Happy Iacocca Day
For years, we have had Columbus Day at this time in October. Columbus has been credited for being the first to believe the world was a globe, though in truth most people at the time had the same belief (contemporary navigators used a system that assumed a spherical planet). He was also credited for discovering America, after finding outlying islands (and though many credit Scandinavians for a much earlier discovery of the Americas, and others can claim other Europeans should get the credit). This may or may not be true but he was, after all, looking for Asia, based on numerous false assumptions and mistakes thinking it lay thousands of miles closer to Europe than it does.
Regardless of whether Columbus was a great pioneer or navigator, he has been credibly criticized for what some have called attempted genocide; others, more restrained, have still noted Columbus’ apparently bloodthirsty nature when confronted with non-Europeans. For that reason, many Americans feel that a national holiday in his honor may be in poor taste at best, despite his successful production of a Harry Potter movie roughly six centuries later.
Columbus: They ought to make good and skilled servants… I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.
Wikipedia: The native Taino people of the island were systematically enslaved and murdered. Hundreds were rounded up and shipped to Europe to be sold; many died en route. For the rest of the population, Columbus demanded that all Taino under his control should bring the Spaniards gold. Those that didn’t were to have their hands cut off. Since there was, in fact, little gold to be had, the Taino fled, and the Spaniards hunted them down and killed them. … Within two years, half of what may have been 250,000 Taino were dead. … By 1550, 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred Taino were left on their island.
It is for this reason I believe the time has come for a Lee Iacocca Day. Like Columbus, Iacocca is Italian in ancestry, and honoring him is, in a way, honoring all Italian-Americans. Unlike Columbus, Iacocca does not appear to have caused many deaths, but he has accomplished a great deal for the nation. While others may have given up and allowed the great Chrysler Corporation to fail, Iaccoca stood up and worked hard to keep the corporation largely intact. He eventually demanded that the government provide some reciprocation for the immense amounts of money Chrysler had saved them during the war years (and afterwards), and with loan guarantees in hand turned Chrysler around, putting it onto a secure, profitable footing (then presiding over its near failure again, then presiding over its turnaround).
Iacocca also helped to keep Ford moving forward for years, like Walter P. Chrysler working to help the domestic auto industry. But that was just his start. Lee Iacocca worked hard to put his fame and power to work for a restoration of the Statue of Liberty, a successful effort that kept America’s most famous icon from shamefully deteriorating in full view. Later, Iacocca created the Lee Iacocca foundation, putting his efforts to saving lives by pursuing a cure for diabetes.
The time has come for Lee Iacocca Day. After all, who does America really want to be remembered for?
We should honor Iacocca. We would do well to examine what he has written about leadership especially given the political and economic challenges we are faced with. CEO’s would do well to note his example of taking $1 a year until the company was on track–not leaving with $90 million as the company and employees swirl down the drain. We need to remember his example of tackling tough problems with real solutions and consensus rather than pandering or partisanship.
We should honor Columbus for his achievment, and for opening up this hemisphere for exploration that followed–sailing across the ocean in 90 foot wooden vessels was that generation’s equivalant of going to the moon. Was there a negative side to that? Yes, but a lot more positive. We should learn from that can-do spirit–that is what Americans, and Canadians as well, came to hold dear as a unique American quality as our nation formed and came together. That spirit made America unique-as opposed to the tradition, class structures, and rigidity of the old world. We have to apply that spirit to our present challenges as well. But we seem to be going into an age of apathy and stagnation and class warfare–that old world spirit. We need to regain our mentality of rising to every challenge–or face descent into the shadow of the dynamic people of India and China.
I would be willing to wager that few Americans could tell you much about Iacocca; or about WP Chrysler or KT Keller–and that is a tragedy given the need to return to the values of hard work, responsibility, and loyalty that made the American economic system what it was and can be again–as opposed to the buy on margin speculation, reckless spending and mentality of selling out employees and country to make another buck, that got us in the mess we are in now.
I agree. However – there are good and bad ways to work hard. Putting people into slavery and/or killing them – bad way. (It’s worth noting that Columbus was jailed and later fired as governor of the conquered territories by the Spanish Crown, and had his royalties of the goodies taken away.) His achievement was rather amusing in fact – by totally miscalculating the size of the globe, he was able to make a trip that others would not dare to try, because he “knew” he’d reach Asia before supplies ran out. It was a great serendipitous mistake. That said, as someone pointed out, his great achievement ended up not being discovering America (which others appear to have done first — not counting the natives), or conquering the natives, or crossing the ocean… as much as it was staying around, and coming back with samples of the local population.