Saturday, September 27, 2008

Success won't attack you...or...grab your own chestnuts!

Well there was one more round left in the rodeo discussion
on the WLUCTV6 web page:

===========================================================

TITLE:All talk no show!

Posted by Annie Johnson, Currently CO, orginally from Amasa -
Monday, September 22, 2008 at 10:46 a.m.

First off myself and others don't give a hoot about what
Donald Trump does or think. How about what he SHOULD do?
The greedy man doesnt give enuf to charity as far as I'm
concerned, but thats not the issue here.

Has it ever occured to you Mr. whoever you are the
ecomomy is in the toilet right now and has been for
a long time?

Even if your point is true about advertising I don't
think it's going to convince most of the middle
class to dig out the little bit of money they have
to come to a Rodeo thats always been considered
"small". Where do think you are?

If you think you can do a better job then stop the
talk and so call walk the walk!

I'm proud our little town of a few thousand if that
even HAS a rodeo to begin with. Our little town has
many fun activities going on all the time. So like

I said if you don't like it do something about it.

We all stick together in this town whether we like
each other or not, and you sir will not win this
arguement unless you volunteer your time.

==============================================================

TITLE: Success will not attack you

Posted by Bill Vajk, Iron River -
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 2:17 p.m.

The economy is not, as "Annie Johnson" (an historic
name well known in Amasa) states. The Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) grew by 3.3% in the second quarter of
2008. On an annualized basis that's 13.9%, a hefty
growth for our economy. Please see:

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm

Also Ms. Johnson is mistaken about the middle class,
which, extending to about $250,000 annual income
according to Senator Obama, mostly doesn't need to
scrape together vacation money. I moved to Iron
County after having lived in the middle class setting
in the Chicago area from 1974 to 2003 when I made my
decision to move here permanently.

I can personally assure you that much of the middle
class is looking for new (to them) forms of
entertainment and has the money to indulge
themselves.

What is important to this discussion is that I have
already provided a blueprint for success for the UP
Rodeo. Surely you mustn't think the members of the
existing board incapable of carrying out a simple
plan, or do you? In fact, in this discussion I am
the only one who has actually provided any ideas
that can save the rodeo from folding. One participant
in the discussion was concerned only about animal
rights/cruelty. Three of you have only attacked the
messenger without providing any helpful input.

An important consideration that just recently came
to my attention is that Wisconsin has cut back to
three (count em, 3) Buffington rodeos for 2008. In
fact the Wisconsin Rodeo Cowboys Association has
dissolved.

http://wisconsinrodeocowboysassociation.com/

What this means is less competition for the UP Rodeo
and a larger potential audience available to come to
Iron River. It is the job of our community to grow
the rodeo large enough to entice them to visit us.

I have volunteered already by providing, in public
forums, the solution to saving the UP Rodeo. I have
continued not by, as you accuse, arguing, but by
providing a continuing positive reinforcement for
workable ideas. None of the 4 people responding
directly to me has managed to stay on topic.

Each of you has attempted to change this from a
discussion about the rodeo into a discussion about
me. Sorry to disappoint, but I refuse to be
distracted. It is a mindset that I am working on
changing in Iron County. This is the old story of
teaching people how to fish instead of merely
catching a fish for them. I feel it prudent to advise
you that this Rodeo discussion is only one relatively
small part of the activism I'm engaged in for the
betterment of Iron County.

In closing I want to briefly discuss an old personal
motivation paradigm usually named "Where will
you be in 5 years." Type it, in quotes, into your
search engine. The recurring central theme goes
something like this:

"You can be assured that success will not attack
you nor will you stumble across it by accident.
What your future will hold for you is the result
of a plan and begins with a decision concerning
what you would like for it to hold for you."

So it is not for me to come along and pull the
county's chestnuts out of the fire. Rather it is my
function to help the people of the county to pull
their own chestnuts out of the fire, and that I have
been doing for some time now. I've provided the
equivalent of several pairs of long tongs. Now
go get those chestnuts yourselves.
--
--
Bill Vajk, aka "Mr. Whoever You Are"

=========================================================

The more I think about this exchange with John Faccin,
Wendy Otto-Shimun, and the latest "Annie Johnson" the
more spoiled these people seem to be. Instead of accepting
suggestions and working to help themselves they repeatedly
insist that whoever does have an idea do all the work for
them. They don't seem to want to lift a finger to improve
the situation they've been living in all their lives and
they seem resentful that someone not of their little
circle who offers up any ideas.

I guess the sorts of carry on they've demonstrated in
this rodeo discussion intimidated people in the past
and got them to back down. Also see John Faccin's
personal attacks elsewhere in this blog.

They need to get used to people who aren't afraid of
their nonsensical personal attacks. More of us are
coming! Development has jumped the border from
Wisconsin into Iron County. In particular they need
to get used to the idea that they better have something
worth considering because their old time junkyard dog
tactics just aren't going to work any longer.

The above is the opinion and activism of Bill Vajk
--
--
--

1 comment:

Bill Vajk said...

Some anonymous individual left a 50 line comment that started out with:

"Antisocial Personality Disorder -
consider yourself diagnosed"

The balance of the comment is a DSM IV (psychiatric diagnostic manual) description of the disorder.

There's a reason I chose to moderate the comments here instead of leaving them open as the free-for-all that exists over on Yahoo's IronCountyWatch and IronCountyIndependent web sites.

The whole idea here is to stay on the topic and to attempt to make progress as a community. Comments like the one I have rejected work against that by, if nothing else, presenting a distraction. The fact is that this response is full of venom, and I feel sorry for whoever became so enraged that they felt a need to lash out as they did. But my feeling sorry for them does no good for the community at large at all.

Because there's nothing to be gained from giving voice to such rage here, in future similar comments will be rejected without further ado and without any response from me. If you don't have anything constructive to add, then please take what you think is helpful and use it to benefit the community at large. Constructive, or even neutral replies addressing something related to the topic will be received with pleasure and will be posted whether I personally agree with them or not.

If you have non-activism ideas that can help the community, please submit them at the email address posted on www.ironcountyscoop.blogspot.com.

Thanks for reading this blog and thanks for thinking about the things I've written.

Bill Vajk

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