Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 4-14-22 E-Edition

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Guest Column
Conflict dynamics
By Melinda Burrell
Guest columnist
Russian atrocities in Ukraine horrify us all, particu- larly knowing many Russians consider Ukrainians family.
How did it come to this?
Having worked in war zones, I have wondered if that violence could happen again here. One way to prevent it is to understand how conflict escalates.
Let’s look at dynamics of two conflicts, one interper- sonal and the other political.
One: John is late meeting Tim for coffee. Tim texts John: “Where are you? I have to leave soon.” No response. Ten minutes later, John arrives and launches into a story about his morning. He doesn’t apologize or explain his tardiness.
Tim fumes quietly. John is often late, and hasn’t picked up a check in a while. John’s downright disrespectful, Tim concludes, and decides to tell their mutual friend Mary that it is time to stop seeing “Slacker John” so much. John, for his part, is embarrassed he was late. He feels silly de- scribing his morning, but doesn’t want to talk about real stuff like his fear he might get laid off.
Two: Protestersgatherinacitysquarethedayaftera local police officer shot an unarmed man. They’re angry, carrying signs and shouting slogans — even some very anti-police slogans — but remain nonviolent. The crowd grows. Police form a tight line across the street. Protest- ers feel the police are constricting their space. “Pigs!” they yell. The police call for backup.
As in both of these scenarios, conflicts often start about one thing, but expand in issues and actors. Identify- ing the stages of an escalating conflict can help us stop it.
• Entrenched perceptions. As conflict grows, we be- come convinced we are absolutely right, interpreting ev- erything through the lens of our righteousness.
• Emotions take over. We lose the ability to think ratio- nally. We fall back on default stress behaviors we learned as children – usually not constructive.
• Communication decreases. We refuse to think, let alone converse, about the other’s perception of the situ- ation -- even though that is key to de-escalating and pos- sibly resolving the situation.
• Bones of contention and parties proliferate. Dispute around one issue metastasizes to include others. We pull in allies, involving more people.
• Parties start to change. As one side introduces stron- ger tactics, the other side may change structurally in re- sponse — altering how they think, communicate, or orga- nize — in ways that intensify the conflict.
This last dynamic is particularly worrisome, as we see in Ukraine. Russia’s initial narrative was around rid- ding Ukraine of “Nazis” in their midst. When Ukrainians resisted more fiercely than expected, Russia changed its narrative to one claiming that the strong resistance meant Nazis had completely taken over and all must be eliminated. Worse, some Russian forces changed not only their narrative, but also their tactics — now com- mitting atrocities.
If we understand how conflict escalates, we’re better able to spot it, and ideally stop it. In our own country, we can be alert for its signs: overly emotional and self- righteous language, especially likening the “other side” to animals or something evil; ending communication across a divide; forcing legal changes without even attempting to find agreement.
Then we can de-escalate. We can pause, consider the impact of our words and actions, ask questions about how the other party sees the situation and what they need to de-escalate.
I’m encouraged by positive structural changes in our country. Dozens of groups now promote cross-divide con- versations. City councils are launching “kindness cam- paigns.” Polls show most of us want the sniping to end. We each can choose to be part of positive change.
Melinda Burrell, PhD, @MelindaCBurrell, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a humanitarian aid worker who studies polarization and trains on the neuroscience of communi- cation and conflict. She is on the board of the National Association for Community Mediation, which offers re- sources on cross-divide engagement.
Valley ROP open house shows off skills of young and older students
Fred Hall — Publisher Emeritus Jon Earnest — Editor
Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
Thursday, April 14, 2022 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
I finished up a busy Friday work day on April 8 — one that included taking some pho- tos of an exciting high school baseball showdown — by tak- ing the drive from Reedley to the Kings River Winery south of Sanger. It was a worthy case, as it was an open house to cel- ebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Valley Regional Occupa- tion Program (better known as Valley ROP).
I was present for just a short period at the event, but in that brief time I witnessed young people, most of them high schoolers, on hand to be honored for their developing skills in their respective techni- cal fields. Students were being trained in a variety of fields, agriculture tech, nursing, crim- inal investigation, firefighting, arts and media, product devel- opment and much more.
Since 1971, Valley ROP has been a major program for stu- dents in our coverage region (Sanger, Parlier, Reedley, Or- ange Cove, Cutler-Orosi and Dinuba. Students from all these districts were represented at the event.
Congratulations to Valley ROP for its milestone, and the many teen and adult students who have taken advantage of all its valuable resources.
•••
The April 12 Reedley City
Council meeting was an impor- tant one, as it marked the city's second attempt to approve a painting and rehabilitation contract for Reedley's historic water towers. Two motions to use grant money for the proj- ect failed for lack of a majority at the March 22 meeting. There were a pair of 2-2 votes on sep- arate motions (Council mem- ber Bob Beck was absent from the meeting). Mayor Mary Fast and Anita Betancourt were on one side of each vote while Matthew Tuttle and Ray Soleno were on the opposite side.
After those votes, failed, the council voted to bring the item back to this most recent meet- ing. In the three weeks since, the city has invited the public to comment on the issue and make known their sentiments on the project. The proposed contract contains just a 30- day window, so it would not be
up for another vote if it wasn't approved on April 12.
We'll have a writeup on how the coun- cil votes on the matter in our April 21 issue.
Jon Earnest
Standing up for the startup
By George Harris
Guest columnist
Google Home speakers are "smart," to use the language of our times. They're also stolen.
That's according to a recent ruling from the U.S. Interna- tional Trade Commission that found Google infringed on five patents from Sonos, a speaker company. The ruling prohibits Google from importing prod- ucts that infringe on the patent- ed technology -- a decision that could have multimillion-dollar consequences for the folks in Mountain View.
Google's case is no out- lier. In August, a federal jury slapped Apple with a $300 million verdict for stealing a smaller company's patented technology.
For years, Bay-area Goli- aths have worked to roll back U.S. intellectual property rules. Now, large firms have adopted a "willful infringement" strate- gy, knowing that nascent com- panies seldom have the cash for heavyweight representa- tion in the courtroom.
Preventing this dynamic from continuing unabated isn't just about combatting Big Tech's sense of greed and enti- tlement. It's also about protect- ing our economy.
Tech startups have long
been dynamic centers of Amer- ican job creation. A sliver of all U.S. companies — around 3 percent — are startups in the technology sector. Yet these firms account for an outsize share of American job growth. Nationwide, new jobs created at startups have prevented net job losses in prior years.
Tech startups also pay well, and their employees' wages are growing faster than those at all other tech companies, underscoring how these small firms keep our economy from stagnating.
They build an economy that's resilient. As countries work to recover from the dev- astating economic losses from the pandemic, tech startups offer massive dividends. As a recent Canadian study found, they are uniquely positioned to drive the post-COVID re- covery.
Protecting small tech com- panies' intellectual property directly boosts innovation in the tech sector. Monopolistic leviathans like Apple, Face- book, and Google simply aren't innovating in the same ways that smaller tech firms are, despite their own public nar- rative. Start-ups tend to invest more heavily in R&D than old- er firms.
Why does this disparity exist?
Often, it comes down to val- ue. Tech entrepreneurs and in- vestors know that any startup's value is strongly correlated with the intellectual property it holds. According to The Econo- mist, American companies "de- rive 80 percent of their market value from intangible assets such as patents and brands."
Tech hegemons know this. It's part of the reason they con- tinue to prey on their smaller neighbors, believing they won't have enough cash to fight back.
Big Tech's incursions are immoral. They're also an in- creasingly bad business strat- egy. Sonos, which won a battle over Google Home speakers, has a market capitalization nearly five-hundred times smaller than Google's.
We can't let predatory be- havior towards small firms es- cape the spotlight. Lawmakers are right to question the power that sprawling tech giants have in Americans' lives. Courts and regulators must insist that Big Tech plays by the rules -- or pays a price for breaking them.
George Harris is a small business owner, the publisher of Liberty Watch Magazine, and a U.S. Army veteran based in Las Vegas. This piece originally ran in the Detroit News.
QUOTE
“All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.”
— James Thurber (1894-1961)
•••
Reedley High's baseball and
softball teams both sit atop the North Yosemite League stand- ings heading into this week's spring vacation break which featured multiple holiday tour- naments. The Pirates boys col- lected two critical wins over the previous league leader, Fresno High, and now sit in a position of power. With two wins over FHS in three meet- ing, Reedley holds the advan- tage in a potential tiebreaker.
The RHS girls have won their two league games so far, and are riding a seven-game win streak when they resume league action next week. Best of luck to both teams the rest of the regular season.
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.