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Essays on Excellence # 660

Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers,

This speech will go down in history as one of the most powerful calls-to-action ever. I sincerely hope that you will read this through several times today and this week. The message is clear...We are all "created" equal but after that starting point there have been, are and will probably continue to be different realities because of the search for power and control over people and their lives. "Slavery" is more prevalent today than it was at the time the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law by President Lincoln. There are now over 100,000,000 economic and political slaves in the United States of America...slaves to the paycheck and to the hundreds of government programs that strip away real Freedom. John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Dr. King must be spinning in their graves.

Freedom isn't Free!

What direct investments (time and money) are you making each day to assure your Liberty and Freedom and that of the other citizens of the U.S.? Is your Freedom Library growing? One program that should be in your library is Dr. Wayne Dyer's new 8 CD program, It's Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile, 10 Secrets of Success and Inner Peace. It is an extraordinary value for only $44.07 at Amazon.com. I had a lot of time (10+ hours) on my way to and from Phoenix this weekend but I was richly rewarded with this blessing of insight and learning.

Are you an active participant in service and support organizations?

Dr. Martin Luther King

I Have a Dream!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when ALL of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

Feb 17th 2005 The Economist

Is the MBA responsible for moral turpitude at the top?

SEVERAL of the corporate scandals that took place in the early years of
this decade are currently being replayed in courtrooms from New York to
Alabama. The trials of top executives at HealthSouth, Tyco
International and WorldCom are reminding the public how unethical was
the behaviour of some of the nation's top managers only a few short
years ago.

The finger of blame for this behaviour is sometimes pointed at the MBA,
the degree offered by business schools from Harvard to Hawaii. Perhaps
this is not as odd as it sounds. After all, MBAs lay as thick on the
ground at Enron as managerial hubris, and disinterested outsiders are
not alone in asking whether there might have been some connection.

In an extraordinary MEA CULPA, Sumantra Ghoshal, a respected business
academic who died last year, argued in a paper to be published shortly
that the way MBA students are taught has freed them "from any sense of
moral responsibility" for what they subsequently do in their business
lives. This, he believed (and other respected academics, such as
Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford, are carrying his argument forward), is
because management studies have been hi-jacked intellectually by the
dismal science of economics.

A stout defence of the virtues of economics from a publication called
THE ECONOMIST would hardly be a surprise. But, in fact, this is not
necessary to refute the claim that business schools are responsible for
moral turpitude at the top of corporate America. As it happens, most of
the erstwhile corporate leaders currently appearing in the dock never
went near one (see article[1]), whereas many acknowledged champions of
business ethics, such as Lou Gerstner at IBM, did.

What's more, many of the top business schools have taken steps to
offset any ethically desensitising influence there may have been in
their MBA coursework. They have greatly expanded their teaching of
business ethics--some by introducing special courses, others in more
memorable ways. Tuck School of Business, for example, persuades an
ex-convict to come every year to tell its MBA students of his regrets.

The dubious claim that business schools are responsible for the moral
failures of their graduates decades after graduation does, however,
highlight one widespread misunderstanding about the role and purpose of
an MBA.

Mr Ghoshal and his supporters are right that top business schools
strive for academic respectability, and that this has led them to rely
heavily on economic theory. But they are wrong to criticise this. As
long as schools are teaching academic degrees (and, after all, the
letters MBA stand for Master of Business Administration), they have to
teach the most compelling business theories around. It may be a pity
that these are mostly to be found in economics. But that is the fault
of other disciplines for not coming up with ideas to rival, for
example, agency theory or the maximisation of shareholder value.

The real problem arises when students, or their new employers, believe
that an MBA is, somehow, a qualification for business leadership. It is
not, nor could any academic degree provide this. Law or medical degrees
are necessary but not sufficient for the making of outstanding lawyers
or doctors. In a similar way, a good MBA degree can help provide a
student with analytical skills and theoretical knowledge useful to a
business career. But becoming a successful leader of men and women in a
turbulent business world requires maturity and wisdom. Happily, there
is no degree programme for those.

BAD FOR BUSINESS?

Feb 17th 2005 The Economist

Business schools stand accused of being responsible for much that is
wrong with corporate management today

THIS is the time of year when MBA students run not from classroom to
classroom but from interview to interview as they try to get the
high-paying job that they expect their qualification to deliver. It
seems that the demand for MBAs is now strong again, after four
decidedly weak years. "The big eaters of MBA talent have regained their
hiring appetite," says Ken Keeley, director of career opportunities at
Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh. At New
York's Stern School, close to Wall Street, the number of jobs offered
to this year's MBA class by the beginning of this month was double that
at the same stage in 2004. Better still, average starting salaries in
investment banking for Stern graduates were--at $95,000--up by $10,000
from a year ago.

But just as the market value of an MBA is reviving, its academic
credibility is being attacked. In a forthcoming article to be published
posthumously in ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT LEARNING & EDUCATION, Sumantra
Ghoshal argues that many of the "worst excesses of recent management
practices have their roots in a set of ideas that have emerged from
business-school academics over the last 30 years."

Mr Ghoshal was just such an academic, a professor at London Business
School until he died 11 months ago at the age of 55. He believed that
the desire of business schools to make the study of business a science,
"a kind of physics", has led them increasingly to base their management
theories on some of the more dismal assumptions and techniques
developed by economists, particularly by the "Chicago School" and its
intellectual leader, Milton Friedman. These include supposedly
simplistic models of individual human behaviour (rational,
self-interested, utility-maximising HOMO ECONOMICUS) and of corporate
behaviour (the notion that the goal of a firm should be to maximise
shareholder value). These assumptions, though in Mr Ghoshal's view
badly flawed, were simple enough to allow business-school academics to
develop grand theories of management supported by elegant mathematical
models and empirical analysis that appeared scientific, and thus earned
their subject academic respectability, but were, in fact, a pretence of
knowledge where there was none.

FIGHT FIERCELY, HARVARD

Mr Ghoshal's article is particularly critical of the management
theories associated with two prominent Harvard Business School
professors: Michael Jensen, whose development of agency theory has
encouraged business schools to teach "our students that managers cannot
be trusted to do their jobs"; and Michael Porter, whose "five forces
framework" has been presented to "suggest that companies must compete
not only with their competitors but also with their suppliers,
customers, employees and regulators."

A particularly worrying feature of these theories, says Mr Ghoshal, is
that they have no "role for human intentionality or choice". And not
only do such theories falsely claim to be scientific, teaching them can
make them self-fulfilling. Business-school students learn that managers
cannot be trusted--so when they become managers their behaviour is of
the untrustworthy sort. Students have been freed "from any sense of
moral responsibility". Hence scandals such as those at Enron, where
business-school educated executives were prominent. And hence, perhaps,
future Enrons yet to be created by this year's much-in-demand crop of
MBAs.

Mr Ghoshal is not the only heavyweight academic to have come out with
such a MEA CULPA. Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University's Graduate
School of Business, writes in the same journal that Mr Ghoshal "if
anything understates the potential downside to the inculcation and
acceptance of economic language, assumptions and theory." In support he
refers to a study in 2000 which found that a link between corporate
size and the number of citations for violating health and safety
regulations became stronger as the percentage of a firm's top managers
holding an MBA rose. In a book published last year, "Managers not
MBAs", Henry Mintzberg, a Canadian business professor and a long-time
critic of the degree, wrote that "the MBA trains the wrong people in
the wrong ways with the wrong consequences".

Not surprisingly, many business schools reject these claims. While
Enron was well stuffed with MBAs and led by Jeffrey Skilling, a man who
liked it to be known that he was near the top of his Harvard Business
School MBA class, the clutch of top executives currently on trial for
corporate corruption are notable for their lack of business-school
qualifications. Richard Scrushy started life as a humble hospital
worker. His trial on 58 charges of fraud involving billions of dollars
when he was boss of HealthSouth, a health-care provider, is under way
in Birmingham, Alabama. "He didn't have a CPA accounting degree or an
MBA in business administration," said his lawyer recently in
mitigation. The jury has heard a tape on which Mr Scrushy says to some
of his staff: "I'm gonna talk, talk to y'all just real. This
conversation did not take place. OK?" followed by: "They ain't got
nothing. They didn't ask me nothing about the numbers." This is not the
sort of strategy taught even in the best business schools.

Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, who is
currently on trial in Manhattan on nine charges of massive fraud and is
often described as "an ex-milkman", has no formal business
qualification. Dennis Kozlowski, the former boss of Tyco International,
also currently on trial in New York on charges of fraud and grand
larceny, would like to have an MBA. He once claimed one in his entry in
"Who's Who in America". But the truth is that he completed a few
evening classes in business studies at Rivier College, a little-known
Catholic school in Nashua, New Hampshire. He did not stay long enough
to collect a qualification.

It is also hard to square Mr Ghoshal's claim that recent scandals were
the result of managers too eagerly trying to maximise shareholder value
with the fact that shareholders have been some of the main victims of
their actions. Nor for that matter is it true that everything taught in
business schools is presented as scientific: Harvard's method of
discussing corporate case studies, for example, is anything but
scientific. And while there is some validity to criticisms of using
simplistic economic assumptions--even the University of Chicago is
losing its faith in HOMO ECONOMICUS--it is easy to see why recent
high-profile corporate-governance failures have mostly been viewed as
evidence for, not against, agency theory.

Yet judged by their recent behaviour, at least, many business schools
believe there is some validity to the criticisms levelled at them.
Harvard and Stanford are among those to have introduced ethics classes
into their MBA courses. At Tuck, a top-ranking school at Dartmouth
College, MBA students are taught case studies of moral dilemmas by
members of seven different faculties, including marketing, strategy and
finance. In 2003, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business (AACSB), a standards-setting body which has all the top
business schools among its 495 members, introduced new rules on
teaching ethics in their curriculum. Some business-school academics
want the AACSB to go further and make teaching a course on business
ethics compulsory for accredited institutions.

Certainly, such efforts in the classroom may help business schools to
repel the current attack on their reputation. This year's class of MBAs
is coming from more ethics-conscious schools and, indeed, is being
hired by more ethics-conscious businesses than any of its predecessors.
But will that be enough to make firms, or their managers, more ethical?

The Human Vehicle

by Jacqueline Draimin Dauer

It is a foregone conclusion that the Human Vehicle is the greatest feat of engineering known to mankind.

The Human Vehicle comes with a 70-year warranty or 25,000 days. There are only two models -- Male and Female -- and it comes in two designs -- Standard (Adult) and Compact (Children).

These designs vary slightly in size and weight.

In spite of the size and weight of the overall vehicle, the engine which controls the performance of the vehicle weighs only three pounds and is actively engaged 16 hours out of every 24. It is in the 'Park' position for eight hours.

It only takes five quarts of fuel to operate the Human Vehicle. The fuel is distributed to the entire vehicle by a pump no bigger than a fist. Unlike the automobile, the Human Vehicle can maintain a high grade of performance even after some of the original equipment has been removed.

The frame of this vehicle consists of 206 bones, the joints of which are all self-lubricating.
Then there are 325 working muscles of which many act as shock absorbers as well as performing a specific function. Over this are eight layers of undercoating and seven layers of finish.

Although all the components of this masterpiece of craftsmanship of complex systems and intricacies are known to mankind, no scientist or engineer has been able to manufacture the Human Vehicle or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

In fact, the Human Vehicle can be reproduced by entirely unskilled labor.
Therefore, it seems a shame that in a matter of seconds a man-made vehicle (the automobile) can mangle or obliterate the Human Vehicle from society as we know it.
Jacqueline Draimin Dauer, 1964

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Alice on 01.16.06 @ 09:46 PM CST [link] [680 Comments]

Political Literacy 101...The Next Lesson 2005 Bonus

Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers,

As we open this new year, we want to wish all of our readers a

best-of-the-best 2006. There will be many opportunities for each of us

to make a difference in the political process if we are willing to

stand up to the rhetorical gibberish that is coming from the

"politicians" from both parties. We need to seek out those statesmen

and stateswomen whose strength of conviction to principle gives them

the integrity to take the leadership positions and begin speaking out

for what is right because it is the right and necessary thing to do.

For Our Liberal Friends:

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes

for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress,

non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice

holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the

religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your

choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or

traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or

secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful,

personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the

onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due

respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose

contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply

that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only

America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race,

creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual

preference of the wishee. By accepting these greetings you are

accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or

withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the

original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually

implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is

void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of

the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the

usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the

issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and

warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new

wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."

For Our Conservative Friends:

Here's wishing all of You a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and a very

Happy New Year

Hope you will keep this issue around for most of this year. There are

some very powerful snipits of brilliance and wisdom as well as some

good old common sense in the words from the past and present.

The Foundations

"Whatever may be the judgement pronounced on the competency of the
architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny
of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my
profound and solemn conviction...that there never was an assembly
of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more
pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted
to the object committed to them."
--James Madison

"Still continuing no less attached to union than enamored of
liberty, they observed the danger which immediately threatened
the former and more remotely the latter; and being persuaded
that ample security for both could only be found in a national
government more wisely framed, they as with one voice, convened
the late convention at Philadelphia, to take that important
subject under consideration."
--John Jay, Federalist No. 2

"Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the
judicial gown was to carry, he said: "For Heaven's sake discard
the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats
peeping through bunches of oakum."
--Thomas Jefferson

"[I]t now remains to be my earnest wish and prayer, that the Citizens

of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the

blessings placed before them."
--George Washington

"The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the

moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments

which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with

too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities

impressed with it."
--James Madison

"Liberty is to faction what air is
to fire, an aliment without
which it instantly expires.

But it could
not be less folly to
abolish liberty, which is essential to

political life,
because
it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the

annihilation
of
air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to
fire

its
destructive agency."
--James Madison, Federalist No.

10

"The
belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the

moral order
of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce

it cannot
be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to

the
different characters and capacities impressed with it."
-- James
Madison

"The construction applied...to those parts of the

Constitution
of the United States which delegate Congress a power...ought not to be

construed
as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to

destroy
the whole residue of that instrument."
--Thomas
Jefferson

"There are certain social principles in human

nature, from
which we
may draw the most solid conclusions with respect to the

conduct
of
individuals and of communities. We love our families

more
than
our neighbors; we love our neighbors more than our

countrymen
in
general. The human affections, like solar heat, lose

their
intensity as
they depart from the center.... On these principles,
the attachment

of the
individual will be first and for ever secured
by the State

governments.
They will be a mutual protection and
support."
--Alexander
Hamilton

"Without justice being freely, fully, and

impartially
administered,
neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property,
can
be protected. And if these, or either of them, are

regulated
by
no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles,
and are

held by no
certain tenure, and are redressed, when
violated, by no certain

remedies,
society fails of all its value;
and men may as well return to a

state of
savage and barbarous
independence."
--Joseph
Story

INSIGHT

"To those who cite the

First
Amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our

institutions
every day, I say: The First Amendment of the Constitution was not

written to
protect the people of this country from religious values; it was

written to
protect religious values from government tyranny."

--Ronald Reagan

"We'd all like to vote for the best man but he's never a

candidate."

--Kin Hummbard

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the

senators
do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'guilty'."
--Theodore

Roosevelt

"Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says

nothing. Nobody
listens -- and then everybody disagrees."
--Boris Marshalov

"We may
not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex -- but

Congress
can."
--Cullen Hightower

"In your country club, your

church, and
business, about fifteen percent of the people are screwballs,

lightweights, and
boobs, and you would not want those people unrepresented in Congress."

--Alan Simpson

"This country has come to feel the same when

Congress
is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."
--Will

Rogers

"Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to

anything."

--Frank Dane

"If you will think about what you ought to do

for other
people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a

by-product, and
any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will

become a
selfish prig."
--Woodrow Wilson

UPRIGHT

"Social
Security in any form is morally irredeemable. We should be debating,

not how to
save Social Security, but how to end it -- how to phase it out so as to

best
protect both the rights of those who have paid into it, and those who

are forced
to pay for it today. This will be a painful task. But it will make

possible a
world in which Americans enjoy far greater freedom to secure their own

futures."

--Alex Epstein

"While Senator [Bill] Frist has 55 Senate

Republicans
he does not have 55 conservatives."
--Paul Weyrich

"What

the
Minutemen proved to the American people was this: The federal

government can do
something about illegal immigration other than to raise a white flag

and
surrender to the invasion on our southern border."
--Rep. J.D.
Hayworth

IChThUS IMPRIMIS

"No man or woman of any

faith or
of no faith can truly love, truly serve, truly persevere, truly dare

mighty
deeds, truly hope for the future or truly honor the past, without a

humble
heart. So it is for humility, then, that, on behalf of the legislative

branch --
both houses, both parties -- I ask for your prayers today. Because the

only way
we can serve well is to serve humbly, as servants both to God and our

nation."

--House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

FAMILY

"[C]ultural
trends minimize parents, especially fathers, as ignorant rubes while

elevating
children as intellectually superior, and surely far cooler.

Underpinning these
trends is the governing assumption that parents are not competent to

raise their
own children. Granted there are plenty of bad parents out there -- many

of them
sitting in corporate board rooms and legislative bodies -- but most

parents have
their children's best interests at heart. They also know that abortion,

more
than a surgical procedure, is an emotional, often life-altering process

that
doesn't end when you cross a state line. Mothers and fathers may be

disagreeable
at times, but a pregnant girl needs her parents more than she needs a
special-interest group or a politician or a lousy boyfriend -- none of

whom love
her as much."
--Kathleen Parker Restore the foundations!

CULTURE

"For now the Coalition of the Evil is

stepping
up the carnage [in Iraq] assisted by this recent innovation of

attacking
rescuers and onlookers. Perhaps the intelligentsia in France, Germany,

and the
other European countries who are so critical of our Iraqi presence will
expatiate on this innovation in their scholarly seminars and their

cafes. Some
of Old Europe's most robust thinking is done in cafes. In Paris in the

early
1940s celebrated intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre discoursed on

the
vulgarity of the English-speaking leaders as the Nazi tourists strolled

by. Old
Europe's history of appeasement goes back a long way and has taught

today's
appeasers nothing."
--R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

LIBERTY

"Here's my question for you: What are we

to make
of people who preach pessimism and doom to people -- telling them that

they're
poor because others are rich or telling blacks that they'll never make

it
because of societal racism? What are we to make of politicians, media

pundits
and college professors who preach the politics of envy -- telling

people lies
that the rich became rich off the backs of the poor? I grew up poor in

a housing
project in North Philadelphia, and those weren't the lessons prevalent

a
half-century ago. My mother used to preach that 'We have a beer

pocketbook but
champagne tastes.' And my stepfather used to admonish, 'If you want to

make it
in this world, you have to come early and stay late.' Those messages

are far
more beneficial to a poor person than those of victimhood and pity.

Personally,
I like evangelical minister Reverend Ike's response when asked what

should we do
about the poor. He said, 'The best thing you can do for the poor is not

become
one'."
--Walter Williams

THE GIPPER

"To our

mothers we
owe our highest esteem, for it is from their gift of life that the flow

of
events begins that shapes our destiny. A mother's love, nurturing and

beliefs
are among the strongest influences molding the development and

character of our
youngsters. As Henry Ward Beecher wrote, 'What a mother sings to the

cradle goes
all the way down to the coffin'."
--Ronald Reagan

OPINION IN
BRIEF

"Today the Democrats are the party of reactionary

liberalism.
Republicans are the true progressives. ... The Democrats and

Republicans
switched roles while no one was looking. ... Democrats are the Stand

Still
party. They adore the status quo. Conservatives won't settle for the

status quo.
They want this nation to champion justice, humanity, democracy.

Democrats want
America to tip-toe around the globe minding its own business, upsetting

no one,
venerating the Earth, etc. Why did Democrats leap to label Afghanistan

and Iraq
'new Vietnams'? Vietnam was 30-plus years ago! But for Democrats it is

always
1974. Things change -- but Democrats don't."
--David Gelernter

GOVERNMENT

"Republican irony rarely befits

conservative
ends. Richard Nixon went to China and detente followed. George H.W.

Bush raised
taxes and lost an election. George W. Bush pushed a $17 trillion dollar
prescription-drug entitlement that mimicked Lyndon Johnson's expansions

of the
welfare state. Congressional Republicans are playing the irony card

again by
proposing to 'reform' campaign finance by eliminating 527 groups. The

irony is
undeniable. Until the enactment of McCain-Feingold in 2002, Republicans

opposed
restrictions on campaign finance. In part they did so for partisan

reasons; they
expected regulations would favor the Democrats and harm the Republican

Party.
That's not surprising. After all, the Democrats supported 'reform' for

the same
reason. For all the talk about corruption, the politics of

campaign-finance
regulation looked a lot like politics in general. Principles followed

partisan
interests. Sometime in the 1990s this familiar story began to change.

Led by
Sen. Mitch McConnell, congressional Republicans started arguing that
campaign-finance restrictions threatened freedom of speech. And they

believed
it. ... McCain-Feingold changed everything for both parties. About 20

percent of
congressional Republicans ignored party leaders and voted to enact the

law.
Those Republicans largely represented Democrat districts. They were

vulnerable
to electoral defeat and welcomed the incumbent protections offered by
McCain-Feingold. Many Republicans thus learned how campaign-finance

restrictions
could defend the Republican Party majority in Congress. ... The current

effort
to restrict 527s [groups not so restricted by McCain-Feingold incumbent
protection] betrays Republican principles, especially their repeated

commitment
to limited, constitutional government. The Republican Party along with

Democrats
and everyone else are better off if citizens can spend what they like

on
political struggle. That's the American way, and once it was the

Republican way.
It should be so again." --John Samples

EDITORIAL
EXEGESIS

"With a showdown looming over the filibuster of

judicial
nominees, now is the time to point out another abuse of the Senate's

'advise and
consent' power. It's called the 'hold,' whereby an individual Senator

can delay
indefinitely a Presidential nomination, and it is seriously interfering

with the
operation of the executive branch. Call it every Senator's personal

'nuclear
option.' If he doesn't like a nominee or, more likely, doesn't like a

policy of
the agency to which the nominee is headed, all he has to do is inform

his party
leader that he is placing a hold on the nomination. Oh -- and he can do

so
secretly, without releasing his name or a reason. Like the filibuster,

the hold
appears nowhere in the Constitution but has evolved as Senators accrete

more
power to themselves. Senate rules say nothing about holds, which

started out as
a courtesy for Members who couldn't be present at votes. ... Also like

the
filibuster -- which was never intended to block judicial nominees from

getting a
floor vote -- the hold is being abused by a willful minority of

Senators. ...
Once upon a time in America, such policy disputes were settled in

elections or
with votes in Congress. But in today's permanent political combat,

Senators wage
guerrilla warfare against the executive. No wonder so few talented

people want
to work in Washington. Senator Wyden and Republican Charles Grassley

plan to
re-introduce legislation next month to kill holds that are secret.

Better yet
would be to get rid of all Senate holds." --The Wall Street
Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

The world according to

Maureen:
"Dick Cheney intimidated C.I.A. analysts before the war. And he and

President
Bush let North Korea and Iran race ahead with their nuclear programs,

and let
Osama roam free, while they indulged their ide fixe on Iraq. Their

reward? A
second term. In the Bush 41 era, good manners and judiciousness were

prized. In
Bush 43's Washington, bristling and bullying are the cardinal virtues.

Putting
an ideological filter on reality is a good career move." --Maureen Dowd

This
week's "Propagandum Magnum" Award: "Mr. President, your State

Department has
reported that terrorist attacks around the world are at an all-time

high. If
we're winning the war on terrorism, as you say, how do you explain that

more
people are dying in terrorist attacks on your watch than ever before?"

--ABC's
Terry Moran Could it possibly have anything to do with desperate
terrorists?Reading the Demo cue cards: "Sir, you've talked all

around the
country about the poisonous partisan atmosphere here in Washington. I

wonder why
do you think that is? And do you personally bear any responsibility in

having
contributed to this atmosphere?" --Ed Chen, Los Angeles Times to
President Bush Getting it right and hammering the Demos: "You [Senator

Leahy]
said, 'I have stated over and over again that I would object and fight

against
any filibuster on a judge, whether it is somebody I opposed or

supported, that I
felt the Senate should do its duty.' Then, in September 1999, you spoke

again of
filibusters: 'I think that is unfair to the judiciary, it is unfair to

the
nominees, and, frankly, it demeans the Senate.' ... Why were

filibusters so
terrible back in 1999, but they're legitimate now?" --Chris Wallace to

Senator
Leahy on the filibuster From the "Keen Sense of the Obvious" Files:

High Schools Hope Education Is the Answer" --headline, Press
Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Let's not get carried away
now!

"Did anyone besides me notice that at his Thursday

night
press conference President Bush did not get a single question about

immigration,
legal or otherwise? ... Apparently, the concern many Americans have

regarding
illegal immigration does not extend to the national news media." --Lyn

Nofiziger

"America's founders, informed by their Christian understanding

of the
Fall, provided for a system of checks and balances so that no one

branch of
government would have power over the other. But today a minority in the

Congress
is holding hostage judges named to the court. This is a fundamental

assault on
an independent judiciary and, thus, a violation of the balance of

powers."
--Chuck Colson

"Anyone who was shocked by the most recent

revelations of
sexual misconduct by United Nations staff has never set foot in a

UN-sponsored
refugee camp. Sex crimes are only one especially disturbing symptom of

a culture
of abuse that exists in the United Nations precisely because the United

Nations
and its staff lack accountability." --Peter Dennis

"[F]or all

the
big-hearted Texan backslapping, the Bush-Blair chumminess has always

been
overstated. Dubya and [Blair] agree on the war on terror, and that's

about it.
On everything else -- the UN, Kyoto, the International Criminal Court,

Iran's
nuclear program -- Blair is all but indistinguishable from Jacques

Chirac."
--Mark Steyn

POLITICAL FUTURES

"There seems to be

a great
temptation among the elected to confuse what they wish to be the case

with the
actual facts on the ground outside of Washington. Outside of the war on
terrorism, there are few issues that the base of the Republican Party

deem more
significant than the selection and confirmation of judges. It is far

more
important than tax cutting, far more important than energy policy, far

more
important than curbing trial lawyers -- because the courts ultimately

play
decisive roles in all of these areas, and more. The postponements of

the
confrontation are already having a terrible effect on the Republican

base. It is
time for Senate Republicans to lead, or to stop pretending to."

--Hugh
Hewitt

FOR THE RECORD

"Several sections of the
Constitution expressly grant Congress the authority to tax and spend

money to
establish military forces to defend the nation against its enemies. Not

one says
anything about buying drugs for retired people. ... The president and

many
Republicans in Congress strongly advocate naming to the federal courts

only
judges who will be 'strict constructionists,' meaning they will apply

the
Constitution as it was written and ratified. But do they practice

'strict
construction' themselves when it comes to creating and funding

government
programs? You can search the Constitution looking for a clause that

gives
Congress the discretion to create a Education Department, and you will

have no
more luck finding it than you would finding the clause that mandates a

federal
prescription drug benefit." --Terence Jeffrey

SHORT
CUTS

"Here's our typical evening. Nine o'clock, Mr.

Excitement here
is sound asleep and I'm watching Desperate Housewives with Lynne

Cheney."

--Laura Bush

"George and I are complete opposites. I'm

quiet, he's
talkative. I'm introverted, he's extroverted. I can pronounce

'nuclear'...."

--Laura Bush

"If you put the federal government in

charge of
the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."

--Milton
Friedman

"Lawyers are like red wine. Everything in

moderation.
Today we have far too many lawyers, and we're suffering from cirrhosis

of the
economy."
--Michael Savage

"Even those who write

editorials
about how we need Mexicans to do work that Americans will not do would

not be
willing to write editorials for a fraction of what they are being paid.

If
Mexican editorial writers were coming across the border illegally and

taking
their jobs, maybe the issue would become clearer."
--Thomas Sowell

"We are at one of those phases in our national affairs

where, if
George W. Bush sauntered outside and commented on the blueness of the

sky, Nancy
Pelosi and Harry Reid would call a press conference and score the

president's
appalling sense of color. As if any idiot couldn't tell the sky was

light
purple!"
--Bill Murchison

"I am sublimely confident

that
normal Americans will not be shocked to learn that a Republican Senate

plans to
confirm the judicial nominees of a Republican president -- despite the
objections of radical elements of a party that is the minority in the

Senate,
the minority in the House, the loser in the last two presidential

races, the
minority in state governorships, and the minority in all but a tiny

number of
very small but densely populated enclaves in this country that need to

tax Rush
Limbaugh, even though he lives in another state, just to keep all their

little
socialist programs afloat."
--Ann Coulter

William Prouty, CLU RHU CBC CEC MBA PhD
CEO and

Founder
Champions For Life Foundation
PO Box 989, Sun

City, CA 92586-0989
Phone 951-301-0605 FAX
951-301-0606
Skype account: williamprouty
wprouty@aol.com

www.gewdc.org

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Alice on 01.01.06 @ 07:14 PM CST [link] [697 Comments]

Thursday, December 29th

What Are Your Greatest Fears? # 393

Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers,

This issue deals with a wide variety of challenges. It closes with a bounty of wise words from Jim Rohn, one of my favorites mentors.

FEAR...False Evidence Appearing Real has restricted the growth and development of individuals and organizations for thousands of years. Enemies create fear to immobilize their prey. The Islamic terrorists have used this method to strike fear into the hearts of millions of Americans, Asians and Europeans with the homicide bomber and attacks like that on 9/11.

Look your fears clearly in the face and many will simply vanish. Being safe and cautious is not a bad thing but, in reality, being immobilized by fear is a very cheap victory for the terrorists.

At this time of year, there are often concerns and fears about what the new year will bring. This is a great weekend to build your 2006 development plan for success. A strong plan will beat a weak fear any day of the week.

I just started a new book, Hitting The Highest Notes by Beverly Sallee. It provides an extraordinary symphony of ideas to help you reach your full potentials. Its primary focus is on helping women reach for the stars...and get there. Beverly is part of the leadership team of our I-Commerce business system and has built business networks in 35 countries.

Let us know if we can be of help and support in the development and execution of your 2006 Success Plan.

Words of Wisdom...Food For Thought and ACTION

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."
-- Babe Ruth, baseball player

"Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."
- David Lloyd George, British Statesman

"Do you know more about the things you Fear than the things you desire?"
- Rick Beneteau

"Refuse to let the fear of rejection hold you back. Remember, rejection is never personal."
- Brian Tracy

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."
-- Madame Marie Curie

"If you embrace possibility thinking, your dreams will go from molehill to mountain size, and because you believe in possibilities, you put yourself in position to achieve them."
--John C. Maxwell Leadership expert

"Most of this world's useful work is done by people who are pressed for time, or are tired, or don't feel well."
-- Author unknown

"I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them."
-- Pablo Picasso

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as necessary to resolve it."
-- Rene Descartes

"Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind."
-- Leonardo da Vinci

"You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined, courageous and hard-working. Never be faint-hearted. Be resolute, but never bitter."
-- Ralph J. Bunche

"You can have big plans, but it's the small choices that have the greatest power. They draw us toward the future we want to create."
-- Robert Cooper

"Optimism is an intellectual choice."
-- Diana Schneider

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it's a matter of choice; it's not a thing to be waited for, but a thing to be achieved."
-- William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) U.S. congressman, secretary of state,
presidential nominee

"There is no greater mistake than to be afraid of change, and yet many intelligent people dread it and cling to what is customary and familiar. To be afraid of change is to doubt the presence of God. It is an unintelligent fear of the unknown. If it were not for the blessing of change, people would still be primitive savages living in caves, and you yourself would still be a child mentally and physically, would you not? Welcome every change that comes into any phase of your life; insist that it is going to turn out for the betterand it will."
-- Emmet Fox

"We know most days will be regular days. Our lives will include some highlight days that stay with us forever, like family celebrations or personal triumphs, but almost every day this year will be a regular day, with nothing particularly astounding about it. Yet within these regular days are many opportunities for enjoyment, many of which we dont even think about or really appreciate. Take a moment every day to think about the simple pleasures of your daily life."
-- David Niven

"Chance favors the prepared mind."
Louis Pasteur, 1822-1895, French Microbiologist and Chemist

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for
others and the world remains and is immortal."
Albert Pike, 1809-1891, American Author

"An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, hes in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots."
Charles Kettering, Inventor

"Our vision controls the way we think and, therefore, the way we act . . . The vision we have of our jobs determines what we do and the opportunities we see or dont see."
Charles Koch, Koch Industries Chairman and Chief Executive

"Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look
back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't
build on it; it's only for wallowing in."
--Katherine Mansfield

"Often war is waged only in order to show valor; thus an
inner dignity is ascribed to war itself, and even some
philosophers have praised it as an ennoblement of humanity,
forgetting the pronouncement of the Greek who said: 'War is
an evil inasmuch as it produces more wicked men than it
takes away."
--Immanuel Kant

"We lift ourselves by our thought. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere."
-- Orison Swett Marden 1850-1924, Author and Founder of Success Magazine

"Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success."
-- Henry Ford (1863-1947) American industrialist, inventor

Rohn's Roamings
by Jim Rohn

"Start from wherever you are and with whatever you've got."

"How much should you earn? As much as you possibly can. It doesn't matter whether you earn $10,000 a year or $100,000 a year as long as you've done the best you can."

"If you wish to have power and influence over the many, be faithful (disciplined) when there are just a few. If you have a few employees, a few distributors, a few people, that's the time to stay in touch and be totally absorbed - when there is just a few."

"It's not the matter you cover so much as it is the manner in which you cover it."

"The man says, 'If I had a fortune, I'd take good care of it. But I only have a paycheck and I don't know where it all goes.' Wouldn't you love to have him running your company?"

"Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value."

"The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, 'I wish someone would come by and turn me on.' What if they don't show up? You've got to have a better plan for your life."

"Here's what is exciting about sharing ideas with others: If you share a new idea with ten people, they get to hear it once and you get to hear it ten times."

"When you know what you want, and you want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it."

"Motivation alone is not enough. If you have an idiot and you motivate him, now you have a motivated idiot."

"Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a 'must' and a 'want.'"

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of. You don't have charge of the constellations, but you do have charge of whether you read, develop new skills, and take new classes."

"Walk away from the 97% crowd. Don't use their excuses. Take charge of your own life."

"Take advice, but not orders. Only give yourself orders. Abraham Lincoln once said, 'Since I will be no one's slave, I will be no one's master.'"

"You say, 'The country is messed up.' That's like cursing the soil and the seed and the sunshine and the rain, which is all you've got. Don't curse all you've got. When you get your own planet, you can rearrange this whole deal. This one you've got to take like it comes."

"Your paycheck is not your employer's responsibility; it's your responsibility. Your employer has no control over your value, but you do."

"It is not what happens that determines the major part of your future. What happens, happens to us all. It is what you do about what happens that counts."

"Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won't laugh at you."

"Resolve says, 'I will.' The man says, 'I will climb this mountain. They told me it is too high, too far, too steep, too rocky and too difficult. But it's my mountain. I will climb it. You will soon see me waving from the top or dead on the side from trying.'"

"You must get good at one of two things: sowing in the spring or begging in the fall."

"There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. Thanksgiving opens the windows of opportunity for ideas to flow your way."

"Disgust and resolve are two of the great emotions that lead to change."

William Prouty, CLU RHU CBC CEC MBA PhD
CEO and Founder
Champions For Life Foundation
PO Box 989, Sun City, CA 92586-0989
Phone 951-301-0605 FAX 951-301-0606
Skype account: williamprouty
wprouty@aol.com
http://www.gewdc.org
http://www.maie.org
http://www.cashdoctor.com
http://www.caltrade.com
http://www.benefitstech.com
Alice on 12.29.05 @ 05:48 PM CST [link] [28 Comments]

Tuesday, December 27th

The Blessings of Christmas and Chanukkah 2005

Good Morning Freedom Fighters and Truth Seekers,

We returned from Phoenix last night after the passing of my Mother in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve. She slipped away in a peaceful way to join family and friends who have gone before. We said a special prayer that our two dogs, Snoopy and Peppermint Patty would be there to give her lots of kisses and snuggle up close as they for us for so many years. Ninety two years and 25 days was a full and rich life for this woman who touched so many lives with her beautiful smile and loving attitude.

We will return to Phoenix tomorrow in preparation for the service on Tuesday morning that will be my great joy and honor to lead. While there is a touch of sadness at her passing, there is also great joy and knowing that her physical challenges of the last several years are behind her and she has a whole new "body" with magnificent wings.

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
-- Charles Dickens, from A Christmas Carol

"Christmas reminds us we are not alone. We are not unrelated atoms, jouncing and ricocheting amid aliens, but are a part of something, which holds and sustains us.
As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same. Christmas shows us the ties that bind us together, threads of love and caring, woven in the simplest and strongest way within the family."
-- Donald E. Westlake

http://SuccessNet.org/scards/holiday-blessings.htm

Dear God,

There is only God, and there is no place where You are not fully present.
As I affirm this now, I feel the quickening, the stirring of the life-force within me, lifting me up and giving me the guidance and joy that my soul longs for.
There was a birth 2006 years ago that is continually recreating itself in the minds and hearts of Your sons and daughters everywhere on the planet …and beyond!
Let me experience this Christ-birth in the womb of my own soul.
Let me make that long-past happening real for me in this very moment.
Let this Christmas be different from all others! Awaken in me now!
Amen.

We can do no great things...only small things with great love.
-- Mother Teresa

The Christmas Stranger
The spirit of the holiday came to her home just when she needed it most.
By Natalie Walker Whitlock

Excerpted from "A Christmas Filled with Miracles," by Mary Ellen Angelscribe. Used with permission.

December was especially bleak; the weather was cold and dark, reflecting my feelings. I usually welcomed this time of year, savoring every minute of the holiday season, but this year it was different. Financial worries weighed heavy on my spirits, and my husband David worked grueling hours to make ends meet. There was always too much to do and too little time. Too many needs and too little money. Moreover, I had struggled with post-partum depression since the birth of my fourth child a few months before, and it made Christmastime especially tough. It seemed every glad carol and glittering ornament mocked my despair.

Thankfully, my children seemed unfazed by my less-than-jolly attitude. They carefully penned their letters to Santa and made red and green paper decorations for our spindly Christmas tree. I didn't want to spoil the holidays for them, yet I felt entirely justified in feeling sorry for myself.

Day after dreary day blurred together until suddenly it was Sunday, December 24. I was alone with the children, as David worked yet another Christmas Eve at the hospital. An empty sadness filled my heart as I dressed and readied my family for church, attending more out of habit and obligation than desire.

If I had expected some renewal from the service, it wasn't to be, and I couldn't wait for it to be over. Being in the presence of so many happy people was almost more than I could bear.

After herding the kids into the car, I charged homeward, anxious to finish the day's preparations. In my haste, I accidentally passed our usual turn-off. As we detoured down the unfamiliar street, I noticed an old man up ahead. He walked with a pronounced limp, and he struggled to carry a heavy grocery sack. Suddenly, inspiration overcame discretion--and going against caution and my better judgment--I pulled over.

"Hello," I called through the open passenger's side window. "Can we give you a lift somewhere?"

The stranger hesitated before answering, taking a long look at my kid-packed station wagon. "Sure," he said carefully.

After he settled into the backseat, I asked him where he would like to go.

"I don't know," he replied quietly. Before I could reply, my children had invited the shabby stranger to our house for dinner.

"I suppose you could come over until you figure something else out..." I muttered.

As we drove, I introduced myself and my children. Our passenger introduced himself simply as "Richard."

As it turned out, Richard truly was a stranger--just passing through town on his way to nowhere in particular. He lived wherever nightfall found him. All that he owned he carried in an overstuffed shopping bag.

Once home, my children had no trouble warming up to our visitor, but getting Richard to open up was like cracking a vault rusted shut by years of disuse. Yet, they persevered. They gathered around, asking him question after question, prodding and prying until his history and its neglected cache were slowly revealed to us.

We discovered that Richard had served in two wars, worked on the railroad, and hitchhiked across North America. He had lost his sweetheart and young son many years ago in the same accident that left him crippled. Afterward, he bounced around from job to job, and ended up homeless and fighting an addiction to alcohol.

"What if we hadn't given Richard a ride?"

This Christmas found Richard a physically and mentally broken man. Richard's hard life and years on the streets were reflected in his careworn face. His appearance was haggard and dirty. He coughed frequently and smelled faintly of whiskey.

And yet...my children saw none of this. They gathered around him, asking question after question. They listened eagerly and treated him with the familiarity of a long-lost relation. Where I had seen a pitiful stranger, my children saw a kindly old man. They saw in Richard a fellow human being who could love and be loved. They saw a friend.

When dinner was ready, Richard ate like he hadn't had a meal in days. I pretended not to notice when he tucked an extra piece of bread in his coat pocket. Afterward, I invited him to rest in the big recliner; he was sound asleep before the dishes were cleared. While he slept, I undertook the business of finding Richard a place to stay for the night. But who could I reach on Christmas Eve? Who would be available at this hour? As I had feared, the calls to each charity and agency were met with an answering machine or a terse "We're full."

When there seemed nothing else to do--save turn him out on the street--Richard became our guest for the night. Richard accepted the invitation and thanked us with the graciousness of a refined gentleman. He thanked me for the home-cooked meal, the pleasant company, and for the best sleep he'd had in years. Then he said good-bye to each child. It was a tender scene as they parted with their newfound friend.

Later, as I lay in my warm, comfortable bed, I contemplated Richard and his misfortunes. I was humbled as I recalled how that very morning I had been so pessimistic and ungrateful for my own abundant life.

My introspection was interrupted by quiet footsteps as my 6-year-old son appeared at the foot of my bed. "Mom, are you awake?"

"Yes, Jeffrey," I whispered.

"What if we hadn't given Richard a ride?" He asked pensively.

As a single shaft of moonlight parted the darkness of the room, illuminating my son's guileless face, I was filled with emotion. Then a lonely old man would have spent Christmas Eve cold and hungry, I thought, my eyes brimming with tears. And I said, "I guess we might never have known what a wonderful person he is." As I pulled my dear son close, the two of us shared a moment of eloquent silence, and I offered a voiceless prayer, Thank you, God, for sending us Richard.

When Christmas morning came, the kids were almost as excited to see Richard again as they were to open their presents. They begged and they pestered until I agreed to wake him. But, to our dismay and disappointment, Richard was gone. The room was left so neat, it almost looked as if no one had even stayed there. We never saw Richard again.

My family remembers that Christmas fondly. Even though Richard wasn't physically with us, he wasn't forgotten. Because of Richard, our Christmas was full of blessing and thanksgiving. And because of Richard, I found the hope and happiness I was so desperately missing. The spirit and joy of the holidays was never stronger than the year we opened our hearts and our home to a stranger.

"How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his
precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments."
-- Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richards Almanack, 1743)

"The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but
what you give.... In any case, the giving of love is an education
in itself."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt, American First Lady and social activist
(1884-1962)

"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without
hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the
fingers."
-- Seneca, Roman statesman, dramatist and Stoic philosopher
(4 B.C.?-65 A.D.)

"Unshared joy is an unlighted candle."
-- Spanish proverb

"No one who has ever learned to appreciate beauty will ever be poor."
-- Michael Josephson

"Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life
fruitful with kindness.... Your success and happiness lie in you....
The great enduring realities are love and service. Resolve to keep
happy and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against
difficulties."
-- Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and
author (1880-1968)

***

Commentaries by Michael Josephson

"That Means the Baby Is Not Dying"

One of my favorite stories tells of a man I`ll call Al who was
rushing home excited to tell his wife about a $1,000 bonus check
he`d unexpectedly received from work. Before he got to his car, a
desperately sad looking woman with a baby asked him for a few
dollars. She said her child had leukemia and was dying. He reached
into his pocket for some loose bills and accidentally pulled out
his bonus check. He looked at the check for a moment and then at
the woman`s baby. He endorsed it over to her, saying, "Use this
to do what you can for your baby."

When Al told his family what he had done they were not pleased.
His wife said, "I can`t believe you gave some stranger our money."
His teenage son chided him for being naïve. Al was hurt but simply
said, "I just thought she needed it so much more than we did."

A week later, his son came to him with an "I told you so" look
on his face. He showed Al a newspaper article about a woman with
a baby who had been arrested for scamming people in the area.
"This is the lady you gave the money to, isn`t it?" the son
asked disdainfully.

"Yes," the father replied, as he smiled broadly.

"What are you smiling about?" the son demanded. "You were cheated!
She made a fool out of you."

"Don`t you see?" Al replied, "This is wonderful news. It means the
baby is not dying."

Overwhelmed with affection and admiration for her husband, Al`s
wife said, "Your dad will earn other bonuses. Just be thankful we
have each other, our health and a truly good man we can all be
proud of."

Judging Our Own Character

The passing last week of one of the pioneer investigative
journalists, Jack Anderson, reminded me of my one and only
meeting with him many years ago. It was one of my first programs
as an ethicist.

My role was to question a panel of journalists in front of an
audience of radio and television news directors. It was the
pre-Clinton era, the beginning of the new age of no-holds-barred
investigation and discussion of the private conduct of politicians.
The event was prompted by the withdrawal from the presidential
race of Senator Gary Hart because he was caught having an indiscrete,
adulterous affair with a model named Donna Rice.

I asked the panel, "When is it proper for a journalist to report
about the private life of a public official?"

Mr. Anderson replied, "It`s got to be relevant to his job." Then
he added, "But we don`t always follow our own rules." I asked him
to explain, and he said: "Well, a few years ago a woman came into
my office and gave me an airtight affidavit that the mayor of
Tucson had bit her on the thigh. Now, I admit I didn`t think
this was too relevant to his job, but some stories are too good
to pass up."

So the high-minded standard of relevance was subordinated to the
lesser test of good gossip.

His comment revealed the gap that often exists between our "stated
values" -- the values we profess -- and our "operational values" --
the values we practice.

Many of us claim higher values than our conduct reveals. What`s
more, when we assess our own character we are often deluded by our
rhetoric and rosy self-image.

Thus, we tend to judge ourselves by our highest ideals and best
intentions. What we often forget is that others judge us not by
our proclamations or even our most noble deeds, but by our last
worst act.

Holiday Season Lament

"`Tis the season to be jolly." Oh yeah. Well, that`s easier said
than done. I confess, I`ve become a holiday-season neurotic. And
I wonder, is it just me?

I love the music, I love the decorations and I love the giving
spirit of Hanukkah and Christmas. But my life is bursting at the
seams with a daunting and growing list of business tasks and
personal chores, which I`m neglecting as I try to joyfully pursue
my holiday desires and duties by sending cards to and buying gifts
for a small army of family, friends and business associates.

I`ve become as neurotically insecure as Charlie Brown. I feel bad
about feeling like it`s a burden. I worry about finding gifts that
will be truly appreciated. Sure, I know it`s supposed to be the
thought that counts, but I`ve found it really helps if the gift
is something the other person finds desirable. I worry that I`ll
get something the gift-getter thinks is atrocious, useless,
redundant or simply too cheap.

I also worry whether the beneficiaries of my gifts will think I
spent enough time and money so that -- if it really is the thought
that counts -- it will count enough to convince them that they are
valued.

I even worry about the notes I write. I want them to go beyond the
standard clichés. I want each one to be personal, profound, clever
and meaningful as well as sincere and original. But I run out of
things to say, and I forget what I wrote the year before. I worry
that I`ll give the same verbal gift I gave previously.

I expect to be rebuked by listeners for having the wrong attitude,
but that will only make me feel worse. I think I`ll just put my head
under the covers and take a nap.

No One Is Too Poor to Give

When Teresa, a widow with four young children, saw a notice that
members of her church would gather to deliver presents and food
to a needy family she took $10 out of her savings jar and bought
the ingredients to make three dozen cookies. She got to the church
parking lot just in time to join a convoy going to the home that
was to receive the congregation`s help.

The route was familiar, but she was stunned when the cars pulled
up in front of her house. When the pastor saw her he said, "We never
expected you to join us, Teresa. We know it`s been a great struggle
since your husband died, and we all wanted to support you."

Though she was uncomfortable being thought of as the object of
charity, Teresa didn`t want to embarrass anyone so she cheerfully
said, "Well, at least I can share these cookies with our friends."

This parable teaches us that no one is too poor to help others and
that true charity is rooted in love and compassion. Poverty of
spirit is worse than economic distress. Teresa`s story reminds us
that very few of us give as much as we could and should.

My friend Larry Rosen, president of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los
Angeles, introduced me to the concept of "sacrificial giving" --
giving in abundance to a point where one must sacrifice something
that is desired.

You can start out easy. Take whatever amount you were thinking of
giving to charity this year, then double it. If that`s truly too
much, add 50 percent. The idea is to stretch yourself. It will mean
a lot to those you help, but it will mean as much to your own heart.

Cheerfulness Is Contagious

I just turned 63, and I`m not happy about it at all. It does not help
when people tell me you are only as old as you feel because even the
simple acts of getting up, sitting down or bending over to put on my
socks elicit a symphony of grunts and groans.

Why can`t I just follow my own advice about counting my blessings and
being truly grateful for the mountain of things I should be grateful
for? My glass is way more than half full. It`s not only shameful but
useless and boring to pollute my thinking or inflict others with
negativism.

One of my New Year`s resolutions is to stop self-indulgent whining
about getting older. As inspiration for my new attitude I need only
think of my mother and my dear friend Lauren Fair who were the most
cheerful people I`ve ever known. Though each fought valiant but
losing battles with ravaging cancers, they didn`t dwell on illness
or pain. They smiled more than they cried and joked more than they
complained.

It`s tempting to think that some people are just naturally cheerful.
But this is just as false as saying that some people are born to be
negative and grouchy. Attitude is a choice. Cheerfulness is not
simply an instinctive or spontaneous act of a person`s nature but
a conscious and courageous act of kindness. It`s a gift one chooses
to give to others.

Regardless of how I feel inside, I can choose the face I show to
the world -- and when I choose to be positive I`ll begin to feel
positive. And so will others around me. Because cheerfulness is
contagious.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that Character Counts.

The Gift of the Magi in a Coffee Shop
My coffee guy always helps me start my day with a smile. One Christmas Eve, I decided to return his kindness.
By Eileen Mitchell

He greets me every morning from behind the coffee counter. Often, it feels like he and I are the only two human beings alive at the ungodly hour of 6:00 am. In the dead of winter, it’s still dark outside at that time, sometimes rainy and almost always cold. Faced with an hour-long commute from the East Bay to my job in Foster City, I schlep into the coffee shop in a semi-vegetative state. I need that jolt of caffeine to wake me up, especially when I’ve stayed up too late the night before, hooked on a Law & Order marathon or anxious to finish reading, for the third time, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".

My coffee guy is always smiling, always cheerful, even though the counter he works behind is just yards away from the front door and subjects him to cold winter winds each time a customer enters the shop. This store is a franchise and he’s not the owner. He’s just a college student at Las Positas and probably earns minimum wage at best. Still, he greets each customer like a long-lost family member. I never need to remind him what my favorite drink is or how I like it prepared. The minute I enter the shop, he smiles and calls out, “The same?” When I nod, he immediately begins preparing my peppermint _mocha, extra hot (nuclear, he calls it), with low-fat milk and just a smidge of whipped cream.

Sometimes I’ll also buy a Chai tea latte for my mom and swing by her house on my way to work. When I do this, my coffee guy gives me the 50 percent senior’s discount on her drink, even though he has no way of knowing if I’m really buying it for a senior or I’m just a double-fisted drinker. Once he chased after me in the store parking lot to let me know I had earned a free coffee with the store’s frequent-buyer card. He apologized because he had forgotten to honor it and wanted to let me know my next coffee was free.

These are all minor gestures, but collectively they add up to great customer service. And that’s why I wanted to thank my coffee guy at Christmas time. “What can I buy somebody whom I know nothing about?” I asked my manager. She shrugged. “He may not even celebrate Christmas,” she reminded me. “A Christmas gift may not be appropriate.”

True. Still, I had to let him know that his kindness frequently sets the tone for my day. Every morning, I return to my car with my extra-hot, low-fat peppermint _mocha in hand, warmed by his attentiveness and touched by his kindness.

“Maybe he has a thing for you,” my manager teased. But I quickly dismissed the notion. My coffee guy can’t be a day over 21. I could easily be his mo...uh, older, older sister. No, this wasn’t about attraction, trying to score points, schmoozing or anything else. He was just a kind person. And I wanted to say thank you.

I finally decided on a gift card to a local book-and-record store. Surely he could find something there to enjoy. I tucked the gift in a safely generic “Happy Holidays” card, and inside I wrote, “Thank you for the cheerful attitude and great customer service you provide year-round.” I signed it the Peppermint _Mocha Latte lady.

Christmas Eve morning I arrived at the shop at my usual ungodly hour, but not in my typical bleary-eyed state. Today I was a tad giddy with anticipation, excited to brighten my coffee guy’s day just as he had so often brightened mine. While he was making my peppermint _mocha, I snuck the card alongside the register where he'd be sure to find it after I left.

As he handed me my drink, he told me to wait a second. Then he reached underneath the counter and handed me a gift-wrapped box of chocolates with a card. “I just want to say thanks,” he stammered with an awkward smile. What? He was thanking me? Then, because I was obviously speechless, he wished me a happy holiday and turned to tend to his growing line of customers.

In the pre-dawn dark of my car, I flicked on the light and opened the envelope. It was a Christmas card. Inside was printed, “A Christmas wish to show you just how nice it is to know you.” He had added, “Thank you for always being so nice. It makes our job easy, especially when everyone else is so grumpy. Merry Christmas.”

I thought of the card I'd left behind, tucked next to his register and couldn't help but smile at the irony.

It was a very _mocha Christmas, indeed.

William Prouty, CLU RHU CBC CEC MBA PhD
CEO and Founder
Champions For Life Foundation
PO Box 989, Sun City, CA 92586-0989
Phone 951-301-0605 FAX 951-301-0606
Skype account: williamprouty
wprouty@aol.com
www.gewdc.org
www.maie.org
www.cashdoctor.com
www.caltrade.com
www.benefitstech.com
Alice on 12.27.05 @ 02:27 AM CST [link] [143 Comments]

Friday, May 1st

Vivi Actress and Model

Vivi is a Mexican, bilingual actress, who has appeared in Theater plays in Mexico and has done some TV programs
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Wednesday, March 25th

I'm a lovely girl

music: Pop Rock
mood: lively

:D
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