all of their students; a response within 2 weeks on all communications requesting updates and reports and to fill out all forms we send them for tracking purposes completely; regular status and update reports filled out for themselves and for all of their students over the school year.

Kimmie told us after the day was over, how surprised he was at the turnout through the entire workshop, ‘Normally in a training of this kind, you would see the full amount come the first day, then the attendance slowly dwindle as the workshop progresses; but not in this case. We were all happily surprised that every single person attended all three days, and stayed for every moment. They received a great value – and they knew it.’

The day did not end without some mishap – which I’ve found common working in Liberia. We ran out of Certificates for Graduation! So while 90% received their graduation certificates, about 10% had to wait almost two hours after the ceremony to receive it. And, EVERY one of them stayed! Each person shook our hands, gave us hugs and told us of the deep appreciation they have to us and all of our supporters.

Over and over we heard a similar comment from teachers and principals who look you deeply in your eyes with authenticity and soul, ‘During the war, many of the brightest of Liberians fled, and the others were killed. We are desperate for education to rebuild those who are here into leaders for a peaceful, sound country. We thank you so much for traveling across the sea to help us! We are deeply grateful to you.’

And at the end, after dancing to two rounds of ‘Mama Liberia,’ one of the most fantastic, rhythmic and exciting national songs I’ve ever experienced, THEY requested, yet one more time….’Fly Like an Eagle!’ and we all sang and danced together as a community in partnership for education, empowerment and sustainability for all.

Where else but HUB can you be a part of this kind of miracle and know that you are not only contributing from financial support, but that because you allow yourself to be in a ‘giving-receiving model,’ you are also in a true partnership of ‘empowerment’ for all? Each of you, will have the opportunity to partner with these pioneers of education and change in various ways.”

You will find out how very soon!