My City of Rainbows

Godspeed: good fortune; success (used as a wish to a person starting on a journey, a new venture, etc.)

I am so proud of my city.

Oops.  I should capitalize that.  City.  As in, City of Boise, our municipal government.

Since the world is crowded with news and non-news, both breaking and omnipresent, you likely haven’t heard the big hubbub about the Pride flag here Boise.

But I think it’s a story worth telling.  Both for its commitment to civic values – and for the premium it places on creativity when facing obstacles.

For a decade, the City of Boise has flown a Pride flag in celebration of Pride Week.  A year ago, the whackadoodles in the Idaho State Legislature got the big idea to outlaw any flags flying on government buildings except official government flags, aiming specifically for that billowing rainbow fabric.

No big deal, as the legislature forgot to include provisions for how to enforce this new law, and the City of Boise simply reclassified the Pride flag as an Official City Flag and continued to fly it.

During this year's legislative session, lawmakers refashioned the law to include fines of up to $2,000 a day for flying non-official flags.  Official flags are now defined as the U.S. flag, the state flag, military flags, recognized tribal flags, and the Basque flag.  One thing that should tell you about Idahoans:  We love our Basques.

So, game over?  Not quite. 

Time for creativity and the arts.

The City of Boise complied with the law the day it was enacted.  The Pride flag came down, and a week later the rainbow colors went up again – this time ringing the flagpoles, which are now rainbow adorned and fully in compliance with state law.

 “We have a rich history of an arts and culture scene here. So, because it's allowed, we have installed art that demonstrates our values to being a safe and welcoming city for everyone,” said Boise Mayor Lauren McLean.

Creativity for the win! And as I said:  I just love my City – a City bringing to reality the idea of “Creating a city for everyone.”

Godspeed, friends.

Russ

🤔 Think About It

"Business has a sustainability problem, and sustainability has a business problem."  Sundar Bharadwaj

The Charade Of Charismatics

It can be crippling, to be that whip smart, so charismatic, that it hinders development of concrete morals, in the same way extreme beauty can block one’s ability to build true, authentic character.  Oh, and let’s not forget it isn’t easy to be born into the world a human and be forced to learn the reptilian Big Trick of shedding your skin.

That’s my tease of this feature article in the The New Yorker about Sam Altman, grand poobah of OpenAI and arguably one of a handful of people to whom we are entrusting our collective futures.

Altman and the other Tech Gods all wield too much power.  It’s frightening that this group of self-righteous, out-of-touch (there is wisdom to be gained from calloused hands, taking the subway, making your own dinner) power players control artificial intelligence, the media, near space – I’ll save you a full listing.

Indeed, I find it comical that OpenAI is acknowledging some of the negative employment consequences of its “creature” and has released half-baked policy recommendations to deal with impending job market disruption that even I could have come up with.  Four-day work weeks and a public wealth fund, anyone?

And these are the masters of the universe?

A familiar playbook, this one:  creating a problem, extracting billions, expecting society to pick up the pieces.

That's what passes for "making the world a better place" in Silicon Valley.

BTW, when we first wrote on March 3 about the movement to quit ChatGPT, 1.5 million people had pledged to quit the AI platform.  That figure now stands at more than 4 million.  You can contribute to that number by adding your name here.

🧻 It’s Trivia Time!

Congratulations on making your way through the thicket of words to this point in the newsletter.  You’ve qualified to play in our Wipeout Round of trivia!

How many rolls of toilet paper does the average American use each year?

• 51
• 97
• 141
• 216

You can unroll the answer at the end of this post.

Undercovers

I’ll liken the City of Boise’s adaptation of the Pride flag’s colors as an act of creativity akin to covering another artist’s song – the same words, notes, but entirely different, especially when artist’s cross traditional genre lines.  So, here’s a cover for you to check out:  Dolly Parton 😍 covering Shine by Collective Soul. 

Feel like sharing one of your favorite covers?  Let me know and perhaps it will find its way into a future issue.

Trivia Answer

Turns out, the average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper each year. A little shocking isn't it? Though it's good to know we lead the world with our Making America Clean Again (MACA) movement, with Germany (134 rolls) and the United Kingdom (127) right behind us. Of the selected countries, Brazil pulls up the rear at 38 rolls annually. (I really got to scratch my pun itch there, didn't I?) Source: Statista.