Month: October 2021

I live in Southern California. It is sunny and warm pretty much all year. I seldom need an umbrella and I rarely wear a coat. I’ve never had to shovel snow, scrape ice off my car windows nor worry about slipping on black ice. For me, those are the upsides to living in California. The downside is the lack of water and clean air. California suffers from extreme draught conditions and a year round fire season due to climate change. The hillsides that surround us are brown tender boxes. They seem to burn with such regularity these days, destroying wild habitants, homes and businesses, and even human lives. But California is not the only location facing increasing problems brought on by climate change.

This is a worldwide problem that is already impacting both animals and humans. Warmer oceans upset the ego system, killing off wildlife and an important food source. Draughts negatively impact the food supply by limiting agriculture. Floods and hurricanes destroy homes, schools, and businesses. Some coastal cities are in danger of disappearing altogether. The disruptions caused by continuous climate change events is already costing billions of dollars and the price tag, including the cost of human lives, will continue to rise if we do too little, too late. As always, the poorest and most vulnerable among us are suffering the most.

If we care that our children and their children inherit a habitable planet, we must become better humans who do better by our planet. It’s time we develop habits that reduce our carbon footprint, that save water, and use energy wisely. Yes, world leading are meeting in right now to discuss governmental commitments to mitigate climate change. Some corporations are starting to do their part too. But we as individuals have a role to play as well.

The most important thing we can do is limit our driving. In places like Southern California where public transportation is rare, having a car is a necessity. It is time to insist that our public officials invest more of our tax payer dollars into building more public transportation using clean energy. While the situation is improving, it still isn’t good enough, particularly where I live. In the meantime, we can carpool, purchase hybrid or electric vehicles, and cluster errands. Driving less is the best thing we can do. And when possible, consider moving loser to where we work, study, and shop as a way to reduce our carbon footprint. I’ve been fortunate to drive less than 5,000 miles each year in my hybrid because I lived so close to my work and I’m able to shop locally. However, there are so many other small changes that I’ve made and have committed to making as a better human. Below is a list of small and big changes that when taken collectively could help us protect our planet.

Other things we can do to help protect the planet:

-Flying less often, making video-conferencing a permanent option

-Improving the insulation of our homes’ windows, doors, walls and ceilings

– Turning off lights and appliances when not in use

-Eating less red meat and dairy

-Consuming leftovers

-Switching from oil and gas heaters to electric

-Repairing clothes, donating clothes, buying second hand or renting clothes instead of purchasing new clothing

-Taking a train instead of flying whenever possible

-Buying energy efficient appliances

-Walking or biking instead of driving whenever possible

-Investing in solar and wind energy

-Reducing use of single use disposables and recycling more

-Conserving water with fewer and shorter showers, using the dishwasher, washing full loads of laundry, going to the carwash, and draught resistant gardening

-Planting trees and draught resistant plants or donating to organizations who do

-Supporting eco-friendly corporations and small businesses

-Voting for political candidates who take climate change seriously and are willing to enact laws and policies that protect the planet

I created The Better Human Project in response to the downward spiral I’ve recently observed in how human beings are interacting with one another.  As a retired educator and grandparent, I care deeply about the survival of the next generation.  I want my kids, my grandkids, and former students to not just survive, but to thrive in this world that we share with other human beings.  I have always believed that we humans collectively have the power to shape the society in which we live. When we lose sight of this reality and allow the greedy for fame, wealth, and power to dictate the rules, humanity and the planet itself ultimately suffer. 

During the process of creating this project, I reflected on what I thought it means to be human.  To help me think deeply about this, I took the word human and assigned a word to each letter. 

The letter “H” came to stand for creatures of habit.  We all know that humans develop habits that enable us to live important parts of our lives without having to exert a lot of mental energy.  Some are good and others are detrimental to our health and that of the planet.  Being a better human means consciously developing habits that are beneficial.

I made the letter “U” stand for the reality that we are each unique, having differences in talents, energy levels, intelligence, and personality.  I find great beauty and appreciation in the uniqueness of each human being and the special contributions their unique attributes allow them to make, especially when used to benefit humanity.

In my mind, the letter “M” came to stand for multicultural.  Each human is raised within a community with an established set of values, traditions, language, and social rules.  These provide an important feeling of belonging and safety.  When a culture uplifts and values every human within the community, it is worthy of preservation.  However, when individuals within a culture suffer alienation, oppression, and discrimination, then it is time to revise elements of that culture.

The letter “A” represents for me how humans are always active.  We have an innate need to do something with our lives and when we are no longer active, we become bored, lethargic and depressed.

And finally, the letter “N’ stands for neighbors because we share a planet together and we affect each other’s lives whether we care to acknowledge this reality or not.  We are not islands onto ourselves, nor communities unaffected by how other communities live.  We breath common air, share oceans, and have limited resources.

With these beliefs about humans as the foundation for The Better Human Project, I narrowed down nine things each of us can do to become a better human.  They are:

1. Protect the planet
2. Be truthful and value the truth
3. Learn new things as a lifelong learner
4. Love your neighbor
5. Challenge bigotry
6. Demand social justice
7. Help others in need
8. Practice inclusion
9. Vote for better humans in elections

 And that is The Better Human Project.  I hope you’ll join me in becoming a better human to make our world a better place to live.

Over the years, I’ve collected and stored wise and inspiring maxims that literally guide me through life. Many have come from early Sunday School lessons, like the Golden Rule: “Do onto others as you would have them do unto you” or “Judge not less you be judged” and “You’ll know a tree by the fruit it bears”. Others came from my mother, although she probably wasn’t the author. Many of her wise words continue to influence my behavior like, “Haste makes waste” and “You eat an elephant one bite at a time”, “Consider the source” and “A hard head makes for a soft behind”. And then there are aphorisms I gathered from speeches, songs, books, educators and activist making a point. For as long as I can remember, certainly as far back as the eighth grade, I was moved to action by the dictum, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

It turns out that these powerful words originated with Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), an early leader of the Black Panther Movement, former Muslim, ex-con, and civil rights author. I don’t recall where I was nor who first shared his words with me, but they became a part of my cache of wise and inspiring maxims to live by. In the eight grade, his dictum motivated me to start a school club to deal with the numerous problems I observed on campus. I called it the “Get it Together Club”. The mission of the club was to bring the student body together to improve our school from the bottom up. The effort was ambitious and notable enough to gain the attention of then Major of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, who attended my 9th grade graduation in order to present me with his “Community Service Award”. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed by the beautiful plague and I can’t even recall the praise he heaped upon me in front of the audience, but I retain the satisfaction of working for the common good. When a reporter asked me what inspired me, I unknowingly quoted Eldridge Cleaver, “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”

Throughout my personal and professional career, I have continued to be motivated by Cleaver’s words. And now, in retirement, as I find myself daily lamenting the sorry state of human interactions in our country, his dictum rings in my ears. And true to my lifelong belief system, I feel a responsibility to do something about it. I had thought that I would write children’s books to address the moral character of the next generation. And I still might. But then one morning, it occurred to me that I really wanted to get the message out to people actively involved in our society today that we should be better, could be better, and must do better if we are to survive as a human race on this planet.

I began to work on a public service message to encourage people to be better humans. For several days I thought about what it really means to be human and then what it means to be a better human. Out of this deep thinking, I created “The Better Human Project” and I asked my daughter who runs a non-profit, The Inclusion Media Group, if my project would fit within the mission of the non-profit and if they would take it on. She welcomed the project and I have been working on the details as the project manager ever since.

In the coming weeks, I’ll share the details of the The Better Human Project and will point to ways my readers can help spread the message. In researching for this week’s post, I found another quote from Eldridge Cleaver that surprisingly sums up The Better Human Project. Of course, I’ve already added it to my wise and inspiring cache of maxims.

“You don’t have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.” (Eldridge Cleaver)

Many teachers will tell you that a great percentage of their time and effort goes to managing the squeaky wheels in their classrooms. A squeaky wheel is the attention grabbing kid who through either exceptionally constructive behavior or exceptionally disruptive behavior motivates a teacher’s actions in the classroom. As a result, the majority of kids in any given classroom are largely forgettable and they receive from the teacher what is dictated by the behavior of the squeaky wheels. I grasp that the same is true in our society. Political, business and religious leaders cater to the prerogatives of the exceptionally outstanding or the exceptionally obnoxious among us.

This week, I decided to become a squeaky wheel to our nation’s political leaders, as an exceptionally constructive person. Among the exceptionally constructive in our country are the highly educated and well informed, successful business owners, the famous for their talent, the patriotic heroes, and the articulate. Among the exceptionally obnoxious are those self-centered and unethical individuals who are greedy for fame, power, and money at the expense of everyone else. Caught in the middle are unsuspecting Americans who are simply living their lives to the best of their ability. For many years, I was one of them. At that time, the Republic was relatively safe. Lawmakers compromised. Americans shared the same basic facts on matters of importance. No political party owned an entire news network. Indecent, bullying, and blatantly immoral candidates were disqualified. However, these things are no longer true.

I learned through a conversation with one of my daughters just how unaware hardworking Americans continue to be. Too many know too little about the current thwarting of the rule of law, the threats to our basic rights, and the dangers to our Republic. My daughter admits to being too busy running her business to pay much attention to the news. It didn’t help matters when she explained how last week, on her return flight from New York, she watched a few minutes of Fox and then a few minutes of CNN. She concluded that neither of them was reporting the news, but both were stoking political divisions. In that few minutes, she concluded that watching the news produced unwanted anxiety and was therefore a waste of her time. She concluded that there was no truth to be had, only heated opinions. After some unpacking about the two news outlets, she conceded the misinformation and vitriol was worse on Fox. In her defense, she does vote in every election. But our founders made it clear that a healthy democracy depends on an informed electorate. I warned her that she may one day find herself living in a country she no longer recognizes if she remains uninformed.

And so, I recommitted myself to being a squeaky wheel on behalf of people like my daughter who have no time nor inclination to make a fuss. I spent a good part of the week emailing the president, my representatives, the speaker of the house, and the senate majority leader. Of particular concern at the moment is the threat to our Republic and the rule of law by Trump and his accomplices. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits an elected official who has participated in, aided or given comfort to insurrectionist from ever holding elected office again and yet Trump is talking about running again in 2024. There was a question as to whether or not those Trump accomplices will be prosecuted civilly or criminally for ignoring Congressional subpoenas. Why is this even a question? The Constitution already prohibits any threat to the full faith and credit of the U.S. and yet here we are debating it in Congress. I posted the issues and my opinions on Facebook. I followed political leaders from both parties on Twitter and responded to their posts. I even got into a lengthy, several days long back and forth with a Ted Cruise supporter. That interaction enlightened me a bit about the other squeaky wheels we are dealing with. It’s not just the vicious protesters at school board meeting or the January 6th insurrectionists, but individuals on social media feeding them a false and dangerous narrative.

First, I learned that this person is somewhat inarticulate and uneducated. I learned that he is ultra-religious but doesn’t really know the Bible very well. I learned that he thinks scientists are working on behalf of the “dark side” and just want power and money. He calls scientists in universities, pseudo-scientists. He accuses Dr. Fauci of working for the dark side. He knows little about the Constitution. He calls abortion murder and believes that life begins as conception and must be protected no matter the circumstances.

I realized that people like him are among the exceptionally obnoxious like Trump, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Ted Cruise, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Chuck Grassley and Kevin McCarthy. They rely on each other. I looked at their tweets and responded to the blatant deflections, misinformation, exaggerations, scapegoating, false accusations, and nastiness they were putting out. I also responded to tweets by Democratic legislators urging them to get tough, to follow the Constitution, protect women, protect voting rights, to hold political criminals accountable, and to get rid of the filibuster.

My hope is that more patriots will take to whatever platform they have and contribute to the discourse by injecting truth and reason and demanding justice and accountability. More of us must become the squeaky wheel on the exceptionally constructive side if we want to motivate leaders to move in a productive, not destructive, direction.

Death threats have become the “go to” tactic of the emotionally frustrated. A few years ago I had an Indian graduate student who believed he was being purposely excluded from group project meetings led by a Chinese student. It was true. He learned from a friend the time and location of yet another group meeting and showed up. He then grabbed the group leader by the collar and uttered the fierce words, “I will kill you!” before letting go. Fearing for his life, the Chinese student went to campus security and filed a complaint. The Indian student was arrested. In his defense, he claimed that saying “I will kill you” was an empty threat as people in his country say that all the time when they are angry. He was charged with assault for grabbing his peer by the collar, but the “I will kill you” threat got him no more than a reprimand from university officials, including me. And that’s the problem.

In a country where anyone can obtain a firearm, death threats carry far more intimidation. This isn’t as true in most countries where gun ownership is rare. I watch a lot of South Korean dramas and the term, “Do you want to die?” is routinely used to tell someone to stop their annoying behavior. I routinely laughed when Dr. Cliff Huxtable (Cosby Show) would remind his misbehaving television children that he brought them into this world and that he could take them out. However, in the current climate, particularly in the U.S., death threats have taken on an undeniable level of intimidation used by emotionally unstable, frustrated, hateful and potentially armed individuals. Death threats in the U.S. against my favorite K-Pop band BTS back in 2015 lead them to cancel their concert in New York. Too many Americans have been forced to hire security, move, change jobs, or go silent because of such threats.

It has to stop. In the public sphere, I believe it is time for the Supreme Court to rethink the meaning of “true threat” as it has become impossible to know who has the willingness and the means to carry out a death threat these days and whose “political hyperbole” will result in actual violence. We saw the results of such threatening speeches on January 6th. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, but it has exceptions and death threats were an exception for three reasons: 1) protecting individuals from the fear of violence, 2) protecting individuals from the disruption that fear engenders, and 3) protecting individuals from the possibility that the threatened violence will occur.

In our private lives, I am absolutely thrilled that on Friday, October 1, the parents of Sandy Hook victims won their defamation case against Alex Jones who repeatedly called the 2012 massacre a hoax, leading to death threats against the grieving parents. He will have to pay damages to the parents for his lies that further tortured them. I hope those financial damages are huge! We need to see a lot more accountability for the people making the threats and those who trigger their violent behavior through lies.

In California, death threats are illegal. Penal code 422 states: “Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.” Law section (ca.gov)

It is imperative that we know the laws of our state regarding death threats and that we as decent human beings use alternative means to persuade those around us. Death threats are never acceptable. But this fear of violence is costing us. Reasonable parents who care about masking and vaccinations to keep children safe in schools and those who want actual American history taught in schools have abandoned school board meetings, leaving board members to be overrun and threatened by misinformed and outrageous parents. I know many people who are afraid of expressing their opinions on social media out of fear. I’m no longer one of them. I refuse to cower in fear. Perhaps it is because I’m convinced that the price of allowing vaccine and election misinformation, hateful rhetoric, and rampant xenophobia to go unchecked is too high.

History has shown us what happens when the truth is silenced by apathy or fear. The lies become the basis for human decision making and harmful actions. Our voting rights are in jeopardy because of lies. 200,000 people have died, post-COVID-19 vaccine and people still aren’t getting the COVID-19 vaccine because of lies. I’m disgusted by NBA players who are promoting the flawed narrative that getting vaccinated against a “contagious” virus is a “private personal” choice. Someone needs to inform them that they do not live in a bubble and that their decision affects others.

Silence over these important issues is a form of consent. So, I refuse to be silent. And I hope many more Americans will be brave enough to speak up, too. There is power in numbers. There are many more for reasonableness than against it and the crazies will back down in the face of massive vocal opposition. And lets remind those who make death threats hoping to silence us that they will face legal consequences.