National ACME

There has been some big news lately about billionaires donating money to charity. This must be a good thing. People who can have a real impact on the future of the world bringing their piles of money to bear on pressing problems. I mean really who is going to fight Malaria if not the Gates.

Saw a cover of fortune magazine recently about Bill convincing others to give away their money. Leads me down winding pathways in my mind. Wasn't Mr Gates sued not so long ago for his business practices. Well I guess they settled. Seems what we call wealthy people always settle. I know how he got his money. IBM was a bit slow as large corporation tend to be and we celebrated the Gates foundation fighting for those so less fortunate. Such a nice story no need to think of where the money came from; that was all settled.

But it leads me to think of another Bill, my grandfather Bill Morgan.

Leads me to think of Road Runner. Leads me to think of that coyote chasing that road runner. You remember if your my age and probably seen if your younger those cartoons. All those packages from ACME. See back then when they made those cartoons there was another company more important than Microsoft has been the better part of my life. National ACME was the miracle workers of those days and they were based right here in Cleveland.

Those packages came from them because it resonated that same way that the sound of WALL-E rebooting did a few years ago. Back in those cartoons there wasn't much reality. When we run off a cliff it doesn't really matter if we notice; we fall anyways. But everything has some reality involved. And in those cartoons there was just a touch of reality in the name stamped on all those packages.

Coyote called in his order; it was to the experimental department at ACME if you ever saw the cartoon you will agree. Who would answer the phone when he called in those crazy contraptions? It was my grandfather he would talk to and the miracle workers at National ACME. Extending the reality more than it perhaps deserves; there was only one mistake coyote made: he should have just told him he wanted to catch a roadrunner. But he never did.

He called and asked for the rocket propelled skates and they were dutifully delivered. Most people know the rest; it never worked to catch a roadrunner. But they always worked as designed.

This Bill had his greatest impact in turning compressed air into functional work. There hasn't been a factory on the planet in the last fifty years not impacted by his work. He never donated billions, because to him it was just his work function. He took his pension and twenty years spent his golden years in the bosom of his family and his church.

Today as China moves ahead they take basic technology discover by this one man who went to work and did his job. Some people make and some people take. My family has great riches so vast as to be uncountable. That is not to hold anything against Mr Gates, his have been well counted and acclaimed.

Do you know the sounds of the modern era? Our modern machine made era. Without compressed air there would be no Microsoft. If there were no would we be left undone. Some may say that the case, but there was PC Dos, Mac, Linux so many as to be uncountable in reality. But they won by winning and so it is.

Sometime History and the world bring everything to your door step. Sometimes you have a chance to take the world by the horns. Sometimes you have billions to fight Malaria in Africa. And so it is and so it is good.

Sometime History and the world bring everything to your door step. Sometimes you simply make the world a better place and move on. Not because your better, but because you value thing differently. You don't need to crush the competition to do good. You just go home at the end of the day and do good.

It takes all kinds I am sure, but some are more replaceable then others. I see these billionaires smiling as they swim through my history. I smile because they are only people and it is only money. I value things differently; that is my wealth.

Is Warren Buffet really the smartest man alive; if he failed tomorrow you wouldn't think so. Yet we are at a point were most believe this to be true. Whatever he does is perceived to be ahead of others. Why is this? Because that is what is perceived.

At the end of the day we need to count and be counted for our own reasons. The world doesn't need saving we do. There is only one truth and no man has a patent on it. What does any man need a billion dollar for? It not a question; they don't need it.

You say they create wealth, OK but don't they stifle something? Doesn't really matter because there is only one truth. Can you hear the air compressors across this planet? Shh, bshht, drshh, gooosh. What you gonna replace them with? I'm sure they'll figure something out and it will probably be created by a man like Bill Morgan.

You hear the sound your computer makes when it shuts down? Does it really matter. If there were no Bill Gates would we not have computers? If there where no air compressors there would be no China or Walmart. There is good and bad in all. It is other good impacts of one life that will never be able to number as those dollars they try to keep such good track of.

My grandfather never made a billion anything, but positive impacts in the world around him. Yea he was on the cover of magazines too. National ACME in the end was to slow to remain the miracle workers they once certainly were. It is a great lose, but we have not seen the end of their impact.

Maybe those billionaires will take lesson from a simple life that has lead to a certain crisis. What will the value of those dollars be? Never even close to the value of my Grandfather, but we have riches stored up through generations. We are not exceptional people only have we been so. The world is shared and the secret is out.

I applaud your effort Mr Gates and Buffet, but just question the sustainability of a world that gives you so many dollars. The glass is foggy, but certain things are clear.