Paul Harvey

I just received an email from a Chamber member telling me to read Harvey Mackey's weekly column on the late Paul Harvey. It was a good read. Here is an excerpt from Paul Harvey's Apology To Business Owners:

"You put up the money to start the business that creates jobs for the rest of us. You gather the raw materials, importing some of them, devise salable products, advertise them and sell them. You pay all the operating expenses. You pay your employees 90 percent of the dollars that are left. You assume all the risk and invest most of your profit in additional equipment, additional facilities and new research.

"You pay out in taxes three times what you pay yourself. You businessmen and businesswomen create work, goods and services. You give more generously than anybody to churches, schools, foundations and charities of all sizes.

"By any reasonable rationale, you should be the focus of a grateful nation's primary appreciation. As a public servant and provider, you should be on the cover of Time or Newsweek. You should be heralded on CBS, NBC and ABC. You should be esteemed by your government, by the media and by your fellow man.

"You seldom are. For my part in a nonproducing profession that ridicules or ignores you, I apologize. I wish I could promise it's going to be different, I can't."

Thanks for passing this along Jim.