\u2026me and you and a dog named Lou \u2013 not quite right<\/em>). Lou is short for Louisiana, where Lou came from. My wife Jenn was part of a Lost Pet Recovery (LPR) rescue mission to save Lou, who was found in a parking lot at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Lou had two broken legs, and a broken hip as well. The LPR team brought him back to Columbus, where the folks at OSU repaired one leg and the hip. The other leg is healing, but we\u2019ll have to see whether it will ultimately require surgical repair.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLou needs a lot of rehabilitation: time to recover from the surgeries, regain strength, get over heartworms, and learn how to be a \u201cgood dog\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The hard part is that Lou is only a year and a half old, still a puppy.\u00a0\u00a0But he can\u2019t run and play.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s too much healing to go.\u00a0\u00a0So Lou has to spend a lot of \u201cquiet\u201d time, not a puppy kind of thing.\u00a0\u00a0The drugs he takes help, but it still is hard on him.\u00a0\u00a0He sees our other dogs, who come to the door.\u00a0\u00a0Our Lab Atticus will even bring toys.\u00a0\u00a0But Lou can\u2019t play yet, and he gets frustrated.\u00a0\u00a0Can\u2019t blame him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meds work for a while, but ultimately wear off. And if that\u2019s at three in the morning, then Lou\u2019s rolling. It\u2019s time for a \u201crehab\u201d walk (getting longer all the time), some food, and some hard persuasion to try to get Lou back into Jenn\u2019s office, now Lou\u2019s rehab facility. Jenn has done most of the \u201cnight duty\u201d; but from time to time I\u2019ll take that \u201cway too early\u201d shift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dog Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
We’ve had Lou for about a month. He\u2019s not a permanent addition \u2013 we are a three-dog family already. Four would require too much space, inside and out; more then we\u2019ve got. But we can get Lou ready for his \u201cfinal family\u201d. And we\u2019ve probably got another month or so to go before Lou\u2019s ready for adoption. He will be around for the rest of the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You knew there had to be a political \u201chook\u201d to this story. Here on Friday the Thirteenth, we are teaching Lou to be a good dog. He\u2019s learning to behave, to play, and what\u2019s allowed and not. He can chew up his \u201crope\u201d, and he can tear into his chew toys. But he got in trouble for eating the rug, and the floor molding, and the orthopedic bed we picked up for him. He\u2019s learning \u2013 and now he can even hang out in his crate in the family room with the rest of us from time to time. But all \u201cgood\u201d dogs have to learn the norms, the rules. It\u2019s what we do with puppies, and with the kids we teach in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Life Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But I guess someone failed to teach the President of the United States how to be a \u201cgood\u201d person. The hardest part of running for office is losing. It tests character. As a high school coach for forty years, I knew it was part of my job to teach kids how to lose as well as how to win. We put our best efforts, our hearts, and years of hard work into trying to achieve our goals. And there were times when we did it all, and achieved what we set out to do. But there were also times, probably more of them, that we fell short. And as the coach, the role model, it was my job to demonstrate what the \u201cnorm\u201d was for dealing with loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a time for deep disappointment, for frustration, and for emotion. But that time is not in public, and it\u2019s not towards your opponent. After a loss, it\u2019s time to congratulate the winner, and take responsibility for your own actions. Blaming others, opponents, officials, or other factors out of your control, doesn’t change the result. So, as I told my teams every time it happened: show class. Demonstrate how to lose with grace. Congratulate the winners; walk over and shake their hands. Compliment them for a hard fought win. My coaches and I did the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I knew what my job was, win or lose: to act with class, as a representative of the school, and as a role model for the athletes on my team. The greatest lesson wasn\u2019t in achieving the goal. It was in learning how to live with failure or victory in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Missing Lesson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I listened to a reporter yesterday going to great lengths. She was trying to explain how the \u201cPresident\u2019s men\u201d were trying to convince the President that he had to leave office, but didn\u2019t have to accept defeat in the polls. Donald Trump acts as if he \u201cowns\u201d the Presidency and the White House. He doesn\u2019t. He serves at the pleasure of \u201cWe the People of the United States\u201d. But it seems that Donald Trump has decided his role as the \u201caggrieved victim\u201d of the 2020 election will support his \u201cpost Presidency\u201d: politically and more important, financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lou is learning what\u2019s expected of a \u201cgood dog\u201d. Someday he\u2019s going to be a great, lovable, energetic friend for some family. He\u2019ll always bear the scars of Baton Rouge, but he\u2019ll be an even better dog for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President could learn from Lou, or from our high school teams.\u00a0\u00a0His greatest goal should be the \u201cgood\u201d of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0He can fight in court for votes if he wants, but denying Biden the information and resources to prepare for his Presidency is just selfish.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former President Obama described the situation yesterday. He said that Trump\u2019s selfishness would ultimately not just hurt Joe Biden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will hurt American Democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s Friday the Thirteenth in the remarkable year of 2020. What could possibly go wrong? Louisiana So for me, Friday the Thirteenth started at three in the morning. We are rehabilitating a dog named Lou (\u2026me and you and a dog named Lou \u2013 not quite right). Lou is short for Louisiana, where Lou came from. My wife Jenn … Continue reading “Friday the Thirteenth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFriday the Thirteenth : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On this Friday the 13th it's time to learn the rules of life. 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