Let's start with Pat Summit who is the head basketball coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Tennessee. She is really more than just a coach, she is a legend in college sports. According to the September 5, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated (in an article written by Kelli Anderson), Coach Summit's teams have won eight NCAA women's basketball national titles and her teams have won 1,071 basketball games, more than any coach in major college basketball history, both men and women.
Unfortunately, Coach Summit was recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 59. The Sports Illustrated article lists out some facts about Alzheimer's:
- This is an irreversible disease that progressively destroys memory and cognitive function.
- There is no cure, just a handful of drugs that provide modest improvement, if that.
- An estimated 5.4 million Americans have the disease of which 96% of those afflicted are over the age of 65.
- That number could grow to 10 million Americans within the next 20 years, given the aging of the baby boomer generation.
- Despite these numbers and the financial and emotional stress this disease currently places on the country, and the increased stress it will place on the country going forward, the Federal government spends only $450 million a year on Alzheimer's research, or about $83 for each American afflicted.
- Given that the Center For Disease Control estimates that 11.74 million Americans currently have some form of cancer and the Federal government spends $5.8 billion a year on cancer research, the Federal government spends six times as much per person who has cancer than one who has Alzheimer's.
- The Federal government spends more than three times as much on heart disease research and more than six times as much on HIV/AIDS research than on Alzheimer's.
- The Navy recently acknowledged that it wasted $310 million on building two Navy ships that will NEVER be used. This waste could have increased one year's worth of Alzheimer's research funding by over 64% and obviously would have been much more valuable.
- We still have about 46,000 troops stationed in Iraq for no strategic purpose, costing the country upwards of $10 billion a year, twenty times more than we spend on Alzheimer's research. What would be a better use of taxpayer wealth, deploying U.S. troops in Iraq (or South Korea, or Japan or Europe or Afghanistan) or addressing the health needs of over 5 million Americans?
- It is estimated that we lose about $60 billion a year to fraud in the Medicare program, about 120 times more than we spend on Alzheimer's research.
- The General Accountability Office found that more than 3,700 government contractors and nonprofit organizations received $24 billion from the President's economic stimulus program even though they owed over $750 million in taxes. $24 billion is 48 times more than what the government spends on Alzheimer's research, a better use of funds than subsidizing tax evaders.
- Speaking of the economic stimulus program, an Associated Press investigative report found that over a thousand bridges that used stimulus funds for repair did not have anything wrong with them. Would it not have been a better use of taxpayer funds to increase Alzheimer's, and other deadly disease research, than to give it to politicians to fix unbroken bridges in their districts and states?
Which gets us back to Coach Summit. Having been intimately involved with a relative who suffered through Alzheimer's, I can attest to what a horrible disease this is. However, rather than melt away from public view, which Coach Summit has every right to do, she has decided to publicly battle the disease and continue coaching basketball to young women at the University of Tennessee.
According to Sports Illustrated: "It is hard to imagine, given her friends and fans around the country, that there won't soon be an Alzheimer's fund raising foundation in her name. One way or another, she'll be following the footsteps of other sports icons whose own public battles with disease have increased awareness and understanding and raised money to fight them."
This obviously will be a stronger factor if Coach Summit continues to be in the public eye. Or as Sports Illustrated closes their article: "It (the disease) will no longer be just a disease of the elderly that is suffered behind closed doors. It will be an opponent all of us should be focused on." All because this courageous American has decided to battle on in the public eye, something and someone to respect, listen to, and support.
Step 4 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" is in alignment with this situation. I tend to come down heavy on the political class for spending and wasting too much of our wealth through an onerous tax burden and that Federal government spending has to be drastically reduced. However, while spending needs to be cut dramatically, we still need to focus resources on needs and diseases that affect vast numbers of Americans. No more allowing fraud to steal taxpayer funds, no more deployment of troops in unnecessary foreign locations to support the military/industrial complex, no more building ships and other armaments that we never use. We need more people like Coach Summit who will be brave enough to do the right thing for the country and the diseases that affect everyone's family.
The second American who has gotten my attention in a favorable way is Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz. I had read about his brave initiative in the news and our family recently received an email from him which I have copied below. Mr. Schultz is basically calling out the American political class for their cowardness and selfishness that has been on full display these past few years.
He has received commitments from over a hundred business leaders and the promise that they will not donate to any politician's election funds until they the politicians start acting like adults. No re-election support until the politicians seriously and unselfishly put together a coherent economic plan that addresses our crippling national debt and that eliminates the overwhelming economic uncertainty in the country.
What makes this movement so worthy of our respect is that the American political class has shown that it can be a very vindictive animal through history. Nixon and Clinton had different versions of their "enemies list." President Obama gave a speech last fall, citing the need to "defeat our enemies," which included any American who dared to have an honest difference of opinion with Obama's policies. Ask the Gibson Guitar company, who just got raided by two dozen Federal agents. I suggest that you follow where that story is going and see what government and political class vindictiveness looks like.
So I applaud and respect Mr. Schultz and the hundred other business leaders for taking this courageous stand. They want America to be great again, they want leaders that make the hard choices, they want leaders who care more about America and Americans and not their own careers. I hope they are successful in finally getting our politicians to do the right thing.
In summary, thank you both Pat Summit and Howard Schultz. I applaud your courage and wish you both the best of luck in your battles
*********************************************************
2011
Dear Starbucks Friend and Fellow Citizen:
I love our country. And I am a beneficiary of the promise of America. But today, I am very concerned that at times I do not recognize the America that I love.
Like so many of you, I am deeply disappointed by the pervasive failure of leadership in Washington. And also like you, I am frustrated by our political leaders' steadfast refusal to recognize that, for every day they perpetuate partisan conflict and put ideology over country, America and Americans suffer from the combined effects of paralysis and uncertainty. Americans can't find jobs. Small businesses can't get credit. And the fracturing of consumer confidence continues.
We are better than this.
Three weeks ago, I asked fellow business leaders to join me in urging the President and the Congress to put an end to partisan gridlock and, in its place, to set in motion an upward spiral of confidence. More than 100 business leaders representing American companies - large and small - joined me in signing a two-part pledge:
First, to withhold political campaign contributions until a transparent, comprehensive, bipartisan debt-and-deficit package is reached that honestly, and fairly, sets America on a path to long-term financial health and security. Second, to do all we can to break the cycle of economic uncertainty that grips our country by committing to accelerate investment in jobs and hiring.
In the weeks since then, I have been overwhelmed by the heartfelt stories of Americans from across the country, sharing their anguish over losing hope in the strongest and most galvanizing force of all - the American Dream. Some feel they have no voice. Others feel they no longer matter. And many feel they have been left behind.
We cannot let this stand.
Please join other concerned Americans and me on a national call-in conversation on Tuesday September 6th hosted by "No Labels," a nonpartisan organization dedicated to fostering cooperative and more effective government. To learn more about the forum and the pledges, visit www.upwardspiral2011.org
America is at a fragile and critical moment in its history. We must restore hope in the American Dream. We must celebrate all that America stands for around the world. And while our Founding Fathers recognized the constructive value of political debate, we must send the message to today's elected officials in a civil, respectful voice they hear and understand, that the time to put citizenship ahead of partisanship is now.
Yours is the voice that can help ignite the contagious upward spiral of confidence that our country desperately needs.
With great respect,
chief executive officer, Starbucks Coffee Company
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/
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