The world of technology development is constantly changing, and the smart technologists and smart companies are changing with it.  It’s just the way it is.  The need to constantly learn new stuff is baked into the process.  Do it or fail.

Early on, I was a Microsoft ASP / VB6 developer.  Then I went object-oriented, and evolved into an Enterprise Java developer / architect.  It was obviously the way of the future.  So I jumped, and never looked back.

Then Microsoft fought back with C# and .NET, which was just a copy of Enterprise Java.  Picked that up too, though it was more of a lateral move than a progression.

Then Flash & Flex via ActionScript 3, though I didn’t go as deep into that as Java and C#.

Now they’re (mostly) all dead.

Future Microsoft products will not be based on .NET and C#.  Windows 8 apps will be based on HTML5 and JavaScript.

Adobe is abandoning Flash & Flex, recognizing that HTML5 and JavaScript will dominate mobile browsers in the same way Flash dominated desktop browsers.

Java is the exception for several reasons, but it’s market position is evolving too.  It’s the language of the mobile Android platform – the mostly widely distributed smartphone and tablet operating system in the world.  It also remains one of the preferred languages for extremely high-performance server requirements, which makes up for some of its shortcomings against more modern dynamic languages like Ruby and Python.

Finally, the archaic Objective C language remains healthy because it’s the language of Apple’s iOS – the operating system of the iPhone & iPad.  I am hoping that MacRuby will soon offer a viable alternative though, since Apple already includes it natively in iOS (though it’s not accessible yet to developers).

So what’s the point I’m making?  Well, it’s this…

If you’re still developing in Adobe Flash & Flex, Microsoft .NET, or Enterprise Java, then you’re working on legacy platforms which are dying.  Time to change things up.

Java developers need to focus on Android.  That’s an easy switch-over.  Alternatively, go to Ruby – which is a beautiful and highly-productive dynamic language which is becoming very popular.  Or Scala.  Or Python.

Adobe Flash & Flex developers AND Microsoft .NET developers need to switch to HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript / JQuery.

No, let me rephrase that… EVERYBODY who is going to develop a front-end that isn’t a native mobile app needs to switch to HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript / JQuery.

Finally there’s ugly Objective C for iOS (iPhone & iPad).  I use it.  I hate it.  But it’s the mighty leader in mobile app development, so I’ll just have to deal with it.  If you want to do iPhone & iPad, do it.  (At least until MacRuby becomes viable on iOS.)

In fairness, I’ll note that JavaScript is also an ugly language, though an extremely capable one.  It is the assembly language of the Internet though, so once again all developers should know it, whether they’re front-end or server-side developers (Node.js).  Many advanced JavaScripters are migrating to CoffeeScript, which is based on Ruby and Python, and which compiles into JavaScript for execution.

In summary, going forward…

GOOD: Ruby / Rails, HTML5, JQuery, CoffeeScript, SASS

NOT GOOD, BUT NECESSARY: JavaScript, CSS3, Objective C, Java (for Android)

BAD: C# / Microsoft .NET, Adobe Flash & Flex / ActionScript 3, Enterprise Java

Enjoy!!!

This is Baby Benson. Jo and I learned she was pregnant on the evening of Thursday, October 6, 2011. She is 13 weeks into the pregnancy, and is completing the 1st trimester.

We learned of Jo’s pregnancy the very evening her father Terry flew in from England to visit. I had never met him before, and was able to greet my new father-in-law with news that he would soon be a grandfather for the first time. He was a happy man. I think he likes me.

My own father Whit would pass away a mere 33½ hours after finding out that he would soon have another grandchild. It was his last ‘moment of significance’ before he died, and he expressed his profound happiness during those very special final hours. Though it’s an irrational belief, in my mind and heart there is a profound link between our unborn baby and my departed father, whom I loved dearly and miss terribly. I am so happy that he knew about our baby before he passed away.

The grandmothers are thrilled – my mother Gale (Grandmama), Jo’s mother Andrea (Nanny Bullen), and Jo’s step-mother Barbara (Nanny Hiley). We’ve got baby-sitters on both sides of The Pond.

I have a beautiful brilliant wife, and a wonderful life. And now we have our baby. Happiness.

I’ve been a member of LivingSocial for over a year, and have purchased 5 deals from them during that time.

I particularly liked them because they built their business on my preferred development platform – Ruby on Rails – just like innovators Twitter and Groupon.  I’m a Ruby on Rails developer, so I had classified LivingSocial in the cool kids category.

Earlier this year, I listened to National Public Radio (NPR) with rapt attention as LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy told NPR’s Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep that now, the challenge is to manage LivingSocial’s growth without losing its focus.

No more.  I’m ditching LivingSocial and sticking with Groupon. Why, you ask???

Losing focus is the least of LivingSocial‘s worries.  They’ve lost their corporate conscience.

On Thursday, October 27, 2011, I was stunned to open my email and discover LivingSocial’s daily deal:

Full-Day Deer-Hunting Expedition with Guide, Lunch, and Transportation

“Of all of man’s vices, none is more relaxing then grabbing a gun, going out with an old friend, and firing off a few rounds. Get ready to lock and load with today’s deal from <redacted>. Shell out $359 to be the second in command as a guide leads you on a full-day deer-hunting expedition with gun rental and ammunition included (a $849 value). Situated on 4,500 rolling acres just an hour outside Atlanta in <redacted> will set sportsmen up with field transportation, lunch, and the chance to take down an eight-point buck. Steady your aim and pull the trigger on these 58%-off savings to spend a day at one of Georgia’s finest hunting outfitters.”

The principle of corporate social responsibility is important to me.  I will not be a customer of – or do business with – a company that has no corporate conscience.  LivingSocial promoting the slaughter of innocent animals is a bad thing.

32 people purchased that deal to kill deer – offered and promoted by LivingSocial.  That’s 32 heartless assholes who were sufficiently turned on by LivingSocial‘s macho bullshit ad to “lock and load” and “steady your aim and pull the trigger” to purchase the deal.  That’s 32 chances to slaughter a scared wild animal that just wants to be left alone to live its life.  That’s 32 times that a poor deer will likely experience terror, excruciating pain and death.

LivingSocial, don’t tell me you didn’t write the ad. I don’t care.  And don’t tell me that you don’t discriminate between types of deals.  Just because deer-hunting is legal, doesn’t mean it’s acceptable – or is a practice you should want the LivingSocial brand associated with. You promoted and sold the deal with your brand’s massive reach, so your brand now owns it.

To me, the LivingSocial brand used to represent innovative marketing and cool technology.

Now the LivingSocial brand represents killing innocent animals for fun.

When I think LivingSocial, I associate words like horrible, disgusting, shameful, and cruel.

LivingSocial, you obviously have no corporate conscience, so I won’t be your customer any more.  Cancel my membership, and don’t send me any more deals.

If anyone else out there would like to tell  what they think, here are the email addresses of LivingSocial’s senior management team:

Tim O'Shaughnessy
CEO and Co-Founder
tim@livingsocial.com

Val Aleksenko
CIO and Co-founder
val@livingsocial.com

Aaron Batalion
CTO and Co-Founder
aaron@livingsocial.com

Eddie Frederick
President and Co-Founder
eddie@livingsocial.com

Eric Eichmann
Chief Operating Officer
eric@livingsocial.com

Steve Case
investor (AOL co-founder)
steve.case@revolution.com

Programming is creative expression. It enables you to communicate your ideas to others – giving those ideas life by wrapping them into a digital user experience that can be tried and shared.

Programming endows your creativity with value. An idea by itself is worthless, as any seed-stage venture capitalist will tell you (the people who specialize in investing in ideas). But if you express your idea through a usable app, and you’ve just created something from nothing. That’s value creation – and potentially wealth creation, if enough people agree that it’s useful.

So learning to program doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to be a professional programmer. You may just be trying to express yourself – to share your great ideas with the rest of us. Your day job or school studies may have nothing to do with technology.

Or maybe you want to be an entrepreneur.  Unless your startup idea requires no digital component (very rare these days), you’ll need tech skills – for marketing, for distribution, for services, for something.  The first thing non-technical entrepreneurs often must do these days is to find technical partners that can actually execute that great idea.

And there’s never been a better time to learn how to program.  There are so many resources online to teach yourself with – instructional websites, YouTube videos, ebooks, etc.  Whether it’s iOS 5 (iPhone/iPad), Android, HTML5 & JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python, Java, or C# (and many many more), there are an enormous number of choices available to you at little or no cost.
Recently, I’ve chosen to focus on HTML5/JavaScript, iOS 5 (iPhone/iPad), and Ruby on Rails – but that doesn’t mean there are right for you.  Pick whatever suits you.  If you have no idea where to start, then it’ll be hard to go wrong with HTML5 and JavaScript in the years to come.

I am a recovering Foursquare addict.  For a couple of years, I ”checked in” everywhere I went, attempting to become Mayor of each new location, or defending my own existing Mayorships.  It was a game – much like a video game – but expressed through social networking instead. The recovery process took months, and though it didn’t require 12 steps, it did require three.

First, I had to decide that I wasn’t going to check into EVERY SINGLE LOCATION – only the high value locations.  What’s a high value location?  Locations that are significant (subjective, I know) and desirable (objectively determined by ongoing active competition for the Mayorship).

Second, I decided that I’d only rarely check into new significant locations, and only defend a handful of my existing Mayorships.

Finally, I decided to quit competing for Mayorships altogether.  I just check into significant locations that I’d want to share with my friends on Facebook and Twitter.  I probably only do that about once a week now.

As I venture forth, I no longer feel pressure to whip out my iPhone, and plant my Foursquare flag onto new shores.  I’m the wandering gypsy, rather than the campaigning conqueror.  And I feel much better now.

This is the speech / eulogy I gave one week ago today in honor of my father Whit Benson at his memorial service on Wednesday, October 12, 2011.  He had died a few days earlier on Saturday, October 8, 2011.  Large parts of it are based on the article I had previously written about him for the newsletter of the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club.

My father Julian Whitfield Benson – known to his family and friends as Whit, Dad, or Grandpa – lost his long battle with pulmonary fibrosis early Saturday morning – a few months shy of his 80th birthday. It was a terrible illness that slowly stole the breath from his body, and forced him to endure 7 years of suffering.

And yet even as he journeyed slowly towards his own fate, Whit Benson and those closest to him were graced with a gift that few families are ever privileged with. He knew that he was dying. We knew that he was dying. I had 7 years to get to know my father in a far deeper way than most sons ever know their father. After he was diagnosed, we spent thousands of hours together, and I estimate that we enjoyed well over 500 walks together. We walked until he could no longer walk, and we talked until his very last day on this earth. Dad taught me how to be a man of integrity, and he instilled in me a love for nature so strong that it can never be broken.

It was miraculous that either of us lived to enjoy such a close relationship. We nearly died together in the summer of 1993 when Dad and I went on an overnight backpacking trip to Cumberland Island, the southern-most island off the Georgia coast. After a day of hiking along the beach, we decided to go swimming before turning inland to find a campsite.

Being a very strong and fit triathlete, I didn’t think twice about the strong rip currents, and played joyfully among them as they swept me to and fro near the beach. I was a 22 year old kid who wasn’t thinking about consequences. My father – so strong in many other ways – was not a strong swimmer, and he entered the water unaware of the dangers therein.

Moments later, I looked around and was unable to see my Dad in the deep surf. When I finally spotted him about 50 feet away, he was in the clutches of a rip current that was pulling him out to sea. My father was drowning.

With a burst of speed, I swam to him, and when I reached him, he was terrified and tried to climb on top of my body. As he pushed me under, I grabbed his hips and swiveled his body, coming up behind him with my arm around his neck – holding his head out of the water. I yelled into his ears, “Dad stop! I’ve got you! Stop! I’ve got you!” To my amazement, he stopped fighting and placed his life in my hands. I yelled “Kick! Kick! Kick!”, and still holding him, began side-stroking as hard as I could towards the ever-receding shore. Despite our best efforts, we were being swept out to sea, and I made a conscious decision that even if I could have saved myself, that I was going to stay with my father and that we would die together.

I could not let him die. It would have been a tragic and premature end to a truly remarkable life.

Born in Atlanta on May 1, 1932 during the depression and raised during World War II, my father’s family moved to the mountainous countryside just outside Ashville, North Carolina just after the War. At the age of 13, young Whit fell in love with the outdoors and spent as much time as possible hiking through the backcountry. He lived there for less than a year, but when he left to return to Atlanta, he took with him a newfound passion that would last a lifetime.

He joined the Boy Scouts, taking every opportunity to hike and camp, and eventually earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout. Along the way, he finished high school and began his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. In the Explorer Scouts, he began hiking with his friends Frank Gordon and Norman Batho. The three Explorer Scouts were finishing up an 80-mile hike in September 1949 from Wesser Bald in North Carolina to Tray Gap in Georgia, when they met up with a hiking party from the GATC led by Jim Proctor that was hiking from Dick’s Creek Gap to Tray Gap. The Explorer Scouts were a perfect fit for the GATC, and soon thereafter Jim Proctor asked my father to join the GATC. Young Whit was only 17 years old, but he said that nobody ever asked him his age. He quickly acquired a reputation as a hard-worker and a tough hiker.

1950 started off with a bang as Dad and the others that were known within the Club as “the younger contingent” rebuilt the Tray Mountain shelter over a period of weeks. This was followed in June 1950 by a work trip that lasted nearly a full week. The work party, consisting of Dad Benson, Norman Batho, Jim Proctor, and two guests, left Lake Winfield Scott and hiked up into Slaughter Gap. From there they headed north on the AT doing trail maintenance the entire way. They eventually made it to Addis Gap where they decided that they’d had enough and ceased operations, hiking out to Dick’s Creek Gap.

Larry Freeman had been GATC President from 1947-1948, and was credited with rebuilding the Club after its near-demise during World War II. Today he is best known as the namesake of the Freeman Trail around Blood Mountain, an honor he richly deserved as one of the giants in our Club’s history. In 1951, Larry asked Dad to join him on a hike in the Smokies from Davenport Gap to Newfound Gap. During that excursion, Larry and Dad became the best of friends and remained so for 19 years until Larry’s death in September 1970. In the years since, when asked to recount his experiences with Larry through the 1950s and 1960s, a curious half-smile would come across Dad’s face and he began by noting that, “Larry was a bit eccentric…” He would go on to recall that Larry was an extraordinarily secretive person who never let anyone know where he lived, and was only reachable via a post office box; no telephone number or home address. They would arrange by mail to meet each other at various locations to depart for their excursions. Once complete, Larry would have Dad drive him into Atlanta and drop him off on an apparently random street corner – each time a different place. This was simply the normal modus operandi with Larry.

In 1953, Dad and Larry produced the first GATC yearbook in the basement of my grandmother’s home.

Dad graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and entered the U.S. Navy as an officer in February 1954. In the Navy, he had the opportunity to work with several early computers. These experiences would lead to an entire career working with and programming computers as an engineer.

During his time in the U.S. Navy, he was stationed at various locations outside of Georgia, and was therefore unable to participate in GATC activities. However, he and Larry would arrange excursions to various places while Dad was on leave.

About this time, Dad met Dorothy McCaleb, a mathematician, and they were married in October 1955. A year later, their first daughter Julia was born. After 4 years of service, Dad was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant in June 1957 and moved back to Atlanta. He started a career with Lockheed Georgia Company as an aeronautical engineer that would span over four decades. He programmed computer simulations of real-time flight conditions for the C-5 Galaxy, the C-130 Hercules, and the F-22 Raptor.

At the same time he started his career at Lockheed, he began his graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech in the fall of 1957. He resumed his active participation in GATC activities, and quickly reestablished his credentials as a hard working outdoorsman with good instincts, and a tough hiker who frequently participated in or led backpacking trips and work trips. Over the next five years, he had two more daughters – Kathy and Holley, and earned his M.S. in Electrical Engineering. From 1964-1965 he held his first officer position in the GATC as the Club’s second Trails Supervisor.

The next few years were a roller coaster ride. Lockheed began building the largest airplane in the world – the C-5 Galaxy, and the number of hours required for his job nearly doubled. Then his wife died of a heart attack in January 1967, leaving Dad alone to raise his three young girls. A year later, Dad began dating Gale Whiten, a physicist and engineer at Lockheed, and they married a few months later in April 1968. Gale would quickly become an active member of the GATC, and soon prove herself an excellent outdoors person in her own right. They remained married for the rest of his life, and had two children together – my younger sister Alyssa and me.

After spending a year during 1971-1972 recovering from a major spinal fusion, a new side of Dad Benson began to emerge that would eventually revive his ironman image. He began holding offices on the Board of Directors, and his peers began regarding him as a knowledgeable, yet unassuming leader and an insightful administrator. He was the Membership Director in 1976, Vice President of Activities from 1977-1978, President from 1979-1980, and Trails Supervisor again from 1985-1986. He served for several years as a Director at Large. According to Joe Boyd and Rosalind Van Landingham, his 30 years of experience (by the late 70s) hiking and maintaining the Appalachian Trail in Georgia gave him a grasp of the pertinent issues that was exceptional by any standard. He knew what was on the ground – knew the entire Georgia AT so well that he was able to blend the nuances of policy with the realities of life on the Trail to the betterment of both.

During the mid to late 70s and into the 80s, Dad worked with a talented group of peers in the GATC that the rest of the Benson family thought of as his closest friends. “The Oldtimers” as they came to be called were tight then, and those that survive continue to be so. One friend in particular stood out, at least from the perspective of Dad’s family. That person was Joe Boyd, who passed away a few years ago. Joe & Helen Boyd joined the GATC in July 1975. Dad and Joe became close friends very quickly. Both were engineers at Lockheed, seasoned outdoorsmen, and tough hikers. They seemed to be cut from the same cloth, often seeming to think alike when considering various issues and problems, and Dad seemed to enjoy hiking with Joe in the same way he enjoyed hiking with Larry Freeman.

Dad, Gale, and the other “Oldtimers” have been on too many incredible excursions over the decades to name. As Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, they were literally rappelling for their lives off of the Grand Teton during a terrible lightning storm. In Glacier National Park, their group was caught high on the continental divide in a surprise blizzard. Joe Boyd managed to assist Dad out of a glacial crevasse in the Austrian Alps after Dad broke through the ice. Later in the Cascades, the group actually practiced rappelling into crevasses. There were three trips to the Bridger Wilderness in Wyoming, two trips to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado with their 14K foot peaks, and a trip across the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range that was concluded at the top of Mount Whitney. As I became old enough, I began joining my parents on some of these long backpacking treks, and they were truly magical experiences.

Dad dedicated much of the past 60 years of his life to the GATC and hiking in general. It enabled him to become an outdoorsman with knowledge and an instinct that most of us simply can’t fathom. His efforts on behalf of the Club have left a lasting legacy that will be felt for years to come. My mother and all five of his kids will tell you that it’s not possible to be a Benson without feeling a close association with the GATC. Over the years, at least ten members of the Benson family have participated in Club activities, most as members themselves.

Two examples of Dad’s toughness and perseverance come to mind. Once while he was scouting a trip, he fell in a creek and cut his leg open. He was alone in the mountains, bleeding badly, dizzy, and fainting from shock, but made it the 5 miles to his car. Separately, during the annual marathon hike in 1992, Dad celebrated his 60th birthday by hiking 36 miles along the AT in Georgia, which his family felt was not bad for a senior citizen.

Both Rosalind Van Landingham and Joe Boyd have claimed that Dad had the best knowledge of the mountains of North Georgia and the Smokies of anyone, and that he seemed to “have topo maps in his head”. Joe claimed that he once heard Hillrie Quin comment that Dad was the only person Hillrie knew that “dreams in topo maps”. Rosalind noted that Dad’s hikes were always challenging, interesting, usually unorthodox, and often include lots of cross country. She went on to say that in addition to being an excellent outdoors person in every regard who could hike just about anything, Dad made it possible for others to do things they would never have thought they’d have been able to do. Over the past 35 years, our family has come to regard Rosalind as one of our own.

On one trek through Wyoming’s Bridger Wilderness in August 1983, we were camping high above treeline beside Pyramid Lake when a horrific lightning storm swept down upon us. As we ate dinner, Dad realized what was about to happen and told everyone to get in their tents quickly. “We’ve got 5 minutes”, he said. Moments later, we were huddling atop our inflated Therm-A-Rests to stay insulated from the ground strikes occurring all around our tents. Dad told me not to touch the ground directly because it could kill us. One lightning bolt hit so close that even inside the tent, we were blinded by its brilliance and deafened by its noise. Only inches away from my father, I screamed in terror, but he never heard me from the thunderous roar. Rosalind remembers Dad coming around to each person’s tent immediately after the storm to make sure everyone was alright. It was the worst storm any of us has ever experienced – before or since – and upon returning to civilization, we learned that others less fortunate had not survived it.

I saw that day how well my father handled life and death crisis, and it has served as an example within my own life ever since. And so almost exactly 10 years later, Dad and I once again found ourselves facing death together in the warm waters off Cumberland Island.

Out of options, and facing certain death, my body went into an adrenaline-powered overdrive. I let go of Dad, and pushed straight down to see how deep it was. To my surprise, it was only about 9 feet deep despite being hundreds of feet offshore. I reach above my head, grabbed Dad’s waist and launched him straight up and forward, then I took a step under water and launched him again, and again. I came up for air, and went right back down and continued. I lost all sense of time. I lost my mind. My entire universe was go down, push, step, push, step, push, go up to breath, and repeat.

Dad was yelling at me, “Chris stop! Let me down! Stop!” We had come ashore, and I was picking Dad up, and throwing him across the sand. Then grabbing him again, and throwing him across the sand once more. His words brought me back to reality, and we both collapsed on the beach unable to move for long time.

I could not let him die. It would have been a tragic and premature end to a truly remarkable life.

I learned that day that my father was not invincible. He didn’t have all the answers. Sometimes, I would have to carry the load. It was time for me to grow up – time to leave the boy behind, and be a man. That was the lesson my father taught me, and he did it with bravery, resourcefulness, integrity, and even fear.

When my father was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis at 72 years old, the doctors told him that there was a 100% chance he’d be dead within 5 years. That was 7 years ago. Needless to say, Dad’s ability to bravely endure and persevere against even the worst odds was evidenced to the very end.

Dad would not have survived as long as he did without his loving wife. A person could not ask for a better spouse. Pulmonary fibrosis didn’t just take one life – it took two. She stopped living her life so that he could live his. For 7 long years, she sacrificed nearly everything for him. She is my hero, just as she was my father’s hero. I would not be honoring my father’s wishes if I did not ask you to recognize this extraordinary woman who loved him and cared for him through the long terrible darkness. She was his angel of mercy – his reason to live. Mom, I’m speaking for Dad when I say go out and live your life again.

HTML5 and JavaScript are on the rise, and they’re becoming the defacto standards for ‘everything Internet’ much faster than previously expected.  JavaScript has often been described as “assembly language for the Web“, since it’s “as low-level as a web programming language” can get.  Together, they’re so powerful that they’re already having an enormous impact on the long-term strategies of tens of thousands of companies, including some of the world’s biggest technology corporations – Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Why, you ask?  Well, after years of browser domination by Adobe’s Flash / Flex technologies, a perfect storm of circumstances have come about simultaneously.  They include:

• JavaScript, which is the programming language used by HTML5, has become the undisputed “language of the Internet”.
• JavaScript has grown into an immensely powerful language, which is widely supported across almost every platform (both client-side and server-side), and can be used for nearly any purpose.
• HTML5 is the safest choice for new web applications because it is widely supported in the most recent version of each of the major desktop and mobile browsers – even Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.
• New rapid release cycles for all of the major browsers have accelerated adoption of HTML5 and improvements in JavaScript.
• JavaScript libraries – especially JQuery – have taken much of the pain out of JavaScript coding, and are making powerful JavaScript development accessible to most developers.
• HTML5 doesn’t have the restrictions that Apple’s App Store does.
• Use of HTML5 doesn’t require giving up a 30% slice of your app’s revenues (like the Apple App Store does).
• Apple’s iPhone / iPad don’t support Adobe Flash.
• There can be performance issues with Adobe Flash in mobile browsers that do support it.
• Unlike Adobe Flash, HTML5 allows you to write once and run everywhere – without proprietary browser plug-ins.
• HTML5 will be used to built apps in Microsoft Windows 8 and the next version of Microsoft Office.

HTML5 and JavaScript now own the browser.  There are no other viable alternatives.  The market viability of Adobe Flash / Flex is rapidly fading.  The real battle for the client-side is between HTML5/JavaScript apps and platform-specific native apps like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.  The rest is history.

This is Kimi.  Her name was Maggie until my wife Joanne and I rescued her yesterday (on September 25, 2011) from Cobb County Animal Control (aka Auschwitz For Dogs).  She is nearly dead from starvation.

This is how Maggie (now Kimi) looked at Cobb County Animal Control on August 14, 2011 – just 6 weeks ago.

See the difference?

That’s called animal abuse, and it’s being funded by the taxpayers of Cobb County.

And it’s common at Cobb County Animal Control.

There are other dogs at Cobb County Animal Control which are suffering animal abuse, but you’ll probably never see them.  Why?  Because Cobb County Animal Control will kill them to hide the evidence.  They’ve done that before, and they’ll likely do it to the dogs still in their possession.  No evidence, no problem – right?  Trust me, they’ll get away with it.

So what are you going to do about it?

Unless you speak for the animals who have no voice of their own, they will suffer, and they will die.  Kimi was one of the lucky ones.  She made it out of Auschwitz alive; most others in her condition don’t, because they’re not easy to adopt out.  They just sit and suffer until they’re killed – because they look like this picture from this morning (September 26, 2011).

I urge you to write to Cobb County’s Commissioners, and say something like:

Cobb County Animal Control is abusing animals in it’s care.  Please read this blog post, which documents the starvation suffered by one dog named Kimi (aka Maggie) who was rescued from Cobb County Animal Control.  Volunteers and other rescuers have also told us about many other dogs who come into the Cobb County Animal Control shelter at normal weight but who end up emaciated and starved under the cruel treatment of Cobb County Animal Control:

http://chrisbenson.com/cobb-county-animal-control-is-starving-dogs

Look at the BEFORE and AFTER pictures of what happened to her during her 6 week stay in your “shelter”.

Please fire Animal Control Director Jeff Patellis and his entire leadership team.  Replace them with people who are committed to caring for and saving the lives of animals – people who will never let this happen again.

Please give me your personal guarantee that no emaciated animals will be killed.  Destroying evidence is illegal and will not be tolerated.

Please assure me that you will make sure that whoever implemented and carried out the policies that caused this horrendous suffering will be charged with animal cruelty.

This is happening on your watch, and as a leader, you are failing to do the right thing.  What are you going to do about it?

Here is contact information for every member of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners:

Tim Lee
Commission Chairman
tlee@cobbcounty.org
(770) 528-3300

Helen Goreham
District 1 Commissioner
hgoreham@cobbcounty.org
(770) 528-3313

Bob Ott
District 2 Commissioner
bob.ott@cobbcounty.org
(770) 528-3316

JoAnn Birrell
District 3 Commissioner
joann.birrell@cobbcounty.org
(770) 528-3317

Woody Thompson
Vice Chairman
District 4 Commissioner
woody.thompson@cobbcounty.org
(770) 528-3312

Offices and shared fax:

100 Cherokee Street
Marietta, Georgia 30090-9679
fax: (770) 528-2606

Also, join the discussions on Facebook about the abuse Kimi (aka Maggie) received while in the “care” of Cobb County Animal Control:

http://www.facebook.com/christopherbenson/posts/128387493928631

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150293820882396&set=a.392385597395.180874.514617395

Please cross-post and share with animal lovers everywhere.

My good friend Davis Cosey serves with me on the Georgia Department of Agriculture‘s Companion Animal Advisory Board.  He is an amazing mentor to me, and is Georgia’s unknown secret weapon in the ongoing fight to save and improve the lives of Georgia’s homeless companion animals.  I consider him Georgia’s greatest animal advocate.

The passage of Grace’s Law in the Georgia General Assembly last year, banning the killing of dogs and cats in gas chambers, only happened because of the efforts of the activists at Georgia Voters For Animal Welfare - led by Davis Cosey.  He was the single indispensable figure who drove that effort to success.

It is my privilege to introduce him, and beg that you read his important message below.  We are now in a brief window of time when you can effect huge positive change on behalf of Georgia’s homeless companion animals.  Please act now. Thank you, and what follows is from Davis:

*********  IMPORTANT NOTICE and CALL FOR ACTION  ***********

BACKGROUND

Although the Department is on the right track with allowing a Grant Program, a more beneficial approach would be to open the applications to non-profit groups and licensed rescue organizations who either are conducting spay-neuter programs or desire to develop targeted programs. Other States have such programs, with historical successes in the performance of the grant recipients. Research has shown than the impact of aggressive spay-neuter efforts is a much greater return on investment.

Contrary to that approach is to simply increase the number of procedures available to the veterinarians participating in the present “Dog and Cat Sterilization Program”.  Although there is no doubt that the program has its benefits, there is no empirical data to suggest that the program has appreciably reduced intake at our shelters. Many of us involved in animal rescue think that restricting the funds to address the “output” side of our overpopulation equation ignores the fundamental cause of the “input” side: that of unaltered animals in the community reproducing.

THE CALL FOR ACTION

Your support for changes in the program is immediately needed! Please write, fax and/or call to express your opinion on these changes. The message should be clear:

The rescue community as well as concerned citizens support funding a Grant Program, but the program should be channeled to any municipal, county or licensed 501(c)(3) organization which maximizes the number of S/N procedures, and specifically targets  communities where funds for S/N are most needed. The program should be completely transparent to the public in its process and results.

(If you are a purchaser of Spay-Neuter License Plates, state that as well.)

All of us who care about helping with the homeless animal problem in our State have been given a unique opportunity to do so. Take the time to do this for the animals, and encourage others to do the same. And please don’t forget to thank the Department for acting on our recommendations and for its willingness to give new ideas a chance to make a difference in Georgia.

Sincerely,
Davis Cosey
Companion Animal Advisory Board

The Department will be accepting written comments from August 23, 2011, to close of business (4:30 p.m. EDT) on September 23, 2011.  Comments will be considered on September 26, 2011.  Please submit written comments to:

Dr. C. Carter Black, State Veterinarian
Georgia Department of Agriculture
19 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Room 106
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Telephone: (404) 656-3671
FAX: (404) 657-1357

Rule Change Announcement:
http://agr.georgia.gov/legal-notice-082311.aspx

Program Examples

Texas
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/health/zoonosis/animal/friendly/faqs/default.asp

Florida
http://www.floridaanimalfriend.org/freqaskgrantq.html

North Carolina
http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/vet/snfaq.html

Louisiana
http://www.lapetplate..org/grantinfo.htm

Kentucky

http://www.kyspayneuter.com/plate.htm

I’m the Chairman of the Companion Animal Advisory Board at the Georgia Department of Agriculture.  It’s a volunteer position, and I serve at the pleasure of Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black.

After Companion Animal Advisory Board meeting last Thursday evening, I posted this question on the Companion Animal Advisory Board’s Facebook page:

Rescue alone will never stop the mass killings in Georgia’s animal shelters. So why don’t more rescuers engage in the political process?

The responses were interesting and varied.  I encourage you to read them.

Though I posted this question using our Board’s official administrative profile, I’d also like to weigh in as a private citizen, and I’m issuing a hard REALITY CHECK to the animal rescue community.

The ONLY way that the mass killings will EVER stop in Georgia will be if ALL OF YOU who are fighting for the animals’ interests become politically active NOW.

Every special interest group that participates in companion animal policy has a powerful lobby – except the rescuers. None of those special interest groups are concerned with the best interests of homeless animals. Only the rescuers care, but we have no money and no unified lobby with which to influence policy and legislation. But we have a LOT of animal-loving people who are NOT ENGAGED in the political process, even though they could collectively SAVE THE WORLD for thousands of homeless animals. Typical concerns I hear include:

• Time: We’re all running at 1000 mph. Want to compare your schedule with mine?
• Fear: There are plenty of ways to fight shelters/commissioners who try to limit access.
• Feeling rejected/ignored: Big deal. Get used to it. Fight on. Make noise. Keep making noise.  Then make even more noise.  When you quit making noise, they win.
• Don’t know what to do: Then ask me – or ask Valerie Hayes, Davis Cosey, Cheryl McAuliffe, Stacey Hall, or Susan Feingold.  All are committed animal advocates and citizens of Georgia who know their way around local and/or state politics.
• If you go up against powerful politicians, will you lose? Yes, many times, over and over – but the key to winning the war is never to let the individual defeats destroy your resolve. Once in a while, you’ll win a victory that will SAVE LIVES.

Do NOT simply rely on the animal rescuers on the Companion Animal Advisory Board. We are fighting hard, but are outnumbered by those allied against the interests of homeless animals.  Our opponents are powerful and well-financed, so you must unify, organize, and engage NOW.  They’ve shown up – with their votes and their checkbooks.  You haven’t.  Until you do, animals will DIE.

In the days and weeks ahead, I’ll be discussing how you can help us create a life-saving forever solution to the mass killings in Georgia’s shelters.

In a speech earlier today, British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed, “And to the lawless minority, the criminals who’ve taken what they can get, I say this – we will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done.”

I talk to lots of entrepreneurs (and people that want to be), and many of them have really cool ideas.  I love to engage in discussions with thoughtful people – entrepreneurs or otherwise – because I love sharing in their creative process.  It’s just fun!

But 99% of the time, I won’t sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).  Don’t even ask, unless you are engaging me for paid services in a capacity that exposes me to patented intellectual property (according to the legal definition, which is distinct from an unprotectable thought).  I decided to blog about this, because I have this conversation repeatedly with entrepreneurs who don’t follow the the world of seed-stage venture capital with my fanatical zeal.  If you’re a venture capitalist or an experienced entrepreneur, what I’m stating herein is stuff you probably already know and accept.

Personally, I have ideas for startups all the time – every single day.  I can churn them out by the dozens.  Many of them might be great ideas, but all of them are worthless.  Why?  Because I haven’t successfully executed them.  Period.  I’m happy to discuss my ideas for startups with anyone that wants to engage me.  If you think you can steal my idea and out-execute me on it, then good luck!

In the book Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Brad Feld and David Cohen (and numerous other authors, including Tim Ferriss), their first chapter is entitled Trust Me, Your Idea Is Worthless.  In it Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, asserts “Earth-shattering and world-changing ideas are a dime a dozen.”  Tim goes on to postulate that entrepreneurs who insist on having others sign NDAs before discussion of their ideas “clearly overvalue ideas and therefore, almost by definition, undervalue execution.  Brainstorming is a risk-free, carefree activity.”

Tim continues, “There is no market for ideas. Think about it for a second: have you tried selling an idea lately? Where would you go to sell it? Who would buy it? When there is no market, it is usually a very sure sign that there is no value.”  He finishes with, “Ideas, however necessary, are not sufficient. They are just an entry ticket to play the game. Don’t shelter and protect your startup concept like it’s a nest egg.”

Paul Graham, one of the most famous seed-stage venture capitalists in the world, has written in his blog post Ideas For Startups that “startup ideas are worthless“.

Paul states, “They overvalue ideas. They think creating a startup is just a matter of implementing some fabulous initial idea. And since a successful startup is worth millions of dollars, a good idea is therefore a million dollar idea.”

He continues, “Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here’s an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there’s no market for startup ideas suggests there’s no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.”

So my bottom line is this:  If we’re just talking about your idea at dinner, or over coffee, or on a phone call, I’ll have a blast having a great discussion with you.  But remember that unless you have successfully executed it, I am respectfully starting from the position that your idea is worthless – until you’ve executed on it in a substantial way.  Forget the NDA.  I won’t enter into a legal obligation over an idea.

UPDATES:

• Rock star VC Brad Feld, Managing Director of the Foundry Group, author of the book Do More Faster, co-founder of TechStars, and author of popular blog Feld Thoughts:
  http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2011/06/14/note-to-entrepreneurs-your-idea-is-not-special
  
• Another good blog post on this topic:
  http://allensblog.typepad.com/allensblog/2011/07/why-entrepreneurs-shouldnt-worry-about-ndas.html

The Animal Protection Steering Committee was created by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black to provide him with a formal recommendation regarding the future of the Animal Protection Section of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

Each member of our team was appointed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, and except for Venessa Sims-Green, we are all private citizens who are not employed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

On Saturday, April 2nd, 2011, the Animal Protection Steering Committee held its kick-off meeting.  Committee members who attended included:

• Chris Benson
• Davis Cosey
• Gail LaBerge
• John Barnes
• Kathy Cowan
• Venessa Sims-Green

Committee members not in attendance included:

• Dr. Ed Mahaffey
• Linda Crumley
• Reggie Dickey
• Teri Key-Hoosen

Most of the 3½ hour meeting was spent discussing the priorities that each member brought to the committee.  Despite the varied interests represented, a spirit of productive cooperation framed the conversation, and general agreement was reached to find the common ground between us.

We had been instructed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black to organize ourselves at our first meeting by electing a Chairperson and Secretary.  I was nominated by Davis Cosey for Chairperson, and subsequently elected.  Gail LeBerge was elected Secretary.  Kathy Cowan had been previously appointed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black as the Steering Committee Liaison.  As the Director of the Animal Protection Section, Venessa Sims-Green attended as the official representative of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

The committee agreed that it’s very important for us to engage the public throughout the process, and so after the meeting we set up a Facebook Fan Page for our committee to use as an open communication tool.  It has been wildly successful, with hundreds of posts and thousands of post views.  It has been approved by the Georgia Department of Agriculture‘s leadership team and legal counsel , and “liked” by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black himself.

http://facebook.com/georgia.animal.protection

I hope that every animal-loving Georgian will join the conversation there.  Please show your support for this open transparent process with a “like” of our Facebook Fan Page, “share” a link to it on your own profile, and “suggest to friends”.  Help us ensure that Georgia’s animals have the best possible future!

Gary Black was elected Georgia’s next Commissioner of Agriculture on Tuesday!  He will take office in January, and will convene the Strategic Planning Team shortly thereafter.  Throughout 2011, we will be reaching out to animal advocacy leaders and animal welfare organizations throughout Georgia, creating new lines of communication, and soliciting input and feedback on a variety of animal welfare issues and initiatives. More to come!

To the animal lovers of Georgia:

If Gary Black is elected Georgia’s next Commissioner of Agriculture this Tuesday, Georgia’s animal welfare community will begin a bright new relationship with the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

Pending Gary Black‘s election, I have accepted a position to serve on his administration’s Strategic Planning Team, representing Georgia’s animal welfare community.

In partnership with two other incredibly experienced and respected animal advocates whose names have not yet been announced, we will be responsible for formulating new policy for the Animal Protection Section of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.  As Gary Black‘s advisors / policy strategists for animal welfare, our “team of three” has open-door access to Gary Black to improve the welfare of Georgia’s animals, and we will be highly-accessible to the animal advocates of Georgia’s animal welfare community.

We will be reaching out to animal advocacy leaders and animal welfare organizations throughout Georgia, creating new lines of communication, and soliciting input and feedback on a variety of animal welfare issues and initiatives.  Some will be asked to serve as volunteers on committees that will drive and support specific animal advocacy issues.

If Gary Black becomes our next Commissioner of Agriculture this Tuesday, the future of animal welfare in Georgia will become much brighter.  There will be genuine hope for the animals of Georgia.  Only your VOTE this Tuesday can make this happen!

Please VOTE for Gary Black for Georgia’s Commissioner of Agriculture.

Feel free to forward and cross-post to Georgia’s animal lovers.

Thank you,
Chris Benson
chris@chrisbenson.com
http://chrisbenson.com/animals

Installment #2 of the Leadership Series.

Great leaders are virtuous people. It is the foundation upon which all other leadership skills are built.

Leadership is built on trust. Be a trusting person. Make leaps of faith all the time. Unless you do, you will not create the sense of empowerment in people that allow them to grow into leaders in their own right.

You must be completely trustworthy. Your followers will buy into your vision only if they trust you explicitly. Never violate that trust, even if the violation might be considered “small” or “reasonable” under the circumstances. Leaders who violate trust do not recover.  Be transparent and open in your relationships.

Integrity means that you represent yourself consistently to everyone with whom you interact.  You know you’re going off-course when you have a conversation with one person that you wouldn’t want another person to hear.  Whether it’s the CEO or the janitor, you must be the same to all.

I must constantly remind myself to be humble.  It is my own personal weakness.  As you become a better leader over time, and a more capable person in general, it’s easy to allow your sense of confidence to affect of your behavior and interactions.  I have a couple of close friends who do me the favor of correcting me when I need it – which happens more often than I care to admit.  There is no room for arrogance in the halls of leadership.  It reduces your effectiveness.

Leadership is inherently about proactively managing change.  That can be incredibly hard to do, because change is scary to most people.  Leaders take us to a place that is different from the status quo.  To lead is to be the first person traveling down a new path – exposed to risks and dangers unknown.  It requires confidence and discipline to overcome the fear that the unknown creates within us all.
Approach challenges with discipline and a positive attitude.  Learn to balance idealism and pragmatism to get the job done, and have the strength of character to do the right thing – always.

Back to the Leadership Series.

Installment #1 of the Leadership Series.

Today is my birthday.  I am 40 years old.  As I look back on the broad themes that have dominated my life to date, one stands out above all others – my passion for the pursuit of excellence in leadership. I first became interested in leadership as a teenager, and have been actively studying and practicing leadership ever since – more than half my life.

I have been privileged to serve in many leadership roles through the years, have read dozens of books about leadership, attended lectures and workshops, and have been exposed to thousands of leaders – both good and bad, with the vast majority somewhere in between.  When I find great leaders, I learn everything I can from them.

All these years later, I still have much to learn about leadership.  I would claim to have already made every mistake there is to make as a leader (meaning a lot), if my experience didn’t tell me I’ll continue to make mistakes for years to come.

These days, people often tell me that I’m a “natural leader”.  They are usually surprised when I reply that I’m not.  I’m a “learned leader”;  I was not born with this knowledge.  It is a practiced art.  Anyone can learn it, though it comes easier to those who already have some of the necessary attributes.

Despite being one of the most analyzed and documented topics in human history, few people define leadership the same way.  If you ask ten different people what leadership is, you’ll typically get ten different answers, though there will be commonalities among them.  They know it when they see it, but they have a hard time describing exactly what it is.  I’ve spent years thinking about what leadership is, and will attempt to define it hereafter in a clear and concise manner.

As John Maxwell teaches us in his many books on the topic, leadership is about influence.  As leaders, we want to accomplish specific objectives that require the participation and commitment of others, and it’s our responsibility to influence those people in order to achieve those objectives.  Easier said than done.

So how do you develop influence with others so that they’ll commit to an objective?  There are many right ways to organize the activities and attributes that make up or contribute to leadership.  I use the following model to simplify and clarify.  As I learn more about leadership, the model evolves.

In the following posts, I will address the ingredients to the development of influence.

Back to the Leadership Series.

Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 1, and the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 2, before reading Part 3.

Lexie received less attention than usual from me over the past few weeks.  Between a father who spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, and my dog Yonah’s chemotherapy treatments, Lexie got the short end of the stick.  Even so, her life continues to improve.

Lexie recently made a huge upgrade in lifestyle – she’s now living out of the crate in the Learning Center.  She and Lenny are free to hang out and play all the time, though Lexie is restricted to the downstairs so that Lenny has his own refuge.  Their friendship has grown ever stronger, and I’m fairly convinced that Lenny thinks he’s a dog too.  He certainly knows how to handle Lexie, even in her more exuberant moments.  The willingness of our entire care-giving team to accommodate Lexie’s newfound freedom has truly inspired me, and is a testament to the unwavering dedication of our volunteers.

A big part of Lexie’s ongoing socialization process is learning how to meet and get along with other dogs.  She has attended several recent group K9 Coaching classes on the front lawn with the other OPP dogs.  As Sandy Adcock, Director of Training, noted, “She did a wonderful job keeping calm and paying special attention to Chris during class. Even when other dogs were barking at her, Lexie was a perfect lady. She’s come such a long way.  Class ended with a game of 123 Red Light – Lexie and Tito tied to win.”

My step-son Eric and I took Lexie on a second walk with our dog Peri over to Kell High School.  After a challenging start, Lexie and Peri settled into a working (walking?) truce, which eventually finished with friendly butt sniffs and nose touches.  First Bruiser, now Peri.  With her developing social skills, Lexie is learning to get along with other dogs.  Each time she is introduced to another dog, she becomes a little more accustomed to the proper canine etiquette that she knows I expect from her.  She gazes into my face with intensity, and I return the same.  Then I nod towards the other dog, and tell Lexie to “be good”.  She knows what I’m asking, and she genuinely tries.

Lexie really shines through as a great family dog.  She recognizes the road between Kennesaw Mountain and my parents’ home, and becomes so excited on the way there that I have to push her out of my lap so I can drive the car.  We arrive and she eagerly leaps from the car up their front stairs, dragging me by the leash.  She is the queen of her new home domain; she knows it, and she knows that everybody else knows it as well.  After a warm and loving greeting to my parents, she does her duty by making sure that each room is thoroughly investigated, the trash cans carefully inspected, and the kitchen counters diligently patrolled.  Then she and my mother conspire to get rid of me, knowing that I will protest the goodies that Mom sneaks to Lexie when I’m not looking.

The day before Thanksgiving, Lexie spent four hours at my parents’ house while I helped them prepare to host our large family the following day.  My nephew Alexander and my 5-year-old niece Lilly played with Lexie through the afternoon.  There were smiles all around and lots of puppy kisses.  When my sister Alyssa arrived to pick up Alexander and Lilly, she met Lexie for the first time.  After 10 minutes, Alyssa commented, “This is the most well-behaved dog I’ve ever seen”.  Then she asked me why my mouth was hanging open.  I decided not to mention that just before she had arrived, Alexander had dropped two hotdogs on the floor.  My mother had rescued one, but Lexie had dexterously stolen the other.

Alyssa left to go home with the kids.  Except for the hotdog, Lexie had been a marvelous family dog for 4 straight hours.  Now she broke down and had one of her notoriously mischievous moments.  My parents had recently installed a long handicap ramp for my father.  It goes from the parking area outside their house, and winds up to a side door.  My mother asked me to retrieve something from the closed room where that door is, and Lexie pranced along beside me.  As we entered the room, I noticed that my parents had left the glass door to the outside open – with only the mesh screen door closed.  Lexie felt the breeze blowing in, looked at me with a “catch me if you can” expression, and launched herself THROUGH the closed mesh screen door – mesh door, no more.  In panic I gave chase, bellowing at her to come back.  Paying no heed, she raced down the long ramp – gleefully exuberant to show off her sudden freedom and independence.  She flew by my car, and raced out the long driveway into the darkness towards the road.  I knew she wouldn’t run away, but I was hoping she’d turn around before she got to the busy road.  In a moment of inspiration, I dashed first to the kitchen, and then bound out the front door, having decided to sacrifice the lone survivor.  “Lexie!!! Hotdog!!!”, I screamed into the night.  Then she was there, back from the darkness.  Her jailbreak concluded, the escapee had turned herself in for a tasty morsel.  Through so many adventures, it was the first time she’d ever gotten away from me.

Possibly her most precious moment occurred just a few days ago.  Dad came home from the hospital, so of course I took Nurse Lexie over to help him get settled.  She trotted straight over to him, and gently – delicately – stood on her hind legs, and momentarily put her front paws on his chest – ever so careful not to press on him with her weight.  Just letting him know that she loved him with a tender touch.  She simply knew.  I watched with a lump in my throat.

Lexie has become a new dog through the second half of 2009, and 2010 will be even better for her.  I’ll continue to provide quarterly updates on her progress.  On behalf of Lexie and Lenny, we wish you a very merry holiday season and a Happy New Year!  And as always… I love Lexie.

Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 1 first.

Six weeks have passed since I wrote the original article about Lexie. In that brief time, she has continued to make progress, and her friendship with Lenny the cat has deepened into true companionship.

Several weeks ago, Gigi and I took Lexie and Lenny to the veterinarian for a checkup.  Lexie put up with the poking and prodding from Dr. Shepherd with little argument, but her feelings for Lenny became very clear when Lenny had his turn.  Lenny began yowling in anger at Dr. Shepherd, and that really upset Lexie.  I couldn’t help but smile inwardly when Dr. Shepherd suggested that I remove Lexie from the room while he examined Lenny.  I couldn’t blame him; if Lexie had been looking at me like that, I too would have considered my next actions rather carefully.

Dr. Shepherd did tell us something that provided me with great relief.  I asked him to look at Lexie’s teeth, and he stated that he believed that her teeth were not damaged by human hand, but were the result of natural causes.  In my original article, I had suggested that Lexie’s teeth had been sawed off or filed down by a human being, leading me to speculate that Lexie may have once been a bait dog in a dog-fighting operation.  I am delighted to report that Dr. Shepherd didn’t think so, and I’ve never been so happy to be wrong in my entire life.

On Sunday, November 1st, a small group of volunteers gathered to build an enclosed run on the back of the Learning Center for Lexie and Lenny.  I am immensely grateful to everyone involved for spending their afternoon to make Lexie’s small world at OPP a little bigger and better.  At the end of the day, Lexie had her own small outdoor area where she could safely prance about off-leash.  Not only did it benefit her and Lenny, but also the volunteer care-givers, who don’t have to put her on leash several times each day so she can pee and poo.  Now, they can simply open the back door, and let her outside under supervision – just like the other dogs at OPP.

Soon, Lexie will no longer be confined to her crate in the Learning Center.  On certain evenings, we are already leaving her loose in the Learning Center overnight with Lenny under very specific controlled circumstances.  I have no worries about Lenny’s safety; Lexie adores him.  But we need to make sure that all volunteer care-givers are comfortable dealing with an unrestrained Lexie – especially when entering or leaving the Learning Center.

I take Lexie for walks and runs several times each week – sometimes from OPP, but usually off-site.  The many trails within Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park are our favorite outdoor destination, and Lexie has become a first class trail dog and an excellent fitness partner.  Every once in a while, she’ll block my path to stop me in my tracks, and gaze unwaveringly into my eyes.  This is her demand that I kneel down, and rain kisses on her head and nose.  She soaks up the quick loving, and we’re off again.  We’ll often arrive at the summit of Kennesaw Mountain on a sunny weekend afternoon, where numerous visitors are resting and enjoying the view, and Lexie will invariably attract a crowd of admirers – adults and children alike.  It is not uncommon for me to spend an hour telling folks about Lexie and Our Pal’s Place while they fret and coo over her.  She is an accomplished ambassador for OPP.

I now deliberately give Lexie on-leash opportunities to interact with other dogs from several feet away, and on some days we’ll have 1-2 dozen encounters.  Many go well, but some devolve into snarling and lunging.  The volume and frequency of the encounters have given me insight into Lexie’s behavioral motivators and triggers.  I am constantly reminded that dog aggression expert Brenda Aloff, who wrote the definitive book on the subject Aggression In Dogs, teaches us that “canine aggression is about space invasion”.  Fundamentally, Lexie is rude with other dogs rather than aggressive.  She invades their personal space out of intense curiosity without understanding the social consequences, and doesn’t know to use the calming and negotiating signals that well-socialized dogs naturally learn growing up.  With Lexie starting each encounter rudely, the nature of each interaction depends on the other dog’s reaction.  If the other dog puts up with it (even though it shouldn’t have to), then all is well.  If the other dog responds with understandable defensiveness, then Lexie’s “aggression trigger” is activated, and the encounter devolves into snarling and lunging (but no physical contact).

Ultimately, the only way for Lexie to improve is to continue having interactions with other dogs, and to accomplish this I am actively studying and specializing in positive training techniques for aggressive dogs.  The intense trust and understanding that Lexie and I have developed (as described in my original article) enables me to influence her in ways that would be unsafe for any other person, but which are helpful in converting active aggression into acceptable behavior using positive training techniques.  As our trust grew strong, I used specialized knowledge I’ve acquired in dog-aggressive positive training techniques to gradually and deliberately get Lexie used to having me touch her body during aggression events in order to alter her behavior to accommodate my touch without mindless biting.  Lexie now knows and expects that every single dog encounter actively involves at least three participants – herself, the other dog several feet away, and me touching her.  I can’t stress enough the danger of this training approach without proper instruction and worlds of mutual trust between you and the dog, and I point out that this is not something I can do with any other dog.  Having trained Lexie to physically accommodate me during aggression events, I can now safely use the “pressure” of my body as a positive tool when I’m attempting to influence Lexie to convert her aggression into an acceptable behavior.  It has proven very effective at redirecting her attention away from mindless lunging and back to me with conscious focus. I am helping Lexie revert from fight-flight behaviors driven by the Hind Brain (the Medulla Oblongata in the base of the brain stem) back to the Front Brain (higher order thinking in the Cerebral Cortex), and I have taken great care to maintain a perfect safety record.

On the whole, Lexie’s behavior is clearly and steadily improving.  Recently, Sandy Adcock (OPP’s K9 Coach Manager & professional trainer) and I decided to introduce Lexie and Peri – one of my own four dogs.  Together, along with several OPP volunteers, we took Lexie and Peri for a walk.  They padded along eyeing one another curiously while we kept them several feet apart, but neither made an aggressive gesture towards the other.

About a week later, OPP volunteer Mark Chafin was telling me that he and Sandy had taken his dog Bruiser for a short walk with Lexie some months back, and that it had gone well.  We decided to take Bruiser and Lexie for a walk at Cheatham Hill.  It was an amazing sight.  Big easy-going Bruiser loped along for 2 miles with Lexie prancing playfully around him (both on leash).  At that moment, it was easy to believe that Lexie would soon evolve beyond her dog-aggressive behaviors.

On Saturday, November 21st, Lexie will take another step forward by attending Sandy’s K9 Coaching class with other OPP dogs.  My primary objective will be to work with her on her dog-to-dog social skills.

Lexie responds particularly well to clicker training, which elicits, marks, and reinforces desirable behaviors.  In her book Reaching the Animal Mind, Karen Pryor describes some unconventional applications for clicker training, and that got me thinking one evening after a walk.  Lexie is scared of certain types of physical contact, one of which was having her hind paws held.  This was causing me problems when we walked trails after it had rained, because Lexie wouldn’t let me clean the mud from her hind paws before putting her in my car.  One evening, I used a clicker, some treats, and a towel to train her to accept a thorough hind paw cleaning using a towel without freaking out.  It was funny, because in the span of 15 minutes, she went from panic when I grabbed her hind paw, to offering it to me herself while maintaining relaxed leg muscles.  She is one super smart dog.

One of the most important experiences Lexie can have are regular home visits, so that she can learn what family life is all about.  Since my family already has four dogs at home – Satori, Yonah, Peri, and Marcus, my house isn’t the best option.  My parents – Gale & Whit Benson – no longer have any pets due to lifestyle constraints, but they have graciously allowed me to bring Lexie to their home on a very regular basis.  About once a week, I take her over there after a walk or run at Kennesaw Mountain, since they live very close to the park.  At first, I was a little concerned that Lexie might physically overwhelm my parents, or even accidentally injury them as she flings her muscular self around, but Lexie somehow senses that limits are necessary, and she doesn’t leap on them the way she does with volunteers at OPP.  She is gentle with them.  My mother positively dotes on Lexie, and Lexie in turn adores my mother.  They allow Lexie to roam freely inside – exploring, getting into stuff, and generally making herself at home.  Over time, it has become clear that Lexie has decided that their house is her house, and after finally tiring of sniffing exploration, Lexie will come into the family room where we’re sitting, and curl up for a nap at our feet.  Occasionally, I have the pleasure of the most adorable sight – my 5 year old niece Lilly leading a very willing Lexie around the house by the leash.  I don’t know if Lexie has ever before spent time at home with a family, but she’s clearly a family dog now.  For an hour or two at a time, she seems to forget her life in rescue, and relaxes in her “home” until its time to leave once more.

Lexie is becoming a very adoptable dog.  She is already a well-adjusted family dog.  She loves people of all ages, cats, car rides, long walks, loping runs, and wading in creeks.  Her dog-aggressive behavior is receding, often absent, and very manageable.  She is super smart, and delightfully full of personality.  Lexie needs someone with a big heart, lots of energy, and a bit of patience.  I would love to adopt her, but with four other dogs, it’s not presently possible and may never be.  Despite that, some things never change… I love Lexie.

Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 3.

On the morning of Saturday, June 27, 2009, I sat in volunteer orientation for Our Pal’s Place (OPP).  At the time, I had no idea that it was a life-changing moment for me.  Recently, I had been looking for an animal shelter or rescue where I could invest myself, and make a meaningful difference.  I had stumbled across Our Pal’s Place almost by accident – a recommendation from a friend who knew OPP volunteer Brad Barnett.  I was silently challenging the energized Executive Director Gigi Graves to sell me on Our Pal’s Place – show me why I should invest here.  As the orientation progressed, she did exactly that.

I learned about OPP’s many programs – care-giving shifts, adoptions, Camp OPP, special events… and K9 coaching.  Gigi pointed at the empty crate in the Learning Center, and told us about Lexie – an extremely intelligent, immensely powerful, and passionately people-loving American Terrier mix who is animal-aggressive. Lexie is super-wonderful with people – both adults and children; not so much with animals.

Lexie had come from Murray County in extreme northern Georgia, where she had been picked up as a stray with another dog named Conner – Lexie’s only other known dog friend.  Our Pal’s Place had rescued both dogs, and Conner was eventually adopted out to a great family, who have subsequently held fund-raisers for Our Pal’s Place.  After Conner was adopted, Lexie began having a very tough time in her run, and would get so agitated that she’d literally bounce off the sides and hang from the roof – no exaggeration.  Her aggression towards other dogs got steadily worse, resulting in several dog-on-dog altercations.  At one point, she bit a volunteer named Celia, whom I believe inappropriately managed an aggression incident.  I will comment on that later in this article.  Finally, to separate her from the other dogs, Lexie was relocated from her run in the main building’s kennel to a large dog crate in the Learning Center. Today, Lexie has been at Our Pal’s Place longer than any other dog currently there, separated from the rest of the kennel, with special safety rules in place that govern her interactions with the rest of the world. While she is adored and well cared for by the volunteers, she leads a very lonely life, desperate for love and meaningful companionship, and enough room to move about according to her needs.  This was Lexie’s situation when I arrived at Our Pal’s Place this past summer, and her story touched my heart in a very intense way.

After fully buying into Gigi’s inspiring but pragmatic orientation pitch (attend and you’ll see why), I made the choice to commit my time and my wallet, and began exploring the various ways I could contribute.  Soon thereafter, I completed my training in care-giving, and committed to a weekly tuck-in shift.  I began functioning as a “greeter” on adoption days every couple of weeks, participating in off-site events, and eventually adopted a delightful OPP dog named Marcus, who joined our other three dogs at home.

Early on, I decided to see what I could accomplish with Lexie.  I started by taking her for a walk one evening at OPP with veteran volunteer Mark Chafin.  That first walk was eye-opening in another, more shocking way.  Mark gently opened Lexie’s mouth and pointed to the fact that her long canine teeth were reduced to stubs.  Although I don’t know this to be fact, it appeared to both of us that they had been sawed off or filed down by a human being, leading us to speculate that Lexie may have once been a bait dog in a dog-fighting operation.  We postulated that such an awful experience might account for her aggression towards other dogs, although it needs to be reiterated that this is speculation rather than fact, but one which would explain a lot.  Whether my speculation is right or wrong, I have since operated on the premise that Lexie was previously the victim of a Bad Person, and I am determined to be the Good Person who lovingly assists her to a full recovery as a sociable, family dog.

I dived into “Mission Lexie” and soon received permission from Gigi and Head Trainer Sandy Adcock to take Lexie off-site to Kennesaw Mountain.  Sandy had prepared me well with specialized K9 Coach instruction, especially on how to manage potentially dangerous encounters between Lexie and other dogs. I attentively absorbed everything she taught me, determined to prove to Sandy and Gigi that I could properly handle Lexie under conditions that were not strictly-controlled.  In addition to the great hands-on training that Sandy provided me, she had recommended a number of books on dog training and behaviorism.  An avid reader, I read them all – Patricia McConnell, Karen Pryor, Pat Miller, Brenda Aloff, Paul Owens, and Turid Rugaas.  They covered positive dog training, human-dog communication, the sciences of dog behaviorism and ethology, and dog aggression in great detail – a topic that I’m specializing in to help Lexie.  I learned a lot!

We started down the path at Kennesaw Mountain, and within 200 yards had our first dog/owner encounter.  From a short distance away, I called out to the man, stating that I had an aggressive dog, and asking him to hold tightly onto his own dog. Then following Sandy’s advice, I literally ran Lexie by the other dog, reducing her ability to attack, though she tried her best – snarling and lunging.  During that first outing, we had three more dog encounters, all challenging to contend with but manageable.

The second time out a few days later, we got back to my car after finishing our walk.  Seeing a woman approaching with 3 dogs on leash, I hustled Lexie into my car in an attempt to avoid the situation altogether.  Lexie had other ideas though.  As I entered my car, trying to body block Lexie inside, she lunged hard and squeezed past my legs – free and in attack mode.  As I felt her force her way past the back of my thighs, I turned and dropped on top of her, laying prone on the asphalt with a tight grip on her collar, pinning her from above and behind as she struggled in vain to reach the other dogs.  Despite the difficult situation, I noticed that Lexie never directed an ounce of aggression towards me, even while she was in attack mode.  She knew it was me on top of her, and that I was not attacking her.  Neither of us were threatened by the other.  It was the beginning of a kernel of trust that would build in the weeks to come.

From that point on, I began taking Lexie off-site 3-4 times per week to a variety of locations, including regular off-leash home visits to my parents’ house (since they don’t have any pets), car rides, walks, and trail runs.  I discovered that she loves to splash around in creeks, considers my car to be her second home, and is terrified of fireworks and the Lassiter High School Marching Band.  We continued to have many animal encounters – mostly dogs and deer, and I quickly became accustomed to dealing with them using a variety of techniques.  I noticed that they weren’t all bad; if fact, some were relatively mild, and a few were non-events altogether.  I began to realize that Lexie was not mindlessly-aggressive with other animals, but rather she had an unidentified discrimination process that could lead to a variety of outcomes.  Built into that process was the fact that she knew what to expect from me, and would often change her default behavior to accommodate my response.  Our mutual understanding, trust, and love for one another became as important as any situation we found ourselves in.

That bond was put to the test several times.  One time we began crossing an open field at Kennesaw Mountain, and without warning we noticed and locked eyes with a gigantic dog about 75 feet away.  Locking eyes was the worst thing we could have done.  To dogs, that’s a rude sign of aggression, and the huge dog charged us at full speed.  I started screaming, “No, no, no!” and dimly realized that there was a man standing where the big dog had launched himself.  For the first time ever, I saw Lexie go totally submissive towards another dog, and I knew that Lexie and I were about to be torn to bits.  Time slowed as the dog charged, and I distinctly remember thinking that I’d failed both Lexie and Gigi for trusting me.  As the charging dog came within 25 feet, I saw the owner get jerked like a rag doll as the nearly invisible 50 foot cable reached its length.  The giant snarling dog made it within 5 feet of us before the owner managed to stop it with a herculean effort.  Lexie and I turned together and ran like hell, both of our tails tucked between our legs.

Another time, Lexie and I encountered two horses with riders on a narrow trail with no room to maneuver.  Running by them was not an option.  I pulled Lexie as far to the side as possible in an attempt to compress ourselves into the smallest possible space, told her to sit and stay, and held her leash tightly.  I promised the worried riders that I had firm control of her.  With constant encouragement and tight leash, Lexie maintained her sit/stay as the horses approached.  I was cautiously impressed with her obedience, because a few weeks prior, her behavior wouldn’t have been so admirable.  Then at their closest point, less than 3 feet away, Lexie sensed the horses’ nervousness and finally lost it.  She lunged straight at the first horse, but I was ready for that and arrested the surge.  In a heartbeat, my brilliant and tricky Lexie reversed her momentum, nearly slipping her martingale collar.  Once again, time slowed down for me.  I knew I was a fraction of a second away from having Lexie free herself in the middle of an attack.  All the dog behavioral books I had read taught me that common primate behaviors like front-on grabbing and hugging were interpreted as an attack to a dog in this frenzied state, but I also knew that if I didn’t secure her instantly, the situation could get much worse.  Keeping my voice calm but commanding, I threw my arms around my attacking Lexie in a front-on bear hug, and trusted that she would honor our partnership.  She did honor that trust – completely, although she continued her aggression towards the horses in a frantic attempt to get around me.  Not an ounce of aggression towards me, though.  Snarling around me, over me, under me, past me, but not towards me.  I knew with trust like that, anything was possible between us, and I was exuberant.

Having described the long hours of building a loving and trusting relationship with Lexie, I want to take a moment to address Lexie’s biting incident with former OPP volunteer Celia Gilner.  The incident occurred before I joined Our Pal’s Place, and I’ve never spoken with Ms. Gilner, although I have repeatedly read the article she wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published June 27, 2008 entitled “Are no-kill shelters humane? Some dogs unadoptable, dangerous to volunteers”.  While I genuinely sympathize with Celia Gilner for the injuries she sustained, I disagree with her premises, which I believe were based on a failure in judgment to appropriately manage an aggressive dog.  Her conclusions implied that her own failure in judgment translates to other volunteers – a logical fallacy.  She apparently thought that “extra time outside petting her and playing ball” invested her with the ability to intervene inappropriately in a situation she was not prepared for, and she concludes that the solution to “the suffering of these three dogs confined in solitary cages for years” is to kill them.  The tone of Celia Gilner’s article smacks of injured pride and personal vendetta against the dogs she didn’t like, and against Our Pal’s Place for providing a loving home for these dogs after she was injured.  Her descriptions of Lexie are not consistent with the Lexie I have grown to know so well, even under the most extreme circumstances – dozens of aggression incidents properly managed without injury.

I will conclude with the most amazing story of all – the little Kitty.  Over the past few weeks, we have had several stray cats hanging around Our Pal’s Place.  One of these is a playful, imperturbable orange-colored kitten with no fear of Lexie, and who kept trying to slip into the Learning Center.  On the evening of Thursday, October 1st, I had returned to OPP from a run with Lexie and was letting her urinate on the front lawn.  The Kitty suddenly appeared and playfully charged Lexie in an attempt to entice Lexie to play.  Lexie attempted to playfully return the charge with a joyous bark, but I restrained her.  Then Kitty charged again… and again.  I was standing there conflicted between fear and amazement when OPP volunteer Chris Woods pulled up in his truck, and witnessed the behavior as well.  We picked our jaws off the ground, discussed the complete lack of aggression in Lexie, and allowed a leashed Lexie to do a nose-touch with Kitty.  I spent the rest of the evening allowing a leashed Lexie to interact with Kitty in the parking area, keeping Gigi informed every miraculous step of the way.  Lexie behaved very well, knowing that if she didn’t, she’d not be allowed to play with Kitty.  She kept looking to me for permission, and obeyed every command I gave her better than she ever had before.  The following evening, I returned to OPP for the explicit purpose of letting Lexie and Kitty spend time together, which they did for 6 hours.  About half of those were with Lexie off-leash in the Learning Center with Kitty.  Their interaction included lots of gentle physical contact, a bit of clawed boundary-setting by Kitty, some playful barks and bounds by Lexie, and affectionate nuzzles initiated by each at various times. At one point Kitty walked right up to Lexie and nuzzled Lexie’s face with his face.  It was stunning to watch.  Lexie and Kitty rapidly developed a genuine friendship under my very watchful eye, and an occasional intervening “reset”.  Wherever Lexie went, Kitty would follow, and vice versa.  On Saturday morning, OPP volunteer Colleen Strasburg gave the Kitty a new name – Lenny, and OPP manager Dee McGowan placed a litter box in the Learning Center, where Lenny is now living part-time.  All day Saturday, you could look up the hill at the Learning Center and see Lenny sitting on top of Lexie’s crate looking out the window.  That evening, with Lexie safely in her crate, I left Lenny overnight in the Learning Center.  Lexie finally has a non-human friend again, and I am so happy for her.

Lexie is improving rapidly and steadily.  She is fully-recoverable from the difficult days of the past.  Under Sandy’s expert guidance, I’m now getting Lexie used to other dogs again.  I started with one of my own four dogs.  Lexie and Perry recently had an uneventful walk together – trotting parallel several feet apart without contact or overt aggression, although Lexie was hyper-aware of the intensity of my watchful eye and stayed on her best behavior.  We’ll soon start introducing her to other carefully-chosen dogs at Our Pal’s Place under tightly controlled circumstances.  Some may work, most probably won’t, but we’ll make our progress in small steps.

Lexie will be adopted.  It may not be me, since I have four other dogs and a cat, but it will happen.  It is my mission to see her adopted, and I will work with Sandy and Gigi to do everything in my power to make it successful, though it will break my heart to give Lexie up to her new forever family.  I love her dearly, and until somebody else steps up to take over on a permanent basis, I will regard Lexie as my dog.  She needs somebody with limitless pools of love and patience, the maturity to establish and maintain the right environment for her, and the energy and fitness to accompany her as she romps the world with joy.  Lexie is a special dog – with special needs, and special rewards.

Becoming a volunteer with Our Pal’s Place 3 months ago was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  I love Lexie.

Please read the Adventures of Lexie & Chris – Part 2.

Today is my father’s 77th birthday. To celebrate, I’m reprinting an article I wrote about him for the April 2005 edition of The Georgia Mountaineer – the monthly bulletin of the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club.

Happy birthday Dad!

Spotlight on Whit Benson

By Christopher Benson

I’d like to thank several key members of the GATC who helped me significantly. In 2000, I met with former President Rosalind Van Landingham, former President Joe Boyd (whose recent passing was a great loss to the Club), Helen Boyd, and Gale Benson. Recently, I met again with Rosalind Van Landingham and Gale Benson. All of their insights and contributions were invaluable to this article.

Whit Benson has been a member of the GATC for 3/4 of the club’s total history. Only Charlie and Mary Gafnea and Arline Slack have been members longer. Some of his closest friends, including Rosalind Van Landingham and Joe Boyd have told me that Whit has had as much impact on the GATC as anyone since he joined in January 1950.

Born in Atlanta on May 1, 1932 during the depression and raised during World War II, Whit’s family moved to the mountainous countryside just outside Ashville, North Carolina just after the War. At the age of 13, Whit fell in love with the outdoors and spent as much time as possible hiking through the backcountry. He lived there for less than a year, but when he left to return to Atlanta, he took with him a newfound passion that would last a lifetime.

Whit joined the Boy Scouts, taking every opportunity to hike and camp, and eventually earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout. Along the way, he finished high school and began his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. In the Explorer Scouts, he began hiking with his friends Frank Gordon and Norman Batho. The three Explorer Scouts were finishing up an 80-mile hike in September 1949 from Wesser Bald in North Carolina to Tray Gap in Georgia, when they met up with a hiking party from the GATC led by Jim Proctor that was hiking from Dick’s Creek Gap to Tray Gap. The Explorer Scouts were a perfect fit for the GATC, and soon thereafter Jim Proctor asked Whit Benson to join the GATC. Whit was only 17 years old, but he said that nobody ever asked him his age. Whit quickly acquired a reputation as a hard-worker and a tough hiker.

1950 started off with a bang as Whit and the others that were known within the Club as “the younger contingent” rebuilt the Tray Mountain shelter over a period of weeks. This was followed in June 1950 by a work trip that lasted nearly a full week. The work party, consisting of Whit Benson, Norman Batho, Jim Proctor, and two guests, left Lake Winfield Scott and hiked up into Slaughter Gap. From there they headed north on the AT doing trail maintenance the entire way. They eventually made it to Addis Gap where they decided that they’d had enough and ceased operations, hiking out to Dick’s Creek Gap.

Larry Freeman had been GATC President from 1947-1948, and was credited with rebuilding the Club after its near-demise during World War II. Today he is best known as the namesake of the Freeman Trail around Blood Mountain, an honor he richly deserved as one of the giants in our Club’s history. In 1951, Larry asked Whit to join him on a hike in the Smokies from Davenport Gap to Newfound Gap. During that excursion, Larry and Whit became the best of friends and remained so for 19 years until Larry’s death in September 1970. In the years since, when asked to recount his experiences with Larry through the 1950s and 1960s, a curious half-smile comes across Whit’s face and he begins by noting that, “Larry was a bit eccentric…” He goes on to recall that Larry was an extraordinary secretive person who never let anyone know where he lived, and was only reachable via a post office box; no telephone number or home address. They would arrange by mail to meet each other at various locations to depart for their excursions. Once complete, Larry would have Whit drive him into Atlanta and drop him off on an apparently random street corner – each time a different place. This was simply the normal modus operandi with Larry.

In 1953, Whit and Larry produced the first GATC yearbook in the basement of Whit’s parent’s home.

Whit graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and entered the U.S. Navy as an officer in February 1954. In the Navy, he had the opportunity to work with several of the first computers ever built. These experiences would lead to an entire career working with and programming computers as an engineer.

During his time in the U.S. Navy, he was stationed at various locations outside of Georgia, and was therefore unable to participate in GATC activities. However, he and Larry would arrange excursions to various places while Whit was on leave.

In 1954, Whit and Larry went to Mexico and climbed Popocatepetl, a 17,887 foot high volcano in central Mexico west of Puebla, which became active again in January 1994 after being dormant for decades. During the long drive through Mexico on their way to the mountain, their car continuously coughed and sputtered and threatened to die. They determined that the fuel pump was going bad and purchased a replacement, but decided to climb the mountain before tackling the job of changing it out. Two weeks later, after achieving the summit while suffering from altitude sickness, they returned to their car utterly exhausted and Whit collapsed into the back seat and fell fast asleep. He awoke to discover that Larry had managed to remove the old fuel pump, but was too exhausted to get the new one installed. About that time a Volkswagon Bug came along, and an immaculately dressed Mexican fellow in a coat and tie hopped out to offer help. He didn’t speak English and neither Whit nor Larry spoke Spanish. Despite the language barrier, the Mexican gentleman quickly realized the problem with the fuel pump, and proceeded to install the replacement. The car was fixed and the immaculately dressed Mexican gentleman departed with Whit and Larry’s sincere gratitude.

In 1955, Whit and Larry embarked on another week-long trip to the Sangre de Cristos, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico to summit Truches Peak. While they did successfully bag the peak, they spent most of their time lost because neither one of them thought to bring a map. On their second night out, they camped by a beautiful stream with the most delicious water. They drank their fill. The next morning, they broke camp and started upstream. About a hundred yards upstream from camp, they were shocked to discover a dead, bloated cow lying in the middle of the stream, with the water running over and through it.

About this time, Whit met Dorothy McCaleb, a mathematician, and they were married in October 1955. A year later, their first daughter Julia was born. Whit was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant in June 1957 and moved back to Atlanta. He started a career with Lockheed Georgia Company as an aeronautical engineer that would span over four decades. He programmed computer simulations of the C-5 Galaxy, the C-130 Hercules, and eventually the brand new F-22 Raptor that will be introduced into active duty in the U.S. Air Force in 2005-2006 as the most advanced air superiority stealth fighter in the world.

At the same time he started his career at Lockheed, he began his graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech in the fall of 1957. He resumed his active participation in GATC activities, and quickly reestablished his credentials as a hard working outdoorsman with good instincts and a tough hiker who frequently participated in or led backpacking trips and work trips. Over the next five years, he had two more daughters – Kathy and Holley, and earned his M.S. in Electrical Engineering. From 1964-1965 he held his first officer position in the GATC as the Club’s second Trails Supervisor.

The next few years were a roller coaster ride. Lockheed began building the largest airplane in the world – the C-5 Galaxy, and the number of hours required for his job nearly doubled. Then his wife died of a heart attack in January 1967, leaving Whit alone to raise his three young girls. A year later, Whit began dating Gale Whiten, a physicist and engineer at Lockheed, and they married a few months later in April 1968. Gale would quickly become an active member of the GATC, and soon prove herself an excellent outdoors person in her own right. They remain married to this day, and had two children together – my younger sister Alyssa and me.

After spending a year during 1971-1972 recovering from a major spinal fusion, a new side of Whit Benson began to emerge that would eventually rival his ironman image. He began holding offices on the Board of Directors, and his peers began regarding him as a knowledgeable, yet unassuming leader and an insightful administrator. He was the Membership Director in 1976, Vice President of Activities from 1977-1978, President from 1979-1980, and Trails Supervisor again from 1985-1986. He served for several years as a Director at Large. According to Joe Boyd and Rosalind Van Landingham, his 30 years of experience (by the late 70s) hiking and maintaining the Appalachian Trail in Georgia gave him a grasp of the pertinent issues that was exceptional by any standard. He knew what was on the ground – knew the entire Georgia AT so well that he was able to blend the nuances of policy with the realities of life on the Trail to the betterment of both.

During his two terms as President, Whit Benson would do two things that would positively impact the GATC forever afterwards. He and Bob Slater coauthored the Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Forest Service which spelled out the responsibilities of the GATC and the U.S. Forest Service regarding the Appalachian Trail in Georgia – including trail maintenance, construction, and relocation. It also included provisions enabling the U.S. Forest Service to lend tools to the GATC for trail maintenance.

Whit and Joe Boyd were largely responsible for coauthoring the Plan for the Management of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. This document spelled out every aspect of how the GATC would manage and maintain the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, and being the first document of its type, served as the model thereafter used by the other Appalachian Trail clubs. Joe noted afterwards the logical nature of Whit’s thinking, and the fact that Whit always kept the big picture in mind. These two documents established the way the GATC would operate all the way to the present day.

When the threat arose that the Blue Ridge Parkway might be extended into Georgia across the crest of the Appalachians where the AT was located, Whit helped scout an alternate route for the Trail. Eventually the threat passed unrealized, and as the GATC’s President, Whit appointed a task force to work with the U.S. Forest Service to determine which of the two routes would be official.

During the mid to late 70s and into the 80s, Whit worked with a talented group of peers in the GATC that the rest of the Benson family thought of as his closest friends. “The Oldtimers” as they came to be called were tight then, and those that survive continue to be so. One friend in particular stood out, at least from the perspective of Whit’s family. That person was Joe Boyd, who passed away a few months ago. Joe & Helen Boyd joined the GATC in July 1975. Whit and Joe became close friends very quickly. Both were engineers at Lockheed, seasoned outdoorsmen, and tough hikers. They seemed to be cut from the same cloth, often seeming to think alike when considering various issues and problems, and Whit seemed to enjoy hiking with Joe in the same way he enjoyed hiking with Larry Freeman. In addition, over the past 30 years the Bensons have come to regard Rosalind Van Landingham as one of our family. She has always been there for us with her special brand of friendship.

Whit, Gale, and the other “Oldtimers” have been on too many incredible excursions over the decades to name. As Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, they were literally rappelling for their lives off of the Grand Teton during a terrible lightning storm. In Glacier National Park, their group was caught high on the continental divide in a surprise blizzard. Joe Boyd managed to assist Whit out of a glacial crevasse in the Austrian Alps after Whit broke through the ice. Later in the Cascades, the group actually practiced rappelling into crevasses. There were three trips to the Bridger Wilderness in Wyoming, two trips to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado with their 14K foot peaks, and a trip across the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range that was concluded at the top of Mount Whitney. As I became old enough, I began joining my parents on some of these long backpacking treks, and they were truly magical experiences.

On one trek in Wyoming, we were camping high above treeline when a horrific lightning storm swept down upon us. Whit realized what was about to happen and told everyone to get in their tents quickly. “We’ve got 5 minutes”, he said. It was the worst storm any of us has ever experienced – before or since, and we learned later that it killed some people a few miles from us. After huddling atop our inflated Therm-A-Rests to stay insulated from the ground strikes occurring all around our tests, Rosalind remembers Whit coming around afterwards to everyone’s tent to make sure each of us was OK.

Two examples of Whit’s toughness and perseverance come to mind. Once while he was scouting a trip, he fell in a creek and cut his leg open. He was alone in the mountains, bleeding badly, dizzy, and fainting from shock, but made it the 5 miles to his car. Separately, during the annual marathon hike in 1992, Whit celebrated his 60th birthday by hiking 36 miles along the AT in Georgia, which his family felt was not bad for a senior citizen.

Both Rosalind and Joe have claimed that Whit has the best knowledge of the mountains of North Georgia and the Smokies of anyone, and that he seems to “have topo maps in his head”. Joe claimed that he once heard Hillrie Quin comment that Whit was the only person Hillrie knew that “dreams in topo maps”. Rosalind noted that Whit’s hikes are always challenging, interesting, usually unorthodox, and often include lots of cross country. She went on to say that in addition to being an excellent outdoors person in every regard who can hike just about anything, Whit makes it possible for others to do things they would never have thought they’d have been able to do.

Whit Benson has dedicated much of the past 55 years of his life to the GATC and hiking in general. His wife Gale and all five of his kids will tell you that it’s not possible to be a Benson without feeling a close association with the GATC. Over the years, at least ten members of the Benson family have participated in Club activities, most as members themselves. As Whit approaches his 73rd birthday on May 1st, he remains strong and vibrant, and although his recently diagnosed pulmonary fibrosis is forcing him to slow down a little, he continues to hike three times a week. 60 years of hiking has made him an outdoorsman with knowledge and an instinct that most of us simply can’t fathom. His efforts on behalf of the Club have left a lasting legacy that will be felt for years to come.

Whit Benson’s website is at http://www.whitbenson.com.