The time was twenty years ago. My sister has just been through a perilous period as a public relations pro for a major Fortune 500 company. The pension assets of her world wide company had been threatened because some bonds---yes bonds peddled by Michael Milliken and such--- had comprised such a large portion of the company pension plan that in the panic that ensued with the bond scandal, the retirement of thousands was threatened.
She was called in by the CEO. He told her the mission----to regain trust.
She told him directly that the only way to regain trust was to remove the barriers to communication and unite the employees worldwide, for better for worse---in an internal blog of sorts. To dispel rumor. Quickly.
A year later. The panic was over. The employees had shared their worst fears. They had fashioned a financial solution together with management. It was not pretty. They were in it together.
A year later, Susie was invited to speak in front of the Conference Board in Washington. They wanted a speech about broken trust, and how to regain it. The Conference Board is the board that each month releases the economic index of confidence. They wanted to hear some ideas on trust. On confidence. On how to regain it once broken.
In her speech, Susie reviewed the conditions of employment of our fathers and mothers through the first 70 years of this century. Folks working their careers with one company. A spirit of compact between employer and employee. Then she described the total breakdown that was underway in America.
She likened the breakdown to the experience of the American Indian. She referred to one of the Indian speeches, I believe it was by Black Elk, of the Sioux nation. He described the situation of the Indian. He said that they had made compacts with all the Presidents and all the compacts had been broken. Was there not one person left who could keep his word?
Black Elk went on to describe the vision of his people---a vision of interdependence world wide. A sacred circle. A sacred hoop.
I relate the story in this season of politics since it is a time when promises are made with ease and easily broken. Too easily broken.
This year especially, it seems that it is simply out of fashion to even talk about issues whatsoever. It is all about scandal, diversion and smear.
Being a leader as Black Elk saw it is more than a shell game. A game of deceit. It is a sacred role. Something to think about.
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Ed. note---the following is one of the many poems of Black Elk titled, "Sunset."
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The Sunset
Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy...
But anywhere is the center of the world.
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