I’m in the process of downsizing which means looking through a life’s work of paper files and documents.
My Grandpa Webb was a high school teacher in Taylorville, IL for almost six decades. In a letter to me dated Feb 26, 1963 in my first year of college which was challenging, he quoted the preacher Henry Ward Beecher:
It’s not work that kills a man; it is worry. Work is healthy; worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolutions that destroy the machinery, but the friction.
He also reported that the night before the temperature had reached 20 degrees below zero at the local area airport.
Now as a grandpa, I have never written a letter to any of the four grandkids. Maybe a birthday card or two. Certainly numerous short text exchanges. All now gone. Makes one wonder how prior generations experiences are passed on.
Evergreen Credit Union, Portland. Maine was founded in 1951 to serve the employees of the S.D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook. Today it serves six counties in the state with a complete line of personal and business services and with multiple community partnerships.
The credit union embraces the culture and spirit of Maine in its branding. But importantly with its many local, engaged roles with the communities where it has branches. Although Maine’s fourth largest at $641 million at June 30, it resonates with small town intimacy.
The CEO, Jason Lindstrom is a merger refugee from Belvoir FCU just outside Washington DC. In March 2016 the senior management and Board of Belvoir completed a merger with PenFed. In November 2016 this former Chief Marketing Officer was chosen to lead Evergreen as CEO.
The Call of Duty
Jason recently posted his thoughts on freedom, responsibility and legacy after a decade as the credit union’s leader. I might describe his thoughts as the Call of Duty. His words are a charter for anyone serving in a position of private or public responsibility for others.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about leadership over the years, and one thing has become clear to me.
The greatest leaders don’t ask, “What can I get?” They ask, “What can I leave behind?”
As America celebrates 250 years, I think that’s the real challenge for each of us.
The freedoms we enjoy today were paid for by people who believed their responsibility was bigger than themselves. They built, served, sacrificed, and invested in a future they might never see. That is a legacy worth honoring.
Every generation has the same opportunity.
Not just to celebrate America, but to strengthen it. To be present with our families. To serve our communities. To treat people with dignity. To lead with integrity. To leave every person, every team, and every place a little better than we found it.
History isn’t written only by the famous. It’s written by ordinary people who choose to do the right thing, day after day, even when no one is watching.
As we celebrate 250 years of this remarkable nation, I hope we are remembered not simply for what we believed, but for how we lived.
Happy Independence Day, America!
Editor’s PS: Before Belvoir, where I met Jason, he was Chief Political Officer at Schools First FCU and prior, AVP Business Development for Orange County CU.
Jason also has a podcast “Pilot 2 Co-Pilot” with Antonio Neves. The theme is Leadership isn’t a solo flight, it’s a team effort. There are 8 episodes. They can be found in all major podcast directories and here: (link) (https://pilot2copilot.buzzsprout.com/)
This is a closing post tracing the impact of America’s revolution on our political and moral priorities today. The focus is on freedom in its many meanings in America and around the world.
The Battle Hym of the Republic is sung at virtually all patriotic celebrations.
The text was by abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe. The music is from an 1850s camp-meeting song with the title “Say, Brother, Will You Meet Us?” The tune was also used for the song “John Brown’s Body,” with text about the raid on Harper’s Ferry.
The poetic words include righteous anger, “He (God) is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” The final stanza is a call to moral action by those hearing the words now.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, While God is marching on.
A Timeless Example for those Yearning to be Free
America’s history of constant, unending endeavors for a more perfect union has inspired individuals around the world. One of the most dramatic situations today is Ukraine’s fight for independence after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
A Ukrainian writer thanked Americans in his Independence Day greeting. Viktor Kravchuk living in Kyiv has approximately 40,000 US readers in all states . He expresses what America and her people mean to him.
I know many of you are worried about your own country. Since today is your birthday, I need to tell you what I have seen.
I have seen Americans stand with Ukraine when they did not have to. I have seen Americans treat the survival of people thousands of miles away as part of their own moral life.
That is why I respect you.
You, the people of the United States who have stood with us, have my respect. You have the respect of this Ukrainian, and I am absolutely sure you have the respect of many people here who will never know your names, but live under a sky you helped us defend.
A promise can be damaged and still carried forward by ordinary people.
You carried it all the way to Ukraine.
Freedom needs friends, and this country found many of them in you.
Happy Independence Day, America.
Viktor’s Latest Post
My wife Lyubov is the one who treats impossible things as a small inconvenience. So for America’s 250th, she arranged a meeting between two women who had only heard of each other. (drawing below)
One brought a torch, one brought a shield.
To many years more, my friends. Thank you for your friendship, and I will never stop celebrating those who deserve it.
This is how Ukraine dressed up its Motherland statue to honor America.
Living to make all free. A role every American can fill.
America’s Declaration of Independence opens with words that inspired a new era of world-wide democratic political revolutions. No more rule based on divine right, inherited position or pure force. The words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Centuries later America strives to achieve these ideals. Even with our imperfections and unfinished dreams, individuals and countries around the world are still inspired by America’s past and its future hopes.
Democracy Is Not Easy
Democracy and its embrace of individual freedom is an ongoing challenge. One of the contributing factors is that the very freedom that encourages debate, dissent and speaking truth to power is used by all points of view. The irony is that some of those views oppose the very values in the opening words of the Declaration.
Changing the status quo, or prior error, has never been a quick task for America. Necessary reforms are opposed as threats to existing structures of power and privilege.
This has always been the case. Some divisions can take decades, or generations, to heal or overcome.
Righting the nation’s or an institution’s misdirections is never easy, whether politically, culturally or economically. But it is also an opportunity for new voices and new generations of leaders.
Credit Unions’ American Context
The shortcomings between our cooperative ideals and our daily realities are part of the credit union story. This challenge was recognized by the founders of the movement.
In Filene’s Speaking of Change, a collection of his speeches and articles published in 1939, there is a chapter, George Washington and Financial Liberty.
Filene’s view was that one of Washington’s greatest achievements wasn’t winning the war for Independence, it was having Hamilton and Jefferson in one cabinet and getting results from both.
He uses that as the model for the credit union movement saying, “temperamental conservatives” and “temperamental radicals” can work together because they’re dealing with facts, not philosophies.
One example of the effective partnership of philosophical opposites is the pairing of Ed Callahan, a conservative who believed in limited government regulations and efficient use of public funds, with the Chicago, ward 1 Democratic precinct captain progressive Bucky Sebastian. Their combined talents revolutionized credit union oversight first in Illinois and then nationally at NCUA.
Several of Filene’s observations are especially relevant this July 4th, 2026, in the movement’s 117th year:
“What is needed is that the American masses shall learn the art of constructive self-government in this machine age — in this age in which life is no longer organized on a small community pattern but in which all Americans are more or less dependent upon what all other Americans are doing.”
“For unless we can achieve economic democracy, our political democracy must be a sham.” (Filene Source: Sarah McNeil CEO, United Trades FCU)
The challenge of member-owner rights and democratic governance is even more critical in today’s $2.5 trillion cooperative financial sector. Credit union leadership is increasingly exercised as a privilege for the few, not a responsibility shared with the many member-owners.
Conflicting Coop Priorities
The rich and diverse legacy built by generations of loyal members is being swooped up in a merger frenzy driven by personal greed and ambition. But many other leaders have remained dedicated to the unfinished work serving members in their communities.
Cooperative history is about more than the many volunteer founding stories and their early efforts to build a new financial system of worker and community groups. It is also about those whose courage called attention to the inequitable financial member circumstances that should be the focus for cooperative solutions.
Those voices are present today. But is their call to rediscover who we are and who we can be being heard? Especially in the present circumstances of coop business dynamics, social and political turmoil. Will the ever-present siren appeals of market opportunity drown out our unique founding goal of public purpose?
On this national holiday, the country is again having a critical conversation about our past and future greatness. So too are credit union leaders.
My hope for how we will respond to the present challenges, as a movement and as a country, is based on two factors: our moral conscience and our history of doing the right thing in time. Our individual duty as citizens and as cooperative adherents is to witness what we value by our daily acts.
The Call for Grace in Times of Need-A Musical Reminder
Nowhere is this combination of America’s lofty aspirations and human reality more evident than in one of the most well-known songs with words from the poem, America the Beautiful.
The author, Katherine Lee Bates; (1859-1929) was inspired by a trip to Pikes Peak in 1893. Her poem first appeared in print on July 4, 1895, in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal.
All eight stanzas open with praise for America’s glories (purple mountain majesty) and accomplishments (pilgrim feet). But each verse then closes with a prayer, a call for grace or a plea. America’s beauty is both her past and the aspiration for a better tomorrow..
Here are the verses edited to show first the real glory of America and then the ongoing needs:
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,. . . God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress, A thoroughfare for freedom beat. . . God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. . .May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream, That sees beyond the years, . . . God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
Oh beautiful for halcyon skies For amber waves of grain . . . God shed His grace on thee, Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern impassioned stress. . . God shed His grace on thee, Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought, By pilgrims foot and knee!
Oh beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife, . . Till selfish gain no longer strain The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream, That sees beyond the years, . . . God shed His grace on thee, Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!
An on the ground account following an election removing an authoritarian, corrupt leadership group. Caolin Robertson is an Irish born, national affairs reporter now living. in Ukraine. His knowledge of events and local production qualitt is first class. In this report he documents the sheer joy Hungary’s citizens felt after the national election ended the reign of Orban.
Passion with courage and perseverance can result in extraordinary human accomplishment.
Competitive success as a member of a sports team is particularly memorable. It requires shared effort, not just individual achievement. March Madness is the term for this intensity in the just completed NCAA college basketball national tournament.
But athletic striving extends far beyond basketball.
The following story is about my daughter Alix who returned to compete at the highest level in women’s rowing while also raising a family and building a professional career in credit unions.
The March Event
Alix’s ultimate competitive accomplishment came March 14-15 in Amsterdam in an international rowing regatta competition, the Heineken Roeivierkamp. The event was conceived in December 1972 by two Dutch rowing coaches to break the monotony of winter training and bring excitement to the early-season rowing.
The regatta’s competition was inspired by the multi-distance format of speed skating and the spectator appeal of the Henley Royal Regatta in England. It is now one of Europe’s most distinctive and enduring rowing competitions.
Held annually in the heart of the city, the course runs through the historic waterways with long head-style stretches combined with shorter sprint segments. The four distances—5000m, 2500m, 750m, and 250m—create a unique, all-around competition for speed and endurance for crews of varying strengths.
In March 2026, the 54th edition drew more than 165 teams with over 400 crews (more than 3,800 rowers) representing 11 European countries plus the US and Canada. Entries spanned elite, student, junior, and masters categories. A minimum average age of 27 determines eligibility of a boat’s crew in the masters division.
Lining up in Amsterdam
The U.S. Entry – PBC Women’s Masters Program
Founded in 1869, the Potomac Boat Club (PBC) has long been a cornerstone of rowing in Washington, DC. Its Women’s Sweep program brings together former collegiate athletes and returning rowers who share a commitment to high-level competition and early-morning workouts on the Potomac.
The team’s year-round training mirrors the rhythm of the sport: fall head races such as the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston; winter training on the erg; spring regattas that build speed and cohesion; and a summer peak at events like the Rowfest (formerly Masters Nationals).
For 2026, PBC’s schedule included two women’s eights (intermediate and masters) and three men’s master sweeps traveling to Amsterdam.
PBC’s Women’s 2026 Crew for Amsterdam
The members of PBC’s Masters 8+ included former college club rowers at Division I institutions and a former US national team member. One of the eight was a Dutch collegiate gold medal rower who inspired the trip.
Master rowers’ minimum age is 27 to enter. PBC masters average was in the low 30’s. Just one rower, Alix, was married and had a family. At 54 years old, Alix’s age was exactly the same number as the of times the Amsterdam regatta has been held.
The PBC Masters Varsity in Amsterdam-Alix is third from front
Alix has 40 years of varied rowing commitments. She first began crew with four years in high school. At the University of Michigan she rowed in the bow monster’s seat in four years of varsity racing.
After earning her degree in Japanese language and literature, she spent a year working at Tokyo Electric Power’s DC office. She went back to Michigan to coach for a year just as the women’s team became part of the University’s athletic department versus a club sponsored team.
She returned to school and received a degree from Johns Hopkins School of Strategic and International studies (SAIS) in Washington DC. Next, she embarked on a three-month round-the-world solo backpacking venture across Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Returning in the fall she took a “temporary job” with Callahan & Associates.
During her graduate school years and early career, she sought coaching opportunities that included positions as an assistant coach at BCC High School in Bethesda, the head coach of the Sidwell Friends high school women’s team, and a stint with a community rowing club.
Life Happens- Rowing takes a Back Seat
Alix married Scott Patterson September 15, four days after 9/11. During the next few years, she had two boys while working full time at Callahans. Competitive rowing interests were on hold. The year after her second son was born, she went back to school to earn an MBA from the SAID Business School at Oxford University, taking her family with her.
The Transition to a Rowing Parent
As her sons went through school she introduced them to the sport. The oldest, Emmett, became a high school varsity rower as a sophomore. That year his DC high school’s Wilson (now Jackson Reed) Crew team won the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) – the premier national crew championship for high schools. Although seeded sixth in the final, rowing in the outermost lane, they came from behind to win in the final 200 meters. (link)
Supporting the high school team was a multi-parent responsibility as the school’s athletic administration had no budget to cover the expenses of coaches and boats. Alix served for years on Wilson’s parent volunteer board.
Emmett continued to compete at Cornell University, gaining a seat in the first varsity lightweight eight all four years. Parent encouragement and support was still vital and included many weekends traveling to regattas.
Back in the Boat
While involved as a parent during the last decade, Alix had not rowed competitively for almost 30 years. Then, as both boys went to college, she tried out and became a member of the PBC masters rowing program. In February the coach chose her to be in PBC’s senior masters boat for the Amsterdam regatta.
Alix rowed in the 6th seat, as part of the engine room, traditionally the team’s strongest rowers. Four races in a weekend were chaotic yet colorful and mixed with fun–plenty of free Heineken!
Ready for racing PBC in red
Following races on bike paths
The result: After the two days of international competition, PBC’s women’s varsity placed 4th out of nine boats in their division and 9th out of all 44 women’s boats entered. A record setting outcome by any standard.
On the race course: Alix is in front of rower in white hat
Alix’s next competition is the 10-mile Credit Union Cherry Blossom run in DC on Sunday, April 12 at 7:30am. Emmett, while now working full-time, coaches his former DC high school’s third varsity boy’s rowing team in their early morning workouts.
I share Alix’s rowing Odyssey as a proud parent (Alix’s mom died when she was 13) who has seen the ups and downs of this rowing quest. Including the quixotic drive to compete again at midlife, starting the cycle of 4:00 am wakeups for workouts.
Morning Sunrise on the Potomac
But seeing her sheer joy as she recounted the Amsterdam weekend made it all seem worthwhile.
Passions give our lives purpose and often endless challenge. We celebrate and learn from the examples of what personal motivation can achieve. These examples restore our hope in the power of people to make a difference, both in their own or in others’ lives.
Now that the ides of March have passed, it is time to pay attention to events in April, past and present.
On this day in 1917, the United States officially entered World War I. President Woodrow Wilson tried to keep the U.S. out of the war, even after a German U-boat sunk the passenger ship Lusitania, until British intelligence intercepted a secret German communication to Mexico. Apparently, Germany had promised Mexico their former territory in the US if Mexico would support the German cause. (Source:; Garrison Keilor’s Writer’s Almanac)
The view from my desk window. Nature’s beauty brings comfort and joy.
Two AI Moments
Artifical intelligence brings hope with worry. Credit unions and consumers are using this capability very quickly.
On March 26, NCUA’s acting director of examination and supervision testified before Congress on the agency’s reviews of credit union technology. Here is an excerpt on AI by NCUA staff:
Beyond supervising how credit unions adopt technology, NCUA is also exploring how technology can enhance our own operations. NCUA is currently using artificial intelligence for content generation, to flag anomalies in Call Report data submissions, forecast loan performance to support risk analysis, identify credit unions with elevated risk, and enhance cybersecurity operations.
The foundational AI concern is from a post by writer and financial analyst Andy Tobias: We need — urgently — to figure out (a) how to protect humanity from a superior species; (b) how to avoid economic catastrophe and, instead, harness A.I. for the benefit of all. (link)
He cites one expert’s observation: The experience that tech workers have had over the past year, of watching AI go from “helpful tool” to “does my job better than I do,” is the experience everyone else is about to have. Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service. Not in ten years. The people building these systems say one to five years. Some say less. And given what I’ve seen in just the last couple of months, I think “less” is more likely.
Andy recommends this new documentary that interviews five CEO’s of the largest investors in AI as well as academic experts. In sum, the dangers are real as AI become pervasive in all activities.
Public protests can be a healthy exercise for a democratic society. Demonstrations have multiple benefits for participants and onlookers,
They create new connections among individuals with similar views.
They raise public awareness on deeply held issues.
They encourage further organization when people know they are not alone.
They push concerns to the front of public debate.
They can be prophetic, proclaiming future hope from current circumstances..
They bring new energy to ordinary public discourse.
They embolden new people for civic leadership.
Or, as one participant said simply, “I felt I had to.”
These motivations are especially compelling when the events are massive and peaceful, as this weekend. Here is a sample of messages that caused people to stand on streets and share their views with neighbors–from the general to the specific.
Patriotic Duty
A two generational effort: : Q. on Sign: Why are egg prices so high? A. All the chickens are in Congress.
War no more
Circling Chevy Chase Circle in DC
We the people
It rhymes
A scientific point of view
A family photo
Never too old. A cane, a flag, a beret and a sign, No to kings. Defend democracy.
