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Posts by Paul Costello1

Before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus. She’s still on probation.

October 28, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By Michele L. Norris Columnist October 26, 2021 at 3:05 p.m. EDT

Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she was arrested in Montgomery, Ala., and placed on indefinite probation, after refusing to vacate her seat on a bus so a young White woman could sit down.

This was March 1955 — nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested for violating Alabama’s racial segregation laws after refusing to give up her seat to a White man, an act that sparked the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks, who died in 2005, went on to become an icon, widely celebrated as the “mother of the civil rights movement.”

What about Colvin? Though she was one of four female plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court case that overturned Montgomery’s bus segregation laws, her role in challenging the Jim Crow system has been largely overshadowed. What’s worse, Colvin, who is now 82, was never taken off probation.

That needs to change — and perhaps now it will. Today, Colvin goes back to Montgomery to petition for her record to be cleared. She is also, in a carefully detailed 30-point affidavit, addressing something else: the fact that her story was largely expunged because civil rights leaders didn’t see her as an appropriate symbol for the movement.

Colvin got pregnant not long after her arrest. And she was defiant. She was also charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer who said she had kicked and scratched him.

I interviewed Colvin in March 2020, and offstage she told me she believed there was another reason her story was shunted aside. “Rosa Parks had the right background and the right skin color,” she said. Colvin, whose skin is a beautiful shade of chocolate, said the bias still stings, but she let go of anger a long time ago. “We were all seeking one thing,” she said. “Justice.”

Now the gray-haired Colvin seeks delayed justice, addressing the Juvenile Court for Montgomery County. She’ll be accompanied by the 90-year-old Fred Gray, the civil rights lawyer who represented her back in 1956.

For a woman silenced so many decades ago, it is fitting to let her tell her own story now. She does so in the following excerpts from her affidavit, beginning with the day she got out of school early and walked downtown to catch a bus home.

“When the bus arrived, I paid my fare and I sat near the front of the colored section. I did not violate the segregation law.”

“But a young White woman got on the bus and there were no seats left in the section designated for White people. The driver told my friends and I that we would all have to clear out of our row so the White woman could sit. All four of us were going to have to stand up so she would have the whole row to herself. …”

“My three seatmates got up, but I felt glued to the seat. People think it was just about a seat on a bus but it was about so much more than that. It was about my constitutional rights. It was about history. It was about injustices that I personally witnessed every day.”

Colvin explains that she feared for her life.

“I was dragged off the bus, handcuffed and taken to the jail. I remember the sound of the key turning in the lock. I remember there was no mattress on the cot, but I curled up and tried to sleep. …”

“I sat in jail and thought about heaven and hell. …”

“Eventually, I was sentenced to probation pending good behavior. I cried when that happened.”

Colvin did behave well and tried to move on, earning a GED. Life in Alabama was hard, though, because Black and White residents shunned her as a troublemaker.

“I was afraid to work as a domestic servant because you never knew who might be in the Klan. … So I worked at restaurants. And over and over again, I was fired from those jobs after my bosses found out that I was ‘that girl’ who had sat on the bus.”

Around age 20, Colvin was a single mother with two sons. She says she left Montgomery because she couldn’t find a job.

“I moved to the Bronx and found a community of Jamaican women. We worked as domestics, but we unionized with 1199. I’m proud of that.”

Summers, she returned to Alabama to visit family.

“I know they were terrified every time I came home because I was on probation from the court. … Every time [they] saw a police car in the neighborhood, they thought the police were there to get me.”

Colvin lived in New York for decades.

“Things were better and safer for me there. People did not know me for what I did. …”

“I am an old woman now. Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children.”

Clearing Colvin’s record — in a moment when so many people are trying to expunge the teaching of America’s troubling racial history — will also mean something significant for the city of Montgomery, the state of Alabama and the entire United States of America.

Opinion by Michele Norris  is a columnist and consultant for Post Opinions and founding director of The Race Card Project.  

Nation’s youths swamped with severe mental health crises, a group of experts says

October 26, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By Erin Blakemore October 23, 2021 at 7:30 a.m. EDT

Overdoses and emotional difficulties. Crushing loneliness and stress. Grief and depression. The pandemic has accelerated mental health crises among children.

The problem has ballooned to emergency proportions because of a shortage of child psychiatrists, a growing wave of suicidality and the ongoing stress over covid-19, a group of experts say. U.S. coronavirus cases tracker and map

In a declaration of a national state of emergency in child mental health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association point to a litany of challenges faced by children in the United States.

Emergency department visits for mental health have increased dramatically, they say, and children and families face “enormous adversity and disruption.”

And this month, UNICEF issued a report estimating that 13 percent of adolescents ages 10 to 19 live with a diagnosed mental disorder. The agency called for commitment and action from governments and societies around the world to protect child mental health.

The American groups provided a similar message, calling for more federal funding for children with mental health challenges, better school-based mental health care, and community-based support for kids and parents.

They point to structural racism as a particular challenge to youth mental health.

In 2020, mental health crises were particularly acute. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, they increased 24 percent for 5- to 11-year-olds and 31 percent for 12- to 17-year-olds. Suspected suicide attempts increased as much as 50 percent for teenage girls during February and March of this year compared to the same period in 2019. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States, and it has been rising for the past decade.

“We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality that will have lasting impacts on them, their families, and their communities,” the groups wrote. “We must identify strategies to meet these challenges.”

If you are in crisis, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours and seven days a week.

Jump Start Storytelling

October 26, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Story Circles | Roadside Theater, Art in a Democracy

Seth is a motivational speaker and keynote speaker. He uses storytelling and communication exercises to help build strong business communities and ignite positive organizational change.

Article reprinted as published in the Spring 2006 Journal for Quality & Participation.

In 1996, five people in a large, multinational organization of 15,000 had a radical idea for refocusing the core business. As a first step they brought together the 60 people they considered critical to their mission’s success. The goal of the event: The group of five would become the de facto owners of the change initiative, garnering the support of everyone in attendance. The biggest obstacle: Many of the 60 had competing, even hostile, agendas—securing their unified support was daunting. After everyone had filed in, the emotional tension in the room was palpable.

Just after stating the topic at hand, each person was asked to tell the story of how he/she came to be in the room. Any kind of story would do, as long as it was true. People could play it safe and describe how they got up that morning and made it from their house to the Metro to work, or they could put some of their cards on the table, drawing the connection between their careers and the meeting’s importance.

Within minutes there was a dramatic change in the atmosphere of the room. It became rambunctious and fun-filled as people took successive trips down memory lane. Others chimed in to add their two cents. By the time the exercise was over, just 30 minutes later, the tone of the room was transformed, from tension, quiet, and unease to enthusiasm, laughter, and collaboration. The hard work was done.

Next, each person was asked to describe his/her ideal future for the organization. The details of these future-stories were captured on flipcharts. At the meeting’s conclusion, the group of five had established itself as the shepherds of the fledgling initiative.

Storytelling launched that meeting and continued to play a fundamental role in the change initiative. The effort made rapid progress in the next two years— from an unfunded idea to a worldwide program with $60 million in annual allocation. The program manager of the small group was so enamored with the capacity for story to spark change that he wrote a book about it. I was a member of that team of five that used storytelling to work its magic. Engendering collaboration throughout the organization continued to play a pivotal role for the success of our initiative. Storytelling was used again and again— across disciplines, across organizational boundaries, and among people from many different cultures.

This global change initiative was the first of three where I applied my storytelling skills to generate high performance collaboration among professionals at the World Bank. In subsequent years I have used these techniques while working with organizations that include the Peace Corps, National Institute on Aging, the Fulbright Association, Center for Association Leadership, and many others. I have fine-tuned the technique with the help of facilitators around the world who have put it to use. I call it JumpStart Storytelling.

Imagine a two-day think tank of business professionals coming together to address critical issues. The first session is the toughest because everyone brings their competing views to the table and kicks off the event with a prove-it-to-me attitude that says, “Show me what you can do for me.” That’s the kind of event that I have been asked to lead over and over again. Each time I have seen Jumpstart Storytelling propel the retreat into a high-performance collaboration event, drawing everyone together and highlighting the diversity of perspectives without pushing for consensus.

This process lifts the collective spirit and maximizes the impact of people’s time together. It quickly engages participants in the business at hand and accelerates productive work. Although designed for groups of 10-100, it has been customized for as few as three and as many as 2,500. It takes 45-60 minutes regardless of the number of people, creating an esprit de corps that sets the stage for high-performance collaboration.

JumpStart Storytelling is based on my work at the World Bank where it was field tested on multicultural gatherings more than 100 times. It also draws on techniques I learned while studying under a fellowship at the Center for Narrative Studies, and working as a “visionary” for the Center for Association Leadership to increase the effectiveness of professional meetings and conventions.

The purposes of JumpStart Storytelling are as follows:

  • Efficiently engage every participant in the business objectives.
  • Accelerate collaboration without compromising diverse perspectives.
  • Effectively introduce each person to 10-15 other participants.
  • Improve learning through high quality idea exchange.

Here’s how to run a session of JumpStart Storytelling:

1.) Place people in groups of six to eight participants and ask them to think of a story drawn from their own experience that has to do with the primary business objectives of the meeting. For example, at a recent meeting of CEOs facing the prospects of competing with China, I asked them to tell a story about a time in their lives when they faced a daunting challenge that changed the way they see the world. Participants tell their stories to the other members at the table—in just 90 seconds. They only have time to relay the essence of their experience. I encourage them to give enough background to explain why the challenge was daunting, how they met it, and how their worldview changed. In other words, without saying as much, I encourage them to tell the arc of their personal story.

Keep time, letting them know when each person has 30 seconds left, and then call for the next person after 90 seconds. “However,” I tell the participants, “while it may be my job to get the whole room through the process in nine minutes (for tables of six), it’s not your job. So, if your story is a little long, go with it. If your story is over in less time, move on to the next person.” I encourage each group to selfmanage its time so the participants get the spirit that they are in charge of their experience. This is an important element, setting the stage for the ownership that effective collaboration requires.

When the first round of stories is done, ask the participants to look around the table, bring to mind the story that most impacted them, and remember the teller.

2.) Then, get everyone up out of his/her chair and find a new table with mostly new faces; it’s time for the second round. People are to tell the same story they told in the first round. In U.S. audiences I typically hear groans at this point because we seem to be uncomfortable with repeating ourselves. I make light of the situation, explaining that in other cultures people enjoy telling their stories over and over; it’s a way of life. I ask people to notice what changes and what stays the same when they tell their stories a second time and to notice how interesting it is that the words may be different, but the story is the same. I use the same process as in the first round, moving people through their stories in 90-second intervals.

3.) Now the real fun begins. Ask everyone in the room to recall the story that most impacted them—either because they found it moving or because the information it contained was so relevant to today’s gathering. Then, the participants are to get out of their seats and find the person who told that story. When they find the storyteller, they are to put their hand on the person’s shoulder and keep it there. What happens next is remarkable—a live demonstration of social networking that I call “clusters and chains.”

The room appears to go into chaos as people search for others and move around the room with trailing chains and clusters of people attached to them. In short order, no matter what the number of participants, this process sorts itself out. The room is literally a configuration of clusters and chains, with those tellers who made the most impact having the most hands on their shoulders.

4.) I ask for those with the most hands on their shoulders to come to the front of the room and tell their stories to the plenary group. The participants, not the conveners or the facilitator, selected these stories. So, the information embedded in these stories was prioritized as having the most impact by the participants. We spend some time together unpacking these stories and discovering why they were chosen.

The magic of JumpStart Storytelling occurs when participants tell and listen to each other’s stories, engaging the hearts and minds of their colleagues. It is a great way to begin a business gathering, involving everyone in the room. Ideas cross-pollinate, and rapport increases. The entire meeting comes to life in a way that naturally and predictably focuses the audience’s collective enthusiasm on the business at hand through the participants’ personal stories.

Storytelling is part of human experience. When people share their stories, listeners naturally focus their attention, engaging in the teller’s experience. The deliberate and effective use of storytelling establishes links between participants and sets the stage for high performance.

To create an atmosphere of collaboration, it is necessary to shift away from a “broadcast” mode in which one person speaks while everyone else listens. By activating a “beehive” in which everyone is sharing, the conversation moves off the podium and out onto the floor. This form of storytelling has the effect of filling the room with relevant activity and enthusiasm.

Social networking is one of the primary reasons people attend professional gatherings. Many transactions take place in the hallways; valuable news is exchanged, services and jobs are brokered, new members are integrated within existing communities or not. The capacity for each person to build and develop relationships during the meeting increases as they are informally introduced to others and invited to share their stories in the context of business. This sharing is personal and face-to-face, providing a rich interaction, which significantly increases the capacity of the group for social networking.

High quality collaboration relies on multiple, conflicting points of view coming together in a collective intelligence that honors the contribution of each perspective. Building community is often mistakenly thought of as creating an environment where everybody likes each other. People perform effectively without mutual admiration. Yet, it is critical to establish an atmosphere of collective aspiration built upon respect and the capacity for each person to contribute to the group’s objectives. Storytelling brings together differing points of view in the spirit of collaboration.

JUMPSTART STORYTELLINGTM TEMPLATE

Introduction 5 minutes

1st Story Table: 10 – 20 minutes

  1. Each person notes their aspirations for the event — Facilitator provides example.
  2. Each person recalls experience that anchors their aspiration — Facilitator provides example.
  3. Small groups – Each person shares story in 90-120 seconds.

2nd Story Table: 5 – 15 minutes

  1. New small groups are formed – all new faces.
  2. Storytelling repeated. Same story, different listeners

Clusters & Chains: 5 minutes

  1. Each person recalls the story that most captured their attention.
  2. Everyone stands up, finds the teller, and puts their hand on his or her shoulder.
  3. Those with most hands on their shoulders (i.e., the most people have selected them) are asked to share their stories with the plenary – they are the group storytellers.

Plenary Storytelling: 10 minutes

  1. The group storytellers tell their stories. Each story is followed by 20 seconds of silence, rather than applause. Audience encouraged to quietly notice how the story engages them.
  2. Each story is given a name that conveys some aspect of its essence, and the names are written and posted where everyone can see them.

Concluding Remarks 5 minutes

References

  • Steve Denning, The Springboard: How Storytelling Sparks Change in Knowledge-Era Organizations, Butterworth Heinemann, 2000.
  • The Center for Narrative Studies, run by Paul Costello, is a research and training institution recognized for its innovative peace and reconciliation effort, “The Washington-Ireland Program,” www.StoryWise.com
  • Building Beehives: A Handbook for Creating Communities that Generate Returns, Seth Kahan, 2004 available in the store.

3 Practical Secrets Of Innovative Leaders

October 26, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Innovation doesn’t require genius, luck, or magic–but it does require talking to the right people, being able to clearly articulate a vision, and putting the right partnerships in place.

I first read Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, in the mid 1990s. At the time I was working on the fledgling team behind a new initiative at the World Bank called “knowledge management,” which would later help earn the organization recognition as one of the World’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises.

I had never heard of Senge and was impressed by his approach. I shared the book with my boss, who said to me, “Why read when we can talk to the author?” Within a couple of weeks we were in sitting in Senge’s office in Cambridge discussing our organization’s plans in detail. This is the first secret of great innovation leaders: Talk to the right people. In addition, to get innovation right, leaders must clearly articulate the way forward and build informal partnerships that generate synergy.

Secret #1. Talk to the Right People
Your most important asset is your mind. Your experience, expertise, and know-how governs your understanding of what is possible, the options you see, the strategy you formulate, and your assessments of the environment around you. To expand your vision, meet with other minds! Make it a habit to identify and visit the people who will provide you with fresh ideas, key learning, new tactics, and strong strategies.

My World Bank group’s ability to quickly meet and learn from Senge greatly accelerated our success. We experienced significant gains in the year ahead and received international recognition for our program. Part of our triumph was due to finding and meeting with the people who could draw us into substantive conversations that expanded our thinking, provided valuable insights, and uncovered solutions to problems we were facing.

Secret #2. Articulate the Way Forward
People rely on their leaders to craft a vision of the future that makes sense and can guide their everyday decisions. Most of the leaders I have met improvise this activity and many do it badly. And yet articulating a rousing vision of the future isn’t difficult. It can be your secret super-power, if you just master three tactics:

  • Be explicit about your conclusions and how you came to them. Speak in terms people can understand and relate to. Do more than share judgment–provide insight to your reasoning.
  • Give people the opportunity to ask questions. Encourage diverse points of view and different backgrounds. Let people react, inquire, challenge, and extract the information they need to satisfy their understanding. Then you will be in the best position to move forward together.
  • Customize your message to your audience. Include something useful in their day-to-day work–utility helps information stick.

Communication is a crucial step toward coherent action. By clearly and repeatedly taking the time to spell out what you are trying to do you will build a base of informed actors to help you innovate.

Secret #3. Build Informal Partnerships that Generate Synergy
Leadership today is largely about identifying the partnerships that will lead to broad, powerful impact and growth. Let me be clear–I’m talking about supportive and symbiotic relationships here, not contractual business partnerships. There is a tremendous amount that can be done on the basis of mutual interest alone.

Too many leaders shy away from informal partnerships, fearing the vulnerability that comes with relationships. If you overcome that fear, you get the benefits. Here are tips to help you master the third secret of innovation leaders:

  • Be clear about what you hope to get out of the partnership. Take the time to articulate the value to both parties that makes it worth pursuing.
  • Share the goals of the partnership with others who have a stake in its success. Initiate informal conversations, over the phone, via email, or over coffee, with the clients, vendors, industry experts, investors, and others who can share their perspectives how to get the most out of your partnership. Then share what you learn with your partners.
  • Take the lead in coordinating partnership activities. Be the one who identifies and handles important issues as they arise. Take responsibility for planning and facilitating joint events. Foster joint development. Provide regular assessment of the partnership that prove its value.

Make it your job to keep everyone happy with the results of your informal partnerships. You’ll reap the rewards together.

Math: 1+1+1 = A Lot
These three tasks required of innovative leaders–talking to the right people, articulating the way forward, and building informal partnerships–work together. The interaction of these contributions produces a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual components. Together they ensure your leadership is well informed, a source of unambiguous guidance, and reinforced by powerful allies.

That’s a healthy platform for continuous innovation.

–Seth Kahan is a change specialist who has consulted with CEOs and senior managers at over 60 organizations including World Bank, Shell, Peace Corps, and 30+ associations. This is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Getting Innovation Right: How Leaders Create Inflection Points that Drive Success in the Marketplace, to be published by Jossey-Bass in early 2013.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I help leaders with change, innovation, and growth. My latest book is “Getting Innovation Right.” My first book, “Getting Change Right,” was a business bestseller. home office: (301) 229-2221, USA – email: Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com 

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Seven Uncommon Facts About Money They Don’t Teach You at a 9-5 Job

October 25, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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That can help you work less once you understand them.

Tim DenningFollowSep 28 · 6 min read

Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash

Money is the most misunderstood subject on Earth.

We’re misled by money because it’s hard to understand (by design). There’s a reason the finance industry exists. It’s to unpack the complexity of money for you for a nice fee.

I like to challenge my thoughts about money. It helps me get to the next level of my life. The problem is my 9-5 job didn’t teach me the hard truth about money. Only from the outside looking in does it all make sense now.

Don’t be misguided the way I’ve been. Here are the brutal facts on money.

Investing money is what sets you free. The rest is a mind virus.

Don’t save money by investing time, save time by investing money — Wisdom Theory

If there’s a great secret about money it’s investing. You should be obsessed with investing. You should take a course on it. You should understand every type of asset and why you need each one.

With the costs of everything rising at a record rate, the only way to stay ahead is to invest money that grows faster than the number of US dollars created out of thin air and the rate of inflation. Inflation is hard to calculate. When you play with the calculation, you quickly realize it’s either invest in assets or be torn apart financially by a legacy financial system that is currently being rebuilt.

My investing philosophy: Earn once, get paid twice.

Make money from the price of assets going up. Make money from any interest or financial return some assets offer. Combine the earnings with your regular income, and you’ve got a simple formula for basic, non-Lambo, freedom.

“The world rewards you for value provided, not time spent.”

Author James Clear said this. Time is how the factory worker age measured success. It’s not like that anymore.

If you’ve ever wondered how some Twitter gurus work 4 hours a day and make 6-figures, it’s because they’ve worked out how to create value. Once your own source of value is unlocked, you can use leverage to increase the returns without dumping more time into it.

For example, my online school has done well this year. I have a company running Facebook Ads to show the same product to more people. No more time from my side is required.

Build once + Use leverage to amplify + Add in other people = More money

Some people wait for a raise. Others give themselves one.

My favorite part of having a business: The ability to give myself a raise instead of waiting for someone else to do it. — Josh George

A job takes forever to get a pay rise. Data shows pay rises hardly happen. The reason is it’s not a management priority to pay you more money for the same work. So what do you do?

Not all of you want to be entrepreneurs. I get it. That’s why I love side hustles. A side hustle means you can give yourself a pay rise. You can simply put in more effort. But my favorite technique is to use creativity to boost my earnings.

You control your income based on your willingness or unwillingness to join the side hustle economy. There’s no limiter on magic internet money.

Meaning drives you further than $100 bills

Stop treating your purpose like a side hustle — M.IAMÖUR

A lot of people in their jobs work their faces off. The trouble is they don’t know why. They’re so removed from the problem their employer solves that it feels like stacking boxes one on top of another for a lifetime.

What’s in the boxes? Who do the boxes help? What if the boxes were full of food for homeless people?

I recently found a neat way to add more meaning. I sold a course. A few people contacted me and said they were unable to afford it. That got me thinking. I could let them go because they came from a third-world country.

I lose. They lose. Or I could just give them the thing they can never afford and receive payment through their gratitude and appreciation. The payment would be a sense that my life lessons actually have meaning.

Get paid from opportunities to extract meaning, especially when money isn’t an option for payment.

Time is tragically not replenishable

Money can be made back. Time is lost forever. Invest your time wisely. — Jose Rosado

People live like they’ve got all the time in the world. They get hung up on silly little debates on Twitter. The time you waste on BS can’t be recouped. You can’t ask the universe for a refund on all the time you pissed up against the wall.

Track where your time goes. Take note of the time you spend doing things you’d rather murder with a samurai sword. Time is wealth, not money.

Money will never be the same

If your idea of money is what it was yesterday, you will lose it to the people who know what money will be tomorrow

— Naval Ravikant

The idea of money is changing. A system of money that can be infinitely manipulated isn’t sustainable. Technology brought transparency. The current cash-in-your-pocket system has little transparency.

Some resist the advances of new forms of internet money like ethereum and bitcoin. This is foolish. Every country will one day have a digital currency. China did it. USA is going to do it. El Salvador really did it with bitcoin.

Old forms of wealth storage like bonds and gold are failing their base use case. The return on a bond is painfully low. Gold has been down 5% over the last 10 years. If you stay stuck in the financial past, you’ll miss the booming 2020s built on Web 3.0. You don’t have to agree, yet.

It’s enough to do the research and stay dialed in to what is happening. When the maturity of Web 3.0 is reached, maybe then it becomes a class of asset you want to be a part of. But don’t put your head in the sand and think the last thing to be disrupted by the internet — money — won’t happen. It will. Nobody knows how, yet. Although bitcoin and ethereum will definitely be part of the new financial system.

Ignorance equals poverty.

Retirement catfishes you

Imagine enduring a grueling 30-year career (counting the days until retirement), only to find retirement even more boring than your career.

We like to think this is the low-risk path, but that sounds pretty risky to me. You won’t get a 2nd chance. — Daniel Vassallo

A 9-5 job teaches you to cherish the fantasy of a future retirement. The real risk is to wait and see what retirement is like. Sabbaticals, months off, buying extra vacation time — these are all ways to play with the idea of retirement now. I don’t ever want to retire, though.

Tony Robbins says “to retire is to die.” I agree. I want to work for the rest of my life. The difference is I want to do work that has meaning. I want to forget about the dollar value so I can focus on the enjoyment value. This isn’t taught in jobs.

Jobs teach you that today is about what it will give you tomorrow.

Sounds nice. But what if there are no tomorrows left one day? Look at all the health scare stories on LinkedIn. Cancer can end your pretty retirement delusion faster than you can say “hold o-n-n-n, just one more day!”

Don’t be a delusional psychopath. Don’t wait for retirement.

Final Thought

Some of these money concepts are counterintuitive. It’s easy to dismiss them and say “but my life isn’t fair.” No life is far. Fairness is an idea that either holds you back or gives you the best form of motivation there is.

Take these facts about money and make your life fair. You now have an unfair information advantage to build off. No 9-5 job will tell you that.

This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.

Montgomery Co. school board seeks public input for new superintendent search

October 25, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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MCPS Invites Public to Share Input for Superintendent Search | Montgomery Community Media

Alejandro Alvarez | aalvarez@wtop.com

October 21, 2021, 8:51 AM

Montgomery County, Maryland’s largest and the nation’s 14th largest school system, is conducting a national search for a new superintendent and wants input on what characteristics, leadership qualities and priorities county residents want in that next school leader.

The Montgomery County Board of Education has scheduled virtual forums it says are designed to gather comment on educational goals and priorities for the next superintendent.

The board also plans interviews and focus groups with community leaders over the coming months. More information will be posted online as it becomes available.

The superintendent oversees the administration of the school district that has 166,000 students, more than 24,000 employees and a budget of $12.6 billion.

A slate of applicants will be presented to the school board for consideration in January.

According to the position’s job listing, the candidate will assume the role next July, succeeding Monifa McKnight who was appointed interim superintendent earlier this year after Jack R. Smith announced his resignation in January.

County residents are invited to these virtual public forums, and to voice their opinions online in a survey.

Interpretation will be available for all events in Spanish and American Sign Language; see the MCPS website for other languages.

Montgomery County’s vaccination rate is high enough for the county to fully reopen

October 25, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Opinion by Margery Smelkinson, Jennifer Reesman and Bethany Mandel October 22, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. EDT

Margery Smelkinson is an infectious-disease scientist whose research has focused on many pathogens, including influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Jennifer Reesman is a licensed psychologist in Maryland. Bethany Mandel is a writer. They are the founders of Revive Moco.

The vaccination numbers out of Montgomery County are so incredible, they sound as if they’re election results from an authoritarian regime. But according to the county itself, they’re real, with 99.9 percent of eligible Montgomery County residents having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 90 percent considered “fully vaccinated” with two doses. Our hospitalization numbers reflect this near-universal vaccination, with only 22 new coronavirus-related admissions in the past seven days (as of Oct. 18), a 42 percent decrease from the prior week, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It quite literally does not get much better than Montgomery County when it comes to coronavirus vaccines and hospitalizations.

Despite these enviable numbers, however, it still feels like the spring of 2020.

Education continues to be disrupted. The county’s public schools and preschools continue to quarantine entire classes and even whole grades for 10 days in response to a single student or staff member testing positive, despite data from around the world showing these isolated kids rarely go on to test positive. Even in Montgomery County Public Schools’ mostly unvaccinated student population, surveillance testing has revealed infinitesimally low positivity with just 18 positive cases from 28,290 tests administered as of Oct. 8. Though these test results look good, the same cannot be said for the county’s academics. As Montgomery’s was one of the last school systems to reopen last year, it is perhaps unsurprising that math and literacy rates of young learners plummeted by 20 percent and 35 percent, respectively, with children of color and disadvantaged students faring even worse.Each stolen school day for the thousands of children pointlessly placed into quarantine is a lost opportunity to undo this damage. Indeed, studies have shown that even missing just a few days of school, for example because of snow closures, has significant negative impacts on student performance.

Large outdoor gatherings in the county, such as Gaithersburg’s Oktoberfest, Rockville’s classic car show, July Fourth fireworks and Festival of Lights continue to be canceled over “public health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Meanwhile, the rest of the country is safely gathering outdoors, even at large festivals and sporting events. The University of Florida recently reported, “Despite concern about packed college football stadiums during the pandemic, college towns like Gainesville aren’t seeing upticks in COVID-19 cases, said University of Florida epidemiologist Cindy Prins, Ph.D., who tracks coronavirus trends nationwide.”

Though Montgomery libraries finally reopened after one of the longest closures in the country, they’re still offering limited services. A county library official told us this week that story times and other indoor programs would not resume until vaccines are approved and available for children. Meanwhile, teen programming remains virtual, despite almost every single teen in the county having at least one vaccine dose.

Many in Montgomery County boast that our mitigation efforts, particularly our strong adherence to masking, are the reason we’re doing so well. However, an analysis of mask mandates in California suggests that it is vaccination rates, rather than masking, that dictate infection rates. The SF Gate reports, “Orange County — a non-mask-mandate county — had a very similar outcome to neighboring Los Angeles County, the first California county to bring back indoor masking in response to delta.” Importantly, these two counties had comparable vaccination rates and, in fact, there was a near-perfect correlation between vaccination and hospitalizations of all counties analyzed. Montgomery County is among the nation’s most highly vaccinated counties. It is this, not the masking of 2-year-olds in supermarkets, that is keeping our community safe.

Elsewhere in the state, life is much closer to what we enjoyed pre-pandemic. Several surrounding counties long ago dropped the indoor mask requirement. Carroll and Frederick counties significantly relaxed school quarantine protocols, and libraries all over Maryland have welcomed guests back to bookshelves and story times. Despite these eased measures, cases and hospitalizations have continued to drop throughout the state.

Montgomery County is clearly waiting on something to resume normality. What? What benchmarks must we meet to consider an off-ramp from these coronavirus “emergency” powers? To say the county leadership has been evasive is an understatement; it is next to impossible to get answers from our elected representatives about the mitigation efforts we’ve all been subjected to over the past year and a half.

With regard to indoor masking, we at least have answers about what’s holding us back. On Aug. 7, the indoor mask requirement was reinstated following the CDC’s classification of Montgomery County as a region with “Substantial Transmission,” defined as 50 to 99 cases per 100,000 people in a seven-day period. However, in an area where almost every single eligible resident is vaccinated and the severity of a “breakthrough” infection carries a risk of 0.01 percent for hospitalization and 0.003 percent for death (likely substantially lower for those under 65), we should not continue counting cases, but instead rely on our number of vaccinations, hospitalizations or intensive care unit utilization when deciding on mitigation efforts. And more frustrating, even when the county mask mandate ends, there is still no off-ramp for unmasking children in school.

The voters are taking notice of county leaders mired in stale practices and clinging to the wrong metrics. If they do not change their ways soon, voters will remember on Election Day those who ignored science and needlessly kept their schools and libraries shut, who strangled their restaurants and other venues with ineffective policies, and allowed fear to cancel safe and popular public events. We will hold accountable those who hold us back.

Montgomery County draws up new district map that reflects surge in racial diversity

October 22, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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The draft map, which needs to be approved by the county council, includes a district with a Black plurality and another with a Hispanic plurality.

By Rebecca TanYesterday at 6:13 p.m. EDT

Montgomery County has sketched out a new council district map that reflects the suburb’s surge in Black, Latino and Asian residents over the past decade, and attempts to boost representation for communities in the northern, more rural parts of the county. As decided by a 2020 ballot measure, the map adds two districts to the existing five, creating seven district seats on the County Council on top of the four at-large positions.

The county’s redistricting commission voted 6 to 5 Wednesday evening to submit to the County Council one of three draft maps, which was designed by commissioners David Stein, Keshia Desir and former council member Valerie Ervin (D). The council will hold public hearings before a final approval.

Of the seven districts in the draft map, six have voting-age populations that are majority people of color, a reflection of the dramatic demographic changes recorded in Montgomery’s most recent census results. Since 2011, the last time district lines were redrawn, Montgomery has added about 90,000 new residents, many of them immigrants.

Study: Montgomery County has grown older, more diverse and pricier

One district, in the eastern part of Montgomery bordering Prince George’s County, has a Black plurality; and another, containing parts of Wheaton and Aspen Hill, has a Hispanic plurality. Potomac, Bethesda and Chevy Chase compose one district — the only one with a White majority — and the municipalities of Gaithersburg and Rockville form another. Takoma Park and Silver Spring are carved out of the existing District 5 and grouped with North Bethesda, and the remaining two districts divide the northern parts of the county along the border between Clarksburg and Damascus. The current District 1, which stretches from Poolesville to Bethesda, is split apart.

“This map tells the story of Montgomery County,” said Ervin, who represented District 5 from 2006 to 2014. “Hopefully, an outgrowth of this map is that we’ll see more people running for council seats who we haven’t seen before. … More Latino candidates, more Asian candidates, more Black candidates — that would be the best outcome of all.”

In recent meetings, commissioners debated how to divide districts between the northern, more rural “upcounty” and the southern, more urban “downcounty.”

Commissioners Jason Makstein and Nilmini Rubin voted Wednesday against approving the draft, saying that the way it had been drawn diluted the voices of upcounty residents, who were among the most vocal advocates for additional council seats last year. Clarksburg is split into different districts, as is Travilah, Makstein noted. Rubin said the new map might allow an overrepresentation of the downcounty, noting that all of the council’s at-large members live close to the border with D.C.

Other commissioners, however, said that was irrelevant. People from across the county can run for at-large positions, Ervin noted. Germantown in the north is the most populous census-designated place in Montgomery, and could theoretically elect its own at-large member. But voter turnout in Germantown has traditionally lagged behind other neighborhoods.

Women dominate early field of new candidates for Montgomery County Council

“We are not designing districts based on voter turnout,” commission chair Mariana Cordier said in an interview before the vote. Each of the seven proposed districts have about the same population — 150,000 — and while upcounty has grown more populous over the past decade, so has downcounty, she added.

Marilyn Balcombe, a Germantown resident running in the June 2022 Democratic primary for a district seat, said she understands the frustrations of voters in her area but believes the solution lies more in boosting voter turnout than in redistricting. While at-large council members are meant to represent the entire county, they lack natural familiarity with the experiences of upcounty residents if they live in Takoma Park or Silver Spring, said Balcombe.

“Our needs are different,” she said, citing the example of public transit. “There are a lot of people in the county who would advocate ‘no more roads’ but that just doesn’t work in the upcounty … We don’t live in the street grid, we live in a cul-de-sac.”

Advocates from the county’s predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods celebrated the draft map, which they say will help provide overdue representation to communities that have been disproportionately affected by poverty, joblessness and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s been over 40 years of nondevelopment in east county,” said Daniel Koroma, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone and civic activist in White Oak. “Having a champion, a dedicated council member for a Black-majority district — it’ll make a huge difference.”

Ervin, the first Black woman to serve on the council, said east county has been the historical home in Montgomery for many Black families who weren’t able to buy homes in other parts of the county because of redlining and other discriminatory practices. “This map will give them the opportunity to elect someone who represents them and their community,” she said. “Our district map has not done that before.”

As of Thursday, 12 candidates had officially filed to run in the Democratic primary for County Council, which in deep-blue Montgomery often determines the eventual winner. Once finalized, the new district map is likely to influence where candidates choose to run.

Council members Andrew Friedson (D-District 1) and Sidney Katz (D-District 3) are running for reelection, while council members Nancy Navarro (D-District 4) and Craig Rice (D-District 2) are term-limited, leaving at least four districts without an incumbent candidate. Council President Tom Hucker (D-District 5) is not term-limited but has said he is weighing a bid for county executive.

Montgomery County Declares November Remembrance and Reconciliation Month

October 22, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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For Immediate Release: Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 Montgomery County Declares November Remembrance and Reconciliation Month

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the Montgomery County Remembrance and Reconciliation Commission is calling for this November to be a month of Remembrance and Reconciliation in the County. Engaging in this time of reflection will help County residents grow their understanding of the full history of Montgomery County and how we can move forward from it.

The Commission was established in 2019 to help bring the County together to promote a better understanding of our history. This includes recognition of three men who were the victims of racial terror lynchings in Montgomery County in the late 1800s: Mr. John Diggs-Dorsey, Mr. Sidney Randolph, and Mr. George Peck.

Throughout the month of November, the Commission will partner with organizations, like the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project, to host events for the community. Scheduled events will include a public arts demonstration, a museum exhibit, a high school student essay contest, a virtual address by Congressman Jamie Raskin and documentary film screening. More information on those events is available here.

Residents are invited to participate in the events the Commission and its partners are planning for November. The Commission is also encouraging Montgomery County agencies and residents to participate in Remembrance and Reconciliation month by hosting their own events, activities, conversations, and discussions to continue to move us forward as a community. If you or your organization are interested in having the Commission display information on your free, open to the public, event, then please fill out the form here.  

The Commission acknowledges the path to reconciliation is long and winding, but we are on it and must remain on it every day. That takes intention, purpose, and action. Therefore, citizens of Montgomery County are asked to pause during the month of November, as we gather as families and communities to break bread and express gratitude, to remember the past and dedicate ourselves anew to the work of justice and reconciliation through action. 

National Service Heroes Win Excellence in AmeriCorps Awards for Inspiring Acts of Service During the Pandemic

October 21, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sep 24, 2021

JustServe AmeriCorps recruiting for a year of service and a lifetime of change

Alumni and grantees from California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Tennessee, and Wisconsin were selected for providing outstanding service during the COVID-19 pandemic

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, AmeriCorps, the federal agency for volunteering and service, awarded the annual Excellence in AmeriCorps awards to five alumni, grantees, and advocates, for their outstanding service within AmeriCorps State and National programs. From California to Puerto Rico, and from COVID-19 response to mental health awareness, this year’s award recipients go above and beyond every day to make our country safer, smarter, and healthier.

Now in its seventh year, the Excellence in AmeriCorps Awards were created to recognize the outstanding and innovative AmeriCorps programs, members, and alumni tackling our nation’s most-pressing challenges. The 2021 Excellence in AmeriCorps award winners represent important examples of national service, responding to adversity with resourcefulness, creativity, and community-mindedness.

“Hailing from across the country, AmeriCorps members are strengthening their communities through their dedication and service,” said Sonali Nijhawan, AmeriCorps State and National Director. “This year’s Excellence in AmeriCorps awardees are an example of the tenacity and compassion of our country’s best. We’re proud to honor their impact and highlight their service during the pandemic.”

The 2021 Excellence in AmeriCorps award winners are listed below:

  • Jaret Reyes, Reinvent Schools Las Vegas AmeriCorps, Nevada – Impactful Service AwardJaret is a community navigator and provided assistance to multiple community members on a daily basis. His service helped students connect with their teachers through distance learning, families keep their homes, and parents keep food on the table for their children through the pandemic. Jaret worked directly with at-risk students, inspiring them to stay engaged with their schoolwork virtually and in-person.
  • Darian Boyd, Impact America, Tennessee – Influential Service AwardOver the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Darian completed three separate AmeriCorps service terms. Darian stepped up as Team Lead for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance service and implemented new virtual and drop-off models that were utilized to prepare over 800 tax returns in the Memphis area. Darien stayed after his term concluded to see the job through and ensure that families had access to their tax refunds throughout the summer, exemplifying his unwavering commitment to service.
  • Victoria Ramierez-Gomez, California AmeriCorps Disaster Team – Inclusive Service AwardVictoria helped plan and coordinate the production of Be Red Cross Ready training and presented Homes Made Safer education to Alma Family Services, the lead agency for a collaborative Gang Reduction Youth Development Program serving youth and families. In addition to her work on the ground, Victoria has reached out to local school districts and local organizations to provide virtual preparedness training and offer personal protective equipment. She also played a vital role in helping to rebuild a Preparedness Coalition for the city of Bell Gardens where the majority of residents are monolingual Spanish. She reached underserved and underrepresented communities far beyond Los Angeles County to build partnerships and provide housing resources for Latinos while also building a core of Spanish-speaking volunteers through volunteer recruitment and engagement.
  • Paloma Suarez, Social Capital, Inc., Massachusetts – Innovative Service AwardPaloma served at the South End Community Health Center, addressing food insecurity and other social determinants of health. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paloma established partnerships with local organizations to provide over 5,000 prepared meals, 3,000 culturally sensitive frozen meals, fresh produce, and supplies to pediatric patients. Paloma also played an important role in conducting 70% of the health center’s social determinants of health screenings. Paloma was onsite every day making sure that families had what they needed and through her contributions 706 adults, 183 youth, 494 children, 125 infants, and countless others were reached.
  • Jenise Terell, Public Allies, Wisconsin – Lifetime of Service AwardJenise served in AmeriCorps’ Public Allies for 25 years, serving most recently as vice president of programming. During her tenure, Public Allies has grown its alumni network to more than 8,000 individuals and engages with more than 750 Allies per year, while also partnering with over 450 nonprofit and governmental organizations across 24 communities nationwide. Additionally, Jenise has played a central role in developing several groundbreaking national programs, including a collaborative, multi-city venture with the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance that will build career and education pathways for men of color. Jenise is proud to be a native Milwaukeean, a Public Allies alumna, and a working mother of two children.

AmeriCorps State and National programs are implemented in partnership with State Service Commissions across the country. More than 1.2 million AmeriCorps members across all AmeriCorps programs have served the nation, giving more than 1.6 billion hours of service and earning nearly $4 billion in education awards since 1994. Every year, thousands of AmeriCorps members prepare students for success, rebuild communities and revitalize cities, support veterans, fight the opioid epidemic, respond to disasters, preserve public lands, strengthen education, foster economic opportunity, and more.