Blog Posts

The ABCs of a Lifetime Partnership

Statue of Liberty - Family

Eighteen years ago, on July 4, 1996, I took Jennifer Leigh Smith to Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, and we boarded a plane for New York City. Standing in front of the Statue of Liberty, I proposed to her. As I’ve told others, I had a good plan. I held the plane tickets home! She faced a difficult choice…return to Texas as my fiancé or stay in New York City. Well, fortunately for me, Jennifer accepted my proposal…and the rest is history!

In 2007—10 years of marriage and 3 kids later (Katy-7; Cody-5; and Tanner-1), we visited the Statue of Liberty again to let our family know that this is where it all started. We captured that memory with the picture above…

Each July 4th is a reminder for me of that special proposal…and that special day…

As I ponder the keys to success for our relationship, I think of the “ABCs of a Lifetime Partnership”…lessons which can certainly apply to leaders and aspiring leaders of all ages.  Click here to learn if you can apply these ABCs to your own leadership.

A Post-Racial America?

“To enforce the constitutional right to vote…to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations…to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education…to extend the Commission on Civil Rights…to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs…to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.” Civil Rights Act of 1964

Fifty years ago today, one of the biggest and last remaining legal barriers to equal opportunity in America was toppled when President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the most sweeping civil rights legislation since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era (see my May 21, 2014 post on “LBJ’s Great Society 50 Years Later”).

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in such areas as voting, public restaurants, employment and education on the bases of such characteristics as race, color, religion, national origin and gender. It was a pivotal moment in our nation’s on-going struggle to right the wrongs of the past and form “a more perfect union.” It ushered in an era of diversity and inclusion that in the last half-century has literally transformed the face of America.

But have we achieved Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Dream”? Four years ago, I read Tim Wise’s Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism & White Denial in the Age of Obama. Wise suggests we still have some work to do…

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