The following are my prepared remarks for the Elimination of Poverty pubic hearing, February 22, 2010. I hope that these thoughts might spur you to seriously consider how we can address poverty in our country.
In Peace,
Lane
-------
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. And thank you for holding this meeting in Danville. I don't think you could have picked an area that is more representative of the problems facing the people of Illinois.
I applaud the creation of this commission, and commend each of you for serving. Reading the article in the News-Gazette today, I nodded in agreement with each of the bullet-pointed goals. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be enough, if it's all we do. Before I offer thoughts on that, however, let me tell you where I currently stand.
I am 53 years old, and have never received government assistance of any kind, even during times of unemployment or underemployment. Although I could easily qualify for Native American tribal affiliation, subsequently receiving significant benefits, I choose not to do so. My reason is simple: there's not enough to go around to everyone who needs and deserves help, and there are many who are in greater need than me.
Two years ago I, along with members of my band Deeper Blues, founded Danville Foodstock. Our slogan is "serving food - and hope! - to those in need." We have raised tens of thousands of dollars in support of the Danville Area Food Pantry. In January, 2009, we began a series of monthly free dinners open to all, regardless of need. In our first year, we served over 2,500 meals to our neighbors, many of them delivered to seniors and handicapped individuals unable to attend in person. We now have a strong volunteer crew that continues to grow, and numerous local businesses that sponsor our efforts.
Also in January, 2009, I began to see signs that I would soon be a target of cutbacks at the company for which I worked. On March 1st, my company converted me against my will to a sub-contractor, thus taking away my health care and other benefits, also reducing my income by half while adding an extra self-employment tax burden. By June 1st, I had lost the other half of my pay, and was expected to live off of a paltry commission worth about $50 a week, for approximately 30 hours of work. Folks, that's less than $2 per hour.
Because I had been converted to a subcontractor, I was no longer eligible for unemployment. Because I had made too much money the year before, I was ineligible for VA assistance, or other medical assistance. I was out at the very end of a limb that was showing a strong chance of breaking, and I had no safety net. The first time I could have really used a hand up from a government program, I didn't qualify.
By the way, I should also mention that I got married in December, 2008, only months before I began to lose income. I'm sure you'll agree that's NOT how to being a marriage.
I've been luckier than many, because I have managed to barely scrape through the dark times. I am now involved in two start-ups that show great promise, and have restarted my business consulting career. So while I am still catching up, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And as long as it's not yet another economic train barreling down on me, I'll be fine. But my marriage has suffered, and so has my health.
Some have asked why I continued to donate so much time and, until April, money into Danville Foodstock. Again, my reason is simple: there are many in greater need - parents who are struggling to feed their children. Young singles - twenty-somethings just out of college - who can't find a job. Seniors living on crackers. Today, one in four children will go to bed hungry tonight. In the Danville area alone, that translates to thousands. I mean no disrespect, but I don't need to search another continent to find people who need my help, whether it be in the form of money, time or compassion.
So. Now that you know a bit about me, let me offer my ideas: First, let me offer three ideas to directly address the question of what our social programs can do to help reduce poverty:
1. Re-engineer our social programs so that they provide a track toward self-sustainability. As soon as a person comes to any agency for help, their situation should be assessed. Why is this person in need, and what can be done to address the underlying cause?
2. Offer immediate job placement assistance, training or retraining. Don't make the recipient wait any longer than is absolutely necessary.
3. If nothing else, give them a labor job to earn a paycheck and other assistance.
These are good steps we can take to eliminate waste when we don't work to get someone back on their feet as quickly as possible. And by setting strict guidelines for who receives assistance - those that work or are truly unable to do so get help - those who want to live on a handout when they don't need to, don't. I believe that, in the long run, however, the more we reorient our programs to helping people live with dignity, help them to live productive lives, the fewer people we will see who have a sense of entitlement.
I say this because we have a long-term problem of hopelessness and futility permeating our lowest income brackets. Many of these people look at the world and see that they are separated from the American Dream with no chance of ever attaining it. In the face of that hopelessness, some do begin to believe that they deserve the handouts because it's all they can ever see getting. Give them a better chance of climbing the community ladder, and I think you'll see a lot of people grabbing for the higher rungs - and living happier, more fulfilling and productive lives.
As I noted earlier, however, I don't believe this will be enough. I believe we need to reinvigorate our sense of community, our understanding that a rising tide lifts all boats. We are so busy reveling in the "rugged individualist" image, that we have forgotten that it was banding together for a common cause that created this country in the first place. It started with like-minded individuals, but quickly grew to the thirteen colonies themselves joining to create a "more perfect union" with liberty and justice for all.
Certainly we had great individuals in our history, and we still have some today - leaders with vision who say, "follow me to a better place." But even they knew they couldn't do it alone - it takes a community working together to achieve great things.
We learned the art of representative democracy from the Iroquois Confederacy, choosing it as our form of government to ensure that all would have a voice, even the lowest among us. Embedded in that Iroquois social construct, as with many if not most of the other Native American nations, was the belief that one's service to the community was the measure of one's stature in that community. A person could not lead until they had proven their willingness to serve the greater good.
In 1964, Robert Greenleaf took early retirement from ATT where had worked for forty years to create the Center for Applied Ethics. He coined the phrase servant-leader to define what he considered to be the ultimate leader - one who would serve the interests of others, ensuring their success as a path to his own. He found numerous servant-leaders among our founding fathers, and among the many great people in our nation's history. We had already experienced Servant-Leadership, but had lost it. Greenleaf sought to bring it back.
I should note that I consider myself a servant-leader. My own motto, built on Greenleaf's vision, is that I am a servant first, servant always. I am honored to serve on the board of the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, named after Larry Spears, who carried the torch as Primary Champion of servant-leadership upon Greenleaf's death.
What baffles me is not that servant-leadership is the same as NA leadership, albeit within a different cultural context. It's not that our leaders - in both business and government - forgot it in the greedy pursuit of wealth and power. It's not even that, in the face of direct proof that servant-leadership leads to greater profits and a more peaceful, productive society, many of our leaders choose to continue chasing an illusion. No, what baffles me is that we have forgotten it.
We have forgotten that our community bonds are what enrich our lives. We have forgotten how we once worked together in numerous ways to the greater good of all and prospered because of it. We have forgotten much of what made us great.
At the same time, for the past half a century, which is not all that long, really, we have turned our backs on the common wealth, as it was once called, and is still immortalized in the names of many states, in pursuit of personal gain as a means to fulfillment. We've been assisted in this retraining, but ultimately it is a personal choice whether to worship wealth for its own sake.
Yet virtually every religion, spiritual teaching and original life-way for thousands of years has taught that we find our greatest fulfillment in the service of others. We feel best when we have a positive impact on the lives of others.
"Whatsoever you do for the least among you, it's as if you did it for Me."
"When you give a feast, invite the poor, the sick, the hungry. Then, you shall be rewarded."
So says Jesus, whom so many claim to follow. Jesus was the ultimate servant-leader, and he often spoke about the fulfillment we find in serving others. We need our sense of community again, and our sense of service to the good of all. We need to return to our roots, nourishing our children with the ethics that gave us purpose and fulfillment.
I've probably spoken for longer than was fair, and I apologize for taking so much time. So that I can close more quickly, I will deliver via email some of the things I've written on this subject, including a copy of my essay, Learning Servant-Leadership from Native America - Again, which will be published within a year or so, in The Spirit of Servant-Leadership, the latest volume in a highly-regarded series of anthologies that began with, and continues to include, essays by Greenleaf himself.
In this essay, I offer specific ways that we might rebuild our society to return to our ideals, perhaps even to improve upon them by learning to follow the right kind of leaders - servant-leaders - those who will truly serve the interests of the common good.
We need politicians on both sides of the aisle who are truly interested in the needs of those they represent instead of representing the interests of the very few. We need them to work together, like it or not, to solve the many serious issues facing us, instead of engaging in all-out war to destroy each other and prevent the other party from governing, instead of constantly worrying about elections and sound bites, and lobbyists, instead of seeing who can devolve our political debate even lower than it has fallen. When our leaders can only encourage us to yell at each other instead of working together for the good of all of us, from the least to the greatest among us, it's time we picked better leaders. I believe that servant-leaders are the best kind of leaders to follow.
I don't ask you to agree with me yet. I do ask you to learn more about the philosophy and carefully consider its benefits. I believe that, if you do, you will agree with me. And I believe it will of great help to you as you craft the strategies to improve our social programs.
Thank you again for your time. And again, I commend you. Your is a difficult task, and an essential one. God Bless you all, and may you serve the greater good.
In Peace,
Lane
-------
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. And thank you for holding this meeting in Danville. I don't think you could have picked an area that is more representative of the problems facing the people of Illinois.
I applaud the creation of this commission, and commend each of you for serving. Reading the article in the News-Gazette today, I nodded in agreement with each of the bullet-pointed goals. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be enough, if it's all we do. Before I offer thoughts on that, however, let me tell you where I currently stand.
I am 53 years old, and have never received government assistance of any kind, even during times of unemployment or underemployment. Although I could easily qualify for Native American tribal affiliation, subsequently receiving significant benefits, I choose not to do so. My reason is simple: there's not enough to go around to everyone who needs and deserves help, and there are many who are in greater need than me.
Two years ago I, along with members of my band Deeper Blues, founded Danville Foodstock. Our slogan is "serving food - and hope! - to those in need." We have raised tens of thousands of dollars in support of the Danville Area Food Pantry. In January, 2009, we began a series of monthly free dinners open to all, regardless of need. In our first year, we served over 2,500 meals to our neighbors, many of them delivered to seniors and handicapped individuals unable to attend in person. We now have a strong volunteer crew that continues to grow, and numerous local businesses that sponsor our efforts.
Also in January, 2009, I began to see signs that I would soon be a target of cutbacks at the company for which I worked. On March 1st, my company converted me against my will to a sub-contractor, thus taking away my health care and other benefits, also reducing my income by half while adding an extra self-employment tax burden. By June 1st, I had lost the other half of my pay, and was expected to live off of a paltry commission worth about $50 a week, for approximately 30 hours of work. Folks, that's less than $2 per hour.
Because I had been converted to a subcontractor, I was no longer eligible for unemployment. Because I had made too much money the year before, I was ineligible for VA assistance, or other medical assistance. I was out at the very end of a limb that was showing a strong chance of breaking, and I had no safety net. The first time I could have really used a hand up from a government program, I didn't qualify.
By the way, I should also mention that I got married in December, 2008, only months before I began to lose income. I'm sure you'll agree that's NOT how to being a marriage.
I've been luckier than many, because I have managed to barely scrape through the dark times. I am now involved in two start-ups that show great promise, and have restarted my business consulting career. So while I am still catching up, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And as long as it's not yet another economic train barreling down on me, I'll be fine. But my marriage has suffered, and so has my health.
Some have asked why I continued to donate so much time and, until April, money into Danville Foodstock. Again, my reason is simple: there are many in greater need - parents who are struggling to feed their children. Young singles - twenty-somethings just out of college - who can't find a job. Seniors living on crackers. Today, one in four children will go to bed hungry tonight. In the Danville area alone, that translates to thousands. I mean no disrespect, but I don't need to search another continent to find people who need my help, whether it be in the form of money, time or compassion.
So. Now that you know a bit about me, let me offer my ideas: First, let me offer three ideas to directly address the question of what our social programs can do to help reduce poverty:
1. Re-engineer our social programs so that they provide a track toward self-sustainability. As soon as a person comes to any agency for help, their situation should be assessed. Why is this person in need, and what can be done to address the underlying cause?
2. Offer immediate job placement assistance, training or retraining. Don't make the recipient wait any longer than is absolutely necessary.
3. If nothing else, give them a labor job to earn a paycheck and other assistance.
These are good steps we can take to eliminate waste when we don't work to get someone back on their feet as quickly as possible. And by setting strict guidelines for who receives assistance - those that work or are truly unable to do so get help - those who want to live on a handout when they don't need to, don't. I believe that, in the long run, however, the more we reorient our programs to helping people live with dignity, help them to live productive lives, the fewer people we will see who have a sense of entitlement.
I say this because we have a long-term problem of hopelessness and futility permeating our lowest income brackets. Many of these people look at the world and see that they are separated from the American Dream with no chance of ever attaining it. In the face of that hopelessness, some do begin to believe that they deserve the handouts because it's all they can ever see getting. Give them a better chance of climbing the community ladder, and I think you'll see a lot of people grabbing for the higher rungs - and living happier, more fulfilling and productive lives.
As I noted earlier, however, I don't believe this will be enough. I believe we need to reinvigorate our sense of community, our understanding that a rising tide lifts all boats. We are so busy reveling in the "rugged individualist" image, that we have forgotten that it was banding together for a common cause that created this country in the first place. It started with like-minded individuals, but quickly grew to the thirteen colonies themselves joining to create a "more perfect union" with liberty and justice for all.
Certainly we had great individuals in our history, and we still have some today - leaders with vision who say, "follow me to a better place." But even they knew they couldn't do it alone - it takes a community working together to achieve great things.
We learned the art of representative democracy from the Iroquois Confederacy, choosing it as our form of government to ensure that all would have a voice, even the lowest among us. Embedded in that Iroquois social construct, as with many if not most of the other Native American nations, was the belief that one's service to the community was the measure of one's stature in that community. A person could not lead until they had proven their willingness to serve the greater good.
In 1964, Robert Greenleaf took early retirement from ATT where had worked for forty years to create the Center for Applied Ethics. He coined the phrase servant-leader to define what he considered to be the ultimate leader - one who would serve the interests of others, ensuring their success as a path to his own. He found numerous servant-leaders among our founding fathers, and among the many great people in our nation's history. We had already experienced Servant-Leadership, but had lost it. Greenleaf sought to bring it back.
I should note that I consider myself a servant-leader. My own motto, built on Greenleaf's vision, is that I am a servant first, servant always. I am honored to serve on the board of the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, named after Larry Spears, who carried the torch as Primary Champion of servant-leadership upon Greenleaf's death.
What baffles me is not that servant-leadership is the same as NA leadership, albeit within a different cultural context. It's not that our leaders - in both business and government - forgot it in the greedy pursuit of wealth and power. It's not even that, in the face of direct proof that servant-leadership leads to greater profits and a more peaceful, productive society, many of our leaders choose to continue chasing an illusion. No, what baffles me is that we have forgotten it.
We have forgotten that our community bonds are what enrich our lives. We have forgotten how we once worked together in numerous ways to the greater good of all and prospered because of it. We have forgotten much of what made us great.
At the same time, for the past half a century, which is not all that long, really, we have turned our backs on the common wealth, as it was once called, and is still immortalized in the names of many states, in pursuit of personal gain as a means to fulfillment. We've been assisted in this retraining, but ultimately it is a personal choice whether to worship wealth for its own sake.
Yet virtually every religion, spiritual teaching and original life-way for thousands of years has taught that we find our greatest fulfillment in the service of others. We feel best when we have a positive impact on the lives of others.
"Whatsoever you do for the least among you, it's as if you did it for Me."
"When you give a feast, invite the poor, the sick, the hungry. Then, you shall be rewarded."
So says Jesus, whom so many claim to follow. Jesus was the ultimate servant-leader, and he often spoke about the fulfillment we find in serving others. We need our sense of community again, and our sense of service to the good of all. We need to return to our roots, nourishing our children with the ethics that gave us purpose and fulfillment.
I've probably spoken for longer than was fair, and I apologize for taking so much time. So that I can close more quickly, I will deliver via email some of the things I've written on this subject, including a copy of my essay, Learning Servant-Leadership from Native America - Again, which will be published within a year or so, in The Spirit of Servant-Leadership, the latest volume in a highly-regarded series of anthologies that began with, and continues to include, essays by Greenleaf himself.
In this essay, I offer specific ways that we might rebuild our society to return to our ideals, perhaps even to improve upon them by learning to follow the right kind of leaders - servant-leaders - those who will truly serve the interests of the common good.
We need politicians on both sides of the aisle who are truly interested in the needs of those they represent instead of representing the interests of the very few. We need them to work together, like it or not, to solve the many serious issues facing us, instead of engaging in all-out war to destroy each other and prevent the other party from governing, instead of constantly worrying about elections and sound bites, and lobbyists, instead of seeing who can devolve our political debate even lower than it has fallen. When our leaders can only encourage us to yell at each other instead of working together for the good of all of us, from the least to the greatest among us, it's time we picked better leaders. I believe that servant-leaders are the best kind of leaders to follow.
I don't ask you to agree with me yet. I do ask you to learn more about the philosophy and carefully consider its benefits. I believe that, if you do, you will agree with me. And I believe it will of great help to you as you craft the strategies to improve our social programs.
Thank you again for your time. And again, I commend you. Your is a difficult task, and an essential one. God Bless you all, and may you serve the greater good.
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