Tiny Cause Huge Effect
Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.- - Archimedes
Prior Planning Prevents Poor outcomes as seen in relation to expectations.- - Dr. Robert I. Price
It all started when a six year old girl decided she could make the world a better place. Her mother saw it as a "teachable moment" and together they inspired a movement. Each week the girl collected several trash bags of aluminum cans from her neighbors (they had been putting them in the trash) and sold them to Junkman's Recycling. One of those weekends the local environmental reporter interviewed the industrious pair. The resulting article triggered an increase in activity at Junkman's.
As the summer break drew near, my wife told me (on several occasions) that I should stop by Junkman's Recycling and meet Larry. It seems he was beginning to get a bit overwhelmed with the steadily increasing activity. We volunteered to write a grant proposal for funds to purchase some equipment to efficiently handle the ever increasing flow of the various recyclables coming in daily. For a couple of years on weekends and scheduled breaks at my "real job" I worked alongside Larry processing materials for shipment and occasionally saw the pair that had helped to create this situation.
As with all successful projects others began to notice the possibilities. The chair of my university department decided to approach the city council with a proposal to have them fund him and a former student of his to evaluate the possibility of creating a full scale city funded recycling program. The newly self proclaimed Mr. Garbologist and friend obtained permission (and funding) to sample and analyze the city's waste stream and produce a feasibility report. I should interject at this point that Mr. Garbologist pointedly did not consult with Junkman nor with me. I should further note: Junkman and I, each had many years of recovery and recycling experience from the time we were very young.
During the time they were beginning to evaluate the waste stream they acquired a silent partner and their performance started to develop some disturbing characteristics discernible from a certain point of view. In other words, I began to detect a bit of the old "long con" seeping into the play of the cards, as it were. Yep the dubious pair with an ace in the hole started to get sloppy, and I just played along with a straight face to see what might turn up.
After about a week I had figured out which con was on: The silent partner was attempting to setup a sweet deal with US Ecology. The plan was to create a passable (but fraudulent) feasibility study that would secure them a solid contract with the city. Then, after an acceptable amount of time, they would suddenly discover this company that could easily set up a turn key operation and bail themselves out of a sticky situation. Oh, did I remember to mention they had no experience in this rather messy field of endeavor?
So, one fine sunny day I made an appointment to explain the setup to the Assistant City Manager. He was most interested to hear my take on the situation. The silent partner was most upset with the sudden but inevitable turn of events.
It was wonderful to see the girl and her mother once again in the limelight as the city council announced plans for developing a comprehensive city wide, city owned, and city operated recycling center.
Comments
I need your
ingenuity to find a way for the American people to put war out of business in a legal and non-violent way, something along the lines of depriving the war machine of what it eats, its money, its power, its wherewithal.
I need this idea real soon.
"Real soon" is a relative term.
The process has already started. Naysayers may pretend it can't be done but shortsighted people are always the best suited for placing stumbling stones. If you are unable to see beyond your own grasp or lifetime you will continually despair for the future.
My only real lasting contribution has been to teach people to see and act grounded by the long view and to take that "philosophy" into the next generation. I plan to pick up that thread at the OLLI center and at the ScienceWorks Hand-On Museum of Ashland when I get settled in Medford.
So happy for you
that you are going home. Medford and Ashland are so beautiful, and OLLI and the Museum will benefit from your being there.
As the quote above says:
To prevent a war-profiteer outcome, plan to keep neo-liberals and fascists from getting "elected".
Beware the bullshit factories.
Congratulations on your enterprise
in keeping the little girl and her mother's good intentions fulfilled in a way mutually beneficial for the environment and the community coffers.
By the way, I wouldn't call the garbologist's scam a long con, but a shitty, underhanded money grab for immediate consumption. That's a nasty sentence, let me try it again: You told the garbologist to eat shit and expire, much more politely than I would.
Thanks Alligator Ed
My major contribution was "checkmating" my department chair. That act came back to bite me in the butt. He was not happy to see the gravy train leave him behind as it left the station. Ah! for every action there is a reaction, right? He was not well schooled in the Art of the Con, something of a bit player, maybe. More on the level of pickpocket I think. Dickens would have scoffed at his performance.
The complete story involves a very large cast of characters and personalities. The process was a lot like herding cats across an auditorium filled with screaming excited two year old kids playing with balls of yarn.
I was a bit surprised by how quickly the city council picked up on the "solution" given the Harmon Park fiasco a few years earlier. Actually I was a lot surprised.
Bravo
to the girl and her Mom, and to you.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens certainly had a way with words. The first Earth Day was 22 April 1970 when some of us were freshman college students.
Have we just passed the 47th year of the grassroots effort that is directly responsible for the creation of the City of Kearney Recycling Facilities?
Or was the first steps along this road taken as a couple of kids were picking up beer bottles along the side of US-30 for the pennies they could get from the return deposit at the local market?
When (if it ever it happens) we finally have "fixed" our Oligarchy Problem and the 99% actually have control of the government and economic system, how will they answer the question: "Where were you when the revolution started?"
Your question:
Response (not from Mark Twain): "Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan".
When I embraced my defeats ...
... no ... When I learned to celebrate my defeats, I became stronger. Our defeats don't so much build our character as they help other to understand our depth of commitment to doing the right thing. As I said a while back I have not always prevailed in a conflict, but more importantly, I have never failed. Well, to be clear, I have never failed since 1968. A defeat does not a failure make, 49 years and counting, not bad.
And ... then there is my go to: Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
To wrap-up my thoughts on this.
People coming from a variety of points of view, varying histories of commitment, and differing definitions of "success" provided input, time, and support to create what seems to have become a "best of possible choices" solution embodying some lasting value.
Oh! ... In case you were wondering "outcomes as seen in relation to expectations." is "Performance" to complete the alteration. Because, as you all know, when writing one should always avoid alteration.