Mondays with Mike: Half-empty and half-full

Glass half-empty.

Glass half-full.

Which is it? I’d wager that a lot of my acquaintances would peg me for the former. And for much of my life, I think I have been a half-empty guy. I think it’s partly owed to brain chemistry, and partly to a set of values that I owe to both my parents, but particularly to my mother. She would not allow herself or her children to, for example, take pride in our country without also taking open-eyed stock of its evils — and taking responsibility for them.

As a result, I’ve spent much of my life suspicious of half-full people. The way I saw it, they were not facing some of the ugliness in the world.

You know, I do think some half-full types are actually full of it.

But no longer is that my default stance. It’s not an either or thing, but a both thing. The glass is half-empty and half-full, all at once.

The daily news certainly makes clear the empty part. But if you read carefully, it can also illustrate both. Here are four bits about four people who recognized ugly and also did and are doing something about it.

They’re very different.

One is a retired Naval Officer who has quietly led enormous gains in the fight against malaria. Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer was originally appointed by George W. Bush, and the Obama administration wouldn’t let him leave—they refused his letter of resignation. Ziemer’s a Viet Nam vet with an incredible set of life experiences of his own. It’s a remarkable story worth the read.

Bryan Stevenson is a Harvard educated lawyer, and he is black. A terrifying experience at the hands of a police SWAT team galvanized his thinking and feelings about law enforcement and the justice system in our country, and fixing the system has been his life’s work. He is articulate, he is quietly brilliant, he is committed, he is rationale, and he is dead right. He runs the Equal Justice Project based in Alabama, and he has a book out called Just Mercy. This excerpt and accompanying interview from Fresh Air is worth your time. I promise.

It’s hard to count anything out of the Ferguson, Mo. ordeal as good news. But this piece, about Lt. Jerry Lohr of the St. Louis County Police, comes close. Lohr never wore riot gear, and he did his part to keep constructive communication with community members, one human at a time.

Finally, Scott Bonner is Director of the Ferguson Public Library, and its only full-time librarian. He steadfastly kept the library open during the unrest, providing an oasis of civility in the middle of it all.

None of these stories is wholly rosy. And none result in final triumph. But they do remind that what any of one us does can make some difference, and perhaps an enormous difference, and that half a glass is a start, but shooting for a full one is worth the effort.