The Bottom Line

Face it , no one owes you a living,

What you achieve, or fail to achieve in your lifetime, is directly related to what you do, or fail to do.

No one chooses his parents or childhood, but you can choose your own direction. Everyone has problems and obstacles to overcome, but that too, is relative to each individual.

Nothing is carved in stone, you can change anything in your life, if you want to badly enough.

Excuses are for losers: Those who take responsibility for their actions are the real winners in life. Winners meet life's challenges head on, knowing there are no guarantees, and give it all they've got.

And never think that it's too late or too early to begin, time plays no favorites and will pass whether you act or not. Take control of your life. Dare to dream and take risks….

Compete.

If you aren't willing to work for your goals,

Don't expect others to…

Believe in yourself.

taken from www.leadershipAIB.com

Great leadership and management could change our schools ! Everyone has a different definition and concept of what great leadership and management is!

Trying to describe great management and leadership is like trying to describe the emotion of love.

It is hard to put a specific, concise definition that is a working definition and not several abstract words strung together. What most educators and legislators agree on is that the level of education that our children receive is not going to improve without stronger and stronger leadership through the years.

Below is a look at an article of one man's opinion of what makes better managers and leaders. He has some good points that could transfer to the education setting. Read and respond with your thoughts!

What Makes Great Managers? Marcus Buckingham  What sets a great boss apart from an average boss? Research on this is rife with provocative writing about the qualities of managers and leaders and whether the two differ, but little has been said about what happens in the thousands of daily interactions and decisions that allows managers to get the best out of their people and win their devotion. What do great managers actually do? In our research, beginning with a survey of 80,000 managers conducted by the Gallup Organization and continuing during the past two years with in-depth studies of a few top performers, we've found that while there are as many styles of management as there are managers, there is one quality that sets the best managers apart from the rest: they discover what is unique about each person and then capitalise on it. Average managers play draughts, if you like, while great managers play chess. What does the chess game look like in action? When I visited Michelle Miller, the manager who opened Walgreens' 4,000th store, I found the wall of her back office papered with work schedules. Miller's store in Redondo Beach, California, employs people with sharply different skills and potentially disruptive differences in personality. A critical part of her job is to put people into roles and shifts that will allow them to shine – and to avoid putting clashing personalities together. At the same time, she needs to find ways for individuals to grow. A manager's approach to capitalising on differences can vary from place to place but it is a tremendously powerful tool that leads to three outcomes. First, it saves management time; second, it makes each person more accountable; and third, it builds a stronger sense of team because it creates inter-dependency. It helps people appreciate one another's particular skills and learn that their co-workers can fill in where they are lacking. When you capitalise on what is unique about each person, you introduce a healthy degree of disruption into the workplace. You shuffle existing hierarchies, existing assumptions about who is allowed to do what, and existing beliefs about where the true expertise in a company lies. These questions will challenge the orthodoxies of companies like Walgreens and help them become more inquisitive, more intelligent, more vital and, despite their size, more able to duck and weave into the future. At some point, however, managers need to rein in their inquisitiveness, gather up what they know about a person, and put the employee's idiosyncrasies to use. To that end, there are three things you must know about someone to manage them well: their strengths, the triggers that activate those strengths, and how they learn. Great managers spend a good deal of time outside the office walking around, watching each person's reactions to events, listening, and taking mental notes about what each individual is drawn to and what each person struggles with. There's no substitute for this kind of observation, but you can obtain a lot of information about a person by asking a few simple, open-ended questions and listening carefully to the answers. Two queries in particular have proven most revealing when it comes to identifying strengths and weaknesses. To identify a person's strengths, first ask: "What was the best day at work you've had in the past three months?" What were they doing and why did they enjoy it so much? Remember: a strength is not merely something you are good at. It might be just a predilection, something you find so intrinsically satisfying that you look forward to doing it again and again and getting better at it over time. To identify a person's weaknesses, just invert the question: "What was the worst day you've had at work in the past three months?" Probe for details about what they were doing and why it grated on them so much. You might be quite competent at a weakness but it drains you of energy, you never look forward to doing it and when you do do it, all you can think about is stopping. Although you're keeping an eye out for both strengths and weaknesses, your focus should be on an employee's strengths. Conventional wisdom holds that self-awareness is a good thing and that it's the job of the manager to identify weaknesses and create a plan for overcoming them. But research by Albert Bandura, the father of social learning theory, has shown that self-assurance (labelled "self-efficacy" by cognitive psychologists), not self-awareness, is the strongest predictor of a person's ability to set high goals, to persist in the face of obstacles, to bounce back when reversals occur, and, ultimately, to achieve the goals they set. By contrast, self-awareness has not been shown to be a predictor of any of these outcomes, and in some cases, it appears to retard them. Always remember that great managing is about release, not transformation. It's about constantly tweaking your environment so that the unique contribution, the unique needs, and the unique style of each employee can be given free rein. Your success as a manager will depend almost entirely on your ability to do this. Marcus Buckingham is a best-selling author and thought leader. Contact him at marcus@marcusbuckingham.com or visit www.marcusbuckingham.com for the latest short film series produced by the creators of NOOMA.com.

More looking at self…

Like the last blog this one examines things what we can do as individuals to implement change and to influence our world. Think about the ripple effect that would happen if hundreds of thousands of people would work on making themself the best that they could be and striving to reach their maximum potential ! I believe that this would have a greater impact than the New Deal movement or era. Read the following and consider what you are doing to maximize your life !

Personal Accountability:
Are You Walking Your Talk?

Being personally accountable is less about achieving a goal or accomplishing an event. It is a journey that involves a continual pursuit of personal growth, attaining goals, improving relationships and increasing standards of performance. As we attain one goal the path of personal accountability involves celebration and setting new goals. All things are either in the process of growth or decay — plants, buildings, animals and human beings. Personal accountability is the process of making the choice on a continual basis to grow.

What does it mean to "walk your talk?" The obvious place many people look to find out if they are walking their talk is to look at the commitments they are making to others. Do you tend to deliver what was requested and agreed upon? Did you deliver on time? Do you tend to show up on time and prepared for work, for meetings or dates with your friends or that "special person?" These represent the outer commitments that demonstrate our level of personal accountability out in the world.

There is another important aspect to personal accountability that needs its own assessment. Are you "walking your talk" with yourself? What are the commitments you have made to yourself about your health, your job performance, your relationships, your self-care and your family? Are you delivering on those commitments and on a path of achieving your personal goals?

Ultimately, what you tell yourself and how you honor your commitments with yourself, may have an impact on the outer world commitments you make. As we integrate our commitments with ourselves and others, we can determine how well we are "walking our talk" and building our self-worth in the process.

The Process of "Walking Your Talk"
Based on the Personal Accountability Model described in our book, The Power of Personal Accountability, there are 7 steps to ensure that you are "walking the talk". This includes:

• Establishing a clear Intention and Vision for your future (the talk part)
• Recognizing the areas that you would like to improve
• Taking ownership for the areas that you can influence
• Forgiving yourself and getting back to your "walk"
• Self-Examining the situation to look for innovative and creative solutions to make progress and solve old problems
• Taking action on what you learn from self-examination
• Developing a support network to assist you
• Assessing results, celebrating wins and moving into your recovery plan when accountable actions don't achieve desired results

Taking Action to Walk Your Talk

Step 1: Creating a Clear Intention — Your Personal Vision of Excellence
Before you can walk your talk, you must have a talk that represents excellence. An Intention or Vision of Excellence represents a verbal "picture" of what you would look like if you were operating from a position of excellence in the areas of importance to you. The most important rule about writing your Intention is that it must be a significant "stretch" beyond your current actions and results.

If you are writing an Intention Statement related to your job, you would answer the question, "What do you want your reputation to be with your internal customers, your teammates, upper management and those that are impacted by your performance and attitude? What would you want them to say about you, that they aren't saying now? What would you be doing differently to earn that reputation? What is the attitude, behaviors and performance that would achieve the results of your reputation?"

If your Intention Statement is more about your personal life, what would that look like in your ideal scene? What kinds of relationships would you have and how would you be supporting those relationships? How would you be managing your time so that you are achieving your personal goals? What support system do you have in place to assist you when you get off-track or to keep you motivated and encouraged?

Your walk needs to follow in the footsteps of great talk. If your talk is negative, then your walk won't be far behind. Take the time to write your Intention and revisit it often as a way to stay motivated and create the inner-talk to be successful.

Step 2: Recognize the Areas that You Want to Improve
It takes courage to look into the "mirror" and do an honest self-assessment to recognize your areas of strength and needs for improvement. The key in conducting this assessment is to evaluate yourself based on the standards of your Intention, not your current level of expectation. Look at all aspects of your attitude, behavior, thoughts, communication, organization and performance. Include your response to stress, change, success and set-backs.

Step 3: Taking Ownership for Areas You Can Influence
After conducting your assessment, identify the areas in which you want to celebrate your talents, successes and previous work you have done on yourself to improve yourself in the past. It is important to talk success after walking success, so that you build on success.

Celebration is one step to achieve your next improvement. Now it is time to identify those areas of improvement that you are committed to change. What determines a commitment? The willingness to take action regardless of the obstacles that show up along the way. Obstacles can come in many forms. Your job, family, friends, negative thoughts, emotional disturbances and set-backs. Commitment is demonstrated through action, and taking ownership is making that commitment to yourself to do something different than you have done before. Ultimately, the commitments you make turn into goals. Unfortunately, people create goals before they have commitments and then build a history of failing to achieve their goals.

Step 4: Forgiveness and Getting Back to Your Walk
It is important that if you have any regrets about not being further along towards achieving your Intention or goals that you do self-forgiveness. This is the process of giving yourself "a break," having some compassion and trusting that you are doing the best that you can. And, even if you feel you could have done better, you are doing that now, so keep your focus on how well you are doing now. It is hard to drive the car forward without running into obstacles along the way if you are always looking in the rear view mirror.

No matter how strong you focus on your Intentions and take action on your Intentions, at some point you will make a mistake, have a set-back, or go back to old habits. It is important to have a "recovery plan" to get yourself back on track as soon as possible. A "recovery plan" is a predetermined set of actions or behaviors that will move you back towards your Intention when you get off-track. Sometimes it is a reminder from a friend who understands your Intentions and goals. Sometimes it is taking an hour break at some point in your day to re-read your Intention, forgive yourself for mistakes and acknowledge yourself for progress as way to re-engage with your positive direction. Expecting perfection is the trap and being prepared for set-backs is the key.

Step 5: Self-Examine the Situation to Uncover Creative Solutions and Approaches
Before you go walking, you may want to explore different ways to approach the way you achieve your Intentions, commitments and goals. Is there a new way to gain support that you haven't used before? Are there new approaches in your thinking, your process, your habits, your behaviors or your reactions that would serve you in accomplishing your goals and commitments? Are there others you could learn from who have achieved similar goals?

Step 6: Take Action Based on Learning
Movement, continual movement is a major key to success. It's from taking action that we demonstrate our commitment to ourselves and others. By taking action we learn what works and doesn't work so that we can continue to improve and refine our thinking, behavior, communication and performance. Action creates progress and progress leads to success.

Step 7: Develop a Support Network for Assistance
We don't have to walk the talk alone. No one can walk the talk for us, but we can have many people support us in walking the talk. How many Presidents of the United States achieved that position alone? Even the greatest leaders have a cadre of supporters who assist them in staying focused, solving problems that surface along the way and making decisions based on Intentions, commitments and goals. There are several kinds of supporters. Some are motivators to get moving and keep moving. Some are mentors who have lessons to share about being successful and keep us honest when we get off-track. Some are emotional supporters who assist us when we are down. Finally, there are the supporters who act like cheerleaders, who believe in us and want the best for us. All of these supporters are useful and part of walking the talk.

Step 8: Evaluate, Celebrate and Recover
The final step of this never ending process is to evaluate your progress to date. While tracking along the way is important, this step is more about taking a time out to evaluate what you have accomplished through your efforts. Sometimes, you will find that you are making great progress, while other times you may find out that your efforts led to more learning than to making progress. Both are valuable and on-track for success. It is critical to celebrate your action, your movement and your learning.

Where you are off-track with yourself and others, it is important to use your recovery plans or to develop new ones for greater refinement and success. You may even have to apply these eight steps all over again to move to another level of excellence. The key in this step is to revitalize your Intention, your commitments and change your goals accordingly. Yes, "walking the talk" is a continual journey where the talk and the walk are evolving as you grow and develop. Success becomes more of a process than an event. Success is a series of stepping stones and "walking your talk" is the path.

The above is another resource provided as a way of giving you the best organizations to help you become a change agent. The contact info is below.

IMPAQ
9000 Sunset Blvd, Suite 525
Los Angeles, California
800 332 2251
contactus@impaqcorp.com

Self Evaluation

Sometimes we think everything needs to change except for us! Have you ever considered that the easiest thing to change is yourself ? We have little control over the legislature, the President, the Governor and sometimes even our boss but what we do have control over is ourself.

When Harry Truman was thrust into the presidency, by the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn took him aside.

"From here on out you're going to have lots of people around you. They'll try to put up a wall around you and cut you off from any ideas but theirs. They'll tell you what a great man you are, Harry. But you and I both know you ain't." said Sam.

 Let's not forget to evaluate ourselves every day!

A rule of thumb for taking a chance that can make a world of difference !

Never be afraid to try something new. An amateur built an ark that survived a flood while a large group of professionals built the Titanic !

Be a difference maker!

Change the world type leadership

Changing the world is thought of as something the idealistic fresh out of college professionals dream about and then they come to their senses about their fifth year in the workforce (if it last that long). For true change and improvement in our schools that goes past legislation and hollow words there must be professionals that regain that idealism! Educators, Civic Leaders and Parents are needed that will think outside the box. Below is another article reprinted from Yahoo Leadership. It gives a concrete example of someone that was not content when he had plenty of opportunity to coast the rest of his life. As you read it think to yourself, "Am I coasting or am I pushing to make positive change?"

__________________________________

Leadership by Example

by Jim Citrin

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

America loves a comeback story. Steve Case spent 20 years building America Online into an Internet powerhouse. In January, 2001, at the pinnacle of the company's influence and market value, Case led the now-infamous AOL acquisition of Time Warner. He spent two years as chairman of the combined company, giving up that position in May, 2003.

But it's now 2006, and Steve Case is back. Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, in April, 2005, Case launched Revolution LLC (www.revolution.com), a private holding company that he's funding personally with $500 million of his estimated $825 million in wealth. The company will invest in health care, wellness and resorts — three sectors for which he sees significant sustained growth. Today, his company has about 2,500 employees across its three operating groups, Revolution Living, Revolution Resorts and Revolution Health, and several hundred millions of dollars in revenues.

More About Revolution

Steve recently shared with me the progress of Revolution and the lessons he learned from the AOL and Time Warner experience. An innovator of the first order with conviction about how to positively impact on the world, Steve's leadership style is based on thinking big, change-the-world thoughts. He plays to his strengths as a visionary, an evangelist for the consumer, and a deal maker; understands how technology can serve people, and focuses on building a world-class team of colleagues, advisers, and managers to run the business operations.
Following are excerpts from our discussion.

Steve, tell readers about your new company, Revolution.

Revolution is building businesses that change the world. We're focusing on major challenges that could be addressed through philanthropy, politics or the public sector.
But for me, given my interests and skill-set, I think I can have the greatest impact through an entrepreneurial prism, building on the AOL experience. At AOL, we were very mission-driven. We really were motivated as much by getting people online and ushering in a more interactive age as we were about building a business and making money.
That same philosophy applies particularly in areas like home health care, which is a broken system that demands a-swing-for-the-fences kind of approach to empower consumers, leverage technology, and effect big change.

Do you have a role model organization for what Revolution is hoping to become?

Our bias is a Built to Last mentality. The assumption is that we're going to be in these companies 10 or 20 years from now. It's similar to the Warren Buffett approach of buying businesses and holding them over the long run.
But there is a twist. Similar to what Richard Branson has done with the Virgin brand — airlines, mobile communications, financial services, retail, etc. — we believe that there's a lot of value to the branded approach. We will build up the Revolution brand over time and apply it to a variety of consumer businesses.
So I view our approach as something of a hybrid between what Warren Buffett and Richard Branson have done, ultimately making Revolution unique.
It must be gratifying to finally be able to live in the present and be forward-looking rather than defending the AOL-Time Warner merger.
Yes, for sure. But it's broader than that. When I think about AOL, I really think of it as being a 20-year journey. Even though the second 10 years were when the fame and fortune set in, it was the first 10 years, the pioneering phase, that I enjoyed more and thought I was better at.
So recognizing that and focusing on business opportunities that have significant swing-for-the-fences transformational potential like health and that play to my strengths is a lot of fun.

What are other lessons you've learned from the journey that you've been on?
One of them is that I think I'm better at the earlier stage ventures, I'm better playing offense than defense. When companies get large, they tend to focus as much on protecting what they have as building, and I'm much more a builder than a manager.
Another lesson has to do with corporate and organizational structure. We've tried to establish an umbrella with a core set of values and strategic directions and an environment where entrepreneurship can flourish. We now have autonomous companies and management teams, but they're united by certain key attributes, such as being consumer businesses that empower people by giving them more choice, control, and convenience, while being disruptive kinds of businesses.
We've been working on setting up a structure to preserve the entrepreneurial zeal. Notably in most cases we're acquiring control of companies, but not 100 percent. Even though this is more complicated, we think it makes sense, based on the lessons I learned at AOL.
When we bought companies like Netscape or ICQ, despite the best of intentions, a few years later they were not as valuable as they could have been. They ended up being divisions of divisions of divisions and the innovators chose to move on.
In retrospect we would have been better off having bought 70 percent of ICQ [which formed the basis for what has become AIM instant messaging]; the 70 percent ultimately would have been worth a lot more than the 100 percent we bought.
You have assembled a team of luminaries, such as Colin Powell, Carly Fiorina, and Frank Raines. What do you see in their involvement?
Like you, I believe that success ultimately comes down to talent. We've tried to create a dynamic where the brightest people want to be affiliated with Revolution, at levels ranging from part-time board members to full time executives.
In the case of health, we knew it was a big opportunity — it's the largest industry in the U.S., and it's broken and in need of a fresh approach. But we don't know a lot about health, so getting smart people together with experience and perspective in health care, technology, and the public sector was critical to make sure we're asking the right questions.
We also wanted to make sure we were able to launch this new venture with a degree of credibility. Our goal was to start building an "increasing returns dynamic," where people want to be part of it because they are excited about the opportunity and because of who else is involved.
Many people over the years have tried to wrestle the health-care beast to the ground. Why are you going to succeed when others have failed?
First, it's not a new phenomenon for me; there's a sense of deja-vu. We heard the same skepticism in 1985 when we started AOL. Many had tried and failed in interactive services, videotext, or interactive television. Companies like Knight-Ridder and AT&T had done some testing and concluded that consumers really didn't want interactivity.
But we went ahead and launched a company believing that people actually did. Many thought we were crazy. It took us a decade to get going. In fact, it took us nine years to reach one million subscribers and, nine years later, we had 20 million subscribers and were a company worth over $100 billion.
What was the secret to the growth?
We recognized that people were looking for services to make the Internet easier to use, more useful, fun and affordable, and we took steps to make this happen. We also needed to turn PCs into communications devices.
In the 1980s, modems were viewed as peripheral devices, but we recognized that communications needed to be integral. So we led an effort among IBM, Tandy, Apple and others to start building modems into PCs. That's when interactive services really took off.
The lesson there is to identify the breakthroughs that will accelerate the growth of the markets we're targeting, like building modems into PCs.

Three Leadership Lessons from Steve Case

Headline News Glen Beck

      Below is part of the transcript from the Glen Beck show on June 7. Here is a great example of what happens when someone challenges the status quo in education and the positive things that can happen as a result !

BECK (voice-over): It`s a typical day for these 4-year-olds, reciting their French grammar. No, it`s not an exclusive private school. It`s public, and it`s happening right here in Harlem, New York, as part of a charter school project.

Young hearts and minds are thriving today in what is historically one of New York`s most troubled neighborhoods, all thanks to one man.

JEFFREY CANADA, HARLEM CHILDREN`S ZONE: How`s it doing, guys?

BECK: Jeffrey Canada heads up the Harlem Children`s Zone, the one-of- a-kind program that covers a 60-block area in central Harlem. Its mission? Saving its own 6,500 children, through education, one child at a time.

CANADA: There is no solution for dealing with the issues of poverty, for dealing with the issues of crime in this country except education. If our schools don`t work, then the poor children in this country are simply not going to succeed.

BECK: He says the key is taking an all encompassing approach.

CANADA: Why is it that we think that we can work with children only for a little period of time and then think they`re going to be OK? The truth of the matter is every single age is critical and important, and we have to provide support for this particular group of children throughout all of those ages.

BECK: The charter school is called the Promise Academy. But it`s only one part of the program.

There`s also the Baby College, which offers parenting skills for those who are pregnant or have kids under the age of 3. The Harlem Gems is a pre-kindergarten program with an adult to child ratio of 1-4 that aims to get kids school ready.

Truths and Truths Fitness, the youth development programs, offer free tutoring, regent`s prep courses, karate, dance, aerobics, drama club. They produce a newspaper and produce a cable TV program.

Canada says his drive comes from personal experience. He and his three brothers grew up in the impoverished South Bronx of the 1950s. His father left when they were infants. The boys were raised by a single mom, who at times had to turn to welfare.

CANADA: Part of being in the ghetto meant that you were trapped there. And I grew up wondering why didn`t anybody do anything? Why didn`t the adults come and save us kids? We had done nothing wrong. There was no reason that we should grow up without heat and hot water, with rats and roaches, living in filth and vermin. I just wondered where are the heroes?

BECK: And it`s these first-hand experiences that allow Canada to connect with the kids he`s trying to save.

CANADA: They`re always shocked because before kids know me, when they see me, I`m always in a suit and tie and jacket. And they think, "Oh, yes, this guy probably grew up somewhere."

And when we begin to talk about how we grew up, when I begin to share with them my own life story and I can see the recognition in their eyes, it touches them that I went through that same thing and made it out the other side. They sit there and say, he made it, he actually got out of that and did something.

BECK: And what he did was get himself a first rate education, ending with a master`s degree from Harvard.

CANADA: I never had one doubt that I was going to come back and do this work. An dif you look at my academic career in college and at graduate school, every single course I took was focused on trying to figure out how we could find solutions to the problems of inner city, poor minority children.

BECK: Though some people think his methods are unusual, Canada says he`s willing to do whatever it takes to motivate the kids, even bribing them for incentives, including a small cash prize for accomplishments like perfect attendance.

CANADA: These kids are poor. Their parents have no money. Money really matters to them. I think it`s totally acceptable to say, you know, here`s $10. You`ve really done great. We think that`s good. This is what will happen if you continue to do good. You will be able to legally earn money and have a good life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two positive integers.

BECK: And teachers that work for him get motivation of a different kind.

CANADA: I think our teachers are underpaid and I think they`re undervalued. I think the people who are really working with the heart of this problem are some of the — really, the great heroes and heroines in this country who are uncelebrated.

But we also have a lot of folk who aren`t pulling their weight. And we need to be able to make sure teachers who aren`t doing great things for children get retrained, and if they`re not able to be retrained, that they get let go. Because we`re not going to be able to stay a first-rate country if we give our kids a second- or third-rate education.

BECK: For Canada, it`s about a promise kept.

CANADA: This is a funny thing about my mother, and she`s probably going to beat me up for telling this, but it`s true. When I was about 11 years old, my mother came to me and she said, "Jeff, I believe you have a special talent with relating and connecting with people. And you can use this for good or you could use this for bad. If you decide to use this for bad, I`m going to disown you."

And I thought she was kidding. She was not kidding. I think she`s very proud of the way things have developed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: You, sir, I have wanted to shake your hands for a couple of weeks now. I asked our staff to look into you and do a piece on you. Somebody who is making a difference, not taking no for an answer.

What is the most shocking thing that you`ve come up against? You know, we`re all trying. We`re struggling with our kids, trying to change the system, and it doesn`t want to change. What were you shocked by?

CANADA: Let me tell you the thing that really surprised me the most, Glenn. People always come to me and say, "Boy, isn`t it so hard?" I am shocked by how little it takes sometimes to save a child. Just by paying attention, just by asking the kind of things we take for granted, you know, "How are you doing? How are you feeling? Are you scared? Is someone bothering you? Is there something you need?" That these common things don`t happen to a whole bunch of children in our city.

BECK: But you are taking on a system. I mean, you fired last year more teachers in your one school than the entire city of Manhattan. You`re taking on system. That ain`t easy.

CANADA: No, it`s not easy. And it comes with some risks. You know, I admit there are some risks.

But this is what I think. When you look at what`s at stake. So if you let things continue just where they`re going, where are we going to end up? We`re going to end up spending $60,000 a year to lock these same kids up that we could have educated when they were in the second or third grade. It doesn`t make any sense to me.

So if you know that that system is broken and it doesn`t make any sense, and you just continue doing — we have — look, there are schools that were around 30 years ago that are lousy. They were lousy 30 years ago. They`re lousy today. How did we let that happen? How did we let that go on?

BECK: It`s — it`s the system, man; it`s the system. And you going in and breaking the back of it, God bless you! What can you tell — somebody`s Watching in Omaha, Nebraska, and they`re looking at a failing school and their kid trapped in it.

I mean, I`m lucky enough to live in a nice suburb, man. I don`t want to send my kids to those schools. You`re sitting there with a trapped kid, what do you tell that parent? How do they break open and start over again?

CANADA: One of the things I think we have to do, and people just have to take this as part of the truth, we`ve got to have politicians that have the moral courage to stand up to these bureaucracies and these systems. We have one in Mayor Bloomberg. You know, it just so happens that he is uncorruptable. People can`t influence him. He`s decided education…

BECK: He`s a billionaire.

CANADA: He`s a millionaire. Education is going to change, and he has taken on the invested interest.

So people thought it could not be done. It can be done. If you don`t sell out, if you`re prepared to be a man of principles, you can do this. And this is the problem. When you look at the hundreds of thousands of children whose lives are wasted because people won`t take a stand and stand up and say no more of this, that`s a sin.

BECK: I could spend an hour with you. I hope to be able to spend some more time with you on the radio tomorrow. Thank you, sir.

CANADA: Thank you for having me on.

BECK: Thank you very much.

CANADA: My pleasure.

Dear Abby and Special Needs Children

 Another web site to use as a resource… http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html . This site deals with a broad range of Education issues.

This was from the Newspaper last week:

Dear Abby:

Years ago you printed a poem that said God sends children with special needs to special parents because he knows that they will be well cared for. I wish you would print that poem once again. I am sure it would help many parents who have a disabled child. –
Faithful Illinois Reader                     

Dear Faithful Reader,

The poem is very moving and I am pleased to reprint it. It was written 50 years ago by Edna Massimila of Hatboro Pa., the widow of a pastor, when their daughter, a child with Down's Syndrome, was born. (She is nowwith the Lord.) When I spoke with Edna -who is 90- she explained that she wrote the poen to emphasize that every creation is for a purpose, and she's still writing poems and songs especially for children with disabilities. Read on:

Heaven's Very Special Child

A meeting was held quite far from earth

It was time again for another birth.

Said the angels to the Lord above, "This special child will need much love. Her progress may be very slow."

"Accomplishment she may not show."        

"And she'll require extra care."

"From the folks she meets down there. She may not run or laugh or play"

"Her thoughts may seem quite far away"

"So many times she will be labeled Different, helpless and disabled."                                  

"So, let's be careful he she's sent"

"We want her life to be content"

"Please Lord, find the parents who…"

"Will do a special job for you. They will not realize right away…"

The leading role that you are asking them to play."

"But with this child sent from above comes stronger faith and richer love."

"And soon they'll know the privlege given…"

"In caring for their gift from heaven. Their precious charge so meek and mild."

"Is heaven's very special child."       

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.

Henry Ford

Special Needs children deserve as much Love and Care as any other child. Special Needs children are not second class children.Special Needs children deserve a quality education as much as any National Merit Scholar. We need to learn the best way to reach and teach Special Needs children to maximize their abilities and not focus on their disabilities.

Richard Reynolds

If inclusion is to work we must learn how to work with other people! This blog gives concrete ways to better our people skills…we can all use a tune up every now and then in the people skills area of our life…

WORDS TO LEARN BY By Dr. John C. Maxwell

In my years studying leadership and evaluating leaders, I have stumbled across a leadership shortcoming that continually amazes me. Leaders will manage a team, work with the same individuals every day, yet hardly know anything about their people! These leaders have never prioritized acquainting themselves with the dreams, thoughts, hopes, opinions, and values of those they lead. The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense. I have found that leaders overestimate the amount of time and effort needed to get to know someone. In fact, in only one hour with you in private conversation, I could, probably by asking three questions, find the passion of your life: What do you dream about? A person's dreams are powerful revealers of passion. When a person starts to talk about their dreams it's as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words. What do you cry about? Passion can be uncovered by peering into the hurts deep inside a human soul. The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force. When listening to a story of grief, you hear a voice thick with emotion, you see watery eyes flooded with feeling, and in that moment you glimpse the intense connections between a person's deepest pain and their greatest passion. What makes you happy? I have fun hearing what makes people tick and seeing the smile that comes when they talk about where they find joy. Enjoyment is an incredible energizer to the human spirit. When a person operates in an area of pleasure, they are apt to be brimming with life and exuding passion. If you can uncover a person's dreams, hurts, and joys, you've discovered the central dimensions of their life. This lesson is designed to show you the types of questions that can draw out the passion inside of a person. I've included my own answers to give you an understanding of how the process works. Try to limit your answers to one or two words. Also, notice how each question is asked both positively (what makes you happy) and negatively (what makes you cry). I have found that by expressing opposite feelings and emotions, you reveal your true inner self. To maximize this lesson, I'll give you four easy assignments.

1. Ask yourself and answer the questions posed in the lesson. In doing so, you'll enhance your self-awareness.
2. Share your answers with your team to allow them to learn about you.
3. Ask your team to answer the questions to encourage their self-discovery.
4. Ask your team to share their answers with one another. This practice will bring team members closer together.

What is your biggest asset? My greatest asset is my attitude. I discovered this when I was in high school, and the coach of my basketball team appointed me as team captain at the beginning of the year. I was surprised, because I wasn't the best player on the team. John Thomas was the best player. I was the second or third best player, but I wasn't the best. I was sitting on the floor of the gymnasium with my teammates, and I think the same question was in all of our minds—why is John Maxwell going to be the captain of the team? Anticipating our questions, our coach gave an explanation, "Of all the players on this team, the kid with the best attitude is John Maxwell. He doesn't get discouraged, he believes that we'll win the game, and he's going to be the captain of the team." What is your biggest liability? My biggest liability is unrealistic expectations. As with many weaknesses, my unrealistic expectations are the Achilles Heel of my strength. Many years ago I quit hiring, and I have stayed away from it ever since because I'm a terrible hirer. Why? Because I naturally look for the best in people. When I see a potential employee, I see the raw talent, and I begin thinking how I can help shape the person into a star. I've had numerous failures hiring lousy leaders because I convinced myself I could mold a flawed leader into a top performer. What do you like most from others? For me, it's encouragement. Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul, in that it allows you to breathe. Encouragement supports and sustains leadership, especially during the hard times. What do I like least from others? I cannot stand people who make excuses—blamers, complainers, and explainers who refuse to accept responsibility for their mistakes. I admire a person who will admit their faults since it shows me the inner character of that individual. I can accept another's imperfection if they take ownership of their errors because we're all human, and we all fail from time to time. What is the best thing to have? I think the best thing to have is friends. For me nothing compares to the joy and fulfillment of going through life with friends you can laugh with, cry with, and celebrate alongside. What is the worst thing not to have? I can't imagine a life without hope. Even if my health is failing or my financial situation is grim, if I have hope, I can see a way out of my difficulties. Hope is the foundation of all change. When people come to me as leaders and they say, "I want to create change within my organization. What should I do?" My response is the obvious answer, "You have to create hope." Nobody changes unless they think life is going to improve. Hope is the motivation that allows people to change.

            

                                    

Does anything disturb us any more continued…

  

Obtaining Justice A Tall Order

For Child Victims Of Short

Molester   

Doug Wrenn

June 5, 2006

You would think that a judge would know something about the criminal justice system. Cheyenne County (Nebraska) District Judge Kristine Cecava sentenced Richard W. Thompson to ten years probation for his two felony counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl. Of those ten months, Thompson will only be electronically monitored for the first four months. Cecava expressed concerns that Thompson was not a “hunter,” in the manner which he carried out his crimes, and that she feared for Thompson’s safety, as the 50-year-old sex offender is only 5 feet 1 inch tall. (I wonder how tall his 12-year-old victim was!) Perhaps Judge Cecava should learn a little more about the terminals in which she deposits society’s worst elements.

I’m an ex-“C.O. “ (Correction Officer). I didn’t work in Nebraska, but nevertheless, I don’t think I’m too far off the mark, either. I had lots of short inmates. I have news for you; some of them were tougher than the bigger guys. Some, because they just had heart, and others because they had to be tougher to survive. I was once the first responding officer to a disturbance in which a cell was ransacked, and two inmates, who could qualify for NFL linebackers, were down on the floor amidst the mess and blood. I pulled out the third inmate, a young, blond haired short guy out of the cell. “What happened?” I asked. “They came in and said they were going to ‘go up in’ (sodomize) me.” “So what did you say?” I asked. “I said, oh no you ain’t!” replied the smaller inmate, who then showed me how in desperate fear, he ripped off a metal bed leg, and shortly thereafter, it was “lights out” for his two visitors. I wish this judge worked the blocks and tiers with me for a while. It’s not what you have, it’s how you use it, be it you size, your strength, your mouth, your attitude, or your head. I also had some pint-sized brother officers. Granted, some were worthless, but others, I wouldn’t mind watching my back in a “code” any day. In both categories, I could also say the same for the bigger guys.

The other issue is that inmates can be locked down voluntarily for 23 hours a day, and physically segregated from the rest of the prison population for safety reasons. No facility is “leak-proof,” but generally speaking, none of the other inmates need to know what an inmate is in for. CO’s are told in training never to reveal, or even ask what an inmate is in for. It’s not at all relative. Every inmate is treated the same. In our cubicles, we had file boxes with cards containing the photo and all pertinent info of each inmate in the block. On those cards, the numerical statutes they were convicted of were listed, but not the charges in longhand. You didn’t really even need to know that. The bonds were also listed on the cards. If you saw someone was in on a million dollar bond, you could rule out that he was a litterbug.

I do remember one time getting a new admit to my block. I did somehow hear that he was a child molester, and I forget how I heard it. This guy was also a little guy, a punky, 20-year-old blond kid, who would have been welcome fodder for the inmates if the word got out. This kid was also trouble, a real pain in the neck, always instigating something. One day, I took him aside for a private chat and asked him what he was in for. (It was the only time I ever asked that of any inmate, but there was a reason for my asking..I already knew the answer!) He said burglary, to which I replied an inference to the residual matter that is deposited in a southerly direction from the posterior underside of a bovine. Then I (correctly) answered the question for him. His already pale skin turned even paler. I told him that could be our little secret…or not. It was up to him. He got the message. He never gave me a hard time ever again. I could have written him a “D.R.”, or disciplinary report, which we called “tickets,” but my exercise of creativity and discretion worked even better. (A good officer uses his head more than his pen!) As far as the other inmates, they never knew, and the “burglar” got along with them just fine, and yes, even inmates hate child molesters, because many of them are parents, themselves.

The bottom line here is that it is utter drool that this guy is too short to go to prison. I had even had elderly inmates! Who worried about them? Even if Thompson’s height is a relevant issue, he should have thought of that before he committed his crimes, or sought help if he could not control himself. Sentencing inmates is supposed to accomplish two goals: to punish the convicted offenders, and to protect society, and especially, vulnerable society, like children, from these cretins. In the second goal, Judge Cecava dropped the ball.

Catherine Donaldson-Evans, of Fox News (www.foxnews.com), did a piece entitled, “Molesters Often Strike Again,” on April 16, 2005. In that article, she quotes Louis Schlesinger, a forensic psychologist, specializing in criminal behavior and sex crimes at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. In the article, Schlesinger said (of child molesters), “They’re predatory, compulsive, repetitive offenders. These are very dangerous people, aroused by children. That’s part of their sexuality. It’s a very, very difficult to change that.” Also quoted in the article was Jeffrey Ian Ross, a criminologist at The University Of Baltimore, who noted that the “deterrent of being caught” would have a “minimal impact” on these criminals. Ross added, “It’s not a crime in which reason prevails.” Keith F. Durkin, a criminologist from Ohio Northern University, and an expert in the study of pedophilia, agreed with his colleagues in the article. Said Durkin, “Their (child molesters) sexual preference is for children. They have a compulsion to molest children. Many, if not all, will molest children until the day they die. They’re dangerous and they’re going to re-offend.” It is worthy of note that the Fox News article I cited focused on molestation cases in which the victims were also kidnapped and murdered. Such was not the case with Thompson’s victim. Nevertheless, let us review Thompson’s sentence, as handed down by Judge Cecava, ten years probation with four months of electronic monitoring for two felony counts of sexual assault, over the course of a couple months, on a 12 year old girl. OK, the guy is not a serial killer, but is anyone else’s skin crawling right now, besides mine?

I don’t own a crystal ball, so I can’t predict what Richard Thompson will or will not do in the future. But I’m not a gambler, either, and given what the experts say, I wouldn’t rush to make any bets regarding his future behavior, either. As a Judge, Cecava had a duty to protect Thompson as well as his victim, and society at large, I don’t find fault with what she did; I find fault with how she did it. It is said that many child molestation cases go unreported. Who is to say what anyone has done in the past, or could do in the future, without the criminal justice system ever having any knowledge of such assaults? The sentence Judge Cecava gave to Richard Thompson does not prevent him from repeating his crime. It only makes it easier for him to get caught. Justice was not served. The system grossly failed. Society was not protected, and that 12-year-old girl, and maybe another one, may still very well be in danger.

Randy Newman, some years back, wrote a satirical and controversial song called, “Short People,” which some people found hilarious, and others found abhorrent. I find it ironic, however, that a couple of the song’s lyrics seem to fit child molesters of any size: “They got grubby little fingers and dirty little minds, and dirty little minds, they’re gonna get you every time.”

Richard Thompson should have been put into a cage for the rest of his life. Instead, he received a temporary ankle bracelet, ten years of correspondence with an overworked probation officer, and a virtual speed bump as an impediment to repeating his crimes. And what happens, Judge Cecava, if Thompson should strike again. It may even be a matter of when, instead of if. What do you say, or do, when he returns to your courtroom? What do you say to that teary-eyed, traumatized little innocent victim, who relied on you to protect her, when she looks you straight in the eye and asks, “Why did that man hurt me?” What do you say to that girl’s parents? Do you have children, Judge Cecava? Would you have given Richard Thompson the same sentence if he lived next door to you? What if the same “kick” doesn’t work for him next time? What if he needs to ratchet the action up a notch to obtain the same thrill next time, if there is a next time? What happens the next time some short little mutant comes before you in your courtroom? Is the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) now going to advocate for short people to roam free, and raise havoc all over the country because you now gave them another excuse for a disability exemption? I thought disabled people are supposed to be treated equally as non-disabled people. What am I missing here?

In a sordid, putrid and deteriorating toilet-like world, full of the rotting stench of increasing despair, vile depravity, vulnerability, disillusionment, fear, anxiety, suffering, loss of logic, disregard for innocence, absence of accountability, apathy toward morals, and sheer evil, you have just given all of us one more nightmare to endure. Do you ever have nightmares, Judge Cecava? Do the demons of your loopy, liberal, ludicrous, half-baked, knee-jerk, feel-good, myopic decisions ever come back to revisit and haunt you, deep in your REM sleep, late at night, when all is dark and quiet? I really wonder. Rest assured, you have disturbed the tranquil slumber of many people. As for you, sleep well, Judge Cecava. Pardon me if I don’t call you, “Your Honor.”

_____________________________________

Richard Thompson, a 5-foot, 1-inch tall man, was sentenced to 10 years probation on two felony sexual assault charges. Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava told Thompson he was too small to survive very long in a state prison._________________________________________________________________

You Must Be At Least This Tall to Enter the Big House
By Dave Cloud

Just when you think irresponsible judges cannot possibly do anything else to show more concern for perpetrators than their victims, a jurist possessing a uniquely enhanced sense of justice raises the bar. The most recent example of this took place last week in Nebraska, a state not normally associated with such idiocy.

 

In this case, Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava has decided that 50-year-old Richard Thompson, a 5-foot, 1-inch man who had repeated sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl over a two-month period, is simply too short to face the rigors of prison as punishment for his two felony sexual assault convictions. Judge Cecava felt it would be dangerous to send Thompson to prison since he is so diminutive. You can almost hear Randy Newman warming up in the background.

 

Apparently, Judge Cecava’s special sense of justice is not informed by the opinions of the administrators of the Nebraska prison system. “He’s not the shortest guy we have in prison,” said prison system spokesman Steve King. “We’ve got people from all ages, physical stature of all sizes, in general population.” King also added that there are protection options in Nebraska’s prisons for inmates who feel threatened, but that no one has ever used them based upon fears related to height.

 

Instead of ten years in prison, Thompson will be electronically monitored for the first four months of his ten-year probation. Thompson will also be barred from being alone with any child under 18—too bad he hadn’t been told that earlier. Nor can he live with or marry any woman with children under that age. And finally, in a move undoubtedly designed to show she was not coddling Mr. Thompson, the judge ordered that he get rid of all of his pornography. Ouch.

 

How far removed from the real world is Judge Cecava’s ruling? Even the American Civil Liberties Union was flummoxed by the decision. “I have never heard of anything like this before,” said the legal director of the ACLU’s Nebraska chapter. Miller pointed out that nothing in the U.S. or Nebraska constitutions provides protections based on physical size. Judge Cecava apparently believes otherwise.

 

All of this begs the question of what—in the enlightened opinion of Judge Cecava—is the minimum height for someone to be incarcerated for the repeated molestation of a child? We should probably not stop there. Does the judge have a minimum weight for prisoners in mind? Surely a 100-pound offender would be hard-pressed to mount a vigorous physical defense. Should bantamweight molesters also receive a pass? The possibilities for leniency, as defense attorneys are giddily hoping, are limitless.

 

It might be appropriate for Cheyenne County law enforcement to get some of those cutout figures the amusement parks use to determine if a rider is tall enough to drive the bumper cars. The cops could put vertically-challenged arrestees up against it and just toss back those who are below the limit. But what should be done with a tall, heavy individual who is extremely weak? Perhaps a session in the weight room to determine the felon’s maximum bench press should be part of a pre-sentencing report.

 

The state’s attorney general has promised to appeal the leniency of the sentence. Hopefully the appeal will be heard by judges not gifted with Judge Cecava’s masterful insights. The big question now facing Nebraska’s citizens is whether Judge Kristine Cecava is too short on common sense to serve out her term as a criminal court judge.

Dave Cloud is a frequent contributor to The American Enterprise Online.

Community Involvement is the key to changing our society and making it a better place for our children. Remember this is a no whining zone! If we are disturbed about this then our outrage must be turned into action and not whining!