Month: July 2023

Yard Sale

This is a Sunday Story.  No politics here, just memories from a yard sale.

Storage Addiction

Like a lot of Americans, we fell “prey” to the “sweet seduction” of storage.  Back in 2012, we first rented the space as a place to put all of Mom and Dad’s remaining furniture when we closed out their lives:  first their assisted living apartment, and then their house in Cincinnati.  There was no reason to have all that furniture and boxes of memorabilia there, so we U-Hauled it all up to Pataskala.  

Then, when the furniture was apportioned out to the family, there was all that open space. It wasn’t in our garage, or even in the shed behind the house.  It was out-of-sight, but only a couple of minutes away.  By 2015 it was no longer “Dad’s” storage, it was ours.  And we filled it, 200 square feet of old furniture, boxes of papers, the books and  pictures from my last office, boxes never unpacked from Jenn’s last move, left over T-shirts  from meets, and whatever.  

And for the next eight years it grew.  All of the stuff that went in the camper, went into storage when five dogs ended our “camper days”.  We added more old furniture,  and our son Joe’s collected stuff from college apartments and almost annual moves here in Columbus.  And then, Joe moved to California, leaving a lot of “good stuff” that couldn’t make the trip. After that, we could barely close the door.

Find Joy

We pay storage rental for a whole lot of things that were important to us; once.  

Marie Kondo had an “improvement show” called “Tidying Up”. Her tag line phrase was , “Feel the item in your hands, and if it sparks joy, keep it”.  There was a lot of stuff that was no longer “sparked joy” in storage, all for $140 a month.  It was time for a yard sale!!

We know how to “throw” a yard sale.  That was the big fundraiser for the Watkins Cross Country team for decades, literally tons of stuff from the team families, all piled into my garage during the spring and summer, then dragged out in August.  The aprons, stickers, and money rolls were all still in the steel “strong box” that was stashed in a container in the garage.  So we got together with the neighbors next door, and we had a garage/yard sale!

U-Haul was still involved.  It took two truckloads from storage to bring all of the sale items back to the house.  And there was lots of “clearing out”, first our garage (there was stuff in the rafters for the early “00’s”), then our backyard shed (the nine foot Christmas tree that five dogs made obsolete), and then – the storage itself.  And, naturally, it was the hottest day of the summer on “moving day”.   Finally, for three days, it was time to say goodbye to things that once gave us joy.

Bomber Jacket  

When I was a kid, I loved watching TV shows about World War II.  One of my favorites was called “Twelve O’Clock High”, a show starring Robert Lansing about American bombers flying out of England to attack Germany (it was also a great 1949 movie starring Gregory Peck).   Ever since then, I wanted a leather “bomber” jacket.  I got my first one just after high school, when wearing my Wyoming Letter Jacket (I still have it) went “out of style”.  That made it into my thirties, when I finally needed a “skosh” more room.  My second bomber jacket made it forty years.  It was my go-to “cool” jacket from November to March, a sure sign that winter was here.

But the zipper was worn, and I needed more “skosh” in my older age.  It spent the last couple winters in the closet.  I got a new one last Christmas, leather and fur and roomy. So my old bomber jacket went in the sale. I watched it go out of the garage on the shoulders of a teenager, smiling from ear to ear, even if the zipper was sticky, and he didn’t know how to “pop” the collar.  He didn’t have the “style” yet (I almost got up to fix it), but it’s got a new life.  

Camper

And there was all of the camper gear.  Jenn and I bought a camper in 2017 and spent a winter in Florida.  But health problems interfered with the next couple years, and then there was Covid.  And finally we went from one dog to five, and there was no room with five dogs.  So we sold the camper in the summer of 2020, but kept a lot of the gear.  We were going to get a bigger RV, one that all the dogs could travel in.

But that never happened, and the camper gear didn’t “hold joy” anymore.  It all went in the sale.  The night before, I had a fluke conversation at the Hardware store. The cashier showing me pictures of her “former” camper, exploded from a faulty refrigerator.  Luckily no one was in it, though it burned out their detached garage.  She was picking up her new camper on Saturday, and needed almost everything from kitchen utensils to sewer hookups.  And we had them.  She and her husband came over and our camper “stuff” got new life.

Backpack

But the biggest “regret” of the sale:  I sold my backpacking equipment.  I hiked the Rockies and the Appalachians, on my own, with friends, and of course, with Scouts.  I had some of the best equipment I could get, a Kelty Pack, a North Face tent and down sleeping bag; the stuff needed to get me over the next mountain to that night’s campsite.  All of the stories, from bears to rattlesnakes to the attack of the raccoons near the Kangamangus Highway in New Hampshire, were wrapped up in that gear.

But track and field took up all of my free time.  Instead of trekking mountain ridges, I was taking kids to National meets all over the country. And then there was my health, just the “price” of getting older, that made single treks less appealing.  And finally my “gear” was stashed in the rafters of the garage, more than two decades since my last excursion.  Backpacking through the wilderness was a part of my past, but not my future. 

My good down bag became a home to mice.  But the tent and the backpack were still good, and I put it  and the compass, stove, and canteen all in the sale.  A  man bought it for his grandchildren, just entering Scouting.  It’s more equipment than they can handle, but I hope it encourages them to find the joy of the wilderness as I did.  It was a reality shock when he picked up my hard-earned gear, and walked away.  No more frozen mountain camps in June in Colorado, or “billion” star nights on a ridge in New Mexico.  

Life Changes

And there were bins of artificial flowers, the remnants of our wedding back in 2012.  Jenn and I threw a great party, and had a great time planning our wedding together.  The flowers were wonderful; we decorated Salt Fork Lake Lodge so well that what didn’t come home stayed up on their walls for years.  But our fall wedding was definitely a one-of-a-kind thing.  I hope the lady who bought them puts them to great use.

There’s lots of empty plastic bins in the garage.  The rafters are empty.  The backyard shed is clearer than the day after it was built.  There’s still lots of memories to get out of storage, but the monthly bill is strong encouragement to get it done.  We’ll get rid of some, then absorb the rest into storage here.  There’s more to just saving money here.  It’s about a changing life, and finding new joy.

The Sunday Story Series

Not Equal

Hunter Week

Wow, it’s Hunter Biden week!!!  The President’s wayward adult son is all the headlines, starting with an entire House of Representative’s committee hearing on him.  We now know: he didn’t pay taxes for a few years; he was addicted to drugs (cocaine) after his brother tragically died, and he doesn’t look half as good naked as he probably hoped.  

Naked – thanks to Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene we got to see Hunter in full action.  That is, unless the famous Hunter Laptop (not to be confused with the Anthony Weiner Laptop – why don’t those guys use desktops, it would sound less suggestive, or maybe “towers”) was somehow hacked.  Let’s see; the legal “chain of custody” goes from Hunter, to the blind computer repairman, to Rudy Giuliani, to the New York Post, and then, I guess, to the FBI.  What could possibly go wrong?  We can blame Hunter’s embarrassing photo “in-delicto” on Photoshop, or even Artificial Intelligence, as much on his bad taste in recording swordsmanship.

NI (No Intelligence)

Speaking of intelligence, how do two groups of highly trained and compensated lawyers, reach an agreement, walk into a courtroom, and then discover that they really don’t agree on anything?  Hunter was supposed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of tax evasion, and one felony of filing false information on a gun permit application.  His lawyers thought that was the end of the “Hunter Investigations”.  The US Attorney of Delaware didn’t agree.  He wanted to reserve the “right” to keep investigating all the other possible charges from that same time.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika stopped the hearing, and asked why Biden should agree to such a deal.  Apparently, she was speaking for the defendant.  It was a bad deal with no ultimate guarantees – and she “nixed” it.  Not bad for a Trump Appointee!!

Trump Strategy

I’m sure that Donald Trump isn’t pleased.  After all, he leaked the “Target Letter” from Jack Smith’s Special Prosecutor’s office.  It notified the twice impeached, once defeated, multiply indicted former President that he was likely to face more indictments over the 2020 elections.  Trump has a theory:  any publicity is better than silence.  His leaking the letter was a way of refocusing media attention back to HIM, and away from the other “little” Republican candidates for President, and the Biden economic renaissance.  

And Trump did get a few days of 24 hour coverage on national media.  And he will get that same coverage again when Jack Smith actually does indict him (it seems inevitable).  But in the meantime, Hunter is cutting into Trump’s “bad” time on cable news.  The Florida man can’t be happy with that.

Back in 2016, the news media was faced with a new and complicated issue.  Trump had so much going on, was saying so many “alternate facts”, that they couldn’t  correct him quickly enough.  And, since Trump was getting so much press, they had to “balance” their coverage with Hillary Clinton’s emails, over and over and over and over again.  While it seemed like it was emails ad-nauseum, at least it was one Presidential candidate versus another.

False Equivalency

But today, the media is falling into the same trap.  This time though, it’s a false equivalency.  Hunter Biden, as much of a mess as he is; is not the equivalent of Donald Trump.  If Hunter Biden was Hunter Smith, we would never have heard about his sad story at all.  Instead, he’s getting almost “equal” treatment; with reporters hanging out the doors of the Wilmington Federal Court House, all of the expert lawyers discussing every nuance, and messengers breathlessly running out of the room with the latest scoop.

Sure if Hunter was his Dad, this would be major “breaking news”.  But he’s not.  And while we all have some interest in what happens to the President’s family, it shouldn’t be the media equivalent of a candidate for President.  Think about what this current media frenzy would have been like with Billy Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s younger brother.  His proclivity for beer (he even had “Billy Beer” brewed) and urinating on airport runways would have been headline news.  But the media at that time let Billy “be”, a sideshow, not a focus.

Too bad Hunter doesn’t get the same treatment.  In the meantime, the Dow Jones is up, unemployment AND inflation are down, and the world gets better:

  Thanks Joe Biden!!!!

White Wash

There is a movement in the United States to “revise” American History.  It’s really kind of sad; there’s a portion of our political “class” that think they are the “victims”.   They declare that “woke” teachers (whatever that means) are trying to make their little white children feel guilty over the misdeeds of the American past.  So they want American History sanitized, whitewashed (a doubly-loaded term) to protect their children from feeling responsibility for the sins of their fathers.  

Emmett Till

Yesterday was the eighty-second anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth.  Till was a fourteen year-old Black teen, who in 1955 went from his home in Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi.  He committed an “unforgiveable sin” in the then-Jim Crow South. He spoke to a white girl, twenty-one years old, in a store. Maybe he even flirted with her a bit, as fourteen year-old boys sometimes do.  For that, he was kidnapped, tortured beyond belief, and then murdered.  They found his body in the Tallahatchie River.

The mangled corpse was eventually returned to his mother in Chicago.  She made a momentous decision:  she determined to have an open casket at his funeral.  Mamie Till-Mobley wanted the entire world to see what was done to her son.  She got little reaction from the national government.  A telegram sent to President Dwight Eisenhower asked him to see that:  “(J)ustice is meted out to all persons involved in the beastly lynching of my son.”  She never heard back (NYT).  Till’s murderers, Roy Bryant and RW Milam, were found “not guilty” by an all-white male Mississippi jury who deliberated for an hour.  No one was ever legally held to account.

Photographic Memory

But the media, particularly the Black Press, made sure that her decision impacted the world.  More than 100,000 people personally viewed the open casket.  And the pictures of Emmett’s body, and Mamie’s reactions, became a national memory.

Why was the excruciating death and funeral of this fourteen year-old so important?  It put a true picture of the terrorism that supported Jim Crow segregation in the mind of the Nation.  The Till story was a huge step on the road to Civil Rights.  It inspired leaders like John Lewis and Rosa Parks to sacrifice.  And it became the “face” of segregation, to be joined in the next ten years by the black and white video of Bull Connor’s police dogs attacking demonstrators, the bombed church in Birmingham that killed four little girls, and John Lewis himself beaten by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.   Within a decade, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were law.

National Monument

Yesterday President Biden officially created a National Monument in honor of Emmett and Mamie Till.  The monument spans three sites:  the riverside where Emmett’s body was discovered; the Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi where Bryant and Milam were tried; and the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago where the funeral was held.  The riverside plaque had to be made bulletproof.  The memories of Jim Crow are still strong in the South, sixty-eight years later.

History is history.  It isn’t “woke” (whatever that means) or propaganda to be sanitized.  It is America’s “story”, the good and the bad.  It’s the amazing achievements, including Black people gaining civil rights. And it’s the incredible indecencies, including the lynching of Emmett Till.  To ignore, to “whitewash” those facts of our past, to scrub them from the classrooms of Florida, or here in Ohio, is to tell children a different story.  It says to those children that they have something to be ashamed of, some unspeakable crime that they can’t know about because THEY somehow bear responsibility.  

When the Education Department of Florida tells its teachers to talk about the “benefits” of enslavement to the enslaved, (“…they learned trades like blacksmithing they could use in life”), the kids in the classrooms aren’t stupid.  They’ll know that there’s a deep dark secret their teachers, or parents, or state governments, are ashamed of.  You see, kids are smart.  They can jump on the computer at home and see exactly what happened. It’s easily available: from Emmett Till to the horrors of enslavement in the 1800’s.  

More Perfect

In fact, the victimhood that the “white political class” or so afraid of, is exactly what they are creating.  Good teachers teach American History in the context and spirit of the Constitution (itself a flawed, racist document).  The Constitution begins with the goal;  “…in order to become a more perfect union…”.  To become more perfect, there were “imperfections”, from the three-fifths compromise to the Fugitive Slave Act, that needed to be “perfected”.  And that’s what our Nation did and does.  To deny those facts, those imperfections; is telling kids they have something to be ashamed of, that is somehow “their” fault.  

It’s not.  And a good teacher will let them know it’s not.  And just like the bullet holes that still scar the plaque by the river where Emmett’s body was discovered, we are still in the process of becoming “more perfect”.  That’s the lesson kids need to learn, and that every good teacher will share;  even in Florida, and even here in Ohio.  It isn’t about being “woke”.  It’s about kids knowing the truth, in context; and teachers knowing kids.

Third Wheel

This is a history lesson – about the most “successful” third party Presidential run in modern American history.

American Success

Mark Hanna was the Republican “Boss” of Ohio in the 1890’s.  He was an American success story, a boy born in Northeastern Ohio in Lisbon, the son of a grocery store owner. They moved to Cleveland and opened a store there, and by fifteen Mark was the manager.  Like most men his age, he went to the Civil War, then came home to marry the daughter of a coal magnate. Ultimately, he ran that company and added iron as well.  By forty, he was a millionaire.

He then turned his sights to American politics.  He was a “behind the scenes” actor, one of the players in the “smoke filled backrooms” of national Republican politics.  Ohio was the pivotal state.  In the lates 1800’s, the Buckeye State was the political stepping-stone to the Presidency.  James Garfield (Cleveland) and Rutherford B. Hayes (Delaware) gained the Presidency, and Senator John Sherman (Lancaster, younger brother of Civil War General Sherman) was a political power and frequent candidate for the Republican nomination for decades.  Hanna was a “Sherman Man”, but when Sherman’s Presidential ambitions ended, he shifted to Canton’s William McKinley, a Civil War Veteran and a former Congressman.  Hanna helped McKinley become Governor of Ohio.  

King-Maker

In 1896 Hanna ran McKinley’s successful campaign for President against Nebraska’s Democratic Populist William Jennings Bryan.   McKinley’s running mate was Garrett Hobart, a lawyer and political insider from New Jersey, who died in office in 1899.   After his death, Republicans needed an “Eastern” replacement for McKinley, and also wanted to reduce the power of the “Progressive” wing of the Republican Party, dedicated to ending America’s industrial monopolies. 

McKinley chose Teddy Roosevelt as candidate for Vice President. Roosevelt was a Progressive, forty-two year old newly elected Governor of New York.  He made national news in 1898 as the newspaper hero of the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba.  McKinley’s choice hoped to keep Roosevelt and his Progressivism under wraps as Vice President, but Hanna was no fan.  He privately said “[T]here’s only one life, between that madman and the Presidency.”  The Republican ticker was elected in 1900, and took office in March of 1901.

That Damn Cowboy

McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz while shaking hands at the  Buffalo, New York, International Exhibition in September of 1901.  While McKinley lingered for a week, he ultimately succumbed to the wound.   Roosevelt was sworn in as the new President.

Mark Hanna said it best:  “Now that damn cowboy is President”.

Teddy Roosevelt was forty-two years old, the youngest man ever to serve as President.  He was athletic, often hiking the countryside that still surrounded Washington DC (including swimming across the Potomac River), or boxing on the front lawn of the White House.  His athletic lifestyle exemplified his political views.   He wanted an active government.  Roosevelt led the way to intervene against the monopolies that were throttling the American economy, beginning the process that would ultimately break up US Steel, Standard Oil, American Sugar and other monopolies.  

Roosevelt took a much larger view of American influence in the world, building the “Great White Fleet” that toured the globe to show America’s Naval might. He also began the Panama Canal project, to allow American shipping, and particularly the US Navy, to have a quicker route from East Coast to West.   And, Roosevelt personally intervened in the Russo-Japanese War, gaining the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.  

Taft

His personal energy seemed to energize the United States as a whole, leading us into the “Gilded Age”of American life before the First World War.  He served the remaining three years of McKinley’s term, then ran for re-election in 1904. Mark Hanna unexpectedly died before the convention, but Ohio still had “power”. 

 Roosevelt appointed Cincinnati’s Williams Howard Taft (forty-eight) as his Secretary of War.   While  Roosevelt was the first “media” President, Taft was the ultimate insider, the Solicitor General of the United States at thirty-two, a Federal Judge at thirty-four, and the Governor of the newly US occupied Philippines at forty-three.  He served Roosevelt as the ultimate problem-solver. 

By 1908, Roosevelt grew frustrated with the pace of change in America.  His own Republicans in Congress were slowing many of the economic changes that Roosevelt wanted to implement.  And the President also felt some pressure to honor the precedent set by Washington of not serving more than eight years.  So he decided not to run, and threw his support to Taft as his successor.  Taft faced McKinley’s 1896 Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan again, and won decisively.  

The image contrast of Roosevelt and Taft was stark.  The athletic Roosevelt, now fifty, went on safari to Africa, and then toured Europe.  Taft, a large man at three hundred-fifty pounds, was true to his “insider” image. While he continued to dismantle America’s monopolies and trusts, he was a more mainstream Republican, and soon ran into Roosevelt’s Progressivism.  

Bull Moose

As the 1912 election approached, Roosevelt decided to run for the Republican nomination for President against his former friend and the incumbent Taft.  While Roosevelt won the open primary delegates, most of the nominating delegates were selected by the leadership of the Party, in the “smoke-filled” room. So while Roosevelt had a large lead of popular votes going into the convention, Taft had a majority of the delegates, and won the Republican nomination.

The Democratic Party selected New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson as their candidate (the last Democrat to win the Presidency was two decades before).  Roosevelt determined to continue his candidacy as a third-party candidate, creating and accepting the nomination from the “Bull Moose Party”.  

And Roosevelt continued to live up to his media image, even giving a ninety-minute speech immediately after an assassination attempt. He was shot in the chest, and he began the speech by saying; “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” Luckily the lengthy text of the speech, fifty-pages, absorbed much of the bullet’s energy as it passed through the document folded in his jacket pocket.

Final Result

Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party was the most successful third party candidacy in modern history.  He gained 88 electoral votes and received 27% of the popular vote.  Taft’s Republican Party gained only 8 electoral votes, and 23% of the popular vote.  Add those popular votes together, and a unified Republican candidate would have won.  Instead, Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats got 42% of the popular vote but an overwhelming 435 electoral votes.  

In the final analysis, even the presence of Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t enough to overcome the momentum of the two-party system.  But “Bull Moose” Roosevelt did determine who the next President of the United States would be – Democrat Woodrow Wilson. As Roosevelt wrote three years later – “What a dreadful creature Wilson is!  I cannot believe our people have grown so yellow as to stand for him.”

Joe Manchin, Joe Liberman, Jon Huntsman, Larry Hogan and the other “No Labels” politicians should take note.  If Teddy Roosevelt couldn’t win from a third party, how will they? And what’s the likely outcome if they try?

Being a Goat

This is a “Sunday Story”. There’s no politics today, just a story about the World Series of Poker – and being a “goat”.

Goat Hood

I was a coach for over forty years. I coached wrestling, cross country; and for forty years I coached track.  Over the time, I learned a lot about how my athletes dealt with pressure, from their first competition at a dual meet, to the State and even National levels.  One of the lessons from all of those competitors was that everyone needs a “goat”.  

There’s a lot of recent definitions of “goat”.  Maurice Greene, world record holder and top US sprinter of the 1990’s (two Olympic Gold Medals, five World Championship Golds) had the letters tattooed on his shoulder.  Who wants to be a “goat”?  According to Greene he was the Greatest of All Time – the GOAT!!  Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis, and the soon to be introduced Usain Bolt would all take exception to his Goat-Hood, but those Gold Medals clinking around his neck, for that moment, were pretty convincing.  So was his then-world record time of 9.79 for the 100 meters.  That’s pretty GOAT-ly.

NFL 49’ers Jerry Rice and soccer legend (and now Miami player) Lionel Messi also have GOAT tattoos of one kind or another.  Greene was the best in his event, and inarguably so were Rice and Messi.  

Companion Goat

But I’m talking about a different kind of goat, one more closely related to the four-legged, hard-headed, sure-footed animal (not those weird fainting goats).  In horse racing, the thoroughbreds are the very definition of “high strung”.  They are always “on the edge” of training and temperament.  Every change makes a difference, from the jockey to the trainer to the track.  And every successful thoroughbred learns to adapt to new stables, new noises and new smells.   Good trainers find some way to “normalize” the situation.  

If there’s plenty of money, maybe the trainer brings along a stable horse, one that the racer is used to.  But another “trick” is to use a different animal as a stable mate.  Back at home, the thoroughbred lives with an actual goat in the stall.  Then when it’s time for the “big race”, the goat goes along for the ride.  The goat’s “job” is to keep the horse calm, to make things feel like “at home”.

So as a track coach when I qualified a single athlete to the Regional, State, or even the National meet; I always took a “goat”.  Their job was to enjoy the ride, hang out and warm up with the “Horse”, and  keep things calm in a highly charged championship environment.  It also let me be the coach, rather than a split coach/goat.  That made my job easier, the trip more enjoyable for everyone, and it let the “goat” see what the “big leagues” of competition were all about.  Someday maybe he (or she) would need their own goat.

Tournament Poker

I’m not a card player, but we once had a poker tournament as a fund-raiser for our track team. It was the smokiest room ever. That’s where I learned the basics about what’s called “Texas Hold-em”.  

It’s seven-card poker. Each player is dealt two cards face down.  Then there is a round of betting.  Next, three cards are placed face up on the table.  All the players can combine their two down cards with the three on the table to make their hand.  Another round of betting occurs.  Then “the turn”, a fourth card is placed up on the table, followed by more betting and a fifth card, “the river” is placed up.  That completes the seven cards for seven-card poker, two down, five up.  A Final round of betting, and the best hand wins.

Tournament poker isn’t the wild-wild west kind of card betting with money and whiskey on the table (and a pistol underneath).  In tournament poker you “buy in”, and get a number of chips to play.  The tournament then goes on until one player has chips left.  He (or she) is the winner of the tournament.  It’s kind of like Monopoly – the winner has all the Monopoly money – the chips.

World Series (WSOP)

I got a call from my nephew Chris the other day.  He was in Las Vegas (he sent me a photo of fireworks there on the Fourth of July), and he loves tournament poker. But I didn’t know that he entered in the World Series of Poker – Main Event.  There are over 10,000 participants in the tournament, each with a buy-in of $10,000 ($100 million total).  It’s not winner-take-all, the winner gets $12 million. The rest of the prize money is divided so that if you make the top 1500 players or so, you get at least $15000.  That pays for your “buy-in” and expenses. The longer you last in the tournament after that, the more you get.

So Chris was in Vegas, by himself, in the World Series of Poker. It’s the biggest poker tournament of the season, a tournament so big it goes on for a total of ten days.   He didn’t need advice about poker (at least not from me), what he needed was just someone to share his experience, talk through his decisions, and just be that other person “in the stall” to smooth things out. Chris needed a goat.

He first contacted me on July 10th.  He’d already been playing for a couple of days, and there were  “only” 1520 left in the tournament.  That number turned out to be critical:  the first level of the “winning” $15000 was 1507.  Get to that, and the entry costs were paid and he was making money.

In the Stall

We talked about the same things I would say to my athletes.  Sure there were the technical aspects of the game, but there were also all of the issues created by days of focus and concentration.  Tournament poker is about the cards, but it’s also about reading the other players, and determining when to “…hold’em or fold-em” (thanks Kenny Rogers).  Sometimes you might even have the best hand, but it’s not worth risking all of your chips (going “all-in”).  And sometimes you have no choice.  After all, it’s called “gambling”. 

So my key words were “focus and the goal”.  Keep focus for games that lasted for hours, often until the early morning hours, and a tournament that lasts for days.   And keep “your eye on the prize”.  Sure it’d be nice to win $12 million.  But the longer you could stay at the table with chips, the higher up the “prize money” chart you’d go.  Advancement and survival;  that’s the goal.

Paying Out

It went on for three more days. Chris played the “small ball” game, folding a lot, taking chances when he had to, and building his chips carefully.  And we texted and talked at breaks.  He let me in on the experience of his poker competition, a whole different world to me.

Like all of those other National contests, it was a competition. Chris didn’t make the “final table”, a guaranteed cool million.  But he did end up 102nd, the top one percent of the tournament, and earned a $67,700 prize check.  He’s happy with the money.  But, he’s a competitor, a “Horse”. He wanted to go further; for the money, but even more, for the game.

He’ll go back, I’m sure. He’ll use his experience to improve his game.  And it’s still a card game; in the end, how the cards fall determines a lot in poker. Like any competition, you can’t control “all the variables”. Sometimes, you just go “card dead”. Luck plays a role. But when he does return to Vegas, I hope he needs another “text-goat”.  It was a fun ride.

The Sunday Story Series

Geometry of Truth

Who’s Fooled

There is a political science axiom:  if you repeat the same thing, over and over again, ultimately, no matter how absurd, a percentage of the population will believe it’s true.  Abraham Lincoln (may have) said it best:  “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”   And there is a further “corollary” to that axiom:  “If you’re going to tell a lie, make it a whopper”.  No one would believe you would tell THAT big a falsehood.  

I don’t need to infringe on “Godwin’s Law” for an example of this.  Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin in the 1950’s proved the point in a speech to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. He held up a sheaf of papers and said he had the names of “…two hundred known Communists in the State Department”.  He didn’t; there weren’t even names on the papers, but it didn’t matter.   McCarthy started an era of distrust in American institutions, from the Government to the movies, that still echoes to this day.  And even though McCarthy was ultimately repudiated (“…have you no sense of decency sir”), an entire era of American History carries his name, and his “Big Lie”; McCarthyism.

Post-Truth Era

Our present “Post-Truth” era is saturated with “Big Lies”.  Just this week, Robert Kennedy Jr, the son of revered Senator Bobby Kennedy; said he wasn’t against vaccines, or anti-Semitic, or racist.  He said all of that under oath in front of a Congressional Committee, in spite of his own anti-vaccination, anti-Semitic and racist comments being read to him.  It  doesn’t matter – we are in an era when it’s OK to say something one day, lie about it the next, and deny the whole matter on the third.  

The State of Florida, by law, now requires schools to teach that enslaved Americans learned “personal skills” that benefitted them.  The fact that those skills were taught not to “benefit” the enslaved, but to profit the owners isn’t included in the lesson plan.  But in our current “Post-Truth” era, manipulating historic facts to make it “palatable” to some students (and more importantly, some parents) is just fine.  Like McCarthy’s names or Kennedy’s anti-vaccination, it’s OK to ignore the truth.  Glad I’m not teaching eighth grade history in Florida.  Even forty years ago, I wasn’t sugar-coating America’s history of enslavement to my classroom.

Watch “conservative” media.  Joe Biden is addled, infirm, senile, AND the master of a grand “Biden Crime Family”.  Oh, and he’s a Socialist or a Communist or some kind of “ist” that WE DON’T LIKE. (Just an aside:  I’m a Liberal, a newspeak Progressive, and Biden isn’t even that.  He’s a traditional Democratic moderate, in an era where there is little “moderation”).  

And climate change – well it’s “inevitable”, nature not industry, and there’s nothing we can do but apply more sunblock and run the air conditioners (electricity, 79% provided by fossil fuels).  Sorry about that, future generations.

Both Sides

To be fair, it’s not just one side of the political spectrum that is post-truth.  “My” side says that all MAGA supporters are “dumb” and “racist” and self-centered.  While I would agree that the MAGA ideology is racist and self-centered, I know many Trump supporters who are good neighbors, and want “good” for their friends, families and the Nation.  We don’t agree on how to get there. And we even don’t agree on where we’ve been.

And maybe that’s the point.  Forty years ago, when I was teaching American History to eighth graders, there was a “place” in the middle where we could “agree to disagree”.  We would vigorously argue our issues, but came from a single point of “fact”.  That point no longer exists, it’s been rubbed out by the totally separate sets of “postulates” that each side holds as “the truth”.  

My truth is no longer your truth – and perhaps that’s the ONLY thing we can agree on.  And that’s not enough foundation to continue our Nation.

Smoke without Fire

Rough Guy

You know; Hunter Biden is a “rough” guy.  He’s been addicted to drugs. He ignored a “one night stand” child. Hunter’s played “fast and loose” with his income taxes, his law degree (Yale), and his connections to one of the most powerful men in the country.  But Hunter Biden’s father loves him and stands by him, regardless of the addiction or the behaviors.  Hunter, in fact, is the definition of the “black sheep” of the Biden family, and not in a “good” way.

The younger Biden pled guilty to misdemeanor counts of tax evasion and falsification on a gun permit.  This “deal” was offered by the US Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, a Republican appointed to office by Donald Trump.  The Biden Administration specifically left Weiss in his position so that there would be no questions of bias.  Weiss himself said that he had all the power he needed to complete the investigation and bring the appropriate charges.

Lots of Smoke

There is a tremendous amount of “smoke” around the Hunter Biden fire.  Much of it was created by Rudy Giuliani. He spent part of 2018 fishing in the murky politics of Ukraine/Russian relations trying to find “dirt” to use against Joe Biden in 2020.  One of Giuliani’s aides was Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born businessman who served as a conduit for Ukrainian politicians to the former Mayor.  Parnas was later convicted in the US of campaign finance fraud, and is serving a twenty month federal prison sentence.  

In 2016, then-Vice President Biden went to Ukraine to talk to officials about $1 Billion in US aid.  According to Biden himself, he told then-Ukrainian President Poroshenko to replace the state prosecutor, Lutsenko, who wouldn’t prosecute public corruption.  When Poroshenko said that the Vice President didn’t have that authority, Biden threatened to call President Obama.  The prosecutor was replaced.

At the same time, Hunter Biden took a lucrative position as a board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.  Several US diplomats involved in Ukraine warned that Hunter’s actions “looked bad”,  an apparent use of his father’s position for profit.  It was in the United States’ interest and policy that the $1 Billion not be stolen by corruption in the Ukrainian government, and Hunter Biden didn’t help.  It soon didn’t matter though, as Joe Biden left office in January of 2017.

Alternate Theory

Mayor Giuliani created an “alternate theory” of the Bidens’ actions.  This theory was political storytelling, encouraged by sources connected to Russian intelligence.  Giuliani claimed that the Vice President demanded the removal of Lutsenko because the prosecutor planned on charging Hunter Biden. (Much later, Lutsenko backed Giuliani’s charges, and a successor prosecutor said he was fired for NOT investigating him).

And then, miraculously, Giuliani found Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop.  The nearly blind shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, copied the hard disc and found all sorts of “evidence” of Hunter’s involvement in Ukrainian corruption, as well as nude pictures of Hunter and women.  According to Mac Isaac, he tried to turn the laptop over to the FBI, but they showed little interest.  So he gave it to Giuliani who ultimately gave it first to the New York Post, and then to the Justice Department.

There is a legal principle about evidence (like the laptop) called “chain of custody”.  Evidence of a crime needs to be traceable back to its origins, without gaps.  Otherwise, the evidence might be altered.  The Hunter laptop has several “breaks in the chain”, and it’s likely none of that information could be used by Justice in Court.

Parnas this week wrote a letter from prison to the Republican Chairman of the House Committee investigating Hunter, telling them that he never found any real evidence of Hunter’s involvement.  

Fact and Fiction

So what we have is Joe Biden’s story, backed by US diplomats (even those who warned about Hunter’s involvement).  Or we have Giuliani’s story, backed by rumors and information (disinformation) from Russian intelligence and a disgraced former Ukrainian Prosecutor.  And discredited by Giuliani’s aide, Mr. Parnas.

The Trump-supporting Republicans in the House of Representatives are hooked on Giuliani’s story as a line of attack on President Biden.  They hope to weaken him in the 2024 election in the same way they weakened Hillary Clinton with the Benghazi hearings.  But there is a critical difference.  The House Republicans attacked Clinton’s lack of action during Benghazi.  But they are only indirectly attacking Joe Biden in the “Hunter hearings” today.  They are instead attacking his son.

It’s more as if there were hearings about Chelsea Clinton, or even Donald Trump Jr.  The full power of the House of Representatives is being brought against a private citizen of the United States.

Where’s the Fire

The “Hunter Hearings” are a “payback” for the Democratic House Trump investigations of the past six years. But the difference is, the Democrats were investigating the duly elected President of the United States: first for connections to Russia during the 2016 election, then for withholding aid from Ukraine for political purposes, then for fomenting election fraud and insurrection.  It’s politics:  “…all’s fair in love, war, and politics”.  But it’s not “fair” to attack the children of the President, even the failed ones:  it’s not “equivalent”.  

So we’ll watch the “Hunter Hearings” today.  We will listen to the “whistleblowers” (hopefully they will show up this time).  But in the end, we aren’t talking about government corruption.  The Republicans can’t get to the President, so they are hitting his “weak spot”, his troubled youngest son.  And they are hitting him with what they know is weak and even falsified evidence.  But it doesn’t matter; they’re getting the “smoke” they want.  

Even though there’s no fire.

Just a Lie

Politics

OK, I know that the campaign for the one issue August election here in Ohio is ugly.  But I just saw a “Vote Yes for Issue One” advertisement that was a complete “Big Lie”.  Vote for Issue One so that schools don’t try to make you kids transgendered?  Vote for Issue One to keep control (the “promise”) of your children, to keep them from “forced” gender or identity changes?  I mean come on, do you really think schools are trying to change your kid’s gender?  We can’t even get them to stop chewing gum, look at their cell phones, or turn in their homework.

Issue One was slipped onto the ballot for August 8th, soon after that same legislature said we shouldn’t do August ballots.  It’s technical:  about how to amend the Ohio Constitution.  It’s got nothing to do with schools or sex or gender.  Here’s the simple truth:  since the year 1912 Ohio citizens had the right to amend the Constitution by a mass public vote:  Majority wins.  But if Issue One passes, it will require 60% of the voters to amend.  

There’s More

And Issue One goes even farther.  To even get an initiative on the ballot, the new Issue would require signatures of 5% of voters in EVERY county in Ohio, regardless of how big or small. (Today signatures are required from half the counties in the state).  It allows ANY small county to literally VETO any initiative, regardless of the percentage of statewide vote they actually have.  How much power de we want to give to Vinton County (12,608), or Monroe (13,007), Morgan (13,427) or Noble (13,956), all smaller than my City of Pataskala (15,008 “strong”)?  Should any one of them be able to veto the entire rest of the state (11.78 million)?

But wait, there’s more.  Issue One also changes how the State Board “counts” the more than 400,000 signatures it takes to put an initiative on the ballot.  Currently, once the State counts the signatures, petitioners have ten days to fix illegible ones (see my writing) or add more signatures as necessary.  Under Issue One – they would have to start completely over.  

Constitutions 

Issue One would basically make changing the Ohio Constitution ONLY possible through the State Legislature. And that’s exactly what Ohio’s State Legislature wants.  They want one less check on their own powers. If you went to Watkins Memorial High School and I was your social studies teacher, you might think that’s OK.  After all, I taught you that to amend the United States Constitution, it takes two-thirds of the Congress, and three-fourths of the States to agree.  It’s really, really, hard to change.

But there’s a difference between the US Constitution and the fifty individual state Constitutions.  The US Constitution was written as a “general” document, with lots of room for interpretation.  The State Constitutions are specific documents, hundreds of pages long.  The average State Constitution is five times longer than the US Constitution. The US Constitution has seven original sections, and twenty-seven amendments.  The Ohio Constitution has nineteen sections and 170 Amendments. It’s like a combination of the US Constitution AND the US Code of “regular” laws.  

The US Constitution and the State Constitutions are NOT the same, and do not serve the same purpose.  They never have.  In fact, the United States Supreme Court requires State Constitutions to be much more specific.

Big Truth

So here’s the “Big Truth”.  The Republicans in the State Legislature are afraid of losing to a “pro-choice” women’s health amendment in November.  That’s a valid argument for the entire state to have, and it’s on for the November ballot.  But, instead of fighting that “fair” fight, Issue One changes the rules for November so that it would be near impossible to pass.  These Republicans simply don’t believe in majority rule. And don’t just ask me, a Registered Democrat.  Ask John Kasich and Bob Taft, former Republican Governors or Maureen O’Connor, former Republican Chief Justice.

Gerrymandered districts already tilt the legislature.  IF Ohio was fair, then there would be something close to a 55% Republicans, 45% Democrats in legislature.  Instead the Ohio Senate is 79% Republican and the House is 68% Republican.  Even the most rabid Republican can’t really believe that represents the Buckeye State. Ohio’s State Legislature even ignored a state Constitutional amendment (passed by this same process) and rulings by the State Supreme Court that required fairer districts.  They refused to change – so Ohio is still highly gerrymandered.  Now they want to change the rules to make sure they have even more power.

The November vote on the women’s health amendment will be a tough one.  But at least in that fight, folks can be clear what the issues are.  This Issue One isn’t about that.  It isn’t about schools, gender, sex, or even abortion.  It’s about power.

Let’s put this in football terms most Ohioans understand.  If Issue One passes:Ohio State 58, Michigan 42;  Michigan wins. Or worse, Ohio State 87, Michigan 1; Michigan wins.  The people of Ohio understand what’s fair, and what’s a power grab.  They just have to show up on August 8th and keep it fair so   Ohio wins.

Graying in Pataskala

This is a “Sunday Story”. There’s no politics here, just some observations about a little neighborhood in a little town called Pataskala.

Summer Fix Up

It’s summertime in Pataskala. And this summer, besides having to cut the grass three times a week, there’s a new trend. 

Everyone’s home value is rocketing up. Sure, part of that’s inflation, but part is the economic boom that’s boosting the Columbus, Ohio area. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Facebook (oops, I mean Meta), are all building on the east side of town – just beyond the outer belt. And that’s us; right where Pataskala is.  We part of the new Midwest “Silicon Valley”!!

How big a deal is it?  Our house value is up more than 80% in the last ten years.  Luckily the property taxes aren’t quite keeping up, though they’ve increased too.   So maybe those increased values make the owners feel like putting more effort into their homes.  We just power washed our twelve year-old vinyl siding and it came up great.  There’s no need for the expense of ripping all the old off and putting new on, not to talk about the disruption to five dogs from people pounding on the outside walls all day.  Two dogs were already freaked out from the groan of the power washer.  But others in the neighborhood are tearing even newer siding off and replacing it completely. 

That’s fine:  it makes the neighborhood look sharper. But there is one concern. 

Colours

Our house is “cream” (or “alabaster, chateau, or clay”). On one side is our neighbor’s newly painted brick and stucco.  It’s “off-white”(or “weathered white or melting icicles”). On the other side, their new siding is the color of an old red barn (maybe “mountain berry, or harvest red”). 

But several others decided to choose the same color.  Of course they say their houses are all different:  “seaport, granite, smoke or dove”. But to this old history teacher, they all look battleship gray. Remember those World War II movies; the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay or the USS Arizona before December 7th?   US Navy Battleship Gray; fresh off the pier and ready for action. 

One of my sisters is an artist.  She has a “professional” eye.  When she looks at blue, she sees dozens of shades and hues, all carefully categorized and used in her work.  I’m sure if she looked down the street, she’d see all the differences in the “gray”.  But to my, untrained eye, blue is blue, and these are all just Battleship Gray – some darker, some lighter, but all gray.

And I have to admit, it looked sharp — On the first house. And it looked OK on the second.  But now  it’s going up on the third, I’m beginning to feel like we’re living in officers’ housing, here 566 miles from the nearest Naval base. 

My street should be renamed Battleship Row, even though the houses are more Frigate than Capital sized.   While gray is striking in contrast – it’s just gray when you put them all together. 

Words

And, by the way, there is the whole difficulty with the word “gray” too.  Is it “gray” or “grey”?  I had to do some research on that, and discovered that, as Bill Murray said in his famous soliloquy in the movie Meatballs; “…It just doesn’t matter”.   Either “g-r-a-y” or “g-r-e-y” is OK.  So what’s the problem?  Well, like a lot things involving my writing, it’s all Mom’s fault!!

Yep, here in the USA it’s Battleship G-R-A-Y.  In the Crayola box it’s listed as G-R-A-Y.  You can even order Battleship G-R-A-Y paint for your own equipment.   But – if you want fine English breakfast tea (or you’re a fan of Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship, Enterprise) you order Earl G-R-E-Y tea.  And F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about G-R-E-Y days in This Side of Paradise:

“It was a grey day, that least fleshy of all weathers; a day of dreams and far hopes and clear visions”.

But, he was an American author.  Maybe he had an English/English teacher, or an English mother helping him fail spelling tests like me!!

Anyway, I’m glad my neighbors care about their homes.  It makes everyone try to “keep up with the Joneses”, and make their property look nicer.  And all these gray homes are making our house stand out; more than even the “Biden for President” sign in the front yard did a couple of years ago.  But it would be nice if they could find another shade.  How about a nice light blue; “robin’s egg, or turquoise”, or, — oh no: “greyed-out blue”.

The Sunday Story Series

Hearing the Hearings

Driving

I’m not a “podcast” guy, but I get a lot of recommendations.  “Have you heard Rachel Maddow’s latest podcast about this?”, or “Your favorite lawyers, Weismann and McQuade have a podcast about…(something)”.  My current lifestyle doesn’t have the “situation” where I can sit and listen to someone on headphones.  If I do, I usually have a more pressing task – I fall asleep (thanks Dad for the “Dahlman sleep gene”).  

I do a lot of driving.  During track season, there are trips all over the state, long hours in the Jeep.  And the radio is always on, though it’s really not a radio much anymore. It’s a Bluetooth device hooked up to my phone.  A couple of years ago I decided to take “courses”; US Constitutional Law, the American Revolution, African American History; as I cruised to the next meet.  But there were two problems.  

First, I found I drifted away from the course as I bumped along, then had to “rewind” to get back to what I missed.  And even more importantly, the “Dahlman Sleep Gene” would kick in. After a long day of officiating pole vault – definitely not a good situation on the road.  Better to “boogie” to Motown or 60’s and 70’s Classic Rock (or Surf music at full volume for that drive at the end of May when the Jeep top first comes off).

 And every few weeks, Jenn and I travel Ohio gathering Lost Pet Recovery equipment used to get lost dogs.   I usually drive as Jenn organizes where our next stop will be (last week:  Pataskala to West Liberty to Kenton to Findlay to Greenville to Pataskala, 358 miles).   Jenn and I do actually talk, and we also usually have cable news going in the background.  Just like it’s going on right now as I write.  

Gavel to Gavel

But there is one event I can always listen to, in the car, cutting the grass, even the doing the perpetual picking up of poop (five dogs – you do the math):  Congressional Hearings.  I listen often enough, that I have the CSPAN Radio App on my phone.  That way I don’t have to depend on cable news for “gavel-to-gavel” coverage.

I can tell you exactly where I was when Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the January 6th Committee about what Donald Trump did on the morning of the Insurrection. (I was ten miles south of Archbold, Ohio on Route 66).  Yesterday was a “throw-back” to the “old days”. We listened to the Congressional questioning of Chris Wray, the Director of the FBI.  It was like the Benghazi hearings (I sat and watched all eleven hours of Hillary Clinton), or the early James Comey hearing. (That was the first time we found out that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign, and got to see Adam Schiff and Jim Jordan in action).  

How Republican?

Jenn and I went to Greenville, Ohio (thirty miles northwest of Dayton) to get equipment, and the hearings were on for the whole trip. The big overall headline:  Republicans think the FBI is co-opted by Democrats to attack Republicans.   So let’s get the obvious out of the way first.  The FBI is perhaps the MOST conservative agency in the United States government.  It always has been.  Remember George Carlin’s famous “Seven Words you Can’t Say on TV” monologue?  Carlin represented the “liberal” view of the FBI back then.  He told us to answer the phone saying, “F—k Hoover, can I help you?” 

And then there’s Chris Wray himself. He was appointed by Donald Trump, and unanimously approved by Republican Senators. He is a life-long Republican who worked in Bush Justice Department.  So was the now “infamous” James Comey, the Director before him (and the even more “infamous” Robert Mueller, the Director before Comey).  Ask anyone involved with Black Lives Matter, the FBI is no “friend” of Progressives.

 But if you listened to Chairman Jordan’s Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, you wouldn’t get that.  The Republican members attacked Wray for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, claimed that there were FBI “provocateurs” on the steps of the Capitol during the Insurrection, and that Wray was buying “meta-data” from the big social media companies and censoring what they published.  The Republicans attacked Wray for backing Covid precautions, threatening the Roman Catholic Church, and protecting the “Biden Crime Family”.  We heard about Hunter’s Laptop and texts, and questions like “Mr. Wray, when did you stop violating the First Amendment?” 

Flip the Script

And in a full “flip-the-script” moment, it was the Democrats; Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff, Zoe Lofgren, and the profound voice of Sheila Jackson-Lee; who were defending the Trump-appointed Director.   They even spent most of their five minute time slot making speeches.  It gave Wray a chance to recover from the relentless conspiracy-driven Republican onslaught.

But in the end, Wray gave as good as he got.  I think I would have stood up and told the Republicans where to stick Hunter’s laptop, but Wray remained cool.  We were on State Route 49 just north of Phillipsburg, when Wray told Republican Congressman Harriet Hageman (took Liz Cheney’s seat): “The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me given my own personal background.”

Chris Wray is a bureaucratic survivor.  He somehow managed to avoid getting fired by Donald Trump before he left office.  And he manages to remain in the Directorship because of Biden’s goal of restoring “traditional norms” to America’s government.  He didn’t take the Republican bait, but he managed to defend the 38,000 employees of the FBI, time and time again.  In his own, low key way, he got his point across.  When challenged on the Mar-a-Lago search, he quietly said:  “In my experience, ballrooms, bathrooms and bedrooms are not SCIF’s (sensitive compartmented, information facilities)”. 

Ginning Up

The majority committee members represent what the Republican House of Representatives is all about:  defending Donald Trump and perpetuating MAGA conspiracy myths.  The accusations against Wray will surely “gin-up” the Republican base, but will do little to change anyone’s mind about MAGA’ism.   So it’s hard to see how attacking the FBI is a good long-term strategy. 

But one thing for sure – it keeps me awake behind the wheel.  And that’s an all-around good thing, for me, and the rest of the drivers out there.  I’m holding my breath for the “whistle-blower” hearings!! We’ll plan a nice long trip for that one.

Putin’s Disaster

Alliance

This week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) got stronger.  NATO has a strict policy, every member must agree for the alliance to accept new members – every, single one of the thirty members.  It’s difficult to imagine that any thirty nations could all agree on any single issue.  But here we are, Finland was already accepted, and this week, Turkey dropped their opposition to Sweden joining ($20 Billion worth of F-16’s from the US to Turkey didn’t hurt).

When I was studying world strategies in the 1970’s, one of the ideas was to “contain” Communism.  The United States had a series of Treaty Organizations; NATO, CENTO, SEATO, stretching around the world and surrounded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China.  The idea was to create a physical barrier to further Communist expansion.  (Containment was the justification for the Vietnam War, “…better to fight Communism in Southeast Asia than in the fields of Iowa”.  We misjudged what the Vietnam War was all about.  Now Communist Vietnam stands as a bulwark against Communist China – go figure).

Russian Democracy

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the “mission” of NATO seemed in jeopardy.  There was no reason to protect against Communism, when Communism itself demonstrably failed.  Many talked about abandoning NATO, including some of the core countries of the European Union.  Others thought we should ask the newly “democratic” Russia to join in, as a way to support the reformed Yeltsin government there.  And, when President Trump talked about disbanding NATO, he wasn’t really crazy, he was just really late.  

Because Russia didn’t remain a democracy.  The rise of Vladimir Putin created a whole new kind of Russian autocracy, one based on a criminal oligarchy.  It wasn’t about the good of the Russian people, it was about the profits of the oligarchs surrounding their former KGB operative turned President.  And as Putin solidified his leadership, he began to look beyond Russia’s borders, lusting to re-form the USSR. Putin reasserted Russian military dominance in the south:  Azerbaijan and Georgia.  Then he looked at the Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia; and the major nations to Russia’s west, Belarus and Ukraine.  

The other states of Eastern Europe, all formerly in the “Soviet Bloc”, were already in NATO.  When the Baltic states looked for protection, NATO agreed.  And that put NATO directly in the path of Putin’s plan for Russian expansion.  

Russian Hegemony

Putin and his minions intervened in elections and made sure that the leadership of Belarus and Ukraine remained sympathetic to Russian hegemony.  And while Lukashenko in Belarus maintains control and close ties with Putin, the Ukrainian’s “Revolution of Dignity” in 2014 removed the Russian backed President Yanukovych, replacing him with more democratic leaders.  In response, Putin sent troops into the Eastern Ukrainian provinces of the Donbas and the southern province of Crimea, where Russia maintains its major warm-water naval base at Sevastopol. 

Putin’s incursion into Ukraine raised the alarm in the rest of Europe.   The US responded with economic sanctions against Russia, but the oligarchs remained firm in their commitment to Putin.  And with President Trump’s actions, the perception was that NATO was weaker.  The Eastern European members were looking in fear to their East.  But without assured United States’ support, those members were left “in the wind”.  

Putin’s Mistakes

America remains embroiled in internal political conflict since 2016.  The “pandemic” election of 2020, the Insurrection of January 6, 2021, and the ugly withdrawal from Afghanistan all gave the perception that the United States was so self-involved, it couldn’t (or wouldn’t) react to a Russian move on Ukraine.  In fact, Putin thought that a major crisis might further fracture NATO, with the US stepping away from its responsibilities.  That was his first mistake.

Putin’s second mistake was in misjudging the determination of the Ukrainian people.  He thought that a “lightning strike” of Russian troops on the capital, Kyiv, and against President Zelenskyy, would quickly topple the government.  Putin could then replace Zelenskyy with someone more sympathetic to Russia, perhaps even Yanukovych again.  But the “lightning” fizzled, strung out in a seventeen mile traffic jam north of the capital.  And Zelenskyy proved to be an inspirational leader, able to maintain Ukrainian unity against Russian pressure.

Putin’s third mistake was in depending on his own armed forces.  In a government where profit to the oligarchs is the most important factor, a well-supplied and trained military just isn’t that crucial to the cause.  While Russian tanks had a feared reputation based on World War II, the reality is that the commanders couldn’t even communicate without cell service, allowing Ukrainian forces to zero-in and kill the leaders of the Russian attack.  

And finally, Putin failed to recognize that his actions gave NATO a “reason to be”.  NATO existed to offset the Soviet Union, now it was clear that Russia was still an expansionist danger.  Not only did NATO, led by the Biden Administration, unite in support of  Ukraine; but two “neutral” nations, Sweden and Finland, determined to join the alliance.  They not only have extensive borders with Russia, but have strong military forces themselves to add to NATO’s strength.

NATO

Putin’s four major mistakes have left him weakened, so much so, that some of his oligarch allies are “testing” his control.  He involved Russia in the biggest land war in Europe since World War II in Ukraine; one that Russia seems ill-equipped to win.  And Putin has done something that didn’t seem possible just a few years ago:  uniting NATO nations together, and making the alliance even stronger.

There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered Putin.  He’s under threat, from Ukraine, and from NATO.  And he’s vulnerable within.  We saw the Wagner Group, a private army under control of a Putin ally, threaten to march on Moscow itself.  Perhaps the greatest proof of Putin’s weakness is that his “ally”, Yevgeny Prigozhin, wasn’t executed for treason.  In fact, Putin had a “meeting” with him, after the Wagner troops turned around and went back to their bases.  That doesn’t look like strength.

But Putin still commands the Russian Strategic Forces; nuclear weapons in missiles, bombers and submarines.  And he still controls the Russian “special services”.  Just last week a twenty-eight year old bank Vice-President “fell to her death” from a sixth floor apartment balcony (Daily Mail) in classic Russian secret police style.   Putin may be weakened, but he’s not finished.  

That’s even more reason to continue to strengthen and grow NATO.  Ukraine has not been invited to membership, yet.  But once the current conflict is over, don’t be surprised to see it as the next “newest” member, blocking one more area of Russian expansion.  It’s the only thing to do, whether Putin remains in power, or one of his “buddies’ finally pitches him out (the Kremlin window?).  Because Russia is likely to remain a “rogue” nation for a long while.  And NATO is the “balanced” response to Russian expansion. 

Ukraine Crisis

Truth or Dare

Generations

I turn sixty-seven years old in September.  The truth:  I am a baby-boomer.  My parents helped define the name. They both fought World War II, then came back to the United States and started a family.  They had three kids, between 1949 and 1956 (I’m number three).  We are “Boomers”. 

American History looks back at time periods and generations.  My parents, literally, saved the world from Fascism.  As Tom Brokaw defines them, they were the “Greatest Generation”.  But historians might dispute that.  The generation that produced Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, the “Founding Fathers”, certainly could lay claim to being the “Greatest”.  And so could their grandchildren, Lincoln, Grant, Sumner and the rest, who saved the Nation from divide.  

So what will be the “Baby-Boomer” generation’s lasting claim to “fame”?

Tech

There is little question that we have “presided” over an era of tremendous change.  When I was born, the phone was wired to the wall, the TV’s were huge (at least the box), took fifteen minutes to warmup, with tiny screens in black and white.   Commercial passenger aircraft had propellers, and south of the Mason-Dixon line, signs denoted strict racial segregation. (In the North, there was segregation too, but it was a bit more “subtle”).  Computers existed, but were huge in university basements with tubes and paper tape readers. 

Today I carry one in my pocket. It can reach out to the entire world, and find any bit of factual information.  As my Dad aged, he found holes in his memory. Mom was his answer.  Today if there is a void, “Siri” can fill it.  And if I get really bored, I can watch TV on it, black and white or color.  

But technological advances aren’t enough to secure generational “success”.  Here in the United States, I think the “Boomers” (now a Millennial insult) will be known as much for their failures.  

There was the generation before Mom and Dad’s “Greatest”, the “Lost” Generation.  They fought World War I, and thought they won “the War to End All Wars”.   Instead, they set the stage for infinitely greater loss in World War II, and watched their Roaring Twenties economic boom fall to nothing in the Great Depression.  They “Lost” so much; first sacrificed in mass in the trenches of War, and then in meager  economic returns.

Guns

I am afraid the us “Boomers” might compare more to our Grandparents’ “Lost” generation then our parents “Greatest”.  It seems we have failed in three promises we made to the Nation, and the world.  And those failures will loom large in how future generations evaluate our stewardship of American life.

The first is the issue of guns.  No matter what “side” of the gun argument, it is undeniable that the current American trend of mass shootings is unacceptable.  But we are somehow paralyzed by it.  So many people die of gun deaths that we really stop listening to the reports.  Twenty-five shot here, five shot dead there; in the city, in the country, North and South. It all just becomes background noise.  We routinely now talk about what to do if we are caught in a gun barrage; on the Interstate highway downtown, or at the store, or school, or church.  We are frozen in our political positions, unable to agree on any step to begin to end our carnage.  

What generation would allow such an ongoing personal threat to itself and its children and grandchildren? Boomers, our generation did.  

Climate

The second is the issue of climate change.  This past week, the world – all of it – suffered the hottest days on record.  We see pictures of kids swimming in 112 degree heat in the South, and hear warnings of vast clouds of Canadian smoke covering our cities.  We knew that it was and still is our own actions accelerating the warming of our world.  And while many cried out the dangers, our responses haven’t been nearly good enough.  Now we face a world of extremes:  stronger hurricanes, hotter heat waves, deeper snow drifts.  We had a fifty-year clock counting down the “deadline”, 2040, where there is no turning back.  But now that deadline is moving up, closer to 2030.  That seemed so far in the future, back in the 1990’s.  Now it’s less than seven years.  

What generation would allow such an ongoing personal threat to itself and its children and grandchildren? Boomers, our generation did.  

Society

And the third is perhaps the most serious ( though it’s hard to beat random death by gunshot or heat prostration).  The Boomer Generation promised a “new” society, one of acceptance, where personal differences were celebrated.  Sure, sometimes that seemed a bit “over-the-top”, but the folks dancing in the rain at Woodstock couldn’t tell the difference between black and white, gay or straight, Atheist, Jew, or Christian.  Everyone was just covered in mud (and most high as Hell).  

As we aged, the promise grew more serious.  There was huge progress in civil rights, and personal acceptance.  Women fought their way towards an equal place in society, politics, and business.  The “gay kid” who was beat up in the locker room in the 1980’s is now just another kid.  And while we still have racial discrimination, some have broken through to lead our Nation.  And it’s not just Barack Obama, it’s Kamala Harris, and a whole raft of women and men of all races and backgrounds and orientations.  It was “our” greatest promise, and our greatest gift.

Dare

But now we see those achievements starting to back-slide.  From the Supreme Court decisions to the local School Boards, somehow “DEI”; diversity, equity and inclusion, has become an insult to be challenged, rather than a goal to be achieved.  Who would have thought that the 2020’s would be an era of regression, of going back to the “bad old days” of the 1950’s.  Sure we have all the tech, but without the social freedoms and justice, what’s the value of being able to reach out to the world from your pocket?  This regression threatens the very core of what our Nation stands for; our democratic ideals and becoming a “More Perfect Union”.  

What generation would allow such freedoms to slip away from its children and grandchildren? Boomers, our generation is doing it.  

Here’s the Truth or Dare.  We are getting old.  We’ve seen the truth, now we face the dare.  Can we, old “Boomers”, make one more stand, for our Nation?  Can we hold the line for the freedoms we have achieved?  No matter how worn, how aged, how retired, history will judge us on what we do now.

It’s the best, last Dare to accept.

Dear President Biden:

I know you want “the best” for America.  But here’s a problem:  unemployment is too low.  Yes, I know that sounds just crazy.  How can more people working be bad for America?  The June employment numbers just came out, over 209,000 added jobs, and an unemployment rate of 3.6%.  What it really means is that there are jobs available, for almost anyone who wants one.  And that should be a good thing.

But economists say it’s not.  I’m kind of think of economists like weather men.  You know the weather report, if it’s stormy, you need to hide; if it’s sunny, well, you need to hide too.  Rain means your outdoor plans are ruined.  Dry means that the crops won’t grow and the fires will.  Snow in the winter means a “snow-pocalypse”, no snow is “evidence of global warming”.   Economists and weather men see the “glass as half empty” every time.  Sometimes I think it’s more about finding something to worry Americans about, so you tune in tomorrow to see what happens next.

And then there’s the “worst” number:  wages are going up!!  That means more people have more jobs and are making more money.  But, then, they’re SPENDING that money (duh!!).  And that’s generated “inflationary feelings” (I’m not making that up, the reporter on TV just said that).  It’s as if we somehow have to treat the economy like a lover, dealing with “feelings” and “bad days” and “that time of the year”.  And then there’s “inflationary fears”, like somehow your sweet economy might somehow move out, and leave you in the lurch, or worse, a recession.

So if I’m hearing all of this correctly, economists want the unemployment rate higher, so there are more people looking for jobs, so that the businesses can pay them less:  “If you won’t work for this much, someone else will”.  That way prices go down, and people have less money to pay for it anyway.  And meanwhile more people can’t find jobs.   But that sounds a lot like a recession to me, kind of like we need a major flood to take care of the drought conditions.

If those ideas are what your economic advisors are suggesting, please don’t listen to them.  I know, like the weatherman and a coin flip, they might be right 50% of the time.  But if it’s just a coin flip, they might be wrong too.  And meanwhile, it’s the worst thing for the regular working stiff out there in the world, who wants a job, with more money, that will allow her or him to provide for themselves, and maybe their families (or even to pay off those damn student loans, thanks for trying!).

Politically, of course, whatever you do, half of the country will think you’re wrong.  In our current polarized nation, one side is going to scream “IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT” no matter what happens.  I agree:  it IS your fault that unemployment is low and wages are up.  You are to blame that, in my area (Central Ohio) they can’t build factories, roads, electric girds, and “distribution centers” (weren’t those called warehouses once?) fast enough.  I hear folks here in my town say:  “You can’t get through the McDonald’s drive-thru, because nobody wants to work”. 

What’s really happening at McD’s?   Why make $12/hour at McDonald’s when you can go just down the road and make $20/hour at Amazon.  And if you have a skill, you can make a whole lot more driving heavy equipment and pushing dirt in any one of the dozens of new plants going up.  One of my neighbors drives a gas tanker to work sites to fill up the machines.  He can’t work enough hours in a week to get the job done.  Of course, McDonald’s might have to raise wages.  And then they’ll raise the price of Big Mac’s.  And then we’ll have inflation.

But people are working.  That means they have some control over their own lives; where they live and what they eat (Big Mac’s?) and even what they do for a job.  If they don’t like what they’re doing, they can do something else, the opportunity is there. 

And if you’re trying to “thread the needle” between expansion and improvement, and recession and inflation; keep doing what you’re doing.  People always complain about the weather.  But they still watch the weather on TV every night.  And I think Americans will get it.  Our economy is booming, and we have time to complain about everything else.  If we were really struggling; no one would be talking.  All they could do is try to scratch out a living.

Good work, Mr. President.

Small World Politics

Note: this essay was edited to correct that the marijuana initiative is a “statute” initiative rather than a Constitutional Amendment.

New Game

I have a new game.  I watch the political cable channels, and I do a countdown.  When I flip on MSNBC, how long does it take until they are talking about Donald Trump?  Then, very (very) briefly, I switch over to Fox News.  How long does it take them to mention Hunter Biden?  It’s kind of fun.  That’s “large world” politics today, balancing the Left’s fear of Trump against the Right’s attack on Biden’s son and perceived weakness. (And what about finding cocaine in the West Wing: two plus two must equal…Hunter!!!). 

But here in Ohio we have a “small world”.  What should be national scandals are just “the way it is”.  The former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder, was just sentenced to twenty years in Federal prison.  He “only” took a $60 million bribe, one that the First Energy Corporation admitted to giving him (they paid a $230 million fine).  Householder took the bribe and got the State Legislature to bail out First Energy, saddling Ohio citizens with the cost of two aging nuclear plants. He even fended off a State Constitutional initiative to reverse the Legislature’s plan. (Ohioans might remember the commercial, “Chinese Communists are knocking on your door to take over your energy”).   And he did some personal home improvements as well (worth hundreds of thousands of dollars). 

The former Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party was also found guilty in the case, getting five years. But while it was a “Federal Case”, here in Ohio there was limited publicity.  And nationwide, it got a quick whitewash in the news (Left or Right). 

Last Recourse

Householder’s crimes were done in plain view of the Ohio voters.  Opponents of “bailing out” First Energy even turned to a statewide “initiative” to try to stop the now-criminal acts.  It was the only choice left; use a process written into the State Constitution in 1912 to counter the overwhelming influence of corporate money in the legislative process (Republican or Democratic, it really didn’t matter).  

“Initiative and Referendum” is relatively simple.  By getting signatures statewide, “regular” citizens take the “initiative” and put a proposal up for a vote of the entire state.  What could have been a “regular” law (statute) or Constitutional amendment proposed in the State Legislature, instead is put up for a vote of the citizens. (The Legislature can also “refer” a proposal, a referendum. More about that later).

It’s a final “check and balance”, the last “recourse” for voters over the whole state legislative process.  It’s also a way for the Legislature to deal with difficult issues and “pass the buck” to the state’s voters.  It’s not a sure thing.  Over more than a century, Ohioans “initiated” or the State Legislature “referred” 227 Constitutional Amendments or laws.  126 passed, 101 were rejected (Ballotpedia).  But the initiative to stop the First Energy bailout never made it on the ballot.  The proponents couldn’t get enough signatures:  those “Chinese Communists weren’t getting our energy, darn-it and tar-nation”.

Magic Number!!!

Recently, the Ohio state legislators saw the results of women’s health referendums in Kansas and Michigan.  In both those states, around 58% of the voters agreed that women should have the right to control their own health care, including whether to have abortions or not.  The Ohio Legislature was faced with the prospect of a similar initiative here. They risked losing control of the abortion issue.

The State House is against abortion rights, and I’m sure there are some legislators with close-held believes about abortion.  But for many others, it’s about re-election.  Gerrymandering has made Ohio an extremely right-leaning legislature.  Legislators worry not so much about the general elections, but the primaries, where they might be out-flanked to the right, out “pro-life’d” by some opponent.  

But it’s not just abortion.  There is a second ballot initiative circulating, creating a law (not an Amendment) that would make recreational marijuana legal, joining twenty-three other states.  Polling shows that close to 60% (there’s that “magic” number again) of Ohio voters are in favor of it.  But for the legislature, recreational marijuana use is an issue fraught with difficulties.  It’s not about the pot:  it’s about the money, lots of money; billions of dollars in taxes and fees money.  The legislature is afraid of losing control of that as well.

It’s about money, it’s about politics, it’s about beliefs.

Raise the Bar

So the State Legislature looked for a way to keep control of both abortion and dope.  One idea was to “raise the bar” on amendment initiatives.  Instead of majority rule, 50% plus one, they want to raise the “pass” level to 60% (hey, that’s the “magic number” of support for both abortion rights and recreational marijuana).  It would require a super-majority of the voters to pass any Constitutional initiative or referendum.  Or, to put it another way, a minority of Ohioans, 40%, would control what the state does.

Since changing the Ohio Constitution requires a Constitutional Amendment, the legislature “referred” the issue to a statewide vote, which now only needs to pass by 50%.  And they decided to do it in a rare (and recently banned) August statewide vote.  Why vote in August?  Turnout in August elections are always extremely low (why they were banned).  The Legislature hopes they can control who votes so their referendum wins.  But second, and more important, if they can pass the Amendment in August, it then controls the Women’s Rights Amendment scheduled to be on the November ballot.  Passage of Issue One by 50%, would require 60% voting for that amendment to pass. And while Marijuana is a statute initiative (not a Constitutional Amendment), the legislature vows to decimate it in the January session.

Absolute Power

Governor DeWine, Lieutenant Governor Husted, Secretary of State LaRose, the Republican state legislators, the Chamber of Commerce, all support raising the bar.  Former Governors Kasich and Taft (both Republican), Democrats in the state legislators (the few, the proud), and all the expected interest groups are against it.  But Ohio’s August Issue One, the “raising the bar” Amendment, isn’t just about abortions.  

It’s about power, the power of the state legislature.  And it’s about the American concept of checks and balances.  The current Ohio legislature doesn’t want to be checked by anyone.  They already have the votes to overrule the Governor’s veto, and they have literally ignored past orders of the Ohio State Supreme Court.  The only “check” left is this process of initiative.  

There’s an old saying:  “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  The Ohio legislature is already down the “corruption road” – ask Federal Prisoner Larry Householder.  Ohioans need to keep their check to balance the state legislative power.  They need to break the “norm” and show up on August 8th.  

They need to defeat Issue One.  

Stories of the Fourth 

This is definitely a “rerun”, I’ve told these stories before.  But it still catches the “essence” of The Fourth of July for me:  Enjoy!!!

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July – the day the United States celebrates its independence from the British.  Sure there’s all the technicalities – the Continental Congress passed the Declaration on July 2nd, a majority of states didn’t approve until July 9th, and the final state didn’t sign on until August.  But we have established the Fourth of July as THE day to celebrate.  Even in those first years we Americans celebrated with fireworks – and today we continue that tradition.

When I think of the Fourth, I go back to when my parents took all of us kids to the fireworks in St. Bernard, Ohio.  Why St. Bernard, a little municipality squeezed in between Proctor and Gamble’s soap factory (“Ivory Dale”) and Vine Street?  Maybe it was Dad’s tradition – it was just down the road from Mitchell Avenue where he grew up.  Anyway, I still remember sitting on a hill watching my first fireworks and worrying about how loud the “booms” were.

No worries now; I am a fireworks guy.  I still stand with my head tilted back – mouth slightly open to catch any wayward mosquitoes — staring in awe.  It wasn’t on the Fourth, but that position got me in trouble at the 1973 Boy Scout Jamboree.  They must have misjudged how close the crowded kids were to the launch site.  Ashes were raining down on us, and I got a real “taste” for the fireworks.  On the other hand, the booms were never again so close and loud – I liked it!

So here are three stories of the Fourth – mostly about fireworks and locations, but also about celebrating America.

Olympian Fourth 

In the 1980’s I spent several summers learning as much as I could about track and field.  I went to “camps” for athletes, and hung out with the coaches to absorb as much as I could.   One of those camps was at Indiana University in Bloomington.  I got the chance to “hang out” with Sam Bell, one of the top coaches of that era, and his world class  staff.  Marshall Goss was a leading national pole vault coach, actually a high school teacher who coached at the college, and Phil Henson had a PhD in physiology which he applied to his world class jumpers.  

We were there over the Fourth of July, and on that evening, we took the “kids” and staff to see the local Bloomington fireworks.  I sat with the staff.  On one side was Sunder Nix, Olympic Gold Medalist in the 4×400 relay.  On the other side was Dave Volz, a world class pole vaulter who would eventually compete in the 1992 Olympic Games.  They were enjoying the fireworks just like everyone else – and yet they earned the uniform to represent the United States in world competitions.  It brought home to me the reality that great athletes are “regular” folks, enjoying the fireworks and the conversation.  

And it was an honor to realize I was learning from them, and from their coaches.  They were among the best in the world, and they were sharing all that experience and knowledge with a young high school coach from Pataskala. 

Road Trip Fourth

Earlier this year, I wrote about the “road trip” I took with three other coaches. We were in our twenties, rented a van, and set off across the country.  Our route took us all the way to the Oregon coast, down to Mexico, and then back across the nation.  We arrived in Colorado around the Fourth of July, and decided to spend the holiday in Aspen.  

We crossed over Independence Pass, 12,000 feet in altitude, on the way from our hotel.  So we celebrated the morning of the Fourth with a snowball fight, then headed down to the festivities in Aspen.  They had the big field on the edge of town all prepped for a celebration, and the fireworks set up on the slopes above.  We established our “camp”, then one of the other coaches and I wandered off to explore the town.  One bar led to another, and by the time we got back to our “camp”, the combination of alcohol and altitude made navigation a little rough.

As dark fell, I remember amazing fireworks on the mountain, followed by even more amazing stars.  What I’m not so sure of, is the trip back over Independence Pass to our hotel.  But I wasn’t driving, and we negotiated the winding road safely.

Quiet Fourth

My parents lived an amazing life.  They had sixty-eight years together, madly in love.  They changed how American television worked, raised a family, and travelled the world.  It was only in the last few years that life got sadder.  Mom’s lungs began to fail, and she was tethered to increasing levels of oxygen machines.  Dad started to lose his memory.  So for the first ninety years they were great – for the last few years, not so much.

I don’t quite remember what crisis took me down to Cincinnati that Fourth of July weekend.  Mom was still at home, and Dad was doing his best to take care of her.  It’s really not fair:  the oxygen tanks require tiny washers fitted into the connection.  The hearing aids use the smallest batteries imaginable.  All when eyes are failing, and arthritis binds hands and fingers – no wonder Dad got frustrated.  Mom depended on him, and he was trying his best. 

So I was down at their house quite a lot. I wanted to see both of them, and give them a break from the pressure of taking care of themselves.  After a couple days though, it was time to head home. I left in the evening of the Fourth after dinner, heading back home to Pataskala, an early morning track practice scheduled for the Fifth.  But it was the Fourth of July, and I was a little sad to miss fireworks for the first time – ever.

But I didn’t miss the fireworks at all.  It was a quiet drive up I-71 from Cincinnati – there isn’t a whole lot of traffic on the night of the Fourth.  The top was off the Jeep, and the warm summer air felt good.  And then I got my Fourth of July surprise.

Every small town in Ohio has its own fireworks on the Fourth.  They aren’t the “RED, WHITE, AND BOOM” grandiose celebration of downtown Columbus.  But they are fifteen or twenty minutes long, with a buildup to the “grand finale”.  And since the towns aren’t too far apart, they stagger the starting time –  from sometime just after nine until ten.

So I cruised up I-71 in the open Jeep, watching multiple fireworks shows in multiple towns.  There were three finales, and they all seemed to be just for me. Small town America put on a great show.  But my last “finale” wasn’t quite as pleasant.  The kids near the State Route 56 exit were putting on their own show, firing bottle rockets at the passing cars on the Interstate.  That has a whole different meaning in the Jeep!

The Dream Fourth

That led to my “dream” Fourth of July.  I need to rent a small plane (with a pilot, of course). Jenn and I will takeoff just as the sun sets on the evening of the Fourth.  Then we’ll fly out over rural Ohio, watching the fireworks shows from overhead, different towns at different times – and high enough to stay out of the line of fire.  It’s got to be a spectacular view.

That’s my dream – but this year it’s a “regular” Fourth.  The fireworks here in Pataskala are on Saturday night (the Third), and with five dogs in the house, we’re going to stay close to home.  But we’ll get to see some of them – and, in this time of such deep divisions, remember once again the celebration that unites us.  

Happy Fourth!!!!

Eroding Foundation

Teaching

I was a school teacher for twenty-eight years.  I taught social studies:  economics and current affairs, World, American and Ohio history, and from sixth graders through seniors.  But for most of those years I was an American Government teacher.  We called it “Principles of Democracy” or “POD” at the beginning, but eventually we got down to just “Government”.  And when I was teaching, it was a senior class, the “best, last chance” to teach the soon to be voting students about their government, their rights and responsibilities.  I started when the Vietnam War was “recent events”, a draft card still in my wallet.  I ended with some graduates headed to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight our battles there.

No matter the year or the era, there were certain basic concepts from beginning to end.  We discussed the nuances of the Constitution, the competing forces among the branches and levels of the government, and the people.  We had rituals, like the “process of legislation” lecture (“I’m Just a Bill” on steroids) that was diagramed in chalk across the entire front of the room. There were the mock trials, followed by a trip to the Courthouse (and the Spaghetti Warehouse).  And there were the discussions:  how could the Founding Fathers write about liberty and own slaves; what were the limits of Freedom of Speech; and why have we fought six wars without Congress declaring one?

Basic Principles

One basic principle was about the nature of the Supreme Court.  It is the least defined of the three branches of government.  Article I outlines the legislative branch with ten sections, Article II the executive branch, four.  The Judicial article only has three.  The Court determined for itself (Marbury v Madison) their fundamental power of judicial review, but its jurisdiction is still restrained by Congressional legislation.  And unlike the Congress and the Executive, both independently selected by “the people”; the Justices are dependent on both those branches to gain their seats. But once there, they are unfettered by any process of recall (except impeachment for “bad” behavior).

When I taught about the Court(s), I called on my brief stint in law school to add to the explanations.  A foundational core of Judiciary of the United States was this:  there are no “advisory” opinions.  The Court only rules on actual facts, in cases where someone could claim actual damages.  While the law, and certainly law school, was filled with “what-if’s”, the Court itself was bound by the facts of a case in front of their bench, the laws “on the books”, and the precedents going back centuries of how other judges decided similar situations.

Stare Decis

Precedence is one way that judges, and particularly Justices of the Supreme Court, can measure their personal opinions against generations of judges.  While a single judge may be passionate about an issue or “side”, it is part of their obligation to “balance” those passions against the past.  Precedence has weight, both in respecting previous generations of the judiciary, and also as a sign of stability in the Judicial system.  Stare Decis (precedence) is the “footer”, the foundation upon which our whole legal system is built. (And a basic “building block” of law school, where the “foot-notes” are all about bolstering each legal assertion with “on point” decisions of the past).

Both of those principles, determining the law based on fact, and tempering passion with precedent, went out the window last year in the United States Supreme Court.

Duty Bound

Justices Kavanaugh, Barrett, Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas and Roberts all paid lip-service to the importance of Stare Decis as they sat before the Senate.  They all used terms like “…well and accepted law” when talking about Roe v Wade and the whole series of cases dealing with affirmative action.  But in this past year, they determined that the weight of their own interpretation of the Constitution was more important that the decades of Court decisions honoring those precedents.  They overturned Roe, Casey, Baake, University of Michigan, and redefined the nature of public discrimination. 

I suspect they see themselves as the modern Earl Warren’s and William Douglas’s, changing American law to their own version of the Constitution.  Actually, I imagine that they see themselves as duty bound to undo the decisions of that era; seeing the decades from Brown v Board of Education to Planned Parenthood v Casey as a massive Constitutional aberration to be “fixed”.   It’s hard to determine if they “just” have a different view of the Constitution, or a different vision of America.

Cases to Fit 

In the Harvard case, Asian students were the defined “victim” of affirmative action.  And while lower Courts determined that they were not really aggrieved (NYT), the Court majority used their plea to justify a “color-blind” interpretation of the 14th Amendment (written literally to guarantee that the Black formerly enslaved gained full citizenship status).   Forty-five years of Supreme Court decisions were thrown out.

The Asian students became the “straw-man” to support the pillar of “aggrievement”, regardless of whether they were really damaged or not.

And in the 303 Creative v Ellis, the Court determined a case based on “what-if’s”.  A web designer determined that she wouldn’t open a wedding webpage business, because IF she did and a gay couple asked for a page, then she would refuse to do it, in violation of Colorado law.  She filed her case before there was any actual business, any actual gay couple asking for a webpage, and any actual violation of the Colorado law.  As a plaintiff without damage, she shouldn’t have had standing in the first place.

Facts Didn’t Matter

But the Court overlooked her lack of qualification, and even was “bamboozled”  by fake statements in her brief.  Instead, the majority created a whole new “cut-out” in the free speech clause of the First Amendment, claiming her right to free speech allows her to discriminate against gay couples in her (aspirational) public business.

It opens a whole new expansion of discriminatory behavior, based on speech rather than religious beliefs.  It raises the specter of the worst public discriminations of the past.  If I am a “cheeseburger artist”, in a public restaurant, can I refuse to serve a gay couple, an interracial couple, a Black or Asian person, because I don’t “believe” in their choices?  Can I determine who sits at my lunch counter?  Can I use an ax handle to drive unwanted customers from my establishment (Georgia)? (After all, that was in 1965, not that long ago).

And if a case could be made just on “aspirations”, then Rosa Parks didn’t need to sit in the front of the bus, or Oliver Brown didn’t have to try to enroll his daughter Linda in school, or Mary Beth Tinker didn’t have to wear her armband to protest the Vietnam War. 

Mission

Clearly, it’s the mission of the current Supreme Court majority to turn back the decisions of the past half century.  And they are in such an all-mighty hurry to do it, they are willing to risk the very foundations of the Court they now control.  When Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee could not be driven from their homes in Georgia onto the Trail of Tears (Cherokee Nation v Georgia), President Andrew Jackson stated:  “John Marshall has made his decision, let him enforce it”.

Jackson ignored the Court, and did what he wanted regardless of their decision.  It was the political consequence that Marshall avoided in Marbury v Madison.  The actions of today’s Court puts it squarely in the same jeopardy.  Will the “rest” of the government support a Court so out of step with its time?  Or will it simply wait, until these Justices are gone, and a new Court can undo the damage done by the radical majority in the saddle?  

And what are Government teachers saying in class today?

PayBacks

This is a Sunday Story – no politics here. Just a story of Cross Country teams and getting ready for the Conference Championships.

Peaking

When I was the head Cross Country coach at Watkins Memorial High School, the week of the conference meet was always a big deal. Most years we were competitive enough to win, but if was seldom easy. Our kids had to run their best, (and sometimes better. So we let them “peak” a little bit – which means we backed off of our workouts so they had “fresh legs”. 

What I always remembered too late, was that when you lighten up on distance runners, they immediately have all sorts of energy. That can get crazy – the excitement of the Conference, that burst of vibrancy; all of a sudden instead of forty miles running a week, it was more like twenty-five. What to do with all of that pent-up power?

Rituals

So on Friday before Conference there was the “team dinner” at my house. We made spaghetti and lasagna and hamburgers and whatever else appealed to the kids (oh, and Klondike Bars, lots of them). One thing about distance runners – they can consume their own weight in food.  Then there were the “hydration” games. It was kind of like beer pong, but substitute Gatorade for the beer. No one got drunk, though a few lousy “pongers” nearly drowned in sports drink. 

But in between that last Friday practice and team dinner, the Cross Country team had an annual ritual to perform. We had to set up the Athletic Association’s craft show at the high school.   The Craft Show was no small thing:  over 200 exhibitors would crowd the halls, cafeteria and giant-sized gym.  It was a big fund raiser for the Boosters.

Setup

Each athletic team had a duty.  Football players came in early Saturday morning  to help the crafters move in.  Soccer and other teams helped them move out when it was over.  Volleyball helped deliver food around, or kept the concessions going. The cheerleaders provided child care for the craft show goers. But since Cross Country was away at the meet all day, our job was to come in Friday night and set the whole place up.  

So here I was with forty kids, geeked up on light practices, anticipation of dinner and fun, and the meet the next day.  And we met with the wonderful folks from the Athletic Association, who slowly, carefully, methodically, systematically, (and a whole lot of other “cally’s”) wanted to set things up.  Somehow, the two attitudes didn’t always mesh as a “well-oiled machine”. 

The Plan

But, after a couple of years, I developed a plan.  The Boosters set up the same way every year: 2 chairs and a table every 12’ down the hall, 8’ squares in the gym, each with two chairs, and 8’ squares along the cafeteria walls.  So instead of “method and system meet energetic chaos”, I made a deal.  We’d set it up, just like the plan, on our own.  The wonderful Boosters could focus on what they needed to do, Cross Country would take care of our end.  

And that’s what we did.  I assigned seniors sections of the school, they took their underclassmen and got things set up the right way.  I took the “flying squad”, the kids I knew I had to personally keep an eye on.  We did everything that the Association folks asked, any kind of special “missions” that required manpower and action.

And so, we transformed the High School in forty minutes into a “Craft-Showium”.   

And then we were done.  We all would sit in the cafeteria, like “cats on a hot tin roof”, ready to go eat, ready to go play, ready (really ready) to go win the Conference Meet, ready to do anything but…wait.  And the wonderful Craft Show folks would want us to stay, in  case there was something else we might do.

Free to Leave

The kids were polite, but they were loud.  And as much as I tried to “shush” them, they were just too fired-up for calm.   I’d start to get annoyed, until it dawned on me:  I wasn’t really the one bothered by their noisy conversations. I heard kids like this all the time.  But it was disrupting the contemplative and systematic pre-craft show setup.

Finally, my friends in the craft show would decide that the team was more nuisance than help, and send us on our way.  And to be honest, after a couple of years, I didn’t really try to control the noise.  We had “setup” down to a science, everything we could possibly do was done.  The Craft Show folks should “free” the team, and let them explode all that energy somewhere else.  It was best for the kids, best for the Coaches, and ultimately best for the Craft Show too.  Then the setup could go on in peace.

Five Dogs

So why am I telling this story?  I came home the other day, after a long afternoon of doing manual labor, helping a friend get ready for a Veterans’ Walk.  The event is on that same cross country course where I spent so many years training teams to Conference Championships.  We were cutting and trimming the woods back from the trails, filling in holes, and shifting platforms to cover the recent mud, just like the “good old days”.  And when I got home, all I really wanted was a shower, and a beer.

The five dogs were excited to see me.  And, after they went out, they were willing to give me a moment to shower and put on clean clothes.  But when I sat down on the couch, they just wouldn’t let me rest.  One after the other, they came over and DEMANDED attention.  Finally, they all ganged up on me, all five.  “No rest for the wicked”, as my sister is fond of saying.  They wanted dinner, now, and I was the one to get it.

I felt just like my friends in the Athletic Association at the Craft Show.  I knew what was going on, but I also knew that no amount of hollering or begging or cajoling was going to get my dog friends to leave me alone.  It was time to “free” them to eat dinner, or more exactly, get their dinner for them. 

It was the only way to peace, and to that beer.

The Sunday Story Series