Don C. Brunell - Free enterprise makes America tick

Just before my father died, I asked him why he kept repeating stories about his childhood and his life. He said, “So you will remember them when I am gone.”

Suddenly, it sank in that there really is meaning to the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind.”

For the last 50 years, business has been relatively invisible when it comes to telling its story. In the early days of television, the National Association of Manufacturing sponsored a weekly program called “Industry on Parade,” and I would watch it faithfully every week. We learned how cars were put together and how steel was forged.

In the 1970s...