First, I’d like to welcome you to my new newsletter format, that goes along with my brand spanking new website. While the designers at Atomic 55 are still adding a few more things, feel free to go to www.StephenHammond.ca and check out some of the new features that can help leaders at work. I’m calling this new series, Leadership Lessons because most of the people receiving this are workplace and community leaders – people who supervise others. I hope it will be helpful for everyone.

I just got back from New York. It’s my favourite city and some day I hope you’ll be getting this email from my loft in midtown Manhattan (I can dream). In the mean time, I can still remember this trip and other trips to the Big Apple. In my travels, I’ve been taking along a video camera and recording some of the fascinating sights and speaking about their relevance to the areas of human rights. If you’re interested you can watch a few of them.

Right in the middle of Time Square, with thousands of people passing by and lights flashing, I was reminded of Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York, and if he could “make it there” he could make it anywhere. However, that only works if someone doesn’t discriminate against you for a characteristic s/he doesn’t like.

At another time we were at Ground Zero and I was reminded of the conflicts that have arisen between issues and realities of security versus rights. It’s not always easy. Then of course, there's the famous Statue of Liberty where early immigrants came to the States with much hope.

But what is given up in the "melting pot" of the American system? While walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, the fences on the cables, up top, made me think you can’t legislate common sense, but you can sure help it along.

And while on Wall Street, I was able to talk about why “all white men are crooks.”

Just be sure to watch and listen before you jump to conclusions. One of the most fun evenings included playing bingo with a sharp-tongued drag queen at the Stonewall Inn, likely the world’s most famous gay bar after the riots of 1969.

After the hustle and bustle of New York City, we made our way to Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. 15 years ago, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington lifted some of the stigma from AIDS with the movie Philadelphia. And no visit to Philadelphia is complete without touring all the historic sites, such as the famous Liberty Bell. The U.S. idea of the separation of church and state is very different from our own.

After Philly, we got a chance to visit the Ivy League school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where the origins of the school involved educating Native American youth. How did they deal with the nickname, the Indians? Take a look. The trip was almost over when we went to Wood stock, Vermont (no, not that Woodstock) to see and touch one of the town’s four Paul Revere bells. Revere warned of the British invasion during the American revolution.

In Canada people are coming to our country and getting a much better reception, even though they look very different than they have in the past.

Every trip must come to an end and while it involved sitting on a plane on the runway and cancelled flights, all came to a peaceful conclusion – and besides, there’s no sense getting mad at bad weather. So we’re still left with wonderful memories of past visits to Boston. I know there will be many more.

There are so many lessons we can learn in our travels and when talking to people with different experiences from our own. I love the States and I have many friends there. But I sure do appreciate what we have in Canada. I’m proud of our values and the way we’re doing a decent job of adapting to a changing world.

Since it’s summer, this lesson doesn’t have to be too heady or complex. After all, it’s time to get outside for cycling, golfing, swimming and other fun pursuits. That's where I'm headed.

Stephen

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Stephen Hammond, B.A, LL.B, CSP, is a speaker, trainer and author working in the field of workplace human rights. Articles, tips and his books Managing Human Rights At Work: 101 Practical Tips to Prevent Human Rights Disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world are available on his website www.stephenhammond.ca. Contact Stephen at 866-685-8338 or stephen@stephenhammond.ca

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