One of my favorite activies in all of life is to catch a relaxing meal with one of my former students from either my days in Chicago (Judson University or Keller Graduate School of Management) or my tenure at Case where I taught at Weatherhead from '97 until '04. After the lackluster performance offered up by the Browns on Sunday, I was READY for a refreshing update.
(BTW, Cleveland, forget Cower. Bring in Ditka and surround him with Wilbur Marshall and Otis Taylor to teach the linebackers how to put the fear of Godin the opposing offense, Dave Duerson and Gary Fencik to teach our defensive backfield how to tackle, Richard Dent to teach our pathetic defensive line howto rush a quarterback, "The Fridge" to show 'em how to win at ALL cost - even if you have to throw your own man into the endzone!!!!, and let Jim McMahon start mentoring Brady RIGHT NOW - before it is too late! Wanna see a REAL team play?? - go rent the tape of the 44-0 SMASHING the Chicago Bears put onthe Dallas Cowboys on November 17, 1985. 'nuff said.) LINK HERE >
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/csac-bt-851117bearscowboysgamer,0,1687112.storyThe student who called me last week and requested lunch had just gone through the death of her husband's father. I know them both and appreciate each of them for their very unique energies and intellects. More on this sometime but not today.
Today I want to relate my student's monologue on the current state of affairs in America.
She made three points to me at lunch.
The integrity and simplicity of her logic has weighed on me all day.
I can't shake it - and I don't want to shake it.
This is a burden every American needs to feel.
Point #1 - My student came to America around 20 years ago. When she and her husband came here, they were coming to the NEW WORLD! It was a land of opportunity, freedom, limitless potential, and stood in STARK CONTRAST to the barriers, limitations, suppression, and mediocrity of her native China. They didn't want t o go to Germany nor England nor Canada nor Brazil, they wanted to come to AMERICA! When they arrived, they realized their dream, and they have steadily and continually lived it with their children and parents year in and year out. She now believes the America they fought so hard to come to is gone. The upcoming socialistic/Marxist (her words, not mine) era has made us "just another country". We are no longer distinct and probably never will be again. She told me that the Chinese people are laughing at us because we claimed for so long that communism was "evil" and now we "are it". The Chinese people now rightfully believe that their economy much more assertively, efficiently,and effectively practices economic competition than America's. Ouch.
Point #2 - American will now sacrifice government efficiency to political convenience. As she put it, "Under capitalism, you build a bridge because agroup of people need to get from point A to point B. Under socialism, you build a bridge because you need 100 jobs."She contends that as power and management directive is concentrated into the federal government, there will be a huge increase in cronyism, favoritism, prejudice against politically unpopular groups, and enormous waste in the name of keeping the work force active. As a short, white, bald, Vietnam era veteran without any debilitating wounds, I already know what this is like - but I am getting ready for it to get a lot worse. BTW, I was actually told to my face in a meeting at one of the top banks in Cleveland that I was "too white and the wrong gender to ever do business at that bank". Can you IMAGINE the rampage that would be created if the gender and color of that statement was flipped around??? I went to a local labor attorney and he told me "they can do business with who ever they want".
We moved on and did almost $2M the next year pulling off a major application implementation at the National Bank of Canada. They do not suffer from such blind rejection of experience, talent, and technical excellence. (;>)Double ouch.
Point #3 - and I'm warning you, this one really hurt. You might offer up any number of reasons why America has declined to the mediocrity which China is fighting its way out of with every breath they can take. My student put it this way: American has declined into socialism because everyone sat around and waited for someone else to do something.
Ouch, ouch, ouch!
Bottom line: I have my new year's resolution for 2009 firmly entrenched in my being: I will do whatever I can to make a difference in Cleveland, Ohio, and America. Whenever someone complains about our 'lot in life' because we are in Clevelandor Ohio or America, I am going to challenge with - 'what are YOU doing about it?'. Are you supporting our local vendors? Are you voicing your opinions inthe media? Are you letting our leaders know you are not happy and that things need to change ... or are you just belly aching to spread pain to all within immediate earshot? I am going to start speaking up when my whiteness or my gender makes me a second class citizen and my company a stepped-over vendor. It is time to stand up, raise my voice, and reject unfair treatment in the name of "equal"opportunity. It is time to loudly and publically complain when government policies are promoting gross inefficiencies ... and if this new federal regime is not taking us in a direction that I perceive to be in the best interest of my children, you BET they will hear me in Washington and Columbus. I am not going down without a fight. Cribbs, 'Fridge, Wilson, I'm rightbeside you! Let's stand against an NFL leadership turning the game into a"Dance of Barely Distinguishable Gentle Men" and let's stop our collectivenational frustration from turning America into a
"Union of Barely Actualized States".
FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Baney
