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.

For me and many Americans, bad news came this morning when we learned that Colin Powell, at 84 years age, had died of complications from Covid-19, though he was fully vaccinated.

I thought Powell was a great American who served with distinction in the military, including a stint as chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, the youngest ever to hold the position.

He also worked for several presidents, including as Secretary of State.

For me, though, I give Powell credit for one of the great quotes about politics, when he declined to run for president in 1996.

He said then that the main reason “was that he bemoaned the loss of civility in politics.”

The quote has stuck with me all these years and I can only Imagine what Powell would have said today, given the state of politics in this country.  Today, many politicians think it is better , figuratively, to yell and scream on the street corner, to view those who disagree with you as enemies, and to put a clown like Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Such is the civility of politics that Powell bemoaned.

There is no better way for me to honor Powell than to repeat excerpts of a story in the Washington Post this morning that marked his passing.

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WASHINGTON—Colin Powell, who as a retired four-star general and former White House national security adviser went on to serve as the first Black secretary of state, has died at 84.

The statement said Mr. Powell died Monday, and that he had been fully vaccinated. The statement thanked physicians and staff members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for the treatment he received there.

Former President George W. Bush, who appointed Mr. Powell to the State Department post, praised him in a statement that cited his lengthy record of public service beginning as a soldier during the war in Vietnam.

“Many Presidents relied on General Powell’s counsel and experience,” Mr. Bush said. “He was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom—twice.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was traveling in Tbilisi, Georgia, remembered Mr. Powell Monday as “a man who was respected around the globe.”

“Quite frankly, it is not possible to replace a Colin Powell,” Mr. Austin said. “We will miss him.”

Mr. Powell’s views on military conflict shaped a national security outlook that advocated against precipitous war and was popularized in the media as the “Powell Doctrine.” It was born of his experience in Vietnam and held that war should be a last resort, with clear objectives, strong public support and decisive action.

The philosophy served him well during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, during the George H.W. Bush administration, when as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he had a central role overseeing Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The use of overwhelming U.S. military force led quickly to victory over Iraqi forces, with few American casualties.

Later, in Bosnia, then-Gen. Powell opposed a U.S. intervention to stop the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbs.

“As soon as they tell me it is limited, it means they do not care whether you achieve a result or not. As soon as they tell me ‘surgical,’ I head for the bunker,” he told the New York Times in 1992.

The Powell Doctrine, which was written into the U.S. National Security Strategy issued in 1992, would face its biggest test 10 years later, as the U.S. contemplated an invasion of Iraq and then-Secretary of State Powell faced a fateful moment.

He left the State Department in 2005, two years after the start of the Iraq war, capping a career that began in the Army after his graduation from college in 1958.

Mr. Powell served two tours in Vietnam that shaped his 35 years of service in the U.S. military. He was wounded twice, falling into a bamboo trap during the first tour, causing a poisoned spike to go through his foot.

During his second tour, he survived a helicopter crash. He was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for repeatedly returning to the burning helicopter to rescue others, including Maj. Gen. Charles Gettys, in 1968.

Mr. Powell rapidly rose through the military ranks in the years following his Vietnam experience, and he served as senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger from 1983 to 1986.

In 1989, he was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs by President George H.W. Bush. At 52 years old, he was the youngest officer to hold the position before or since, as well as the first Black officer to serve in the post.

As chairman, Mr. Powell oversaw more than two dozen U.S. military operational deployments and won support for a reorientation of U.S. strategy after the fall of the Soviet Union, including a 25% reduction in the size of the armed forces. He retired from the military in 1993.

He helped launch and chaired the children’s advocacy group America’s Promise, then returned to his last stretch of government service as Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 during President George W. Bush’s administration.

As secretary, he was known for traveling less than any predecessor in 30 years. He argued that his role was to manage the department and advise the president, and he believed that ambassadors and locally based staff should take more responsibility.

Mr. Powell made prolific use of the phone, making some 1,500 calls to foreign officials in the first two years after the Sept. 11 attacks. He advocated for a strong and rapid response against al Qaeda and demanded cooperation from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Never a sports enthusiast as a youngster, Mr. Powell enrolled in ROTC while in college, inspired by the stories he had heard of World War II and the Korean War.

When he first joined the Army, the country was still segregated and even as an Army officer, there were restaurants he couldn’t go into and motels he couldn’t stay at simply because he was Black. The Army had integrated, so soldiers couldn’t overtly show their racism.