Bob Cramer's Blog

Based on repeated trips to the mall, the world clearly needs one more great fashion brand named after a male designer. So with no expenses spared, I am pleased to announce the creation of my newest venture: Bob Cramer, London.

Now Ralph (Lauren), Tommy (Hilfiger), Michael (Kors), Calvin (Klein) and the rest of you, first of all, thank you for welcoming me to the club.  Please don’t see me as a threat, just look at Bob Cramer, London, as a chance to grow our collective market.

Yes, you will be seeing a lot of press coming soon, especially as I focus on struggling retailers needing something new to spiff up interest.   J.C. Penney’s will start with an exclusive on my women’s line, Abercrombie and Fitch will debut my young men’s line, and yes, for some extra royalty, I agreed to be the model.  Target too has promised that they are only going to take cash when selling my line so no worries.

Bob Cramer, London, has set a high bar with only American manufacturing, the finest Pauley’s Island Cotton, breathtaking design and color patterns and a full product line-up from pajamas to evening ware and everything in between.  When you buy a Bob Cramer, London product, you will know and everybody who sees you will confirm that you have arrived.  And wait until you see our children’s line, coming just in time for back to school, 2014.

Furthermore, Bob Cramer, London, is planning a public offering in the first quarter next year.  My dear friend, Mr. Kors, did pretty well with his IPO in 2011, and Ralph’s company has been no slacker either.   Analysts agree that Bob Cramer, London, has similar characteristics, but higher growth opportunities because of its newness and a secret, soon to be released, second brand focused on women’s hair products simply called “The Bob”.

On the heels of last week’s local elections, Atlanta and many cities across America have newly elected school boards each promising positive change, more accountability and a better education for our children.

Here in Atlanta, approximately half of the students who start ninth grade in the Atlanta Public Schools don’t graduate.  Nationally, a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds.  The personal, societal and economic impact of educational failure is massive and maddening.

These sobering statistics unfortunately cast a negative shadow on the work of millions of highly motivated and dedicated educators who daily do their best to teach, inspire and guide young people.  It must be frustrating beyond belief that the national statistics don’t reflect a better collective end result.  Perhaps there is solace in knowing that one has contributed as much as can be done on an individual level, but that structural forces bigger than any of us are holding back greater outcomes.

On a brighter note, a myriad of educational reform programs are beginning to chip away at some of the gunk that may be at the clogging up the system.  With no personal ability to judge what is the needed diagnosis, I share anecdotally some ideas and curriculum approaches that have crossed my path with hopes that they illuminate a way forward, recalibrate the dropout yield curve and provide a new generation jazzed and juiced to build a better country and healthier world.

The Future Project is on a mission to transform America’s high schools into the most inspiring places on earth (now that’s what I’m talking about!).  Using a full time “Dream Director” whose only job is to help students act on their dreams, The Future Project is helping students develop the confidence, 21^st century skills and passion to succeed in the classroom and beyond.  Based on great early results with over 1,000 students in three states, The Future Project in just its third year is spanning out across the country.

The National College Advising Corp  recruits recent college graduates to serve as full-time college counselors at under-served high schools to make sure that qualified students don’t miss out on a college education.  Helping students navigate the complex web of admission and financial aid, NCAC raises the college go-rate of many low-income, first generation college attendees. Today there are 372 counselors assisting over 100,000 students a year.

Outward Bound’s Expeditionary Learning program offers experiential project-based curriculum and professional teacher development to help transform existing schools into places where students become leaders in their own learning.  With a focus on the national Common Core curriculum and beyond, EL’s program combines effective content with rigorous practice, bringing together the “what” and “how” for engaging instruction.   Over nearly two decades, EL has grown from a mere 10 schools into a program the size of a major urban school district.

While not comprehensive, these three programs represent change afoot, offering small glimmers of innovative light cast against the much larger vortex of federal, state and individual school board programs each seeking improvement in their own ways.  Perhaps educator Wanda Hopkins-McClure, during Friday’s insightful TEDxPeachtree conference, got it right when she said “innovation in education will happen one teacher, one student, one classroom at a time.”  Well, that time is now.  We cannot wait and we need to aggressively rethink how we can fix this broken system so vital to our future success.

As the buzz from the mind-expanding (Co)Lab conference slowly recedes, I cannot help but think of comments made in the very final session of the day and a half collaborative leadership summit.

They came from the CEO of MARTA.  He said that MARTA was seriously underfunded compared to our peer cities and beginning to fall further and further behind.  His simple and to the point comment flies in the face of basically all the other rhetoric coming from the high brow conference speakers imaging an Atlanta of the future.  Simply put, without a world-class public transportation system, you don’t have a world-class city.

We can talk all we want about new urbanism, “hipsturbia”, walkable cities and the like.  Call it what you want, but without a world-class public transportation system it doesn’t work here in the ATL.

We can talk about attracting millennials who one speaker said would “rather give up their car than their cell phone” but without world-class public transportation, you cannot simply walk all over Atlanta.

We can talk about improving education, decreasing smog and opening up new job possibilities for the disenfranchised, but without mobility and a world-class public transportation system, it is mainly just talk.

It is actions that speak louder than words and I think the excessive focus on the new Falcons stadium sums up some flaws in our thinking.  We have left no stone unturned to convince two historic churches to relocate so the City can contribute, according to Jay Bookman in the AJC, not just $200 million, but really close to $1 billion in public money, to build a stationary stadium used a few dozen times a year.

I wonder what the amplifying effect would be if we took this passion, our city money and used the $1 billion dollars to lead an expansion, improvement and upgrading of MARTA.  What would do more to make Atlanta a world-class city?

It is all about priorities, leadership and wise investment.  And the irony that we have to build the new stadium on the more expensive and disruptive “South” location primarily because it is near a MARTA stop shouldn’t be lost on any of us.

I was a freshman at Emory University when Bert Lance, a Georgia banker and close confidant of then President Jimmy Carter, came under national scrutiny for questionable banking practices.  Mr. Lance died last week at the age of 82 and while history may judge he got a bum rap back when, Mr. Lance and his well-publicized troubles played a bit role in my collegiate political career.

Let me explain.

A crowded field of young, up-and-coming political types were all jockeying their way to earn one of three spots representing freshman interests on the Emory student government association (SGA), a highly coveted position to influence policies and events on campus while assisting with graduate school admission and perhaps future fame and fortune. To gain name recognition which was the campaign’s most important facet, Emory’s best and brightest littered the campus with professionally produced campaign fliers. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought these people were running for Congress as each 8 1/2 by 11” poster had a more perfect headshot than the next (and this was before desktop publishing made it economically feasible to produce such work).

Your dedicated blogger, who had some concerns about the Emory freshman experience, was out late one night and perhaps after a few too many thought it was silly how seriously the announced candidates were taking this “freshman” election.  With a mind full of mush, your dedicated blogger thought that he could have some fun with this whole thing, perhaps stand out from the crowd and get himself elected.

So with haste and a ballpoint pen, your dedicated blogger whipped up a stick figure self-portrait complete with an “I Love Emory” T-shirt (I Love NY was the advertising rage at that time) to stand in stark contrast to the other candidates’ picture perfect headshots.  Then, with a marker, the rest of my campaign poster came to life, with “Bobby Cramer for SGA”, “Here is my picture” and an earnest, “I will, in all seriousness, appreciate your vote”.  The whole process took about five minutes.

Not bragging here, but the poster was a huge hit.  My name recognition soared, and somehow I qualified for the run-off election where the top nine vote earners competed for three final SGA spots.

Not one to rest on my laurels, I needed to keep the momentum alive for the run-off.  Figuring that humor was always the best bet, I made us some quotes of then prominent people, Bert Lance included, and placed them stand right next to my little hand drawn picture on my new run-off poster:

“He is a real leader!”–Richard Nixon

“He is trustworthy, dependable!”–Bert Lance

“He is so cute!”–Mrs. Cramer

Well, I was elected and went on to serve with some distinction on the SGA, mustering up the courage one night to speak up at a dinner at Emory President James Laney’s house, which resulted in a presidential visit to my Dobbs Hall dorm, an open and frank conversation with my freshman “constituents” and the eventual establishment of a Freshman Council.  I kid you not.

Mr. Lance’s recent passing made me think of this story and that campaign, harkening back to a simpler time, when an aspiring and buzzed college kid could connect with peers, affect positive change and get a little laugh without even using Facebook.

Our family’s precious and beautiful dog, Lucky, will celebrate her 14^th birthday this summer, and as dog lovers everywhere know, that is within drooling distance of becoming a centenarian.  Besides some muscle atrophy in her hind legs, she is quite with it, giving squirrels a run, barking at strangers outside and starring inquisitively at just about everything around her.  Yes, she has gotten a bit stubborn, as she will only go on leash-walks with the two family members in tow, only traveling on certain streets of her choosing, but that is natural for an old and distinguished lady who has given so much love and tenderness to the family that adopted her when she was nine weeks old.

Over the past two weeks, though, we have had a bit of a crisis.  Lucky’s legs, her back left paw specifically, have weakened to a point where she has trouble getting to her feet.  If she can’t get up under her own power, lots of bad things start happening.  She struggles to get her footing, especially on the house’s slick hardwoods, and we have perfected the bear-hug assist that manually propels her to all fours.

We know that this is only a temporary, stopgap measure, and with hope that something else could be done, a miracle really, we journeyed to see our trust veterinarian.

We found it.

Steroids.

I now understand why baseball and football players gobbled and begged for them, risking suspensions, perjury, public humiliation and serious long-term medical consequences.  After the first day, Lucky was back up on her feet. Day two, she took on the steps.  Day three, she walked the neighborhood.  Day four, she caught the squirrel.

Her transformation, so dramatic and so fast, has us conjuring up Lucky lifting weights at Lifetime Fitness, becoming a “cougar” in her own right, and starring in TV commercials alongside the AFLAC duck.  Perhaps with time and an increased dosage, she could try out for the Iditarod.  The possibilities are endless.

But really, we are just so thankful to have our Lucky back, lying around the house, getting up to do her business, begging for food and positioning her big, white, furry self in the middle of all the action.   Whatever the future holds, we celebrate our second chance with our beloved senior citizen super doggie hoping to enjoy and treasure all we have had and all that is still to come.