We celebrate the wrong things

This past week, it was announced that US forces were finally pulling out of major Iraqi cities for good, as part of the steady drawdown of troops, preparatory to leaving the country entirely in the next two years. This should have been a cause of great public notice, and, I would think, a celebration. American men and women of our armed forces are going to come home in greater numbers. Our presence in a country where we probably never should have been in the first place is being lessened. The Iraqi people are getting their nation back. This is great news!

Unfortunately, the story of the American combat pullback from Baghdad was seventh on the list of news stories behind the death of Michael Jackson, the speculation on the cause of death of Michael Jackson, the outpouring of shock and grief and adulation for Michael Jackson, the debate over which drugs Michael Jackson may or may not have been taking, the plans for his memorial service and whether or not fans would be able to score tickets for said memorial service.

Let's be realistic here. This is a man who produced an enviable string of hit songs and electrifying performances in his fifty years (I thought "Thriller" was a great video, myself). However, he was also a clearly troubled soul. It's obvious to everyone now that he suffered from a nearly debilitating, and ultimately fatal, addiction to painkillers, including a drug that is so sedating it's used to intentionally create intravenously induced comas. He had this medication in his HOUSE. His increasingly bizarre stretch of plastic surgeries appeared to cause his face to nearly collapse on itself. This is not a person who ever had a firm grasp on what the rest of us would call reality. To call him freakish would do a great disservice to freaks everywhere, both living and dead. And how shall we say this next part delicately? Michael Jackson was a pedophile.

But that's what was being celebrated, and that's where I gnash my teeth. The Martin Luther King Holiday is treated as an extra day off in January, rather than a chance to reflect on the contributions of one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century. He was our Nelson Mandela; a man who's wisdom, decency and inner strength, as well has his extraordinary words, transcended the petty meanness, bigotry and hatred of his day, and showed everyone around him what the words of the Declaration of Independence really meant. Thomas Jefferson wrote that "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". It took Abraham Lincoln, then Dr. King a century later, to bring those words to meaning. I wish we celebrated Dr. King and his remarkable legacy every year with the same zeal and devotion that Michael Jackson has been given in the past week.

Manny Ramirez returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup yesterday. Thousands of Dodger fans showed up at Petco Park in San Diego, with Manny's trademark bandannas and dreadlocks, to welcome him back with a fanaticism of a long lost rock star. Like the late Mr. Jackson, Manny was always a unique and undeniable talent. He's arguably the greatest run-producing machine of his generation. At the same time, he's the worst possible man to hold up as a role model. He plays with indifference, a complete lack of hustle and focus, and indeed utter scorn for what matters in the game. Personal integrity is of no interest to him. The reason he's returning to the Dodgers is he just finished serving a 50 game suspension from Major League Baseball after being caught using performance enhancing drugs. This isn't "rumored" use, he tested positive. Manny cheated. And Dodgers fans are welcoming him back as a conquering hero. In the words of CBS Sports columnist Scott Miller, "Despicable. Absolutely, positively downright despicable."

Accountability seems not to exist much anymore. Like it or not, public figures such as Michael Jackson and Manny Ramirez become role models by virtue of their fame, and when they behave in a way that, if it were your child, you'd be horrified, the truth should be spoken.

Today, I celebrate the greatness of America and her citizens, the everyday heroes who protect our borders, mothers and fathers and grandparents who strive to raise their kids in a safe and loving environment, and the freedoms expressed in our founding documents, embodied by the honest, good works of people who do the right thing, day in and day out. Play the game right, fight for what's good about America, and speak up for your freedoms, but don't condone the behavior of those with whom you wouldn't want to watch the fireworks with your children sitting nearby. Celebrate with a full heart and clear conscience. And drive safely.

Life moves pretty fast

...you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Quick. What movie was that from? Anybody? Anybody? Gold star for all who immediately answered “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.

The line’s been resonating with me, and it’s becoming increasingly apparent that lately, it's true. I wrote in a previous post that when my job was eliminated, I not only didn’t panic, but I had a distinct sensation that I’d land on my feet, or as my late grandmother liked to say, fall forward. In fact, there’s been a persistent little voice that’s been saying “hey, it’s their loss, dude, not yours. They’re going to come looking for you again sometime and you’ll be long gone, happy as a clam elsewhere. Too bad, so sad”. (We won’t get into a deep analysis of the Voices and the inner conversations we have in this post, ok? Perhaps another time).

So back to my point: Ferris was, and is correct. I’ve had some time to work on getting my resume in order – an ongoing work in progress, and my third floor office in shape – ditto. The dogs are happy to have daddy home during the day for extra walkies and the occasional snuggle, and P likes that I can take care of nagging little errands like food shopping, CVS, etc so she doesn’t have to worry about them on a time-compressed rush hour. It’s fun to have time to cook dinner, as well. P has always been, and continues to be the most incredible partner a man could ask for, and a day doesn’t go by that I don’t remind myself I’m the luckiest guy I know.

I’m very pleased to say that prospects are already appearing and preliminary interviews (plural) have begun. Confidence breeds confidence, so when you get one organization expressing serious interest, followed by another, that makes each day so much easier. I’ve found myself quite busy every day, from before 9 to after 6, returning calls and emails, researching people and companies, networking with friends and checking items off the to-do list. No tv, no naps and no “it’s 2;00, I’m going to call it a day”.

The new laptop is on its way. I’m very excited about that. Since my time at Cybersmith, I’ve always advised folks in the market for a new computer to get the biggest, most overhorsepowered, fastest system they can afford, since the technology will be speeding past them so fast it won’t be long before they’re overtaken by the most basic, entry level units. I followed my own advice, and I think my new Dell notebook will be a pretty decent thoroughbred for a little while. It won’t have a resource crippling encryption program that would slow it to the crawling speed of a maimed narcoleptic, and the battery will last more than 20 minutes. I’m proceeding on the assumption that in time it might need to house a sizeable database that will suck up all available RAM, so in the meantime it should be plenty capable of handling lesser chores. The color will be business black.

What never ceases to humble me is how wonderfully supportive and helpful my friends and former colleagues have remained. Lots of leads, good ideas, offers to make introductions to potential prospects and a number of great recommendations, some of which were even factually accurate! Again, thank you thank you thank you to everyone, and keep the good wishes pouring in. Karma matters.

Starting the new reality

First off, I want to give a huge, warm and grateful virtual hug to everyone who has written, called, emailed, texted and been so very supportive in the past week. This transition to whatever is coming next has already taught me some valuable lessons, including how very blessed I am to have family, friends and former coworkers who care so much. Thank you thank you thank you. By the way, please don’t stop reaching out. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and nobody can finish a long race without support.

Secondly, to answer the most often asked question, I’m really ok. Yes, it sucks to lose your job, but it’s happened to me before, it’ll likely happen again, and as much as it feels like a punch to the solar plexus, I know it’s not the end of the world. I’m already hard at work figuring out what’s next and how to get there. Networking, resume revisions, networking, planning, networking, strategizing, networking and a little more networking. Last night, I was given a phenomenal gift for which I’m not sure I have adequate words. I met more than two dozen friends from my now-former office in Waltham for drinks, appetizers and a lot of laughs. I received a card and a very generous gift, but the real present was sitting with my buddies one last time as a group. The way I had always characterized the company (back when it was something other than what’s it’s become more recently) was a “Three Musketeers” organization: all for one and one for all. For all kinds of reasons that aren’t relevant here, it isn’t that anymore. This group represented what made me so very proud to be there. I was part of a phenomenal team, not just of smart, dedicated and talented people (though they were all of that, to be sure). I enjoyed being with everyone. Difficult meetings, lunch, dinner, travel, client work, it was all better because of who I worked with. Of course I’ll miss my clients and the work, but it’s the coworkers that mattered most. Last night was a bittersweet reminder, but one that I’ll treasure always.

So I’ve got a new, improved resume (want to see it? Let me know and I’ll send it to you), a revised linkedin.com profile, replete with a growing garden of recommendations http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsgreene29 , and I’m in the market for a new laptop, since although I am very much enjoying my third floor office at home, I fully expect to continue to be a road warrior in the next incarnation, and the laptop I had been using didn’t belong to me, so it had to stay when I left. Someone should probably tell the new recipient that the battery only lasts about 20 minutes. That’ll suck, but hey, it’s an SEP now (Somebody Else’s Problem…go read the five books of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy for the background on that).

In the meantime, along with taking advantage of new quality time with P and the dogs, I’m using this opportunity to pursue a couple things I’ve always wanted to spend more time on: writing and community service. I believe that everyone has a book inside them, waiting to get out. Not everyone’s will be a best seller, but the process of exploration through writing has always allowed me to distill inchoate emotions into something more substantive and, for me, meaningful. Don’t ask what the book will be about. I have no idea yet. It might not even be a book. Perhaps freelance writing, where I could earn tens or even dozens of dollars. Don’t rush me, sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles. (Thank you, Billy Crystal)

The community service jones goes back to my time in Washington, DC in the early 90’s. My AmeriCorps experience put the hook in me, and other than a couple summers of coaching Babe Ruth league baseball in Waltham, I haven’t had nearly enough opportunities to scratch that itch. That ends now. I’m looking into a few different local organizations, including the local Boys and Girls Club and a Special Olympics event next month. I’m sure I’ll find more. Dr. King hit the nail on the head “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve”. I’ve had the desire, now I have the time. No reason not to, I say. Besides, who knows where it will lead?

So that’s the latest update. Stay tuned, and please don’t stop the good wishes and positive thoughts. As my dear friend Myndi likes to say “It’s all good”.

One day the axe just fell

My position was eliminated. That’s how I was told I was suddenly unemployed. No longer the most senior of my little group in Professional Services. Gone. Today. There’s no good way to tell someone that they’re out of a job, though my now-former VP did his job the best he could, and the way that he was supposed to. My now-former boss was on the phone, as was an HR person from our main office in Pennsylvania. “Your position has been eliminated”. Takes a minute to sink in. Sorry, Charlie. Thanks for the four-plus years, three dozen clients, eight major user community conventions and god knows how many road trips. You have until 5pm today. That’s actually far better than “we need to escort you from the building right now”. I’ve seen that happen at other places. This was done with some sense of humanity, which can’t be discounted. I had time to clean out my desk, take personal files off my work laptop, and say goodbye to friends and coworkers. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

Everyone saw it coming, in a general sense. When your business is working with clients who are doing charitable fundraising and everything remotely related to money, charity and disposable income has just dried up like a mirage in the Sahara, there’s an inevitable trickle down effect to all concerned. The fact that I had just finished a long, difficult project didn’t matter. For the foreseeable future, I wasn’t going to be doing a whole lot to earn my keep. It also didn’t matter that I personally had no control over what gets sold and handed to me to work on.

It was a great four-plus years. Wonderful coworkers, great clients, interesting software, fascinating industry. The company had some issues to be sure, but doesn’t every organization? It didn’t detract from the bottom line, which was that I loved my job, right up to the moment that I was told I no longer had one.

The good news is that friends, coworkers, former coworkers, and even people in the industry have already started to appear out of the woodwork with good wishes, virtual (and real) hugs, and even possible leads. In the short term, I think it very likely that I’ll be doing training and consulting on a contracting basis. Long term, I’m not sure. I do know the universe’s machinery seems to be kicking into motion, and gears are turning. I don’t know how it'll turn out quite yet, but I’m not as devastated as I might otherwise be. You see, I’ve been laid off before, and in vastly stranger and scarier circumstances than today. My mom is fond of saying that you always have options, and my dad likes to say that everything happens for a reason. And they’re pretty damn smart. There is good news: P is very well employed, and the health insurance is through her company. My car’s paid off, and hers will be as of this month. And I have to simply believe, however naively, that this is going to work out. It has every other time I’ve been laid off, and I’m far more credentialed now, with more contacts and more experience. Then again, this is a lousy climate in which to hunt for a job.

Perhaps the first order of business will be a glass of red wine and some Chinese food. That's what Jews do. When the going gets tough, have an eggroll. The rest will sort itself out after that.

Stay tuned for coming episodes in the saga.

The Kindle Conundrum

I have a complex relationship with technology. Of course I'm a software trainer by day, so workwise I'm pretty well lost without my laptop. The online universe remains the main conduit to the world for my job and the basis for my primary methods of communication with a goodly chunk (though certainly not all) of my personal life. Parents, family and friends who may be miles or continents away are mere clicks away whenever I want. The cell phone, iPod, laptop and GPS aren’t luxuries anymore. They’re parts of living in the society now. I’ve got two blogs of my own, I belong to a few social networking sites, and P and I text each other far more often than we speak on the phone.

At the same time, though some of the complaints of a marauding reliance on all things electronic may sound like the nonsensical ravings of fuddy duddy luddites, they aren’t necessarily off base. If you think about it, many of us are losing the art of face to face conversation, forgetting the importance and charm of writing a proper note and the appreciation of curling up with a good book. That brings me to my present dilemma: I can’t decide whether or not to get a Kindle. You’re familiar with Kindles, right? The Kindle is amazon.com’s ultra-cool, sleek, amazingly well-designed e-book reader. Amazon.com introduced its first version of the Kindle in November of 2007. They’re on version 3 now. The Kindle’s screen doesn’t look like a monitor so much as it looks exactly like ink on paper. The device is about as thick as a pencil and lighter than your average paperback. It has free, built-in internet access, and can store more than 1,500 books. You also get instant access to periodicals, newspapers, blogs, you name it. You can annotate, bookmark, browse new amazon.com offerings and download from a selection of hundreds of thousands of titles nearly instantly. The reader is $360. There’s a newer, large format edition, optimized for textbooks and full-face newspapers that retails for about $100 more. Titles are around $10 per download. The initial investment is a tad steep, but after that, it’s well worth it. The money isn’t the issue.

I’ve held one of these babies in my hand. It’s sexy as hell. There’s no other word for it. The thing just feels perfect. Light but solid, balanced and intuitively laid out. I’ve polled friends who have them, and everyone I’ve asked who owns a Kindle swears by it. They wouldn’t leave home without it, which for me is the point since much of my book reading takes place when I’m on the road, and lightening my carry on load is always key. So why don’t I own one yet? That’s the tricky part. For all my comfort with and reliance on technology, I’m not an early adopter. I don’t get gadgets for the sake of gadgetry. I’ve got a terrific cell phone which I love (and it’s a texting monster), but I don’t own a blackberry or an iPhone, and I’m not part of the twitterati. To paraphrase Seinfeld, not that there’s anything wrong with them, they’re just not me.

My problem with the Kindle has nothing to do with the Kindle per se. I love books. I enjoy the old fashioned ritual of book reading. I like checking out the cover art, and reading the marketing blurb on the back cover. I love taking the measure of a book in a store, holding it in my hand, feeling its weight, and determining whether this feels like a book I want to read. I love the ritual of reading, holding the book in my hands, turning the page, tucking my boarding pass in the back and using old boarding passes as bookmarks. I like picking it up partway through and assessing from the bookmark's position how much further I have to go to completion, and I still get a frisson of satisfaction mixed with loss when I read a book’s last lines and put it down, chalking it up once and for all in the mental read-cover-to-cover column. I admire bookshelves. Strictly speaking they're nothing but storage space, but they also tell stories in and of themselves. Although we still have a dozen boxes of books in our basement that never got unpacked when we moved to Maynard almost three years ago, I like having them, storage or not. There’s a ritual to book reading that the electronic screen can’t replicate, even a screen as admittedly great as the Kindle’s. Sony has a very good e-book reader, as do others (a coworker just got a Sony), but if I were to get an electronic reader, it would definitely be the Kindle. However, that remains an if.

The ritual of newspaper reading was easy to get over, as I have no problem reading newspapers online (I do it every day). Somehow, books are different for me. Perhaps I’ll splurge some day and take the plunge into e-bookland, but for now, I’m still conflicted enough that for the time being, I’ll stick with the actual pages, and eschew the virtual ones. I'm sure I'll break down someday, but in the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I have a paperback to finish.

Elections have consequences

Elections have consequences. Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed as the first Hispanic Justice of the US Supreme Court. There’s no mystery or suspense to that statement, and there’s nothing that anyone can do to stop it, short of Judge Sotomayor withdrawing her nomination. Let’s assume that’s unlikely. What I don’t understand is why any Republicans are bothering to put up such an ugly fight. She’s eminently qualified, unlike Harriet Miers, who stands with G. Harold Carswell as one of the most laughable nominations in the history of the court. Judge Sotomayor is a classic American success story, working her way up from difficult beginnings in the Bronx to Yale Law School, the Federal Appellate Bench, and now the lifetime appointment above all lifetime appointments.

I frankly don’t understand the logic of opposing her with the ferocity we're starting to see already. To begin with, it’s pointless. There’s not a damn thing that Senate Republicans can do to hold up the nomination, since thanks to November’s electoral landslide, they don’t have the numbers. In fact, they’ll have a tough time even stopping debate. I'm bad at math and even I can figure it out. Secondly, getting too overanxious could backfire badly with the Hispanic community. Alienating another constituency isn’t a good idea when they desperately need to find someone willing to vote for their candidates in 2010. Pissing off Hispanics won't help win Florida. And third, President Obama is himself a constitutional scholar. After eight years of a man who can't spell constitution without his vice president's help, complaining about Judge Sotomayor represents the height of hypocrisy.

My take is that the reality is finally settling in with Chairman Limbaugh and the endangered, intellectually challenged base of the GOP who appear not to hear the big red clue phone ringing. Their ticket was laughed off the map in November’s election, and their numbers dwindled to near-irrelevant levels on both sides of Capitol Hill. To make matters worse, a senior Republican Senator decided he’d had enough and jumped off the sinking ship, preferring to get picked up by an enemy lifeboat. Now, when the maddeningly popular, embarrassingly eloquent and uncommonly effective President nominates a perfectly good candidate for the Supreme Court, even though saying “let’s live to fight another day” is the logical course of action, the right-wing spin cycle deems her to be unworthy, using epithets such as “America deserves better” and “racist” (that’s from both Chairman Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich). Being politically impotent seems not to be good enough. Now, they’re revealing themselves to be utterly tone deaf as well. We’ll see this play a couple more times over the next four years, and each one will have a different main character, but the same ending: a qualified candidate for the Supreme Court is nominated, gets vilified by the loony right, is called nasty names, then receives easy confirmation and ascends the marble steps to be seated on the Court.

So if yelling and screaming like a petulant toddler will be a futile endeavor from the start, why bother wasting the hot air? Face it, conservatives, you lost. Elections have consequences.

Arlen Specter jumps off the RNC Titanic

Arlen Specter became a Democrat today, but he really hasn’t changed much over the years, honest. This is a basically conservative man who authored the Warren Commission’s Magic Bullet theory. He’s very strongly pro gun-rights. He’s pretty well opposed to same-sex marriage, though he supports civil unions, which is the classic “I want to have it both ways” stance. He’s pro choice and very progressive on environmental issues, but he’s the same guy who unmercifully badgered Professor Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and accused her of “flat-out” perjury. And Senator Specter also voted against the confirmation of Judge Robert Bork and voted to acquit President Clinton in his impeachment hearing before the Senate. Senator Specter’s made a career of straddling the fence and thumbing his nose at party orthodoxy if he couldn’t stomach it. He’s a somewhat less frootbatty version of Joe Lieberman, and an unwarheroish version of John McCain. He’s annoyed Republicans almost as much as he’s annoyed Democrats. In other words, he’s a middle of the road moderate. The last straw was his vote in support of President Obama’s stimulus package. That rankled the party, and conservatives in Pennsylvania. Specter didn’t care. He can’t be pigeonholed. Back in the day, he was considered a conservative, but as he stayed put, the party moved so far to the right of him that Specter has recently found himself feeling aligned more with colleagues such as former Senators (and former Republicans) Jim Jeffords of Vermont and Lowell Weicker of Connecticut. In other words, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

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There’s no room for Jeffords, Weicker and Specter anymore in a meaner, colder, and far smaller GOP ruled by Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. Ronald Reagan would be seriously pissed off today, and I’m betting Bob Dole is right now. Not at Specter so much as the party that gave him no other option.

David Frum, the former Bush adviser and Republican strategist, said this morning after Specter’s announcement: "The Specter defection is too severe a catastrophe to qualify as a "wake-up call." His defection is the thing we needed the wake-up call to warn us against! For a long time, the loudest and most powerful voices in the conservative world have told us that people like Specter aren't real Republicans -- that they don't belong in the party. Now he's gone, and with him the last Republican leverage within any of the elected branches of government. For years, many in the conservative world have wished for an ideologically purer GOP. Their wish has been granted. Happy?"

I’ve said this before: the GOP is skidding into irrelevance and legislative impotence. They’ve spent so much time and effort pandering to their core constituency that now that’s all that’s left. It’s no longer a big tent. Today, it’s a rickety lean-to. McCain’s choice of Governor Caribou Barbie gave him no inroads in the country’s moderate center that would have helped in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as North Carolina and New Mexico.

I welcome the new, greater tent, even if it includes someone with whom I often disagree. We’re a party that has room for both Arlen Specter and Ted Kennedy. Exchanges of ideas will help everyone. Specter won’t always vote with the Democratic caucus, nor should he. We don’t demand party rigidity, just a commitment to making things better. I’m glad Senator Specter feels wanted now. It should be an abject lesson to his former colleagues, but I’m sure it won’t be. The American people told them in November they have no clothes. They didn’t get it. Arlen Specter’s given them the same message today. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s response to Specter’s defection? “It’s a threat to the country”. No it’s not, it’s a threat to the Republican party. The two aren’t synonymous, and never were. Rush Limbaugh’s reaction? “Take John McCain and his daughter with you”. Ok, the more the merrier! I’d be glad to have them. I like Meghan McCain. She’s adorable and interesting. She has ideas, she questions and thinks independently of those around her. Sounds like a Democrat in the making to me. The one response that seems to be entirely absent from the right wing today was “We have a problem”. I say keep on keeping on, Republicans! The rest of us will be just fine without you.

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On a completely separate note, I empathize with all the terrified people in lower Manhattan yesterday who were buzzed by the backup Air Force One in the service of the world’s dumbest photo opportunity. The stunt was inexcusable and insensitive, and had I been there, I’d have gone tachycardic, too. Freaked out New Yorkers who are sent back into grief counseling and suffer relapses of PTSD should have the White House Military Office, who ordered that horribly misguided flight, pay their medical and psychiatric bills. It’s nice to know that even in a new, more enlightened administration, the Department of Defense remains as tone deaf as ever. The outfit that brought you “An Army of One”, “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure” and “Don’t ask, don’t tell” hit another homer with “Let’s buzz New York City. They won’t mind.” I can’t be the only one who wishes he was there when President Obama called his military officer in and said “Would you like to explain precisely what you were thinking when you decided to terrify millions of New Yorkers just to take a few pictures of the Statue of Liberty? How would you like to be the new military protocol officer in Juneau? That’ll give you a perfect opportunity to ponder all the meanings of the words ‘Boy, did I fuck that up’.”