We Need A Bigger Boat
Most of us can recall a few iconic movie lines that remain in our thoughts for much of our lives. Oddly, my most memorable ones often came out of movies released in the 1970's. I'm not sure why this is, but I hypothesize that, around this time, I was exiting puberty and becoming an impressionable teenager released from parental captivity and testing my independence. I was absorbing everything. It was like discovering a new planet. The world was suddenly "my oyster." Those were the proverbial good ol' days that I can't help but to fondly look back upon, as I recall some of the era's most memorable uttering's:
"Go ahead. Make my day." (Dirty Harry, 1971)
"We need a bigger boat." (Jaws, 1975)
"May the force be with you." (Star Wars, 1977)
BA APPLIED MATHEMATICS, MINORS IN ECONOMICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE, UC BERKELEY
MBA, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY
But, my all-time favorite movie line may be one that perhaps very few people have ever heard. It's from a Woody Allen film (and, no, it's not la di da).
"A relationship is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. I think what we have on our hands (throat-clearing) is a dead shark." (Annie Hall, 1977)
The reason this line left such a lasting impression on me, beyond its metaphorical humor, is that it applies to life, in general. It's so easy to watch life pass you by if you don't try to catch up to it now and then. It's a philosophy that has always breathed new air into my lungs, especially when I began hearing the words "senior citizen" and "retirement" creep into casual conversations. I saw my days shortening and time's persistent pace quickening even further with each passing glance of the calendar. I made a commitment to myself to use whatever I had left in my gas tank in noble pursuits that would allow me to look back on my life and on myself and to have no regrets about what I did not do to alter my world, in even the most minuscule way, in a positive direction--to walk away from it all with my head held high, regardless of my innumerable failures and unfulfilled dreams. I simultaneously refused to waste a drop of the potential that was gifted to me by some higher entity and to avoid walking off into that final sunset "not with a bang, but with a whimper." Failure means you tried. Perseverance gets you back on that horse to try again. The self-advice I try to remember each morning is to continue to seek out noble, selfless and passionate pursuits so I can always be at peace with myself and to love myself--flaws and all.
I'll close with one final movie line that I'd like to dedicate to any young people out there who inadvertently clicked on the wrong link and somehow ended up here. It's from Dead Poet's Society (1989):
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To wrap up this long-winded soliloquy, I wanted to mention that I have chosen a few diversions to preoccupy myself outside of my 9-5 property management position. They create those avenues to practice what I preach. The first is my free speech nonprofit, First Amendment Rights Preservation Society, Inc., or FARPS ("FARPS 501(c)(3)" tab). The second is about how I want to give people their voices back in their communities ("DSS LLC" tab). The third is the game of local politics--where it all comes together ("Join the 'Party'" tab).
FARPS 501(C)(3) Tab: The First Amendment rights Preservation Society Inc is an educational nonprofit located in Santa Cruz, CA. The company recently obtained its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status with the IRS and can be found in the California Registry of Charitable Trusts. FARPS has evolved from a protest organization to a think tank of ideas and experiments, all of which are aimed at protecting those who lack any voice in our society from a corrupt power class by probing government and corporate structures which use their monopolies on information to shut down their challengers. It is not just about educating the public and calling out the tyrants that propels us, but also of creating new and better systems of democratic government that give ordinary people back their voices to effect real change in their communities. FARPS is also about rebuilding the community to restore lost voices in a society that has trampled over them, using our megaphone as their conduit to send their messages to the local public and to government leaders. Note: FARPS would risk it nonprofit status by intermingling the corporation into local political campaigns, so it avoids endorsing anything of a political nature, even though, as a 1st Amendment defender, politics is weaved throughout its fabric.
dss llc Tab: Democratic Software Solutions LLC (DSS) is a recently formed limited liability company that designs and develops software solutions, specifically known as E-Democracy voting platforms, which organize, prioritize and channel community voices into policy-making recommendations and directives to steer the direction and voting behavior of their representatives. The company's tagline, "Making Democracies More Democratic," is aimed at addressing the rapid decay in our government institutions that have been hijacked by the power class, operating through our core political parties, for the purpose of circumventing the public will in order to steer policy decisions to its own benefit.
JOIN THE "PARTY" TAB: If my purpose was to act merely as a source of ideas and experiments, this tab wouldn't even exist. But, I'm too impatient to sit idly behind a computer and cross my fingers hoping that one or more of my ideas will somehow be discovered, appreciated and deployed at a political level. Karl Marx (Das Kapital, 1867) had to wait half-a-century before Vladamir Lenin picked up his political football (Russian Revolution, 1917) and ran with it I don't have the luxury of time on my side. So, in November, 2022, I ran for Santa Cruz City Council on many of the themes that were derived from my experiences at FARPS. I lost rather badly on a disruptive platform, but the lessons taught to me were invaluable. So, the saga pushes on. In November, 2024, my goal is to run one candidate in each of the four open districts who will share some of the foundational principles derived from the FARPS think tank. In short, movements take time. They also take persistence, defeat, learning, correcting and re-steering the ship until it is finally able to dock. I want to do this in less than 50 years ... and without a rebellion--and I believe I can--once the people begin to wake up and to recognize the diseased state of its government and the power, new-found individualism and freedom that I am preparing to return to each of them.
