Generous Leadership

As part of the Student Affairs NOW series, Keith Edwards interviewed Kathleen Fitzpatrick about her two recently published books - Generous Thinking (2019) and Leading Generously (2024). These two books address the complexities of higher education and the vulnerability that has always been there, but not as graphically exposed as we see now - the competitive individualism that has for generations characterized academic thinking and processes. Her point is that the pervasive influence of individualism and competition in structures and approaches to research, theorizing, and publication have prevented cooperation that should be fostering greater innovation.

I have believed for a very long time that the divisiveness of the academy has undermined much of what most of those working in it, as well as consumers of it, dreamed it was accomplishing. I have attempted to counter systemic competitive isolation in multiple ways but have failed repeatedly, especially when I look at the long-term impact of what I hoped to accomplish. Combining the foundation of generosity with another idea I've recently encountered might actually work. The other idea is authentizotic culture. These ideas, generosity and authentizotic culture, are explained in the following paragraphs.

Fitzpatrick and Edwards engaged in conversation about how essential it is for higher education institutions to transform themselves into generous rather than competitive places. Especially at a time when enrollments are shifting, public support has softened, and where some governments (particularly in the U.S.) have become skeptical or hostile, institutions and their faculty/staff, need to pull together. Fitzpatrick advocates twelve practices or tools for personal and institutional transformation (chapters in Generous Leading, 2025). They might also be viewed as values that guide the conduct of leading generously - people, yourself, vulnerability, together, trust, values, listening, transparency, nimbleness, narrative, sustainability, and solidarity. Fitzpatrick identified these characteristics by talking to mid-level institutional leaders and reflecting on those things that seemed to make the most difference. In doing so, she also recognized the difficulty of consistently putting them into practice.

The idealization of an authentizotic organization was coined by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries. From the INSEAD description of his 2022 article, "Authentizotic Organizations: Best Places to Work":

"authentizotic" - derived from the Greek words authteekos and zoteekos. An organization that is authentic inspires employees through the integrity of its vision, mission, values, culture, and structure. Zoteekos, meaning "vital to life", when applied to an organizational context implies that people are invigorated by their workplace and find in it a sense of balance and completeness.

I have not read Kets de Vries' complete article, but this definition alone is enough to stimulate images of joy, fulfillment, and innovation in work and leisure. The problem is that I've seldom worked or lived within such an environment. What often occurs is that there are those, often in leadership roles, who envision and advocate ideas much like an authentizotic organization, but their behavior contradicts it.

The two concepts - generosity and authentizotic culture - are inseparable in my view. It would be extremely difficult to be generous without true knowledge and compassion for an individual or institution. It would also be difficult to foster an authentizotic culture without a commitment to generosity, forgiveness, and welcoming different perspectives. How inspiring and fulfilling would it be to work and live in an organization that strove for both of these ideals?

Schlossberg - Revitalizing Retirement

I've supposedly been retired for over 10 years now. Yet, I've not been able to actually say that I am retired nor have I been able to stop learning, writing, working, and creating. The only difference between my life before 2014 and now is that I used to get paid for my contributions. Now I either volunteer, am invited, or fall into opportunities on a regular basis and, thus, I call myself "semi-retired." Fortunately, Nancy Schlossberg's Revitalizing Retirement: Reshaping Your Identity, Relationships, and Purpose  (2009) gave me a fuller understanding that the way I've chosen to spend these years isn't that strange - it's one of several paths that people can choose after their full-time working careers.

For a starter, retirement is best framed as a series of phases or stages rather than a destination. Schlossberg cites Gene Cohen who defined them as:

1. Midlife reevaluation, which is a better way to describe this "time for exploration and transition" than the term midlife crisis;
2. Liberation, a "time to experiment";
3. Summing up, a period to review one's life, followed by giving back through such activities as volunteering; and
4. Encore, which he described as "the desire to go on, even in the face of adversity or loss." (Locator 203)
   

Schlossberg reviews these phases through a lens that she used throughout her career as a researcher and author - mattering. Mattering, the belief or feeling that we are noticed or count, is a human need that is present throughout the life span. How one finds ways to enhance mattering is unique to the individual even though there are predictable life thresholds that can put that sense of mattering at risk. The specific qualities that support a sense of mattering include attention, importance, appreciation, and dependence. Particularly during one's post-working years, the recipe for how these ingredients can be enhanced include 1) "getting involved and staying involved, b) harnessing the power of invitation, c) taking initiative, and d) doing your best to make others feel that they matter" (Locator 514).

Six pathways that retirees may choose are 1) continuers, 2) easy gliders, 3) adventurers, 4) searchers, 5) involved spectators, and 6) retreaters. Schlossberg provides definitions and examples of each of these and is careful not to show preference or judgment about whatever path one might choose. Retirees may adopt one of these six depending on everything from health to wealth, to opportunity. The point is that retirees have choices and whatever the path one chooses, some way of maintaining a sense that you matter and make a continuing contribution is a must.

Revitalizing Retirement is a great resource for individuals to read or Schlossberg even suggests the possibility of a study group whose members might go through the book, reading and discussing as they go, and responding to the check up that concludes each chapter. Particularly during the preparatory time for retirement, it's important not to move too quickly and without a period of testing and evaluation. To age gracefully and embrace whatever model one chooses requires "time: time to mourn for what you left, time to figure out what's next, and time to feel comfortable with a new life" (Locator 2052).

Grant - Think Again

Adam Grant's Think Again (2021) asserts the central thesis that sometimes our first response or intuition is incorrect. Further, because errors are more common on first-blush, leaders and constituents need to adopt strategies that can help to critically examine and thereby come to better plans to respond.

The common approaches to arguing issues on which we disagree are the preacher, prosecutor, politician, or the scientist. The preacher mode is invoked when sacred beliefs are in jeopardy. The prosecutor mode is activated when we recognize flaws in others' reasoning. The politician mode is used when we seek to win over the opposition. Grant's proposition is that we would make better decisions if we abandoned the first three strategies and, instead, cultivate a more scientific approach motivated by the search for truth and utilizing experiments to test hypotheses and discover new knowledge. "Scientific thinking favors humility over pride, doubt over certainty, curiosity over closure" (Locator 437). The antidote to arrogance, which Grant characterizes as "ignorance plus conviction" (Locator 653) is humility, a word derived from the Latin root meaning, "from the earth," or being grounded.

A very interesting assertion in relation to the current political strategy of the Trump administration is that "skilled negotiators rarely went on offense or defense. Instead, they expressed curiosity with questions like 'So you don't see any merit in this proposal at all?" (Locator 1462) Perhaps negotiations in Washington and around the world would be different if this approach were embraced.

How to apply scientific thinking is then examined in the broader sections of Grant's book, labeled individual rethinking, interpersonal rethinking, and collective rethinking. Spoiler alert - the best thinking and highlights of Think Again are summarized in the Epilogue of "Actions for impact" and in Grant's own book summary.

The following quote directly addresses the dilemma faced in leadership:

It's easy to see the appeal of a confident leader who offers a clear vision, a strong plan, and a definitive forecast for the future. But in times of crisis as well as times of prosperity, what we need more is a leader who accepts uncertainty, acknowledges mistakes, learns from others, and rethinks plans (Locator 3428).

The advice on how to cultivate this kind of leadership from Grant's "Action for Impact" include:

Individual rethinking:

1. Think like a scientist
2. Define your identity in terms of values, not opinions
3. Seek out information that goes against your views
4. Beware of getting stranded on the summit of Mount Stupid
5. Harness the benefits of doubt
6. Embrace the joy of being wrong
7. Learn something new from each person you meet
8. Build a challenge network, not just a support network
9. Don't shy away from constructive conflict

Interpersonal rethinking:

1. Ask better questions
2. Practice the art of persuasive listening
3. Question how rather than why
4. Ask "What evidence would change your mind?"
5. Ask how people originally formed an opinion
6. Acknowledge common ground
7. Remember that less is often more
8. Reinforce freedom of choice
9. Have a conversation about the conversation

Collective rethinking:

1. Have more nuanced conversations
2. Don't shy away from caveats and contingencies
3. Expand your emotional range
4. Have a weekly myth-busting discussion at dinner
5. Invite kids to do multiple drafts and seek feedback from others
6. Stop asking kids what they want to be when they grow up
7. Abandon best practices
8. Establish psychological safety
9. Keep a rethinking scorecard
10. Throw out the ten-year plan
11. Rethink your actions, not just your surroundings
12. Schedule a life checkup
13. Make time to THINK AGAIN

At the core of these recommendations are intellectual humility, curiosity, and the eagerness to explore perspectives that contrast with our own. My experience has taught me that there are those who are interested in this level of honesty and inquiry and others who are not. The key is determining who welcomes your curiosity and the "clearest sign of intellectual chemistry isn't agreeing with someone. It's enjoying your disagreement with them" (Locator 1133).

Klein & Thompson - Abundance

I naturally gravitated to Klein and Thompson's Abundance (2025), largely because my sense of optimism is always stimulated by a title that appears to provide hope. In simple terms, this book helped make sense of the current dysfunctional state of U.S. government and it proposed a way out.

I've never thought of it before but essentially "Politics is a way of organizing conflict" (p. 203). The authors explain that the U.S. has had deep and conflicting views before and that the ebb and flow of conservativism and liberalism is to be expected because neither political perspective ever gets things completely right. Owning their affinity to the progressive or liberal side, Klein and Thompson laud the New Deal of the 1930s and the neoliberal order of the 1970s as the most significant in recent history where progressivism had a transcendent moment in serving the largest number of citizens. In both of these cases the previous political order broke down (the Great Depression giving rise to the New Deal and the civil rights movement defining a new "we" through progressivism) and made it possible to adopt a dramatically different political ethos.

Klein and Thompson propose that governance in the U.S. is on the crest of a failing political order that will make space for something new. Philosophically, the U.S. is suffering from an ideological conspiracy that is dependent on viewing itself in decline. This decline is embraced in different ways by both liberals and conservatives. "Too often, the right sees only the imagined glories of the past, and the left sees only the injustices of the present" (p. 15). What is critical about an emerging new order is that the previous ideological conspiracy has to be rewritten with "a (new) narrative, a story... about the good life" (p. 206). The current politics of scarcity motivates right-wing populists whose preference is to close doors while glorifying business and oligarchy as essential handmaidens of managed scarcity. The current culture and economic wars unfortunately do not have the patience and reason to build toward a shared positive future, thus MAGA ideology relies on the dark side of competition rather than the possibility of cooperation and mutual benefit.

Scarcity-driven instincts are derived at least partially from the failures of liberalism, coalescing scientific and cultural skeptics who view dismantling the deep state and limiting the reach of government as their primary calling. And the liberal view perpetuates its ineptitude by creating obstructionists processes and advocating over-regulation that slows, if not undermines, progress for the very projects and visions that would allow progressivism to create a better society. And, the legalism that dominates much of U.S. decision making breeds mistrust of government, resulting in safeguards to disable misuse of power. Tragically, the "safeguards" get in the way of constructive influence as well. As an example, Klein and Thompson describe NSF and NIH funding as most often going to researchers pursuing proofs that are almost certain, avoiding the tougher questions of scientific discovery, binding and constricting the entire process with excessive paperwork and reporting. They propose, instead, funding researchers to pursue grand questions and then rewarding those able to find a solution.

In order to shift from the current scarcity warfare to a new lens based on abundance, Klein and Thompson propose new questions (p. 215), rather than policy solutions, to draw citizens and politicians together:

1. What is scarce that should be abundant?
2. What is difficult to build that should be easy?
3. What inventions do we need that we do not yet have?

These big questions relieve both conservative and liberals of the pathology of defending their ideas based on ideology and quibbling over rules and control. Instead, a politics of abundance would begin to deliver real innovation and solutions for real world problems that most citizens and even politicians secretly recognize.This abundance would unleash the creativity and genius required for the U.S. to regain its national character and return to a place of opportunity for anyone with a great idea and the gumption to pursue it.

Gladwell - Revenge of the Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell set out to reprieve the first of his several books when a "refresh" clearly became a much bigger task and possibility. The result is Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (2024), written 25 years after the original Tipping Point. The first Tipping Point explored how the Law of the Few, the Power of Context, and the Stickiness Factor created social contagion. The new tipping point looks at social epidemics and the role of people who know where, when, and how to exert power to create the change they want. While I am most interested in how positive trends can be fostered, understanding how some of the negative trends of the past and present were possible is also important.

The first assertion of the revenge of the tipping point is that social epidemics are fired by a sometimes very small number of people who have very significant power and influence. Analyses of the COVID-19 pandemic focused on "index" cases, which are the people who got the virus started. Of course, there were multiple theories as COVID began to spread - where did it come from and by what means did it spread? Gladwell's analyses indicated that, regardless if you believe the virus came from a lab in China or elsewhere, it clearly spread from aspiration. The degree to which one individual infects others is based on how much their breath spreads the tiny particles that carry the virus. High saturation of the virus is prevalent in thick saliva, which is common among those who are dehydrated. Where is dehydration most common - among those who are overweight and older. These individuals were found to be the most likely superspreaders of the COVID-19 pandemic and they had the worst consequences when they got it. Social epidemics do not require dense aspiration particles but rely on superspreaders with oversized impact on public perception and opinion.

Gladwell's second assertion is derived from research conducted by Rosabeth Moss Kanter on workplace "belonging." She found that boundary breakers by race, sex, and other differences aren't given space to be themselves until there is a critical mass of their same identity. The changeover from hostile to welcoming environment occurs when the "magic third" is achieved, which is also a point at which the majority begins to notice their presence. The "revenge of the turning point" is that moment when the possibility or actuality of who is present is recognized.

Noticing the possibility of African Americans moving into the neighborhood during mid-20th century was what drove suburban "white flight." The emergence of the magic third threshold can be the result of accident or intention and realtors sought to make sure neither was possible. Recognizing the possibility that African Americans were coming to the suburbs, realtors and loan officers conspired through red-lining to protect white households from shifting proportions on their blocks. Prevention of white flight through red-lining was a form of social engineering to avoid a potential tipping point. The Harvard affirmative action case challenged its social engineering of enrollment. The case revealed that sports-inclined privileged white students, as well as alumni legacies, were favored over Asian students who would otherwise have out-qualified them. If the enrollment tipped, Asian students might have achieved the magic third feared by administrators. Gladwell's criticisms of higher education were denounced by some and lauded by others in academic circles.

The third assertion of Revenge of the Tipping Point is about the stories we hear and tell. Gladwell refers to Zeitgeist, a perception of current circumstances that can be rewritten or reimagined, in ways that change the way people behave. The first example Gladwell used to demonstrate this point is the introduction in the 1950s of the term Holocaust as the term for Nazi genocide and the second is the role the TV hit "Will and Grace" played in normalizing gay relationships. In both of these examples, the public consciousness and beliefs changed as a result of restorying. The public tipped with "The Holocaust" becoming the common term and laws recognizing gay marriage embraced.

As Gladwell says, "Overstories matter. You can create them. They can spread. They are powerful. And they can endure for decades" (p. 282). An integrative and sad example Gladwell used to combine the importance of superspreaders, group proportions, and overstories was the OxyContin epidemic. What was initially perceived to be an almost magical remedy to pain turned into over prescriptions by complicit physicians, perverse marketing strategies recommended by McKinsey consulting, and a strategy to restory OxyContin's risks. Gladwell said, "The opioid crisis unfolded in three acts" (p. 294) - the manufacturer avoided states that had tracking mechanisms, a diabolic scheme for marketing focused on physicians who were prone to abuse, and the public stumbled ahead in its pursuit of pain relief that ended in addiction for many.

Superspreaders, proportionality, and restorying can be employed for both negative and positive purposes. Knowing the potential power of the three ideas can help to protect against abuses as well as provide useful concepts for those striving to exercise leadership to bring about positive change.

Activism and leadership

Activism is rising and how to get involved is an individual choice, particularly since there are so many ways to express your views and stand up for what you believe in. I joined 100+ residents of the Chicago North Shore who were part of the U.S. Tesla Takedown demonstrations that took place across the country at Tesla dealerships. I learned about the protests through Indivisible Chicago, one of many local groups organizing protests, boycotts, and other initiatives to push back on Trump's chaos. So there is no question, violence and property destruction were not advocated to the slightest degree and I would not have considered participation if any was implied.

I wanted to do something but didn't know where to start and how to get connected. What I learned was that it was easy, networks exist for those who are concerned about where the U.S. is headed, and it feels great to find other people who are concerned as well. Flatly stated - it restored hope that the Trump Project 2025 implementation is not unstoppable. Trump will become unstoppable only if citizens don't step up.

What did it feel like to go to a random spot where I might not know anyone else or not know how to plug in? I arrived a few minutes early and saw individuals and small groups milling around the Tesla dealership, sizing things up for what was to come. The police showed up a few minutes before the start time and simply sat in their cars, awaiting what would come. People then started converging from everywhere, some carrying signs, others just showing up. We assembled on the public property in front of the dealership and the police came around to tell us where we needed to stay to not violation private property rights of the Tesla dealership. Protestors with signs lined up on both sides of the roadway, striking a chord with a cheer every few minutes. I started asking questions of people around me and got into numerous informative conversations as I became more comfortable sharing my concerns. Although I was there to protest an unelected billionaire's takeover of the U.S. government, I am deeply concerned about attacks on higher education and I am concerned about the peoples of Ukraine and Gaza having a chance to live as I do - secure safe, and prosperous.

I met a number of really fun and interesting people, two of them I knew from previous events. We introduced each other to continue expanding our networks and we talked about the things that concern us most. The encouragement of passersby who honked their horns in approval bolstered the positive feeling of being there for everyone. When I left, I made sure to thank the policeman as I walked by - expressing appreciation for their protection of our civil rights. There is no doubt that I will continue to watch for opportunities to speak up and I hope many more will join in the days to come.

Perez - Dear White Leader

A great new friend and colleague, Luis, recommended I read Dr. Joel Perez' Dear White Leader: How to Achieve Organizational Excellence through Cultural Humility (2024). I was immediately attracted to Perez' book when he recounted being drawn into consulting from experiences he had as an undergraduate student leader.

Dear White Leader... is very straight-forward, including examples, stories, and "taking action" recommendations at the end of each chapter. The primary assertions of the book are that two attitudes are essential for exceptional leadership to unfold - humility and curiosity.

Perez clearly defines his terms and elements related to them throughout the book. He starts by identifying three components of humility: 1) a commitment to self-awareness and self-critique; 2) redressing power imbalances; and 3) changing the systems of organizations and communities to be more inclusive. These three are then incorporated into the internal, external, and systemic work required for exceptional leadership (Figure 1, p. 15). One of the keys to cultural humility is suspending judgement or checking oneself from jumping to conclusions about others. Cultural humility includes affirming one's one values and beliefs while at the same time remaining open to those of others, thus not suggesting that either change the core of who they are. This attitude is essentially curiosity - openness to explore without judgement.

Cultural competence is defined as "the acquisition and maintenance of culture-specific skills" (p. 38) which is acquired through the four attributes of self-awareness, attitude, knowledge, and cross-cultural skills. Humility in these four attributes is reflected in adopting a growth mindset, curiosity, and listening deeply. And this kind of cultural competence, especially for cultures that are new or very different from one's own, is significantly improved by finding a cultural coach or mentor to help navigate the differences we encounter.

Beginning with the attributes of self-awareness and self-critique, Perez explained different types of bias that can get in the way of cultural understanding. They included unconscious or implicit bias, confirmation bias, and affinity bias, which progressively diminish in the developmental sequence of denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance, and adaptation. Privilege, or lack thereof, can impact an individuals' journey toward cultural understanding because those with privilege are often unaware of, or do not recognize, the power they hold versus those who have little power and are all too painfully aware of how they are discredited and disregarded. Perez recommends that becoming comfortable with uncertainty of cultural difference involves cultivating the eight practices of noticing, breathing, moving, sleeping, laughing, wondering, experimenting, and loving.

Ultimately, diverse cultural environments require the awareness of, and willingness to address, power imbalances among the individuals and within the groups where exceptional leadership is desired. Power differences are reflected in who is heard, valued, and matters and the question is if equality or equity is the objective."Equality is when a person or group of people are provided with the same resources or opportunities that everyone has. Equity is recognition that each person has different circumstances and is given specific resources and opportunities to get to an equal outcome" (p. 92).

Perez identified four dimensions of diversity that foster organizational inclusion and belonging. They are "organizational vitality and viability, recruitment and engagement, training and development, and organization climate and intergroup relations" (p. 105). To improve these conditions, exceptional leaders will be most effective when they concentrate on the middle 2/3rds of their members who comprise the middle to late adopters. The early adopters are already on board and the laggards will seldom, if ever, join in. Those in the middle can be encouraged to come along by applying what all musicians in an ensemble inherently understand - outstanding performance comes from working with and nurturing each other and striving to be better TOGETHER.

Soltes & Stern - Welcoming the Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications

Ori Soltes and Rachel Stern convened a conference of colleagues at Fordham University, which then became the basis for the 2024 edited collection of essays in Welcoming the Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications. The book is divided into two broad sections, one dedicated to exploring the faith traditions and references in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Indian/Dharmic traditions. The second section describes present and future prospective initiatives to respond to the call to welcome strangers wherever they might be or however they come to us.

The Foreword defines the stranger as anyone who comes from another place, is of another religion, or part of another race or culture. With this definition, immigrants across geographic borders are certainly included but the need for welcome next door and in our communities is important as well. Since 67% of the world's population identifies with one of the Abrahamic traditions, the influence of the books on which these faith groups are based are of paramount importance.

Judaism's commitment to welcoming the stranger is anchored in remembering the Torah or Old Testament story of the Hebrew people who were exiled in Egypt. The welcome in Egypt came with many burdens, including servitude and deference to their hosts, but at least there was a place where the Hebrew people could survive. Abraham's repeated welcome of others provides compelling evidence of treating others with compassion without regard to their culture or beliefs. Nachmanides (1194-1270), a Jewish medieval scholar, included not only a physical welcome but ridding the stranger of fear and intimidation in the 1263 Barcelona Disputation. In this view the stranger was seen as one who is powerless, vulnerable, and lonely. This physical and emotional comforting guided practices of hospitality among Jews and others but was eventually challenged for the first time in the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, a time when Jews were persecuted and marginalized for their religion and culture. The Holocaust and the loss of millions of lives was the outcome.

Christian commitment to welcoming the stranger derives not only from examples of the Hebrew people and Israel in the Old Testament Bible but also from the story of Jesus himself. In the retelling of His birth, He and parents Mary and Joseph were refugees in need of a place to stay as they fled persecution and death. This view, and the witness of Jesus' ministry is foundational to the "universal obligation of benevolence and compassion towards all, including strangers and even enemies" (p. 27). Christian theologians take hospitality to another level in combining the idea of charity towards others with a call to justice for all. This dual approach augments the band-aids of charity and advocates for expedited action that transcends political posturing and abstraction - people are suffering and Christians are called to respond with immediate assistance and systemic change that remedies suffering at its roots. As an example, the author referenced the 2002 and 2003 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' "Stranger No Longer..." pastoral letter that advocated addressing root causes, legal avenues, legalization of the undocumented, rational employment-based migration, humane border enforcement, protecting human rights, reform of the visa system and the principle of family reunification (p. 39) - a combination of addressing immediate needs and systemic change.

A chapter following the initial explanation of Christianity's faith-filled view of immigration explained the opposing MAGA restrictionist view that immigration should be highly controlled and any violator of policy apprehended and punished. The restrictionist view relies on the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9 that described the scattering of multiple independent nations, thus ensuring that humanity could never be united under "one government as a threat to Divine sovereignty" (p. 51). Restriction also relies on the state to protect citizens from the presumed criminality of 'illegal aliens' who "steal the resources of the citizens by both entry and by residing within the land" (p. 52). By contrast, the 'Migrant 4 Life' view of other Christians stresses "the importance of hospitality for the stranger over the sovereignty of the nation-state" (p. 59) and asserts that offering legalization to undocumented immigrants and their dependent children will benefit everyone - securing the national borders, resolving immigration and asylum applications, and allowing employability, which in many cases was the goal of immigration in the first place.

The chapter on Islam is quite superficial based on my experience of having lived in an Islamic country for seven years. It does not reference the 'Five Pillars' of Islam, the core commitments a Muslim makes. It does note the compulsory charity, Zakat, which is a requirement to donate to the needs of the poor. In addition, the idea of welcoming travelers with 'peace' and with the offer of shelter and nourishment is noted. The chapter mentions little in relation to the depth of Islamic culture that I experienced which offered hospitality, aid, gifts, and always in a spirit of not expecting anything in return.

The reference to Indian/Dharmic tradition is made as an "Epilogue," presumably because it is not within the Abrahamic tradition. Dharma is described as a way of life that determines one's state of existence in another life. The karma that is jokingly referenced as being what one deserves for past actions, is simply an action or deed that might elicit a compensatory response. The author suggests that "dharmic traditions will not only place little value on helping those within or beyond the community, they will discourage it" (p. 83). Hindu tradition has more of a tradition of welcoming and the author describes the Jewish community of Cochin where many lived in peace with other religions for generations. The state of Kerala is not mentioned in this chapter but is one of the two examples (the other being Al-Andalus in Spain) of which I am aware and have visited where multiple faith groups lived in respect and harmony, indeed in a condition of hospitality to one another.

The summaries of different faith perspectives led then to descriptions of welcoming strangers with compassion in several different settings and ways. The "Building the Present and Future" included the artist example of Fritz Ascher, business and entrepreneur cultivation in multiple countries, the importance of 'de-storying' and 're-storying' the legacy of immigrants, revision of court proceedings, and modern digital life as both response to as well as problems in welcoming the stranger in the current era.

Soernes & Yang - Welcoming the Stranger

There are two Welcoming the Stranger books, the first by Mathew Soerens and Jenny Yang published in 2009 and subsequently updated in 2018. The Soernes & Yang book lays out the political dichotomy from the beginning. The contrasting views are 1) that the U.S. is experiencing an invasion of illegal aliens who are violent and drain public and social resources or 2) that the millions of people around the globe are simply seeking a better life for themselves and their families. The two previous groups aside, the growing number of strangers in the U.S. are actually refugees who came with legal status and support from the government. With the mix of views and statuses that are now present, there are growing numbers of U.S. citizens who recognize the complexity of migration and want to be informed about the reality rather than manipulated by competing ideological assertions. Their book is designed to address this growing middle by informing readers of how immigration works and by proposing a Biblical perspective for how to improve it.

As the title suggests, welcoming includes how to live in relationship with immigrants, refugees, and others who have lacked opportunity and thereby suffered economic deprivation. Treating others humanely begins with language and not using demeaning and derogatory language such as "illegal alien." Those who lack documentation are not criminal but simply violated a civil law. Soerens & Yang help the reader by providing stories throughout their book - real people struggling with the challenges of life, 60% of whom have been in the U.S. for more than a decade and three-fourths with a recognized legal status. Almost all undocumented immigrants pay taxes from which they will likely never benefit. They pay approximately $7 billion in sales taxes and deposit $12 billion to the Social Security system each year.

Welcoming the Stranger reiterates the often-repeated story of success in the U.S. - a nation of immigrants, with one-third coming from the generation of ancestors who arrived through Ellis Island. Each immigrant group has been vilified as they found their way to the shores or borders of the U.S. and eventually acclimated to and found success in various industries from manufacturing to service to the arts. Even with this history, ambivalence is readily evident in immigration policy changes which were modified over time to reflect shifting needs for workforce prospects and the political ramifications over competition for everything from jobs to places to live. The journey of migrants has been one of "sheer resilience, courage, and fortitude" (p. 87) establishing most as successful members of society.

Turning to faith perspectives on immigration and citing Old Testament Biblical direction to Jews in Hebrew Scriptures, a "ger" is a non-native person in a local area who is to be treated hospitably. Jews were strangers in Egypt and the story of Jesus in the New Testament Bible is of parents and a baby seeking refuge under persecution. These texts assert that migration through history has been one of God's ways of drawing people together in their human striving. After summarizing the many benefits of welcoming migrants, debunking claims of criminality, and reflecting on the strong faith-base from which many immigrants come, Soerens & Yang turned to the question of how immigration policy should be modified. However, the most compelling message was that, regardless of how one views immigration law and its modification, "we must first approach immigrants themselves as neighbors - with love" (p. 130).

Trump's 2nd coming

An opinion piece in the January 29, 2025, Chicago Tribune authored by a new U.S. citizen referred to Trump's "2nd coming" as fear arose that his citizenship could be denied before he took his oath on January 21, 2025. Considering all that we know of Trump's staunch Christian evangelical base, perhaps the "2nd coming" fits. David Brooks' "How to Destroy What Makes America Great" in the New York Times recounts human history where empires achieved greatness by connecting across cultures. By contrast, the Trump strategy is to isolate and establish the U.S. as superior to other nations. While Trump called April 4 "Liberation Day, " Brooks asserts that it is more of a "Stagnation Day." The 2nd coming may be more about withdrawal and decline rather than a historic and revelatory new day.

The pace of the first days of Trump's 2nd term could be characterized as a bullet train compared to the train wreck of his 1st term. The pace, unpredictability, randomness, and chaos that Trump creates is intentional. He sees uncertainty and surprise as key to success in negotiation - keep your opponents "on their heels" and there's much greater chance of success. Trump denied knowledge of, and disavowed a commitment to, Project 2025 during his campaign. Whether that was a lie or ignorance, the executive orders parallel the numerous points made in the Project 2025 Education section. Watch the Heritage Foundation website to understand the victories being claimed by those who drafted the Project 2025 strategy. The April 8, 2025, Heritage Foundation conference celebrated the seizure of education and recognized College of the Ozarks, Grand Canyon University, Christendom College, and Wyoming Catholic College as excellent institutions that reflect the reforms the Heritage Project 2025 seeks to achieve. Even if only partially implemented, those elements that survive public scrutiny, reaction, and counter-moves will have a huge impact.

The interview of Parag Khanna by Anthony Scaramucci revealed the underlying rationale for the strong executive assertions that are clearly part of Trump's vision. Khanna noted that J.D. Vance and Elon Musk are adherents of Curtis Yorvan's view that democracy is obsolete and should be replaced by monarchy. The world periodic table of states on which Khanna is working will propose a different way of looking at governments. The periodic table adds state capacities like equality, climate resilience, food security, energy security, and AI readiness to the mix of variables that are presumed to be part of a "healthy state." Going beyond democracy to forms of government that are benevolent autocracies that are accountable to their citizens (technocracies in Khanna's terms) proposes different types of government that can serve their people. One of the essential questions is if such a benevolent monarchy, and in the U.S. case oligarchy, is accountable to its citizens. This is where the Trump strong executive model goes off the tracks as accountability systems have been dismantled and calls to account are brushed away.

Ian Bremmer's TED interview offers detailed analysis and insight of the present state in the waning days of winter 2025. Leaning into the stability and dominance of the U.S. in economic and military terms under the Biden administration, Trump announced stunning tariffs that shook the world economy. Seeking to make his mark, Trump has interjected drama on many fronts which is undoing the world order that the U.S. created over decades of diplomacy. The deliberate sabotage of Ukraine's Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, February 28, 2025, received praise from Republicans, condemnation from Democrats, and incredulity from international media. After viewing the videotape of the exchange, it's hard to not see that Vance and Trump orchestrated the confrontation to absolve Trump of any obligation to pursue diplomatic solutions to Russia's attack of Ukraine. Drawing Zelensky into the trap allowed Trump to characterize Zelensky as ungrateful and unwilling to pursue negotiation orchestrated by Trump. Literally thrown out of the White House after the exchange, Trump achieved the win/win for himself when Zelensky left with two options: 1) apologetically acquiesce to Trump's assertions (and an agreement to give away Ukraine's natural resources), or 2) reject the affront, allowing Trump to assert that Zelensky is uncooperative as Trump continues to pivot to advocacy for Russia. Will the U.S. survive this kind of self-interested upending of America's role in the world? Bremmer predicted a return to balance, different but at least not as chaotic, once citizens feel the real impact of Trump's policies.

Trump sees himself as a master at negotiation, embracing a distributive negotiation worldview where he competes in a win/lose competition for limited resources. With such a view, uncertainty and chaos may be successful on many immediate initiatives. However, the downside is that uncertainty undermines rather than builds trust. But trust never was part of the Trump strategy and this is evident in who supported both his 2016 and 2024 campaigns. The pollsters all misread what was happening - Trump had so effectively sown disbelief and distrust in media, government, education, and any sector that harbored "elites" that all were easy targets. Discrediting all those systems that more privileged citizens saw as serving and protecting them only reinforced the base of skeptics who love Trump. They say "he calls it as it really is" which "outs" a system that never worked for them as working class citizens with less educational opportunity and success. Governance by complaint, along with discrediting what previously served as separation of powers and church/state influence, has been significantly shaped by the rise of Christian nationalism and was driven by the the growing reliance on money, lies, and citing of God's provenance.

Researchers on trust in government in Canada reported early findings of their study at the International Leadership Association conference in November, 2024, in Chicago. The preliminary analyses indicates that we no longer live in a world where trust and distrust is a continuum with two alternatives. Trust in Canadian government has become a balance between justified and unjustified trust and mistrust. The result is four quadrants of justified trust, justified mistrust, unjustified trust, and unjustified mistrust. In an era of disinformation these four quadrants become very important and the Canadian researchers findings indicate that a significant portion of the citizenry in Canada moved into the unjustified mistrust quadrant, complicating any effort to gain trust of any type. As a U.S. citizen, I was provoked to wonder where the electorate has shifted and my guess is that those who refused to vote for Kamala Harris, even though she was much more qualified and credentialed, were substantially coming from an unjustified mistrust of current U.S. government. On the other hand, those who readily supported Donald Trump voted from an unjustified trust perspective - when the system has never worked for you, why wouldn't you vote for someone who calls out the failings of the current system and proclaims a new path forward?

Maya Angelou's quote "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time" transcends time and is particularly applicable to today. Trump denied knowledge of Project 2025, which had many elements related to education, and now they are coming to pass - reducing the scope of the Education Department, dismantling and punishing those committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), placing voting laws under federal control, and imposing policies and practices that threaten free expression under the guise of protecting Jewish students and scholars. When asked about the origin of sometimes baseless assertions, Trump cites "common sense" or that he's a very smart person. Albert Einstein's comment that "common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen" is perhaps applicable.

April 5, 2025, was the beginning of significant push-back with tens of thousands of people assembling across the U.S. in "Hands Off" rallies. All were peaceful and many had moments of joyfulness as chants echoed through urban canyons. Where "Hands Off" leads will be key to whether balance is restored in the branches of U.S. government. My deepest concern is identifying ways that will bring a return to reason and trust in leadership and the systems on which citizens depend.

Bremmer - Us v. Them: The Failure of Globalism

Ian Bremmer introduces Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism by warning that the spread of an us vs. them perspective among citizens around the world, including protests and rock throwing, comes from fear - fear of strangers, terrorists, criminals, decline of economic opportunity - and that governments can't protect us from these threats. He then explained that those who were born and matured in the 20th century believed that the American dream was secured by globalism. Unfortunately, globalism also guaranteed the problems that worldwide citizens now face - that there are winners and losers of the race to globalization. Worse yet it is the fact that globalization and its impact are accelerating.

Bremmer's book and the video of his appearance at a Johns Hopkins forum after Trump's 1st election to the U.S. Presidency describe how globalization has created an interconnected world where the cross-border flow of ideas, goods, and services and the inequity that goes with that flow resulted in governments having very limited potential to protect their citizens. Some political leaders have attempted to recognize this complexity through negotiations and bridge building while others chose the cynical option of retrenchment, withdrawal, blaming others, and erecting conceptual or physical walls. Media complicates the matter because winners and losers of the globalization race can easily see the inequities - that is if they have open access that allows them to see the rest of the world through honest journalistic reporting. As Bremmer says, "It's the efforts of the losers not to get f'ed over, and the efforts of the winners to keep from losing power" (p. 10) that will create conflict within and across the borders of the world. He characterizes this dynamic as the seed that will destroy globalism, primarily because it creates insecurities that pit people against each other.

The facts of globalism are in some cases very different than the general public's perception. For instance, 88% of jobs lost in U.S. manufacturing from 2006-2013 were due to automation, not changes in global trade. Fearing the loss of culture is another example; where diversity is significant (such as Chicago) greater individuation and celebration of culture are more common rather than unusual.

The walls that have been going up around the world are generally more about protecting, rather than predicting the demise of, democracy. Isolating and pursuing separate national interests appears to protect jobs and cultures, with raising tariffs a primary example. The problem Bremmer identifies is that tariffs usually set off retaliation that locks countries into an escalating cycle or moves production to other countries all together. Cross-border flow of people and talent was an international issue in 2018 and has now risen to a much higher level in the anti-immigration movements leading up to 2024. It is the wealthiest countries that will be inclined to the strongest reactions to both the economic and human repercussions of globalism.

What are the factors that will help countries survive the growing fears about globalism? Helping citizens understand that survival is dependent on adaptation and that governments, if run honestly for the benefit of citizens, can change. Secondly, governments must address inequality and begin to lift all boats rather than the yachts of the few. Thirdly, education and retraining will be central, automatically challenging countries with large populations more than those that are smaller. Looking at these factors, "India, Indonesia, Russia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and South Africa are especially vulnerable" (p. 53). "Mexico, Brazil, and China have more capacity than the rest to respond" (p. 54). Bremmer predicted that the success of these 10 countries will determine the outcome for the world economy in the 21st century.

All countries may eventually need to be more responsive to the seemingly universal pursuit of happiness (as defined by the World Happiness Report) including "caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance" (p. 135). In order to achieve these, the ability of governments to rebuild relations among their citizens and across national borders may be inevitable with income/wealth inequality one of the most important factors. Even Zuckerberg seems to understand this when he declared on Facebook in 2017 that progress "now requires humanity coming together not just as cities or nations, but also as a global community" (p. 155). Without a commitment to this greater good, cynicism about all governments will grow until conditions become so bad that even the current winners of the globalism race will open to a new social contract.

As a reflection back almost a decade ago, and before Ian Bremmer published Us. vs. Them (2018), I warned higher education leaders to avoid using the terms globalism or globalization in their discussion of higher education (Roberts, 2015). I based the warning on Jane Knight's scholarship over the years where she clearly distinguished that globalization was export of economic, knowledge, people and other resources in ways that disrupted or replaced local culture while internationalization was the mutual and respectful exchange of processes and resources across borders. Thus, I encouraged educators to talk about their work in terms of internationalization, especially in education hubs and partnerships across regions of the world.

Connecting for leadership

To say that the Leadership Educators Institute of 2024 was inspirational to me is a gross understatement. While the conversations with Vernon Wall and me ended up including most of the things that I had planned to say and previously posted, it was connecting with those who so warmly welcomed conversation with me throughout the Institute that I enjoyed most. There are many but new colleagues Courtney, Andy, Sam, Adelaide, Travell, Kass, and Laura engaged so openly and longer-standing colleagues Kristina, Kathy, Melissa, and of course Vernon and Tanya were steadfast sources of encouragement. Donovan and Luis - it goes without saying how fun it was to connect with you.

What I've found on reflection is how powerful it was to have been placed later in the itinerary, giving me a chance to figure out if I had anything relevant to say when my time came. The problem here is that in so many ways, speaking to a conference or even publishing books and articles may appear to be a prideful thing. The balance between humility and pride is something with which I always struggle and I strive never to cross the line into pride that assumes I have some special gift or insight. Instead, I try to engage in ways that are provisional and encourage shared discovery among those with whom I'm privileged to connect.

"Connecting in leadership" - what does it take? So many of us are seeking more effective and powerful ways to cultivate leadership among students, ourselves, and our communities. What participating in LEI reinforced is that the processes I described in Deeper Learning in Leadership in 2007 were actually guiding me through each successive encounter. I started with a conviction of wanting to listen deeply to what was troubling leadership educators that I met. Then three forces overtook me - presence, flow, and oscillation. I'm not trying to sell books here but the fact is that the urgency of what drove me to attend and speak at LEI called out the better part of me which was attentiveness and being present. Once the forces of presence were in effect I definitely found myself in the state of "flow," a feeling of intense focus that suspends time and place. The unfortunate proof of my state of suspension is that I frequently got lost in the hotel, forgot to eat, and found myself at 8 p.m. each night completely exhausted. Each of the two nights allowed me the renewal I needed to come back the next day - thus oscillating to offer renewal.

All of the leadership educators who attended LEI were seeking more effective ways to cultivate student leadership. Some were just struggling with how to get students to participate in programs and stick with them long enough for them to make a difference. As I observed one group exploring student participation challenges, I heard drivers such as belonging, purpose, success, healing, and expectation, all of which might need to be folded into how we invite students to come along with us.

I have no doubt that most of the LEI 2024 attendees took a great deal away from being in Philly for 3 days but the most important part is finding colleagues with whom to share the journey. Humbly sharing with each other and authentically meeting each other was certainly evident at the meeting and perhaps there is insight here in relation to reaching students. If we urgently engage in ways that demonstrate that we're not leadership educators just as a job but as a calling and that learning to be better leaders requires reflection, focus, and renewal, perhaps students would come along with us more enthusiastically.

Crystal ball - looking back and forward in leadership learning

The emergence of the focus on leadership learning goes back to the 1970s and probably even earlier. This movement has spawned an "industry" (Kellerman, 2018) that spans sectors, disciplines, and cultures. Student affairs educators have been part of this movement from the beginning and have made significant contributions along the way, including the advocacy for comprehensiveness, coherence, access and inclusion, and evidence-based practice.

However, some scholars have continued to challenge leadership educators for the lack of return on investment. I have enjoyed numerous interactions with Barbara Kellerman as she has pushed leadership scholars, educators, and consultants to get serious by committing to proving their worth. Where I find myself today is continuing to try to bridge organizational barriers, sectors, and international boundaries to advance leadership learning that makes a difference.

With the number of years I've been in the orbit of leadership studies and education, I've had several opportunities to be interviewed on my recollection of the last almost 50 years of advancing leadership learning. Being interviewed by Vernon Wall at the 2024 Leadership Educators Institute gave me another opportunity to gaze into the crystal ball. Following are the questions and the responses I offered.

Looking back on your 50+ year career, what were the moments and circumstances that were most formative in the way you viewed your work?

There were three very significant awakenings for me. The first was in my early career while working and pursuing my Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. When I first went to Maryland I worked in the Orientation Programs but I brought with me from my Colorado State days a very different view of students' roles. I saw the potential, and advocated, for greater responsibility of student leaders empowered by deeper training and development. Fostering deeper student leadership involvement in Orientation led to my being invited to start the leadership programs at Maryland, a task I pursued by engaging with ACPA in the creation of the comprehensive leadership program model that was published in 1981 (Student Leadership Programs in Higher Education). This involvement started me down a path of studying and conceptualizing leadership learning throughout my career.

The second instrumental moment was getting acquainted with one of the founders of student affairs work, Dr. Esther Lloyd-Jones. Her view of student affairs as a catalyst for institutional engagement and empowerment of deeper student learning changed forever how I viewed my work as a student affairs educator.

The third transformative moment relates to international exposure. I first worked and traveled internationally when I was selected as a Visiting Scholar for Miami University's Luxembourg campus in 2005. This experience then led to my accepting the invitation to create the student support, service, and development area for Education City in Doha, Qatar, as Assistant Vice President for Faculty & Student Services for Qatar Foundation. The initial experience in Europe and later work for 7 years in the Middle East transformed my view of higher education and how culture needed to be accommodated or embraced.

What do you see as the central principles of cultivating leadership learning over the years, what issues have been most central and consistent?

There are five central principles that have endured and that I believe leadership educators should continue to observe:

• The capacity to lead is present in everyone and is found in both positional and non-positional examples.
• Fostering deeper leadership requires a personal development progression (e.g. presence, flow, and oscillation that I proposed in Deeper Learning in Leadership, 2007).
• The importance of values in leadership with humility, curiosity, and respect for difference as central concerns. (The Social Change Model is the most notable in advancing values in leadership.)
• Inclusive leadership achieved through multiple purposes (training, education, and development), multiple processes (programs & pedagogies), and offered to multiple populations. These principles were advocated by the ACPA Commission IV Task Force beginning in 1976.
• Partnerships to advance the work along with comprehensive and coherent models. This commitment is demonstrated in the subsequent inter-association collaborations that included other student affairs groups, crossing to academics, and actualized in the multi-sector perspective of the International Leadership Association.

How has your view of cultivating leadership changed as a result of your international work and travel?

I want to first acknowledged what a privilege it has been to travel and work internationally. My first experience was at age 57 and I have had so many opportunities since then, most of which are covered throughout this blog. For those of us who have this privilege, I believe it is important to not flaunt it but to humbly acknowledge our privilege, consider how critical theory might inform it, and seek to learn from it.

There is a quirk in this emergence of international understanding and it is my personality, one informed by an artist's spirit and training in music. I recently discovered Emilie Wapnick's idea of the "multipotentialite" personality which was stunning in how well it described me. The multipotentialite has the following characteristics:

• Non-linear career path
• Make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts
• Get bored when things get too easy
• Excel at idea generation
• Abhor routine and predictability
• Not afraid to try new things

The multipotentialite lens in me leans into experimentalism, coupled with empiricist curiosity. I did not always understand this about myself but realizing and leaning into it made me more comfortable in my career and life choices and this has been immensely affirming. It also made international travel and work incredibly interesting. Living internationally and having the opportunity to travel started me down a path of preparing for cultural encounter, remaining curious, and approaching experience with appreciation. 

I gradually realized that the cultural lenses that we use in the U.S. are useful but incomplete. The primary reason I say this is that much of what I've seen in cultural learning is comparative/competitive rather than appreciative. When you think of the way difference is explored, it is often conceived in a superiority versus deficit paradigm. I've written about this in my more recent publications but I recently focused on the implications for leadership training in a chapter that came out in the New Directions in Student Leadership series, titled "Incorporating an international perspective in training" (Roberts & Nyunt, 2024). This article advocates for leadership educators to become internationalists in their world view, challenge the standard leadership theory canon, and check their pedagogical practices. These three areas are complemented by pointers that will enhance leadership learning for international and all students.

Looking to the future of cultivating leadership learning, where do you see the need for greater focus and attention?

Proving the value of leadership learning, welcoming conflict and dialogue, and internationalizing our content and processes will become increasingly important. Add to these the advice offered by Satterwhite & Botkin (in press) that "leadership scholarship and learning needs to incorporate the emergence of collective leadership paradigms, include indigenous and diverse cultural perspectives, incorporate diverse andragogy and settings for learning, commit to inclusion and belonging of all learners."

It's also important that leadership learning include a heuristic understanding that can be comprehended and put into action. A heuristic approach will allow for the conceptual framework to be central, coherent, and serve as a catalyst to pervasively cultivate leadership potential that fulfills both individual and shared aspirations.

What are your deepest concerns and/or predictions about leadership and higher education in the coming years?

My deepest concerns relate to confronting bad leadership, paying more attention to active followership, incorporating critical perspectives, and instilling hope.

There are issues that haven't changed since we started this work and there are some new issues that offer expanding opportunity for us. My hope is that we double-down on the constants and step up on the newer opportunities.

Things that haven't changed:

• Advocating for the cultivation of core values that enhance the potential for positive leadership - humility, curiosity, respect for difference...
• Cultivating habits of character that support purposeful and generative leadership
• Infusion of leadership learning through partnership with others on campus and in the community
• Cultivating leadership through coherent and comprehensive commitments

Things that are expanding our opportunities:

• Creating positive organization culture as a central responsibility of leadership
• Understanding leadership as a continuum of followership to leadership and the growing necessity to pay attention to responsible followership and bad leadership
• Incorporating an international perspective
• Increasing emphasis on standards/principles and proof of impact (i.e. CAS Standards, ILA General Principles, Carnegie Leadership for Public Purpose elective classification)
• Integrating broader perspectives informed by critical examination for colonialism, racialization, and culture
• Instilling critical hope in the face of cynicism and pessimism

The above were shared with the LEI participants in December 2024. Incidental to LEI the International Leadership Association convened the Future Forward Leadership Summit in the summer of 2024, the summary aligning with many of the points above. The unfolding of other centers, such as UNC Charlotte's Center for Leadership Science, as well as complementary and competing statements about what leadership is and how it is cultivated, will hopefully contribute to building an eventual essential agreement about this important work.

Coates - The Message

Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Message was controversial from the moment it came out. Predictably, it was condemned by pro-Israel factions because it asserted that apartheid had been imposed on Palestinians for decades.

The Message is as much about what writing is as it is about the three settings it describes - Senegal, South Carolina, Israel and the West Bank. Coates begins The Message by describing the critical importance of writing. Returning to his childhood experience, Coates describes not doing well in classrooms that required order, attention, and dutiful learning. But to his credit and our benefit, he turned this "not quite right" for conventional learning into inspiration for his artistry as an author - thinking outside the square box, unwilling to sit still when curiosity calls for disruption. Calling others to write, he urges the type of writing that attempts to draw attention to our common humanity and the struggles that are part of it.

Coates demonstrates that hardship is the stimulus for many writers' greatest works by relating the depravation of African Americans in the U.S. to that of Palestinians. Both experiences have been catalysts for profound insight. "A literature fueled by a profound human experience must necessarily burn at a high flame, and thus a 'material handicap' is transformed into a 'spiritual advantage,' putting in the hands of the oppressed 'the conditions of a classical art'" which is a condition "as true for those laboring under the shadow of enslavement as it is for those laboring under the shadow of apartheid" (p. 228).

Describing his travel to Senegal, a place that at first felt very foreign but then became all too familiar, Coates reflected on the irony of how hard people who subjugate others must work. The "plunderers are human beings whose violent ambitions must contend with the guilt that gnaws at them when they meet the eyes of their victims" (p. 28). The construction of race in early American experience was an essential tool to put those of African descent in a position that denied them their humanity. The further irony is that the denigration of Africans and the denial of the value of their culture spawned imagination of an idyllic Eden-like place that became the bedrock of hope under inhumane circumstances.

Upon visiting Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Coates grew to acknowledge the very real contemporary existence of an apartheid state. Apartheid is defined in international law as "inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them" (p. 215). It depends on how one reads this section of The Message, but I did not see blame in calling out the policies and social conditions that Palestinians experience. Coats instead describes in considerable detail how Israel came to be in the aftermath of  pogroms, concentration camps, and the annihilation of 6 million Jews during WWII. The promised land to which European and then Jews of other national origins would flee was sanctioned by an international coalition embarrassed and frightened by what the world had just witnessed. And, the new freedom of a Jewish state, and the Zionist movement within it, was the source of power that allowed expansion of Israel into territories that were promised to Palestine and resulted in imposition of conditions that, if experienced anywhere else in the world, would have immediately drawn condemnation. Of course, "Every single empire in its official discourse has said that is is not like all the others" (quote from Edward Said, p. 139). The results are undeniable - "Palestinians living in Israel have shorter lives, are poorer and live in more violent neighborhoods" and their movement is controlled by "'admission committees'... that "are free to bar anyone lacking 'social suitability' or 'compatibility with the social and cultural fabric'" of Jewish areas. Zionism's claim to Israel as their homeland is clearly a form of colonialism and is confirmed in one of the ideologies' founders, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda who pronounced, "The land of our fathers is waiting for us; let us colonize it" (p. 158).

The analysis provided by Coates is reinforced by Isreali historian, Ilan Pappe. The settler colonialism of Jews in Israel depended on Zionism and its declaration that Palestine was the home for its people. Jews arriving in Palestine in the early 20th century knew that they needed to push Arabs out and that domination in economic terms was essential. This domination, and a romantic nationalism based on establishing a Jewish state, emerged after the partition accelerated and as Jews fled Europe and its legacy of anti-Semitism. Pappe's conclusion is that decolonization of Palestine is inevitable, but only when a one-state solution is negotiated.

Coates connects his cultural origin from Africans brought to America against their will and condemned to an unequal and lesser status with the plight of Palestinians where none "is ever the equal of any Jewish person anywhere" (p. 125). Coates makes the point that the structure, stratification, and changeless destiny of Palestinians is as clear in the West Bank and Gaza as it was in South Africa and America before civil rights.

As I drafted this summary, I pondered the connection between assertions by Coates that "Politics is the art of the possible, but art creates the possible of politics" (p. 105) and Pablo Picasso's "prosperity is a hypothesis - an artist works with what he has here and now" (Picasso Museum, Malaga, Spain). These assertions, starting with reality in order to envision possibility, captures the essence of Coates' The Message. In an era where Israel is perpetrating atrocities akin to those to which Jews were subjected under Nazi persecution, we must start by considering the potential that Israel's "right to defend itself" has gone too far. Then the stalemate in negotiations between Hamas and Israel can be broken and the long-envisioned possibility of a two-state solution will be possible.

Smith - Remaking the Space Between Us

Diane McLain Smith offers discerning analysis and real hope for how to heal the vicious partisanship that has overtaken America in her Remaking the Space Between Us: How Citizens Can work Together to Build a Future for All (2024). Hope is possible, even in the face of the divisiveness of the 2024 federal election. The fact is that 87% of the general population comprise the center of a more flexible and pragmatic citizenry. The other 13% are far out on either end of the political spectrum yet they exert an outsized voice in political discourse, and we give them undue attention in the media.

Smith's proposition goes back to two human potentialities that have served us well as we evolved - cooperation and competition. The problem is that these natural tendencies have very different outcomes. "At this state in our evolution, cooperation and empathy are much more likely to flourish within groups while competition, even hate, is much more likely to break out across groups" (p. 3). We are drawn together inside groups and driven apart between groups. "81 Percent of Americans believe the resulting divisions pose a greater threat to our future than foreign nations" (p. 8). The way out of this is deliberating to identify shared purpose that transcends different identities, life experiences, politics, and results in a new national identity coming out of a more interdependent way of being.

Many Americans, both conservative and liberal, recognize Donald Trump as a purveyor, if not the originator, of contemporary inter-group complaint. By catering to disaffected and disappointed citizens, billionaire Trump drew a significant number of middle and struggling class white citizens into his MAGA movement by making them feel that they were part of the golden toilet class. In Heather McGhee's analysis (The Sum of Us, 2021), give someone who is struggling someone else to look down on, and loyalty is not only secured but almost guaranteed. This strategy relies on a belief that "Some groups are innately better or lesser than others"... and "One group's gain must come at another's expense" (p. 28).

Imagining something better and committing to make it possible is the place to start remaking the space between us. Robert Putnam's Upswing (2020) cites times in U.S. history when citizens came together to create a more compassionate society and the question remains, are we on the cusp of a swing toward a new better self? Putnam's earlier work Bowling Alone, was released in a documentary titled Join or Die by Netflix. Covering Putnam's life work in advocating the importance of building bonds through voluntary associations, it reinforces the importance of remaking the space between us in order to renew human flourishing.

Remaking the space is dependent on embracing another evolutionary stage where cooperation across groups is fostered even when biases, values, and different life experiences tend to separate us. Smith recounts examples of such swings taking place - responsiveness to immigration in Lewiston, Maine, election reform such as fusion or ranked-choice voting, the compassionate response after the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, the Braver Angels debate initiate, and engaging communities in restorative storytelling. In these and other examples it only took one cross-group friend, which led to increased receptivity to ideas not considered before, and a commitment to pursue more.

Vaclav Havel's admonition that, "Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope" (p. 127) is an insight to employ for those who seek to remake the space between us. The headwinds we face include the decline of investigative journalism and migration to profit-driven national and social media, politicians who drive extreme positions to capture the headlines, disinformation and misinformation, and our own biases reinforced by social media echo chambers. The potential to turn these around is in activating the peripheral majority, encouraging them to engage others, and showing up where conflict is present or is likely to emerge. Navigation in conflict-ridden situations requires a commitment to 1) refuse to simplify and face complexity, 2) explore what happened and cast a wide net, 3) make sense of conflicting accounts, 4) explore options with others, 5) make a decision, explain the reasoning, and acknowledge other views, 6) be patient in waiting for a response, and 7) reflect on mistakes and continue to learn (pp. 159-163). From the Valedictory speech in 2022 of an Upstate NY high school senior, "Having hope is never stupid. No matter how buried it gets or how lost you feel, you must hold on to hope, keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer" (p. 174).

El Sistema - transforming lives through music

Cultivating leadership of all types and including under-resourced and stressed communities is key to shared prosperity across the world. As climate change, economic inequality, and political polarization become increasingly visible through social media, empowering leadership from all places and people will have to be undertaken with sincerity for the good of all.

El Sistema, begun in 1995 by Jose Antonio Abreu, is fostering a youth music revolution. Abreu's vision was to introduce music education among Venezuelan children as a way of buoying hope and lifting them out of poverty. The TedTalk featuring Abreau, describing his purpose and its unfolding impact, is startling in its simplicity as well as the difference being made in Venezuela, the U.S.A., and elsewhere.

The devastating exodus of tens of thousands of Venezuelans to the U.S.A. has created political polarization about "the border" that was substantially responsible for Donald Trump's election as President in 2016 and threatens to bring his return in 2024. That exodus is seen very graphically in Chicago and includes heart-rending stories of survival both on the path and after arrival. As the documentary "Desde cero: The migrant journey in Chicago" demonstrates, Venezuelans are seeking a better life and are risking everything for the opportunity to be free and productive.

We had the opportunity to see Gustavo Dudamel, a product of El Sistema and prominent world conductor, direct the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela at Ravinia this last week. The performance of 170 children ages 10-17 of classical Latin American music as well as Shostakovich's Symphony #5 was stunning. It was almost inconceivable that they were able to perform at such a highly proficient and artistic level. The following day we witnessed the open rehearsal of Dudamel with the Children's Symphony of Venezuela coupled with El Sistema youth from Chicago. The rehearsal was of Sibelius' "Finlandia," a piece that was composed to celebrate Finish pride in the face of the Soviet threat of the early 20th century. At one point in the rehearsal, Dudamel explained the sequential emergence of the main theme first in the woodwinds and then in the strings as the proud voices of two countries. The theme is both proud and yearning for fuller expression - much like the aspiration of Venezuelan citizens who now find themselves in the U.S.A. but mourning the loss of culture and family.

In closing the rehearsal, Maestro Dudamel offered high praise by saying "you are not the future... you are the present" to the young musicians who had been enthralled in the exploration of music for one and a half hours. This was hard work requiring focus, patience, and perseverance. These youth were healed from whatever gaps that might have emerged out of a lack of resources, and they were bound in common purpose - recognizing each other's worth and making incredible music together!