PATRIOTISM WITHOUT A PARADE

Published on Newsmax. #LoveAmerica #DrainTheSwamp

The swamp at center stage is the last thing Trump should want.

Trump ran to drain Washington, DC’s swamp. He ran on dismantling America’s corrupt and unaccountable power center.

The last thing America needs is for the world’s attention to be fixed on a parade in Washington, DC. The swamp’s elite will hold viewing parties and be comforted in the visual validation that really important things only happen in Washington, DC.

America is a federal system. This means power is distributed to the states. Republicans embrace power being based locally. Republicans embrace the private sector and actions centered within families and neighborhoods.

A big national parade, like Bastille Day in France, is not America. France is a national government. Its entire history is based on centralized government. Even regionalism is discouraged.

Military parades in France versus America are not about Parisian cobble stones bearing the weight of tanks better than Washington’s pavement. Washington, DC hosted military parades after the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the First Iraq War. No parade occurred for the end of the Cold War, one of the most important victories in world history.

Americans honor heroes, military and first responders, in countless community events. Every Memorial Day, honoring those who died for America, and Veterans Day, honoring those who served America, ten of millions of ordinary citizens attend local events. Parades, speeches, memorials occur on main streets, public squares, in churches and cemeteries. Americans do not need or want Washington, DC upstaging them in honoring our heroes. The swamp should not prevail.

President Trump can do something very patriotic and meaningful that will last far beyond one flashy display in Washington, DC. He can reignite patriotism in the next generation.

Civics are rarely taught in American classrooms. History is shrunk and dumbed-down. For America to remain America, the young must be taught why we should love America and the ways to express that love.

Organizations like Constituting America make America’s founding principles and documents come alive to young people. Their lesson plans, contests, and creative programs should be promoted in the curriculum and content of all K-12 classrooms.

A rural middle school holds an award-winning immersion on what it is was like to be a Civil War soldier. A small university has students write the life stories of local soldiers who died and have them read their paper while standing next to that soldier’s grave. Every school day, inspired teachers find ways to make learning a life changing and affirming experience.

President Trump should make sure these proven ways to establish patriotism among America’s young people are promoted and funded. The Department of Education could establish grant guidelines that fund patriotic and civic education. The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities could fund projects and programs that promote patriotism and civic education. Trump should appoint leaders to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting who will make honoring America’s military a program priority.

There are proven ways to make sure the legacy of Americans who served, and who gave their lives, live on in the hearts and minds of the young. Teaching patriotism to future generations assures America remains America.

Parades are fun and can be very moving, but they are fleeting. Honoring America’s military, and America, should be timeless.

[Scot Faulkner advises corporations and governments on how to save billions of dollars by achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served on the White House Staff, and as an Executive Branch Appointee.]

Vacuous VA

The following was published in The Washington Examiner.

http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/ronald-reagan-era-cleanup-of-general-services-administration-shows-how-to-fix-veterans-affairs-after-eric-shinseki-is-gone/article/2548602

Shinseki must go.  It is unconscionable for a leader to be so asleep at the switch.

 

Secretary Shinseki’s lack of curiosity is a fundamental flaw.  No leader, especially a Cabinet Secretary responsible for the well-being of America’s veterans, should be allowed to remain after their inaction caused unwarranted deaths.  Shinseki’s after the fact display of concern is not a sufficient atonement for what happened. 

 

Real leaders are pro-active and follow-up.  No matter how much they trust their subordinates, a real leader random checks and deep dives within their organization to independently verify actions, gain important insights, and connect with their colleagues.  Shinseki did none of these and lives were lost.

 

An example of a real leader is Gerry Carmen’s tenure as Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) under Ronald Reagan. In1980, the GSA was one of the most scandal ridden agencies of the federal government.  President Reagan picked Carmen, a no nonsense auto parts entrepreneur from New Hampshire, to clean up the GSA. 

 

Carmen immediately took steps to turn around the GSA. He elevated three whistleblowers (who had been ostracized and marginalized under President Carter) to key positions and began to hold people accountable. In league with the whistleblowers and investigative journalists, Carmen and his team dusted off mountains of unread Inspector General Reports, worked closely with the Justice Department, and sent forty eight corrupt GSA officials to jail.   The signal was crystal clear; GSA was to be an honest agency with zero tolerance for waste, fraud, or abuse.

 

His first opportunity for operational change was reducing processing time for federal supplies.  The average “work in process” (WIP) time for an agency supply order to move from order entry to shipment was 45 days.  Carmen ordered that WIP be reduced to nine days. A new reporting unit, Program Control, was established to directly monitor operations and measure performance. 

 

Within the first weeks, WIP magically fell to nine days in reports from the GSA warehouses.  Carmen did not believe it.  An immediate audit of the warehouse reports showed that warehouse managers had redefined WIP to only cover activity related to preparing supplies for shipment.  Just like at the Department of Veterans Affairs, career bureaucrats created a parallel set of measures to erase a backlog.  Unlike the V.A., Carmen and his team, ferreted out the subterfuge and fired those who cooked the books.

 

One Washington, DC area GSA warehouse did not “cook the books”.  However, the warehouse manager complained that he could not reduce WIP unless he had ten more fork lifts.  Once again, Carmen wasn’t buying it.  He made an unannounced visit to the warehouse and discovered forty fork lifts, fifteen of which were disabled waiting long overdue repairs.  Carmen also reviewed the operational logs and unearthed the fact that there were only twenty certified fork lift operators.  No effort had been made to certify new operators after a dozen had left or retired.  The Washington warehouse manager was immediately placed on administrative leave and was jettisoned from government service within the month.

 

Shinseki was not confronted with flim flams over supply chain management; he confronted manipulations that impacted lives.  His passivity is unforgivable.  He insulted everyone involved by hiding behind the lamest excuse of all – trying to minimize the scope of his negligence.  Shinseki declared, “Most veterans are satisfied with the quality of their V.A. health care, but we must do more to improve timely access to that care.”

The removal of Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the under secretary for health, is clearly not enough. Tom Tarantino, with The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, correctly asserted, “We don’t need the V.A. to find a scapegoat. We need an actual plan to restore a culture of accountability throughout the V.A.”

That can only happen with a new leader, who actually knows how to lead.

[Scot Faulkner led the Office of Program Control for Gerry Carmen at the GSA.  He also led the clean-up of Congressional operations as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. http://citizenoversight.blogspot.com/ ]