Category: Uncategorized

Democratic Doom

The media doomsayers are already out:  “Democrats will lose control of both the House and the Senate in 2022” they cry, “and it’s their own fault”.  I watched MSNBC’s morning personality Joe Scarborough attack Democratic Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney on a Friday interview.  Scarborough is a former conservative Republican Congressman from Florida. He demanded that Maloney answer for Democratic vulnerabilities on “socialism” and “defunding the police”.  

Maloney is the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DSCC). He’s in charge of getting Democrats elected to the House of Representatives.  He had the temerity to call Scarborough out for using “Republican talking points”:  that the Democrats are all “socialists” and want to cut all funding to police departments.  Scarborough lashed back, saying that Maloney would be to blame if Democrats lose the House.

Democrats don’t need to defend socialism, because they’re not socialists.  But there is vulnerability in the “defunding” issue.  Democratic leadership quickly pushed back from “defunding” when it came up in the Black Lives Matter protests, but their willingness to look at “repurposing” funds to solve non-law enforcement issues can be misinterpreted.  “Defunding” is a loud slogan, and hard to move away from.  It is a sticky point for the Party.

And finally, there is the “common wisdom”.  “Every President,” commentators like Scarborough intone, “loses seats in the Congress during the mid-term elections”.  And history is on Scarborough’s side.  In nineteen mid-term elections since World War II the opposition Party has gained seats. There were only three exceptions.

Precedent or Exception 

In politics, the exceptions become the difference.  Looking at those exceptions may well give Democrats hope to hold onto the Congress, and in fact increase their margins.

The first exception is in 1934, two years after Franklin Roosevelt was first elected President.  In 1932 Democrats won a massive landslide both in the Presidency and in the Congress.  Two years later, they padded their lead in both, adding nine seats in both chambers.  All of this is as a result of the early success of the New Deal legislation, as the United States struggled to emerge from the depths of the Great Depression.

Roosevelt and the Congress got a lot done.  They gave Americans hope for the future over the bleak present.  That should sound vaguely familiar. Biden and the Congress have rapidly passed massive COVID relief, accelerated the vaccination program to reach almost all Americans, and now are working on an even bigger infrastructure legislation.

The second exception was the 1998 midterm of Bill Clinton’s Presidency.  This was in the heart of Bill Clinton’s sex scandal, but somehow the Democrats managed marginal gains in the House.  The analysis:  Americans didn’t like what Clinton did, but they liked what he was getting done.  And they were frustrated with Congressional focus on the scandal.  

And the third exception was the 2002 midterm.  George Bush, a marginally elected President, was strong in leading the nation in response to 9/11, and the nation responded approvingly by adding to Republican members of both Houses.

Where Biden Stands

So will the mid-term elections of 2022 follow the pattern of the nineteen, or the three.  My prediction is the latter, and here’s why.

Joe Biden, like Roosevelt, faced multiple national crises as he entered office.  The economy was struggling from the impact of the pandemic, and the nation was suffering from the actual disease.  Like Roosevelt’s famous first 100 Days, Biden immediately set powerful goals and took action to alter the nation’s course.   In Biden’s first 100 Days, over 84 million Americans have been fully vaccinated with another almost 50 million having at least one shot.  The $1.9 trillion COVID relief package was passed through Congress on a straight party line vote, even though it was overwhelmingly popular with the electorate.

And Biden is proposing a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, that is likely to pass in some form through the Congress this year.  The nation went from the disruption and disfunction of the Trump Administration to the carefully plotted action of the Biden Administration.  That alone may be enough to increase Democratic Congressional seats.

And like George W. Bush, Biden entered in the midst of the national crisis of Insurrection.  How Biden ultimately handles that situation, as well as the economy and the pandemic, will help determine what happens in the 2022 mid-terms more than “historic precedent”.  

And finally, many Americans are recognizing that the Republican Party in Congress has become the Party of obstruction.  That, in the middle of the multiple problems facing the nation, puts them in the same position as they were in 1998.  They are focused on something that the Nation doesn’t care about.  They may well pay an electoral price for that.

It’s Still Trump

But overriding all of that, is the factor that will be the most important in the 2022 elections.  The Republican Party is clearly still the Party of Donald Trump.  Republican voter turnout is “all about” Trump himself.  We saw that in the past three elections.  In 2016 Trump managed to increase Republican turnout enough to eke out an Electoral College majority, and gain majorities in the House and Senate. 

But with Trump not on the ticket in 2018, Republican turnout fell of sharply, and Democrats gained control of the House and made in-roads in the Senate.  With Trump running again in 2020, Republicans gained some House seats back, but failed to regain control.  In the Senate, the GOP lost control by the narrowest margin.

So in 2022, the Party of Trump will be running without the “flag bearer” on the ticket.  Those that were driven to vote by Trump, won’t show up.  All of that puts Democrats in a strong position to increase both their House and Senate margins.  

But it all depends on whether the Democratic voters will be as motivated to vote “for Democrats” as much as they were to vote “against Trump” in 2018.  If Democrats come out to vote, and the Trump voters don’t – the outcome is clear.  It’s politics, and anything can happen.  But the lessons of history are more nuanced than simply saying “All Presidents lose Congressional seats in the mid-terms”.  It’s not all Presidents, and there’s good reason to believe that it won’t be this President either.

Pre-Dawn 

I woke up to shouting outside.  It was 5:30 on Sunday morning, still dark in April, and I could just make out the yelling, but not the actual words.  Who is shouting before dawn on a Sunday?  It’s against all the neighborhood “norms”.  Don’t cut your grass before 9am on Saturday, or 10am on Sunday.  We’re a working neighborhood, and those are the days where people try to catch up on sleep.  So shouting in the pre-dawn dark is, as Monty Python would say “right out”!

Our dogs are still asleep – if someone was shouting outside the dogs should be up and barking.  But there was our yellow lab’s head was still tucked in beside mine, and I could hear our older shepherd/collie mix gently snoring on the floor on my side of the bed.  The other two are quiet in the family room.

I got up and went to the front window. I pulled up the heavy blind, and there they were – my friends marching in the street outside of the house.  They had signs, and a bullhorn, yelling about not supporting their causes and betraying “Our Values”.  I thought – “They are standing in my yard, they can’t do that.  And there’s no sidewalk, so they’ll have to block the street to do continue their ‘protest’”.  That’s got to be illegal.

Legal Protest

One next door neighbor was out, talking to the marchers.  He offered them his yard to “legalize” the demonstration. But they said no, it wouldn’t work.  Our camper blocked the view of the house.  Good thing they came this morning – I hope that today we’ll sell the camper.  It might not be here to serve as a blockade tomorrow.

But I’d better call the prospective buyer.  Can’t have him drive three hours to check a camper in the middle of a protest.  We’ve been trying to sell the camper for more than a month, and now this protest is going to scuttle the sale. Damn, that was going to be a cash deal.

So maybe I need to call for help.  I need the authorities.  But who could I call, the police?  They were on the protest line as well, in uniform with a police dog!   Fat chance that they would “break up” the demonstration.  Maybe the Sheriff’s Department, but they were marching too, wearing their black and gray, pacing up and down my street.  Guess there’s no help there either.

It would be easy to shut the blinds, lock the doors, and turn up the music to try to drown them out.  But these were my friends, out there, shouting and demanding that we leave.  So I took one of the red folding chairs from the garage, and sat in the middle of the front yard.  If they were going to yell at us, well, here I am.  Yell at me.  It was just what we used to do when the Pataskala Parade came down our street – then it was a “front row” view of all of the horses.  Now, it was to this spectacle.

Being Neighborly

And then I had an even better idea.  I went and got a long white table from the storage shed in the back. I was going to go to Kroger’s and buy cookies, but there wasn’t a way to get out of the driveway to go anywhere.  A big black SUV, like a Secret Service car, blocked the end.   So  I quickly (really quickly) made cookies in the kitchen.  They were done and cooled almost instantly, and I found a case of water in the garage (when did we buy that?).  

I went to the end of the driveway,  beside the SUV.  And I set up the table, offering plates of cookies and bottles of water to the protestors, like I was a water stop on a road race.   It seemed like the “neighborly” thing to do.

Then the Sheriff’s Deputies came up and arrested me – handcuffing me against the Black SUV.  It was against the law to feed or give water to protestors in the street.

Someone jumped on me –

Just Light

And I woke up to our younger rescue dog, the only female. It was a little after six on Sunday morning – and time for her to go out, and patrol the back yard. Her morning ritual is to jump up on the bed and demand a morning snuggle as her first duty of the day.

It was all a dream.  There was no shouting outside, no picket line in the street.  Just the cold early light of an April morning, and the dreams of someone who has spent time thinking about our world today.  

My wife and I have talked a lot about it – and how different our views are than those around us.  Our neighbors, friends and town has been pretty “tolerant” of having an “openly liberal” family here.  With only a couple exceptions, we made it through two Presidential campaigns without incidence.  But Biden’s election didn’t  seem to “make things better” as far as the neighborhood is concerned.

It’s like some have just “dug in” in their views even more than before.  It’s not just the stubborn “Trump for America” signs that still “grace” several yards.  And it’s not even the “F##K BIDEN” banner that hangs from a suburban front porch nearby. It feels like conversations that we could have, even before the election, are no longer possible  The “chat on the street” or the offer to “wander down for a beer” no longer occurs.  It all feels wrapped in an aura of betrayal – “how could you believe that”.

But we do – and we try not to put our views too much in our neighbors’ “faces”. That is, other than the Biden signs during the election – still stored in the garage. One fell on my head yesterday. Maybe it takes getting hit on the head to discover what I’m really worried about.

The dogs don’t go back to bed in the morning.  And as my Mom would say – “no rest for the weary”. Or was it”no rest for the wicked?”  

So here’s my Sunday story.

Jordan For ?

No one is really sure what Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is running for.  Is his goal the Governorship of Ohio?  Or does he have some plan to unseat Kevin McCarthy and become the leader of the Republicans in the House – with hopes of becoming Speaker some day?  Or, is he so worried about the fallout from his actions as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State three decades ago, that he wants to be invaluable to the “right”.  That way, no matter what he failed to do to protect his athletes back in the day, the right will still support him.

And Jordan has found the focal point for his right wing rage:  Dr. Anthony Fauci.  In a Congressional hearing yesterday, he demanded of Dr. Fauci, almost pounding his fists on the table: “When will we get our freedom back!!!”

He might just as well have said, “when did you stop beating your wife,” to the eminent virologist.  Fauci, rightly, refused to accept the premise of Jordan’s question.  The restrictions of COVID control aren’t about “freedom”, they are about keeping more Americans from dying from the disease.  What Jordan calls “freedom” is really the “right” to hold super-spreader events, and kill people.  And that’s not a right, that’s just stupid.

Fox Whipping Boy

But Jordan has found his “whipping boy” for all the so-called lost freedoms that COVID has caused.  Fauci managed to be the “last man standing” from the original Trump response to the virus.  Other scientists and physicians, and the list is long, were disgraced by the end of Trump’s term:  Birx, Redfield,  and Azar among them.  They lost their credibility trying to navigate science and a President who found COVID an inconvenient  truth.  Fauci, on the other hand, became the alternative to the Trump craziness.  He spoke the truth when the Trump appointees spouted political fiction.  He served an “exile” under Trump, banned from the national press.  And he emerged as the scientific leader of America’s virus response under the Biden Administration.

So Jordan really gets “three for one” by attacking Fauci.  He gets to be a “Trumper” against the one scientist who rose above the Trump Administration.  He also gets to support all those folks who believe that the COVID responses – from online school and church to cancelled Little League Baseball games, weren’t necessary.  And he gets to try to pass the COVID “blame” to President Biden and the Democrats.  And Jordan loves to blame Democrats for almost every evil known to man.

So the facts of COVID really don’t matter much to the former wrestler from St. Paris.  It’s so much easier to follow his Fox News friends and pretend that the almost 600,000 Americans lost in the past year weren’t really there in the first place.  Or that the vaccines, that many of Jordan’s supporters refuse to take, will “solve” all the COVID problems.  Or that Jordan’s version of “freedom” is contingent upon not wearing a face mask.

Masks, not Muzzles

It’s the same version that Senator Rand Paul tried to “sell” in another hearing with Dr. Fauci.  Paul ripped Fauci for wearing a face mask after being full vaccinated.  It was straight from the Facebook “meme”:  “if the vaccine works, you don’t need a mask – if you need a mask then the vaccine doesn’t work”.   

You’d think that having a medical degree would allow Dr. Paul to deal with more complex thought concepts – but those don’t make good “sound bites” on Fox News.  Yes, the vaccine works, better than the flu and the chicken pox  shots.  But it isn’t perfect.  And as it is so new, we don’t know the impact that “variants” of COVID will have (the variants driving the COVID spike in Michigan right now).  So the prudent thing to do is to continue to wear a mask – both for the wearer and those around them.

And while we don’t know what office Jordan is lusting for, we do know that Rand Paul longs to fulfill his father’s dream of winning the Presidency.  So Fox News coverage is mandatory.

Know Nothing

Both Jordan and Paul represent a “Know Nothing” view of COVID – that somehow it was all a hoax on the American people, perhaps designed to bring Donald Trump down. That view is amplified in the “silo” of right wing media.   It’s easy for their constituents in rural fields of Ohio or the Appalachian “hollers” of Eastern Kentucky to pretend that COVID is just a “Democrat” disease.  

But it’s not just a Democratic disease, and Dr. Fauci continues to tell Americans the scientific truth; even when it’s hard, and even when it’s not what Americans “want” to hear.  The advent of the vaccines and the spring are driving the attitude that “it’s all over” – but it’s not.  And the politically motivated protestations of Jordan and others won’t make it so.  We will – by doing what needs to be done to control COVID, and protect the American people. 

And that’s what Dr. Fauci is trying to do.

Gibbs

For those of you that aren’t TV fans, one of the longest running prime-time dramas is a show called NCIS (for Naval Criminal Investigative Service).  It’s a “cop show”, about a team of investigators who work out of Washington DC. They are led by their now aging leader, Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  After eighteen years we know a whole lot about Gibbs.   He served as a Marine sniper and lost the love of his life and his child to a drug smuggler. He was first tutored in investigative work by Mike Franks.  Gibbs has an addiction to redheaded women and building boats in the basement.  And, of course, “Gibbs Rules”, carefully numbered one (twice) through sixty-nine.  They are how an old Marine navigates the complications of life.

While Gibbs lost his family, he always has his “team”.  And while the team has changed over the years, they all depend on Gibbs. He is their leader, their father-figure, and their friend.  But throughout the eighteen years of the show, there has been one stalwart, one compatriot who has remained.  Dr. Donald Horatio Mallard, better known as “Ducky” to his friends, is the now retired Chief Medical Examiner of NCIS.  Ducky, as well as the quirky and brilliant Forensic Scientists Abby Sciutto (replaced by Kasie Hines) and new Medical Examiner Jimmy Palmer, bring scientific method and investigative techniques to the show.  Those processes, combined with Gibbs’ famous “gut feelings”, solve crimes.

Ducky

Ducky himself has a long storied history.  A graduate of the Eton College in England and Edinburgh Scotland’s famed Medical College, he was a physician in the Royal Medical Corps of the British Army.  His accented and rambling stories always somehow bring historical perspective to the deceased.  Ducky talks to his “patients”, the dead on his autopsy table.  His goal is to bring them closure for their untimely demise.

If you’re a television fan, you are very used to scientific facts about the dead brought to you with a British accent (with an occasional Scottish brogue).  Ducky has been explaining to us what caused a victim’s death for eighteen years.  And he is almost always right.

Tobin

So what’s the chance both sides of the Derek Chauvin trial managed to find key scientific witnesses that sound like “Ducky”?  The Prosecution presented Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist from Chicago’s Loyola University. He was born in Ireland, and educated at University College in Dublin and King’s College Hospital in London.  

He’s been in the United States since 1981, and with his calm Irish accent carefully walked the jury through the processes of the body getting oxygen.  It was his long testimony that generating the most damning scientific evidence against the defendant.  He carefully explained how Chauvin’s knees in George Floyd’s back for over nine minutes slowly prevented him from getting enough oxygen, and extinguished his life.

Dr. Tobin volunteered his testimony as “the” expert witness in respiration. 

 Fowler

The Defense countered with an “expert” witness of their own, Dr. David Fowler.  Fowler was born in Zimbabwe (then part of the British Empire called Rhodesia).  He attended the University of South Africa in Cape Town, where he earned his medical degree.  Fowler then moved onto the United States in 1991, where he completed further study at the University of Maryland, and became a Medical Examiner for the state.  He rose through the department to become the Chief Medical Examiner for Maryland in 2002 and retired from that position in 2019.

To the uninitiated, Dr. Fowler’s South African accent sounds “British”.  And he too had very convincing theories for the death of George Floyd.  He speculated that Floyd died from a heart arrythmia due to drug use, or coronary artery disease, or possibly inhalation of carbon monoxide while he was held in the “prone” position on the street beside the vehicle.  In fact, Dr. Fowler came up with almost every possible reason for Floyd’s death, except for the most obvious one:  that someone was kneeling on his back, holding his neck to the pavement, while the man’s arms were handcuffed behind his back.

Dr. Fowler is now a “forensic consultant”.  That translates to mean he is a paid expert witness, earning hundreds of dollars an hour to testify in Court.  And while he is bringing all of his decades of scientific expertise to bear, you can be sure that if he reached a conclusion that the defendant was at fault, he wouldn’t be on the stand at all.

Rules

Gibb’s rules have been around since the beginning of the series eighteen years ago.  But it took seven seasons for us to learn about Rule #39 – “There is no such thing as a coincidence”.   That one “British” accented scientist would appear on the stand of the Chauvin trial might be happenstance, but that both sides brought their accented “experts” to explain the “science” of George Floyd’s death to the jury – I call “Rule 39”.

I’m sure there are forensic experts born in the United States, who don’t have an accent originating from the British Isles.  But they also won’t sound like “Ducky”.  Americans have been hearing the scientific truth from Dr. Mallard on NCIS for almost two decades.  And don’t forget, we live in a nation that once elected a President mostly based on his character on a television show.  It’s all about Rule 39.

Beginnings

If you’ve read many essays here in “Our America”, you’ll know that I spent a big portion of my life as a track coach.  I kind of fell into that.  I was done with track when I started student teaching at Watkins Memorial High School back in 1978.  But I learned a quick lesson about public school teaching in those first weeks.  If you want a job, you’ve got to offer more than “just” a classroom teacher.  My mentors, Bob Cramer and Gary Madden, suggested that I help out with an extra-curricular program in order to “enhance” my resume.

I ran track, freshmen through senior in high school, and my freshman year in college.  But my interest in politics and off-campus study moved me off the team.  When I started at Watkins, it was two years since I’d been on a track.  But it was late winter – the kids were practicing track in the hallway down by the cafeteria.  The track coach, John McGowan, had sixty boys and with only himself and Bob as the coaches.  So I wandered down to watch some sprint starts after school.  The blocks were bolted to a big piece of plywood and set on a mat on the tile floor. 

A little technical detail:  the better your sprint start out of blocks, the closer you are to falling on your face.  I watched the kids, and decided to “show-em” by taking one myself.  There’s an art to sprinting on tile – even back in my high school, the halls we practiced in the were carpeted.  So I took my typical “power” start – it was always one of my strengths.  Two steps out — and I fell flat on my face.  Getting traction on tiles just isn’t the same.

And that was “the test” with the 1978 track team.  When I laughed at myself as hard as they laughed at me – the kids knew that I wasn’t too “stuck-up” from Denison University.  I got back in the blocks and tried it again – modifying my drive to stay on my feet.  And then we had a few short races to see who was fastest.  I was about two years older than the seniors – and still had my “track speed”.  So we were soon good.

Career Choices

I had no idea at the time that track and field would be such an important part of my life.  In fact, I really didn’t think teaching would be my life.  Law school, political campaigns, getting back to Washington DC were all my goals at the time.  Teaching and coaching was fun, exciting, and fulfilling, but not really on my career trajectory.  

But that spring of 1978  I got to know John McGowan.  John knew a lot about track and field, in fact I was always amazed how he could move from one event to another with technical insight to help kids. And he did that a lot:  John coached all the events but the throws (shot and discus) when I started.  But more importantly, John knew about kids.  He was able to reach them, to find out what motivated them, and to make them feel important, whether they were the best on the team, or just better than they were the day before.  

I joined John and Bob as the unofficial sprint/hurdle coach for the ’78 season.  And by the time May rolled around and I was ready to graduate from Denison myself, teaching and coaching were definitely an option.  

I “crossed the stage” at Denison, and went back to Cincinnati to work on a political campaign.  We lost the primary in June, and I decided not to go to law school right away.  When Pete Nix, then the intimidating Principal of the high school called and offered me a job, I decided to take a year and teach at Watkins.

That year stretched into two and then three.  John retired as the track coach, but remained as cross country coach.  And I joined him in the woods and learned about a whole new world of athletic competition, cross country running.  That was something I had little experience with.  Running distance for me was always punishment.  I was that kid who would think about quitting when I was told to run two miles, but had no problem running sixteen 220’s in a row (that’s two miles by the way).  It was all about sprinting.

Family

And those years with John and Bob framed my entire coaching philosophy.  It was about caring for the kids as much as the performances.  The cross country and track teams became families: that had fun, worked hard, they got in trouble, and always fought to achieve.  That’s a powerful combination:  family and competition.  It pulled us all along through the years of the kids’ high school careers, and the decades of coaching.

I fell in love with two sports, cross country, and track all over again.  That was all forty-three years ago.  

I left coaching track and field after the 2017 season.  For a year I stayed away almost completely; going to a few meets and helping out, but giving the team and coaches some space to build their own family.  Two years ago I decided to take up officiating track and Cross Country again (I let my license lapse back in 2000).  Officiating isn’t the same as coaching. Your role is that of the neutral arbiter, providing the opportunity for fair competition.  As vocal as a coach as I was (and I definitely was) I try to be a quiet official.  I’m not “the show”, I’m just the person making things happen efficiently and fairly.

And as far as Watkins is concerned – it’s been four years.  There’s no kids left who knew me as a coach. Most on the team just think I’m another old “official dude” with a loud gun, if they know me at all.  Of course the coaches know me, some I coached myself, some I worked with for decades. But I don’t have a problem “officiating” fairly – that’s what I do, and that’s what those coaches, my friends, expect.

But I will say – seeing teams that are families – Watkins or otherwise – reminds me of why I coached in the first place.  Last night was a long one, a “tri-meet” that went almost four hours.  I fired so many “blanks” from the starting pistol my hands were darkened with gunpowder. My ears are still ringing as I write this morning.  But out on the track you could feel the camaraderie, the family, from all three teams.  It reminded me of why I stayed for so long, and what was so special about life “on the track”.  

It’s weird to be an “observer” rather than a “participant”, and sometimes hard to keep my mouth shut. But it’s good to be “home”.

Common Sense

So here’s a “common sense” question.  If a particular institution throughout the United States, has a consistent problem, over and over again, would it be “common sense” to say that the problem was “systemic”? 

American businesses said that students were unprepared for modern work. Few outside of education had a problem with the “national” solution:  instituting standardized tests.  Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think standardized tests did much besides making our kids better at taking standardized tests. But we (as a nation) didn’t seem to have a problem with this “national solution to a systemic problem” in education. 

And the problem in education did exist.  Individual teachers, and individual school districts went “against the trend” and prepared their students well.  But many schools didn’t, and we as a nation searched for a national solution to resolve the issue.

In Our Face

This week we continue to watch the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer being tried for the death of George Floyd.  We listen to the experts explain what our eyes can plainly see on the videos.  Chauvin choked the life out of Floyd over the more than nine minutes that he kneeled on his back and neck.  And we hear the leaders of the Minneapolis Police Department. The Commanders and the Chief explain that what Chauvin did was far outside the bounds of “procedure” for the MPD.  In their testimony they make it clear that they see Chauvin as a “rogue cop”, outside the norms of their institution and policing.

But as we agonize through this trial, still up in the air about what the jury will determine, another black man is killed by a police officer just ten miles away.  Her Department Chief says it was an accident.  The police officer reached for her Taser, but instead pulled her gun.  “Taser, Taser, Taser!” she warns her fellow officers, then she pulls the trigger and fatally shoots a twenty-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, in the chest.

How Many Times

And as we watch that disaster, just miles away from the Chauvin trial, we then see a video from December.  Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario, a Black man, is pulled over, ostensibly for failing to display a temporary vehicle license (that license is visible in the video in his back window).  The Lieutenant, after the police lights come on behind his car, puts on his flashers and drives on for an extra minute and a half to pull over in a “lighted area”, a gas station.  He is a Black man interacting with the Police.  He is afraid.

The police officers react to this “failure to comply” by drawing their weapons, and treating the stop like a “major felony” arrest.  They aim their guns, and demand that the Lieutenant put his arms out the window of the car, then exit.  Nazario, faced with drawn guns in his face, is afraid to reach down to release his seatbelt.  He is a black man in America, and like Orlando Castillo, does not know which instruction to obey.  If he reaches for his seatbelt, does that give justification for the officers to shoot?

Ultimately the Lieutenant is pepper sprayed, dragged from the car, taken to the ground and handcuffed.  Then the police begin to “negotiate”, “talking” back the actions they have already taken.  

And here in Columbus, two black men have been shot and killed by police officers under more than questionable circumstances.  Somehow those shootings haven’t garnered the national attention that Minneapolis or Windsor, Virginia got.  Maybe the video evidence isn’t as compelling.

There’s a Problem

I don’t claim to have all the answers to this problem, the killing of Black men by the police.  And I absolutely don’t blame every, single, individual police officer for the actions of a few.  But can’t we say that this is a national problem, one that seems to be more than just a few “rogue officers”.  It is a “systemic” problem in our policing. And since it’s a problem based in race, shouldn’t we call it what it is:  “systemic racism”.  

Every teacher wasn’t a failure, but our Nation had little problem upending education with standardized tests.  Every police officer isn’t a problem either. But isn’t the evidence clear that this is a National problem, demanding National solutions?  

As an educator, I don’t think standardized testing “fixed” education.  But we saw a problem, and we tried to fix it.  Well there’s sure a problem with policing, and it’s costing lives.  We need to start looking for a national solution, now.

Insurrection

On January 6^th of this year, 2021, a mob of Americans attacked the United States Congress in the Capitol.  They stopped the certification of the 2020 election temporarily, at the behest of the losing incumbent President.  The entire nation watched as they defiled the Capitol building, invaded the leadership offices and attacked the Capitol Police.  Two officers lost their lives as a result, as well as five of those involved in what we now call “the Insurrection”.  

It was only four months ago, ninety-six days.

In the aftermath there was actually some rays of “hope”.  Even Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Kevin McCarthy seemed at first to be as shocked and appalled as the rest of the nation.  Perhaps out of the tragedy of the Insurrection there could be some movement towards a return to cooperation in government.  Perhaps the raw realization of the divisions that two decades of “wedge” politics created might somehow generate – common sense.

Who’s Fault

It’s easy to blame politicians.  But for many of them, the phrase from the French Revolution, “There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader,” was reality.  They seemed powerless to move beyond the mindset of their constituents.  But here in my small suburban community there were signs of healing.  Some folks who seemed irrevocably divided by the political debate began to, gingerly, talk again.  But others, now without the “support” of the former President in office, seem more entrenched in their polarization.  

For those willing to reach out, there seemed to be as many others so poisoned that there was no “cure”.  On one porch in our community still hangs a banner:  “F**K Biden, and F**K you for voting for him”. Little kids ride by on bicycles, and have difficult conversations with their parents.  It‘s hard to see how we come back from that.

Presidential Choice

President Biden is faced with a choice.  He knows that these first few months are the peak of his political power.  And he’s taking that power “out for a spin”, first with the massive COVID relief package, and now with the “Infrastructure” package.  With COVID it was clear that there was little “wiggle room” for compromise, and when the “moderate” Republicans countered with a proposal less than a third of the cost, that became the “non-starter” that led to a Democrat only bill.  Biden moved on without them.

Joe Biden is a “man of the Senate”, a man willing to compromise.  And “infrastructure” is by definition open to that compromise.  The President has emphasized again and again that his proposal is the “beginning”, and that he totally expects the “end” to be very different.  But “en bloc” the entire Republican delegation to Congress has vowed to vote against a bill they haven’t even seen yet.  They don’t accept the possibility of negotiation, of the use of that now pornographic word – “compromise”.

Herding Cats

And there are those on the Democratic side who feel that way as well.  They demand that there is no need to compromise.  Just line the Democrats up, and let’s take a vote.  There is a problem with that strategy.  Herding Democrats is akin to herding cats – no two are going in the same direction.  To expect Democratic members of Congress, and particularly Senators, to line up, salute, and march is probably too much. 

So there’s going to need to be compromise there too, both with the Democrats of the left, and especially with those “Blue Dog” Democrats who are elected from deep Red States.  My fellow “Progressive” Democrats, if you expect to keep a majority, you’ve got to give the Manchin’s and the Sinema’s and the Tester’s of this world some room to breathe.  You live in a “big tent”, it’s got a left, right and middle.  That doesn’t mean Sanders, Warren, and AOC should be ignored.  Since Republicans won’t budge, there still will need to be negotiate within the Party.

Old Concept

And from Republicans, expect no help.  Even if the vast majority of Americans support the infrastructure bill, Democrats and Republicans alike, that isn’t the constituency the  Republican Party in Washington represents.  That Party is worried about one group of voters only:  The Republican primary voter.  And that group is solidly behind one man, no longer in office.  Guess who?

Folks of a “certain age” (think eligible or receiving Medicare) look for a “return to normalcy”.  They know what that means – a time when the political parties could find a way to cooperate.  Sure Ronald Reagan was an extremist, but he could still work with the Democratic Speaker, Tip O’Neil.  Yes Bill Clinton was a Democrat. But many of his proposals were “Republican-lite”. He was even able to make a deal with Newt Gingrich.

And Joe Biden (also of that certain age) knows exactly what they are talking about.  But to use a very old phrase, “it takes two to tango”.  And we aren’t dancing in Washington, DC today. We are lining up in battle lines, ready to fight.  

Biden is showing he can do that too.

Here’s the next in the “Sunday Story” series.  This is about four guys seeing the country for the first time.

Road Trip

Four twenty-something teacher/coaches rent a van and drive across America.  What could possibly go wrong?  

It was 1982, a time in high school athletics when summer meant vacation.  It was before camps and pre-season conditioning, summer programs and Junior Olympic competitions.  When school was out for the kids, it was out for the coaches as well, at least until August 1^st.  And for two football coaches, a basketball coach and a track/cross country coach from Pataskala, Ohio; it was time to hit the road.

Our Itinerary

We rented a van for a month, and packed it with our stuff:  clothes, camping gear (I think we used the tent twice), and beer, lots of beer.  And then we headed out, on the road with no particular deadlines.  The “rules of the road” were set. Jerry drove first and I took the second shift.  That put Odell and Greg in the afternoon and evening shifts, while Jerry and I sat in the back and watched the nation go by.  We might have had a beverage or two along the way.

The goal was to cross the country – East to West, North to South.  But our itinerary also reflected our diverse interests.  Our first destination was to Detroit, to visit Jerry’s Lebanese relatives who made a special kind of amazing bread.  Then it was on across to South Bend, Indiana.  Greg wanted to see the “Touchdown Jesus” at Notre Dame’s football stadium.  Next it was Chicago, four young guys touring the big city, then onto Wisconsin, with a stop at the Wisconsin “Dells”.  The tour wasn’t much, but the “duck boats”, old World War II landing craft converted for tourist use, were pretty cool.

Wall Drug 

Interstate 90 – a very long, very flat, very empty road across the Northern Plains.  We drove across Minnesota, then into South Dakota.  Somewhere in the middle of that massively long state, there is a store – Wall Drug.  It’s a tourist trap, an old country store and gift shop, snack bar, truck stop, and whatever else.  You’d drive right on by if it were in Western Pennsylvania or Michigan.  But it’s not – it’s in the dead middle of South Dakota.  For hundreds of miles you’ve passed the signs – VISIT WALL DRUG – every few miles.   They often are the only thing that broke the unending horizon.  So, even though you know – you stop anyway.

Badlands and Bad Dreams

But get past Wall Drug, and on into Western South Dakota and the world gets amazing again.  The first stop was the Badlands.  We wandered around the “moonscape” hills and gullies (the Apollo astronauts actually came here to train).  And just south of the Badlands was the Ogallala Sioux Reservation.  The stark reality of what the United States did to the Native Americans was clear to see there.  They were placed on reservations that didn’t have a chance of self-sustainment – the US put them next to the Badlands.  The poverty there was very apparent.

We stayed in a hotel in Sioux City.  We were cheap, four of us in one room.  Greg and Jerry were bigger guys, Odell and I were smaller.  So Odell slept with Greg, and I slept with Jerry.  Abraham Lincoln supposedly once said, “You don’t know a man until you sleep with him”.  That was from a lawyer who rode the circuit from town to town, sleeping in taverns.  It cost extra to get a bed, even if you had to share it.

Western South Dakota is amazing, from the Badlands to Mount Rushmore to the Devil’s Tower (think Close Encounters of the Third Kind).  We hung around and explored for a couple of days, and went to a movie one night.  I remember it well, because I don’t ever watch “scary” movies.  But Poltergeist was just out – I can still remember the key line; “They’re here”.  Even with three sleeping companions very nearby, I didn’t get much rest that night.

Yellowstone and Beyond

Our next stop was to be Yellowstone National Park.  But first we had to spend the night in Bullhead, Wyoming; just a stop on the way.  There’s not much I can say good about Bullhead, we checked into the hotel, located at the bottom of a long mountain decline.  I seemed to remember we had to chase a few bugs out of the way before we got in the door.  But the beds had machines attached to them – vibrating devices that shook.  I had to know!!!  It cost a quarter, but then the machine didn’t seem to ever want to stop.  I took a lot of grief for dropping that quarter, but I’d never seen a vibrating bed before.  Luckily, we found the plug; Jerry and I didn’t want to know each other that well.

Yellowstone:  the first thing we discovered is the sheer size of the place.  There are the tourist places, Old Faithful (the geyser), the Yellowstone Falls, the “mud pots”.  But they are dozens of miles away from each other.  You have to drive to see Yellowstone, and wait in the inevitable “buffalo jams” as herds of wild buffalo meander down the same road you’re using.  We broke the tents out for the first time at Yellowstone; it was the only way to stay in the Park.

But the park is also up in the mountains, averaging over 8,000 feet.  Now I was a backpacker, and had the right kind of sleeping bag for all conditions.  But my companions, not so much.  I remember the gruff “get up” at five in the morning.  There was ice in the water, and Jerry built a dawn fire to try to get warm.  We finally got the coffee going (yep, even then we were coffee fanatics) and decided to cut our camping experience short.  It was time to move on.

Headed to Track Town

The next night was in Idaho along the Snake River valley.  It was a lot warmer, and camping was more comfortable.  We were now on our way to the West Coast.  This was my choice in the itinerary; we were headed to Eugene, Oregon, home of Oregon University and “Track Town USA” even then. 

We wandered around the famous “County Fair” track at Eugene, the home of the US Championships and Olympic Trials.  It was also the home of Steve Prefontaine, the premier US distance runner of the 1970’s who tragically in a car accident just a few years before.  That was all about my interests, it would be seventeen years before I would return to Eugene, this time with a track team in tow.

Then it was head for the coast.  Our next goal was the drive down Highway 101 – The winding two lane highway that meandered down the coast of Oregon, through the small fishing towns and across the border into California.  We stopped at the Redwood Forest, then onto Highway 1, the coastal highway that would take us to San Francisco.

Flowers in Our Hair

It was 1983, and the hippie era was over in the Bay City.   We made our way across the Golden Gate Bridge, got to our hotel, then took a cab to see the seamier side of the town, the Tenderloin.  We were the essential “boys from the Midwest” seeing the “big city”.  Our goal: to see Carol Doda, the legendary stripper who was one of the first with silicone breast implants.  

We found the “club” and were ushered to our table.  Our drink was a small water glass full of beer, and we were told that those would be kept  refilled at all times, and at $15 a glass (note: that was in 1982, and $15 would be $30 in 2021 dollars).  No one watched Carol without paying the “tab” in water glass beers.  Carol was still a legend even in 1982, but her prime was in 1965 when she was in her twenties.  We were disappointed, both by the show and the beer, and headed out to see what else San Francisco had to offer.

Taking the Tour

The next day we went to Alcatraz, just recently opened as a National Park.  Our guide was Frank, a former guard when the island was a prison in the 1940’s and 50’s.  Frank lent his personal experiences as a young guard of Al Capone and more recent interactions with actor Clint Eastwood in  the filming of the movie Escape from Alcatraz.  I’ve been back a few times since, and now the “tour” is all “canned” on headphones.  Frank is still heard in the narration, but of course, he passed away decades ago. It was very different face to face.

We did all the “tours” in San Francisco, from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Muir Woods.  I don’t remember if we ate on Fisherman’s Wharf on that trip, but on some trip I discovered a stop you need to make. It’s Neptune’s Waterfront Grill at the end of the pier.  The view is spectacular, the food is great, and while it’s not the cheapest place, the folks are friendly and it’s worth the price.

We were headed South – San Francisco was about the half way point on our great adventure.  And that’s a good place to take a break.  Come by next week for the second half of the story.

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 (1) – 4/11/21

Forever England

My Mom was always a proud citizen of the United Kingdom.  But she would never call it that:  to my Mom and her generation, it was always England.  She made the point herself, even in death almost ten years ago.  On her orders (and I do mean orders) written on her headstone is the Rupert Brooke poem:

“If I should die think only this of me, that there is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England”.

And Mom’s politics were a little bit complicated.  She was a child of the English school system, what Americans would call a private school education at a Sacred Heart Convent School in England followed by two years of “finishing school” in Belgium.  When she returned, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature (I can hear her say that now – English Lit-tra-ture).  And yet, she would tell vague stories of hiding Irish cousins from the British police,  and in her words, her pre-World War II politics were “a bit rosy” as well.

Duty

But her service in the Special Operations Executive, and the sacrifice of so many of her generation cemented her loyalty to the country, and to the Crown.  As I was growing up we had legendary wide-ranging discussions at Mom’s dinner table with eclectic groups of friends.  But criticism of the Crown was not allowed.   So while Mom was the major “liberal” influence in our life here in America (Dad was a “Rockefeller Republican), I think she was a more Conservative citizen of the United Kingdom.  She didn’t vote there, and was as committed to the United States as any American.  But she stood for the institutions that represented the British Empire, and was quietly sad as those were diminished.

And Mom had a very personal affiliation with Queen Elizabeth.  It wasn’t that she personally knew Her Majesty, but Mom very much related to the story of the young woman who was unexpectedly thrust into the role of heir apparent. Her father, King George VI, was never supposed to be the King.  Her uncle, King Edward the VIII, gave up the throne for “the woman he loved”, leaving his brother the throne.  

Parallel Stories

Elizabeth was eight years younger than Mom, a teenager during the War.  But she pitched in, becoming a driver and even a mechanic to help the War effort.  And she took on the role of Heir Apparent, and then, at twenty-six years of age, as the Queen.  Life unexpectedly changed her life’s course again and again.

And that’s the way Mom’s life was as well.  Her course was set, the fiancé of an Oxford man, enjoying the racing excitement of the pre-War social life of London.  But the War altered all that.  Her fiancé was killed in the Battle of Britain, and she became a “spy” for the SOE, risking her own life in Nazi territory.  Like Edward, she fell in love with an American, and gave up her family and the nation she loved to come to home with him.  

Her life social and joyful life became deadly serious and focused.  After they came to America, Mom and Dad had a wonderful life, doing remarkable things and enjoying sixty-five years of marriage.  But, like Elizabeth, it wasn’t the life either expected.  So Mom more than related to the Queen, and stoutly defended the royal family.

Prince Phillip

Prince Phillip Mountbatten, the husband to the Queen died this morning at ninety-nine years of age.  Phillip accepted a lifetime as the “consort” to the Queen, a helpmate and supporter who was consigned to a secondary role, literally walking a step behind his wife.  Like many of the rest of the Royal family, Phillip had his flaws.  But he did his duty.  That’s what Mom would have said.

And she would have been sad today.  Sad for England, and sad to see the last of her generation leaving the world.  

And so very sad for the Queen.

Morning Meme

So I just started my morning “read” with a look at what’s coming across on Facebook.  The “meme” that stood out to me was about Voter Identification Laws.  It was a series of pictures:  people using ID to get their bank account, buy a gun, buy cigarettes and alcohol – and then asks “tell me again why an ID for voting is bad?”

I almost commented.  There are two parts to voting, registration and casting an actual vote.  For over a century, a signature has been required to register to vote.  When someone actually votes, that signature is matched to the one on file.  That, by the way, is how we still use “checks” (yep, I know that’s old fashioned too).  And, just like checks, when a question arises about the validity of the signature, then more investigation is required.

And to say that to vote absentee you need to have a copy of State ID attached, or worse, a notarized copy, defeats the entire purpose of absentee voting.  The idea of absentee voting is to allow someone to vote from their own home, for convenience, illness, or calendar conflict.  Forcing them to go out and make a copy, or worse, a notarized copy of their State ID, defeats the entire purpose.  It makes voting so much more difficult.  Which of course, is the “real” purpose of those laws.

I didn’t comment on Facebook though.  My theory is that if someone actually writes a comment, I’ll respond.  If they simply copy/paste a picture, then they really aren’t looking for responses, just affirmation.

COVID ID

But it did strike me that they really don’t believe what they say.  Let’s take their argument onto its next logical conclusion.  If you need ID for banking and cigarettes, alcohol and guns, then sure as Hell we should have ID to make sure you’ve received the COVID vaccine and you’re not spreading the “virus” to the rest of society.

Can there be a more important goal for our country than to stop the spread of COVID?  We ALL know that the longer it spreads, the more likely there will be genetic mutations in the virus.  Those mutations could well render the vaccines and treatments ineffective, setting the nation and ultimately the world back to “square one” in combatting the disease.  “Square One” by the way, is March of 2020, when the nation was forced to shut down. 

While keeping bad checks from being cashed and preventing underage folks from getting smokes and booze are all laudable goals; there can be nothing more immediately important to our society than to keep the virus in check.  Getting everyone vaccinated is clearly the way to do that.  Currently, less than twenty percent of Americans are fully protected, though that number is increasing by one and a half million a day (one half of one percent).  But to get back to “the ballgame” safely, or the bar, or the concert, or high school graduations, we need to have eighty percent or more protected.

Ticket to Normal

So it seems reasonable that we should be able to PROVE that folks have done the intelligent thing and gotten the vaccine.  And what about those who cannot, for medical reasons, take the shot?  Well, until we get our whole society to the level of “herd immunity”, approximately eighty percent or so, then those folks are a risk.  They need to protect themselves from crowds and exposure, until the rest of us do the “right” thing.  And, for areas of greater exposure like crowds, this isn’t something we should take anyone’s “word” on.  Our nation has been far too divided to chance that.

We don’t take people’s “word” when they vote.  We take their registration signature, and match their ballot signature.  If they don’t match, then we further investigate.  In a nation that is battling its way out of a year of economic and social upheaval of COVID-19, why in the world would we take their “word” on being vaccinated?

It’s simple:  there’s a “app” for that.  Other nations throughout the world are using it as a “ticket” back to normal life.  But somehow here in America, some see this as a “invasion” of their personal rights.  Several states are even considering outlawing it.  What’s funny though, is that they are the same folks who are demanding ID for voting. 

They need to get their story straight.

Not Every Cop

Derek Chauvin is not every cop.  After watching days of testimony, from the bystanders to the Minneapolis Chief of Police, what Derek Chauvin did to George Floyd is far beyond the scope of “policing”.   We may never really understand what Chauvin “meant” to do. Maybe he was  “punishing” Floyd by “putting him to sleep”, an action that went far wrong.  Maybe he really was threatened by a large Black man who refused to cooperate and get in the car.  Or maybe he thought that somehow Floyd was on powerful drugs that made him uncontrollable.  Whatever Chauvin thought, the video tells the tale.

In cold blood, with intent or reckless disregard, Derek Chauvin led two other officers in holding a handcuffed Floyd on the ground.  And for over nine minutes he kneeled on Floyd’s neck; past the time Floyd stopped struggling, or moving, or talking.  He kneeled on his neck until he was dead.

And it wasn’t like the bystanders weren’t trying to take some action.  No one physically assaulted the officer as he snuffed Floyd’s life out; but they screamed, and cried, and warned and pleaded with Chauvin to let him breath.  What was Chauvin’s answer when it was all over, and Floyd’s lifeless body was gone in the ambulance?  When an elderly Black man said Chauvin didn’t have to do this, his answer was,  “That’s one person’s opinion”.

Take Responsibility

The media seems surprised that Chauvin’s supervisors are testifying against him.  His sergeant, the most senior Lieutenant on the Force, the Commander in charge of training and the Chief of Police himself have all stated that Chauvin’s action was far beyond the “scope” of policing.  

But let’s keep in mind that Derek Chauvin represented the Minneapolis Police and the “people of Minneapolis” as a nineteen year veteran officer.  He earned two medals of valor in his career, and eighteen complaints on his record, two resulting in discipline.  The Minneapolis Police Department may be horrified with Chauvin’s action, but they are even more concerned that “one of their own” would do such a thing.  How much responsibility do they have for this rogue officer?

Heroes

Almost every cop is NOT like Derek Chauvin.  Most joined the Force to actually help people, to defend the helpless, stop bullying, and take criminals off the streets.  They started for the right reasons, and most still do their jobs, and risk their lives, daily.  For every Derek Chauvin, there are thousands of Eric Talley’s, the first officer in the door of the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.  He knew his job was to engage the shooter, directing the fire towards himself rather than the “civilians” in the store.  He paid the ultimate price.

The police officers that I know are like Talley.  They do their job, they take care of people, they believe that they are trying to do “what’s right”.  And they are, without talking about it, willing to be “the first one in” at the Kroger’s, or the school, or wherever lives are at risk.  It is “part of the job”, but also the duty they knowingly accepted when they swore to “serve and protect”. 

In a world of “full transparency”, when every action is likely to be on camera,  police officers are constantly under a microscope.  And they have a valid point.  It seems that few of the “good things” they do end up on YouTube or going “viral”, but every confrontational interaction does.  But because there are the few officers like Chauvin in the world, transparency is needed.  And that’s the rub.

Last Action

I live near Columbus, Ohio.  In the past few months, two Black men have been killed by Police Officers in questionable circumstances.  The facts are not “in” fully in yet on what happened, but there is a real concern.  Police Officers absolutely have the right to live to “go home” after their shift.  But so do the civilians that they interact with. 

And the Minneapolis Chief made a strong point on the witness stand. As he said, in many professions you are judged by the wide “body of your work” through a career. Famous Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes is remembered for legendary speeches and coaching. It’s only a footnote that his career ended when he punched a player from another school in the sidelines.

But not in policing.  Police Officers are judged by what they did in their last interaction with the public.  “Good cop” or “bad cop”, it’s what happens last that is important, not all the good in the past.   And that makes doing their job just that much tougher.  And the fact the action will be on video, from their own body-camera or civilians with phones, makes it even harder.  Every instant judgment call is recorded for posterity, to be analyzed and debated.

But, as the Minneapolis officers who testified said, Chauvin was not making an instant judgment call.  His “instant” lasted more than nine minutes.  

Who Can Judge

Every profession has some who shouldn’t be there. And  it’s easy from the outside to say that the police should “police” their own.  Their problem:  unlike other professions, police officers know that they will be in a position where they need “back-up”, need help from their fellow officers perhaps to save their lives.  It’s a choice for them:  how can we “police” our fellow officers, and then call on them for assistance at the critical moment?  They have to have each other’s backs, it can mean life and death.

So they can’t do this job.  But it still has to be done. If police cannot police themselves, then someone else must.  Because someone needs to take responsibility for Derek Chauvin.

The election of year of 2020 is over:  like it or not, Donald Trump lost, Joe Biden won.  And, fingers crossed, the COVID pandemic seems to be on the verge of ending as well.  The vaccines are proving to be incredibly effective.  Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, even the much maligned Astra-Zeneca:  all seem to have seventy percent or higher prevention rates.  And even more, the scientific data shows that they are all almost 100% effective at avoiding hospitalization and death from COVID.  Those two things dividing us, election and disease, seem done.

Sources

Yet the Nation seems as divided as ever.  As soon as one “crisis” is resolved, another arises to “fuel” our divisions.  And the chief “Fire Feeder” is old news now – FOX News.  Here’s the top news stories from the FOX News app on my IPhone Sunday morning.

• – Trump calls for boycotts of “woke” companies over Georgia (election) law
• – His Cheatin’ Heart – There’s a reason why Cuomo’s ex moved far away
• – Hunter Biden reveals moment he began sleeping with brother’s widow
• – Pulling the Trigger – Another state allows you to carry handguns without permit
• – Trump’s appeal to Latino voters may have been more widespread than originally reported
• – AOC is a ‘noise box’ who introduced 21 bills that went nowhere.

And here’s the Washington Post’s top stories – just for contrast:

• – How Joe Biden tamed left, at least for now
• – Inside a stealth “persuasion machine” – promising GOP victories in 2022
• – Latest Capitol attack reignites debate over security
• – After three recent deadly gun rampages, US survivors and experts fear what comes next
• – Inside the “Teen Vogue” mess -which is really a Conde Nast mess.

Missing Issues

The Capitol was attacked again Friday.  One police officer killed and another wounded.  The vaccines are working, but there’s still concern about genetic variants.  The real issue in our future:  how to regulate the intersection between vaccination and activity.  Should vaccination be required to go to a concert, or to school, or church or work? 

And what are today’s other “real news” stories, on this Easter Sunday?

Well, both Fox and the Post had stories about the Pope delivering Easter Mass with a mask on.  And neither is discussing Myanmar – where protestors of the military coup are holding an “Easter Egg strike”.  That might sound “cute” – but those protestors are demonstrating immense courage in the face of military might. 

Siloed

We had a wonderful Easter dinner last night.  And we had great discussions (perhaps fueled by the wine).  We navigated police assaults, the Second Amendment, and even the legalization of drugs.  Who would think that our ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and spice cake cupcake dinner would “founder” on voter identification?

As a nation we are “siloed”.  One set of new sources reflect one set of political views, another one reflects the opposite.  I can read or listen to whatever news sources reinforce my political beliefs.  And those who still believe that the 2020 election was stolen, and that Donald Trump really won, can listen to theirs.   

Give Me Unity

Joe Biden called for “unity” upon his inauguration  – but, to paraphrase a lesser known part of  Patrick Henry’s Liberty or Death speech:

 “There is no unity.  The ‘war’ has never stopped.  The next ‘gale’ that sweeps from Washington will bring to our ears the clash of resounding  and continuing conflict.  Our ideological brethren remain in the field”.

(A brief side bar:  I once stood in the restored Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg.  Somehow, we had the place to ourselves – and I rose up and delivered the last parts of Henry’s actual speech.  It was definitely a “goosebumps” moment for this history buff).

Sure there are always differences in political views.  The Republicans of the past would have opposed a $1.9 trillion relief package, even though they had no problem supporting a $1 trillion dollar tax cut, mostly for corporations and the wealthy.  And “old day” Republicans would also oppose the $2 trillion Biden infra-structure proposal.  But both of those legislative initiatives were negotiable in the past.  The Republicans of the “old days” would have gotten some cuts, and earned some money for their own priorities.

No Deal

But this isn’t an era where compromise and “deals” are acceptable.  Our current political climate is driven by the “silos”, where only total fealty to the partisan line, backed by media confirmation of “their view” as true, is acceptable.  Our nation is one based on compromises. Some were good, like the Great Compromise between the small states and the larger ones at the Constitutional Convention.  And some bad, like the Three-Fifths Compromise at the same Convention, granting the Southern states more political power by counting their “owned people” as “three-fifths persons” for the purpose of representation and taxation (but not voting).  

But our current climate on both sides does not allow for compromise:  ask the “Joes”, Biden and Manchin.  We are “siloed” in our political views.  The last paragraph of Patrick Henry’s oration is this:

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it Almighty God!  I know not what choice others may make, but as for me:  Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death.”

Henry saw no compromise possible with England: only Liberty or Death.  America of 2021 should not be in that situation of binary alternatives.  But we are acting as if we are.  And the driving force of that reaction:  we are continually reinforced  that there can be no middle ground.

Climb out of the silo.  Take a look at some different views.  It’s the only way to govern.

They aren’t always wrong, and you aren’t always right.

Here’s the next installment in the “Sunday Story” series. Last week it was about stories from the State Cross Country Meet. This week – it’s all about Track and Field.

Going to the Shoe

Competing in the State Track meet is the ultimate goal for High School track athletes.  I started coaching track and field in 1978 at Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, Ohio.  The State Meet was then held in legendary football stadium, the Ohio State University’s “Horseshoe”.  It wasn’t ever my favorite track stadium; the open “horseshoe” end created all sorts of crosswinds for field event athletes.  For my kids trying to get there though, most of whom were “Buckeyes” from birth, it was the ultimate sign of success.  

Jesse Owens

And it was the home of Jesse Owens, the reason I ran track in the first place.  When I was in sixth grade I read “The Jesse Owens Story”, about the Ohioan who became the Four Gold Medal winner at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.  Owens singlehandedly drove Hitler out of his own stadium.  The dictator didn’t want to have to salute a Black man.  After I read the book, I dug “starting holes” in the backyard (they didn’t use starting blocks in Jesse’s day) and practiced starts on the grass.  And, since I was the “fastest” kid in Southdale Elementary School (the gym class raced the 50 yard dash), I knew track was going to be my thing.

Later, when I was fourteen, I got the chance to actually meet and talk to Jesse Owens.  I was then a high school “220 man” (it would be a “200 man” now), and we had several minutes to compare track stories.  His were so much better!

So getting to the “Shoe” was the ultimate achievement.  When I became the Head Coach in 1982, two of my goals were to win at State Team Championship, and have an athlete win an individual State Crown.  It’s not easy.  We never won as a team, or even came very close.  And it took until 2016 for a Watkins kid to cross the finish line first in a State final.  

But just like in Cross Country, in track there was always a lesson to learn along the way.  And each journey to the State Meet had its own story.  Some were successful, some were surprises, and some crushing disappointments – but they each had their own narrative to help prepare for the next.

Bill and Brad

In my early Assistant Coaching days I was the sprint/hurdle coach.  That’s what I did in high school and college, and I hadn’t learn the technical skills of the field events yet.  But our first State Meet lesson foretold my future.  It’s a pole vault story.

We had two pretty good pole vaulters, coached by my friend and Head Coach Bob Cramer.  Bill was a dedicated vaulter, going to camps and learning everything he could to improve. He worked to not only learn, but to help his coaches become better as well.  Our second vaulter, Brad was pretty good too, though more of a spring-time vaulter.  So Watkins was already a kind of “vault” school, well before I gained an understanding of the event.  

As the sprint coach, I would get done with my practice, then wander over to the last kids on the field, the vaulters.  I hung out with them, listening to Bob’s instruction, and helped out where I could. 

The Fall

Bill had the height to be a State qualifier, and we were all looking forward to his success.  In those days two athletes qualified from the District Meet to the State, and Dublin had a great vaulter too, the eventual state champion.  So unless there was an upset, the Dublin kid and Bill looked like the qualifiers, with Brad left out in third place.

At the District Bill, had a bad early vault. He came up short and came down from twelve feet onto the sharp metal edge of the pole vault box.  The landing was on his butt:  the force of the blow ruptured an artery that had to be surgically repaired.  He got an early diagnosis literally in the vault box.  The event judge was a physician, and though as a gynecologist he said he was a little out of his field, he could tell that the injury was significant.  It was a bitter end to Bill’s great efforts to become a state qualifying vaulter.

Pack Your Poles

Bill was out, flat on his stomach (though he did manage to crutch through his graduation ceremony).  That left Brad as the runner-up:  he was going to State.  What nobody considered was that Bill always “packed” the poles, getting everyone’s equipment together to go to the meet.  When Brad arrived at the Horseshoe for the competition, the weather was cold, rainy and windy, and the decision was made to move the vault to the indoor track. It wasn’t until Brad got inside and finally pulled the poles out of our bag, he realized his pole was still at home.

Bob gave me the keys to his vintage yellow Charger, and I drove like crazy back to school to grab the right pole.  I made record time back to the track, but Brad was on his last attempt at the opening height when I arrived.  He got one vault on “his” pole, but it was too much for him.  I learned an early lesson – always check, not just poles, but everything.  Little details make all the difference.

The High Jumper

By the mid-1980’s we had some strong track and field teams.  We always seemed to be one year off though.  One year we had the field events, throwers, jumpers, and vaulters.  The next year we had the running events, distance runners, sprinters and hurdlers.  Both teams were strong, but it they never came completely together.  

In the “field event” year we had a phenomenal high jumper, coached by our young assistant Dan Yeagley.  In track “lore”, pole vaulters are a little crazy, but high jumpers are – flaky.  Sometimes they can jump over the moon, and sometimes they just trip over the crescent.  Consistency is hard to find.  But we had Charlie, and flaky or not, he was a good one.  Charlie cleared 6’6” in indoor season – one of the best in the state.  And he had a great outdoor season, even clearing a state leading 6’10” in the early part of May.  

Mind Walls

But there was a problem.  To get to state, Charlie had to finish in the top four at the Regional meet.  That meet would be held at Thomas Worthington High School, a place where Charlie notoriously jumped badly.  He didn’t like the transition from the grass field to the high jump surface, and he didn’t like the pit, and he didn’t like the guy who ran the high jump, and – well you get the idea.  No matter how high he could jump anywhere else, the mental wall Charlie built at Worthington was unscalable.

And Charlie lived up to all of our nightmares.  While he was top two entering the meet, at Worthington he barely cleared 6’4”, and just squeaked into the State meet with 4^th place.  It was his first state meet appearance, and usually the pressure of the competition, and the Horseshoe, and the expectations made most athletes sub-par.  Our goals for the State was for them to “do what they did”, rather than a “super-human” effort that would fall far short.

But as much as Charlie hated Worthington, he loved the surface at Ohio State.  The high jump area was huge, and the surface was hard and fast.  Charlie brought more speed to his jump than he ever had before.  Dan and I were sitting in the stands nearby as Charlie soared his starting height of 6’4”, then popped over 6’6” and 6’8”.  He was “on the podium” to get a state medal:  minimum goal achieved.  

The Best Ever

The he cleared 6’10” on his first attempt.  Dan and I were going nuts in the stands, Charlie was in first place.  If no one cleared the state record 7’0”, then Charlie would be the Champion.   It was the best high school competition in State history, with three jumpers left at the record.  Charlie went first, and we went crazy again.  He cleared the State Record 7’0” on his first attempt.  

But the other the other two competitors got over the height as well.  Three jumpers moved to 7’2” – all jumping better than any high schooler in Ohio before.  And that’s when we ran out of gas.  The winner, from Elyria, managed to shimmy over 7’2”.  Charlie and the kid from Worthington were done.  But I was never so proud of a second place performance. That was in 1987.  It took twenty-two years for that state record to be broken.  And while we didn’t have a State champion, we did get to be a part of an historic competition.  Charlie’s school record still stands at Watkins, a goal of every high jumper since, flaky or not.

Sprinter’s Dilemma

The next year was the “running” year.  While we still had a strong team, the “power” of our team shifted away from the field events and onto the track.  One of our strongest events was the 400 meters, where we had an outstanding sprinter in Zack.  At one point, Zack held the school record in six events.  But in his hearts and ours (the coaches) he was a 400 man.  

But there was a problem.  Zack could run sub fifty seconds in the 400 (his best was 49.7) and he could go even faster in a relay split.  But each time Zack dipped below fifty seconds, his hamstring hurt.  It wasn’t season ending or anything like that, but it required a few days rest to recover.

And the problem with that was that in the State meet, Zack would have to run his fastest 400’s back to back, Friday and Saturday.  We knew in mid-April that he could go to State, and make the finals.  But he probably wouldn’t be able to compete, run his best, in that final day. 

The Boundary

Even earlier that year in indoor season we “fished” around for different events for Zack.  He was a soccer player in the fall, and his endurance was good.  “Track Coach” tradition says if you have a great 400 man with strong endurance, he ought to try the 800.  But the 800 (half a mile) is the “boundary” between sprinters and distance runners.  And it’s not just in their heads, the physiology of the races are quite different.  

But to be a successful 800 runner you have to have the sprint speed that Zack already possessed.  So we threw him in one at a Denison Indoor meet.  Zack won the race and  set the school record.  As he tried to recover, he looked at me and said: “Don’t you ever put me in that ‘$#!@’ race again!!”  

And we didn’t, at least for a while.  But the sprint coach Joe Hartley and I always had that option in the back of our minds.  And it all came down to what Zack’s hamstring could do.

He ran the 800 again in the high-powered Worthington Invitational, and won the race in a school record time.  And he ran the anchor-leg of our Conference champion 4×800 Relay team at the League meet.  After the League meet, Joe, Zack and I had to make a more final decision.  He could run the 400, qualify to State, and not be able to run the finals.  Or, we could “roll the dice” and run the 800, the ‘$#!@’ race that hurt more than even a good 400, and try to win it all.

So with a grand total of three 800’s in the season, we decided to go for the podium in the 800.  Zack won the District with ease (a qualifier on Tuesday and a final on Saturday).  He then came back the next week and won the Regional competition (one race) going away in 1:57.  That put Zack in the State meet, in his seventh 800.

The Race

Joe and I were all about strategy with Zack.  He was lined up next to the fastest 800 guy in the State, who had run 1:54.  Our strategy was simple:  stay with him for the first 400, then use your sprint speed to beat him at the end.  Beat him, and win the State meet.

The gun went off, and Zack did exactly as we planned.  He stuck with the fastest kid through the first 300, and then we all came to a stunning realization.  The fastest kid in the State was falling apart – the pressure of being “number one” was too much for him.  With 600 meters to go, Zack was next to last place.

So Zack took matters into his own hands.  He swung out into lane three, and started passing runners.  When he got to the 400 mark he had moved into the middle of the field.  He stayed out around the third turn, and continued to move up the field onto the backstretch.  By the time he reached the last turn, he took the lead.

And he held it, around the turn and into the home stretch.  The final straight-away is 100 meters long, and for 90 meters Zack looked like the State Champion.  But a runner from Toledo came up to his side with 10 meters to go, and nudged him as he tried to pass.  Was it a foul, or just “rubbing is racing” in the 800?  It did manage to knock Zack off-stride, and Toledo passed.  One more kid caught Zack at the line.  He was third in the State.

On the Podium

I still have the picture.  Zack, in his torn “lucky jersey”, standing on the third step of the podium getting the bronze medal.  He set a school record that would stand for twenty-five years, running a full four seconds faster than he’d ever run before.  And I’ve never seen a kid look so miserable.  

Lots of things happened at the State Meet – and we aren’t even in the 1990’s yet.  More to come.

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

Four Year Joke

It was the joke of the Trump Administration.  Talk about the Mueller Investigation – it’s infrastructure week.  Talk about child separation at the border – it’s infrastructure week.  Congress impeaches  the President for trying to blackmail Ukraine – it’s infrastructure week.  Congress impeaches the President for sending thousands to “sack” the Capitol – no, we never got to infrastructure week on that one, it was too late!

So now it’s the Biden Administration’s turn at infrastructure week.  And sure enough, it was almost derailed by the ongoing issue at the border. (If you foresee the issue, and try to plan for the issue, and are dealing with this issue, is it really a crisis?  By determining that the prior administration’s policy was immoral, and taking “the heat” for the increase in kids across the border, I don’t see that as a crisis.  It is a problem that needs to be fixed, ASAP).  

Falling Bridges

There are more than 47,000 road bridges in the United States that are considered “structurally deficient”.  It doesn’t mean they are unsafe, yet.  Structurally deficient means they are in need of renovation.  By the way, that’s down from 54,000 the year before.  But we aren’t fixing bridges – the Federal Highway Administration “weakened” the standards, moving 7,000 bridges out of the category.

Major interstate highway bridges have broken in Chattanooga, Minneapolis, and Cincinnati. But there are other busy bridges that “fall” into the “structurally deficient” category:  the Brooklyn Bridge, the Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC, the San Mateo Bridge across the San Francisco Bay, and the Pensacola Bay Bridge.  And that’s just about bridges (NPR).

Is that important?  Well let’s make it personal. In the past few years, I’ve driven across the Chattanooga bridge that is damaged, and the Brent Spence – I-75 Bridge in Cincinnati that has a hole literally burned through it.  I’ve been back and forth over the Memorial Bridge, and the Pensacola Bay Bridge.  And I’ve driven the San Mateo Bridge too, high over the back bay waters of the San Francisco.  I didn’t know they were on a “list” of deficient bridges.  I just drove.  I’m sure that’s how the people felt in Minneapolis and Chattanooga as well, right before parts of the bridge gave way.

We assume that the roads we are driving on are solid.  It’s not a concern as we cruise around the nation, high over the rivers and old mines in Eastern Ohio, some that have collapsed (not making that up – check out this article about abandoned mines under the I-70/I-77 interchange near Cambridge, FHA).

And roads aren’t the only problem.

Energy Grid

The manmade disaster in Texas last month, when the power infrastructure collapsed from the cold, and the water infrastructure froze, was absolutely avoidable.  The Flint water crisis (yep – that’s a real crisis) where children got lead poisoning from the old pipes and “cost saving” chemicals, was avoidable too. Newark, New Jersey and other cities have similar water issues. And these are infrastructure problems that need to be resolved, soon. 

It’s the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century.  And still that are many rural locations in the United States that don’t have high speed data service.  That might be an occasional blessing, but when it comes to education, business, and communication in our current day and age, high speed internet and data capability is no longer a luxury.  It’s a necessity.

Here in Ohio, there are two operating nuclear power plants, one opened in 1977, the other a decade later.  That means the “youngest” is thirty-four years old.  A nuclear power plant is more than a lifetime commitment, once it becomes operational the fuel and the equipment are radioactive for centuries.  Whether they supply Ohio electricity or not, they still need to be cared for.  Nationwide there are ninety-six plants that need to be maintained, working or not.

Shape the Future

The future doesn’t just happen.  It is planned for and built in the present.  We know that the future will require energy sources that don’t destroy the environment.  We know it now, and we need to plan for it now.  So the United States needs to plan for transportation and energy structures that will use the energies of the future, not depend on energy sources we know we will have to give up.  So while building highways (or rebuilding highways) is great – building them with electric vehicle energy sources is critical.  And while protecting the energy grid from freezes in Texas, and drought and fire in California, it’s important to recognize that the sources for power can’t depend on coal or petroleum.  

And the Biden plan includes things like building for the increasing number of old aged folks who will need care, and school buildings that will need to be replaced.  It’s not as “high profile” as roads and bridges, but just as important.

“Infra-structure week” has been a sad joke for the past few years.  But this week, this Administration, it’s a chance to build the future.  High speed trains will be a part of that future; they’re energy efficient and they are cheaper than flying.  

We ought to get on board.

The Song – by one of my favorites –  The Who

Arming Bears

I hear my “Second Amendment” friends demanding that we can’t register guns, and we can’t check backgrounds.  Why, I ask; is it any different than a car or a house?  We regulate, register, tax and control all of those purchases – why are guns so very different?  Their answer is always simple:  The Second Amendment.  As  Justice Scalia wrote in the majority opinion of the Heller Supreme Court decision (wrongly ruled in my judgment):  the two clauses of the Second Amendment are independent of each other.  So “…A well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of the free state” clause, has no bearing or modification of the “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” clause.

They claim an absolute right to “keep and bear arms”.  Any regulation has to be weighed completely against that right.  Anything governmental action that “infringes” on it:  registration, background check, licensing; cuts into it.  

Now I don’t agree with the original premise of the Heller decision, that the two clauses are independent of each other.  In fact, I’m surprised that a Constitutional originalist like Scalia made that argument.  Madison wrote carefully and precisely.  It’s unlikely he wanted to leave room for interpretation here, when in so many other instances he was crystal clear in his meaning.  And to claim that the “well-regulated militia clause” is extraneous seems unlikely to me.  But that’s what Scalia said, and a majority of the Court agreed with him.

Fundamentals of the Constitution

But this essay isn’t about the Second Amendment.  It’s about an even more fundamental issue of the Constitution, a foundational determination:  the right to vote.  And oddly enough many of the same people who demand that governmental regulation of weapons is unconstitutional are perfectly willing to make “other” folks jump through paperwork hoops to vote.

The right to vote is even more soundly grounded in the Constitution than the right to bear arms.  At the very beginning:  Article 1, Section II; where the document outlines the qualification to vote for Members of the House of Representatives: “…electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature”.

Electors are voters – and who gets the right to vote is outlined in a series of Amendments:  the 15^th, the 19^th, the 23^rdand the 26^th.   And how that right is applied is determined by the fateful language of the 14^th Amendment:  

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

It seems clear that the right of a citizen to bear arms, and the right of a citizen to vote have, at the least, equal weight in the Constitution.  

Down at the Polls

When Americans began voting, there was little regulation of the voting process.  Citizens voted in precincts, close to their home.  Their “poll workers” were their friends and neighbors.  Essentially everyone knew everyone, paper identification wasn’t required.  And everybody knew who was “eligible” and who was not.  So there was no need for advanced identification mechanisms. 

Even up into the last half of the twentieth century, voting was mostly a neighborhood deal.  Here in Pataskala, the poll workers were the retired people in town.  They either knew you already, or they knew you after the first time.  But just in case, they asked you to sign your name, then matched it to the “big book” of signatures.  

When you registered to vote with the Board of Elections, they got a signature for comparison purposes.  Then when you voted, they matched you current signature to that original.  All of the voter qualification requirements:  citizenship, residency, age and questions of legal status were determined upon registration.  After that – it was just about going and casting a ballot, with your signature as your “bond”.  If there was a question about the signature, or about you, there was (and is) a process for challenging that.  And it’s worked for over a century.

The Big Lie

In the past twenty years, there has been an outbreak of voter fraud.  Millions of voters cast their ballots illegally, and while Court action has been brought and hundreds of thousands of cases, it’s been incredibly difficult to stem the rising tide of false votes.  And, amazingly, almost all of the false votes have been for Democratic candidates, so much so, that Republican legislatures all across the nation have instituted more restrictive identification processes.  It’s all necessary to protect the “sacred” right to vote.

Except for one thing.  None of the above paragraph is true.  The Brennan Center at the New York University Law School has done a comprehensive study of voter fraud in the United States over the past twenty years.  Here’s what they found:  in studies of US elections, the voter fraud rate is less than .0025%.   So what does that number mean?  Out of a million votes cast, there is at most an average of 2.5 inaccurate votes, perhaps voter fraud.  As the Study states:  a voter has a better chance of being struck by lightning, than committing voter fraud (Brennan).

In Search of a Solution

In spite of the lack of a problem, Republican legislatures demanded higher levels of identification for voting.  And for many suburban white Americans, the solutions don’t seem to be “a big deal”.  Asking voters to show their driver’s license to vote just isn’t “onerous”.  And for them, it isn’t.  But in Texas and in Georgia is several other states, demanding driver’s license or other official state ID is actually a means of restricting minority voting.  Here’s how.

Many states “cut costs” by shutting down local “BMV’s” (Bureaus of Motor Vehicles) where driver’s licenses and other forms of state ID’s are issued.  This was done as a cost saving measure, and particularly impacts small, isolated, rural towns.  The functions of the local BMV’s are consolidated in larger, more efficient regional offices.

Onerous

But the problem is those regional offices are in bigger towns, forty, fifty, or in Texas’s case one hundred miles away.  For folks who are unable to afford personal vehicles, that means they have to find some kind of public transportation to get to the “big town”, get an ID, and get home.  It’s a big trip, a full day trip really, a day where they will not be earning wages.  If they have to get someone else to drive, they have to pay for gas.  If they take public transportation, they have to pay the ticket.  And for some of the ID’s they have to pay a fee for that as well.

So what seems like no big deal here in Pataskala, where the BMV office is located in the center of town; in other states becomes a time consuming and expensive effort to get an ID.  If you have to “pay” to get the paperwork to vote, it’s a form of poll tax.  And that, my friends, is unconstitutional, violating the Twenty-Fourth Amendment:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Who Can’t Vote

And since in many of those states many of those poor rural voters are minorities, the voter ID laws keep them from voting.  By the way, it’s the same way with cost-saving consolidation of polls.  Here in Pataskala, what used to be the local polling place in the center of town has been moved.  The “new” polling place consolidates several different old polling places in one building.  It’s one “efficient” voting process:  but for the elderly or “car-less” who used to walk to the poll in town, it places a burden on them.

If you look at the lines to vote in Atlanta – you get the point.  The polls have been consolidated.  Not only do folks have to pay for transportation, buses most likely, to get to the polls, but then they have to wait hours in line to vote.  In those hours, they aren’t working, and they aren’t taking care of their kids.  Someone else is.  And now, thanks to the “good” folks in the Georgia State Legislature, they can’t  be handed a cookie or a bottle of water as they wait in line.  It’s illegal.

So what for the suburban citizens in Pataskala, or even outside of Atlanta, doesn’t seem like a big deal, is just one more step to make sure it’s hard for poor, minority voters to cast their ballots.  

Mail It In

With COVID, voting by mail became a more important option.  States made it easy to cast your ballot from the kitchen, instead of getting to the poll and waiting in line.  The ballot was sent to the residence of the voter, assuring that the voter lived there.  The ballot was returned with a signature (sometimes several) allowing for the signature “check”. 

 But now several states are requiring greater ID requirements.  Copies of driver’s licenses (here we go again) are required.  But that requires access to copiers, or scanners.  Again, no big deal to the middle class suburban voter.  Not so easy to those who don’t have the electronic equipment we all take for granted.

And, of course, it’s not about keeping Democrats from voting – it’s about “ballot security”.

As the Parkland kids would say:  I call BS.

ACA

It was a true highlight of the early “Resistance” to the Trump Administration.  Trump’s goal was to dismantle almost anything that Barack Obama achieved.  And President Obama’s greatest achievement:  The Affordable Care Act (ACA), bringing health insurance to millions of Americans.  

It was already undercut by the Republican controlled Congress.  The ACA was a “carrot and stick” approach to insurance.  If you didn’t already have private insurance through your employer and refused to purchase it on the “marketplace”, you faced the “stick”.  You were charged a tax “penalty”. 

The Republicans lowered the “penalty” to zero and took away the “stick”.  So those who wished to “go bare” and have no insurance at all, didn’t face consequences.  That is, of course, until they got injured or sick.  And from the ACA side, it allowed a lot of very healthy people to not contribute to the insurance pool.  Their dollars were used to supplement the costs of sicker people.

GOP Control

Mr. Trump controlled the Presidency, the House under Speaker Paul Ryan, and the Senate under Mitch McConnell.  Democrats rallied Americans to protect the ACA.  There were marches on the Capitol, sit-ins in the hallways, and media pressure campaigns all over the nation.  But in the end, the numbers favored the Republicans.  

The House voted to repeal the Act, and it moved to the Senate.  The Republicans had a 54 to 46 vote majority. They were clearly in charge but not the “super” majority of 60 required to end a Democratic filibuster.   So the repeal was brought as a “budget reconciliation bill”. That allowed a simple majority of 51 to take away Obama’s crowning achievement.  

There were a few Republican Senators wavering.  They faced tough re-election campaigns in marginally Republican states, and the ACA was popular among the electorate.  And some recognized that their Party had still offered no alternative to the ACA. Should Congress repeal the law, there would be no protections for those with pre-existing conditions, and no ability to carry young adults on their parent’s insurance.  Both were extremely popular changes made by the ACA.

Maverick

And some felt that the process itself, using “budget reconciliation” to take a clearly non-budget vote, was just wrong. There were no hearings, no committees discussing the health care needs of America, no debate on the relative values of the Affordable Care Act. That led some to question the entire process.  One of those was the Senior Senator from Arizona, John McCain. 

McCain lived up to his nickname “Maverick” during the early years of Trump.  He saw Trump as a charlatan and he called “ it like he saw it”.  So McCain’s vote to repeal the ACA was hardly “in the bag”.  Vice President Mike Pence was the point man for the Administration in the negotiations, and McCain wavered as the ultimate pressure was on to support his Party.

Thumb Down

But McCain was dying of a brain tumor.  The normal political pressures of funding or lack of support didn’t have much impact on a man who would only live a few more months.

We all remember that final act.  It was early in the morning, as the Senate was taking the vote.  Those still up watching saw McCain huddle with Pence and McConnell. He then walk out of the Chamber as the votes were taken.  Then he came in, and with an awkward motion of his tortured arm, stood in the front of the Clerk of the Senate and gestured – thumb down.  The ACA survived.

It was about “regular order”.  McCain, like the current President Biden, was a man of the Senate. The Senate was acting as a partisan arm of Donald Trump, not as the deliberative body where McCain “grew up” politically in his thirty years there.  And while the “Resistance” took his vote on the ACA as a great victory – to McCain it was more about the role of the Senate than the law itself.

Get Things Done

After four years of Democrats watching Trump outrages, there is a tremendous pressure to get things done.  The Voting Rights Act(s), Immigration and Citizenship Reform, upgrading the infrastructure, LGBTQIA rights, climate change, gun reform; all are on the list.  And there is the direct impact of the Trump Presidency.  How can we be assured that the almost dictatorial leadership will never be repeated?

Senate Democrats are asking themselves what price they might pay by changing the rules.  They have a slim majority of one, based on Vice President Harris’s role as tie breaker.  To pass any legislation by “regular order”, they must find ten Republican Senators to join in.  And while there seems to be a “middle caucus” of ten less obstructionist Republicans, they don’t seem close to joining the Majority on anything so far.  

By their tie breaking vote, Democrats could make the Senate a simple majority body.  Or, like what has already been done with Judicial and Executive nominations, they can carve out more exceptions to the sixty-vote rule.  They can change the “regular order” to get the agenda through.

Party Line

That is of course, if fifty Democrats stay in step with the “Party line”.  As we saw in the COVID Relief Package, Democrats MAY negotiate with the Republicans, but they MUST negotiate with the more conservative members of their own Party, with Joe Manchin as the “poster boy”.  And Joe Manchin, like John McCain, is a man of “regular order”.  

For Democratic leadership, it’s difficult to put political pressure on a Democrat elected from West Virginia, a state that in 2020 voted almost 69% in favor of Donald Trump.  

One final point.  When Democrats “kill” or modify the Filibuster, the sixty vote rule, when Republicans regain the majority, they will follow the precedent and do the same.  But McConnell could do that anyway, so that threat doesn’t go away no matter what the Democrats do now.

Change the Order

There are many things that Democrats can do – but the one “wrong” answer is impotence.  A minority of Republican Senators cannot stop the flood of legislation that the House, and the vast majority of Democrats, want to get done.  Should the Senate leadership somehow hide behind the veil of Republican filibusters, then the 2022 electorate will walk away from them.  

It’s time for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to make the deal:  not with Republicans, but with Joe Manchin, Krysten Sinema, and the other “blue dog” Democrats.  Whether it’s a total end to the filibuster, or some modification, the only acceptable outcome is to find a way to get things done.  The Voting Rights Acts (HR 1 and HR 4) need to be at the top of that list. 

It’s Sunday, and it’s back to the “Sunday Story” series. Here’s four stories about coaching at the State Cross Country Meet.

Forty Years

I was a social studies teacher and a Dean of Students during my thirty-six years of teaching.  

But I coached for forty years.  My “primary” coaching was in Track and Field, but I was also the Cross Country Coach for thirty years. And I was an assistant Wrestling coach for a while, and started the middle school Wrestling and Cross Country teams.  So while I was teaching and even after, I was always, always coaching.

We took our sports seriously.  We all put a tremendous amount of effort in it, whether it was on the track, in the woods, or on the mat.  And when we competed, we did everything we could to win.  It was part of the “lessons” of athletics in school; work hard, strive to win, and then accept the outcome with “grace”.  I wanted my teams to be honorable, in defeat and victory.  Some of the best lessons were at the losing end of a hard-fought competition, though they certainly didn’t feel like a “good” lesson at the time.

And sometimes things just went sideways.  Today’s stories are from forty years of kids who did everything they could to be successful.  But that wasn’t always the story.  Here’s four from the State Cross Country Meet.

State Cross Country

From the beginning, getting to the State meet in Cross Country was the ultimate goal.  Out of two hundred plus teams in our division, only sixteen made it to the starting line at State.  And even fewer “individuals” qualified, usually about sixteen or twenty.  Getting there was the game.

And we did – first as individuals, then with a series of teams from 1988 through 1999.  During that time the State Meet was held at Scioto Downs, a harness racing track (now a Racino – horses and slot machines).  The course there started in the infield in front of the grandstand, with maybe 12,000 spectators cheering their teams on.  The first half mile was straight across the field, then a 180 degree turn around that (damn) orange barrel to come back in front of the grandstand again.  Another loop around the field – then out in the grounds around the stables.

The start was crazy.  The pressure of all those fans was something that wasn’t a part of “normal” Cross Country.  We were used to a few vocal parents (“Push Johnny – PUSH”) and coaches (“ARRRMMMS!”) but not thousands in the stands.  Not that there wasn’t enough pressure already at the culminating effort of six months of work.  So when the 1989 team got to the line on that cold November afternoon – we were more than “psyched”.  

Mike’s Tights

Our team captain Mike, had been sick all week.  He was our leader, and not having him compete wasn’t really an option.  The school administrators were more than generous – school attendance rules that week were “flexed” for Mike.  So he was out there, not near his best, but leading our first boys’ team at the State Meet.  

Track and Cross Country have some “peculiar” rules.  The problem is that there is no “minor” penalty; no going to the foul line, or five-yard setback.  If you violate the rules, you are disqualified from the event.  You know that college football rule where a player can get thrown out for an “illegal” hit?  Well it’s like that, except it can be for something like stepping across the wrong line, or wearing the wrong pair of running tights.

So there we were, five minutes before the gun, and the boys start taking off their sweats.  Mike looks a little feverish, but the energy on the line pulsed through him just like everyone else.  But when he pulled off his sweat pants – there it was.  He put on the wrong pair of running tights. His had red trim.

That’s a rule violation – at the time all “visible undergarments” had to be a single solid color.  And here was Mike in front of virtually every official in the state, with black tights (like everyone else on our team) except for the red trim near the top.  If they spotted him – he was disqualified, and so was the rest of the team.

Decision on the Line

As Coach, I had a couple of options.  Make a circle, and have Mike strip the tights off?  But it was below freezing, and he was already sick as a dog.  Find another pair of tights?  But there was no time left, the Starter was already blowing the whistle for the “meeting” before the gun.  So I went with a desperate plan:  hope that all of those old-aged officials (I’m one of them now) would miss the red trim peeking out from below his running shorts.

The gun went off, and the “race to the barrel” at the other end of the infield was on.  I spent the next fifteen minutes dashing from one end of the course to the other, cheering and encouraging, trying to get my guys up into the competition.  But in the back of my mind was the thought: I was going to be “that coach” – the guy who couldn’t get his team dressed right and got disqualified.

Mike ran OK, considering his condition.  And we finished Sixth in the State, pretty respectable, though we wanted better.   I raced to the finish line area, and found a friend who was working there.  I explained – my kid was sick, he needed to get his sweats on right away.   Would he get them to him?  I didn’t mention red trim.  I was hoping that Mike, now completely wiped out by the race, would have enough presence of mind to get the sweats on before an official could notice a no-longer-moving target. 

Mike, with the help of his teammates, managed to get dressed.  There was no fateful call:  “Would the Watkins Coach report to the Head Referee” on the PA System.  The team was disappointed in our finish, but proud of our efforts.  Mike spent a couple of weeks really sick – but he wouldn’t have missed that race for the world.  I wouldn’t have pulled him either.  And we “got away” with it.  But, from then on, I ALWAYS checked uniforms before we put sweats on at the state – and I ALWAYS had a spare one with me – just in case there was ever red trim again.

If You Had to Choose

Carmen was an outstanding runner for her four years at Watkins.  In her freshmen year we had a five-girl team – the minimum amount to score in Cross Country.  Carmen was often the first across the finish line.  Our fifth girl worked hard, but was often the last across the line.  So we were the “beginning” and “the end” of each race.

But we had a strong middle school girls team coming, and we promised Carmen that we would build a great team around her.  And we did – by her junior year of high school we had the chance to make it to the State meet.  But it took some “finagling”.   To get to the state we had to place high enough in the Regional Meet to qualify.  At the Lancaster Regional, our boys had their best chance to make it out, with the top four teams going to state.  But for the girls, four of the toughest teams in the State were running at Lancaster.

We also had the choice of going to the Troy Regional.  Only two teams qualified from there,but the girls were good enough to be in the top two.  The problem, it wouldn’t work out well for the boys. So the coaches had to make a decision:  either we all go to one place and one team wouldn’t qualify, or we split our squad.  And while that was a tactical nightmare – we were one team, used to all being together, all the time. But we had to do what’s right for all of our kids.  We split up.

So Jan took the boys down to Lancaster, along with our fellow track coach Jeff, and Dean and I took the girls to Troy.  For a brief moment, I tried to rent a helicopter to pick me up in Troy and drop me off at Lancaster in time for the boy’s race. It was only $1000, and think of the psych as the Coach buzzes the course and lands nearby.  But the schedule was too tight – it wouldn’t work –   too bad.  

It was early in the days of cell phones – and communication between Jan and I was scattered.  The girls ran an awesome race across the goose-poop covered fields along the Great Miami River in Troy, and came in second to a strong Olentangy team.  We were going to State and we were pumped!!  So I called Jan, let her know, and waited for her return call from the boys in Lancaster.

The girls were running their warm down when I got the garbled call from Jan. All I heard was screaming and yelling – but I figured it out.  Two teams were going to State.  It would be a “learning experience”, we were last in both races at Scioto Downs – but we were ready to go back in make more noise the next year!

Pecking Order

We fulfilled our promise to Carmen.  And she more than fulfilled her commitment to us – leading our team through a remarkable junior season.  And the next year, we were even better prepared, even stronger.  But the week of State, Carmen started feeling bad.  It happens, and it’s not just “pressure” from the meet.  The Championship part of the season requires maximum effort, over and over again.  There’s a real cause of season ending sickness and injury.  The Championships push kids to the limits of their abilities, and makes them vulnerable to illness.  It happened to Mike, and it was happening to Carmen too.  

The week into the state meet we did everything we could to rest her.  But it wasn’t any good, she was sick and getting sicker.  But, along with her parents, we weren’t going to pull her from her Senior State.  She more than earned the right to be there, and we could hope adrenalin might take over when everything else failed.

I remember the look in her eyes on the starting line – sad, frustrated, willing to try, but already knowing it wasn’t there.  She was worried that she’d “let the team down”, but I told her that by being there she made our team better.  The gun went off, and within three-fourths of a mile, we knew Carmen’s race wasn’t to be. 

Then we saw the unanticipated problem.  Our girls’ team, like ducks in a row, were all lined up behind Carmen.  No one ever passed Carmen before in a race, and no matter what she said to them (and she was doing some talking) they didn’t want to go by.  Jan yelled, I yelled, and finally, about the mile mark, they started to pass.  Carmen was in tears, and so were the girls as they went by her, one by one.

We were a family, sometimes dysfunctional, sometimes bickering, but a family.  That’s what our Cross Country teams were always about.  We were all in tears.   It wasn’t the ending any of us wanted, but it proved a more important point.  We loved each other.

Gotta Go

A few years later, we were back at Scioto Downs with the boys.  This team was a little different, with a lot more “edge” to it.  We were there with a plan, looking to come home with hardware.  Our team ritual was to arrive at the meet site, set up our team “camp”, then go and run the course.  If you think about it, race days were long days: a three-mile run to warmup, strides and sprints before the race, a three-mile all-out race effort, then a few miles of warm down run after.  But these were well conditioned kids, and eight or nine miles in a day wasn’t unusual. 

So we arrived at Scioto Downs, and set up our tent.  The kids ran out to buy T-Shirts (we came early to take care of that issue) then met back at the tent to start our warmup loops of the course.  It was a bit of a hassle to get inside the stadium at Scioto Downs, so we started our run outside of the track area, through the quiet areas away from the crowd.

There is an axiom of racing.  Before the race, you will always have to pee.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the 100-meter dash or a 5000-meter cross country race, the energy of “fight-flight” will make you want to go.  So while we were at the far south end of the course, my guys headed into the “high weeds” to take care of the issue.  I didn’t really think much of it, it was Cross Country and this was standard practice.  At our home meet, the Watkins Invitational, there was as farm field right beside the starting line (it’s a housing development now).  Things went a lot smoother when the field was planted in corn.  Troops of boys would wander into the field, and return more relaxed.  When there was soybeans, the lines at the Port-a-Pots were much longer.

Please Report

So we got that issue resolved, and continued our warmup into the stadium.  It was our first pass in front of the grandstand, and we were all commenting about the crowd.  Then I heard the PA Announcement:  “Would the Watkins Coach please report to the announcer to speak to the Sheriff’s Deputy in Charge”.  

I mean, really?  We were going to get nailed for peeing in the high weeds?   That was going to make a great headline in the Pataskala Standard:

“STATE QUALIFYING TEAM PISSES AWAY THEIR CHANCE.” 

 I could hear my School Superintendent now…

So I left the team with my Assistant Coach John to finish their warmup, and headed into the Grandstand to find the announcer.  I was marshalling all of my best “legal” arguments – how could I talk my way out of this one?  I finally found the announcer, and he directed me to a small Sheriff’s office.  Another five minutes of searching the “bowels” of Scioto Downs.  Then I found it, gathered my courage, and knocked on the door.  

“COACH DAHLMAN!!!  I saw your team warming up, and wanted to say HI and GOOD LUCK!!”  It was Eddie.  Eddie had been my number one runner back in 1983 – and now was a Franklin County Deputy.  It was good to see him – and I was tremendously relieved.  We caught up for a bit, then I excused myself to get back to the team.  I stopped at the restroom along the way.

We were fifth in the State that year – a great finish, and a great disappointment.  But I was so proud of our kids – they bought into a dream, and gave everything they had to achieve it.  We fell a little short of our goal – but like any good Cross Country race, the story was more about the entire journey, not just crossing the finish line.  And we had a great journey.

But there was one more lesson learned on that cool day in November of 1999.  I guess you probably know what that one was.

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

History

It must have been a lot like this, the years after Appomattox.  The Civil War was over, Lincoln was dead.  Union troops occupied the former Confederate states and the re-United States were faced with the aftermath of Civil War.  How to reorganize the Nation, now with nearly five million newly freed citizens.  How to prevent the Southern re-establishment, the leadership of the Rebellion from regaining power.  And how to do all of this after four years of the worst blood-letting in American history. 

The Northern troops wanted to go home, back to their families and farms.  But they stayed, in South Carolina and Texas, Alabama and Florida and the rest of the South; and attempted to enforce the will of the Congress.  That was expressed first in the 13^th Amendment barring slavery, then later the 14^th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law, and finally the 15^th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote.  

What We Learned

Looking back at my own “history lessons” in my education, I now know that my teachers were influenced by “revisionism”.  In my classes (and unfortunately later in my teaching), the Reconstruction Era was slanted towards the “poor, abused Rebels in the South”.  Our textbook emphasized the terms “scalawag”, a white southerner who cooperated with the Union troops, and “carpetbagger” a northerner who came to the South to make money.  They were more important than Night Riders or lynching or the Ku Klux Klan.  Former Confederate General James Longstreet, who favored moving with reunion rather than resisting, was castigated for “giving up” the cause.  Former General Nathan Bedford Forrest, seen as somewhat heroic in establishing the Klan.

But the world of the Freedmen, the newly Black citizens of the Nation, was not emphasized.  We didn’t teach it, because we didn’t learn it.  The successes of those nascent Black communities, later snuffed out by the Black Codes and Jim Crow and the Klan, were ignored. And because that was how we were taught, it was what we taught as well, at least, at the beginning of my career.  I learned more, and better, as my career progressed – hopefully my students did as well.  But I am sorry for my early contributions to a continuing false narrative.

Today

It must have been like that, living in the North, hearing about the what was going on in the South. Reading about the excitement of the new Black voters, then knowing that their hopes were crushed by the old White establishment. And finally, with 1877 and the Hayes/Tilden deal, Southern Democrats gave up the Presidency to a Republican in return for an end to Reconstruction. The US Government gave up on trying to protect those new citizens.

Because it’s happening today in the state of Georgia, where two newly elected Democratic Senators, one Black, one Jewish, shocked the state and nation.  Democrats may have won the Presidential election there as well, but Republicans control the state government.  And they are fighting back, restricting the vote.  Yesterday they made it illegal to even pass out water and snacks in the notoriously long voting lines.  Illegal to pass out water.  

And those lines won’t be in suburban or white rural Georgia.  They are in the majority Black precincts:  surprise.  And the State Legislature passed and the Republican Governor signed a whole raft of other restrictive provisions, making sure it is harder to vote.  The target of the new law is obvious – all of those new Black voters who dared to exercise their right to vote and change the outcome of 2020.

Politics of Race

Sure this is really the first “shot” of Governor Brian Kemp’s bid to win reelection over Democratic challenger Stacy Abrams.  But it’s not just “politics as usual”.  At least, not usual unless you are talking about the axe handle segregationist rhetoric of Georgia’s Governor Lester Maddox in the early 1970’s.  Yes, Maddox was a Democrat, but so was his successor, Jimmy Carter, who repudiated Maddox and started to move Georgia away from the dark ages of racism.

Now it’s back, under the veneer of election security.  But we all know what’s really being secured:  the “right” of the White Republicans of Georgia to maintain control.   And as we sit here in the “North” we aren’t helpless.  There is action being taken, now, in Congress, to protect voting rights in Georgia and all of America.  

American Choice

We Americans are faced with a new “Hayes/Tilden” deal.  This time it’s in the form of an old segregationist tool, the Filibuster in the Senate.  The Filibuster prevents a majority of the Senate from exercising their will, if, they don’t include an extra ten votes.  And a solid “Red” wall of Republican recalcitrance blocks every effort at reform or protection.  But there is a slim Democratic majority in the Senate – if they only have the will to act.

Americans in 1877 acquiesced to the end of Reconstruction and the reign of Jim Crow Laws in the South.  Americans in 2021 are faced with a similar choice.  We know what happened to the Black voters of the South. It’s taken over a century for them to regain their rights under the 15^th Amendment.  The old saying goes:  “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”. America knows the real history now.  We need to work to make sure that the failures of 1877 aren’t repeated today. We need to end the Filibuster and pass the Voting Rights Act.

Pandemic

It’s the stuff of a 1980’s science fiction movie.  A virus appears, sickening millions and killing many.  There is no easy solution, and the consequences of disease are so great that the economy closes down.  Americans are subdued; furtive in masks, afraid of contact with each other, unable to even hug their families.  But within months our modern science comes through with a vaccine, a way to prevent the virus from destroying our society.  

It took longer than it did in the movies, but ultimately that “plot line” is exactly what happened here in the United States.  And now we are within months, even weeks, of “getting past” COVID-19.  It won’t be over, not for a long time if ever, but it will be controlled.  We can get on with our lives.  Those little league baseball games, my track meets, maybe even going to the theatre or a concert, are not too far in the future.

We as a society, solved the problem.  It certainly wasn’t pretty – we allowed partisan politics to become a part of scientific common sense.  Some turned to their own “experts”, clad in white jackets and endowed with medical degrees, to “prove” that the preventive measures were somehow just a political ploy.  And a few, one even the son of revered hero, still speak out against the vaccines that will allow for our future. 

But we got it done.

Epidemic

In the past two weeks we have been reminded of a problem we haven’t solved.  Eight died last week from gunfire in Atlanta, at the hands of a deranged young white man.  Ten died this week in Boulder, again a young white man.  Last year, during the pandemic, it seemed like the epidemic of young white men going on blood rampages subsided.  But even in the quiet of the lockdown year, 20,000 Americans lost their lives to gun violence.  Another 24,000 used guns to take their own lives (WAPO).

There is a lengthy list of young white men who in the past years have taken this course (NYT).  They have two things in common.  The first is a mental illness, a derangement that makes them think it’s their “destiny” to kill.  Just in Colorado alone their actions resonate with the names of their cities:  Aurora, Columbine, and now Boulder.  

The second is easy access to weapons capable of rapid fire.  We all know the terms:  AR-like weapons (ARmalite, not Assault Rifle), high-capacity magazines, ballistic-style body armor.  If they had to shoot with a six-shot pistol, they couldn’t kill as many as quickly.  That they can use a semi-automatic rifle (a “long gun” in police parlance) with greater fire power, quicker action, and easier aim means only one thing.  The body count goes up.

And this is a problem we cannot solve.  Or maybe the statement should be:  we will not solve.  

A Choice

It only took a month or so for the pandemic to get wrapped with the tentacles of politics.  There are decades of political obfuscation encircling the issue of guns in America.  Much of the rest of the world look at us in dismay.  Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand:  all faced the “mass shooter” situation, and all took serious affirmative action to control access to guns.  They recognize that allowing this kind of violence is a choice, not an unavoidable “price of freedom”.  

But in the United States, we continue to make it easier to access advanced weapons.  Here’s just two examples.  In Ohio the Governor just signed a “stand your ground” law, ultimately encouraging folks to use deadly force rather than avoid it.  It’s the kind of law that gave legal cover to the killer of Treyvon Martin.  And, if a background check takes too long, the gun purchaser is given “the benefit of the doubt” and allowed to have their weapon.  We wouldn’t want to keep it out of their hands for more than the allotted time, would we?  That’s the “loophole” the put a weapon in the hands of the man who killed nine in a Charleston, South Carolina church.

Our Solution

The “winning” argument in the United States right now is that the Constitutional right to own a weapon is more than just for hunting, sport, or personal protection.  The argument now is that “we” need weapons to protect us from the government itself.  And in order to try to “match” the government, we need the most advanced weaponry available, with only limited restrictions.   It is surprising that there weren’t more in sight at the Insurrection of January 6^th.

And so many have guns.  And they carry them.  There are places where the United States is a parody of the “Old West”, with folks carrying sidearms in the grocery store and Wal-Mart.  They are “ready” to respond.  The old National Rifle Association trope:  “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” has become the “American Way” in dozens of states.  But somehow it hasn’t stopped the blood epidemic of young white men losing their minds, and taking lives along the way.

It’s a problem we have determined NOT to solve.

Rookie Teacher 

As a young school teacher, working in my first (and ultimately only) school district, I had to make an early decision.  Should I live in the District or live outside the District?  That decision was much more important than I  first realized.  Teachers who live out of the District can draw distinct “lines” in their lives.  They have their “work”, and they have their “personal” life.  When they go out to dinner, or to the store, or to get gas, they are just “another person”. 

But if you live in the District, you are “on duty”, all the time.  I won’t  forget that parent who perused my shopping cart at the Cardinals Market (the only place in town) and thought I was too heavy on Oreos and too light on vegetables.  Or later, when Kroger’s took over the community food supply; the number of parent conferences I had in the aisle between the beans and the soup.  When I wanted to buy beer, I drove out of town. (It’s only fair to say that for the first decade I was in Pataskala, it was a dry town anyway.  You couldn’t buy beer or any other alcohol.  Later all of that became accessible, but it still took almost twenty years before I bought beer, wine, or booze at the local Kroger).   

So living in the District placed my entire “life” in the community.  For a while I wrote a running column and all of the cross country and boys track articles in the local paper.  And there was no hiding where I lived, whether I was being kidnapped as a young teacher, or getting toilet papered when I bought “the” house (only one so far). 

By the way, I don’t think there’s a wrong or right decision to be made here.  Just that new teachers ought to realize that they are making a choice – not just a career, but about life.

Knock on the Door

I taught high school and middle school, and there were few secrets in our town.  This meant that when a kid got in trouble at home, got kicked out and didn’t think they were welcome, or when the family situation got so bad they had to leave – they’d often knock on my door.

There are always legal implications when you take a kid in, more now than in the “old days”.  The law says you are an adult, and you have the obligation to let the child’s guardian know where they are.  So when the kid came through the door, after some time to tell their story and let them decompress – the phone call home had to be made.  It wasn’t a choice.

But as an adult, sometimes I could intervene to make the situation better.  And sometimes intervention was – hang here.  There’s a guest bedroom.  There’s breakfast – and a ride to school in the morning.  And there’s time – time to decompress, time to get away from whatever the issue was at home.

The easier choice would have been to turn them away.  It would be the safer choice too; no charges of attempting to “kidnap” a child or worse, no threats to get you fired (the great Administrators I worked for stood for me each time – one-hundred percent.  They had my back).  Turning them away would put it on the kid, and his parents or guardians – not me.  But the answer to that is simple:  it wouldn’t be right.  I made a choice, to teach in, and live in, this community. That choice determined what my role would be.  And sometimes that meant taking care of a kid who had nowhere to go.

What’s Right for Pataskala

So why all of this reminiscing about life in Pataskala?  Because what’s the difference between what I did in Pataskala, and what we, the United States of America, are doing on the Southern border?  There are unaccompanied minors, pre-teen and teenagers; journeying a thousand miles to get there.  They are running from gangs, murder, rape, and blackmail.  And during the journey, who knows what “advantages” were taken.  Then they are “coyoted” across the border, and sent into the hands of the US Border Patrol.

In the past couple of years, those kids were loaded on buses and sent back, some to the border towns in Mexico, and some back to the homes they were trying to escape.  They came on a journey to find protection in the United States.  Instead, we turned our backs on them and sent them back to the Hell they were escaping.  It would be like me slamming the door in the face of the kid whose family was dissolving around them.  It was wrong.

What’s Right for America

So now we are taking those kids in, taking “custody” of them at the border, and moving to secure and protect them.  It isn’t easy, and it isn’t cheap.  It’s especially messy at the border itself, when the sheer number of “unaccompanied minors”, kids, are overwhelming the process.  But we are taking them in, not rejecting them back to the risks they took to get here, or worse.

And we aren’t just “housing” them.  Many have contacts here in the US, family members, some legal and some not.  We are finding ways to move those kids out of “US Custody” and into the protection of their own relatives.   And for the ones with no relatives, we are working to find ways take care of them, and then move them into foster situations.

Just like here in Pataskala, there’s a right and a wrong thing to do.  It would be easier if the US simply denied all the “unaccompanied minors”, and sent them away like the Trump Administration.   But easier isn’t right.  And taking care of these kids is more important than doing what’s easy.

It’s doing what’s right.