Godzilla, a hero?

You know Godzilla is the good guy in his latest movie, right?  

Stupid scientists have unleashed this other monster that's destroying everything, and Godzilla shows up to save the day for everybody. Visualize where Godzilla opens his mouth and this huge, unstoppable power stream flows out ... focused ferocity, blasting the creature that's been killing people and threatening the world.  It's a viscerally stunning portrayal.

Godzilla as the good guy, he gets to open up and fry the bad guy.  It's the right thing to do, from a monsterish point of view, and it's satisfying to watch.

So for a real-life good guy, does he ever get to do things like that? Does a good guy get to open up and define good vs. bad; does he get to speak what's right into existence and blow away the wrong?

The impediments - well, there's appropriate reserve and decorum and deference and political considerations.  And position! You can get bumped out of the pack if you pull the rug out from under the players. It happened to Peter Norman, but in the end, he was right and everybody had to admit it.  He paid a price, though.

Start to finish, we're told what to do and how to think.  For twelve years or more in school, we do what we're told, then comes employment where we do what we're told.  By the time the moment arrives, we've got years of living up to the expectations of others, doing what they want, what they think is best, not rocking the boat.

Culturally, we've put up a thousand walls against decisions of conscience. There are boundaries that constrain us to the group norm, to the authority above us, to the status quo and the flow of events.

Speaking the truth when it goes against the grain ... that's emotionally difficult, particularly for an adult who is assimilated into a structured culture.  Opening your mouth and sweeping away wickedness, replacing it with right and truth, that's a step of courage and conviction.

An example?
Well, there was slavery.  Brave folks opened up and spoke while facing tremendous opposition. One by one, they spoke until they could no longer be ignored.  They spoke truth against the established culture, the power players, and told them they were just wrong, in every possible way, wickedly wrong.  It took courage and conviction.  It was not a gentle conversation, and the battle continues.

How about examples today?   For just one, our culture today thrives on greed, economic abuse, and oppression.  It's called the GAP, the widening distance between rich and poor, or predatory economics. It's a monster with many tentacles, and it threatens the world.  It's the most grotesquely wicked element visible in today's international arena.

Feeling courageous?  Blast away, Godzilla.  :)  (Just speak the truth; no fire and melting.  You knew that.)

In case you passed by Peter Norman's story, give it a sec.

Why the difference?

Sources

Why, indeed ...

• We thought of humanity as separate races with significant differences until we discovered we're all from one origin and biologically the same.  That's new, or at least the science is.  
• Then we decided that our differences were culture, intellect, and character ... until after the Cold War when we discovered we're all virtually identical.  That's new also, and geography isn't it either.
• We've insisted that the top groups are ethically superior and more willing to work.  Then we find out the reverse is the reality; the ethically sound and hardest working aren't at the top of the income scale, they're at the bottom.  
• We've claimed that financial success was earned and a noble goal, but watching the worldwide movement of wealth (every natural resource, business and labor productivity, income, wealth creation), we find that the flow is bottom-to-top in virtually every local, regional, and world market and industry, and progressively more so through modern history.
• Generally off the mark on every premise so far, we watch the widening GAP between the top 10% or so and everyone else.  What does it mean?

Ever wonder if your perspective, your worldview, might be a bit incomplete?  Of course it is.  The difficult task is deciding what we're going to do next.  If we're conformers, we'll pass by on the other side of the street.

Want some fun suggestions?

We could pick a couple of targets we know and understand, then plan and finance them.  One local and one distant.  Help a friend, equip a family, make a difference.  Commit for the duration, know the folks involved.  It changes things at both ends.  :)

help out when you're asked, or better yet, before you're asked
help a kid through school, through college or trade school
help a family build their home and flocks and gardens
help a community build a library or a clinic
help a school with supplies for the kids
help some refugees get resettled and start over
help a community with med assistance
help a family through a rough spot
help a friend through a crisis
help the widowed and the orphaned here and elsewhere
help the hungry and sick and needy
...
or even go see for yourself.  It's more fun that way.

Ways to improve?

According to the U.S. Commerce Department, CORPORATE profits are at their highest
level in at least 85 years. Employee compensation is at the lowest level in 65 years.

What does that suggest?

How many ways might we improve this organization?

This is today's bottom-line driven, profit-motivated business model.  A good bad example - Walmart, perhaps.

The six Walmart heirs took more than $1 Billion each in profits last year.  

2014 Walmart sales associates make $8.81 per hour on average. This translates to annual pay of $15,576, based upon Walmart's full-time status of 34 hours per week.  That's below the poverty line for a family, of course.  (UPDATE: WMT upped their minimum to $9/Hr earlier this year, but it hasn't worked out that well as the change only benefits new hires.)

Costco, by comparison, pays a reasonable wage. Costco's CEO and president, Craig Jelinek, has publicly endorsed raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, and he takes that to heart. The company's starting pay is $11.50 per hour, and the average employee wage is $21 per hour, not including overtime.

Prices?  Walmart offers no advantage over Costco or Target.

And how do they treat their community? Working at Walmart means you qualify for for SNAP, EITC, and housing assistance programs.  “A single Walmart Supercenter cost area taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year," in family assistance costs due to low wages and deliberately restricted hours.

Walmart stock is as unimpressive as their business practices. Costco and Kroger have beaten WMT performance impressively.

Feel free to comment about it to management.  The business still needs to be adjusted.

Walmart Executive Compensation; typical of large corporations, upper management is in the top 0.01% for income.

	Name/Title		2011	2012	2013	2014	2015

	C. Douglas Mcmillon/President and CEO		$8,806,408	$10,961,404	$9,563,093	$25,592,938	$19,392,608

	Charles Holley/Executive Vice President and CFO		$8,186,163	$5,112,172	$6,638,670	$8,199,391	$7,431,841

	Gregory Foran/Executive Vice President		-	-	-	-	$19,535,123

	David Cheesewright/Executive Vice President		-	-	-	-	$10,665,054

	Rosalind G. Brewer/Executive Vice President		-	-	$14,457,122	$11,664,423	$9,560,235

	Neil M. Ashe/Executive Vice President		-	$11,247,988	$8,350,945	$13,178,743	$9,436,775

According to the U.S. Commerce Department, CORPORATE profits are at their highest level in at least 85 years. Employee compensation is at the lowest level in 65 years. What does that suggest?

Children and Dogs Ran Free!

Bicycle trails through the woods were the

shortest route between everywhere and

and everywhere else.

Saturday morning after chores were done, we'd get on our bicycles and go. We'd be home by sunset, usually, without many rules about where we'd go or what we'd do.  We were perhaps as close to free as is possible for a creature to be, and it was magic.

Two blocks from home was the edge of the woods, then by trail to the railroad tracks and across, then through a huge cornfield to a country road and another three miles to my best friend's house.  We'd launch our adventures from there, sometimes with fireworks we bought at the gas station.

Children no longer run free like that; it's not a safe world for them like it was fifty years ago. Why is that?  My little daughter used to disappear early Saturday mornings with a dozen or so of her friends.  She'd come home by sunset with stories of adventures and play.  But that was in Japan in the 80's, not here.

Today, children rarely go anywhere alone.  They don't even wait for the school bus alone.  What changed, and why?  It's worth noting the specific ethical and moral changes, the social changes we've experienced in recent decades.

• Has the mainstream media weakened our culture, sensationalizing bad behavior?  Absolutely. 
• Have the business and personal standards for morality and ethical behavior declined?   Of course.
• Have families become isolated, hiding at home, instead of being part of an interactive community?  Yes.
• Have character and nobility disappeared from our instructional goals?  In many contexts, yes.

Is there a good way forward from here?  
Absolutely, but probably not for all, and probably not a gentle journey.  Today, things are not as they seem.  You and your children were born into a world at war.  Everything you do matters.                                    ~ C.S. Lewis, paraphrased


Picked a side yet?

Nicer Rich People

There's this odd fellow who invented the 5-Hr Energy drink thing.  He hit a home run in the marketplace, and he's worth billions, personally.  He has pledged 99% of his wealth to helping others.

The guy is Manoj Bhargava; he says, "If you have wealth, it's a duty to help those who don't."

Why would he say that?  Is he right?

NATGEO 2011

Instead of simply giving money, Bhargava believes that personal involvement is necessary.  He's probably right on that one.

And who are the wealthy? Perhaps an important question for each of us.

If your household income tops $10/day/person, you're better off than about 70% of humanity.   

If you have a house and a car or two, a positive net worth and some money in the bank, you're perhaps in the top 10% or so.

If you haven't seen the real world in person, it's perhaps something worth pursuing; personal involvement, and all that.

Here's the whole story Billions in Change

Relevant Words

Ever cringe at religious words?    We were visiting somewhere, and this church fellow wanting perhaps to instruct us more perfectly in the way said, "let me minister to you...."  Cringe!

Today, 'ministry' and 'minister' are usually religious things.  In English language bibles, the Greek words (diakonia, diakonos, etc) are sometimes translated as 'minister' and 'ministry'.  Those Greek words appear all through the New Testament, but they are not limited to the pulpit; the words are used to describe a variety of activities.  In each occurrence, the context is one of serving others, and there's a beautiful undertone of having a good heart about it.

While the original word use does include working in the church, it more broadly describes serving the needs of others by pretty much everyone.  And everyone serves (they minister, to use the old word).  Feeding the hungry, taking up collections for the poor, the labors of leadership and of teaching, of helping and hospitality, and caring practically for others near and far.  In such use, 'minister' is not a position, it's a sacrifice.

The words 'minister' and 'ministry' may not have real clarity in young folks' minds.  Such words are perhaps more of a separator, a boundary drawn between inside and outside.  Would our words be clearer if instead we talked about 'lending a hand', 'coming alongside for the duration', 'I got your back', or 'can I help'?

(Offering religious words to an inquirer is like offering beef to a vegan.  I suspect that little could be less appealing than sounding like today's media-portrayed religionists.  When we speak, we need to understand how it will be heard.)

Today, ministry is for ministers, at least the way the word is used.  Perhaps the word has evolved in common vernacular to the near-opposite of its earlier use.  True?  Do your own study, if you like, and consider what it might mean.  :)  It looks to me like everyone is supposed to be involved.

(For the record, my Kenyan friend says they have the same problem in Swahili.)

Ephesians 4:12 to equip his people for works of (ministry) service