John T Wren: It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. — General George S. Patton

 

Why is this expert being ignored? He's ideas have been used in over 700 oil well fires, he's the former head of the petroleum department at the University of OK: http://newsok.com/norman-engineer-has-own-idea-about-how-to-stop-gulf-oil-leak/article/3462317?custom_click=pod_headline_national-finance-news#ixzz0pTSpZYmr

Denver Post reports the Obama administration is OK with just letting it go until August!!! Where is the political will to get the leak stopped now?  http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15196139

Click here to watch Bill O'Reilly tribute to Art Linkletter!

Transcript:

O'REILLY: How come you didn't turn into a Hollywood phony?

LINKLETTER: Because I was a communicator not an actor.

LINKLETTER: Who do you think has a better life, men or women?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women.

LINKLETTER: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I think men are dirty.

LINKLETTER: After 70, skiing is the perfect sport. Everything is downhill after that.

You're pretty much on your way to the top.

O'REILLY: Me? Myself?

LINKLETTER: Yes. You give the other guys a chance, and if you don't give them a chance, you say, "I'll give it to you later."

O'REILLY: And I do give it to them later, don't I?

LINKLETTER: Say "Art Linkletter" like you're mad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Art Linkletter like you're mad.

O'REILLY: Everybody knows you. You say Art Linkletter, and they say, "Ooh." And you walk around and everybody knows you.

LINKLETTER: Keep going.

What would you do first if you were president?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep my mouth shut.

LINKLETTER: I laughed at myself when I made movies. I'm out there, tied to a stake and the Indians are marching around, and I'm saying to myself, "What the hell am I doing here?"

O'REILLY: You never took it serious?

LINKLETTER: Never.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

A great guy, a patriot, loved talking to him.

Advice offered to 2010 graduates in the newspaper of a small town in Nebraska:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able entertain a thought without accepting it.
— Aristotle

Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.
— Robert Babson

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
–Winston Churchill

Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.
— Art Linkletter

Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value.
— Albert Einstein

You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
— John Wooden

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
— Henry Ford

Do not fear — only believe. All things are possible for him who believes.
— Jesus Christ

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
— Oscar Wilde

Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed. — G. K. Chesterton

No man can be good without the help of God.
—Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher

On this day in 1792 the Buttonwood Agreement was signed in New York City, which began the New York Stock Exchange. Twenty-four New York City brokers and merchants decided to meet outside underneath a buttonwood tree, more commonly called a sycamore.

I just found out my nephew Jason Wren's story is posted here (click on his name) along with other young people who have lost their lives to alcohol.http://gordie.org/Education/Memorial-Wall/Memorial-Wall-Entries.aspx

Jason, we miss you.

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.
Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces. 

GM Hopkins

         Parry Burnap and Andy Duvall spoke with us at the Denver IDEA Cafe yesterday about their startup experience and the start of the new Denver Bike Share program.

Parry was in charge of the effort to make the DNC convention here in Denver in 2008 as green as possible. She'd drawn together a large committee, and was working with them in the initial stages of the effort to identify possible projects. "My approach to management is to get good people and then provide a structure where they can share," she told us. One day she got an email from one of the committee members that just said, "bike sharing," and that was the light-bulb moment.

1000 bikes were donated, along with enough staff to ride herd on them and keep statistics. At the end of the DNC convention there was about $4 million left over, and the bikes were such a hit that Mayor Hickenlooper and others decided that $1 million of it should be used to launch a Denver bike sharing program.

Andy Duvall and Parry met each other at about that time through a local bicycle enthusiast group. Andy was doing a PhD dissertation at University of Colorado Denver on bike sharing, and had proposed a project he figured would have to be done in another city. He was delighted to find the project here in Denver, where he could apply what he'd learned visiting bike sharing programs around the world.

Andy had gone back to graduate school after being in the Peace Corp for two years and a 10 year career as a business executive. While doing his Master in urban planning he connected with one of his professors as a mentor who alerted him to a National Science Foundation grant on a Friday that had a deadline the following Tuesday.

My friend George Parker who passed on last year would have been 87 years old tomorrow. I'll never forget seeing George for the first time, walking on a blazing hot day from the light rail station over to the outdoor pavilion at the Pepsi Center where the GOP state convention was being held in 2004.

I'd corresponded with George via email after reading something about him online. We got to know each other, and he was very encouraging to me in my efforts to get more people involved in politics. He often said that he'd much rather someone be an active Democrat than a Republican who just watched from the sidelines or worse yet who was unaffiliated and totally disengaged.

Happy birthday, George. Thanks for the inspiration you were and are to me and so many people.  

Interesting photo essay about George's life: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/05/28/photo-gallery-former-statesman-george-parker-dies-86/

John Wren's INVICTUS is what I'm going to call my free, weekly email newsletter. It will link to the website for a different  book each week that has been important to me and that I believe will help you in business and life. To make sure you get the premier issue, Vol I Number 1 that will be sent out next week, enter your email address in the Community Room College box to the left.

Most people I've asked say they like the name Community Room College. But one wise old man said, "I don't like it, I never went to college, sounds like it's not for me." I'm going to brainstorm tag lines that could be used with the name to overcome that objection at the Denver IDEA Cafe, I'll let you know what we come up with. If you have a tag line you'd suggest, post it here as a comment, OK?

What do you think of this: "Practical Wisdom for Road Scholars."

I've been talking with people about the new Community Room College that is the result of requests for me to answer the question: What the hell is John Wren doing? I have a variety of groups and events that I'll be putting under one umbrella. Each Friday afternoon right after the Denver IDEA Cafe we'll have a 50-minute "chalk talk" from professional, experts, and educators on various topics of interest to people involved in business and politics.

To make sure you get the list of speakers each month, starting in a week or so, add your name to the mailing list using the sign-up widget to the left here on this page.

 If you have expertise you'd be willing to share, email me and contact you with the details and the available dates.

Parry Burnap, Executive Director of Denver Bike Sharing www.denverbikesharing.org will be with us at the Denver IDEA Cafe, she'll be joined by Andy Duvall www.AndrewDuvall.org who will share about his decision to return to graduate school and his research there for Denver B-Cycle. I really hope this project takes off over the summer, it would be great to have a new network of bikes available to commuters, shoppers, and Denver tourists. I'll give you a complete report here about what they have to say about the project.

Start fast, 

enjoy life!

Help to start a new career, project, 

campaign or new business. Click or 

call (303)861-1447. Community Room 

College/ John S. Wren, MBA+

 I just posted this as a comment to the Denver Post article about the
Denver City Council election that was just held:

PLEASE FORWARD

To: Paula Sandoval
Susan Shepherd
Jerry Frangas
John Haney
Larry Ambrose
Kenneth Padilla
Randle Swan
Jon Lehmann
Christopher Jeffrey
Georgia Sigala
(And anyone else reading this now)

From: John Wren, Community Room College www.JohnWren.com

What did you learn from this campaign? We are going to hold a special meeting to discuss the pros and cons of running for local office in the next month or so at a time an place yet to be determined. Would you be open to join us? Please let me know yes or no via email to John@JohnWren.com. Thanks!

Those responding will be sent a copy of the media release announcing the details when it goes out in the next few days.

Denver Post online was down yesterday. So I couldn't post this comment on Dan Haley's interesting column about Jason Clark, an Unaffiliated candidate for Governor, until today:

Who cannot like the spirit of people like Jason Clark.

My fear is potentially good representatives like Clark will become disillusioned.

The best chance people like Jason have of winning elections and serving in office is to become involved through the wonderful Colorado Caucuses system we still have, but which is so little used.

Why so little participation in the system that gives people like Jason the best chance of winning and serving? There is almost a total absence of good civic education today.

I did a little for the 2010 Colorado Caucuses and plan to expand the effort in 2012. See http://www.COCaucus.org

I need your help in this independent effort in civic education to strengthen our (potentially) wonderful grassroots system we have in Colorado. If you'd like to know more, contact me at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447

Unaffiliated and 3rd party candidates potentially will play a big part in the elections next November. Few will win, but many may throw the election to the candidate who they would LEAST like to win. A much better use of time would be to pick a political party and get involved, or join me in my Colorado Caucuses 2012 effort to get more good people involved in our wonderful caucus-assembly system for nominating to the primary ballot and to thereby get better party leadership and better candidates.

It was on this day in 1611 that the first edition of the King James Bible was published in England.

Do you think St. Paul would blog today? An interesting article by a Christian travel writer and blogger makes that case in this week's America Magazine.

Do you blog? Why or why not? I'd be very interested in your comment here. Thanks.