WWII Honor Flight

If you ever have the opportunity to go the the Dane County Regional Airport and be there when the World War II honor flight returns from Washington, D.C. take advantage of the opportunity.  It will bring tears to your eyes to see the joy in the eyes and on the faces of those veterans.  We owe so much to them.  The first person off the flight was an 102 year old woman.  She had tears in her eyes, too.

Steve Jobs

I am almost finished reading the book "Steve Jobs."  Something I just read needs to be shared.  Shortly after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he delivered the commencement address at Stanford Univ.  The following was part of that address.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Lightning Strikes!

On Saturday night, at about 11:30 p.m. our building was struck by lightning.  The strike was on the second floor of the building and immediately set off the sprinkler system.  Any fire as a result of the strike was extinquished.  But the sprinklers kept running for sometime before the fire department arrived and was able to turn them off.  We have incurred significant water damage and as a result, our drive up is closed.  We estimate it will be about 10 days before we are back in operation.

We are in the process of replacing lots of drywall and equipment.  In the meantime our staff is working hard to be sure our clients get the same service as normally expected.

Compliance Costs

During a recent compliance exam I was again reminded of the tremendous cost to our society for consumer compliance issues that are well intended, but fail miserably to really address the problem.  Take for example:  Privacy Notices.  How many of you have ever read one of those notices that you receive from every credit card company and bank you do business with?  And every one of them is required to send you the same notice.  Billions and billions of dollars of waste.  And all these costs get passed on to you, the consumer.  As long as no one complains to our legislators, it will only get worse. 

Greece & Debt

There was a segment on "60 Minutes" last night about the debt crisis in Europe. The bottom line is the countries who are in crisis have incurred too much debt and are in danger of defaulting on it. And all the social welfare programs they have implemented over the years are unaffordable and creating social unrest in those countries.

How far are we away from this situation?

Elections

Certainly one of the main challenges of political leaders is building consensus among opposing sides. I am concerned that we have allowed our financial situation to deteriorate to the point where I am not sure if we have the time it will take to build this consensus.