While most of us might not pause on April 3, it is a date that should resonate with every American. It is the anniversary of the death of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown. Secretary Brown and 34 other people, including more than a dozen dedicated public servants, lost their lives 13 years ago when, during an official trade mission, their plane crashed into a lonely mountainside outside Dubrovnic, Croatia.
It is interesting to imagine what the first African-American to chair the Democratic Party would say about the first African-American to serve in the Oval Office. Both were dedicated public servants who believed government has an important role to play in uplifting the lives of ordinary people. Secretary Brown also believed deeply in the power of markets to serve the public good.
When he ascended to the helm of the Commerce Department in 1993, it was a time of economic upheaval. The Iron Curtain had fallen, initiating a wave of privatization as economies awoke from socialism. Mature markets in Western countries were deregulating large industrial sectors. Across the world, countries were tearing down tariff and non-tariff barriers through bilateral and regional trade agreements.
Amid these rough currents, Ron Brown saw business and exports as powerful levers for good. Secretary Brown pioneered the notion of commercial diplomacy, a policy of encouraging capital flows and corporate investment toward impoverished areas or post-conflict regions. In service of this idea, he hopscotched across the world, from the war-torn Balkans to post-Apartheid South Africa to the slums of Gaza City. In all of these varied instances, Ron Brown consistently championed the constructive application of capitalism to address sectarian conflict, political disputes and social inequities.
Today, we find ourselves struggling in another period of economic turbulence. Recent headlines are filled with horror stories of financial traders run amok and corporations earning bailouts at the expense of taxpayers. While the private sector has been responsible for some of these ills, we need to rediscover the hope and potential of entrepreneurship and innovation - led by the business community.
If Ron Brown stood among us, I believe he would espouse the power of responsible business and advocate for a new contract between citizens and companies. He would demand that we see the interdependencies between public service and the private sector. As Secretary Brown campaigned for commercial diplomacy around the world, it is time to apply its lessons here at home.
In these difficult times, we need political leadership to highlight the positive impact of business and call attention to a new model of commerce, call it sustainable commerce. We need an approach that is market-oriented and mission-driven. As government attempts to reverse the recession, we need new models for commercial gain and social return. At a time when traditional sectors have failed the public, we need new leadership to create trust and demonstrate how business again can serve as a force for good -- creating jobs, generating incomes and driving social impact.
Already, the success of upstart companies such as Honest Tea, Blue Avocado, Method, New Resource Bank, and Tesla Motors demonstrates the ascendance of ethical brands, profit-oriented businesses endowed with a sense of service in their corporate DNA. Such companies drive margin and mitigate externalities, serving shareholders and stakeholders. These contrasts actually complement each other, building consumer loyalty and generating profits. Yet the firms that pursue such a dual bottom line would benefit from simple measures of support.
This moment calls for political leadership to embrace initiatives that support social entrepreneurship and cultivate "common good" capital markets. We do not need more subsidies but smart policies that align incentives and stimulate growth. For example, one could imagine the federal government encouraging standardized metrics to define social return on investment; developing lending programs that provide early-stage capital to social ventures that pursue a double-bottom line; and exploring regulation to create new hybrid corporate forms that blend a for-profit/non-profit mission. Secretary Brown endorsed programs such as "empowerment zones" to transform neighborhoods through economic development and job creation - maybe today we need into "sustainability zones" to promote localized social entrepreneurship and sustainable commerce.
Looking ahead, I know that Secretary Brown would assert that American business has a crucial role to play as we reinvent our economy and reinvigorate our society. He would insist on an agenda of entrepreneurship and innovation. He would seek to create community through commerce. In a time of turmoil, let's learn from Ron Brown and the dedicated public servants who died with him in Dubrovnic. Their example should remind us as to the power and promise of business to change lives for the better.
In memory:
Ronald H. Brown
Duane Christian
Adam Darling
Gail Dobert
Carol Hamilton
Kathryn Hoffman
Kathy Kellogg
Charles Meissner
William Morton
Lawrence Payne
Naomi Warbasse
Ron Brown (U.S. politician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ron Brown (U.S. politician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Even though Germany showed how easy it was to stand up to Milosovic's bloody gang of former soccer-player "enforcers" & Serb militia ethnic-cleansing crews (by aiding the secession of Slovenia), America did NOTHING to restrain Milosovic & other murderous militias.
There is another side of Ron Brown's rise to prominence with a more positive subtext.
On the positive side, Ron Brown most certainly paved the way for the winning Obama campaign.
The facts are, that RON BROWN, as then DNC Chairman in 1990-1992, HELPED PAVE THE WAY for Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign, Ron Brown UNITING the ELITIST (millionaires & celebrities) wing of the Democratic Party with the BLUE-COLLAR, UNION, working-stiff wings of the party __LONG before Bill & Hillary Clinton arrived__ on the national stage in 1992.
It was HILLARY who BETRAYED Black Voters - and the memory of Ron Brown - with her blatant (racist) appeal to resentful whites in Kentucky & West Virginia & elsewhere.
Sad to say, with the first official "TIMMY McVEIGH CLONE" shooting up an immigration center in New York the other day, we are a long way from seeing the full impact of that dreadful, treacherous appeal to racism & resentment.
The background to the story is that America's Foreign-Policy "establishment" (which is to say our "conservative" dominated foreign police establishment, whether "Democrat" or Republican) had TOTALLY FOULED UP the disintegration of Yugoslavia following the "end of the Cold War" & collapse of Soviet Union.
After spending entire 50 years of Cold War telling East European nations (& those in the USSR that we, America, would "help you fight for freedom & democracy!", we actually had NO intention of doing so.... even with the ENTIRE Warsaw pact collapsed without a shot fired in anger!!
Like other brutal dictators & demagogues everwhere, Slobodan Milosovic - former communist functionary, (a banker at that!) first bullied & murdered his own Serbs on his rise to power.
THAT was the time for the US to step in & "level the playing field".
But the Repub foreign policy crew of Bush Sr., James Baker, Lawrence Eagelberger, & NeoCon dominated Democrats did NOTHING to help emeliorate Yugoslavia's transition from Tito-era Communist rule to something more democratic.
By contrast, GERMANY helped SLOVENIA secede bloodlessly!
IT was against this background of CRIMINAL NEGLECT - the USA doing NOTHING to restrain Milosovic's BLOODY rise to power & DEATH-SQUAD ETHNIC CLEANSING against rivals Serbs & nonSerbs alike - that necessitated the US Air War vs Serbia in 1995, & Ron Brown's economic rehabilitation
"For example, one could imagine the federal government encouraging standardized metrics to define social return on investment"
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Jefferson wrote:
"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."
Or,
"Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
Still one thing more, fellow-citizens--a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."
Having government get involved in "defining social metrics" is not why we fought and died to form this Republic, Mr. Greenblatt-because it inevitably would lead to a partisan "social metric" that isn't necessarily the will of the people.
Take hybrid cars. Some on the left would force the unwilling into tiny hybrid cars, because the "social metric" is a positive to them.....but if you have a large family, shouldn't you be free to pick a vehicle that suits your needs better?
Since your choice costs the rest of us, shouldn't the government prevent you from "injuring" us, or at the very least, insist that you offer restitution to the rest of us? I believe that Mr. Jefferson, of whom you are so fond, would agree with me.
You've made my point, I suppose. It is your opinion that a minivan "injures" other people, Indiana. It is not a "fact".
If it was a "fact", then all gasoline engines, jet travel, diesel trucks and construction equipment would be illegal, right?
Using your "logic", it would be against the law to use a lawnmower, correct? Which would mean State edicts governing the use of lawnmowers that aren't powered with fossil fuels, correct?
You read Jefferson's quotes, and deduced that he would agree with government interference in what cars can be sold, as dictated by the federal government?
hope his republican counterpart in the Obama administration, equally distinguishes himself.
How could the U.S. government lose Air Force 2 when it was equipped with g.p.s.?
How could the plane go down so far away from the airport when it was being guided by the airport's radar?
When discussing his indictment problems, didn't Ron Brown say, "I am not going to jail alone."?
How could they lose the black box when the government of Croatia insisted that they had handed it over to authorities in our government?
Didn't the crash cause an end to all of the investigations because everybody who knew anything was on the plane?
I always admired how thoughtful and eloquent his discussions were. I certainly agree that it is a great loss. Hopefully all of Obama's supporters on the election night win , screaming at the top of their lungs "YES" , was felt by Rons spirit. After the mess that we have been through with the previous administration, and all of the vitriolic e-mail messages I had received from my "so called friends" (I never discuss politics of religion) , I was finally proud the citizens realized that something was seriously wrong and we joined forces to solve it.
Rest in peace Ron.
"Create community through commerce."
Orwell did it better.
"War is peace."
"Slavery is freedom."
Accident you say...?
His life was too short
Thanks for the reminder.
I for one, do pause every April 3rd to reflect on the tragedy that took the life of Sec. Brown and the Commerce Dept. staff, military crew and business leaders that were with him in 1996. My sister, Gail Dobert was on the plane with Sec. Brown. At the time, she was 9 days short of her 35th birthday.
I agree that Ron Brown's message that business could "do well by doing good" has a particular resonance at the current time. Its a timeless message that needs as many advocates as possible.
Thanks for the article and taking the time and effort to remember those public servants (both civilian and miliatry) and business leaders that died with Sec. Brown on a hillside far from home 13 years ago.
Regards,
Ray Dobert
Things might have been so different.