Category: Uncategorized

Winning

The United States is a nation used to “winning”.  We won the American Revolution.  You can argue about the War of 1812, but the former colonies took on the most powerful nation in the world and survived.  And the list goes on:  the Mexican American War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.  We know how to do parades down Fifth Avenue in New York, and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

What we don’t know how to do is “withdraw”.  We went into the Korean War in 1949:  we’re still there.  The Vietnam War was the “longest” in American history, but we all knew what was going to happen when American troops left after a decade of combat.  Less than two years later, we saw the disastrous final days of the collapse of Saigon.  Sure we “won” the Persian Gulf War, freeing Kuwait, but it left a segment of our leadership unsatisfied.  They wanted to “finish” the job.

Shock and Awe

So back we went in 2003, the US using the “Shock and Awe” of a massive air campaign to denigrate the remaining Iraqi defenses.  Then our tanks and troops attacked, quickly marching into the capital of Baghdad, gaining control, and tearing down the huge statue of Saddam Hussein, symbolic of the end of his reign of terror.  We later found Hussein himself, hidden in a sewer hole.  He was tried and executed.

It was easy to win, but hard to hold.  And when we tried to leave, the power vacuum created the space for ISIS to sweep over the government we helped set up.  It took our Kurdish allies, the ones we abandoned a decade later in Syria, to overcome the ISIS Caliphate.

And now there is our “new” longest war, the near two decades in Afghanistan.  We went into the nation to remove al Qaeda and punish the governing Taliban for protecting them.  We achieved both of those goals early, but like Vietnam and Iraq, there was no easy way out.  Al Qaeda was driven away, and eventually Osama bin Laden was killed.  But the Taliban, while defeated, were not vanquished.  As long as the United States remained, they were held at bay, but it was always apparent that when we left, the Taliban would rise up again.

Inshallah

President Biden knew that whenever we left Afghanistan it was going to be ugly.  But the United States wasn’t prepared for the Afghan government to collapse like a popped balloon, giving little resistance to the Taliban.  What the Biden Administration thought would be a months’ long process of withdrawal, became days.  It’s a failure of intelligence, and, of imagination.

It’s hard to blame the Afghan Army.  If you know that your defeat by the Taliban is inevitable, why resist?  Better to take care of your family and property, if you can.  The future is “written”, why risk death and destruction to delay it?  The Islamic term is “inshallah”, as Allah wills it.

So what’s happening today in Kabul is ugly, just as ugly as 1975 in Saigon. And while the President is “technically” right – no helicopters lifting Americans from the embassy roof as the Viet Cong came in the front door – the US is still being chased out of the country. And we did send helicopters to bring Americans from Kabul hotels, and 5800 US Troops hold the airport, so there’s that.

Both Sides Now

The President’s political opponents are jumping on the crisis.  From the left, while fully in favor of leaving Afghanistan, there is an outcry of “what will happen to the women and girls”?  And from the right, “what will happen to all those who helped American forces”?  And they are both correct.  

Leaving Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban means that the advances women have enjoyed in the past two decades will be lost.  The Taliban believe in Shariah Law, where women have no place outside of the home.  And those Afghans who aided the American Forces are at extreme risk, there is no doubt.

But both sides want to “have their cake and eat it too”.  Neither left nor right wants to remain in Afghanistan.  It is a war that has no “victory” for America.  What we hoped in 2001, was that we could “create” a democratic state there, one where the ideals of American government, balances of power and popular representation, could be demonstrated.  But the long tribal traditions of Afghan life are far too strong to be changed by American blood or treasure.  As the Russians, the British, and even Alexander the Great discovered:  Afghans will chart their own course.

No Solution

So when the left decries what will happen to Afghan women, they are correct.  But there is no good solution to that problem, no way to force Afghanistan into a modern mold of gender interaction.  Well, no way without remaining indefinitely in-country to hold the Shariah Law at bay.  And even the most vocal on the left aren’t calling for that.

And when the right demand that we protect those who aided US Forces, they aren’t wrong either. But they are contradictory. Protect our Afghan allies, but don’t dare bring them to the United States. They are brown, and Muslim, and all the things banned from entry into the US by their leader, the former President, in the first days of his administration. Protect those “friends”, but not in my neighborhood. They are hypocrites.

One Way Out

The United States is evacuating from the Kabul Airport.  We are taking thousands out of Afghanistan:  American citizens, allied Afghans, and others who can find a way onto the C-17 transports.  For those who remember history, it is a “Berlin Airlift” in reverse, coming in empty and leaving with record numbers of passengers.  Our Armed Forces are doing their best to make-up for the failures of our withdrawal.  But we are one catastrophic air failure from disaster.  And inevitably there will be those left behind, and for the women of Afghanistan, there is no good solution.

Blame President Biden, or President Trump, or President Obama, or President Bush.  Blame US intelligence for not imagining the collapse, or the US State Department for not recognizing the urgency of those left behind, or the US Armed Forces for not protecting our Allies.  There’s plenty of blame to go around.  But recognize this:  as ugly as the US withdrawal is, it was always going to be a disaster. 

Because disaster was the only way out.

 

Exposure

Yesterday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey threatened to take millions of dollars away from school districts that dare to mandate masks to stop the spread of Covid.  Last week, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida tried to withhold the salaries of school superintendents and board members who did the same.  A few days later, he found he didn’t really have that power – but he tried.

So let’s look at the facts.  The Covid virus now confronting us, the Delta-variant, is hundreds of times more infectious than the original ‘B’ virus we faced last year.  Because it is so infectious, more children are getting sick.  And at the moment there is no vaccine for children under 12, and many of the therapeutic drugs (like remdesivir) have very limited testing on younger children. 

It would make sense then, to avoid having children exposed to the virus.  And, as we discovered in the first round of Covid last year, it’s not just about one person wearing a mask.  It’s about everyone wearing a mask – to prevent transmission from a person who is infected and doesn’t know it, and to prevent infection by others.

What We Learned

We did make some discoveries last year.  With the original Covid, outdoor transmission was unlikely.  We all waited for the “super spreader” outbreaks after the Black Lives Matter protests.  They didn’t happen, because most wore masks and the protests were outdoors.  On the other hand, indoor crowded events, particularly unmasked, did generate disease transmission.  President Trump’s unmasked indoor rally in Tulsa (where Herman Cain caught Covid and eventually died from it) and the massive motorcycle rally at Sturgis both were “super spreader” events. (Note:  while the rally was outdoors, the drinking afterwards was definitely indoors).

And even though the contrast WAS political (BLM versus Trump and Sturgis) it wasn’t about politics – it’s about the science:  masks or no masks, indoor or outdoor.

But the current version of Covid is much more infective.  And we know that schools are traditionally where diseases spread – from chicken pox to measles to the flu.  And that makes sense.  We put groups of individuals in close contact with each other indoors for extended periods of time – we call it “class”.   So viruses spread, and kids get sick.

It is common sense to try to control the infectiousness in schools, just like it was for the chicken pox, the measles, and still is for the flu.  But for those diseases, we have well accepted vaccines and treatments.  What were school-wide measles or chicken pox epidemics in “my day” back in the 1960’s, are now anachronisms – “back in the day” stories.  And, by the way, back “in the day” we also lined kids up for the polio vaccine:  in schools.

Masks work – that’s not a question, it’s a fact.  Mask everyone, and they work even better.   That’s what school superintendents’ know – and they know it’s how to protect “their” kids, and their staff, and their communities.

What Governors Know

So why don’t Governors know that?

DeSantis, Ducey and Greg Abbott of Texas (who now has Covid) all claim that they are fighting for “the freedom” to not wear masks.  It’s a claim of individual liberty.  But those same Governors accept that children have dress codes in schools, can’t carry weapons, and even demand that they be allowed to pray.  So they don’t seem to have a problem with letting schools control all kinds of other actions, including what children (and staff) wear.  So why masks are different than Budweiser hats or jeans with holes in the crotch is hard to figure.

It may just be political expediency.  DeSantis, Ducey and Abbott (sounds like a TV law firm) all are dependent on a Trumpian voter base for re-election.  Unfortunately mask wearing is politically symbolic – and the Trump base doesn’t wear them (or get vaccinated).  So it’s possible that the Governors are just pandering to their base.

Health

But I hope they would put the health of their constituents, all of their constituents, first.  So is there some scientific theory that might explain their adamant position?  The “herd immunity” view is that the more people get the disease, the better off our whole society would be.  The problem is that many will die, and that more will have long term effects from Covid. 

The advantage of the “herd immunity” argument is that it doesn’t require any community controls.  Commerce can continue without abatement, which in plain language means that the economy shouldn’t be impacted.  But that depends on everyone being willing to risk getting sick:  including kids.  Restaurants and stores won’t be filled if folks are afraid of getting infected.  So “herd immunity” might not be such a great idea.

And, of course, the hospitals will be over-filled, and folks will die – there’s that.

Educators are notoriously hard-headed – take it from me, I was one.  And teachers are incredibly protective of “their” kids.  So it really isn’t a surprise that schools are defying Governors and mandating masks, just like they mandate pants in the dress code.  It’s a lot more important than modesty.  It’s the health of their kids.

A Flower in Your Hair

My friends who fought in Vietnam felt attacked.  They came home, often on a direct flight straight to the US from Da Nang in the war zone, to a country ripped by division.  They were advised to change into “civies” before they left the plane – a uniformed soldier might get insulted or spit on or even attacked as they walked through the airport.  

Many were draftees, with no real choice but to go and fight in Vietnam.  But others volunteered, legitimately feeling that they were fighting for their country.  Either way, they weren’t politicians, not involved in setting the policies that resulted in what was then America’s longest war.  They were doing “their job”, often times as “bait” to draw out the enemy insurgents.  Much like the more recent veterans who “cleared” the roads by driving down them to trigger Improvised Explosive Devices, Vietnam vets were often marched through the jungle to trigger ambushes and create a  “fire-fight”.  

Many of those Vietnam vets came home conflicted.  They didn’t know what they fought for, other than the men beside them.  It was a war of survival in the jungle, of an enemy who often killed from unseen positions, or used women or children as traps, or punji sticks camouflaged on the trail. 

War on Facetime

Many of my friends who came back from Afghanistan felt the same way.  The enemy was “part” of the environment, fighting from their home villages.  Friend and foe alike were hard to identify.  Such simple considerations as not shooting children could result in losing a fellow American.  The ground rules were not the same, not what they grew up with in American small towns like Pataskala.   And when they wanted to see those small towns – they were only a phone call away.  

My Vietnam era friends often asked – what were we fighting for?  There really wasn’t a clear answer:  we went into Vietnam to “save democracy”, but that Vietnamese democracy never existed.  We went to stop Communism, but found we were really just stopping the Vietnamese from choosing their own government.  

And we found in Vietnam that no matter how strong we were, we couldn’t defeat a clearly weaker enemy.  More bombs were dropped on Vietnam than in all of World War II, but it didn’t seem to have an impact.  The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers could live on a cup of rice a day.  And they were motivated to win back their country.

Mission Creep

The War in Afghanistan lasted for twenty years.  America went into battle with righteous might, the rubble of the twin towers still smoking on the tip of Manhattan.  We knew why we were there.  But somewhere in the two decades after, that cause seemed long lost.  “Mission Creep”, starting with one goal but finding the “finish line” constantly moving, became the hallmark of US strategy in Afghanistan.  As we withdraw today, some cry “Al Qaeda will be back”.  But it rings hollow, it really wasn’t even why we were fighting for most of the past two decades.

My friends who fought in Afghanistan ask – why did I fight there?  But unlike my Vietnam era friends, they should have a clearer understanding of their mission, even though it got lost as the War dragged on.  They were fighting against the foes of the United States.  And while the Taliban did NOT attack the Twin Towers, they enabled those who did.  But like most wars, in the end they were fighting for each other, for the man or woman who stood shoulder to shoulder with them.  And some of those were Afghans, now left behind as the Taliban take control.

Not in Vain

The difference between the two wars is that the Afghanistan War veterans have a clearer view.  They can be sad and angry about how the United State ended it, but can be clear about the heroic goals of their service.  You did us proud, as did your grandfathers in Vietnam.  As as nation we might not agree on many things, but your sacrifice was not in vain.  For two decades you cleared the nation of our enemies, and gave the Afghans hope for a future.

There is a “theory of revolution”.  It goes like this:  revolutions don’t happen when people are oppressed.  They happen when oppressed folks are given hope, and that hope is taken away.  From the American Revolution to the French and the Russian, it wasn’t at the lowest time that the people rose up.  It was the time after hope was snatched away that revolution began.  We can hope that is true in Afghanistan as well, for a time when the Afghans themselves will determine that the Taliban way is not what they want.  And the example they will look to, the time of hope, is the two decades provided by US Forces.

Our Afghanistan Veterans did that.

The Tet Offensive

The United States involvement in Vietnam stretched from 1956 to 1975.  While the initial eight years was as “advisors” to the South Vietnamese Army and government, from 1964 on the United States became direct combatants in the country, with over half a million troops “in-country” by 1968.  

And it was in that same year, soon after the US military announced that we had “control” of the countryside, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army forces launched the Tet Offensive. From the DMZ in the North, to the capitol in Saigon in the center to the Mekong Delta in the South; the Tet Offensive attacked US and South Vietnamese forces throughout the countryside.  That offensive was ultimately driven back – but from that point, no matter how many bombs we dropped, the US was only “treading water” in Vietnam.

Vietnamization

The US signed the Paris Peace Accords five years later in January of 1973, and began to withdraw forces.  President Nixon told us that his plan of “Vietnamization” would put the South Vietnamese Army in position to defend their own nation.  The final US combat troops left Vietnam two months later.  

The North Vietnamese gave the Americans “cover” and waited.  It wasn’t until the spring of 1975 that they launched a final attack on the South Vietnamese government, which collapsed like a “house of cards”.  American’s still in Vietnam were caught unprepared, and scrambled to get out of the country.  Vietnamese who supported the US efforts were mostly left to the “mercies” of the North Vietnamese forces.  It was as ugly as we thought it could get.

The Lesson

What lesson should the United States have learned?  That however much equipment, bullets and guns, advisors and training supplied to a nation; none of that can substitute for the “will to fight”.  When armies don’t believe in their leadership or their cause, they are unwilling to fight and die, no matter what the quality of their training and weaponry.

We learned that same lesson again in Iraq.   From 2002 until 2011, The United States “stood up” the Iraqi Army after the defeat of Saddam Hussein and the election of a new government (remember the purple thumbs?).  We trained and supplied, and advised.  But when US forces were asked by the Iraqi government to leave, and President Obama gladly took the opportunity to move out, ISIS forces came out of Syria and quickly overwhelmed the Iraqi Army.  

The ISIS fighters believed in their cause, and were willing to fight and die for it.  The Iraqi Army, much like the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, did not.  So even though they were outnumbered and out-weaponed, ISIS prevailed.  It took the Kurdish Forces, knowing that ISIS represented an existential threat to their homes and lives and backed by the US, to drive ISIS out of Iraq.

9-11

The United States invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001.  Our goals were clear:  destroy Al Qaeda who attacked us on 9-11, and punish the Taliban government that allowed them to use their nation as a base.  But while we damaged Al Qaeda, we lost the opportunity to destroy them in the mountains of Tora Bora.  And while we “stood up” a government that opposed the Taliban, spending twenty years and billions of dollars to keep them in power, that government never, ever, stood a chance of existing on its own.

Meanwhile the Taliban sharpened their abilities, training against the best military ever seen in world history, the United States Forces.  And when the United States said enough after twenty years of stalemate and withdrew its forces, the well trained and highly motivated Taliban had no problem removing the uninspired government troops.

Doomed to Repeat

It’s really even uglier than Saigon in 1975.  The Afghan President was out of the country before his capitol in Kabul was even under pressure.  With the President gone, it’s no wonder that the Army folded without even a whimper.  His message was clear – get out if you can.  Afghans who made their way to the international airport desperately demanded a seat on a flight out –to anywhere. 

Americans have been taught the same lesson over and over again:  in Vietnam, in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan.  We can always maintain a stalemate, always use American blood and treasure to prop up corrupt governments and maintain status-quo.  But ultimately, we cannot create the “will” of a people to fight.  As much as we believe in democracy, in the “purple thumb” of Iraq, our beliefs were not the question.  It was the beliefs of the Vietnamese, Iraqi and Afghan peoples.

Richard Nixon began the withdrawal from Vietnam, but it was Gerald Ford who “took the hit” for the “fall” of Saigon.  Barack Obama took the blame for the rise of ISIS (remember Trump called him the “creator” of ISIS), but got US troops out of Iraq.  And now Joe Biden is determined to end US involvement in our longest struggle – twenty years in Afghanistan.  His mantra is the  “Buck Stops with Me”.  It’s ugly, and awful, and we are abandoning those who depended upon us.   

And it was going to happen whenever the US determined to leave.  

So this isn’t a “Sunday Story” – though it is Sunday, and this is kind of a story.  This essay is more like the “my life and times” essays of the “Out My Window” series – so here you have it – Outside My Window.

Medicare 

Earlier this summer I wrote an essay about my adventures in signing up for Medicare (Medicare and Me).  This week I had my “final” phone meeting with the Social Security/Medicare folks, and got everything figured out.  I am now a proud member of Medicare Part B, just waiting for my Red, White and Blue card, the sign of ultimate senior-hood.  And better yet, in several years I too can become a member of Medicare Part A, compliments of my wife’s eligibility.  This time everyone had the correct information, and the phone call was efficient and friendly.

Fence Dentistry

I’m not sure what did it, but somehow in the same week I signed up for Medicare, the hottest week of the summer; was when I decided to replace several fence posts on our picket fence.  Last spring a sixty mile-an-hour straight line wind came whipping past our neighbor’s house to the west, and managed to “bend” the fence to the east.  It wasn’t falling down, but the posts holding up the pickets were definitely bowing towards the rising sun.  I’ve tried, but there’s no good way to straighten them out (picket fence orthodontics) so out they came, cement and all.  Each post hole was enlarged, and a new post cemented into place.  Instead of braces, think teeth implants.

It can only be done one post at a time, otherwise the whole fence falls down.  So I was out proving something to nobody:  digging holes, pulling posts and mixing cement.  Sixty-five (almost)? Ninety-two degrees?  Stop Working?  Oh Hell No, though Jenn and the neighbors appeared to be waiting for my “imminent” collapse. 

The fence is up, and straight, and I proved — Ahh well, I don’t think I proved anything.  Time to seal the deck next!!

Call to Duty

Why such a hurry?  Well starting tomorrow the week is set aside for Jury Duty.  The Common Pleas Court of Licking County made their call last May, but were flexible enough to move the date out of track season.  Now it’s time to fulfill my civic duty, and the next five days are the property of the Court.

I’ve been on Jury Duty before.  The last time it was a short stint, I lasted less than a day.  My roles at the local high school put me in contact with too many of the faces in the courtroom.  I knew the prosecutor, the bailiff, and several of the other jurors.  Once they asked if I knew anyone in the Court, and I got through my list  — the Judge thanked me for coming and excused me from further duty.  That five day stint didn’t last past lunchtime.

But I’m definitely ready to be on the jury, if need be.  I’ve cleared all five days for Judge Branstool, and I’m getting prepared.  Now to watch Twelve Angry Men (the 1957 version with Henry Fonda) and Runaway Jury (Gene Hackman, John Cusack), two of my favorites to get prepped.  

Courthouse Rules

Licking County does not allow electronic devices in the Courthouse.  Not only can I not take my computer in the building (no writing essays as I wait) but I can’t even take my cell phone.  That’s a cultural throwback, even if I have an impending Medicare card I’m still addicted to the constant flow of information from the box in my pocket.  So it’ll be locked in the “vault” in the Jeep, and I’ll have to depend on a five hundred and seventy-one year-old information transmission device:  I’ll read a book. I’ve already started I Alone Can Fix It by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker, about the final year of the Trump Administration (is anyone surprised by that?). 

The only other issue here in Licking County is the growing question of our “Covid-19 Delta Variant” era:  to mask or not.  I got the “shot” last March, but I’m literally going into a room of complete strangers in a county where the vaccination rate is only 47%.  Like most of the country, the rates of infection are up here.  The County Health Department consistently avoids mandating restrictions – but repeats the CDC guidelines for mask use.  It’s the easy out for them.

So I’ll leave my phone, grab my book and mask, and head over to Newark, the county seat, to report for duty by 8:45 tomorrow morning.  It’s going to rain anyway, the deck will have to wait for the next heat wave.

The Out My Window Series

• Crisis in a Small Town – (3/16/20)
• St Patrick’s Day – (3/17/20)
• Plagues and Floods – (3/21/20)
• Stories from Lockdown – (4/1/20)
• Out My Front Window – Part One (4/21/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Two (4/23/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Three (4/26/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Four (5/13/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Five (6/3/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Six (7/3/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Seven (7/31/20)
• Outside My Window – Inshallah (8/13/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Eight (9/15/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Nine (9/25/20)
• Outside My Window – Part Ten (10/9/20)
• Outside My Window – Part 11 (11/29/20)
• Outside My Window – Post-Truth World (12/16/20)
• Waiting for the Shot (3/11/21)
• Outside My Window – Part 12 (8/14/21)

My cousin Brendan O’Connor passed away Wednesday.  He died in Tampa, Florida, at eighty-three years of age after a prolonged illness.  It’s unnerving:  I never thought of my first cousin as “old”.  

I first met Brendan when I was six.  We were living in Cincinnati in the early 1960’s, and Brendan came “to visit”. My mother was from England, and her large family was still there.  Brendan was the son of her oldest brother Leslie, and like his sister before, he came to visit America and stay with his aunt and uncle.  It was a family tradition.  Before “the war” (World War II) Mom stayed with Leslie and his wife Marjorie in Belgium, and she was happy to repay the favor.

Leslie was killed flying his personal aero plane in 1959, so when Brendan arrived in 1962, fresh out of the British Army, the accident was still fresh.  But I didn’t know about all that.  What I knew was that this HUGE man, my cousin, was here.  You see, I would grow up to be by far the tallest in our immediate family at 5’7” – so we are short group.  When Brendan arrived at 6’2” or more, he seemed enormous, and very climbable.  

Brendan stayed for a month or two, exploring Cincinnati, then I think he went back home to England.  But a few months later he was back, this time to stay and make his life here in America.

Brendan ultimately took US citizenship, but he was always, as Gilbert and Sullivan would say, “an Englishman!!”.   He was a big man, kind hearted, with that British accent.  When he came in the door there was always a big “Hel—Lo!!!”, always two parts with the pause in the middle.  He became a salesman, finding a niche in selling artificial flowers.  First it was in Cincinnati, then he moved out all through the Midwest. Everyone knew the big Englishman with a trunk full of flowers and a hearty laugh.

For a long time, Brendan was “on the road”, travelling from town to town selling his products.  When I turned sixteen, I bought my first car from him.  It was a 1969 Plymouth Fury III, and it was only three years old – a new car to me.  But the Plymouth already had well over a hundred thousand miles.  Bren covered his “territory” many times, across Iowa and Kansas, Indiana and Illinois.

But he always stayed in touch, close to the family and particularly to Mom.  When he fell asleep at the wheel and literally drove into a train, Bren left his totaled car in Kansas and came straight to Cincinnati to recover.  And he was always back to Mom’s house for holidays and birthdays, and especially Christmas.  Mom made everything “English” for Christmas.  For Brendan it was just like home.  He was a part of our family, and he was definitely Mom’s favorite.

Brendan found Carolyn, and they got married and settled in Chicago.  We saw a bit less of him then, but still stay connected.  And there were the “happenstances” (what Mom would call one of her “coincidences”).  Mom and Dad, my sister Terry and her husband and kids, and I were on summer vacation on Cape Cod.  Brendan knew we were there, but no plans were made.  I don’t think he even knew we were at a house in Chatham.

We were exploring, and stopped at a grocery store.  As we got our supplies, we heard a familiar voice on the other side of the shelves.  “Mom – I think Brendan and Carolyn are here!”  There was a joyous reunion in the parking lot!

Brendan became involved in the “British” club in Chicago.  And while he was proud of his English heritage, he also was proud of his adopted country, now thirty years his home.  He applied for American citizenship, and was honored to take on the obligations of our country.  So he had both, the Englishman and now the American.  It was a good life.

Unfortunately Carolyn got sick, leaving Brendan a widower far too soon.  He was just sad, alone.  So he closed up his Chicago operation and moved to Tarpon Springs, on the Gulf of Mexico just north of Tampa.  He got involved there too, President of the Tarpon Springs Kiwanis and part of the Florida governing board.  And he met Mary, a retired school administrator and also a widow.  They soon fell in love and married.

They found a beautiful house tucked away on along the golf course, opening to their own swimming pool in the back.  Brendan and Mary were more than just Florida retirees.  They stayed involved in the community and church.  They went on cruises with their friends, and entertained poolside at their home.  And they stayed connected to his family here in Ohio.

And when Brendan got sick, it was Mary who stood by him, taking care and managing hospitals, nursing homes and doctors.  

I last saw Brendan at his 80th birthday party, at their home in Tarpon Springs.  Family was “represented” – I drove over from Sebastian where Jenn and I were camping, my sister Pat flew in from New York, and Brendan’s nephew David came in from England.  Brendan was already battling illness, but we all had a good time reminiscing about the past and avoiding present politics.  At breakfast Sunday morning, Brendan, aware of his own mortality, asked me if I would do the eulogy for his funeral.  

Funerals are complicated in this age of COVID.  There will be a memorial service in Tarpon Springs sometime next month, and I hope in can attend.  But I made a promise to a cousin,  a friend, an American and an Englishman.  He led a good life, an adventurous life, and a life that made those around him better.  What more can anyone ask for?

Rest in well-earned Peace Brendan:  we will miss your “Hel-Lo!!”

Cuomo Resigns

Well, I was wrong.  A week ago I posted an essay about Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York, under fire by the New York Attorney General’s report about his sexual harassment of women.  My essay, titled New York, New Yorkconcluded that Andrew Cuomo would not resign from office, at least not soon.

He quit today.

He did it in typical New York fashion.  After his personal attorney (a woman) went point by point through the report, raising questions and trying to discredit its conclusions, the Governor came out to speak.  The first half of his speech was both an apology to those he harassed, and an explanation why he didn’t believe it was all harassment.

Then it turned, and he began the process of explaining how he was unwilling to “waste” the taxpayer’s money on continuing investigation and “litigation”.  He resigned from office, effective in two weeks.  

Politics

Politically Cuomo was boxed in.  It was clear that the New York Assembly would in fact impeach and convict, remove him from office and ban him from running in the future.  There were no Democrats in New York left standing for the ten-year Governor.  Not that there was any love lost by Democrats for Cuomo even before the report.  The Governor was a tough and ugly competitor in the ugliest politics in the nation, New York.  

Impeachment and conviction would bar Cuomo from office for life.  Now he is trying to box the Assembly in.  If they proceed with impeachment, then they are “wasting the taxpayers’ money”.   What privately looked like a “hit job”, where the Attorney General of the state served as judge, jury and executioner; would become a public campaign of vengeance against the disgraced Cuomo.  At least, that’s how Governor Cuomo would characterize it.

Reality

Back in the 1980’s, when I was a young teacher, a colleague was accused of sexual contact with a minor decade’s before.  I believed he was innocent and thought he should fight for his reputation.  Back then, schools made “deals” with teachers like that.  He could resign quietly, giving up his teaching license and career.  Or he could have a public fight, face ridicule, and perhaps still lose his teaching career and possibly end up in jail.   He resigned. 

At the time I thought that was a confession of guilt.  

Looking back, he probably was guilty.  But he also recognized that there was no way out; even if innocent, he couldn’t win.  The mere public accusation itself was enough to end his career.  Resignation let him go on with a life, even though it cost him his livelihood.

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York and potential candidate for President of the United States, resigned from office yesterday.  Like my friend, he probably is guilty, at least for some of the accusations.  And he will take resignation and disgrace, rather than risk impeachment and permanent ban.  He still faces litigation in the Courts, mostly civil but perhaps some criminal as well.

The List

There is a long list of men who thought the power of their office gave them “extra-privileges” over their subordinates.  Bill Clinton is the most obvious, but with the “Me-Too” movement many more have been removed and disgraced.  Cuomo said in his speech, the rules have changed.  But the rules really haven’t changed, what changed is privilege.  

Powerful office or notoriety used to grant “privilege” to ignore the normal rules of sexual conduct.  There are stories of Babe Ruth, the famous baseball player of the 1920’s, running by reporters on the train naked as he chased women down the aisles.  But it was “OK” and never reported – he was the greatest baseball player in history.  In more modern times, we can go back to President Kennedy to recognize how high office somehow made it “OK” for him to ignore the normal rules of behavior. 

Me Too

That began to change in 1988, when Senator Gary Hart, running for President, challenged reporters to violate his “privacy” and expose his extra-marital affair.  He was shocked when they did.  The rules were changing.  His campaign for President was over.

But it took the power and courage of the “Me-Too” movement, of women willing to risk the notoriety that Monica Lewinsky faced, to make it possible for the women harassed by Andrew Cuomo to come forward.  And while the Governor in his speech claimed that “the rules changed”, it wasn’t the rules that changed.  It was the “privilege” that was taken away.  And the loss of that “privilege” left Cuomo naked to his enemies.

As the saying goes, it’s time for Andrew Cuomo to “go home and write his book”.  Oh wait, he already did that, on the taxpayers’ dime  last year while he was Governor.  

Division

Our national political obsession is division.  The Republican Party divides (unequally) between Trumpers and Never-Trumpers.  The Nation (supposedly) splits between Black Lives Matter and “Blue” Lives Matter, and for sure fractures into vaccinators versus anti-vaxxers.  

We are rural or urban, north or south, classic rock or country.  And of course, there is the “calamitous” division of the Democratic Party, one that the media, particularly the right wing media, constantly dwells on.  There are the “leftists”, the Social Democrats, who right wing media claim control the agenda, and the “regular” or “moderate” or even “corporate” (heard that on Morning Joe) Democrats.

But is it really “calamitous”?  Is the Democratic Party, my Party, so ruinously divided that 2022 will mark a return for Congressional Republicans to power. Will McConnell and McCarthy triumphantly taking the leading roles?

Short answer for that long question:  nope.

Big Tent

We are a “big tent” party.  A “big tent” means there’s lots of room for lots of different views, ideas, and beliefs.  In the Republican/Trump Party, dissenters are driven out. But since we are Democrats, we all feel very free to voice our views.  All of that action and conflict, can lead “outsiders” to believe that the Democratic Party will self-destruct.  

And we have managed to do that in the past. In 1968,  the critical issues were civil rights and the war in Vietnam.  Almost every Democrat was in agreement on continuing Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to expand civil rights.  

But more than half of the Party was opposed to the war in Vietnam, a war that President Johnson was committed to continuing.  That opposition came to a head at the Convention in Chicago. The leadership, committed to Johnson and his Vice President Humphrey, used the Chicago Police to physically put down anti-war opposition.  That division ultimately cost Democrats the general election in November.

Establishment Dems

Hakeem Jefferies in the Democratic Congressman from New York, representing part of Brooklyn.  Jefferies is also a party leader in the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Democratic Caucus.  That makes him an “establishment” Democrat, a supporter of Speaker Pelosi and the “main” Party.  But on all of the key issues:  minimum wage, health care, student loans, traditional and human infrastructure improvements; Jefferies agrees with the “left” wing of the Party.

In fact, most of the Democratic Party agree on most of those issues.  It’s an issue of degree:  Joe Manchin’s $11 minimum wage versus Bernie Sanders $15.  

And what about President Biden?  Biden is definitely from the establishment part of the Party, a career politician who has always been near the center of Democratic political thought.  In fact, many of the White House’s current stands are surprising – Biden has taken a more “progressive” stand than expected.  Need proof?  There’s nothing really moderate about spending  $3.5 trillion on “human” infrastructure.

Clocks and Calendars

Doug Collins, the former Congressman from Georgia and now the next in a long line of Trump lawyers, coined a phrase in the first Russia Hearings – “a clock and a calendar”.  And that’s what the Biden Administration is up against.  The clock is ticking on the 117th Congress.  Sure, they will be in office until January of 2023.  But the reality of Congressional life is that once February 2022 rolls around, the entire House and a third of the Senate stops worrying about legislating and focus on re-election.  

Certain agenda items have to be dealt with:  renewing the debt ceiling, budgets and getting Biden appointees into the Federal Court system.  But for everything else, it will get increasingly difficult to get anything to a vote as the election grows nearer.  The President and Congressional leadership have already established the “order” so far.  First it was the COVID relief package, now it’s the bipartisan infrastructure bill, quickly followed by the “big” totally partisan infrastructure bill.

What comes next?  Probably the voting rights legislation.  And as that will also be a wholly partisan action, it will surely be a compromise proposal designed to the needs of the most moderate Democratic Senators and Congressmen.  Expect that the fall of 2021 will be about that.  Congressional Majority Leader Jim Clyburn said it best:  “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.  

One More Chance

And what about environmental concerns, and the minimum wage, and student debt, and all of the other items on the Democratic list?  Well that’s where the arguments begin – if there is one item left that might get done before the New Year, which is the most important.  All “wings” of the Party are going to loudly advocate for their most important issue. 

Expect that “right-wing” media will misinterpret that advocacy into a “Party of self-destruction”.  But the vast majority of Democrats are still in our “Big Tent”, and recognize the need to expand our leads in the House and the Senate, instead of consuming the moderates who created those majorities in the first place.  In short, if you don’t like where Democrats from West Virginia and Arizona stand – then elect more from Wisconsin or Florida (or North Carolina).  Or maybe even elect one from Ohio.

Saturday Morning

Our dogs don’t know what day it is.  Pretty much every day is the same to them, and regardless of my murmuring “…It’s Saturday, we can sleep in”, they’re intent is to get me up. It’s a little after six in the morning, and that’s when they eat – every morning.  And while I used to be able to talk the oldest, Buddy, into going back to sleep for a while, with five in the house right now there’s always one who’s hungry enough to make sure everyone else gets moving.

There’s not a lot of barking involved.  It’s strategic:  Buddy scratches my shoulder, Atticus goes in for a kiss (usually on the lips), Lou lays on my legs, and Keelie – well she’s just trying to snuggle me right out of the bed.  The foster pit bull pup, CeCe, is still crated.  She would be on my side, willing to sleep in, but with all the action, she’s up waiting when we get to the door.

So it’s on my feet, regardless of the day or what time I went to bed.  

There are all sorts of rituals:  the “communion” of cheese to make sure everyone gets their meds, then impatient waiting as I sort three types of food into five dishes.  It takes a bit of time, and there’s always some wrestling in the kitchen while I get it done.  And then, finally, when all the bowls are emptied – the dessert course – carrots all around.

The Games

It’s Saturday morning – the last day of competition in the Tokyo Olympic Games.  The women’s 10,000 meters is a long, long race on the track, interspersed with men’s javelin and women’s high jump.  But the dogs did me a favor. I will get to see my favorite track races, the 4×400 relays, live.

I’ve watched Olympics since I was twelve, in that incredibly confusing year of 1968.   That’s fifty-three years, and of course the coverage has improved.  But the National Broadcasting Company has outdone itself with the current multiple streaming technologies.  That I can sit at the kitchen table, watching in-depth broadcasts of live field events without interruption (except for refereeing the “Olympic” dog wrestling matches here in Pataskala) is amazing.  

American Pole Vault

I watched the Olympic Pole Vault, men’s and women’s, qualifying and finals, from the first vault to the gold medal efforts.  As a forty-year pole vault coach, what did I learn?

Without getting ridiculously technical, there are lots of ways to “pole vault”.  And after watching the Olympics,  while I am confirmed in “my” technical theories, there are world class vaulters who use other techniques.  They aren’t “wrong”, just different.  It’s a lot like life:  lots of different paths to reach the same goal.  As a coach, or a person, it’s easy to think your way is the only “right” way. It’s just not.  And the question I have, is how much do you “accept” the differences in the athletes you coach?  Do you learn how to coach “the other” techniques – or continue to “bend” them to your “right” way?

I’ve known some national caliber vaulters, and the Olympics confirmed what I already knew.  They are incredibly dedicated and amazingly talented, but they are still regular people.  They laugh, they cry, and they get incredibly nervous in the crucible of competition.  Some can channel that nervous energy towards improvement, but with the delicate balance of speed, technique and strength in the vault, it’s easy to get thrown off.  Ask the Olympic Gold Medal winner, Katie Nageotte from Olmsted Falls near Cleveland.  She was a last vault away from being out of the competition at the very start. But, she found a way to calm herself, clear the opening height, and move on to win the gold.

The Bar

By the way, the American men had a great vault too.  The best “American” is vaulting in the blue and gold of Sweden, even though he grew up in Louisiana.  But that’s OK, twenty-one year old Mondo Duplantis is the “golden boy” of vault, no matter what uniform he’s wearing.  He attempted to clear a world record after he won the gold.  American Chris Nilsen of the US was silver medalist.   The other “best” in the world, American vaulter Sam Kendricks, went home with a positive Covid test before the competition.  

And one last pole vault observation.  It seems like a competition, person against person, but it’s really not.  Pole vaulting is a competition between the vaulter and the bar – and all of the vaulters are united in trying to clear it.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is almost always a camaraderie among the vaulters.  They clap, cheer, and commiserate with each other in the competition.  They all want to “win” – but they all know it’s not the other vaulters that “beat” them.  It’s the bar.

On the Track

That’s different in the running events.  There the stopwatch is important, but finish place is all.  And places ARE decided head to head. So the “camaraderie” of the running events isn’t quite the same.  Runners share so much suffering together, they can relate, but the friendship is usually after the competition is over.

On this final day, the United States Track Team wanted to make sure that the world knew they “wanted” to win.  There’s been a lot of criticism of team management – bad relay exchanges and just slow running by the men’s sprinting squad has left an audience with a bird‘s eye view questioning their commitment.  

So it was a “hammer” women’s 4×400 team, with Allyson Felix as the one pure “400” runner. The veteran ran with two 400 hurdlers and an 800 meter specialist to win the gold medal within a second of the world record. 

The men’s 4×400 did the same – gold medal “by a country mile” as the Australian announcer proclaimed.  It may sooth some of the “wounds” of the competition – but questions still persist.  Every good high school coach can diagnose the US 4×100 relay exchange failures.  They’ve been going on for more than a decade, and the “best” coaches in the world haven’t solved the problem.  It’s all about spending time and making a commitment – something that the US men’s team doesn’t seem to do.

Olympic Ideal

There’s still the marathon competition tonight, and I’m sure there’s a dramatic closing ceremony tomorrow.  But as a track guy, the 4×400’s mark the end of the meet.  Monday morning it will be back to the news, back to the seemingly endless crises the United States faces.  Like the dogs, we will all be back “on schedule”.

The last track medal ceremony is for the women’s high jump.  The gold medalist is from Russia. Because of past drug offenses, Russia is not allowed to participate as a national team. Their athletes compete under the Olympic Flag. So it is fitting that this last track ceremony is ending with the Olympic anthem rather than a national one.  The few coaches and remaining athletes are dancing in the stands.

For one last moment, they all stand united in the Olympic ideal.   

• 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

What About

“Why don’t you do your job?” was Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis comment to President Joe Biden this week. “Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t wanna hear a blip about COVID from you.”  That’s after Florida had the second highest COVID infection rate in the Nation, up 119% in the past two weeks (Louisiana is highest – NYT).  Biden and the White House are frustrated with DeSantis’s lack of action. In fact, DeSantis not only prevented the State of Florida from acting, but also restricted local authorities in Florida from instituting individual controls.

And with the traditional “what-about-ism” of his hero the 45th President, DeSantis tried to deflect Florida’s growing COVID crisis by changing the subject to border security.  It didn’t work – hospitals in Florida are reaching capacity, and the Delta variant is still spreading.  Unlike his fellow Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who wished he could mandate masks (he signed a law removing his own authority), DeSantis still spouts mask wearing as a “personal freedom” issue, make you own choice.  

DeSantis isn’t stupid.  He is a former Naval Officer, and a Yale and Harvard graduate.  So he knows that “personal freedom” won’t stop COVID-19 variants.  And he also knows that it’s “I don’t want to hear a…” ‘bit’, or ‘whit’ or even ‘shit’”:  but not a blip.  

Who’s Protected

DeSantis knows – just like most folks – that vaccination slows the spread of COVID, even the Delta variant  (Pfizer – 64% to 94% for Delta versus 90%-96% for original,  Healthline).  But just half of Florida citizens are covered.  And the Governor knows that the vaccines almost guarantee that if a person does gets the variant, they won’t be hospitalized or die.  DeSantis also is surely aware that masks reduce the spread of this much more highly transmissible version.  And finally he knows that this variant is having a greater impact on younger folks.  

My experience with Florida is that it’s a great place to retire, but a bad place to get sick.  Perhaps it’s because there’s such a large elderly population in Florida, that it seems so difficult to get effective care.  But most of the elderly in Florida aren’t stupid, they got the vaccine, and they are prepared for the Delta variant.

Who doesn’t have the vaccine?  Younger folks, and particularly school aged kids.  And now, the Delta variant’s transmissibility is comparable to the chicken pox. For those my age, remember how quickly the chicken pox could spread through a grade school classroom?  Younger folks don’t know about that – because almost all got the vaccine for chicken pox.  There’s a vaccine for COVID-19 too, but instead of encouraging vaccination and masking of the young, Governor DeSantis simply cries “Personal Freedom” (WAPO).  

Science

The science is not a matter of opinion.  While we can argue the impact of the infrastructure spending on the economy, or the role of the United States in international affairs, or even US policy on the Southern Border:  Covid is about facts, not opinions.  So it’s hard not to think that DeSantis and his like are making a cruel choice.  They are choosing political expediency over public health, another “Big Lie” over lives.

And for those, like DeSantis, who say “the science” has changed – he’s absolutely correct.  That’s the nature of science (and of nature).  As we learn more, we alter the assumptions we started with.  School systems teach the scientific method:  observation describes a problem, create a hypothesis about the problem, test and evaluate the hypothesis, draw conclusion and refine the hypothesis.  Science is constantly testing, constantly refining, willing to say “what we thought was true was not, and here’s the new answer”.  

Facts Don’t Matter

So when Dr. Fauci early in pandemic crisis did not recommend masks – he was working on the hypothesis that COVID didn’t transmit well in the air.  When he got new data, better data, he refined his hypothesis and recommended masks. Unlike politicians who are afraid of becoming “flip-floppers”, Fauci is a scientist, who follows the facts.  And he followed the facts to the new Delta variant, recognizing that the solutions of last April and May or not the solutions of August and September.

And “Ivy League” Ron DeSantis knows it too.  But “personal freedom” is such good politics, that he doesn’t give a shit.

For those who read Our America and wondered where Tuesday’s essay was – it was finals of the Men’s Olympic Pole Vault – even the dishes didn’t get done!!!!!!

Press Conference

Here’s one – let’s talk about a major political figure who should resign for his conduct – and his name isn’t Trump.  But here’s a spoiler alert – that’s not going to happen.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James had a major press event yesterday, where she presented her office’s findings of sexual harassment accusations against Governor Andrew Cuomo.  “(It) revealed a pattern of criminal conduct”.  But James did not in fact file any charges, civil nor criminal against Cuomo.  Instead, she presented her investigation, full of evidence of wrong doing ranging from unwanted kisses, to accusations of  criminal groping.  

She dropped it on the people of New York and the nation, and said it could “be used” by any victim who wanted to file a civil suit, or picked up by a District Attorney that wanted to consider charges.  In fairness, her office doesn’t have general prosecution powers in criminal actions.  But she could file civil cases, and she could file corruption of government civil charges.  Instead, she presented an incredibly damning investigation, like throwing raw meat in the lions’ cage, and walked away.

Due Process

It’s a lot like former FBI Director James Comey’s 2016 summer press conference announcing that there would be no charges against Hillary Clinton. After he announced the FBI was done, he then explained all of the terrible things that Secretary Clinton did.  There was no place for Clinton to defend herself, no trial before a judge and jury.  Comey condemned her, then pardoned her.

AG James yesterday was judge, jury and executioner.  

It’s possible that the Albany District Attorney may take up criminal charges, as he has local jurisdiction.  And the New York State Legislature could use the investigation as the basis for impeachment of the Governor.  Or this investigation could serve as the basis for individual lawsuits filed by the victims.  But one thing is for sure – Andrew Cuomo isn’t going to resign.

Franken and Northam

The lesson learned is the “Al Franken” story.  Senator Franken was accused of inappropriate conduct (not illegal conduct) and there was evidence that it might be true.  The Senator did “the right thing”, especially in the context of the Alabama special election, when statutory rape was an issue for Republican Judge Roy Moore. Franken resigned his seat in the Senate.  But regardless of the “minimal” offenses Franken was accused of, and despite his abject apologies:  once he resigned, his political career was over. 

Andrew Cuomo is sixty-two years old.  He has been the Governor of New York for over a decade.  Just a few months ago, he was a possible 2024 Presidential candidate should Biden not run.  Now, he’s just hanging onto his current job, maybe not even through the 2022 election.  But one thing is for sure.  If he resigns, his political career is at an end.  If Al Franken couldn’t come back from the Roger Stone generated charges of “inappropriate touching”, then for sure a resigned Cuomo is done, retired from public office for life (much like his predecessor who was  caught soliciting prostitution, Eliot Spitzer). 

And then there’s Ralph Northam, Governor of Virginia.  Northam wore blackface as a college student.  That’s bad; but when the pictures were revealed, he botched the response.  First, he denied them, then he apologized, then he really wasn’t sure.  By the time he was done, everyone (including me) was calling for his “head”.  But Northam (and the other senior government officials caught up in the mess) just stayed.  They didn’t resign,  they put their heads down and went to work.   And they’re still in office today.

Impeachment

And for those who note that the State Legislature, the Attorney General, and the Governor are all in the same political party:  beware.  The Democrats of New York are exceptionally good at self-immolation.  It was only a few years ago that Democrats gained a majority in the State Senate, and then several Democratic members defected to vote for the Republican leadership. 

They have returned to the fold – but the fissures in the state party remain.  For example, Cuomo is the Governor, but Bill DeBlasio, also a Democrat and Mayor of New York City, are often at odds.  Just being a “Democrat” doesn’t mean loyalty in the Empire State. 

The New York Assembly might impeach, or they might end up in a typical New York political scrum.

Defense

The Governor is likely to use the “Old Italian” defense.  “Old Italians” are physical:  kissing and hugging women, men and children indiscriminately.   “It was OK in my day” is the argument; the “Me Too” movement changed the rules and he didn’t catch on.   Bill Cosby used a similar kind of defense.  

But the world has changed in the past four years.  And it was NEVER OK to grope women, even as an “Old Italian Man”.   But there will be some sympathy for the “Love Gov”, the now unfortunate nickname coined by his CNN host brother, Chris.  It was in “better days”; the middle of the pandemic crisis.

Chris – “I’ve seen you referred to a little bit recently as the Love Gov…”

 Andrew – “I’ve always been a soft guy, I am the Love Gov. I’m a cool dude in a loose mood. You know that. I just say let it go. Just go with the flow baby.” (Oprah).

Don’t be surprised if Governor Cuomo doesn’t “go with the flow” and ignores resignation calls, even from the President of the United States.  He’s got nothing to lose by staying.

Track Coach

I am a track coach, or at least a retired track coach.  We are in the “heart” of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.  So it just seems fitting that I should comment on the Games.  

My wife looked at me yesterday, watching the qualifying in the 800 meters, and said, “You are in Coach mode”.  She was right, I was standing in the middle of the family room, only a few feet from the 60” television screen, fists clenched, watching American 800 meter runner Marcus Jewett get tripped up in the final 150 meters of his race.  Oh, and I’m a track official as well, you could tell because my right hand was in the air, the universal official signal of raising the “yellow flag” of a foul. 

However, no foul was called.  Jewett and the Botswanan runner, Nijel Amos fell to the track and out of the race.  In an act of mutual sportsmanship they helped each other up and jogged the final straightaway together to the finish line.  And in an act of international track politics, Amos, who by all track rules should have been disqualified, was reinstated to the finals.  He is the favorite to win.  Jewett was not so favored.  He won’t be running for the Gold.

On the Field

Anyway, if it seems that this essay is taking a bit longer to write than usual, it’s because NBC has found a way to take me right onto the field.  It’s Tuesday morning in Tokyo, and the women are qualifying for the finals in the pole vault.  There’s an entire “channel” for that, with split screens for the two pole vault pits used in the preliminary competition.  I can watch EVERY vault, here at 6:30 am in the morning.  So while it might only look like a period and a space in this essay, it was really an American vaulter clearing a low height, with a poorly lined up plant on a soft pole.  

It is kind of amazing.  Watching pole vault on the Olympics used to mean seeing the last two or three vaults of the finals, with American commentator and former high jumper Dwight Stones trying to describe the action.  Now I can be right at the pits, both of them, listening to the field announcements and analyzing vaults.  I do miss the “Olympic Anthem” at the beginning, bringing back memories of  the grainy pictures of amazing sprints and jumps from 1968 in Mexico City, and the tragedy of the terror attack in Munich four years later.  

 

Citius, Altius, Fortius

I did hear the Anthem last night though, when I watched the “regular” network coverage.  And that’s amazing too:  from beach volleyball to gymnastics, BMX biking to swimming, swimming, swimming.  Athletes at the prime of their careers, some falling to the pressure of world competition, and some rising beyond themselves to literal new heights of success.  “Altius, Citius, Fortius,” ‘Higher, Faster, Stronger,” is the motto of the Games.  (And for those way too deep into track and field, the opening words spoken by Donald Sutherland in the movie “Without Limits”).  As they strive to lift themselves, their efforts lift us all.

Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela jumped into history yesterday, setting a world record in the triple jump to win the Gold.  And to prove a point, she did it with “bad” technique, showing that sometimes talent overcomes every obstacle (and coaches don’t know everything).  Her jumps were impressive, and her reaction to the final record breaking attempt was amazing.  Goals fulfilled beyond even her own expectations.  

Sharing the Win

There were five competitors at the final height in the men’s high jump yesterday.  Clear the bar set at 7’8 ½”, and win the Gold Medal.  But none cleared.  In track and field, the tie breaker is based on missed attempts (each competitor gets three tries at each height) – fewer misses wins the tie.  There were only two jumpers,  Mutam Barshim from Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, who were “clean” – no misses until the last height.  

The rules are clear:  if there is a tie for first place, the competition proceeds to a “jump off”.  Another jump at 7’8 ½”, if both clear the bar goes up, if both miss it goes down, first clear wins.  But what if neither competitor wants to jump?

As the referee explained the rules, Barshim asked the question:  “Do we have to jump?”  The referee paused, and the jumper said, “Can we both get Gold?”.  Tamberi looked at Barshim, as they both realized they could achieve a lifetime goal, together.  Barshim nodded to Tamberi, and the Italian leaped into the Quatari’s arms.  The final act of the 2020 Olympic Men’s High Jump was to share the dream, and share the Gold.  

 

In the Rain

This essay will go a little faster now, it’s raining in Tokyo and the vault is on pause.  

As a pole vault coach, I’ve never coached an Olympic caliber athlete.  But I have coached many at the state championship level and some collegiate athletes.  And in each of their careers, there was a time when all of a sudden, they couldn’t “go up”.  They could run down the runway, they could put the pole in the “box” to start the vault.  But then they would “run through”, unable to jump.  Sometimes it was for a day, sometimes it lasted weeks.  

Pole vaulting is exciting and challenging, but obviously it also can be dangerous.  Experienced vaulters are attuned to their body position, to what feels “right” and what doesn’t.  And when things don’t feel “right”, even if they don’t know why, they don’t go up.  There’s lots of coaching “tricks” to try to get over “running through”, but they all take time.  And sometimes, a vaulter just can’t compete – it’s not a matter of will, it’s a matter of mind.

Healthy Mind

So when Simone Biles said she didn’t know where her body position was in the air during her gymnastics, I got it completely.  She’s too good an athlete, with too much speed and power, to “force” herself to jump.  That’s a recipe for disaster.  All the folks saying she should just “Suck it up” or “Man Up” or “Grow a set”  (inappropriate on so many levels) just don’t get it.  I’m not sure that’s all about mental health.  It’s survival instinct, and there’s nothing unhealthy about that.  They say she’ll compete on the balance beam.  I hope she wins, but more importantly, I hope she’s safe.

The rain has stopped in Tokyo.  They have a really cool roller machine to dry the runways and the women are warming back up for the vault.  It’s a good thing this is only every four years, the competition sucks me in and wipes out the rest of my day.  

Oh wait, only three years to the 2024 Games in Paris!

Here’s this week’s Sunday story.  No politics, no great philosophical points.  This is the story of a lost dog, and the efforts of a lot of people to get him home!!

The Queen’s Dog

Corgi’s are best known as “the Queen’s” dog.  Queen Elizabeth has had over thirty Corgi’s during her reign, and is even responsible for a new breed – the Dorgi.  That’s a  dachshund-corgi mix.  Their connection with the Queen makes them seem a more regal dog, a bit above all that “doggy” stuff. But they are a loving breed, “snugglers” who like nothing more than a couch, a warm fire and a nearby lap.

And Tito is all of that.  He is his owner’s emotional support dog, helping her through anxiety issues.  And he goes everywhere with her, in a job that requires travel to car races all over the Midwest.  Tito is always there, beside her or in the camper, waiting for a snuggle. 

Race Time

Saturday night is a big night at the Eldora Speedway races.  After the evening events, there’s celebration with fireworks and plenty of partying back in the campground.  Tito, who never left the area around the camper, just had to go – outside to potty. Unfortunately, just as he finished and was climbing back into the camper, the fireworks began.

He panicked and set off a series of events that went on for two weeks and covered dozens of miles.  Tito dashed off into the dark corn and soybean fields of nighttime Western Ohio.

Tito wasn’t the only dog to head into the cornfield when the fireworks started.  But by Sunday morning, all the others found their way back to their respective campers.  Unfortunately as racing wrapped up on Sunday afternoon there was still no sign of Tito. 

Travelling Man

The first surprise came on Tuesday morning. Tito wandered up to the door of a small building truss manufacturing plant, two miles away from the races and way out in the country at the corner of Dull and County Line Road (not making those up!).

Dogs often wander in the country, and one of the plant workers shooed Tito off, telling him to “go home”. It wasn’t until around noon that Tito’s owner stopped by to drop off a flyer, only to hear the news that the Corgi had been and gone. Tito’s “Mom” (and Grandma) drove desperately around the area, searching along the roads and ditches between the corn and soybean fields.

They pulled back up to the truss plant later in the afternoon, just in time to see Tito emerge from the corn. But before they could get the car stopped, several of the factory workers thought they could “save” Tito, and ran out of the plant calling his name. Tito, reasonably thinking all these strangers might be a danger, sprinted (on his very short Corgi legs) back into the corn. He was later seen in the evening behind a home across from the plant.

LPR

Lost Pet Recovery (LPR) decided to get involved.  LPR works out of Columbus, Ohio, and the dog went missing near St. Henry’s, Ohio, over two hours away near the Indiana border.  But Jenn (my wife)  was already working on a dog in Fairborn, north of Dayton on Wednesday, “just” an hour away, so after trapping a dog gone missing for a couple days there, we headed up to “the country”.  I was along for the ride, and it looked like an easy catch.  

There was the area behind the house across the road, right beside the cornfield, perfect to set a trap, and a trail camera.  “Mom” and “Grandma” were still at the campground, hoping to take Tito home.  If Tito went into the trap, Jenn would see him on camera, and could notify “Mom”.  An elaborate plan was set up:  take Tito in the trap to a garage, and release him in there where he couldn’t run back into the corn. (Dogs that are “on the run” are usually terrified – even of their own “people”.  It takes a few minutes for them to recognize that they are in safe hands). 

But Tito had other plans.  Clearly the truss gang freaked him out enough that he moved on.  The trap and camera sat for a couple of days.  Meanwhile Tito was spotted near a house, a mile north of the plant.  

The Worst News

There were several other sightings of Tito, all around the area, but no clear place where LPR could “get ahead” of him to set up a trap. “Mom” had to go back home to Indianapolis, about 90 minutes away. Two local volunteers passed flyers to local stores and farm houses.   And Friday morning we got a terrible report.  A man driving on SR 119 late on Thursday night saw Tito peeking out of the cornfield.  The man swerved, but thought that Tito came out into the road.  He heard a thump, but when he came back, couldn’t find any evidence of the dog.

Jenn and I dropped some food for another lost dog in Dublin, Ohio, then headed out the 120 miles to SR 119.  We searched alongside the highway, underneath the bridge over the Wabash River (while the Wabash becomes a major river in Indiana, here in Ohio, it’s little more than a muddy creek).  Then, with permission, we marched down the rows of the cornfield, covering the first several to see if Tito dragged himself in there to hide. (As a guy who grew up in the city, this was my first experience hiking in the middle of a cornfield.  No wonder the “country” kids played hide and seek there). 

But there was no sign of a Corgi – though there were dog prints in the mud.  They looked a lot bigger than Corgi prints, maybe coyote sized.  That wasn’t a good sign either.  Jenn set a camera under the bridge, hoping to see Tito go by to get a drink.  Then we headed home, unsure whether the Tito story was over.

Sightings

You can’t catch a dog you cannot see.  Lori and Robin, wonderful volunteers who lived a half hour away and had helped LPR in the past, put signs out around the area.  You can usually tell an LPR sign – bright pink, “LOST DOG – DO NOT CHASE”, followed by a phone number.  It’s those phone calls that allow the team to plot where a dog is going – and hopefully get ahead of him so he can be trapped.

But for two long days there wasn’t any word of Tito.  Don and Kim, the leading “trappers” for LPR, went back to the bridge to see if there was any sign of him, but found nothing.  Kim got injured trying to get down to the river to check for evidence.  That’s one of the risks of trapping dogs.  (She’s sore and bruised but will be OK).

And this would be a really sad Sunday story if it ended here.

Little League Field

St. Henry’s is a small town, a few miles away from the bridge.  There’s a Dairy Dream, a Food Mart, and a couple of small restaurants.  On Sunday, Tito showed up behind one of them, and the phone call came in.  Lori and Robin sped over to check. They found Tito hanging out in the middle of the Little League baseball field on the north side of town, waiting for the next game to start.  

The word passed quickly: “The Lost Dog of Eldora” was here. Kids roamed the streets, looking for Tito – so there was more chasing, and more dodging into the nearby cornfields. Lori, followed too, but from a safe distance. She found Tito’s “safe zone”, behind a farm house where he had water, peace and quiet. She let everyone know: leave him alone! Then she called Don.

It’s a two hour drive from Columbus, but as soon as he could, Don headed up to set up a camera and a trap near the ball field.  And it took another night, but on Monday morning there Tito was on camera, calmly waiting in the trap for someone to come and get him. 

He was soon reunited with his family.  After ten days, a couple dozen miles of corn and soybean fields, a brush with a truck: adventures all on short little Corgi legs, he was a little skinnier but healthy.  And he was home.

LPR doesn’t always have success.  Sometimes searching for dogs is beyond frustrating; they are never found, or even worse.  But the reunions are awesome – and that’s a happy Sunday Story ending.

To learn more about Lost Pet Recovery or support our efforts – click here

• 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

Seven Days in December

A few days before Christmas last year, I wrote an essay called Seven Days in December.  The title was an homage to Seven Days in May, a book from the early 1960’s about a military takeover of the United States government.  It later became a movie starring Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Eva Gardner and Fredrich March (movie trailer).  Rod Serling wrote the screenplay from the Fletcher Knebel novel.

The generals were plotting to take over the country, creating a national “crisis” to use troops to control communications and transportation.  Some Senators were “in” on the plot, encouraging the military to move against their political rival, the President.  It was a dark story and literally a dark movie, shot in black and white.  It was left to the loyalty of a lowly Colonel to the United States Constitution over “his general” to save the nation.

The reason I wrote the essay was the fear that somehow Donald Trump, after losing the election, would try to launch a similar action to stay in power.  I wasn’t “making up” the concern:  there were news report of a meeting in the Oval Office about declaring an “Insurrection” and using it to rescind the results of the election.  Former General Mike Flynn was in the middle of the plot and the meeting descended into a screaming fight among the Trump aides.  It happened.

Insurrection for Real

We all know what we saw on January 6th.  We all felt how close our nation was to a major turning point:  when the mob took over the Capitol, and disrupted the Constitutional certification of the vote.  And within days we found out how close the mob was to “capturing” Vice President Pence, Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the legislative leadership.  It was a matter of minutes, even seconds.  If they were seized, the course of our national “experiment in Democracy” would radically change. 

The House of Representatives select committee on January 6th began their investigation this week.  We listened to four police officers describing a “medieval” battle for control of the Capitol building, the battle we all watched.  They told us about the hours of hand-to-hand combat, and their personal costs from that struggle.  

There are those that, like Holocaust deniers, want to pretend that January 6th really wasn’t that big a deal.  They want us to dis-believe our own eyes and ears, saying that the crowd was simply exercising free speech;  and those that broke into the building were just “a few crazies”.  But that’s not what we saw and heard on that fateful day.

So it is incumbent on this committee to document what actually happened.  In this age of “fake news” and the “Big Lie”, we need clear evidence of what occurred.  After World War II, the Allies carefully filmed the death camps, because they knew that their horrors were unbelievable.  So too, we need documentary evidence of January 6th to dismiss those who pretend nothing happened.

Thousands of Questions 

(Questions – Buffalo Springfield)

But there are so many other questions that need answered.  If an “essayist” (sounds so much better than “a blogger”) in Pataskala, Ohio, could warn of “insurrection” seventeen days before January 6th, how was the national leadership caught so unaware. Or were they unaware at all; was there an actual plan for the certification to be disrupted?  Were the actions of January 6th spontaneous, just a reaction to the goading of the Trump speakers on the Mall?  The crowd around the Capitol was estimated at ten thousand or more, drawn to Washington directly by the President.  Is it more incredible to believe this just “happened”?  Or was there more organization behind this event? 

There are five areas of questioning that the January 6th committee must address.

• What caused the attack on the Capitol?
• Why was the Capitol unprepared for the assault?
• What kept help from arriving at the Capitol for so long?
• Where there any political interference in aiding the Capitol defense?
• What steps need to be taken to prevent future assaults on the Capitol? 

The Battle Continues

Each of these questions has dozens of sub-questions, all leading back to the fundamental issue.  Was January 6th an orchestrated attack on our Democracy, planned by the Trump Administration, or was it the “accidental result” of the throwing gasoline on the mob’s fire? 

We need to know: the whole nation needs to know.  Because the January 6th Insurrection isn’t over, it’s going on in the State Capitol buildings of dozens of states.  Who can vote, when they can vote, how they can vote: all are being restricted because of the “Big Lie” and in spite of the results of the 2020 election. To paraphrase Senator Teddy Kennedy:   the battle continues, and the work to win goes on. 

                                                                                                            July 28, 2021

Senator:

I am not one of your constituents, but I hope you will still take the time to read a note from a fellow Democrat.  

First, thank you for your service to West Virginia and to the Nation.   There has to be an incredible amount of pressure to follow your state’s current governor and switch to the Republican Party.  You haven’t and I am glad that you are willing to take “the heat” of being the only statewide Democratic office holder in the state.  Your colleague, my Senator Sherrod Brown, shares that same distinction.  

I think I understand your position on the filibuster.  Not only are you a “traditionalist” in the Senate, unwilling to change that long-standing practice, but you are a political realist as well.  There may be a day when the Democrats don’t have control, maybe soon.  By opening the door to ending the filibuster, the door is open for Republicans to do the same.  It’s gaining power now, but perhaps losing critical control later.  

There’s no guarantee that Republicans wouldn’t do that anyway, but there are a lot of traditionalists in their caucus too.  So I get that.

I watched the House January 6th Committee hearing on Tuesday.  I was struck with the testimony of the policemen, who, regardless of their own political views, did their job to protect the Capitol.  They were defending the Capitol, the rule of law, and the Constitutional process of choosing the President.  They risked their lives to do so.

In part because of their efforts, the Insurrection failed in its goal of keeping Donald Trump in office.  Those officers and the action of most of our legislators stopped the direct result of the “Big Lie” campaign waged throughout the nation.  But they didn’t stop the “Big Lie”. 

It’s still out there, this “Big Lie” cause of the Insurrection.  And it’s driving the Republican legislatures throughout the country to change the voting process.  Like the REDMAP program a decade ago, this wave of election “reforms” will fulfill the Republican goal:  minimizing the votes of Democrats, particularly Democrats of color.  What wasn’t won in the halls of the Capitol building in January, they are winning in the halls of state capitols throughout the nation.

And that is not only a threat to the Democratic candidates.  It’s a threat to our Democracy writ large. We are stepping back to a time before 1965, when the right to vote was dependent on skin color.  Sure it’s being done “legally”, just as the “Jim Crow” laws were legal.  That in no way makes it right.  It’s a continuum from the Big Lie, to the Insurrection, to voter suppression.  And the only way to stop that procession is for the Federal Government to step in, just as it did in 1965. 

I also understand that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed with 77 votes.  That assured that the next Senate wouldn’t turn around and take it all back – as the Republican Senate tried again and again to do with the Affordable Care Act.  Passing voting rights today by 50 votes lays open the prospect of an “anti-voting rights” act in the next Republican Senate.  But it’s a very different era than 1965.  It’s hard to imagine, but we are even more polarized, more divided than they were over the Civil Rights movement.  There was no “insurrection” of 1965; and no one in the position of Donald Trump, “fooling some of the people, all of the time”. 

Senator, I am asking for you to find a way to protect the right to vote for all Americans.  It’s clear that there will be no Republican colleagues willing to cross the aisle in this cause, no compromise available for bipartisan support.  The compromise must be with you, and it must be over the filibuster.  Some way, a “carve out” or some other modification,  must be reached to allow our Federal Government to protect the most basic right of our democracy – the right to vote.  

Thanks for your time, and your service.

Sincerely, Martin Dahlman

Civil War

Let’s go back in time a little bit.  It’s the fall of 1865, three months after the last Confederate troops surrendered in Texas.  The Civil War is over – like it or not, the Union is reunited and the nation is moving forward.  Reconstruction troops occupy many parts of the former Confederacy, there to guarantee that the Rebellion, the Insurrection of 1861, remains over. 

But what if Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederacy, instead of being held for treason in leg irons at Fortress Monroe, was allowed to go from town to town and speak in favor of the Rebellion?  What if instead of moving on from the Insurrection, the more than 600,000 dead, the four years of brother against brother and father against son, we allowed the leaders of the Confederacy to continue to preach for their cause?

It would have made no sense.  It would have denigrated the ultimate sacrifice made by the Union dead.  Even the departed Lincoln, with the final words: “With malice towards none, with charity for all…” recognized that victory required recognition of the victors, and acceptance by the defeated.

MAGA Mailing

Somehow, I ended up on the  mailing list of an organization called “Save America”, a joint fundraising political action committee along with another title, “Make America Great Again”. It says it’s not authorized by any candidate, but it’s website is donaldjtrump.com.  This is the Trump campaign, of 2020.  It continues, because there are huge financial gains to be made by “campaigning”, whether Trump ever intends to run for President again or not.  There are Trumpian bills to be paid, and many still willing to donate.

Here are Mr. Trump’s bullet points:

• Hydroxychloroquine works
  • The China Virus came from a Chinese Lab
  • Hunter Biden’s laptop was real
  • Lafayette Square was not cleared for a photo op
  • The Russian Bounties story was fake
  • We did produce vaccines before the end of 2020, in record time I might add
  • Blue state lockdowns didn’t work
  • School should be reopened
  • Critical Race Theory is a disaster for our schools and our country
  • Our Southern Border security program was unprecedentedly successful.

Ignoring History

It’s like the whole history of our nation from November of 2020, through the inauguration of Joe Biden in January of 2021, didn’t happen.   It’s as if Jefferson Davis was debating the Constitutionality of secession after the War was done. (Jefferson Davis WAS anxious to continue that debate, and hoped to do so in his treason trial.  Instead, he ultimately was allowed to leave US custody on $100,000 bail, and departed to Canada, until Andrew Johnson pardoned him in 1868).

The “Big Lie” of non-existent election fraud led to the Insurrection of January 6.  But it’s not just that lie that empowers Donald Trump.  It is a series of “little lies” that have been going on since that “Golden Escalator” moment in 2015.  The “little lies” softened us up.  We got so used to the lying, that we stopped calling them lies:  they were “alternative facts”, and the New York Times had long conferences on using the word “lies” (NYT).  They were afraid by using so often, it would lose impact.  It did.

Little Lies

We became inured to the lies, overwhelmed by the number and volume and sheer audacity of them.  We were told not to believe our own eyes and ears, to only believe what HE (in a godly, capital letter way) told us.  And after five years, when HE came out with the “Big Lie”, and incited his followers to attempt to overthrow the Constitutional process of choosing the President, we weren’t ready.  The shock of the battle of the Capitol didn’t really set in, until we watched it “live”.

And now we are told again to not believe our own eyes and ears.  And the “little lies” continue too.  The former President’s list is still full of them.  By the numbers:

• Hydroxychloroquine still doesn’t work for COVID (National Institutes of Health)
• We still don’t know how the COVID-19 virus began (Washington Post)
• Lafayette Square was cleared moments before Trump spoke (Washington Post). (An inspector general report that the Park Police only cleared it to install fences never looked at the roles of the Attorney General, Secret Service or other agencies in the park “clearing”. 
• Lockdowns saved lives (Health Feedback).

The others – it’s hard to factcheck Hunter Biden’s laptop to a non-opinionated source – unless you use the New York Post, and  the Russian Bounty story factuality is still undetermined.  

Credit where credit is due:  Operation “Warp Speed” did produce the vaccine quickly (though Pfizer didn’t get any of the research money) (NPR).

Fortress Monroe

But the “little lies” continue to dilute our world of facts.  And the “Big Lie” that led to the attack on the US Capitol and the constitutional process, remains a “fact” for many.  Unlike Jefferson Davis, Donald Trump is still selling it to his followers, like a dealer to his junkies. 

Fortress Monroe is still available.

Braveheart

“FREEDOM!!!” They just need some blue face paint and a kilt, and of course Mel Gibson, and they’re all set.  “FREEDOM” from the oppression of – vaccinations and face masks? And the “FREEDOM” to risk not just themselves, but their fellow citizens with a COVID variant that can “breakthrough” the vaccines?  “FREEDOM” to throw out all of the reasonable expectations of public health, expectations that began during the Black Plague in medieval times?  

And who are “they”, crying out “FREEDOM” and threatening to lift their kilts?  

Well let’s start with the candidate for Governor of  Arkansas, former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  Her current platform is her promise of “FREEDOM”, from all of the public health measures designed to protect her potential constituents.   

“If I’m elected governor here in Arkansas, we will not have mask mandates.  We will not have mandates on the vaccine, we will not shut down churches and schools and other large gatherings, because we believe in personal freedom and responsibility. It’s one of the key cornerstones, frankly, of our country.”

Of course personal freedom and responsibility doesn’t include a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion, or a transgendered child’s right to choose their gender identity.  But that’s not really the point of this essay.  

Arkansans

Arkansas is 49th in the percentage of the population vaccinated, with only 35% fully covered (Becker).  Frankly, one of the “key cornerstones” of the United States is sacrifice for the public good.  It’s why we pay taxes, and in times of crisis, accept increased government controls including rationing and even compulsory military service.  And the “sacrifice” that Arkansans might be asked to give?  Get the vaccination.

Exercising personal “FREEDOM” by not getting vaccinated means risking infection.  It means that the non-vaccinated person is choosing not to get a near guaranteed protection from hospitalization and death.  And, just like smoking cigarettes, they could argue that it’s their choice, and their fate.  And even if you discount the increased costs of medical care for everyone due to infection and hospitalization, again, like cigarettes, it’s their choice.

But here’s where their “personal choice”, their “FREEDOM”, does more than just sicken or kill them.  Viruses mutate by widespread infection.  Stop the widespread infection, and there’s much less likelihood of the virus changing.  Mutations create new risks for all of us; the risk  that the virus will change into something not protected by the vaccines. By Arkansans having their “personal freedom and responsibility”, the great state of Arkansas becomes a petri dish for COVID virus mutation.  And that’s when their vaunted “FREEDOM” impacts us all.

For Us All

It’s like because you smoke cigarettes, we are all forced to smoke.  Not just secondary smoke, but we all have to light up and inhale:  men, women and children.  Arkansas, and the other states that refuse to take reasonable health measures won’t just have more infections of the COVID viruses we have now, but may well create new ones we don’t know how to control.

Sander’s isn’t the only one in Arkansas demanding “FREEDOM” from masks and vaccines.  The state legislature banned schools from imposing mask mandates (though prisons can).  So while other national Republican leaders, late to the game, are encouraging vaccination, Arkansas is “doubling down” on “FREEDOM”.  And they are likely doubling down on increased COVID infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Let “FREEDOM” ring.

Common Sense

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has finally figured this out.  Alabama is 51st in vaccinations, with only 34% fully covered (Becker).  When asked about the rising infection and hospitalization rate in her state, Ivey replied:

“Folks are supposed to have common sense. But it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down…The new cases of COVID are because of unvaccinated folks.  Almost 100% of the new hospitalizations are with unvaccinated folks.  And the deaths are certainly occurring with unvaccinated folks.”

Somehow, both Governor Ivey and Candidate Sanders have determined that the “common sense” of the good people of Alabama and Arkansas will save the day.  They will mask, social distance, and even close down, all on their own.  But even if COVID hadn’t become intertwined with Trumpian politics, it’s not likely that citizens would lead in sacrificing.  We have always looked to our leadership, in hurricanes and forest fires, in wars and now in disease. 

But some of those leaders are more interested in following than leading.  They don’t want to be up front with the hard realities of COVID and viral infection.  Instead – they find it better to lead with phrases steeped in “Red, White and Blue”:  FREEDOM.   Freedom to infect us all. 

This is another in the “Sunday Story” series.  There’s no politics here, just some stories from my years of running and coaching.  Enjoy!!!

An Old Jogger

I started running again three weeks ago.  I’ve run a lot in my life. There was a track career as a sprinter in high school and college. Then I became a distance running Cross Country Coach. And finally there were early, early morning conditioning as a track coach.  Since I retired from coaching, I’ve tried to keep my conditioning up. But a knee injury put me on machines for a while. I tore cartilage in my knee kicking mulch, it doesn’t get any stupider than that.  And for the past year and a half, from before COVID and right through, I’ve been on an elliptical machine.  That’s working out in a room, watching TV.

Now the elliptical has been great, and I stayed with a consistent program.  But when track season rolled around this year, I found the I had same problem as when I was coaching.  Three or four track meets a week wore my legs out to the point that something had to give.  Doing both was just wearing me down.  I took a break.

Back on the Streets

So it’s been three months “off”, and I’ve decided to try running again, on the streets, outside, in the world.  At my age I start really slow, a jog for a little more than a mile, trying to remember what all of the muscles feel like.  Running is different than “elllipticaling”, there’s more balance, more work for all of the little muscles that keep you upright whether the sidewalk is cracked or a root protrudes from the path.  It takes more energy over less time than the machine.

But the best part of running, is it brings back all of the decades’ worth of memories.  Sure I’ve run the same roads and trails for generations (of kids), but it’s not just the familiar places.  While I struggle to get my “mileage” in, I also am flooded with memories.  Here’s some of them.

New Grass

There is nothing like the smell of newly cut grass on a just getting-hot summer morning.  I’ve experienced that smell my whole life, but it’s all linked to running.  Whether it was the long run summers when I was going six or seven miles a day, or just a more recent excursion of one mile (and some change – working to get to two), hot-cut grass in the summer takes me back.  Summer runs with the Cross Country team or discussing philosophy with David Taylor as we jogged (well, he jogged, I was running pretty fast for me) down McIntosh Road. 

A million (or at least thousands) of runs up Watkins Road from the school, before it became all housing developments, when it was cornfields and soybeans and grass.  There was no need for “OPP” (on potty patrol – bathroom breaks) as long as the farmers were growing corn.  Kids would disappear into the “fields of dreams” and come back ready for more mileage.   

Hillsboro

Coaching at the Hillsboro Invitational, where the short-cut to the two-mile mark took as long for me the coach as it took the runners in the race. The course was mostly old farm fields, grass cut lower on the course but piled up along the sides.  The “new hay” smell was all over.  

Hillsboro had some great memories – cheering my best teams excelling early in the season.  And also some of my worst – it’s where I decided that I needed my heart checked. Running to the two mile mark it felt like someone took a wire brush to my throat. I made it there, but had to walk back and didn’t get to see the finish.  It seemed stupid to die in Hillsboro. I had a stent placed within a month.  The stent went in on a Monday, and I was running around at the Conference Meet at Big Walnut that Saturday, feeling great (though my Assistant Coaches weren’t very happy about that).  The doc told me I couldn’t do any more damage – so the stent got “field tested” a little bit.

Crows

And then there’s the cawing of crows early, early in the morning.  I’m not running that early yet, it takes me a lot longer to physically get going than it used to.  But I do have dogs (see almost any post on this blog) and they get up very early. So we are up, walking around in the very early light, listening to the crows let everyone around know that they are awake.

We used to take our Cross Country team to a Boy Scout Camp, Camp Falling Rock, for a four  day summer camp.  We put the kids in a cabin, dorms with bunk beds with two big rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys.  I was always up early there, to get some coffee going before the kids were awake for our 7:30 am run.  Walking from the cabin up to the Lodge to make coffee, I was always greeted by the crows, dozens of them, hanging out in the trees and a little bit concerned that someone else was sharing their hilltop.

And on really good days, the birds were joined by a herd of deer that grazed on the grass at the top of the hill.  It was a mellow feeling, a good start to the day; sharing the sunrise with the crows and the deer, quietly feeding away but always with one eye on the sleepy looking guy staggering up to get some “joe” in before the morning trail run.

Trail Runs and Deer

That was a tradition, those early morning trail runs.  Everyone stayed together, running at “sub Dahlman pace”.  It was just to shake out the legs for the day, nothing crazy.  But tradition was that at least once a camp we would “get lost”.  It really wasn’t intentional (they were following me).  It was always a matter of can we get “there” a different way than “the regular” way.  Sometimes it worked, but sometimes the morning run ended up a lot harder than it should.  Everyone always came home, with a story to tell, of a cliff, or a stone, or a road that wasn’t supposed to be there.

Speaking of deer, my favorite deer story is of a pre-dawn solo run in the streets of Pataskala.  I was getting the “town loop” in. That’s once all the way around in the dark before there were any cars on the road.  As I ran down High Street, past the historic Pataskala Elementary School, I sensed I had a companion running with me.  It was a deer, a younger buck, who decided I would be good company for a bit of his pre-morning search for flowers.  We went about a block together, before he realized that I really was only running on two feet, not a “brother” deer at all.  Then he headed west as I continued south.

Sunrise at the McGowan

While coaching I had the opportunity of managing the McGowan Cross Country Invitational for thirty-some years.  The last decade or so, it was one of the largest meets in Ohio, with nineteen races and over five thousand kids running.  It was an all-day affair, with the first race at 9 am and the last ending around 6 pm.  There were lots of folks who made it happen, with everyone pitching in to do their part.

I always got there super-early, before 6 am, in the pre-dawn darkness.  In fact, we turned on the soccer field lights for the first hour, so that we could see to work.  That wasn’t a problem for years, but then a housing development was built right up against our running course.  Nothing like field lights at 6 am on a Saturday morning.  But somehow, we never got complaints.  I guess they knew what they were in for when they were bought their new house.

 Our scoring was in the soccer press box, where all the computers and printers had to be networked to work together.  That was one of my early morning tasks.   But I always took a break, just as the sun came up. It peaked over the starting line a quarter-mile to the east, highlighting the dew in the grass of the field leading towards the soccer fence.  Sunrise is always a fresh start; whatever the day before had been, today was something new.  “Sunrise over the McGowan” was a personal tradition.  Then the running would begin!

Sunset on the Track

And there was one more track tradition.  The Watkins facility has woods and pine trees to the west, out past the baseball field, the woods where we ran most of the cross country course.  At the end of the hundreds of track meets we ran at Watkins, at least the ones that finished in the daylight, I would always pause long enough to watch the sunset over the woods.  

It won’t be quite the same anymore:  new home bleachers are built on the west side of the track and field, and the sunset will now be behind that.  The home spectators will love it: no more staring into the setting sun during football games.  But it was often beautiful and always peaceful, a good end no matter how the track meet turned out for the home team.

• 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

Aware

I don’t like the new-speak “woke”, but to quote Peter Townsend from The Who, I “became aware” in 1968 (We’re Not Going to Take It).  I was eleven, and it was the year that Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.  Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists at the Olympics, the Democratic Convention in Chicago dissolved into violence, and Richard Nixon won the Presidency.

I was as child of the Kennedy Presidency.  Some of my earliest memories are of learning of the President’s death. I watched his funeral on our black and white television (you had to turn it on early – it needed to warmup).  It was only a month or so later that we went to Washington.  The service hats were still surrounding the “eternal flame” lighting his grave.  

Bobby Kennedy took up his brother’s legacy.  It was in January of 1968 that the myth of American victory in Vietnam exploded like an overfilled balloon.  The Tet Offensive showed that the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were not only undefeated, but uncontained and willing to accept tremendous losses to gain control.  Now a Senator from New York, Bobby wasn’t the first to speak out against President Johnson.  But his words and actions, his willingness to place his life on the line and run for the Presidency himself, made him Johnson’s powerful opponent. 

It got him killed.   There was another funeral, this time in “living color”,  another procession to Arlington Cemetery.  He was buried beside his brother:  an Attorney General, a US Senator, a candidate for President, a final chapter of the “Camelot” dream.

The Burden

There must be a terrible burden in the Kennedy name.  

Robert Kennedy Junior is the third child of the eleven Bobby and his wife Ethel had.  He grew up in the great “Kennedy” tradition, graduating from private school in Boston and going onto Harvard, the London School of Economics, and, like his father, the University of Virginia Law School.   He made his mark as a leading environmental lawyer for thirty-five years, founding the “Waterkeeper Alliance” and as senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council.   Kennedy also advocated for minority and poorer communities, particularly when environmental issues combined with their interests.  

As an outgrowth of his environmental involvement, Mr. Kennedy became an outspoken critic of the use of the chemical compound thimerosal in vaccines.  Out of that original concern, he has evolved into the leader of the “anti-vaccination” movement in the United States.  According to Center for Countering Digital Hate, he is one of dozen leading “influencers” on social media. 

Kennedy has come out against many vaccines, including those against COVID-19.  He also claims that 5-G cellular telephone radiation is linked to the coronavirus, and claims, without evidence,  that a “…wave of suspicious deaths” are tied to the vaccines (NPR).

Easy to Hate

Robert Kennedy represents the odd union of progressive politics and conspiracy theory.  And it all began with a now discounted theory linking the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine with autism, published in the British medical journal The Lancet (it has since been retracted).  The author subsequently was stripped of his medical license.   But the “cork was out of the bottle” – and the anti-vaccination world had what they needed to attack.

I guess there’s some logic in the movement.  Big industry spent years hiding and denying pollution.  Some big pharma companies have made a fortune on drugs that ultimately did more harm than good – the opioid crisis comes to mind.  So when “evidence” comes out that vaccines are “bad”, it’s easy to accept.  And when investigations by institutions, like the Food and Drug Administration or the American Medical Association, refute that “evidence”, it’s easy to claim that it’s just “big money” buying their acceptance.

Anti-Hero

But it’s just as easy to go from selective understanding to total “anti” everything.  And that’s a problem.  Vaccinations work, ever since 1796 when Edward Jenner discovered the smallpox vaccine.  My generation saw the end of smallpox and polio, and the fading of the typical “childhood” diseases that took a toll in disability and death every year:  measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, scarlet fever and chicken pox.  Vaccinations worked so well that we forgot the dangers of the diseases themselves. We focused instead on the minuscule risks of the vaccinations.

It’s hard when the leading spokesperson for the “anti” movement is the son of a hero, a man with a long record of service to causes you support.  Hard to maintain common sense, and not fall into the black hole of conspiracy theory and pseudo-science.  Social media is good for so many things, from finding lost dogs to selling campers.  It gives us access to all sorts of information, some legitimate, and a lot of it junk.  But what it also has done is given every “snake oil salesman” a platform, with slick graphics and realistic lab coats.  

Legacy

Robert Kennedy takes his family name and wears it like a “lab coat”.  It gives him legitimacy, an echo of his father and uncles and an earlier, simpler time.  He has spent a career battling the “corporate interests” that damaged our environment.  But now he has stepped beyond the truth – and instead of protecting folks, he is putting them at risk.  He is appealing to their worst instincts, and with the imprimatur of his family, it works.

His uncle said:  “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”.  What Robert Kennedy is doing for his country is helping more people die.  It’s a sad chapter in the Kennedy legacy.

Old Times

It’s just like “old times”, at least old times four years ago.  Back then these essays were called Trump World, all about the 45th Presidency.  From those earliest entries on Trump World, I wrote about the influence of other nations on Donald Trump.  If  we’d only known.  “Russian intelligence” made their first appearance in Drip, Drip, Drip and Drip, Drip, Drip – Part Deux.  That was early March of 2017, barely six weeks after the Inauguration.  

So here we are, six months into the Biden Presidency.  The President did a CNN Town Hall last night, speaking from Cincinnati.  Biden was everything we thought he’d be: a little halting, but   folksy and plain spoken.  He described the first time they played Hail to the Chief for him.  He turned around to look for the President.  But he also came clearly prepared and able to articulate on the issues; from the COVID resurgence to current inflation, US stature in the world to Senate negotiations for the infrastructure plan.

Cabinet Meeting

He held his first full cabinet meeting this week in the actual Cabinet Room of the White House.  In past months a bigger room was used as part of the COVID protocols.  And they looked “packed in” this time, with the President shoulder to shoulder with Secretary of State Blinken to his right and Secretary of Defense Austin to his left.  Those advisors didn’t pay “obeisance” to the President, there wasn’t a round of “how great you are” like the Trump Cabinet.  And that was only one of the big differences between the Biden Presidency and his predecessor.   

Highest Bidder

We now know that many in the Trump Presidency were sold to the highest bidder.  At least three of those closest advisors to the President were directly on the payroll of another nation.  They were “on the take”:  receiving big bucks to influence the President of the United States to benefit their employer.  At least three had another “master” besides the “Eagle flying” on their paychecks.

We know that Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort was corrupted by debt to the Russians.  We know that Trump’s National Security Advisor General Flynn was on the continuing payroll of the Turkish Government.  And this week we learned that his close friend, advisor and the Chairman of his Inaugural committee Tom Barrack was on the payroll of the United Arab Emirates, to the tune of over a billion dollars.  

A Billion 

A billion dollars:  what kind of influence does that buy?  I remember when I was managing a Cincinnati City Council campaign, the candidate and I had long discussions about accepting a $10,000 contribution.  It was a big chunk of change for us, and we were concerned how much influence we were “selling” to the contributor.  That was .0001% of a billion.  For a billion dollars, they get what they want.

And we may never know how much influence others had over Jared Kushner and Don Junior, keeping the constant flow of money going needed to refinance their disparate real estate holdings.  We do know that Kushner’s 666 Fifth Avenue building was refinanced with $1.1 Billion from Qatar, a ninety-nine year lease with the entire cost paid up-front.  

Policy Bought

Russia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and of course Saudi Arabia: all these nations seemed to have a “sweet spot” in the Trump Administration.  And of course Israel, with a direct personal connection from Netanyahu to Kushner.  The Israeli Prime Minister was like an uncle to Jared.  And financially, Israel had a “legal” money line.  The late billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, a financial force in both American and Israeli politics, made sure the Trump campaign was well financed.  At least that was “legal” cash.

But from Russia poisoning their former citizens throughout the world and hacking into American politics, to Saudi’s bloody execution of Jamal Khashoggi, to the strange blockade of Qatar quickly removed (just before the 666 deal was settled), to Israelis shooting Palestinians across the border:  how much was America’s reaction and policies determined by how many of the Trump Administration palms were greased?  We may never know the answer for sure.  But we do know this.  The former President of the United States was surrounded by those bought by other nations to influence him.

And he was a President most easily influenced.