During this Freedom Week, it just seems so appropriate that I share this Monday Morning Memo commentary as written and published just a week ago by a gentleman who decades ago was given the “handle” of The Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams!
Prior to his visiting us at XM Radio in 2003, I had not even heard of Roy Williams nor read a single Monday Morning Memo, which I have done regularly ever since. In fact, tens of thousands of people worldwide have been reading Roy’s Monday Morning Memo every week now for at least three decades.
Roy grew up in Oklahoma and found that he was gifted at creating advertising messages and campaigns that truly connected with persons who would benefit from the services being offered. Since then, he has devoted his life to working with entrepreneurs, owners, and managers of small businesses, helping them to effectively advertise and promote the products and services they offer.
And, he and his wife, Princess Pennie, are the founders of Wizard Academy, a school for entrepreneurs that sits atop a plateau overlooking the city of Austin, Texas. On the campus as well is Chapel Dulcinea, an open-air chapel that hosts dozens of wedding ceremonies every year.
Now, take time to read and digest Roy’s message:
It would appear that journalists can no longer see clearly or talk plainly. They hand you something twisted and bent and assure you that it is straight.
Propaganda hangs thick in the air around us and we are weary of it.
It has gotten so bad that each of the people I could count on to keep me informed have chosen to cut the umbilical and set themselves free from the pollution of newscasts.
I was contemplating these things in the predawn darkness when I remembered a comment made by Hosea 2700 years ago. His words were translated into English in 1611: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal.”
The Contemporary English translation of the Book of Hosea was published in the year 2000: “If you scatter wind instead of wheat, you will harvest a whirlwind and have no wheat.”
This morning’s Roy H. Williams translation says, “If you scatter falsehoods instead of truth, you will harvest confusion and have no truth.”
You can use nuclear energy to illuminate great cities, or you can use it to vaporize them. Nuclear energy has no conscience, no ethics, no obligation to do what is right. It is we humans who must have conscience, ethics, and a sense of obligation.
Artificial Intelligence is like nuclear energy. You can use it to solve complicated problems, or you can use it to create them.
In recent weeks millions of people have seen photos showing Donald Trump being tackled and carried away by a group of police officers. We have seen Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket. We have seen an explosion at the Pentagon.
The Pentagon bombing was believed by enough people that it affected the S&P 500 on Wall Street.
But those things were the work of mischievous amateurs.
I wonder what is going to happen when the big boys decide it is time to play for higher stakes?
America has been losing its grasp on the truth ever since the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987 and the 12 AM/12 FM/12 TV station limitations on broadcast ownership were lifted 20 years ago. This made it legal for anyone with a lot of money to buy all the TV and Radio stations and replace the news with falsehoods, half-truths, and outright lies. And we called it Freedom of Speech.
Now we are holding onto the truth by our fingertips, trying not to let it slip from our grasp.
As I sit in the predawn darkness, I see the rapidly approaching freight train of a Presidential election and I hear the sound of an approaching whirlwind.
Roy H. Williams
Well, did this message speak to you? I’d love to hear your reaction.
Now, before leaving … scroll back up to the image at the top of the page — then look in the center for Roy’s constant companion, Indiana Beagle. If you click on him, it’ll take you down a rabbit hole where you’ll find who-knows-what! Then keep on clicking, as there are many levels to this hole!
P. S.: Did you go far enough down Indy Beagle’s rabbit hole to read about legendary author James Michener, who grew up less than five miles from where yours truly now lives here in Doylestown, Pennsylvania … and is the home of the Michener Art Museum?
