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President's Message 11-09
November, 2009
Dear Friends:
About 14 months have passed since the thrill ride known as the “9/08-10/ 09 economy” began. We certainly can’t say the ride is over, but after two quarters of some positive market and economic activity, at least the hair blowback and the screaming have subsided. We have time to reflect and even to make decisions that will affect how the ride goes from here. Big questions are on our minds: Are our best days behind or ahead of us? Can our kids and grandkids expect a better standard of living than we had? Where will the jobs come from to reduce our unemployment rate? As those questions floated through my mind, clear confident answers came from some sources close to the Community Foundation.
Answers came in the dedications of the Culinary Institute of Michigan, the Hackley sculpture, the Olthoff Street Stage, and the new fence surrounding the Lady Victory monument in Hackley Park, all within four weeks of each other. These are expressions of generosity, excellence, and faith in a big vision: they tell us we will go forward, elevating the best in us and building on the best we have ever been.
Answers came in reflecting on the full life of Bill Jackson, who died October 7 at the age of 90. A child of the Depression, whose mother died when he was ten, Bill and his three brothers lived for several years on the Goodwill Farm, an orphanage in Iron Mountain, while his father looked for work. One might think that experience of personal and economic upheaval would make Bill want to play it safe in his career. Instead, he had a burning desire to start his own company so that he could innovate according to his inspiration, operate with the highest standards for environmental and business practice, and make a difference in the lives of many. This founder of Burdick and Jackson, environmental philanthropist and benefactor of the GVSU research vessel named after him, is a lesson in determination and pursuit of better times.
Answers came in Pastor Rob Cook‘s eulogy of Lucille Chambers, a great friend of Muskegon and the Foundation. Rob described that it was 1967 and Lucille was a stay at home mom with very young children when her husband Curtis was laid off from his engineering job. Curt wondered if now was the time to start the business he had dreamed about—and Lucille said “I think you should. I have faith in you.” He did, and Pliant Plastics was born, and then Dynamic Conveyor and then Nauticraft, all companies that are still in business today.
Curt told me that he looks back and shudders at his audacity. None of his prior jobs had anything to do with plastics, and he created the company on the thinnest of plans. But Pliant Plastics crawled, then stood and then walked, surviving and thriving despite lack of bank financing, the “oil crisis” of ‘73 and ‘74, and high interest rates and inflation. Asked if he thought high unemployment might be the “new normal”, Curt says immediately, “This country has been through so much worse. We have to be optimistic; there is no other rational choice. There are too many people who want the good life and are willing to work hard for it.”
John Mauldin, an internationally known economic analyst whose newsletters Sherm Poppen turned me on to, agrees. Not known for being bullish, Mauldin nevertheless wrote in a recent letter:
“The correct answer to the question, "Where will the jobs come from?" [during the recession of the70’s] was, "I don't know, but they will." And that is the correct answer today.
Our kids are getting ready to live through what will be the most exciting period in human history. There will be a century's worth of change, measured by the standard of the 20th century, just in the next ten years, and then we will double that pace in the next ten after that. …
But we are not going into some long dark night. We, and our kids, get to choose how we respond to what is the reality of the day.”
Yes, we can choose our response. Continue to respond with optimism. Respond with faith in others, faith in yourself, and faith in the vision of a prosperous and greater community.
All my best,
Chris McGuigan
