The Larry Kane Report

First of all, an answer to the question: Why did I leave the previous entry up for a week? Read it. If you don’t understant why, you might want to have your head examined.

On to the Wall Street mess. All kinds of government “outrage” is being expressed at the bonuses going out to Wall Street executives whose company received bailout money. The President is angry, and so are Senators, and of course, the public is incredulous. There are some people calling for the bonuses to be rescinded.

Those measures are simply not enough. Any financial executive who is paid a bonus at a firm that needed a bailout should be forced by legislation to return the money, or go to jail. ALSO, the managers who approved the bonuses at these ailing firms, should be reprimanded. If they don’t rescind their executive orders to distribute the bonuses, those managers should be prosecuted for fraud against the U.S. government.

Free markets are wonderful. But we can’t allow people to profit from their own failure at taxpayer’s expense.

PS -Please read the previous entry on race again. And pass it on.

LK

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This is must reading for everyone. Yvonne Allison is a distinguished writer, author, and communications executive in our area. You can also read this online at philly.com.

OP-ED    “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”  – Philadelphia Daily News – 1/21/08

My business partner and I went to dinner at one of Center City’s upscale restaurants. It’s a favorite of ours. We arrived early before the holiday crowd. As our entrée was served the restaurant began to fill up and a couple was seated at the table behind us. Due to the close proximity of the seating it was easy to hear their conversation without feeling guilty of eavesdropping.

The woman was greeted by our waitress as a regular customer and her companion was introduced to the server as a long time friend who was dining at the restaurant for the first time. She said that two more friends would be joining them. Our diligent waitress promised to direct them to her when they arrived.
They were seated directly behind me. As we finished our main course I heard the woman praise the menu as she confirmed to her friend that he would love the food no matter what he ordered.  Trying not to listen, I heard only snatches of what was said next until the word was used that managed to turn my stomach upside down. She asked him what his favorite food was. He replied, “I can tell you what I don’t like. I don’t like Nigger food.”

His use of the ‘N word’ continued and led into their discussion about President-elect Obama. Numerous disparaging and ugly remarks were made including how sad it was that someone hadn’t already ‘knocked him off.’  I was stunned as I felt the African American color drain from my face. I felt emotions that I hadn’t felt since my childhood. I was horrified and filled with rage. It was difficult for me to stay seated and not turn around and face them with my anger and embarrassment.  I looked across the table at my Jewish business partner shaking my head. She knew by my reaction that something terrible had happened but she didn’t know what because she couldn’t hear their conversation.

What should I do?” These two people were having a private conversation. They never looked my way nor were their racist comments directed at me. I wanted to turn around and confront them. I didn’t. I was suddenly frozen in time as painful memories from the past came flooding back. The dull ache in the pit of my stomach was one that I hadn’t felt since growing up in a small western Pennsylvania town in the fifties.
Blacks were not permitted to eat in upscale restaurants nor could they swim in community pools. I flashed back to the time when my two best friends who were white told me they couldn’t walk to school with me because I was ‘colored.’ Those emotional feelings of racism and exclusion churned inside when I heard him say the word that was never spoken in our home; the word my parents raised me to rise above and not become a victim of as they taught me the familiar chant, ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.’

I turned slightly in my seat to watch as her other two friends came to the table. I was shocked to see that one of them was an African American. It was all I could do but to pull him aside and tell him what I heard. As we passed by their table to leave I tried to make eye contact. But I was invisible. Would being noticed by them have satisfied me? Probably not. Would my white Marine Corps husband being there to defend me have made me feel better? Yes, but only for the moment.

What did I do? I took the high road. The experience made me realize how important it was to remember how far we’ve come and the opportunity we all have to achieve long term satisfaction. So rather than dwell on the negative feelings that were generated from the past during my dining experience, I am uplifted as I look toward the future.

On January 20, 2009, I will be privileged to witness what my ancestors struggled for and dreamed of but never got to see, the first African American President sworn in as our 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. Thank you Mr. President for the hope you’ve given me. I invite you and the First Lady to join me for dinner at one of Philadelphia’s finest restaurants!

Yvonne Allison, Creator of WorktheShow.com

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First of all, I have to say this out front. Some of the e-mailers on this sight need to either get some help or calm down their simmering anger over society as we know it. As the kids would say -”OMG”. As you may notice, many of the mad squad that writes on a daily basis do not have much respect for me, and others. That’s ok. My skin is thick.  But if they don’t like the site,  why do they keep coming back with more invective? I love the sarcasm and the heavy-duty critique of my humble work, but I’ve just about endured enough of the ethnic and racial innuendos. Maybe a new administration will bring some new e=mailers to the forefront.

On to the Inaugural.

Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent, you have got to enjoy these moments. If you can’t enjoy this time and these events, then you probably want to shut yourself off to reality. There is nothing as refreshing than the renewal of the White House – the peaceful transition of power that marks our democracy. There is history in this inaugural, along with great expectations and challenges. The proof, of course, comes with the results. But for now, a remarkable young man who appears to have a sense of exactly where he wants to take the country, is beginning a journey into the unknown.

EAGLES

Forget the last headline to this column. I was all wrong. But I take a different view on the Eagles than many sports journalists. The Eagles are a very successful team, and as I said earlier this season, Andy Reid is the King of Football around here. Frankly, I thought the game against the Cardinals was the most thrilling of the season, a game of highs and lows that rivals just about anything I’ve seen. I’ve been apologizing for the Eagles for a long time. And I will do it again. They had a fantastic, improbable season, filled with spills and thrills. We need to appreciate winners, even when they lose. In life, sometimes, everyone loses. The real winners are the people who learn how to accept victory and defeat.

Final item: For the first time this winter, some TV stations DID NOT hype the snow. So what happens? It actually snowed with some real impact. The forecast was actually wrong. What an irony.

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To the NFL: Scrub the Super Bowl in Tampa. When the Eagles and Steelers win, let the two teams and millions of fans converge on Happy Valley and have the two team duke it out on Paterno’s turf. Imagine: A Super Bowl in real football weather!

The coming Inaugural brings back great memories of Inaugurals I have covered.
January 20, 1977. Jimmy Carter is sworn in on the east front of the Capitol. The West front, which will be used on Tuesday, was under construction. I sat just below the 39th President, young and eager to lead, as he promised a bright future. His time in office never quite matched his hopes. The hostage crisis destroyed his Presidency, along with many moments of indecision.

January 20, 1985. It was so cold that the second Reagan Inaugural had to be brought inside. Reagan was on a roll, and he would have been elected again, except for the Constitution.

January 20, 1989. George H.W. Bush offers little new in his Inaugural address but promises a kinder, gentler nation. We didn’t get it, but we did send 25,000 troops in to arrest one man in Panama, and Desert Storm was successful to everyone but the President’s son George W. and Dick Cheney who wanted to finish the job after 9/11.

January 20, 1993 -Bill Clinton offers a rambling speech promising health care for all – a project that was botched the following year. There was no sighting of Monica Lewinsky im the crowd – yet.

January 20, 2001. Freezing rain is falling on my camera platform, George W. Bush is sworn in with great fanfare, and makes little mention of a threat of terror. He DOES talk about tax cuts. Bush delivers on the tax cuts. fights a tough war against the Taliban and Bin Laden, and then blows it by heading into Iraq. He leaves office with a 22 percent approval rating.

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One of the casualties of the current recession is an industry on the brink of disaster. The following item from the Taunton Ma, Daily Gazette is part of a pattern across the country.

Customers of the Waldenbooks in Lexington, Mass., are protesting its January 24 closing and have begun a letter-writing campaign to Borders headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich. “It is a centerpiece of [Lexington] Center,” Patricia Manhard told the paper. “This isn’t a restaurant–this is an intellectual center in town.”

Borders, which has closed many Walden outlets in recent years and whose top executives were replaced this week, says the decision is final.

Beyond the headlines of recent days is the sad fact that more and more bookstores are closing down, bookstores that serve as cultural centers for many communities. Add to that the sorry state of American publishing and you have a recipe for cultural meltdown. This is a time, a time of difficulty, when people flock to books for diversion, for entertainment and information.

Look for more closings, and a deep recession for the companies that print and publish America’s books.

DEMOCRATS ON THE WARPATH

Even before he takes the Oath of Office, Barack Obama is getting heat on the tax cut plan from, of all places, the Democratic Party. It seems the middle class tax cuts are not going over well with moderate Democrats. Besides the tax issues, Democrats are providing a circus in Illinois, embarrassment with the Bill Richardson pullout from Commerce, and then of course, there is funny man Al Franken, who may wind up in limbo for months. Who needs the loyal opposition when your own party becomes it!

HARDBALL

Chris Matthews’ decision not to run for the U.S, was based on this question: Why give up a multi-million dollar bully pulpit stronger than a U.S. Senator, to sit in the back bench of the Senate? Besides there was another factor: the possibility of losing. Giving up your job, and possibly losing, would be a huge loss, wouldn’t you agree? Chris is a great guy, but he’ll have more influence on American life playing Hardball.

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