Bird Droppings March 15, 2013
Many mornings I am told I am rambling I prefer the word reflecting

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” Voltaire

I find it interesting as we listen to politicians argue over who is best at fighting a war in a far off country or healing the economy. In recent days I haven’t heard a word over who will strive for peace, most any effort at peace is weakness according to some and the economy is about cutting the budget and forgetting revenues. We live in a paradox of wasted words and glib comments from those who stand before us on TV screens and blast their brilliant ideas across radio stations nationwide. I am not anti-media but media is in it for a profit and will address what sells the best. Seldom do we see real reporting, real truthful coverage of literally any event. I do see many posting on blogs and social media about the constitution and upholding the founding fathers words. Sadly all through history those words have been interpreted by those in power and or those seeking power.
I am a history buff and yesterday I was looking up information on Lawton, Oklahoma the home of Fort Sill and right next door to the Wichita Mountain National Wildlife Preserve. It seems that in the early 1900’s, the city of Lawton was created in one of the last landrushs of the old west. Some might ask what is a landrush? In this case the territory was mapped into 160 acre parcels which were taken out of Comanche and Apache lands, deemed Indian Territory, at the time since up until that point it was only good for Indians. A lottery was held and land divided up and in an instant a town of over 25,000 was next door to Fort Sill, in tents and shacks. A few years later and Oklahoma was a state.
On another note, the Great War chief Geronimo is buried at Fort Sill. Geronimo petitioned the president to be allowed to go and die in the sacred White Mountains in New Mexico and Arizona. Teddy Roosevelt, in a political move at the time, refused the old man a last visit to his sacred mountains to die and be buried. It seems the locals in New Mexico and Arizona stilled feared the name of one of the greatest Indian renegades and fighters of all time. So one day he was found in a gutter, drunk and dying at seventy nine years of age, in Lawton’s streets. Here the great war leader was only an old man stripped of his dignity and pride. Roosevelt did not want to lose those western voters who still had memories of Geronimo’s last days as a free man, pillaging and plundering settlers on his land.

“The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians. We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other.” Goyathlay (“one who yawns”), Geronimo

The name feared by so many was a nickname only. It was only after battles with the Mexicans and his frenzied attacks did the name Geronimo become part of the legend. The story goes that he was attacking so fiercely the Mexicans were calling out to St. Jerome as he attacked. St Jerome was a local patron saint and the Indians heard it as, “Geronimo”, and so it stuck. In 1886 the last guerilla fighters of the west were sent to prison in Florida and a year or so later finally settled on the reservation at Fort Sill. For many years Geronimo had been promised he could return to his sacred mountains. However the promises of returning to the sacred White Mountains were never kept. How did I get into a history lesson on one of the most hated of Native American warriors to many in the south west?
It has been a quite a few mornings back that as I first started on the computer and checked the news and such, maybe even the weather. In that news both candidates for president are tearing at each other, over who can fight a war the best and save the economy. The whole concept of politics is built on who can provide the most compelling story to win votes. So many times we take away that aspect of thinking for ourselves which is what Voltaire was so fervently against.
Several years back I helped a fellow relocate to Odessa, Texas. It seems he wanted to move again and Lawton Oklahoma came up. I have been to Lawton and walked to the grave of Geronimo, somehow Voltaire leads to Geronimo and into and out of politics. Whether in 1900’s or today, we are held hostage to politics as I sit back thinking of Teddy Roosevelt refusing Geronimo to die in the White mountains or in our current state of arguing troop numbers instead of peace and threatening this bill or that over feeding children or caring for elderly. We sit and listen, some argue the news is biased, some will say one way and others say the exact opposite. An old man near death was refused visiting rights to his homeland and continued to be a prisoner of war till he died at Fort Sill, because of politics. I often wondered what if we had not gone to war to steal the lands of Native Americans, what would have happened. What if those many years ago, we chose to believe in racial equality and the political issues of them and us, never occurred? What if there had been no slavery in the United States maybe those road side stands that sell giant confederate flags would not be around? What if as I think that red neck might truly mean sunburn on a farmer?

“I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.” Geronimo

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” Voltaire

As news stories flood us with bits and pieces and politicians try and persuade us to vote for them, we still have as Voltaire states “the privilege of doing so”. I would just hope that we could soon begin talking peace and truly try and resolve issues that have kept human kind in constant strife. Perhaps one day, greed will be overcome, perhaps one day, having more than everyone else just to have more; will be a thing of the past. Maybe one day the gold eagle that used to sit atop Geronimo’s grave will be replaced by those who took it so many years ago. Maybe famous politicians who built a society around the stolen skull of Geronimo would have the integrity to find serious and more humanitarian endeavors.

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” Oprah Winfrey

I am sure there are many events we will never hear about that Oprah has done. By chance I watched her giving away cars, two hundred and fifty or so to her audience on a show. I know it was an advertising experiment for Pontiac. But I was still impressed. The starting of a school in South Africa for under privileged girls gets some news attention. As I look at the venues she chooses to do her good, I am impressed. I recall when my father was in hospice care I would hear from his friends stories every so often from Pennsylvania about how my dad did this or that for someone else’s dad or mom. Every once in a while, I will hear a story as my brother or sister came home from South Africa where a miner or mine manager will tell him what my dad did for them thirty five years ago.
There is a word and it is integrity. It is a powerful word, one that maybe politicians should try and promote. I received an ad through email about how this politician has integrity and under it the word in big bold letters, SEE. You do not buy integrity. It has been sometime since my mother had my youngest son and I move a cabinet for her, she wanted to bring her piano in her room where she could play more often. On top of the cabinet were a group of pins and badges, tiny trinkets. She asked if we would like any as we left. One of the pins was gold A charm. It turns out it was given to my father in college, he graduated in 1952 from Albright College. My son now has that A. Another was a very special pin, my grandfathers; he was an engineer on a coal train nearly 80 years ago. The pin was his railroad pin. My wife put it in safe keeping for my oldest son. Integrity, we cannot buy it and or trade it.

“Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do.” Don Galer

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trying to define integrity as I sit writing I came up with, it is the totality of who we are. Not what we simply say we are but the daily undertakings and events that transpire from our footsteps as we walk through the journey of life.

“If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself.” Frank Perdue

I remember the first time I saw a Perdue chicken ad and it was for yellow chickens. There was not an actor, just Frank Perdue and a chicken. This was a pretty simple concept but Perdue has become one of the leading marketers of chicken and higher dollar poultry in the nation through marketing their integrity. I have never questioned Perdue chicken. In Georgia we have another yellow ad campaign, Yellow Wood, that pressure treated timber that by chance is colored yellow. Their ad campaign basically started with integrity and went from there they put their money where their mouth is and cute ads with everything yellow.

“Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep.” Denis Waitley

Dennis Waitley is a leader in performance management and author of fifteen books on production and management and considered one of the top consultants in his field.

“The power brokers in the new global arena will be the knowledge facilitators. Ignorance will be even more the tyrant and enslaver than in the past. As you look in the mirror to see the 21st Century you, there will also be another image standing beside you. It is your competition. Your competition, from now on, will be a hungry immigrant with a wireless, hand-held, digital assistant. Hungry for food, hungry for a home, for a new car, for security, for a college education. Hungry for knowledge. Smart, quick thinking, skilled and willing to do anything necessary to be competitive in the world marketplace. Working long hours and Saturdays, staying open later, serving customers better and more cheerfully. To be a player in the 21st Century you have to be willing to give more in service than you receive in payment.” Denis Waitley

As I read this paragraph and thought about today, at school we are not simply preparing students to leave school but to compete in this world marketplace. The last line very much emulates Phillip Crosby the great guru of Quality, “you have to be willing to give more in service than you receive in payment”. Crosby defined quality as, “exceeding the expectations of the customer”. A slight play on the words, Integrity is providing to those around you more than they expect and expecting nothing in return.

“The Lord doesn’t ask about your ability, only your availability; and, if you prove your dependability, the Lord will increase your capability.” Source unknown

“Integrity: A name is the blueprint of the thing we call character. You ask, what’s in a name? I answer, just about everything you do.” Morris Mandel

I have perhaps started a bad habit of TV watching, seems my wife and I and our oldest son when he is home, will watch several our recorded shows and even back to back episodes. On one of our shows a few nights back by chance a young attorney was being tried for information he knew, which was client privileged. The prosecutor made a comment something to the effect, “No Bar in America will disbar you for telling us what you know in these circumstances”. The young public defender responded calmly, “They should”. That is integrity. On the show he was found guilty and faced prison for integrity. How many of us would do that. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and always give thanks namaste.

Wa de (Skee)
bird