Month: August 2021

The last C-17 flew out of Kabul’s airport yesterday. The war that began on October 7th, 2001, for the United States, ends today, August 31st, 2021. It was a war that even got two opposing Presidential candidates to agree – whichever won the US Presidency in 2020, we were leaving Afghanistan. 

Ending Ugly

Let’s face it:  we could have left “better”. There must have been a more effective strategy than the Trump initiated, Biden completed “Withdrawal Plan”.   We should have found a way to leave the Afghans stronger. But if that meant staying in-country longer, losing more than just the thirteen young people we did – then it probably was not worth it.

There is no good way to give up.  It was going to be ugly no matter what. And while the ugly failure of twenty years of “nation building” was more than jarring – give Biden credit. He is taking the heat rather than risking American lives to push it to a “second term” or another President.  Biden feels that he owes it to the American military to NOT risk their lives any more in a stalled conflict. Agree with him or not, he is a man of honor and commitment. 

Mission Creep

Let’s face it: US involvement was absolutely justified. The tribe governing the country sheltered the terrorists who attacked us. We defeated the terrorists and their “protectors”. It was a righteous cause. But it slid into what we now call “mission creep”. We went from fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban to propping up a corrupt government. 

And as several commentators noted, we also “sub-contracted” our mission to Afghanistan. More civilian contractors were in-country in the end than US military. Erik Prince of Blackwater, the former “private security” firm, even suggested we should out-source the fighting to trained mercenaries.  One President listened to him. And while we didn’t do that, we did contract out a lot of the other functions of war, from advising to supply.  We propped up those companies as well. The “military-industrial complex” that Eisenhower warned us about back in 1960 was in full force In Afghanistan.  And those contracting corporations had every financial reason to extend the conflict. So President Biden stood up to them as well. 

Mission Continues

Let’s face it – the US mission to Afghanistan has changed but not ended. ISIS K has made it clear that we must still be interested and involved. And so has the ideological descendants of al Qaeda. So the CIA and our Special Operators will once again walk the streets of Kandahar and Jalalabad and Kabul.   This time as covert agents, rather than the irregulars of an occupying force. But our involvement in Afghanistan is not over.  As we are in Syria and Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia; we will still be in Afghanistan.

We can be proud of the last eleven days, the “airlift” from the unfortunately initialed “KIA” (Karzi International Airport).  In a limited mission, the United States Armed Forces put over 5000 troops on the ground and airlifted over 120,000 people out of Afghanistan. We sacrificed thirteen service members, and injured several more. But we not only brought out American citizens and other foreign nationals, but many thousands of the Afghans who aided us in our twenty-year involvement.  And for those who say “we abandoned” the rest, the effort is not over.  While the C-17’s have completed their missions, now other, more covert means are in development.  

Politics

Let’s face it – everything in America today is political, from the flag we fly on the front porch, to the mask we wear to protect us from Covid.  And Afghanistan has been political ever since George W Bush pulled our troops out of the mountains of Tora Bora and sent them to invade Iraq (to prevent Saddam Hussein from having “weapons of mass destruction”). The end of this war is no less political, even though it likely would have looked the same under Biden or Trump.  But what shouldn’t be divisive is the fate of our Afghan friends.  They helped us in our time of need in-country, now we need to help them as they face exile from their homes.  

We welcomed South Vietnamese into the United States in 1975, recognizing their sacrifice was even greater than our own.  We should do the same to the Afghans, encouraging them to resettle here in the United States.  Of all of the issues dividing us, they should NOT be one.  But the hypocrites, so quick to blame President Biden, are also demanding that they be settled elsewhere, as if their loyalty and friendship wasn’t “good enough” to live in the US.  I hope most Americans see past that baseless “not in my backyard” racism, and welcome them to their new homes. 

City on a Hill

Let’s face it:  the War in Afghanistan did not end well.  Like the British Empire of the 19th century, and the Soviet Union in the 1980’s, we could seize the country, but we could not hold it.  Americans failed the lesson of history –  our arrogance doomed us to repeat it.  But perhaps we can learn for the future.  The lesson is not to “never get involved”.  It should be that we recognize that what’s right and what works for Americans isn’t necessarily right for everyone else in the world.  The American experiment may well be Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill”, but we can’t impose that City on others.  They must come to it of their own will.

Victory is Sweet

We like to think of America’s military victories as glorious affairs.  Whether it’s Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, defeating the British Army fresh from the battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, or the Union forces chanting “Fredericksburg” from Cemetery Ridge as Lee’s Confederates stumbled back across the fields of Pennsylvania:  victory is sweet.  Retreat or withdrawal – not so much.  That Civil War battle is a good example:  the day after Lee failed at Gettysburg, his Army began the long “loser’s march” back to Virginia, wagons filled with the wounded who could stand the journey.

But the Union Army stayed in place, not initiating a new attack against the Confederates. They stayed because the shock of the losses in their victory at Gettysburg was so great, that the “glorious victory” felt a lot like the massive defeats they’d suffered before. Sure, they won, but the cost was so high. It was the worst battle of the Civil War, a combined 7,000 dead and 33,000 wounded. The Union Army lost 28% of their effective fighting force (the Confederates 37%). The Union “victory” cost 3155 Union dead – their absolute defeat at Fredericksburg eight months before cost “only” 1284.

The Rear Guard

Left to face any Union advance was the rear guard, the Confederate cavalry who protected their retreating Army. Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, the cavalry commander who famously left General Lee without intelligence before the battle, lived up to his legendary reputation as he screened off the movement of Lee’s forces back to Virginia. He faced an overwhelming Union force should their commander choose to send them. His actions, and Union General Meade’s hesitation to further commit his forces, allowed Lee’s Army to escape. But there were 654 wounded and dead from both sides in that “rear guard” action, summarized as the battle of Williamsport. Those soldiers too made the ultimate sacrifice.

Who’s Guarding Now

The United States began its withdrawal from Afghanistan years ago. As the forces dwindled down, we depended first on the Afghan Army, then a faulty agreement with the Taliban to act as our “rear guard”. Ultimately, we made the tactical error of betting on both. When the Taliban began their march to power, they were technically not in violation of the “paper”. The United States (Trump Administration) agreed to leave by May 1st. It was July.

Then the Afghan Army made what for them was the logical choice. If the Taliban were going to be the ultimate “winners”, why fight? The military that the US spent twenty years building and financing, literally disappeared, along with the Afghan President who fled to the United Arab Emirates. There was no one left to act as the “rear guard”. The United States sent in 6000 troops to serve in that duty, protecting the evacuation of both US citizens and our Afghan allies. In the end, it is American troops that are serving as the rear guard, as the final protectors of the American withdrawal.

And the longer the withdrawal goes on, the more exposed those final (and literal) gatekeepers become.  This week we recognized how exposed they were.  The only way to get “the right” people into the airport and onto the evacuation planes is to wade out into the crowd and bring them to a gate.  There is no greater moment of exposure:  US soldiers, Marines and Navy Corpsmen, in the middle of the throngs gathered at the gates, escorting those with the “proper” papers, literally to freedom.  

Honor

And in the middle of that throng desperate to leave Afghanistan, are others desperate to kill Americans.  

The nature of withdrawal means that those lines will compress, into smaller and smaller circles.  The enemy will be closer, the target more vulnerable.  The longer we maintain our rear guard, the more opportunities the enemy will have to launch attacks.

This will not get “better”. The thirteen young service members who made the ultimate sacrifice are likely not the last of our “rear guard” to fall. It is the nature of their mission: sacrifice that others’ may escape. We can argue and debate how the “end” of Afghanistan occurred. We can allow our ongoing political vitriol to flow into this tactical nightmare. But as that happens, let’s not forget those that we have asked to serve as that last “rear guard”. They stand protecting the others. And they do so with honor.

Old Sayings

There’s a “wise” old expression:  “If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got”.   I heard the retired Generals on TV decrying what’s happening in Afghanistan.  One even proposed that we should send in troops to support those few regions where Afghans are fighting the Taliban.  And many are issuing a stern warning:  we cannot, with ‘Honor’ leave those that helped us behind to the mercy of the Taliban.  

Honor is a funny word here.  Most of those generals had the opportunity to really make a difference in Afghanistan.  They could have “changed” the course of America’s involvement when they were in charge.  But time after time, their only answer was:  we need to stay, we need more troops, we need more money, we need more, more, more, more.  So now when two opposite Presidents, Biden and Trump, say it’s time to get out – all the Generals can still say is the same “more”. (What – I’m saying that Trump was right?  Well, in principle yes, but don’t get carried away.  His “greatest deal ever” with the Taliban wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.  And there’s always another wise expression, something about  “a monkey, a typewriter, and Shakespeare.”) 

Different

“More” is not the answer here: “Different” is.  We need to do something different.  And it’s not an “unknown Different”.  It’s called “over the horizon operations”.  

We need to get as many folks out of Afghanistan as we can now.  We have already evacuated more than one hundred thousand, with thousands more to come before the air operations end.  But that ending has to come soon, whether it’s President Biden’s August 31st, or a few days later.  We are leaving.

Retired Four-Star General Barry McCaffrey agrees with the President.  He said it straight: “This war is over”.  He opposes sending any further troops.  The old Iraq War Corp commander wants to wrap up this mission, and get out.

And what of those who can’t get to the transport, who “miss the flight”?  Well, for some, it may require Special Operations Forces to go in and get them.  That ain’t easy, and it’s expensive.  But it can be done – ask Osama bin Laden (oh, maybe not him).  If we can find and kill him, we can find and rescue who we need to.

A Target

That was an “over the horizon” operation, and may be what we need to do (and probably are doing now. It’s not like Admiral Kirby will get up there and announce it to the media).  And those can go on.  But the target of six thousand US Troops, and near one hundred flights a day, in the middle of a hostile zone; cannot go on for much longer.  A bomb went off this morning, several were killed, among them thirteen American Marines, and dozens more injured, including more US troops.  But what happens when a shoulder launched anti-aircraft missile hits an Air Force C-17 with six or seven hundred passengers in it?  The US is pushing its luck, every extra day.

We had twenty years to figure out Afghanistan.  We broke up al Qaeda, and we removed the Taliban rulers.  Then we helped set up a government and a military to hang onto what we established.  It didn’t work:  our fault, their fault, nobody’s fault (that’s John Wayne from Big Jake).  It is time to get out and let Afghanistan do what the Afghans have done for generations:  tribal struggles for power and wealth. 

Defining Democracy

We can talk about what we did wrong – as many have said there will be plenty of blame to go around.  And we can recognize that the American notion of “nation building” has not worked.  It didn’t work in Vietnam, nor in Iraq, nor in Afghanistan.  

I am not an “America Firster”.  We have legitimate reasons to be involved in the world, and we should support democracy wherever it exists.  But we cannot create democracy out of whole cloth.  It must first have a foothold that we can encourage, not an ideology that we force on another nation.   It must be inherent within, not externally imposed.   

We cannot “always do what we always did”, in spite of the many “Old Generals”. We need to find new means to achieve our goals:  a secure America and world, and fertile ground for the “self-evident truths” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  None of those goals will be achieved by staying in Afghanistan.  As President Biden stated – except for Osama bin Laden, would we never have invaded Afghanistan in the first place.

Retirement

To be honest, this feels a lot like an “old retired person complaining”.  But here it is.  I was a public employee, a public school teacher before I retired.  I worked for thirty-five and a half years (to be precise, I wasn’t going to leave in the middle of the year).  The “retirement deal” I got sounded pretty good.  I could retire at a high percentage of my best three years, and I would get additional cost of living adjustments (COLA’s) after I retired.  That was the deal through my most years of my employment – no surprise “take it or leave it” offers at the end.  And it was what I depended upon as I planned my future.

State Teacher Retirement (STRS) is different than most other forms of retirement.  As a teacher, they didn’t even take Social Security or Medicare out of our paychecks.  We were separate, and the “deal” was that our retirement system would provide a pension and health insurance, better than Medicare and Social Security.  We wouldn’t “need” those services.

Promises Made

It was a “straight” pension program.  We paid ten percent of our annual salary into the system, our employer added another eight percent.  So STRS got thirty-five and a half years of eighteen percent of my salary to invest.  There wasn’t any choice to make back “in the day”; it was sign up and start teaching.  Thirty or more years down the road, STRS would “take care” of you, with your own money.  The deal was to work for moderate wages and get a solid pension afterwards.  But the deal is changing, long after the promises were made.

They started to change the rules in the last years right before I planned on retiring.  All of a sudden, the Ohio State Legislature was worried that the public pension systems – STRS, SERS (school employees), OPERS (public employees), SHPS (Highway Patrol) and OP&F (police and fire) might not have enough money to cover their obligations.  There were a lot of factors, but one was us “baby boomers”.  There were a lot of us, and we were retiring and living longer, and that was putting pressure on the system.  For forty years, the “baby boomers” carried the systems, with more of us working and fewer retired people.  Now, that ratio started to reverse.

Too Much to Ignore

But you’d think if the systems got thirty or more years of eighteen percent of our income, that would be enough.  And add to that sum, all of the money they could make by investing that money “for us”, and it should cover everything.  If the phrase, “it takes money to make money” makes sense, then they had plenty.

If they just stuck the money in the stock market, using the Dow Jones Industrials, they’d averaged  ten percent per year.   Standard and Poor’s Index, would have been eleven percent over the past forty years.  But the vagaries of the stock markets were too dangerous, they thought, so they diversified the funds.  That made sense, originally.

But, particularly after the Wall Street crash of 2008, the pressure was on the “funds” to make more profit.  And, no one, the state leaders thought,  could make profit than private investment folks (just like the ones that crashed Wall Street in the first place).  It didn’t hurt that Ohio’s Governor, John Kasich, had made his “fortune” at Lehman Brothers. So STRS began to pay millions of dollars to have private investment firms control some of their “nest egg”.  And how big is the “egg”:  over ninety billion dollars.

Life in the Taj Mahal

And in the meantime, you had all of those “public” employees at STRS (they actually retire in OPERS) controlling the investments from STRS Headquarters in downtown Columbus: 275 East Broad Street.  It’s a beautiful building, reminiscent of a high class Hyatt Hotel.  And of course, there’s the heated sidewalks, the brick floored covered garage, the in-house child care and the expensive art and sculptures.  They definitely had money to spend, and they spent it.  And that’s all good, as long as they covered all of their retirees costs.

There were some early signs.  For two decades STRS issued retirees a “Thirteenth Check” each year.  But in 2000 that stopped.  And retirees looked at increasing costs of health insurance, particularly for dependents. 

And in 2015 STRS suspended Cost of Living Adjustments.  At first it was for five years, but now six years later they are still suspended, with little hope of returning.  Meanwhile, the investment staff lost half a billion dollars investing in Panda Energy in Texas, and more in high end real estate with little hope of recouping the costs.  But the staff still managed to “achieve” $7.8 million in annual performance bonuses for themselves.

So with all this, what’s the point.  

Broad Street, not Wall Street

STRS, and the other pension funds in Ohio, shouldn’t be “Wall Street” style investment houses.  They aren’t there to make their “associates” a profit, or provide them with all of the “Wall Street” type perks.  They should be protecting the future for their members; the now retired, and the future retirees.  But there’s a lot of living “high on the hog” going on, with little concern for the impact of cuts to their members.

And there’s the more basic question.  If the staff is achieving millions of dollars of performance goals, why is the fund still continuing to charge increased costs to the “members”?  Shouldn’t the “performance” be based on achieving one basic goal – taking care of their members?  That’s not what going on.

Meanwhile, if you are a retired teacher, all of the promises are in question.  You don’t “need” Medicare, but with increasing STRS insurance costs, you probably do.  You don’t “need” Cost of Living Adjustments, but the real “cost of living” continues to increase.  Do we really want seventy-five year old substitute teachers? Or your old first grade teacher greeting you at Wal Mart?  That’s not the “deal” we made.

But at least if we have to sleep on the sidewalks at 275 East Broad, they’re heated.

Young Gun

I was twenty-one years old, but a seasoned campaign veteran in the spring 1978.  I’d started campaigning when I was fourteen, and seven years later, I’d organized  several counties and run the Cincinnati sign operation for the successful Jimmy Carter Campaign. I’d also run a winning Congressional Get Out the Vote effort.  So I was pretty confident that a State Representative Campaign wouldn’t be too difficult.

We had beautiful literature, wonderful sign locations, and highly visible signs and bumper stickers.  I was proud of what we were doing, and even prouder of my candidate.  She was a great speaker, great with people, and had a true desire to make things better.

Our one concern:  the core of our “base” in the State Representative District was in a  traditionally Republican area.  And while that was good news for the general election, it was a problem in the primary, where only Democrats were allowed to vote for us.  But there wasn’t much of interest on the Republican side of the ballot, and many of our supporters were going to“cross-over” and declare themselves Democrats for the purpose of voting for “us”. 

Closed Primary

Seven years as a campaigner, and I thought I knew all about the “polling places”.  Back then, long computer lists were posted on the doors, updated by hand every couple of hours to show who voted and who hadn’t.  And as a campaign staffer, I could enter the polling place and measure how things were going.  

Ohio is a “closed primary” state.  That means that you have to be a “registered” Democrat to vote with a Democratic ballot.  But you could change you registration upon request at the polling place.  You simply asked for the Democratic instead of the Republican ballot, and generally that’s all it took.  Next time the voting rolls were updated, there would be a “D” beside you name.  It happened all the time:  over six years of voting listed beside a name, you might see R-D-R or R-D-D (or mine – a D-D-D).  

And we also knew about the technicality.  If you asked to change party affiliation, a “poll-watcher” could challenge that change.  That would require the voter to fill out a form, saying they supported the other party, and wanted to change. They simply said yes – and signed the form.  There was a penalty for lying – it was fifth degree felony.

Of course there was absolutely no way to know if anyone was lying.  The one thing almost every American knows is that the ballot is “secret”, and has been since the late 1800’s.  So no one would ever know how you voted before or on that ballot.  It wasn’t attainable information.  And wanting to vote for a particular candidate was in fact “supporting the other party”.   So it wasn’t a lie, and it wasn’t  a big deal. 

Poll Bullies

But our wily primary opponent knew that fear was “9/10’s of the law”.  So he sent big, burly watchers to the polling places in our base.  Their job:  to verbally challenge every R to D change, and force them to sign the affidavit.  The watchers made sure to emphasize the penalties, and many voters began to wonder, “Am I doing something wrong?” Instead of thousands of votes in our base, we got a couple hundred.  Many of our supporters didn’t even vote at all, but left the polling place concerned and confused.  We lost the election, and I learned another valuable lesson in politics – intimidation works.  

That was forty-three years ago – and I can assure you things haven’t gotten better.  Here in Ohio we still have those laws, though absentee voting makes it less intimidating to change parties.

Enabling Intimidation  

Poll “watchers” can challenge any voter’s legal right to vote.  And while they aren’t supposed to challenge “without cause”, the sheer presence of someone willing to make that challenge, is enough to keep many from voting.

One of the major demands of the Republican voter law “retrenchments” throughout the country is to grant even easier access to poll watchers.  It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, the 2020 Trump campaign was looking for off-duty police officers to volunteer to “watch” in largely Democratic and minority precincts.  And now in Texas, Georgia, and Arizona – the watchers can take an even bigger role in the polls.

So when a voter goes into the wrong precinct, has a change of address, or has some other glitch in their registration: the poll watcher can challenge their right to vote.  Now in most states the voter has the right to ask for a provisional ballot, one that can be “cured” of defect after the election.  But with intimidating poll watchers, how many will walk out of the polling place, confused and concerned and afraid that somehow, they “broke the law”?  And how many of those watchers will it take to change the outcome of an election?  Ask the Trump Georgia campaign of 2020 – it wouldn’t take much.

Election law is arcane.  It’s easy to make a mistake.  Ask my very-well educated friend who missed signing a ballot petition in two places.  When he asked the Board of Elections personnel if everything was OK, they said they thought so.  He turned in the application – then they disqualified him from the ballot, and even from running as a write-in candidate.  And if a candidate can make that kind of mistake, what can happen to the casual voter? 

Land of the Free

Is that what we want American elections to be about – intimidation and threat rather than an open and welcoming voting system?  Tripping folks up on technicalities easily “cured”, rather than protecting their vote?  Don’t we want it to be easy for every legal voter to cast their ballot, not harder?  In an era when I can buy a car, sell my house, and even go to my doctor without leaving my home – why force folks to “go” vote? Is making it harder really “American”?

Making it harder to vote does give a political advantage to one side.  The ever-shrinking Republican Party is staring into the face of changing demographics.  Those changes are leaving their Party behind.  Republicans are struggling to stay in power.   Their chosen solution is NOT to make their Party more widely appealing.  Instead, it’s to make it more difficult to vote, for everyone – and hope that their own fewer voters still show up.

To misquote John Mellencamp – “That ain’t American, for you and me”. 

Dress Codes

I was the Dean of Students of a local high school for eight years.  One of my primary, and least favorite jobs, was enforcing the student “dress code”.  It wasn’t the best duty for a career track coach.  I was used to seeing kids in track apparel:  from speed suits (one-piece form-fitting spandex) to “short-shorts” (distance running 3” spilt shorts) to sports bras (support garment for women designed to be worn as “outer wear”).  Normal practices and meets involved seeing boys and girls in what might in other circumstances be called, “various stages of undress”.

The Rules

But what worked on the track didn’t necessarily fit in the classroom.  At the time, the dress code was specific.

• students must wear shoes
• underwear type shirts cannot be worn as outerwear
• pants must be worn at waist level
• see-through clothing not allowed
• shoulder strapped clothing must be at least 4-fingers in width
• tops revealing the midriff are not allowed
• boxer shorts are not outerwear
• skirts, shorts and dresses must reach mid-thigh
• hair styles neat and clean and must not provide a hazardous condition
• holes in clothing cannot reveal underwear or inappropriate body parts
• no hats, sunglasses, leather trench coats, dog collars, spike chains,
• no dew rags, scarves,  beanies, stocking caps, sweatshirt hoods or bandannas.
• jewelry that can be used as a weapon not allowed
• tattoos or other body decorations considered offensive must be covered.
•         Watkins Memorial High School Student Dress Code – 2013-14

Tinker v Des Moines

And all of that was based on a United States Supreme Court case, Tinker v Des Moines.  The 1969 Vietnam War era case balanced the Free Speech rights of students against the reasonable need of public schools to provide them an education.  The critical phrase, “Disruption of the educational process”, became the basis for public school dress codes throughout the country. If the school could show that a form of dress, say, wearing leather trench coats, was disruptive of the educational process (because of the possible dangers hidden by the coat, made famous by the Columbine High School shootings), then the school could ban them.

Disruption, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.  Like the 1960’s Supreme Court standard for pornography, it was a kind of “I know it when I see it” decision.  And disruption evolved over time.  A cross-dressing boy or girl would never have gotten past the front office in the 1980’s, but by the 2000’s were just a part of the “student scene”.  And the era when boxer shorts were considered “outerwear” was mercifully short, maybe just a single school year (1988-89).

But schools have had Court-backed wide authority to determine what students are allowed to wear and what they aren’t.  So much so, that a decade ago, some public schools determined to implement school uniforms.  While that issue hasn’t risen to the Supreme Court level yet, it’s an open question at best whether schools really have that much authority.  Uniforms seem to be the ultimate suppression of students “free speech” rights under Tinker.

Arguing for Masks

So if a school can ban dew rags and sunglasses, dog collars and hats, can a school implement a rule requiring face masks, under a dress code regulation?

As a former Dean of Students, here’s the argument I would make to allow it.  Students are concerned about the spread of the Delta-Variant of Covid-19.  That concern is real and provable, and goes beyond their own personal health.  Many students have family members, from siblings to grandparents, who are more vulnerable to the ravages of the disease.  And since the school has not taken the position that students are required to be vaccinated (that will happen in some schools, particularly at the college level, once the FDA accepts the vaccine for “regular use”) students have no way of knowing which students are vaccinated or not.

Students are required to sit in classrooms, placed side-by-side in student desks with as many as thirty in a room.  While that situation increases the risk of viral spread, it has been demonstrated that proper wearing of face masks significantly reduces the risk.  

So all students wearing masks would make the entire environment safer for all students.  A student not wearing a mask in that environment, could be seen as “disrupting the educational process” per Tinker v Des Moines.  Just like students are required to wear pants, and tops (with at least a 4-finger shoulder strap) then they can be required to wear masks as well.  It’s not just about modesty or commonality, it’s about preserving the health of all.

Authority

Schools have this authority independent of the state governors.  The only control that some of those governors can implement over schools (depending on the state) is to restrict funding.  And while funding is important, it’s not an absolute authority.  After all, it’s only money.

So schools could implement a mask mandate, as many of the more urban school districts have.  And when the case goes to Court, they may well be able to defend their authority to do it.  A real fear of contracting Covid is truly disruptive of the educational process.

Winning

The United States is a nation used to “winning”.  We won the American Revolution.  You can argue about the War of 1812, but the former colonies took on the most powerful nation in the world and survived.  And the list goes on:  the Mexican American War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.  We know how to do parades down Fifth Avenue in New York, and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

What we don’t know how to do is “withdraw”.  We went into the Korean War in 1949:  we’re still there.  The Vietnam War was the “longest” in American history, but we all knew what was going to happen when American troops left after a decade of combat.  Less than two years later, we saw the disastrous final days of the collapse of Saigon.  Sure we “won” the Persian Gulf War, freeing Kuwait, but it left a segment of our leadership unsatisfied.  They wanted to “finish” the job.

Shock and Awe

So back we went in 2003, the US using the “Shock and Awe” of a massive air campaign to denigrate the remaining Iraqi defenses.  Then our tanks and troops attacked, quickly marching into the capital of Baghdad, gaining control, and tearing down the huge statue of Saddam Hussein, symbolic of the end of his reign of terror.  We later found Hussein himself, hidden in a sewer hole.  He was tried and executed.

It was easy to win, but hard to hold.  And when we tried to leave, the power vacuum created the space for ISIS to sweep over the government we helped set up.  It took our Kurdish allies, the ones we abandoned a decade later in Syria, to overcome the ISIS Caliphate.

And now there is our “new” longest war, the near two decades in Afghanistan.  We went into the nation to remove al Qaeda and punish the governing Taliban for protecting them.  We achieved both of those goals early, but like Vietnam and Iraq, there was no easy way out.  Al Qaeda was driven away, and eventually Osama bin Laden was killed.  But the Taliban, while defeated, were not vanquished.  As long as the United States remained, they were held at bay, but it was always apparent that when we left, the Taliban would rise up again.

Inshallah

President Biden knew that whenever we left Afghanistan it was going to be ugly.  But the United States wasn’t prepared for the Afghan government to collapse like a popped balloon, giving little resistance to the Taliban.  What the Biden Administration thought would be a months’ long process of withdrawal, became days.  It’s a failure of intelligence, and, of imagination.

It’s hard to blame the Afghan Army.  If you know that your defeat by the Taliban is inevitable, why resist?  Better to take care of your family and property, if you can.  The future is “written”, why risk death and destruction to delay it?  The Islamic term is “inshallah”, as Allah wills it.

So what’s happening today in Kabul is ugly, just as ugly as 1975 in Saigon. And while the President is “technically” right – no helicopters lifting Americans from the embassy roof as the Viet Cong came in the front door – the US is still being chased out of the country. And we did send helicopters to bring Americans from Kabul hotels, and 5800 US Troops hold the airport, so there’s that.

Both Sides Now

The President’s political opponents are jumping on the crisis.  From the left, while fully in favor of leaving Afghanistan, there is an outcry of “what will happen to the women and girls”?  And from the right, “what will happen to all those who helped American forces”?  And they are both correct.  

Leaving Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban means that the advances women have enjoyed in the past two decades will be lost.  The Taliban believe in Shariah Law, where women have no place outside of the home.  And those Afghans who aided the American Forces are at extreme risk, there is no doubt.

But both sides want to “have their cake and eat it too”.  Neither left nor right wants to remain in Afghanistan.  It is a war that has no “victory” for America.  What we hoped in 2001, was that we could “create” a democratic state there, one where the ideals of American government, balances of power and popular representation, could be demonstrated.  But the long tribal traditions of Afghan life are far too strong to be changed by American blood or treasure.  As the Russians, the British, and even Alexander the Great discovered:  Afghans will chart their own course.

No Solution

So when the left decries what will happen to Afghan women, they are correct.  But there is no good solution to that problem, no way to force Afghanistan into a modern mold of gender interaction.  Well, no way without remaining indefinitely in-country to hold the Shariah Law at bay.  And even the most vocal on the left aren’t calling for that.

And when the right demand that we protect those who aided US Forces, they aren’t wrong either. But they are contradictory. Protect our Afghan allies, but don’t dare bring them to the United States. They are brown, and Muslim, and all the things banned from entry into the US by their leader, the former President, in the first days of his administration. Protect those “friends”, but not in my neighborhood. They are hypocrites.

One Way Out

The United States is evacuating from the Kabul Airport.  We are taking thousands out of Afghanistan:  American citizens, allied Afghans, and others who can find a way onto the C-17 transports.  For those who remember history, it is a “Berlin Airlift” in reverse, coming in empty and leaving with record numbers of passengers.  Our Armed Forces are doing their best to make-up for the failures of our withdrawal.  But we are one catastrophic air failure from disaster.  And inevitably there will be those left behind, and for the women of Afghanistan, there is no good solution.

Blame President Biden, or President Trump, or President Obama, or President Bush.  Blame US intelligence for not imagining the collapse, or the US State Department for not recognizing the urgency of those left behind, or the US Armed Forces for not protecting our Allies.  There’s plenty of blame to go around.  But recognize this:  as ugly as the US withdrawal is, it was always going to be a disaster. 

Because disaster was the only way out.

 

Exposure

Yesterday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey threatened to take millions of dollars away from school districts that dare to mandate masks to stop the spread of Covid.  Last week, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida tried to withhold the salaries of school superintendents and board members who did the same.  A few days later, he found he didn’t really have that power – but he tried.

So let’s look at the facts.  The Covid virus now confronting us, the Delta-variant, is hundreds of times more infectious than the original ‘B’ virus we faced last year.  Because it is so infectious, more children are getting sick.  And at the moment there is no vaccine for children under 12, and many of the therapeutic drugs (like remdesivir) have very limited testing on younger children. 

It would make sense then, to avoid having children exposed to the virus.  And, as we discovered in the first round of Covid last year, it’s not just about one person wearing a mask.  It’s about everyone wearing a mask – to prevent transmission from a person who is infected and doesn’t know it, and to prevent infection by others.

What We Learned

We did make some discoveries last year.  With the original Covid, outdoor transmission was unlikely.  We all waited for the “super spreader” outbreaks after the Black Lives Matter protests.  They didn’t happen, because most wore masks and the protests were outdoors.  On the other hand, indoor crowded events, particularly unmasked, did generate disease transmission.  President Trump’s unmasked indoor rally in Tulsa (where Herman Cain caught Covid and eventually died from it) and the massive motorcycle rally at Sturgis both were “super spreader” events. (Note:  while the rally was outdoors, the drinking afterwards was definitely indoors).

And even though the contrast WAS political (BLM versus Trump and Sturgis) it wasn’t about politics – it’s about the science:  masks or no masks, indoor or outdoor.

But the current version of Covid is much more infective.  And we know that schools are traditionally where diseases spread – from chicken pox to measles to the flu.  And that makes sense.  We put groups of individuals in close contact with each other indoors for extended periods of time – we call it “class”.   So viruses spread, and kids get sick.

It is common sense to try to control the infectiousness in schools, just like it was for the chicken pox, the measles, and still is for the flu.  But for those diseases, we have well accepted vaccines and treatments.  What were school-wide measles or chicken pox epidemics in “my day” back in the 1960’s, are now anachronisms – “back in the day” stories.  And, by the way, back “in the day” we also lined kids up for the polio vaccine:  in schools.

Masks work – that’s not a question, it’s a fact.  Mask everyone, and they work even better.   That’s what school superintendents’ know – and they know it’s how to protect “their” kids, and their staff, and their communities.

What Governors Know

So why don’t Governors know that?

DeSantis, Ducey and Greg Abbott of Texas (who now has Covid) all claim that they are fighting for “the freedom” to not wear masks.  It’s a claim of individual liberty.  But those same Governors accept that children have dress codes in schools, can’t carry weapons, and even demand that they be allowed to pray.  So they don’t seem to have a problem with letting schools control all kinds of other actions, including what children (and staff) wear.  So why masks are different than Budweiser hats or jeans with holes in the crotch is hard to figure.

It may just be political expediency.  DeSantis, Ducey and Abbott (sounds like a TV law firm) all are dependent on a Trumpian voter base for re-election.  Unfortunately mask wearing is politically symbolic – and the Trump base doesn’t wear them (or get vaccinated).  So it’s possible that the Governors are just pandering to their base.

Health

But I hope they would put the health of their constituents, all of their constituents, first.  So is there some scientific theory that might explain their adamant position?  The “herd immunity” view is that the more people get the disease, the better off our whole society would be.  The problem is that many will die, and that more will have long term effects from Covid. 

The advantage of the “herd immunity” argument is that it doesn’t require any community controls.  Commerce can continue without abatement, which in plain language means that the economy shouldn’t be impacted.  But that depends on everyone being willing to risk getting sick:  including kids.  Restaurants and stores won’t be filled if folks are afraid of getting infected.  So “herd immunity” might not be such a great idea.

And, of course, the hospitals will be over-filled, and folks will die – there’s that.

Educators are notoriously hard-headed – take it from me, I was one.  And teachers are incredibly protective of “their” kids.  So it really isn’t a surprise that schools are defying Governors and mandating masks, just like they mandate pants in the dress code.  It’s a lot more important than modesty.  It’s the health of their kids.

A Flower in Your Hair

My friends who fought in Vietnam felt attacked.  They came home, often on a direct flight straight to the US from Da Nang in the war zone, to a country ripped by division.  They were advised to change into “civies” before they left the plane – a uniformed soldier might get insulted or spit on or even attacked as they walked through the airport.  

Many were draftees, with no real choice but to go and fight in Vietnam.  But others volunteered, legitimately feeling that they were fighting for their country.  Either way, they weren’t politicians, not involved in setting the policies that resulted in what was then America’s longest war.  They were doing “their job”, often times as “bait” to draw out the enemy insurgents.  Much like the more recent veterans who “cleared” the roads by driving down them to trigger Improvised Explosive Devices, Vietnam vets were often marched through the jungle to trigger ambushes and create a  “fire-fight”.  

Many of those Vietnam vets came home conflicted.  They didn’t know what they fought for, other than the men beside them.  It was a war of survival in the jungle, of an enemy who often killed from unseen positions, or used women or children as traps, or punji sticks camouflaged on the trail. 

War on Facetime

Many of my friends who came back from Afghanistan felt the same way.  The enemy was “part” of the environment, fighting from their home villages.  Friend and foe alike were hard to identify.  Such simple considerations as not shooting children could result in losing a fellow American.  The ground rules were not the same, not what they grew up with in American small towns like Pataskala.   And when they wanted to see those small towns – they were only a phone call away.  

My Vietnam era friends often asked – what were we fighting for?  There really wasn’t a clear answer:  we went into Vietnam to “save democracy”, but that Vietnamese democracy never existed.  We went to stop Communism, but found we were really just stopping the Vietnamese from choosing their own government.  

And we found in Vietnam that no matter how strong we were, we couldn’t defeat a clearly weaker enemy.  More bombs were dropped on Vietnam than in all of World War II, but it didn’t seem to have an impact.  The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers could live on a cup of rice a day.  And they were motivated to win back their country.

Mission Creep

The War in Afghanistan lasted for twenty years.  America went into battle with righteous might, the rubble of the twin towers still smoking on the tip of Manhattan.  We knew why we were there.  But somewhere in the two decades after, that cause seemed long lost.  “Mission Creep”, starting with one goal but finding the “finish line” constantly moving, became the hallmark of US strategy in Afghanistan.  As we withdraw today, some cry “Al Qaeda will be back”.  But it rings hollow, it really wasn’t even why we were fighting for most of the past two decades.

My friends who fought in Afghanistan ask – why did I fight there?  But unlike my Vietnam era friends, they should have a clearer understanding of their mission, even though it got lost as the War dragged on.  They were fighting against the foes of the United States.  And while the Taliban did NOT attack the Twin Towers, they enabled those who did.  But like most wars, in the end they were fighting for each other, for the man or woman who stood shoulder to shoulder with them.  And some of those were Afghans, now left behind as the Taliban take control.

Not in Vain

The difference between the two wars is that the Afghanistan War veterans have a clearer view.  They can be sad and angry about how the United State ended it, but can be clear about the heroic goals of their service.  You did us proud, as did your grandfathers in Vietnam.  As as nation we might not agree on many things, but your sacrifice was not in vain.  For two decades you cleared the nation of our enemies, and gave the Afghans hope for a future.

There is a “theory of revolution”.  It goes like this:  revolutions don’t happen when people are oppressed.  They happen when oppressed folks are given hope, and that hope is taken away.  From the American Revolution to the French and the Russian, it wasn’t at the lowest time that the people rose up.  It was the time after hope was snatched away that revolution began.  We can hope that is true in Afghanistan as well, for a time when the Afghans themselves will determine that the Taliban way is not what they want.  And the example they will look to, the time of hope, is the two decades provided by US Forces.

Our Afghanistan Veterans did that.

The Tet Offensive

The United States involvement in Vietnam stretched from 1956 to 1975.  While the initial eight years was as “advisors” to the South Vietnamese Army and government, from 1964 on the United States became direct combatants in the country, with over half a million troops “in-country” by 1968.  

And it was in that same year, soon after the US military announced that we had “control” of the countryside, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army forces launched the Tet Offensive. From the DMZ in the North, to the capitol in Saigon in the center to the Mekong Delta in the South; the Tet Offensive attacked US and South Vietnamese forces throughout the countryside.  That offensive was ultimately driven back – but from that point, no matter how many bombs we dropped, the US was only “treading water” in Vietnam.

Vietnamization

The US signed the Paris Peace Accords five years later in January of 1973, and began to withdraw forces.  President Nixon told us that his plan of “Vietnamization” would put the South Vietnamese Army in position to defend their own nation.  The final US combat troops left Vietnam two months later.  

The North Vietnamese gave the Americans “cover” and waited.  It wasn’t until the spring of 1975 that they launched a final attack on the South Vietnamese government, which collapsed like a “house of cards”.  American’s still in Vietnam were caught unprepared, and scrambled to get out of the country.  Vietnamese who supported the US efforts were mostly left to the “mercies” of the North Vietnamese forces.  It was as ugly as we thought it could get.

The Lesson

What lesson should the United States have learned?  That however much equipment, bullets and guns, advisors and training supplied to a nation; none of that can substitute for the “will to fight”.  When armies don’t believe in their leadership or their cause, they are unwilling to fight and die, no matter what the quality of their training and weaponry.

We learned that same lesson again in Iraq.   From 2002 until 2011, The United States “stood up” the Iraqi Army after the defeat of Saddam Hussein and the election of a new government (remember the purple thumbs?).  We trained and supplied, and advised.  But when US forces were asked by the Iraqi government to leave, and President Obama gladly took the opportunity to move out, ISIS forces came out of Syria and quickly overwhelmed the Iraqi Army.  

The ISIS fighters believed in their cause, and were willing to fight and die for it.  The Iraqi Army, much like the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, did not.  So even though they were outnumbered and out-weaponed, ISIS prevailed.  It took the Kurdish Forces, knowing that ISIS represented an existential threat to their homes and lives and backed by the US, to drive ISIS out of Iraq.

9-11

The United States invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001.  Our goals were clear:  destroy Al Qaeda who attacked us on 9-11, and punish the Taliban government that allowed them to use their nation as a base.  But while we damaged Al Qaeda, we lost the opportunity to destroy them in the mountains of Tora Bora.  And while we “stood up” a government that opposed the Taliban, spending twenty years and billions of dollars to keep them in power, that government never, ever, stood a chance of existing on its own.

Meanwhile the Taliban sharpened their abilities, training against the best military ever seen in world history, the United States Forces.  And when the United States said enough after twenty years of stalemate and withdrew its forces, the well trained and highly motivated Taliban had no problem removing the uninspired government troops.

Doomed to Repeat

It’s really even uglier than Saigon in 1975.  The Afghan President was out of the country before his capitol in Kabul was even under pressure.  With the President gone, it’s no wonder that the Army folded without even a whimper.  His message was clear – get out if you can.  Afghans who made their way to the international airport desperately demanded a seat on a flight out –to anywhere. 

Americans have been taught the same lesson over and over again:  in Vietnam, in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan.  We can always maintain a stalemate, always use American blood and treasure to prop up corrupt governments and maintain status-quo.  But ultimately, we cannot create the “will” of a people to fight.  As much as we believe in democracy, in the “purple thumb” of Iraq, our beliefs were not the question.  It was the beliefs of the Vietnamese, Iraqi and Afghan peoples.

Richard Nixon began the withdrawal from Vietnam, but it was Gerald Ford who “took the hit” for the “fall” of Saigon.  Barack Obama took the blame for the rise of ISIS (remember Trump called him the “creator” of ISIS), but got US troops out of Iraq.  And now Joe Biden is determined to end US involvement in our longest struggle – twenty years in Afghanistan.  His mantra is the  “Buck Stops with Me”.  It’s ugly, and awful, and we are abandoning those who depended upon us.   

And it was going to happen whenever the US determined to leave.  

So this isn’t a “Sunday Story” – though it is Sunday, and this is kind of a story.  This essay is more like the “my life and times” essays of the “Out My Window” series – so here you have it – Outside My Window.

Medicare 

Earlier this summer I wrote an essay about my adventures in signing up for Medicare (Medicare and Me).  This week I had my “final” phone meeting with the Social Security/Medicare folks, and got everything figured out.  I am now a proud member of Medicare Part B, just waiting for my Red, White and Blue card, the sign of ultimate senior-hood.  And better yet, in several years I too can become a member of Medicare Part A, compliments of my wife’s eligibility.  This time everyone had the correct information, and the phone call was efficient and friendly.

Fence Dentistry

I’m not sure what did it, but somehow in the same week I signed up for Medicare, the hottest week of the summer; was when I decided to replace several fence posts on our picket fence.  Last spring a sixty mile-an-hour straight line wind came whipping past our neighbor’s house to the west, and managed to “bend” the fence to the east.  It wasn’t falling down, but the posts holding up the pickets were definitely bowing towards the rising sun.  I’ve tried, but there’s no good way to straighten them out (picket fence orthodontics) so out they came, cement and all.  Each post hole was enlarged, and a new post cemented into place.  Instead of braces, think teeth implants.

It can only be done one post at a time, otherwise the whole fence falls down.  So I was out proving something to nobody:  digging holes, pulling posts and mixing cement.  Sixty-five (almost)? Ninety-two degrees?  Stop Working?  Oh Hell No, though Jenn and the neighbors appeared to be waiting for my “imminent” collapse. 

The fence is up, and straight, and I proved — Ahh well, I don’t think I proved anything.  Time to seal the deck next!!

Call to Duty

Why such a hurry?  Well starting tomorrow the week is set aside for Jury Duty.  The Common Pleas Court of Licking County made their call last May, but were flexible enough to move the date out of track season.  Now it’s time to fulfill my civic duty, and the next five days are the property of the Court.

I’ve been on Jury Duty before.  The last time it was a short stint, I lasted less than a day.  My roles at the local high school put me in contact with too many of the faces in the courtroom.  I knew the prosecutor, the bailiff, and several of the other jurors.  Once they asked if I knew anyone in the Court, and I got through my list  — the Judge thanked me for coming and excused me from further duty.  That five day stint didn’t last past lunchtime.

But I’m definitely ready to be on the jury, if need be.  I’ve cleared all five days for Judge Branstool, and I’m getting prepared.  Now to watch Twelve Angry Men (the 1957 version with Henry Fonda) and Runaway Jury (Gene Hackman, John Cusack), two of my favorites to get prepped.  

Courthouse Rules

Licking County does not allow electronic devices in the Courthouse.  Not only can I not take my computer in the building (no writing essays as I wait) but I can’t even take my cell phone.  That’s a cultural throwback, even if I have an impending Medicare card I’m still addicted to the constant flow of information from the box in my pocket.  So it’ll be locked in the “vault” in the Jeep, and I’ll have to depend on a five hundred and seventy-one year-old information transmission device:  I’ll read a book. I’ve already started I Alone Can Fix It by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker, about the final year of the Trump Administration (is anyone surprised by that?). 

The only other issue here in Licking County is the growing question of our “Covid-19 Delta Variant” era:  to mask or not.  I got the “shot” last March, but I’m literally going into a room of complete strangers in a county where the vaccination rate is only 47%.  Like most of the country, the rates of infection are up here.  The County Health Department consistently avoids mandating restrictions – but repeats the CDC guidelines for mask use.  It’s the easy out for them.

So I’ll leave my phone, grab my book and mask, and head over to Newark, the county seat, to report for duty by 8:45 tomorrow morning.  It’s going to rain anyway, the deck will have to wait for the next heat wave.

The Out My Window Series

• Crisis in a Small Town – (3/16/20)
• St Patrick’s Day – (3/17/20)
• Plagues and Floods – (3/21/20)
• Stories from Lockdown – (4/1/20)
• 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 12 (8/14/21)

My cousin Brendan O’Connor passed away Wednesday.  He died in Tampa, Florida, at eighty-three years of age after a prolonged illness.  It’s unnerving:  I never thought of my first cousin as “old”.  

I first met Brendan when I was six.  We were living in Cincinnati in the early 1960’s, and Brendan came “to visit”. My mother was from England, and her large family was still there.  Brendan was the son of her oldest brother Leslie, and like his sister before, he came to visit America and stay with his aunt and uncle.  It was a family tradition.  Before “the war” (World War II) Mom stayed with Leslie and his wife Marjorie in Belgium, and she was happy to repay the favor.

Leslie was killed flying his personal aero plane in 1959, so when Brendan arrived in 1962, fresh out of the British Army, the accident was still fresh.  But I didn’t know about all that.  What I knew was that this HUGE man, my cousin, was here.  You see, I would grow up to be by far the tallest in our immediate family at 5’7” – so we are short group.  When Brendan arrived at 6’2” or more, he seemed enormous, and very climbable.  

Brendan stayed for a month or two, exploring Cincinnati, then I think he went back home to England.  But a few months later he was back, this time to stay and make his life here in America.

Brendan ultimately took US citizenship, but he was always, as Gilbert and Sullivan would say, “an Englishman!!”.   He was a big man, kind hearted, with that British accent.  When he came in the door there was always a big “Hel—Lo!!!”, always two parts with the pause in the middle.  He became a salesman, finding a niche in selling artificial flowers.  First it was in Cincinnati, then he moved out all through the Midwest. Everyone knew the big Englishman with a trunk full of flowers and a hearty laugh.

For a long time, Brendan was “on the road”, travelling from town to town selling his products.  When I turned sixteen, I bought my first car from him.  It was a 1969 Plymouth Fury III, and it was only three years old – a new car to me.  But the Plymouth already had well over a hundred thousand miles.  Bren covered his “territory” many times, across Iowa and Kansas, Indiana and Illinois.

But he always stayed in touch, close to the family and particularly to Mom.  When he fell asleep at the wheel and literally drove into a train, Bren left his totaled car in Kansas and came straight to Cincinnati to recover.  And he was always back to Mom’s house for holidays and birthdays, and especially Christmas.  Mom made everything “English” for Christmas.  For Brendan it was just like home.  He was a part of our family, and he was definitely Mom’s favorite.

Brendan found Carolyn, and they got married and settled in Chicago.  We saw a bit less of him then, but still stay connected.  And there were the “happenstances” (what Mom would call one of her “coincidences”).  Mom and Dad, my sister Terry and her husband and kids, and I were on summer vacation on Cape Cod.  Brendan knew we were there, but no plans were made.  I don’t think he even knew we were at a house in Chatham.

We were exploring, and stopped at a grocery store.  As we got our supplies, we heard a familiar voice on the other side of the shelves.  “Mom – I think Brendan and Carolyn are here!”  There was a joyous reunion in the parking lot!

Brendan became involved in the “British” club in Chicago.  And while he was proud of his English heritage, he also was proud of his adopted country, now thirty years his home.  He applied for American citizenship, and was honored to take on the obligations of our country.  So he had both, the Englishman and now the American.  It was a good life.

Unfortunately Carolyn got sick, leaving Brendan a widower far too soon.  He was just sad, alone.  So he closed up his Chicago operation and moved to Tarpon Springs, on the Gulf of Mexico just north of Tampa.  He got involved there too, President of the Tarpon Springs Kiwanis and part of the Florida governing board.  And he met Mary, a retired school administrator and also a widow.  They soon fell in love and married.

They found a beautiful house tucked away on along the golf course, opening to their own swimming pool in the back.  Brendan and Mary were more than just Florida retirees.  They stayed involved in the community and church.  They went on cruises with their friends, and entertained poolside at their home.  And they stayed connected to his family here in Ohio.

And when Brendan got sick, it was Mary who stood by him, taking care and managing hospitals, nursing homes and doctors.  

I last saw Brendan at his 80th birthday party, at their home in Tarpon Springs.  Family was “represented” – I drove over from Sebastian where Jenn and I were camping, my sister Pat flew in from New York, and Brendan’s nephew David came in from England.  Brendan was already battling illness, but we all had a good time reminiscing about the past and avoiding present politics.  At breakfast Sunday morning, Brendan, aware of his own mortality, asked me if I would do the eulogy for his funeral.  

Funerals are complicated in this age of COVID.  There will be a memorial service in Tarpon Springs sometime next month, and I hope in can attend.  But I made a promise to a cousin,  a friend, an American and an Englishman.  He led a good life, an adventurous life, and a life that made those around him better.  What more can anyone ask for?

Rest in well-earned Peace Brendan:  we will miss your “Hel-Lo!!”

Cuomo Resigns

Well, I was wrong.  A week ago I posted an essay about Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York, under fire by the New York Attorney General’s report about his sexual harassment of women.  My essay, titled New York, New Yorkconcluded that Andrew Cuomo would not resign from office, at least not soon.

He quit today.

He did it in typical New York fashion.  After his personal attorney (a woman) went point by point through the report, raising questions and trying to discredit its conclusions, the Governor came out to speak.  The first half of his speech was both an apology to those he harassed, and an explanation why he didn’t believe it was all harassment.

Then it turned, and he began the process of explaining how he was unwilling to “waste” the taxpayer’s money on continuing investigation and “litigation”.  He resigned from office, effective in two weeks.  

Politics

Politically Cuomo was boxed in.  It was clear that the New York Assembly would in fact impeach and convict, remove him from office and ban him from running in the future.  There were no Democrats in New York left standing for the ten-year Governor.  Not that there was any love lost by Democrats for Cuomo even before the report.  The Governor was a tough and ugly competitor in the ugliest politics in the nation, New York.  

Impeachment and conviction would bar Cuomo from office for life.  Now he is trying to box the Assembly in.  If they proceed with impeachment, then they are “wasting the taxpayers’ money”.   What privately looked like a “hit job”, where the Attorney General of the state served as judge, jury and executioner; would become a public campaign of vengeance against the disgraced Cuomo.  At least, that’s how Governor Cuomo would characterize it.

Reality

Back in the 1980’s, when I was a young teacher, a colleague was accused of sexual contact with a minor decade’s before.  I believed he was innocent and thought he should fight for his reputation.  Back then, schools made “deals” with teachers like that.  He could resign quietly, giving up his teaching license and career.  Or he could have a public fight, face ridicule, and perhaps still lose his teaching career and possibly end up in jail.   He resigned. 

At the time I thought that was a confession of guilt.  

Looking back, he probably was guilty.  But he also recognized that there was no way out; even if innocent, he couldn’t win.  The mere public accusation itself was enough to end his career.  Resignation let him go on with a life, even though it cost him his livelihood.

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York and potential candidate for President of the United States, resigned from office yesterday.  Like my friend, he probably is guilty, at least for some of the accusations.  And he will take resignation and disgrace, rather than risk impeachment and permanent ban.  He still faces litigation in the Courts, mostly civil but perhaps some criminal as well.

The List

There is a long list of men who thought the power of their office gave them “extra-privileges” over their subordinates.  Bill Clinton is the most obvious, but with the “Me-Too” movement many more have been removed and disgraced.  Cuomo said in his speech, the rules have changed.  But the rules really haven’t changed, what changed is privilege.  

Powerful office or notoriety used to grant “privilege” to ignore the normal rules of sexual conduct.  There are stories of Babe Ruth, the famous baseball player of the 1920’s, running by reporters on the train naked as he chased women down the aisles.  But it was “OK” and never reported – he was the greatest baseball player in history.  In more modern times, we can go back to President Kennedy to recognize how high office somehow made it “OK” for him to ignore the normal rules of behavior. 

Me Too

That began to change in 1988, when Senator Gary Hart, running for President, challenged reporters to violate his “privacy” and expose his extra-marital affair.  He was shocked when they did.  The rules were changing.  His campaign for President was over.

But it took the power and courage of the “Me-Too” movement, of women willing to risk the notoriety that Monica Lewinsky faced, to make it possible for the women harassed by Andrew Cuomo to come forward.  And while the Governor in his speech claimed that “the rules changed”, it wasn’t the rules that changed.  It was the “privilege” that was taken away.  And the loss of that “privilege” left Cuomo naked to his enemies.

As the saying goes, it’s time for Andrew Cuomo to “go home and write his book”.  Oh wait, he already did that, on the taxpayers’ dime  last year while he was Governor.  

Division

Our national political obsession is division.  The Republican Party divides (unequally) between Trumpers and Never-Trumpers.  The Nation (supposedly) splits between Black Lives Matter and “Blue” Lives Matter, and for sure fractures into vaccinators versus anti-vaxxers.  

We are rural or urban, north or south, classic rock or country.  And of course, there is the “calamitous” division of the Democratic Party, one that the media, particularly the right wing media, constantly dwells on.  There are the “leftists”, the Social Democrats, who right wing media claim control the agenda, and the “regular” or “moderate” or even “corporate” (heard that on Morning Joe) Democrats.

But is it really “calamitous”?  Is the Democratic Party, my Party, so ruinously divided that 2022 will mark a return for Congressional Republicans to power. Will McConnell and McCarthy triumphantly taking the leading roles?

Short answer for that long question:  nope.

Big Tent

We are a “big tent” party.  A “big tent” means there’s lots of room for lots of different views, ideas, and beliefs.  In the Republican/Trump Party, dissenters are driven out. But since we are Democrats, we all feel very free to voice our views.  All of that action and conflict, can lead “outsiders” to believe that the Democratic Party will self-destruct.  

And we have managed to do that in the past. In 1968,  the critical issues were civil rights and the war in Vietnam.  Almost every Democrat was in agreement on continuing Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to expand civil rights.  

But more than half of the Party was opposed to the war in Vietnam, a war that President Johnson was committed to continuing.  That opposition came to a head at the Convention in Chicago. The leadership, committed to Johnson and his Vice President Humphrey, used the Chicago Police to physically put down anti-war opposition.  That division ultimately cost Democrats the general election in November.

Establishment Dems

Hakeem Jefferies in the Democratic Congressman from New York, representing part of Brooklyn.  Jefferies is also a party leader in the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Democratic Caucus.  That makes him an “establishment” Democrat, a supporter of Speaker Pelosi and the “main” Party.  But on all of the key issues:  minimum wage, health care, student loans, traditional and human infrastructure improvements; Jefferies agrees with the “left” wing of the Party.

In fact, most of the Democratic Party agree on most of those issues.  It’s an issue of degree:  Joe Manchin’s $11 minimum wage versus Bernie Sanders $15.  

And what about President Biden?  Biden is definitely from the establishment part of the Party, a career politician who has always been near the center of Democratic political thought.  In fact, many of the White House’s current stands are surprising – Biden has taken a more “progressive” stand than expected.  Need proof?  There’s nothing really moderate about spending  $3.5 trillion on “human” infrastructure.

Clocks and Calendars

Doug Collins, the former Congressman from Georgia and now the next in a long line of Trump lawyers, coined a phrase in the first Russia Hearings – “a clock and a calendar”.  And that’s what the Biden Administration is up against.  The clock is ticking on the 117th Congress.  Sure, they will be in office until January of 2023.  But the reality of Congressional life is that once February 2022 rolls around, the entire House and a third of the Senate stops worrying about legislating and focus on re-election.  

Certain agenda items have to be dealt with:  renewing the debt ceiling, budgets and getting Biden appointees into the Federal Court system.  But for everything else, it will get increasingly difficult to get anything to a vote as the election grows nearer.  The President and Congressional leadership have already established the “order” so far.  First it was the COVID relief package, now it’s the bipartisan infrastructure bill, quickly followed by the “big” totally partisan infrastructure bill.

What comes next?  Probably the voting rights legislation.  And as that will also be a wholly partisan action, it will surely be a compromise proposal designed to the needs of the most moderate Democratic Senators and Congressmen.  Expect that the fall of 2021 will be about that.  Congressional Majority Leader Jim Clyburn said it best:  “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.  

One More Chance

And what about environmental concerns, and the minimum wage, and student debt, and all of the other items on the Democratic list?  Well that’s where the arguments begin – if there is one item left that might get done before the New Year, which is the most important.  All “wings” of the Party are going to loudly advocate for their most important issue. 

Expect that “right-wing” media will misinterpret that advocacy into a “Party of self-destruction”.  But the vast majority of Democrats are still in our “Big Tent”, and recognize the need to expand our leads in the House and the Senate, instead of consuming the moderates who created those majorities in the first place.  In short, if you don’t like where Democrats from West Virginia and Arizona stand – then elect more from Wisconsin or Florida (or North Carolina).  Or maybe even elect one from Ohio.

Saturday Morning

Our dogs don’t know what day it is.  Pretty much every day is the same to them, and regardless of my murmuring “…It’s Saturday, we can sleep in”, they’re intent is to get me up. It’s a little after six in the morning, and that’s when they eat – every morning.  And while I used to be able to talk the oldest, Buddy, into going back to sleep for a while, with five in the house right now there’s always one who’s hungry enough to make sure everyone else gets moving.

There’s not a lot of barking involved.  It’s strategic:  Buddy scratches my shoulder, Atticus goes in for a kiss (usually on the lips), Lou lays on my legs, and Keelie – well she’s just trying to snuggle me right out of the bed.  The foster pit bull pup, CeCe, is still crated.  She would be on my side, willing to sleep in, but with all the action, she’s up waiting when we get to the door.

So it’s on my feet, regardless of the day or what time I went to bed.  

There are all sorts of rituals:  the “communion” of cheese to make sure everyone gets their meds, then impatient waiting as I sort three types of food into five dishes.  It takes a bit of time, and there’s always some wrestling in the kitchen while I get it done.  And then, finally, when all the bowls are emptied – the dessert course – carrots all around.

The Games

It’s Saturday morning – the last day of competition in the Tokyo Olympic Games.  The women’s 10,000 meters is a long, long race on the track, interspersed with men’s javelin and women’s high jump.  But the dogs did me a favor. I will get to see my favorite track races, the 4×400 relays, live.

I’ve watched Olympics since I was twelve, in that incredibly confusing year of 1968.   That’s fifty-three years, and of course the coverage has improved.  But the National Broadcasting Company has outdone itself with the current multiple streaming technologies.  That I can sit at the kitchen table, watching in-depth broadcasts of live field events without interruption (except for refereeing the “Olympic” dog wrestling matches here in Pataskala) is amazing.  

American Pole Vault

I watched the Olympic Pole Vault, men’s and women’s, qualifying and finals, from the first vault to the gold medal efforts.  As a forty-year pole vault coach, what did I learn?

Without getting ridiculously technical, there are lots of ways to “pole vault”.  And after watching the Olympics,  while I am confirmed in “my” technical theories, there are world class vaulters who use other techniques.  They aren’t “wrong”, just different.  It’s a lot like life:  lots of different paths to reach the same goal.  As a coach, or a person, it’s easy to think your way is the only “right” way. It’s just not.  And the question I have, is how much do you “accept” the differences in the athletes you coach?  Do you learn how to coach “the other” techniques – or continue to “bend” them to your “right” way?

I’ve known some national caliber vaulters, and the Olympics confirmed what I already knew.  They are incredibly dedicated and amazingly talented, but they are still regular people.  They laugh, they cry, and they get incredibly nervous in the crucible of competition.  Some can channel that nervous energy towards improvement, but with the delicate balance of speed, technique and strength in the vault, it’s easy to get thrown off.  Ask the Olympic Gold Medal winner, Katie Nageotte from Olmsted Falls near Cleveland.  She was a last vault away from being out of the competition at the very start. But, she found a way to calm herself, clear the opening height, and move on to win the gold.

The Bar

By the way, the American men had a great vault too.  The best “American” is vaulting in the blue and gold of Sweden, even though he grew up in Louisiana.  But that’s OK, twenty-one year old Mondo Duplantis is the “golden boy” of vault, no matter what uniform he’s wearing.  He attempted to clear a world record after he won the gold.  American Chris Nilsen of the US was silver medalist.   The other “best” in the world, American vaulter Sam Kendricks, went home with a positive Covid test before the competition.  

And one last pole vault observation.  It seems like a competition, person against person, but it’s really not.  Pole vaulting is a competition between the vaulter and the bar – and all of the vaulters are united in trying to clear it.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is almost always a camaraderie among the vaulters.  They clap, cheer, and commiserate with each other in the competition.  They all want to “win” – but they all know it’s not the other vaulters that “beat” them.  It’s the bar.

On the Track

That’s different in the running events.  There the stopwatch is important, but finish place is all.  And places ARE decided head to head. So the “camaraderie” of the running events isn’t quite the same.  Runners share so much suffering together, they can relate, but the friendship is usually after the competition is over.

On this final day, the United States Track Team wanted to make sure that the world knew they “wanted” to win.  There’s been a lot of criticism of team management – bad relay exchanges and just slow running by the men’s sprinting squad has left an audience with a bird‘s eye view questioning their commitment.  

So it was a “hammer” women’s 4×400 team, with Allyson Felix as the one pure “400” runner. The veteran ran with two 400 hurdlers and an 800 meter specialist to win the gold medal within a second of the world record. 

The men’s 4×400 did the same – gold medal “by a country mile” as the Australian announcer proclaimed.  It may sooth some of the “wounds” of the competition – but questions still persist.  Every good high school coach can diagnose the US 4×100 relay exchange failures.  They’ve been going on for more than a decade, and the “best” coaches in the world haven’t solved the problem.  It’s all about spending time and making a commitment – something that the US men’s team doesn’t seem to do.

Olympic Ideal

There’s still the marathon competition tonight, and I’m sure there’s a dramatic closing ceremony tomorrow.  But as a track guy, the 4×400’s mark the end of the meet.  Monday morning it will be back to the news, back to the seemingly endless crises the United States faces.  Like the dogs, we will all be back “on schedule”.

The last track medal ceremony is for the women’s high jump.  The gold medalist is from Russia. Because of past drug offenses, Russia is not allowed to participate as a national team. Their athletes compete under the Olympic Flag. So it is fitting that this last track ceremony is ending with the Olympic anthem rather than a national one.  The few coaches and remaining athletes are dancing in the stands.

For one last moment, they all stand united in the Olympic ideal.   

• 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
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21

What About

“Why don’t you do your job?” was Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis comment to President Joe Biden this week. “Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t wanna hear a blip about COVID from you.”  That’s after Florida had the second highest COVID infection rate in the Nation, up 119% in the past two weeks (Louisiana is highest – NYT).  Biden and the White House are frustrated with DeSantis’s lack of action. In fact, DeSantis not only prevented the State of Florida from acting, but also restricted local authorities in Florida from instituting individual controls.

And with the traditional “what-about-ism” of his hero the 45th President, DeSantis tried to deflect Florida’s growing COVID crisis by changing the subject to border security.  It didn’t work – hospitals in Florida are reaching capacity, and the Delta variant is still spreading.  Unlike his fellow Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who wished he could mandate masks (he signed a law removing his own authority), DeSantis still spouts mask wearing as a “personal freedom” issue, make you own choice.  

DeSantis isn’t stupid.  He is a former Naval Officer, and a Yale and Harvard graduate.  So he knows that “personal freedom” won’t stop COVID-19 variants.  And he also knows that it’s “I don’t want to hear a…” ‘bit’, or ‘whit’ or even ‘shit’”:  but not a blip.  

Who’s Protected

DeSantis knows – just like most folks – that vaccination slows the spread of COVID, even the Delta variant  (Pfizer – 64% to 94% for Delta versus 90%-96% for original,  Healthline).  But just half of Florida citizens are covered.  And the Governor knows that the vaccines almost guarantee that if a person does gets the variant, they won’t be hospitalized or die.  DeSantis also is surely aware that masks reduce the spread of this much more highly transmissible version.  And finally he knows that this variant is having a greater impact on younger folks.  

My experience with Florida is that it’s a great place to retire, but a bad place to get sick.  Perhaps it’s because there’s such a large elderly population in Florida, that it seems so difficult to get effective care.  But most of the elderly in Florida aren’t stupid, they got the vaccine, and they are prepared for the Delta variant.

Who doesn’t have the vaccine?  Younger folks, and particularly school aged kids.  And now, the Delta variant’s transmissibility is comparable to the chicken pox. For those my age, remember how quickly the chicken pox could spread through a grade school classroom?  Younger folks don’t know about that – because almost all got the vaccine for chicken pox.  There’s a vaccine for COVID-19 too, but instead of encouraging vaccination and masking of the young, Governor DeSantis simply cries “Personal Freedom” (WAPO).  

Science

The science is not a matter of opinion.  While we can argue the impact of the infrastructure spending on the economy, or the role of the United States in international affairs, or even US policy on the Southern Border:  Covid is about facts, not opinions.  So it’s hard not to think that DeSantis and his like are making a cruel choice.  They are choosing political expediency over public health, another “Big Lie” over lives.

And for those, like DeSantis, who say “the science” has changed – he’s absolutely correct.  That’s the nature of science (and of nature).  As we learn more, we alter the assumptions we started with.  School systems teach the scientific method:  observation describes a problem, create a hypothesis about the problem, test and evaluate the hypothesis, draw conclusion and refine the hypothesis.  Science is constantly testing, constantly refining, willing to say “what we thought was true was not, and here’s the new answer”.  

Facts Don’t Matter

So when Dr. Fauci early in pandemic crisis did not recommend masks – he was working on the hypothesis that COVID didn’t transmit well in the air.  When he got new data, better data, he refined his hypothesis and recommended masks. Unlike politicians who are afraid of becoming “flip-floppers”, Fauci is a scientist, who follows the facts.  And he followed the facts to the new Delta variant, recognizing that the solutions of last April and May or not the solutions of August and September.

And “Ivy League” Ron DeSantis knows it too.  But “personal freedom” is such good politics, that he doesn’t give a shit.

For those who read Our America and wondered where Tuesday’s essay was – it was finals of the Men’s Olympic Pole Vault – even the dishes didn’t get done!!!!!!

Press Conference

Here’s one – let’s talk about a major political figure who should resign for his conduct – and his name isn’t Trump.  But here’s a spoiler alert – that’s not going to happen.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James had a major press event yesterday, where she presented her office’s findings of sexual harassment accusations against Governor Andrew Cuomo.  “(It) revealed a pattern of criminal conduct”.  But James did not in fact file any charges, civil nor criminal against Cuomo.  Instead, she presented her investigation, full of evidence of wrong doing ranging from unwanted kisses, to accusations of  criminal groping.  

She dropped it on the people of New York and the nation, and said it could “be used” by any victim who wanted to file a civil suit, or picked up by a District Attorney that wanted to consider charges.  In fairness, her office doesn’t have general prosecution powers in criminal actions.  But she could file civil cases, and she could file corruption of government civil charges.  Instead, she presented an incredibly damning investigation, like throwing raw meat in the lions’ cage, and walked away.

Due Process

It’s a lot like former FBI Director James Comey’s 2016 summer press conference announcing that there would be no charges against Hillary Clinton. After he announced the FBI was done, he then explained all of the terrible things that Secretary Clinton did.  There was no place for Clinton to defend herself, no trial before a judge and jury.  Comey condemned her, then pardoned her.

AG James yesterday was judge, jury and executioner.  

It’s possible that the Albany District Attorney may take up criminal charges, as he has local jurisdiction.  And the New York State Legislature could use the investigation as the basis for impeachment of the Governor.  Or this investigation could serve as the basis for individual lawsuits filed by the victims.  But one thing is for sure – Andrew Cuomo isn’t going to resign.

Franken and Northam

The lesson learned is the “Al Franken” story.  Senator Franken was accused of inappropriate conduct (not illegal conduct) and there was evidence that it might be true.  The Senator did “the right thing”, especially in the context of the Alabama special election, when statutory rape was an issue for Republican Judge Roy Moore. Franken resigned his seat in the Senate.  But regardless of the “minimal” offenses Franken was accused of, and despite his abject apologies:  once he resigned, his political career was over. 

Andrew Cuomo is sixty-two years old.  He has been the Governor of New York for over a decade.  Just a few months ago, he was a possible 2024 Presidential candidate should Biden not run.  Now, he’s just hanging onto his current job, maybe not even through the 2022 election.  But one thing is for sure.  If he resigns, his political career is at an end.  If Al Franken couldn’t come back from the Roger Stone generated charges of “inappropriate touching”, then for sure a resigned Cuomo is done, retired from public office for life (much like his predecessor who was  caught soliciting prostitution, Eliot Spitzer). 

And then there’s Ralph Northam, Governor of Virginia.  Northam wore blackface as a college student.  That’s bad; but when the pictures were revealed, he botched the response.  First, he denied them, then he apologized, then he really wasn’t sure.  By the time he was done, everyone (including me) was calling for his “head”.  But Northam (and the other senior government officials caught up in the mess) just stayed.  They didn’t resign,  they put their heads down and went to work.   And they’re still in office today.

Impeachment

And for those who note that the State Legislature, the Attorney General, and the Governor are all in the same political party:  beware.  The Democrats of New York are exceptionally good at self-immolation.  It was only a few years ago that Democrats gained a majority in the State Senate, and then several Democratic members defected to vote for the Republican leadership. 

They have returned to the fold – but the fissures in the state party remain.  For example, Cuomo is the Governor, but Bill DeBlasio, also a Democrat and Mayor of New York City, are often at odds.  Just being a “Democrat” doesn’t mean loyalty in the Empire State. 

The New York Assembly might impeach, or they might end up in a typical New York political scrum.

Defense

The Governor is likely to use the “Old Italian” defense.  “Old Italians” are physical:  kissing and hugging women, men and children indiscriminately.   “It was OK in my day” is the argument; the “Me Too” movement changed the rules and he didn’t catch on.   Bill Cosby used a similar kind of defense.  

But the world has changed in the past four years.  And it was NEVER OK to grope women, even as an “Old Italian Man”.   But there will be some sympathy for the “Love Gov”, the now unfortunate nickname coined by his CNN host brother, Chris.  It was in “better days”; the middle of the pandemic crisis.

Chris – “I’ve seen you referred to a little bit recently as the Love Gov…”

 Andrew – “I’ve always been a soft guy, I am the Love Gov. I’m a cool dude in a loose mood. You know that. I just say let it go. Just go with the flow baby.” (Oprah).

Don’t be surprised if Governor Cuomo doesn’t “go with the flow” and ignores resignation calls, even from the President of the United States.  He’s got nothing to lose by staying.

Track Coach

I am a track coach, or at least a retired track coach.  We are in the “heart” of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.  So it just seems fitting that I should comment on the Games.  

My wife looked at me yesterday, watching the qualifying in the 800 meters, and said, “You are in Coach mode”.  She was right, I was standing in the middle of the family room, only a few feet from the 60” television screen, fists clenched, watching American 800 meter runner Marcus Jewett get tripped up in the final 150 meters of his race.  Oh, and I’m a track official as well, you could tell because my right hand was in the air, the universal official signal of raising the “yellow flag” of a foul. 

However, no foul was called.  Jewett and the Botswanan runner, Nijel Amos fell to the track and out of the race.  In an act of mutual sportsmanship they helped each other up and jogged the final straightaway together to the finish line.  And in an act of international track politics, Amos, who by all track rules should have been disqualified, was reinstated to the finals.  He is the favorite to win.  Jewett was not so favored.  He won’t be running for the Gold.

On the Field

Anyway, if it seems that this essay is taking a bit longer to write than usual, it’s because NBC has found a way to take me right onto the field.  It’s Tuesday morning in Tokyo, and the women are qualifying for the finals in the pole vault.  There’s an entire “channel” for that, with split screens for the two pole vault pits used in the preliminary competition.  I can watch EVERY vault, here at 6:30 am in the morning.  So while it might only look like a period and a space in this essay, it was really an American vaulter clearing a low height, with a poorly lined up plant on a soft pole.  

It is kind of amazing.  Watching pole vault on the Olympics used to mean seeing the last two or three vaults of the finals, with American commentator and former high jumper Dwight Stones trying to describe the action.  Now I can be right at the pits, both of them, listening to the field announcements and analyzing vaults.  I do miss the “Olympic Anthem” at the beginning, bringing back memories of  the grainy pictures of amazing sprints and jumps from 1968 in Mexico City, and the tragedy of the terror attack in Munich four years later.  

 

Citius, Altius, Fortius

I did hear the Anthem last night though, when I watched the “regular” network coverage.  And that’s amazing too:  from beach volleyball to gymnastics, BMX biking to swimming, swimming, swimming.  Athletes at the prime of their careers, some falling to the pressure of world competition, and some rising beyond themselves to literal new heights of success.  “Altius, Citius, Fortius,” ‘Higher, Faster, Stronger,” is the motto of the Games.  (And for those way too deep into track and field, the opening words spoken by Donald Sutherland in the movie “Without Limits”).  As they strive to lift themselves, their efforts lift us all.

Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela jumped into history yesterday, setting a world record in the triple jump to win the Gold.  And to prove a point, she did it with “bad” technique, showing that sometimes talent overcomes every obstacle (and coaches don’t know everything).  Her jumps were impressive, and her reaction to the final record breaking attempt was amazing.  Goals fulfilled beyond even her own expectations.  

Sharing the Win

There were five competitors at the final height in the men’s high jump yesterday.  Clear the bar set at 7’8 ½”, and win the Gold Medal.  But none cleared.  In track and field, the tie breaker is based on missed attempts (each competitor gets three tries at each height) – fewer misses wins the tie.  There were only two jumpers,  Mutam Barshim from Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, who were “clean” – no misses until the last height.  

The rules are clear:  if there is a tie for first place, the competition proceeds to a “jump off”.  Another jump at 7’8 ½”, if both clear the bar goes up, if both miss it goes down, first clear wins.  But what if neither competitor wants to jump?

As the referee explained the rules, Barshim asked the question:  “Do we have to jump?”  The referee paused, and the jumper said, “Can we both get Gold?”.  Tamberi looked at Barshim, as they both realized they could achieve a lifetime goal, together.  Barshim nodded to Tamberi, and the Italian leaped into the Quatari’s arms.  The final act of the 2020 Olympic Men’s High Jump was to share the dream, and share the Gold.  

 

In the Rain

This essay will go a little faster now, it’s raining in Tokyo and the vault is on pause.  

As a pole vault coach, I’ve never coached an Olympic caliber athlete.  But I have coached many at the state championship level and some collegiate athletes.  And in each of their careers, there was a time when all of a sudden, they couldn’t “go up”.  They could run down the runway, they could put the pole in the “box” to start the vault.  But then they would “run through”, unable to jump.  Sometimes it was for a day, sometimes it lasted weeks.  

Pole vaulting is exciting and challenging, but obviously it also can be dangerous.  Experienced vaulters are attuned to their body position, to what feels “right” and what doesn’t.  And when things don’t feel “right”, even if they don’t know why, they don’t go up.  There’s lots of coaching “tricks” to try to get over “running through”, but they all take time.  And sometimes, a vaulter just can’t compete – it’s not a matter of will, it’s a matter of mind.

Healthy Mind

So when Simone Biles said she didn’t know where her body position was in the air during her gymnastics, I got it completely.  She’s too good an athlete, with too much speed and power, to “force” herself to jump.  That’s a recipe for disaster.  All the folks saying she should just “Suck it up” or “Man Up” or “Grow a set”  (inappropriate on so many levels) just don’t get it.  I’m not sure that’s all about mental health.  It’s survival instinct, and there’s nothing unhealthy about that.  They say she’ll compete on the balance beam.  I hope she wins, but more importantly, I hope she’s safe.

The rain has stopped in Tokyo.  They have a really cool roller machine to dry the runways and the women are warming back up for the vault.  It’s a good thing this is only every four years, the competition sucks me in and wipes out the rest of my day.  

Oh wait, only three years to the 2024 Games in Paris!