By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jun 18, 2012 at 9:15 AM ET  JYB Sr., JYB Jr. and JYB III circa 1972 This Father’s Day I received an unexpected almost magical gift at 11pm on the plane ride home from a family vacation. While clearing out old stored documents on my laptop I found a story written by my grandfather, John Y Brown Sr, whose name I carry, reflecting on the meaning of being a father to his youngest daughter, Pam Brown.
It’s titled “A Life too Short: Pam’s Impossible Dream.”
It is a sad and tragic story….but it is also a celebration of the love of a doting and devoted father for his endearing and adoring youngest daughter.
Pam died at the age of 28 trying –along with her newlywed husband and one other—to be the first persons to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air balloon. It was a quixotic adventure that ended tragically and probably, more than any other single event, defined or redefined my father’s family.
Pam had a flair for the dramatic and in her short life had a distinguished career in theater and television. Actor’s Theatre in Louisville has a portrait of Pam on display (mentioned in my grandfather’s story) –just outside of the theatre that bears her name.
I remember when the balloon went down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And when some two weeks later when the search parties gave up looking for the bodies. We never talked a lot about it as a family. I suppose it was too painful.
But in my grandfather’s case it appears it was so painful he had to write about it. My grandfather was a thoughtful, kind and thoroughly good man. But not a man who spoke easily about feelings. That all changed for me last night (as I’m sure it changed for other family members when they read or will read this story) as I stumbled across his heartfelt reflection of his relationship with his youngest daughter and her tragic death. It’s a photocopy of the booklet he created– typed out with pictures and some portions written in his own hand when he was about 80 years old.
My grandfather was a man I knew, respected and loved –but didn’t know as well as I wanted to. I’d never glimpsed his most human or fragile side. A side all fathers and grandfathers have. It was a wonderful Father’s Day gift.
From a man who died on Father’s Day 27 years ago yesterday.
By Michael Steele, on Mon Jun 18, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET 
To the dads and soon-to-be dads: Let’s admit it — Father’s Day is one of those “holidays” that even dads are laid back about. In fact, as a young man I never thought much about actually being a father; well at least to the extent that I was planning to become a priest. So, as my stepdad moved from moment to moment in my life, it did not occur to me that he was planting little seeds of information, inspiration and wisdom that I would one day come to rely on in raising my two sons.
What I have discovered for many dads is those moments we have with our children seem to come and go faster and faster leaving little time or room to fully appreciate that our “little ones” are becoming a “young adults” — that is, until you tell her she’s not going out dressed like that; or you demand that your son shave that “mess” off his face.
It’s true at times it may have seemed as if your dad was trying to plan things for you; he really wasn’t. OK, he was (it’s in our nature), but it’s only because as Shakespeare once observed, “It is a wise father that knows his own child.”
Very often it’s hard to appreciate that our journey from infancy to adulthood was as scary for our parents as it was for us. And for many dads, whose role in the home has become the butt of sitcom humor or stereotyped to the point of irrelevancy, that journey remains one of great joy, anticipation and trepidation because, despite the knocks he takes (and sometimes inflicts on himself), he still wants to protect you; and, ultimately, to help you become you. It is, for a dad, a part of the process of letting go.
But what every father knows more than anything else is that being a dad is not about the biological link to a child or about asserting authority over that child or even being a friend, but rather about raising your child to respect and to love him or herself and others. It is about the kind of person that child will be someday.
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Michael Steele: Lessons From My Father
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Jun 13, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
The picture at the left of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers walking hand in hand at a Tel Aviv gay pride rally has caused a sensation on the Internet tubes. The reaction in Israel? Meh. What’s the big deal? Happens all the time! [JTA]
American Idol champ and country music superstar Carrie Underwood came out last week for gay marriage, citing…wait for it…her Christian values. Love it! [Huffington Post]
Want another excuse to love the Miami Heat as they play for the NBA Championship? Check out this article on the controversial owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder. [Financial Post]
By Jeff Smith, on Tue Jun 12, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET Can’t believe I spent 5 mins reading this, but it was amazing.
26 Completely Unexplainable Dating Site Pictures: [BuzzFeed]
By Rod Jetton, on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET Check out these pictures and the accompanying narrative to Rod’s recent mission trip to Ecaudor: [Click here]
By Artur Davis, on Wed Jun 6, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  The outcomes in specific US House races rarely matter outside their own borders: the fact that 63 Republicans took over Democratic seats in 2010 is known exponentially more than any single one of the 63 contests. Indeed, the most consequential House-level results in the last several decades have arguably been the defeats that redounded to the benefit of three future presidents: imagine the ways George W. Bush and Bill Clinton might have been diminished had they won their House races, and spent the eighties in congressional firefights and intra-party battles to ascend to the Senate; think of Barack Obama beating Bobby Rush and trying to overcome the marginalizing bounds of holding an African American district.
I’ll venture a guess that Utah’s newly created 4th District is about to break the pattern of irrelevance, at least if a thirty-something African American woman, who happens to be a conservative Mormon Republican, wins a battle that is well within her reach (a dead heat against a Democratic congressman in a Republican leaning seat). Mia Love’s potential breakthrough in one of the whitest districts in America would be a message in a bottle from the future—the kind of promise that is attracting outsized attention and dollars from around the country.
 Mia Love It’s important to note what Love is not: unlike Barack Obama, she is not the beneficiary of a liberal party self-consciously aware of the chance to write history, and there was no racial base ready to rally around her, or to punish the party if she had been rejected in her primary. She is no caricature who bends so far to the right that it seems like a disingenuous pose: there is a distinct absence of fire and brimstone, and her embrace of Republican agenda items like the Ryan Plan is couched in process-minded tones, with no overheated claims that socialism is around the corner. Notably, her own mantra on the stump is that she asks about the sustainability and affordability of programs first—a conservative stance but a contrast with, say, Grover Norquist’s flamboyant description of shrinking government to a size that makes it fit to be drowned in a bathtub.
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Artur Davis: Mia Love and the Future
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Tue Jun 5, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  The following speech was addressed on May 9, 2012 to the Denver Forum by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
It’s great to be with you and I am delighted my good friend George Mitrovich asked me to speak to The Forum today.
I came to Denver to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Migrant Workers Health Act at the Community Health Center Convention. Celebrations are a wonderful time to look at what our country valued a half century ago – and to compare it to the values of our own time.
In the anti-immigrant fervor, it is hard to imagine, that a nation would decide to protect the health of migrant workers. And yet they did.
So today, at The Forum, I would like to talk with you about what is going on in our country, to suggest we need to renew our faith in one another.
A nation works best when all of its people feel that they have a role, when all can fully participate, when each is inspired by an ideal greater than one’s own desires; for everyone needs to be part of a compelling mission. The Framers of our country believed that, President Kennedy believe that, as did my father and Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Obama.
 America was founded as a “mission into the wilderness.” And in that wilderness, we have explored new frontiers – in science, business and politics. We accomplished the most when we had a sense that we were connected to one another. Sometimes that happens because in fact we are. Americans feel World War II was the good war – in large part because all participated – fought, worked in factories, accepted wage and price controls. Sometimes we feel connected because we feel enlarged by the mission of a few – putting a man on the moon. Or connected to the courage of a small but determined group – the Civil Rights Movement in the early sixties and protesting the war in Vietnam.
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Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: The Spirit of America: Promise & Reality
By Jason Grill, on Fri Jun 1, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  Farms, cows and Dorothy? Try entrepreneurship, high tech and the arts.
The Kansas City Metropolitan area is becoming the envy of individuals on the East and West coasts who have long since considered it merely flyover country. The City of Fountains has been praised as a great place to live, work and visit for many years, but recently it is becoming a hot bed for entrepreneurial investment, high culture and the innovations of the future.
Kansas City, Missouri, is home to the world renownedKauffman Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to help individuals attain economic independence by advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success. The Kauffman Foundation’s focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, education, and research has helped fuel Kansas City’s global presence as an attractive place for creativity and business. Nearly 300,000 individuals from throughout the world have been part of the Kauffman FastTrac program, which has helped entrepreneurs start and grow their business. In addition to the Kauffman Foundation, the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Graduate Entrepreneurship Program was recently named the 2012 National Model Graduate Entrepreneurship Program by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). Entrepreneurship is booming and alive in Kansas City.
 The entrepreneurial spirit in Kansas City has led the city to become a national leader in technology. Google recently announced it will build its first ultra high-speed broadband network between Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas City was chosen over 1,100 other cities. Google Fiber will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans experience. The Wall Street Journal recently coined Kansas City as “Silicon Prairie” and believes that the first Google Fiber network “will likely bolster cloud-based technologies and pave the way for high-definition streaming services that will be hard to find elsewhere.” Combine this with the friendly business climate on the state and city leveland the low cost of living, and you will understand how Kansas City is gaining innovators and entrepreneurs from coast to coast.
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Jason Grill: Flyover Country? Not this Kansas City!
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu May 31, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  Thought for the day to change the world.
If everyone followed the section from the prayer of St Francis asking,
“Lord, grant that I may seek rather to understand, than to be understood.”
Thought for the day to change myself (as a back-up plan in case the world doesn’t change).
If I followed the section from the prayer of St Francis asking,
“Lord, grant that I may seek rather to understand, than to be understood.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed May 30, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET Father and teen daughter conversation.
Daughter: Dad, I’m going to visit a friend today I haven’t seen in a year and we are going to lunch and shopping at the mall for the afternoon. Could I please have some money….like….$20?
Father: $20?! For lunch–and some window shopping? Where are you planning on eating? You don’t really need to buy anything at the mall. How about, oh, $5.
Daughter: Dad…
Father: How about this. I’ll make it $10 because I’m an amazing dad. Deal?
Daughter: Make it $20 because I’m an amazing daughter. Deal?
Dad: You got me. Deal.
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