"David" Meets "Goliath"

Last night on Bill Moyers Journal Bill interviewed Melody Petersen. Petersen is a reporter for the New York Times who covered the drug industry for four years, winning one of the highest honors in business journalism--the Gerald Loeb Award. Then she spent another four years researching and writing the book Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation On Prescription Drugs.

When Petersen started to write about the pharmaceutical companies she didn't know a thing about the drug companies and actually thought that they were a lot about science. After all, that's what they were telling the public. Yet, Petersen came to the conclusion after 8 years of writing and researching that it was marketing that drove the companies--selling prescription drugs rather than discovering them had become the industry's obsession.

To help make her point Petersen states a statistic that comes from the Federal Drug Administration that 100,000 Americans die every year from their prescription drugs--that they took just as the doctor directed. This wasn't when a doctor or a pharmacist make a mistake or the patient accidentally took too much.

My reason for sharing this story isn't to promote Peterson's book or even to say that I agree with her although she does make a compelling argument. I learned an important lesson from her as I watched her and listened to her and thought about what she was doing. As we all know the pharmaceutical industry is incredibly powerful.

Petersen explains how the drug companies have used advertising to promote their products. We only have to watch a few minutes of television and watch the ad after ad telling us that there is now a pill for anything and everything that ails us (or that we are made to believe that ails us!). These ads are even more powerful because the industry has learned that the public will be more likely to believe the message if it comes from someone who is trusted to be independent--like a doctor. Many physicians who used to be the gatekeeper who had the interest of his or her patients at heart are now given gifts or cash from the drug companies to participate in the propaganda. The drug company even now pays the FDA to get their drugs reviewed and approved. Adding to this troubling scenario Congress is in the grip of this industry. Petersen reports that in a recent six-year period the drug company spent more on lobbying that any other industry and now employs two lobbyists for every member of Congress.

In spite of the power of the drug company Petersen who is just a young reporter has been willing to fight it. While the majority of people has just accepted the overwhelming power of the drug companies and reconciled itself to the situation, Petersen has chosen to be a "David" who has taken her "slingshot" which is her book to fight this "Goliath."

Knowledge Is Power--Especially When We Share It!

Many years ago I heard the truism that knowledge is power. Yet, I have come to realize as others have that knowledge that is shared is even more powerful. By sharing knowledge both individuals grow in their knowledge and expertise.

Dr. Stephen Covey recommends that when we have learned something new that we share it with someone else within 24-48 hours. This sharing will not only reinforce what we have learned we will benefit from what others share in return. In other words, the more knowledge wealth we share, the more knowledge wealth we gain.

My good friend and colleague, Michelle Bachman, and I have come across one way we can do this on a regular basis. We have decided that both of us will read the book Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts and share our ideas, impressions, insights, etc. via email. This is not only a way to increase our knowledge but it is also a way to keep in touch with friends who enrich our lives and expand our horizons.

Cornell West Insights--Part 3

"A democracy is created to ensure that arbitrary forms of power are not deployed or used against fellow citizens and fellow human beings." "Democracy is affirming the humanity an dignity of people of color."

"I am not a politician. I am a fellow citizen but I am deeply political."

West reminds us of what Malcolm X suggested about the fact that the chickens will come home to roost. "We must not think that there will ever be enough police or prisons to deal with the overwhelming social despair that results from the social neglect in those kindergartens, elementary schools, and secondary schools and high schools.

"Resources are necessary for education, but not sufficient for essential education. "Creative thinking, critical intelligence, deep commitment, connection with students, believing deeply that students can learn are other critical essentials." Yet, when 1% of the population has roughly the same wealth as the bottom 95% of the population, there needs to be a serious discussion about the wealth inequality in this country.

"Charity is not justice."

"I am not optimistic. Anyone who has the audacity to adopt a democratic vision cannot be optimistic, though I do not conflate optimism with hope." Hope means one keeps keeping on to come together to form communities and schools that embody democratic principles.

"Maybe we have a problem. Maybe we ought to really try to take seriously multiracial democracy. Which we know was not the division of the founding fathers, even given their relative wisdom. They could not conceive of black, white, red, yellow, all having equal citizenship status. They could not conceive of women having equal citizenship status. And one says that not to trash them just contextualize them. They had wisdom but it is relative to context, just as we have wisdom today but it is relative to our context. But we are building on their vision...if we do not wrestle...with [its] overwhelming inequality and increasing inequality, then yes, we can begin to lose that precious democratic tradition that was transmitted, bequeathed to us by the best of those who came before."

West reminds us of a staple from the Martin Luther King legacy which was to let go of bitterness, hatred and revenge, regardless of history. We must fall in love with peace and justice and the desire to serve.

Writing Is A Powerful Tool

I once heard that we should always carry two books with us--one to read and one to write in. Yesterday's "blog posting" addressed the importance of the first kind. Today's "blog posting" will address the value of the second kind...and how the two complement each other.

David McCullough in an interview with Bruce Cole, Chairman of NEH, said, "Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly" and William Safire states, "By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking."

To read is to empower

To empower is to write

To write is to influence

To influence is to change

To change is to live.

--Jane Evershed--

More than a Tea Party

According to McCullough there is something about the pen that focuses the brain in a way that nothing else does. Francis Bacon suggests, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."

Writing can be especially power for our diverse learners. Elie Wiesel has said, "Write only what you alone can write." Each diverse learner has a story to tell that only he or she can write.

We must encourage that story to be told. Often that will mean allowing the student to tell that story in his/her home language.

Learning English

In Cool Salsa

Translated by Lori M. Carlson

Life

To understand me

You have to know Spanish

Feel it in the blood of your soul.

If I speak another language

And use different words

For feelings that will always stay the same

I don't know

If I'll continue being

the same person.

Martin Espada, a famed poet, is convinced that giving diverse learners a voice through poetry will make a difference for them. He feels that young people have a hope regardless of their life's circumstances and in spite of the millions of people in the U.S. who are prejudiced against them and feel they don't belong here. Most young people feel that if they can make their voices heard, things will change. Therefore, Espada wants to help them find the poetry in their own experience.

Espada feels that poetry will help our diverse learners maintain their dignity and sense of self-respect...and therefore, be better suited to defend themselves against the world. Plus, poetry humanizes---and makes the invisible visible. In this way, their voices through their poetry can be a political tool.

After all, "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Lessons to Learn from "Wet Pants"

As I read the story "Wet Pants" which was sent to me this morning by my good friend, Richard Gordon, not only was I touched by the depth of care shown by a 3rd grade girl, but I saw a new application. There are lessons Susie teaches through her example that anyone wanting to make a difference for diverse learners will want to learn and apply.

WET PANTS

Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet.

He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful.

But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good..

Lessons Susie teaches:

• She was observant


• She was empathetic


• She didn't blame anyone, not even the little boy, for the situation


• She didn't organize a committee to help


• She thought in terms of how she personally could help...and it didn't matter that he was a boy and that she was a girl or that she was only 9 years old


• She didn't wait for the authority person, the person with the "power," --the teacher--to address the issue


• She didn't ask to be recognized for the good she had done. In fact.....


• She allowed herself to be ridiculed and misunderstood--without whining or murmuring

The boy taught some lessons, too:

• Pray for help


• Recognize the help when it comes


• Give thanks for the help both to the Lord and to the person who helped

Most of the time Heavenly Father answers prayers through someone else. A spiritual leader will strive to live in such a way that he or she can be the answer to the unspoken, as well as the spoken, prayers of his/her diverse learners and their families.

Spiritual Leadership Requires Righteous Motives

You probably know, as I do, that there is nothing quite like the sting that comes when one's motives are questioned or challenged.....especially when one has taken the risk to step out from the crowd to advocate for a cause greater than oneself The sting is even more painful and harder to endure when the criticism comes from those who are supposedly on the same side of the battle.



Yet, in spite of the painfulness of the sting, it provides an opportunity for us to ponder on our motives. Whenever our actions are motivated by a desire for a response from others whether that response be accolades, money, recognition, prestige, approval, etc., it would behoove us to do some changing.



It is not only the strength of a motive that is important but also the rightness or wrongness of it as L. Tom Perry suggests in his book, Righteous Influence. He goes onto say that power and influence are to be exercised only when a leader has in mind righteous purposes--pureness of heart. In other words, when and how a leader steps in has as much to do with the leader's readiness to do so as with the needs of the person (s) he/she desires to influence.



When one has a desire to influence another---to know when and how to step in (or back off!)--the first thing one should do is drop to his knees for guidance. From a personal conversation, L. Tom Perry quotes Jerry Harvey, a well-respected organizational scientist, "You don't really know anything about a leader until you know something about his prayer life."



Even if are motives are pure and even if we have prayed for guidance, there is still no guarantee that our motives won't be questioned or challenged. Others still have their free agency in how they choose to respond to our righteous motives. They may still falsely accuse us as Nephi was accused by his brothers, Laman and Lemuel, in the Book of Mormon of wanting to rule over them--in spite of all that he had done in their behalf.



If we are wrongly accused after we have determined that our motives are pure, we have the option of choosing to retreat or to go forward in spite of it. The cause depends on us choosing the latter... remembering the words of Albert Einstein,

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"