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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

In a blog yesterday, I said that the victory speeches by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris brought tears to my eyes.

How would that be so for an old, stodgy person like myself – and I use those labels before someone else does?

Two reasons:

• First, both Biden and Harris gave excellent speeches calling on Americans to support decency, cooperation, empathy and truth-telling. 

• Second, television cameras at their speeches in Delaware panned across the faces of those in the audience to show that they were inspired.

I was especially touched by the tear-stained faces of young girls, including Black girls, who saw, in Harris, someone they could aspire to.  Yes, aspire to.  Their faces were amazing as they appeared to feel that they, too, could rise.

Harris, of course, is making history as the first woman to serve as vice president and, also, the first Black woman.

One of her best lines as she spoke:  “’While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,’ she said to resounding cheers, as several young girls looking on from the crowd waved flags with tears in their eyes.

To put a point on all of this, nothing in the time of Donald Trump ever even approached inspiration.   Blessedly, his time will soon be over, though he likely will never concede.

For me, in viewing Biden and Harris, gender doesn’t matter.  Nor does age.  What matters is leaders like Biden and Harris are calling America to eschew division and hatred and embrace empathy and possibility.

None too soon and I hope Trump will take his reality TV show host gig and recede into the background where he belongs.