RIP Teddy Kennedy

Image via Wikipedia

When you’re an Irish Catholic growing up in New England in the 1960’s and 1970’s, you’re going to have a certain affinity with the huge Kennedy clan.  And that’s true even if you don’t fully embrace the politics.

While I was too young to remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I do remember the collection of books and magazine tributes my mother kept.  Basically, a ton of them.  Then Bobby Kennedy was taken in 1968, and the aura and the weight of the tragedy became part of the fabric.

Ted Kennedy, the youngest and at often times very irresponsible, became the one who would fully carry the mantle.  I’d say that he carried it in a manner worthy of the whole legacy of the family, albeit with a couple of huge scars that many conveniently forgot.

My first memories of him as the lead story are tied into Chappaquiddick.  I still don’t – no one knows – what happened that horrible night.  But I do say that  Ted Kennedy should be judged by that as he should be judged by the rest of his life.

And from what I’m reading that the rest of his life – or at least his work as a Senator is beyond impressive.  I say that as someone who would often disagree with his politics.  In a time of extreme partisanship, he was able to work with members of the other party, Orrin Hatch and John McCain, to name two, to fashion legislation that both maintain his principles and get passed.

Today we’ve got too many hard left and hard right types that seem to want to not give in.  That doesn’t mean that they’re sticking to principle; it means they’d rather score political points to screw the oppositon.

What’s struck me from all the accolades is that so many of people are coming out with stories of Kennedy’s kindness.  Phone calls to people who have a sick relative.  Adding a personal touch to the semantics of daily life.

So, yes, Ted Kennedy is a symbol of a bygone era.  An era where bipartisanship was used to produce a better government and a better American life.  And it’s that type of service that served as the foundation for my own idealism, ironically forged in part by reading and looking at those books and magazines my mother collected so long ago.  They made me proud to be an American (and an Irish Catholic to boot!).

RIP, Ted Kennedy, and thank you for your service to our country.

I agree with Roger

Roger Ebert, in his blog post for the Chicago Sun Times, lays it out pretty well as to why we need a public option for health care..

“I”m safe on board.  Pull the life raft up”

Sure, the Obama administration and the “progressive” left have been less than honest about key issues such as  costs and the future stability of current plans, the current system in which 47 million Americans are without health insurance is unacceptable.

The Gates situation dialogue is failing

Jonathan Capehart, an editorial writer for the Washington Post, had an article yesterday entitled “The Race Dialogue We Won’t Have”.  A worthy read.  Then today’s editorial page has longtime Post editor Colbert King’s great piece “The Black Man at the Door”.

The title of the first article signifies the problem with thes entire situation.   The fact that no one really is interested in looking at this clearly.  It’s all emotion.  Charges of racist cops, an uppity black professor, and how much the other side is wrong.

The second article FINALLY addresses the real problem here:  that the cops were called in the first place.  King points out how an acquaintence of his who happens to be black receives, as a member of a the Cleveland Park (a largely white affluent community in DC), emails notifiying him and everyone else on the list, the presence of black males in the neighborhood.  This is in a city that is overall over 60% black.

The problem here is, once again, not the cops involved in these stories.  The problem here is the reactions all to often that many whites have toward blacks.

Gates and some other liberal editorial writers have already decided that this was very much the case of James Crowley being a racist cop.  Or that this was an actual conspiracy to denigrate an accomplished black man.  Some have suggested that Gates is very famous and should be easily recognizable.  That’s laughable.  Before this happened, I’d say that less than 1% of America would recognize him.  In a country where people barely know who their U.S. Representative is, you’re not going to find that many people outside of the intellecutal class who know what Henry Louis Gates looks like.

That’s how some on the left would naturally think, positioning this in a way that to disagree with them makes one racist.  That shuts down the discussion right then and there.

The right is predictably in the other direction.  Many seem to be totally ignoring the indignity of having cops come to one’s one home because, very likely, you were black and having a difficult time getting in the door.  They won’t even try to understand this and other legitimate complaints African Americans have in dealing with issues like this.  Or even more, they will intentionally not try to understand.

The dialogue is off.  Viewpoints are hardened on either side.  Intentional standoff.  Blame the other side.  Don’t listen.  And we’re all worse off for it.

A man returning home from a trip, trying to get in his front door that’s jammed.  All he wants is peace and not to be insulted by being stereotyped.

A cop doing his job, responding to a police call.  Something he had to do quite often, usually for legitimate reasons and at times risking his life.

It’s time that some on the right and some on the left grew some balls and took a look at the other side for a change.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. and what’s really wrong with this picture

When I read about Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. getting arrested at his home in Cambridge, MA, I cringed. As the story unfolded, it became clear to me how easily this can happen.  Simply misunderstandings, a cop doing his job, and racial profiling all worked together produced yet another incident that we all could, but probably won’t learn from.

Henry Louis Gates being led out of his Cambridge, MA home last week. (Bill Carter/Demotix Images)

I wasn’t there.  I don’t know what happened.  I don’t know what the initial exchanges were like between the police and Professor Gates.   I do know, or at least I believe, that this would have never had happened if Gates was white.

What concerns me more so is something that’s being overlooked by the media and, as far as I can tell, Gates himself.  The copes shouldn’t have been called in the first place.

Professor Gates comes home from a vacation via a cab and finds that his front door is jammed.  The cabbie, who also happens to be black, helps him open the door.  For this, the police are called.

Let’s not underestimate that.

This means that quite often, regardless of the circumstances, blacks are first thought to be “up to no good”.  The presence of a cab or

Now, I have no idea what happened with the interchange between Gates and the cop.  At first glance, the cop was obviously doing his job.  He was responding to a possible break in.  And perhaps all the cop did was ask for some sort of identification.  Perhaps Gates should have obliged.

But perhaps the cop should have given Gates the benefit of the doubt.  It’s my guess that if Gates were a 58 year old white man (or woman), he would have.  But Gates, standing there in what appears to be a Izod style shirt, isn’t white.

When I see stories such as this, I see different standards.  It takes me back to the incident involving Dee Brown.

Dee Brown was the first round draft pick of the Boston Celtics back in 1990.  He was a black man who had settled into the Boston suburb.  Apparently, a “normal sized” black man had robbed a local bank.  When the cops saw the giant Brown, they stopped him and ordered him down on the ground, flat on his stomach.  Put a gun to his head.  The fact that he didn’t fit the description of the suspect outside of race meant nothing.  He was black.  Therefore, he was guilty.  Nice way to be treated by your adopted city.

I grew up in New England.  White people, nice white people, living in white suburbs aren’t used to seeing black people in their neighborhoods.   So they freak.  They may admire Martin Luther King Jr.  Hell, they may have even voted for Obama.  But see a black guy down the street and it’s OH NO.

I thought that was ending.  I guess not.

So, to me, the real problem is not just with the cops.  It’s not with whatever reaction Gates had to the cop.  It’s with the fact that a black guy can’t get his front door unjammed without having the cops called.

UPDATE:  Thanks to KSmith who pointed out to me that Dee Brown was 6′1″ and not 6′10″!

Hats off to Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins…

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

…and to the many others who risked their lives to explore space and to make those three the first to reach and, in the case of Armstrong and Aldrin, step foot on the moon.

It seems so detached from the happenings in our lives today.  We haven’t had anyone back their in 37 years – half a lifetime.  Yet today’s young don’t seem that much amazed.

Forty years.  I can’t believe it.  First of all, I can’t believe that I can remember something reasonably clearly that happened forty years ago.  That’s because the concept of forty years ago seems so long ago.  I was sitting in my family’s TV room watching it with my dad.  My mom had gone to bed.  We saw the somewhat unfocused picture showing Neil Armstrong take that famous step and say “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

To think that it had only been 66 years since man first was able to fly with the successful flight of the Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers.  A giant leap indeed.  What mankind can do.

Figuring out Connor

It’s often hard to write about a child that has “special needs”, especially when it is rally hard to nail down just what exactly those needs are.

Connor failed seventh grade.  He can’t retain anything.  He has difficulty adding single digits.  His handwriting is that of a six year oldl.  His greatest interests seem to be extending some sort of child world fantasy land.  It could be related to Pokemon or Digimon.  But it’s increasingly becoming age inappropriate.

The hard part is trying to figure out how to respond to all this.  Do I “put a stop” to these fantasay world type things and thus destroy what he may best relate to?  Do I let it continue and keep him on a path where he can avoid growing up?  Where exactly is that best middle ground?

He’ll be 14 in a week.  To him, that means like he’s turning 10.

It’s been a while…

I’ve spend so much time away from this blog, it’s as if it isn’t mine.  Last years elections wore me out as I got sick of the mudslinging between the candidates supporters.  But I’m back. Some thoughs:

The mainstream media loves Barack Obama like the way a college student loves beer.

The Republicans haven’t seemed to learn much from their losses.  They still talk about taxes, taxes, taxes and show intolerance toward the fact that we really are a diverse nation.

The Democrats are weaker than they believe themselves to be.   They’re in uncharted territory.

Gay marriage, while important to many and a legitimate issue to consider, is irrelevant to the vast majority of voters.

Barack Obama isn’t a socialist, but he’s coming close.

But then again, a lot of hard-right Republicans aren’t fascists, but some of them come close too.

Nancy Pelosi irritates me, politically.  She also has a smile that will someday will break her face.  She encompasses what I can’t stand about the Democratic Party.

Rush Limbaugh ecompasses what I can’t stand about the Republican Party.  Toss in Dick Cheney with that.

Newt Gingrich can make sense when he’s not being overly harsh.

This is no longer a center right country.

Mitt Romney’s description of Barack Obama’s approach to overseas issues as being a “Tour of Apology” is crap.  Trying to relate and point out past mistakes is completely appropriate.

But showing the world pictures of American personnel hurting and torturing Muslims isn’t.  Other innocent Americans will lose their lives because of it.  Including U.S. soldiers.

It wouldn’t bother me one bit if James Van Brunn, the white supremecist that shot to death security guard Stephen Johns in the Holocaust Museum, dies from his wounds.  In fact, I hope the bastard dies.

Being a white male, it would be nice to know what Sonia Sotomayor meant by that wise Latina/white male comment.

And Afghanistans and Paksistan are the new players in a 21st Century of the Domino Theory.  That’s very, very scary.

Well, that’s it for now.  Time to hit the sack.

A new, healthy client

I recently got a new client who’s starting a new business of his own.  He’s  a top caterer in a major city, but he’s changing gears.   His name is Greg and he’s strong environmentalist.  So, he’s now establishing a consultancy to help anything from restaurants and other caterers all the way up to large entities that provide dining services (universities, hospitals, etc) “go green”.  That means local and organic.

It’s inspiring.  As I get older, I’m becoming more careful with my diet.  You hear about clogged arteries, the epidemic of obesity, early diabetes…and you perhaps don’t realize those things can happen to you.  They haven’t – yet.  But they can.

I plan to learn a lot from Greg.

And that means finding local and organic places to buy food.

A new Greatest Generation

The past few weeks I’ve seen not one, not two, but three young men with missing limbs.  One had lost an arm, one a leg, and the most recent, both legs.  Maybe I’m wrong, but their relatively close cropped hair signified that they were military.

The DC area has Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital.  Inside those walls and in other military facilites are perhaps hundreds of returning servicemen and servicewomen who’ve come back from war in a different physical conditon than what they were when they left.

I’ve read where the medical breakthroughs that have happened over the years have resulted in a much lower rate of KIAs that we’ve had in previous wars.  That’s absolutely great.

But it misses something major.  Many of those that are saved nevertheless suffered so grevious injuries that they’re permanently scarred, disfigured, or handicapped.  I’ve heard – I can’t remember where that it may number in the tens of thousands.  Like the young men I now see.

Much has been made of the “Greatest Generation”, the World War II generation of GI Joe’s who went to war to fight fascism and then came home to build this country and to take the lead on civil rights and other great things.  As a son of a mon and a dad who were most definitely part of that generation, I can say that I definitely deserve that title.

But I’m wondering now if there is a new generation of greats.  Or those who have answered they country’s call to serve.

Whenever the Washington Post features their Faces of the Dead (I think that’s what they call it), I make sure I take a look at each picture and read each profile.  I’ll hear stories of a kid somewhere who joined the military after 9/11.  Of how they dedicate their lives for their country.  And sometimes sacrifice that life.

This isn’t a pro-Iraq war statement.  I was against it before it started.

Often one generation disparages the next as being soft and pampered.  I’ll never do that.  Instead, I see a new Greatest Generation.  And I’ll always be grateful.

A tragic day of innocence lost

This morning I woke up to a jarring story in the newspaper.  The killer of Adam Walsh was finally identified.

On July 27, 1981, Adam went into a deparment store with his mother.  She lost track of him for just a second…and he was abducted by the person we now known as his killer, Ottis Toole.  Adam’s head was found two weeks later in a nearby canal.  His body has never been recovered.

This story gripped America.  It was one of those turning points in which a singlular event caused massive, but subtle changes in our society.  I was still a teen when Adam was abducted.  As I look at his picture now, I automatically recognize him.  I’ll never forget him.  In a way he became everyone’s little boy.  The freckled-faced gap-toothed baseball cap wearing kid.  The picture was the type of picture that parents and grandparents would have on a coffee table or a fireplace mantle or on the living room wall.

When I was a kid in junior high, I’d walk to the bus stop alone.  Today, by habit, I walk my son to his.  (The bus comes at 6:30 a.m. so it’s completely dark out).  Each kid there has a parent nearby.  It’s as if each of us has a feeling that we should be there.  I can’t help but think that unconsciously we’re doing it because of Adam

I have to say that I admire John Walsh and the way he made this a crusade.  He had to.  Now we’ve got systems in place that, while not being able to prevent these tragedies, can make them more rare.

Today, I’m going to say a special prayer for the Walsh family and, most especially, for Adam.  And my son is going to get extra hugs for a reason that he knows nothing of.