Category: politics

change, environment, evolution, nature, politics

Beginning: Crisis as a Pathway to Evolution

Christa Avampato

http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/fish%20evolution%20overrated_49704
“We always talk about working together… perhaps crisis can give birth to new evolution.” ~ Yuka Saionji

In the past few weeks I have been bowled over by the amount of crisis in the world. I almost don’t bother to open the email alerts I get of what’s coming up on the nightly news. I already know what they’ll say – covering the dual crisis in Libya and Japan. The photos and descriptions of events happening in both countries are terrifying. And still, despite all of the destruction and violence, I do think this is an hour that holds a lot of promise. These two crises can bring us together is a powerful, meaningful way.

Thomas Friedman wrote an excellent column this week about our perfect storm of problems – the prolonged abuse of our environment is coming to bear in one natural disaster after another, violent revolutions in the Middle East threaten a great portion of our energy supply, and the ever-evolving situation with the Japanese nuclear plant casts a long shadow over our society’s view of nuclear energy. It would be easy to designate blame to a party other than ourselves, to point the finger away from us. In this hour of our history, the most helpful thing we can do is to take a good long look in the mirror, collectively and individually, and ask what we can do in this moment and in every moment going forward to create a healthier more sustainable world in every dimension.

For some sad reason, humans often require a burning platform before we can allow ourselves to change. I wish we didn’t, but the truth is until we have a darn good motivation to change, we just plod along as we always have. Something has to inspire to mix it up. Maybe the crisis in the Middle East is what we need to finally make our peace with all people, of all faiths. Maybe these terrifying natural disasters will change our daily habits to do what’s best to sustain and nurture our natural world. Maybe we’ll let go of even a fraction of our energy consumption. Perhaps Yuka Saionji is right, these crisis can be the catalyst to our own evolution.

politics, social media, SXSW

Beginning: Clay Shirky Explains How You Can Play a Part in Global Politics

Christa Avampato

Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky was his sparkling, brilliant self at SXSW yesterday. I would go so far as to say just his one hour talk made my first day of the festival worthwhile. I’ve heard him speak before, though had never heard his views on global politics and social media. Citing Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan examples, he explained the 3 basic tenants of why we should not be surprised by social media’s effect on the global political landscape:

1.) Social media gives us the ability to synchronize across small and great physical distances
2.) Social media provides an avenue to coordinate our efforts to achieved shared goals
3.) Social media provides a way for all people to document and share the circumstances happening around them

In short, social media is the stage that political revolutions have been waiting for. The very best part of the talk was his closing in which he gave us his take-aways about how all of us can have a profound impact on global politics with the help of social media:

1.) Take the long view, not the weekend warrior approach. Pick a country you care about, and start following the social media buzz around the happenings in that country. Retweet your findings on a regular basis to find others who care about the politics happening in that country.

2.) Volunteer remotely. Many organizations now give us the ability to help a cause right from our couch. UN Volunteers, Radiofreenet, Ushahidi, and Global Voices are 4 examples of organizations that provide us with this opportunity for action.

3.) In our own backyards, protect the religious freedoms of all people, particularly those who practice Islam. There is currently a witch hunt underway against American Muslims, and it cannot be tolerated if we are truly to become an evolved society.

To top it off, Shirky is a remarkably down-to-earth guy. The man sitting next to me at Shirky’s talk pointed out that his blog, Shirky.com/weblog, has a a generic WordPress theme. No fancy design or catchy name – just really fantastic content. Despite his fame, talent, and tremendous intellect, seemingly none of that has gone to his head. He’s rare. A lot of people of his caliber and influence, particularly in the interactive space, have egos so large they barely fit inside the Austin Convention Center. By contrast, Shirky is a class act and I feel honored to have had the chance to hear him speak.

home, luck, politics, war

Step 316: I’m Lucky to Be Home

Christa Avampato

On Wednesday night I went to a debate series run by Intelligence Squared, an organization that brings together experts and thought leaders on a specific topic who debate from two polar opposite angles. The audience votes prior to the debate and then just after. The side who convinces the greatest percentage of people to change their minds wins the debate. the topic on Wednesday night, “Afghanistan is a lost cause.” A very loaded statement.

Afghanistan is a multi-layered, hugely complicated issue that I would argue most experts don’t even fully understand. Our U.S. presence there is hotly debated – it’s not clear if we’re helping or harming the situation, nor if we’re helping or harming our own national security by being in Afghanistan. We’ve spent tens of billions of dollars over many years to make a modicum of improvement. Some argue that improvement is worth it. Others have called it a colossal failure.

I went into the debate confused, and left with a clearer opinions. Yes, I support our troops. No, I don’t think we should be in Afghanistan with any more military than required to get much-needed humanitarian aid to the area. Getting more education, food, electricity, and basic housing to more people would do much more good than more weapons. I’d like to see someone like Gregg Mortensen deciding the US policy in Afghanistan. I hope President Obama calls him.

One statement at the end of the debate really struck a chord in me. Matthew Hoh, who has a wealth of on-the-ground experience in Afghanistan though is a lousy debater, said, “I don’t care who wins this debate. I just want you to go home tonight and think about all of the troops there who aren’t going home tonight, who will never go home again.”

And I did. And I thought about it this morning when I woke up, too. I spent a few minutes snuggled under my covers, counting my blessings that I live in a safe, warm home, that I have friends and family whom I love and who love me, that I’m about to take my adorable dog for a walk, that I live a free life whose limits are only set by the limits I place on myself.

Who’s luckier than me? No one, and I’m grateful for that luck every day.

government, hope, politics

Step 308: A Letter to President Obama

Christa Avampato

Dear President Obama,

While last night’s election results may seem like a referendum on the policies you’ve advocated for over the last two years, I think they are a greater reflection of the fear that so many people feel about this new economic level setting. It can be tempting to voters to think a change of power will bring a change of scene. People want the good ol’ times again, or at least what we thought were good ol’ times.

I graduated from the Darden business school in May 2007 into what my classmates and I thought was an unstoppable economy. 6 months later it was all-to-clear to us that we had built our short-term career aspirations on a tremendously unstable house of cards. We had to rethink those dreams, at least in the short-term. Maybe even delay them a bit or alter them.

But our underlying confidence in our abilities to make positive contributions to the world around us did not waver, and your confidence shouldn’t either. We needed you to take up the seemingly insurmountable challenge of the Presidency two years ago, and we need you now more than ever.

Change worth having takes time to build. There are a lot of people in this country who haven’t lost heart. I haven’t, and I hope you don’t either.

books, election, government, politics, vote

Step 306: Review of More Davids Than Goliaths by Harold Ford, Jr.

Christa Avampato

I saw Harold Ford speak at a Hudson Union Society last month. His talk prompted me to get his book More Davids Than Goliaths: A Political Education. Mr. Ford comes from a political family, and has spent the majority of his career in public service. In the past few years he has held positions in the private sector, and interesting and educational detour from his life in elected office.

It was especially interesting to read about his history. We went both went to Penn, and his stories about his undergraduate life held a special place in my heart because I understood the backdrop and context. My mom has my siblings and I volunteering on political campaigns as far back as I can remember. This was true for Mr. Ford as well. He’s passionate about education and health care, issues that are at the top of my list when I consider how I’ll vote during an election.

Some of his insights were new learnings for me. Though I’ve volunteered on political campaigns, I have never managed one or developed a campaign strategy. I’ll admit that prior to Mr. Ford’s book I never really understood how or why certain decisions are made on political campaigns. The routes traveled by candidates and the messages they deliver along those routes are so carefully plotted. His book tells his own personal history and bids for office; it also serves as a primer for understanding national political campaigns on a very detailed level.

What struck me the most throughout the book is how hard he worked for his offices, the ones he won and the ones he lost. The effort he exerted never wavered. He was relentless in his efforts, and all he asked in return was to be heard honestly and fairly. And he did sincerely ask for every vote he received. Through his words I have a new-found respect for anyone who runs for office. Putting yourself out there and withstanding judgment is an uncomfortable thing to do but it’s the only way to make societal progress on a broad scale.

Despite his loss in Tennessee’s Senate race, I hope he doesn’t give up. He has a long run way in politics ahead of him and our country needs political leaders with his integrity and charisma. Our future depends on them.

Today is election day, please cast your vote. Not sure where your polling station is? Click here.

art, change, choices, faith, fear, politics, relationships, religion, theatre

Step 287: Review of the Off-Broadway Show, Freud’s Last Session

Christa Avampato

In 1998, I saw the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile in San Francisco. I remember being completely riveted watching the fictional meeting of two of the most inspiring characters of all time, Einstein and Picasso. This construct for a play appealed to me so much that I still routinely think about that show 12 years later. It was at times touching and sad, joyful and hopeful. Full of lively, passionate debate and intense discussion about timeless social issues, I always felt it would be hard for a play to match Steve Martin’s brilliance.

Lucky for us Mark St. Germain has succeeded in building a script that’s even more powerful and thought-provoking than Martin’s – Freud’s Last Session, now playing off-Broadway at The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA. Freud’s Last Session showcases the possibly factual meeting between a young C.S. Lewis, a devout Christian and the gifted author who would go on to write The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters, and Sigmund Freud, a life-long atheist, consummate intellectual, and founding figure of psychoanalysis, who is at the very end of his life and career, dying of oral cancer. Set in London on September 3, 1939, the invasion of Poland by the Nazis serves as the political backdrop of their meeting.

The piece made me laugh out loud one moment, and tug at my deepest convictions the next. The dialogue is so sharp and the acting by Martin Rayner (Freud) and Mark H. Dold (Lewis) so penetrating that the 75-minute show flew by, too quickly in my opinion. I wanted more of the debate and the history. I found myself rooting for their relationship, and wanting it to go on, in spite of knowing that 20 days later Freud would engage his long-time friend and physician to end his battle with cancer.

The show touches upon an incredibly diverse set of themes: religion first and foremost, war, death, sexuality, fear, faith, love, memory, humor, and change. While this list of topics seems overwhelming, they are in the very capable hands and words of St. Germain, who expertly weaves them together in such a seamless way that I found myself completely wrapped up in the story as if it were my own. The language he uses is so vivid and the mannerisms of the actors are so authentic that I truly felt I was peering into a window on history. This play is the most rare form of theatrical work – a perfect script. Every single word precisely and beautifully chosen. The set and lighting designs are so realistic that I felt transported across space and time to Freud’s London study to witness this single, emotional meeting.

This show has a special, very personal meaning for me because my father was a Freudian psychologist. He passed away when I was a teenager, long before I ever had the opportunity to have a conversation with him as Lewis may have had with Freud. I didn’t get the opportunity to understand his contradictions and complexities, though that may have been for the best. At the end of his life, he was in a great deal of pain physically and emotionally, as Freud was. Through the dialogue of Freud’s Last Session, I was able to put together some more pieces about my father’s personality, as if I had actually been placed there in that seat for a very specific reason – to help me get a little bit closer to understanding my childhood. My thanks to Mark St. Germain for this amazing gift; he has inspired me to dig deeper and learn more about Freud and Lewis. I’m confident that there are more answers there, waiting for me to discover them. And that is perhaps the greatest lesson of the show – that self-discovery is a journey that never ends and yet must be pursued. As he so adeptly has Lewis say, “The real struggle is to keep trying.”

Freud’s Last Session runs through November 28th at The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater. Don’t miss it.

Image above depicts Mark H. Dold and Martin Rayner as Lewis and Freud, respectively.

books, politics, speaking

Step 279: Speaking Off-the-Cuff with Elegance

Christa Avampato

“The best speakers know enough to be scared…the only difference between the pros and novices is that the pros have trained the butterflies to fly in formation.” ~ Edward R. Murrow

It’s a tough balance: how to give a public speech with a casual, conversational tone while carrying a sense of authority, leadership, and deep knowledge on the subject matter. There’s nothing worse than an over-rehearsed, robotic speech, except a sloppy, ignorant one. Being authentic requires just enough rehearsal to be semi-comfortable, and no more. A few butterflies are beneficial – they keep things interesting.

Last night I heard Harold Ford Jr. speak as part of the Hudson Union Society series. I wish he had run for the New York Senate seat. He certainly had a story that he wanted to get across – his new book More Davids than Goliaths: A Political Education has just hit bookstore shelves – though his answers to the moderator were always genuine. Not once did I hear an “um”, “ah”, or “like”. He injected some dry humor, and then in the next breath spoke about serious issues like education, financial reform, and race. His elegance commanded respect while also showing the utmost respect for his audience. I wish every public speaking engagement I attended went that well.

On the flip side, I listened to the President of a large corporation this afternoon and his speech had every element that an unfortunate speaking engagement contains. He wasn’t robotic – he was entirely unprepared. It was clear after the first few sentences that he had no rehearsed, maybe not even prepared, a single remark. He wanted to appear off the cuff – and told us so. (This is a no-no. The last thing an audience wants to know is that a speaker didn’t care enough to prepare at all.) And the tough part about doing absolutely no prep at all is that a speaker is likely to make bad jokes that don’t get a laugh and then fill the silence with comments that should never be made. It’s a vicious cycle.

When I got home today from the horrendous speech, I grabbed a book I reviewed a while back – Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun. Berkun’s book should be required reading for anyone whoever plans to speak in public. Its rich advice is right on the mark. I think I should send a copy to the company President I heard today – he needs all of the speaking advice he can get, particularly from a pro like Berkun. I’d send a copy to Harold Ford Jr. as well, except that he already has public speaking down to a beautiful balance of science and art.

adventure, choices, determination, government, journey, politics, risk

Step 256: What We Can Learn from Rahm Emanuel

Christa Avampato

“If you run before the wind, you can’t take off. You’ve got to turn into it. Face it. The thing you push against is the thing that lifts you up.” ~ Delta commercial

Rahm Emanuel has a reputation for being a tough administrator who gets the job done. He runs a tight ship as an ambitious First Mate. I’m sure somewhere in the history books, long after the Obama administration has left the White House, there will be some chapter somewhere that recalls Emanuel’s role as the White House Chief of Staff. More than likely, the average American will not remember him nor his critical role in making the Obama administration run. Even now, do we know how much policy he has influenced with a heavy hand? At best, we know that he is a trusted adviser to our President, though we don’t know his advice.

Last week Mayor Daley announced that he will not seek re-election, and rumors begin to circulate that Emanuel may exit the White House to return to his beloved city of Chicago to become the star of his own life and career, as opposed to someone’s manager who looks on from the shadows of the wings. I thought about that image when I met with Brian last week. Brian has been a supportive and unrelenting advocate for me and my career. He thinks I have spent enough time in a supporting role and that it’s time for me to step out on my own in some way. He voices that message on a regular basis.

I tell him I need some more time to save money, to grow my experience base. Brian’s all for pragmatism, though he’s more in favor of setting the stage for how we’d like our creativity to organize itself. In other words, if we tell our creativity we’re just not ready and we need a plan B then our creativity will believe us and get going on a brilliant plan B. Our creativity, in large part, does what we tell it to do.

The trouble is that I’m an excellent supporting character. I’m really good at juggling priorities and managing around challenging personalities. I’ve made a successful career out of improving situations that very much-needed improving, and until I decide to work from a clean slate, I will continue to be part of the clean-up crew. We get the circumstances we ask for, or at least the ones that we’re willing to tolerate.

We all deserve the opportunity to be the stars of our own lives, to test our own ideas, and to make our own independent contributions to the world. As much as Rahm Emanuel may respect his boss and believe in the Obama agenda, he doesn’t call the shots. At the end of the day, they’re called for him to execute against. That’s the gig that comes with being a Chief of Staff and not the Chief. Of course he’s considering the possibility of becoming the mayor of his hometown. And with that inspiration, we should all think about what stage it is that we’d like to star on – we all deserve a little piece of the spotlight in our own lives. Turn into the wind, and see what lifts you up. For Emanuel, it’s the city of Chicago. What is it for you?

books, change, community, government, politics

Step 250: An Answered Prayer for the City of Philadelphia

Christa Avampato

On vacation I started reading A Prayer for the City by Buzz Bissinger. The book recounts the history of Philadelphia from 1992-1997 while then-Mayor Ed Rendell (now Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania) held office. The book was published in 1997, one year before my graduation from Penn. Though I was largely unaware of Philadelphia politics aside from the fact that Mayor Rendell presided over a city run largely by corruption, I certainly experienced Philadelphia’s rough exterior as described by Bissinger while I was a student.

I distinctly remember the metal bars on my freshman dorm room windows that made it look more like a prison than the start of a bright college career. And of course I will never forget the homeless man just beyond those bars screaming vulgar obscenities as I rolled my suitcases through the doorway. My mother was horrified. The next day a graduate math student was shot and killed right in the middle of campus, just outside The Castle, which ironically served as Penn’s Community Service House where I was part of a pre-matriculation service program. Freshman women took a self-defense class as part of on-campus programming in the dorms. Locust Walk, the main campus thoroughfare, was lit up by an abundance of blue light phones and Penn Escort Service was heavily encouraged and fully utilized when students needed to walk around the perimeters of campus after midnight. Welcome to Philadelphia circa 1994.

My sophomore year I was mugged in the subway station at Walnut and 37th at knife point by a guy who wanted the cash in my wallet and politely handed it back to me completely intact otherwise. Looking back I think he was more frightened than I was. I remember scrambling up the stairs and running smack into a naval officer who helped me to get to a blue light phone to call for help. The Philadelphia police arrived in moments, storming down into the station, and I never rode the subway again until the very end of my senior year, and only then because my boyfriend at the time was with me. I was sadly not a unique case – I knew countless students who had incidents far worse than mine.

Once I moved into the high-rises at the north end of campus, it was routine to hear gunfire and watch the violence unfold out my window at Billy Bob’s Cheesesteaks as I studied in my apartment very late into the night. A solo walk past 40th Street was unheard of and a trip to the only grocery store, a Safeway dubbed “Scaryway”, had to be a group outing to increase our chances of actually making it back to campus with our groceries. Even that grocery store looked like a fortress – they had built a gate around it so the shopping carts could not be taken from the immediate perimeter of the store, forcing us to grab our groceries from the cart and then squeeze between the bars to get out.

So it was especially heartening to get back to Philly last weekend and see the change that has swept the city. Its rebound is nothing short of miraculous. The Saint Albans area, where Dan and I stayed a few weeks ago, would never have been a destination for me as a Penn student. Nearly every house on that block used to be boarded up, full of loitering by people I’d hope to never run into in any alley, whether at night or in broad daylight. Dan’s friend, Jeremy, drove us through neighborhoods that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. I was overwhelmed by the change, and Dan could scarcely believe the stories I told of vacant lots, littered with broken glass and drug dealers, now made over into Barnes & Noble, Sephora, and restaurants of every variety. It’s as if someone took a bulldozer to Philadelphia and started over.

After I left Penn, I moved to D.C. for 6 months and then headed for New York City, which became the center of my world, leaving Philadelphia as a distant memory. I don’t know much about what happened between 1992 and 1997 that laid the groundwork for all of the change that I could see taking shape when I graduated from Penn in 1998 that has now come to fruition over a decade later. I’m looking forward to finding out what Philadelphia did to turn itself around and I’m grateful to Mr. Bissinger for setting it down in print with such elegant description. What I know for certain is that Rendell fulfilled the promise he made during his 1992 inaugural speech, “Change must surely come…this city cannot only survive; it can come alive again…I cannot and will not falter. We cannot and will not fail.” From my vantage point, the people of Philadelphia have passed with flying colors.

books, Examiner, government, politics

Examiner.com: Interview with Sasha Abramsky, author of Inside Obama’s Brain

Christa Avampato

Over the Christmas holiday I read the book Inside Obama’s Brain by Sasha Abramsky, journalist and Senior Fellow at Demos. The book is a beautifully crafted work that examines the charismatic draw of President Obama by exploring the experiences and insights from dozens of people who have worked alongside the President throughout his career. Abramsky masterfully articulates what qualities draw us to Obama, and how Obama honed those qualities in preparation for his ascent to the Presidency. The book intertwines President Obama’s personal history with his professional accomplishments in a way that makes the book impossible to put down until readers have absorbed every last word of Abramsky’s prose. I never wanted this book to end.

I had the great fortune to speak with Sasha Abramsky last week. To read the interview, click here.