Part of History

Unification is the theme.

I lived in Germany through that history...No one expected it would happen or how..

Yet it did...

Students sit side by side....from cultures.....from all over the world...

Global ties for sure,...

It is what we are doing everyday.......

Just a Personal Update...for Friends

I am taking a little time out from soulful writing, maybe you have noticed!

But, I want to say several things to my true friends out there and those whom I have yet to meet but may like what I write.

Thank you, friends, maybe my mates on "The Ship of Friends",  for tuning in to my writing these two years.  It will not stop, just I am taking a short pause.

The book is now out in print and we are working on the second edition, "The Ship of Friends"....

Maybe, it is more powerful than the last one, "The Four Great Flashes of Life"....

The same people and spirit of love powered me through this one as fiercely as the last...

The really cool thing about Amazon is that you can get the book really fast (just type in my name and the title) and cheaply for $9.99 per copy.  BUT, if you and I know each other, just let me know and I will send you a complimentary copy!

This past essay or two, I really got back into myself as a social commentator.  I guess I will always be able to bring up the spirit of JFK as if he were alive today, that real.  You see, I was just 14 through 17 for those years of our lives when he was what all of us wanted and needed as a hero, a President, a voice for our generation, whatever politics we ended up with.  It was a real time, a real feeling, a real American leader we nearly all believed in.  Then it was gone.  Robert tried to carry that same torch. I saw him in person at Penn, one month before he was taken away from us.

We are all touched by heroes, some time sooner or later.  On the political playing field, on the gridiron, the stadium field, the Olympic stand, or in other powerful places and times...with children, these heroes show their love....thanks to Jacques Lowe, Kennedy photographer, for this picture of JFK and his young daughter and Jackie....

I am taking my breath and happy to share this new book with friends....
At my time of life, passion is a true gift, and keeps me going....
Passion starts when we are young with inspiration....
JFK did that for me and for millions of people who still remember those days...
They are all around us....
Let me know what you think...your message is for me priceless....

Mike

The Largest Gift….The Greatest Theft

Last year, I wrote a book for the young company presidents of the future….our business students of today.  In this book, I discussed how business schools, particularly East Coast US big name schools became hatching grounds for the most elegant hybrid and nefarious financial models….ideas and values and techniques which led up to and fed the Wall Street crises of the last several years.  Yes, that is it, the last several years…it was not just one year, and it is not over by a long shot.

Just this evening, May 10, 2011, on CBS News, the lead financial story focused on Mr. Perlman, an infamous hedge fund trader who is reported to have personally made out in the billions, not millions or hundreds of millions but billions on the Wall Street crash of Main Street.  The game goes on.  The names unfurl.  The tales balloon, even as most of us thought and hoped it was over.  No, the gaming goes on, and where is the SEC?  Has “insider trading” become the acceptable norm?

I remember when JFK was President.  Executives were hauled in from famous companies for “price fixing”.  Maybe it was the last big bust of business that we will ever see. It was on black and white TV.  There they were in shame.  Executives…for price fixing.  We have come a long way into the elixir of high level education and sophisticated business….the only lines of executives we see on TV is at the NFL box or at the teller’s window of investment banking.

An Ivy League institution made history today in announcing the largest ever gift to medical schools in US history.  $225 Million.  Very nice.  Congratulations to that family and to that medical school.  Seems small to be the largest gift in US history.  Compared to billions.

Apples and oranges?  All from the same orchard.  It is the fruit of this nation.  It is what we permit to be eaten and shared.  Large gifts….large thefts….we permit and seem to celebrate it all.

Thefts and gifts.  Maybe everything is connected, or is it?  One thing is for sure.  The picking of fruit is long underway and not all of it is fresh or delivered to market.  When a gift of this size is announced as the largest gift in US history to medical schools, and CBS news announces the same day that an individual hedge fund manager made billions, is there something wrong with this picture?

Business schools.  What are we saying about this?  I am, for one, not praising or adoring that hedge fund manager.  I am happy about that medical school and its relatively small gift in the scheme of things.  US history?  I suppose we are all taking that course….ongoing.

JFK….what would you have to say about this all today?  Thanks for what you tried to say.  I heard it then.  I hear it now.  I am not alone.