Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers.

Two nearly identical New Jersey towns put nearly identical open-space questions on the same ballot. One passed, one failed. The only difference anyone can find is the wording.

In this episode
A definition and a hard look at the episode's theme, plus 3 of Eli's aphorisms, Abraham Maslow from great minds, a "What If?" to ponder.

Eli’s Aphorisms
“Not all great communicators can lead, but all great leaders can communicate." (earned over 15 years teaching Executive Communication and Leadership at Fairleigh Dickinson University)”
“The most important thing you can do with your life is something that will outlast you.”
“Judging by recent politics, one is tempted to challenge Darwin's theory of evolution.”

From Great Minds
“You will either step forward into growth or fall backward into safety." Eli's terse comment: falling backward is precisely what has happened over the last ten to twenty years, and it is why so little progress is being made in schools, education systems and social services — those who resist the teaching of challenging books, who want parents rather than professionals running boards of education, who are afraid to move forward. Throughout history we have stepped forward into growth and backward into safety, and deciding to do something about it is what this podcast is. Maslow also pledged his faith in the species: human beings have wonderful possibilities and inscrutable depths. There is nothing we cannot accomplish; we just have to do it.” — Abraham Maslow

What If?
D-Day, June 6, 1944. Eisenhower launched Operation Overlord across Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, and as bloody as it was it succeeded — though it should not have, because Erwin Rommel, perhaps the most accomplished general in the world at the time, had everything he needed to defeat it. What he did not have was authority. Thirty kilometers away sat a battalion of panzers with air support and ammunition trains, and Rommel could not release them; he had to ask von Rundstedt, who was in Paris buying birthday shoes for his wife, and who in any case could not go over Hitler's head because Hitler was asleep under standing orders not to be woken before noon. By noon the invasion was six hours old. Hitler signed the release at eleven that night. Meanwhile FDR, Churchill, George Marshall and the King of England had given Eisenhower their complete confidence and full command of the battle, and his objectives — fifty yards inland to the first crossroads, to a barn — were met. What if the authority had run the other way? It very easily could have.

This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, SVP of Human Health at Flavine.

Also supported by Major Sponsor Bergen Volunteers, neighbors serving neighbors across 70 towns in Bergen County since 1966.

Also supported by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting, strategic counsel for the business of making medicine.

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