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What's New

2010-09-01 10:47:00

My rants and our new “baby”

Question: What’s new?

Answer: Lots of things are new. I’m always glad to be asked. This month, you get to read (unless you don’t) about a list of things I am sick and tired of. I call them my “rants.” Maybe some of mine match yours. Maybe they do not. If you have a different opinion, or these things don’t bother you, let me know. Finally, I want to tell you about our new edition, The Southeast Kansas Q & A Times Journal, that we have launched in Crawford County. I’ll try not to do a lot of complaining. People have their own problems and they don’t need to hear about mine. But I really don’t have too many personal problems that I haven’t been able to manage…somehow. That may seem a bit prideful, but what I mean by “managing” is that I do lots of things wrong…know I must ask for forgiveness…do in as humble of a way as possible…make a firm resolution to do better…and then I get on down the road. Unfortunately, I don’t have the “management” of these kinds of things worked out at all. They just make me sick…and tired. 1. I am sick and tired of hearing about people being racist and that racism caused such and such. I travel in lots of circles. Enough circles that if there were as many racists out there as those that are called racists…or blatant racism…I would know about it…hear about it or experience it. It seems like I have always been out…where if it existed…I would know it. Whenever I did see it or experience it I would say to myself, “This is my chance…do something.” And I would. But as a rule, I don’t hear it. I don’t see it. I came to Wichita in the late ‘60s, off the family farm in Barber County. Back then, there were probably two or three families of African Americans in Medicine Lodge, the largest town in the county, and several Hispanic families in Kiowa, the second largest town in the county. That was it. I played baseball since I was 5 years old. I played with and against boys from these families. I can’t remember one of them that wasn’t a neat kid…and an excellent athlete. I didn’t see color. The kids I ran around with didn’t see color. We saw them as kids that loved the game as much as we did. Later at WSU, in 1968, I was in the midst of every race, creed and color there was. I didn’t see it. I saw them as kids that wanted an education as much as I did…and this was the ‘60s for crying out loud…in the midst of tremendous racial unrest…but not as much as there is today. While going to college, I worked at the Coleman Company. I was in scheduling for awhile then supervision. We had every race, creed and color there. I never saw it. I saw as great of a group of people as I have ever worked with or for in my life. They worked hard. They followed instructions. Their work was high quality. If someone was lazy or failed to do the job that was required, that person could have been any race, color or creed. Following Coleman’s, I have spent the last 40 years in media, mostly here in Wichita but also in most every major market in the country. I have not witnessed racism. I am sick and tired of hearing about it. The reason why President Obama’s approval ratings are in the tank are because of his policies and his way of handling things, not because he’s black. The reason why Charlie Rangel is in trouble is because he has allegedly broken 13 laws, not because he’s black. The reason why Maxine Waters is in trouble is because she allegedly broke three separate and different rules of Congress, not because she is black. All of this reminds me of the old story of the patient visiting his doctor. The patient says, “Doc, when I do this it hurts.” The Doctor says, “Then don’t do that.” Can we not do this anymore? 2. I am sick and tired of hearing that the current administration inherited a terrible problem. Oh really? I was alive in the Fall of 2006 as both houses of Congress went Democrat, which just happens to be the party of affiliation of President Obama. Just a few days ago, the Washington Post babbled on again about Obama inheriting a huge deficit from Bush. Amazingly enough, a lot of people swallow this nonsense. So once more, let’s have a short civics lesson. Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress, and the party that has controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party. They controlled the budget process for fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2009, as well as fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2011, you know the one that is already projected to be a $1.47 Trillion deficit. In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases. For fiscal year 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the fiscal year 2009 budgets. And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete fiscal year 2009. Would you like to see the ACTUAL deficits during that time? Take a look below: If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the fiscal year 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets. If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself. In a nutshell, what President Obama is saying is, “I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th when I took over.” By the way Mr. President, didn’t you campaign and ask for people to vote for you because you were going to fix everything? I can just see me using this excuse back in the days of when I took over a department at the Coleman Company, where the previous Foreman had been fired. They may have let me say one time, in the first few days of taking over, how much of a mess things were…but that would have been it. If I would have ever mentioned it after that, I would never be given the chance to bring it up again. I would be the “recently fired Foreman.” They already knew it was a mess. They had already removed the reason why it was a mess. I was the solution to clean up the mess. I was expected to do it and that was that! 1. I am sick and tired of President Obama, Gibbs, Gettner, Pelosi and Reed telling me that this recovery is going great. We have 1 out of every 10 Americans that could work, looking for work. There are another 8 Americans that have quit looking for work. We are losing an average of 100,000 jobs or more each month. The reason why unemployment continues to hover at around 10% is because the number that are losing their jobs are equaling the number that have stopped looking for work. Guys…let me handle the math on this one. I don’t need your “chin boogey.” 2. I am sick and tired of hearing how many jobs have been saved. That’s like saying had I not missed the bus that one morning in 1958 because I was late getting dressed for school, I would have been President. You can’t prove it and you can’t refute it. You just somehow know it’s not the way it is. 3. I am sick of seeing President Obama on TV every single day and evening, and reading from his teleprompters as though he is delivering his last speech prior to an election. Whatever happened to someone just talking to us, instead of continually trying to sell us some kind of Dr. Obama Ointment that will cure everything it comes in contact with? He seems so angry. I would just like him to talk to us and not be running someone down when he does, or putting that monotonous, up and down, “preacher” inflection in everything he says. 4. I am sick and tired of every politician thinking of politics before they act or speak. I am convinced that one of only a handful who is telling it like it is in America today is Senator Byh from Indiana, and I feel that is because he’s a good enough man that he wants to tell it like it is before he finally hangs it up. He’s interested in leaving a legacy. So if you think I only praise the “right,” you’re wrong. Senator Byh and his entire family have been Democrats for years. 5. I am sick and tired of Bill O’Reilly’s arrogance and prideful demeanor. He is a con artist. He’s a hot-headed Irishman who is most of the time, ill-prepared to talk about things he talks about. He’s looking out for you and the rest of the “folks” about as much as lion looks out the safety of a baby fawn. 6. I am sick and tired of Dick Morris who doesn’t know how to provide information without plugging a new book of his or his website. 7. I am sick and tired of Keith Olbermann who literally cannot open his mouth and have anything come out but hate about the “right”. 8. I am sick and tired of Rachel Maddow who is much prettier than Olbermann, but literally cannot open her mouth and have anything come out but hate about the “right.” 9. I am sick and tired of Alan Colmes because he continues to demonstrate his lack of intelligence…on any subject…to any target…each time he is on TV. 10. I am sick and tired of Sean Hannity because no one can be as bad as he makes out the “left” and the Democrats to be. 11. I am sick and tired of people, in all walks of life, who make commitments and then do not keep them. Have you ever thought how great society would be if we went back to the time when “a deal is a deal?” Okay, I feel better now. Now, let me tell you about our new “baby.” This month we begin The Southeast Kansas Q & A Times Journal. We will be going to every business and most every residence in Crawford County. I thought I would reprint my article that is on the front page of that edition, here. Every so often, I think it’s good to read how our concept got started. We kind of look like a newspaper…but we’re actually quite a bit different. Here’s the article that appeared on our inaugural issue. Question: What is The SE Kansas Q & A Times Journal? Answer: Always glad to be asked. The SE Kansas Q & A Times Journal, a monthly newspaper, looks like a regular newspaper, but it is quite a bit different. Two of the most glaring differences are: first, you won’t see any classified, puzzles or comics; and secondly, you won’t find too much in the way of current events’ coverage. Daily papers, TV and radio do that much better than a weekly or monthly publication. Our publication provides in-depth information and education on a wide range of topics…in a non-commercial manner. We like to say, “It’s kind of like a ‘Hard Copy Google.’” Perhaps the best way to explain what it is we do is to tell you how the idea came about. While it might be a bit difficult to believe, the “seed” for the idea happened more than 50 years ago. I was born and raised on a farm south of Sharon, KS (Barber County). Every so often in the summer time, Mom would take me, my brothers and sisters to town to visit our Grandma and Grandpa Duckworth. We actually didn’t do a lot of visiting, but rather just ran in the front door, said “Hi,” and ran out the back door. We had bicycles there that we would ride with some of the kids in town. Once off the farm, we didn’t want to lose a minute. A couple of blocks from our grandparents’ house (there weren’t too many blocks in the entire city of Sharon), was Shirley Hart’s Derby Filling Station. Shirley, the owner, was a real nice man. He always hummed while he worked. There each day, under the canopy, on two wooden benches, sat several of the older, retired men in town. Among them was my Grandpa Duckworth. After I would ride my bike for awhile, I would most always end up stopping by, sitting on my bike and listening to them. They talked about everything, from the price of wheat and livestock - to things confronting the little town of Sharon - to why someone got more flat tires (that Shirley had to fix) than anyone else in town. I thought they were the smartest people I knew. Over a period of a couple of years, two of them died. I have always spent a lot of time thinking about death, even back then. I thought, as I continued to listen to the men who were left, the two that died were no longer here. They were no longer of this world. All of their experiences and all of their knowledge...gone. What a shame! Now keep in mind, I am listening to these older men, sitting on my bike, next to the old gasoline pumps. At different times, folks would pull up in their cars and trucks and Shirley would put in a dollar or two worth of gas. I thought, “You know, if those old pumps could be turned on in reverse, and the nozzle stuck in these men’s ears, all the knowledge they have could be sucked out, stored in a tank and the folks that come along after them could just stop by and fill ‘er up and they wouldn’t have to re-learn these things. Wow, I thought. How fast could we all move then!” In the late ‘90s, I was writing articles on Senior Living (Assisted Living, Independent Living and Skilled Nursing Care) for several newspapers throughout the country. Among other clients in other industries, our advertising agency performed marketing services for several Senior Living firms throughout the country. This, together with being fully-licensed as a Life, Health, Property & Casualty agent, specializing in Senior products, made me rather qualified to write on not only the types of care folks could, would and did receive, but also ways to pay for this care. My articles went from being a headline with supporting editorial, to using the questions I received as the headlines, and the answers as the editorial. This produced even more questions. I then began to think (which is sometimes dangerous), “Why couldn’t we produce an entire publication of questions and answers about every subject (like Ol’ Mike Oatman from the old KFDI Radio in Wichita used to say) from “hair nets to hip boots?” Who would answer the questions? The people who own and operate their own businesses, of course. After all, who knows more than they know about the topics? They have been schooled and trained on all aspects relating to everything to do with their products and services. They know which shortcuts one can take and which one cannot take. All I would have to do is to be sure the answers were credible and that they didn’t get commercial. So I set up the criteria that their answers could not use pronouns like I, We, Ours or Us, and they couldn’t use the name of their business, products or services in their answers. Thus all we would have is pure information and education. Readers would be glad to get the information and education, especially in a non-commercial fashion. Good will would be induced by these businesses, owners and operators to the readers, which is the very definition of public relations. Then, a few pages away from their Q & A, they would have an ad that would tell the reader who they were, what they did and what they wanted the reader to do with the information. The businesses would get a two-pronged marketing approach, one of public relations for taking the time to answer a question from a non-commercial standpoint informing and/or educating the reader, and their ad. No other media offered this to an advertiser..nor does one today…anywhere in the world that we know of. In addition to offering this two-pronged marketing approach to our advertisers, we offer the longest time-spent-reading of any type of editorial there is...outperforming all other types of editorial by as much as 250%…and there is nothing as important to an advertiser as the amount of time a reader spends reading the publication that in which he/she is advertising because the more time a reader spends reading a publication, the more opportunity that reader has to act upon the advertiser’s message. Combine this with the lowest cost per thousand advertising rates in the entire area, and the fact that our circulation to businesses and households will be nearly 30% larger than any other publication distributed in Crawford County, we have what we feel is a huge, bona fide value for area businesses. That’s how we started and how we have kept things going in Wichita. We are in the 10th year of publishing our paper in the Sedgwick County area and are beginning what we hope to be a very successful publication in the Southeast Kansas area as well. We are proud to have formed an alliance with Jerod Norris, a Southeast Kansas native, graduated from Girard High School and received his Bachelors Degree from Pittsburg State University. Jerod resides in St. Paul with his wife Tammi, daughter Ashton and son Brec. He has been in the advertising industry for the past several years and has taken an active role in the publishing of several publications in this area and throughout the state. When I first asked him why he wanted this opportunity, he replied, “I have a passion for marketing and media…particularly print media. To be able to introduce this most unique publication to our area, operating the same, and working with local businesses, is very exciting to me. It is exactly what I was looking for at this time in my career.” I promise you, you don’t find that kind of passion, enthusiasm and ability wrapped up in the same person that often. I knew then he was the person we were looking for. Jerod will be the “person on the ground” that takes care of everything to do with our publication in Southeast Kansas…from creating marketing solutions for businesses with our advertising…to assisting with the artwork and ad materials…to Q & A ideas and assistance. We have featured hundreds of answers, from hundreds of writers, to hundreds of questions over the years. Every one of them can be found at our website: www.theqandatimes.com, categorized by both subject and writer. All of the questions and answers we receive from this area will be there too. That’s our “tank” if you will. To me, our writers are analogous to the older men in Sharon. They are some of the smartest people I know. We hope you enjoy our publication.