Common Sense
With a Hat-Tip to Thomas Paine
But First, The Impact of Hurricane Helene
There are numerous man-made and natural disasters that try our souls, but this recent hurricane hits home especially and sadly this week. The tragedy and loss have been unbearable for many. Our friend, Kenisha Skaggs, CEO of 2023 Yass Prize finalist SOAR Academy, took and built a Microschool from a small learning community in her home to a beautiful community building to serve neurodivergent students from disadvantaged families in Augusta, GA (and expanded into Oklahoma). Her impact on the lives of students and families has been immeasurable and pathbreaking. SOAR’s school building suffered extensive damage and the students, like thousands more in states across the southeastern part of the country, have been left to languish. Kenisha is working hard to put the pieces back together. Join us in wishing her and others struggling the best. If you are looking for ways to help, I can put you in touch.
A Spectacular Experience
The National Constitution Center honored America’s storyteller, Ken Burns, with the 36th annual Liberty Medal in a ceremony held on Sept. 24, 2024, in Philadelphia. Being within earshot, I just had to talk to him, fan-girl style. He was generous with his time, smart, witty and excited to talk about Civics education. And happy to take a selfie with me!
But it got even better. After being treated to a sizzle reel of his many documentaries, Burns gave us an intimate look inside the work he and his team does, and insights into how they do and what they do; the hard work, long hours and days and nights, all for the good of the work and to ensure we, the people, understand the subject matter. Burns talked about the notions of patriotism and freedom, how they have fueled our nation's best times, our leaders’ strength and commitment and our ultimate success in conflict; he spoke of the impact these ideas have had on our popular culture and how they have melded our social fabric. His new documentary (for which I will be impatiently waiting until it is released next Fall) is called The American Revolution, a “six-part, twelve-hour series on America’s founding struggle, which will present the story of the men and women of the Revolutionary generation, their humanity in victory and defeat, and the crisis that they lived through.” Can’t wait!
Common Sense Leaders
The upcoming documentary draws on the Founders and from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the publication / pamphlet that would change the course of history. Paine was a combative rebel and a true leader, and he pushed his ideas for ‘a more perfect union’ into the streets and out to the masses to influence others.
There are copious things written and said about leadership today, as if one set of individuals or organizations possessed the Truth. Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes and sometimes it is easier to see what it is not about than what it is. Leadership is not a popularity contest. It is not about making people feel good, creating good relationships, or asking about someone’s sick pet any more than the pursuit of happiness is about feeling pleasure.
Good feelings can occur as a result of being with someone who may or may not be a leader. But as biblical scholar and author Jeff Cavins puts in - courtesy of my Hallow app - great leaders are vindicated by their deeds.
“True leadership doesn’t have to beg the people to follow him or her. A true leader has a different relationship with this thing we call leadership. They don’t own it like a right; they don’t flaunt it like an award, they don’t abuse it like an entitlement. Good leaders don’t have to convince you they are good leaders; they just are. You can tell that they are because they are in the end, vindicated by their fruit. That’s really what a good leader is concerned with.”
The very tenets the Founders imbued into the Declaration of Independence were themselves a blueprint for leadership. They were willing to give their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for something they believed in, and they didn’t stop because it was hard work – they pursued it all the more.
What is the Pursuit of Happiness?
I had another birthday, this past weekend. I was feted by Family and Friends, the two most important things in life, after Faith, of course. In an upcoming post I’ll reflect on the past year but for now my one big takeaway after having reached 60 - again 😉 - is that happiness doesn't come from other people, but from one’s purposeful activity and engagement with them, in good pursuits.
In his new book, the Pursuit of Happiness, How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America, National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeff Rosen says that the Pursuit of Happiness is a quest for being good, not feeling good. It's the pursuit of virtue, not pleasure, that the Founders were talking about. Incredible. Just imagine civic life today if that were the guiding principle - for everything. I myself, like many of you, am so blessed to have spent my life’s work on something that drives great outcomes for others. I may not always do it well and I may not be right all the time, but the pursuit is ongoing, and I strive to get closer to happiness every day.
Take It to the Limit(s)
“So put me on a highway
Show me a sign
Take it to the limit
One more time…”
If there’s one example of taking it to the Eagle’s limits out there, it’s Oakmont Education, and specifically, Cris Gulacy-Worrel, whose tenacity and pursuit of happiness for students who’ve been failed by numerous systems is reverberating in new communities. Consider that the difference between the two pictures below is 18 months. Eighteen months from the time she first met Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds with other bold education innovators and told her what Oakmont could do for Iowa’s kids, to breaking ground this year on her school’s first campus in Des Moines. Now that’s taking it to the limit, Cris!
Hope you have enjoyed this. Will you be watching (or have watched) the debate tonight? I will. Join me in looking for hints of leadership, logic and a person - or across all political races anyone - committed to the pursuit of happiness, in the way it was intended and should be, for all of us.
God Bless - Jeanne
And happy birthday. Thanks for the wisdom you share with us all