Dear Mr. Scott,

When you successfully ran as governor, you said you were a businessman, not a politician.

I have a little business experience, but I have never studied business in school. I have no MBA or any other business degrees or certifications. Economics was not my best subject.

But one business principle I did learn in all my years of working in retail business is this:  If a customer has made a buying decision and is ready to spend money your way, lead him directly to the cash register. Do not try to change his mind by trying to upgrade him into a more expensive item or questioning his purchase.

You only need to say one of three sentences to that customer:

• “I’ll see if it is in stock.”
• “Will that be cash, charge, or credit?”
• “Thank you for your business!”

In your decision to end High Speed Rail, you violated this principle. The Federal Government was going to give you money to build a rail line in one of Florida’s most populous and fastest-growing regions. You ignored almost two decades of work by leaders of both parties. You turned down money from someone else that would provide badly needed jobs to this state. While you said it would be too expensive, you did not even take the time to consult with rail vendors to find out what the cost would be or even do a feasibility study.

Imagine a tailor who just started at a well-established and respected shop. His boss comes in after seeing a longtime customer come out of a competitor’s store.

“Didn’t Mr. Smith come by our place?” the boss asked. “He’s shopped here for years!”

“Yes he did, but I told him we couldn’t help him,” the tailor said. “I don’t think we can afford to do business with him.”

“What?” the boss asked incredulously. “Don’t you think you should check with me first before you turn a customer away?”

“First of all, he’s too fat!” the tailor said. “He weighs close to 500 pounds. There is no way he can afford a suit from us. We don’t even have enough material for him! If we did, it would cost us too much!”

“Did you check with our suppliers first to negotiate a bulk rate on the material? They said they could help us out on special purchases.”

“No.”

“Did you sit down and quote him a price?”

“No, but I know it would be more than he can afford. I’ve heard he’s spent too much around town.”

“Did you bother to check his credit? He’s always paid our account with us.”

“I just knew it would be too much trouble. I suggested he come back and see us when he loses weight. We don’t want fat old customers like him ruining our image!”

“Our image has been making fat old customers like him look good!” the boss said. “That’s how we have made money all these years!”

Do you really think that tailor would stay employed long? If I were his boss, he would be out the door immediately.

The tailor’s actions do not make good business sense. Neither does your decision. Your actions show a lack of salesmanship and total disregard for the work so many people have put into this project. If this is the way you do business, people should take their business elsewhere.

Now, if only we can show you the door.

I agree we need to be more civil, but the shooting was not the work of the Tea Party.  The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, posted plenty of anti-government rants, but none were anti-Semitic (Giffords was Jewish), pro-gun rights, or even against Obama. In fact, had Giffords been a tea partier and birther, she still might have been in Loughner’s crosshairs.

But one fact is apparent – Jared Lee Loughner is a mentally unbalanced man. His YouTube rant makes little sense. His classmates at Pima Community College were scared of him, sitting next to the door in case he snapped. He was suspended from class , not allowed back until he underwent a mental health evaluation.

Eventually, the focus of discussion of the shooting is going to be on mental illness. Online psychologists say Loughner is probably paranoid schizophrenic, but no one can diagnose him from a distance. And even if he was truly paranoid schizophrenic, that alone does not make him dangerous. People with schizophrenia are no more likely to be dangerously violent than anyone else.

But Loughner was not just weird and fearful; he was downright scary. So, the question remains – was Loughner ever evaluated?  The warning signs were there, but did anybody try to get this man any help? Could anyone get him any help?

And if the help was there, it is doubtful that Loughner would take the help voluntarily. He thought the Army, the Government, and Pima Community College were out to get him. Imagine how he would feel about psychiatrists.

If we’re going to discuss the politics behind the shooting, let’s discuss the politics of mental health. There is no part of government that needs more reform than our current public policy on mental health. Years ago, we threw the mentally ill in jail. Reformers came, and we established sanitariums. When those were deemed too cruel and expensive, we closed the. But we never replaced them with anything useful.

So where do we put the seriously mentally ill now? In jails! The three largest mental health institutions in the United States are New York’s Riker’s Island, Chicago’s Cook Island Jail, and the Los Angeles County Jail. None of the three are known for their compassionate care, although they do get care. Many more are homeless and  receive no treatment at all.

Another problem is that we no longer commit people unless they are “an imminent danger to themselves or others.” In other words, before he shot of the Safeway, Loughner could not be forced into treatment. He made no direct threats to anyone. With 31 rounds into 20 innocent people, he can be committed now.

Some states, including New York, California, and Florida, have laws that allow less stringent standards for involuntary outpatient treatment. These laws resulted from tragedies similar to the one in Arizona. Many do not, despite proof that the laws help.

But even with those laws, the treatment is inadequate. Public mental health is poorly funded. Once the committed are stable, they are released. And when they are released, they discontinue treatment and relapse.

Part of the reason governments don’t fund mental illness treatment properly is the stigma behind mental illness. Tell someone you have cancer, and that person will give you compassion. Tell someone you’re seriously mentally ill, and you are treated as if you are contagious.

Because of that stigma, the privacy laws regarding mental illness are stringent to the point of doing more harm than good. If you want to find out the condition of a family member who is in the hospital with a heart attack or even hemorrhoid surgery, the doctor can fill you in on the relative’s condition. But ask about an adult relative who is being treated with a mental illness, and the doctor cannot talk to you. Unless the patient signs a release, the doctor cannot even acknowledge that the relative is a patient.

Tea partiers may complain about the ACHA (aka Obamacare), but mental illness requires government-backed health programs. Many private insurance plans limit the amount of mental health treatments to between 8 and 12 a year, but some patients need to see their therapists more than once a month.

The most effective treatment for mental illnesses are drug therapy, but drug policies often prevent the right drug getting to the patient. Take for example two anti-depressants, Prozac and Zoloft, and two patients suffering from depression. Two drugs are similar, and the patients are about the same age, sex, and body type. They have the same symptoms.  Prozac may work for first patient, but Zoloft doesn’t. The second patient responds to Zoloft, but Prozac does nothing for the patient. Suppose the second patient’s insurance allows only Prozac? The patient must pay out of pocket for Zoloft, a drug that can cost hundreds of dollars a month.

Yes, treating mental illness is expensive, and the ones who need treatment the most cannot afford it. But if governments do not treat mental illness, it becomes more costly. Effective community treatment reduces the amount of time spent institutionalizing the patient, whether the institution is a jail or a hospital.

But right now, governments are cutting back on mental health along with other public services. When help is most needed, most agencies have to figure out a way to keep the same treatment with less resources. It’s getting worse.

We need to change our public policy to allow more assertive treatment for mental illness and properly fund programs. We also need to change our attitudes about mental illness, removing the stigma involved. Some of the changes require more government, but this is one time we need government to act. Other changes only involve our attitudes and don’t cost anything.

If we don’t change, we will have more incidents like those in Tuscon, at Virginia Tech, and other places.

He said it was to get “actionable intelligence.”

Didn’t he know that waterboarding and stress positions were against the Geneva Convention and all American laws? That the only answers you get are the ones you want to hear, not the actual truth?

Didn’t he consider that these actions will inspire more terrorism instead of making us more safe?

Play him off, Keyboard Cat!

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Speaking of Bush….

While I can’t condone throwing items at world leaders, I can sympathize with the Iraqi journalist in the video clip. Buddy, I know your pain!

Obama wins. Democrats win all around. Two Republican congressmen voted out in the Orlando area.

It’s a beautiful day!
u2-Beautiful day

-photo by Peg O'Leary-Parsche

I took off of work early Monday to see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speak in downtown Orlando. Since I already work downtown, it was just a matter of catching the free bus to the Orena.

Of course, 50,000 people had the exact same idea. Despite arriving two and a half hours early, I had to wait in a winding line that ended blocks away. Disneyworld had nothing on this line.

The crowd was huge but polite. No one complained when people saved spots for their friends.Vendors moved up and down the line peddling T-shirts, buttons, and towels.

“Look,” one man said. “Barack’s already started getting people jobs.”

Many brought their children and grandparents. One other woman said that the crowd was like “a family reunion.”

It was if you had black, white, Asian and Hispanic cousins. Orlando is a pretty diverse city, but this was the most diverse by age and race that I have ever seen in Florida. Race did not seem to matter, but you could sense the pride in the African-Americans. After years of slavery and discrimination, one of their own was on the threshold of becoming the President of the United States.

Eventually we gathered together at the north side of the so-called “Amway Arena.” The “Amway” was covered up with an “Obama” – great move since Amway and the DeVos family are big Republican supporters.

Hillary spoke first. She was a great opening act, getting the crowd fired up. She gave the catchphrase of the night, “jobs, baby, jobs!” a takeoff on the Republicans’ “drill, baby, drill!.”

Then Obama spoke. He touched on many of the same points that he did in his debates and other speeches, highlighting the importance Florida has in the election. While he did not mention his sick grandmother, he mentioned the importance of the legacy many people leave for their children and grandchildren.  His remarks are in the YouTube clip at the end.

Some people said that seeing Obama was a life-changing experience. I don’t know if I would go that far, but it was one I will remember.

Growing up in Florida, I get a chance to see rockets send men into space. I watched the Apollo 11 launch with my own eyes, even though it appeared as a small flame in the Eastern sky. History was not something I saw on TV, but something I actually witnessed.

On Monday, I saw someone on the cusp of being one of the most transformational Presidents in U.S. history. I can tell my grandchildren that I saw men go to the moon for the first time and the first black President of the United States.

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Want to see what it’s like? Check out http://www.palinaspresident.us, an interactive adventure that shows Palin in the Oval Office. Visit often, because new links are added every day until the election.

No, John LeBruzzo wants to sterilize women on welfare to save tax dollars. And what will he do with those tax savings? Give it as tax incentives to people with large families.

As one of his counterparts in the legislature said, “It’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.”

Now LeBruzzo says that he is not a racist, although he says the current way helps the Democrats more voters. Of course, that’s the only reason why Democrats are against his proposal. It’s not ethical concerns or the fact that he’s suggesting something similar to the Nazis’ “Final Solution.”

“Racist – that’s an easy stone to throw,” he said.

If someone is throwing racism as a stone, LeBruzzo is providing the broad side of the barn to hit.

But ready to be President? I’m not sure.

Jon Stewart captures my thoughts: