This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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 continue to be stunned by:

• The necessity for no less a seasoned commentator than New York Times Chief Editor Joseph Kahn to write this week that “democracy is under attack.”  It is unusual for the chief editor to make such a pronouncement.  He said he had ample reasons for doing so.

• The continuing duplicity of Donald Trump and his minions.  This week, Trump held a rally to court QAnon weirdos to his aide, another in a long time of disingenuous actions by a clown who wants to be president again.  And, his courtship occurred as he comes under increasing legal jeopardy for, among other things, inflating the value of his properties when it came time to get loans and deflating those same properties when it came time to pay taxes.

Kahn’s major column a couple days ago appeared under this headline: “Democracy challenged; Representative Government Faces Its Most Serious Threat in Decades.”

He wrote:

“This is an election unlike any we’ve experienced in recent decades.  Not only do candidates of both major parties in the United States have starkly different views on the pressing issues of the day, including climate change, war, taxes, abortion, education, gender and sexual identity, immigration, crime, and the role of government in American life.

“They also disagree on democracy itself, especially one of its central pillars – willingness to accept defeat at the polls.”

His reference was to recent comments by many Republicans who said they would not accept defeat at the polls.  So, I ask them, why conduct an election in the first place; why not coronate them and move on?

Meanwhile, at the Trump rally in Ohio, the former president closed his speech to the strains of a melody widely associated with the QAnon conspiracy movement, which holds that the government is run by a secret cabal of satanic pedophiles.

As reported by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank:

“En masse, audience fully extended their right arms and pointed their index fingers as Trump proclaimed them to be ‘one movement,” apparently echoing the name of the QAnon song they were hearing, with the theme – ‘where we one, we go all.’”

The one-arm salutes reminded some of the “Heil Hitler” salutes of the Nazi era in Germany.

So, Trump is courting QAnon, “despite clear evidence that the paranoid madness (the QAnon fantasy ends in Trump’s opponents being executed) inspires violence.”

Well, at first blush, my notion is this:  QAnon weirdos and Trump deserve each other.  They have nowhere else to turn but to blame someone for something as they seek to aggrandize themselves.  It’s what narcissists do. 

But, a second notion arrives.  What Trump is doing is very dangerous territory, bordering on sedition, if not already there.  No doubt, that won’t bother him. 

It bothers me.

And, as Kahn writes, American democracy is, in fact, under attack.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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 headline on this blog appeared on a column by Jennifer Rubin that appeared this morning in the Washington Post.

Because I agree wholeheartedly with Rubin’s point – genuine Christians should never tolerate actions by two governors (Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida) to send migrants to Washington, D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard, respectively, to score political points.

Abbott and DeSantis deserve ridicule for their nefarious actions.  And the migrants involved deserve our genuine sympathy, plus our resolve to help the less fortunate, a key tenet of Christianity.

Here is Rubin’s column:

**********

You don’t need to be an expert in theology to know that a central tenet of the world’s major religions is to care for the sick, the weak and the vulnerable.

Jews, who have been perpetual immigrants, hold dear to the Torah’s invocation: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19:33-34).

So too for Christians. When it came to the treatment of the stranger and other vulnerable people, Jesus told his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt. 25:40).

How did we get from there to a movement — dominated by people who declare the United States to be a Christian nation — that celebrates reports of government officials tricking immigrants into getting onto a plane and sending them hundreds of miles away as part of a partisan campaign of fear, demagoguery, and xenophobia?

One could simply write off these Republicans and their leaders, such as Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, as hypocrites.  But that does not quite get to the heart of the matter.

This insidious phenomenon is the result of white supremacy burrowing its way into Christian churches and political movements. Robert P. Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute, explained in a recent speech the fundamental flaw of this ideology:  “That America was divinely ordained to be a Promised Land for European Christians, a kind of new Zion. A model for the rest of the world.  And underneath that vision, its implied presupposition was that White people were superior to all other races because they were the bearers of ‘civilization’ and Christianity.  This is the logic of white supremacy and domination.”

If one believes that construct, then the White southerners are perpetual victims, forced to endure the presence of Black and Brown people and subjected to indignity by secular elites.  Sending invaders (read: non-White people) North, in their eyes, is simply score-settling.

Now, not all Christians or Americans of faith buy into this claptrap. The Church World Service, a group devoted to providing refugee services with representatives from 17 Christian denominations, put out a scathing statement after DeSantis sent 50 immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. It denounced the “divisive and harmful actions” of moving migrants across the country without notice to local communities to allow them to prepare for the arrivals.

The statement went on to condemn “inflicting cruelty and harm on vulnerable people who are seeking safety by using them as political pawns.” It continued:

As a faith-based organization, we believe that all of humankind is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and all people should be treated with compassion as they seek protection. The history of anti-refugee, anti-family, anti-immigrant, anti-children actions and rhetoric by Governors Abbott and DeSantis have inflicted pain on the vulnerable, the least of these.

Instead of playing into their unjust and unethical actions that do not represent our nation’s values, our national, state, and local leaders should equip our communities with the resources they need to ensure new arrivals have access to food, clothing, shelter, legal orientation, medical care, dignified transportation, and other case management services.” . . .

“The acts of Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis in this case are morally atrocious, especially in light of our sacred scriptures in Matthew 25 that call on us to see the face of Christ in the migrant and all those fleeing persecution,” added Rev. Noel Andersen, director for Grassroots Organizing at CWS.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society has also denounced “the choice to treat people like packages.”  A HIAS official pointed out, “The U.S. government has granted permission to every single person on these buses and planes to be in the United States and to seek asylum.  After getting off the bus, many have no idea where they are.  They have immediate emergency housing, health, and legal needs.”

The mainstream media have put a greater focus on whether laws might have been broken and what legal recourse these migrants might have. CNN reports “the migrants’ attorneys said that brochures given to their clients were ‘highly misleading’ and ‘used to entice (their) clients to travel under the guise that (resettlement) support was available to them. The brochure lists refugee services, including cash and housing assistance, clothing, transportation to job interviews, job training and assistance registering children for school, among other resources.”

But whether state or federal laws were broken or taxpayer money misused, these political stunts will be as much a stain on our nation as the previous administration’s child separation policy. If this were a foreign country, the media might treat this as a human rights violation, a repudiation of the obligation to attend to the needs of asylum seekers and an injury to the nation’s standing around the world. That might be a good place to start examining how self-described Christians rationalize the abuse of human beings.

**********

There, the full column.  Good words.  Good analysis.  Good summary of  real Christian values.

DID THE WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE SHOW US THE FACE OF GOD?

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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.

An editorial writer for the Arizona Republica wrote a thought-provoking piece the other day that made this statement:

“Peering into deep outer space, images from some 13 billion years ago, stirs not only our wonderment, but also takes us on a journey of spirituality.”

The writer, Phil Boas, was talking about the Webb Telescope, which has transmitted incredible images back to earth from far farther than the Hubble Telescope before it.

Boas asked this probing question in the headline – “Did the Webb Telescope show us the face of God?”

He went on:

“How infinitesimally small are we? 

“We are so small our brains lack the processing power to answer the question.

“So small that on Monday morning we attended to the mundane, the things our primitive minds could manage:  Eggs for breakfast, food and water for the dog and then, at the very outer edges of our comprehension, $5.50 for a gallon of gas.

“Then came news of something we can never fully comprehend, an image so astonishing it provokes the biggest questions:

“Who are we?”

“Where are we?”

“Are we alone?”

“Is there a God?”

Beyond those questions, here are just a few of the incredible facts Boas included in his column:

• “…what a patch of sky!  It includes a massive cluster of galaxies about four billion light-years away that astronomers use as a kind of cosmic telescope.  The cluster’s enormous gravitation field acts as a lens, warping and magnifying the light from galaxies behind it that would otherwise be too faint and faraway to see.”
• Through the Webb Telescope, mankind is seeing extremely distant galaxies “that stretch back to the beginning of time.  It’s a galaxy-finding machine.”
• A lonely speck in the cosmic dark:  This is the oldest documented light in the history of the universe from 13 billion years — let me say that again — 13 billion years ago.
• A billion is a number so large it is essentially an abstraction to the human mind.  Light that has traveled 13 billion light-years requires context so we can begin to understand it – see the next bullet.  
• Light moves at a speed of 670.6 million miles per hour.  A beam of light can travel approximately 6 trillion miles in a single earth year, according to Space.com.  At that speed, you could travel around the Earth 7.5 times in a single second.
• The numbers are staggering.  Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 100,000 light-years across and contains some 100-400 billion stars, according to NASA.  Its size is too big to comprehend, but, within the context of the larger universe, it is smaller than a grain of sand.
• One of our neighboring galaxies is Andromeda. It is 220,000 light-years wide.  More than twice the size of our own.
• How many galaxies do you think there are?  NASA estimates 2 trillion. And if you can wrap your brain around that, ask yourself this question:  How many planets are there in all those galaxies?
• Too many planets to comprehend:  Roughly 700 quintillion — that’s 7 followed by 20 zeroes — 700,000,000,000,000,000,000.

My mind is boggled by these statistics, not to mention the photos produced by the telescope.  In the face of these numbers and photos, my eyes glaze over, not just my mind.

Then, to regain my composure, I return to my basic premise, a choice I presume to make:   It is that God created all of what we see and cannot see –-  and I admire his handiwork, at least what I can understand of it.

And, more good news:  We can have a personal relationship with this very big God.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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.

When talking about Donald Trump and those who copy his stupidity, it is tough to do what this blog headline does, which is limit the number to two.

But, in this case, two is the right number.

It refers to two stupid governors – Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida – who thought they had a great idea:  Pay government money to transport immigrants from their states elsewhere to put those “elsewheres” under pressure.

The Washington Post put it this way in relation to the destination DeSantis chose, Martha’s Vineyard:

“It was a political stunt meant to embarrass a vacation enclave known for attracting liberal, A-list celebrities.

“With reportedly no warning to local officials, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis surprised the island of Martha’s Vineyard by sending two planes filled with about 50 migrants, many of them from Venezuela.  The migrants said they were promised jobs, housing and education in an undisclosed location.  Unable to read or speak English, most didn’t even know where they were when they landed.

“It’s all part of an ongoing shift-and-dump campaign from Southern Republican governors who are using desperate people as political pawns to protest the Biden Administration’s immigration policies.  It happened again when Texas Governor Greg Abbott claimed credit for sending two surprise buses full of migrants to D.C., where they were dropped off near the residence of Vice President Kalama Harris, carrying all they had in clear plastic trash bags.”

Atlantic Magazine characterized De Santis’ action as “cartoonish,” apparently rising from his misguided belief that liberal Bay Staters are just as racist as the Republican MAGA-base voters he’s trying to woo, and that they would prove it by reacting with outrage when a bunch of Latin Americans showed up on their doorstep.

Instead of producing pressure, DeSantis and Abbott wound up highlighting an outpouring of humanity.

Michelle Norris wrote this in the Washington Post:

“When people speak of Martha’s Vineyard, they usually refer to sprawling beaches, spectacular homes and marquee names such as the Obamas, the Clintons, Seth Meyers or Spike Lee.  The island is known for its wealth, and, to be sure, there is a lot of that.  But there is another Martha’s Vineyard that people don’t know much about, and it was on full display this week.

“Yes, there are Land Rovers and yachts here, but the Vineyard is primarily an island of farms and fishermen, a year-round population that lives close to the land and in many cases works hard to make ends meet.

“It’s an island that seesaws between overwork and underemployment. It’s a place where everything — gas, food, housing, toothpaste, you name it — costs more than it does on the mainland.  It’s a place where 1 in 6 year-round residents is a registered user of the Island Food Pantry and one-third of school-children receive free or reduced-price lunch.

“It’s a place where organized groups go “gleaning” each week, picking produce left behind by farming machines so it can be used in the food pantry.

“It’s a place where a free supper is held almost every night in one of the island churches during the winter months when seasonal work related to tourism has dried up, so no one has to go hungry.”

It’s also a place, Norris added, that has, over many decades, opened its arms to various waves of immigrants, and it did so again even when it had no warning of the coming influx.

An emergency shelter was opened within hours — finding food, clothing, inflatable beds, children’s toys, feminine hygiene products, linens and volunteer interpreters who speak Spanish.

In other words, Martha’s Vineyard residents did what rational citizens would do, which is to help those in need.  Folks in Washington, D.C. also responded well in response to Abbott’s action.

Actions by Abbott and DeSantis are bizarre.  They illustrate that they cannot help but take stupid political actions they believe will energize their bases – not actions to deal with the reality that immigrants want a better life in America.

And, those bases? 

They are the so-called “MAGA Republicans,” a group of Americans who support Trump, reject the outcome of the 2020 election, and are open to political violence as a tactic to achieve their desired ends.

By the way, what do the initials stand for?  Well, “Make America Great Again,” a favorite phrase of Trump, which achieves exactly the opposite.

Nowhere was this stupidity more evident than when Trump and his minions – or, if you prefer, acolytes and sycophants – did what still today stands as a horrible, tragic act:  Separating children from their parents at the southern border and jailing or otherwise sequestering those parents from their children.  Many of the families still have not been reunited.

So, upon reflection, the headline in this blog uses wrong words:  “Two Clowns.”

DeSantis and Abbot aren’t clowns.  Their actions don’t prompt laughter.  From me, they prompt derision – and that should stand for all of us.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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 best answer to the question is the headline is…“perhaps.”

Conventional wisdom – and, remember, convention it’s not always wrong – is that voters begin paying attention after Labor Day.

Well, it’s after Labor Day.

Not sure everyone is paying attention yet, but, if they were, they would know that, (a) there are three candidates bidding to take over from the current governor, Kate Brown, who is term limited, (b) it is not clear yet who would be favored to win come November, and (b) a third-party candidate has a genuine chance to win this time around.

The candidates are:

• Christine Drazan, the Republican
• Tina Kotek, the Democrat
• Betsy Johnson, the Independent

All are veterans of state government in one way or the other.  Drazan was most recently Republican Leader in the Oregon House; Kotek was the long-standing Speaker of the Oregon House; and Johnson was a long-serving Democrat in the Oregon Senate.  All resigned from those jobs to run for governor.

The Salem Statesman-Journal carried an interesting article yesterday asking each candidate what the biggest problem is in state government and what they would do first to fix it, if they got elected.  Here are excerpts of their answers:

Tina Kotek:  “We need to hold all levels of government accountable for delivering on the promises they make.  That will require breaking down silos and increasing communication among federal, state, and local leaders so we can actually work together to tackle our biggest challenges.

“The biggest problem in state government right now is that agencies can’t get grant money out the door fast enough to the organizations who want to help people, specifically Measure 110 resources to help people suffering from addiction.  I will fix this by installing new leadership, streamlining contracting practices, and keeping a close eye on outcomes.”

Christine Drazan:  “I find it ironic that my two opponents are suddenly extraordinarily critical of our state government.  They have been in positions of extreme power for the past decade.  If they felt like things were broken, why didn’t they do something about it?

“We need to rebuild our state agencies from the ground up.  I will fire Kate Brown’s agency heads and appoint leadership that shares my commitment to customer service, transparency, and accountability to the people of

Betsy Johnson:  “The two parties, dominated by their ideological extremes, would rather fight than find common ground.  I will take the best ideas and best people from both parties to move us forward.  I will demand bi-partisan support for legislation, budgets, and appointments.  No longer will one party run roughshod over the other.  Diverse voices will be included — no matter your politics or zip code.”

I’ll let you be the judge of these answers.  But I do hope – and, for my part, intend – to keep my eyes and ears open as the campaigns take more shape.

Well, there is at least one group that is paying attention to the race.  The Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) dropped another $1 million into Drazan’s campaign a day or so ago, thus bringing the total up to $2.6 million.  In other words, the RGA believes Drazan has a chance to win and, if she does, she would be first Republican governor since Vic Atiyeh more than 35 years ago.

Meanwhile, the Kotek and Johnson campaigns continue to raise campaign cash, including a large campaign from Nike’s Phil Knight to Johnson. Kotek’s go-to source is Oregon’s public employee unions.

I also wish there would soon be an independent poll conducted by a reputable pollster that would give us a handle on the race – at least for a horserace perspective.  So far, all we have are polls conducted by one side, or the other, or the other.  Nothing on which to rely.

But, then, of course, the most reliable course for all of us is to focus on how to vote and then vote that way, no matter what advance polls say.  The best poll is the one taken at the election.

And this footnote:  The intention, announced above by one candidate, to fire state agency heads may sound good and it is may actually be smart politically in some quarters.  But, the fact is that agency heads and their key deputies serve “at the pleasure” of any governor, so their resignation letters, figurately at least, are in the governor’s desk drawer at all times.

At one point, with my resignation “in his desk,” a new governor fired me when I was deputy director of the Oregon Economic Development many years ago.  I moved on.

I do wish that, in a new gubernatorial administration, existing agency heads would be exposed to tough questions by a new governor and her top staff, and then, (a) if they passed, (b) if their previous service records were generally acceptable, and (c) if they indicated they would be pleased to work in the new administration, they then would have a chance to keep their jobs.  Quality experience matters.

So, start watching as the Oregon gubernatorial sweepstakes continues.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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.

A version of this headline appeared on a story in the Wall Street Journal.

Yes, it was about “gavel bashing.”

What’s that?

Well, as the article put it:  “Vexed city, county and school board officials resort to bashing (their wooden gavels) to restore order in unruly times.”

The Journal writer, Jacob Gershman, wrote this:

“There is no Guinness World Record for the most banging of a gavel by a local government official.  But a Hinds County Board of Supervisors meeting last year in Mississippi was surely one for the history books.

“The gathering began civilly enough with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then, in protest of an agenda item, County Supervisor David Archie raised a makeshift gavel he bought at Home Depot and proceeded to pound it hundreds of times.  A local newspaper called it a ‘gavel-pounding rampage.’”

As someone who has used a gavel to chair meetings, I would add that banging it is rarely a solid way to maintain order.  Using a gavel is usually a perfunctory way to start meetings or change agenda items in mid-stream.  It should be combined with reasonable attempts, in words, to encourage committee or commission members to retain order.

Easier said than done in these days of yelling and screaming by some who want to get their way, especially in government circles.  No doubt they have learned from one Donald Trump who has made yelling and screaming a fine art.

The Wall Street Journal story went on:

“The wooden gavel may be best known as a symbol of the legal profession and a prop for reality show judges.  But in these unruly times, the gavel has become an emblem of civic disorder.  Footage from local government meetings shows vexed city, county and school board officials bashing their gavels, sometimes so hard they splinter, to enforce silence, parliamentary procedure, and civil debate.

“Officials wielding the gavel call it a primitive but useful tool to gain control of the room when Robert’s Rules fly out the window.  Those on the receiving end bristle at all the banging.

“’In a well-functioning polity, the gavel is a symbol of a community that allows debate and respects difference,’ said Stephen David Reicher, a professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. ‘The gavel is saying, let’s listen to each other,’ he said.  ‘The contesting of the gavel is precisely about the splintering of that sense of community.’”

So, for me, no gavel bashing.

And, I say that as the current of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission where, yes, I have a gavel, but use it sparingly.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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 cannot.

Believe it, that is.

I remember exactly where I was when word came across the television that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center towers.  No one new whether it was a plane that had good off-line or something intentional.  Of course, turned out to be the latter. 

Remembering 9/11 is like when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated or when Americans first walked on the moon.  I remember exactly where I was.

For 9/11, I was with a lobbyist friend over in Central Oregon for a political fundraising golf tournament.  Before we were scheduled to tee off, we went into the pro shop and couldn’t believe what we were seeing on the TV.

A better word — stunned, even though, as I said above, we didn’t have much good information at the moment.  But what we saw created an indelible image, one that lives to this very day.

Think of the good word “indelible.”  Here’s what it means:

“That that cannot be removed, washed away, or erased.”

Exactly.

My friend and I immediately called our wives back home in Salem, Oregon who also had seen the TV coverage and were just trying to adjust to it.  My friend’s wife was a grade school principal in Salem, so, to support her as she dealt with young kids in class, she asked him to come home.

Without question, he did.  And we did.

Of course, 21 years later, we know much more than we did at the time.

In the Washington Post, columnist David Van Drehle wrote under this headline:

21 YEARS AFTER 9/11, THE WAR HAS NOT ENDED FOR ANYONE

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“Twenty-one years after the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan, one can ask whether the United States has yet learned the principal lesson of that shocking, savage day.  It is a lesson well-known to military planners, yet hard for a nation with allies on its borders and oceans at its sides to believe bone-deep.

“In the starting and ending of wars, the letting of blood and the waging of battle, the enemy has a vote.  The day that has come to be known as 9/11 began a war only for us; for the enemy, the war had been raging for years. The little army of Osama bin Laden had hit American embassies in Africa, bombed a U.S. naval ship atAden Harbor in Yemen, even signaled its intentions to destroy the twin towers by planting a truck bomb in a World Trade Center garage in 1993.

“The audacity of 9/11 — using 19 al-Qaeda fighters,civilian lives and lakes of jet fuel to carry out a massively destructive attack — finally convinced Americans that we were at war.  And for the next 20 years, we fought until we tired of the idea.”

Every president going back to George W. Bush wanted to end the awful business.  Barack Obama promised to wrap things up.  Donald Trump also promised to wrap things up and negotiated the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.  President Biden completed the withdrawal in ugly fashion just in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

But, Von Drehle adds, “we no more control the ending of the war than we controlled the beginning.  With the drone-strike killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in July, the known enemy commanders of 9/11 are all captured or dead.  Yet, the enemy has morphed and migrated.  The war has not ended for the Islamic State or for other violent jihadist groups around the world. It hasn’t ended for the governments offering them support and encouragement.”

Therefore, the war has not ended for us.

And, it’s impossible, Von Drehle writes, when the “War on Terror,” as it was named by President Bush, will end.  Mostly, that war goes on behind-the-scenes and often at night as America’s highly-skilled commandos and special operation forces work to end terror.

This kind of war takes a physical, mental and emotion toll for those who fight it and it is important for all of us to recognize the work they do on our behalf, even, if, as was the case with 9/11, we don’t see it every day.

As another 9/11 anniversary comes and goes, we owe allegiance to those who died on that terrible – at the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, or the field in Pennsylvania – as well as to those who protect us day and night at their own risk.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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.

When I write “The Queen,” everyone will know who I mean – Queen Elizabeth who died at the age of 96 a couple days.

She will be remembered fondly for her reign of about 70 years.

When my wife, Nancy, and I discussed “The Queen’s” passing, she  said that, when she was a girl of about age 3, she remembered “The Queen’s” investiture at the top of the English Monarchy.

When I was 3, I don’t remember much, if anything.

As for “The Queen’s” passing, President Joe Biden put it very well when he said:

“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch.  She defined an era.  In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her.”

Biden also credited her for being a British monarch to whom people “could feel a personal and immediate connection” and praised her for “an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example.”

During her tenure, she met with 14 U.S. presidents – yes 14!

Frankly, I don’t know much in detail about the Monarchy, except that it has stood the test of time, not to mention various conflicts.  By her own steadfast presence, Queen Elizabeth formed a bond with citizens in the United Kingdom and did so with grace and dignity.

Perhaps one of the reasons was her love for Corgis.  She had more than 30 during her long tenure and those dogs gave her a real-world presence as they had the run of all the palaces and greeted all visitors.  Those Corgis that remain reportedly will go to The Queen’s children.

Various political figures, overseas and here, could learn a few lessons from “The Queens” conduct over the years, come hell or high water.

Remember, “God Save the Queen?”  Now, it will be “God Save the King!”

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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.

Why…..

• Does Donald Trump get away with lying at every turn?

• Do Trump sycophants get away with the same?

• How do Trump and his minions sleep at night as they lead America into a more heightened case of civil war if they don’t get their way?

It used to be that lying would get you in trouble in politics.  No longer.

For many in politics, lying is a way of life.  No matter the situation, lying comes naturally.

Consider this abo ut Senator Ted Cruz as reported by Jamelle Bouie, opinion columnist for the New York Times:

“Critics of President Biden’s plan to relieve the debt of millions of Americans with federal student loans have made a considered choice to put their words in the mouths of an imagined group of working-class and blue-collar voters, angry and aggrieved at debt forgiveness for upper-income college graduates.

“For example, here’s Senator Ted Cruz of Texas:  ‘What President Biden has, in effect, decided to do is to take from working-class people, to take from truck drivers and construction workers right now, thousands of dollars in taxes in order to redistribute it to college graduates who have student loans.’

“Now, this way of thinking betrays an ignorance of working-class life in this country.  To work as a truck driver or a medical technician or a home inspector or any number of other similar blue-collar jobs, you need training, licenses, certifications.  People go to school to meet these requirements.  They apply for the same federal student loans and take on the same debt as someone going to college.  And many of these Americans labor under the burden of that debt because of high costs and lower-than-expected earnings. (To say nothing of those who attended college, took on debt, but didn’t graduate.)”

And, back to Trump, consider this startling statistic compiled by the Washington Post Fact Checker column:  Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over four years.

More than 30,000 lies!

Yet, Trump appears to be running for president again and a legion of followers will vote for him regardless of his dishonesty.

If Trump wins, as is possible, it could be death of American democracy as we have known it for decades.  And he doesn’t care.  Nor do his legion of followers.

My fond wish is this:  That those who lie in politics would pay a price for lying.  Such as losing elections.  Or not being able to run again.

Too much, you say.  Perhaps.  But, still I refuse to reject my fond wish.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all 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 written about this several times to express my personal opinion in opposition to the upstart LIV golf, which is funded by tainted money from Saudi Arabia.

Probably too many times.

But, stupid me.

I forgot one of the most salient facts that buoys support for the PGA Tour:  The millions of dollars it raises in charitable contributions in the cities where it holds tournaments.  Those who benefit are legions.

The same for LIV?  Of course, not.

LIV exists to “sportswash” its terrible human rights reputation, one it has earned over the years.  No “charity” there.

As for the PGA Tour’s charitable contributions:

The PGA Tour’s total, which includes a record $204.3 million in 2019 to bring the all-time total to $3.05 billion, includes donations made by tournaments on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica and PGA Tour Series-China.

“It’s truly a pleasure to thank our fans, sponsors, tournaments, players and volunteers for helping us generate over $3 billion for charity and positively impact millions of lives,” says Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.

No less a major tour star than Rory McIlroy recognized this when he told Global Golf Post recently that it “was the right thing to do” for him to rally around the Tour and serve as one of the primary spokesmen for the positive history and traditions of pro golf provided over the years by the PGA Tour.

Global Golf Post claimed he “was a voice of reason” in a list of defectors.

If you were put all the other major sports organizations in a list – the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League – McIlroy says the PGA tour delivers more to charity that those organizations combined – twice more, in fact.

Whatever else you may believe about the PGA Tour and LIV, contributions to charity set the Tour apart.  Easily.