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Little Big Shots - 6-Year-Old Author and Entrepreneur
Little Big Shots - 6-Year-Old Author and Entrepreneur (Episode Highlight)
At six years old, this incredible little big shot has written and self-published two books. »
Ninth graders in a computer class in Brooklyn. The College Board has said that to be successful, students need to master computer science.CreditCreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times
A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important? Their answer: the ability to master “two codes” — computer science and the U.S. Constitution.
Since then they’ve been adapting the SATs and the College Board’s Advanced Placement program to inspire and measure knowledge of both. Since the two people who led this move — David Coleman, president of the College Board, and Stefanie Sanford, its chief of global policy — happen to be people I’ve long enjoyed batting around ideas with, and since I thought a lot of students, parents and employers would be interested in their answer, I asked them to please show their work: “Why these two codes?”
Their short answer was that if you want to be an empowered citizen in our democracy — able to not only navigate society and its institutions but also to improve and shape them, and not just be shaped by them — you need to know how the code of the U.S. Constitution works. And if you want to be an empowered and adaptive worker or artist or writer or scientist or teacher — and be able to shape the world around you, and not just be shaped by it — you need to know how computers work and how to shape them.
With computing, the internet, big data and artificial intelligence now the essential building blocks of almost every industry, any young person who can master the principles and basic coding techniques that drive computers and other devices “will be more prepared for nearly every job,” Coleman and Sanford said in a joint statement explaining their initiative. “At the same time, the Constitution forms the foundational code that gives shape to America and defines our essential liberties — it is the indispensable guide to our lives as productive citizens.”
So rather than have SAT exams and Advanced Placement courses based on things that you cram for and forget, they are shifting them, where they can, to promote the “two codes.”
In 2016, the College Board completely revamped its approach to A.P. computer science courses and exams. In the original Computer Science course, which focused heavily on programming in Java, nearly 80 percent of students were men. And a large majority were white and Asian, said Coleman. What that said to women and underrepresented minorities was, “How would you like to learn the advanced grammar of a language that you aren’t interested in?”
Turned out that was not very welcoming. So, explained Coleman, they decided to “change the invitation” to their new Computer Science Principles course by starting with the question: What is it that you’d like to do in the world? Music? Art? Science? Business? Great! Then come build an app in the furtherance of that interest and learn the principles of computer science, not just coding, Coleman said. “Learn to be a shaper of your environment, not just a victim of it.”
The new course debuted in 2016. Enrollment was the largest for a new course in the history of Advanced Placement, with just over 44,000 students nationwide.
Two years later The Christian Science Monitor reported, “More high school students than ever are taking the College Board’s Advanced Placement (A.P.) computer science exams, and those taking them are increasingly female and people of color.”
Indeed, the story added, “the College Board reports that from 2017 to 2018 female, African-American and Hispanic students were among the fastest growing demographics of A.P. computer science test-takers, with increases in exam participation of 39 percent, 44 percent and 41 percent, respectively. … For context, in 2007, fewer than 3,000 high school girls took the A.P. Computer Science A exam; in 2018, more than 15,000 completed it.”
The A.P. U.S. Government and Politics course also was reworked. At a time when we have a president who doesn’t act as if he’s read the Constitution — and we have a growing perception and reality that college campuses are no longer venues for the free exchange of ideas and real debate of consequential issues — Coleman and Sanford concluded that it was essential that every student entering college actually have command of the First Amendment, which enshrines five freedoms, not just freedom of speech.
Every student needs to understand that, as Coleman put it, “our country was argued into existence — and that is the first thing that binds us — but also has some of the tensions that divide us. So we thought, ‘What can we do to help replace the jeering with productive conversation?’”
It had to start in high school, said Sanford, who is leading the “two codes” initiative. “Think of how much more ready you are to participate in college and society with an understanding of the five freedoms that the First Amendment protects — of speech, assembly, petition, press and religion. The First Amendment lays the foundation for a mature community of conversation and ideas — built on the right and even obligation to speak up and, when needed, to protest, but not to interrupt and prevent others from speaking.”
This becomes particularly important, she noted, “when technology and democracy are thought of as in conflict, but are actually both essential” and need to work in tandem.
One must observe only how Facebook was abused in the 2016 election to see that two of the greatest strengths of America — innovation and free speech — have been weaponized. If they are not harmonized, well, Houston, we have a problem.
So the new A.P. government course is built on an in-depth look at 15 Supreme Court cases as well as nine foundational documents that every young American should know. It shows how the words of the Constitution give rise to the structures of our government.
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Besides revamping the government course and the exam on that subject, Coleman and Sanford in 2014 made a staple of the regular SAT a long reading comprehension passage from one of the founding documents, such as the Constitution, or another important piece of democracy, like a great presidential speech. That said to students and teachers something the SAT had never dared say before: Some content is disproportionately more powerful and important, and if you prepare for it you will be rewarded on the SAT.
Sanford grew up in Texas and was deeply affected as a kid watching video of the African-American congresswoman Barbara Jordan arguing the case against Richard Nixon in Watergate. What she remembered most, said Sanford, was how Jordan’s power “emanated from her command of the Constitution.
“Understanding how government works is the essence of power. To be a strong citizen, you need to know how the structures of our government work and how to operate within them.”
Kids are getting it: An A.P. U.S. Government and Politics class at Hightstown High School in New Jersey was credited in a Senate committee report with contributing content to a bill, the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act, which was signed into law last month.
Sanford cites it as a great example of her mantra: “‘Knowledge, skills and agency’ — kids learn things, learn how to do things and then discover that they can use all that to make a difference in the world.”
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist. He joined the paper in 1981, and has won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of seven books, including “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won the National Book Award.
WATCH OUT FOLKS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=319&v=oykxvcR_k6M
Student's behavior publicly disturbing and intentionally provocative
https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-student-faces-misdemeanor-charges-235526210.html
The Truth...Excellent letter to LeBron James
LeBron James calls President Trump a "Bum" and thinks that Obama was the best. His fans listen to him because he has a talent for basketball and buying big mansions. The letter writer below, a sports journalist, tells the truth and that truth applies to most celebrities on the left.
A GREAT letter to LeBron James from former Houston news reporter Hal Lundgren. It’s a must read, and definitely should be distributed. Post it, send it. Whatever. People really need to know these things.
August 6, 2018
Mr. LeBron James
The Los Angeles Lakers
2275 E. Mariposa Ave.
El Segundo, CA 90245
Dear Mr. James,
No one in my circles discusses French Modernist artists. That comforts me. Such a conversation would expose me as an illiterate on French Modernism, just as I am an illiterate on how to cook.
When I know nothing of subjects, my mouth stays closed. That's at least one difference in us. You are an economics illiterate. You prove it often. The dishonest "reporters" who cover you want to be your buddy. They won't embarrass you by being honest journalists and treating your words as economics illiteracy.
When you call Trump "a bum," none of them will tell you that statistics rank him as one of our best presidents for black Americans. His tax cuts and freeing us from absurd regulations have resulted in -- after only 18 months -- the lowest unemployment numbers ever for Hispanic and black Americans, and one of the lowest numbers for women.
DURING THOSE 18 MONTHS, TRUMP'S POLICIES CREATED ABOUT FOUR TIMES THE OF MANUFACTURING JOBS CREATED DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S LAST 18 MONTHS. Remember when Obama mistakenly told us "Our lost manufacturing jobs are not coming back." Maybe manufacturing job growth depends on a president who knows what he's doing.
As a professional journalist, I cringe at some of Trump's buffoonery, like repeating sentences and wearing us out with "great," "fantastic" and other empty adjectives. He is often coarse He was not my candidate. But there's no question his policies have helped many more minority Americans than Obama. It's not even close. Today, he's working to free many black and Hispanic prisoners who, in his opinion, have been in prison too long for relatively minor offenses. Are you aware of that effort?
You need to look up Gross Domestic Product, adjusted for inflation, and learn what it means to everyday Americans. Learn what one GDP point means to employment, and see how Trump has kept the number climbing.
Your buddy Obama? In addition to being our worst foreign affairs president and worst military
commander-in-chief, his economic numbers all deserved an "F." He is our ONLY eight-year
president who failed to give us at least one 3% or higher year of adjusted GDP growth.
EVERY other president achieved at least one year of 4.28% or higher growth. Aided by Vietnam spending, Johnson had an 8.48 year. The best peacetime year -- 7.83 -- belonged to Reagan. And Obama couldn't even score a 3!!! Look it up.
You say you would speak to Obama but not Trump? How tragically uninformed you re. Obama had BY FAR the worst debt accumulation record of all our presidents. His economic blunders added about $9 trillion to our debt. NO OTHER PRESIDENT EVEN CAME CLOSE. That indebtedness will fall to you and your children.
Poor families suffered most. Obama's awful job numbers forced a record number of people to take food stamps. Black household income under Obama fell steeply as black unemployment rose. Look that up, too.
But the worst part of what Trump inherited is that Obama, like Bush and Clinton before him, thought bribes and sweet talk were the best ways to deal with North Korea. As the North
Koreans neared being able to wipe out Los Angeles with a nuclear-tipped missile, Trump
became the first president to stand up boldly to the rogue nation.
Notice North Korea, because of Trump, has stopped launching missiles over Japan? Notice North Korea has released political prisoners?
Notice North Korea has begun to return remains of U.S. Service members? Absent sturdy spines, Clinton, Bush and Obama could not approach those major achievements.
Obama naively bribed the planet’s worst terrorist nation, Iran, with what was supposed to become a $150 billion handout. Did Obama not know many of those U.S. Tax dollars would help fund Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism? Of course he did. He just didn't care.
Remember the $800 billion of your and everyone else's tax dollars in his early stimulus for "shovel-ready jobs." Most of those tax dollars went to political cronies. He handed $500 million to Solyndra, a solar company run by boosters. The company soon went bankrupt. Our half-billion in tax money vanished with it.
Trump is often obnoxious, but people with courage can have that hang up. Obama always talked big, then feebly stood by when Putin infringed on Ukraine and annexed Crimea. But Obama's most cowardly move came when he warned Assad not to cross "the red line" in
Syria. When Obama's warning was ignored, which Assad knew would happen, Obama did nothing. Does that make him a "bum?"
It makes me sad that you, as someone with a national voice would be so ignorant of economics, and also presidential decisions. I encourage you to do more reading and thinking as you watch the nation's GDP numbers rise and minority employment rise.
* Read about "Right To Try," which frees terminally ill people to sign a lawsuit waiver and take an experimental drug that might not be approved for many years. Democrats fought this sensible plan for years because it would cost them donations.
* Read about a Navy Obama left to Trump that struggled with about half its carrier aircraft unsafe to fly.
* Read about Trump's giving the VA the right to fire any employee who neglects or abuses a patient.
* Read about Trump's courage in challenging, actually demanding that, NATO partners to pay their fair share rather than keep mooching off the U.S.
You might also read the wisdom of two of the world’s brightest people, black intellectuals Dr. Thomas Sowell and Dr. Walter Williams. They have written many books. Sowell and Williams’
integrity, remarkable insights and clarity of expression cause their common sense to soar off the page to readers.
Or, you could ignore vital Trump decisions and remain an illiterate on both presidential achievement and economics. If you disdain knowledge and keep calling Trump or any other
U.S. president a bum, people will begin to wonder who's the real bum.
Sincerely,
Hal Lundgren
Erasing our history
“Remember when all classrooms had an American flag in them?
Do they even teach our children about the World Trade Center attacks in 1993 and 2001, or did it go the way of Pearl Harbor and Veterans Day?
Don't even mention Christmas or prayers in school.”
When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why Eisenhower was so popular. Maybe this will explain why..
General Eisenhower Warned Us.
[
It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.
He did this because he said in words to this effect:
'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some <snip> will get up and say that this never happened'
This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred . It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
[
This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.
How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center
'NEVER HAPPENED',
Because it offends some Muslims???
Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.
Remember when all classrooms had an American flag in them?
Do they even teach our children about the World Trade Center attacks in 1993 and 2001, or did it go the way of Pearl Harbor and Veterans Day?
Don't even mention Christmas or prayers in school.
Well now that this is settled AOC can go onto bigger things like bankrupting the whole country and paying people unwilling to work.
Progressivism is getting to be more like the novel Lord of the Flies everyday. Children, without adult supervision, turning on one another. Nice!"
Just say no…to 25,000 good jobs, a few billion in infrastructure much needed in that area, and years of economic revitalization and tax revenue for the City. Not coincidentally 70% of the people in that district WANT the project. The political loudmouths have their own agenda and it isn’t representing ‘the People’.
Amazon Cancels HQ2 Plans in New York City
Amazon will move forward with plans in Virginia and Nashville and will hire at other tech hubs
Amazon spent a year conducting a public search for a second headquarters, with a promised 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.
By Laura Stevens, Jimmy Vielkind and Katie Honan
Updated Feb. 14, 2019 1:42 p.m. ET
Amazon.com Inc. is abandoning its plans to build a new headquarters in New York City after the company faced stiff resistance from some local politicians who objected to giving one of the world’s most valuable companies billions of dollars in tax incentives.
The company said in a blog post Thursday that its commitment to a new headquarters required supportive elected officials and collaboration.
“While polls show that 70% of New Yorker's support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” the company said.
The decision to abandon its new headquarters in Long Island City marks a stunning reversal. Amazon spent a year conducting a public search for a second headquarters, in which hundreds of locations vied for a shot at a promised 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.
In November, Amazon decided to split its so-called HQ2 operations between Virginia and New York, partly to ensure it could recruit enough tech talent.
Amazon said it won’t reopen its headquarters search. It will continue to add jobs at its other headquarters location in Northern Virginia, as well as offices in Nashville and other tech hubs around the country, the company said. Amazon said it has more than 5,000 people in New York City already and would continue adding to those teams.
Behind the scenes, Amazon executives have focused on expanding in places where the company is wanted, according to people familiar with the matter—particularly in light of the flak the company has taken in Seattle from residents and local politicians over transportation, housing and other issues.
As the chorus of objections built in New York, executives decided to cut their losses.
“There were a lot of missteps,” said John Boyd, principal at the Boyd Co., which helps companies select sites.
He pointed to Amazon’s revelation late in the process that it would split HQ2 in two, as well as what appears to be Amazon’s lack of awareness of how local politics operate in the city. “Anything that happens in New York tends to be a bigger deal,” he said.
Amazon had stressed during the course of its search—and in its decision to split HQ2 in half—that its primary need was tech talent, something no one location could provide. Abandoning New York raises questions about how the company will fill those needs.
Amazon faced criticism from some local officials, who questioned granting the company $3 billion in state and city tax incentives.
Cracks in the process appeared last week as Amazon executives started re-evaluating the planned campus in New York City. Discussions with Amazon had led some government officials to worry the company might abandon its plans to create 25,000 jobs and invest $2.5 billion in New York’s Long Island City neighborhood.
Of particular concern to some inside Amazon was last week’s nomination of New York state Sen. Mike Gianaris, a vocal opponent of the deal, to a state board that would have allowed him to veto the development plan, people familiar with the matter have said. Mr. Gianaris needs to be approved for the post by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“Wow,” Mr. Gianaris said immediately after the news broke.
The governor and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, fellow Democrats who have often clashed, led the deal to woo Amazon and have continued to support it.
Local officials, though, questioned everything from the project’s impact on transportation to neighborhood gentrification, as well as Amazon’s opposition to unionization.
Mr. de Blasio said Thursday afternoon that the company threw away an opportunity to be in New York. “You have to be tough to make it in New York City,” he said in a statement. “We gave Amazon the opportunity to be a good neighbor and do business in the greatest city in the world. Instead of working with the community, Amazon threw away that opportunity.”
“Amazon refused to change and accept New York values,” Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, a vocal opponent of the plan, said Thursday.
Amazon executives sat through two hearings where they were grilled about the incentives package and their anti-union stance. Hundreds of people attended the first hearing, which at times involved protest chants and heated exchanges between Amazon officials and city council members.
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson organized the hearings to examine the closed-door negotiations between Amazon and state and city officials that sealed the deal.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, a Democrat who represents the Queens district that would have housed the new headquarters, said an Amazon executive shortly before noon told her the company was going another way.
“They’ve just decided that they’re going to move on,” Ms. Nolan said. “They got eaten alive, and it’s just a shame.”
Some Amazon officials were surprised by the opposition, people familiar with the matter have said. The company had specifically sought out a location that welcomed it during the process.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s governor last week signed legislation approving the state’s incentive plan for Amazon. The company’s planned campus in the Crystal City neighborhood in Arlington, Va., has met little resistance. Stephanie Landrum, who oversees economic development for Alexandria, said the state’s package is structured to allow for the possibility that Amazon could grow to 37,500 jobs in the area.
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Achieve the American Dream, Start a (Little) Business :-)
I love little business. I say “little business” because “small business,” like “family farm,” has suffered politicization to a point of abstraction. Even the Small Business Administration doesn’t have a precise definition for small business. It defines “small business” either by revenue or by number of employees — and that can range up to a whopping 1,500 in some industries. To my mind, a small business starts with the owner and the first employee.
Politicians love small business and applaud it, but do they care? They listen acutely to big business through its lobbyists, who crowd Capitol Hill in Washington and every state capital.
If you’re stitching the cloth in a tailor’s shop and you have a problem with government, just stitch away because nobody is listening. Size does matter, alas.
Yet little business is the vital regenerator of the economy. It’s the fresh oxygen supply that keeps the economy fed with work and ideas.
For me, little businesses begin with moms-and-pops. They could be anything from a computer repair shop to a bowling alley, from a plumbing company to a bakery, from a convenience store to an optician, and from a service station to a painting contractor.
If the business is, say, a dry cleaner that uses chemicals, or anything else that discharges into the air or water, government will be all over it. But Bryan Mason, owner of Apollo Consulting Group, based in Newport, R.I., says there are plenty of problems for small businesses that don’t involve government.
“One of the big issues for the small business with, say, 50 employees, is that the owner-operator doesn’t know how to price his or her product or how to market it. You can’t undercut the big chains, so you have to offer real value and real quality,” says Mason.
As to strategy, Mason cites a bowling alley he advised. The bowling alley sold time on the lanes in two-hour blocks. The result was that patrons were keen to get their money’s worth by bowling for the whole period and not stopping to chat and, vitally important, not spending money at the concession stand on drinks and food.
Mason had them remove the time limit on the lanes, and profitability went up. Like cinemas, the money was in the concessions.
Little business — I owned and operated a newsletter publishing company with 20 employees for more than 30 years — is usually in direct relationship to the skill of the founder. A woman who worked in a florist may start her own shop, or an auto mechanic might start a service station. A construction worker might start a house renovation business, and a stone mason might set out to chisel and sell headstones.
Herein is a unique challenge for our society. It’s the artisans and people with skills who start businesses: a gardener, a landscaping service; a short-order cook, a food truck; and a hairdresser, a salon.
Left out of this progression are many liberal arts graduates who have skills that are suited to big organizations like schools, hospitals, government departments and giant corporations. You can’t start a sociology shop, a history wholesaler or a political science emporium.
If you have the itch to be self-employed, you might want to get a hands-on trade.
Some colleges are now sensitive to this need and are adding a practical course. I’ve been especially impressed with a little college in Charleston, S.C., the American College of the Building Arts, in which students take traditional liberal arts courses and spend two-and-a-half days each week in apprentice labs, learning one of six areas of craft specialization: architectural carpentry, architectural stone, forged architectural ironwork, masonry, plasterwork and timber framing.
The college aims to graduate “educated artisans,” but what they get is entrepreneurs: approximately one-third of their graduates have started businesses based on their artisanal training.
Owning a business is a fundamental part of the American Dream, and the quickest way to do it is to market a skill that you already have from dog walking to jewelry making, from furniture hauling to well drilling.
Steve Jobs, who grew his little business to enormity, said, “Don’t be afraid, you can do it.”
About the Author
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle” on PBS, and he is a columnist with
Amazing Math Test...
This is a math trick that is truly quite remarkable! It really works and only takes about ten seconds. Amazingly, It will reveal your all-time favorite movie.
First, I did it in my head, then on paper,
and finally on a calculator just to confirm my mathematical
calculations. Each time I got the same answer, and sure enough, it is
my very favorite movie, EVER!
DO NOT cheat. DO YOUR math, THEN compare the results on the list
of movies at the bottom. You will be AMAZED at how scary, true, and
accurate this test is:
1. Pick a number from 1-9.
2. Multiply that number by 3.
3. Add 3.
4 Multiply by 3 again.
5. Your total will be a two digit number. Add the first and second digits
together to find your favorite movie (of all time) in the list of 17 movies
below:
Movie List:
1. Gone With the Wind
2. E.T.
3. Blazing Saddles
4. Star Wars
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
7. Jaws
8. Grease
9. The Nancy Pelosi Resignation Speech
10. Casablanca
11. Jurassic Park
12. Shrek
13. Pirates of the Caribbean
14. Titanic
15. Raiders of the Lost Ark
16. Home Alone
17. Mrs. Doubtfire
... Now, isn't that something?
All Music Lovers & aficionados, just stop, look and listen WOW
 |
Alma Deutscher, composer - Violinist an... |
Photo of boys stopping to recite Pledge of Allegiance as flag is raised at fire department goes viral
A moment Captured by a chaplain is going viral. It shows two young people who stopped playing and said the Pledge of Allegiance as a flag was being raised at a fire department.
Two young people took the time to stop playing and recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a flag was raised at Roseboro Fire Department in North Carolina — and now the moment is going viral.
The photo, which was shared on Friday by the Roseboro Fire Department, shows two boys who stopped at an intersection in their town with their hands over their hearts, as Chaplain Bobby Herring was raising the U.S. flag.
“This afternoon as Chaplain Herring was raising the U.S. flag to full staff, he looked over to the intersection and saw these two young people standing there with hands on their heart saying the pledge of allegiance,” the post read. “God bless our community.”
Americans mustn’t stand for socialism
I knew Mike Root. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is no Mike Root. My uncle Mike Root died a few days ago. He was not only a great family man, but the personification of American exceptionalism. Mike proved the American Dream is real. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC) is the socialist darling of the moment. You couldn’t find more polar opposites.
This is a teachable moment.....
Mike was one of seven children born to my grandparents, Anna and Louis Root, in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood in the early 1900s. These seven Jewish kids in Brooklyn were born into abject poverty.
Then it got worse. Their father, Louis Root, died of a heart attack. My grandmother was left penniless with seven young mouths to feed. There was no welfare, no food stamps, no Medicaid, no Social Security.
Yet unlike AOC and her socialist friends who want to turn America into Cuba or Venezuela, those seven penniless kids never complained, never protested, never made excuses, never blamed “racism.” All seven young kids got a job to pay the bills. Those seven kids took care of their mother’s bills for the rest of her life.
All seven of those kids went onto achieve pretty darn good lives. Because of American exceptionalism and capitalism, being born into poverty in this country doesn’t mean you are destined to stay in poverty.
But Uncle Mike was the shining star. He started an electronics company, built it into apowerhouse and sold it for a fortune. A kid born into abject poverty on Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn became a millionaire in America. Only in America.
It wasn’t easy. As the saying goes, “It takes 20 years to achieve overnight success.” It took years of hard work. He raised three children, two of them “special needs.” He lost his beloved wife, Sonny, to cancer. He found love again with my Aunt Louise. He spent 30 years loving Louise and her children. Mike used his wealth to make sure his two special-needs children (my cousins) were taken care of for life.
I called Uncle Mike a few days ago. He was on his deathbed, dying of kidney failure at the age of 87. Aunt Louise said he was very weak and could talk only for a few seconds. But when he heard it was his nephew Wayne, Mike had a surge of energy. We spoke for 20 minutes.
I’ll never forget his last words. Mike Root said, “The Root family was so poor growing up in Brooklyn. We had nothing. But I set three goals. To take care of my family … to become president of a company … and to become wealthy. I made all three goals come true. Only in America. Only with capitalism. God bless America.”
He told me he loved me. Then he fell asleep. Louise took the phone. Those were the last words Uncle Mike ever said to me. He died the next day.
My message to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: Mike Root is America. You are not. This isn’t a socialist country. Most Americans want to achieve success and financial freedom and use the money to take care of their family. That is the point of life. That ambition is what makes America the greatest and richest country in the world. That attitude lifts people out of poverty. Only capitalism can do that. Socialism cannot. Government cannot.
Mike made it. The poor kid from Brooklyn got rich — all because of freedom, capitalism, opportunity and mobility. Only in America.
Mike Root is the American Dream. Mike Root is what makes America exceptional. Mike Root proves AOC must be defeated and her ideas sent to the garbage heap of history.
As President Donald Trump said in his State of the Union: “America will never become a socialist nation.”
Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com . Hear the nationally syndicated “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now and at 5 p.m. on Newsmax TV.
People Who Succeeded Against All Odds
Initially, Lucille Ball was widely regarded as a failed actress, and was kicked out of drama school for being too scared to perform. Her drama instructor told her she would never make it as an actress, and to try another profession. She proved them all wrong when she and her husband Desi Arnez launched the “I Love Lucy” show on CBS, which became the longest running TV show in history.
During her career she was awarded thirteen Emmy nominations and the Lifetime Achievement Award. Lucille Ball succeeded against all odds and became one of the greatest comedians in history.
People Who Succeeded Against All Odds
Tom Cruise is one of the most successful actors in Hollywood, winning 3 Golden Globe Awards, and 3 Academy award nominations. Tom had an abusive father growing up and lived in stricken poverty sleeping in cars, and living in trailer parks for most of his childhood life. His family ended up moving 15 times for his dad to find work. Despite every set-back imaginable
Tom Cruise persisted and went on to become one of Hollywood’s greatest actors against all odds. He got his first break at 19 in the 1981 film Endless Love, and from there it was history. Some of his Hollywood blockbuster hits include, Top Gun, Rain Man, Born on fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, War of the World’s, Mission Impossible, Jack Reacher, Oblivion, and many others including Eyes Wide Shut. In 2012 Tom Cruise was Hollywood’s highest paid actor.
Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson, the only major leaguer to be named most valuable player in both the National and American leagues and the first American African to manage in the big leagues, died Thursday in Los Angeles after a long illness, according to Major League Baseball. He was 83.
The game of baseball has lost a true one of a kind!
Condolences to family and fans
R.I.P.