Why is it so hard to get others to take responsibility and just do what needs to be done when it seems to be the obvious route to a better reality? Click on the link below to hear how Fort Collins resident Dean Miller intends to us in the U.S. rolling along more responsibly by starting at the top as published in my Oct. 24, 2013 column in the Coloradoan newspaper:
What is responsibility but our ability to respond to whatever comes our way in the most positive way possible. It certainly makes traffic flow along better and more smoothly.
Read on to see Dean Miller's work, and thank you for checking in on mine.
Read on to see Dean Miller's work, and thank you for checking in on mine.
C. Dean Miller, Ed. D.
Emeritus
Professor of Psychology
Colorado State University
Fort
Collins, CO 80525
April 11, 2013
Mr. Barack Obama
President
United State of America
The White House
Washington, D. C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I
wish to thank you for your leadership, vision of what we need to become as a
nation, and openness to new ideas and change.
I
was second born in 1929 to a family of 10 children in Western Kansas. My memories of the dust bowl, depression,
standing in line for commodities and World War II are still vivid. My father was a laborer who worked in lead
zinc mines until his health broke and he became a truck driver and then a
custodian. He taught me the love and
importance of working hard. I graduated
from high school at the age of 16, spent one year on active duty then several
years in the reserves.
Since
I retired from Colorado State University I have continued teaching classes on
Aging Well for approximately eight years.
The last four years I have assisted with and participated in classes for
people diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's.
Growing old is not for sissies.
I
wish to thank you for your leadership, vision of what we need to become as a
nation, and openness to new ideas and change.
I have a responsibility to support you and others in the Executive and
Legislative Branches of our government.
I
personally believe we both share a desire to greatly improve our country's
ability to solve complex and recurring problems. The enclosed draft of a Bill of
Responsibilities reflects my interests in helping to resolve the problems our
country faces.
Respectfully Submitted,
C. Dean Miller
Enclosure
cc. Mrs. Michelle
Obama, Senator Mark Udahl; Senator Michael F. Bennett; Representative Cory
Gardner; Mr. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader; John Boehner, Speaker of the
House; Governor John Hickenlooper, Mr. Alan Simpson
Bill
of Responsibilities
As a member of Congress you
are to represent all citizens and not just your party or special interests
which support you financially or in other ways.
You
have been elected to promote not only the welfare and well being of all
citizens but also the well being of all who inhabit the earth. You are expected to become an expert problem
solver who can learn to collaborate and cooperate with leaders of diverse and
different historical backgrounds to solve both complex and recurring problems. You have a moral and ethical responsibility to
become an expert problem solver.
The
first week of each new session of Congress shall be spent learning more about
the paradigms that have been developed to successfully solve complex and long
standing problems.
Selecting
leaders to head the various committees in both the Senate and House of
Representatives can no longer be based on seniority alone. Evidence of the ability to foster respect,
collaboration and solving complex problems needs to be paramount in selecting
committee chairpersons and other leaders.
One of the crucial considerations in selecting leaders is to identify individuals
who have the experience, ability and maturity to foster interactions which
promote development of consensus.
At
the beginning of each new session some time needs to be spent on reviewing the
effects and intentions of both "positive" and "negative"
framing. Members of Congress need to be
knowledgeable about "framing" which is constructive and
"framing" which is destructive.
Members
of Congress are making decisions which channel large amounts of assets to
individuals, corporations, and countries.
There is a construct called "enabling". Enabling is a process that involves
attempting to help someone or a business, or a corporation in such a way that
the individual, or corporation is enabled to continue the maladaptive practices
or behaviors. The assumption is without
the "outside" help the individual, corporation or country would
fail. Enabling is "helping" in
such a way that the maladaptive behaviors are reinforced and continue.
Members
of Congress will have to include an assessment of the extent to which
"enabling" exists in the help proposed to some entity.
When
ideology trumps science and reason, confusion and conflict will reign.
C. Dean Miller, Ed. D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Colorado State
University
Fort Collins, CO 80525
