On a map the Republican states are in red.

Perhaps this explains what’s in Donald Trump’s head.

Would this be the reason

For what borders on treason

That Putin and he share the very same bed?

2020 has truly been a year to remember and a year to forget.

I enjoy sharing how business owners successfully come up with solutions to new and old problems. Doing so, because they decided that they would challenge themselves and persevere when faced with adversity.

This is a success story of WDB Marketing in South Holland, Illinois.

Recently, I was able to have a phone call with Keeana Barber, CEO of this incredible Black owned small business. She was candid and transparent about how she adjusted to these unprecedented times. Sure, she and her team could have cut back on business hours, due to them predicting there would be low demand for their services. Instead, they did what any wise, professional small business would do: They found new relevant problems to solve.

During the George Floyd protests and rioting, they provided a solution to one problem that was specifically impacting black businesses across the nation. Countless businesses, large and small, across the globe were already facing great difficulty acquiring funding during the Covid-19 pandemic. It appeared that black owned small businesses were definitely hit the hardest!

Standford Institute for Economic Research explained in a recent study, why pandemic closures may be permanent for select businesses. Many businesses were unable to pay ongoing expenses to survive the shutdown. This study revealed that “African-American businesses were hit the hardest by COVID-19. The first estimates from April 2020 for black business owners in the United States indicate[d] a massive drop of 41 percent.”

The lootings that took place during the George Floyd protests in neighborhoods that were already suffering, were not ideal. Add Covid-19 to the equation and some businesses were virtually doomed, to say the least.

WDB Marketing launched www.SignsForCovid.com. Signs For Covid has everything businesses needs for re-opening and operating in a safe manner. This company has also printed well over 2500 Black Owned signs for free. From curbside and window signage, to branded Covid-19 masks and safety assets. Their team’s timing was impeccable, as Chicago and other cities prepared to enter Phase 3 for reopening businesses.

I’ve heard and read about many success stories that give me motivation and great joy. People and businesses are thriving. Figuring out ways to come out of this catastrophe on top. Some people are starting businesses, while others are closing. Their reasoning, motivational and financial factors may vary, but one thing’s for sure: Those who are building during this “global storm” have a mindset that doesn’t allow defeat! Keeana Barber is a perfect example of what’s possible when the going gets tough.

WDB Marketing has proudly supported thousands of small businesses. Since 2006, they have serviced over 5,000 businesses in the areas of marketing, graphic design and full-service printing. Every year they host an annual event, the WDB LEGACY AWARDS to connect their network of entrepreneurs and award the next generation of entrepreneur to support their dreams. This company has also recently secured their first contract with the United States Postal Service.

I have to admit that even I could’ve claimed defeat at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I made a decision in my mind that I would not allow myself to complain and give in to something that was new and unfamiliar.

To the WDB marketing team: Thank you for pivoting in a way that allows you to provide solutions to small businesses all across the country.

I am inspired and in full support of any business that provides a success roadmap for businesses who don’t believe they can press forward. That’s what WDB marketing does, and I am here for it!

The lesson here: If you see a problem, believe that you are capable to provide a solution with the right team.

Photo Credit: Marc Cannon

Sometimes the danger in this writing business is that the scribe doesn’t express himself well enough. It’s not the fault of the reader if the message isn’t clear, or is confusing, or contradictory.

Thus it was with my post yesterday, “Dump Trump.”

In it, I expressed my deep worry that Trump will lose the election and

Senator Strom Thurmond, another proud Democrat.

obliterate the  conservative agenda. I was suggesting that the Republican Party and America might be better off with Vice President Mike Pence as the presidential candidate. But some readers thought I was saying that Trump should not be re-elected.

Far from that was my intent. A Biden administration would be a disaster. It wouldn’t be his administration, but the puppeteers will run it, counting on his ever-more-apparent lose of competency  It will be an opaque shadow administration that will be controlled by the Obama/Clinton kleptomaniacs or the far-left crazies.

In their efforts to expunge any wisp of wrong, Democrats ought to get rid of their name. The Democratic Party, whose roots go as far back as  the earliest days of the Republic, can proudly boast of Andrew Jackson, the slave-owners, secessionists, the instigators of Jim Crow and segregationist legislation, Woodrow Wilson, the Dixiecrats, the Southern Tory Democrats, George Wallace and opposition to the Civil Rights and similar laws. Remember the Jefferson/Jackson Day celebrations by the Democratic Party?

Sure, that’s not today’s party. The Democratic Party has jumped the moderate, middle group and plummeted into an alliance wit the autocratic, class-war radical left.

God help us.

To subscribe to the Barbershop, type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.

CPS students demanding police free schools. Courtesy of CopsOutCPS.com

In 2007, when I started teaching at TEAM Englewood High School, a student told me about how his house was broken into. I asked if the police had any leads, he said the police hadn’t come, even though they called them yesterday. I heard more stories from my students about issues with the police. I also noticed that police were stationed in the school building and wondered about how my students felt.

During my time at TEAM Englewood I watched as a school that was adequately funded at the start and had a 90% college acceptance rate be defunded to the point of being closed.

Schools in Chicago have been purposefully defunded for so long that school communities have become desperate for any help, so we let the police into our schools. This choice caused the school to prison pipeline. It is pure and simple, backed by a plethora of research and confirmed by the pleas of students who have been organizing to get police free schools for years. 

A child with trauma doesn’t get the ability to work daily with a therapist, they get police. We have 4 crisis counselors for over 350,000 students, but 144 cops in schools.

Problems with police in schools:

• Negatively impacts students academic success 
• Students with special needs are 3x’s more likely to be arrested 
• Latinx students are 6x’s more likely to be arrested 
• Even though Black students make up 40% of CPS student population they accounted for 60% of arrests

Every time CPD has been proven to harm Chicagoans on the street or in school, the city responds with ‘let’s reform police’. Instead of ‘let’s try investing in our communities or schools’. Chicago is spending $1.6 Billion on police. $33 million to police our students in schools. We have reformed CPD for generations. 

People argue that police are good role models for our students, but you know who is a good role model? Black educators. Chicago, through school closings and discriminatory hiring practices, removed thousands of Black educators. You want role models? Hire Black educators, and yes they are out there.

People argue that police keep us safe from school shooters. Fear clouds facts. Police in schools don’t prevent school shooters. 

People say police keep students and teachers safe in “tough” schools. Why do tough schools exist? Because kids attending schools that are under-resourced and that come from communities that have been defunded don’t have supports in place to help them. The toughest kids I have worked with all wanted support and to be successful. They just didn’t have what they should’ve had. That $33 million contract comes out to $90,000 a day. We can do things differently. We could provide our schools with conflict resolution specialists and therapists. Resources to actually help our children which will then help our city. 

Saving our students lives requires a disinvestment in policing and a reallocation of funds into communities and schools.  I implore you to not let your fear and anecdotes erase facts, research, and the voices of our students. As a city, we can and must do better for our students. Police should not be in schools. Cancel the CPD-CPS contract and invest that $33 million into the betterment of our students’ lives. Invest in our children.

CopsOutCPS.com

*This post was a 3 minute statement I made to the Chicago City Council Committee on Education and Public Safety about removing police from Chicago Public Schools. For more information about this topic check out CopsOutCPS.com 

If you’re looking at the number of Covid-19 cases increasing daily (50,000 at latest count) and you’re pining away for your annual Fourth of July family get-together, I stumbled across something that might just help.

Remember Hot Doug Sohn – the affable and amiable proprietor of Hot Doug’s in Chicago, with his wild boar and pate and elk sausage hot dogs and his scrumptious duck fat fries? He’s back! Well, kind of. He’s on the big screen (well, on whatever size TV screen you have) in “Hot Doug: The Movie.”

These days, the real experience has been gone for six years, and the movie theaters are closed, so we must work with what we have left. Instead of a fireworks display, get a box of sparklers.

But if you’re thinking of grilling up some quality dogs with your significant other or kids or whatever close-knit home arrangement you have with someone this weekend, or even if you’re flying solo these days, you could do worse than relive the great social experience that a visit to Hot Doug’s was.

What you will be taken with right away is the social connections that happened there. There he is, Hot Doug himself, behind the counter, joking with his customers with the incredible ease of a buddy, which is what he was to his legion of followers. Somebody sidles up shyly and asks to shake his hand – he offers it up tentatively with a joke and a big laugh, and then gives her a bear hug, all while keeping the orders expedited.

To be in line felt like you were awaiting a book signing by a celebrated author, and once you got to the counter, you were pleased to see that Hot Doug was such a nice guy – a real down-to-earth mensch with an easy laugh and a jocular manner. You have arrived – and you would soon experience the best encased meat you’ve ever had.

Calling his creations hot dogs never seemed appropriate. That’s why he was never in the running for Golden Weenie, our annual prize awarded to the best Chicago Style Hot Dog in the city.

Apart from the Chicago Dog (which was outstanding), there was the Sal Tessio Italian Sausage, the Anna Kendrick (self-explanatory), the Ale and Chipotle Buffalo Sausage with Smokey Bacon Sauce and Sage Derby Cheese, the Spinach and Feta-Stuffed Pork Loukaniko with Artichoke Raita, Kalamata Olives and Feta Cheese, the Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Aioli, Foie Gras Mousse and Fleur de Sel, and the  Ribeye Steak Sausage with Horseradish Cream, Maple-Smoked Cheddar Cheese and Crispy Fried Onions (which I can also vouch for).

Tat Gallery

It all sounds pretty frou-frou, and I was a skeptic before I was invited there once by Hot-C. First time out, I got the Chicago Style Dog. No judgment from Hot Doug, other than perhaps a remark from him about being a straight-up, no-frills kind of guy, and his apology to Hot-C for that. I liked him immediately. Everybody did. Seeing him in the movie was a treat.

You’ll see a collection of devotees paying homage to Hot Doug, his wife, expressing disbelief in people waiting five hours in line for a hot dog, folks with Hot Doug tattoos (for a gallery, here is a previous blog), and his employees, many of whom were with him for more than a decade in some cases, and who decided to stay until the end, which came about on a chilly October day.

In these times, on this holiday, crack open a cold one or six, get some decent sausages, order up the movie, (free on Amazon Prime) and hope for better days when we can all hang out together again.

Filed under:
Uncategorized

My boyhood TV hero died this week. You probably think I am talking about Carl Reiner, who passed away June 29th. After all, Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. But as a pre-school kid, I just knew the faces in front of the camera, and Mr. Reiner’s portrayal of Alan Bradie, funny as it was, was just a small part of the show. He wasn’t even as important as always dumped on Mel Coolie. And I could only watch the show once a week; no binge-watching back then. So Reiner didn’t really make much of an impression on me in the early 1960s.

No, the man  I watched on TV day in and day out, the man this young kid aspired to be when I grew up, wasn’t an actor or a writer, and certainly no comedian.  My hero was Hugh Downs, who died July 1st at age 99.

If you know the name and if you remember him at all, it is probably for his stints as host of Today or possibly 20/20, ABC’s news magazine answer to 60 Minutes. In a New York Times obituary discussing his career, one can learn a lot about his time on those two shows, as well as his years as the announcer and second banana to Jack Paar on Paar’s iteration of The Tonight Show.

But you must read way down to the 16th paragraph of the article to find a brief one-sentence mention of the  11 years Downs spent as host of the TV game show Concentration. But for me, that was Hugh Downs. That is where I met him every morning.

It was a simple game, call out some numbers, match some prizes, solve a simple rebus puzzle, and go home a winner. No need to know trivia, or how much a week’s supply of Alpo dog food cost, or what a survey said. It was the perfect show for a five-year-old with a good memory and an innate ability to solve word puzzles. It would be the launching pad for my life of TV game-show appearances (It’s Academic and Jeopardy!, the Family Feud near-miss) and Password games with friends that are as bitterly fought as a Bears-Packers game in the Halas days. And Mr. Downs was the perfect low-key host. He never got in the way of the game

So Hugh, while I salute all the other great TV work you did, when I write my book Concentration will never have to wait until paragraph 16! I’ll put it right there at the top.

Like what you read here? Add your name to our subscription list below. No spam, I promise!

___

———————————–