Category: Uncategorized

Generations

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

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

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

Tech

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

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

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

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

Guns

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

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

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

Climate

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

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

Society

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

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

Dare

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

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

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

It’s the best, last Dare to accept.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good work, Mr. President.

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

New Game

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

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

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

Last Recourse

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

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

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

Magic Number!!!

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

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

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

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

Raise the Bar

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

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

Absolute Power

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

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

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

They need to defeat Issue One.  

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

Fourth of July

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

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

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

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

Olympian Fourth 

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

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

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

Road Trip Fourth

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

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

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

Quiet Fourth

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Dream Fourth

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

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

Happy Fourth!!!!

Teaching

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

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

Basic Principles

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

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

Stare Decis

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

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

Duty Bound

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

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

Cases to Fit 

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

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

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

Facts Didn’t Matter

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

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

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

Mission

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

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

And what are Government teachers saying in class today?

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

Peaking

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

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

Rituals

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

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

Setup

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

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

The Plan

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

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

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

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

Free to Leave

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

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

Five Dogs

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

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

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

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

The Sunday Story Series

• 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 of 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

Law of the Land

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas achieved a life goal yesterday.  He joined the six vote majority opinion of “our” Trump Supreme Court. In the Harvard case, they voted to end affirmative action programs in colleges in the United States. Justice Thomas got his wish (a companion to Chief Justice Roberts decimation of the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County decision).  The majority of the Court has declared that the Civil Rights Era is officially over.  It’s all “even-Steven” now.

The Court, of course, had to overturn precedent to reach this decision. Specifically in this case, they overturned the Baake ruling of 1978, and the University of Michigan ruling in 2003.  Both those cases affirmed that universities could specifically use race as a factor in the overall admission process.  But the conservative majority has now decided that the Baake and Michigan decisions were either wrongly decided, or that the Nation has “outgrown” the need for affirmative action.

To be clear, the Court implied it’s still possible to consider an applicant’s race in the admission process. If, in an essay, the applicant explained that racial issues were a “problem” for them to overcome, then admissions could consider it.  As Roberts said; if overcoming a chronically ill parent, or a financially destitute upbringing could be considered; then overcoming race-created barriers can be “noted” in essay form.

But the “law of the land” in college admissions from today forward is this:  everyone is equal.  College admissions are now officially “color-blind”.  The fact that equality of education is, in fact, demonstrably not racially equal doesn’t seem to matter to the Justices.  They are willing to ignore history and our current society to achieve the outcome they want. It sounds a lot like another case the Court decided – Plessy v Ferguson. That one said that separate facilities could be equal, even though they weren’t.

Call Them Out

I’m not calling Clarence Thomas out for this one (though there’s a whole lot of other things I would call him out for, including accepting millions of dollars’ worth of gifts).  Thomas has held a steady position his entire career.  He thinks that affirmative action is somehow degrading, making majority students look down on minority students.  And he’s right about one thing, this decision will change that.  There simply won’t be as many minority students to look down on anymore.  See, problem solved.

However, I am calling out Chief Justice Roberts, who simply has a wrong view of history. He believes that somehow, with a wave of his “Chief Justice Pen”, he can make America “color-blind”. Or, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said:

“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat”.

Former Vice President Pence said it “best”, showing that he is a “let them eat cake, oblivious, white man.

“There may have been a time, fifty years ago, when we needed to affirmatively take steps to correct long-term racial bias in institutions of higher education. But I can tell you as the father of three college graduates (author’s note: white college graduates), those days are long over.”

Personally, I’m all in favor of even competition.  But, like fifty years ago, there is one race that has a significant educational advantage.  And I’m not talking about folks with Oriental backgrounds.

What it Is

Nope, I’m calling it for what it is.  White folks still have significant educational advantages, whether they believe it or not.   Look at these of statistics from Ohio.

Here’s the list of the ten lowest performing school districts in Ohio;

• 607 – East Cleveland               98% Black, 1 % White,  1 % Other
• 606 – Youngstown Public      55% Black, 22% Hispanic, 13% White, 10% other
• 605 – Lockland                         47% Black, 29 % White, 12% Hispanic, 12% other
• 604 – Trotwood Madison       87% Black, 6% White, 7% other
• 603 – Garfield Heights             77% Black, 14% White, 9% other
• 602 – Dayton Public                 65% Black, 23% White, 12% Other
• 601 – Jefferson Township       75% Black, 14% White, 11% other
• 600 – Mt Healthy                     69% Black, 12% White, 19% Other
• 598 – Lorain                             44% Hispanic, 26% Black, 21% White, 9% other
• 598 – Canton                    38% White, 37% Black, 17% Multi-Racial, 8% Hispanic

And here’s the ten highest performing school districts in Ohio;

• 1 – Solon                                 54% White, 22% Asian, 16% Black, 10% other
• 2 – Rocky River                        89% White, 4% Hispanic, 11% other
• 3 – Chagrin Falls                      90% White, 4% Black, 6% other
• 3 – Mariemont                        92% White, 8% other
• 5 – Marion (Mercer)*              98% White, 2% other
• 6 –  Minster*                            97% White, 3% other
• 7 – Versailles*                         99% White, 1% other
• 8 – Ft Loramie*                       99% White, 1% other
• 8 – Oakwood                           82% White, 6% Hispanic, 6% Multi-Racial, 6% other
• 10 – West Geauga                   92% White, 4% Hispanic, 4% other
• *Small rural school districts in Western Ohio

Quality of Education

There are lots of reasons, many financial, that determine how a school performs on state standards.  And there are lots of questions about what the state “standards” really measure.  But one thing is apparent:  high performing schools are overwhelmingly white, low performing schools are overwhelmingly minority.  It’s not about the race of the kids, it’s about the quality of the education they are receiving.  To take the graduates of those schools, and then require them to be all “even-Steven” seems more than absurd.  It seems intentionally cruel, and intentionally designed to maintain the status quo for both races.

To put it bluntly, a black kid who graduates from Youngstown with great test scores, ought to get an advantage over a white kid from Oakwood with the same scores. The Youngstown kid had to overcome a lot more educational “adversity” to get there.   And that’s what affirmative action did, recognized that the same test scores might not recognize the same amount of effort, or determination, or ability.

Society’s Problem

Justice Thomas complained that affirmative action was trying to solve “societal problems”, not just “educational problems”.  There are two answers to that complaint.  First, as demonstrated above, affirmative action might well be determining who the “best” student really is, by looking at what they had to overcome.  Sure, essays might do that as well, but 57,000 students apply to Harvard each year, for only 1,942 positions.  There’s always essays to read, but that’s further down the admission process.  How many minority students now won’t even make the first cut?

And second, why shouldn’t our universities try to help solve our societal problems?  The average black family earns $46,400 a year, the average white family makes almost $80,000.  Education and income are directly correlated (that’s why poor urban areas don’t have great schools).  Don’t our universities, and particularly our top schools like Harvard, have an obligation to the nation to try to improve that situation?  The Supreme Court has weighed in with a resounding, NO.

The MAGA mantra is:  no political correctness, no Black Lives Matter, no Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the educational process.  They want “our” culture to go back to Mr. Pence’s fifty years, (I’d say closer to sixty).  They want their kids (white) to keep their educational advantage.  And the Supreme Court affirmed that mantra.  It’s all “even-Steven” now.

The kids that live in Lockland, Ohio (rated 605) live two train tracks from where I went to high school in Wyoming, Ohio (rated 26^th, 76% White, 11% Black, 13% others).  Their educational future is literally determined by being “on the other side of the tracks”.  And now, the Supreme Court has made it even more likely that it will stay that way.

“Even-Steven”?  It’s not even close.  

Joint Chiefs

Deep in the inner rings of the Pentagon is the core of the United States military,  the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Here, the commanders of each of the military services;  Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, the Space Force, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, serve as the balance point.  Each of the “Chiefs” runs their own branch. And each is accountable to civilian leadership, the core of the American experiment.  The Chairman isn’t in the “chain of command” as he doesn’t “run” a branch. But he serves as the chief liaison to the highest civilian leaders, the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States.

It is the job of the Joint Chiefs to execute the orders of the civilian leadership.  They need to be prepared for every contingency.  In order to respond quickly to world crisis and civilian requests, the Office of the Joint Chiefs has its own staff. There are eight directorates, dealing with topics like manpower, intelligence, operations and logistics.  It is up to J-5, the directorate for planning, to be ready for any contingency.  They are the directorate of “what if”:  what if China invades Taiwan, what if North Korea launches nuclear weapons at South Korea, what if Israel bombs the  nuclear factories in Iran.  J5 develops the contingency plans, constantly changing and evolving to meet the current world crises.

Plans

There wasn’t a “Joint Staff” back then, but the pre-World War II Navy and Army “gamed” out a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Military Aviation).  Unfortunately they didn’t “apply” their results (carrier based bombers got through to the bases in the “game” too).   J-5 “plans” for everything, because anything might happen.  If the President asks for one of the “what if” plans, the Chairman has to be prepared, and the plan needs to be up to date.  

Iran backed forces in Iraq launched rocket attacks on American forces stationed in the region throughout 2019.  President Trump was looking for an appropriate retort to those provocations.  The watchword of American foreign policy is “proportional response”.  The Iranians were “stinging” American forces. What could the US do to “swat” them down, without over-reacting and creating a world crisis?  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, provided the President and his advisors, gradations of reaction. They ranged from raising US force levels in the area, to Special Forces Operations, to full out war.

Act of War

The President and his staff determined to use a drone strike to “take out” the leader of the Iranian military in charge of planning and support to Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese “extremist” forces.  General Qasem Soleimani led the irregular forces for two decades, and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds, including Americans.  On January 3, 2020, a US drone killed the General on the road from the Baghdad airport.

Killing an Iranian general is an act of war, and the United States needed to be prepared for any Iranian response.  J-5 had contingency plans for all sorts of possibilities, including an all-out war calling for a US invasion of Iran.  General Milley, as the responsible member of the military, presented these options to the National Security Council and the President, Donald Trump.  Obviously, the J-5 plans for the invasion of Iran were as “Top Secret” as they come.  (Here are three essays from “Our America” of that time: No Backing Out, One Man, Two Views of Iran).

Mark Meadows

Mark Meadows with the White House Chief of Staff.  Like many of those who worked for Donald Trump, Meadows struggled to find employment after he left the White House (particularly after the Insurrection of January 6^th).  So he decided to write his auto-biography, with help by a “ghost-writer”.  It wasn’t just to provide “regular” income; Meadows is a pivotal figure in the Department of Justice and the Atlanta District Attorney investigations of election fraud.  He is “in need” of legal counsel on a number of fronts, at $400 an hour.  

So in July of 2021, the writer met with former President Trump and some of his staff at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.  One of the “stories” that came out of the Trump White House, was that the President was pressing to go to war with Iran, and that the National Security Council and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs “talked him down” to the Soleimani attack.  Trump hoped to use Meadow’s book to blame General Milley for proposing an invasion of Iran.  The writer recorded the interview.  That recording was discovered as evidence by Jack Smith’s Justice Department investigation, and CNN found it as well.  CNN played it to the public this week.

Isn’t it Cool

We hear the former President telling the writer that it was Milley who proposed invasion, not him.  And to “prove” this, we hear the President shuffling through papers, finally pulling out one that he identifies as from the military, showing the invasion plans.  Trump then not only recognizes that it’s Top Secret, but acknowledges he doesn’t currently have the power to declassify it.  His final words, “Isn’t it cool?”.

Isn’t it cool?  The former President used Top Secret documents to improve his image in a book.  He shared it with a writer without a security clearance, and acknowledges that. And it’s all on “tape”.  Jack Smith hasn’t brought charges in New Jersey, though the tape demonstrates that Trump had Top Secret documents there.  Smith will use the tape to demonstrate that the former President was well aware that he couldn’t declassify documents after he left office.  That destroys any defense that Trump “…thought he already declassified them when he left the White House”.

It’s another “nail in the coffin” for Donald Trump in the classified document charges.

On the Fly

The headline is: “PANDEMIC CLOSURES IMPACT KID’S TEST SCORES!!!!”.  It’s screamed from the rooftops, the “shocking” result of the Covid era – the “Covid Gap”.  I was a teacher for over thirty-five years. I made the “mistake” of taking a long-term substitute job the week before Covid closed the world.  We switched “on the fly” to online education.  When kids did come back the next year, it was with masks, alternating schedules and days, and limited interactions with classmates and teachers.  So my question is simple:  “What the Hell did you expect?”

The “world” was already complaining about education before the pandemic.  So when schools were shut down, and a whole different form of mass education applied with “online” schooling, did you think it was really going to improve things?   And, shock of shocks (not), urban schools had worse outcomes than suburban schools.  How could that be a surprise to anyone?  

We know that Covid was a dramatically “urban” disease, so of course urban schools took more draconian actions.  And we know that poorer folks had less computer and internet access, and less opportunity for childcare.  So now “enterprising reporters” discovered the “great revelation” that education was impacted more in urban than suburban schools (some that completely ignored Covid protocols):  the “Covid Gap”.

It Just Doesn’t Matter

We can go back and argue again whether Covid protocols were necessary.  “Monday morning Quarterbacking” is an American tradition.   The best science of the time became the political issue of the day.  We really don’t know the cost that states like the “Free Republic of Florida” or Texas paid for pretending Covid wasn’t serious.  How many thousands died that didn’t have to die?  But that question; who was right, who was wrong, who should have been sacrificed, doesn’t really matter anymore.  Either way, we are left with the “Covid Gap” in education.

Look, I bet Ukrainian test scores are down too.  In fact, I bet test scores are down worldwide.  Whenever there’s societal disruption, schools become the “frontline”, and education gets left behind.  So whether Dr. Fauci was right or wrong isn’t the issue anymore.  The best intended or necessary choices of that time all have a current outcome.  Kids aren’t “up to snuff” on their scores.

Now what?

Power of Money

During the Covid pandemic, we saved the American economy with a dramatic expansion in government spending.  Even as the unemployment rate approached 15%, the government was plowing trillions of dollars into businesses through the PPP “loans”.  And we were individually getting money as well, thousands of dollars, checks with the a “thank you note” from the President so we knew who sent it.  And there was money pushed into schools systems.  Covid protections, improved ventilation systems, better online accessibility were included.  But, Covid relief money or not, the online education era was, for the vast majority of students, nowhere near as effective as going to school, being in class, and having a teacher in the room.

What Works

We know what works in education:  smaller student to teacher ratios and more time on task.  We also know what the most expensive factor in education is:  the salaries of the teachers (80% of most school districts’ budgets).  If you want to fix the “Covid Gap”, it’s going to cost you.  Want longer school days, or all-year schooling,  or more teachers in class, all important possible solutions? Don’t expect teachers to do that for free.   

More teachers: today, fewer students are even going into the profession. More time: today, schools are attacked for everything from books on the shelves to the courses in the curriculum. A portion of the public doesn’t even trust the time their kids spend in school now.

Both of those solutions require more money.  It’s fine for the news media to “discover” that students are falling behind, especially after Covid.  But unless Americans are willing to put the same kind of investment into education that we put into the economy to avoid a “Covid Depression”, it’s all just talk.  There is a literal price to pay to fill in the “Covid Gap”.

Summer Vacation

Just an aside about “summer vacation”.  Teachers are expected to put 2000 hours into their jobs over the roughly 180 days that public schools are open.  That’s around 11 hours per day, or 55 hours per week.  The average American working the “average” workday is 8 hours or 40 hours a week, that’s 2000 hours for a whole year.  So when you hear, “Teachers get paid all year for working nine months,” remember that they put a whole year’s worth of work into those nine months.  One solution to the “Covid Gap”, all year schooling, would be to keep schools open for 220 days; that’s 2420 hours. That’s fine, but plan on raising teacher salaries by 22%, plus overtime.

It’s an American phrase, “Put your money where your mouth is”.  Want to fix the “Covid Gap”, America?   Ante up.

Alea Ecta Est

When I was a college freshman, one of my classmates Tony and I would study for exams together. Denison University left the classroom buildings open all night; they were quiet and air conditioned.  It was better than our residence, Crawford Hall. It was constantly vibrating with music, the sheer volume fueled by cheap beer and “Ohio Green” marijuana . And, no air conditioning back then.

So we could go to a classroom, smoke cigars, and focus on the political science or history exam coming up.  The cigar smoke guaranteed we’d have the room to ourselves as we focused on nuclear deterrent theory or Revolution in the 20th century. (Smoking in the building was ‘OK’ back in 1975).   About three in the morning, our brains were packed: ready to spew out volumes of knowledge in the thin blue books for our written exams.  When we were done, we walked home through the darkness to Crawford. 

No more cramming needed.   And as we passed the Chapel, we “performed” our exam ritual. We balanced on the sundial just below the Chapel, overlooking a blacked out Granville, and chanted Caesar’s words as he crossed the Rubicon and invaded Rome itself:  “Alea ecta est – the die is cast”. There was no turning back, no early morning cramming. We were ready, committed, prepared. Then we threw coins into the darkness above Granville, our commitment and our “sacrifice” to the exam “Gods”.   

It worked – we both had excellent grades. And when we our paths diverged, I continued the tradition, at least the “Alea ecta est” part, into graduate school and life.  It marked the time when there was no “turning back”, just a decision made moving on into the future.  I crossed a lot of personal Rubicon’s.

No Response

The “Wagner Group” is an ugly part of Russian foreign policy.  I first heard of them in 2018, when a “Russian” force of thousands of soldiers attacked a small group of American Special Forces protecting a gas plant in Eastern Syria.  There was a four-hour pitched battle. US Air power turned the tide in favor of the Special Forces.  The outcome: hundreds of Russian forces killed and zero American casualties (NYT).   Afterwards, I kept waiting for a Russian response.  After all, with hundreds of Russians killed by force of US arms,  there had to be a reaction, a response, to that loss.

Wagner Group

But there really wasn’t.  It turned out that the Russians were “mercenaries”, part of a private “army” hired and commanded by one of Vladimir Putin’s allies in the Russian oligarchy, Yevgeny Prigozhin.  He was a part of the St. Petersburg “cabal” that brought Putin to power in the first place, and gained billions of rubles through his Kremlin connections.  In return, he built a private army, the Wagner Group, to do the international “dirty work” Putin needed to further his foreign policy.  

They were “mercs” in a “private army”.  But more importantly they could be sacrificed on far away battlefields and few in the motherland would miss them: ex-soldiers and convicts.  It was kind of like the French Foreign Legion, without their training or the control of the French Government.  Prigozhin’s Wagner Group was his own.  And if hundreds died in the Syrian desert, no one cared.

The Wagner Group relies on utter brutality.  Video evidence exists of their disgusting tortures throughout the world.  They show bound men with their hands and feet smashed with sledge hammers, or their genitals cut off with box cutters.  And that’s exactly the reputation Prigozhin wanted for his “army”.  The Wagner Group gives no mercy; they simply charge ahead, die, or kill.  

Ukraine

A year and a half ago, Putin’s ill-fated invasion of Ukraine fell apart quickly. The “first strike”; a seventeen mile column of tanks, was left stalled and vulnerable on the road to Kyiv.   The Russian Army was unprepared for the powerful Ukrainian response.  And as the regular army casualties mounted and the momentum stalled, Putin called on his friend to send in the Wagner Group.  A commitment of that size required Wagner to “scale-up”.  Prigozhin sent recruiters to the Russian prisons with an offer:  if you can survive six months of battle, you can have your  freedom.  What the prisoners probably didn’t know is that survival was a fifty-fifty proposition, at best. 

Most of the recent battles in Ukraine, particularly the months long struggle around the city of Bahkmut, were fought by the Wagner Group.  Prigozhin seemed to struggle with the regular Russian Army, demanding supply and support that wasn’t coming.  He became more and more public in his dissent, surprising in the usually iron-gripped Putin world.  Prigozhin literally called out by name the Russian Commanding General, Gerasimov, and the Defense Minister, General Shoigu.

Die is Cast

According to Prigozhin, Gerasimov and Shoigu launched an air strike in Ukraine, aimed at his own Wagner Group troops.  So, he turned his troops around, leaving Ukraine and marching to the Southern Headquarters of the Russian army in the city of Rostov on the Don River.  Once he “crossed the Don”, he literally “crossed the Rubicon” of old:  he was in open rebellion to the Russian government, and to his “friend”, Vladimir Putin.  And then he headed north, sending troops to threaten Moscow.

“The die is cast”.  Putin called Prigozhin out as a traitor.  But the real surprise was that there was no resistance to the Wagner forces as they roared up the M-4 highway towards the capital.  To all the world, it looked as if the Wagner Group would drive straight into Moscow, and Prigozhin would stride into the Kremlin to demand his former friend act.  Finally, Russian forces were concentrated in Moscow, and a pitched battle seemed only hours away.  But then, surprisingly, the Wagner convoy stopped, within 120 miles of Moscow.  

“A deal” was cut, negotiated by Belarus President Lukashenko.  The Wagner Group forces would return to their bases in Ukraine.  Prigozhin would go into “exile” in Belarus.  Wagner troops were “pardoned” and put under the control of the Russian army.  Perhaps, though we’re not sure, Gerasimov and/or Sochi may be “out”.  

Deal with the Devil

It’s hard to imagine how such a deal will hold.  Putin is a dictator, holding onto power through military strength. Prigozhin demonstrated Putin’s actual weakness, especially with the failure of Russian forces in Ukraine.  Putin’s natural response would be revenge.  How many “enemies” of Russia fall out of windows, or mysteriously die of nuclear poison, or are shot from cars in a “random attack”?  How can Putin allow this most overt rebellion to go without response?

Prigozhin crossed his “Rubicon”. There is no turning back.  He has signed his own death warrant with Putin.  Is it possible that this rebellion was a spur-of-the-moment reaction?  Or did the Wagner Forces expect other regular Army groups to join in the rebellion?  We don’t know the answer to those questions.  What we do know is that Prigozhin demonstrated the weakness of Vladimir Putin to the world, something that Putin cannot tolerate.  And we also know that these actions will make the Russian forces standing against Ukraine even weaker.  

“The die is cast”.  We just don’t know what they say – yet.

This is a Sunday Story – no politics here.  Just a story of Mom and growing up half-English.

War Bride

My mother was born on June 25^th, 1918 in London, England.  Today would be her 105^th birthday, and while she passed away in 2011 at ninety-three years, little things still remind me of her all the time.

Mom came to the United States after World War II.  She and Dad got married in England in the middle of the war, both serving their nations (Dad in the US Army, Mom in the British Special Operations Executive).  They were lucky.  They survived to celebrate victory, and faced a whole new future in Dad’s hometown; Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mom was a “war bride”. She even made the local newspaper (probably helped that my Grandfather was the Sports Editor).  There was a picture of her eating ice cream, something still unavailable in war-rationed England. But, Mom wasn’t the “typical” English bride.  She really didn’t know much about cooking, or setting up a home (but she could deliver secret messages, and probably kill someone in multiple silent ways).  She learned though.  People expected that Mom would make “English” dishes, so she got the recipes and taught herself how to do them, here in the US, in Cincinnati.  Her cooking “Bible” was the Settlement Cookbook (first published in 1905, my edition is 1976). It had the basics on cooking everything from soup to nuts.

Growing Up English

So my sisters and I grew up in Cincinnati, but we grew up in a kind-of English home.  We all failed spelling tests, over and over again.  Theater wasn’t theatre, color wasn’t colour, airplane wasn’t aeroplane, and I can’t even remember what aluminum foil was (I looked – aluminium, ‘Al-You-Min-E-um’  – foil).  

And we had certain English traditions.  While other kids came home to afternoon snacks of milk and cookies, we absolutely had “tea and biscuits”.  Our tea was tea, milk, and sugar (lots of sugar for me) and our “biscuits” were cookies. The tea was in a pot (no bags in a cup), and while Mom eventually used tea bags, they were always (always) Lipton’s Tea.   And on Sunday, our big meal was a brunch, breakfast at lunchtime really; with eggs and bacon and sausage and toast and coffee cakes; and well, you get the idea. 

Mom learned how to make traditional British dishes.  Roast beef was big in our house, as was lamb.  We had lamb chops and lamb shoulders and lamb roasts.  And lamb was served with mint sauce (not mint jelly).  In fact, it wasn’t just Mint Sauce, it was Crosse and Blackwell’s Egyptian Mint Sauce, a vinegary mix of mint leaves and “sauce”.  It was a “thing”, like strawberry preserves rather than jelly, or Shepard’s Pie (more lamb).

The Queen

Mom lived in the United States from 1945 until her death in 2011.  That’s sixty-six years.  But she never lost her English accent.  I always thought that was one of the reasons Mom went “home” every few years was to “renew the lease” on her distinctive speech.  Mom’s accent was, well, like the Queen’s.  I suspect that was developed in the private boarding schools she went to as a child.  I didn’t know my Mom’s parents much, but looking back, I know they weren’t wealthy.  They must have sacrificed a lot to put Mom and her brothers and sisters (two of each) into private schooling.  But in the early 20^th Century, that was the path to success in England, and Mom was in boarding schools from a relatively young age.  

So especially when we were young, we had a slight English accent as well.  And we all were expert mimics of Mom’s accent (at the risk of a bop on the head).  And when my nephew spent a lot time in his first few years with us in Cincinnati, he got the accent too.  I remember well two year-old Chris whining, “I don’t want to take a ‘ba-aa-th’!” in perfect British diction.

The End

I’ve been “bach-ing” it this week, as Jenn and our son head to California. It’s just me and the dogs.  And while Jenn’s away, I decided to have lamb for dinner (not her “cup of tea’).  While lamb chops are crazy expensive these days, lamb shoulder is still relatively cheap. Our local Kroger’s carries small amounts of lamb, even when it’s not Easter. 

So I dropped by to pick up lamb for dinner.  And while I could find the lamb, I couldn’t find Crosse and Blackwell’s Egyptian Mint Sauce.  I couldn’t even find a “fall back” mint jelly.  In fact, I searched the local Kroger’s for half an hour, and there was nothing that I could even consider serving lamb with.  And then, wonder of modern technology, I pulled up a recipe for mint sauce on my phone.  I bought mint leaves, finely diced them, boiled water, added sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.  I grilled the lamb, boiled red potatoes and opened a can of peas.  

It was a typical English dinner.  My concoction was “good enough” to get my through, though not anywhere near as good as Crosse and Blackwell’s. I woke up early this morning, and searched the internet.  My thought was to lay in a supply for the next time.  And then I discovered:  Crosse and Blackwell’s stopped making Egyptian Mint Sauce.

It’s probably been more than a century since they started making “my” sauce.  I’m sure tastes have changed, both here and in the United Kingdom.  But my taste hasn’t changed; and Mom would be dismayed.  I ordered a substitute (from Amazon), another “English Mint Sauce”, but I’m not getting my hopes up.  If it’s not good enough, I’ll go back to my recipe and try to tweak it to my memories. 

Happy Birthday Mom.  You’re never far away. 

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 of 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
• The End of an Era – 6/25/23

Lying Eyes

I remember watching the NBC Sunday News Show, Meet the Press, the week after the Inauguration in January of 2017.  It was right after the Trump Administration took office, and one of their first “little lies” was from Press Secretary Sean Spicer (later of Dancing with the Stars fame).   The day after the inauguration,  Spicer stood in front of the press and the Nation and said that Trump’s Inaugural crowd was the biggest in American history.  It wasn’t; we saw that with our own eyes.  

We knew what the largest inauguration looked like.  It was only eight years before, the swearing in of the first Black man as President of the United States, Barack Obama.  The Mall, two miles of green space from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial, was completely filled.  Trump’s crowd hardly made it to the Washington Monument, about halfway.  But Spicer stuck by his lie regardless of the facts.  

Kelly Ann

Trump’s Campaign Manager and Senior Advisor Kelly Ann Conway was the “Queen of Spin”, able to counter any criticism with a “what-about” (we would hear a lot more of that as Trump went on).  Chuck Todd, the moderator of the show, asked why Spicer came out and lied.  Conway did her best to change the topic, to “what-about” other issues, and to attack the press.  But Todd stuck to his question, and in the end, she simply said that Spicer had “alternate facts”.

At the time it was laughable.  What we didn’t know then, was that much of the Trump Administration, and his movement, MAGAism, would accept lies, intentional falsehoods, as facts.  There were so many lies that the news media, notably the New York Times, stopped calling them “lies” because they said the word lost its impact.  And they were lies much more significant than the size of crowds.  The biggest lie of all; that the election of 2020 was corrupt, and that Trump should have won the Presidency.  That lie created the Insurrection of 2021.

Revising History

Actually, Kelly Ann Conway was prescient.  “Alternate Facts”, lies, became common for much of the Republican Party.  It is “standard” Republican rhetoric that Americans shouldn’t be taught “real” American history; just a version “cleansed” of all controversy.  And elections are corrupt.  And that the Covid pandemic precautions were unnecessary.  All are “alternate facts”.  

MAGAism now sees the Insurrectionists as martyrs to the cause. And they are still going back to erase “real history”. That was the goal of the Durham Report, to “erase” the findings of the Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign.  Yesterday demonstrated how far they would go to get that erasure done. 

It began with Durham himself, testifying in front of a “friendly” Congressional Committee chaired by one of the leaders of “revisionism”, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan from Ohio.  (Jordan his personally “revised” his own history, “forgetting” the sexual abuse the wrestlers under his care received from a team doctor). Democrats on the Committee asked Durham basic questions about the Trump Campaign’s interactions with Russia during 2016.  Durham dodged the questions, appearing not to know well accepted facts (real facts, not alternate ones). 

 The lead questioner was Adam Schiff, Congressman from California, and the former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.  Schiff led the Congressional investigation of Trump and the Mueller Report.  He led the first impeachment of Donald Trump for blackmailing Ukraine.  Adam Schiff was the face of Democrats trying to hold the former President accountable for his actions and his lies.

Censure

There are three levels of Congressional punishment.  The first is a “reprimand”, a basic scolding.  The second, a Congressional “censure”, is a scolding that requires the Congressman to stand in front of the entire House while the censure motion is read.  Neither reprimand nor sanction restrict  a Congressman’s authority or impact, but they still are a big deal. The final level of punishment is expulsion, requiring a two-thirds vote of the Congress.

Historically, twelve Congressmen have been reprimanded by the House.  Only twenty-five Congressmen have been censured in the 235 year history of American Government.   Five were expelled.

Yesterday, after Durham was done, the Congressional Republicans got their revenge on Adam Schiff.  It was personal:  they publicly “censured” Schiff for “lying to Congress and the American people about the Trump Campaign”.   But Mr. Schiff’s “lies”, really weren’t lies.  They simply weren’t the “alternate facts” that the Republicans want Americans to believe.  MAGA had to “erase” Schiff, or at least discredit him, so that there “alternate facts” would become “truth”.

Just like the pictures of the 2017 inauguration, Republicans don’t want us to believe our “lying eyes”.  We lived through the election of 2016.  And we read the Mueller Report, and sat through the long hearings in both the House and the Senate about Russian involvement in the 2016 election.  We know what we saw.  No amount of “revisionism” by Durham, or erasure, or censure, will change that.   Facts remain facts, regardless of the “spin”, or the “what-about” or the alternates.  What’s happening in our politics isn’t just about ideology or power.  

It’s about truth. 

Getting Old

Our son celebrated his 32^nd birthday last week.  He’s moving – “gone to California” – and stayed with us for a few days along the way.  We sat down to watch TV for a bit, and I asked him what he’d like to see.  He said that he really doesn’t watch TV.  Sure he catches sports, but he’s selective about his other viewing.  It’s all about streaming (I guess that’s why “we” have Netflix and HBO).  He targets his entertainment, “I’m streaming this show”, and binges for hours.  Jenn and I are more “old fashioned” television viewers.  We have a streaming service, Hulu, that provides us with the local channels and “traditional” networks.  So we often watch just whatever is on at that time.  Our son goes to a show, we go to the “old fashioned” television guide to select one.

Of course, we watch a lot of “cable news” (if you’ve read many of these essays on “Our America”, it shouldn’t surprise you that MSNBC is at the top of that list).  Jenn also sources a lot of information from Twitter.  Our son gets his news from “podcasts” and, as he puts it, research on the internet.  We don’t agree on a lot of issues, but we do try to have careful discussions.  There are things that transcend the day-to-day politics, and we all work at keeping our political conversations “civil”. 

Faux News

Jenn is travelling with him to California, and I’m staying with the dogs.  Last night, I sat down with an eighty pound dog asleep in my lap to watch TV.  All of  “our regular” Tuesday shows (FBI-FBI-FBI) were re-runs, and I can only stand “America’s Got Talent” for spurts.  So I switched over to watch what Sean Hannity at Fox “News” was doing.  

He was in South Carolina, and the highlight of his show was Republican Senator Tim Scott, running for President.  This was my first look at Scott “unplugged”.  He was a dynamic speaker, ignored Hannity and interacted with the audience, almost like a TV evangelical preacher.  But the first fifteen minutes of the show was all-Hannity, and “all about” Hunter Biden. 

Hunter

Hannity went through the litany of “evidence” against the President’s son; from the infamous laptop (remember the almost blind computer repair man with the Tam-O-Shanter?) to crack addiction and tax evasion.  By the time he was done he “proved”:  Vice President Biden threatened to withhold billions of dollars from Ukraine to protect his son (not true), and got millions more as part of the “Biden Crime Family” (also not true).  And all of those so-called crimes were “protected” by the Merrick Garland Justice Department (really not true).

And Hunter himself got a “sweetheart” deal from Justice, probably avoiding jail time while pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax and gun possession offences.  Hannity compared the younger Biden to a “hit list” of Trump men:  Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Allan Weiselberg; all sentenced to jail.  Hannity’s point is that Republicans are victims; of a politicized FBI, a vengeful “Democrat” Justice Department, and of injustice from the very institutions that are supposed to guarantee American justice.

That might make some sense, except for one little issue. 

Republicans 

Let’s start with the Vice President Biden and his Ukraine connections. Sure, Biden talked about withholding money from Ukraine, insisting that they fire a prosecutor who refused to investigate corruption.  A lot of the “evidence” about Biden’s  own “corruption” came from a shaky source, connected to Russian intelligence, and delivered to the US by Rudy Giuliani.  It was all turned over to the Republican US Attorney for Western Pennsylvania at the direction of Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr.  After looking at it, Scott Brady determined that there wasn’t any actionable information.  Republican Attorney General – Republican US Attorney:  no charges filed.

And as far as Hunter is concerned, all of the evidence was turned over to another Trump appointed Republican US Attorney, this one for Delaware, David Weiss.  In fact, Democrats Biden and Garland left Republican Weiss in place so that he could continue the Hunter Biden investigation.  Garland treated Weiss like a Special Prosecutor, (like Jack Smith), allowing him the freedom to make his own decision on whether and what to prosecute.  So the “sweetheart” deal for Hunter Biden is a product of an investigation and indictment by a Trump and Barr appointed US Attorney, left in office by the “evil” Democrats.

Tormentors

By the way, two of the original Hannity list, Manafort and Stone; were investigated by an FBI with a Trump appointed Director (Chris Wray, still there), and all put away under a Republican Justice Department, appointed by the Trump Administration.  

So if all of these “victims” were “victimized” by the Justice Department, there’s really only one “common denominator”:  Republican appointees.  That makes it hard to blame Biden (the President) or Garland.  But those “little details” don’t matter to Hannity or Tim Scott, or Jim Jordan and his “weaponization committee”.  They need a “tormentor” to match Republican victimhood. Democrats fit the bill.

It’s too bad that doesn’t fit the facts. 

Kirkersville Bypass

Here in Pataskala, Ohio, we live in what used to be “out in the country”.  Even when I arrived in 1978 though, the country-side was “receding”.  There were already suburban-type developments, and while the school still had a chapter of the “FFA” (Future Farmers of America) it would only last a few more years.  Today, what used to be thousands of acres of farmland are “distribution centers”, Amazon “fulfillment centers”, and other industrial complexes.  In fact, when a combine harvester goes down Broad Street, folks now stop and try to figure out what it is.

One left over of this era of expansion is what our community jokingly calls “the Kirkersville bypass”. Kirkersville is a village on the eastern edge of the local school district, one of hundreds perched on the sides of the National Road – US 40.  The hotels and restaurants in Kirkersville were left high and dry when traffic moved from US 40 about two miles south to Interstate 70.  Even the Kirkersville Ice Cream shop, Kirk Cone, finally closed, though the Post Office still survives.

But, once upon a time in the early sixties, Kirkersville was an “end” of I-70.  It was easy to build interstate highways through the farm fields, but as construction approached urban areas it took a lot more effort, time, and dislocation.  So Kirkersville was the “spot” where I-70 was merged over to the older National Road.  From there it was a “local” highway:  Kirkersville, Etna, Reynoldsburg, Whitehall, Bexley, and finally the City of Columbus.  When I-70 eventually “went through” Columbus, the merge was left high and dry, a four-lane bypass connecting US 40 to little State Route 158, avoiding “downtown Kirkersville”.   Two of the lanes were closed, the rest remains the “Kirkersville Bypass”.  

Urban Renewal

It was in the late sixties and early seventies.  The programs were called “urban renewal” and “improved city access”, and they were implemented in many (mostly) urban areas in the United States.  Here in Columbus, Ohio; they built I-70 right through the southside of downtown, splitting neighborhoods with ten lanes of interstate highway (Hanford Village).  Not surprising, the neighborhoods that were paved over were poor, and mostly minority.  The beautiful “ribbons of concrete” replaced old houses, businesses, churches and schools. They destroyed communities.

It’s wasn’t just in the sixties and seventies.  Whole neighborhoods are still vanishing:  what two decades ago was Mohawk Middle School and Africentric High School is now part of the ever-expanding “Nationwide” Children’s Hospital complex here in Columbus, covering more than a mile on the south wall of downtown I-70.   

To the city leaders it was a “no-brainer”, especially after the urban unrest of the 1960’s.  Tear down the old, build the new.  Move the poorer neighborhoods farther from the city-center, and make downtown “safer”.  And even when the neighborhoods remained, many were “gentrified”.  The old homes were re-built, old warehouses made into “loft” apartments, and the cost of housing went up so much that the original occupants couldn’t afford to stay.  In Columbus it’s now the areas surrounding downtown:  German Village, Italian Village, “Old Town East” and the Children’s Hospital complex.  The city’s near west side is now under “development” as well.

A New Holiday

It all “looks” great.  We can drive on Broad Steet in Old Town and marvel at the turn of the century homes.  There are expensive new apartment complexes in Italian Village, within walking distance of downtown.  Downtown Columbus is “revitalized”, a place where people can live as well as work.  But at what cost?  Where did the folks who lived there “before” go?

Yesterday was Juneteenth, the new national holiday celebrating the end of slavery as an institution in the United States.  But we should remember that Juneteenth itself is a holiday based in deception.  While the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect January of 1863, and the Civil War ended in April of 1865, it wasn’t until June that the Black communities around Galveston, Texas find out that they were now emancipated.  It wasn’t that the governing white folks didn’t know, they just refused to acknowledge or tell their enslaved people.

A Long Way To Go

Juneteenth didn’t end discrimination.  Neither did the Thirteenth, Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, or even the 1964 Civil Rights Act almost one hundred years later.  Today we have many who say that “it’s all even now”, and that America shouldn’t worry about discrimination.  Here’s some statistics to think about.  70 out of 100,000 Black mothers die in childbirth today, compared to 27 White mothers.   Black people make up 35% of imprisoned Americans, though they are only 13% of the population.  Black household income average is $45,300; White households average $68,785.  

And when it comes to building new highways, factories, hospitals; it’s still easier to pave over a poor community than a wealthy one.   America calls that progress, but it’s also the destruction of someone’s home, community, and livelihood.  We’re still doing that today, in the 21^st Century.  There’s no such thing as “all even” now.  We have a long way to go for that.

QAnon

I heard a new phrase last night:  “Kennedy-Republican”.  At first, I thought this was some QAnon inspired reference.  The QAnon theory, that John Kennedy Junior didn’t die in a plane crash off of Long Island, and is coming back to lead (along with Donald Trump) an American Revolution, has been around for a while.  And while we don’t hear much about QAnon anymore, some of its “mythology” still permeates the far right.  So a “Kennedy-Republican”; is that John Junior returning from the grave?

But then I caught on.  There is another Kennedy, the same generation as John Jr., who is actually alive and running for President.  And he’s running for the Democratic nomination, (as any good Kennedy heir should).  Robert Kennedy Jr, Bobby Jr,  the sixty-eight year old third child of Senator Robert Kennedy (brother of the President) filed to run in the Democratic Primaries against Joe Biden for the 2024 nomination.

Bobby Jr

Robert Kennedy Jr is a long-time environmentalist.  He made a career out of environmental law, and was in the fore-front of New York State controls on pollution.  He’s against fossil fuels and nuclear energy,  pushing for use of renewable energy sources.  He believes that the fossil-fuel industry controls the Environmental Protection Agency.  He endorsed Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 run for the Presidency and John Kerry’s 2004 campaign based on their environmental views, and is an advocate of the Green New Deal plan.

But, while Joe Biden hasn’t gone as far as the Green New Deal, he is seen by many environmentalists as progressive on environmental policy.  So why would Kennedy take on an incumbent Democratic President of the United States?

Kennedy Tradition

First, there is a Kennedy tradition, established by Robert’s uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.  Ted took on Jimmy Carter in 1980, despite Carter being the incumbent President. That divisive Democratic fight was the first step leading to Carter’s defeat by Reagan in the 1980 general election, as the “liberal” wing of the Party felt abandoned by the more moderate Carter/Mondale ticket.  (The inevitable “victory” of Ronald Reagan wasn’t at all pre-ordained going into the 1980 campaign.  A fractured Democratic Party and the Iranian hostages both led to the resounding Carter defeat). 

So Robert Jr. can look to family tradition:  a Kennedy running on “principle” against the incumbent.

And he, like his father, is an anti-war Democrat.  That includes the current war in Ukraine, which Kennedy characterizes as a US war of aggression using Ukrainian bodies to fulfill American foreign policy goals.  He believes Ukraine is just a continuation of the “Neo-Con” wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan;  all started, according to him, by Americans for financial gain.

Anti-Vaxxer

But Kennedy’s real strength isn’t in the Democratic Party, it’s in the far-right of the Republican base.  Because for the past decade Kennedy made anti-vaccination and anti-big pharma his main banner headline.  Kennedy believes that big-pharma and the American wealthy used Covid-19 to their advantage, creating billions of dollars of wealth with what he termed dangerous and useless treatments.  Kennedy was against Covid restrictions and firmly against the Covid vaccine.

He wrote a book accusing Anthony Fauci as being a “technocrat” who used both the AIDS epidemic and Covid to make money for the Pharmaceutical industry.  Kennedy believes the modern vaccinations cause many of the childhood issues of today, including autism and violent allergies.    He is anti-vaxx, anti-mask, and a conspiracy theorist.   

In our modern world of disinformation, the “post-fact era” of social media, Robert Kennedy Jr fits right in.  He has great appeal in the generation that believes that the “mainstream” media is all “fake-news” and propaganda. The more the mainstream tries to fact-check Kennedy, the more popular has views become.  And, of course, despite being denied by the most of his famous family,  Robert Kennedy Jr still has the name, the smile, and the legacy to reach a great many people.

Different Myth

Maybe he isn’t really so far from the QAnon myth.  Kennedy personifies all of the mystery;  he is the “heir”, striking out against  the “hidden movers”, that social media thrives on today.  He is really just saying aloud what’s already whispered in the darker recesses of our phones and computers:  that there is some “dark conspiratorial force” changing the world to their benefit. 

Is it QAnon, or Star Wars?  Bobby Kennedy Jr might fit the role of the older Luke Skywalker, called back from exile to save the Republic.  Like Skywalker, he is scarred by time, his voice damaged by spasmodic dystonia.  But he still has the “magic” of his father, the smile, the grace, and those vague memories of another time, when Bobby Kennedy called us to greatness.

Kennedy won’t attract many Democratic votes in the primary.  But don’t be surprised if he carries his campaign on into the general election as a third party.  After all, if the Democrats strike him down, won’t he come back, “…more powerful than we can possibly imagine?”  It’s all about myths and conspiracies, podcasts and old movies.  

And Bobby Junior fits right in.

The Flag Law

While the twice impeached and indicted former President awaits trial, my Congressman here in Ohio is up to something much, much, more important.  He’s out there, backing a law to require American flags used by the Federal government to be – wait for it – MADE IN AMERICA.   And even though Troy Balderson is a right-wing Republican, on the face of it this seems like a remarkably sound idea.  Of course, it’s the symbol of our country. When the US Government  buys and flies it; the flag should be made in the USA.

So that got me to thinking:  why wouldn’t the government buy “made in USA” American flags? That means the United States; not Usa, Japan; or the thirty-seven places in the world called “America”, and not in America.   Maybe, like shoes and computer chips, flags just aren’t made in the US today.  Ask the folks who used to work for US Shoe down in Cincinnati.   Or maybe the cost is prohibitively expensive, so much so that the national debt would balloon from All-American flags.  Or…maybe there’s some nefarious “woke” plot to buy Chinese or Russian or Burundian made American flags!!!!

Strange Bedfellows

 My personal rule is this: when I find myself in agreement with Balderson, and Elise Stefanik, and worst of all, Ted Cruz; I better start questioning what’s going on.  So, I looked into the “flag” situation.  Here’s what I learned.

According to the Flag Manufacturers of America Association (FMofAA), 94% of American flags sold are MADE IN AMERICA (ours).  Moreover, the FMofAA notes that the Department of Defense buy 100% made in America flags.  The rest of the government buy flags that are at least one-half made in America. (Yeah, I don’t quite know how that works, stars from Korea, stripes from Decatur).  But, since 94% of the US flags sold in the US are made in the US, then I figure that while the government could find 50-50 flags; there more likely to buy good, old, Made in America flags, statistically speaking.

In fact, it seems that my good Congressman from Zanesville (he was a car dealer there) is pulling a fast one here. Like the time I had to pay extra for a rearview mirror on my first Jeep (it wasn’t standard equipment, neither was the back seat, and I never did get a radio).  You see, they are implying a problem: “Woke Democrat (sic) Government buys foreign American flags”.  It’s like we need a LAW, on the books, part of the United States Code, to make sure some “Democrat” Postmaster or ATF agent or GSA bureaucrat (Government Services Administration, they have 8,600 buildings, all with flags) isn’t out buying cheap, knock-off, foreign made flags.  But if they were, then the FMofAA would be raising (flag-pole joke) Hell about it, wouldn’t they?

Ain’t Broke

When you get right down to it, the USA FLAG LAW is doing what Republican politicians seem to do best:  fixing a problem that ain’t a problem. It’s like a law proposed here in Ohio to ban trans-gendered girls athletes in high school. There are only six, a whole hand and a finger, playing in Ohio high school sports anyway.  So we need to write a law banning those six?

So why is Cruz and Stefanik and Balderson all “up” about this “horrific problem”, even though the FMofAA statistics come from their own Congressional newsletter?  Because it’s easy.

They can say they support their “Law”, without ever having to explain that it fixes a problem that ain’t broke.  Just like it’s easy for Republican state legislators to “save” high school girls’ sports by telling six kids (out of 400,000 playing in Ohio) that they can’t play.   Those Republican legislators, and the Congressmen and Senators on the “USA Flag Bill” are “playing” the voters.  They’re “standing up” for America, American jobs, and American pride.  And there doing so without paying a price. 

Easy Way Out

Flags are easy.  Computer chips, almost all made in Taiwan, are harder.  President Biden got the Chips Act passed, and in this next decade computer chip plants will open all over the United States.  That will create jobs, and ensure that we control a supply of this foundation product for America’s economy.  Now that’s a real problem, with a real fix, that required a real political price.  And while Joe Biden will remind us in the next election that he got this done, it’s so much more than just a checkmark in the culture wars.  And it doesn’t hurt anyone.

Chips were hard.  Flags are easy.   But what they’re doing to those six girls should be a crime. 

Indictment

What did we expect?  Tuesday, for the first time in the history of the United States, a former President was indicted on Federal criminal charges.  While that was no moment of celebration, it should be one of some satisfaction.  Regardless of the “talking points” of Trump supporters (see Monday’s essay – The Difference), Tuesday’s actions demonstrated that for a least a brief moment, no American is above the law.  

So when I woke up this morning, I guess I thought that somehow the world would be different.  Somehow there would be a “sea change” in American attitudes.  Somehow, we took a step towards a future of less partisanship, and less divide. But I was wrong.  Nothing was different.

Old Friends

I sat with two old friends a couple nights ago, talking about track and field (I was at a track and field camp), the Cincinnati Reds, and life.  But even after the momentous legal events of that day (which we avoided) there was little change in the “crisis” of politics.  We spent a lot of time on the “woke culture wars”, coming from opposite sides, looking for some “middle ground”.  But we found little.  Our conversation was amicable, and both sides reached out to each other.  In the end, we drank our beer (Coors Light not Bud Light) and called it a night.   Safer to talk about the intricacies of track technique.

And I received a message from another old friend, reacting to the events of that day.  His thoughts seemed to have little hope, seeing the indictments as cementing the divide.  I am reminded of Patrick Henry’s speech to the House of Burgesses at the beginning of the American Revolution.  “Gentlemen cry peace, peace, but there is no peace.  The War is actually begun.  The next gale that sweeps from the North shall bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms.”  

Henry knew, as Caesar did crossing the Rubicon in open rebellion to Rome:  “Alea lecta est, The die is cast”.  History has passed a point of no return, there is no going back to other days.  My old friend was sad, with little hope for an American future without divisiveness.  There is no way back, and seemingly no way forward which avoids the hate, polarization, and rhetoric.  For him, the indictments signal a new era of hate.  He may well be right.

Whose History?

The rest of Patrick Henry’s speech charts his path forward into Revolution:

“Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

The only way forward is through it, through the future.  Like our “old coaches” conversation, there is really no middle ground.  As President Biden is fond of saying, there is simply a “binary choice”:  Trump, MAGA, culture war; or Biden, “woke” (whatever that means) and inclusion.  

It’s kind of funny.  Biden was the definition of a man of the middle, a Senator known for reaching out to the other party, a man who would eschew partisanship to get an idea into law.  And yet he becomes the leader of what really is a culture war, a war in our society (so far) without guns, but a war nonetheless.   

And it’s also funny that the language of our history, from Patrick Henry to Abraham Lincoln will be used by both sides to defend their position.  I guess the rebellious Confederates saw themselves walking in the father’s footsteps, fighting a revolution against tyranny in Jeffersonian terms (even as they protected the most tyrannical institution of all, slavery).  Washington, Jefferson, and Lee were literally their “kin”.  And so “… liberty or death” could be the “battle cry” of both sides of our looming “war”, both sides of the “binary choice”.

The Flag

There is nothing more American than both sides of a struggle trying to wrap themselves in the “flag”.  And while the Star Spangled Banner has become symbolic of Trumpism, the history of our Nation is also one of increasing rights and struggles for freedom.  Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ rights movement, the children marching against guns all are just as big a part of the American tradition as those that want to turn the clock (and calendar) back to the oppression of the 1950’s.  

There were indictments on Tuesday.  More will come, in Georgia, in Washington, DC, and now rumored in New Jersey (I guess everything isn’t really legal in ‘Jersey’).  While I see each indictment as a step forward towards justice and against corruption, my old friend is right.  As each indictment is unsealed, it will further “seal” division in our Nation.  And no one can know what the final outcome of that schism will be.

Twenty-Five Years

For the first thirteen years of my life, I didn’t know much about my Mom.  Oh, I knew she was from England, and devoted to her family here in America,  and her family at “home”, especially her father and the Queen.  As my eldest sister Terry says, Mom made England into a “fairyland” for us.  Mom was the youngest in her family by far, “Babs” (for baby) to them and the rest of the world.  Even when some of her siblings were estranged from each other, they all welcomed Babs and her family to their homes.  To us, everyone smiled in England.

I heard some rumors from my sisters and Dad about what Mom did during World War II. But she really told me nothing about it.  That is, until I was thirteen years-old, in the back seat of a 1963 Ford station wagon with Terry driving – Mom didn’t drive.  We were in Kettering, heading south towards I-75 on the South Dixie Highway.  It was one of those events I can detail, like a car wreck (we didn’t) or a tragedy.  Mom turned to me and said, “It’s been twenty-five years since the end of the war. I’m now free to talk about ‘most’ of what I did.”

The Act

Mom was a spy for England’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the War. (There’s lots of essays about that, click here to see some.) She went into Nazi occupied territory over and over again. Mom helped organize resistance activities, delivered important messages, and sabotaged Nazi troop movements.  Dad knew about it, because he knew the Americans she worked with, and I’m sure he got a better inkling from Mom.  But generally, Mom didn’t talk about her work in World War II until 1970, twenty-five years after, when her oath of secrecy under the British Official Secrets Act finally expired.

Mom knew how to keep a secret.  And she knew what her obligations were under the law, British Law, even decades after the War was over.  She kept her secrets even from her family and friends, so much so that there was always a note of skepticism from our British cousins when we mentioned it later.  After all, they, her direct family, didn’t know. (That is, except for her oldest brother, who was engaged in similar work.  They ran into each other at a mission briefing).  My grandparents thought that Mom was going to work at the “Old-Age Pension Office” during the War, though I suppose they too had some inkling.  “Old-Age Pension” officials didn’t consistently go on weeks-long trips, completely out of contact from home.

Keep the Faith

Secrets, Government secrets, were important.  The SOE was merged into British Intelligence (MI-6) after the war.  The methods, tactics and some of the personnel that fought the War against the Nazis went onto fight the Cold War against the Soviet Union.  Things they did during the War came back to help (or haunt) in the 1950’s and 60’s.  So keeping secrets was important, not just to the past, but to the present and future operatives.  Mom understood that only too well; of the ninety-six members of her SOE unit, she was one of only five to survive the War.

So I come from a family well aware of government secrets.  And we learned the cost of those secrets, not just in terms of the government, but to individuals as well.  The SOE sometimes sent agents with mis-information into the field, set up, unknown to them, to be captured.  They would fight to retain their secrets, until the Nazi torture brutally wrung it out of them.  And those hard kept secrets, given finally to the enemy, got the Nazis to believe things that weren’t true.  It was all part of Duty to Country: sacrifice one to save hundreds.

Revelation

So when folks seem cavalier with our Government’s secrets, it makes me concerned.  I understood when Daniel Ellsberg leaked the “Pentagon Papers”, showing that our Government consistently lied in the Vietnam War.  No lives were at risk, it was “just” a history the Pentagon didn’t want Americans to know.  But when folks that I generally agree talk about Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning as “heroes”, I disagree.  How many lives were lost because of the secrets they revealed?  

And when a former President of the United States proves to be careless with our secrets while in office, and even more dismissive of them after he is out of power, I shudder.  When then-President Trump revealed shared secret Israeli information to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov about Syria, it is said that an Israeli informant died in Damascus.  How many lives are at risk with Top Secrets scattered around a dinner club in Palm Beach?

Yesterday it was revealed (by the Trump side) that a Federal Grand Jury has indicted Donald J Trump, the 45^th President of the United States, on seven criminal counts. Some are violations of the Espionage Act, America’s version of the Official Secrets Act.  As President, he accessed all of the United States’ “secrets”.  When his Presidency ended, he chose to keep some of those secrets for himself.  After years of negotiations, obfuscation, falsification and obstruction; the Justice Department was pushed to take him to Court.  

Here we are, a former President learning the “hard way” how important secrets are.  Mom would approve.