Project Vision 21

Last week I received a pre-recorded call from my children’s school. The message began with words like “Alert!” and “Important message. Please, pay attention”

Because that day there was a snowstorm in Denver, and because my children were at school, I decided to pay attention to the message, with an initial degree of concern. The message said that due to the “accumulative effect” of the storm, and because of the safety of students and teachers, the school day will end at its normal time and school buses will keep their normal schedule.

In other words, this “alert” alerted me that nothing serious was happening and, therefore, nothing would change. This pre-recorded call is a good example of the upside-down world we live in, where “alerts” and “emergency calls” now mean nothing is happening and everything is normal.

If there has been a real emergency, then call me and tell me so. If there is no emergency and everything is normal, then don’t call me. And if you call me as a courtesy to let me know that, in spite of the snow, nothing is changing, then tell me is just a courtesy call and don’t start with “Alert” and “Emergency.”

Neither my emotions nor my blood pressure like receiving an “emergency call” when there is no emergency. By the way, this seems to be a favorite tactic of many governments and administrations.

That same morning I called my bank to find out what was the decision about my request for a loan modification, based on the difficult economic times we are all facing now.

They put me on hold for a long time and then I had to speak with people who did not understand what I was saying or I was unable to understand what they were saying. Finally, somebody told me I was getting the loan modification with two conditions: stop making my monthly payments and agree to “ruin” my credit score.

In other words, if I pay on time and I pay the full amount every time, and if I work hard to keep a good credit score, there is no relief available. But if I don’t pay and I have a bad credit score, then I will get help.

If, in my business, I would treat my best customers like the bank treated me and I would spend most of my time trying to help my “worst” customers, I will soon be out of business. I don’t know anything about bank policies and regulations, except that they are yet another example of our upside-down world.

That same day I spoke with a congressman who told me the “urgent” immigration reform will begin “soon,” perhaps even this year. I asked him how long it will take to implement such an “urgent” reform. “Twenty years,” he said.

In our upside-down world, it takes 20 years to solve an urgent matter, while at the same time we spend untold amounts of time and resources on irrelevant and ephemeral issues.