Something not to laugh about

This is a very different article than is typically posted here. Read on at your own risk.

On November 2, 2006, I held our fourth annual Celebrating Success! NEO Business Conference. The conference is designed to celebrate the successes of small business and have them teach conference attendees what they did right.

The day went well but there were two things that happened that I don’t understand.

The first was a comment on the conference evaluations form. The evaluations were mostly good but one had a comment that bothered me. The comment suggested we eliminate the invocation and take pray out of the conference.

The second note I received was from an individual who would not attend the conference because I was giving an award to a 9 year old entrepreneur. This comment came from a gentleman who volunteered for SCORE. He did not think a 9 year old should be there.

The comment about the invocation is best address by Ben Stein and it is copied in total for your reading pleasure. Since I am not as articulate as he is, I will let him explain it. I understand that others have taken some liberty (expanded it) with this but I agree with what he is saying.

The second comment about having a 9 year old involved was ignorant. Our children are our next generation of business owners. If we do not help them, teach them, and show them the way, who will be there to take our place?

Here's Ben.
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS
Sunday Morning Commentary.

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are
they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).

We said an expert should know what he's talking about and we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it...
no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process,
don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

This is Ron again.

Now that you have read this far, let me explain why the invocation at the conference is so important to me and we will leave it in.

Everyone wants to feel a part of something bigger, where they are making a contribution to something bigger than themselves. This is what the invocation does for me. It reminds me that my time on this earth is short. That there are some things more important than what I am working on; it helps me keep things in perspective.

To be fair and honest, I am not a religious man but I hold myself to a spiritual person. I hold myself to higher standards than anyone will ever hold me. But my standards are not for everyone and I am ok with that. I don’t hold that my beliefs are the only right ones and I am not quick to judge things I do not understand or disagree with. I believe that in business as in life, having a choice is critical. I may not like the car you drive but I am not going to judge you for it. I may not like the choices you make in business, but as long as they are not illegal, I will not judge you for it. I may choose not to do business with you but that is my choice.

When did we learn to be so intolerant, so inflexible, so judgmental. Why is it that it must be done my way or not at all? Success is about being adaptable, flexible and action oriented; each of us measure success differently. The fact that I could put 300 people in a room to celebrate the successes of others, to me is a grand success.

Let’s continue to celebrate the success of others and be tolerant of our differences. Let’s realize that independent thought and action is what we are about. If you do not understand, at least be openminded to a different perspective – even if you disagree with it. That is where all learning takes place – in that space between confusion and judgment.

To your continued success

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788

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