(Gun Violence + Young People + Unemployment) x Little Hope = Local Newspaper Obituaries

Rockford has a horrible history of young people being dead at a very, very young age.

(Gun Violence + Young People + Unemployment) x Little Hope = Local Newspaper Obituaries.

As a sophomore in high school in 1976 I started coaching youth baseball during the summer. I went on to coach little kids in baseball for 12 years almost every summer and love each and every ball, strike and out. As a young adult I worked for a local community center in shall I say a “marginal” area of town where gang violence was sadly and tragically abundant.

I became creative and dedicated to finding solutions to the gun, gang and young people doing the wrong things at the wrong times and ending up dead. With the assistance of a local YMCA we created a “Late Night or Midnight Basketball League” targeted for “at risk” young people. The program started at 10:00 p.m. and the basketball games ended at approximately 2:30 a.m.

Proudly for the last nearly 14 years I have been teaching high school business, computers, newspaper, yearbook, accounting to a population that is represented by 85% free/reduced lunches, 7th highest city crime statistics, and 3rd most miserable city to live. Sadly, I have developed a diverse, complicated first hand knowledge of the difficulties faced in difficult times in difficult at best surroundings.

1. Was the program a success? YES
2. Did it reduce gun violence during its offering? YES
3. Did fewer young people end up Dead? YES
4. Was it a long-term program that could make a long-term impact? NO

What this program did show was that given a large, complicated problem of gang/young people having nothing to do in the evening with way to much energy solutions could be discovered.

1. Is there an easy answer to gun violence, gangs, underemployment, unemployment, companies with manufacturing operations in third world countries? NO
2. Is a solution to these impossible? NO
3. Is the solution difficult, complicated, and creative? YES
4. Do I have those answers? YES

patrickfox016@gmail.com

Background checks for gun buyers are a good idea…. but…

Background checks for gun buyers are a good idea…. but…

Attention President B. Obama:

I think the idea of mandatory background checks is a good idea regardless of any gun violence that has taken place the last 100 years. Sadly, however that will NOT stop the bad guys from getting the guns and doing bad things to good people. I would love to presume that requiring background checks for guns would eliminate the rampant problems of gun violence, but that will not happen. I own a hand gun and I am proud to say I do. I do not feel any gun owner should be upset about a mandatory background check for any intelligent reason. I think any person raising a stink about a background check needs to get a life and get over their insecurities.

I hope and pray that at some point we (Americans) will sit down and begin to question not the thought of gun control, but rather what motivates the bad guys to pick up the innate object refered to as a gun and use it for violent means. At what point do we stop holding press conferences touting the fire fighting fixes of gun control to reduce gun violence versus the cause of gun violence and how it can and would be reduced?

I have heard it said about the United States of America many of times that we are the greatest country on earth. I happen to believe that in fact we are the one country everyone else look up to. Regardless of our stature, I am 100% confident that in fact “WE CAN TO BETTER”.

Chinese Workers vs American Unemployed

Chinese workers are motivated, proud and demanding of a better more dignified existance.

Americans of all colors have a commonality of being unemployed all over the USA.

Chinese Workers vs American Unemployed

Let me first say God Bless the incredibly highly motivated and proud Chinese workers that desired a better life for them and their familes that had historically been relagated to rice fields and small villages of no wages or little wages.

Let me follow up by saying it is about time that “WE” proud Americans tear out a chapter from the Chinese motivational manual and get the desire for a more proud and motivated lifestyle. We Americans need to stop bitching and moaning about the bad rich guys and the liberal or conservative government officials that are being blamed and GET A LIFE.

The time has arrived for Round 2 in the Match of the 20th Century for Jobs, Dignity and Family strength via earning a dignified and respectable wage. Sadly, “We” Americans have gotten our butts kicked in Round 1 but the good news is that Round 2 could be a Game Changer for the once Proud American team.

I am not rich, I did not attend Harvard, Yale or a Big Ten University or even been elected to a political office. That being said, I do have viable, doable solutions for our high crime rates, low high school graduation rates, high foreclosure rates, high underemployment rates, high unemployment rates, low college education rates that can be directly impacted by a comprehensive, innovative, and entreprenurial effort that very well may mean “We Americans” could win the next several Rounds of the Match of the Century.

The New Norm demands New Entreprenuers… NOW

The New Norm demands New Entreprenuers… NOW

It is time to wake up and smell the roses everyone. The recovery is here and sadly this is a jobless or mostly jobless recovery. I know that reality rather sucks, but sometimes as much as we hate to acknowledge reality it is time to man up and dip a toe in the real world.

The United States of America is the most powerful, influential country in the world for one reason and one reason alone. We were the best and creating solutions to the needs and wants of the population over the last 150 years. The challenge we face now is that “WE MUST” essentially forget about our trophies, accolades and other awards and get entreprenueral hungry once again like we did coming out of the 1800’s.

We have lost two incredible innovators Walter E. Disney and Steven Jobs. They have had detractors and copycats, but they were the best at transforming the world into a better place.

Help me get the word out and make the United States stonger for everyone within its boundaries not just the 10%.

AARP Age 50+ Need Only Apply

AARP Age 50+ Need Only Apply. Wait, is that to insensitive or perhaps over the top in regards to being politically incorrect?

While I attempt to be kind, nice, sensitive, comforting, supportive, color blind and any other positive description, the time has arrived when we must start calling it as honest and blunt as possible.

I have learned over the last 35 years of my adult life that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…. it is in fact a DUCK.

1. Hardest high age group as a result of the 2008 meltdown? Age 50+ group
2. Highest age group level of unemployed? Age 50+
3. Age group most hit in home foreclosure? Age 50+
4. Age group most hit by bankruptcies? Age 50+

The time has arrived when the Baby Boomers should need to rise up and once again bail the United States out of its self imposed funk and stagnation status.

I have created a far reaching, comprehensive, complicated plan that will impact every major city that is currently impacted by high unemployment, high underemployment, high undereducated workforce, high gun violence, high violence and just generally a feeling of defeat rampant within its boundaries.

To accomplish this difficult but achievable task only those individuals age 50+, AARP, Baby Boomers need apply.

Presidential Innovation Fellowship Nominee

I need everyones help. I have been contacted as a Nominee for the Presidential Innovation Fellowship I am very proud. There are several categories of the Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program.

I have a project that I have been working on for my entire adult life that will change the every major city in the United States of America. I will reduce gun violence, cut crime, help educate the uneducated or undereducated, employe our war heros’, create jobs, and do it with no impact to the national debt. I would like to impliment my program as part of the Development Innovation Ventures as participant in the Presidential Innovation Fellowship.

MyUSA | RFP-EZ | Cyber-Physical Systems | Open Data Initiatives
MyData | Innovation Toolkit | 21st Century Financial Systems | Development Innovation Ventures

Development Innovation Ventures
Enabling the US government to identify, test, and scale breakthrough solutions to the world’s toughest problems.

Great ideas and breakthrough solutions come from all kinds of different places, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has recently pioneered a competitive method for sourcing and scaling innovations to drive faster, more cost effective, and more reliable results. It uses staged financing to make small investments in promising approaches and technologies and larger investments when there is clear evidence that the method is producing significant results. It accepts proposals from startup or established businesses, social enterprises, academic institutions or non-profits, both domestically and internationally. Over 2000 proposals have been reviewed and over 40 investments made across the world in a wide range of sectors, with many more under negotiation.

Building on this innovative approach to government financing, there are opportunities to scale this effort to reach millions of people more quickly and ensure that the program structure is sustainable (through either profitability or host country adoption, not long-term donor support). Of particular interest would be supporting enterprises that are scaling through the private sector. In addition, there is a desire among domestic Federal Government agencies to optimize the use of taxpayer resources and further their missions by adapting this model of broad competitions and tiered funding for additional missions, to produce the most cost-effective, evidence-based, and scalable solutions.

Save Lives, Save Children, Make Living Wage Jobs, Create Self Dignity

Save Lives, Save Children, Make Living Wage Jobs, Create Self Dignity. I don’t really think my goals are that difficult to understand. What rule is it that states if one is not an elected official and/or not a President/CEO of a major multi-billion dollar company one can not create and/envision a significant/major solution to gun violence in the USA?

Dead is gaining… we need to slow it down.

It seems that every day when I log into my computer before classes start and my teacher responsibilities begin at Jefferson High School in Rockford, Illinois that CNN.Com highlights or news flashes yet another mass shooting. Early on often the reason or motive appears to be non-existent or missing all together. Sometimes however the media outlet does convey a motive that might include a thin but real motive similar to the magnitude of a property line disagreement, or perhaps a person seeking their 15 minutes of fame. The sad thing is that the list of dead has grown yet again and CNN.com is passing on the grim details for all to read or watch.

It is time that our elected officials focus on the cause or motivation of what exists in the persons mind to make the conscious decision to pick up the gun or knife and commit the deadly life ending crime. As a teacher at an inner city school I recently posed to my students the same question/thought.

It would be simple to propose all sorts of legislation to limit our Constitutional Rights, propose larger jails, employ more police, employ more judges, give money away to not for profits to fix the problem, and/or propose ill advised economic development projects using tax payer money in areas that are predisposed to high crime.

While these solutions make for great NEWS at 5:00 Political ribbon cuttings and the like… they are only a small band-aid on the cut or a cup of water on an already raging fire. The better solution is to determine what created the cut and what ignited the fire.

Sequestration normally would equal political suicide if voted on

News Flash: Due to the fact that all three policical parties agree that there must be some cuts to the government it has been decided that not voting on budget cuts saves them from political suicide.

This way all three parties can hem and ha, bicker and complain and clamour for News at 5 headlines telling the voters they are working feverishly and frantically to avoid the massive cuts due to hit March 1.

Who is the fall guy that the American public will blame for the Sequester? Answer: Someone by the name of Bowles – Simpson Bill. Lets face it… Mr. Bill is not an elected politician and is not up for re-election. Unless there is a person and a face to blame the American public can not and will not blame a face or one political party for the entire Sequestration.

On March 1 the cuts will take place, the elected politicians will all moan and grown, and the economy will take one more step toward the “New Normal” for the United States economy.

All the politicians will swear they did their best to avoid the Sequester, while knowing full well that it was needed to trip the deficit. The public will moan and grown for 48 hours and once again have something to complain about regarding the economy.

Finally, the mainstream media will have many evenings of stories showing all the unhappy folks that will be impacted l first hand the ramifications of Mr. Bills bill.

Unemployed, Under-educated, Unloved adults often ignored

I am proud to say that I am a high school teacher in an inner city, Rockford Illinois. Recently I asked my students their explanation of gun violence and/or violence in our community.

The results were surprising and exasperating at the same time.

1. Under-educated adults due to lack of parental guidance and support
2. Over 20, incapable of attending and graduating tech school or college due to family responsibilties
3. Unloved young people seeking family seek out gang families

The way I see it is that “we” the United States of America lack any program or job/education/training program for young adults and adults alike that:

1. Have a GED
2. No GED but would like a realistic reason to pursue GED
3. Unemployed Tech School, Junior College, or University that needs job specific education

My personal opinion: “We” need a viable for-profit business operation that attempts to engage the disengaged population of young adults and adults that have been cast off as a lost population.

I have a plan that does this and God willing I will at some point get the ear of someone that can/will make it happen.