ILF POST

By Linc Bloomfield The crowded conference room fell silent as the first panelist was introduced. It was the beginning of a daylong program of seminars followed by a reception and gala dinner, and if Central Casting had been asked to send over someone who epitomized a senior statesman, this was the man for them — tall, handsome, silver hair, in short the picture of mature gravitas. One of my daughters confessed later that until he spoke she expected this elegant older gent to sound stuffy, egotistical, and highly implausible as a partner for the sometimes lighthearted colleague and friend he was in Cambridge to honor.

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by Mary Catherine Bateson. Following last year’s elections, debates about same-sex marriage continue in a number of states that have legislation pending. The possibility of gay marriage has the potential to strengthen, rather than weakening, the social fabric. Marriage involves both rights and responsibilities and it may be that the demands by the gay community for the right to marry will lead to a new consideration of the responsibilities involved for couples of all kinds.

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By Linc Bloomfield. Barack Obama has been President of the United States for a little over two months, and it’s much too early to issue a definitive report card. But that hasn’t stopped the cable and radio commentariat from awarding him instant grades of D or even Fail. Typical was the presidential news conference on March 17. It was immediately followed by the thumbs-down judgments of an otherwise reasonable CNN panel (”the best panel in the world” according to CNN) declaring that his performance was a disaster, he looked tired, he had bags under his eyes, he lost the thread, he was incoherent etc. etc.

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By Gloria Feldt As Congress works through the economic stimulus package, representatives need to keep in mind the connection between a woman’s need to determine her reproductive life and her ability to benefit from and contribute to economic recovery and growth. (This is an exclusive commentary I wrote for the Women’s Media Center.)

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By Linc Bloomfield. Poor number 44. Each day brings a new crisis at home or abroad that could foul up his big plans for Day One. A sardonic joke captures the Obama problem: a man was hauled before a judge for setting his bed on fire. His defense was that the bed was already on fire when he got into it.

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By Linc Bloomfield The lame-duck Bush administration has been urging NATO members to admit Georgia and Ukraine to NATO in a hurry without the normal requirements for membership. If this happens, it will poison US-Russian relations which President-elect Obama must restore if he is not to spend his term fighting another cold war. There is little or no chance to get those ties into better balance if this policy is allowed to continue, let alone speed up.

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By Mary Catherine Bateson It strikes me that it is time to look at the way candidates for the presidency are sometimes damaged by the process, at least temporarily and perhaps permanently. Yes, we are all no doubt flawed and it is wise to maintain that awareness and remain alert, to conserve a hint of cynicism. But it seems unfortunate that in filling this position, which is so important not only for the US but for the rest of the world (which does not get to vote), the process so often erodes the principles. It reminds me of something that often struck me about the academic tenure process – the number of people who, having entered a field because they loved it and loved research, ended up alienated from both.

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By Jane Alexander “A great nation deserves great art”. This is the slogan and the dream of the National Endowment for the Arts. The cultural fire of the ’90s which sought, under the house leadership of Newt Gingrich, to extinguish the NEA, is now mostly ash and the budget has crept quietly up to over 144 million dollars. We still have a long way to go and with all the pressing financial needs of this country it is doubtful if the budget will move soon to the 174 millions it was in 1993 when I became NEA Chairman. Still there is much that can be done from a bully pulpit to promote the arts in America and especially arts education in our schools. Why should we care about the arts when there are so many other issues of dire importance in today’s world? The arts platform for the Obama campaign answers the question:

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By Mary Catherine Bateson, Ph.D. Once again, current events, this time the financial crisis, are pressing voters into short term decisions, but it is important to address the current crisis with a positive vision of how the system should work in the long term, and a memory of the steps that led up to it over a decade or more. The history is the history of systematic deregulation and disbelief in the positive contribution of government, accompanied by a national disenchantment with the political process and dropping voter engagement. Now everyone is aware that this election will be critical, but the urgency is not temporary. Every election poses the issues of change. Every election challenges us to consider what it is that we hope for.

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By Linc Bloomfield The economy may be in the tank, but the rest of life goes on, including the presidential campaign and the other towering problems that will face the new president at 12:01 PM next January 20. Let’s try to forget the Dow for a moment and look at some of those problems, both of our own making and the work of forces outside US control.

Despite a thin national wallet, it’s possible to imagine at least some forty five degree turns in domestic policy under a new president, involving such weighty (and controversial) issues as taxes, health care, energy policy, and regulation of the financial markets. More dollars can always be printed and more Treasury bonds sold to the Chinese, allowing at least some wiggle room for the victors and their followers. In foreign policy and national security it’s hard to imagine costly new initiatives and crusades, or support for same by an exhausted and disillusioned nation. A little historical perspective may help.

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By Linc Bloomfield Many Americans worried about the decline of US influence have adopted “multilateral” as a foreign policy mantra. Both Senators Obama and McCain have promised to collaborate more with other countries, and President Bush, in one of his extraordinary deathbed conversions, told a news conference that “one of the things I will leave behind is a multilateralism to deal with tyrants, so problems can be solved diplomatically” It’s not always clear what ” multilateralism” people have in mind. But many are obviously thinking of the way the US went to war in Iraq — pretty much alone, with insults to allies for not falling in line, and backing from only four members of the UN Security Council. After military victory morphed into catastrophic nation-building, the US crawled back to the Council to gain legitimacy and support. Indeed, Mr. Bush now pays routine tribute to the “international community”, although not as energetically as Secretary Rice, who in 2000 dismissed it as a “phantom”, but now scarcely utters a sentence without invoking it.

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By Gloria Feldt How many male politicians do you think are burning their little black books and expunging e-mails today, as another of their brotherhood bites the dust from his own lack of zipper control? We have way too much information about John Edwards and his self-described narcissism. Clearly, like any good lawyer, John Edwards can look us straight in the eye and lie like a rug, as he did initially about his affair with Rielle Hunter.

But then sex, lies, and politics go together like peanut butter, jelly, and bread in America. And sex scandals are the one aspect of government that consistently works across geography and party lines. After all John McCain has admitted to affairs himself. There’s no partisanship in bed, except for short-lived tactics where the sway of sex can be used to bring one’s opponent down

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By Lynda Waugh - Guest Contributor Success and failure have taken on new meanings. In the past, we understood experiences of failure as leading to success. They became synonymous. The struggles toward attainment were the lessons. Life’s scenarios had beginnings, middles, and an end. There was genuine ambition for a better life, one of quality and equality. One’s endurance, resistance, and tolerance designed the intention. The individual matured, confronting wants and needs. Coping strategies were cultivated with sincere goals. The connotation of success today, seems to be linked with tangibles and position, the end result. The importance of the process of working through challenge is disappearing. With this evaporation, goes character building, qualities such as tenacity, honesty, patience, connection. There is an ignorance, even shunning, toward process and performance. The emphasis is an attitude of entitlement and corruption.

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By Linc Bloomfield Now that Israel’s 60^th anniversary celebration is over, it’s worth recalling how extraordinarily deep the divisions ran on this matter within the US policymaking community.

On May 14, 1948 there was broad American sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust, along with guilt at rejecting Jewish asylum-seekers. The years since have featured admiration for a new democracy in a tough neighborhood, strategic interest in a sophisticated and reliable ally, a multiplier effect from the evangelical Christian community that supports Israel as a step toward their apocalyptic vision, and finally the nineteen Arab Islamists who transformed America on 9/11. The combination has kept Israel a vital interest through ten US administrations.

But it was not always so.

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By Gloria Feldt For those exhausted with Clinton-Obama debates I thought I’d comment on the recent Cindy McCain “farfallegate” recipe scandal–you can scroll down to the end to see the evidence:

Cindy McCain was probably clueless that an intern on her pugnacious war hero husband’s campaign staff had rifled through recipes published on the Food Channel’s website and presented several as Cindy’s own on Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign website.

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By Lincoln Bloomfield The first mention of the Iraq War may be on page 10 of my newspaper today, but President Bush’s successor will still confront the monumental predicament Bush is leaving behind. In an era of official cheerleading and media sound bites it’s not easy to get a sense of the realities, But from the information available it’s still worth trying to define the strategic situation as it appears today.

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By Charles Lindblom A recent morning paper told me that Exxon Mobil gave $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to various groups to mislead the public about global warning. It gives one to think.

Many of us believe, or simply assume, that the major purpose of communication is to inform. Each of us depends on information communicated to us through the media, as well as through word-of-mouth. And many social scientists who study media and other communication closely associate communication with information in, for example, assuming that those who receive the most communication–those who read widely and tune in on radio and tv public affairs programs–are the best informed.

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By Nicholas Johnson

Compassionate Maturity

President George Bush has characterized himself a “compassionate conservative.” However appropriately you may think that label applies to our president, we’ve had some evidence recently that the phrase, compassionate conservative, is not the oxymoron many Democrats believe it to be.

As general semanticists were trying to get us to understand during the latter half of the Twentieth Century, much of what we see and hear, and virtually all of what we say, reveals far more about what is going on inside that electro-chemical soup we call our brains than anything going on in the “real world” of space-time events “out there.”

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By Gloria Feldt Like many women who identify themselves as feminists, Kathleen Turner and I are divided in our presidential candidate pick. We spent 18 months collaborating on her just-released memoir, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles. During that time, we talked about politics quite a bit, because she sees herself as an activist as well as an actor.

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By Lincoln Bloomfield “Yes we can” is an inspiring affirmation that can help Senator Obama stretch his lead to become the Democratic candidate and 44^th US president. The flaw in that scenario is that plotters in the Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan have it in their power to deliver the election to Senator McCain. The economy and health care dominate the current debate. But that could change, with national security credentials the wildcard.

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By Charles Lindblom Gifts from corporations and the wealthy nourish many orchestras, operas, theaters, art galleries, museums, research institutions, schools, universities colleges, think tanks, hospitals, and political organizations such as lobbies, interest groups, parties, and campaigns. We encourage the gifts, as, for example, through tax benefits for qualifying contributors. Givers can afford the gifts they make, and we enjoy or are benefited by many of them. We find it a happy state of affairs except for a now and then concern about campaign finance.

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By Ralph Keyes While on a long drive I found myself listening to an interview with R & B singer Bettye LaVette that I might not have heard otherwise. Lavette is a great talker. Much of what the 61 year-old soul singer talked about was a decades-long interlude when her career was going nowhere, due in particular to a 1972 album that Atlantic Records chose not to release, then “lost”. (Fortunately its master was eventually found & the record finally released.) This interview was interleaved with excerpts of LaVette’s latest album, Scene of the Crime. At first my ears said “This woman’s voice is shot. What’s she doing still recording songs?” Then I listened more closely to a mesmerizing voice that could no longer fall back on technique. Its grit, feeling, and depth dialed direct from long experience. The songs of an older LaVette were far more powerful than ones they played by her younger self.

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By Mary Catherine Bateson Hillary Clinton’s comments on Dr. King and President Johnson have set off a fire storm. What commentators have failed to realize is that they reflect both Clinton’s strengths and her weaknesses, as well as the real difference between her and Barack Obama. “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Clinton said in a TV interview. “It took a president to get it done.”

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By Lincoln Bloomfield Dipping into Christopher Hitchens’ outrageous but readable bestseller “God is Not Great” brings to mind two different but highly relevant instances of the sometimes toxic religion-politics connection.

● Whoever planned the brutal death of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto — Al Qaeda operative, home-grown terrorist, undercover agent of the Pakistani intelligence services — the murderer was undoubtedly a young Muslim male inspired by an Islamist leader who provided a cause that gave meaning to his life, the lure of fame through martyrdom, and, if needed to close the lethal deal, the promise of 72 black-eyed virgins in Paradise.

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By Gloria Feldt The headline summed it up so accurately it made my teeth hurt: “Republican Unity Trumps Democratic Momentum” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/washington/21cong.html

Robert Pear and Carl Hulse wrote the article that sums up Congressional Democrats’ 2007 accomplishments, or lack of them, in the New York Times, December 21. But whoever wrote that headline gets my vote for the Pulitzer http://www.pulitzer.org/ In fewer syllables than a classic haiku, he or she described perfectly the essence of American politics since the extreme right has held sway over the Republican Party.

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By Charles Lindblom In a market oriented system like ours, presumably we can make some good (if only rough) estimates of what we value—of what is really important to us—by looking at what we spend. We spend heavily on national defense and on recreation, for examples, and we do indeed value both.

Do we value truth—getting the facts straight and collecting those facts that guide how we live? We do indeed spend heavily on getting the truth or some feasible approximation to it. We spend enormous sums on public education, on universities and research institutions, on books and magazines, and now on electronically available information.

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By Lincoln Bloomfield The National Intelligence Estimate released last week (and for a change not leaked), stunned people with its conclusion that Teheran had stopped work in 2003 on nuclear weaponry, putting into question the increasingly belligerent White House rhetoric. Many breathed a sigh of relief at this happy ending to a highly troubling development in a country ruled by religious fanatics and a truly bizarre president. But things may not be what they seem. If you take a closer look and bear in mind some rules of bureaucratic behavior, you may move closer to understanding this surreal situation.

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By ILF Fellow John Vasconcellos, a lawyer, lifelong California legislator, a former California State Senator, where he headed the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and a major political influence. Now retired because of term limits he heads a movement called the Politics of Trust. http://www.politicsoftrust.net/

Have you ever wondered
What kind of a world
We human beings could create

If we were to find out
That in fact,
We are good-natured?

Instead of our being
Burdened & done in by
Our original sin

We are by nature
Blessed & called into
Our original grace

Such may well have the most precious
Of all the many discoveries
Of our recent 20th century

The discovery of the person
The birthright + the destiny
Of each & every one of us human beings

Led by noted pioneers
Carl Rogers, Abe Maslow, Rollo May, Virginia Satir
James Bugental, Sidney Jourard, Stanley Keleman

That we are innately inclined
Toward becoming
Life-affirming

Constructive
Responsible
Trustworthy
(Carl Rogers)

That we can afford to probe
The further reaches of our human nature
Our hierarchy of needs, peak experiences & self-actualization
(Abraham Maslow)

That the utterly free human being
Will be/come
Spontaneously responsible
(Rollo May)

That we are encouraged
To searrch for our selves
(Rollo May)
And to search for meaning
(Viktor Frankl)

And to search for authenticity
(James Bugental)

We can afford to become transparent
(Sidney Jourard)

We are possessed & deserving of self esteem
(Virginia Satir & Bob Reasoner)

Far more than only
‘ I Think therefore I am’
(Rene Descartes)

We feel therefore we are
(Franklin Murphy)

We are our bodies
(Stanley Keleman)

That our bodies
Instead of being objects to be controlled
Become the subjects of our experiencing
(Thomas Hanna)

That the person
Who has liberated & integrated
Each & all of her/his intellect + emotions + body

Into his/her becoming a whole person
Will be possessed of
A democratic character structure
(Abraham Maslow)

How deeply & profoundly
Our most basic choice of visions
Regarding our selves

Our human nature & potential
Leads to our living & becoming
A self-fulfilling prophecy

During the 1960’s we recognized that every body
Of whatever age, gender, race, orientation, dis/ability
Is worth-while

Now we are recognizing that every body
Of whatever age, gender, race, orientation, dis/ability
Is trust-worthy

What a truly radical & revolutionary
Vision that provides each/all of us

Truly subversive & inspiring, healing & hopeful

Altogether leading each of us
Out of the depths of cynicism & darkness
Shame & guilt & fear & repression

Altogether leading each of us
Into the light & hope of faithfulness
Liberation & healing & integration & loving

Wherein trust becomes
The order of the day
Partnership & collaboration our way of operating

Trusting our selves
Leading each of us into our healthy self esteem
On into our personal & social responsibility

Trusting each other
Leading all of us into inclusion & diversity
No matter our age, gender, race, nationality, orientation, dis/ability

Trusting ourselves together
Leading all of us into our partnerships
Collaborating in effective problem-solving efforts

Trusting ourselves altogether
Instead of waging endless war
Engaging each other, our innate peace-ability

Ah, yes, after (before) all,
We have the power within us
To create a vastly different world

Far more peaceful & generous & sustaining
If/when we grow to realize
That we are in fact basically good-natured

For once the truth is recognized,
As taught us by the women’s movement,
‘The personal and the political are one!’

We owe it to ourselves & to our grand/children
To create right now a whole new politics
Befitting who we are becoming as healthy whole persons

Challenging cynicism
Developing a sense of our own innate trustworthiness
Creating a whole new politics

So let us now move to outgrow our inhibitions
Turn loose our passions & our actions
And make our world conducive for growing healthy human beings

Now that we come to know
We can create such a world
We have no time or energy or persons to waste

So now we owe it to ourselves
And to our grand/children as well
To bring that kind of world to life for all our future well-being

We have not
Another moment nor another child
To lose

By Gloria Feldt Sex educators (before the abstinence only people made them stop talking about sex at all, which is a whole other story), use a technique called “desensitization” to help people get to where they can talk sensibly about previously verboten facts such as the proper names for body parts. Secrecy creates mystery and imbues a word or object with powers it doesn’t deserve. Because America’s social discomfort about sex makes us so nervous about dealing with the facts of everyone’s life, teachers sometimes have students say words like “penis” or “vagina” over and over until these words lose their mystical power and become simply the proper names for body parts. This allows learning about physical growth and development to proceed without twitters, just like learning about math, health, or social studies.

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By Charles Lindblom In a book manuscript on its way to publication, I have just read a message addressed to liberals and radicals urging that they abandon the word “liberal” and instead use “progressive”. Many have of course already done so in recent years.

It may be a good idea. But—

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By Douglass Carmichael I’ve been pushed by colleagues looking at science as a culture to clarify my own beliefs about what science at its best is. Their premise has been that science needs a new openness if we are to benefit as fully as we might from it, so here are my thoughts.

Early humans, surrounded by lightening, seasons, storms, dangers and feelings of being equal to the task (we project smallness into their experience, but I think they had many moments of feeling in command and triumphant, as they tamed fire, learned speech, raised families and dealt with wild life and other humans) projected their human capacity for agency into those surrounding events, and thus created gods. Sometimes these gods needed to be appeased — a bit like body English in billiards and many other sports — and sometimes they were like mascots, companions in the hunt or on the gather. Over time in our dialog with “them” we, as peers, (except for death) learned about ourselves. As our gods spoke, so could we. We turned our eating of animals into a sacrifice of their life, a sacrifice that was ritualized in order to avoid the uncomfortable feeling that if the animal was just a thing, then so might we be. We invited the gods to the feast/sacrifice, sharing the guilt.

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By Linc Bloomfield Democracy means to us government with the consent of the governed (to the Greeks who coined the word it meant simply rule by the people). Spreading the benefits of democracy is the noblest of political causes, and the best way to bring that about is to hold an election, right? Well not exactly. In fact, when the other preconditions for democracy are absent, an election can throw a society into bloody turmoil.

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