Thursday, March 10, 2011

State of the Union

The state of politics in our country at the present time can best be described in one word “turmoil”. On one hand we have the Democratic left, which funds most of its successful election campaigns with millions of dollars from public and other various unions.  On the other hand we have the right wing Republican Party determined to do away with the power of the unions. Both parties are treating us like we are oblivious to the “real” motivations that are driving their most recent actions.
For years the public employee unions have threw their money and support in electing the very people it in turn has to face off with across the bargaining table. Someone point out the benefit to the average American how makes sense? We have the deck stacked against us when the parties that “should” be on opposite sides of the bargaining table are sitting hand in hand on the same side. The result of this has been years and years of unchecked increased wages and benefits, to the point where it is bankrupting several states.  
Enter the Republican Party, blowing their trumpet and claiming they have all our best interest at heart in gutting long standing union rights in these financially troubled states. What is their “real” motivation, saving states from financial ruin or trying to eliminate the largest source of funding for the only real competition they have in about every election, the Democratic Party? I guess as non union worker I want to believe they are looking out for my future but in the end we’ll all have to do some soul searching as to what we believe and how we will vote in the future.
 

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The role of "social media" in our world today?

What is the role of social media in our world today? Used to be when I thought of the word term ”social media” I thought of MySpace or yahoo and it was just a way to communicate with friends and family for the most part. Today however, through my business contacts, I’m learning if I’m not communicating with my peers or even potential clients through social media outlets I won’t only not do well professionally, I may not even be able to keep my business afloat. So I’m running the gauntlet of social media sites, some aimed at business contacts, others are just to show we have an online presence.
Consider world events of the past month, in the Middle East so called “Facebook revolts” are taking place. People are gathering to protest in groups as large as a million people even at the potential cost of their very lives.  Even in our own country states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana, normally almost painfully conservative are making the evening news nightly with massive protests towards their state government’s actions.
So with all the changes going on around us, in our businesses, in our person life, and in the world in general, it’s easy to say social media has changed our world forever.  I think it brings to us all in a single word “communication”. Our Founding Fathers saw the value of communication in guaranteeing the right to have a free press, the right to assembly, and the right to free speech. Today access to the internet and to social sites like Facebook have connected us all as one people and given people in some parts of the world a new freedom to communicate and make changes just as our founding  fathers before us did. The world is vastly more populated than it was in 1776 and its politics much more complicated, but the heart of the people hasn’t changed. As the Middle East reshapes its future governments by people that want what we have enjoyed for generations, and as our own state governments battle to find common ground with their own people, let’s remember to do one very important thing “KEEP COMMUNICATING”.