The boxer

Hey all,

Friday. What else can you say?

I know I haven't talked about movies in awhile (not because I haven't watched any; I just thought it was making the blogs too long), but I saw one that I thought was worth talking about.

I saw the movie Precious. This was the movie about the overweight African-American girl. I thought it was going to be a pretty weak movie. You know, fat girl goes to high school and everyone makes fun of her and somehow she comes out on top at the end. But this wasn't the case at all.

I don't want to give it away (because you all are going to go right out and rent it....go ahead I will wait), but it was about a girl that grows up in deplorable conditions. The daughter of an abusive welfare mom, she is in a situation that doesn't feel very hopeful. But at the end she has risen above her situation and begins to crawl out of the dark hole she is in.

The movie is painful to watch at some points. But be warned: if you have a light stomach, maybe you should just read the book. They say the F-bomb about 1000 times in this movie (among other choice cuss words). I was moved by this movie and I think it is the best one I have seen in over a year.

Okay, where were we? Oh yeah - my friend's patient.

They were all through with the talking phase of the treatment. They were ready for the temporary phase of treatment. One thing I forgot to mention is that her son (you remember the very famous professional boxer?) had a huge fight coming up in about two weeks.
The temporary phase was going to get her looking good for the fight and get her through her HBO interviews. Then she was going to begin phase II.

The day was all set. He was fully prepared. He had already had a 10 unit bridge made from Glidewell. He had blocked off 4 hours in the morning just to be with her. She came in and was ready to go.

This is where things got interesting. The front desk person was relatively new, and they had not made payment arrangements. You know how you get so excited about the dentistry you forget about the actually getting paid for it?.... Well, that is what he did.

So when she got there they began the discussion of money. It had been talked about but what should havehappened was money should have been exchanged just to reserve that kind of time.
I think the patient had given a credit card but it wasn't her's. It was her son's credit card, and the front desk person did not want to charge money on his card without his permission.

It was a bit of an issue getting this guy to call her back. It seems with a major fight just days away, he wasn't answering his phone. So, the patient calls him from the office and drops a bunch of F-bombs at him on his voicemail and then tells him to call back.

Now lets talk about this for a second. At $400 a unit for temps (four on the top and 10 on the bottom), plus a valplast partial. That's about $6000.

He called back. A conversation ensued between the mom and her son that was R-rated, to say the least. Then she handed the phone to my friend and said, "He wants to talk to you."

Whoa, now wait a minute. A couple thoughts came to my friend's mind:
1) he now has to talk to a very upset man.
2) he is getting thrown in the middle
3) the guy he is going to talk to is a PROFESSIONAL BOXER who could easily kick his ass through the phone.

He composed himself, took the phone and started off very cordial, "Hey, how are you doing?"

Did you ever see the movie Guarding Tess with Nicholas Cage and Shirley McLaine? He is a secret service agent that has been assigned to guard a past president's aging wife. She is a real pill and keeps calling the president and basically tattles on him. So he gets on the phone with the president and the president proceeds to chew him out. "Do you know that I am the president of the United States of America and I have to deal with you?" This is kind of how the conversation went with my friend.

The guy starts in with, "Why am I talking to you? I don't know what the hell is going on down there, but I have a f-ing professional boxing match in f-ing 5 f-ing days. I am training basically for 24 f-ing hours straight and I am trying to get my mind right and my f-ing mother is calling me about a dental bill. Do you understand the f-ing situation I am in?"

"Yes, sir."

"I looked over this bill and it is like six thousand f-ing dollars! What the f is she getting done?" My friend thought this might not be the best time to tell him that this is only the first of many phases.

Then the son started to allude to the fact that the bill was entirely too much and that his mother was being "taken" because of who HE was. My friend tried to explain to this man, who obviously had a very low dental IQ, that this is what dentistry costs. When you only have 3 teeth it costs a lot of money to fix. He finally gave his consent for the treatment, but very begrudgingly.

He started to work. The day went great. They prepped all the teeth, made all the temps, delivered the valplast, and it really looked good.







Now, I am no Frank Spear, but I think this turned out great.

She was able to go to the fight and do all her HBO interviews and, but was never happy. She loved my friend as a dentist, but the relationship was always strained. At the next appointment, she told my friend that her son had "cut her off," and that she could not go on with anymore treatment.

Obviously, after about a year the temps started to break. Knowing her situation my friend would repair her temps for free, but after awhil,e had to sit her down and talk. He reminded her of their discussion awhile back about how this was TEMPORARY and it was not meant for a permanent fix. She understood and he went on to tell her that from now on, he was going to have to charge her to repair her temps.

This is where is really got hairy.

She moved away and started to go to her son's dentist. Then the calls started. And they were nasty. "My new dentist said you ripped me off."

And once that started, my friend wanted no part of a verbal confrontation. He avoided her calls. She eventually faded away.

There is so much to take away from something like this. I think over the next couple of weeks, I am going to tell you a bunch of stories of things that happened to my friends that I think happen to all of us.

I guess his front desk person could have gotten some money up front. And, like our guest blogger said, maybe my friend could have had the patient sign a piece of paper saying she understood what temporaries are and that she understood the staging process.

But you know, things just happen. People get motivated then they get unmotivated real fast and it is out of the control of the dentist. You try and try to raise the dental IQ of the patient, but how can you really do that? How do you help the patient make a life change in a couple of weeks?
My friend couldn't. I don't know if anyone can.

Have a great weekend. Let me know if you have seen Precious, and if you haven't, go get it!

john

My friend has a story to tell you

You have to double click on this picture! (If you have a weak stomach, DO NOT double click on it.)

Hey all,

Do you ever feel like you are having one of those weeks?

I have decided to put the kibosh on the Working with Family blogs. I try hard to tell you the facts in order to give you information that might help a potential buyer and a potential seller in the future. I tried to stay even keeled. I tried not to give you the information that made me look good and my dad look bad. I just wanted to help. That's all.

My wife told me that it was good but I probably shouldn't have written a blog about it. As you might have guessed, my father and I have very different personalities. He is kind of quiet and private and I am....well you know.


I have always felt that if I told you everything about me then you could "know" me. Hey - it might not all be pleasant, but at least you will know the whole me and not just the me that I want you to know about.

But my father is a bit more reserved than I am, and I respect that. I will tell you about it after it is all done.


I know it was a good topic because we had a lot of comments (for and against, mean and nice). I appreciated them; they make me think. I try to check myself to see if I am being selfish. (I am telling you, this is great therapy for me). Anyway, let's move on.

I wanted to tell you about a story about a friend dentist of mine. (By the way, whenever I am going to talk about something that might get me in trouble, from now on it is going to be "about a friend of mine". So you might be hear a lot about my "friends" from now on.)

He had a patient walk into his office about 5 years ago. She came in like any other patient. They did a new patient exam. In the initial interview he found out that she was the mother of a VERY famous professional boxer.


Of course, he was enamored and couldn't think during the rest of the appointment. My friend is s huge sports fan. He kept thinking, "Man, I might get to meet this guy."


Anyway, he did the exam and her mouth was a mess. I think he said she had three teeth on the maxilla and eight teeth in the mandibule.





She was wearing an upper partial that she hated and she didn't even wear a lower because it was uncomfortable. During the interview, they talked a lot about what she wanted. She said her son was going to pay for her teeth and she wanted them "all fixed."


She said she didn't want to lose any more teeth and she wanted to restore her mouth with implants.They spoke at length about what that meant in terms of money time. I think my friend said she had a very low dental IQ and all the info was a little overwhelming for her.


So she left and he waxed up the whole thing, and came up with a real nice treatment plan. It involved a multi-discipline approach. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was a bunch of implants and some bridge work.


The second appointment was just a talking appointment. "This is what I found in your mouth and these are our options to fix them," kind of thing.


She drove up in a Bentley. Yes, the $100,000 kind. I know my friend is not supposed to judge people, but her son is a professional boxer and she rolls up in a Bentley. He was thinking this was going to be a slam dunk. "This treatment plan is no more than ONE of the tires on her car," he thought.

So they talked. It was a lot of education, trying to raise her dental IQ. She kept saying, "Yeah, I want that." She loved the wax up and said there wouldn't be a problem with any of it.


I think I heard my friend say, "If that [expletive deleted] can afford a Bentley, he can afford to pay for his momma's teeth." He was shocked, but excited about doing the work.



First, the temporary phase. He was going to put her in a temporary bridge and a Valplast partial (this is an all acrylic partial that is not meant for long term use), with a full round house temp on the bottom. She scheduled her next appointment.


Now, he told her that the first stage IS ONLY TEMPORARY. He thought he had made this perfectly clear. So they scheduled an appointment to make all this stuff happen. My friend was so excited. Man did that change real soon.


I will tell you more about it on Friday.

Hope you are having a good week.
john

Family-free post

No worries, it's just me. Last Monday the blogging site that we use to post was down so I was not able to post. The week before that it was Memorial Day. So, it's been a while.

How have you been?

Just for the record, my dad and I get along great.

If you didn't know it, I do not pre-write my blogs. It is currently 10:54 am CDT on Monday and I have time to write this because I had a patient cancel. Well, not really cancel. He came in and we informed him that his dental benefits were maxed out for the year, so he decided to wait until January. Kind of a no-win situation there. If we don't keep patient's updated on insurance benefits they get mad when the bill comes and if we do - well, I end up with some down time.


Also, so I can get it off my chest: it is always dangerous to ask if you are the only one in a given situation because you may find out that you are, and that is a little daunting. But, given the total absence of responses to my last post I am going to stay away from reporting on my business for a few weeks. I don't think it is an issue that anyone can connect with and I feel like I constantly bring everyone down. I am looking forward to the point in my business where the cashflow is improved and the highs and lows level out, where I can worry about how to best spend my money instead of how to best pay my bills so the checks clear after the money is in my account. That is just my reality. My "daily grind" post could be the same every week and that's not exciting for anyone. My business is still open today and I can pay my bills today - and for today, that is enough.

The World Cup is on and that makes me very happy. I am a soccer junkie so this is a dream month. I hope you each get a chance to watch it at some point, regardless of whether the USA is playing. This sport is truly an international phenomenon and the passion it elicits dwarfs anything we see here in the states (with apologies to those fans in The Swamp).

Can't wait to read the next installment of "As the Gammichia Turns".

Have a great week!

ric

Working with Family Part II

Good Friday to you,

I am not crazy or anything but I went to my website and 500 more people have been to my site since Wednesday. Anyone believing this? I don't know what to think. How do I know that the 500 hits in TWO DAYS are coming from my area? I am just baffled. AND ... still no calls because of it.

Okay, on Wednesday I was giving you a picture of what my situation with my father is like. Now before we go on I want to say a couple of things...

I love my dad to death. I would do anything for him. He has been a great guy to work for and to work with. He has always treated me well and tried to be fair about most things.

But this can be a touchy subject. Dealing with money and retirement and stuff, people can get very edgy. You really see people's innards when you talk about money. Their feelings can get hurt and being related to the other person doesn't mean you are immune to that. I write these couple of blogs just to give you a taste of what it’s like working with a family member. Now, all of you who work with people that are not your family members, you can probably gather some good information to take to the negotiating table.

Okay, now that the ground work is finished lets move on. Where were we at?

I told you that I am now 50% partner and this happened after 10 years of practice. Then I told you that things were pretty even for the first 5 years of our partnership. We both got paid the same and it worked.

But since last year, this ship has turned.

He took a bunch of time off and worked a lot less. This meant I out produced him for the first time. Not just by a little but by a lot... >20%. There has not been any discussion about this yet.
So I knew it was going to be tough because, like I said before, people get possessive and feelings get hurt. I was going to wait until he was in a particularly good mood. The problem with being slow (please see previous blogs) is that there isn't any particularly good time to do something like this.

When everyone is making a lot of money all these things can wait to be talked about. We are too busy spending all of the money to talk sensibly.

But now times are tough and I am looking for a good time to talk to him about my killing him in production? Talk about kicking someone when he is down.

So I waited and did what any real man would do ... sent him an email.

Wait before you judge me. I had sent a couple of feelers out there about this talk. I started to talk to him a couple of times and it didn't go well. Also, I wanted it to be in writing. I want him to have time to marinate on all I had to say.

Here were my points:

First, I don't care about what has happened in the past. I don't want any retro money or anything. BUT I do want to talk about going forward.

I want to talk about the difference in production and what we should do in the future if the production is so different.

I want to talk about time off. I am not saying you can't have all the days off you want, but I am saying if you take a bunch of time off, what do we do going forward? You could want to go on vacation for a long time, a month-long cruise. In fact I want you to, but we should talk about what to do.

So far nothing seems too unreasonable right? Just dialoging ... its healthy.

Now one thing my father did was give up the reins on the practice administrative stuff. For a long time we had an office manager, so it was easy. But since ours retired, we never hired another one. So we had to get much more involved in the day-to-day managing of this place.

He said he wanted me to "get familiar with what it was like to manage." What I didn't know was that he wasn't going to do anything.

So I do it all.

So this means many extra hours managing and doing work that is not teeth stuff. Do you think there should be an administrative clause in our agreement? I don't know either, but I thought we should talk about it ... so I wrote that.

And lastly, and this one is a tough one...

My father's practice is slowing down a bit. Not that something like this is out of the ordinary.

He has an older clientele. They retire and move away. They move to be with their kids. They pass away. And he doesn't really market himself. He is not really putting himself out there. He is only here three days a week so those emergencies that turn into patients aren't there as much. You can see how this can happen.

Now, if you look at our patients as a whole, it is starting to be very John-heavy, probably close to 65%. So that is 65% of the patients are mine and 35% of the patients are his.

When I say his and mine, I mean they are OUR patients but 65% would prefer to be seen by me.
This is something that we never thought of 8 years ago. I mean who would? This is something we should talk about going forward, don't you think?

If there is (just giving us an easy number) $50,000 profit coming out of the hygiene department in a year, do we share this evenly or do we pay out the profits according to whose patients are getting their teeth cleaned?

I thought all this dialogue would be healthy. Yes, I knew it was going to be tough but I thought it needed to happen.

Now I can understand why my father wanted to just not talk about it. Why talk about tough things if you don't have to?

He is thinking in his head, "I only have less than 3 years to go, why do we have to do all this talking and changing if I am going to be gone soon?" And I can totally understand that. But things are dynamic. Things change.

I know with this economy his nest egg isn't as large as it used to be. People that are getting close to retirement always get a little nervous that what they saved isn't enough. He may want to work more than 3 years. He may want to work as an associate. What does that look like?

What does the buyout of the rest of the practice look like, especially if his part of it keeps dwindling? What about buying the building and the land? We need to talk about this, right?
This is getting too long for a Friday so I will tell you about our talk next week. It really hasn't gone that well. I keep wanting to get professional help but he doesn't really want to pay.

I think it is worth it and I may have to force the issue.

Have a great weekend, John

P.S. Marathon training starts tomorrow. I have already signed up to do the Chicago marathon on 10-10-10.

P.P. S. Lindsey, who was the editor of the blog for the last year or so, just had a baby boy. CONGRATS Lindsey and her husband and WELCOME HOME BABY ADAM!

Isn't working with family great?

Hey all,

First I wanted to tell you about that my3zips.com. Remember I told you that they claim to get up to 50,000 hits on your website in three months.
I told you that in 2 years I have got 3500 hits to my website.
Well in the two weeks I have had this company, I have had 4000 more hits to the site.

Are you kidding me? What the heck?

I asked my people up front if they are seeing the phone light up more because of it or if people are calling saying they are they saw our website.

They say NO.

So 4000 hits and zero calls. Now maybe that is a product of having a website that doesn't have a lot of flair or zing. But I have to tell you I am pretty surprised at the results.

Now they talk about getting hits from the three zip codes you desire. Are all the hits coming from my area? I don't know.

Okay I am not going to get into all the gory details but I want to talk to you about some of the stuff that is going on with me and my partner, my dad.
This may turn out to be a series because it could get pretty involved.

Let me back up and give you a brief summary of the past.
I, young and dumb, got out of dental school in 1995. I became my father's associate for 2 days a week. I worked at other offices for about 3 years as I built up my (our) practice. At about 3 and a half years out we felt the space we were working in was.

At the time my father was leasing out space that was attached to his office to an MD. He was on a month to month lease and knew the end was near. My father told him it was time. He left and we had the office renovated to what it is now - 8 rooms and about 3400 square feet.

I was still an associate at the time and I stayed that way for more 4 years. I was asking to be able to buy in since about year 2 but it wasn't ever "the right time" for my father.

In 2003, 8 years after I graduated, I bought into 25% of the practice, and in 2005 I bought in 25% more. And I kind of talk tongue and cheek about it being the "right time" for my father but that is the way it was.

By the time 2003 came around our office was humming along pretty good. I was making an associate's pay, which I think was 30% of my production, and that was it. I was involved in the employee bonus pool. Now my father and a lot of his colleagues have this practice and until they have to retire.

Now I am not talking bad about him it just is what it is (or was what it was. He put 5 kids through private school from kindergarten to 12th grade. Then he paid for 4 of us to go to college. That, folks, is a ton of cash.

So, he is 60, the office is humming along, he is finally making a ton of cash, finally putting money in his 401k as fast as he can, funding his savings account, he even bought a new house, and I come to him and say, "It has been 8 years I want to buy in".

And he says, "it is not the right time".

Let's not forget that practice was part of his retirement plan. So giving it to me was totally out of the question. He needed the money to retire.

And you thought it was easy working with a family member.
I totally can see his side of the coin, but like any associate that has been promised the office, I wanted mine.

He didn't want to let me in. I thought about leaving but only in thoughts. He has been good to me and I really did have a lot and was doing fine. What we are talking about is a guy making $150,000 and complaining. I wanted mine. But you have to admit that being an associate for 8 years is a long time.

Now lets talk about the buy-in. I talked to friends and there buy-in looked like this:

No cash exchanged. The agreement was that if the associate had production goals and if he met them the owner would be making a certain amount of money. And he kept his production up for the allotted time that was enough for the owner.

I asked my dad about this and he said, "YEAH RIGHT". Okay, maybe that was asking too much.

So I asked him if I could buy in and he hold the note. He says, "Okay let me get this straight, one day we sign some papers and you are 50% partner? So you get all the benefits of owning the practice but you haven't given me any money. But you are going to pay me over time." NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

So in 2003 I went to the bank and asked them if I could borrow money to buy the first 25% of the practice. And in 2005 I did the same thing. I am now 50% partner.

So like all old school guys, and I don't recommend this, everything was kind of on a hand shake. We didn't get professional help when it came to a transition. So now we are partners but we don't know a thing about the details. Such as payment. So we make it up.

Lets both get the same amount of pay and if the production is ever swayed way to one side we would talk about. Not real precise is it?

Now as you can see that was a disaster waiting to happen. One of the main issues was the changing of the computers. In 2006, we changed management systems. When we changed my father became the provider on all patients until they were manually changed. And we felt like we were changing the provider over to me most of the time until you would look at the day sheet and it would say that my father produced $1200. No problem except that my father didn't work that day. So you know things were not all real precise. And we are still working on this.

So at the end of the first year the difference was 8%. Knowing that the numbers that we were getting are not that accurate and it would be a small nightmare to figure out the correct number we decided to just get paid the same. Same salary, same bonus.

At this time, though, everything was even. We both worked 4 days a week, we both took the same amount of time off, we both had about the same amount of patients, everyone was healthy.

For the next couple of years he would out produce me but it wasn't that much. 8%, 3%, 3%, 8%. During the years he started to work less but still kept up his production so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Now don't get me wrong, he is 65 years old and he deserves to work less. I am excited for him and I want him to take time off and travel the world. I want him to be able to take the time off and throw a dart at the map and say, "This is where we are going this weekend."

Last year, totally different story.....he took 7 weeks off and he only works 3 days a week. And I out produced him by >20%.

The tide is turning and we haven't talked about it.
And the things we did talk about he doesn't remember.
I think it is time to call in the professionals.

Anyone going through something like this? Or did you start as an associate and have everything written down?

See you Friday,
John

Texting

Sorry if you got two blog alerts today. You have to understand that with BLOGGER if you just press a wrong button while you are trying to type, the next thing you know you have just published a blog...so anyway, here is the real one.

Happy Friday all. How the heck are you?

Things have been a bit busier this week. Tuesday was very slow, but the last three days have been gang busters. But it was not the kind of day that occurs when you come in and find that the schedule is packed; it is the kind of day that occurs when some comes in for an emergency and the next thing you know he is coming back in your 2 pm opening for the next 3 hours.

At home, it was our first week of summer. Noah had soccer camp and is loving it, and the other two are just loving having time to sleep in, read when they want, call a friend, swim, swim, and swim (because it is 94 degrees here).

We, as a family, are going on vacation in the mountains of North Carolina the week of June 20th. I will tell you how this came about. I was asked by someone at my church if I would help out this one young woman who was in pain. I, of course, said yes.
Well, what started as a root canal then led to a bunch of fillings (that were going to be root canals if I didn't do the fillings, and I knew I would probably being doing that too, so I went ahead and did them).

Well, she had an aunt second removed that was the one that went to my church. She came up to me and thanked me profusely and said, "Is there anything we can do to repay you."
I said, "Well, do you have a mountain home?" you know just throwing it out there.
And she said, "YES". Next thing you know we are going for a week in the mountains (and the week between Christmas and New Years, REAL NICE).

Enough about me...

Topic,
We all have staff members. We all need to communicate with each other. I want to talk about how we communicate with each other, first me then us, as dentists and small business owners.

Let's talk about me first. I like communication. But the problem is that communication has gotten away from me a bit.
Face to face
Telephone
Voice mail
E-mail
Facebook
Texting
Twitter
Smoke signals
There are so many choices that you have to pick one that is going to be the most effective.

To your employees...How are we communicating in our boss/employee relationship? I think this is a face to face kind of thing.

To your spouse...I am feeling kind of frisky, how about tonight?
This could be done in so many ways. Face to face, e-mail, texting (better known as sexting) is all acceptable, to me.

Don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning on the way home. I mean this stuff is easy. Face to face, email, texting, FB, Twitter.

If I have to be told to do something at the office, like don't forget to call a certain patient, then go ahead and leave me a voice mail. If you need to tell me "I am going to be off next week, don't forget," then I actually prefer you to shoot me an email. One, because I read it when I am relaxed, and second, if I don't remember you have proof. Most work stuff...post it, voice mail, e-mail...it is all okay.

But lately we, as a staff, have been doing a lot of text messaging. And let me tell you, I am a master texter. I have a blackberry and can type a text with the best of them. But just don't know about all of this. I don't know if it has a whole lot of business in the work place.

I mean, is a text to me saying, "I am going to be an hour late for work" okay? How about, "I am not feeling well today, so I am going to have to miss today. I will call you later"?

To me this is not okay.

I have had two of my staff out because of pregnancy for months, and we did a lot of communication, other than face to face or the phone. I have to tell you that it was kind of a game. Now, I am not picking on these particular people, but it is what it is.
I try to be hip and send them a text message and not get a return text for a day or two. I would send an email and have it go unanswered.

Now I am pretty old school, but I know everyone is getting EVERY text and they are reading EVERY e-mail. Now maybe someone might not get to their emails every day, but you can be sure that they are reading it within a day or two (I say this knowing that everyone under the age of about 40 is checking their emails EVERY day). And for something that I send out to go unanswered?

What about if you are out for a while, and the day you are supposed to come back is in a couple of weeks. You do not have reliable transportation, but you are in the process of buying a new car, which means you need to move your return date. Doesn't this seem like a phone call is warranted?

Now to me, if someone writes an email in this case they are trying to avoid a phone call. Texting and e-mailing in lieu of a phone call is a total cop out. It is a "I know I have to talk to you, and it is going to be tough so instead of being honest with you and talking to you like a grown-up I will text you" type of thing.

Okay, here are my thoughts on this.
It is my fault. Yes, I said it...it is my fault. At my next staff meeting I will talk to my staff about how they should communication with me. I will tell them, I don't care how you communicate with anyone else, I just want to talk to you about how I NEED to be communicated with. I NEED to be communicated with face to face or on the telephone.
I want you all to think of what people used to do in the "old days". This is how I need to be communicated with. If we are talking important work stuff, I, from now on, require a phone call. Any other method means that you don't think your job is important. Any other method means you that don't consider me the boss. You kind of consider me one of your Facebook friends or an acquaintance. You don't consider me the guy who signs the checks.

I admit I haven't had this talk with my people. But it will happen. I don't know if young people have just been texting so much of their lives or it has become such a huge part of people's lives that they have forgotten what should be done.

I just don't know, so this is why I am going to talk about it to my staff, old (more mature) ones and young ones.

Have you had any experience with this?

I think before something happens to you that you should map out what is acceptable and what is not. Because if you don't, technology will jump up and bite you right between the browser. Or you might be like me and get an E-MAIL from an employee telling you that they won't be returning to work.

Have a great weekend,
john

Reading the paper

Hey all,

If there is time before church I like to sit down and read the paper on Sundays.
The kids and I sit around the island in the kitchen, and we will have cereal or a muffin and read. They will probably read the comics, and I will read almost every article in the what I call "the front page" section.

As an aside, I can't let my kids read the paper. There is so much depravity out there. It is murder this, rape that, fights, cheating littered throughout the paper. My 10-year-old son (who turned 11 yesterday) and I have to have what I think is a premature discussion when he turns to me and asks, "Dad, what is rape?" Last week, the front page main article was on this 17-year-old girl who has been missing for two weeks. They think she met a guy on My Space and she either left with him or he abducted her. "Dad, what does abduct mean?" This leads to a discussion about the dangers of the computer and how evil is lurking EVERYWHERE.

But this week, after I was done reading about four articles, I just had to shut the paper. I had had enough. I will give you a brief summary of these four articles.

#1...Two people in Fresno, California are being charged with child endangerment for giving their child (come to find out that they held him down) a gang tattoo.

Shouldn't there be a law against stupid people having kids.

#2...A nun, who was an administrator for a Catholic hospital, was fired from her job and excommunicated from the church when she orchestrated an abortion for a patient.
I am not going to get into what I think about abortion. What my big issue is that here is a woman that is getting paid by the Catholic Church, to be a nun, for a long time and works for a Catholic hospital. I don't know if she knows this, but the Catholic Church does not condone abortion. If you think abortion is okay, then quit the church and go work for another hospital. Then the article started to bash hospitals for not doing certain procedures because of religious affiliations.

What ever happen to free trade?

If I have a dental office and I don't really believe in extracting teeth, and if you want a tooth extracted then DON'T COME TO ME. Go to the guy/gal right down the road that extracts teeth. What is wrong with that?

#3...Here in the Central Florida area there is a 13-year-old girl who finished high school and has passed all entrance exams to college, but our local community college would not accept her. Their board of directors made a rule that they will not accept anyone under 15, stating that a college campus is not a suitable for a 13-year-old. I have a couple of issues with this one.

One, who the heck wants their 13-year-old to be finished with high school? So let's say she goes to college and finishes at 17. Is she someone that I would want in my, say, Marketing firm? Let's say she goes to dental school. As a patient, do I want a 21-year-old dentist?

I have a daughter who I think is smart as a whip. When she was 2 and was going to the pediatrician, our doctor said to us, "You do realize she is not normal. She is gifted, and you need to start considering a special school."

We didn't.

We are going to home school her this year because we don't want to accelerate her, but we want to broaden her. If she is finishing stuff too fast and with too much ease then it is time for some field trips to illustrate her education (but that is just us).

Two, what's the problem with this school? She has finished her requirements to get into school...what gives? You are an educational institution, educate. Since when does a college or university become socially responsible. How about let's not kids in until they are really mature, say like 30 (maybe it would be 18 for girls and 30 for boys).

I was 18 when I started college, and let me tell you what, college was not suitable for this 18-year-old. I drank more beer and saw more naked people than I had seen in my whole life. The 13-year-old girl's dad, who is a retired engineer, said that he would chaperon his daughter until she is fifteen. NO GO, says the school.

#4...I don't even want to go here but I have to complete the story.
Did you hear about the stuff in Malawi? Well I will hit on the main points.
In Malawi it is a crime to be a homosexual.
Two people were arrested and the judge, wanting to make an example out of them, sentenced them to 14 years in jail. Now the president of Malawi pardoned them on the grounds that the United States threatened sanctions on his country.

I don't agree with either of these parties. I don't agree that people should be arrested and serve time for being homosexual. And I sure as hell don't agree with the big bad United States threatening countries that don't do things our way. But then, you say that you can't sit back and give money to countries that are killing their people.
So we know killing is wrong, but where do you draw the line?
Up until killing?
How about circumcising girls?
How about countries that tattoo their 7-year-olds?
This is a slippery slope.

Four articles in five minutes, and I haven't stopped thinking about all of them all week. There is some real heavy stuff going on that really is too big for me.(I looked up this story about Malawi and let me tell you how heavy the discussions were on the forum sections. This is very dividing stuff. People were mean, people were crude, people were angry.)

When I think about my little world, and I think my problems are huge, all I have to do is open the Front Page on Sunday mornings and I realize there is this HUGE world out there with some really heavy issues.

I don't know what else to say.

Thoughts?
Comments?

Have a good Wednesday,
john