Corporate Social Opportunity Rules

I’m always talking about changing the view of corporate social responsibility into corporate social opportunity.  How if done right, companies don’t have to choose between profits, people, and the planet.  This is what I mean.

I was reading an interesting article today of an interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor Business Administration, Harvard Business School. She was asked a very good question, “Can one realistically expect values to prevail over profits?”  She answered, “It does not have to be principles over profits. In fact, principles often get you profits.”  She goes on to give an example of Banco Real, a bank in Brazil that has environmental and social responsibility criteria on loan applications.  By so doing, the bank has customers coming back to them with a plea to help them comply and also new customers who, because of this standard, won’t put their money anywhere else.

Another example Kanter cites is P&G and their water purifier called PuR.  At first, the company couldn’t make a profit out of it and many wanted to stop the project.  But instead the company embraced the product’s importance for people who don’t live near clean drinking water and created a non-profit organization to distribute it.  It turns out that after the tsunami, the demand skyrocketed so they not only recovered the cost but even more value came from employee commitment, demonstrating their values to customers, etc.

These two examples are proof that if we truly embrace our social responsibilities and transform them into social opportunities, the rewards will be endless.  The triple bottom line is not too idealistic…it works.

Social Responsibility vs. Greenwashing

Wow—greenwashing sure has been the subject of a lot of discussion lately.  I wanted to follow up on my recent post on the subject, War on Greenwashing.  It seems that while we are paying closer attention and trying to support green companies, we’re just as worried about being misled about who and what is actually as green as they claim to be. The “Green” Hypocrisy: America’s Corporate Environment Champions Pollute The World reports some disappointing news.  It states, “The irony of the “green” movement of US companies is that many of the firms that spend the most money and public relations effort trying to show the government, the public, and their shareholders that they are trying to improve the environment are also among the most prolific polluters in the country.”

The article goes on to list the Top Ten Greenwashers in America.  They are as follows:
1.    General Electric
2.    American Electric Power
3.    ExxonMobil
4.    DuPont
5.    Archer Daniels Midland
6.    Waste Management, Inc.
7.    International Paper
8.    British Petroleum
9.    Dow Chemical
10.    General Motors

Some are no surprise such as ExxonMobill (Read my post Exxon-Exoff), but all should be ashamed.  This time in history presents us with such an amazing opportunity to do something great in changing the world, in making a real difference in the lives of so many.  And when I see big companies with powerful leaders wasting this opportunity by flitting away their money on some bogus PR campaign or half efforts at protecting the environment, it drives me crazy.  Sure, things are bad right now, but at the same time we have the power to turn it around and give a real future to our children.  It’s exciting!  And if you’re not willing to rise above the herd and, as the saying goes, turn lemons into lemonade, then get out of the way and make room for someone who is.

We Can Change the World

I talk a lot about the power individuals have in changing the world, specifically as consumers, and that’s because I truly believe we can each make a difference that matters. And more and more consumers are starting to embrace their role in influencing companies to go green.  Consider these recent findings from “BBMG Conscious Consumer Report: Redefining Value in a New Economy” as reported in BBMG Study Finds ‘Green Trust Gap’:

•    77 % of Americans agree that they “can make a positive difference by purchasing products from socially or environmentally responsible companies.”
•    Nearly seven in ten Americans agree (67%) that “even in tough economic times, it is important to purchase products with social and environmental benefits,” and half (51%) say they are “willing to pay more” for them.
•    Seven in ten consumers (71%) agree that they “avoid purchasing from companies whose practices they disagree with”; and approximately half tell others to shop (55%) or drop (48%) products based on a company’s social and environmental practices.
•    Green factors are very important in purchasing a product: 47% energy efficiency, 32% locally grown or made nearby, 31% all natural, 29% made from recycled materials and 22% USDA, a significant growth over 2007.

These numbers are exciting and suggest a great change that is taking hold.  But at the same time, these numbers are only statistics unless the green revolution becomes personal.  Personal to each one of us.  Personal in a way that makes us change our own behaviors to become part of the solution.  So…what’s one thing you can do this week to make a difference?  What’s one thing you can buy or not buy?  Let’s make it personal and see the world change.

Faith in our Future with Social Responsibility

Recently I was invited to attend a faith-based meeting of social entrepreneurs. It somewhat surprised me to meet some clear-eyed battle seasoned CEOs running multi-million dollar companies that had integrated their social mission, social responsibility and their core values into their business models. Mama Mellace’s, for example, is a wildly successful nut company that is run by young Christian business owners who have been helping poor Islamic Indonesians clean and process nuts through micro-loans. They are also going to be producing “plumpy nut,” a peanut based nutrition food that is going to help millions of African children stave off malnutrition. Another CEO runs Café Halo, an on-line coffee company that has focused its coffee sourcing from an impoverished area of Honduras in order to help bring a decent life to a whole community. It was all inspiring.

Then I heard a presentation that warmed me like a warm Jacuzzi on tired muscles. It was basic, really. But sometimes the brightest light goes off when we’re reminded of something we already know. It was simply this. Our greatest fear is that we are living a meaningless life followed by non-existence. Annihilation. In fact it’s our potential non-existence that makes our human lives potentially meaningless because nothing we do and no one we love will matter if the end of our everything is the end of our lives. And if this is all there is then what does matter is how much pleasure and self-satisfaction we can drive right here, right now. After all, if the only thing that matters is the “Am I happy?” question why put up with a grumpy spouse or a relationship low point? Why put off buying anything that would give us a buzz? What’s the point of self-control when self-gratification is the only sensible strategy to a finite existence? Why in the hell would we even care about Honduran coffee growers, Islamic villagers or African children?

On the other hand, if the point of life is beyond our current line-of-sight horizon; if who we become is more important that what we do; if how we love is more important than being important….then the significance of life’s challenges take on new meaning. And today challenges are lurking on all our doorsteps. Our shared challenge is our own dignity in the storm of stress. We can make suffering noble, patience a virtue and self-sacrifice sacred. Most importantly we can strive to make tomorrow better without being undone when things beyond our control upset our plans. We can hold to our vision even when our future is foggy. And most of all we can eagerly choose a higher path even when it’s going to cost us personally.

I am acutely aware that blind faith can make us stupid, judgmental, and guilt ridden. But I can also be inspired by a mature faith that is compassionate, wise and inclusive. The kind of faith that makes us free.

Times when our plans explode and our confidence is shaken is exactly the time to free ourselves from the world’s insanity to consider deeper things. What’s the greatest thing we can do for ourselves? Ponder beauty, meditate on meaning, give thanks for love, life and our ability to choose. And most of all pay close attention to the opportunity in every challenge.

Most Admired Companies

Last week Fortune Magazine came out with its list of Most Admired Companies. And in my opinion, this is the list that counts.  The judging criteria are innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of products/services, and global competitiveness. Right on.

The companies that made the top nine on the list are:
1. Apple
2. Berkshire Hathaway
3. Toyota Motor
4. Google
5. Johnson & Johnson
6. Procter & Gamble
7. FedEx
8. Southwest Airlines
9. General Electric

In this day and age no one really cares about who is solely making the most money.  Yes, profits are important, after all a company must be sustaining, but profits are only part of the equation.  No matter how much profit a company can boast, what everyone is paying attention to is who is leading the world to a better future with qualities such as innovation and social responsibility.  And when companies focus on these qualities, profits are sure to follow.  I know.  These companies are not perfect.  But neither am I.  What most of them are doing is facing in the right direction.  These are the companies we want to buy from, work for, and see succeed.

Who’s Your Most Important Customer?

We are all vulnerable to the vitality of “customer” relationships.  In business we’re economically vulnerable.  But in our personal life we are even more fragile.  Our mental, emotional and spiritual sense of well-being is deeply tied to the quality of our personal relationships.  After all, our loved ones are “consumers” of us.  Our thoughts, moods, values, interests and personality.  And everyday they vote their feelings by the quality and level of intimacy of attention they give us.

I have two clients who are senior executives for the same high-pressure company.  They are unusual because they have been married to each other for over 10 years. When I first started working with Chad I couldn’t help noticing his enthusiasm when he talked about his wife.  He was wild about her in every way.  He thought she was a brilliant executive—creative, compelling, efficient.  On a personal level, the raves were even sweeter; he called her an amazing wife and a gifted mother.

Carole spoke about Chad as if he were a god.  The most brilliant, visionary leader she had every seen.  A sensitive husband and a loving father.  She freely used words like adore and admire, and she meant them.  To hear two people separately talk about each other with such affection and idealism is exceedingly rare.  For husbands and wives in business together, it is virtually unheard of. 

As I continued to work with Chad and Carole, I discovered two things.  One, they consciously focus on the quality of their relationship and use something called Active Advocacy.  That is, they are each other’s greatest fan, and they aren’t shy about making that known. Second, they spend time together.  Whenever they aren’t working, they are together, and they invest at least an hour a day in nothing but personal communication with each other.

So what’s up with Chad and Carole?  Are they just obnoxiously lucky?  Well maybe, but their relationship is built on pillars anyone can employ to change the energy of their relationships.  There are three main things we can do to create better primary relationships.  I call them the Three Pillars of Love:

 1.  Understand

 2.  Involve

 3.  Affirm

To Understand

The prime need of a human being in a relationship is to be understood.  We can only provide understanding when we value others intrinsically.  This means we don’t value them for how they please, fulfill, serve, or satisfy us, but for whom they are in and of themselves.  We don’t appreciate their good qualities alone but the whole package.  We treasure their extraordinary gifts and the quirks that others may find annoying.  We taste the spice that makes their entire dish unique.  Only when we value another intrinsically can empathy flow. 

Conversation is vital to understanding.  Couples who are romantic talk a lot.  Little conversations throughout the day. Other couples, on the contrary, seem to get their entire talking life “over with” when they’re falling in love.  During those hormone-enhanced early days, they lose track of time and talk all night.  But lasting romance requires continued soul conversation.  Without knowing the depth of our beloved, there is nothing real to love.  All we see or hear is the superficial, the practical.  We lose sight of the good stuff, the soul stuff.  

To Involve

A blissful relationship requires hands-on involvement.  It is not enough to tolerate the interests of our loved ones; it isn’t even enough to support them.  If we want love that lives and breathes, we must involve ourselves in their interests.  At least some of the time.  We don’t have to be involved in everything they do, but we should try to be involved in the special things.  The things that appear to give them special satisfaction.   That’s where the love payoff really is. 

To Affirm

Affirming is simple.  As soon as you notice someone doing something well, being kind or thoughtful, expressing his/her gifts, or looking good, you mention it.  Say it as soon as you think it.  The habit of affirmation is one of the most powerful loving skills you can develop.  Why we keep our positive thoughts a secret is a great mystery.   

Dan Baker, Director of the Life Enhancement Center at Canyon Ranch, cites research confirming this. “When we affirm others, we use parts of our neo-cortex that generate positive moods.  Affirming stimulates neuro-transmitters that are mood elevators.  Those who affirm and love others are making themselves happy.”  It’s simple.  Want to feel better?  Make someone else feel better.

Of course the three pillars of love don’t just work with a spouse or romantic partner.  Understanding, involving and affirming can turn up the quality of any relationship whether with children, parents, friends, even customers…everyone.  And it’s free.  It costs nothing, but the payoff is life’s jackpot. 

 

This article was originally published in The Deluxe Knowledge Quarterly KQ3 2008.

Above All…Be an Original: Finding Your Dream and Living From Your Design

A few years ago, Chris, a great friend of mine, was attending a summer concert featuring a Beatles Tribute band. They were dressed up like a 1965 version of John, Paul, George and Ringo. They had their accents and music down. They were an amazing group of musicians perfectly imitating genuine rock stars. And they were fake. After twenty minutes Chris couldn’t handle it. He actually left his family sitting on the grass and spent an hour walking home. He couldn’t stand listening to “fake Beatles.” To this day, Chris tells me that if he were a musician, he would rather spend his life playing his music in small bars and clubs then playing someone else’s music to crowds of Baby Boomers trying to re-imagine their past. Chris is an original. He is not about to sing someone else’s song.

Turns out, this is great career advice. “Be the rock star of your own life!”

What if you were designed perfectly to live your Dream Life? Well you are. You were designed to succeed at what brings you deepest, lasting joy. And fulfilling your design is the music of your heart. All you have to do is hear it.

Although we share over 99% of our DNA structure and pretty much 100% of our spiritual nature with other humans, there’s still an amazing amount of room for individuality. Recent brain and personality research suggests that each of us is more unique than perhaps we ever imagined. Turns out that 1% DNA difference leads to tens of millions of physical, psychological, and personality differences. That’s what makes us an original! The way we think, the way we learn, and the way we excel are extremely idiosyncratic. Many of us feel frustrated and anxious when we we’re not allowed to do “our thing our way.” This turns out not to be stubbornness but Design trying to shine through.

Our very uniqueness holds our personal key to fulfillment. A Dream Life is built on discovering, or re-discovering, our authentic Design. Greatness is always the result of being different—Being original.  No one can be better than you at being you.  Don’t compete; be unique.  And turn up the volume.

So how is this accomplished? Luckily, surgery is not required, nor are light explosives. You discover your design by becoming aware of your persistent traits and talents. Your “Design” is the intersection of traits and talents that you bring with you into the world.

Talents are skills that you perform exceptionally well and with natural ease. They are the way others see and experience you—the outer you. Talent yields success with minimal effort. Traits are the inner you. They’re the way you experience the world, what you pay attention to, what you derive deep satisfaction and value from, and how you like to engage life and others. A trait is a persistent quality of our essential identity. Examples are optimism, caring, courage, and enthusiasm.

What you both value doing (traits) and do extremely well (talents) is what you were Designed to do—your calling. Activities that are aligned with your Design give you energy rather than sap it. You don’t tire of them. You have to be told to stop doing them. You do them when you should be eating lunch. You would do them even if you didn’t get paid. They fire you up. When you are expressing your design, you have no longings to do something different. Something better, yes. More opportunity, of course. A bigger stage, more impact…sure. But you don’t yearn to do something fundamentally different.

It’s inspiring to believe that each of us are perfectly designed to fulfill our real dreams; that our traits, talent and interests are sign posts to the road of our greatest possible life.  But I’ve found it take more than understanding and inspiration to actually live a Dream Life.  It requires changing how you think, what you feel, and what you do.  Every decision you make either takes you closer to your Dream Life or further away from it. Yes once you think about it, it’s clear that to live an extraordinary life, extraordinary choices are necessary.  Once, when I was deeply confused my father advised me, “Be who you are and do what you came for.” It was his way of telling me not to be a fake Beatle.

I don’t know what your dreams are or what your extraordinary choices should be.  I can only challenge you to consider your choices and make them. All of us are ultimately responsible for our own lives. Our lives are our anthem. But spending our life imagining what it might sound like doesn’t do any good. Pick up your microphone and belt it out.

This article was originally published in The Deluxe Knowledge Quarterly KQ2 2008.

How to Cure Our Own Healthcare

I know the title of this blog is overly ambitious.  But it’s undeniable that America’s health care system is on life support.  I just came from a private meeting of Johnson & Johnson “wellness” executives that was inspiring.

Johnson & Johnson is one of those all-too-rare companies that is serious about their social responsibilities and have been for over 100 years.  Yes, I know they are not perfect.  What $65 billion enterprise is?  But their annual direct contributions to human health exceed a half a billion dollars.  Once more, their famous operating credo points customers first, employees second, community third, and share holders last.  It was written in 1943 by their only shareholder, General Robert Woods Johnson.  Remember, they took Tylenol off all the store shelves in the world when a few capsules were found laced with poison in a deadly prank. What other company has handled a recall with such concern for our safety?

Well let’s just say J & J is serious about making our wellness and healthy aging a big strategic priority for the next 150 years.  They talk in 50-year terms, which is breathtaking in an age where most executives think long-term means a week or 10 days.   Yes of course they plan to make good health a profitable business.  That’s what makes their plans sustainable.  It’s what I call socially strategic leadership…business that makes money by benefiting humanity.  That’s the good news.

The challenge is that American health care is completely compromised by the intense lobbying culture in Washington.  Today we have over 200 ex-congressmen lobbying for their special interest instead of our common good (See Stuck in the Revolving Door in the Washington Post).  When asked why lobbying had become such a huge business in Washington, Robert G.  Kaiser, former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee said, “There’s just so damn much money in it.”  That’s not funny.  Lobbyists actually write many of the bills that become laws.  For instance, they wrote the drug Medicare benefit passed by George Bush’s congress in 2003, which made it illegal for the government to negotiate with drug companies on the price of the drugs Medicare now pays for.  It’s called corporate welfare, reverse wealth transfer, or as Jack Abramoff called it, “legalized bribery.”

So, where has this gotten us?  In very deep yogurt, that’s where.  The U.S. spends 50% more on health care per person than the next highest spending country (Norway).  We have the fastest growth in health care spending in the world.  Yet we have below-average life expectancy, the largest number of uninsured in any industrialized nation, higher infant mortality here than in Poland and 3 times higher than in Japan, and a growing obesity epidemic caused by our lifestyles.

So who’s going to fix this?  Well, Tom Daschle was presented to us as the most knowledgeable man in America to fix our system.  But it turns out his part of this Washington D.C. culture of I’m-so-special I-don’t-have-to-pay-my-taxes.  Damn.  (Unlike Rush Limbaugh I am rooting my brains out for President Obama to succeed.  But please.  Paying one’s taxes is a very low standard for anyone who’s going to serve in our nation’s cabinet to reach.  It’s disappointing the corrupting influence of Washington has made even that standard too high for some of our best potential public servants.)

Our health care problems are astoundingly complex.  Solutions are beyond government alone or the so-called free market to solve.  Greed, incompetence, demographics, and complexity are causing costs to skyrocket while causing massive unnecessary suffering.  So what’ the best thing we can do?  Well, first, today begin to make the changes in our lifestyles that are known to promote our and our family’s health.  If you could do just one thing, what would it be?  Get moving.

According to Dr. Jim Loehr of the Human Performance Institute of Johnson & Johnson, if Americans just got our large muscles (legs) moving more, we would begin to get healthier.  I know a business leader who lost 30 pounds over the past 18 months simply by wearing a ped-o-meter on his belt to make sure he walks a total of 5 miles a day.  Usually he does half of this on a 40-minute walk in the morning or evening.  The rest he does by moving throughout the day.  He takes the stairs, walks to other people’s offices and takes every other opportunity to walk he can.  The payoff Loehr says is that getting moving changes our blood chemistry, our muscle tone, our strength, our energy, our blood oxygen levels and jacks up our motivation to make other changes with our diet, our sleep, and our stress resilience.  I was going to suggest a few more things we could do to reduce our personal vulnerability to our broken health care system but let me stop with this.  Get moving.  Today.  We’ll all be healthier for it.

So what do you think of our health care mess?  Obama’s blunder with Tom Daschle?  Your personal advice on how we can live more healthy?

The 1% Solution

We are living in a puzzle of paradox.  On the one hand we are staring at the single light of an oncoming train barreling down the tracks of a collapsed economy.  On the other we are giddy with optimism that President Obama’s leadership will usher in a new era of inventive solutions that will bind us together in a new future.  As recent national New York Times/CBS News Poll declares, 80% of Americans believe Barack Obama will lead us to responsible prosperity and world peace.  Wow.  That’s hope on steroids.  But just below our optimism are nagging questions.

We are all upset about bailouts without accountability.  Banks who seem to have no trouble tracking every transaction on my debit card suddenly can’t tell us where they stashed or how they used $350 billion.  It’s all co-mingled with all the rest of their assets in a giant money bin they tell us.  Right.

Next we gulp when we’re told that the government has to spend a trillion dollars to stimulate our economy.  Hey, they are going to build roads and bridges and get us back working on high paying union jobs.  Yea…that’s good I guess, but how come every time I drive down the freeway by a construction zone all I see are lots of people standing around and a few people working?  And why do these projects take so long to complete?

It seems to me that flushing billions down the sewer of our giant broken banks without any accountability and huge public works projects is like treating cancer with aspirin; it may be necessary, but it’s not a cure.  The problems our bombed out economy is dealing with are far deeper than bank balance sheets and a new freeway interchange.

One massive game-changing problem is that globalism and technology has stopped our incomes from growing.  Don’t get me wrong.  Global trade and technology aren’t bad in and of themselves.  But when they are primarily used as tools to increase the wealth of a few, their toxic side effects are potent.  A global workforce has radically swelled and depressed wage growth in developed nations.  This combined with automation and software has rendered lots of well-trained and educated people’s skills irrelevant.  A recent side effect to no wage gain is the decline of consumption so our markets can no longer sustain the rapid industrialization and output growth of Asia and Eastern Europe.  Of course there is a silver lining to the collapse of the old economy.  We’ve been way too wasteful.  We bought stuff, lots of stuff, we didn’t need, and we gravely abused our planet.  It was all unsustainable.  But since the old economy paid our bills, its collapse comes with a raging river of human suffering.

So here comes the cavalry.  The bugle blows and Obama rides to our rescue.  Well maybe.  I hope so.  He’s intelligent, reasonable and inspiring.  But is government the right tool to fix what ails us?  Our own government’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently estimated that one-third of our annual $3 trillion in taxes is wasted.  We receive no value for it.  That’s just the way it is.  A trillion gone.  It’s true that some things government does best.  But mostly what I want government to do is make and enforce laws that promote fairness and justice.  I want them to keep the playing field as level as possible.  I want them to prevent corruption.  I want them to take the “special” out of special interests.

But one thing they are not good at is valued job creation.  The fundamental problem of government employment and government contracting for services is non-existent accountability.  When there are no consequences for under performance, underperformance is usually what we get way too much of.  Helping big business is not much better.  For the past 30 years they’ve been in the business of cutting jobs, not creating them.  For instance, General Motors has shrunk its global workforce by 75% over the past three decades as its market share shrank.

So what’s the best thing we can do?  Let’s try something completely simple and completely radical.  Before I propose it let me be clear there are lots and lots of details to work out.  So I need your help with creative solutions to all the ways this could fail.  But just hear me out.

Our core economic challenge we have is to create reasonable paying, needed jobs.  Jobs that create value.  Jobs that have performance accountability.  Jobs that build a sustainable future.  Jobs that make our nation stronger and benefit the world.  And we need to create these jobs not through a government bureaucracy but through ingenuity of millions of citizen entrepreneurs and professionals working with local, national, and global business.  Here’s how.

Our federal government can issue a tax credit equal to one percent of gross sales of all businesses with a business license.  So a $1 billion business would get a $10 million reduction on their taxes that they could carry forward if they had no profits.  A small business with $250,000 in sales would get a $2,500 credit.  However, this credit would only be valid if the money was directly invested in a new business that made money by benefiting humanity or healing the environment.  New businesses would qualify by meeting well-established Socially Responsible Investing Standards (SRI).  (This means no investments in cigarettes, vices, weapons or heavy polluters.) There are also many standards to judge socially responsible enterprise used in social venture capital competitions held throughout the world.   A simple annual audit form would have to be submitted by the new business to qualify for further investment in future years.

Based on our total GDP this ought to create about $100 billion in private capital to go in a new company and job creation for sustainable solutions to our most urgent problems.  This money would not go through the hands of bureaucrats but would be our money directly invested by us.   If we maintained this for five years it would be close to $500 billion invested in our new future.  My view is this would stimulate innovation, job creation, and sustainable business thinking faster and more broadly than anything else.  Of course not every business would work.  But the efficiency of the market place would reward good ideas and competence and bureaucratic waste would be minimized.

Oh, one last thing.  We’d all be investors.  You see we, the taxpayers, would own 10% of any new business funded by our tax credits.  Who knows, our investment in the future may even help pay off our national debt.  No, this won’t solve all our problems…but it would spur new business formation in the businesses we need for our future right now.

So, what do you think?  How would you improve it?  If we can create a workable program, I am off to Washington.  Obama, you better buckle up.

It’s Time to Dream

Decades ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called all Americans to look up toward a new mountaintop.  He called us to conquer our fears and discard our prejudices.  He inspired us to create the best society we could imagine.  In fact, the challenge he thrust forward was to re-imagine a society that genuinely rewarded both good work and good character.  Last night, Cheryl, a documentary film director (http://www.thepurplecouch.com) sent me a quote from Dr. King’s last speech at the Riverside Church in 1967:

“On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act.  One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.  True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial.  It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

Dr. King’s speech calls back to the original American Dream articulated by Jefferson in our Declaration of Independence.  It’s the dream of an entire people united in a vision that the best society is one that promotes the most opportunity for happiness and seeks to eliminate the causes for all avoidable suffering. Our founders understood that liberty is not simply an absence of rules.  That’s just anarchy.  Liberty is personal autonomy safeguarded by institutions that prevent the powerful from exploiting the rest of us.  Real liberty requires an absence of corruption and equal access to power, education, and capital.  It requires a level playing field supported by political, social, educational, and cultural institutions (John Kay, Culture and Prosperity).

Jefferson, Washington and Franklin understood that it isn’t enough to declare liberty; political and social institutions must support it.  They distrusted the asymmetrical power of the wealthy.  They knew liberty with education, resources and access to tangible assets is very different from liberty without those things.

We all share a mutual social responsibility to make today the beginning of something more than we have become.  It is time to stand for the very best future we can imagine in all that we say, do and choose.  That’s what today is.

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