Louis R. Avallone

Category: Current Events

  • Monumental Error

    Monumental Error

    Why would you ever return to what hasn’t worked? I mean, would you ever choose to go back to your least favorite employer? If you had a drinking problem, would you ever choose to go back to those times when you simply weren’t your very best self?

    If you’ve worked hard to become educated, or experienced in your trade, would you choose to return to those times when you were more ignorant than not, and didn’t really know what you were doing, at all?

    Obviously, you wouldn’t choose any of that, or go back to any time when you were not the very best you could be.

    But this seems to be at the heart of the hullabaloo over the Confederate monuments in New Orleans. Here’s why:

    Those offended by the monuments (and want them taken down) really believe the rest of us want to go back to the time of slavery, when we were not our very best selves, and more ignorant than not.

    But again, who in their right mind would choose to return to what doesn’t work?

    You see, removing monuments, rewriting textbooks, redacting words in literary works (such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), legislating political correctness, snubbing films like Gone with the Wind, or even banning the display of the American flag as racist, is not necessary to make the point that what happened way back then has no place whatsoever in whatever we are doing now.

    The overwhelming majority of Americans need no convincing of that, at all.

    But regardless of whether those monuments are displayed, or pushed into a corner, under the dust heap of history, there will always be those who have hatred in their heart. For them, hiding our past makes no difference in their thinking.

    Instead of the monuments representing an enemy, or our past failures (even though the war was really over states’ rights), what if these Confederate monuments represented the triumph of good over evil. Of justice. Redemption. Forgiveness. Of what’s possible when men and women of principle make a stand. Or the power of God to change the hearts and minds of men.

    America has changed (thankfully), and that’s putting it mildly. Consider that only 15 percent of African-American adults today lack a high school education, compared with 75 percent of adults 50 years ago. There are now 3.5 times more African-Americans enrolled in college than were 50 years ago, and for every college graduate in 1963, there are now five.

    And in positions of power, black elected officials have also made significant gains. Just going back 50 years to when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, there were only five African-Americans serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate – now there are 49 black lawmakers. Over a similar period, the number of black state legislators grew from about 200 to 700.

    Am I saying everything hunky-dory now? No, of course not. There is still prejudice. Bigotry. Injustice. But these have been with us since before Jesus Christ (and will likely be with us until He comes again).

    So, how much does removing monuments make life any better for people of color? You tell me. Maybe the issue isn’t so much as where the monuments are placed, or buried, as much as how we perceive their meaning, in the first place.

    No, no, no one wants to go back to a time when we were not our very best selves. But that doesn’t mean we want to forget when we weren’t.

  • Not Getting It

    Not Getting It

    Sunday morning came way too early for many in Caddo Parish on April 30. It was the day after voters rejected the property tax renewals that had been placed on the ballot. That morning, The Times in Shreveport couldn’t even bring themselves to report the election results in their printed edition. Online, this news must have still been too grim for them to report, as it was posted up with only a simple, almost curt headline, “Results uncertain, pending certification.”

    You see, the day before, there had been an election, and renewing property taxes were the only items on the ballot. And voters had said “no”, or “not so fast,” to all of them. And online, at least, the news seemed tough to bear for some.

    After all, many who had placed those tax renewals on the ballot, and supported renewing them, didn’t understand why. Caddo Parish Commissioner Patrick Jackson thought that voters “didn’t get the message,” saying “there is some misinformation that was put out, there is some more information that the parish needs to put out.”

    Parish Administrator Dr. Woody Wilson, and several commissioners felt the public had been misinformed about the property tax renewals, too. They thought the public just “didn’t get it” and that after the voters get more educated about those tax renewals, they’ll come to see it differently, next time, and vote in favor of those taxes, instead.

    But – what if the public already knows more than our government leaders think, and notices more than they realize?

    Remember in 2010, when the Democrats lost control of the House, and voters handed Democrats more losses than in more than 62 years? Many government leaders then, also, said the voters “didn’t get the message”, and that too many had been manipulated into becoming angry about the wrong issues.

    Back then, Barack Obama explained those 2010 elections as having to do with “anti-immigrant sentiment” or being “troubled” by what an Obama administration represents. Even actress Janeane Garofalo believed the voters just “didn’t get the message” in the 2010 elections, saying “this is about hating a black man in the White House.”

    And just this month, Hillary Clinton explained her election day loss last year on those voters who just “didn’t get it,” or otherwise didn’t understand the issues. “I was on the way to winning,” she said, “until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off.”

    Obama felt the same way about Clinton’s bid for President last year. He believes that the voters just “didn’t get it” because he thinks Clinton didn’t do enough to get her message out. If only HE had been the one to articulate her message, he says, he “could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.”

    But this “blame the voter” has happened before, though. The voters get blamed for not getting the message, or not being smart enough to know any better. In 1980, Republican rival John Anderson called candidate Ronald Reagan a sure-fire “loser,” comparing political suicide to the possibility of nominating Reagan as the Republican Party candidate for President. Even Gerald Ford labeled Reagan, “unelectable”. And Jimmy Carter was convinced that Reagan was the easiest Republican to beat.

    You see, it’s not that the Caddo Parish voters “didn’t get the message” in voting “no” to the property tax renewals, it’s that they don’t trust their parish government to spend their tax dollars wisely, or honestly. At least, not yet.

    And why should they? From spending millions to purchase the former General Motors plant (and then allowing millions of dollars worth of equipment inside to be sold off by others), to the Caddo Parish Employees Retirement System or “CPERS” (where it is reported that Commissioners received triple the amount they contributed), to the repeated requests for more revenue through multi-million dollar bond elections (even though the Commission’s reserves are almost double their annual budget), it’s not that voters “don’t get it” on these issues, or why taxes are needed in the first place.

    It’s not that, at all.

    It’s that the voters just don’t want any more of it.

  • Just Sitting There

    Just Sitting There

    You have probably heard it said that the average person uses only 10 percent of his or her potential. Some studies say that most people function with only about 2 percent of his or her mental potential. The remainder just sits there in reserve, being saved for some later time. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar explained that this would be exactly like your parents leaving you a trust fund with $100,000 in it, but all you ever took out to spend was $2,000 and “the other $98,000 simply sat in the account, unused throughout your life.”
     
    Well, this is somewhat like our Caddo Parish government, which has more than $120 million of cash (or cash-equivalents) just sitting there, being saved for some later time. This amount is almost 200% of their total budget for 2017, at a time when most local governments across the country seldom have reserves of more than 8-10% of their annual budget.
     
    So if you have almost 200% of the amount of money you will spend in any given year, just sitting there, why in the world would you need to borrow money from us, and burden us with more debt, when we already are paying the highest property taxes in Louisiana?
     
    Well, the academic answer, from local elected officials, is that any surplus money should be kept around for emergencies, such as a flood, tornado, or man-made disaster, like a plant explosion or oil pipeline burst.
     
    But would any such disasters require $120 million in expenditures? Of course not. Consider Bossier Parish, as an example, though. They were the hardest hit from the flooding in March, 2016 and suffered $3.4 million in total losses.
     
    However, after FEMA reimburses them (FEMA reimburses 75% of costs), the net cost to Bossier Parish will only be around $900,000. That’s a lot of money, of course, but obviously a far cry from the $120 million or so that Caddo Parish has just sitting there, set aside, for such emergencies.
     
    This underscores the fact that too many of us don’t understand what local governments take in, or the extent of waste, fraud, and abuse present in the system. And frankly – there are too many elected officials counting on just that.
     
    Caddo Parish is not unique, though, in that regard. Many other local governments across the country are facing the same difficulties. Declining tax revenues, depressed property values, shrinking populations, higher costs of government services, etc.
     
    However, not all local governments take same approach. Some don’t see raising (or renewing) our taxes, or cutting services, as the only 2 options to balance their budgets. Some have chosen to lower taxes, instead. For example, in Burlington County, NJ, the county government was hemorrhaging dollars. So, they reduced their spending, and cut taxes by 13% because their goal was to “reinvent government.” The county chairman said, “We wanted to find a better way to get it done and by combining different departments and offices, we would find ways to save dollars and not duplicate tasks. We had to be more efficient.”
     
    Similarly, in Greene County, Ohio, commissioners were able to reduce the amount of property tax collected by $1.9 million because the county determined it had more than what was needed for county services. The county administrator said, “We didn’t need all those tax dollars, and we need to find a way to put them back in the community.” As one commissioner said to his constituents, “This is your money. We don’t need it, so you put it to use.”
     
    Now, when was the last time any of us heard that? Never.
     
    So, why is the only discussion around here about raising, or renewing taxes, especially when there’s $120 million just sitting there?
     
    Here’s the real answer: Our elected officials know that if they spend what they have “saved,” or don’t renew what taxes they already have, the taxpayers won’t likely vote for any new taxes, at least not anytime soon.
     
    So, it’s the “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” analogy. And that “bird in the hand” is our tax dollars, and they aren’t letting go, and there’s certainly not any talk around here about “reinventing government” or putting tax dollars “back into the community.”
     
    None of the tax propositions on the April 29 ballot expire this year. Only 1 of them expires as early as 2019. The rest don’t expire until 2021 or 2022. What’s the rush to hold an election to renew a while bunch of taxes, on an obscure Saturday in April, where the voter turnout will be almost nil, that will cost the Parish almost $150,000 to conduct? There is no rush. Not at all.
     
    Instead, let’s give our Caddo Commission the opportunity to do for us, just what the local governments in New Jersey and Ohio have done for their constituents, and reinvent government for us, first.
     
    Will Rogers once said, that “we should be thankful that we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.” If that’s true, then maybe having some folks in our government using just 2% of their mental potential is a good thing. There’s no telling how much higher our taxes would be, if they were using anything more.
     

  • You Gotta Read This

    You Gotta Read This

    An average headline is probably only six to 10 words in length, while the average news story is as many as 1,000 words in length. Surprisingly though, only one-half will ever read the news story, at all, beyond the headline.

    Armed with this knowledge, is there really any question as to why so many are so misinformed about the news? I mean, how can anyone glean the important details of a news story, by only reading a 10-word headline?

    You can’t. But they try, anyways.

    And so we lament how our fellow Americans know so little about what is going on in their own community, not to mention in Washington, DC.

    And when you factor in headlines that were seemingly written intentionally by the mainstream media-elites to mislead or confuse us, you’ve got a mess on your hands. This is because the continuing decline of reading skills threatens our very existence as a country, and our individual lives as free men and women. Is that too dramatic?

    I don’t think so, considering that more than one-half of the people in our country are only consuming their news via headlines, and not from much else. How can they ever be informed on complex issues, much less cast their votes to address those issues, in the first place – if most don’t read past the headlines?

    You see, we’ve become a nation of scanners – not readers. No question. We screen every incoming email message or Facebook post for relevance and importance, and if we decide to read it, we usually stop reading once we think we’ve gotten the gist, and then we move on, without going any deeper.

    We do this because we want to know what’s going on, but we end up just reading only summaries of the news, or the headlines, because too many are too lazy, or too busy, to do the work themselves, and read the story all the way through.

    In fact, a recent study found that 60% of the links your friends share on social media have never actually been read by your friends. That’s right: Most people share news and articles without ever reading them, at all.

    This may earn them attention from their friends for what they are sharing, but they are also teaching their brains to overlook the details, and to read with half their focus, instead. This has resulted in our attention spans being at an all-time low, with 50% of adults who cannot even read a book written at an eighth grade level, and over 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children.

    We know this about reading: 3 out of 4 people on welfare cannot read. 3 out of 5 people in American prisons cannot read. Almost all juvenile offenders have difficulty reading. More than one-half of American adults have an income well below the poverty level because of their inability to read.

    And while illiteracy doesn’t breed illiteracy, it does it make it more likely that children of illiterates will lack the reading skills needed to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration, or to have a basic understanding of what America is, and what she represents.

    How long can our country remain strong when over one-half of the population cannot read at the same grade level as the other half?

    So if you have read this far, congratulations. And the next time you are at your favorite restaurant, or at the gym, and the televisions all along the wall are tuned to various news channels with the volume muted, just remember those headlines are what 50% of Americans consider their “news” for the day.

    And there’s just not a good headline for that.

  • Pay Raise

    Pay Raise

    Superintendent Lamar Goree said this month that he’s been charged by the Caddo Parish School Board with looking at how to give “everyone a raise in our school system”. That’s after nearly 60 percent of Caddo Parish Schools’ were scored by the Louisiana Department of Education as ‘D’ and ‘F’.

    Shreveport Mayor Tyler says that we need to give pay raises to city employees making $80,000 a year or less “to make sure that we’re being competitive with other governmental entities.” That’s after total (government) jobs at City Hall rose last year, while the population of Shreveport continued to decline and we ranked no. 4 in the country for job losses.

    And in Washington, DC, even as he was leaving the White House, President Obama officially authorized a 2.1 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees in 2017, even though our national debt was (and is) nearly $20 trillion. Now, just this month, a House Democrat has introduced a new bill to give federal employees an across-the-board pay raise of 3.2 percent in 2018.

    So from failing schools, to declining population growth, to rising debt – our government seem to be hell-bent on incentivizing poor results – and unfortunately, with devastating accuracy.

    What’s missing in all of these calls for blanket pay raises across the country in government is not just the taxpayer money to do so, but the lack of any real progress – or interest – to develop an effective performance appraisal system of government employees that gives honest feedback, and provides meaningful differentiation between the high-achievers and those who work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

    Why is it that some folks just don’t get it? Unless our government has an objective employee evaluation system, to get rid of low performers, and reward high achievers, we’re just rewarding mediocrity – plain and simple.

    Yes, you can hire better people with pay raises, attract better job candidates, etc., but you have to still deal with those whom you already employ and simply are not doing the job that needs to be done.

    You see, study after study shows that retention of an organization’s best and brightest decreases, in the long run, whenever blanket pay raises occur. This is because there’s a demoralizing effect on the high achievers in any organization because they feel their efforts to go above-and-beyond aren’t recognized when those who didn’t make the effort were rewarded, nevertheless.

    And to add insult to injury, not only does your most loyal and best employees feel unappreciated, but a blanket pay raise makes it even more unlikely that these best and brightest will have any chance of receiving a pay raise themselves anytime soon, based on their own merit, because now there’s even less money available in the budget to do so, after the blanket pay raises to everyone else.

    Maybe this is why President Trump has called for a federal hiring freeze, and an end to automatic raises, and to make it easier for our federal government to fire poor performers. As the White House press secretary explained, “Some people are working two, three jobs just to get by. To see money get wasted in Washington on a job that is duplicative is insulting to the hard work that they do to pay their taxes.”

    And he’s right. If we are going to continue talking about blanket pay raises, shouldn’t we be talking about the effects of doing so, other than to one’s own bottom line? In the end, this is all about getting better, and grabbing life by the collar, gutting this out, growing ourselves, and turning our country around. Sure, the money is important, but the value of what you give is even greater, and rewarding mediocrity cost us all.

    After all, as Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

  • For Crying Out Loud

    For Crying Out Loud

    Good grief, Charlie Brown!

    In December 1965, nearly 15 million viewers, or one-half of the television viewing audience, tuned in to watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It has become the longest-running cartoon special in history, but it almost was canceled before it ever was aired. You see, the CBS network executives were less than impressed. Aside from the technical criticisms, resulting from a rushed production schedule, the executives did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke. It was thought that viewers would not want to be preached upon by an animated cartoon, especially from Biblical passages. Obviously, after 50 years of airing every Christmas, receiving an Emmy and a Peabody award, those CBS executives got it wrong.

    “There will always be an audience for innocence in this country,” said Charlie Brown’s creator, Charles Schulz. Nonetheless, the religious celebration of Christmas continues to face trivialization by an increasingly vocal and secular strain of society today.

    Retailers have tried calling Christmas trees, “holiday” or “family” trees. They’ve pressed-on with “Happy Holidays,” even though 67 percent of Americans prefer the greeting, “Merry Christmas.” Advertisers have pushed out “Christ” from Christmas and pushed on with “X-Mas.”

    Last year, a group calling themselves “American Atheists” purchased billboards that proclaimed, “Go ahead and skip church! Just be good for goodness’ sake. Happy holidays!” The year before that, another activist group spent big bucks to purchase a billboard advertisement in New York City’s Times Square – a 40 by 40 image that asks, “Who needs Christ?” and answers that question with “Nobody.” In 2012, there was another Times Square billboard that urged viewers to, “Keep the Merry. Dump the Myth,” with an image of Christ beneath a photo of Santa Claus.

    And as our 2016 elections fade, future candidates for public office will increasingly find that secular voters are the fastest growing minority group in America, all who are committed to keep religion out of government.

    After all, the number of people in America who believe in God has dropped almost 10 percent since 2009. And in our public schools, there is increasingly no room for recognition of any faith whatsoever, Christianity or otherwise. And more than 10% of the U.S. House of Representatives believe that the mere presence of our national motto (“In God We Trust”) on currency violates their Free Speech and Free Exercise Clause Rights.

    Goodness gracious. So what is it about Christ, or Christmas, that is so offensive?

    Well, you see, it’s not about Christmas at all – it’s Christ that’s the issue. While many might deny the existence of God, it’s much more difficult to deny Jesus, for whom we have historical evidence of his existence, even from secular sources that are outside of the Bible. Still, the life of Jesus is so powerful, and his words so meaningful, that even atheists cannot seem to get Him out of their minds. They must find it helpful to mock the religious beliefs of Christians everywhere with their billboards, even as they encourage non-Christians to do the same.

    Last year was the deadliest, worst year for Christian persecution than any other time in modern history – over 7,000 were killed. Additionally, over 2,400 churches were attacked, damaged or destroyed last year, which is more than double the number from the year before that.

    Even while it is true that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, only 51 percent consider it a “religious” holiday – and that number is declining. That means that the odds are pretty good, that when you are out Christmas shopping, the person ahead of you in line, or the person behind you, probably doesn’t consider Christ’s birth as the significant “reason for the season.”

    They may not realize either that buying more and more expensive gifts or all that “stuff” we buy at Christmas doesn’t mean we “care” more about our family or friends, especially when the teachings of Christ can demonstrate that love so much more than buying another gizmo or gadget. In fact, the person in line with you may not know the life of Christ very well at all, or his teachings of tolerance, and respect for one another and the goodness of life. Or of gratitude, and humility.

    So, while Charlie Brown first asked the question in 1965 on national television, “Isn’t there anyone, who knows what Christmas is all about?!” The answer has been the same for over 2000 years – it’s Christ. And for crying out loud, we ought to put that up on a billboard too.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

     

  • Getting the Third Degree

    Getting the Third Degree

    Since the day after the presidential election, the number of emails I’ve received has steadily grown. Nearly 5,000 emails now, and the number of messages on my Facebook page has risen into the hundreds. All of these communications have escalated into phone calls, and they are even writing letters – nearly a dozen received in the mail, just today.

    The messages all start out about the same. Here’s an example:

    Dear Elector,

    My name is Jeremy Levine, from Brooklyn, NY.

    The founders created the electoral college in order to safeguard the Republic from giving power to someone unfit for the responsibilities of office. Today, in this election, we have such a case. Not only is Donald Trump inexperienced, he is a threat to the safety and stability of our great nation. Trump has already made clear his positions that both disregard the Constitution and threaten huge segments of our citizenry. Furthermore, the people voted for Hillary Clinton by over a million votes. We ask that you, as an elector, honor the majority of Americans and uphold your duties to protect the Republic by preventing Donald Trump from assuming the presidency.

    Thank you for your time and consideration, I appreciate and respect the role you serve in our electoral process.

    Sincerely,

    Jeremy Levine

    So, what’s going on here? After all, for many folks, they think the Presidential election is over, and that Donald Trump won. Hillary Clinton has already conceded the election, saying, “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead,” and even President Obama referred to Trump as “president-elect” when Trump visited the White House. Furthermore, Trump has already started assembling the leaders of his new administration, for both his cabinet and other key advisors.

    So, what gives? Well, it’s about the Electoral College, and the fact that on December 19, a slate of electors in each state will cast their state’s electoral votes and elect the next President of the United States, all according to Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution. You see, there are 538 electors in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, and 306 of those electors are expected to vote for Trump on December 19. But if only 37 of those electors, who are expected to vote for Trump, actually vote for someone else – anyone else – or even abstain, then Trump won’t have a majority of the electoral votes available and Congress will decide who the next President will be. Yes, Congress.

    And this is the faint hope that liberals and progressives are clinging onto – to stop Trump from becoming the 45th President of the United States. So they are harassing electors with a constant barrage of emails, phone calls, letters, and social media posts, sometimes evening visiting their homes.

    There are “peaceful gatherings” being called for, in cities across the country, to reject the Electoral College, and there are online petitions, as well. There is a Change.org petition, now signed by almost 5 million people, and a MoveOn.org petition, signed by almost 1 million people – both of which are growing. The petitions encourage members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for Hillary when the college meets on December 19 because Trump is “unfit to serve” and that Hillary “won the popular vote” and should be President.”

    Sure, at first glance, the Electoral College seems unnecessary, at best, and illogical, at worst. After all, why would anyone support any system that doesn’t weight each person’s vote equally, regardless of what state they live in? For example, currently Wyoming gets 1 electoral vote for each 178,000 citizens, but California only gets 1 electoral vote for each 690,000 citizens.?

    What’s up with that? Why do votes in Wyoming count more than 3 times than those in California? After all, that’s not what our democracy is all about, right? Well, first, we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic and we elect representatives who vote for our laws, instead of us voting directly on those laws – which would be a pure democracy, instead. But you see, the founding fathers were actually terrified of a pure democracy (or “mob rule”) and if any of us want to protect the rights of any minorities in our country, we would be terrified too, because in a pure democracy, the rights of minorities can simply be voted away. As John Adams once wrote, “Remember, democracy never lasts long”.

    So, what does any of this have to do with the Electoral College electing the next President? Everything. It’s an example of the genius of our republic form of government insofar as it places the country’s best interest above any individual states’ interest, or balancing the influence of the farmer in Iowa, or the sugar cane farmer in Louisiana, with the powerful and wealthy industrialists and media elites of the big cities. The Electoral College is merely an extension of our republic form of government, no different than the very reason why each state is represented by two (2) Senators, regardless of population.

    It is an honor and privilege for me to participate in the constitutional process of electing the President of the United States next month — a vote cast by the son of an Italian immigrant, whose rights our founding fathers sought to protect with a republic, and long before most any Americans would fully understood why.

  • Just Listen to Me

    Just Listen to Me

    With the swearing-in of the 114th Congress last year, there are more African-Americans in the legislature than in any other period in history. And as you know, America elected its first African-American president in 2008, and then re-elected him in 2012. During this time, Eric Holder became the first African-American to hold the position of U.S. Attorney General, and then last year, Loretta Lynch became the country’s first African-American woman to serve in that role. More significantly, the number of elected officials who are African-American has risen nearly 10-fold what it was in 1970.

    And yet, there are too many in the African-American community who don’t feel heard. Maybe that’s because anyone can talk (especially a candidate asking for your vote during an election year). But not everyone can listen, or knows how to, at least.

    Is it any wonder, then, that this frustration – this anger – is expressed by protesting in the streets, staring down law enforcement, bringing traffic to a stop by standing in the middle of a freeway, or by looting businesses in our own neighborhoods and then setting them on fire? Most Americans – white or black – can understand the anger, whether it’s the seeming lack of equal opportunities or the high incarceration rates, or racial profiling – there’s plenty that needs to be cleared up. But why so much violence, and why now?

    Martin Luther King, Jr. was the pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in history. Even so, he was urged by many, during the 1950s and 60s, to use “any means necessary” to achieve the civil rights changes needed in our country. He refused. And while the protests he organized gave rise to the viability of black elected officials for the very first time in history, the connection between ordinary black voters and black elected officials, pretending to represent them, has seemingly eroded away completely.

    What other logical explanation could there be after Congress has now spent $15 trillion dollars over the past 50 years on poverty, yet the poverty rate today is virtually the same as it was in 1964? In fact, we are now spending close to $1 trillion per year on government assistance, yet 46 million Americans still live below the poverty line?

    This hardly sounds like a representative government, regardless of skin color.

    And America then elects the first African-American president 8 years ago, but almost one-half (1/2) of Americans believe today that race relations in this country are still getting worse, and that it has been the President himself who has driven us apart? Really?

    But the numbers show it too: During the past 8 years, the percentage of black Americans struggling below the poverty line has advanced, real median income among black households declined, and black food-stamp participants increased almost 60%. The number of black Americans owning their own homes has decreased, and black unemployment is twice that of white unemployment.

    Yes, there’s a lot to be frustrated about, no doubt. And we could go on and on, but you must keep in mind that government cannot “fix” all things for us, whether you are black or white. Government (however big you make it) cannot make you happy, make you feel respected or accepted, confer achievement, build your self-esteem, or eliminate life’s inevitable ups and downs.

    Yet we still need to be heard. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “[O]ur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” and he was right. Violence was just never an option for him. He believed, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”

    So, as we prepare to elect our next president in November, all of us would do well to remember that we must elect candidates who don’t confuse doing something with actually accomplishing something. Or talking, when we just want to be heard.

  • Finding the Right Words

    It’s important to avoid “stinking thinking”, as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar often said, which is when we allow ourselves to be gripped by negative thoughts and emotions, making us feel defeated, discouraged, and depressed. And “stinking thinking” can do that, indeed. Have you ever heard of the adage, “We are…what we think about?”

    In fact, how we speak to ourselves can be self-motivating and encouraging, or self-defeating and pitying. This is generally when folks remind us that it’s not what happens to us that matters – it’s how we choose to respond. Of course, the Bible tells us this also, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7).

    Now, of course, we’ve all asked a friend on the phone, or just about anyone in passing, “How are you?” Maybe it’s the clerk at the grocery store, or the server at a restaurant.

    Some folks will say, “Not too bad, thanks.” You know right away that these are the proverbial “glass is half-empty” type of folks – and you know it by the words they use. “Not too bad” implies that there is always something to worry about, in their mind, or nothing is ever quite right.

    Well, what if they said, “I’m fantastic, thanks,” instead? Likewise, you’d know this was the “glass is half-full” type of person – again, simply by the words they chose – whether they really were really doing fantastic, or not. And by responding, “I’m fantastic,” it suggests this is someone who has a positive attitude and tends to look for the silver lining, even in difficult circumstances.

    So as we begin 2017, and a new administration in Washington begins to take its place, our national mood, and the words we use to describe ourselves, as a country, will necessarily change, as well.

    President-elect Trump’s “self-talk” is very different from President Obama’s. Trump uses positive words like “great”, “terrific”, “fortune”, “thriving”, and “huge.” He also says America will starting “winning again” and it will be “beyond anybody’s expectations” and, “we are going to win so much, you will get tired of winning!”

    He compliments those who are successful as “truly great leaders”, he talks about the “tremendous potential” of our country. The day after he was elected, he reminded us all that “America will no longer settle for anything less than the best.”

    He’s seems to always characterize whatever he is doing, thinking, or working on as the “finest”, “smartest”, and  “greatest”.  He talks about how we need the “smartest negotiators”, or how he has built the “best hotels”, or why he celebrates those who are excellent and “most highly sought after”, and why we need to build “the strongest military that we’ve ever had.”

    By contrast, though, President Obama’s favorite phrases over the past eight years seem to be those phrases that include the words “can’t” and “don’t,” and in particular, the word “frustrating.” He talked about how there is real anger and “frustration” in our country. And he often says how “frustrating” it is because he hasn’t achieved everything in his administration, exactly the way he had planned. He’s been “frustrated” with Republicans, with the Tea Party, as well as anyone in small towns who clings to “guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.”

    Instead of “thriving” in your job, President Obama believes “at a certain point, you’ve made enough money.” If you started a small business in your home, and grew it into a terrific company, he surprised you by saying, “You didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Instead of growing the private sector of our economy beyond anybody’s expectations, President Obama was satisfied with it being just “fine”, surrendering to the belief that factory jobs moving to Mexico (like Carrier’s), are “jobs of the past” and “are just not going to come back.”

    Instead of talking about the tremendous potential of our country and taking responsibility as a leader, he still blames “the previous administration” for the economy, and for “less than loving Christians” who do not care enough for others. He appealed to the worst within us, saying his unpopularity is because “there’s some folks who just really don’t like the idea of a black President,” and that America has provoked terrorism because we’ve “meddled” in other countries. Instead of cheerleading for America as the “best”, he apologizes for us, instead.

    The truth is that how we talk to ourselves as a country is the loudest and most influential voice that we will hear. It can work for us, or against us, depending on the messages we allow. It can inspire us, or depress us, and the words we use make all the difference.

    Sure, we all can be guilty of “stinking thinking” at times, and that’s why, from time to time, we all need a “check-up from the neck-up,” in the words of Zig Ziglar.

    And one thing’s for sure: the election last November was our nation’s appointment for a “check-up from the neck-up” and America made a choice between two (2) visions: “winning” (optimism) or continued “frustration” (pessimism). As Winston Churchill put it, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

    May this new year be filled with opportunities for you and your family in which the difficulties might not seem all that difficult – and may you always find the “words” to say so.

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