Least We Forget the 2008 Paralympians

China, for a few precious days, calls attention to the attributes and achievements of Paralympians.
This year's theme, "One World, One Dream," puts a light on human resolve that speaks volumes..." spirit triumphs over matter!"
No doubt many taboos that exist in countries concerning citizens with disabilities will be broken because of these games, which comprise of forty-two-hundred athletes from one-hundred-forty-eight nations.
Check out NBC's highlights reel, which includes the opening ceremony at the Bird's Nest in Beijing; absolutely awesome.
NewsJReview

It Takes Exceptional Thought To Lead

Cuts to Special Education budgets are shortsighted. People with disabilities make up the largest pool of willing and ready to work individuals, yet they are 70 percent unemployed. A cut on the front end of special education certainly spells a downward spiral in what is already a dismal position in a society that promotes itself on a strong work ethic.
Do we care? Shouldn't our leaders care and act appropriately?
In the last thirty years investments in special education students to spending on regular education students have declined.
Some will argue that spending has not gone down, but rather, school enrollment has gone up, as people with disabilities become more engaged in their communities, as is their right. This includes access to a quality education that can lead to the dignity of work for people with every type of disability—physical, developmental, sensory, mental, cognitive and intellectual.
And there are large companies, among them some subsidiaries of Walgreen’s, The Home Depot, supports athletes with disabilities to compete in the Paralympics, IHG-(InterContinental Hotels Group), WalMart’s and SunTrust Banks, have made it policy to hire people with disabilities, not as a matter of charity, but because they see clearly the value and strength gained in bottom line performance, output, profit and taxes. Special Education is about an investment in the future and a genuine uplift in real lives.
Exceptional leadership needs to have this understanding.
NewsJReview

Gustav Knows No Politics

Gustav, the hurricane that washed political debate off the airwaves, may have finally got our attention as Americans. "We are in deep trouble."
Our decisions are not long thought out. Didn't Katrina tell us emphatically you can not build in low lying areas and flood zones and carry on the "business as usual" scheme? Didn't Katrina tell us that there are no barriers in the sea to protect oil rigs and pipe that when offline, send oil prices surging? Didn't Katrina tell us we need to recover our wetlands?
And, yet some will say let us debate what our eyes have seen, the validity of the cries of those who have suffered under the special interest and political policy decisions that contribute to their fate. Yes, let us debate who told the story best that often carry subtle analysis that contribute to citizens belief that the technology that is in place to warn of danger can also somehow alter it as well. Our good sense must break through and come to the fore. Gustav today rages. And, it is not the last storm on the horizon. More lives lost, more property, more money, more excuses, more debate are still a part of the resettlement plan. Our arms are figuratively and literally to short to box with God. Real leadership understands this and it knows no politics.
NewsJReview

Obama Rising

The last night of the Democratic Presidential Convention belonged solely to Barack Obama.
The clear-eyed candidate strolled out confidently before a thunderous crowd of supporters (75-thousand people) and stepped into history as he uttered the words "I accept the nomination." The Democratic Presidential Nominee set a new standard in discourse as he challenged his opponent step up to the plate in serious, not sullen, debate on the tenets of leadership. The nation's stock and the world's stock in "change" rose on Mr. Obama's every word. This unlikely foot-soldier demonstrated with impeccable precision, poignant tact, healthy humility and deft definition wisdom, which has been long absent and at great cost in the body politic.

NewsJReview

A Big Step in an Improbable Journey

At 4:49 pm Mountain and 6:49pm Eastern Barack Obama became the Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party. A big step for the party of Jefferson and the candidate from the state of Lincoln. This mountain top experience could only have happen in the mile high city, Denver, Colorado nestled along the majestic Rockies.
Well done.
NewsJReview

Impervious to Challenge in the Wake of Defeat

Senator Hillary Clinton impervious to challenge in her own right made it abundantly clear during the Democratic Convention that there was no good argument not to elect, in her words, "my candidate" Senator Barack Obama the next President of the United States. Indeed she has infused a new respect for the democratic process in America, as the primary season was truly brutal. But, with grace, humility and respect, she reached beyond self and paved the way for Senator Obama to indeed become President.
That's a class act that students of politics the world over should take note.
Simply well done!
NewsJReview

Call Me Crazy

Call me crazy, but I think Reagan Democrats will sit out the 2008 Presidential elections.
Here's why.
Their guy, or anyone who looks like him or her, is not in the race.
This group was repeatedly chided by Republican and Democratic pundits during the presidential primaries as the people that have consistently voted against their own economic interests.
To be clear, they along with just about everyone else, except oil fat cats, have seen their purse strings grow tight, and some have been robbed blind of their jobs. Those jobs were hijacked in the name of big corporate interests and taken to foreign lands, not yesterday, but over the last 45 years.
Is this an overstatement about one group being hood winked, of course, especially when you consider they and a number of other citizens cast their votes not once but twice for the current administration, on whose watch the economy tanked.
How does that saying go..."fool me three times...?"
And if, you are to believe the interviews some Reagan Democrats or Reagan Republicans gave during the democratic primaries about having trouble with diversity as representative of the group, then it is obvious they truly don't have an elephant or donkey in this race for the Oval office.
Call me crazy, but Reagan Democrats will save on gas and not venture out to the polls in droves this election season, and that is more than a shame; it should be viewed as a genuine concern for the democratic process on a number of fronts.
NewsJReview