Exchanging Ideas Over the Fourth...

We met again last night on the occasion of the Fourth of July…

Virtually everyone there had been an executive. One was a former Nam Vet who went into pharmaceuticals, there was a start up guru, a mathematician in the computer field,
A lawyer with an engineering degree, a lab scientists, a former Vice President of a major human resources company, a banking official, a former assistant to one of the leading Wall Street execs and myself.

This montage of diverse personalities with diverse backgrounds of every description was comprised of both republicans and democrats, most were political.

Our getting together promises to become a tradition because we all like each other.

Our hosts, whom we have known for longer than I know my wife, are testimony to the fact that we keep our friends…

What was interesting was in a completely unsolicited way, this group had no love for the president or the current administration. The pharmaceutical executive who had gone to Vietnam during 1967 said that he ‘was the ultimate Evil!” and nobody disputed his remark. Mind you, this is a very mixed group….

We talked about many things from pending legislation to the “snow ball” effect, global warming and the effects of poisoning the air we breath and the water we drink.

What was clear was that everyone was aware of the problems that confront us and we were all literally on the same page.

While what distinguished this group was that they were all in the mainstream and world-traveled and sophisticated, none seemed to indicate that although they could verbalize the problem, that they could resolve it.

None of the conversation moved into the area of “fixing the problem…”

And what was not said was almost if not more compelling than what was.

There were differing opinions, of course.

One of the biggest arguments was brought on by the “start-up” executive who said that Emily’s list was pushing to protect the Speaker’s seat.

She pointed out that the Speaker was the one being challenged and that it was necessary to come out to aggressively protect Ms.Pelosi against the challenges of the republicans who would love to see her lose her seat.

The other person said that Emily’s list had the wrong priority; that it was more important to elect Hillary Clinton.

My own view was that it was not a question of getting behind Hillary necessarily but finding the right candidate who could win, man or woman.

Everyone followed the conversations with great interest.

We talked about everything from conspiracy theory to the immediate challenges we face.

When we got round to the effects of global warming, we talked about what we could look forward to and since I had been working with a local oceanographic specialist working in the area of global warming, I trotted out his simulations drawn from real time measurements and probability models.

They wanted to know what the results were.

I told them not to make long term plans.
As it turned out, by 2050, about one third of the state would be under water; by the turn of the next century, there would be no more state.

They sighed and said that they would tell the kids not to expect to live on their parent’s real estate investment.

At the end, despite our differences, we clasped each other in friendship and vowed to get together for dinner again.

It was a delightful evening of interesting conversation; next time, however, I hope to get the group to explore solutions.

Les Aaron