Not Your Traditional Thanksgiving Message

Yes I am thankful today. Family and friends and cats, of course. But in the larger world, I'm thankful for examples of good judgment and plain old common sense overruling personal myopia and corporate greed.

I'm speaking, of course, about the OJ book fiasco. If ever you need a case history in how groupthink can go horribly astray, there it is. That book never got to publication without a lot of people convincing themselves and each other it was a good idea, or at least a moneymaking idea. Somehow they all managed to hold their noses and sign on to the concept that the American public can't get enough of that sick story.

They were spectacularly wrong. To all those independent booksellers who refused to order the book, and to the sponsors who would not be part of the TV circus, and to the bloggers and columnists and publishing professionals who raised such a ruckus...Thank you! In a matter of days you trumped Rupert Murodoch, one of the richest men in the world, and forced him to cancel plans that common sense should have told him were just plain stupid from the beginning.

I love the power of people to say "No!" and make it heard in the most cloistered executive suites. We should remember and use it more often.

(Murdoch photo courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch)