This should help us all to smile while we await the %*$(*&^ footy decision.
CM
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
HURRY UP AND WAIT!
From the UK: I am editing this for space but you may read the entire article at BBC SPORTS here:
Blades must wait on appeal ruling
Author not noted
Sheffield United will be kept on tenterhooks to see if their appeal against relegation from the Premier League has been successful.
Blades plc chairman Kevin McCabe says the arbitration panel hearing their challenge will deliver a verdict: "by the end of the month, maybe sooner."
United want to be reinstated after West Ham breached player ownership rules.
After the panel finished hearing the challenge, McCabe said: "It's been a very complicated case, and the panel are going away to review the evidence and submissions. All three parties had the opportunity to present their cases clearly to the panel and we look forward to the handing-down of the decision of the panel in due course. It would be inappropriate to comment further until a decision has been made."
McCabe has always been adamant the panel will rule in favour of his club over a saga that started back in March.
In that month, West Ham were found guilty by an independent committee set up by the Premier League of acting improperly and withholding vital documentation over the Argentine pair's ownership but they escaped a points deduction and Tevez was allowed to continue playing.
He and Mascherano were part-owned by a third party but the Hammers then ended that agreement, which satisfied the Premier League.
Tevez was one of the major factors in the club's late escape - scoring a goal on the final day of last season at Manchester United to help the Hammers stay up.
The Blades finished on the same number of points as fourth-from-bottom Wigan but were relegated on goal difference.
"I think the Premier League wish the arbitration was not happening," McCabe said last week. "But in the knowledge it is happening and it cannot be prevented, then if the decision is overturned we should be reselected to the Premier League.
"Since we really looked into the whys and the wherefores of the Tevez affair it became apparent that a wrong decision was made."
Well, that's it for now. All we can do is wait and see. At least the Panel is not taking this lightly.
Blades must wait on appeal ruling
Author not noted
Sheffield United will be kept on tenterhooks to see if their appeal against relegation from the Premier League has been successful.
Blades plc chairman Kevin McCabe says the arbitration panel hearing their challenge will deliver a verdict: "by the end of the month, maybe sooner."
United want to be reinstated after West Ham breached player ownership rules.
After the panel finished hearing the challenge, McCabe said: "It's been a very complicated case, and the panel are going away to review the evidence and submissions. All three parties had the opportunity to present their cases clearly to the panel and we look forward to the handing-down of the decision of the panel in due course. It would be inappropriate to comment further until a decision has been made."
McCabe has always been adamant the panel will rule in favour of his club over a saga that started back in March.
In that month, West Ham were found guilty by an independent committee set up by the Premier League of acting improperly and withholding vital documentation over the Argentine pair's ownership but they escaped a points deduction and Tevez was allowed to continue playing.
He and Mascherano were part-owned by a third party but the Hammers then ended that agreement, which satisfied the Premier League.
Tevez was one of the major factors in the club's late escape - scoring a goal on the final day of last season at Manchester United to help the Hammers stay up.
The Blades finished on the same number of points as fourth-from-bottom Wigan but were relegated on goal difference.
"I think the Premier League wish the arbitration was not happening," McCabe said last week. "But in the knowledge it is happening and it cannot be prevented, then if the decision is overturned we should be reselected to the Premier League.
"Since we really looked into the whys and the wherefores of the Tevez affair it became apparent that a wrong decision was made."
Well, that's it for now. All we can do is wait and see. At least the Panel is not taking this lightly.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
GROWING PAINS
A few weeks ago, my recent high school graduate, Faith, had a date with a young man whom I shall call "Radar" for reasons that shall become obvious as the story unfolds.
She'd had a crush on this young man for quite some time and was very excited that he had finally asked her out. I well remember the feeling.
In spite of the notion that it is hip and trendy for young men and women to meet at their date destination, Faith's father and I have different ideas. He came to the house to pick her up. Everyone commented, after they left, on how nice he seemed. Well everyone except me; I remained mostly quiet until Steve and I were alone. "He seems nice enough," I said, "but my radar went off like gangbusters. Bells and whistles - the whole kaboodle. I got an uncomfortable vibe from him. I'm not saying I don't like him, just that I am going to keep my eyes and ears open where he is concerned."
Steve nodded acknowledgement of my feelings. We've been together long enough for him to know that I have a keen instinct about people. Discernment. In truth, I have never been wrong when it comes to my sense of a person. It does not often happen that I do not like someone, but when it does happen, it's powerful. I have never abused it and Steve learned, years ago, to trust and pay due attention when this happens. That said, he did ask me to refrain from speaking to Faith just yet. I agreed with him seeing the wisdom in allowing her to learn to to trust her own developing sense of people in the adult world.
On Thursday, she and I were conversing while I was preparing dinner. She'd come in to to say hi after having been out all day with her friends. As the discussion progressed to "Radar", she got a dreamy-eyed look on her face that sent a cold chill up my spine.
"Faith," I started, knowing full well that I was going against the agreement I had made with Steve to stay out of it. "I am not so sure about this guy. I can't put my finger on it, darling, but he set my radar off. Every alarm I have was reacting to him the entire time he was here. Please be careful around him." I tried to be matter-of-fact. What I really wanted to say was... Well, if you are a parent, you already know; if you are not a parent, you will not understand.
"You don't like him, Mom?" She looked honestly distressed at the thought I might not like this young man.
"It's not that I don't like him..." I tried to explain myself without stomping on her teenage heart by telling her the real truth, which was that I felt a sense that he did not maintain a trustworthy character. Besides, I was beginning to become concerned over how I was going to tell Steve I had gone back on my word. As I continued, I tried to make light of it. "More like I feel uncomfortable for some reason. Look, I am not suggesting you don't see him, only that you promise me you will keep your eyes wide open where he is concerned. Will you promise me that?"
She agreed with a smile and a hug as she reassured me he was a great guy and she knew I was saying this because I loved her. She then went on to remind me that I met her father in High School and we had our ups and downs in the beginning. I think it was supposed to be comforting. But I was not comforted; I just knew I was right about this guy. Frankly, her comparing him to her father made me want to scream! But I didn't. I smiled.
When Steve came home, I told him what I had done and, thank God, he said he was glad. The more he'd thought about it, the more he realized he had noticed a thing or two about Radar that he did not like as well. Before the evening had ended, Michael stopped in for a brief visit and he said that he too had processed a weird vibe from his sister's big date. And we let her leave with this guy??
--o0o--
Yesterday, I was unloading groceries from the car when Faith rang my cell. "Mom, I just wanted to tell you that you were right."
I knew immediately that she was not alone and that she was speaking of that young man. "About Radar?" I asked just to confirm, not so much what she was talking about as much as my sense that she was not alone.
"Uh, yeah. You were right... about a lot of things." She was clearly upset but her voice was too calm for me to be concerned that she was in any danger, though I have to admit that the sentence addendum had me perplexed.
Still, I had to ask, "I get the feeling that you are not alone, Faith; do you want your father or your brothers to come to where you are?"
Thankfully, she giggled. "No, Mom. I am fine; just a little stung and kind of embarrassed in front of my friends. I am going to Amelia's for a while to talk it out with her, but I'll call you in a little while to tell you about it. Right now, everyone is here and I don't want to be on the phone with my mom. You understand, right?"
My turn to giggle. "I was young once, m'dear; of course I understand. As long as you are all right."
Later she phoned me to say she wanted to stay at Amelia's overnight. I agreed and told her I would run interference with her father for her. As she explained the issue to me, it seems that all the while Radar and Faith had been dating so publically, including attending their Prom, Radar had been secretly seeing Faith's very close, longtime friend, Rachel. Faith told me that, until now, she has only been crushing on Radar; there had not been enough time for it to have become all that serious. What hurt her terribly was the betrayal by her longtime girlfriend. That was what she meant when she said I had been right about a lot of things. Of all her friends, Rachel has always been my least favorite. You guesed it; from the first time Rachel came to our home, 6 years ago, there was something about her that simply did not sit right with me. I never fully trusted her. While I had, at the time, shared my feelings with Steve, I never told Faith about this until about a year ao. It would not have been productive to unnerve Faith about a friend so early in her school career. Only reason I told her last year was because I witnessed Rachel uncaringly betray another friend for her own personal gain. I was then I let Faith know how I had always felt about Rachel.
My daughter should be ecstatically looking forward to a terrific last summer before college. Instead, she is sticking close to home because she believes she has been humiliated in front of her friends by someone she always trusted would be watching her back. Of course, we who are older and wiser know that before long everyone will now what happened. They will all make their own judgement call and human nature dictates that the humiliation will not fall upon Faith. Having never experienced such a thing, she does not know this yet.
I am angry about it, I confess, but I have decided not to dwell on that. Instead, I shall focus my energies on watching how she handles it. I bet she'll be awesome. How hard it is to stand back and let them deal with life's hurts when what we really want to do is fix it for them so that nothing will ever hurt them...
All for now...
CM
She'd had a crush on this young man for quite some time and was very excited that he had finally asked her out. I well remember the feeling.
In spite of the notion that it is hip and trendy for young men and women to meet at their date destination, Faith's father and I have different ideas. He came to the house to pick her up. Everyone commented, after they left, on how nice he seemed. Well everyone except me; I remained mostly quiet until Steve and I were alone. "He seems nice enough," I said, "but my radar went off like gangbusters. Bells and whistles - the whole kaboodle. I got an uncomfortable vibe from him. I'm not saying I don't like him, just that I am going to keep my eyes and ears open where he is concerned."
Steve nodded acknowledgement of my feelings. We've been together long enough for him to know that I have a keen instinct about people. Discernment. In truth, I have never been wrong when it comes to my sense of a person. It does not often happen that I do not like someone, but when it does happen, it's powerful. I have never abused it and Steve learned, years ago, to trust and pay due attention when this happens. That said, he did ask me to refrain from speaking to Faith just yet. I agreed with him seeing the wisdom in allowing her to learn to to trust her own developing sense of people in the adult world.
On Thursday, she and I were conversing while I was preparing dinner. She'd come in to to say hi after having been out all day with her friends. As the discussion progressed to "Radar", she got a dreamy-eyed look on her face that sent a cold chill up my spine.
"Faith," I started, knowing full well that I was going against the agreement I had made with Steve to stay out of it. "I am not so sure about this guy. I can't put my finger on it, darling, but he set my radar off. Every alarm I have was reacting to him the entire time he was here. Please be careful around him." I tried to be matter-of-fact. What I really wanted to say was... Well, if you are a parent, you already know; if you are not a parent, you will not understand.
"You don't like him, Mom?" She looked honestly distressed at the thought I might not like this young man.
"It's not that I don't like him..." I tried to explain myself without stomping on her teenage heart by telling her the real truth, which was that I felt a sense that he did not maintain a trustworthy character. Besides, I was beginning to become concerned over how I was going to tell Steve I had gone back on my word. As I continued, I tried to make light of it. "More like I feel uncomfortable for some reason. Look, I am not suggesting you don't see him, only that you promise me you will keep your eyes wide open where he is concerned. Will you promise me that?"
She agreed with a smile and a hug as she reassured me he was a great guy and she knew I was saying this because I loved her. She then went on to remind me that I met her father in High School and we had our ups and downs in the beginning. I think it was supposed to be comforting. But I was not comforted; I just knew I was right about this guy. Frankly, her comparing him to her father made me want to scream! But I didn't. I smiled.
When Steve came home, I told him what I had done and, thank God, he said he was glad. The more he'd thought about it, the more he realized he had noticed a thing or two about Radar that he did not like as well. Before the evening had ended, Michael stopped in for a brief visit and he said that he too had processed a weird vibe from his sister's big date. And we let her leave with this guy??
Yesterday, I was unloading groceries from the car when Faith rang my cell. "Mom, I just wanted to tell you that you were right."
I knew immediately that she was not alone and that she was speaking of that young man. "About Radar?" I asked just to confirm, not so much what she was talking about as much as my sense that she was not alone.
"Uh, yeah. You were right... about a lot of things." She was clearly upset but her voice was too calm for me to be concerned that she was in any danger, though I have to admit that the sentence addendum had me perplexed.
Still, I had to ask, "I get the feeling that you are not alone, Faith; do you want your father or your brothers to come to where you are?"
Thankfully, she giggled. "No, Mom. I am fine; just a little stung and kind of embarrassed in front of my friends. I am going to Amelia's for a while to talk it out with her, but I'll call you in a little while to tell you about it. Right now, everyone is here and I don't want to be on the phone with my mom. You understand, right?"
My turn to giggle. "I was young once, m'dear; of course I understand. As long as you are all right."
Later she phoned me to say she wanted to stay at Amelia's overnight. I agreed and told her I would run interference with her father for her. As she explained the issue to me, it seems that all the while Radar and Faith had been dating so publically, including attending their Prom, Radar had been secretly seeing Faith's very close, longtime friend, Rachel. Faith told me that, until now, she has only been crushing on Radar; there had not been enough time for it to have become all that serious. What hurt her terribly was the betrayal by her longtime girlfriend. That was what she meant when she said I had been right about a lot of things. Of all her friends, Rachel has always been my least favorite. You guesed it; from the first time Rachel came to our home, 6 years ago, there was something about her that simply did not sit right with me. I never fully trusted her. While I had, at the time, shared my feelings with Steve, I never told Faith about this until about a year ao. It would not have been productive to unnerve Faith about a friend so early in her school career. Only reason I told her last year was because I witnessed Rachel uncaringly betray another friend for her own personal gain. I was then I let Faith know how I had always felt about Rachel.
My daughter should be ecstatically looking forward to a terrific last summer before college. Instead, she is sticking close to home because she believes she has been humiliated in front of her friends by someone she always trusted would be watching her back. Of course, we who are older and wiser know that before long everyone will now what happened. They will all make their own judgement call and human nature dictates that the humiliation will not fall upon Faith. Having never experienced such a thing, she does not know this yet.
I am angry about it, I confess, but I have decided not to dwell on that. Instead, I shall focus my energies on watching how she handles it. I bet she'll be awesome. How hard it is to stand back and let them deal with life's hurts when what we really want to do is fix it for them so that nothing will ever hurt them...
All for now...
CM
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
JUST A GAME?
MY TWO CENTS ON THE FOOTBALL DEBACLE:
(On May 13th at Brammel Lane in Sheffield, England, the home team, nicknamed The Blades, were unjustly robbed of their Premier Status when they were beaten by West Ham. This loss was particularly painful for all football (soccer to Americans) fans because West Ham had illegally signed two of its players, one of whom made the winning goal. For this, WH were merely chastised with what could only be referred to as a token fine, but not charged any points. This made it possible for them to steal Premiership by this win and drive Sheffield United aka The Blades into Relegation.)
What happened in Sheffield on May 13th remains completely unacceptable. I have no idea how or why things went the way they did, and I will not opine about it here. What I do know is that it was grossly unfair, unjust, and utterly ill advised.
This is as good a point as any for me to go on the record and say that I am appalled by the way the Blades gallant fight for justice is being received by the media. All this chatter about their visit to Parliament today being an act of desperation is irresponsible. Shame on these reporters for their blatant favoritism and their poor journalism. For heavens sake! The Blades are not asking for something that isn't rightfully theirs. No one is asking for a free ride! They are seeking fairness.
Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) said it best: "I heartily support ... all those who feel strongly that the arbitration panel should re-consider the decision on West Ham's punishment. A fine makes precious little difference to a club like West Ham, and a points deduction would have not only matched the crime, but have been a just encouragement for all those clubs, who, like Sheffield United, have played fair. To let the current judgement stand makes everyone involved look as if they don't really care."
As Sean Bean expresses his feelings about it in this video, the Sheffield United administrators did everything right in adherence of the rules. It's reasonable that they now feel as though they are being punished while the team who ruthlessly disregarded those same rules (Sorry, I call 'em as I see 'em) are receiving accolades and remuneration. In short, West Ham's bad form is being rewarded by Premiership Status which means, lest we forget, millions upon millions of dollars for them. Well, it sems to me that Mr. Bean is absolutely right. Hey! You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool this ol' Jersey-girl - ever!.
Do the Powers-that-be really want to leave this door open?
Really?
Do they?
And pardon me for asking, but don't the West Ham fans feel cheated? Aren't they ashamed that the team they so faithfully support has mocked them by playing so underhanded a card? I would be furious with West Ham administrators for this!
Okay, I had better stop; my temper is flaring a bit too much... It's just so completely wrong! This whole thing should never have happened.
Steve and I have discussed this a lot and we both feel that if we were in the UK, we very likely would have somehow taken part in the Blades' crusade today, even if all we did was show up and hand out coffee. It's not that we are necessarily Blades fans, mind you, but we are indeed football fans! To be frank, I am at a complete loss to comprehend how anyone who is a true fan of the game could not side with Sheffield United in this fight. I admire the daylights out of Sean Bean and everyone who accompanied him today. They are doing the right thing. I can only hope their words have not fallen upon deaf ears.
(I'll interject here that this game on the 13th between Sheffield United and West Ham was the last one Steve and his dad watched together via telephone - on opposite sides of the pond. It was later that very evening his father passed away. (See my 5.15 post: A Little Bit of Rain) Steve has actually been distracted from his grief a bit by this whole thing and has even stated that he is glad his father is not here to see this happening to football.)
Okay, here is the video of which I wrote a few paragraphs up:
SEAN BEAN SPEAKS OUT...
If I am to be completely honest, I cannot pretend to have been a longtime fan of Mr. Bean's... Well, in my defense, I hadn't heard of him until a few months ago, but he gets A's in my book for today's action. I like him and I admire him. His heart is clearly in this. Sean Bean, unlike so many others who have chosen to remain on the sidelines and keep quiet, will be able to sleep tonight knowing he did everything he could to change things. How can anyone fail to admire that?
It's not difficult to see he is emotional about this situation. He looks away from the interviewer most of the time; he repeats himself; and he is constrained, like someone holding himself back. And why wouldn't he be emotional? Is there anyone alive who has never experienced the heartbreaking torment of watching his or her team suffer a significant loss or sacrifice an important title. Can anyone deny, then, that it must be unbearable to experience watching them lose in such a dreadfully unjust manner. His anger, like that of all Blades fans, must be eating him alive!
Sheffield United were robbed, plain and simple. Justice must be done here. Now, whether or not they will actually receive their Premiership Status again, I do not quite understand - and no matter how Steve tries to explain it to me, I am not grasping it.
I'll close by stating the obvious ...and the heartfelt. For Sheffield United, it's all about their status and the money it will bring to them; I realize that. For me, it's about justice and the integrity of the game. Our son plays football and dreams of playing professionally one day. It's no wonder, therefore, that maintaining the integrity of the game is significant to us. I believe an example must be made of West Ham. I hope and indeed pray that those who have the power to set this right will be unmercifully hard on West Ham - to be sure this does not become a yearly fight. The time to set the correct precedent is now.
Oh, how I hope the high road, in this case, will not be the one less traveled!
We shall see.
Until the 18th we are
Waiting patiently... and passionately,
Carol
(On May 13th at Brammel Lane in Sheffield, England, the home team, nicknamed The Blades, were unjustly robbed of their Premier Status when they were beaten by West Ham. This loss was particularly painful for all football (soccer to Americans) fans because West Ham had illegally signed two of its players, one of whom made the winning goal. For this, WH were merely chastised with what could only be referred to as a token fine, but not charged any points. This made it possible for them to steal Premiership by this win and drive Sheffield United aka The Blades into Relegation.)
What happened in Sheffield on May 13th remains completely unacceptable. I have no idea how or why things went the way they did, and I will not opine about it here. What I do know is that it was grossly unfair, unjust, and utterly ill advised.
This is as good a point as any for me to go on the record and say that I am appalled by the way the Blades gallant fight for justice is being received by the media. All this chatter about their visit to Parliament today being an act of desperation is irresponsible. Shame on these reporters for their blatant favoritism and their poor journalism. For heavens sake! The Blades are not asking for something that isn't rightfully theirs. No one is asking for a free ride! They are seeking fairness.
Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) said it best: "I heartily support ... all those who feel strongly that the arbitration panel should re-consider the decision on West Ham's punishment. A fine makes precious little difference to a club like West Ham, and a points deduction would have not only matched the crime, but have been a just encouragement for all those clubs, who, like Sheffield United, have played fair. To let the current judgement stand makes everyone involved look as if they don't really care."
As Sean Bean expresses his feelings about it in this video, the Sheffield United administrators did everything right in adherence of the rules. It's reasonable that they now feel as though they are being punished while the team who ruthlessly disregarded those same rules (Sorry, I call 'em as I see 'em) are receiving accolades and remuneration. In short, West Ham's bad form is being rewarded by Premiership Status which means, lest we forget, millions upon millions of dollars for them. Well, it sems to me that Mr. Bean is absolutely right. Hey! You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool this ol' Jersey-girl - ever!.
Do the Powers-that-be really want to leave this door open?
Really?
Do they?
And pardon me for asking, but don't the West Ham fans feel cheated? Aren't they ashamed that the team they so faithfully support has mocked them by playing so underhanded a card? I would be furious with West Ham administrators for this!
Okay, I had better stop; my temper is flaring a bit too much... It's just so completely wrong! This whole thing should never have happened.
Steve and I have discussed this a lot and we both feel that if we were in the UK, we very likely would have somehow taken part in the Blades' crusade today, even if all we did was show up and hand out coffee. It's not that we are necessarily Blades fans, mind you, but we are indeed football fans! To be frank, I am at a complete loss to comprehend how anyone who is a true fan of the game could not side with Sheffield United in this fight. I admire the daylights out of Sean Bean and everyone who accompanied him today. They are doing the right thing. I can only hope their words have not fallen upon deaf ears.
(I'll interject here that this game on the 13th between Sheffield United and West Ham was the last one Steve and his dad watched together via telephone - on opposite sides of the pond. It was later that very evening his father passed away. (See my 5.15 post: A Little Bit of Rain) Steve has actually been distracted from his grief a bit by this whole thing and has even stated that he is glad his father is not here to see this happening to football.)
Okay, here is the video of which I wrote a few paragraphs up:
SEAN BEAN SPEAKS OUT...
If I am to be completely honest, I cannot pretend to have been a longtime fan of Mr. Bean's... Well, in my defense, I hadn't heard of him until a few months ago, but he gets A's in my book for today's action. I like him and I admire him. His heart is clearly in this. Sean Bean, unlike so many others who have chosen to remain on the sidelines and keep quiet, will be able to sleep tonight knowing he did everything he could to change things. How can anyone fail to admire that?
It's not difficult to see he is emotional about this situation. He looks away from the interviewer most of the time; he repeats himself; and he is constrained, like someone holding himself back. And why wouldn't he be emotional? Is there anyone alive who has never experienced the heartbreaking torment of watching his or her team suffer a significant loss or sacrifice an important title. Can anyone deny, then, that it must be unbearable to experience watching them lose in such a dreadfully unjust manner. His anger, like that of all Blades fans, must be eating him alive!
Sheffield United were robbed, plain and simple. Justice must be done here. Now, whether or not they will actually receive their Premiership Status again, I do not quite understand - and no matter how Steve tries to explain it to me, I am not grasping it.
I'll close by stating the obvious ...and the heartfelt. For Sheffield United, it's all about their status and the money it will bring to them; I realize that. For me, it's about justice and the integrity of the game. Our son plays football and dreams of playing professionally one day. It's no wonder, therefore, that maintaining the integrity of the game is significant to us. I believe an example must be made of West Ham. I hope and indeed pray that those who have the power to set this right will be unmercifully hard on West Ham - to be sure this does not become a yearly fight. The time to set the correct precedent is now.
Oh, how I hope the high road, in this case, will not be the one less traveled!
We shall see.
Until the 18th we are
Waiting patiently... and passionately,
Carol
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
PUT ON A HAPPY FACE!
Mother in Law is going home today. We're all a bit sad to see her go, even more sad thinking of the heartbreak that awaits her when she arrives at home in Edinburgh to face resumption of her life without her husband of 54 years.
Father in Law passed away on May 13th. Seems like forever ago, now; we've all been so busy since then. Rushing to Scotland to be with the family and assist in the planning and decision making. Bringing Mother home with us to birthdays, graduations, end of school-year activities, recitals, concerts, award programs and the like. It's been a whirlwind of a time and she has been remarkable. Her utter joy at the sight of her grandchildren is palpable, I dare say downright contagious and she lets nothing, not even her broken heart, interfere with her time with them. How I admire her and aspire to be like her!
Indeed, she is such an inspiration to everyone. Only a wee bit of tears now and then. She tried so hard to be strong and has been more than successful in front of Steve and the kids. When she and I would find ourselves alone together, she did occasionally allow herself the luxury of tearful reflection. How my heart aches for her. For what she is now facing.
I have decided to share a little something one of the kids found and showed to her while she was here that tickled her fancy and made her giggle. Perhaps it will lift your spirits, too.
CM
Father in Law passed away on May 13th. Seems like forever ago, now; we've all been so busy since then. Rushing to Scotland to be with the family and assist in the planning and decision making. Bringing Mother home with us to birthdays, graduations, end of school-year activities, recitals, concerts, award programs and the like. It's been a whirlwind of a time and she has been remarkable. Her utter joy at the sight of her grandchildren is palpable, I dare say downright contagious and she lets nothing, not even her broken heart, interfere with her time with them. How I admire her and aspire to be like her!
Indeed, she is such an inspiration to everyone. Only a wee bit of tears now and then. She tried so hard to be strong and has been more than successful in front of Steve and the kids. When she and I would find ourselves alone together, she did occasionally allow herself the luxury of tearful reflection. How my heart aches for her. For what she is now facing.
I have decided to share a little something one of the kids found and showed to her while she was here that tickled her fancy and made her giggle. Perhaps it will lift your spirits, too.
CM
Monday, June 11, 2007
CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH...
...of Sir Ian McKellen! How I adore him!
Set in 1930-something Facist Britian, here he is performing in RICHARD III. "Was ever woman in this humor wooed?" Menacing Jazz accompaniment, eh?
Email me with your favorite adaptation of R-III.
CM
CREDIT for the YOUTUBE catch goes to YOUTUBE Artist: abuhmeid.
Set in 1930-something Facist Britian, here he is performing in RICHARD III. "Was ever woman in this humor wooed?" Menacing Jazz accompaniment, eh?
Email me with your favorite adaptation of R-III.
CM
CREDIT for the YOUTUBE catch goes to YOUTUBE Artist: abuhmeid.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
SUMMER! YEAH!
Yesterday was Christina's first day of Summer! No school! Yeah!
My friend, Andrea, and her daughter, Morgan, who attends school with Christina, wisely thought of this terrific idea to make it extra special. What they did was suggest we have a day of outing activities with the two girls and that they each invite a favorite pal from school so that they have a foursome.
Originally, we'd planned to have lunch, go to a local Beading Craft Shop to design and make some fabulous jewelry, and top off the day with a movie. The girls all wanted to see NANCY DREW but it will not be released until the 15th so we'd planned to see SHREK 3. The girls jumped on that like white on rice and each made their buddy selection. Morgan chose Katrina and Christina chose Maggie. Perfect.
Morgan had a Horseback Riding Lesson until noon, so Christina and I picked up Katrina and Maggie and hotfooted it to meet up with Morgan and her mom while the three girls in the back seat could barely contain themselves! How I love this age when seeing each other is an event that calls for screeching and hugging as though they haven't seen one another in ages. (It had not even been 24 hours since they tearfully bid each other a good summer.)
Katrina had another outing planned with her father later in the afternoon and he needed her home by 4:30, so what we did was alter the plans to accommodate that and try to fit everything in. Skipping dessert at lunch and planning a side trip to a local Coldstone Creamery after the movie seemed to adjust the time block perfectly and we were off and running.
Lunch was an absolute blast. The conversation between the four 9 year olds kept Andrea and I thoroughly entertained, the food was positively scrumptious and the location was within walking distance to the theater, but we drove so that when the theater let out, we could high tail it to the beading activity! We'd made a slight error in the movie planning as SHREK 3 was not to be in the theater until the weekend, but we quickly adjusted the plan to see SURF'S UP instead. Thanks goodness for the double entendre! Andrea and I were killing ourselves laughing, as were the children, albeit at different things! Suffice it to say that a wonderful, fun time was definitely had by all. (In short, if you fear being bored when taking your little ones to see this one, dump those worries right now; you'll like it!)
The girls and I (concession... er, I mean, confession time) loaded up on snacks which eliminated the need to visit the Coldstone Creamery.
So the movie was a great success and then it was on to the Beading Place. Can I tell you now how incredibly artistic and talented our girls are! All four of them! They each selected their beads and decided upon the lengths, organized their designs, and had their necklaces and bracelets done lickity split! It was seriously impressive.
Andrea and I shot each other a we survived that, it was actually quite fun look and thought it was finished when we dropped Katrina off to her father at exactly 4:30 as promised. The girls had other ideas. We tried to stifle our giggles as we heard them meekly conspiring in the back seat. Before long, they asked ever so sweetly if they could go to the local playground for a while and we had, after all, been indoors for most of the day, escaping the 90 degree heat, so we went along with them saying it would be fine. Andrea had to beg off as she had to collect her wee one and I took the girls to play for an hour.
A lovely, busy, fun first day of summer!
We've already decided to take them all to see NANCY DREW on the 15th!
I'm ready today for the Graduation...
Starts at 11...
Faith is Valedictorian...
Should be awesome...
All for now.
CM
My friend, Andrea, and her daughter, Morgan, who attends school with Christina, wisely thought of this terrific idea to make it extra special. What they did was suggest we have a day of outing activities with the two girls and that they each invite a favorite pal from school so that they have a foursome.
Originally, we'd planned to have lunch, go to a local Beading Craft Shop to design and make some fabulous jewelry, and top off the day with a movie. The girls all wanted to see NANCY DREW but it will not be released until the 15th so we'd planned to see SHREK 3. The girls jumped on that like white on rice and each made their buddy selection. Morgan chose Katrina and Christina chose Maggie. Perfect.
Morgan had a Horseback Riding Lesson until noon, so Christina and I picked up Katrina and Maggie and hotfooted it to meet up with Morgan and her mom while the three girls in the back seat could barely contain themselves! How I love this age when seeing each other is an event that calls for screeching and hugging as though they haven't seen one another in ages. (It had not even been 24 hours since they tearfully bid each other a good summer.)
Katrina had another outing planned with her father later in the afternoon and he needed her home by 4:30, so what we did was alter the plans to accommodate that and try to fit everything in. Skipping dessert at lunch and planning a side trip to a local Coldstone Creamery after the movie seemed to adjust the time block perfectly and we were off and running.
Lunch was an absolute blast. The conversation between the four 9 year olds kept Andrea and I thoroughly entertained, the food was positively scrumptious and the location was within walking distance to the theater, but we drove so that when the theater let out, we could high tail it to the beading activity! We'd made a slight error in the movie planning as SHREK 3 was not to be in the theater until the weekend, but we quickly adjusted the plan to see SURF'S UP instead. Thanks goodness for the double entendre! Andrea and I were killing ourselves laughing, as were the children, albeit at different things! Suffice it to say that a wonderful, fun time was definitely had by all. (In short, if you fear being bored when taking your little ones to see this one, dump those worries right now; you'll like it!)
The girls and I (concession... er, I mean, confession time) loaded up on snacks which eliminated the need to visit the Coldstone Creamery.
So the movie was a great success and then it was on to the Beading Place. Can I tell you now how incredibly artistic and talented our girls are! All four of them! They each selected their beads and decided upon the lengths, organized their designs, and had their necklaces and bracelets done lickity split! It was seriously impressive.
Andrea and I shot each other a we survived that, it was actually quite fun look and thought it was finished when we dropped Katrina off to her father at exactly 4:30 as promised. The girls had other ideas. We tried to stifle our giggles as we heard them meekly conspiring in the back seat. Before long, they asked ever so sweetly if they could go to the local playground for a while and we had, after all, been indoors for most of the day, escaping the 90 degree heat, so we went along with them saying it would be fine. Andrea had to beg off as she had to collect her wee one and I took the girls to play for an hour.
A lovely, busy, fun first day of summer!
We've already decided to take them all to see NANCY DREW on the 15th!
I'm ready today for the Graduation...
Starts at 11...
Faith is Valedictorian...
Should be awesome...
All for now.
CM
Monday, June 4, 2007
LIKE ART?
We are still dealing with the seasonal Graduations, Weddings, End of School Concerts, Recitals and Picnics... Not much time to write for fun or profit! Additionally, Steve is grieving deeply over the loss of his father.
This caught my eye this morning and made me smile. I share it with you now.
It is Entitled: 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art
Credit and ESTEEM goes to: YouTube Artist: Eggman913
I hope that made your day as it has made mine...
Love,
Carol
This caught my eye this morning and made me smile. I share it with you now.
It is Entitled: 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art
Credit and ESTEEM goes to: YouTube Artist: Eggman913
I hope that made your day as it has made mine...
Love,
Carol
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
OUTRAGED PATRIOT!
I always liked Lee Iacocca; now I remember why!
Lee Iacocca Statement
Reprinted from THE WASHINGTON NEWSLETTER
By Lee Iacocca
Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage?
We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up.
I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.
I've had enough. How about you? I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real.
I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America , wake up. These guys work for us. Who Are These Guys, Anyway? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington ? Well, we voted for them, or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln ? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points, not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe
recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush,"Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't. Leadership is all about managing change, whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School .
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.
A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths. For what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION, a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President, four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find
the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders.Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it."
George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know, Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush. Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.
The Biggest C is Crisis Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker.
We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A Hell of a Mess.
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for illiteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened. Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it? Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America.
In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Lee Iacocca
Lee Iacocca Statement
Reprinted from THE WASHINGTON NEWSLETTER
By Lee Iacocca
Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage?
We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up.
I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.
I've had enough. How about you? I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real.
I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America , wake up. These guys work for us. Who Are These Guys, Anyway? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington ? Well, we voted for them, or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln ? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points, not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe
recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush,"Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't. Leadership is all about managing change, whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School .
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.
A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths. For what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION, a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President, four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find
the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders.Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it."
George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know, Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush. Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.
The Biggest C is Crisis Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker.
We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A Hell of a Mess.
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for illiteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened. Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it? Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America.
In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Lee Iacocca
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