The Kindness of Strangers, Part II.

II.

Biking Baja

On a sunny day in early January six bicyclists were preparing to cycle the length of Baja California, in northwest Mexico. They had their gear spread out on the front lawn of a friend in San Diego as they finalized their equipment. A neighbor walked over and asked what was going on.

The seed of a plan to cycle Baja had started the previous summer when two of them were doing a three day cycle trip from their house to the nearby mountains. Some friends had seen them and stopped to talk. One of them mentioned a goal of bicycling Baja and another jumped in and said he would do it with them. Over the course of the autumn and into the early winter the plans were formulated to cycle the entire peninsula. 

And so it came to pass that the six of them, students, or recent graduates of various colleges, had travelled by train to San Diego with the intention of biking Baja. And when the neighbor asked what was happening somebody replied, optimistically, that they were preparing a cycling trip through Baja California. The neighbor shook his head, and in walking away, said he would never go down there without a gun. 

It was disconcerting to hear somebody say they wouldn't go somewhere without a gun, but the next day, our six intrepid cyclist took off, heading south. The border crossing was uneventful, and filling out the tourist visa proved to be a non-event as well. 

Days and then weeks passed, with the six cyclists camping in fields, on beaches, in thickets of cacti, and on school grounds. The weather was perfect for cycling, with temperatures in the 20's (Celsius), very little wind, and sunny days. They watched gray whales swim past near Guerrero Negro, ate fresh caught shrimp in Mulejé, gathered dates under the palms of San Ignacio, and were awed by the  desert plants such as cordon cactus and boojum trees.

It was on the very last day of cycling when the last of the six, pedaling along, minding his own business, heard the sound of an old engine slowing down behind him. The trip had been thirty days long, and everything had been perfect. But in the back of his mind, deep in his sub-consciousness, was the comment of the San Diego neighbor, "I wouldn't go there without a gun."

He looked ahead, but the next closest cyclist was out of earshot. Even if he screamed very loud, he was probably going to get killed by one of those murderous Mexicans the neighbor had feared.

In retrospect, the San Diego neighbor might have never been to Mexico. There are lots of people who have a sense of reality that is formed strictly from what they hear on the television news. And the news on television is inherently skewed toward deviant behaviour. Murders, rapes, robberies, and drug lords make the news because they are the outliers of normal behaviour, not because it is a common occurrence. 

As he slowly cycles toward Cabo San José he glances over to the vehicle. At first he sees the hood of an old, well traveled pick-up. He tried to focus on his cycling, but the thought of being killed on his last day of biking Baja seemed unfair. Slowly, the pick-up pulled even with him. The cyclist glanced over again.

He saw in the pick-up an old man driving solo. The driver was sitting almost on the far right side of the pick-up, with his left foot on the gas, and his left hand on the steering wheel. He was leaning out the passenger window, traveling the same speed as the cyclist, and holding in his right hand, for the cyclist to take, was an orange.

It was the end of a great, enjoyable trip, and the other cyclists, talking later in the day, had all been visited by the old man handing out oranges.

The Kindness of Strangers, Part I.

I.

The Zambian Bus Ride

Leaving Botswana after two years of working in the small village of Letlhakane, the couple boarded the northbound train out of the capital city, Gaborone. They were accoumpanyied by a couple other recently appointed Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Tim and Laura, as well as Beva Lee and her daughter Candice.

Celebratory wine consumption was partaken whilst the train slowly traversed the country and entered Zimbabwe. Tim and Laura were zooming east to Harare and Malawi, whilst the rest of the entourage changed trains in Bulawayo and headed north through the rest of western Zimbabwe. A night was spent enjoying the sights of Victoria Falls, known locally as "the smoke that thunders" or Mosi-oa-tunya.

They walked across the bridge that spans the chasm just downstream of the falls and were asked at the customs office in Zambia if they had any food. Several loaves of bread were declared, then they taxied into downtown Livingstone where they inquired about the train going north to Kapiri Mposhi. The train wasn't to leave until the next day, so they found a cheap ronduval and spent the night listening to the band at the hotel.

The train left Livingstone in the afternoon, and most of the trip was in the dark. The year was 1990, and the capitol city of Zambia, Lusaka, was dark as they chugged past a sleeping city about midnight. The socialist policies of President Kenneth Kaunda indicated that there was a lot broken in Zambia.

The train arrived at dawn in Kapiri Mposhi and our friends followed the crowds for the two kilometers between train stations. For some unknown reason the station built by the Chinese that connects Zambia with Tanzania was a couple kilometers from the north-south railroad station.

Once again train tickets were purchased, and the train was scheduled to leave that evening. The ticket agent said men and women were not allowed in the same cabin, so the man and woman got adjacent cabins. The man was suffering from a cold, and decided to simply comply with the rules--it was only going to be an overnight trip before they were to arrive at Kasama, Zambia.

The man found his cabin and staked out one of the top bunks, putting his pack between him and the wall. His spouse and the two fellow traveller's were in the adjacent cabin. Then he fell asleep for ten hours, with just a few blurry eyed views of the cabin in the dark. Over the course of the night, as people exited the cabin, others were getting on, and looking for a place to park their bodies for the evening, both genders wound up in the same cabin.

In the morning he was feeling somewhat better. The train stopped briefly in Kasama and our traveler's disembarked. There was another stroll to the bus rank. Bus ranks in many countries in Africa are mainly large parking lots with buses, and crowds of travelers looking for the right bus, as well as people hawking wares, food, and trinkets.

Zambia was notorious for imprisoning well meaning tourist for very little reason. A year earlier a traveller was thrown in a local jail for simply taking a picture in front of a government building. So after watching the chaos of the bus rank, and having no clue as to which bus to take north to the banks of Lake Tanganyika, our travelers cautiously approached a policeman who seemed to be directing others to nearby buses.

The policeman immediately found the correct bus for the group, and he seemed almost as relieved to be rid of the Americans as the Americans were at not being arrested.

The bus was not crowded as it pulled out of the center of Kasama, Zambia. The three women had seats just behind the driver, while the man was relegated to the last bench seat of the bus. There was nobody standing--everyone has a seat, which seemed very unusual for this part of the world. When the bus reached the edge of the city, it pulled over and ten to fifteen more riders got on. Now it was getting crowded and more typical of most buses in Zambia.

It was a warm day and he day-dreamed while looking out of the windows. Suddenly, a cone of fresh boiled peanuts were handed to him. He looked up to the front of the bus, but the women were not looking back to see if the peanuts had made it to the recipient.

On most buses in this part of the world the bus will stop only long enough to take on and off passengers. There are no lunch stops where the bus stays for more than a few minutes. Instead, at each stop, hawkers, selling just about anything, bananas, pineapples, coconuts, fried foods, corn, will be standing by, making transactions through the open windows.

Some time after the peanuts arrived, and he had eaten every last one of them, a very large vegetable samosa showed up. Again, he looked to the front of the bus, but didn't see any of his friends looking back. But he did notice a man about mid-way on the bus looking at him. The samosa was held up and the man smiled and turned around.

The samosa was a large fried pastry filled with chopped vegetables and rice seasoned with curry. It was flavorful, but after the peanuts he couldn't finish it. He noticed his seat neighbor looking at the unfinished samosa, so he handed it to her. She promptly wrapped it in some paper and put it out of sight in her purse.

Then a chilled bottle of Coca-Cola arrived. He looked up and noticed the man looking back at him. He held up the bottle, the man smiled, and turned back around in his seat. Again, there was no indication that his friends had sent him the bottle of beverage. It must have been the man mid-way in the bus who had been sending him the goodies.

The cola bottle was capped, and as he was looking around for something to pry off the cap, his neighbor took the bottle and pried the cap off with her teeth, then handed the bottle back to him. He thanked her, and enjoyed the thirst quenting beverage, thinking that when he got off the bus he would thank his benefactor.

The haze of heat and travel passed, and after several hours they arrived in Mpulungu, Zambia. It was literally the end of the road, and their next travel segment was to be three days on the M.V. Luemba as it plied the still waters of Lake Tanganyika.

In getting off the bus, he looked for his un-introduced friend, but he was nowhere to be seen. He asked his spouse and traveling companions but they had not sent him any food while on the bus. He looked around in the crowd, but his friend was not to be found. He must have gotten off, unnoticed, on a previous stop.

And so, the man who was so kind to a complete stranger, had passed out of his life, unthanked.

A true sign of friendship is the kindness that is welcome but goes unthanked.

Government Ethics with respect to Social Media

The following is from this website:

http://oge.gov/uploadedFiles/OGE_Advisories/Legal_Advisories/OGE.Social.Media.LA.15.03%20%284.9.15%29.pdf

April 9, 2015 

LA-15-03 

LEGAL ADVISORY 

TO: Designated Agency Ethics Officials 

FROM: David J. Apol 

General Counsel 

SUBJECT: The Standards of Conduct as Applied to Personal Social Media Use 

Use of social media has become prevalent among Federal executive branch employees and agencies. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is aware that agency ethics officials have an interest in understanding how the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch Employees (Standards of Conduct), 5 C.F.R. part 2635, apply to the use of social media. This interest is reflected in the increased volume of questions that OGE receives from various agencies seeking advice in this area. 

As an initial matter, the Standards of Conduct do not prohibit executive branch employees from establishing and maintaining personal social media accounts. As in any other context, however, employees must ensure that their social media activities comply with the Standards of Conduct and other applicable laws, including agency supplemental regulations and agency-specific policies. To assist employees and agency ethics officials in this endeavor, OGE is providing the following guidance regarding issues that agency ethics official have frequently raised concerning employees’ obligations under the Standards of Conduct when using social media.1

1 Employees should remain aware that other statutes and regulations outside of OGE’s purview may further limit their use of social media. For example, the Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. § 7321, et seq., limits the extent to which executive branch employees may use social media to engage in certain political activities. See U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Hatch Act and Social Media, April 4, 2012, available at: https://osc.gov/Resources/Social%20Media%20and%20the%20Hatch%20Act%202012.pdf 

1.Use of Government Time and Property

When employees are on-duty, the Standards of Conduct require that they use official time in an honest effort to perform official duties. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.705. As a general matter, this requirement limits the extent to which employees may access and use their personal social media 2 

accounts while on duty. The Standards of Conduct also require employees to protect and conserve government property and to use government property only to perform official duties, unless they are authorized to use government property for other purposes. See 5 C.F.R. §2635.704. For example, under the Standards of Conduct, a supervisor may not order, or evenask, a subordinate to work on the supervisor’s personal social media account. Coercing or inducing a subordinate to maintain the supervisor’s personal account would amount to a misuse of position and, if done on official time, a misuse of official time. The same would be true if the supervisor were to have a subordinate create content for the supervisor’s personal account, even if the subordinate were not involved in uploading the content to that account. 5 C.F.R. §§ 2635.702(a), 2635.705(b). 

Where agencies have established policies permitting limited personal use of government resources by their employees, those policies control what constitutes an authorized use of government resources. See, e.g. OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 97 x 3. In some cases, such “limited use” policies may authorize employees to access their personal social media accounts while on duty. 

2.Reference to Government Title or Position & Appearance of OfficialSanction

A question that frequently arises is the extent to which employees may reference their official titles on their personal social media accounts. In general, the Standards of Conduct prohibit employees from using their official titles, positions, or any authority associated with their public offices for private gain. 5 C.F.R. § 2635.702. The Standards of Conduct also require that employees avoid using their titles or positions in any manner that would create an appearance that the Government sanctions or endorses their activities or those of another. 5 C.F.R. §§ 2635.702; 2635.807(b).2

2 Agency supplemental regulations may place further limitations on employees’ use of title or position, or may impose additional requirements such as mandating the use of a disclaimer. 

Employees’ use of personal social media ordinarily will not create the impermissible appearance of governmental sanction or endorsement which would be prohibited under §2635.702(b). An employee does not, for example, create the appearance of governmentsanction merely by identifying his or her official title or position in an area of the personal social media account designated for biographical information. See e.g. OGE Legal Advisory LA-14-08; OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 10 x 1. 

In evaluating whether a reference to an employee’s official title or position on social media violates the Standards of Conduct, the agency ethics official must consider the totality of the circumstances to determine whether a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts would conclude that the government sanctions or endorses the communication. See, e.g. 5 C.F.R. §§ 2635.702(b); 2635.807(b); OGE Legal Advisory LA-14-08; OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 10 x 1. Relevant factors for agency ethics officials to consider in making the determination include: 3 

Whether the employee states that he or she is acting on behalf of thegovernment;

Whether the employee refers to his or her connection to the government assupport for the employee’s statements;

Whether the employee prominently features his or her agency’s name,seal, uniform or similar items on the employee’s social media account orin connection with specific social media activities;

Whether the employee refers to his or her government employment, title,or position in areas other than those designated for biographicalinformation;

Whether the employee holds a highly visible position in the Government,such as a senior or political position, or is authorized to speak for theGovernment as part of the employee’s official duties;

Whether other circumstances would lead a reasonable person to concludethat the government sanctions or endorses the employees’ social mediaactivities; or

Whether other circumstances would lead a reasonable person to concludethat the government does not sanction or endorse the employees’ socialmedia activities.

Ordinarily, an employee is not required to post a disclaimer disavowing government sanction or endorsement on the employee’s personal social media account. Where confusion or doubt is likely to arise regarding the personal nature of social media activities, employees are encouraged to include a disclaimer clarifying that their social media communications reflect only their personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of their agency or the United States. A clear and conspicuous disclaimer will usually be sufficient to dispel any confusion that arises. See OGE Legal Advisory LA-14-08. 

3.Recommending and Endorsing Others on Social Media

Social media networks, particularly those focused on job seeking, sometimes allow users to recommend or endorse the skills of other users. The Standards of Conduct permit employees to use social media to make such recommendations or endorsements in their personal capacity. It is not a misuse of position for employees to provide such endorsements merely because they have provided their official titles or positions in areas of their personal social media accounts that are designated for biographical information. 

OGE is aware that at least one social media service automatically adds a user’s name, title, and employer to any recommendation that the user posts regarding a job seeker. In any such case where title and employer name are added automatically, OGE does not consider a 4 

recommendation to constitute a misuse of position because the recommendation is readily understood by users of the social media service to be personal, rather than official, in nature. An employee should not, however, affirmatively choose to include a reference to the employee’s title, position, or employer in a recommendation, except where 5 C.F.R. § 2635.702(b) expressly permits such references. 

4.Seeking Employment Through Social Media

The basic provisions governing seeking employment are set out in subpart F of the Standards of Conduct. For these purposes “seeking employment” includes not only the kinds of bilateral employment negotiations that would implicate 18 U.S.C. § 208, but also certain unilateral expressions of interest in employment by the employee. Specifically, in addition to actual negotiations, as described in section 2635.603(b)(1)(i), seeking employment also includes unsolicited communications by the employee regarding possible employment, as described in section 2635.603(b)(1)(ii), and any response by the employee, other than rejection, to an unsolicited overture from a prospective employer, as described in section 2635.603(b)(1)(iii). See OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 04 x 13. 

Employees who are seeking or negotiating for employment through social media must comply with the applicable disqualification requirements of 5 C.F.R. § 2635.601, et seq., 18 U.S.C. § 208, and any additional requirements found in agency supplemental regulations. Public financial disclosure filers who are negotiating or have an arrangement concerning future employment or compensation also must comply with the notification requirements found in section 17 of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. See 5 U.S.C. app. §101, note; OGE Legal Advisories LA-13-06 and LA-12-01.

An employee is not considered to be seeking employment with any person or organization merely because the employee has posted a resume or similar summary of professional experience to the employee’s personal social media account. Likewise, an employee is not considered to be seeking employment merely because a person or organization has viewed the employee’s resume on that social media account or has sent an unsolicited message, including one containing a job offer, to the employee. An employee who receives an unsolicited message or job offer is seeking employment with the sender only if the employee responds to the message and the employee’s response is anything other than a rejection. 5 C.F.R. § 2635.603. 

An employee will be considered to be seeking employment with a person or an organization if the employee contacts that person or organization concerning future employment. In the age of social media, there are a multitude of ways that an employee might contact a prospective employer and thereby trigger the seeking employment rules. For example, an employee would trigger the seeking employment rules by sending a message directly to the organization, uploading a resume or application to the prospective employer’s social media account for recruiting employees, or otherwise targeting the organization through a social media communication. 5 

5.Disclosing Nonpublic Information

The Standards of Conduct prohibit employees from disclosing nonpublic information to further their private interests or the private interests of others. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.703. This prohibition applies without regard to the medium used for the unauthorized disclosure. In addition to the Standards of Conduct, other statutes and regulations prohibit the disclosure of specific categories of nonpublic information, such as classified or confidential information. Employees must follow the rules regarding the disclosure of nonpublic information found in the Standards of Conduct and all other applicable rules when using social media. The Standards of Conduct generally do not prevent employees from discussing or sharing government information that is publicly available. Employees may not, however, accept compensation for statements or communications made over social media that relate to their official duties. See 5 C.F.R. §§ 2635.807(a); 2635.703. 

6.Personal Fundraising

Employees may use personal social media accounts to fundraise for nonprofit charitable organizations in a personal capacity, but they must comply with 5 C.F.R. § 2635.808, the section of the Standards of Conduct that covers fundraising. As a general rule, fundraising solicitations over social media are permissible so long as the employee does not “personally solicit” funds from a subordinate or a known prohibited source. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.808(c)(1). 

Fundraising requests over social media are potentially visible to a wide audience of followers and connections. An employee who posts or publishes a general fundraising announcement or request over social media has not “personally solicited” any prohibited source or subordinate merely because the employee is connected with the prohibited source or subordinate through the social media network. The same is true even if the prohibited source or subordinate views, comments on, or responds to the post. However, an employee may not respond to inquiries posted by prohibited sources or subordinates in reference to the fundraising request. Furthermore, an employee may not specifically reference, link to, or otherwise target a subordinate or known prohibited source when fundraising over social media. An employee doing so will be considered to have “personally solicited” that person in violation of 5 C.F.R. §2635.808(c)(1). See OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 93 x 19; OGE Informal AdvisoryOpinion 93 x 8. 

Additionally, employees may not use their official titles, positions, or authority associated with their positions to further fundraising efforts. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.808(c)(2); OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 96 x 2. Employees are not considered to have used their official titles, positions, or authority associated with their positions to further fundraising efforts merely because they have provided this information in areas of their personal social media accounts designated for biographical information. 

7.Official Social Media Accounts

Many Federal agencies maintain one or more official social media accounts for use in conducting official business. Subject to applicable legal authorities, each agency determines the 6 

purposes for which its official accounts may be used. See, e.g. OGE Informal Advisory Opinions 93 x 6 and 93 x 24. When employees use these official accounts, they must do so in accordance with applicable agency directives, regulations, and policies. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.704(a); OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 97 x 3. Put simply, official accounts are for official purposes. 

OGE encourages agencies to adopt policies indicating which employees are authorized to access official accounts and defining the authorized uses for those accounts. Agency officials responsible for social media accounts may wish to visit the General Services Administration’s online Federal Social Media Community of Practice and Social Media Registry at http://www.digitalgov.gov/. 

Additional Information 

In light of the ever evolving nature of social media, the foregoing advice is not intended to be comprehensive. OGE expects to issue additional guidance in the future addressing questions outside the scope of this Legal Advisory. Designated Agency Ethics Officials with questions regarding the application of the Standards of Conduct to social media may contact their assigned OGE Desk Officers.

Safety, without the verbage

"We actively care about the safety of ourselves, one another, and the public. Success is safely achieving our mission--with all of us returning home every day."

This is the saying within the USDA Forest Service Safety group. I'm a little uncertain if this is a mission statement, guiding principle, or perhaps a parable for the Forest Service employees.

So. That seems to be a little wordy, and redundant, saying something with a few too many words.

Let's start with the first three words. "We actively care". Is not care an active verb already? ​Could the sentence start simply "We care"?

Now, skip over a few words and let's think about the phrases "ourselves, one another, and the public". Am I missing something? This seems to cover a one word term--everybody. Could the number of people cared for just be rolled into one word?

The first sentence could then be reduced, with no loss of meaning to "We care about the safety of everyone". Not cumbersome. Not convoluted. Just the facts.

The second sentence: "Success is safely achieving our mission--with all of us returning home every day". The question becomes what happens if somebody doesn't return home some day? Has the success of the mission failed? What if they spend the night out in the woods, camping? Or they are at a conference and spend the night in a motel? Has the success of the mission been compromised? I don't think so.

What if the second sentence was truncated to: "Success is safely achieving our mission". It doesn't matter where the person spends the night. The mission is deemed successful if it is accomplished safely, regardless of where the person spends the night.

Here's the complete safety message,, but reduced of superfluous, redundant, unnecessary verbiage:

"We care about the safety of everyone. Success is safely achieving our mission"