Month: September 2022

There’s so much to write about – from Ukraine to Florida to elections here in Ohio. But unfortunately I have to take a break from essaying – at least for a bit. I had my left shoulder re-constructed, and the thought of writing essays one handed (especially as I’m left handed) is a bit daunting.

I’ll be back – probably sooner than the six weeks I’m under orders. And by then I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say!!!!

Meanwhile enjoy my two favorite seasons – autumn and campaign!!!!!

Nerve Buzz

The “heartbeat” bill bans abortions after six weeks here in Ohio. It is based on a false premise.  There is no heartbeat in a six-week embryo, in fact, there is no heart in a six-week embryo.  There are nerve bundles that give a repetitive signal. On an ultra-sound it seems like a heartbeat.  It’s not.  But for the political purpose of pretending that the embryo has already developed far enough to have a physical heart, they call it a heartbeat bill.  Oh, and they don’t call it an embryo either – they call it a fetus, even though science defines fetus developmentally at ten weeks, not six.

There’s a lot of “foolin’” going on in the abortion argument.  I heard a conservative political consultant on a local Sunday Show say that Democratic candidates were in favor of unlimited abortion, up until birth.  There is no one:  no law, no group, no candidate; advocating for aborting in the last few weeks of pregnancy (WAPO).  That’s a lie, just like the heartbeat; a lie to make it easier to demonize the other side.

Respect and Infringement

I respect those who feel that life begins at conception.  I think they should live their lives by that principle.  No one should make someone else have an abortion against their will.  That’s what I think the First Amendment means:  that everyone has the right to their beliefs, and to act in a way that is in concert with them.    But, here’s the rub.  I also believe that someone else’s beliefs shouldn’t be “inflicted” on me.    Their beliefs shouldn’t control my actions, just as my beliefs shouldn’t control theirs.

Those that believe life begins at conception shouldn’t get abortions.  But, as a citizen of the United States, I expect that people with different views should not be bound by those beliefs.  That is the whole basis of the First Amendment; “Congress shall make no law respecting freedom of religion…”. That’s true even if a pseudo-majority, like the Christian Right, gains control of the legislature. They should not, cannot, make laws that regulate religious/moral behavior to suit their own religious views.

And to call out their overused response:  just because one group calls abortion “murder” doesn’t make it so.  Murder is the killing of a human being, not a potential human being.  That embryo at six weeks with a rhythmic electric signal – it’s not a human being.  Science, and the law, agreed on that and much more, up until the pseudo-majority took over.

Tyranny of a Minority

Pseudo-majority, because in fact there is no religious majority in the United States, other than no religion at all.  But the religious-right doesn’t respect majority “rule” in America.  They don’t respect it in elections, voting rights, or behavior.  They have claimed the “reins” of power, and they are taking our national stage coach on an out of control ride from an old John Wayne movie.  We all know how that ends – wheels spinning off and riders flying like tumbleweeds out over the dusty trail.

That doesn’t just include abortions.  I see legislatures all over the Nation trying to regulate transgendered children.  That’s an even greater contradiction:  as they demand more “parent control” of schools, they take away parental control for care of a transgendered child.  I guess they only want “parental control” if the parents “do controlling” the way they want it done.   There can’t be anything more difficult than a child who feels trapped in the body of the opposite sex.  Everything must seem wrong, from names to clothes, to toys.  And, as they get older and become aware of sexual identity, that’s even harder.  Why would the “power of the state” be used to stand in the way of making those folks feel “right” and “whole”?

Rule by Fear

The answer is, the power of the state is being wielded by those who play on fears to stay in office.  Among the older generations, there is fear of the different, of those who are not the norm, not “Adam and Eve”.  So how best to gain and keep power?  Make those generations think that Democrats are not only coming for your tax dollars, but to kill babies and take your kid’s genitalia. 

Younger generations don’t feel that way – which, of course, is a challenge to the power and authority of the pseudo-majority.  Younger generations are OK with friends being gay, or trans, or whatever.  They are comfortable with live and let live.  In fact, in some newer schools they are building restrooms without labels.  Everyone gets a stall, no one is required to disrobe in public.  As an “old guy”, it’s weird the first time – but it takes all of the stigma, all of the “identification” off of the table.  Everyone just – goes.

And it’s those kind of challenges to the pseudo-majority that draws new attacks on public schooling.  Schools are teaching acceptance of differences – racial, gender, physical, mental and social – and it flies in the face of the Christian-Right control efforts.  The Ohio State Board of Education is trying to “ride shotgun” on these efforts, planning to vote in November to restrict equity rights from extending to LGBTQ students (Cleveland).

Prerogatives

Don’t like gay people?  That’s too bad, but it’s your right.  Scared by “trans” people, afraid they might “peek” in the restroom?  Probably should worry about the security cameras more.  Feel comfortable with a kid getting beat up in the locker-room because of their identification, or a thirteen year-old carrying a pregnancy to term?   What the Hell is wrong with you – but it’s your right, your prerogative.  

But you don’t get to take your biases and make them law.  It ain’t the 1950’s, and we aren’t living in “Leave it to Beaver” world where the “white” suburbs were “pure” and Mom vacuumed the carpet in high heels and pearls.  You can have your prerogatives, your prejudices. 

But you can’t make me live by them.

Lockdown

In many schools the command is simple. It’s a public address announcement:  “This is a level {1,2, or 3} lockdown.  Students return to your classroom”.  There are no other instructions, usually, just the motions of teachers going to their doors, “grabbing up” kids in the hall, then closing.  Then the sound of the click of dozens of locks, shutting tight against the outside world.

What happens next depends on the situation, labeled the “level”. It’s the reason for the lockdown in the first place.  Perhaps it’s a medical emergency in the hallways; one where students and staff might interfere.  Last year, while I was substitute teaching, a teacher downstairs suffered a critical medical emergency in the hall. The building was “locked down” until the first responders arrived and transported him to the hospital.  We were on “level two” lockdown.  Clear the hall, lock the doors, but continue teaching.  The office will notify everyone when it time to “come out”.

Before Times

I spent my career teaching at a school located near an interstate highway.  In the mid-1990’s, we got a call from the local sheriff’s office: some men accused of violent felonies were fleeing the police, and wrecked their vehicle.  They then  disappeared into the woods, not far from our school.  We didn’t have a “lockdown” plan back then. It was in the “before times”; before the Columbine school massacre in 1999. But we did go into what we now call a “Level One Lockdown”.  

All of the outside doors were locked, no one allowed in or out of the building.  Students and staff stayed away from windows.  As the Dean of Students, I watched with some worry as I saw camouflaged men with long rifles move stealthily through the woods.  It took a moment to realize that they were the “good guys”, the local Sheriff’s SWAT team clearing the area.  The fugitives were eventually caught a few miles down the road.

Back before Columbine, before local School Resource Officers and the obvious need for school security; some kids from a neighboring school literally broke into our building.  They were searching for one of “our” kids: money owed, girlfriend issue, I don’t remember.  But they were armed with pepper spray, and began a class to class search to find their target.  Other students tried to stop them – they got sprayed.  Teachers and administrators ultimately confronted the “invaders”, and they retreated.  I was in the athletic training room, and the trainer and I were doing our best to “treat” the sprayed students who stood up to the “invaders”.

Our Times

Today, that would  trigger a “full” lockdown, a Level Three.  Teachers go to the doors and clear the halls, lock the doors, and place students in a part of the room out of sight from the door and, if possible, any windows.  It’s the scariest lockdown, even to practice.  It’s the “school shooter” lockdown, developed after the Columbine tragedy.  The goal:  to protect as many kids as possible by keeping them out of sight from potential shooters.

And there have been “variations” added to the “full” lockdown.  Piling furniture against the door to make it even harder to open.  Preparing weapons, like full soup cans to use against an incoming shooter.  And ultimately, to fight when there is no way to flee.  A sixteen year-old at Oxford High School in Michigan, Tate Myre, exemplifies that. When a classmate with a semi-automatic handgun starting shooting, Tate charged him.  He was shot several times, and died in a squad car on the way to the hospital.  But his actions bought time for other students to get away.

School buildings are huge, with some sections far away from others.  In some cases, students at one end of the building might escape, while a shooter is in a different section.  But that’s  a dangerous alternative.  There are school shooting cases where the shooters were outside, and waiting for students to evacuate the building.  Still, sometimes action is better than hiding.

What Would You Do?

Every student, teacher, administrator, coach, staff member and police officer knows the history of school shootings.  Like it or not, they all have thought about how they should respond, what they should do if gunshots are heard in the hall, or that tense announcement comes over the PA.

Last spring there was a tragedy in Uvalde, Texas. Twenty-one students and teachers died in a school shooting “spree” that raised all sorts of questions about law enforcement response.  At Uvalde, literally dozens of law enforcement officers waited in a hallway outside of the “killing zone” classrooms for more than an hour.  The accepted “strategy” engage and eliminate the shooter immediately, didn’t happen.  So now when the call goes out over the police radio of “school shooter”, officers are even more aware of their obligations.  No officer wants to get shot, but no one wants to wait to act while kids are shot and bleed out.  Each officer is well aware of his or her role – go find the shooter and engage.

And parents are just as aware about what happened in Uvalde.   Hundreds of parents waited a long hour outside of that elementary school, hoping for something, anything, to happen to save their child’s life. When it did finally happen, it was too late for those nineteen kids and two teachers.  

In our age of instant communication, word always gets out: a school shooter, shots fired.  It’s hard to blame parents who don’t follow “directions”.  They don’t go to the “reunion point”; instead they head to the school, willing to do whatever they need to save their child.  Sure they become a nuisance, and a hazard, and even a danger to the police involved, but after Uvalde how can you blame them?

A New Prank

School emergency “pranks” started with “fake” fire alarms.  Some kid would succumb to the temptation of pulling the lever or breaking the glass.  As an administrator when the alarm sounds the next five minutes is a race to get the building evacuated, find which alarm was pulled (there’s electronic notification) and determine if there is a real fire. The Fire Department automatically arrives and they have to decide that there is no risk to students.  If there isn’t, then there’s the “investigation” to determine who pulled the alarm, and why.  

As the Dean of Students at a high school, that investigation was my job.  One year we had a series of alarms pulled at the worst possible time, during lunch.  Somehow an alarm in the hallway by the gym was pulled several days in a row.  Even with a camera on the alarm, we could not discover who was pulling the “prank”.

Finally we figured it out – the prank was on us.  Most schools have a “climbing board”, a wooden board with holes mounted on the wall where students would use pegs to climb to the top.  On the other side of the wall from the peg board was the alarm, somehow now on a “hair-trigger”.  As the freshmen boys were showing off their climbing prowess, the pounding of the pegs was triggering the faulty warning box, and we were evacuating the school.  No one was in trouble.

Bomb Threats

Then schools were plagued with fake “bomb threats”.  A random call or note threatened a bomb in the building.  From a crisis standpoint that’s easier to manage.  Pull the fire alarm, evacuate the building, take the kids to a faraway stadium or field or school.  Then, search the building for the “non-existent bomb”.   Why keep the kids?  Because it’s important that “bomb threat” doesn’t equal “get out of school”.  Otherwise, there’s even more incentive for the next call.

Who gets to search the building?  Usually the staff, or at least the custodial staff and the administrators, often accompanied by Fire or Police.  The problem in this backpack age is that there are so many possibilities, bags left in the hurried evacuation, scattered by desks in dozens of classrooms.  It takes a lot of time.

Swatting

But the new “prank” is called “Swatting a school”.  The call goes to the police, not the school.  There’s a shooter in a building, hallway, or even a specific room.  Shots have been fired, usually with mention of ballistic protective gear and semi-automatic rifles.  The first warning to the school is either a frantic police call, or officers showing up in mass around the building.

It’s the scariest of times.  Lockdown level three, police with guns drawn working their way through the classrooms, releasing each class to get out of the building.  We’ve all seen the pictures, kids with their hands up and shirttails out, racing through the hallway doors.  Some just keep running – heading away from the school, the police, the threat of violence.  In this cellphone world, they call on family or friends to pick them up somewhere far away from the school building, to escape from the craziness and the fear.

Licking Valley

A school in my county, Licking Valley High and Middle School , got “swatted” on Friday.  Licking Valley is between the suburbs of Newark and the countryside, a good place to go to school with an exceptional and unique academic record.  The Middle School is on top of a hill in an older building, the “new” High School is below.  The call to police said that there was an armed shooter, and shots fired. Police had to check both buildings, door to door and hallway to hallway. It was some time before kids finally got outside on a pleasant morning, the faint coolness of fall in the air for the first time.  Some kids headed off into the nearby neighborhoods, others into the farm fields past the football stadium.

A parent came, “locked and loaded”, ready to go and do whatever he could to save his kids.  Police took him into custody – they had no idea: was he the threat, a friend or foe?  He was later released.  

What else could they do?  The police, particularly after Uvalde, must respond, in force, and ready for action.  The school must act, locking down, then releasing, then finally struggling to account for every kid.  The parents – hard to blame them for not heading to the “reunion” point.  Not when the school is right there, close, with twelve hundred students standing in the sun.

Survival

Licking Valley “survived” the Swatting on Friday.  No one was hurt, though I’m sure they’ll be kids who NEVER go back to school again.  That fear, sitting in the corner, is so great, even the drills are more than un-nerving.  And with all of that, everyone, kids, teachers, staff, administrators, police, were on a hair trigger.  It would have taken just a little, maybe a distraught parent with an AR-15, or a “country” kid with a hunting rifle hidden in the back of his truck, to set things off.  The “prank” could easily have cost lives.

We live in a tenuous world, only a phone call away from disaster.  Friday was a tough day for Licking Valley, with lessons to be learned.  But real disaster was avoided, this time.

Other schools should take heed.  

Gadfly

Donald Trump said it best, back in the 1980’s, before anyone expected the New York braggadocio to be a serious candidate for any office.  He said, that it was better to be in the press for anything, good or bad, than not to be mentioned at all.  

He reiterated that message in 2015, when he was a “gadfly” candidate for President that no one took seriously.  The Republican Party had “serious” candidates,  Governors Bush, Christie and Kasich, among others.  The failed casino owner and television star of “The Apprentice” wouldn’t have a chance in a “normal” year.  But Donald Trump took the lessons of the 1980’s to heart.  He was constantly on the air, calling into liberal MSNBC’s flagship program “Morning Joe” show day after day.  And he said the most outrageous things, like; “…he’s a war hero because he got captured. I like people who don’t get captured,” about Senator John McCain.

Cancelling Out

2016 was like that 9^th grade math class, where we learned to “cancel out”. It was this number cancels that number, and cross them off. Simple math:  Christie cancels out Bush, Kasich cancels out Walker, Paul cancels out Cruz.  In the end all that was left was Donald Trump, who managed to win a plurality of the primary votes, but no majorities until the “equation” was solved.  And then he was the candidate for President.

So I try not to write about Donald Trump.  I figure I’m just (in a very small way) giving him what he wants, needs, craves, “jones for”:  attention.  But it’s hard not to write about the plight Donald Trump finds himself in today.

Day in Court

He got all the attention yesterday, across three different venues.  In his old home town, New York City, the State Attorney General Letitia James laid out civil charges against Trump, his family, his company, and its employees.  She accused them of what Trump has always bragged of:  cheating the system.  In over two hundred pages James brought charges against Trump and his business that carry a “civil” death penalty.  If New York wins the lawsuit, then Trump and his family are banned from running their companies, banned from getting loans to extend their pyramid scheme real estate deals, banned from participating in the market.   When Trump’s loans come due, there will be no “new bank” to carry him, at least, not a bank that does business in New York.  

And the conservative 11^th  Court of Appeals of the United States slapped down Trump’s arguments for “Presidential Privilege” in the FBI search case.  Trump was able to find a friendly District Court Judge who literally made the arguments that his attorneys failed to do.  Her rulings flipped normal court process on its top; but the Appeals court righted the ship.  They said the obvious:  classified documents are classified – and don’t belong in boxes scattered around a Florida country club.   The Appeals Court ruled that the FBI could continue their investigation into what America’s most classified materials were doing at Mar-A-Lago.

Special Master

And the “Special Master” that Trump and his attorneys both agreed to, met with attorneys for both sides on Tuesday.  He also put the Court back on course, requiring Trump’s attorneys to explain why Trump should have classified materials.  When they refused to argue the point, he gave credit to the government – they had the whole classification process on their side.

Bad days in Court for Donald Trump.  But it was a good day in the “media”.  Trump got an hour sit down with buddy Sean Hannity on Fox.  He played the “victim” of FBI abuse:  “I can’t even find my Last Will and Testament”.  Hannity asked if he was named in it.

And Trump became the “lead” headline on almost every news show, every newspaper in the country. He couldn’t ask for anything better, even in the 80’s.

New Season

The January 6^th Committee is back for a “new season”.  It’s not a television series, but Chairman Thompson and Vice Chairman Cheney are orchestrating it like one.  We left with the minute by minute of a President watching “Rome Burn” on January 6th.  Now they’ll open with “the plot” behind the riots.  Just like the network crimes shows and their fall premieres, the Committee returns on September 28^th.   To further “stir the plot”, Supreme Court Justice spouse Ginny Thomas will talk to the committee. We’ll have to wait and see if she makes “prime time”. 

The election fraud investigation in Atlanta has “gone silent” until after the election.  But make no mistake, Fani Willis, the Fulton County Prosecutor, is pursuing charges at the highest level.  Her last words before going quiet:  some of these charges will require jail terms.  

A quick aside:  so many of those willing to stand against Trumpism are powerful women like James in New York, Cheney in Washington, Willis in Atlanta.  It makes the men who folded to Trump; “powers” like Rubio, Graham, Cruz, McConnell, and Ryan; seem even more puny. 

Good News for Democrats

While Trump may see all this publicity as “good” for him – it’s probably not so good for the Republican Party.  They are trying to build their mid-term campaign around inflation, immigration and crime.  Governor DeSantis is willing to spend millions of Florida taxpayer dollars for “stunts” to press the immigration issue home, and it worked for a couple of days.  But with Trump’s troubles, the focus is shifting back to one of the Democrats top concerns: democracy is at stake.  That message is pretty simple – a vote for a Republican is a vote for Donald Trump, a vote for the Insurrection, and a vote against women.

All of Trump’s legal troubles puts the Democratic message up front.  And that’s good news for democracy.

No I’m not writing about OUR dogs – again.  But they  are always scattered around my office.  We’re watching replays of the Qanon Trump rally.  They’re asleep.

Wave Running

The 2022 mid-term elections are seven weeks away.  All of the polling indicates that, much like 2020 and 2018; this election will be narrowly decided by a critically divided nation.  What looked in June like a “Red Wave” election, giving Republicans control of the House and the Senate, now looks a Red-Blue wash, with power decided by one or two seats.

The election theory that I grew up with and used over the past fifty years seems no longer true.  In the old days, just a decade ago, candidates ran to their base in the primaries, and then ran to the center for the general election.  They ran to their base because the base that showed up to vote in the primary elections.  Then they ran to center, because the base was not big enough to win a general election. 

Wipe Out 

The difference today is in the incredible polarization of American politics.  We are so divided, that it is difficult to “move” to the center, without “betraying” the absolute values of the base.  Take the Republican Senate candidate from New Hampshire, former Brigadier General Don Bolduc.  He won the primary as a “true-believer” in election denial, claiming that Joe Biden was an illegitimate pretender rather than the elected President of the United States.  How could it be possible to “center” that view? 

Simple – come out a few days after the primary election, with a religious-like “revelation”. After further consideration he now believes that Biden was in fact legitimately elected.  It is a most blatant version of “flip-flopping”, and unlikely to convince anyone in the center that the General has changed his view.  While he may want to be more centered, his primary statements aren’t going away.  And he really can’t afford to lose his base anyway – so there’s a clear wink-wink going on.  It’s just hard to say which side is getting the wink, and which is getting the lie.

Back to Base

But looking at other races nationwide, many candidates are doing the opposite of “old school” politics.  Instead of running to the middle, they are running to their base.  Take JD Vance in Ohio, for example.  Since the Republican primary, he’s stated that he’s for banning all abortions, period, and that women should stay in abusive relationships “for the children”.  And Saturday night, as The Ohio State University football team soundly defeated the upstart team from Toledo, Vance appeared beside Donald Trump at a Youngstown, Ohio rally.  Trump called it out:

“J.D. is kissing my ass.  Of course he want’s my support.  He fell in love with me the same way that Kim Jong Un did…” (USA).

Vance swallows Trump’s humiliating statements, as long as the disgraced President still campaigns for him.  It doesn’t even matter that Trump compared Vance to the North Korean Boy-Dictator.  It only matters that Vance got Trump’s stamp of approval.  You can hardly say that’s moving to the middle.

Nationally Republicans are worried.  The Dodd decision changed what the 2022 voter turnout will look like.  Women are leading men in new voter registration, and they are ready to punish candidates who want to ban all abortions.  But since ending abortion is central to the “heart” of the Republican base belief, what’s a candidate supposed to do?

Old Subjects

Changing the subject is the best Republican leadership has to offer.  And they are trying a “new trick” for that “old dog” of an issue – immigration.  Remember the golden elevator, and Trump’s introduction to American politics?

“…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump’s answer was to “Build a Wall”.  That resonated with the base, perhaps enough to win in 2016.  But in 2018, when “The Wall” wasn’t enough, we learned about the mythical “CARAVANS” bringing thousands more to the border.  But even that wasn’t enough to stop the “slow Blue Wave” that gave Democrats control of the Congress. 

Now in 2022, the Governors of Florida and Texas are going back to immigration once again.  They are tricking migrants already across the border, into becoming political pawns.  And they are sending them to Democratic cities, often without warning authorities. There’s a taunt; “See, they’re your problem now”.  Last week Texas Governor Abbott bused migrants to the Vice Presidential mansion (the National Observatory) in Washington, DC.  Florida Governor DeSantis followed a Tucker Carlson suggestion, and borrowed migrants from Texas to fly to Martha’s Vineyard.  Today, more Texas migrants are supposedly scheduled to land near Biden’s house in Delaware (Newsweek).  All at Florida taxpayer expense.

Same Result

It’s all about changing the subject – anything, even the Trump legal problems, are better for Republicans than talking about abortion.  

Immigration is an old dog, and the “new migrant trick” appeals only to their base.  But like it or not, turnout is what the November 2022 election is going to be all about.  Which Party gets out more of their base to the polls, and which Party’s base stays home, will decide who controls Congress.

No matter how hard Republicans try to ignore the abortion issue, it’s not going away.  And that gives Democrats a chance to even the odds.

 New Technique

The state of Alabama is preparing a new method of execution.  It’s called nitrogen hypoxia.   It’s actually pretty simple, especially when compared to the lethal injection method.  Lethal injection involves first a drug to “knock out” the inmate, then a second injection to cause heart failure.  It’s been a difficult mix, especially because the companies that manufacture the drugs refuse to cooperate in this “off book” use.  They might be acting out of conscience, but just as likely out of fear of liability.

Nitrogen hypoxia is straight-forward.  The inmate is fitted with a mask, and the mask is filled with 100% nitrogen, instead of the normal 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen mix that makes up our normal atmosphere. Supposedly, the inmate will “quietly pass out”, then ultimately die from lack of oxygen (NBC).  It’s supposed to be a “peaceful” death, that doesn’t run afoul of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.   And Alabama wants to “try it out”, perhaps as soon as the day after tomorrow.

Peaceful Deaths

The hypoxia plan is supposed to lead to a “peaceful death”. That was also the electric chair plan and the hanging by the neck after dropping through a scaffold plan.  And so was the lethal injection plan.  And all of these plans proved to be problematic.  Those damn inmates just don’t die the way they are supposed to.  They struggle for life, even unconscious.  The heave and they moan, they open their eyes and they kick.  Losing life is like that.

People failed to die in the electric chair, and they have to be electrocuted again and again.  Necks don’t break on the fall through the scaffold, and they kick and struggle as they strangle for minutes at the end of the rope.  And the chemicals just don’t seem to work as they are supposed to.  One of the biggest problems with that – the “execution teams” don’t know what they’re doing. They can’t find a vein to put an IV in, and end up doing “cut downs”.   That’s because most knowledgeable medical personnel won’t have anything to do with killing someone.

There are other sure-fire methods to kill someone.  Firing squads generally work.  But it puts the burden of homicide (killing someone) on the members of the squad.  Beheading works, the old European method (the chopping block), the French mechanized method (guillotine), or the Japanese samurai method (a single swing with a Katana).  But history is replete with botched executions, from Mary Queen of Scots on.  And there’s that blood problem – so much blood.  Hard to argue that it’s not cruel, or unusual.

 Gas in a Hurry

But Alabama is so anxious to carry out the death penalty, they are willing to “give it a try”.  Will it work –  Probably.  Will it be cruel and unusual – well definitely unusual as it will be the first time.  By the way, animal rights advocates oppose the use of hypoxia as a means of euthanizing dogs – it’s too cruel (HSUS).  But Alabama is moving ahead with it anyway.

Which brings us to the real question:  why does the state of Alabama, or any state, feel such a strong obligation to kill people?  We already know that the death penalty is racially biased, more expensive than just keeping someone in prison for life, and doesn’t serve as a deterrent to crime (deathpenaltyinfo.org).    And, of course, sometimes we (society) kill innocent people.

Politics

The death penalty is about retribution, pay-backs if you will, for the crime committed.  It is vengeance in a Biblical sense.  And that vengeance is very politically satisfying for a majority of the population, with 6 out of 10 Americans in favor of the death penalty in some form (Pew).  So it’s a political position that a majority supports.  Even though it’s not a deterrent,  more expensive, and violates the Constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.  (And before we get into the whole, “…well the Founding fathers used the death penalty, so it must be OK thing…”; keep in mind that those  same Fathers also enslaved people, denied the citizenship of women, and slaughtered Native Americans).

Alabama is finding a new way to kill.  But  states should get out of the business of killing all together.  Want to punish someone, to wreak vengeance on them?  Put them in jail for life, no parole.  It’s cheaper, and it takes the blood off of the hands of the executioners, and all of the folks they represent – the citizens.

This is the next in the “Sunday Story” series – no politics here – just a story of what this “stupid human” managed to do to himself.

Three Score and Six

So I turned sixty-six last week.   Sixty-six…that’s two-thirds of a century.  Four years to go until the Biblical “end” at three score and ten.  I don’t plan on seventy as an end, but there’s no fooling that sixty ain’t the “new forty”.  There are some things that change.  

I worked a Cross Country meet last week, my favorite, the McGowan at Watkins Memorial.  There I was, one of the gray-haired guys at the finish line, when two runners came over the ropes.  That’s not allowed; we keep the finish area clear for just the incoming runners.  But those two seemed to feel entitled.  I went up to them, politely, to suggest they get back over and out of the finish area.  It wasn’t until I got closer, almost face to face, that I realized they weren’t kids at all.  They weren’t even “kid coaches”, they were older than that.  So I have become “that” old guy, I can’t tell coaches from athletes anymore.

Florida Man

One of my goals was to not be the “headline” old man.  I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines:  “Sixty-six year old man falls off roof”, “Sixty-six year old man dragged down road while walking dog,” “Sixty-six year old man hit by tree he cut down.”  It’s almost as bad as being a “Florida Man”.   I just didn’t want to be that guy, that headline.  But here’s my headline:

“Sixty-six year old man flips lawn tractor.”

How many times in the past forty years have I put a vehicle onto a trailer – many.  But this was obviously one too many.  Long story short – I drove a lawn tractor up onto a tilted garden trailer, which was supposed to fall to level when the tractor got in the middle.  The trailer went down,  and I hit the brake.  But it went back up – and the tractor rolled off of the back and flipped over backwards – on top of me.

M.D. – MD

I am actually incredibly lucky.  I could have literally broken my neck, or back, or whatever.  As it was, Jenn and my neighbor helped get the tractor off of me, and I jumped up.  My head was a bit muddled from the impact, and my elbow was scraped.  But otherwise – I was OK – I thought.  After a few minutes to re-group, we got the tractor back on the trailer, and went off to do the work we planned.

But as I was working, I noticed that my left shoulder wasn’t functioning in a normal fashion.  In fact, lifting my arm above my shoulder seemed to be an issue, and a painful one at that.  As the day went on, I figured that I damaged my rotator cuff – the tendons that hold the top of your arm bone, your humerus, into the shoulder joint (after all, Marty Dahlman, MD!!).  

Unfortunately I was “righter” than I thought.

Dr C

The shoulder progressively got worse.  Ten days later, I was visiting my “on call” Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. C.  He already operated on my knee a few years ago, cleaning out the cartilage I tore kicking mulch on the cross country course.   Scheduling the visit itself was a “modern miracle”.  I  went to the website, found my surgeon, and all of his available appointments all over town popped-up.  I chose a close location, and was all set. No waiting on hold, no need for a referral. I wish the rest of my medical consultants had that plan.

Being sixty-six changes medical attitudes.  I didn’t realize that until my first appointment with the Dr. C.  He had a young resident working with him, and that guy got the first “crack” at  checking my shoulder.  He did all usual tests:  “Lift to here, press to there,  squeeze – did that hurt?”  And after, before Dr. C came in, he gave us his conclusions.  It started with:  “We usually don’t do surgeries on sixty-six year olds.  You have a serious “deficit”, but the rest of your arm is working.  Maybe a cortisone shot, a few months of rehabilitation, and we can see what is going on.  And I don’t think you need an MRI…” – here’s the kicker – “…that would just ‘muddy the waters’”.  

Then Doc C. comes in and does the same series of tests.  At the end, he says some similar things, but also says, “If we really want to know, you need an MRI”.  

I really wanted to know.  

Results

Five days later, I’m falling asleep in the MRI machine (they woke me up and told me to stop twitching).  I got a DVD of the results, which I carefully carried  back to the Doc C.  I was taken to an exam room, and as I passed the office, I saw both doctors intently viewing a colorful computer screen.  There were pointing at one particular spot.  Finally Doc C came in to my room, and said with his customary bluntness – “You need surgery.  The tendon at the top of your humerus is completely detached.  You are too active, and  you won’t be happy with anything else”.  

Shoulder surgery – six weeks in a sling that includes a pillow to keep your arm away from your body and a ball to squeeze to maintain lower arm strength.  Sleeping sitting up – no chance of moving the arm in my dreams. And, by the way, it’s my left shoulder, and I am left handed.  So there’s all of that.

Stupid Human

The surgery is scheduled in ten days.  Of course, my “regular” doctor has to sign off (that’s Tuesday) and my Cardiologist too (that’s next Monday).  But if all goes “well”, I’ll go “under the arthroscope” a week from Wednesday.  Then I’ll spend the next six weeks in the “sling”, and the next six months in rehab.  

My goals:  we’re smoking the turkey for Thanksgiving, something that will be difficult to do with only one arm.  And I’ve got an indoor track meet to officiate scheduled for the first week of December.  And I’ve also got to keep Jenn from killing me in the meantime. 

So if essays on “Our America” seem to slow down – remember – pain killers and one handed typing.  And meanwhile, no more stupid human tricks – at least for a while.  But there will be outdoor Christmas lights.  And those gutters always need to be cleaned!!

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
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
• A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
• Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22

A Different Race

Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida are both running for re-election against high profile opponents.  Abbott faces Beto O’Rourke the well-financed populist from El Paso.  DeSantis is running against Charlie Crist, a former Governor himself and now Congressman. Both are just barely leading the polls, a percent outside the margin of error.  You’d think they’d run to the center and try to lock down their second terms. 

 But they aren’t. In fact, neither Abbott nor DeSantis are campaigning for the offices they hold. They are both running to the right, to their own base.  Those folks are already secured for this November. 

But they are running against each other, for an office in the near future. They are gambling their Governor seats in a “highest stake” bid. They are betting that Donald Trump can’t or won’t run (hopefully  jailed) and they can inherit the whirlwind he created. Each Governor wants to be the “Trumpiest” candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2024. 

If they lose their home states in November, game over.  But instead of Abbott dealing with mass shootings and utility upgrades, he’s shipping migrants by bus to New York City.  And instead of DeSantis worrying about rising sea levels or even Florida’s failing public education, he’s borrowing migrants to fly to Martha’s Vineyard.  He found them at Lackland Air Force Base, just outside San Antonio, Texas, Abbott’s state.

Helpless

Let’s get a few things clear here.  There is really nothing so helpless as an illegal migrant  getting to the United States border.  The reality is:  most migrants are leaving their homes in Central or South America, because the living conditions are intolerable.  Some are leaving dictatorships like Venezuela’s Maduro.  Some are running from climate conditions that no longer allow them to till fields and produce a crop.  And some are running from nations so corrupted, that gangs are the only form of “governing”.  They are all running for their lives, for their children, and for a better future.  And like generations of immigrants, including the ones that founded our Nation, they are coming to America.

The migrants risked the long walk through the jungles of the Darien Gap in Southern Panama.  They paid exorbitant fees to “coyotes” to get them on trains or trucks across Mexico.  They slept in doorways and tents, shelters and sometimes just on the street.  And all to try to improve their lives by getting to the United States.

Are there drug smugglers among them?  Perhaps, but by far the millions who are coming to America are trying to improve their lives.  For most; they get across the border, either legally at the crossings, or illegally wandering through the Texas or Arizona drylands, and present themselves to the authorities.  They are NOT criminals.

Pawns

Nor should they be pawns in the DeSantis/Abbott political “games”.  They deserve compassion, and justice, and if their case is right, asylum and a chance here in the United States.  And if you want to know, “what’s in it for me?”, the answer is simple.  We are suffering from a labor shortage, and they are a ready source of labor, willing to work harder than most Americans at jobs most Americans don’t want to do.

Instead, the good people of the states of Texas and Florida (and Arizona) are spending millions of dollars to serve the political causes of their Governors.  Two passenger airplanes rented to the state of Florida, going to Texas to pick up migrants (under false pretenses) and ship them to Martha’s Vineyard.  All to prove that those folks “up North” should have to deal with people crossing the border.  DeSantis chortled in front of a fawning crowd, proud of taking these Venezuelans who escaped the Maduro dictatorship, and shoving them up the Northern Liberals’…island.  

Race to the Bottom

Is he any better than the Coyotes who charged them thousands of dollars to ride in a crowded freight car across Mexico?  Better than the guide who threatened to leave them in the Darien Gap, with the snakes and the swamps, if they didn’t pay an extra fee halfway through?  Better than the drug smugglers who hid out among the migrants as they crossed the Rio Grande?

And to add insult to injury, the Republicans in the Florida legislature may have used Covid Relief money to pay for the planes.  They are so pleased to “stick it” to the Biden Administration, I expect they’ll try it again.

DeSantis has “out-shined” Abbott, who only sent busloads of migrants to Washington, DC, and dumped them on Massachusetts Avenue outside the National Observatory and drove away.  The Observatory also is the home of the Vice Presidential mansion.  A nearby church rushed to take the migrants in, just as the good people of Martha’s Vineyard found shelter, food, and are helping “their” migrants in moving on with their lives here in America.

Reckless Cruelty

DeSantis and Abbott have made their clear decision.  The people of their respective states aren’t really that important.  What is important:  to score political points with helpless migrants and get a “leg-up” on the 2024 Republican nomination.  They both want their fifteen minutes on Fox News, and maybe an hour on OANN and Newsmax.  I hope the good people of Texas recognize the millions they are spending for this, isn’t going to guarantee they have heat next winter.  And I hope the powerful Venezuelan Miami political machine takes note of who the pawns are in this latest gambit.

One of the famous phrases in American History was said to Senator Joseph McCarthy in a Senate hearing.  McCarthy was terrorizing the Nation with false accusations of Communism, so much so that even President Eisenhower felt powerless to stop him.  But a lawyer named Joseph Welch publicly called McCarthy out in front of the nation.  That statement equally applies to Governors DeSantis and Abbott.

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness… You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

When it comes to DeSantis and Abbott – the answer is clearly no.

You can still see them in “Amish Country”, only an hour’s drive from here in Pataskala. The Old Amish drive buggy’s and wagons using reins and a short handle with a length of leather attached at the end. What starts as a “branch” ends as a whip to “encourage” the horse to greater speed or strength.  Farm animals aren’t “pets” to the Amish – they are all business. 

Dodds

On June 24th, 2022, more than half of the nation’s citizens lost a right to control their own bodies. Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump and the Federalist Society got their “fever dream” wish when the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade.  In Dodds v Jackson Women’s Health, they returned the determination of women’s right to access abortion to state legislatures. The “black letter law” of the United States for forty-nine years – that women have the right to choose abortion up through the fourth month of pregnancy – was abruptly ended. 

The Court stood behind a veneer of returning power to the states.  But the six majority justices were well aware that over half of those states would immediately move to ban abortion.   Five of the six were completely comfortable with the idea.  Chief Justice Roberts looked for some compromise that would continue Court supervision of that “right”, but failed to win any takers from either side.  

No Right to Privacy

The Majority attacked the “right to privacy” in the Constitution.  They applied their “Original Intent” argument. Much like the Old Amish, they argue that if the founding fathers didn’t specifically say so, then there is no “extrapolation” allowed to add Constitutionally protected rights.  The obvious hypocrisy of the original authors, who saw making enslaved people three-fifths of a person for the purpose of taxation and representation but failed to grant them three-fifths of a vote, didn’t seem to be a problem, for the founders, or the current Court Justices.

So, while the Old Amish stretched their religious beliefs to use steel or rubber tires on their buggies, the idea that women would have right to their own bodies doesn’t pass “Constitutional muster” to the Majority.  They fell back on the Tenth Amendment:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

But Congress still has “the power” to enact national legislation.  A Democratic majority of the House of Representatives and of the Senate already agree that the basis of the Roe decision should be made into national law.  But the arcane filibuster rule of the Senate, requiring sixty votes to pass most legislation, has stopped that bill from reaching the President’s desk for signature into law.  

Mid-Terms

Which, of course, makes the upcoming mid-term elections all the more important.  If Democrats retain control of the House and gain two more Senators willing to change the filibuster rule, at least for this issue (and voting rights), then the doctrine of Roe can be written in national law.  But elections have consequences.  Should Republicans gain control of the House or Senate, then obviously that chance to “right the wrong” of Dodds won’t happen.  

The Dodds decision seems to be electrifying the voting public.   New voter registration for women is out-distancing men’s by several percent.  In “Red – Red” Kansas, an August state constitutional amendment to allow for banning abortion drew as big an election turnout as the Presidential election of 2012.  By a 59% to 41% margin, the amendment was rejected.  Democrats are looking for that kind of turnout throughout the nation, hoping to turn an expected “Red Wave” into a Blue one.

Even if Republicans were to take both Houses of Congress, the President would maintain his veto power over legislation.  And no “fever dream” sees this narrowly divided nation electing a two-thirds majority of either House to override a Biden veto.  But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from imagining ways to create a national abortion ban.  

Old Lindsey

Lindsey Graham, Senator from South Carolina, recognizes the drastic impact Dodds may have on voting turnout and November’s results.  So he’s offered up an “olive branch”, a proposal for a new national law.  His proposal:

“I think we should have a law at the federal level that would say, after 15 weeks, no abortion on demand except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother…”(WAPO).

You can see his thinking.  Allow fifteen weeks of “choice”, then exceptions afterwards for rape and incest.  That “compromise” would allow pro-choice Republicans  like those in Kansas, to stay with their Party instead of crossing over to vote for “pro-choice” Democrats.  It’s an “olive branch” of compromise, or so he says.  His problem; so much of his own Party is committed to absolute abortion bans. It’s problematic that he could garner even his own Republican support.

And the “olive branch” is more of a “whip” in the end.  It continues to recognize Dodd, allowing states to make more restrictive abortion laws on their own.  In fact, what the Graham proposal would do is restrict those states that allow abortions, including Kansas, New York, and California, to his proposed Congressional standard. It would leave the others with almost total bans alone.  And it tears down the veneer of “Tenth Amendment”, and shows the real Republican view of women’s rights.  Lindsey Graham, Justice Samuel Alito and the rest want to be the “whip hand”, holding the reins and driving the country back into the last century, stroke by stroke.

It should come as no surprise to readers of “Our America” that I closely follow political polling. While I don’t agree with their particular editorial bias, Real Clear Politics does an excellent job of compiling information from races all over the nation.  If you want to see where the polls stand – from Alaska to Wyoming – check them out.

The Polls

I first learned about polling in history class with the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” Chicago Tribune headline after the 1948 Presidential election.  Of course, the paper was being held up by a smiling Harry Truman – the actual Presidential winner in 1948.  What went wrong?  It was a telephone poll, and overwhelmingly went for the Republican Dewey. But not everyone had telephones in 1948, so the resulting unbalanced sample unintentionally biased towards the Republican.  Truman won.  The lesson:  polls aren’t always right.

My next polling experience was while working for the Carter/Mondale campaign in 1976. My boss, Michael Jackson (he looked a lot more like the lineman from Nebraska he was then the singer he wasn’t) wanted an idea of how  Carter was doing in the Cincinnati area. So one night we shut down our twenty line phone bank and acting as “ABC Polling” (named after his previous employer – the “Anyone But Carter” coalition). We made a thousand phone calls. We randomized our calls by calling every fifth name in the voting list, and looked up their number in the phone book.

I don’t know the “mathematics” of polling, by Mike knew that 1000 responses would give us the rough numbers to see where we stood.  He figured a 5% margin of error.  And unlike the 1948 poll, by 1976 almost everyone had an in-house phone line.  So the phone book actually was an accurately “random” sampling of the voters.  The results showed we were close, and in fact, Carter did win Ohio by a narrow margin, icing his electoral victory over Ford.

Modeling

Polling has dramatically changed since those days.  First, the days of in-house phones, listed in the phone book, are over.  Less than 40% of Ohioans have “land lines” anymore (NBX).  So calling from the “phone book” would be an irretrievably biased sample of those who still managed to have land-lines, with whatever political conclusions that might mean.  Certainly, if nothing else, it would be a much older “sample” then the general public.

So pollsters had to find a different way to reach out, rather than just taking “mass samples” like we did in 1976.  New polling depends on developing “models” of what the electorate will look like in the next election.  For example, if the model predicts that 15% of the voters in the upcoming election will be between 18 and 25, then they need to get a sample that includes that age group.  And of course, they have to get enough in that sample so that one or two “outlier” answers won’t skew (or screw) the ultimate results.  But no matter how many 18 to 25 year old’s they talk to, it will never be weighted more than 15% of the total outcome of the poll.  That’s what modeling is all about.  

Using that tactic, polls in the 1990’s were highly accurate in predicting election outcomes.  The whole “trick” was getting a good “model” for the next election.  But with the 2004 Presidential election, poll modeling got a lot trickier, and the polls themselves became less  accurate.  So what happened?

Wedge Issues

In 2004 John Kerry was the Democratic candidate for President.  Ohio was a crucial state for Kerry to win, and pre-election polling showed Kerry in the lead (though not with a 50% majority).  But the Republican Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, pushed a state Constitutional amendment onto the ballot, banning gay marriage.  That amendment drastically altered the voter turnout in 2004, making the polling “model” inaccurate.  Folks showed up to vote against gay marriage who generally didn’t vote, and it led to a Bush victory.

It’s called “wedge” politics; finding issues that are so energizing that it brings out folks who haven’t voted in the past.  In 2004 it was gay marriage.  In 2022 it’s likely to be the Dodd Decision by the US Supreme Court, overruling Roe v Wade and granting the power to control abortion laws to the individual states.  

What Model

There was a lot of criticism of polling in the 2016 and 2020 elections.  Some of that criticism is justified:  many of the pollsters used models that didn’t include the power of the “MAGA” movement, undercounting Donald Trump’s expected vote.  In addition, a new kind of poll subject came about – the liar.  Folks know that polls effect campaigns, and some take advantage of the pollsters by answering questions the opposite way than they will vote.  Some are doing that because they are embarrassed to be “MAGA” supporters.  But other “MAGA” supporters say that the pollsters are invariably against Trump, so why not skew (or screw) their product.  

In both 2016 and 2020, the actual Presidential results were much closer than the polling indicated before the vote.  When you look at the polling for 2022, you have to wonder:  do the current models take into account the surge of women registering to vote, many to vote against the Dodd decision results (and therefore Republicans)?  Look at the outcome of the August Kansas referendum to give the legislature the authority to ban abortions.  It not only lost by a huge margin, but an August election had a turnout verging on the November Presidential election of 2012.  Here in Ohio, women newly registering to vote is up 7% since before the Dodd decision (Axios).

The Race

I am a track coach.  The 400 meter sprint is the race that takes one complete lap of the track.  I’ve had runners who charge to the lead, and hold on for the full 400 meters.  I also had other runners, just a successful, that waited until the last 100 meters to make their charge down the “home stretch” to take the lead and win.  So I am well aware that you can’t necessarily “call” a race when it’s half over at the 200 meter mark.  I don’t know whether the front runners can hang on, and the pursuers are just waiting to surge ahead.  The “winner” at the 200 is often NOT the winner of the race.

Polls, even at their most accurate, are merely a “snapshot” of where things stand at that moment.  They are most useful to campaigns to target “the rest” of the race, whether they are holding on or surging.  They aren’t designed to predict an outcome.

Home Stretch

Cornell Belcher was the leading pollster for the Democratic National Committee and the Obama campaigns.  He made a very important point in an interview last night.  The media, and Americans, look at polls as “outcomes” rather than as “snapshots”.  Belcher made the observation that if your winning 46 to 43 – it means that 11% haven’t made up their mind – and there’s no reason to believe they’ll split the same way.  If they split 8 to 3 against you – you lose by two percent. 

When the poll shows you winning by more than 50 % – that’s different.  That’s still not a guarantee, but at that “snapshot”, it would be a win.

So polls in September don’t predict wins in November.  They simply show where a candidate stands now.  And they are wholly dependent on good modeling.  So don’t count any candidate out just yet – we haven’t even hit the “home stretch”.

Today’s Snapshot

• Don’t forget the margin of error +/-2% – and the undecided 
• Ohio Senate – Ryan (D) 47, Vance (R) 46   (undecided 7)
• Arizona Senate – Kelly (D) 47, Masters(R) 45  (undecided 8)
• Georgia Senate – Walker (R) 47, Warnock (D) 44  (undecided 9)
• Florida Senate – Rubio (R) 47, Demings (D) 44   (undecided 9)
• North Carolina Senate – Budd (R) 47, Beasley (D) 44   (undecided 9)
• Pennsylvania Senate – Fetterman (D) 49, Oz (R) 44  (undecided 7)
• Wisconsin Senate – Barnes (D) 49, Johnson (R) 47   (undecided 4)

The Clock is Running

There is so much taking up our attention.  Just last week we saw the legal battles of Donald Trump, the upcoming elections for control of Congress, and here in Columbus, another police shooting of an unarmed black man.  And, of course, the Queen is dead, long live the new King. 

It’s easy to forget that war still rages in Ukraine.  It started with the incredible Ukrainian resistance to the first Russian assault.  Then there was all of the early media “hype”.  But the battle turned into an ugly artillery duel and World War I type trench warfare along a more than five hundred mile front, and has dragged on for months.  

For Ukraine the clock is running.  They are depending on continued NATO support. They need sophisticated weaponry, but just as much, they need the basics: bullets and artillery shells.  And at least as important, there are looking to the West to continue the economic pressure on Russia with ongoing sanctions.  And, for the moment, everyone and every country is on board.

The Cost of Heat

But winter is coming.  And with winter, the NATO “price” for the sanctions will grow, as Russian natural gas is cut off from flowing to heat European houses.  Folks aren’t going to freeze – but they are going to pay a high price for energy.  Will the NATO governments still be willing to support Ukraine and sanction Russia  as costs go up and the snows blow in from the eastern steppes?

Ukrainians know winter too.  The cold wind will blow there, across the battle ravaged wheat fields in the east.  And while Russia has been embarrassed by the Ukrainian resistance and their own incompetence; in a war of attrition Russia still holds the advantage.  Ukraine needs to do whatever it can now to “close the deal”.

The Change in Strategy

It began a month ago.  Russia was trying to drive to the Ukrainian seaport of Odesa, and close off the last open sea access to export Ukraine’s main product, the wheat harvest.  It looked like Ukrainian forces were simply counter-attacking, trying to cutoff Russian troops on the west side of the Dnieper River from their supplies on the eastern shore.  The Ukrainian Army next upped that attack, driving to  reach the critical city of Kherson near the mouth of the river.  Russia rotated troops from other sections to the southern front.

And then, in a surprise assault, Ukraine struck at the opposite end of the line, in the north near the city of Kharkiv.  That attack, just in the last couple of weeks, regained over a thousand square miles of the Russian occupied eastern provinces.  Video shows Russian forces racing to get away, headed east towards their own border.  And the battle continues around Kherson, with Russians have to decide to hold their ground and get cutoff, or retreat.

No one thinks this is the “end” of the war.  The Russian’s will retreat, but ultimately will regroup closer to their own borders.  And Russian missiles continue to attack Ukrainian civilian targets, anywhere in the country, recently including power generators in Kharkiv, the second largest city in the nation.  

The Ultimate Threat

And there still is the greatest threat to Ukrainian civilians.  The battle line runs directly through the largest nuclear plant in Europe, near the city of  Zaporizhzhia.  All six nuclear reactors are shut down, cutting off a major power source for Ukraine. And even worse, the reactors still require power to maintain cooling of their nuclear cores.  External lines to the plant still function, but should they fail, backup diesel generators only have a ten day supply of fuel.  After that, the cores will overheat, and begin to meltdown.  

Meltdowns have happened before:  at Fukushima, Japan after the tsunami, and at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.  But the worst commercial nuclear disaster was at Chernobyl, in Ukraine just fifty miles north of Kyiv.

The Ukrainian people lived that nuclear disaster.  There is no way or really knowing the death toll of Chernobyl.  The old Soviet Union claimed that only thirty-one died, but more recent estimates are in the tens of thousands or more.  The Ukrainian government recognizes 36,525 women as widows of men who suffered from Chernobyl (BBC).

Autumn Leaves

Chernobyl already was the site of a Russian military encampment, abandoned in the first retreat.  And it only had four reactors. Now the Russians occupy Zaporizhzhia.  It’s a “safe” base for them.  Reasonably, the Ukrainian Army is unlikely to attack there, the risk is too great. And as the war rages, there is an ultimate threat that the Russians could “arrange” for a nuclear “accident”.  

The pressure on Russia is constant, but Putin seems determined to allow his people to absorb any damage.  And with his iron grip on protest and dissent, it’s not likely that they will have much say in the matter.  But the pressure on Ukraine to “stop” and “negotiate” will grow.  Success on the battlefield and recovery of stolen territories help.  And getting all that done now, before the “autumn leaves start to fall” is crucial.  Ukraine don’t know who will still be beside them, “when winter calls”.

Ukraine Crisis

• When Winter Calls – 9/12/22
• A Full Plate – 7/26/22
• Ukrainian Independence – 6/30/22
• No Victory Day – 5/10/22
• Desperate Moves – 4/27/22
• This is the Time – 4/20/22
• The Winning Message – 4/18/22
• Victory Day – 4/12/22
• Chapter Two – 4/11/22
• Zelenskyy’s Choice – 3/31/22
• The Gaffe – 3/28/22
• Putin’s Choice – 3/27/22
• Far Away From the Front – 3/20/22
• The Next Step – 3/17/22
• Thinking the Unthinkable – 3/14/22
• Russian Oil – 3/11/22
• Kyiv’s Choice – 3/8/22
• The Logic of Madness – 3/7/22
• Lights Out – 3/6/22
• Ante Up – 3/3/22
• State of the Union  3/2/22
• The Guns of March 3/1/22
• Sanctions 2/26/22
• What Happens Next 2/24/22
• The Games Begin  2/22/22
• Talking with a Friend 2/18/22
• Trip Wire 2/2/22
• On the Brink 1/23/22
• The Ukrainian Dilemma 12/5/19

It’s September 11^th.  That particular date is burned into the minds of everyone who was alive twenty-one years ago.  Like my parents’ generation and December 7^th, 9-11 is for many of us our “inflection” point.  It was the day the America was attacked by terrorists.  

It’s hard to imagine:  children born the day of the attack are “reaching their majority” today.  If generations are marked by twenty years, then 9-11 was a full generation ago.  Maybe a long time, but it still takes almost no effort at all to see the visions of the planes striking and the buildings tumbling down.  The empty, hollow, shocked feeling is just there, right under the scar tissue of emotional protection.

Over the past six years I’ve been writing essays here in “Our America”.  That’s several 9-11 anniversaries.  Here are parts of two of those essays in honor of those we lost, and the now distant unity we found, as the planes crashed into our lives in September 11, 2001.

Key Largo

Fifteen years after 9-11, we retired. Like many couples, my wife Jenn and I wanted to do some travelling.  So in 2016 we decided to take a week on the Florida Keys.  We flew down to Miami, rented a Jeep, took the top down and headed to Key Largo to hang out with the iguanas by the swimming pool, look for manatees by the dock, and learn to love a drink called “mojitos”, a mix of rum, mint, sugar and lime.  

We managed to make it down to Key West for a day, a place that we both would like to re-visit and spend more time.  It’s a town that can make a party out of the sunset, with hundreds gathering on the pier and cheering as the sun drops below the horizon.  There’s a few mojitos served there as well.  Maybe more than a few.

We also took the glass-bottomed boat tour out of Key Largo, to see the coral and sea life.  As we waited on the dock to board the boat, an older oriental couple sat down beside us.  We began a casual conversation with the man, Mr. Young, who was from New York.  We were headed to the “Big Apple” the next week, and he was excited to tell us about his city, and the restaurants, and how to get authentic Chinese food.

Red Bandana

Then he started to talk about his wife, who was sitting there beside him.  He introduced us to her, Ling Young.  She was a 9-11 survivor from the 78th Floor of the World Trade Center, saved by a hero of that day, the man with the “Red Bandana”.   Ling was badly burned when the plane struck the building, and was surrounded by the bodies of those instantly killed in the attack.  Through the smoke came a young man with a red bandana over his face.  He picked her up and got her to the stairwell, and down to the 61st floor.  

Then he urged her to continue to safety, and turned around and went back up to the fire.  With help, she managed to escape the World Trade Center.  The young man, later identified as twenty-four year old Welles Crowther, did not.

Mrs. Young had horrible burns, and told us there she endured more than twenty surgeries.  She became a leader of the 9-11 survivor movement.  She wanted to help the victims, but also keep alive the memory of heroes.  Mr. Young told us how she didn’t like to speak in public that much, but, as he said, “When Vice President Biden calls on the phone and asks you, you go”.  The horn sounded, and then we boarded the glass bottom boat.  We enjoyed the trip, but learned so much more about strength and real heroism, than coral and barracudas.

Shanksville

Two years later, in the summer of 2018, we loaded up our new camper and heading out on the road. That week it was to Pennsylvania, and while our ultimate destination was Gettysburg (where I transformed into the history geek Jenn’s always worried about) first there was a stop in Shanksville.

Shanksville has a population of 232. It is a rural village in the hills and dales of the Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Shanksville is all about coal and farming  and definitely is Trump country. And if that name sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Twenty-one years ago the quiet little village of Shanksville was ripped out of rural tranquility and placed front and center onto the world stage of terror.

Into a Field

In an old strip mined field of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the fourth airliner hijacked on 9/11, United Flight 93, came hurtling into the ground at 543 miles per hour. It was bound for the Capitol Building in Washington, 19 minutes out, when the passengers decided that they were going to take control of history. They revolted against their terrorist captors. As passenger Todd Beamer was heard to say (on an airphone left connected) “Let’s Roll.” As they battled to take  control of the aircraft, it flew, inverted, full power into the ground.

It was an act of desperation.  They knew from phone calls that the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers had already been hit.  The passengers understood that this was not a “hostage taking” exercise; they were in a flying bomb. They determined on an act of ultimate courage, willing to take the last chance, or at least choose their way of dying. It was forty passengers and crew versus four hijackers, and as the black box recording showed, the heroes succeeded in breeching the cockpit, as English and Arabic yells and curses mixed, and the hijackers, rather than be overcome, crashed the plane.

National Memorial

There are two memorials near Shanksville. The United States has created a National Memorial and a Visitors Center near the crash site. That Memorial has low black limestone walls surrounding the debris field, and a high white memorial wall, names of the passengers and crew etched in stone. The shape of the wall follows the plane’s path of descent. In the center of a large field, a boulder represents the covered impact zone, originally thirty feet deep, filled in as the final resting place for the fallen.

The Visitors Center gives a visual history of that day, from the clear blue skies that welcomed the children at the Shanksville school that morning, to the step-by-step realization that we were under attack, and finally the shocking assault from the sky. It is a National Monument to the heroic action of the forty, and it is an historic lesson so that the growing number of people who have no memory of 9/11 will learn. As Lincoln said, “…it is all together fitting and proper that we do this.”

The Chapel

But down the road is the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel. It isn’t mentioned at the National Memorial. It was an old church, turned into a grain barn. After the crash a local priest determined to buy it, and create a space for those who wished to mourn, meditate, and remember. “Father Al” with help from the Hardy Family of 84 Lumber, remodeled the chapel in time for the first anniversary of the crash. Here was where the families of the forty originally came. It is filled the not only with their memorabilia, but the gifts of thousands:  stained glass from a Jewish temple, a US desert camo uniform from Iraq, a United Airlines service cart. Outside, United’s own monument to the passengers and crew is placed. A memorial bell vintage 1861 is rung, loud enough to be heard at the crash site four miles away.

While the National Memorial represents the history and honor of the nation, the Chapel represents the heart and soul of the people of Shanksville. It is their ongoing gift to the families of the fallen, and also a memorial to their own loss of innocence.

With the political divide our nation is faced with today, where we can hardly stand each other across the chasm of differing beliefs, it is strengthening to realize that there still is an America where we can reach across our differences to unite. We can celebrate both the strength of the forty, and the strength of the folks in Shanksville in dealing with this tragedy. We can believe in America once again.

Forever England

My Mom passed away in 2011 in Cincinnati, her home for sixty-five years.  But she was born in England, in a suburb of London.  And while she lived in the United States from 1946, she remained a citizen of the United Kingdom throughout her life.  At her request, on her tombstone is the opening sentence of the Rupert Brooke poem, The Soldier:

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is forever England. 

Mom was a warrior in World War II, a member of the clandestine Special Operations Executive.  She served as an agent, a go-between from headquarters in England and operatives in France, Belgium and Yugoslavia.  Mom was dropped off in dark pastures by small aircraft called Lysanders, and even had to bail out of one on fire over Belgium. 

She took the ultimate risks for her homeland. And she lost her fiancé (not my father) flying a Spitfire aircraft in the Battle of Britain.  Mom shared her dedication early in her children’s lives.  When I was a boy, we lived in Dayton, Ohio, home of the US Air Force Museum.  Our family would go to tour the aircraft.  Mom would pause for a moment to touch the wing of the Spitfire, shedding tears for the memories in her past.  And she would point at the Lysander hanging from the ceiling, telling me that was “her” plane.  It wasn’t until later, twenty-five years after the War ended, that I knew the reason why. So Mom was as British as British could be – even as she loved the United States almost as much.

A Magical Place

Mom loved the symbols and ceremonies of royal England.  As a kid we made trips “home” every few years.  Mom took us to watch the trooping of the color outside of Buckingham Palace; the red-coated soldiers with their great bearskin hats, the armored Horse Guards with their silver helmets.  We went to Windsor to see the “Crown Jewels”, and the tower where Mary Queen of Scots spent her last days before losing her head.   As my sister would say, Mom made England a “magical place” for us kids.  It was Mom’s home, with aunts, uncles and cousins spread throughout the country.  And it was always warm and welcoming, always smiling and familiar to us.

My Mom didn’t “know” the Queen, but she admired her.  Mom was a decade older, but respected the young Princess who learned to “turn a wrench” as a teenaged mechanic during World War II.  And she empathized with the twenty-four year old Princess turned Queen. 

Inheritance

The Queen wasn’t “meant” to be the Monarch.  Her father was the second son, out of direct line for the throne.  But her uncle, Edward, abdicated the throne “…for the woman he loved”, and Elizabeth’s father became King in 1936.  Elizabeth went from a “member of the Royal family” to next in line for the throne.

Then as Princess, she was living a youthful lifestyle with her soulmate Prince Phillip Mountbatten and their young children when her father died young at fifty-six. She then assumed the burden of the monarchy, and the sacrifice of her personal life, for her country.  Mom, from her wartime experience, knew what it was like to almost instantly go from a carefree young adulthood to awesome responsibilities.

Pomp and Circumstance

Mom reveled in the pomp and circumstance of the British Royal family.  She watched the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, the “fairytale” wedding in London, and the funeral for Diana far too soon afterwards. And while we had an “open” dining room table, where conversations ranged around the world both geographically and politically,  she brooked no criticism of the Queen, not even by others who carried the Royal Coat of Arms on their passports. 

My mother and the Queen were of the same era.  I didn’t realize how much so, until just the other day.  My wife was watching the scene of the Queen meeting the new Prime Minister at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.  She noticed that the Queen’s sitting room looked a lot like Mom’s living room; the same style of chairs, settees and end tables with lamps carefully placed.  It was the typical “formal” living room of their era, different from a more relaxed “family room”.  I’m sure the Queen didn’t have fresh cigarettes in the box on the “coffee table”. Her father was a heavy smoker who died of lung cancer.  But I remember in the 1980’s when Mom finally stopped stocking them for visitors, decades after Dad quit smoking.   

The Queen Speaks   

And both Mom and the Queen spoke with the same “High British” accent, Mom’s carefully crafted in private boarding school, and maintained through decades of American experience.  The Queen and her sister Margaret were the last of the Royal family educated at home by private tutors.  But their accent was the same.   When I heard the Queen speak, I was always reminded of Mom.

Thursday morning it was announced that the Queen was under “medical supervision”, a euphemism for a severe health crisis of a ninety-six year old.  Her son, Prince Charles, was at her side, along with her daughter Anne.  Her other sons Andrew and Edward, and her grandsons William and Harry and the rest of the family were making their way to Scotland.  When everyone is called in, it’s clearly serious.

We’ve all been there.  When Mom’s time finally came, we hurried family from all over the country.  Mom bravely hung on, wanting to have a final say and goodbye to all her children and grandchildren.  I’m sure the Queen had final commands and goodbyes as well.

But Thursday afternoon the word came out – Queen Elizabeth II, reigning monarch for seventy years of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, has died.  Her son, the seventy-two year old Prince of Wales, is now King.  Whether he’s King Charles the III, King George the VII, or chooses some other name, I know what my Mom would say.

The Queen is dead – Long Live the King!!

Update – It’s King Charles the Third!

In the Mail

Oddly enough, I receive a great deal of “right-wing” email.  I’m sure in my quest to try to understand “the other side”, my address landed on a saleable list.  Now I hear from Hillsdale College and Praeger University (one a real school, one a right-wing training site).  I get plaintive fundraising requests from Marco Rubio, Korey Lake and even JD Vance. And I also get mail from several “news” websites, carefully taking pieces of mainstream news and crafting it to their message.

I read a lot of it, because I do think it’s important to hear what they have to say.  And what they are saying about President Joe Biden is telling.  

Sure there are the insults:  old, demented, addled.  Those often conflict with the “crafty, old liberal” message, though they call Biden a “puppet” of his far-left backers.  Puppets don’t have to understand what they’re saying.  I guess they haven’t heard from the real far-left powers, who are almost as disgruntled with Biden as they are.   So, no matter how they spin it, Biden is “baaaaad”.

Mirror Images

And with the President now being up-front and honest with his concerns for the survival of our Democracy, my “right-wing” sources are singing a common hymn.  They claim it’s all just politics, Democrats versus Republicans.  They’ve been calling Democrats radical-left-wing-socialists for so long, they simply see the President in the mirror.  They say he’s calling “them” semi-fascist authoritarians, and he’s insulting every single one of the 74,224,319 voters who chose Trump over Biden in 2020.

It’s a common political tactic:  paint your opposition with a “broad brush”, and include as many on “your side” as you can.  Convince every single Republican that Biden is talking about THEM:  THEY are fascist authoritarians.  And if they don’t quite get what that means (Trump loves the uneducated), think Hitler.  He’s calling you Nazis.  

They know that message can work.  When Hillary Clinton used the unfortunate term “deplorables” to describe some of the Trump supporters, the right-wing used it as a wedge to drive the voters apart and to the polls.  If deplorable worked, semi-fascist authoritarian might work even better.  The fact that Clinton was describing the folks we now identify as the Proud Boys, or the Oath Takers, or the Three Percenters,  didn’t matter.

Damaging Democracy

Of course, that’s not what Biden’s doing at all.  He’s saying that those Republicans who are denying the results of the 2020 election, claiming out of thin air that the election was rigged, are damaging American democracy. He’s saying that those who look at all of our institutions:  boards of elections, Secretaries of State, local, state and Federal courts; and say they are all complicit in “the steal” have already undermined our nation.  

Biden’s message is actually pretty simple:  if elections don’t work, then democracy can’t exist.  If the only answer to losing election is violence, then the American Constitutional experiment cannot survive.  That is the existential threat.  

And that would have been true had Hillary Clinton lead a mirror-image “Stop the Steal” movement in 2016.  It’s not that we didn’t think about it.  There are many who started down that “rabbit-hole” in the years after 2016.  I wrote three essays about it:  77744,  Put on My Foil Hat, and Foil Hat II.  But Democratic leaders, and particularly Hillary Clinton herself, saw it as their political duty to accept the results and move on.  They didn’t question the election, instead, they worked to win the next ones in 2018 and 2020.  And they did.

The Difference

So when President Biden calls for “MAGA Republicans” to stop, he is really calling on almost all of the Republican leaders who have conceded to Donald Trump.  Where is their “political duty”, their obligation, to protect the Constitution?  Biden isn’t “blaming” all 74,224,319 voters who chose Trump.  He is attacking those who attack our Constitutional democracy by undermining it for their own political gain.

They are deplorable.  They subvert faith in our democracy and our institutions.  And they are willing to use mob violence to achieve their own political ends.  

That’s who Biden is calling out.  That’s the distinction between “Republicans” (what the MAGA crew would call “RINO’s”) and “MAGA Republicans”.  It’s a distinction with a difference.

“I believe people should just, just be ready to get out on the streets with pitchforks and torches with how low the liberal media has become. People need to decide ‘Am I going to put up with this? Am I going to tolerate this, taking somebody that gives money to churches or cancer research and use that as a hit piece in the media?’ I’m appalled. It’s disgusting.” – Tim Michels, Trump-endorsed Republican Candidate for Governor of Wisconsin

Frankenstein

The old black and white movie “Frankenstein” had the original sequence.   The mob, torches in hand are exhorted to track down and destroy the monster by their leaders.  The bloodhounds, bayed on the trail through the night.  And the women in their shawls clutched the young children, watching their “men” go off to destroy the Frankenstein.  I remember as a young kid, trembling at the spectacle of the Doctor’s creation.  No, I didn’t see the movie in the 1930’s theatre.  I watched it on black and white TV’s in the early 1960’s.

That mob was scary in the 1931 version.  They were more humorous in the Mel Brooks version, Young Frankenstein.  That came out the year I graduated from high school, 1974.  It was still in black and white. That was Brook’s  intentional choice, to recall the original.  But in 2022, pitchforks and torches are in “living color” and are symbolic of American politics today.  Tim Michels, the Trump-endorsed candidate for Wisconsin governor is calling out the mob against the “liberal” press.  

His campaign staff scoffed at concerns;  “only political hacks and media accomplices would freak out about Tim using a figure of speech.”  And if it was ten years ago, before Charlottesville, before the Insurrection, maybe we could buy that.  But it’s not.  We know exactly what torchlight marches look like – “Jews will not replace us”.  And we know that today’s “pitchforks” are metal flagstaffs, often with “Trump” emblazoned on the guidon.  There’s no scoffing in 2022 about violence in politics.

Random Violence

Saturday night in Wilkes Barre the disgraced former President promised “full pardons” for the January 6^thInsurrectionists.  And he prophesized that the current investigations into his own actions would produce “…a backlash the likes of which our country had not seen before” (BBC).  He called the FBI and the Justice Department “vicious monsters”.   The specter of violence weighs on every decision.  It looms large when the Department of Justice brings charges against someone, or when the actual President, Joe Biden, speaks tough truth to the Nation, as he did on the campaign trail this weekend. 

Biden intentionally called on citizens to defend our Democracy, not through violence, but by casting out the “MAGA Republican” ideology.   Criticism of Biden was foreseeable.  Some said “Biden ran as the ‘uniter’, now he’s a ‘divider’”.  Others cried out, “He’s calling 71 million Trump voters Fascists”.   The President is not calling half the electorate Fascists.  He recognizes that Republican Party is divided, between those who are true Trump “believers”, and those who know better, but follow the “false prophet” just to get elected.  But he is warning that fifty million Americans are convinced as “MAGA Republicans”.  He isn’t calling for them to be “cast out”. He calling on their leadership to recognize their threat to Democracy, instead of conforming to an ideology  for convenience sake.  

Hard Truth

It is a divisive stand.  But it’s not creating division, it’s simply recognizing our current political reality.  In Biden’s view of leadership, the President of the United States has a duty and obligation to tell the Nation when things are wrong.  Biden would say, he promised to tell the truth, even when it’s hard.  It would be foolish to ignore this “elephant in the room”.  And in true Biden fashion, he is speaking from the heart.

It does indicate a change in the “Good Old” Joe who got elected in 2020.  Biden truly believed he could reach out across the divide, as he did so many times in the US Senate.  But after two years, the reality of Trumpism has set in, even for Joe Biden.  Just as the disgraced former President doesn’t seem to “fade away”, neither does his ideology.  And it’s not just Trump himself.  The far-right extremism that Trump represents is catching fire in many world democracies.   Biden’s words are a recognition that this is not about one man, but a much more dangerous and seductive view of world governing.

Biden is telling America the hard truth.  Trump, and his ilk, are countering with not-so-vague threats of violence.  Either one could still be America’s future.  It is our choice.  

Here’s this week’s addition to the “Sunday Story” series. No politics here, just a story about sub teaching in the local high school.

My First Day

It was MY first day of school on Friday.  I always struggle as a substitute teacher, when to “break the ice” and get started once again.  No one wants to “sub” the first week of school:  the kids don’t know what they’re doing, and neither do you.  That’s all about just “hanging on”.  After thirty-five and a half years of teaching and “Dean of Students-ing”, I really don’t need that.

But now it’s been three weeks.  If I’m going back into a school, the longer I wait the harder it gets.  There’s a Social Studies teacher looking for a sub, on a Friday.  If I don’t take that job, I guess I’m just not subbing anymore.  

So here I am.  The hardest part of subbing is like any first day of work – your life schedule is completely upside down.  Instead of the dogs waking me, it’s the alarm waking us all.  Lou and CeCe were so sleepy, they weren’t even interested in food.  And it was still dark.  CeCe, the puppy, doesn’t really like the dark much.

But we managed to get going, get breakfast (dogs and me), and down three cups of coffee (just me).  I felt awake and alert.  But that still didn’t prepare me for the “shock”.  Jenn and  are retired. I might not talk to anyone until Jenn gets up (I’m the early riser, Jenn’s the night owl). So walking into a school of 1300 kids, and conversing with old friends and staff members at 7:10 am, is a jolt.  

As a sub, you’re at the “service” of the front office.  My Social Studies teacher had a first period conference.  That meant he didn’t have a class.  But subs don’t get conference periods, and so I was assigned to cover for the choir teacher.

Empty Rooms

Watkins Memorial High School is a big, almost-brand-new building that opened last year.  My social studies teacher’s room is on the second floor of one wing at the extreme end of the hallway.  The choir room, on the other hand, is on the first floor at the extreme end of another wing.  To get there – well – “you can’t get there from here”, at least not directly.  

So I arrived at the Choir Room, a full minute after the bell (buzz, tone, sound?) rang.  And no one was there.

I’ve lost classes before, but it was back in the 1970’s.  In those days we had a lot more teachers than classrooms, and I had no seniority at all.  So I was a “floater”, moving from room to room throughout the day.  Seven of us were crammed in a big storage closet for our teacher office.  We called it the “Looney Bin”, and while we had some fun, not much work got done in there.

Stolen Class

Back then, I was racing from my class at the new end of that old building (now scheduled for demolition) to my next class in the “old” wing.  And I was late, maybe three minutes late.  My freshmen decided that was a good time to “disappear”.  I came in the door to an empty classroom, and I panicked.  How could I explain to Mr. Nix, the intimidating principal from Alabama, that I lost my class?  He would give me that stare, and drawl “…well, Mr. Dahlman, part of your job duties is to NOT LOSE YOUR CLASS!!  Other teachers don’t lose their classes.  What if everyone lost their class.  GO AND FIND YOUR STUDENTS!!”

I decided to skip the preliminaries, and just find the kids.  The question is, where do thirty-six kids go?  They can’t leave – their freshmen.  And they can’t keep their mouths shut either, so I should be able to track them by noise.  

I went out in the hallway, and stalked the neighboring classrooms.  Two doors down was one of my “Looney Bin” compatriots.  Her class was oddly quiet.  Odd, because her students were always rambunctious, the walls throbbing with activity.  But when I approached – “shhh”, followed by silence.  I stuck my head in the door – and the room exploded with freshmen laughter.  No good being mad, my comrade had “stolen” my freshmen.  Not a lot of work got done that day.

Lost Class

So here I am, forty-four years later, a low ranking substitute.  And I’ve lost a class again. Where would the choir go  — assuming they weren’t hiding in five different rehearsal rooms – or stolen.

And then I realized.  As I was rushing down the stairs and through the halls, the Alma Mater was being sung on the PA system.  I thought it was the 2010 version we used for years at games and assemblies.  But when I saw a herd headed down the hall towards me, I realized:   they performed on the PA live – the choir was here.  I was the one lost, not them!

Subbing choir at Watkins Memorial High School is a pleasure.  The kids know what they need to do, and they sing.  Listening to forty-five minutes of rehearsal was good for the soul of this retired (old) social studies teacher.

The bell (sound, tone, buzzer?) rang again, and it’s another adventure back to my social studies class.  Lucky for me, one of the choir kids is headed that way, and shows me a shorter route.  He can’t take me there though, his girlfriend needs a minute at the top of the stairs.  He still makes it to class before I do.

Current Events

The next class are juniors in government.  That’s where I started, forty-four years ago, though back then government was a senior class we called “POD” (principles of democracy, or, as my classes called it, “Problems of Dahlman”).  And they’re doing current events.  The teacher has it all set for them, find articles on the Chromebooks, write an essay about the issue.  There’s no teaching involved for this substitute.  At least, there’s not supposed to be.

But there is a question.  And all it takes for me, is one.  The question is, what’s happening that involves government.  If you’ve read “Our America” at all, you know I’ve got a lot to say about a whole lot of issues and events in America.  But a classroom in this era isn’t the time or place for deep political discussions.   And they don’t know anything about me.  No time to establish the rapport and trust it takes to have a “real” classroom discussion.  So I answered the question briefly, and sent them to their Chromebooks to work on the assignment.

After that, it was an uneventful day.  Sure there were the kids who wouldn’t pay attention, but not many.  I did exercise the only real form of discipline I have as a sub (short of declaring a full-blown emergency and calling the my friend and successor, the current Dean of Students).  I wrote down two names for the regular teacher.  I’m good with misbehavior, after all, I am “just” a sub.  But I struggle with disrespect.

Hey Rickenbacker

But all-in-all a good day at Watkins Memorial.  I got a minute to see old friends, remembered how quiet this new building is, and got a surprise when a kid yelled “DAHLMAN” down the hall.  After all, it’s been eight years since I taught, and five years since I’ve coached.  The very few kids who know me might remember the “Zoom” classes I held as a long-term sub during Covid.  But even that was over two years ago, and I was just a badly lit figure droning on about history as dogs interrupted on the small screen.

Oh, and then there’s the “Rickenbacker” kids.  They remember me from subbing history class last year.  I  explained why Eddie Rickenbacker was particularly important to Columbus, Ohio (born here, and buried here).  And when they saw his picture, they somehow linked him to me.  They don’t know my name. I’m just the sub who they thought looked like Eddie Rickenbacker – thus “Hey Rickenbacker” in the hallway, and even in Kroger’s from time to time.  

It takes a second, but I usually answer.

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
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
• A Day in the Life – 9/4/22

NASA

Monday morning I was all set.  I had the “big” TV on the NASA channel, ready to watch the Artemis space vehicle launch from Cape Canaveral.  It’s the most powerful rocket ever, destined to orbit the Moon.  This was the first test, un-manned, in preparation for America’s return to space exploration. I can’t help it – “to boldly go where no human has gone before”.  Well, we have been to the Moon, but it’s the first step back into space, and onto Mars. 

While I was all ready to go, the Artemis was not.  It has four massive engines, fueled by super-cooled liquid hydrogen.  One engine wasn’t cooling enough.  The NASA managers determined that their best idea was to “scrub” the launch, and fix the problem.  I’m sure there was a lot of pressure to “light the candle”, and see what happens.  But there is an old NASA saying, “Don’t screw the pooch”.  It’s simple – don’t make a huge, dramatic, public mistake.   And the folks at NASA knew that it was better to figure the problem out, than chance blowing up billions of dollars of space vehicle, on the launch pad, on national TV.  They’ll try again on Saturday afternoon.  I’ll be watching.

Checked Boxes

It was just a month ago that I wrote an essay about the Democrats called “Check the Boxes”.  That was the day after Senate Majority Leader Schumer and West Virginia Senator Manchin announced a deal on a portion of the former “Build Back Better” plan.  It was re-configured as “The Inflation Reduction Act”, based mostly on a $300 billion paydown of the National Debt.  That debt is over $30 trillion, so while $300 billion is a big sum, it’s still a drop in the bucket, exactly one percent.  

But what the now enacted Inflation Reduction Act did do was address a variety of concerns.  It was the biggest environmental expenditure in United States history, $369 billion, paid for by requiring big corporations to pay a minimum of 15% on income.  It reduced Medicare costs by allowing Medicare to do what every other health insurer does:  negotiate for drug prices.  And it guaranteed that Medicare recipients will pay no more than $2000 in drug costs annually.  

And last week, the President announced $10,000 of student loan debt would be forgiven, $20,000 for those who were income-eligible for Pell Grants.   It was a controversial decision.  Many declaimed it as “unfair”:  what about those who paid their way, or paid their  loans, or didn’t go to college?  It will cost $24 billion a year.  In a nation that forgave $900 billion in PPP loans to businesses in the past two years, $24 billion doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. And one-third of all student loan borrowers will be completely cleared of their obligation, thirteen million Americans.  

Labor Day

It’s the first day of September.  This weekend is Labor Day, the traditional “kick-off” for political campaigns (though in this era that doesn’t seem to ever stop).  And Democrats, with the two glaring exceptions of voting and police reforms, have “checked the legislative boxes”.  The political party that seems to spend so much time trying to “eat itself”, managed to unite long enough to do a fundamental function of American leadership: they governed.

And now Democrats are on the offensive.  The Trump Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade, and many states are making abortions virtually illegal.  That battle line there is very clear:  Republicans want to control what women do with their own bodies, Democrats want women to have a choice.  It is a simple as that.

Flip the Script

President Biden tried to flip the script on Republicans when it comes to “support the Blue”.  Republicans have for decades, been the Party of “law and order”.  They still are running racially tinged ads about “lawlessness” in “Democrat cities”.  But Biden put it bluntly.  You can’t be for law and order and support the Insurrection of January 6^th.  You can’t be for law and order  and want to “defund” the FBI for searching Mar-A-Lago.  Biden proposed greater support for local policing.

And Biden has made it plain.  A vote for Democrats is a vote to uphold democracy.  A vote for Republicans is a vote for insurrectionists, a vote against American traditions.  

Democrats go into “opening day” of the 2022 elections with a good head of steam.  Last night, Alaska sent a Democrat to Congress for the first time in state history.  Last week, a Democrat won a “bell-weather” district in New York state.   

November 7th

It’s a long way to November 7^th.  There are many critical elections, for the House of Representatives, for the Senate, and for statewide offices.  But back in a time – long, long ago in June; Democrats didn’t have a chance.  Today, by getting things done in the Congress, the over-reaching of a Republican Supreme Court and Republican state legislatures, and the constant shadow of a former President dominating the Republican Party:  Democrats actually have a shot to gain in the mid-terms.

We are Democrats.  Historically we’ve shown – we can mess things up.  But maybe, just maybe, America will see the clear choice that the President presents.  Maybe we will move towards democracy.

Maybe we won’t “screw the pooch”.