teaching the
awesome potential of being human
Researching
the values of heroes who compassionately
crusaded for peace using excellence, dignity, and endurance as their weapons
of choice
|
teaching the
awesome potential of being human
|
| 6752 Bancroft Street P.O. Box 642 Hiram, Ohio 44234-0642 - 330-569-4912 |
Keynote Speeches, Seminars, and Workshops in Leadership and Conflict
Resolution
Based on the values, conflict-resolution, and
problem-solving abilities of world heroes of peace.
Some Keynote Speech and Workshop Topics
If you do not change your direction, you'll end up
where you're headed!
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When the safety of millions of people was entangled in the traditions of oppression, what values did Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Mahatma Gandhi employ to come closer to freedom and equality without offending their adversaries? How did Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Eleanor Roosevelt, when operating under great stress, remain calm and guide their decisions based on peace? When confronting extreme tyrannical rule, what persuasive means did Genetta Sagan and Shirin Edadi use to calm dictators into reason? What techniques of persistence did the Tuskegee Airmen and William Wilberforce utilize to manifest revolutionary awareness for the dignity of man?I. Leadership Based on World Heroes of Peace
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II. Hero's Problem-Solving Matrix -
Leadership through Peaceful Crisis Management
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My research revealed how world heroes solved their problems peacefully while always advancing toward their goals. This remarkable process is taught in my field-tested, problem-solving matrix. The matrix is designed for solving sensitive or difficult issues involving people. It serves the interests, goals, feelings, and dignity of all people involved - especially your adversaries.
The matrix works for business, political, military, diplomatic, family, and personal problems.
The matrix resolves issues peacefully while maintaining your adversary’s dignity.
The matrix works for problems from a minor annoyance through a major crisis.
The matrix can be used in individual or in team and group environments.
The matrix puts the problem into its proper perspective with a higher goal.
The matrix solution must always create an advancement toward the goal.
The matrix helps determine if the problem is stated correctly.
The matrix helps insure that the solution is realistic.
The matrix guards the solution from creating new problems that must be dealt with later (burning bridges or alienating others).
III. Diversity: Our Greatest Problem; Our Greatest Asset
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Long before man walked upright,
diversity was used as a means to separate and
discriminate against others in a power struggle for political and social
dominance. Discrimination occurs when a more powerful group restricts
the availability of resources (money, jobs, education, housing, political
power, social status, medical benefits) to a less powerful group for the
reason of maintaining dominance. Almost every race, culture, political
entity, and social group throughout the history of man, has used
diversity to encourage discrimination. It is an instinct engrained
in Homo sapiens as a means of survival in more primitive times.
Diversity, however, is one of man's greatest assets and can be used
to promote understanding, peace, education, problem-solving, and conflict
resolution. Diversity used with wisdom will truly enrich the human experience.
Why has such a beneficial
characteristic been used as a weapon instead of a tool for the benefit of
others? What can we do to help change this paradox?
IV.
Overcoming Our Instincts and Related Aggressive Behavior
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The only difference between the DNA of a human and an ape is 1.5%.
Our behavior is mostly governed by the instincts of aggression, dominance,
competition, jealousy, acceptance, self-esteem,
and searching for a mate.
These instincts worked very well in the hunting-and-gathering clans 120,000
years ago. They are creating havoc in our modern cultures.
Domestic violence, teenage gangs, corporate takeovers, violent crimes, war,
and discrimination are examples of the dominance and aggression that
have plagued our society since homo sapiens migrated out of Africa.
The need to join groups is a strong instinct. Our political and religious
groups have resulted in thousands of wars and conflicts throughout
history. However, these groups are necessary for sharing our ideas and
assets.
How have heroes of peace overcome these instincts while
maintaining their peaceful interactions with others? How do our instincts cause severe
problems in our personal affiliations, our work place environments, our
political affiliations, and our personal relationships?
The
instincts of dominance, aggression, and self-esteem have resulted in a
multitude of social problems. The history of the United States reveals
this as Anglo-Saxons tried to interact with the Native Americans,
blacks, Irish, Italians, Jews, Chinese, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and many
other groups. This is true throughout the world as the Catholics and
Protestants in Ireland, the Israelites Palestinians in the Middle East, the
Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, and hundreds of other conflicting groups try to
peacefully interact.
Taking a closer look at
ourselves is often uncomfortable. If you are inspired to become a true leader, an effective
supervisor, a nurturing parent, a group mentor, or a loving and considerate
mate, understanding this subject matter will benefit your endeavor in many
ways.
V. Street Children of the World - It's Time to Realize What's Happening!
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According to the United
Nations, there are 150 million street children throughout the world. They
range in age from three to sixteen. Some are abandoned orphans, many are
refugees from wars or genocides, others are exploited for free labor or sex,
and some are referred to as children-of-the-dump because they try to
survive from city garbage dumps around the world. Let's not forget the
thousands of exploited child soldiers or the children who have become
runaways or throwaways from abused homes. This is a global problem. Here
are some of the
countries adding to the horror:
Asia – 25 million, Africa – 15 million, Netherlands – 7,000, France –
10,000, Turkey – 7,000,
Moscow City – 5,000 per
year,
Mexico – 2 million, India – 15 Million, and the United States, with all its
opportunities, has 1.3 million street children. Over 4,000 new street
children are added to these ranks each year in the city of San Francisco
alone.
It is time to understand where these children
originate, how they are being exploited, and what we can do to make a major
and positive difference in a world gone mad.
VI. Clean Water for the World - 25% of the Earth's Population Goes Without!
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According to the World Health Organization, 25% of the
people of the world, that's 1.6 billion people, have no clean water and are
forced to drink polluted water every day. 30,000 children under 5 years of
age died from the lack of water or from diseases caused by drinking polluted
water - YESTERDAY! Many
children cannot go to school because each day is spent searching for water.
In the evening, if a child returns home without water, they are often
beaten, even though the water they do find is often so polluted it pours
like syrup. This is beyond comprehension.
Without clean water, people cannot concentrate on housing, education,
health, employment, or even gathering food. Clean water is necessary for
life, and precedes all other forms of humanitarian needs.
A study was made of forty-nine water wells placed in villages throughout
Nigeria. Two years after their installation, thirty-two of them were not
working. Many required repairs as minor as replacing a cotter pin. How can
water projects be started and guarantee they will remain viable for the
years to come?
If it took you one minute to read
this speech topic VI., eight children died from the effects of polluted
water while you were reading. Why is this problem so prolific? What
can be done about it? What is being done about it?
VII.
The Inspiring SSSSH Phenomena:
Anonymous Giving to Strangers
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The basis of SSSSH is giving to total strangers anonymously. Creating more
goodness in the world just for the sake of creating more goodness, that’s
what SSSSH is all about – giving to strangers while partaking in little
adventures, giving without stroking our egos. SSSSH members call this
ego-free compassion.
SSSSH is designed to
promote a healthy, peaceful society that will welcome and celebrate
diversity, embrace all humanity, and through acts of kindness,
instill in ourselves and others compassion, creativity, imagination, and
sacrifice - the true values of being human. The wondrous internal peace developed through anonymous giving to
total strangers is coupled with a remarkable sense of community,
equality, and appreciation for diversity through this inspirational
phenomena. A remarkable leadership experience.
SSSSH is one of the most unique
organizations in the world – for we are intangible, yet everywhere,
structured by pure spirit and governed only by benevolent goodness. SSSSH
exists solely in the compassionate spirits of our anonymous members, for we
have no address, headquarters, telephone, bank account, employees, or
membership cards. Our assets are the incentive, resources, imagination, and
generosity of our colleagues and our future growth is bound only by the
limits of imagination and love in our members’ hearts. Our main point of
contact is this Website floating around in Cyberspace. Our only bylaws are
anonymity and our only requirement for membership is an unsigned letter or
email with no return address describing an anonymous good deed - preferably
for a total stranger. Thus, we have an estimated 40,000 members, but we do
not know their names or addresses. We thrive on adventure and carry
serendipity around on our shoulder. Join SSSSH now!
We are all
surrounded by a selfish materialistic world. SSSSH can reward us with the
benefits of giving anonymously emphasizing that performing good deeds
without rewards can be a special experience. This is an especially wonderful
and enlightening experience for our children. See our
School Programs
and our Children's Page.
SSSSH
activities have been used by corporations, higher educational institutions,
local schools, families, and civic groups to promote diversity, leadership,
and camaraderie.
VIII. Grass-Root Entrepreneurs
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Living among the world’s poorest are some very intelligent people
fully capable of becoming successful entrepreneurs from deep within
their poverty-stricken community. One girl, living in a home without
running water or electricity, received outstanding grades in science and
mathematics throughout high school. She simply walked six miles to school
everyday and studied until the sun set. Another man is supporting ten
families. He picks up garbage, beer and soda cans, and cuts them and
fashions them into beautiful metal flowers and other works of art! A
lady named Glenys teaches nine year old prostitutes the art of sewing,
craft, and jewelry making allowing many of these street children to support
themselves in a more favorable maner.
These
remarkable people, these diamonds in the dust, can
significantly attack world poverty from the inside. How? Where can they
be found? What are some of the political and cultural problems one might
encounter trying to help the impoverished in third-world countries? How can
one ensure that their donations are received by the intended parties and
that their money is spent wisely? In what kind of business might an impoverished
person engage? Are micro banks available to help? This presentation is
derived from several missionary trips to South Africa and Nicaragua over a
six-year period. You will not believe the power of one!
IX. The Tuskegee Airmen -
One of the Most Remarkable Groups of Individuals in American History
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The
Tuskegee Airmen and Women were the first black military pilots and support
crews in the United States. Starting in 1941, they were an experiment
designed for failure to show everyone that blacks did not possess the
intelligence, courage, or ability to fly or manage aircraft. However,
despite cruel discrimination, inferior equipment, unreasonable standards,
restricted rights, limited privileges, insufficient opportunities, and
little support, the Tuskegee Airmen succeeded beyond all reason with
unprecedented achievements still
unmatched today! They fought and died
for a country that gave them fewer rights as citizens than were granted
captured German soldiers confined in our prisoner-of-war camps.
To demonstrate their exceptional internal values, the Tuskegee Airmen formed
an allegiance with those plotting their failure and demise, and to validate
their strength of character, they excelled beyond expectations for those
believing them to be substandard. Therefore, each morning the Tuskegee
Airmen tried to take total control, not over others, but over how they
reacted to them.
The Tuskegee Airmen's ability to accomplish nearly impossible tasks
while operating in an environment of extreme duress is a talent that must
be
passed on to others, and the knowledge of how to defeat one's enemies while
maintaining their enemy's dignity is a skill that
must
be preserved for the enrichment of future
generations.
The Tuskegee Airmen’s legacy to the world is their values, their
peaceful conflict resolution techniques, and their problem-solving
abilities. They always maintained the dignity of their adversaries, and they
knew this was the only road to lasting
peace.
X. Secret Black Military
Units of WWII
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Did you know:
* Oregon was attacked by the Japanese in WWII
by a submarine? The Japanese launched in the jet stream over 9,000
fire-bomb balloons that set forest fires in Washington, Colorado,
California, Oregon, and Montana? An all-black secret air borne division, the 555th triple nickels, spent the war
putting out these forest fires pioneering all the modern smoke-jumping
techniques used today?
* The USS Mason, an black-crewed destroyer escort, saved an entire convoy
single handedly in the North Atlantic before it was scrapped?
* The Red Ball Express,
created by General Patton as a primary logistics convoy of nearly all
black military, only existed for three weeks, but shortened WWII by over
one year?
* The 761st all-black Tank Battalion spent six months on Patton’s front lines.
Other troops were rotated every few weeks. You will not believe these and
more stories about our black military heroes that were kept a secret for
over 60 years.
* When Teddy Roosevelt charged up San Juan Hill in
Cuba he was accompanied by two military units: (1) The all white New York
Rangers and (2) the all black Buffalo Soldiers. After the New York Rangers
dropped the flag and retreated because of heavy Spanish resisatance, the
Buffalo Soldiers picked up the flag and led a successful charge to the top
of San Juan Hill and to victory.
* The famed Tuskegee Airmen, after
returning from the war as unprecedented heroes, had their records classified
and kept a secret for 25 years after WWII?
Why were these and other extremely successful black military units kept a secret? Why were these units formed if their original intent was never to go into battle? How could such units be so successful while working under extreme prejudice and discrimination? This is a wonderful, sad, fascinating, and inspiriting story that will force us to look very closely at ourselves and our history.
Fees for keynote speeches and workshops
All of these topics
can be custom designed and presented as:
1. a one-hour keynote speech -
$1,500
2. a three hour workshop - $2,500
3. a five to six-hour
seminar - $5,000
4. a two-day conference or symposium - $10,000
(The number of attendees at your function does not increase the fee
other than the cost of handout materials. Prices do not include travel
expenses.)
Important Related Links to Our Activities
Children of the Dump - Nicaragua
The Tuskegee Airmen Home Page - North Coast Chapter
Roger F. Cram