Mis-placed Budget Priorities.

A couple of stories caught my attention recently. The most recent was this story in the Denver Post. It's a stunner. 43 kids have died in the past five years after entering Colorado's Child Welfare Program. Which at best comes across as an oxymoron. It's tragic.

Authorities blame caseloads and budget cuts. I think it would be fair to say that bureaucracy plays a role too. But 43 kids is 43 kids too much.

Then there's Colorado's Jefferson County. School music and arts programs are on the chopping block. So are the teacher positions involved. High School Band was the best experience for me in school. I learned much more than music. Discipline, that working hard brings rewards, team work pays off and best of all, making lifetime friends. These programs are as important as math and science.

Again, the blame is being laid at budget cuts. A fair enough argument in these tough economic times. I've attended budget briefings with respected economists from schools like DU. While revenue is expected to trend upwards in the next 10-15 years, expense projections exceed that revenue. We're spending more than we're taking in, not only in Colorado but at the Federal level as well.

Here are a couple of examples of where we might save some money, or avoid wasting it in the first place.

There's an effort, however well-intentioned, to raise money to fix up the dome at the State Capitol here in Denver.  It will cost millions of dollars. I totally understand that we have to do something but maybe slapping on a coast of that sealer stuff used in truck beds might suffice at last for now, and while ugly looking, serve as a reminder that we face tough decisions moving forward. A great visual as we say.

Then there's an effort to create an exploratory committee to bring the 2022 Winter Games to Colorado. Before they have another meeting, they should ask the folks in Vancouver and British Columbia how the games put them deep in debt. They're having to cut all sorts of services, including education to pay for the "honor" of hosting the games.

Those behind the effort claim every effort will be made to raise the billion(s) needed "privately." Yeah, right. The other problem is the only way you could get to the alpine events would be on I-70.

Oops.

So here we are, at a crossroads of sorts. A golden dome or the lives of innocent children. Education or the Olympics which most of us couldn't afford to attend in the first place. It sounds like a simplistic argument but that's fine. When all else fails, look at the facts.

Nationally the debt is well north of $15 Trillion and rising by the second. Our government wants to raise it another $1.5 Trillion. Some time ago President Obama tasked retired Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles to form a debt reduction commission. They came up with a solution and then it was promptly stuck in a drawer. This medicine has so sugar to make it go down, because we can't afford the sugar.

When you have kids dying in the care of "child welfare" agencies or shutting down music and arts programs, while at the same time thinking about the Olympics or golden domes you just make an already bad situation, worse.

To quote Mike Ditka, "Stop it!"


Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Red Tails: A Review

As a bit of background, I'm a little out of practice reviewing movies although I used to do it all the time earlier in my career. Great fun to jet off to L.A. or NYC, screen a film then interview the cast. They're called Press Junkets.

That said, Red Tails was on my "Must-See" movie list as it's about the 332nd Fighter Group AKA the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. They were honored last fall by Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum with the annual Spreading Wings Award marking the 70th anniversary of this remarkable step forward in civil rights, aviation and our victory in WWII. I was lucky enough to be there for the event.

The film was a labor of love for George Lucas. He put up $56 Million to get it made. One report has the figure at $93 Million. That's a lot of love.

"Professional" reviews of the film weren't all that good, while loving the special effects creating incredible aerial scenes, most critics panned the script. I disagree a bit. Actually quite a bit.

Red Tails starts in Italy in 1943. Their base was totally segregated from pilots to the ground crews that supported them. They're flying routine patrols in P-40 Warhawks, a great aircraft but by this time in the war, definitely hand me downs. I would have preferred the movie starting where it all began; Tuskegee, AL. But Lucas had to cram a lot of action and storylines into the movie and it was his money. But if you read this George, that would have been my choice.

Other than Cuba Gooding Jr, the cast are pretty much unknowns. What works for me and the characters in the film, is that they're portrayed no different than if the movie had been made about a white fighter group. All were skilled, but had personal flaws like any human being. Some made it through their tours alive, others didn't. War doesn't discriminate even though at the time our own government did against these brave pilots and crew who volunteered to fight for it.

The aerial combat sequences are spectacular, you expect nothing less than from George Lucas. As the Red Tails prove themselves, fighting in the sky and back in Washington DC to see action, the fighter group transitions to the P-51 Mustang, escorting bomber groups to and from targets ranging to Ploesti Oil Fields to Berlin, the heart of the Nazi Reich.

If you love aviation, these action sequences will amaze you as the Red Tails escort huge formations of B-17's, fighting the Luftwaffe pilots and aircraft including the ME-262 jet fighter. It appears some real aircraft were used in making the film, but you'd be hard pressed to see the difference in what's real and what are special effects.

Through all this, the Red Tails earn the respect of the bomber crews they escorted. While the film concludes with a stirring finish (and rare applause from a movie audience) in real-life, many of the real Red Tails went home to Jim Crow. Many distinguished themselves despite it all, like their white counterparts taking leadership roles in building our nation, raising families despite bigotry and segregation.

Before we had an African-American President, before the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's, there were the Red Tails, blazing trails in the sky and for human rights. They were measured, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, for the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

For that reason, I hope you see the movie.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Western Voters are being Disenfranchised

Apparently the political powers that be, put together the current primary system before Lewis and Clark ventured west of the wide Missouri. If I hear 'Palmetto State" one more time I'll, well, let me simmer down.

It all starts in Iowa, which at best is mid-west. Then the circus heads off to New Hampshire, South Carolina and maybe Florida before a nominee is picked.

Meanwhile here out west (Where it's best) we see nary a candidate. The entire western half of the country is left out of the decision making process. Last time I checked, we're allowed to vote out here but an out-dated political system leaves us outside looking east.

Sadly all the decision makers live in Washington DC and New York City,  and these folks just don't think we're important. It's a disgrace both geographically and politically.

At least one western state should be part of the early process. Maybe a multi-state early primary but for goodness sake, let us take part in the selection process of who we want as our party's nominee, Democrat or Republican.

We deserve the right to see the candidates, we deserve the right to play a key role in picking which one we think is best.

It's called Democracy.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations