Notes from the Left Coast

Drummond Pike’s Blog

While this blog reflects my personal opinions, it is also an institutional vehicle for Tides and should reflect the institutional positions of the organization–which is why I am removing this post.

Buried away in our non-profit bunker, where things political are verboten, some of us struggle with how to hold true to our commitments and values. So, let me begin by saying that I do not advocate on behalf of either of the presidential candidates. This is my day job, and I’m simply not allowed to do that – a fair trade for all the privileges that accompany the non-profit status of my employer. But another tenet of my employment is that Tides has organizationally stood by the cause of racial justice for decades. It is with that in mind that I share these thoughts.

Over the weekend, a brouhaha emerged over John McCain’s assertion that Barack Obama had played the “race card” when, in a stump speech he’s used for some time, he suggested that the other side would “try to make you scared of me” by saying he’s “not patriotic enough,” he has “a funny name,” and that he doesn’t “look like a lot of those other presidents on dollar bills.” It’s a stretch (more…)

Sy Hersh’s recent piece (New Yorker Magazine, July 7 & 14 , 2008 Issue) is one of the most frightening pieces I have read in years. In it, with his deft storytelling, he paints a picture of a struggle between the military command structure and the White House (primarily Dick Cheney) that has been pursuing an independent strategy to destabilize Iran.

Two things astonish: first, what was long thought a settled matter about the ability of the military command structure to oversee all field activities involving the use of lethal force, particularly important in a theater of operations such as the Middle East where what happens in a neighboring country can have very direct impact on our troops on the ground, turns out not to be the case. After all the scandals involving White House sanctioned “special operations,” Congress finally locked down the ability for independent action outside the military lines of command via the 1986 Defense Reorganization Actl…or did it? Remember the Iran Contra debacle? (more…)

One of the perennial debates in the funding community revolves around the question of boundaries and role with regard to the groups we fund. Are we venture capitalists where, by virtue of the grants we have made, we have a seat at the table? Should we insist on an E.D. stepping down if we observe poor performance? Should we withhold further funding until changes we believe warranted become reality? Let’s call this the “venture” model, as many have done.

Or, should we see ourselves in a more passive role, financing the work of organizations, holding them accountable to stated goals and objectives, and observing weaknesses with constructive suggestions on what they might do? Let’s call this the “supportive” model.
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I’ve spent the last couple of months working harder, and more excitedly, on something than I ever have, at least so far as my aging, addled memory can recall. It is, believe it or not, all about a repurposed conference that Tides has done a couple of times before. Momentum. Now, you might ask, why in the world would a normal person get so exercised about organizing a conference? Here’s why.

I graduated from college in 1970 in the middle of Nixon’s first term (he was impeached during his 2nd). At the time, the Woodstock generation was in ascendancy and grinding through a social change agenda as though ordained by the gods. Civil rights had finally come to people of color, farmworkers had succeeded in forming a union (still hard fought by agribusiness), the women’s movement was emerging as a force to change seemingly intractable traditions, and the Vietnam War seemed to linger just to remind us why attaining and exercising power was so important. For me personally, Bobby Kennedy’s race in 1968 inspired a sense of what was possible, despite his tragic assassination. Looking forward, at 21, to the coming years, I was so certain that our generation was going to transform American society into an enlightened, tolerant, moral force in the world. How could it not? (more…)

I was amazed yesterday to learn that someone actually reads these blogs out there. Turns out that I’d tried to make a point - one that I believe in - but that I’d done so in a flip manner. Institutions, it turns out, are people. And people react to being criticized. All very normal. It would help, of course, if I could learn to remember this when writing about others.

So, I wrote a blog about the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the controversy about a column they published on structural racism - a relatively new and, in many circles, respected analysis. Its title included the name of Reverand Wright - the controversial former pastor of Barack Obama’s now former church. In both the column and in the lengthy response to numerous letters to the Editor, the author sprinkled quite liberally references to both Obama and (more…)

An interesting report in this morning’s NY Times: “Challenging the IRS” which describes an emerging aggressive strategy by the “Alliance Defense Fund” (described as “a conservative legal group”) that is recruiting 50 pastors across the country to engage in simultaneous electoral advocacy on September 28th. The purpose, it is suggested, is to raise the visibility of the issue of the IRS prohibition on tax exempt organizations, including churches, from express advocacy for or against candidates running for public office.

As we all know, over the past 28 years or more, we have seen a rising, often very conservative, element in the faith community engaging closer and closer to the line separating church and state. This time honored principle in American democracy seems to matter less to the likes of Bill Keller, the evangelist whose “Liveprayer.com” is under investigation because he admonished his followers that “a vote for Romney was a vote for Satan.” (more…)

This has been one weird week. As fuel prices rise, I feel like I’m a one man band causing scarcity across the country. Here’s the past week:

Last Friday, flew to Chicago at the end of a busy day in SF and overnighted at the O’Hare Hilton. Now there’s a fun time. At least I avoided the tunnel and broke out into the big outdoors to a fantastic 70 degree evening in Chicago. Gorgeous weather as I crossed the traffic bound street to some odd stares of a couple of cabbies. Up early the next day to catch a plane to Hartford, Conn. where, thank the goddess, Kim had hired a car to get me to the Threshold meeting in an obscure NW corner of the state in Lakeville. Turned out the previous day they’d been hit with a storm that left dozens of stately trees lying across streets and driveways. Looked like a tornado had hit. Jumped into the Threshold swirl, as Ann B. once termed it, and helped out with orientation. Had a great walk with my old friend, Roger Miliken from Maine. Once my partner on a wilderness fast for four nights alone in the White Mountains, he’s become a regular guide for others in a questing frame of mind. Found myself drawn back to that deep time, as Roger and I walked in pitch black darkness down to the lake and caught up.

Threshold has become a treasure and a long time partner/ally of Tides, and both of us have thrived from the synergy. I was remarking to John H., who is just finishing up with his (more…)

I’ve spent part of each of the past two weeks in DC - first for a Board Retreat of Island Press, and today for a meeting of the irrepressible Environmental Working Group. In both cases, these terrific organizations are dealing with complicated change. Island has to deal with the changing nature of the publishing worlds and the challenging economics of publishing books. IP, by the way, is one of the leading publishers of environmental subject matter in the country and have frequently published books that have directly led to policy changes and the like. Gretchen Daily’s Nature’s Services has literally shifted thinking about the economic role our natural systems play in our system. Alter them at our peril is one lesson you can derive. And Apollo’s Fire is helping people really understand the potential economic boom that can be fueled by agressively attempting to deal with climate change in our urban environments. Really good stuff.

In the picture above, you see Ken Cook, founder of the Environmental Working Group and his sidekick, Richard Wiles, who have built one of the most impressive environmental research and advocacy organizations in the country. Ken is holding forth on the prospects for their “Kids Safe Chemicals Act” idea which would change the way acceptable chemical burdens are measured. Kids just don’t do as well as adults in their ability to manage toxic accumulations, yet our regulatory system measures only adults. Crazy.

EWG also recently had a huge “win” when reports finally confirmed their long held argument that endocrine disrupters (now there’s a mouthful) can be toxic in even small amounts. There is a call in California to ban the use of one - bisphenyl A - which has made EWG the object of, how does one say….the close attention of the chemical industry. The industry’s association, by the way, changed their name to American Chemistry Council to sound less corporate. Needless to say, they don’t like the idea that groups like EWG publicize that humans are bio-accumulating toxics in our systems at quite a clip. Have you seen Ken’s remarkable “10 Americans” presentation? You won’t come away unchanged.

Also of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/EnvironmentalWG

Day One, Democracy Alliance Meeting, Carlsbad, CA:

I’m not sure why, but I have always enjoyed helping organizations that attract donors to strategic, progressive funding. For many years, Tides has supplied staffing as the Threshold Foundation has evolved into a vibrant community of some 300 donors interested in both personal exploration and support of progressive change in the communities and regions within which they live. More recently, I was able to join in the launching of the Democracy Alliance - a network of some 100 substantial donors to progressive causes that came together to share both the development of, and support for, a progressive infrastructure to rival that which the right has constructed over the last three decades.

Tonight marks the third anniversary of the DA - its seventh gathering of folks each of which is committed to six figure giving to help some 30 plus groups that have been identified as part of the core portfolio. They all work in one of four areas: leadership, civic participation, ideas, and media. Fantastic initiatives and organizations have been supported since the outset: America Votes, which helps non-partisan voter groups coordinate registration and GOTV efforts; Women’s Voices, Women Vote (a former Tides Center project) that targets unmarried women; Center for Progressive Leadership, that trains and encourages emerging progressive leaders; Center for American Progress, a comprehensive think tank generating policy ideas; the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State that focuses on structural racism; and Catalist, a new for-profit venture (and Tides Foundation grantee) that has built and makes available to non-profits a voter file resource that helps groups target disenfranchised communities.

Day 2: today we heard a great talk by Paul Begala on the need for progressives to come together once the primary is settled. In the meantime, independent voices need to focus on the policy differences that are already apparent between conservatives and progressives. The similarity between Sen. McCain’s positions and those of the current administration, and their disdain for progressive alternatives, is starkly apparent in the current debate. Given public sentiment, with over 2/3rds of Americans believing the country is headed in the wrong direction, progressive alternatives on health care, retirement, security, climate change, and a host of other issues ought to be gaining some real traction.

More later from La Costa…..dp