America's Heartland Stands Strong |
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Published March 28, 2020
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Updated June 11, 2021
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“Amarillo by Morning” – A picture taken by the author of this article outside Amarillo, Texas
We have been in this place before. Our forefathers lived and died for millennia with such enemies. Go back not so far as a millennium and many religious leaders taught that these epidemics were the will of god until we understood these diseases enough to defeat them.
The Will of God is for us to find a way out of this situation – and we will. It isn’t so much the fact that we have been here before, as that we have to remember that which unifies us: our concern for each other and our ability to work together during the most difficult of times.
It is our shared humanity.
The Will of God is for us to find a way out of this situation – and we will. It isn’t so much the fact that we have been here before, as that we have to remember that which unifies us: our concern for each other and our ability to work together during the most difficult of times.
It is our shared humanity.
America's Heartland Stands Strong
- A Family Emergency Arises
- A Three-Legged Stool, Not a Pogo Stick
- Control the Fear of the Unknown
- This Author's Perspective
A Family Emergency Arises
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I traveled from Texas to Washington State and returned last week. It wasn’t because I wanted to. It was because, as a human being, I had to. Thankfully, unlike China's government, the United States of America leadership gave me a choice: Stay locked in my house or head toward a family member in need while using reasonable precautions to ensure I would not be contaminated with, or pick up and distribute the coronavirus to those around me.
It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, as the fear wasn’t for myself but those around me—family, friends and fellow citizens along the way there and back. To be safe, I would have to self-isolate upon my return. So, I decided to help a family member in trouble. |
A journey across the heartland of America
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In that journey through the heartland of America—at socially acceptable distances and washing my hands constantly—I met America. It included an Ethiopian born, foster-home-raised, individual who was employed but worried about his friends who were starting unemployment relief; it was an hour-long, six-feet-away conversation with an artist and fellow book enthusiast with a Swiss-Persian heritage and a father who is a businessman who speaks 13 languages—seven of them fluently; it was an exchange of political and economic beliefs with a business manager doing his best to keep his facility open and his people employed while reducing the lighting and air conditioning floor-by-floor as the number of customers dwindled to the point where, when I stayed there, my car was the only one in the parking lot instead of hundreds; and another front-line manager who is balancing business workloads between employees who “absolutely need the work for survival” and those who can “subsist on part time pay”—her employees were openly volunteering to make the necessary sacrifices to help each other.
In every situation except one, which could have been a misunderstanding as social distancing does carry its communicative restraints, I saw the best in our country. I saw the best of humanity, ready to be called to help. Men and women willing to sacrifice for their fellow citizens, and first-line managers (which in this war, should be called front-line managers) who work with their staff to keep the most people employed, creatively look for ways to keep their business going when every day is a drastically changed business environment.
For the next two, four and eight weeks, and possibly for the rest of my life, I will remember the individuals from my journey this last week. They imprinted themselves on me. I will wonder if they are safe, and I will wonder if they saw the best in me as I saw it in them. I hope I filled them with as much hope in their fellow man—their fellow citizens—as they did me. It is hope we all need. Our country is still made of the right stuff. It is everywhere. Individuals want to share their experiences, help others and laugh. They need a plan to execute, and a leader to call them forward in that execution. In some ways this is an easier battle, in some ways a harder battle, but in most ways, a battle this country has fought before.
In every situation except one, which could have been a misunderstanding as social distancing does carry its communicative restraints, I saw the best in our country. I saw the best of humanity, ready to be called to help. Men and women willing to sacrifice for their fellow citizens, and first-line managers (which in this war, should be called front-line managers) who work with their staff to keep the most people employed, creatively look for ways to keep their business going when every day is a drastically changed business environment.
For the next two, four and eight weeks, and possibly for the rest of my life, I will remember the individuals from my journey this last week. They imprinted themselves on me. I will wonder if they are safe, and I will wonder if they saw the best in me as I saw it in them. I hope I filled them with as much hope in their fellow man—their fellow citizens—as they did me. It is hope we all need. Our country is still made of the right stuff. It is everywhere. Individuals want to share their experiences, help others and laugh. They need a plan to execute, and a leader to call them forward in that execution. In some ways this is an easier battle, in some ways a harder battle, but in most ways, a battle this country has fought before.
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We have a common enemy. We can’t see it, but, at least, it isn’t our fellow man on the other side of a distant border. This is an enemy that crosses our joint borders with impunity. This is a ruthless enemy, that when it is defeated, dead and a distant memory, no family member will cry over its grave. In this battle there is no need for propaganda to make our fellow man an enemy because they pray to a different God, live in a different economic system, or were wrapped at birth in a different color or non-color of skin.
Polio brought this county to the same place a generation ago—my generation remembers standing in lines that wrapped around local schools to get vaccinated. Friends stopped shaking hands. Before polio, typhoid and yellow fever, measles and mumps were constant scourges. |
The enemy is not our neighbor
but an unseen foe |
The President of the United States didn’t declare martial law but called forth some of the greatest of human efforts (and selfless sacrifices) to stamp out diseases that paralyzed and killed. Such was the drive to eliminate Infantile Paralysis (polio) in its day. The March of Dimes grew out of this call to kill an uncaring enemy and save our fellow man.
We survived. Yet, most don’t know the circumstances behind this chapter in American history when we, in the United States, developed methods and vaccines to eliminate a local and worldwide scourge, and we have brought other unseen enemies to their knees—with less technology than we have at our disposal today.
To accomplish this again, we need articulate and cooperative political, business and spiritual leaders who know how to motivate and call out the best in us. We need these leaders to call out our brightest in business and politics, and our best in the sciences and humanities.
We survived. Yet, most don’t know the circumstances behind this chapter in American history when we, in the United States, developed methods and vaccines to eliminate a local and worldwide scourge, and we have brought other unseen enemies to their knees—with less technology than we have at our disposal today.
To accomplish this again, we need articulate and cooperative political, business and spiritual leaders who know how to motivate and call out the best in us. We need these leaders to call out our brightest in business and politics, and our best in the sciences and humanities.
A Country Needs the Stability of a Three-Legged Stool, not a Political Pogo Stick
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In order to survive this crisis, this country needs a three-legged stool beneath its feet, not a pogo stick that bounces the markets up with every spend-money-now, political announcement, only to have them fall with the unspoken reality that it will take more than printing money to stabilize our local, state, national and interdependent, international communities. The fluctuating, financial fever the markets are experiencing is a symptom of an underlying cause: fear that we can’t weather another storm.
We need leaders to come forth in all professions. In business, we need dedicated authors to write stories that inspire, motivate and educate; we need knowledgeable journalists who research and publish what is—at least at that moment—the most factual and true; we need warrior truckers to stay on the road delivering supplies when they are worried about their families at home; and we need those who sometimes feel like they are just “cogs in a distribution wheel” like cashiers, stockers, greeters and factory line workers, to understand that they are critical infrastructure in our society too. No job is too insignificant. In this emergency, few of us are first responders, but we are all front-line defenders of our local communities, which if we act appropriately locally will solve a much larger, international problem. |
And it may be a long, difficult battle with this enemy.
The three-legged stool: political, economic and spiritual
Our financial dilemma may take months to eradicate. We acknowledge it in whispers to each other. We ask quietly, “What if this goes on for more than a few weeks?” Hopefully it won’t but if it does, we will need a backup plan. That plan will have to be a three-legged stool: political, economic and spiritual.
The three legs of that stool are: (1) political: tap the local, state, federal and international public treasuries to help those who need the help the most with the realization that whatever we do is a long-term debt that we or future generations will need to repay, and we should bear as much of the burden as we can now and not pass it on to our grandchildren; (2) economic: inspire business cooperation and creativity at the industry level, encourage employer–employee goodwill, and coordinate cooperative actions—business leaders and fellow workers must support each other and make sacrifices so that no family goes unfed; and (3) spiritual: we must treat each other with the respect of the Golden Rule—long-term, reliable work, not temporary handouts, is what we need and if this goes on a long time … it will be the cooperation and sacrifices in our local communities that pull us through.
We need political, business and spiritual leaders who can visualize our country on the other side of this chasm of fear and are willing to not just put money to work, but a peoples’ basic goodness and charity to work through an enlightened self-interest—it is in our self-interest to work together during these times, not apart.
In the Great Depression, business leaders were one of the strongest legs supporting the stool.
They can and should be again.
The three legs of that stool are: (1) political: tap the local, state, federal and international public treasuries to help those who need the help the most with the realization that whatever we do is a long-term debt that we or future generations will need to repay, and we should bear as much of the burden as we can now and not pass it on to our grandchildren; (2) economic: inspire business cooperation and creativity at the industry level, encourage employer–employee goodwill, and coordinate cooperative actions—business leaders and fellow workers must support each other and make sacrifices so that no family goes unfed; and (3) spiritual: we must treat each other with the respect of the Golden Rule—long-term, reliable work, not temporary handouts, is what we need and if this goes on a long time … it will be the cooperation and sacrifices in our local communities that pull us through.
We need political, business and spiritual leaders who can visualize our country on the other side of this chasm of fear and are willing to not just put money to work, but a peoples’ basic goodness and charity to work through an enlightened self-interest—it is in our self-interest to work together during these times, not apart.
In the Great Depression, business leaders were one of the strongest legs supporting the stool.
They can and should be again.
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In Another Crisis Business Leaders Made a Difference
Walter C. Teagle, President of Standard Oil Company, was Chairman of the National Coordination Committee for the Share-the-Work Movement during the Great Depression. His example may be the place for business to start in a new 21st Century effort to stall or prevent another depression. Mr. Teagle outlined these three goals that can serve as a starting point for our business effort in a new century.
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- Avoid adding to the unemployment rolls: when work is reduced continue employing the greatest possible number of workers, thus reducing unemployment to its minimum. Balance workloads between those who must have full-time work to survive and those who can get by on part-time. As written above the best place for those decisions is between front-line managers and their employees.
- Decrease unemployment: Utilize more workers with shorter hours rather than employing fewer workers with more hours. Some industries are going to see drastic increases in revenue, some will experience catastrophic failures. Encourage and support intra-industry movement of workers until this passes.
- Rehire to spread the wealth as business increases: some industries will grow in this environment while others contract. Wherever business permits, employ additional personnel with the first two concepts above and distribute any new workloads to the greatest possible number rather than increasing hours for existing employees.
I would add a few:
- Inspire business creativity and cooperation: your employees have heads on their shoulders, put them to work. Your dining area may be closed, but it doesn’t mean you are closed for business. Start advertising that you are open for business and jobs depend on us spending our money. Ask us to spend our money at your place of business in a different, safe way and ask your employees for ideas on how to evolve in this new environment.
- Replace the competitive spirit with a cooperative spirit: work together as industries to solve your industry’s unique problems. Each industry has its hurdles and the first business to find a solution should broadcast it to industry peers and partners for implementation.
Control the Fear of the Unknown
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Toilet paper and the dollar are just different forms of paper. The toilet paper shortage was a function of fear. All things work together for good to those who keep moving forward, and this artificial shortage has taught us something about the silliness of our human nature.
If we can learn anything from this experience it is that paper—in all forms—must be kept in distribution. The dollar has value as long as we trust in the stability of our nation: hoarding dollars will have the same effect as hoarding toilet paper. |
No matter the language, "sold out" is "sold out."
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Don’t hoard paper dollars under a figurative mattress. We can’t lose confidence in our medium of exchange: the dollar. Use common sense, cut back where it is necessary, but understand that spending a dollar is the way to keep your neighbor in a job and the economy’s lifeblood circulating.
Be reasonable and don’t become a monetary blood clot.
Be reasonable and don’t become a monetary blood clot.
This Author's Perspective
We have been in this place before. Our forefathers lived and died for millennia with such enemies. Go back not so far as a millennium and many religious leaders taught that these epidemics were the will of god until we understood these diseases enough to defeat them.
The will of God is for us to find a way out of this situation – and we will. It isn’t so much the fact that we have been here before, as that we have to remember that which unifies us: our concern for each other and our ability to work together during the most difficult of times. It is our shared humanity.
Whether you are a political, business or religious leader, now is the time to firm up your individual leg of our three-legged stool and call your best and brightest to battle.
The rest of us will support you.
The will of God is for us to find a way out of this situation – and we will. It isn’t so much the fact that we have been here before, as that we have to remember that which unifies us: our concern for each other and our ability to work together during the most difficult of times. It is our shared humanity.
Whether you are a political, business or religious leader, now is the time to firm up your individual leg of our three-legged stool and call your best and brightest to battle.
The rest of us will support you.