Water Cooler Conversations

Written by Pat Perry
President, ERC 

Over the past few weeks our country lost two individuals who made a profound impact on our country - Tim Russert and George Carlin.  Very different people with dramatically different styles, perspectives and occupations. One reverent, respectful thoughtful and religious…the other…quite the opposite.  One tried to keep people honest, the other brutally honest to the point of being offensive to some.

Though they were very different people they shared some commonalities - they were both admired by their peers, won industry awards and were best selling authors.  Most importantly, they both made us think about ourselves, our country and our cultures.   

They used their minds, researched their topics and reached out to Americans to send a similar message in different ways - challenge the status quo. Our country will miss both as they kept us and others on their toes. 

Rest in peace gentlemen…job well done.

Written by Pat Perry
President, ERC 

Well here we go…the politicians are at it again.  The mud- slinging amongst the Presidential candidates has started coincident with the need for Primary votes.

The campaigns are straying away from the issues at hand and becoming personal.  Unfortunately, this is nothing new.

Can you imagine behaving like this at work?  The name calling, the spin and the acts of desperation are quite incredible - most children do not even act this way. 

I listen to my teenage daughter and her friends’ talk about this campaign - they are pretty unimpressed with us adults.  She looks at me and asks if this is the best the country has to offer?   I feel bad for her as I do for our country.  Not sure if what we see playing out on television during the debates and coverage is what the fore-fathers had in mind.

The name calling and stereotypes are the worst - not only is it inappropriate but on a national scale it seems to polarize this great country of ours.

So get ready.  As the weather starts heating up over the next few months so will the remaining campaigns.  My guess is that their words and name calling will only get worse, hoping that in the end some of the voters will stoop to their levels and actually believe all this nonsense.  Some of the candidates are probably hoping we will vote for someone because they are black, white or female - which of course has nothing to do with the real requirements of the President.

At that point, I will be tempted to call the Presidential hopefuls a few names, none of which includes the name Leader.