THEN: Secretary of State (KY), 1996-2004; Candidate for Lieutenant Governor, 2007
NOW: JYB3 Group (Owner) -public affairs consulting firm; Miller Wells law firm (Of counsel)
Full Biography:link
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Apr 12, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET
Will the real school bullies please stand up?
Of course not. All bullies, at bottom, are hurt cowards. But they do need to be called out and held accountable.
The actual bullies, of course, are the perpetrators. But they are typically very misguided and emotionally wounded pre-teens or teens. Not adults. But adults are involved and sometimes subtly (or not so subtlety) are complicit in school bullying incidents. They may want to “fit in” themselves with the “cool kids” or simply not “rock the boat.” And in doing so they may bend the rules or look the other way or even pressure innocent kids to lie or further bully these kids in other ways to avoid standing up to the real bullies and doing the right thing.
The courage to do the right thing begins with administrators who are capable of being honest with themselves about their motives. And then having the courage of their convictions be the kind of honorable role models these young people, deep down, really crave to see. And stare down bullies, rather than appeasing them in hopes they will harass them last.
Is that easy to do? No, it isn’t. In fact, it is difficult. But not as difficult as it is important for the grown ups involved to act like grown ups and stand up to the bullies. Otherwise, the “actual bullies” are being aided and abetted by the adult administrators, who then can, quite literally, become the “real bullies.”
And when that happens, the young and impressionable victims are “doubly bullied.” They are literally sucker punched by a classmate bully, and then figuratively sucker-punched by the school authority figures they have been taught to trust. And that is more than doubly unfortunate!
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Apr 11, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Middle age and smartphones
Today is the day that Blackberry launches the BB 10–its attempt to stay relevant–after the former market leader was vanquished by their hipper more nimble iPhone and Android competitors
I am pulling for the Blackberry 10 on principle alone. And the fact they feel like a soul-mate
Because after a certain age you realize that, with the right mindset, a victory tour can be just as impressive as a new album (or new CD, as they call it these days)
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Apr 9, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
You can call me Al. Or at least an Al lover. Al Jarreau, that is.
In high school I tried to get into the heavy metal music that was popular at the time. I tried and failed.
That more I caved to peer pressure and tried to pretend I liked the dense, loud, manic lyrics belted out by AC/DC and Black Sabbath, the more drawn I became to what, I suppose, could be called its opposite: the melodious and soulful harmonizings of a little known singer (at the time) named Al Jarreau.
I remember having more Al Jarreau cassettes in my car than any other musician in 1979. But I would never play them when a friend was in the car. But when I was alone, it was Al and me.
My first great love affair with music was with this man’s remarkable voice.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Apr 5, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
“Someone in Heaven this yesterday said, “Cut, print, that’s a wrap!”
And gave a thumbs up.
RIP Roger Ebert
===
I never met Roger Ebert. But I felt like I knew him. How many critics can you say that about?
Roger Ebert was the most human of critics in my lifetime. My first years as an avid fan of Siskel & Ebert, I favored the more academic and cerebral Siskel.
But as I matured, I found myself leaning toward Roger Ebert. And the last two decades I looked to Roger Ebert if I ever wanted to understand the meaning of a film. Or decide if I should go to a film based on the quality of that film. Or, and this is most important, if I wanted to know what a film had to teach about life.
I don’t think there will ever be a film critic who will teach us more about life through the medium of film. That is because there will never be another critic who loved film as much as Roger Ebert. And who loved life equally as much as the art he critiqued.
Most critics love their art but too often hide behind it instead of embracing life. Roger Ebert was one critic who rose above his peers and helped to create an art form of covering an art form—and managed to marry a love of the art he covered with a gift for communicating the mechanics and mystery and magic of film. As one human to another.
We lost a great friend today that most of us never met. The one who also happened to be our greatest film critic.
Roger Ebert, is somewhere today, I suspect, critiquing the production choices of Heaven.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Apr 5, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Idea for a movie:
An renowned divorce attorney who is a single, over-the -top, alpha-male, who has been very outspoken against gay marriage, begrudgingly takes his first gay divorce client.
Over the ensuing months, he falls in love with his client and starts a relationship, even though doing so violates the ethics code.
In the final scene, he has to choose between getting disbarred or his romantic relationship with his client.
He chooses the latter, and they marry the following May; and the former attorney opens a florist shop to make enough money for his partner to go to law school and become a great divorce attorney.
For heterosexual and gay couples.
And there is a really cool high speed chase scene reminiscent of the movie Bullet. Except it involves a floral delivery.
Just imagine this scene where everything hinges on a delivery. Of flowers. If not delivered timely, the entire arrangement (and it is a large one ) is free:
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Apr 4, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Basketball and bigger things
Our state’s greatest challenge –and why the UL Cards don’t get the same statewide love the Hilltoppers do?
There are 418 cities in Kentucky.
Citizens in 417 of them —when asked where they live–say Kentucky
Citizens from the 418th city–when asked where they live– say Louisville
… One day, it’s my hope, we’ll be one Kentucky. We have a lot more in common than we believe. A lot more.
It requires attitudes to change inside Louisville (no city is an island) and across the state (no state today can afford to marginalize its largest economic engine–or not feel connected to its only remaining team in the NCAA basketball tournament.
From whatever city we hail, each has the same last name. Even my city’s full name, after all, is “Louisville, Kentucky”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Apr 3, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
I sometimes wonder to myself if HBOs Entourage would have been even better –and a little more believable –if there had been one additional member of the “Entourage.”
I’m thinking a middle-aged guy–forties, maybe even middle or late 40s–who hangs with the group as a sort of really cool and very wise (and physically fit) mentor and buddy.
I’m thinking someone from the Midwest or South. Who is street wise but hasn’t completely lost his innocence and maybe has wavy hair, to help him not stand out too much as the oldest member of the boys.
Not a lot of scenes for this character the first few seasons but a growing interest in the character to the point that by the final season of the series, people are thinking spin-off.
Hey, c’mon. I’m at a point in my life where I need my fantasies to help me come to grips with the harsh realities of, well, there never really being the realistic possibility of a spin-off if I somehow crazily ended up in a series like Entourage at this point in my life. Heck, I’m not crazy….just letting my mind wander a bit with what might have been.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Apr 2, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Yeah, c’mon. Don’t look confused. You know exactly what I’m talking about. And, yeah, I would be embarrassed too. In fact, I admit that I am right now.
Middle aged guys in business no longer play extreme sports or get into bar fights or even raise their voice in a combative way outside the home, the final domain of the toothless tiger. Remember the Will Ferrell SNL skit, “You should respect me because I drive a Dodge Stratus!”? That’s the mentality I’m getting at with the title above.
We are driving late today in the minivan and my teenage daughter and her friend are in the backseat and I get a business call I “have to take.”
It goes on and on and I’m thinking to myself, “I hope my daughter is listening to this. I’m on my game and sounding pretty darned impressive right now. Maybe she’ll finally appreciate how tough my conference calls and business meetings and PowerPoint presentations really are.”
And as an added bonus her friend was listening too and would surely reinforce this belief, I was sure, by later commenting to my daughter when I wasn’t around, “Wow, Maggie, did you hear all those acronyms you father was using? He must be really smart and important. I didn’t understand most of what he was saying. He’s a lot more impressive my other friends’ dads. You are so lucky.” (Or words to that affect)
As the call was winding up, I kicked it up a notch. Threw in some gratuitous “ROI” comment and a then long string of business acronyms that darned near made it sound like I was speaking an entirely foreign language that was so complicated it is made up entirely of abbreviations. I looked for an opening for the word “synergy” but had to settle for “coop-ition” which I kinda made up since I was already on a roll.
And then I calmly and smoothly hung up the phone and slipped it in to my cowboy-like holster. All the while knowing the ‘lil ladies in the backseat had just witnessed that there was a new sheriff in town.
I paused for a moment, and slowly swerved around to “apologize” for my important business call and, I admit it, see if they had any questions.
Both of them had put in their earphones and were listening to their iPods totally oblivious to the machismo heroics that had just occurred in the front seat of the minivan. That my wife was driving for me.
“All finished?” my wife asked with the tone I remembered hearing the first time my mom told me I was wearing “big boy pants.”
I felt like I should say “I’m playing cowboy.” But didn’t have the guts to admit it.
Will the real school bullies please stand up?
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