COMPLAINERS

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

COMPLAINERS

The hurricane Irene caught the attention of a lot of people.

Whatever information was available to those “in the know” was sufficient to cause the Mayor of NYC to order the evacuation of 300,000 people, the President of the U.S. to make two public appearances to discuss the storm, sent the U.S. Navy’s ships out to sea, had Governors declaring “states of emergency” and closed down various forms of public transportation and some casinos in NJ.

We got lucky.

Although there is over $2billion dollars of reported damage so far, a lot of complainers are out and about, and on the Internet, condemning all the pre-storm hype.

Of course, these are the same people who complained that everyone in New Orleans should have been warned before the storm and that the government was clearly not prepared to either predict or clean up after Katrina hit that area.

Bottom line: the government gets blamed if they ask us to prepare for the worst and the worst does not happen. They get blamed if they roll the dice and do not create early panic and then people get hurt and stranded.

For me, the early warnings and the opportunity to prepare for what might happen, but does not, is considerably better than being surprised by what happens and having made no preparations.

In the case of Katrina, the government failed miserably.

In the case of Irene, the government performed admirably.

Many who sees it differently need to make an appointment with a psychiatrist or psychologist because your issues need attention. In the meantime, spare us your constant complaining.

The role of government includes protecting the people. With Irene they seem to have done everything just right.

Sane/Insane

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Title:    Sane/Insane ?

I tend to read a lot during the week in preparation for writing Notes. A recent column by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, dealing generally with the Iowa Straw Poll in the Republican Party and more specifically with the “Tea Party,” features a statement attributed to another reporter:

“One pollster here wryly noted that the Republican presidential prospects divide into ‘the sane and the insane.”’ Then she goes on to say, humorously,  the “sane ones are boring as spackle and the insane ones have crackle….”

I found this writing in the liberal NYC paper both humorous and thought provoking.
The “Tea Party” is viewed by many as a fringe or radical movement within the historic GOP. While trying to pass them off as inconsequential, out of touch, weird, radical…the press also credits (blames?) them for bringing the President of the United States to his knees in the recent House session dealing with the financial health of the country.

The press continues to label and deride this group, over and over again, in an attempt to diminish their influence and power, but the group just continues to show that, at least in Iowa and Washington DC, they command considerable attention and growing support.
So let us look at this phenomenon without prejudice for a moment. They kept the Democrats from raising taxes and forced them to reduce spending.

Sure.

The portion of Republican congress people who are labeled “Tea Party” is an incredibly small number in comparison with the over four hundred total members of Congress. So they must be pretty good at convincing their peers of their philosophical tenets. If not, then their influence is so out of proportion to their numbers that we would have to believe the rest of those who vote in the House, certainly more than 350 people, are simply easily led astray. We also have to believe that the President of the United States, the Vice President, the Minority Leader in the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate, a considerable group of people with a huge amount of power and influence, simply were no match for these “Tea Party” nuts.
Right.
In a multi-candidate free for all in Iowa they trounced the mainstream candidates.
The most vocal of them (Tea Party) currently serving in Washington refuse to ignore the views of the common people who elected them and instead risk their new- found government jobs to do what they said they would do.
Is there some sort of hidden agenda to always, but never directly, imply that farmers (a term of derision every four years?) simply do not represent the mood of the country? Is Iowa so easily written off as “just those Midwesterners doing their thing again?”
Within the context of political history no Republican in recent memory has won the nomination without winning either Iowa or the New Hampshire primary.
So perhaps attention needs to be paid.
I do not consider myself a member of the “Tea Party” inside the Republican Party. But I would have to be deaf and blind to ignore the results I saw recently in our sophisticated capital of Washington, DC and more recently in the cornfields of Iowa.
These people represent the inner thoughts, feelings, concerns and fears of a number of Americans, a more sizeable group than I thought before Iowa.
It appears that while one of “their own” will still have difficulty winning nomination for a presidential campaign they will be a force to be reckoned with for every other Republican who has a real chance at being nominated.
Just as President Obama could not ignore them, neither will the eventual nominee of the GOP be able to secure that nomination or win the general election without hearing the message they are sending.
What remains to be seen between now and the 2012 election is whether these people represent a wider, and growing group of people who are fed up with the status quo, or whether they are just as the press would have us believe, a fringe group of nut cases that reasonable men and women should disdain and ignore.
The opening shots of the 2012 race have been fired and we are off and running!
It is going to be a bumpy ride.

For further information:  jacksonblair@gmail.com

PURSUE EXCELLENCE

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Pursue Excellence

I have been thinking about how many products are manufactured abroad, how popular foreign built automobiles seem to be with Americans and how observers tell us so many Americans just don’t want to take the time to do something right, to make something the best it can be, and that many of us do not take pride in our work.

My father worked for U.S. Steel. He wouldn’t be caught buying a foreign made automobile in those days. As he aged and I matured he talked to me about how proud he was of the steel product. By the time he passed away at age 87 I had owned a number of foreign made products. He never commented. I recall a conversation we had toward the end of his career when he said to me he hoped I did not want to work for U.S. Steel. What happened to his pride? What happened to his dream?

Is it possible that his generation witnessed the decline in American pride, American accomplishment, and American hard work?

With this in mind I looked around this summer to see how many instances of pride in work, doing a first rate job, or simply wanting to be the best, I could find. I wanted to feature just one example in my column. I am happy to admit I found some wonderful examples. I am sad to tell you I did not find many.

The Inn at St. Peters

A 4 Star Inn with a 4 Diamond Gourmet Restaurant

I choose to write about one example of quality and hard work that I have witnessed over many summers. On Prince Edward Island there is an Inn that, arguably, is the best Inn on the island with the best Inn restaurant on the island. It is The Inn at St Peters, a four star rated establishment enjoying a four diamond rated restaurant, sitting on a beautiful piece of pristine property with an incredible view of St Peters Bay as it leads out to the ocean.

This establishment is open about six months each year. Not too many people choose to spend winters on this island off the coast of Canada during the snow season! So these folks have to make their impression in six months each year.

The Innkeepers are Karen Davey and Garth Keeping. They did not come from hotel management careers. In fact, the establishment of this Inn and its continuing operation is a labor of love started by Ms. Davey and later joined by Mr. Keeping.

When any business commences they typically are limited by budget. The Inn built only 16 rooms/suites. Every one of them was sighted on the property to provide a front porch with a view of the water. Each porch has Adirondeck chairs and flower boxes in full bloom. In each room is a king or queen size bed, a fireplace, wireless capability, a rocking chair, a small refrigerator and all the amenities anyone might want.

The Bay, the Gardens, the Gazebo (and the helicopter-at-rest)

In planning for this establishment it was determined that only a truly gourmet restaurant would be appropriate to the quality of rooms and grounds. So chefs and sous chefs were recruited from the finest culinary schools.

For most, this would be a pretty good start to a business adventure. But again, a level of quality was of foremost importance so a garden of fresh vegetables was planned and planted and much of the items accompanying the entrees come straight from the Inn garden. With a fantastic view of St Peters Bay, from each cottage deck, why would anyone spend more money to make a great impression?

Because they wanted to be the best.

They planned and executed huge gardens of beautiful flowers, both perennial and annual. Throughout the complex, wherever one walks, color and fantastic aromas surround you. Many additional expenses relate to this effort, not to mention added personnel. This is money not needed to be spent, unless you really want to do something wonderful and not just profitable.

Then to top it all off a Gazebo was constructed down close to the Bay, ideal for weddings or celebrations, and surrounded by long green lawns and flower gardens leading up to the main Inn. Again, more costs not necessary unless you have a dream to create something really wonderful, or you are driven by a passion for excellence in what you undertake.

While no one was planning on the lawn being ideal for helicopter landings, in fact guests have arrived by helicopter and found a wide verdant expanse appropriate to their “parking” needs.

Want to know why guests return year after year?

Because these folks understand how to do a job the right way.

They are invested in a quality experience for their guests. And selfishly, they just enjoy doing something well.

Four of the sixteen cottages with decks overlooking flowers and Bay

I challenge my readers to spend some time in the coming week looking for an example, one or many, of someone who truly cares about their work, is committed to excellence, wants to give value for the money spent, and receives a warm psychic reward from making something good, something that makes people happy. When you find it, share the news!

It seems if each of us could identify one such person or operation each week, our optimism about the future would soar. We could move from the malaise of disappointing earnings results, lack of employment, outrageous political battles and realize that there are still people out there, working hard, dreaming dreams, and making the world we live in a little bit better each day.

In the end it comes down to one person doing one job right!

For further information:  jacksonblair@gmail.com

Back to Being a Kid

Notes of Concern…
…Jackson Blair


Back to Being a Kid



“When you were a kid, you probably yearned to reach adulthood. But after a decade or two of getting up too early, commuting to work, paying taxes, getting groceries and other repetitious non-negotiable aspects of adulthood, a realization that being a kid wasn’t so bad takes hold.” - Christian Laforce

I had some time to think this summer. I decided to spend some time wallowing in my memories of my youth. I had a great time as a kid. I was a member of a large extended family who all lived in the same small Pennsylvania town (Vandergrift). I was an only child but I didn’t know it. I had gazillion cousins and second cousins, 28 aunts and 28 uncles, and lots of family friends.

My family had a “farm” in the country. We had no animals, no crops, and we did no real farming but we called it a “farm”anyway. We all went there every Saturday and Sunday. We had a really large picnic table that could easily seat 50 or more. Then we had a really big circle of chairs and couches where everyone could sit and talk. We had a big grill that had been made at the local U.S. Steel plant (where most of my relatives worked) and we always had a big “feed” on the weekend.

Typically we had really good steaks and potatoes from the grill. My uncles manned the grill. My aunts brought all the other stuff, mostly pies and cakes but the occasional vegetable. One memory I have is that fruit NEVER substituted for dessert in this family.

My cousins and I had a great time at the “farm.” We played, explored and drove. Since the “farm” had a big apple orchard, we were all permitted to drive our parents cars around the orchard. Most of us were well under the age of 16 so this was quite a treat. We had avenues and streets between the apple trees. All of us were accomplished drivers by the time we took our tests for our driver’s licenses at age 16.

It was a carefree time. We had no worries. We had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and our parents seemed happy. Most of our parents had lived through, and survived, the Great Depression. They were content with the “simple things” of life. They did not dream of having more money, or collecting more things. They took great pleasure in the company of loved ones, the achievements of their children, and the lack of life threatening occurrences like depressions and wars.

I grew up, went to college and began a career and a family. I eventually went to Wall Street. My wife and I chose to raise our family where there was green grass and blue seas (in Connecticut) but the price I paid for that was a four hour commute every day.

Needless to say, I was not present for much of what happened in family life. Certainly, I did not have the chance to attend my childrens’ sporting events. I often left the house before they were awake and returned when they were getting bathed and ready for bed.

My father went to work before I went to school. He came home after I returned from school. But he was around for everything that was happening in our family. He was there when it was time for me to go to bed. He didn’t travel in his job so I suppose there was not even one night that I went to bed and he was in another city or another country.

I had a pretty idyllic childhood. It was very different from the childhood my children experienced and that most children experience today.

So while I can dream of how nice it would be to experience my childhood again…I am not at all certain that my children or my grandchildren will enjoy those same memories. Perhaps they will find reasons to appreciate their childhoods. Certainly there were more opportunities, more travel, better education, and a higher quality of “stuff.”

That said, my own children loved returning to visit their grandparents. They loved the small town in which I grew up. They still talk about their grand aunts and uncles. In many ways, they seem to have found a way to cherish the same things I cherished.

I think many of my readers probably can remember a time when things were simpler. Many of us can wish for less complicated times.

But I think at the end of the day it is always the interpersonal relationships, the actual giving and receiving of familial affection, and the appreciation of the sacrifices others made on our behalf that constitutes our remembered heritage.

WHAT HAPPENED ?

Notes of Concern…
…Jackson Blair


WHAT HAPPENED ?



Fortune magazine (Nina Easton) reports 20 per cent of all American men are “collecting unemployment, in prison, on disability, operating in the underground economy, or getting by on the paychecks of wives or girlfriends or parents.”

While there is no mention of how many women are also out of work I would not be at all surprised to find the percentage to be similar.

The article goes on to say

“American companies are creating millions of jobs. The trouble is, they’re not in America, which is an increasingly uncompetitive place to do business.”

Yet another columnist, Jeffrey Simpson, who writes for the Globe & Mail was even more to the point:

“The U.S. spends way more than it raises in revenue and, therefore, borrows massively; it imports more than it exports; it has an almost double-digit unemployment rate (9.2%); it has the highest degree if inequality in the Western world; its public pension plan isn’t adequately financed…systematically Americans have refused to tax themselves at levels commensurate with their spending. The result of this collective irresponsibility has finally caught up with them.”

If the current economic disaster in this country has not hit you or someone in your family you are very fortunate. Since no solution has been found or even appears as a distant possibility, after the recent unimaginative, weak and embarrassing solution to the debt-ceiling crisis, you should enjoy what may well be short-lived good fortune.

The prices of almost everything are high. The ability of almost everyone to pay the prices demanded is falling.

Many people who used to be gainfully employed are now unemployed and surviving on benefits the government might yet cut. Those who successfully completed the course of a working life and are living on fixed incomes are now in danger of having their benefits cut.

People who planned well and invested to supplement their retirement are watching the returns on their investments crash and burn. Prudent people who paid off their mortgages thinking the value of their homes would be a financial survival net are now living without a net as the value of homes plummet.

I could go on with this litany of woe but what I really want to say is that we did not get here because of Barak Obama. Frankly, we didn’t get here because of George Bush. You can look a long way back into our history to discover how we got here.

We got here because people who needed votes learned early in their careers that the way to get us to vote for them was for them to give us what we wanted. This gave birth to entitlement programs where the government gives us money they actually do not have while we refuse to increase any of the tax money we give them.

They are in a bind my friends. We demand they keep giving us our “stuff” and we threaten their jobs as our representatives if they ask us for more taxes.

WE THE PEOPLE caused the financial crisis and WE THE PEOPLE can fix it.

Everybody needs to step back and accept that we must expect less “stuff” from our government and we must be willing to pay more for the “stuff” that is required to live in freedom and safety.

For the record, I am not absolving our representatives from any share of this burden. Because so many are weak and greedy they have not provided leadership.

President Obama articulated the problems when he was a candidate but he has provided no leadership that would get us out of this mess. President George Bush campaigned on ideas for domestic programs that never happened because of our unexpected need to fund various wars and he certainly did not improve our economy on his watch. Like Obama, he did not have a very good handle on economics and neither of them really had a clue how to turn a company around, salvage a business enterprise, or return a profit in real life.

So I think we should blame ourselves.

We elected these folks. Next time around lets put management, finance, administration and proven leadership potential higher on our “wish list” for a prospect for president.

In order to do this we will have to get beyond the “8x10 glossy” handsomeness of a candidate, his oratorical skills, where he went to college (and how he got into the school) and totally ignore any of his promises that are not based in verifiable experience prior to his candidacy.

Then, with a little bit of luck, we might actually regain the respect we have lost throughout the world.

It is a big hill to climb.

But it is not too big of a hill for a “stepper.”

And Americans are “steppers!”