Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America's true living legends --- a former P & G executive, an acclaimed author, a dynamic teacher,and one of the world's most highly rated speakers. It was he who changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "Partnering".  Here is part of a speech given by Lou Pritchett April 15, 2012

 

I was born in year two of the Great Depression (1931) and spent the first 10 years of my life influenced by the extreme hardships of the depression. By today’s standards my family was about a mile below today’s so called ‘poverty level’; but if you never ‘had’---doing without was not so ‘bad’. Borrowing shoes to graduate from the 8th grade didn’t seem at all demeaning because most of the 8th graders did the same thing.

In June 1944, my only brother, Joe, was killed in action on Utah Beach in Normandy, France during the D-Day landings. Exactly one year later, my father died and left me, my mother, and my sister to go it alone. And alone we went. My mother went to work at a department store, my sister dropped out of school and joined her and I went to work shining shoes on the streets of Memphis for a dime a shine. Government assistance was not available and if it were I am confident my mother would have refused it because she never wanted the government involved in our lives.

I mention this bit of personal history to help you understand that millions of Americans, including your parents and grandparents, grew up like me during the Great Depression and never expected nor wanted the government to offer them anything other than an opportunity and now to see what Obama is trying to do to our country tends to make you crazy.

As some of you know, my “Scare Me" letter went viral with millions of hits on the internet during the past 3 years. I have now written a follow-up letter which I will now share with you. It will be released to the press tomorrow morning. "

**********************************

To the editors:

"In April 2009, I sent President Obama and the New York Times a letter titled "You Scare Me" because, as a candidate, he promised to "fundamentally transform America." Now, after observing his performance for over three years, he no longer scares me--- he terrifies me for the following reasons:

 

FIRST He has done more to damage America's standing in the world, to lower the standard of living in America, to impoverish future generations and to shake our faith in the country's future than any other American president in history.

 

SECOND-- With a compliant Democrat congress, a lapdog media and a weak, almost nonexistent Republican opposition, he has shattered the American dream of job security, home ownership and rugged individualism for millions of Americans and has poisoned and divided our civil society with his politics of envy, class warfare, race warfare, and religious warfare which he is using as fundamental building blocks for his 'socialist' agenda.

 

THIRD-- culturally, he remains totally out of touch with traditional American values. This has absolutely nothing to do with race or where he was born, rather it has everything to do with where, how and with whom he was raised, schooled, educated, trained and associates with still today.

 

FOURTH-- he has surrounded himself with naive academicians, lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats and socialist leaning czars who arrogantly think and behave exactly as he does. People who offer no balanced suggestions or devils advocate positions and think in lock step with him that big government is the answer to all our problems.

 

FIFTH-- he not only encourages but aids and abets the unionization of all American industry, the albatross around the neck of the free market. In turn, they provide the money and muscle to intimidate his opponents.

 

SIXTH-- he has increased the national debt by over 30% in just three years. If re-elected and this rate of increase continues, America will be burdened with an unsustainable 20 trillion dollar debt which will result in the Country's financial death. Recovery will be impossible ----  America will be the Greece of 2016.

 

SEVENTH-- given his fanatical beholding to the 'environmental' and 'man-caused global warming' fringe, he has deliberately discouraged U.S. fossil fuel exploration and production while wasting millions of tax payer dollars on solar, wind and algae experiments. He refuses to accept that oil, gas and coal are not America's enemies, they are America's assets which, properly managed, could make us energy independent within a generation.

 

EIGHTH-- He views the U.S. as a power in retreat which abused its World dominance. Therefore he systematically apologizes round the world. Last March he whispered to Russian President Medvedev "--this is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility". Just what is the secret that Obama and Putin are concealing from the American people until after the election? With what other leaders has he made similar secret agreements?

 

NINTH---and finally, after all his mis-steps, bad decision making, poor management, and zero leadership, the fact that he has the audacity to seek re-election should terrify every American.
I predict that if re-elected, future historians and political interpreters will look back at the eight year period 2008-2016, and conclude "the 44th President of the U.S. allowed thetakers to overpower the payers which resulted in the greatest economy in history vanishing from the face of the Earth".
Farewell America, the World will really miss you!

 

Lou Pritchett April 15, 2012