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.

Some people know the answer to the question in this blog headline, but it also is not well-known.

The designer, as stated in the headline, was Billy Bell, the son of his father by the same name and they designed many golf courses in the West, including Illahe where the son made one of his marks after his father’s death.

The two were featured in the recent edition of FORE magazine, which is published by the Southern California Golf Association.

William P. “Billy” Bell, Sr. and his son William F. “Billy” Bell, Jr. are the famous “Bells”— Southern California’s first family of golf course architecture — who were inducted into the Southern California Golf Association Hall of Fame as part of the 2017 class.

So, in that sense, they are famous.  More so in California than in Oregon.

The senior Bell started as a caddie master, greenskeeper, and construction supervisor.  He collaborated heavily with Golden Age architects like George C. Thomas Jr. (on Bel-Air CC, Riviera CC, and Los Angeles CC North) and designed or co-designed more than 70 courses.

He was known for signature lacy-edged bunkers, undulating greens, and natural terrain integration.

His son, Billy, studied at USC and designed or co-designed more than 100 courses, with and beyond his father.  For instance, he completed his father’s vision for Torrey Pines after his father’s passing in 1953.

Here is a list of notable courses designed or co-designed by the Bells:

Bel-Air Country Club	Los Angeles
Torrey Pines Golf Course (North & South)	San Diego
Industry Hills Golf Club (Ike & Babe)	Industry, CA
Sandpiper Golf Club	Goleta/Santa Barbara
Bermuda Dunes Country Club	Bermuda Dunes
Brookside Golf Club	Pasadena

According to Google, add Illahe Hills to the list.  It ranks up there with some other Bells’ designs. 

“Illahe opened in 1961 and stands as a premier example of the Bells’ Pacific Northwest portfolio, showcasing how the family’s design philosophy adapted beautifully to the dense trees and rolling landscape of the Willamette Valley.

“Built as a traditional 18-hole, par-72 championship course, it features a highly walkable layout that naturally leverages the local countryside terrain rather than fighting it.

“True to the Bell style, it uses strategic bunkering and raised, undulating greens to challenge golfers of all skill levels.

“While Bell Jr. drafted the original 1961 footprint, other acclaimed architects have touched the course since then.  Robert Muir Graves completed a re-design in 1981, followed later by renovations from John Harbottle III and contemporary updates by Northwest designer Dan Hixson.

“Heavily regarded as one of the purest tests of golf in Oregon, it was named the 2023 Oregon Golf Association Facility of the Year and has hosted numerous USGA Championship qualifiers.”

I know about the latter because on many occasions I have served as a tournament starter at my home track. 

I also met Harbottle before his passing and, more recently, have had discussions with current course architect advisor, Hixon.  He has advised about removing trees from the golf course and an entirely new approach to bunkers.

For those tasks, he deserves credit.  And so does Illahe, a solid golf track worthy of being grouped into the list of courses due to the Bells.

I have been fortunate to play Illahe for more than 40 years.  And I hope more to come.

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 we head toward the mid-term elections, I urge all of us to pay attention to the damage Donald Trump has done, is doing, and will do to this country.

That demands that we vote for all those who oppose Trump’s effort to represent himself and not the American people.

No organization has said this better than the New York Times whose editorial writers stroked this a telling headline, one I borrowed for this blog.

I choose to reprint the editorial word-for-word today, so read on.

*********

President Trump has encouraged voters to pretend he is on the ballot for the November 3 mid-term elections, and this time we can agree with his political advice.  Americans should be thinking of the Trump administration as they vote for members of Congress and state officials.

Voters should keep in mind Trump’s failure to keep his campaign promises, his attempts to undermine American democracy, and his flagrant corruption.  They should be thinking of the Republican Party’s acquiescence to this abuse of power, and they should hold Republicans accountable.

Today’s Democrat Party has plenty of flaws, including a disappointing failure to present a coherent agenda of its own.  Nonetheless, Democrats offer the only alternative this year to the damage that Trump and his party have inflicted on the nation.  A vote for a Democrat candidate is the best way for Americans to repudiate the Trump administration’s performance over the past two years.

If Democrats retake both houses of Congress, and more state governments than they now control, it will tell the world that Trump does not represent most Americans.  It will demonstrate that a country that starts to slide toward autocracy can move back to normalcy, as happened in Hungary this spring.  Most important, it will create a desperately needed check on Trump during his final two years in office.

Take a moment to imagine how Washington could change if Democrats win control of the House of Representatives.  Trump’s legislative ambitions will be largely ended; he will not be able to pass more tax cuts that worsen the national debt.

Democrats can instead use must-pass spending bills to restore money that was improperly cut from Medicaid, schools, scientific research, and disease prevention.  And Congress will finally have committee chairs who seek to exercise their constitutional duty to hold the president and his appointees responsible for their actions, through the use of hearings, subpoenas and more.

Even if Trump and his aides illegally defy subpoenas, the House can summon corporate executives and others who have enabled him.

If Democrats take the Senate, they will be able to do more.  As the body that confirms nominees for top administration jobs and the judiciary, the Senate can stop Trump from appointing unqualified cabinet members like Todd Blanche, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and ideologues like Russ Vought.

Senators can insist on federal judges who, while surely conservative, will uphold the law.  Many judges appointed by previous Republican presidents have honorably done so in recent years, but some Trump appointees have failed to meet this basic standard.  The Senate’s confirmation role will be particularly important if any Supreme Court vacancies arise in the next two years.

Regardless, Trump will almost certainly continue to do damage in office.  He will issue executive orders and conduct foreign policy, and he may defy congressional authority in ways that violate tradition or the law.  Yet, the difference between a government completely run by a political party in thrall to him and a government with an empowered opposition is profound.  Americans now have an opportunity to register their displeasure with his conduct, and they should seize it.

It is worth taking a moment to review the records of both Trump and congressional Republicans since he returned to office in January 2025.

In a 21-month span, he has done more harm to democracy and the rule of law than any other president in the modern era and perhaps longer than that.  He has broken his oath to defend the Constitution by trying to rewrite it on his own.  He has refused to honor Congress’s power of the purse and misused national security laws for political ends.  He has defied federal court orders on Medicaid funding, deportation orders and more.

He has dismantled the Justice Department’s legacy as an impartial enforcer of federal law, turning it into an instrument of retribution against his adversaries while canceling investigations into his allies.  He has appointed inept sycophants to oversee crucial government functions, including law enforcement, national defense, and public health.  He has sought to disenfranchise large numbers of voters, claiming fraud that cannot be found, and championed an extreme new approach to partisan gerrymandering.  He has physically besmirched the White House by demolishing the East Wing and financing a garish renovation with donations from wealthy allies.

In foreign affairs, Trump has wasted lives and military resources on a miscalculated and illegal war with Iran, a strategic blunder that has forced a global retreat of American power.  He has left the United States less prepared for future conflicts.  He has left the United States isolated and vulnerable, by alienating longtime allies.  He has weakened Ukraine in its heroic fight against Russia and cozied up to President Vladimir Putin.

On the economy, his policies have raised the cost of living, contributing to a decline in real wages. Interest rates are up. Economic growth and job growth are down.  He has handed out billions to the wealthy and large corporations, leaving the rest of us with the tab, through a national debt that now exceeds $40 trillion.

He has created a culture of corruption and avarice with no precedent.  He has pardoned political cronies, violent felons among them.  He has used the levers of power, including regulatory oversight and diplomacy, to bring in billions of dollars of profit for his family business and his closest supporters.  In 2025 alone, the president’s business empire earned $2.24 billion, nearly two-thirds of it from cryptocurrency, which Mr. Trump’s executive branch is supposed to be regulating.

What has the Republican-controlled Congress done to rein in these abuses? Virtually nothing.  With only a few exceptions, the Senate has approved inept cabinet members and agency heads and then stood by as they rounded up legal immigrants, brought ludicrous criminal charges against political opponents, depleted the military of top talent, and spurned the scientific consensus on the need for vaccines.

No congressional committee has demanded an accounting for the destruction of the United States Agency for International Development, which is leading to needless misery and death in other countries.  Nor has Congress fought back against the shrinking of other federal agencies that it created and that the Trump White House unilaterally defunded.  No committee has investigated the Trump family’s enrichment and self-dealing, though it is vastly worse than Hunter Biden’s schemes of familial exploitation, which Republicans rightly denounced.

A determined Congress could have tried to prevent the two presidential decisions most responsible for the inflation that has imperiled Republican political prospects:  Starting a war against Iran and imposing tariffs on global imports.

Republican leaders didn’t even try.  A handful of Republican legislators joined Democrats in passing resolutions against the war, but party leaders opposed the efforts and made sure they remained toothless.

The Republican majorities in the House and Senate do not even seem to care when Trump casts aside laws that they passed themselves.  In September, Congress passed a bill enabling tighter sanctions on Russia’s energy exports, and the president signed it.  When he later changed his position and said he would not enforce the sanctions, only a small number of Republicans objected, none of them in leadership.

The current Congress is the second least productive on record, passing fewer bills than any other save its immediate predecessor, the 118th Congress, in 2023 and 2024, when Republicans also controlled the House.

The most significant piece of legislation that the 119th Congress passed is the law that Trump insisted be called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.  In truth, it is mostly a handout to the wealthy, which worsens both the national debt and economic inequality.

The Republican congressional candidates on the ballot this year deserve to pay a price for both the damage their party has done and the damage it has failed to stop.  In the face of a power-grabbing president, they have mostly shown cowardice.  The Constitution envisions the legislative branch as the first among equals in the government’s power-sharing system; James Madison said that it “necessarily predominates.”

This Congress has enthusiastically ceded its power.  It is Congress that has the power of the purse, the power to declare war, the power to determine who enters the country, the power to levy duties and tariffs.  Its current leaders have instead become bystanders to Trump’s assertions of executive supremacy. Having signed on to Trump’s cult of personality, a vast majority of congressional Republicans are now loath to break with it, fearing the president will destroy their political careers and subject them to harassment, as he has done to others in the party.

Only voters can provide a counterweight. They have a chance to demonstrate next Tuesday that dereliction of constitutional duty can likewise end a politician’s career.

If any Republican officials on your ballot have consistently stood up to Mr. Trump on these matters, you should consider rewarding their political courage. In most state and local races, though, constraining his overreach will require voting Democratic. There are now 23 states where Republicans control both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s seat; several of those “trifectas” are at risk, including those in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and New Hampshire.

When a democracy begins to slide toward autocracy, legislative elections offer the most significant potential turning point.  If voters endorse the new regime — or the party in power manages to subvert the popular will — the slide can accelerate.  If voters successfully reject the regime, democracy can begin to recover.  The United States will be stronger if the 2026 midterms are such a turning point.

Trump has dominated American politics for more than a decade, and the Republican Party has been his eager accomplice in degrading the nation’s ideals.  The American people have a chance over the next week to speak in a clear voice.

If they do, they can allow the nation to glimpse the end of the Trump era and the start of something brighter.

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 person who likes words, it is surprising to me how often quality journalists make mistakes in word usage.

No doubt I make mistakes, too.

One reason is that I don’t have an editor to review and approve what I write.  I just write and sometimes fall victim to writing too fast.  Or, I am just not smart enough to avoid mistakes.

Still, I find myself drawn to write about words, so I open the Department of Words Matter, one of five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:  “Two Palestinian gunmen were slain in the attack, days before Israeli elections that have centered around the prime minister’s handling of security issues.”

It is not possible for something to be “centered around” something else.  The phrase should be this:  Centered on.

IN GENERAL:  Incorrect word usage in major newspapers usually stems from homophone confusion, malapropisms, or the high-speed pressure of a modern newsroom.  Over time, major publications like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian have issued high-profile corrections for printing completely wrong words that subtly — or hilariously — changed the meaning of their reporting.

HERE ARE A FEW NOTABLE REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES:

1. Anecdote vs. Antidote

• The Publication: The Los Angeles Times
• The Error:  A reporter mistakenly wrote that a medical patient was given an “anecdote” to counteract a poison.
• The Correction:  The paper had to issue a clarification noting that the patient was actually given an antidote (a remedy to counteract poison), rather than an anecdote (a short, amusing story).

2. Throws vs. Throes

• The Publication:  Multiple major media outlets
• The Error:  Publications frequently print that a country, political party, or economy is in the “throws of a crisis.”
• The Correction:  “Throw” is a verb meaning to propel something through the air.  The correct term is throes, a noun referring to intense struggles, pain, or spasms (e.g., “in the throes of a crisis”).

3. Plumbers vs. Janitors

• The Publication: The New York Times
• The Error:  In a pop-culture reference regarding the iconic video game characters Mario and Luigi, a writer referred to them as “janitors.”
• The Correction:  The Times issued a humorous formal correction pointing out that the brothers are, of course, plumbers.

4. Ruckus vs. Raucous

• The Publication:  Common in various regional and national news publications.
• The Error:  Using “ruckus” as a descriptive modifier for loud behavior (e.g., “a ruckus crowd”).
• The Correction:  Editors frequently catch reporters confusing these two noisy words.  A ruckus is a noun meaning a disturbance or uproar.  The word to describe a loud, rowdy crowd is the adjective raucous.

Beyond these citations, another common mistake irritates me:  It is when nouns don’t agree with verbs, as in:

• Singular subject with a plural verb:
  • Incorrect: The dog bark at the mailman.
  • Correct: The dog barks at the mailman.
  • Incorrect: She eat breakfast every day.
  • Correct: She eats breakfast every day.
• Plural subject with a singular verb:
  • Incorrect: The dogs barks at the mailman.
  • Correct: The dogs bark at the mailman.
  • Incorrect: Cats is very cute.
  • Correct: Cats are very cute.
• Confusing the true subject:
  • Incorrect: A combination of these factors… have focused attention. (The verb incorrectly matches “factors” instead of the singular head noun “combination”.)
  • Correct: A combination of these factors… has focused attention.
• Compound subjects with “or”/”nor” mismatching:
  • Incorrect: The boy or his friends runs every day. (The verb should match the closer subject “friends”.)
  • Correct: The boy or his friends run every day.

In my time as a lobbyist, I often saw my associates write such a sentence such as this:  The legislative committee said it was time to conclude their work. 

Of course, it should be its work.

The modifier should agree with the noun, as in “The Committee did it’s work.”

In conclusion, I choose to cite a sentence written by none other than NY Times columnist Frank Bruni who often cites cases when wrong words are used – and he usually uses words deftly.

This is a sentence he wrote:  “A series of developments have put the 11th Congressional District — in a largely rural patch of western North Carolina — into play.”

Note the word “have” italics.  It should have been “has,” thus modifying the early words in the sentence, “A series.”  Don’t tell Bruni that I cite his mistake.

Now, two final points:  First, I attribute some of what I have written to my friend, Mr. Google; and, second, aren’t you glad you know all this?

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 have been familiar with discussions of miracles from my youth when I grew up in a Christian family, which honored such miracles as Jesus rising from the dead after a dreadful death.

His resurrection was truly a miracle.  And other miracles are described in the 66 books of today’s Bible.

But, in many places today, the subject of miracles ends up being controversial.  The question:  What is difference between a supposed miracle and a coincidence?

To those who believe in miracles – including me – the question boils down to a simple, yet profound, word:  Choice.  I choose to believe.  Some choose not to believe?

In this context, I was interested in what I have heard about action the Vatican takes to define miracles for the Catholic Church.  Google provides good information on the subject, as follows:

The Vatican uses a multi-tiered, rigorous scientific and theological investigation primarily overseen by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to certify miracles, which are most commonly sudden medical healings.

1. Local Investigation

• Initial Report:  The process begins at the local diocese level, where a bishop collects testimonies, medical records, and physical evidence from witnesses.
• Intercession Requirement:  Investigators must confirm that the person who experienced the healing prayed solely for the miracle.

2. The Medical Board

• Independent Review:  The case moves to the Vatican, where a panel of roughly 100 medical experts and physicians (some of whom are not Catholic) review the files.
• Strict Criteria:  To pass this stage, the healing must be:
  • Instantaneous or sudden
  • Complete and permanent, not a temporary remission
  • Organic and scientifically unexplainable given current medical knowledge
• Two-Thirds Majority:  Under reforms introduced by Pope Francis, at least two-thirds of the medical board must vote to affirm that the cure has no natural medical explanation.

3. Theological and Commission Review

• Theological Evaluation:  If the doctors rule out natural causes, a commission of theologians evaluates the event to ensure it represents a true sign of divine intervention rather than a coincidence.
• The “Devil’s Advocate” Role:  A designated official actively searches for alternative explanations, natural causes, or flaws in the testimony to test the claim’s integrity.

4. Papal Approval

• Final Sign-off:  The findings are sent to the Cardinals and officials of the Dicastery, and ultimately presented to the Pope, who makes the final decision to officially declare the event a miracle.
• Sainthood Milestones:  Generally, one verified miracle is required for beatification (making a person “Blessed”), and a second verified miracle is required for canonization (making a person a “saint”), though exceptions can be made by the Pope.

All this said, my view, again, is this:  I choose to accept the fact that God has the power to engage in miracles .  The most significant one was when Jesus rose from the dead.

Plus, even though I am not a Catholic,I applaud the Vatican for the rigor of its process.

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 phrase “man’s inhumanity to man” crossed my mind the other day, but I don’t know why, at least not for sure.

Perhaps it was because I thought about Donald Trump and how he handles life or death situations and appears not to care about life.

• Such as going to war in Iran without a rationale for doing so.

• Such as targeting and deporting immigrants and their families out of some kind of “white national” perspective.

• Such as considering live streaming a military execution [Though, in the face of huge opposition on all sides, Trump finally demurred.]

Go ahead, add to the list.

Yet, in the history of mankind, inhumanity has been around for many years.  Here are citations from Goggle, which is important to attribute as the cite as I repeat part of what it says:

Antiquity and the Middle Ages

• The Roman Destruction of Carthage (146 BCE):  Following the Third Punic War, Rome razed the city and systematically killed or enslaved its population.
• Turco-Mongol Conquests (13th–14th Centuries):  The campaigns of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane resulted in the destruction of entire cities, mass executions, and massive depopulation across Eurasia.

Early Modern and Imperial Eras

• The Transatlantic Slave Trade (16th–19th Centuries):  Millions of African men, women, and children were forcefully captured, shipped across the Atlantic in brutal conditions, and subjected to chattel slavery in the Americas.
• Colonial Exterminations:  European colonization in the Americas, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific led to the collapse of indigenous populations through warfare, forced displacement, and disease.

20th-Century World Wars and Totalitarianism

• The Armenian Genocide (1915–1917):  The Ottoman Empire systematically murdered an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.
• The Holocaust (1941–1945):  Nazi Germany engineered the systematic, industrial-scale murder of 6 million European Jews, alongside millions of Roma, Soviet prisoners, people with disabilities, and political dissidents.
• The Nanjing Massacre (1937–1938):  Imperial Japanese forces murdered at least 200,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants following the capture of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Post-WWII and Late 20th-Century Atrocities

• The Cambodian Genocide (1975–1979):  The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, forced mass evacuations of cities and executed an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people through labor, torture, and starvation.
• The Rwandan Genocide (1994):  In roughly 100 days, extremist Hutu militias systematically slaughtered an estimated 500,000 to more than 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
• The Srebrenica Massacre (1995):  Bosnian Serb forces executed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys during the Bosnian War, recognized as an act of genocide.

So, how does Trump fit into all this?

Well, it is clear to me – his approach and style fits. 

Look at Trump’s policies – if it could be contended that he has policies or just acts on the spur of the moment when whatever crosses his brain emerges out of his mouth.

Here are examples, again aided by Google:

• Family Separation Policy:  The 2018 “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy, which systematically separated thousands of migrant children from their parents at the southern border without formal tracking systems for reunification.
• Mass Deportation Agenda:  Civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union argue that his administration’s aggressive use of the military and federal law enforcement for mass immigration arrests and the revocation of legal status.
• Asylum and Refugee Rollbacks:  Human rights advocates point to the effective termination of asylum protections and drastic cuts to refugee admissions as a deliberate rejection of humanitarian obligations.

And this new report from today’s Washington Post: Trump administration has deported nearly one million through July. Yes, nearly one million!

For my part, I cannot countenance Trump’s degrading performance when it comes to human beings.  To himself, he is always the greatest person in the world and he hates immigrants and others who don’t look him or fawn over him. 

And, remember he, too, is the son of immigrants.

I also came across this verse from Collosians chapter 3 this morning and found myself wishing for it to be true of all, not just Christians.

“Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Too much to hope for?  Perhaps.  But I persist.

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 am taking the action in this blog headline in order to include three items.

The first two could be included in the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, one of five departments I manage with a free hand to act as I feel compelled to act.  For the third, the other department is the Department of Bits and Pieces

See, all this shows my incredible diversity.  Just don’t tell Donald Trump.

FROM COLUMNIST FRANK BRUNI IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: 

“Kimberly Guilfoyle must be frenzied.  She was abruptly ousted from her role as the U.S. ambassador to Greece and needs to scram, but I doubt she’s capable of packing in a jiff.  She probably fills a half dozen steamer trunks with the wardrobe needed to maintain her busy social calendar.

“Guilfoyle must be panicked.  Normally, a disgraced or displaced Trump-administration showboat can hope for lucrative harbor at Fox News, but she already worked for the network years ago, and that arrangement also had a tawdry finale.

“But above all, Guilfoyle must be baffled.  What exactly did she do to warrant President Trump’s contempt?

“But with her fame-hungry dreams and money-ravenous schemes, she didn’t violate the Trump ethos.  She paid tribute to it.  She didn’t contradict the Trump brand. She was its gaudy, greedy hood ornament.”

Comment: Call it what it is – mimicking Trump, which, in his world, gets you fired.

FROM COLUMNIST MAUREEN DOWD IN THE WASHINGTON POST:

“Sometimes a candid photograph captures a moment in a presidency, and the essence of the officeholder, so tellingly that you get a penetrating portrait of an era.

“It happened when L.B.J. yanked up his beagle by the ears for photographers and demonstrated his domineering leadership style.

“It happened when a photographer captured W. being told, while reading to children in a Florida classroom, that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center.  His look of shock raised questions about whether, after his decades of winging it, a parlous rendezvous with destiny might be too much for him to handle.

“It happened when Obama was photographed bending over in the Oval to let a Black child touch his hair, to see if it was the same texture as his own, capturing the historic nature of his election.

“It happened again when Doug Mills, The Times’s dazzling White House photographer, took a picture on Tuesday of President Trump on Marine One with his blond aides/acolytes Katie Zacharia, his wobbly new press secretary, and Natalie Harp, his special assistant for floofing.

“The president is leaning in to talk to the two Ivanka knockoffs, who look like sorority-sister clones, four eyes glued on the man they adore, two fervent smiles glazed with pink lip gloss.

“It is a snapshot of Trump’s hunger for adulation that has dragged us to this fraught moment in America.

“He desperately craves being the center of attention, and seeing blind devotion mirrored back at him as that devotion wanes with an increasingly disgusted, exhausted public.”

Comment: In Trump world, he gets what he wants, which is adulation.  But his attempt to gain that every day is starting to fall flat.

A POSTCRIPT ON MY CHOICE TO BELIEVE THAT GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE: 

Upon reflection, I could have – or perhaps should have — placed this item first because of its prime importance.  At the same time, ending with it is okay, too.

In the Bible, Colossians 1:15-17 says this:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

“For in him all things were created:  Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Comment: Consider these words, which reflect my CHOICE to believe in God as creator, which I summarized in more detail in a previous blog.

Great words: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

As creator, that’s fine-tuning!

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.

“If there’s one truism in sports, it’s that records are made to be broken.  Golf is no exception.”

That was the lead in a story in my on-line golf magazine, Links, which prompted me to decide whether I agree or not.

A fun exercise for me because I love golf, which occupies a lot of my time in retirement.

One thing is clear:  The records below will not be touched by me because I am not a pro golfer, preferring to play what I label “recreational golf.”

At the same time, one of my friends, commenting on this issue said he found it hard to believe that various records would not be broken, thus echoing the first line in the Links article – “records are made to be broken.”

Here is the list in the Links story written by Joe Passov, who contends these records are untouchable:

10. Bobby Jones’s calendar-year Grand Slam

9. Jin Young Ko plays 114 consecutive bogey-free holes on the LPGA Tour

8. Tiger Woods’s 142 consecutive cuts made

7. Tiger Woods winning the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 shots

6. Kathy Whitworth’s 88 LPGA Tour victories

5. Tiger Woods’s 683 weeks ranked as World No. 1

4. Jack Nicklaus’s 18 major championships

3. Jack Nicklaus’s top-3 finishes in majors

2. Byron Nelson’s 18 PGA Tour victories in a single season

1. Byron Nelson’s 11 consecutive PGA Tour victories

Hard to disagree with Passov’s contentions, though I suspect someone, someplace, will shoot a 57…a record to be broken.

Who knows about others?

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.

We are witnessing first-hand what happens when school districts lose enrollment and have to consider closing schools.

Parents and others rise up to advocate for their schools before closure proposals become final.

Elected members of school boards face tough decisions – decisions that will leave almost no one content.

The two districts:

• Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest, where 13 schools have made the potential closure list.

• Salem-Keizer Schools, the state’s second largest, where six schools are on the chopping block.

None of this will be final until the two boards act in a few weeks.

To get a picture of this, let’s look at the case of Candalaria Grade School in South Salem, the school our two children attended several years ago.

If there were still in school now, we’d likely be among fighting against closure, given how much the school did for our children.  Driving by the school the other day, I saw groups standing outside preparing to oppose closure.  Then, I also say signs sprouting up around the neighborhood saying “save Candalaria.”  Something like a political campaign, which, in a way, it is.

Here is how Salem Reporter characterized the rational for Candalaria being on the list.

“Of Salem-Keizer’s 42 elementary schools, Candalaria is the only building in which district officials identified major concerns in all seven categories of the Site Viability Analysis, which helped officials narrow down which schools to consider for closure.

“The seven categories examined were capital investment needs, site limitations, enrollment patterns, facility conditions that prevent equitable use, transportation, operating costs, and educational adequacy — if the building impedes teaching conditions.

“The inaccessibility of Candalaria was a major red flag for the district, with the technical guide categorizing it as ‘one of the district’s more challenging school sites.’  Candalaria is on a hill with a steep walkway leading to the outdoor play areas, and the multi-floor building lacks elevators.

“The accessibility for students with disabilities, anyone with disabilities, is very, very limited outside and inside the building.

“The school also lacks a cooling system and has had problems with radon, a gas that can cause lung cancer

“The district’s technical guide to Candalaria notes that the school’s close proximity to other buildings with space for additional students was another reason the school was selected.  Candalaria is at 57 per cent enrollment this year.

“The district estimates that the cost of deferred maintenance is $3.7 million, including a need to replace the fire alarms, much of the HVAC system and the water heaters.”

On this basis, there appears to be enough information to support closure.

But what will happen is a collision between facts and figures on one hand and emotion on the other hand.

There is no way to tell which side will win.  School districts with declining enrollment believe they have no choice but to downsize.  Parents believe they no choice but to advocate for their kids.

In these political battles, it is clear no one will win outright.

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.

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This is the second blog in a series where I report what Google says about incredible statistics.  Can you believe what it says?  Who knows, but still incredible!

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The more I find out about the universe the more I CHOOSE to believe in God as creator.

What exists could not have just happened by chance.  There had to be an architect, God.

The issue of God and science arose recently in a Links Players Group Bible Study I attend at the golf course where I am a member in Salem, Oregon, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club.

The writer of the lesson asked the question about science and God and those of us around the table came down on the side of answering, “yes, God and science exist together.”

Buoyed by that discussion, I decided to do a little more research, if you can call consulting Google research.  In any event, that’s where I went to gain more information.

For instance, regarding the galaxy where we exist, the Milky Way.  It is huge, beyond human comprehension.

1. At the speed of light, which is about 186,000 miles per second, it would take 100,000 to 200,000 years to cross the Milky Way.

• At the speed of the fastest human-made spacecraft, NASA’s Voyager, it would take roughly 1.7 billion years to make the crossing.

• And, walking at a standard human pace of about 3 ½ miles per hour, it would take about 21 billion years to make the crossing.

As startling and compelling as these facts are more for me, recognize this:  These facts only apply to the Milky Way, not to other galaxies beyond our own, such as Andromeda.

Meanwhile, Google reports that arguments for the existence of God based on the universe are traditionally grouped into several major philosophical, scientific, and theological categories – these:

Category #1: Cosmological Factors (The Origin of the Universe)

• The Beginning of Time:  The prevailing scientific consensus is that the universe had a definitive beginning roughly 13.8 billion years ago (the Big Bang).  Philosophers argue that anything that begins to exist must have a cause, pointing to a creator outside of time and space.
• Contingency:  The universe does not have to exist; its existence is contingent on something else.  This points to the necessity of a non-contingent, self-sustaining “Being” that brought everything else into existence.

Category #2:  Teleological Factors (Fine-Tuning and Design)

• The Fine-Tuning of Physics:  The fundamental constants of nature — such as the strength of gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the mass of subatomic particles — are set to unimaginably precise values.  If any of these values were altered by even a hair’s breadth, matter could not form, stars could not exist, and life would be impossible.
• Cosmic Order:  The universe operates under uniform, predictable laws of physics rather than chaotic, random behavior.

Category #3:  Biological Factors (Complexity and Life)

• The Complexity of DNA:  DNA functions like a highly sophisticated digital code or software program, containing complex, specified information.  In human experience, information codes always originate from an intelligent mind.
• The Origin of Life:  The transition from non-living chemicals to a living, self-replicating cell involves a massive leap in complexity that science has yet to fully explain purely through materialistic processes.
• Irreducible Complexity:  Certain biological systems (like the bacterial flagellum or the blood-clotting cascade) require all their individual parts to function. They could not have evolved step-by-step because the intermediate stages would serve no survival purpose.

Category #4:  Experiential and Rational Factors

• Consciousness:  The existence of subjective experience, self-awareness, and a mind capable of abstract thought is difficult to explain purely through the collision of blind physical particles.
• Objective Morality:  The universal human recognition of objective right and wrong implies a standard or a lawgiver outside of human opinion.

Then, armed with the facts above, though I don’t fully grasp them, I was prompted to go on to examine what is meant by the term “fine tuning.”

Here is a summary of what I found:

Key Examples of Fine-Tuning

• The Strength of Gravity:  If gravity were different by even one part in 10⁶⁰, stars and galaxies could never have formed — either collapsing inward too fast or dispersing too quickly.
• The Cosmological Constant:  This drives the expansion rate of space.  A change of just a fraction in its value would have caused the universe to either collapse back on itself or fly apart too fast for matter to cluster.
• The Strong Nuclear Force:  If it were slightly weaker, atomic nuclei couldn’t bind together (preventing heavy elements).  If slightly stronger, all hydrogen would have converted immediately into helium.

Do I understand what I just wrote?  Well, at least not fully, if it at all.

So, persevered to find examples and of fine tuning, such as:

1.  The Aircraft Carrier Analogy

The Analogy:  Imagine comparing the mass density of the universe to a massive aircraft carrier (like the USS John C. Stennis, which is more than 1,000 feet long and weighs 100,000 tons).

The Lesson:  If you subtract just a billionth of a trillionth of the mass of a single electron from that entire ship, it would sink.  

•  The Bullseye Across the Universe

The Analogy:  The expansion rate of the Big Bang had to be calibrated to an accuracy of 1 part in \(10^{60}\).

The Lesson:  This level of precision has been compared to firing a single bullet from the edge of the observable universe (20 billion light-years away) and hitting a 1-inch target.  If it were off by a tiny fraction, the universe would have either collapsed back in on itself or expanded too fast for galaxies to form.

•  The North American Dimes Stack

The Analogy:  To visualize the 1 in \(10^{37}\) precision of the strong nuclear force, imagine stacking dimes across the entire North American continent, piling them all the way up to the moon, and then repeating that entire stack a billion times over.

The Lesson:  If you paint one single dime red and hide it in that unimaginable mountain of silver coins, the odds of blindly picking the red dime on your first try represent the fine-tuning of the strong nuclear force.  Change it by even a fraction, and atomic nuclei (and life) fall apart.

So, my finite mind glazes over as I review facts such as those above.

For me, the question of God and science boils down to a simple, yet profound, word:  Choice.

I choose to believe that God created the universe.  It did not happen just by chance.  A lot evidence supports my view, but in the end, again, it boils down to choice.

I choose to believe in God as creator.

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.

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Note:  This is the first of two blogs in which I share incredible statistics honed from Google, which is infused by AI.  True?  Who knows?  I hope so.

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A headline in the New York Times caught my attention and prompted me to try to understand what a “billion” really is.

The headline:  California May Tax Its Billionaires.  The Billionaires Are Fighting Back

In a random run-through of newspapers I read every morning, beyond this headline, I lost count of the number of times I read the word “billion.”  Let’s just say many.

We hear a lot these days about the rich folks who have several billion dollars in their bank accounts.  Phil Knight.  Elon Musk.  Others.

Can they afford higher taxes in California and elsewhere?  Of course, the answer is “yes.”  But, in California and elsewhere, they don’t want to pay more, so they fight or leave the state.

Regarding one name above – Phil Knight – credit should do where it deserves to go.  Which is to give Knight and his wife due credit for making huge multi-million-dollar donations to fund academic and athletic programs at their alma mater, the University of Oregon.

As for Musk, who knows what he does with his money.

Still, to find out more about what a “billion” means, I consulted Google, as I often do.  Here is a summary of some common real-world examples to visualize how big a billion is:

• Counting out loud:  If you count every single second without stopping, it takes about 31.7 years to reach 1 billion.  Incredible!

• A billion seconds:  1 billion seconds is equal to about 31.68 years (compared to 1 million seconds, which is only about 11.5 days).  Again, incredible!

• Human Population:  Countries such India and China each have more than 1.4 billion people; the total population of Africa is more than 1.2 billion.

• Insects on Earth:  There are estimated to be roughly 1 billion ants alive for every single human being on earth.  Who does this counting?

• Stars in a Galaxy:  The Milky Way galaxy contains roughly 100 billion to 400 billion stars.  Again, who does this counting?

• Internet & Apps:  Several major global platforms — such as WhatsApp, TikTok, and YouTube — have crossed 1 billion active users.

• Websites: There are more than 1 billion websites on the internet.

• Time comparison in currency:  $1 million in 1-dollar bills weighs about one ton; $1 billion in 1-dollar bills weighs about 1,000 tons and would require a massive storage space or heavy-duty trucks to haul.

Another question persists.  As noted above, who knows all this stuff on Google and how do they know what they know?  For example, how does someone know that there are one billion ants alive for every single human being on earth?  Who counts?  And how do they count?

Now, aren’t you glad you know all this?  Probably a billion times glad, right?