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.

………This is part 1 of two-part focus on immigrant/refugee issues; the second part will focus on threats to the refugee in community in Salem, Oregon………

The rabbi starts an essay in the New York Times with this profound summary:  “The Bible Tells Us to Love Immigrants”

Then he goes on to make a case for this requirement by citing various Bible passages.

The “he” is Rabbi Shai Held, president and dean of the Hadar Institute, and the author, most recently, of “Judaism Is About Love.”

Here is how he started his essay:

“A hallmark of the second Trump administration has been the hunt for the foreign born, from children to adults, criminal status apparently notwithstanding.  Many of the administration officials who champion this project often invoke God in their speeches, asserting that their allegiance to the Constitution is rooted in their fealty to a far older text:  The Bible.

“It is clear that many of our leaders lack the most fundamental understanding of the central biblical commandment to love and care for the immigrant.”

Held continues to say that “the Bible explicitly commands three loves.  The first and second many modern Christians and Jews cite easily — love of God and love of one’s neighbor.

“The third, and most often overlooked, is love of the ‘ger.’  Several English translations interpret ger as ‘sojourner,’ someone born elsewhere who has come to dwell among the people, most likely temporarily.  Other translations render ger as ‘stranger, ‘alien’ or ‘foreigner.’”

In recent decades, Held says some biblical scholars have returned to an older idea:  That ger should be translated as something close to “immigrant.”

He goes on to outline background on other Biblical references:

• Writing about the book of Exodus, the 11th-century Jewish biblical commentator Rashi explains that “wherever ger occurs in Scriptures it signifies a person who has not been born in that land where he is living but has come from another country to sojourn there.”  The word “immigrant” matters, in this context — it reminds us that in the ancient world, just as now, someone seeking a home among people foreign to him had likely endured significant upheaval in his life, like war, famine, political oppression or economic crisis.
• The commandment to love immigrants is one of the Bible’s greatest moral revolutions.  Other ancient Near Eastern cultures instructed people to care for widows and orphans.  The Bible expands the category of those who deserve special protection to include those who live among our community but are not quite of it.
• The book of Exodus explicitly forbids the people from mistreating an immigrant.  Contrary to popular assumptions, the prohibition on abusing the vulnerable does not derive only from the children of Israel’s past experience of slavery and oppression.  It is a basic demand of morality:  We must not take advantage of the weak. \
• The book of Leviticus repeats the injunction not to oppress — then adds a mandate to actively love the immigrant. These commands resurface in the book of Deuteronomy, which implies that loving immigrants is a way of emulating God’s love.

Now, in this context, it is impossible for me to omit concerns about Trump and his ilk who go about mistreating immigrants every day.  All immigrants.  Not just those who have committed crimes in this country.

First, the number of immigrants who have committed crimes – or even gotten a traffic – is small.  In the range of, at most, 15 per cent.

Second, Trump himself is the son of an immigrants, his mother.  And his father had German ancestry two generations ago.

So, the question remains:  How can Trump have so much animosity against his own.

For Held’s part, he closes his essay this way:

“Those of us who treat the Bible as authoritative in our lives are aware — through the very text we cite most often — that unchecked, unbridled power is always abhorrent, let alone when it is deployed to attack precisely those who are most vulnerable.”

That paragraph describes Trump exactly.  As Christians, we ought to do two things:  Abhor what he does against immigrants and, more importantly, practice “love for our neighbors” in our own lives, even if those “neighbors” don’t look like us.

The Bible tells us to do so.

Which reminds me of what the pastor of the church we intend always says after he reads Bible verses:  “I have just read from the greatest book ever written and I attest that all of it is true.”

So, I say, follow it.

I add that my wife is doing in her support for a great program where we live in Salem, Oregon – “Salem for Refugees.”  For one thing, there are more refugees that you might think there are in our town.  But, for another, she is practicing the fine art of “loving your neighbor.”

Kudos to her!

[Part 2 tomorrow]

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.

Name one inter-personal credential often missing in the United States today.

Okay, I will.

Empathy.

Which is embodied in the headline I used for this blog, borrowing an opinion piece from the New York Times written by columnist David French who worries that empathy is dying.

I do, too.

So, before including excerpts from what French wrote, what does the word empathy mean?

Simply this:  “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”

Said a different way, empathy means to put yourself in someone else’s shoes so you’ll understand more about them than you would otherwise.

Empathy is different, and more profound, than sympathy.  In the latter, you try to feel what someone else is feeling, so you express sympathy for them.  With empathy, you actually put yourself in the other person’s position and thus convey more than just neutral understanding.

To many in the world of Donald Trump, empathy is a weakness.  Not a strength.

A year ago this month, French said he wrote a newsletter warning about a new trend from what he and others call  “the MAGA Christian right.”  Some supposedly Christian theologians and influencers had begun warning about the ‘sin of empathy’ or ‘toxic empathy.’

“In books, essays, podcasts and speeches, prominent Christian influencers, ministers and theologians sounded the alarm that secular progressives were leading Christians astray by appealing to their emotions at the expense of their reason.

“The version of their case goes like this:

“Progressives have turned Christians’ soft hearts against hard truths.  Progressives have persuaded all too many Christians that the suffering of, say, undocumented immigrants or women facing unwanted pregnancies should override their concerns about the economic and social costs of large-scale immigration, or their compassion for victims of crimes committed by immigrants, or their concerns about the plight of the unborn child.

“Sometimes, as the argument goes, you have to do tough, hard things.  That means mass deportation.  That means cutting off aid to the poor and vulnerable in the developing world.  That means ending gay marriage even if it breaks up families.  And that means the strictest possible pro-life laws, even when the life or physical health of the mother might be at stake, or sending mothers to jail for aborting their child.”

While Trump and his ilk practice anti-empathy, French adds that many of us also are often unwilling to place ourselves in other people’s shoes, to try to understand who they are and what their lives are like.

More from French:

“It’s hard to talk about this issue without recognizing a fundamental truth of the moment:  The attack on empathy would have gained very little traction in the church if Trump weren’t president.  He delights in vengeance, and he owes his presidency to the evangelical church.  [Based on polls on voting in the last presidential election.]

“But this problem extends well beyond public policy into the fundamental cruelty and callousness of the culture of the new right.  It is no coincidence that the attack on empathy correlates with an extraordinary rise in blatant racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia on the right.”

To French, empathy stands as a firewall against bigotry.

“But it’s more than that — it can also free you from bigotry.  Understanding another person’s experience and imagining if it happened to you softens our hearts and creates human connection.”

To this, I add hearty agreement.

It is worth displaying empathy as a citizen these days and even more so if you are a real Christian.

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.

The appeal referred to in this blog headline – finding what I call the “middle ground” – came this week from an interesting source, none other than U.S. Supreme Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.

He wrote an opinion concurring with the major one authored by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Robert as it overthrew Donald Trump’s unilateral decisions to impose tariffs – read taxes – without Congressional approval.

The New York Times put it this way:  “…after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs, it included a paean to Congress that read like a requiem for a bygone era of legislative power.”

Gorsuch wrote this:

“Yes, legislating can be hard and take time.  And yes, it can be tempting to by-pass Congress when some pressing problem arises.  But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design.  Through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”

The Times added that what Gorsuch wrote “was a description of governing completely at odds with what is currently underway across the street from the Supreme Court at the Capitol, where Republicans controlling the House and the Senate have ceded their power to one man — Trump — on a variety of issues. In essence, they are acting as if they have no wisdom to tap, or no business doing so.”

Interesting that the words came from Gorsuch, a Trump appointee and one supposedly of a conservative block of justices on the court.  Which indicates that it often is difficult for anyone to predict how justices will vote on major issues.

Though he doesn’t know me from Adam – nor should he – Gorsuch’s words struck a chord with me because I have long advocated for what the preamble to this blog mentions – the idea of government in the middle ground.

Sadly, the business of finding that middle ground – call it compromise – is missing from government these days, especially at the federal level.

My fond hope is that, at some point in the future, government will return to the art of making solid public policy in the middle.

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 ask the question in this blog headline based on my 40 years in and around government in Oregon, as well as my position as someone interested in local, statewide, regional and national politics in my retirement years.

What happened to government and politics?

Well, the best answer is that Donald Trump took office for the second term and turned politics – at least national politics, if not politics around the states – on its head. 

Compromise. 

Agreement. 

Consensus. 

They appear no longer to exist.

It used to be that persons who disagreed could find a way to work with each other.  I call this “the ability to disagree agreeably.”

At the Capitol in Salem where I was a lobbyist for 25 years, it often was the case that, when legislators disagreed as they considered pieces of legislation in committee or on the floors of the House and Senate, they then put aside those disagreements to have dinner together after hours.

Today?

No longer.

Disagreements often produce invective, name-calling, and hatred, even at the Capitol in Salem where minority Republicans chafe under majority Democrat control.

Democrats have not found a way to work with Republicans.  Reverse it and the same is true.

If someone disagrees with you, it is likely that you and they go into hate mode.

Even though it’s true that the best solutions to public policy challenges usually lie somewhere in the middle, not on either the right or left extreme.

Rather than just reinforce my long-time admiration for the “middle ground” (as stated in the introduction to this blog), I decided to turn to Mr. Google for more information this morning.  Here is what I found:

“Compromise in modern politics is essential for functioning democracy, yet it is increasingly rare due to high polarization and incentives that favor partisan brinkmanship over negotiation.

“While a 2025 Gallup poll shows 47 per cent of Americans favor leaders compromising to achieve results, political, ideological, and voter pressures frequently lead to legislative gridlock. 

“Many Americans may support compromise in principle, but this often conflicts with a desire for leaders to stick to strict partisan principles.”

Of course, normal partisan differences always play a role, but for me, partisanship should not rule the day.  Campaigning for office in the next election is different from governing. 

High-stakes political environments and fear of primary election punishments lead many lawmakers to adopt what has been called an “uncompromising mindset,” which is characterized by tenacity to one’s own point-of-view, as well as mistrust of the opposing party.

So, I say, now as many times before, “compromise” is not a dirty word.  And I hope it returns soon to politics.  If or when it does, we’ll all be better for it.

Let me add this conclusion.  I used to trust government, even as those in government made mistakes.  Today, I am not sure that you can trust anything done, especially at the federal level under Trump.

He and those who work for him want what’s best for themselves, not for the country.  They lie to get what they want.  And, if they win, so much the better.  Today, I am not sure that trust is possible any longer. 

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.

In La Quinta, California, I play at a golf course, The Palms, that has been described as “a place for pure golf.”

Why?

Well, there are reasons for this description, which I have found to be accurate over the seven years I have spent my winters in La Quinta rather than in my #1 home, Salem, Oregon.

The reasons:

• There are no tee times at The Palms in La Quinta.  Rather, a golf pro always sits on the 1^st tee and works in groups ready to play.  But you have to get there to get in the queue.

• The goal for time in an 18-hole round is three hours and 30 minutes.  But it is often possible to play in a shorter amount of time if you put your mind to it – without running between shots.  By contrast, on many “resort courses” in the California desert, playing 18-holes can take as many as five hours.

• Always put your cell phones on silent and don’t look at them while you play at The Palms because this is….well, pure golf, not one allowing distractions. 

And, with a nod to purity, I also like to play golf at The Palms because of the friendships I have made there…with other golfers who appreciate the pace-of-play and the vistas on one of the best courses in La Quinta.

So, with this, I guess I’ll head out to play golf again.   But, first, I’ll cite a piece of good news from The Palms.

One of my friends achieved two major objectives in one round last week.  He got his first hole-in-one and also broke 80 for the first time, shooting 79.

I asked him which achievement he liked best.  He said the 79.

I would have said the reverse because I know he’ll shoot 79 again but may not get another hole-in-one, as difficult as those are to achieve in golf.  Still, two great achievements in one round.

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.

As a political junkie in the years since my retirement, I have enjoyed reading various political columnists, with a changing recipe of favorites from time to time.

Now, one of my favorites is Frank Bruni, who with excellent words that flow into sentences, has an ability to skewer politicians for their misdeeds.  So, it is natural that he has a new target in Donald Trump and sycophants who work for him such as Pam Bondi, who has a title she doesn’t deserve, Attorney General of the United States of America.

I used the headline over the most recent Bruni column for this blog.

Before citing some of the Bruni’s words about Bondi, etc., here is a little background on him.

Born in 1964, he now writes for the New York Times, taking there a wide range of assignments, including a stint, of all things, as chief restaurant critic.  In 2011, he was named an op-ed columnist  and also joined Duke University as professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy.  He is still there and writes his column from that location.

Here is how Bruni started his most recent column:

“I imagine Pam Bondi getting ready for one of her appearances on Capitol Hill by practicing in front of a mirror.  She hones her glare.  She perfects her sneer.  She rehearses her lines, such as they are.

“’Washed-up, loser lawyer!’ That’s for Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland.  What the phrase lacks in poetry it makes up for in pithiness.  It’s just four short words, two of them conveniently conjoined with a hyphen.  Even Bondi can remember that much.

“’Failed politician!’  That’s for Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.  Two words.  Insults are all about efficiency.

“But it’s not Bondi’s script that matters most.  It’s her voice, and the attorney general got the tone of it — the poison in it — just right when she spat those put-downs at those men during her, um, testimony before a House panel last week.  She didn’t merely ooze contempt.  She gushed it, so that all she communicated during more than four hours of nasty exchanges was how loathsome she found her interrogators.  Which was obviously her goal.  Her mission.”

So, Bruni wonders — and so do I why –Trump and his ilk “perform” this way and why their act engenders favor from some American.  Bruni answers his own question.

“I can’t get it out of my mind.  But then I never stopped thinking about Bondi’s identical performance before a Senate panel last October.  Both crystallized what is arguably the defining trait of the second Trump administration, a bearing and a bullying that cast a noxious haze over all public discourse, which was already plenty polluted.

“This crew — Bondi, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, President Trump himself — don’t want to win opponents’ favor.  They don’t even want to win the argument.  Why sweat the delicate art of persuasion when you can use the brute force of condemnation?  Comity and conciliation are a slog.  They’re for suckers.  Contempt is victors’ ready, heady prerogative.”

I wish I could have put together words such as this.  They describe Trump and his clowns perfectly.

“…Trump, his aides and many of his supporters haven’t purged contempt from our politics.  They’ve mainstreamed it.  Purified it.  Industrialized it.  It’s their push-a-button pushback against everyone who challenges them and any circumstances that threaten to undermine them, an all-purpose way to pivot from the substance of a situation to an evasive and obfuscating ill will.  Envelop everything in indiscriminate animosity and nothing real survives.”

So it is that I cannot wait for three more years to elapse.  Those are the years Trump will be in power in the presidency.

I hope we and our country can survive.

Postscript:  Another reason why I like Bruni is that, at the end of every column, he includes examples of great writing from newspapers around the country.  The examples have been sent by Bruni readers who, like me, love words.  So, I am looking for great writing to send along to Bruni.

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.

The question in this blog headlines lurks behind more to’ing and fro’ing at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon as legislators debate when to ask voters for their views on transportation tax increases.

Republican legislators, most of whom oppose the tax, want it to be on the general election ballot next November.

Democrat legislators, most of whom favor the tax, want it to be on the primary election next May.

Why the difference?

Well, there appear to be at least three reasons:

• First, Republican leaders say they collected signatures to refer the tax increase to the ballot so Oregonians could vote on it next November.  Then, they say, turnout is higher than in any primary election, so “voters are served better.”
• Second, Democrat leaders say they want a vote sooner – meaning in May — so they know how much funding will be available for the Oregon Department of Transportation.  So, they contend, voters are served no matter when the tax increase is at the polls, so they opt for May.
• Third, but truth be told, the main reason for May instead of November revolves around election politics.  Republicans want the measure on the ballot at the same time as Oregon Governor Tina Kotek bids for re-election, apparently believing that “no” voters on transportation tax increases could cross over to vote “no” on Kotek.  Of course, on this point, Democrats want to avoid that scenario, so they push for the May vote.

Here are excerpts of how the Oregonian newspaper characterized the issue yesterday under this headline:  “Oregon transportation tax hike one step closer to landing on May ballot following key vote.”

“Democrats have said they want to move the election date in order to get clarity soon on the state’s available transportation funding.  Republicans have slammed the effort, calling it a political move that would violate the intention of the thousands of individuals who signed the referendum to place the tax hikes on the November ballot. “

Last Thursday, a special legislative committee, created solely to take up the proposal, voted 5-3 along party lines, with all Democrats in support, to advance the May election bill to a full Senate vote.

By law, Kotek must sign the bill by February 25 to get the measure on the May ballot, meaning Democrats have less than two weeks to get it through both chambers and onto her desk.

In all of this, what will happen next?

Well, the Oregonian newspaper says Republicans, outnumbered in both chambers, have few options to stop Democrats from moving the election date on the tax hikes.  The Rs could boycott floor sessions to deny Democrats a quorum to hold votes, but they have not indicated publicly whether they are willing to take that extreme measure.

Plus, Senate Republican Leader Bruce Starr suggested that his caucus may seek legal action to keep the taxes on the November ballot, no matter what the Legislature does.

“I believe that ultimately this will be in front of the courts,” Starr said.  “We will see whether the legislative activity of this committee and this Legislature … ultimately will stand up under court scrutiny.”

So, in the end, more to’ing and fro’ing, either in the Legislature or in the courts before voters have their say one way or the other.

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.

The subject in the headline has been on my mind for several days now as I have focused on Bible verses calling Christians to do “good works.”

I have written about this before, but the topic is worth another look.

As Christians, we know that doing “good works” is not the way to earn our way to heaven.  Earning is not involved.

If you accept Christ as your savior, you will be in heaven one day and it is not due to your performance.  It is due to grace, which is defined as “free and unmerited favor.”

Still, there is a place for “good works” in the Christian life.

Consider these words from one of the most important Scriptures on the subject:

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second commandment is this:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

Loving God is based on faith – you cannot see God today, but you believe that he is your savior.  That’s called faith.

Loving your “neighbor” can be tough, especially if your neighbor is different than you based on ethnicity, color of skin, background, homeland, or numerous other factors.

But, to God, based on Scripture, none of those differences matter and, in any event, they don’t remove the command “to love your neighbor as yourself.”

As I write that, I cannot remove from my mind Donald Trump, who, as president, has made it one of his priorities to hate others.  Hate?  Yes. 

Here is what he said at the funeral service for Charlie Kirk:  “I hate my opponent.  And I don’t want the best for them.’”

Sounds like Trump, right?

As for being involved in good works as Christians, one question revolves around getting credit for that work.

Here, another scripture comes into play – Matthew 23:4.  It advises against doing good works to get credit.

“Everything they do is done for people to see:  They love their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.  They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogue.  They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace…”  [By the way, the word phylacteries refers to “a small leather box containing Hebrew texts on vellum, worn by Jewish men at morning prayer as a reminder to keep the law.”]

The point is that credit for doing good works goes to God, not to those who do the work.  So, if we engage in good works, we should make sure credit goes the proper way – to God.

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.

………This is a reprise of one of my past approaches to writing blogs – mixing several topics in what I call “Bits and Pieces?………

WASHINGTON POST ANNOUNCES SWEEPING LAYOFFS:  WILL IT EVER BE THE SAME?

For someone who loves quality newspapers – me – the news came as a jolt last week.

The Washington Post, under its owner, Jeff Bezos, of Amazon fame, said the Post was going to layoff one-third of its reporting staff.

So, I ask the question in the headline:  Will it ever be the same?”  The likely answer is “no.”

Here is how the New York Time described the status of one of it competitors under this headline:  Washington Post announces sweeping layoffs as it scales back news coverage.

“The Washington Post has announced it is laying off one-third of its work force, sharply scaling back the paper’s coverage of sports and foreign news.

“The cuts, announced on Wednesday, will impact employees across departments with roles in the newsroom’s sports, local and foreign sections hit particularly hard.”

So, for me, it may become a chore for me to continue reading the Post, which I started doing when I worked for Congress in Washington, D.C. many years ago.

The chances are that I will persevere, loving newspapers as I do, including one, the Post, which will be changing for the worse.

TRUMP PERVERTS NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

Guess what?

For a president of many perversions, Donald Trump committed another one last week.

He turned the National Prayer Breakfast into a forum for his personal diatribes against any and all who disagree with him.  And, he spoke for 75 minutes.

Incredible!

If I would have been there, I would have left.  Quickly.

Leave it to Trump to turn anything into something all about him.

THE TRUTH IN MINNEAPOLIS IS WHAT TRUMP SAYS IT IS

This headline says it all:  Donald Trump wouldn’t know the truth if it hit him in face, so he lies over and over again.

Pretty soon, as Trump would say it, people believe it, if only because of the repetition.

For this headline, I am indebted to the New York Times which placed it over a story by veteran political reporter, Peter Baker, who is covering his sixth U.S. presidency.

His focus:  What Trump is doing with ICE personnel to arrest immigrants and deport them to penal camps.

Here is how Baker’s story started:

“The Trump team has advanced one-sided narratives to justify each of the killings in Minnesota, even when bystander video shows something else entirely.

“Twice since the start of the year, federal officers have gunned down protesters in Minneapolis, with cell-phone cameras rolling and twice Trump and his lieutenants have rushed forward with a message to the American people:  Don’t believe what you see with your own eyes.

“Without waiting for facts, the Trump team has advanced one-sided narratives to justify each of the killings and demonize the victims.”

The trick, Baker adds, is that the Trump versions of reality have collided with bystander videos watched by millions who did not see what they were told by Trump they were seeing.

“Trump has found that putting out a story line early and repeating it often can, with the help of an ideological media and online surround-sound machine, convince a sizable share of the public that does not credit contrary evidence.  Even after investigations, recounts and his own advisers and attorney general refuted Trump’s claim that he won the 2020 election, polls show that most Republicans still believe the election was stolen.”

To analyze Trump, we are indebted to reporters like Baker, as well as to the Washington Post Fact Checker column.

From Baker:

“Trump has a long record of dishonesty.  He was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents, he was found liable in civil court of defrauding lenders, his family-owned business was convicted of criminal tax fraud, he was indicted though not tried on charges of obstruction of justice and defrauding the United States, his charity was shut down after the authorities found a ‘shocking pattern of illegality’ and his self-named university paid out $25 million to settle complaints by students who called the school a sham.”

From Fact Checker:

“While in office, Trump has been a prolific source of prevarication on any number of topics, so much so that The Washington Post counted more than 30,000 false or misleading statements in his first term.  Most significantly, he repeatedly spread lies about supposed fraud in the 2020 elections that inspired a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to try to stop the transfer of power — and he continues to promote lies about those events even now on a White House web page that rewrites the history of that day.”

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.

Even as I write this blog headline, I also express my appreciation to Links Magazine for publishing a new golf story under this headline:  “New Projects in the Scottish Highlands.”

The author, Martin Dempster, started this way:

“Scotland’s golf-rich north is being energized by exciting new projects and timely additions to time-honored classics, beginning with venerable Royal Dornoch

“It would be silly to suggest that the Highlands — the most northerly region on the Scottish mainland — is a newcomer to golf.  We’re talking about an area deservedly famous for Royal Dornoch, as well as highly regarded courses like Nairn, Brora, Boat of Garten, and Fortrose and Rosemarkie, to name but a few.”

Why do I like the Scottish Highlands?

Well, several reasons:

• First, my wife Nancy’s parents, before they met in the U.S., emigrated from Scotland, so it is a homeland of sorts for me.
• Second, with my wife I have been to Scotland five times and, each time, I played a variety of golf courses, some with famous names like the Old Course and some with less famous ones such as the above-named Boat of Garten, Nairn and Brora.  Fun and great golf every time!
• Third, Links Magazine’s mention of Royal Dornoch, calls to my mind the memory of being there several times, with a chance to play one of the greatest golf courses in the world.

More from the writer, Dempster:

“The Scottish Highlands is proving more popular than ever for visitors to the Home of Golf.  The opening of what was originally called Castle Stuart in 2009 — and its subsequent staging of four editions of the Scottish Open, including network coverage in the U.S. — helped raise the area’s profile, along with Nairn hosting the Walker Cup in 1999 and the Curtis Cup in 2012.

“Castle Stuart is now called Cabot Highlands, having been added to the ever-growing Cabot Collection, and recently debuted a second course, called Old Petty, designed by Tom Doak.”

So, with the new name, Cabot Highlands, I’ll have to update my list of courses where I have had the privilege of playing around the world.  Castle Stuart, a relatively new course, is great and nothing will change with the new name.

On to Dempster’s mention of Royal Dornoch.

“There’s also a lot happening at Royal Dornoch, where the original course provided five-time Open champion Tom Watson with the ‘most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course.’

“A new $18.5 million clubhouse will be fully operational for the start of the 2026 season.  So, too, the new par-three 9th hole on the club’s other course, the Struie:  The 175-yarder is the only hole on either course to face southeast toward the Dornoch Firth and already has been hailed as ‘a real cracker.’

“And it might not stop there.  Having secured 50 acres adjacent to the Struie, the club has appointed King Collins Dormer Golf Course Design to create a master-plan that will further enhance the reputation of the world-famous venue.

“’Usually, the opening of a new clubhouse, which has been mooted for 30 years or more, would mark the end of the journey for any golf club.  But for Royal Dornoch, it is about what the next step is going to be,’ says general manager Neil Hampton.  ‘The investment being made will pave the way for even greater economic and employment benefits for the wider community. ‘

“Golf has long been the key economic driver in this part of the country and additional, high quality, eco-friendly championship courses created by highly regarded designers can only enhance our reputation as a golfing destination and encourage visitors to extend their stay in the Highlands.

“The growing interest in the Highlands is wonderful to see and a great reward for all the work the many volunteers at each of the clubs, and on the Golf Highland board, have put in.  No other area in Scotland offers such a variety of golfing experiences and price points, coupled with amazing scenery and the warmest of welcomes.”

So, in view of this update on Royal Dornoch, don’t be surprised that, even in my advanced age, I  may find myself traveling to the North of Scotland to spy great golf again.