The strongest soft power that the US possesses are words, specifically, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  This declaration has tapped the core human desire for freedom and its expression.  

 

That said, I'm always baffled why many people feel uncomfortable talking about religion and politics. Both issues impact your life in some fashion and avoiding it seems like lack of confidence or perhaps it's the perception that talking will create a disagreement. I thought that's the point in discussions, being exposed to new viewpoints, to learn.  

 

Politically correct is a figure-four choke hold on free speech. Being told (or persuaded through societal pressure) what you can and cannot discuss is illustrated with bad comedy, film-phobic North Korea (initially) stopping Sony's free speech. Taken to its extreme, we see the fear from a fatwah on free expression created by the recent murdered Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris.

It seems odd to me as I write this on the national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who exemplified free speech at a very high personal cost of antagonism and threats, that  somehow we should feel guilty or be pressured to not talk about Muslims, Catholics, Bobby Jindal or Mark Rubio. Why be satisfied to narrow topics defined by others? Dr. King said it well, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" and "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

Let's talk religion. Pope Francis has taken heat for his recent opinions announcing illnesses afflicting the Curia (the Vatican administration.) He told the group of Cardinals that they suffered from "spiritual Alzheimer's, gossipy cliques, careerism, hypocrisy, back-stabbing, existential schizophrenia and terrorism of gossip." Oy Ve. No political correctness there. Here's some of his other opinions. I highlighted two of them that I thought were particularly important.

Pope Francis's Ten Commandments for happiness.

1. Live and let live.
2. Give yourself to others.*
3. Move quietly in the world.
4. Enjoy leisure. **
5. Sunday is for families.
6. Find jobs for young people.
7. Respect nature.
8. Let go of negative things quickly.
9. Don't preach your religion too forcefully.
10. Work for peace.

Sadly, most folks just take turns talking, but few truly listen to one another. Their opinions are the same in their 20's as their 50's, just repeated over and over. Carl Jung said "everyone is in love with their own ideas." As someone is speaking, don't formulate your response in your head, just listen.

We should endeavor to learn throughout our life and be open to different opinions, be it Dr. King, the Pope or someone you meet on the street. Be engaged, express yourself and most important, listen. It's the groundwork for social connectedness, which leads to fulfillment, which brings happiness.

Make a personal Declaration of Independence. Free yourself from apathy and mediocrity. Don't just create appraisals like widgets, care about your work product all the time, every time. Free yourself from the old unproductive ways of creating your appraisal product. Free yourself from self-limiting thoughts on what it means to be a commercial appraiser in 2015. Re-energize your appraisal firm, start a company in a totally unrelated field or retire (without guilt) and find a hobby or philanthropic give-back to your community. It's your country, your life and your choice. Let Freedom Ring, Free at Last, Free at Last!   

 

 

Given the heavy and exponentially increasing reliance that businesses and consumers require from our modern communication systems in the United States (particularly non-metropolitan areas,) certain industries in the field seem to be rather lackluster in comparison with other parts of the world - especially with regards to internet connection speed. Globally, the average download speed in the U.S ranks 24th in the world behind Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland and places I've never heard of and can't pronounce. The problem is not a lack of infrastructure, but rather a multi-dimensional political tug of war where government funding and subsidies for deployment are dependent on an ISP's ability to provide a certain amount of bandwidth to geographical areas that are considered undeserved (have you ever lived in a place where you had to choose between Super-Slow dial-up, or Pull-Your-Own-Hair-Out-Whilst-Screaming-Super-Slow-Satellite internet service?)

 

Basically, this means that if an ISP wants to move into an undeserved territory, EVEN IF they offer faster speeds than what is currently available in that area, they will not be eligible for federal or FCC grants to help pay for these projects, although larger cable or fiber providers usually meet the minimum criteria to receive these grants, but that does not mean that they plan on (ever) expanding into said areas. This leaves the consumer stuck with the product that may not be adequate or desirable for their needs. In this unfortunate situation, the consumer must ensure that they are getting the highest level of service possible from their providers. I spent years working in both field service and corporate level departments for a rural ISP, so I have taken my experience to build this small, but handy-dandy guide to help you get the most out of your ISP.

Find out what speed you are paying for, perhaps you have a service contract with your ISP you can reference. Find out if the speeds you are paying for are "minimum speeds" or "up-to speeds," as a common bait and switch vector used by ISP's is to advertise a certain speed (that you will never attain) and include an "up to" clause in their fine print.

Power-cycle your modem/router, you would be amazed at how often this will actually fix bottlenecking bandwidth.

Run a quick and free speedtest to see what speed you are actually getting. I like either http://speedtest.net or http://speakeasy.net/speedtest. If your speedtest comes back below what you are paying for, ensure all your other devices (laptop, smartphone, roku box, death-ray etc.) are either turned off or disconnected from your network (or wi-fi) and re-run the test. This ensures that your other devices are not skewing your speedtest results (this is one of the first hoops that ISP's like to make you jump through when you call them reporting slow speeds, so why not be ahead of the game?.)  If you still test below what you are paying for, it's time to call your ISP.

ISP's generally take over one year of your monthly payments before they turn a profit from the service that they provide you and losing customers is a big NO-NO for them.  Research local competitor's rates and service levels, switch to them if they give you a better deal.  Even if there is no alternative ISP in your area to switch to, asking to disconnect the service (even if you don't REALLY intend to disconnect) because you are not a satisfied client will usually get you transferred to a Retention Specialist.

Retention Specialists generally are trusted employees that have more experience in the industry than regular Customer Service reps who answer the phones and they also have stronger inter-departmental relationships giving them the ability to expedite support issues or to authorize refunds and discounts.  Generally, if you are upset and yelling when you place your initial call to your ISP, try to get it all out of your system while you are still talking to Customer Service, NOT the Retention Specialist (don't bite the hand that feeds, ya know?)