Freedom Friday - Patience is Freedom - December 3, 2021

Hi Freedom Fans,

Today I'm focusing on freedom from fear. Last week, we thought about how Black Friday creates a lot of fear of missing out (FOMO). This week, I've been focusing on a mindset of patience, and this mindset lines up so well with finding freedom from fear. The unknown is often such a driver of fear. That is where FOMO comes from. It's a fear that, in this case, the unknown is so much better than the current known status.

When I act from fear like this, I always end up disappointed. I don't think it has anything to do with the decision ultimately. I think it is more an issue of timing. Often the things we're concerned about missing out on are things that we typically value. I've become more clear on how timing affects the perception of the outcome.

I know, I know, it is a saying, 'Timing is everything,' but things like this are often so much easier to say than they are to see and harness in our regular lives. Another paraphrasing of a typical cliche, but it does fit. So how do we get distance from our decisions to allow ourselves the freedom of clarity?

I use an idea I call to change the relationship. For me, the idea of changing a relationship with something is a very objective place from which to approach things. This idea allows me to step outside of personal decision-making and creates space to think about the process of decision-making.

What data points do I want to consider before making a final decision? What data points are critical, and what relationship do they have?

What can data points be considered nice to have instead of need to have?

What outcome do I want?

What are the risks?

Is time a factor?

What do I gain from waiting?

What do I lose from waiting?

Changing the relationship is also about reframing. It lets me be open to learning about the current state of the relationship and then make informed choices about how I'd like that relationship to change going forward. It is a continuous improvement process we can use to enable incremental growth.

The growth isn't free, though. It requires me to do the work. I must be open to change and willing to engage at that objective process level. I must be a learner, and I must be patient with myself. Freedom from fear is a simple saying and a clear idea, but it's also all of these things. Patience is freedom. We pay for freedom with patience because we must be patient with others and be patient with ourselves. Otherwise, we will always be a slave to reaction. We are reacting impatiently to every moment. Patience allows us to choose our actions and our timing. We can't control the external stimulus, but we can control how we react to it, and this control manifests through patience.

We can not be both fearful and patient at the same time. That combination is anxiety: the effort to be patient and suppress the fear. So one key for me here is to avoid burying the fear. Fear must be acknowledged, and it forces itself to be recognized. If I attempt to ignore it, it will leak out unhelpfully at undesirable times.

So we must accept that fear will always be there. It does not get to make decisions, but it will always be there, along for the ride. We can examine the fear and learn from it, but we do not let it drive. When fear takes over, it leads us to make ill-timed decisions and disappointment.

Stay Safe Out There!

~Zach

Freedom Friday - November 26, 2021

Hi Friends,

This week, we are landing on "Black Friday." This year has continued the trend towards more retail sales happening earlier in November and leading up to the most extensive sales happening today and into the first part of next week. The supply and logistics issues that have been helping drive up inflation are marginally mitigated with the deals happening now. I'm sure many folks are hoping they can get anything they buy as a present before Christmas.

Before we get too caught up in the FOMO frenzy, it's so helpful to ask, "Who is this for?" You don't need to buy stuff, just because it's on sale. You don't need to spend extra money to buy things you don't need, just because it's on sale. Give yourself the freedom to let some of the things you might want go, so you can have the free space and resources to acquire what you want more.

While I don't get upset about good deals, it is a little bit of a trick pushing us all to go shopping after we've had our Thanksgiving feasts. So many of us are relaxed with full bellies and feel supremely grateful for our many blessings in life. There's hardly a better time to offer us "deals" that help us try to keep those good feelings going. I don't mind the trick. I think it's fair game, but knowing the trick lets you be mindful about it. Only spend money you can afford to spend and only spend on things that have value to you.

On the other hand, the deals on offer right now could bring something you've needed for a while into your price range. Right now could be your time to get freedom from some struggle. It's not just physical goods, but services are on sale as well. Freedom comes in many forms, and if we stay open to it, we will always see it. We may not like the price, but we'll know it's there.

Keep looking for freedom, friends. It may be on a discount right now!

Stay Safe Out There,

~Zach

Civil Liberties in the Time of Covid-19

I wrote this last year and was scared to publish it. Tomorrows post will get a bit more into that, but I wanted to put this out because I can no longer hide behind my fears.

Written April 2020…

As 97% of Americans and billions of people around the world quarantine under shelter-in-place orders or something similar, we’re faced with a growing question, how free are we really?

There are folks out there rebelling against the shelter-in-place orders or restrictions imposed on larger gatherings. Some folks are hosting parties intended to spread this virus. Others are worried about what this means for Democracy and whether it’s allowing Authoritarians to solidify their control over populations.

Freedom of movement is perhaps one of the most fundamental freedoms we need to be happy humans. The vast majority of us that are working to flatten the curve are not doing so because we do not desire this freedom, but we do recognize that in choosing to follow this prescription we’re preventing much greater pain.

The power of choice isn’t unique to the controversial topic of abortion, it is inherent in all of our freedoms. Every freedom represents a nexus of choice and responsibility. For covid there are multiple choices at play.

First, we have the choice on whether to be exposed to the virus or not. Many folks recognize that getting sick would likely limit their choices even as they isolate in their homes. While many who get this virus do not have serious complications, there are still a relatively large number who do. Many have permanent scaring in their lungs which at the very least would limit their choices for future activities and expose them to greater risk of dangerous infections later in life. Being extremely sick at home is one thing, but what if you’ve got kids, what if your significant other has to work. Now the impact is not just on your ability to make choices, but it’s affecting many other folks choices as well.

The scope of choice reduction grows exponentially if the illness rises to the level of requiring hospitalization which is estimated at roughly 20% so far. Once you’re at this stage, you’re basically not making any more of your own choices. You might be taking an opportunity for someone else to be treated or someone might have to choose whether you get life saving care of that goes to someone else. It might be that a choice is made where you don’t make it to an ICU bed and you don’t survive. Along the way you’ve potentially infected countless others and now you’ve limited the choices available to those closest to you who are left to pick up the pieces.

Second, some folks do not have the luxury of choosing to remain home, so the next best thing is choosing to take other precautions such as wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) and practicing excellent hygiene. As a byproduct of these choices, we have the tertiary exposure where those who know they are infected are either careless or intentionally reckless. They take the choice away from others to remain healthy under the guise of exercising and defending their rights. This is a fallacy because we do not have the right to infringe on each others rights in the effort to exercise our own.

Stay Safe Out There,

~Zach

Reopening with Wide Scale Testing for Covid-19 and Antibodies

Hi Y’all,

We need to scale up testing for Covid-19 and the antibodies it leaves in addition to ramping up contact tracing. This is a challenge because it requires making testing available to anyone and potentially mandatory. We need to test people who show no symptoms as well as those who do. We need to know how many folks have had it with and without knowing it. We need to continue testing everyone regularly. We need to have the results quickly and we need to quickly notify anyone who could potentially have been infected.

Without taking these steps we will have a very difficult time mitigating the impact of this virus on our society. Reopening without these data collection efforts will absolutely lead to more damage than would be necessary and will likely stunt the economic benefits of reopening. If consumers don’t feel safe going to places because outbreaks happen seemingly at random and continue holding back on spending because joblessness persists then recovery will be spiky, slow, and inconsistent.

Freedom from disease is important to ensuring a robust recovery. A false sense of security due to lack of information does not make us more free. It only gives the veneer of freedom because we’re simply not aware of what we’re losing until it’s gone. Our health gives us the ability to work and live. Without our health we won’t be able to take advantage of the freedom we so desperately seek to reclaim.

Some folks, roughly 80% of them, won’t be severely impacted by the initial illness. Unfortunately, those folks will infect other people and take the choice away from them. Some folks may get ill and recover from Covid only to left with lung damage or blood clotting that leads to strokes. Lung damage, amputated limbs, and stroke will all be a major loss in freedom for those who suffer them. If only folks who know all the potential risks and have all the data make their own choices and then suffer these problems, that’s one thing. That is not the likely outcome though. The more likely scenario is unknown risks due to lack of data empowering a faulty choice in some which results in the spread to those who didn’t make the same choice.

If we don’t have robust regular testing we won’t know for weeks how massive the spread is. If we don’t have a clear picture of who has antibodies and who does not, it’s much harder to determine whether those folks are getting reinfected or not. If we don’t have a strong contact tracing network we won’t be able to notify all the impacted individuals. If we continue to politicize this issue and distort the reality with rhetoric we will continue to struggle to manage this pandemic.

Thankfully, there are a lot of steps being taken to get us into this position. Google and Apple today released source code for anonymous and autonomous contact tracing. This is a key component that will do more to help mitigate the spread and protect our civil liberties. They have released some key guidelines to help ensure the data is not misused.

https://www.apple.com/covid19/contacttracing

https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/apple-and-google-partner-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/

Bill Gates has released an outline of what is required to build out a more robust scale of testing. We’re a long way from where we need to be, but we can get there. Right now, our testing result time is extremely slow and ineffective. We must do better.

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/TheOptimist

Data modelers are working to automate the modeling and collection of data so we can be better informed.

https://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/

As counties and states reopen, please be mindful of your social responsibility. When you go out, please take precautions, don’t become a burden to your family or community by taking unnecessary risks. Wear a face covering, whether or not your politician of choice thinks it’s necessary. Wash your hands as much as you can. Be aware of the risks and how your choices have the potential to impact others. If you don’t take this seriously, you could sacrifice the long term freedom of someone else as well as your own.

Stay Safe and Healthy Out There,

~Zach

We Deserve the Truth...

Covering up wrong doing is the swamp. If President Trump truly wants to drain the swam, we need a full and fair trial in the senate and he must testify under oath. We need John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney to testify as witnesses under oath. Just obstructing this process by refusing to cooperate is not “draining the swamp.” Obstruction, obfuscation, and distraction are the tools of a cover up by the very swamp he proclaimed he would drain.

Don’t believe that just because the swamp works in what you think is your political best interest now that it will always be that way. Look beyond what feels good in the moment and see that if this is being covered up, what else might be. President Trump says, don’t believe what you are seeing, reading, and hearing. As American’s it is our duty to question the powerful whomever they may be. Even if you trust President Trump and his administration, you must approach it with from a stance of trust, but verify.

We create our world. Our beliefs become our reality. However, that does not control other people. No amount of belief on your part will change the nature of another person. They must operate under their own beliefs. Beliefs of others are not typically discernible without truthful and in-depth communication while also taking into consideration their actions. We can not say for certain what actions an individual may take in the future, but we can attempt to guess based on what we’ve come to know about that persons beliefs.

President Trump has based his entire political identity on creating enemies. He has cast anyone who opposes him as a villain of the worst kind. He has used the fears of his supporters to drive further support in a cynical attempt to solidify his base for many years. His beliefs are sometimes apparent based on how he chooses to communicate and about what, but it’s difficult to know the truth, especially with someone like him.

Do we owe the President or any elected politician the benefit of the doubt? Only if we always doubt their motives regardless of what party they say they belong to. Doubt is healthy, doubting they have negative motives, doubting they are villains, doubting their truthfulness. However, we must then be willing to seek the details to fill in the doubt. We must educate ourselves with the facts to ensure we have the proper knowledge to remain informed and remove the doubts that must be removed.

Some may doubt President Trump did anything wrong. Others may doubt that it is a removable offense. Some may doubt that he honestly wanted to be certain the new Ukrainian government was not corrupt. Others may doubt he was not primarily motivated by a desire to create black propaganda about political rivals. There’s doubts across the spectrum and the only way to resolve them is through a fair and honest trial.

Freedom is not free. If we value our freedom, we must demand a full, fair, and honest trial that transparently displays the full accurate details of the events under investigation. It is the duty of Congress to act as a check on the powers of the presidency.

If not now, when?

Stay Safe Out There!

~Zach

Registered with FEC and Officially Accepting Donations

Today we are officially accepting donations and registered with the FEC. I am excited to be able to get to work on analyzing the root cause of the issues that plague our processes. The system is not working for so many of us, but we can change it. Like any process, the problems are not the people, but defaults in the process that allow for abuse.

We will root out the systemic failures and work with whomever we must to identify concrete solutions. We will support oversight audit processes to ensure effectiveness is established and necessary changes continue to be identified and implemented.

We will restore trust in the system by ensuring transparency and accountability are paramount in all processes.

Together we will make the system work for all of us.