This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I am a jack of all trades.

Yesterday, I opened one of the three departments I run – the Department of Pet Peeves.  Today, I follow hard on the heels by opening another department – the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering. 

Soon, the third – the Department of “Just Saying” – will be open.

So, now for the good quotes.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  This newspaper, one I read at least on-line every morning, carried a good story about a New York couple who had re-located to Miami to avoid at least a bit of the rush of New York life.

Here is the way the writer summarized the issue:

“I thought I’d be living in New York the rest of my life.  Moving to Miami in 2014 was a tough adjustment, but has slowed the ‘hustle and bustle’ pace with learning to appreciate the light and space.”

Comment:  Think of that phrase – learning to “appreciate the light and space.”

Good advice for all of us amidst busy lives.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE:  The newspaper carried an engrossing story about Congressman Jamie Raskin who, on the floor of the U.S. House last year, carried the impeachment charge against Donald Trump.  The time he did so was only a few days after another tragedy – the suicide of Raskin’s son who succumbed to depression.

Here is the way the Post writer summarized the issue:

“Raskin says it’s still too soon to see exactly where the path to his future leads, though he knows the principles that will guide him.  On the day Tommy (Raskin’s son) introduced his father as a political candidate in January 2006, Raskin vowed always to represent the moral center rather than the political center, and to push toward an alignment of the two. That is how Tommy lived, the elder Raskin says.

“Tommy was totally anti-war, and he was vegan, and he had these positions that would be considered radical in terms of conventional political norms.  In life, Tommy always challenged his father to embody his ideals; in death, Tommy bestowed on his father a reaffirmed sense of resolve.”

Comment:  Amid a long and well-written story, the phrase that caught my attention was Raskin’s commitment to represent “the moral center,” rather that the political center.

Too often in politics these days, we advocate trying to find the political center, and I am as guilty of anyone in this quest.  But “the moral center” is a better place to be and Raskin embodies that space, even as he tries to align morality with politics.

FROM ATLANTIC MAGAZINE:  The magazine carries a major – yes, long – story on what Donald Trump is doing to achieve what he could not achieve last time, which is to steal the presidential election after he lost.

Here is the way the magazine started its story:

“Former president Donald Trump’s anti-democratic campaign to overturn the 2020 election failed.  Next time – and there will be a next time – he’s got a better shot in 2024.

“The ‘Big Lie’ has radicalized tens of millions of Americans — some to the point of violence.  The former president has built the first American mass political movement in the past century that is ready to fight by any means necessary, including bloodshed, for its cause.  This really is a new, politically violent mass movement.”

Comment:  I’ll leave it there for the moment.  But, if you want to lose sleep over the future of America, read the Atlantic story, which goes into often intricate detail about Trump’s foundation to win next time no matter the process or the cost.

I read the story and all I can say is that I have no choice but to hold out just a bit of hope that Trump and acolytes won’t succeed.  If they do, the country as we know it will be a thing of the past.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This is one of three departments I run with skill and aplomb based on my many years of solid management service.

The others are the Departments of Good Quotes Worth Remembering and the “Just Saying.”

I open the departments only when each has action to take.  In this case, the Department of Pet Peeves has been closed for some time, but there are three new examples below that may opening worth it.

PET PEEVE #1:  Do you ever wonder why garden hoses you buy are labeled “kink-free?”

Well, it’s a lie.

All regular hoses kink as a matter of course. 

That’s why my wife and I have taken to buying metal hoses.  They are advertised as “not-kinking” – and they don’t.

Try it…you’ll like it.

PET PEEVE #2:  I am a sports fan, though not as significant or knowledgeable as some of my friends.  But what happened this week to the University of Oregon was, in many ways, a tragedy.

Another high-profile and well-paid coach, Mario Cristobal, bolted for Florida.  Along the way, in the last two or three weeks, it appeared he leveraged a major, contract extension offer from the U of O into a “better deal” in Miami. 

His conduct, reportedly, left a bad taste in the mouth of major U of O donor, Nike founder and exec Phil Knight, who ended up pulling back his huge offer after Cristobal declined to sign it.

Did Cristobal leverage Miami?  Probably, but no way to tell.

But, if he did, it would be the second time a U of O coach with Florida connections left the Ducks hanging.  Willy Taggert was the first; Cristobal is the second.

Defenders of Cristobal will say that he was simply deciding to go home where he grew up and where his extended family lives, including his sick mother.  If true, that lessens my peeve.

Given that Cristobal bolted, there might a silver lining in what otherwise is a dark cloud.  It is this:  Folks with more knowledge than me thought Cristobal was a good recruiter, but not a great coach.  Perhaps the new hire can be both.

The other peeve here is that the cost of athletics – especially football coach salaries – is going through the roof.  Witness two other high-profile departures in the last few weeks – Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma State to USC and Brian Kelly from Notre Dame to Louisiana.

When will the money grab end?  I hope soon.  And, meanwhile, those who attend major football games are in for higher and higher ticket prices.

PET PEEVE #3:  Ever notice how unintelligible health care bills are, especially from hospitals?

Well, I have.

It is nearly impossible to make sense of them.

Now, let me add, clearly, that I am in favor of hospitals, especially good ones such as Providence Health & Services (consisting of eight hospitals and other programs for which I was the State of Oregon lobbyist for nearly 25 years) and Salem Health (which has provided uniformly solid service for me and my family over the years).

They are quality health care providers.  And, in both cases, I advocated for improving the tone, character and content of bills, so far without total success.  But, if there is something to be thankful for, it is that the billing process is improving.  Room to go?  Yes.  Good results so far?  Also yes.

I’ll assess whether there has been more progress when I get my next bill.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

As a person who likes words more than numbers, I often am skeptical when statistics are used to tell a story.

Because you can make statistics say anything you want.

So, I was uneasy when I came across a story this week by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank contending there is proof – statistical proof –that the media treats President Joseph Biden “as badly – or worse than” – Donald Trump.

Wouldn’t you know it.  James Freeman, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, took on Milbank this morning for relying so heavily on statistics that are very tough to measure – rating media coverage on “sentiments” (see below).

Still, Freeman grudgingly gives Milbank a passing grade because his piece was labeled “opinion.”

The proof Milbank offered came from a data information company called FiscalNote. 

The company, Milbank wrote, combed through more than 200,000 articles — tens of millions of words — from 65 news websites (newspapers, network and cable news, political publications, news wires and more) to do a “sentiment analysis” of coverage.

“Using algorithms that give weight to certain adjectives based on their placement in the story, it rated the coverage Biden received in the first 11 months of 2021 and the coverage Trump got in the first 11 months of 2020.”

It was worse for Biden.

To wit, Milbank contends, his worst fear is being acknowledged.  “My colleagues in the media are serving as accessories to the murder of democracy.”

Milbank continues:  “After a honeymoon of slightly positive coverage in the first three months of the year, Biden’s press for the past four months has been as bad as — and for a time worse than — the coverage Trump received for the same four months of 2020.

“Think about that.  In 2020, Trump presided over a worst-in-world pandemic response that caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths; held a super-spreader event at the White House, and got covid–19 himself; praised QAnon adherents; embraced violent white supremacists; waged a racist campaign against Black Lives Matter demonstrators; attempted to discredit mail-in voting; and refused to accept his defeat in a free and fair election, leading eventually to the violence of January 6, and causing tens of millions to accept the ‘big lie.’ the worst of more than 30,000 he told in office.”

Point made, though the aforementioned Freeman probably wouldn’t agree that any solid point was made.

For me, Trump ranks clearly as the worst president in U.S. history.  He held office to aggrandize himself at the expense of Americans.  And, then, when he lost to Biden, he did not concede.

And still hasn’t.

Yet, chances are that he will run for president again in 2024.  And, no doubt some right-wing publications will try to help him get what he wants.

As a former newspaper reporter, I have mixed emotions about Milbank’s column.  I always have been taught that journalists should be fair and impartial as they reported “news,” not intentionally favoring one side or the other.

Opinion columns can do that – and, to be sure, Milbank is an opinion columnist for the Post, so, under that banner, he has every right to express his point-of-view if the Post will publish it.

Milbank says “we need a skeptical, independent press.”  But, then, on other hand, he adds this question:  “How about being partisans for democracy?”

“The country is in an existential struggle between self-governance and an authoritarian alternative.  And we in the news media, collectively, have given equal, if not slightly more favorable, treatment to the authoritarians.

“Too many journalists are caught in a mindless neutrality between democracy and its saboteurs, between fact and fiction.  It’s time to take a stand.”

In response to Milbank, I’ll let my bias show.  If that means being more and more critical of Trump, good.  He is a liar and an authoritarian who was – and would be – terrible for this country.

If it also means favoring democracy, also good, given that the future of our form of government is at stake – and an authoritarian form with a dictator would be far worse.

So, I’ll let Milbank’s posits settle for a little longer.  What he wrote is thought-provoking – and, that, too, is one function of a free press.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This stands as a footnote to a blog I posed earlier this morning, one calling, again, for finding a way in this country’s politics to land in the middle where the best public policy solutions lie.

I could have added that, over the weekend, we lost a man who knew how to find the smart middle in Congress.  So I add it now.

U.S. Senator Bob Dole who ran for president a couple times, but never made it.  But he did serve 25 years in Congress where he was an architect of getting good things done.

Here is the way Washington Post columnist George Will described Dole in a column that appeared this morning:

“…few congressional careers loom large.  This is because legislative accomplishments are collaborative, the result of blurry compromises presented in pastels rather than sharp pictures painted in bold strokes of primary colors.  Dole’s legislative life was the political life as Plutarch described it:

“They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or a military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view, something which leaves off as soon as that end is reached. It is not a public chore, to be got over with. It is a way of life. It is the life of a domesticated political and social creature who is born with a love for public life, with a desire for honor, with a feeling for his fellows.”

That was Bob Dole.  He survived terrible wounds in war to serve with distinction in Congress.

A former partner of, Kerry Tymchuck, worked previously for Dole as his speechwriter and now serves as executive director of the Oregon Historical Society.  He remembers Dole fondly and told the Oregonian newspaper about it when he said this:

“He was an institutionalist who believed in making Congress work and getting things done.”

We need more Bob Doles these days.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The New York Times asked the question in this blog headline – where is the middle ground? – in a column circulated on-line late last week.

I also ask the question repeatedly, as indicated by this excerpt from the introduction to my blog, which is called Perspective from the 19^th Hole:

“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.”

Note that my phrase links two of my favorite passions – golf and public policy.

In a question-answer format, the NY Times added the following:

“How does the middle regain its voice in the national debate?

The Times reporter answered this way:  “This is a good question, and I don’t really have an answer; only more bad news about this.

“Much of America seems to be in the middle of the political spectrum on major issues right now. As the Supreme Court weighs restricting abortion even more, polls show roughly 60 per cent of Americans are fine with allowing abortion up until about halfway through a pregnancy, as Roe v. Wade currently does.

“The weekly testing part of Biden’s vaccine requirement for most American workers is actually pretty popular, too.  And calls from progressives to change the way police departments are run and funded have fallen flat, even in liberal communities.

“But gerrymandering, which is going on across the nation right now, is only going to weaken the influence of moderates.  Both parties are eliminating competitive congressional districts, where lawmakers have an incentive to listen to the middle, in favor of districts that will reward lawmakers who drive hard to the right or left.  So it’s going to become even more structurally difficult for less partisan Americans to influence American politics.”

With the apparent loss of any ability by those in government to compromise – to find middle ground – I am preparing to vote for candidates who will express support for discussion and give-and-take, not rabble-rousing.

In the next election in Oregon, for example, we should spend time, effort and energy reviewing the backgrounds of those running for governor and try to cast a vote for person who best exemplifies working for the middle.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear about a local newspaper going out of business.

On one hand, that’s a reality of doing any kind of business these days.  Not every business succeeds.

But, when we lose local news, does the loss carry implications for democracy as we know it in America?

Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan posits that the answer is yes – and, at least in theory, I agree.

This issue is of interest to me for a specific reason.  My first professional job out of college was as a reporter for a local newspaper, The Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I considered myself to be a journalist interested in keeping readers aware of community issues.

The newspaper, part of a local chain of newspapers owned by one family in Oregon, performed solid local services in and around Astoria.  My job was to cover city and county government, as well as the Port of Astoria, a gateway to the Pacific.

 Am I objective on this point of “performing solid local services.”?  No.

I was part of the provision of such services, so it was logical for me to believe we did a solid, albeit imperfect, job of helping Astoria citizens follow “their” governments.

Media critic Sullivan made the same point in a piece she wrote for the Washington Post this week.  Here is how she started her column:

“’It has been our great privilege to bring you news from Stoneham and Woburn over the years,’ read the announcement. ‘We regret to inform you that this will be the final edition of the Sun-Advocate newspaper.’”

The Massachusetts weekly, as of August, is no more. 

“It is an increasingly familiar story across the United States,” Sullivan writes.  “Already in a sharp downward spiral, the local news industry was hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic. The worst blows were taken by newspapers — businesses that, as a group, had never recovered from the digital revolution and the 2008 recession.

“Between 2005 and the start of the pandemic, about 2,100 newspapers closed their doors.  Since covid struck, at least 80 more papers have gone out of business, as have an undetermined number of other local publications, like the California Sunday Magazine, which folded last fall — and then won a Pulitzer Prize eight months later.”

According to PEW Research Center, papers that survived so far are still facing difficult straits.  Many have laid off scores of reporters and editors.  The newspaper industry lost an astonishing 57 per cent of its employees between 2008 and 2020 — making these publications a mere specter of their former selves.

They are now what Sullivan and others call “ghost newspapers:”  “Outlets that may bear a proud name or yore, but no longer do the job of thoroughly covering their communities and providing original reporting on matters of public interest.”

Sullivan reports that, in many regions of the country, there is no local news coverage at all, or next to none.  These areas have come to be known, she says, as “news deserts” — a term used by academics and researchers to refer to areas where coverage of the community by local news outlets is minimal or non-existent.

For these “news deserts,” a major concern is what happens to the communities they used to serve, and, more broadly, what happens to society and the ability to self-govern when local news dries up.

Sullivan adds this:

“It’s not just watchdog journalism that suffers when news organizations shrink or die.  The decline affects civic engagement and political polarization, too.  Studies show that people who live in areas with poor local news coverage are less likely to vote, and when they do, they are more likely to do so strictly along party lines.  To put it bluntly, the demise of local news poses the kind of danger to our democracy that should have alarm sirens screeching across the land.”

Well, rather than screeching, Sullivan’s contentions remind me about the situation in Salem, Oregon where I live.  Here, there used to be two newspapers, the Capitol Journal and the Salem Statesman.  Now, there is one – the Statesman-Journal, and it is only a skeleton of its former self.

I say that because, for one thing, after The Daily Astorian, I applied for a job at the then-Salem Statesman, believing that it would be good to be a reporter in the State Capitol, only three blocks from the Capitol buildings themselves.  I suppose it would have been good, but, in order to live in Portland and avoid a commute, I took a job at Portland State University, which began my career in and around government in Oregon.

When I say the Statesman is a skeleton of its former self, I am sorry about that fact.  It takes me only about five minutes to read it on-line every morning. And I often find out more information about the Salem-Keizer when I read the Salem Reporter, an on-line publication that arose because the Statesman was not doing its job well enough to suit folks in the area starved for news.

As an aside, on-line publications are springing up in many places these days.  The one in Salem is led a quality journalist, Les Zaitz, a former investigative reporter for the state’s major newspaper, The Oregonian, which also is a shadow of its former self.  Salem Reporter does a good job of ferreting out local news and that is a tribute to Zaitz’ journalism, as well as to my friend, Larry Tokarski, a community citizen who funded the on-publications start and still supports it today.

Timothy Snyder, a Yale history professor and author of “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century,” has called the loss of local news “the essential problem of our republic.”

“It is nothing less than a crisis, he says, and a deepening one. The only way we can talk to other people is with some common understanding of the facts, for example whether or not our water is polluted or whether or not the teachers in our school are on strike.  We don’t have to like what we learn about our communities through local news reporting, he noted, but it benefits us nonetheless. When local news goes away, then our sense of what is true shifts from what is helpful to us in our daily lives to what makes us ‘feel good,’ which is something entirely different.”

Sullivan concludes that “there is no single answer to this crisis.”  Any solution, if there even is a solution, will require a multi-faceted approach, she contends.

That links to what of my contentions in two recent blogs.  As we watch things deteriorate in this country, I prefer to believe that all is not lost as we root for our form of government, representative democracy.  We need to act like citizens interested in the future and do our part to improve government. 

But, it will be harder without local news outlets.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Remember, this is one of three departments I manage with a free hand to run them as I see fit. 

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of “Just Saying.”

The Department of Good Quotes is open again.

ABOUT THE SALTON SEA IN THE CALIFORNIA DESERT:  The Los

Angeles Times writes this about the Salton Sea:

“Studying the complexity of mud on the ocean floor is a life’s work for Timothy Lyons, so when the tall and lean biogeochemist asks you to join an expedition in search of chemical mysteries buried deep beneath the waves, prepare to get wet and dirty.

“On a recent foray onto California’s largest and most troubled lake, Lyons rode a Zodiac skiff across the Salton Sea against a backdrop of mountains and dunes.  Miles of shoreline bristled with the bones of thousands of dead fish and birds.

“The big problem at the Salton Sea,” said Lyons, 63, “is it’s loaded with pesticides and heavy metals — molybdenum, cadmium and selenium — that linger in greatest concentrations in deeper water.”

“For Lyons’ research team, filling blanks in existing data is an obsession. And it could have significant implications at a time when the air practically crackles with a volatile mix of environmental danger and economic opportunities promised by ongoing efforts to tap immense reserves of lithium, a key ingredient of rechargeable batteries.”

Comment:  Just think about this:  If you buy a lithium battery-powered golf cart, it could have the mineral from the bottom of the Salton Sea.

ABOUT GOLF COURSES AT THE WESTERN HOME OF GOLF – PGA WEST:  News is making the rounds that PGA West, near where I live in the winter, is in for a major re-make.  Here’s the summary:

“Last year Century Golf Partners, an established operator of high-end clubs and resorts, teamed with Hankuk Industry, which owns courses in the U.S. and Japan, to acquire PGA WEST and The Citrus Club, including the Mountain and Dunes golf courses.

“That set off a whirlwind of activity, with the new ownership pouring resources into course improvements on all nine PGA WEST courses. The goal of this long-term project is three-fold:  Provide tournament conditions daily; bring more big tournaments to the property; re-establish PGA WEST as a must-visit destination with courses that are fixtures on top-100 lists.”

Comment:  PGA West is a great site for golf and living.  Good now that the plans are in motion to make it even better.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ON THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH:  “The pews were only half full at St. Raymond of Penafort on a recent Sunday morning.  At the height of lockdowns, that was OK as scores of parishioners grew accustomed to watching services online, hinting at what a post-pandemic future might look like.

“Across the country, Christian leaders are wrestling with how to keep their congregations going with fewer people showing up.

“The number of churchgoers has steadily dropped in the U.S. over the past few decades.  But Covid-19 and its lockdown restrictions accelerated that fall. In-person church attendance is roughly 30 to 50 per cent lower than it was before the pandemic.

“While religious leaders expect some rebound once the pandemic recedes, many don’t expect attendance to return to previous levels. That has left churches looking for different approaches to connect with existing members and attract new ones.”

Comment:  This story caught my attention because the church my family has attended in Salem for more than 30 years is facing the same challenges. 

With the pandemic, the church went more heavily in two directions – (a) emphasizing on-line access to church services through a mechanism called “Livestream,” and (b) forming “house churches” around town.

The question now is this:  Will those who call Salem Alliance their church home, return the pews?

The answer is not clear and if I was back in a leadership position at the church (as I was for more than 15 years), I would wonder.  It is not a bad thing, by definition, if people go to church on-line or in a home.  But what is missing is a large gathering of Christ followers.

This issue is playing out around the country, as well as in Salem, Oregon.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I wrote a blog a day or so ago suggesting that democracy as we know it in the United States is in the cross-hairs.

One of the reasons is that many Republicans still follow Donald Trump and wish for a return to autocratic rule under him, even if that requires violence and insurrection.  What’s more, it is incredible to note that Trump still has not conceded the last presidential election to Joseph Biden.

Well, in response to my notions of actions individuals could take in the face of huge, anti-democracy risks, one of my readers got back to me by agreeing with my blog, with one exception.

This individual suggested that my advocacy for empathy was misplaced, at least on occasion, because, if you employed the trait and had to deal with others who wished you only ill, one-way empathy would not work. 

Point made.

Still, I believe empathy is a solid concept to employ as an individual.

The definition of the term is this:

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

There, good words, which capture exactly my meaning.  Another way to put is that what you see often depends on where you sit.  So, if you try to sit in another’s place, you come to understand that person’s position, even if you don’t agree with it. 

It would be all the better, of course, if one person’s empathy would lead to another person’s reciprocity.

My friend when one person’s empathy is met with another person’s confrontation, all is lost.  My friend also added thoughtful comments on what individuals could do to support democracy in this country.  His list:

• Speak up

• Remind others of the values of democracy and the responsibility to safeguard them

• Articulate consequences of embracing autocratic perspectives and what we lose by promoting them

• Spend time with those most likely to lose the most or who feel homeless

• Read, read, read

• Exercise the right to vote

All good points, worthy of more reflection.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline could be overstated, but there is ample evidence around these days that many people view violence as better than democracy.  Or at least that violence could lead to what they want – to achieve their goals no matter the human cost.

Democracy is in the cross hairs.

But, before going on, I did check to make sure I understood the real meaning of the word democracy.  Here is the definition I found on-line:

“A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”

Just what I thought.

Let me give you just one incredible example of democracy not at work these days.  Donald Trump still has not conceded that he lost the last presidential election.

For that reason and others, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin wrote this week that “it’s easy to feel grim about the future of democracy in America.”

She went on:

“The Republican Party is getting worse in the wake of the Trump presidency, openly praising vigilantism, egging on violent extremists, continuing its crusade to limit access to the ballot, attempting to corrupt voting administration, and seeking to stymie reform at every turn.  The shortcomings of our criminal justice system cannot be ignored.  Social media platforms cling to a business model that monetizes disinformation and hate.  Voters’ memories remain short; their desire for accountability for elected officials is tepid.”

Rubin’s colleague, Greg Sargent added to the contention when he wrote this:

“It is fitting that two Fox News contributors have severed their ties with the network over Tucker Carlson’s glorification of January 6 at exactly the moment when more than 150 scholars are sounding a loud, clanging alarm about the future of our democracy.

“This story is unsettling.  It should rivet our attention on the increasing flirtation among large swaths of the right with political violence, and on the role that the right’s campaign to delegitimize our political system is playing in it.

“Its manifestations are everywhere.  This includes far-right members of Congress openly fantasizing about killing Democrats, and a refusal of GOP leaders to impose accountability for it.”

Sargent’s commentary prompts me to summarize a few personal thoughts about the growing potential that we actually could be seeing the demise of democracy – at least democracy as we have come to know it.

• In addition to refusing to concede that he lost to Joe Biden, Trump continues to foment dissension and violence to achieve his apparent objectives – bringing Biden down and aiming again to gain for himself the nation’s highest political office.
• Trump’s true intent is illustrated by his actions, to encourage his supporters to invade the U.S. Capital on January 6 and, when violence was available for all to see, decline to call off the mob.
• And he and his ilk are trying to put people in power who will do what the Georgia election official declined to do in the last election, which is “to find votes for Trump.” 
• One of Trump’s chief acolytes in Congress, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy continues to endorse violence as a way to achieve his objectives, which is to be in charge of an authoritarian America.

Sargent goes on to say that “a true reckoning requires more than just observing this trend.  It also requires reflecting on the instrumental nature of propaganda like that coming from Tucker Carlson.  Much of the discussion treats the possibility of violence as a mere incidental by-product of that propaganda, depicting it merely as conspiracy-theorizing-for-profit getting out of control.”

A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege shows just how close some goons in America came to hurting or killing members of Congress, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to throw out the election, and keeping Trump in office.

To underline the tension, Sargent points to a new letter signed by dozens of scholars, which warns that attacks on the “legitimacy of America’s elections and, importantly, the use of this as justification to lay the groundwork to subvert democratic outcomes later, has grown to a crisis point.

“This represents a clear and present threat to the future of electoral democracy in the United States.  The history of other crisis-ridden democracies tells us this threat cannot be wished away.  It must be promptly and forthrightly confronted.”

By endorsing violence, various parties are effectively saying that democracy doesn’t work.

So, what can the rest of us do?  Well, on their own, no individuals are able to roll back the tide.  But several actions come to mind:

1. Vote for persons who have a heart for democracy.
2. Oppose those who favor violence over discussion and compromise.
3. Oppose every attempt by Trump to rise again.
4. Play a solid role as citizens of this country, not activators of violence and mayhem.
5. And, practice empathy, a trait mostly missing in action these days. 
   Empathy allows us to understand people whose life experiences are very different from our own.  If we had more of this in politics and in everyday life, we’d be better for it.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Why, whenever I am in La Quinta, California, do my thoughts go to golf in Scotland?

Who knows?

Scotland and La Quinta – the latter in the California desert – could not be more different.

But there might be a couple reasons why golf in Scotland arrives top of mind for me.

First, as I noted, the two places are so different that, when you are in one place, you often think of the other. 

Courses in Scotland often are “links courses,” a phrase that refers to land that sits near the sea, so, for one thing, there often are not many trees on links courses.  And you often play the golf ball closer to the ground so it runs over humps and bumps of hard turf.

Golf is so different on links courses that it took pro golfer Phil Mickelson several years to learn how to play on such courses.  And, then in The Open, where I and my family had the privilege to be on hand, he won the tournament on one of the acknowledged best courses in the world, Muirfield.

[By the way, “The Open” is how the Scots and others in Europe refer to the British Open.  If you use the latter term, those in Europe will know you are from the other side of the pond.]

A second reason why Scottish golf comes to mind is that I have found playing there to be great fun.  I have had the privilege of traveling to Scotland five times with my wife Nancy, whose parents both emigrated from Scotland to America.  So, by extension, Scotland is a homeland of sorts for us.

On a number of occasions, I have enjoyed playing with Scotsman who love golf and play as much as they can, rain or shine.  My kind of people.

As my thoughts focus on Scotland, I often recall reading a great book, A Season in Dornoch, by golf writer Lorne Rubenstein. 

The book chronicles the time about 20 years ago when he and his wife traveled to Scotland in the far north of the country.  They booked a flat above a bookstore in the small town of Dornoch and stayed for four months.

Not only did Lorne play golf, he and his wife also made it a point to meet Scots who lived in and around that small town.  His book summarizes the special quality of golf at the major course in Dornoch, Royal Dornoch, as well as the times he and his wife spent with the Scots, learning their lifestyles and hearing homespun tales at “the home of golf.”

Motivated by reading Rubenstein’s book, I have had the privilege of playing Royal Dornoch three times and, later this winter, my wife and I are planning our own sojourn in Dornoch. 

If the pandemic eases enough, we will spend a month in Dornoch at an AirBNB we have rented while I join a course called Struie, which abuts Royal Dornoch.  The Struie membership will allow me to play Royal Dornoch at least four times during the month, as well as play at several other courses in the region.

All of these fond memories came flooding back to me as I began reading another book about Scottish golf, Playing Through, written by Curtis Gillespie.  An interesting link – pardon the play on words – is that, in the book, Gillespie describes several golf games he had played in Scotland with none other than Lorne Rubenstein.

Here is a great quote from Gillespie’s book that captures the essence of golf in Scotland:

“It’s best, most satisfying, if you say the words out loud.  Gullane.  Dirleton.  Muirfield.  Luffness.  Archerfield.  Musselburgh.  Kilspindie.  Longniddry.  I love speaking these names, hearing their sounds.  Even looking at the words on a map has always brought a smile to my lips.

“For a long time, these words had been signifiers in my mind of something both real and fantastic, indicators of both past experience and future enjoyment.

“The memories raised were shot through with images of hole after hole of subtle, perfect links golf, though these memories were always just a bit hazy, involving as they did a sense of awe toward the natural splendor of this hidden stretch of coastline.”

As Curtis Gillespie played golf in Scotland, he came in contact with a person we also met on one of our trips there, a short, stocky man named Archie Baird, now no doubt deceased.  On our first trip to Scotland, we met Archie in the town of Aberlady, where he lived a few miles from Muirfield.  He gave us a personal tour of a golf museum he operates in the town.

Very fond memories of golf in Scotland.  Here in La Quinta, I play on a “parkland course,” which is great fun, as well, though as different from Scottish courses as it could be.

If you live year-round in La Quinta, a term of endearment is to call you a “desert rat.”  So, just call me a “desert rat Scotsman.”