Bob Howitt Blog

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The View from the Third Seat on the Left, Observations from the Camden Community Bus Tour

The building rises majestically (relatively speaking), at the end of the most golden street in the city. It offers a great view of both water and a neighboring city’s skyline. It brings to mind a shiny new toy, perfectly constructed, after a multi-decades long drought when developers never thought such an enterprise made sense in an impoverished city.

But the magic elixir of tax credits and self-interest – immediate payment to all those people involved in a real estate closing –wrought their miracle: the Hilton Garden Inn.

The two mismatched sides of the house at 755 Walnut Street beg for repair. Many years ago, the fix-up job was supposed to happen, beneficiary of a multimillion program that has long disappeared into the garbage can of political history. Adjacent to the house is a vacant lot; like its several thousand counterparts throughout the city, it can be either overgrown with vegetation or a repository for whatever junk needs to be disposed of by somebody with no vested interest in the property.

It is two miles from the Hilton to 755 Walnut. It might as well be 200 miles. There is no connection between the two, even though they are part of the same governing body: Camden, New Jersey. And the financial contributions to community life from the companies benefitting from tax credits are a  rounding error.

Hilton lives in a strip of politically connected entities, including Rutgers and the Cooper Health complex. The nationally known charter management organization KIPP and the locally highly publicized LEAP Academy charter school both live comfortably within this world.

The 755 Walnut world is that of local development entities which struggle to get their voices heard, who can afford their social and racial justice programs only because much of their cost base is free – donated items, or of minimal cost – community gardens.

The police are quite evident in the Hilton world, presumably on guard for white collar workers in the nearby office buildings who are hatching plans to toss their bosses or themselves out the window after years of frustration and boredom in their jobs. The more difficult areas of the city receive less attention. The disparity continues on one’s demise. When somebody does die in the Hilton world, they get a gravestone which is properly maintained; their peer in the 755 Walnut world is lucky to receive any physical recognition that is not quickly overgrown with disrespect.

In the Camden school district a few years back (data is slow in coming), there were three (not a misprint, 3!) high school graduates who were college ready based on the conventional metric used to make such judgements. In response to this tragedy, whose impact is multi-generational in terms of both financial outcomes and psychological damage, education reformers added a new type of school to the mix.

Camden Prep is what is called a Renaissance school, like its competitors KIPP and Mastery (the latter is oriented to turnarounds, particularly in a Latino sector of Camden dominated by public housing).

There are three features of a Renaissance school worthy of note: ten-year contracts with the district, not with the state; community orientation in terms of catchment area; and a requirement to construct new school buildings. Even as the district has shuttered some schools (had they been charters or Renaissance schools, they would have been closed many years before, as the new type of schools lives on results, not on history), there are still too many seats to fill, and there are more seats on the way, including those at a huge new district school.

The result, and the solution, will be more hand-to-hand combat to enroll new students. Those with less robust course offerings or fewer sports options will be challenged to get new customers as viable options for students increasingly are just around the corner.

Underneath it all is the 755 Walnut dilemma: dilapidated housing stock and a demoralized, undereducated population that has multiple immediate needs while recognizing that only through the long grind of education can the tide be turned.

Does Camden Prep then buttress its academic achievements, which do not yet include a twelfth grade – a big competitive disadvantage – with multiple programs that seek to address certain needs which are at the parent level. Can it reach out from the Uncommon cocoon and create vibrant collaborations with locally-rooted people. Will it take the huge step of being involved, directly or indirectly, at the preschool level, where the district itself would be the biggest competitor.

Having more talent at the Camden Prep level, as distinct from the home office, should be a major improvement when it comes to both reaching out and the messaging of academic results. Will it be enough in an overcrowded enrollment market: doubtful. It is difficult to see the school breaking even on the public dollar (adjusted for multiple one-time sources of funds) in the foreseeable future.

Is the game worth the candle, then? Yes!

Camden Prep cannot bring Hilton to 755 Walnut, nor should all those involved in the betterment of Camden want that to happen considering the ramifications of gentrification.

Camden Prep’s mission, regardless of the challenges inherent in attracting and retaining students, is to continue delivering the highest quality education in the city. It has no other reason for being.

 

• Graduates in the year 2021: 
  
• What an interesting group, hailing (though not necessarily commuting!) from New Jersey to New York to Nepal. The diploma range is from a two-year degree to graduate school. Some of you took a straight-line route, some had a change or two along the way as you decided on your next step.
• All of you are working in some capacity already, with the majority simultaneously attempting to figure out life after graduation: will that first regular employment be “just a job” or a stepping stone toward your desired career. 
• Some of you have graduate school in mind, but not necessarily right away, knowing that such a step probably would be the most intentional education decision you have ever made.
• All have persevered through a pandemic that turned your lives, and/or those of your families and friends, upside down. 
• All have dealt with the pluses and minuses of your particular school, at times thinking it was the best choice ever and at other times wondering why you ever enrolled there.
• All have lamented the lack of clear communication from schools during the various changes dictated by the pandemic.
• Most important is that each of you has become more self-reflective, more aware of who you are as a individual, your uniqueness, and your ability to become the person you want to be. In a society and world where lack of self-knowledge can quickly get one labeled and grouped, the ability to “know thyself” is more important than ever.
  Congratulations!
  As the country gets more vaccinated, I hope to break bread with you and get completely caught up.  I realize that your graduation ceremonies themselves will be restricted attendance, if any, a bummer for sure.
  Peace,
  Bob
  
  
  
  
  

The secret to learning Reading had little to do with school — or the latest teaching techniques found on college education major syllabi — or insights delivered at workshops by expensive consultants.

Instead, what if a positive attitude, curiosity, and learning Reading stemmed from a stable family structure, the inculcation of values, books in the home, affordable time and available energy.

Maybe a series of societal changes would be more likely to produce acceptable Reading outcomes than teachers seeking to be heroes. Or is the former one of those necessary, but not sufficient situations.

Here are a few examples of societal changes with prospectively highly leveraged positive returns:

Inexpensive daycare … Higher minimum wage … Restructured marijuana laws … Availability of Pell grants for prisoners … Ability to choose the school to which a child attends.

Fast forward, at the upper end of the school age spectrum, long after Reading has supposedly become a habit, why not make this ask of rising high school graduates:

Agreement that the sequence of high school graduation, then a job, then marriage, then a child is clearly preferable socioeconomically (demonstrated to be the case by Brookings Institute research data) to any sequence which switches around these four milestones of life.

Perhaps the combination of said agreement and the aforementioned multiple societal changes would lead to more family cohesion, which would lead in turn to increased success in Reading.

Or maybe my “What If” mutterings are meaningless in a world of Googled “education’ and social media addiction. Why even care about in-depth Reading when “answers” to all of life’s questions are merely a click away.

For a period of several decades, ending in the early 2000’s, Bob Gersony was an “humanitarian contractor” to various agencies of the United States government.   This is somewhat surprising, given that today’s profile of a private contractor to the government is that of a mercenary whose allegiance is to the connection between his kill count and his paycheck, operating under the protection of Washington officials determined to bring our way of life to heathens around the world, even if we have to decimate their country to do so.

The book entitled “The Good American” chronicles the life story of Gersony. At various times, he went to Guatemala, Mozambique, Nepal, Sudan, Ethiopia. His task was to find out what was going on by talking to regular people, not those higher up who often allowed theory to disturb facts. With a pen and notebook, he interviewed hundreds of refugees, for example, and his policy conclusions were often at odds with those expressed by those in far-off comfortable offices. And his suggestions were almost invariably productive.

There are so many aspects of Bob’s approach that lend themselves to daily living for all of us:

*every person wants to feel empowered to choose his/her own path

*people want to be productive, to live meaningful lives

*most individuals would like to be part of a community, however defined

*having questions for each new person you meet is part of lifelong learning

*listening to answers and following up unlocks more information than using a script

*assumptions without research are perilous

In my circuitous mind, thinking about Gersony and what he did brought me back to wondering about my own country, not a distant situation.

As the United States moves inexorably to one of multiple minorities, it will be incumbent on those in growth mode — Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, and mixtures of every conceivable combination – to be more charitable to their prior oppressors than the latter have been to them. The alternative is a series of bloodbaths.

White America, which is not growing its population and shows no inclination to do so by suddenly changing its birth rate, will obviously attempt to cling to that power which it regarded as a birth right. At a minimum, many feeling that loss of place will “act out,” as the therapist would say. The prior administration legitimatized violent action, but it was already happening, with one indication being the ultimate acting out, suicide, the rate of which has been rising.

The January insurrection in the nation’s capital was completely shocking for its location, but to me it was not surprising when analyzed through the lens of acting out. For every person who openly totes a gun or throws a rock in frustration, there are thousands, especially in small town and rural America, who are wistful about “the way things used to be,” when a decent job was attainable with only a high school education, when the local factory meant the possibility of lifetime employment, when a white collar position in a multi-layered corporation never would be exposed to downsizing.

Theirs are lives in geographies carved up by farmlands and rivers and hills and railroad tracks, none of which have their historical relevance, not in a world which transacts life through laptops, clicks delivered by people whose fingernails have never been dirtied.

The Elks and the Moose and the VFW and the American Legion are all there, along with monuments to the fallen military personnel who disproportionately come from small town America. Flags are more evident, some tattered but not to be trifled with by those who want perfection in their patriotic displays.

Their memories become their lives; they are attached to them with a defensive strength that defies dispassionate analysis. Scapegoats are eagerly sought.

The more passive of those who are embittered simply have let their votes tell of their frustration. The more aggressive have taken to the streets, to internet postings in an attempt to find compatriots in their delusion that the demographic tide – which they have consistently and erroneously seized upon as the cause of their angst — can be stemmed.

In a country where on average everybody owns a gun, it should not be surprising that so-called sudden and inexplicable violence is paradoxically more the norm than the exception. Murder rates, incarceration levels, childhood gun-related fatalities, domestic violence incidence all are suggestive of a society struggling mightily to cope with its multiple challenges.

There is little doubt that a humanitarian contractor will be needed right here, talking with ordinary people and, through those with power, trying to convert that research into policies that can find a receptive audience. Washington, in contrast, is fixated on its own rules of political engagement, manipulating each other for gains which continue when they become lobbyists after leaving office (just as the corporate executive who has hurt his company walks away with millions of dollars).

And all the while, those segments of the population who are relatively new to being outside the gates of power wonder “what about us,” the same question that those seeking power have been rightfully asking for a very long time. The same question which has now become a series of demands; the due bill of history is now to be paid.

Traveling to the heart of darkness, the inner soul of the United States, and creating a game plan for the complex reality of a shift in power and an evolving revision of the prior American narrative — would be the most difficult assignment every given to a Bob Gersony.

*This is the one-year pandemic scorecard for New Jersey: 21,219 lives lost; 30% of local businesses closed, 56% increase in food insecurity; two million unemployment claims filed.

*The pyramid of diversity and power, whether in corporate America or on the college campus, is consistent: greater diversity at the lowest rung (employees/students) than at the managerial/administrative level (the latter typically a source of irritation to minority college students). That middle level in turn is more diverse than the executive offices, including the college president unknown to the majority of his or her customers, aka students.

*In a longstanding, predominantly white school district, the kindergarten class might be twice as diverse as the high school. A demographic-based shift in power is inevitable.

*This is a suggested replacement for current methods of capital punishment: listening to a 24-hour non-stop tape of “likes” and “you knows.”

*Not connected to that fantasy is the serious and troubling research which shows that the correlation of brain injuries to subsequent criminal activity is quite high.

*A poll in 2019 disclosed that only half of people in Latin America believed their neighbor would return a found wallet; on the other hand, only 40% believed a cop would do so.

*We have everything we need to know at the click of a finger. We have not become happier.  And the average person has not become more affluent.

*One-third of Latinos voted for Trump, a higher ratio than in 2016.

*We have more communication devices than ever, and fewer friends.

*Hate crimes, while up recently, are significantly below those of twenty years ago. The flames seem to burn hotter, however.

*Our schools have more technology than ever dreamed possible. We have not become smarter. Our healthcare providers have more portals to capture more of our information. However, we have not become healthier, nor has healthcare become more affordable.

*From the trough of the Great Recession, the first quarter of 2009, to the end of 2020, household wealth for the bottom 60% of the population grew between 27% and 37%. The next 20% were up 97% and the top 19%, 72%. The top 1% soared 135%.

*On the student loan front, some federal relief has been granted and one much older former student was able to escape debt through bankruptcy, heretofore considered impossible. Nationally, 6% of borrowers owe over $100,000; 18% owe over $40,000. The worst debt is when the borrower fails to graduate, thus often leaving them with the prospect of insufficient income relative to debt.

Yes, I frequently compare cheese and chalk, as the saying goes. But isn’t that life: trying to make decisions about non-comparable choices.

In football, it is the bomb, the long pass for a touchdown which brings people out of their seats, a play made much easier to accomplish by multiple rule changes in recent years.

In basketball, no longer is the nuanced skill involved in making a contested 15-foot jump shot of interest; the focus is completely on three-pointers and dunks — they excite the populace.

In baseball, a strike-out has ceased being a source of criticism; it is now simply the other side of the desired home run coin.

In hockey, too much defense and too little scoring led to a change in the rules a few years ago.

In soccer, the way tackles used to be made – admittedly often with some malevolence in mind — is no longer acceptable; stars, defined typically as the goal scorers, could get hurt.

In gambling, there is no longer the need to interact with seedy characters; the public has jumped into the fray, courtesy of needy governments who lust after tax revenue.

In the stock market, without being hampered by the need to actually analyze the company whose stock they are purchasing, people can place bets on random fluctuations in prices.

In video games, results arrive quickly, often in blood red.

In the lottery, the most honest of rip-offs, there are instant winnings.

In all cases, immediate excitement trumps subsequent reflective thoughts.

Transitory gratification is the logical accompaniment to that misleading bumper sticker which says, “live each day anew.” In truth, everything a person does both before and after that day affects what their current day is about.

While I waited for my call to a government office to transition from a dozen prompts to scratchy music to a live human (which is not necessarily redundant), I thought how the word “Labels” could be an acronym for Lost, Anxious, Befuddled, Enervated, Listless … Silliness.

For sure, there is a long list of other words which could fit the initial letters, but then too there are practical difficulties in assigning labels. If a person has a father born in Nigeria and a mother from, let’s say, Kansas, they are African-American. And if a person has a father from Barbados and a mother from Sri Lanka, they too are African-American. One must understand slave trade routes to connect with the label.

Elsewhere in the world of labeling, if one desired an interesting exchange of opinions, engage advocates within the LatinX community who will cut the conversation short if they are referred to as Hispanic.

The acronym BIPOC is gaining traction in progressive circles: Black-Indigenous-People-of-Color. If the label is interpreted as having components, it makes no sense. Surely one is not saying that all Blacks are Indigenous. If it is agreed that a Black person is also one of Color, then Black is being repeated in the label. If you can rightly assume there are lots of people of different colors, why single out Black. As for the term Indigenous, is that to be interpreted as a paucity of tangible wealth or does it cover a deficit of hope, of aspiration, of feeling that one belongs in the world.

Of course, what is really meant by the BIPOC designation is poor minorities, almost definitionally those who have been shortchanged by the system. There is no intention to include Caucasians unless perhaps that is the back door reason for including the word “indigenous” even when minimal incremental outreach is aimed in that direction.

The writer has used the label/term “financially challenged” for many years. It gets away from terms like “poor” or “indigenous.” I like it. I have also used “marketable skills” instead of vocational training or career technical education. I like mine better; it gets one away from old definitions and images and connects to the reality: if a kid is a great rapper, he or she has a marketable skill, the same with somebody who can code or comfort a person in need, or a man or woman can take a bunch of wood and convert it into a great chair.

FCPOAC then would be my preference: Financially Challenged People of All Color. But, to take a page from the gecko, FCPOAC not only does not easily fall off the tongue, but phonetically spoken, it represents a problem (or maybe not; after all, the “F” word is now used in a wide variety of circumstances.)

Moving right along —

Ask 100 people: 60 white, 18 LatinX, 14 African-American, 6 Asian and 2 of another label what is meant by the phrase “more diversity” when one reads or hears it in the media.

These are my guesses as to the distribution of answers:

More African-Americans                            the vast majority of responses

More LatinX                                                  a few responses

More Asian                                                   virtually no responses

If “social justice” is substituted for “more diversity,” the distribution of responses is probably comparable to that above.

The reasons behind the skewed responses are completely clear. Black Lives Matter and its offshoots have taken center stage, and appropriately so, since the murder of George Floyd.

Looking at the other two leading minorities is an interesting exercise.

There has been an unpublicized assumption that Asians are being fairly treated (only very recently, literally as I was finishing this little essay, was a spotlight put on the mistreatment of Asians). Moreover, there has been a belief that they can take care of themselves, there is minimal history to produce big chunks of guilt among white Americans, and they are okay (more than okay would be the popular view) educationally (discrimination at Harvard is not exactly a mainstream issue) and financially.

Basically Asians have been totally ignored in the diversity discussion.

Where does the LatinX community fit?

In terms of protesting for social justice, they are represented. Beyond that, language and/or accent barriers, documentation issues, and the persistent myth that immigrants take jobs from Americans confuse the picture. The bottom line is that when the long list of organizations (profit-seeking and non-profit alike) who are seeking to prove their bona fides on the issue of diversity decide to create the position of VP-Diversity, it is almost exclusively an African-American who gets selected.

Diversity-Equity-Inclusion advocates will protest the assertion, but by observation, not data, it does not appear that lumping black and brown together has resulted in proportionate gains for African-Americans and LatinX. This generalization undoubtedly needs some contextualization.

It is difficult for LatinX leaders to speak out about this apparent contrast, given the commonality of certain aspects of discrimination, particularly when it comes to employment practices. Unfortunately, however, collaboration can only go so far in today’s world of racial identity separation.

It may be that LatinX advocates will need to mount their own uniquely identified push for more LatinX representation throughout the ranks of organizational America. Perhaps “The Hispanic Promise” (HispanicStar.org) is a good start. It is an “official corporate pledge to prepare, hire, promote, retain, and celebrate Hispanics in the workplace.”

What do rioters, a collection of bystanders to a person being abused, and labels have in common. They are about individuals functioning differently because they are in groups or so identified.

What is my overall point? Simple answer: I dislike labels.  Besides, if Rwanda can remove ethnic identity from its government paperwork, maybe we could.

BOOKS READ

Approximately 2018-2020, in order of least recent to most recent

China’s Asian Dream: Thorough analysis of China’s goal of making widespread infrastructure investments throughout Central and South Asia and the many political and cultural ramifications of this series of plans.

Why They Did It : Criminology and the criminal justice system, decision-making and morality, evolution of attitudes toward white collar criminals. Specific stories about several in this category.

Fortune Makers: Written by professors in a pedantic style, discussion of how entrepreneurs have come to be in a society, China, that is a unique hybrid of Communism and capitalism, with the latter being a different variety than evident in the West.

Locked In: Detailed examination of the set of interlocking jurisdictions and responsibilities that constitute the criminal justice system.  Little data on how/why prosecutors make their decisions; suburbs electing prosecutors whose jobs are dominated by urban situations. The collateral damage of being imprisoned. Cities pay for police, the state for prisons. Cost/benefit of reforms are disconnected. Certainty of punishment more important than severity. Loaded with data; should be a course textbook.

The Case against Sugar: In the last couple of years, I had become leery of sugar. This book provides all the scientific and practical inputs to support the hypothesis that sugar consumption represents a health hazard, a silently creeping, addictive substance producing an epidemic of illnesses.

The Firm: History of management consultant McKinsey and its wavelike shifting of priorities.

What the Dog Saw: Another Gladwell book, actually a series of columns on an amazingly wide range of subjects. A good read, as always.

The Billion Dollar Spy: Captivating chronicle, a true story, of the most important inside Russia spy ever “run” by the USA. Like many of his native counterparts, he was driven by total antagonism toward the communist regime and its butchery, etc.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Young, Princeton educated Pakistani conflicted about success in USA, expresses glee at 9-11-01, Pakistan vs. India issues, American intrusion into Afghanistan. His valid points about arrogance are mixed with significant omissions, e.g. shortcomings of his own area of the world.

The Nixon Years: Insider Pat Buchanan tells all, with particular emphasis on himself. Interesting read, especially during a Trump administration. The latter obviously should cease using Twitter; decades back,  differing points of view within the president and the staff could be argued out internally, with outright leaks and violation of fiduciary duty being the primary concerns, not 140-word outbursts.

Basic Income: An incredibly thought-provoking proposal for an unconditional basic income to be paid to every individual.  Sounds implausible, but the logic path weaves through freedom, justice, practicality, and the inevitable: any proposal for substantive change must be weighed, not against some ideal, but against what is already taking place, in this case the dynamics of low-paid employment and welfare.

Janesville: Another book which Hillary should have read during the campaign. It tracks the changes in identified individuals and the city itself from the time GM closed its huge assembly plant and Parker Pen was sold and resold multiple times. Again the unfolding impact of not having a strong economic base that is tied to the community and its services … and culture.

Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: completely depressing story of a brilliant kid done in attempting to be all things to all people, straddling the dual worlds of dysfunctional neighborhood and Yale. Must reading for those attempting to make a difference to inner city youth.

The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion.

*Different exercises show how people lead with intuition and follow with strategic reasoning

*care/harm … fairness/cheating …. liberty/oppression … loyalty/betrayal …. authority/subversion …  sanctity/degradation:

*liberals high on first two, conservatives high on last three, which has not been understood or validated by liberal politicians

*cultural evolution of moral values (impacted by technology in recent times); formation of groups

*more to morality than harm and fairness

*at birth, not blank page but a working draft

*people both selfish and groupish; morality binds and blinds/harm

*WEIRD: western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic  — a minority of the world’s population  is hampered in seeing other cultures with their own metrics

*new atheist model of religious psychology is Being and Doing; Durkheimian model adds crucial element of Belonging. Note that secular communes do not last, religious do.

*religious people give more time and money

*Durkheim: society without shared moral order becomes normless

*pre-Newt Gingrich dictate, congressmen brought families to live in DC, fostered cross party interaction. Now they stay home, less interaction, more angst of all kinds

Betancourt Affair: The world’s richest woman and her travails. If one was not cynical about big money and politics and Swiss bank accounts, this would be a conversion experience.

Ministry of Utmost Happiness: sexual identity, political, and familial issues in a particular section of India. Remarkable scope and substance: an awesome accomplishment.

Antifragile: anybody who can put Aristotle and Fat Tony from New Jersey in the same sentence is a writer to be reckoned with. Pro-nature, small, local; anti-medical, large, central, big debt. Content often above my pay grade; maybe, to be prosaic and simplistic, his financial advice would be put a lot of money in low risk and a little money in possible high reward. The middle is fragile.

The Namesake: simple, richly detailed story of acculturation, family (Indian); like so many others, makes me jealous of those with close-knit families/positive emotions and those with great groups of peers, always ready for a dinner party of good food and conversation. 

Stronger: the mostly inspirational story of Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing and who identified the bomber as the person who had been standing right near him.

The New Urban Crisis: Author Florida’s follow-up to “Creative.” Income, educational, occupational segregation as part of the urban scene, which also includes entrenched poverty (50 million people) either living around the corner from the affluent, educated whites who have moved back to the city for its access to amenities or who are struggling in the spreading depressed pockets of suburbia.

Sing, Unburied, Sing: Poignant picture of poor, racially mixed family in Mississippi.

Still Alice: A brilliant mind is gradually lost into the world of Alzheimer’s.

Reset: Ellen Pao’s side of her unsuccessful discrimination lawsuit versus Kleiner, Bell, in time leading to the formation of a non-profit aimed at tackling the issues she faced.

You Don’t Own Me: Mattel vs. MGA, intellectual property rights issue. Huge legal bills, reversed decision, Barbie fights dirty!

The Glass Castle: miraculous story of survival and success in a dysfunctional family.

Refugees: Syrian, Jewish German, and Cuban young people tell their (blend of actual and fiction, including composites) stories. Well done.

Built: incredibly helpful book in understanding how structures are planned and constructed, by a female civil engineer.

Ramp Hollow:  Provocative analysis of Appalachia, with historical comparisons, and delineation between makeshift existences and the world of money/capital/loss of personal control.

The Givers: Description of the various routes being taken by big, relatively new, relatively active money people and the foundations, etc. they create. Flip side of declining role of government services, means that power is being transferred by the many to the few.

Rethinking School: Well-regarded writer who home-schooled, attacks the factory model of K-12 education, advocates treating each student as an individual with his/her own set of capabilities and personality. Good, basic information throughout the book.

You had a Job for Life: Chronicled life and death of a paper mill in New Hampshire, based on interviews of the employees, management, and ownership. Community impact as a key focus, seconded by “avaricious capitalists,” with light treatment/analysis/understanding of macro trends.

The Line becomes a River: Mexican heritage USA border patrol guy quits after much inner angst.

A Fine Balance: A phenomenal work of fiction, set in India in the late 70’s, with two of the leading characters being untouchables who became tailors. Incredible working up of key individuals to the point where you can readily envision them and how they react to situations, some of the latter being as horrible as one could conjure up in a nightmare. The book is compared with Dicken’s masterpieces.

Kareem: A simple rendition of the life of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly Lew Alcindor. Because of my tracking basketball all these years, little that was factually new. Could be considered inspirational.

The Stranger in the Woods: Amazing story of a true hermit, 27 years without human contact, provisions for his camp in Maine courtesy of a lifetime of thievery.

In Chocolate we Trust: Hershey and the trust that controls the company, its assets dedicated by a legal document to be used for the benefit of a large school for disadvantaged kids (as defined). Numerous twists, including the relationship with the community it virtually built and controlled at one point.

The Phenomenon: Rick Ankiel, and how the next Sandy Koufax caught the yips and never overcame them. A second act as a power-hitting outfielder had moments of success, but not sustained. Lots of stuff on the psychological side of sports, particularly for early age stars.

My Father’s Business: the story of Dollar General as it evolved from an entrepreneurship to a public company of great size. The warts are there, as is a periodic reference to the writer, Cal Turner Jr., being a backsliding Methodist, hence “father” has a double meaning.

AIQ: An explanation of Artificial Intelligence written in a way that is understandable; the math is kept to a reasonable level and the examples are those of the real world.

Factfulness: A must read – data and how to use it; the frequency of experts being really wrong.

Give People Money: A complete scream in favor of a UBI.

The War on Regular People: Robots will eliminate millions of jobs, a UBI will be needed.

Dopesick: Analysis of the Opioid situation: “dealers, doctors, and the drug company behind OxyContin.” Linkage of RX drugs and identification of pain as a separate health category.

Our Towns: Husband (a small plane pilot) and wife, co-authors, fly into small towns and cities to see what is working. Thematically, success and obliviousness to Washington, D.C. are correlated.

By an Addict, for an Addict: The title says it all, a must read for addicts and those involved with them.

Tailspin: A deep dive into the decline in the validity of the American narrative, with special emphasis on the income gulf which ties to protected lives for the super-affluent and those who cater to them, e.g., lawyers and accountants and advisors and lobbyists.

American Prison: Depressing history of evolution to private ownership; another chipping away at the idea that we are good guys, honest.

Deep Work: Focus on important items to build a marketable skill set.

I Can Stand: Depressing tale of ethnic identity, orphanages, prisons, ability to write poetry.

Principles: Ray Dillio’s exhaustive rendition of everything that is spoken or written in his hedge fund.

Last Pass: Bob Cousy, at 90, has regrets about not coming to the aid of Bill Russell (84) when the latter was being subjected to abominable racist actions when they both ruled the basketball world.

Founders Mentality: The stages of an organization, how to recognize them, how to react successfully.

Coddling of the American Mind: Over concern with safety, both physical and mental, weakens young people and hampers their preparation for adulthood.

Lost Connections: A must read for anybody interested in the phenomenon of depression. Again, the arrow moves from the individual to the collective, from treatment that is brain gene based to a number of social and employment variables that affect people and their reaction to life.

Amity and Prosperity: Family has health ruined by fracking and no government agency cares.

Rebound: Innovative poetically written story of young African-American male; basketball as backdrop.

The Adjunct Underclass: Not only is the niche category of adjunct professor thoroughly explored, but there is a great analysis of the limitless shortcomings of the higher education system.
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Still at it: Secretary Paul Volcker’s interesting memoir.

Booked: Innovative poetically written story, with soccer as the backdrop.

Strength in What Remains: Incredible story of escapee from the genocidal fighting in Burundi.

The Tatas: Horribly written book about a hugely important family in India; 200-year history.

Dragonflies: Beautifully written evocative novel about the coming of age of a young woman on an island off the coast of Kenya.

Andre Iguodala: Interesting story of the NBA star.

Home Boy: Autobiography of NFTE founder, Steve Mariott.

Liquid Church: Fascinating story of the creation of a modern church, with multiple water metaphors, including from the Bible itself. Has drilled over 200 water wells in Rwanda.

Spying on the South: Writer tracks the paths taken by Frederick Olmstead when he was a New York Times correspondent traveling throughout the South shortly before the Civil War. This is the same Olmstead who co-designed NYC’s Central Park and numerous other compelling landscapes.

Teach me to Forget: a heart-in-your mouth novel about teenage suicide ideation.

Swing: another Alexander novel of young people in love and in deep friendship. The title plays on three levels: baseball, jazz, and the need to take risks.

Peace in Every Step: Meditation treatise by long-time Vietnamese author and guru.

The Falconer: Female basketball star on the playgrounds of NYC; a fun read.

How the Other Half Learns: A reporter is embedded in Success Academy for a year, sees all the positives and negatives.

Perfumer: Unreal book about a guy with a really good nose who, uh, kills people for the smell of it.

The Distance between Us: Immigration story, divided family, love and abuse.

Hoffa’s Shadow: The flunky who was close to Hoffa and accused, probably falsely, of his murder, which has never been solved.

Stolen: Troubling/fascinating story of three young African-American boys during the slave-trading days.

Open Veins: A decades-old scream against all those in the West who robbed Latin America of everything.

Sold on Monday: Intriguing tale of poverty-driven decision-making in the Depression.

Born a Crime: The life story of Trevor Noah.

Immortality: Really smart and successful people tackling the issue of aging.

The Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison’s classic of a Southern African American coming to Harlem and the various interactions which ensued. Thought-provoking to say the least.

Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia is the accurate subtitle. Stories centered on individuals bring all the issues together, nicely written.

The Girl with the Louding Voice: Totally wonderful read of the coming of age of a 14 year-old Nigerian girl who has to fight through gender discrimination and lots of abuse to finally – as the book closes –win her opportunity to get the schooling necessary to realize her dream of being a teacher. Written in the dialogue appropriate to a lightly schooled girl in a small Nigerian village.

The Glass Hotel: Clever story of a Ponzi scheme character and the various people involved, both guilty and innocent.

Station Eleven: Same author as above, incredibly prescient about a lethal virus.

Just Mercy: The story of the battling civil rights lawyer particularly focused on already incarcerated individuals, became a movie.

Feminist Fight Club: A glossary and a how-to book for women seeking true equality.

Race Against Time: Enterprising reporter in Alabama who was instrumental in the reopening of famous civil rights cases where the perpetrator had gotten off because of a crooked, racist system.

Dali Lama: The biography of a revered man somewhat more controversial than assumed, because of his approach to the tensions between China and Tibet.

Stamped: Unique racist history of the United States; became must reading in the 2020 of social justice protests following the murder of George Floyd.

Eat the Buddha: Through stories of several Tibetans, provides background for the immolations.

No Visible Bruises: Definitive study of domestic violence; must read for anybody in the field.

A Burning: Politics, terrorism, a young person simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Island of Sea Women: Overly long and excessively richly written story of women who are exceptional divers, gathering sea creatures for sale.

Ghost Boys: The many innocent black young men rendered dead by police action.

An American Marriage: Dynamics in an African-American family, unlawful imprisonment, love triangle.

Slay: clever story of virtual reality game developer, a teenage African American girl, as her secret passion and skill and belief structure becomes public; multiple opportunities for commentary on black-white situations, plus considerable angst when a gamer is killed.

From Here to Equality: A deeply researched, calmly written analysis of America’s missteps regarding slavery-Jim Crow-discrimination, ultimately building the case for reparations.      

Know My Name: The victim in the famous Stanford sexual assault case writes her story, in great detail, inclusive of the eventual recall of the judge who gave the perpetrator a ridiculously light sentence.

Blended: Cleverly written book of an 11 year-old girl whose black father and white mother get divorced.

The Cubans: The life story of some ordinary Cubans during the Fidel Castro era and ensuing.

APPROXIMATELY 2013-2017

The Patriots                                    A remarkable, beautifully written panorama of family, country, politics, culture. In the 1930’s, a young Jewish woman from Brooklyn turns her back on America and goes, dewy-eyed, to the “future,” as represented by the wonderful new concept of Communist Russia. Over time, through multiple situations, she is embroiled in the very essence of totalitarianism, where truth is defined by power, terror, and convenience, causing even her own values to be subverted.

Man for all Markets                      Life story of Edward Thorp, blackjack and early quant investor, both based on lots of math and invent-your-own mentality. Useful additionally as a primer on many aspects of Wall Street.

The Upstarts                                   Engaging life histories of Uber and Airbnb. Should be on the syllabus for every MBA candidate.

The Undoing Project                     Two extremely heavy Israeli thinkers, tied at the waist for most of their lives, explore decision making, probability thinking, human error, the role of regret, loss avoidance versus reward capture. Interplay between psychology and economics, including antagonism.

My Grandmother…Sorry             By Ove author, fantasy and real world intermixed, mostly through the eyes and mind of a precocious girl who is not yet eight years old.

                                                          Wonderful commentaries on life as Elsa pulls out the stories of each person in her apartment complex, and how they connected to her  beloved Grandma.

House of the Dead                        The strategy of exiling people, for multiple reasons, to Siberia during the reign of the tsars. Heavy, dense book where skimming was done. One can see the groundwork laid for the Communist Revolution of 1917.

A Man Called Ove                          Wonderful story of a lovable (despite himself) curmudgeon who is thwarted from suicide over the death of his wife.

The Gardener and the Carpenter    Raising children should use the former, not the latter, model as kids come in all varieties. Another plea for lighter touch parent roles.

Playing through the Whistle        Well-done story of a steel town (J&L, Aliquippa), football, drugs, violence, and racial interactions.

Hillbilly Elegy                                  JD Vance’s love/hate relationship with the hillbilly culture from which he came. Graduated Yale, in investment business. A clear read which without trying explains much of the Trump appeal.

The Rise and Fall of Nations        A list of ways to look at countries economically, socially, and politically. Must read by MBA classes.

ADHD Nation                                  Overprescribing, often by docs getting money from big pharma, of Ritalin, Adderall, et al. Perfect fit with the entitlement mentality of today’s society, coupled with the instant gratification associated with multiple social media devices.

A Truck full of Money                   Story of the bipolar, brilliant serial entrepreneur who built Kayak.

Game Over                                     Former finance minister of Greece tells all concerning its crisis.

Look Homeward Angel                 The Thomas Wolfe classic, richly descriptive of coming of age, family and life in a mountain town (“Asheville”) a century ago.

Chaos Monkey                               Readable account of super-smart and super-candid Cuban fellow who went from Goldman Sachs to his own start-up to Facebook. Lots of inputs concerning the latter.

A Square Meal                               The changing dynamics of food/nutrition/issues of self-reliance/role of government at multiple levels — during the Great Depression.  As stated by many, the latter only was ended by preparation for WW II, which drove unemployment down from 17% to 10% in the 1939 to 1941 timeframe. Over 40% of enlistees were rejected, lack of nutrition, changed resolve centered on “need to be fit to fight the Nazis.”

Behold the Dreamers                   Nice story of immigration pressures, Cameroon to USA.

The Architect’s Apprentice          Wonderful book of love, deception, architecture, politics in the Ottoman Empire of the late 1500’s..

Night                                                Elie Wiesel’s classic memoir of the Holocaust.

Street Smart                                   Insightful examination of urban transportation issues/trends.

Homegoing                                     Fantastic multigenerational (spanning three centuries) story of Ghanian families, slavery, and being black in both African and American cultures.

Holograph for a King                     Interesting tale of sales team attempting to get business from an Arabian chieftain building a new city in a new area.                         

The United States of Jihad           A totally on-point analysis of domestic jihadists; was finishing the book when Orlando happened; the shooter could have been in the book without the need for amending any of the analytical points made.

Grit                                                   Having some background regarding the subject, I thought the book would be a skim situation. Wrong. Instead, I am marking it up; its insights are that on-point to interactions with students.

Narconomics                                  A highly interesting and clever analysis of the criminal drug trade in terms of normal business terminology. The conclusion is clear: drug policies should be attacking the demand side, not the supply side.

Evicted                                             A thoroughly researched chronicle of an outsider living with and getting to know the poor and their travails. Allusions to policy – drugs, police, modus operandi are brief. Passed over for examination elsewhere are issues of missing males, number of babies, educational options, perils of good ideas, unintended consequences, governmental messiness.

Mindset                                           A book which can easily be skimmed once you know, from the author beating you over the head, that a fixed mindset is bad and a growth mindset is good.

Flash Boys                                       Dark pools, HFT – all with an eye to gaining a micro-second informational edge cf. with the clients supposedly to be served.  A good guy in the picture tries to right the wrongs with a new exchange.

A Mother’s Reckoning                  Columbine mother of one of the killers puts her angst in print. Whether her son could have been stopped well ahead of the rampage is debatable. What is not in dispute is that Mom and Dad did not know he was being bullied at school, that he smoked, that he drank, that his diary was full of thoughts of depression and suicide.  Ironically in a way, they did know of his criminal activity (B&E), which came suddenly after all those years of being the proverbial “good kid.” She pleads her case of personal innocence and points the finger at undiagnosed brain illness as being behind situations (including her son) of murder-suicide.

The Beautiful Struggle                  Ta-Nehisi’s Memoir, the tone (alternating between vitriolic and reflective) as expected from “Between the World and Me.” No attempt to connect the dots of the black struggle, whether in general or with respect to himself, with social policy insights.

The Only Game in Town               Refers to the role of central banks as the world approaches a T-junction, wherein there are equal probabilities for both good and bad outcomes. Clearly written for a broader audience than academicians.

How to Raise an Adult                  Lots of great insights and information relevant to getting parents to cut back on over-involvement with their kids, allowing the latter to learn valuable life lessons and be prepared for adulthood.

Evolution of Everything                Amazingly detailed historical discussion of numerous topics; bottom line is that inventions and progress occurs incrementally, combining contributions by many. Top down design does not work.

Let it Rain Coffee                           Dominican Republic and NYC experiences in Trujillo and later eras.

Toxic Charity                                  Live in the community you want to help, most of charity is voyeuristic.    

White Man’s Burden                    Planners—no, Doers—yes; keep projects small, local, doable, money to those who are truly in need, not the politicos/functionaries in between.

My Promised Land                        Israel, from the late 1800’s to now, warts and all; excellent primer.

Engaging the Muslim World        Balanced view of the Muslim world, importance of cultural nuances.

Visual Aids                                      Quirky collection of one-two pages of information on diverse subjects.

The Circle                                        Over-the-top satire of the digital world of Facebook and Google.

Breakout Nations                          Analysis of factors differentiating third-tier countries. Data points used in assessing the current situation and growth potential of a country:

Per capita income: traditionally, certainly one of the most watched barometers

The natural resource situation, which is usually a double-edged opportunity and challenge

The existence of a good network of paved roads

Availability of adequate port facilities

Level of corruption and the rule of law

Turnover in the richest person list, an indicator of mobility

Cell phone penetration; newly-formed houses are not putting in land lines

The level of debt, both individual and governmental

Overlap of family & ownership, indicator of whether power and economics have been diversified

Escape from Camp 14                   Ex-prisoner in the inhuman penal system of North Korea.     

The Smartest Kids in the World  Three American students go to Finland, Poland, South Korea;                                                                             comparison and contrast of different educational systems.

David & Goliath                             Another Gladwell compilation of stories which poke holes in                                                                               conventional thinking. Highly useful concept:  the upside down “U.”

Degrees of Inequality                   College professor finds two villains behind higher education problems:

                                                          for-profit schools and the government; she did not look in the mirror.

Capital in the 21^st Century           Landmark study of wealth inequality, leading to proposed capital tax.

Savage Harvest                              The culture of the indigenous people of New Guinea and its relationship                                                          to the murder and eating of Michael Rockefeller fifty years ago.

Fighting Chance                             Attack on banks, especially in the areas of credit card abuses and                                                            bankruptcy procedures which unfairly penalize those involved;                                                                                  relationship to the dwindling middle class in America.

The Great Derangement              The inimitable Matt Taibbi, skewering the right (fundamentalists) and the left (Truthers), lamenting the lack of issue discussion and the inability to discern the similarities of the two parties, while “19 people take all the money.”

Strange Stones                               Series of essays by an American who lives in China. His writing captures the essence of people in mundane occupations.

On The Run                                     On-site ethnographic examination of the interplay among young criminals, drugs, police, and the fatherless black urban community which is disproportionately incarcerated. A young white woman discovers all this by living in the affected area and concludes that the  criminal justice system is the bad guy.

The Evolution of a

Corporate Idealist                         A woman working for BP and eventually for a UN committee as she learns about CSR both directly and in interaction with peers.

Stress Test                                      Timothy Geithner’s rendition of his decision-making during and after

                                                          the 2007/08 financial collapse.

Gifted Hands                                  Life story of Ben Carson, from inner city kid to famed neurosurgeon.

Bosnia List                                       Muslim escapee from the war (as a child) returns  with his older brother and father to find his own peace.

Divide                                              A Matt Tiabbi book; comparison and contrast of the two different “legal” systems in this country—one for the affluent and one for the poor and undocumented.

Factory Man                                   The history of Bassett Furniture, and one man’s fight against predatory pricing by Chinese competition.

Claire of the Sea Light                   Another wondrous story by Edwidge Danticat; Haiti is the setting of her artistry with words.

 A Long Way Home                       Five year-old boy gets lost somewhere in a poor area of India, gets adopted by Australian family, uses Google and Facebook to find way back to his Indian family after 25 years.

Brain on Fire                                   Young reporter for NY Post is rendered “mad” for a month by a difficult to diagnosis attack on her brain, which had numerous ramifications and was life-threatening .

Heroic Leadership                         A paean to the philosophy of the Jesuits, with an attempt to link its lessons to the world of corporate life. Energized themselves with heroic goals; leadership springs from within, is a way of living and is always learning. Core beliefs are non-negotiables; a shared vision frees people to embrace change as to means. Intellectual rigor, which is not synonymous with highest IQ.

The Bankrupt Conman                 Highly intelligent Irishman with all kinds of illegal involvements; good description of how scams can happen.

Parkinson’s Law                             Classic work on bureaucratic growth, timeless in its application.

Snowblind                                      1974 account of a leading real life character in the world of cocaine, already could see stupidity/futility of government anti-drug programs

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas  Clever novel about a young naïve boy and the Holocaust.

Americanah                                    Beautifully written book by Nigerian author, covering love, immigration, culture, education.        

Aspiring Adults Adrift                   The follow-on to Academically Adrift; socially adept college graduates who are not well-versed in content knowledge.

The Valley of Amazement           Amy Tan’s novel of family, especially mothers and daughters; culture, Chinese and American; sex and power, and the elusive search for love. An incredibly evocative multigenerational story.

Goldman Sachs                              History of the firm until IPO, mostly idolatry, but does detail specific fiascos which could have sunk the firm.

Redeployment                               Vivid accounts of the war in Iraq and its impact on those involved.

My Anxiety                                     Incredibly afflicted author tells all, including heavy duty scientific research, historical and current.

The Sellout                                      Satire by a skilled African-American writer on every aspect of race; obscene and funny.

A  Brief Stop                                   The erratic path of an Auschwitz survivor, as constructed by his son.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma            Michael Pollan’s magnum opus, could make you a vegetarian.

A Curious Mind                              Brian Grazer, Hollywood producer, espouses the value of curiosity, having sought out people for decades for curiosity conservations.

The Shadow of the Wind             Incredibly complex story of love, power, evil set in Barcelona, partly during the Spanish Civil War. Unreal piece of writing.

The Last Mogul                              Unauthorized biography of Jack Kent Cooke.

Crossover                                       Fascinating book of poetry, with basketball and family as the context

Between the World and Me        Maybe a contemporary James Baldwin, fiery attack on the history of the USA/slavery, nature of power, use of term race.

Pete Rose                                        Thoughtful and exhaustive treatment of a baseball icon and the ethical issues surrounding his banishment from the game that was/is his life.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana Account of amazing determination by an Afghan woman; with all the commentary on business/entrepreneurship, there is never a number on either the cost of materials, etc. or the selling price. Unreal.

Our Kids                                          Somber, well-researched analysis of demographic and socioeconomic changes in past fifty years by the author of Bowling Alone.

The Road to Character                 David Brooks compiles illustrative life stories, differentiating the pursuit of selfness (contemporary America) from the path to better values, often through acceptance of a higher power.

Bodega Dreams                             Wonderfully written (and insightful) story, with a great ending twist, set in the street culture of Spanish Harlem.

Into the Beautiful North               Funny, poignant, sad, real story of Mexican immigration and culture.

Basketball Junkie                          Memoir of Chris Herren, who briefly was on the Boston Celtics after stardom in high school. Could not shake a drug habit.

The Orchardist                              Interesting mid-19^th century tale of solo man tending his orchards and his positive interaction with two children who had been abused.

IQ can be Taught                           Written in 1975 and amazingly on-point in today’s world.

Putin:

**Spying, lying, order, patriotism (mother Russia), indirectly corrupt, certainty, loyalty, tight circle of trusted friends from St. Petersburg days.

**Distaste for ex-USSR countries joining NATO. When party in Ukraine wanted to do so, with its democratic parties supported somewhat by Wester NGOs, Putin hit the roof. Believes that all Western influences with respect to supporting efforts at more freedom are part of plot by USA.

**”When Putin was young, “envisioned a new Soviet Union that offered justice and hope, a democracy, a normal, civilized state [with] no need to slaughter half the population to make the other half happy.”

**“We will not tolerate any humiliation to the national pride of Russia or any threat to [our] integrity.”

**Oil trades freely; natural gas requires fixed pipelines—therefore more vulnerable in conflicts.

**Yukos de facto nationalization—became model for state encroachment, ownership. 2006: revenues of state companies = 20% of GDP and 1/3 of stock market value: all controlled by P friends/allies.

**Poisoned person’s dying statement: “ You may succeed in silencing men, but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed….” Alexsandr Litvinenko

**Re the Great Recession, “the faith in the USA as the leader of the free world and market economy has been shaken…and it will never be restored. Things will never be the same again.”

**In that winter of discontent (when Putin extended the presidential term to six years from four,  Solidarity was anti-Putin. “The opposition remained deeply atomized, consumed by personal rivalries and divided over tactics.” Some wanted to work within, others wanted a revolution, some did not join because of personal dislikes.

(Data are from various Wall Street Journal articles and Pew Center research publications, as well as government data sets, not all of which agree exactly with each other.)

To get your attention, think of these stunning figures. The age which has the greatest number of people is 58 for Caucasians, 29 for Asians, 27 for African-Americans, and 11 for Hispanics.

Ok, moving ahead.

The population snapshot indicates there are about 200 million white people in the United States; some 60 million Hispanics; 45 million African-Americans; 20 million Asians, and around 5 million other “labels.” The total number of minorities is 130 million, 40% of the total population, 330 million.

Put another way, there are 1.5 white people for every minority person.

Breaking the population differently: whites are 82% of those 85 years old and up; 66% of those 45-54, 58% of those 35-44, and 50% of those 0-4 years old.

This means that at birth there is 1 minority baby for every white baby.

To accentuate the point of dramatic demographic change, from 2010 to 2019, the white population barely changed while there was an addition of 19 million to the minority population (Hispanic, 52%; Asian, 22%; African-American, 17%; and other, 9%.).

Birth rates for the four primary ethnicities are now surprisingly quite similar, hovering around 1.7, the lowest in a century and below the 2.1 replacement rate. Differing number of births by ethnicity are a consequence of differing numbers of women in the child-bearing age category.

Reduced birth rates have caused longer-range population estimates to be changed; for example, the estimate of 374 million in the year 2046 is 34 million fewer than what was expected in 2012 and

10 million less than what was projected at the outset of 2019.

By the year 2030, all baby boomers will be over 65 years of age, which means 20% of the population will be at retirement age. Immigration will be the number one driver of an expected small growth in total population, surpassing the impact of births minus deaths. In 2034, for the first time in American history, there will be more older adults than children.

Wrapping it all up, by 2043, the country will be comprised of multiple minorities.

http://Bobhowittbooks.com??page_id=22

It’s December: a mishmash of conflicting circumstances in what is supposed to be a Holiday season.

You want to socialize but the experts are telling you to stay in bed, pull the covers up, breathe only when necessary, and instead of counting sheep, cross off the days until a vaccine is widely available and there is a return to something resembling normalcy.

You look around and see so many people in pain and small businesses everywhere closing their doors, but the stock market is setting new records.

You are determined to stay on track regarding your higher education or career path, but your college and your employer both have trouble communicating whether you will be studying or working hybrid, remote, or in-person.

Virtually locked down, you have more hours available for whatever is your situation, but maintaining motivation is difficult.

So maybe this should be the recipe for your special day: ignore almost everything above, while staying safe of course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!                          Peace, Bob