Success Starts Here!

This weekend as Americans mark the unofficial start to the summer season, they do so on one of our nation's most hallowed holidays, Memorial Day. To many millions of Americans, this weekend is a great time to bring the old barbecue out of winter hibernation and flip a few steaks, have a couple of cold brewskis, fill up the Walmart special kiddie pool, and let the kids slosh around all day. To a few million Americans, this most revered holiday is about a lot more. Let's be straight, Memorial Day is not about thanking Veterans or Service-members for their service. This is not their day. Memorial Day is about recognizing and appreciating those Americans who gave their last breath for our country, usually in a land far away. It is solely dedicated to remembering those we've lost. For many of us who have served these most recent conflicts as with war veterans of previous eras, this holiday has a face or two or ten. It is personal to us. So we figure it is personal to everyone

On this day of all holidays, everyone's got a story. We all have memories of days gone by with mom. That is what makes this holiday so universal. It appeals to all of us and pulls at our collective heartstrings. As a young boy growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, my mom was a single mother surrounded mostly married parents. She worked her tail off at dead-end factories and in-between found time to be my mother and father as best as she could. With no father figure in the home, I did what many boys do; I looked outward for those role models. They came in the form of gang members and drug dealers. They were the only seemingly "strong" and powerful men in my neighborhood. To a young boy with no other frame of reference, they were the entrepreneurs, the smart guys in my very limited world view. At times, in an effort to be closer to these men, I found myself happily and willingly in the midst of trouble. Similar to the now infamous/famous "Baltimore mom" there were