Before spring break I went to talk in the Law School by Trish O’Dell entitled “Should Nature Have Legal Rights.” This talk was centered around the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, which I have previously learned only a little bit about in my Environmental Law and Policy class. A group of citizens wanted to give Lake Erie a Bill of Rights because it is a really crucial resource that is not being protected adequately. Though this Bill of Rights was later overturned, it still made a big impact on the way we think about natural resources because it allowed a much wider audience to be exposed to the idea of rights of nature. 

The Lake Erie Bill of Rights illustrated that we need more than just a law when it comes to changing how we care for nature, we need a culture change. Right now we are so stuck in the mindset that we have the right to use any part of nature that we want to. But the reality is, we have no right to harm nature, certainly not at the rate that we are currently. This comes down to an issue of the tragedy of the commons, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago. We have all been using nature to benefit ourselves close to as much as we want for so long without truly considering the longterm impacts of that behavior. Soon we will be left with an earth that is no longer inhabitable.

O’Dell also pointed out how our leaders are failing us on the environmental front. There are have been almost no environmental regulations since the 1970s and 1980s. They are so hard to get passed because our country is polarized and so divided that people cannot agree on what to pass. Even though we do have some environmental regulation, things are worse now than ever before despite these regulations. The current system of environmental protection is based on a regulatory fallacy. We are only regulating the harm that continues to happen, we are not actually doing anything to stop it. We are only trying to mitigate the impacts of continued harm. It is disappointing that our leaders do not make better decisions for the environment. It feels like a failure to the people they represent because if we don’t protect that natural world we do not have a future. O’Dell emphasized the power of the people to advocate for what we want and think is right and the power to vote and shift who has power.

I found Harvey’s piece to be incredibly interesting, and important in a modern context. Questions such as “who are we” do not receive much direct attention from leaders, yet implicitly, it is one of the most pressing issues of our time. My immediate thought when considering this question is how much it impacts American’s thinking on immigration. Those who oppose free movement often refer to some national identity that must be preserved, yet if they truly considered who we are as a country, such as the fact that Latino’s make up 1/3rd of the American population, their opinions may change. The need for reflection is also incredibly relevant in modern contexts. It is incfedibly necessary to review our past and make sure that we have genuinely improved as a society. If issues of the past are not fixed, history is bound to repeat itself. This instills a bit of fear within me as we begin the ’20s with a pandemic, high levels of global nationalism, and economic downturn. yikes.

Reading Bezio’s piece next, it is clear that we can teach of our mistakes and where society needs improvement through stories. When discussing this piece on slack, I was blown away by the notion that all literature has a meaning to be derived. Bezio focuses much on fiction as well, which is especially intriguing. When looking at children’s stories, this shows how powerful storytelling really can be. We ought to make an effort towards exposing young children to implicitly powerful lessons. This may better prevent the continuation of implicit biases, and the denial of our true history.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/IJH_/delta-air-lines-close-the-gap

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ZhEf/delta-air-lines-same-flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k70OczvX45k

It was hard to choose one as I have always been interested in commercials and advertising. I like how these ads tell a story. They connect to the human experience, are visually pleasing and pull at the heartstrings in one way or another- even though that has seemingly little to do with the product or service being advertised. They show little moments of life, waiting in a crowded elevator, giving one’s child a bath, while also touching on the wonder that comes along with culture and creativity.

The apple ad displays a young woman, going through the gloomy, captivating motions of the workday. This crash-on-the-couch, end of a long workday feeling is familiar to many. The effortless voice activation is a contrast to the hard work that left her exhausted. The following special effects, dancing and smiles bring about the sense of wonder and awe that apple strives to evoke in all customers.

The Delta ad shows babies with appearances that represent an array of different cultures across the world doing the same simple, and unifying task- eating at a table in traditional attire, looking at the world with wide eyes. This is very representative of the message Delta is trying to perpetuate- that all humans have pieces of who we are that we share and we should embrace those similarities while still exploring our beautiful differences.

All of these commercials take it upon themselves to grab the viewer and suck them into their narrative. At least for me, when I was watching these commercials, they were all I was focused on, all I could think about. And once they were over, they left an impression that enabled me to think about and then searches for them later on in the day to watch them again. For this assignment months later,  years in terms of the apple ad, I could still remember images and emotions triggered by the ads and could quickly find them, getting sucked in again as I watched them for the first time in a while.

I like the clothes of the actors, the lighting, the modern and minimalist color scheme that gives off a nostalgic vibe. I feel like the purpose of these ads was to touch on something, anything that connected to the viewer, making them feel closer and more accepted by the brand.

I really enjoyed Harvey’s explanation of why groups exist and the functional role they play in pursuing a shared purpose. He stated that groups aid in the ability to “achieve some collective labor that requires coordination and collaboration”. While I was reading this I came up with and played around with several group scenarios in my head, and was able to apply the factors mentioned to a simple sports team dynamic. In the description of a purposeful group he stated “they need members and ways of organizing them”; a soccer team requires a minimum amount of players with different skill sets, offense, defence, and the transitional middle players. The resources could be applied to uniforms, water, or even substitution players on the sidelines. The “capacity to capture inputs and transform outputs” relates to the ability to translate what is collaborated and worked on in practice onto the field on game day. Harvey states that they “ have a setting, a culture, a history, and a claim of some kind on their members’ participation and commitment”. This highlights the role of narrative can have on the performance of a group; the joint goal and expectation to be a successful team with comradery and heart that comes together to win

A more complex group phenomenon like war or microeconomics considered by a business connects strongly to the  “Where are we?” question. Harvey explains the “importance of external analysis” in the assessment of how a group should proceed; it sets the tone for their social reality. When a group shares the same understanding of where they stand, especially in comparison to outgroups, they are more likely to function as a unit.

This reading was a little difficult for me for whatever reason to understand and absorb the information, however, what I did understand from it is the role in which the leader plays in the leader-follower relationship. Most of the time people solely focus on the leader and the impact they have and I am not discrediting the leader by any means but a leader is not able to exist without followers because he has no one to lead. This reminded me very much so of the readings we had last semester that talked about citizen leadership as well as the Machiavelli Prince reading we had last semester in which he discusses the ways in which to lead. Machiavelli discusses how it is best to be both feared and loved but if you can’t have both it is best to be feared so people will obey you and fear the consequences of failing to do so.

Another thing that stuck out to me was this concept as a leader/businessman how it is best to know who you are rather than where you are going. The reason being if you know who you are then you have the ability to adapt to the ever-changing world around you. The example in which they have in the reading was Ford vs. Sloan in the automobile industry. Ford would only adapt when necessary and was very hard-nosed versus Sloan who was proactive in his ability to change with the times making him successful in the long run.

I thought the Harvey piece was very interesting because I had never related storytelling to leadership before. The more I read, the more I understood that the way the past is presented effects how the present is seen. One example that came to my head is how presidents compare former presidents to themselves. If President Trump claims that Obama’s actions and policies harmed the country and had negative effects, it makes him look better and makes people believe that his actions are much better for everybody. I also thought about how certain races tell different stories of the past in order to justify their actions. The Turkish government not acknowledging that the Armenian Genocide took place saves them thee ridicule of those actions.

To counter these stories and histories, Dr. Bezio’s piece reflected the importance of looking beyond the story itself. Determining who is telling the story, who is listening, when it is being told, etc is equally important. Hence, the moral of a story in the 1600’s would probably be different than the moral of stories today. These pieces made me think about how many stories I know and wonder if they also carried false narratives.

“the importance of storytelling to leadership – not because stories are more true than other forms of communication, but because, well chosen and well told, they convey a kind of condensed truth.”

Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of historical records. The passing of stories is in many ways how we collected information before keep written records. However, like a game of telephone the original story is never the same one that ends up reaching the end. In many cases some of the most important stories were never told. Take for example the movie Hidden Figures. The most important and intelligent people working for nasa were African American Women. However, their narratives for centuries have been excluded. Many stories have died with the people who made them.  This is the misrepresentation that story telling can arise when we cut stories from our past. 

This reading made me think a lot about what I’ve learned in my leadership and Humanities course over the last semester. One of our units focused very specifically on defining leadership, and the role followers play in it. One of the things my professor touched on that spoke to me is the importance of followers in any leadership dynamic. In today’s society, followers are often seen as a minor part in any group, organization, or movement. People prefer to focus on leaders as the key component to understanding a group. However, as the reading also says, this is a faulty view. The groups, and the followers in them, are critical. Even in very top down restrictive organizations such as the Military followers can and do have significant influence on the activities and strategies said group engages in.

Another idea we looked at in my humanities course is different types of followers. One thing the reading mentions in that for leaders the group must come first and depending on the followers this is absolutely correct. Followers who involve themselves more and are devoted to the cause must see their leader as furthering the group towards said cause, or the leader will be at risk of losing their position. Due to this, the leader has to take great care to ensure that their decisions are supported by their followers and help the group at large.

On Friday February 21^st, before COVID- 19, my justice class took a field trip to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture to see the exhibit “The Determined: The 400- Year Struggle for Black Equality” to focus on the inequalities that the African Americans in Richmond faced, as well as the implications regarding schools. This was an excellent exhibit because it walked through the very first arrival of slaves from Africa to the United States and how the process of civil rights got us to present day. The exhibit was very interesting because it really showcased the laws and legislation that the United States has had throughout time regarding African Americans and how far they have come. I thought that it was very well done because along with every milestone that indicated each part of the exhibit, there were multiple perspectives of people from Virginia about how their experience with slavery or the Jim Crow Laws or recent discrimination. I thought that it was especially interesting how in the very beginning they highlighted a story of a nameless woman’s journey from Africa to the US and her experience being sold into slavery. I think that these personal touches throughout really made much more of a lasting impact of the overall experience.

While I already knew the basic history of slavery and the civil rights movement in the United States, I did not realize how long it took, and is still currently taking, Virginia to desegregate its schools. Virginia is one of the states that took the longest to desegregate schools and had to jump through many hoops to do so. I think that it is crazy that Prince Edward County closed all public schools and opened only private schools for white children to avoid having to desegregate. I also cannot fathom how the Virginia state government allowed and encouraged similar things all over the state. Although Virginia has come a long way since that time, schools in Richmond are still segregated, but not by law. The income needed to live in a good suburb and go to a good public school is dominated by white people, and the African American children are still in lesser school because they live in poorer areas. I think that this exhibit is very important to have in Richmond because it reminds us of our past and how far we have come, and it also reminds us how far we still have to go.

One thing the Harvey reading addressed is that “the group comes first” and the guide for this week posed an interesting question: is this a good thing?  I think it is a good thing because unfortunately, power tends to corrupt people and when leaders are too powerful and too self-involved, it becomes problematic.  However,  when groups get too much power they can take on a sort of ‘mob mentality’ so its important to keep a balance of respect for the leader and interest of the group in order to avoid havoc.

I also liked the quote from pg 220 which stated: “the importance of storytelling to leadership – not because stories are more true than other forms of communication, but because, well chosen and well told, they convey a kind of condensed truth.”  I think this quote relates to the systems theory of simplification and its benefits.  The reading mentions FDR’s fireside chats but I also thought of crash course educational videos.  They are another example of how simplification and context are beneficial in conveying a message.  In this case, the crash course teacher/narrator would take the leader role while the students/viewers would take the group role.  These videos also show how the group’s best interest is kept in mind because these videos are made specifically to aid the students as extra resources.