Just bear with me…because I don’t get it.  I’m always for women in politics (well, except for Sarah Palin)…but Meg Whitman just rubs me wrong for the governorship for a number of reasons. 

First of all, it feels so out of touch with the regular folk for someone to spend $81M ($71 of her own funds) on a political PRIMARY campaign in a state where there is well above 12% unemployment.  Maybe she could have quietly created 2500 one year positions instead at $30K salaries and let grass roots buzz carry her.  I know.  Just a drop in the bucket, but somehow that might have generated a great positive feeling about how she was going to create jobs, rather than spending oodles on creating just ONE job for herself. 

Second, she was the CEO of E-Bay after  progressive career hops throughout the 90′s.  At the helm, there is no question that she took a very small business and turned it into one of the most successful companies ever.  She is a brilliant business woman.  She created a structure that allowed for a unique and successful branding exercise and as a result the company experienced exponential growth.  Personally, I worked for 10 years for a company that also experienced exponential growth.  In growth mode, it is easy to be creative, grow, and aim for bigger, better more.  It is worth noting that many of  Whitman’s career gains came after the dot com bubble burst and she left e-Bay before this new great depression/recession.  

Third, she did take one company from financial ruin to success (FTD).  It has been  reported that her methods met with a great deal of in-fighting and problems in her dealings with subordinates, employees and flower vendors, which is an indicator of a company cultural conflict.  The culture of the company held one position and the change required dictated a cultural change that was not accepted by her staff.  She resigned after 4 years.  So she was able to make the tough decisions for the financial solvency and growth of the company, but at the cost of the people.  That is truly a corporate big business approach.  It is different when your salary comes from the taxpayers and when all the people in the government are taxpayer paid.  People are not quite as expendable in pursuit of profitability. 

Traditional growth restructure doesn’t work in this new economic world.  And the government machine isn’t about profits, even though it should break even more than it can be in the red and California is in a terrible fiscal position.  Cutting the 40,000 jobs she intends to cut will help government spending, but also result in 40,000 more unemployed workers.  I’ve been on both ends of the change management cycle.  I’ve been the one to come in and give the ax and I’ve also been axed as a result of change structure.   There is nothing morale-building on either end of change.  

So, yes, I’m questioning her ability to handle a non-corporate budget crisis in a horrible econonomy coupled with polarized government (yes… the government that allows “secret holds” at federal level to block Obama appointees from being inducted into their positions…but that’s ANOTHER post.)

Would I want Whitman as an advisor?  Yes.  Even though I’m a Democrat, her experience at a wide range of companies and her meteoric reshaping of e-Bay would make me want to have her experience as a sounding board.  Although it would likely never happen, I’d like to see Jerry Brown give the state a shot again and see what he can do, with Whitman as business advisor.  Improbable because they’d never see eye to eye, but possibly unique enough to impact both the political and economic impasses.  Just a little primary reflecting.

Perhaps I’m just naive about equalizing the pressure from the oil driving up the surface and the efforts to plunge heavy mud against it until it holds the oil at bay, but I had two distinct thoughts when the explosion and resulting leak happened.  The first surrounded the story of the little Dutch boy who saved Holland from disaster by plugging a hole in the dike with his finger.  You see a hole with liquid gushing out and you put in a stopper.  You plug a hole.  However you have to do it, you plug the hole. 

This led to thought #2.  So why has it taken so long for this method to be engaged (which may not work because the pressure may cause a burst surrounding the current leak and create a worse leak)?  The first attempts were to a) drop a cone over the leak and continue to salvage the oil; and b) to siphon the oil to the surface and salvage the oil. 

The heavy mud method followed by concrete plug doesn’t salvage oil.  It stops it.  No oil. No money.  No matter what the cost to BP for making repairs to the damages caused by the oil, if they are able to continue harvesting the money, their loss will eventually be paid for by the continued revenue stream of the oil they capture.  That, in my opinion, is why the oil isn’t plugged yet.  Because of money.  Because future oil revenues will stop if the leak is plugged.  Because the bazillions (?) of dollars of investment in a rig that exploded killing 11 men and injuring many more is a lot of money.  Because money is more important to this empire than the creatures that live on it, the men and women working for the empire, or the planet we are destroying. 

I’m sure many of us, with our unscientific solutions have thought of ways to stop the oil.  And even if some of us may have stumbled upon a right idea, it still wouldn’t matter — because we would be thinking of how to stop the oil…not salvage the well. 

The rich, rich, who have their money tied up in oil aren’t thinking about the vast destruction of marine life or of the devastation to the industries that rely on the Gulf.  They are watching, with deep sadness, and possibly despair, as they see their financial portfolios take a ding as this well gets capped. 

And if there REALLY is no known way to completely and effectively stop the leak, then shame on all of humanity and all the governments that lie in bed with them for allowing a company like BP to become powerful enough to build an off-shore well with no knowledge of how to protect our waters and the life that depends on them for survival.

If you think about it, though, one person made the decision to build an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.  You can say that a Board of Directors at BP made the decision, but ultimately, one person put the idea out there and pushed it forward.  One person did something wrong in the construction that caused a weakness and ultimately an explosion.  Doesn’t matter who, for the sake of this argument — but it could have been an overtired worker, engineer, planner, who put or didn’t put, the wrong thingamajiggee in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Or didn’t adequately tighten a bolt.  Or who was smoking next to flammable materials.  Or who approved sub-standard materials in construction.  Who knows?  But it was likely one person who did one wrong thing that has killed a whole bunch of workers and now, untold amounts of marine and marine-dwelling life.

If a nuclear bomb went off, it would be one person who would be responsible for that decision.  In whatever country, at whatever time.  One person would say “go”, or one person would punch in a key code, or one person would turn a key, or one person would push a button, and our world would change forever. 

The earth will continue, even if we destroy it.  But human life and the creatures who live on earth could very well end.  Because of one person.

The general belief is that it takes less muscles to smile than to frown.  But according to one plastic surgeon, who looked at the basic muscle functions needed to create a smile and a frown, it takes 12 muscles to smile and 11 to frown.  One more muscle to go to good from not so good. 

Then, there is the myth of the 100th monkey (thanks to reader, Shelley, for passing that along yesterday), which was based on a real study of monkeys using water to wash sand from yams set out for them on a beach.  As one monkey washed sand off the yams, other monkeys followed suit.  Eventually all the food gatherers washed sand off their yams.  They didn’t achieve critical mass in that the behavior didn’t spread outside their small group, but the concept is heart-warming. 

I’m going to stick with the one more muscle to smile than frown theory, because as I look around my world, I seem to see more people frowning than smiling.  Just a little more effort might be needed to smile.  And as anyone who knows me knows…I’m a smiler.  I’m constantly using that extra muscle.  What if I apply that to the effort I might need to be the one person who adds to the critical mass to make the world a cleaner, healthier, better nutrified, more responsible and respectful place to be?  And what if you do that too?  Then we all add muscle to positive direction. 

My choices?  Shopping local — going to the Tapia Brothers farm down the street and to my local Farmers market.  To grow vegetables.  To compost and put my landfill back into the earth.  To eat grass-fed, free-range beef.  To purchase only free-range poultry and egg.  To avoid corn and soy fillers (and most preserved food).  To impact the multi-national businesses with my few dollars and cents.  To continue to walk 4-5 miles a day.  To be a creature of the planet.  To be kind to animals.  To give love to my child, my family and to humanity.  To be  mensch on this planet.  One person.

What’s your choice?

Having all come from Canada, in our youth, our parents would, once or twice a year, order a side of beef from the local farmer and deep-freeze it — and families would take out a piece for a roast, or steaks — throughout the course of  the year.  All the meat from one animal, cleaned and cut by one farmer, after having lived a life of grass-grazing in acres of grazing farmland.  I had forgotten how that meat tasted.  Slightly gamey, rich and delicious.

So, we were all blown away when we tasted the different steaks.  The grass-fed, free-range meat tasted EXACTLY like the meat all of us remembered.  And, seriously, we had forgotten the true taste of meat.

Last night, I sat myself down and watched Food, Inc.  And it shook me to my core.  I truly hadn’t realized (or hadn’t wanted to realize) how food got to our tables.  There were two things that got me in my gut.  The first was the indignity and lack of respect for the animals we eat.  When you looked at the free-range animals against those in the meat industries version of concentration camps for cows, pigs and chickens, there was no question.  The free-range animals were not stressed, eating what nature intended them to eat and looked healthy.  The meat industry animals lived and died in abject fear.   Not an ounce of respect for creatures of this planet — regardless if they were being bred for our consumption or not — just absolute disrespect for their living, breathing existences.   That was the first.  The second insult to my sensibilities was the image of the cows standing in, living in, and dying, in their own excrement.  Up to their knees in sh**.  Literally.  Watching their excrement covered carcasses being cleaned and treated made it a no-brainer to realize how e-coli was working its way into our food.

So…I’m done.  Yesterday (after years of becoming more and more back in touch with nature), I decided that I was shifting my food consumption to fully organic.  Pesticide, hormone-free, free-range, corn filler-free, soy filler-free organic.  No more fast food pit stops (because I’ll likely be ill if I do.)  No more chocolate filled with high fructose corn syrup or any of the million differently named preservatives.  I figure if I don’t know what that ingredient on the label is…well, then I should probably not eat it.

What can I control vs. what can I not control?  Well, I certainly can’t control the meat, produce, and manufactured consumables industries.  But I can control what I choose to purchase.  I can go to the Tapia Brothers farmers just 2 blocks from my home and purchase their in-season produce.  I can go to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and purchase only certified organic.  I can try to find grass-fed cows and free-range chickens and farmers who aren’t using genetically-altered soy bean seeds (of the few that are able to still survive the monopoly hammers on their heads.)  I can and so, I will.   I walk about 5 miles a day and yet I can’t rid my mid-section of a roll of fat.  Well, I’m pretty sure, that just as the cows and chickens become super-marbled with fat in record time, the same is happening to me.  I’d make a delicious meal, most likely, for a tribe of cannibals.  But rather than wait until diabetes claims me, I’m making the move to better food choices today.  Even though money is tight.  Even though it costs more.  Even though.

Here’s just the first few minutes.

Because I get her articles on a feed (like many of you do with my posts), I don’t often take the time to comment on her articles directly.  But there was one point she made today that resonated with me, greatly, that I want to share with you. 

I did look at a lot single family home listings. There was a charming Victorian in my price range that I kept going back to and a few others with (relatively) small yards that I liked. But most also had stairs, sometimes quite a lot, to the front door and many of the most attractive were two-stories with the bedrooms upstairs.

I’m fine with that now, but I don’t know how much longer that will be so. An elevator building or first-floor apartment, as I chose, are better bets for old age – I don’t want to have my bed in the dining room someday.

Bizarrely, just this past week, I picked up my niece from a playdate (my sister had some kidney surgery, so I was super aunt for the week) and as I was talking to the little girl’s mom, I noticed a bed in the living/dining room.  The mother told me that this was, in fact, her grandmother’s house, and her 96 year old grandmother, who could no longer navigate stairs now had her (hospital) bed in the dining room.  She moved from dining room bed, to eat at the dining room table, and back to bed again.  No doubt she enjoyed the life in the house and having her granddaughter close by.  I stopped and chatted with the grandmother for awhile (because when you meet a 96-year old, you really should talk to them a bit…you never know what you’ll learn — this grandmother was appalled at how little of LA current Angelenos actually knew.  She had travelled all over LA by the now extinct  famous electric streetcars that actually supported commuting and didn’t impact the environment!)

I couldn’t get the image out of mind — this woman in her lifelong home — getting ready to die in her dining room.  And that is the image that shot into my mind as I read Ronni’s post. 

I can only hope that as I make my own transitions from decade to decade I can be logical enough to make the right, tough decisions for my own future.

Excellent insights.

My message to anyone who doesn’t believe that all Americans should have affordable healthcare (and yes, I believe 100% in a single payer system, with supplemental insurance plans available to “up” your coverage), then you really need to talk to some of my readers, and some of my friends.   For some reason, those against supporting healthcare reform, truly believe that those who don’t have coverage just don’t work hard enough…and that if they DID work hard enough, they could then afford healthcare.  Talk to my colleagues who are, at VP levels, still looking for work after TWO jobless years.  Talk to the VP next door, who had to fire almost all the people at the company he was working for…and then terminate himself.  Two years ago and not a single prospect on the horizon.  Talk to me, and everyone like me – small business owners who represent a huge part of the fabric of entrepreneurs in this country…who can’t even contemplate bringing on employees and offer them healthcare.

It doesn’t matter if this particular healthcare reform bill touches on all the bases.  The reality is that it is a start toward fostering a healthy American population.  Healthy, educated Americans, make for a healthy, educated, and entrepreneurial middle class.  I’m all for it.

Aaaahhhh…good idea to take this shower.  But the water table is still low, so better not take too long a shower.  That’s very green of me.  Gee, I hope that man who emailed  me about his frustration with retooling his skill set has found a path in renewable energies.  Interesting that I’m thinking about jobs when I’m about to sell my home and move up to a new home.  Wonder if I’ll get my new home in time for the tax incentive?  Wonder if there will be enough inventory on the market to find a home?  Damn banks.  Anyway, who cares about the banks when there has just been such devastation in Haiti and Chile?  Interesting how the news seems to have completely forgotten about both Haiti and Chile and are back to talks of broken government.  Such a ridiculous system — two parties that can checkmate each other chronically and never get America moving.  Such rhetoric.  Wonder what would happen if the politicians weren’t allowed to speak?  Only text message? 

That really got me thinking.  The art of conversation is falling a bit by the wayside — people don’t phone anymore…they text.  Men text to ask for a date.  Women break up relationships via text.  In my business, the majority of communication with my team is via text messaging…ditto with my clients.  For those of you who don’t text, basically you have 140 characters to send a message (Twitter works the same way.) So imagine you want to meet your friend for lunch at Il Tramesino on Thursday…here’s how the “conversation” might go…

You:  Lunch Thurs? Il Tram in Encino?

Friend: Thurs no.  Fri, M, W good.  U?

You: M.  C u @ noon?  Want me 2 pick u up? LMK

Friend: Works, BFF.  Pick me up @ home.  Calling in sick.  LOL!  C u Mon.

Lots of shorthand.  C= see, U=you, 2=two, @=at, LMK=let me know, BFF=best friend forever,  LOL=laughing out loud.

The shorthand naturally develops out of necessity — not enough characters to waste on longhand.  And most color commentary is shorthand, like LOL.  When you need to send a more complicated message, there are not enough characters for fluff, feelings, or lots of explanation, sp  texts can be quite “cold”.  As a result,  texters add emoticons (smiley faces, frowns, hearts) to help clarify the tone of the text.  It is nearly impossible to spew rhetoric in a text.  The message just gets to the point. 

So what if politicians could ONLY communicate via text message?  All positioning and posturing would naturally disappear, and politicking as we know it would have to change — to focus on just the issues and not the fluff surrounding positioning.  Image how…

 Dems and Reps wud TM the US re: pros & cons in health care battle. 

D: Single payer!

R: No. 

D: Public option. 

R: No! 

D: 4 the people?

R: NO!  Umm Yes…4 the business people!

D: Insurance Cos not working w/4 all Americans

R: Yes they r. Make profits 4 stockholders

D: Sarah Palin’s family went 2 Cda 4 medicare. 

R: Uhhhhhhh…