A Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

I’d like to take this opportunity to offer a suggestion that might benefit the country (as well as your reelection campaign). And because I perceive that the following frame of reference is important to whichever college intern reads this before it’s deposited into the circular file, or makes it one level up if I’m lucky (nothing against you intern), and perhaps even warrant a form letter response (dare to dream), I’ll tell you that I was a Democrat for 30 years (although I did vote for President Reagan) before I recently unaffiliated and am now an Independent.

I think you did a phenomenal job of using your skills to get elected President, but I don’t think you’re using your skills to be President. You are the President of the United States. You are the Leader of the free world. That’s what you have to do. You have to Lead.

You certainly were dealt a tough hand, but I think you could be accomplishing more than you have. Like it or not you’re not going to ram “The American Jobs Act” down the Republican’s throats, and when you blame the other side of the aisle in the court of public opinion you sound just as partisan as they do.

I thought you would have learned your lesson after giving Pelosi and Reid healthcare to reform when you first came into office. They used that opportunity to fan a flame that infuriated the masses enough to enable the Tea Party to help the Republicans gain control of the House, and fracture their party along the way so that now both sides of the aisle are dysfunctional. Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result.

What you need to do is apply your inherent strength – oratory - to our country’s current weakness – lack of national community. This is demonstrated in Washington by our embarrassing lack of partisanship and across the country in our ever increasing class polarization. And it manifests itself in our inability to agree on the economic reform its going to take to get the country moving in the right direction, and in so doing renew the “hope” that was the catalyst for many of us to vote for you in the first place.

You have to get the masses and the media to take the conversation up a notch. It’s not about Democrats vs. Republicans, it’s not about cutting stimulus and spending vs. raising taxes. It’s about; we’re all in a big hole together, and if we want to get out of it, we’re all going to have to give up something. Together.

Mr. President, instead of blaming the Republicans, instead of blaming Wall St., instead of blaming anyone, you need to get everyone’s buy in. And you will get everyone’s buy in, by demonstrating how to do it. I believe it starts with you serving everybody, not just the people who voted for you, not just the organizations you lobbied for endorsement and votes, anybody can do that. It's about you demonstrating how we're all going to have to give up something by serving the other side of the aisle. Yes, we’re going to have to cut stimulus spending. No we’re not going to be able to help college students right now (and I have/had sons in college), and yes we’re going to have to start receiving social security payments when we’re a little older.

Mr. President you’re going to have to wrap up some holiday gifts up for the Republicans so they can present them to their constituents - and enable them to save face when they make their fair share of concessions as well. Because we’re also going to have to raise taxes (let them call it cutting out the loopholes, and “modifying” the tax code). And we’re also going to have to "align" government employee benefits so they map to the benefits employees get in the private sector. And while we’re at it, to show us how it's done, our leaders in Congress’ are going to have to "tweak" their benefits so they reflect what the rest of us get as well because the only thing we've gotten from our two elected branches of government recently is a lower credit rating.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that it takes a war to bring us all together as one nation, but the good news is that we now have that war. It's called Infighting. And we all caused it so nobody is going to be able to keep their toys this year, or for the foreseeable future until we get the economy righted.

It’s been said on more that one occasion that great Presidents are made by serving in tough times. Well now you’ve got them. So Lead us out of them. Use this reality to bring us all together. Again. 

Sincerely,

Howie Fertig

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, Chevrolet, and the High Holidays!

If you’re Jewish and a baseball fan, there’s gotta be a special place in your heart for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As the vast majority of those reading this probably know, it started way back before SportsCenter and smart phones, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, with Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax foregoing important games at the end of the season and during the World Series respectively.

Then as fans we carried the torch, as kids in junior congregation or a cool parent in each synagogue across America would bring a transistor radio with an earpiece into the service, listen to the game, and like a  3rd base coach flashing signs, bring the rest of the congregation up to speed on the scores. I bet if you did social research on this these kids either grew up to commit adultery or give away trade secrets – unless they were busted by their parents or the junior congregation teacher Ms. Schwartz, the fear of that leaving a lasting impression on them so they became Secret Service, or TV sports anchors instead.

There are mystical qualities to both entities as well and this year has been no exception. Flash back to the 1st night of Rosh Hashanah which was the last night of the regular season. After dinner we had 7 guys watching 3 games simultaneously, at one point changing the channel after each pitch - as in each league the wild card favorites (Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves) were in the process of historic chokes, being overtaken by streaking teams (Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals) in the 162nd game of the season within about 30 minutes of each other. Then in services the next morn you read of Abraham almost killing his first born Isaac and being stopped by angels in the nick of time.

On Yom Kippur the holiday and American pastime symmetry continued as at night the National League leading Philadelphia Phillies were beaten in the first round by the aforementioned Cardinals at home, which came a night after the best of the American League New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers – at home. Both losers were the prohibitive favorites at the beginning of the season to meet in the World Series with the Phils beating the Yanks because good pitching beats good hitting, but that’s why they play the games. Meanwhile on the day of Yom Kippur we’re fasting and dreaming of delicacies (specifically a pastrami on rye with mustard and a Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda on the side, which was a change of pace – usually it’s sweet and pungent pork with fried wontons at Woo-Hop’s – downstairs thank you, reminiscent of the glory days of breaking fast at my mom’s and then driving to Chinatown to really break fast) while contemplating Jonah being the main course for a great fish that in the end actually had acid reflux.

As for the rest of the season(s), the Cards are going to the big dance because their opponents the Milwaukee Brewers' (has there ever been a more aptly named sports team?) star player Ryan Braun played on Yom Kippur (yes he’s only ½ Jewish on his father’s side and non-observant – according to the NYT, but homey don’t play that), and we’re rooting for the Detroit Tigers in the AL because we’d like a classic World Series matchup from 68 http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1968_WS.shtml to give us another opportunity to go back and forth between the past and present, as that’s what we start to do at this time of year.

And the way sports seasons have gotten stretched out – we should have a champ by Hanukkah!

Jobs as Einstein

The first thing “i" thought of when I heard that Steve Jobs died last night was that this as the end of an era. I’m not sure what the era will be defined as, but the passing of a guy that has affected the world this dramatically is the societal equivalent of seismic plates shifting underfoot.

Then this morning Carol said he was a genius, like Einstein. Like Einstein?! My first response was NFW, and not just as a knee jerk reaction because my wife said it ;-) Einstein “the brand” is hallowed ground. But the more I thought about it, what other single person has done so much over the last 25 years to change the way people live their lives? To change the way companies do business? If you go back to the advent of the personal computer he’s there with Bill Gates, and then Jobs pulls away.

He starts by creating the iPod, which becomes the standard in size, shape and ease of use for all handheld devices (remember Motorola flip phone?), and revolutionizes the music industry in the process. Then he adds a phone to it and creates the first all-in-one that actually works (think TV/VCR, or those TV/Cassette/FM radios you used to get when you opened a bank account). And on his way out he blows this up in size, like putting it on steroids, and cracks the code on the tablet. Even as we speak, companies, whole industries, are becoming completely portable, transforming the speed and efficiency of business around the world. And that efficiency translates into another reason why unemployment is where it’s at that gets overlooked, companies simply don’t need as many people to do the same amount of work. And along the way he’s changed our vocabulary, putting a one letter prefix in front of every word implies it’s technologically savvy (I thought of putting an i in front of every word in this but you get the point).

So once I got my head around all his tangible successes, I started to reflect on some of his intangible achievements;

- Beauty: who’s done a better job of marrying technology and modern design? Unless you fly to Copenhagen where else do you see that? To have any additional beauty in the world is a great thing.

- Leadership: where else have you seen one man shape something so large and so directly? As the book is written about him over time it’ll be interesting to see who actually did what, but at the end of the day it was his name on the line. Often you hear of leaders who are great visionaries, but to be great at execution as well (save the occasional prototype left in a restaurant) is rare. And to do it consistently over such a long time span…who does that? You kinda wonder what would happen if he was President? Of course he could never have that level of autonomy which is probably a big reason why he and others like him didn’t/don’t go into politics…

- Loyalty: for somebody that famous and that ill to be able to keep that level of privacy. The fact that no one leaked to the media that he was on his death bed when there’s so much focus on him, that respect is real proof of great leadership.

- Mortality: he was 56 years old. I’m 53. To be able to do what he did? You can’t help on some level to think from a career perspective, “what the f&%k have I accomplished?” Of course you can’t look at it that way, you’ve just gotta have gratitude for what he created, appreciate all that he accomplished, and use that as fuel to go out and live your dreams, as he apparently did his.

So yes, I guess he’s an Einstein, only instead of changing the way we look at the world, he changed the way we live in it daily. A guy who created a legendary brand has become the new “brand” for genius. What he accomplished was“Jobsian”.

Pet Peeve #1

I hate it when;
I go into the locker room at the gym, and no one’s there. I pick a locker, usually at an end or in a corner and before I claim it, I check the locker on either side and make sure nothing is in them so I have “my space”.
Then I finish my run or workout, come back in all sweaty, and either;
1- While I’m getting ready for a shower with my locker door open, another guy comes in and makes a beeline to the locker that’s right next to mine! What’s up with that? Or even worse…
2- I come in and he’s already set up camp. Has his stuff out on the bench right in front of my locker, towel laid out on the ground, and then when I go to open my locker, I sense that indignant vibe and I throw it right back, like, what the f*#& are you doing? Although that can be a little precarious…don’t want to get into a verbal dispute with your schmigick hanging out.
Anyway, I propose the following invention to alleviate this. Lockers should be the size of the individual. Just like in the Men’s Department, you got your 38 Regulars, you got your Big & Talls, and you have you boys department. Not bad. Eh? Thoughts…

The BAHG for the U.S. that will get us "back in the saddle again"

Mr. President,

I’d like to share the following idea which I believe will spur job growth in our economy, rally our country around one common goal, and provide tangible results for our economic future;

Make the United States Energy Independent Within the Next 10 Years. Period.

Much like President Kennedy did with his goal to land a man on the moon within 10 years, this is a compelling vision that is a BAHG (big-ass, hairy goal), but is achievable, with profound positive results for our country - and the world. Benefits include the following five;

1-Getting America back to work. We have a desperate shortage of American engineers. We simply do not have enough American engineers to fill the job openings we have, yet we have 9+% - 17% unemployment depending upon how you slice the statistics. Where’s the disconnect? Frankly, this simply isn’t seen as a sexy career path. We are shown celebrities as heros (don’t get me wrong, I admire Tom Hanks as much as the next 50 year old regular Joe) but the odds of me becoming him or any of us becoming LeBron, Oprah, or Justin Beiber, etc. are one in a million – or more. Compare that to the odds of becoming a mechanical engineer for instance, and earning an average salary of $82,000 according to Indeed.com. And this is just one example. I suspect that there are other positions that are not considered glamorous where we have a labor shortage. We simply need to wrap our kids, parents, educational institutions, and US businesses (both large and small) around it and motivate the retraining of America. Use some of that TARP money that the large financial and auto companies have paid back to (dare I say) “stimulate this” if we have to.

2-Growing our economy. By creating more middle class jobs in the U.S. and creating job growth within the small business community we’ll create more consumer spending and we know what happens then.

3-Developing a new competitive differentiator that is desired by other countries and can be exported.

4-Creating additional leverage in international relationships with other countries. How can this not give us more options in making our country safe and secure and helping to create more peace in the world?

5-Protecting our environment. Assuming that a greater percentage of this energy will be clean based on current R&D trends.

I’m not going to go long and deep on this because frankly you and your team are a lot smarter than me, but frankly and with all due respect, since you didn't reach for this after the BP cluster f&*k (as the timing would have been great), and after you did such a great job capturing our attention again after the tragedy in Tucson, I think you can tee this up now and we can pull it off in fine bipartisan fashion. I think this is a no-brainer.

Your fellow citizen,

Howie Fertig