Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo®

  Instead of merely placing some fireworks photos here this year, I thought I'd take a moment of your time for some history. The Fourth of July celebrations stem from the colonies' declaration of independence on July 4, 1776. The ensuing war

  Have you noticed the difference in some TSA agents working in the same airport at the same time? Or "baristas" in the same coffee shop? Or claims agents on the phones at the same insurance company? How about gate agents

  Something like 167 Democratic candidates are about to debate over a couple of nights. I'm guessing they'll attack each other, attack the President, and promise the stars and the sky. They'll talk about free education, forgiving student loans, climate change,

  Capitalism is a fine system for generating wealth, but it’s not one that automatically distributes it well. We once compensated for that with extended families, religious communities, government safety nets, pensions, and so forth. Not so much anymore. I read this

  There have long been adventurers and explorers: La Salle, Earhart, Shackleton, Costeau, Hillary, Fossey. They have introduced us to new worlds, new feats, and new dangers. Today, it's no longer satisfying to read about such exploits, people feel the need to

  "Scared Straight" was a famous 1978 documentary in which a group of "juvenile delinquents" (au courant at the time) met with prison inmates to be scared into leading better lives through the threat of what might await them in prison.

  Here’s a thought for Mother’s Day: What good are fleets and armies if we can’t keep our children safe in their schools? How is it we can go about our daily business as if children being shot in classrooms is simply another