Volume 3 - First Communion, Secure The Borders & International Transportation

The thunder roared, the lightening cracked, the wind howled and the earth moved as I walked under the porticos and into the side entrance of St. Patrick’s Church for my granddaughter’s first communion.

Well, ok, the cement didn’t crack, the beams didn’t break, the sky didn’t part (although my golfing buddies tell me that on the golf course at precisely 1:30 p.m. the temperature dropped, the wind blew and sleet appeared), but what can one expect when out of the many hundreds of people, the pastor, and presiding priest of this ceremony, singles you out and carries on a conversation before he starts the procession from the rear of the church, one does get a few raised eyes. Of course, I was sitting in almost the last row, which added in this identification process, some reminder of old school habits.

In any case, my granddaughter is the most beautiful angel on the face of the earth. My wish for her is that she understands the world as it is, and grows with wisdom beyond her years. May she understand and grasp the knowledge that there are good people and there are bad people and people with wrong intentions and that some of these people have titles, have actually participated in written laws of all sorts, some good and some bad, but all will effect her in some way. May she acquire through life experiences and an educational process the ability to stand up for what she believes. May she acquire an independence that will allow free thought without the bindings of some man-made law that defies substance.

Now back to the creation of our new company, Independence2, LLC. I have to admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve been so relaxed and happy with a project. It’s just a pleasure to work with people who have enthusiasm for a goal and dedication to bring perfection to a business plan. It is also very complimentary that former well-respected individuals within the Door and Hardware Industry call to see how they could help and possibly even join this team. Since our web-site is still under development and construction, we have sent out what could be described as an informational letter, volume I, to our customer base in early March and now are about to send, via e-mail and hard-copy, volume II.

Within that volume, I talk about our importation and transportation department and the work that it takes to be thoroughly knowledgeable with the international world of transportation. On that note of international business, which I will return to after this ‘plug’, which I deem to be extremely important; and that is an endorsement for everyone to go to http://www.reformus.org/ and sign the petition to ask President Bush to secure the borders immediately from illegal immigration. And before, some of you 'go nuts' about that endorsement, lets be clear that we aren’t talking about the global economy, which people still actually debate as if we are going to build walls around this country and not participate with the rest of the world, nor are we against legal immigration. This is to solely stop illegal immigration and give the necessary support to a branch of the government to halt such activity.

Back to the subject at hand, International transportation and our diligent time spent with numerous conferences, both in-person and electronic, energetically creating the structure involved for clarification of export formalities. These subjects range in scope from insurance, custom clearance, compliance rules, points of origin, consolidators, freight forwarders, brokers, carriers (LTL, LTC, containers, ground and air) inline with our goal of assuring ‘door to door’ delivery without interference of ‘stock outs’ as might exist with other suppliers. At the same time, where others deal with these consolidators, brokers, multi-governmental agencies, customs, carriers, middle men and a variety of other untraceable nuisances of an international organization, as separate entities, we are developing a technologically structured system that will provide the real-time tracking and door to door service as yet non-existent within our industry. The specifics of which will become very apparent as we unveil more of this company and our main focus. More to come, have a great week, and be sure to give your friends a hug; they’re more important than you know. I just lost another one, and I miss him.