How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?

Is anyone sick? He should call for the elders of the church and they should pray over him and pour a little oil upon him, calling on the Lord to heal him.  And their prayer, if offered in faith, will heal him, for the Lord will make him well; and if his sickness was caused by some sin, the Lord will forgive him.  Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results. James 5:14-16

Having grown up in a household of 10 sisters, I was very much aware that being “the boy” meant being in the minority.  But, over a 20 year evolution as a United States Marine, I learned that being in the minority does not necessarily make me a minority.   I can choose to be equal—an asset and therefore, not a liability.

By Eric Stradford, U. S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS, December 29, 2018 - Let me be the first to congratulate the disappointed, downtrodden, distressed and depressed friends-n-kin who have ever anticipated economic benefits from an emotional appeal.  Confession, I’ve heard, is good for the soul. As a matter of faith or fact, healing results when good folks take action.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!   

Yes, it’s true.  Donald Trump is the President of the United States…STILL!  Yes, it’s true.  The federal government shutdown over a boarder wall, or, perhaps beautiful steel slats, a fence, “beaded curtain” or unprecedented shock and awe.   You are no doubt anxious to see what a divided 116^th United States Congress will do to protect and defend the Constitution “from all enemies foreign and domestic.”  

As the elected consider their roles in “forming a more perfect union,” each of us, even me can consider a shared cause for healing.  But, be careful, self-diagnosis could be as harmful as ignoring the problem.

Dissociation is a mental process that causes a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memory and sense of identity.  My particular ailment stems from emotional experiences over a lifetime where the need for healing was, as Langston Hughes put it, a dream deferred.  In my own experience, growing up as “the boy” with testosterone in a predominately estrogen household of emotionally endowed siblings may have shaped lifelong personality traits that were more transactional than transformative.

As you come to pray for my healing, know this.   

Transient and mild dissociative experiences are common. Almost 1/3rd of people say they occasionally feel as though they are watching themselves in a movie, and 4% say they feel that way as much as 1/3rd of the time. The incidence of these experiences is highest in youth and steadily declines after the age of 20.

Transactional leadership and management focuses on supervision, organization, and performance.  In pursuing a healing strategy, we’re cautioned that that folks leaning toward the transactional approach look to keep things the same instead of looking to change the future.

Transformational leaders, like my bride of a quarter of a century, serves to enhance motivation, morale, and job performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms; these include connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to a project and to the collective identity of the organization.  Stephanie believes in being a role model for followers, inspiring them and raising their interest in a particular project.

Over the Christmas holiday, Stephanie and I discovered common ground for our politically bipolar partnership. As a result, we’re redirecting our efforts with new shared goals for a post-Trump America. 

Some influential friends-n-kin have added value to vision on our journey from hurt to healed.  Among them, Bill and C. DeLores Tucker, Grainger and Jo Ann Browning, Spencer and Juliette Bartley, Ofield Dukes and, Arthur Allen Fletcher.

In the seventies, Al Green sampled the Bee Gee’s 1971 release, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.  His journey to healing witnessed a trail of hurt that included an emotionally charged encounter with his girlfriend, Mary Woodson White.

Although she was already married, White wanted Green.  An angry White doused Green with a pot of boiling grits while he was bathing. Police found a note inside White's purse declaring her reasons for causing severe burns on Green's back, stomach, and arms.  They also found the .38 handgun with which she had killed herself.

Stephanie A. Walker Stradford paved her own pathway from hurt to healed during the seventies.  After graduating from the University of Maryland, Stephanie put to test a new minority hiring policy and landed a studio engineering job with the likes of David Brinkley, Willard Scott and others at NBC Washington, DC. 

Republican Arthur A. Fletcher, a former board chair for the United Negro College Fund, celebrated “four quarters” in what he called, “Victorious Living.”  As U.S. Department of Labor Assistant Secretary for Wage and Labor Standards, Fletcher offered unique insights on being African American and unapologetically, Republican. 

When Stephanie and I met Dr. Fletcher, he had discovered the formula for healing a broken heart.  In the sixties, his family had been denied a rental house in Berkeley's white section.  Continuing racial problems, combined with continuing economic pressures, took their toll, and Fletcher's wife, Mary, committed suicide.

In 2005, Arthur Fletcher called on us to plan an event commemorating The 36^th Anniversary of what he called, The Affirmative Action Enforcement Movement.  The event marked his implementation of the Revised Philadelphia Plan, which required federal contractors to meet certain goals for hiring minority employees. 

Fletcher’s presentation on “the glasses’ endowed believers with an inclusive vision of America’s future.   The event was Fletcher’s last public event.  He died later that year at age 80.

After coordinating a star-studded homegoing and Arlington burial for Fletcher, Stephanie and Eric Stradford set out once again on their Learning Journey.

In the New Year, we are reaching out to seven-year-old Americans proposing an economically inclusive vision of their 21^st Century futures.  We’re learning that  six-in-ten Millennials (59%) affiliate with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic, compared with about half of Gen Xers and Boomers (48% each) and 43% of voters in the Silent Generation.

Many of them see a need for alternative outcomes in both Republican as well as Democratic primaries, but few are ready, willing and able to lean right to make a difference.

In a 2005 study, the Pew Research Center identified nine typological groups. Three groups were identified as part of each, "the left," "the middle," and "the right." In this categorization system, "the right" roughly represents the Republican base, those on "the left" the Democratic base and those in "the middle" independents.

Within the left are the largely secular and anti-war "Liberals", the socially conservative but economically left "Conservative Democrats", and the economically "Disadvantaged Democrats" who favor extended government assistance to the needy.

In "the middle" are the optimistic and upwardly mobile "Upbeats", the discouraged and mistrusting "Disaffected” citizens, and the disenfranchised "Bystanders."

The right comprises the highly pro-business "Enterprisers," the highly religious "Social Conservatives" (also known as the Christian right), and the "Pro-Government Conservatives" who are largely conservative on social issues but support government intervention to better their economic disposition.

 

Poor People Can Be Less Poor IF...

An Opinion Editorial

by Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS, September 26, 2018, Atlanta –  In the news today, a “gulf of distrust,” once assessed metaphorically, surfeits in the aftermath of an unnaturally man-made disaster.  49% of Americans are wading through the latest news cycle, watching 49% drown in the uncertainty of a manufactured truth.

Today, the often uncounted 2% is admonished to WAKE UP, and get busy hijacking a narrative likened to the air we breathe.  “The American Dream is on life support…” said Stephanie A. Walker Stradford.  The CEO for Youth Achievers USA Institute (YouthUSA) joined like minds at #Goalkeepers2018 to sandbag a surge of unprecedented, unnecessary, and useless information seeping into the national discourse.

Does it really matter that Donald Trump’s lawyer got stuck with $130,000 in hush money paid to a consenting porn star?  What about the sexual proclivities of “justice” be it Bill Cosby’s or the most recent supreme court nominee?  On the downlow, some rich folks have been padding their inherited pockets with favorable public policy while others must discover methods and means to reverse or “deny, deny, deny” their historically bad habits.

Recent polling suggests that people of all ages in low and middle-income countries are far more likely to agree that “my generation will have a more positive impact on the world than my parents” -- (63%) compared with people in higher income countries (39%). In both groups of countries, youth are more likely to agree than older people. 

When it comes to policy priorities, ending poverty (33%), improving education (31%), and access to jobs (27%) are top Sustainable Development Goals for leaders to focus on worldwide.

On Our Street, USA, today is the day to breathe and ask one another, why did it take us so long?  “Is poverty inevitable?” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation echoes the sentiment of a 20th Century Poor People’s campaign with an optimistic twist.  In doing so, the thought provoking, “Where Do We Go From Here?” presented in Dr. Martin Luther King’s last book, arrives at the only clear choice – CHAOS or COMMUNITY.

 

Quoting social justice advocate Hyman Bookbinder, Dr. King wrote that ending poverty in America merely requires demanding that the rich “become even richer at a slower rate.”  But, in retrospect and after a plethora of policy perversions since Lyndon Johnson’s "War on Poverty,” demands on the wealthy tend to fall short of ending poverty.

Global Goals Week is an annual week of action where the United Nations and partners from around the world come together to drive action, raise awareness and hold leaders to account in order to accelerate progress to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals.

Timed to coincide with the UN General Assembly, the week includes many exciting events and activations in New York but also around the world, including the Global Day of Action on September 25th, when people connected to cultivate ideas, identify solutions, and generate meaningful partnerships for the Global Goals.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Youth Achievers USA Institute share a common vision for the future.  Both believe that “investing in young people” is a necessary step towards achieving COMMUNITY.

To support its partnership goals, YouthUSA is recruiting, training and funding Community Asset Managers in 12 economic regions of the United States.  Virtual meetings and on-demand access to collaboration tools promote tech-supported, cost-effective operations.

According to the Gates Foundation, “Today’s booming youth populations can be good news for the economy; if young people are healthy, educated, and productive; and, there are more people to do the kind of innovative work that stimulates rapid growth.” At YouthUSA, “Money-n-the-Bank” supports inclusion. Each youth beneficiary invests seven goals to write a vision of their own future.

Much of the evidence published in Goalkeepers 2018 underscores the need for #EconomicInclusion of economically disadvantaged youth.  Bridging the “Gulf of Distrust” calls for Goalkeepers representing America’s haves and have nots to pursue “opportunities to serve -- catalyzing public and private sectors and civil society to establish and sustain a pathway to a better life for all.

Addressing gaps in economic opportunity ultimately empowers economic beneficiaries to participate in having the greatest impact. Working with partners who have the expertise and experience will be helpful in developing and implementing innovative approaches at scale. However, according to YouthUSA, “engagement of youth and communities will be essential to sustainable long-term solutions.”

Partnerships are as effective as the partners with a seat at the table.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is circling policy leaders around the global partnership through collaborations such as the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty.

“People often frame the problem of poverty as a lack of things, of people not being given what they need.  But, I think it's the people who must be made to feel needed, vital, and productive in our changing economy.  It's about dignity,” said Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC.   

#EconomicInclusion calls for an intentional, prosocial approach.  It engages youth where they live, learn, work and or worship in developing their leadership skills.  It calls for caring adults to invest value and positive values toward prosperous futures.  It requires new energy, collective synergy and a shared commitment to make business as usual a practice of the past.  

National LEARN-2-EARN  invests collective synergy with new energy for win-win collaboration between neighbors in need and partners with means.