Jack’s Winning Words 12/6/18
“I’m really glad that our young people missed the Depression and missed the Great Big War, but I do regret that they missed the great leaders that we knew.”  (Ann Richards)  If you were to name the great leaders in today’s world, who would be on your list?  Is there an FDR?  …or a Patton  …or a Toscanini  …or a Schembechler?  The Great Depression and the Great War weren’t so great when I “lived” them, but I’m glad for the leaders we had.   ;-)  Jack 

FROM MSUJS:  Schembechler??  Dantonio.  Izzo. 😀   I like the Italians===JACK:  I figured that "Bo" would get a response from you.  I didn't realize that Engler was Italian.

FROM EATWL:  This quote on leadership was timely. I’m headed in for an interview....in my interview I’m prepared to talk about my own leadership and thinking of our great leaders of our county is encouraging! How’d you know?! Lol===JACK:  "God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform."

FROM SP IN SP:  go back to bed, Jack.  its waaay too early for you to be up and about:):):)    you need your rest and so do I😀===JACK:  As the saying goes..."Early to bed, early to rise makes a man..." You know the rest!===SP:  can make a man exhausted too!  my deepest REM sleep is between 4 and 7===JACK:  It's 11:25 am, so I guess you REM number is 7 hours and 25 minutes.

FROM BS IN ENGLAND:  Has to be Winston Churchill  and Margaret Thatcher, although many people did not like her!===JACK:  I  thought of Churchill, too.  Leaders may lead, but they are not always great.  I agree that Winnie was great!

FROM JT IN SJ:  I don't remember much about WWll but I remember rationing and cousins who came home in military uniforms   It is interesting to me how the adjectives describing George Bush are the stark opposite of adjectives describing trump. What will trump's legacy and funeral be like? ===JACK"  I can remember rationing and the end of WW 2, but I can't remember a time when there was such sharp diversity of opinion over a president,  Well, maybe when the current dimes were first minted.  Anti-FDR Republicans would hand one of the coins to someone and say, "Smell this!  It really stinks to me.  What do you think?"

FROM QUILTING CAROL:  I think I can agree with Ann’s statement.  I feel sorry for our young people of today as their should be “leaders” are not setting great examples for them in how they conduct their lives, their careers and their interactions with others.  Too many of them are only interested in what the world has to offer them, what they can gain and not so much how they can serve without thinking about themselves.  Some young people have really sad home lives as well with parents who are not good leaders and role models for them. I do wonder where our world is going.
Yesterday afternoon I was at church and a little boy about 4 came toward me. I said, “Hi” to him and he kind of stopped and backed up a bit.  I thought how sad – yes, he doesn’t know me well. (I know his parents.)  They go to a different service than we do so we don’t always have lots of contact.  His mom was standing off to the side waiting for him and we said, “Hi.”, but he still kept his eye on me like I was to be watched.  I don’t ever remember as a child being afraid of a stranger.===JACK:  It's a different world out there today...in many ways.  "Stranger Danger" is a well-known phrase.  Maybe, in the rearview mirror, we'll be able to see that the good outweighed the good...I HOPE!

FROM JB IN OLV:  Mr. Mandela,  Bishop Tutu......two individuals our family heard speak at Cobo Hall and Tiger Stadium.   Merkle....her bravery in opening up Germany to the refugees.  These are but a few.
The nuclear bomb practices at school, polio, the many neighbors that contracted TB spending months and sometimes years in the hospital...Vietnam...drafting the kids of blue collar families because they wouldn't/couldn't raise/or have the connections to cause problems.  I have a Monday night Bible Study at my house....and quite often I have members that fondly remember life in the small towns they grew up in.  For those of us that grew up in immigrant pockets in Detroit life was very different.
As far as the leaders ....imagine Roosevelt, Churchill etc being placed under the microscope of the news media we have today......The work of life is, I guess, just that....work...no matter which generation you get to live in.===JACK:  Yes, it's true.  "We are who we were."  Each generation's view of the world and its leaders is colored by the events of that time.  As for microscopes...God has the ultimate one, and no one escapes detection.  That's why "the grace of God" is such a great gift.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Yes our country has been lucky in most of our leaders! Have u read Flag of our Country and Flyboys? They r great books in my opinion. My grandchildren in Orlando read them in high school! What is going on in Minnesota? And what do u think about the new law about marijuana in Michigan?===JACK:  No, I haven't read those books.  Maybe I'll have re-enrol in high school.  'm in Minnesota visiting my son and his family and will be flying back to Michigan on Christmas Day.  I voted against the pot-law in Michigan as did several police officers that I know.  What also bothers me is "lame-duck legislation."  As the song from Cabaret goes..."Money. money, money!"

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  As Adlai Stevenson once wisely said, "In America, anyone can become
President. It's one of the risks we take". He was a man of integrity, and great wit, and eloquence, and very humble as Governor of IL, and a worthy Presidential Candidate, even tho he lost the election.
 twice to Gen Dwight Eisenhower.  I'm sure we have some very good leaders even now in America, but Politics has become the game of the extremely wealthy, which doesn't always produce the most qualified Gov't. leaders! :-(  Ronald Reagan might be right when he said, "It has been said Politics is the 2nd oldest profession.  I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first!". But we keep on keeping on...doing our bit for democracy!===JACK:  Yes...I'll take our way anytime over how it's done in Russia and North Korea.  I always like the picture of Stevenson with his legs crossed, showing the sole of his shoe with a hole in it.  Can you imagine that today?

FROM FM IN WISCONSIN:  How this was brought home yesterday at the funeral for George Bush – and the ‘entrance’ of our current president!===JACK:  I didn't get to watch it on TV, but I did see the picture of the presidents and their spouses sitting together.  GHWB wanted them all to be invited to help bring a semblance of unity to the country.  To me, that was the action of a good leader.

FROM KANSAN DON:  Are you sure about Schembechler?  How about Ghandi and Bonhoeffr? ===JACK:  Bo was put in there to stir up anti-Bo people, but he was a good coach, and a coach has to be a leader.  Gandhi and Bonhoeffer certainly were significant people, but were they leaders, such as Tutu and Niebuhr?  I guess it depends on your definition of a leader.  Hitler was a leader, but not a great person.

FROM INDY GENIE:  As I read the WW’s and then the response to them, I am struck by the idea that we are all leaders in some way. We are to be courageous and kind in standing up for what we believe to be true, just and authentic. Leadership isn’t just the job of our great leaders, although it is wonderful when we have them.  I think our current climate calls us to be leaders  ...even if we don’t want to be!===JACK:  The leader is no leader if there are no followers.  When there's chaos, someone has to step up and say, "That's enough."  That person is a leader.  The little boy shouted, "The emperor has no clothes!"===GENIE:  So true! The children shall lead us!

FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA:  SO true. So sad. I do think the winds are changing. Felt encouraged with the results of the mid term elections - more diversity and young people.===JACK:  Well, Wisconsin and Michigan began to clean out the barn, but the elephants are not going without leaving something behind.

FROM DAZ IN COLORADO:  Sometimes it seems like it takes tough times to bring out the great leaders some of whom you mentioned. Like Lincoln. The trouble is that sometimes not so great and positive leaders show up.===JACK:  Ordinary people sometimes became leaders simply because a situation at hand needs someone to do something...Rosa Parks (on the bus)...Todd Beamer (on Flt 93).  ...and Lincoln, of course

FROM DB IN WB:  I love this message because these leaders gave hope. Like a great coach, good leadership can take an underdog team into first place. Wasn’t Seabiscuit (racehorse) like that? Who can you think of who might be inspirational today?===JACK:  I don't know about Seabiscuit, because I haven't seen the movie, but I like college basketball, and I think that John Beilein is a good leader.  He seems able to attract good players to follow his advice, to make them better, to do it without wanting attention for himself...and appearing to be a person of character.  Basketball just happens to be his leadership job.