Advice for President Obama on Setting the Tone!

Max's advice for February 25, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Max grew up as the son of a man who knew 'ALL' the answers to the problems of the world. Max's father said so! Many times, his father let everyone know that anyone who didn't know that he had the answers was a turkey or a knucklehead.

The famous Ma Bell, the second most powerful force in the world (next to God of course), thought so much of Max's father's opinions, that she made him 'Supervisor of Troubles'. This is true!

The advice Max promised you, President Obama.

Set the tone of hope!

Max likes some of what he sees in your administration and doesn't like some other things. Unlike the partisan views from the left and right, the majority of the people are, like Max, somewhat middle roaders

Independent of political leaning, Americans as a whole respond to enlightening and uplifting ideas. In your role as president you get to set the tone. The fact that things are dire all over the world is in fact been true since the dawn of man.

In the Christian tradition, children often ended up turning on the other children and killing them. Then the parents, in the tradition, exiled the one doing the killing. How anyone could have survived into another generation continues to be a mystery. Clearly in the beginning the situation was very bleak indeed.

Most traditions have some equivalent ideas in their stories of how man came to be. If we look too closely at these, or take them too literally, men are doomed and must have died out long ago.

Contraditions aside, the same texts that tell us that we originated in a hopeless situation also bring tidings across the centuries that there is always hope.

Hope comes in the form of heroes like Hercules, Sampson, and St. George just to name a few. It comes in the words of the prophets across a plethora of religions and ideologies. And it comes in heroic acts by real people who do the unexpected, though it most often cost their life in the process.

The American people are stunned, confused and fearful as they view the disasterous events of our time and hear the banter and rhetoric of the self appointed experts.

You have offered yourself to the nation as president and as an orator of some note. Some of your speeches have been uplifting and others have been frightening, depending on the tone you used.

Now is a time when we need the oral version of Profiles in Courage. At various events you have noted the presence of people who have done exceptional things. One of the most inspiring was the man who gave away much of his bonus to his fellow employees and former employees.

You should not just shame those who misuse the funds intrusted to them. To build the case for hope, you need to shine a light on those who have taken whatever funds they have and done the exceptional. Stories like the young girl whose only tool in getting improvements in her school was her ability and courage to write to you about the issue.

You need to make sure that you understand the story fully and that you are getting a straight shooter. There is no second chance to get the message of hope right. When you know you have another story of hope you need to make it known to the public.

In the case of the stimulus helping achieve hope, we need examples of people using the money to build stronger communities and more permanent infrastructure solutions, particularly when local, federal and private funds are used together to do what could not be done with only one source.

Max is pretty sure you know how important it is to tell the story, tell it again, and tell why it is important. Although we have had some good times in America, after the inititives started by President Kennedy (enacted under President Johnson) there have been very little truly positive initatives actually proposed by the presidents that followed.

Many, Johnson included, only wanted to do the really big things. Kennedy's proposals looked small but focused heavily on a better life for average Americans by reducing crime, looking toward a future in space, dealing with problems overseas, and so forth.

Every president has some things that they did that brought some of the American population along, yet each one's focus also excluded another part of the population.

Max is doubtful that you will be able to provide hope for all the people, but if you can find examples that explain your goals in real action of people, you can go a long way toward bringing the nation along with you.

Hope is a four letter word. Like most four letter words it can be easily replaced by other four letter words to describe the feeling cause when it is crushed.

Max wishes you well in all your choice of ways to keep the people focused and upbeat.

Max writes about greenways, rare diseases, timely topics, places to eat, travel and other issues of interest. He encourages you to add your comments.

Link one leads to Project Hope, a relief organization that is 50 years old.

Link two leads to the Kennedy Era Peace Corps that brought hope around the globe

Link three leads to the Americorps and VISTA government site.