Speaking Out While Sitting Down

bo.white — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:08:56 -0800

(this is part 3 of 5 of a series dealing with leadership in an interconnected world)

In the last post, I discussed the power of words and the legacy that our words can leave behind. The example being, Thomas Jefferson, whose words have transformed our country and have often been the envy of other nations. In this piece, part of leading in the 21st century will not only be linked to skills, but also to a sense of timing as well as self awareness. And here, the example for me is Rosa Parks because she linked both timing and self awareness.

Parker Palmer in his book Let Your Life Speak speaks of Rosa Parks in the following terms:

"Rosa Parks sat down because she had reached a point where it was essential to embrace her true vocation -- not as someone who would reshape our society but as someone who would live out her full self in the world. She decided, "I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that I hold deeply on the inside. I will no longer act as if I were less than the whole person I know myself inwardly to be."

Where does one get the courage to "sit down at the front of the bus" in a society that punishes anyone who decides to live divided no more? After all, conventional wisdom recommends the divided life as the safe and sane way to go: "Don't wear your heart on your sleeve." "Don't make a federal case out of it." "Don't show them the whites of your eyes." These are all the cliched ways we tell each other to keep personal truth apart from public life, lest we make ourselves vulnerable in that rough-and-tumble realm.

Where do people find the courage to live divided no more when they know they will be punished for it? The answer I have seen in the lives of people like Rosa Parks is simple: these people have transformed the notion of punishment itself. They have come to understand that no punishment anyone might inflict on them could possibly be worse than the punishment they inflict on themselves by conspiring in their own diminishment."

So, while Lincoln could bring together clashing ideologies and Jefferson could write words that will stand the test of time, Rosa Parks embodies in one defiant moment a sense of timing and self awareness. Parks didn't try to spark a movement, rather Parks grew tired of moving, when the right thing to do was stand still. The hymn writer puts it this way: "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand,". Parks stood on something solid and in her being knew that all other ground was shifting sand. And leaders in the global era will need to understand that at times, standing still amidst a changing, fast paced, 'the world is flat' environment is not only the right thing to do, but the one that leads others to do likewise. Sometimes, not accepting the status quo (which in a web based world is so often changing) is the thing that separates leaders from those who have become so used to living as sheep. So, what in your life and in my life needs to change and what needs to stay the same? In order to best answer that question, we may have to look again to Rosa Parks and simply say, 'no thank you, I think I will sit right here." And then, we stay put, until something or someone moves us. Sometimes sitting down is the best way to speak up.

-bo

PROP 8 TRIAL: Strange Bedfellows

Craig Detweiler — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:35:12 -0800

While no one can predict the outcome of the Prop 8 trial, the unlikely pairing of conservative lawyer Theodore Olson with his former liberal foe, David Boies, is making plenty of headlines. They faced off in the famous Bush vs. Gore Supreme Court battle. Together, they are now arguing against the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 which outlawed gay marriage.

Newsweek features a fascinating first person account from Ted Olson. Rather than discussing how and when he reversed his position, the former solicitor general for George W. Bush maintains that conservatives should inherently affirm individual liberty and any legislation that promotes marriage, stability and family. It is also intriguing that liberal lion David Boies relishes the opportunity to put the Obama's administration's equivocating on the issue on trial. He told Newsweek, "The current administration has been decidedly halfway on this issue," he says, "and I think the specter of having George Bush's lawyer out in front of a Democratic president is something that, shall we say, might stimulate people to rethink their positions." Conservative scion Edwin Meese offered an editorial protesting the particulars of the trial (including its San Francisco venue) in the famed venue of the left, The New York Times.

I don't write this to argue the various points/sides of the trial. More to marvel at how this moment we're living in expands the bounds of what we've come to consider conservative/liberal and traditional/progressive. In this case, the established political lines and loyalties seem rethought and reshuffled. This is exactly the surprising blend of red and blue that we look for (and embody) at Purple State of Mind.

Follow the hour by hour of the trial posted by the Mercury News.

civil rights

Speaking Out While Sitting Down

PROP 8 TRIAL: Strange Bedfellows