facethereckoning

My grandfather did not pass away.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get on with the entry.

I write this from Starbucks Coffee in Metairie, LA. It’s about 5:02pm, and it’s freezing in this location.

Off to the left of my screen I’m watching the second episode of “V” and so far, I’m feeling riveted but that’s because I remember the originals as a kid and so I’m eager and easily pleased at an updated production.

Today, at 12:30pm, at an Olive Garden… of all places in the Greater New Orleans area to have a party… we had a party. A birthday party for my grandpa.It was a nice party and my Aunt Lorraine, put some early effort into it by being at the restaurant at 10:30am, and my Aunt Leslie (personal favorite) brought the cake. She also brought my cousin Isabel, whom I love dearly.

Now the best part is this: my Uncle Daniel and his new wife, Jill. Jill is a total sweetheart from Mississippi, and we had fun knowing that we are the only two people in this family who do not sound as if they belong. About Danny, this is a guy who’s been (unknown to him I think) dearer to me than I’ve been able to tell him. He’s had his fair share of growing up like the rest of us, but he also had other obstacles in life that he had to deal with. Nothing scandalous or gossip-column worthy, but life in general with not-so-general obstacles. He lives in Mississippi (which is why I don’t get see him when I visit New Orleans) but he came down for Grandpa’s birthday and finally, after years of not seeing him, I saw him. The last time I saw him I was a little kid in junior high. Now, I’m 27 and 200lbs, with an air of relevance. Ha. Seeing my Uncle Danny is the highlight of this trip to New Orleans.

Cool note: I also got to see my Great Aunt Rose, and Great Aunt Mary. Mary looks great, for the last time I saw her she was having to take steroids due to an illness and looked a bit swollen, but that’s over with now. My Aunt Rose, she’s the wife of my late Uncle Ed. Wow, I miss him. He was a great man to me.

My grandfather, James aka Jim, was not aware that my dad and I would be at this party. (Please forgive me in advance for what I can’t help to be my emotions here.) Grandpa Jim turned 84 this year, and the most important birthday for him we’ve celebrated to date.

Back in October… my Uncle Jay called my father and asked us to make the trip out here for the party. Jay told my father that my grandpa is in what appears to be an expedited decline and that he’s on the going-home stretch of his life. I liken this to my Grandfather competing with Mortality, the non-blinking foe in this staring contest.

My dad and I were sitting in the corner (we were not in trouble) when my grandfather came in. My dad went first and made himself known, and I was second. My grandpa was already excited to see my father and when I showed up, the excitement nearly floored him. I hugged him and he said to me, “You are strong.” I swear, I think the man was about to cry. All I could say was, “I am, sir.”

Oh… “V” Episode 2 has concluded.

Please understand something about my grandfather. He’s not known for being expressive, enough to the point that when he does, the family takes it as though we were starved for it.

Jim used to be able to walk on his own. He used to be able to strong-arm me when I was younger. He used to do a lot of things. He built birdhouses, and other miscellaneous things. He used to be able to hear.

Today, I saw the man mentioned earlier. The joy of seeing my grandfather was quickly quelled by seeing him have the staring contest of his life with a non-blinking foe named Mortality. Someday, my grandfather will be forced to blink into eternity. I do not wish it to be soon.

The unstoppable motion of mortality and aging causes me to pause and think of my own father. My father, today, faced it with tears. I too, must fight my own as I empathize with my father by viewing him getting older. No one likes to see their progenitors get old, but it’s not for the sake of the progenitors, but rather for ours. We are the sad ones for we see what lies ahead for us when we reach the latter milestones that signify old age.

Enough sadness, allow me to leave you with some quotes by my Granddad. I take great comfort in knowing that his wits are still intact.

Upon seeing his grandchildren and scanning the room, he apparently was going to make some patriarchal announcement of sorts, and so we quietly turned our attention to him. Looking at his great-grandkids, he turned up his head and said, “Y’all be quiet down here.” and proceeded to sit down. Thus started lunch.

Later, before the entreés had arrived, randomly he grabbed the salt shaker and began beating the table. Again, we turned our attention to him and he said, “Who’s ready for dessert??!!” My Aunt Lorraine chided him and said “Daddy, you can’t have dessert until you’ve eaten your lunch.” to which my grandfather responded with a degree of playful terseness, “Who’s birthday party is this?”

Finally, at the presentation of the cake, my grandfather did give a short speech. He said, “I own an ’84 Ford truck. Today, I’m an 84 Jemison.”

My Uncle Raymond didn’t get it, but he usually doesn’t.

I laughed, and then realized something again that I’ve known all along:

I have a weird family with weird quirks and weird relationships with weird on again off again points of contention… but I cannot help but love them immensely, and I worry that when my grandfather does indeed pass away, so will the reason that we stay together.

Perhaps, the lack of my family’s presence here in New Orleans, while an annoyance to some in the family, will serve as that special reason to come together in the future. More on that later…

In the meantime, if your grandparents are still living I suggest that you contact them and remind them of how much you love them. Convince yourself of this fact, if you must and just do it.

During the Presidential Campaign, a friend and I discussed at length our disgust at how many people had taken President Obama so seriously as a “messiah”-type character. We complained how it seemed the “thinking” had disappeared from the majority of his supporters. This is not to say that the President does not have an agenda or that the Democratic Party has nothing to think about, the opposite is true. There’s a lot to think about on both aisles of our political parties. Republicans aren’t thinking at all, but the Democrats are MARKETING instead of THINKING.

The video below does not reflect my personal views or opinions regarding my feelings toward the President. I respect the man and the Office, and while I may not agree with his agenda I have taken the appropriate avenue of pushing for dialogue and questions as to allow the nation the freedom to speak.

Here’s an 8:10 rundown from PJTV made available from YouTube.

“I believe the conservative message is, on balance, the most nutritious and philosophical meal ever devised, but the packaging on that message has been an unmitigated disaster.”

Nicely said concerning the Republican failures of the 2004-2008. The conservative message does indeed cover all of the social, economical, political concerns that every American can agree on, but what has the package been? Seemingly NOTHING because of all the attachments. President Bush put a lot of effort in national security, a trait no one can hold against him, but a trait that influenced negatively the other responsibilities of a U.S. president. I’ve stated several times here before how much I wish I could ask President Bush what happened in his second term? He was not the charging out of the gate brilliant governor from Texas that I voted for. Packaging in the year 2000 was great for Bush, not great enough, for Gore. In hindsight, I’m glad neither Gore nor John Kerry became commander-in-chief, but I can’t say that my support for President Bush overwhelms that gladness. I’m evenly split on the matter.

The power of an icon, is in its ability to evoke a subconscious emotional response…it’s called “branding”

The speaker used Mickey Mouse, and the Playboy Bunny for this example. Both are indeed brilliant, in spite of their simplicity.  Any young man by the time he reaches his teens will have seen and asked his mom or dad, “What’s the bunny?” and a parental explanation will soon follow.  As children, we ALL knew Mickey Mouse, and his silhouette is something that we will recognize for the rest of our lives.  Both of these icons, if you will, are embedded forever in our minds and there are emotions that go with seeing them.

When I see the Playboy logo, I immediately think of naked women even if I disagree with pornography.  Sorry, but that’s what they were going for, and it works. The natural inclination I have to admire the female form is what Hugh Hefner and his design team long ago sought to appeal to. The bunny is innocent in that it does not make sense to attach Playboy with other subcategories of pornography that exist.  When I see the Mickey Mouse logo, I think about Disney World/Land and how it’s the most magical place on earth where everything is amazing, everyone gets along, and it’s got rides. I love rides.

Now, if you watched the video, it is after the above example he begins to talk about campaign logos like President Bush’s “W” logo, which was pretty cool given his competitors did not follow suit. In 2008, we have a repeat of the same strategy except this time utilized and, I agree very much, more brilliantly utilized than Bush’s 2004 team. I’m sure even Karl Rove took notes.

I went and read through the comments section on this video and it is a mess. Some people think PJTV is right, others think PJTV is drastically wrong and just Obama-haters. I personally think PJTV did a pretty objective piece on the power and danger of iconography because I do follow this powerful and dangerous school of thought:

Objective analysis NEVER guarantees your happy approval of it, but ALMOST ALWAYS guarantees contention with your personal bias(ses).

As a conservative, the stinging truth of this branding opinion is that the people I support politically FAILED miserably to keep connected with America, both emotionally and politically. If I were to put my liberal shoes on, the stinging truth of the matter is that I while I may share convictions that fall in line with the Democratic Party, my enthusiasm and vehement defense is not because I care about the issues, but because I care about the man, President Barack H. Obama. The truth is found in objectivity, and not the subscription of an icon, which I’m afraid a majority of Obama-supporters do. I say this because I have liberal friends who for sure are not fans of Republicans, who do not support President Barack Obama simply because they have not bought into the hype that preceded his election.

I don’t watch the video and think, “Wow, President Obama is a communist!”. Is it wrong for me to objectively (I did on October 10th) compare strategies/tactics/the national stage of 1933 Germany with the commonalities of 2008 America, that without my help or orchestration was a forced inclusion of Obama v. Hitler? I can easily do the same for President Bush, and maybe I should have. People do not understand the lowest common denominator that every world leader regardless of their goodness/evil shared: Believable charisma. Bush had it (including his own “W” logo), Obama definitely has it, Stalin had it, Hitler had it, Eisenhower, Kennedy, you name them… they all had something for the people to believe in during their rise to power and influence.

Later, the speaker in this video mentioned something that I have been complaining about (without really knowing). The Obama “O”. I’ve made a few references in past entries about how I wish that President Obama would take the Office of the President and get himself out of campaign mode.  Wonderful speeches don’t cut it anymore in this political climate and if I can borrow from the previous post’s video featuring “Dragnet”, I really want the President to succeed in tackling the issues without trying to “change” everything. I’m not asking him to give up his ideals or what he believes in because “yes” those are necessary for things to get done, but what I am really concerned about is where the line is between personal liberties and the “hard decisions” that he says we will have to make.  The PJTV video is true that www.mybarackobama.com does indeed have the Obama “O” featured prominently, and the images of people you see will in some form or fashion do sport this “brand”.  A visit to www.whitehouse.gov does feature the Presidential Seal at the bottom of the page, so in my due diligence I hope that I have challenged sufficiently any presumption that I myself have focused only on www.mybarackobama.com

Here is where the speaker in the video does make a rather forward criticism of, not President Obama, but of the Democratic National Committee who runs the website:

The fact that we see the Obama logo attached to healthcare proposals means we are seeing an individual brand, that of Barack Obama, being used alongside and in many cases, in place of, the logo of the President of the United States. That’s interesting, and I don’t like it.

Please see this image taken from www.mybarackobama.com:

In the issues section of the website, I went to the healthcare tab and here is the banner image.  Small Obama “O” logo right underneath “The Obama Plan”.  Remember this website is run by the DNC, so I cannot presume the President’s direct involvement with this so please do not see this as a criticism of him personally or professionally.

What is the DNC doing?

The man won the election and the right to use the Seal of the President of the United States. The fact that we continue to see the Obama logo, used by the Democratic National Committee, tells me that this is a perpetual campaign and what they are branding is in fact an ideology centered around the cult of personality.

That’s what the DNC is doing. I’ve had the privilege of being involved in marketing discussions with two marketing firms here in the Dallas area. CobaltBridge Multichannel formerly known as Holland|Simpson, and an affiliate of The Richards Group. In those discussions, I learned a lot about branding, although not enough to be a pro. However, when I saw the PJTV video, my experiences in those meetings enabled me to understand the dynamics behind branding. This is something I think a lot of the negative commenters over at YouTube did not understand. They chalk this video to right-wing spin doctors and cite “It’s just a simple logo, get over it” or “It’s not that important” but the truth is, and I challenge any marketing expert to contest me here, is that logos are not that simple, they are extremely important and they have a very distinct emotional purpose in regards to brand identity.

Now we’ve seen in the past the dangers of branding ideology with an icon, the two great totalitarian ideologies of the early 20th century both used powerful icons to represent their ideas. I’m not going to show those here because it would be obscene, it would be absolutely obscene to compare the horror they generated, 150 million dead, no less, to what’s going on here today. That was mass murder, this was merely advertising. We’ve just never seen that kind of thing before here in America.

Again, to me this is just an objective assessment of the power of branding ideology. While Obama supporters of the blind kind will undoubtedly cite “this is hate speech”, or “he just compared Obama to Hitler and Stalin, they are not even the same!” then I think people have missed the point altogether. The PJTV producers specifically did not show the Soviet or Nazi symbols out of respect for President Obama, and also made it clear the difference between what is being accomplished by each brand ideology… and did even more justice by NOT showing them side by side instituting a subtle “spin” using their own form of branding ideology. I respect and applaud PJTV for not showing the symbols side by side. Granted, this objective analysis is going to bring accusations of hate speech anyways… from the open-minded crowd too.

In conclusion, I truly support the President. I want him to succeed the way he was meant to, with the approval of the American people and not the liberal agenda of many in his party. I think he realizes how difficult it is to do something when all the odds are in his favor because the nation can see that his agenda has near unimpeded power because the Democrats control both House and Senate, and no one, not even his supporters can put their entire support behind an absolute power for fear of it. Hopefully, in 2010, the balance of power can shift again to a more even position and keep the accountability that comes with dialogue flowing and making sure that every decision legislated has been thought through.

Maybe in 2010, we’ll have politicians that will keep the process accountable instead of stonewalling stuff and keeping things at a standstill. (I’m speaking to all members of government, both Republican, Democratic, Republocrats, and the like.)

Thoughts?