One truth I have come to realize is the prerequisite for personal fulfillment is to know thyself. As I have immersed in my personal exploration, I find the journey can be expressed as follows:
Who Am I? —> What Am I? —–> Why Am I?
Who Am I?
Who I am is how I and the world see me.
I am a human, biologically male, and descendant of Panamanian & African American lineage.
I was born 58 years ago in the Bronx, NY, which makes me an American.
I am college educated, a military veteran, who built a 25-year career in business banking but now works in Climate Risk Management and Sustainability.
I voted democratic for twenty years, republican for 5 years, and independent ever since.
I could go on but by now I hope you see the pattern.
Who I am shows only the uniforms I wear.
Who I am is merely the upper layers of my being. To understand more, I must explore how I exist.
To exist, I need oxygen to breathe, water to drink, nutrient food to eat, clothes & shelter to protect my body from extreme weather, and so much more. Yet, I do not produce what I need to exist. Therefore, I exist as part of a greater reality.
How did I come to exist? How do I function as part of this greater reality?
I came to exist because my parents chose to have sex, producing a fertile egg that set off an energetic chain reaction of cell reproduction, which empowers me my whole life until the energy leaves my body at death.
The thread that connects how I came to exist with how I live my life is Energy.
What Am I?
I am Energy having a human experience.
As a human, I am learning what it feels like to be mortal.
This is important because Energy is immortal, therefore has no understanding of mortality.
What does Energy do? How does Energy function?
Energy flows until it collides with matter.
When Energy collides with matter, the matter changes to something else. This change is called Creation.
The power revealed by my human experience is we are capable of directing energy.
I exercise my power through the choices I make.
Accordingly, the reality of my human experience is defined by the myriad of choices made by all the participants in my life’s journey.
Why Am I?
As an energetic being having a human experience, I am empowered to direct energy to co-create the reality in which I live.
Therefore, the ultimate Why I Am is to decide what reality do I want to co-create.
But when I consider the occasions when I have learned I was lied to, I notice a pattern emerging.
All lies start out as one source’s account of what happened. As long as I believe the source’s account, the lie appears to be true. Yet, as soon as I expand my perspective by trying to validate the source’s account, I begin the process of exposing the Lie.
Another pattern I noticed is the bigger the lie, the harder the liar works to get me to accept their version of events. In these occasions, any effort to explore alternative explanations are strongly discouraged.
Consider a standard Lie:
“When my two sons, Patrick and Matthew, were young they loved candy. We used to keep a candy dish on the coffee table reserved for guests. One day, I entered the living room and noticed the candy dish was empty. I called Patrick and Matthew into the room and asked: “Do either of you know what happened to the candy in the candy dish?” Patrick said, “I don’t know.” Matthew said, “I saw Patrick eating the candy and when I asked for some, he wouldn’t give me any.” Patrick immediately denied eating any candy. Someone was obviously lying. As it turned out, I happened to notice Matthew’s pants pocket seemed full of something. I asked Matthew to empty his pockets. Grudgingly, Matthew emptied his pockets revealing the empty candy wrappers from the candy dish.”
In the simple example, Matthew’s lie could only be true if I explored no further than his account of what happened.
Now consider an outrageous Lie:
“In the case of Genocide by Israel in Gaza, the claim is baseless and without merit.”[stated 1/3/2024 by John Kirby, Spokesperson, U.S. National Security Council]
In order for this statement to be true, an objective assessment of the case submitted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa would reveal no substantive evidence was provided to support the claim. Yet on January 26th, 2024, 15 out of 17 judges of the ICJ ruled the evidence provided by South Africa was sufficient to support a claim that Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.
In this severe example, the statement by John Kirby was a desperate attempt to invalidate any consideration of an alternative explanation. Why? Because any objective assessment would prove John Kirby’s statement was completely untrue.
Have you observed this pattern elsewhere?
The key take-away is to always get perspective on all explanations we are given, especially when we are told no other explanation is valid.
It is 2024 and once again we turn our tired eyes towards electing another President of the United States.
Why so tired?
Biden vs. Trump…the election two-thirds of America does not want.
This is what the American Experiment has come down to…two of the least popular Presidents in U.S. history running in a rematch.
We could laugh it off for the pulp fiction it is if we were not facing a myriad of existential challenges:
A climate crisis requiring a rapid reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in order to avoid irreversible, catastrophic climate related impacts.
Unnecessary geopolitical conflicts: War in Ukraine, Genocide in Gaza threatening a U.S. War with Iran, while the drum beats for a U.S. war with China over Taiwan.
Severe Wealth & Income inequality radicalizing democratic governments around the world.
In our moment of greatest need, choosing the lesser of two evils will not do.
This moment calls for our generation’s Abraham Lincoln…a leader who is capable of uniting independent minded Americans for the good of each other And our country.
Who is this leader?
It is NOT President Joe Biden:
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. We know this because the genocide is being live streamed on social media by Israeli Defense Forces and Palestinians in Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has determined the evidence submitted by South Africa supports a plausible case for genocide in Gaza, and the risk of ‘irreparable prejudice’ to the Palestinian people is sufficient to support Emergency provisions to order Israel to immediately stop killing, harming or denying essential food, water, shelter or medical care to the Palestinians in Gaza. The ICJ issued six Emergency provisions, four by a vote of 15 – 2 and two by a vote of 16 – 1. For the two 16 – 1 provisions [preventing & punishing incitement to commit genocide, and providing essential food, water & care], the Israeli Judge on the ICJ concurred. The American representative on the ICJ, President (Chief Judge) Joan Donoghue, concurred with all 6 Emergency provisions. Only Uganda opposed all Emergency provisions.
Yet, President Biden claims the charge of genocide by Israel is baseless. He has provided exclusive diplomatic cover for Israel’s genocide by twice vetoing globally supported ceasefire petitions at the United Nations. He has circumvented U.S. law by providing billions in funding to Israel directly and deployed two aircraft carrier groups to the region in support of Israel without Congressional consent.
Biden has broken critical promises:
Failed to raise the federal minimum wage
Failed to provide $2,000 stimulus checks if Georgia elected both democratic senators
Failed to provide broad Student Loan Forgiveness
Forced Railroad Workers to end strike with no meaningful concessions from Corporate executives
Claims he is running for re-election to protect democracy from fascism when he has orchestrated the first sham Presidential primary season in U.S. history. State democratic parties are being pressured by the National Democratic Party to cancel primary elections and grant all delegates to President Biden. Florida has already complied.
It is NOT former President Trump:
While President Trump has successfully earned the anti-establishment moniker by eviscerating both President George W. Bush [for the War in Iraq] and Presidents Clinton and Obama [for selling out Middle & Working class Americans], he has done nothing to slow the multi-trillion dollar syphoning of wealth and income from the middle & working classes to the top 1% American earners.
The CARES Act passed March 2020 offered temporary relief to workers and small businesses (most expired by August 2020) while providing the Federal Reserve the seed funds to unleash $4 Trillion dollars in liquidity to large corporations. By year-end 2020, people who earned $27,000 or less lost 10 million jobs, 30% of all small businesses in America closed and never reopened, yet corporations boomed with the S&P 500 increasing 16.3% and the NASDAQ Composite increasing 43.6%. U.S. Billionaires’ wealth increased by over $1 Trillion dollars, while according to the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey: 33% of U.S. households are having a hard time covering basic expenses and 12% report food shortages.
President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a complete boondoggle for wealthy Americans by reducing corporate taxes from 35% to 21%, doubling the Estate tax eligibility threshold from $11 million per couple to $22 million, reducing the corporate pass-through tax by 20%, and reducing the highest earning individual tax bracket from 39.6% to 37%. Per the Tax Policy Center, the average annual benefit to top 1% earners is $61,090 while the median earners received just $910.
America wants an Independent:
2023 Gallop poll indicates 43% of Americans identify as Independent verses 27% for Democrats and 27% for Republicans
Independents need to borrow a page from former President Obama’s playbook. During the 2020 Democratic Primary, Senator Bernie Sanders was starting to run away with the race to the nomination. After tying in Iowa, Senator Sanders won New Hampshire, then blew away the field in Nevada. Establishment Democrats panicked. Over the next few weeks, leading up to Super Tuesday, President Obama encouraged centrist democrats Mayor Pete Buttigieg (#3 in delegates) and Amy Klobuchar (#4 in delegates) to drop out and endorse Biden (#2 in delegates) the day before Super Tuesday, while fellow liberal democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren (#5 in delegates) was encouraged to stay in the race to split the left leaning Super Tuesday voters. Senator Warren then dropped out two days later on March 5th, 2020.
Independents and 3rd Party Candidates should use the Primary/Caucus season to make their best case to the American people. As we enter the summer while both establishment parties are having their coronation conventions, Independents and 3rd Party candidates can come together and determine the unifying agenda, then select the strongest Presidential ticket for the general election. Once an independent ticket is selected, national ballot access can be obtained by utilizing the coalition parties earned ballot access (i.e. Green, No Labels or Libertarian Party access). Independent and participating 3rd party organizations can work together in support of the newly selected independent ticket.
What could be America’s unifying agenda?
According to the Rand Corporation, had the more equitable income distribution of the three decades after WWII (1945 – 1974) been maintained through today, all working Americans in the bottom 90% of earners would be doing much better. More specifically, you could pay each worker an additional $1,144 per month ($13,728 per year). The accumulated loss in earnings from 1975 to 2020 is estimated at $50 trillion dollars.
America needs the Clean New Deal.
The Clean New Deal is a two-part plan:
Establishment of a new national commitment to rebuild the American Middle Class:
National Jobs Guarantee with wages starting at Area Median Income
Develop a new National Renewable Energy Power Grid
Build a National Renewable Energy High Speed Rail System
Modernize & Repair the Nation’s Bridges and Transportation Infrastructure
Retrofit National Housing stock for Sustainability & Climate Risk Adaptation
Retrofit Excess Commercial Real Estate for Sustainable Multifamily Housing
Enact Medicare for All
National Student Loan Forgiveness
Free Public Vocational and College Education
Phase Down of the Global U.S. Military Footprint
Federal Tax Overhaul to restore pre-Reagan Progressive Tax Structure
Our new Independent President must appoint an Independent Counsel who will:
Investigate the Criminal Causes of the Multi-Trillion Dollar redistribution of Income & Wealth from Working and Middle Class Americans to the Wealthy Elites
Establish a standing Federal Grand Jury to interrogate Persons of Interest and bring Federal Indictments where appropriate
Make recommendations to the Congress for Impeachment of any Office Holders found to have engaged in actionable activities within the scope of the Independent Counsel
Make Recommendations for Federal Legislation to repeal or modify any law that is found to have facilitated the extraordinary redistribution of income and wealth
If given a credible independent choice for President and a unifying agenda, America will reject the lesser of two evils and elect the first independent President of the United States.
No doubt it will be a moonshot, but so is America…the first country in the world to declare “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”.
Climate changes everything, even traditional approaches to risk management.
A typical risk management process includes a risk assessment by probability & timeliness of occurrence and quantification of impact on business operations. Risks are then prioritized based on the magnitude and timeliness of impact. Risk mitigation strategies are developed which provide capital requirements. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis is completed to establish the risk tolerance for the organization.
This process will not work for climate change risk mitigation. Why?
Climate Change is a planetary phenomenon that is producing climate-related impacts which are building exponentially over a multi-decade period. As such, the timeliness of material climate-related impacts is apt to exceed the strategic horizon for most businesses.
Climate Change presents a global challenge with no historical reference points in modern civilization*. In the absence of historical reference points, quantifying future climate-related impacts requires first understanding how global warming changes the Earth’s ecology, then how a changing ecology impacts the economy. One lesson from over 40 years of global climate models is even the scientific community has persistently underestimated climate-related impacts due to the cascading, interconnected characteristics of the global ecology.
Given these challenges, producing actionable data in the near-term on future client-related impacts is a dubious proposition.
What now? On what basis do we proceed to mitigate climate-related risk?
Qualitative analysis.
The accumulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere is accelerating planetary warming, which is rapidly altering weather patterns and causing material degradation to crop yields, fresh water, biodiversity and other ecological systems necessary to sustain human life.
Climate change presents an existential challenge that will likely have unimaginable impact on future generations if we do not act immediately.
The best-known method to slow and ultimately stop the global warming is a rapid reduction in global GHG emissions. To this end, the global signatures to the Paris Agreement set a goal to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with an optimal target goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius. This goal can only be achieved with the active participation and cooperation of the global community.
No country or multi-national organization can meet the challenges presented by climate change alone.
The developed nations cannot meet the challenges presented by climate change without the developing nations.
The timely transition to a net-zero carbon economy will require the cooperation of fossil fuel interests who would need to choose to keep a third of all known oil reserves, 50% of all natural gas reserves, and 80% of all coal reserves untapped if we are to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius.
Can we do it?
Yes.
Once we realize our progeny may face extinction level events if we fail to meet this challenge.
*For 10,000 years, the global average surface temperature has remained stable within a standard deviation of 1 degree Celsius. Since approximately 1850, the accumulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has increased the average global surface temperature 1.2 degrees Celsius. Accordingly, the global average surface temperature is trending warmer than at any other point in modern history.
I was raised to think excellence required working the hardest. So as I grew up, I entered my career prepared to power through any mountain that appeared in my path.
Time passed, and I started to notice all those moved mountains did not lead me to the promised land.
The hard road simply led to more hard road.
Finally, I realized the resistance that stood in my way was not a sign to work harder.
The resistance was the guardrail on the path of my highest purpose…
The demarcation line between what is intended for me and everything else.
