Prepare for the Hate Parade

 

I laughed along with millions of Americans as I watched Tina Fey’s satire of Sarah Palin in the Saturday Night Live Palin-Biden debate skit on October 4th. But minutes later, I became uneasy as the satire turned to Jews: Barney Frank, billionaire investor George Soros, and Herb and Marion Sandler, the real life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse before selling it to Wachovia Bank. After the character playing Herb Sandler claimed how well they were doing after making $24 billion, the caption below read, “People who should be shot.”

            In the vitriolic environment of the election season and the stock and credit market crisis, it didn’t take long for the satirical finger-pointing to begin. Hamas leaders have made the claim that the “Jewish lobby” is responsible for the global financial crisis. Online hate is sprouting with messages on mainstream finance chat boards about Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs such as “(Jews have) infiltrated Government and Wall Street and have ruined our country” and “They (Jews) love money nothing else, no faith or religion can be so heartless to their victims.”

            If Adolph Hitler were alive today, he might have reveled in the power and incredible speed of the Internet. Just think of his cunning and ability to distill hate-plagued propaganda and then imagine his words instantly spread through every home and computer via the World Wide Web.  

            Today, we don’t have Hitler but there are thousands of people spewing poisonous messages into the most popular of websites. If you haven’t seen You Tube videos, “A Zionist Nightmare” and “Auntie Semite USA”, you can thank the Anti-Defamation League (www.adl.org) and the Jewish Internet Defense Force (www.thejidf.org). The Jewish Internet Defense Force describes itself as a group of Jewish activists who fight anti-Semitism and terrorism trends throughout the Internet. When the JIDF asked Facebook to remove its “Israel is not a country” page, the response from Facebook was that the anti-Israel group was “legitimate political discourse.” Facebook members were exposed to what the JIDF called “one of the most vile, most anti-Semitic, most pro-Jihad and most disgusting, and most importantly, most active hate groups on the Internet.”

            The JIDF was able to technically take control of the website and removed it from Facebook. But they haven’t yet been able to remove “Auschwitz Night Fever” from the Internet, one of the most loathsome videos I have ever seen (found on YouTube and Ning). The video merges the Bee Gees singing, John Travolta dancing, and atrocities from Schindler’s List, glorifying the random murder of Jews.

            Prepare for the hate parade. Prepare for the anger that is arising post George W. Bush, spilling out as the power of the United States withers with its economy. The rise and fall of the housing, credit, and stock markets, have poisoned the world economy. Putin and other world “leaders” are castigating the United States for its financial negligence as Americans spew anger at Wall Street bankers who walk away with millions while their firms collapse. There is also plenty of blame for the last two heads of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan and Bernanke, both Jewish. It’s not surprising that the furor over the Fed, government, and Wall Street is starting to target Jews

            Thankfully, we have watch-dog organizations like the Anti-Defamation League which is committed to fight anti-Semitism hatred. In its “Agenda for the New Administration,” ADL focuses on the threat of Islamic extremism as well as the “use of the Internet as a vehicle to spread hate.” It is monitoring the new trend of hate Web sites formatted for Web-enabled cell phones and translating Hamas Web sites from Arabic into English, revealing “how Hamas glorifies violence and how it attempts to indoctrinate children.” The ADL is also challenging Professor Kevin MacDonald from California State University, widely admired by anti-Semites, who has said, “A political crisis over Jewish influence is exactly what the United States needs.”

            On Wednesday, November 5^th, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, is coming to the West Bloomfield JCC’s 2008 Jewish Book Fair to discuss his latest book, The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control and counter the bigotry of Professor MacDonald and others who believe that “Israel has the world’s one remaining military superpower completely at its bidding.” We need to join ADL and Foxman as they battle the onslaught of Jewish hatred.

            It is frightening enough to contemplate the stock market and credit collapse twisting from a recession into possibly a depression. But it’s even harder to imagine the return of worldwide extremist hatred toward Jews. We must be prepared for anything and one way is to visit the ADL Action Center at www.adl.org/actioncenter. Online, you can sign petitions and letters to world leaders with a few clicks of your mouse. You can register views on critical topics and make a donation in support of a specific ADL issue.

            We need to act now. Whether we hear Abraham Foxman at the JCC, donate to the JIDF, ADL, or take part in the Action Center, we can do something. The worst thing is to sit in silence and do nothing while the world markets falter and anti-Semitism ensues. Rather than clinging to despair and waiting for others to act, we can be vigilant and focus on what each of us can do to repair the world.

              

 

Dunder Mifflin Vs. Hardware Sales: The Match-Up

Why do I watch The Office religiously? The NBC sitcom about the inner workings of the paper distributor, Dunder Mifflin, is the only show I must set on record if I can’t catch it on its original Thursday night. Maybe it’s the inside joke: am I watching an episode of my own company? Dunder Mifflin is an old-fashioned paper wholesaler and The Office takes place almost completely in its Scranton branch. Those in our company’s branches in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia may feel more recognition than I do when they watch the mishigoss in a company that distributes paper products in a world with Staples, Office Max, and Office Depot down the street.

            On its corporate website, Dunder Mifflin Inc. is “listed as a mid-cap regional paper-and-office-supply distributor with an emphasis on serving small business clients. With a corporate office in New York City, Dunder-Mifflin has branches in Buffalo, Stamford, Albany, Utica, Scranton, Akron, Camden, Nashua, and Yonkers.” My company, IDN-Hardware Sales, Inc., distributes locks and security products to regional small companies such as locksmiths, hardware stores, and door companies in Buffalo, Syracuse, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Hartford, Warren, and Livonia. But I would agree with Dunder’s leading salesperson, Dwight Schrute, who proudly announces, we offer better “service” than our large company competitors.  Dun

                I like to watch the nefarious world of the modern day work environment and how regional manager, Michael Scott, navigates it. I enjoy the daily adventures of Angela, Creed, Dwight, Jim, Oscar, Pam, and the other fine team members and how they communicate with each other and screw up their company and each other. I like to watch the absurd pointlessness of their jobs.

            I could easily write a sitcom based on the adventures of our outstanding company and its crackerjack employees. How many do we have now? Somewhere between 80 and 85, depending on how you quantify some of the part-timers. Anyway, I could but won’t write anything great or derogatory about myself of any of them. However, I could certainly mention some of the proud members of the Hardware Sales Hall of Fame, some of our past employees (excluding the names of course.)

            I could mention the guy who looked strangely like Charles Manson (but with longer hair) who was fired from his warehouse job. I could say that I closed the door (just like Michael Scott would have) and watched when he came to the front door, scared of what weapon he might have brought with him. Thankfully, he came and went, another crisis brilliantly averted by my staff and me.

            I could say something about that impressive-sounding interviewee who I thought might be our next great salesperson and eventually a few years later was listed in the local newspapers, shot dead after a drug deal went bad. How about my head warehouse receiving clerk who left town with his girlfriend after the police found he had stolen from the local car wash chain that bought padlocks from us?

            I angrily remember the time I received the 50-page lawsuit on my desk brought from a woman who quit but said she was “wrongfully discharged.” I remember distinctly when I had to fire a guy from the warehouse for ineptitude and the tears he wept in my office. I can’t forget my relief when he came to the counter a few months later and said how happy we was in his new job at Amana.

            In over 28 years in one company that grows from eight to eighty people, you’re bound to get good and bad employees. Unfortunately, I remember the bad a lot more than the good. And the stories that go along with them. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry over the very overweight inside sales person who fell in love with a customer service person at a manufacturer in the southeast and took a trip to visit her. When he came back, he wept to our sales manager that everything went great until he walked to her refrigerator one night and heard a loud crunch and when turning on the light, realized he had stepped on her beloved cat and killed it. Burdened with grief and guilt, he buried the cat in the backyard and when she asked him if he saw the cat the next morning, he said no but finally had to tell her the brutal truth.

            She threw him out and he drove all the way back to Michigan, flooded with remorse. Not surprisingly, his sales dropped dramatically the month after and he eventually quit the company.

            We have had so many employees leave that I can barely remember their names and when they worked, but I remember those who died.

            In my office is a collage and a photo of another inside salesperson who was weakened with AIDS and eventually had to quit and died within the same year. He stands next to my uncle who worked for 15 years on our Livonia counter, servicing customers. My uncle could make me laugh whenever he wanted, with a crude joke and a put-down. Even though he wasn’t a manager, he was the original Michael Scott, working to make others laugh or groan. My uncle would have enjoyed Michael Scott and Ari Gold in the HBO show, Entourage. These are people who say what they want to make life at work less boring and miserable. They don’t care who gets upset as long as they have fun.

            The new Inc. August 2007 issue states, “Fun! It’s the New Core Value.” How I wish it were so. I may face the wrath of employees who wonder why I can say anything funny or bad about anyone, even past employees. “Just shut up and sit” is the current work mantra.

            I am doing just that now, shutting up and sitting, wondering if I should dig into University of Michigan’s price profiles, or write something funny that I remember.

            I am still a procrastinator at heart and would rather read the latest newsletter of The Office than work. But seriously, even fun can be educational, like these “Workplace Safety Tips, by Dwight Schrute”:

           

Workers are getting injured, sick, and are dying in EVERY office, EVERY day. You cannot avoid it. Unless you do the following.

1. Do not fall. Falls (e.g. down stairs, out doors, windows, etc.) are dangerous and lead to fractures, sprains, contusions and death.
2. Do not burn yourself. Overheating your tea is a good way to burn yourself. Do you want that? In order to assure that your skin is not harmed, tea should not be heated to more than 98.6 degrees.
3. Stay in your seat. By staying in your seat, you are less likely to encounter any of these hazards. Wait until you have 3 tasks to do, and then get up.

 

As usual, Dwight is right. I am waiting for 2 more tasks to do before I get up out of

my chair. It’s the only safe and sensible thing to do.

Facing Our Fears

 

 

“I gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which I must stop and look fear in the face…I say to myself, I’ve lived through this and can take the next thing that comes along.” Eleanor Roosevelt

 

The baby boomer generation never had to face a real gut-wrenching financial crisis. But look at these headlines: “It’s a Worldwide Crash” (Jim Cramer, thestreet.com, Oct 6, 2008.) “A Financial Ice Age Dawns” (Business Week, page 020, Oct. 13, 2008.) This is after the president, Fed chairman, Treasury secretary, Congress, and two presidential nominees spent two weeks hashing out a $700 billion bailout of the financial markets. They yelled and blamed others about the “worst crisis since the Great Depression.” After a horrific week in the stock market, the Senate, House, and then the president signed a huge, bloated bill with $150 billion of added pork “sweeteners.”

Just add more government debt to the already massive, growing debt burdens our children will face throughout their lifetimes and see what happens: more panic. If we think our children don’t notice our fears, we’re deluding ourselves. My 13-year-old daughter wrote for her school assignment that she prayed the “Bush bailout” would save our economy. It’s heartbreaking enough to live in Michigan and view signs like the one on Orchard Lake from a painter “desperately needing work.” It is beginning to remind me of the movies of the Great Depression but rather than “Brother, Can you Spare a Dime?” it’s “Brother, Can you Spare Three Trillion?” for Fannie, Freddie, AIG, Lehman bankruptcy leftovers and for the government to spare bad bank investments that were packaged with over-priced, under-financed mortgages mixed with other toxic financial manure.

Nothing will save us but ourselves. The lack of calm confidence from our “leaders” is mirrored in ourselves. 75% don’t trust the president and even more people distrust Congress and the financial markets.

We watch credit markets deteriorate while blame is scattered everywhere. Was it the greed-obsessed landscape of no-money-down lending, mortgage-backed security loans or credit default swaps? Was it the naked shorting of financial stocks or the absurd credit risks that investment banks and mortgage companies took? Was it the massive volume of borrowing and buying from the United States and its citizens on mortgages, Chinese goods, stocks, and other products on highly-leveraged credit cards and IOUs?  All of these things eventually brought down Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Countrywide Financial, and ruptured AIG and Wachovia, to name a handful.

Each day brings a stunning new surprise. How much will this all eventually cost us taxpayers? Who is the next financial institution to be saved by the Federal Government? Maybe Ford and GM will get their requested loans from a government that is wallowing in a staggering amount of debt.

            The new documentary movie, “I.O.U.S.A.” being shown around the country, paints a grim picture that an economic disaster will befall our nation if the federal government’s $53,000,000,000,000 is left to continue to grow. Warren Buffett, viewing the premiere of “I.O.U.S.A”, commented, “I do not regard our national debt as unduly alarming. We’ve overcome things far worse than what is going on right now.”

            I’m glad the world’s richest man isn’t worried. He has always been able to make money for himself in good times and bad. But while he and a few others show calm confidence, Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulsen, and George W. Bush move desperately from one panic-driven moment to another.

There are real reasons to fear. But what good does it do to experiment with one financial device after another and then plead for more money to buy out bad loans that banks made to one another? Now, no one trusts anyone else. Banks won’t lend to each other. People are dumping their stocks and bonds and are afraid that their money market funds will become worthless.

After the horror of 9-11, our president didn’t ask Americans to pitch in and help the country. He said, “Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America’s great destination spots.” The message was for us to keep shopping and buying. We have had that message drummed into us for decades: Buy with credit and keep our economy strong. And now, after years of continued buying, U.S. shoppers finally have cut spending (NY Times, “Full of Doubts, U.S. Shoppers Cut Spending,” Oct 6, 2008.)

So here we are, drowning in debt, our house values and retirement funds plummeting, paralyzed by fear. The worry about terrorists seems so benign when the localized panic about losing our jobs and savings is so powerful. And that’s the irony: terrorists struck Western democracy and capitalism and we fought back with borrowed billions in Afghanistan and Iraq while we kept borrowing and buying more and more. We became our own worst enemies with new, exotic weapons of financial mass destruction.

Who’s winning now? We may fear another Al Qaeda attack or whether Ahmadinejad’s Iran will get nuclear weapons and worry that Israel is as leaderless as the United States. We can fear our next president and whether he will be too weak or too strong in foreign affairs or if either has a clue about what will fix our financial mess.

None of this fear will help our economy or us. Somehow, we need to keep living and stay positive, no matter how gloomy things look. We must focus on improving our own lives. We should pray for our “leaders and advisors” and then listen closely to the words of Adele Brockman: “Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life.”

Amen.

 

Arnie Goldman is the president of a small business in Southeastern Michigan and is trying not to be “scared to death” for his company, its employees, and his country.