UAW’s President Bob King added, “I hope people look at the auto industry as a model of what should be happening across America. Here’s government and management, business, labor and community all working together and look at the results; everybody is further ahead.”   I also never thought I’d hear such a positive report from America’s autoworkers.

I grew up in Detroit, a child of the UAW and proud of it in my youth!  My father worked for Chrysler for more than 30 years and my mother was at GM almost as long. Yet by the 80s, I was in public relations in New York, representing  industry consultants Oliver Wight Companies  http://www.oliverwight.com/ and publicizing their books about the rise of quality control on production lines and why Japanese automakers understood it and Detroit’s corporate arrogance was in the way.

I’m still sad that it took bankruptcy to get Detroit’s Big Three back on track, especially since their troubles so heavily devastated my hometown.  But I hope you’ll take a moment to look over the CBS story at http://bit.ly/zSseg6  and hear the resounding agreement from managers and employees:  Detroit’s auto industry has made a dramatic U-turn and is coming back. It’s a reaffirmation of the triumph of quality and teamwork.

I had experienced the special joy Martha and Gerald shared with others through their clown company, Carrousel of Clowns, when my late husband and I lived in Los Angeles.  I was especially honored back then in the early ’90s when they asked me to help them create a brochure and invited us to many of their events, including cheering up the elderly in nursing homes and sick children in hospitals, as well as clowning at festivals and parades and private parties.  But I didn’t realize that the clowning began so early in their marriage – and that Gerald had already discovered his lifelong avocation before they met.

Carman George, a reporter for Sierra Star, a local newspaper, captured the joy that clowning brought to their lives and to those around them in a half page article before the event that seemed to set the tone for the actual day.  She also was there that day to chronicle the fun and laughter shared with their friends.

As we entered the community hall, each guest was quietly given a squeezable red clown nose to hide In a pocket so that everyone could surprise the couple before they cut their anniversary cake.  More than 80 people crowded the hall. I sat next to three generations of a family involved in my relatives’ clown company, which is still active in Los Angeles.  They talked about what great role models Martha and Gerald were for them as they shared their love of clowning.

Finally it was time for the toast and Gerry and Martha were asked to close their eyes while everyone put on the red noses.  We toasted the surprised and delighted couple and laughed at each other’s funny faces.  Thank you, Luther and Molly( their clown names), the revelers seemed to be saying, for taking your magic and  laughter to Coarsegold and brightening up the lives of yet another community!!  They love you for it!

SierraStar-smaller

Yet that day we all knew that part of our strength was the ability to trust our vulnerabilities and celebrate the risks we were taking in challenging times.  We also toasted our past victories and laughed together at the joy of being so fearless* that day.

Throughout the holidays, I have encountered equally courageous and innovative leaders from all sectors — corporate America, non-profits,  cooperatives , arts organizations and unions (I recently joined the National Writers Union in time for its 30^th anniversary celebration) and government.

No one knows yet what 2012 will bring, but I hope all those courageous leaders  across the country with bold new ideas and the willingness to take risks will take us in the right direction.  Maybe it will be you!

* I salute my friend Jacqueline Wales for launching an event to celebrate and encourage  “fearless” women leaders! (www. fearlessfactor.com/)

I had just moved to Los Angeles with my late husband Tim Robinson and one of the first big projects at my new job with Braun Ketchum Public Relations was as part of a team coordinating publicity for the concert.  I grew up with Orbison’s haunting, sometimes heartbreaking, operatic rock music and so was not surprised that the evening event brought together so many rock icons who were friends and also influenced by his talent, including Bob Dylan, David Crosby,  Bonnie Raitt, k.d Lang, BB King, John Fogerty, Emmylou Harris, John Lee Hooker and so many more.  On youtube, you can listen to “Only the Lonely” performed by the entire ensemble of super stars and hear Patrick Swayze talk about how Orbison’s friendship  and music changed the actor’s life – songs that he told the audience were about cracking open the shells of our lives and letting other people in (just google “Patrick Swayze at Roy Orbison Concert”).

Because of the work of Barbara Orbison, new generations have been exposed to Orbison’s powerful music and beautiful  lyrics about connecting.  I was saddened that this beautiful woman, like her husband, has left us too soon.  The Orbisons were entrepreneurs and artists who knew how to give back – that memorial concert was also a benefit for the homeless — and the music reminds us to reach out to each other.  What a great message for this season of giving. I’ll never forget the power of that night in Los Angeles and I thank Barbara Orbison for impacting so many lives by sharing her love.

Frank Capra and “Meet John Doe”:

Despite his growing fame throughout  the 1930s, the screwball comedy genius Frank Capra also wanted to establish himself as a serious filmmaker.  Subsequent films like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” with Jimmy Stewart, which he produced in 1939, still did not approach the  success of “It Happened One Night,” a 1934 romantic comedy by screenwriter Robert Riskin that featured Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable.   “It Happened One Night” garnered all five top Oscars, including Best Picture – a feat that was not matched until 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and later in 1991 by “Silence of the Lambs.”  Capra was determined to produce another script by Riskin with a populist theme that reflected his views on America and the fate of the common man during the depression; but  to finance this one, Capra had to first mortgage his house.  The film was “Meet John Doe” with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in the starring roles, which premiered in 1941 and was an immediate hit. It also earned him another Academy Award nomination for best screenplay and has remained a highly regarded film.

As I watched it recently on PBS, I thought of the lingering hardships in this economic cycle and wondered how many brilliant works of art, new inventions or breakthrough ideas are out there waiting for the dreamer to take a huge economic risk in this stagnant economy.

I remain hopeful that the solution to our present malaise is a new wave of innovation, ready for launch, including creating new green products and industries to fight global warming – and new ideas for solving the lingering environmental impact of disasters like the BP Oil spill. I only hope those young innovators have the courage of Frank Capra.

There’s another message in this film.  It was about a young woman reporter about to be fired by her editor as they streamline staff during hard times – she dreamed up a story about an angry common man threatening to jump off a building on Christmas eve and presented it to her editor as her parting shot.  He loved it, even when she admitted that she had invented John Doe, but argued he would be easy to find – she was right.  The movie’s ultimate theme was that people needed to reach out to their neighbors during the depression and help each other – and the result was a political movement of “John Doe” clubs, making sure no one was battling joblessness or foreclosure alone. It’s a message that is timeless and I wanted to share it again.  Thank you, Frank Capra, for the courage to keep sharing your serious side.

Bill didn’t quite reach his goal – it was difficult to get many of the parts he needed to replace.  However he did get the engine purring again and the chassis rebuilt and with some help from my other brother Gilbert, he started driving it that way to local car shows, with a photo display of the new auto from the family archives.  It was a big hit.  The public flocked around his exhibit and the family had fun getting pictures taken driving the sparkling new chassis around the neighborhood. He’s talked to many reporters and finally a story appeared last month in Tech Center News with an interview with both brothers. On a trip home last month, I helped him submit a photo and story to a local newspaper. Who knew that his passion for cars – a common pastime in the Motor City—would make him such a big hit with other car lovers.

The ’29 Chevy was purchased new by my Uncle Joseph Lehotan while an employee of General Motors. He retired after about 35 years.  My brother has a great photo of my Uncle Joe in front of the car with my mother, my Aunt Amelia and my Uncle John – all GM employees.  Those four relatives together represented about 130 years of devotion to the building of General Motors products.

A little research showed that Uncle Joe paid a total of more than $600 for the car from a Detroit area dealership and borrowed $509.40 on a chattel mortgage to afford it. During the depression, my uncle sold the car to his father Joseph Sr., who worked with former United Mine Workers America president John L. Lewis in East St. Louis, Illinois. The car was eventually brought back to Michigan when my grandparents bought and relocated to the Vassar family farm in 1935, one of many Slovak families to settle in that area. For the next 15 years, the Chevy was the family’s main car and was also later used as a utility vehicle on the farm until it was finally stored in the mid-50s.  When my Uncle Andrew passed away several years ago,  Bill bought it from the estate with the intention of restoring it.

Bill is proud to be sharing both his family’s long, devoted work history with General Motors and 82 years of family ownership and caring for their 1929 Chevrolet.  How great that often recognition comes just from pursuing the things we love most!

Her attention then was drawn to Washington DC and the little-known drama behind the Mona Lisa’s tumultuous voyage to this country in 1963.  First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy played a critical role in the painting’s successful debut at the National Gallery and the Met — an 88-day visit that forever changed America’s relationship with high art.  The publication of Mona Lisa in Camelot brought Marnie into the national spotlight a few years ago when it was featured in Vanity Fair and on “Good Morning America.”

Marnie has now been invited to speak at the New York Public Library on how the unprecedented, perilous loan of da Vinci’s masterpiece turned was turned by the First Lady into a powerful Cold War symbol of Western ideals . Now that Jacqueline Kennedy is in the headlines again with the release of her historic conversations with Arthur Schlesinger, don’t miss this chance to hear first-hand a riveting account about this First Lady’s diplomatic genius.

New York Public Library: An Art Book: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and the 1963 Exhibition of Mona Lisa.  Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum, Fifth Ave. at 42nd St.Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 6 – 8 p.m.  FREE – doors open at 5:30pm. First come, first served.

http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2011/10/19/art-book-first-lady-jacqueline-kennedy-and-1963-exhibition-mona-lisa

On the 10th anniversary of 9-11, Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church on Ocean Avenue held an Interfaith Service of Remembrance and Healing that brought together community members from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths and combined liturgical readings and music from each tradition.  The church gathering included two rows of uniformed police officers from the local 70^th precinct.  The clergy told stories of how the events of 9-11 transformed New York and Brooklyn into a small village where everyone helped each other.  I was in living in San Francisco when the towers fell and watched in horror as the tragedy unfolded on the Today Show – then frantically called and e-mailed friends in NY to make sure they were safe. I had lived in this neighborhood before marrying and relocating to California. That service helped me feel more intimately what it was like to be here that day and share  the emotion that still felt strong after ten years.

The following weekend was the Flatbush Frolic, a country fair on Cortelyou Road where local businesses and non-profits showcased “more than socks and sausages,” according to the organizer, the Flatbush Development Corporation.  There were live bands, and scores of food, merchandise and arts and crafts vendors exhibiting their wares and games for the kids. I’m on the Board of the Flatbush Food Co-op, one of the event’s sponsors – and also one of the vendors cooking up hot sausage, in our case the organic kind.   The Co-op’s booth  also featured an organic smoothie made in a juicer  powered  by the Sustainable Flatbush SunBike, a mobile solar-electric system that gets around on a retrofitted cargo bike.

Despite the difficult economy, it seemed like thousands of neighbors came out during the beautiful afternoon to sample a stew of cultural dishes in a zip code that has been called the most diverse in the country.  We may be experiencing hard times, but for one week Ditmas Park showed its small village touch and neighbors whose ancestors came from all areas of the globe hugged and danced.  I find that’s a sign a hope!

She’s just returned from photographing the disappearing glaciers in Glacier National Park in Montana and reports that of the 150 original glaciers, only 25 remain – and those are expected to be gone by 2030 at the latest.  That’s only one of the areas affected by climate change that made her decide to create a project called The Witness Tree so that she could document breathtaking natural beauty around the world that is fast disappearing.

You still have a few days to learn more about her amazing work and help Carolyn raise additional funds by logging onto the websites listed below.  At the very least, give yourself the pleasure of reviewing her spectacular photography!

To make a donation:

http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Witness-Tree

To learn more about Carolyn’s project:

http://carolynmonastra.com/cm/a_WT_start.html

To watch a video discussion about her work with artists Zach Keeting and Chris Joy:

http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2011/08/carolyn-monastra-july-2011.html

Related stories:

How global warming is making hurricanes like Irene worse:

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/08/26/305265/how-global-warming-is-making-hurricane-irene-worse/

When you review the unfolding scenario, it’s clear our leadership did not over-react. As Irene first headed up the coast as a category 2 Hurricane, the worst case scenario presented by meteorologists predicted a slightly weakened category 1 monster  flooding lower Manhattan and driving in the high tides with 100 mile per hour winds.  That scenario could have resulted in severe damage to the subway infrastructure and power grid in the lower Manhattan area, not to mention blown out windows in many high rise buildings throughout the boroughs.  Coastal regions like Coney Island, the Rockaways and Long Beach could have been flooded and cut off from the mainland under this early prediction.

Irene was not downgraded to a tropical storm with winds closer to 60-70 miles per hour until just before the eye of the storm set down on Coney Island on Sunday morning.  I watched the ominous early flooding that could have been so catastrophic if the winds had remained stronger. The fact is New York City had no reported fatalities that day and little major damage.  As the sun returned over New York City on Monday morning, the subways and buses were running again and my neighborhood was cleaning up. Irene had remained a ferocious storm, as thousands of residents flooded out of their homes in Long Island and New Jersey can still attest. Yes, I am grateful for over-preparedness!  That’s  the New York I love!