7-16-25

Can I start off with a gripe…..just a gripe…I won’t go too long on it but this needs

to get said, and since I own the microphone, I’m going to say it……who in God’s

name designed parking garages with low ceilings?!.....I mean really?! Who did

that?!.....So I was traveling too and from New York the past couple of days for

that CNN gig….and I flew out of Birmingham, which of course meant that I had to

park my truck there…..and every single time I do it I cringe as a I pull into the

parking deck and alternate my furtive looks from possible parking to my left sand

right and low ceilings skimming right above the roof of my Jeep Gladiator…..in a

parking where the ceilings are literally 6’9” at best!.....they are….if you walked

into someone’s house and the ceilings were that low you would get instant

claustrophobia and wonder why they built a big house to tiny house

standards…..who designed these things? Hobbits?......unless you’re driving a low-

riding hoopty you’re watching that ceiling boy!......but then they have support

beams, and water pipes, and direction signs, and you can see scuff marks on all of

them…..you know why?! Because they’re too darn low, that’s why!....I’m 6’2”

which means that the ceiling is just a few inches over my head! I know a guy

who’s 6’9” and he would have to duck in a parking garage to keep from banging

his noggin…..it’s not right….it’s some kind of perverse plot to make travelers

irritable right before they get on a crowded plane full of other folks who had to

find a parking place in a concrete tower filled with abnormally low ceilings…..so

looked it up…..because that’s what I do man…..I looked up the clearly defined

regulations for building a parking deck……and yes, they do exist…..the Standard

Building Code clearly states in section

406.2.2 Clear Height

The clear height of each floor level in vehicle and pedestrian traffic areas shall be

not less than 7 feet (2134 mm). …..but wait….there is an an

exception!.....Exception: A lower clear height is permitted for a parking tier in

mechanical-access open parking garages where approved by the building official.

And now we get down to it…..if you’re driving in parking deck and the ceiling

heights are so low that they scrape the paint off the roof of your car then you are

very likely looking at an elected council and a building official collaborating to

save money on concrete by approving an exception that lowers the roof, thereby

lowering the cost, and thereby aggravating the crap out of good citizens who just

want to park their cars and get to their flights on time…..so the answer to my

original question is that bureaucrats who only see dollars and not people are the

ones who do stuff like that….they reason that most folks won’t care, and they

hang warning signs that liberate them from liability, and they move on to the next

bureaucratic nightmare that only partially helps those that they were elected or

appointed to serve…..

Which brings me to my next point…..people in those roles too often lose

themselves in the idea that it’s just a job…..it’s not…..there is a higher level of

accountability for those who serve in public office……we need them to see it as a

calling…..a passion…..what we need is for leaders who will “Lead, Follow or get

out of the way”…..you’ve probably heard that phrase before…..depending on

whose opinion you value more the phrase has been attributed over time to

Thomas Paine, General George Patton, and even Lee Iacocca…..whoever it was

that said it I would hazard the guess that it came from someone with a strong

personality, a sense of mission, and the need to get something very important

done…..it sounds a bit like a rebellion phrase, but I would also say that it is in fact

a leadership phrase….the kind of thing that gets said by the person who not only

has a strong personality but the confidence to put their intent into

action…..someone who sees a situation that needs immediate action and knows

that if that action is not executed quickly and with a sense of reckless abandon

that the consequences of doing nothing could be far worse……

Lead, follow or get out of the way…..its a demand-phrase, it’s a logjam-breaking

phrase, it’s a call to action, and its also not always popular because it tells others

at a peer level, or even a superior rank, that they are the problem….you don’t tell

subordinates to lead, follow or get out of the way…..that’s a phrase that one

General tells the other Generals….or that a business leader tells his Board of

Directors…..or that a President tells Congress…..it is not only a statement of intent

it is a rebuke to those who had the opportunity to fix something but have chosen

not to……and sometimes it just takes one person to launch the change with the

attitude, the authority, and the wherewithal to not only say to others that they

should lead, or follow, or just get out of the way…..but that they can act on it…..

Victor Davis Hanson is an American scholar, a historian and author, and a Senior

Fellow at the Hoover Institute…..I feel like I gain points on my IQ every time I

listen to him provide commentary on world events…..Hanson wrote a book called

“the Savior Generals”…..it is a study in five historic generals who Hanson believes

stepped into a losing military campaign and by sheer force of their will, by their

ability to plan, strategize, cajole, convince, and execute they turned the

tide….that these particular Generals were the sole catalyst for snatching victory

from the jaws of defeat….but they also were not popular for having done so….

Hanson said the book was designed to show “how contrarian and

unpopular generals have often saved the day, defying the odds, …. to win a

campaign and sometimes an entire war.” …… His review covered over 2,600

years, and detailed the events of Themistocles, Belisarius, Sherman, Ridgway and

Petraeus. ……Hanson says that the five generals in his book all had common traits:

“They all enjoyed their reputations for bucking conventional wisdom; they were

all highly literate; they all spoke well and they all led by example.”

Each one of those Savior Generals were men who forged their own path and who

knew that without victory there would be no chance of survival.

What does it take to be that person…..who else has stood up and done what

needed to be done at just the right time for just the right reasons with just the

right plan who had the moxie to tell those around him to lead, follow or get out of

the way?........Oh, there have been others…..I remember a few years back reading

the great book “1776” by David McCullough…..its an awesome read and gave me

much greater insight into the depth and breadth of what actually had to happen

for the original 13 colonies to become the future United States of America…..but

one thing struck me that I had never realized until I read it…..that General

Washington had to almost beg the Continental Congress to stay the course…..to

be sure there were other patriots, there were other heroes of the

Revolution…..but I had always envisioned the Continental Congress….those great

men who signed the Declaration of Independence as being unwavering and

steady and without doubt….oh no, they apparently had some stalwarts in the

bunch but they struggled and debated and some wavered…..but Washington saw

a way forward and wrote to the Congress urging them to stay in the fight…..what

if it had been another man in charge of the Continental Army…..is it possible that

one man can actually make a difference…..

I believe that the United States…..this country that I love…..and even here in

Alabama….is at a crucial point in history…..social upheaval is only part of it…..we

are now in the place where we have to ask the question “what kind of nation do

we want to be?......Should the average person believe that government is there

for them…..or will we be a nation in which the government presses down its

influence against any who question it?..... are we a nation that stands for freedom

and liberty, and one which are allies know will have their back? …..are we a nation

that understands the value of the dollar and that fiscal responsibility and big

spending are not equally yoked concepts?......the only way that I believe that we

are going to win this fight as conservatives is if we stay the course and if we elect

the kind of people to represent us who will say to those around them that they

can lead, follow or get out of the way…….President Ronald Reagan once said that

“Heroes come when they’re needed; great men step forward when courage

seems in short supply,”…..We are in that time……we need great men and women

to step forward….. we need some brassy leadership to say to those who are

flagging and ducking for cover that they need to lead, follow or get out of the

way……

The kind of people who will do what’s right just because its right…..and maybe

not design a parking deck that scrapes cars to save a buck or two while they’re at

it….

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way