A Time for Change

KSBW reports that a Monterey, California business man has decided to take on the recession by taking back his art supply and framing stores and saving 17 jobs.  John Wiseman of Searle Framing said that allthough the government says the country is in a recession, he refuses to participate.  

He sold the stores to an investor 14 months ago so that he could work on his golf game full time. But Wiseman received word last weekend that the art supply and framing stores would be closing and thereby leaving long-term employees without jobs. Wiseman, who did two tours in Vietnam, decided to take the recession on himself.

“You don’t make me cry very easy, but when 17 employees are unemployed — people that have been in my family for 17 years — I get real damn emotional about it,” Wiseman said.

One of the employees who had been laid off after 8 years of working there, Catherine Armstrong, has her job back and believes that business will return now that Wiseman is back in charge.

“We could’ve retired and gone back to Texas, but frankly, this presents a much bigger challenge,” he said. “I may be older than I was a few years ago, but I’m still young enough to revive it.”

I have to applaud this man.  He has done a rare thing in this world by putting other people above his own needs and desires.   He reached out to others in distress and made things right, which is important throughout the year, but is particularly meaningful before Christmas. If all business owners took such steps in this country, well, we probably wouldn’t have CEOs quibbling over $4 – $10 million dollar bonuses for failed companies that had to be bailed out by taxpayers while clerks and assistants have to go home with a pink slip and wonder how to pay their mortgage and feed their kids.

So bravo Mr. Wiseman. I hope that many people in the Monterrey area decide to frame pictures and buy art supplies for Christmas and every day thereafter.  Merry Christmas indeed!