Month: May 2021

This essay was first written for Memorial Day 2019.  I’ve edited and expanded it this year.

Defined by War

Memorial Day: the day to remember those who have died in the service of our nation.  As Lincoln said at Gettysburg:  “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.” 

Generations are defined by war.  The beginnings of Memorial Day were in “Decoration Days” started even before the guns of the Civil War went silent.  Both Northerners and Southerners placed flags and wreaths upon the graves of those lost.  After the War, that became a tradition for both sides at the beginning of the summer season, decorating graves.  In 1860 the population of the United States was just over thirty million; 600,000 died in the war, two percent.   (Two percent of today’s population would be almost eight million.)  There were plenty of graves to decorate; plenty of veterans to honor.  The ceremonies grew into the Memorial Day of today, along with the picnics and the politics that went along, both then and now.

Those We Knew

I think of Memorial Day as a day to remember those who I personally knew sacrificed to earn the honor.  I think of my parents, part of the Greatest Generation, who lived amazing lives after their War. But with all of their life of “adventure”, World War II was still the crucible.  It was the seminal event that shaped their lives.

I think of my contemporaries, guys I coached with like Chuck Eastham. Chuck went to the war in Vietnam at 17, and forever remained a proud Marine.  But he  suffered from the effects of his war for the rest of his life. The memories of what he was required to do to survive in that war, haunted him throughout his life. And his exposure to the chemical weapon used in Vietnam, Agent Orange, finally took his life just a couple years ago.  

 And I think of my “kids,” those who I taught and coached in school, who came back from their wars in Lebanon and Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Many of them suffer from the physical and mental effects of America’s long involvement in world conflicts.  They all offered their lives up for their country, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

At What Cost?

When I was a young teacher here in Pataskala, Ohio, there was an older man who wandered around town.  He wasn’t homeless, but he was of “lost mind.”  He walked the streets talking to himself, unintentionally  scaring the younger kids.  Older kids made fun, but the local merchants took care of him.  There was always a cup of coffee, or a hamburger available as he wandered from place to place.

I found out his story, eventually.  He also was only seventeen when he volunteered to serve in the World War II Navy.  His ship went to the Pacific, and in the midst of battle, was torpedoed and sunk.  He made it off the doomed vessel.  But sometime between when the torpedo hit and when he was dragged from the ocean waters several hours later, he lost his mind.

Young people go to war willing to sacrifice for their nation.  They think of death, they think of physical wounds, of amputations and burns.  But they don’t ever think that they could lose what they value most, themselves, and survive.  But that young man did.

He lived with his family here in town.  The kids learned his story, and most appreciated the ultimate sacrifice he made, and more importantly respected his right to be left alone.  He was our little town’s Memorial Day, every day.

On the Streets

There are many veterans like him on the streets today. According to Government figures, there are over 40,000 homeless veterans, nine percent of the homeless population.  For some homelessness is a choice made as a result of effects from their service.  But for most it is a combination of circumstance, disability, and substance abuse.  For all it is a lousy repayment for their record of service.  For some “normal folks”, it may be too much or too scary to directly interact with the homeless. But as we walk quickly past with eyes averted, keep in mind:  one in ten fought for us.

It’s Memorial Day.  The sun is out, the burgers are hot on the grill, the beer is cold in the cooler.  As we celebrate the beginning of summer, the end of school and with this particular year, the reopening of our lives:  remember those we have asked for sacrifice.  To quote Hamilton (once again) – 

            Raise a Glass to Freedom – Something they can never take away.

Raise a glass to those who have sacrificed for our freedom.  Their honor is something that “…can never be taken away.”  Then remember them as the friends they were – and drink up.  It’s what Mom and Dad and Chuck would want us to do.  

West Wing

It’s been a long time since I’ve quoted The West Wing, a television series now more than twenty years old.  That show got a lot of us through the grimy end of the Clinton administration and on into the Bush years.  It was about the Administration of Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, and gave America a lot of insights into how the White House works.  Veterans of both Democratic and Republican Administrations added their expertise to the plots, and Aaron Sorkin (and later Lawrence O’Donnell) wrote fast paced and interesting scripts.

In one episode (Season 3, Episode 3) the White House is faced with a scandal.  The White House counsel advises that a special prosecutor be appointed to do a long and unbiased investigation, one that would tie the Administration up for months or even years.  CJ Craig, the Press Secretary, proposes an alternative plan to Chief of Staff Leo McGarry – one that would give the White House something to fight against.

“Leo, we need to be investigated by someone who wants to kill us just to watch us die.  We need someone perceived by the American people to be irresponsible, untrustworthy, partisan, ambitious and thirsty for the limelight.  Am I crazy, or is this not a job for the U.S. House of Representatives?” (YouTube).

The words echo through the years – and are still relevant today.

Insurrection Commission

Up front I need to be clear about this.  I think the “right” thing to do, is for the Congress of the United States to establish a bipartisan commission that can investigate the Insurrection of January 6th and the events that led to it.  It is important for us to know what and why this happened, not just for historic purposes, but because the threat is still here.  But it has become clear that the current Republican Party is unwilling to do anything that would bring the actions of the 45th President into question.  They are too afraid, of him, and of the large faction of their Party that continues to support him.

From Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s standpoint, the last thing he wants is a non-partisan investigation of what happened on January 6th.  He doesn’t want the focus of the nation on the lies of the 2020 campaign.  He wants to “move on” to focus on the failures he perceives in the Biden Administration – trying to tie Biden to the “far left – Communists” of the Democratic Party. (By the way, there are no Communists among us Democrats, though we do have some socialists.  But they are a very, very long way from Communists).

Win-Win

Being against the Commission is a “win-win” solution for McConnell.  By preventing the Senate passage through the filibuster, he shows the Republican base that he is protecting the former President.  If, by some radical change of heart in West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, Democrats actually force the Commission through by breaking the filibuster – then McConnell can claim that they “broke the rules” to get what they wanted.  He can then claim the Commission is illegitimate, and downplay their conclusions.

But Joe Manchin is unlikely to vote to override a filibuster on this issue, and  the Senate will likely fail to agree to the Commission. That good idea will die.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be investigations of the Insurrection.  But, as CJ Craig said to Leo McGarry, it will be the job of the Democratic controlled House of Representatives.  

2022

And that’s exactly what McConnell hopes.  He wants the same body that impeached the former President twice, and that led the Russia investigation as well, to handle the job.  In his dreams, he hopes that Adam Schiff would be the committee chairman.   While Schiff would be the most competent member of the House to lead that investigation, he won’t be the one.  Schiff lead the Russia investigation and was the House Manager for impeachment. He is too “hot” to use.  

But that really doesn’t matter to McConnell.  He will demonize whoever leads the investigation in the House, claiming she or he is completely biased.  And, of course, there will be the stalwart supporters of the former President as the Republican members of the Committee, probably led by Ohio’s Jim Jordan. They will disrupt every hearing, and leak targeted information to bring the investigation to a standstill.

The Republicans have a problem in 2022.  Donald Trump is not on the ticket.  Joe Biden’s Administration is competent, and will proclaim their success with the COVID vaccine and recovery.  And, one way or another, there will be an infrastructure bill, and there might well by voter protections.  McConnell needs a “foil” to change the subject.

That’s not all bad for Democrats either.  The House can investigate the Insurrection and display for all to see any involvement of both former and current Republican leaders.  It can be a legitimate version of the Benghazi Investigation(s) that was used to demonize Hillary Clinton. And it can go right through the 2022 campaign.  

Am I crazy, or is that a job for the U.S. House of Representatives?

The Polls

A plurality of Americans, 44%, do not “identify” with a political party.  They see themselves as independent.  Of the rest, 30% see themselves as Democrats, and 25% Republican.

But when asked which party they “lean” towards, 49% of Americans over 18 identify as “Democrat or Democratic leaning”.  40% identify as Republican or Republican leaning, and 11% see themselves as completely independent.  That 9% Democratic lead in “leaners” is above the “norm”.  Democrats typically have a 4 to 6% lead.

So when you slice the pie almost half is “independent”.  The other half is unevenly divided between Blue and Red.   But the candidates for major political office in America are determined by the two political parties, now representing just barely more than half of voters.  The 30% of identified Democrats and 25% of identified Republicans will determine who gets to run for office.

It’s a major dilemma for any American candidate.  To get to run you have to win a primary, and that election is among only the most committed partisans.  But to win the general election, where everyone can vote, somehow that candidate must gain “the leaners”, less partisan and likely more moderate, as well.

Slicing the Slices

So to win a Republican Party primary, a candidate must win 12.5% of the overall vote.  And Republican candidates have clearly made the decision that at least 12.5% still support the 45^th President of the United States.

That’s a “no-risk” position for them.  The “slice of the slice” who are “45’ers” have made it very clear where they stand.  There is no doubt:  ask Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, or a host of local Republican office holders who know that the 2020 election wasn’t “fixed”.  

And the Republican caucus of the House of Representatives is a simple reflection of their primary electorate.  So when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy seems to uncomfortably straddle the political fence, he’s trying to appeal to his caucus members.  His hope:  that the 2022 election will follow historic precedent, and that he will be elected to become Speaker of the House.  

McCarthy’s “fence sitting” was most apparent on the issue of the January 6th Commission.  His chosen negotiator, Congressman John Katko of New York, worked out an agreement with Democrats.  This was with the McCarthy’s knowledge and blessing.  But when the former President sent word that the caucus “must” oppose the Commission, McCarthy, without apparent regret, threw Katko “under the bus” and came out against it.

Doubling Down

From a longer view, the Republican Party seems committed to being a minority party.  They are allowing the “45-ers”,   around 12.5% of the total electorate, to determine their candidates and positions.  They are committed to a nationwide policy of voter restriction, and actual interference in free and fair Elections.  If their actions were occurring in another nation, we would be talking about sending in monitors to make sure the voting processes were fair.  

And the Republican Party is in the process of “purging” any member who does not agree with the “45-ers”.  It’s not just denying Liz Cheney a leadership position in the House of Representatives.  They are organizing primary challenges to many “moderate” Republican candidates, challenges that are likely to be successful.

Look at who’s running for the Republican nomination for Senator in Missouri.  The two leading candidates:  former Governor Eric Greitens, who resigned from office after accusations of sexual assault and blackmail. And attorney Mark McCloskey, best known for brandishing an AR style rifle at Black Lives Matter protestors passing in front of his home. What they both have in common:  oaths of fealty to the former President.

Pygmy Elephants

It’s all about the 12.5%, and perhaps some of the rest of those that identify Republican.  But it clearly ignores the real “elephant” in the Republican room.  What about the vast majority of the American electorate – some Democrat but the rest “independent”?  The Republican strategy is to keep them from voting, win their small slice of the pie, and declare victory.

And that’s the American dilemma right now.  The gerrymandering of political districts have created state legislatures that are dominated by extremist “45-ers” in many states, including here in Ohio.  Those legislatures are “codifying” an exclusive voting system, and in some states, taking legislative power over the election results. 

Instead of trying to win a majority, they are shaping elections where the minority can claim victory.  If that sounds like Trump 2020, it should.  It’s the next step in the “Stop the Steal” campaign that led to the Insurrection, a “legal” way of gaining control without a majority of the votes.  It didn’t end at the Capitol steps on January 6th.  It just moved to the hallways of capitol buildings in Phoenix, Madison, Atlanta, and yes, here in Columbus as well.

The shirtless idiot wearing horns became the “poster boy” for the January 6th Insurrection.  But the real leaders of the “rebellion”  now are the shirt and tied legislators in state capitols around the country.  The insurrection continues. 

 We have been warned.

This is another in the series about life in Pataskala, and because it’s us – dogs.

High Summer

It’s only May, but it feels like “high summer” here in Pataskala.  The thermometer topped ninety degrees yesterday.  I could hear my air conditioner groaning – we keep the house at a constant sixty-five degrees all four seasons.  It’s great for Jenn and I sleeping – but that’s not the main reason.   Sixty-five degrees keeps the four dogs in our house happy, especially the senior citizen, Buddy.  And what keeps Buddy happy, keeps us ALL happy – at least that’s the operating system here.

We’ve lost three of our big trees in the past few years, and what used to be a shaded home now gets full sun.  The morning is no longer blocked by the old oak in the east, and the noon sun is hardly touched by our new young maple out front, replacing the original.  But it’s in the afternoon that the west side of the house cooks, the stump of the other old maple now covered by our “sun deck”.  Right now you could fry eggs on it.

So the indoor temperature creeps up into the low seventies by late afternoon, and Buddy climbs into the bathtub, trying to find the cool.  It’s always good for a “surprise” for visitors using our facilities:  they hear a groan from behind the shower curtain just as they get seated!! 

Use the Force

The mosquitoes must think it’s “high summer” as well.  Right now, the three in the morning walk (one dog on steroids – he has to go!!) feels like that old commercial – the Raid “Yard Guard” test.  That was the one where the man put his arm in a tank of mosquitoes, and they completely covered his skin.  Then – with the “Raid” on his arm – they left it alone.  

So if you see a hooded figure looking like a Jedi Knight wandering our backyard in the middle of the night, now you know.  That isn’t a light saber for protection, it’s a flashlight carefully guiding the path around the “landmines” of four dogs.  And it’s not a robe, it’s a full jacket with hood, zipped up in the middle of the night heat, the sole protection from blood loss due to mosquito penetration.

Foster Pup

Did I say four dogs?  Right now, it’s actually five.  Our organization, Lost Pet Recovery, rescued this incredibly cute Pit-mix puppy from a drainage pipe near Dayton.  There was a foster placement all set up for the girl, named CeCe (pronounced CEE CEE), a home with young kids to fit right in with the young puppy.  But she proved to be too much:  four kids under nine and a puppy was overwhelming, and we had to do an “emergency” pickup.

So Cece is now here, learning how to deal with four other dogs, and Jenn and I of course.  She had a bit of a scare early this morning, when she decided her food bowl wasn’t near as interesting as that of our Lab, Atticus.  Atticus is a wonderful guy, but he doesn’t do “food sharing” very well.  He didn’t hurt CeCe, just reminded her that it was HIS bowl and HIS food and SHE was not welcome to share.  CeCe escaped unscathed, but definitely got the message.

This is the “backdoor” way to becoming a “Dahlman Dog” – foster “failure” leading to adoption.  We have two other dogs who came in under the guise of fostering, and now they have a permanent place.  But five dogs, and one a puppy at that – CeCe will get a great (and hopefully short) education here, then find a final home somewhere else – I hope.  If you’re interested in the cutest puppy ever – let us know!!

Spring Growth

Besides mosquitoes, early “high summer” in Ohio also means outbreaks of dandelions, seventeen-year cicadas, and orange barrels.  Right now, the main north/south highway out of Pataskala is closed.  One of the main east/west highways has gone from four lane to two, full of semi-trucks trying to reach Amazon and the other “distribution centers” in nearby Etna.  Today I’m starting a four-day track meet in Chillicothe, seventy miles south of here.  I don’t have to be there until two or so, but I’m already plotting how I can get out of Pataskala, without getting stuck in a local traffic jam.

It feels like high summer in Ohio today – but it’s still early.  High in the eighties today – but by day three of the Chillicothe track meet, the low will be in the forties.  The meet bag is stuffed with every type of clothes imaginable.  One day this week might be a “roof-down” Jeep day – but another will require the heat on the way home.  

Orange barrels, thunderstorms, heat stroke and shivering cold:  outside my window it’s May in Ohio.

• The Out My Window Series
• Out My Front Window – Part One (4/21/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Two (4/23/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Three (4/26/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Four (5/13/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Five (6/3/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Six (7/3/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Seven (7/31/20)
• Outside My Window – Inshallah (8/13/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Eight (9/15/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Nine (9/25/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Ten (10/9/20)
• Outside My Window – Part 11 (11/29/20)
• Outside My Window – Post-Truth World (12/16/20)
• Waiting for the Shot (3/11/21)
• Outside My Window – Part 15 (5/26/21)

Hate Speech

We’ve heard the cry for years.  “How can Facebook delete MY comments.  That’s a violation of my FREEDOM OF SPEECH”.  It has been a complaint of the far right, the far left and a myriad of other folks who use social media as their main form of expression. 

They claim it’s “UNAMERICAN” to censor speech, any kind of speech, even the kind that invokes hate.  There’s even controversy about the short term for explaining that kind of speech, “hate-speech”.  The term itself sounds like something out of Orwell’s 1984, like the Ministry of Peace that waged war, or the Ministry of Truth that pushed propaganda.

Now the great state of Florida has waded “alligator deep” into the fray.  This week Governor DeSantis signed into law regulations restricting social media platforms from banning a political candidate for more than fourteen days at a time.  It also makes it easier for private citizens to sue those platforms for “inconsistent” regulation of what they put on social media.

Who Is Regulated

On the face of it, telling Facebook and the rest what to do sounds almost “normal”.  We are used to hearing these kinds of regulations.  Schools must allow freedom of expression and so do our communities.  You might not like the “F—K Biden” sign hanging on your neighbor’s porch, you might think it’s inappropriate for one to be across the street from an elementary school, but it’s the classic definition of “freedom of speech”.  We don’t want the government telling us what we can say.

And that fits right into the actual wording of the Constitution that provides “freedom of speech”.  The First Amendment states:  “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”.  And there it is – Congress, and by the extension of the 14^th Amendment, the state governments as well, cannot regulate most speech.  So if the government can’t regulate it, why should Facebook and Twitter and all the rest be allowed to?

There’s a simple answer to that:  social media platforms are not the government.  They are companies, massive in scope and interaction, international in reach, but individual companies none-the-less.  They are not “government”.  When you sign onto Facebook or the rest, you are actually creating a contract with those companies.  And in the great tradition of contract law, you are establishing a “quid pro quo” relationship.  You get to use Facebook without paying a fee.  But Facebook gets to use your information, selling it to advertisers and others.  And they also get to follow your usage, saving “where you go”, so they can more specifically direct those who do pay – to you.

Mom and Pop

So social media isn’t restricted by the First Amendment.  They are more like that restaurant down the street, the one with the “no shoes, no shirt, (no mask), no service” sign in the window.  If you go into that restaurant and throw your food at others, you might get thrown out.  If you make a big scene over how your eggs were done, you might be banned from coming back.  We don’t restrict privately owned restaurants from those actions, with certain very narrow exceptions.  If it can be shown that the restaurant is discriminating based on race, religion, sexual identification, or ethnic origin, then there are legal restrictions.  Other than that, they can control who they serve, and what they serve.

Those discriminatory regulations are based on the “interstate commerce clause” in Article I of the Constitution.  Since those businesses are involved in interstate commerce, even the “Mom and Pop” café down the street, certain areas of their operation can be regulated by the Federal government.  There’s interstate commerce on the corner in Pataskala?  Sure – the potatoes come from Idaho, the orange juice from Florida, and the apple sauce from Michigan.  

Interstate Commerce

So now that we are buried in Constitutional Law, here’s the dilemma.  The Federal government can regulate some private business discriminatory behavior under the “commerce clause”.   But guaranteeing “freedom of speech” under the First Amendment is not a requirement of those companies, only of the government itself.  The “law” regards those corporations as “entities” with their own “right” to determine what happens in their places of business.  That’s even if the place of business is right here, on the computer screen, all over the world.

But, as any astute law student would now suggest, why can’t the government regulate those businesses under the laws against discrimination, just like they do the Mom and Pop Café.  Then the government would “just” have to show that Facebook was discriminating against a protected class of people – and regulation could be applied.

Congressional Power

Well, Congress could.  That’s the main purpose of the millions of dollars spent by the social media giants in lobbying the Federal government; preventing Federal regulation.   And, so far, that lobbying effort has been very successful.  Social media companies have managed to portray Congress as “unfit” to regulate their highly technical industry, and prevented all attempts to control what goes on their platform.  “We can regulate ourselves,” they say – “we already do with graphic violence and pornography”.  

There’s a lot to be said for regulating social media.  It’s profound impact on our political life means that private individuals like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are making decisions that impact our collective future.  We can trust that they will do what’s profitable for their business.  But can we trust and that it will be in the best interest of the nation?

One thing we can be sure of.  No single state, like Florida, will be able to enforce regulations on a company that is by definition “interstate”, and in fact, international.  That would be the job of Congress. 

If they’re up to it.   

220 Man

If you’ve read many of the essays in “Our America”, you already know that I was a high school track and field coach.  I started when I was twenty-one, just a couple of years older than my seniors, as the sprint and hurdle coach at Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, Ohio.  I loved track – it had been my “main” sport since I read my first book about Jesse Owens at ten years old.  It didn’t hurt that I was the “playground” fifty yard dash champion at Southdale Elementary School, either. 

And when I had the opportunity to actually meet and spend a few minutes with Mr. Owens, that cemented my sports focus.  Sure I played Little League baseball until I was twelve.  And I swam on a club swim team, and later in high school.  And I wrestled too, in middle school and in high school.  But in the end, it was all about track and field.  I was a “220” man, and like most sprinters I ran “my race” and the sprint relays, and under duress, the 4×440 relay as well.  (Modern track folks will need translation – “220” is now “200” and 4×440 is now the 4×400 – metrics prevailed).

Beauty Behind the School

So it was natural that when I was student teaching and they suggested I help with an extra-curricular activity, I gravitated towards the track.  I remember that early March day in 1978, when I first “checked out” the track at Watkins.  The snow had just melted, and I went out back of the old high school (now old middle school) to see.  The gates were all locked, I had to climb the fences to get in.  

It was brand new – put in the previous summer.  And it was an “all weather” track, made of rubberized asphalt and latex binding.  That was something – both my high school and college tracks had been cinders – compressed coal ash.  You wore ½ inch spikes in your shoes to get traction in the cinders, and tried not to fall.  But this was a track-man’s definition of beauty:  the bright white lines circling the deep black surface, the multiple colored starting and exchange zones scattered along the way, the “tic” marks for hurdle settings – all permanent.  

They threw away the “four-lane” white lime lane machine used on the old 300 yard cinder track around the practice field.  Watkins now had “the best” track in the County.  I climbed back over the fences, ready to coach kids in Black and Gold. 

That started a forty year journey.

Old Coaches Never Die

I’ve told a lot of stories about kids and track and coaching.  But today’s story is a little different.  It’s about the camaraderie of the folks I met along the way.

I retired from coaching after the 2017 season (check it out, it really is forty years), and pretty much stepped away from the track.  The next year I helped out at some meets, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I decided to go back on the track in a different role, this time as an official.  I had a license for most of my coaching career, but I didn’t actually officiate much.  It was always good to have though.  I was “up” on all of the rules, and in the pre-season discussions when officials were deciding how to “make the calls”.  

But two years ago I decided to get serious about officiating.  Like most other forms of self-employment, getting officiating jobs is often about who you know.  And I was lucky to have some official and coaching friends willing to suggest me for assignments.  

So in 2019 I got a few jobs, a total of ten track meets for the spring.  That was a little frustrating, but even though I was an “old hand”, for many, I was a “new” official.  Sure I’d officiated the Big Ten Collegiate Pole Vault – but it was in the 1980’s .  And I’d done dozens of Junior Olympic long jumps, triple jumps, and pole vaults, but that was in the 1990’s .  So I was patient, I knew 2020 would be better.

But there wasn’t a track season in 2020 – COVID shut us down.

Wearing Black and White

So this year I had big expectations.  And I’ve had a lot of work. I’ve officiated at twenty-one meets so far this year – with four more to go this Regional week, my last of the season.  While my “speciality” is officiating pole vault (no surprise), I’ve done almost every field event, and started and clerked as well. There’s been middle school and high school meets, and a couple of schools have had me back several times (thanks Licking Heights and Hilliard).  

What about Watkins – well they already have excellent officials on tap:  I made sure of that when I was coaching.  I’ve done a couple meets with them, but they’ve got the literal “big guns” working their meets – and those officials have earned the right to stay there.  I don’t want to mess that up.

Officiating is different than coaching.  The job is to be fair, efficient, and set the stage so the kids can have their best opportunity to succeed.  Running “a good” event, means keeping it organized, moving, and “by the book”.   Wearing the black and white officiating uniform, instead of the black and gold of coaching, keeps me a lot quieter.  Instead of focusing on the “technique” of the athlete, I focus on the rules of the event.

Catching Up

And it is fun.  Fun to see the kids succeed, and fun to see the old friends I made over forty years on the track.  Yesterday I officiated for the first time in Eastern Ohio, running the girls long jump at Meadowbrook High School’s District just south of Cambridge.  As a coach, for many years my teams ran at least one meet in Eastern Ohio during the season, at Cambridge or over on the river at Bellaire and Wheeling.  So I got to know many of the “veteran” (read old) hands of track and field in Eastern Ohio. 

I showed up in Byesville early yesterday morning.  Anyone who ran or coached with me won’t be surprised:  I was one of the first to arrive.  I wanted to be all set up before kids got on the runway.  So I was over at the long jump when I heard the first – “what are you doing in an official’s shirt – isn’t your team running today?”.  It was good to catch up with the Eastern coaches, to hear them talk about their teams and successes, and to chime in on stories from the “old days”.

One former rival from the County was there – the coach of Licking Heights in the 1970’s and 80’s.  His son is now the longtime coach at Meadowbrook, and at ninety years old he comes out to help out at the meets.  We had our challenges “in the day”.  He was an older hand, I was the “new guy” building a program at Watkins.  But it was great to see him now – talking workouts and memories of great performances.  And he’s still setting goals – now the goal is 100 years old.  I’d bet on him making it.

Cruisin’

And it was fun meeting new younger coaches as well.  I still have a “hand” in pole vault education, and even though I was at the long jump, a couple young coaches and I had some discussion about making pole vaulting safer and better in their area.  They don’t know me as a coach.  I’m just an “old guy”, one of those gray haired track figures like those that intimidated me when I was a young coach back in the 1980’s .  I hope I don’t intimidate them that way – it’s exciting to hear their plans and goals.  If I can encourage that – then maybe I’m still contributing a little bit, beyond just calling “fair and foul”.

So it was a fun day in the sun at Meadowbrook yesterday.  And a great day for a Jeep ride back home, the top down, music at turned all the way up, cruising west on I-70.  

It’s always good to be back on track.

January 6 Commission

It’s hard to see how the proposed January 6^th Commission could be more fair.  There would be ten members; five Democrats, five Republicans.  Both Democrats and Republicans would have subpoena power.  The Commission report would be issued by the end of this calendar year, 2021.  That’s important – whatever the report might say, it wouldn’t come out in the 2022 election season.  In our current “warp speed” news cycle, its impact would be over well before the battle for the Congress is truly joined.

And it’s hard to see how the proposed January 6^th Commission could be more relevant.  The National law enforcement and security agencies all agree:  the biggest terror threat to our nation isn’t Hamas, or Al Qaeda, or even Isis.  It’s White Supremacy and hyper-nationalism, the leaders of the January 6^th Insurrection.  It’s the only time our National Capitol has been taken by storm since the War of 1812.  It was an attempt to stop the fundamental Constitutional duty to choose the leader of the executive branch; an attempt that came perilously close to succeeding.  How can we not examine the causes, the failures, and the successes that led up to that day?

Black Lives Matter

To try to equate the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020 with the Insurrection of January 6^th isn’t even comparing “apples and oranges”.  It’s comparing apples and bowling balls.  Yes, there were original protests involved.  And yes, most of those protestors were there to “be heard”, not to commit violence. And there were portions of each of the protestors who were determined to commit violence.  But that’s where the “equivalencies” end.

The Black Lives Matters protests were essentially nothing new.  They were very much the same as the Civil Rights protests in the 1960’s, protests demanding that the Constitutional Right of “equal protection under the law” be enforced for all Americans.  In the 1960’s they were all about segregation, Jim Crow laws, and voting in the 1960’s.  This year they were about something even more fundamental:  “the law” is literally taking the lives of Black men.  

Like the protests of 1960’s, sometimes those protests got out of control and turned into riots.  Sometimes that was because there were folks in the protests who were more interested in violence and looting than “the cause”.  Sometimes it was because the authorities mishandled the protests, serving to instigate the protestors to violence (including here in Columbus).

But there is no question that Black Lives Matter protests were based in the facts of the George Floyd murder and others.  We all saw it with our own eyes, and a jury in Minneapolis has made it clear with their verdict.  And Black Lives Matter protests were overwhelmingly peaceful.   Over ninety-six percent of those protests had no property damage, and an even larger percentage were without injury (Harvard).

So that’s the apple.  Let’s compare it to the bowling ball.

Bowling Balls

The entire premise of the January 6^th Insurrection was false.  Every legitimate examination of the 2020 Presidential election showed that there was no “steal” to stop.  The Republican Attorney General agreed, as did the agencies responsible for overseeing the computer security of the voting process.  The “Big Lie” had its roots in the 2016 election, when the Republican candidate was “softening the ground” for his loss, by stating that the election “was rigged”.  He was as surprised by his win as the rest of us.  And we all watched with our own eyes the basic “lie” established, when Fox News’s Chris Wallace asked if he would accept the outcome of the election if he didn’t win – and he refused to say yes.

The entire 2020 Republican campaign for President was premised on the “fact” (lie) that they would win “on election day”, then have the “win” ripped away from them in the days to follow.  The reality that in a pandemic it would take several days to complete the vote count fit perfectly with their false narrative.  

Questions Need Answers

So we have one of the two national political parties, led by the (now former) President of the United States, establishing a lie about the fundamental process of elections.  Then that lie was used to incite Americans to come to the Capitol to interrupt the Constitutional process of confirming the election.  It is clear now that there was pre-planning involved for a violent attack in the building, and the Congress assembled within.  Who was involved in the planning, and the attack, and whether there was collusion between political and Government authorities and the planners are questions that the January 6^thCommission could answer. 

Instead we have one political party by and large still committed to the “big lie”.  That commitment has led their leaders to renege on the statements they made in the “heat” of the insurrection, when they bravely returned to the Capitol to fulfill their Constitutional obligations.  For most Republicans Members of Congress, and particularly those leaders, that courage has disappeared. They don’t want to know what happened on January 6th.

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan had it right yesterday when he said:

“…We need two political parties in this country living in reality – and you ain’t one of them”. 

“When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”  – Bob Dylan, (Like a Rolling Stone)

Live Today

NBC’s Richard Engle reports from the middle of a Palestinian demonstration on the West Bank.  A Hama’s missile, fired from Gaza, strikes and kills Israeli civilians.  The current death toll in Palestinian Gaza, the most tightly packed population center in the world, is almost 200.  And the United States and the world seems helpless to stop it.

Divisions

We are.  The situation in the Middle East is incredibly complex.  The Palestinians themselves are divided, with the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the technical “government” of Palestine, and Gaza run by Hamas, an acknowledged terrorist organization, funded by the Iranians.  And while the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are bitter rivals for power, their differences pale beside their grievances with the Israeli government.

And the Israeli government is itself in “flux”.  After four national elections in two years the situation has not changed.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains barely in control, more because his opposition cannot coalesce around a single rival than support for his own Likud Party.  But Netanyahu is also under criminal indictment, and remains Prime Minister only as a caretaker until – well – something changes.  After vote after vote, it hasn’t. 

US Ignorance

And the prime “peace-maker” in the Middle East, the United States, has pursued a four year policy of ignoring and even antagonizing the Palestinians.  The Trump Administration moved the symbolic United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move designed to improve Trump’s domestic political situation, but guaranteed to produce Palestinian outrage.  As the ceremonies for the “new” embassy were being held, Palestinians were being shot and killed across the Gaza border.  The Palestinians were in Gaza and the Israelis were in Israel, shooting.  And the United States said nothing.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner negotiated the “Abrahamic Accords”, normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.  It was heralded as a “great step forward in Middle East peace”, and placed some financial supporters of the Palestinian Authority in a “peaceful” position with Israel.   But those negotiations served to further isolate the Palestinians, and empowered Hamas, who continued to get support from Iran.

Expansion

And the Israelis continue to expand settlement in the occupied territories, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.  Part of that is about the traditional historic/religious position of Israel.  Part is practical:  if the population of the occupied territories is increasingly Israeli, then any future “popular sovereignty” peace solution will be in their favor.  And part of the expansion is for Israeli domestic political consumption.  The hard religious and “right wing” Israeli political parties see East Jerusalem and the West Bank as part of “Greater Israel”.  To gain their political support in the parliament, Netanyahu has to support expansion.

It also helps with the all-important Evangelical Christian support in the United States.  They see Israel as fulfilling Biblical prophecy, and many vote accordingly in US elections.  Meanwhile the US Democratic Party is faced with increased divisions, with the “left wing” of the Party concerned more about Palestinian rights than Israeli protection.  It didn’t help that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu allied themselves personally as well as politically.

Nothing to Lose

It’s hard to see what Hamas has to lose by firing missiles into Israel.  Ninety percent of them are blocked by the US supplied “Iron Dome” defense system.  But if hundreds are fired, then tens will get  through, do damage and kill civilians.  Israel will respond with overwhelming force.  And when they do, they will kill hundreds more Palestinians than Israelis killed, more martyrs for the cause. 

And for Hamas, that’s a win.  In the eyes of the world, Israel becomes the bully, the murderer of children.  The world heard the words of the ten year old Palestinian child, fluent in English (learned from YouTube).  She eloquently demanded that the Israelis explain why they are killing civilians, children, the elderly.  It’s powerful stuff (Video), so moving that it makes you wonder.   Real or not, it echoes the movie “Wag the Dog”.

Hamas is a terrorist organization.  But there is no room in Gaza for “military” installations placed carefully apart from civilians.  Gaza has over two million people packed into 147 square miles (the city of Columbus, Ohio has 225 square miles with only 800,000).  So the underground fortifications, the tunnels, are dug underneath civilian housing.  To hit military targets, Israel has little choice but to target civilians – they’re in the same place.  

Hamas may lose civilians and infrastructure, but they and their Iranian backers are the real winners of this conflict.  The Israelis look terrible to the world, and the United States looks helpless.  That all plays into the Iranian hands.

If, after all of that, you think I have a solution to the Middle East crisis – well I wish I did.  What I do know is that there will never be peace in the Middle East unless the issue of the Palestinians is resolved.  Four years of US neglect did nothing but make that issue worse, and we are reaping the whirlwind now.

Hope

The CDC announced last week that those who are fully vaccinated can stop wearing masks outside, and in many cases, inside as well.  After over a year of struggling to get the American people to accept mask wearing as a “normal” part of pandemic life, the CDC began the process of returning to “real” normal life. 

Masks became the symbol of all the politics that surrounded COVID.  It was one of the sure signs of political affiliation:  voters for Biden wore masks, many voters for “the other guy” did not.  Masks became a sign of “political speech”.  What should have been a reasonable public health action, became an exercise in the First Amendment:  “If I can wear a shirt with a political slogan, I can choose not to wear a mask”.  

Confusion

The pandemic began with mask confusion.  The reality was – there weren’t enough masks for hospitals and other medical settings.  So the CDC, and the guru of America’s pandemic response, Dr. Fauci, didn’t mandate mask wearing for the general public.  They were afraid that the populace would snatch up all of the available supply, and leave hospital workers even more vulnerable than they already were.

Once the mask supply was stabilized, then the CDC advised everyone to wear masks.  But the damage was already done.  Videos of Dr. Fauci saying “masks aren’t necessary” were played over and over.  Meanwhile, the President was in the process of promising the pandemic would be over by Easter, then Memorial Day, then the Fourth of July.  So the political fight was on.

Masks, by the way, work.  Mask wearing allowed many schools to open, and clearly prevented disease.  If you still question that – look at the flu epidemic of 2020.  There wasn’t one, in fact, numbers for the flu were almost non-existent.  Masks stopped the flu, and it reduced the much more infectious COVID 19 as well.  

Herd Immunity

We were told by those medical professionals on the “mask” side, and even those who seemed to be in favor of just letting it go, that the goal was “herd immunity”.  The idea, that we would reach a percentage of folks who either already had COVID, or later, were vaccinated, that the virus would stop spreading.  More importantly, “herd immunity” would reduce the risk of viral mutations that could thwart vaccines and treatments.

The number varied, but it was generally accepted that 80% of the population would need to be “immune” before herd immunity would kick in.  And once “Operation Warp Speed” succeeded in helping produce multiple vaccines – we thought that “herd immunity” was in sight.

But vaccines got mired in politics as well.  Folks from “the right” said the vaccine was another infringement on their “rights”.  Folks from the anti-vaxxer world (many on “the left”) warned that the vaccines were rushed and untested.  By the way, those arguments might have had more strength, if we didn’t already know that the anti-vaxxers would be against the vaccines regardless – they would find any reason for opposition.  (It is with sadness that one of the leading anti-vaxxers is the son of one of my great political heroes – Robert Kennedy).

The politics create enough friction that it’s unlikely that the United States will ever reach a “herd immunity” status.  Instead, pandemic experts now say we will have to continue to modify vaccines to meet the changing mutations, and develop more effective treatment for those who become infected.  We won’t end the pandemic – we’ll learn to live with it.

Masks Off

But vaccination is still important.  And the CDC recognizes that there needs to be some “reward” for being vaccinated.  The numbers (“the science”) seem pretty clear.  Vaccinations have a 90% or better rate of preventing infection, and an almost 100% rate of preventing hospitalization or death.  So get vaccinated – and the CDC has provided the reward.  Take off your mask!!

What about those not vaccinated?  Their choice – now – and their risk.  Vaccines are so available that they are giving rewards for getting them.  Ohio pays one vaccinated person a million dollars – every week.  In New York, you can get “a shot and a shot” at your local bar.  So if someone chooses not to get vaccinated then they risk infection.  COVID, like polio and the measles, has not “gone away”.  It’s simply been “tamped down” by the masks, and now by vaccinations.  

So not wearing masks will definitely increase the incidence of COVID infection – but not likely among the vaccinated (and those with immunity from having had the disease).  But the argument goes – if you won’t get vaccinated, you probably weren’t wearing a mask anyway.  So why “punish” those who are following public health recommendations?

Me

I am a track and field official these days – spending many evenings and Saturdays outside on the track.  Even before the “science” caught up, we knew that being outside made COVID infection less likely.  Look at the Black Lives Matter protests last June, that we thought would create “super-spreader” events.  They didn’t.  

I’ve been wearing a mask at every meet.  There’s lots of kids (not vaccinated) and lots of “heavy breathing” going on.  In the next few weeks I’ll be on the track a lot more as the high school season finishes up.  I’ll be standing beside a runway, unintentionally “socially distanced” from athletes, coaches and spectators, officiating pole vault and long jump.  

If the Ohio High School Athletic Association tells me I have to keep my mask on – I’ll do it.  But I’m fully vaccinated (Pfizer), and if they give me the go ahead – it’s masks off for me too.  I’ll be happy to put my sunglasses back on – no masks means no fogging up!!!!

Rescue

In several posts over the past nine months, I’ve talked about our rescue dog “Louisiana”.  Lou, was rescued by the good folks at Lost Pet Recovery, including my wife Jenn, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana (hence the name).  He was left broken in a parking lot at LSU, two legs and a hip – probably hit by a car.  He’s a long legged pup, a year or so old. And he’s a regular Heinz 57 of breeds with Boxer’s paws, a Greyhound’s legs, and a Pit-like face.

The LPR team brought Lou home to Columbus, and paid the expenses as he had plates put in one leg, the hip relocated, and the other leg allowed to heal.  For the first few weeks after he was kept by a great Vet-Tech from OSU in her apartment. But Lou had an amazingly loud “Pterodactyl cry”, and while he didn’t use it often, it was “inappropriate” for an apartment setting.  So Jenn and I took him in to complete his long rehab, from October until February.

Lou got better, and became fast friends with another of our dogs, Keelie.  There were a set, so much so that we couldn’t face breaking them up.  Like Keelie herself, Lou became a “foster fail” – we adopted him.  By February he was in a routine, hanging with the other three dogs, and had his place in bed with the rest of us  (a King bed isn’t quite big enough anymore).  

He even gets along with Buddy, our oldest.

The Last Hurdle

But Lou had one more hurdle to clear – and it’s a high one.  In Lou’s wanderings before he ended up in the LSU parking lot, he contracted heart worms.  Fair warning – the next paragraph explains heart worms – and isn’t for the squeamish. But there is a point to all of this beyond the physiology of dogs – so hang in.

Heart worms are literally what they sound like.  They are parasitic worms that are transmitted to dogs through bites by infected mosquitos.  The larvae migrate through the blood to the heart vessels – the aorta and other major arteries. They then attach inside of them and feed on bacteria in the blood.  They propagate, with their “babies” circulating through the system (where more mosquitos can get them) and then find a place of their own in the dog’s arteries.  Eventually, they clog off enough space.  Circulation is restricted, and the dog dies.

Getting rid of heart worms is a two phase process.  The first isn’t so bad – a month long course of medication that kills the bacteria that the “babies” eat in the blood.  So they die.  And if you leave the dog on that treatment for as long as a couple of years – then the adult worms may die too.  But to really “cure” the dog, it requires a second step.  And it’s phase two – killing the mature worms – that’s the roughest part.   

The treatment consists of three injections of a drug called “Immiticide”.  It kills the adult worms in the blood vessels.  The painful injections are given over thirty days – the first at the beginning, and the second and third on the last two days.  They literally “break up” the adult worms – causing worm material to circulate through the body.  That means that the dog has to be kept calm.  Increase in circulation risks lung damage, strokes and blockages as worm materials work out of the circulatory system.  From the first shot to the “end of restrictions” is at least three months.

Getting Better

Lou’s a gamer.  He got his third injection yesterday.  It will be another two months before he can run in the back yard and tackle Keelie again.  But he’s able to play a little in the house, and he does get to walk on leash when the others dogs are out. He doesn’t seem to mind too much that he gets all the personal attention from Jenn and I.  The only remaining problem: part of the treatment is that Lou is on steroids, and that means he’s incredibly thirsty, hungry, and in need a lot of walks.  Our new normal is a three in the morning stroll around the backyard.  I hope Lou remembers where to go:  my eyes are barely open.

And all of our other dogs?  They are on heart worm prevention medication – the same medication that Lou will be taking once all the treatments are over.  Yep, it’s a little pricey, especially for four dogs, but it’s a whole lot better than getting the worms and having to deal with them.

Our America

So why am I writing about dogs and heart worms?  Well, first that’s become a major topic in our life, and will be for a while longer.  But second, while this may be a bit of a reach – isn’t Our America a little like a dog with heart worms?

Right now, we are moving around OK, not really noticing too much that our national “blood flow” is gradually getting restricted.  But the parasite is present.  America has had a slow developing malfunction in our political circulation for years, well before the election of 2016.  What used to be a more open “discussion” of issues and options, now isn’t allowed.  We are polarized, trapped on our sides, and the room for negotiation and compromise is narrowed.

Our nation had the opportunity to take the “Immiticide” and resolve the issue.  It could have happened after the January 6^th Insurrection.  But that moment seems to have passed, and while we might be “taking the antibiotic” to slowly get rid of the larvae, we really aren’t dealing with the problem.  Need an example:  look at the United States House of Representatives.  This week the leader of the Republican Party led a purge of Party leadership because one was a “non-believer” in the “Big Lie”.  Then he went to the White House and stated the truth –  that Joe Biden was the legitimate President.  Then he tweeted that Biden was “corrupt” and “socialist”.  

We the People

I’ve been driving a lot lately, traveling to officiate track meets.  I’m listening along the way to lectures on the definitive writings on the US Constitution, The Federalist Papers (it really doesn’t get any geekier than that).  One of the critical points the lecturer makes, is that the Founders believed in an “ultimate fix” for failures in their governing structure.  Ultimately, “We the People”, the citizens of the United States, could determine when our government isn’t doing what it should be. 

They built in political revolution – right there in the Constitution.  It’s called elections, and over four years the “righteous might” of the American people can alter the path of our political life.  The Founders depended on that as the ultimate “check and balance” in the American government.  

So if 2020 was the start of our “treatment”, the antibiotic to starve off the larvae, then we have put off the “Immiticide” until 2022.  But sooner or later We (the people) will need to make the change, and purge our politics of the forces  that drive us a part.  

If not, then our government will be like the untreated heart worm dog – slowing down from lack of circulation, until – it stops.

Rock Hard Conservative

She’s a conservative, standing in the way of many of the programs I would like to see our Federal Government create.  She’s led her Republicans, the party of “obstruction” for the past several years, and she helped them oppose liberal change.  And she stood in line with the legislative agenda of the Trump Administration.

And she’s a Cheney, daughter of the former Vice President, and generally channels his views.  Vice President Cheney was a “Neo-con”, pushing us into an unnecessary decade long war in Iraq and shifting the rationale that kept us in Afghanistan for over twenty years.  He betrayed the morality of the United States, putting torture and perversion “in play” in American foreign policy.  Remember Abu Gharib?  It was a direct consequence of the decisions of Dick Cheney.  And while Donald Trump damaged America’s standing in the world, Dick Cheney did even more.  He began from a  position of high moral standing, a nation suffering a surprise attack on 9-11.  The world stood with us. And he blew it.

So in the end there’s not a lot about Liz Cheney that I like.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize courage when I see it.  And I see it in Liz Cheney today.

Voters

I’ve spent several essays trying to understand why the Republican Party stands with Donald Trump, after the “Big Lie” and the Insurrection.  In the end the conclusion is clear:  Trump controls the Republican primary voter, and regardless of what the leaders of the Party “know in their hearts”, they can’t stand against their voters.  Instead of saying “out loud” what they seem to constantly say behind closed doors, the pay public obeisance to Trump and the Trump lies.  

As South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham openly said, he can see no way forward for the Republican Party except with Donald Trump.  So Graham “cleaves” to him.

Liz Cheney does not.  She reached the clear (and obvious) conclusion that Trump encouraged the Insurrection, and attempted to overthrow the Congress.  It’s the same conclusion that most other Members of Congress, Democratic and Republican, reached that night when they returned to a battle-littered Capitol Building to certify the Electoral vote for Joe Biden.  It is the same conclusion that Graham voiced that night on the Senate floor. 

In the Wind

But unlike Graham, or House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, or a multitude of other Republican members, Liz Cheney didn’t “put her finger to the wind” to see what side to support.  While the vast majority of her compatriots in the GOP “crab-walked” their positions over to support the former President, Cheney stuck to what she saw, and what she experienced.

In this day of rampant expediency, Liz Cheney is showing remarkable courage.  She is standing by her beliefs, regardless of the political consequences.  Today, it is likely she will be removed as the leader of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives.  She will be replaced by Congressman Elsie Stefanik of New York. Unlike Cheney, Stefanik is much more moderate in her political views.  But she made a decision two years ago, in the first impeachment trial of the then-President.  She determined that her votes, and her financing, were dependent on supporting Trump.  So from a candidate who in 2016 wouldn’t even name him, only calling him the “Republican nominee”, she became a full throated, Jim Jordan-like Trump apologist.  

Stefanik knows which way the Republican winds are blowing.  She altered her course, and her ideology, to fit the current model.  She doesn’t stand for much, except being on the “winning side”.  And for that – today she will be rewarded.

Pay the Price

Cheney stands for what she believes.  And for that – today she will pay the price.

John F. Kennedy, a hero himself in World War II, wrote a book in the late 1950’s.  It was about eight United States Senators who showed a different kind of courage, the courage to risk, and lose, their political careers for ideas they believed in.  The book was about moral courage rather than physical courage, and Kennedy titled it Profiles in Courage.  That title has become a watchword today, to contrast political expediency over political fortitude.

I don’t agree with Liz Cheney on almost every issue.  But I know courage when I see it.  And Liz Cheney is a “profile in courage” today.  

Suburbs

 I know suburbs.

I was born in Clifton, a residential section in the City of Cincinnati just north of the University, and lived there my first five years.  Dad was working his way up the television management ladder, so we moved a lot after that. First it was to the suburbs of Detroit for a year, in Bloomfield Village.  Then it was back to Clifton for another two years.  Next Dad went to WLW-D in Dayton, and we moved to suburban Kettering, for five years.  And finally it was back to Cincinnati, this time to Wyoming, a suburb north of town, where I finished out high school.

So while I lived a little in the city, most of my developing years were spent in the suburbs.  When I graduated from Denison University over in Granville, I took a job at Watkins Memorial High School.  At the time I thought Watkins was “in” Pataskala, and Pataskala was “out” in the country. 

Lost Countryside

My mistake.  It was 1978, and the Southwest Licking Schools (the name of the school district where Watkins Memorial is located) still echoed from its cataclysmic beginnings in the 1950’s.  Southwest Licking was a consolidated district, an uncomfortable combination of Etna, Pataskala and Kirkersville Villages schools.  The High School itself was located in Etna Township, and strategically placed almost equidistant from the three early village buildings (2.6 miles from Pataskala school, 2 miles from Etna, 2.5 miles from Kirkersville – it mattered).  And it also included Harrison Township, another governmental entity, which was part of the original Pataskala Schools.

Back then there was still talk about the “Etna” position on the eighth grade boys basketball team, and how Pataskala “kids” were different from Kirkersville “kids”.  Watkins was just ending the era of being a “rural” school.  The Future Farmers of America (FFA), a group that dominates rural high schools, was fading out.  The corn field behind the school, maintained by the FFA, only lasted until the end of the 70’s.  It soon became a practice field, subsumed into the building expansion of the early 80’s.  Southwest Licking was becoming a suburb of Columbus.

Welcome Change

And for a while, the area welcomed the changes.  Roseberry’s Grocery replaced the My Little Market in Pataskala.  Etna Market had great pizza and limited selection.  But soon Cardinals bought out Roseberry’s and built  a true “Super Market”.  The High School marching band played at the opening of McDonald’s on Broad Street in Pataskala, a harbinger of real changes in our community.  

And then Kroger’s came in – plowing under the farm equipment sales place and the fields around it.  With Kroger’s came more mass housing developments and the race was on.  How many residential homes could they build?  How many houses can fit in a single acre of former corn field?  And how will the volunteer fire department (if went professional) and the local police (they expanded) deal with the huge influx of folks?  The Etna Market shrunk to just Etna Pizza, and then closed its doors.

Industrialization

The “Village” of Pataskala merged with a neighboring township – but not Etna or Kirkersville or even Harrison, with their shared old school district.  It merged with Lima Township, with a wholly different school district.  The “City” of Pataskala now split loyalties to two different school systems – Licking Heights and Southwest Licking.  And while the “City” has held off a lot of big industry, Etna Township embraced it full force.

Drive down the National Road – US 40.  Actually, don’t do that right now, they are tearing it up and putting a new road down.  That’s because the number of warehouses (now called “distribution centers”) including the literal miles of Amazon Buildings are attracting thousands of semi-trucks and trailers each day.  They are stressing the roads all around Etna beyond their abilities to hold up.  What used to be some suburban developments surrounded by farm fields are now houses dwarfed by the giant concrete walls of the distribution centers.  Kids on bikes stay in the confines of their developments – there’s no safe crossing of US 40 or State Route 310.

Interstate Service

The nearby interchange of SR 310 and Interstate 70, the subject of rumored development for decades, is finally “blooming”.  It’s not just another McDonalds, a Speedway and a BP.  Now it’s a Love’s Truck Stop, and rumors of a motel and a “better than fast food” restaurant.  The two lanes of SR 310 through old Etna now is four and five.  The old town precariously clings to the expanded edges of the highway, semis roaring through.  Even the old Etna School, long empty of children, is now half gone.  It became unsafe, bricks falling off the walls – and the District tore the “old building” down.  Only the more recent (1930’s, 1960’s) additions are all that’s left.

And what of the remaining farm fields in Etna, and soon Kirkersville?  Their value is so much greater as “developmental” land than as growing fields, it’s almost impossible for farmers to stay.  One large farm will soon be hundreds – that’s hundreds of homes.  All of that traffic will somehow merge onto two-lane country roads, then funnel onto SR 310 – more traffic, more kids in schools, more sewer plants:  more, more, more.

On the Cusp

This community (Etna Township, Pataskala City, Kirkersville Village, and Harrison Township) is on the cusp.  There are the “hard-liners” who moved here to “be in the country”.  But that ship sailed with the end of FFA, and My Little Market – we ARE the suburbs now.  But what will we be next?  Etna has committed to industry AND suburban development.  Pataskala City is more cautious, but covets the tax base that industry brings.  Harrison Township is stubborn – housing only.  And where goes Kirkersville?  No one is sure.

There are still a few farms left.  Facebook explodes when the farmers fertilize their fields (manure) or drive combine harvesters down the road at rush hour.  But their time is ended – and they know it.  We are suburban Columbus, like it or not.  How our multiple communities will deal with the changes: two school districts, two sewer and water districts, and four municipalities, all with conflicting plans and goals – leaves our community “writ-large” at a loss. 

The “cusp of change” looks a lot more like the edge of a cliff, with four different governments arguing whether to hold each other up, or push each other over the side.  But, in the end, they will jump – together or separately. 

 It’s all about the landing.

It’s National Teacher Appreciation week – and I appreciate it!!!  I spent twenty-eight years in the classroom (and another eight in the front office) so I know a bit about schools and teachers.  As the “Dean of Students”, I grew to respect even more what my compatriots did “when they could close the hallway door”.  There were miracles of interaction, intervention, and inspiration. 

But behind every teacher is sixteen years or more of being taught.  We were students first, and it’s out of those experiences that we came into “our” classrooms.  Hopefully, we were inspired by the great teachers we had.  And we also learned from those teachers who, for whatever reason, failed to make the mark.  For me, there were two teachers that made a tremendous impact on my life, literally forming my career.

Van Buren

The first will be a surprise to those who know me.  I was an eighth grader in Van Buren Junior High School in Kettering, Ohio, when I discovered the impact that a great teacher can have.  I was a “math block” kid.  Put me in a social studies or English class, and I would sail along.  Even in biological sciences I did fine.  But put a chalkboard and a math equation in the front of the room, and I was bound to struggle.

I don’t know where that came from. Dad and my oldest sister were math whizzes, but for me math was always hard.  Perhaps it was because math, like foreign languages and learning a musical instrument, required drilling and repetition to “get”.  And I was never a great driller – ask my trumpet teacher.

And then there was my seventh grade math teacher, the model of the teacher I never – ever – ever wanted to be.  She was old (probably my age now), and an old-school teacher.  She had no problem taking a kid in the hall and shoving him up against the locker to make her point: doing social studies in math class was unacceptable.  But more importantly, she could take a subject that I didn’t like, and make it as boring as possible.  By the end of that year in math, I was ready to never see a number again.

Coach Weikert

Then the next year, I was in Mr. Weikert’s class.  Doug Weikert was a young teacher, in his early twenties when I had him.  And he found a way to make math “easy” and understandable.  But more importantly, Mr. Weikert cared about you – and because he did, you wanted to learn and improve for him. 

I can’t say I got “A’s” in math all year, but I did manage to get ‘B’s.  And more importantly, I discovered that a good teacher can overcome all sorts of obstacles, including “math blocks” and the indentation of a locker combination on a thirteen year old’s spine.  

It didn’t hurt that he was a track coach, though I didn’t get to run for him until the next year.  And looking back at that, I wonder how much that influenced what I did in my career.  After I left his class, I fell back into “math block” world. No math teacher ever really measured up to him.  But he made me see what was possible.

We moved out of Kettering after ninth grade, and the next time I saw Coach Weikert, it was at the State Track Coaches Clinic.  He was the track coach at Kettering’s Fairmont High School by then, and I was into my career at Watkins.  And even later, I discovered that he painted the markings on tracks for his “summer job”.  One summer I found him on “my” track here in Pataskala.  Somewhere in all of that I know I thanked him for his example, but I don’t think I made too big a deal of it.  I should have.

Doug Weikert passed away in 2015, young at sixty-eight.  But he always served as the example for me of what one teacher could do by “just” doing his job.  Listening to folks from the Dayton area, I know he made a whole lot of people better students, athletes, and human beings as well.

Wyoming

The teacher who most impacted my life was in my senior year of high school.  I was a budding student and politician, steeped in the middle of the Watergate crisis.  And then I met Ms. Bolton (it was definitely Ms. not Miss), fresh from Wooster College.  Eve was an amazing teacher, inspiring in the classroom.  And she was an amazing mentor, willing to introduce a student into the “real world” of politics.  She campaigned for Ed Muskie in 1972, and was just beginning her long alternative career in Cincinnati politics as well as teaching at Wyoming High School.  She’s still in elective office today, forty-six years later.

So I learned from her in the classroom, and I learned even more about politics on the Frank Davis for Juvenile Court campaign and later on Eve’s own campaigns for office.  And she even got me involved in her first years of creating the now legendary Wyoming High School drama department.  

Eve Bolton inspired me as a teacher, and as a political mentor.  She taught me, more than anything, that if you want something, you’ve got to work for it.  And she served as a “safe haven”.  In an era where America was politically divided as much as it is today, I was on the “wrong side” of politics for many of the Wyoming social studies staff.  Eve couldn’t protect me from my own statements in Mr. Wagner’s government class, but she did let me know that while my timing was terrible, my sentiments weren’t “wrong”.  

When I went into a classroom as a young teacher, I wanted to teach like Eve.  I wanted to inspire kids, to make them feel like that could achieve whatever they dreamed.  I hope I came close.  If I did, it was because of the inspiration of Eve Bolton.

And I also took Eve’s example for building a school program.  She showed me that you could be a track athlete, a swimmer, a member of the Thespian society and on the State Social Studies team.  She supported the football team with the same enthusiasm as the next one-act play done “in the round” in the school cafeteria.  And she made sure students had access to both.

My last political campaign was for Eve, as manager of her first run for Cincinnati City Council.  I then determined to leave my brief sojourn at Law School, and go back to teaching at Watkins.  It was 1982, and we lost contact, so I never really got the opportunity to tell her how much she influenced my life.  I hope somehow this essay finds its way to her – I just want to say thank you for setting the example for my career and my life.  You were THE teacher that made a difference.  

I definitely appreciate it.

Texas Says It All

In Texas they made it clear.  They said the real meaning “out loud”.  They were voting to preserve the “purity” of the ballot.  For anyone with an understanding of the history of racism in the United States, the word “purity” is loaded with intent.  There was “purity” of the slave-owning Founding Fathers, the “purity” of the Southern Cause in the Civil War, and maintaining the “purity” of the white race.  And the original, most insidious use of the word, maintaining the “purity” of white women, supposedly so “vulnerable” to defilement by Black men.   So they said, and used the word “purity” to try to maintain first slavery, then the Black Codes, the Jim Crow Laws, and now the White Supremacist organizations that purport to defend American “purity”.  Lynching was about “purity”.

And who was voting for “ ballot purity”?  The 2021 Texas State Legislature, voted for a law supporting additional restrictions on the voting process.  They claimed to be protecting the “security” of the vote from their own made-up threats of voter falsification.  They created a false problem to pursue a malevolent solution.  There is no voter fraud, no ballots brought in from Asia with bamboo in the paper, no “Big Lie” numbers added into the counts of inner-city precincts. But because they’ve invented these problems –  they are going to solve them.  That solution is to take action to keep people of color from voting.  They want the ballot pure – purely for White people that is.

Not Fooled

To folks in the suburbs (like me) some of these solutions seem to be “no big deal”.  So you have to re-request absentee ballots for each election.  And the “drop boxes” for early voting will only be open on weekdays during business hours.  Oh, and they won’t be boxes, there will be one per county – even if the county contains Dallas, a city of 2.63 million.  And there will be less early voting days, and fewer locations to vote.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal – until you deal with the economics.  Let’s think about a hard working single mom, whose got a day-job:  forty hours a week plus overtime.  She’s already struggling – paying a big chunk of her paycheck for daycare costs for the kids.  So trying to get to the polls on election day – well that’s a tough process.  She doesn’t get a “day off” for voting, and she can’t get it done on her thirty minute lunch break.  The polls are farther away from her home, “consolidated for ballot security and efficiency”.  And they close earlier, making it even harder to get there.

To the Polls

So early voting is good for her – as long as the early voting have hours that aren’t her working hours.  Restricting those days and hours makes it tougher – and you can’t take the kids to stand in line for hours.  And since those ballot locations are fewer, it requires public transportation.  That’s an actual financial cost – a form of poll tax in reality.  And one “banker’s hours” drop off box – for all of Dallas?  What the likelihood that she can get to that?

So she should vote absentee – mailing the ballot in.  But Texas has increased scrutiny of ballot signatures, allowing workers to compare the ballot envelope signature to any past signature on file with the state.  Think about that, an early signature from a new young voter might be compared to one signed on a ballot twenty years later.  It makes it more likely that an untrained election worker might throw out a legal ballot.  And if that happens – there is no legal recourse for the voter, no appeal process (but, if the voter has internet access, they can track the ballot to see its been tossed).  

Who Is Impacted

These kind of voting laws make it harder for everyone to vote.  But they are deceptive in that the impact of those laws are much greater on folks with lower incomes, and in fact, people of color.  And since people of color are much less likely to vote for Republicans – well we know the real “purity” the legislators of Texas are trying to get. 

Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Texas: the litany of voter “integrity” measures rolls on. But here in Ohio, with the election machinery already dominated by Republican appointees, you might think that we’d be above all of that. But then there’s this:

“Legislation introduced in the Ohio House calls for prohibiting placement of ballot drop boxes anywhere but at a local elections office, eliminating a day of early voting, shortening the window for requesting mail-in ballots and tightening voter ID requirements” (AP).

I guess some Republican legislators in Ohio who think we need more “purity” here too. 

Et Tu, Ohio?

“Morning Joe” is cable news MSNBC’s morning show.  For three hours from 6 am, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough (“Joe”) and progressive news analyst Mika Brezhenski along with Willie Geist and a cast of regulars analyze the news and events of the day.

Open Microphone

Joe and Mika –  Please stop.  You’re doing it again.  It’s like an addiction: “I’ll just have a little bit, just a couple of drinks – what can that hurt?”  And if you hadn’t already been down the hole, down the bitter catastrophe of 2016, maybe it wouldn’t hurt.  But you were.

You put a charlatan on the map.  You gave him literally millions of dollars of free air time in 2015 and 2016, enough that he was able to “call in” and make himself a legitimate Presidential candidate.  To use the language of addiction – you were enablers, giving him the free podium to America.  In religious terms, you gave him the “imprimatur” of respectability.

And it made your ratings.  Because the half-hour conversations, even when Joe got the chance to chastise and harangue, confirmed your show as the premier cable morning program.  Those who supported his fraud, well they watched to hear what he said.  And those that scoffed at his candidacy, well they watched too.  They watched to hear him make a fool of himself, and to hear Joe condemn him, and to hear Mika’s sly commentary about what he said.  

His supporters saw him as courageous, coming onto MSNBC, the ultimate enemy.   And the “haters” laughed in their sleeves.  “Was this the best the Republican Party could do?  Listen to Joe chastise and control him on the phone line”. But who is laughing now?

It’s A Choice

It was more than five years ago.  But you, Joe and Mika, are falling into the trap once again.

I am an addict myself.  MSNBC goes on at 6:30 am (Eastern) in my house, and it stays on most of the day.  It is the background to our lives, whatever else we are doing.  It’s on right now, even as a write this missive.

Joe Biden is doing good things.  He’s crossing the country, reaching out beyond the Congress to convince Americans that rebuilding our infrastructure is a critical.  It  shouldn’t take much convincing:  drive any highway and you’ll know there’s work to do.  My MSNBC flickers multiple times a day – it’s coming from the internet, and there’s always a glitch, a momentary pause.

Biden’s doing the “good work” of reuniting families cruelly separated at the border.  He’s getting more and more Americans vaccinated against COVID.  And he’s bringing consistency and strength back to America’s image in the world. 

Joe, Mika:  talk about that.

It’s the News 

Sure you have to cover the fate of Liz Cheney, and the “Big Lie”, and election suppression in America.  But you don’t have to give the charlatan any more room in your busy schedule.  

I understand why you would.  He’s a ticket to ratings – even now – in exile in his “Elba Island” of Mara Lago.  His “lovers” aren’t watching you – they are over at Fox and Friends or worse.  But his haters want to hate – I want to hate – and feeding that hate gets more viewers.  And you are “winning” the ratings war.  You are the most watched cable morning show (Adweek).

But history does repeat itself.  Returning to your addiction threatens to have the same consequences.  He’s not history, and he’s not a joke.  He’s a threat, just as Napoleon was a threat during his first exile.  Don’t play into his game.  We know his strategy:  better to say bad things about me, than not talk about me at all.  And we’re talking about him again, over and over.

Joe and Mika, you are keeping him relevant.  I know that you are “reporting the news”.  But beware:  understand your addiction. You were in recovery, but the lure of the ratings is dragging you back down again. 

The nation went down with you five years ago.  We can’t afford to fall into that rabbit hole once more. 

“If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow” – Teddy Roosevelt

Your Lying Ears

We all heard it.  Mitch McConnell followed his impeachment acquittal vote with an impassioned (for Mitch) speech condemning the ex-President’s actions.  Lindsey Graham told us all in the late evening of January 6^th:  “…All I can say is enough is enough.  Count me out”.  Even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters…”

Yet all three today are back to support the ex-President, now a “Florida Man”.  McConnell says he would support him if he earned the Republican nomination in 2024.  Graham has made a pilgrimage to Mara Lago, to play golf and mend fences.  And McCarthy has literally rewritten the events of January 6^th, and now is supporting the Florida Man’s candidate for Republican Caucus Chairman of the House against the most “establishment” Republican ever, Liz Cheney.  

Over and over again you hear folks of my persuasion, that is the Democratic persuasion, say:  “What the Hell is wrong with those guys?  They had chance after chance to get rid of ‘that Florida Man’ but instead they ask forgiveness and go right back to him.  He’s like the Godfather, or an opiate drug.  ‘Every time I get away, they pull me back in.’” (At least, I say.)

Kompromat

There are lots of possible factors.  Some, like Graham, may somehow be compromised.  Graham accepted a ton of NRA money, money we later learned came directly from Russia.  That’s not well known in the world, and perhaps there is other “dirt” in Florida strong enough, or different enough, to bury Graham for good.  And we know that McCarthy and McConnell are trying to lead their minority caucuses, many of whom are “Florida Man” adherents.  “There go my people, I must follow them, for I am their leader,” seems to be the only solution they can find.

But I think the Florida Man’s grip on the Republican anatomy is much more immediate than just “kompromat” or even money.  And it’s much more dangerous.

Fifty-five percent of Republicans believe that the Florida Man won the 2020 Presidential election.  And that majority of the Party is an even larger percentage of the voters in the Republican Primaries.  So it’s pretty simple really.  The fundamental question for most politicians is:  how do I win the next election?  And if that politician is a candidate in a Republican Primary, the easiest way to win is to support the leader the voters support – the Florida man.

Ohio

Look at the Republican race for retiring Ohio Senator Rob Portman’s seat. The two early leaders, former Party Chairman Jane Timken, and former State Treasurer Josh Mandel, were once mainstream Republicans, even supporters of now ex-communicated former Governor John Kasich.

But now, both are literally falling over each other to demonstrate almost religious fealty to Florida man. It’s all about winning, and the celestial highway to a Republican nomination, though maybe not to victory in the general election, passes through the front door of the club at Mara Lago.

The Big Lie

The Mara Lago “machine” is building an essential case to back their “Big Lie”.  Republican gerrymandering has created a “fundamentalist” majority in multiple state legislatures, who now are backfilling the false election claims by creating fake investigations.  The Arizona “Cyber Ninja” investigation of the Maricopa County vote is just one example.  Not only does this legitimize the false claims, but it also provides a strong base for fundraising.  Millions of dollars will pour into Florida Man accounts, whether they are used for his own campaign, or to back his acolytes.  That money becomes even more important because what’s donated to Florida Man is money not available for other Republican candidates – adherents of the “Big Lie” or not. 

But that majority of Republicans believing in the “Big Lie” is all around us.  Republicans who recognize the truth are so marginalized in their own Party, that they are shouted down.  Look at Mitt Romney last week at the Utah State Republican Convention, or Cheney, or the early retirements of Portman or Toomey of Pennsylvania.  If the Democratic Party is the “Big Tent” Party, from Bernie Sanders to Joe Manchin, the Republican Party is the “Blind Faith” Party.  Open eyes are not acceptable to the rank and file.

Most of the Republicans in Washington know in their minds that this brand of fanaticism isn’t good for their Party or the nation. Their eyes might be open, and, in their hearts, they want a better choice for the American people.

But those aren’t the body parts that the Florida Man is holding.

 

Florida Man

If you haven’t played the “Florida Man” game before – here’s how it works. Take you birthday, and Google it and the words “Florida Man”. It’s a lock to be bizarre.

My Birthday – Shirtless Florida man travels to Myrtle Beach to head bang during Hurricane Florence

Jenn’s Birthday – Florida woman sentenced to probation after pulling live alligator from her pants during traffic stop

“Those Democrats”

It’s everything the Trumpers warned us about.  Joe Biden is pursuing a massive spending bill, threatening to increase the US debt but more importantly, to reduce the income gap between the “one percent” and the rest of the nation.  Many state legislatures, the last remaining bastions of Trumpism, have risen up to protect the government from too many people voting.  They don’t want the “masses”, especially of color, to determine who our leaders are.

“Those Democrats” want the whole country to be vaccinated to stop the spread of COVID.  How dare they demand that we ALL participate in something that would protect our National health?

They – the Democrats – want to take away our guns, or at least some of our guns, a few, or even just our ability to fire hundreds of rounds a minute.  How will we be able to overthrow the government if we can’t have our high capacity magazines?  You can only fight off the police with “Blue Lives Matter” flag poles for so long.   

Democratic Revenge

And now the greatest fear of all:  the “Biden” Justice Department is prosecuting the “un-pardoned” Trump associates.  They searched Giuliani’s office and home last week. They treated Rudy, America’s Mayor, just like that traitor/lawyer Cohen a couple of years ago.  And there are even assassinating the character of dynamic young Congressman Matt Gaetz, dragging his name through the mud without bringing an indictment. Pardoned Roger Stone has re-entered the fray to defend his young friend.  Even MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough came to Gaetz’s aid.  He compared the poor man’s treatment to the Hillary Clinton investigation.

It’s all a matter of perspective.  Or what news source you choose.

“Trump World” is fighting back.  Finally, the 2020 votes in Arizona and Michigan are being honestly investigated by the “Cyber Ninjas”.  Those “good guys” have finally got their hands on the actual ballots and out of the corrupted Boards of Elections.  They are bound to find what “everyone” already knows:  that Trump really won the election, and that the Democrats somehow subverted multiple Republican-run state Boards of Elections.

Enough of that.

Historic Perspective

I am reading a book about Virginia Hall.  Hall was an American woman who led an extra-ordinary life.  She grew up in the Roaring Twenties, and left America to live in Europe.  Hall worked for the US State Department there, and watched the rise of Fascism and the inability of Democracies to control it.  

With the beginning of World War II, Hall did everything she could to support France, and then when it fell, she went to Great Britain.  Ultimately, she went to work for the Special Operations Executive and became an “operative”, a liaison going into Nazi occupied Europe to work with Resistance groups.  That’s the same work that my mother did during the war.

I am struck by the reaction of Ms. Hall to the rise of Fascism.  She watched as Hitler and Mussolini, and the Fascist government of Petain in France subsumed the surrounded democracies.  They did it with the “Big Lie” (actually originating with Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels).  Hall’s response was to do anything she could to defend the world she loved against the absolute evils of Fascism.  She was willing to risk her own life when she could have just gone back to America and safety.

Fascists

The echoes of the 1930’s Fascism reverberate in our own time.

It’s not just the obtuse Fascism of the “Proud Boys” or the “Oath Keepers”; the leaders of the January 6^th Insurrection.  It’s the voter suppression we see in the several Republican led states that want to make sure their opponents don’t win again.  It’s the use of fear:  of vaccines and gun controls and the “Big Lie” of election fraud.  And it’s the screams and chants against Mitt Romney from his own Republican Party in Utah this weekend, or the outcry over Liz Cheney. Both dared to deny the “Big Lie” and vote for impeachment.  

Donald Trump was just a symptom.   The United States, the home to the Ku Klux Klan, the John Birch Society and Father Coughlin, is no stranger to racism and Fascism.  The Roaring Twenties, the era of jazz and speakeasys and women’s rights that produced the courageous Virginia Hall (and Babs Dahlman) also was the “high tide” of the Klan and rampant gangsterism here in the United States.  

We’ve got bigger worries than an ex-President in Florida.

In the Movies

We’ve all seen a movie like this.  The world is faced with some incredibly awful crisis, say, a global pandemic or alien invasion.  At first, we struggle to find a way to work together, and it looks like the entire globe will be consumed.  Funeral pyres burn in the streets – the ancient nursery rhyme of plague, “Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posey, ashes, ashes, all fall down,” has immediate meaning.

Then science finds an answer, and the world joins together to end the crisis.  The final scene, looks like the last scene from “Independence Day”, where folks all over the world celebrate the victory over the dark forces they faced.

Can’t we just skip to the end of the movie?

Science

The science is simple.  However COVID 19 came about – whether from some bat meal in the wet market of Wuhan, or a more nefarious mistake by the Chinese lab there, it’s out. Over 152 million cases are confirmed worldwide, probably only a tenth of the real number of infections.  More than 3.2 million have died, with more being added every day.  Here in the United States we suffered the worst casualties (so far) at just under 600,000 dead, but we seem to have “turned the corner”.  

The vaccines are near miraculous, something from “a movie” where what normally takes years is compressed into minutes – like the 1995 film “Outbreak”.  They work:  95% effective against catching the virus, and near 100% at keeping the virus from causing hospitalization or death.

And they are out here in the US – readily available at your local pharmacy, grocery store, or Wal Mart.

Politics

There is the answer – we should be smoking the big cigars like Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum.  Everyone gets vaccinated and the virus stops spreading.  The big risk isn’t the current virus, it’s a future virus that could mutate from the current strains of COVID-19.  And how do we stop those mutations?  

If there are fewer people with the virus, there are fewer opportunities for the virus to mutate.  So if we can vaccinate a high percentage of humans (not just Americans) we can control COVID-19 – period.  

This is not a question about “personal freedom”.  And it’s not the stupid comment often made:  “well if you get vaccinated then I don’t have to, since you can’t give me the disease”.  COVID-19 did not have a candidate for President in 2020, nor does it favor Republicans or Democrats today.  It is an equal opportunity virus and you can get it regardless of your political ideology.  Basically, like the measles, if we don’t want COVID-19 around we have to take care of it.  WE ALL NEED TO BE VACCINATED.  

Vaccines

Like the measles vaccine, there are a few who cannot tolerate vaccination.  Those few need the rest of us vaccinated to protect them.  But more importantly, at least 80% of us need to be vaccinated to reach “herd immunity”, when the virus stops spreading and, (to quote the President, “This is the big f**king deal”) has less chance of mutating.

So, when do we get to the part where we unite as a world to put the now-known science into effect?  We know there are four vaccines:  Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Astra-Zeneca, that work well.  There are others we aren’t so sure of.  We don’t have the studies to determine how effective or safe  Russia’s “Sputnik” and China’s “Sinovac” are.  But all the vaccines are out there, and there are more coming.

Save the World

What’s stopping us from the world-saving, cigar-smoking moment? Well here in the United States, it’s not science. It’s the use of fear for political benefit. And it’s also that the Trump plan, named for another heroic show, “Operation Warp Speed”, was to make vaccines for AMERICA. We didn’t prepare for the world. How was a vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) that needs storage at 70 below zero going to be used world-wide?

So the “plot line” of this particular disaster film is far from completed.  We have reached that turning point in the movie – when the heroes figure out how to stop the catastrophe.  But now we have to deliver, to actually save the world and earn the medals and the cigars.  That hasn’t happened yet.  Sure we in the United States can go back to restaurants and ball games, and even concerts.  But the funeral pyres are burning now in India.  And we can’t stop COVID-19 unless we stop it everywhere.  

Otherwise – “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down”.

This is another in the “Sunday Story” series.  No politics or deep philosophical points to be made.  Just another story “from the trail”.

Bear Bags

So in a previous life, I spent a lot of time in the wilderness.  Some portion of each summer I was out on the trail backpacking.  I started at eleven as a Boy Scout, hiking Southeastern Ohio and Kentucky.  From there, it was a trip to the Scout reservation in Cimarron, New Mexico, two hundred square miles of mountains and wilderness called Philmont Scout Ranch.  

I went to Philmont twice, once as a kid, and once as an adult leader.  We always saw a lot of wildlife out there, but bears were the big concern.  The black bears at Philmont were very used to the thousands of kids who marched the trails there each year.  They were so good at stealing the “crew” food rations that it wasn’t enough to just hang “bear bags” over tree limbs.  The bears had that strategy figured out – they’d shimmy out the limb and slash the rope.  Then they’d climb down and feast on three days food supply for twelve people.  Once they did that, the “crew” had to divert from their “itinerary”  to find more supplies.

So we made the equation more complex.  We’d string a rope between two trees, then had the “bear bag” rope over that – suspending the bag high enough that the bear couldn’t get it.  That seemed to work.

Bear Rules

We were warned – bears like things that smell good.  There were horror stories:  the kid who washed his hair with shampoo that a bear scalped, and the other poor Scout who decided to wear deodorant on the trail.  A bear came in his tent and ate his armpits.  Whether those stories were actually true or not really didn’t matter – we were convinced.  No midnight snacks in the tent, no smelly soaps for “pot baths”.  If everyone smelled bad, no one noticed – we were united in stink.  But the theory was the bears wouldn’t notice either.

I was thirteen that first time out in New Mexico, so I was ready for any story they told.  Looking back, I’m not absolutely sure that a bear stuck his head in my tent the second night out on the trail.  It sounded like a bear, the grunts and the shuffle, and I heard the canvas tent flap open in the night (it was 1970, no fancy lightweight nylon tents for us).  I was convinced a bear was “checking us out”, and concerned that my tentmate Mike might have snuck a Hersey’s Tropical Chocolate into the tent.  (The “Trop Choc” was a Hersey bar made so hard that it didn’t melt in a backpack, nor in the sun, nor in your mouth, honestly.  But it sure tasted good after dehydrated chili mac and hard tack crackers.  It, at least, was real).

Close Encounters

But now I’m not so sure there weren’t Philmont Staff or other adults making sure that the “young-ins” were snug in their sacks.   And I can’t say I actually saw the bear, just the inside of my sleeping bag, pulled over my face, waiting for the shred of bear claws. 

We emerged in the morning with a good story, and no injuries.  And bears, real or not, weren’t our only contact with wildlife on our trip.  We also had an encounter with a less intimidating creature – porcupines.  Now we were all smart enough to avoid touching the animals (I told a porcupine tale in an earlier “Sunday Story,” Hiking with Jack).  But what we didn’t know was that porcupines had a special taste for toilet paper. 

AP Paper

 We were encamped in a staffed area that had “Kaibos”, wooden outhouses.  That was a luxury:  most of the time we had to dig small holes and hang onto trees to do our business.  Now in the normal course of camping it’s a “nice” thing to leave AP paper in the “Kaibo” as a courtesy to the next user.  (That stands for All Purpose Paper – toilet paper was used as paper towels for cleaning dishes as well as its more normal use). 

And at Philmont, the porcupines were more than happy to accept such courtesy.  They would take the rolls of toilet paper and chew them into tiny white balls.  Then they would  scatter the balls throughout the camping area and woods.  The next morning the “Staff” had a duty for us Scouts.  For two hours we wandered the area, picking up little white balls like snow of carefully chewed AP Paper.  Keeping Philmont clean was an important goal.

It Was This Big

When I went back to Philmont years later as an adult, I was less concerned about the wildlife.  I’d met a bear in Pennsylvania – we were hiking the same trail.  He was going South and I was going North, and when we met, we both turned and headed the other direction quickly.  So I assumed bears didn’t want to meet us any more than we wanted to meet them.

Our crew had just climbed Mt. Baldy the day before, at 12,400 feet the highest peak in Philmont.  So we had an easy day planned, spending the morning hanging out at a staffed camp.  The kids all went down to pan gold in the nearby creek – and I had a few minutes of quiet at camp to relax.  We had a short hike scheduled for the afternoon, so the “bear bag” was down, ready to be apportioned out to the group.

The grunts and shuffling noises hadn’t changed.  I looked up from our fire to see a small (maybe 400 pound) bear trying to work his way through the heavy duty plastic surrounding our food.  Now Philmont protocol was to bang pots and pans together to try to “scare” the bear away.  My suspicion is that nothing scares bears, but maybe the banging would annoy him enough to leave.

So I took a pan and our coffee pot, and banged them so hard that the pan was useless afterwards.  The bear, happy as a “bear in a food pile”, didn’t seem particularly interested in my noise.  He was working on our lunch.

Glass Houses  

It was a fourteen mile round trip to get re-supplied – and I wasn’t looking forward to it.  So I committed the “cardinal sin” of how not to be on the good side of bears.  I picked up a rock, and chucked it at him.  Now today I couldn’t hit a barn, but that shot was lucky, and I pegged the bear right on the nose.  He was not pleased.

He dropped our lunch, and began to advance on me.  Now I knew I was in trouble – you can’t outrun a bear, and you can’t out climb them either.  But I started a quick retreat anyway.  Luckily, after a few steps the bear remembered he had a lunch already in paw,  so rather than making a dinner of me, he headed back to the pile.  He grabbed OUR lunch, and dragged it up into a tree nearby.

Soon after the kids came back and seemed skeptical of my bear story.  Even the dented pan didn’t seem enough to convince them.  So we tore down our camp, and got ready for our afternoon transit.  But as the tents were coming down, I heard a yell.  The bear was back for a second course.  The kids were yelling and running, and I was doing a whole lot of “I told you so”.  The bear seemed confused by all of the action, and retreated back to his tree.  

He posed for pictures there and several of the crew got one. I think there is still a bear portrait hanging in the Scout Cabin here in Pataskala.  But picture or no, we all got a good bear story to tell.

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21