Any prolonged discussion about corporate America these days is likely to drift quickly to its real and imagined shortcomings.
Sometimes, though, it takes a visitor to help remind us of virtues we ignore or take for granted, such as how essential economic vitality has been not only to this region, but to our very democracy.
That point was made clear to me again last week, after spending much of a day with 14 young professionals from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon and Jordan.
For most of us in the United States, our knowledge of the Middle East experience begins and ends with three words: Jews, Muslims and war. The men and women I met are trying to write a different, more hopeful narrative, one that involves jobs, entrepreneurship and a regional economic prosperity that might help end decades of strife.
They've come to Minnesota to see firsthand how that works.
A front-row seat at 3M's annual meeting, where CEO George Buckley was pelted with questions from shareholders about political contributions, had them marveling about the level of accountability and disclosure required of American companies.
A tour of Wells Fargo's mortgage unit in Minneapolis and operations center in Shoreview left them talking about how easily employees of so many different races and religions worked alongside each other.
These are just some of the lessons Arie Zmora had in mind when he and his wife, Nurith Zmora, worked with Hamline University and the U.S. Department of State to create the Middle East Education to Employment Fellows Project.
