PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Since I was appointed by Governor Kate Brown to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) about a year ago, I have intentionally avoided blogging about the subject.

I was glad to have been appointed to this important state government commission, but I thought it better to let my work speak for itself rather than trying to summarize what I and my colleagues did in writing.

That will change for this one time and the reason is that I was asked to join OGEC staff members this week to talk with a delegation of business leaders from the People’s Republic of China who were on a tour of several states in the U.S. In our case, they wanted to know about ethics law in Oregon.

We spoke with the Chinese leaders through an interpreter, but that didn’t hamper our ability to explain ethics laws – or their ability to be interested in Oregon’s record.

Here is a quick summary of what I said.

• I and my colleagues on the commission feel very fortunate that we have an excellent staff to conduct our investigations and make recommendations to us on Oregon ethics laws. We are reviewers and overseers of their work, not administrators and it is a bright line we observe very carefully.
• The commission is made up of nine members – two appointed by Oregon House Republicans, two appointed by House Democrats, two appointed by Oregon Senate Republicans and two appointed by Senate Democrats. That leaves me, the only gubernatorial appointee. I had to meet two tests to be appointed. First, I could not be regulated by the OGEC (I am not in retirement, though I was for about 40 years). Second, I had to be “unaffiliated,” which meant I could be neither Republican nor Democrat. And, as a lobbyist, I thought it better to be a registered independent, so that status enabled me to accept the appointment I add that, while party leaders appoint OGEC members, I have no clear idea of the party labels of members because they, like me, try to focus on facts, not politics.
• We are responsible for five main areas of law – (1) registration and expense reporting for lobbyists; (2) registration and expense reporting for clients that hire lobbyists; (3) reviewing “statements of economic interest” filed by all public officials in Oregon; (4) the conduct of public officials to make sure they don’t capitalize on their public positions for private gain; and (5) issues related to when government bodies can meet in private, which we call “executive sessions.”
• We have two important and overarching missions or priorities – the first is We want to educate Oregonians about the importance of ethical conduct in state government, regional government and local government – which are our jurisdictions — (in other words, not the federal government).
• Education is critical because, the more Oregonians – especially the government officials who serve citizens – know about ethics laws and rules, the more – presumably — they will be able to comply with those laws and rules.
• Enforcement is also a top priority for us. Enforcing the law – and that means imposing penalties for violations – is not always a pleasant task. But it is an important one. Further, if we enforce Oregon law carefully, fairly, honestly and in public, we will achieve the added benefit of contributing to our educational mission. For me, as one commissioner, aggressive enforcement of Oregon law underlines the importance of ethical behavior and conduct.
• Ethical behavior and complying with Oregon ethics laws means that the general public has a better chance to trust And trust is critical for any government. If you lose it, you risk losing the consent of the governed.

My sense was that the Chinese delegation appreciated our summary of Oregon law. Their government, obviously, is different than ours; still they especially appreciated Oregon’s commitment to openness and transparency – a fact which means that citizens can obtain all kinds of information on-line.

To put a point on it, that cannot be done in China.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I wrote earlier about my love for a great Scottish golf course, Royal Dornock, in the far north of the Highlands in that great country.

I also wrote about my love for a book, A Season in Dornoch, by golf writer, Lorne Rubenstein, which captured my imagination.

So much so that I wanted to write about Royal Dornoch again hard on the heels of my last blog. Golf in the Scottish Highlands captures golf as it was meant to be – a trip around a great landscape, perhaps with friends, as you enjoy the ground God created.

Too often – and I am party to this– many of us play golf without allowing the pursuit itself to inform our senses. We should take time to play, to enjoy the land, to understand how your foot falls on the ground, and to take hints about about how to play a great game.

Here is part of Chapter 1 in Rubenstein’s great book.

“I have traveled to these Highlands and on to Dornoch from my home in Toronto, a sprawling city where four million people jostle for space. I flew to Glasgow, where I walked the streets and spent a few hours in the city’s main library, then sat in a café until it was time to return to the airport.

“From Glasgow, I took a small plane forty minutes northeast to Inverness, a city of forty thousand people that is the main population center in the Highlands. I rented a car at the airport, and drove an hour north in the long light of the first summer evening in June 2000. I immediately felt far from Toronto and from the south, the central belt of Scotland.

“There, in the south, are the big cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the medieval town of St. Andrews, where lies the Old Course. Too busy for me.

“I have come to Dornoch for golf, not cart-ball. I have traveled to this seaside village of thirteen hundred residents because Royal Dornoch is one of the most beautiful, and tranquil, courses in the world. I have come to explore empty lands, to fill myself with the virtues of golf as sport rather than commercial enterprise. Perhaps my season in Dornoch will help me understand whether people and land can exist in harmony and if and how the former compromises the latter.

“I am searching for scale, for proportion, for perspective. I wonder what happens when too many people crowd a space and believe that something essential is lost in the game when a course is clogged with golfers. Nobody enjoys it when players knock against one another.

“A golf course is not an elevator in an office building at closing time; it is a landscape meant to allow for breathing room and walking room and space to join with others, but not for golfers to overwhelm one another. Somewhere, somehow, I think, there is a way for people to live with consideration for a landscape, and for golfers to go gently on the course.”

Another passage in the book recalls how Rubenstein took time to feel how his feet fell on the often uneven ground and to use the feeling to influence how he played shot after shot. Feel the game; don’t just play the game.

Maybe I’ll have a chance to return to Dornoch soon, but even if that doesn’t occur, the course – the feeling of the course – is still in my bones.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I wrote earlier about my love for a great Scottish golf course, Royal Dornock, in the far north of the Highlands in that great country.

I also wrote about my love for a book, A Season in Dornoch, by golf writer, Lorne Rubenstein, which captured my imagination.

So much so that I wanted to write about Royal Dornoch again hard on the heels of my last blog. Golf in the Scottish Highlands captures golf as it was meant to be – a trip around a great landscape, perhaps with friends, as you enjoy the ground God created.

Too often – and I am party to this– many of us play golf without allowing the pursuit itself to inform our senses. We should take time to play, to enjoy the land, to understand how your foot falls on the ground, and to take hints about about how to play a great game.

Here is part of Chapter 1 in Rubenstein’s great book.

“I have traveled to these Highlands and on to Dornoch from my home in Toronto, a sprawling city where four million people jostle for space. I flew to Glasgow, where I walked the streets and spent a few hours in the city’s main library, then sat in a café until it was time to return to the airport.

“From Glasgow, I took a small plane forty minutes northeast to Inverness, a city of forty thousand people that is the main population center in the Highlands. I rented a car at the airport, and drove an hour north in the long light of the first summer evening in June 2000. I immediately felt far from Tornoto and from the south, the central belt of Scotland.

“There, in the south, are the big cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the medieval town of St. Andrews, where lies the Old Course. Too busy for me.

“I have come to Dornoch for golf, not cart-ball. I have traveled to this seaside village of thirteen hundred residents because Royal Dornoch is one of the most beautiful, and tranquil, courses in the world. I have come to explore empty lands, to fill myself with the virtues of golf as sport rather than commercial enterprise. Perhaps my season in Dornoch will help me understand whether people and land can exist in harmony and if and how the former compromises the latter.

“I am searching for scale, for proportion, for perspective. I wonder what happens when too many people crowd a space and believe that something essential is lost in the game when a course is clogged with golfers. Nobody enjoys it when players knock against one another.

“A golf course is not an elevator in an office building at closing time; it is a landscape meant to allow for breathing room and walking room and space to join with others, but not for golfers to overwhelm one another. Somewhere, somehow, I think, there is a way for people to live with consideration for a landscape, and for golfers to go gently on the course.”

Another passage in the book recalls how Rubenstein took time to feel how his feet fell on the often uneven ground and to use the feeling to influence how he played shot after shot. Feel the game; don’t just play the game.

Maybe I’ll have a chance to return to Dornoch soon, but even if that doesn’t occur, the course – the feeling of the course – is still in my bones.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

One of my favorite golf magazines, Links, produced a story for its on-line version listing favorite places where “you could fall in love with golf (again).”

For me, I am not sure that is necessary because I still love the sport.

But one of the mentions captured my eye because it reminded me of one of my favorite sojourns in the home of golf, Scotland. It is Royal Dornoch.

Here is a quote from Links:

“If you’ve already made the pilgrimage to St. Andrews and want to drink deeper from the Home of Golf’s bottomless cup, head to the Highlands where storied links rim the shores of firths and bays within shouting distance of the Arctic Circle.

“Start with legendary Royal Dornoch, established in 1616, then move on to an unmatched supporting cast: Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, Castle Stuart, Nairn, Trump International, Carnegie Club, and many more. Extended daylight in summer easily permits a second (or third) round.”

If you asked me to list my favorite golf course in the world – a bit of a artificial question, I admit – Royal Dornoch would be at or near the top of the list.

I have had the privilege of going there on several occasions and never tired of this great example of links golf in Scotland.

My curiosity was peaked when I read a book, A Season in Dornoch, by golf writer Lorne Rubenstein. With his wife, he went from his home in Toronto to Scotland for several months to live and play golf there. He rented a flat on the second story of a bookstore in the town of Dornoch and it was only a short walk to the golf course.

He didn’t only play there. Lorne and his wife got to know the residents of Dornoch. Plus, he walked on the course, telling stories of the sounds his feet made as he trekked his way around the course that sits astride the Firth of Fourth.

An excerpt from the book:

“The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the Royal Dornoch Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for the New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, ‘It is the most natural course in the world. No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch’

“If any town in the world deserves to be described as ‘the village of golf,’ it’s Dornoch…The game has been played in Dornoch for some 400 years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole and Oak Hill.”

All of this captured my imagination when I read the book and, so, with my wife, we made a pilgrimage to Dornoch a number of years ago and have been back several times since that first trip. For my wife, Nancy, it was a return “to her homeland, Scotland,” or, more accurately, the homeland of her parents when each emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. when they were children.

[As an aside, I cannot avoid mentioning President Trump in almost any blog I write, even this one. So, listen Trump – my wife is the child of immigrants who made their life better in the U.S., even as they loved their homeland. I, too, am the grandson of immigrants, this time from Norway.]

Back to the Links Magazine article. It turns out that I have played most of the mentioned courses, except Trump International and Carnegie Club. I have no interest in playing the Trump course, if only because the president’s name is attached to it. Perhaps I’ll play the Carnegie Club at some point.

But, as for the others — Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, Castle Stuart, Nairn – each represented a true experience in Scottish links golf.]

I love Scottish golf. And I love the book, A Season in Dornoch. In fact, if only because of this blog, I am starting to read it again for at least the 10^th time.

And, this footnote: I was fascinated a few months ago to learn that Royal Dornoch charges a only a $1,177 initiation fee, plus $557 in annual dues, making that $1,734 first year cost the bargain of a lifetime. Perhaps I’ll become a Royal Dornoch member, if only to to say that I have status.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

When you have been a lobbyist for about 40 years, as is the case with me, it is relatively easy to come up with a list of strange stories over those years.

Here is a collection of mine:

Oink-oink: This refers to the strange situation when the legislator at the rostrum in the Oregon House called for a vote with the phrase “all in favor say oink-oink.”

It was a reflection of the fact that the first installment of State of Oregon money to deepen the Columbia River channel (thus allowing deeper-draft, ocean-going ships to ply their way up and down the Columbia) was imbedded in a “pork-barrel” bill.

To get the money, in my role as the Port of Portland chief’s Salem lobbyist, I had to agree to include three different, local projects unrelated to channel deepening. Thus, it became a “pork-barrel bill,” with the request for an “oink-oink” vote.

I was in the third-floor balcony viewing the proceedings on the floor, and with others, couldn’t stop laughing. The good news? The bill cleared the House floor on a 40 to 20 vote and moved over to the Senate where it passed easily, without any “oink-oink” request. The governor signed the bill and, today, the channel is deeper.

Car with Senator Bryant: If you are a state capitol lobbyist in Salem, you often have to work hard to find a few moments to talk with, important legislators. Often, 30 seconds here or there turns out to be the key to success.

So it was that I came into possession of information that Senator Neil Bryant, a Republican from Bend (he has become the best legislator friend I made in my 40-year career), had gone to Washington, D.C. on Oregon Senate business.

Thus, I knew that he would need a ride down to Salem when he landed at PDX. I went to his office, talked with his wife, Mary, who was his legislative assistant, and volunteered to pick him up. She readily agreed.

That meant that I had at least an hour of time with Neil because, as I drove at 70 miles-per-hour toward Salem, he wouldn’t be able to escape the car.

For me, it was time well spent. For Neil, who knows? However, as we have talked about this episode over the years, we both agreed that it was a brilliant strategy!

Betsy Johnson call: I am not sure this can be called a highlight. It may actually be a lowlight. It started when, more than 13 years ago, I experienced what I have to come to call “my episode.” In regular everyday parlance, you can use the term “heart attack.”

This occurred on a Wednesday evening and the good news is that, by Friday, I was well on my way toward recovery, though I did not necessarily have that perspective at the time. I was alert in the hospital, giving thanks that I was still around.

The emergency took me away from lobbying for a couple weeks, so I thought I had a quick chance to pick up a couple of the pieces. So I placed a call to Senator Betsy Johnson, a Democrat from Scappoose, to continue lobbying her on a health care policy issue.

Because she had not seen in person for a few days, she asked where I was. I told her I was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack. She couldn’t believe I would take time for a call and, and on several occasions since that call, she has had fun with me – sometimes in public — about taking such action during my recovery.

All I can say is that it was just an indication of solid, sometimes stupid, commitment to my practice!

A political fundraising request for $10K: There is a bright line between political fundraising and policy development at the Capitol, so much so that there is an understanding that requests for money will not be transacted at the Capitol, even in “public areas.”

Several years ago, a legislator who, for this report, will not be named, accosted me in the hallway, asked to sit beside him on a bench outside a hearing room and proceeded to beseech me for $10,000 for his re-election campaign from my firm’s clients.

I made no commitment, suggesting it would be more appropriate for such a request to be made, if it were to be made at all, outside the Capitol.

The result? We did not respond affirmatively to this legislator’s entreaty.

I could recount other stories, but enough for now. Suffice to say that, for me, every day in my lobby career was different, one reason why I liked the gig enough to remain in it for 40 years.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Some of us who have too much time on our hands spend energy reviewing golf rules. It is a trying exercise.

Golf rules are, by their very nature, complex and difficult to grasp. Plus, the rules are written in language that often defies understanding.

So, it was with a bit of glee that I came across a set of new golf rules that make good sense especially for older golfers like me who are approaching 70 years of age.

Here is a summary of the new rules:

Rule 9.k.34(a): If a tree is between the ball and the hole, and the tree is deemed to be younger than the player, then the ball can be moved without penalty. This is so because this is simply a question of timing; when the player was younger, the tree was not there so the player is being penalized because of his age.

Rule 1.a.5 – A ball sliced or hooked into the Rough shall be lifted and placed on the fairway at a point equal to the distance it carried or rolled into the rough with no penalty. The senior player should not be penalized for tall grass, which ground-keepers failed to mow.

Rule 2.d.6 (B) – A ball hitting a tree shall be deemed NOT to have hit the tree. This is simply bad luck and luck has no place in a scientific game. The senior player must estimate the distance the ball would have traveled if it had not hit the tree, and play the ball from there.

Rule 3.B.3(G) – There shall be no such thing as a lost ball. The missing ball is on or near the course and will eventually be found and pocketed by someone else, thereby making it a stolen ball. The senior player is not to compound the felony by charging himself with a penalty.

Rule 4.c.7(h) – If a putt passes over a hole without dropping, it is deemed to have dropped. The Law of Gravity supersedes the Rules of Golf.

Rule 5. – Putts that stop close enough to the cup that they could be blown in, may be blown in. This does not apply to balls more than three inches from the hole. No one wants to make a mockery of the game.

Rule 6.a.9(k) – There is no penalty for so-called “out of bounds.” If penny-pinching golf course owners bought sufficient land, this would not occur. The senior player deserves an apology, not a penalty.

Rule 7.G.15(z) – There is no penalty for a ball in a water hazard, as golf balls should float. Senior players should not be penalized for any shortcomings of the manufacturers.

Rule 8.k.9(S) – Advertisements claim that golf scores can be improved by purchasing new golf equipment. Since this is financially impractical for many senior players, one-half stroke per hole may be subtracted for using old equipment.

These new rules make sense because, golf, above all, is a game of integrity.

So, maintain integrity, I say.  Adopt the new rules!

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

If you watch politics these days, it is easily possible to come away with the proposition in this headline. The future of democracy in this country, as we know it ,may be at stake.

There are those who will say this is because many Republicans (not all I say, to avoid an unfair generalization), led by the narcissist in the Oval Office, have turned politics into a game which can be cruel to others, including, but not necessarily, immigrants.

What I say is that many Republicans are reacting to the liberal, we-know-best tone of the past. That doesn’t excuse the “gen-even mentality;” it just helps to explain it because, for me, both the left and right extremes are at fault.

All of this came to mind as I read in the Washington Post recounting the experience of a candidate for Congress from Minnesota, Elissa Slotkin.

The story says she assumed her campaign would be built around pocketbook issues such as the rising cost of health care, stagnant wages and unaffordable college tuition.

But what this veteran of three tours in Afghanistan found on the campaign was alarmingly different.

“Voters say they are tired of the anger and polarization emanating from Washington,” she told the Post. “They say they crave compromise.

“Yet these same voters view the rival party with disdain and frequently punish politicians for reaching across partisan lines.

“They want the anger to stop but can’t stop being angry.”

Quite a paradox!

It is what has prompted me to favor a return to political activity as we once knew it. Differ on policy, to be sure. But do so with respect for views of the other side without vicious name-calling.

President Trump has led this country to new lows in politics, but, as I wrote above, the previous administration and those associated with it prodded this country to believe that government had the answer to every problem. If someone raised a problem, then there was automatically a government solution.

Health care is one example. Is what has come to be called “ObamaCare” all bad? No. But all of us are still contending with the over-the-top federal approach to health care, including the incredible proposition from then House Speaker, California’s Nancy Pelosi, that the bill should be passed first, then read later.

Both sides have squirreled away opportunities to find the smart middle ground on health care, which, if adopted, would take advantage of two strengths – (a) government in its role to care for low-income citizens who have no where else to turn (such as single mothers with children), and (b) smart private health care providers who can capitalize on innovation and technology to offer better health care.

I wish Democrats in charge several years ago would have opted for this approach. And I wish Republicans in charge now would opt for it.

But, too often, one side wants to get even with other side for perceived – or even – actual slights. So, we have gridlock.

And, as candidate Slotkin has discovered on the campaign trail, we have anger.

To repeat from I quoted above, “Voters say they are tired of the anger and polarization emanating from Washington. They say they crave compromise. Yet these same voters view the rival party with disdain and frequently punish politicians for reaching across partisan lines.

“They want the anger to stop but can’t stop being angry.”

There is a message in this for all of us. Stop being angry. Advocate for your point-of-view, but have respect for other sides. Support finding middle ground. Don’t penalize those who represent us for being open to compromise, which is not a dirty word.

If we, as citizens, don’t practice these virtues, we cannot expect those who represent us to do so.

And, in truth, the fate of democracy as we know it is at stake.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write. 

I like oxymorons!

There, I said it.

With so much time on my hands in retirement, I often think of oxymorons. Go figure.

So, what is an oxymoron?

The dictionary defines the word this way: “A figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in ‘cruel kindness’ or ‘to make haste slowly.’”

Those two are good examples, ones I did not have in my repertoire.

The word “oxymoron” is itself oxymoronic, which is to say contradictory.

The dictionary says the word is derived from two ancient Greek words oxys, which means “sharp,” and moronos, which means “dull” or “stupid.” Take this sentence, for example:

“This was a minor crisis and the only choice was to drop the product line.”

Two oxymorons. Minor crisis. Only choice.

Here are some of my favorites oxymorons:

• Jumbo shrimp: This is one that is often used to define the term oxymoron.
• Political courage: This is one of my favorites.
• Legislative leadership: I cite this based on my many years of working with Oregon Legislature in Salem.
• Ethical lobbyist: And I cite this, having been lobbyist, albeit an ethical one, for about 40 years.
• Military intelligence: This also is one often used to define the term oxymoron.
• Government ethics: This one comes to mind if, for no other reason, than that I current serve on the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
• Traffic engineer: This one comes to mind as I try, mightily, to ply the crazy street “plan” in Salem, Oregon.
• Civil war: Impossible.
• Old news: Possible, I guess.
• Working vacation: Sounds impossible, but I took several.
• Crash landing: Again, impossible.
• Dull roar: Say what?
• Guest host: Never thought about this one until now.
• Larger half: Heard this many times.
• One-man band: Think about it!
• Random order: And about this one, too!
• Student teacher: I used to have many of these in my youth, though never thought of them as oxymorons.

Enough already! Okay. But, I intend to keep looking for and/or using oxymorons. I don’t have much else to do other than writing this blog and playing golf. Plus, tt’s just fun.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

It is incredible to hear and see all the negative words to describe “our” president, Donald Trump.

If you would have asked me about such words a few years ago, I would have said, “no, we don’t talk about our president that way, even if we don’t agree with him (or her). At least, respect the office, if not the person in it.”

But, now we have a buffoon, a blowhard and a former reality TV star in the Oval Office – that is, if he actually spends much time there. And he attempts to burnish his own image with deep and personal criticisms of anyone who happens to disagree with him because, of course, he considers himself to be the smartest person in any room.

Before writing this blog, I reflected on whether, in doing so, I was just continuing a debate marked by terrible words. If all of us are to behave in a more civil fashion, perhaps it should start with me.

But, in the end, I decided to go ahead if only because I will feel better for listing words that have been used to describe this worst of all U.S. presidents.

I suppose it would be possible for fans of Trump to laud a few achievements – getting Judge Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, working with Congress to pass the most wide- ranging tax reform since the Reagan years, spurring economic growth, and rolling back portions of the huge regulatory burden left by former President Barack Obama.

But, he has almost continually sabotaged his own agenda by tweets that not long lacked decorum, but also impugned the integrity of those named in the tweets.

At any rate, with time on my hands in retirement, I made a list of words that have been used to describe Trump, over the last year – sometimes by me.

One of the best is BLOTUS. It is a take-off on the acronym POTUS, which stands for President of the United States. It was passed on to me yesterday by a friend who said the term described Trump to a “T.”

So, what does BLOTUS mean? It stands for “Biggest Liar of the United States.”

Other words to describe Trump:

Buffoon

Narcissist

Egotist

Shallow

Daft

“It’s all about me”

Ignorant

Arrogant

Liar

Blowhard

Idiot

Racist

Misogynist

Egomaniac

Bombastic

Clown

Obnoxious

Delusional

Unqualified

Repulsive

Pompous

Incompetent

Simpleton

The columnist who used the “simpleton” to describe Trump also said that, as Trump sustains attacks from political foes and the press he has been left “punch-drunk,” causing him to lash out again and again without “appropriate restraint.”

These are words that are not presidential. We deserve better. There is decorum to observe in the nation’s highest political office and Trump observes none of it.

Say what you will about Trump’s “achievements.” For me, they pale in comparison to his “it’s all about me” attitude.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

When I served as deputy director of the Oregon Economic Development Department back in the late 1980s, we were under substantial pressure to help to produce an “Oregon comeback.”

The phrase referred to the fact that Oregon had endured an economic recession, a fact that prompted the Democrat candidate for governor to run on the phrase – “an Oregon comeback.”

But during that time, which all the political back and forth, my colleagues and I worked hard to produce results for Oregon.

One of them was the subject of a Washington Post article the other day under this underline, “CSI Ashland? Oregon forensic investigators crack animal crime cases.”

Incredible to remember that I was on point for this investment in Oregon by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create what was then called “a raptor investigation facility.”

At the time, I wasn’t even sure of the definition of the term “raptor,” but I soon learned as I worked with local officials in Ashland to cite the new facility in this picturesque southern Oregon town – another virtue because economic results were scheduled to occur outside metropolitan Portland.

I report this, not to take credit for the result, but rather to share credit for it because anything good that occurs with the Oregon economy is due to the actions of a group, not an individual.

Here are excerpts from the article:

“ASHLAND — The young golden eagle on the operating table showed no outward signs of trauma. An X-ray had revealed no fractures.

“But this bird, a protected species, was dead — and that’s why it was here, beak-up in a laboratory. It had been shipped to this picturesque college town by federal agents somewhere in the West who suspected it had been electrocuted by power lines. Now its carcass was evidence in an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against a utility company.

“A veterinary pathologist was about to cut open the bird in the hope of determining its cause of death. This unusual federal facility, the world’s only full-service forensics lab for wildlife crimes, analyzes thousands of creatures that each year cross its threshold in the form of carcasses, parts and products. Its mission is to use science to find how the animal died – and often, to figure out what kind of animal it was.”

“’In police work, you know what your victim is — it’s Homo sapiens,’ said Ken Goddard, a former crime scene investigator who now directs this place, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory. ‘Our first job is to figure out what a victim is.’”

Reading Goddard’s name also struck a chord with me because, back then, he was involved in helping to locate the new facility in Ashland. Part of the reason, frankly, was Ken told me he wanted “to live there.”

Crime against wildlife is a multibillion-dollar global enterprise that experts say is only increasing as poaching and trafficking networks grow more sophisticated and move into dark corners of the Internet. When authorities interrupt that enterprise, the lab in Ashland is often a critical stop in their investigations. Its scientists run DNA tests, examine bullets, identify poisons and compare remains to some 35,000 specimens in the lab’s reference collection – “a ghoulish panoply of pelts, bones, feathers and claws,” as the Post called it.

The one-story, 40,000-square-foot lab is a federal building, but it feels almost quaint, compared with the fortresses in Washington. Visitors don’t pass through metal detectors, though evidence is sometimes X-rayed upon arrival. A new parking lot barrier gate was installed this summer to deter truck bombers, not because of a specific threat, but because it’s protocol at government facilities.

Beyond the desires of the federal official, Goddard, the facility ended up in Ashland, a town flanked by two mountain ranges just north of the California border, in part because a local chiropractor pushed Oregon senators to support the project, even as Oregon Economic Development Department officials cooperated with the federal government and local officials to orchestrate the siting.

So, the siting still ranks as an achievement for Oregon, but, before the process, if you have asked me if I was going to be involved in locating a raptor investigation facility in Oregon, I would have said, “no.” Now, reflecting on the past, I can say, “yes.”