What did Hoover, Truman, and Eisenhower have in common?

Back during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the
deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American
citizens that desperately needed work..

Harry Truman deported over two million Illegal’s after WWII to create jobs
for returning veterans.

And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million
Mexican Nationals! The program was called ‘Operation Wetback’. It was
done so WWII and Korean Veterans would have a better chance at jobs.
It took 2 Years, but they deported them!

Now….if they could deport the Mexicans back then – they could sure do it today..

lf you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation
Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.

Reminder: Don ‘t forget to pay your taxes…
12 million Latinos are depending on you!

Quilting, according to Godin is about integration. Integrating the people you work with into a cohesive group. Integrating your customers tighter into you company. Integrating processes (aka streamlining). Integrating respectable ethical behavior into corporate (employee) practice. In other words, I’ll ignore my tedious administrative chores and work to spearhead change in a company that really requires it but all employees (including the author of the org chart) were afraid to enact. You may ask, why am I waiting till now to do this? Because I have nothing to lose, it’s good for the company to experience a wake up cocktail, and I learned back in kindergarten that it’s appropriate to leave things better than you found them.

It’s a fact: one’s cojones size is inversely proportional to one’s distance from the exit.

[BTW, I gave my notice of resignation on Monday, my official last day is 6/4.]

Imagine if someone you know wanted to downsize their mammoth SUV for something smaller, more efficient, lower cost. What would you suggest? A sedan? Hatchback? Coupe? Station wagon? The choices are abundant and it’s safe to assume that your suggestion would exclude another guzzling SUV, correct?

Think again, someone I know wants to replace their Chevy SUV with a like model SUV from Volvo, Acura. Why? I suppose it’s a case of predictable irrationality.

Besides being a gas guzzler, apparently SUVs are also unsafe and a threat to the public’s safety. In addition to this, they also are impediments to traffic efficiency. Here’s an excerpt from the book Traffic, Why We Drive the Way We Do:

“SUVs are hugely costly to society. Because they are long and sluggish, they spend much more time getting rolling from a stop at a red light. This is one reason that our city traffic has slowed down. SUV drivers sit higher from the optical rush of the road so they are more likely to speed (just as you wouldn’t have a strong sensation of speed in an airplane 1000′ above the ground, though the airplane is moving at 4X the speed of a car). SUV drivers in at least two countries studied are less likely to wear seatbelts, more likely to be talking on a mobile phone, and less likely to have both hands on the wheel. They crash constantly and are statistically less safe than a minivan that is lighter weight.”

So, why do people drive SUVs when the vehicle guzzles in so much negativity? Perhaps behavioral economics has something to do with it (i.e. emotions, relativity and social norms influence our economic behavior)? Perhaps there is no logical explanation because all humans have moments of mysterious irrationality and others must live with the consequences. Or is it simply about self-preservation (selfishness?) and in the event that there is a crash, SUV drivers hope to crawl out in better shape that the sedan they just crushed.

What ever the answer is, I’m worried. Being one of the few who own small, energy efficient cars, it will be my wife, two year old and I that will have truncated life spans.

For the past decade, 100% of YES Prep’s graduating seniors have been accepted to top colleges and universities across the country.  Recently, YES Prep celebrated that accomplishment with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the school’s Senior Signing Day.  You can read more about that event here.

Think about it. How many audiences have you put to sleep?

There is a solution.

Have you ever used PowerPoint in this manner? Or tried this method? Or even this one? As you prepare for your next presentation try any of the above options, they really work. When it comes to PowerPoint, many bullets kill.

• Keep it
• simple
• and
• avoid
• bullets and
• text
• density.
• Imagery is
• your
• BFF.
• Good luck.

This post is not about the book. It’s about “42″. So what is it about “42″?

I live in peculiar state where its board of education can approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on textbooks. Here’s the Cliff Notes: The freshly authorized textbooks will stress the superiority of American capitalism, question the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and present Republican political philosophies in a much more positive light (as apposed to a neutral one). Obviously, historians are protesting these textbook changes.

The Texas Board of Education, full of conservatives and strict constitutionalists, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions during the nation’s infancy. The board’s conservatives believe that America was founded on Christian beliefs, therefore replacing Jefferson with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. Apparently, Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”

I would expect nothing less from the land that dreams of seceding from the Union.

My brother and I pretending to be kung fu superheroes as prepubescent studs.

I’m having a “huge” week. I feel like a kid again.

Do you remember being a child and possessing the capacity to dream of achieving the impossible? Becoming a superhero? Discovering Mars? Curing cancer? Defeating all disease? Achieving world peace? Well I feel like I’ve just started a journey to accomplish a “mission impossible.”

It began on Monday. I found out that I was accepted into Teach For America, a movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort.

The following day, I received an offer from YES Prep public schools (East End campus) to join their team as a high school teacher. YES Prep schools have been ranked the best in Houston by Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and the Houston Chronicle.

The news made me feel like a kid again (and almost like a superhero). Once again, I’m dreaming big…but this time, I have the capacity to take action and inspire others to pursue their American dream.

As a newly minted TFA corps member who will be teaching at YES Prep I already feel empowered to enact change. Winning over the vote of two highly respected and effective organizations is affirmation of my potential to excel as a teacher…and beyond. I feel that I have been given a passport, and the resources, to pursue social justice and prove that students in low-income communities can achieve at high levels, offering further evidence that educational inequity is a solvable problem.

My experience this week is proof that we should never stop dreaming. Go ahead. Challenge yourself to recapture that fresh imagination of a kid. As adults we now have the opportunity to make our dreams come true.

Dream big. Act big. Become your own superhero.

Life is great. I’m on cloud 42.

Cancellara wins both Flanders and Roubaix. The guy is a stud.