Founder's Message: Politics and religion

I learned a long time ago that a business publication can't write about religion or politics. Why? Because it is not the place for our popular newspaper or growing website to be controversial. There is obviously a creator and it is the freedom of all us to worship any way we choose, or not. It is guaranteed that someone will get elected (by the way, today is election day as I write this, so I do not know the results) and if the winner does a lousy job, the public will have another chance in four years to get it right. Oops! The election is over and we have the same President for another four years. The pluses? He has four years of experience and no longer has to campaign. He can concentrate on balancing the budget so that the dollar you have in your pocket now will still be worth a dollar four years from now. I think they label that inflation, something none of us need. More important to us, the real estate market is slowly but surely rebounding. What goes down must come up! Or is that: What goes up must come down. I was taught in school that before Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity, things fell up. I hope that turns out to be an old joke. The best news I've read lately is that in the new tech world embraces press releases and makes sure after printed in some newspaper (any newspaper) they are picked up and distributed to the right people and places. The Journal is proud to be able to boast of a five-person tech department, well-trained in a background of commercial real estate and allied industries and well trained in social media. They are excellent in creating new websites and updating and/or rebuilding old websites. A recent survey found that over 50% of business websites are over five years old. If you fall onto that category, call us and we'll head you in the right direction. Getting back to politics, I will address that subject again in 2016. And on the subject of religion, if you are a person who prays, do us all a favor and ask Mother Nature (another word for the Creator) to back off on punishing us for our misbehaviors. And to wrap up a cold fall, congratulations to 87 year old, still going to work every day Harold Brown who was recently honored by IREM for being a great tennis player, or was it for being a great owner developer. Good work Harold. Roland Hopkins is founder of the NEREJ, Norwell, Mass.