From the Left to the Right: January 2014

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Rich DeVos, Co-Founder of Amway Corporation, Part III

Transcribed in 2011, Written : Aug. 2013 and Jan. 29, 2014

Regardless of your political affiliation, please ‘like’ From the Left to the Right’s Facebook Page

Continued from Part II, posted on August 15, 2013.

Rich DeVos

Many years ago my wife and I struggled to make ends meet. I thought that selling Amway products would work for us, and persuaded her to try it. While others succeeded at it, we failed miserably; we had trouble convincing others to buy. I don’t blame Amway, we simply didn’t possess the required skills. During our Amway experiment, we purchased several cassette tapes from the company at the suggestion of our sponsor. Most of them bored me, but a single tape stood out. I listened to it often and I’ve quoted it many times. One of the two founders of the Amway Corporation, Rich DeVos, spoke in front of a group of about 1,800 young people at the 23rd annual Junior Achievers conference. I believe this occurred sometime in 1966. His use of words may seem outdated, and DeVos might not express himself the same way today, but the message is “right on!”

Rich DeVos, Part III:

I gave a talk one day in a high school and I talked about smoking, you know. I’d made some comments about the fact that it’s an interesting thing that when you’re your age [young, like his audience], it’s real [inaudible] stuff [he means it’s cool] to smoke. And when you’re my age you’re a big shot if you can quit. Now, that’s an interesting thing. But I made some implications that I didn’t approve of smoking –

Co-founder Jay Van Andel, Steve Van Andel, current president Doug DeVos, and co-founder Rich DeVos

One young gal comes up to me afterward and she says, “I’ll have you know, I smoke.

I says, “You’re kidding.” She was a high schooler.

She says, “No, I do.” I said, “I don’t believe you.”

She said, “Really, I smoke.”

“Nawww,” I said. (laughter) “You don’t smoke, honey, the cigarette smokes, you’re just the sucker! Ya gotta remember that. (loud laughter, and applause)

I mentioned the fact that you’re the leader, you’re the comer, you’re the go-er, you’re the achiever. And as such, others will follow you.

DeVos and Van Andel with TV icon Walter Cronkite in 1986

But as you progress, and as you assume your roles of leadership, and as you excel, I want you to remember something. That one of the greatest problems we’ve got in America today outside the racial strife that’s going on [remember, this was during the 1960’s] and we all deplore – is the equal respect for each other.

One of the things any minority group is seeking is just respect me for what I am. Don’t give me any favors. I’m not asking for that. Most of them aren’t asking for that. They’re just asking for equal respect and equal opportunity. And, it’s all of us that are going to change that. That won’t happen by accident.

But you see, I see it happening between groups of people. Between classes of people as well as groups – and racial groups.

I’d give this guy the microphone, anytime.

And, so, the man says, “Well, I went to college.” Well, that’s alright, I hope you all go to college. I hope you all graduate. But you know about half the kids coming out of school aren’t going to go to college.

And, although you may have a greater responsibility because you have greater talent… As a man or a woman you’re not necessarily better than the ones who didn’t. I want you to remember that.

I want you to remember that, the next time that fellow comes by who picks up the garbage at your house. He’s a fellow American who’s using his talent to do what he can do. But he, too, is a part of the great mainstream of American life.

This is the end of Part III, and I’ll cover the amazing conversation he had with his garbage man in Part IV, next time.

ANTI-AGENDA 21 WEB SITES

Democrats Against Agenda 21

Stopping the UN in the Southwest

Please enjoy my previous posts related to U.N. Agenda 21:

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #1, 2/28/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #2, 3/27/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #3, 4/17/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #4, 7/10/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #5, 10/30/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #6, 12/04/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #7, 01/08/12

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #8, 06/12/13

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #9, 06/18/13

From the Left to the Right - Agenda 21 Post #10, 06/26/13

Sunday, January 12, 2014

President Obama Didn’t Know – Really? (Part II)

Written : Dec. 11-12, 18, 2013, Jan. 12, 2014

Regardless of your political affiliation, please ‘like’ From the Left to the Right’s Facebook Page

These are my perceptions in this blog, not a recitation of current history, nor an attempt to prove my points beyond a reasonable doubt (but, under the First Amendment, you are free to disagree!). I suggest some patterns I noticed of late, in this post, and in the previous post, part I. I ask that you forget about previous presidents and hear me out.

6. Gen. Petraeus scandal: President Obama implied to Chuck Todd (NBC News) of the David Petraeus / Paula Broadwell affair/scandal that his administration had “not been told,” coincidentally, until two days after the 2012 election! Who knew? Not the president.

I had no idea...

7. Benghazi Scandal 1: Four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012 (the anniversary of 9/11), after Ambassador Stevens requested help from the U.S. The Obama Administration didn’t increase security for the diplomatic mission ahead of time, even though the Muslim Brotherhood was on the rise there. All the president’s men and women blamed the attack on an outrageous video. They apparently don’t know a terrorist attack when they see one – or did they cover it up? No one at the White House still appears eager to investigate. “What difference, at this point, does it make?” said his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, when she testified before Congress. Hmmm.

Despite President Obama’s claim that he won’t rest until we find out what happened, his administration seemed to say, ’Who cares?’

8. Benghazi Scandal 2: President Obama campaigned on the slogans, “Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” and “Al Qaeda is on the run.” So, the Obama Administration sent U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday TV news shows less than 2 weeks before the 2012 presidential election. One must question their motivation. Why did President Obama send Ms. Rice out there? After campaigning on “Mission Accomplished” for squelching Al Qaeda and terrorism, the administration had to sell the fact that the mission in Benghazi was attacked due to Libyan reaction to an offensive video. They needed to deny the terrorism. Later, the president said that Susan Rice had nothing to do with Benghazi. So, using my left-wing teaching to question everything and speak truth to power, I must then ask, “Why did President Obama put her out there in the first place?”

Why did Susan Rice repeat the same, incorrect story on all 5 shows?

With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along side, the president said over a year ago, “make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.” To date, no one has been prosecuted, arrested, or even accused. If you say that these things take time, then give President Bush the same courtesy, since those pesky WMD’s, hidden by Saddam Hussein, can still turn up. (These things, too, take time, right?) By the way, Susan Rice turned out to be wrong, but was rewarded by the president anyway, when he appointed her to National Security Advisor during his second term.

Yes, why?

9. Obamacare failure 2: Millions of us already lost our doctors and our health care policies, even if we liked them. Costs are increasing for people in most states. Yet, President Obama claimed (many times, repeatedly), that his law will save the average family of four thousands of dollars. He said, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. PERIOD.” And, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. PERIOD.” No disclaimer. …To be clear, when you say, “period,” you mean what you said is final, the truth, intractable. The president apparently didn’t know that people would be forced to give up their perfectly good and well-liked policies in favor of much more expensive ones. How did he not know? This is his signature law!

Even CNN knows.

10. Surveillance: Showing anger over President Bush’s surveillance policies, Sen. Barack Obama sarcastically accused the former president of spying on American citizens. To the dismay of the left, the Obama Administration collects many more times the data than the Bush Administration, and is building a mammoth facility in Utah to store even more. Everything will be collected, except phone records, which were recently declared illegal by a judge. (I am not against collecting data, BTW, if it is not used in nefarious ways, but how we prevent it is debatable.) Does President Obama know anything about this? Well, if not, I’m sure he’ll find out about it one day while watching TV.

President Obama’s Utah Data Center - I’ll bet you could store some data there!

President Obama says he takes full responsibility for everything, and will get to the bottom of all the scandals, but he never does anything about them. No conclusion is ever reached, one ever gets fired, nobody is ever held accountable, and our president never seems to know much of what’s going on around him. He delegates most of the work, but, boy, as the left complained about President Bush, he sure plays a lot of golf!