January 14, 2022 by davefiskum

USE EXPERTS TO FORM YOUR OWN VIEWS

This is the first of two blogs on the subject of “expertise.”

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.

Of all things, a philosophy teacher from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania produced solid advice for the wise this morning.

In the Washington Post, the teacher, Crispin Sartwell, wrote a piece that appeared under this headline:

Nothing can relieve you of the burden of deciding what to believe.

He’s right.

In today’s political system that values disagreement over consensus, it is hard to know what to believe about society, especially during a pandemic. And, whom do you trust among the “experts.”

Sartwell goes on:

“The media have noticed that experts disagree. A strange unity of confusion is emerging. A common inability to decipher conflicting advice and clashing guidelines coming from government, science, health, media and other institutions. On seemingly every front in the battle against the coronavirus, the messages are muddled: mTest or don’t test? Which test? When? Isolate or not? For five days? Ten? Go to school or not? See friends and resume normal life, or hunker down again?”

Yet, for many people, deferring to the experts appears central to value systems and political identities and is emphasized relentlessly by the Biden Administration and certain members of the media.

EXAMPLES OF BEING “FIRST” IN MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE

Consider this to be a bit of a respite from never-ending stories about the omicron virus.

Or, consider what follows to be mostly irrelevant.

And, to achieve this, forgive me for writing about myself.

Rather than big thoughts this morning, I have remembered when my colleagues and I achieved “firsts” during my professional career.

For some reason, I thought of these firsts as I waited to go to sleep – and, you might add, thinking of this kind of stuff should produce sleep.

So, here goes.

IN CONGRESS: When I worked in a congressional office 40 years ago, ours was the first to acquire a Wang Word Processing System.

That is significant because the office of Oregon Congressman Les AuCoin was one of 435 such offices in the U.S. House. So being first meant something.

Of course, as we obtained the Wang system, we had no idea how to operate it, but, in short order, figured out at least one huge benefit: As we wrote letters for the congressman’s signature, we no longer had to use multiple pieces of paper and carbon paper and, if we made a typing mistake, all we had to do was delete it and move on.

No more hard erases on the paper and the carbon.

For us, that was huge as we cranked out hundreds of letters every day, not to mention the media releases I wrote as the congressman’s press secretary.

Today, of course, there are no more Wang Word Processing systems, having been replaced by many other more capable machines.

IN OREGON STATE GOVERNMENT: When I came home from Washington, D.C., I moved into a management position at the then-Department of Human Resources, an umbrella agency that is no more.

In the director’s office of the agency, we were the first state employees to be given individual computers, albeit ones that stood on our desks, not a laptop such as I am using to produce this blog.

Having computers made our work much easier. Today, many years later, almost every state employee has a computer.

IN THE LOBBYING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM WHERE I WAS A PARTNER: The achievement here was to acquire “blackberries.” Remember those small machines?

The worth of them for us was that, wherever we were, we could view e-mail messages from clients. If we were walking around the Capitol to meet with legislators, no problem – we had easy access to e-mails. If we were out to lunch with a legislator, again no problem — we had e-mail access.

And, for me, if I was on the golf course, where I did some of my lobbying work, I was still connected.

Consider the change today. All of us have phones that give us all kinds of messages on the go, including e-mails and texts, not to mention just the routine phone calls.

Speaking of blackberries, did you notice this story last week? Blackberry devices running the original operating system and services will no longer be supported, marking the end of an era for the storied device that catapulted work into the mobile era.

The story said this:

“Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry Ltd., the company formerly known as Research In Motion whose signature handset in the 1990s came to embody working on the move, said handsets running its in-house software ‘will no longer be expected to reliably function’ after Tuesday, according to its end-of-life page.”

In all these firsts, do I think of myself as a leader? No. At least not alone. Only in this regard. In each of the examples above, I worked with colleagues and, together, we were able to plow new technology to make our work better.

Note the word together. Good stuff like this doesn’t result from the work of one person; it results from a team effort.

January 11, 2022 by davefiskum

A WORKABLE AXIOM FOR THE VIRUS

“You don’t have to like it. Just do it.”

That was a quote from my late father. And, if you asked any of my four siblings for one of my father’s favorite sayings, they likely would come up with this one.

I clarify that my father was a great, positive influence on my life and, the quote above does not do him justice for his role in bringing up five children, including me. I remember him fondly every day.

Still, the quote resonated with me this weekend as I thought again about the virus that plagues us.

The solution? Get vaccinated.

Simple. Yet, so controversial.

“You don’t have to like it. Just do it.”

Finding health care policy equilibrium rests both on medical statistics and on public perceptions. Doing so involves three groups in society:

The largest group is the fully vaccinated. For most of us, the new variant is a serious nuisance, like an especially virile flu, but not much more than that. It’s unpleasant (I know, because I have it), but, if this were the version of covid that hit everyone who got infected in 2020, no school or business would have closed.
The second group is the immune-compromised, even if they are vaccinated — including people with underlying conditions and the elderly. The risk to them remains high, and the extra care they have to take can be isolating. But that’s the case with every contagion, including the flu. We don’t re-order the society around it.
The third group is, of course, the unvaccinated. (I’m not including children under 5, who are still not eligible for a coronavirus vaccine.) Unvaccinated persons have now had a year to absorb all warnings and weigh all the arguments. They’ve seen high-profile vaccine deniers — talk show hosts, Trumpian candidates — needlessly dying from a virus they chose to exploit.

The unvaccinated are like unrepentant smokers. The U.S. has spent decades telling smokers they might get lung cancer. We’ve plastered warnings everywhere. Still, many persist.

To move citizens from group #3 to group #1 above, all that’s necessary is for everyone to heed my father’s axiom: “You don’t have to like it. Just do it.”

January 9, 2022 by davefiskum

THE DEPARTMENT OF “JUST SAYING” IS OPEN AGAIN

This, remember, is one of three departments to run with a free hand to manage as I wish. Not unlike a dictator.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

A NEW GOLF COURSE IN OREGON: It’s called Bar Run and it will be in Roseburg.

“Just Saying,” why doesn’t the architect, Dan Hixson, get more credit for what is reported to be another fine piece of work.

A former pro at the Columbia Edgewater course in Portland, Hixson has been working as a golf architect for several years now. You wouldn’t know it by the lack of publicity he receives.

Here’s how Links Magazine described the new course:

Bar Run Golf (Roseburg, Oregon)

Oregon’s newest golf offering is a reclamation project built on a sand and gravel mine along the South Umpqua River, about 75 miles south of Eugene and 85 miles inland from Bandon Dunes. The first 10 holes from Pacific Northwest native Dan Hixson opened this year, yielding a delightful mix of memorable design in a natural and rustic setting—one in which daily mining activities continue just beyond the course confines. The full 18-hole layout is expected to be open by summer of 2022.

Hixson is a good guy who often helps existing golf courses in Oregon engage in upgrades. Such was the case at my home course in Oregon, Illahe Hills, where Hixson worked with us to re-do more than 80 bunkers on the course.

The re-design was very well done, though, of course, if you are a golfer, you still want to avoid the bunkers he re-designed.

He also has designed the Silvies Ranch development near Burns in Eastern Oregon and Bandon Crossing in Coos Bay, just across the street from the Bandon Dunes bank of courses.

REPUBLICANS MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN TRUTH AND TRUMP: That was the point Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney made the other day as she continued to function as one of the only Republican members of the U.S. House willing to raise questions about Trump’s conduct.

“Just Saying,” her question is exactly on target.

“Our party has to choose,” Cheney told CBS’s Face the Nation. “We can either be loyal to Donald Trump or we can be loyal to the constitution, but we cannot be both.” She also said there are “potential criminal statutes at issue here, but I think that there’s absolutely no question that it (the January 6, 2021 attack) was a dereliction of duty.”

I choose truth over Trump.

BACK TO GOLF FOR JUST A MOMENT: Why are “closest to the pin” shots on par 3 golf holes called “KPs?”

“Just Saying,” good question. Shouldn’t it be CPs?

January 7, 2022 by davefiskum

LIKE MANY OTHERS, WE’RE CAUGHT IN VIRUS LIMBO

My wife and I are caught in an Omicron Covid limbo as are many others around the country.

For us, the limbo is this:

We were exposed to our son who came down with what appears to be Omicron.
Here in La Quinta, California, we managed to stand in line to get a Covid test, but are now waiting for results.
We wandered around town yesterday – with masks on, I emphasize – to try to find “at home Covid tests” at various pharmacies. None was available.
Now, like many others, we wonder how to go about life in this limbo, while our intent is to avoid infecting others if it turns out we have the virus.
But, if there is good news, it is that neither my wife nor I have any virus symptoms, at least insofar as we – individuals without health care credentials — can tell.

Here is the way the Wall Street Journal wrote about this country-wide limbo issue this morning:

“Stephanie Chen has been working in the office in Orange County, Calif., each day, taking her 5-year-old son to school, attending church, and going about her routine for nine days, all while wondering if she is positive for Covid-19.

“When Ms. Chen learned that her cousin’s entire family tested positive for the virus after a Christmas gathering she attended with them in Orange County, pharmacies were sold out of rapid tests. Lines exceeded two hours at a local testing site. A Rite Aid website said no appointments were available within 50 miles of her home for at least two weeks.

“Ms. Chen, 38, who isn’t symptomatic, tried to order a home-delivered PCR test through a Los Angeles County program, but so far hasn’t even received confirmation it is on its way. “I’m just frustrated because they’re telling us, ‘Go test, go test,’ but how do you do that if the resources aren’t available?” Ms. Chen said.”

Soaring demand around the country makes lab-based and at-home tests hard to come by, just as we found out in yesterday’s around-the-town foray.

The Biden Administration says it has ordered millions of new tests, but no one knows for sure when or how they will become available, though I add this excerpt a story in the Washington Post this morning:

“The White House is finalizing details with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver 500 million coronavirus test kits to households across the country. The Administration will launch a website allowing individuals to request the rapid tests. Officials aim to begin shipping the kits by mid-January.”

While the at-home tests are due to arrive fairly soon, many people, at the moment, are forsaking tests, leaving them unable to determine whether they are infected or are potentially exposing others.

So, we remain in limbo, hoping against hope that we will find a way out soon.

January 6, 2022 by davefiskum

JANUARY 6: A FATEFUL ANNIVERSARY

Remember what you were doing last January 6?

I do. I was watching and hearing an insurrection by a group of so-called Americans trying to overthrow the government.

So, on this anniversary of January 6, I started my day, as I usually do, by reading two major U.S. newspapers – the Wall Street Journal that operates from the right center and the Washington Post that operates from the left center.

In this way, I read ideas that help me come up with my own views.

So it was this morning – the anniversary of the events January 6, 2021 — that I read both newspapers.

The result? Predictably, two views. They didn’t necessarily conflict. They just came to different conclusions as we commemorate a fateful anniversary.

Here is a quick summary of the two views:

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: “Democracyisn’t dying. January 6 was a riot, not an insurrection, and U.S. institutions held.

“The Capitol riot was a national disgrace, but almost more dispiriting is the way America’s two warring political tribes have responded. Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi seem intent on exploiting that day to retain power, while the Donald Trump wing of the GOP insists it was merely a protest march that got a little carried away.

“One lesson is that on all the available evidence January 6 was not an ‘insurrection,’ in any meaningful sense of that word. It was not an attempted coup. The Justice Department and the House Select Committee have looked high and low for a conspiracy to overthrow the government, and maybe they will find it. So far they haven’t.”

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST: “On January 6, the fight for democracy came home. There’s still so much we don’t know.

“One year ago, President Donald Trump incited a violent mob of his supporters to desecrate the U.S. Capitol. Their goal: To prevent Congress from counting electoral votes and declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

“It appeared possible that Trump’s campaign to advance his personal interests at the expense of the country’s had finally reached a turning point. So shocking was the disregard for the democratic process that even senior Republicans might understand the peril they had invited by bowing to Trump.

“But Trump quickly regained hold of the Republican Party. Three weeks after Jan. 6, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a penitential pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago. He and his fellow Republicans rejected efforts to create a bi-partisan panel to investigate the insurrection; some even defended the rioters.

“They booted Representative Liz Cheney out of their leadership for refusing to go along with Trump’s lies. Republican state legislatures passed anti-voting measures and conducted bogus vote audits designed, not to reconfirm the integrity of what experts declared to be a safe and secure election, but to provide fodder for conspiracy theorists.”

For me, both views are inadequate.

The Wall Street Journal falls down on the side of definitions, contending that the events of January 6 were a “riot, not an insurrection.”

Yet, the dictionary defines insurrection this way: “A violent uprising against an authority or government.”

Anyone with eyes and ears could see and hear that January 6 was an insurrection.

By contrast, the Washington Post opts for the position that “we need to know more.”

Agreed. But, again, with eyes and ears, there was no question that we an assault on our form of government was under way. More information would indict participants, but we already saw and heard was happened.

So, where are we on this fateful anniversary?

I wish it were true that we learned lessons last January 6, so we are able avoid another insurrection.

So far, I fear the jury is out.

January 5, 2022 by davefiskum

TRUMP IDOLATRY UNDERMINES RELIGIOUS FAITH

I borrow this headline from the Washington Post.

It appeared over a column that agreed with one of my main contentions, about which I have written several times: There is huge risk for religion in this country when so-called “White evangelicals” have headed, in legions, toward Donald Trump and his acolytes, thus perverting true Christianity.

The so-called “White evangelicals” are not evangelical at all. They give rot to the word evangelical, so I decline to use it anymore in any positive sense.

Here is how Post columnist Jennifer Rubin started her recent column:

“Much has been written about White evangelicals’ central role in the fraying of democracy. More attention, however, should be paid to the damage the political movement has inflicted on religion itself.

“The demographic — which remains in the throes of White grievance and an apocalyptic vision that postulates America (indeed “Western civilization”) is under attack from socialists, foreigners and secularists — forms the core of the MAGA movement. Many have rejected the sanctity of elections, the principle of inclusion, and even objective reality.

“The consequences have been dire for American politics. The siege mentality has morphed into an ends-justify-the-means style of politics in which lies, brutal discourse and even violence are applauded as necessary to protect ‘real America.’

“Essential features of democracy, such as the peaceful transfer of power, compromise with political opponents, and defining America as an idea and not a racial or religious identity, have fallen by the wayside.”

Sadly, Rubin writes, “the degradation of democracy has intensified in the wake of Joe Biden’s victory. The doctrinal elevation of the ‘big lie,’ the increase in violent rhetoric and the effort to rig elections, all reflect a heightened desperation by the MAGA crowd.”

While lovers of democracy note the risks for the U.S. form of government, Rubin advocates that we “should not lose track of the damage the MAGA movement has wrought to religious values.”

Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian (sorry, I borrow the word “evangelical” one more time) and former adviser to President George W. Bush, agrees with Rubin, though they write from separate points of view in different publications.

In a column for Atlantic Magazine, Wehner reports how a recent speech from Donald Trump, Jr. reflects the inversion of religious faith.

“The former president’s son,” Wehner writes, “has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the GOP: The scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have gotten us nothing.”

Then, he adds, “decency is for suckers.”

I say Trump and his son are the ones who are indecent.

Trump, Jr. believes, as his father does, that politics should be practiced ruthlessly, mercilessly, and vengefully. The ends justify the means. Norms and guardrails need to be smashed. Morality and lawfulness must always be subordinated to the pursuit of power and self-interest. That is the Trumpian ethic.

Sounds selfish, right? Well, it is.

Wehner continues:

“Understanding this phenomenon goes a long way toward explaining the MAGA crowd’s very unreligious cruelty toward immigrants, its selfish refusal to vaccinate to protect the most vulnerable, and its veneration of a vulgar, misogynistic cult leader. If you wonder how so many ‘people of faith’ can behave in such ways, understand that their ‘faith’ has become hostile to traditional religious values such as kindness, empathy, self-restraint, grace, honesty, and humility.

“In this upside-down world White evangelicalism has become, the willingness to act in self-sacrificial ways for the sake of vulnerable others — even amid a global pandemic — has become rare, even antithetical, to an aggressive, rights-asserting White Christian culture. The result is reckless self-indulgence that places some evangelicals’ own aversion to being told what to do ahead of the health and lives of vulnerable populations.”

And, not to mention self-indulgence for themselves as they eschew, for example, vaccines and masks.

There is no hint of awareness that their actions are a mockery of the central biblical injunction to care for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and the vulnerable among us.

Another writer put it this way:

“It’s important to say this straight. This refusal to act to protect the vulnerable is raw, callous selfishness. Exhibited by people I love, it is heartbreaking. Expressed by people who claim to be followers of Jesus, it is maddening.

“If these trends continue uninterrupted, we will wind up with a country rooted in neither democratic principles nor religious values. That would be a mean, violent and intolerant future few of us would want to experience.”

I concur, on at least two grounds:

First, it makes absolutely no sense to mix politics and religion. In Mark 12:17, the Bible counsels us “to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Good advice. Keep religion – or the term I prefer, Christianity – separate, except to allow your Christian convictions to influence how you act and behave in society, including in politics.
Second, political dogma – especially from the “White evangelical” movement described above — pollutes real Christian beliefs. The church should be about God, not politics.

There, I said it again. With emphasis.

January 4, 2022 by davefiskum

**SOME MAY SAY I AM BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE, BUT I AM DOGG-ED IN MY CRITICISM OF DONALD TRUMP**

Forgive the plays on words in this blog headline.

I just couldn’t resist.

Especially after reading a column by Helaine Olen that appeared in the Washington Post.

It took on critics who said that President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, should not have dispatched their dog, Major, to a home other than the White House.

They loved Major, but knew he was not fit for all the normal commotion in the White House, so they gave him to friends. And they acquired another young dog, Commander, who can be trained to live in all the commotion.

But the writer, Olen, could not resist revisiting comments by Donald Trump over the years, which, she said, illustrates that he hates dogs.

Doesn’t surprise me because he appears to dislike, even hate, anyone but himself.

Here is what she wrote: elHe

“I wouldn’t take seriously any barking tweets from Trump supporters about these Major matters. The former president has made clear that he doesn’t care for canines. He has a track record of using dog insults to belittle humans.

“Remember Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed in a military raid? Trump crowed that he had “died like a dog, he died like a coward, he was whimpering, screaming and crying.”

“Trump gloats when a perceived enemy or rival was ‘fired like a dog.’ His history of comparing political rivals to canines includes claiming that Utah Senator Mitt Romney ‘choked like a dog’ in the 2012 presidential contest and that Florida Senator Marco Rubio was ‘sweating like a dog’ at a 2016 Republican presidential debate.”

So, my conclusion?

Trump is a dog, though that gives him too much credit and also impugns the character of our dog, Callaway.

January 3, 2022 by davefiskum

PREPARING FOR OREGON POLITICS, 2022

As we start the new year – 2022 – it is worthwhile to reflect on how “we” could do better in political activity.

I say that as a former state government manager and state lobbyist who spent more than 40 years involved in lawmaking in the state. And I say that as a person interested in our form of government which I have watched to descend recently into unprecedented depths of antagonism and despair.

That’s true nationally, but, in different ways, it’s also true in Oregon.

No less an important figure that former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber talked about this issue as he was interviewed by Dick Hughes, former editorial director for the Statesman-Journal and now a writer of useful columns while working on his own.

Listening to what Kitzhaber has to say is worthwhile, though it must be acknowledged that the former governor threatened at least part of his reputation while committing various ethical violations at the end of his last year in office, an end he fashioned for himself.

Still, we should not let those human failures dwarf his solid service and good thoughts for our future.

I lobbied Kitzhaber over the years, first when he served as a state senator and then as president of the State Senate where he often exercised his policy muscles as a former emergency room doctor in his hometown, Roseburg, Oregon.

We didn’t always agree, but he clearly had a good mind for politics, especially to describe how to get things done in a collaborative fashion, as well as how to appeal to all Oregonians.

So, here are excerpts of what Kitzhaber told Hughes:

“We have allowed ourselves to become increasingly defined by our differences and, as a result, our politics have become reactive and deeply transactional. Each legislative session and budget cycle seem to operate almost in isolation from one another — from what came before and what must come next — with the only certain thing linking the policy and budget decisions of one session with another being the intervening, and increasingly toxic, election cycle.

“The problem is rooted, at least in part, in the long-term economic challenges faced by many rural communities, and in a sense of isolation from the political power centers in the more urban parts of the state. Economic struggle and isolation have been the daily experience of many people in rural Oregon, and they preceded the pandemic by many years.

“Add to this the intersection of state mandates with a group of people who do not react well when ‘told what to do’ by someone from outside — and you have the formula for anger, frustration and division.”

To this, Kitzhaber added his thoughts on one of the most challenging public policy challenges for Oregon, as well as for the U.S. – reforming health care.

“Unbundling the complexity of the health care system starts with a question. Are we trying to ensure that everyone has access to health care? Or are we trying to ensure that everyone is healthy? This question is foundational because how we answer it defines the rest of the conversation.”

Kitzhaber’s point was that the health debate primarily has been framed around lack of access to care instead of the greater question of how to ensure Americans are healthy. Access is but one aspect; health is broader.

For me, Kitzhaber’s recipe for better politics in 2022 rests on these elements:

Look at the big picture, not just the small one.
Take a longer view than just what one legislative session can do or not do.
Consider every issue at the Capitol in Salem as it affects BOTH urban and rural Oregon. In other words, don’t let what has been called “The Two Oregons,” urban and rural, continue to infect political discourse. Too often, public officials from urban Oregon control the entire political process and seem not to care about rural Oregon. Rural Oregonians are often angry. Never the twain shall meet.
Take a hard look at such issues as health care policy to ask, as Kitzhaber does, what the real issue is – access or health. Such too-narrow questions are found throughout politics and public policy. For example, the Legislature’s perennial school-budget debate revolves around whether a certain dollar amount is deemed adequate — not whether the money is being spent effectively and in the most essential long-term areas for the benefit of school children.

Here is how the columnist, Hughes, sums up the challenge:

“Oregon seems unable, or unwilling, to address the paradoxes. Most Oregonians share the same core values, including family, good health, educational and economic opportunity, and a deep love for our landscape. Yet we, copying the rest of the country, have settled for a political system that focuses on short-term, partisan wins and losses instead of long-term, mutual goals that serve the common good.

“This arrangement primarily benefits politicians and special interests who have a vested interest in gaining short-term victories – getting elected, building resumes, and reaping donations. How do we turn the conversation toward bringing Oregonians together, regardless of place or politics? How do we collaboratively create and commit to long-term strategies that invest in an economically, environmentally and socially healthy Oregon instead of short-term fixes that pick winners and losers?”

The point of all this is that all of us can do better in politics in 2022. So, let the New Year begin with resolve to do just that.

January 1, 2022 by davefiskum

THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT AMERICA AS WE HEAD TOWARD 2022

I thought of the headline for this blog when I read a column this morning by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.

As we head from one year to the next year, Noonan posits – and I agree — it is worthwhile to reflect on things to love about America. Better than just to focus on the negative because, surely, there is enough of that to go around.

For me, I added, in a list below, “things to love about life with my family and friends” because that is part of what it means for me to be an American.

Noonan’s column is thought-provoking because it rests on perceptions about America from an immigrant who wanted to come to America, who came to America, and then made a life for himself and his family apart from the daily violence he faced in the Middle East.

Here is how Noonan started her column:

“Amjad Masad came to America in January 2012. He was from Amman, Jordan, and 24. He came because his father, a Palestinian immigrant to Jordan and a government worker, bought him a computer when he was 6.

“Amjad fell in love and discovered his true language. He studied the history of the computer and became enamored of the U.S. and Silicon Valley. He imagined the latter as a futuristic place with flying cars and floating buildings. He saw the 1999 movie ‘Pirates of Silicon Valley,’ about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and decided America was the place he must be.

“His memory of arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport is a jumble, but what he saw from the bridge going into Manhattan was unforgettable—the New York skyline gleaming in the distance. It was like a spiritual experience. He was here.

“He settled in New York, worked at a startup, then moved west—he needed to be in Silicon Valley. Five years ago, he became co-founder and CEO of Replit, a company that offers tools to learn programming. It employs 40 people full-time and 10 contractors.”

Now, my story does not reflect perceptions of being an immigrant, as important as those perceptions are. I was born in the U.S., though, as is the case with many others, I have immigrant blood in my background, only a generation or two removed from Norway.

On Twitter, Masad came up with 10 things to love about America and I repeat them in brief below, before adding my own perceptions to the list.

“1. Work Ethic. First thing I noticed was that everyone regardless of occupation took pride in doing a bang-up job, even when no one looked.

“2. Lack of corruption. In the 10 years in the US, I’ve never been asked for a bribe, and that’s surprising.

“3. Win-win mindset. People don’t try to screw you on deals, they play the long game, and align incentives in such a way that everyone wins.

“4. Rewarding talent. From sports to engineering, America is obsessed with properly rewarding talent.

“5. Open to weirdos. Because you never know where the next tech, sports, or arts innovation will come from, America had to be open to weirdness.

“6. Forgiveness. Weird and innovative people have to put themselves out there, and as part of that, they’re going to make mistakes in public. The culture here values authenticity, and if you’re authentic and open about your failures, you’ll get a second and a third chance.

“7. Basic infrastructure. Americans take care of their public spaces.

“8. Optimism. When you step foot in the US there is a palpable sense of optimism.

“9. Freedom. Clearly a cliche, but it’s totally true.

“10. Access to capital. It’s a lot harder to innovate and try to change the world without capital.

It would be possible to argue with some items on this top-10 list. But, remember, they are perceptions from an immigrant who has been here only for a few years.

Here is my list as, with you, I prepare to move into 2022 only a few hours from now. So, I am thankful for:

My family – wife Nancy, son Eric, daughter Lissy, daughter-in-law Holly, and three grandchildren…Mason, Drew and Kate. All of them make my life better.
My friends, many of whom play golf with me…a passion for me and, often, for them.
My heritage in a Christian family. I think every day of my parents and the life they built for five children, a life built on a recognition of God as creator and savior.
My recognition of my wife’s parents who I knew before asked Nancy to marry me – and her father said yes! Neil and Nan Fraser lived lives pleasing to God.
My association with Salem Alliance Church for more than 30 years, which gave me a host of friends and a way to remember what God has done for me.
The support I received from partners and associates in a lobbying and public relations firm I helped to found in 1990. It was originally called Conkling Fiskum & McCormick, but came to be called CFM Strategic Communications and, then, CFM Advocates. Great friends to this day, even in retirement, as we converse often about lobby work.

So, as one year passes to the next, focus on the positive things in life, for there are positives if we only take time and expend effort to think of them.

The way Peggy Noonan closed her column is the way I will close this blog:

“God bless all Americans, old and new, here by birth, belief or both, as we arrive together in an unknown place called 2022. Let’s keep our eyes fresh, shall we?”

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Perspective from the 19th Hole

Thoughts from a lobbyist who has represented clients in Oregon and Washington, D.C. for more than 40 years.

Month: January 2022