I have struggled to write about the events that unfolded over the weekend in Minneapolis. The brutal and unwarranted killing of Alex Pretti is all over social media and shows no signs of leaving the news cycle any time soon. In fact, the political fallout from the killing of Pretti has been so severe and bipartisan that it now seems that Trump is finally backing down in a way that he was not prepared to…
The history of American public service reflects the nation’s ambivalence about government itself. On the one hand, we consider public service essential and laudatory at many times, and yet it is also often distrusted. From a few hundred employees in 1789 to millions today, the transformation mirrors America’s evolution from agricultural republic to industrial to information age superpower, with public servants adapting to meet each era’s challenges while maintaining democratic values. The evolution of American…
I read an article yesterday about a speed painter that paints giant canvases of Christ. She has become a favorite of Donald Trump and her name is Vanessa Horabuena. It’s an interesting name because the name essentially means “at a good/fortunate hour”—a propitious moment or good timing—which when used as a surname likely expressed hopes for fortune and good luck for the family line. What is speed painting, you ask (or, at least, I asked)?…
I can’t see more than 100 feet this morning on account of a heavy and foreboding fog that has enveloped our hilltop. It’s a pretty normal January day here in San Diego with the high temperature expected to be about 60 with the morning starting out in the low 50s. There is really nothing to complain about weather wise. That’s not the case for most of the rest of the country, where the temperatures have…
At last! Someone has finally said what the whole rational world has been thinking. We finally have a new hero in Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada. At the Davos World Economic Forum, Carney delivered a succinct and inspiring 30 minute speech that brought the collective audience of politicians, national leaders, corporate chieftains, and members of the global power elite to their feet in a standing ovation. These are the moments that define history…
I have always been an optimist. I’ve also always believed in the power of positive thinking, less because of some metaphysical effect it might have, but rather because optimism and attitude breed an environment that others find motivating and there is no doubt in my mind that motivation is what makes the world go around. Other’s often consider my attitude naive or Pollyannaish. But that has never stopped me and I will honestly say that…
Once again, Donald Trump has shown us his bluster and bullshit is off the charts. I don’t know whether to be be amused, not surprised, relieved or disgusted by his speech this morning in Davos at the World Economic Forum. The global markets reacted immediately and badly over Trump’s rants and raves about invading Greenland (or was it Iceland?) if there was no deal to be made. It’s hard to tell if they really thought…
I’ve suddenly had this weird realization. I started listening to several of the Dan Brown novels on symbology. I started with his latest, called Secret of Secrets and have moved backwards to The Lost Symbol. The book is Dan Brown’s third Robert Langdon novel, set in Washington D.C. over a single night. The central mystery revolves around Freemasonry and the legend of an “Ancient Mystery” – secret wisdom supposedly hidden in Washington D.C. by the…
About 15 years ago I was Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. I had been very active in the school as an alumnus since almost 1990 and had both served on the Advisory Council and then acted as its Chairman for a number of years. Back in 2003 I was inducted into the the Johnson School Hall of Honor and had my face placed in bronze…
I have spent a lot of time all across this hemisphere from top to bottom. I lived for sixty years in the United States in the Midwest, the Northeast and now the West. Granted, I have not lived in the Deep South (unless you count being born in Florida) nor have I lived in the Northwest. But I have travelled throughout the continental United States and visited each and every state of the union at…