The summer of 2020 has been hot. We’ve had twenty-two days over ninety degrees in the past two months, and we’ve had plenty of rain to go with it. That’s the daily double; it’s hot as Hell, and humid too. And the grass is growing so fast it’s got to be cut twice a week. There’s no way to avoid this long, hot summer. Can’t go to the movies, my parents’ cure for the heat. The theaters are closed. Even driving the Jeep with the top off can be too much. If you have to stop, it’s like being on a pan in the oven.
I think the heat is affecting peoples’ outlook on the world. Things are already tense: the COVID-19 crisis continues, with growing numbers of infections and hospitalizations. But when your hot and sticky, it seems easy to buy into all of the fancy statistical “figuring”. Given enough numbers, folks can find miniscule percentages of people who might “really” be at risk of COVID-19. And if you believe that the virus isn’t a threat to you, then all of the “suggested” regulations, masks, social distancing and the like, chafe like a scratchy, grass covered t-shirt in the afternoon sun.
Colors
Of course, cooler heads get it. The virus hasn’t gone away. Ohio has instituted a “color code” system by county, warning the state when things are getting bad. Code Yellow – Level 1 – means that there is exposure, but things aren’t bad. Level II – Code Orange – the exposure is increasing. Level III – Red – there’s a very high level of exposure. And then there’s Level IV – Code Purple – severe exposure and time for folks to shelter in place. No county in Ohio is at the Purple level yet, but there are a lot of them in Code Red.
Of course the more people in a county, the more likely there’s viral transmission. So it should be no surprise that the major cities: Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, are all in Code Red. So are some of the smaller ones: Portsmouth, Marion, and Lima. And since Columbus has always been a “spread out” town, it really shouldn’t be a surprise either that some of the counties surrounding the core Franklin County are Code Red too: Fairfield County and here in Licking County.
But Orange, Red and Purple aren’t the only colors that influence those counties. It’s should be no surprise that most of the Code Red counties are also “Blue”: Democratic counties. And that the Code Yellow and Orange Counties are almost all “Red”: Republican. So built into the COVID-19 infection is political division. If you live in Muskingum County, where the big city is Zanesville, it’s easy to see the epidemic as someone else’s problem. There’s not much impact there, and “all the fuss” seems to be so overblown.
Dis-Information
Of course it doesn’t help that some politicians and social media have waged a campaign of dis-information, designed to raise doubts about the “official” scientific sources. This week alone, far-right media published a series of “experts in white coats” touting discredited drugs that could “treat” COVID-19. It went “viral” as folks are desperate for quick and easy answers to a threatening disease. But “viral videos” won’t make the virus go away either – so everyone just gets even more hot and sweaty and less trusting of the voices of reason coming out of the state capital in Columbus.
Desperate also is the word for folks thinking about public schools. They are desperate for the schools to open, desperate for their kids to have a “normal” life, desperate for childcare so they can go back to work. But Code Red County schools are planning on “online” learning. So kids will be at home, and parents are stuck with figuring out how to supervise their kids and their kids’ education, at least for the foreseeable future.
Hotheads
Here in Licking County, we are the source of the “itch”. The western part of the county, adjacent to the urban Columbus area, is heavily populated and Code Red. The eastern part of the County, more rural, is less impacted. But since it’s a County system, with the numbers in the west, Licking County as a whole is “Code Red”. So the county schools are faced with a dilemma. The ones on the eastern side are planning on going to “regular” five-day a week in-person school. The ones on the west side are pressured to open “regular” school, but are likely to end up “online”. And no one is going to be happy.
And all of this will come to a head in the next two weeks. Regardless of all of the planning, spacing desks and partitioning buses, schools are going to have to make a final decision. Go or not go: knowing that the community is going to question every call. If you don’t trust Washington, or Columbus, or even Newark (the county seat), why would you trust any leadership at all? If kids can play Little League Baseball and practice for high school football, why can’t they just go to school?
So August is likely to be even hotter. If the temperature outside doesn’t break ninety, the hot heads in town will provide all the heat we need.
The United States was a very different place in 1918, the year my parents were born. The nation was in the middle of a World War, with US forces joining the incredible death in the human meat grinder of trench warfare in Europe. Four million Americans were mobilized and sent to the battlefields in just over a year. One of the major training bases was at Camp Sherman, built on the sacred land of the Hopewell, the ancient moundbuilders, just north of Chillicothe, Ohio (NPS).
110,000 Americans would die in World War I. Like deaths in the American Civil War only fifty-five years before, disease was as deadly as bullets. 45,000 World War I recruits died of the “Spanish” flu, the influenza epidemic of 1918. 30,000 of those never reached France, but died waiting in camps or on the way in ships.
1,717 of those died at Camp Sherman, so many that the Majestic Theater in downtown Chillicothe became a temporary morgue. The theater was shuttered anyway, quarantined by the virus that attacked civilians as well as soldiers. Bodies, “stacked like cordwood,” were embalmed there. The body fluids ran into the alley next door: it became known as “Bloody Alley”. Then the bodies were transported by wagon back to Camp Sherman, to be shipped home by train (NPS).
Flu, War and Booze
Out of a population of 103 million, 675,000 Americans died in the 1918 Flu Epidemic (for those fixated on death rates, that’s .6% of the population). The epidemic struck when Americans were already mobilized and sacrificing for the war effort. Nineteen states already banned recreational alcohol use, in order to save the liquid for the war effort or use the grains for food production. And many patriotic Americans “gave up” alcohol for the war. It made a statement: many of the best-known beer manufacturers were of “enemy” German descent (Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Miller, Yuengling).
During the war saloons, bars, and nightclubs were closed. In the epidemic, those same establishments served as what we would call today “hot spots”, places where disease was easily passed from one person to another. Alcohol “greased” the rails of transmission. Masks came off and social distancing became physical contact. Think of the “you’ve lost that loving feeling” scene in Top Gun, or my Alabama-born boss making everyone stand and sing Dixie at the end of the night. It’s part of our American tradition, and a perfect incubator for viral spread.
A Nexus in History
All of this fit in with a growing social movement in America to give up alcohol. The Anti-Saloon League, the leading group pressing for national prohibition, was headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. It became an historic nexus: the anti-alcohol forces, the sacrifices for the War, and the epidemic all lead to the adoption of the 18th Amendment, prohibiting recreational alcohol in the United States.
Today we aren’t at war with other nations. Instead, we are at war with each other, agitated by half-truths and outright lies. We aren’t tearing up ancient burial grounds to mobilize and train soldiers; instead we are tearing down statues erected to glorify the stain of historic racism. In our current era of polarization, we are struggling to deal with a global pandemic. Folks are physically protesting the restricting of our normal lives to control the virus. We desperately want to crowd together at the ballpark, or the rally, or at the bar. That, even though “That loving feeling” that we are looking for will further the spread of COVID-19.
And we are faced with a growing social movement recognizing the historic inequities of American racism. Americans are protesting for change, despite the dangers of viral infection and death.
In 1918 they were just beginning to understand how to treat the disease ravaging the nation. But they did have a good knowledge of how to prevent the spread of the virus: masks, social distancing, preventing large gatherings, closing the “hot spots”, the theaters, restaurants and saloons. It was all part of the war effort. But there were “anti-maskers” then too, especially after the War ended. The duty to protect the troops was more effective in controlling disease than their duty to protect each other.
Nexus Today
Today we are wrestling with ways to control COVID-19’s growth, waiting for a time when vaccination might return us to some form of normalcy. We are arguing about what to do with schools, public events, restaurants and bars. We are at a different kind of nexus: a meeting of politics, unbridled information overload both real and false, social upheaval and epidemic. Out of the 1918 nexus came a national desire to change behavior by Prohibition. While that experiment ultimately failed, it was a noble effort to make life better.
Who knows what will come of our current nexus. Just one favor: don’t close all of the saloons. Some of us need a drink.
It was “only” twenty years ago. Vice President Al Gore was the Democrat running to succeed Bill Clinton, against the Republican Governor of Texas, George W. Bush. Personally, as a Democrat disappointed in Clinton, Gore was only a small step up. He was a little less “moderate” than Clinton, but he was wooden as a campaigner. Clinton was able to immediate relate to folks. Gore tried to be that way, but came off as standoffish and mechanical.
George W. Bush on the other hand was the personable guy we still think of today. But a tough campaign staff offset his personal friendliness. John McCain found that out in the South Carolina primary, when Bush supporters circulated rumors of an illegitimate black child. It was “hard ball” politics, and a key factor in Bush’s win in South Carolina to lock up the Republican nomination (NYT).
The shadow across the Gore campaign was the Clinton Impeachment. Whatever you thought of the outcome, whether Clinton should have been impeached or removed or not; the facts we learned about his behavior in the White House were ugly. Of course, we learned a lot about Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Speaker-Elect Bob Livingston, and several other Congressmen as well. In the end, no one looked good.
Hanging Chads
So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the November election was close. So close, that it came down to the electoral vote of Florida. And Florida came down to only a few hundred ballots out of the almost six million cast.
There is a scientific and mathematical term called “margin of error”. In any counting or polling, there is going to be some error in the results. In counting votes, or counting pennies, there will be some mistakes. Maybe it’s only one in ten thousand. But the Florida vote was so close, that it was within that margin. There were almost six million votes. A one in ten thousand margin of error was around six hundred. The deciding margin was five hundred and thirty-seven.
It also means that however many times you recounted, you would get different result each time.
And then there were the flaws in the ballots themselves. Many counties in Florida used “punch ballots”, where you punch out “chads” of paper so that a hole is left where you wanted to vote. But some “chads” don’t get punched completely out, and some folks didn’t push hard enough. Was a partially punched “chad” a vote for a candidate? What about a dimple?
And finally, there was the Palm Beach County ballot, the “butterfly ballot” where it was easy to confuse the “punch” for Gore for the “punch” for third party candidate Ralph Nader. How many Gore votes ended up as Nader votes was impossible to know. And how in the world could that error be undone?
The lawyers from both campaign descended, and Florida counted votes through Thanksgiving and on into December. Finally on December 9th the US Supreme Court, in a party line five to four vote, chose to stop the count. That made the winner George Bush.
Patriotic Duty
Many Democrats refused to accept the Supreme Court solution in Bush v Gore. It was only when Mr. Gore appeared in a nationwide address, and told the nation that he would support the new President, George W. Bush, that most began to accept the outcome. By the way, it’s worth a watch, if you’ve got eight minutes – a patriotic moment. By Christmas, there was lots of grumbling, but Vice President Gore led the Senate in counting the electoral votes and declaring Bush the victor. At the inauguration, Clinton and Gore made it clear that they were doing their best to transit the government to Bush (but some staff stole the “W’s” off of keyboards in the White House).
So here we are in 2020. The current President, Donald Trump, is maneuvering to have an “excuse” if the election doesn’t go his way. He’s already questioned the legitimacy of mail-in ballots, in spite of the fact we’ve been doing it since the Civil War. And he’s turned his back on international interference in our electoral process. So there is the question: will Donald Trump recognize the legitimacy of an election outcome that makes Joe Biden President?
Joe Biden, on the other hand, is a traditional American politician. There really is no question that if the “shoe’s on the other foot” and Trump somehow wins again, Biden will follow the tradition of Gore and the others. But Trump is not a “pro”, and he has made it clear that he has no problem being a “bad loser”.
Acceptance
And what about the “forces” of the Federal government? Trump hasn’t hesitated to use the military to pursue his political goals. Ask the thousands of troops moved to the Southern Border to stop the mythical “caravan” of illegal immigrants, right around the 2018 election. Or ask the thousands of Federal enforcement agents being mobilized today to go to “Democrat (sic) Cities”.
Defense Secretary Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Milley have expressed regret at getting dragged into the clearing of Lafayette Square and the “policing” of Washington, DC. They seem prepared to fulfill the traditional role of the military in US elections: remain neutral. But until “orders” from the Commander in Chief come down, it’s difficult to tell what they would do.
Integrity
It’s not far fetched to envision a scenario where Biden or Trump wins by a narrow margin, weeks after Election Day as counting mail-in ballots progresses past Thanksgiving. After an ugly campaign, those weeks would be even more divisive. Taking the lessons of 2000, lawyers from both sides would descend on critical Boards of Elections, trying to put “their thumb” on the scale of the count for their candidate.
By the time it’s all concluded will either candidate accept the result? Will the American people?
The election of 2020 is a critical turning point in the story of American democracy. Whatever side of the political fray you find yourself, it will be an election held under unique circumstances, one conducted in the middle of a world pandemic. And we have already spent seven months learning to question every statement by the “experts” about COVID; it won’t be a big step to question the “experts” in counting votes.
There’s really only one way out. One candidate needs to win so decisively that there can be no question as to the will of the nation. But in a nation so divided, there’s no certainty of that. So to quote MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, “buckle-up”! This won’t be over on Election Day.
So one of the lessons my father taught me over the years was not to be overwhelmed by decisions. He had a system, a process that would help him decide what he should do. It wasn’t a complicated procedure, just a legal pad and a pencil. He would make two lists, one the “pro” list and one the “con” list. At the end of making each list, you would look over the whole pad, and often it would lead you to a conclusion.
When he first showed this system to me, I objected that it didn’t have “heart”. I felt that there was an emotional component to decision-making that ultimately had to be taken into consideration. But Dad knew something I didn’t, that emotion colored the list, and more importantly, colored the strength of each of the factors on the list. It was part of the process, and in the end, whatever conclusion you came to, it was usually right emotionally as well as intellectually.
So here’s my list of who to vote for President. If you’ve read Trump World very often, I’m sure you won’t be surprised by the conclusions. But perhaps it will help you reach some conclusions yourself, particularly if you are somehow on the fence in this incredibly polarized political world.
Since I can’t put a legal pad in essay form, instead I’m going to do an issues list. My comparison will be between Joe Biden, the Democrat, and Donald Trump, the Republican. I will not be including third party candidates. They don’t have a chance to win the Presidency, and I don’t believe this is an election to “honorably lose”. And I don’t agree with most third party candidates’ positions anyway.
Old White Men
So let’s start with “the elephant” in the room. Joe Biden is an old, white man. He’ll be seventy-eight if he’s inaugurated in January, the oldest man to begin the Presidency. Donald Trump is also an old, white man, but slightly younger at 74.
And Joe Biden has a lifelong habit of saying “the wrong thing”. Some of that can be attributed to his stuttering disability. But some are “traditional” Biden screw-ups. His latest was that “Trump was the first racist elected President”. While there is little argument that Trump is a racist, there also is little argument that so were several other Presidents, including some chosen in the modern era. Woodrow Wilson comes to mind. I don’t attribute that to Biden’s old age – he’s been flubbing lines like that for his entire political career. Remember the open-mike moment – “Barack, it’s a big f—king deal”?
Donald Trump has said some pretty crazy things too. He talked about using light and disinfectant to cure folks of COVID-19, and he’s seems to have trouble walking and holding bottles of water. And of course, he wished an accused sex trafficker “well” as she sits in a prison cell. You could attribute that to old age, or the onset of dementia. But the reality is, that neither Trump nor Biden are “perfect” candidates. They are both old, white men, perhaps not as sharp as they were in the 1990’s. So let’s call this a draw. Either way, in 2021 an old white man who might be shakier than we’d like is going to be inaugurated as President.
Polarize
Donald Trump is a polarizer, the “Divider in Chief”. He began his political career by gliding down the “Golden Escalator” and talking about Mexicans as rapists and criminals (and some – some are good people). I’m a Liberal Democrat and Joe Biden is more moderate than I would like. But he has made a career of reaching across the aisle, of working with both sides to reach compromises and further government.
We’ve had three and a half years of division, so much so, that some of my more extreme conservative friends are talking about civil war if Biden wins. That didn’t start because of Donald Trump, or even Mitch McConnell. And it certainly didn’t start with Joe Biden or Barack Obama. Actually, it began in the late 1980’s with campaigns run by Lee Atwater. And before anyone screams bloody murder, I know there are Democrats who were divisive too. Certainly Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” didn’t do anyone much good four years ago.
But here we are, in the present. Our “binary choice” (is that a computer language?) is “Trump the Divider”, or “Biden the Uniter”. Seems to me we’ve had plenty of division. It’s time to heal, and if there’s anyone who would make a terrific “Healer in Chief” it’s Joe Biden.
Socialists
And what about the “S” word – socialism. The far progressive wing of the Democratic Party isn’t far from socialist, though I’m not sure that it’s a bad thing either. But it really doesn’t matter, because Biden ain’t no socialist. He is a middle-of-the-road, moderate Democrat. He’s a capitalist who believes government can make things better, and can help the working class and the poor. Trump believes that government needs to let everyone fight it out among themselves, except for the rich, who clearly need more tax breaks.
And speaking of helping, what’s happening with health insurance? Donald Trump has now had three and a half years, two of them with a fully Republican Congress. His main mission, to remove the Affordable Care Act, failed. Meanwhile, there isn’t a Republican plan for health care. They haven’t proposed anything (though didn’t he say there would be one in two weeks, about three weeks ago?) The Trump Administration is still in Court to try to stop the Affordable Care Act, in the middle of a pandemic.
Biden obviously likes the Affordable Care Act, and wants to expand upon it. He would like to add a public option to the plan, and do more to control costs, particular prescription drug costs. We know what he’s already done as Vice President to get good health insurance to more people, so he has a track record.
Science
I am sixty-three years old. I grew up in the shadow of nuclear destruction. We hid under desks during the Cuban missile crisis, and the joke, “Moscow in flames, bombs on the way, film at eleven,” really wasn’t all that funny. But we survived that era. Now we are in an era of climate extremes that science says is caused by humans. The summers aren’t the hottest, but they are very hot. The storms aren’t the worst, but they are all bad. The tides are getting higher, and the ice is melting.
The Trump Administration has made it national policy to roll back environmental protections. In one of the few areas where Trump had success, we have sold out the environment for short-term economic gains. It’s at the heart of Trump’s success on Wall Street. Joe Biden is committed to the long-term improvement of the climate, and reducing the world’s impact. Biden is following science, Trump is ignoring it.
Competence
Twenty years from now those choices will have a big impact. But ignoring science is costing us, right now. We don’t need to worry about nuclear destruction; we need to worry about, viral infection. Today the United States will pass over 150,000 deaths from the COVID-19 virus. Near 4.5 million are infected.
President Trump ignored science for short-term economic gains. We are paying the price, literally in blood. Joe Biden has put forward plan after plan to deal with COVID, plans that would lead America to reduced infection and death, and long-term economic improvements. He is listening to science.
Trump is incompetent. Biden is competent. That’s the bottom line on the checklist. And while there are all sorts of things that I’d like to see in a President that Joe Biden doesn’t have, the minimal requirement has to be that: competence.
“ Here’s the deal, it looks like a war zone because at 1:30 in the morning, 2,000 people are throwing cases, bottles, and Molotov cocktails, there’s no reason people need to be at a courthouse past midnight”. – Sara Fagin, Republican Campaign Consultant
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. – US Constitution, First Amendment
Portland
What’s happening in Portland, Oregon is confusing. Unmarked agents of the Federal Government are defending the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse from protestors night after night. What started as Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and the killing of George Floyd, has now evolved into – something else.
Thousands are coming to downtown Portland each night. They are there to demand that the anonymous Federal defenders be removed from their town. And hundreds seem to be there to engage in some form of combat with those defenders: firing bottle rockets, flashing lasers, and throwing frozen water bottles and other projectiles at them.
The Feds respond in kind, with tear gas and nightsticks, wading out beyond the confines to the Courthouse to chase rioters down. The park across the street from the Courthouse has become a focal point. Last night the Feds searched the makeshift encampments there, finding gas masks, sticks, chemical sprayers and, ominously, an empty gas can (USA Today).
Meanwhile, the Portland Police has turned a blind eye to the protest zone. They avoid getting caught between two forces they can’t control, the protestors/rioters, and the Federal forces.
Too Many Actors
Portland Police and Federal agents, protestors for Black Lives Matter, or against Federal intervention (they would say invasion), and rioters who are coming “for the fun”: it’s hard to defuse the situation. Black Lives Matter organizers are concerned that their goals are now lost in the melee, diluting the strong statement they have made across America. Local police enforcement is lost in a battle between protestors and the Feds. Even the Mayor of Portland was on the frontline; tear gassed by the Federal forces.
And it doesn’t help that the Federal forces are dressed in military style camouflage. It seems like a “small” thing, but wearing “Operational Camouflage” makes them look a lot more like a military force (some would say an occupation force), rather than a policing organization. And, other than vague “Police” labels, it is unclear who the helmeted and armed Federal forces really are. Are they Border Patrol, or Bureau of Prisons, or ICE, or FBI, or U.S. Marshals or even the TSA? Whose is responsible for the actions of these unidentified “soldiers”? It all lends to the conspiracy theories. Are they somehow mercenaries hired from Erik Prince to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Bill Barr?
The Mayor of Portland, the Attorney General, the Governor, the Congressmen and Senators from the state, have all asked the Federal Government to withdraw the forces from Portland. Whatever the original intent of the protestors or the protectors, it is now all about the Federal government forcing themselves into Oregon. It seems that both sides are out of control.
Politics
It also crosses political lines. Sure Republicans are lining up behind the Trump campaign slogan of “LAW AND ORDER”. But deep down they are concerned about a Federal expansion into the local law enforcement. It doesn’t help that the President is promising to surge 75,000 Federal agents into “DEMOCRAT CITIES” throughout the nation, especially since they are only 100,000 total Federal “policing” agents. Are they all going to Albuquerque and Chicago and Kansas City? Who is going to be left on the border, or busting drug dealers?
The ideal resolution is for the “Federal” forces to withdraw, replaced by Oregon’s forces. Include the Oregon National Guard if necessary. But that would be too “simple”.
President Trump has found a pressure point he can use to change the national subject from the COVID-19 epidemic. His “righteous indignation” about the “failure” of the DEMOCRAT MAYORS is fired every night by the battles outside of the Hatfield building. Don’t be surprised to see the clashes in Trump 2020 ads soon in a TV or computer near you!
And for those wishing to battle the failures of the Trumpian Federal Government, from the President, to Bill Barr to ICE to child separation: they have found a place to “fight”. Portland is the magnet. As former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, “…after the protests are made earlier in the evening, night after night, something happens”. The peaceful demonstrators are overawed by those looking “for the fight”, and the riots begin. But a magnet is attracted to something, and the something is the camouflaged Feds around the Hatfield building.
Thumb in the Dam
The Constitution puts no time limit on protests. The “time bell” doesn’t go off at midnight, when the “right to peaceably assemble” is somehow revoked. But there is a different kind of alarm that should be sounding. It is a clarion call of politics overwhelming common sense, of the ten-second video becoming more important than the hard work required to reduce the tensions.
The answer is not to allow the burning of the Mark Hatfield Courthouse. But the answer is also not to keep Federal forces in place to draw the violence. The appropriate response is for the Federal government and the State government to work to resolve the issue. That could bring some peace to the area around the Courthouse. And, that’s something that Mark Hatfield himself would appreciate. But he practiced politics in a different time. In our polarized nation today, it’s likely that all sides will remain intransigent.
But don’t think the protestors or the rioters will disappear. There a huge reservoir of dissatisfaction built up, and the dam is breached. Portland is the “crack” where that disapproval can be physically voiced and acted upon, night after night. It will stay that way until someone puts a thumb in the dam. Until that happens, there will be no “time bell” to ring.
It’s July 24th, 2020. It would have been my Dad’s 102nd birthday today. He passed away four years ago, just a couple of days shy of 98 years old. The light of his life, my Mom, had gone five years before that. They had an amazing life together, so much of it full of joy and adventure. It was only in those final couple of years before Mom died, and the last couple years for Dad, that things got sad.
When Mom died, none of us were prepared. The days after her death were a flurry, planning a funeral, and then finding that our “family” Weil Funeral Home couldn’t do it on Yom Kippur. They were still great, and helped us move to the Catholic Gilligan Funeral Home. We were all worried about Dad, but he was more concerned about us. When the funeral was over, the Irish in us took over (after all, Mom’s maiden name and all of our middle names is O’Connor). With Jameson’s in our glasses, we drank a toast to “the man upstairs”. It was Dad; he’d gone up to bed, the last night he’d spend in the house where they lived for over forty years.
So now I’m sixty-three, and thinking about him. His goal in those last years was to make it to 100. In those years, I was handling all of his finances. Dad would ask, “do I have enough money to keep living?” The answer always was, “Of course, you can live as long as you want”. “Can I make it past 100?” he’d press on, and I’d assure him there was plenty for that. Dad always would pay for whatever we were doing, but then he’d pat his pocket and say he didn’t have his money. I’d answer, “I’ve got your money”. I think he found that reassuring.
Work Hard
There are lots of things that Dad taught me. Most of them were through example. Dad was one of the hardest-working men I’ve known. Some of my earliest memories are from when he was “on the road” Monday through Friday. There were evening phone calls from Indianapolis or Ottumwa, and he’d pull back in on Friday ready to see his family.
Saturday’s there was always stuff to do, work around the house or the yard. But Dad was no “handyman”, though he wished he were. I didn’t realize that until I was older. When I got my first car, a 1969 Plymouth Fury III (I still have the keys) the engine was shot. Dad was no mechanic either, but our neighbors Tom Morgan and Carlos Phillips, both were good ones. So Tom, Carlos and I would work on that Plymouth, and Dad would join in until it got late enough. Then he’d fall asleep.
Napping
Dad made sure that all good “Dahlman’s” could fall asleep any place, any time. So when things got late in the garage, Dad might be found snoozing somewhere, leaning against a tire. It’s actually a great skill to have. I’ve slept through Broadway plays, track meets with guns going off, and pretty much every airplane takeoff I’ve been on. Dad learned that skill as a kid with a bad stomach. When he felt sick, he went to sleep, and woke up feeling better. Later on you could count on Dad, asleep in a chair by the TV pretty much any evening.
But what really mattered was that Dad wasn’t particularly interested in the guts of a big old Plymouth engine. Looking back, he was there for me, to be a part of what I was doing.
Hit the Waves
Dad was no “outdoorsman” either. But when we went to the beach, he loved the ocean, and the waves. He taught me the skill of bodysurfing when I was nine at Cape Cod – and we both enjoyed that for years. It wasn’t until he was near seventy that the waves finally got him. We were in the Bahamas, bodysurfing some big rollers coming in from Florida. One flipped him head over toe, stuck his face in the sand and knocked his swimsuit to his knees. He got up, pulled himself together, and jumped in again, but ever after he was cautious of the big ones. Now that I’m closer to that age, I get it too. I’m not as reckless as I used to be, because now, getting twisted means waking up hurting .
But when it came for a “walk” down the beach, usually several miles with the ultimate speed walker, Mom, Dad would pass. Mom and the rest of us would head for “the end” of the beach, and then come back. We’d find him snoozing in the chair, usually with the tide lapping at his feet.
When I was getting my “going to college” award from my Scout Troop 819 (it was a glass bottomed beer mug, still on my mantle) Dad went on his first Scout camping trip with me so he could be there for the campfire ceremony. I’m guessing the last tent he slept in was a shelter/half in some field in Georgia during basic training in 1941. I know he didn’t sleep much (no snoring to be heard), and though I didn’t realize at the time, again, it was to be a part of what I was doing.
Dad and me at the Campout – 1974
Dahlman Tennis
But there was tennis. Man, did Dad play tennis. Even after he had a couple of strokes, and his left foot dragged a bit when he walked; put a racket in his hands and he could run across the court. He played until he was 93, and he played to win. His tennis group in Florida was called the “Walking Wounded”. Dad only had two open-heart surgeries, but there was an open heart with knee replacements, a couple of artificial hips, and all sorts of other ailments in the crew.
So when I was down to visit and kibitzed into the game, I tried to take it easy on our opponents: my mistake. Dad and I were parterned in doubles, and the opposition came to the net on a weak shot. I ran up to take it.
Don Dahlman’s tennis rules were pretty simple: if the other guy hit a bad shot, and you could drive it down his throat, you did. It was pretty scary when I was ten or so, though I later learned to not “feed” him a killable ball. So when open-heart surgery, two artificial knees and a bad elbow came to the net, I didn’t kill the ball. I lobbed it back over his head.
After the point, Dad took me aside. He wanted to make sure I understood the Dahlman rules of tennis. Even in the “Walking Wounded” games, there was no letting guys off the hook just because of their ailments. THEY stepped on the court; it was THEIR problem if they couldn’t take it. “But,” I said, “I might kill him”. “We’ll win the point,” was Dad’s response.
I didn’t win a set of tennis against Dad until I was eighteen. I didn’t lose more than one or two after I was thirty (that would have made Dad near seventy). It was no good trying to “feed” him the points, he knew if you weren’t going after it, and he didn’t want to play you if you weren’t trying to win. So, with the exception of not hitting overheads (Dad would get dizzy when he went straight up in the last few years) we played tennis hard.
The Tryouts
Dad’s work came home. We were all a part of whatever he was doing at the TV station, or with the programs he was involved in creating and selling. And we were definitely the final approval committee for new hires. I think the logic went: if you couldn’t come to dinner and sell the bosses’ kids, you probably weren’t going to be able to convince Proctor and Gamble to buy four thirty-second commercial spots on the next TV show. So we met the whole team, Grant and Lee, Bruce, Boyce, and Joe. They passed the test around the dinner table, and went out into the world to sell Donahue, Sally Jesse Raphael, After School Specials, and, towards the end, Jerry Springer.
Speaking of working for Dad, he taught me one other thing. He taught me a range of profanity that I have found to be a valuable and effective tool in my life, though I never used it towards people like he did. He seldom used it at home, but it was clearly the “language” of his work. When he was trying to get something done, or get someone motivated, the shear creativity of Dad’s language was amazing.
I never, ever wanted to work for him. It must have been a World War II thing, because some of his friends were as good at profanity or even better. And one of my earliest employers, a WW II Marine himself, did the same. Those kinds of words coming from a US Congressman really had a punch.
Some kids learn profanity on the back of the bus, and some at Boy Scout Camp. I learned a little about sailing from Jerry Ransohoff. But I learned so much more about language, and what could possibly be said with a four-letter explanation. And I learned lots of dirty jokes from Art Spiegel over the tennis net. But the “best” profanity I learned was from listening to Dad talk business on the phone. It’s served me well.
Take Risks
Looking back, I realize Dad was a risk taker. He believed in himself and in his ability to do whatever job he put his mind to. If a company didn’t give him what he wanted, he moved on. He went from one company to the next: Adler to Crosley, Crosley to Ziv, Ziv to Avco. When Avco became Multimedia, he went from Dayton to corporate in Cincinnati, moving where he needed to be. Our family went with him, except for two years when we were in Cincinnati and he was in Dayton. The commute proved to be too much, and we finally moved to Kettering to be near the TV station, WLW-D.
But the one move Dad never made was to New York City. That was the center of the broadcast universe, home to the networks. I’m sure there were plenty of opportunities, and both Mom and Dad were city lovers. But they didn’t want to raise us in the city, and they didn’t want Dad to spend hours on a train every day to the suburbs. So he took risks and moved up, but never made the final move to NYC. He passed that up for us.
Dad was a child of the Depression, and a veteran of World War II. He smoked a lot when I was very little, as did most of his generation. When he was forty-four, we were living in Bloomfield Village outside of Detroit. He came in the living room of the house one evening, and announced that he was smoking his last cigarette. The doctor told him he wouldn’t live to see his kids grow up if he didn’t quit, so he did, right there. I only saw him smoke once more, several years later in Dayton. There was a stain on the dining room table; somehow cigarette ashes would get it out. He looked immensely pleased to smoke one for that purpose.
The Final Lesson
But Dad and Mom taught us one lesson beyond all others: how to love and how to live. I had the honor of speaking at both of their funerals. I don’t think I can say it any better now than I did when I spoke for the family at the pulpit at Trinity and Ascension Episcopal Church in Wyoming, Ohio, in those days of grief after Mom passed away.
And most importantly of all, we learned the great gift of love. There is no greater love story than that of Mom and Dad: born in the bombing of London, nurtured through the trials and turmoil of the great American television boom; raising kids in the 60’s, enjoying the life of travel that the 80’s and 90’s brought. They were inseparable, they were one, they were the epitome of what commitment to each other meant. “’Til death do us part” was only a part of their commitment. “To live life as one” is the greatest gift Mom and Dad had to teach.
Happy Birthday, Dad, I’m so glad you’re with Mom again.
Mike Rowe is a television star, much like Donald Trump was before he turned to politics. Mr. Rowe starred in the cable favorite, Dirty Jobs. He went from town to town in America, and highlighted jobs that “regular folks” were doing. They usually were jobs that included getting dirty, greasy, and nasty on a daily basis. And Mike not only “reported” on those jobs, he often participated.
The jobs ranged from obscure; bat cave scavenger and worm dung farmer; to commonplace, like road kill cleaners and sewer inspectors. He made 170 episodes over seven years. Many Americans came to love both the eye-opening revelation of what their fellow citizens did for a living, and Mike Rowe’s constant willingness to get down and dirty as part of the show.
So when the series ended, Rowe had a large following. He’s parlayed that fan base into backing for what he calls his non-political views. It started with the American educational system. Mike became an advocate for vocational education, and a critic of “everyone needing” a college degree. It fit in perfectly with his Dirty Jobs image.
Champion
Mike isn’t necessarily a “Trumper”, but he has a developed a role as the “champion” of the common man, much the same role that Donald Trump claims. Rowe’s take on 2016 was that the choices were “skinny” and that voters were “busted” with both candidates. He doesn’t see the present choices as particularly different.
He has already begun filming a return of Dirty Jobs. Some have criticized his travelling around the country, taking a film crew from place to place in the middle of a pandemic. But Rowe takes a very firm stand on COVID-19, one that gets little conversation today in our country. And that’s why we’re doing this “dirty job” today, writing about Mike Rowe.
Mike accepts the view explained by Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). Osterholm anticipates that the COVID-19 virus will ultimately infect 100 million Americans, and kill 480,000. He explains that “flattening the curve” reduces the volume of COVID cases at any one time, but never was, and isn’t, about “stopping” the disease; just slowing it down so hospital space remains available.
Osterholm sees the COVID epidemic as requiring herd immunity. Herd immunity means that a high percentage of the population gains immunity, either through having had the disease, or vaccination. Until we reach herd immunity, the disease, he says, it’s going to continue to spread.
Grieving
Rowe takes the position that we need to go through the stages of grief about COVID: denial, anger, bargaining, and acceptance. And that once we reach acceptance, we need to determine to go ahead and live our lives, knowing we will ultimately get the virus, and lose loved ones, and there’s little or nothing we can do about it.
It doesn’t mean that Rowe, or Osterholm, advocates recklessness. Both wear masks when appropriate, both advocate social distancing. And both recognize that “flattening the curve” is important as a way to reduce suffering.
But Rowe has reached a fatalistic position, that since he can do little about the pandemic, he has determined to go about life, filming the new series, and travelling the country. As he puts it, 40,000 Americans die in traffic accidents each year: we don’t cover every wreck with national media exposure. Wear a seat belt, check your mirrors, and drive. His view: “I’m also aware we’d be a lot safer if we all kept ourselves in the house. But that’s not why cars, or people, exist” (Rowe Blog).
Choices
There are, clearly, alternative views to that of Dr. Osterholm and Mr. Rowe. Many other experts believe that we can stave-off the fatalities until a vaccine arrives, and then achieve herd immunity by injection rather than infection. In that way, hundreds of thousands won’t have to die. It’s a matter of patience and control: putting off choices that will increase infection, and controlling interactions with others.
But Mike Rowe is expressing the thoughts of many; wanting to regain the life they feel they lost on March 15th. It is a kind of an American, bull-headed, full steam ahead approach. If folks are going to die anyway, then let’s get it over with and get on with our lives.
That choice has one significant problem: those making that decision aren’t just making it for themselves. They are making it for everyone, whether we agree with Dr. Osterholm or not. Their decision to “live their lives” will speed the spread of the disease, and fulfill their prophecy of mass infection.
O God and Heavenly Father, Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen – The Serenity Prayer
Faith
I am not a religious man. For those who find that concerning – it’s not from “want” of knowledge. I’ve studied religions my entire life. I was the son of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, and raised in the Episcopal Church. The joke was it was as close as Mom could get to Catholic without Dad getting mad. I’ve read from the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and the Talmud.
For me it’s always been a question of finding faith, not knowledge. And I haven’t made that great leap of “faith,” at least, not yet. But it doesn’t mean I can’t draw some knowledge and understanding of human nature from the beliefs I’ve studied, and try to gain wisdom from the prayers and stories I’ve heard.
Change
But this week there is so much to change. Here in Ohio we find that some of our political leaders sold us out. At least it was for a good price, $60 million. We are all “on the hook” for the debts of First Energy and their aging nuclear reactors. It’s now a part of our energy costs for the foreseeable future. And in return, we gave up programs encouraging renewable resources. So instead we empower gas, oil and coal, and push the two remaining nuclear plants far beyond their shelf life.
And we find that a US Senator, Republican Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, is accepting Russian disinformation as an excuse for investigating the Democratic candidate for President, Joe Biden. After years of opportunity, Johnson is only now trying to use his Committee to put his thumb on the scale of the Presidential election. He is naive or cynical: trading on disinformation to impugn Biden’s reputation.
Courage
This week we discovered that the Department of Homeland Security is sending “flying squads” of “officers” into American cities. The President determined that those particular cities aren’t governed effectively. Instead of working towards improvement with the local and state officials, Mr. Trump has decided that HE, who left the United States completely vulnerable to COVID-19, knows better how to run them. So these anonymous, camouflage clad “troops” are in the streets, using their “muscle” to enforce Presidential will.
As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman stated, President Trump is using this to deflect America from the COVID disaster. It’s a Wag the Dogscenario, except this is no foreign war. Donald Trump is going to wage a war against Americans in America, all to get votes in November.
Acceptance
And this week we are told that political bullying is just fine. Some Senators spent an entire year blocking any consideration of President Obama’s selection of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. Now they have made it clear that if a vacancy occurs while Trump remains in office, they will fill it. It lays bare what we already knew: that McConnell was lying when he said we shouldn’t choose a Justice in an election year. And somehow, it elicits a bully’s sick “giggle” when he and other Senators are confronted with their prevarication.
This week the President’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, was given the choice of returning to jail or giving up his First Amendment freedom of expression. There isn’t any legal support for that, just a Justice Department demand. The Attorney General wants to do whatever he can to tilt the scales for Trump in the 2020 election. The Cohen book certainly won’t be saying much good about Trump. Keeping Cohen in solitary confinement thru Election Day will solve one of the President’s many problems.
Wisdom
And finally this week, the President told us that it was OK to risk thousands of students by re-opening schools under all conditions. “Only .004% of students who get COVID-19 will die,” he said. There’s 50 million some students in the US, and if only five percent are infected, it means two and a half million get COVID-19. That tiny little percentage, .004 of a percent, amounts to eight thousand, five hundred kids who may die.
So what we are told is not only are some willing to kill off the elderly, but those kids as well. Of course the deaths will be spread across the nation, and are likely to be “only” those with existing weaknesses. We call them pre-existing conditions, but while everyone is waiting for “herd immunity”, I guess the disease will “cull” the herd too.
Serenity
All of these make me angry. I hate the fact that the nation I love; that I swore loyalty to since I first placed my hand on my heart in kindergarten; whose emblem adorned my pocket as an Eagle Scout; and whose history I have studied and taught my entire life, is letting this happen. I hate that we need the “Courage” to change in November, and then, God willing, the “Patience” to wait until January, to begin to confront these injustices.
The Serenity Prayer asks the Lord to grant us the serenity to accept all of this. I prefer a quote from a 1980’s Brat Pack movie, Red Dawn:
The Trump 2020 campaign strategy has been the same since 2017: win the Dow Jones and win the Presidency. It’s not new. Clinton Svengali James Carville coined the phrase in 1992: “it’s the economy stupid”. For Clinton, that became more important than the recurring campaign crises over “bimbo eruptions”, and with the help of Ross Perot, gained them the keys to the White House.
Win the Dow Jones and win the Presidency. With records broken on Wall Street, it was strong enough to overcome Trump’s bimbos (or is it bimboes?). It was enough to overcome child separation at the border, and it might even have been enough to overcome Russia, Ukraine, and impeachment.
But COVID-19 changed everything. It wrecked the “beautiful” Dow Jones, though pump priming from the Federal Reserve has managed to regain most of what was lost there. But the claim that “more Americans were working than ever” was done. From unemployment of rates of 3%, we reached 15% and, but for statistical slight of hand, maybe even higher.
The Virus
And of course, a whole lot of people were dying. They still are: yesterday the US had 1000 deaths from COVID-19 once again. We will soon reach the next grim milestone, 150,000 lost to the virus in six months. And over 4 million have been infected.
Up until yesterday the Trump corona-virus strategy was clear: “get over” COVID and let’s get back to work. The weeks long battle over re-opening the public schools hasn’t been about the “welfare” of the poor children who need to learn. It’s much more basic. Compulsory schooling began in the late 1800’s in order to get children out of the labor market. Sure it was nice that they went to school, but it was even nicer that their parents got the factory jobs that little hands were taking.
The Trump Administration can’t get Americans back on the job when kids are at home online. That won’t work, because their parents can’t. So schools need to open – damn the virus and full speed ahead. So what if, as the President said yesterday, ONLY .04% of children getting the virus might die. Gee, that’s only four out ten thousand. So Columbus City Schools has 50,000 students. If only 25% of those kids get the virus, that means five kids will die – and that’s just Columbus. Oh well, back to work, they probably had some pre-existing condition, asthma, diabetes or something.
Scientist in Chief
Opening the economy is still the overarching Trump 2020 strategy. It drives everything else that’s happened as the United States has worked itself into the greatest public health disaster in modern history. But yesterday, the President stepped alone in the White House Press Room, and tried to flip the script.
After months of ignoring the scientists, and weeks of denigrating Anthony Fauci, all of a sudden the President was the “Scientist in Chief”. He encouraged folks to wear facemasks; in fact, he had his Presidential mask in his suit coat pocket. He seemed to almost apologize for all of his ignorance that has come out of Washington for the past several months, from Chloroquine to bleach. Now he was standing there, with newly drawn graphs showing America’s “successful” COVID strategy, touting his program and the soon to be “magic vaccine”, tested and produced faster than ever before.
Flip the Script
The political Trump narrative of 2016 was that for the last 30 days of the campaign, the candidate actually “stuck to the script”. This is the “pride” of KellyAnn Conway, that she convinced Donald Trump to follow her strategy, and with all of the other events of that fateful October, ended up in the White House. Now the Trump team is trying to get him to do it again. He stayed “on script” for an entire thirty-five minutes in the Press Room yesterday, with only one “blip”. Wishing Ghislaine Maxwell, an accused child sex trafficker, “well”, probably wasn’t a great idea.
It doesn’t change what’s happened in the past six months. The virus isn’t the only issue: the nation is in the throes of a new awakening to racial injustice. The President made his stand on that, claiming “law and order” as he put secret police on the streets of Portland. And no one really thinks that Trump can stay “on script” for the ninety plus days remaining until the election.
But give Trump 2020 some credit. They’ve taken six months to do it, but they’ve finally figured out what the President should be doing in a COVID-19 world. He should be helping science fight the virus.
“There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” – AlexandreLedru-Rollin– a leader of the French Revolution of 1848
Ahead of Opinion
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had already served seven years as President of the United States by 1940. He had come into office facing the existential crisis of the Great Depression. There was near 25% unemployment, the banks failed and closed, and Americans starving in the streets. Now in 1940 the unemployment rate was still at 17%. And though the New Deal had managed to reduce much of the raw suffering, times were still tough in America.
The United States was a nation turned inward. World War II in Europe began in September of 1939, but most Americans wanted no part of another European conflict. The scars of World War I, and the aftermath of the failed peace plan, led them to turn away from the threat of Nazism. And while Japan had been waging war in Asia since 1932, it was still an ocean away. Americans didn’t see Japanese imperialism as a threat.
Roosevelt did. And he saw Nazism for what it was: an overarching world peril. He knew that ultimately it would be the United States that would have to stand up to Hitler. But he also knew that the American people, and the United States Congress, weren’t prepared to make that commitment, yet. Congress was already hamstringing his efforts. If Roosevelt moved too fast or pushed too hard, Congress would further restrict him. So he had to maneuver American actions and policies, staying carefully “neutral” while knowing full well what would need to be done.
It wasn’t until September of 1940 that the draft was instituted to build up the armed forces. And it wasn’t Germany at all, but Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, the ultimately pushed the American people into war.
Governor DeWine
Last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine spoke to the people of the state about the COVID-19 crisis. Many thought that DeWine would institute a statewide mandate to wear facemasks in public, or might even call for a “shelter-in-place” order for the most affected counties. But while some mandates were issued for counties that had dramatically increased infection rates, the Governor mostly urged Ohioans to take action on their own, without “orders” from the state government.
“…I’m asking you, I’m calling on all of you, to once again unite. This virus is real. It’s killing our family members, our friends, our co-workers. We must take the long view in a response to it and remember that Ohioans have always been a strong, determined, resilient people who time and time again have overcome adversity and beat the odds” (Governor Mike DeWine, July 15, 2020).
In that speech he also referred to Franklin Roosevelt and James Cox, the Governor of Ohio during the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Cox, much like DeWine today, referred health responses to local cities and counties, rather than a statewide approach. And much like Roosevelt in 1940, DeWine was careful not to outdistance his support.
A Strong Stand
In the first round of COVID-19 reaction in March, the Governor took a strong stand. Along with the Amy Acton, the Director of Public Health, DeWine stopped the Ohio Primary election in March, and mandated a general state closure. Ohioans responded well, virtually “closing down” the state for more than a month. Unlike states on the east coast, Ohio had fewer infections, and the hospitals had plenty of capacity to handle incoming cases.
And DeWine was cautious about letting the state reopen. Unlike Arizona, Texas, Georgia or Florida, Ohio waited until late May to reopen its economy. But when it did, the Governor who had been so strong in March and April, all of a sudden became tentative. What originally was a mask “mandate” became a “strong suggestion”, and the Dr. Acton, was sidelined. So what happened?
Legislative Will
There were a series of demonstrations in the state, by folks demanding that DeWine allow things to reopen. Often, those demonstrators combined their signs with legal arms, making for an intimidating force on the Statehouse lawn. And the demonstrators were not only Ohioans but also Republicans, the same voters that supported DeWine and the majority Republican legislature in the first place.
In early May, the State House of Representatives passed a bill severely restricting the Director of Public Health powers, and ultimately the Governor’s ability to deal with the crisis. Speaker of the House Larry Householder made it clear that he thought Ohio had to follow the lead of the Southern states and reopen as soon as possible. The proposed legislation moved much of the power to make those decisions to the legislative rather than the executive’s hands.
Ultimately the bill did not pass the State Senate. But for DeWine the writing was on the wall. Like Roosevelt in 1940, he might know what needed to be done. But DeWine couldn’t get too far ahead of the legislature, or the citizens. And he knew, even if he had the political courage to risk losing an election, the State Legislature would respond to their supporters. It wasn’t the minority Democrats demanding the state re-open; it was his and the majority’s own political party.
A Piecemeal Solution
So Governor DeWine continues to use a county-by-county response to this “first wave” of the COVID-19 infection. As rates rise in urban areas, those counties: Hamilton, Montgomery, Franklin, Lucas, Summit and Cuyahoga are moved onto the “Red” alert list. But the virus doesn’t respect county lines, so the surrounding counties, and those of other smaller Ohio cities, are also on “Red”.
It’s probably the best that the Governor can do. If he gets too far out ahead of the Legislature, then like Wisconsin, he’ll find that he’s lost his authority to act at all. The present “color coded” plan responds to the virus, for the moment. It will take a greater crisis, one that the citizens of Ohio recognize as undeniable, to give the Governor the strength to act.
It is in times of turmoil and stress that we most appreciate our leaders and role models. And it is during those times that we feel the loss of those leaders even more intensely. First it was John McCain, the Senator who seemed to represent the best traditions of the Republican Party and of America. Next it was Elijah Cummings, the “moderator” who could speak to both sides of the political divide in Congress, just as we entered our greatest era of political upheaval. Then Friday we lost John Lewis, the moral compass of our times.
A Lifetime
John Lewis seemed to be the “Forrest Gump” of the Civil Rights movement, at every high point and nadir of the struggle for freedom. It’s because he started so young, a seventeen year old leader of sit-ins, an original Freedom Rider at twenty-one. John Lewis was at Martin Luther King’s side on the Lincoln Memorial steps for the “I Have a Dream” speech. And he wasn’t a spectator, he helped organize the march, and at twenty-three, he addressed the assembled masses there as well.
But it was in 1965 that John Lewis literally placed himself in the center of American morality. Lewis and Hosea Williams led a march trying to get from Selma to Montgomery to gain voting rights. The march crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Grand Wizard of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. It was on the south side of the bridge that the State Troopers and the Klan attacked the peaceful march with tear gas, and then charged into the line of marchers with bats and nightsticks.
Lewis was among the injured, suffering a fractured skull. The attack was aired on national television, and galvanized the voting rights movement. The pressure reached President Lyndon Johnson, and lead to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Power
John Lewis was an activist for his entire life. He had put that life on the line to prove his moral point. That certitude was his power: to use a Civil War phrase he had “faced the elephant” of racism and hate, and demonstrated his own rightness. When he spoke, in slow, measured terms, he always spoke with that power.
Lewis was history personified. But he wasn’t a relic: even at the last days of his life, he was as involved in the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter as he was in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960’s. Jim Clyburn, a colleague and friend in Congress related a story this weekend. They were talking about the highs of the 1960’s Civil Rights movement, how non-violent sit-ins and marches achieved so much, but still fell short of equality. Clyburn related their frustration of many turning away from Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience to violence and “burn baby burn”.
The killing of George Floyd brought Americans back into the streets against discrimination again. Lewis and Clyburn saw both the hope of black and white marching together, and the fear of rioting destroying the whole movement. They spoke from their experience; it was why Clyburn stood against the “Defund the Police” phrase so vehemently.
To The End
In the last months, when Lewis faced his own mortality with pancreatic cancer, he continued his “mission” to America. He spoke at the Pettus Bridge once again, and he continued to condemn the actions of President Trump. Like McCain and Cummings, he worked to the last moments of his life so much so that his inevitable death still took us all by surprise.
We live in an era of stark contrast. The shining example of John Lewis stands against the angry and attacking Donald Trump interviewed this weekend. We feel the void left by all these losses as we move toward the critical moment of the 2020 election. But John Lewis would want us use what we he taught us. Face “the elephant”. Stand up against what is wrong. Be willing to stand against those who would deny “The Dream” just as Lewis faced hate and violence at the bridge. That is his legacy to us. And it is our obligation to him, and to our country.
You walk the city streets late at night. A van pulls up, and out jumps camouflage suited men, heavily armored and with automatic weapons. They stop you, question you, then place you up against a wall. Your handcuffed and taken away in the van.
Sounds like a grim scene from Cold War East Germany, the Columbian drug wars, or present day Russia. Nothing like this could happen in the United States, and if it did, it certainly wouldn’t be government sponsored, right? To detain someone you have to have “cause”, the legalism for a reason. To place someone under arrest, you need to have “probable cause”, a good reason to believe they have violated the law.
We grant the police authority to question, detain, arrest and charge based on a “social compact”. They get their especial authority, in return for only using it within the confines of the Constitution. The law goes both ways: neither side is supposed to violate it.
Federal Units
But dark vans are patrolling the streets of late night Portland, Oregon. And those camo suited men are stopping cars and pedestrians, seemingly for the “crime” of “being out”. Some of those stopped try to resist, not understanding who is trying to “kidnap” them. One was shot by a “non-lethal” weapon, and is in the hospital with a fractured skull. And in those dark vans aren’t the Portland City Police, nor the Multnomah County Sheriff, nor even the Oregon State Police. They are agents of the Federal government (WAPO).
And they aren’t even the group we regard as the Federal police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No, they are U.S. Marshals from the “Special Operations Group”, and the Customs and Border Patrol’s “Tactical Unit”. They aren’t even cops. They are chosen for Portland because of their “special” skills.
The Government of the United States of America has sent a “special operations group” to terrorize the streets of Portland. They are acting at the behest of the President, and against, (yes against), the specific requests of the Mayor of Portland, the Governor of Oregon, and a US Senator. But the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, stated that since, “…local politicians refuse to restore order to protect their city” his agents will get the job done. And his acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, added: “…we’re going to do what needs to be done to protect the men and women of this country”. There’s a lot of “acting” going on.
There have been protests in Portland since George Floyd was killed. And Portland has a history of violent protests over the past few years. But the local authorities have dealt with it. The police in Portland have been tough when they needed to be, using tear gas and force to clear the streets. But they aren’t moving fast enough for Donald Trump.
What Trump Needs
The local strategy doesn’t fit into the narrative of the current Administration in Washington, DC. The “Feds” have to prove how tough they can be, at least, prove it to their political base. They threatened to send Federal troops into Seattle, but backed away at the last moment. They used Federal agents to clear Lafayette Square in Washington, DC, so the President could have his “upside down Bible” photo-op outside of St. John’s Church. And now they are trying to prove their “manhood” in Portland.
It might be different if the Oregon National Guard was Federalized, or the “Insurrection Act” was triggered and the US Army went in. But it is the camo suited “special operations” units. And instead of confronting the protestors to end the protests, they are driving around in the night, terrorizing folks going home.
When the US Government took down right-wing groups in Montana and Idaho, the far right screamed about their First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights being violated. But when the dark vans unload their “tactical squads” in the streets of Portland, not a whimper is heard from the right. Where are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz now? Why aren’t they standing up against Federal government intrusion into state authority? Shouldn’t they be defending Americans against what some might even call terrorism?
Playing for the Base
No, all we hear from them is the chuckling of bullies, getting what they want. From the President on down, we have folks willing to squash the Constitution. A photo-op in front of a church, or frightened protestors up against a wall in Portland: it all plays well for the base.
There’s a contemporary term called “Godwin’s Law”. It says that in any Internet argument, ultimately someone will make a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. At that point, Godwin states, the discussion is over. A corollary to the “law” is that whoever made the comparison loses the argument, because, nothing is comparable to Hitler or the Nazis.
So there will be no references to “Black Shirts” in this essay.
But it should be a cautionary tale to Americans. These are the sanctioned actions of the government of the United States, our government. If the Trump Administration is willing to do this for largely political gain, what more are they capable of doing? Will the results of November be enough to end this slide into authoritarianism? Will they even accept those results? Or will the camo suited henchmen from DHS and Justice be needed then too.
My London-born mother had an expression, when there was so much to do that it never seemed to get done: “There’s no rest for the wicked”. It must have been from her Roman Catholic upbringing, something the nuns would say in school when there was far too much work to do. That would have been right after they administered the cod liver oil, and before they made students hold out their hands for rapping knuckles with a ruler.
Even in retirement there seems to be times when there is “no rest for the wicked”. We always thought retirement would be boring, but somehow days fill up fast, and it seems as tiring as the eighty hour weeks we routinely worked back “in the day”. “No rest for the wicked” though, we’ve got things to do. Even “sheltering in place” hasn’t really been “restful”. I wouldn’t say there was home remodeling, but the utility room and garage got a complete overhaul, there’s a new hot tub off the deck, and lots of little things are getting done. Installing new blinds to cut the sun baking into the family room was today’s mission. That was after hours picking up “lost dog” signs in Lancaster.
Resting on the Polls
With all we are doing, it’s easy to get a little complacent about politics. It’s not like I’ve ignored what’s going on in the world, if you’re reading this essay you’ve probably seen several (dozens, hundreds) of essays about everything that’s happening. But I do find myself saying: “… we’ll have to fix that in January, after the election”. I’m certainly not letting the current Administration off the hook: there’s been two impeachable offense THIS WEEK. But the House won’t waste its time with another impeachment. And the Senate could never find the testicular fortitude to convict, even if they knew they should.
No, the complacency comes from the polling. Every public poll shows Joe Biden leading by wide margins. And it’s not just the national polls, Biden’s leading in the key polls: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida. He’s even leading in Texas, and purple-red Ohio. And it’s not the “soft” polling we had with Hillary; it’s a solid trend across the nation.
Core of 2020
“25% of world COVID infections are occurring in the Southern United States,” Peter Hotez, Dean of the Baylor Medical College just said on Meet the Press. And that may be the best reason for Democratic complacency, as awful as it may be. Donald Trump is doing nothing to gain control of the COVID pandemic. His lack of action, and lack of compassion, is burying him. In an election about competency, Trump gets a failing grade.
Joe Biden is playing it perfectly. He is acting “Presidential”, standing up and saying what a President should do. He is presenting the perfect contrast: what he would be doing as the Chief Executive, versus what is happening now. The Trump 2020 campaign is desperately seeking a way to attack Biden, but the COVID crisis simply buries everything they try. It even buried Russia paying a bounty for American soldiers lives in Afghanistan (that happened last week – remember?)
Ninety Days
But the election is ninety days away. That’s almost a quarter of a year, in an era when one week changes the entire narrative. No on wants COVID to be the only story of this election. If it is, then that means we are in for an historic tragedy in our nation. I’m hoping others, like Republican Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, will realize that they have the power to stop the viral growth. If they don’t step in who will: certainly not the man in the White House.
Democrats can’t depend on the “obvious” to win the election. We have to turn over every stone, bring out every voter, and call every number. Volunteers can’t knock on every door in a pandemic, but we need to find a way to reach out and get the voters out for Biden. We need to remember this: Hillary didn’t lose because Trump won, Hillary lost because too many stayed at home.
Voter Suppression
The Trump campaign will do everything it can to suppress the vote. It’s a sad commentary on the modern Republican Party: fewer voters equal a better chance of winning. What kind of political party is that for a democracy? And it won’t just be making the voting process itself more difficult. Don’t be shocked if there’s an “October Surprise” about Biden, just like FBI Director Comey provided against Hillary in 2016. It’s not to get people to vote for Trump, just to get folks to stay home instead of voting for Biden.
Our Job
Don’t let your Never-Trump friends off the hook. Don’t let them buy the “Joe Biden is going to defund police” or “Joe Biden is a child molester” crap. Just quietly explain that the national disaster that is the COVID pandemic was largely avoidable. And make sure they get the point, that Trump made it far, far, worse than it ever had to be.
Voter registration ends on October 5th. Early voting in Ohio starts on October 6th. And you can (in Ohio) always request an absentee ballot. It’s “no fault” absentee here, you don’t need a reason like the “old” days.
And for those doomsayers who say “the polls looked this way in 2016 too”: remember this. We’ve already had a national election since then. It was 2018, the year of the “slow motion blue tsunami” in the Congress. The people “spoke” once already, and they spoke Democrat.
So get to work. Get talking, get persuading, and get folks to vote. There’s no rest for the wicked.
How desperate is the President to win re-election in November? He’s desperate enough to ignore all medical advice about COVID-19. Desperate enough to risk the health of millions of Americans in a losing bid to keep the economy running and schools open, all for the purpose of getting re-elected. Trump is attacking the very institution that serves as America’s bulwark of health, the Centers for Disease Control, wresting control of the “facts” away from those who know them best.
The President is willing to burn all his bridges in his quest to win re-election. And sadly, he is desperate enough to attack the one man who has stood up for the reality of pandemic. Anthony Fauci is not perfect. But he has done what any good scientist would do: adapted to the changing virus that has attacked America. So of course, what he said in February may be different that what he says in July. He is learning about the “novel” corona-virus. That’s why it’s called “novel;” because it’s new. And Dr. Fauci is the best we have, giving his level best advice to the nation.
Of Horses and Carts
But that advice ran dead on into the Trump 2020 re-election strategy. Even before the pandemic, the sole path to re-election was Trump’s so-called success with the economy. (By the way, if you’re not in the “monied” class, it wasn’t that much of a success). But the pandemic crashed Trump’s great edifice on Wall Street, and even now, it’s the huge outpourings from the Federal Reserve that support gains in stock indexes. Today, the Federal borrowing rate is one quarter of one percent. They are literally giving money away to prop up the economy.
Sure it would be nice if the economy didn’t have to tank. It would be great if the unemployment rate was lower than the 11% reported in June. The real rate is probably much higher than that, with the increase in COVID-19 impact nationwide the last half of the month. There is an old phrase: “don’t put the cart before the horse”. In our modern age it might be hard to visualize, but horses pull carts, they don’t push them.
The economy is the cart in our world today, and and horse has COVID. Our “horse” is sick; until we deal with that, the cart “ain’t going nowhere”. We better get our response to COVID right first, before we try to “open” our economy. Otherwise, the act of opening empowers the virus to spread even more. Ask the hospitals in Arizona, Florida, California, and Alabama. The ICU’s are overflowing, the PPE is scarce, and the staff is exhausted. It’s New York, or Italy, only worse. The refrigerated trailers are being brought in.
Bad Choices
Europe, even Italy, ultimately got the word. They dealt with the virus, suffered the economic and social consequences of an extended “lock-down”, and now seem to have COVID under control. Their economies and schools are re-opening, and they are living an altered but less risky life. But here in the United States, where the Trump Administration tried to “force” economic reopening, we are now paying the price, in health, lives, and livelihoods.
We hear small businesses scream that they cannot survive. But the problem is, they will not survive unless the United States, acting as a nation, gets a handle on the disease. When Mr. Trump abrogated his responsibility for acting against the virus, he pushed the responsibility onto the Governors. Many Governors, including Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia and others; emulated the President and further pushed responsibility to the counties and cities.
But when Governors and County Executives and Mayors did try to take action to limit infection, they were immediately met with resistance from “above”. Trump says states should control the schools, and then tells them he’ll cut funds if they don’t open. Governor Kemp in Georgia tells the Mayors to control their cities, and then tells Savannah and Atlanta they cannot mandate masks. Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine pleads with Ohioans to “follow the rules” and control the virus, but doesn’t feel empowered to issue orders.
Doing the Work
And Dr. Fauci has been removed from the public eye. He no longer stands on the podium addressing the nation, nor is he “allowed” on CNN or CBS. But he is still working, still warning America about the results of governmental ignorance. Dr. Fauci is challenging the President’s plan. And for that – he must be destroyed.
It was bad enough that Internet conspiracy nonsense tried to call Fauci a “shill of Big Pharma”. Now the President is waging an all out negative campaign against America’s senior scientist, with attacks from the White House led by economic advisor Peter Navarro and Press Secretary and former campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany.
Anthony Fauci is a bigger target for Trump 2020 then Joe Biden right now, and for good reason. Joe Biden is a political opponent, but Fauci brings facts to the fight. Those facts show that the President’s plan of blissful ignorance will only bring more pain and disruption. The economy can’t recover until we are healthy. And that’s the one thing that Trump 2020 cannot tolerate. The truth not only hurts, but it proves the President incompetent.
Dr. Fauci needs to stick to his guns and keep doing the work. As he himself said “…I’m really good at it” (Atlantic). It’s the best hope we have.
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” – Abraham Lincoln, September 2, 1858
One hundred and sixty two years ago, at the crest of another national crisis, Abraham Lincoln described the American people. It was during the Senatorial election of 1858, and Lincoln was the candidate of the new Republican Party. Republicans were not quite an “abolitionist” Party, but they tended towards limiting and ultimately ending slavery. As Lincoln said, only a week after his “fool the people” phrase:
“I have no doubt that (slavery) would become extinct, for all time to come, if we but re-adopted the policy of the fathers by restricting it to the limits it has already covered–restricting it from the new territories”.
Lincoln was running against his Illinois rival, Stephen Douglas. “The Little Giant”, standing 5’4” a full 12” shorter than Lincoln, was the incumbent. He already had served in the United States Senate for eleven years. During that time, he made his name as a man who could reach the middle. His best-known legislation was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing the people of the territories themselves to vote to determine whether to be slave or free states, a concept called popular sovereignty. This altered the almost forty-year old “Missouri Compromise”, the agreement that drew “a line” across the nation: north free, south slave.
Who’s the Fool
Lincoln lost the Senate election, and Douglas returned to Washington as the Democratic Senator from Illinois. But over the next two years “popular sovereignty” created division, the Dred Scott Decision emboldened the South, and the era of compromise finally ended. Lincoln and Douglas would compete again, this time for the Presidency in 1860. And this time, it was Lincoln who won. We know the rest of that story.
So the question is: were the American voters of the 1850’s, fooled to vote for compromise, or were the voters who voted for or against slavery the fools? Lincoln would say that in 1860, the American people stopped being fooled. However, Lincoln earned less than 40% of the popular vote in a four-way election.
Modern Fools
I believe in another Presidential characterization of American people: the “righteous might” of Franklin Roosevelt. For the past several years, our citizens have had to learn to deal with a “fire hose” of Internet information, some of it real, and lots of it faked. What we thought of as “true fact” in 2012; we now understand was faked by those with an axe to grind, a joke to tell, or even by foreign agents.
It still goes on today. We are told that “Wayfair” is selling children as furniture on its website, that wearing masks is the ultimate infringement on our First Amendment right to freedom of expression, and that President Obama abandoned testing of COVID-19.
But there is a change. The “fake news” is now an Internet “sport”. We are titillated by the rumors, the marshaling of disparate facts to create a believable argument. But we don’t really buy it anymore, just as we stopped believing that President Obama was somehow born in Kenya, not Hawaii. We were fooled “some of the time,” but we are reaching that “all of the time” moment.
Fools of 2016
And in that way a large minority of Americans was “fooled” by Donald Trump. Some believed that he was a successful businessman. We now know, that he squandered billions on bad deals, so much so that no American bank would touch him. Some believed that Trump understood the “common man”. We know now that Trump’s only interest was in mouthing the words that gained him votes. The “common men” cheering at the rallies, were only fodder for Trump’s version of “fake news”.
There were those Americans so disenthralled with the concept of Hillary Clinton as President they took whatever alternative was offered. They are still there, chanting Benghazi and Pizzagate, full-whole fool swallowers of the Internet conspiracies. Or there are those who cannot imagine that a woman can fill the role. They aren’t the fools of the Internet, but rather stuck in a misogynistic era of the 1950’s, that Trump likes to harken back to as “the good old days”.
And finally there were those supporters of the Grand Old Party, who stepped up and supported the “R” on the ticket even though they had doubts. Now their doubts have been fully justified. Whatever else that can be said about President Trump, his maladministration of the COVID-19 pandemic has left America broken. His continued strategy of pretending it’s going away, playing us a fool, simply makes our condition worse.
Righteous Might
The American people have been “…fooled some of the time”. A small portion remain fooled now, the “all of the time” crowd. But all of the American people are not “fooled all of the time”. The time has come for them to rise up in their “righteous might” to change the course of our nation, and our history.
I am not really that much of a football guy. I coached for forty years: Cross Country and Track. Football was my “escape” after a Cross Country meet on Saturday, or my way to recover on Sunday afternoon. And when the Cincinnati Bengals, my “hometown” NFL team, had their usual disastrous season, I could turn football off. There were enough frustrations with my own teams on Saturday without more on Sunday.
Football was also a “part of the job” as a Dean of Students in the local high school. Friday nights were work nights. I seldom saw the game: I was busy making sure that the “fight under the bleachers” didn’t happen, and that the kids smoking dope in the woods got surprised. Away games were better. I’d get a chance to see our kids play, and maybe scout out a new “track star” for the spring.
The Buckeyes
But I live near Columbus, Ohio; home to THE (I think that’s copyrighted) OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. If you have any knowledge of college football at all, you know that OSU IS FOOTBALL!!! And if you live here in town, and want to be a part of any random conversation, you better have a clue what’s going on with the BUCKEYES. Otherwise, you’re doomed to talking about Ohio weather and traffic construction.
So I have a passing knowledge of college football, and a little better understanding of the NFL. Both are struggling in this year of pandemic: struggling to find a way to get on the field. The Buckeyes just suspended their voluntary on-campus workouts for seven sports teams: football, men’s and women’s basketball, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. An undisclosed number of athletes have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Ivy League has already decided: no sports in the fall of 2020. And the Big Ten, the conference for Ohio State, Michigan, and twelve other major schools (I know, that’s fourteen) has called for League games only, without non-league opponents through this fall season. That puts the start of the college season for them near October, buying time to see what’s going to happen.
Cash Talks
But keep this in mind: the Ivy League isn’t making money on football. But for many of the Big Ten schools, Football is cash. For OSU it was $57 million last year, with over $31 million in ticket sales at their stadium, the Horseshoe. So for them, this is about football, athletes, fans, and money, money, money.
The NFL doesn’t plan to open summer training until August, and the schedule is still flexible. They, like the NBA and baseball, will try to put their players in a bubble, and keep COVID out. They’ll need some luck for that.
The pro sports could make enough money on television revenues to survive playing to empty stadiums. If, and that’s the BIG IF, they can keep their players, coaches, and other personnel COVID free in their bubble. But college football doesn’t have the same revenue structure. There is a whole lot of TV money, but it’s not like ticket sales profits at Ohio State, or Michigan, or Wisconsin, or Penn State.
So the Athletic Directors need fans in the stands. And the fans sure would like to be there, as hundreds of thousands fill the Horseshoe, the Big House, Camp Randall, or Beaver Stadium. We used to call that a great college game day, but right now there’s a new term for it: a super spreader event.
Politics Aside
Gene Smith, the Athletic Director of Ohio State, led his coaches in urging folks to wear masks if they want to see sports in the fall (Eleven Warriors). All of the political debate about masks aside, Smith is trying to make wearing a mask a sign of Buckeye loyalty. Scientists are clear: the current rate of infection will prevent fans in the stands, and maybe even teams down on the turf.
The Ohio State University Athletic Department is not trying to make a political statement. This isn’t about Fauci or Trump, or even really about the COVID-19 virus. It’s about whether fans, and communities, are willing to put away their little conspiracies and vanities and politics, and wear masks to slow the spread of infection.
Slow the spread, and athletes can go to practice. Slow the spread, and fans might be able to be “socially distant” in the stands. And slow the spread, and maybe THE OSU makes $15 million in ticket sales instead of $31. That’s more than zero. Wear an OSU mask, do it for the team!!!!!
And for all of those folks who are demanding that public schools open, five days a week, teachers facing kids in class, guess what? You too can get a mask with your high school logo (oh yes, my old employer, Watkins Memorial has them). Wear a mask to slow the infection rate so your kid (or kid brother or sister) can go to “real” school. And, if you won’t wear a mask for that, wear it so you can watch “Football Friday Night!” Maybe it’ll be on TV. Or better yet, so I can go to a Cross Country meet on Saturday. Social distancing is a little bit easier to do in the woods.
In the past couple of weeks, I learned something new. There is a song many call “The Black National Anthem”. Lift Every Voice and Sing is a beautiful, “old church hymn” type of song, written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson. Johnson was an early leader of the NAACP, an author, educator and lawyer from Jacksonville, Florida. Born in 1871, as a young adult he spent a life-altering summer teaching the children of former slaves in backwoods Georgia.
The NAACP adopted Lift Every Voice and Sing as their anthem in 1917. The first line of the song, like many church hymns, is the title:
Lift ev’ry voice and sing ‘Til earth and heaven ring Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
The lyrics describe the trials of black people in the United States. It speaks of the past:
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered Out from the gloomy past.
And sings of hope for the future:
‘Til now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
And faith in God that has carried them through:
God of our weary years God of our silent tears Thou who has brought us thus far on the way Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
National Football League
This isn’t new; in fact, it’s one hundred and twenty years old. But for many white Americans, it’s new to them. That is another sign that there is an entire narrative of American history and culture that is “hidden” and ignored in their education. But since they didn’t know, it’s “new” and different. The song represents change in a time when there is a great deal of resistance in our nation.
In a relatively small reaction to the killing of George Floyd, the National Football League has announced that in the opening games, Lift Every Voice and Sing will be performed along with the Star Spangled Banner. This had produced an outcry in social media; a backlash from the same folks who demanded the Confederate Battle Flag be returned to NASCAR events.
America the Beautiful, another anthem of the United States, has been performed at football games for years, including at the 2020 Super Bowl. The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the unofficial anthem of the Union Army in the Civil War, has been altered to become the “fight song” for the University of Georgia football team. And at every high school and collegiate game, the crowd stands for the playing of that institution’s alma mater.
So it’s not like we don’t honor other songs besides the Star Spangled Banner at our sporting events. We do it all the time.
Black Players, White Audience
Sixty-eight percent of NFL players are black. It is an important point of contact between blacks players and white spectators in America. When San Francisco Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a black man, kneeled during the Star Spangled Banner in 2016, it created a major crisis. Kaepernick was protesting the deaths of black men at the hands of the police, and doing it on one of the biggest stages in America. Stopping Kaepernick and other players from kneeling became a dramatic talking point for the Trump campaign.
At the end of the season, Kaepernick was out of the league. Despite his qualifications as a Super Bowl quality Quarterback, he was shut out. Clearly no NFL team was willing to face the criticism of hiring him.
With the death of George Floyd and the success of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the NFL has apologized to its players for failing to recognize their legitimate concerns. But there has been no apology to Kaepernick. Instead, the League is looking for other ways to get “on the right side” of the issue.
Lift Every Voice and Sing is a small way for the institution of professional football to recognize the movement that is changing America, and the majority of their own players. The sad part of that is, it will cause some white Americans to miss the point, and turn away in anger. Like removing Confederate statues, banning the battle flag in NASCAR, and a single black man kneeling during the National Anthem, it is delivering another message they choose not to hear.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift ev’ry voice and sing ‘Til earth and heaven ring Ring with the harmonies of Liberty Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies Let it resound loud as the rolling sea Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us Facing the rising sun of our new day begun Let us march on ’til victory is won
Stony the road we trod Bitter the chastening rod Felt in the days when hope unborn had died Yet with a steady beat Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered Out from the gloomy past ‘Til now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary years God of our silent tears Thou who has brought us thus far on the way Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light Keep us forever in the path, we pray Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee Shadowed beneath Thy hand May we forever stand True to our God True to our native land
“A Clock and a calendar” was the term made famous by Republican Congressman Doug Collins during the Donald Trump Impeachment hearings, so long ago (six months in real time). Collins constantly referred to it, trying to use it as a cudgel to beat the Democratic majority. “It’s not a fair investigation,” he’d cry, “They (the majority) have denied the minority and the President representation and due process. They are controlled by a clock and a calendar”.
What he really meant was that the Democrats in the House were well aware that the closer to the 2020 election they came, the less likely (and more unseemly) the impeachment would be. The only penalty of conviction from impeachment is removal from office. As the 2020 election approached, that becomes the ultimate power of the voter, not to be usurped by the Congress.
Doug Collins wasn’t wrong about that part. As far as representation was concerned, the President’s representatives refused to cooperate enough to earn participation. The Supreme Court just ruled that their theory of “Absolute Immunity” from subpoena was false, and that was the issue the Democrats in the House held it as key to giving them a say. And the Republicans in the House certainly got a lot of “say”. From Jim Jordan to Louie Gohmert to young Matt Gaetz, and of course from Ranking Minority Member Collins himself; we heard from the Republicans aplenty.
Voter’s Choice
The clock was running, and the calendar turning. Now, no matter what the President might do it is up to the voters. Whether he grants a commutation of sentence to Roger Stone for lying to the FBI and Congress, throws Michael Cohen back in jail to keep him silent, or “pardons” Vladimir Putin for putting a bounty on American lives in Afghanistan; the decision will be made by ballot, not Senatorial vote.
But the “clock and calendar” are running for the Trump Campaign as well. They have found an “event” they cannot falsify, spin, or call “fake news”. The COVID-19 pandemic is relentless. They can demand what they want, but the virus doesn’t seem to care. And the infection numbers are growing, in spite of social media obfuscations and the loyalty of Governors in Arizona and Florida.
Manafort and Stone
And the clock and calendar were definitely running out for Roger Stone. He was days away from reporting to the Federal prison system, probably a shaky place to be for a sixty-seven year old man with a portrait of Richard Nixon tattooed on his back. From Trump’s political standpoint, it would have been better to let Stone serve a few months, until after the election. That’s because while for Trump’s true enthusiasts Roger Stone’s commutation was well deserved, for those less enthralled it might seem a bit too political and friendly. It might impact the few who haven’t made up their mind about voting for or against Mr. Trump. But that really didn’t matter. Roger Stone didn’t want to go to jail, and he had a choice.
Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort, had been “good soldiers” for Trump. They had stuck to the story, not giving prosecutors anything they could use against the Trump campaign of 2016. Manafort even pretended to “cooperate” with prosecutors so he could get more information to share with Trump’s attorneys. And when that came to light, Manafort went to prison, still closed mouth about Trump 2016.
They would say that they are emulating one of their mentors, G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame. But Manafort was also indebted to Russian oligarchs. There might well be a separate threat on his life, keeping his mouth closed to reporters and those who could reduce his sentence. So he did time, and when the first hints of COVID-19 reached the federal prison system, he was released to home confinement. He too may receive a pardon or commutation, but it can wait until after November.
Going to Jail
But Stone was going to jail. If the Trump Administration didn’t find a better way to intervene, Stone could talk. He could talk about his communications with Wikileaks, he could let the world know about his telephone calls with Trump himself. And it’s Roger Stone: so if the facts weren’t “juicy” enough to convince prosecutors to keep him out of jail, he would make up something better. And that would have an impact on the November election: a Stone admission of cooperation with Wikileaks as the intermediary for the campaign could influence those few undecided votes.
Stone represented a threat to the Trump 2020 campaign. So how to give him what he wants, no jail time, and still keep him obligated to silence? Loyalty to Trump wasn’t enough anymore. A full pardon would have freed Stone to say whatever he wanted. Stone could have written a book, timed to come out in October for maximum sales that would have set him financially for life. It’s not like Stone’s going to work as a political operative anymore.
A full pardon would have relieved Stone of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. But a commutation isn’t a pardon; it doesn’t clear the verdict of guilty. It simply removes the penalty. Stone can’t “confess” to crimes that he could still be charged for, and he can walk into the Grand Jury and demand immunity for any acts he might have done. Stone’s commutation keeps him out of jail, but still on the hook. Exactly where Trump wants him.
Time’s Up
Because the clock and the calendar have run out for the Trump campaign. They are facing a mountain far steeper even than the one they climbed in August of 2016. And, regardless (or irregardless – it’s in the dictionary now!) of the politics, competence in dealing with COVID will be the ultimate determiner of who wins in November. The clock has already run out for Trump on that.
“Return to Normalcy” was the great campaign-rallying cry of Republican Senator Warren G. Harding. A native of Ohio, Harding didn’t leave his front porch in Marion as he campaigned for the Presidency. He was running against another Ohioan, Democratic Governor James Cox of Dayton. Neither was the acclaimed nominee of their party. Harding won the nomination on the ninth ballot after a backroom deal was cut: the origin of the term “smoke filled room”. Cox’s nomination at the Democratic Convention took forty-four ballots.
While Harding ultimately won the Presidential election, both Vice Presidential candidates would become President soon. Calvin Coolidge of Vermont would succeed to the Presidency when Harding died of a heart attack at fifty-seven years old, only two years into his term of office. And Cox’s running mate was the thirty-nine year old Franklin Roosevelt, twelve years away from his successful Presidential run.
Voter Fatigue
“Return to Normalcy” resonated with the American people. The past eight years under Democratic President Woodrow Wilson included rapid financial growth, World War I and the Flu Epidemic of 1918 (not 1917 as the current President continues to say). It also saw the growth of American radicalism and anarchism, the creation of a Socialist Party, debate over the new League of Nations, and, probably most importantly to the voters, a post war recession.
“Normalcy”: back to the “good old days” when things were calmer. Even activist President Teddy Roosevelt, in office from 1901 to 1909, didn’t stir America up as much as the events of the Wilson Administration.
Harding let Coolidge do the campaigning across the nation, but he didn’t invent the “front porch campaign”. Another Ohioan, Republican Governor William McKinley, successfully won the Presidency from his porch in Canton, Ohio in 1896. In fact, Harding modeled the front of his home after McKinley’s, perhaps foreshadowing his own campaign.
And Harding was careful not to say too much, or the wrong thing. Famed writer H.L. Mencken grew frustrated with Harding’s statements:
“…(the statement) reminds me of a string of wet sponges, it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a kind of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm … of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of tosh. It is rumble and bumble. It is balder and dash.”
Harding knew he had a winning formula, and he wasn’t going to be pushed into saying something that might screw it up. He won with over sixty percent of the popular vote.
Biden’s Porch
Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware has a lovely front porch. In fact, it has a lovely back porch as well. Biden has a beautiful home in Wilmington, and another beautiful place in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on the Atlantic. It has porches too.
Joe Biden’s campaign slogan isn’t “Return to Normalcy”. In fact, there isn’t an official slogan for the Biden Campaign yet, but a front-runner is a portion of Biden’s speech announcing his candidacy: “Restore the Soul of America”. That certainly is the modern equivalent of “Return to Normalcy”, and Biden is well aware that the election of 2020 is as much a referendum on Donald Trump, as the election of 1920 was about Woodrow Wilson.
Trump’s Failure
The biggest Trump failure is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Again and again, the President has acted in ways that serve to increase the severity of disease. Every campaign rally, all the pressure to open schools and the economy, every time the President denigrates the impact of COVID on America, he increases the risk of more illness and death.
So Joe Biden does the opposite. He refuses to have public rallies, warning of the danger of “super spreader” events. He religiously wears a mask, not just because of his age and risk, but because it highlights the President’s cavalier disregard. Biden has laid out plans for a national strategy to combat the epidemic. He knows how to mobilize the nation to respond to the virus. But mostly, he sits back and lets Donald Trump shoot himself in the foot.
Biden knows how to shoot too. He’s found his own foot, sometimes inserted in his own mouth, plenty of times in his fifty plus year political career. But Biden knows that if he literally sits on his porch and lets Trump go, he keeps Trump in the spotlight. And that’s bad for Trump.
Fatigue a Century Later
The voters of 2020 are just as fatigued as the ones a century ago. It’s not all bad news, but our nation has been on a rollercoaster since the contested election of 2000. Then, the Presidency was determined by a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court. Since then there’s been 9-11, the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and the first African-American President. We’ve had the Great Recession under Bush, then a gradual recovery under Obama.
We almost elected a woman to the Presidency. But instead, we ended up with a Reality TV Star. We had the great boom under Trump that seemed to impact the stock market, but not the average American. And all of the craziness of the Trump Administration, characterized by the term “governing through chaos”. And now, it’s the pandemic.
Americans are tired of the constant upheaval. They are frustrated with a government that doesn’t seem to work. We are looking to “Restore the Soul of America”. It sounds calming: a “return to normalcy”.
Joe should stay on the porch. It’s his clear path to victory.
The 2020 Presidential election was going to be the most consequential choice Americans would make since the election of 1860, the one that preceded the Civil War. America was faced with a clear choice: endorse Donald Trump, or turn away from his outdated and extreme views.
Laissez Faire
The current President’s philosophy is one that has played through our history. From William McKinley to Herbert Hoover, Donald Trump has followed their example of laissez faire capitalism, assured in the faith that what’s “good for General Motors” is good for the country. He’s also used the blunt instrument of tariffs and trade wars to try to bully other nations into line.
In the Reagan years it was called “trickle down” economics. Put the money in at the top, to the wealthiest Americans, and like a “drip” coffee pot, eventually it would drip down to the poorest. It didn’t work in Reagan’s years; but what it did do was start a trend in “income inequality” that results in today’s extremes. The top one percent of Americans owns more wealth than the entire middle class (Forbes).
And Mr. Trump has corrupted the Teddy Roosevelt view of “speak softly, but carry a big stick”. Mr. Trump does everything but speak softly, streaming tweets like vomit from a drunk, and while he brags about his “big stick” (the military), he continually demonstrates his disdain for them, and is unwilling to actually use their power.
Racism
But the perhaps the most significant trend of the Trump Administration is one towards white extremism. Stephen Miller, a known white supremacist, is a key advisor to the President (NPR). The policies they have shaped in immigration and civil rights are ones that are more familiar to the America of the “Know Nothings” in the 1850’s, or the Ku Klux Klan era of the 1920’s.
Mr. Trump is not directly to blame for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent civil unrest, but his statements, often written by Miller, gave license to police brutality. And he now is trying to use the unrest to agitate his supporters, spouting Richard Nixon’s dog whistle line of “law and order” as a way to suppress minority rights.
And this President has made it clear that there are “no rules” or norms that will restrict his behavior. His campaign sought aid from foreign nations, and he trampled on the independence of his own Justice Department. He had dismantled the internal checks and balances of many executive departments by firing their Inspector Generals, and brought a “Roy Cohn” in as his Attorney General. He is a President of the United States who was impeached on clear evidence of using the finances of the United States to further his own personal political goals. And now, we find he has been silent as the Russian government placed bounties on the heads of American soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Oath
All of these issues and many more (health insurance, for example) would have made for a lively Presidential campaign. But now they pale before the President’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the ensuing economic collapse.
The Presidential oath is sworn in front of the nation at the inauguration, and calls for the President to “…preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States”. To do that, the President must first protect the nation. Donald Trump, forty-fifth President of the United States, failed in that task like no President has ever done before. He ignored warnings about the COVID-19 virus from his intelligence and scientific advisors at a time when it might have been possible to control the spread.
And he did it for political reasons. He didn’t have time for a pandemic; he had an impeachment removal to avoid and an election to win. And he didn’t have time for problems with China; he was too busy negotiating his “fantastic deal”. So by the time there was a federal response to the virus, it was too late, and too embedded.
A Clear Failure
COVID-19 was not Donald Trump’s fault. But the failure of the United States to react and control the disease is at his doorstep. It only takes looking at other nations in the world to see what might have been. France, Germany, and most of the rest of the European Union have COVID under control. Even the United Kingdom and Italy, who had a difficult time with the disease, now are reopening carefully.
But here in the United States, the President applied his “laissez faire” philosophy to dealing with disease. He ignored it, and then after it was too late to control it, passed responsibility for action to state governors. He then proceeded to hamstring the governor’s responses, causing the disease to have even more opportunity to spread. His malpractice hasn’t stopped yet: even yesterday he demanded, yes demanded, that public schools open. This even though his own scientists tell him that they could provide a hotbed for COVID transmission in the community.
Campaign 2020
But if schools don’t open, parents can’t go to work. If they aren’t working, the economy cannot begin to recover before November. And if the economy isn’t getting better, then Mr. Trump doesn’t think he can win reelection. So open “the damn” schools; that’s the only choice the Trump Administration wants to offer.
Joe Biden’s not campaigning from his basement. He’s actually in the “garden room” in his home in Delaware. And he should stay there. Donald Trump is so busy shooting himself in the foot Biden doesn’t need to do anything.
