I JUST DON'T GET IT!

I just don’t get it!  This morning I woke up to the news that the latest polls show Donald Trump with support from 35% of the Republicans polled.  Have these people gone mad?  Or are they so uneducated that they will follow just about any reality television star?  Or maybe, these people actually approve of what he says…if that is the case, then this country is in bigger trouble than anyone can imagine.

Let’s review some of Mr. Trump’s absurdities….In Trump’s short career as a politician he has been seen insulting Latinos, making fun of the disabled, tweeting neo-Nazi propaganda, and advocating a Nazi-style registration system. Now, he’s advocating a policy that can only end in Genocide.

First, his insults to Latinos:  He called Latin Immigrants “Criminals” and Rapists.”  He said Mexicans (and other immigrants) were  “Killers” too and insisted that the Mexican Government intentionally sends their criminals to the US.  On two occasions, he has taken jabs at Jeb Bush over his Mexican-born wife!  He said that his followers were “passionate” after being told that two men beat a Hispanic man in his name!  And he blamed blacks and Hispanics for violent crime cross the Country.

Of course Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter was followed by his defense that he was “just joking.”  Wow, how Presidential of him!  All of this was proceeded by that reporter exposing Trump’s lies about “thousands of Muslims cheering in Jersey City after 9/11.”

Trump’s last week found him flirting with fascism by sharing a blatantly false, racist graphic that apparently originated with a Hitler-admiring neo-Nazi.

The Republican presidential frontrunner tweeted an image that claimed 81 percent of white homicide victims are killed by blacks and 97 percent of black homicide victims were killed by other blacks.  The graphic cited the Crime Statistics Bureau in San Francisco as its source — although that does not exist and the statistics are, quite simply, made up.  The earliest use of the graphic was from a tweet.  The account linked to the tweet uses a modified swastika used as the symbol of the neo-Nazi German Faith Movement, and the account profile expresses admiration for Adolf Hitler: “A detester of any kind of sick perverted dildo waving marxism and liberalism, we should have listened to the Austrian chap with the little moustache.”  The image was posted on the conservative Sexy Patriot account shortly before Trump shared it.  There’s no indication Trump was aware the graphic seems to have originated with a neo-Nazi, but a quick Google search should have revealed the statistics as inaccurate — and its racist suggestions are plainly obvious.  This isn’t the first time Trump has tweeted Nazi propaganda on his official social media account.   Trump shared a campaign graphic, which he later deleted, that included an image of Nazi soldiers taken from a World War II re-enactment.

Trump supporters beat up a Black Lives Matter protester recently in Birmingham, Alabama, and the GOP candidate said afterward that the man was “so obnoxious and so loud” that “maybe he should have been roughed up.”

This erstwhile Republican repeated his call to closely monitor or even close down U.S. mosques to fight terrorism, and he refused to rule out creating a database of American Muslims and expressed openness to the possibility of requiring them to carry special ID.  All Muslims living in the United States might be forced to register their personal information in a federal database if Donald Trump is elected president.  Last week, the billionaire Republican presidential candidate told an NBC reporter that all American Muslims “have to be” required to registered in a database in the wake of deadly terror attacks in Paris and Beirut. The attacks were carried out by ISIS, a group that proclaims itself to be Islamic — though many Muslims and religious scholars disagree that the group can be credibly considered part of the religion.

“I would certainly implement that — absolutely,” Trump said when asked about forcing registration of the 5 million to 12 million Muslims living in America.

And now, Trump openly advocates mass murder of innocents!   He not only wants to commit the US to a new war against the Islamic State, he wants to kill the family members of terrorists.  Forget the fact that deliberate targeting of the civilian populace and collective punishment are war crimes and that to do so systematically by policy would qualify as a crime against humanity.  Set aside the moral implications of murdering innocents.  Instead, let’s look at the fact that it just wouldn’t work…. If you kill a terrorist and “take out their families” as Trump has said, you simply have created more terrorists.  In order for this to work, you would have to literally exterminate bloodlines on a scale not seen since The Holocaust.

And, how do you define who is the terrorist’s family?  In 1935, The First Regulation of the Reich Citizenship Law was used as the basis of who died in Nazi concentration camps.  Perhaps Mr. Trump would like to use that statute to write a possible statute defining a terrorist’s family:

A terrorist family member is one who is descended from two terrorist parents, if (a) he belonged to the terrorist community at the time this law was issued, or joined the community later, (b) he or she was married to a terrorist person, at the time the law was issued, or married one subsequently, (c) he is the offspring of a marriage with a terrorist.

Sound familiar?  Further, I am offended by the tone of Mr. Trump’s remarks in front of Mr. Adelson’s Jewish Coalition this week.  His remarks were condescending and smacked of “some of my best friends are Jewish” rhetoric. “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money,” Mr. Trump said. “Isn’t it crazy?”

The Times of Israel led with Donald J. Trump’s referring to Jewish people as “good negotiators” and with his declining to commit to supporting Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the country. “Trump courts Republican Jews with offensive stereotypes,” the headline blared atop a story that described his remarks as “anti-Semitic.” 

And finally, to all those Republicans that think he would be a great President on economic matters.  This is a guy that has declared bankruptcy 4 different times.  Managing the economy…no thanks!  Further, if he had just taken the value of what his father left to him and put it in a mutual fund that follows the S&P index, he would be worth 6 times more that he is worth now.  This guy can’t manage his way out of a paper bag and most of the 35% supporters cite his ability to manage the economy as a primary reason for supporting this douchebag!

A final note to all of those that are not bothered by Mr. Trump and all that he represents, because you don’t believe he can actually get the nomination…..remember that I said it here…..this guy WILL get the nomination and could very possibly be our next President. 

God help us all!

And The Journey continues………….

The Next Chapter

Just like a book, we all have chapters in our lives.  There are personal chapters like school years, college years, marriage, children and grandchildren.  And there are work and career chapters…my first job, career positions, companies, and experiences.  I have had many varied chapters in my work life.

I have worked for about as long as I can remember.  I worked in my Dad’s warehouse unloading trucks, bagged groceries at the local Kroger, dug ditches and hauled construction materials for a summer, worked in retail at a golf store and at a catalogue retailer and clerked and eventually managed health and beauty and pharmacy stores.  And all of that was before  graduating from college.

After college I approached my uncle who owned a chain of stores with my grandiose ideas of how I could help his company succeed.  My first day of work, I showed up in a coat and tie and he informed me that I would be starting in the warehouse.  While unloading trucks, filling orders and doing inventory I soon discovered that this was my uncle’s way of getting me to learn the business from the ground up.  I probably did more learning then I did contributing as I became exposed to every facet of the retail business.  Eventually I traveled around and opened the new prototype stores for the Company.  However, always feeling I was simply viewed by others as “the nephew,” the desire to make my own way became overwhelming.  Making the princely sum of $175/week, I answered an ad for a district manager paying over $30,000 per year and was quickly rebuffed by the head hunter.  However, I must have had something going for me as he called a few weeks later offering an interview with a growing chain of discount stores. 

I arrived at the offices of Richway Stores, a division of the well-known Atlanta institution – Rich’s Department Stores, on a Monday morning and was put through a battery of interviews and tests and was ultimately offered a position as an assistant buyer for health and beauty aids.  I grew with the Company over a 10 year span rising through the ranks to a Divisional Merchandise Manager with the responsibility for multiple departments and buyers.  The Company had been bought by Federated Department Stores and rumor had it that they would combine the company with another of their holdings and move the headquarters to Columbus, Ohio.  Before that could happened, I was offered a position with Child World Stores in the Boston area.

Moving to Boston was not only a new chapter but a whole new section of the book!   In my extended family, it was virtually unheard of to move out of Atlanta and the warm embrace of the family.  But always the rebel, I took the position in Boston and moved the family. (As an aside, I once ran away from home when I was 10 years old and stayed away for about 8 hours.  One of my brothers, who has lived in Atlanta his whole life claims that I have been running ever since!)  Again, this chapter was filled with growth as I eventually became a vice-president and general merchandise manager for this $650 million company.  And obviously had begun to make a name for myself in the retail industry as I was approached by a head hunter to consider interview with a new start-up retail company being formed by retail industry veterans and the venture capital community.

“So, what kind of business do these people want to create?” I asked the headhunter in 1985.  “They are a bunch of grocery guys, that want to create a grocery store sized retail store of office supplies!” was the reply.  My immediate response was, “that’s the dumbest idea I have ever heard..just how many paper clips and legal pads do they think they can sell?”  I turned down the interview for what would become Staples, The Office Superstore.

Less than a year later, a call came from an old friend in the Sporting Goods Industry telling me that there was a group of venture capitalist looking for a Chief Merchant for a new Sporting Goods Super Store concept.  Never one to make the same mistake twice, I jumped at the opportunity to help create what became The Sports Authority.  As a founding executive, the excitement and satisfaction of starting something from scratch and contributing in such a meaningful way was intoxicating.  If you want to know more about this chapter, I documented the story of this start-up several years ago and it can be found on my blog page in a five-part series titled “The Real Story.”

After 6 years and helping to grow the company to over 65 stores, I considered myself a bona fide “entrepreneur,” and got the itch to do another start-up.  Having developed a retail baby store concept in my head, I put it all on paper in a business plan, raised $20 million from the Venture capital community, hired a staff, opened 3 stores and was subsequently fired by my VC “partners.”  The Company shut down a year later.  Most would think that this would be the darkest chapter in my book, but in reality, it was where I learned the most about business, inter-working relationships and myself.  Nobody likes failure, but if something is learned from them, then it is not all for naught.

It was at this point, that I figured I needed a break from work.  I decided to spend some time exercising, playing golf, fishing and playing.  After about 30 days, I ran into on old toy industry acquaintance in the gym.  He invited me to his office for coffee and I stayed for a year and a half as Senior Vice President of Marketing.  Clearly, the manufacturing side of the business was out of my wheelhouse, and when the Company began to falter and restructured eliminating my position with many other high level positions, I think I was more relieved than anything else.

So, I went back to my plan of playing for awhile….moved to a country club, played a whole lot of golf, played the market and eventually needed to go back to work.  I got a call from the Vice-Chairman of The Limited asking me to do some consulting work for them evaluating a Sporting Goods Retailer they were considering acquiring.  After a successful and profitable engagement on this assignment it occurred to me that I had a lot of general Business knowledge that could be helpful to small and medium sized businesses and start-ups looking to expand.  Through word of mouth and recommendations of industry contacts I began consulting, writing business plans and developing strategic plans for various businesses.  I have worked on many types of businesses from the Coal Industry to a 3^rd world heating and cooking solution to several retail assignments to new consumer products and product lines to prospective health care related concepts.  All the while, I have maintained a Real Estate license and have sold millions of dollars of real estate.

Which brings me to The Next Chapter.  Over a year ago, a friend told me about this terrific Physical and Occupational Therapy Clinic that was treating his Father and Mother.  In talking with the owner, he was convinced that as good as the clinic was, they needed help on the business side.  Realizing that the clinic was every bit of a mile from my home, I wandered in one day, met the owners and struck up a conversation.  They told me about what they were doing, how they got started and their desire to expand.  So, making them a deal they couldn’t refuse, I embarked on assembling a base line business plan.  Recognizing that they had a unique niche in the health care market, I became excited about what “could be.”  One thing led to another and I signed on as a part-time business consultant and began restructuring the business side of their growing clinics.  All of our changes, adjustments and ideas have garnered positive results and the Company is poised for expansion.

And that is how I have arrived at The Next Chapter.  I have recently joined Florida Movement Therapy Centers for Excellence, Inc. as their CEO.  Ed and Jodi Gray, the owners, are terrific therapists (as well as really nice people) and have great vision on what they would like the company to become.  They opened their first clinic in Boynton Beach about 8 years ago and a second clinic in Boca Raton 3 years ago.  They provide advanced approaches to physical, occupational, speech and cognitive therapy for patients with movement disorders…Parkinson’s, MS, Stroke, Neurological/brain injuries, spinal stenosis and the like. 

We have worked diligently to put a Business and Strategic Plan in place, are finalizing an equity partnership and are ready to add several new clinics over the next 24 months.  And, I am very excited to begin The Next Chapter!

And The Journey continues……………………….

The 3 Day Juice Cleanse

Back in April, 2011, I wrote a blog titled “Dieting for Dummies.”   Way back then, I lamented the harsh realities of weight gain and dieting:

“How come it is so easy to gain weight but so hard to take it off?  I have been on a diet for at least half of my life.   My best estimate of weight gained and lost over my lifetime is close to a thousand pounds.  It seems that it takes about 5 times longer to lose weight than it does to gain...and the older we get, the harder it is to lose.” 

So, here it is 4 years later and the same problem exists.  This time though, I am determined to get back to fighting weight!  Since Memorial Day, I have really tried to eat “right,” limited my alcohol intake and exercised regularly.  Although my weight and waist size reduced to a slightly more respectable level I then hit the plateau that so frustrates.  Usually, when this happens, I give up, go back to my old habits and enjoy a bacon cheeseburger!  But this time, I decided to try something to kick my body back into action.

Enter the 3 Day Juice Cleanse.  After considerable research I decided on the 3 day Whenever Juice Cleanse offered by Juice From The Raw.  I chose this one because they use organic fruits and veggies wherever possible, and they are “cold-pressed” and never heated.  This supposedly preserves the integrity of the fruits and veggies, giving you the benefits of all of their goodness.  The promotional material says that the cleanse is formulated to help detoxify your body with a balance of fresh vegetables and fruits. 

So, after the July 4^th weekend where I slightly fell off the wagon, I placed my order and received the 18 bottles of juices on Tuesday.  They arrived frozen to “maintain freshness,” are unpasteurized, and frozen immediately after they are pressed to keep the enzymes and good bacteria from deteriorating. The instructions advised that I should keep them frozen and move 6 bottles a day to the refrigerator for my daily intake.  I began the cleanse on Wednesday…..

The instructions said the order of the cleanse was set to help me function throughout the day and that I should start with the Detox Greens.   Detox Greens is a bright green juice consisting of wheatgrass, celery, ginger, cucumber, wild arugula, dandelion, watercress, lemon and apples.  Thank goodness for the ginger, lemon and apples or else this first 16 ounce drink would be the equivalent of sucking down freshly mowed grass.  But it went down pretty smoothly and I wasn’t hungry when 2-3 hours late it was time for my second drink….Piney Apple Mint, a very sweet combination of pineapple, apples and mint.  This one was really easy to drink and kind of refreshing.  I continued to drink plenty of water in between juices and found that I never wanted to be more than 30 feet from a bathroom!  Lunch time brought me to the “Sweet Greens” drink consisting of green kale, spinach, cucumbers, celery, lemon, ginger, swiss chard, apples and romaine.  The only reason it is “sweet” is the apples, and ginger.  But, nonetheless, I was able to drink this one without much trouble and was actually not hungry afterwards.  Now that I had survived two green drinks, I felt that the rest of the day would go smoothly….and it did.  The afternoon drink was a delightful Spicy Lemonade made from lemon, water, agave nectar and cayenne pepper.  Dinner was the Root Veggies drink…a bright red drink made with beets, carrots, apple, ginger and lemon.  The taste is not bad and it went down quite smoothly.  Dessert a couple of hours later was the Coconut Fusion, a combination of Young Thai coconut water and Young Thai coconut flesh.  

Day one was complete with no hunger, and only a slight evening headache as a side effect.  However, I had not yet experienced the “euphoria” and “energy” that reviewers had promised in their Amazon reviews….only a desire to chew on something and an insatiable appetite for watching Food Network shows on television.

Day 2 dawned with no desire to drink that first green drink, but I managed to drink it and the following 5 drinks without much trouble.  Although I didn’t experience hunger, I did miss the actual act of chewing.  With the exception of an embarrassing bodily function mishap during my morning walk, the day was pretty uneventful.  I continued to look for the promised euphoria and energy but only found a desire to

take an afternoon nap.

Waking on Day 3, I had no desire to drink my morning greens but managed to finish the whole drink..  With enough oomph to finish my 5 mile walk, I felt energized and returned home to the Piney Apple Mint and plenty of water.  I am not sure if my positive attitude is a result of the cleanse or a realization that this is the last day and that I can eat real food again tomorrow.  The rest of the day was pretty easy…I didn’t really feel like drinking the last few bottles, but did so anyway.

On the day after the cleanse, I weighed myself and was about 4 pounds lighter.  Actually, I was a little disappointed in that, but I feel amazingly well.  No hunger, and in fact, had to force myself to drink a fruit smoothie for breakfast.  I have been told to ease myself back in to eating, but surprisingly, I don’t have any cravings or desire for foods I haven’t had in a few days.  My lunch today was a bowl of watermelon gazpacho and I am still not hungry….so maybe this cleanse was worth the effort and will help me to continue to be disciplined in my eating habits….we will see!

For the last few years, I have suffered with sciatica problems and have found that I have severe stenosis of the L4 and L5.  I have done physical therapy and have worked to strengthen my core and try to stretch before exercising.  Nonetheless, most mornings the pain is intense and shoots down my leg for the first 2 miles of my morning walk.  On the 3^rd day of the cleanse and again the day after, I had no pain!  Whether this is somehow a byproduct of the cleanse or a cumulative result of all of my icing, stretching and exercise, I am not going to argue with success.  Maybe there is something to a plant based diet after all…..but I don’t think I can give up animal protein all together.  Baby steps! 

 And The Journey Continues…………………….

WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY...............

Anyone fortunate enough to be able to remember Walt Kelly’s Pogo Possum cartoons will know this quote well:

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

The history of the quote is pretty cool. It was first used on an Earth Day poster in 1970:

Although this quote was created to lament the fact that we are killing the environment, it very much can be applied to race relations, LGBT rights and the culture of hate that so permeates society today.

After the brutal attacks this week in Charleston, many have tried to blame this attack on the “lone wolf” or on a mentally deranged individual or even as an attack on Christianity (another Faux News absurdity).   However, the assailant himself declared that the attack was meant to start a race war and was specifically done because of his fears the blacks were “taking over” the country.

But, I have news for you.  Dylann Roof is not an isolated racist punk.  White Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States, according to a study by the New America Foundation. The Washington-based research organization did a review of “terror” attacks on US soil since Sept. 11, 2001 and found that most of them were carried out by radical anti-government groups or white supremacists.

Almost twice as many people have died in attacks by right-wing groups in America than have died in attacks by Muslim extremists. Of the 26 attacks since 9/11 that the group defined as terror, 19 were carried out by non-Muslims. Yet there are no white Americans languishing inside the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. And there are no drones dropping bombs on gatherings of military-age males in the country's lawless border regions.  So, how will the government respond…better, yet, how should WE respond?

The removal of offensive symbols in this country is a very obvious good start.  Sure, the Confederate battle flag (a symbol of racial hatred) should be relegated to some nasty Confederate Museum and the use of swastikas and white hooded KKK symbols should be eliminated from public facilities.  I, for one, am embarrassed that the state I grew up in (Georgia) still depicts that symbol on its state flag.  But we should also examine other racially and ethnically offensive symbols.  The Washington Redskins should have changed their name years ago…it is as offensive to Native Americans as Washington Kikes or Washington N*****s would be to Jews or Blacks. 

However, removal of these symbols should be viewed as only a start.  We have to change the culture of hatred in our society.  Our leaders and media must be held accountable for perpetuating stereotypes and must quit validating extreme ideologies.  We have leaders that continue to deny racism, fail to condemn such grotesque brutality and attempt to enact discriminatory legislation and inflame tensions.  One Oklahoma legislator’s declaration that he would not “tolerate something like Islam to come into the U.S.” simply fuels violence against ALL Muslims or anyone that looks like a Muslim. 

Since electing our first African- American President in 2008, polls show that anti-black attitudes have grown.  I contend that the constant bashing of our President by Right Wing extremist has added fuel to the fire and has emboldened the Dylann Roof’s of our country to make sure that “these people don’t take over our country.”

I will admit that in my younger days, I have repeated stupid racially and even homophobic offensive jokes.  And if most of us are honest, then I am sure that I am not alone.  But as I have grown and hopefully become somewhat wiser and more mature, I have recognized how these despicable remarks are like pouring gasoline on a slowly smoldering fire and have no place in our society. 

Removing the Confederate Battle flag is a good start, but it is simply symbolic.  A massive change in our culture has to be priority one.  It starts with us not accepting the recent wave of voting restrictions that the right wing legislatures and crooked politicians such as Governor Scott are trying to impose to limit those targeted populations of American citizens from voting.  It continues with us, as citizens, standing up to politicians that are dedicated to gerrymandering the districting, thus fixing congressional districts.  It continues with all of us that believe in equal rights and that truly believe that All Men Are Created Equal standing up to the fear mongering, self-righteous bullying carried out under the guise of “religious values.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in April, 1963, in his Letter from Birmingham Jail that “the greatest obstacle to the advance of racial justice wasn’t the virulence of white supremacist extremists, but the timidity of white moderates who recognized the social injustices but remain silent in the face of them.” 

Today’s Supreme Court ruling that reaffirms the rights of gays to marry has caused much furor among those self-righteous right wing wing-nuts.  Their hatred has been spewed throughout the news, internet and to anybody that will listen.  If you are not gay, exactly how is this going to affect you?  Not at all!  Those that are continuing to scream negative sobriquets about this decision, foster a level of hatred that can’t possibly be good for society.  Understand, please, that this landmark decision means that love has won….not hatred!

The final paragraph of the decision says it all:

The change in our culture also has to address the gun problem in our Country.  Maybe if our politicians weren’t so damn worried that the NRA might quit funding their campaigns, we would actually do something to rid ourselves of the ability for criminals to easily obtain a gun.  But the shooting at Sandy Hook in 2012 or the nearly 100 school shootings since then or the Colorado movie theatre shooting or even the Charleston shootings don’t seem to have any effect on these twits.  But that’s a subject for another blog.

And The Journey Continues……………