[Xmca-l] Re: Fwd: Verizon's greed

[Andy Blunden]

Have you come across the Japanese word "ikigai", Valerie? I 
believe it translates as "a reason to get up in the morning, 
a reason to live." I think we all need ikigai, and our world 
is made up of other people's ikigai (or whatever the plural is).
Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Blunden
http://home.mira.net/~andy
http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making 

On 25/04/2016 2:03 PM, Wilkinson wrote:
> Note (a continuation):
> I was in such a hurry that I couldn't remember "the 
> project as unit of analysis." (thanks Andy)  We do 
> progress!  It's not just survival of the fittest, but also 
> mutual aid is a factor.  And like we used to say in 
> Medieval Lit,
> "when Adam dug and Eve spun,
> who was then a "gentleman"?
> V
>
>
> On 2016/04/25 12:13, Wilkinson wrote:
>> Life in the present mode of existence, being.
>> Hello, dear Xmca-er colleagues.
>>
>> I'm checking in as a woman scholar voice doing research 
>> in General
>> Systems Theory.  Once I was just at the beginning and now 
>> nearly the end
>> of my institutional career.  In Japan.  A National 
>> University.
>> I live in an educational world where the children have 
>> been taught that
>> the nail that sticks out gets beaten down.
>>
>> As a systems theorist, at the level of self, group, 
>> community - living
>> systems naturally seek equilibrium.  So why would I vote 
>> or not vote for
>> Sanders?  Why would I vote or not vote for Hilary?
>>
>> 40 years of teaching languages, Latin, Greek, English, 
>> has been to make
>> my living.  What I love and want to talk about is how to 
>> create a great
>> team, produce a film, coordinate a satisfactory project, 
>> with the young
>> ones who are enacting the managerial roles having the 
>> full support of
>> the community of adults, both in and out of the academy. 
>> Moreover,
>> peer-learning, which appears essential, and has so 
>> appeared to me since
>> I was seven, "teaching" my one year younger brother how 
>> to read my first
>> English primer.
>>
>> Time and again Andy, Larry, and Mike have responded 
>> lucidly and kindly
>> to my flashing dives into the stream.  I feel that Andy's 
>> "project" as
>> mode/method/focus for the self, the team, and the 
>> community is coherent,
>> articulate, manageable.  So if I fear and dread 
>> recursions of 30s
>> horrors, world depression, anti-union, the ghastly shape 
>> of Nazism
>> appearing, the shape of Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts, 
>> it's not going to
>> help much with my projects of today, this week, etc.
>>
>> But coming back again and again to the present, the 
>> projects I am doing
>> now, this week, this month, working out how to stay in 
>> contact with the
>> players, get announcements out to the community, well, 
>> that is quite
>> enough for me to do.  Since the kids are grown up and 
>> don't need me so
>> much, I have to encourage young students to join clubs, 
>> have meetings,
>> plan events.  Just have to stay busy ...
>>
>> But always coming back to General Systems Theory, and 
>> moving with the
>> present, as a woman/mother/lover/teacher/faculty
>> member/participant-observer, I value the exquisite mind 
>> of Ross Ashby
>> and "requisite variety," which is what a viable system 
>> needs to survive,
>> an environment which draws out the creative, which 
>> satisfies the hunger.
>>   Permeable membranes and interface is how I see the 
>> interaction of
>> nations and communities and teams and people and families 
>> and the cells
>> in the body maintaining health.
>>
>> It is hard for me to check in or dive in with a word, but 
>> XMCA continues
>> to be the best forum for my serendipities and 
>> synchronicities and
>> reading of the news.  I'm still a GST person and keep my 
>> eye on Ervin
>> Laszlow and the Budapest Club for international 
>> cooperative ventures in
>> sustainable business, a benign transition to an age of 
>> ultra-technology,
>> in which human communities can create harmonious dwellings,
>> environmentally friendly renewable energy and so on.  I 
>> live in Japan
>> and my brother's family members live in Germany.  Living 
>> in the present
>> does not mean just today.  I see that it means 
>> progressing toward better
>> education, better health, better food supply.  I still 
>> want to pay
>> attention to Japan and Germany - and where ever people 
>> have learned that
>> wholesome, calm work places, educational opportunities 
>> and intrinsic
>> development, taking it easy and taking it slow, are 
>> altogether so much
>> better than war, war, bombs, and military/industrial 
>> complex money blah,
>> messing up the academy, truncating creativity, killing 
>> joyful work
>> places. (But now I see that I am standing on a box in a 
>> park instead of
>> getting on with my projects for today).
>> Vandy
>>
>>
>> 2016/04/25 9:29, mike cole wrote:
>>> This is how Sanders represents himself in a way that 
>>> appeals to a good
>>> many
>>> Americans. They do not
>>> know what to call it and neither does he. I offer it as 
>>> evidence about an
>>> unusual phenomenon in American political life that feels 
>>> to this dated
>>> person a LOT like what I understand of the 1930's in 
>>> this country. I come
>>> from a line of premature anti-fascists and anti-racists 
>>> (terrible
>>> sexists)
>>> who were firm believers in the first ammendment to the 
>>> constitution of
>>> the
>>> US. What I see in this election is very disturbingly 
>>> like what those
>>> years
>>> around my birth were all about.
>>>
>>> The result in that case was a massive world war and the 
>>> beginning of the
>>> atomic age.
>>>
>>> The result in this case?
>>>
>>> Who was  it you were asking me to vote for?
>>>
>>> mike
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: BernieSanders.com <info@berniesanders.com>
>>> Date: Sat, Apr 23, 2016 at 4:14 PM
>>> Subject: Verizon's greed
>>> To: Michael Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
>>> [image: Bernie Sanders for President]
>>>
>>> When the CEO of a company makes almost $20 million a 
>>> year but then
>>> tries to
>>> outsource jobs, reduce wages, and cut health benefits -- 
>>> that's the
>>> kind of
>>> corporate greed we need to get rid of in America. *And 
>>> that's exactly
>>> what
>>> Verizon is doing right now.*
>>>
>>> Verizon's employees are fighting back. They're out on 
>>> strike for a
>>> contract. *Stand with them against their CEO and add 
>>> your name to
>>> Bernie's
>>> to say you support Verizon employees.
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>* 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Bernie's email to you about this very important issue 
>>> about this is
>>> below.
>>> Thank you for standing in solidarity.
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Sisters and Brothers,
>>>
>>> The CEO of Verizon makes almost $20 million a year in 
>>> compensation. He
>>> leads one of the most profitable companies in the country.
>>>
>>> *Yet Verizon wants to take away employees' health 
>>> benefits. Verizon wants
>>> to outsource decent-paying jobs. Verizon wants to avoid 
>>> paying federal
>>> income tax. And right now, Verizon is refusing to sit 
>>> down and
>>> negotiate a
>>> fair contract with its employees.*
>>>
>>> In other words, Verizon is just another major American 
>>> corporation trying
>>> to destroy the lives of working Americans. *But this 
>>> time, Verizon's
>>> employees are fighting back.*
>>>
>>> Thousands of very brave employees of Verizon and Verizon 
>>> Wireless are on
>>> strike until they can get a fair contract. They made a 
>>> *very* difficult
>>> decision that puts their families at risk -- but it's a 
>>> choice they
>>> made to
>>> stand up for justice against corporate greed.
>>>
>>> *I'm asking you today to stand up and tell the CEO of 
>>> Verizon that you
>>> think Verizon employees deserve a fair contract that 
>>> protects health
>>> benefits, guarantees fair pay, and stops outsourcing. 
>>> Click here to add
>>> your name in support of Verizon employees.
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>* 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Add Your Name »
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>* 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Twice last week in New York City I stood with Verizon 
>>> workers in the
>>> streets. I did so because they're doing something very 
>>> brave: they're
>>> standing up not just for themselves, but for the 
>>> millions of Americans
>>> who
>>> don't have a union.
>>>
>>> The working class of this country deserves to earn 
>>> decent wages, decent
>>> benefits, and not see their jobs go to low-wage countries.
>>>
>>> Verizon's CEO doesn't think that. He called me 
>>> "contemptible" for saying
>>> that his employees need a fair contract, and that 
>>> Verizon should pay its
>>> fair share in federal income taxes.
>>>
>>> What I think is contemptible is CEOs with multi-million 
>>> dollar
>>> compensation
>>> packages, presiding over extremely profitable companies, 
>>> and still
>>> refusing
>>> to give their employees fair contracts.
>>>
>>> Corporate greed is a scourge on this country, and it 
>>> will take all of us
>>> standing up for justice in order to rein it in. *One 
>>> significant way you
>>> can stand up to corporate greed is by standing with 
>>> Verizon employees who
>>> are out on strike.*
>>>
>>> *Add your name and say you support Verizon employees who 
>>> are standing
>>> up to
>>> the CEO in order to get a fair contract with health 
>>> benefits, fair
>>> pay, and
>>> job protections.
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>* 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Corporate America is slowly beginning to realize that 
>>> they cannot have it
>>> all. Thanks for helping them know it.
>>>
>>> In solidarity,
>>>
>>> Bernie Sanders
>>>
>>> *Contribute
>>> <https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/lets_go_bernie?refcode=em160423-verizon>* 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Paid for by Bernie 2016
>>>
>>> [image: (not the billionaires)]
>>>
>>> PO Box 905 - Burlington VT 05402 United States - (855) 
>>> 4-BERNIE
>>>
>>> This email was sent to lchcmike@gmail.com. If you need 
>>> to update or
>>> change
>>> your information or email address, click here to update 
>>> your info
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/change-your-information?source=email_footer>. 
>>>
>>>
>>> Email is one of the most important tools we have to 
>>> reach supporters like
>>> you, but you can let us know if you'd like to receive 
>>> fewer emails
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/fewer-emails?source=email_footer&email=lchcmike@gmail.com&zip=92075>. 
>>>
>>>
>>> We'd hate to see you go, but if you need to do so, click 
>>> here to
>>> unsubscribe
>>> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/unsubscribe/>. Stand 
>>> against the
>>> powerful special interests who are systematically buying 
>>> our Congress and
>>> have their sights set on the presidency by contributing 
>>> to Bernie here
>>> <https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/lets-go-bernie?refcode=email_footer> 
>>>
>>>
>>> .
>>>
>>>
>>>
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