Even if you are a person who rushes home from the drug store to count the piles in your bottle of aspirins or clean the barrel of your favorite hunting gun twice a week, the implied lesson of AP Business Writer Michael Liedtke’s article on Microsoft and Yahoo can be understood.
In my opinion, after reading the article, the implied lesson learned was the power of the shareholders of a company over that of the Board of Trustees. I casually thought it was to the reverse; I thought the Board of Trustees had power over the shareholders.
I do recall Rev. Jackson telling us (poor) Blacks to buy shares in companies so we could have some say in the direction of the company but it has not begun to make sense until of late. Until I was able to pull the concept into a larger framework. The word “epic” comes to mind.
Within the framework of writing to sponsors of TV shows, it is the shareholders who are the real “persons of interest”. I have observed in every group of diversed people, there is a Jefferson Smith. Jefferson Smith is the fictional hero of the classic movie “*Mr. Smith goes to Washington” and there is at least one in every diverse group. They are usually “woodwork” people as some teachers call them. They come into your room, no fanfare and you really do not notice them. You may not see them for weeks until you get the first set of test papers back. When you are checking the papers at home or wherever and come across his paper you say, “Damn! Who is THIS?” You mentally scan your classroom and can not place him. When passing out the papers on the next class day, you come to grips that you indeed have not seen him in your classroom before. It happens that way many times. Ask any real teacher who is not a propagandist or polarizer. Their interest in the classroom participants is a tad bit different. (Smile)
I would imagine canvassers are also that way. (You should read some of their blogs.) You would never know it unless they mention it in class. Never. That’s Mr. Jefferson Smith. That’s also your Sen. Lincoln Chaffee. There you have the three of them. One fictional, two real lifers. More than American patriots. Patriotism is nice but humanitarian issues are top priorities. What is right rules the day. A comparison could be made between these three characters and Ms. Pelosi’s infamous pronouncement, “Impeachment is off the table” remark. Or let’s take another example; the Irish Gig sung and danced to the tune “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” or the latest Flag of Iwo Jima waving good Senator Clinton balking such nonsense as dropping her panty hose on Iran if they bother Israel. Shareholders do not entertain those kinds of thoughts. They want to do the best thing for their product and in the case of the one fictional and two live characters, the product is America.
If one would go to any shareholder’s meeting, Jefferson Smith, Lincoln Chaffee and your canvassers will also be there. Quiet! Until or unless…….
If there is any truth to the African proverb, “It is the women who hold up the sky” than I would say, it is the shareholders who hold up the product. Not Chuck Todd. Not Dan Abrams. Not Rush Limbaugh nor Sean et al. As I noted in another post, they are only overseers. Peons, if you will. Good ones, I admit, but peon just the same. Nothing more. They are out here making efforts to keep their jobs as do/did the rest of us.
Finally and in regards to the power of shareholders, I am mindful of one exception. When citizens of Washington, D.C. wanted to boycott the Washington Post News Paper, Ms. Cathy Hughes, CEO of Radio One, told us it was not possible to bring the WaPo to its knees due to the fact the government was the biggest subscriber to the paper with its governmental want ads sections. Boy, was that a shock to us! Imagine, governmental influences trumping shareholders power. She asked us to throw the magazine section of the Sunday paper on their front steps to register our displeasures with the paper. The inspiration for writing this blog is the AP story source below.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
*Mr. Smith goes to Washington is the 1939 movie classic
A naive man (Jefferson Smith) is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.
SOURCE:"Clearly there's frustration," said Darren Chervitz, co-manager of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns Yahoo stock. "I am not even sure if Yahoo cares about its shareholders because they didn't show much regard for shareholders' best interests in this process." AP
Yahoo CEO on hot seat after rebuffing Microsoft's $47.5B bidSunday May 4, 11:25 pm ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer (Thanks Drudge)
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080504/microsoft_yahoo.html?.v=16