Month: December 2021

It’s the last day of 2021, a year that has seen too many needless deaths, and too much needless suffering. I am not pro-death – I am Pro-Life. Have a Happy New Year!!!

I am Pro Life.

So I believe in universal health insurance.  That’s so every baby can get the pre-natal and birth care they need – and every child can get the medical care they require to be healthy.  And every teenager, and twenty-something, and (whatever we call thirty and forty year olds), and middle agers and senior citizens can all get the health benefits they need for a good life, regardless of their financial status.  The right to health should not be controlled by income. 

I am Pro Life.

So I believe in child tax credits so parents can raise their children with good nutrition, warm clothes and homes, and a comfortable life.  Every kid doesn’t get to be “Richie Rich”, but every kid needs to have the basics of life.

I am Pro Life.

Education shouldn’t be a matter of money, residence, race, gender, or identity.  Education is the key to lifetime success, to our originally Declared “pursuit of happiness”.   Everyone has the right to that key.  So we should be paying not just for a free high school education, but for free (community) college education or vocational training.  And we should support those who don’t have the foundation at home that enhances that education.  

I am Pro Life.

Everyone should have the right to vote, to determine who governs us.  Just because one political party seems unable to appeal to a majority of the nation, doesn’t mean they get to change the rules to protect their power. Pro Life means pro-empowering everyone to vote.

I am Pro Life.

Folks should live the lives of their “real” selves, not ones enforced by artificial societal standards.  We need to accept that our “binary” life, isn’t.  We know, as a fact, that sexual identity is a spectrum, not necessarily determined by anatomy.  So let people live as who they are, not what society says they “should” be.

I am Pro Life.

Prisons ought to only be for violent criminals.   Non-violent crimes require non-prison solutions, and our prisons need to be places for real reform and re-entry to public life, not penitentiaries for punishment and profit-making.  Only the truly violent dangers to our society need to be restrained, and then only to the extent necessary to protect others.

I am Pro Life.

I am glad that American soldiers, my former students, are no longer at risk in Afghanistan and Iraq.  And while there remain reasons that might require us to fight, those reasons need to be held to the highest standards.  By the way, we were right to go there, but we were wrong to stay.

I am Pro Life.

So I don’t believe the state should take a life as punishment:  ever.

I am Pro Life.

Quality of life means more than quantity of life. Sufferers of fatal illnesses and injuries should not be required to live a life without quality.  Society doesn’t have a place in determining their choice, just an obligation to protect the integrity of the decision making process.

I am Pro Life.

As I believe we as a society should provide for our youngest, we should take care of our elderly as well.  Living in silence because hearing aids are too expensive, living in darkness because vision is not a “right”, being unable to eat because dental care is “extra”, is not Pro-Life.  It is, in fact, anti-life.  It values money over living.

I am Pro Life.

Our society needs to save our climate, and save our planet.  That is a role for government, one where the good of the many should out-weigh the profits of the few.  

I am Pro-Life.

It infuriates me that the politics of our times are leading people to die from a disease that can be prevented. The “fruits” of modern science should be and are available. That there are those who are using “the politics” to their own advantage, and killing people in the process, is literally “pro-death”.

I am Pro-Life.

And yes, I believe it is NOT a right of anyone to impose their moral or religious beliefs on another. The term “pro-life” has been mis-appropriated to mean anti-abortion. But it means so much more than that, and so much of the “pro-life” movement is so neglectful of life after birth. So yes, I am pro-choice, because, as a man, abortion is clearly not MY decision. And as humans, we cannot enforce our moral or religious view on others. We can only try to live up to them ourselves. So next time you think about pro-life, think about more than just abortions. Because that’s not pro-life, that’s simply pro-birth.

And for my friends who are truly pro-life – really pro-lifetimes, not just pro-gestation – remember this. We have so much more in common than we have differences. Let’s work from the “middle ground” where we can agree. Because we are all in favor of a better lifetime for everyone.

Adams and Jefferson

Two of America’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, died on the same day.  They were early allies, compatriots in developing the ideas that Jefferson brilliantly described  in the Declaration of Independence.  While they both were lawyers, they used their personal and regional differences:  Adams a firebrand from Boston, Jefferson a scholarly man from Virginia; and joined the older Benjamin Franklin to shepherd the document through the Continental Congress.

Adams and Jefferson both went onto to serve in the Revolution, Adams in the Congress and Jefferson as Governor of Virginia, but came together again in France to negotiate the treaties to finally end the war and establish a new nation. Their “styles” clashed: Adams was a Boston “puritan” who looked with disdain at the excesses of the French royal court. Jefferson, like Franklin, was enamored with the intellectual breadth of the Age of Enlightenment, and with the luxuries Parisian social life provided.

Constitutional Government

And when a new government was instituted under the Constitution in 1787; both came back to serve President Washington and the Nation.  Adams was Vice President, and Jefferson Secretary of State.  They, along with the next generation of leaders like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and others; clashed mightily over how the government should function.  

Relations became so bitter that the friendship forged in Revolution was torn asunder.  Through the Adams’ Presidency they continued to fight, even as Jefferson was Vice President.  And in 1800, Adams’ left the new capital at Washington early, rather than see Jefferson’s inauguration to replace him.

Old Men

They remained enemies through Jefferson’s Presidency.  But after they both retired from government life, the death of a comrade from the Revolution, Dr. Benjamin Rush, gave them pause.  The generation that wrote the Declaration were in their seventies and eighties, and disappearing.  In 1813, Jefferson wrote to Adams that only six remained of the fifty-five original signers.   And so for the last thirteen years of their lives, they rekindled their friendship and regularly corresponded. 

Like many old men, they seemed to choose the moment of their deaths.  July 4th of 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration and the beginning of the United States, saw the final moments of both men. Adams was ninety-one years old and Jefferson eighty-three.  The last words of John Adams’:  “…at least Jefferson still survives”.  He didn’t know that Jefferson was already gone.

Revolutionaries in the thirties, diplomats in their forties, government leaders in their fifties and sixties:  they were the Revolutionary generation.  They fought together.  As Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we will all hang separately”.  They knew what was at risk – the final words of the Declaration itself made it clear:   “…(W)e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor”.

Common Purpose

And they fought against each other, as representatives of different visions of what the American government, and society, should be.  It was more than bitter; as ugly a public fight as we have today.  Adams was “fat-shamed”, called “His Rotundity”; and decried as wanting to become “King” and begin the “Adams Dynasty”.  Jefferson was derided for having a slave as his paramour, and being a coward for not serving in the Continental Army.   It was the kind of campaign where the wounds are so deep and personal, they never heal. It was the kind of hatred we are so familiar with today.  

But in their last years, the ideas they risked “their sacred honor” for brought them together again.  As old men, now observers of the government they created, they had a commonality of purpose.  These two intellectual giants of the Revolution found each other again.

The New Year

The end of a year seems to a time of choosing the end of life for our retired leaders.  Just in the past few weeks, we have said goodbye to Bob Dole, a wounded World War II veteran and a power in the United States Senate for decades.  And just two days ago, Harry Reid passed away, less than a decade after he retired from that same Senate.  

Both were men known for their biting wit and insults.  But both were fierce warriors for their parties and beliefs, and for their vision of America.  They could battle for their causes but still respect their opponents, a trait that seems lost in our current political climate.  

Today’s essay, here at the end of 2021, is not to place blame for being in our current political circle of Hell. It is actually to point out that there is hope. Former friends, then bitter enemies Adams and Jefferson, reconciled at the end of their lives. America mourns both the loss of Bob Dole and Harry Reid. Maybe 2022 can offer some reconciliation, some hope. Or maybe we’ll have to wait longer, for a new generation to takeover, like Hamilton and Burr from Adams and Jefferson.

That turned out so well.  

Prologue

On December 20th, 2020 an article describing a White House meeting appeared in the New York Times.  The Trump White House, already in disarray from the election loss and the resignation or firing of several key officials, was trying to deal with a President who was still searching for a way to remain in Office.  That day,  I re-wrote the description of what went on in that meeting into a “movie script”.  I titled the article “Seven Days in December”, a reference to the dark 1960’s fiction book and movie Seven Days in May, about a military coup to overthrow the President.

It’s December 28th, 2021.  We are just now getting a better understanding of what was really planned in that Oval Office meeting.  We know that dramatic changes in the leadership of the Departments of Justice and Defense were aimed at “softening them up” for a potential revolt.  And we know that the Trump campaign was building a “mob” for January 6th, one that would be directed to march on the Capitol Building.  There was a “coup headquarters”, led by Steve Bannon in the Willard Hotel.  A central figure, former General Michael Flynn, had his brother, also a General assigned to the Pentagon, in a key decision-making role.   And we all know what happened after that.

A Real Plan

John Eastman developed the legal strategy to overturn the election, and even published it in a PowerPoint presentation.  Several United States Congressmen and Senators were “in” on the plan, to aid in the “legal” overturn of the election results.  In short, what seemed like “farcical” story of White House desperation in December, 2020, was really part of a much more sinister plan.

So this is a “re-run” of last year’s story.  There is a bit of literary license:  some of the characters weren’t physically in the office.  They called into the meeting. But a year later, we are just learning how close to a real coup we came.  And it’s not over.  Thirty million Americans still believe that President Joseph Biden is “illegitimate”.  That hasn’t changed.

Seven Days in December

The Scene

The meeting was on Friday, December 18^th, 2020 in the Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House, Washington, DC.   Snow was on the ground outside the ballistic windows, and Christmas lights on the trees beyond the fencing.  The faint echo of a madrigal choir was heard, singing in the main lobby of the West Wing, in front of the massive Christmas tree.

The President was sitting behind the large oaken desk made from the timbers of the British Ship HMSResolute, and given as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria.  Arranged in front of the desk were armless straight-backed chairs, designed to accentuate the lesser status of those sitting in front of the President.  The President himself was hunched uncomfortably in his $5000 Gunlocke-Washington chair behind the imposing desk, not interested in the Christmas activities or much of anything else.  He was angry, depressed, and desperate.

General Flynn

In the straight-backed chairs were three subordinates.  The first, was retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.  Flynn was one of the first “high profile” supporters of the President six years ago.  He had a storied career: rising to prominence in the Army, and becoming Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under a previous Administration.  But Flynn’s unwillingness to adhere to policy led to charges of insubordination; he was fired from his post and after thirty-three years forcibly retired from the Army he loved.

He then went on a quest for fortune, working as an intelligence consultant for several corporations.  But the real money was in advising foreign nations about US strategy, and ultimately lobbying for them with the US government.  Flynn had multiple links to the Russian government earning hundred of thousands of dollars.  But the biggest money came from Turkey, where Flynn’s skills and classified knowledge were used to attack Turkish government opponents in the US.

National Security Advisor

With the success of Donald Trump’s candidacy for President, Flynn latched on as a senior foreign policy advisor.  What he didn’t advice Trump was his personal links to Russia and Turkey.  And when Trump surprisingly won the election of 2016, Flynn became National Security Advisor, despite several warnings to Trump from the Obama Administration.

Prior to Trump’s inauguration, Flynn had conversations with the Russian Ambassador, encouraging him to ignore the Obama Administration actions.  FBI agents interviewed him about the multiple phone conversations. Flynn lied to them, in spite of knowing that the agents had direct transcripts of the calls.  Why did Flynn lie knowing they already had the calls?  Perhaps it was simply hubris:  thinking that the FBI would never charge a serving National Security Advisor.  Or, perhaps it was the misguided view that the FBI “was on his side”, and would overlook the felony.

Flynn also lied to the Vice President and other senior White House officials.  He was forced to resign, and ultimately charged with lying to Federal agents.  He twice pled guilty to the charges, and made a deal with prosecutors to help with further investigations of the Trump campaign.  But Flynn ultimately reneged on the deal, and after years of legal maneuvering, was pardoned by President Trump.

The Lawyers

Also in the straight-backed chairs were two attorneys.  The first, Sidney Powell, was Flynn’s current legal counsel.  She was a conspiracy theorist, who recently was fired from Trump’s post-election legal team for claiming that long-dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez rigged the 2020 election.  She also told Georgia voters not to show up for the January 5^th Senate election, since she believed the entire election system was corrupt.  Powell was the reason for Flynn’s change of heart with Federal Prosecutors.  Rumor had it that she was so sure of a Presidential pardon that she persuaded Flynn to remain silent about other Administration and campaign actions.  She was right.

The other attorney was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  He represents the President in ongoing legal actions to invalidate the 2020 election results, claiming widespread election fraud. But he has been met with a long series of court defeats, accompanied by public relations disasters.  This included Giuliani holding a press conference in the parking lot of a sex shop, bringing a seemingly drunk witness to a hearing, and hair dye streaking down the side of his face while speaking to the press.

Change the Votes

Their conversation was simple:  how to overturn the legal results of the 2020 election.  While Biden won by over six million votes in the popular election, the margin in the Electoral College was much narrower.  A change of a mere 45,050 votes in three key states; Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, would reverse the Electoral College and result in a tie.  That tie would put the decision to the House of Representatives, where voting by one vote per state, they would re-elect the President.  

The Trump campaign challenged the vote count in each of those states.  Georgia recounted their votes three times, including a literal hand count of each ballot.  In Wisconsin, the Trump campaign paid three million dollars to recount votes in two key Democratic counties.  And in Arizona, where Republicans controlled all of the election counting mechanisms, re-counts and political pressure didn’t change the outcome.  The votes as they were cast in November, elected Joe Biden.

And of the over fifty court actions filed, none were successful in changing the outcome.  All were appealed, and a few reached the US Supreme Court.  But the Supreme Court denied them all.  Even Trump’s own appointees on the Court refused to hear them.  There seemed to be no way forward.

Trump’s Card

But Trump still had one last card to play.  74 million voters chose Trump in the 2020 election, the second most votes ever earned.  And of those 74 million, a majority believes that Trump’s election defeat was as a result of corruption.  That means that almost 40 million Americans believe that the 2020 election was stolen, and many were waiting for Trump’s word to take action.

Flynn had a plan to delay the Electoral College results.   He advised the President to declare an “insurrection” due to election fraud in the three critical states, and use the military to seize the voting machines.  Then there could be a “do-over”, where the only form of voting would be through the machines.  The mail-in vote, which overwhelmingly went to Biden, would be wiped out, ostensibly in the name of “election security”.  And of course the outcome would be different:  if only election day polling is allowed, in all likelihood Trump would win the margins needed to take the Electoral College.

Insurrection

And there was precedent for Flynn’s action.  During the Reconstruction Era, Federal troops were stationed in the former Confederate states.  Those troops guaranteed the 15^th Amendment right of the freed slaves to vote, as well as preventing unrepentant Confederates from participating in the process.  For the ten years after the Civil War, Federal troops in blue patrolled the electoral process.  It was only the political deal to end Reconstruction in 1877 that removed the troops that allowed those states to regain control of the voting process.  And Federal troops were forbidden to go back into any states again under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

 So under “Posse Comitatus” how could Flynn propose to send in troops?  An even older law, the Insurrection Act of 1807, allows the President to proclaim an “insurrection”, and then send in Federal troops to control it.  The Federal troops would be “authorized” to both seize the election machinery, and hold a “substitute” election.  And who would lead these troops into the electoral “battle space”?  The recently retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn; recalled to active duty.

Post Script (from 2020)

Is this a movie plot, or a proposed series for Netflix? 

This actual conversation took place in the Oval Office with those participants.  We know that the general conversation of declaring “insurrection” occurred, and that others joined the discussion, including White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.  We also know that the meeting degenerated in shouting and yelling, as Cipollone and Meadows pushed back against the plan.  

And we know that at that same meeting, Mr. Trump considered appointing Ms. Powell as a Special White House Counsel to investigate Hunter Biden.  He wanted to give her national security clearances. 

Today is Tuesday (December 22nd, 2020) – and while reporting indicates that the “cooler heads” of Cipollone and Meadows prevailed – we don’t really know.  Internet conspiracy rumors put the day of the “insurrection” declaration as December 24^th, two days from today.

The Vice President is scheduled to leave the country on January 6^th, hours after the Congress officially declares the Electoral College winner. 

It’s not over, until noon on January 20^th.  Only when Joe Biden takes the official oath of office, can we be sure that Donald Trump won’t try to overturn the results of the election, and with it, our Democracy.

Note – fifteen days after this essay first appeared, the United States Capitol was seized in the “January 6th Insurrection”.  

There’s a danger using “sports analogies” about life.  They often treat life too simplistically, as if scoring a goal or committing a foul tells all about “real life” experiences.   Life is so much more complex than points on a scoreboard, or a yellow flag on the field.  And as a long time high school coach, I try to be very aware that the nuance of sport is my former profession, but not an innate part of everyone else’s life.

So with those caveats, let me try to draw an analogy between sport and life.

Sports and Life

I was a high school track and cross country coach, but what many people don’t know is that I was also a high school and middle school wrestling coach.  Wrestling is a profoundly different sport than the others.  In cross country, you are in a race with hundreds of others each time.  Only a few have the talent and have put in the effort to run at the front of the race, the rest are working to improve “in the pack”.  

And track is seldom “just you”, though it happens in the field events occasionally.  But in wrestling, every time, it’s one on one.  There’s no “field” to disappear in, no eight runners leaning at the line.  It’s just two athletes trying to best each other in the most physical, elemental way possible.  It’s about one imposing physical control on the other, against their will.  The coaches yell, and the team cheers, and parents literally mirror every move in the stands.  But on the mat, no one is blocking, no one passing the ball, no one is pacing. Out there on the mat it’s just you, and the other guy.

It’s About You

Wrestling and distance running are similar in one respect.  While talent is important, the willingness to sacrifice yourself to work is paramount.  Want to be a good runner?  Start running, then run more and more and more. Want to be a good wrestler?  You have to literally “live the life”. How many sports require teenage boys to restrict how much they eat?  A good wrestler puts in seemingly unending hours of drills, exercises, conditioning every part of their body;  their “practice” never really ends.  And it’s all for those moments one on one on the mat.

Wrestling, essentially, is all about the wrestler.  It is an all-consuming, often lonely quest to push your body to new levels of suffering, in order to conquer that opponent one on one at the center of the gym.  The phrase goes that “there is no ‘I’ in team”, but in wrestling, there often is no “team” in “I” either.   

It’s been a long time since I’ve read the “essential” book of conservatism – Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.  But top level wrestlers remind me of her characters, succeeding or failing all on their own, without regard for who they literally have to pin to get to the top, and what damage they leave along the way.  They are “Howard Roarks”; unbent and unyielding, convinced of their own individual superiority.  And they have the record to prove it.

Cooperation isn’t Important

A good soccer team, or football team, or cross country team is just that – a team.  Each member has a role, and should they fail in that role, the team fails.  Sure a cross country team might have the “best” individual.  But if five runners don’t cross the finish line, the team fails to score, fails to be a team.  The fifth runner’s score is just as important as the first.  A quarterback without linemen, or a soccer team without a goalie, all will ultimately fail.  Cooperation is a key element in success.

Wrestling does keep a team score.  But, much like track, that score is a compilation of individual results.  The main impact of “team” on wrestling, is the level of competition in the practice room.  Good wrestlers get better by wrestling better wrestlers.  So the level of competition “in the room” determines the success of the “room’s” members.   

In the Room

A National Champion or Olympic qualifying wrestler is a huge asset to any wrestling team, even if that individual doesn’t actually compete for the team. Their presence in “the room” raises the level of practice competition, making those team members who practice with them better.  But it’s a tough “apprenticeship”; and often frustrating for the apprentice.  Goals are marked in small increments:   score a point, counter a move, don’t end up on your back.  Winning isn’t really a possibility, at least at first.

A sport that places so much emphasis on the individual might well create a “mindset” for life.  

Jim Jordan, now a United States Congressman, and former National Collegiate wrestling champion, was hired into the Ohio State wrestling room as an assistant coach.  His role was to raise the level of competition “in the room”, first as he trained for the Olympics, and then simply to aid the college athletes.  The fact that the wrestling team physician was molesting those athletes wasn’t really his concern, I suppose.  If Dr. Strauss touched Jordan inappropriately, he’d kick his ass.

Institutions

But the athletes on the team didn’t have that option.  Sure, they were Division I college wrestlers, and all of them were perfectly capable of defending themselves.  But Dr. Strauss was the “institution’s” doctor.  Strauss had control over who could wrestle and who could not.  So while Assistant Coach Jim Jordan might consider resisting the doctor, for the members of the team, it was a totally different case.  They essentially didn’t have a choice.

Some went to Jordan and head coach Russ Hellickson, to let them know they were being molested. They were taking the only course of action available to remedy the situation.  Their only other choices were:  be molested or quit.  And when they were ignored, it fit right into the model of life Jim Jordan now stands for:  you are on your own.  You rise on your own abilities, and fail on the same.  It is not the “institution’s” duty to protect you, even from the institution itself.

Model for Life

Doesn’t that sound just like his view of our government?  Ayn Rand, the intellectual mother of modern conservatism, would be proud.  The individual is totally responsible for their own fate. The institution, whether it’s a university or the national government or the coaching staff; doesn’t have much of a role.  The fact that those being mis-treated don’t have a choice, that the institution doesn’t allow them any way out; well, that’s too bad.  The individuals should have somehow been better to overcome the mis-treatment.

I’m not saying that all conservatives would allow sexual abuse of those under their authority.  In fact, the coaches I know would absolutely stand up against such abuse, conservative or not.  But I am saying that, for some at least, it fits their model of life, the same model they bring to governing America.  

You’re on your own.

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas and got to hug those they love. Today, it’s time for another “Sunday Story”. There’s no politics here, just reminiscences about forty years of team trips!!!

Track Trips

The other day, I wrote an essay about trips I took as a kid. That got me thinking about travelling.  As a coach, I took teams all over the country to track and cross country meets.  In the summer it was the “big reward” for training all summer, going to the Nationals, no matter where in the Nation they were.  It not only gave the athletes a “big competition” experience, but it became part of the “legend” of our team.  After cross country, it was a reward for all the work in the season.  And during the official high school season, I tried to “road trip” our teams at least once each year.  Not only was it to find new and usually tougher competition, but it was a great team building experience and recruiting tool for the next year.  Most importantly, we had fun.

Platte River Drifting

Whether it was singing The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” as we rolled down Interstate 5 from Seattle towards Eugene, Oregon; swimming in the American River behind our hotel in Sacramento; or “post-holing” through two feet of snow in Rhode Island; those road trips were always exciting.  But sometimes we had to make our own excitement.  After a National Meet in Omaha, Nebraska, we went to see the “largest catfish in Nebraska” a big white one in a tank, more than 100 pounds. Another year there, we tubed down the Platte River (maybe scrapped down the river more than floated).  That same day we tried the flight simulator at the Strategic Air Command museum.  The kids loved it, but I somehow put my simulator into a “near fatal” spin.  I was dizzy for three days.

  But we always managed to have fun.  We stayed at a lake house in North Carolina for a week, swimming and diving off the dock.  We became part of the dance routine on Times Square in New York City.  And sometimes we just made it up. One group just dodged the “electric Indians”:  the electric arrows on the construction signs as we drove hundreds of miles across the country. It became a thing!

Lobster

Food was always important on our trips.  When a crew went to Rhode Island to pole vault, I made it “mandatory” that we stop for a lobster dinner along the way.  The deal was everyone had to order lobster – but they didn’t have to eat it.  One of the vaulters wasn’t a “seafood” guy, so I ate two lobsters, and we ordered an extra cheese burger.  Lobsters came back into play when we went to the Nationals in Boston more than two decades later.  We ate at the oldest “continuously operated” restaurant in the United States, the Union Oyster House.   It was lobster dinner again – and this time everyone ate their own.

Barbecue

One August we headed to Baton Rouge for the National Track meet.  By the way, what sense does it make to have a National meet in Louisiana in August?  It was so hot they had to shift some of the races into the middle of the night.  Almost as bad as having it in Miami, or Los Angeles.  But I guess location didn’t really matter:  the year we were in Seattle, the Northwest was hit with the worst heat wave of the century.  I only passed out once at a National Meet, when I decided it was a good idea to go for a long run in Omaha’s August 95 degree sun.  A couple of water bottles solved that problem.

Anyway, we were headed south, and made an overnight stop in Memphis, the absolute capital of barbecue.  I asked our hotel clerk where the “best” place was, and he directed us to a shaky looking old building in a rough part of town.  We almost didn’t get out of the van, but the smoky flavor coming out of the building dragged us in.  Then the cook came out, and after I explained our lack of barbecue expertise, took over the dinner menu.  We must have had hundreds of dollars of food, all sorts of dry rubs and sauces, on pork ribs and beef briskets and whatever else could be barbecued.  The check was only around $75 for the five of us.  I hope that place is still around, I’d love to go back.

Walking

Part of any road trip was sightseeing.  On that same Baton Rouge trip, I took the guys down to New Orleans.  We were walking down Bourbon Street in the afternoon, listening to the music wafting out of the bars and clubs.  It was a warm December day, and the doors were all thrown open.  One of athletes decided to take a quick peek inside, just to see if the dancers really were topless.  From inside the bar came the call of the bouncer: “When it’s family night, we’ll let you know!!”

Road trips were all about walking.  At the DC Nationals, we probably left our entire competition on the National Mall, as we did all the mileage of the legendary “Dahlman DC Tour”.  And in New York, it was hard not to wear everyone out, walking from our Times Square Hotel up through Central Park to the “Imagine” John Lennon marker.  

We’ve wandered through the “Heartland of America Park” in Omaha, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee.  And at Yosemite, we climbed out of the valley up to Mirror Lake, and almost lost Coach Eastham.  He suffered from a long term back injury, but he was too excited to be at the Park to miss any of the experience.  He struggled up the climb but the look of accomplishment on his face when we reached the top was worth it.

Water Sports

For the summer meets, we always found somewhere to swim.  We drove to Ocean City, Maryland from the Baltimore Nationals, and hit the big Atlantic waves.  And we stopped on the Oregon Coast to try the Northern Pacific waves, though it was pretty cold for everyone (except Eric).  When the air conditioning in the van broke, we spent a couple of hours at a municipal pool in Peoria, Illinois.  We swam at Newport Beach south of LA, Daytona in Florida, and in Lake Tahoe in Nevada.  And, as mentioned, in the American River  right out the back of our hotel in Sacramento.  If there was a way to swim, we found it.

We even managed to “pole vault” in the hotel pools.  Well, we really didn’t vault into the pool, but we used the poles to do actual “pole vault technique” drills in the deep end.  We always got the management’s attention just pulling the pole out, and then fascinated every little kid in the place.

But Perhaps the most “exotic” ocean experience was on South Beach in Miami.  We were playing in the waves when a six foot manta-ray came cruising along the shoreline.  Everyone  raced  out of the water.  And since we were out,  the guys decided it was time “for a walk” up the beach.  They were looking for the world famous “topless” part of South Beach.  They must have found it, because they soon came running back – “Coach, it’s ‘old’ topless people!!!”  

Firsts

First time in a hotel, first time in the ocean, first time on a plane, first time to see mountains:  kids got so many firsts on those road trips.   We went to meets in thirty different states, we ran at sea level (Baton Rouge) and 6,000 feet (Provo), in snow (Rhode Island), rain (Miami), blistering heat (Los Angeles), freezing winds (Portland) and, occasionally, in perfect weather (it had to happen sometime).  

Track and Cross Country legends were written.  And while those are now “old-timer” stories, told around camp fires, dinner tables, and over a beer at some bar:  there are generations of athletes and coaches that got more than just a time, place and a medal from their track or cross country career.  

It was awesome.

• 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
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21

Wyoming

When I was sixteen, not yet a licensed driver in the state of Ohio, I lived in a suburb of Cincinnati called Wyoming.  It  was a small, middle to middle upper class community, with a police force all its own.   I don’t quite remember, but maybe there were twelve or thirteen officers on the whole force.  Today it’s grown to nineteen, but forty-seven years ago I doubt it was that big.  We teenagers knew must of the patrol officers by name.

Late one night at the corner of Burns and Springfield Pike (the center of town) a friend of mine was pulled over.  It probably was for “Kid driving at Night”, but I’m sure there was a lane or turn signal violation involved.  The Officer approached the driver side, and the anxious boy handed his license, registration and insurance papers to him.

Kids at Night

This wasn’t a “racial incident”, this was a “kid” incident.  The Officer went back to call the license in.  This was before the days of in-car computers, and every license and registration had to be checked by the local dispatcher for “wants and warrants”.  It must have been a busy night in Wyoming, because the time seemed to go on forever for the young man behind the wheel.

He couldn’t take it.  Anxiety overcame him, and he jammed the car into drive and took off, turning right on the Pike, then left up Reily Road.  

This could have been a chase through the dark suburban streets of Wyoming.  The officer could have gone full lights and sirens, and who knows what might occurred when full panic struck the sixteen year-old behind the wheel.  There’s plenty of big oak trees lining the roads of Wyoming, and it doesn’t take much to lose control and hit one.  But that didn’t happen.

The Officer had the license and registration.  No house in Wyoming was more than three miles away from the center of town.  So he calmly drove over to the kid’s house, and waited in the driveway.  When the boy finally came home, he was greeted with the Officer, the ticket, and his parents.  My friend didn’t do much driving for the next year.

Make the Call

I suspect this wasn’t a difficult call for a Wyoming policeman.  While I don’t remember if he already knew the kid involved, Wyoming police knew most of us, at least by vehicle.  Back in those days, the worst offenses seemed to be reckless or drunk driving.  You could get in big trouble for reckless driving, but driving home from the party after too much to drink might land you in the backseat of a cruiser for a “ride” home, not a citation.

As my police officer friends tell me, that kind of “leeway” is impossible today. The cameras on the officer’s chest are a good thing when it comes to making sure “proper procedure” is followed.  The term “street justice”, when an officer made a call on what’s appropriate, doesn’t work when it’s on camera.  That may be a good thing, but like all good things there is a bad side as well.  That sixteen year-old with a few too many isn’t getting a ride home anymore.  It’s all on public record, so it’s down to the station, to court and into the system.

Air Freshener

Twenty-two year veteran Brooklyn Heights Officer Kim Potter was convicted of first degree manslaughter yesterday in a Minneapolis courtroom.  She was the training officer when her trainee made a traffic stop.  The “proximate cause” of the stop:  expired license tags and an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror.

They stopped twenty year-old Daunte Wright, a black man.  When they got his “wants and warrants”, it was discovered that he had an outstanding arrest warrant out.  The trainee and a backup Sergeant proceeded to ask Wright to exit the vehicle, and tried to place him under arrest.  

Panic

This was the same week as the Derek Chauvin trial, held in the same Minneapolis courtroom where Ms. Potter was later convicted.  Chauvin, a Minneapolis Officer, kneeled on a handcuffed George Floyd for almost ten minutes, during which Floyd died.  So there was heightened tensions, not just among police officers, but also among young black men.  Daunte Wright panicked, and struggled to get back into his car and escape.

He made it back into the driver’s seat, and Potter came up to assist in controlling him.  In the midst of the struggle, she reached for her Taser to shock Wright into submission.  She instead, grabbed her service weapon, and shot him.  Wright died.

They had his license and address.  They could have done what that Wyoming officer did long ago, and waited for him at his home.  The officers were certainly justified in making an arrest, but no one, Potter, Wright, the Trainee, or the state of Minnesota, wanted this arrest to end up in death, especially a death when the cause of the stop was an air freshener.

Officer’s Dilemma

 “Proper procedure”, documented on the chest-mounted camera, calls for the arrest to be made. And what if they let him go?  

Six were killed and another sixty-two injured when Darrell Brooks drove his SUV into the Waukesha Thanksgiving parade.  Brooks was out on bond for attempting to run over a woman with his car, and had just been involved in a domestic disturbance.  No one was chasing him when he plowed through the barriers and into the marchers.  

There is a danger in taking someone into custody, both to the suspect, and to the officers.  And there is a danger to allowing a suspect to go, to catch him later.  And that’s the call we ask police officers to make, every day.  I have no doubt that Officer Potter should be held responsible for her mistake.  Her grabbing the wrong weapon took a young man’s life.  But it’s too easy to say, “they should have just let him go”.  They would be just as responsible.  Ask the judge who released Darrell Brooks on only a $1000 bond.  

Our Responsibility

Is race a part of all of this?  Of course it is.  Is training?  Certainly that was the case that Officer Potter’s defense made, that she was not adequately trained on the new tasers recently issued.  And, as Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison said, there needs to accountability for the taking of Wright’s life.  But it’s not a simple problem, nor is there one simple solution. We ask police officers to make decisions, on the record, that can almost instantly become life and death determinations, both for the suspect, and themselves. 

They need clear guidance, and training to handle complex situations.  They need to be prepared and wise, and they need to be accountable for their decisions.  That’s a lot to ask.  But that’s an officer’s dilemma. And it’s also our responsibility.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God (Oath taken by all Members of Congress).

Subpoena Power

It was October of 2015, the year before the Presidential election that “changed the world”.  The Republicans were in the majority of the House of Representatives.  That gave them control of all the House Committees and the topics they investigated.  And again and again, for over three years, five different committees investigated the tragic loss of four American lives in Benghazi, Libya.  One of those lives was the US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.  

What happened at Benghazi, even after five different committees reported, is still clouded.  What was thought to be a spontaneous riot turned out to be an organized and planned assault on the two US diplomatic compounds there.  The Committees wanted to know what happened, why the United States Ambassador wasn’t better protected, and why the response to the attack seemed so slow.

Hillary

But the Benghazi investigations also served a very different purpose.  Republicans used it as a way to attack the probable Democratic Presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  As Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity said at the time:

“And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?  But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable (sic). But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.”

And how did Secretary Clinton respond to these long term, multiple attacks on her actions, character, and honesty?  On October 19th, 2015, she appeared before the Select Committee on Benghazi, chaired by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy.  And she answered their questions, from Gowdy, Jim Jordan, Mike Pompeo and others, for eleven hours straight.  After her testimony, there was little else to do.  The Committee put out a long report, full of conjecture about what Clinton might have done, but short on facts.  Three years of five committees investigations and $7 million, and all they really found was that Hillary Clinton could outlast them all on the witness stand.

But they got what they wanted.  By sheer repetition, they were able to damage her “trustabliity”. 

Insurrection

Today’s Democratic House of Representatives has a select committee investigating the events of January 6th, 2021.  It is the day of the Insurrection, but as the Committee is discovering, much like Benghazi what looked like a spontaneous mob action turns out to be highly organized.  The “tentacles” of organization weren’t only in the Trump Campaign and the fringe organizations like the Oath Takers and the Proud Boys.  We now know that multiple Congressmen and Senators; the Pentagon the Justice Department, and the White House Staff were all part of the process leading to that near-disaster.  And it seems to lead all the way to the Oval Office.

Hundreds of Americans are currently on trial for their actions at the Capitol on January 6th.  But the legal process hasn’t reached beyond the trenches; the rioters on the steps or in the halls of the seat of our Democracy.  And, as far as the public knows, the Justice Department hasn’t reached beyond the actors to those that “pulled the strings” on the Insurrection.  In the “normal” world of Attorney General Merrick Garland, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  Remember we didn’t know anything about the ill-fated  “Russia Investigation”, of the Trump Campaign, Crossfire Hurricane, for ten months before Congress exposed it.

Tentacles

So the January 6th Committee is the only apparent investigation of the “tentacles” of the Insurrection.  They’ve called high profile witnesses to testify about their roles.  Many, perhaps more than three hundred, have given depositions and “staff” testimony.  A few, including former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark and Trump advisor Roger Stone, are using the Fifth Amendment Constitutional protection against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions.  

And a few are denying the “legitimacy” of the Committee, or claiming an extra-legal right of former-Presidential privilege to avoid answering questions.  Currently Steve Bannon is facing criminal contempt charges from the Justice Department, and Congress has recommended that Mark Meadows do the same.

Scott Perry

Congressman Scott Perry is a Republican from Pennsylvania, and a former Brigadier General in the Pennsylvania National Guard.  He’s been in the Congress since 2012, and is the current Chairman of the House “Freedom Caucus”, the forty-four member right-wing group of Congressmen that includes Jim Jordan, Louie Gohmert, Matt Goetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Mark Meadows is a former Chairman of the group.  

The House Committee investigation has uncovered many contacts between members of the Freedom Caucus and the organizers of the Insurrection.  Scott Perry pressed the Trump Administration to make  Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark the interim head of the Justice Department.  Clark, and Perry, both were prime drivers of the “Stop the Steal” false narrative that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump.  

The Committee has asked Congressman Perry to answer questions about his actions.  He could, if he’s afraid he could face criminal prosecution, shelter behind the Fifth Amendment.  Or, he could claim a “Congressional privilege” of free speech and debate.  But instead of making those claims, or following the example of Hillary Clinton and confronting his accusers, Congressman Perry is pretending that the Committee is “illegitimate”.  

Answer the Question

It’s not.  The House can constitute whatever Committees that the majority want.  The Republicans actually had the opportunity to agree to a wholly bi-partisan committee, but chose not to.  Instead, the Democrats moved on their own, and then included two Republican members who asked to join, Congresswoman Cheney and Congressman Kinzinger.  

All of this raises the question:  did the leaders of the “Stop the Steal” movement think they were acting to correct an injustice, or did they know that they were lying to the American people.  If they think they were in “the right”, what is preventing them from testifying and defending their position.  Don’t Congressmen and other public officials have a legal obligation to “defend the Constitution”?  Isn’t that what they thought they were doing?

Or they can act like folks that know they did something wrong.  They can dodge and obfuscate, make up “rights” that don’t exist; all to avoid taking responsibility for the stand they took.  Hillary Clinton stood up to her accusers, and for eleven hours gave as good as she got.  These men are hiding behind legal fiction.  

America will decide who is right.

It’s getting near Christmas. That’s family time, which got me thinking about our family trips. Mom and Dad wanted us to experience a lot – and it made a big impression. And since it’s near Christmas – here’s the link to my Mom’s reminiscence of her childhood Christmas – Christmas Story

Travelling

One of the best parts of growing up in my family was travelling.  From when I was a kid until I was in my twenties, we did the “annual” summer vacation pilgrimage to Hilton Beach on St. Joseph’s Island in Canada.  I remember when I was really young, getting my own “spot” in the back of the 1963 Ford Fairlane Station Wagon, the kind with the “woody” sides.  It had the “traditional” Don Dahlman license plate on it: DD-19.

Mom and Dad were in the front seats. Dad drove and tried to stay awake. Mom had the maps and the itinerary, and was in charge of navigating and keeping Dad from sleeping.  My sisters were in the back seat.  Then there was all the luggage, then ME in the third back seat that faced the back window.  I thought it was so cool to have my own seat and my own space.  I think my sisters were happy to have all the luggage in between!!

Eventually my older sister Terry went to college, and I graduated to the back seat, and ultimately to the driver’s seat.  Dad had acrophobia, and hated the “new” bridges at Mackinac and the Canadian Border.  Even before I had my license, I was driving those bridges for Dad.

Big Cities

But we also went around the United States, often with Dad as he was selling TV shows.   There were short trips:  to New York City for sightseeing and to Chicago for the weekend to see the museums. My first trip to Washington DC was in 1964.  We went in January, and the military hats were still arranged around the new gravesite for President Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery.  I remember the month, because we visited one of Dad’s business friends, who lived in Virginia.  His son, about my age, had the day off school for Robert E. Lee’s birthday.  I was a “Northern” kid, and didn’t get having a Confederate General’s birthday off.  Today kids still have that same day off of school in most places – it’s Martin Luther King Day.

College Tour

 And then there were the “college trips”, the New England swing through the Ivy Leagues for my sister, and later for me.  My favorite story:  Dad was taking courses at Harvard, and Mom was taking my sister Terry to see Wellesley College.  She decided to leave my middle sister Pat and I at a movie while they went to see the campus.  I was nine, Pat was fourteen.  Mom dropped us off , for what she though was the World War II “flick” with Henry Fonda, The Battle of the Bulge.  

But it was a shady movie theatre on Harvard Square.  We accidently went to the wrong show, where the double feature was The Sleeping Car Murders, and Doulos (roughly translated – the finger man).  I always thought Mom sent us to dirty movies.  With a little research I now know they weren’t porn shows,  just “film noires” from France; gangster movies with some nudity (and in French with subtitles).  But if you were nine, it was definitely – well – more than I was ready for.  

On the Cape

We spent that summer on Cape Cod, going to the beach every day.  I became a “professional” body surfer, a boy without fear in the Atlantic waves.  We stayed at a fisherman’s cottage, which I thought was awesome.  That the walls were “insulated” with and smelled like clam shells and the washing machine named George turned on and off on its own schedule didn’t bother me a bit.   It was the summer of 1966 – the summer of Hot Time, Summer in the City on the AM Radio by the Lovin’ Spoonful.  Every time I hear that song, I’m taken back to that summer and the sea.

One memorable night we took the station wagon to the drive-in to see The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.  It was a comedy movie about a small New England town where a damaged Russian submarine came into the fishing port.  The town was a lot like the Cape Cod villages we were in.  But the best part was when the fog rolled in off the coast, and we had to watch the show on the shifting “clouds”.

Home in England

There was some travel overseas as well.  Mom was English, with lots of family at home.  So we went to England several times.  I think my sister Terry said it best:  with Mom, England was like a “fairy tale” world.  She had family scattered all over the place, and we were welcomed everywhere we went.  Whether it was watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, helping on the farm in Cambridge, or wandering through the ancient monument at Stonehenge (before the fences went up, you could go up and touch the stones); England felt like home.

Which meant that France felt like a real strange place.  We were in Paris when I was thirteen, in 1970.  The United States wasn’t the most popular nation during the Vietnam War, and Parisians were generally rude to tourists anyway.  We felt isolated, and my ninth grade French wasn’t appreciated much – except for the drunk guy outside the Notre Dame Cathedral.  “Viva les Americains” he cried as he slurred the directions to our next stop.  He was drunk, and talking slow, exactly what I needed to understand him.

We abandoned Paris early, and headed back across the Channel to Dover.  Mom’s sister Eileen and her family lived down the coast in Eastbourne, and Uncle Reg was always ready for a walk to “Beachy Head”.  Then it was on down the coast to Exeter and Auntie Olive and Uncle Stan.  They were, as I remember, prim and proper, but still fun as we travelled to the small villages in the isolated and mysterious highlands called The Moors.  Beatrix Potter, author of Peter Rabbit, had her cottage there.  We were expecting Peter Rabbit himself to answer the door.

Driving

Dad was driving on the “wrong side” of the road in England, where the steering wheel is on the right side of the car.  That wasn’t a problem on the bigger roads, the M’s (interstates) or A’s (state highways).  But on the smaller roads Dad always seemed to forget that whole side of the car on the left side, the side that was on the other side when he was in the US.  Our job was to yell “CLOSE” when Dad was about to take out the hedges or rock walls on the left side.  It was fun as a kid, but when I got older and drove a van in England, a had a whole lot more sympathy for him.

There’s always travel stories to relate, and maybe I’ll get to more someday.  But meanwhile, it’s time to get going.  The Jeep is warming up, melting the hard frost on the windshield, and there’s pre-Christmas errands to run.  The license plate on the back  – DD-19.  I know Dad would be pleased it’s still in the family.

I can’t say I’ve ever heard of the Group “Murray Head”, but I do have a vague recollection of hearing their song back “in the day”:  Say It Ain’t So, Joe.

Shoeless Joe

“Say it ain’t so, Joe.”  It’s a phrase attributed to a sports reporter, talking to baseball hero “Shoeless” Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox after he admitted to a grand jury that he cheated in the 1919 World Series.  If you don’t remember that piece of sports history, you’ll remember “Shoeless Joe” as a central figure in the movie Field of Dreams.  It was the ultimate letdown; a hero admitting to fixing “America’s Game” for money.

I’m tempted to keep researching the phrase, to give you more trivial tidbits about it.  But I’m simply putting off the inevitable.  This essay isn’t about trivia:  it’s about Joe Manchin on Fox News Sunday this weekend.  He said the words seemingly fatal to President Biden’s Build-Back-Better Plan:   “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation…”  

Promises Broken

After months of negotiations and good faith promises by Manchin and Biden to the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party, it seems that it’s over.  Manchin has pulled the “Lucy and the football” on Progressive Democrats, and they would argue, on the Nation.  He got what he wanted, the bipartisan infrastructure bill.  The West Virginia turnpike (among many other things) will get plenty of cash for repairs.  But the folks lifted by the Child Tax Credits, the seniors waiting for hearing and vision support, the parents paying hundreds of dollars for their kids insulin, the desperate need for climate repairs – all will have to wait.  The gentleman from West Virginia has made it up his mind.

Or has he?  Does “I cannot vote for this piece of legislation…” mean that Build Back Better is dead?  Or is this just one more negotiating ploy in the long saga of a conservative Democrat from West Virginia finding himself in a progressive Democratic world.  It seems that Biden and Manchin are “only” a half a trillion dollars apart – that’s after being multiple trillions away in the beginning.  So why now, why torpedo the process at this moment?

Sharing Blame

Before we parse this issue, there are two points to remember.  Democrats are not the only ones in the United States Senate.  The reason why Joe Manchin is at the center of all of this, is that the Republican Party has as a singular body refused to participate in governing.  They are not only the Party of “NO”, they are the Party that just a couple of years ago, were perfectly willing to spend trillions in tax cuts that largely went to giant corporations and the 1% of wealthy Americans.  So they don’t get a “pass”.

And second, Democrats are only in this position because they aren’t electing enough Senators.  The list is lengthy:  North Carolina, South Carolina, Maine, Montana and Iowa all were vulnerable Republican seats in 2020, and the Democrats didn’t get one of them.  That empowered Manchin (and Sinema, and every other Democratic Senator) with the kind of veto power we are seeing today.

Almost Heaven

Joe Manchin is a man of West Virginia.   The Reverend Barber can march down the streets of the capital-city Charleston with the poor people of the state to highlight those who Manchin is hurting. Sadly, that’s not what influences the Senator.  The Build Back Better plan contains over half a trillion dollars in climate change legislation, and climate change legislation translates in “West Virginian” to anti-coal.  Joe Manchin is not only personally invested in the coal industry, but West Virginians as a whole, rich and poor are as well. 

He can’t go home against coal.  Ask Hillary Clinton:  while the logic is that coal should be the first fossil fuel to go when it comes to climate change, coal is embedded so deeply in the mountains and culture of West Virginia that academic logic goes out the window.  When Hillary “spoke the truth” to West Virginians about coal in 2016, she managed to make the traditionally Democratic state the “Reddest” state in the union.  As the only Democrat statewide office holder, Joe Manchin knows what political suicide is, and he’s not doing it.

The Deal

So maybe Build Back Better isn’t dead – but maybe the climate change portion is. Perhaps Senator Manchin is quietly offering an alternative.  Take the climate change money, use it to fund the other portions of Build Back Better for ten years instead of two or three.  That way the Progressives get a win, and Manchin can still go back to his hometown in Farmington, West Virginia, a hero.

It’s not what I want, nor is it what’s good for the country.  But it may be the only thing that the Senator from West Virginia can live with.  And until his veto doesn’t matter, we have to dance to his tune. Or we can sing the sad song: “Say it Ain’t So Joe”.

This is another in the “Sunday Story” series. No politics here – just some true tales from a battlefield “geek”.  

There is something about a battlefield:  a peace and calm that belies the action that took place there.  Walking where armies struggled, men triumphed and failed; survived and died – there is a depth, almost a spirit in the land.  It’s a pull back to the past, as if the events on that property still reverberate somehow in the air.  Is it haunted?  Not in my experience, but the life and death struggles of so many, so concentrated in one place must have some timely “ripple effect”.  At any rate, there are few other places (old cemeteries, Medieval Cathedrals, abandoned towns, prisons and schools) that have that kind of pull.

I’ve already  told stories of the Gettysburg Battlefield  (Ghosts at Gettysburg).  It’s still my favorite.  But I’ve visited many other Civil War sites, and, of course, there are stories from those as well.

Road Trip

If you own a Jeep Wrangler with a soft top – there’s nothing like a summer road trip.  Put the top down, take the doors off, and head out on the highway to destinations – unknown?  Well, like that Geico motorcycle commercial, I usually had a destination, but I could always change my course for “any old” reason.  

This time I was headed to Shiloh in Southern Tennessee, the first really ugly battle of the Civil War.  It’s a long Jeep ride, 545 miles from Pataskala to Savannah, Tennessee the nearest town to the battlefield.  The journey is all about the “River Towns”:  Cincinnati to Louisville, Louisville to Nashville, then head west towards the Mississippi River and Memphis. You turn back south about an hour short of the home of blues and barbecue, and head into the countryside until you hit the Tennessee River once again near Savannah, Tennessee.  You’ve arrived.

Rivers and Railroads

The rivers were what the battle at Shiloh was all about.  The “grand strategy” of the Union Army was to slice the Confederacy into pieces, preventing commerce and supplies from supporting the various Rebel Armies.  The Mississippi River was the obvious line of attack, but to control it, the Union had to gain control of the land on each side.  

So the newly minted Union General Ulysses S Grant of Illinois began at the Kentucky, Illinois border winning control of Northern Mississippi River. Then at Paducah, Kentucky he headed South by going up the Tennessee River. He made his “fame” with the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson in Kentucky (Ulysses S became known as “Unconditional Surrender” Grant from there) then continued south into Tennessee. Ultimately, he woud cut off and captured the vital Mississippi River town of Memphis.

The next line of Confederate supply was the railroad center at Corinth, Mississippi.  The Mobile and Ohio line intersected with the Memphis and Charleston line, making the small town a major supply depot for the Southern Army of the West.  It was the center of east and west railroad transportation.  40000 men were headquartered there under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston.

Surprise at Shiloh

So Grant moved his almost 45000 man Army of the Tennessee further up the Tennessee River, camping above the river bluffs across from a steamboat stop called Pittsburg Landing, just south of Savannah and a little over twenty miles north of Corinth.  He didn’t expect the Confederates to attack.  He “anticipated” they would defend Corinth.   Grant spread his soldiers all over the near countryside, waiting for the 17000 man Army of Ohio to come up the River and join him.  Some of his men camped around a small log church, built by the Methodists,  called “Shiloh”.  

Johnston realized that Grant’s forces were vulnerable and unprepared for an attack.  So he moved out of Corinth, and marched in full force at Grant.  His three day march caught the Union Army by surprise, spread out on the bluffs above the Tennessee River, across from Pittsburg Landing, around the little Methodist church called Shiloh.

Well, that turned into a history lesson. All I need is a chalkboard and I’d be back in the classroom. Or today, it’s a PowerPoint on the Smart Board.  I guess old teacher’s never give up.  

Blood

But to finish the story – it was the largest land battle on the North American continent up to that spring in April of 1862.  Over 80000 men pitched into combat, at least half completely unprepared for what was to come.  The Confederates marched for three days, and caught the Union soldiers coming out of their tents for breakfast.  Some were shot as they emerged to see what was going on.  Others fled at the screaming hoard of Gray, the “unholy” Rebel yell that struck fear in their hearts.  And some loaded their rifles and responded.  But it was too few and too late to staunch the first Confederate charge.

And the battle could have been won in the first  few hours of that April morning.  But the Rebel charge faltered over Union bacon and pancakes. The Confederate men were hungry from three days on the road. It was too much to pass the Union breakfast, and that slowed them just enough so that the Union officers could reorganize and respond.  They continued to fall back towards the bluffs and the Tennessee River, but it was a slow, measured, holding ground when they could and retreating when they must.

Albert Sidney Johnston

Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnson could feel victory.  He rode his horse too close to the action, and caught a stray Minié-ball in his leg. (A Minié-ball was actually a large caliber piece of lead.  When it hit, it was with slower speed than modern rifles.  So it struck, spun, and caused an enormous amount of damage.  There were so many amputations in the Civil War because there was often nothing left of the shattered bones struck by a bullet).

Johnston could easily have been saved.  If he would just have dismounted, a surgeon could have applied a tourniquet to his leg.  But Johnston was too enraptured with pending victory.  There was no time for treatment.  So he bled to death into his own boot.

Hornet’s Nest

Meanwhile the Union forces consolidated in a small forested area. Confederates converged on three sides, firing thousands of rounds into the wood. The Confederates said it sounded like a hornet’s nest after it was shaken, so many bullets were zinging and striking from the woods and into the bodies of their men. The Confederates charged the Hornet’s Nest eight times, but failed to dislodge them. It was only by near encircling them that the Union forces were forced to withdraw.

But the holding action at the Hornet’s Nest, and the loss of the Confederate commander, slowed the pace of battle.  As night fell, Grant, injured in the battle as well when his horse fell on him, organized a final defensive line.  The Union Army of the Tennessee would live to fight another day.  Grant and his best subordinate, William Tecumseh Sherman spoke that night.  Sherman, worried that they could continue the fight said,“Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?” Grant responded, “Yes, lick ’em to-morrow, though.”

Lick-‘Em Tomorrow

That night, Grant and Sherman planned a counter attack.  Meanwhile, the 17000 men of the Army of the Ohio arrived, and marched up the bluffs from the river, passing the frightened Union men huddled against the sides.  The next day, Grant counter-attacked, and drove the Confederates back towards Corinth.  It would be a few weeks before Grant took Corinth itself, but when he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at Shiloh, that outcome was inevitable. Memphis fell to the Union soon after.

There were almost 4000 dead combined from both sides,  and another 16000 wounded.  It was the bloodiest battle in American History – that is, for the next six months. A battle in a small village called Sharpsburg near the Antietam Creek,  would come in September.

Red Hornets

So I spent two days wandering the battlefield at Shiloh.  It’s like a great park, especially on a weekday in the summer time.  It’s hot, in the Jeep, in South Tennessee in July, and I had almost the entire place to myself.  So there is no one to confirm this story – but me.

I was driving along the “sunken road” that runs by the Hornet’s Nest.  I was in the Jeep, no top or doors, just wearing a T shirt and a pair of shorts.  It was 90 plus degrees, and there was no one to notice around.  As I drove slowly down the park road, I stared intently into the small woods.  I could almost see the men hiding in the trees, the branches snapping off above their heads, the wood splintering from the cannon shots.  I could even actually hear the low buzz of the “hornets” – the historic Minié balls in the air.

Then I glanced up to see where I was headed – and there was the largest, reddest, hornet I’ve ever seen, hovering right in front of my face between my hands at ten and two on the steering wheel.  Maybe it was two inches long; it almost looked like a plastic toy.  But it was making very lifelike noises, the “low buzz of a hornet…”

As I said, there was no one around.  I did the “manly” thing, especially in the face of the courage shown by the brave men who fought here.  I jumped out of the Jeep!!

Now keep in mind, my Jeep wouldn’t go far.  It was a four speed, and without some pressure on the accelerator it would soon stall out.  (It was my old Jeep, a 1993, not my “new” one of 2004 vintage).  So as I rolled in the grass it continued down the road a bit, then shuddered to a stop.  I warily approached it, waiting to make my retreat to the “bluffs” if required.  But there was no need:  the red hornet of the “hornet’s nest” had made its exit.

I got back behind the wheel, and spent some time at the Shiloh Church, and at the National Military Cemetery as well, to honor those who gave, as Lincoln said, “…their last full measure of devotion”.   And then I headed home – and discovered a whole non-military national park.

The Parkways

Most folks have heard of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Park/Highway that follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains from North Carolina, above the Shenandoah Valley all the way to Northern Virginia.  It’s a beautiful vacation ride, with easy exits to hotels, stores and towns.  It’s peaceful:  no trucks (though there are some campers) and lots of folks driving and enjoying the view.  But beware – there are “vista jams”!  No one is in a hurry on the Parkway.

So I headed east on Tennessee Route 64, with the idea that I would meander my way back up to Nashville by staying off of the Interstates.  After I passed the town of Waynesboro, I came across something called the “Natchez Trace Parkway”.  This was before the era of I Phones and even Garmin’s.  My directions were from a map, carefully tucked under the emergency brake hand lever so it didn’t blow out of the car.

The Natchez Trace Parkway runs 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to just south of Nashville.  Like the Blue Ridge, it is a two lane highway with parkland on either side for the entire route.  It’s not a route for those in a hurry, but for a guy in a Jeep in the summertime it was a perfect path for a journey north through central Tennessee.  Originally it was the “overland” route from Nashville to the Mississippi River, it bit faster than more direct routes to the river in a wagon if the load wasn’t too big.  Now it’s a quiet highway surrounded by nature, with easy access to “civilization” if needed.

I followed the “Trace” north towards Nashville.  It ends just south, near the town of Franklin.  There was a Civil War battle there too.  But that’s for a different story.

• 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
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21

Coming on Christmas

“It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees, they’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace,” (River  by Joni Mitchell).

It’s almost the end of 2021, a year that, at my age, just flew by.  Somehow, it seems we are always presented with the failures, the “almost did’s but didn’t’s” rather than the successes.   For today, let’s look back at 2021, and see the good.  Here’s what was “right” with 2021.

First of all, it wasn’t 2020.  Covid is still around, but we are no longer trapped by it.  Almost 62% of Americans are fully vaccinated, with another 10% partly covered.  And before my anti-vaxxer friends attack – we KNOW that means those 62% have a much better chance of NOT getting Covid, and even a better chance of not ending in a hospital or dying from it.  That’s good news.

The Big Quit

America is learning to live with Covid.  All of the economics are showing a tremendous bounce back from our enforced shut down.  The current unemployment rate is down to 4.2%.  That still means that almost 7 million Americans who want jobs can’t find them. But we also have a new phenomenon, folks who after the shutdown decided they didn’t have to get back into the work force.  That’s not about “living on government money”.  Some families found they can live on a single income.  Others are part of the “Big Quit”, where over 4 million Americans left their old jobs.

I know the American Way: “…work hard, boy, and you’ll find, one day you’ll have a job like mine…” (Yusef/Cat Stevens – I Might Die Tonight).  Dedicate to your “forty”, then go find another “twenty” in overtime.  But some Americans are finding a better way, one that, as the Gen X’ers say, “balances work and life”.  I don’t remember much balance in my work-life, nor my father’s.  Maybe they are right and we were wrong.

Inflation

So there is a shortage of workers, and that’s driving wages up.  That might be inconvenient at the fast-food restaurant that can’t keep workers at low wages, but it means that more people are living at a higher standard.  That IS a good thing.

The bugaboo of our rebounding economy is inflation.  There’s lots of money around, and it’s not all the government’s fault.  We’ve gone from over 14% unemployment to our current 4.2%, so there’s lots more money in the pockets of Americans.  And the supply chain is trying to catch up with booming sales.  All of those new phones and computers, shoes and running suits, cars and trucks; weren’t just rolling off the line while we were cooped up in our Covid-free homes.  And they don’t materialize overnight.  Economics 101:  when demand for goods is greater than the supply of goods, prices go up and when the supply catches up, prices will level off.  

So keep your pants on, and your wallet in your pocket.  Inflation will level off soon enough.

Peace on Earth

It’s Christmas of 2021, and for the first time since 9-11, American forces are not at war, anywhere in the world. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was ugly, but here we are. Eighteen, nineteen and twenty year-olds aren’t patrolling the roads looking for IED’s, and coming home in flag-draped caskets or physically and mentally damaged. Ask Lyndon Johnson: it takes political courage to be the President who said – that’s enough.

The “bad news” for 2021 is that 5.6 million children are living in poverty.  The good news – that numbers is cut in half from a year ago when 12.5 million were below the poverty line.  And that is a direct result of the action of the US President and Congress.  Sure it cost money, but how better to spend our tax money than to help children out of poverty?

Identity

There is no question that America is in an “identity crisis”. We are a nation in transition, becoming multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural. Like any transition, there are those who want it to happen sooner, and those who are trying to keep it from happening at all. But the reality is that America is not becoming “minority white” and “majority brown”. America is becoming majority “diverse”. The younger generations don’t see race, ethnicity, and religion as the same barricades to life that my father’s generation and even my own “Boomers” saw.

Here’s an interesting statistic:  “According to the most detailed of the Census Bureau’s projections, 52 percent of individuals included in the nonwhite majority of 2060 will also identify as white” (Atlantic).   Perhaps the racial and ethnic polarizations of 2021 are just growing pains.  Maybe, like adolescence, we will “survive” the experience, and come out a more mature nation, less focused on external characteristics and more “into” individuals.

Structure

America is already committed to fixing our roads and bridges.  We are set on rebuilding our airports, and our electric transmission lines.  The government has dedicated over a trillion dollars to updating our infra-structure.  That’s going to make life better for most Americans, and it will offer even better paying jobs to get it done.  When we look forward to our economic future, not only will the “fixes” make our economy better; but the long-term employment opportunities will be a long-term boost. 

And there is more “in the pipeline”.  The US Senate is poised to pass the Build-Back-Better plan (in whatever form the can finally agree on).  That will rebuild the “social safety-net” that was first established by the Great Society programs of the 1960’s.  It will make a nation that right now is “haves” and “have nots” – somewhat – less divided.  

Christmas’s Wishes

And perhaps – just maybe – voting rights are in the works as well.  That may be more of a 2022 thing. We can hope.

But all these were started in 2021.  As John F Kennedy said:

“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”

We are beginning.  Have a Merry Christmas.

Genesis was in concert last week, here in Columbus.  Phil Collins now struggles with physical disability, but he can still sing.  But he didn’t sing the haunting “In the Air Tonight”, that was in his post-Genesis era.

Contempt

President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, is in contempt of Congress.  He’s not the first high government official held in contempt.  President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder was the last one in 2012.  Not surprisingly, Holder’s own Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against him.  But Meadows is in a very different situation.  Evidence, much given to the January 6th Committee by Meadow’s himself, shows that he was in the center of the storm of “Stop the Steal” and the Insurrection. The contempt recommendation moves onto the Biden Justice Department.

The January 6th Committee hasn’t held public hearings yet.  But they have already released mountains of evidence. Meadows turned over text messages from Congressmen and a PowerPoint presentation on how to overturn the legitimate election.  What seemed from the outside like a confused and desperate attempt to keep Trump in the Presidency turns out to be an organized and documented conspiracy.  And, as more information is revealed, Mark Meadows is the nexus, just one step away from the final decision maker.  As Congresswoman Liz Cheney said so carefully: 

“Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’ official proceeding to count electoral votes?”

That’s a direct quote from the US Code (18 U.S. Code § 1505).  Conviction under that law carries a penalty of five years in prison and fines.  Could Donald Trump go to prison?  Maybe, but a felony conviction would disqualify him for public office.

So where do we stand now.

Stop the Steal

We know that in the months before the 2020 election, the Trump Campaign, led by the President, intentionally and consistently sowed the seeds of distrust in the election results.  The campaign message was clear:  if I lose, it’s because someone else cheated.  He questioned any election returns that were counted after election night.  

The 2020 election was in a world pandemic.  The absolute safest action was to vote by mail.  Many states, including those swing states that were so important, had laws prohibiting counting votes before election day. So many millions of mail-in ballots were left unopened until the polls closed on Tuesday night.  

Counting mail-in ballots requires a lot more time than those automatically  registered at the polls, and it took several days before the final results were in.  Meanwhile the Trump Campaign continued to claim election fraud.  But every audit of the election results, including those conducted by openly pro-Trump organizations (the Cyber Ninjas in Arizona, for example) found that the election outcomes were accurate.

Recounts

We know that extreme pressures were brought on Republican election officials in swing states like Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona to alter vote counts.  The President himself was recorded telling the Secretary of State of Georgia to “find just enough votes” for Trump to win.  Not only was Mr. Trump openly pressing to alter election results, but Mr. Meadows, and others like Senator Lindsey Graham, pressured election officials to “rig” the final count for Trump.

A state investigation is already underway in Georgia regarding the White House actions.  We don’t know whether Federal investigations for election interference are underway, or who targets of those investigations might be.  But common sense says the Justice Department must be investigating.

The Big Lie

We all saw the public campaign after the election.  Rudy Giuliani was the “front man” for “Stop the Steal”, and made a series of catastrophic public speeches. What we didn’t know was that much of his information was coming from a former Army Colonel and expert in “psy-ops”, Phil Waldron.  He published a PowerPoint presentation on election fraud for the “Stop the Steal” campaign.  Waldron is linked to Trump National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn, who was convicted and pardoned for lying to the FBI.  Flynn and Waldron were part of a group of former and current military officers involved in the “Stop the Steal” movement.

Waldron’s convoluted PowerPoint not only tried to build a case for election fraud, it also outlined a path for “declaring a national election emergency” and disqualifying all of the mail-in ballots and many electronic votes. Not surprisingly, if all of those votes were disqualified, Trump would win.  It also laid out a path for Vice President Pence to overturn the election results on January 6th.

The Legal Case

Waldron’s path to electoral victory was backed by the legal presentation of John Eastman, a former Clarence Thomas clerk and Law School Dean.  Eastman determined that Vice President Pence had the power to deny the Electoral votes from those swing states that went to Biden, and either declare a Trump victory, or throw the election to the House of Representatives in a “tie-breaking” situation (in that scenario Republicans would control the outcome, even though the House itself was majority Democratic). 

But Pence was dubious.  His own legal advisors were telling him that the Eastman memo was flawed.  Even Trump himself was unable to convince Pence to exercise a power he didn’t believe the Constitution allowed.  We now know that several Congressmen and Senators were also in on the “Eastman” scheme.  But with Pence standing firm, more pressure was required.

The Rally

President Trump invited his supporters to Washington for a “wild time” on January 6th.  The rally was timed to pressure the Congress to alter the outcome of the election as they certified the Electoral Votes.  Particularly, the pressure was put on Vice President Pence to follow through with the strategy outlined in the “Eastman” memo.  Speaker after speaker implored the masses to “fight” and stand up” for President Trump, presumably against the Congress.  Then President Trump himself told the crowd to march on down to the Capitol and “tell them” what you want.

We don’t yet know all of the interactions between the Trump White House and the rally organizers.  Mark Meadows does.  We also don’t know whether there was direct planning for the protests on the Capitol building.  Meadows did, in a text, promise that the National Guard would protect the “Trump supporters”.  And we don’t yet know if there was collusion between the White House and the militant groups that led the actual attack on the Capitol building.

The Cavalry

After the attack began, the Capitol Police Chief, the DC Metro Chief and the Mayor of Washington asked for National Guard assistance.  That assistance was delayed by the Pentagon for over three hours.  Those were the three hours that we all watched the “medieval” battle on the steps of the building, with flags used as staffs to cudgel the police.  We saw the sacred halls of Democracy defiled by the mob.  And the “cavalry” didn’t come to the Hill, not until the damage was done, and the Electoral confirmation was halted.

What we don’t know; why the delay?  The District National Guard General believes that it was intentional.  Did the cabal of former military behind the “Stop the Steal” movement include Mike Flynn’s brother, Lt. General Charles Flynn, a part of the decision making team in the Pentagon stalling the National Guard?  National Guard Major General William Walker says that Charles Flynn lied about his actions on January 6th.

Insurrection

How close was the United States to a coup d’état?   Was the Insurrection planned, or just a mob pointed in a direction and left to its own devices?   We cannot paper over what happened, just because it wasn’t successful.  We owe it to those that lost their lives, the police officers but also those in the “mob” who were manipulated into an attack.  And it’s not over.  Mr. Trump continues to claim that election was corrupt.  Republicans throughout the nation are using that whole fabrication to justify restrictive voting laws.  Several states have legislated the power to ignore the vote count and determine who won by a vote of the legislature.  Stop the Steal may have been a fraud, but the result of that effort is very real.  

The mob attacked Congress.  No one else is better able to bare the facts of what happened. It’s not just for history, but for the future of our nation.  

Insurrection is still in the air tonight.

Grandfather Clock

There is a Grandfather Clock sitting in our dining room.  It really is a family heirloom:  it came from Jenn’s mother.  All of the pieces and parts, the chains and pulleys and weights are there, but it doesn’t work.  Jenn said the chiming was beautiful but loud, every quarter hour, and the ticking was, of course, incessant.  So her Grandfather Clock stands silent against the wall, hands at 3:15, unerringly correct twice a day.

Most flat surfaces in our house have something on them, and the top of the Grandfather Clock is no exception.  For years there were garlands from our wedding at the top, and for a while there was an old wireless doorbell.  They garlands are now in a drawer, and the wireless doorbell replaced by a “Ring” camera system.  So a year and a half ago, the top of the Grandfather Clock was vacant.  

Pandemic

And that’s when Covid hit. We had our last meal out that Sunday, March 15th, two of four customers in a normally crowded tavern. And then we were home. It would be well over a year before we went out to eat again. At first, it was hide in your house. In fact I remember consciously thinking that if it was the outside that was safe. The virus was in people, not “in the air”. But we had to get groceries, and beer, and that most rare item of all, toilet paper. And to risk human contact, we needed masks.

Originally, I had the masks we used to sand drywall. They weren’t designed to restrict viral spread, to my knowledge, but there was a mask shortage and it was the best we could do. Then my niece sent us a stack of N-95 masks, the “hospital standard” for viral spread prevention. They worked, but it was a struggle. The N-95 were restrictive. They muffled our speech, and weren’t comfortable for breathing. So we had them for the times when we might be in a more crowded environment, but they weren’t our “go-to” masks. There are still some on the Grandfather Clock.

Our next choice was the handmade masks created by our friend, Angie.  It was kind of like the ladies who rolled bandages for the soldiers away at the Civil War; there were mask making YouTube videos and family “bubble” gatherings to sew masks. Those were more comfortable, but they didn’t seal as well.  And they had to be tied, so they weren’t as convenient.  We soon realized that masks were going to be a semi-permanent part of our lives.

Amazon 

So we ordered some cloth masks from Amazon, masks that had elastic straps to fit around the ears and metal tabs that could form fit around our noses.  And those became our “go-to” masks.  Whenever we went anywhere, which wasn’t very far, we had our cloth masks.  They were hanging on the key rack beside the front door, on a hook beside the keys.  Whenever we went out to the grocery or to Lowes for whatever house project we were working on, it was grab your mask and keys.  And since dogs still got away from home during the pandemic, Jenn was often on the trail of one, and I’d occasionally tag along.  

It was almost like another world, out there “dogging”.  Gas stations and convenience stores were kind of open, and fast food drive-thru were available.  As long as you didn’t need a restroom, things were pretty good.  And if was good to connect with other human beings, mostly outside, standing over a “humane trap”, sharing stories of dogs and life in the pandemic.  Those masks are still hanging on the hook.

Vaccines

Come December and the vaccines, it looked like another six months and we might be “over” Covid. I purchased paper masks, ones that could be worn, washed a few times, and thrown away. I decided to officiate outdoor track meets, and masks were mandatory even though the meets were outside. As I headed out, there was a paper mask in my right back pocket, opposite the wallet in my left. But by the end of track season in May, the mask orders were being lifted, and at the Regional meet it was OK to go maskless. It was good to see people’s faces, and not have to remember to “smile with my eyes” because they couldn’t see my mouth. The box of masks was on top of the Grandfather Clock.

I think it was mid-June that I considered cleaning off the top of the Clock and throwing all the masks away.  We were vaccinated, and it looked like Covid was waning.  But then came the Delta Variant, now followed by the Omicron Variant.  As the pandemic turns into an endemic, it looks like masks may be a standard apparel item, like a coat or shoes in the December weather.  

Time

There are still plenty of masks; paper, cloth, and N-95’s on top of the Grandfather Clock.  It’s a fitting place for them.  Masks have bought us time:  time to get the vaccine, and time for Covid treatments to improve.  Now there’s talk of a pill, kind of like Tamiflu, that you could take if you tested positive and had mild symptoms.  And there are booster shots, maybe every year like the flu shot.  What was a deadly risk is becoming “manageable” – if folks were willing to take the shot. 

But many aren’t.  So we’ll probably need masks again.  And they are always available, on the way out the door.  They’re up on the Grandfather Clock.

History Geek

I will come as no surprise that  I am a history “geek”.  I participate in some “boards” online discussing all sorts of American History, from the Revolution to Afghanistan.  Like most discussions in our polarized world today, our current political divisions seep into almost every topic.  Do you like George Patton as a military commander?  Was he a “good” general who said all of the wrong things, a “leader” who slapped an enlisted man, a manipulator who was willing to risk his forces for his own ego?  Does he sound like a recent American President?

So it wasn’t a surprise that when the topic was about the mechanics of a particular kind of gun, the “true-believers” in the Second Amendment descended in mass to make their point.  That Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is brief:  

“A Well Regulated Militia, be necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”.

Infringing

Their first point was that the Amendment was absolute: “…the right…to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”.     Any regulation of arms, from handguns to automatic weapons is an “infringement”.  They believe there is an absolute right to have any type of weapon.  

Justice Robert Jackson made a common sense argument in 1949 about any Constitutional right:  the Founding Fathers did not write a “suicide pact”.  They were well aware that every right had its limitations.  As Justice Holmes said about the First Amendment: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.”  (By the way, the outcome of that case, US v Schenck, was that the defendant went to jail for criticizing the military draft during World War I and causing “a clear and present danger”.   Brandenburg v Ohio redefined that finding).

Both Holmes and Jackson were making the point that no “right” is absolute.  The interests of the state in maintaining order and safety must also be weighed in any discussion about “rights”.  And the Supreme Cour takes that view about arms. It allows certain weapons to be banned (you can’t have your own rocket propelled grenade launcher). And it regulates others like fully automatic weapons that are heavily licensed and taxed. 

US Code

Usually arguments about the Second Amendment end there – haggling around the extent the government can restrict and control gun ownership.  But in this “board” discussion the argument continued over the first clause of the Amendment, that “good old” well-regulated militia. 

They pointed to the definition of “militia” as established in US law (10 USC §311):

a)  The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32 , under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b)  The classes of the militia are–

1)  the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia;  and

(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

Their simple argument is that every male citizen (or intended citizen) from seventeen to forty-five is “in” a militia. So they are all entitled to full, unfettered Second Amendment rights.  That was the absolutists “mic drop” moment.  While they did leave out about half the population (women) they argued that the US Code closes the deal on the idea that somehow the “militia” clause modifies the “right to bear” clause.  Every man is “in” the militia so every man gets “their right to bear arms”. 

Suicide Pact

James Madison, the author of the Bill of Rights, wasn’t a lawyer.  But he did have a Princeton University education, and considered himself a “student” of the law.  And Madison was well aware of the dangers of an “unregulated militia”.  Shay’s Rebellion was a “citizen’s militia” attack on the government of Massachusetts. It helped bring about the Constitution in the first place.  And the Whiskey Rebellion against Federal taxes, was going on as he introduced the Bill of Rights to the Congress.

Madison did not waste words in his Constitutional writings.  The term “well regulated” was intentional, to require state control of a what today we would recognize as the National Guard.  And Madison would easily parse the difference between organized state militias, and an unorganized mass of citizens waiting for a draft like the one that Mr. Schenck opposed.  “Unorganized” is NOT well regulated. (Now do I get to drop the mic?)

The Winner is – Today

Nope – the mic belongs to the “absolutists” – at least for today.  In the most recent Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment in 2008 (District of Columbia v Heller), the Court narrowly agreed with the infringement argument.  They detached the militia clause in a five to four decision, saying that it didn’t influence the absolute right to bear arms.  And that marked the turn of the Supreme Court towards a more conservative view, one that is playing out today in the current legal debate about the Roe v Wade  and Casey abortion decisions.  

The debate about militias and the Second Amendment is now “settled law”.  Just like a women’s right to access abortions. But as we know, when it comes to rights – nothing is settled anymore.  Just hold you’re mic, and you’re breath.

The “infringers” win, at least for today.

This is the next in the “Sunday Story” series – no politics here – just a story about Mom and Dad and the Nightly News.

Thinking of Mom

I thought a lot about my Mom Thursday night.  She passed away ten years ago at the age of ninety-three.  Dad and Mom lived a marvelous life, up to the last couple of years.  Throughout it all there were “constants”; things that they did every day.  One of those was don’t go to bed before eleven.  They might well have slept on the couch in the family room in front of the TV, Dad probably since eight, but never went to bed, never before the local news came on.

And another of those constants was the network Nightly News.  Dad ran a television station in Dayton in the 1960’s, and the Nightly News was part of the business.  He watched how his local newscasters did with Ed Hamlin at the anchor and Omar Williams on sports. It was one of the main ways to evaluate the station.   The network news brought viewers to the program, and the television business was all about selling advertising.  So Dad watched the local and network news religiously.  It was the end of his business day, whether he was still at work that late, or already at home.

The Dayton station was an NBC affiliate for most of those years, and the network broadcast was the Huntley-Brinkley Report.  Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were “old school” reporters, out of the mold of CBS’s Edward R Murrow and his protégé, Walter Cronkite.  So NBC was the default choice for news in our household, with the exception of a couple years when Dad switched the Dayton station to ABC.  Then it was a young Canadian named Peter Jennings who anchored the network desk.

Anchor Man

But NBC stuck, even when Dad was promoted out of the Dayton station and we moved to corporate headquarters in Cincinnati.  Chet Huntley retired, and Brinkley moved to ABC.  But we were loyal to the new guy, John Chancellor, who took over the reins.  When national crises hit, from Watergate to Presidential elections, it was the NBC crew that talked us through the details.

For a decade starting in 1970 (“WLW-D, Your Stations for the Seventies” was the jingle), Chancellor led the way.  Then, after a “tryout” by Roger Mudd, the younger Tom Brokaw, the Today Show host, took over.  He stayed at the anchor desk for twenty-one years, and became the senior mentor of NBC News.  My Mom developed a close “relationship” with Tom Brokaw, as he brought every crisis and triumph personally to our family room.  But waiting in the wings was Mom’s favorite, the White House Correspondent for NBC News, a young, clearly ambitious reporter named Brian Williams.

In the last few Brokaw years it became obvious that Brian was the heir-apparent.  There was even a mock “press conference” with Brokaw as the subject, when Williams stood up and carefully inquired as to Brokaw’s health and well-being.  It was a joke – but it really wasn’t.  Williams was ready for the anchor chair, the senior position in NBC News.  And after twenty-one years, Brokaw was aging, and more importantly, struggling to annunciate.  The night time talk show hosts were putting marbles in their mouths, making fun of him.  Still – Tom Brokaw had the gravitas to take us through the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Bush-Gore election,  9-11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Chair

Brokaw retired from the chair in 2004.  He didn’t stay retired long, as NBC suffered the incredible loss of their Chief Washington Political Correspondent, Tim Russert, to a massive heart attack in spring.  Brokaw took over Meet the Press, and helped lead Mom and the nation through the election of 2004.

But Brian finally had the Nightly News.  Mom no longer talked of NBC, or the evening news.  She waited to watch Brian.  

He led NBC for a decade.  Even when Mom was struggling, her lungs calcified and unable to absorb enough oxygen, she still watched “Brian” every evening.  She looked to him for guidance during the hurricanes of 2005, and celebrated with him the election of the first African-American President, and the passage of Obamacare.  Mom loved Brian.

Mom passed away in 2011. 

Brian Williams had a “memory conflation” in 2015.  He described a memory of a missile attack on his helicopter in Iraq.  But that really didn’t happen, and Brian was removed as the NBC anchor.  Lester Holt took over.

There was lots of discussion at the time about why Brian Williams did that.  Was he just embellishing stories to make himself more important?  Had he been warned so starkly in the war zone, that somehow the warning became an “event” in his mind?  Or had he described that exact same event so many times, that it became a real “thing” for him, an experience he thought he actually had?  He too became fodder for the late night monologues.  

Exile on Cable

After six months, Brian came back – but not to the Nightly News desk.  He was exiled to cable, the “breaking news” anchor whenever MSNBC went live to an event.  He was doing school shootings, hurricanes,  and tornadoes, directing coverage and commentary from New York.  Seemingly, he wasn’t allowed to leave Rockefeller Center, virtually strapped to the anchor chair.  

And then the election of 2016 got so convoluted, that MSNBC needed someone to summarize the daily events for their viewers.  Brian began a new program, The 11th Hour from 11 to midnight.  And for the last five years, Brian Williams helped to detangle the Trump Administration and the world.  He brought in the experts, from historians to commentators to doctors, to declassify all of the craziness that was Trump, Impeachment, Covid and now the Biden Administration.  Brian became our nightly ritual, instead of the comedians.  I learned a lot from him between 11 and 12, even if I seldom actually saw the end of his show.  

Brian Williams signed off The 11th Hour for the last time Thursday night. He says he’s headed into real retirement, but that remains to be seen.  I stayed awake to listen to others praise him, and hear Brian’s final words as an NBC anchor.  And at the end, I thought how sad Mom would be. 

 I know I am.

• 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
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Brian 12/12/21

This is a part of the “Outside My Window” series in Our America. No great political observations, just what’s going on – today literally outside my window.

Back to Normal?

Jenn, our son and I went to see a concert in downtown Columbus last night.  It was the band Genesis with Phil Collins, on probably their last tour.  Collins has a deteriorating nerve condition, and performs from a chair at the front of the stage.  He was the original drummer for the band, and taking over the drum set was always a part of his persona.  Now he can’t do that.  But he can still sing, and his twenty year old son Nic has taken over on the drums.  It’s a passing of the torch – the son honoring his father’s skill.  And it’s still a really good concert with three of the original Genesis members, old school mates Collins, Tony Banks on the keyboards and Mike Rutherford on guitar.

It’s another part of my “Dahlman Concert Tour”, seeing the great performers of the past before it’s too late.  This fall that’s included outdoor concerts with the Rolling Stones and Billy Joel.  But Genesis is the first time indoors since the pandemic changed the world.  Next up:  James Taylor and Jackson Browne. 

Going to a concert downtown is such a “normal” thing to do, but it’s been such a long time since we could. There was dinner “downtown”, and walking the streets of the “big city”.  Then  we were in in the crowd on the floor of Nationwide Arena, taking pictures, drinking beer, with the normal wafting of concert marijuana smoke after the lights went down.   We were on our feet for more than two hours for the show:  so very normal, and exciting.  

Back to the Pack

This meant a late night both for the three of us, and for our pack of friends at home.  The five dogs did their sleeping while we were gone.  So there was midnight dinner (our Lab Atticus was too nervous to eat), then a romp outside, and a couple of hours of chasing around the house in the middle of the night.  They didn’t calm down until two in the morning. 

But our elder statesman, Buddy, is the “keeper of the clock” when it comes to breakfast.  He was lenient this morning, letting us “sleep in” until 6:45.  Then it was time to get up and get breakfast – the late night was my problem, not his!  (Buddy, by the way, just went back to bed here at 8 am, the prerogative of an old border collie/shepherd mix  I guess). 

But I need to thank Buddy later today.  He got us up for a beautiful sunrise here in Pataskala, the reddened sky peaking over the Christmas lights of this little town.  It was worth the lost sleep to witness it, and it recalls one of my Mom’s old English sayings:

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.”

Warning

What should we “be warned” about?  That could be quite a list.  Maybe it’s the weather, the temperature has been in the twenties, but will hit sixty by Saturday, with rain coming.  A mud mess for the “pack” in the backyard, I’m afraid.  Or maybe it’s the Omicron variant of Covid, so much more infective than the Delta variant which was more than the “original”.  To use another one of Mom’s expression, I feel like we’re waiting for the “other shoe to drop” on Covid.  We might be playing with fire when it comes to dinners and concerts – flirting with normalcy in an wholly abnormal world.  

Or maybe it’s the economy, or the Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, or any of the other national or world crises we face.  

There’s plenty to worry about, as our Lab Atticus can tell you. But there’s good news as well. My ears are still ringing from Phil Collins and the group; I’m glad we’re able to have those experiences again. And there’s plenty of coffee in the house. Other than getting the Christmas tree up (and fortified from the puppy CeCe) there’s not too much on our plate today.

Maybe a red sky in the morning is just a beautiful way to begin a new day.  

• 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 15 (5/26/21)
• Outside My Window – Part 16 (6/13/21)
• Outside My Window – Part 12 – (8/14/21)
• Sixty Five Doom (9/1/21)
• Red Sky at Morning (12/9/21)

Our Divide

We have a precipitous divide in American politics.  The numbers are available, stark, and essentially terrifying.  More than twenty million American voters believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald J. Trump.  They know it in their hearts:  it was stolen, cheated, ripped off.  To use a football analogy, “…we won on the field, but lost on the scoreboard”.  And not because the other team scored more points.  No, they lost on the scoreboard because someone rigged the board to give more points for the other team’s touchdowns, and less points for theirs.  

They believe, because it’s a “prophecy fulfilled”.  Their leaders, with the 45th President of the United States in front, convinced them that if he lost, the election was stolen.  The “ground was softened” by years of preparation, from even before the 2016 election.  They could not trust the outcome, nor the counters, nor the ballots themselves.  They could not trust that their vote for Trump was counted for Trump.  The Democrats, or the Chinese, or the George Soros himself rigged the system. 

They aren’t the only ones who questioned the election process.  Those of us who voted for Hillary Clinton asked some of the same questions after the 2016 results.  Over two years later in April of 2019 as the Russiagate scandal broke, I wrote about those doubts in Put On My Foil Hat. But since even the “doubters” could never find final proof, most never crossed the line into “true-believers”.  But the twenty million have.

De-Construction

Steve Bannon, the “Svengali” behind the plan,  called it “De-Construction” of the government.  I wrote about it over four years ago in November of 2017, (The Bully and Bannon). But even as I did, I didn’t understand the full import of his goals.  When Bannon said don’t trust government, he didn’t make a distinction between Federal, State or Local.  He didn’t even divine out Republicans versus Democrats.  It wasn’t until November of 2020, when the “Stop the Steal” movement turned on Republicans running local and state election offices across the country, that I realized the full depth of his “De-Construction” plan.

If everything is corrupt, then it should be no problem that Trump, the sitting President, was on the phone with the chief election official in Georgia demanding “just enough” votes to win.  Because, according to him, it’s all rigged anyway, so rig it for me.  And since the counters are all crooked; they deserve the threats and the screamers, the folks with semi-automatic weapons parading on the sidewalks outside of their homes.  

Seventy-Seven Minutemen

And speaking of weapons, the twenty million need to arm themselves.  There will come a day when their weapons may be needed to make sure their “truth” is revealed.  It’s no mistake that Stop the Steal and the Second Amendment are totally intertwined.  The idea: Don’t let them get your guns; it’s the only way you will be able to fight back. Bannon doesn’t believe  “The Establishment” will go down without a fight. There were Seventy-seven Minuteman on the Lexington Green. They started the American Revolution.  It’s the true import of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.  So be ready.

That’s because it’s really true.  The guy down the street from me is ready to hold his AR-15 up against the 82nd Airborne para-roping from the Black Helicopters.  It’s like a scene from the original Red Dawn, as the brat pack of Patrick Swayze, C Thomas Howell, Jennifer Gray and Charlie Sheen stood up against the entire Soviet Army.  They believe it.  And they have legal armories where they practice, right  down the road, right out in the open, because it IS legal to do so.  

Gospel According to Fox

That inherent mistrust, fueled by years of Fox News and other propaganda spread like a slow pandemic. And  when the real pandemic hit, the logic became convoluted.  President Trump seemed to lose the election because of Covid, so Biden won because of Covid, so anything he does to stop Covid is benefitting his illegitimate Presidency, so don’t get vaccinated.  And since Fox and the rest can provide “facts” and “experts” to back why vaccines don’t work, they have their “proof”. 

The Alternative to the gospel of Bannon, otherwise known as the mainstream media, are part of the “Constructed Establishment”.  So don’t believe, don’t listen, don’t even engage with those that mistakenly trust what the AP or New York Times or other independent news organizations might say.  As one of my friends once told me; “do you wonder why no one reads your “blogs” anymore?”  I don’t wonder, I see the statistics behind each essay.  I know people read my essays.  But the early years of great debates about Trump World, mostly on Facebook,  are over.  Don’t engage, because it might cause you to question. 

A Rising Tide

They are “true believers”.  Don’t underestimate their power, will and desire.  After 2016, they thought they had it made.  When the 2020 vote came in, they reacted. But January 6th was a small disorganized protest compared to what’s coming.  Now, their power is represented by the co-opted Republican Party.  They are legally rigging the states, so that Trump/Republican legislatures can LEGALLY overturn the vote of the people.  And come 2024, they will be so much better prepared, and financed, and determined.  

Democrats do have a chance to counter at least the “legal” rigging of the state elections.  But that chance is right now, and will quickly slip away unless action is taken.  The House is ready, the President is sort of ready, but the Senate is not.  So many of our nation’s critical issues are dependent on two votes in the Senate.  And there is no sense that those votes will come, even though they claim to be Democrats.  

But don’t be fooled – even if the voting and election certification issues are fixed, there are still twenty million true believers. That won’t change, even as Democrats get excited about Build Back Better and the January 6th Committee.  Like standing at the edge of the sea, the sand is slipping beneath their feet, and the tide is rising.  Will Democrats happily watch our boats go to the horizon, enjoying the view – until we drown?

Christmas Present

Ethan Crumbley was a fifteen year old sophomore at Oxford High School in the Detroit exurbs.  His parents gave him an early Christmas present the weekend after Thanksgiving, a semi-automatic pistol.  His Mom took him to the shooting range so he could enjoy it.  And on Tuesday, November 30th 2021, Ethan put the semi-automatic pistol and several clips of ammunition in his backpack, and took them to school.  Later in the day, he attacked his fellow students and teachers.  Four students were killed, seven more students and a teacher were wounded.

16 Year Old Hero

Before we go any farther into this tragedy, we need to recognize a hero.  Tate Myre was a sixteen year old junior, and a star running back on the football team.  The weekend before the shooting, he visited the University of Toledo as a scholarship prospect.  When Crumbley started firing, Tate charged, trying to stop the shooter.  Tate was shot several times, and died in a police car on the way to the hospital.  But his actions bought other students’ time to get away. He saved lives, at the cost of his own.  

A Threat

On Monday, a teacher was disturbed to observe Ethan searching for ammunition on his cell phone.  The next day, the day of the shooting,  a note was found on his desk.  It had a drawing of a gun, a bullet, and a bleeding victim, and the words “…the thoughts won’t stop, help me”.  The teacher did exactly the right thing:  Ethan was sent to the office.  The administrators called the parents in for a conference, and required that Ethan receive counseling within forty-eight hours.  They suggested that the parents take Ethan home.

But the parents demanded that Ethan stay in school. We don’t know how that conversation went, yet, but clearly administrators didn’t feel they had “enough” to require Ethan’s removal from school. And, they either didn’t think of it, or felt they couldn’t, do a search of Ethan and his backpack, the backpack with a gun and ammunition clips. And they didn’t call in additional social services, or call the police.

We also don’t know if they asked the obvious question:  does Ethan have access to weapons, particularly guns.  If they did, we don’t know if Ethan or the parents lied or told the truth about his new present.  Certainly Ethan didn’t tell them the gun was right there, in the office, in his backpack.  So Ethan went back to class, and ultimately, four students died and six more and a teacher were wounded.

What Would We Do

I was the Dean of Students at a suburban high school for eight years.  If I was working in Oxford High School, Ethan and his parents likely would have been in my office.  

What would we have done?  So the note, the pictures and the cry for help, would have been considered a threat. That creates the “reasonable suspicion” that a school legally needs to act.  In our situation, probably the entire administrative staff, the Principal and the Assistant Principal and the Dean would have been involved.  We also would have called in the School Resource Officer (SRO), the Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to our school, in the years when one was available.

I retired in 2014. While there were political divides then, the current climate is far more polarized than it was even seven years ago. So we don’t know what the conversation with the Crumbley’s was like. We don’t know if the Second Amendment was mentioned. We don’t know how concerned the Administrators of Oxford High School were with parent complaints, and student removals. And finally, we don’t know if Ethan was a student with a status which made it difficult to remove him from the school building.

Reasonable Suspicion

But I do know what would have happened in our office.  One of us, probably me, would have searched Ethan’s pockets, and his coat, and his locker, and for damn sure, his backpack.  He made an identifiable threat, on paper, and asked for help.  Our staff, including the SRO, would want to do everything to help him.  But first, we would have made sure he was safe, and so were our students and staff.

And if the parents refused to allow the search?  Then a couple of things would have happened.  The SRO could have raised the threat to a legal issue, and then handled at as a police matter. In the years when we didn’t have an SRO on site, a Deputy would have been called in.  Here in Licking County we have deputies specially trained in crisis intervention.   

Or we would have done an “emergency removal”, requiring the parents to take Ethan home.  There might have been yelling and screaming.  Things might be ugly.  But Ethan would have gone home, and those ten students and a teacher would have been safe, at least for Tuesday.  And then the Sheriff’s Department would have been notified, and they would have done a “home check”. 

Hindsight

I can imagine how the Oxford High School administrators are feeling right now.  No matter how you look at it, they failed the most important mission they have for their students, to keep them safe.  They must be devastated, perhaps beyond recovery.  They not only have to live with their failure, but also with the national scrutiny of their actions, including by armchair quarterbacks like me.  But I have been in their position.  There are lots of pressures:  parents, school boards, district office staff, local, state and national politics.  But none of that compares with their duty to stop what happened in the halls of Oxford High School on Tuesday.  

Somehow, they missed that.

Film Noire

I guess you have to be a “certain age” to remember those old movies.  I certainly don’t remember them from the theatre, but on Saturday afternoons or late in the night, they were on TV.  They were “film noire” and some of the favorites of my parents’ generation.  But for me they were grainy, black and white cops and robbers films, with an anti-hero as a criminal or a shady detective, who always had a “femme fatale” on his arm.

The great players of Mom and Dad’s generation were all there:  Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall, Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, William Holden and Gloria Swanson, Orson Welles and Joan Crawford.  They had offices in seedy buildings, chain smoked and talked out of the side of their mouths, and double crossed each other time and time again.  The cops were often as bad as the criminals, and there was no such thing as a “happy ending”.

And no one ever got to “take the Fifth”.  They were shot, or tricked, or a confession was “sweated out” of them under the swinging light hanging from a single cord. Getting justice wasn’t usually the issue, revenge was.  And the moral of the story – there might not be any morals in the world at all.

US Constitution

So what is the Fifth? 

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution outlines the rights of someone accused of a crime.  The portion we’re concerned with is:

“ No person…shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

In our criminal process, no one can be required to answer questions or make statements that could incriminate themselves, that is, help prove their guilt.  It’s such an important part of our Constitutional process that, since 1966, each time law enforcement questions a suspect, the officer is required to notify the suspect that they do not have to answer questions – the famous  Miranda Rights from the Supreme Court case of the same name. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a Court of Law.”

And the Fifth Amendment right crosses over to almost every government interaction with the public.  A Congressional Committee can require a witness to answer questions.  But they cannot require that the witness “confess” to a crime.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that some former Trump officials are seeking the protection of the Fifth Amendment.  In fact, the surprise is that they took so long to do so.

“Taking the Fifth” is NOT a confession.  In fact, juries are instructed that they cannot infer guilt because someone refused to testify, invoking their Fifth Amendment right.  It’s a right every American has, guilty, innocent, or somewhere in between (like the Film Noire anti-heroes). 

Executive Privilege

There are several laws they may have been violated by the Trump Administration and their supporters in the two months after the 2020 election.  Certainly those who led the crowds to attack the Capitol on January 6th are likely candidates for criminal charges.  And the “leaders” who developed the entire strategy of trying to undermine and overturn the 2020 election results may have criminal exposure.   

When former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark was called to testify in front of the January 6th Committee, his first defense of  “executive privilege” was unlikely.  That law is clear:  executive privilege, the idea that a President ought to be able to get confidential advice, only applies to the current executive.  

Clark, and the “legal mind” behind “Stop the Steal’, attorney John Eastman, now realize that they may have broken the law.  So their best bet, and most effective way to avoid questions, is to “Take the Fifth”.  And they have every right to do so.

Money Talks

So why didn’t they do that in the first place?  Why start on a shaky legal foundation, the “privilege” argument, when they had firm footing in the Fifth Amendment?  The answer lives at Mara Lago in Florida.  While legally “taking the Fifth” doesn’t imply guilt, in the mind of the general public, someone who does must be hiding something.  Invoking the Fifth Amendment raises the question of criminality, that somewhere in their actions laws were broken.  And, of course, the man in Mara Lago cannot stand the concept that something in “Stop the Steal” was illegal.

And this isn’t just a legal question, it’s a financial one as well.  Those lawyers sitting beside the witness get paid, probably $500 an hour. Someone has to pick up the tab.  All of these potential witnesses needr help for legal fees, and the obvious answer is the hundreds of millions raised by the Trump Campaign of 2020 and 2024.  Implying crime is not a way to reach those funds.

Immunity

However, unlike the shaky “privilege” argument, the Fifth Amendment protection does have one vulnerability.  The Fifth only applies if there is a risk of criminal action.  So the January 6th Committee has the ultimate “cure” to the Fifth.  Like every Congressional Committee, they have the power to grant immunity from prosecution.  Once immunity is granted, then the Fifth Amendment no longer applies.

Immunity can be transactional, question by question, or it can be “blanket” over an entire testimony.  There are often questions a witness can answer that do not incriminate, and those don’t need to be “immunized”.  That high priced lawyer sitting beside the witness has “just one job”:  to make sure that if an answer will be incriminating, the witness either “Takes the Fifth” or gets immunity for the answer.  

The question for the Committee:  if everyone gets immunity, the Committee gets answers but no justice; no one to take responsibility for what happened in those two fateful months.  But if no one gets immunity, there will be a lot of information that never comes out.  And that’s problem the Committee members will need to solve.

Like those old films, there probably won’t be a “hero” on the witness stand (and no femme fatale).  No matter what the Committee reveals, there’s not likely to be a happy ending either.  But, unlike Film Noire, the Committee may get justice.

Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the case Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization this week.  It is a direct challenge to Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that allowed women to legally access abortions throughout the United States up through twenty weeks of pregnancy.  The essence of the Dobbs argument, was that Roe was “wrongly decided” by the ’73 Court, when it discerned a Constitutional right of women to control their own bodies.  The state of Mississippi (Dobbs) argued  that the United States Constitution is “neutral” on the that issue, and therefore their state should be able to regulate it under the Tenth Amendment as “a power not delegated” to the Federal government.   

There is a singular reason why Mississippi brought this direct challenge to Roe: the changes in the Justices who will decide the case.  Due to two deaths, a resignation, and the machinations of Mitch McConnell; President Donald Trump was able to appoint three Justices to the nine judge panel.   All three were historically against Roe, but pledged “loyalty” to the precedents set by prior Courts. Now that they are “in the chair” though, their arguments demonstrate a willingness to throw the Roe decision out.  Along with two already sitting Justices, they have a five vote majority.

Legal Weeds

The politics aside, the Court is on the cusp of making a major change in direction.  The “discerned right” of women to control their bodies is only one case. There’s a series of decisions made by the Court about greater personal freedoms, all based on similar legal reasoning.  The Court reasoned that States could not ban interracial marriage (Loving v Virginia), use of birth control (Griswold v Connecticut),  abortions (Roe v Wade and Casey v Planned Parenthood), homosexual activity (Romer v Evans) and most recently gay marriage (Obergefell v Hodges).  

The basic argument is that the Constitution contains a right to privacy and to equal protection under the law.  Since that right is in the Constitution, the individual states do not have the authority to control those private behaviors.   Mississippi is directly challenging that concept. If the Court accepts the reasoning, all of these other precedents are at risk as well.  It doesn’t mean that abortions, interracial marriages, gay marriages, birth control or homosexual activity could become “illegal” nationwide.  But it could mean that individual states would regulate those actions differently, depending on the state.

Divided America

We already see that occurring with abortion laws in the United States.  In many states, the  legislatures are dominated by those who want abortions completely banned. Some of those states have done everything they could, within the scope of the Roe and Casey decisions, to regulate abortions from within their borders. Missouri and Texas, have succeeded.  Other states recognize the “spirit” of Roe and Casey, and only regulate abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, when the baby could survive outside of the mother.

We saw the same thing prior to the Obergefell decision, where some states allowed gay marriage, some states established a second form of “union” to encompass it, and many states, like Ohio, went out of their way to pass laws banning same-sex unions.  A couple could be married in Massachusetts or in a “union” in Vermont, but their relationship was not recognized in Ohio or Kentucky.  

Let Freedom Ring

This case is an outgrowth of the great crisis that America is facing today.  We are a nation of change.  The dominant majority of “white people” will no longer be the majority in a few years.  The United States has always prided itself as a nation of immigrants. But when those immigrants stopped looking like “everyone else”, they were perceived by some to be a threat.  

I can sit in a classroom today in little Pataskala, Ohio, and have students who are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh; as well as Southern Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterians, Lutherans, a couple of Jewish kids and a whole lot of non-believers.  Even this “white ‘Christian’ suburban community” has changed. 

Also in that high school classroom are straight kids, gay kids, trans kids, and lots of kids who don’t “identify”.   For some in America, all of this change is incredibly threatening.  It challenges their vision of what “America” should “look like” and “act like”.  Their state legislatures are enforcing that vision of human behavior. And they are threatened by women choosing to have abortions.

Who Decides What to Believe

Their argument is that they are protecting a life by preventing abortion.  And they have every right to have that belief.  The question the Supreme Court answered in Roe and all of these other cases, is that “personal beliefs” should not be enforceable by law when they are about private behavior.  The Roe decision carefully parsed when the state had an interest in the growing fetus, and determined that its rights outweighed the privacy rights of the mother only after it could physically survive outside her womb.  

If a pregnant woman believes that she should protect that life and carry to term, that’s her choice.  If she determines that she does not want to do so, and it’s the 20th week or before, then the Court said she can make that choice as well.  The Roe decision said that the individual state legislatures shouldn’t be able to determine her choice for her.  

Consequences

It’s likely that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v Wade.  Thirty or more states will say what the ‘correct’ belief is, and ban most abortions.  But don’t think that “correct-ness” will stop there.  

What we thought were “inherent” rights of Americans to be themselves, love who they want, and have their own personal beliefs, may all be at stake.