I am willing to pay a certain price in taxes for my friends and neighbors who aren’t so self-reliant. But I am not willing to pay too much.I am not willing to support the unions which these employees are a part, because I do not support progressive politics, and the AFL-CIO is a progressive organization as defined by Richard Trumka. I do not want my money in his pocket, and if I give too much money to police, firefighters, and teachers who then give with union dues money to any group backed by the AFL-CIO, my money ends up in his pocket, which is theft from me. I see all progressive groups as detrimental to the kind of America I want to live in.
I am sick and tired of listening to moochers declare what heroes they are because they stand between criminals and the public, how they run into a fire when I run out. Such people are no different from the soldier who says to a naive 19-year-old girl in a bar just before he goes oversees, “I may be killed tomorrow, so will you sleep with me tonight?”
“Oh, you’re such a hero,” says the young girl. “Yes, I would love to be your last time.”
This is what people make in America on average by salary range.
Salary range: $20,000-$29,999
1. Personal home and care aides: $20,280
2. Manicurists and pedicurists: $22,150
3. Funeral attendants: $23,880
4. Landscaping and groundskeeping workers: $25,340
5. Dietetic technicians: $28,530
Salary range: $30,000-$39,999
6. Veterinary technologists and technicians: $30,580
7. Travel agents: $32,450
8. Dental assistants: $34,000
9. Police, fire and ambulance dispatchers: $36,470
10. Massage therapists: $39,780
Salary range: $40,000-$49,999
11. Surgical technologists: $40,710
12. Law clerks: $41,960
13. Flight attendants: $43,350
14. Firefighters: $47,270
15. Health educators: $49,060
Salary range: $50,000-$59,999
16. Food service technicians: $50,850
17. Respiratory therapists: $54,200
18. Anthropologists and archaeologists: $57,230
19. Editors: $58,440
20. Public relations specialists: $59,370
When I tell some of these local public workers that they make too much, and they used emotion, the heroics of others to get it from the public in the form of tax increases, I hear back that I’m being cheap. “Can’t you afford just $24 a month more to support your local public servants?”
“I would if they were broke, or even making a middle-class wage, but they are doing exceptionally well. They don’t need an increase. I need that money to pay for my Netflix account. That’s more important to me than giving someone who has too much even more.” Is that selfish? No, because for many, some people may not be able to pay their cable bill, or the cell phone bill, or may have to give up Netflix so a public worker can have a 2 to 3% increase on a top salary of over 70K per year. Give me a break!
The West Chester Police did a good thing and that’s act quickly on an internal investigation of one of their own. The nine-year veteran 37-year-old David Busemeyer was investigated and indicted by a grand jury of three felony charges, obstruction of official business, obstruction of justice and attempted tampering with evidence. Busemeyer is of course innocent until proven guilty, but this entire internal investigation is a reminder that public servants are not perfect. And I don’t expect them to be. What I expect is for West Chester to do exactly as it did, and that is bring about justice even when it involves their own.
The trouble with “collective begging” which is the union term that Cunningham has adopted to refer to the “collective bargaining” reform bill of Issue 2 is that “collective bargaining” is not practical, is expensive, and allows employees who can’t achieve large wage levels under their own merit to make excellent wages under that system. Using West Chester purely as an example since it’s my community it’s not a big deal if David Busemeyer makes $70,032.20 if there was some sort of evaluation procedure that delivered him that type of wage. Maybe he does a lot of high risk work, or maybe he can speak in several languages and act as a translator for illegal immigration busts. But under collective bargaining, EVERYONE makes that kind of money. All a public employee has to do is show up for work, do what they are told within the union rules, and keep their nose clean, somewhat, and they will receive an automatic increase based on their collective bargaining contract.And instead of one employee making great money, you have hundreds making that kind of money and every bit of it must come from the tax payer.
I hired Willie about 15 years ago to be my spokesman for a line of T-shirts I was producing to help get out a message I had which stated, “TAKE AN AX TO OUR TAX.” We were making the shirts at cost during the 1996 election season to bring high taxes to people’s attention. Rob Portman actually bought one from me, and I took one down to city hall and gave it to Roxanne Quals, the mayor of Cincinnati at the time. Willie was hired to do our commercial which we ran on 700 WLW.
I was set to go on with Bill Cunningham during his 9 PM show on a summer Friday night. As I was headed to the station Cunningham had on a segment where he had strippers on doing a live strip show while Cunningham did play-by-play commentary. My wife told me, “This is the guy you’ve hired to be your spokesman?”
I said, “No, he’s a conservative. Willie is just doing this for ratings.”
My wife said, “And you’re going to go on behind this?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Doesn’t this compromise your message?” My wife said. “You hate Howard Stern because he has no ethics. You hate Jerry Springer because he’ll do anything for money. How is this guy any different? And you’re going to go on his show and let him pretend he’s a conservative. You’re going to acknowledge his existence? You’re going to even give him the time of day?”
In the video above, Cunningham has fantasies that his words actually carry weight, and there is a certain percentage of the population out there who would listen to advice from Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, or Bill Cunningham. Those types of personalities try to be everything to everybody, and actually believe in nothing. But then again, most lawyers are that way. They’ll believe whatever you tell them to, so long as the money is green.
Doc Thompson did a segment about this controversy and I came on toward the end of it to provide some background about how S.B.5 was born and why all public workers were placed under the umbrella of Issue 2, which Doc felt was causing much of the problems that are starting to emerge. Both sides are getting furious and undermining each other with dirty tricks.
Obviously, the repeal attempt is attempting to manipulate the public, and they haven’t even thought about what will happen if Issue 2 gets repealed. The overwhelming amount of selfishness exhibited by the Repeal People is even bewildering to me. Collective bargaining has never been a “right” yet the government employee culture has come to expect disproportionate benefits from the tax payer and they have shown they will do anything to get them, even if the benefits come at the expense of their co-workers who are under them in seniority. Without Issue 2 there will be no legal way to balance our budgets, and massive layoffs will occur, and we will lose teachers, firefighters and police. So the YES ISSUE 2 people put together the ad you see below which turns the first ad back around on that same group with truth, which caused the controversy.
I was at a GameStop the other day buying a new video game and a woman about my age was at the counter talking to the staff member who was trying to explain to the woman who if she used a special promotional offer that GameStop was offering, the woman could save $15 dollars on the game she was buying for her son. To my shock the woman said, “Do I look like I need to save money!” I took note of her large diamond rings, her very nice attire, her manicured hands, her hair, and her ear rings. I had heard her say earlier that she lived in Blue Ash so it was important to her that people saw that she made a lot of money. I have heard the same thing from parents who want me to support the school levies. “Can’t you afford $40 more a month? What’s wrong with you?” It is the same mentality.
And many people are already at that point. My wife and I were dining at Chili’s recently and I studied the people at the bar while we ate. Many of the couples there were watching the baseball playoff games being shown and were drinking large quantities of alcohol. I knew a few of them, and knew that they were putting the bill on their credit cards and that their wives secretly resented their own jobs and wished they had the ability to stay home as my wife does. But those couples came to Chili’s to meet with other friends and keep up appearances because it’s important to them to be able to say they dined out and did some socializing. I’ve told those same men that you are working too hard to pay too much tax that if you paid less tax, you could enjoy coming to Chili’s and have the money to pay for it without worry.
“But I have plenty of money. I’ll pay of the American Express in full when it comes. No problem.”
At Lakota while this broadcast was roaming across the Eastern United States, mailmen were putting the letter you see below into the mail boxes of “select” supporters of Joan Powell, the school board president. Have a look at that letter for yourself. The first thing that should send an alarm up your spine is that Joan chose to put pictures of her grandchildren on the letter, that always means there is something hidden underneath the surface of the message.
VOTE NO on the LAKOTA SCHOOL LEVY. Vote for any candidates except for Jamie Green and Julie Shaffer. And VOTE YES on Issue 2 so this school board can actually manage its costs in the future and not keep asking us to pass school levies while people like Joan toss that money into a bottomless pit called the Teachers Union.
• No, I never had a teacher that guided me through a tough time. They tried, but I rejected them, so not to rob me of the benefit of self-reliance. If they helped me, I did not get the benefit of discovery. They get the benefit of teaching, so the act is more about them, which becomes a selfish gesture. I have been that way my entire life and have never once felt lesser for it. Too often moochers in life do things like building a road, or forcing through law that you take their education class, even if you are already beyond them, and then when you are successful, they attempt to take credit for your success as if to justify their work, which they imposed on you to begin with. I have little tolerance for this behavior. I put up with it for the good of my community, because not everyone is able to see things as I do, and I understand that. I pay my taxes to support those activities for my neighbors, but my children and grandchildren will be taught by better instructors under my tutelage, and that is in the instructions of self-reliance.
• I have never in my life turned away from a dangerous situation when it was in front of me. I’ve been shot at, hunted, threatened in just about every conceivable way, schemed against, virtually every human folly that the imagination can produce has found its way against my wits. And all of those attempts were initiated by the other party in anger because I would not subscribe to their system of doing things, but instead relied on self-reliance. I have seen the fury of those who claim to be brave, but still seek the safety of peer numbers which consciously justify their meager existence (thus my hatred of unions and all collectivism). I have been trapped in cave on my belly unable to move in any direction but forward into a darkened abyss with no light. I have been trapped in a tree of great height (over 50’) alone as the extended ladder fell to the ground and the trunk was so large I couldn’t even begin to put my arms around to shimmy down. The branches of the tree alone were the size of a large man’s torso. I have been in several severe car accidents. I’ve suffered broken bones, severe lacerations, and much blunt trauma such as concussions and skin that ripped open because the pressure of the blood beneath could not move away fast enough but to explode upon impact. Yet you can count on two hands the times I’ve been to a doctor or surgeon. I only attend medical professionals to patch me up or fix an ailment which I have diagnosed. Most of my serious injuries I’ve fixed myself including a broken ankle I suffered in Panama City jumping off a 20’ peer onto a not so sandy beach. My health is supreme, my blood pressure, and all such concerns stout. I take absolutely no drugs of any kind, except when they are needed to finish a work day and I need the boost to complete the task at hand. I’ve been to some of the most remote places on the plant yet never, ever been lost. In fact, I couldn’t get lost if I were dropped into the middle of Siberia blind folded. I do not need a compass, GPS, or even a map to find my way anywhere in this world. When I hear from the people of the world that they are doing something to save me, to help me, I say back, “I do not need your help. You are not more qualified at anything than me. You mind your business and leave me to mine. If you need help ask, but you will never hear me ask for it.”
• Most of the taxes I pay are not for my benefit. If there was no road, I’d make my own or not use one. I would walk, ride a bicycle, or build a helicopter in my back yard to take me where I wish to go, because if I want to go someplace, I’ll go. Terrain or other terrestrial objects will not stop me. Government builds things with my money and I use them because they are there. But my life is not dependent upon them. As to my safety, I have the Second Amendment. I pity the person who attempts to bring harm to my family or to me. It’s been tried before, and it will be tried again and those that discover the wrath of that ill-fated enterprise have been warned. I have represented myself in court more than once since I do not trust lawyers for the most part, and I have been successful many more times than once. So virtually every tax dollar I spend is not for me, it is for mankind and I cringe to watch them waste my money on neurosis. I will never take a Social Security check yet I pay it. And Medicare is not an option. I’d go bankrupt first before accepting Medicare. I’d be willing to do that because I know that as long as I breathe, I can always rebuild myself. I’ve lost everything only to start completely over again at least three times and I’d do it 30 more times before I took a government check, a government job, or help from a neighbor.
I’ve stated that I put up with it for the sake of societies majority, whom I view as weak, mentally reduced, impudent, and hopeless, I pay my taxes so those people can have their care, their social welfare. To those people I appear as “anti-social” or even “cold hearted,” because they measure social success in acts of weakness, or masked kindness. The proof that society is wrong in its measure can be heard in those 911 calls, collectivism as shown in the video below disgust me because they produce future 911 callers and higher taxes to support their public safety net philosophy.
There was a lot of dispute about the removal of Senator Bill Seitz from a key committee during the final days of the vote on Senate Bill 5 which would become Issue 2. See an interview from Seitz with Channel 9 who is from the Cincinnati area.
I’ve known a lot of attorneys, and one of the common tactics they use when they have a weak case is to drag their feet and extend out a case. And Seitz obviously blindly loyal to labor interests even though he sells himself as a conservative was not able to see Senate Bill 5 for what it was, a good healthy culture change for public sector employment. Seitz, the labor attorney, listed as one of the best in America, as you can see at the link below, looks to have sabotaged and watered down the impact of Issue 2 from the very beginning by loading it down with unnecessary politics, which went against the kind of reform Kasich and many in the house and senate were looking for.
And this explains the behavior of Bill Cunningham on 700 WLW as well. In the brotherhood of attorneys, it is the mask of conservatism that they use for their act, but in reality when the make-up is taken off to who the individual truly is, the union of attorney brotherhood speaks of the true actions and now that Issue 2 for the first time in my adult life attempts REAL reform, it scares the people who have built their lives around the chaos of litigation.
In the middle of the night I received a message from Laura Sanders who is working on the Move Forward Lakota campaign, a group that is advocating the passage of a new levy at the Lakota School District. She wanted to show me her new video, which is nice and I think well-edited. But like I wrote her, where in the video does it say “WHY is more money required?” We know teachers are valuable to the community. But Lakota is not underfunded. It’s a district with $165 million dollar budget that we know about, and in all reality is closer to $250 million in total revenue. Yet it is the average pay rate of the employees in the district that hovers just over $63K per year that is driving up those costs, so how much is too much?
Like I said to Laura, having money to put on a glitzy show does not provide justification for the expenses. We cannot manage our district if teacher pay is simply a bottomless pit. Lakota has at least $30,000 to start their levy campaign with and I’m sure they will receive more over this next campaign. To see who gives money to them and what their campaign finances look like read this article which breaks down how much they spent last year, how much they have to spend this year, and who gave them money by clicking on the link below:
The belief from the Move Forward Campaign is that if they spend money, they will automatically convince people of their need. And that’s what they’ve done with their new ad. In the heading Laura titled it “Creative Battle” I suppose in response to the No Lakota Levy’s latest video which you can see here:
You can see our website at www.NOLAKOTALEVY.com where that video launches upon your visit.
I have heard some of the most foolish comments in my adult life regarding Issue 2, which is the ultimate fix for these budget problems, especially at Lakota. I know for a fact that there are teachers at the top of the pay scale that aren’t worth 45K per year let alone 80K and 90K. Only in a union under collective bargaining could weak people earn so much. But then there are some teachers that are worth that much money. But if the Lakota Levy fails and cuts are made, it will be the newer teachers who cost the least and generally have the most ambition that we’ll lose, unless Issue 2 holds. The argument the public workers are making is similar to me telling my editor that, “the book will be terrible if we lose these characters. I refuse to make revisions to my 110,000 word manuscript!” They would then say, “Ok, thank you for the opportunity to work with you Mr. Hoffman, but we can’t afford the publishing cost of a book that large. Such a large book has limited market value because statistics show that most people are intimidated by large books, so we would never recover our initial investment, so good luck on finding another publisher.” The Issue 2 group does not understand that by trimming down a manuscript or a school district we make them stronger.
While all this discussion over Issue 2 is percolating and unions are dug in deep with their rhetoric and talking points, Lakota is after more money to supplement a contract with it’s union that is excessively high, the Cincinnati Reds are floating offers for their star player in Joey Votto, who is currently the gem of our local baseball team. He’s the ideal baseball player and we’d all like to see him stay in Cincinnati for his entire career. But in reality, Joey will most likely decline in production over the coming years, and he is set to make more than 20 million a year, because his contract dictates that much. So the Reds should follow the formula of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and dump him for a fresh young player that costs much less but can give comparable numbers. The Reds would have to do this because to keep Votto means they couldn’t afford other players that will be needed to create a valuable franchise. So at some point in the near future, the Reds will have to cut Votto, which will be painful, just like editing a book, or managing a school district. It’s painful, and emotional, but we are REQUIRED to do what is right for the organization we are representing. What dictates the Reds cut Votto is that they don’t have a budget which allows for him in the future. Public workers don’t understand this. They simply believe that tax increases will allow for them to have everything, job security and all employees making healthy wages without competition driving costs down. They believe this because a budget limit has never been established, which is what we are doing with the No Lakota Levy group, helping to manage costs by setting a limit.
I recently did an article about Issue 2 where I compared the details of that very good bill to the aerospace company Boeing, building its new manufacturing plant in South Carolina. To see that article click the link:
Even though Tampa Bay lost big today it is important to have adversity because it builds character, and when a young team like the Bucs are have been winning at will, they sometimes take things for granted. So losses are opportunities to build character, because the overall franchise is more than one game and this article is about the “bigger picture.” The young kids will bounce back and solve their problems, because the foundation beneath the loss is of high quality. And such a lesson is one everyone faces at some time or another whether it be an individual, or an organization. Winning all the time does not challenge the soul, overcoming something that shakes your foundations do. And with all the talk on this site about failure in government, it is because they do not go back to the film room and figure out why. They just ask for a “bailout,” and lose time and again without improvement and use higher taxes to prop up their self-esteem. A football team does not have the option of raising taxes. They have to dig deep and improve themselves.
On any given Sunday in the falling leaves of autumn, at the end of my driveway you will see two flags. You will also see flags all the way up my driveway and on the porch of my house also. And in the living room on football Sunday, it’s always Halloween, even at Christmas, as skulls, smoke machines and more flags are displayed. But the flags at the end of my driveway are special, very special, because they were given to me by the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers himself and are the focus of my enjoyment of that football team which is run by that very innovative and generous family in one of my favorite cities, Tampa Bay.
To understand the history of why I’m a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan, please see two of my previous articles on this subject.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an ownership represents much about my own style of management, and ideas about how all organizations should work They have as a franchise produced an extraordinary number of great players, coaches, and personalities who now populate the TV analyst’s booth on every sports channel. But they have done so without a lot of hoopla and fanfare, unless you happen to live in Tampa Bay. To the world outside of Tampa Bay, The Buccaneers are just another NFL team. The media doesn’t really understand why they are special, only that there is something unique going on in the Bay City of Florida that they sometimes contemplate with empty questions, and even emptier answers.
Players have come and gone, and coaches too, but in Tampa Bay there has been a consistency of always being competitive, of at least being an exciting team to watch no matter what year it was. The history of the team runs deep. Unfortunately, because NFL teams cannot afford to keep all their highly paid players, due to business limits, a team like the Buccaneers must always push the limits and dig deep to find ways to win even when they lose their best talent.
After losing coaches like John Gruden, which was a business decision, Monte Kiffin, the future Hall-of-Fame defensive coordinator, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Derrick Brooks, (due to age) and many, many others including the power running full-back Mike Alstott, Tampa seemed out of cannon balls after nearly a decade of dominate defense and trend setting achievements as a franchise. All over the country, sports reporters were predicting doom and gloom for the Buccaneers. But I wasn’t, and neither were the Glazers. The Glazers knew they had been breeding talent down in Tampa for years and decided that if they were losing all that great talent on all sides of the ball, including coaches that they needed to look internally for the next great coach to build their team and maintain their reputation. The Glazers were not looking to an “outsider” to just merely win games in Tampa Bay. The Glazers wanted to preserve their culture that they had built, a static culture that required someone who had always been there and grown up in the organization all along, starting as a very young man.
It wasn’t hard for me to predict that Raheem Morris would be the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs had lost Mike Tomlin to the Pittsburg Steelers who was a coach in Tampa just a few years prior, and they weren’t going to lose the much sought after assistant coach in Raheem to another team, because Morris had grown up with all those great players and coaches on the inside, and the Glazers had enough understanding of what they brought to the NFL to keep a coach who could maintain their culture with a dynamic personality full of energy. So the Bucs promoted Raheem Morris to head coach and defensive coordinator, which was unprecedented in the NFL and drew much criticism from virtually every expert in the industry. Many were saying that Tampa Bay Buccaneer Football was on its way out.
Except me…….and I let Bryan Glazer know it after a series of terrible loses where the youngest head coach in the NFL was struggling through his first season with a decimated team lost to free agency, and age. But Raheem is the kind of guy who never quits, and his personality is as my wife says……infectious, so it was only a matter of time before Raheem turned things around and got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing the caliber of football everyone expected from this very dynamic organization, a team that could live up to that Jumbo Tron intro. Bryan sent me those flags in thanks because it was a tough time for he and his family. Virtually everyone was calling them stupid, cheap, and out-of-touch for hiring Morris when Bill Parcels had indicated he wanted the Tampa job, and news analysts were chipping away at the Glazer family credibility at every opportunity. But they trusted their instincts and stayed with Morris, and I thought a kind word would go a long way in their darkest hour. So Bryan sent me those flags in thanks. Those flags aren’t the kind you can buy from a street vender or even on EBay. They are only passed out during home playoff games, so they are very rare. Bryan gave me the ones he had on his desk.
Meet Raheem Morris here, and let him show you around the Tampa Bay Organization:
I love his energy! One of the first things he did after his first dismal season was draft Josh Freeman, which drew an extraordinary amount of criticism, because many felt that Freeman was not a marquee quarterback, because there were much higher profile quarterbacks on the block and that Morris was out-of-his mind for taking Freeman!
Most fans had the same reaction as that guy, but Raheem knew what he was doing and the Glazers trusted his decisions, even if everyone in the world thought Raheem Morris was out of his mind. In this early interview, you can see much of what Morris saw in the young Josh Freeman, a mature kid even-keeled who would not panic in the 4th quarter under pressure and would provide a stable platform all the other players could build themselves around.
Another controversial player that Raheem Morris went after which nobody understood was LeGarrette Blount, a fiery young running back from Oregon who seemed to have a very violent temper. Blount would have been drafted higher if not for this fight which would haunt him even to this very day, as sports analysts will not forget the incident. Blount is one of those people who were destined to fall between the cracks because nobody with any sort of vision would look beyond his brutal will to fight, which was mistaken as a ruthless will to win, at any cost.
I saw the game with Blount and I noticed how he squared his shoulders to invite the fight, and was not afraid. He seemed to run the ball the same way, without fear and with a fury. I saw something unique in the kid, and Morris obviously saw the same thing. But the Tennessee Titans missed this genius, because Blount’s fighting didn’t stop in the Titans training camp, again, here is a kid who will fight for every inch and does not understand what the word “quit” is. Here is Blount in just a practice where he loses his helmet and still won’t let the defense stop him, which triggers a violent exchange.
Raheem convinced the Buccaneer Organization to sign Blount as an unsigned free agent once the Titans cut him. Because Morris has such an “infectious” personality, Tampa Bay was able to get a hold of a player similar to Warren Sapp only on the offensive side of the ball. Tampa for the first time since Mike Alstott had a runner in the back-field that could pound the ball in a way the Buc fans had come to expect. Warren Sapp had the calm and cool Tony Dungy to keep Sapp from flying apart in rage. And Blount now had the bubbly and good personality of Morris to compliment his very natural aggression and provide leadership and direction so that LeGarrette Blount could be what he was built to be, one of the greatest running backs of this modern age.
LeGarrette Blount is pure, raw energy, but the credit to giving this kid a chance, belongs to Raheem Morris. Have a look at what Blount has been able to do for the Bucs.
The organization isn’t just those two guys. There are dozens of similar young people who have been quietly recruited into the Buccaneers and they are too numerous to list here. What becomes quickly apparent when studied is that Tampa Bay as a franchise recruits dynamic personalities into a static pattern established by the Glazer Family to use those dynamics to always push-off the competition within the NFL over a long period of time. It is within that statement that I am so passionate about Tampa Bay Buccaneer Football. I am not a person who cares for stats, or even individual players. I am all about dynamic patterns used to make a static pattern great, or better. (SEE THIS LINK TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN BY STATIC AND DYNAMIC PATTERNS.)In fact, even with all the great players and coaches, even when it came down to the treasured veteran linebacker Derrick Brooks, who was the ideal icon of the franchise, when he become too old to maintain the static pattern of expectation the Glazers let him go, just as they did Sapp, Lynch, Gruden and many others. It wasn’t out of disloyalty, although the fans did feel that way. It was that the Glazers put the high level static pattern of their team ahead of their loyalty to personalities. When the dynamic personalities are no longer effective, the Glazers look for new personalities to keep the Buccaneers continuously competitive.
It is true that this does hurt them at the ticket booth, as fans do fall in love with individual players, and many sports fans keep careful track of the various statistics of those players. But the Glazers have always maintained this discipline to their organization, which is unique to them. They fired my favorite coach in Sam Wyche to hire Tony Dungy. They fired Tony, even though they loved him in Tampa because Tony had stalled out and become less effective so they could hire John Gruden. And when Gruden had lost his touch with the players and become mediocre, Tampa fired Gruden, considered by many to be one of the best minds in football, to hire Raheem Morris, the young assistant who quietly absorbed all the greatness of the men who came before him. And Raheem knows that if he becomes complacent and stops bringing a dynamic to his team which protects the static pattern of quality that is expected with the Tampa Bay Franchise, he’ll be let go also. It’s not personal, but for the Glazers, they have a dedication to putting on the field at every level a quality product.
This mentality even extends to the Cheerleaders who are among the best of any NFL team. Not only are their costumes appropriate along that fine line between sex appeal, and family friendly style, but their choreography as a dance unit is top-notch, and has been since the construction of Raymond James Stadium. When attending a game at Ray Jay you will be treated to these cheerleaders who perform with precision in between plays in an overall show that is complete for the entire 3 to 4 hours you are inside that palace.
And it’s not unusual for the Buccaneer Cheerleaders to do many community events and appearances all over town exhibiting their quality performances as a dance team. The philosophy of these Buc Cheerleaders is to bring the sex appeal expected from a cheerleader in the NFL with a style and work ethic similar to a Broadway Dancer.
It’s in the details however that makes just an average organization great. It’s a multitude of little dynamics which tend to preserve the greatness of a static pattern in competition with other static patterns, and in the NFL all teams have great players and football minds that are seeking to destroy each other’s season. And in Tampa Bay if the cheerleaders don’t keep people excited about the product on the field during this epic battle between the players themselves, then the Pirate Ship that sites in Buccaneer Cove, which is a replica of a giant Caribbean Village, will. All the props in the stadium are built by the same company who builds for Walt Disney World and the Pirate Ship is one of the most unique features for a sports stadium in the entire world. There is nothing like it anywhere!
It was this Pirate Ship which earned my eternal loyalty to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Being from Cincinnati, I know the history of their stadium debacle up close, and the ironic thing is, before Paul Brown Stadium was built, the Bengals toured Raymond James Stadium for ideas, but they seemed to miss most everything in their interpretation. Raymond James Stadium is the centerpiece of activity in Tampa. When they aren’t playing football there for the Buccaneers, it might be football with the South Florida Bulls, or a Monster Truck event, or a concert, or an equestrian event, Raymond James Stadium hosts events all through the year, was built completely with community money but gives back to the community in so many ways without compromising the integrity of being the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raymond James Stadium is the Crown Jewel of the NFL and all sports establishments. It is the best of the best even when others have tried to copy it. The difference is most ownerships attempt to duplicate the luxury boxes and vending sales, without understanding the dynamic relationship connected to the fan experience. This is why most have failed when attempting to duplicate the success of Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And this is why even when I don’t get to fly to Tampa for a game I duplicate the experience at my home on a Sunday afternoon. Because being a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is about more than a football team, it’s a celebration of the success of merging dynamic quality patterns with static patterns and how that balance can be achieved successfully.
Many who know me are baffled by the fact that I love the Buccaneers so much, because I tend to read a lot and don’t seem like the type of person who would enjoy “tailgating” and cheering for a player to carry a ball across a green field to cross a little line on the ground where the team gets points. (Such a thing is rather silly in the greater scheme of things) But in truth, some of my favorite people are in Florida, and Tampa has many people in it that I call my friends, and those friendships have in common a love of the Buccaneers because their success bleeds over into other aspects of life. And I don’t give out friendship easily. But in regard to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who even over their practice field fly a giant pirate flag that looms over the players to remind them of where they are and what they are expected to do, innovation and encouragement to reach deep inside to bring out greatness is encouraged in every act exerted. You can see that flag in the next clip. When people visiting Tampa Bay fly into the International Airport if they look out the east window of their craft, that flag is the first thing they will see in Tampa Bay, for it inundates the horizon.
But the secrets to a great organization are in many of the unsung positions, and the Buccaneers value their former players, even if they let them go to avoid salary cap problems where those players become too expensive for what they bring to the field of play. They promoted the linebacker Shelton Quarles to a scout which keeps his dynamic talent under the umbrella of the Buccaneer Franchise and allows the Bucs to locate passionate players who fit into the static expectations of the organization, because if anyone knows what kind of player should be in a Buccaneers locker room or on the field, it’s Shelton.
When I was growing up, as I pointed out in another article on the Buccaneers, my nickname was “Animal.” I like Blount had a problem with fighting. I could not take a hit without fighting back and I never knew when to quit. (I still don’t) because I would be bored in life without some kind of fight or another. No coach wanted me on a football team because I never took direction well, and I had no tolerance for the politics of school football. If I had met someone like a Raheem Morris when I was 16 through 22 I might have played football for a guy like that, because Morris, and the Glazers know how to tap into those types of individuals that other organizations overlook, or take for granted who move through life on the outside of establishment. And the Buccaneers know that it is in such dynamic people who a competitive edge over an opponent can be found. So it is with that in mind that I feel an affinity for LeGarrette Blount. I can relate to the kid. It will be interesting to see how he handles success, once money finds its way to him. I hope it doesn’t change the kind of man he has a chance to be. I’m sure that Raheem Morris is having those kinds of talks with the young man.
So as we contemplate education reform, and the role of government in society, I rest my mind from the burdens of the day and dedicate my valuable time to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers whenever they play because on every occasion that I doubt the validity of an idea I can look to that organization as a symbol of how things should or could be. I see upon that organization at every single level a passion for finding a dynamic which will make them better without compromising their static quality. I see an indulgence in more than just a game, but a philosophy that not only benefits the team and ownership of the Buccaneers, but the entire community themselves. It is the entire experience of the quality achieved at all these various levels which put the smile on a face of a young boy and ignite in him a hope that anything is possible. Or it brings delight to the over-weight middle-aged man stuck in a rut in his life to see gladiators give it their all on the field of battle, or the bored mother who holds up her hands to have beads thrown upon her head from the pirate ship in Buccaneer Cove. It is an entire city that is the better for the fact that the Buccaneers guard selfishly their unique brand of football in an NFL League that is all-too-focused on quarterbacks and statistics, that they often miss the magic of the dynamic in human spirit. Too often those types upon a confounded brow wonder how such characters came to be but for someone like the Glazer family created the conditions for the unique to blossom, and capture in those weekly battles a magic which enhances the lives of thousands.
There are those of us who function outside of the normal static patterns of society, and do so on purpose, because it is clear to us what is behind this “Occupy Movement.” Glenn Beck is one of those people and you will see his videos here explaining this situation, along with the other active parties. Much of the source material for this article comes from Glenn Beck in one way or another, because as progressives have outlets like Russia Today, the RT Network, the Huffington Post and many others, those of us who don’t care for progressivism have Glenn Beck’s work, and Talk Radio and we are late to this game, because for too long, we trusted the system while progressives embedded themselves under our noses. To understand fully, I suggest watching these videos completely, which I’m providing to compliment my text. It is extremely important to have a full understanding of this very complicated situation that is actually a military maneuver without the use of weapons. So take your time and absorb all this information, and be sure to send it to a friend. To understand what the intent behind the military maneuver is, read this article:
To understand what is wrong in America, which none of the progressive groups seem to understand, but people like George Soros is exploiting for his own ends, watch this video. Here Robert Kiyosaki author of Rich Dad Poor Dad explains the mystery that everyone is so confused about. He breaks down our entire society into four groups in a diagram he calls The Quadrant. First are the “E’s,” which are employees then come “S’s,” who are the “Smart Guys,” then the “B’s” which are big business, and then the “I’s” are the investors. I’ve been saying the same as Kiyosakis that our society makes entirely too many “E’s,” and it s the “Employees” who make up these protestors. America was designed to create “B’s,” and “I’s” and an abundance of “S’s.” But the socialist movement brought to the United States by progressives during the years of Teddy Roosevelt seeks to make lots of “E’s” through public education. So when everyone is trained in the same place, they think the same, and can then be used to march like soldiers when commanded.
The strategy from people like George Soros, and he’s not the only one, but is simply the guy who is on the camera most, and provides video for us to observe, is to use progressive groups, like labor unions, to drive up costs, bankrupt the economic system of the United States to the point of collapse, then bring the United States into a weakened position under the global order of the United Nations. That is the plan. (“Call it crazy today, but tomorrow you’ll wish you listened.”)
Rich Hoffman
The Overmanwarrior 
