Weekly Whip Around!!

[Aaron Burgess]

Hello Everyone!

 I got the idea for this week’s whip around from my advanced policy analysis class. This class has 10 people in it, all of whom are working as a consultant for a real world client just as I am working for the energy center in Colorado. It is essentially a group therapy class where we help each other overcome hurdles we are facing with our projects. Often, in the midst of a policy analysis, you find yourself stuck, not sure what information you need, or where you should go next. My professor asked us a simple question that made thinking through the process much easier: “If you were a policy superhero, and could get any bit of information you need in order to move forward what would it be?” I found this helpful because it removed all of the obstacles and roadblocks we have created in our heads and freed us to think about what are we really trying to get at.

I began to apply this same idea to our theories of change. I have found myself sitting back and thinking “If I was a change-agent superhero, what specific thing would I like to fix.  If I had the power to change anything, what would it be?” This is my question to you all. Forget how difficult or impossible it may be for now, but what is the change you want to see in the world?

I look forward to hearing from you all, have a great week!

 

Aaron

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Aaron Taylor Burgess
Goldman School of Public Policy
University of California - Berkeley
M.P.P. Candidate
(720) 273-9993

[keir.jane]

Aaron!!! I love to think through questions like these, so I am excitedly replying right away. If I were a change-agent superhero (or an unstoppable dictator) I would re-organize the way we build our cities and grow/transport/process our food to improve our health and wellness. I would build cities so that every citizen could walk, ride bikes, or take public trains to work. I would get rid or factory farms and monoculture and replace them with more sustainable local organic farms that are dispersed throughout the city to cut down on the pollution and costs associated with transportation. Did you know that fruits and veggies are genetically modified to fulfill some fantasy of how we think they should look instead of growing naturally for taste and nutrition? I would rather eat a delicious purple potato, yellow tomato, or white carrot instead of having to eat “frankin-food” that looks the way I’m told it should look. I would add public water fountains and public restrooms throughout the cities because I hate bottled water (it’s so wasteful).  I would ban disposable containers like Styrofoam cups, plastic utensils, and fast food containers because they’re so wasteful. In fact, I would ban all needless packaging (like why is my new DVD disk wrapped in plastic, to keep it fresh???).  All packaging should be biodegradable. I would make condoms free and easy to access because I think everyone should have access to safe sex and fertility management. I would stop dependence on coal and fossil fuel and implement more sustainable energy practices like wind and solar power. I would also mandate more vacation days in the US. I think we work too much, and we’d be more efficient if we had time to rest and enjoy our lives outside work (in parts of Europe they have several months off each year and I’d like to live that life). I would also give everyone 2 hours off in the middle of each day (siesta – maybe I need to move back to Italy). If I were a change-agent superhero I would try to make these large scale changes to increase the standard of living and health of the population…ideally.

Also...since I'm still learning about how to use google groups...I was wondering can I just hit "reply all" in  my gmail when I am replying to a whiparound, or do I need to reply within google groups? Just wondering because hitting "reply all" would be faster. Thank you for your patience with my old lady technology questions! :-)

All the best,

Jane

[Candace Burckhardt]

Hey team!

Wow - this is a tough one! At the Reality Reboot weekend, our opening speaker challenged us to tell a partner what is one thing in our gut that we know we are right about. I was partners with Amy, and I reflected on the fact that hardly anything for me is black and white. I see almost everything in various shades of grey, so having that kind of unstoppable power to change anything feels scary to me because I can debate the merits of just about anything until I am blue in the face. 

Here are some issues that are important to me that I would certainly think about changing as a "tikkun olam superhero": 

- Gay marriage (can we stop caring about what two adults want to do consensually?)

- Immigration 

- Access to quality and affordable... health care, education, nature, foods, jobs

- Getting off the standardized testing wheel and focusing on creating real life-long learners (I wouldn't want my own children to sit in class from 7-5 being taught through rote learning and memorization just so that they could pass a test. Why do we so often do this to our children from low-income communities?)

Candace

PS - Jane, yes, you can just "reply all" to the group. :-)

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[Jesse Fetbroth]

Well,

I've been thinking about this question all week.  

When I read The Giver with my students during my second year of teaching, I had them create their own "utopias" as a closing project.  This kind of feels like my turn.

If I had a magic wand and could change anything about our world, I'd completely change the way societies are structured. There would be no poverty.  There would be no hunger.  There would be no unemployment.  Everyone would have a chance to contribute to society somehow, and in turn, would be given everything they needed to survive.  There would be equal access to healthcare (physical and mental), and education.  The gap in wealth in this country and other countries would be greatly narrowed.  And there would be real equality-- across race, gender, sexual orientation, you name it.  And I'd ban lethal weapons.  

If we were just supposed to focus on one thing (it's easy to get carried away here..), I think I'd pick poverty as the one thing I could mend.  But Zach had another idea this morning that I thought was worth sharing (yes, we do discuss our weekly whip-arounds with each other, often at length).  He said he'd get rid of hate (read: prejudice in all forms).  If you think about it, a lot of our world's issues seem to stem from this in some form or another.  

This certainly lit a fire under my ass.  Thanks, Aaron.

Jesse

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Jesse Fetbroth

781.696.8402

[Amy Berkhoudt]

HI friends,

Agreed. Super hard! I like everyone's ideas and wish I could just say "ditto" and be done with this whiparound. Alas. 

I am going to draw upon an old (probably made up by my 4th grade teacher) Chinese folktale:

A woman dies and awakens at the pearly gates where an angel is standing in front of her. The angel ushers her into a room where a group of people sits around an amazing feast. In each of their hands is pair of chopsticks that is about 4 feet long. Though the table is filled with beautiful foods, they all look emaciated and miserable. Each of them is trying to feed themselves with the chopsticks, but fails each time as the chopsticks are much too long. 

The woman asks the angel, "What is this place?"

The angel replies, "This is hell."

The woman then asks. "Then what is heaven like?" 

The angel takes her into another room, set up much like the first. There are people gathered around a delicious feast, each with a 4 foot pair of chopsticks in his/her hand. They all look well fed and happy. 

The woman looks to the angel and says, "I don't understand. Why are these people with the same situation as the others so nourished and content?" 

The angel then replied, "Because these people have learned to feed each other." 

To take this story literally, I'd like to say that if I was a magical wand carrier (cherrywood with a phoenix feather, thanks) I would make it so everyone would know how to and want to feed each other (both figuratively and literally).  I used to live in an "Intentional Community" in San Diego. We all shared the food in the fridge, we would take turns making breakfast and dinner together, we had a garden (albeit measly). And we would always make time to sit and eat with one another. Some of my warmest memories of my best friends are at the dinner table, simply living together. Of course, this was in college when my biggest worry was whether I'd make the deadline for my next story (I was a journalism major). That is not a very big problem to have. When our Reality Israel group visited the kibbutzim, I was reminded of what communal living meant and I suddenly missed it. 

Before I get all socialist on y'all, I'm going to stop here. I think this Reality small group is a good example of my magical power. Thank you for feeding me. 

Your friend,

amy 

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Amy Berkhoudt

Cell: 808 283 3335

amy.be...@gmail.com

 

Program Co-Director

Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Detroit-Youth-Food-Brigade

http://detroityouthfoodbrigade.com

[Nicole Wellman]

I have loved reading all of your idyllic worlds, and find myself visualizing and nodding along with each.

IF I was a change-agent superhero, and could waive my magic wand to change one thing it would be to give everyone what they NEED to be able to thrive.  The word that comes to mind is enough (such a weird word when you think about it). Enough food. Enough healthcare. Enough education. And enough LOVE.  I think when we get beyond enough, superiority and judgement start running rampant.  If everyone got an equal opportunity to thrive in this world, my magic wand would be beyond content and I could put it to rest.

BUT, if someone gave my wand another wish (Aaron?), I think I would agree with Zach and Jesse, that hate is at the root of most terrible things in this world.  If we could replace hate with empathy, we could have a world of people that actually listens to one another and co-exists in a peaceful, kind society. Think of all the things that would be different...

Thank you for all of your thoughts everyone!

Nicole Wellman
- - - - - - - - - - -
wellman...@gmail.com
(602) 377-2910

[Marker, Jessica]

Hi team,

 

Ah, what a pleasure to set aside this time and reflect with you all (abit about late in the week, which I apologize for).  I

 

This week has got me thinking a lot about food.  I spent the work week visiting teachers, students and communities in rural Alabama and was stuck (as I continue to be with many of the communities in which we serve) with the stark food deserts that exist all over our country and the lack of basic food needs many citizens in our country experience daily. 

 

Last night Jon and I watched a documentary that was released on Friday called "A Place At The Table," which is a new and incredibly powerful documentary about our country's hunger crisis and just how many children and families go hungry each and every day in our country and the many policies, prejeduces, and stuctures that continue to increase the over 50 million people who are currently hungry in our country today.  Hunger, in our country, is an issue of great irony - since we have MORE than enough food to feed each person, it is a challenge we created and perpetuate each day and is something that by the end of the 1970s was almost solved, but due to shifts in policy and governance has continued to greatly worsen over the decades.  If you are interested in learning more about this film, here is a link to a preview: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/aplaceatthetable/ and the filmmakers were also on the Daily Show earlier this week, and you can access their footage here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/461104#i0,p10,d0 - I highly recommend taking a few hours and watching/discussing - incredibly well done movie.

 

While food and hunger is just one of the many, many needs and challenges in our country and world, it has been weighing particularly heavily on my mind this week and Jon and I have been feeling particularly fired up to reach out to our local pocliy makers to start creating some noise to try to get some wheels turning on capitol hill, since I believe this is an issue we truly can/will solve.

 

Jesse, we're kicking it to you for tomorrow's whip! :)

 

With love and anticipation for next week,

Jess

 

 

 

 

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From: Checkw...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Checkw...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Nicole Wellman
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013 9:03 AM
To: Amy Berkhoudt
Cc: Jesse Fetbroth; Candace Burckhardt; keir.jane; Checkw...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Weekly Whip Around!!

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