REFLECTIONS ON SANDY HOOK by Pam Blair

Reflections on Sandy Hook

By Pam Blair

The episode at Sandy Hook Elementary School was an unspeakable horror, a senseless series of actions that brought endless pain and loss to the families involved and to a stunned nation.  Americans wept at the news of the Sandy Hook tragedy as if they had known the victims, and they hugged their own children and grandchildren closer, reminded of the fragility of life and realizing anew the treasure that little ones are.

Now, two weeks later, with the funerals over and much of the police investigation off  TV screens and the internet, we are left to ponder in the aftermath of such a heinous act: Why?  Why would a single mother find the need to own an assault rifle?  Why did her son, a young man with obvious mental and emotional imbalance, have access to weapons of such destructive capacity?  Why did he choose to murder uninvolved school children and the adults whose lives were dedicated to helping them learn and grow?  Frustratingly, we will never know the answers to these questions.

We turn, therefore, to other more general questions for which we may find at least partial answers:  Would stronger gun laws have prevented this and other similar tragedies that have occurred in the US?  Would greater attention to and more effective treatment of mentally ill people serve the same purpose?  What can we do as a nation to prevent further horrific happenings like this?

Anti-gun proponents protest, arguing that stronger restrictions on weapon purchase will take weapons out of the hands of crazy people who shoot strangers without provocation, as well as those who shoot acquaintances and even family members with (at least what they perceive as) provocation.  While I agree that there is no conceivable reason that any civilian has need for a combat weapon that can fire five rounds per second nor clips that contain thirty or more rounds, disarming our populace seems impractical at best and impossible at worst. 

Alongside calls for weapons reform come the cries for more extensive mental health education, identification, and treatment.  Who can argue the benefits of more help for those individuals and families staggering under the frightening challenges of dealing with emotional disorders that lead to aggression and harm?  And what about the internet and violent on-line gaming and the isolation from actual people that can result from obsession with technology?  These are legitimate problems that need to be addressed.

I would argue, however, that neither arms control nor mental health issues nor violence on the internet, significant though each is, stands as an ultimate cause of our deep-seated problem, which permeates the very essence of our national being.   I would look beyond those symptomatic issues to the more essential cause, which reflects itself in a desire for weapons that can mutilate and murder, in the increasing mental problems that rob people and communities of rich, full lives, and/or in addiction to the internet.

I would argue that as a nation, we have lost our moral bearings.  Rather than acknowledging God as creator and, yes, owner of human life, and living within the laws He has established for individual behavior and the rightful functioning of community life, we have driven Him from schools and courtrooms, from the marketplace, from the town square.  We have substituted human wisdom (and I use that term questionably) and human policies and laws for divine wisdom and God’s laws.  We have made ourselves into our own gods, and like the man who hires himself as his own lawyer, we have become fools.  

How many Sandy Hooks, how many Columbines, how many dead children, how many dead firemen, how many destroyed lives will it take before we can humble ourselves enough to admit that we don’t have the answers--not individually, not even collectively?  The answers are available to us, but they do not arise from us.  As long as we are absorbed with arguing about how to deal with the symptoms of our national values void, we will fail to realize that a revival of faith is necessary to ensure a land of democracy and peace.

We need to call on God, acknowledge that we are sinners in His sight, and receive the forgiveness and healing that only He can deliver.  Any other route is merely swatting at symptoms, thinking that eliminating them will solve our problems.  It won’t.  The problem lies in the hearts of people, from which their actions spring.  Only by dealing with the root cause of our problem can we eliminate its symptoms.  And we can’t deal with the root until we recognize what it is.

Our nation, perhaps unknowingly, cries out for a return to faith in something outside of and larger than ourselves—to faith in God.  We want to claim aspects of faith—heaven, Christmas and Easter, prayer—without acknowledging the tenets of the faith, without submitting ourselves to God.   We need to confess that we have lost our way as a nation and ask God to restore us.  That is the only real first step to healing the painful reality of Sandy Hook.

Do They Have A Clue?

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Do They Have a Clue?

I have a business.

I would like you to be my client.

I have two possible ways to win your business. Ponder long and hard as to which you would prefer.

I will deliver my product to your front door and I will charge you nothing at all for my effort.

OR

You will need to come to my place of business to pick up my product and I will charge you $140 per year for not having to bring it to you.

Tough choice is it not?

Even though you would like more time to think it over I am afraid I must have an answer.

The United States Postal Service has been in business a very long time, dating back to when bringing the mail to your little cabin in the woods involved outrunning very angry indians and depending a great deal on the health of your horse. It existed during the time when postmen pledged to deliver your mail through sleet, rain, snow and so forth.

Of course today, a barking dog, slippery stoop, or downed limbs in your yard could hold up that delivery for days.

Today the service is facing very serious financial crises. The Post Office talks about cutting down on the number of days they will deliver mail. The Feds are closing post offices in many places in our country. They are facing horrific competition from the Internet as people become more and more comfortable just pushing a little button titled: “Send.”

One could argue that someone in Washington at the Postal Service wasn’t keeping up with trends or they wouldn’t be in such tough shape. This massive operation used to be run by a “Postmaster General” who, more often than not, was just a pal of the sitting president and didn’t have any special skill at all. It was the one cabinet slot that always went to a political operative and everyone knew it.

And yet it worked so much better.

How did it get this bad?

Well one thing I think most of us can agree on: the Postal Service has some of the finest, most hardworking people of any business. And many of these professionals have long worked as public servants. These folks know their business and they know the people they are serving. Post Office employees try to be helpful, friendly and kind. And I have witnessed a number of times when doing that had to be very difficult indeed.

In the post office I frequent I have always had good service.

Now many of these fine people must be worried about their jobs.

So this year I am cutting back on my contact with the U.S. Postal Service.

I continue to hope that good business practices and principles might one day reign in Washington at the U.S. Postal Service Executive Suite. I also hope they find a way to make a profit without turning every post office into a gallery of gifts, pretty boxes, and wrapping materials.

As they say: hope springs eternal.

I am not going to pay $140 for my small post office box. You know, the one where I get dressed, get in my car, and make the trip to the post office to pick up my mail.

Nope, I am going to stay in my pajamas, sit by the fire, and let the post office sort my mail, load it into the truck, send a postman to my door where he will hand me my mail and I get to keep $140 of my money.

Is anyone still confused as to why this federal approach to business has not been very successful for the U.S. Postal Service?

And I may just stop in my local post office from time to time to see the faces of old friends.

STUDIED DECISIONS and the GUN CONTROVERSY

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

 STUDIED DECISIONS

The year is coming to an end and the usual celebrations have been toned down a great bit because of the horrible Newtown, CT tragedy about which much has been written.

As emotions run high and funerals and memorials occur almost every day for the small children so brutally taken from their families, there has been a lot of talk about our current approach in the United States to gun control.

I have an opinion.

I accept that almost everyone has an opinion.

It is also obvious that most of those opinions are, at the moment at least, fiery, unyielding and causing a great deal of unease around the country.

It is not my intention to present an opinion in this column on this issue. That decision is based on my belief that controversial issues that relate to national policy, and to Constitutional interpretation, best occur through the slow, rational thought process that has the best chance of arriving at a right conclusion about the way forward.

The climate for such a discussion does not exist at this moment in time in our country.

This is the time for cooler heads to prevail.

It is time for a Congressional committee, or even better, a Special Committee, populated with reasonable people from all sides of the “gun debate” to gather and take testimony, revisit both the Constitution and what Constitutional Law Professors can put forward in the way of oral and written argument, to weigh the opinion of the people when they are not angry or afraid, and to draw up whatever legislation or amendments seem appropriate to the realities of American life in the twenty first century.

None of us will benefit from a rush to judgment on something this important to our future.

Cool Heads.

Learned Scholars.

Fair and Equitable Hearings.

The end result of these things will be the best possible decision for our country. Like so many of you, I understand the problem, the fear, and the danger. But I am also invested in getting the final decision right. That rarely happens when quick or emotional decisions are made in response to an event no matter how heinous.

All of this needs to be put in perspective and then a good decision rendered, one which will meet all our needs and be viewed as the natural continuation of our Constitutionally based Republic.

For further information:  jacksonblair@gmail.com

More Than We Can Bear

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

More Than We Can Bear

I am writing this column the day of the elementary school shooting in Connecticut. Following the story all day as it developed, the numbers of dead kept growing. From first reports of two adults and one child to the current number estimated to be 27 souls, as many of them as 20 elementary school children.

What came to mind all day was a comment made by then Mayor Rudolph Guiliani in response the question of “how many people died” at the Twin Towers. He responded: “more than we can bear.”

Clearly he had no idea in the midst of the turmoil exactly how many people might have lost their lives. But he surely knew the number would be more than any of us could bear.

The numbers on “9-11” were in the thousands. In some way, such a great number is really hard to wrap your mind around. One cannot even imagine such horror.  The number 26 is difficult primarily in that so many were very small children; little innocents who waved goodbye to a parent and went off to school only hours before.

Too many of them never to come home again.

A robo-call to every home telling parents about a shooting and a lock down. One can only imagine the terror in so many hearts. Ambulances, fire trucks, police, swat teams, nurses, doctors all converging on a little elementary school while anxious parents waited for a glimpse, a prayed for glimpse, of a safe child.

Forty parents it is estimated did not get their prayers answered.

The number is not in the thousands.

But it is still too much to bear.

ROMNEY'S ELECTION NIGHT SURPRISE

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

ROMNEY'S ELECTION NIGHT SURPRISE

It will come to no surprise to my readers that I supported Governor Romney in the recent presidential election. I have waited for the dust to settle to offer my own story of what transpired on Election Day.

I was invited to spend all of the Election Day at the Romney War Room/ Command Center, which was located at the TD North Garden in Boston, MA.  I eagerly accepted this invitation, anticipating an exciting exposure to the inner workings of a presidential campaign on the final day.

It was necessary for me to leave my home at 3AM on Election Day and drive to Boston in order to be vetted, admitted and instructed on how the day would proceed.  I had previously had three conversations over three weeks about the vaunted Romney campaign computer program named ORCA.

It was to be a revolutionary use of 40,000 volunteers at most polling stations across the country, armed with their own laptops and handhelds and phones, relaying the names of every voter who arrived at a polling place and permitting a computer in Boston to then target calls to voters who had not yet shown up at the polling place, to provide Romney statisticians with good information on which groups of people were voting, and which were not, and to allow reasonable predictions on the course of the race, predictions that would allow course corrections throughout the day.

As a result of this technology, robo-calls could go out to the appropriate groups in each geographical area in order to strengthen the Romney turnout.

Throughout the morning the mood was quite upbeat.

Believe me, the Romney leadership thought they would win the election.

As an aside, I would add that I think the Obama Campaign leadership thought they, the Obama campaign, would lose the election.

How could the information have been so wrong?

We make a lot of assumptions about the high level of advice; management and planning that go into these campaigns. At the end of the day, the old adage “bad information in= bad information out” is always right.

Around noon on Election Day someone made the announcement to those of us at the Command Center that the “wise men,” based on the information they were receiving from the field, predicted Governor Romney would win 320 electoral votes. 

Cheers went up.

Toasts were made.

Enthusiasm was everywhere.

I imagine the Governor’s closest colleagues and friends were already addressing him as “Mr. President.”

Think back eight years.

All the pundits thought George Bush could not possibly win a second term. Everyone, and I mean everyone in the Bush White house, with the exception of Karl Rove evidently, read the early exit polls and started to clean out their desks.

Senator John Kerry’s people, if you are to believe the books and magazine articles, were that day referring to him as “Mr. President.”

What we have learned from these two recent examples is that just as it is not nice to fool “Mother Nature,” it is not nice to try to fool the “People.”

All the scientific polling, exit polls, computer technology, and thousands of workers in the field did not get either of these elections right.

The amazing ORCA system crashed at least two times by my count during the day. All sorts of things that were supposed to happen with the electronic data ended up being abandoned.

Governor Romney admits he did not prepare a concession speech. Why would he? Until late in the day he expected to be President.

President Obama shed tears when he spoke to his campaign staff in Chicago. Of course he did because at one time he thought he might be a one-term president.

When I received my invitation, I was advised to plan on staying until 1 or 2am the next day. After all, polls would be closing quite late on the west coast, and we might have to send planeloads of attorneys, all of who were packed and ready to go if needed, to fight close calls in key states.

By 9PM on election night, the mood at the Command Center had certainly changed. People with long faces were everywhere. All the folks who had been running around, delivering notes, and looking forward to inaugural parties were now sitting around stunned.

People out west were still voting.

It didn’t matter.

Key Romney operatives headed to the Westin Hotel bar to try to figure out what had happened. Most of them would simply, in a matter of weeks, move on to the early campaign  planning stage of prospective 2016 candidates.

I gathered my things at 9PM and quietly left the Garden. I went to a small quiet hotel bar in close proximity to the Boston Garden, took a seat at the bar, and ordered a martini. There was only one other man at the bar, and only one table in the bar occupied. None of these folks were talking about the election, and neither was the bartender. I knew immediately I was in the right place. I spent a couple of hours there and then retired to my hotel room and spent the night.

The next morning I got my car and returned home.

This is the way we Americans do it.

We fight like mad, go to the polls, count the votes, and then move on with life.

More importantly, the two candidates shake hands (in this case have lunch in the small dining room at The White House.) Then the winning candidate mounts a platform, puts his hand on a Bible, takes an oath, and we all move on.

No riots in the street.

No bloody coups by the military.

Democracy is great!

What did I learn from my election night experience?

·      The best laid plans……well, you know.

C. Jackson Blair
978 616 3330

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas-NOT

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Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like

Christmas----NOT !

Tis the season to be jolly-NOT

Ever since the excitement of the presidential election I have experienced a full case of ennui!

We have a new president and our government is embarking on four very important years in the history of the Republic. Yet every time I turn on the television I am bombarded with stories about the “fiscal cliff.” 

Without preparing a vast treatise on exactly what the government means when it tells us we are rapidly driving over a cliff, let me just say that I cannot find one good outcome down the road amongst the possibilities that face us.

Should we fail to drive over this cliff, it will probably be because the government does what it does best: procrastinate, delay, and diffuse (confuse?). 

They love the drama of running right up to a deadline and then saving us from tragedy. It makes for good sound bites, great headlines, and material for later biography writing.

1. The Democrats would like to solve the problem by raising taxes and keeping entitlement programs.

2. The Republicans would like to solve the problem by eliminating or reducing entitlement programs without raising taxes.

3. The People simply want them to work together and compromise in the interests of the nation. We want them to grow up. We would like to see some adults in the room.

Chance of #1 above: zero

Chance of #2 above: zip

Chance of #3 above: nil

I do not think any of the politicians will let the nation go over the cliff. I think what they will do is gerrymander some sort of deal satisfactory to neither the Democrats, Republicans or the People that will, essentially, stick some future Congress with the problem.

Now here is where the proverbial cheese really does bind.

We enable them to do this.

We keep sending them back, each election, to continue to act like entitled nobles.

The fault lays with We the People.

So I am not in the Christmas spirit.

I refuse to do any “fa-la-la-ing.”

I am going to concentrate on a long period of “bah-humbugging” and I encourage anyone who does not like it just to call me Scrooge McBlair.

And if I am in a government vehicle that goes over a “cliff” and my taxes go up and everyone and their sister gets government handouts from now until the end of time, I am checking into a government owned and operated “home” where they can take care of me at the public expense and I expect it to be at the level to which I aspire.

So keep an eye out for that government vehicle speeding rapidly toward the cliff.

It will be easily recognizable as it will certainly be the largest SUV tax money can buy, getting about 3 miles per gallon, and it will be outfitted with every device known to Detroit.

It will be black with American flags, stars and official looking insignia all over. It will also be bullet proof, fireproof, hurricane proof, but not fool proof. It will have a minimum of five antennas so as to provide an outward show of importance.

I am beginning to understand more and more about those historical times that sent people into their streets screaming “power to the people.”

Now in my heart of hearts I know the celebration of Christmas has nothing to do with governments anywhere. And I know that in the end I will surrender to the traditions of the season.

But I also know my government is not making it easy for me to enjoy the holiday and that it promises to make the new year anything but happy.

You Are Invited

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

YOU ARE INVITED

Carpe Diem!

Seize the day!

My mother did not raise a man unable to see an opportunity! 

Pundits and pollsters are all pointing fingers after the recent Presidential election.

Republicans are pointing a finger. I think you know which one.

Anyway, it is time for a NEW party and I am just the guy to start it. I have been giving a lot of thought to this and I think I am on to something really big.

No one wants the old white guys anymore. I am not sure why they are not wanted but they are ripe for the plucking. The Democrats say they never wanted to spoil their mix although they have permitted a sprinkling of “OWG’s” over the years. The Republicans previously welcomed “OWG’s” and cornered the market but now they want to throw them under the bus.

The major parties are engaged in a contest to attract any segment of society other than “OWG’s”. The two major parties believe the future is with women and Hispanics. Before Governor Mitt Romney could get a shower and a set of new Mormon underwear on after November 6^th, Senator Marco Rubio was on a plane heading to Iowa to give a speech!

Iowa?

A United States Senator who represents the people of Florida, often known as the “Q-Tip” generation, finds a reason to address Iowans.

Who would have thought it.

Then it is announced that current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also been enamored of that little state out west and will break into her schedule of traveling the world, speaking with Kings and Queens and dictators to fly out to Iowa and deliver a major policy address.

Iowa?

What possible major policy could the department charged with foreign affairs need to announce in Iowa? This question challenges the minds of some of our biggest thinkers. In fact, I expect you are pondering it right now as you are reading.

In any event, I have taken a look at my own poll numbers. There are tons of OWM out there without a political party. They are disillusioned and depressed. It is hard to start a party without some ready cash and I know the press has said the usual suspects, the billionaires and millionaires that fund Republican candidates are a little irritated over recent election results and not ready to lay out any more cash, so I am turning to new sources: the companies that make Viagra and similar products as well as to  any company currently marketing products for arthritis, new hair growth, diarrhea, constipation, “end of life” planning, and cemetery vaults.

I can see the political ads of the future. A man sitting on the edge of the bed with a smile on his face while a narrator outlines the great positive effects of “E-D” products and then spins into a litany of all the bad side affects that might be experienced. One of the great things about using OWM for these kinds of ads is that we are not too worried about side effects. What do we have to lose? We are in the “zone” anyway at our age.

Another commercial would show an OWM on the front of a box of cereal. He could look like Jack LaLanne. I think kids are getting tired of seeing sport heroes on cereal boxes. Frankly, I think they love their granddads and this new approach to selling cereal could be a trendsetter.

How about an OWM in an ad where you push a button on your computer screen and his hidden joints are immediately shown to you. And on each steel or plastic hip or knee the manufacturer has a smiley face and their corporate logo. The cash would just roll in to the surgeons and hospitals.

I am sure you can see how reaching out to OWM and giving them a party of their own could revolutionize American politics. I would give honorary memberships, with accompanying platinum identification cards to well known OWM who will, presumably, be abandoned by their former political parties, men like William Jefferson Clinton, James Earl Carter, George H.W. Bush, and George Bush. In a flash of brilliance I have already started looking for a mountainside and a sculptor. I cannot reveal the details yet but lets just say four handsomely carved portraits might one day be looking down on America while people recall that these four OWM started the new party.

As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea why Iowa seems to be so popular with politicians but I am going to start my mountain search right out there. They are known for cornfields but they must have at least one mountain somewhere that can be carved.

The biggest problem facing me at the moment is the name for the new party. The best name is taken: The Grand Old Party. Maybe since the Republicans are going to throw out all the male “Q-Tips” they would consider relinquishing their former name. The Grand Old Party will hardly be appropriate for the new accumulation of minority groups that will be welcomed to their tent. So I will approach Reince Priebus, the GOP Chair, and see if we can get dibs on that name.

My planning is still in the formative stages. I will continue to work on the small details before announcing the broader more sweeping plans.

The only thing I am certain of is that no one from this new party is going to Iowa anytime soon. Florida is where it is “at” for us. Everything will start and conclude in the land of the “snowbirds.”

The only person who might be thinking of going to Iowa now, General Petraeus, is free to do that. With that dark black hair thing, and the comb-over he has going, he isn’t going to join us anyway.

O * W * M

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

O * W * M

I am told that I belong to the party of Old White Men.

Who knew?

Things have changed fast.  Just a few weeks ago I belonged to the same party as Sandra Day O’Conner, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, United States Senator Marco Rubio, Pizza King Herman Cain, Columnist Peggy Noonan, former United States Senator Rick Santorum, well the list of folks hardly considered Old White Men was endless but evidently they all disappeared around November 6^th. How all these younger, blacker, more female folks just vaporized is beyond my comprehension but evidently it was like the “Rapture” called for by people of the Bible. In this case, my political friends who were not male, old or white just vanished from the Grand Old Party.

In addition, everyone tells me that the GOP better just jump right off its set of long held principles because unless they get more hip, jive a little better or abandon many of their moral and financial “creds” they are doomed to this kind of defeat on a regular basis.

Everybody wants the GOP to change.

Not me.

I want them to revisit their basic principles, cast them in verbiage understood by the non-white, the young and the female and wait for the “turn.”  And the “turn” will most surely come. In history, it always does.

Our country has chosen a road to follow.  If it turns out to be a successful road, easily navigated and leading to a pleasant end point no amount of principle changing by the GOP is going to make any difference in the elections to come.

Not to mention, are we identifying with party because we believe in philosophy or do we simply want to win elections.

Most of the Old White Men I know who identify with the GOP are interested in party philosophy. Sure, we would like to win some elections, but not at any expense.

This is a good time for the losers to wipe their tears and tend to their wounds and then use the next four years, or longer, to get back to the principles of party that brought Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan to national prominence.

There is an obligation here.

There are no assurances that the Barack Obama plan will work.

So it is important for America that an acceptable alternative is in place.  Hopefully, it will not be needed. All of us benefit from the second Obama administration being a great success.

But it is best for our country that we are prepared for any eventuality.

Breaking the China Cups

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Breaking China Cups

I can honestly say I have not been to many tea parties in my life.

The little girls in our neighborhood used to have them but the boys were not invited. We didn’t care.

In the weeks leading up to the November elections all Americans were invited to a Tea Party.

It would seem no one went.

                     ----------------------------------------------

As I traveled more internationally I came to learn that some of the most interesting people got a lot accomplished over afternoon tea.

It is a tradition that never caught on in the United States.

In London, tea parties have always been important. They are a part of the fabric of everyday life. Most “Brits” have afternoon tea every day. Every major hotel offers afternoon tea and the really classy ones label it “High Tea” and do it with great attention to detail and custom.

More recently the label “Tea Party” has been applied to a group of Americans who are very conservative in their political beliefs. Although conservative in my political beliefs I am not a member of this “Tea Party” and I will not attempt to outline their beliefs other than to say they have nothing to do with “High Tea.”

Many of my friends who consider themselves part of the Tea Party are patriotic, loyal, hard working Americans with a deep love of our Constitution and our country.

Simply put, one might call them a “back to basics” crowd.

They came by this unusual name for their political movement because they see themselves rebelling against the idea, as Ron Paul has said, that America wants to take responsibility for the entire world while managing a totally irresponsible entitlement program at home.

So these conservative thinkers relate to our earliest “rebels,” who enjoyed their own tea party in Boston when they threw British tea into the sea to signal their outrage with the government of Great Britain’s treatment of the American colonies.

Simply put, they hit the “Brits” where it hurt the most: by ruining their tea; by showing a disregard for British custom.

They trashed a major symbol of British life.

I would argue that the contemporary Tea Party movement has perhaps selected the wrong moniker.

Most Americans don’t “do” tea parties. 

We are more a nation that likes coffee. A “coffee klatch” just sounds more American than a “tea party.”

We just aren’t into all the beautifully decorated bone china cups and saucers, the petit fours, or the crust-less cucumber sandwiches that require a magnifying glass to find. And then there is that whole thing with the “pinky finger” in the air while raising the bone china cup off the saucer.

I don’t think the patriots who made up the first Tea Party at the time of the American Revolution would have related to the current form of Tea Party in American politics.

So what was a very appropriate attack on a political symbol in the 1700’s bears little relationship to an attack on the direction of political life in America in 2012.

A good example of how many Americans have no affinity for any “Tea Party” was offered up in the November election results.

The results of the recent election might be summed up as follows:

                “there was the sound of china breaking everywhere.”

GOOD Morrnings

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

GOOD Mornings

I am writing this before Election Day as it is due to my editor.  As much as I enjoy watching politics unfold and trying to make predictions I am much less into analyzing the actual results.

Once the people have spoken, for me, it is over!

The Fat Lady has sung!

Hasta la vista pols (and polls)!

Whether we are dealing with a President Obama or a President Romney the work ahead is clear. The President-elect needs to get on it and he doesn’t need any of us to be in the way with grudges or bad feelings or “could have beens.” So this column has nothing to do with politics.

I can hear the cheering!

Once upon a time I would get up each morning in Connecticut while everyone else in the house was still asleep, dress and head over to the local train station where I would board a commuter train to New York City. On arrival in New York at Grand Central Station, I would get off the train and walk through the station and down into the bowels of that grand old building and stand on a platform awaiting a subway train heading downtown to Wall Street. I would board the subway and ride down to the area of Old Trinity Church, where the big bronze statue of the bull stands. Then I would walk to One Wall Street Plaza and commence a day of work.

Door to door: two hours. 

Round trip:  four hours.

In the particular business in which I was involved no one put in what is commonly called an eight-hour day. If you tried that you did not last long. So I spent a lot of time every week getting to work and working.

I mention this because I want to talk about mornings.

I did not realize how wonderful mornings could be in those years. Now that I am retired I cherish my mornings. I have a routine that I seldom break.

I awake when my wife is heading out to work. I am back asleep before the bedroom door shuts. When I awake again it is because I am no longer sleepy. My body tells me when I have had enough rest. These days, I listen to my body.

Although I am not writing about “evenings” I should mention that I also listen to my body then. When I am tired, I go to bed. Sometimes that might be 10PM. Other times it might be 2AM.

After rising in the morning I turn on the news and jump in a hot tub. While this might sound really sinful I actually do it because of arthritis. Anyone who has arthritis will tell you it is roughest in the morning because of your being so still all-night.

The hot tub takes all that away.

That time also lets me know if the world is still on her axis, if any foolish things have been said or done overnight, and if the weather is planning to play nice with me the rest of the day.

After the hot tub experience my Labrador retrievers have about had it without more individual attention. They get some pats on the head, a lot of conversation (who knew I would spend my days talking to dogs?), and we head to the living room and the fireplace.

Time in front of the fireplace, freshly brewed coffee in my mug, dogs at my side, newspaper and laptop news and columns on my lap: ready for the rest of the morning to unfold.

Nope.

The only thing that “unfolds” is the paper. I am ensconced for the better part of whatever morning remains. I have everything I need at the ready: my cell phone, my land line, a nice ship’s clock given to me one year by my wife, a good reading lamp, pencils and erasures for the daily crossword. 

Most importantly, our house has some really nice windows and from my chair I get a good look at the morning unfolding outside.

This is also a great time for making or receiving phone calls. If it is your regular schedule, people who need to reach you know when you will be home.

As lunch time approaches I begin to think of walking the dogs, meeting someone for a quick bite, joining my wife for lunch at her place of work, or preparing for any meetings I might have scheduled for the afternoon.

Many people will comment on how “lucky” I am to have this time.

I smile and let it pass.

Those friends who are retired know what I mean. You know, as do I, that we worked for these years. We earned them the old fashioned way, and we have no way of knowing how many of them we have “banked.”

They could run out at any time.

So we enjoy each and every one of them.

Afternoons are reserved for “honey do” lists, dog romps, my own errands, or anything that might be really productive.

Productivity is a word banished from my mornings.

Words saved for my mornings are: contentment, relaxation, enjoyment and contemplation.

Sometimes I think of those four-hour commutes and ten-hour days.

But not often.

Unfortunate Turn

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Unfortunate Turn

Four years ago Barack Obama presented to the American people an idealized way of looking at politics. He wanted to offer hope. His candidacy involved a lot of idealism. He did not bring with him a great deal of applicable previous life experience, but his oratory and dreams inspired many.

Richard Nixon once used the phrase “the lift of a driving dream.” Obama breathed hope into a great many people. He was elected President of the United States not because anyone thought his previous work experience suggested he would be a great president but because his high ideals and lofty rhetoric gave hope to so many.

Four years have passed.

Unemployment is up.

Housing is down.

Social welfare programs are overburdened.

International hotspots are seemingly out of control.

The list is endless.

But none of this bothers me as much as the change in his persona. He is running against a Mormon who does not drink, works as a missionary, serves his church, donates millions each year to charity, was a Republican Governor in the most Democratic state in the union, loves athletics, championed and supported his wife through her multiple sclerosis and her cancer, and raised five seemingly fine sons.

Yet the sitting President of the United States has intimated that Governor Romney is a felon, a bull-shitter, a liar, and somehow unsuited to the job.

These are pretty graphic comments for a man of high ideals, a man who supposedly is above political dirty tricks.

More than that, they are the charges of a desperate man, a man who thinks he might actually lose his presidency.

Whatever the reasons, pragmatic or just evidence of a side to this man we did not see four years ago, they are off-putting to me.

I have written before of demonization. I hate it. It is especially distasteful when we are talking about the presidency of our country.

Governor Romney has criticized the president’s programs and policies. He has been steadfast in his criticism of what he sees as a failed presidency. Having said that, I have not heard or read any personal criticisms of the president. Governor Romney talks about failed policies and programs and a disappointing leadership model.

President Obama may well be given a second term by the people of the United States.

However, the lofty image he brought to his first campaign is gone forever. Today he is simply another politician willing to do or say whatever is necessary to keep a hold on power.

I had the privilege of meeting or knowing or working with George H.W. Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman and many other people who lived and worked in the world of politics. It has not been my experience that unleashing personal attacks on one’s opponent has been key to winning the hearts and minds of the voters.

It is my hope that these frantic last minute attacks of a personal nature will backfire. That being said, I have been around politics long enough to know that they might just work.

Sadly, that says a lot about us, the voters.