Where do you stand?
Message from Milenko
When the environment goes to toxic hell, we should speak out on its behalf. When justice is thrown out the window, we must demand corrections. When a tomato travels farther to reach my table than my grandfather did in his entire life, we need to support local growers.
When the system breaks, when we lose track of what’s important at the center, we need to point out the problem and correct it. Today, there are thousands of causes that require this kind of leadership.
However, when I think about all these causes, one key question stands out for me: how does each important issue align with all the other important issues?
Over the course of my career, I’ve seen many a powerful leader or activist promote his or her work as if it is the only important one.
Society is one integrated system. Imagine it as a wheel: it can only work when all the spokes align in the center and on the rim. To make one spoke longer or to have another missing makes the wheel wobbly. With this perspective, to be a spokes-person (ha, ha) for one issue only is not enough. Our efforts must strengthen the whole wheel. The question is how each activity supports others.
This perspective of community building requires a different kind of leadership. It needs leaders who stand, first and foremost, at the center of the wheel and lead from the knowledge that economy, environment, education, equity, aesthetics, ethics, justice, health are all equally important. The result of each project should be a multiple victory. Ideally, a project is good for all spokes of the wheel. To advance any one issue at the expense of others just makes our society wobbly.