Author Archives: billtoner1960

Downward Spiral

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A recent trip on public transportation around Portland was an eye-opener.  We’re a 2 car household so I normally drive myself around on the weekend but I have this medical issue where I get extreme anxiety driving on freeways.  I had planned to go visit my father’s crypt on his birthday, but I wasn’t feeling up to freeway driving that morning so I decided to take public transportation.  Rose City Cemetery is on the other side of town and public transportation would be a challenge for sure, but I was in no hurry — it was the weekend.

I’m not a total stranger to public transportation.  I’m a monthly bus pass owner since taking a job downtown about 7 months ago.  Donna and I usually drive in together but our schedules don’t always match up for the return trip, so I’m ready to ( what we joking call ) “Do the Portland” on any given day.

It hit me on the bus ride that there’s a huge difference between weekday riders and weekend riders.  During the week you share the bus with mostly other people on their way to work downtown.  Some are dressed up pretty well.  Most are engaged with an electronic device of some kind.  Almost everyone appears either gainfully employed or on their way to school.

On the weekends, it’s a completely different demographic.  When it was all said and done, I think the best way to describe it might be to liken it to a moving homeless shelter.  After thinking about it some, it made more sense.  Unlike the week-days, very few are going to work.  Many are taking Tri-Met because they either don’t have a car, can’t afford one, or are not permitted to drive because of a DUI or perhaps too elderly.  Many of the elderly were accompanied by shopping carts and in some cases, wheelchairs.  The poverty level is extremely high and the level of dysfunction was extreme.

The effect this had on my was two-fold.  First, I came to a new level of appreciation for Tri-Met drivers.  They have to deal with the general public at its worst every day, and the risk/reward ratio must be pretty high.  I was also saddened by the extreme levels of poverty that exist in Portland, right under our noses, and my mind was racing about things like root cause, short-term and long-term fixes.  There was some really bad behavior on the buses and trains, but I wasn’t so much annoyed about that as I was feeling empathy for the unfortunate souls at the bottom of the social rung, and wondering what it must be like to be one of them.

I’ve written about this before, about how lucky we are in the ‘burbs to be mostly isolated from the ills of society.  It’s nice out here and comfortable, and easy to forget that we’re all just a couple of bad breaks away from being that guy on the bus with a few teeth missing, bad hi-gene, living hand to mouth.  Lose a job, lose a spouse, get behind on your mortgage…. it wouldn’t take long at all.

Since I was on a trip to visit my deceased father at the cemetery, perhaps I was a bit more “in my head” as my wife likes to say, but it occurred to me more than once that while I may not have been born on 3rd base, it was at least 1st or 2nd compared to these poor souls.  Thank-you, Mom and Dad for your personal sacrifices.

The saddest example of my little journey was on the ride home.  I hopped on the #12 bus from 57th and Sandy and began what I knew would be a pretty lengthy trip through downtown.  A few stops later, a family of 5 got on with 2 strollers and 2 extra rolling carts with toys like skate-boards in them.  The children were approximately 10, 3, and 3 months.  The infant was asleep in the stroller ( I can’t imagine what the ride would have been like had the infant also been needy ).

The first indication of dysfunction came when the 3 year old boy went running down the aisle to the back of the bus with his mother calling out to him to “come back here!”, which he ignored for a minute or two before showing up.  From that point on, the parents took turns wrestling him to a sitting position to keep him from escaping again.  In between squirms, he’d let out some awful yells.

The next clue was the 10 year old, complete with rolling basket with skateboard in it, came and sat right next to me.  I could tell something was wrong right away because he was pumping his arms by his side constantly and looking at the floor.  Every minute or so he’d let out a yell, sometimes a profanity sometimes not, and he was good at ignoring his mother’s instructions to behave.  He seemed pretty wound up.  After a few minutes I reckoned he might have Tourette’s syndrome, but it seemed even more complex than that.  I considered moving, but decided to avoid causing a scene as it was already an uncomfortable side-show and I didn’t want to make it worse.  I gave it as little attention as I could but I was mentally taking notes.

The father seemed ( not surprisingly ) aloof.  He had no clue how to improve his family’s situation on the bus and was mostly numb to his surroundings.  The mother however, was at her wit’s end.  I felt so sorry for her to be trapped like this.  She’d had 3 children with this guy, and from what I could tell, the oldest has an extreme disability, the middle child is likely ADHD, and she has a partner who is no help at all + a new infant to take care of.

I do not know how people get themselves into this situation and it doesn’t really matter at this point.  Could be as simple as bad choices, but I also think that people are just victims of the environment they were brought up in to a certain extent.  Yes, in the ‘Land of Opportunity’ you can always bootstrap yourself up and many do.  But there are those that simply do not posses the IQ or have resources to get themselves out of the hole they are in.

As I got closer to my destination, the bus driver had made a couple of polite pleas to the family to keep the noise level down, The mother, embarrassed beyond words and frustrated that the father was no help, finally reached the end of her patience and yelled at him to do something about the 10 year old who was acting out.  His final shrug led her to make a pre-mature exit from the bus with the infant and stroller, and left him there with the 3 and 10 year olds.  After more yelling from outside the bus, the father and remaining children collected their belongings and got off the bus as well.  We pressed on down the road and the dysfunction continued in the rear view mirror.

I do not see any scenario that has a happy ending for this poor mother or her family.  She is trapped in a downward spiral that will get worse before it gets better.  I see zero chance at a happy life and worse, I don’t see a solution for her.

This is the kind of experience that puts me even more in my head and determined to not get too comfortable in the ‘burbs.  Help is needed out there.  I don’t know what form it will take yet, but for sure help is needed.

Presidential Politics

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I purposely avoid posting my obvious progressive liberal stance on Facebook these days, out of courtesy to friends who just want to keep it light do not wish to be lectured to on that particular choice of social media.  So despite the title, this is entirely non-partisan.

As I watch the news cycle in April of 2015, 3 candidates have announced their intentions to make a run at the presidency so far, and we are 21 months away from Inauguration day in January of 2017.  Twenty-One months.  It just struck me as ridiculous to watch the news pundits proffer strategies for gaining the White House this early in the race — an accomplishment some appear to be obsessed with.

To attach so much importance on the outcome of one election is to completely misunderstand how the government works, or better stated “doesn’t work”, intentionally designed this way by the founding fathers.

The executive branch holds 1/3 of the power, so no matter how many promises they make regarding changing the tax structure, getting rid of this entitlement or starting that new program — it usually amounts to nothing because they can’t get it done with the wave of a magic wand.  All that blather we’re about to hear from both sides for close to 2 years will amount to mostly hot air.  Count on it.

For better or worse, the Constitution and its Amendments are by design a painfully slow change management system.  It’s nearly impossible to get anything agreed upon, especially these days in such a hostile environment.  That’s the way the founders wanted it and that’s the way it is.

Huckabee may be a proponent of a flat tax, but it’ll never happen.  Hillary may want to level the playing field but that won’t happen either.  Ted Cruz may want to abolish the IRS but he’s delusional about that idea. There just aren’t enough votes in both chambers to support these ideas, period.  It’s all show business at this point.

The biggest reason to care about the choice of executive branch is often overlooked, I think.  The nomination of Supreme Court Justices is the thing that will have the most lasting effect on a president’s legacy.  Not many people agree with the notion of Corporations are People Too, yet we have Citizen’s United, thanks to the nominations of Alito and Roberts,

I just find it hard to care right now about who is in the lead, who can win, or who needs to change their strategy to appeal to their base and then shift to the center to win the general election.  Mostly what is going through my mind right now is, we have some real issues to solve right now, why are we focusing on an election that won’t happen for 19 months?  And even when it does, the poor soul won’t be able to deliver on his/her promises anyway.  What else is on?

Unconditional Mom

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My parents have both passed away and I think about them often.  It’s interesting to think back about how the relationships change.  I think in some ways this mirrors how we grow as individuals over time.   In the case of my Mom, there was significant change for both of us.  Towards the end I think Mom and I had a harder time relating to one another since we were practically polar opposites on the political spectrum.  I remember returning home to Oregon from Arizona a few times thinking to myself “who is this person?”  It didn’t diminish how I felt about her at all.  And here’s the reason why.  Perhaps you too can relate.

When I was a kid, I’d have my usual bad days like everyone.  Could have been that I did poorly in a class, was having trouble with a friend, or perhaps a family member was not happy with something I had done.  Doesn’t matter what it was, the point is, you’re a kid and you think the situation is hopeless.  You feel totally defeated because nothing is going your way.  Your hopes and dreams seem completely shot.  What do I have?  Who is on my side?  Who loves me?  There are those moments.  I think we all had them.

The thing I remember most about Mom is that when I was down at my lowest point, she was the one there with a hug and words of encouragement every single time.  Everyone else could be all negative or indifferent about what I was going through, but she was not.  She was my last, and sometimes it felt like my only, line of support that affirmed I had some self-worth and whatever it was would be over soon. No matter what I did, she didn’t seem to care in that moment.  She was wise in the sense that knowing a heart-felt connection of love was not condoning whatever mess I was in.  It was simply, unconditional love and let me tell you, that’s a very powerful thing.  If you have children, they need that sometimes.  I don’t know how my life would have turned out differently had I not had that.  All I know is that I’m glad I did and I hope every kid gets the same benefit.  And that no matter how different Mom and I were in the end, it doesn’t matter.  This is how I choose to remember my Mom.

Piano for Pleasure

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This may sound obvious, but perhaps not to all musicians. I discovered years ago that in terms of playing pleasure, I am able to get more satisfaction playing the piano than guitar. I’ve decided the reason is due to simple math. On the piano, I can play rich chords with 10 fingers whereas on the guitar, I’m limited to 5.

If you’ve ever played either instrument, you can probably relate to the notion of rich sounding alt-chords like Em7b5, or G13. There’s just something about playing along to a tune that calls out a G7 and knowing a few substitution chords that will give the song a more rich sound. This is really what the ‘Real’ Books are all about. Jazz standards are chock full of chord substitutions and they are a true joy to play. For the guitar player, it helps separate you from the pack a bit and that’s satisfying in its own right.

What I learned later however, is with the piano, you not only play the rich sounding alt-chords, you have options on the base line as well. It’s really just simple math. Having 10 fingers at your disposal, you have the chance to give the chord so much more on the low end plus the high end.

I had headphones on one night while I was playing a Jazz Standard. I forget which one, but it was probably either Misty or My Funny Valentine. The headphones allowed me to crank up the sound and get lost in what I was doing. I still remember, every time I hit one of those alt-chords on the piano, so absolutely amazing in its sound, I got a pleasurable feeling and had to do it again. I couldn’t stop and I knew deep down that while I was a guitar player at heart, the piano actually gave me more pleasure to play. If only I could read music better!

The Tea Party

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You know, back in the 60’s, two neighbors could live next door to each other and happen across the subject of politics. One might have supported more conservative policies and voted for Nixon, and another more liberal and voted for Humphrey. Some conversation could have ensued about that, followed by an invitation to golf or the next family bbq.

Today, the same scenario does not seem possible. Extremism and hatred are common. As soon as one neighbor mention that he voted for Obama, the other one, especially if they have a Tea Party affiliation, would immediately conclude that their neighbor is a scumbag socialist Nazi apologist who deserves to die.

Such is the state of discourse in America today. It’s even worse on-line because there’s a layer of anonymity involved. You can make outrageous statements without ever really having to be accountable for them. Some seem to think that he with the most words with ALL CAPS wins the debate. Go figure.

The main reason I address this issue at this particular time has to do with an online sparring partner who just happens to be a mis-guided Tea Party proponent, looking for some answers. Maybe I can either shed some light or else hold a mirror up. Whatever works is fine by me, but I have every expectation that my efforts will be in vain.

Just like I’ve learned at work, it’s always better to have a face to face conversation with someone vs. trying to resolve an issue over e-mail or a blog. There are so many opportunities for misunderstanding. The same is true with other forums like FaceBook. Really bad assumptions can happen. Leaping to conclusions. I’ve run into false accusations… a whole slew of things that, if we were having a beer together instead, would not have happened. Nevertheless, they did happen, so here we are.

But this guy hates Obama. Hates him. Wants to impeach him and put him in jail. In his defense, there are some very legitimate things to be angry about, but taking it to the hate level, I just can’t relate. I was embarrassed by George W. Bush but I didn’t hate him.

I voted for Obama twice. Using guilt by association, apparently I’ve condoned every action by this President since he took office and should consequently, be burned at the stake. This was all news to me, especially as a registered Independent. The very reason to be an Independent, is to leave open the possibility of holding the ones you tend to agree with accountable at times, which we all need.

I can actually find some agreement, even with Tea Partiers on the subjects of accountability ( or lack there-of ), and broken promises that Obama has to live with, and dealing with crooks and liars within your own team. But given the toxic nature of the public discourse, I actually feel kind of sorry for him. No President has ever had to try to get things done in a more partisan, and hostile environment. And I doubt it’ll get much better the next election cycle no matter who gets elected. It’s a little naive to think that one person representing one branch of the Government can have so much influence over our daily lives.

The Tea Party complains about the mainstream media giving Obama a pass. I personally believe there could be some truth to this. But this is likely because the Tea Party has done a poor job of disguising their witch hunt. Every error. Every flub. Every bad thing that happened in the world is somehow Obama’s fault. I believe the mainstream media is tuned into the witch hunt nature of Fox’s programs, especially Hannity and The O’Reilly Factor, and figures that well, that’s enough on the negative side. Fox has that covered pretty good, let’s not get ridiculous and over-do it. Let’s get on with the news.

    Standing For Something

At least with Libertarians, they have a well-defined platform that they speak to. They are in effect, very clearly, small (minimal) government advocates with minimal interference into our lives, strong freedom advocates, and responsibility of self. Okay, that’s clear. I get where you’re coming from. I can either be for or against it because it’s fairly clear.

The Tea Party on the other hand, suffers from the lack of issues they are for. If you were to engage one in a conversation, you would soon get the sense of what they are against…. pretty much everything. The logic seems to be : If it’s the way it is now, then I don’t like it. If it has anything to do with Obama, then I don’t like it. End of discussion. Would you care to elaborate? “We have 17 trillion debt!” and a host of other talking points that sound suspiciously like a read of Rush Limbaugh’s last show.

Talk to any Tea Partier and they’ll tell you that the movement is about ‘Taking our country back!” Okay, that sounds good. Power to the People. How? This is where it gets a little vague and dangerously mis-guided.

The reference to the Tea Party itself is recognition that some things were perceived by a group of people to not be fair, and they finally said “enough!” and did something about it.

There is indeed in this country, no shortage of issues where one could say “enough!”. I don’t think I’d get too much push back on that. The deficit is too high. The middle class seems to be disappearing, but how to fix that is up for debate. Gun violence is out of control but nobody can agree on the smallest measures to make any progress at all. Even if it’s just keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. We seem to lack the ability to face the tough issues of our time like immigration. We can’t get anything done. Is it a surprise to me that a Tea Party evolved out of this framework? Absolutely not. What is a surprise is the head-in-the-sand lunacy that passes for reasonable fixes to complex problems by the ignorant leaders of this faux ‘movement’.

    The Tea Party is Mad

The Tea Party would be wise to incorporate some sort of a theme around wine since they are clearly the party of sour grapes. They are mad that Obama won in ’08, and even madder that he carried the day in ’12. They are tired of the country’s rising debt ( though they haven’t mustered up enough courage make any cuts in military spending, in fact, they advocate for more aggression ), they are mad about The Affordable Health Care Act, they are mad about having to pay taxes, and they are mad about Benghazi. They are mad about Lois Lerner, the IRS, Unions, the Veteran’s Administration, any sort of discussion about keeping guns out of the hands of crazy people, and they are mad that Mitch McConnell caved and made a deal with Democrats to keep the country from defaulting on its debt obligations. They are mad about any discussion about immigration reform, not because there aren’t pragmatic ideas on the table from both sides of the aisle. They are mad because any movement on this issue could be perceived as an accomplishment for this administration and they are of one mind to not let that happen. I’m convinced they spend the better part of their day just being pissed. It must be exhausting to carry around that much anger all the time.

The Tea Party expresses its anger in the form of being obstructionists. No compromise allowed. If they don’t get their way exactly, then no positive steps forward shall be considered. Let Rome burn. This hurts the country as well as its own credibility. The problem they face is, the founders based everything on compromise and reasonable people. It only works if you have sensible people at the bargaining table though. Let enough nut-jobs in and the plan falls apart.

    The Tea Party and Credibility

The lack of credibility in this writer’s opinion, will be its ultimate undoing. In order to have credibility, you have to be on the right side of history once in a while. You can’t just be a Monday Morning Quarterback and second guess the decision makers with no skin in the game. Yet this is exactly what the Tea Party does.

Of course the truest test of one’s resolve to stand behind their political convictions is if they are willing to pay for them. There just isn’t any doubt in my mind that if the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had been pay-as-you-go, that the support would have dropped off the charts. Everyone’s taxes would have had to go up substantially or else no deal. Since it was sold as free entertainment, it was just too easy to get behind the flag waving effort. Ironic that the same people who were such strong advocates of expanding the wars are the same people now complaining about the debt.

And we can’t address credibility without mentioning just how wrong the Tea Party has been on Climate Change. Take a look at the Climate Change Deniers list, it’s a veritable who’s who of the Tea Party. Even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, they choose to put their heads in the sand and let the free markets drive us off the cliff.

    The Tea Party and Hypocrisy

Of course you can’t get your message across and convince the other side of anything unless you walk the talk. This is where I struggle the most with the Tea Party’s approach. The behaviors have to back up the rhetoric or else it doesn’t work.

Take for example the fact that the Tea Party believes in its heart that it is the party of God. I’ve blogged about this in the past, in terms of the type of roll up your sleeves Christians that I admire. As someone who, at the insistence of my parents, endured 5 years of Catholic school, I can attest to some of the more lasting teachings. One of them was more about ‘show me’ vs. talk about it. Do something nice for someone else and don’t tell anyone or expect credit for it. Practice consideration always. It wasn’t all bad, there was a lot of good in there. Most of it I’ve recovered from after about 12 years of counseling.

But most of all, don’t be a hypocrite. They didn’t like hypocrites at all at my school. You’d get called out every time. Which brings me back around to the Tea Party. First of all, how come when I debate these righteous individuals who, about 1/4 of their posts have to do with getting right with Jesus …., how come they are the ones calling me a Fucking Nazi Socialist, just to provide one example ( out of several? ). How come it is they who are quick to resort to personal attacks?
When it comes to selling me on going to your church, let me tell ‘ya, you just lost me. If it means I get to behave like you, no thanks.

One of the toughest things I had to wrestle with as a young adult was to reconcile my personal beliefs with my religious ones. This is a very difficult exercise yet one I think everyone should do. After all, if your votes don’t reflect your belief system, then how come? What went wrong?

Having been educated for a time in Catholic Schools, I can tell you that whether you believe Jesus was the son of Man or not, when it came to poor people, his response was never going to be “tough shit”

The Tea Party has the conflicting problem that they are the self proclaimed party of God — yet poor people need to get off their asses and it’s their own damn fault that they are poor. Quit moochin’ off me! This just doesn’t square with my understanding of the history of Jesus, the man, and smacks of hypocrisy, which makes the Tea Party something I’ll never choose to be a part of.

Thanks to the 1st Amendment, the Tea Party and its Duck Dynasty followers get to blather on all they want about righteousness. They get to talk about JFK as a great leader who reduced taxes — never mind the actual numbers ( he reduced the top bracket from 91% to 77%. Would the Tea Party be excited about 77%? Go JFK! ).
Reagan was a great guy who told the Russians to go pound sand. Never mind his trick-down theory was wrong by a country mile and is responsible for the mountain of debt we have now ( the top bracket has had a pass on taxes since Reagan. A pass on what it used to pay anyway ).

My father, an extremely smart man once said “You know, sometimes the best response to a ridiculous statement is a deafening silence”.
It’s apparent to me, the public discourse has been degraded into Fox News sound-bites, most of which are not worth the effort to reply to.
Can you hear the quiet?

On Being a Father

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Few things compare to fatherhood. There’s the idea that knowing your own bloodline is taking on a life of its own. There’s the feeling of responsibility to make sure they ‘turn out right’ lest I have some adult dependents later in life. There’s the excitement of watching them do well in their fields of interest, and the pain of watching them try and fail at things they thought they wanted to do. And there’s the feeling of relief when the project is all finished and you know you did your best and that it’s been pretty damn good, thank you very much.

My daughter Kelli was born when I was 20. Dan at 22. For quite a while we figured that a family size of 4 with a boy and a girl was perfect. Why mess with it? Then about 6 years later Rob came along and we couldn’t imagine life without him in the mix too. Three little personalities to observe and enjoy, each one with its own set of joys and challenges as far as fatherhood is concerned.

In most family structures, the father gets the dubious duty of being the bad cop. It’s not a fun role, really, let me just say. The tricky part is resisting the temptation to project .. to let ‘typical kid behavior’ cause us to project worse behaviors in adulthood. I struggled with this some, I have to admit. My tendency was to err on the side of keeping things in line, but it probably would have been more wise to roll my eyes at some things and hope they pass. Hard to say now. Hindsight.

I do believe that being diligent over behavioral issues in the early years pays huge dividends. You probably get to have your biggest impact before about age 12. After that, their friends are having more influence on their decisions than anything I say. If I haven’t taught them what they needed to know by now, it might actually be too late.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a father is watching your kids excel at something. My daughter Kelli was pretty good at most things she tried. Learned piano quickly and gave some incredibly memorable performances. Could be a tenacious soccer player, especially on defense. I coached her team a couple of years and she made some outstanding defensive plays that saved the game. Seemed to go on auto-pilot at school. Just always seemed to bring home the grades with little or no involvement on my part. Now she’s a teacher with 10 years experience and I have 2 grandkids. Wow. Someone pinch me.

Dan was pretty athletic from the get-go. Baseball was his thing from about age 7-14 or so. I remember my eyes lighting up when he was 9 and threw me about 10 strikes in a row with pretty good velocity. Could I possibly have a pitcher on my hands? Yep. He got some good opportunities to shine in Little League and JBA as a teen and was a joy to watch. He had this uncanny ability that, in any situation on the mound, it seemed like when he needed a strike, he could deliver one. I don’t know who was more excited about that fact, him or me. It was fun to write the article for the Tualatin Times that said “Toner faced 12 batters and struck out 11”. He was no slouch in soccer, basketball, or cross-country either.

Rob excelled in chess early on, and he was always kind of a natural at soccer. I think he finished 2nd in State in a chess tournament as a 5th grader. I tried playing him in about the 3rd grade and consistently lost. You wouldn’t think chess was a particularly exciting event to watch unless you’re the parent of someone competing. Let me tell you, it was pretty exciting! In soccer he’d make guys twice his size go flying in one-on-one confrontations with the ball. It was hilarious to watch. He could get it done with good moves and had great passing ability. But the event I remember the most was when he was 9 in ‘AA’ baseball. You know the team picture with the smallest kid in the front row with his knees crossed? That was Rob. That’s why as his coach, twice that year when I was coaching 3rd I was ecstatic that I got to wave him around 3rd for an inside the park home run. My arm was moving! He had pounded the ball in-between right and center, making the outfielders chase. That’s what’s truly awesome about being a dad.

I hope all my kids get to experience parenthood. Kelli and her husband Kyle seem to have to formula down pat and best of all, they are on the same page. My sons are both working on it and that’s fine. Take your time and do it right. The rewards are in the final result when you get to watch these self-sufficient individuals pursue their own careers and families.

Like their parents, they aren’t perfect. But it’s what I call ‘close enough’ to say no regrets what-so-ever. For Father’s Day, next weekend we are all going to run a 5K together in Tigard. What’s significant about it is that in the past 7 months I’ve had 2 strokes. One in Dec. and another one in Jan. This is my ‘comeback’ run. To me it’s kind of a big deal. I wasn’t healthy and now I’m striving to be. I’ve been training since April using the C25K program and it hasn’t been easy. I’ve had to work pretty hard to get ready, but I’m a week away and looking forward to running with my kids. They can all blow by Dad on the course and make me look silly now that I’m 54 and had some health issues. But little do they know, that’s what I wanted! Why? Because I enjoy watching them all do well, perhaps more than they know.

On this Father’s day, I figured I’d just reflect on these things a bit and enjoy the moment.

The Reynolds High School Shooting

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I’m going to be weak on data to back up my points on this post, but I don’t care. It’s a general common sense thought anyway.

How arrogant are we as a country to think that we know it all when it comes to public safety. Other countries have wrestled with gun violence and acted. The UK is one example as pointed out by Piers Morgan. Good for Piers for standing on principle.

We are stuck in gridlock because of monied interests. Same story, different issue.

The damage George W. Bush has done to the economy will be felt for decades. It’s not just the cost of the wars, it’s the Supreme Court appointments that I think get overlooked. The existing court stands conservative by a 5-4 vote on most issues, but the most damaging one is Citizens United because it basically supports the idea that money can win the day. He with the most dollars deserves the most influence.

Consequently, the NRA lobbyists, in the name of free speech, indirectly control what legislation gets put to the floor. Even though 80% of Americans support the idea of more thorough background checks on guy purchases, especially for mental health issues. The NRA won’t hear of it and cries tyranny at the very thought.
As a result, we get to witness school shootings as common-place events. Over 70 school shootings since Sandy Hook. Ho hum.

What we need is for the silent majority to stop being silent. Nothing will happen until the NRA backers take them to task for this position. Speak out.
It might save a child ( or 20 ) from a horrific death some day.

Walking your dog in 2014

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It’s so nice to see my neighbor taking his dog for a walk on a nice sunny day until…. you realize this idiot appears to be talking to himself, spouting off into his phone. I can hear every word from a block away. Dude, I do not want to hear your conversation. Okay???

Facebook rants

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Ugh. I’m a troller. I guess that’s the first step of recovery, right? Admit what ails you and move on. I’ve gotten better over the past year at not wasting so much time engaging in debates with people who either don’t listen or don’t fight fair, but I’ve got a ways to go. This past week, I came across an image that sums it up pretty well. BouonGKCIAAjl5V.jpg-large

I have to admit, I do get some enjoyment of debating the far right, exposing some of the lunacy that I see and watching the opposition back-pedal. I’ve engaged some rather famous people on Twitter ( Grover Norquist and Greg Guttfeld are two that come to mind ), and gotten direct responses in the form of text messages. I pushed the conservative button and they didn’t like it. Mission accomplished.

So exposing hypocrisy is a favorite past-time of mine. To a point. I’ve recently decided that it’s the responsibility of the Facebook page moderator to referee a fair fight, and to keep debates from digressing into personal attacks. I had to do this myself recently. A good friend I have on Facebook, Duane, whom I disagree with strongly on most issues, was misunderstood on a post that intended sarcasm, and he was exposed to a personal attack by another Facebook friend, a raging alcoholic, who attacked Duane when he didn’t know what he was talking about. I ‘unfriended’ him immediately and apologized to Duane for the behavior of this other guy. I didn’t think twice about it. Good riddance, Tom. It was embarrassing and there’s no place for it.

I had this one Facebook friend, Mark, who is perhaps the most passionate debater I’ve ever run across. Mark and I go back to high school and even though we didn’t hang out much together during those years, I think we both got some enjoyment out of sparring online. Mark’s a Tea Partier, thus limited in his weaponry of material to make a logical argument that can’t be refuted by pointing out the irony and hypocrisy of his assertions. He was an easy fish to fry as they say. He probably felt the same way about me as well. He probably thought he was roasting a liberal every time we sparred online.

But last week Mark failed miserably at moderating his page and I checked out. Some of his other friends are also raging Tea Party loons who engage in personal attacks. I’m not a big fan of that. In the past I’ve just ignored their comments, but this time I was baited into joining the debate, and then attacked by some raging idiot who doesn’t know up from down, and Mark did nothing. I’m out.

So it’s not that I don’t care for Mark, I do. He’s a good guy at heart. Terribly misguided by the partisan ‘News’ channels he watches, but none-the-less, if you needed someone to step in and do what’s right in a confrontation, Mark would be your guy. A sports fanatic with a pretty decent resume as a player himself, he’s a veritable encyclopedia of information about college football and sports in general.

It’s with some sadness that I had to disengage from the online sparring with Mark. It wasn’t as much about him as it was his inability to referee a fair, above the belt fight. I’m sure not everyone agrees with me on this, but just the same, this is my new policy. Control your ‘friends’ or else I’m out.

But such is the nature of the state of politics in the USA today. It’s horribly partisan and not very constructive. The Tea Party in particular seems like they don’t stand for anything in particular other than, “We want whatever is the opposite of what Obama wants.” I doubt that is going to sell very well in the mid-terms or the next election cycle. I’m thankful that it appears the Tea Party has been exposed for the extreme organization of hypocritical loons that it is and has no chance in the next election cycle. Republicans, moderates, may still win the day, but the party won’t be dominated by the Ted Cruz / Sarah Palin / Duck Dynasty crowd anymore, because enough time has passed that the general population doesn’t want any part of it. Thank God for that.

And speaking of God, isn’t it ironic that the flag waving fundamentalists are the ones calling you “Fucking commies, fucking socialists, fucking Nazis” on one post, and then posting about their personal relationship with God a few minutes later. I find that amusing more than anything.

In the mean time, I’ll continue to follow the words of Krugman and Reich. Sure they may have a liberal bias, but they also have PhD’s. Which is more than I can say for the Get right with God Duck Dynasty / Climate change deniers / NRA fanatic crowd. Does being right count for anything?

Have a good weekend.

Colwood National

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It seems fitting that the last day of play at Colwood National Golf Course would be on the anniversary of my father’s passing, six years ago to the day. Colwood was an easy course, nestled in the heart of Portland’s industrial area, catering mostly to casual players who wanted to get a round of golf in and not spend a fortune. It became the course of choice for Jim Toner and I, whenever I’d visit from Seattle. I always enjoyed my visits to Portland, especially the trip over to Colwood for a round with Dad. It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t impressive. The holes were fairly short, but not to the point of being a joke. It had its challenging holes as well. Since Dad and I didn’t talk too often on a very deep level, Colwood always represented to me a chance to hang out with Dad. For that reason alone, I loved Colwood.

In the 1980’s I had joined a golf league through my employer in the Seattle area, Boeing. I probably played 6 or 7 years and improved steadily. In High School I played on the golf team at Centennial and played JV my freshman and sophomore years, Varsity Junior and Senior years. I wasn’t great by any stretch, but I could occasionally break 80 at Glendoveer, which I’m sure made Dad extremely proud. He broke 80 a few times there, but it wasn’t that often, so he had a lot of respect for guys who could do that.

In the midst of my golf league years at Boeing, I started to take it a little more seriously and tried hard to get my handicap down. If I recall correctly, I got down to a handicap of 9 at my lowest point. And I was competitive in the league for a few years. I ended up winning the men’s first flight 2 of the years, playing against some pretty decent golfers. To make sure that isn’t over-stated, everyone gets to use their handicap, so I may have been playing for the club championship with my 9 handicap against a guy with a scratch handicap, but he had to give me 9 strokes. Anyway, golf was my thing for while there and it was fun.

On a trip to Portland, in the midst of playing a lot of golf, Dad and I took our usual jaunt over to Colwood for a round of 9 holes. I always liked playing well with Dad and then not saying much about it because that seemed to work the best. If you don’t brag about it, then he does, and it just feels that much better. On this particular day I got the putter going. Colwood is fairly short which means I could reach the greens in regulation ( I struggle to reach on par 4’s in the 400 yd range ). So I was getting on in 2 and on 2 of the first 6 holes I drained a long putt and was sitting at 2 under. I walked up the 7th fairway like “I do this all the time” and tried to contain my excitement. But Dad couldn’t contain his. I know he was trying not to jinx me, but at the same time he knew, my son is 2 under par with 3 holes to go and he knew a pretty good story was unfolding.

Then I parred 7 and 8. Was I capable of shooting a 34? Oh man, that would be a family record of some sort. The 9th hole was a short 419 yd. par 5, slightly up hill at the end. I hit a decent drive up the right side and had about 220 yds to go. My second shot I didn’t quite hit on the screws as they say, but it was straight, and about 50 yards short of the green. Up and down for a 33? That was on my mind for sure. Dad would have done cart-wheels.

I pulled out the wedge and hit a high shot a little longer than I wanted and left myself a tough down-hill putt for my birdie. Crap. Not where I wanted to be. As I straddled over my putt, I kept thinking “I’m going for it. Never up, never in”, so I hit it a little harder than I should have to make sure it had a chance and it rolled about 10 feet by. Yikes! Not a 3 putt on the last hole! Damnit!

Sure enough, I missed left on may par putt and took a bogey on 9, but still ended up with 35 for the day. Rounds under par are pretty rare for me, but this one was special because it was with Dad and I can tell you many years later, he could practically play the whole round back to me because it was still fresh in his mind. He probably remembers it better than I do.

And today is the last day of Colwood National. Sad in a way, but fitting that it’s on the same day that Dad passed away 6 years ago.