What is your legacy?

Whenever someone famous dies, there is a lot of attention given to their life and accomplishments. Funerals are places where we remember the good that people did and minimize or forget the bad. The Bible tells us that love keeps no record of wrong; but that is hard for us as humans, except at a funeral. This has been illustrated recently with the death of Michael Jackson. It also seems that we become a bit more cognizant of our own mortality when someone famous dies. It has been said that the statistics on death are pretty amazing, 1 out of 1 of us will die. I was talking to a friend who had a very tough week. His wife was hospitalized with clots in her lung, his cousin (who he was very close to) passed away and his sister is losing her battle with cancer. We aren’t going to escape tragedy and loss in this world, and we will all die. The most important thing is how we live.

I was at the Boys and Girls Club fundraising event entitled “Steak and Burgers”. The concept is that kids from the clubs join the adults (donors) at their tables and the kids get steak and the adults get burgers. I thought it was a very novel concept for a fundraiser and looked forward to a fun evening with the kids. I got more than I bargained for. We had two great kids sitting at our table. They were full of life, excited to be at the event and obviously positively affected by the Boys and Girls Clubs. Part way through the dinner one of the girls began telling my wife about her family. She recounted how her mother lives with her friend (a woman) who has 3 kids (boys 17, 15 and 12) in a 2 bedroom apartment and that her and her little brother share the couch. Unless the other woman’s boyfriend is over, then her mom sleeps on the couch and they sleep on the floor. She said this in the most nonchalant way, not thinking that it was strange or trying to elicit any sympathy.

I have not been able to get this little girl and her family out of my mind. Why are they living like this? Is her father in jail, dead or has he just disappeared? Who is the woman that shares the apartment, and is it “healthy” for her teenage boys to be in the same cramped apartment with this little girl? Her eyes were lit up as she looked around the room and darted periodically to another table to cajole one of her friends. We joked about her being the social butterfly and imagined what she would be when she grows up. Perhaps a lawyer in the courtroom using her social skills to woo a jury, or an entrepreneur selling her idea to an investor or maybe she would be the next Katie Couric (the perky one)? Our glib speculation was before I knew about her “family” situation. Now I just hope and pray that she survives childhood unscathed and with her hope and joy still in tact.

Thank God there is a hope for her at the Boys and Girls Clubs where she and her brother go every day. We can bemoan our situation, count the pills that we take to stay alive, wax endlessly about our financial condition or eminent demise. Or we can do something to change a life. The Boys and Girls Clubs is a good place to start. If you haven’t checked them out I urge you to do so and give of your time and treasure, there web site is: www.bgctucson.org

Also, there is much more that can be done to change the lives of the next generation. Mark Harris is the head of 4 Tucson. The vision is to mobilize the churches to change our community. KIDCO is a government sponsored after school program that costs the city of Tucson nearly a million dollars a year to operate. Mark envisions the churches offering that program for free and freeing up the tax dollars for other important things like police and fire protection. If you are involved with a church go to the web site and get involved: www.4tucson.com
 
Mother Theresa was asked if she wasn’t overwhelmed with the poverty, squalor and ever increasing need in Bombay. She said that she wasn’t and that what she did was minister the love of Jesus to the person in front of her, then move on to the next. We can be overwhelmed and do nothing or simply do what Mother Theresa did and minister the love of Jesus to the person in front of you. You won’t have to look very far.

Tucson Economy

A friend of mine sent me over the presentation that Paul Portney, (Dean at the U of A Eller College of Management) gave at the Breakfast with the Economists. His assessment of the current financial situation was nothing new. But, he said that we should see a slight recovery in the next few months. He then said that a real recovery depends on “government demand being supplemented by sustainable sources of private spending”. I think I would phrase it a little differently; a real recovery depends on the private sector investing, building and hiring more people not the government’s artificial stimulus. Not only has the economic malaise reduced the entrepreneurial spirit, but the government is not giving incentive for business people to step out courageously. Increasing the taxes on those that might lead the way and create jobs is not the right strategy. So those that create jobs and opportunity will do so not because the have an incentive but because they are mavericks.

I was thrilled to receive Biz Tucson Magazine this morning. This is the entrepreneurial venture of Steve Rosenberg the former publisher of Tucson Lifestyle. Biz Tucson is doing its’ part to encourage business growth and development. This month Steve had articles about the emerging solar energy business in southern Arizona, the young entrepreneurs that have brought us the phenomenon of Frost (Gelato shops), and professional baseballs rebirth in the form of the Tucson Toros. And did you know that Tucson has a company that is developing a new space suit for astronauts? There is a lot of encouraging news and information within the pages of Biz Tucson. After reading Biz Tucson it made me want to buy another radio station! I encourage you to check out their web site and be encouraged. Go to www.BizTucson.com.

New addition to the GNC family

We truly are living in interesting times. Economically I don’t think it has been this bad in my life time. So what are we to do? Perhaps the government bail outs will work? The most aggressive government involvement in recent times was during the Great Depression. The more the government did to create jobs during the Great Depression, the worse it got. The private sector recoiled the more the government did to stimulate the economy. Finally it was the “Lend and Lease act”, where we supplied Great Britain in their fight against Nazi Germany that began our recovery. Then our entrance into the war cemented it. I am convinced that our economy will not recover due to anything the government does. The only thing that will cause the economic rebound is when business people and the private sector start to create jobs through entrepreneurial investment and invention. What holds us back is fear.

It has been said that the opposite of fear is faith. With that in mind we have decided to take that walk of faith. We just purchased KCEE radio, formerly owned by long time Tucson broadcaster Jim Slone. Jim built Slone broadcasting into a 5 station cluster in Tucson and sold that group of stations to Citadel a few years ago. He bought KCEE 2 years ago to play the music that he loves, and it turns out a whole lot of other people in Tucson love it as well. In fact KCEE is the number one oldies station in Tucson! I believe that the time is right to expand, not contract and that KCEE will be a great addition to our group of stations. So now we have 4 great stations in Tucson; KLOVE 88.1 FM, KVOI 690 AM (news/talk), KGMS 940 AM (Christian talk) and KCEE 1030 AM (pop classics). We will be doing a call letter swap between KVOI and KCEE on July 1st. Stay tuned as we press on in faith!