Sons of the American
Revolution
Meeting Notice, May 2009
Gentlemen,
The next
meeting of the Tampa Chapter will be held on May 16th in the private
meeting room of the Piccadilly Cafeteria,
located at
This month we will honor the winners of our poster contest and Jack
Bolen will speak on the Battle of Cowpens.
The secretary also has some good news for the chapter from the recent
state society meeting. If you can’t make the meeting, we’ll share the good news in our next
notice later this month.
Remember, prospective members and guests are most welcome. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday.
Regards,
Kevin Yarnell
Secretary,
Upcoming
Meetings
We’ll be taking our usual summer break following this meeting but will
reconvene in September. Rodney Kite-Powell of the
Our small group
plans to march in the Lutz 4th of July parade again this year. We
also are working on plans to speak to a Boy Scout Troop in order to assist them
in earning a merit badge. If you’re interested in joining us, we’d love to have
you! Alan Bell is our commander and he’d be glad to assist you in getting a
uniform together.
ROTC Awards
Thanks to everyone
that made another year of presentations possible. Dwight Tetrick
handled the Senior ROTC awards as he’s done in the past years; Jack, John,
Luke, Bob, Alan, and Ed all attended local JROTC award ceremonies (often
multiple schools); and others quietly paid for a cadet’s meal and made our
guests feel welcome at the April meeting. The chapter is grateful for all the
assistance. We could not conduct this program without your help.
Our Website
Don’t forget our
website at www.patriot-web.com. We do
our best to keep it updated with news and information about our meetings and
the SAR. There’s also a fair amount of the Tampa Chapter history available on
the site. Feel free to email Kevin (kayarnell@hotmail.com)
with suggestions or corrections.
Minutes
of the
President Bell called the meeting to order at
Members present: Jack Bolen, John Sessums, Ira
Ward, Marty Miller, Ed Neugaard, Cy
Gamber,
Welcome guests: Prospective members Chuck Hawley, Calvin
Martin, seven cadets and their guests, as well as Commander Walsh from Brandon
High, Sgt. Major from Hillsborough, and the area Army recruiter.
The President asked the cadets introduced their guests.
The minutes of the March meeting were approved.
Secretary’s Report
The secretary reminded the members that the
FLSSAR annual meeting will be next weekend, April 24-25. Eight changes to the
society bylaws as printed in the Patriot magazine will be considered. He
offered to discuss these with interested parties during the luncheon or after
the meeting.
We still have a few
schools to cover regarding JROTC awards ceremonies. The secretary has the
master list and details for those interested.
A personal letter was
written to the SAR Executive Director, Joe Harris, regarding the Center for
Advancing America’s Heritage discussion held in March. It was thought a
personal note, rather than a formal letter from the chapter would be the best
approach. No response has been received as yet.
The Treasurer reported a balance of $2,705.12 and petty cash of $59.84.
The registrar, Luke Lloyd, emailed his report to the secretary which was
shared with the membership.
“On
49 Potential Members are in the lineup
4 Applications are at National
Beatty
Copeland - Original Receipt Date at National
26 Nov 08; Pended 2 Mar 09; Info Provided 17 March 09 - No Answer to date
Hawley
Sessums
1 Application for LG Bassett forwarded 12
April from State to National.
No Supplementals currently in the Mill”
President Bell reported that the Color Guard had two events planned, the
4th of July parade in Lutz and the presentation to the scouts
discussed earlier.
The meeting recessed for
lunch.
The President
reconvened the meeting and introduced Secretary Yarnell to provide the program.
Entitled: “A Flat World: The Role of Technology in Maintaining Freedom”, the
presentation was inspired by the book “The World is Flat” by Thomas L.
Friedman. In the book Freidman argues that technology is “flattening” the world
and the implications of this are many. The goals of the program were to first
look at what is meant by the term “flat world”, and then examine some of the
consequences of this for us personally and then to the larger issue of the
maintenance of our freedoms.
The following are adapted from the speaker’s notes:
What is a “flat
world”?
The adults will liken this to a “shrinking world” thinking in terms of
the vast changes in the speed of communications. The speaker made a comparison
between the time needed for communication in the Revolutionary period and the
present. But what Friedman refers to is more “leveling the playing field”- a
situation where people in many parts of the world have access to the same tools
and therefore can compete nearly equally in a global marketplace.
The 10
“Flatteners”
Friedman lists these ten events / items as the things that have combined
to flatten the earth. The speaker did not spend a great deal of time on each
but did offer illustrations where needed to clarify the thought for the
audience.
1.
2.
3. Work flow software
4. Uploading – harnessing the power of communities
To illustrate this the
speaker shared the story of Goldcorp given in the
book. Rob McEwen, CEO of Goldcorp; owed a tract in
Another excellent example of “uploading” is Wikipedia which the speaker explained more to the benefit
of the adults than the youth in attendance.
5. Outsourcing – hiring a firm in another part of the world to do a
specific job for your company
6. Offshoring – moving the entire
manufacturing process to another country
7. Supply-chaining
The best illustration of this is Walmart and the concept is well expressed by this quote
from the book. “Walmart is the biggest retail company
in the world, and it does not make a single thing.”
8. Insourcing
The book uses
9. In-forming – Web search
A brief comparison between the access to
information experienced by the members as youth and the cadets’ experience
today brought this point into clear focus.
10. The steroids: digital, mobile, personal, and virtual
Friedman argues that
these items bring the previous flatteners down to a level where the individual
is impacted personally.
What does all of
this converge to?
- A world where information is widely available to those who want it
- A world that rewards collaboration
- A world where people from vastly different parts of the world can
compete for the same job
- And much more
What does this
mean for us personally?
In short, the speaker suggested the answer here is enormous
opportunities and enormous challenges. As with so many things it is how we use
something that determines whether it is good or bad. He offered some specific
ramifications: One for the adults – we may need to change how we view
outsourcing and protectionism; and one for the youth – the issue of
employability vs. a job for life
What does a flat
world mean politically?
Friedman makes a fascinating case to suggest that, at least in part, the
unrest in the Arab-Muslim world and the rise of extreme elements is due to a
lack of opportunity in a flat world. In particular he suggests that “This anger
also has to do with the frustration of Arabs and Muslims at having to live, in
many, many cases, under authoritarian governments, which not only deprive their
people of a voice in their own future, but have deprived tens of millions of
young people in particular of opportunities to achieve their full potential
through good jobs and modern schools. The fact that the flat world enables
people so easily to compare their circumstances with other only sharpens their
frustrations.”
The speaker shared some of Friedman’s statistics from the book showing
how Arab countries are behind the rest of the world in international patents,
average number of scientists and engineers working in research and development,
numbers of computers, and Internet access.
Conflict
Prevention
Friedman offers two interesting theories on preventing conflicts in the
world. His first, the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention, stated “No 2
countries that both had McDonald’s had ever fought a war against each other
since each got its McDonald’s”. He refined this later to he Dell Theory of
Conflict Prevention which states “No 2 countries that are both part of a major
global supply chain, like Dell’s, will ever fight a ware against each other as
long as they are both part of the same global supply chain”.
The speaker used the
Are we for or against a flat world?
The speaker then
moved to the question of where our ancestors would have “approved” of a flat
world. He concluded that they would favor the wider dissemination of knowledge
and the power which this gives to citizens. He shared several quotes reprinted
below and remarked on the ease with which he’d been able to find these as a
small illustration of flattener #9, In-forming.
“I would rather be exposed to the
inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a
degree of it.” Thomas Jefferson to
Archibald Stuart, 1791
“The only security of all is in a free
press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to
be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.” Thomas Jefferson
to
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance;
and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the
power which knowledge gives.” James Madison
“When you're finished changing, you're
finished.” Ben Franklin
Where do we go
now?
The speaker concluded with some thoughts directed as each age group in
attendance. For the adults he suggested that the key to our future success was
to continue learning, thinking, and applying new skills to tried principles. We
need to use the flat world to further our freedoms.
For the youth the speaker ended with a quote from the book. “… so my
advice to [my daughters] in this flat world is very brief and very blunt:
‘Girls, when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, ‘Tom, finish your
dinner – people in
The speaker then moved from the program into the presentation of awards
pointing out that the unit commanders chose these cadets for the qualities of
character and leadership demonstrated in their units. “We know that isn’t
always easy to do and so the chapter wants you to know how much we appreciate
your efforts. So the next time you get a bit discouraged, you’re tired, you
don’t feel like doing whatever it is that you know needs to be done, we hope
you’ll remember that there is a group of men who value their heritage and value
the work you do in perpetuating the ideas of our founding fathers.”
The President presented the awards to the cadets.
Alan Bell won the 50/50 drawing.
The chapter’s share of $11.00 will enrich the treasury.
Jack Bolen gave the benediction. The President led the recessional and
adjourned the meeting at
Respectfully submitted,
Kevin Yarnell
Chapter Secretary