Comments on: Turning the Forbes Moment into a Memphis Movement

By: Zippy the giver

Zippy the giver — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:01:31 +0000

You’re just scared this city will improve and your lil niche will die off. I understand. Lots of people are in that space today.
That isn’t what’s going to happen. You don’t have to worry about it.
I suggest you re-read my posts ( I took your advice and I did, no changes) with the filter of “in support of Memphis” instead of “attacking Memphis” and I bet you see something different. Seriously, it’s an acquired skill called “active listening” (not taught in school) where no matter what the other guy says or writes, you listen through the filter of “in support of your idea” and then you get to collaborate instead of attack. Trust me, no personal hard feelings toward you at all, just try it and see what happens, you WILL be surprised.
I’ll forgive all the personal attacks if you stop them too.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:39:58 +0000

Zippy, take your own advise and stop trolling. Anyone , including yourself, can go back and read your posts and see they were not taken out of context. I am simply using the information and posts you provided. If you don’t like it, don’t write such absurd remarks in the future.

By: Zippy the giver

Zippy the giver — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:24:45 +0000

“Anonymous says:
March 5, 2010 at 8:53 am
Yeah pull out the troll- you just don’t like it when someone disagrees with you.”
…………
You didn’t disagree, you purposefully took comments out of context to suit your own agenda..
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Interestingly enough I could call you out by the same name based on the same standard. You stated in another post you “have to punch someone in the face” until they see the problem.
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No, I did not, that is a lie, that is also a misquote taken out of context, you’re really pushing the boundaries of slander and libel.
………….
I know you didn’t mean it literally so give me some credit there and try to slow you knee-jerk reactions. Stop making up information and calling people names simply because you can’t defend your viewpoint.
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Stop misquoting out of context.
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Don’t worry from here out I plan to do what most others here apparently do- ignore you.
Now chill Zippy and go find some more ways Memphis is failing miserably- at least according to you.
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I guess you couldn’t find context if it did hit you in the nose.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:53:22 +0000

Yeah pull out the troll- you just don’t like it when someone disagrees with you. Interestingly enough I could call you out by the same name based on the same standard. You stated in another post you “have to punch someone in the face” until they see the problem. I know you didn’t mean it literally so give me some credit there and try to slow you knee-jerk reactions. Stop making up information and calling people names simply because you can’t defend your viewpoint.
Don’t worry from here out I plan to do what most others here apparently do- ignore you.
Now chill Zippy and go find some more ways Memphis is failing miserably- at least according to you.

By: Zippy the giver

Zippy the giver — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:46:24 +0000

Is there something wrong with your mind?

I didn’t say I was going to punch anyone in the face to convince anyone of anything, you are what’s known as “a troll” and what you’re doing by following my posts only to post an uninformed nonsensical weird remarks is called “stalking”.
If you don’t like what you read, don’t do it, if you see my name on it, don’t read it. Maybe you’re not in control of your own self.

The point was, when it’s time to do or be something you’d rather not do or be, you need to be prepared to do it 100% and commit, or else you’re just spitting hot air and will be victimized again.
Get a cup of coffee man.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:42:03 +0000

Zippy, seeing as you are so willing to “punch people in the face” until they see the world as you do, why don’t you start your own blog so you can better translate life according to Zippy.

By: Zippy the giver

Zippy the giver — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:51:12 +0000

It appears that I am not allowed to comment and tell you what you need to know.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:12:42 +0000

“We have children going from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse,” said Superintendent Cash. “That path is grooved better than two lanes in a bowling alley.”

If Kriner is so passionate about kids in MCS why the push for the internal police force? Start talking about the preventative programs that are working NOW like G.R.A.S.S.Y.

At least let us see their job descriptions so that we are convinced that their jobs will more about mentoring and less about duplicating the roles of the MPD.

It’s not just Memphis but the entire country must have a brutally honest conversation with itself. Why would any major corporation set up shop in any major U.S. city when it has a low-cost highly skilled global workforce to chose from? Memphis can leap frog other cities if decides to tackle that one. Based my research, Detroit and Cleveland ( Forbes #1 miserable city-whatever that means) have asked this question and are making some headway.

By: Jupiter

Jupiter — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:46:10 +0000

Zippy,
Yes, I don’t doubt that some get indoctrinated as young as six. “JJ”, for example, was probable doing all kinds of bad stuff before he was upgraded to theft around age 8.

I don’t doubt that an honest conversation would be useful for gangsters from “good families”. (most gangsters, in my experience, come from good families, around here. And additionally, most gangsters aren’t horrible, evil people. A LOT are nice folks, as weird as that sounds).
But does that really work for the terrorists from “bad families”? The older folks (20-30 years old) don’t, in my experience, communicate with people outside of their group. The run scams, and play games, but that’s it. They know a lot about people like me, and see us as some cross between a threat and a target. And we’re mutually better off not interacting with one another whatsoever.
The little kids being brought up in those “terrorist cell families” (and they are a minority around here, even though most kids join a gang at some point…most gang members are coming from good families, and are not psyco sociopaths..here, the gangsters are nice folks for the most part)…but the kids coming from “bad families”, where they’re encouraged to be up to no good from a very young age, you’re claiming to be able to get through to them? Really? Evidence? I guess it’s not completely impossible, since they get lots of positive messaging at school, but still…color me skeptical.
Tell me more about this “method” you’ve found so effective.

By: Zippy the giver

Zippy the giver — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:54:21 +0000

Jupiter, I can relate to the story of those parents,I live in Memphis, I have three kids, and they don’t play with ANYONE from Memphis and have NOBODY inside the house.
Your age for indoctrination is too high, they start them as young as six if their parents leave them outside long enough.
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Why you can’t think of what to do for those already indoctrinated into the gang:
You aren’t trained to.
If I tell you what to do to get trained, if you are like most Memphians, you will argue and do nothing. That’s right, I’ve told thousands an they have all done exactly that, NOTHING.
Moving into their gang neighborhood and being their friend isn’t going to help.
Most Memphians think they have to think up a solution by themselves and don’t accept coaching from anyone. Even if they have had success. People here just want to shoot down everyone and be right about it being impossible to do anything, a thick headed, stubborn, self-righteous lot. It doesn’t start at what you think, it starts at their CORE VALUES, which you will only get by listening to them, finding out who is and what is informing that, understanding and creating a different set with them that is designed by them to work better for them into the future.
Literally, it takes four days. 90% success rate. 90%, you got ANYTHING that approaches that stat?
You can’t teach a person to create their own opportunities until you first teach them how to BE the type of person who can do that. That requires being able to have a focused and directed honest conversation with their permission. Now before you think you have permission to do that even if you asked them and got a positive response, you DON’T.
So, you have to teach the value of truly giving another person full permission to speak honestly, brutally so, with out attacking them for it. You have to teach them how to be “coachable”.
What would most employers give to have open, coachable employees who could consistently exceed quotas without outside stimulation, who could resolve conflicts effectively without violence or need for mediation, who are self actualizing to the point of continually coming up with efficient innovations that work for everyone, have a strong ability to think on their feet, come up with appropriate solutions to problems, rarely make stupid mistakes, and whose drive was not solely for a paycheck or themselves? A true value!
Anyone can be that person, a workforce full of them can make a company succeed and a top performer in any economy. The only thing is, the type of training that brings that about is not available here. Something much more sinister has taken its place.

By: Zippy the giver

Zippy the giver — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:32:05 +0000

“Does it really make any sense that these entrepreneurs and world-class companies – who could locate anywhere – would choose a city as miserable as Forbes suggests?”
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Yes, labor is cheaper and thus more miserable in the local tax situation in Memphis. We have been sold to companies as the place to be on cheap labor, slaves.
If you go to the local blogs reporting this story, you will see an almost 100% agreement that not only is Forbes right for the majority of Memphians, but, the local people could and would (if given the chance) add a few stats to the listing to paint it even darker.
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Is it news that politicians ignore the misery of their people?
Apparently it is in Memphis if it isn’t convenient or expedient to acknowledge it. Rebutting facts only looks even more dunder-headed to the outside world and any fully functioning adults locally.

Memphis is a great city with many great people in it and that’s all it has to be, patting ourselves on the back for what the rest of the country would call a pretty lousy job of running this city is not helping one damn bit. In fact, it’s a sellout.

This is one great post, and I agree 125%, It is time for a movement!

By: Jupiter

Jupiter — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:58:28 +0000

Well, the problem is gangs. Neighborhoods where upwards of 75% of the teen boys are in a gang is the primary mechanism behind the deeply grooved path “from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse”. In my neighborhood (Summer and Tillman), there are only two families on my street with teens not in gangs. Both share one thing in common; they don’t let their kids have friends or go outside. Ever. Period. Prophylactic lock down. One mama experimented last summer with letting her kid (clean cut, smart, good kid, 15 years old) play basketball in their driveway, and within a week, kids were stopping by to talk to him for a moment here and there. By the end of the month, he was getting shot at with bee bee guns for refusing to go do something to piss off a blood around the corner.

How do you fix something like this? All over Memphis there are these sweet, innocent 7 year old kids destined by virtue of location to be thugs by age 16, who will then, in turn, thugify the younger kids they live around. It’s nearly impossible for the kids from *good* families to keep their kids out of gangs. What do you do for the kids who have all their older brothers, and uncles, etc involved in gangs, where the gang is basically the extended family?

I can think of ideas to help the kids from good families, but I’m completely at a loss on what to do for the kids from “bad families”. Like JJ (not his real name) who lives around the block from us, who, by the time he was 8, was stealing bikes in the neighborhood at the behest of his older brothers and cousins, and pushes around the neighborhood 4 year olds, calling them “b**** a** mother*******”.

What do you do for them?