AT&T: It Doesn’t Look Good, Girls.
AT&T announced layoff of 4600 workers yesterday. The article in today’s Wall Street noted that AT&T explained the layoff as mostly “white collar” jobs because consumers are dropping their AT&T landlines.
They also announced that a similar number of new jobs would be created in more promising businesses such as wireless, television and broadband.
AT&T spokesman Mr Sharp explained to the WSJ that jobs would not be found for their laid off employees”for a variety of reasons” because the new jobs were different.
To paraphrase that other BOSS, the jobs are gone girls, and they ain’t coming back.
Or as John Hodulick, an analyst for UBS explained clearly,
“There will be quite a bit of cost savings in this plan since it will impact a lot of senior executives and white-collar workers, who are generally more highly paid, and replace them with guys in trucks getting U-Verse into peoples’ homes,” he added, referring to AT&T’s television and high-speed Internet offering.”
So, gentleman…..start your engines!
Perspective: Senseless Shootings in Kirkwood, MO
What were you doing last Thursday evening at 7PM? An ordinary night probably for most of us ordinary people.
There was a city council meeting at the Kirkwood, Missouri City Hall, A zoning meeting. Ordinary stuff. And then something far out of the ordinary, something mind numbing happened in a town that describes itself as “where community and spirit meet.”
A gunman who had recently lost a lawsuit against the city of Kirkwood who had banned him from speaking at city council meetings, opened fire, killing five people before he was shot to death. The mayor, Mike Swoboda was wounded and is in critical condition. Suburban Journal reporter Todd Smith was shot in the hand.
Those killed were Police Officer William Biggs, Police Officer Tom Ballman, Councilwoman Connie Karr, Councilman Mike Lynch and Public Works Director Kenneth Yost. I didn’t know any of them but I would imagine they were not expecting that on February 7th that they had a rendezvous with death.
Officer Biggs was on his way to get a pizza when he crossed paths with the shooter. One minute he was probably thinking ordinary pizza thoughts as he headed to IMO’s. The next minute he was gunned down but managed the extraordinary as he died; he pushed the alert button on his radio and probably saved many lives in the community of Kirkwood.
Officer Biggs died a hero; no doubt those who knew him and loved him and miss him would have preferred that he had lived an ordinary Kirkwood police officer.
We live in a town that borders Kirkwood. My sister raised her family there and her daughter, my niece, lives there now. Kirkwood IS a community. A community that does not Bowl Alone but seems to personify the currency of social capital: trust, community, involvement, neighbors, belonging. Kirkwood has annual festivals and a hundred year old football rivalry with neighboring Webster Groves that is the subject of a recent book, The Turkey Day Game.
As I read about the lives of those gunned down, they stood in stark, tragic contrast to the shooter who seemed to believe that the community was against him and that he was “at war” with Kirkwood.
According to his brother, he left a “suicide note” stating “the truth will come out in the end.”
The truth as I see it is captured by the words of the Deputy Mayor Thomas Griffin as reported in the New York Times : “This is a tragedy of untold magnitude.”
Earlier today I had to run a quick errand to Ace Hardware, just across Manchester less than a mile from home. My mother asked me to get her some lunch at the Daily Bread.
As I walked to my car I noticed a number of people walking across the parking lot towards Manchester. Then I noticed car lights; finally realizing as I got to my car that there were hundred of police cars from all over the city driving in a procession down Manchester Road.
I sat in my car for over a half an hour, traffic halted in every direction as the funeral procession for Officer Thomas F. Ballman drove from his home in Ballwin to Kirkwood City Park. I used my Blackberry camera to take the picture above. It was something to see….
Bob McCarty Writes has photos on Fickr of “the sights and sounds of Kirkwood the morning after the shooting.”
High Tech/ High Touch
An article in the WSJ entitled, "The First Online War Honors Fallen
Troops with Web Tributes" caught my eye this morning. I thought it was
going to be about blogging and although it mentions military blogs it is really about the power of the web to immerse us totally in the reality of events by giving us access to the people experiencing it, who touch us so deeply that we become emotional participants, rather than spectators in these events.
It is one thing to read about the number of casualties in the war in Iraq (2,000 as of last week). The article mentions web sites that show maps of where the dead soldiers are from, and web sites that "sort" them by age, but the emotional engagement really begins on the sites that show their faces. We can, of course become engaged in this manner by reading magazines, newspapers, and watching TV. But, as the WSJ says,
"If you want to have your heart not just touched but ripped apart, visit the Moving Tributes section of Legacy.com, a Web business that hopes to become a national online clearinghouse for obituaries… is a free service that allows families
and friends of dead soldiers to create short multimedia memorials… {and} narrate a
personal remembrance"
The result is not just photos of the dead soldiers, but you are sharing the "the living room photo albums of lives ending early." Emerson wrote, Genius is saying what is in your heart because it is in everyone’s heart." Visit this site, you will feel what is in the hearts of these families…in your heart. High tech/high touch.
Technorati Tags: Iraq_war, web, emotions
Rosa Parks
I don’t know exactly when I first heard about Rosa Parks but I do know if I
were asked to define bravery or courage of convictions it could
be defined by her refusal in 1955 to give up her bus seat to a white man in
“simple actâ€. I just don’t buy that.
There was nothing simple or ordinary about
Rosa Parks or her refusal to move to the back of the bus….not in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.
I had let myself think too deeply about what might happen to me, I might have
gotten off the bus," she had to have been aware of the possibilities of
great harm. A black woman just didn’t defy Jim Crow in
enormous risk. After all, in 1943 she had been ordered off a bus for a similar
refusal and she walked home….she had 12 years to consider the possibilities. The
New York Times wrote, “Her act of civil disobedience, what seems a
simple gesture of defiance so many years later, was in fact a dangerous, even
reckless move in 1950’s Alabama. In refusing to
move, she risked legal sanction and perhaps even physical harm, but she also
set into motion something far beyond the control of the city authorities. Mrs.
Parks clarified for people far beyond Montgomery the cruelty and humiliation inherent in the laws and customs of segregation.â€
In 1988, Rosa Parks said at a celebration in her honor, "I am leaving
this legacy to all of you… to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a
fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will
perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die –the dream of
freedom and peace." This was no ordinary woman. She had a vision of
justice and equality and the courage to defy the obstacles in her path by her
actions.
Technorati Tags: Rosa, Parks, courage
Bill 0′Reilly Declares Blogs Garbage
"I don’t read them, I mean it’s so outrageous", O’Reilly said on his show on July 18, 2005. Then last night on the Factor he attacks blogs calling them ideological weapons and smear campaigns as reported by Think Progress and Crooks and Liars. OK, Bill so I do watch your show because I believe it is important to hear opposing viewpoints. I have not read your book for kids. I am assuming (risky I know) based on interviews you have given about your book that you advise kids to be informed. I know that is the advise I give my own kids who frequently ask me why I watch your show since I frequently don’t agree with your opinions. Although, I would also advise my kids not to settle a lawsuit if the accusations were false. Hmmmmm?
So tell me, if you don’t read blogs, please explain to everyone how you know that they are "garbage"? Not to make an extreme comparison or anything, but wasn’t this the same premise upon which the Nazi’s burned books? Let’s declare the ideas we disagree with as garbage to protect others from reading them.
So, I say to Bill 0′Reilly: Your premise is garbage. You should read blogs to designate them garbage. I watch your show and and have personally heard you rant about the uninformed who express opinions. So, I believe I must request that you please take to heart your claim to be "fair and balanced" and at least read a blog or two, or just "shut up". (I also tell my kids not to say "shut up"….)
2 Cool Sites From 2 Cool Sites
Even with RSS and aggregators, there is still too much information for me to process and use. In my email was Inter Alia Weekly Research, which always has great information to help manage the overload. This time, a site called memeorandum which takes daily news articles and links to the blogs that are talking about the the stories. Then from Seth Godins Blog came a reference to Emily Chang’s e-hub which is a constantly updated reference to everything new in blogs, social software, folksonomy, design and well, just everything.
More Schools Help Katrina Refugees
I wrote an earlier post regarding the colleges and universities that were helping students displaced by Hurricane Katrina . From Hugh Hewitt’s blog, comes a link to a blog dedicated to the subject. Also, here is a link regarding which law schools are opening their doors. Mr. Hewitt notes that he is sorry that his Alma maters are not on the list, yet. Likewise!
Katrina Tragedy
As my son Sam and I watched Fox News tonight and saw for the first time the full picture of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina we both had the same thought…and we thought being without power for four days a few weeks ago was a big deal.
Sam started school this week and last night his homework included an assignment to list the characteristics that make America unique. Watching the selfless police and rescue workers who no doubt had to leave their own families and homes to assist others, the grim determination of those pushing shopping carts loaded with earthly possessions, the doctors using canoes to bring in medical supplies, the homemade "help" signs made from who knows what, held up by rooftop survivors, the we are all in this together attitude and the every man for himself attitude of the looters…all that captured the American character. And of course, all the bloggers that urged us to donate and provided links to the Red Cross, Feed The Children, and links to links.
Sam said I should add Donate or Die. So….
Claire McCaskill Announces
Claire McCaskill announced today that she was running for the US Senate seat currently held by Jim Talent. This is good. And should be interesting. I have a few suggestions for campaign issues….I may even post them.
Hello…RFID: We CAN Keep Track of Sexual Predators
As I listen to the media and the politicians discuss "keeping track" of sexual predators in light of the most recent tragedies of Jessica Lunsford and then Shasta and Dylan Groene using language that essentially says, too bad so sad…we can’t keep track of them, I wonder why? Why we don’t seem to want to keep track of them?
Here is one example of this nonsense from Fox News:
"U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, is trying to push
a bill through Congress that would help keep better track of convicted
sex offenders. The Child Predator Act of
2005 would, among other things, require states to specify that a
convicted predator must report a change of address within 10 days after
the change of address takes effect. The law would also require that
offenders notify schools, public housing and at least two media outlets
of their whereabouts. Penalties for not complying with the law could
mean up to two years in prison or hefty fines, according to the
legislation."
The bill also calls on the FBI to set up an Internet site that includes a recent photograph and address of child predators.
Ok, so these known repeat criminals who prey on our children are supposed to tell us who they are and where they are and if they don’t they could go back to jail for up to two years or receive a "hefty fine"???? Huh? Don’t they usually "tell us" by striking again??? And aren’t they considered "untreatable"??
It is completely mystifiying to me that we act so incredibly stupid about this….the technolocy most certainly exists to keep track of these criminals….we can keep track of our tools through RFID technology, WalMart can manage their inventory through RFID technology and we can use microships for our lost pets.
So, why is it we can keep track of sexual predators? And the same for restraining orders…why is a restraining order issued for an abuser as if that alone will eliminate the risk. The families of those murdered under retraining orders wonder that also.
We have the technology…WHY don’t we use it?
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