email from Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz (Serious guy!)

Email | 09/02/2011 | Howard Shultz

[Glenn]

September 2011

Dear Starbucks Friend and Fellow Citizen:

I love our country. And I am a beneficiary of the promise of America. But today, I am very concerned that at times I do not recognize the America that I love.

Like so many of you, I am deeply disappointed by the pervasive failure of leadership in Washington. And also like you, I am frustrated by our political leaders' steadfast refusal to recognize that, for every day they perpetuate partisan conflict and put ideology over country, America and Americans suffer from the combined effects of paralysis and uncertainty. Americans can't find jobs. Small businesses can't get credit. And the fracturing of consumer confidence continues.

We are better than this.

Three weeks ago, I asked fellow business leaders to join me in urging the President and the Congress to put an end to partisan gridlock and, in its place, to set in motion an upward spiral of confidence. More than 100 business leaders representing American companies - large and small - joined me in signing a two-part pledge:

First, to withhold political campaign contributions until a transparent, comprehensive, bipartisan debt-and-deficit package is reached that honestly, and fairly, sets America on a path to long-term financial health and security. Second, to do all we can to break the cycle of economic uncertainty that grips our country by committing to accelerate investment in jobs and hiring.

In the weeks since then, I have been overwhelmed by the heartfelt stories of Americans from across the country, sharing their anguish over losing hope in the strongest and most galvanizing force of all - the American Dream. Some feel they have no voice. Others feel they no longer matter. And many feel they have been left behind.

We cannot let this stand.

Please join other concerned Americans and me on a national call-in conversation on Tuesday September 6th hosted by "No Labels," a nonpartisan organization dedicated to fostering cooperative and more effective government. To learn more about the forum and the pledges, visit www.upwardspiral2011.org

America is at a fragile and critical moment in its history. We must restore hope in the American Dream. We must celebrate all that America stands for around the world. And while our Founding Fathers recognized the constructive value of political debate, we must send the message to today's elected officials in a civil, respectful voice they hear and understand, that the time to put citizenship ahead of partisanship is now.

Yours is the voice that can help ignite the contagious upward spiral of confidence that our country desperately needs.

With great respect,

[Glenn]

I know -- Starbucks.

But this guy seems serious. Nothing speaks to politicians like campaign contributions.

I hope this will move congress to get just as serious. It's the grown up thing to do.

[lormand]

I don't think he quite gets it. We have two parties for a reason. Gridlock and partisanship is what seperates us from a dictatorship, and in most cases, one side is right, and the other wrong. Why compromise with wrong?

[vanilla swirl]

“No labels” = there is no right and wrong

[LZ_Bayonet]

"And also like you, I am frustrated by our political leaders' steadfast refusal to recognize that, for every day they perpetuate partisan conflict and put ideology over country,"-----"put an end to partisan gridlock"

Not me buddy, I want the conflict and I want my ideology to prevail in 2012. I want the result of this conflict to be a declaration of failure of the Progressive political activity of the last 80 years. Obama's coming speech will put the Progressive economic ideology in a coffin...the 2012 election will nail that coffin shut.

[Celerity]

Thank you for this post. More people need to be reminded of the significance of a Two party system. Not one, not Three, but two.

We can’t cross the aisle on issues. It’s like two people boarding a plane, one wants to go to Alaska, the other wants to go to Hawaii. Compromise puts them in the middle of Missouri, where neither wanted to be.

[bvw]

Unfortunately “No Labels” is a partisan anti-tea party organization, more likely to promote the continuance of the mega-Federal government and Democratic Party affinity.

[Glenn]

I posted this twice. Can you trash this one?

[C. Edmund Wright]

Let’s see, where can we go to never find grilock? Oh yeah, the Politburo! How did that work out?

[cuban leaf]

Isn’t Starbucks headquarters in Seattle?

I think this guy doesn’t mean the same thing that we do when he says “bipartisanship”.