You Are Doing What?

This episode returns to the theme of income inequality.  As I have said before, our current economic system has a feedback loop that works to keep rich families rich, and poor families poor.  Wealthy families send their kids to the best schools, provide enrichment and support through tutoring, after school programs, sports and counseling.  These advantages last a lifetime. Further, with these competitive advantages, the earning power of family members remain above those in less fortunate families.  However, we have a subsystem of service to others and charitable giving that can make a difference in peoples lives.  Today, I am speaking with Greg Scherman who is a founder of Access Youth Academy.  This organization helps level the playing field by serving the underserved children in San Diego.  Their program uses the sport of squash as a hook to help reach these kids.  In addition to squash training and play, the program provides tutoring, academic counseling, college admission counseling, scholarship facilitation, and support through college and for two years after college completion.  Access Youth Academy makes a 12 year commitment to each of their students. Their results are phenomenal in that they have a 100% success rate in helping kids get into college. Most recently, they have opened their own facility which is open to the public, and boasts 8 singles courts, a doubles court in addition to their classroom facilities.  Visit their website at accessyouthacademy.org.  If you like the podcast, please subscribe.  If you want to visit our website, please go to youaredoingwhat.org.

Many believe income inequality is the result of economic systems problems. Many economists have devoted themselves to shed light on some of the flawed incentives and loopholes built into our policies and laws.  Certainly, we can try to eliminate those policies and laws that amplify income inequality.  We could increase income tax rates, do away with reduced tax rates on capital gains taxes, increase estate taxes and take that money to invest in education, job training, health care, etc.  Are these worthy pursuits?  In any event, how do you get any real action  to combat the unlevel playing field we have here in America?  It requires the will of the people who have the power to push agendas.  Many of those in power, however, do not feel compelled make changes that reduce income inequality.  I believe that regardless of our economic system, income inequality persists because of values that many of us have developed over time.  In this episode, I speak to Dr. Robert Marino, a clinical psychologist and professor.  Dr. Marino's specialty is working with people who have become financially successful.  We discuss the problems created by income inequality, how income inequality is generated, why it persists, and most importantly, how to reduce it in an organic way.  It was a very interesting discussion, and the take-aways may be useful to each of us. 

For generations, Mayans been over run by european colonialists and big U.S. business enterprise.  In Guatemala, as their lands were taken, unrest erupted.   From 1960 to 1996, Civil war in Guatemala pitted the established government powers against the mostly indigenous Mayan population.  Today, Mayans make up about 42% of the 17 million inhabitants of Guatemala.  The aftermath of genocide and civil rights abuses still impact the country.  80 percent of Guatemalan Mayans live in poverty today.  33% cannot read or write and about 8 of 10 children do not graduate from High school.A non-profit called Common Hope seeks to break the cycle of poverty with a wholistic approach to education.  Today, I am speaking with Shari Blindt, the executive Director of Common hope, and Avi Mylera, the Associate Director of Strategic Relations and Visitor Experience.  Shari has been with Common hope for close to 15 years, since she felt called to serve the Guatemalan people after adopting two Guatemalan Children.  Avi was born and raised in Guatemala, and came to study in the U.S., earning her masters degree in Public and Non-Profit Administration.  Her work with Common hope allows her to stay connected to her homeland, and she has an electric energy about her country and is a true inspiration for people with even the slightest interest for those interested in visiting Guatemala.  Ten minutes with Avi was all I needed to get involved.  I have sponsored one child's education and it is a wonderful investment in a young person's life.This year, they are celebrating 35 years of success, and are doing a "Walk for Hope" wherein you can take a walk and help raise money.  This is just one way to get involved.Check out their website www.commonhope.org.  You may contact Shari at Sharib@us.commonhope.org or Avi at Avim@us.commonhope.org.

Who is an American? Americans have a dream.  As one president said, "As a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea that everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed.  No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it.  That is an essential promise of America.  Where you start should not determine where you end up."  Clearly, the American construct recognizes that our strength is based on values, not bloodlines.  Today, we are going to speak about the U.S. immigration system.  A system that almost all our families have dealt with in one form or another.  I talk with Abigail Trillin, the Executive Director of Legal Services for Children, an organization that is one of 15 non-profits that make up the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Collaborative.  You can find Abigail at Abigail@lsc-sf.org.  The website for Legal Services for Children is lsc-sf.org. The website for the collaborative is sfildc.org.

The foster care system is designed to be a temporary solution for children whose parents cannot care for them.  However, life is complicated.  Many foster youth that age out of the system find it difficult to transition into greater society as self sustaining, healthy adults.  Today, we are speaking with Jack Cortis, Kim Overaa and Mary Cherry of the Family Harvest Farm in Pittsburgh, California.  Their program provides transitioning foster youth an opportunity to work, learn social-emotional and work skills and launch themselves into the broader community.  If you feel inspired to help or donate, please contact jack@familyharvestfarm.org, or kim@familyharvestfarm.org. You can donate directly if you visit the John Muir Land Trust website at jmlt.org, or the youaredoingwhat.org website. 

We all need clean water, clean air and a place to commune with nature.  The planet is begging us not to change our climate.  The John Muir Land Trust helps us preserve open space in the Bay Area for all to access in perpetuity.  John Muir's shoes are very large to fill, but Linus Eukel, the Executive Director, and Dawn Block, the Past Board of Directors Chair of the John Muir Land Trust have some big feet (or feats if you will).  Please listen as they tell you how they serve the diverse communities in the Bay Area. Maybe you will want to get involved!  Visit their website at jmlt.org.  If you like our podcast, please subscribe.  If you want to visit our website, go to youaredoingwhat.org.

This episode continues on the theme of income inequality.  Our current system has a feedback loop that works to keep rich families rich, and poor families poor.  Wealthy families send their kids to the best schools, provide enrichment and support through tutoring, after school programs, sports and counseling.  These advantages last a lifetime. Further, with these competitive advantages, the earning power of family members remain above those in less fortunate families.  However, we have a subsystem of service to others and charitable giving that can make a difference in peoples lives.  Today we are speaking with Lauren Patrizio Xaba who has created SquashDrive.  This organization provides tutoring, academic counseling, college admission counseling, financial counseling, as well as after school enrichment  programs, summer camps and Squash training.  These programs for under served children in Oakland and the East Bay help children succeed in college and beyond.  While Covid 19 has created additional challenges for SquashDrive, the organization has pivoted and keeps serving those in need.  Learn how to help and take action.  Visit their website at squashdrive.org.  If you like the podcast, please subscribe.  If you want to visit our website, please go to youaredoingwhat.org.

Income inequality is a huge problem to solve.  Service to others and charity can alleviate some of the immediate strains on families. In light of Covid 19 and resulting unemployment and recession, food banks' needs have increased dramatically.  Today, we are speaking with Joel Sjostrom, the President and CEO of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, as well as Dave Kemnitz of D and H Auto Repair.  Joel describes how food insecurity has grown, how many lives are touched by the food bank, who helps, and he shares some of his creativity to feed those in need.  Dave and Dave's wife, Mary, are local Rotary Club members and have run a vehicle donation program for the past 12 years.   Dave and Mary's program "Cars 2nd Chance", have a campaign, in partnership with the Lamorinda Sunrise and Clayton Valley Sunrise Rotary Clubs, to send proceeds from vehicle donations to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.  Join us as we learn about these programs and get inspired!  Use Cars2ndChance.com  to donate your vehicle, or Foodbankccs.org to donate to the food bank directly.  If you like what you hear, please subscribe.

How free and confident would you feel if you did not have access to reasonable health care?  In the US, most us don't ponder this question.  However, more than half of the world's population does not have access to essential health care according to the World Health Organization and the World Bank.  Today, we have Dr. Wendy Leonard, a founder of TIP Global Health.  This organization has developed processes and technologies to improve health care outcomes in Rwanda, Africa.  Their success is so striking that their work is now being adopted in Detroit, Michigan.  And, this is only the start.  Please listen as Dr. Leonard explains the fundamentals of making gains in health care outcomes in challenging environments.  If you want to learn more, you can visit tipglobalhealth.org.  Dr. Leonard is pleased to be contacted as well at Wendy@tipglobalhealth.org.

 Today we are going to continue our discussion on immigration.  I speak with Milli Atkinson, the Legal Director of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative.  The collaborative is made up of 15 different non-profit organizations.  The  collaborative aims to provide legal representation and a host of culturally competent areas of support for people with immigration related challenges.  Legal representation is particularly important because immigrants have no right to legal representation in our country.   Milli gets into the real life challenges that immigrants and our government face.  She describes our system as it was before 2017, and how it has evolved.  Milli goes through a case that she tried and how things have changed since she tried that case.  We speak about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and how Rapid Response Networks have been developed to deal with ICE's tactics.   If you would like to learn more about the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative, you can visit their website at SFILDC.org. For a little context, in the US, prior to 1965, legal immigration was organized on the basis of ethnic quotas.  With the Civil Rights movement, the unfairness of such a system was partially recognized by the government.   Illegal immigration at the time wasn’t really a big issue.  Our foreign born population was quite static.  Our border with Mexico was porous.  Douglas Massey studied migration and observed that immigration was circular.  Seasonal workers would come to the US, then return home.In about 1973, things changed.  Leonard Chapman, a retired Marine, was the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization Service.  A good military man, he made it his job to organize and control the movement of people.  He decided that US borders be rigorously and efficiently controlled.  Perfectly natural for a commander in war who is trying to control territory.The problem with this rigorous enforcement of the border crossings was that it then became much more difficult for seasonal workers to enter the US.  And of course, once they got here to work, they knew it would be difficult to return to the US again, so they had a huge incentive to stay in the US.  And, since they were going to be staying here, they also had a huge incentive to have their family members join them here in the US.The result was that the foreign born population doubled from 1970 to 1990.  It doubled again between 1990 and 2010.  The increase in the 1990’s and first decade of 2000 was in part due to violence and social unrest caused by the civil war in El Salvador,  as well as the destabilization of economies, and gangland development in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.   Some people may argue, not our people, not our problem.  Illegal immigrants use more social services than they pay for here, and that isn’t fair.  The illegal immigrants take American jobs, and that isn’t fair.  I submit, however, that these complaints are simplistic and lack basic compassion. How can you expect people to pay for social services when they are not allowed to pay taxes? The US Government, the Pew Research Center and dozens of Scholars have performed empirical studies that show that immigrants, increase job production and economic growth.  The economist Christophe Albert, and others argue that low skilled illegal immigrant workers actually produce more jobs and increase the well-being for others more than legal immigrants and native US workers in the same sector of the economy.Regardless of where one falls in their opinions, most everyone should agree that there are basic human rights, and that people should be treated fairly and with respect.  The San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative aims to p

I remember being struck while watching the end of the movie, "Into the Wild."  The protagonist is on a solo voyage to Alaska to find himself.  As he lay dying, he scribbles “HAPPINESS IS REAL ONLY WHEN SHARED.”  Human connection is so vital.  It is necessary for mental health.  It is necessary for human achievement.  It is necessary for peaceful civilization.In this episode, we are talking with Jim Marggraff, who is an inventor, and who devotes himself to human connection.  Jim is also very active in local Rotary Clubs and Rotary International.  His contributions to Rotary are innovative and provide mechanisms for the 1,200,000 member club to communicate more effectively within the club, and for groups anywhere.  He speaks to us about technologies that are being used to help people struggling with isolation and Covid related problems.  He speaks about a new non-profit organization that he help create, The Global Impact Group.  This organization uses technology to improve human connection and social welfare.  Jim also speaks about another venture, Kinoo, which is focused on advancing childhood well-being and improving family connection.If you want to learn more, or get involved, you can go to tgig.org, or kinoo.family, or lamorindasunrise.com.