Frank Fini - More than a Vision: A Plan for Americas Future

F or me, it all started in the early to mid-nineties when mergers were becoming more and more popular, bigger and bigger companies merging, the computer age exploding, the words like information highway, global economy, downsizing, restructuring stock market booming, CEO salaries, stock options, bonuses going through the roof. Meanwhile, executives, bosses, management were becoming unemployed or accepting much lower paying jobs.

Investing in the stock market became the thing to do. The average client, who was happy with CDs or money market accounts, were now talking stocks, mutual funds, global funds, etc.

Id like to say, at this time, I own and operate a hair replacement center (barbershop for short), so there is never a shortage of conversations, discussions, or opinions. While all of this is happening, politics is going through some of the worst times with all sorts of accusations, revelations, and investigations. This was and still is true of local, state, and federal governments.

Watch some of the programs like the Fleecing of America , C-SPAN, the news, and most of the talk shows or senate hearings. It seemed like somebody had lifted the lid off a garbage can, and we (the whole world) had a chance to look in.

In a very short time, politics, special interest groups, and big business had managed to remove all doubts what big business and politics are all about. While all of this is going on crime is going rampant. I dont mean little crimes, I am talking killings, rape, child molesting, drugs, parents killing children, children killing parents, gangs, young children having babies, welfare, racial and ethnic problems, the AIDS epidemic, etc. More and more states are making laws and curfews for young people. Crime in schools is out of control.

Social security? Medical care? Road rage? Disasters of immense proportions, hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakeswatching the evening news it reminded me of the Vietnam War years. With all of this going on the market and the economy kept on improving so much so that the Congress and Senate wanted to invest part of the Social Security money to improve the chances that the money would be there when the rest of us retired but, of course, was voted down.

Meanwhile, jails overcrowding, early release programs, televised trials making a mockery of law, and order and justice leaving the feeling that the criminals have more rights than the victims.

America is becoming more and more divided. Every different group of people wants political recognition and representation. In spite of all this, the economy and stocks kept soaring, and more and more people who were investing became millionaires overnight.

Reading the business section of the newspaper is like being on a different planet. I kept asking myself how can a country that has such possibilities for the future raise so many young people that throw their lives away on crime, drugs, suicide, disinterested in learning in schools with total disregard for their lives and others?

While all of this is happening, we had our own phenomenon going on here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Mr. Wayne Huizenga came into the picture. First, with his franchises in sports and Blockbuster, Republic industries, AutoNation; and God knows what else.

Every day, seven days a week, Huizenga and his group are buying, selling, building, negotiating bigger and bigger deals. I kept saying to myself what a feeling it must be to have such dreams, such ambition, and such plans and have the ability to put these plans into action.

I kept thinking how we could put some of this enthusiasm into the hearts and minds of future generations and make them stockholders of America.

The Social Security thing was in full debate, and something clicked in my head. This is a good idea; it is just being applied at the wrong end of life.

What if I started discussing my ideas with some of my clients, and to my astonishment, every day every week, every client said, Frank, you have good ideas. Why dont you put them down on paper?

One day, I am doing the hair of a very successful business man, whose opinion I value, when he said,

Frank, you have very good ideas for America. Write them down just the way you see them. Being that, you are an immigrant, and you came here as a young man. You look at things with different eyes and have seen the changes in the American young and families and all the other things you are looking to change. Because if an American-born writes all of this with all of the opportunities he or she has had, it will sound more like a disgruntled employee.

Weeks went by, more and more ideas everything was falling into place in my head; people encouraging me to put these ideas on paper. My standard response was I could write a book. How can I put all of this in a plan of two, three, four, or five pages?

One evening, in the summer of 1996, I was watching the Five OClock News on the TV we had in the waiting room. My coworkers had gone for the day. A story came on about an infant of two or three years who had fallen in the cage of a gorilla in one of the states. The baby looked very hurt and very limp. The gorilla picked up the baby with her long and huge arms and brought the baby to the gatekeeper. That very instant I saw that gorilla with the baby across her arms, it looked to me like Michelangelos statue The Piet out loud. I said, Look at this. It takes a gorilla to show us how to be human.

That very night, I started to write the plan for America. Many things had happened since many letters had been sent out with the plan to the people that I felt could help politicians, foundations, and prominent people which you will be able to read in their entirety toward the end of the book.

If America was a large corporation and I was the CEO, this is what I would do to restore our dignity, home, and abroad and resuscitate the American dream for all Americans through common sense and decency and restore public confidence in our political system, judicial system, and our educational system.

I want to make every American-born babyblack, white, yellow, rich, or poorstockholders of America. All I want back is decent behavior. I feel in my heart that if we can keep the next generations focused on making plans for the future from the early years, who knows what heights America can reach?

We all complain about parents, schools, teachers, cops, and society in general; but all we would have to say is Be good, and someday you can be somebody. Let the hope, dream, anticipation of life do the rest.

I often wonder about people in high places and positions where they can make things happen by picking up a telephone or having a press conference or merely expressing a thought or an idea; the whole world listens.

How aware are they about whats going on the streets, homes, and schools of America? If we dont do something drastic, soon to curb the crimes, drugs, the racial and ethnic moral, family values, and the total disregard for human life; the next generation of Americans will be building skyscrapers in quicksand.

Please read my plan carefully and see if you agree with all the people and some financial wizards that I discuss through my work when they say I may have found a very simple solution to a very complex problem.

God knows that the youth of America are looking for guidance and boundaries. Lets make life like a golf game. If you stay in bounds, you have a chance at the green; if you go out of bounds, you get penalized.

February 3, 1997

Frank Fini

5100 West Commercial Boulevard

Tamarac, FL 33319

(954) 485-7660

My name is Frank Fini. I am 57 years old. I am a Barber Stylist specializing in Hair Replacements. I was born in Italy and came to the United States on November 6, 1954. I have been an American citizen for over 40 years. I love the USA. I am the father of four children: the oldest 34 and the youngest 23. For the last two years, I have had this idea burning in my heart How to Fix America.