The Salient Observer

Recently,  I have been watching episodes of The Profit .  Marcus Lemonis, a multimillionaire businessman seeks to invest in failing smaller businesses.  Each episode is similar; he meets the people (usually one or two partners), meets the staff, looks over the financials, assesses the process and then the product.  After all of this, he either walks or offers them a deal. If they accept his deal, he usually wants from 25-51% of the company and to control things 100% for the first month to turn things around.  His focus is on three building blocks:  People, Process, Product.   In each episode, the optimistic outlooks turns sour because change is hard.  This is very similar to the show The Dog Whisperer .  People want their dog fixed but rarely see how they are the main reason the animal is imbalanced and caught in destructive behaviors.  It is a show about transforming the adults in the room, not so much the dog!  Sh...

This isn't 1998 anymore! In 1998, American culture leaned more towards The Andy Griffith Show than The Walking Dead! Since the Obama administration, America has experienced 12 of the 20 greatest mass shootings in US history!  Nine of which took place under President Obama and already, three under President Trump's administration! President Trump is facing a 60 Minutes segment with porn "actress" Stormy Daniels who is threatening to "tell all" about her sexual relations with Donald Trump.  Her story is well known, leading most cable TV news stories daily along with a few other females claiming Donald Trump as private citizen sexually harassed or was involved sexually with these women. Donald Trump, first as man, then as President can simply say, "So what?" President Trump can claim he has not had any inappropriate relations, and unlike President Bill Clinton, he did not shame the White House. He can claim he was a private citizen when t...

"They don't know what it is like to stare  down the barrel of an AR-15...I DO!" The AR-15 is the weapon of choice.  We all know of this weapon but it is words.  Words in a visual age! Watching CNN Saturday, a reporter went to a shooting range with a former military ranking officer.  He was firing an AR-15.  I immediately heard a familiar sound, but not from a movie like Black Hawk Down , it was from watching "Breaking News!" The shooting last year with a gunman hunting Senators, Republican Senators practicing for a softball game.  Thanks to Youtube, a video from a witness uploaded his account of this shooting from his phone.  The gunfire through my computer speakers was intense.  It was clear.  It was the same sound I just heard on CNN this morning. The latest shooting at Parkland then came to mind.  Another video from the classroom.  The first time I played it on Youtube I thought I was going to burst my comput...

If you want to make a change, you must have understanding...   emotional arguments never accomplish real change! If the students involved in the Parkland shooting REALLY want to make their lives count, then they need to focus their energy first on understanding, then on action.  I will tell you this, the NRA is scared of kids! The first thing they must recognize is the NRA is a religion.  Once they grasp and accept this, then they can start to develop a strategy.  What they need is to understand all the benchmarks of a religion.  After they unpack this, the lights start to shine. Nothing makes an organization shake in its boots more than knowing how it works!  Students need to watch the Leah Remini series on Scientology!  Sorry any Parkland students involved in Scientology, but time to get out of that cult.  This is exactly what we are dealing with! If I was in leadership with these students, I would get these young minds organize...

It has clearly been seen that in the Parkland shooting tragedy, almost all the warning signs were missed leading to action.  In most cases of tragedy, this always seems to occur! After the fact, there are a lot of WHY questions and then seeking a target to blame.  The Parkland shooting proves to follow this formula exactly.  Missed warning signs are a clear extension leading directly to breaks in the system.  This is why blame always follows.  There has to be a "fall guy" and if we stop there, nothing will ever change.  The "fall guy" is not the main issue for change, unpacking why the warning signs were missed is! There are benchmarks to measure in every organization.  Here are a few... The first reason is FLOW Every organization is in flow and within this flow there is always stress.  Stress can be good and normal.  In a school, there are so many moving parts.  Students and teachers are consumed with their own lives.  ...

One thing we do not deal with in our political system is the revolving door of new Presidential administrations.  Let's look back to move forward; First off, Columbine was NOT the first mass shooting.  Columbine was the first significant MASS shooting in a new age of the Internet.  Our awareness changed and Michael Moore's documentary preserved this for the next generation. When we look at mass shootings, they all took place during a Presidential administration.  Each President addressed this in a particular way.  Guess what?  When a new President comes into office, a new method to understand and cope takes place.  This is why each time it feels like we are starting over.  There is almost no collected wisdom! What makes matters even more stunning is looking at how many mass shootings have taken place, and few people really are aware of this data.  In an age of information, ready at the click of a button, take a look at this list of m...

President Trump just gave an address on the shooter today and went off.  Agree or disagree with the President, he is correct about this point.  There is no halfway house anymore with someone who is on edge between the police and the act of aggression either toward self or others, sometimes both.  I agree! Unless we are compassionate enough to understand the psychological state of someone in this position we simply do not want to get involved.  Remember the time when there was that ONE house on the block where kids felt safe?  The house where they could go?  We have lost that "house" in our culture. Same in the adult world.  Outside of the Anonymous groups, where can someone get care?  Yet even in those groups, a person hopes there is enough leadership and stability of that group to take some action.  For the most part, you need some stability under you (housing) in order to survive.  If you do not have that, it is extremely diffic...