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Business -
Beyond the Rhetoric
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August 24, 2009, talkhousemag.com
Why are They Becoming Hysterical?
I have been on this earth for over six decades and I have never seen such a repetitious amount of temper tantrums, paranoia, propaganda and verbal eruptions directed towards political leaders. All of a sudden our structured and proven leadership models are becoming inefficient. The old saying of the late columnist Robert Novak seems to have taken hold: “Love your country; don’t trust the government”. Just what is causing this? Here’s my take.
We have always had a crisis to deal with such as The Depression, World War II, Korean War, Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, etc. It was rather easy then because they came one at a time. In this modern era of nanoseconds and instant information, things are starting to come at rapid fire. We are involved in two wars simultaneously with no apparent end in sight. The reasons for them are faulty at best and the respect and care we give our brave troops is less than admirable and, in fact, despicable. We are still going through the sub-prime mortgage fiasco in addition to the Wall St. Bailout, record unemployment and the worst debt our national treasury has ever seen. From a leadership perspective the solutions are not clear. Fear has set in and what Franklin D. Roosevelt warned us about (“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”) has settled in and is gripping our conscience. |
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Business -
Beyond the Rhetoric
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June 30, 2009, talkhousemag.com It can be quite comical at times when you see public relations splashes about perceived successful entrepreneurs. 90% of these so called tycoons are fakes. The fact is most successful Black businesses are rather “stealth.” The modesty comes from many examples of attacks, conspiracies and mountains of adversity put before them and others simply because they are Black. Most successful Black entrepreneurs that I know would never publish themselves in the so called Black Enterprise Top 100 Black Businesses. To many it is perceived as a “target list” for the IRS, large competitors and others with bad intentions. Allow me to discuss a few of the horror stories that successful Black entrepreneurs have experienced. Lannie H. Smith started L.H. Smith Oil Co. and built up a big customer base of Indiana corporations and government entities. He supplied them with fuel oil. His biggest contract was with Ft. Knox, Kentucky, the home of the U.S. Army tank school. Traditionally, you had to deliver the goods on time or face a fine for lateness. In this case, if any of his trucks were late his company would be assessed a fine of $1,000 per hour or part thereof. His enemies knew this so when each truck left Indianapolis for Ft. Knox it would be stopped by an Indiana state trooper and detained for hours. After the harassment, the trooper would release the truck and as soon as it crossed the Ohio River Bridge a Kentucky state trooper was waiting to do the same. This harassment was taking all the profit out of the deliveries and building bad relations with an important customer. It’s hard to fight something that is being sanctioned by the highest office in the state (Governor and State Police). |
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Business -
Beyond the Rhetoric
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June 19, 2009, talkhousemag.com When you get right down to it, you can call it just plain psychological warfare. It is pretty much what the maniacal propaganda minister for Adolph Hitler, Joseph Goebbels would say, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, then people will begin to believe it.” That is what classic bigots of the far right movement are practicing when they claim that someone is a “racist” or a “reverse racist.” They exclaim that Affirmative Action is evil and is racist in principle. The real fact is that without Affirmative Action discrimination and the ills of racism fester and affect a targeted class in this nation, i.e. people of color and too often females regardless of color. Groups like the Rocky Mountain Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Southeastern Legal Foundation and the Associate General Contractors sue government agencies for applying Affirmative Action to offset past discriminatory practices claiming that the remedy is in fact illegal. We have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which says that it is illegal to discriminate with federal monies or through federal regulation or benefit from a federal program. The Supreme Court has confirmed that you can use Affirmative Action or race based remedies when there is documentation and specific application applied. The past discriminatory practices of this nation are legendary and they still exist whenever there is no regulation, monitoring or adequate justice evident. |
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