Only problem is trying to figure out what definition to give it. Surely not budget planning, surely not public policy. Poison pill is overly dramatic.

Arbitrary, automatic spending cuts is accurate. So is chronic, persistent, and governance malaise.

Bad enough that we take a blunt rule designed and approved by both parties well over a year ago as a way to set a deadline to address our budget deficit. And then when no thoughtful policy and economic solution is reached, we spend time on the airwaves pointing fingers across the red and blue aisle.

My nephew is a Marine in Afghanistan. His wife is home with their two young children. They aren’t red or blue.

The Pentagon works to protect all of us and domestic programs, our National Parks have been preserved for all Americans. The Park Service isn’t red or blue.

Children in Head Start are trying to learn to share, to play together, to take turns. To them, red and blue are simply colors.

So if it isn’t about colors, is it about numbers: 2.5% or $85 billion. Yes if we had to cut 2.5% from our household budget we would figure it out. But that isn’t really the problem either.

Sequestration is a distraction albeit one where many children, families, and elders will be unintended casualties. Maybe we just aren’t governable. Or maybe we just don’t like to do the tough work, re-think tax policy, re-think subsidies and loopholes.

The Mayan’s did not say that the sun would not come up after 2012–that was spin too.

We need to invest more wisely in education and in our national defense. I am not going to suggest we add sequestration to the vocabulary list, but we should add good governance, compromise, and discipline to its remedy.

There is much to be thankful for:

Anonymous gifts from donors who seize the opportunity to help others.
Teachers who educate, inspire and protect our children on the first and last day.
Caring and capable leaders that inspire others to reach for their dreams.
Building transit where people can live, work, and thrive.
Faiths leaders embrace the most vulnerable
and great cultural and artistic expression and programs.
Jobs that lead to livelihoods.
Kitchen and pantries that feed the poor everyday.
Meaningful civic engagement and dialogue
and daring ideas that become our new norm.

As we pass over the threshold into 2013, I bring all of these inspiring moments with me, and I aspire for more. I continue to work for a bigger vision of equity and justice, for what the future can hold for all of us. I hope for a year that brings:

Lawmakers who find the courage to compromise, find the center, and leave the fringes.
Where everyone will have the right to love and marry whom they choose.
Where all dreamers can be free to uphold the best of American values.
Where we are able to serve all those with chronic illness, especially those with mental illness.
And that the youthful civic movement will have wind under their wings.

I invite you to continue to invest with us in the change we know is possible. On behalf of all of us at The San Francisco Foundation, I want to wish you a very Happy New Year. And we look forward to working with you in 2013 to make the Bay Area the best place it can be.

So many times, reaching for the phone, we went to get your view, your story, your joke of the day.

We have had moments in the mountains, in meetings,  on a hike, on a bike, on a horse, at a concert or rehearsal and you and your joy have been in full color.

In the office, I have wondered what guidance you would offer but more now wonder what I should offer others.

We have danced, we have given thoughtfully, we have made sure the table seats everyone.

We are in a big community who holds you and all  your memories close.

We miss you every day; today we send a message your way: you left this world a year ago but remain forever in the forefront of the love and joy that is our work.

In Memory of F. Warren Hellman, beloved friend, Bay Area civic and business leader, philanthropist, and our Former Trustee, who passed away one year ago today, on December 18, 2011.

What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth, the belief that our destiny is shared, that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and the future generations so that the freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for comes with responsibilities as well as rights and among those are love, and charity, and duty, and patriotism. That’s what makes America great.”  -President Barack Obama on the night of his re-election to a second term as President.

Elections allow us to look at contemporary issues of our day, soda/sugar and the extent to which it is exacerbating one of the worst epidemics of our time, or whether our moral convictions or confidence in our criminal justice system is so fool-proof that we are willing as a state to continue the practice of human executions, or whether we are ready to accept that who one loves should be honored equally in the eyes of the law.

As neighbors, as residents, as public servants, as social entrepreneurs we must remember that the change we want to see requires discourse and disagreement, and talking to people who don’t always agree with you.  And it requires that we keep working on our shared destiny. The new voter, the first time voter, the registered voter who didn’t vote, the eligible but not registered voter, these are voices we need to find, engage, and bring order to the dialogue.

On election night while watching the returns with friends,  a 12-year-old child asked me rather innocently, “what does this election have to do with me?” The answer of course was “everything.”

As a community foundation working in one of the most diverse regions in our nation, our role in fostering civic participation, civic dialogue, and of inspiring the next generation of civic leadership is work that is not done. It is work that has a long arc. An arc that we hold as an obligation for generations to come. The work is not done.

No, small man with a dark beard and a
Joyous smile and a mean slider
You are us, we are you, chasing the dream
Of orange and black, of community
Looks diverse because we are
Following the dream because dreams are
NOT illegal
Number 54 from Brole, from the land,
On our border, we smile upon you and all
The dreams of dreamers, of hard workers,
Seen and unseen

As Giants fans, one and all, find their way to the park, or to a friend’s HDTV today, it’s worth reflecting on just what makes a great (baseball) team great.

Is it watching a struggling teammate come out every day and just work hard to improve?
Is it creating an error, but knowing that one of your teammates will lift you up and make the next play look easy, even when it wasn’t?
Is it the reliever who wants to pitch, but wants his starter to have a strong outing?
Is it coming together when your MVP cops to taking steroids?
Is it stepping up to the fill the shoes as the fan favorite?
Is it warming up with your fellow infielder and laughing as you play catch?
Is it when you are the hero, telling the reporter,  “couldn’t have done it without the guys behind me.”
Is it the slumping player saying, “let’s just play together one more day!”
Is it the love of the game?
Is it for the 8 year old fan who the adult says to, “It is ok to boo him. It was a dirty play. But you can only boo at the ball park.”
Is it bringing back the injured season ended guy to do high fives on your long fly?
Is it winning together and living the moment even in the drenching rain?
Is it losing and letting go and looking to the next day?
Is it watching your teammate embrace his daughter in the middle of the field ?

Yes, it is all of this and then some…it’s leading by example, giving your “all” all the  time for you, for the team, for the game, for everyone who is watching.