FRIDAY SNAPS

Opener

President Chuck Kimbrough opened the meeting at 7:25AM with his usual cheerful greeting: "Good morning, Bellevue Breakfast Rotarians." Steve Lingenbrink followed with the Invocation and Pledge; and Jim Zidar introduced visiting Rotarians Bill Prater from Seattle 4, Frank Young from Bellevue Noon, and Stefan Kaminski from Germany. Jim also introduced guests.

First Move on Today Show

Steve Lingenbrink congratulated Wendi Fischer for the feature of First Move on the Today Show on October 20. First Move promotes critical thinking and social skills, and helps improve overall academic performance of young children by introducing them to the game of chess. In the event you missed it, click here.

Steve also mentioned that Wendi will be going to Antigua to meet with the Minister of Education to discuss a First Move pilot program for 24 classrooms there.

Silent Auction

Paul Chapman, with the help of his friend, Cletus, ran a silent auction for two tickets to the Washington–Stanford game on October 30 to benefit Rotary First Harvest. Howard Johnson donated the two tickets, which are located undercover between the 10th and 15th yard line. They were sold for $80. The next Rotary work party will be held on Saturday, November 13!

Student of the Month: Mackenzie Finlay

Larry May introduced the student of the month, Mackenzie Finlay, a senior at Bellevue Christian with a 4.0 GPA. Mackenzie is also captain of the golf team, and she has participated in mission trips to Costa Rica and New Orleans.

Mackenzie wants to attend Wheaton College in Illinois, and after college, her goal is to work overseas as a social worker to combat human trafficking and the sex trade. She mentioned that every day, 1.2 million girls throughout the world are subjected to human trafficking.

Attending the meeting with Mackenzie were her mother, Sara Findlay; brother, Spencer Findlay; counselor, Danielle Lopez; and Bellevue Christian's principal, Sue Tamaling.

Rotary International Foundation

Jeff Cashman launched the Rotary International Foundation fundraising campaign. Jeff believes that the Rotary International Foundation is the heart and soul of Rotary, and he introduced Ted Ederer, who poignantly related to us his personal experience with polio.

Ted was afflicted with polio in 1953 when he was 12 years old. Although he was quarantined, underwent years of physical therapy, and walked with braces and crutches while attending school, Ted never dwelled on his disability. He mentioned how much he appreciated his parents, who were very supportive of him.

Ted then went on to tell us about polio and the progress that has been made to eradicate the disease, as a result of PolioPlus. In 1952 there were 58,000 cases of polio in the U.S. Although routine immunization wiped out polio in the United States, there were still 325,000 polio cases in 125 countries when the PolioPlus program was launched in 1985.

In 1988, Rotary International, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF established a global partnership to eradicate polio. Since 1988, polio has declined by 99.9%; in 2010, 710 cases of polio have been reported. Today, there are only four endemic countries: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Polio will be the second disease to be eradicated by mankind; smallpox was the first.

Last Minute Announcements

Sign up for BBRC's 25th Anniversary Party to be held at the Trilogy at Redmond Ridge on November 12.

The next Newcomers' Committee meeting will be held at Jitters, Overlake, on Wednesday, November 3, at 7:00AM.

BBRC Bulletin Board

Remember to check the BBRC Bulletin Board every now and then to see what has been posted. You don't want to miss out on anything! You can be notified every time an item has been added by clicking the "Subscribe by email" link.

The latest post is from three days ago. Jeanne Thorsen's post entitled "Vote for KCLS Foundation & Earn Technology Funding for Libraries" is about Microsoft donating up to $500,000 in a software grant donation to the King County Library System Foundation. Each vote is worth $20, and if you Share comments on your Facebook page, it is worth another $20, for a total of $40.

Friday's Program

"Election 2010," Kirby Wilbur, a former morning talk show host with KVI Radio, 570 AM

Kirby Wilbur

Bill Brooks introduced our speaker, Kirby Wilbur, a former morning talk show host with KVI Radio, 570AM, for 16 years. Kirby was named several times in his career as one of the Top 100 Talk Show hosts in America by Talker's Magazine, the leading talk show radio trade journal. Before becoming a talk show host, Kirby was a real estate appraiser and owned his own firm, Liberty Consultants. Kirby is a graduate of the University of Washington, with a BA in History. He considers himself an amateur historian with a particular interest in the American War for Independence and the Civil War.

Kirby gave us his insights on the upcoming election. As far as he is concerned, Tuesday is Judgment Day. He believes that 55% of the American population will vote Republican; independents are currently leaning Republican, along with people who earn under $50,000 per year.

A couple of years ago, Barack Obama won the presidency with 53% of the vote. Considering how unpopular George Bush and the war in Iraq were, Kirby was surprised that Obama didn't win by a larger margin. When Barack Obama was running for president, he stood for change — and Americans wanted change. As Kirby put it, Obama was brilliant because he "could be anybody you wanted." He was a great orator and said things that made people with differing political philosophies feel good.

However, it is clear now that Americans don't want the type of change that President Obama is implementing: more government, more debt, more taxes and more spending. Obama's deficits are three times larger than George Bush's deficits. Kirby believes that you can't tax, spend, and regulate your way to prosperity.

Kirby thinks Republicans will win big in this election – more than 60 seats. Unlike President Clinton, who turned towards the center in 1994 after Republicans took control of Congress, Kirby thinks President Obama will stand his ground because he is more of an ideologue.

After the Republicans win, they need to repeal Obamacare and resurrect the job creation machine of free enterprise. Businesses aren't going to hire until there is more predictability surrounding the country's economic policies and more confidence in the future. As Kirby succinctly put it, "We need to find core values again in America." However, he warned that Republicans shouldn't be deceived into thinking that they will have a mandate from the American people because they won't. Americans won't be embracing Republicans during this election but rejecting the Democratic party of President Obama.

Regarding the political situation in the state of Washington, Kirby believes the state legislature will remain democratic and the income tax initiative will fail. The state of Washington has an incredible entitlement problem: on a per capita basis, the pension liabilities of Washington are higher than they are in California. Kirby feels that Washington has much to learn from the state of Texas: half of the private sector jobs created in the last two years were in Texas.

When asked to judge how ugly today's elections are compared with elections of the past, Kirby said there was no comparison. During the 1800s, there was so much mudslinging during elections that Kirby wonders how we ever survived as a country.

When questioned about whether there was too much money spent on political advertising, Kirby said no. While $4 billion is spent on political advertising, $7 billion is spent on advertising potato chips.

Web Fun

Let me get this straight:

We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any "benefits" take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.

What could possibly go wrong?