As a public relations consultant, I sometimes face an internal struggle between my professional need to scour all types of media coverage and my personal need to shield myself from what can seem like a never-ending stream of bad news.
With 2010 rapidly approaching, it has been interesting to read the myriad predictions about business, the economy and public policy (not to mention public health, public education, and public menaces). Though reporters relay glum predictions about prospects for the coming year, I choose not to participate in the pessimism. Nope. For me, at least, the new year is going to be better. Here’s why: 1) Lessons learned. After several years of smooth sailing, I – like many people – admittedly got a little too comfortable. While comfort is nice, it can trick us into growing complacent and taking good times for granted. If nothing else, I know 2009 has provided an injection of reality and a dose of humility that surely will benefit my long-term health and well being. 2) Priorities intact. Another risk of comfort and complacency is to lose sight of what’s important. While other sources of “security” may fall short, my real priorities – family, friends and faith – remain intact. 3) Ambition restored. Success can make us soft, while tough times can restore the grit that made us successful in the first place. I am starting 2010 with a renewed sense of ambition about the prospects that lie ahead. I’m prepared, focused and energized to make it a great year, for my clients, my business, my family and friends. Pessimism for 2010? Bah humbug. Choose not to participate. Today, as I watched big fluffy snowflakes falling from the skies over Dallas, I thought about global warming and the flurry of fallacies surrounding it.
The recent revelation of manipulation and cover-ups by some of the scientists most responsible for fanning the global warming flames raises serious questions about a theory that has been widely accepted by the media and some government leaders as “truth.” The discovery of deceitful internal emails, coupled with the deletion of data upon which global warming “truths” are based, is quite inconvenient, particularly for those pushing sweeping and punitive “Cap and Trade” environmental legislation on Capitol Hill. That legislation is on the fast track, in spite of questions about hundreds of new federal regulations and mandates it would spawn and their effect on the nation’s weak economy. Critics say the new government burdens will raise energy prices for consumers, hurt home and car sales, and send the last remaining America-based energy companies -- and all those jobs they provide – overseas. If these economic concerns aren’t enough to give pause to the politicians in Washington, will this revelation of environmental evidence tampering make them think twice? Even amid the flurry of fallacies, I fear the truth is too inconvenient to derail a done deal. It’s a chilling thought. |