[Ailist] Appreciation vs. Cynicism

[Sandy Wells]

My heavens!  A country that is downright mean??  Guided by fear?  Frankly,
to state that the US is guided by "cynics, sloths, and complacents" sounds
pretty cynical to me.  This is probably one time I would ask for facts,
please."

Last week, I had occasion to be stuck on a snowy mountain in West Virginia,
caught in an unscheduled, unanticipated snow storm on Elk Mountain.  Would
have driven a different vehicle, with different tires, if precipitation had
been forecasted.  No matter, on three separate occasions, some of those
"cynical sloths" stopped their vehicles, trudged in the wet snow and helped
push me out so I could drive down the mountain to safety. I especially
appreciated the 18 wheeler truck driver who stopped on his way down to help.

Yeah, I live near a big city, grew up on Long Island where the news was
everyday full of some poor soul being murdered.  However, I never have lost
faith in my country, never stopped believing in the general good resident in
the generic person on the street, and certainly don't believe the US is
downright mean!

Here's another evidence that mean-ness is not everywhere.  Chatted with my
dentist's assistant who is heading to Honduras next week on his Marine
duty--where they spend two weeks fixing up the teeth of poor kids.  Heck we
don't even send the Marines into the ghetto to work on poor kids' teeth
here--but it is part of the wider humanitarian mission to third world
countries that the US does...

Oh yeah, really mean.

The drama of it all and it does make good press.  After all, I just spent
ten minutes responding!!

Sandy

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Lionel Boxer
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2008 12:10 PM
To: kervick at comcast.net; ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: Re: [Ailist] Appreciation vs. Cynicism

Having grown up and lived in Toronto from 1957 to 1987 I tend to agree
with Ms Obama and I think her approach is appropriate.  The great ideals
that started out in 1776 have been lost, but they were lost well before
Ms Obama was born.

This is why AI is so important.

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
What's up?: http://intergon.net/events.html
The Sustainable Way: http://intergon.net/tsw
>>> "Kevin Kervick" <kervick at comcast.net> 09/03/08 1:39 AM >>>
>From Michelle Obama in the New Yorker magazine:

Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and
life is 
not good: we're a divided country, we're a country that is "just
downright 
mean," we are "guided by fear," we're a nation of cynics, sloths, and 
complacents. "We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely

making it every day," she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. "Folks are
just 
jammed up, and it's gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I'm 
young. Forty-four!"

----

The conventional wisdom among some political observers is that these 
comments may be unhelpful to say out loud but they are true. My
contention 
is they are not true and they reflect misguided and cynical all or
nothing 
biases that are not supported by the facts.  Unfortunately there is much

support for this line of thinking among liberal people, which may
explain 
why liberals tend to be less appreciative and less happy than
conservatives.

Not much appreciative inquiry here. If Ms. Obama is going to go on a
reality 
tirade she should get it right.  I like Barack Obama's message of hope
as 
long as it also includes appreciation of the essential goodness of the 
United States. Could she have made her point in a more appreciative way?

I have more on the Catalysts for Change blog at 
http://catalystsforchange.blogspot.com/.

Kevin Kervick
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