Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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 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.

I wrote yesterday that I admired a 15-year-old boy and others who were credited with leading a revolt 40 years ago of the people in Romania who wanted to get rid of communism.

The revolt succeeded in 1989 and Romania is still free today.

My wife and I have been in Romania where we supposed to start a river cruise on the Danube, but that got derailed when the water was too low to allow navigation.  So, we are reduced to a “bus cruise” down to Budapest.

My blog addendum is this – and, for what it’s worth, I feel better providing it:

In my 40 years in politics in Oregon, I never was in favor of protests as a way to achieve a public policy objective.  The better approach, I contended, was to promote the to engagement of all sides to find what I like to call “the smart middle ground.”

Protests only prolonged the time until a solution.

Thus, I had mixed emotions when I chose to applaud the Romanian revolt in 1989

Upon reflection, however, it is stupid to compare protests in the legislative process in Oregon – I was a lobbyist there for about 40 years – to a revolt in Romania to throw out communists.  In the latter, literally lives hung in the balance.

Standing figuratively on my feet, I applaud those who risked their lives to create democracy in Romania – democracy that allows them to think and act for themselves.  In communism, the people were dependent on the “state” and, in the communist rule in Romania, the people were left behind.

In fact, they had little food or heat in the tough winter.  Many of them died because the dictator and his allies took care of themselves, not the people.

So, my applause for those who destroyed communism continues to this day.