Signs of the Times - September 2016 - 14

Te c h no lo gy U p date By Darek Johnson Darek Johnson is ST's Senior Technology Editor/ Analyst. Email him at darek.johnson@ stmediagroup.com The Camry Kid The good, the bad and the ugly. The other night at, oh, 9 p.m. or so, I drove into a neighborhood convenience store to fill up the tank. The brightly lit store was crowded with suburbanites, all enjoying the summertime evening. From my view - I had parked at an outer pump - this urban center looked as if it had sponsored a street event, with everyone enthusiastically enjoying the time and place. Nearby, for example, three preteen girls, Pepsi cups in hand, energetically chatted with their indulging dad; near the entryway, four teen girls in jean shorts laughed and entertainingly pantomimed a personal incident; near them, several suburban boys lounged against a primer-painted Honda Civic coupe. Meanwhile, fuel or Slurpee purchasers of all ages passed back and forth, most wearing shorts and T-shirts. Certainly, I thought, this scene displays how Americans enjoy their lives, their communities and their cars. A moment later, an unobtrusive but darkly bearded young man Billy the Kid - was he misunderstood? 14 SIGNS OF THE TIMES September 2016 stepped out of the convenience store and walked across the concrete apron, past the laughing girls, the chattering preteens and the cool guys with the non-glare Honda. He strode directly to a silver Toyota Camry, got in, started it and, suddenly, a deafening outburst of XXX-rated lyrics blared across the complex. Then, the bearded halfwit - with the triple-X rant screeching - punched the Camry accelerator and rocketed through the fuel stalls and out and down the road. I watched his red taillights recede into the distance and then expectantly turned back to the crowd. Everyone was unmoved - they were still jabbering on. I n his 2002 book "Firehouse," Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam describes the social system of Manhattan's Engine 40 Ladder 35 that existed before, during and after Sept. 11, 2001, the day that 12 of the 13 of the station's firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center crisis died. Halberstam's book describes the firefighters, their families and the norms that caused them to regularly enter dangerous situations and risk their lives. Halberstam wrote, "In the firehouse the men not only live and eat with each other, they play sports together, go off to drink together, help repair one another's houses and, most importantly, share terrifying risks; their loyalties to each other must, by the demands of the dangers they face, be instinctive and absolute." Reviewer Brad Hooper described the book as a "directly told, heartstoppingly effective story of great personal sacrifice - not only the sacrifice of the men who never returned to the fire station from lower Manhattan that day but also the horrible rent torn in the lives of their families." Angry young lions It's easy to contrast such emergency workers against the Camry Kid, but before you form an opinion, recognize that your view depends on how you see the world, i.e., your personal frame of reference. I saw the Camry driver as a punk who should be disciplined for exposing young children to such lyrics as well as fined for his outrageous driving behavior. Suburban parents with such angry young lions as children, as well as the brothers and sisters of such fuming adolescents, might ignore the incident, believing the kid was "in a phase" and would eventually grow up, go to college and get a job, maybe as a firefighter or chief accountant. He - the Camry Kid - was just expressing himself, they might say. You don't have to agree. Curious, I briefly traced the upbringings of recent villains to see if youthful misbehavior had led to their deceitful lives. I pulled my copy of "Meeting the Ethical Challenge of Leadership," in which professor and author Craig E. Johnson lists 12 unscrupulous leadership situations that, he said, led to criminal charges, civil lawsuits, fines, and jail in some cases. The 2008 financial crisis tops his list, followed by Lance Armstrong's blood-doping scandal and, of course, BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill. One could also include the VW diesel scam, the FIFA officials' racketeering, and the well-known charges against Enron, Lehman Brothers and Bernie Madoff.

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