Our Thinking

Chapter 7: It’s About the Future The challenge for me was: How do I convince the Disney board that I was the change they were looking for without criticizing Michael [Eisner] in the process? There had been some decisions I disagreed with, and I thought the company was in need of change given all the noise, but I respected Michael and was grateful for the opportunities he’d given me. I’d also been COO of the company for five years, and it would have been hypocritical, transparently so, to lay all of the blame on someone else. Mostly, though, it just wouldn’t have been right to make myself look better at Michael’s expense. I vowed to myself not to do that. I spent a few days after the announcement trying to figure out a way to thread that particular needle— how to talk about the past without implicating myself too much…

I understand that learned Republican economists know that tariffs are bad. Trade wars are terrible. I don’t understand much about trade economics, but enough to assume free trade is best. Many of you know that I supported President Trump in the 2016 Election. Like about a quarter of the electorate, I did so holding my nose. Yep, I too am repelled by the punch-back and too often punch-down instincts, by the hairspray and orange bronzer and crass language. And I too noticed when in 2016 a couple of hundred senior state department experts wrote a letter to the Washington Post protesting the election of a man who couldn’t possibly understand the nuances of global foreign policy. They objected to this America-first nationalist boob. This is the guy who hits you in the side of the head with a two-by-four, then says, “Let’s talk.” I’m certainly not a foreign policy expert;…

The Driving Force of Change Today On the afternoon of Election Day, November 8, 2016, the decision rooms of the major news organizations were buzzing with activity and excitement. In these huge rooms their pollsters, analysts, news producers and many of the anchor-people would be reviewing the last polls they had done, and the exit polls conducted with real voters coming in from polling places around the country. It was a great scene of slightly controlled bedlam with small groups clustered around various computer screens around the huge room. And the same thing was going on at every cable network, every broadcast network, every major newspaper and online news source, even many local TV stations and papers. All of the afternoon’s activity was in preparation for their crucial nightly broadcast of the election results. Accuracy would not just be a matter of pride, but of attracting an audience – the…

Our country has suffered horrific acts of gun violence in the recent past. The immediate causes may be mental illness or Islamist fanaticism. Still, we must reckon with the prevalence of guns in our society and culture. It is said there are 300 million guns already in circulation in the United States. My family owns four. I would absolutely be in favor of a ban on the sale of assault rifles. Of course, I understand many are against a ban, and I know that legislation on state or federal levels will be slow to come. My hope would be that common ground can be found in legislation at least to limit the sale of these weapons, ban attachments that make them more lethal, and attempt to keep them out of the hands of the mentally unbalanced. I think I know where most of the actors, producers and marketers in Hollywood…

Frolic with our cute German Shepherds!  Enjoy the high-intensity fire-hose Jacuzzi!  Meet your public officials face-to-nightstick! It’s amazing to think that it was just a little over fifty years ago that newly-elected Governor George Wallace promised in his inaugural address, “Segregation now!  Segregation tomorrow!  Segregation forever!” for Alabama.  Bull Connor and other officials vowed to enforce segregation laws across the state. In five decades, I believe Alabama has evolved into an example of social and judicial progress.  The thought of carelessly ignoring federal and moral law couldn’t be more foreign to the state and most of its residents.  But the spirit of Bull Connor’s and George Wallace’s idea lives on elsewhere.  It is alive in the “Sanctuary Movement.”  We now have sanctuary cities, sanctuary campuses and even a wannabe sanctuary state. Of course, the Sanctuary Movement would argue that they ignore federal law because they are obeying a higher moral…