May 2013
3 posts
Dig to rescue or dig for gold?
By Tom Ehrich The juxtaposition was coarse and sad. On the top left of The Times’ front page were photos of rescue workers searching for victims of yesterday’s mile-wide tornado in Oklahoma. Top right was an article about Apple Inc.’s determined effort to avoid paying tens of billions of taxes to the US through an elaborate web of phantom companies and overseas tax havens. ...
Ah yes, that pesky buck
By Tom Ehrich When he faced withering criticism, President Truman pointed to his Oval Office desk and said, “The buck stops here.” He took action. Most presidents since Truman have said, “What buck?” President Obama says, “Oh, that buck never reached my desk. And I’m really angry about it.” Democrats in Congress say, “Hey, somebody stop that...
"Random Family"
By Tom Ehrich AUSTIN, TX — I am deep into a disturbing and yet riveting read: “Random Family,” by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Disturbing, because it describes a New York neighborhood not far from my own in miles but light-years distant in the human condition. Now I know first-hand the cost of unrelenting poverty: the serial pregnancies of teenagers like Jessica and Coco, the drug...
April 2013
5 posts
Mourner in Chief
April 26, 2013
By Tom Ehrich By chance, President Obama has become our national “Mourner in Chief,” and we seem to be grateful for it. After years of his predecessor’s cold diffidence in the face of tragedy, it is helpful to see the President and First Lady wiping tears from their eyes in West, TX, while mourning firefighters killed in a plant explosion. Just a week before, he...
Congress, Bought and Intimidated
By Tom Ehrich When special interests buy a Congress and make legislators afraid, this is what you get. They ignore recent tragedies and the desire of a vast majority of Americans, and they capitulate to the gun lobby. They impose a little public embarrassment on egregious banking executives but otherwise leave them alone to continue preying on the American public and boosting profits. They...
Tanking PC sales -- disturbing and encouraging
By Tom Ehrich Okay, my blog beat is life and faith, not technology. But I still have an opinion on tanking personal computer sales. The tech blogosphere is alarmed by sagging sales of desktop and laptop computers. Some call it “death of the PC.” The common wisdom is that people are switching to tablet computers and smartphones. Some blame lackluster PC hardware offerings by Dell et...
Spring comes to Bryant Park -- so do I
By Tom Ehrich Of New York City’s 1,500-plus parks, my favorite might be Bryant Park, a 9.6-acre rectangle set behind the New York Public Library in Midtown Manhattan.
Gone are any vestiges of the park’s bad old days as a haven for drug users. Today, on a warm spring day, we bought food at Metro Cafe and stepped off 42nd Street and joined a crowd of office workers lingering at...
Seeing the more that is God
By Tom Ehrich After the Jazz/Gospel service early Sunday afternoon, I ate a slow Thai lunch at 84th and Lexington and headed up to 85th for a cookie before my evening commitment. Outside Koffeecake Corner I came upon a fellow singer in the Gospel Choir. Big smile, warm greeting, wasn’t the service awesome, waiting for my friends, have you tried their cookies, see you at rehearsal. Those two...
March 2013
3 posts
Listen & Respect
By Tom Ehrich When I was a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, our competition in breaking news was Reuters. It was a black day if Reuters moved a news story before we did. I once kept a long-distance telephone line open from Pittsburgh to New York for 30 minutes, so that I could be first to report a change in US Steel Corp.’s dividend. In this age of digital news, the...
The Other 1%
By Tom Ehrich Behold the new One Percent. In New York City, where a simple breakfast (two eggs, bacon and juice) at the swank 44 restaurant costs $29, an estimated 21,000 children sleep in homeless shelters each night. That’s 1% of the city’s total children. The homeless-children count is up 22% from a year ago, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s the worst homelessness...
Believe in life
By Tom Ehrich
On the same day North Korea threatened a preemptive nuclear attack on the US, I had other concerns: snow starting to fall on Manhattan, dinner with a friend, investment strategy after a record Dow high, web site design, completing slides for a church leaders’ retreat, and of course the strenuous doings at Downton Abbey.
Those concerns would vanish into irrelevance if...
February 2013
4 posts
Office, not Home -- at least for Me
By Tom Ehrich
I believe in the work-from-anywhere revolution that mobile technology makes possible.
In fact, I believed in it before the iPhone, iPad and wireless Internet. It seems antique now, but I once wrote in my hotel room in Naples, Italy, and then found a telephone connection for dialing into the Internet.
Since then, I have enjoyed working in airport lounges, Amtrak trains, my...
Bubbles bursting in US Christianity
By Tom Ehrich
Life inside a bubble can feel complete, even dynamic, as the bubble’s surface shimmers and yet retains form.
But watch this video of a bubble bursting in slow motion: http://mashable.com/2013/02/21/bubble-burst-slow-motion/.
When the surface is breached, the bubble collapses immediately, in one case shattering into a liquid spray faster than a metal object can fall...
Waging war on children
By Tom Ehrich
I had a sinking feeling when conservatives in Congress immediately began building a case against expanding the availability of pre-school education.
On the one hand, their case was familiar: another program that might boost the federal deficit and create an entitlement constituency. That case won’t stand much scrutiny, as the economic benefits of better early-childhood...
Ah, the "conventional wisdom"
By Tom Ehrich
Here’s how the so-called “conventional wisdom” gets formed.
Statistics about computer usage come out. A blogger writes a somewhat nuanced article. A lazy headline editor slaps this header on it:
“Users are Ditching PCs for Tablets and Smartphones.”
Someone remembers Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs famously predicting a “Post-PC era.” And readers say, “This is it! The...
January 2013
3 posts
OMG, no URL. OK, OTL
By Tom Ehrich
I signed up for an interesting online course offered by the University of Virginia’s business school. So did 70,000 others.
I watched the first of three video lectures for week 1. When I returned for videos 2 and 3, I couldn’t find the URL for accessing the course. I reviewed the last five emails from the Darden School, and not one of them had the link.
Seems to me...
"Born on third base"
By Tom Ehrich
Every once in a while, in my daily writings, I fashion a phrase or sentence, then sit back and smile.
Nice! I say to myself. The words fit, they dance, they sparkle. Not always the most profound thought, but a delight to the writer’s eye.
I had a reader’s version of this “Nice!” moment today, when I read New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s...
Speaking of fear
By Tom Ehrich
Let’s consider fear.
Not the usual phobias – fear of snakes, fear of heights – but the fears that tend to compromise our effectiveness as leaders.
I’m thinking fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of losing control, fear of conflict, and fear of change.
These fears can paralyze us at precisely the point where we need to act, or cause us to behave compulsively when...
October 2012
3 posts
Sandy: Lines Drawn, then Blurred
By Tom Ehrich
A storm like Hurricane Sandy starts by drawing lines. Then it blurs those lines.
Maps showed who was in “Frankenstorm’s” path and who was beyond its destructive reach. New York City braced for the worst.
Later maps showed New Jersey a pending disaster and New York City outside the line of truly-awful. Live reports by the amazing crew of CBS-2 showed 20-foot waves at...
Knuckle-Down Mode
By Tom Ehrich
I am struck by how many enterprises are setting up a big roll of the dice. Microsoft is betting the farm on Windows 8. Loss-ridden phone-maker Nokia has one shot left with a new smartphone due next month. Blackberry seems down to one last chance at staying afloat.
The upcoming retail season could be make-or-break for major brands like Best Buy, as well as for countless local...
Tuning Out the Ads
By Tom Ehrich
I was walking through JFK, finding my gate, when a television ad came on telling “patriots” to be worried about Barack Obama getting reelected.
Strange use of the loaded term “patriots.” Especially tiresome to have an advertisement intruding on my travels.
As our flight neared Charlotte, a flight attendant — “We’re here for your safety...
September 2012
4 posts
My Son's Top 10 Songs
By Tom Ehrich
Now the other shoe falls in an ongoing discussion between my son William and myself over a matter of great significance.
Namely, which are the greatest rock songs of all time.
I published my list in July. (Click here to read.)
Now William, a college junior, has sent me his list. Annotated, to explain what constitutes greatness.
Top 10 Songs
By Will Ehrich
...
"Well Done"
By Tom Ehrich
I was crossing Times Square on 47th Street this morning, when I noticed a blind woman feeling for something solid and trying to get her bearings at a busy corner. Her guide dog was distracted.
“May I help you?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, “I need to get across this terrible intersection.”
I took her arm and led her across Broadway.
It was a small act. People do this all...
Fresh Starts
By Tom Ehrich
Promptly at 4:25pm on a workday, a colleague ended our meeting. “Got to pick up my daughter at school,” he said. “Her first day.”
Same thing yesterday at church, where the music minister introduced new gathering music and we held a Ministry Fair.
Same thing during my weekend in Maryland, where some hard-working and open-minded church leaders considered fresh ideas to meet...
Prosperity Is for the Many, not the Few
By Tom Ehrich
In my early days with The Wall Street Journal, I helped to cover the steel industry in Pittsburgh.
US Steel had installed a lawyer as CEO. He knew nothing about making or selling steel. His only strategy, as I recall, was to defeat the United Steelworkers union.
As a result, Big Steel missed a critical advance in steelmaking technology and found itself with aged mills making...
August 2012
7 posts
Three Preachers Go into the Pulpit...
By Tom Ehrich
Let’s make up a preacher joke.
A Southern Baptist preacher stands in the pulpit, waves the American flag, excoriates the President, and calls for constitutional amendments banning abortion and same-gender marriage.
“Alleluia!” his people shout. “Let ‘em have it!”
A black AME preacher speaks forcefully against oppression of minorities, income gaps in America, and...
Protect the Right to Vote
By Tom Ehrich
My father was a “Taft Republican,” the conservative wing of the GOP led by Sen. Robert Taft.
When Gen. Eisenhower prevailed at the 1952 GOP convention, my father loyally began to work for Ike’s election.
Most important, he worked every election at the voting station near our home in Indianapolis. He considered it his civic duty. I never agreed with his political views,...
Turn Nightmare into Jewel
By Tom Ehrich
Bryant Park is alive!
The main lawn of the 9.6-acre Paris-style park behind the New York Public Library in Midtown is already filled with people waiting for tonight’s free movie on an enormous screen.
Children ride the merry-go-round, Le Carrousel, while parents snap photos. Young professionals crowd the outdoor cafe, one of Midtown’s prime meeting sites. Every...
Too Much "Suit-ness"
By Tom Ehrich
In a favorite show called “White Collar,” an off-center character named Mozzie refers to his friend Neal’s FBI colleagues as “suits.”
In his mind, nothing more need be said. “Suits” are bureaucrats, freedom-stiflers, order-keepers, creativity-squelchers. To free-thinkers like Mozzie, “suits” are the enemy.
I don’t share Mozzie’s disdain for people who wear...
We Need a Healthy Free Press
By Tom Ehrich
When political scoundrels lie and citizens get confused by the blizzard of deceptions, it makes you appreciate the value of a free and independent press, staffed by wise reporters who know how to check facts, sift through falsehoods and blather, and present balanced coverage.
As daily newspapers die or shrink and aren’t replaced, our freedom becomes imperiled. An...
"Religious Freedom" Means Freedom
By Tom Ehrich
It is bizarre to see conservative Christians playing the victim role in “religious freedom.”
Roman Catholic bishops, for example, have decided to brand President Obama as an enemy of religious freedom. What they mean, of course, is they want to preserve their power over who gets medical care in Catholic hospitals.
Not a freedom issue. But also not surprising behavior for...
A Gymnast Surrounded by Vultures
By Tom Ehrich
I felt sorry for 16-year-old US gymnast McKayla Maroney last evening. She seemed to be surrounded by vultures.
Yes, she failed to stick her landing on the vault. Yes, she missed a gold medal. But it was the vultures who made me sad for her.
NBC had tricked her out as a teen seductress for some setting-the-stage footage. All that was missing was an 800 number on the screen. Her...
July 2012
9 posts
Thinking for Myself
By Tom Ehrich
I was checking Facebook and came across a sequence from the London Olympics opening ceremony that NBC had refused to show. I watched it anyway, was deeply moved, and couldn’t fathom why NBC thought I shouldn’t see it.
Suddenly, I had had enough of other people presuming to think for me.
I am tired of having my generation’s every twitch turned into product and advertising,...
Jesus the Radical
By Tom Ehrich
Arguments between “liberal” and “conservative” Christians tend to be wordy, venomous, and grounded in stereotypes. They shed little light beyond the glare of strongly held positions.
Liberal Christians, for example, tend to see “conservative” Christians as homophobic, patriarchal, racist and largely an ally of the Republican Party and its faux-patriotic agenda favoring the wealthy,...
Shouting and Shooting
By Tom Ehrich
Killings in Aurora, CO, immediately stirred unresolved issues about gun control in America. Just as quickly, the gun lobby shouted down those concerns. One Congressman said the answer was more guns, not fewer.
I have been observing these rituals for years. Like most of our political theater, true motivations and concerns get lost in the smoke.
The Second Amendment was about...
Is a $20,000 Watch the Prize?
By Tom Ehrich
Forget Wall Street. Today’s “best and brightest” are heading for California’s Silicon Valley and New York’s Silicon Alley.
Thousands of aspiring engineers, web developers, designers and marketers live in dormitories, work in open-floor bullpens, attend coding competitions to enhance their skills, and work hours that defy body chemistry. It sounds...
Conservative Commentators Miss the Mark
By Tom Ehrich
Conservative commentators like Rupert Murdoch’s predictable stable and Ross Douthat of The New York Times are feasting on what they perceive as the “death” of “liberal Christianity” and the Episcopal Church in particular.
They add two plus two and get eight. They see decisions they don’t like — such as the recent General Convention...
Word to Vacationers: Go For It!
By Tom Ehrich
When I sent out my Church Wellness Report this morning, I immediately received a slew of away-on-vacation auto-responders.
All I can say is: Way to go!
Take those vacations. Be kind to your family. Be kind to yourself. Work isn’t everything.
I know that it took me a full week in Seattle before I relaxed enough just to sit on a deck and watch the ferries go back and...
Hopeful Signs in Indianapolis
By Tom Ehrich
The closing at Episcopal General Convention 2012 in Indianapolis brings to mind Detroit 1988, when I edited “The General Convention Daily.”
The soul of that convention lay on the floor of Cobo Hall: hundreds of fabric squares honoring persons who had died of AIDS. The “AIDS Quilt” provided respite and meaning.
Upstairs, the House of Bishops had ceased to...
Your Needs, not Mine
By Tom Ehrich
I’ve never met Art, a salesperson at M.L. Leddy’s, one of the better boot makers in Texas.
I simply inquired about ordering my second pair from their affordable Vaquero line. Art took the call.
We chatted about Western boots for a while — a topic that few in Manhattan find interesting. I ordered a pair of brown medium-toe boots. What I received several days...
"Top Songs" (Hey, It's Summer)
By Tom Ehrich
Call it a quest, not a contest.
My 20-year-old son and I are compiling “Top Songs” lists. We compare entries by text message and email, disagree about the Beach Boys, and take delight in naming the gems.
It’s the perfect mid-summer activity in air made overheated by church conventions, political campaigning, and bizarre debates over fripperies like Facebook...
June 2012
5 posts
Let's Hear It for "Desperation"
By Tom Ehrich
Let’s hear it for “desperation.”
Not the “losing hope” kind, but the recognition that a situation is urgent, dire, maybe dangerous.
The tech-blogosphere has been busily dissecting Microsoft’s recent unveiling of yet another phone app, a tablet device (“Surface”) and the acquisition of Yammer (networking app). Several in-the-know types dismiss the moves as...
Five Years in NYC -- part 3
By Tom Ehrich
Five years after moving to New York City, I find that I love being a Christian here.
There is only a little public support for religion here — holiday closings for Christmas and Good Friday, as well as the Jewish high holy days, the usual property tax breaks, and occasional media nods to religious leaders for comments.
Mostly, you have to do faith on your own here....
Five Years in NYC -- part 2
By Tom Ehrich
Moving to New York City five years ago didn’t make me a “New Yorker,” of course.
Like most of my 8.2 million neighbors, I started somewhere else – another country, another state, another profession, another way of doing the basics, another sports loyalty. We might all dress in black, but we represent every tiny shade of humanity’s rainbow.
To me, “moving to New...
Five Years in NYC -- part 1
By Tom Ehrich
Five years ago this week, I took possession of our first apartment in New York City. I slept on the parquet floor and tried to decode strange city noises 12 stories below.
An empty apartment feels empty, of course, and it felt small, compared to our house in North Carolina. But the adventure had begun. When my wife and youngest son joined me a month later, a dream born in...
Common Sense on the Rise
By Tom Ehrich
In a whirlwind of business travel, local business duties, church activities and family life, I have reached a tentative conclusion. Maybe wishful thinking, but maybe a glimmer of hope.
I sense that common sense is asserting itself.
Although our political pretenders find increasingly exotic ways to lambaste and dehumanize each other, people aren’t taking the bait. Oh, many...
May 2012
6 posts
, Yes, Diversity at the 500
By Tom Ehrich
Okay, race fans, time to celebrate the drama that diversity brings to the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.
Gender diversity came 35 years ago, when an aerospace engineer named Janet Guthrie raced in the 500, and the starter modified the “most famous words in racing” to be “Gentlemen and lady, start your engines.” (Now, with several women in the field,...
Passion for God
By Tom Ehrich
I was enjoying a spirited rendition of “The Storm Is Passing Over” by the Detroit Mass Choir – a piece our Gospel Choir is learning – when the camera panned the audience.
There, among hundreds of people shouting in delight and praising God, was a tall father holding his baby boy. While dad greeted the choir with shouts of praise, his son watched him carefully. Not scared, just...
O, Pioneers
By Tom Ehrich
I fly down to Tampa, Florida, today to work with four Episcopal congregations that want to think boldly and collaboratively about where God is leading them.
No more “business as usual,” said one pastor. Not because they are dying — for, in fact, they are holding their own — but because God needs more from them, and so do the communities they serve.
We...
Morgan's Mess
By Tom Ehrich
As a customer of JP Morgan Chase – high-stakes gambler now off $2 billion and still drawing cards – I have to wonder what depth of addiction is managing my personal and business finances.
As a resident of New York City, I am appalled at the greed, swagger, entitlement, clubby narcissism and outlandish salaries exemplified by Morgan, which are poisoning this great city and...
