Yo Mitt

We're at a turning point. Our futures hang in the balance. The outcome of the Fall 2024 presidential election will set the course for the coming decade, and well beyond.

YO MITT is Jim Sawyer, PhD's "take" on how to move away from the stagnant status quo. It's about how to recalibrate-by first distinguishing reality from fantasy-in American politics, religion, and failing families such as my own.

YO MITT zeros in on the fallacy of declaring that "beliefs" are "knowns," when they are not. It's about how to avoid being trapped in culture warfare, through the process of self-renewal. It's about how to fix ourselves-first-by transcending authoritarianism that anchors many in dysfunctional obedience and enforced social conformity.

If Jim's native state could fix itself-first-I believe Utah could become a beacon. May each of us become beacons, also. YO MITT is about becoming stewardship beacons of renewal-starting-always-with us.

So, how to do this? Jim suggests two basics.

• Rule One: In public spaces such as city council or school board meetings, use the term "I know" sparingly, when "I believe" may be more appropriate, and honest.
• Rule Two: In place of the pursuit of unmitigated self-interest, substitute instead, the pursuit of self-interest, "rightly understood."

• Avoid feigning institutional piety.
• Tell the truth, to oneself especially.
• Marshal one's interior forces authentically.
• Live for outcomes rather than wishes, merely.
• Go one's way-even to pursuing untrod paths leading...hopefully...to "new game plans" for challenging whatever lies around the next bend in the road.