Business Week Magazine did an article on Utah’s new health reform plan. They quoted my husband, Dave Jackson in the article as he has played a vital role in writing and implementing the plan.

Here is the article

      
   I got this from a friend:

     Outside England ’s Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot
     for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its
     parking fees were managed by a very pleasant
     attendant. The fees were �1 ticket for cars ($1.40),
     �5 tickets for busses (about $7).
     Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing
     a day of work, he just didn’t show up; so the Zoo
     Management called the City Council and asked them
     to send another parking agent.
     The Council did some research and replied that the
     parking lot was the Zoo’s own responsibility.
     The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was
     a City employee.
     The City Council responded that the lot attendant
     had never been on the City payroll.
     Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain
     (or some such scenario), is a man who apparently had a
     ticket machine installed completely on his own; and then
     simply showed up every day, commencing
     to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about
     $560 per day — for 25 years.
     Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over
     $7 million dollars!

     ….

     And no one even knows his name.

I got this in an email and I think it is very interesting.  I believe there is a possiblity that it is nothing more than a  publicity stunt to get people to buy the book and may not even be written by Lee Iacocca, but I think it makes a few good points and I agree that Americans need to stand up and refuse to “take it anymore” on so many levels. I too have wondered why we are not outraged at what is happening.

I usually shy aware from this type of controversy in my blog, but I wanted to get this out there and see what your opinion of the whole matter might be.

Remember  Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler  Corporation from its death throes?  He’s now 82 years old and  has a new book,’Where Have All The Leaders  Gone?’.
 
 Lee  Iacocca  Says:

‘Am I the  only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the  hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder! We’ve got a  gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff,  we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean  up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid  car.. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods  their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the  course.’

Stay the  course? You’ve got  to be kidding. This is America , not the damned, ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you  a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums  out!’
You might  think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have.  But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country  anymore.

The most  famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs..  While we’re fiddling in Iraq , the  Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard  questions. That’s not the promise of the ‘ America ‘ my parents and yours  traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about  you?

I’ll go a  step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged.  This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis!  (Iacocca elaborates on nine C’s of leadership, with crisis being the  first.)

Leaders are  made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit  there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone  else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s  another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling  down.

On September  11, 2001, we needed a  strong leader more than any other time in our  history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a  mess, so here’s where we stand.

We’re  immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for  leaving.

Obama is  running the biggest deficit in the history of the  country.

We’re losing  the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care  costs.

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our  schools are in trouble due to poor leadership in school districts.

 Our borders  are like sieves..

The middle  class is being squeezed every which  way.

 
These are  times that cry out for  leadership.

But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: ‘Where have all the leaders gone?’ Where  are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of  character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a  sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the   point.

 Name me a  leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off  our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?

We’ve spent  billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how  to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one  leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane  Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the  response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions  that were made in the crucial hours after the  storm.

Everyone’s  hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out  what you’re going to do the next  time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our  competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there  could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car  companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to  do about it?

Name me a  government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or  solving the energy crisis, or managing the  health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises  that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class  dry.

I have news  for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our  greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.  What is everybody so afraid  of? That some bonehead on NBC news or CNN will call them a  name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a  change?

Had  Enough? Hey, I’m  not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.  I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope – I believe in America  . In my lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of living through some of   America ’s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst  crises: The ‘Great Depression,’ ‘World War  II,’ the ‘Korean War,’ the ‘Kennedy Assassination,’ the  ‘Vietnam War,’ the 1970’s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent  years culminating with 9/11.

 
If I’ve  learned one thing, it’s this: ‘You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building  a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a  role to play.
 
Only a few people in the US know you elected an illegal alien to be President! A Muslim at that! And he jumped right in destroying the US from the inside. Osama bin Laden is smiling from ear to ear because he is winning the war on terror and you helped by voting his man in as President!
 
That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a “Call to Action” for people who, like me, believe  in America ! It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s  shake off the crap and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had  ‘enough.’
 
It’s  our country, folks, and it’s our future. Our future is at  stake!!