Category: Uncategorized

Model Red

I live in Ohio, the supposedly “model Red” state.  We are Republican. There’s a “super-majority” in the state legislature GOP, and all of the elected state officials are Republican as well.  There’s a majority of Republicans on the “non-partisan” State Supreme Court (four to three). That includes the son of the current Republican Governor.   Democratic US Senator Sherrod Brown stands as the sole elected state-wide Democrat.

Not surprisingly, in a state that voted 53% for Trump in 2020, the majority of the Congressional seats are held by Republicans.  But in a state where 45% voted for Biden in 2020, only five (33%) of the fifteen Congressional seats are held by Democrats.  That’s the results of extreme Gerrymandering by the Republican legislature, the Republican Governor and the Republican Secretary of State; as ratified by the Republican State Supreme Court. It’s all in spite of a state Constitutional Amendment, passed in 2018 with 75% approval, restraining the legislature from Gerrymandering.

It Takes Two

In fact, the Republicans are so “in charge” in Ohio, that the House Republicans (with 66 seats) have split into two factions.  One, the “normal” Republicans (take over the State Board of Education types), aligned with minority Democrats (all 32 of them, less than 33%) for legislative control. Meanwhile the other “crazies” faction (anti Trans, DEI, CRT, LGBTQ and other alphabet things) represent a majority of their Party.  

There’s an old phrase; “it takes two to tango”.    Well, it takes two to check and balance a legislature, and a state executive branch as well.  But Ohio, the “model Red” state really is a flawed model of unchecked partisan governance.  Here’s two recent examples.  This month, two exciting state-wide initiatives which passed with 57% majorities.  Issue One, guarantees women the right to determine their own health care, including getting abortions.  It reinstates the “rules” of the Roe v Wade US Supreme Court decision.

New Issues, Old Tactics

Immediately after the passage of Issue One, the “crazies” wing of the Republican Party vowed to maintain Ohio’s strict abortion laws. That included the six-week limit which virtually banned abortions.  “Cooler” Republican heads seems to have prevailed. But even they are talking about the need for “compromise” with the brand-new Constitutional Amendment.  For those who thought that “black letter law” enshrined in the State Constitution would be the final word, the fight isn’t over.  And with a State Supreme Court that disemboweled the anti-gerrymandering re-districting amendment, nothing in the Constitution may be sacred.  A battle was won on Issue One, but the “war” for women’s health rights will go on.

And Issue Two was the proposed law to legalize recreational marijuana.  Ohio already had a pretty lax “medical marijuana” law:  for $200 almost anyone could get an online medical marijuana card.  But as of December 7^th, everyone over twenty-one will be allowed to purchase “weed”.   The wily Republicans in the legislature probably will “accept” the legalization in the newly passed law.  What they want to control is the immense tax monies to be divided.  Ohioans will get to “smoke-up”. But where the tax money goes; regular state sales tax plus a 10% state “fee”; that’s a different matter.

Show Me the Money

And those are only two recent examples of Republican legal “arrogance”.  The former Republican Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, took a $60 MILLION bribe from First Energy Corporation. He made sure the Legislature passed (and the Governor signed) a law guaranteeing billions of state dollars to cover First Energy’s cost of aging Ohio nuclear plants.  Householder is now serving a twenty-year Federal sentence. But multiple other Ohio leaders, implicated in the bribe distribution, have skated free, so far. (The Lieutenant Governor, John Husted, and Governor DeWine were subpoenaed in a civil case).  

But the “cash cow” of the Ohio Republican Party is education.  In the past, even the chief of the National Association of Charter Schools called Ohio the “Wild West” of charter schooling (Cleveland).   The state freely provided money earmarked for public education to private charter schools.  The most egregious example was the online program ECOT (Education Center of Tomorrow), which generated huge payouts to its top executives, and misappropriate $117 million of Ohio education money.  ECOT went under, and the money was never returned to the State.

William Lager, the founder of ECOT, was a heavy contributor to Ohio Republicans with over $800,000 in donations  (OCEASF).   And he managed to personally distance himself from the financial collapse, maintaining his fourteen million dollar home in Florida. 

Help the Rich

Charter schools are still “a thing” here in Ohio, but the new “cash” is in the nearly unlimited school voucher program.  Republicans supposedly passed  school vouchers as a way for economically disadvantaged kids to escape from “failing public schools”.  The legislature made state funded education money “portable” for students.  Want to go to a private (or charter) school?  Just sign up, and over $8000 in state money goes to pay for private education (Cleveland).  

But the big “reveal” this week, is that the majority of the voucher money isn’t going to economically disadvantaged kids.  In fact, the majority is going to supplement kids already in private schools.  And with the “relaxation” of income restrictions, a large proportion of the almost $1 Billion appropriated for vouchers are going to families with greater than $100,000 annual incomes. (The state government appropriated $12.7 Billion for public K-12 education in 2022, so close to 8% is going to vouchers – Public Policy).   What was “advertised” as helping “disadvantaged kids” is really going to help voters more likely to vote the Republican way, at least as far as the legislature is concerned.

And the majority of private schools are religious.  Of course parents should have the right to send their child to a religious school. But should the State, with public tax money, pay for it?  As long as the private “owners” of the schools donate to Republican candidates, our current “Red Model” thinks Ohio should.

Here in Ohio it’s all about money – money into the hands of those who already have it, and money into the hands of Republican politicians.  If this were California, or New York or any other “high profile” state, it would be a national story.  But here in Ohio, the “model Red” state, it’s just business as usual.

Commentator Rachel Maddow calls it a “tough year”. Historian Michael Beschloss says we are at a time when “democracy is in danger”. Like it or not, Americans of the 2020’s, are faced with an “existential crisis” of the American experiment in self-government. It is, perhaps, the one thing that unites us all, across the political spectrum, and from Generation Z to the Baby Boomers.

Like It or Not

In 1966, United States Senator Robert Kennedy travelled to South Africa.  While there, he gave a speech to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) at the University of Capetown. In a nation committed to apartheid, the legal segregation of society by race, the NUSAS was a young, intellectual force standing opposed to it.  It would take another twenty-four years before that ugly legal separation finally ended, but the Senator from New York dared to stand in front of a student group dedicated to change and echo their call for freedom.   His speech recalled the movement towards freedom in other countries, including the United States, and encouraged the students to continue their work (Affirmation Day Speech).

Kennedy outlined four dangers that prevented societies from changing.  The first was futility, the belief that no one man or woman could make a difference.  The second, expediency, was to bend hopes and beliefs to achieve lesser immediate needs. Third was timidity, being unwilling to risk the wrath of others to pursue right.  And the fourth was comfort, clinging to  personal wealth and familiarity rather than fight for change.  

And then, Bobby Kennedy called out the younger generation of South Africans in front of him.  He said:

But that is not the road history has marked out for us. There is a Chinese curse which says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.

Call for Service

The 1960’s were a time of upheaval.  Here in the United States the decade started with the powerful promise of President John F. Kennedy, calling a new generation of Americans to join together to make our Nation live up to its promise.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

Political Consequences

It was an auspicious start, quickly followed by the development of the Peace Corps, and the national commitment of sending astronauts to the moon.  America, perhaps in spite of itself, even began to progress towards civil rights.  It was a time of high goals and promises.  But it soon began to shatter.  The assassination of President Kennedy, the slow pace of racial equality, and finally the quagmire of the Vietnam War brought Americans into deep conflict with each other.  

There were protests, first for civil rights, and then against the War.  Some of those degenerated into riots, and American inner cities burned in the mid-1960’s.  The political consequence of unrest led to more assassinations, of Malcolm X (1965), and Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy (1968).  Protestors were shot in the streets and on college campuses.  What started as a movement to sacrifice for “your country”, devolved into a physical battle for control of government.

The MAGA Choice

The words of that past echo in our present political crisis.  “Like it or not”, today we too live in “interesting times”.  In the next year we, again, face an existential crisis in American government.  What many of us hoped ended with the election of 2020 and the defeat of MAGAism, now comes back for a second round. And like a bacterial illness, treated but not cured, MAGAism has come back from defeat even stronger.

This time their goals are clear, openly outlined in their plans for government “retribution”.  Their intention is to remove the guardrails; in the bureaucracy, the military, the courts and the media; that dared to stand up against MAGA extremism in the first administration.  Now they are poised for an ideologic cleansing, should they regain the reins of power.  

Interesting Times 

To use Senator Kennedy’s rubric, I sense the futility, in our “modern” age.   We don’t know what to do, or how to reach those lost in the cult-like “silos” of information that allows them to hear only what they want to hear.  And the 2020’s are nothing if not expedient, giving away our long-term goals, like protecting the environment, for short-term gain.  

Timidity: nothing describes our era better than intimidation.  We are afraid to speak the truth “out loud”; afraid to face confrontation when our ideals conflict with extremism.  And it’s not just a matter of being shouted down.  There’s an unspoken threat, symbolized by the extremist dependence on the Second Amendment. And the disquieting feeling that, maybe I too need protection.

And finally comfort; Americans, if they only ignore the pending future, are doing better.  The stock market and salaries are up; the post-Covid inflation is down; and the ticking time-bomb of 2024 can still be pushed away, at least for a month or so.  

But reality is that we live in “interesting times”.   We are one of the “generations granted the role of defending freedom”.    It is up to us, to not fall into the traps of futility, timidity, expediency and comfort. “Only” the fate of the American experiment is on the line:  the freedom and democracy that we so boldly celebrate to the world is at stake.  We are only two years from the 250’th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the founding of our Nation.  What will our government look like then?

Do not take comfort.  Instead, ask, “…What you can do for your country”.  It’s never been more important, and the stakes truly have never been higher.

This is one of the “Sunday Story” series.  No Politics today, just a story of Thanksgiving – sort of…

Empty Nest

Jenn and I got married later in life, just eleven short years ago.  But we quickly developed our own Thanksgiving traditions, mostly revolving around kids, food, turkey and tenderloin.  Our son Joe was always there, and often some of his friends and some of the kids I “adopted” from the school.  But Joe moved to California with his love, Lauren, this year; and I’ve  been retired from school for almost a decade.  The “kids” are all grown up, with their own turkey day traditions.

So this was our first Thanksgiving on our own.  Maybe we should have taken the “hint”, and ordered pizza (there is a “Thanksgiving Pizza” with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, whew).  But I am nothing if not a traditionalist.  And besides, in retirement I have become a “smoker”.  No, not my “beloved” cigars that for medical reasons I had to give up a few years ago.  I’m one of those guys with a big black box outside, and bags of woodchips in the garage.  And there’s really nothing that “smokes” quite as well as a full turkey.  So while we dropped the tenderloin (that comes at Christmas), I insisted that we still put on a full feast, if only for just the two of us.  A “romantic” Thanksgiving was my thought.

For Two, at 2?

To start with, I swear Jenn said she wanted to eat around 2pm.  You see, the other part of this Thanksgiving is, surprise, a dog story.  Jenn is in the middle of persuading a stray dog to go into a trap.  They’ll be a lot more about “Bruno” later, but I figured we’d spend Thanksgiving evening “working” on the dog.  So two o’clock sounded right.  

We had a small turkey, about thirteen pounds, and according to the “Masterbuilt Smoker Bible” it should cook for about four and a half hours.   Add a half hour to “rest” before serving, and the usual “smoker variables”, and I figured it needed to go into the smoker somewhere around 8:30 am.  So I got up at 6:30 (our dogs were up anyway), and got the turkey out of the refrigerator to “come up” to room temperature.  Meanwhile I fed our guys breakfast.  The first problem was, that Lou, our rescue from Louisiana, was much more interested in the turkey on the counter, than his breakfast on the floor.  It took a lot of effort to “redirect” his attentions to the dish (he never did eat it all).

But the gang ultimately got fed, and I followed the simple recipe for smoked turkey.  I remembered to find the “giblets” this year (last year, they smoked almost a full hour before I removed them), and got the neck out of the bird as well.  However, I completely forgot about the “traditional injection” of marinade, instead just going with butter, salt and pepper as a seasoning.  I got the smoker warming up by 8, and by 8:30 the neighborhood was fragrant with hickory smoke.  The turkey went in at 8:45.  I was pretty much on time, on schedule.

Stretching it Out

That was, until Jenn got up, and said that we should eat later, maybe around six.  When I suggested she said two, she gave me that look, the one that says I don’t pay proper attention to her when she’s talking. (I know, sixty-seven, and maybe my hearing is failing.  But the audiologist says it’s fine, then murmured under her breath something about “selective deafness”). But there wasn’t an argument, we agreed that four would be a “perfect” time for Thanksgiving dinner.  

Smoking is more of an art than a science anyway, so instead of heating at 275 degrees, I just went down to 240 for a while.  That should stretch things out, though there’s always the threat of the number one disaster – dry turkey.  And now, I would have to keep the turkey in the smoker for another two hours, a total of seven.  So I was sweating the afternoon, worried about keeping a turkey “hovering” at 155 degrees, ten-short of the bacteria killing safe 165.  I managed it, and around two-thirty I turned the smoker back up to the max 275 to finish up the bird.  Whatever else, it was going to be 165 before I brought it out.

But three passed, and then three-thirty.  No matter how hard I stared at the wireless thermometer, it never went above 156.  All of a sudden, the smoker was holding up Thanksgiving.  Everything else, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh steamed green beans, stuffing, cranberries, and the “traditional” Hawaiian rolls,  couldn’t start until the turkey began its thirty minute “rest”.  And there’s no rest for the bird until it hit 165 – no matter what. 

Panic 

Finally about three-thirty, that’s seven hours in, I hit the panic button.  We have a 1929 (that’s the year it was built) Magic Chef “restaurant class” gas stove, one that can easily cook a traditional turkey.  So we heated it up, pulled and “tented” the turkey from the smoker, and “finished” it in the oven.  And it still took another half-hour, to reach the “golden” temperature.   Then there was a rush, getting everything else ready.  Meanwhile I braced for the worse:  slicing into the turkey and feeling the coarse “dryness” in the meat.  But there was no rushing “rest period”.  Julius Caesar said it best:  “Alea ictea est”, the die is cast.  Whatever the turkey was to be, it already was.

I found the electric carving knife, and faced my fate. But when I pulled out the thermometer probe, to my surprise, the juices flowed out behind it.  I made the first slice:  it was incredibly juicy, (moist as Joe would say), and the first test bite was amazing.  After all of the waiting, all of the hickory smoke, all of the desperation:  it was a great turkey, even if I say so myself.  So much for science; we “winged” a smoked turkey, and it came out perfect.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving repast – just the two of us.  The cranberry contrasted perfectly with the stuffing, the dark meat was as good as the white, and the Meimoi Pinot Noir that Lauren got us hooked on, was perfectly matched.  It really was a quiet Thanksgiving dinner, quiet and perfect.  

 Bruno’s Story

We finished up, with time for a turkey-coma nap before we headed out to help Bruno.  This dog has been wandering a mobile home park about thirty minutes south of here for almost a year, likely abandoned by someone moving out.  He won’t go inside, won’t allow himself to be corralled, but has developed relationships with two people.  The mailman who comes through every day and gives him a treat. Bruno will eat it from his hand. But he won’t let the mailman pet him, shying back away from reach. 

And the other is a resident, who has fed Bruno since last February.  She can pet him, and he’ll follow her around.  But he won’t go inside, even in the worst weather.  And unfortunately, the resident is terminally ill with cancer.  She reached out to our group, Lost Pet Recovery:  what could we do to help Bruno because she won’t  be around to help him anymore.

Training

So Jenn’s trying to convince Bruno to go into a trap.  We’ve got a foster home all lined up, if only we could get Bruno to “come in”.  But he won’t.  He’s “trap smart”; the local dog warden already tried.  And he ignored our much larger trap, even with the “magic” McDonald’s double cheeseburger as the bait.  So Jenn’s trying a different kind of trap, a panel trap, one that looks like a fence instead of a wire crate.  And Bruno is slowly easing into it, stepping farther into the doorway each time.  He eats at 9:30 pm, so Jenn shows up to leave plates (paper, not Thanksgiving finery) with a mix of roast chicken and dog food.  On Thanksgiving night, there was a portion of hickory smoked turkey as well.

Bruno’s eating well, but he isn’t going all the way in yet.  There’s more “training” to do, and maybe even a bigger panel trap to install.  When he finally goes all the way in, the automatic door will swing closed.  Then maybe we can get Bruno “safe”, into that foster home.  He’ll have a  warm place to live, a couple of acres to run, and other dogs to play with.  And the resident will know that he’s taken care of, even when she’s gone.  Jenn’s almost got him there.  

I’ll let you know how it ends.  I hope that, like the turkey, it will be a “happy” Thanksgiving story.

If you’d like to donate to our group, Lost Pet Recovery – here’s the link – hit the Donate button when you get there: Facebook – Lost Pet Recovery

Or if you’d like to send a check –  

• Lost Pet Recovery
• PO Box 16383
• Columbus, OH  43216

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
• A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
• Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
• Fair or Foul – 2/26/23
• Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
• Busy Season – 5/15/23
• Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
• A Pole Vault Story  -6/11/23
• End of an Era – 6/25/23
• Paybacks – 7/2/23
• Graying in Pataskala – 7/17/23
• Being a Goat – 7/23/23
• Toy Truck – 8/20/23
• Medical Terms – 8/27/23
• Missing Margaritaville – 9/3/23
• The McGowan – 9/10/23
• Who’s Watching – 10/22/23
• The Saturday Before – 10/29/23
• A Tale of Turkey, and Dogs – 11/26/23

I originally wrote this story in June of 2019.  On this 60th Remembrance of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and with a little editing, I thought it might be good to see it again.

Politically Aware

I became aware of politics when I was really, really young. One of my earliest memories  is about politics and campaigning.  It was the summer I was three, the summer of 1960.  We were in Canada for our annual vacation on the lake. Politics must have been in the air, with the US Presidential election coming up in November. I’m not sure how it started, but I remember one of my parent’s friends, Jerry Ransohoff, singing:   “Vote, vote, vote, for Martin Dahlman, throw old ‘Ikey’ down the sink…”. He was  referring to then President, Dwight Eisenhower. They were ready to run me for President.  There was more, but I don’t remember the rest of the song.

In 1960 the youthful Senator from Massachusetts John Kennedy was the Democrat running for President. He was against the Vice President, Richard Nixon.  My Mom, a citizen of the United Kingdom and unable to vote in US elections, had a personal connection to the Kennedy’s though.  One of her schoolmates in Queen’s College in London was Kennedy’s sister, Kathleen.

A Kennedy Tragedy

Kathleen’s story is another tragic part of the Kennedy family saga. Her father, Joseph, was the US ambassador to the United Kingdom in the years before World War II, and brought his family with him.  Kathleen went to British school, Queens College, and ultimately married William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington in 1944.  Kathleen’s oldest brother Joe, was stationed in England with the US Army Air Corps,. He was the only family member to attend the wedding.  

Joe was killed in combat three months later.  Cavendish himself was shot and killed by a German sniper in Belgium a month after that. Kathleen remained in England after the war, and was big on the London social scene.  She fell in love again, this time with the 8^th Earl Fitzwilliam, and was with him on a small airplane in 1948, flying to the French Riviera for vacation.  They flew into a storm, crashed, and died.

Political Controversy

So it was no surprise that Mom was a huge Kennedy supporter.  At four (my birthday was in September), I wasn’t really sure what it was all about, but I was proud to wear a Kennedy button on my sweater.  One of my father’s best friends before World War II was Buddy Shriver, son of Dr. Howard Shriver and his wife, Leah.  Buddy served in the Navy during the war, and contracted tuberculosis somewhere in his duties.  The disease ultimately killed him, but Mom and Dad stayed close to the Shriver’s, and they were “Aunt Leah and Uncle Howard” to us kids.

Howard Shriver was one of the founding doctors of Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance, and not surprisingly, they were very Republican.  When I showed up at the doorstep of their apartment in the Vernon Manor Hotel with a Kennedy button on, it definitely was a problem. I wasn’t allowed in the door, so I sat in the hall outside with my button still on my sweater.  Eventually, Aunt Leah came out to get me, with a small iron elephant as a gift.  I didn’t know the elephant’s significance then, but I liked it (I still have it). The elephant now represents the battle for my young political mind.  There was a wooden donkey too from that era, but I’m not sure where that came from.

November 22nd

My next political memory is shared by my entire generation; the assassination of President Kennedy. I was a second grader at Clifton School in Cincinnati.  Mrs. Meyer, our teacher, wouldn’t tell us what happened when we were released from school early on November 22^nd, but we knew it was bad.  We heard it was in Texas, and as second graders, we talked about monsters smashing towns.  

As I walked home, a third grader came up to me and said the President was shot.  I knew that couldn’t be true, I was a Kennedy supporter, and we argued.  After heated discussion, he pushed me, and I punched him in the nose.  It wasn’t until I got home, and Mom opened the front door with a shocked look in her face and tears in her eyes, that I knew it was real.

We spent the next few days at home, watching the small black and white TV in my room that took several minutes to “warm-up” once you turned it on.  I remember the funeral march, the caisson carrying the flag draped coffin, young John-John saluting as it went by.  I vaguely remember the shock of the purported assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald; shot and killed in the Dallas police garage, but I don’t remember actually seeing it.  

We must have gone to Washington for a trip soon after.  I remember seeing Kennedy’s grave, the eternal flame lit, and the hats of the military units surrounding the gravesite.   It was temporary, not the “National Monument” of the Kennedy grave today.  There was still upturned dirt, freshly dug from the ground, and upheaval in our minds.  Another chapter of the tragic Kennedy tale ended.

Then It Got Real 

I was nine in 1965 when we moved from Cincinnati to Dayton, Ohio. Dad became the General Manager of a TV station, WLW-D (now WDTN) Channel 2.  It was one of the two stations in Dayton along WHIO Channel 7.   One of the advantages of being the “manager’s kid” was we got into exciting things, like when President Lyndon Johnson came and spoke at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.  It was 1966 and I was now ten.  Vietnam was just becoming an issue.  

We had pretty good seats in the stands, but Johnson was still far away, a large figure with a Southern accent.  But I was shocked to see young protestors in black turtlenecks from Antioch College in nearby Yellow Springs, standing below the podium and chanting against the War as he spoke.  They were quite “tame” but today’s standards, but at the time I was amazed that someone would dare to interrupt the President.  

Smothers Brothers

We were exposed to a lot of politics in those years.  Dad had started a news/talk show at the station, with Phil Donahue as the host.  Phil brought the most controversial people to Dayton, and often they ended up at our house the night before the show.  Most memorably was Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers comedy duo.  I was thirteen, on my last year as the “house bartender” (Dad thought I would sample the “goods” as I got older) and Tommy came in late one night before the Donahue show. Mom woke me up, and said to get the bar ready.

I remember Tommy as a guy who told dirty jokes to kids.  Perhaps most memorable was his girlfriend, with a dress that was slashed to her navel.  Dad’s sales manager, Chuck McFadden and I marveled at how the sides managed to stay up and covered, well, what needed to be covered.  Sticky pads I guessed.  Some things kids just need to figure out.

Tommy and his brother Dick were soon cancelled from their successful TV show on CBS.  They had great ratings, but the network thought they were too controversial.  Their casual comedy songs were often critical of the War, and their guests invariably had an undercurrent of anti-war conversation.

My Kennedy

Another Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, entered the Presidential race.  He wasn’t the first candidate opposed to the Vietnam War; but he was my candidate. He favored Civil Rights and Martin Luther King, and Workers Rights and Cesar Chavez, and making the United States a fairer and better place.  And he was a Kennedy, the inheritor of the mantle of his brother’s leadership.

That spring, I had my radio alarm clock set for 7 am to get me up for school.  I had to catch the bus at 7:45 a couple blocks away, but if I cut through the neighbor’s yard and jumped over the wall, it only took a minute.  I always woke up to the latest news headlines.  

On April 5th, the alarm clock clicked, and the announcer read that Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis.  Riots broke out in Dayton; we watched the buildings burn on Dad’s station.  Mayor Dave Hall “read the riot act” and the National Guard moved in to protect the streets.

Lost Hero

Two months later, the alarm clicked again, and I found that my hero, Bobby Kennedy, running for President and against the Vietnam War, was dead.  He was shot and killed by an assassin after winning the California primary. His candidacy was gaining momentum and might well have won the convention.  But he was gone, a long funeral train procession, another heartfelt speech, this time by Ted Kennedy, and a final burial next to his brother in Arlington.  His, and our, dream of changing the world ended.  Bobby said; “…some men see things as they are and ask why, I see things that never were and ask, why not.”  

We all were asking why.

But my ultimate political “moment” of that year started out with a mistake.  I had a flat tire on my bike, and Dad helped me fix it.  One of us (I blamed him at the time) didn’t manage to tighten the front fork bolts, and when I hit a bump in the neighbor’s driveway, the front wheel flew off.  I flipped over the handlebars, and when I finally landed, my right wrist had an odd bump.  I quickly diagnosed it as a broken arm.

That wrecked my chance to be the twelve-year old “swim star” in the next day’s championships, and the doctor ordered me to lay low with my cast elevated for the next week.

Democrats

It was August of 1968, and as I sat on the couch in the family room with my cast perched up on the green beer box I painted to hold my clothes at summer camp. I watched in “living color” the Democratic convention in Chicago.  It was the riot convention;  the party leaders, “Johnson Democrats” supported the war and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.  The anti-war Democrats, led by Gene McCarthy and George McGovern as Bobby’s replacement, protested on the floor of the convention and in the streets.  Mayor Dick Daley of Chicago was firmly in the Johnson camp, and wasn’t going to let protests mar “his” convention.  He sent the police to clear the streets.

I watched amazed as protestors were tear gassed and beaten.   Reporters were chased into their hotels, and pummeled with nightsticks in the halls.  I listened to the politicians on the stage say that the attacks were necessary for “law and order,” and I heard the opposition rail against the violence.  “The whole world is watching” the protestors chanted, and later, “the whole world is…” well, doing something else.  

Against the War

That experience put me firmly in the anti-war camp.  Despite the fact that we got to meet Humphrey, the nominee and candidate of “my” Party at the Dayton airport, I was never a big fan.  It was years later in college, when I had the chance to study the liberalism that Humphrey espoused, and I changed my mind about him.  He was in an impossible position though, the Vice President, unable to “buck” his President Johnson, and prevented from reaching out to the anti-war vote.  

The election was close enough it took until Wednesday to decide who won.  They announced Nixon’s victory over the PA at Van Buren Junior High School in Kettering, Ohio.  The school burst out in cheers and applause, and I put my head down on the desk.  How could we live with four years of Richard Nixon?

We survived, six years actually, and the Watergate era ended Nixon’s Presidency in shame.  Nixon’s second Vice President, Gerald Ford, took over, and then ran for the Presidency himself.  By then I was a “seasoned” young politician, working for the Carter/Mondale campaign.  But that’s a whole different story.

Political Operative

In 1976, I was a campaign operative, a “Field Coordinator” for the Carter/Mondale Presidential campaign.  My job duties varied.  I was  “in charge” of campaign activities for six rural counties in Ohio including Miami University, the Get Out the Vote and “illegal” sign operations in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), and statistics for the entire region.  It was the perfect job for a twenty year-old willing to “sell out” for a political campaign; 100 hours of work a week, often snatching a couple of hours in a sleeping bag on the floor in the office, or in the back of my 1967 Volkswagen “Squareback”.  

(I learned a hard lesson about the Volkswagen: never, ever, drive it to the United Auto Workers Hall in Hamilton, Ohio.  The Union President wrapped his huge arm around my shoulder and made it clear:  he wouldn’t tolerate a “foreign” car in his parking lot.  I borrowed Dad’s 1969 Old’s Cutlass for trips after that – the UAW guys loved it, and it got me to Hamilton a lot faster anyway).

In the Bullpen

It was exciting, I was a part of a “big” cause, electing the President of the United States.  I had my three-piece suit and my Bicentennial Tie (it was 1976), and my “staff” Carter/Mondale button.   And for that, I got $75 a week, a check from the Campaign in Atlanta (OK, that’s not quite as bad as it sounds – in 2023 dollars that’s $400 a week).  Oh, and I had a desk in our “headquarters” in the sleezy Ft. Washington Hotel between Sixth and Seventh Street downtown.  I was  in the “bullpen” with the other young coordinators.  

Only Paula and Mike, the County and Regional Coordinators got their own offices.  My desk was just outside the “phone bank”, where twenty phone lines were used to reach out to voters.  In the last few weeks of the campaign, there was ten hours-a-day of the constant murmur of high school kids and older women, calling registered Democrats for the Carter campaign to ask what they thought of the former Governor of Georgia.  Today we’d call it “push polling”, but back then it was just another check, a contact to a registered voter.  Mike said the “magic number” was five; five contacts to “insure” a Carter vote. 

Surrogates

Around the first week of October, Mike said to stay close to Cincinnati.  While I should keep my rural counties going, the “big cheese” for the campaign was Cincinnati, in Hamilton County.  If we could win here, or at least keep it very close, then the urban areas up north; Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Toledo; would bring Carter across the finish line for a win in Ohio. (That strategy ultimately worked – Carter won Ohio by a little over 11,000 votes out of 4 million).   And Mike introduced me to a new duty, being part of the “team” for Carter “surrogates” who came into town.

I got to meet “Jimmy” (he insisted we call him that, not Governor).  It was a brief fly-in, a “meet and greet”, with a few thousand supporters at a local airport.  His plane swooped in, Jimmy talked to the crowd, then he came into the terminal and gave us local staff a quick pep-talk and handshake, then flew back out again.  Beside shaking the hand of the future President, the most notable event of that day, was Senator Howard Metzenbaum.  He was left at the airport by his own staff.  He “bummed” a ride back downtown with me, in the Volkswagen Squareback.  Me, driving with a US Senator in the passenger seat.

The Family

I got to spend a little more time with the rest of the Carter family.  Rosalynn (pronounced Rose-a-linn) came into town in the middle of October.  While she had a full Secret Service detail in protection, Mike delegated a “staffer” to be with her as she went to campaign events.  It was important to brief her on who she would meet, what they did, and what the local “issues” might be.  She was amazing; intellectually, politically, and as a person.  Rosalynn had the ability to make anyone she talked to feel that they were the center of her attention.  She was gracious, and kind and caring.

Rosalynn showed me a new reality:  that politics, particularly national politics, is a team effort.  Sure Jimmy was the candidate; but his wife, children; even daughters-in-law all bore the burden of communicating his ideas.  Rosalynn was an impressive campaigner, so were the daughter’s in-law.  I took one on a college campus “tour” to meet the campaigns I helped establish there.  

Not quite so much the sons.  And, for those with a really long memory, one of the best Carter “surrogates” was Jimmy’s mother, Lillian.  She was already accomplished – a career nurse and a Peace Corps volunteer at sixty-eight years of age, and now approaching eighty, she campaigned  across the Nation for her son.  

Fifty Years On

It was the two-hundred year anniversary of the United States.  At that time, we were recovering from Vietnam and the Watergate political debacle. And  it wasn’t just those, it was the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King, and even the attempt on George Wallace’s life. In 1976, it took both a solid family from Georgia, and, a solid family from Michigan, President Gerald Ford and Betty and their kids, to help bring the Nation back to normal.

Here we are now, just two years from the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the USA.  And we are again in the midst of new crises; both in the world and in American politics. In the campaign of ’76, both candidates and their families helped.   Ford’s gracious acceptance of defeat, and Jimmy’s magnanimous victory, healed political wounds. 

Jimmy is ninety-nine years old now.  Rosalynn passed away this past weekend. The former President lost the love of his life.  He and Rosalynn were married for seventy-five years.  The graciousness they brought to the White House helped heal a Nation.  The purpose they showed in their post-Presidential life set an example for the world.  

We are still searching for today’s “example”, the families that can bring our country back to normalcy.   It seems we have a long way to go.

Jewish Americans

It’s a difficult time for the Democratic Party.  Let’s be brutally honest about a few things.  While the recently deceased Sheldon Adelson was a highly public Jewish man who supported conservatives, including Donald Trump; traditionally American Jews (6.1 million) are a strong “pillar” of the Democratic Party.  Not only are 70% of Jewish voters Democrats, but they are also on the “liberal” side of the Party (Pew). (A surprise to my conservative friends – not all Democrats are “liberal” or even “progressive”.   There’s a wide range of views, from Henry Cuellar and Joe Manchin to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders).  But, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, most American Jews are strong supporters of Israel. 

That’s been a problem recently, too.  The ruling Likud political Party of Israel is far-right, more like the MAGA Republicans here in the United States.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are similar to those of the previous President, Donald Trump, not Joe Biden.  That’s part of the reason that Trump and Netanyahu got along so well. (Though it didn’t hurt that Netanyahu is the godfather of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and that Adelson was a strong financial supporter of both Trump and Netanyahu).  So, many American Jews were conflicted; support Israel,  but condemn Likud and particularly the anti-democratic laws recently passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.  

Protest and Outrage

In fact, most American Jews were heartened by the protests against the government in Israel last summer.  In a country of only ten million, hundreds of thousands were in the streets demanding that the Netanyahu government withdraw their anti-democratic agenda.  Those protests forced the government to delay some of their more egregious changes.  Israel, much like the United States, is narrowly divided.  While Likud has controlled for almost twenty years, their margin of electoral victory is always very small.  In fact, Netanyahu and Likud’s last victory might foreshadow a Trump win in 2024.  The Prime Minister faced criminal charges; his easiest way to avoid trial was to win office.

But October 7^th changed everything.  Most Americans, Jewish or not, united in horror at the atrocities Hamas committed that day in Israel.  It wasn’t hard; it could have been our own children at the concert in the desert; our own parents and grandparents dragged into the street and shot at the kibbutz.  Many were dismayed at the level of unpreparedness by the much heralded Israeli Defense Forces.  The blame for that is clear – Netanyahu’s government.  The internal political crisis he created distracted from the ongoing terrorist threat to the South: Hamas.

Getting Hamas

Regardless who was to blame for Israel’s failure to protect its people, the response was clear and inevitable.  Israel went to war against Hamas in Gaza, vowing to destroy the infrastructure of the terror group literally embedded into and below the tightly packed cities of the region.  Hamas was hiding behind the Palestinian people: to kill them, Palestinians were going to first move or die.  

From the first day, the Biden Administration pledged full support to the Israeli government.  Two US Navy Carrier Groups were sent to the Middle East to “get Israel’s back” against Iran and Syria, and the US and Israeli’s increased their already high level of shared intelligence.  The United States pledged to replenish Israeli munitions, particularly for the anti-missile systems, and provide financial support as well.  Biden literally went to the Middle East and hugged Benjamin Netanyahu in sympathy.

Unacceptable Losses

But the ongoing military operations in Gaza are eroding Israeli support in the US.  Waging war against Hamas is one thing, the so-called “collateral damage” to the Palestinian people is quite another.   Even American Jews are torn between support and retribution for October 7^th, and the thousands of dead Palestinians in Gaza.  (Regardless that casualty figures in Gaza are entirely controlled by Hamas, clearly the damage is horrific). 

 Israeli government officials try to place the blame on Hamas for hiding behind the civilians, but it doesn’t change that those civilians are still dying.  The most recent attacks on hospitals, militarily justified or not, has made the situation much worse.  The pictures inarguably are a Hamas’ propaganda victory, but more importantly, morally unacceptable to the world.  It’s hard to justify waging war, even unintentionally, on premature babies. 

Collateral Damage

Meanwhile another “Pillar” of the Democratic Party is outraged.  In 2020, 64% of Arab-Americans (that includes Palestinians) voted for Joe Biden (AP).  While there are three million Arab-American citizens, they had an outsized influence in the Presidential election, particularly in Michigan.  And many were Democrats, in part because Trump ran on the “Muslim Travel Ban” which he enforced after he won office in 2016.   

It’s hard to imagine that those citizens will change and vote for Trump.  And it’s just as hard to think that they’ll return to Biden, after the damage done by Israel in Gaza.  So Democrats are in a political, and a moral bind.  Politically, how can they “mend fences” with Arab-Americans?  Morally, a what point does the United States demand that Israel end the Gaza campaign?  And finally, what is Israel supposed to do, with Hamas terrorists on their border, and the anti-democratic government still in charge in Jerusalem?  Answering those questions will be the biggest foreign policy issue for the Biden Administration in the next year.  

That might determine whether Trump will follow the Netanyahu example, and gain the Presidency to hide from justice.  For the United States, that could be the ultimate collateral damage.

Beginning

It started Tuesday, with a phone call.  Our next door neighbor just dropped her kid at school.  Don’t try to get on Interstate 70, she said.  Traffic is completely blocked.  The alternate route, State Route 40, runs right by the new Intermediate School.  And it’s wall to wall semi-trucks, trying to pick their way around the Interstate blockage.  And there’s smoke, lots of smoke, coming from over by the highway.

Social media beat the local news.  There’s a major crash on I-70, a bus and a semi-truck.  At first it was a head-on crash of a “Greyhound”, then a school bus, and finally landed on a charter bus full of school kids.  I-70 is closed, both ways, the five miles from SR 158 at Kirkersville to SR 310 at Etna.   The east bound traffic is routed onto SR 40 at Etna, and is inching along, past the school, to SR 158.  All of the westbound traffic is doing the reverse, just as slow. 

All Hands 

TV channel 4 is on the way – but all they have right now is the highway traffic cam.  And the silent picture is all flames and emergency lights.  A “Level 3” mass casualty event is “called”.  Five Life-Flight helicopters lift off, then get cancelled.  Every nearby jurisdiction:  our local West Licking Fire, Reynoldsburg, Violet Township, Pickerington, even Columbus sends squads and fire trucks.  It’s no longer a matter of political boundaries: everyone is “on deck”.

And they need to be.  There were fifty-seven kids and adults in the charter bus, a high school marching band from “Tusky Valley” High School near Canton, going to perform in Columbus.  There was a minor accident father down the road. Traffic came to a stop — except for the semi-truck.  He smashed into the car behind the bus, then the tractor (of tractor-trailer) plowed into the back of the bus, and burst into flames.  The front of the bus hit another car and truck.

We now know that six were killed, three kids on the bus, and three adults in the car behind, two teachers and a parent.  Eighteen more, including the bus and truck driver, were sent to hospitals in Columbus.  The other kids and their band leaders were huddled on the roadside, watching their bus, the car and the truck burn.  The middle school band director was desperately trying to get the injured kids out of the back, away from the smoke and flames.  Folks from surrounding traffic tried to help, easing kids out of windows, getting them to safety.  They managed to save a lot.  But, even after the first emergency personnel arrived, there was no reaching the back.

Responses

The local school district, “our” district, sent buses to get the kids off of the highway.  The Red Cross implemented their emergency plan, all welcomed into a local Etna church.  Counselors from our school and others came in, to help the kids reach and later reunite with parents, and to be the “first responders” as the reality of what they experienced kicked in.  And even later, counselors were available to the police and fire who first arrived on the scene.  They had to deal with six people killed, and with all of the injured kids.  They did their jobs well, but the vision of what happened will stay.  As an old friend, a fire chief, once told me – those memories never go away.

The Tuscarawas Valley school district is small, 1200 total students; less than a hundred per class.   They lost kids, two seniors and a sophomore.  They lost teachers and parents.  There’s so much grieving to do, funerals to plan, and multiple physical injuries to heal.  And they have a whole set of kids with trauma trapped in their minds; forever missing those friends and teachers.  They are a small place, towns like Bolivar (ball-la-ver) and Zoarville and Mineral Springs.   It will fall on the school to help them through this.  But there really is no “end” to this; just getting beyond it to a future. And it’s not the future they expected.

Hugs

And in our larger community, there are memories as well.  The first responders, the bus drivers, the Red Cross volunteers at the church, all carry this memory with them.  And a lot of us do too. We drove over the nearby bridges to see the aftermath of burned out truck, trailer, bus and car.  It’s random, another community’s tragedy happening in “our town”.  But it’s real for us, none-the-less.  It happened here.

Parents in “Tusky Valley” hugged their kids for the last time Tuesday morning. They didn’t even know. 

Our parents hugged their kids a little closer Tuesday night.  

They are the members of the United States Congress, the 535 (or so) men and women who represent our Nation.  They are today’s United States Constitution, Article I, alive:  the first and most important branch of the government.  And, some, are acting like the idiots they really are.

School Boy Rules

You might remember it from eighth grade lunch line.  A kid comes by and, as my basketball friends would say, “throws an elbow”.  Maybe it’s just a middle school act of “socialization”; “I hit the people I like.”  Or maybe it’s a more modern sign of “bullying”, I can hit you, and you can’t do a damn thing about it.   It wasn’t appropriate in the lunch line back in my time, nor now.  

In the high school, those little altercations were the “meat” of my disciplinary job as Dean of Students.  When I first started, I had to learn a whole new phrase; “Bounce or be Bounced”.  It meant run away, or I’ll make you run away.  It was often followed by the ultimate gesture of a willingness to fight; “stripping for battle”.  Off came the jackets and jewelry, then the shirts – bare-chested boys getting ready to “spill blood”.  It looked dramatic, but the “ceremonies” were usually a stalling tactic.  Maybe one of the combatants would back down, or maybe the Dean of Students would show up to break things up before they actually began.

It always looked stupid on school cameras.  I actually had a little more respect for the kids who just “went at it”, without all of the rooster crowing or deer stomping and snorting that preceded altercation.  Get to business and pay the price; first in blows, then in suspensions.  There was honesty in that, even if it was still dumb.

Behind the School

And one other thing changed from the time I was in elementary school, the “new kid” who  sometimes was a fighter.  Back then, after the fight, there was a bond “sealed in blood” with the opponent.  Often as not, the fight began a friendship.  But in more recent times, fights just led to revenge, and escalating conflict.  The old, “Go duke it out behind school (or under the water tower, or across the street) and get it over with,” no longer worked.  “Duke it out”, and the loser comes back with friends, and the winner needs more friends, and things just escalate out of control.  I’m not sure fighting was ever a good answer, but it’s certainly not one today, especially with social media broadcasting every punch, with blow-by-blow commentary.

I’m sixty-seven years old, and I can count the number of actual fights I’ve had as an adult (not acting as the referee in a kid fight) on less than one hand.  It’s not how adults behave.  Of course, I was in the right each time!!

Tuesday’s Nonsense

The Congressman from Bakersfield, California, former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy “threw an elbow” Tuesday.  He elbowed Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee as Burchett was giving an interview to a shocked National Public Radio reporter.  Burchett called McCarthy out, and a whole bunch of “if I hit him, he’d know it” middle school bravado went on.

The Congressman from Kentucky, James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, called the diminutive Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida, a major supporter of Israel,  a “Smurf” in the middle of a hearing.  I don’t know if “Smurf” is anti-Semitic, but at least Comer didn’t call him a “mouse” (remember “An American Tail”, Fievel Mousekowitz, “There are no cats in America and the streets are lined with cheese!!”).  But I bet that’s where Comer was headed.  

Bounce or Be Bounced

 And the Senator from Tennessee, Markwayne Mullin, “called out” the President of the Teamsters’ Union, Sean O’Brien of Massachusetts, doing the Tennessee version of “Bounce or be Bounced” in an open hearing.  Mullin even stood up and started to remove his jewelry.  O’Brien, (he’s a Teamster for heaven’s sake) stood up, quite open to the challenge.  It was Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders who managed to settle things down.  No fighting in front of “grandpa,” I guess.

What’s wrong with Congress?  Are they like the fifth grade class that went too long before “recess”?  Is the pressure of keeping the government open (and solving that problem before Thanksgiving “break”) too much?  Or is this just another symptom of the polarization of American politics.  Maybe this Congress doesn’t have to work together to find solutions.   It’s easier to “Bounce or be Bounced”.

Toss Up

Jim VanDeHei is a founder of the news gathering organization, Axios.  He has a long career in the press with the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Politico.  So when VandeHei speaks, journalists listen.  Yesterday, he was on MSNBC shouting from the “hilltop”.  Donald Trump, ex-President, twice-impeached, currently under indictment in four jurisdictions facing ninety-one felony charges; is, as VanDeHei sees it, a “toss-up” to be the next President of the United States.   

The discussion revolved around the clear trend in “Trump World” towards vengeance.  Not only has the once and possible future President threatened to “round-up and incarcerate” all illegal migrants, but he is also threatening to “scrub” the executive branch for “disloyal” members.  It echoes McCarthyism of the 1950’s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy challenged Americans with a “fake list” of hundreds of “known Communists” in the government.  Trump threatens: ““We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections…They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.” (I guess this means me, too!)

Trumpian View

Trump (and his “radical brain”, Steve Bannon), have coined the term in a sentence:  “I am your warrior. I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your Retribution,” (ABC).  Who are the “Yous” he’s referring to?   They are the aggrieved followers of Trumpism, who are convinced the 2020 election was stolen.  Every institution, from the Courts to the local boards of elections and education, to even the US Military (check Senator Tuberville); is undermined. There will be nothing left standing except the “Retributioner”.  It sounds like a bad Marvel Comic script – let’s hope there’s a Captain America somewhere. 

Every part of our government is somehow subverted by the “Deep State” (another Bannon term), even the most conservative sections like the military, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security.   And then there’s the “usual suspects”:  the mainstream media, and the “RINOs” who dared stand against MAGAism.  They will be “scrubbed” from the government, from governing and from influence.  It makes Nixon’s  IRS “hit list” look like Mickey Mouse. 

Doomed to Repeat

And for those who cry that Trump sounds like a 20^th Century European dictator, Steven Cheung the MAGA spokesman responded: “…their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House” (couldn’t make that up, NYT).   Retribution:  paybacks for all of the insults, all of the “stolen” results, (even this last week in Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky) and all of the terrible, awful new freedoms for women, the LGBTQ, and those Americans who aren’t white.

Retribution is a term with a long history in authoritarian movements.  Make the “commoners” the victims, and then claim the authority to gain vengeance for them.  The European dictators of the mid-twentieth century all claimed to be getting “retribution” for the common man.   It’s Biblical:  an eye for an eye.  But it’s also American.  The code name for the Confederate Secret Service plot to assassinate Lincoln:  “Come Retribution”.  This is not a coincidence, but it’s not about the assassination of a President this time. It’s the destruction of the American Democracy.

How does Donald Trump still have voter support, much less, remain the definitive leader for the Republican nomination in 2024?  How can someone who advocates so many Un-American views, still claim 40% of the American voter as his personal property?  Part of it is the seduction of “victimhood”, of blaming someone else for personal ills.  It is the lesson taught in high school; when we all learned about 1920’s Germany.  A democratic people turned to an authoritarian to “solve” their problems.  That leader too talked of “vermin”, eating away at the core of the nation.  

Common Ground

But more importantly, our Nation has lost a singular sense truth.  And we’ve done so, because there no longer remains a “common ground” of information.  There is a world of “fact”, and a world of “alternate fact”.  The 40% believe what they’re told, over and over again.  And the “alternate fact” world constantly undermines the whole fabric of our National institutions.  Some of the headlines leading the Fox News website today (11/14/23):

• Female athlete forced to compete and biological male
• Longtime sorority members expelled for supporting lawsuit against trans member
• Baby baptized before being forced off life support
• Biden cracks divorce joke about NHL
• Charity with focus on women’s diseases appoints transgender CEO
• Randi Weingarten gets a lesson about who is to blame for the sudden rise in home-schooling.

Surely these aren’t the most important items in the news today.  But they are for Fox.  

And in that world, Trump is still the once and future King.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to govern, allowing the Trump craziness to flow around him.  For him, it’s not time to campaign, yet.  It’s time to try to literally solve the problems of the United States, and the world.  But VanDeHei isn’t wrong.  The election of 2024 will be more than just a choice of policy or strategy.  It’s an election about Democracy.  And it remains a “near thing”. 

You put sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot, and a lot of young people come out and vote.  It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio.  I don’t know what they were thinking, but that’s why I thank goodness that most of the states in the country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot because pure democracies are not the way to run a country. 

• Rick Santorum, former Republican US Senator;  Newsmax.

Sexy Issues

Sore losers?  You better believe it.  Rick Santorum, a former Republican Presidential candidate was just one of the Republicans who voiced shock at the success of Ohio ballot initiatives on abortion and marijuana. He blithely dismissed the historic Progressive Era of the early twentieth century:   “…pure democracies are not the way to run a country.” 

And who ever thought of abortion, or even weed, as sexy?  Santorum is just saying the “quiet part” out loud, voicing disdain for the 57% of Ohioans who dared to stand against his Republican/Fundamental Christian orthodoxy.  And Santorum isn’t the only one. Twenty-seven of the ninety-nine member Ohio House of Representatives issued a letter the day after Issue One passed and was added to the Ohio Constitution.  The Ohio Right-to-Life Caucus declared:

“Unlike the language of this proposal, we want to be very clear.  The vague, intentionally deceptive language of Issue 1 does not clarify the issues of life, parental consent, informed consent, or viability including in Partial Birth Abortion, but rather introduces more confusion.  This initiative failed to mention a single, specific law.  We will do everything in our power to prevent our laws from being removed based upon perception of intent.  We were elected to protect the most vulnerable in our state, and we will continue that work.”

Clear Language

So let’s clear something up right now.  The proposed (and now passed) Amendment to the Ohio Constitution states the following:

It all seems pretty clear to me.

Self-Executing

This isn’t the deceptive language that was the “ballot summary” provided by the “Pro-Life” Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose.  It’s the actual language now enshrined into the State Constitution.  And at the end are the most important words (Part D) – “This section is self-executing”.  

Those five words are incredibly significant.  For many additions to a constitution, state or federal, there is a requirement for “enabling legislation”.  For example, the 18^th Amendment to the US Constitution banned intoxicating alcoholic beverages.  But it was the Volstead Act, a federal law, that criminalized the manufacture, importation, or sale of alcoholic beverages.

By making the section “self-executing”, the new amendment to the Ohio Constitution requires that  current law in Ohio is modified to conform with the amendment.  It doesn’t require new laws to be passed, simply that the old laws are fixed.  It doesn’t require a “list” of any of the “single, specific laws” that the Ohio Representatives referred to; it modifies ALL of them.

Expectations

But don’t expect that many of the extremists in the Ohio Legislature will follow the State Constitution, now the with new abortion amendment.  The current legislature has a long history of ignoring the will of the people as expressed through the initiative process, and even the Ohio Supreme Court. 

 When a Constitutional Amendment was passed to change the redistricting process in 2018, the Republican legislature and statewide offices holders proceeded to ignore it, and continue their “Red Map” gerrymandering.  It was business as usual, even when the Ohio Supreme Court weighed in against their actions.

That amendment passed with 75% approval.  

Some Ohio legislators are already moving to take away the Courts right to exercise judicial review over this single portion of the Ohio Constitution.

For those of us who voted for Issue One, don’t expect that Ohio, the original home to the Right-to-Life movement (NYT), will simply accept the “will of the people”.  Like Rick Santorum, they really aren’t worried about that foolishness called “democracy”.   They know better.

Debate Night

So I spent Wednesday evening watching the Republican Primary Debate.  And the question that kept coming up was; why are they here?  Five candidates, some highly qualified to run for President, were standing behind the dais, and none of them have a “snowball’s chance” of winning the Republican nomination.  Donald Trump is out-polling them all by at least twenty-five percent.  The “standard line” of the Republican primary voter is: “I like (fill in the blank), but I’m voting for Donald Trump”.  

So, three state Governors, a former US Attorney, a former Ambassador to the United Nations, a sitting US Senator, and an annoying but brilliant financial “wunderkind” are up there on the stage, and spending millions of dollars, for what?

They will all, except for Chris Christie, say that Trump is being “unjustly attacked” by the Justice Department.  They won’t, except for Christie, “cross the line” and say that Trump might actually be guilty of Federal crimes.  But they all know this reality:  Donald Trump is facing ninety-one felony charges in four different jurisdictions. And one of those trials, the Federal Indictment in Washington for the events of January 6^th, will go to trial in March.

What are all five of these candidates running for?  They are running for an open seat in the Republican Presidential candidacy, vacated by a convicted Donald J Trump.  They are hoping to inherit the Trump base, to become, to use the vernacular of our times, Trump 2.0.

Grand Old Party

That is, except for Chris Christie.  He’s already given up on MAGA world.  Christie represents the Republican Party of old, the Party of Bush and Romney and McCain.  Even if Donald Trump were to choke on a dry cheeseburger and die tomorrow, Chris Christie would remain the last choice of the vast majority of the Republican primary voters.

Watching Christie on the stage Wednesday night, he seemed as much an observer as a participant.  He reminded me of an aged quarterback, relegated to clean-up duty at the end of a professional football game.  He no longer is there to throw the winning pass, or surprise the defense with a brilliant scramble.  No matter how many rings he might have, all he can do is handoff to the third string running back, and manage the clock. 

Christie’s answers are all well thought out, and reminiscent of days gone by.  But he’s not of the Republican Party of this era.  In fact, Christie is standing in for something else.  He certainly won’t admit this, but I feel like the former Governor of New Jersey is using his Republicanism to audition for some other political party, one more like the GOP of ‘93, Bob Dole and Jack Kemp.   Chris Christie may be on the Presidential ballot a year from now, but he’ll be listed under the “No Labels” Party banner.

His media schedule underscores this theory.  After the debate, Christie wasn’t on Fox or Newsmax.  Instead, he pulled up a seat at the table on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and appeared on CNN.  Christie isn’t talking to the MAGA-world there; but he might be reaching some of the “Never-Trump” former Republicans, the target of the “No Labels” movement.

No Labels Ticket

The Governor might partner with another “Man without a Party”, Joe Manchin.  Manchin announced yesterday that he isn’t going to run for a fourth US Senate term from West Virginia.  The Democrat faced an uphill battle (a West Virginia reference for sure) against current Republican Governor Jim Justice, now virtually assured of the Senate seat.  

So there’s the nightmare 2024 scenario:  Biden/Harris versus Trump/DeSantis versus Christie/Manchin, with Bobby Kennedy Junior and Cornell West thrown in for fun.  Could our polarized and splintered politics be any better represented?   I dare the pundits to pick the winner of that agglomeration.  

It reminds me of the election of 1860:  Lincoln (Republican) versus Douglas (Northern Democrat), versus Breckenridge (Southern Democrat), versus Bell (Constitutional Union).  Abraham Lincoln won, but with only 40% of the popular vote.  Douglas earned 30% of the popular vote, but only 4%  of electoral votes.  Lincoln had 60% of those, with the rest split among the other candidates.

Lincoln won, and the Civil War began a month after Lincoln arrived in Washington.  

Wow, that got dark really fast.  

Powerful Choices

There is a story about Franklin Roosevelt’s first Vice President, John Nance Garner, who gave up the powerful Speakership of the House to serve in the second position.  When asked about the Vice Presidency, Garner said, “It wasn’t worth a bucket of warm piss!”  But when Lyndon Johnson asked him why he took it, Garner told him that when they offer a job that is a single heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world, you can’t turn it down.  

“No Labels” may offer Christie a glimpse of that office, so alluring that the most powerful are willing to settle for “warm piss” to get close.  But it might also offer the near certainty of Trump winning the Presidency.  Here’s a ray of hope:  Christie might decide to sit this one out.   He will “only” be sixty-seven for the 2028 campaign.  In our current political climate, sixty-seven is the “new fifty”.   And Christie certainly doesn’t want to clean up the mess that a second Trump Presidency will create.  

Israel’s Dilemma

Israel has a dilemma.  After the October 7^th Terror attack by Hamas, killing 1400 Israeli civilians, the Israeli government is duty bound to respond in the most aggressive way.  And they have. But there are a couple of problems.

The first is a long-term internal political problem of Israel itself.  The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu long had a policy of ignoring the more moderate Palestinian factions in Gaza and the West Bank. There was no “negotiation”, just ultimatums, as Israel proceeded to build more settlements in the West Bank, and fully militarize the borders.  That includes building a wall between the West Bank and Israel proper, one that became a model for the Trump Administration’s “Wall” on the Southern border.

By refusing to deal with moderates and encouraging Israeli encroachment on what is considered Palestinian land, Netanyahu drove Palestinians to become more radicalized.  The Hamas group became the “home” and representative for many of them, particularly in the Gaza region.  And that served Netanyahu’s own extreme political goals, forcing Israelis to “choose sides” of extremism.

None of that excuses what happened on October 7^th.  But when full blame is apportioned for the current Middle East crisis, Netanyahu bears his fair share.  A more moderate government, working towards the goal of a “two-state solution”, would not have fed into Hamas’s power.

Collateral Damage

Waging war against Hamas in Gaza is “de facto” waging war against the Palestinians who live there.  Hamas has infiltrated their military infrastructure into every part of Gaza life, from residential complexes to Mosques; schools to hospitals.  There is no question that Israel is fully justified in waging war against Hamas. Hamas started it.  But the physical reality of Gaza is that to wage war against Hamas, Israel must destroy much of Gaza.

The rub:  what of the Palestinians in Gaza, whose homes, schools, hospitals, and Mosques are destroyed?  To reach the three hundred miles of tunnels Hama’s dug deep under the cities (half the size of the New York City Subway System),  huge “bunker buster” style bombs are used.  The euphemism for civilian destruction, “collateral damage”, is even worse than the actual damage to Hamas.

Add to that, civilian casualties.  While Israel takes “pride” in warning the Gaza citizens to leave, evacuating a city of a million takes more than a few days.  And there are always those who cannot or will not leave.  It would be like telling the people of Hiroshima to leave, a couple of hours before the atomic bomb dropped.

And that’s the example that the Israeli government is using:  the all-out destruction of civilian cities waged by the Allies in World War II.  America justified using the atom bomb based on the total warfare waged by the Japanese military.  The estimated number of American casualties from a conventional invasion of Japan was more than a million.  How could any American President justify that loss to the American people, without attempting to use the newly created atomic weapons?

And now, Netanyahu is talking about the “after” of Gaza occupation along the lines of the United States occupation of Japan after World War II.

Closing In

Today we see the results of Israeli action.  After weeks of missile and bombing attacks, Israeli ground troops have surrounded northern Gaza (Gaza City).  They are now closing in from all sides, rooting out Hamas forces from their underground shelter.  It’s like the ancient Mongol strategy; surround the enemy, then burn and kill until the circle closes.

In each Israeli conflict since the founding of the Nation in 1948, the rest of the world has interceded to stop Israel’s advances.  In 1956, 1967, 1973 and the long conflict at the beginning of this century in Lebanon; the forces of Israel weren’t defeated.  They were withdrawn, due to pressure from the world, and particularly from the United States.

Netanyahu is trying to ignore the growing pressure now, holding firm until he can reach a “final solution” for Hamas.  The United States holds the key – how long before the Biden Administration threatens to reduce financial and military aid?  And yet, both the internal political pressures in Israel and in the United States still lean towards allowing Israel to decimate Hamas – as long as they do so quickly.

Two State

The US Administration is calling for a “two-state” solution to the Palestinian problem: a Palestinian homeland carved out of the Middle East, as well as maintaining the state of Israel.  But Tuesday Netanyahu said that Israel will remain as the “security force” in Gaza for the foreseeable future.  Much like the aggressive stand the Israeli military takes on the West Bank, now it will be even stronger in Gaza.  No ‘two-states”, not even one state for the Palestinians.  A zero state for them, occupied by Israeli forces.

That’s going to be tough for the rest of the world to swallow.  In 1973 the oil producers (Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations) put the “squeeze” on the world market to stop Israeli expansion.  It was the first peacetime that Americans had to line up for gasoline.  If Israel continues with its “Zero State” solution, it’s likely that the world will experience that again.

Only Israel can solve this problem.  It’s up to the Israeli government, sooner rather than later, to remove the Netanyahu government and find a more moderate leader.  But with the blood from October 7^th still fresh, that’s not likely to happen soon either.  There’s no good answer – only more blood on the sand, and more hate embedded in both Palestinian and Israeli.

There is no immediate solution to any of it.

A Year from Now

It’s Election Day – 2023.  There’s important contested races in Virginia, Kentucky, and even in Mississippi (a Democrat has a shot at Governor??).  And then there’s Issue One in Ohio, where women’s rights are on the line, again.  By the way, Ohio Democrats, don’t get too excited even if Issue One passes by a landslide.  It doesn’t mean that the Ohio Democratic Party can figure out how to win a statewide seat, or deliver the Buckeye State for a Democratic Presidential candidate in 2024.  That doesn’t seem to be “their thing”. 

What’s not so surprising in our ADHD, “What have you done for me in the last sixty seconds,” media environment; is that the talk is all about November of 2024.  A few recent polls show Donald Trump leading Joe Biden in several of the critical swing states, and some Democrats are prematurely, positively, panicking.

Polls

So, before we commence with handwringing and begging California Governor Gavin Newsom to come save the Party, let’s talk a little bit about polls.  Do we really believe in the sanctity of polling anymore; after the last four election cycles?  The entire process of polling is suspect, now that everyone has personal phones and can screen every call.  Sure, pollsters still swear by their methodology;  if they can get a big enough sample to fit their “model”, they claim “accurate” results.  But the proof is in the real outcomes.  Polls have been wrong over and over again the last seven years.  They aren’t dependable.

And the other issue, proven time and time again, is that Joe Biden never, ever, polls well.  But somehow, he still manages to win at the ballot box.  In fact, isn’t that part of the foundation of the Trumpian “Stolen Election” theory, that Biden never wins in polls but somehow people still vote for him?  “The election must be rigged”; all the pollsters, particularly Rasmussen of the most Republican “model” in history, can’t be wrong.

All Trump

So here are the facts.  The one thing that Donald Trump is right about is that any publicity, any media attention of him, is better than none.  And the media is back to “All Trump, All the Time” again.  Hell, I have MSNBC on TV eight hours a day, and at least a third of that time, it’s about Donald Trump.  He’s in court, he’s not going to the debate, he yelled at a judge, he’s losing his company – we hear it all.  So Trump gets to play his favorite role, victim. 

 Meanwhile Biden is trying to handle a world gone off the rails.  Russia is still getting pushed back in Ukraine (that’s old-old news, past our sixty second attention span).  And Israel has somehow managed to turn a brutal terror attack on their own civilians, killing 1400, into something that  looks like genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza.  No wonder no one likes Netanyahu.  

All Trump, all victim; all Biden, all world turmoil: no wonder flawed polling shows Trump ahead.  

Sages

And then there are the “wise sages” of the Democratic Party, acting all “courageous” by saying Biden should withdraw for 2024.  James Carville, the master politician behind Bill Clinton (“it’s the economy, stupid”) and David Axelrod, Obama’s strategic genius, both are hinting that Democrats should move on.  Even former Republican “sage” Steve Schmidt, McCain’s chief strategist and a Founder of the Lincoln Project, is behind Biden’s only Democratic challenger, Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota.

In short – Trump gets to play his favorite part – victim, while Biden grapples with all of the problems of the US and the World.  Trump has nothing else to do – ninety-one felony counts take up a lot of time.  Surprise; Biden isn’t running for President right now.  He’s BEING President, making really tough decisions.  Some of those have political ramifications: Palestinian/American voters are Democrats, now who knows where they’ll go.  Certainly not to Trump.  And Jewish Democrats aren’t all that happy with what Israel is doing in Gaza either.

Dementia and Kooks

Young people think Biden is too old, and old people can’t figure out how Biden even gets up in the morning.  They know that they can’t.  So what if Trump is afraid of the coming “World War II”, or thinks he beat “Obama” in 2016.  Trump gets a pass on dementia.  But Biden stutters a couple of times, and that’s obvious proof he’s “gone”.  

And what about Robert Kennedy Junior, and Cornell West, and “No Labels” and other “third party” candidates?  Well, I’m not so worried about Kennedy, he’s a kook, and he’s drawing as much support away from Trump as he is Biden.  And while I admire a lot of what Cornell West did, he’s just not going to draw a lot of votes – nothing like Ralph Nader in 2000.  And “No Labels” is revealing itself as a ploy to assure a Trump re-election, something most Americans will see through.  

In the end it’s just going to be two that matter:  two familiar, octogenarian, white men.

Two Old Guys

Don’t get me wrong – I think Joe Biden is old too.  So, I suspect, does Joe Biden.  But Biden achieved something no other Democrat, not even Carville’s Hillary, could achieve.  He beat Donald Trump, unseating a serving President.  And he did it in the middle of a pandemic, where it was even tougher to reach the American people.

Biden has a great phrase:  “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to my opponent”.  Republicans seem dead set on nominating a man who is likely to be convicted of Federal felonies even before the nominating convention (“… (W)hen you’re a star, they let you do it. Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything”).   Ten months from now, it’s not going to be Gavin Newsom, or Gretchen Whitmer, or Wes Moore against Ron DeSantis or Nicky Haley, or even Vivek Ramaswamy.  It’s going to be Trump and Biden, focused down to just two old men; a rerun of 2020.

That’s when I’ll start sweating the “polls”.  And even then, I’ll take them with a whole box of salt.  I think that contest will work just fine for Democrats, just like it did in 2020. 

Dogs (of course)

Yesterday I highlighted the important races here in Ohio – and a few of the one’s that are important, but only to our local communities.  After all of that, I really didn’t “endorse” candidates or issues – I just stated the “facts” as I saw them.  

Jenn and I intended to vote early last week.  But, as often happens in our lives, we got wrapped up in tracking a lost dog (not ours).  The bad news is a newly adopted two-year old Malinois made a break from his new family’s car as they pulled up in the home driveway for the first time.  He was “out” for over a week, wandering the streets and woods of the North Linden neighborhood of Columbus.  

The good news was the new adopter went to work, covering the neighborhood with signs.  Jenn was able to “map” where the dog was from all the calls and days spent driving the streets of North Linden. She ultimately, got a humane trap on the ground.  Friday night, two hours after the trap went down, the dog went in, and we were able to return him.  His new family is finally able to start bonding.

So we are voting tomorrow, like the good old days, on Election Day.  Jenn and I discuss how we are going to vote, and actually worked through a sample ballot.  We don’t agree on every candidate, but we reason through every choice.  I can’t say how she’ll cast her votes, only mine.  

State Issues

I will vote for Ohio’ Issue One, the women’s health choices-abortion Amendment to the State Constitution.  A while ago, I wrote an essay explaining my view, and if you’re interested, here’s the link – Yes on Issue One.  In the final analysis for me, abortion is a moral and even religious issue.  I don’t believe we have the right to tell others what their morals or religion should be.  Issue One would leave choice to the individual, and I agree with that.

And, I will vote for Ohio’s Issue Two, legalizing recreational marijuana.  To be honest, marijuana was never my “thing”, even back in the seventies in college.  The old joke in my dorm was that on Friday’s the first floor floated to the fifth of our four story building.  But beer was my “drug of choice” at the time, and the university supplied it for free (♫ “Oh Denison, My Denison” ♫) .  

But it’s just not logical:  I can buy enough alcohol to drown an elephant, but marijuana is still technically illegal.  I’ve been around enough marijuana use to know, that it’s not that different.  And I’m also well aware that today it’s use is socially “acceptable”.  Just like it made no sense for my little town, Pataskala, to be “dry” until the 1990’s, so it doesn’t make sense today that we still try to make using or possessing “weed” a criminal offense.  So let’s get it over with, and gain the benefit of more tax revenue for our communities and state.  I probably won’t join in, but smoke up.

School Board

The next issue is the two seats on the local school board, Southwest Licking, where I spent my entire educational career.  Five candidates are listed, but Alexander Smiley (a good one) had to drop out of the race.  The two incumbents, Deb Moore and Kandee Engle, have been on the Board for a while, and while we’ve had our differences, continue to do a good job.  They pass my primary test:  as my old Principal Pete Nix used to say, they try to, “Do what’s right for kids”.

I don’t know one candidate, Michael Miller, a newcomer to the fray.  Reading about him and his endorsement from the teacher’s union, I am tempted to cast one of my votes for him.  But, as often is the case in the Southwest Licking, there is one candidate who if elected would dramatically change the Board of Education for the worse.  Cory Ford personally seems like a nice guy, but he espouses a whole lot of radical-right philosophy, focusing on all of the “acronyms”:  CRT, SEL, DEI (that’s Critical Race Theory, Social Emotional Learning and Diversity Equity and Inclusion).  Ford is against them all, and sees an “acronym” in every classroom and lesson plan.  

I’ve been in the classrooms (still substitute on occasion), and that’s not what’s going on.  I don’t want a four year witch hunt in the Southwest Licking, and I don’t want Kandee and Michael to split the vote so that Ford might have a chance.  So I’ll vote for Deb and Kandee, and hope they remain sensitive to the very real struggles of today’s teachers in the classroom.

City Stuff

So there’s two weird city of Pataskala issues, where they would automatically “aggregate” our electric and gas services.  Here in Ohio, you can’t choose who delivers your gas and electricity, but you can choose who provides the actual gas or electricity that’s delivered.   Essentially, this “resolution” would allow Pataskala the choice of our utility servicers unless we affirmatively “opt out”.  

I like the Ohio choice plan, and every six months spend a couple of hours trying to get the best deal for our power.  It’s worked so far, and I don’t really need the city to intervene.  So I’ll vote against all of that.

And finally there’s four applications for a liquor license in our precinct.  I’m all in favor of new places to eat and drink close to home, so I’ll be voting for those.

These are my choices.  Even in this off-off year there’s a lot to talk about, and big decisions to make.  Regardless of where you stand, remember:  vote.  It’s your chance to make a difference.  Besides, if you don’t vote, as far as I’m concerned, you give up the right to complain!

Elections

Elections are defined by what’s on the ballot.  Every four years there are Presidential elections.  Not just the Presidency is up for grabs; every seat in the US House of Representatives and a third of the US Senate seats are also on the line.  Add that to many state-wide offices, and the Presidential years are always have the biggest turnouts.  In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, with all of the arguments about mail and early balloting, 66.8% of eligible citizens voted (Census).  To be clear, that’s 66% of every person who was qualified to vote, not “just” those registered to vote. To paraphrase President Biden, it was a big deal.

Every two years there are “mid-term, off-year” elections.  Every House of Representatives member is on the ballot, along with a third of the Senate.  And in many states (like Ohio) the Governor is determined as well as other state-wide offices.  But without the draw of the Presidential race, usually the “off-year” participation is lower.  46% of eligible voters turned out nationwide in 2022 (Pew), actually the second highest turnout for a mid-term since 1970.  The 2018 election (the first after Trump became President) was highest at 48%. 

And then there are the “off-off year” elections, the ones held on the odd years.  These are usually low turnout affairs, with only a small percentage of voters showing up.  Turnouts are targeted: a “hot” school board election, or, in our area, an ugly local Township trustee race.  While national turnout numbers for 2021 are unavailable, here’s the comparative numbers for Licking County, where I live.  In 2022, there was a 53% turnout of registered voters (not the same as vote-eligible citizens). In 2021 it was  24.6%, and a whopping 76.4% showed up in 2020 (BOE).

Issue One

So here in Ohio, it’s the Sunday before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  What that means:   the day after tomorrow is election day.

But unlike 2021, Ohio can expect a huge, near mid-term type turnout for Tuesday’s vote.  It’s driven by Ohio’s Issue One, a state Constitutional Amendment which would guarantee a women’s right to health care, and most notably, to have an abortion through the first twenty weeks of pregnancy.  

Ohioans have already had a “preliminary” vote on this issue.  In August, voters were asked to raise the winning percentage required to amend the state Constitution from fifty percent plus one, to sixty percent.  It was a bold attempt by the anti-abortion folks to raise the bar for this Tuesday’s decision.  39% of registered voters in Ohio showed up in the middle of the summer swelter, and resoundingly rejected the move, by over 57% (SOS).

Turnout

If 39% of registered voters showed up in August for a “technical” issue, what might the turnout be on this Tuesday, when the issue of access to abortion is literally on the line?  According to the State’s Secretary of State, more than 700,000 have already voted early by Friday (WKBN). Over three million total votes were counted in August.  That’s a big deal too.

Issue One is the abortion amendment.  It’s been an ugly campaign, with lots of hyperbole and famous folks (including the Governor and his wife) telling voters what to do.  Get past all of the nonsense, and Issue One would re-establish the Roe v Wade standard in Ohio, the law in the United States for fifty years.  Simply, women could access abortion up until the 20^th week of pregnancy.  After that, a physician could still perform an abortion if the life or health of the mother is at stake.  Vote Yes in favor of the Amendment, or vote No against the Amendment.

So the “normal” off-off year offices and issues are going to be dramatically impacted by a much higher voter turnout than usual.  So what else is on Ohio’s ballot?

What Else?

Issue Two is a law (not a Constitutional amendment) that would legalize recreational marijuana.  It is likely to pass, but don’t be surprised to see the state legislature immediately start to tinker with it.  Unlike a Constitutional amendment, a law passed by referendum can still be altered by the legislature.  Ohio will have to wait as see if recreational marijuana use really does become legal, even if Issue Two passes.  Vote Yes for legalization (maybe), or Vote No against it.

Those are the statewide issues.  Ohio will either be another “bell weather” state voting to keep abortion legal, or it will be the “outlier”; the first statewide vote to end abortion.  Either way, I bet Ohioans vote to legalize marijuana.

Local, Local

In nearby Etna Township there is a hornet’s nest of a Township Trustee race.  Four candidates are running for one position.  The two serving incumbents aren’t on the ballot.  They were both elected as “reform” candidates in 2021, but have been at each other’s throat from the first day in office.  Each has an “ally” on the ballot, if one of them wins it would give them a two-vote majority on the Board.

The other two candidates “don’t have a dog in that fight”.  Full disclosure:  I’ve helped out the Ryan Davis campaign; he’s one of the “other two”.  He’s stayed out of most of the ugliness.  Ryan’s a “normal” guy, running to make things better.  I can’t vote for him (I don’t live in Etna) but I’m sure rooting for him.

Here in the City of Pataskala (and other areas in the local school district) there is a contested race for school board, with four candidates running for two seats.  Two of the candidates are incumbents, a third is running a “normal” campaign, and the fourth is an extremist who wants to bring MAGA’ism to our local schools.  It seems like the incumbents will maintain their seats:  the extremist failed to gain traction in the community.  But what “seems” and what “is” can be different – that’s why we go to the polls and vote.

Precinct 4-A

And on my ballot, in Precinct 4-A of the City of Pataskala, there are two local businesses asking to have liquor licenses.  Here in Ohio, there’s a separate “regular liquor license” and “Sunday liquor license”.  That’s a leftover from the old “Blue Laws” that closed businesses on Sunday, and kept Pataskala “dry” up until the end of the last century.  So we get to say Yes or No twice for each one.   

Wherever you stand; on women’s choice, on legalization, on who runs the schools or the township, or whether you can buy a beer on Sunday – if you didn’t vote early, go on Tuesday.  It’s a “big deal”, even in 2023.  

And, it’s the American thing to do.

Politics

We live in a political era when “show” is more important than “go”.  Today’s case in point, is the “principled” stand that Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is taking in the US Senate.  Tuberville is against abortions, all abortions.  And since he is unable to pass any legislation to end abortion, he’s decided to take  a “principled stand”. He’s against abortions in the US military.

The US military has “evolved” from the days of an all-male force.  Over seventeen percent of the active military today; more than 230,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines; are women.  As part of the military, they are all guaranteed health care.  With the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, different states have differing laws regarding abortion. Some states completely ban it, others allow some or most abortion procedures.  The US military stations personnel all over the country.  The Defense Department recognizes that the women under its command need full access to health care. It provides time off and travel expenses for their personnel who need abortion-care to go to states where they can access it.

Coach Tuberville doesn’t like that.  He’s demanding that the Defense Department require its personnel to “abide” by the health laws of the state they are stationed in.  So a Marine in California would be able to access abortion care, while an Airman in Texas would not.  And that’s the “rub” between the Coach and the DoD.  

Defense Secretary (and Four Star General) Lloyd Austin understands the morale issue that would be created by this disparity.  He’s unwilling to “enforce” Tuberville’s demands.  And since he won’t, the former football Coach from Auburn found a way to “express” his displeasure.  He won’t allow any promotions of general officers through the United States Senate.

Unanimous Consent

A little process and procedure:  every general officer promotion has to be approved by the US Senate as part of their “advise and consent” power.  Traditionally, those promotions are passed by unanimous consent in the Senate.  Usually, no Senator wants to be the “one voice” stopping the improved effectiveness of our Armed Forces.  The unanimous consent process allows the Senate to bypass the “regular order”, where each promotion would have to come to the “floor” for debate, discussion and vote.  

Maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big deal. But when there are three hundred and seventy-eight promotions in line, it represents hundreds of hours of debate and discussion.  If the Senate were to pass those in “regular order”, with required waiting times between motion, debate, and vote – they wouldn’t get anything else done for the rest of the year.

So Tuberville’s single “Nay” to unanimous consent, has prevented all of the general officers promotions for the past ten months.  

Both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Republican Minority Leader McConnell called on Tuberville to end his blockade.  And while the Senate has moved a few single officers, including the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Chief of Naval Operations; the vast majority of promotions are on hold. 

 And it’s not just the additional stars (and pay increase).  Command tours of duty are ending, and replacements cannot take over.  Temporary commands are being held by “deputies”, while the replacements are literally sitting, waiting for promotion and orders to report to their new stations.  Everything from Naval carrier squadrons to regional Army commands are impacted.

The Fix

To outsiders, the easy “fix” is simply to ignore Tuberville, and pass the promotions ninety-nine to one.  But doing so strikes at the very heart of Senate tradition; the power of the filibuster.  Each Senator has the ability to stop legislation by “holding the floor” and requiring sixty Senators to vote for “cloture”, that is, vote to take away the floor from that individual Senator.  The process of cloture is intentionally difficult and time-consuming.  And that’s the problem:  Coach Tuberville would require cloture for every, single, promotion, if he continues to refuses to agree to unanimous consent.

The power to filibuster is “near and dear” to every Senator.  It’s what makes the Senate different from the House, where the majority has almost unfettered power to drive their agenda.  That’s what we see now in the House, where Democrats are narrowly the minority (five votes) but have little to say about process, procedure, or substance; other than be a vocal opponent.  But any single Senator, of either Party, can make their very public point by bringing the Senate, and therefore the Congress, to a standstill with their lone voice.

Hill to Die On

Tuberville isn’t budging, even after the opprobrium dumped on him this week from his own fellow Republican Senators.  This is the issue the Coach is going to make, the “hill he’s willing to die on”.   The Department of Defense, at the behest of the Biden White House, isn’t moving either.  And as much as Senators want to pass military promotions, few are willing to give up the filibuster to do so.  That’s a matter of what they consider “really” important.  If the filibuster is short-circuited for Tuberville, it could be short-circuited for them.

So our entire military structure waits, on standby, with temporary deputies running high commands, and the next class of General officers waiting on the sidelines:  all to please Coach Tommy. And no one can do anything about it.

Two Letter Word

In a two-letter word, medieval kings invoked the authority of God.   Even though these men were well-schooled in how they, or their near ancestors, wrested the throne away from other men, generally through bloody conflict, they still continued their “origin myth”.  It’s called the “divine right of kings”:  God  Almighty ordained this man or this family, as rulers.  

That God somehow placed his “grace” on a pagan-worshiping Viking named Rollo, who brutally conquered Normandy in 918, is hard to figure.  Rollo kidnapped the daughter of a conquered city’s leader; forced her to marry, and had a son that founded the Norman line of Royalty.  Five generations and a century and a half later, his illegitimate descendant William conquered England, and founded his own line of English rulers.  And because they believed, or wanted others to believe, that they were “endowed” by God with their throne, his grandson, Henry II, began speaking in “pluralis majestatis”, the “Royal ‘We’”.  How can I, the King, be wrong, if God put me here?

It remained true until the present era.  The Norman line was succeeded by the Plantagenets, the Tudors, the Stuarts, the Hanovers and finally the House of Sax-Coburg and Gotha who changed their name to Windsor.  King Charles III, sixth in the Windsor line, spent an entire lifetime speaking in the singular as Prince, not King.  Queen Elizabeth, his mother, often used the plural tense in her public speeches.  But when she passed away last year, he was confronted with the “Royal We”.  Would, the newly crowned king continue to invoke this“divine right” in this 21^st Century?  In his first public speeches as King, he broke millennia of tradition, referring to himself, in the singular.  He said “I”.

Singular or Plural

As a track coach, I represented my team.  When I did media interviews, I often spoke in the plural.  I wasn’t invoking a deity; “We planned the season to have our best performances here.”  That wasn’t me and God.  It was me and my amazing coaching staff, or me and our dedicated athletes (see the ‘our’ there; they aren’t just ‘mine’, those athletes ‘belonged’ to the coaches,  the school, their parents, themselves, and me too).  I represented all of our efforts, our team.  But when I talked about what I wanted, or what I hoped my best athletes could achieve, I intentionally used ‘I’, not ‘we’. 

When a candidate is running for public office, it’s easy to slip into the “Royal We”.  After all, the candidate is backed by a whole campaign team: a manager, media consultants, and volunteers.  And on the bigger campaigns; there’s “body-men”, hairstylists, and makeup artists; as well as all of the issue experts whispering possible answers in the candidate’s ear.  The candidate is the tip of the iceberg, and is well aware of everyone supporting him from “below”.  

The Candidate

But in the end, only the candidate’s name is on the ballot.  And when that candidate says things like;  “…In our speech, we will say…” or, “… We don’t think there should be unlimited funds to Ukraine…”; it sounds a whole lot more like the “royal we” then it does a person representing a team.  In the 2024 campaign, the prime “royal we” user is the second leading candidate for the Republican nomination for President, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

I know, you’re thinking this is “much ado about nothing”.  Surely Ron DeSantis isn’t invoking God on his side by using “we” instead of “I”.  But how can we be sure?  Mike Johnson, the newly christened Speaker of the House of Representatives, made it quite clear that he believed he is “ordained of God” to be in his high office, second in line for the Presidency.   Is Ron DeSantis trying to remind fundamental Christians that he’s on “God’s side”?   And if God’s on his side, then the corollaries must apply:  God is always right, and those against God, well, you know who’s on their side.

Or we can look at Donald Trump, another man who uses the “Royal We” constantly.  I don’t believe Trump sees himself as ordained by God, but I do think he uses “we” as a way to dodge individual responsibility for his actions.  I guess if I had ninety-one felony charges against me, I’d be looking to spread the blame around as well.

We Vote for One

When voters enter the ballot booth (or check their mail ballot), they aren’t voting for a team.  The right-wing extremists who claim Joe Biden is senile; they aren’t talking about the staff or cabinet, they mean Biden in the singular.  When we vote in America, we vote for a person, not a Party (unlike the United Kingdom).  We are choosing an individual, to take individual responsibility for their office, and their actions.  

For those of faith, there’s hope that God does endow the elected with leadership and insight.  But as John F. Kennedy told us in his inaugural address:

“With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

He was speaking in the plural, for the entire nation.  But he was well aware that he was the singular President, responsible for his own decisions and actions.  

It cost him his life.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians has passed 8,000 — mostly women and minors. It’s a toll without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and it is expected to climb even more rapidly as Israel presses its ground offensive. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial Hamas onslaught (Time, October 29, 2023).

Beginnings

There is a war going on in the Middle East.   A terrorist group launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7^th.   Over a thousand Hamas “fighters” crossed over the Israel/Gaza border; breaking down the barriers, coming through tunnels, even flying in on ultra-light gliders.  They attacked some military outposts, but most of their effort was targeted to torturing, capturing, and killing civilians.  1400 Israelis were killed, some in their beds, some burned to death in their houses, some chased down in the fields and executed.

Any discussion of what’s happening now in Gaza, needs to start on October 7^th.  Palestinians, with good reason, can claim that the Israeli treatment of their people is unacceptable.  Many Israelis, fresh from a summer in the street protesting the Netanyahu government, with good reason, might blame him for their unpreparedness. There are lots of failures leading up to October 7^th. 

Justice

But nothing justifies the attack on October 7^th:  not the long suffering of the Palestinian people, and not the political mechanizations of Bebe Netanyahu.  Israelis try to explain October 7^th with a term Americans (over thirty) understand: 9-11.  Perhaps that age limit explains why so many young Americans seem willing to overlook the Hamas atrocities.  September 11^th to them is history; not the immediate, visceral loss, that older Americans feel.

To fall back on 9-11 for a moment, let me modify a “lecture” from The West Wing, an important television show of the era.  It explained the nature of Al Qaeda.   US was not attacked by a religion.  Al Qaeda was an extremist terrorist group.  The “equation” read:  “Islamic Extremist is to Islam, what (fill in the blank) is to Christianity”.  The answer was – the Ku Klux Klan.

To the Sea

Israel was attacked by Hamas, a terrorist group founded on the concept of genocide, killing Jews.  Their “battle cry”, “…Palestinian, from the river to the sea”, is one from the very origin of Israel in 1948.  The Arab goal was to drive the Jews into the sea.  The nation-states surrounding Israel; Jordan, Egypt, Syria, with the support of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and most of the other Islamic states; tried to do just that.  In 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973; state-sponsored armies tried to drive the Jews from Israel.  They failed each time.

Hamas is not a nation, not state-sponsored.  The terrorists don’t have a state-sponsored army prepared to battle at the border or the open plain.  Hamas is a terrorist group, that took on some “state trappings” in attempting to govern Gaza.  But Hamas never has forgotten its founding principle:  drive the Jews into the sea.   Hamas is to Palestinian, as the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers are to Americans.

False Equivalence

In covering Israel’s response to the Hamas’ attack, the world media has a problem.  Reporters have relatively free-rein in Israel, able to move about and interview civilians, victims and the military.  While the Israeli government has a strong and even ham-handed propaganda campaign in play, reporters are often able to get past the rhetoric and obfuscation.

But reporters don’t have the same free-rein in Gaza.  The Gaza reports often come from the Gaza “government”, but the “government” there is the terrorist group, Hamas.  It’s not “equivalent” coverage. As bad as things are in Gaza, most of the information coming out of Gaza is controlled by Hamas, slanted to their needs, true or not.  

If an F-5 tornado ripped through Central Ohio, we would take the information from the Emergency Agencies and the local health departments at face value.  Those agencies are valid, simply getting out the facts.  The same is not true with the disaster agencies of Gaza; they are wings of Hamas, and subject to Hamas’ goals.  Any equivalency is false.

Hiding Behind Civilians

When Time or other mainstream new services quote the Gaza Health Ministry, it’s important to remember they are quoting Hamas.  And one more point:  Hamas uses the civilian Palestinian population as their armor, their shield to protect them from Israeli retribution.  Why do Israeli bombings kill Palestinian civilians?  Because Hamas is hidden among, below, and beside them. That is Hamas’ choice, and those civilians death are their weapon.  The blood is on their hands as well, not just Israel’s.

In the wars a half century ago, armies marched out to attack, and dug in to defend.  Civilians could escape the battlefield, fleeing before the actual warfare began.  Many Palestinians did exactly that.  But there is nowhere to flee in Gaza, and Hamas is everywhere.  What is Israel supposed to do? Accept October 7^th? What was the United States supposed to do after 9-11?   

Issue Two

This is NOT an essay about Ohio’s Issue 2, on the ballot next week.  Issue 2 legalizes marijuana for recreational growth, sale and use here in Ohio.  Medical marijuana is already legal, with access to edibles available to anyone who can get a medical card.  That card doesn’t allow smokable weed. Issue 2 would legalize that, and would also guarantee income for the state through taxation on the sale.  All and all, it legalizes what a large minority of Ohioans do anyway. 1.7 million adult used in the past year, one out of every seven Ohioans (Enquirer).  And the Issue finds a way to gain tax money from the deal.   I’m voting for it.

No, the legal weeds we’re talking about today are national – the legal weeds that Donald Trump finds himself entangled in.

Defend All Sides

For the record, Trump is currently in legal “troubles” in five different jurisdictions.  There are two federal cases; January 6^th  indictment in Washington, DC, and the classified documents in Ft Pierce, Florida.  There is election interference (RICO case) in Atlanta, Georgia.  And there are two cases active in New York. The first indictment was the “hush money” case . The other is the civil case brought against the Trump Organization by the New York Attorney General.

His woes can be categorized in four “baskets”: election interference 2020 and January 6^th (Atlanta and Washington, DC), personal business and election finance fraud from 2016 (New York), violating classified document security (Ft Pierce), and Trump Organization business fraud (New York).

A better analogy might be, he’s in a “swamp” rather than in the weeds.  But swamps already have a bad name from Trump use; let’s not mix the metaphor.

Instead, let’s start in Atlanta.

In the ATL  

The biggest (and possibly “baddest”) charges Trump and his campaign faces  are state charges in Georgia. The former President face felony charges of election interference. And those charges are “enhanced” by a “RICO” charge.  “RICO” is a charge of corrupt conspiracy to commit felonies, with a minimum penalty of five years in prison.  RICO cases were made famous by – wait for it – former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani. He used them to bring down the Mafia in the 1980’s.  Rudy is now one of Trump’s co-defendants.

From the prosecutors’ standpoint, RICO cases allow them to pressure the “smaller fish” to “flip on the bigger fish”.  Nineteen were charged in the original indictment.  It’s already down to fifteen. Last month, Scott Hall pleaded guilty to breaking into election machines in an attempt to “prove” they were rigged to change Trump votes to Biden.  Hall was the “man on the scene”, but he received his instructions from Trump attorney Sidney Powell (the “Kracken” lady).  Powell then pled guilty, putting another Trump attorney in an “untenable” position at trial, Ken Chesebro.   He also pled-out, leaving Trump attorney Jenna Ellis completely vulnerable to conviction.  So she pled guilty to a felony, but not the RICO charge that would put her in jail.

Flipping and Talking

Hall, Powell, Chesebro and Ellis all must testify truthfully as a condition of their plea agreement.  They have traded their testimony to avoid jail time, instead taking fines and parole as punishment.  Should they fail to “tell the truth” (already guaranteed by sworn and videoed testimony to the Prosecution team), they’re headed to jail.

That leaves the “top” Trump attorney, Giuliani, “twisting in the wind” to use a Mafia expression he might remember.  Powell was in the “crazy” meeting on December 18^th, when she and Giuliani proposed that Trump use the military to confiscate voting machines in key states.  Powell’s testimony could directly impact Giuliani, Trump, and Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.

January 6^th

The Atlanta case is progressing, but the first election case scheduled to come to trial is the Federal case in Washington brought by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.  That case is specifically targeted against Trump, with six unindicted co-conspirators.  Smith streamlined the case to get it to trial quickly, scheduled in April before the Republican nominating convention for the 2024 Presidential candidate.  Unlike the Georgia case, Smith is aimed directly at the “top” without the “smaller fish” to build on.

Smith needs someone in the “inner circle” who has direct knowledge of what Trump knew, said, and did.  While Giuliani has some of that information, the critical witness, the one person who heard and saw everything, is Trump’s last Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. (We know what Meadows’ knows by testimony to the January 6^th Committee by his direct aide, Cassidy Hutchinson). 

While Meadows was indicted in the Atlanta case, he wasn’t even named as an unindicted co-conspirator by Smith.  But all of the other witnesses put him at the center of the election fraud conspiracy, and the actual march on the Capitol on January 6^th.  Meadows was connected to the Willard Hotel “War Room”, Meadows was talking to election officials (and fake electors) across the nation, and Meadows was directly communicating with then-President Trump.  Meadows is “set up” to take the fall – if – Donald Trump doesn’t.

Last week news broke that Meadows testified to Jack Smith’s Grand Jury investigation leading to the Trump charges.  He received immunity for his testimony, allowing Meadows to tell the truth instead of using the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination (with immunity he can’t incriminate himself).  What Meadows said remains a mystery, but he clearly is in position to directly incriminate the former President.

Entangled

And those are “just” the election cases.  The former CEO of the Trump Organization is faced with huge civil fraud charges in New York, charges that may ultimately wipe out the Trump financial empire.  And since Mr. Trump seems unable to keep his mouth shut about the Judge, his staff, and the New York State prosecutors, he may end up in legal trouble for being in contempt of Court.  That same mouth is edging him closer to contempt in the January 6^th case in Washington, where the judge just re-instated a “gag order” to keep the ex-President from contaminating the prospective jury pool.

He’s in the weeds.  His financial empire is at risk, his personal freedom is at risk, and his behavior places him in immediate jeopardy of imprisonment.  It’s hard to see a way out, short of winning the Presidency, pardoning himself, and staying out of the state of Georgia (and New York).    

Maybe that’s why he’s so intent on winning in 2024.

This is another in the “Sunday Story” series.  No politics today, just a story about Cross Country running, and the toughest day in the season – the Regional, the meet to qualify for the State.

Last Meet

I went to the Regional Cross Country meet yesterday at Pickerington North High School.  It’s my last meet of the year.  My job was as an umpire,  a crowd controller, and observer.  I saw a little bit of some great races, but to be honest, I can’t allow myself to focus on “racing”.  That path leads to my old role in Cross Country, as a coach; and that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing.  I’m in the black and white uniform of an official, not the black and gold of a bygone era.  So I focused on the job at hand, not the spectacle of our sport.

Regional competition is the most pressure packed of the entire season.  Sure, next week’s State Meet is a big deal, huge as a matter of fact, but it’s nowhere near as serious as the Regional.  Next week when runners line up at “Fortress Obetz”, the current site of the Ohio Championships, they will have already achieved two things.  They are “State Qualifiers”, on the list of the few and the best.  And they are running the last “high school” race they can run this season.  They will finish the year at the end – nothing is left “on the table”.

So running in the Regional has all of the pressure of making it to the State, of becoming one of those few and best.  There is no “mercy” in Cross Country; whatever was achieved leading up to the Regional meet is just history.   Ask the elite Division I boy who fell in the “pack” at the front of the race in the first half mile.  There were  kids all around him.  When he fell, I’m sure every one of them tried to avoid stepping or falling on him. But spiked shoes still tore his arm, and ended his, and his coach’s, dream of “State”.   There’s no “alternate” qualifying based on some earlier performance.  It’s all about today’s race; perform and move on; falter and the season’s over.

Figure it Out

When I was coaching, the Regional was so important that I altered our entire training regimen to match the Regional course.  In most of those years the meet was held on the hills of the Lancaster High School, the most difficult qualifying course in the state.  In the mid-1980’s, I found ways to make hill work a fundamental aspect of our team training.  That wasn’t so easy, it’s not like there’s a lot of “hills” in the Pataskala area.  So we travelled to hills, found “hidden” hills within running distance from school, and even had team “arguments” about whether one frequent workout was really on a hill (“Really, this isn’t a hill, it’s simply a gradual incline…” declared our obdurate lead runner, Chuck). 

Sometimes those hill sessions cost us in the short run.  Pounding on steep hills at the back of Infirmary Mound Park in Granville or on York Road south of Morse required days of recovery.  A Wednesday “travel-day” workout might still be in runners’ legs on a Saturday “race-day”.  But it didn’t matter; all of the hill work in September got us ready for Lancaster at the end of October; the leaves changing, the covered bridge thundering with the pace of a hundred runners, and the hill in the front in the second mile, where the outcome was determined.  

Get There

Watkins Cross Country runners still have nightmares (they’ve told me) of that front hill, and the eerie, long distance command from me:  “ARRRRRRMS”.  It was my shorthand; use your arms when your legs are failing, drive your arms to get your knees to lift, don’t be afraid to “pay the price” up the slope.  At the top; make the turn, and “let it go”.  Let gravity rip you past the others; fly down the hill.  Don’t waste energy breaking, slowing – it’s “free speed”.  Use it.  It took years to figure out the strategy, to decipher the course.  

But year after year, that got us to the State meet.  When we lined up for that final race, we might still have some Lancaster hill fatigue left in our legs – but we were there.

Pickerington North’s course is deceptive.  It seems flat, and yesterday, incredibly fast.  But it still “runs” like a hard course, like one with hills and other obstacles, rather than the “flat/fast” race courses that makes up a lot of modern Cross Country competition.  I’m not sure I ever figured it out, the way we did Lancaster.  Speed more than strength seems to be the key – but too much speed early at Pickerington leaves runners struggling in the far-quiet reaches of the back side of the course.  

Watch the Best

It was a good day overall.  After forty years of Central Ohio Cross Country, I saw a whole lot of old friends, and even a few old adversaries.  I had several conversations with spectators, about the course, and the pressure, and the nature of our sport.   And I ran into several of my “old runners” and students, graying; and cheering on their kids competing in the race. As an umpire, there’s always some “down time” to converse.

And I got to hang out with some of the best officials in Ohio.  Our crew has decades of experience.  Everyone knows their job, and does it with a lack of “officiousness”.  It’s important to put the athletes at ease and help them do their best, even as the “black and white” of rule and schedule was maintained.  One young athlete watching the races, asked me why he saw the same officials week after week, no matter what school was sponsoring the competition.  My answer:  these officials are the best, so they work at the biggest meets.  

It was an honor to be a part of that crew yesterday.  Many of them will serve at “Fortress Obetz” next week – I’d wish them “luck”, but I know, regardless of what happens, they’ll do what’s right.  They’ll follow the rules, and they’ll take care of kids as well.

Regional week, the toughest week in Cross Country, is over.  State week, the “funnest” week in Cross Country, has begun.

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
• A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
• Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
• Fair or Foul – 2/26/23
• Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
• Busy Season – 5/15/23
• Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
• A Pole Vault Story  -6/11/23
• End of an Era – 6/25/23
• Paybacks – 7/2/23
• Graying in Pataskala – 7/17/23
• Being a Goat – 7/23/23
• Toy Truck – 8/20/23
• Medical Terms – 8/27/23
• Missing Margaritaville – 9/3/23
• The McGowan – 9/10/23
• Who’s Watching – 10/22/23
• The Saturday Before – 10/29/23