I have recently had the genuine good fortune and great pleasure to meet an individual who has had a profound impact on me. I have always believed that life is not merely a random series of events, but that the situations that we find ourselves in, the people that we encounter, and the choices that we are faced with occur for some reason, that there is a higher power, I know him as God but others may have different names and perceptions, yet some higher power that we can never fully know or understand that is responsible for putting us in certain situations with certain people. While I am generally thankful for all of the people that I encounter in life, and while I certainly try to appreciate and learn something from everyone I meet and come to know, there are some people that for various reasons have a larger impact on my thinking and on my life. Calvin Terrell is such an individual, and rather than get into the details of how I have come to encounter him and what he does for a living, I will get right into the way in which he has affected my mind, my heart, and my soul.
Calvin talks about five different kinds of people in life, the fifth and highest level of personhood being that of a warrior. A warrior is someone who not only talks the talk but walks the walk, he or she is a person that not only knows what the right thing is to do, but who has the energy, the passion, and the courage to do the right thing. A warrior is someone who not only believes in racial, ethnic, and gender equality but who stands up for those beliefs through action. A warrior is someone who not only respects and appreciates diversity, but who will defend those who are harassed and discriminated against because of their sexuality. A warrior doesn’t merely tolerate differences in people, but rather celebrates them and learns to truly appreciate what he doesn’t know or understand. A warrior believes that the poor and oppressed peoples of this world deserve a helping hand, but beyond that belief, a warrior actually takes steps to help people in need, be it a working class parent struggling to keep afloat and raise a family, or a transient struggling to make it down the street from one bus stop to the next. Maybe he is drunk, maybe he is mentally ill, perhaps he is just lazy and has given up trying. A warrior doesn’t place blame or make judgment, but when she sees another human being, a fellow soul in need, she looks him square in the eye and relates to him on a human level. That is compassion, and a warrior is defined by compassion, action, understanding, empathy, and a genuine love for all of humanity.
Mother Teresa was a warrior. She gave up most worldly possessions and luxuries to help the poorest of the poor, the downtrodden, those whom society had discarded and given up on. She was an imperfect person, as her revelations that she at times lost her faith can attest. But rather than this being some opportunity to criticize or question her, this only makes her feats more amazing as it shows that she was a human being first and foremost, fallible like us all, yet she overcame her own weaknesses and insecurities to live a life of greatness by selflessly serving others.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a warrior. Like Mother Teresa, he was far from a perfect person, his marital infidelity is documented, but again this only serves to show that flawed human beings can nonetheless perform amazing feats of strength, love, and courage. MLK sacrificed much of his personal wealth and time with his own family to serve a cause greater than himself, and in doing so motivated others to join the cause of human rights that is arguably one of the greatest and most effective social movements in the history of this or any country. Warriors beget other warriors, and as a result of the work of MLK, Andrew Young, Stokley Carmichael, and countless others, we are on the verge of our first warrior president since John F. Kennedy. While he was a soldier, I am not talking about John McCain either.
This brings me to the other types of people in Calvin’s hierarchy of humanity. Just below warriors are soldiers and rebels. Soldiers follow orders, they do as they are told and don’t ask questions. Sometimes that is desirable, and there are times when even a warrior must be a good soldier and do as he is told. But soldiers too often go along with the majority even when they know better, they too often do what is popular instead of what is right.
A rebel also has a place in society, there are certainly times when rebellion is called for and necessary. Paris in 1789, Russia in 1917, and the U.S. in 1955 after Emmit Till was brutally murdered are some historic examples of when the warrior and rebel mentality coincided for good. Yet all too often rebels are simply acting out of anger and bitterness, and they express their resentment in ways that are neither positive nor productive.
The bottom two groups are thugs and cowards, and these descriptions do not require elaborate explanation. Cowards live out of fear and make very little if any mark on society, while thugs leave behind a trail of destruction, they thrive on chaos and hurt.
The world needs more warriors. A world of warriors would be one where people were more free to live their lives as they see fit, without concern for discrimination, harassment, and oppression. Such a world would have less social injustice and more social equality. There would be less of a gap between rich, middle, and bottom, it would be a world where working class people lived a life of dignity, one where what they bring to the table would be respected and appreciated. It would consist of a society where those at the top felt a gratitude for their privilege, and where the majority of people who fall in the middle would not resent those above them nor would they try to keep a safe distance from those below them on the social ladder. It would be a world where people whose skin color was black or brown wouldn’t have to feel like second class citizens, or believe that they had to act white in order to fit into what is still in many ways a white man’s world.
It wouldn’t be a man’s world at all, but a world where women and men lived as equals in all senses of the word, where expectations and limitations based on gender would cease to be. It would be a world where people could fall in love with and build a life, and a family if they desired, with whoever they desired. There would be no need for same sex marriage because there would just be marriage, and it would be open to all who wanted to partake in it, gay, lesbian, transgender, or straight. It would be a world without artificial borders and walls to keep people out, a world where basic human rights of life, liberty, and property would be respected, which means that all would have the human right to pursue their economic goals, and these would super cede national sovereignty. It would be a world where the artificial divisions between east and west, between white and non-white, between Christian, Jew, and Muslim, between rich and poor, urban and rural, young and old, gay and straight, big and small, short and tall, would recognized as unnecessary and would be eliminated.
A world with more warriors would be a world where people looked after each other, where they dedicated themselves to the greater good and to a higher purpose than simply adhering to the motto of getting rich or die trying. It would bring us closer to the notion espoused by the great musician and songwriter, lyricist and poet John Lennon, of a true brotherhood of man, where the term man is meant to apply to all mankind or humanity. So what can anyone of us as individuals do to bring about such a world? We can live our lives in pursuit of excellence in all we attempt, always striving for a perfection of mind, body, and soul that we know we can never attain. We can fight the good fight, preach the good word, and live the good life every day. We can become and be warriors, knowing that we will often fall short, but also knowing that we will get better every day if we choose to make that a priority, and in making ourselves better we help those around us and the world as a whole to become better. The words of one of history’s great warriors, Mahatma Gandhi, will serve to close here, as they sum up the answer to the question of what we can do to bring about a world heretofore described. When asked by a journalist what his message to the world was, Gandhi simply replied, “My life is my message.” So it should be with each of us.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
You Had Us At Hello
Note: I originally posted this last month on the political blog, but I'm not sure if some of you knew about it, and since I'm not really doing anything with that blog site for now, I thought I would repost it, with just a few touch-ups, on The Grind.
Barack Obama is a different kind of cat. That’s what has attracted him to countless potential voters and what ultimately will get him elected as our nation’s 44th president. Much has been said and written about the historic nature of this campaign, especially during the Democratic primaries, as Obama was vying to become the nation’s first black president, while Hilary Clinton was attempting to become our country’s first female president. On the other side of the coin, a bunch of Republicans were competing to become our nation’s 44th white male president. John McCain won that battle, and will be taking on Barack Obama in the general election, which of course you would have to be living in an Al-Qaeda cave in Tora Bora not to be aware of, and I’m guessing even those cave dwelling terrorists know what’s going on. I hear that Larry King Live is a big hit among the cave clan, they like him much better than Sean Hannity, who gets on everyone’s nerves around the globe, even in the caves of Tora Bora.
But let’s not get sidetracked here, this election isn’t about electing a black man, although that is historic and has positive implications for our national reputation. While it certainly doesn’t solve our racial issues in one fell swoop, it doesn’t hurt either. The real issue is that we have the chance to elect someone who is not a typical politician, which is to say someone who still has a soul and can go home at the end of the day and kiss his wife without leaving residue from the arse that is left on his lips from the days business. Now let’s get one thing straight, Obama is a politician, and while many naysayers are all too quick to point out that he isn’t as special as those of us who believe his rhetoric think he is, he is not a typical politician. Which gets to point number one on my advice to Obama list: Stop trying to impress the critics because they can’t be won over, their job depends on them being critics and naysayers.
The likes of David Brooks of the New York Times, who has been one of your major critics, or much of the mainstream cable news crowd love to point fingers and shout “I told you so!” every time you do something even remotely political, like expressing a nuanced opinion or doing something like raising money for your campaign so you can actually win an election. They are shocked, shocked to hear that politics is going on at this political establishment! News flash here, politics is still politics, you still have to play the game, but it’s how you play it that counts. So quit trying to please the critics who will always bash you, and get back to what allowed you to stand out in the first place.
Be a different type of politician, one who shoots from the hip and tells it like it is. If you want to talk about bitter white people clinging to guns and religion, then talk about it. If you want to talk about black people who need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own lives, talk about it. You're probably not going to get the bitter white guy vote anymore than you are going to lose the black vote, but the honesty and sincerity will endear you to many that have yet to be won over. Personally, I like the idea of faith-based initiatives even though I am not an overtly religious person. I also believe in the rights of gun owners, even though I don't own one myself. And while I remain on the fence on the death penalty, if anyone should get it, those who harm children would be first on my list. But the point here is not that we need to agree with you on all issues, I've always felt that anyone who agrees with someone else on every issue is either brainwashed or hen pecked, or both. Most voters are sophisticated enough to accept that they won't see eye to eye with their candidate on every single issue, they want someone whose judgment they can trust and whose core values are basically in alignment with their own. They also respect someone who will tell people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.
While you’re at it, we don't care whether or not you wear a flag pin, what church you attend, or that your mom is white. Those of us who bought into your whole concept don’t care what race you are, and we don’t care much for symbolic patriotism either. Anyone who would go to the lengths and sacrifice necessary to run for public office has enough patriotism in their bloodstream for our tastes, and that includes members of both parties by the way. It is silly and immature to think that one party or the other has the market cornered on patriotism or that one loves their country more than the other. We also don’t care if the pastor who runs your church is a wing nut, which he is, but we are intelligent enough to realize that you are a Christian and that your spiritual beliefs are your own and separate from the political beliefs of every Tom, Dick, and Jeremiah that you might associate with.
As for trying to win over women, I will get to that later, but for now, don’t pander to Clinton supporters. If they want to be a bunch of bitter white women clinging to male bashing and whining about how sexism kept their woman down and that somehow that is your fault, let ‘em go. Sexism is all too prevalent in our society without a doubt, but it doesn't help the cause to play the gender card at this point, especially when the alternative is to put another Republican in office, one who will without question be less of a feminist than you will be. They can either grow up and get over it or not, my gut tells me that when they compare their legitimate options they’ll end up punching your dance card in November after all. Stay focused on the big prize, and do it the way you set out to, which is what attracted us to you in the first place.
Who is us? The younger and middle-aged generation, first-time voters and many veteran voters who are this close to saying to heck with the whole thing because we see such hypocrisy and are tired of the rich getting richer and pointless wars and the new boss being the same as the old boss, but who got excited when you came along and promised us something different. We believe, and if you let us down we will be disappointed and disillusioned, but we are willing to take the chance that you are the real deal, and so we need you to continue to be just that.
My second piece of unsolicited advice for you, the man who would lead the free world, is to keep focusing on your personal story because it is a good one. The way I see it, you are an anti-elitist, a regular guy who grew up in the middle class, who got into an Ivy League school on your own merits, and who worked your back side off on the streets of Chicago and the state legislature to rise to where you are today. Do the town hall meetings, do the interviews with your wife and kids, and show yourself in your political ads, because this is the kind of stuff that people eat up, myself included.
Look, the biggest problem, of many, with our political system is that both parties are made up of rich guys who are only going to look out for their own interests. There are no teachers and small business owners and rank and file office workers serving in the U.S. Congress, mostly it’s a bunch of wealthy and powerful elites. So human nature dictates that those people will look out for their own kind. You seem to be one of us, or at least you were not all that long ago, obviously serving in the U.S. Senate changes that, but that’s where your inexperience is a plus with many potential voters. We don’t want someone who has been jaded by years in Washington, who has forgotten where they came from, and who has forgotten what it’s like to be in the middle class. Remember in ’92 when George Bush didn’t even know what a grocery scanner was? Well I and many voters did, and it’s that type of elitism that people resent and mistrust. The pictures we saw over the summer of you at your daughter’s soccer match were exactly what we need to see more of. If you want the support of the middle and working class, this type of stuff will go a long ways, and from what I can tell it seems to be pretty genuine. The real elitist in this race is McCain, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, officer, and career politician. But forget McCain, this election isn’t about him, he’s just the Washington Generals to your Harlem Globetrotters, the foil to be defeated. Keep your eyes on the prize, and hold on against all the negativity and traditional right-wing attacks, don’t get distracted or lured into a game you probably can’t and certainly don’t want to win. Tell your story, and then like the shampoo bottle says, repeat if necessary.
My third and final piece of advice is borrowed from the winning Clinton strategy in ’92, it really is all about the economy. People care about Iraq, they care about foreign policy, they care about the environment, and government accountability, the budget deficit, all that stuff is good and well to deal with. Yet what keeps people interested and what motivates them are the basic pocketbook or kitchen sink issues that affect our lives more directly and more profoundly than all the other issues combined. Taxes, gas prices, food prices, utility rates, medical bills, job security, these are the things that affect us greatly and the issues that the middle and working class can unite behind. They affect us whether we are urban or rural, whether we live in red or blue or purple states, and whether we are Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, or non church goers. I suppose there are voters who care more about issues like abortion, gun control, and flag pins, but for most people who work for a living and pay their bills on time and try to make due as best they can with the scraps that are left over, we care about the economy, and how we perceive the government is working to help make our lives better. On the whole, we are not bitter, we certainly are not whiners, but we are anxious, and we seriously question whether our government gets it, and whether if they do get it they care enough to act. The candidate who does the best job of convincing us not only that he can feel our pain but that he has solutions to ease that pain is the one who will get our votes almost every time.
The federal budget is important, but it’s the family budget that hits home, and who is it that handles the family budget decisions in most cases? Now we’re back to really appealing to women, specifically moms who are responsible for making the leftovers from the paychecks stretch as far as possible to pay for food, gas, clothes, all of the kids activities, and maybe have enough left over to go see a good romantic comedy or go out for a decent meal at the end of the week. If you want to appeal to women, as you should, forget the pandering to the Clinton supporters who can't let go of their hurt and anger, forget abortion and most other so-called women’s issues. Women are not some monolithic group that all think the same, anymore than blacks are or old people or any other demographic group that the so-called experts and pollsters love to break down for us on cable news and the Sunday morning round tables. But women do care about the family finances, more so than men who are generally more juvenile and unrealistic when it comes to money. Most guys have unrealistic expectations of their own earning potential and their idea of budgeting is to spend it as fast as you can make it and if you run out hope that one of your buddies can float you until the next payday. Women deal in the real world, and if you want their vote, my advice is to stay focused on the economic issues that matter.
A certain amount of political pandering, moving to the center, and sucking up to big corporate donors is allowed, because after all you do have an election to win before you can bring about any kind of change. But don’t lose sight of what it is that got you the nomination in the first place. Over the course of the long hot summer, it seems as if you have become like a football coach trying to protect a two touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, shying away from the attack and going into the prevent defense. Like the saying goes, the only thing a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning. Stay on the attack so to speak, not against your opponent per se, but against politics as usual. Give us more of the personal story to show us and those who might not be on board yet that you are one of us at heart. Give us hope that someone is manning the economic ship, often times that is enough for consumer confidence and market forces to do the rest. It wasn’t so much FDR’s New Deal policies that lifted the nation out of The Depression as it was the notion of someone in charge caring and understanding what ordinary people were going through, and pledging to try to tackle the problems they were facing.
Forget the critics and naysayers, you simply don’t need to please everyone. As President Bush is living proof of, you don’t need to win in a landslide in order to become president, you just need to win more electoral votes than the other guy. Dance with those of us that brought you, and stay true to form and you’ll pick up enough independents and cross-over Republican votes to get the job, not to mention the younger voters who are key to this election. You had us at hello, and while most guys don’t have enough sense to know when to shut the heck up and get out of their own way, we think you can seal the deal by using some good old-fashioned common sense and sound judgment. You are a different kind of cat, smarter than the average bear, and if you do it the right way, your way, you’ll be the one taking the oath of office come this January. Of course, then the real fun starts, but you've got to get there first, and I for one think that our nation deserves a president that we can admire, respect and be proud of. We haven't had one in my lifetime, which goes back to 1970, and it would sure be something to see and feel the way my parents and grandparents felt about Kennedy and Roosevelt. That's the hope and the dream, and the purpose of writing this open letter to the man who gives us hope for a better nation, for a return to the notion that we truly can be a city on a hill, a shining example of what is possible to the rest of the world and the type of country that can make its’ citizens proud once more to be part of the world’s great experiment in government by, of, and for, the people.
Barack Obama is a different kind of cat. That’s what has attracted him to countless potential voters and what ultimately will get him elected as our nation’s 44th president. Much has been said and written about the historic nature of this campaign, especially during the Democratic primaries, as Obama was vying to become the nation’s first black president, while Hilary Clinton was attempting to become our country’s first female president. On the other side of the coin, a bunch of Republicans were competing to become our nation’s 44th white male president. John McCain won that battle, and will be taking on Barack Obama in the general election, which of course you would have to be living in an Al-Qaeda cave in Tora Bora not to be aware of, and I’m guessing even those cave dwelling terrorists know what’s going on. I hear that Larry King Live is a big hit among the cave clan, they like him much better than Sean Hannity, who gets on everyone’s nerves around the globe, even in the caves of Tora Bora.
But let’s not get sidetracked here, this election isn’t about electing a black man, although that is historic and has positive implications for our national reputation. While it certainly doesn’t solve our racial issues in one fell swoop, it doesn’t hurt either. The real issue is that we have the chance to elect someone who is not a typical politician, which is to say someone who still has a soul and can go home at the end of the day and kiss his wife without leaving residue from the arse that is left on his lips from the days business. Now let’s get one thing straight, Obama is a politician, and while many naysayers are all too quick to point out that he isn’t as special as those of us who believe his rhetoric think he is, he is not a typical politician. Which gets to point number one on my advice to Obama list: Stop trying to impress the critics because they can’t be won over, their job depends on them being critics and naysayers.
The likes of David Brooks of the New York Times, who has been one of your major critics, or much of the mainstream cable news crowd love to point fingers and shout “I told you so!” every time you do something even remotely political, like expressing a nuanced opinion or doing something like raising money for your campaign so you can actually win an election. They are shocked, shocked to hear that politics is going on at this political establishment! News flash here, politics is still politics, you still have to play the game, but it’s how you play it that counts. So quit trying to please the critics who will always bash you, and get back to what allowed you to stand out in the first place.
Be a different type of politician, one who shoots from the hip and tells it like it is. If you want to talk about bitter white people clinging to guns and religion, then talk about it. If you want to talk about black people who need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own lives, talk about it. You're probably not going to get the bitter white guy vote anymore than you are going to lose the black vote, but the honesty and sincerity will endear you to many that have yet to be won over. Personally, I like the idea of faith-based initiatives even though I am not an overtly religious person. I also believe in the rights of gun owners, even though I don't own one myself. And while I remain on the fence on the death penalty, if anyone should get it, those who harm children would be first on my list. But the point here is not that we need to agree with you on all issues, I've always felt that anyone who agrees with someone else on every issue is either brainwashed or hen pecked, or both. Most voters are sophisticated enough to accept that they won't see eye to eye with their candidate on every single issue, they want someone whose judgment they can trust and whose core values are basically in alignment with their own. They also respect someone who will tell people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.
While you’re at it, we don't care whether or not you wear a flag pin, what church you attend, or that your mom is white. Those of us who bought into your whole concept don’t care what race you are, and we don’t care much for symbolic patriotism either. Anyone who would go to the lengths and sacrifice necessary to run for public office has enough patriotism in their bloodstream for our tastes, and that includes members of both parties by the way. It is silly and immature to think that one party or the other has the market cornered on patriotism or that one loves their country more than the other. We also don’t care if the pastor who runs your church is a wing nut, which he is, but we are intelligent enough to realize that you are a Christian and that your spiritual beliefs are your own and separate from the political beliefs of every Tom, Dick, and Jeremiah that you might associate with.
As for trying to win over women, I will get to that later, but for now, don’t pander to Clinton supporters. If they want to be a bunch of bitter white women clinging to male bashing and whining about how sexism kept their woman down and that somehow that is your fault, let ‘em go. Sexism is all too prevalent in our society without a doubt, but it doesn't help the cause to play the gender card at this point, especially when the alternative is to put another Republican in office, one who will without question be less of a feminist than you will be. They can either grow up and get over it or not, my gut tells me that when they compare their legitimate options they’ll end up punching your dance card in November after all. Stay focused on the big prize, and do it the way you set out to, which is what attracted us to you in the first place.
Who is us? The younger and middle-aged generation, first-time voters and many veteran voters who are this close to saying to heck with the whole thing because we see such hypocrisy and are tired of the rich getting richer and pointless wars and the new boss being the same as the old boss, but who got excited when you came along and promised us something different. We believe, and if you let us down we will be disappointed and disillusioned, but we are willing to take the chance that you are the real deal, and so we need you to continue to be just that.
My second piece of unsolicited advice for you, the man who would lead the free world, is to keep focusing on your personal story because it is a good one. The way I see it, you are an anti-elitist, a regular guy who grew up in the middle class, who got into an Ivy League school on your own merits, and who worked your back side off on the streets of Chicago and the state legislature to rise to where you are today. Do the town hall meetings, do the interviews with your wife and kids, and show yourself in your political ads, because this is the kind of stuff that people eat up, myself included.
Look, the biggest problem, of many, with our political system is that both parties are made up of rich guys who are only going to look out for their own interests. There are no teachers and small business owners and rank and file office workers serving in the U.S. Congress, mostly it’s a bunch of wealthy and powerful elites. So human nature dictates that those people will look out for their own kind. You seem to be one of us, or at least you were not all that long ago, obviously serving in the U.S. Senate changes that, but that’s where your inexperience is a plus with many potential voters. We don’t want someone who has been jaded by years in Washington, who has forgotten where they came from, and who has forgotten what it’s like to be in the middle class. Remember in ’92 when George Bush didn’t even know what a grocery scanner was? Well I and many voters did, and it’s that type of elitism that people resent and mistrust. The pictures we saw over the summer of you at your daughter’s soccer match were exactly what we need to see more of. If you want the support of the middle and working class, this type of stuff will go a long ways, and from what I can tell it seems to be pretty genuine. The real elitist in this race is McCain, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, officer, and career politician. But forget McCain, this election isn’t about him, he’s just the Washington Generals to your Harlem Globetrotters, the foil to be defeated. Keep your eyes on the prize, and hold on against all the negativity and traditional right-wing attacks, don’t get distracted or lured into a game you probably can’t and certainly don’t want to win. Tell your story, and then like the shampoo bottle says, repeat if necessary.
My third and final piece of advice is borrowed from the winning Clinton strategy in ’92, it really is all about the economy. People care about Iraq, they care about foreign policy, they care about the environment, and government accountability, the budget deficit, all that stuff is good and well to deal with. Yet what keeps people interested and what motivates them are the basic pocketbook or kitchen sink issues that affect our lives more directly and more profoundly than all the other issues combined. Taxes, gas prices, food prices, utility rates, medical bills, job security, these are the things that affect us greatly and the issues that the middle and working class can unite behind. They affect us whether we are urban or rural, whether we live in red or blue or purple states, and whether we are Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, or non church goers. I suppose there are voters who care more about issues like abortion, gun control, and flag pins, but for most people who work for a living and pay their bills on time and try to make due as best they can with the scraps that are left over, we care about the economy, and how we perceive the government is working to help make our lives better. On the whole, we are not bitter, we certainly are not whiners, but we are anxious, and we seriously question whether our government gets it, and whether if they do get it they care enough to act. The candidate who does the best job of convincing us not only that he can feel our pain but that he has solutions to ease that pain is the one who will get our votes almost every time.
The federal budget is important, but it’s the family budget that hits home, and who is it that handles the family budget decisions in most cases? Now we’re back to really appealing to women, specifically moms who are responsible for making the leftovers from the paychecks stretch as far as possible to pay for food, gas, clothes, all of the kids activities, and maybe have enough left over to go see a good romantic comedy or go out for a decent meal at the end of the week. If you want to appeal to women, as you should, forget the pandering to the Clinton supporters who can't let go of their hurt and anger, forget abortion and most other so-called women’s issues. Women are not some monolithic group that all think the same, anymore than blacks are or old people or any other demographic group that the so-called experts and pollsters love to break down for us on cable news and the Sunday morning round tables. But women do care about the family finances, more so than men who are generally more juvenile and unrealistic when it comes to money. Most guys have unrealistic expectations of their own earning potential and their idea of budgeting is to spend it as fast as you can make it and if you run out hope that one of your buddies can float you until the next payday. Women deal in the real world, and if you want their vote, my advice is to stay focused on the economic issues that matter.
A certain amount of political pandering, moving to the center, and sucking up to big corporate donors is allowed, because after all you do have an election to win before you can bring about any kind of change. But don’t lose sight of what it is that got you the nomination in the first place. Over the course of the long hot summer, it seems as if you have become like a football coach trying to protect a two touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, shying away from the attack and going into the prevent defense. Like the saying goes, the only thing a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning. Stay on the attack so to speak, not against your opponent per se, but against politics as usual. Give us more of the personal story to show us and those who might not be on board yet that you are one of us at heart. Give us hope that someone is manning the economic ship, often times that is enough for consumer confidence and market forces to do the rest. It wasn’t so much FDR’s New Deal policies that lifted the nation out of The Depression as it was the notion of someone in charge caring and understanding what ordinary people were going through, and pledging to try to tackle the problems they were facing.
Forget the critics and naysayers, you simply don’t need to please everyone. As President Bush is living proof of, you don’t need to win in a landslide in order to become president, you just need to win more electoral votes than the other guy. Dance with those of us that brought you, and stay true to form and you’ll pick up enough independents and cross-over Republican votes to get the job, not to mention the younger voters who are key to this election. You had us at hello, and while most guys don’t have enough sense to know when to shut the heck up and get out of their own way, we think you can seal the deal by using some good old-fashioned common sense and sound judgment. You are a different kind of cat, smarter than the average bear, and if you do it the right way, your way, you’ll be the one taking the oath of office come this January. Of course, then the real fun starts, but you've got to get there first, and I for one think that our nation deserves a president that we can admire, respect and be proud of. We haven't had one in my lifetime, which goes back to 1970, and it would sure be something to see and feel the way my parents and grandparents felt about Kennedy and Roosevelt. That's the hope and the dream, and the purpose of writing this open letter to the man who gives us hope for a better nation, for a return to the notion that we truly can be a city on a hill, a shining example of what is possible to the rest of the world and the type of country that can make its’ citizens proud once more to be part of the world’s great experiment in government by, of, and for, the people.
Monday, August 25, 2008
You're in my Soul
My best friend was born on this day, and the world has never been the same since. She is quite simply the best person and the most beautiful soul I have ever or will ever know. She is funny and charming, she lights up a room when she enters and leaves an indelible impression on all who encounter her. Her beauty is so much more than skin deep, so much more than her beautiful blue eyes that penetrate your soul or her magical smile that warms your insides when it focuses on you. The love she has for life and the energy she creates is palpable and contagious. When you are in her presence you can’t help but feel glad to be alive. It was said that Helen of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships. Julie Kay has a face that brought those ships home again, I know that no matter what the day holds in store for me, that I will return home in the afternoon or evening to the sweetest woman in this world and nothing can stop me from the feeling I get when I walk in the door and see the one person that has a hold on me like no other.
In the nearly 18 years that I have had the pleasure of knowing her, my life has changed immeasurably for the better. When I used to dream about the right girl for me, there were two things that stood out on my wish list. She would have to be someone with whom I could just hang out and enjoy doing absolutely nothing with except for simply enjoying each other’s company. And she would have to be someone who would be a loving, committed, dedicated, and passionate mother to our children that we would one day bring into this world and raise. I hit the jackpot on both counts. Jules is the best mother I can imagine, and having an incredible mom myself the standards have been set quite high in that regard. There is nobody I know other than my own mother, who is as devoted to the happiness of her children, to the well-being of her family. She is the heart and soul of our family, the engine that drives us, the shoulder we lean on when we are down, and the one we want to share our triumphs with because we know that she will always be genuinely excited for us, and the person that will be in our corner come good times or bad, no matter what the rest of the world thinks of us or how it treats us. If that were the extent of it then it would be enough, but Julie is my partner as well.
There is nobody I would rather spend time with, doing anything and everything or nothing at all. Before the kids were born, many moons ago, we would sleep in until noon on Sundays, laze around and watch TV, take the dog down to the park, and then take an afternoon nap a few hours later. Having kids forced a change in those habits, but one thing that remains the same is our love for being around each other. Whether it be sitting out back plotting our future and solving the problems of the world, watching our Sunday morning news show together and calling out the shortcomings of the politicians and media who cover them, pedaling away on the exercise bikes at the gym lost in conversation, or just hanging around in the family room with the kids, cracking jokes and laughing and just being alive, our time together is a gift from above and something that I truly cherish.
So Happy Birthday my love, I love you with all my heart and all my soul, and more and more every day. I was going to get you a cheesy card that someone else created, but I thought this would be more from the heart. Besides, you know how I am, I would have got you the same card as before because it made me chuckle and I didn’t remember that I had got you the card a year ago, you know the one, with the nerdy guy on the front that I’ve given to you at least twice now. And nobody else can sum up best how I feel about you because nobody else knows you and loves you and appreciates you the way that I do. I am forever yours, faithful, loyal, and grateful for the love we share for each other, for our family, and for the people in our lives. You and I have a love that is as timeless and ancient as that between Aida and Radames, one that takes precedence over anything else that may be happening in the world around us. To borrow from the Rod Stewart song, you are my lover, you’re my best friend, you’re in my soul. Here’s to a great birthday for my best friend, and to many more over the course of this wonderful journey through life that we are on together. I love you baby, now and forever!
Mark
In the nearly 18 years that I have had the pleasure of knowing her, my life has changed immeasurably for the better. When I used to dream about the right girl for me, there were two things that stood out on my wish list. She would have to be someone with whom I could just hang out and enjoy doing absolutely nothing with except for simply enjoying each other’s company. And she would have to be someone who would be a loving, committed, dedicated, and passionate mother to our children that we would one day bring into this world and raise. I hit the jackpot on both counts. Jules is the best mother I can imagine, and having an incredible mom myself the standards have been set quite high in that regard. There is nobody I know other than my own mother, who is as devoted to the happiness of her children, to the well-being of her family. She is the heart and soul of our family, the engine that drives us, the shoulder we lean on when we are down, and the one we want to share our triumphs with because we know that she will always be genuinely excited for us, and the person that will be in our corner come good times or bad, no matter what the rest of the world thinks of us or how it treats us. If that were the extent of it then it would be enough, but Julie is my partner as well.
There is nobody I would rather spend time with, doing anything and everything or nothing at all. Before the kids were born, many moons ago, we would sleep in until noon on Sundays, laze around and watch TV, take the dog down to the park, and then take an afternoon nap a few hours later. Having kids forced a change in those habits, but one thing that remains the same is our love for being around each other. Whether it be sitting out back plotting our future and solving the problems of the world, watching our Sunday morning news show together and calling out the shortcomings of the politicians and media who cover them, pedaling away on the exercise bikes at the gym lost in conversation, or just hanging around in the family room with the kids, cracking jokes and laughing and just being alive, our time together is a gift from above and something that I truly cherish.
So Happy Birthday my love, I love you with all my heart and all my soul, and more and more every day. I was going to get you a cheesy card that someone else created, but I thought this would be more from the heart. Besides, you know how I am, I would have got you the same card as before because it made me chuckle and I didn’t remember that I had got you the card a year ago, you know the one, with the nerdy guy on the front that I’ve given to you at least twice now. And nobody else can sum up best how I feel about you because nobody else knows you and loves you and appreciates you the way that I do. I am forever yours, faithful, loyal, and grateful for the love we share for each other, for our family, and for the people in our lives. You and I have a love that is as timeless and ancient as that between Aida and Radames, one that takes precedence over anything else that may be happening in the world around us. To borrow from the Rod Stewart song, you are my lover, you’re my best friend, you’re in my soul. Here’s to a great birthday for my best friend, and to many more over the course of this wonderful journey through life that we are on together. I love you baby, now and forever!
Mark
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Music to My Ears
Note: This is something that I wrote for my Social Studies class and posted on our class blog. The assignment for the students was to choose an element of culture and write about its' impact on their lives, so I thought that I would do the assignment as well and post it. Since I haven't had much time to write this week I figured that I would at least put this on the grind. The word limit was 500, which I didn't quite hit, but I came close, which is why this column is shorter than the usual novellas I put out there. Upcoming column, as soon as I get a few spare moments, is tentatively titled "Ten Things I Can Do Without". Happy reading!
There are very few things in life that I enjoy more than music. Time spent with loved ones, a fiery sunrise, a peaceful sunset, and a big old tuna sandwich on sourdough are a few, but music is one of my favorite things to experience. When I listen to good music I am taken away to another place, I become almost oblivious to my surroundings. Whether I’m in my car banging out the drum solo on the steering wheel or strumming the guitar line on my center consul, or at the gym with my iPod and mouthing the lyrics while keeping time with my feet, I get to a place where I don’t even care if people are looking at me funny or what they even think because I’m in the middle of a great tune and nobody can touch me.
Some songs bring back memories of certain times in my life, sometimes sad memories but mostly great ones, as my life has been made up of mostly wonderful people and great experiences. I can hear a song and it will take me back to a certain time and place, usually accompanied by a big smile on my face as I remember high school days spent cruising up the esplanade at the beach at sunset, or sitting in my buddy’s car in front of my house, him doing the lead and me doing the backup vocals.
When I hear great music I get emotional. I get goose bumps at some music, and some music is just so good that it brings tears to my eyes. Not because I’m sad, but the opposite, I just feel so good to be alive and so fortunate that it humbles me and brings tears streaming down my face, and I’m old enough that I don’t care anymore if that seems unmanly so I just let them fall. I also come to tears at movies, plays, and musicals, again not even at a usual tear jerker moment, like when Old Yeller died or when ET wanted to go home, but just when something moves me.
My tastes in music have expanded over the years, but I still love all of the musical styles that I have been exposed to since I first fell in love with music as a little kid. When I was only 2 or 3 years old I used to listen to my record player so much that as a punishment my parents would take my record player away. It did the trick because I didn’t want that punishment again.
Growing up my parents made a decision to not have a TV in the house, so in addition to reading a lot, I spent countless hours in my room, lying on the floor and listening to my albums and to the radio, which back in the days before corporate radio dominated the airwaves was really enjoyable. From Elvis Presley records that I listened to and Sam Cooke records that my grandparents had in their collection when I was a pre-schooler, to heavy metal, which I started listening to in junior high, to new wave or alternative music that I listened to in high school, to the classic rock that I got turned on to in college, to jazz which I also fell in love with in college, to classical music that I used to listen to when studying for exams but have come to greatly appreciate in recent years at any time, to opera, which I fell in love with only last December watching the performance of La Boehme at the Orpheum theatre, music is something that enriches my life and gives me great pleasure, and it is something that will always be a major part of who I am.
There are very few things in life that I enjoy more than music. Time spent with loved ones, a fiery sunrise, a peaceful sunset, and a big old tuna sandwich on sourdough are a few, but music is one of my favorite things to experience. When I listen to good music I am taken away to another place, I become almost oblivious to my surroundings. Whether I’m in my car banging out the drum solo on the steering wheel or strumming the guitar line on my center consul, or at the gym with my iPod and mouthing the lyrics while keeping time with my feet, I get to a place where I don’t even care if people are looking at me funny or what they even think because I’m in the middle of a great tune and nobody can touch me.
Some songs bring back memories of certain times in my life, sometimes sad memories but mostly great ones, as my life has been made up of mostly wonderful people and great experiences. I can hear a song and it will take me back to a certain time and place, usually accompanied by a big smile on my face as I remember high school days spent cruising up the esplanade at the beach at sunset, or sitting in my buddy’s car in front of my house, him doing the lead and me doing the backup vocals.
When I hear great music I get emotional. I get goose bumps at some music, and some music is just so good that it brings tears to my eyes. Not because I’m sad, but the opposite, I just feel so good to be alive and so fortunate that it humbles me and brings tears streaming down my face, and I’m old enough that I don’t care anymore if that seems unmanly so I just let them fall. I also come to tears at movies, plays, and musicals, again not even at a usual tear jerker moment, like when Old Yeller died or when ET wanted to go home, but just when something moves me.
My tastes in music have expanded over the years, but I still love all of the musical styles that I have been exposed to since I first fell in love with music as a little kid. When I was only 2 or 3 years old I used to listen to my record player so much that as a punishment my parents would take my record player away. It did the trick because I didn’t want that punishment again.
Growing up my parents made a decision to not have a TV in the house, so in addition to reading a lot, I spent countless hours in my room, lying on the floor and listening to my albums and to the radio, which back in the days before corporate radio dominated the airwaves was really enjoyable. From Elvis Presley records that I listened to and Sam Cooke records that my grandparents had in their collection when I was a pre-schooler, to heavy metal, which I started listening to in junior high, to new wave or alternative music that I listened to in high school, to the classic rock that I got turned on to in college, to jazz which I also fell in love with in college, to classical music that I used to listen to when studying for exams but have come to greatly appreciate in recent years at any time, to opera, which I fell in love with only last December watching the performance of La Boehme at the Orpheum theatre, music is something that enriches my life and gives me great pleasure, and it is something that will always be a major part of who I am.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The World Turned Upside Down
At the culminating and decisive battle of one of the greatest upsets in the history of warfare, the British band, yes they had bands in battles back in the good old days of warfare, played a popular tune of the day titled “The World Turned Upside Down”. Indeed it had, as the upstart Americans, a bunch of farmers with pitchforks, had just defeated the world’s mightiest army. It was an upset of epic proportions, and why let the fact that the British were involved in a global conflict with rivals France and Spain and therefore had bigger fish to fry get in the way of a great creation myth. We beat those damn redcoats, even if they didn’t come at us with their best lineup, and we won our independence, which we probably would have won via more peaceful means in a matter of time anyways, but again, the story is too good to mess with and has served us well for over two centuries now. And besides, the point of this Sunday’s column is not to question history it is rather to question what is going on in the right here and right now.
Let’s start with the media coverage, or more to the point the lack thereof, of the latest politician who can’t keep it in his pants story. Oh, what’s that you say, you haven’t heard of this story? Maybe that’s because you don’t read the National Enquirer, or at least you don’t admit to it in polite society, don’t worry I won’t tell anyone. Who am I to judge, I watch Survivor and Big Brother, but not the rest of those reality shows because they’re all garbage and only feeble minded people with no taste watch those shows. But back to the story or non-story concerning the one-time vice-presidential candidate and more recently a contender for the Democratic nomination. You know the one, the down to earth rich guy, the guy who spends hundreds on a haircut but can’t bust out for a decent pair of jeans, the one who decided to soldier on despite his wife’s cancer diagnosis because he wants to help feed the poor, rebuild New Orleans, and be able to pay the extortion money to his mistress and illegitimate love child. How would you like to be known as an illegitimate love child by the way, nobody ever identifies themselves that way when they introduce themselves? So this story, which the respectable, venerable, main stream media, the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, wouldn’t touch, is broken by the bastion of government watchfulness, the National Enquirer. And the amazing thing is that even now after the illicit affair is acknowledged, there is hardly a word of it. I feel like a schmuck because I actually voted for the guy in the primary, and while I don’t expect my politicians to be saints, and while I can forgive certain past transgressions, I have a heck of hard time overlooking current transgressions, and besides, it’s only been less than a decade since we had a cheating, lying bastard in the White House, we need at least one more cycle before we put another one in. Maybe one advantage of having McCain as our president is that he probably goes to bed too early to be able to run out on his wife, and besides, the risk of one of those four hour hard-ons is always lurking. Try explaining that one to the delegates at the next G8 Summit.
Perhaps the lame stream media was too busy to cover the Edwards dealings because of the big terrorist trial and prosecution going down. What’s that you say, we finally got Bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11, or at least the one acknowledged by most non-wacko’s who aren’t convinced that it was President Bush who ordered the attack. Yeah, like Bush could pull off that caper, and like Scott McClellan wouldn’t have stood up and talked him out of it. No, not Bin Laden, how about putting away some of the big sharks we have caught and are holding in a 21st century Bastille somewhere? Perhaps Chemical Ali, no relation to Muhammad, the boxer or the profit, but one of the key AQ guys who apparently wasn’t big on clean shirts or hair brushing. Nah, we got the driver! That’s right, we put away the driver, I think it was Bin Laden’s driver, for all I know he was Ms. Daisy’s driver, although apparently he’s not such a good driver anymore. The effect is the same, which is to say almost none. We can all rest easier at night now knowing that the world is safer and there is one less terrorist taxi driver out there, although rumor has it that he has a job lined up in Manhattan when he gets out in a few months. After all, he does have a pretty solid resume, after getting Bin Laden out of jams, getting a businessman to JFK in rush hour traffic should be a snap.
Speaking of good old President Bush, the Cowboy from Connecticut, he gave a stern lecture to China from Indonesia on human rights. He might not have been in Indonesia, I really don’t pay attention anymore to the details, but he was somewhere in Southeast Asia giving his upbraiding of the Chinese for their disregard of human rights. I’m sure the Chinese heard the leader of the free world, the symbol of freedom and democracy speaking and sat back and thought, wow, this guy is right on the money, we need to really think about changing the way we do business. We should be more like America under Bush/Cheney, those guys really know how to stand up for the little guy and respect the constitution and laws of the land. How do you say LOL in Mandarin?
How about the Wide World of Sports, surely that world is still right side up? Think again, because the NBA superstars you have all come to know and love, namely Kobe Bryant, last seen coming up short in the finals against the Boston freaking Celtics, and Lebron James, also last seen coming up short against those same dang Celtics, are openly musing about what kind of money it would take for them to jump ship, literally, and sail across the Atlantic to play for some team named Benetton Treviso, or Split Pop 84, or whatever ridiculous names the European teams are calling their basketball squads these days. Of course, here in America we would never come up with silly nicknames, such as the Miami Heat, or the Oklahoma City Thunder. Nor would we have a team in Utah named the Jazz or a team in L.A. named the Lakers. Back to the issue however, which is that these two stalwarts of the game that was invented here and exported to the rest of the world, are now ready to take their jump shots, tattoos, and long shorts across the pond, if the price is right. How nice to know that our energy and time and loyalty as fans is so richly rewarded. It makes me want to run out and spend a Franklin and a Grant on the newest Kobe jersey before they stop making them. The female hotel staff members in Milan better start taking self-defense classes now to be ready just in case this thing really goes down.
Sometimes things get turned upside down in a way that is unexpected but that gives you faith in a world gone mad. Such is the case with the surprising yet fitting fate of baseball’s all-time home run king and one of the game’s greatest power pitchers. Neither can find a job, and while both are in their mid-40’s, a time when most ballplayers are trading in their baseball cleats for golf shoes, both are still seemingly capable of playing a valuable role for a contending team down the stretch. Clemens could still get you a few wins and could be a big threat coming out of the bullpen for the middle innings in a playoff series, and Bonds can still knock the cover off of the ball. Yet to date, no team has picked them up, and the only reason has to do with the widely held though not yet proven belief that the two cheated the game that we know and love. Of course, there are others who have either admitted their guilt or been named in the Mitchell Report, or even worse, attended one of Jose Canseco’s wild steroid parties, the only rules being don’t wear underwear and BYON, bring your own needles. Jason Giambi is an admitted cheater, but the guy grows a porn stache and the sporting world goes crazy over him. A funny lot us sports fans are. How about Brett Favre? Does anyone else see a disconnect between the rugged, down to earth guy in the Wrangler Jeans commercial, the kind of guy who comes in from playing a little touch football, feeds the pigs, rakes the front yard, showers up and reads his playbook before hitting the sack, and the guy who is flying around the country on his little private jet, acting for all the world like a major prima donna making demands of a team that had him under contract. I’m not one to make predictions and actually expect them to hold, but I just don’t see good things happening for old number four in a Jets uniform, we’re talking about a 39 year old QB going to a 4-12 team. Those situations generally don’t have such a happy ending, but we shall see how this one turns out. At least Favre didn’t demand to be traded to the Rhine Fire or the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe.
So much turning upside down, so little time to digest it all. So I saved the best for last, and this one is a bit painful for me to admit to, as it involves someone who I once believed in, and still hold out hope that perhaps I’m being too demanding or unfair in my assessments. Thus, I will reserve the right to change my mind on this one, but as I sit here today, I have become very disappointed and just a tad disillusioned with one Senator Barrack Obama. The candidate of change has become stagnant, like a flowing river that runs out of flow and ends up being deposited in a pond full of green algae where not even fish go to swim. The candidate who promised us a different kind of politics is giving us heavy doses of politics as usual. He can’t seem to make up his mind on important issues such as drilling for oil, I’m waiting for him to bust out with the I was for it before I was against it line, and increasingly his platform looks like it will bust the bank that is already flat broke from eight years of rule by the party that was once known for fiscal conservativism, at least in theory if not always in practice. I’m all in favor of taxing the ultra rich until they bleed some, but even that won’t pay for all of Obama’s grand plans. Even if he proposes going back to the 70% rate that served this country well for many years before Reagan rolled them back and ushered in the new Gilded Age, that wouldn’t get the job done, and I don’t see Obama or any Congress having the cajones to do that anyways. So either we get broken campaign promises or we get bigger deficits and even more enormous debt, which poses not only financial but national security risks. Bin Laden’s driver couldn’t have planned it out any better when he collaborated with Bush at the Freeemasons meeting, we take down the towers and we can bankrupt the whole American system. Pure evil genius. Obama’s foreign policy seems to be to get out of Iraq at some point in the future, but hey troops, before you get home to your families and jobs and lives, you don’t mind stopping by in Afghanistan real quick to do a little more fighting for our freedom do you? Stay brave, stay free, and stay in Asia because we’ve got a really good plan for winning in Afghanistan. Which we should be rolling out at the 2012 Democratic and Republican conventions, by then your kids will be in high school and your wife will be even further removed from your life than she probably already is. It truly breaks my heart when I think about the sacrifices that are being made by our military and their families, and for what? But no hurry or anything to solve this one, we’ve got Paris Hilton to deal with first.
And the Clintons, will Obama please stand up and slap them both down once and for all. The guy had no problem throwing his pastor and his church under the proverbial bus; he even called out his own grandmother for being racist. But he treats the Clintons with kid gloves and it makes you wonder how will this guy stand up to Russia, China, and Iran, which are the real threats to our security and standing in the world over the next 50 years. We need leadership that will be diplomatic and nuanced, but sometimes you have to be tough and stand up for what’s right. Reagan did so to the Soviets and we got some pretty good results out of that. We don’t need another cowboy in the White house like Bush, but we also don’t need another Carter.
Stay tuned, as there is sure to be much more from the wonderful world of the wild and wacky. Perhaps at some point the world will be turned back and things will be as they appear, as they should be. But then again, what would we have to amuse ourselves with and to occupy our time? I’m told that American Idol doesn’t even start until January, so until then the real reality show will have to suffice.
Let’s start with the media coverage, or more to the point the lack thereof, of the latest politician who can’t keep it in his pants story. Oh, what’s that you say, you haven’t heard of this story? Maybe that’s because you don’t read the National Enquirer, or at least you don’t admit to it in polite society, don’t worry I won’t tell anyone. Who am I to judge, I watch Survivor and Big Brother, but not the rest of those reality shows because they’re all garbage and only feeble minded people with no taste watch those shows. But back to the story or non-story concerning the one-time vice-presidential candidate and more recently a contender for the Democratic nomination. You know the one, the down to earth rich guy, the guy who spends hundreds on a haircut but can’t bust out for a decent pair of jeans, the one who decided to soldier on despite his wife’s cancer diagnosis because he wants to help feed the poor, rebuild New Orleans, and be able to pay the extortion money to his mistress and illegitimate love child. How would you like to be known as an illegitimate love child by the way, nobody ever identifies themselves that way when they introduce themselves? So this story, which the respectable, venerable, main stream media, the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, wouldn’t touch, is broken by the bastion of government watchfulness, the National Enquirer. And the amazing thing is that even now after the illicit affair is acknowledged, there is hardly a word of it. I feel like a schmuck because I actually voted for the guy in the primary, and while I don’t expect my politicians to be saints, and while I can forgive certain past transgressions, I have a heck of hard time overlooking current transgressions, and besides, it’s only been less than a decade since we had a cheating, lying bastard in the White House, we need at least one more cycle before we put another one in. Maybe one advantage of having McCain as our president is that he probably goes to bed too early to be able to run out on his wife, and besides, the risk of one of those four hour hard-ons is always lurking. Try explaining that one to the delegates at the next G8 Summit.
Perhaps the lame stream media was too busy to cover the Edwards dealings because of the big terrorist trial and prosecution going down. What’s that you say, we finally got Bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11, or at least the one acknowledged by most non-wacko’s who aren’t convinced that it was President Bush who ordered the attack. Yeah, like Bush could pull off that caper, and like Scott McClellan wouldn’t have stood up and talked him out of it. No, not Bin Laden, how about putting away some of the big sharks we have caught and are holding in a 21st century Bastille somewhere? Perhaps Chemical Ali, no relation to Muhammad, the boxer or the profit, but one of the key AQ guys who apparently wasn’t big on clean shirts or hair brushing. Nah, we got the driver! That’s right, we put away the driver, I think it was Bin Laden’s driver, for all I know he was Ms. Daisy’s driver, although apparently he’s not such a good driver anymore. The effect is the same, which is to say almost none. We can all rest easier at night now knowing that the world is safer and there is one less terrorist taxi driver out there, although rumor has it that he has a job lined up in Manhattan when he gets out in a few months. After all, he does have a pretty solid resume, after getting Bin Laden out of jams, getting a businessman to JFK in rush hour traffic should be a snap.
Speaking of good old President Bush, the Cowboy from Connecticut, he gave a stern lecture to China from Indonesia on human rights. He might not have been in Indonesia, I really don’t pay attention anymore to the details, but he was somewhere in Southeast Asia giving his upbraiding of the Chinese for their disregard of human rights. I’m sure the Chinese heard the leader of the free world, the symbol of freedom and democracy speaking and sat back and thought, wow, this guy is right on the money, we need to really think about changing the way we do business. We should be more like America under Bush/Cheney, those guys really know how to stand up for the little guy and respect the constitution and laws of the land. How do you say LOL in Mandarin?
How about the Wide World of Sports, surely that world is still right side up? Think again, because the NBA superstars you have all come to know and love, namely Kobe Bryant, last seen coming up short in the finals against the Boston freaking Celtics, and Lebron James, also last seen coming up short against those same dang Celtics, are openly musing about what kind of money it would take for them to jump ship, literally, and sail across the Atlantic to play for some team named Benetton Treviso, or Split Pop 84, or whatever ridiculous names the European teams are calling their basketball squads these days. Of course, here in America we would never come up with silly nicknames, such as the Miami Heat, or the Oklahoma City Thunder. Nor would we have a team in Utah named the Jazz or a team in L.A. named the Lakers. Back to the issue however, which is that these two stalwarts of the game that was invented here and exported to the rest of the world, are now ready to take their jump shots, tattoos, and long shorts across the pond, if the price is right. How nice to know that our energy and time and loyalty as fans is so richly rewarded. It makes me want to run out and spend a Franklin and a Grant on the newest Kobe jersey before they stop making them. The female hotel staff members in Milan better start taking self-defense classes now to be ready just in case this thing really goes down.
Sometimes things get turned upside down in a way that is unexpected but that gives you faith in a world gone mad. Such is the case with the surprising yet fitting fate of baseball’s all-time home run king and one of the game’s greatest power pitchers. Neither can find a job, and while both are in their mid-40’s, a time when most ballplayers are trading in their baseball cleats for golf shoes, both are still seemingly capable of playing a valuable role for a contending team down the stretch. Clemens could still get you a few wins and could be a big threat coming out of the bullpen for the middle innings in a playoff series, and Bonds can still knock the cover off of the ball. Yet to date, no team has picked them up, and the only reason has to do with the widely held though not yet proven belief that the two cheated the game that we know and love. Of course, there are others who have either admitted their guilt or been named in the Mitchell Report, or even worse, attended one of Jose Canseco’s wild steroid parties, the only rules being don’t wear underwear and BYON, bring your own needles. Jason Giambi is an admitted cheater, but the guy grows a porn stache and the sporting world goes crazy over him. A funny lot us sports fans are. How about Brett Favre? Does anyone else see a disconnect between the rugged, down to earth guy in the Wrangler Jeans commercial, the kind of guy who comes in from playing a little touch football, feeds the pigs, rakes the front yard, showers up and reads his playbook before hitting the sack, and the guy who is flying around the country on his little private jet, acting for all the world like a major prima donna making demands of a team that had him under contract. I’m not one to make predictions and actually expect them to hold, but I just don’t see good things happening for old number four in a Jets uniform, we’re talking about a 39 year old QB going to a 4-12 team. Those situations generally don’t have such a happy ending, but we shall see how this one turns out. At least Favre didn’t demand to be traded to the Rhine Fire or the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe.
So much turning upside down, so little time to digest it all. So I saved the best for last, and this one is a bit painful for me to admit to, as it involves someone who I once believed in, and still hold out hope that perhaps I’m being too demanding or unfair in my assessments. Thus, I will reserve the right to change my mind on this one, but as I sit here today, I have become very disappointed and just a tad disillusioned with one Senator Barrack Obama. The candidate of change has become stagnant, like a flowing river that runs out of flow and ends up being deposited in a pond full of green algae where not even fish go to swim. The candidate who promised us a different kind of politics is giving us heavy doses of politics as usual. He can’t seem to make up his mind on important issues such as drilling for oil, I’m waiting for him to bust out with the I was for it before I was against it line, and increasingly his platform looks like it will bust the bank that is already flat broke from eight years of rule by the party that was once known for fiscal conservativism, at least in theory if not always in practice. I’m all in favor of taxing the ultra rich until they bleed some, but even that won’t pay for all of Obama’s grand plans. Even if he proposes going back to the 70% rate that served this country well for many years before Reagan rolled them back and ushered in the new Gilded Age, that wouldn’t get the job done, and I don’t see Obama or any Congress having the cajones to do that anyways. So either we get broken campaign promises or we get bigger deficits and even more enormous debt, which poses not only financial but national security risks. Bin Laden’s driver couldn’t have planned it out any better when he collaborated with Bush at the Freeemasons meeting, we take down the towers and we can bankrupt the whole American system. Pure evil genius. Obama’s foreign policy seems to be to get out of Iraq at some point in the future, but hey troops, before you get home to your families and jobs and lives, you don’t mind stopping by in Afghanistan real quick to do a little more fighting for our freedom do you? Stay brave, stay free, and stay in Asia because we’ve got a really good plan for winning in Afghanistan. Which we should be rolling out at the 2012 Democratic and Republican conventions, by then your kids will be in high school and your wife will be even further removed from your life than she probably already is. It truly breaks my heart when I think about the sacrifices that are being made by our military and their families, and for what? But no hurry or anything to solve this one, we’ve got Paris Hilton to deal with first.
And the Clintons, will Obama please stand up and slap them both down once and for all. The guy had no problem throwing his pastor and his church under the proverbial bus; he even called out his own grandmother for being racist. But he treats the Clintons with kid gloves and it makes you wonder how will this guy stand up to Russia, China, and Iran, which are the real threats to our security and standing in the world over the next 50 years. We need leadership that will be diplomatic and nuanced, but sometimes you have to be tough and stand up for what’s right. Reagan did so to the Soviets and we got some pretty good results out of that. We don’t need another cowboy in the White house like Bush, but we also don’t need another Carter.
Stay tuned, as there is sure to be much more from the wonderful world of the wild and wacky. Perhaps at some point the world will be turned back and things will be as they appear, as they should be. But then again, what would we have to amuse ourselves with and to occupy our time? I’m told that American Idol doesn’t even start until January, so until then the real reality show will have to suffice.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Beautiful Boy
On this day 14 years ago, my life changed forever. In fact as I begin writing this, it is about 14 years and 14 minutes to be exact since my son, Jacob Michael Nicholas, Jake to the rest of the world, came into this world at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Nothing can prepare you for the birth of your first child, you can read all the books about what to expect and listen to all the expert advice, but being a parent is one of those things that you can’t possibly know about until you do it, and then once you do it you can hardly imagine that there was a time when you weren’t a parent.
But enough about me and how becoming a dad impacted my life, this is all about my boy. Jake turns 14 today, and quite simply he is, along with his sister Chloe, my pride and joy. I wish I could take credit for the people that they are, obviously as a parent you have an impact on things, but they are unique individuals with their own temperaments, their own personalities, their own favorite sports teams and activities, and their own outlook on the world. They are, along with their mom and my own parents, my in-laws, and my little brother, the best people I know and I am so fortunate to have them in my life, they make me better as a person and they make life what it is, which is beautiful and sweet and worth living well every single day.
My boy is everything a dad could ever ask for. He is sweet and kind, loving and genuine. He is good to his mom, he gives her such pleasure, and he has a sense for when she is down and an ability to pump her back up in a way that only a faithful and loving son can do. In general he is just a pleasure to be around. Jake is a family guy through and through, he understands the true meaning of family and he understands and practices loyalty, which is one of the most important qualities anyone can exhibit.
Jake may only be 14, but he is indeed a young man, the boy has gone away along with his baby fat. His once pudgy boyish frame has turned into a lean, muscular, athletic physique, the kind that makes young girls turn their heads when he walks into a room, and the type that makes old guys smile with the memories of when they were younger. Jake has a presence about him that commands respect and admiration from those who know him. You can see it in the way his buddies’ eyes light up when he approaches them. He has a wicked sense of humor, a natural trash talker but one who can do it in a way that lets you know he is doing it out of love and not with any bad intent. He sees humor and irony in various situations that you wouldn’t expect from one so young. He is mature and intelligent and has all the social graces and etiquette you would expect from one much older than he.
Jake is a great athlete, a gentleman, and a scholar. He is independent minded and accountable for his actions. He takes matters into his own hands, for instance he signed up for honors classes for high school without being urged to do so or told to, he knows what needs to be done and he does it. He has lofty goals when it comes to sports, he wants to play college football for the USC Trojans, and if he stays healthy he just might accomplish that goal, but he is also wise enough to know that you have to have plans in case sports don’t work out. He takes his studies seriously and puts the same passion and level of commitment into them as he does his athletic pursuits, and for that matter everything he does.
Jake is level headed and even tempered, and on this count I certainly can take no credit whatsoever. I wish I could be like he is in that regard, he is slow to anger and quick to forgive, again showing a sense of perspective and maturity far beyond his years. Jake has a great financial sense about him and is wise with his money, he is much more apt to save than to spend, yet another trait of his that I wish I had. When he was little his mom and I needed to borrow some of his cash, and he agreed, on the stipulation that we pay him back with interest. Never mind that the rate he wanted would make the manager of a Payday Loan establishment blush, he knew what he wanted and he held out until he got it. And he got it, we borrowed ten bucks and paid him back fifteen.
Jake is my sports partner, there is nobody I would rather watch a ballgame with, nobody I would rather exchange ideas with, nobody I would rather explain things to or tell stories about the old days to. There is no one that I would rather play a round of golf with, and nobody that I would rather have riding shotgun on the long drive up to the Sierras that we do every summer. For someone who claims to hate long drives, he sure makes them go by quicker with his sharp wit and interesting questions, not to mention his ability to humor his old man when I give him one of my inevitable long rambling answers.
When he was really little my biggest fear used to be that something would happen to me and that he would never know his dad, and that I would never know him. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly hope to be around for a long time and to see him continue to develop into the fine young man and wonderful person that he is on the road to becoming. I want to see him play high school ball, and maybe beyond, I want to see him go off to college and start a career and get married and have a family of his own. I want to know him as an adult and be able to tell him so many things that I can’t quite talk about with him yet. But if something were to happen to me tomorrow, I know that my boy is on his way in life. I also know that I could count on him to take care of the family, to be there for his mom and his sister, and to be the man of the house. That is something that makes a dad feel a certain comfort, knowing that the people I love the most in this world would be in good hands.
Having said all of that, I’m certainly hoping to see my beautiful boy become a man, and to share many more moments and memories together. In one of my favorite movies, “Dances With Wolves”, there is a scene where Kicking Bird is talking to Dances With Wolves, and tells him, “Of all the paths in life, there is one that matters. That is the path of a true human being. You are on this path, and it is good to see.” Jake, you are on this path, and no words on a page can express how it makes my heart feel to see and to know that. Time is moving by much too quickly, and the little boy that I once laid across my chest as a newborn and read the sports page to is now on the verge of becoming a full-fledged man. I love my boy, I cherish the moments I have with him, and I look forward to seeing him continue on the path that matters the most, thankful that he is in my life and fortunate to be a part of his.
But enough about me and how becoming a dad impacted my life, this is all about my boy. Jake turns 14 today, and quite simply he is, along with his sister Chloe, my pride and joy. I wish I could take credit for the people that they are, obviously as a parent you have an impact on things, but they are unique individuals with their own temperaments, their own personalities, their own favorite sports teams and activities, and their own outlook on the world. They are, along with their mom and my own parents, my in-laws, and my little brother, the best people I know and I am so fortunate to have them in my life, they make me better as a person and they make life what it is, which is beautiful and sweet and worth living well every single day.
My boy is everything a dad could ever ask for. He is sweet and kind, loving and genuine. He is good to his mom, he gives her such pleasure, and he has a sense for when she is down and an ability to pump her back up in a way that only a faithful and loving son can do. In general he is just a pleasure to be around. Jake is a family guy through and through, he understands the true meaning of family and he understands and practices loyalty, which is one of the most important qualities anyone can exhibit.
Jake may only be 14, but he is indeed a young man, the boy has gone away along with his baby fat. His once pudgy boyish frame has turned into a lean, muscular, athletic physique, the kind that makes young girls turn their heads when he walks into a room, and the type that makes old guys smile with the memories of when they were younger. Jake has a presence about him that commands respect and admiration from those who know him. You can see it in the way his buddies’ eyes light up when he approaches them. He has a wicked sense of humor, a natural trash talker but one who can do it in a way that lets you know he is doing it out of love and not with any bad intent. He sees humor and irony in various situations that you wouldn’t expect from one so young. He is mature and intelligent and has all the social graces and etiquette you would expect from one much older than he.
Jake is a great athlete, a gentleman, and a scholar. He is independent minded and accountable for his actions. He takes matters into his own hands, for instance he signed up for honors classes for high school without being urged to do so or told to, he knows what needs to be done and he does it. He has lofty goals when it comes to sports, he wants to play college football for the USC Trojans, and if he stays healthy he just might accomplish that goal, but he is also wise enough to know that you have to have plans in case sports don’t work out. He takes his studies seriously and puts the same passion and level of commitment into them as he does his athletic pursuits, and for that matter everything he does.
Jake is level headed and even tempered, and on this count I certainly can take no credit whatsoever. I wish I could be like he is in that regard, he is slow to anger and quick to forgive, again showing a sense of perspective and maturity far beyond his years. Jake has a great financial sense about him and is wise with his money, he is much more apt to save than to spend, yet another trait of his that I wish I had. When he was little his mom and I needed to borrow some of his cash, and he agreed, on the stipulation that we pay him back with interest. Never mind that the rate he wanted would make the manager of a Payday Loan establishment blush, he knew what he wanted and he held out until he got it. And he got it, we borrowed ten bucks and paid him back fifteen.
Jake is my sports partner, there is nobody I would rather watch a ballgame with, nobody I would rather exchange ideas with, nobody I would rather explain things to or tell stories about the old days to. There is no one that I would rather play a round of golf with, and nobody that I would rather have riding shotgun on the long drive up to the Sierras that we do every summer. For someone who claims to hate long drives, he sure makes them go by quicker with his sharp wit and interesting questions, not to mention his ability to humor his old man when I give him one of my inevitable long rambling answers.
When he was really little my biggest fear used to be that something would happen to me and that he would never know his dad, and that I would never know him. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly hope to be around for a long time and to see him continue to develop into the fine young man and wonderful person that he is on the road to becoming. I want to see him play high school ball, and maybe beyond, I want to see him go off to college and start a career and get married and have a family of his own. I want to know him as an adult and be able to tell him so many things that I can’t quite talk about with him yet. But if something were to happen to me tomorrow, I know that my boy is on his way in life. I also know that I could count on him to take care of the family, to be there for his mom and his sister, and to be the man of the house. That is something that makes a dad feel a certain comfort, knowing that the people I love the most in this world would be in good hands.
Having said all of that, I’m certainly hoping to see my beautiful boy become a man, and to share many more moments and memories together. In one of my favorite movies, “Dances With Wolves”, there is a scene where Kicking Bird is talking to Dances With Wolves, and tells him, “Of all the paths in life, there is one that matters. That is the path of a true human being. You are on this path, and it is good to see.” Jake, you are on this path, and no words on a page can express how it makes my heart feel to see and to know that. Time is moving by much too quickly, and the little boy that I once laid across my chest as a newborn and read the sports page to is now on the verge of becoming a full-fledged man. I love my boy, I cherish the moments I have with him, and I look forward to seeing him continue on the path that matters the most, thankful that he is in my life and fortunate to be a part of his.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Sunday Morning Run
Sunday mornings are the best time of the week. You are far enough removed from the work week and its obligations, yet no so close to the next one that you need to start worrying about what’s coming up. Saturday mornings are great, but there is still work to be done on Saturdays, chores around the house, workouts at the gym and trips to the market and you still generally haven’t decompressed from the week that was. Sunday afternoons are nice, but once the ballgame is over and you wake up from the nap, you’re faced with the reality of going to bed in just a few short hours and then starting yet another work week, and the late Sunday afternoon blues start to set in. But Sunday mornings just can’t be touched. They are whatever you choose them to be, for some it means getting dressed up and heading out to church, for others a nice leisurely time with a big pot of coffee and the Sunday paper. Some people like to sleep in on Sundays, personally Saturdays are my day to sleep a little late, I like to get up nice and early on Sundays so that I can make the most of the day and get some time to myself before the rest of the family rises.
I’ve given up the Sunday papers and pretty much papers in general, as I figure there is only so much time in the day to read, and I would rather read good books and interesting magazines than to keep up with the mundane and trivial matters that the daily press covers. I still enjoy watching Meet the Press, and to a lesser extent, This Week as a way to get my news and politics fix. It is a Sunday morning tradition for my wife and I, we TiVo both shows and watch them after she’s up and about, plus that way we can pause whenever something comes up for a heated discussion, which is about every couple minutes or so. It usually takes us well over an hour to watch Meet the Press with all the pausing and discussing and unpausing and wait just one more point to make. Depending on the time of year, namely whether it is the hot weather season, which in Phoenix lasts for about five months from mid-May through mid-October, or the nice weather season, which runs for the other seven months, I either take my long Sunday run before or after watching our shows. After which it is time for pancakes and eggs, or waffles and eggs, depending on which one of us feels like doing the cooking and what the kids want, I’m the pancake specialist, my wife is the waffle woman.
The Sunday morning run is something I relish and cherish, both during and after, and it is the topic for today. Namely, what I think about and what I feel as I go on it. Right now the heat is a factor, so time is of the essence, the earlier the better, once you get past a certain point of morning the desert sun becomes too oppressive to deal with. This morning I got out just before 7, which is generally about as late as you want to get started in August. Thankfully, the sun stayed hidden back of some clouds for most of the time, which brought much appreciated relief from the heat. The roads are mostly empty at that time on Sunday morning, which gives me plenty of space to do my thing and fewer distractions, the closest thing you can get in the city to running down a deserted country road with only the sound of your hoofs on the turf and your breath in the air, steady cadence and even rhythm. Nothing but open road ahead and time, time to think and feel and just be, my favorite time.
I’m convinced that when you are truly engaged in a task about which you are passionate and which you love engaging in, you lose yourself so completely that nothing can touch you. Athletes call it being in the zone, but it is not exclusive to sport, it is the feeling you get when you are lost in a great novel, or movie, or a conversation with a fascinating person. It is the feeling I get when I write as well, I become oblivious to my surroundings and just let things flow. When I’m running I am in another place, away from all the cares in the world, at once immersed in the world around me in a way that is pure, yet also apart from it in a way that gives a freedom like few other things can give. I am alone with my thoughts; I can hum or whistle any tune I like, unrestricted by the offerings on my IPod or the gym radio station. I have no one to converse with except myself; I have some of my most honest dialogues with myself when I am running. I am somewhat aware of mileposts and targets such as the next stoplight or speed limit sign that signifies a new stretch of my journey, but I generally forget about what I’m doing, I just do it, as the commercial used to say. It is probably the closest that we humans come to the animal world, being able to get over ourselves and to just do and be without worry or concern or awareness of how others are perceiving us, which if you think about it is uncommon in our modern world.
This morning I ran 10 miles, no stopwatch today as I just wanted to run and not worry about the pace. I didn’t even have a real game plan when I set out, I just ran until I felt like turning around, when I got to where I know the five mile mark is, I simply turned around and came back home. I got lost in what I was doing to the point that I forgot about the goals and the good I was doing myself, I am training to run my first marathon in January if my knees and other joints hold up, but I am not adhering to any sort of training schedule, the only book I’m reading on the matter is a book called Chi Running which is about utilizing the Chinese concept of the Chi, the life force that propels all of us. My Sunday morning runs are sort of like this column; I set out with a general goal in mind and just see where it all takes me. I set out with the goal, the thought came to me during the run, of writing 1000 words on my Sunday run, and at approaching 1200 words the goal has been met, the finish line is in sight. What I’m training for I’m not exactly sure, but like with my running, I figure that so long as I’m enjoying what I’m doing and that what I’m doing is at least semi-productive, something good will come of it in the end. I’m learning, slowly but surely, to let the game come to me, to take life as it comes and not to worry constantly about what the future might hold. I’m learning to hit the road with a general destination in mind, and to enjoy and embrace the many detours that are sure to spring up along the way, to always strive for excellence in all my pursuits, to trust in God that things will work out according to a greater plan than I am capable of coming up with, and to enjoy the long strange trip called life as much as I possibly can.
I’ve given up the Sunday papers and pretty much papers in general, as I figure there is only so much time in the day to read, and I would rather read good books and interesting magazines than to keep up with the mundane and trivial matters that the daily press covers. I still enjoy watching Meet the Press, and to a lesser extent, This Week as a way to get my news and politics fix. It is a Sunday morning tradition for my wife and I, we TiVo both shows and watch them after she’s up and about, plus that way we can pause whenever something comes up for a heated discussion, which is about every couple minutes or so. It usually takes us well over an hour to watch Meet the Press with all the pausing and discussing and unpausing and wait just one more point to make. Depending on the time of year, namely whether it is the hot weather season, which in Phoenix lasts for about five months from mid-May through mid-October, or the nice weather season, which runs for the other seven months, I either take my long Sunday run before or after watching our shows. After which it is time for pancakes and eggs, or waffles and eggs, depending on which one of us feels like doing the cooking and what the kids want, I’m the pancake specialist, my wife is the waffle woman.
The Sunday morning run is something I relish and cherish, both during and after, and it is the topic for today. Namely, what I think about and what I feel as I go on it. Right now the heat is a factor, so time is of the essence, the earlier the better, once you get past a certain point of morning the desert sun becomes too oppressive to deal with. This morning I got out just before 7, which is generally about as late as you want to get started in August. Thankfully, the sun stayed hidden back of some clouds for most of the time, which brought much appreciated relief from the heat. The roads are mostly empty at that time on Sunday morning, which gives me plenty of space to do my thing and fewer distractions, the closest thing you can get in the city to running down a deserted country road with only the sound of your hoofs on the turf and your breath in the air, steady cadence and even rhythm. Nothing but open road ahead and time, time to think and feel and just be, my favorite time.
I’m convinced that when you are truly engaged in a task about which you are passionate and which you love engaging in, you lose yourself so completely that nothing can touch you. Athletes call it being in the zone, but it is not exclusive to sport, it is the feeling you get when you are lost in a great novel, or movie, or a conversation with a fascinating person. It is the feeling I get when I write as well, I become oblivious to my surroundings and just let things flow. When I’m running I am in another place, away from all the cares in the world, at once immersed in the world around me in a way that is pure, yet also apart from it in a way that gives a freedom like few other things can give. I am alone with my thoughts; I can hum or whistle any tune I like, unrestricted by the offerings on my IPod or the gym radio station. I have no one to converse with except myself; I have some of my most honest dialogues with myself when I am running. I am somewhat aware of mileposts and targets such as the next stoplight or speed limit sign that signifies a new stretch of my journey, but I generally forget about what I’m doing, I just do it, as the commercial used to say. It is probably the closest that we humans come to the animal world, being able to get over ourselves and to just do and be without worry or concern or awareness of how others are perceiving us, which if you think about it is uncommon in our modern world.
This morning I ran 10 miles, no stopwatch today as I just wanted to run and not worry about the pace. I didn’t even have a real game plan when I set out, I just ran until I felt like turning around, when I got to where I know the five mile mark is, I simply turned around and came back home. I got lost in what I was doing to the point that I forgot about the goals and the good I was doing myself, I am training to run my first marathon in January if my knees and other joints hold up, but I am not adhering to any sort of training schedule, the only book I’m reading on the matter is a book called Chi Running which is about utilizing the Chinese concept of the Chi, the life force that propels all of us. My Sunday morning runs are sort of like this column; I set out with a general goal in mind and just see where it all takes me. I set out with the goal, the thought came to me during the run, of writing 1000 words on my Sunday run, and at approaching 1200 words the goal has been met, the finish line is in sight. What I’m training for I’m not exactly sure, but like with my running, I figure that so long as I’m enjoying what I’m doing and that what I’m doing is at least semi-productive, something good will come of it in the end. I’m learning, slowly but surely, to let the game come to me, to take life as it comes and not to worry constantly about what the future might hold. I’m learning to hit the road with a general destination in mind, and to enjoy and embrace the many detours that are sure to spring up along the way, to always strive for excellence in all my pursuits, to trust in God that things will work out according to a greater plan than I am capable of coming up with, and to enjoy the long strange trip called life as much as I possibly can.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The View From the Cheap Seats-Baseball Trades and Their Impact
Sports column alert: Skip if you're not into sports, as usual this is also being posted on The Sports Nut.
August marks the official dog days of summer, and nowhere is that more apparent than from where I sit, in the scorching Sonoran desert, a place where you can get serious degree burns from the cheap seats if you keep them out in the sun for too long uncovered. August means the start of the annual NFL journey through the preseason, and training camp fisticuffs and holdouts among a slate of completely meaningless games that teams nonetheless charge full price for and networks cover as if they mattered. August signifies young collegians heading off to the hinterlands to live and train their bodies and minds in Spartan conditions for the upcoming football season, my own alma mater and team of choice heads to the high country of Northern Arizona to a place known as Camp Tontazona, which sounds like a cross between a summer camp and an archaeological dig site. Every four years, August brings us the Summer Olympic Games, this year’s version coming from the smog choked and Internet censoring Bejing, China. But most importantly, August brings the start of baseball’s pennant races, and an unofficial end to baseball’s trading season. I say unofficial because players can still be traded but they have to pass waivers, where any other team can claim them and thus prevent the trade from being executed. Most big name players will not be offered during this time, but moves can still be made and the true deadline is in September when teams must set their 40 man rosters of players eligible for the post-season tournament. The term pennant race is also a bit archaic, as it refers to a bygone era where the winner of each league won the pennant and went straight to the Fall Classic. The current set-up requires those who qualify for the postseason to go through two more rounds of playoff baseball to get to the promised land, so the battle to qualify is really only the first stage in a three month run to glory.
Semantics aside, what always precedes the great chase is the setting of the table in July, when teams declare themselves as being part of one of three camps. There are the sellers, the perennial also-rans in what used to be known as the second division, before there actually were divisions. These teams, such as the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates in the current era, are generally well out of contention by July, and are almost always out of contention when it comes to keeping their promising young talent by signing them to big dollar long-term contracts. So instead of letting valuable commodities go without much in the way of compensation, they trade them to contending teams for prospects. In baseball’s perverse economic system, these prospects that do turn out to be quality players eventually end up being traded a few years down the road when they are again on the verge of achieving stardom and the big payout that goes with it, and the cycle continues. The frustration of being a fan of the Pirates or Royals must be nearly unbearable, as these once proud franchises who could boast contending teams in small markets have now become nothing more than farm systems for the wealthy big city boys.
Which brings us to the second group of teams, the buyers, who are the teams that have the money to burn, often the prospects stockpiled in their farm systems to let go, all in the pursuit of the holy grail of sports, winning now. These are the big bucks, big market franchises, the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, LA Dodgers, and New York Mets to name the biggest spenders, and most years they are ready to deal away prospects for the best and brightest available. Recently the Chicago Cubs have joined the list of buyers, thanks in no small part to their ownership by a major media chain, the Tribune Company. As any baseball fan knows, money doesn’t always guarantee success, nor does it buy you happiness, but it sure doesn’t hurt your chances either.
The final group is the ones that sit on the sideline, baseball’s middle class if you will. They are neither flush with cash to go after every pretty blonde with a flirtatious smile and flip of her hair, nor are they walking around with nothing but lint in their pockets. They generally try to hold onto what they’ve got, to build from within and go after the middle-market free agents to bolster their rosters. Teams such as my hometown Arizona Diamondbacks fit this mold, as do successful and storied franchises like the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago White Sox, who while they share a city with the Cubbies, do not have the same fan base or revenue stream as do their neighbors to the north side of town.
This year we saw three major trades, and many other minor ones whose results often go unnoticed outside of the affected cities but can play a big role nonetheless. However, the three biggies to focus on will be the topic at hand; the first was the first one executed, and arguably the one that will have the biggest impact. The Milwaukee Brewers, heretofore one of baseball’s underclass since their last playoff appearance and pennant a quarter century ago, went out and got one of the games top shelf starting pitchers, one of its best and biggest aces in CC Sabathia. Sabathia gives a team already loaded with promising young talent the anchor that may very well allow it to beat out the more noted Cubs and Cardinals in the NL Central, and if they make the postseason, CC gives them a fighting chance in any seven game series. It is said that momentum in baseball is your next day’s starting pitcher, and in a short series, the big fella gives the Brew Crew tons of momentum.
The next trade was the one made by the South Siders of Chicago, the Chi Sox, who went out and got themselves one of the game’s all-time greats in Ken Griffey Jr. Before injuries got the best of him, Griffey was the dominant all-around player in baseball, along with Barry Bonds and Frank Thomas back in the mid to late 90’s. While Griffey is no longer the player he once was, and while his once seemingly certain quest for Hank Aaron’s home run crown is now all but over, he is still a dangerous hitter and a center-fielder who can track down and kill more than his share of extra base hits in the gap. His clubhouse presence alone may be enough to put the White Sox over the top in a close AL Central race and get them into the postseason, where as recently as a few years ago they were able to go all the way.
The most recent trade and the one that made the biggest splash is the three-way deal between two buyers, the Boston Red Sox and LA Dodgers, and perennial seller Pittsburgh. The Pirates, as usual, got the prospects; see above for the likely scenario with them and their newfound talent. The main deal however was between the defending champion Bo Sox, who got rid of their run producing and headache inducing machine, Manny Ramirez, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who get Manny being Manny in Chavez Ravine. The Red Sox got in return, Jason Bay, a very good young player who while lacking the Hall of Fame credentials of Manny, is much younger and figures to help Boston get back to the tournament to defend their crown. The effect of Manny in LA is tougher to gauge, mainly because it makes a mediocre team a little less so, but doesn’t seem to be enough to put the Dodgers ahead of the young, talented, and pitching rich Diamondbacks in the NL West. The Dodgers have a mixture of young players and veterans, who will likely welcome Ramirez into the fold, and he won’t be there long enough to cause too much trouble, but the effect of one player in the lineup, even as prolific a run producer as Manny is usually less than the effect of a starting pitcher. I wouldn’t want to be a clubhouse attendant in LA on one of Manny’s bad days, but that’s another story.
Again, it is often the lesser noted deals that have a bigger impact, I am reminded of the early 90’s when my boyhood team, the LA Dodgers made a huge splash by acquiring Darryl Strawberry from the New York Mets, sort of a Manny of his time, but it was actually their acquisition of Brett Butler, a premier leadoff hitter and defender, that had the biggest effect on the team. But of the three big trades, I would rank the Griffey deal third, as his new team was likely headed into October even without him, but he will only help matters. The Manny trade comes in second, for while he is still productive, his presence may not be enough to put his new mates over the hump. The Sabathia trade gets the highest marks, as starting pitching tends to have the biggest impact. It still may not be enough to get the Brewers into the postseason, but if they do make it, in all likelihood this will be the move that allowed it to happen. The beautiful thing about it all is that we get to watch the action unfold over the next two months and then into October where the champion will be decided. Next time on the View, we’ll look at the teams most likely to still be getting after it come early fall.
August marks the official dog days of summer, and nowhere is that more apparent than from where I sit, in the scorching Sonoran desert, a place where you can get serious degree burns from the cheap seats if you keep them out in the sun for too long uncovered. August means the start of the annual NFL journey through the preseason, and training camp fisticuffs and holdouts among a slate of completely meaningless games that teams nonetheless charge full price for and networks cover as if they mattered. August signifies young collegians heading off to the hinterlands to live and train their bodies and minds in Spartan conditions for the upcoming football season, my own alma mater and team of choice heads to the high country of Northern Arizona to a place known as Camp Tontazona, which sounds like a cross between a summer camp and an archaeological dig site. Every four years, August brings us the Summer Olympic Games, this year’s version coming from the smog choked and Internet censoring Bejing, China. But most importantly, August brings the start of baseball’s pennant races, and an unofficial end to baseball’s trading season. I say unofficial because players can still be traded but they have to pass waivers, where any other team can claim them and thus prevent the trade from being executed. Most big name players will not be offered during this time, but moves can still be made and the true deadline is in September when teams must set their 40 man rosters of players eligible for the post-season tournament. The term pennant race is also a bit archaic, as it refers to a bygone era where the winner of each league won the pennant and went straight to the Fall Classic. The current set-up requires those who qualify for the postseason to go through two more rounds of playoff baseball to get to the promised land, so the battle to qualify is really only the first stage in a three month run to glory.
Semantics aside, what always precedes the great chase is the setting of the table in July, when teams declare themselves as being part of one of three camps. There are the sellers, the perennial also-rans in what used to be known as the second division, before there actually were divisions. These teams, such as the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates in the current era, are generally well out of contention by July, and are almost always out of contention when it comes to keeping their promising young talent by signing them to big dollar long-term contracts. So instead of letting valuable commodities go without much in the way of compensation, they trade them to contending teams for prospects. In baseball’s perverse economic system, these prospects that do turn out to be quality players eventually end up being traded a few years down the road when they are again on the verge of achieving stardom and the big payout that goes with it, and the cycle continues. The frustration of being a fan of the Pirates or Royals must be nearly unbearable, as these once proud franchises who could boast contending teams in small markets have now become nothing more than farm systems for the wealthy big city boys.
Which brings us to the second group of teams, the buyers, who are the teams that have the money to burn, often the prospects stockpiled in their farm systems to let go, all in the pursuit of the holy grail of sports, winning now. These are the big bucks, big market franchises, the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, LA Dodgers, and New York Mets to name the biggest spenders, and most years they are ready to deal away prospects for the best and brightest available. Recently the Chicago Cubs have joined the list of buyers, thanks in no small part to their ownership by a major media chain, the Tribune Company. As any baseball fan knows, money doesn’t always guarantee success, nor does it buy you happiness, but it sure doesn’t hurt your chances either.
The final group is the ones that sit on the sideline, baseball’s middle class if you will. They are neither flush with cash to go after every pretty blonde with a flirtatious smile and flip of her hair, nor are they walking around with nothing but lint in their pockets. They generally try to hold onto what they’ve got, to build from within and go after the middle-market free agents to bolster their rosters. Teams such as my hometown Arizona Diamondbacks fit this mold, as do successful and storied franchises like the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago White Sox, who while they share a city with the Cubbies, do not have the same fan base or revenue stream as do their neighbors to the north side of town.
This year we saw three major trades, and many other minor ones whose results often go unnoticed outside of the affected cities but can play a big role nonetheless. However, the three biggies to focus on will be the topic at hand; the first was the first one executed, and arguably the one that will have the biggest impact. The Milwaukee Brewers, heretofore one of baseball’s underclass since their last playoff appearance and pennant a quarter century ago, went out and got one of the games top shelf starting pitchers, one of its best and biggest aces in CC Sabathia. Sabathia gives a team already loaded with promising young talent the anchor that may very well allow it to beat out the more noted Cubs and Cardinals in the NL Central, and if they make the postseason, CC gives them a fighting chance in any seven game series. It is said that momentum in baseball is your next day’s starting pitcher, and in a short series, the big fella gives the Brew Crew tons of momentum.
The next trade was the one made by the South Siders of Chicago, the Chi Sox, who went out and got themselves one of the game’s all-time greats in Ken Griffey Jr. Before injuries got the best of him, Griffey was the dominant all-around player in baseball, along with Barry Bonds and Frank Thomas back in the mid to late 90’s. While Griffey is no longer the player he once was, and while his once seemingly certain quest for Hank Aaron’s home run crown is now all but over, he is still a dangerous hitter and a center-fielder who can track down and kill more than his share of extra base hits in the gap. His clubhouse presence alone may be enough to put the White Sox over the top in a close AL Central race and get them into the postseason, where as recently as a few years ago they were able to go all the way.
The most recent trade and the one that made the biggest splash is the three-way deal between two buyers, the Boston Red Sox and LA Dodgers, and perennial seller Pittsburgh. The Pirates, as usual, got the prospects; see above for the likely scenario with them and their newfound talent. The main deal however was between the defending champion Bo Sox, who got rid of their run producing and headache inducing machine, Manny Ramirez, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who get Manny being Manny in Chavez Ravine. The Red Sox got in return, Jason Bay, a very good young player who while lacking the Hall of Fame credentials of Manny, is much younger and figures to help Boston get back to the tournament to defend their crown. The effect of Manny in LA is tougher to gauge, mainly because it makes a mediocre team a little less so, but doesn’t seem to be enough to put the Dodgers ahead of the young, talented, and pitching rich Diamondbacks in the NL West. The Dodgers have a mixture of young players and veterans, who will likely welcome Ramirez into the fold, and he won’t be there long enough to cause too much trouble, but the effect of one player in the lineup, even as prolific a run producer as Manny is usually less than the effect of a starting pitcher. I wouldn’t want to be a clubhouse attendant in LA on one of Manny’s bad days, but that’s another story.
Again, it is often the lesser noted deals that have a bigger impact, I am reminded of the early 90’s when my boyhood team, the LA Dodgers made a huge splash by acquiring Darryl Strawberry from the New York Mets, sort of a Manny of his time, but it was actually their acquisition of Brett Butler, a premier leadoff hitter and defender, that had the biggest effect on the team. But of the three big trades, I would rank the Griffey deal third, as his new team was likely headed into October even without him, but he will only help matters. The Manny trade comes in second, for while he is still productive, his presence may not be enough to put his new mates over the hump. The Sabathia trade gets the highest marks, as starting pitching tends to have the biggest impact. It still may not be enough to get the Brewers into the postseason, but if they do make it, in all likelihood this will be the move that allowed it to happen. The beautiful thing about it all is that we get to watch the action unfold over the next two months and then into October where the champion will be decided. Next time on the View, we’ll look at the teams most likely to still be getting after it come early fall.
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