Democracy happens

[The scene outside Portland High School, as voters waiting to get inside to caucus-Portland Press Herald photograph]

Yesterday was an amazing day, here in the Pine Tree State. In an age when far too many people choose the safety of their living rooms and the anonymity of online social networking, over face-to-face contact, neighbors and fellow community members squeezed into schools, fire stations, town halls and other central meeting hubs to caucus for Democrats, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In a town like Durham, it’s a rarity to get to meet new townspeople, neighbors and even radio talk shows hosts who live in the town. Yesterday’s caucus made it possible to get a sense of who some of our neighbors and fellow Durhamites are.

While my wife and I had our preference for a candidate who did not win, I can’t say I’m totally disappointed, as democracy, disorganized, sometimes dysfunctional and even occasionally irritating, worked imperfectly, but it worked. Say what you want about the caucus system, 46,000 Mainers voted with their feet (the previous high for Maine was 17,000 in 2004), enthusiastically endorsing their choice for a candidate.

Our local caucus saw 119 people show up (the previous high was 42, also in 2004). We ran out of forms, the line snaked out the door of our local fire station and into the parking lot and people were jammed in like sardines in a can, but when all was said and done, we caucused for our respective candidates and the wheels of democracy turned, albeit squeakily.

It’s been a crazy weekend here in our household, between snowstorms, candidate’s rallies and fitting in an interview for my upcoming book.

Look to this space for an update and some additional thoughts on caucus Sunday, later in the week.

The clear and present danger of local talk radio

[Saturday, at the Lewiston Armory, spreading the gospel] [The Hillary sisterhood]
[Hillary, after the town hall, signing autographs]

[I’m pleased to welcome a new contributor to Words Matter. While you may remember Mary from previous guest posts (including this one), I’ve now given her carte blanche to do some reporting and offering her thoughts on the political campaign, as it rolls forward.—JB]

I have to admit that I don’t listen to much talk radio, like I once did.. I do a lot of traveling for my job and 80 percent of that time each week is in my car. Instead of listening to talk radio and getting all wound up, I now listen to a lot (and I do mean a lot) of books on tape (thank you Portland Public Library in Portland, Me ). I also listen to my local television news station, WCSH, on the radio.

Yesterday, I was on my way to the Hillary Clinton town meeting, being held in Lewiston. I decided to turn on the radio to WGAN, at around 10:15am.. The main reason I turned to this station, which I hadn’t listened to for ages, is that on Wednesday, my husband was listening to WGAN and found out that Bill Clinton was coming to Portland the next day. I figured that WGAN must have informed news. Also, my husband had mentioned to me in passing that Barbara Merrill, the former gubernatorial candidate and now hosting a talk show with Phil Harriman, and would probably have some commentary on both Senators Obama and Clinton, since they were visiting the state on Saturday. I voted for Barbara Merrill when she ran for governor. She lost to our current governor, John Baldacci. I thought Barbara and Phil would be able to give me some additional information about the events leading up to the democratic caucus this Sunday.

As I drove to pick up my sister, so we could both see Hillary together, I listened to Merrill’s Inside Maine show. They were talking about the political happenstances around the state of Maine. It has been an exciting weekend for Democrats in the state of Maine. With visits from both the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Former president, Bill Clinton, had been in Maine on Thursday night, and Senator Ted Kennedy, as well as Chelesa Clinton had also come to Maine and were campaigning on behalf of their respective candidates. And then we had the big events of both Clinton and Obama in Maine, in Bangor and Lewiston (Clinton).

Around 10:30, Merrill mentioned that she had an exclusive interview with Senator Obama. He was going to be speaking later that day at the Bangor Auditorium and I thought that it would be great to hear the interview. Then the hosts mentioned in passing that “wasn’t Bill Clinton at Becky’s Dinner this week?” It was as if Merrill and Harriman were confused. One of them mentioned that the “locals must have ignored Bill.” (My husband informed me afterwards, “it was probably the right-wing Harriman that disparaged Bill Clinton). I thought Inside Maine hosts should be a little better informed. Is this a paying gig for Phil and Barbara or do they provide their services for free?

Barbara and Phil pay close attention! Rob Caldwell had an exclusive interview with Mr. Clinton and it was well done and informative. In the interview, Caldwell captured the former president speaking about his role as an ex-president, now campaigning for a family member running for president. President Clinton spoke about how a former president should handle himself.

On the other hand, these local hosts didn’t seem to get how key this interview was. They said something like “wasn’t Bill’s visit to Becky’s Dinner on maybe, WCSH?” Again, clearly confused. This interview was important to Caldwell and the folks at WCSH, as well as others. I was on my way to work on Friday morning and yes, I was listening to THE TODAY SHOW. I was waiting for my caffeine to kick from my morning cup of coffee, when I heard Matt Lauer say that they will be hearing from former President Clinton, when one of our affiliates in Portland Maine, WCSH, spoke with him. This was a national story, as Caldwell’s interview was the first time that the former president Clinton had mentioned specifics about some of his recent difficulties campaigning for his wife.

Both Merrill and Harriman were absolutely clueless about this. They once again resorted to their corny joke about how “the locals must have really loved (hahaha) seeing Bill Clinton at Becky’s Dinner.” What’s their problems, anyway?

Then, it was time for Merrill’s big exclusive with Senator Obama. I was expecting to learn a lot more about Senator Obama’s campaign for the White house and how it would affect Mainers. Senator Kennedy, the day before, while on a campaign stop mentioned about a bill not passing for the much needed fuel assistance for Maine people. If Senator McCain had voted for the bill, it would have helped many Mainers who need fuel assistance to stay warm this winter.

Before the interview I thought that the interview would hit hard about the many Mainers who are struggling to stay warm this winter (Senator Kennedy knows it), or how about families just keeping their homes from foreclosure, or having jobs that that pay a living wage, or health insurance for those without. Instead, Merrill opened with a question about Mainers being so concerned about the environment and Al Gore’s possible role if Senator’s Obama wins the presidency. Good lord! The environment is very important but does Barbara Merrill not read or listen to national polls? Obviously not! In this presidential election, Americans have shifted their focus. Their number one concern is the economy. I think the economy would mean jobs or lack of them, and of course would cover having enough money to pay your fuel bill, as well as mortgage.

I was getting more and more irritated, listening to Merrill hack away at what could have been a very informative interview with possibly our next president of the United States. And Barbara! Don’t even try your attempt at humor regarding a Patriot football trade. It just doesn’t come off. I shut the radio off after the interview in disgust!

Let me wrap up with three points. First of all, thank God the exclusive interview with Senator Hillary Clinton airing on February 10th on WGAN is being conducted by John McDonald. Secondly, I am so glad Barbara Merrill didn’t win the governorship for the state of Maine, even though I foolishly voted for her—Governor Baldacci you are doing a good job! And lastly, I know why it is not healthy for me to listen to talk radio.

WGAN take a closer look at your hosts. It’s time for a change!!!!

FMI on the Clinton campaign and the real differences between her and Barack Obama, check out this excellent website. You can actually cut through the hype and compare resumes.

The ascension of John McCain

The ascension of John McCain, from presidential also-ran, to front-runner, gives hope to everyone, toiling in obscurity, funding gone, hoping for the “Eureka!” moment.

McCain’s presidency appeared dead in the water, during the mid-summer dog days of July. While no one, other than political pundits and a few bloggers were tracking the horserace, articles like this one were asking what went wrong with team Johnny Mac.

Today’s announcement of Mitt Romney’s exit from the race is interesting. Will hard-core idealogues on the right finally bury the hatchet and get behind McCain? Does their support really matter and are the followers of Rush, Hannity and Glen Beck as significant as these right-wing windbags pontificate to their listeners that it is?

McCain is an enigma. The “straight-talker” from 2000, a bona fide American hero, who captivated voters in New Hampshire (trudging to 101 town hall meetings), and also, the pariah, now persona non grata to the “noise machine” crowd, on the right end of the political spectrum.

I personally don’t get the right’s obsession with Mitt Romney. For testosterone-fueled white males, McCain should be their man. Christ, the guy endured a 5 ½ year ordeal as a POW that no human being should ever have to go through. He still can’t lift his arms above his head today, as a result. As David Foster Wallace wrote for Rolling Stone, in 2000, during McCain’s first run for president,

But the point is that with McCain we know, for a proven fact, that he’s capable of devotion to something other, more than his own self-interest. So that when he says the line in speeches you can feel like maybe it isn’t just more candidate bullshit, that with this guy it’s maybe the truth. Or maybe both the truth and bullshit; the guy does want your vote after all. But that moment in the Hoa Lo office in ’68 – right before he refused, with all his basic normal human self-interest howling at him – that moment is hard to blow off. The fact is that John McCain is a genuine hero of the only kind that Vietnam now has to offer, a hero not because of what he did but because of what he suffered – voluntarily, for a Code. This gives him the moral authority both to utter lines about causes beyond self-interest and to expect us, even in this age of Spin and lawyerly cunning, to believe he means them. [ from “The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub,” from Rolling Stone Issue #838 (April 13, 2000) ]

It’s really hard to listen to someone like Limbaugh, shit on McCain, the hero. Limbaugh, a man who engaged in behavior befitting a derelict, destroying his own hearing because he felt the need to indulge in “hillbilly heroin,” and then, that “great American” that he is, with his “talent, on load from God,” vehemently denied it, until he got painted into a corner. This very same man who refused to serve, while McCain served his country and nearly paid for it with his own life.
[Note: Limbaugh avoided military service by having his physician certify his medical unfitness due to an "inoperable pilonidal cyst" and "a football knee from high school.” Ryland Meyr, his football coach in high school said Rush played one year of varsity football and that he remembered no injuries to Limbaugh.]

During the last eight years of Bush, the Patriot Act, illegal wiretapping and Guantanamo torture, I had grown to despise Republicans. Actually, my loathing of the GOP had more to do with the sycophantic, post-Reagan revisionism, that’s still quite fashionable with the likes of Laura Ingraham, Mike Gallagher and the other right-wing choirboys. This right-wing talk show crowd makes you forget about Republicans like Olympia Snowe (from my home state), who btw, said that McCain was "as authentic as you can be."

Romney is a fake as counterfeit bill. The Republicans had a field day with a fellow Massachusetts native, John Kerry, calling him a “flip-flopper.” Seems to me that Romney wears that label well.

John McCain’s positions have remained steady. While he could have gotten a handler and employed spin doctors, he stayed true and steady on immigration and the troop surge, many on the right ridiculing him for it, now unable to get over it. But none of that really matters, post-New Hampshire and then, even more remarkable--his amazing running of the gauntlet, across the map on Super Tuesday.

The following quote, from Dwight Eisenhower distills the essence for what I believe is our political hope for the future.

“It is only common sense to recognize that the great bulk of Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, face many common problems and agree on a number of basic objectives.”

Colin Powell talked about a “sensible center.” I think a lot of people, whether they self-identify as either liberal Republicans or conservative Democrats essentially support the same policy positions on major issues. I consider myself a left libertarian and I'm fed up with partisan politics.

Still, because people allow themselves to be swayed by partisan idealogues, who surprisingly, get more than their fair hearing in a variety of mainstream sources, these disciples of division are able to maintain a following, devoted to party politics and ideologies. Meanwhile, solutions to problems in healthcare, energy policy and the perpetuation of the military/industrial complex continues, even though the will of the people is for better roads, socialized healthcare and meaningful education and safer schools for their children. [for more on independent politics, see Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics, by John P. Avlon]

The real example of what America needs is FDR, not Ronald Reagan. Only devotion to balkanized political dialogue coming from the Kool-Aid crowd, keeps the airwaves and information channels jammed with white noise.

I think McCain’s success and the rejection of someone like Romney, as well as the groundswell of young people around Obama’s message of change, indicates that elements of the U.S. electorate may be breaking free from a politics of personal destruction and a movement towards meaningful change may be on the way. I certainly hope so. It will take a herculean effort to reverse the destructiveness of the past eight years.

I like to call this new energy, around McCain, capturing moderates on the right and some of the new voters coming out for Obama and even Mrs. Clinton, “the politics of the common people.”

Hapless 'hounds get pummelled

I visited Moxietown on Saturday, as I said I would.

Walking into the LHS gym (which I recently found out was built in 1952, for $140,000) always brings back many memories.

It was on this floor that I labored as a basketball player, one who was big on heart and short on jumping ability. This year's Greyhound squad seems destined to finish the season without a win. I continue to wonder why the town's high school basketball fortunes have fallen so far. I'm thinking part of this will be fodder for the book. In fact, spent a good part of the day working on the manuscript that will be Moxietown.

I had a chance to visit with people from my past. It's a rare visit back to LHS, particularly at a sporting event, when I don't run into people that played a part in who I am. Inevitably, these visits bring back recollections, some hidden and some brought back into clearer focus.


Saturday's Greyhounds' opponent was Winthrop High School. The Ramblers have been ranked #1 or #2 in Class C for most of the season. They have an athletic squad, anchored by Division I prospect Sam Leclerc. The hapless Greyhounds entered the game minus three of their top players, including their leading scorer, suspended for academic performance (or lack, thereof).

The undermanned Greyhounds were no match. With Lisbon's tallest player listed at 5'1o", the more athletic Ramblers pummelled them on the boards. Leclerc and 6'4" Tim Gingras, a state champion high jumper, were constantly able to jump over the backs of the smaller and less athletic Greyhounds, for easy putbacks.
Interestingly, Winthrop coach Dennis Dacus seemed to see the need to press the Greyhounds, for much of the first half and into the 3rd period, despite being up by some 30+ points. Better, he kept Leclerc in the game until 3:08 left in the game. At the time of his departure from the game, Winthrop was up 85-37. I know a number of Lisbon parents were less than impressed, as was the former Lisbon soccer coach, who I grew up with and played sports with two of his older brothers.

I understand that a coach walks a fine line between keeping his team sharp for the impending playoffs and not letting his better players lose their competitive edge. But how about calling off the assault early in the 3rd?

I wasn't particularly surprised. My dislike of Winthrop sports (not necessarily the town) runs deep and I still bristle, thinking back to some of the things that occurred from my basketball days, when we were in similar situations and the Winthrop coach at the time, a man I have never thought much of, regularly ran up the score on opponents. He also condoned taunting and catcalls, which carried over to baseball, where we handily thumped his teams. This man was a longtime coach in Winthrop and I'm sure is still in the area. Dacus seems to be cut from the same cloth, but then again, this was my first chance to see him in action. Obviously my first impression left me a bit nonplussed, eh?

I'll shut down my thoughts on this. I plan on seeing some playoff basketball. I may have the chance to file an additional report, at some point, on the Ramblers.

Are sports failing our youth?

I'm headed to my HS alma mater, to watch some boys b-ball. Now why would I want to watch a team that is 0-16 play and probably get pounded, once again? Let me give you a hint: it's tied to the new book and I need some field research. BTW, I once played HS basketball and endured a 1-17 mark, my junior year, so I know a bit about what I'll be covering.

If any of my Maine readers have been following the brawl, last Saturday night, in Lawrence, between the Lawrence Bulldogs and Lewiston, here's a bit of info you didn't read in the paper. While I don't condone students brawling, nor fans entering the fray, I have it from a reliable source that a racial epithet was involved, directed at the Lewiston young man. Having spent some time combing the state's back roads, let me say that this doesn't surprise me. [Here is a newspaper account of the incident in the "hometown" paper of the Bulldogs. Don't forget to read the comments-JB]

I ran across this great contribution from a reader, who posted this at MBR.org, a site devoted to Maine HS basketball. I couldn't say it any better than this parent, from Calais. It ties well with last Saturday's ugly incident in Lawrence and other happening around the state, connected with this winter's battles on the hardwood.

Go Greyhounds!

Athletes and Punishment

What a year. A player arrested for OUI. A northern Maine team trashing a locker room. A fight during a game (the youtube video showed a much less drastic event than the posts described). A fight in the parking lot. A player contacting an official. And these are just the ones talked about here - how many athletes lost eligibility today with report cards coming out?

Someone much smarter than me once described rules or law as the miminum accepted behavior in a society or group. When did we decide high school athletes, coaches and programs only had to comply with the lowest accepted behavior?

When did we stop demanding and expecting more from them? Isn't that lesson inherent in making players dress up on game days; sign conduct codes beyond the regular student body; retiring numbers; posting records in lobbies and on the wall; hanging banners; etc... Aren't we supposed to be telling them that the more they give to their community the better they and the community will be? When a high school kid gets arrested for OUI is whether he/she plays anymore basketball the biggest problem in his/her life? When kids are yelling racial insults at each other, is their sports future the biggest worry for that town? When fans and parents rush the floor and a team needs an escort to safely leave a school, is the duration of suspensions the biggest safety worry for that school?

Why do we expect coaches, administrators, state agencies and similar organizations to fix this problem? I've got four kids playing sports - two on varsity, one in junior high and one just starting in rec ball. If their grades drop, if they drink, if they drink & drive, if they call someone "n", if they trash a lockerroom, the school and coach will have no decision to make. They will have a freshly laundered uniform to give to a replacement player and my kid will be working hard to make the team next year. I don't mean to imply that the parents of the players involved in these situations aren't doing the right thing - I have no idea about any specific situation or how any specific family is dealing with their child. I'm simply trying to raise the point that maybe we need to look inward to find the cause and solution to what seems to be a tough year. I'm in Washington County and I know nothing about the Teer kid or that situation beyond what is posted on this site. However, I have some admiration for two sets of parents (his and hers) and the coach if in fact they all discussed expected behavior at the start of the school year and then held that young man (and woman presumably) to their consequences when their behavior didn't comply with expectations. Isn't this young couples lives' more important then his basketball team's won/loss record?

This post is longer than I meant it to be when I started, anyone from Calais won't be surprised I talked too much. Any before everyone takes a knee jerk reaction to it, do me a favor, take the kid(s) you love and care for to a quiet spot and tell them they mean more to you than the outcome of the next competition. Remember, it is our job to raise them into good adults, it is not our job to raise them into good high school athletes.