Below is a speech I gave upon the culmination of my 2-year term with the Ursuline Mission and Heritage Commission, a group professional of women and men associated with the Ursulines of Cleveland who have great spirituality and support. I decided to "put myself out there" in front of everyone in attendance in light of all of the changes that are on the horizon in my life. I really try to heed my own words when feeling down in the dumps about certain things in life (ex: my career, financial situation, etc.). I got a great response from many people afterwards, so I decided to share it here in case it provides even a small glimmer of inspiration to others. So, here it is:
"Hi Everyone! My name is Matt Orgovan and I’m currently the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School.
When I sat down to reflect about my two years with the Mission and Heritage Commission, what immediately came to mind was how, when I began this ministry in the fall of 2007, I was dealing with some inner struggles that I couldn’t quite get a handle on. Though things in my life at the time were better than I could have imagined, I nonetheless felt a sense of sadness, a touch of depression and random anxiety attacks that made me feel like I was living life in a haze. I kept saying, 'Get a grip, Matt. Things are great right now. Snap out of it.'
Other than my close friends and family members, I did my best to not let it affect my work or interactions with others. I think I did a pretty good job in that regard. The support of my wonderful fiancee Joanna and others, including being a part of the Mission and Heritage Commission, helped me navigate through that unexpected state of what I perceived as helplessness.
I don’t know if any of you have ever struggled with anxiety or depression. If you have, my prayers are with you...it can be a scary place.
Yet, looking back through my mission journal, I came across a phrase from the introduction portion of St. Angela’s counsels that has stuck with me in one form or another since I first read it and really helped me along the way. It says, 'Have hope and firm faith in God who will help you in all things.' I’m a big baseball fan, and I sometimes talk in baseball metaphors, so I consciously try to remember that quote as I face all of the curveballs...and even the slow homerun pitches that life throws us all minute by minute.
Having a group to listen to, to share ideas with and to meditate with, has made me more aware of and in touch with sentiments like that. God has a plan for all of us...certain stages of that plan we may struggle with...we may ask why this, now? or if it all seems to pile on at once...how am I going to handle this? Certain stages of this plan may cause us to jump up and cheer or, as Tiger Woods frequently does, pump our fist in the air. Whether we want a certain stage of this plan or not, it really helps to just sit back, step out of the box and look at the situation objectively...and remember, God has a plan. You do all that you can in life, the rest is in his hands. When overwhelmed by those unhittable pitches, try the best you can to make contact...that’s all you can do. And when you get that straight, slow meatball of a pitch, hit it out of the park. But, remember that when the latter happens, don’t gloat or boast, just thank God and enjoy the moment.
Another phrase I love that goes hand in hand with that earlier quote, goes something like this, 'The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.' Through the Mission and Heritage Commission, my spirituality and relationship with God has evolved. I think about spiritual quotes like those two more often. I am more aware of the fact that while I can control many things in my life, ulitmately it is He who calls the shots. God’s blueprint for me will end with a cozy spot with him up above. That’s all I need to know.
In closing, I will continue to keep in my thoughts the wonderful community of the Ursulines. They have been such a support of me personally and of VASJ. Even though I was thrown one of those very curveballs a few weeks ago, I decided that the prudent thing would be to consider moving on. Whether that ultimately happens sooner rather than later, remains to be seen. God has a plan for me. It’s in his hands. I know that. I accept it and I will do the best that I can to hit that curveball out of the park. Thanks and God bless."
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Save American Manufacturing
The Following article is from the site AmericanEconomicAlert.org. As crafters who take great pride in our work we know how difficult it is to help American manufacturers of the products we need when it is incredibly difficult to the Made in USA. Fellow crafters support our economy by searching high and low for your raw materials to make you craft.
Click on the title to access the full PDF document of this article.
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL
FIGHTING FOR AMERICAN COMPANIES AND AMERICAN JOBS SINCE 1933
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL • 910 16TH ST. NW, SUITE 300 • WASHINGTON, DC 20006
(202) 728-1980 • (202) 728-1981 FAX • COUNCIL@USBUSINESS.ORG • WWW.USBUSINESS.ORG
TO SAVE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING:
USBIC’S PLAN FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL RENEWAL
Kevin L. Kearns, Alan Tonelson, and William Hawkins
Although warnings about the crisis engulfing American manufacturing have been intensifying for several years now, the sector’s woes continue to be significantly underestimated – certainly by official Washington and even by many manufacturers themselves. In fact, despite the current boost in growth fueled by deficit spending, tax cuts, mortgage re-financings, and other one-time stimuli, the decline of American manufacturing is fast nearing the point of irreversibility -- at least from the standpoint of restoring to world leadership a critical mass of industries producing in the United States. The nation, in short, faces a manufacturing emergency. Unless drastic measures are taken quickly, this emergency will turn the United States into a second-class manufacturing power, greatly diminishing its own future economic prospects. Further, national security and flexibility in foreign affairs will be severely compromised.
Finally, the international imbalances being created by the manufacturing crisis will likely push the world into a major dollar crisis and could cause a protracted depression.
In part, the manufacturing crisis reflects the economy’s latest cyclical downturn and the deflating of the bubble of the 1990s. Likewise, the manufacturing employment portion of the crisis stems in part from the increases in productivity in recent years. But neither of these factors sufficiently explains the root cause of manufacturing’s current troubles, which are the worst by many measures since the end of World War II, and that is the cumulative and continuing effects of two decades of misguided, ill-advised, and weak-willed U.S. trade and
globalization policies.
During this period, Washington has consistently failed to open foreign consumption markets adequately to U.S. producers – despite years of promises and the fanfare that greeted each new trade agreement. In addition, the
American government has failed miserably to combat predatory foreign trade practices aimed at undermining U.S. producers in their home market. Perversely, Washington has responded to these failures by encouraging U.S. manufacturers to supply their home market from low-cost third world production platforms like Mexico and China. And most U.S. multinational corporations, and indeed some of their smaller suppliers, have responded with enthusiasm.
NO TIME TO LOSE
The most serious global macroeconomic dangers stemming from the continued flight of American manufacturing overseas have to date been avoided and may be postponed still further by continued financial policy legerdemain – though the faster America’s international debts keep rising, the more difficult the challenge of correcting the imbalances. But regardless of when the crunch actually comes, the weakening of domestic manufacturing is already undermining the material foundations of American national success. The prolonged wage slump triggered by the overseas migration of America’s best-paying jobs on average has
been rippling through the U.S. economy and American society for at least two decades. The loss of these important jobs represents a shrinking of the employment base needed for a middle-class standard of living, table families, and the local and state tax revenues necessary for a first-world level of responsibly financed public infrastructure and social services. Consequently, Americans find increasingly at risk their hard-won 20th
century gains in access to quality education, health care, and retirement security (whether paid for by a solvent public sector or a sufficiently broad-based and profitable private sector).
TO SAVE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING: USBIC’S PLAN FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL RENEWAL PAGE 2
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL • 910 16TH ST. NW, SUITE 300 • WASHINGTON, DC 20006
In addition, the manufacturing crisis raises serious questions about the U.S. economy’s ability to maintain a high-tech, world-leading military without worrisome dependence on foreign products and technologies. Although it is true that defense-related imports come overwhelmingly from long-time allies or traditionally friendly countries, it is just as true that they are growing rapidly at a time when major disagreements increasingly mark the relationships between the United States and these countries.
Further, the massive loss of tax revenue – both corporate and personal – directly attributable to a disappearing industrial base will undoubtedly constrain America’s ability to sustain military operations in both peacetime and wartime at levels that U.S. policymakers have come to take for granted. Thus the country faces a future in which the ability to project power and thereby affect events and outcomes the world over will be much more limited than anytime in the last century and a quarter. Most worrisome, the decline of American manufacturing is quickly feeding on itself and gaining unstoppable momentum. Washington’s continuing failure to secure equitable terms of trade forces more and more U.S. firms to compensate by outsourcing. These moves create powerful pressure for growing numbers of the remaining hold-out companies to follow suit. The migration of prime contractors overseas inexorably pulls much of their supply chains with them. The export of blue-collar production work leads to the export of white-collar manufacturing-related work, as companies seek the advantages of locating researchers and designers near the factories they service. In fact, there is a continuous feed-back loop between R&D efforts and the factory floor, with the two functions, R&D
and production, operating in tandem. And as is well documented, R&D and other technology work often produce a clustering effect, which draws labs and similar facilities from other industries in search of new synergies. The notion that the United States will retain high-end design functions while letting production migrate overseas is wishful thinking. Without major globalization policy changes, this vicious cycle of manufacturing flight cannot be turned into a virtuous cycle of manufacturing resurgence.
About the Authors: Kevin L. Kearns, President of the United States Business and Industry Council (USBIC) and the USBIC Educational Foundation, is a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer with extensive defense trade experience. Alan Tonelson is a Research Fellow at the USBIC Educational Foundation and author of the recent book on globalization, The Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus and Uncontrolled Free Trade are Sinking American Living Standards. William Hawkins is Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the
USBIC Educational Foundation.
The United States Business and Industry Council (USBIC) is a non-profit, business advocacy organization of more than 500 firms from across the nation. From its founding in 1933, USBIC has championed America’s domestic family-owned or closely-held companies—our nation’s “main street” businesses—who create new products, jobs and growth here in the United States. The Council’s mission is to expand our domestic economy, with particular emphasis on our manufacturing, processing, and fabricating industries, and through the resulting growth to extend a high standard of living to all Americans. USBIC positions on tax, business regulation, and international trade issues always receive significant attention, as Congress, the Administration, and the media know they can count on the Council for objective, principled viewpoints. USBIC plays a critical national policy role through its education campaigns, lobbying efforts, press conferences, bipartisan staff briefings, op-ed pieces, and publishing.
(202) 728-1980 • (202) 728-1981 FAX • COUNCIL@USBUSINESS.ORG • WWW.USBUSINESS.ORG
Click on the title to access the full PDF document of this article.
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL
FIGHTING FOR AMERICAN COMPANIES AND AMERICAN JOBS SINCE 1933
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL • 910 16TH ST. NW, SUITE 300 • WASHINGTON, DC 20006
(202) 728-1980 • (202) 728-1981 FAX • COUNCIL@USBUSINESS.ORG • WWW.USBUSINESS.ORG
TO SAVE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING:
USBIC’S PLAN FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL RENEWAL
Kevin L. Kearns, Alan Tonelson, and William Hawkins
Although warnings about the crisis engulfing American manufacturing have been intensifying for several years now, the sector’s woes continue to be significantly underestimated – certainly by official Washington and even by many manufacturers themselves. In fact, despite the current boost in growth fueled by deficit spending, tax cuts, mortgage re-financings, and other one-time stimuli, the decline of American manufacturing is fast nearing the point of irreversibility -- at least from the standpoint of restoring to world leadership a critical mass of industries producing in the United States. The nation, in short, faces a manufacturing emergency. Unless drastic measures are taken quickly, this emergency will turn the United States into a second-class manufacturing power, greatly diminishing its own future economic prospects. Further, national security and flexibility in foreign affairs will be severely compromised.
Finally, the international imbalances being created by the manufacturing crisis will likely push the world into a major dollar crisis and could cause a protracted depression.
In part, the manufacturing crisis reflects the economy’s latest cyclical downturn and the deflating of the bubble of the 1990s. Likewise, the manufacturing employment portion of the crisis stems in part from the increases in productivity in recent years. But neither of these factors sufficiently explains the root cause of manufacturing’s current troubles, which are the worst by many measures since the end of World War II, and that is the cumulative and continuing effects of two decades of misguided, ill-advised, and weak-willed U.S. trade and
globalization policies.
During this period, Washington has consistently failed to open foreign consumption markets adequately to U.S. producers – despite years of promises and the fanfare that greeted each new trade agreement. In addition, the
American government has failed miserably to combat predatory foreign trade practices aimed at undermining U.S. producers in their home market. Perversely, Washington has responded to these failures by encouraging U.S. manufacturers to supply their home market from low-cost third world production platforms like Mexico and China. And most U.S. multinational corporations, and indeed some of their smaller suppliers, have responded with enthusiasm.
NO TIME TO LOSE
The most serious global macroeconomic dangers stemming from the continued flight of American manufacturing overseas have to date been avoided and may be postponed still further by continued financial policy legerdemain – though the faster America’s international debts keep rising, the more difficult the challenge of correcting the imbalances. But regardless of when the crunch actually comes, the weakening of domestic manufacturing is already undermining the material foundations of American national success. The prolonged wage slump triggered by the overseas migration of America’s best-paying jobs on average has
been rippling through the U.S. economy and American society for at least two decades. The loss of these important jobs represents a shrinking of the employment base needed for a middle-class standard of living, table families, and the local and state tax revenues necessary for a first-world level of responsibly financed public infrastructure and social services. Consequently, Americans find increasingly at risk their hard-won 20th
century gains in access to quality education, health care, and retirement security (whether paid for by a solvent public sector or a sufficiently broad-based and profitable private sector).
TO SAVE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING: USBIC’S PLAN FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL RENEWAL PAGE 2
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL • 910 16TH ST. NW, SUITE 300 • WASHINGTON, DC 20006
In addition, the manufacturing crisis raises serious questions about the U.S. economy’s ability to maintain a high-tech, world-leading military without worrisome dependence on foreign products and technologies. Although it is true that defense-related imports come overwhelmingly from long-time allies or traditionally friendly countries, it is just as true that they are growing rapidly at a time when major disagreements increasingly mark the relationships between the United States and these countries.
Further, the massive loss of tax revenue – both corporate and personal – directly attributable to a disappearing industrial base will undoubtedly constrain America’s ability to sustain military operations in both peacetime and wartime at levels that U.S. policymakers have come to take for granted. Thus the country faces a future in which the ability to project power and thereby affect events and outcomes the world over will be much more limited than anytime in the last century and a quarter. Most worrisome, the decline of American manufacturing is quickly feeding on itself and gaining unstoppable momentum. Washington’s continuing failure to secure equitable terms of trade forces more and more U.S. firms to compensate by outsourcing. These moves create powerful pressure for growing numbers of the remaining hold-out companies to follow suit. The migration of prime contractors overseas inexorably pulls much of their supply chains with them. The export of blue-collar production work leads to the export of white-collar manufacturing-related work, as companies seek the advantages of locating researchers and designers near the factories they service. In fact, there is a continuous feed-back loop between R&D efforts and the factory floor, with the two functions, R&D
and production, operating in tandem. And as is well documented, R&D and other technology work often produce a clustering effect, which draws labs and similar facilities from other industries in search of new synergies. The notion that the United States will retain high-end design functions while letting production migrate overseas is wishful thinking. Without major globalization policy changes, this vicious cycle of manufacturing flight cannot be turned into a virtuous cycle of manufacturing resurgence.
About the Authors: Kevin L. Kearns, President of the United States Business and Industry Council (USBIC) and the USBIC Educational Foundation, is a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer with extensive defense trade experience. Alan Tonelson is a Research Fellow at the USBIC Educational Foundation and author of the recent book on globalization, The Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus and Uncontrolled Free Trade are Sinking American Living Standards. William Hawkins is Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the
USBIC Educational Foundation.
The United States Business and Industry Council (USBIC) is a non-profit, business advocacy organization of more than 500 firms from across the nation. From its founding in 1933, USBIC has championed America’s domestic family-owned or closely-held companies—our nation’s “main street” businesses—who create new products, jobs and growth here in the United States. The Council’s mission is to expand our domestic economy, with particular emphasis on our manufacturing, processing, and fabricating industries, and through the resulting growth to extend a high standard of living to all Americans. USBIC positions on tax, business regulation, and international trade issues always receive significant attention, as Congress, the Administration, and the media know they can count on the Council for objective, principled viewpoints. USBIC plays a critical national policy role through its education campaigns, lobbying efforts, press conferences, bipartisan staff briefings, op-ed pieces, and publishing.
(202) 728-1980 • (202) 728-1981 FAX • COUNCIL@USBUSINESS.ORG • WWW.USBUSINESS.ORG
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Feedburner
Ok, so I'm trying to figure out this Feedburner business. I don't know I think I'm in over my head. HELP!!!!!!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
CE76 On The Find
I am soooooooooooooooooooooo excited. I was Googling our name when lo and behold what did I find. THE FIND. Yes. Our bath & body produc
ts came up on the Google search on The Find website. I feel as if we've hit the big time. If you click on the link above it will lead you straight to the page.
I was on the phone w/ Matt while all of this was going on. How excited he was!! I tried calling my mom to tell her but I got voicemail. I would call other people but they're all probably asleep. Oh well at least I posted it on Facebook & Twitter.
If you get a chance check it out!!! YAY!!!
ts came up on the Google search on The Find website. I feel as if we've hit the big time. If you click on the link above it will lead you straight to the page.I was on the phone w/ Matt while all of this was going on. How excited he was!! I tried calling my mom to tell her but I got voicemail. I would call other people but they're all probably asleep. Oh well at least I posted it on Facebook & Twitter.
If you get a chance check it out!!! YAY!!!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Beauty Is Only Skin Deep... Or Is It?
So at this very moment I am watching "The Biggest Loser". It is the show right before the finale. All of the contestants when they began on the show were morbidly obese. When you watch clips of the contestants from the beginning of the show to the end you not only see a difference in them outwardly but also on the inside. They way they carry themselves, self-esteem, personalities and their zest for life changes over the duration they are on camp. As these people shed literally hundreds of pounds, not only do they appear more physically attractive, but also more emotionally attractive. They have accomplished the greatest feat of their lives. They have hope and excitement for their future and what they can accomplish in their personal lives.
I give kuddos to all of the contestants. I give kuddos to all of you who have overcome an obstacle in your life and it has shown on the outside as well as on the inside.
For sure beauty is only skin deep, but it's what you do on the outside that affects how you feel inside.
I give kuddos to all of the contestants. I give kuddos to all of you who have overcome an obstacle in your life and it has shown on the outside as well as on the inside.
For sure beauty is only skin deep, but it's what you do on the outside that affects how you feel inside.
Friday, May 1, 2009
How to avoid swine flu e-mail
CDC Warning....how to avoid swine flu...
Very important - prevention is Key....
This was sent in an E-Mail to me. I opened it hastily for info. only to find cute kid kissing cute piggy.
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