Category: Uncategorized

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

Shakespeare originally wrote “…Uneasy is the head that wears the crown”, (Henry IV, Part 2).  It’s been transformed from “uneasy” to “heavy”, perhaps because of the actual weight of the St. Edwards Crown of the United Kingdom. King Charles III  briefly wore it at his coronation – almost five pounds. Try it sometime:  balance five pounds on your head, walk around, kneel, get up, and function.  No wonder he switched to the Imperial Crown  – it’s only a couple pounds of diamonds.

Rookie Speaker

Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson is the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He may be the least experienced Speaker since Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania became the first Speaker in 1789.  Johnson is entering his seventh year in the Congress, after a long legal career defending Christian religious values.  As Johnson himself said:

 “I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a life-long conservative, constitutional law attorney and a small business owner in that order,” (He) told the Louisiana Baptist Message, “and I think that order is important.” (Messenger).

Johnson’s Christian faith defines his service.  “My values follow the model of our Founding Fathers, I believe, and I think this is important.  We were established as one nation under God. We are perilously close to forgetting that principle now – and we desperately need to return to this fundamental understanding.”(Messenger).

In his opening address as Speaker, Johnson said:

“I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night. I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear. That God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you. All of us. 
And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific time. This is my belief.  That I believe each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great American country. And they deserve it.”

Art of Compromise

We have a God fearing man as the Speaker, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  We have a man who believes he is on a literal mission from God, to “return” America to Godliness.  And there might be some problem with that.

Because the “art” of legislation is the “art” of compromise.  No Congressman, no political party, ever gets everything they want.  Much as Democrats oppose it, the United States is still building part of Trump’s “Wall”.  It happened as part of a compromise; the Democrats and President Biden got so much more of what they wanted, they were willing to allow more “Wall building” as a trade-off.   They even waived the environmental studies to do it, much to the dismay of local Texas environmentalists.

And the question that Mike Johnson, ordained of God (and the Republican Conference) Speaker of the House, will have to answer is this:  can he compromise to govern.  Because he’s not a single Congressman, who expressed his faith through his political positions on gay marriage, abortion, education, and, I guess, the Presidential election “stolen” from Donald Trump.  He’s not just a junior legislator from Louisiana anymore.  He is the Speaker of the House, second in line for the Presidency, and possessor of the Gavel.  

Governing

Johnson has an additional obligation now – the need to govern as well as stand on principle.  The House faces huge problems, issues that won’t go away and can’t wait for the election of 2024.       

On November 17^th, the government will run out of money to operate, unless the Congress (House and Senate) and the President agree on a budget deal of some kind.  It’s that exact situation that cost Kevin McCarthy the Speakership (and John Boehner before him).  Johnson must craft some deal that allows him to keep all but four of his Republican colleagues behind him, and still can pass muster with the Senate and the President.  It will have to be a master effort in compromise, even from a “rookie” Speaker.  Or, Johnson, like many of his predecessors, can look for a simple extension, to “kick the can” down the road for a period of time.

The President is calling for billions of dollars to support Israel, with both parties in agreement.  And the President is calling for billions for Ukraine, which the MAGA-right wing of the Republican Party opposes.  He’s also “sweetening” the deal for Republicans with more money for the Southern Border, and for necessary US defense spending.  All of this is subject to negotiation, but must happen soon, certainly before the end of the year.

The Mission

And finally, the American people need to see a functioning House of Representatives.  Even Democrats are relieved that there is finally a Speaker, finally a House that can get work done again.  So Johnson must “ride the razor” of the House Republican Caucus, with its extremists fully empowered by their defeat of McCarthy and Scalise, and their final victory with Johnson.  And he must do so, knowing full well that their extremism is likely to cost Republicans the majority in the 2024 elections.  It’s easy to mollify the MAGA-right, much harder to keep those marginal Republicans from New York and other states that gave Republicans the House majority, in office.

Certainly Johnson will take solace in his faith as he takes on the heavy weight of governing, of leading.  He thinks God has given him this mission.  I hope God will help him govern: Matt Gaetz surely won’t.

Right to Life

Ohio is embroiled in controversy.  Issue One, an amendment to the Ohio State Constitution, guarantees women the right to make their own determination about their own bodies, including ending pregnancy.  The words of the actual amendment (not the “synopsis” on the ballot, authored by opponents of the Issue) echo the long accepted Roe v Wade logic.  The state government has a duty to “protect human life”, and that duty grows with the growth of a fetus.  When the fetus is viable, able to be born and survive with assistance, the state has the power to regulate medical care.  To end a pregnancy after that point, a physician would have to determine that either the fetus is not viable, or, the health or life of the mother is at risk.  Those are the only allowable reasons for abortion after five and half months of pregnancy, under the Roe logic.

The core issue is, and always has been, when does a fetus become a human life (rather than a potential human life).  It is about balancing the rights of that fetus against the rights of the mother.  This is the moral argument of my lifetime.  I was seventeen when Roe was decided, and sixty-six when the Dobbs decision overturned it, sending the determination back to the states.  It was a core discussion in every Government class I taught, and many of the political campaigns I helped.    

I hope that the people of the State of Ohio will determine that this argument is one that individual women have the right to determine themselves, not the “old men” of the state legislature.  My wife and I will vote next week, adding our voices to the call for individual choice over government mandate.

Right to Live

What we won’t get to vote on, here in Ohio or anywhere else, is the right to stay alive.  

No one is arguing that a living, breathing, existing person is a “life”.  Yet my right to live, and yours, relies on whim, on pure luck.  We, the United States, are a Nation under attack;  and it’s not from Hamas, or Iran, or even Russia.  Last night demonstrated the threat:  in Lewiston, Maine, a man used an assault rifle to kill at least fifteen people and wound dozens more.  He attacked two locations: a local pub, and a bowling alley on “teen night”.  The shooter is still at large, a threat, still well armed and obviously ready to kill.

Many in the United States argue that women should not have a choice about abortion.  But many of those same people argue that it is an “American Right” to have a weapon of war.  This isn’t a hunting rifle, not designed to hunt deer or elk (or bear in Maine).  This weapon, and the more than twenty million in the United States like it (Forbes), is designed to kill people in battle.  And beyond that, the ammunition used in assault rifles is designed to create massive wounds, requiring the enemy to deplete their fighting force to care for the injured.

That force was aimed at teenagers bowling  at Sparetime Recreation last night, and at patrons of Schemengee’s Bar and Grille.  Lewiston is a college town, home of Bates College.  When the literal smoke clears, and the final “butcher’s bill” is written, the casualties are likely to be much higher.

Ban Discussion

But we are not allowed to talk about banning assault weapons.  We are not supposed to use the “right to life” argument against a weapon of war.  The automatic response is, loudly and boldly, “SECOND AMENDMENT”.   The reality of our partisan divide is that assault weapons represent the minority “right” to overthrow the government; the right to apply their view against the vast majority of Americans, by force if necessary. 

 How embedded is that in their current ideology?  Look at yesterday’s events before the Lewiston shootings: the Republican Party; the Party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower; choose a man who wanted to overthrow the 2020 election to be Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He is now second in line for the Presidency.   And he is a staunch opponent of any form of gun control.

There is nothing in the Second Amendment that prohibits controlling assault rifles.  At least, that’s the interpretation of the past two-hundred and thirty-five years of Supreme Court decisions.  What this current Court, dominated by the same extreme ideologic majority might say, is an open question.  But the power of the IDEA that the Constitution somehow guarantees the “right” to overthrow the government is a real threat to our America.  It challenges our individual “right to live”.  

If you question that, talk to the parents of the murdered kids at the bowling alley.  Some still don’t even know yet.

Guns

• Guns and Sadness                   10/3/17
• A Teacher with a Gun              2/23/18
• Don’t Change the Subject       3/25/18
• Again                                       4/15/18
• Staying Small                           5/3/19
• Saving Lives Is Not Politics      8/4/19
• The Pain Becomes too Great  8/5/19
• Who’s Your Daddy                  8/21/19
• A Good Guy With a Gun         9/1/19
• Rights and Guns                      5/17/20
• Pittsburgh                               6/17/20
• Our Choice                              12/1/21
• Toxic Mix                                 5/16/22
• Apple Pie                                 5/25/22
• Prairie Dogs                             6/9/22
• The Will to Do It                      7/6/22
• Hanging Together                   8/12/22
• Swatted                                   9/23/22
• They Aren’t Pro-Life                9/23/22
• Motive, Means, Opportunity  1/25/23
• Accepted Losses                     2/14/23
• German Rights                        3/28/23
• Fear Itself                                3/30/23
• The Gravel Pit                         4/16/23
• Butcher’s Bill                           5/8/23
• Right to Live                            10/26/23

Campaigns

This is a political story – but we’re not discussing the United States of House of Representatives.  This is all about local politics; really, really local.  That’s where I started my nascent career as a politician in the early 1970’s; trying to elect a local judge, then a state representative.  I quickly expanded:   first Congressional elections, then I even served on the state staff for a Presidential campaign.  But, by the time I was twenty-five, my career in politics was over.  I found something even more compelling to do:  teaching and coaching.  

Since then, I’ve helped plan and execute dozens of local campaigns; mostly school board and school levy efforts.  I can take some credit for the new high school I now substitute in, and for some of the folks on the Board running that school.  And I still do  the “street work”; knocking on doors for Obama, and Clinton, and making my front yard a “blue spot” in a very, very “red” world here in Pataskala.  When my first Biden sign was destroyed, my second “armored” sign was up the next day.

Old Tricks

But, like everything else, campaigning has changed in the last half-century.  The formula for local issues was always pretty simple:  

• Get the candidate out to local events
• Knock on doors in the community, with the candidate or others
• Do interviews and buy advertising in the local newspaper
• Either mail everyone, or put literature on everyone’s door
• Call local voters on the phone
• SIGNS – SIGNS – SIGNS – SIGNS
• Call back all those that you KNOW support you to get them out to vote.

And a lot of those still works.  What doesn’t?  Newspapers – in this area, it just doesn’t matter.  The local newspaper was bought out by the national giant (Gannett), and no longer is relevant to the community.  And mail – we all get so much junk mail, it’s tough to justify the high cost of a couple of thousand-dollar mailers with an 80% throw-out rate.  Email is just slightly more effective – but not much.

And calls – everyone (me too!!) screens their calls. The “call lists” of old are useless:  few houses even have “land lines” anymore.  What used to be a phone book with everyone’s number, now has more ads than useful phone contacts.  Phone campaigns today are friends calling friends, trying to create a “web” of connected voters, to get through the screen.  Or text lists, they definitely get through the screen.  I got a text from National Democratic  Campaigner James Carville – it started “WAKE THE ‘F%#K’ UP”.  That got my attention.

But it’s hard to get a “massive” list of contacts.  And it still doesn’t have the out-reach of those old “phone banks” in the back room of the Carter/Mondale office in downtown Cincinnati, with five little old ladies and sixteen high school kids, calling for “Jimmy”. 

Where is my Community?

So where can a campaign find the “community” gathered together; where is the general access to the voting public?  The answer is simple — on the internet, on social media.  We won’t answer the stranger on the phone, but we sure do read their post on Facebook, or Instagram, or even on “X” (the site formerly known as Twitter).  While we used to read the paper in the morning, we now scroll through “all the news that’s fit to print” on the little screen of our phone.  Sure, we read about the dysfunctional Congress and the twinned agonies of Israel and Gaza, but just as importantly (?), we see about the lost and found dogs, the intolerable neighbors, the giant pothole on Main street, and the latest teenage Tik-Tok idiocy.

Obviously, there’s contact through social media.  There’s a reason why half of the richest persons in the United States made their money in the internet, computers, and social media applications.  And as a local politician running for office, social media offers the cheapest and most direct out-reach to the community.  Sure, you can stick up your nose at Facebook, but there’s still a lot of people reading (or watching) it.  Social media represents the old “phone book” of the 1970’s.  Most everyone is there – you just have to catch their attention.

New Tricks

Politics is serious.  When the old tactics don’t work, the old “pols” have to change, or become irrelevant.  So there’s a terrific guy running for local office in a nearby community.  A friend put him in contact with me, and after some discussion, I’ve tried to help his campaign.  But I’m not much good if I can’t function in the “modern” world of social media; even though that’s not the kind of “old school” campaigning I excelled in.

So if you’ve missed my essays for the past couple of days, it’s because I’ve been buried on my keyboard, trying to create social media “spots” to plug into local “community” sites.  The last time I was making “movies” like this, was back in the early 2000’s, working on a one of those big, red, plastic “I-Macs”, the kind that looked like a giant, misshaped egg on the desk.  Sure I served a “nine-weeks” sentence of online Covid schooling, putting together video lectures that a few of my history students actually watched, but this kind of editing, cutting, highlighting and fading in and out is new to me, at least in the last two decades.

So I’ve been refreshing my skills.  It takes about two hours to generate a sixty-second “spot”, maybe more.  It’s been fun, and frustrating, and all-consuming.  When I wasn’t on the screen, my brain was still trying to figure out the “next move”.  And, of course, I “lost” (erased) some of the raw data, that I had to go back and “find”.

I’m almost done.  I think the social media “spots” will be helpful, and hopefully the candidate gests elected.  His community really needs his kind of common sense. And there’s more to do. I hope we get back to some “old school” stuff.  

Let’s put up some “illegal” signs.  I’ve been doing that for fifty years!!!

This is another in the “Sunday Story” series.  With all of the sadness, confusion, and straight-out craziness going on in the world, it’s time for a break from analysis.  So here’s a story about high school Cross Country running.

Cross Country

Last Saturday marked the “beginning of the end” of the 2023 High School Cross Country season.  For those who aren’t sure about “cross country”; it’s a big race, 5000 meters long (3.1 miles).  It’s across fields and on paths in woods, up and down hills, through mud and water (when in the way) and around sharp curves.  There are direction markings, but not the strict “lane lines” of track and field.  Cross Country is more “free-form”.  It begins with a mass start.   The starter stands about 25 meters in front and in the middle of a line of over a hundred runners.  The gun is fired; then the starter sprints to the sideline to get out of the way. The whole time, he or she watches to see if anyone is knocked down (hopefully not them).

Cross Country is normally the least officiated sport in high school athletics.  At most meets (runners usually run at least six times during the season) there’s the starter with the gun, and there’s an official at the finish line.  For most of the three miles there’s little or no “supervision”.  Some see Cross Country as an “idyllic” run in the countryside, but in serious competition, packs of runners are fighting for position and place on narrow paths.   It’s no joke to say, “…what goes on in the race, stays in the race”.  Elbows and spiked shoes sometimes become weapons.

Qualifying

Saturday was the first of the qualifying meets to the state championships.  Only the top few runners and teams move onto the Regional meet this weekend, with even fewer earning the right to compete in the State.  As a former Cross Country Coach, I know these weeks are the most important of the season:  the focus and target of six months of effort: sweat, blood and tears.   There is no “alternate qualification”.  Either you make the place in this race and the next, or your season is done.

The folks that organize these meets recognize the finality of the results.  So, unlike most of the season, multiple officials are hired to act as “umpires”.  They watch the race, spaced out throughout the course.  They are there to “make the call” if there is some unsportsmanlike racing, some intentional pushing or shoving, or, very occasionally, some actual “fisticuffs” while still racing (oh yeah, it happens!!).  But the real role of umpires is as a silent reminder:  someone is watching.  If a runner commits a “foul”, there is no “minor penalty” in Cross Country.  Either your race counts, or you are disqualified – season over.

As a track official it may be the most boring job ever.  But it does exactly what it’s supposed to do.  It makes the race about racing; strategy, and tactics, strength and speed; but not about conduct.  As the runners go by, everyone is aware – someone is watching, with the authority to end my season.

The District

Central Ohio has the biggest District meet in the state.  There are fourteen races, seven boys and seven girls; each with a set number of teams and individuals that qualify onto the Regional level.   Schools are divided by size, from small Division III schools, some just able to field the required five runners to be a team, to giant Division I schools, some with a hundred kids on the team to choose from.  But only seven can run per team, one school team for boys and one for girls.  Yesterday close to 1500 kids raced on the flat-fast course at Hilliard Darby High School, a race each thirty minutes, from 10 am until 4:30 pm.

And I watched them all.

Three Calls

I made three “calls” in seven hours of competition.  None of them involved the runners on the course.  While there was some “jockeying” for position in the race, no one committed a “foul” that required me to begin the process of disqualification (thank goodness).  So what was I “calling” about?

One of the coolest parts of a Cross Country meet is the crowds, pressed next to the course limits, calling out encouragement to “their” runners.  Kids and coaches sprint from point to point on the course, trying to make a difference.  Parents usually aren’t moving quite as quickly, but they make up for their lack of speed with special yells, signs, and even cowbells.  What for most of the season are sounds of heavy breathing, pounding feet, and the occasional muttered curse; is now almost three full miles of cheering and shouting.  It’s the best part of the “championship” season.

But there are some rules – for spectators too.  Besides not physically interfering with the race, the most frequent infraction is called “pacing”.  You can’t run beside your kid for any length of time, setting a “pace” for them to follow.  If you do, then the runner gets that dreaded “yellow flag” leading to disqualification.

Disqualification

My goal is to never disqualify a kid, particularly for something their Mom, Dad or teammate is doing.  So I exercise my prerogative to, “preventively officiate”.  In short, I yell at the parent or teammate – “STOP PACING!”  The teammate almost always gets it, the parents usually need a bit more education.  So then there’s a brief conversation, often followed by raised eyebrows and irritated shrugs.  I don’t care: I don’t need agreement, only compliance.  The last thing I want to do is raise the “yellow flag”. 

I had that conversation twice.  I had a third situation where I would have, but the father was yelling in Spanish, the daughter/runner was responding, and he turned off the course before I had the opportunity to warn him.  Central Ohio is a diverse community.

Always Dogs

My third “call” of the day again had nothing to do with running.  Not surprising for me, it had to deal with – dogs.  

People love to bring their dogs to Cross Country meets.  Technically, they are not allowed to, but  with “free-form” cross country, it’s hard enough to get an admission ticket from spectators, much less control who (or what) gets out of their car.  So there’s often dogs out there, and the vast majority of them are well behaved, enjoying the crowd and the noise, the ready access to trees and bushes, and the frequent attention.  And on leashes – they’re always on leashes.  

We’ve got five dogs at home.  I wouldn’t take any of them to a Cross Country meet (I did take our old Lab, Dash, but he was a once-in-a-lifetime dog).  There would be too many dogs to bark at, too many little kids to chase.  And then the gun goes off – oh boy!!!!  But even with Dash, the perfect dog, I never let him “off-leash” at a meet.  

So when I saw the little “Benji” dog having a great time chasing a tennis ball; all I could think of was Benji joining in the “pack” of  runners, as they went around my Umpire position.  Talk about wreaking havoc in a race!  So I exercised my dubious authority over the crowd:  “HEY – YOUR DOG MUST BE ON LEASH!!”  They began to explain – “Benji (or whatever his name is) would never…” but I cut that off:  “ON LEASH NOW!”

Again, irritated shrugs (and an “I told you so” from a nearby Mom); but Benji went on-leash, and a potential crisis was averted.  

The Watchers

There were ten umpires spread out over the “repeating” mile and a half course Saturday, usually at a turn. That’s about one every 200 meters or so.  No one had to raise a “yellow flag”; no one was disqualified from the meet.  That doesn’t mean the ten of us “didn’t do anything”.  We did exactly what we hoped to do – by our mere presence, and a couple of shouted “suggestions”, we made sure the race was fair, and the dogs stayed on leash.

We were watching.

Next week the stakes are even higher – the Regional race to qualify for State.  There are twenty-seven of us this time.  The stakes are even higher for us too.  Hopefully we can all “just” watch.

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 German General Staff called it the “Nebel des Kriege”s, the Fog of War; that time when all of the tactical planning ends, and the battle begins.  The neatly organized lines on paper, become enmeshed with real conditions, the laws of ballistic physics, and the instant ramifications of  decisions that are made, or not, by soldiers on the ground.  

The al-Ahli Arab Hospital is an eighty-bed facility in the north part of the Gaza region.  The Hospital was founded in 1882, and managed today by the Christian Episcopal Church.  In the latest crisis in Gaza, it was a “safe zone” for Palestinians in the area.  Obviously, no one would bomb a hospital.  Hundreds of people were sheltering in the square in front, as the Israeli bombing campaign of Gaza City continued.

Mission to Israel

On Tuesday, October 17th, three days after the Hamas attack,  President Biden prepared to board Air Force One.  His missions were huge diplomatic risks for a US President.  The entire “weight” of authority of the United States was on the line as he flew to Israel.  The primary mission was to demonstrate American support for Israel, despite his recent criticisms of Prime Minister Netanyahu for trying to manipulate the power structure of the Israeli government.  

All of the politics of that Israeli leader who was most supported by Biden’s opponent, Trump, were set aside for the moment.  The terrorist attack of Saturday was  greater than any political considerations.  Hamas, out of the Palestinian Gaza Strip, launched a suicidal surprise assault that killed more than a thousand Israeli civilians.  More Jews were killed in that attack then any event since the end of World War II, the Holocaust.

Biden was taking a personal risk as well.  There could be no higher value target to terrorists like Hamas and Hizballah then the President of the United States.  There were a variety of ways he could be targeted, from a shoulder carried anti-aircraft missile aimed at Air Force One, to a suicide bomber.  Security couldn’t be tighter, but the danger was higher still.  But Biden went, an wrapped his arms around Netanyahu, symbolically and literally grieving with the entire nation of Israel. 

Mission to Amman

And Biden had a secondary mission.  He was meeting with the President of Egypt, the King of Jordan, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, in Amman, Jordan, after his stop in Tel Aviv.  The US President was trying to relieve the pressure of over two million Palestinians caught in the crossfire of Gaza.  The “safety valve” was the Rafah boarding crossing from Gaza into Egypt.  Refugees could go out, and essential supplies could go in, if only Egypt would open the border.

But Egypt wanted nothing to do with Palestinian refugees.  It wasn’t just the cost of taking care of them; certainly Hamas would infiltrate the crowds leaving Gaza.  The Hamas extremist group is aligned with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, that hoped to overthrow the Egyptian government and bring in a Fundamentalist Islamic government . Egypt didn’t want any more additions to their problems.

And Biden wanted to keep the Palestinians in the West Bank  peaceful, as well as gain support in keeping the Israeli battles to a single front in Gaza.   King Abdullah would be critical to keeping the “moderate” Arab countries out of the fight.  

The Bomb

And just as Biden was preparing to board Air Force One, word came from Gaza.  There was an explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.  In the modern era of social media, we immediately saw pictures of devastation.  Bodies were strewn over the square, fires raged in the corners, children screamed, families searched for loved ones. (And in the midst of all that, it was apparent that the Palestinians in Gaza are surprisingly young.  The demographic fact is that the median age in Gaza is eighteen.  Over half of the Palestinians are, by American standards, children. In contrast, the median age in the United States is thirty-eight). 

Hamas immediately jumped on the event, claiming that Israel targeted the Hospital.  After all, the Israeli’s had already declared that Gaza City was open to attack.  The Israeli military called for the Palestinians to evacuate to the south, and here was a square in the North, filled with Palestinians.  Listening to the Hamas commentary, the hospital was directly attacked, and hundreds, perhaps even more, civilians were killed.

It made logical sense.  Israel was dropping bombs all over Gaza.  By intent or by mistake, it seemed obvious that the Hamas narrative was true.

The Arab world was outraged.  There was no way that the President of the Palestinian Authority could meet with Biden, just minutes after he hugged Netanyahu.   Neither could the President of Egypt, or King Abdullah.  The Amman leg of the trip was cancelled, making Biden’s whole event about the United States supporting Israel, now seemingly engaged in an “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza.  

The Story

Within hours the Israeli Defense Forces claimed that the explosion was not caused by their missiles.  They detailed infra-red and satellite tracking data, showing where their missiles and planes were at the time of the explosion.  The Israelis countered the Hamas’ claim, with evidence that a smaller terrorist group, Islamic Jihad, fired missiles at Israel from a cemetery nearby the hospital at the time of the explosion.  One of their missiles mis-fired, landing in the hospital square.

Mark Twain supposedly said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on”.   The Hamas storyline was picked up, not just in the Arab world, but even by credible American media sources.  Soon the world believed that the Israelis were responsible for the death of up to five hundred innocent Palestinians.  What seemed like a “reasonable” response to the Hamas attack of Saturday, was turned to the “threat” of Jews committing genocide against innocent Palestinians.

By the next day, Biden was back home.  The US intelligence agencies, followed by Biden and the Senate Intelligence Committee, all agreed that it was Islamic Jihad that was responsible, not Israel.  The Israeli propaganda machine swung into action, putting the parents of the children lost in the original Hamas attack on television, sharing their heart wrenching stories.  And while we still saw social media of the carnage in Gaza City, American and world media was saturated with the horrors of hostages and massacres in Israel, and the heroics of individuals trying to save the friends and families.

Retrenchment and Recrimination

Who benefitted from the bombing at the hospital?  If Israel actually targeted that square, it was to demonstrate that they would give no quarter in gaining retribution for the Hamas attack.  Israel was holding all of Gaza responsible. After warning Palestinians to evacuate,  those who remained were “choosing” to stay in a “free-fire” zone. 

IF Israel targeted the square, it was with the specific intent of stopping Biden’s secondary mission.  It would mean that Israel wants the Palestinians in Gaza bottled up, starving, trapped between the border and the soon-to-come Israeli tanks.  It would mean that the hardline Israeli government has decided to clear Gaza, of Hamas and Palestinians, once and for all.

And what if it was an Islamic Jihad mistake?  Then Hamas was sure-footed, capitalizing on their ally’s error to load all of the burden of genocide onto Israel.  Hamas doesn’t want the Palestinians out of the way for battle.  They believe the Palestinians should stay in place, human shields around the Hamas missile sites and soldiers against the Israeli ground assault.  Hamas see that as their religious mission:  no higher cause than to die to in a “holy war”, a “jihad”.  It’s the only reason they launched the suicide attack in the first place, to force Israel to respond by killing innocent Palestinians in an effort to assure Israeli security.

Loss

All of Israel’s enemies will believe the Hamas version.  It will become another reason for “Jihad”, and a motivation for future terrorist suicide bombers.  Truth or falsehood, it is another “fact” of the long history of Palestinian grievance.

And from Israel’s side, in the eyes of much of the world, it took away their “righteous indignation”.  It made a terrorist organization, Hamas, look “equal” to a nation-state, Israel.  And of course, Israeli or Islamic Jihad:  for the families and friends of the casualties (probably more like a hundred) who died in the square it really doesn’t matter who fired the missile. Their loss remains the same.  And the Israeli tanks are still poised at the border, ready to eradicate Hamas from Gaza. 

The loss is really just beginning.

Social Security

It’s Wednesday afternoon, and I’m writing this essay as I sit “on hold” for the Social Security Administration.  I am a retired Ohio school teacher, and started teaching in the late 1970’s.  We didn’t pay into Social Security.  So I’m not qualified for those benefits, even after 35 ½ years of gainful employment.  My retirement was supposed to be “all taken care of” by the State Teacher’s Retirement System – but that’s definitely a different story (What’s the Deal, The Ohio Way).  

No, I’m waiting on Social Security (22 minutes and counting) so I can see if I’m eligible for free Medicare Part A.  It’s another long story, that I won’t go into right now.  But I do want to talk to the good people at Social Security, even if I have to wait listening to Muzak (is that still a thing?) for the next 22 minutes or even longer.  That’s because there might be some kind of enrollment window I have to meet, and I’m not sure that those “good folks” will be working come the middle of November.  While Social Security (and Medicare) benefits would continue if there was a government shutdown, I’m quite certain that the enrollment offices won’t be open.  And if you miss a Medicare enrollment window, it costs a percentage for the rest of your life.

So the Muzak goes on – sometimes louder, like they’re going to pick up and sometimes quieter, like they’re lulling you to sleep. They might pick-up and hang-up before you can respond. 

Choosing the Speaker

So why am I worried about a government shutdown?  There is no Speaker of the House of Representatives, and hasn’t been for the past two weeks.  Therefore, that branch of our government is unable to do any work.  

The recording just reminded me that I’m one of fifty million receiving benefits, so they might be busy!

Ohio’s Jim Jordan just failed on his second attempt to win the Speaker’s gavel.  He was a couple votes to the worse from Tuesday, and while he’s got a “full court” pressure campaign going on his fellow Republican Congressmen, I don’t think he’s going to change more of their votes.  There’s a great line from 1776, the Musical, about John Adams; “…He’s obnoxious and disliked, you know that’s true”.  And so is the Congressman from St. Paris, a little village here in Ohio somewhere between Urbana and Piqua in Champaign County.  He brings all the finesse of the NCAA wrestling champion he was, pinning through any opponent to reach his goal.  That works on the mat, not so much in the give and take world of politics.

Those Republicans who’ve been “pinned” have little respect for the man from St Paris.  So I expect, regardless of how much Sean Hannity or even Donald Trump has to say; Jordan will never gain the 217 votes he needs to be the Speaker.   What he can do is continue to drag out a process that will inevitably fail.  He’s going to try again on Thursday.

Dogs and Cats

So what’s next?  After the Jordan “run” is over, Thursday, Friday, or whenever he gives up; the Republican majority will go back into their conference and try to reach some other consensus.  I’m sure every one of the Members now believes they have a shot at the position, though that’s an unlikely scenario.   If they couldn’t coalesce around Steve Scalise, or keep Kevin McCarthy, and the right can’t have their “fever dream” of Jordan, what else can the Party, and the Nation, do? 

 Just crossed forty minutes on hold.  They keep apologizing, but never answer!!

The next move will require something “completely different”.  The Republicans, at least some of them, will have to cooperate with the Democrats, probably most of them.  No Republican is going to vote for Democratic Leader Hakeem Jefferies, just as no Democrat would vote for Jordan.  But as Hippocrates supposedly said; “Desperate times calls for desperate measures”.  We are reaching the point where the House of Representatives is so desperate that Democrats and Republicans may need to work – shudder to say – with each other.

Give and Take

There is a compromise position available.  Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry, a smartly bow-tied sub-leader of the Republican majority, is currently acting as Speaker Pro Tempore.  His only power is to open and close the House sessions:  he can’t bring a bill to the floor for a vote, conduct a vote on the bill, or declare a vote conclusive.  He’s a place-holder until the majority party (Republicans) can vote in a new, real, Speaker.  But that hasn’t happened.

What would Republicans “give” to allow the Speaker Pro Tempore to have more power?  They would have to give something, because it would require some Democrats to agree to McHenry’s  enhancements.  And not all Republicans, surely not the 217 needed to pass anything in the House, agree that a “deal” should be made.  It would take at least five Republicans, and every single Democrat, to pass the “deal”. 

The Deal

And what would Democrats want?  Three things for sure:  funding for Israel (everyone agrees), funding for Ukraine (the vast majority agrees, though not the Republican hard-right), and a longer extension of the budget deal to keep the government open.  That third issue is the “sticking point”.  Most Republicans want deep cuts to social programs in the budget process (and more money to the Southern Border), even though the Senate won’t agree and the President won’t sign off.  So those few, proud, Republicans who joined the Democrats in this deal would be politically at risk.  They could, and probably would, be “primaried” by a more hard-right opponent in the spring.  They might lose their seats.

And some Democrats might put their seats at risk as well.  It’s not hard to see a hard-left opponent using cooperation with Republicans as a cudgel in the primary.  It would require courage on both sides to go ahead with a “deal”. 

 I finally talked to a very nice lady at forty-seven minutes.  There was another twelve minutes on hold as she investigated my situation and then, she told me I need to set up a phone appointment. I thought this was a phone appointment.  After five more minutes –she sweetly  told me there are no phone appointments available.  I’ll get a letter in the mail, scheduling a meeting, phone or in person, sometime in the next seven to ten days.  Meanwhile I have a “window” of two more months to enroll without penalty.

Hold Your Breath

Come this weekend, the American people are totally dependent on some members of the House of Representatives to take political risks.  We are asking them for courage in governing.  They need to put the good of the Nation ahead of their own political careers.  

Could it happen?  The eternal optimist in me says yes, that at least some of the members of Congress came to govern, to get something done, not just to hold the title.  On the other hand, we’ve been waiting for a “Profile in Courage” for a while, and it hasn’t appeared yet, especially in the Republican Conference.  

So don’t hold your breath.

I’m not holding my breath about the letter either. I am hoping it will tell me when my “meeting” is, before a government shutdown or at least within the two months.  But I know better.  Hopefully my first “47 minutes on hold” call will “count”!

Heritage

I am torn.  Full disclosure:  I am the son of an ex-communicated Roman Catholic mother, and a Jewish father.  I grew up in Cincinnati, surrounded by my Jewish relatives.  We had a Christmas tree in the living room, and, as designated by my uncle, a Hanukah bush in the recreation room.  I was raised Episcopal (the joke was that’s as close as Mom could get us kids to Catholic). But I was also well aware of Jewish traditions.   While I could say the Lord’s Prayer, I could easily recite the Seder supper prayer over the wine and bread, in Hebrew, even though I wasn’t sure what it meant.

And one of those traditions was an unwavering support of the State of Israel.  Besides our amalgam of religions, both my parents were veterans of World War II.  Mom had to search the liberated concentration camps, looking for other members of her Special Operations Executive unit. The Holocaust had real meaning to her, memories that she never shared. Dad was moved from intelligence to finance in the US Army, because it was much more dangerous for a Jewish man to be in Nazi occupied territory.  We grew up with an awareness that being Jewish, even just half Jewish, even just an ethnic Jew not a religious one; changed things.

I didn’t realize that, until I got one of my first jobs, working in a Congressional office in Washington and then in Cincinnati.  I overheard a conversation between the Office Manager and the Congressman, talking about the Irish legislative aide (another young college student) and the Jewish scheduler (that would be me).  Only then I realized that part of the reason I had the job, was my “perceived” Jewishness.  They didn’t know I was Episcopal (a non-practicing one) but at that point it didn’t matter.  They had a young “Jew” on staff.

Zionism

So my parents, and my relatives, and literally everyone around was in favor of Israel.  We read novels, like Exodus by Leon Uris. It told the story of Zionism, and how the Jews in Palestine managed to turn desert into cropland.  And we marveled at the tenacity of tiny Israel holding off the combined might of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the rest; first in 1948, then ’56, then ’67, and once again in 1973.  

As for the Palestinians, the Arabs living in the area before Zionism and the Holocaust, and the flood of Jewish immigrants?  We were told that Israel wanted them to stay, but the Grand Mufti in Cairo and other religious and military leaders ordered them out of Palestine.  That was to clear the way for the Arab invasion, driving the Israelis, the Jews, into the sea.  And because the Arab goal was to remove Israel, there was no reason for the Palestinians to “settle” into the surrounding Arab countries.  They were kept in camps, on the borders, ready to move back in when the “time came”.  The problem for them was, that time never arrived.

Now we now know that story was only partially true.  The Israelis also wanted the land the Palestinians were on.  So there was pressure for the Palestinians to leave from the Jews as well.  And, realistically, most of the Israelis regarded the Palestinians as a threat and danger to their new communities.  So the Arabs were calling for the Palestinians to leave, and the Israelis were “greasing the rails” for them to get out of the way.  

Palestinians

The refugee “camps” became permanent fixtures on the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Golan Heights in Lebanon and Syria, and the Gaza Strip along the Egyptian border.  What were supposed to be temporary “camps” became permanent, seventy-five years from 1948 to today.  

And those camps became incubators for extremism.  Young Palestinians saw few ways forward.  They couldn’t assimilate into the Arab countries nearby, because they weren’t wanted.  They couldn’t go back to their ancestral lands, because those were now in possession of Israel.  And they struggled in a “temporary” society that had little infrastructure, education, health care, or means to provide for themselves or their families.

Palestinians couldn’t find a “legitimate” political way.  They weren’t allowed to participate in Egyptian, Syrian, or Lebanese politics.  In Jordan, which actually did try to make them citizens, Palestinians led a revolt against the King, that was put down violently.  So they couldn’t be citizens of that country either. They were expelled back to the West Bank area.

Terrorism

And Israel essentially washed it’s hands of the matter, a kind of out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing.  Palestinians became the “essential” workers of Israel, farming the Israeli fields and doing manual labor.   It shouldn’t be a surprise that extremism, and terrorism, grew out of the Palestinian camps.  The airplane hijackings of the 1970’s, the attack on the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and countless smaller attacks and suicide bombings after are directly related to the camps.  When there is no hope, why shouldn’t a young man or woman aspire to “sacrifice their lives for the cause”, to become a martyr.   What else was there to do?

So here we are; a week after the worst terrorist assault in modern history.  Hamas, the terrorist element controlling the Gaza Strip, launched a brutal surprise attack against Southern Israel.  They killed civilians, the elderly, children, babies, kids at a “rave”.  The massacred over a thousand, and took more than two hundred as hostage.  They lost as many of their “fighters” in the process, according to Hamas, martyrs to the “cause”.

Israel legitimately has the right of “self-defense”.  In their “righteous might”, they have bombed much of Northern Gaza to rubble.  They are poised at the border, ready to launch hundreds of thousands of soldiers, tanks, and artillery against Hamas.  And Hamas surrounds itself with the other Palestinians, again caught in the middle of this long-running, incredibly ugly Middle East conflict.  To Hamas, sacrificing for their cause is “sacred”, even if there isn’t a choice.  To Israel killing Hamas, root and branch, is an absolute necessity. 

Morality 

Israel demands that Palestinians leave the Northern half of Gaza, populated by more than a million, so that the battlefield is cleared.  And Hamas is demanding that they stay, as a “cloak of protection” against Israeli force of arms.  Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left their homes with what little they could carry, and headed south, compacting into what already was a highly populated area.  Israel has cut off access to Gaza, not just food and supplies, but electricity and water.  And Egypt refuses to open their border, and allow at least some Palestinians an escape from the coming Israeli onslaught.

It is a moral no-man’s-land.  Sure Israel has the right to destroy Hamas, to defend its citizens, and to seek retribution for its loss.  But this isn’t some fight on an empty battlefield, on the “hill of Meggido” (the Biblical site for the battle of Armageddon, actually in Northern Israel).  This is a battle in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.  And there is little way out for the “non-combatants”, the Palestinians who would choose not to sacrifice for Hamas.  

The Truth

So I am torn.  Israel must defend itself from Hamas.  But a nation founded as a response to attempted genocide, cannot morally commit the same against the Palestinian people.  There is no moral “high ground” that allows for the destruction of the people of Gaza.  That ground is reserved only for the destruction of Hamas.

I heard a Palestinian American the other day make a significant point.  He said that Americans believe that all people are equal – in theory.  But somehow, we act as if a Palestinian life is less valuable than an Israeli life. It’s hard to argue that point.  We: the Israelis, and their biggest supporter, the United States; need to maintain the “high moral ground”.  To do that we must find a way to save Palestinians, even as we “branch and root” out Hamas from Gaza.  

That is the truth of this matter.  It won’t be easy, but it is necessary.

The Constitution

It’s been twelve days since Kevin McCarthy was removed as leader of the House of Representatives.  The Speaker’s job is the only Constitutionally mandated leadership structure in the House (Article 1, Section 2, Part 5).  All of the other titles we talk about:  majority and minority leaders and whips and committee chairmen; are constructs of political parties.  

The authors of the Constitution were very familiar with “parties”, but they really didn’t approve.  They felt that partisanship would represent narrow interests, something in our Federal system that was more a “state government” thing.  The Congress should act in the broader interest of the Nation; political parties would get in the way.

I guess, looking at our current situation, they were right.  But political parties emerged even during the Washington Administration, and by John Adams’ Presidency there were clear party delineations.  And it’s been that way ever since.

The House cannot operate without a Speaker.  The Speaker has the ultimate authority to determine actions, even if there are ways to “get around” a Speaker who refuses to act.  The House can even overturn the Speaker’s decision.  But if there’s no Speaker to get around, no decision to overturn, then there can be no action.

Temp-Job

McCarthy knew how tenuous his hold on the Speakership was.  He had to agree to “party” rules allowing any majority party member to move to “vacate the Chair” (in the past it required five or even ten to agree).  As McCarthy was only elected by the bare minimum required to win, 216; if one member who voted for him wanted him “vacated”, then he was vacated.  And, thanks to Matt Gaetz of Florida, here we are.

So McCarthy also wrote a rule for a “Temporary Speaker”.  That allowed the House to remain in session.  And there are some Congressmen who are calling for the Temporary, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, to allow other House business to continue.  Some Democrats even offered to vote for him to become the “official/temporary” Speaker. But all of that is unprecedented, and could be unconstitutional.  So we wait.

Some call for the Democrats to join with Republicans and choose a Speaker.  After all, there are 213 Democrats, and McCarthy only lost by a couple of votes.  And there are those Democrats who expressed interest in doing so.  But “politics ain’t beanbag”.  The Democrats want some share of power if their votes will determine the Speaker.  No Republican has offered that kind of sharing, so Democrats remain solidly behind their own leader, Hakeem Jeffries.  If a few Republicans want to vote for him, this whole problem would be solved.  But that’s not happening either.

Extremes

The Republican Conference (all the Republicans in the House) first elected Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and then Jim Jordan of Ohio, as their nominee for the Speakership.  The Conference “rule” used to be that the candidate who got the majority of votes in the Conference, would then get all of the Republican votes on the House floor.  That was the “definition” of being a Republican (or Democrat) in the Congress. But that “rule” went out the window in 2022.  Now Republican Congressmen aren’t “bound” by the Conference decision.  And that’s why no Republican can get the majority 217 votes to become Speaker, at least so far.

What was wrong with Scalise?  He was a member of the Conference leadership for a decade, and represents the “establishment” in the Conference.  Essentially, he was little different from Kevin McCarthy, with all of that political baggage.  So while Scalise gained a slim majority of the Conference, many of those who voted against him refused to vote for him on the floor.  So he withdrew from the race.

Next the ultimate heretic, the Congressman who helped create the Freedom Caucus to manhandle the Republican even farther to the right, was nominated by the Conference.  Jim Jordan is as extreme-right a Congressman as there is in the Party, without the vaudeville acts of Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz. And he has the blessing (at least temporarily) of Donald Trump.  But even that is not likely enough; the more centrist (it’s hard to call any Republican Congressmen a moderate – that’s an extinct species in the Conference) are refusing to vote for Jordan on the floor.

He’s still “whipping” votes; making deals to try to reach 217.  But if Scalise, the master of the “whip count” couldn’t; it’s not likely the Jim Jordan, rated the 431^st (out of 435) most effective legislator in the Congress, will (Newsweek).  

Under Pressure

Meanwhile, the pressure mounts.  Americans want a House of Representatives that can do something, anything.  The crisis in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the looming budget crisis all are closing in.  Republicans realize that if they can’t get their House in order, voters will blame them in 2024.  And while Democrats are doing a masterful job of keeping this a “Republican” problem, in the end this is an American problem.  

So what happens next?  Is there no “centrist” the Republicans can turn to?  Where are the “moderate” Republicans and Democrats who came to Congress to get something done, not just keep their office?   Any 217 Congressmen can organize, choose a Speaker, and run the House of Representatives.   Will the pressure grow so intense, that there will be a power-sharing deal between Republicans and Democrats (cats and dogs, fire and water, yin and yang)?

My guess is: no.  My guess – the Republican Party will find a body, a candidate that their Conference can agree on, with maybe a few Democratic votes, and a little, really, little, amount of power-sharing.  Maybe just a “deal” on the issues at hand, Israel, Ukraine, the Southern Border, and the budget, to get us through 2024.  

The sooner, the better.

Massacre

It’s Thursday.  Last Saturday, Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel.  They broke through the wall on the border, they came through tunnels, they landed  by sea and they even used paragliders.  They attacked some military targets, but they also laid waste to civilian settlements.   Men, women and children, were massacred, and hostages were dragged back across the border to Gaza.  

One particular target was a “rave”, a concert in the desert near the border area.  Thousands of young people came to enjoy the music and the trance-like quality of dancing through the night under the stars.  Early in the morning, Hamas gunmen appeared, firing into the crowd and chasing the revelers through the desert.  Over two hundred and sixty were killed.  More were brutalized and taken as hostages.  

Over a thousand Israelis were killed on Saturday, and at least a hundred taken hostage.  Missiles were launched at major cities, airports, communal farms and other targets.  The Israeli “Iron Dome” defense system was overwhelmed, and some missiles found their targets.  US officials were caught off-guard and so was the Israeli government.  US and Israeli intelligence totally missed the lead-up to this attack.  It was 9-11, or the 1973 Yom Kippur War.   

Distinctions and Differences

This attack also put a finger in the middle of an American dilemma regarding Israel.  Traditionally, Americans of all political stripes support Israel.  But recently, the plight of the Palestinians has become more apparent.  Palestinians are caught in the middle, driven away from their traditional homes in Israel, and segregated by the surrounding Arab countries in camps around the Israeli borders.  There are radical extremists among them, terrorists.  They are supported by nations like Iran and Syria, interested in destabilizing the region.  Hamas, one of those groups, led this assault.  They sent more than a thousand of their own fighters to their deaths in suicidal attacks.

The terror is so fresh, the pictures so real, the tears of parents and friends so evocative, that it’s easy to forget distinctions.  All Palestinians are bad, or so it seems today.  Leveling Gaza, one of the most heavily populated areas in the world, seems “only fair”.  But there is a distinction between “all Palestinians” and Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Jihad.  And Americans need to remember that.

Jonathan Greenblatt is the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League here in the United States, a leading organization supporting Jewish causes.  He is clear:  call this terrorism, call this evil, call this a Terrorist “Final Solution”.  It was the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.  And he’s not wrong.  But this battle should be about terrorism and extremism, not a “final solution” to the “Palestinian problem”.   It would be easy to gloss over the difference.

Collateral Damage

We are going to hear the military term, “collateral damage” in the coming days.  We are already seeing it.  While the Israelis are notifying residents of Gaza when and where they will attack, the destruction in the densely packed cities there is immense.  The leadership of Hamas is physically intertwined with the structure of Gaza.  Their headquarters are hidden in civilian apartment buildings.  They literally hide beneath Palestinian civilians, and now, perhaps behind the hostages. Civilians are going to die to kill Hama’s leaders.  It will be easy to say that it’s a “tit for tat” response.  But that also puts Israeli and American actions perilously close to the same moral level as the terrorists. How far that goes will be an existential question for Israelis and Americans alike.

There are rumors that Iran directly supported, or even approved, this attack.  And there is no doubt that Iran supports Hamas, and even more so, Hezbollah, another terrorist group on Israel’s Northern border.  But, according to both Israel and the US, there is no direct link between Iran and this surprise attack, yet.  The Wall Street Journal disagrees.

That’s become an American political talking point.  President Biden just obtained the release of six Americans imprisoned in Iran.  Part of the negotiations included the reallocation of $6 billion in Iranian money, held frozen in banks.  The money was transferred to a bank in the United Arab Emirates, but remains under US Treasury control.  None has been allocated. The agreement will allow it to be spent on humanitarian aid to Iran, “checked off” by the US government.  But the President’s critics now say that the agreement “financed” this terrorist attack – demonstrably untrue, but said this morning on Fox News none-the-less.

Nations at War

We are still in the “shock” stage of this terrorist attack.  And Israel is still under real assault by Hamas rockets.  Israelis are still finding the dead, and identifying the hostages.  And already Israel is striking back at Gaza, hitting targets inside the narrowly compacted confines of the city.  But what comes next?

Israel is planning if it’s possible to retrieve hostages.  And they absolutely plan on total retribution against Hamas. The United States will support whatever Israel does, both financially, and with direct military involvement.  The US Navy sent the Gerald Ford Carrier Group to the Eastern Mediterranean, with seven ships, seventy aircraft, and ten thousand US personnel.   And while those armaments probably won’t be directed at Hamas, they certainly are available against nation- states like Syria or Iran should they try to get involved.  The US serves as “checkmate”.  If Iran or Syria determine to intervene, they will face the “righteous might” of the US Navy.

The war in Ukraine still goes on.  And the US House of Representatives is still paralyzed by a failed Republican leadership.   When someone finally emerges to become Speaker, they will face conflicting international needs:  Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and, of course, the US Southern Border.  

Things won’t get easier – and if Iran decides to get involved, it likely to get much tougher.

• Little babies – safe in their cribs
• Forty aligned in logical rows of a Kibbutz nursery.
• Screaming in unknowing terror as they’re butchered,
• Heads cut off in some medieval ritual – the corruption of blood.
• They didn’t deserve to die that way.

• Children, awakened in bed by hushed parents’ tones,
• Hiding in “safe rooms” as they hear unfamiliar language unwelcome at the door.
• Remaining silent, despite the terror, 
• Sensing the fear of their own mother’s whispered commands.
• The strange voices fading away, followed by the thud of  metal on the floor.
• An explosion, smoke slipping under the door. 
• The searing heat as a home is consumed by flames.
• They didn’t deserve to die that way.

• Young soldiers, obligated and proud to serve in the IDF.
• At quiet outposts along the border.
• The holidays; waiting to go home, to Seder supper.
• To family and friends. To younger brother’s Bar Mitzvah.
• To girlfriends at the café.
• Automatic fire cut off retreat, and finally, cut off their lives.
• They didn’t deserve to die that way.

• Young dancers, celebrating life in the Negev.
• Entranced by the beat and the lights; enhanced by the magic of mushrooms.
• Dancing an ancient ritual,
• Some alone, but most in circles of close friends and new strangers,
• Gaining energy from the spirit around them.
• Swaying through the night – waiting to celebrate a desert dawn.
• Quick warning came, followed by the rattle of AK-47s. 
• The panic, running; the biting burn, the massive damage of the bullets of war.
• They didn’t deserve to die that way.

• Farmers, wresting crops from land,
• That was barren brown desert only two generations ago.
• Controlling the water to make their world green instead of dry.
• Proud of work, of produce; of crops grown by the force of their hands.
• Dragged into the streets.  Murdered before their families.
• Wives and daughters raped in the monster age-old ritual of sex turned power turned torture.
• They didn’t deserve to die that way.

• Old, survivors of the wars.
• Children in ‘48.  Teens in ‘56.  Soldiers in ‘67. Leaders in ‘73.
• Retired to well-earned rest, their reward a home by the sea.
• Where nations threatened to drive them, to drown them.
• A sea that proved  to be their coast to enjoy. 
• Dragged from their beds, shoved from their wheelchairs.
• Murdered in public.
• They didn’t deserve to die that way.

• The camps and the tortures.  She survived it.
• The single event of history to justify the founding of Israel.
• The Holocaust, Hitler’s Final Solution for the Jewish people.
• She lived to see a new nation grow.
• A life that was the history of her new found homeland.
• Born in struggle, in war, in hatred.
• Survival by strength of will, against the greatest of odds.
• Only a few left, the last of that founding generation.
• She lived through the worst the world could do,
• Only to be imprisoned once more, a victim of the hate that bookended her life.
• She doesn’t deserve to end that way.

• Hamas came with medieval energy, AK’s and grenades instead of scimitar swords.
• They committed atrocities as old as warfare; of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.
• Retribution born of decades of hate and loss.
• But butchering babies, burning children, raping women, murdering men?
• Their grievances are great, but their acts are beyond exception.
• An abrogation of their humanity.  
• What else to do but treat them accordingly?
• Because no one deserves to die that way.