January Letter #2: The Inauguration and the Day After

     OK.  It has been an amazing and crazy couple of days.  I might have even used the word daze.
     The polarization in this country is astounding to me.  I am not sure if will end in the foreseeable future.
     We inaugurated a new President on Friday.  His supporters are exuberant that he is in office.  The very next day, the opposition, led and organized by women, staged the largest protests ever in the history of this country.  I have heard both sides from people I know and like.  What I have heard is mostly ranting.  I can actually relate to parts of what both sides are saying.
     We are in for a most interesting next few years.  It will probably get very ugly and very tense.  Unless the President can demonstrate that he indeed intends to serve everyone as stated in his inaugural address, I can see that Democrats will probably make inroads in the 2018 elections and he may have to govern his last two years without the majority in one or both houses of Congress.  Mandates seem to have a lifespan of two years.
     We are divided people.  The divisions are along the overlapping lines of:

• Liberal and Conservative
• Rural and Urban
• Coastal and Inland States

     This is further confounded with various religious beliefs and racial subsets.

     On one side, the dissatisfaction of those feeling disenfranchised has been building for years to the point where a guy, no one expected to last the first two caucuses, was elected president to the surprise of almost every professional politician and news analyst.  Upon his election, it was apparent immediately and exemplified yesterday that his opposition were going to show their dissatisfaction without any gradual build-up at all.  They started at 100% dissatisfaction.

     He won the Electoral College but lost the overall popular vote by the widest margin ever for someone who won the election.  This is partially why, folks that didn't vote for him, are so upset.

     This is the point in such an essay, where, if I were a better historian and more clever writer, I might say something like the following.  You are all assuming that this is the United States in the year 2017 that I am talking but it is really Rome (or fill in another empire) just 20 years before it collapsed.  Nah, nothing like that.  I am talking about these United States and these most interesting times.

     I am probably one of the few citizens that would use the word interesting to describe these times.  Some, who proudly have adopted the name Deplorables, are giddy and pleased today.  Others, men and women, who have with the same fervor and have adopted the monicker Nasty Woman, are as appalled, sad, angry, and determined as the Deplorable are giddy.

     Me, I am sitting here feeling very Rodney Kingish.  I am part of the some silent minority that wishes we could "All just get along."  I applaud differences of opinion and ideas of what course of action we should or should not take.  Debate is a great thing.  It maximizes the probability of making the right decisions and minimizes the probability of unintended consequences.  The debate can and sometimes should be lively and heated.  But, they shouldn't breed hatred and disgust which both sides seem to have for the other right now.

     Not only do I feel like Rodney King, who was the butt of jokes when he made his famous statement, I also feel like one of the Three Stooges with arms spread out trying to hold back two men in a fist fight.  The Stooge, who I want to say was Shemp, says "Gentlemen, gentlemen..."  only to be punched by both.  We are in a "if you are not with me you agin me" era.  We are in the times where compromise means that "If I were to agree with you, then we would both be wrong."

     Trump?  I am still astonished that he was elected.  But he was and he is now our President.  He seems to be moving quickly with his agenda that is not surprisingly further irritating those that are not pleased with his having been elected.  White House websites about inclusion are reported to have been shut down.  The day after the inauguration, Trump and his press secretary both berated the press for reporting that the numbers at the Trump inauguration were so much less than at Obama's.
     My Uncle sent me a youtube: Best Compilation- People Who Laughed at TRUMP...and said he would never be President.  I relate to this video simply because I thought his running was a joke and would add a degree of levity to the Republican primaries.  I was as surprised as anyone that he started winning and then kept winning.  Then, when he secured the nomination, I thought he would never beat Hilary.  The more boorish things he said and did, I felt even more strongly that Hilary was a shoe-in.  Boy oh boy, was I wrong.  Were a lot of people wrong.
     Having said this, he defied all the pundits and defied all of the odds.  Is it possible that he will, in fact, Make America Great Again.  Will he build that wall?  Will he bring back jobs?  Will he beat ISIS?  And on top of this, will he in the process become President of all the people?  I know likely readers of this post, who when they get to this paragraph, will be formulating a no holds barred negative response to me seemingly moronic suggestions.  Well, I do not think he will be nearly as successful as he brags about.  The checks, balances, and realities of actually governing will make that hard to do.  But on the other hand, as none, nada, zip, of my predictions about him have been correct, I have to be open to the possibility that I may well be wrong again.  Let me use, again, two of the words from the first line of this piece.  Amazing.  Crazy.

ABC News Photo showing inaugural crowds for
for Obama on the left and Trump on the right

     He and his people keep shooting themselves in the foot (and missing?).  Today, Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, was on Meet the Press.  She was addressing the aforementioned reports in the press that Obamas inaugurations drew more attendees than Trumps.  The White House Press Secretary said that it was indeed the other way around.  Todd Carter asked why, on his first official facing of the press, did Sean Spicer lie?  Kellyanne's response was, "your saying it is a falsehood... the press secretary gave alternative facts."  Alternative facts? Oh my.  Here we go.  Watch this the interview here.  One thing I think we can say about Trump is that he will not zig and zag for the sole purpose in improving his approval ratings.
     The opposition?  Well, they are certainly upset.  They are upset to the point where they are exercising their rights for free speech and public assembly.  I can see vigorous organization over the Trump term to express various viewpoints and more likely to get head starts on the 2018 and 2020 elections to get some elected power back.  The estimates of attendees of the Women's March were hundreds of thousands with no reported incidents of violence or destruction i.e. no arrests.  It was peaceful and purposeful.  More people I knew posted selfies of their participation than any other events of this kind I can possibly think of.  It is unprecedented and seemingly grass roots.  The tone has been set for moving forward.
     Will this antithesis lead to synthesis and positive direction for the country?  Will Trump allow his cabinet to have different points of view as he said?  Will Republican Senators and Representatives challenge executive policy and initiatives that their constituents do not agree with?  Will Trump continue to tweet whatever comes to his mind about anybody or will he just stop?  Will the polarization continue to intensify or will we somehow come together for the greater good?
      With all my hope that we can just get along and that Trump becomes the unifying leader he has been saying he will be, I am not optimistic on either count.  That is a bit sad.  I will follow the advice of the opposition and voice my opinion to my Representative and Senators.  All three are Democrats if that matters.  I probably won't follow either party line.  I would be doing the same thing if Hilary Clinton got elected.  As of right now, criticizing Trump is considerably easier than criticizing the opposition.  But, as stated above, I have underestimated him at every turn so far.
      Here are some tidbits, mostly from Facebook, from both camps that may or may not shed light, and perhaps a bit of comedy, on this new USA we find ourselves in:

• From my friend Nvair:  What comes next, you ask?  November 6, 2018!  That's the date in which 33 senate seats, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 39 state and territorial governorships (and numerous state and local elections) will be up for re-election.  If people are not happier, the "mandate advantage" could easily disappear. 
• Tom posted: Armenians know all too well what #AlternativeFacts are and they are not truths. Armenians stand up!!
• The New York Times posted an article with photos and facts, if you have not already had your fill: Women’s March Highlights as Huge Crowds Protest Trump: ‘We’re Not Going Away’.  Agree or disagree the photos and reported turn out are most impressive.
• There were postings on Facebooks regarding the attacks on Trump's son Barron.  My view?  Leave him out of it as Obama's daughters were, I thought, respectfully treated.  I hated the way Chelsea Clinton and Amy Carter were treated. 
• Saturday Night Live was hosted by Aziz Ansari last night.  He had some good ones.
• "Yesterday, Trump was inaugurated.  Today and entire gender protested against him."
• On racists spouting off with greater frequency since the election, "You have to go back to pretending... we never realized how much effort you were putting into pretending.  You have to go back to pretending."
• I saw several posts, "I hope Donald Trump is a good President.  Wanting him to fail is like wanting the pilot to crash plane we are all on."
• My sister Nancy posted a "corrected" post of Betsy DeVos who will be the Secretary of
  Eduction.
• I was happy to see a positive tweet from Trump on the protests.  There were also tweets taking a few shots.
• My colleague and friend, Ann, who teaches accounting forward a wonderful post setting a performance baseline for the Trump Administration.

• Inauguration Day 1/20/2017
• Gasoline $2.32/gallon per the AAA
• Dow 19,827
• NASDAQ 5555.33
• Unemployment 4.7%
• (I might have added inflation and average mortgage rates).

     Let's see what unfolds.  Fasten your seat belts.

January 2017: The Transition of Power

     It is Martin Luther King Day. I attended a celebration today at North Park University. As I expected, the transfer of power from President Obama to President Trump influenced the speeches almost overshadowing remembering the man in whose honor we gathered. Given the contention the election has left in its wake and the extreme polarization in this country, this is no surprise.

     President Obama: Eight years ago, I voted for Barack Obama. I used Ronald Reagan’s yardstick from the 1980 Presidential Elections to make my choice. Reagan asked, “Ask yourself, 'Are you better off now than you were four years ago? '” I even modified it and asked as second question, “Is the country better off now than it was four years ago?”
     The answer to both these questions was a resounding “No!”
     We were at the beginning of a very serious economic crisis that would eventually be called The Great Recession. The economy began to quickly unravel in September of 2008. It quickly became a campaign issue. For me it was the only campaign issue. I was let go from my job at this very time. It was bad timing indeed. I have never recovered economically and I should be in the middle of the so-called disenfranchised segment of the population.
     I probably would have voted for the esteemed John McCain. I was in the most likely

The Onion still has a sense of humor.

demographic to vote for him. I did not. The main reason I did not was because McCain said there was nothing wrong with the economy. What?! Really!? He lost my vote then and there. Having Sarah Palin as his running mate did not help his case either.
     It was the first time I had voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate. He seemed saavy and was cleary very smart. I thought he woud be able to lead us through this quagmire.
     Note that I have, otherwise, voted for Democrats for House, Senate, and State offices. I believe in voting for the best person and not straight party tickets. I am kind of a centrist. I basically follow my cousin Davids tenet of being a fiscal conservative and wanting social justice.
     Obama was, of course, elected. I have oft used the analogy that he was given the keys to the that was going 150 mph a mere 100 yards from a brick wall. Yes, he was elected the President, the first black… er… half black President of these United States. Unfortunately, for those hoping for the Change they could Believe in, the only thing he and his administration could really focus on was the economic disaster he inherited. Sure, they had a mandate with power in both the House and Senate. Nonetheless, the economy was broken. It had to be fixed. That was Job 1. There were hard decisions to be made. In a crisis of that proportion, the crisis sets the agenda and action plan.
     His speeches in accepting the nomination, his victory speech on election night, and his inaugural address were excellent in my opinion. Barack Obama is a great speaker. He makes sense when he speaks. He is also a great interviewee. This past Sunday he had his last interview as President on 60 Minutes. He was authentic and a gentleman. He did not take the bait.
     I was never an Obama basher. I voted for him in 2008. In 2012, I used the same Reagan yardstick. The country was most definitely better off than it was in 2008. I did not feel I was, so after a bit of grappling I decided to go for Romney knowing it was going for a losing effort.

     I remember Obama’s first inauguration. It was a really cold January day. I am not in the habit of watching the inaugurations live. But this was an historic day for the country. Imagine this country electing a half white half black, who everyone just calls black, President. It was nothing any European country has ever done. So I tuned into the NPR coverage of the inauguration. Yes, I listened to it on the radio as I was off to Newell Rubbermaid’s offices in Oak Brook to sign my termination papers and review my severance etc. It all kind of tied in together in my little mind.

     President Trump: It is now the night before the inauguration.
     Like it or not, Donald Trump will be the 45th Presdient of the United States.
     I did not vote for Trump. I did not vote for Clinton either. I was dismayed that this great country this was the best we had to offer.
     I did vote. Yes… I did vote for Al Leppo. People say I wasted my vote. Maybe. But, there was no way Hilary Clinton was going to lose the State of Illinois. I could have voted for Donald Duck for all the difference it would have made.
     I am not a huge Hilary fan. I could not vote for her. Neither could I vote for Trump given the bombastic things he said and did during the campaign. I could only justify voting for one as it was a vote against the other. Forget it. I voted for the Libertarian.
     Clearly, everyone but Trump underestimated the sheer number of disenfranchised folks out there. When these folks applied the Ronald Reagan yardstick, they were not better off than they were four or eight years ago. Hilary was nowhere close to being the answer. She was the political establishment, the very folks the disenfranchised blamed, right or wrong, for the dimished country we became post recession.
     Along comes The Donald. He runs an unorthodox campaign promising to make America great again and… Voila! We have a populist candidate who defied all odds and got elected. The contrasts with Obama are striking and yet this is the transistion we are making this week. You cannot make this up.

     Term Limits and The Electoral College: There was talk this week that Obama would have been elected to a third term but for our term limits. Term limits are indeed a two edged sword. You hate them when a guy you love has to leave office, but you love term limits when a guy you loathe has to leave.
     The same kind of rationale applies to the Electoral College. Trump is on of the few Presidents to not win the majority of the vote. People are quite OK with the Electoral College when things go their way, and hate it, as the anti-Trump does in this past election. Hence, the feeling that “He is not my President.”

     He is not my President Movement: There will be people protesting in the inauguaration. There was a huge rally this evening, the night before the inauguration, in front of the Trump Plaza in NYC with an impressive list of NY celebrities and politicos speaking. It is all over the news. The protests at the inauguration itself might be unprecedented. People are upset to the core that The Donald got elected. They do not like it and are collectively going to express their displeasure. On Saturday, there is another huge Women’s March planned in several cities simulataneously which is probably more anti-Trump than anything else. I know several folks in Chicago who will be head downtown on Saturday to March. Trump has to be seeing all this. I wonder how he views this fervor.
     Trump has the lowest approval ratings for an incoming President since Abraham Lincoln. I guess Lincoln’s oppostion took exception to his anti-slavery stance. So, the anti-Trump crowd quote the low ratings and the Make America Great Again crowd compare him to Lincoln.
     Sixty Democrats are not attending the inauguration. I heard a talking head congressman today on NPR whose name or state I do not recall. He justification for not going is all the things Trump said and did during the campaign that would have destroyed the campaign of any other candidate. Merryl Streep gave the same kind of message when she received her lifetime achievement award from the Golden Globes. While her words are definitely old news today, the night before the inauguration, they were right on.

But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. ~ New York Times

     Streep was refering to his imitiation of a handicapped reporter that happened to anger him. Then he denied what he did. In my book, that is not what I want our President to behave. He talked about the election as being rigged but when the only rigging appears to have come from Russian hackers to his favor, he is mum about it. He disparged a beauty queen in a twitter rampage. I do not approve of this kind of behavior from a candidate running for President let alone a Presdient elect. It discredits the office, the country, and our people. Obama never would have done that neither would have Reagan or Clinton. It is just unacceptable behavior.
     I am not against his tweeting per se. I am against the President of the United States criticizing people, well, like Meryl Streep, in an open forum like twitter.
     There was a quote floating around on Facebook. It was from Theodore Roosevelt.

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." ~ Theodore Roosevelt Association

     I respect the Office of the President and whoever is elected. I may or may not agree with their policies but I respect the person and the office. I also believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and agree with the 26th President and criticize the President using our very precious right of free speech. This is the only way democracy can work.
     Many folks were not happy with the election Barack Obama in 2008. I heard several people say that “he was not their President.” Many more folks, I believe, shared that sentiment but called his early actions and policies trying to stem the Great Recession as socialist. Not quite communist, but most definitely a socialist. In his second term, most criticism was that he was the most ineffective President ever and comments along those lines. There was certainly a certainly a racial component to this. We can debate the degree of such, but it was most certainly there.
     Black folks looked at the election of Barack Obama a positive sign. It was a sign of hope as in the campaign slogan. With the election of Trump, many feel like the hope was taken away. The world was so impressed that we elected a black President, he even got a Nobel Peace Prize before he did anything.

     Polarization: Donald Trump did tweet something earlier today.

     I agree with Franklin Graham. We are polarized in the contry. I believe the main axes are race, disenfranchised or not, and liberal vs conservative. Most people can’t and don’t think in several factors (using the language of Design of Experiments from Statistics). People get even more confused when there is interaction between these factors. It has stifled the effectiveness of the our government since Obama was elected.
     Trump, however, is not helping. I am allowing a glimmer of hope to see if the office grounds him and once in office he can demonstrate to be a President of all the people.
     People love Trump or hate him. I am a centrist. I try to see the whole picture or use this all as a rationale to be wishy-washy (folks do criticize me for this). Obama has a madate when he was elected in 2008. Trump and his supporters believe they have a mandate with majorities in the House and Senate. The voting public, however, changed their minds and started electing Republicans as early as the 2010 midterm elections eroding Obama’s so-called mandate. I fully believe that the same will happen to Trump if people are not seeing what they want to see in 2018.

     Hrant Dink: This section has nothing to with Trump or Obama except their unwillingness to call what happened a Genocide. Nonetheless, I am compelled to make a few comments.
     Today is January 19, 2017. It is the ten year anniversary of his assassination of Hrant Dink outside the offices of the Agos newspaper. As of the time of this writing, there were no stories of this in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
     I was interested to see, post coup, if there were protests in Istanbul. Armenpress from Yerevan had a good article on commemorations in Yerevan and Istanbul including videos. I was a bit surprised to the number of protesters in Istanbul. It was nothing like the numbers 10 years ago, but it was something.
     To me, Hrant Dink is and should be honored as a Martin Luther King of Turkey. With Erdogan’s clamp down after the “coup,” this is not happening any time soon.

     Another blog post on Hrant Dink:  Five Years Later

March 2016: A Potpourri

     Preface: OK, it is January 1, 2017. I am just posting my March 2016 Letter. I really should have and could have posted it in March especially when I realized, upon reviewing it this morning, that it was practically completed. But, I didn’t and hereby resolve, with all the good intentions that underlie our new year’s resolutions, to be on top of my daily writing and monthly letters in 2017.
     This letter is mostly about a trip to Costa Rica back in March. But, being a Potpourri, I also wrote about the US elections, actually the primaries back then, and the passing of Patty Duke.
     It is kind of a fitting end to 2016 which is a year that bothered a lot of people. Many were upset by the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and this is a central part of their condemnation for 2016. While I wish him well and hope that he will make a positive difference, I stand by what I wrote back in March.
     Another reason some folks were glad to see 2016 end is because of number of celebrities that passed last year. Patty Duke was one of them. She passed away in March. With the passing of David Bowie, Prince, and the very sad mother/daughter passing of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, I am not sure many remember that it was the year in which Patty Duke passed as well. I had reflected, in my own This Side of Fifty way, on my admiration for the actress.

     Cost Rica: At one point in the twelve years of e-letters that evolved into a blog, I thought about dedicating certain month’s letter to certain themes. February was always the anniversary letter and I tried to make June the Health and Fitness letter. My second letter, March 2004, was a Letter from Buenos Aires. Vive! Mexico was the March 2005 letter. I thought to make each March letter a travel letter. That did not happen as planned.
     This month, however, I did go to Costa Rica and I am delighted to report a bit on that wonderful trip to a fantastic country.
     It was my first trip out of the country since 2010 when I went to Istanbul. It was my first trip to Latin America since 2007. I was excited for the opportunity to return one of the places I had spent so much time.
     This trip was organized by the School of Business and Nonprofit Management at North Park University. Every year, during spring break, we organize a trip to country to learn how local businesses and nonprofits operate, learn about their challenges, and to broaden our perspective. There is, of course, ample time for tourism. The size of the contingency is somewhere between 8 -12 and is made up of graduate students, alumni, professors, and friends. In recent years, they have visiting Vietnam, Turkey, South Africa, Greece, and Argentina.
     Our Dean, Wes Lindahl, organizes these trips and always chooses a co-director to assist with organizing the site visits and other logistics. I was fortunate to get that responsibility this year because of my experience and connections in Costa Rica. I was excited for the opportunity and looking forward to connecting with some old friends.
     There is something special about Colgate people. There is a bond that is different than other companies I have worked for. Even if we have not been in touch for years, it doesn’t matter. One email and it was like we have not skipped a beat. This was the case with four wonderful people.
     Jim Gerchow is one of my oldest Colgate friends. We met on my second overseas trip for the company to Venezuela. It was a different and more prosperous country back then in 1991. Jim was the manufacturing director at

Jim Gerchow is standing on the left

the plant in Valencia. We hit it off from the moment we met and our friendship has grown ever since. When he was named Vice-President of Manufacturing for the Africa and Middle East Division, he relocated to Weston, CT and lived about five house away from us.
     When I called Jim, he immediately responded, like I knew he would. He offered for us to visit his brother in-laws company, Financiera Desyfin, for which he was a board member. He also arranged for us to visit the Federación de Organizaciones Sociales which is basically the organization of nonprofits and social enterprises in Costa Rica.
      On top of this, Jim and lovely wife Vicky opened up their home to our group. It was a most lovely evening of food, drink, and conversation at their magnificent home, right out of Architectural Digest, overlooking San Jose. It was so warm and generous of them to do this.
     Oswaldo Arias is another great Colgate friend. He even was a direct report of mine for a few years when we were working on improving the performance of SAP in Latin America. While he reported to me, working with Oswaldo was truly more like a partnership. Oswaldo was one of the best IT folks I have ever worked with. He is brilliant but with the calmest demeanor you could imagine which came in handy when he was explaining the intricacies of data structures to me. He is as expert as anyone in SAP Order to Cash that I know. He currently works for HB Fuller in their Shared Services Center for Latin America. He hosted us there and gave a great overview of what a shared service organization is and what they are capable of.
     Oswaldo, who always does his homework, realized it was the 125th Anniversary of North Park University. So, amid the lavish buffet he arranged for

Oswaldo is third from the left

us, he provided birthday cakes for our university.
     Ralph Dias is a great friend. He never worked at Colgate but rather with us, but he was an essential part of our global logistics team. Ralph is the account executive from DHL assigned to Colgate. Ralph is an excellent man and a good friend. When I wrote him, he arranged a visit to DHL Costa Rica where, Arnoldo Carranza, another old friend is General Manager. Arnoldo was gracious in hosting our group and gave a tremendous overview of running a 3rd party logistics company in Central America.

Arnoldo is the second from left in the back

     Maria Royo is simply amazing. I had neither seen nor talked to her since 1997 or maybe even earlier than that. In January, we connected on Facebook. It was good to be in touch her again. She was always a bundle of energy in managing IT for Colgate Costa Rica. In fact, two of her team, Oswaldo Arias and Gerardo Cambronero moved on to global IT positions in Colgate. A few weeks later I got the Costa Rica assignment. When I wrote and told her about this trip, she was all over it making wonderful suggestions of companies and organizations to visit. She organized three visits for us.
     Unfortunately, I did not get to see Maria on this trip. Maria runs her own IT consulting firm and also is the President of GS1 in Costa Rica. We were scheduled to spend half of our first day in country visiting a nonprofit she had arranged for us to visit and then end up at her offices for an overview of GS1. Sadly, our connection in Dallas was tight, our flight from Chicago to Dallas was delayed, and we missed our first day. Maria was unavailable due to business commitments and I am sorry I did not get to see her.
     Juliana Holguin is the current General Manager of Colgate Costa Rica. I got to know Juliana, who started in Colgate Colombia, when she was a Marketing

Juliana Holquin

Manager in New York. She sat right outside my office and we became good friends. We were not able to connect before we traveled but we were able to have breakfast one morning and reconnect.
     The trip was a great blend of the old and the new. While it was a great pleasure to reconnect with old friends, it was just as special to make new friends of students and alumni on this trip as well as to get to know valued colleagues better. It was great to spend a lot more time than normal with our Dean, Wes, his wife Deb, and Dr. Pier Rogers who is the Director of our Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management. You get to know folks better on such a trip.
     I appreciated the younger crowd of Max Sluiter, Rhianna Giberson, Cheryl Devenny, Heidi Bush, and Fran Caan who were gracious in allowing me to hang out with them and remember when I was their age. We were also joined by Maree Bullock and Zofia Lutnicka two friends of North Park and now friends of mine.

Maria Royo

     Life is constantly changing. People come in and out of our lives. When it is all said and done, no matter what one’s accomplishments are, it is truly the people that we meet and work with that make all the difference. The people make for the best and most lasting memories. It was a great pleasure in to reconnect with wonderful Colgate and DHL folks and have them meet and mingle with the folks I currently work with.

     Is this the best we can do? 2016 is a Presidential Election year in the US. Maybe it is just a function of age but I find myself asking a very simple question, over and over again: “Is this the best we can do?”
     The Democrats are offering up Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The Republicans seem to only have Donald Trump much to the dismay of the party leadership. Does this become a year, where as a voter, I am picking the best of the worst? Is it a year where my vote for one candidate is really a vote against the other candidate? Both of these are, how do they say it? Ah yes. Lame.
     In my opinion, it is a sad state of affairs.
     Let’s get this out of the way. I do admire one of the candidates: Bernie Sanders. Yes, I admire Bernie Sanders. Why? How? It is not for his political views. He is a bit too socialist for me and I say this as I get a bit pinker with each passing year. I am just too much of a free market and fiscal soundness person to ever be a socialist. But, I admire Bernie for one reason. It is clear what he stands for. It is clear what he believes. It is clear what he will try to advance if he defies the odds and ever becomes President. Bernie Sanders will not change his views because of any poll results just to get more votes. In this day and age, this is a refreshing trait in American presidential politics.
     Hilary on the other really wants to become the president. I believe she will say anything to get elected. She will change any view she has if poll results suggest she will gain more votes in a significant demographic.
     The Republicans? Oh my. The Donald. Really. When I saw he was running early on, I figured he wouldn’t even make it to the Iowa Caucuses. Boy, did I ever figure wrong. He can say any ludicrous thing he wants contradicting other ludicrous things he may have said and people are eating it up.
      I think people are eating up what Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are selling because there are significant segments in this country who are disenfranchised. We have most definitely come out of the Great Recession a different country. Many of the Trump supporters are simply no longer working or underemployed. These folks were off the radar screen of the mainstream of both parties and Trump, simply, resonates with them.
     Sanders also resonates with a different group of disenfranchised Americans. He has great appeal with the youth who do not see the career and lifestyle prospects that other generations enjoyed.
     When I think of this election and the dearth of choices, I am wondering if we are in the era of 1837 – 1861 when we had a rash of Presidents between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln who, to me, seem entirely inconsequential.

Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841
William Henry Harrison, 1841
John Tyler, 1841-1845
James Knox Polk, 1845-1849
Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850
Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853
Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857
James Buchanan, 1857-1861

     I am certain that these presidents had some attributes. Perhaps, if I were to read up on this, I might even change my opinion. But, none of them were really covered or emphasized in any US History course I ever took.
     So, I think we are electing another Millard Filmore or Franklin Pierce. In this great nation of 320 million people, is this the best we can do?

     Patty Duke (1946 – 2016): Patty Duke passed away on March 29. She was 69 years old. She was a great child star back in the day. I had not heard much about her in recent years, but she was highly regarded mostly for her amazing role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker.

Patty and Cathy

She even won an Academy Award for her role in the 1962 film.
     I knew that she was married to John Astin. I knew that Sean Astin, of Rudy and Lord of the Rings fame, was her son. Until I read her obituary and biography, I did not know of her troubled and hard childhood. It seems that is often how it is for child stars. I did not know that she suffered from bipolar disorder and became an advocate for mental health causes. I also did not know that John Astin was Sean’s adoptive father not his biological one.
     I write about Patty Duke because I liked and watched here TV show: The Patty Duke Show. It aired 104 episodes from 1963 – 1996. The show was about two teenage girls, cousins in fact, who looked remarkably alike. Patty Lane was a typical American teenager living with her family in Brooklyn Heights. Wikipedia called her chatty and rambunctious. Cathy Rowan Lane was the cousin from Scotland who came to live with her cousin. Cathy was kind of the flip side of Patty. Wikipedia referred to her as “sophisticated, brainy, and demure.”
     Being only ten years old, I watched and liked the show because I was kinda sorta attracted to Cathy. I liked that she was sophisticated and brainy. I did not really like the Patty character as much… she made me nervous.
     I thought they were two different people played by two different actresses. I felt foolish when I realized Patty Duke played both characters. Now, in hearing of her passing, I smiled on my naiveté. It was certainly a testimony to her acting skills…