A couple of years ago, GOP Vice Presidential candidate and Governor of Alaska, Sara Palin, dismissed Alaska's police commissioner for not playing ball when he did not reprimand or fire Palin's former brother-in-law for a personal family matter.
Around the same time, democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards was found to have cheated on his ill wife, fathered his mistress' child and paid another man working with him to publicly claim that the child was his and not Edwards'.
Edwards wasn't the only one tangled with someone who was not his spouse. New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was found with an pricey call girl. Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted for lying under oath about his affair with his chief of staff. And this was all in 2008. Very recent history.
Let's not forget that famous blue dress and cigar that Clinton made popular; Marion Barry's now famous "Bitch set me up." phrase uttered after he was caught with crack and a woman who was not his wife; JFK's numerous alleged affairs, including one with Marilyn Monroe. There are clearly many more well-known affairs in and out of the political office.
The current governor of California gained fame as a body-builder turned mediocre action movie star. I guess if Ronald Reagan can do it, so can the man who uttered deep, memorable lines like, "I'll be back." and "It's not a toomah!!!"
I'd mention even more political scandals and simple WTF moments but I don't have enough time in my life to mention them all, from our most recent government dating back to a time well before Thomas doubted, Simon Peter denied and Judas betrayed their homeboy Yeshua.
Outside of the political world, there are even more scandals and crimes that rock civilian lives. If I mentioned all of those, my grandchildren would have to take over this blog entry.
So what about recently? As in today, around the nation. What's going on?
A toddler fell to his death at the Staples Center and was met with claims that the center met all building codes, leaving many people to wonder how a toddler could get past coded railings. A narcotics agent was charged with grand theft and embezzlement after accusations of stealing money and accepting bribes from drug suspects were brought up. The water in Barstow was recently cleared after a previous contamination, not from fecal matter (no hanom taki for them) but from a chemical used in rocket fuel, very likely the byproduct of meth labs that run rampant in that part of the nation, as it does in many other states. There were 17 reported homicides in one week in LA county bringing up the homicide rate for the year to 563. A man and his son, in attempting to rob a bank, set off a bomb that killed two officers. Members of the US Army's Fifth Stryker Brigade were charged with drug use, slaughtering Afghan civilians for no reason and defiling corpses.
That's not all the news, of course. That's not even all the news from two West-coast states today.
But that's just crime and scandal. What about crimes that seem too ridiculous to be true? Such as a kung-fu student in Australia in the 80s breaking and entering into a zoo because he was told he could fight a wild animal with his bare hands. He was never tried for trespassing, of course. Because he died. Because he tried to wrestle a lion.
What about the idiot who, long ago, stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and attempted to sell it to another gallery?
Crime. Scandal. There's more to it than that, isn't there?
Our nation's capital can proudly boast the worst school district in the country with three out of four students falling below math test standards. With nearly $13-thousand-per-student costs, a pittance goes to the actual schools or students. The DC district ranks as the highest paid to administration and the lowest spent on the actual students or their needs. They wait, on average, just over a year for structural repairs to buildings that should otherwise be condemned.
The commonwealth-run states in the US make up the worst cases of healthcare in the nation. The average wait in a Nevada ER is five hours and 15 minutes. The same could be said about Arizona. Texas has the most uninsured residents in the 50 states. You also have to wait a really long time in their ERs. The wait is not much better in New Mexico, Arkansas, Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho.
There are wars erupting all over the world, countries where more than half of the citizens are living well below poverty, leaders with iron fists and heavy artillery, coups, abandoned and abused babies as the norm, rampant diseases with no local health officials trying to curb the spread, mothers who fear that they and their daughters will be raped while their young children are slaughtered and their husbands are ordered by threat of torture to take part in wars they want nothing to do with, children armed with semi-automatic weapons, censored media and news that is completely denied and death tolls that rise by the hundreds within weeks.
And, quite shockingly, none of these things take place on Guam. They had absolutely nothing to do with Guam outside of our local soldiers fighting under the American flag.
Yet people still seem to enjoy uttering the phrase "Only on Guam" as though we have a monopoly on idiotic and corrupt government leaders, crime, a poor state of education and healthcare, on top of many other issues. More disheartening is when such utterances come from local people, born and bred on an island that they continue to scorn and in an open forum where anyone from any part of the world can view such nice sentiments about the people and culture who raised such jackasses.
I wonder, really, if the one thing that exists on Guam and nowhere else are people who are oblivious to the world around them who choose not to open a paper or turn on the news and see, very clearly, that these things do not exist only on Guam.
I guess I'd have to ask those OOG people. Apparently, they're the real experts.
22.11.10
5.11.10
from small beans to corporate beanstalks
In the 1840s, a London bookbinder crossed the Atlantic with his six children sans a wife and mother to help care for them and proceeded to raise his children on a farm in Illinois. The eldest of these children went on to work for the Chicago Tribune and rose in the ranks. A few years later, he became the manager of the Detroit Tribune and then part owner of the Detroit Daily Advertiser, eventually using insurance money to start his own paper. This new paper, The Evening News, was much different from other printed news outlets at the time, appealing to the working class, utilizing advertising and common speech to appeal to this new class that was previously ignored. Later, his younger brother started working at the paper as an office boy. This office boy, with the help of family in the form of loans, went on to own and operate some 25 other newspapers.
This corporation grew to be one of the most successful and expansive media conglomerates in the US: The E.W. Scripps Company.
Much later, in the mid-20th century, a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant who was only one of two people in her family to survive the holocaust as a young girl, brought her son to Queens, New York, while the young boy's father stayed behind in Europe. This young son, with dreams of becoming a rock star, changed his name to reflect one of his idols and formed a band. While disbanding and forming new bands, he also held odd jobs on the side. In the 70s, he finally found a group of band-mates with whom he fit and this group set out to be the ultimate rock group.
Three decades later, KISS became a mainstay in the music world with Gene Simmons as a marketing genius, first turning their music into music business and furthering his business to encompass many successful ventures of which most are aware of.
Around the same time but much further away, on a tiny little island very few people in the world knew about outside of those countries who occupied this island, a young man working for a bank pre-WWII decided to work as an insurance agent. When the war put his business on hold, he came back afterward, quitting his job at the bank and selling insurance by himself working out of his own home.
Years later, the patriarch of the Calvo family, Eduardo Calvo, expanded his business to encompass many other companies, becoming what is arguably the most successful family business on the island of Guam.
All three are examples of men who started small, worked hard and created a successful corporation based on that hard work. Further, all three went on to create families that benefited from their ventures, all the while instilling such virtues in their families.
All of this considered, I often wonder why people choose not to look into the readily available information about these families' origins when extolling the virtues of hard work, the little man, the self-made, the small businesses.
Recently, Eddie Calvo, an established politician - as many others have been from this same family - ran for the highest office in our local government. And, as expected, words were spoken about the monopoly his family has on the island and, more, could not separate the politician from the family business as Eddie has tried to do, personally. The Calvos and Eddie, in particular, were accused of not understanding the plight of the blue collar, the small business-owner, the people who were not born into wealth but had to work hard for it. Apparently, opponents don't seem to care about how this family started. They don't bother to get to know the people of this family, where they come from, how they raise their children or what they expect of those children who choose to be a part of the family business.
They've also ignored the simple fact that Eddie Calvo's opponent is not exactly the patriarch of a blue-collar family, that Gutierrez, for all he's said about being for the people, has not lived the hardships of the same people, what with his own mansion, his own money, his own ranch, he equally has been spared the struggle.
It makes me consider a comparison to another hugely successful and ridiculously wealthy family the world is all too familiar with: The Hiltons. One daughter was kicked out of school as a teenager and had to earn a GED. Another successfully graduated from high school with an actual diploma but, like her sister, chose not to pursue higher education and instead, also rode the coattails of her rich family. Both sisters used money endowed to them, but not truly earned, and a known family name to start their own businesses.
The Calvo family could have easily copied this model. But they did not. Like many others in the Calvo family, Eddie had to go to college and earn a degree, further earning a place in the family business.
I accept that the recent generations of Calvo family probably don't truly understand the struggles of the working class and those with significantly fewer possessions and opportunities. It's hard to understand a life one has been spared from. But this does not mean that a person born to opportunity does not understand the value of hard work. It also does not mean that such fortunate people are incapable of caring for those less fortunate.
One of the things Gutierrez's supporters have used to backup the claim that Gutierrez cares for the people is the fact that several people - not many and not most - have received help from Gutierrez, whether the aid was significant in bettering their family's lives or if it was a small, genuine act of kindness, the assumption being that Calvo does not have his own litany of kind acts under his belt. So where are the people who Calvo has been kind to?
Well, I'm right here. Upon being discharged from the hospital following the birth of my first son, a hurried Eddie Calvo raced down the hallway to exit the hospital. As he glanced over his shoulder briefly and spotted me, he proceeded to walk away when he turned to look at me and my son again. Despite his obvious rush, he decided to turn around and come to see us. As a new mother enamored with my newborn son, I was pleased to see someone excited so see my son as Eddie Calvo congratulated me and told me what a blessing becoming a parent was.
Just a couple short weeks later, as I celebrated the new life in my family, I mourned the loss of another life having lost my father. Because my father was the brother of a well-known politician and a beloved priest, his hospital viewing upon his death was not limited to family members. Many agency heads and politicians came to pay respects to my father. There was no separation of parties. Democrat leaders offered me kind words and comfort. There was no separation of current politicians and former ones. Public figures who did not hold current office also came to pay respects. Around this time, Eddie Calvo also learned that we were barely scraping by living in a small apartment on one of his family's properties that was previously just small enough for two adults, not big enough for our growing family. He made an offer to help us find a larger room that we could afford. We didn't take this offer but it was nonetheless appreciated.
During this hard time, I spoke to several public figures who were only one of many people who crowded the church during my father's funeral. And with the exception of a certain politician's wife, none of the other figures left me with a sense of politicking. They were a comfort when I needed it most.
There was one particular former politician who wasn't there, just as he wasn't there when my grandmother, his cousin, passed away five years prior.
I realize I am one person. But it would be naive to assume that I am only one of a small few.
Evidenced here is a person who came from a fortunate family that did not have a start in fortune. Evidenced here is a person who was capable of helping those who did not have his fortune and a kind person who cared about someone other than himself.
Most importantly, evidenced here is a success story of a small business of one growing into successful business that has housed, clothed, fed and educated a wealth of further generations of this successful family.
From my perspective, Eddie Calvo is a prime example of what small business ventures can create.
This corporation grew to be one of the most successful and expansive media conglomerates in the US: The E.W. Scripps Company.
Much later, in the mid-20th century, a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant who was only one of two people in her family to survive the holocaust as a young girl, brought her son to Queens, New York, while the young boy's father stayed behind in Europe. This young son, with dreams of becoming a rock star, changed his name to reflect one of his idols and formed a band. While disbanding and forming new bands, he also held odd jobs on the side. In the 70s, he finally found a group of band-mates with whom he fit and this group set out to be the ultimate rock group.
Three decades later, KISS became a mainstay in the music world with Gene Simmons as a marketing genius, first turning their music into music business and furthering his business to encompass many successful ventures of which most are aware of.
Around the same time but much further away, on a tiny little island very few people in the world knew about outside of those countries who occupied this island, a young man working for a bank pre-WWII decided to work as an insurance agent. When the war put his business on hold, he came back afterward, quitting his job at the bank and selling insurance by himself working out of his own home.
Years later, the patriarch of the Calvo family, Eduardo Calvo, expanded his business to encompass many other companies, becoming what is arguably the most successful family business on the island of Guam.
All three are examples of men who started small, worked hard and created a successful corporation based on that hard work. Further, all three went on to create families that benefited from their ventures, all the while instilling such virtues in their families.
All of this considered, I often wonder why people choose not to look into the readily available information about these families' origins when extolling the virtues of hard work, the little man, the self-made, the small businesses.
Recently, Eddie Calvo, an established politician - as many others have been from this same family - ran for the highest office in our local government. And, as expected, words were spoken about the monopoly his family has on the island and, more, could not separate the politician from the family business as Eddie has tried to do, personally. The Calvos and Eddie, in particular, were accused of not understanding the plight of the blue collar, the small business-owner, the people who were not born into wealth but had to work hard for it. Apparently, opponents don't seem to care about how this family started. They don't bother to get to know the people of this family, where they come from, how they raise their children or what they expect of those children who choose to be a part of the family business.
They've also ignored the simple fact that Eddie Calvo's opponent is not exactly the patriarch of a blue-collar family, that Gutierrez, for all he's said about being for the people, has not lived the hardships of the same people, what with his own mansion, his own money, his own ranch, he equally has been spared the struggle.
It makes me consider a comparison to another hugely successful and ridiculously wealthy family the world is all too familiar with: The Hiltons. One daughter was kicked out of school as a teenager and had to earn a GED. Another successfully graduated from high school with an actual diploma but, like her sister, chose not to pursue higher education and instead, also rode the coattails of her rich family. Both sisters used money endowed to them, but not truly earned, and a known family name to start their own businesses.
The Calvo family could have easily copied this model. But they did not. Like many others in the Calvo family, Eddie had to go to college and earn a degree, further earning a place in the family business.
I accept that the recent generations of Calvo family probably don't truly understand the struggles of the working class and those with significantly fewer possessions and opportunities. It's hard to understand a life one has been spared from. But this does not mean that a person born to opportunity does not understand the value of hard work. It also does not mean that such fortunate people are incapable of caring for those less fortunate.
One of the things Gutierrez's supporters have used to backup the claim that Gutierrez cares for the people is the fact that several people - not many and not most - have received help from Gutierrez, whether the aid was significant in bettering their family's lives or if it was a small, genuine act of kindness, the assumption being that Calvo does not have his own litany of kind acts under his belt. So where are the people who Calvo has been kind to?
Well, I'm right here. Upon being discharged from the hospital following the birth of my first son, a hurried Eddie Calvo raced down the hallway to exit the hospital. As he glanced over his shoulder briefly and spotted me, he proceeded to walk away when he turned to look at me and my son again. Despite his obvious rush, he decided to turn around and come to see us. As a new mother enamored with my newborn son, I was pleased to see someone excited so see my son as Eddie Calvo congratulated me and told me what a blessing becoming a parent was.
Just a couple short weeks later, as I celebrated the new life in my family, I mourned the loss of another life having lost my father. Because my father was the brother of a well-known politician and a beloved priest, his hospital viewing upon his death was not limited to family members. Many agency heads and politicians came to pay respects to my father. There was no separation of parties. Democrat leaders offered me kind words and comfort. There was no separation of current politicians and former ones. Public figures who did not hold current office also came to pay respects. Around this time, Eddie Calvo also learned that we were barely scraping by living in a small apartment on one of his family's properties that was previously just small enough for two adults, not big enough for our growing family. He made an offer to help us find a larger room that we could afford. We didn't take this offer but it was nonetheless appreciated.
During this hard time, I spoke to several public figures who were only one of many people who crowded the church during my father's funeral. And with the exception of a certain politician's wife, none of the other figures left me with a sense of politicking. They were a comfort when I needed it most.
There was one particular former politician who wasn't there, just as he wasn't there when my grandmother, his cousin, passed away five years prior.
I realize I am one person. But it would be naive to assume that I am only one of a small few.
Evidenced here is a person who came from a fortunate family that did not have a start in fortune. Evidenced here is a person who was capable of helping those who did not have his fortune and a kind person who cared about someone other than himself.
Most importantly, evidenced here is a success story of a small business of one growing into successful business that has housed, clothed, fed and educated a wealth of further generations of this successful family.
From my perspective, Eddie Calvo is a prime example of what small business ventures can create.
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