He began our telephone conversation with, “Irregardless of what you have heard….”  I cringed.  He is an executive vice president of a large organization.
          She wrote me a business letter that stated, “Just between you and I….”  I flinched.  This woman is the president of her own company.
          He sent out an e-mail to the entire 1,000 employee company beginning with “We will insure that you will have a job in the future.”  I was startled.  This man was the plant manager.
          If you are wondering what this column is about, please take note.  There is no such word as “irregardless.” The correct pronoun is “me” because it is the object of the preposition “between.” And, the word is “ensure” when you want to guarantee or offer confirmation, not “insure” which suggests insurance or some financial transaction.
          Are your coworkers emasculating the English language, having trouble adding up numbers (when without a PDA or computer) or finding it difficult to express themselves in a meeting?
          Have you asked yourself, “How did these people graduate from college/high school?”  Or, how about this question, “Did anyone bring his/her brain to work today?”
          Sitting around tsk-tsking the educationally-deficient among us is a royal waste of our time.  That practice is an elitist response of an effete (yea, look it up) snob. 
          No, the harder task is to stop rewarding this trend.  That’s right, “rewarding.”
          It is my opinion that we are cutting off our brains to spite our budgets.
          When the state coffers start resounding with emptiness, the first place government looks for cuts is “education.”
          When a company needs to get its fiscal house in order, they normally darken the training rooms.
          And, when this nation wants to find someplace to beat the drums over our moral malaise, we normally pull up to the steps of some university or college.
          We, as a culture, are caught in a conundrum.  We know, in our heart of hearts, we need smart people to craft our future.  At the same time, smart people are dangerous; you never know when their thinking will challenge us to change.

          Our society must declare that our greatness is between our ears. 
We have an enviable track record for thinking up new things.  Playing golf on the moon, Saran Wrap, Microsoft, Rubik’s Cube, Mood Rings, Lava Lamps, Cabbage Patch Dolls, “wardrobe malfunctions” etc.
But our greatest challenge is putting our brains to work in order to decide how we will live.  You know, questions like these.
How can we do more with less in our workplaces…and remain sane?
How can we grow communities without also growing neon-blighted, drug-saturated, strip-mall craziness that motivates us to endlessly scurry from one drive-thru to the next?
How can we talk to each other even though we disapprove of each other’s sexual preferences, political persuasions or bumper stickers?
I am convinced education continues to be this nation’s claim to fame.  But if you have not noticed, the United States is losing its educational edge.  Last month, for the first time in history, the U.S. exported fewer dollars of technology than the People’s Republic of China.  And, the high school drop out rate is still at a stubborn 30 percent.
If my assumption is correct then we should be scared spit less about how “disposable” education has become in our society and our businesses.
Our state and local government should not see education dollars as the slush fund for balancing every budget.
Your company cannot afford to acquiesce to organizational knee-jerk thinking that tags training as the first-to-go when downsizing a budget.
How smart is your community and your company?  Smart enough to invest in brains before the bottom line… and intelligent enough to know why.
Hey, just between you and I (good, you caught it…it should be “me”), our best national resource is still between our ears.