Ramblings

I attended the University of Southern California around the turn of the decade. The entire time I was there they stressed the importance of the Trojan Network. A mythical machinery that enabled graduates to get in touch with alumni and find a job. And while I was at USC I never met anyone who benefited from the program. It just dawned on me though, the network doesn't work if the lines are broken. During the Korean War my grandfather was a telephone technician. Basically he was sent out to repair damaged lines from shrapnel and enemey sabotage. Without him and others like him the vital communication lines between different units would have been severed. Over the past two years my lines have been damaged. I've kind of been in a rut. Like many others I have suffered from the failing economy. And just recently some light has made its way into my life. And I find myself trying to reach out to those whose lines have been severed. As you might imagine this is no easy task. Whil...

Before my grandfather died in April of 1998 he was able to tell me about some of the things that had happened to him. After listening to his stories intently there seemed to be a recurring theme ... Death. Of the stories he told; my grandpa nearly died three times in his life. And so when he succumbed to cancer it was the fourth time that was his mortal charm. I'm in the the third decade of my life and have come close to death twice. Each time I somehow knew it wasn't my time. The first time I found myself on the ledge of death was literally. In the Spring of my Junior year I decided to partake in the Alternative Spring Break program offered through my college. I along with 20 others set out for the barren Death Valley in California's Mojave Desert. My group volunteered our services to help protect the extreme life found there. We did without showers, running water and electronic convienences. It was there that I saw the most beautiful night sky and where I almost met my...

Across the country hundreds of mom and pop stores dread three words: Wal-Mart is coming. Now those words make more than parentals cringe. Wal-Mart is without a doubt the biggest selling retailer in the history of the free world. It operates over 2,900 stores in the US alone, has annual sales of over $244 billion and employs over 1 million people world-wide. All of this is nice and dandy if you're a Wal-Mart shareholder. But if you're a Wal-Mart competitor beware! When Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Arkansas in the 1960's he had one goal: to provide the lowest possible price. From those humble beginnings to now; the driving force has been to slash prices. One new book entitled, "The Wal-Mart Decade," explains the obsession with lowering prices like a religion. So what's the problem? Wal-Mart is the most anti-union corporation in the world. When Sam Walton was alive a distribution center tried to unionize and Sam simply let them go and replaced them ...