As a younger man, my Dad was a legend for clipping newspaper and magazine articles that he thought would be of interest to his kids… well, teenagers really, who he hoped would mind his counsel and the counsel and observations of others.
He would “xerox” them with a quick handwritten “call-out” and stick them in the mail to us, particularly once we were in school. A technology “early-adopter” in his own right, the man was a web blogger ahead of his time, as social media was just getting off the ground in 1999 when he passed away.
Having been raised by him and with an old-school liberal arts
With some rare exceptions, our dinner table tug-of-war over religion and politics was a near constant. Naturally, as a child of the late-60s and early ’70s, we often knew better than Dad. And in my case, seven years of boarding school theater from the great 60’s Existential playrights to all-American musicals was where I practiced my modest skills which would then lead to a professional life of sales, marketing and entrepreneurship… and CauseACTION.
It was after my Dad’s passing and during the 2008 Presidential cycle that I published the first of several emails with point-by-point reasons why I thought family and friends should not vote for Barack Obama.
Yikes. What fun… as a young father myself and my father’s newspaper clipping tool replaced by this thing called email (this was years before social media) I was one of the lone Conservatives in the very blue world of Connecticut.
It was then that my Mom made a perfectly loving and gentle comment about my email “rants”. Was I perhaps going too far? While I took her counsel seriously, the answer was, heck no. While I was clearly opinionated, I did my very best to compel family and friends with reason and facts. And so, the word “rant” struck.
And that’s why 20 years later they are called “Rich’s Rants”. So, as my tag line adds – “don’t panic” and I hope you will find them informative, encouraging and useful.
Do head on over to “Rich’s Rants” here and as always…
Onward…
