America First?

When my family moved to a new residence in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, I was 5 years old and while the adults were busy taking care of the move, I had important business of my own. I went next door to see if there were kids I could play with. Indeed there were - Todd and Lisa were 6 and 4 respectively and immediately we start to play together. Our ideas in collaboration were grand - we had a band - I already was playing guitar and a set of boxes provided a drum. We built forts. We rode bikes. We ate at each others houses, we walked to school together.

It's natural for us to collaborate, to share. We are more than the sum of our parts when we do. And there's value beyond the immediacy of the moment. I have not seen Todd or Lisa for many years - life took us down different paths, but I still value the interaction, the collaboration, the sharing.

Throughout that, I never starved because i was sharing. I never suffered for it - scarcity mentality was unknown to me and I was taught to share, to help others, to collaborate, to discuss. My folks were at least moderate intellectuals and they taught me a lot about interacting with others.

That's why this idea of "America First" is so troubling. Yes - we always make sure we keep our own health and interests in mind - but not to the exclusion of others. If I gave a neighbor half my peanut butter sandwich, I wasn't expecting anything in return, except, perhaps, goodwill.

Since WWII we've been a leader of the world, understanding that if we help others achieve their goals, we achieve our goals - we get where we are going by helping others too. The very idea that we would abandon our leadership role, because we "aren't getting anything" from others is ludicrous. As we retreat, we give up leadership in economic markets, in technology, in business services, in design and engineering. And instead, we replace it with greed and avarice, like a spoiled child saying "the toy is mine. It's mine, not yours".

Propaganda is put out to support the position supposing that we are giving money to other countries and that is what is keeping us from treating our veterans or our poor well - when in reality, we can and need to do both. We can help others in need both here and outside of the country.

We are a country of immigrants and yet we are closing our doors to the tired, the hungry and the poor - just like our Grandparents were when they came here? When I see us pulling out of Climate accords, when we talk about leaving the United Nations or berating our NATO allies in public, I see this selfishness. If we need others to rise to a challenge, we need to coach and mentor, negotiate in good faith.

America First is really code for "It is all mine". And that spoiled, greedy child cannot thrive. We need to embrace others. We need to compete, yes, but also be collaborators, philanthropists and most importantly, support our fellow humans. It is not through selfishness we rise. It is through the giving of ourselves. Take care of ourselves, yes. But that doesn't have to happen at the exclusion of others. It's not all or nothing.

We not only succeed with our fellow humans, but we succeed because they succeed (and vice versa). That deep friendship, dependence and integration make us stronger, not weaker. Is it harder? Sometimes, because you have to negotiate not dictate. Collaborate, not demand.

Good leaders know, you don't succeed by thinking your the smartest and telling people what to do. You hire good people and work together to achieve. Leadership is supporting those you lead and helping remove obstacles. Not in demanding.

We can do both. We can look after our interests and collaborate and help others. We never stop keeping our own interests in mind, we just don't do it to the exclusion of others interests. That's how we win. That's how we all, as a world, win.