Minnesota Republicans met for their annual state convention on Saturday; attendees were addressed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. I didn’t attend the convention, but I talked to people who did. Pawlenty is already campaigning for the election, which is 14 months away. He undoubtedly will face Mike Hatch, the state’s attorney general. Hatch is an experienced political bulldog, who has had his eye on the governorship as far back as the mid-1980s when he was the state’s Commerce Commissioner. This political contest will be very interesting to watch.
I had an opportunity to hear Pawlenty address a business group in mid-August in Duluth. Following is a summary of that speech, which also sounded a lot like a campaign speech.
Pawlenty called Minnesota one of the best states in the country, but described challenges in the areas of education, health care and taxes.
“We live in the greatest state in the nation. Pick your measure and I can show you a credible third-party measure that proves it. We lead the nation in just about everything,” Pawlenty said. He offered the following examples:
* Minnesota students lead the nation in ACT test scores.
* Minnesota has the highest rate of high school graduation in the country.
* Minnesota has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the nation, now 3.7 percent, compared to a national average of 5 percent.
* Minnesota has the highest rate of worker productivity in the nation.
* Minnesota has the highest rate of women in the workforce in the country.
* “Governing” magazine just named Minnesota the third-best governed state in the nation.
* “Entrepreneur” magazine rated Minnesota last fall to be the best place in the nation to be an entrepreneur.
* Minnesota has the healthiest people in the nation.
* Minnesota has the lowest number of uninsured folks in the nation.
* Minnesota has the second-longest living people in the country, behind Hawaii.
* Minnesota has the highest rate of home ownership in the country.
“We have beautiful outdoor amenities such as lakes and prairies, streams and rivers. We have culture, and the arts, and the list goes on and on and on,” Pawlenty said. “We live in a remarkable state. We should be proud of that and grateful for that.”
“But the world is changing very rapidly,” he said. “It is changing at a rate and scope the likes of which we have not seen before, having profound implications on our economy, on the way we do business, on job growth, on investment, on culture, and even on language.”
Pawlenty quoted Peter Drucker, saying: “The things that got us here, will not get us there.” Pawlenty says that in a rapidly changing world, any organization that wants to say relevant, including a state, has to do things in new ways. “There is a call for change,” Pawlenty said, at the same time admitting how uncomfortable change makes most people feel. “But change is exciting and it is challenging,” he reassured.
“One of the main things that is driving all this is globalization, Pawlenty said. Referring to a book written by Minnesota native Thomas Friedman, ‘The World Is Flat,’ Pawlenty said: “The things that used to protect us and separate us from the rest of the world, in terms of geography and time and distance and cost, in communication, in culture and language, have essentially melted away.”
Pawlenty used the example of telecommunications, noting that calling long distance to a place such as Kansas City used to be a big deal, but today we can call India and Europe for almost nothing. Because of advances in shipping, Pawlenty noted that items can be shipped to places as far away as China for $25 to $50 per ton. And whereas it used to take months to get the word out about something, anyone with access to the Internet can communicate with the entire world in seconds.
“The point is, the world is on our doorstep, and we are on their doorstep in a way we have not seen before,” Pawlenty said.
So what does that mean for Minnesotans?
Pawlenty’s answer: “It means Minnesota and America are no longer the world’s cheapest screw turners. If our proposition to the marketplace is we are going to take a repetitive, fungible, labor-intensive, low-skill task, and we are going to do that more economically than the Chinese or the Mexicans, or some other place like that, we are not going to do so well…We are not the world’s cheapest screw turners.
“So what are we going to be? We better be the smartest. We better be really good at invention and innovation. We better be really good at attracting research and development. We better be really good at productivity enhancement and applications that are going to give us efficiency advantages. We better make sure we have infrastructure like broadband, and traditional infrastructure like roads that give us an efficiency component as we try to move goods and services and people around. We better make sure we have our share of innovators, and designers, and dreamers, and entrepreneurs, and risk-takers, who are going to give us that next increment of growth. That speaks to a lot of things.
“It speaks to the fact that we better have a focused and effective educational system. On average, we are the best in Minnesota, but I think we can make it even better. We have an average that is really good but we have some districts and some students who aren’t doing too well. For example, you go to the urban school districts now and even though we spend a good chunk of money there, if you are a disadvantaged student or a student of color, the statistical probability of you graduating from high school is less than 50 percent. One generation ago, if you grew up in South Saint Paul where I grew up, if you missed the educational wrung, there was a big safety net. I don’t mean social services safety net; I mean you could go get a strong-back job. You could go to the meat-packing plants or related industry, and cut meat, throw freight, load and unload trucks, drive a fork lift, you could do stuff like that. And you could make a decent wage with benefits, and support you and your family. Those jobs are gone. Or at least gone at that wage and benefit level. So the safety net of the strong-back job has shrunk and now you have to have a strong mind skill or education that applies to the economy of the future. We are not ready for that in this country.
“It doesn’t always have to be college, but if you don’t have a relevant skill or education post-high school that applies to the economy of tomorrow, today, you are in big trouble. You are marginalized in a hurry. We are not preparing enough of our students for that reality. On a good day, in a good school district, we have about 30 percent of our kids in rigorous, relevant path roads, like international baccalaureate, advanced placement, post secondary enrolment options; but that means 70 percent aren’t. That is not nearly enough for the economy of the future. Minnesota does well compared to the rest of the nation, but that is not our comparison anymore. We have to bring more rigorous and relevant educational opportunities to our high schools.”
Pawlenty said one of the big problems with the state’s public education system is the pay system for teachers. “I want them to get paid in a modern and professional manner. The way they get paid now is based solely on seniority and college credits. That is not the worst system, but it is not a modern and professional system. So we are offering financial incentives for school districts and unions to voluntarily move toward a performance pay system, aligning those resources with things that are more relevant to student performance.”
Pawlenty then turned his attention to the cost of health care. “Eighty-five percent of all health care money goes into five chronic conditions: cancer, diabetes, obesity, end of life issues, and heart disease,” Pawlenty said. “So if you have one of those five chronic conditions, we know the likelihood of your healthcare outcome varies wildly depending on what provider you go to. The provider you select could affect your outcome by 5 to 40 percent in those chronic conditions. And guess what, so does the price. But the good news is there is a correlation between quality and price, and it’s a good correlation. The most efficient providers often tend to be high quality. They do it all day, every day, and they are really good at what they do. Consumers don’t know that. Even purchasers of health care don’t know that. We buy health care stupidly. Most people don’t have any idea what kind of quality they are buying in their health care.
“If you start to empower consumers and purchasers with this kind of information, they make pretty good decisions, and utilization and cost and quality start to look a little more reasonable. And you don’t have to sacrifice the health of the folks you are trying to serve.”
Pawlenty noted that health care premiums for state employees did not go up this year, in an environment when health care premiums for government employees around the country increased an average of 9 percent and premiums for private sector employees increased even more than that. He said Minnesota was able to hold the line on its costs by giving employees the tools to buy smarter.
Pawlenty closed on the subject of taxes. “Some people say, just raise taxes, we can government our way to prosperity,” Pawlenty said. “That’s not true. I am in discussions every week with businesses that talk about expanding or growing in Minnesota or somewhere else. And, taxes, regulation and insurance matter. That doesn’t mean it is the only thing, but it is a thing. And we are on the high end of that stuff.
“I get accused of being unreasonable for trying to keep a lid on it. We are the fourth-highest taxed state in the nation according to the U.S. Census bureau. Our revenues coming into the state are growing without a tax increase at 8 to 10 percent in the upcoming budget cycle. Most Minnesotans would say you should be able to fund your priorities and do it pretty well with that kind of bump in revenue. We are in a highly-taxed state; we should live within our means, live within that kind of growth.”
These are themes Minnesotans will hear repeated numerous times in the upcoming year, particularly as we head into the 2006 election.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Real leaders don’t point fingers, they take responsibility
I saw in the newspaper that Aaron Beam was recently sentenced to three months in prison. Beam is one of the guys who helped Richard Scrushy found the HealthSouth Corporation in 1984, which has been the subject of a big financial scandal over the last few years.
This little news bite caught my attention because I remember where I was the day a jury found Scrushy innocent of the fraud charges shareholders filed against him. It was June 28, and I was returning home from a business meeting in Duluth, Minnesota, where I heard a speech by a former Navy commander named Scott Waddle. Scrushy and Waddle could not be more different. Waddle took responsibility for his actions. Scrushy pointed the finger at others.
Waddle was a rising star in the Navy when his submarine collided with a Japanese fishing vessel, resulting in the death of nine civilians. The accident occurred on February 9, 2001 and after an inquiry, Waddle was honorably discharged. Although the story of the accident is dramatic, the pinnacle of Waddle’s presentation -- which he calls “Failure is not Final” -- is his description of apologizing to the victims’ families. Against the advice of the Navy and his legal counsel, Waddle took full responsibility for the accident and ultimately traveled to Japan so he could personally apologize to the families of each of the nine victims. (The Right Thing is the name of a book Waddle wrote about his experience.)
Listening to the news on the radio on my way home from Duluth that day, I got a little better sense of the magnitude of what Waddle had done. Earlier that day, a jury had acquitted Scrushy of fraud charges related to his leadership of HealthSouth. Scrushy was the former CEO of this company that at one time employed 50,000 people and ran health care facilities in all 50 states. Over several years, the company had inflated its earnings by $2.7 billion. When shareholders and government auditors began asking questions, Scrushy denied knowledge of any financial shenanigans and blamed his financial officers, including Beam. Amazingly, a jury bought it.
I don’t know any more about this case than what I have read in the newspapers, but it is hard for me to believe that the CEO of the company didn’t know how the books were being kept. Scrushy is a man who refused to take responsibility; he blamed subordinates. Waddle, it occurred to me, could have done the same thing. But he didn’t. He took full responsibility. It is not too difficult to figure out which of these two men is really a leader.
This little news bite caught my attention because I remember where I was the day a jury found Scrushy innocent of the fraud charges shareholders filed against him. It was June 28, and I was returning home from a business meeting in Duluth, Minnesota, where I heard a speech by a former Navy commander named Scott Waddle. Scrushy and Waddle could not be more different. Waddle took responsibility for his actions. Scrushy pointed the finger at others.
Waddle was a rising star in the Navy when his submarine collided with a Japanese fishing vessel, resulting in the death of nine civilians. The accident occurred on February 9, 2001 and after an inquiry, Waddle was honorably discharged. Although the story of the accident is dramatic, the pinnacle of Waddle’s presentation -- which he calls “Failure is not Final” -- is his description of apologizing to the victims’ families. Against the advice of the Navy and his legal counsel, Waddle took full responsibility for the accident and ultimately traveled to Japan so he could personally apologize to the families of each of the nine victims. (The Right Thing is the name of a book Waddle wrote about his experience.)
Listening to the news on the radio on my way home from Duluth that day, I got a little better sense of the magnitude of what Waddle had done. Earlier that day, a jury had acquitted Scrushy of fraud charges related to his leadership of HealthSouth. Scrushy was the former CEO of this company that at one time employed 50,000 people and ran health care facilities in all 50 states. Over several years, the company had inflated its earnings by $2.7 billion. When shareholders and government auditors began asking questions, Scrushy denied knowledge of any financial shenanigans and blamed his financial officers, including Beam. Amazingly, a jury bought it.
I don’t know any more about this case than what I have read in the newspapers, but it is hard for me to believe that the CEO of the company didn’t know how the books were being kept. Scrushy is a man who refused to take responsibility; he blamed subordinates. Waddle, it occurred to me, could have done the same thing. But he didn’t. He took full responsibility. It is not too difficult to figure out which of these two men is really a leader.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Katrina exposes meaning of poverty
The last few days have had a kind of 9-11 feel to them. Like the rest of the nation, I am digesting the destruction of a major national treasure and a massive loss of life. There is the chaos that follows, along with the obligatory finger-pointing. And there is a rise in gas prices. Just like in the days that followed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there is an uncertainty in the air. We are still trying to figure out the extent of the disaster, what it means for our future, and what it means specifically to me.
I had some time to think about all this on Thursday and Friday, the first and second of September. Katrina, the hurricane that caused all the trouble, hit Florida one week earlier. The weekend of August 27 and 28 the hurricane grew in strength while hovering over the Gulf of Mexico. August 29, it hit Louisiana and Alabama. By late Monday, however, many people were breathing a sigh of relief. The hit wasn’t as bad as people expected. New Orleans seemed to escape the worst.
But the worst was yet to come. On Tuesday the city filled with water that spilled through a breach in one of the levees that protects it from the sea, which is actually a few feet higher than most of New Orleans. On Wednesday, 80 percent of the city was under water and we saw images on television of the devastation. People said there were dead bodies floating everywhere. People were still trapped in their homes. There was looting in the streets.
I had a meeting in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, which is 220 miles from Minneapolis. The drive gave me three-and-a-half hours to think about what was going on. I thought about Jackson Square, the famous gathering place in the French Quarter where I had visited several times on business trips. What a magnificent place, with the old Cathedral, the Café Du Monde, the lace shops, and the street musicians. I have always wanted to bring my wife and kids there. Now I don’t know if I will ever get the chance.
All those European-style buildings, and Preservation Hall, -- what would happen to them? The convention center, where I had been to so many trade shows, looked like a war zone. In recent years, they had actually done quite a bit to make the city more attractive. For example, they added a light rail system that could take visitors from the downtown, convention center area to within walking distance of the French Quarter, a trip I took the last time I was there.
I stopped in Menomonie, Wis., to fill my car with gas, and groaned when I saw the price at the two gas stations along the interstate: $3.25 a gallon. In Minneapolis, gas had jumped the day before to the $3 mark after spending most of the last month between $2.50 and $2.65 per gallon. When I got to Lake Delton, around noon, I noticed the gas stations near my hotel were selling gas for $2.99 per gallon. Darn, I should have waited until I got here to fill up. But four hours later, when I returned to my car after the meeting around dinner time, the price was $3.29 per gallon. The gas situation always seems to go crazy when there is a national disaster. The night the Twin Towers came down, I remember driving around my neighborhood and seeing lines that extended 10 cars or more at gas stations.
That night in my hotel room, I got a good opportunity to watch the news. I saw the desperate faces of the victims. I saw video of a dead person in a wheel chair at the convention center; another video showed a dead person floating in the water. There were angry people begging for help. The mayor of New Orleans was desperate and the governor of Louisiana looked like she had been through a war.
Although I am the lucky one – I haven’t lost my home or worse – I still end up thinking about myself. Could this happen to me? I wonder. Is Minneapolis prepared to handle a disaster on this scale? Would we fare any better in a similar situation? It is not like the hurricane came out of nowhere. Everyone knew it was coming. People had two days to evacuate. If the people of Minneapolis knew a disaster was coming in two days, would everyone leave? Would the city or the state have the means to transport all the people who couldn’t evacuate on their own? I don’t know but I hope our local officials are watching and taking notes.
And will they rebuild? That is a big question. Does it make sense to put houses on land that is lower than the nearby water? In St. Paul, they used to build houses on the river flats; that is where the immigrants and other poor folks lived. Every spring those houses would get flooded out. In the 1960s, they stopped building houses there. Today, the entire area is cleared out and there are no houses. I am not sure where the immigrants and poor folks are living now.
As I watched on television all the sick and bedridden people who were brought to the terminal at Louis Armstrong Airport, I wondered about their families. Are their families in safe places? Did some people evacuate, only to leave grandma in the nursing home? You get the sense that some people must have done that. Of course, there are people who literally have no one. They could do nothing but rely on the government. But what about these families that actually let grandpa fend for himself while they took off to higher ground? This is a disaster that CNN didn’t cover, the breakdown in the family.
All these victims, all these people in the Superdome and at the convention center, these are the city’s poor. These weren’t wealthy or even middle class people left behind. These were the folks who have nothing. That means they don’t have much money, and more importantly it means they don’t have family who care about them. You really need both in this world. You need a little money so you can get out of town on two-day’s notice if you have to, and you need family – either so they can save you if you can’t save yourself, or so you can save them.
The people who could have left but chose not to -- it isn’t as easy to feel sorry for them, although I do. The people who could not leave, those are the folks I feel bad for. I wonder where their kids were, or their siblings. Even if they didn’t have any, how does someone go through life with no one? How does someone get through life without anyone to care for, and for them to care back?
So what Katrina is showing us is the plight of poverty. We can blame the government for not acting quicker, for not doing more, but I suspect the various government agencies probably did as well as they could. The fact of the matter is, government is not family. It can only do so much. Government treated these folks the way it always does, the only way it can – it crosses its fingers and hopes everyone will be okay. That is what happened during previous hurricanes. Every day, the government hopes it won’t hear from its poor; it hopes the poor won’t demand too much. But it was different in New Orleans this time. Katrina made it clear that the poor are not okay. This time, the government had to intervene. Although it was a little late for some, the government response to Katrina was about what it is in any situation – a little less than what desperate people want.
It sucks to be poor; that becomes really obvious during a disaster. Education, training and jobs are the antidote to a lack of money, but the lack of a family network is something the government really can’t do anything about. Nobody can force people to love one another. But that is what we have to do. We especially have to love our own blood and heritage. We cannot alienate our family members, not even one, not even the one who is the biggest pain in the neck. Society cannot function without strong families; it cannot function when the only level of social cohesion is government. We are seeing that it New Orleans.
I just read that the French Quarter is probably going to be okay. Apparently, it is built on higher ground than much of the rest of the city. Maybe I will get to go back to Jackson Square. Maybe I will hear the music there again. And maybe I will get to share this special place with my wife and kids.
I had some time to think about all this on Thursday and Friday, the first and second of September. Katrina, the hurricane that caused all the trouble, hit Florida one week earlier. The weekend of August 27 and 28 the hurricane grew in strength while hovering over the Gulf of Mexico. August 29, it hit Louisiana and Alabama. By late Monday, however, many people were breathing a sigh of relief. The hit wasn’t as bad as people expected. New Orleans seemed to escape the worst.
But the worst was yet to come. On Tuesday the city filled with water that spilled through a breach in one of the levees that protects it from the sea, which is actually a few feet higher than most of New Orleans. On Wednesday, 80 percent of the city was under water and we saw images on television of the devastation. People said there were dead bodies floating everywhere. People were still trapped in their homes. There was looting in the streets.
I had a meeting in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, which is 220 miles from Minneapolis. The drive gave me three-and-a-half hours to think about what was going on. I thought about Jackson Square, the famous gathering place in the French Quarter where I had visited several times on business trips. What a magnificent place, with the old Cathedral, the Café Du Monde, the lace shops, and the street musicians. I have always wanted to bring my wife and kids there. Now I don’t know if I will ever get the chance.
All those European-style buildings, and Preservation Hall, -- what would happen to them? The convention center, where I had been to so many trade shows, looked like a war zone. In recent years, they had actually done quite a bit to make the city more attractive. For example, they added a light rail system that could take visitors from the downtown, convention center area to within walking distance of the French Quarter, a trip I took the last time I was there.
I stopped in Menomonie, Wis., to fill my car with gas, and groaned when I saw the price at the two gas stations along the interstate: $3.25 a gallon. In Minneapolis, gas had jumped the day before to the $3 mark after spending most of the last month between $2.50 and $2.65 per gallon. When I got to Lake Delton, around noon, I noticed the gas stations near my hotel were selling gas for $2.99 per gallon. Darn, I should have waited until I got here to fill up. But four hours later, when I returned to my car after the meeting around dinner time, the price was $3.29 per gallon. The gas situation always seems to go crazy when there is a national disaster. The night the Twin Towers came down, I remember driving around my neighborhood and seeing lines that extended 10 cars or more at gas stations.
That night in my hotel room, I got a good opportunity to watch the news. I saw the desperate faces of the victims. I saw video of a dead person in a wheel chair at the convention center; another video showed a dead person floating in the water. There were angry people begging for help. The mayor of New Orleans was desperate and the governor of Louisiana looked like she had been through a war.
Although I am the lucky one – I haven’t lost my home or worse – I still end up thinking about myself. Could this happen to me? I wonder. Is Minneapolis prepared to handle a disaster on this scale? Would we fare any better in a similar situation? It is not like the hurricane came out of nowhere. Everyone knew it was coming. People had two days to evacuate. If the people of Minneapolis knew a disaster was coming in two days, would everyone leave? Would the city or the state have the means to transport all the people who couldn’t evacuate on their own? I don’t know but I hope our local officials are watching and taking notes.
And will they rebuild? That is a big question. Does it make sense to put houses on land that is lower than the nearby water? In St. Paul, they used to build houses on the river flats; that is where the immigrants and other poor folks lived. Every spring those houses would get flooded out. In the 1960s, they stopped building houses there. Today, the entire area is cleared out and there are no houses. I am not sure where the immigrants and poor folks are living now.
As I watched on television all the sick and bedridden people who were brought to the terminal at Louis Armstrong Airport, I wondered about their families. Are their families in safe places? Did some people evacuate, only to leave grandma in the nursing home? You get the sense that some people must have done that. Of course, there are people who literally have no one. They could do nothing but rely on the government. But what about these families that actually let grandpa fend for himself while they took off to higher ground? This is a disaster that CNN didn’t cover, the breakdown in the family.
All these victims, all these people in the Superdome and at the convention center, these are the city’s poor. These weren’t wealthy or even middle class people left behind. These were the folks who have nothing. That means they don’t have much money, and more importantly it means they don’t have family who care about them. You really need both in this world. You need a little money so you can get out of town on two-day’s notice if you have to, and you need family – either so they can save you if you can’t save yourself, or so you can save them.
The people who could have left but chose not to -- it isn’t as easy to feel sorry for them, although I do. The people who could not leave, those are the folks I feel bad for. I wonder where their kids were, or their siblings. Even if they didn’t have any, how does someone go through life with no one? How does someone get through life without anyone to care for, and for them to care back?
So what Katrina is showing us is the plight of poverty. We can blame the government for not acting quicker, for not doing more, but I suspect the various government agencies probably did as well as they could. The fact of the matter is, government is not family. It can only do so much. Government treated these folks the way it always does, the only way it can – it crosses its fingers and hopes everyone will be okay. That is what happened during previous hurricanes. Every day, the government hopes it won’t hear from its poor; it hopes the poor won’t demand too much. But it was different in New Orleans this time. Katrina made it clear that the poor are not okay. This time, the government had to intervene. Although it was a little late for some, the government response to Katrina was about what it is in any situation – a little less than what desperate people want.
It sucks to be poor; that becomes really obvious during a disaster. Education, training and jobs are the antidote to a lack of money, but the lack of a family network is something the government really can’t do anything about. Nobody can force people to love one another. But that is what we have to do. We especially have to love our own blood and heritage. We cannot alienate our family members, not even one, not even the one who is the biggest pain in the neck. Society cannot function without strong families; it cannot function when the only level of social cohesion is government. We are seeing that it New Orleans.
I just read that the French Quarter is probably going to be okay. Apparently, it is built on higher ground than much of the rest of the city. Maybe I will get to go back to Jackson Square. Maybe I will hear the music there again. And maybe I will get to share this special place with my wife and kids.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Arthur Ashe was a First Class role model
The U.S. Postal Service is now producing a 37-cent stamp featuring tennis great Arthur Ashe. The Postal Service unveiled the stamp, fittingly, at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in New York, earlier this week.
Ashe won the U.S. Open in 1968; seven years later he won a Wimbledon championship. He suffered a heart attack in 1979, which ended his serious playing days, but he served as the captain of the U.S. Davis Cup Team in the 1980s. In 1992, Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year. He died in February of 1993.
During Ashe’s childhood days of the 1940s, Arthur Ashe, Sr., taught him to respect everyone. That came at a time when Ashe and many blacks growing up in the South were the object of frequent disrespect.
Ashe, Sr., was the supervisor of a park in Richmond, Va. The park had a tennis court and a swimming pool, although the city ordered Ashe to drain the pool, lest blacks – “Negroes” – swim in the same water as whites.
Ashe, Jr., learned to play tennis in the park his father supervised. When he was 10, he came under the tutelage of Dr. Robert W. Johnson, who taught him to succeed in the white tennis world.
“We were taught when you walked onto the court, you have to be impeccable in your appearance,” Ashe told author Herbert Warren Wind for his book Game, Set and Match. “When we got on the court in our junior days, we didn’t have linesmen. Umpires, that’s all. Every close call would go to your opponent so they could never say you cheated. When you changed sides … if your opponent happened to be serving next, you were to pick up every ball and hand them to your opponent. In fact, you were to be the most courteous guy – you know, faultless person – one could find.”
Playing for UCLA, Ashe went on to win the NCAA title in 1961; professional success followed.
I had the good fortune of meeting Arthur Ashe in November of 1984 when I was a sportswriter for the Press/Sun-Bulletin newspaper in Binghamton, N.Y. Ashe and other athletes were traveling around the state on behalf of a program called “Be New York Fit.” By that point, Ashe had devoted himself to bringing tennis to people who might not typically think of it as an option for themselves.
“Blacks do well in sports that are highly social, the team sports,” Ashe told a group of reporters that included me. “Tennis is not really a team sport. You’re out there all by yourself…What we have to do is make the sport more available and accessible to the public school system, so not only blacks will benefit, but people in general who come from families whose income is not more than $25,000 a year. There’s no reason why the best teachers should be stuck in the elite, isolated enclave of private clubs.”
Ashe always felt that way. After playing the South African Open in 1973, Ashe set up a foundation for non-white South African players. It provided money, clothes and equipment to players who showed promise at the junior level.
Three years earlier, he had helped to set up the National Junior Tennis League, which provided free lessons to beginners all over the country. His original idea was to limit the program to urban neighborhood kids, but ultimately decided it should include all youths interested in learning.
I wrote an article about Ashe that appeared in the Nov. 8, 1984 Binghamton Press/Sun-Bulletin. I have repeated much of that article in this essay.
When I was a kid, I idolized many sports figures, including several tennis players. Many of those heroes went on to disappoint. They proved themselves to be selfish or unsavory in a variety of ways. But not Arthur Ashe. He was a true gentleman, on and off the court, long after his professional playing days were over. He died way too soon, and I miss him. But I will never forget him.
Ashe won the U.S. Open in 1968; seven years later he won a Wimbledon championship. He suffered a heart attack in 1979, which ended his serious playing days, but he served as the captain of the U.S. Davis Cup Team in the 1980s. In 1992, Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year. He died in February of 1993.
During Ashe’s childhood days of the 1940s, Arthur Ashe, Sr., taught him to respect everyone. That came at a time when Ashe and many blacks growing up in the South were the object of frequent disrespect.
Ashe, Sr., was the supervisor of a park in Richmond, Va. The park had a tennis court and a swimming pool, although the city ordered Ashe to drain the pool, lest blacks – “Negroes” – swim in the same water as whites.
Ashe, Jr., learned to play tennis in the park his father supervised. When he was 10, he came under the tutelage of Dr. Robert W. Johnson, who taught him to succeed in the white tennis world.
“We were taught when you walked onto the court, you have to be impeccable in your appearance,” Ashe told author Herbert Warren Wind for his book Game, Set and Match. “When we got on the court in our junior days, we didn’t have linesmen. Umpires, that’s all. Every close call would go to your opponent so they could never say you cheated. When you changed sides … if your opponent happened to be serving next, you were to pick up every ball and hand them to your opponent. In fact, you were to be the most courteous guy – you know, faultless person – one could find.”
Playing for UCLA, Ashe went on to win the NCAA title in 1961; professional success followed.
I had the good fortune of meeting Arthur Ashe in November of 1984 when I was a sportswriter for the Press/Sun-Bulletin newspaper in Binghamton, N.Y. Ashe and other athletes were traveling around the state on behalf of a program called “Be New York Fit.” By that point, Ashe had devoted himself to bringing tennis to people who might not typically think of it as an option for themselves.
“Blacks do well in sports that are highly social, the team sports,” Ashe told a group of reporters that included me. “Tennis is not really a team sport. You’re out there all by yourself…What we have to do is make the sport more available and accessible to the public school system, so not only blacks will benefit, but people in general who come from families whose income is not more than $25,000 a year. There’s no reason why the best teachers should be stuck in the elite, isolated enclave of private clubs.”
Ashe always felt that way. After playing the South African Open in 1973, Ashe set up a foundation for non-white South African players. It provided money, clothes and equipment to players who showed promise at the junior level.
Three years earlier, he had helped to set up the National Junior Tennis League, which provided free lessons to beginners all over the country. His original idea was to limit the program to urban neighborhood kids, but ultimately decided it should include all youths interested in learning.
I wrote an article about Ashe that appeared in the Nov. 8, 1984 Binghamton Press/Sun-Bulletin. I have repeated much of that article in this essay.
When I was a kid, I idolized many sports figures, including several tennis players. Many of those heroes went on to disappoint. They proved themselves to be selfish or unsavory in a variety of ways. But not Arthur Ashe. He was a true gentleman, on and off the court, long after his professional playing days were over. He died way too soon, and I miss him. But I will never forget him.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Thanks
Thanks for being patient all summer. Tomorrow is the first day of September and regular posts will start up again. I generally try to post new essays once or twice a week.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Summer vacation
With the onset of June, this blogger takes some time off. Summer is a time to rejuvenate. Look for weekly posts to start up again in September.
Thanks very much for visiting. I really appreciate your support.
Have a great summer!
Thanks very much for visiting. I really appreciate your support.
Have a great summer!
Monday, May 23, 2005
Summary of technological changes gives small businesses framework for survival
Some people say we are in the midst of a technological revolution. I don’t know what to call it, but I know things are changing.
So many things in my business -- publishing -- have changed since I embarked on my career in 1983. For example, back then newspapers and magazines were created with strips of copy output on film. They had to be trimmed and waxed and fitted into place by hand. Photos had to be turned into special graphics with a dot pattern. Color photos needed film separations. Producing a printed publication was a big deal. Today, all those things are done on a computer. My own company used to have three people in production in the early 1990s. Today, the work those people did is now done by one person, and she does a lot of other things as well.
Or I think about taking photographs. In the old days, I would shoot several photos just to make sure I got one that was in focus. Then we would process the film, and size the prints. Now, I can view my photos instantly on my autofocusing digital camera. I know right away when I have the shot I need. And I never have to deal with film or costly developing.
I think of how travel agents have basically gone away because anyone can book their own airline tickets on the internet these days. Or I think about the rise and fall of the fax machine. In the late 1980s, they were something new. Today, the fax machine goes mostly unused because everything is communicated via email. Or cell phones. At one time, they were a big deal but now everyone in business has one.
I had the opportunity recently to listen to William Carden, the president and CEO of a strategic planning and marketing research firm in Waco, Texas, talk about the impact of the technological revolution on business. He is the former dean of the National School of Community Bank Management at Texas Tech University.
He said there have been five great social and economic revolutions in the history of mankind:
The hunter-gatherer revolution, which took place about 100,000 years ago. It happened when populations got large enough that men stopped working together in groups of twos or threes, and reached out for reasons of security and food gathering into clans or groups of 20 and 30.
The agricultural revolution happened 5,000 to 5,500 years ago. It did not mean that hunting and gathering stopped. It meant that for the first time in history, at least 50 percent of men were engaged in the domestication of animals or the tilling of soil in order to provide food for cities, which had begun to emerge.
The industrial revolution occurred about 400 years ago. It started in northern Italy, working its way across Europe, and climaxing in the United States in the 19th century. It does not mean agriculture stopped. It meant that in the developed portion of the world, at least 50 percent of mankind was engaged in the manufacturer of goods and the production of things rather than tilling the soil.
The information service revolution began 35 years ago, around 1970, characterized by the commercialization of the microchip. It didn’t mean manufacturing stopped. It meant that 50 percent of employment was to be found in the information service industries, rather than in manufacturing or agricultural industries.
The bio-tech revolution started five years ago, symbolized by Dolly the sheep, the human genome project, and attempts to clone human beings. Five years from now, 50 percent of all employment will come from the bio-tech industry, Carden predicted.
What we should notice about each of these revolutions, Carden said, is that the rate of change is getting faster, and the nature of what is changing is getting greater.
The second thing to notice is that the technology of each new era transforms the nature of the era that preceded it. For example, developments out of the industrial age transformed the agricultural sector.
Carden further explained with an example of how the information services revolution changed a product of the industrial revolution. “If you bought the best refrigerator in 1970 from Sears, you would have paid $1,400,” Carden said. “It was the year the microchip was invented. Today, Sears’ best refrigerator would cost about the same, but it would have 4.5 extra cubic feet of space, it would operate at 400 percent greater efficiency, and it would weigh 175 pounds less.”
Carden said: “There is a knowledge explosion. Years ago, they used to say that knowledge was doubling every 20 years. Now, about every five years, knowledge is doubling. Two and a half years after someone graduates from college, half of what they were taught will be obsolete.”
The big catalyst for change is information technology, Carden said, as he explained the two “great technological revolutions in this country.” The first, he said, occurred between 1860 and 1970. “That was a revolution about transportation. It was about railroads, then automobiles, then airplanes. The transportation revolution was a response to the question of how do you move things cheaper and faster? It climaxed in 1970 when we put a man on the moon and we decided we had gone far enough.
“Now it is about communications. How can you move information cheaper and faster?”
Carden noted two laws that help us understand what is happening in the technological revolution. Moore’s Law, which says information technology is doubling in power and dropping in cost by 50 percent every 18 months, summarizes the significance of the technological revolution. Factor in Metcalf’s Law, which says the value of a system increases exponentially in relation to the number of users it has, and you have an information explosion which is changing life in the Western World.
The Internet is the world’s largest and most sophisticated telephone system. It is adding new users around the world at a rate of about 400,000 per month. “It is the shape of tomorrow,” Carden said.
In this environment of change, the ability to adapt has never been more important. From my perspective, I have seen how the printing industry has had to adapt to survive. I can see how the travel industry has had to adapt. And how the film and camera industries have had to change to survive. No business is immune from the influences of change.
Although my company’s resources are limited compared to some of the largest publishers out there, I believe NFR Communications has a significant advantage in that our size allows us to move quickly. We can make changes almost instantly; we don’t need the approval of numerous committees and a board of directors. Small businesses by nature have an edge over large companies when it comes to adaptability.
Of course, my goal is not only survival; it is success. That means I not only have to adapt to change, I have to figure out how to make the most of technological advances. Can I develop new products, or deliver products in new ways, as a result of the new technology? Can I figure out how to serve my customers better as a result of technology? This is the on-going challenge of running any small business.
So many things in my business -- publishing -- have changed since I embarked on my career in 1983. For example, back then newspapers and magazines were created with strips of copy output on film. They had to be trimmed and waxed and fitted into place by hand. Photos had to be turned into special graphics with a dot pattern. Color photos needed film separations. Producing a printed publication was a big deal. Today, all those things are done on a computer. My own company used to have three people in production in the early 1990s. Today, the work those people did is now done by one person, and she does a lot of other things as well.
Or I think about taking photographs. In the old days, I would shoot several photos just to make sure I got one that was in focus. Then we would process the film, and size the prints. Now, I can view my photos instantly on my autofocusing digital camera. I know right away when I have the shot I need. And I never have to deal with film or costly developing.
I think of how travel agents have basically gone away because anyone can book their own airline tickets on the internet these days. Or I think about the rise and fall of the fax machine. In the late 1980s, they were something new. Today, the fax machine goes mostly unused because everything is communicated via email. Or cell phones. At one time, they were a big deal but now everyone in business has one.
I had the opportunity recently to listen to William Carden, the president and CEO of a strategic planning and marketing research firm in Waco, Texas, talk about the impact of the technological revolution on business. He is the former dean of the National School of Community Bank Management at Texas Tech University.
He said there have been five great social and economic revolutions in the history of mankind:
The hunter-gatherer revolution, which took place about 100,000 years ago. It happened when populations got large enough that men stopped working together in groups of twos or threes, and reached out for reasons of security and food gathering into clans or groups of 20 and 30.
The agricultural revolution happened 5,000 to 5,500 years ago. It did not mean that hunting and gathering stopped. It meant that for the first time in history, at least 50 percent of men were engaged in the domestication of animals or the tilling of soil in order to provide food for cities, which had begun to emerge.
The industrial revolution occurred about 400 years ago. It started in northern Italy, working its way across Europe, and climaxing in the United States in the 19th century. It does not mean agriculture stopped. It meant that in the developed portion of the world, at least 50 percent of mankind was engaged in the manufacturer of goods and the production of things rather than tilling the soil.
The information service revolution began 35 years ago, around 1970, characterized by the commercialization of the microchip. It didn’t mean manufacturing stopped. It meant that 50 percent of employment was to be found in the information service industries, rather than in manufacturing or agricultural industries.
The bio-tech revolution started five years ago, symbolized by Dolly the sheep, the human genome project, and attempts to clone human beings. Five years from now, 50 percent of all employment will come from the bio-tech industry, Carden predicted.
What we should notice about each of these revolutions, Carden said, is that the rate of change is getting faster, and the nature of what is changing is getting greater.
The second thing to notice is that the technology of each new era transforms the nature of the era that preceded it. For example, developments out of the industrial age transformed the agricultural sector.
Carden further explained with an example of how the information services revolution changed a product of the industrial revolution. “If you bought the best refrigerator in 1970 from Sears, you would have paid $1,400,” Carden said. “It was the year the microchip was invented. Today, Sears’ best refrigerator would cost about the same, but it would have 4.5 extra cubic feet of space, it would operate at 400 percent greater efficiency, and it would weigh 175 pounds less.”
Carden said: “There is a knowledge explosion. Years ago, they used to say that knowledge was doubling every 20 years. Now, about every five years, knowledge is doubling. Two and a half years after someone graduates from college, half of what they were taught will be obsolete.”
The big catalyst for change is information technology, Carden said, as he explained the two “great technological revolutions in this country.” The first, he said, occurred between 1860 and 1970. “That was a revolution about transportation. It was about railroads, then automobiles, then airplanes. The transportation revolution was a response to the question of how do you move things cheaper and faster? It climaxed in 1970 when we put a man on the moon and we decided we had gone far enough.
“Now it is about communications. How can you move information cheaper and faster?”
Carden noted two laws that help us understand what is happening in the technological revolution. Moore’s Law, which says information technology is doubling in power and dropping in cost by 50 percent every 18 months, summarizes the significance of the technological revolution. Factor in Metcalf’s Law, which says the value of a system increases exponentially in relation to the number of users it has, and you have an information explosion which is changing life in the Western World.
The Internet is the world’s largest and most sophisticated telephone system. It is adding new users around the world at a rate of about 400,000 per month. “It is the shape of tomorrow,” Carden said.
In this environment of change, the ability to adapt has never been more important. From my perspective, I have seen how the printing industry has had to adapt to survive. I can see how the travel industry has had to adapt. And how the film and camera industries have had to change to survive. No business is immune from the influences of change.
Although my company’s resources are limited compared to some of the largest publishers out there, I believe NFR Communications has a significant advantage in that our size allows us to move quickly. We can make changes almost instantly; we don’t need the approval of numerous committees and a board of directors. Small businesses by nature have an edge over large companies when it comes to adaptability.
Of course, my goal is not only survival; it is success. That means I not only have to adapt to change, I have to figure out how to make the most of technological advances. Can I develop new products, or deliver products in new ways, as a result of the new technology? Can I figure out how to serve my customers better as a result of technology? This is the on-going challenge of running any small business.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
‘Found’ is a play that deserves a world stage
Twin Cities musician Victor Zupanc has written an important play called “Found,” which is being presented by the Mixed Blood Theatre at the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis through May 21. This is a work that deserves more exposure than it will get during its premier, three-week run.
This story of an 18-year-old woman who returns to her native Colombia to find her birth parents has an obvious appeal to people involved with adoption, but it is a story for anyone who is looking for their roots. Anyone who has ever contemplated their origins will draw meaning from this lively 90-minute show.
Zupanc is the resident music director at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis; he has worked with big-name theatre and film producers all over the world. Although Zupanc has written or arranged music for more than 200 productions, Found is the first play he has written. I am acquainted with Zupanc as a fellow adoptive father of Colombian children. After seeing the play May 14th, I asked him how he came to write the story. He said he worked from two bits of information.
The first is a letter written by the birth mother of one of his children. He received the letter with an instruction to present it to the child on her 18th birthday. That is exactly how the play opens. The adoptive parents give their daughter, Patricia, the letter they got 18 years earlier. Upon reading it, Patricia immediately decides she needs to return to Colombia to meet the woman who wrote the letter. “Why did she give me up?” “Why didn’t she keep me?” “Does she think of me?” and “Does she love me?” Patricia asks all these questions -– which she likely has been asking for years -- and this letter opens a pathway to possible answers.
The second was a conversation Zupanc had with another adoptive parent who said he knew his adopted daughter had a birth father who was involved in Colombia’s civil war. So in Found, Patricia discovers that her father is a leader in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC as it is know by its Colombian acronym. Patricia, raised comfortably in the Midwest, wrestles with the notion that her father is a soldier. Some would call him a murderer or a terrorist. She isn’t sure what to make of him.
Zupanc has obviously written this play directly from his heart and he pulled me into the story right from the opening. Those of us with adopted children wonder all the time how our children will cope with the gray cloud of uncertain lineage. This is an anxiety only known to those of us who have adopted internationally. Most domestic adoptions include some level of on-going relationship with the birth parents. But for those of us who flew to another continent to adopt our children, we wonder: Does my child think about his homeland? What will it be like if he chooses to go back? Will he like what he finds? Will the locals treat him any differently than he is treated in the United States?
Found takes direct aim at those questions and sitting in my seat I could feel the angst of those adoptive parents on stage. I could feel Patricia’s excitement upon her arrival in Bogota. I could feel her sorrow upon learning her mother had died, and I could feel her apprehension as she tried to sort out her feelings for her father. This play is designed to push all kinds of emotional buttons in adoptive parents and adopted children.
But I am convinced the play is for everyone, not just those touched by adoption. Who doesn’t wonder where they came from? Who doesn’t wonder about their heritage? This is a play about self-discovery. This is a coming-of-age story applicable to any adult or anyone coming into adulthood. We all have to figure out who is important to us. Relationships come by choice and by blood, regardless of our family situation. This play is about figuring out which relationships are the most meaningful. Patricia has romantic expectations about defining family along bloodlines, but ultimately discovers that family is more about the people who are with you during the growing up years and other crucial times.
With some minor changes to the script, Zupanc will have a story that should be presented on stages all over the world. The music is already there. He directs a small ensemble that provides a first-class soundtrack to the play. I hope he succeeds in taking this play to the next level. The world deserves to enjoy this important story.
This story of an 18-year-old woman who returns to her native Colombia to find her birth parents has an obvious appeal to people involved with adoption, but it is a story for anyone who is looking for their roots. Anyone who has ever contemplated their origins will draw meaning from this lively 90-minute show.
Zupanc is the resident music director at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis; he has worked with big-name theatre and film producers all over the world. Although Zupanc has written or arranged music for more than 200 productions, Found is the first play he has written. I am acquainted with Zupanc as a fellow adoptive father of Colombian children. After seeing the play May 14th, I asked him how he came to write the story. He said he worked from two bits of information.
The first is a letter written by the birth mother of one of his children. He received the letter with an instruction to present it to the child on her 18th birthday. That is exactly how the play opens. The adoptive parents give their daughter, Patricia, the letter they got 18 years earlier. Upon reading it, Patricia immediately decides she needs to return to Colombia to meet the woman who wrote the letter. “Why did she give me up?” “Why didn’t she keep me?” “Does she think of me?” and “Does she love me?” Patricia asks all these questions -– which she likely has been asking for years -- and this letter opens a pathway to possible answers.
The second was a conversation Zupanc had with another adoptive parent who said he knew his adopted daughter had a birth father who was involved in Colombia’s civil war. So in Found, Patricia discovers that her father is a leader in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC as it is know by its Colombian acronym. Patricia, raised comfortably in the Midwest, wrestles with the notion that her father is a soldier. Some would call him a murderer or a terrorist. She isn’t sure what to make of him.
Zupanc has obviously written this play directly from his heart and he pulled me into the story right from the opening. Those of us with adopted children wonder all the time how our children will cope with the gray cloud of uncertain lineage. This is an anxiety only known to those of us who have adopted internationally. Most domestic adoptions include some level of on-going relationship with the birth parents. But for those of us who flew to another continent to adopt our children, we wonder: Does my child think about his homeland? What will it be like if he chooses to go back? Will he like what he finds? Will the locals treat him any differently than he is treated in the United States?
Found takes direct aim at those questions and sitting in my seat I could feel the angst of those adoptive parents on stage. I could feel Patricia’s excitement upon her arrival in Bogota. I could feel her sorrow upon learning her mother had died, and I could feel her apprehension as she tried to sort out her feelings for her father. This play is designed to push all kinds of emotional buttons in adoptive parents and adopted children.
But I am convinced the play is for everyone, not just those touched by adoption. Who doesn’t wonder where they came from? Who doesn’t wonder about their heritage? This is a play about self-discovery. This is a coming-of-age story applicable to any adult or anyone coming into adulthood. We all have to figure out who is important to us. Relationships come by choice and by blood, regardless of our family situation. This play is about figuring out which relationships are the most meaningful. Patricia has romantic expectations about defining family along bloodlines, but ultimately discovers that family is more about the people who are with you during the growing up years and other crucial times.
With some minor changes to the script, Zupanc will have a story that should be presented on stages all over the world. The music is already there. He directs a small ensemble that provides a first-class soundtrack to the play. I hope he succeeds in taking this play to the next level. The world deserves to enjoy this important story.
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