Spirit of the Heartland
There was a Spirit of America meeting at the Heartland Brewery on Manhattan's
Union Square Tuesday evening, organized by Sean Doherty, Richard Vermillion
and Peter Anderson. If you have a chance to go to an SoA event, don't miss it.
They attract some smart, dedicated, thoughtful people.
Richard Vermillion, one of the fundraiser's organizers, counting the take for
SoA's Iraqi clients
There were several themes expressed. The first was that this is the most important
thing we can commit ourselves to. After all, is there any urge more basic than
for our life to be of consequence? No matter how we define consequence, most
of our instincts and actions seem aimed towards it.
This imperative seemed to motivate many of the people there, who have reacted
as I did, saying that this campaign of ours is the best chance we have to win
the hearts and minds of people who only know America through our misleading
broadcasts and the propaganda they are fed by their rulers.
A part of this spirit is a yearning to do something, felt since the afternoon
of 9/11/01, and still not satisfied. On 9/12/01, Americans woke up determined
to do something – anything – to put the world back the way it had
been. It’s understandable but unfortunate that the government failed to
harness the awesome collective force of the American people. It was a bureaucratic
failing, since government has no way to engage people spontaneously, assuming
wrongly that government IS the people.
We wanted to give blood, haul trash from Ground Zero, donate blankets, etc.
Instead we were told to go to Orlando. That may have been sound economic advice,
since it was our economy that needed a transfusion, but it didn’t satisfy
the part of us that yearns to reach out to neighbors in need.
Bureaucrats don’t inhabit the web, so they have no way of knowing how
people can reach across geographical and ideological boundaries to lock arms
and do amazing things. To be fair, the power of the web to gather and focus
people power was less clear three years ago.
Spirit of America uniquely scratches our itch to be useful. By an incredible
stroke of luck, it appeals equally to people who support a pre-emptive foreign
policy and to those who oppose it.
Most of the people at the meeting had contributed and are keen to do whatever
they can. Two people said that Spirit of America is the "something"
they'd been looking for – I got the sense from some that this was a contrast
to their job which is, well, merely their job. One person said that when the
Spirit of America weekly newsletter hits his inbox, he stops everything and
reads it through.
The Vision Thing
I had a pleasant walk down from 2nd & 38th with Robert
Tolmach, Founder and CEO of Glasses
for Humanity (GfH). Kerry Dupont, Spirit of America's Logistics Goddess,
and Robert and I have been structuring a way to distribute used eyeglasses in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and we feel it will be a straightforward project to put
into place.
Esther
Dyson, who serves on Robert's impressive Advisory
Board, sent her regrets from Colorado. She had realized there's a natural
fit between SoA and GfH even before introducing us at Jerry
Michalski's weekend retreat in Toronto six weeks ago. It took Robert and
me a while to see how to make it work, but Esther probably had it figured out
last month. After all, she's Esther.
Lt. Col. "Rudy" Rudolf gave Avery Stirrat a private briefing
Lt. Col James M. "Rudy" Rudolf, USMC, told us how vital the Spirit
of America is becoming for the troops who can deploy its benefits: how it's
saving real lives by moderating the passions that define the Iraqi experience.
Rudy's totally committed to advancing the SoA initiative. He reports that all
the Marines working the far end of the SoA supply chain are convinced that this
system can have huge benefits. Now that it's been working for over six months,
They are dedicated to stepping it up a notch. Part of that means refining
the granularity, exposing the troops at the unit level so they understand how
to spot needs and file project requests.
Taking it to the Web
The organizers of the event were glad to hear that Spirit of America's new
web site, to be rolled out in early September, will give them a powerful suite
of tools to form teams, coordinate their efforts, schedule events and issue
invitations to SoA members, organized by ZIP codes within a desired radius.
They felt it would have been useful to have an announcement on the SoA web site,
so people would know there was some relationship to the organization. Next time
they will.
Thanks, guys for putting this one together, even though you had to use duct
tape and baling wire. We're getting the new model ready and we think you'll
like the way it flies.
8:25:04 AM 
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