I left home for the office this morning
about 6:50. Energized by a restful Fourth, I’d already exercised, perused
articles from the New York Times and the Cincinnati Enquirer, read and sent a
few emails, uploaded a picture of Kevin Conwell for a post that will be published later today, fixed breakfast and left the
kitchen semi spotless, showered, shaved and dressed, and used the RTA app on my phone to discover that I could shave about 8 minutes from my two bus commute by
leaving 49 minutes earlier.
I had barely gotten 200 yards from my
porch and was already perspiring. The air was so humid I was transported back
to my childhood visits to Richmond VA. My earliest years were spent in
Washington DC., one hundred miles north of Richmond, where my mother was born
and her parents still lived.
DC was humid enough, so much so that in
that era Congress used to adjourn for the entire summer. Even as a first
grader I sensed that DC was much faster paced than Richmond. And it wasn't just
that DC was the nation's capital, either. The Virginia atmosphere was just
thicker; people moved slower. And that was true for my six-year old motor as
well. I just wasn't as efficient a nuisance when I was in Richmond. I couldn't
run as far, as fast, or as long.
All of which came back to me on my walk
to the bus this morning, along with my father's mid-century observation about how the invention of air conditioning had changed the South
and enabled it to be more competitive. He was from Houston, Texas, where I
imagine the heat and humidity took an even greater toll on productivity and
efficiency in the first half of the twentieth century.
I'm slowly making my way through a book
about Atlanta politics this summer, and I have just finished one set in Birmingham. As I read or visit other places, I always compare notes with my
hometown. To my father's observation I would suggest that another competitive
advantage that the old industrial North has lost -- and Cleveland may be
Exhibit A -- is our refusal to give more than a lip service welcome to the
demographic and cultural changes that are transforming our country and the
world.
I'll have more to say on this directly
in the next couple of days as I review Ballots and Bullets, a provocative new book by local author and attorney
James Robenalt that underscores how little this community has changed in the
last half century.
Our civic leadership is metaphorically
still sitting on the veranda sipping mint juleps, dreaming of the Amazon while
the world passes us by.
2 comments:
Well said, brother Andrews. Survival lies in managing change, not in denying it. I see far too much energy invested in impossible dreams of returning to the past instead of controling the future. Our biggest challenge is to counter the fascist blitzkrieg that is coming; that is here.
Your insights about not looking forward are well taken. A very forward looking book I recommend is THE NEW GRAND STRATEGY, Restoring America’s Prosperity, Security, and Sustainability in the 21st Century, by Mark Mykleby, Patrick Doherty, and Joel Makower, St. Martins Press, NY 2016.
This book is an important and urgent read for anyone currently living in this world who expects to be here for the foreseeable future and cares about future generations.
Most living Americans have experienced a time when coal, oil and gas have been our primary sources of energy, have experienced wars, especially the cold war and the threat of nuclear Armageddon, growth of suburbs and single houses, extensive road systems, and plentiful food. However, we now are running short of oil and gas and paying the price of climate change. We are no longer threatened by the cold war. Our extensive road system and big houses are no longer affordable nor desirable to millennials. And we are becoming aware that our excellent food supply involves practices that despoil the land and pollute waterways. With developing countries producing billions of educated middle class citizens desiring the kind of lifestyle that the developed world has had, it is clear that “business as usual” is unsustainable in the future.
In 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, set out to develop an updated long term strategy for the US military. Because he was unable to obtain guidance from the White House for the country’s future strategy, he assigned two senior officers, Marine Colonel Mark Mykleby and Navy Captain Wayne Porter to develop a new grand strategy for this country and the world. Mykleby and Porter developed a narrative document that focused on sustainability: the state in which biological systems are able to “remain diverse and productive over time”. The Narrative outlined the challenge, but not the approaches to solutions and was not released publicly until Tom Friedman of the NEW YORK TIMES moderated a public discussion in 2011. Mykleby retired from the Marine Corps and joined the Case Western Reserve University Strategic Innovation Lab where, along with colleagues Patrick Doherty and Joel Makower, developed the narrative into a strategy contained in this book.
The authors posit 3 major strategic categories: Walkable Communities, Regenerative Agriculture, and Resource Productivity. As for community development, a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors found that a majority of home buyers seek homes that are “right-sized” and, more importantly, want homes in walkable, service rich, transit oriented, mixed use, opportunity dense neighborhoods. As for agriculture, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects that the world needs to increase global food production by 60 % by 2050 and we will need agricultural techniques that restore soils and cleanse waterways. To accommodate the 3 billion new middle class aspirants, the global economy will need to revise our approach to resource allocation. We will need to adopt newer technologies, and upgrade the educational system to provide the necessary skilled workforce to meet the demands of the higher tech growth economy.
The authors argue that these changes must be led by the private sector and that the government must follow by supporting these changes. In his 2005 book, CAPITALISM AT THE CROSSROADS (Wharton School Publishing), Stuart Hart argues that “…business – more than even government or civil society – is uniquely equipped …to lead us toward a sustainable world…the only entities with the technology, resources, capacity, and global reach.”
Review by Michael Salkind
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