Pat Schwind Presents: Strategic Edge Thursday, 06/18/2009

Atheist Monti Gaither: How Religion has Messed Up the World, Forever

Minutes of 06/04/2009

1. Attended 06/04/2009 : Rich Woods, Frank Rickey, Mark Sordahl, Pat Schwind, Ed Casper, Olga Strickland, Howard Crowe, Eric Monaco, Geri Seckinger, Barb Bentley, Jack Gregson, & our speaker, Dr. Tamara Zivic of World Hunger Education, Advocacy & Training, (WHEAT).

2. WHEAT is a "faith based organization" founded in '79, via the National Council of Churches. They are advocates for the hungry worldwide. Most Wheat activities are geared to empower people to action, in order to motivate others to change policy & help people of all kinds, in need. Dr. Tamara Zivic did a good job of covering the basics of how Wheat helps the hungry & unemployed thru various programs, directly & indirectly designed to help feed & clothe the poor, prepare them for job interviews, get their products to market, & increase political activism by the disenfranchised. Our topic was supposed to be: "Can We Eradicate World Hunger?", which I feel is terribly relevant today. Unfortunately, we got off on a dead end tangent, re: "why don't the mean & evil banks loosen up credit, & cooperate with folks behind on their mortgage payments?".

   Folks, not to be a real jerk about it, but having been in the mortgage biz for 16 years, & struggling for much of the last 3, I'm sick of hearing about the "mortgage mess", & really wanted to discuss "Can We Eradicate World Hunger?". However, since ~ half the folks in attendance had some "mean ol' banker" story, (many of which pertained to credit card lending, not mortgages), I allowed that discussion to consume way too much time. By the time we got back on topic, so many folks had to leave, including me, that we never got to the real topic. That's life. Hopefully, Dr. Zivic can return next year, & talk about the socio-economic, cultural & political aspects of world hunger; we look forward to her future presentation.

3. Our next meeting is this Thursday, 06/18/2009

   Please arrive before 7:30 AM at “JIM’s CONEY ISLAND CAFE”, 1750 No. Scottsdale Rd., Tempe, at the southwest corner of Scottsdale & Cavalier, Click Here for a map, 1 block south of McKellips, ~ 1 mile north of the 202 Freeway.

   Our speaker will be Atheist Monti Gaither: How Religion has Messed Up the World, Forever

   Bring Guests!

4. Future Speakers
   • 7/2- Frank Rickey presents "Individualism by Thoreau": To what Extent can Government Legitimately Compel Individuals to Act Against their Own Free Will?

   • 7/16- Ex-Cop Seymore Smith: One Man’s Struggle vs. an Unjust System; Commentary from the Az. Justice Project.

   • 7/30- Ahmad Daniels: A Black Marine's Battle for Civil Rights in the Vietnam War.

   • 8/13- MMA Fighter & Heritage Capital Consultant Mike Van Arsdale will discuss "Energy, Diamonds & Dubai", & then give a real live MMA Demonstration in the parking lot, on thick carpet. Yeah, it'll be HOT, but we can handle it.

   • TBD- The Holocaust: History's Greatest Genocide or Outright Hoax? Pat Schwind & hopefully a real 'expert', will debate Holocaust Denier Friedrich Paul Berg. I just need more time to get "up to speed".

   • TBD- Nuclear Power: I need a 'Greenie" to debate my good friend & nuclear engineer, Joe Napier.

5. IV. Publisher's Note: I have a very important announcement & a quite relevant comment today:

   1. After almost 13 years at America's Homefunders, I left. No hard feelings; Donna was very good to me there. I'm still "funding out" my old business there, but have my good friend, Rick Dunham of Impact Mortgage handling my new business for me, until I decide where I want to work. It will prob'ly be at Impact, but that's not yet "set in stone". Rick was my sales manager at Sterling Mortgage in '94, we're good friends, & he's a great guy to work with.

   2. If you notice in the line up of coming events ("Future Speakers"), above, for 2 - 3 months, I've been promoting a debate I hope to have late this year, with a Holocaust Denier. I'm not doing this to "play devil's advocate", or as some of my Jewish friends say, "give credibility to whack jobs". To me, this is simply a 'free speech issue'. At the S/E, we debate very controversial topics, in the spirit of intellectual curiosity. Sometimes quite uncomfortable issues. I think that denying the Holocaust is wackier than believing that "19 Arabs w/ box cutters outfoxed the world's greatest Air Force". (Yes, I in fact do believe that "9-11 was an Inside Job".) But I wanted to clarify my stance on the Holocaust, in light of last week's murder at the DC Holocaust Museum. I believe it happened, it was much worse than most people can even imagine, & that European Christianity & the average "good German" were so much more culpable than most historians will ever admit. But we're gonna debate the issue, because that's what we do at the S/E.

Sincerely, Pat Schwind, MBA