I am on the warpath again to stamp out the latest annoying clichés and phrases that have worn out their welcome. It’s not as if there is no Howard Snyder Cliché Festival. Actually, when you are out in public and speak in public as much as I do, clichés just roll off of your tongue. If you don’t practice before a speech or talk, it’s even worse.

My latest peeve is “it’s unacceptable”, as in the employment rate among inner city adults in Milwaukee is unacceptable. Or, the inability of Milwaukee Public Schools to raise test scores among poor students. It’s also unacceptable.

This seems to be the latest catch-phrase that signifies outrage over some human condition. I would prefer “I can’t accept this or that”. It shows some personal responsibility for one’s outrage. But” it’s unacceptable” makes the unacceptability more my problem and not the speaker’s.

If you are the President of the United States, or Governor, or some Grand Poobah and you believe that something is unacceptable, well then why don’t you do something about it?

The harsh reality is that since the situations in question rarely improve, then I guess it must be acceptable after all, since no one puts an end to the problem. At least say, there’s nothing we can do about it. Like poverty. That’s an honest response to a problem.

I heard a Wisconsin cabinet secretary say recently in a speech “We’ve come a long way, but there is more work to be done. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work”. My response is, what the hell do you think I’ve been doing? I work in an air conditioned office and rarely, if ever, roll up my sleeves, and all I do is work.

My favorite sentence of all time was a tax credit guy I know in a meeting once said, famously, “At the end of the day, it is what it is. That said…….”. Jeepers! That’s deep.

One of my friends was in town last week. The expression he says he never use is “silos”. I don’t know much about silos. I live in the city. His partner grew up on a pig farm in Illinois. They know silos!

Other than this mid-summer rant, I don’t have much to say. I was in Savannah in June (giving a speech of social enterprise) and I found out by watching the Travel Channel that the bar I drank in one night was haunted. That may explain the past month. The last thirty days has been a nightmare. But at the end of the day, it is what is. So there!

Howard Snyder 

A couple of weeks back, I went to a Renewable Energy Tax Credit conference in San Francisco. One could argue, I suppose, that since I don’t know much about renewable energy or their tax credits, this might be, well, a bit junkety.

It usually takes time for stuff to sink in with me, so the jury’s still out on whether this was a waste of money or the next big thing here on the North Side. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, some things were pretty obvious. Wisconsin is probably a decade behind in building a green economy. I said once, you’ll know we have gone around the corner when we stop calling the green economy green, and just call it the plain economy.