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Anyone Who Treats John McCain’s Wife with Disrespect Should be Rejected

According to CNN,  ’John McCain said last week that every candidate’s wife “should be treated with respect, and if there’s any disrespectful conduct on the part of anyone, those people should be rejected.”‘ (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/19/cindy.mccain/index.html ) 

I absolutely agree!

I find this especially ironic coming from a man who admits he left his first wife because he lost interest in her after she suffered a debilitating accident and was no longer the trophy model wife whose image had sustained him through his trials as a POW (see for example, http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/03/06/carol/index.html ).

McCain wants others to treat his (current) wife with respect, when he himself called her a “trollop” and another profoundly foul term within hearing of others, hardly respectful behavior.

Senator McCain has demonstrated profound lack of respect for other women as well. It is unthinkable that an adult man of power and influence would say what he said about Chelsea Clinton as a teenager - that she was “ugly because her father was Janet Reno.” And by the way, the joke is cruelly disrespectful toward Janet Reno as well, a tremendously accomplished woman.  Early in his campaign, when a McCain follower asked McCain how they were going to beat “the bitch,” referring to Chelsea’s mother, Senator Clinton, McCain had to turn away and stifle his laughter. A man of integrity would have found a way to rise above the vulgar sentiment and choose to treat his opponent with the respect that she deserves. McCain did not. 

In Senator Barack Obama, I have seen a man who consistently, daily demonstrates the respect he has for women by how he behaves toward his wife, his daughters, his mother, his grandmother. All of them have every reason to be proud of him.  Despite what must have been tremendously frustrating circumstances near the end of the Democratic race, Senator Obama demonstrated enormous grace; the respect that he demonstrated toward Senator Clinton  — “I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton”  — was literally breathtaking.

If I were John McCain’s first wife, or second wife, any of his daughters, or any female friend, relative or co-worker, I would be deeply hurt, ashamed, appalled and disgusted by his behavior.  As a woman and a citizen of the country he seeks to lead, I am appalled and disgusted at the profound lack of respect Senator McCain has repeatedly shown for women.  

I couldn’t agree more – anyone who demonstrates that little respect for Cindy McCain  – and so many other women – should be rejected!

2008 06 20 Barbara Respect
Accountability Comments (1) Permalink

I Was Wrong: At Large Candidate for Democratic National Convention

babs.jpgHi. I am Barbara Seiders, and I [was] seeking to be elected as an At Large Delegate from the state of Washington to the National Democratic Convention in Denver in August 2008.  

Four years ago, I voted for George Bush. I encouraged others to vote for Bush. I was not persuaded at the time that Senator Kerry had the necessary qualities of leadership that being President would demand. As for Bush, I knew personally senior people in his administration. I know them to be good people, with integrity, honesty, compassion and wisdom. I thought that they would play an important role in shaping the work of the President, helping him to lead the country in keeping with the highest principles that I value.  

I was wrong.  

In this election, I decided I would not arrive at Election Day without having done what I could to support candidates worthy to lead this great nation. For the first time ever, I became a PCO, attended my Precinct and Legislative caucuses, and attended local Democratic Party meetings. I have encouraged others to become involved, including my daughter. 

In this election, we have had the blessing of multiple candidates — Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, and of course, Barack Obama – worthy of our respect and admiration. More than at any other time in my life, I have supported these candidates financially, read their books, watched their debates, and joined their internet campaigns.  

In this election, I [was] seeking an At Large position for the National Democratic Convention because I have a debt to repay. I voted for George Bush. I am responsible in part for our troops being committed to Iraq in a war that was ill conceived, reckless, and an abuse of our position in the community of nations. I have a debt to repay - to Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Waters-Bey, the first US casualty in the war on Iraq; - to Pfc. Joshua Waltenbaugh, the most recent American casualty (as of June 3, 2008); and to all those in between.  

I will do whatever I can to help ensure that Barack Obama becomes the next President of the United States of America. We need Barack Obama as President to heal this country and to heal the damage that has been done to America throughout the world as a result of our country’s current leadership.

2008 06 13 Barbara Accountability
Leaders We Admire Comments (0) Permalink

The Dignity Pledge

I will not criticize others for holding views that are different from mine. It is our right to hold differing opinions from others, and our obligation as defenders of freedom to respect those differences.

I will not write, forward, or respond to emails, jokes, cartoons or blog entries that do not adhere to simple standards of human dignity, respect and honesty. I will not distribute hatefulness disguised as humor. If I would not be prepared to share a joke in a high school class lecture – or with the person featured in the joke — I will not circulate it in my personal email or under my signature.

I will hold others accountable for the views they express and the actions they take today. I am not the same person that I was 25 or 10 or four years ago; I have continued to grow, my opinions have evolved, my perspectives changed. I will give others credit for growth and change, and judge them by who they are today. The path we take to get here is not always straight and narrow, but can nonetheless help us to grow in wisdom today.
I will not judge others by the words and actions of the people with whom they associate or may have associated in the past. I would not want to be held accountable for the view of all of my friends and family, whose positions on a variety of issues important to our lives vary about as widely as humanly possible.
I will judge others by what I observe directly of their words and actions, to the extent possible seeking out good faith, impartial characterization of those words and actions to which I do not have direct personal access.  
I will allow people to be human; specifically, I will judge people by the degree they keep the principles they espouse in general, not by singular occasions in which those principles are breached. Particularly for those in public life, I would not want to face the glare of unremitting scrutiny which highlights and does not forgive the occasional human lapse from grace.
I will not complain about a problem without taking action to resolve the problem that concerns me, or proposing a course of action that I and others can take to make it better, or asking for help in identifying a solution to the problem that I am not able to address on my own. 

2008 05 29 Barbara Accountability
General Comments (4) Permalink

Recommended Reading

Abuse in the Workplace

Acknowledging Importance of Others

  • 1001 Ways to Reward Employees; Bob Nelson, New York: Workman Publishing (2005)
  • How Full is Your Bucket? Tom Rath and Donald Clifton, New York: Gallup Press (2004)
  • Vital Friends: The People You Can’t Afford to Live Without; Tom Rath, New York: Gallup Press (2006)

Customer Service

  • Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service; Chip Bell and Ron Zemke, AMACOM Division of the American Management Association (1992)

Leadership

Models of Leadership and Organizational Health

  • How Corporate Culture Impacts Unethical Distortion of Financial Numbers. Castellano, Joseph F., Ph.D., C. Kenneth Rosenzweig, CPA , Ph. D . , and C. Harper  A . Roehm, DBA, Management Accounting Quarterly, Summer 2004: p.5.

Strategic Importance of Teamwork

  • The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 2006; New York, New York, Morgan Road Books.
2007 10 24 Barbara Recommended Reading Comments (0) Permalink

Teamwork and a Tribute to Ambassador Ron Lehman

Ambassador Ron Lehman is a natural leader. He served as the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) under the original President George Bush in the time of the global instability that preceded the break-up of the former Soviet Union. The mission of the agency was to negotiate and implement arms control treaties to eliminate or reduce arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. All of the Assistant Directors at the Agency were Senate advice and consent political appointees, as were other key staff members, so there were certainly many opportunities for conflicts of strong personalities. But there were also breathtaking demonstrations of the power of teamwork. During the time that I worked at ACDA, I had arranged for a seminar for AAAS Congressional Fellows to learn about the work of ACDA.  The day-long seminar included presentations from each of the four Assistant Directors, as well as other key senior staff, such as the General Counsel.  Each Assistant Director began his or her presentation and very quickly got asked a question that made them pause, consider, and then proceed – to describe the mission of one of their colleagues. It was almost a perfect day – nearly every speaker ended up talking about someone else’s job at the agency – and did it as well as the “real” person might have. That’s when I realized how powerful true teamwork can be. Under Lehman, everyone knew their job, they knew the job of the agency overall, but they also knew what their colleagues did and how it fit into the overall mission agency. When an entire organization speaks with one voice, it is very compelling.

2007 10 14 Barbara Leaders We Admire
Teamwork
Leadership Development Comments (0) Permalink

The Technological Landscape

You could say I’ve grown up with the Internet. I fondly remember my mom sitting me down at our Packard-Bell PC (before they merged to become Hewlett-Packard) and teaching me how to get to Prince of Persia and KidPix and Lemmings (”C, D, space, C, colon, backslash…”). I learned how to navigate DOS and Windows 3.1 as I learned my multiplication tables in elementary school. Over the years, I’ve spent time on CompuServe, Prodigy, interminable years of dial-up connections, and have finally arrived at Windows XP with high-speed cable.

The Internet keeps on developing, and it’s going to outpace my ability to grow with it at some point. But in the meanwhile, my main role for One Hundred Year Horizons to act as an intermediary between the Internet (my lifelong friend and co-generational buddy) and older generations who view the Internet as just another cheeky youngster they want off their lawn.

Phoebe Seiders
Chief Technology Officer, One Hundred Year Horizons

2007 10 14 Phoebe Bridging the Generational Divide Comments (0) Permalink

“I thought you were one of the grown-ups!”

On the way home from a family funeral, I stayed at my brother’s house for the evening. The youngest of his two daughters, Karen, was four at the time. Her parents had her sleep with her older sister Michelle, so that I could sleep in her bed. In the middle of the night, I heard her wandering around the house, hovering occasionally by the door of her room. I asked if she wanted to sleep in her own bed, which she answered by jumping in. For the next hour or so, this little pixie, who was normally very shy and quiet, regaled me in whispers with dozens of stories – I heard all about her best friend and what she had gotten for Christmas months before. After a time, she grew quiet again, sighed a big sigh, and moving within an inch of my nose, said in the quietest of her whispers, “I thought you were one of the grown-ups!”

2007 09 15 Barbara Favorite Compliments Comments (0) Permalink

A Tribute to Lee Iacocca II: Who Are All the New Leaders?

We believe that in the current work environment, hierarchical leadership is responsible for many of the workplace issues we’re seeing – a sense of entitlement at top levels of management, cut throat competition and undermining of collaboration; various forms of abuse in the workplace, perplexing morale issues, lack of the diversity that would strengthen the corporate culture. Our belief that many of these issues stem from the leadership model we choose – primarily hierarchical - is at the heart of our conviction that we must evolve new models of leadership. Future notes will begin to provide context for our observation, reading recommendations so that you can draw your own conclusions in the context of your organization, and ideas on alternatives that may be better suited for the current – and future – work environment, or that may be better for your organization in any case.

Barbara

2007 08 24 Barbara Leadership Development
Models of Leadership Comments (0) Permalink

A Tribute to Lee Iacocca

Mr. Iacocca has written a book with a simple title, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” Good question, and he gives the question excellent treatment in the book. He has put into print what many families are saying at the dinner table, commuters discussing on the subway, and voters debating at the coffee shop. It is a fast read, very accessible, and we highly recommend it. But since Mr. Iacocca can only be a product of his time and his success, it could be that the focus of his book misses the point a bit in aiming for the future. We absolutely agree with him that there is a painful dearth of leaders in the country who lead in the model he is most familiar with: top of the heap, the Big Guy who calls all the shots. Much of our industry and government has been shaped by leaders, like Iacocca, who led in a hierarchical context. But the world was simpler when Mr. Iacocca took the reins of an organization for the first time; it was simpler when he stepped in to do the incredible: turn around a failing American icon. What are the implications for organizations today who are led by men (largely) raised in the tradition of hierarchical leadership? We enjoyed his treatment of the question, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” but we are asking “Who Are – or Will Be, or Could Be - All the New Leaders?” 

Barbara

2007 08 24 Barbara Leaders We Admire
Leadership Development
Models of Leadership Comments (0) Permalink

The First of One Hundred Year Horizons

Greetings! We’re eager to take advantage of our new blog space to start sharing thoughts on leadership and teamwork – our passion! We also plan to use this as a way to offer reading recommendations that address specific issues in particularly effective ways. Come back, visit often! We also hope you’ll tell us what issues you’re facing, and what successes you see in leadership and teamwork!

If you got here without visiting our webpage, please visit the link below to meet our team and learn a little more about us.

www.onehundredyearhorizons.com

Barbara Seiders
One Hundred Year Horizons

2007 08 24 Barbara General Comments (0) Permalink