Global Perspective. Local Roots. Deep thoughts by Josh McManus.

From an email from the aforementioned Josh. I think it encapsulates what we went through nicely and hopefully gives you a sense of the fantastic people I travelled with.

Morning Kids,

I had to give a 5 minute talk at the announcement of our 2010 Marshall Fellows last night and it made me miss you guys (and meat and cheese for breakfast). Hope that you are all re-adjusting well. Me, well I'm staying out all night drinking, sleeping through morning meetings, and gathering interesting people and stories to tell my future grandkids. Pretty much only the timezone has changed. La dolce vita as Marco Alessi and I learned in Italy. And BTW, asking "Dove' la disco" and then dancing Travolta style can help you find a club in just about any city around the world. Thanks for the tip Marco.

Also, if you're interested, here's what I told the good (and bad as there were politicians there...) people of Chattanooga:


Good Evening,

Let me first say that I had 36 hours on a train and three planes last Wednesday and Thursday so I apologize if I'm a bit lethargic and leaning on my notes.

I'm humbled to stand before you tonight. Humbled to have received the acknowledgement of my Marshall Fellowship nominator, the support of my co-founder and team leading up to and during the fellowship, the hard work of Eleanor Cooper and all that support the fellowship locally and most of all to have represented Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the United States of America in this one-of-a-kind ambassadorial role for Trans-Atlantic relations.

If I left Chattanooga four weeks ago as a sponge, I stand before you tonight completely saturated with the images of new places and the tastes and smells of new experiences, awash in the stories of new people. It will be many days before I can verbalize the learnings of my experience but I can say that functionally I jumped from Brussels to Lyon to Paris to Tourin to Belgrade to Leipzig to Berlin to Amsterdam over the course of 25 days and returned with over 1,000 pictures and a moleskin full of notes. In short, the Marshall fellowship was one of the most intense, rewarding and transformative experiences of my life.

Before we left for Europe, an American University professor said to my class of fellows, "What you are going to get out of this trip is a more profound knowledge of what it is to be American. The irony is that to find your culture, you have to leave it." I can say that I agree with Dr. Weaver. I return to Chattanooga with a much more keen sense of my European ancestry and my American identity.

As a nation we are constituted of the most risk-taking genetics in the world. For more than 300 years, those who have come to this land, both by the decisions of their own and of others, have been the most adventuresome, creative and innovative the world has to offer. To stare the unknown in the eye and embrace it as opportunity is my understanding of the true American dream. Our society truly is the most recent evolution of the human condition and I'm now more cognizant that we are mirrored, mimiced, loved and loathed around the world. With that position comes great responsibility...

At the close of my trip while participating in the Marshall Forum in Berlin, I became fairly frustrated with heady academic discussions on the future of the European Union, NATO and Trans-Atlantic relations. A new European friend laughed at me and off-handedly said, "we are Europeans, this is what we do, we talk about our problems well and then we wait for the States to take the lead". I don't usually deal in quips or blanket statements but I find this sentiment to be poignant to my message to you tonight.

As a union, we stand at a great precipice. Today, the world again looks to us to be a uniting force, a lifewell of creativity that fuels innovation. Let us recognize that greatness no longer is a federal or a state proposition. It is the work of communities, cities and counties alike, to provide safety and quality of life that leads to prosperity. To close, I share the words of the Marshall Fellowship's namesake [George C. Marshall]: "When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective."

My fellowship is now done. The sun hovers low on our world economic crisis. Elections, both near and far, are in the books. Let us leave here with newfound application of global perspective to local issues and let us use this opportunity to redouble our efforts to make this place that we call home the best city in the world.

Thank You.

Regards,

Josh McManus, Co-Founder & Creative Strategist


w: CreateHere.org


t: @joshmcmanus


p: 423.648.2195


f: 423.648.2194




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