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Treadway Graphics - Serving the law enforcement market since 1991.
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Real Heros
By Jay Treadway
July 29th, 2009
The column below has been making the rounds this week on the internet. It was written back in 2004 by Ben Stein. I think it’s making the rounds now because someone thought the subject was a good thing to reflect on from time to time. I agree. Since most of my customers are police officers I thought it was even more appropriate.
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today’s World?
I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today’s world, if by a ’star’ we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit , Iraq . He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad . He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordinance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton’s is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament…the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin…or Martin Mull or Fred Willard–or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister’s help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York . I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.
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Bullying
By Jay Treadway
July 13th, 2009
Two weeks ago, while I was exhibiting at the NASRO national conference, I picked up a bullying brochure at the GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training) booth. I’ve been a licensed vendor for that program since 1993 and I’m always interested in what they are doing.
The theme of the NASRO Conference was bullying and the GREAT folks have a brochure outlining how the GREAT Program addresses bullying. They address bullying issues in their elementary, middle school and “Families” curriculum.
Here’s some myths and facts the brochure contained that I found interesting:
- School bullying is only an occasional occurance. False: Forty-two percent of middle school principals reported that student bullying occured on a daily or weekly basis.
- A child is more likely to be cyberbullied by a schoolmate. True: Sixty-two percent said that they had been cyberbullied by another student at school.
- You will know if your child is being bullied online. False: Only 35 percent told their parents about their experience.
- Bullying takes place mostly on the bus or playground. False: Seventy-nine percent said that they were bullied inside the school.
- An acceptable response to bullying behavior is that “boys will be boys.” False: Bullying is detrimental to a child’s well-being and can lead to depression and even to suicide.
- Students want to get involved when they witness bullying. True: Fifty-six percent usually either say or do something to try to stop it.
The brochure also gave a few websites that you can go to for more information on bullying. Here’s a couple that were interesting:
For more information regading The GREAT Program click here.
As I wrote in my blog on February 16, my bully growing up was Bobby Thomas. He made life at the bus stop miserable for us each day. But it looks like Bobby was small potatoes compared with what is going on now. Too bad.
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Be Like Tiger?
By Jay Treadway
July 8th, 2009
I watched Tiger Woods (Like many of you) win yet another golf tournament this past weekend. It’s becoming the rule rather than the exception of course. Are you tired of it? Maybe a little? But you have to be impressed with somebody that has that kind of focus, determination and consistency.
Tiger looks serious out there all the time. He really doesn’t look like he’s having fun. I mean, compare him to Anthony Kim who was playing with him Sunday, or even Rocco Mediate. They react outwardly on the course a lot different than Tiger. But does that mean they are any less intense? I’m not sure they are.
I know one thing for sure though. Give me 15 minutes on a golf course with somebody and I can pretty much tell you what they are like. As soon as something goes wrong, a person’s reaction to adversity tells you a lot about them. Do they shrug it off like a walk in the park? Or, do they get red in the face and start throwing clubs? It’s probably something in between those two on most occasions.
I think there are some similarities in business and golf. The “15 minutes” I referred to above has a similar parallel in business, in my opinion. Most businesses can be very easy to get along with when things are running smoothly. Everybody is happy.
However, as soon as something goes wrong things can change. Whether it’s a order that’s messed-up or something else, it can strain the relationship. I never really feel comfortable with somebody I do business with until there is a problem. How that problem is handled either strengthens or weakens a relationship. It also determines whether I continue to do business with that company.
It is sort of like the old saying: “Once shame on you; twice shame on me.” I try really hard not be be one of those companies that turns people off when things get tough. I’m sure I’ve failed a few times, but overall we do a really good job of making things right. I’m proud of that. I don’t want to be the person in business who is throwing clubs and yelling. Not pretty.
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Traveling Man
By Jay Treadway
July 6th, 2009
I was a “traveling man” in June. It kind of reminds me of the old Ricky Nelson song by the same name (That’s a 60’s thing for you young folks!). I was in St. Thomas, Kansas City and Baltimore during the month. Summer is a great time to be right here at home in Minnesota, but that didn’t happen. Oh well.
St. Thomas was the location this year of the annual Geiger National Sales Conference. It was a great spot; I had never been there before. I played some golf and enjoyed the nice digs for a few days. I earned this trip because of my sales in 2008. Thanks to all my customers for sending me on this nice trip!
Then I had to fly from St. Thomas directly to Kanas City for the wedding of my nephew. That was a fun weekend. I was able to catch-up with all the “outlaws” on my wife’s side of the family. The ride home involved three adults and two grandchidren, ages 2 and 5. That was interesting as they say.
Baltimore was a business trip to exhibit at the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) annual conference. It was fun to see a lot of my old friends and current customers, as well as old DARE customers.
Attendance was about 700, down from about 1000 on past years. I gave away 240 stainless water bottles and 432 jotter pads and pens. All of them just happened to have my http://srosource.com website addresson them! The exhibit hall was pretty full with lots of exhibitors. The NASRO folks always put on a good conference and this was no exception. I also got to see a little of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor area for the first time. Camden Yards is pretty cool!
“Traveling Man” is not done yet however! I’m off to Phoenix next week for the Geiger “Galleria” attended by hundreds of Geiger reps from around the U.S. We have education sessions one day and a trade show another day. It’s a great event and I’m looking forward to learning a few things as well as catching-up with some of the Geiger folks.
After that it will be good to be home for a while! There’s no place like Minnesota in the summer. Did I mention that before? I guess I did.
