Michael Jackson: A Life of Great Creativity & Very Human Challenges

by Bill Seebeck

I can still remember watching 40 years ago as Michael Jackson and his brothers went on the stage of the Ed Sullivan show, with Diana Ross, who discovered them, sitting in the audience.

What startled me that night was how Michael took the microphone, as if he had been doing it for a thousand years and with a voice that from the moment you heard it, knew it was special, began singing and dancing about the stage. He stopped you. You had to watch. You instantly fell in love with him and for quite some time afterward, he became known as "Little Michael Jackson".

Well, Michael Jackson and his brothers became famous overnight and they never looked back, everything was before them and we, the audiences throughout the world, were the beneficiaries of his amazing creativity.

I was in college when Michael first hit the scene and only saw him once in person, it was during the 1993 Super Bowl in Pasadena, California where he was the half-time show. Watching the video again today of that performance reminded me of his extraordinary gifts as one of the most exciting entertainers of all time.

We will always listen to Michael's music. We will also remember the songs he wrote for the world, including Black or White, Heal the World and We Are The World, the last, a song written for African relief and performed as a group by just about every major talent in the music business at the time.

Unless you have traveled the world, it is hard to appreciate the enormous impact American music has had on so many cultures. I remember sitting in a Fuddrucker's restaurant in Jeddah Saudi Arabia 10 years ago and watched as a group of Saudi high school boys entered the restaurant dressed not in their traditional garb but in cargo pants, Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts, LA Laker hats worn backward and listening to the most popular radio station in the Kingdom back then -- U.S. Armed Forces radio. What were they listening to? Yes, American music and they all knew Michael Jackson.

However, the type of overnight success that fell upon Michael was both a great joy and a great burden. In our times, when you gain "your 15 minutes in the sun" as Andy Warhol used to say, your life is taken from you by the public. You're watched and followed twenty-four hours a day and someone always wants something from you for themselves. Now sometimes what they want is legitimate, yet more times than not, it is not. It feels at times that they are sucking the very marrow out of you and one of the things that you lose is the ability to trust others. It is a difficult life. You try very hard to create a life that you can trust, withdrawing into a type of cocoon. That space becomes your safety zone, the place you can always run to and survive the latest hurt or betrayal. That space became where Michael, despite all of his world fame, lived. It is no surprise then that this is where he was tempted by his demons, the same ones that tempt each of us in our lives of non-perfection.

So today, I remember Michael Jackson, the boy I first saw and heard, the man we all came to experience, the incredible entertainer that graced our lives and with whom he shared his truly extraordinary God given gifts. We are forever grateful.

May God's peace be upon you Michael.

Banks: The New Loan Sharks & Extortionists of the 21st Century?

by Bill Seebeck

Well, here it is the 21st of June. It's Father's Day.

Yet today, millions of credit card holders that have received notices from their banks since June 1st, know this is the beginning of a new cycle in which the percentage of funds due monthly on their accounts has doubled. Instead of having to pay 3% of their total amounts due, they will now have to pay 6% and for some of them at an interest rate upwards of 29%.

You know, I bet there are still some guys in prison doing time for loansharking in this country. What's a loanshark? That's someone who charged greater than a rate considered just by the society. That rate before the banks and Congress changed it used to be 23%. It was called the usury rate.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states that usury is a sin and frankly is so in every major Abrahamic religion. "...Lending money at interest give us the opportunity to exploit the passions or necessities of other men by compelling them to submit to ruinous conditions...[Usury has been defined] as the abuse of a certain superiority at the expense of another man's necessity....It is in itself unjust extortion, or robbery."

So, who are the loansharks now? Who are the extortionists?

What's extortion? Findlaw states, "Most states define extortion as the gaining of property or money by almost any kind of force, or threat of (1) violence, (2) property damage, (3) harm to reputation, or (4) unfavorable government action. While usually viewed as a form of theft/larceny, extortion differs from robbery in that the threat in question does not pose an imminent physical danger to the victim..."

I think it is fair to say that demanding highly monthly minimums at interest rates up to 29.99% can be viewed by the "card holder" as threatening. Failure to pay can result in harm to their reputations in the form of credit scores and possible default, and in this world, "no credit" can put a person and their family on the street in a nano second.

So, if you think that the banks are ok and that everything has changed, you are living in a world of dreams. Take a look around your neighborhoods and see how many empty stores there are and how many people are out of work. In part, it is because of what some banks did and what some banks continue to do.

What they are doing is squeezing, you, the public for their own benefit.

Definitely actions that are not in the interest of the public good.

Who are their monitors? Where are their monitors? How do they continue to get away with this stuff?

I'm upset by this, are you?

By the way, Happy Father's Day!

I'm Back! After a Month of Celebration, New Struggles & Transitions

by Bill Seebeck

Well, I'm back.

I've been quiet for the past month for lots of reasons, perhaps the most important was preparing for and witnessing my younger son's graduation from college. It was a beautiful New Hampshire day and there were lots of speeches and honorary degrees awarded, but perhaps the best speech of the day was by a representative of the St. Anselm College graduating class of 2009. She related what it meant to attend and graduate, as a Muslim woman, from a Catholic liberal arts college. Her name is Waqarun Rashid and her speech (audio), (text), entitled, " The Peaceful Struggle" was wonderful and enthusiastically received by all, especially her fellow graduates.

My son, Matt did honor to himself by not only graduating but received his degree with honors. Those members of his family in attendance (grand aunt & uncle, aunts, uncle, cousin, brother, niece, mom and dad), ages 81 to 11, were very proud of him and it was truly a joyous moment in a year of most difficult challenges for all of us in the world.

Seventy-two hours later with actual diploma in hand, we said goodbye to Matt as he left us once again, to begin yet another journey, his own new struggle, this one in service to his country. He left for Missouri to begin his basic combat training with the United States Army.

As a parent at moments like this, you have flashbacks to earlier days, like the first day you put him on a school bus at the age of six and hoped all would go well. This time, I had yet to catch my breath from watching him graduate from college and now he was off again, with the rank of Specialist, to join many other young American men and women in service to our nation. I am in prayer for him and them every day and unashamedly ask you to add yours to mine. On this one, we have common interests. He may be my son, but he is now one of my guardians and yours.

At this time in my life, with my own struggles far from over, I can't help but reflect on what an honor it is to be a parent. It is a most awesome responsibility that never ends and frankly, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Making phone calls during Basic Combat Training is a privilege and when they come, they're only for two or three minutes. Well, yesterday, Matt called from the base. His first words were, "Dad, is today Father's Day?" To which I responded, "Well, if it isn't, it is now".

Happy Father's Day!

Google: The Monolith

by Bill Seebeck

Google, a household name. I use it everyday.  I google this and google that and get a nice result. Google is my friend.  I trust Google.  Until...

Earlier this week, I needed to speak with someone at Google.  You know like customer service. I wanted to ask them about some confusion I had about one of their online products that I use called AdSense. I had received some e-mail requesting very, very personal information for my AdSense account that those of us that are concerned about online privacy teach others never to respond to when they receive them. So, I was very confused when Google asked me for such data by e-mail. I needed to verify first that it was indeed Google that was making such inquiries and then why?

So, I went to the Google website and searched all over the place for information related to what I wanted and was unsuccessful. Then I was looking for a telephone number so I could call and ask my questions. No phone number. You could send an e-mail, but since I wouldn't give anyone the information they were requesting, I wanted to hear a human voice tell me what this was all about. All of a sudden, I realized that the Google website was designed to keep me and others away from the company.

So now, I check my BusinessWeek online, look up Google, it is after all a public company, get the local phone number, check the list of key employees, find the person in charge of products and services and give them a call.

The call goes something like this, "Hello, this is Google, how can I help you? May I have Mr. X please, says I. What is your business with Mr. X? I need to ask Mr. X about one of Google's products. If you have questions about Google products, you need to go to the website and use the e-mail. I don't want to use the e-mail, I need to speak with a person please. I'm sorry we don't do that. Well, let me speak with someone then in corporate communications. We don't have a corporate communications. Public relations then. Do you have a specific name in public relations? No. Well then I can't help you. Then, can you connect me to investor relations.  Do you have a specific name in investor relations? No. Well then, I can't help you. Listen, this is crazy, are you saying that there is no one to talk to at Google? I have a very short list of people that people can speak with but if you don't know their specific names and can't tell me what specific business you are doing with them, then I'm sorry I can't connect you."

End of conversation.

The Oxford American Dictionary defines a monolith as, "a large and impersonal political, corporate or social structure regarded as intractably indivisible and uniform." 

So, when you call Google, the monolith, it responds, "Welcome to Google. Go away".

Now I've been in the online business for 27 years and I have never experienced such behavior.

My next step took me to their most recent earnings press release and yes, I found a name of a person in corporate communications. I called but got their voice mail. I left a message and said I had two questions. First was why was Google making itself so unavailable to the public and second I needed to ask some serious questions about their product AdSense. Well, I have yet to hear from them.

I have to admit that Google is not alone in its Internet strategy. They and others use their websites to inform but also use it to block the public and as a way to control access.

Now, I am sure that Google or others that have such a strategy will say that thousands of people will call if they give out a phone number. Maybe that is true, and maybe that's good. How do you know what your marketplace is up to? What are people feeling? Are you satisfied that e-mails provide you with the true trends with which to gauge your business in the future?

Thirty years ago, my boss at the time, J. Peter Grace, ceo of W.R. Grace & Co., put out a memo to all employees (numbered in the thousands) and told us to answer our own phones. None of us, he said were too big to do that and in our humility, we might learn something about our business. He also said that some of the calls might not be pleasing, but then that was the way we took responsibility for our actions in the course of doing our work.

Now, I realize that many things have happened since those days, but what hasn't changed is that when you sell to the public, you are responsible to the public. When you think that you are better than the public you serve, then someday it comes back on you.

Take a look around Google, you can see the carnage of many companies that didn't think they needed to be responsible to the public.

What do the readers think about this?  Let us know.

Copyright 2009  WBSeebeck