Giambattista Vico identified two kinds of arrogance that prevent true understanding, the conceit of nations and the conceit of scholars.  Both are at work in the racist sign.  Every nation thinks it was first and that everything useful and civilized was invented by it.  Scholars also take their particular brand of thinking to be the starting point of all knowledge.  Yet, no matter how many founding myths and symbols a nation constructs (Vico found that most begin with an eagle), it most likely stood upon another civilization’s shoulders.

Similarly, when considering the scholar’s written language, it is puny compared to the hundreds of thousands of lost, oral languages that have developed and faded away, unrecorded over time.  The oral tradition is a treasure trove of wisdom.  It is not certain that there is any evolution in language.  In fact images are often a more powerful and effective form of expression.  I mean to say that english does not happen to be the best or only way to express our reality.  I read recently that, “verbal expression is how we articulate our existence.”  How we speak shapes our reality and our being in the world.  As Marshall McLuhan said, “we shape the tools and then the tools shape us.”

So, it makes sense that hatred towards the other manifests itself in a battle over language.  A whole worldview or way of being is given within each language.  The metaphors unique to each language color a very different existence.  This difference is threatening.

I think at root there is an existential longing for home.  Everyone desires to feel at home in the world and at one time or another has most likely felt like a stranger.  People claim to have found the first nation or to be the first thinkers because they long to make the unknown familiar, to make it homey.  Benign longing turns dangerous when fear takes over, a fear of the other and of difference.  It is strange that the desire to be at home and to belong can turn so ugly.  Langston Hughes wrote, “misery is when you heard on the radio that you live in a slum but you always thought it was home.”  Maybe the route towards happiness is to make every place your home, as Richard Kearney says, “to find your home in every haunt.”  In other words, to never allow anyone to rob you of the joy of feeling at home in the world.

I am happy to see your post.  Most people just want to love and be loved, to smile and have someone smile back.  Every soul has a place in this world and a right to make it home.

I am spending way too much time online.  Whenever I am in Florida, I spend most of my day Skyping and writing.  Unfortunately, by being online so much, I am exposed to some of the most inane crap imaginable.  From Facebook to emails, I am inundated with pictures, comments, and opinions that range from foolish to worthless to dangerous.  One such Facebook posting came my way this morning, and it got me off track, so I just had to respond.

After this, I promise I’ll take a break from posting.  The sun is shining, and all those little Hispanics out there have our golf course in perfect condition.  I don’t have a clue as to what they are saying, but they sure can cut grass.  Maybe I’ll get a round in.

_______________________________________________________________

How about everyone just take a deep breath here before you get out of control with your bigotry.  Assimilation always takes a generation or two.  It’s just the way it is.  My grandparents were born in Sicily, and although my grandmother came to America when she was only three years old, you would have never mistaken her for your version of an “American.”

As a merchant, I stay out of politics, but lately I have been inundated by quite a bit of mean-spirited “patriotism.”  While there is certainly no denying that the great Aryan migration from Eurasia through Europe to the British Isles to America has left an indelible mark on our heritage and culture, you shouldn’t forget that the indigenous language and culture of America was that of the Native American Indian.  In fact, thousands of languages were spoken in North and South America prior to the first contact with Europeans.

I guess it must really be surprising to some of the most racist people in America that the Aryan history starts with the ancient Indo-Iranians, who inhabited parts of what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and India.  Ouch.  It must really hurt when they hit a Seven Eleven.

What troubles me is this bigoted argument about who America really belongs to.  According to a prevailing New World migration model, migrations of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait.  The most recent migration took place around 12,000 years ago.  That makes the post Christopher Columbus era look quaint.

The indigenous people of America were particularly vulnerable to exploitation, marginalization, and oppression by the Europeans.  But it didn’t stop with the indigenous people of America, nearly every immigrant group has suffered.

If you talk to the Irish who were brutalized during the late 19th century, they would certainly tell you that it wasn’t their America [until they eventually took over the port cities of the Northeast].  As for the Southern Italians and Sicilians, they were second most lynched group in the South.  I won’t even touch the black equation.

To carve out a rail bed from ridges that jutted up 2,000 over the valley below, Chinese immigrants were lowered in baskets to hammer at solid shale and granite and insert dynamite.  During the winter of 1865-1866, when the railroad carved passages through the summit of the Sierra Nevadas, 3,000 Chinese workers lived and worked in tunnels dug beneath 40-foot snowdrifts.  Accidents, avalanches, and explosions left an estimated 1,200 Chinese immigrant workers dead.

Despite their heroic labors, California’s Chinese immigrants became the objects of discriminatory laws and racial violence.  California barred these immigrants from appearing as witnesses in court, prohibited them from voting or becoming naturalized citizens, and placed their children in segregated school.  The state imposed special taxes on “foreign” miners and Chinese fishermen.

And the list of “patriotic” atrocities goes on and on.

Nevertheless, the fact that America eventually does assimilate its masses is truly remarkable.  Not since Suleiman the Magnificent’s Ottoman Empire has there been a more magnanimous nation for immigrants and minorities.  Our American legacy finds its brightest moment in the poem of Emma Lazarus [an American-Sephardic Jew] which appears on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty:

“… Give me your tired, your poor.  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The American Dream makes me proud to be an American.  It is the greatest country in the history of man.  It is a unique experiment in populist democracy, and it has certainly worked out for my family, friends, and me.  But it is a dream that needs to be shared or it will lose its will to live.

When I was a teenager, I remember sitting in an old girlfriend’s living room with her whiter than white WASP mother.  She asked me if I was Italian, and I said, “No, I am Sicilian.”  And she said, “Aren’t Sicilian’s just niggers come north?”  But before I get too upset with her, I will return to my dear old grandmother [who was arguably the nastiest woman who ever lived].  Whenever she would see a black person, she would say, “They should make every nigger swim back to Africa with a Jew under each arm.”  Nice.

Bigotry has a long history, and I was raised with it on the West Side.  Fr. John Sturm [who was a tough little German from the East Side of Buffalo] said that the toughest games at Canisius High School were when they would have the Germans vs the Irish vs the Italians vs the Polish intramurals.  Like Fr. John, I still get annoyed by every ethnic and racial group, but that doesn’t make me a racist, it makes me human.  So, before we start claiming this is your America, you better do a little digging to see just how valid your claim is.  What you find might surprise you.  I know when I did a little digging, I found out that America truly was mine – mine to build, mine to protect, mine to enjoy, and mine to share.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suleiman_the_Magnificent
http://www.class.uh.edu/gl/china1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas

Are you better prepared than a Rookie?

We are on our way back to Naples.  Since we have Larry [the dog] with us, we flew direct on AirTran to Ft. Lauderdale, and now we are driving across alligator alley.  It’s about an hour and forty-five-minute drive.  Dick, from Florida Airport Transportation [239-390-2440], picked us up at around 11:45AM and should have us at the house by 12:30PM.  His car service is the best in Southwest Florida.  Knowing Dick, we’ll be there by 12:15PM.

I am pretty excited by what transpired while we were home over the past 7 weeks.  My return to the Walker Center in May started out a little slow, but quickly picked up a head of steam.

Here are some of the highlights:

The electronics division of the Advantage Co, which combines the various operations of the Stereo Advantage and Lifetime Service, has been on its best roll in 20 years.  It is truly a new company.  The renaissance of this division is due to the energy and determination of the leadership group that I call 9 Volt and our LTS technicians who have put us at the forefront of the industry.  I have had very little to do with this resurgence, and that makes me prouder than ever of what is still our signature business [and, once again, our most profitable resource].

Recognizing the impact that their commitment has had on their business encouraged me to create an opportunity for them to actually make it their own.  Accordingly, we have worked out a program for the 9 Volt management team [Dej, Al, Joe, Jim, Wes, Mike, Kevin, Kam, and Butch] to purchase 51% of the combined electronics operations [all headquartered at the Wehrle Dr. facility].  When the new Stereo Advantage Warehouse Sales Center opened on June 6th, the Wehrle facility became fully loaded.  It is a fitting start for the future.

Over at Giancarlo’s, adding a dinner menu, the new Cento rooms, and an expanded patio has brought us to full capacity.  This past Saturday night we had a full patio, two events in the Vantaggio and Cento Banquet Room respectively, and we were catering the White Party.  It was as busy as I could imagine.  Pat O’Connor has been doing a great job with our corporate catering, as well.  We are in the midst of a kitchen expansion, and it has been as chaotic as it is exciting.  We are still learning as we grow, but it’s been a remarkable first two years from concept to where we are today.

At TW&Co, we hosted Children’s Hospital’s Beautiful Women Do Beautiful Things event, and it was the impetus for a complete restyling of the Women’s department.  The store looked better than it ever has [at least that’s what Janet told me, and I trust her judgment], and the event was our best ever – by far.  Of course, we are continuing to renovate and expand, and the progress has been transformative.

The Nantucket Shop and Tiny Walker are currently being combined and developed with the anticipation of moving into their expanded space at the start of 2015.  Ali has brought her preppie pedigree and style instincts back home from college, and the next three years should provide a great incubation for our new pink and green initiative.

Footwear is expanding to include an outdoor shop that will feature Patagonia, Canada Goose, and The North Face.  While Jewelry has been expanded and moved closer to Women’s.  Women’s, of course, could not be left out of the mix, so we have added a new handbag department with everything from Marc Jacobs to DVF to Tory Burch to Rebecca Minkoff to …

With the remarkable success of The Beauty Bar, we have decided to expand it into a fully loaded cafe’.  TW Body+Beauty will also be getting a blowout bar and a new make-up shop by the end of the summer.  However, the biggest news out of B+B this summer is that Whole Foods Market has authorized our Bogavia line for their stores.  Bogavia, Modern Luxuri, and Piece Apparel are our future, and their current success gives us a great foundation to build on.

But there’s been even more to my seven-week visit:

At our Autonomic Resources partnership, we are about to get our DISA ATO from the Department of Defense, and that, along with our FedRAMP IaaS ATO, puts us at the forefront of the government’s cloud initiative.  This is remarkable for a company of our size and limited resources, and, because of our unexpected prowess in this sector, we are now being pursued for acquisition by the big boys of the industry.  This is all pretty heady stuff for the partnership.  We’ll see how it all plays out this summer.

And, last but not least, while I was home, Joe and I got to spend some time playing golf with a 12-year-old phenom named Will Thomson, who also happens to be Tom’s [our Consilium partner] son.  He was the youngest participant ever in the recent Junior Masters Tournament at East Aurora CC.  The tournament attracts the top 18 and under amateurs from around the world, and Will made it to the championship round of 32.  Simply incredible, but what’s more incredible is his demeanor, proving that, as always, how you do it is more important than what you do.

There’s more, but those are the highlights of the summer so far [along with my grandkids Francesca and Sam].  I hope your summer is going as well.

PS  The highlight of my flight down was riding along with my buddy Mitch.  He inadvertently inspired me to open a new Modern Luxuri mall concept store.  One of the key aspects of it [along with Modern Luxuri, Bogavia, and Piece Apparel] will be a jewelry trade-in component.  I’d like to have one open by Christmas.

→ Fear The Bow Tie.
→ 5,000 People Can’t Be Wrong.
→ Kids Don’t Ride Their Bikes To Work Anymore.

I sat down to write about a few things on my mind before I headed back up north for the summer, but I couldn’t decide where to start.  I’ve ruminated over 5,000 People Can’t Be Wrong for a week or so, but I’ve seen such a proliferation of bow ties that I am reluctantly drawn to the trivial.

Fear The Bow Tie.

Why?  Because there is nothing behind it.  It’s a statement that says “I am a bow tie.”  It’s an inexpensive way of saying “I am a Ferrari.”  I saw a similar comment recently about handlebar mustaches, some things are just hard to get past.  The bow tie stops you dead in your tracks.  It shouts.  It annoys.  It defines.  But, most of all, it limits the wearer to a sudden and debilitating identity.  They are merely a cliche’.  It works best on the most insecure of wearers.  For them it is a necessary distraction.  While a fashionable woman [dressed head to toe from LVMH] is worriedly positioning her social status, a bow tie displaces the wearer.  It throws them into a void of nothingness – nothing but a bow tie.  And, besides, Ernie Johnson looks ridiculous.

5,000 People Can’t Be Wrong.*

So, who are these 5,000 apostates that defy argument and possess damming evidence of a reprobate merchant?  Unfortunately [and, sometimes, fortuitously], it’s the 5,000 or so ex-Advantage employees who have scattered around WNY and the world for the past 35 years.  It’s hard to argue that the Advantage wasn’t the place for them.  While the alumni of the Advantage roam from Elmwood to Chippewa, from John Hopkins to the Cleveland Clinic, from Apple to SalesForce, from Yale to Stanford, from California to Maine, from Clarence to Orchard Park, from Australia to London, from UB to Canisius, and from the courthouse to the jailhouse – it’s undeniable that the Advantage just wasn’t for them.  But, for many of them, it was a fruitful and beneficial experience.

Allow me the requisite quote from the Bible:

Matthew 7:15-20  Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

You will know us by our fruits:  By our Walker Center, TW&Co, Lifetime Service, Stereo Advantage, iFul, House of Cotton, Bogavia, Giancarlo’s, Piece Apparel, Smart Squad Design, The Beauty Bar, Modern Luxuri, Sneaker Advantage, Advantage TI, Advantage Trade Group, Smart Squad Install, Brinkley Builders, Tiny Walker, Aussie T Co, The Nantucket Shop, Computer Head Start, SmartLinks, Sony Home Theaters, Forrestel Clothing Co, and the Advantage Computer Co.

By our founding support: AP Professionals, Advantage Wood Shop, Autonomic Resources, JNorman & Co, Consilium, CT&K, Black Box Creative, Capax Global, Greenview Landscaping, The Pizza Shoppe, Free Trade Consultants, Stereo Shops, Butler Chemical, Aussie Outfitters, Cleary Travel, Nobles, Bellus Development, Real Property Services, Manzella Gloves, Total Health & Fitness, Tony Walker Golf Club, Strategic Finance, Taplin Design, White & Co, My Personal Advisor, At Your Service, Gauntlet Design, Outback Paging, Advantage Marketing & Incentives, Trend Depot, Images & Graphics, and Irwin Sales.

And by our commitment: The Downtown Priest, Amherst Police Foundation, iWorldFundraising.org, and the Church of the Good.

Winston Churchill said that the only thing worse than having allies is not having them.

That leaves Kids Don’t Ride Their Bikes To Work Anymore.

The most recent Time cover story calls the generation of young adults known as millennials “lazy, entitled narcissists.”  The story points out, “The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older…; 58 percent more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982…  Their development is stunted: more people ages 18 to 29 live with their parents than with a spouse…”

I look forward to Joel Stein’s essay every week on the second last page of TIME, and this week his feature article didn’t disappoint.  He starts his cover story off by explaining, “I am about to do what old people have done throughout history: call those younger than me lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow.”  It’s an interesting, humorous, dubious, and somewhat troubling article to read, but as I pondered the fate of the millennial’s, I couldn’t shake the notion that they are on the cusp of immortality.  From Ray Kurzweil’s How To Create A Mind  to the 3d printing revolution, I am convinced that the regeneration of essential organs and the storage and rebooting of our thoughts are going to be de rigueur for the millenials at best and my grandchildren at worst.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Create_a_Mind
http://blog.moebio.org/tag/3d-printing/

So, I’ll be busy next winter in Naples building my avatar of artificial intelligence coupled with my 30 years of personal journals so that I can converse with my great grandchildren a thousand years from now.  But, as for immortality, I’ll pass.

* I never asked them to like me, I asked them to build with me.  I’ve found that when it all works out the liking takes care of itself.  But when it doesn’t work out the way they want, I’ve found that I’m really in for it …  It’s been a small price to pay.  Thank you to everyone who has helped us build over the years.  We’ll be celebrating our 35th Anniversary on June 6th at the new Stereo Advantage Warehouse Sales Center located in our Lifetime Service and Distribution Center at 1955 Wehrle Dr.  Everyone is invited.  More info to follow.

This winter – and what we have had of a spring – has been a remarkable time for the entire Advantage Co.  Not only have our core businesses [the electronics division, TW&Co, and Giancarlo’s] produced the single largest increase in 20 years for Q1, our partnerships have set international and national precedents in IT as well.  The biggest winner of all was certainly our Lifetime Service Center.  Our local and California based service centers have had a run that rivals the pace we had in 2009 [and this time we are doing it right].

Over the past several months, the Walker Center has seen the development of our new Cento Club [with our two new private banquet and meeting rooms], The Beauty Bar [featuring all natural drinks, snacks, raw desserts, and organic juices], and the usual renovations and expansion.  Along with all that, we have partnered with Wellingtin Resources and introduced Bogavia to national accounts.

Recently, we’ve had visits from the founders, creators, designers, and CEO’s of Tata Harper, John Hardy, Roberto Coin, and Sumbody; while later this year we are looking forward to visits from Paige from Paige Denim, Brandy Monique from Fig Yarrow, the creator of DL1961, the creator of Peace, Love, World, the creator of Chaser, the creator of Yarok, the designer of Mackage, and we’re still working on Diane Von Furstenberg [who mentioned to Jules and Alison that she would come visit them soon].

While Tony Walker & Co and Giancarlo’s form our smallest division, it is my personal favorite.  I am looking forward to spending most of my summer on Giancarlo’s patio [and completely renovating the TW&Co store once again].

But all that has been going on pales in comparison to what our Autonomic Resources partnership has accomplished over the past six months.  Not only were we the first to receive the FedRAMP IaaS Authority to Operate, we have now received the Department of Interior’s 10 year ID/IQ Cloud Foundation contract award.  The Wall Street Journal led the story on this award with “Autonomic’s ARC-P Platform Gains Momentum With the 10 Year $1 Billion ID/IQ.”  I’d say we agree.

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130502-913753.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

I return to town at the end of May, and I am looking forward to an incredible summer.  We’ll be kicking it off on June 6th with our 35th Anniversary Party as we open our new Stereo Advantage Warehouse Sales Center at our international distribution and service center on Wehrle Dr.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in what has been the most remarkable 6 months in the history of the Advantage Co.  Thank you.

No need to watch the Masters later today.  Tiger already won. They decided that he should be given the tournament because he is, after all, Tiger Woods, and can you imagine the ratings next year?

Of course, Nick Faldo will be back in the booth because he dutifully recanted any and all remarks about the Masters’ transgressions.  It wasn’t really him calling for Tiger to withdraw, it was a misinformed version of him.  The information he didn’t have at the time of his remark was that he was going to get fired – that changed everything. Pathetic.  And he was one of my all-time favorites.

While a 14 year old can get hammered for taking more than 40 seconds to hit a shot during a five and half hour crawl, Tiger gets a free pass on being DQ’d because he may have been confused.  Anyone who has played competitive golf for 20 weeks knows you drop as near as possible when you choose to hit from the spot you hit your last shot.  You’d think that after 20 years of competitive golf that Tiger would have that one down.  Of course if you can have a boulder removed from your path as a ‘movable’ obstruction, this is but a mere trifle.

Anyone who has ever played competitive golf knows full well that signing an incorrect scorecard is an immediate DQ.  No reprieve, ever.  This is the first time in the history of competitive golf that someone signing an incorrect scorecard was not DQ’d.  But there were extenuating circumstances – it was Tiger Woods and this is the Masters.

And please spare me the two stroke penalty bullshit.  It means nothing.  He got a pass on being DQ’d that is completely unwarranted whether anyone had looked at the tape prior to the end of his round or not.  He signed the wrong scorecard, and, in competitive golf, you are DQ’d.  Whether it is the Monday scratch tournament at Crag Burn or the US Open, you are DQ’d.

Anyone who holds their ground that this self-absorbed myopic asshole should have been DQ’d will certainly be ostracized from the Tiger Woods/Nike world of sycophants and the hallowed grounds of golf’s Sistine Chapel, Augusta National.  So it goes.

And, yes, Steve Jobs was a great man too [as long as you consider a lying manipulative coercive cheating exploitive sociopath a great man].  Read it enough and you’ll believe anything.

That’s not my Tumblr picture that got posted last night on my Facebook page.  Sorry.  I am trying to start a Tumblr blog, but I am still learning the settings, etc.  I was looking for a shot of great legs for our Cento Bazaar footwear wall, and I found a Tumblr picture I thought I could crop the legs out of.  I guess the cropping didn’t make it.  So it goes.

Regardless, I am coming home for the Grand Opening of the Cento Bazaar Room tomorrow night.  It’s a room built exclusively for our Cento Club members, and it will feature off-season product at 30% off all the time for members only.

I’ll post some pictures on my Tumblr blog when the room is done [and I figure Tumblr out].

Is this picture a little too much for the room?

By the way, I heard the news about Reggie Witherspoon last night.  Winters in Buffalo where always more fun while watching Kwitch and him work the sidelines from the court side seats Pam talked me into.  UB Basketball will not be the same without those guys.  They exemplified everything that is right in college sports.

I know a few of the guys that played for them, and their successful after-college-careers are due, in large part, to the mentoring Reggie and Kwitch provided.

Along with Coach Schintz, Sweet Home has given us the very best of basketball coaches.  It’s a group of guys that really understood the game and life – and provided the perfect balance.  They are all missed [although I’ve been hearing some rumors that Schintz is itching to get back at it – of course, right now, the twins are keeping him busy – and he’s loving every minute of it].

I’m sure it won’t be long until we see them all back on the court they love.  Until then they will be missed.

On March 18, 2013, Thomas Edward Perez was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the United States Secretary of Labor, replacing outgoing Secretary Hilda Solis.

So, along with my best friend from high school, Joe Macmanus [who President Obama recently appointed as the new U.S. Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna], we now have my old first baseman, Tom Perez, being appointed as Secretary of Labor.

I haven’t thought about Tom in a long time.  I lost touch with him years ago, but I’ll never forget his family and him.  I remember his dad passing away, and I was thrilled that Tom was still going to Canisius High School.  I think he may have been a college rep for us at Brown.  It’s fantastic that Tom is the Secretary of Labor, but Teeko’s [sp?] a doctor?  It would be great to hear from them.

It’s safe to say that Canisius High School is well represented at the Federal level.  Johnny Sturm would be proud.  I’m just happy to have our FedRAMP IaaS ATO.

Wikipedia:  Thomas Edward Perez was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, to parents Rafael and Grace (née Brache) Perez, who were both first generation Dominican immigrants.  His father Rafael, who earned U.S. citizenship after enlisting in the U.S. Army after World War II, worked as a doctor in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Buffalo where he worked as a physician at a VA hospital.  His mother, who came to the United States in 1930 after her father Rafael Brache, was appointed as the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to the United States, remained in the U.S. after Ambassador Brache was declared persona non grata by his own government, for speaking out against Dominican President Rafael Trujillo’s regime.

Perez, who was the youngest of four brother and sisters (who all followed their father in becoming doctors), suffered the loss of their father when he died of a heart attack, when Perez was 12 years old.  He graduated from Canisius High School in 1979, putting himself through college through the help of scholarships and pell grants.

Perez received his Bachelor of Arts in international relations and political science from Brown University in 1983.  He also received his Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1987.  While attending Brown, he worked at the University’s dining hall, and while attending Harvard, Perez worked as a law clerk for Attorney General Edwin Meese in 1986.