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.

It’s been a little while – but this is the next in the “Outside My Window” series -about life during COVID.

New Mission

Sunday was the third day of spring.  Jenn and I spent the day working in the back yard; pulling all of the old plants, cutting down the ornamental grasses, cleaning up leftover leaves.  It got hot, for the first time since October, shorts and t-shirts and that first cast of sun burn and tan.  We cleared off our “sun deck”, got the furniture arranged and all of the “stuff” that got stored there over the winter put away.  And of course, when we were done, it was a couple of cold ones on the “sun deck” in celebration of this first intimation of summer.

We have a new mission.   One day a week we spend driving all over the state delivering and picking up “lost dog” equipment:  cameras and live-traps, and also things to help animal rescues.  We took five dog houses to Waverly last week to help improve the conditions for some “outdoor” dogs.  You know it’s spring:  somehow the pickup truck veers towards every high school track as we pass through the small towns of Ohio.  The driver, me, just “wants to see” a track practice – just for a moment. 

Filling in the Hole 

I’ll see plenty of high school track soon enough – with a white shirt, a flag, and a starting pistol.   April will be full of officiating meets, from middle school dual meets to big invitationals.  Memory is a strange thing – it seems like I did that last year too.  Of course, I didn’t.  There wasn’t a high school track season last year.  All of “last year’s” memories are really from 2019.  The “hole” of 2020 just gets filled in.

This is my fourth year out of coaching.  There aren’t any kids I coached still on the high school tracks.  Even the young coaches don’t know me other than as an old official.  But I’ve still got a “hand in”.  I’ve “Covid Coached” a few kids – using text messages and IPhone videos.  I think we’ve done some good, and it’s been good for me to analyze, discuss and defend my technical positions.

Zoom

It was a year ago this week that I took an “online” substitute teaching job, scrambling along with the regular teachers to figure out how to keep “school” going in the shutdown.  I don’t know that we found a lot of great answers for keeping kids involved in school.  But it wasn’t for lack of effort:  every teacher I know went far and beyond the “call of duty” to reach out and keep kids involved.  When the world turns upside down, a Zoom class might be the only echo of normalcy in that child’s life.  Looking back, how strange to have your teacher literally “in your bedroom” every day.  No wonder so many kids set Zoom to audio only.

I’ll be happy to never Zoom again.  And now, with vaccines and lessening infections, we are all looking to get back to normal.  Normal doesn’t just mean going to a restaurant (last week I sat down in one for the first time in a year), it also means not being “addicted” to 24/7 television “news”.  Washington doesn’t demand the need for our attention every day, though there’s still plenty going on.  For the first time in several years, we can look away for a moment and focus on our more local life.  That’s a good thing.

Change at the End

But there are things unalterably changed by our shared year in pandemic hiding.   Jenn and I picked up a third and a fourth dog.  When the yen to go camping hit, we realized that four dogs in our “efficiency camper” wasn’t going to work.  Want to buy a 2017 Rockwood Mini-Lite? There’s one for sale in the driveway.  It was a lot of fun – spent a winter in Florida and plenty of time in the fall leaves of Ohio.  But now it’s got to go.  After it’s sold, we’ll look for a Class A, a bus, where there’s actual rooms and a place for the dogs to get comfortable while we drive. 

So here’s a most unusual essay from me.  It’s about spring, about track, about camping, and about hope.  It’s about the light at the end of the tunnel.  If you’ve never experienced that phrase in real life – you need to head over to Blackhand Gorge just east of Newark, Ohio.  On the North side of the river, there’s a path through on old railroad tunnel – a relic of the “Interurban”.  That was a train that used to take you from Columbus to Pataskala, Hebron, Buckeye Lake, Newark, and Zanesville.  The tracks are gone, but the carved tunnel through the stone hill remains.  Take a walk – and there in the center, you will fully understand what “a light at the end of the tunnel” means.  

You can’t really see what’s beyond “the light” – you don’t know what the next step you take will reveal.  All you can see is the brightness.  But there’s one thing for sure. Out of the damp darkness of a century old tunnel, you know that there’s something better at the end.  

The Outside My Window Series

Out My Front Window – Part One (4/21/20)

Outside My Window – Part Two (4/23/20)

Outside My Window – Part Three (4/26/20)

Outside My Window – Part Four (5/13/20)

Outside My Window – Part Five (6/3/20)

Outside My Window – Part Six (7/3/20)

Outside My Window – Part Seven (7/31/20)

Outside My Window – Inshallah (8/13/20)

Outside My Window – Part Eight (9/15/20)

Outside My Window – Part Nine (9/25/20)

Outside My Window – Part Ten (10/9/20)

Outside My Window – Part 11 (11/29/20)

Outside My Window – Post-Truth World (12/16/20)

Waiting for the Shot (3/11/21)

Outside My Window – At the End of the Tunnel (3/22/21)

FEAR

Sorry – no “Sunday Story” today.  This is about a shared danger in  America – Fear.

Not Our Problem

Let’s talk about problems our Nation does NOT have.  We don’t have a problem with election fraud in our voting systems.  We don’t have a problem with kids not being able to pray in school.  There’s not a problem with transsexuals attacking women in bathrooms, or taking over women’s sports.  And we don’t have a problem with folks dropping over because “they can’t breathe” through their COVID masks.

Election Fraud

But last week, you’d think these were all national crises.  In Georgia alone, there are fifty bills in the State Legislature to reduce and restrict voting access.  They are all supposedly because folks have “lost confidence” in their voting process.  But that’s the same voting process that the Republican Secretary of State, the Republican Governor, and the Republican deputy elections director all verified as correct.  There were three full recounts, one completely by hand, that verified their accuracy.

Why have the good “white” citizens of Georgia lost confidence?  Because politicians told them to.  And why have those Georgia politicians promulgated the “Big Lie” of nonexistent election fraud? Because the Republican Party of Georgia doesn’t think they can win without restricting voting.  To put it bluntly, they don’t want Black people to vote, and they’re doing everything they can to keep them from the polls.  There’s even one proposal to make it against the law to pass out food and drinks as people wait in line to cast their ballot.  Sounds really American, doesn’t it?

But Georgia isn’t alone.  There are more than two hundred and fifty-three bills in forty-three different states to reduce voting access.  It’s a simple extension of the “Red Map” plan that the GOP started thirteen years ago.  Gerrymander the legislative districts so that Republicans can control the State Legislatures, then rig the voting process so that folks more likely to vote Democratic — can’t.   

Religion in School

And we see the Facebook meme over and over again:  “Put Prayer Back in School”.  That’s the “solution” to solve “all” of America’s problems.  We should go back to the “old days”. In 1962, when I was in second grade, Ms. Meyers started the day with the Lord’s Prayer and told all of us Bible stories.  Many think that’s the way it should be now.  

But the problem isn’t “prayer in schools”.  Students have always been able to pray in school.  In fact, the Facebook meme I like is the one that says, “As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools”.  It’s not that the kids can’t pray, it’s that the teachers can’t tell them how or what or when to pray.  And that’s important – Americans are “fine” with prayer in school, until the Muslim or Jewish or Hindu teacher begins to lead prayers with the students.  Then – it’s not so much prayer in school. 

Because the movement for “prayer in schools” isn’t about all religions – it’s about a particular version of Christianity.  Some want all children in school to be “indoctrinated” into their version of religion.  And that’s exactly what public schools should NOT be doing – in fact, it’s exactly what the First Amendment prohibits – a state religion.

Transgendered Kids

Twenty different states are writing laws that will restrict transgendered youth from participating in school sports.  Or more specifically, transgendered females from participating in women’s sports.  They aren’t so worried about transgendered men in men’s sports, but many of those cover that issue as well.  

So to be clear, there’s not thousands of young men planning to declare themselves transgendered women so they can win a state softball championship.  In fact, one of the best examples online is that of a transgendered boy who, by Texas rules, was forced to wrestle women instead of men.  Because he was transgendered, and receiving medical treatments to masculinize him, the girl wrestlers in Texas said it wasn’t fair that they had to wrestle him.  He thought so too, but the rules wouldn’t allow him to wrestle boys.

Science knows that gender identity is so much more complicated than simple “equipment”.  And we also know that a transitioning child is at much higher risk of depression, drug use and suicide.  But instead of looking at ways to help those kids socialize, like sports in school, these states are erecting more barriers against them.  And they are doing it to protect “our girls” from the “un-understandable ‘them’”.   In the same way some states are forcing transgendered girls to use men’s restrooms.  As a retired educator, I can’t think of a more dangerous place in a school for a transgendered girl to be than in a boys’ restroom — except maybe a boys’ locker room.

Masks

And finally, last week Senator/Doctor Rand Paul thought he had a “gotcha moment” for Doctor Fauci.  It was a replay of the old Facebook meme – “if you wear a mask why do I need to, and if I wear one why do you need to”.  Paul demanded why Fauci was wearing a mask after receiving the vaccine.  Paul said, it was all just “theatre”. 

Fauci does not “suffer fools gladly”, and immediately began to explain to the Senator from Kentucky that while vaccination does provide immunity, science hasn’t demonstrated that the immunity is against ALL strains of COVID 19. Fauci went on to describe that while the original virus infecting the United States is covered by the vaccines, there hasn’t been conclusive evidence to show that the other variants, from the UK and South Africa and other places, are so completely protected.

By Dr. Paul didn’t want to hear that.  He had “evidence” that showed that immunization by the vaccination was “complete”, it least for the original virus.  So he fell back on his talking point:  that Fauci’s wearing a mask was just “theatre”.  And even more Paul not wearing a mask was just fine – he’s already been infected by the original virus.

But just like gender, or multiple religions, it’s not possible to simplify the “virus” to just one study or strain.  The virus is changing, and those changes represent an ongoing threat.  And here’s the “simple” answer:  until the virus stops replicating at a high rate, the possibility of dangerous mutation is still high.  IF folks will get vaccinated (eighty percent), then we can slow the replication.  But until then, whether the eye surgeon from Kentucky likes it or not, the only other tools we have to slow mutation are distance — and the masks.

Fear

But it’s all about creating fear:  of phantom voting fraud, of “Godless” and “different” children, and of the government’s ability to protect us from diseases.  Somehow that “fear” generates political “points” in the game of controlling America.  It is the ultimate “wedge” issue to drive us apart – if one political side can make its adherents scared, they are more likely to show up and vote.  

And that’s a problem.  Because it’s impossible to solve the complexities of our current life, from pandemics to growing social awareness, by driving people apart.  The solutions for all of these issues require common purpose to improve our world.  Wedges don’t create commonality.  President Franklin Roosevelt said it best:  

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

We are in a “dark hour” – but we can also see light on the horizon.  Is it a new dawn, an “essential victory”, or a final sunset on the American experiment?  That’s all up to us. 

Let’s not let “unreasoning, unjustified” fear stand in the way.

History Lesson

The World War II victors partitioned the Korean Peninsula after the defeat of Japan. The Western Powers created South Korea, and the Soviet Union backed North Korea.  In 1949, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party took over mainland China. They also became a strong backer of North Korea.  The leader of the North was Kim Il-Sung, the grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong-un. From the beginning of the partition in 1945, Kim supported a Communist insurgency in South Korea.  

With the takeover of Communists in China, Kim felt emboldened to launch a full attack against the South. In June of 1950, North Korean forces crossed the demilitarized zone and made quick advances against South Korea and their allied US Forces.  These allies were driven to the far southern end of the peninsula, and established a defensive perimeter around Pusan.

US forces under General Douglas MacArthur launched an “end around” sea invasion behind the North Korean lines at Incheon.  North troops were cut off from their supplies, and forced to fall back.  MacArthur pursued them, all the way to near the Yalu River at the Soviet border.  This triggered a Chinese response. Millions of Chinese Communist forces streamed over the bridges and to the attack against the US and their allies.  The war would drag on for the next three years. US and Chinese forces battled in the mountains of North Korea, and ultimately reached a stalemate at the current line of demarcation, the Demilitarized Zone.

Racist Shorthand

US Forces in the Korean War developed insulting terms for the Chinese troops.  Besides the more “traditional” racist tropes, they were also called “Chi-Coms” for Chinese Communists.  Like the “Japs and Krauts” of World War II, it was a short hand way of insulting the enemy and “uniting” American GI’s against a racial foe.

I’d hoped we left those type of terms behind.  We don’t call people from Japan, or Germany, or Vietnam, or folks from the Middle East by insulting terms, and certainly not in public places.  But yesterday Congressman Chip Roy of Texas echoed all of those racist sentiments. He used Korean War era shorthand to speak of the “Chi-Coms”, the “bad guys” in China.  What made his statement even worse, is that he prefaced it with a statement about “Texas Justice”.  He spoke of justice as a tall tree and a rope – lynching.  And  he made all of these statements in a Congressional hearing that was supposed to examine the growing number of violent attacks against Americans of Asian ancestry.  He said it just days after six of those Asian Americans were murdered in Atlanta at three different massage spas.

Roy’s defenders argue that it not “pejorative”.  It’s just the same as calling the North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, or VC for short.  But here’s the problem.  In a hearing about the growing abuse against Americans of Asian descent, stoked by the Republican rhetoric about the “China Virus” or the “Kung Flu” or worse, Congressman Roy conflated the two.  He put together many Americans now at risk for attack and abuse, with the Chinese Communists our fathers and grandfathers fought.  And he did it while stating that he supported the First Amendment, as if they gave him some “right” to encourage violence.

Intelligence and Politics

It’s all wrapped up in Trumpian politics.  A National Intelligence report just released states that the Russians interfered in the US election in favor of Donald Trump, again.  Trump supporters responded by saying that it was really the Chinese who interfered to support Biden.  The US Intelligence Community says that simply is not true.  But because it fits into the “Big Lie” about the 2020 election, Republican Trump stalwarts “have” to be for Russia, and against China.

So by conflating Asian-Americans with “Chi-Coms”, Congressman Roy is trying to regain support from the Trump base.  I suppose that’s because he voted to certify the election for Joe Biden, in a break with many of his fellow Texas Republicans.  So maybe this is his way to “make up” with them.

This isn’t about “cancel culture”.  It’s not trying to prevent the Congressman, or other Americans, from expressing racist views.  They can say what they want.  But, like the apocryphal man crying “fire” in a crowded theatre, Congressman Roy should not be held harmless for his statements.  The “Chi-Coms” have nothing to do with those folks working in Atlanta. Nor the elderly beaten because some fool determined that they are somehow at fault for COVID.  

But Congressman Roy hopes to make political “hay” on their misery.  Not to conflate myself, but he was Chief of Staff for Ted Cruz.  

That says it all.

Founding Fathers

There is a traditional story of a conversation between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.  It went like this:

“Why,” asked Washington, “did you just now pour that coffee into your saucer, before drinking?” “To cool it,” answered Jefferson, “my throat is not made of brass.” “Even so,” rejoined Washington, “we pour our legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”

True or not, the conversation aptly describes the Founding Father’s view of the “upper” branch of the legislature.  The House of Representatives is directly elected by the people every two years. Here is where the “hot passions” of the masses would be heard.  But the Senate, originally appointed by the state legislatures, not elected directly by the people, would slow those passions.  It would allow the deliberate “cooling” in creating the laws.

From the beginning the Senate was “privileged”.  The Senators did not have to “run” for office.  Each state had two, there was no difference between Delaware and Virginia (or Rhode Island and California).  And they served for six years, three times longer than their House brethren.  So the pace and attitude of the Senate was bound to be different.  The Senate chamber became a place for debate and discussion, for parsing the issues, rather than just voting.  

Hold the Floor

A filibuster is when a Senator takes the floor to speak, and refuses to give the floor up.  When this happens, the Senate can no longer do any other business. The Senator “on the floor” can hold it as long as he or she is able to physically do so.  However, that Senator can “yield” to another Senator, who can then “yield back” to the original.  So if several Senators want to hold the floor and prevent any other Senate business for going on, they can.

This gives a minority of Senators the ability to prevent any legislation they don’t want.  It pits them against the majority, a “confrontational move” in that “privileged body”.  And for the majority, the only original recourse they originally had was to wait them out, or agree to move onto a different topic.

But there wasn’t a “filibuster” rule in the original Senate.  In fact, the House and the Senate both had rules to end debate (cloture) by a simple majority vote.  The concept of the filibuster came from an inadvertent change in the rules by Vice President Aaron Burr (Burr again?). In 1805 he removed the rule to end debate in order to “clean the rules up”.  Even after that though, the Senate “operated” by a majority rule to end debate.  It wasn’t until 1837 that the first “filibuster” actually occurred.

Tyranny of the Majority

John C Calhoun, a leading defender of slavery and Senator from South Carolina, put forward great theories about the “rights” of the minority.  Calhoun saw the future, when the slave owning states would be in the minority in the nation, and in the Senate.  He wanted to make sure that the “tyranny of the majority” was not enforced on his South.  More exactly, he wanted to maintain slavery and the lifestyle it allowed, regardless of how many “votes” he had.  

The filibuster was one tool Calhoun used to prevent the so-called tyranny of democracy – majority rule.

After the Civil War, the filibuster in the Senate became the primary tool to “protect” the “rights” of Southern whites to discriminate against the newly freed slaves.  It wasn’t until 1917, four years after the 17^th Amendment requiring Senators be elected directly by the people of their state, that a “cloture motion” was even created that could end a filibuster.  But it required two-thirds of the Senate to agree, a steep hill to climb.

The filibuster continued to be a powerful tool against civil rights through the 1960’s.  The famous 1964 Civil Rights Act endured a fifty-four-day filibuster.  It took that long for proponents of the legislation to get more than two-thirds of the Senators to vote for it. 

It’s Just a Rule

A majority of the Senate agrees to the Senate rules every two years.  That simple majority can change the rules, including the filibuster, in their organizing resolution.  In 1975 they reduced the “cloture” number to sixty.  They also created exceptions to the filibuster, including budget reconciliation bills with the House.  Since then they have added Cabinet appointees, Federal judge nominees, and Supreme Court nominees.  All those require a simple fifty-one vote majority end debate and pass. 

And in order to “speed up “ the Senate, Senators can now simply say “I will filibuster”.  They don’t have to “take the floor” anymore, as long as they have at least thirty-nine other Senators that agree with them (that prevents cloture).  So today, Senators can “phone in” a filibuster, rather than actually going through with it.

So why wouldn’t the Democratic Senators, in control by the tie-breaking vote of the Vice President, simply rule that it only takes fifty-one votes to end debate? Then they could proceed to pass the whole range of President Biden’s backed legislation, from voting rights to LGBTQIA rights and climate change to infrastructure. The simple answer is this: 2022. Should the Senate slip back into Republican control in two years, the Democrats want the same “tool” to protect their minority that John C Calhoun used in in the 1840’s.

Of course, that assumes that a 2023 Republican Mitch McConnell-run Senate wouldn’t simply change the rules again, and make all votes a simple majority.  It’s all just a “gentleman’s agreement”in the Senate, that the party in charge won’t use the “nuclear option” and drop the filibuster.  

Each Senate makes their own deal, and takes their own chances. 

“Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned.”

“Now, had the tables been turned — Joe, this could get me in trouble — had the tables been turned, and President [Donald] Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.” (Ron Johnson – 3/13/21 – People)

Gaslighting

The Headline should have been shouted in the streets by newsboys like the 1920’s.   “EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT – SENATOR DOESN’T BELIEVE HIS OWN LYING EYES!”

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson wasn’t concerned on January 6, 2021, as the Insurrectionists erected gallows outside of the Capitol building.  He wasn’t concerned when they took over the Senate chamber, or grabbed the Speaker’s dais and walked out the door.  And Senator Johnson wasn’t concerned that Capitol Police Officers were being attacked, beaten, sprayed with chemicals. To use my favorite quote from the MSD kids – “I call BS!”

“Gaslighting” is a term used to describe: “a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality”(Psychology Today).  Our reality – the REAL reality – is what we watched in horror on January 6^th. We saw thousands march on the Capitol, smash through the barricades, attack the police, and break into the building.  We watched as they defiled that building, the House and Senate Chambers. And we saw them search for the Vice President, Speaker of the House and others.  America saw the “…people that love this country, (and) would never do anything to break the law”.   We all saw this with our own eyes:  no lying.

And they weren’t Black Lives Matters protestors, nor Antifa.  So to what purpose is Senator Johnson try to convince us that it didn’t happen. Why does he think that the Insurrectionists weren’t “of concern”, when we all know different?  

Play to the Base

So here’s a couple of possible reasons for Johnson’s behavior, statements that he has “doubled-down” on in subsequent days.  First, there are a significant number of Americans, perhaps twenty percent, who are so “gaslighted” by right-wing media that they really believe that there was no Insurrection.  They accept all of  Johnson’s (and others) alternative explanations.  That it was just a few “crazies”. That ANTIFA somehow infiltrated the legitimate protestors (there was that one guy from Utah), and that the “mainstream media” simply made it all up.  Johnson’s statement certainly plays directly into those beliefs.

But why would Johnson feed into that?  If he’s running for re-election in 2022, he’s already anchored himself with the Trumpian wing of the Republican Party.  He has been a Trump stalwart. Ever since that weekend in October of 2019, when as an eyewitness to Trump’s illicit pressuring of Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, Johnson recanted earlier statements and pivoted to attack NBC’s Chuck Todd and the national media (Business Insider).  

To put it more bluntly, why is he trying “to get what he’s already got”? 

US Intelligence 

US Intelligence issued an unclassified report on foreign interference in the 2020 election yesterday.  They noted that there wasn’t any direct interference in actual voting. But that there was an “influence campaign” by Russia for Trump and against Biden.  The report specifically noted actions by Rudy Giuliani, spreading Russian generated propaganda that Biden was somehow corrupt in his dealings with Ukraine (and Biden’s son Hunter).  Johnson, among other Republican Senators, amplified that propaganda.  

One of Russia’s goals:  to get Americans to lose confidence in the professionals in the US Intelligence services, particularly the CIA and the FBI.  Certainly Trump’s actions towards those agencies followed the Russian game plan. Even today, some Republican Senators and Congressmen still spit-out the names of Comey, McCabe and Strzok like curse words in Congressional hearings.

Rubles or Kompromat?

Johnson is one of several Republican Senators who made amazing reversal in statement and action in the past several years.  Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who on January 6^th was “done with Trump” soon reversed his position and fell in line with the Trump narrative.  John Kennedy of Louisiana, early a more “moderated” voice in the Republican Party, became a hardcore Trump defender.  And Mike Lee, always a reasoned though strict conservative voice from Utah, has become more strident and extreme as the Trump Administration continued.

It’s easy to say that they simply “saw the writing on the wall”; that Trump dominated the Republican Primary voters and they had to be on “his side” to keep their seats.  But these Senators already have their Trump bona-fides, and like Johnson, continue to defend even the Trumpian extremes.

Several Senators, Johnson and Kennedy among them, went to Moscow for the Fourth of July in 2018.  Others, like Rand Paul of Kentucky, have had multiple contacts with Russian legislators.  It is nothing but circumstantial evidence:  but why do those Senators who are the most vehement Trump defenders also those with links to Russia?  Why are they the ones who amplify the Russian propaganda?  

And why are they gaslighting the rest of us?  The answer might be written in Russian.

Deja Vu

It seems like some kind of flashback:  “unaccompanied minors” stacking up at Border Patrol stations along the Mexican border.  “Soft sided” shelters are up – we call them “tents”.  And lines of mostly teenaged boys are being processed.  This isn’t the Trump Administration, but it certainly looks like it.

We need to be clear about what caused the Trump issue with children, and what’s happening now.   Throughout our history, folks who came across the border “illegally” were treated as those who committed a “civil” crime – like getting a traffic ticket.  Yes, it was “against” the law, and yes, they were brought in front of a court for the action; but it wasn’t a jailable offense.  Fines or “time served” was the usual result.  Then the “civil” process of determining their immigration status – in short – whether they could stay or were deported – proceeded.

But the Trump Administration determined that crossing the border was now a “crime” requiring the “criminal” to be held in custody, jailed, until trial.  Since families came across the border, and the Courts said that children could not be held in “jail”, then all of the children of those families became “unaccompanied minors” and were taken from their parents.  Some, no make that many, were “lost” in the “system”. There are still over one hundred who have not been returned to their parents – some for more than two years.

All Over Again

And what happened  to the “actual” unaccompanied minors who crossed the border?  What about the thirteen or fifteen-year-old who came across without a family, without parents?  In the Trump Administration, those kids were immediately deported, sent back.  That solved “our” problem, but it put those kids in even greater danger.  The most dangerous part of their journey was getting to and across the border.  The US policy was to send them back,  sometimes into the hands of the “coyotes”.  They were often the ones that took advantage of them, financially and worse, as they took them over the “line”.

But most of those kids went “away”, so the Trump Administration didn’t have to deal with them.  So what’s changed?  Three things have.

Biden’s Plan

First, the Biden Administration is done with the “criminalization” of border crossing.  So families coming across are processed, then released to return for trial later.  That worked fine before Trump, and it’s working well now.  Many who come across have family here, ready to support them.  There are also agencies willing to help them out.  So since the adults aren’t “criminalized”, then the children can stay with them. Ultimately a Court determines their status, and they are allowed to stay or are deported.

Second, The Biden Administration has determined that it in inhumane to send unaccompanied minors, mostly teenagers and mostly boys, back into the dangers of the border zones of Mexico.  Those same kids have been stacked over there, some for months or more, at risk.  So when they come across the border, they are taken into custody.  They are safer, but they are a problem.

Third, the little detail that has upset our entire world:  COVID.  In the middle of an economic crisis in Central America, there’s a world pandemic.  It certainly didn’t make anything better in El Salvador or Honduras.  If anything, COVID has made things so much worse, that more people are willing to risk the journey to find somewhere better in America.  And the idea of crowding anyone, kids, families, adults, into some custodial setting now has a new name: super spreader.

Problems Haven’t Changed

And since gangs are the greatest threat in those nations, it is the young men who are at greatest risks.  Parents are faced with choices:  either their boys join the gang, or they are killed.  So they are sending many of their kids on the dangerous journey North to someplace where they might have a better chance.

Most of those “unaccompanied minors” have some connection in the US, relatives – some here legally, some not.  Unlike the Trump era, there’s a plan for getting them to relatives – folks that can sponsor them while the Courts determine their status.  International law and treaties signed by the United States require that immigrants get the chance to make a case for asylum.  Fleeing gang violence is a valid reason. The Trump Administration ignored that legal issue.

But meanwhile there’s a time element.  They’ve been “dammed up” across the border, and now there is release. So many arriving – they have to be processed, and the government has to determine that they are being released to a safe environment here in the US.  There are plenty willing to exploit those kids here too, from forced labor to sexual exploitation.

Solutions Have

Yes, the tent cities are back.  The Department of Health and Human Services is strapped to cover the current overwhelming demand, as well as maintain COVID protocols.  And there are even more problems than just the teenagers.   There are more families crossing the border, and those families are “stacking up” in processing.  FEMA is sending emergency teams to the border to help.  But it’s happening for the “right” reason.  

 That doesn’t make everything “better”, but it does give hope that, ultimately, the “right” thing will get done.  Yes, more people are crossing the border, and staying in the United States.  And certainly the word is out in Central America that the rules have changed once again.  But the United States is “back” – in the words of Emma Lazarus:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Track Coach

I was a track coach for forty years.  I guess “was” may be the wrong tense, I still “consult”, helping coaches and athletes with my hard-gained “wisdom”.  And I’m now officiating the sport again, so I keep my hand in.  Over that forty years I gained experience in every track and field event contested in high schools, and even some that are not.  It’s easier to list what I don’t know much about:  the weight and hammer throws, and race walking.  I have some understanding of javelin, a lot more about triple jump and steeplechase, and tons on the other “regular” track events we contest.

But the one area of “expertise” that I worked on the most was in the pole vault.  It’s exciting: the athlete races towards a big foam mat, holding a long fiberglass pole.  He places the pole in a metal “box” in the ground, and then launches up over a crossbar:  the higher the better.  When all goes right, the athlete clears the crossbar without knocking it off, and lands in the soft mat.  When it doesn’t bad things can occur.  As a coach, my first job was to make sure those bad things didn’t happen.

Vitaly Petrov

Like any technical event, there are several ways to “skin the cat”.  I am an adherent of the “Petrov Method”, developed in Russia in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  They dominated the world for more than two decades, and the physics behind their technique makes the most sense. 

In the 90’s I was a “strict interpreter” of Petrov.  What he did worked, and anything else was, I thought, just wrong.  For the athletes I worked with every day that wasn’t a problem.  They learned everything from me, so they only knew my techniques.  But when I coached other athletes and coaches, I struggled with those that used different methodologies.  In my mind at the time I was doing them a disservice by not changing them to “Petrov”, and anything less wasn’t acceptable.  My technical “purity” sometimes made it difficult to help others.

But later I found two factors that changed my mind, even though I still am convinced that Petrov really had the right answers.  First, every athlete is physically different, and they will find a way that works for their body.  Some are faster, or slower, taller or quicker, patient or in a hurry.  It’s difficult to ignore those differences and fit their “square peg” into “round holes”.  And second, there is proof that other methods work as well, or at least the “modifications” those athletes (and coaches) made on my “Petrov” model were successful.  The World and American men’s record holders are not what I’d call “Petrov” vaulters.  Hard to argue with “the best”.  

Vaulting and Life

So, I expect there are very few readers who want to learn any more about pole vault today (though I’d be happy to teach you!!).  But the point is that technical purity, like ideological purity, does not stand up to the test of use “in the field”.  That sometimes we have to compromise to achieve success, and to work with others who have different views than ourselves.  Technical or ideologic purity sounds great:  but it isn’t how “the sausage is made”.   Sometimes you need to allow some flexibility in order to get something done.

Of course, that all depends on what you want to achieve.  For many in our politics today, ideologic purity is far more important than achievement.  And for some, it’s really not about ideas, but personality.  If you’re for a particular former President, then you are against anything and everything that the current President wants to do.  That’s about success, not ideas.  They don’t want Mr. Biden to have any success, regardless of what’s “good” for America.  Maybe that’s not fair – perhaps they don’t believe that anything Mr. Biden would do for America is “good”.  

Ain’t That America

It reminds me of a problem I had as a coach back in the 1980’s.  Track and Field, and pole vault in particular, is an event that crosses “team” boundaries.  Kids who want to vault learn from others – and a lot of schools don’t have the expertise on staff.  So I would help kids from all over the County and even beyond.  There was talk (mostly behind my back) that I was “hurting” my kids by helping others.  

Our vault “squad” had conversations about that.  I told my kids that they had me twenty-four/seven.  If the few hours I might spend helping someone else who didn’t have a pole vault coach get better meant they lost in competition – that was on us, not on the kid that got better.  We OUGHT to be better – we did it full time.  If we made some competitor a thirteen-footer, then we better go fourteen.  And most of the time, we did go higher.  We made the entire event better – for everyone.

“Ain’t that America”?  Instead of being a zero-sum, we win – you lose game, shouldn’t we be trying to make everyone better?  Whether it’s raising the minimum wage, providing cash to taxpayers to help with COVID losses, or helping small businesses survive the shutdown, their success doesn’t cause our failure.  

“They” don’t have to lose so “we” can win.  We can all do better.

So let’s get started.

A Year

It’s March 11^th, 2021.  It was a year ago that we began to understand that our world was closing.  On March 11^th of 2020, I was preparing for Ohio’s role in the Democratic Primary.  I was going to meetings to get ready to officiate in the 2020 track season.  And I was writing a “Viral News” essay on the coronavirus epidemic.  

We went to vote a few days later at the Board of Elections on March 15^th, then went out to lunch.  We ate in a near-empty restaurant, the St. Patrick’s Day decorations looking lonely, and March Madness Basketball already cancelled.  We talked with our server for a while – what she would do, how long before staff was laid off, was she at risk.   That was our last “in-restaurant” meal we had until last week.

We did manage to have an election – in spite of COVID.  Americans voted by mail, and we voted absentee, and more Americans voted than ever before.  Republicans in multiple states are trying to keep that from happening again – when more Americans vote, the Republicans think they lose.  They were right about the Presidency, but did pretty well on the “down-ticket” races.

We didn’t have a track season last year, though they managed to have fall and winter sports thereafter.  I didn’t officiate track, but more importantly for track and for kids, there’s a “hole” in those programs: a year is lost.  There’s a whole class of kids who haven’t been exposed or interested in track.  And for the seniors, there is no recovering it.

Ends and Beginnings

The world “butcher’s bill” of COVID is over 2.6 million lost.  Here in the United States we have almost twenty percent of those deaths, with 560,000 lost in the past year.   We didn’t do it well:  we allowed simple COVID precautions to turn into political issues.  Maybe half of those deaths could have been avoided – but they weren’t.   But, we have performed a scientific miracle.  Vaccines have developed at record pace – Warp Speed  as former President Trump would say.  Today we have three in the United States:  Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson.  In the rest of the world there’s even more, Astra-Zeneca, he Russian “Sputnik” vaccine, the shadowy China vaccine, and even more to come.  

As folks get the vaccine, they begin to feel a freedom to “live” again.  Vaccines won’t make them “bulletproof” to COVID, but they do almost guarantee that the ultimate nightmare won’t happen:  dying unconscious from lack of oxygen on a ventilator in the hospital.  The vaccine opens up the world again, a world lost a year ago.  Folks can see each other, hug each other, and watch each other smile.  And they can do it without the risk of killing the ones they love.

I got my first shot three weeks ago.  A shadow of worry disappeared.  I got my second shot yesterday afternoon.  I’m planning on being sick today, and if so, it’s worth every bit.  But sick or not – Jenn gets her first shot this afternoon, and with that a much greater shadow will disappear for me.  So we won’t be missing that.

Life Alterations

We are making some big changes in our life.  After we both retired, we purchased a camper that we enjoyed.  We even “snow-birded” for a year in 2018, spending the winter in Florida.  But during our COVID self-exile, two more dogs were added to the pack, now totaling four.  Two dogs in the camper was tight, and we never even got the chance to try three.  But four is not possible, not even to transport much less camp or sleep.  So the camper is going on sale.  If we get back to camping, it’s going to be in a “bus” that all six of us can enjoy.

It’s been a long year.  We, and probably most Americans, have lost folks we know to COVID.  If they weren’t very close, we might not even have felt the loss.  Since we were in “COVID exile”, we didn’t have reason to “feel” their absence.  One of the “bad” parts of re-opening life is the holes that are left behind.  As we re-join life we will see those holes and feel the emptiness:  the missing person, the empty chair.

The World Goes On

As a history teacher, I always wondered how people dealt with national loss.  Whether it was settlers facing diphtheria, or Native Americans smallpox, or earlier groups facing bubonic plague.  How did the weight of tragedy not crush their spirit, and their willingness to move on?  In a small way, I guess we know now.  We know that the weight of suffering, of isolation, and the constant shadow of concern, impacts everyone.  And as that weight is lifted, most feel the lightness.  It makes us want to live life again, despite the loss and the suffering. 

It makes us want the world to go on.  And for many, it makes them want to be a part of it.

This is the next in the “Sunday Story” series.  There’s no political or moral “lesson” here, just stories about one of my favorite places – Gettysburg.

Playing Army

When I was a kid, we played “Army” a lot.  Usually, it was World War II “Army”.  Those were the stories we heard from our parents, all World War II veterans.  We set up ambushes on the sides of the road, waiting for “enemy” cars to come up the street.  One time, a driver stopped and lectured us. He wasn’t concerned about shooting him with our toy rifles, but about the strategic errors in our ambush technique.  He said we were “shooting” into each other, and he gave us a lesson on how to effectively ambush someone on the road.  I suspect he was speaking from real-life experience.

But the best war game was creeping up on the house on the corner of our street.  The old man who lived there didn’t like kids, and would come out with a real shotgun to “drive” us away.  It was, what we’d call today, a “live-fire” exercise, with actual enemy fire overhead.  Looking back I suspect it was rock salt, and probably carefully fired far over our short heads and butts. But it provided realism to our “war games”.  His swearing added even more spice and supplemented our vocabularies as well!

Civil War

Sometimes we’d play Civil War.  I was always the kid with the Confederate cap on.  Somehow, back in the early 1960’s, the Confederate side seemed more “romantic”, and living in Cincinnati just across the river from Kentucky, Confederate apparel was more available.  While that didn’t confuse me back then, later it dawned on me.  Kentucky remained in the Union, and while they had troops fighting for both sides of the War, Kentucky itself was “Blue”.  

As I grew older, we found out about the Underground Railroad history of Cincinnati.  A house just a few blocks away was a station on the Railroad, built high on a hill overlooking the Mill Creek Valley.  The “sign” of protection was the Union shield carved in wood on the portico over the front door.  We explored the woods around the home, looking for secret tunnels leading into the basement (we didn’t find them).  

So the Civil War was always a part of my growing up.  But when I became a history teacher, my “strong-points” were Constitutional history and our modern era.  I could go on about “Mutual Assured Destruction” and the importance of NATO in balancing the Soviet threat.  The Civil War didn’t have fascination for me, until I started teaching it to eighth graders.  

Brothers

For several years I showed my classes The Blue and the Gray, a made for TV mini-series covering much of the Civil War. After seven periods a day, year in and out, I can still remember many of the scenes. One was outside the battlements at Vicksburg, where the Union troops were entrenched surrounding the Confederates. During a cease-fire, a Union soldier climbed up and met with a Confederate in the “No Man’s Land” in between. When asked, a Union sergeant gave a one-word explanation: “brothers”.

That was my discovery of the real pathos of the American Civil War:  the tragedy of a people once united driven to fight each other.  It was not only brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor.  Even the strangers had a common history, a common foundation.  That drove me to study the war more closely, and like many history teachers, I became fascinated.

Then I read Killer Angels by Michael Sharra – and I was hooked.

Road Trip

My first expedition to Gettysburg was a summer “road trip”.  I tried to drive avoiding the interstate highways, taking the “National Road”, US 40 through the small towns of Pennsylvania.  US 40 eventually merges onto I-68 in West Virginia, and I drove that into Maryland.  Then I followed the “real” back roads, not highways but county roads, from Hagerstown northeast towards Gettysburg.  I took the time to stop and read the Historic Markers, and found myself on the path of Lee’s Army as it made its way through the Pennsylvania countryside to its fate at the crossroads.

It was the fitting way to enter Gettysburg.  Why did this idyllic college town below South Mountain in Pennsylvania become the site of the worst battle in American history?  You’ll hear about a shoe factory, or just “dumb luck” of two huge forces stumbling around in the countryside.  But Gettysburg is central – six roads converge on the small town.  Any army travelling through Southeastern Pennsylvania would end up there.  From Hagerstown to Carlisle, Baltimore to Chambersburg, Frederick to Harrisburg; all roads led to Gettysburg.

Gettysburg Traditions

That first trip was spent “taking the tour”. I got a cassette tape and stopped at each point along the battlefield, listening to the story of the conflict.  It’s still the best way to introduce yourself to what happened there, though it’s an “App” now.  I established two traditions on that first trip, repeated each time I visit (except when I took an entire track team).  The first was to lift a pint of ale in the Spring House of the Dobbins House Tavern.  The home was built in 1776. It served as a stop on the underground railroad before the war and as a field hospital during the battle.  You can feel the history in the beams of the building and the unevenness of the flooring, as if veterans of the battle were joining in your toast.  They are still there.

The second tradition is on the last evening on the battlefield, as the sun sets over Seminary Ridge across the broad field of Pickett’s Charge.  I go to the Confederate attack objective, the “Copse of Trees”  in the middle of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, and watch the sun set over the sad statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander, a mile away on Seminary Ridge.  As the sun goes down, I think of the setting of his Confederate dreams, though it would be almost two more years of war and death before the end at Appomattox.  

Wool in the Hot Sun

That trip was in hot July.  I waited until the “right time”, mid-afternoon to walk Pickett’s Charge myself, across the mile of open field from Lee’s statue to just below the Copse.  It was hot, and I thought of the wool uniforms that the soldiers on both sides were wearing, and the artillery shells arching overhead.  I climbed over the spilt-rail fencing still on both sides of the Emmitsburg Road, realizing the target that made for rifle fire, then up the gentle incline into the mouths of cannon firing canister shot (think of a shotgun shell the size of a coffee can filled with metal balls).  Whatever you may think of the “Cause” of the Confederacy, there can be no question of the courage of those soldiers who marched up that Ridge, nor that of the men in blue who defended it.

Then I walked back, the mile to where Lee rode out to console and consolidate his decimated forces.  “General Pickett”, Lee said, “Prepare your division for defense.” Pickett replied, “General Lee — I have no division now.”

Alone on Little Round Top

I spent several years returning to Gettysburg, sometimes with family or friends, often on my own. I became a Gettysburg “geek”, no longer “taking the tour” but arriving at the field looking for information about a particular aspect of the battle. What gained my specific fascination was on the second day of the three-day action. Pickett’s dramatic charge on the third day was desperate and unlikely to succeed, but the battles on the second day were very near decisions.

One evening I was alone just beneath Little Round Top, the critical southern segment of the Union line that barely held against relentless Confederate attack.  The last regiment in line, the 20^th Maine under Colonel Joshua Chamberlain was “in the air”.  There were no Union forces to their left, if the Confederates could get past them, they could ravage the interior of the Union forces.  It is heavily wooded; the Confederates were forced to charge up a steep hill against the fortified Union line.  But after six  Rebel charges the 20^th was almost out of ammunition. Chamberlain, well aware of the strategic importance of his position, ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge downhill into the Confederate ranks.  The attack so surprised them, that the Texans were pushed off of Little Round Top, up the hill of Big Round Top, and down the other side.

As I stood almost alone at the stone marker noting the 20^th’s position, a fully uniformed Union Sharpshooter emerged from the woods behind me.  He began talking of the action, of the position he took on the field.  He answered my questions about how the land had changed since the battle, what is now scrub woods was once a road to the mill.  It was eerie:  reenactors are often on the battlefield, but this one seemed almost – real – almost a ghost.  The woods were growing dark, and my soldier said he had to return to his fire.  Then he was gone, and I was alone on Little Round Top.

The End of the Line

Another trip I went with a former student/athlete and friend, Randy. I decided to focus on the north end of the line. The Union was poised in a “fishhook” position, with Culp’s Hill on one end, and Little Round Top at the other. It was three miles long, with the Confederate forces paralleling it with a five-mile line. If the Rebels couldn’t break around the Union forces at Little Round Top to the South, why couldn’t they skirt around Culp’s Hill to the North and split the “fishhook” in two?

There seemed to be nothing to stop a Confederate advance around Culp’s Hill, where the fighting was even uglier than Little Round Top.  So we crossed Rock Creek and began searching the woods for evidence – regimental markers or monuments.  We found nothing but woods and signs saying we were no longer in the Battlefield Park – trespassing on private land.  After wandering for a while, we returned to the Visitors Center and went to the Guide booth to ask them the question.

There is a “vetting” system at Gettysburg.  Ask a basic question, and you’re directed to a battle overview in the Visitor’s Center.  Ask a more specific question, and you may well get hooked up with a Battlefield Guide – perhaps the best way to see Gettysburg if you have the time and money.  They are true experts, full of facts, figures, and stories.  Many are former military themselves, retired, like General Eisenhower, to the ghosts of America’s most famous battle.

But this time the Guide there gave us very specific instructions.  Get in the car, and drive down the Pike until we crossed the Creek.  Then, turn left into the driveway of the first farmhouse, and knock on the door and explain our question to whoever appears.  If we were lucky, maybe we would get an answer.

Hidden Monuments

Randy and I followed directions, and knocked on the farmhouse door.  An older woman answered, and I explained who we were and that the Guide said someone here might answer my question.  She proceeded to give me a quiz on the battle, asking multiple questions about the events of July 1863.  I must have satisfied her, as she told me to wait a moment, and went and got her husband.

The older man came out, and after a little discussion, asked if Randy and I would like to take a walk.  He owned all the land on the east side of Rock Creek, not in the Battlefield Park. It had been in his family since before the Civil War.  So he took us to the “end of the line”, where Union forces were positioned to stop just the maneuver that I wondered about.  Out of the woods appeared stone monuments, not on any tourist map.  They were erected with most of the rest in the 1890’s by the surviving veterans, but since it was on private land, aren’t part of the “regular” Gettysburg experience.

We walked miles. He showed us the old road to the mill (see Little Round Top) and where the mill stood. And he explained: Confederates tried to “flank” around Culp’s Hill, but there weren’t enough of them, and too many Union forces, to get around that end. It wasn’t a “pitched” battle like the more well-known actions, but left out here, in the woods, unseen, was the strategic Union “end of the line”.

Track at Gettysburg

As a track coach, I loved to take my team on trips.  It gave them a chance to “bond” together, become a more dedicated team, and have fun.  Track became more than just workouts and competitions, it became experiences as well.  For years I looked for a way to take a team to Gettysburg.  And we finally found a meet, not at Gettysburg, but close enough at Cumberland Valley High School near Harrisburg.  So we set it up – a “Tour Bus”, accommodations at the Eisenhower Conference Center just south of the battlefield, dinner at General Pickett’s Buffet, and a guided tour of the Battlefield.

The team was like most kids at Gettysburg.  Some were fascinated, others were mildly interested, and a few were flat bored.  But there is a “secret” of kids at Gettysburg – “the Devil’s Den”.  It’s a series of rock outcroppings where actual battle was fought.  But it’s also a natural playground – and when the “kids” are bored it’s a perfect place to let them go “play”.  Of course, they’ll be “breaking the rules”, jumping from rock to rock, but they’ll have fun.  And then you can sneak in the “sniper photograph” – a soldier aiming his rifle through the rocks at Little Round Top, and some stories of battle in the rocks.  Most are “hooked” before you get back on the bus.

We had fun, and were runners-up in the meet the next day.  As usual when we go on tour, we probably lost some points by running around so much the day before – but it was worth it.

My second experience with track at Gettysburg was coaching at a Pole Vault Camp at Gettysburg College.  It was unnerving:  teaching pole vault where I could tell the athletes exactly what happened during the battle, right there on the runway they were using.  We did the Gettysburg “ghost tour”, not so great, but after four days of full-time pole vault, the camp director Rob decided we should give the kids a little taste of the battle.  So we loaded everyone up, and went over to Little Round Top, to see the 20^th Maine and the Devil’s Den.  

And when camp was over and the kids gone:  it was a quick trip to the Spring House, and sunset over Seminary Ridge.  Then the long drive home.

Ghosts in the Mist

On another trip Richie and I went together. He coached track with me for several years, and after he heard that Randy went with me to Gettysburg, he was determined that we should go. We set up an ambitious plan, two days at Gettysburg, a day in Washington, and a day at Antietam (another battlefield nearby). But to make it work, we had to leave Pataskala in the evening, and drive all night to get to the Battlefield.

We arrived about 5:30 am, and parked in the dark on Cemetery Ridge. It’s kind of hard to get the “lay of the land” in the dark, but we walked out onto the ridge anyway. The mists came up from the ground as the sky started to lighten, and soon we were walking in a fog, alone among the monuments. The marble soldiers emerged from the mists, silently keeping guard on the “hallowed ground” where they struggled. We could feel the spirits of those that sacrificed, and those who survived to return and erect monuments to their comrades.

Battlefields are often spiritual places.  At Gettysburg, the ghosts are standing guard.

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

Where Have All the Flowers Gone – Peter, Paul and Mary

Reason

As I was writing Monday’s essay on the Democrats in the Senate (Don’t Blame Joe) I had an underlying question.  Why, if 79% of the US population are in favor of another COVID relief package (Pew), would any reasonable politician vote against it?  Even 65% of Republicans are in favor of relief.  So why would the Republicans in the House and Senate allow this to become a partisan issue, with them on the “wrong” side,  when almost everyone is in favor it? 

By the way, the Democrats did just the opposite last year, when it was Donald Trump’s COVID relief packages.  The December 2020 vote in the Senate, 92 for the package, 6 against.  The April 2020 vote – 96 to 0.   

COVID Relief

One answer is that Republicans believe they can somehow brand this Relief Package as a “Radical Democratic Spending Spree”.  If they get that done, they might cut into the 65% of Republicans who favor the “spree”.  But that also seems to be a stretch.  We can argue about how Republican “thought” is dominated by right-wing media.  We can talk about the influence that Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have on what Republicans believe is true.  (That’s a lot by the way, Carlson is still pushing the “stolen election” baloney, and a whole lot of folks still believe it).

And there are some Republicans (and former Republicans) who legitimately believe that the $1.9 Trillion endangers the economy but putting “too much gas on the fire”.  The worry about inflation, and express concern about the impact of the debt on future generations.  And, as I see it, as long as they voiced the same concerns about the trillion-dollar tax cut, then I respect their view.  As I understand the economics, I think they are mistaken, but I respect it.  

But COVID relief isn’t some “policy” that doesn’t directly impact lives.  It’s money in the pocket, $1400 for many taxpaying Americans, with more for dependent kids.  A family of four earning less than $150,000 a year will get $5600.  That’s real money for almost everybody, whatever Carlson and Hannity say.  And that doesn’t include the support for state and local governments, saving jobs in schools, police departments (more funding not less) and firehouses.  And then there’s the “shot”:  no matter where you stand on COVID – most people are looking forward to FREEDOM – and freedom means the “shot”.  You don’t even have to turn “blue”, or lift your kilt (vague Braveheart reference).  

Issues Aren’t Important

So how does Republican stonewalling make political sense?  How does the stunt pulled by Senator Ron Johnson, making the poor Senate clerks read seven hundred pages of the bill into the record, work in his favor?  How can Senate Republicans in marginal states, like Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson himself, vote against what even 65% of their own supporters want?

It just doesn’t matter.  The voters aren’t voting on the issues, they are voting on the labels.  Think of it this way:  if Marco Rubio voted for the Relief Package, no Democrat is going to switch and vote for him.  And there are plenty of Republican voters who would see his vote as a “sell out”:  abandoning Trumpian support to give-in to the Democrats.  The fact that the package will benefit them isn’t the point.  It is a simple outcome of Trumpism, you’re either for or against.  The issue doesn’t matter.

Republicans Richard Shelby (AL), Roy Blount (MO), Richard Burr (NC), Rob Portman (OH), and Pat Toomey (PA) have already figured it out.  They’re retiring.  Chuck Grassley of Iowa may join them. He’s 87, and while he hasn’t announced yet, it might be his time.  But retirement hasn’t stopped them from “standing” with their Party, it just takes the pressure off of having to please their voters.

Both Sides

And in all honesty, Democrats aren’t very different either.  Look at the “heat” that Joe Manchin is taking for not toeing the Party line.  We are polarized to the point that right and wrong, good and bad, progressing the United States forward isn’t the issue.  It’s simply about partisanship, votes “on the barrel head”.  

Personally, I look at Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio as a classic example.  He is a Republican, and on most issues follows the Republican line.  But he has attempted to govern through the COVID crisis, making many of the unpopular calls to restrict businesses and life to control the virus.  But he’s also realistic.  The Democrats, like me, who praise his work on COVID, still aren’t likely to vote for him in the 2022 Gubernatorial race.  And his own Republicans are likely to put a COVID denier on the ballot in the primary against him, say, Congressman Jim Jordan.  And, looking at the Republican electorate in Ohio, Jordan might well win. 

Post-Issue Era

In the past four years we talked about the “post-truth era”.  Looking at politics today, we are in a “post-issue” era as well.  For all but the “wedge” issues like abortion and gun control and COVID controls, the topic really doesn’t matter.  It’s simply which side wins.

So when we look forward to the rest of the next Congressional two-year term until the 2022 elections, don’t expect reasonable discussion of issues and policies, at least in public.  Every issue will be contested on partisan rather than practical ones.  And the cost/benefit analysis of political reasons is clear.  Both sides voters are demanding absolute adherence to their party, or risk “primarying” from some more “dedicated to the cause” soul. 

There is little benefit in speaking reason, or taking the “middle ground”.  

Outrage

Many of my progressive friends are outraged.

“We won the Presidency, we won the House and WE WON THE SENATE WITH GEORGIA!   So we should get everything we want, from COVID relief to voting reform, immigration change to climate protection, policing reform to a higher minimum wage. We’ve won it all – and you know damn well the Republicans would do it to us: #%$& bipartisanship!!!”

And in my heart I absolutely agree with them. We need to move our agenda forward – it’s what we voted for.  As the saying  goes, elections have consequences – we heard that for four long years.  And we won.

Yep, we did:  but the margins were so slim.  We actually lost seats in the House. The Popular vote for Biden was decent, but the margins in the critical electoral vote states were only slightly greater than the 2016 Trump margins we complained about for four years. 

And then there’s the Senate – tied fifty votes a piece with Vice President Harris casting the decisive choice.  

Narrow Margins

So we won, but really only by the narrowest of margins.  And the critical point, the weak link, is the Senate of the United States.  There are really two problems in the Senate.  

The first is that the Senate has a tradition of the filibuster, unlimited debate.  In the old, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” days, a Senator would take the floor and talk for as long as they wanted.  A Senator dead-set on stopping a vote on a measure, could simply just keep talking, hours onto days.  And if it were a few Senators, they could go on ad-infinitum, stopping all Senate business.  That’s how the civil rights acts were stopped for so many years in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  There was a way to stop debate, but at that time it took two-thirds of the Senators to vote for “cloture” and limit the talk.

The Senate has made it easier, on both sides of the filibuster question.  For the talkers, they no longer have to do the actual talking.  They just have to “threaten” to do it, and the Senate would recognize that they were “talking”, and hold business.  On the other hand, it no longer required the sixty-seven votes to reach “cloture”, now they could do it with sixty.  And there are now exceptions:  Presidential appointees, and votes on budget items already passed by the House of Representatives called budget reconciliation.

So what all this means is that forty-one Senators can stop most pieces of legislation in the Senate.  Unless, of course, the Senate decides to end the filibuster rule, or at least modify it.  To do that it only requires a simple majority – or in this case, fifty votes plus the Vice President. 

We Are Democrats

The second is that the Democrats are Democrats, and that means that the Party represents a broad range of ideology.  It ranges from Bernie Sander’s Democratic Socialism, to Joe Manchin’s “blue dog” conservativism.  And while the “progressive” Democrats are willing to move forward to end the filibuster, and pass their (our) agenda by fifty votes, the more moderate Democrats, including Manchin, but also Krysten Sinema of Arizona, and perhaps even Joe Biden’s “voice” in the Senate, Chris Coons, aren’t so sure.  

And every vote in the Senate counts – one break from the “blue wall” and nothing can get done.  That means that every Democrat (including two “independents” who organize with the Democrats, Sanders and the more moderate Angus King of Maine) has to agree.   President Biden and Majority Leader Schumer have to find the balance between Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin – either one can make the Democratic majority just a political organizing ploy, not able to legislate.

Don’t Blame Joe

So my progressive friends, don’t blame Joe Manchin.  He’s a Democrat, and he’s standing with the Democratic Party.  But he’s also a “blue dog” conservative from West Virginia, a state that went overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.  As he said Sunday on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, he is who he always was, and always will be.  

Don’t blame Joe – do something about it.  It’s not about getting rid of Manchin – that is, as my mother would say, cutting off your nose to spite your face.  In two years, there will be thirty-four seats up for election.  Realistically, Republicans will maintain a hold on fourteen of those.  Democrats will hold ten more.  That means there are ten competitive seats up for grabs.  Four are held by Democrats, six by Republicans. 

The battle for the Senate will be decided in those ten seats.  If Dems win all ten, then they will have a more comfortable fifty-six majority.  They can build a majority – even if one end or the other of the Party disagrees. But if Republicans can defend their seats and win just one of the four Democratic seats, then they regain control. Mitch McConnell becomes Majority Leader again.

Get to Work

In 2018 Democrats made huge strides, taking the House of Representatives and putting Nancy Pelosi back in the Speaker’s chair. In 2020, the expected “Blue Tsunami” turned out to be a trickle. The answer for each: Donald Trump. He wasn’t on the ticket in 2018, and he was in 2020. His presence brought “his” voters to the polls, and they voted down-ticket for other Republicans. He won’t be on the ticket in 2022.

Progress is being made.  Democrats will get some of progressive legislation through, though it’s likely to be “watered down”.  The $15 minimum wage is more likely to by $11, which still beats $7.25.  Go against the conventional wisdom (the President’s Party loses seats in the mid-terms) and bring the energy of anti-Trump 2018 and 2020 to 2022.  And by the way, the House is only Democratic by five seats – better be ready to fight for that as well.

Get to work.

Here’s the next installment in the “Sunday Story” series.  Don’t search for a great political point or moral lesson to learn.  It’s just a story – enjoy!!!

There are lots of things that we used to “get away with” that are no longer “appropriate”.  Admittedly, many of those needed to end.  But there are a few that while not “acceptable” in these modern days, were fun and nostalgic, and make for great stories.  And the statute of limitations has run out.  This one’s for the class of 1979, now proudly turning sixty – Wow – you guys are getting OLD!!!

A Farm School

When I first came to Watkins Memorial High School it was in 1978.   I was a twenty-one-year-old, first year teacher and Watkins (and the whole Pataskala area) was a different kind of place back then.  The community was just on the cusp of changing from agricultural to suburban.  Today’s acres and acres of housing developments were farm fields, and what was then called the High School, is now the “old” Middle School, soon to be leveled. 

Back then, the Future Farmers of America grew a couple of acres of corn behind the school, and one of the big events was “tractor day”.  Many kids still lived on farms, and drove their big green or red tractors to school to parade around the parking lot.   The Principal and his Assistant controlled the building with the business side of a paddle, with few kids suspended or expelled.  They took a beating instead.  And for many of those kids, it wasn’t the paddling that was the worst punishment.  “Just please, don’t tell my parents,” was often the plaintive cry.  “I’ll get twice as much at home”.  

Like many schools of the time, the senior class had a series of “pranks” to mark the end of their high school careers.  One year, they dumped dozens of live chickens into our school courtyard, each with a teacher’s name-tag hung around its neck.  The poultry wandered for a few days, as no one wanted the responsibility of gathering them up.  Another year a Volkswagen Beetle (minus the engine) was dragged over the roof and dropped into the same courtyard.  Luckily, Watkins had a healthy vocational education department back then.  The welding class made it a project to cut the Beetle into pieces and bring it out.  

The Deal

Most of the pranks were pretty harmless, though the Volkswagen did damage the roof on the way over.  And that’s because there was an unspoken agreement between the Senior Class and their government teacher.  As long as the class could “kidnap” that teacher, they really didn’t do much harm to the rest of the school district.

When I took a Government teaching job at Watkins, I really didn’t have any idea that was part of the deal.  I was a student teacher there the year before, but I left before Senior week, doing my own graduation rituals at Denison University when all of that was going on.  So I was a bit surprised when my mentor and fellow teacher, Gary Madden, let me know that a kidnapping was definitely in my future.

I was twenty-two by May, living in a small apartment on the north side of the village of Pataskala.  I had some idea when the seniors would be looking for me – it was traditionally the night before the Senior assembly.  In fact, the “high point” of the assembly would be to bring the “captured” faculty in for display.  But I determined that I could avoid this by simply locking myself inside of my apartment, and watching my 1962 portable black and white TV.  At least, that was the plan.

Knock – No Warrant

Around 7pm there was a “police-like” knocking on the front door of my second-floor apartment.  I glanced through the window, and saw our star shot putter, standing at the door.  Well, at least I saw part of him – he was north of 300 pounds, a state qualifier, and I  really just saw a wall of a man-boy standing blocking all exit from my home.  I wasn’t planning on going out, but if I wanted to, there was no exit.

So I just told him that I wasn’t opening the door – and assumed that was that.  What I hadn’t prepared for was our hurdler forcing open a window and coming out of the bedroom.  Before I could react, he had the front door open, and he, and the shot putter, and a multitude of other seniors were in my very small living room.

Now I was a track guy, but I had wrestled for several years.  So we had a good tussle in the living room.  But, out-muscled and out-manned, they soon pulled out a pair of handcuffs, cuffed me behind my back, and dragged me out of the door and down to the parking lot.  I remember my neighbors enjoying the show as I bounced down the wrought iron stairs – thanks a lot!!  The Seniors threw me into the back of a car, and off we went.  The driver then realized that he needed gas.  So they drove up the street to the Duke Station, and got a fill-up.  

As we were sitting there, a Pataskala Police cruiser pulled in.  I saw my chance, and yelled loudly, “Officer, there’s a felony kidnapping in progress, Help!”  The officer came over to the car, looked at me in the back, and then turned to the boys and said, “You know I’ll need my handcuffs back after you’re done”.  It was only then I realized the whole community was in on the plan.  Any chance of escape was up to me.

Picking Up Gary

Our next stop was at Gary Madden’s house in Summit Station.  The seniors just went up to the front door and demanded that Mr. Madden come outside.  I sat in the back seat as Gary, his wife and kids came to the front stoop.  Gary’s wife was laughing, but his kids weren’t so happy about all these folks who wanted to take their Daddy away.  And Gary wasn’t going easy either, a wrestling match soon broke out in the front yard.

I thought that was my chance.  It was 1979, and the car windows all worked with cranks.  So I cranked down the back window with my teeth, and as everyone focused on Gary in the front yard, I managed to worm my way out of the car. My first mistake – my hands were still cuffed behind me, so when I came out the window there was no where to land except on my face.  But out I went, got to my feet, and began to run into a field across the street.

I heard the shouts, and knew my captors discovered my break-out.  Now, I was a pretty fast runner still, only a couple of years from my college sprinting days.  But we never practiced sprinting through chest-high weeds with our hands behind our backs – it was awkward.  In the end though, it wasn’t that I got caught, at least by the kids. What I hadn’t counted on was barbed wire.  A fence brought me to a very dramatic halt. Then my pursuers unpinned me and dragged me back.

So now it was two of us against the Senior class of ’79.

Barn Wrestling

They only had the one set of handcuffs, and I don’t remember how they bound Gary up.  But we were taken back to one of the kids houses, right across from the school, and dragged into their barn.  By now it was dark, but the barn was lit, and the seniors laced the handcuff through the wheel of a tractor.  Gary was on the outside, I was on the inside.  The Seniors left, I suspect to enjoy some beverages (the legal age in Ohio was eighteen at the time, though I don’t think that really mattered).  And we were alone.

Our first plan was to roll the tractor down the hill to the road.  So we started to move the big Red Massey-Ferguson out of the barn door.  That didn’t last a quarter turn before I realized that, as the “inside man”, I was going under the wheel.  We managed to get it stopped before any crushing occurred.

Our second plan was only marginally more successful.  All our activity with the handcuffs made our wrists raw and bloody.  When the Seniors came back, Gary and I put on our best “whine” about how much they hurt.  The Seniors, truly concerned that we not be permanently injured, let us loose.  They’re mistake.

We both made a break.  I remember struggling with multiple kids before being pinned down.  A Senior wrestler that I sparred with muttered “stop fighting or I’ll break your arm”.  I responded “break it.”  He had more sense than I did at the time, and released me.  Meanwhile Gary had a garbage can lid and a length of chain, keeping the Seniors at bay like some medieval Warrior (instead of the Native American Watkins Warrior).  It was a long night of wrestling, laughing, swearing, and challenging the Seniors – and we didn’t manage to get away.

Senior Assembly

The next morning they dragged us across the street to the school, ready to handcuff us to the gymnastics balance beam in anticipation of the Senior Assembly.  But they turned their back to discuss how to attach us for just a moment – and we were gone.  We did have one advantage:  we knew the school even better than the Seniors, all of the back rooms and hiding places and interconnecting doors.

 We managed to make our way to the shop class, and found the tools to cut the handcuff chain.  The Seniors had some explaining to do to the Pataskala Police – they cried to us later, “Did you have to cut them?”.  And so as the Senior Assembly began, we marched in with the faculty – smelly and dirty from wrestling on a barn floor, but proudly free from captivity.  

Gary became the Assistant Principal the next year – and there were two more years of “Seniors” all by myself before I moved to the Middle School.  But that’s another 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

Vaccination

President Biden announced this week that there will be enough vaccinations for every adult in the United States by May.  Medical experts, some for the first time, are speaking with smiles on their faces.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel of COVID, and the light is getting brighter by the minute.  If we can “hang on” until summer, until the vast majority of Americans are vaccinated, the United States may actually reach a level of “herd immunity”.  So many folks will be immune that N-Covid-19 will become a nuisance instead of the pandemic we know that killed over half-a-million Americans.

But it’s March, not summer.  While the end of the tunnel is visible, “we ain’t there yet”.  So when Biden’s announcement was followed by the Governors of Texas and Mississippi declaring their states were “100%” open, with no COVID restrictions, the President called them out.  

“I hope everyone’s realized by now these masks make a difference,” Biden told reporters Wednesday. “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it.  It still matters.”(Insider).

Defending Neanderthals

Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican from Tennessee, immediately jumped to the defense of Neanderthals.  

“Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers. They’re protectors of their family. They are resilient. They’re resourceful. They tend to their own,” the GOP senator said. “So I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he is saying.” (Insider)

So to be clear, Neanderthals were (not are) an archaic version of humans.  They “disappeared” between 35,000 and 25,000 years ago – though they may well have been “assimilated” into modern humans.  Neanderthals lived in Europe, using caves for shelter.  Those caves also preserved their art work, and their skeletons for modern study.  When modern society talks about “cave people” – there are generally referring to the Neanderthals.  (Brittanica)

So while it’s wonderful that Senator Blackburn and other Republicans jumped to the defense of the Neanderthals from the “unfair” aspersions cast by the President, there really isn’t anybody around for them to defend.  That is, other than the retired Geico advertising campaign – “even a caveman can do it”.  That was replaced by the Gecko.

Cartoon Characters

But it seems to be the kind of issue the Republicans can get behind.  Defending Neanderthals came right after defending the “manhood” of Mr. Potato Head (see an earlier essay  from this week – Potato Heads).  And right before defending the early works of Dr. Seuss. It seems the beloved author of “The Cat in the Hat”, “Green Eggs and Ham”, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” had earlier works that contains racist images.  Doctor Seuss Enterprises, the business that preserves and controls his works, determined that they would no longer publish six books from his early collection.  They released the following statement:  “These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong” (USA Today).

Neanderthals, Potato Heads and the Cat in the Hat all seem to be more important issues to the Republicans than the very real concerns in front of them.  The COVID relief package is before the Senate, but Republicans are lockstep in their opposition to the legislation.  So opposed in fact, that Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin used his Senatorial “privilege” to require almost 700 pages of the bill read into the record – delaying Senate debate for over ten hours.  

Serious Debate

It’s certainly the “right” of the GOP to stand in opposition.  When they controlled the Senate, the Democrats often did the same.  But it does seem that their opposition has become “frivolous” instead of substantive.  The issues that seem “important” this week – Neanderthals, Potato Heads and the Cat in the Hat, all are designed to further polarize American politics.  It’s about “firing up the base” – “Democrats are against Dr Seuss!!!! Let’s storm the Capitol to defend the Cat in the Hat and the Grinch!!” (Maybe it’s “too soon” for “storming the Capitol” – but isn’t this kind of craziness how we got there in the first place?)

Serious issues are coming.  The House passed the Police Reform and Voting Reform Acts this week.  The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is right behind.  There are real issues of concern and debate in all of those proposed laws, real points of contention about who “counts” in America.  I hope we can hear serious discussion about those issues – not ten hours of reading from the embattled Senate clerks, and not defense of Neanderthals, potato heads, or cats with hats.

Pre-Dawn

The dogs were up early this morning – about 4:45 am.  I’m not sure why Louisiana decided that 4:45 was a good time.  He’s a “Southern Dog”; he doesn’t even eat breakfast until the sun is high and warm.  He might have heard the neighbor headed to work – but there’s nothing like a big Lou lick on the lips to get you going in the cold, early, pre-dawn!

Once Lou was up, the rest of the pack got rolling as well.  Unlike Lou, it was breakfast time for them, and snacks, and go out a couple of times.  By the time that was all over there was no going back to sleep.  So I read the “papers” (well, I read my phone with “All the News that’s Fit to Print” and “Democracy Dies in the Darkness”).  And today it struck me:  the dichotomy of our “new normal”.

The Old Days

The lead articles are about what we would have called the “old” normal.  It’s about negotiations for the COVID relief bill.  The House, not surprisingly, maxed out the relief package, including the $15 minimum wage (which I support).  The Senate, evenly divided with several Senators straddling the middle ground, is serving the purpose the Founding Fathers intended.  The “heated action” of the House is being “cooled in the saucer” of the Senate.  The $15 minimum wage is off, to be debated another time.  The direct relief, $1400 to each taxpayer, is now restricted to those making less that $80,000/year.  

President Biden is talking to Senators, both his own Democrats and even some Republicans.  More progressive members of the Senate are outraged, and more regressive Senators are making the staff read aloud over six hundred pages of the bill into the record.  As Aaron Burr’s character sang in Hamilton, this is “…the art of the trade, how the sausage is made”. COVID relief will be passed sometime this weekend.  The check is in the mail.  

Competence

And Biden is demonstrating the one thing most Americans hoped for:  competence.  Not only is economic COVID relief coming, but the vaccine is coming as well.  Instead of July or August, now we can look forward to every adult having access to “the shot” by May.  And while Texas, Mississippi, and I’m sure Florida soon, may pay a price of infection and death for jumping the gun, we really might be able to get to a life more like normal this summer.  I’m looking forward to the Fourth of July.

That’s what “old normal” should look like.  It’s a government that doesn’t require us to watch every move and action.  I can listen to Hamilton as I go about my day (or a lot of Steep Canyon Rangers recently), instead of locking into MSNBC to find out what tragedy or atrocity happens next.

The “New” Normal

But then there’s the “new normal”.  Just yesterday:  Elaine Chou was accused of direct conflicts of interest and may have committed crimes by favoring her family businesses.  She’s the former Secretary of Transportation and Mitch McConnell’s wife. But the Trump Justice Department gave her a “pass”, in spite of an Inspector General’s recommendation for charges.  Trump is being sued by Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) for inciting the Insurrection of January 6^th. And he is under investigation five ways from Sunday in the State of New York.  

The House of Representatives stayed up most of last night to finish the Police Reform and the Voting Rights Act.  Why did they pull an “all-nighter” in the middle of the week?  Because today is March 4^th, the last day for the “fever dream” Insurrectionists to achieve their goal of overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States.  There is enough “intelligence” to raise concerns by Congressional leaders, particularly after January 6^th.  And while the Capitol is as highly fortified as it has been since the Civil War, the House leaders didn’t see a need to serve as “bait” for a possible attack.  They worked the late shift and went on home.

Rabbit Holes

Not to descend too far into the Insurrectionist “rabbit hole”, but March 4^th is the original inauguration date established in the Constitution, and changed in 1933 by the Twentieth Amendment.  Since insurrectionist “lore” claims that the United States hasn’t had a “valid” President since Ulysses S. Grant in 1875, they refuse to acknowledge the January 20^th inauguration.  The fact that Donald Trump would have been an “illegitimate” President under this theory as well doesn’t seem to bother them.  They just know that the 2020 election was “stolen”, and they want it back.  Today may be their last chance.

Add to that the disturbing testimony yesterday of District of Columbia National Guard Commanding General William Walker.  He said that on January 6^th, he had to wait three hours and nineteen minutes to get extra-ordinary permission from the Defense Department to send troops to defend the Capitol.  He had his forces sitting on buses at the DC Armory, ready to go.  But while vandals raged through the building, his troops were cooling their heels. They were waiting for “permission” from the Trump temporary appointees at the Pentagon.  We don’t know what those appointees were waiting for. But it doesn’t seem too crazy to think they may have been hoping to see how “effective” the insurrection was.

And that’s the new normal, the one we got “used to” in the Trump Administration.  Let’s hope we’re just tying up the loose ends of that era, and we can get on with “making sausage” and the business of government.  

But meanwhile, the TV will stay on MSNBC today.

Unfinished Business

I listened to the Senate Judiciary Committee interrogate FBI Director Chris Wray on Tuesday.  They want to know about his agency’s role in preventing and investigating the January 6^th Insurrection.  Director Wray has a “facile” way of dodging the pointed Senate questions, from both sides of the aisle.  He conveniently refuses to define domestic extremists by their position on the political spectrum, right or left.  Instead, he categorizes them as racist (both white and black), anti-government, and specific issue extremists.  “We are equal opportunity law enforcers,” he claims.

He can’t get “pegged”. He doesn’t want to appear to be more worried about “white supremacists” (domestic terrorists) then he is about “Black Lives Matter” (not domestic terrorists).  But his testimony seems clear: he is.  White Supremacists are more violent, and more importantly, they attempted to disrupt the US Government’s transition of power.  

I can’t blame Wray for knowing how to “dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge”. He became Director after Comey was fired, in the middle of the hurricane (Crossfire Hurricane more appropriately) over Trump.  He used his political agility to keep his job, even in the last months of the Trump Administration, the time of “long knives”.

We may worry about what happened on January 6^th  and what  threats might be in the future. But both sides of the aisle seem determined to continue to litigate Trump.  That is because America reached no resolution for his actions in the 2020 election.  Wish as we might that we could “move on”, here’s our reality. Trumpism is still driving a significant part of the electorate, and more immediately, politicians who need their votes.

Legal Insurrection

The nationwide impact continues.  Anti-democratic actions are happening in many states, now.  And by democratic, I mean actions against our democracy, not against my Democratic Party.  The founding principal of our democracy is our citizen’s right to vote.   When the Founding Fathers wrote the original Constitution, the word “citizen” only applied to twenty-one-year-old white men who owned property. But all of them were “enfranchised”.  

The history of the United States is to increase that franchise.  The property requirement was dropped by the 1820’s, and the race qualification was abolished with the 15^th Amendment.  Senators were made subject to direct election with the 17^th Amendment.  The gender qualification was removed by the 19^th Amendment. The residents of the District of Columbia were partially enfranchised with the 23^rd Amendment.  The 24^th Amendment abolished a tax on voting. And finally, the age was lowered to eighteen by the 26^th Amendment.  

Since the ratification of the Constitution, we have increased the “right” and the “power” of the vote.  And for almost every advance in voting rights, there has been a subsequent attempt trying to claw that advance back. But the real driving force behind denying the right to vote, is the desire to keep people of color from participating.  The creation of the Ku Klux Klan was first, a direct consequence of the passage of the 15^th Amendment. In took a century for the full legal enforcement of that amendment.  

And today it’s happening again.

The Quiet Part Out Loud

The right to vote is only as good as someone’s ability to vote.  That ability depends on accessibility.  In the past every “trick” from literacy tests to guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar was used to prevent registration.  And while those more obvious “tricks” are gone, some state legislatures are TODAY engaging in a new form of denying accessibility.   

In Georgia, the state legislature is “rolling back” access to absentee ballots.  They are restricting early voting days, and discussing further legal documentation to “qualify” to vote.  This is all in spite of the protestations of those same Georgia elections officials that the 2020 election was without fraud or deception.  

The same thing is happening in the Pennsylvania legislature.  The Arizona state legislature is not only looking to restrict ballot access. They are also considering the notion that the Legislature should have the right to overturn the vote of the people when it comes to Presidential electoral votes.  Let’s put that in plain English.  If they don’t like who the people choose for President, they want to choose someone else.

Michael Carvin, a lawyer for Arizona’s Republican Party said the “unspoken part” out loud in the United States Supreme Court yesterday, as he argued the “legality” of the state requiring every voter to vote in only in their own precinct.  When Justice Barrett asked what interest his  Party had in restricting where a voter could vote, he answered with the following.

“Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game. And every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretation of Section 2 hurts us, it’s the difference between winning an election 50-49 and losing an election 51 to 50.”(NBC).

If They Can’t Win 

Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona:  all of these states have a single commonality.  Each was a pivotal state in the 2020 election and the electoral college loss of Donald Trump.  And in each of these states, people of color came out in high percentages to vote for President Biden.  Contrary to Trump’s continuing delusion of election fraud, all evidence shows that these outcomes were accurate.  But the outcomes weren’t what the Republican state legislatures wanted. So, if they can’t control the vote, they’ll control who comes to cast their ballot.

In Arizona they’ll move and consolidate precincts making it more likely that it will take more time to vote, and be more difficult to get there.  In Georgia, they’ll discuss ending Sunday voting, so that Black Churches, who have traditionally voted after Sunday service, can’t go. They all will restrict mail-in balloting.  It all boils down to one thing:  keeping people of color from voting, because they overwhelmingly supported a Democrat instead of their Republican.

And even here in “perfect” Ohio, the state legislature will continue to gerrymander the Congressional Districts, to make sure the “right” person can “pick” their voters and win.

Because if they can’t win – they change the rules.

Mr. Potato Head

The newest right-wing talking point is about the Hasbro toy – Mr. Potato Head.  Growing up we knew “Mr. Potato Head” as a series of plastic items you could stick on a baking potato, personalizing it.  There was the original “Mr. Potato Head”, complete with eyes, nose, mustache, mouth and hat. And then came “Mrs. Potato Head”, with a purse, lipstick and a bright smile.  They both also came with legs, so that your simple potato could become an anthropomorphic toy. 

Later on, Hasbro even provided a plastic potato, so that potato heads could be “standardized” in size and shape.  And they added potato head children and even pets, so entire potato head family groups were created. 

But now the supposed “liberal-radicals” (as opposed to the liberal-moderates, I guess) have allegedly “forced” Hasbro to “de-gender-ize” their toy.  Mr. Potato Head lost his “mister”, and he’s losing his “he” too.  It’s just a “potato head”. While playing with it, you can assign or not assign whatever gender you feel is appropriate.

Now it’s not like Mr. Potato Head has lost his “tuber” or his “yams”.  He never had them, he was, in fact, either a real or a fake potato.  The Hasbro Company is simply allowing children playing with their “Potato Toy” to make their own conclusions, or no conclusions at all, about gender.  It’s their toy, and their decision.  Moustache placed over lip-stick smile – no problem.  And there was no Court order given, and no Antifa associated crowd standing at the company gates in Providence, Rhode Island protesting the “hat and moustache”.  Hasbro made a marketing decision.  They hope to sell more of their imagination inducing product.

A Dial, Not a Switch

But for a right-wing crowd still reeling from their complicity in the Insurrection, Mr. Potato Head is a perfect opportunity to change the subject.  And while I don’t expect to see too many marches to protect Mr. Potato Head’s “manhood”, he/it is being used as a “straw-man/potato” argument for a subject that is much closer and dearer to the right-wing heart.  

A lot of the literature I get from the right end of the political spectrum proclaims that us “liberal-radicals” are taking away their religious freedom.  By “taking away”, what they are saying is that they are threatened by a world were gender identity isn’t “black and white”, or more specifically “boy and girl”.  We all, even us “liberal-radicals” grew up with that specific knowledge.  We knew what girls had and what boys had, and we knew why – it was science, either XX or XY.  There was nothing clearer.  And even if the science wasn’t absolutely clear back then, surely our sixth-grade health teacher wasn’t going to talk about it!

But we now know that, like a lot of things we learned in sixth grade, this isn’t quite right.  We know that the XX/XY thing is really much deeper and more complex.  And we also know that hormonal influences in the womb and during the early years influence gender-identity as well as just having “tubers” and “yams”.  Like most things in life, gender-identity is infinitely complicated; not a two-choice switch, but a dial, a spectrum of possible outcomes. 

Religion and Gender 

But that makes folks uncomfortable.  And some of their discomfort is “enforced” by their religious beliefs – “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”; and especially not “Armani and Eastyn”.   That’s where the “religious freedom” argument comes in:  “You liberals can’t FORCE me to accept complex gender identities.  If you try to – you are violating my religious right (sic)”.

There are lots of areas in our society where religious rights come up against individual rights.  The tension between those two competing interests in the Bill of Rights are at the heart of some of our biggest political issues:  from abortion to LGBTQIA equality, to gun rights.  We as a nation are committed to allowing individuals to express their differences – it’s in the First Amendment, right after the Religion part.  And we allow individuals the privacy of their own lives and bodies – that’s in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.  And most importantly, our Constitution guarantees that Government won’t take a side in religion – the wording couldn’t be clearer:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”.

Athletics

Which brings us to their next right-wing talking point:  trans-gendered athletes.  “We can let those ‘boys’ compete against girls, it’s not fair”.  But, just like the potatoes and the XX/XY thing, the question is so much more complex than that.  Yes, there are inequities in how transgender athletes are allowed to compete.  But frankly, most of the inequity is against the transgendered athlete, not their competitors.  And while we can all site examples (NCAA Division III track and field) where it seems unfair, let’s look at the bigger picture.  The argument is that somehow these “men” are taking advantage of women’s athletics to gain “prestige”.  But the reality is closer to this:  the problems those transgendered athletes create by competing, are so much smaller than the problems they face by expressing their inward gender.

In short, they face so much rejection in society by being “out”, that it is beyond belief that they are willing to accept all of that – for a medal.  The easy excuse to attack them is to say that they have hormonal advantages that the other women competitors don’t have. But that’s not really so easily answered. Just as gender is not a “binary” choice, neither is hormonal levels or physical development. We don’t know where a trans-gendered athlete falls “on the scale”. Neither do we know where the so-called “normal” competitors fall. It’s just not a black and white issue.

Rights

We can say that the Constitution gives us the “right” to believe what we want. What the Constitution does not do, is give us the “right” to force others to believe what we do. The Constitution forces us to accept diversity- it’s written in “black letter law”.

So while we can say “I don’t agree” or “I don’t believe”, neither of those can translate to “you can’t be”  or “you can’t do” without infringing on other’s Constitutional rights.  No right is “pre-eminent”, they are all balanced. 

I can put a mustache on a potato, and I can put a lip-sticked smile underneath it, or give it a purse, or a hat – or not.  It’s my choice, not someone else’s.

Old Left-Hander

For decades, it was the sign-off for every Cincinnati Reds radio broadcast.  Joe Nauxhall was the youngest to every play major league baseball when he joined the player-short World War II Reds roster in 1944.  He was fifteen.  When the War was over it was back to Hamilton High School and then the minors, but in 1952 he returned to the big leagues, and played, mostly for the Reds, until 1966.  The next year he began his second career as a radio commentator on Red’s radio, a stretch that lasted until 2004. 

On long trips, my Dad would listen to Red’s games.  As we drove through the pines of Michigan, or across the New York Thruway, or down through Kentucky, it was always a taste of our hometown, Cincinnati.  And since the Reds were broadcast on WLW Radio, a clear channel AM station using the maximum wattage allowed, you could hear the games almost everywhere.  We could sit on a beach in Canada and catch the scratchy end to August games.

And when it was over, we’d know.  Joe would signoff, always with his signature phrase:  

“This is the old left-hander, rounding third and headed for home”.

Butcher’s Bill

We have reached a terrible milestone in our national experience:  twelve months of a world pandemic.  There are few alive who have experienced a world like this, the very few who are as old as my Dad would have been this July, 103.  And they were babies, born in 1918 during the “Spanish” flu epidemic, that took 675,000 American lives in twenty-six months.   We are sadly ahead of their pace: today’s butcher’s bill over 520,000 gone to COVID. 

But unlike the post-World War I world, our science is serving us well.  All my grandparents’ generation could do was wear masks, avoid crowds, socially distance and increase ventilation.  And, just like today, they had their “anti-maskers” (there were entire anti-mask societies) and scoff-laws.  Some wore their masks with holes cut in the front to accommodate their cigars.

Recently in the United States those same common-sense preventions again became political pawns.  Wearing a mask and obeying state regulations somehow got wrapped up in the polarization of our politics, a mark of our affiliation rather than a social duty to protect each other.  How many additional lives that cost is unknowable, but the scale is likely in the hundreds of thousands.  By allowing politics to overrule science, our nation has paid an extraordinary price.  With four percent of the world population, we have twenty percent of the world’s deaths.

Science

But the great difference between now and the year of Dad (and Mom’s) birth, is science.  From the beginning we knew what caused our disease.  And we put the great engines of our scientific industries to task:  find treatments and find vaccines.  Today, the third vaccine, this one produced by Johnson and Johnson, will receive clearance for public use in the United States.  It, along with the Pfizer and Moderna products, will be rushed into arms.  

Four million doses of the one-shot J&J vaccine will immediately be apportioned as soon as the final approvals are made.  Sixty-six million doses have already been administered to Americans, with more than thirteen percent of the population vaccinated.  The goal: 100 million doses by April.  President Biden predicts that the shot(s) will be available to everyone in the nation by August.  Other vaccines are waiting in the wings, just concluding their scientific trials.

We already are seeing the benefit of immunization. Nursing home residents, the most likely to die from COVID, were among the very first targets of vaccination in the US.  Death rates there have fallen seventy percent since the shots began.   The concept of “herd immunity”, that so many folks are immunized that viral transmission is slowed to a near halt, is foreseeable.  

We are rounding third, and headed for home.

Dancing in the Base Path

Ohio has hit what we call “false spring”.  After weeks of snow coverage, sub-freezing temperatures and clouds, the ice is melting.  When I was coaching high school track this was the time of year where I’d have to yell “KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON” to my high school boys.  After months of twenty-degree weather, the forty-five-degree sunshine would feel like summer, and they’d rip off their sweats and even shirts in the workout.  What would feel like Arctic blasts come May felt like Florida beaches in February.

With vaccines and possible “herd immunity” in sight, it’s easy to feel like those bare-chested runners.  It feels like spring, almost summer.  It’s time to drop all the protections of coats and sweats, of social distancing, masks and restrictions.  Let’s go play!!  We should get together!! Let’s celebrate the end of our long pandemic winter!!

But we aren’t there – yet.  America is so close to solving our national scientific equation, but we have not crossed the plate.  We have rounded third, and we are headed for home, but the score doesn’t count – yet.  We are dancing in the base path.

Home

And as we dance, it’s still possible we might get thrown out.  

The virus doesn’t think, it just acts.  It doesn’t know that herd immunity, eighty percent or more vaccinated is on the horizon.  The virus does what it does, replicate, infect, replicate some more.  It doesn’t know that defeat is imminent.  And it will continue to do what it does, until we actually have all those shots in arms.  We can still have another spike, another jump in the death rate, another lengthy butcher’s bill.  It isn’t necessary, but it’s possible.  It’s up to us.

We have rounded third, and we are headed for home.  We need to keep our heads down, and get across the plate.

Here’s the next in the “Sunday Story” series.  There’s no political point here, it’s just a story about folks who find lost dogs.

Lost Dogs

If you’ve read many of these “Our America” essays, you know dogs emerge as a reoccurring theme. We’ve currently got four rescues here at the house, and Jennifer (my wife) is deeply involved in an all-volunteer group called Lost Pet Recovery (LPR). They’re folks who spend most of their time trying to get lost dogs back to their families, and wandering dogs to safety. It sounds simple – just catch the dog. But there’s so much more that goes into it.

So the first thing you need to know about finding lost dogs, is it is NOT the same as finding lost children.  Even though we think of our dogs as our children, they will not respond the same way as our kids lost in the woods might.  When a child is lost in the woods, we gather all of our friends, we find someone to look from “the sky” with a drone, we scour the countryside calling out for them.  We assume (rightly so) that the child wants to be found.  It’s kind of a “village goes after Frankenstein thing”, think torches and crowds, but only in a good way.

Flight Mode

But after a dog has been “out” for a couple of days, they are in flight mode.  They are running, running from anything that generates fear.  And everything, and particularly everybody generates fear – often times even “Mom and Dad” and brothers and sisters.  One of the coolest parts of rescuing dogs is the moment when the dog “remembers” who “Mom or Dad”  is.  We’ve all seen the reunion videos of dogs welcoming their returning soldier home from a long tour.  And that part is really cool, and it does happen even for the “rescued” dog.  But it doesn’t usually happen when they are “out” running.

Once a dog is out, there might be a short time when calling for them will help.  But a dog also knows they might be “in trouble” for running – so even then it can’t be “Fido get back here!”  It’s got to be calm, quiet, “…hey Fido buddy, I’ve got a cheeseburger for you – smell it?”  But when you gather all your human friends and send them out into the field to find your lost canine, it’s more than likely that you are driving him or her even farther away, especially if they’ve been “out” more than a day or so.  They are scared, and all of those strange people yelling their name is going to make then even more scared.  So they’ll run, and they can outrun you.

That’s when you need my friends:  the folks at Lost Pet Recovery.

Berne 

The area around Alum Creek Drive and Livingston Avenue is not considered the “best” part of Columbus, Ohio.  It’s mostly industrial, and from time to time in the night you might hear “shots fired”.  The area makes the evening news for shootings and robberies more than for the real efforts of the Southside Civic Association.  But the owner of one of the companies in the area noticed that a Bernese Mountain Dog had taken up “residence” in the small industrial park sandwiched between Alum Creek Drive and I-70 headed downtown. 

He, through a friend of a friend, let LPR know.  And Jenn was on the job.

Jenn went down and “learned the Berne”.  She talked to the folks in the industrial park, and followed the dog tracks in the snow.  And she found out the Berne was bedding down in a storage shed on one of the properties.  In fact, Berne had a friend, Bob, the owner of one of the businesses.  He was not just feeding Berne, he was grilling beef and chicken for her.  She had a “bed”, straw blankets and such, in the back of the shed.  She came and went as she pleased, and though she wouldn’t allow contact, she definitely had “ her place” down on Alum Creek Drive.

This was in January, middle of winter here in Ohio.  But Bernese Mountain Dogs originated in Berne, Switzerland (my first mistake – I always thought they were Burmese from Burma, kind of a Himalayan thing – wrong) and the cold is what they were bred for.  And while Berne had a “place” it still was a cold, tough world out there, and everyone wanted Berne to be safe.  In fact, Bob wanted to make Berne his own.  The two even got to the point the Berne would take food from his hand.  But when he’d reach out, she’d bolt.

But she kept coming back.

Trappers

The first move was to put a camera and a “trap” in the shed.  The camera is a deer-cam, triggered by motion and transmits to Jenn’s phone.  It’s got night vision as well, so whenever anything moved in the shed, Jenn was notified.  And the trap – well it’s six feet long by two and a half feet tall by two feet wide, with a spring door that closes if Berne steps on the trip plate.  Jenn and Bob placed food leading into the trap, and of course, the “mother-load” of food at the back past the trip plate.  Any self-respecting and hungry dog would walk right in and get the food – and get trapped.

But Berne was trap-wise.  She knew to get all the food leading in, and to reach just far enough into the trap to take the scraps in the front.  But no matter what was in the back, she wouldn’t go.

This went on for a week or more, with Berne almost literally waving at the camera as she went by.  Jenn hung out down in the parking lots of the buildings off of Alum Creek Drive, and began to get a sense of the dog’s pattern.  She didn’t go far, and she didn’t cross the busy roads.  There was a small wood, a little cemetery, and the big storage lots.  She circled through her territory checking everything a few times a day.  At nighttime usually she headed for the storage shed, ignored the trap, and bedded down in the back.

Bob had to leave town for a week – so Jenn set up an alternate site to feed Berne.  And it was another week of trying different foods (from McDoubles to KFC Bowls and Chicken Strips) but Berne still waved at the camera, sniffed around the trap, and ate the teaser pieces along the edge.  She even barked at the peanut-butter covered bone lashed to the back.  She’d eat everything around, but she wasn’t going in.

Sleeping in a Truck

Meanwhile, my wife was sleeping in a truck in an empty parking lot off Alum Creek Drive, night after night.  LPR volunteers support each other. As one “trapper” gets sleep in the truck, others, spread all over the state, are watching the cameras for her.  When Berne approached, they’d text or call.  Jenn was far enough away from the trap that the sound of the phone wouldn’t disturb the dog, but would wake her up.  But instead of catching Berne, it was mostly to release the feral cats that lived in the area.  And those cats weren’t happy about the catch part – nor particularly grateful for release either.

There are several trappers in LPR, and they often collaborate on how best to catch their dog.  Maybe grilled (instead of KFC fried) food would work.  Jenn and I took our portable gas grill out to the parking lot, set up a little table, and made Sunday evening dinner.  We had our usual ribeye steak and green beans.  But we cooked another steak (not the ribeye) and some sausage for Berne.  We filled the small woods with the odor of steak and sausage, then placed her portion in the back of the trap.

We packed up and pulled off to eat our dinner in the truck, waiting for Berne to show.  It didn’t take long, we just finished our dinner when she came out of the woods and around the trap to the back.  You could sense her frustration – steak and sausage, right there in front of her.  And she voiced it, barking at the trap, sniffing around, but still refused to go in.

Panel Trap

So after a second week, Jenn, Don “the boss” of LPR, and Kim from Cincinnati got together to change the equation.  The trap wasn’t going to work.  But there is a different kind of trap, a “panel” trap.  It’s actually several sections of 6×6 pieces of fencing, lashed together to make a room.  In the front there’s a door, with a really long rope on it.  It’s a simple concept:  put the bait in the back, wait for the dog to go in, then pull the rope so the door slams shut.

But there’s no automatic part of this panel trap.  It’s up to Jenn, parked about three hundred feet away, in the dark and cold of the now-February winter snow, to pull the rope and slam the door.  And the only way she knows to pull the rope, is a grainy night-shot picture on an IPhone screen.  And there’s always a delay, of a few seconds – so while the picture might show the dog in the back, that’s very recent history, not necessarily the present.

They left the door open for a couple of days, to see if Berne would get in the habit of going in. And she did. It was President’s Day weekend, the weather forecast was looking bad – but it was time to “save” Berne. Jenn was hiding in the truck on Monday evening. She knew Berne usually came around 7 pm, so she turned the truck off at 6:30. It was a damn cold night, but she didn’t want anything to spook Berne away. Kim came up from Cincinnati to surprise Jenn, and was in a different part of the complex, watching Berne heading towards the trap.

Berne appeared and wandered into the trap.  Kim could see it, but Jenn was waiting for the camera picture.  Then Jenn got the text message from Kim:  “GO-GO-GO”.  She pulled the rope, the door slammed shut.  Berne was safe.

Polly

Jenn and Kim went to the trap, calling softly to Berne.  She huddled in the corner, scared, but Kim went in and almost immediately Berne was leaning on her.  Jenn joined them, and began to calm Berne down.   Bob was going to take care of Berne, and quickly drove up to the trap.   Don came too, and they put a “slip-lead” on Berne, and got her in Bob’s truck.  They then scanned Berne for a chip, and found that she had one.  Berne went home with Bob – pictures from that evening showed a relaxed Berne sleeping at the foot of Bob’s bed.

The chip reads out a number, which links to the “chip” company. Although the chip wasn’t registered, the company was still able to trace it back to the owner. (Hint: register your dog’s chip and keep it current. It saves a lot of time locating the owner and getting your dog home). They had an owner for Berne, and Jenn called.

Berne was lost from her home near Mansfield, almost sixty miles away, back in April.  She’d been “out” ten months, and her real name was Polly.  She was a “pure-bred” Bernese Mountain Dog; originally purchased for breeding.  But the owners had left the breeding business.  They felt that the internet had made it too dangerous for the dogs, they couldn’t “vet” the owners personally the way they wanted to.  So they had Polly and her sister, and they were living on several acres when Polly slipped away.

Bob and Berne, now Polly, were bonding, so it was hard to give her back. But it turned out that the folks near Mansfield loved her too, and Jenn now talks with them on a regular basis. Polly is back at home, happy and healthy with her sister, recovering from her adventure in the “big city”. And Jenn and LPR are on the lookout for a “rescue” for Bob.

There’s always another dog.  In the five days around when Jenn trapped Berne, LPR recovered seven other dogs across Ohio. Almost every night, there’s a LPR volunteer sleeping in a pickup truck, or staring at a computer screen, waiting on a dog to get safe. The work goes on.

Want to know more about LPR?  Click here for the Facebook Page.

Testimony

The United States Senate took testimony yesterday on how January 6^th, the day of the Insurrection, could have happened.   How was the Capitol so unprepared for what many who view social media saw as foreseeable and predictable?  Testifying were the three on the front line who take direct blame for the “fall” of the Capitol:  the former Chief of the Capitol police, the former Sergeant of Arms of the Senate, and the former Sergeant of Arms of the House.  All three resigned from their posts soon after the insurrection.

Also testifying was the Acting Chief of the Washington Metro police.  He was the “outside” man who tried to pick up the pieces when the Capitol called for help.

They thought they were ready.  They had all the intelligence, all the information.  The Capitol weathered the Million MAGA march, and they were “prepared”.  Prepared for a “First Amendment” event, as they call it, with the possibility of violence.  What they now admit they weren’t prepared for, weren’t able to even contemplate, was a full assault on the Capitol building.  They were ready for people chanting on the Mall, and screaming at the doors.  But they never even drilled their forces for incursion into the building.  It was beyond their wildest dreams.

Good Men

The witnesses are good men:  decades on the Capitol Police force or in the Secret Service.  They had all of the connections, friends in command at the National Guard, and intelligence sources they depended on.  They have spent literal lifetimes building their careers and reputations.  The former Sergeant of Arms have been on the Presidential Protection detail.  It wasn’t knowledge that failed them, and it wasn’t some vague orders from either Nancy Pelosi (the National Guard would look bad) or even Donald Trump (let them in).  It was a failure of imagination.

It’s hard to blame them.  America is a nation of protests.  The Capitol building has been the target so many times:  of demonstrations and complaints, of crowds chanting and sometimes getting out of control.  In 1932 the “Bonus Army”, more than 40,000 World War I veterans demanding a promised bonus from Congress, camped on the Mall in front of the Capitol for three months.  It took the US Army, led by General Douglas MacArthur, to drive their former comrades off and raze their camp. Two were killed and fifty-five injured, in what MacArthur called a rebellion. But they were simply trying to get Congress to pay their veterans bonus in 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression,  instead of the original 1945.  

But though they were an “army” that wanted something from Congress, they didn’t attack the Capitol.  They wanted action, not destruction.

Tradition of Protest

There have literally been thousands of marches on the Capitol.  And there has been “civil disobedience” actions, where folks refuse to leave, or sit in the halls of the Congressional offices and chant.  We’ve seen them led out of the buildings with “plastic handcuffs”, even some in wheelchairs.  More recently Reverend Raphael Warnock, now Senator Warnock of Georgia, was arrested in protest.

And that’s what the Capitol Police were prepared for:  angry and vocal Trump supporters, demanding that the Congress rescind the results of the 2020 election.  That’s also why the House and the Senate continued in session for so long on that fateful day, seeming oblivious  to the violence at their doors. But from the outside view, it seemed obvious that things were wholly different than any protest before.  The Members were used to hearing the chanting, the yelling, and the “pressure” of the crowds outside.  Congress prides itself on completing their business, regardless of the what else is going on.

But this time the protestors were coming in  — for them.

For anyone on social media, the possibility of more than just a “first amendment” or “civil disobedience” event was more than clear.  Violence was always part of their movement, at the Trump Rallies, at the demonstrations, and in the “lore” of QAnon and the other right-wing conspiracies.  And, as many said at the time, they believed that they were acting “for America”.  They were convinced that the election was corrupt, that “their” candidate was the true winner, and that they were trying to “save” the Nation.  Once they took the first step – accepting the “Big Lie” about the election – everything else was foreseeable, perhaps even inevitable.

But not for the leaders of the Capitol protection services.  

Questions

There are still many questions to answer.  Why did the National Guard take so long to deploy?  How did our Intelligence services “miss” what was obvious to so many “regular” citizens?  And the biggest question of all, how did our Nation come to the point where one political leader was willing to defy two-hundred and thirty-four years of Constitutional precedent, and try to remain in office after losing an election?

After 9-11 we found that the intelligence of the plot to fly planes into buildings was right in front of us.  The failure was in the communication among the intelligence agencies to put it together.  And more importantly, there wasn’t the imagination to see flying fully loaded passenger planes into buildings as a real threat, even though it was the central plot of a popular Tom Clancy book (Executive Orders) just five years before.  

The three should have resigned, they failed in their duty to protect on January 6^th.  But their failure wasn’t so much in action.  It was a failure of imagination.  A militant attack on the Capitol wasn’t in their wildest dreams.