It Really Isn't That Hard

Indianapolis has  a treasure for those who want to walk, job, bike or just enjoy some green space in the city.  The Monon trail, built on the land that used to house the Monon Railroad runs for 18 miles from just north of downtown to Westfield.  It crosses high traffic flow roads and winds through the backyards of neighborhoods.  Used by countless people daily, the Monon is a jewel of our community.  However in my area of town there is a problem.  As the population of Westfield, IN, where I live, grows there are more and more cars who drive on roads that cross the Monon.  Now the rules about driving is simply to slow down and yield is someone is in the crosswalk as you approach.  If no one is the crosswalk you drive normally (but be alert as you would where anyone crosses).  But that simple set of rules has become a problem for two reasons.  The first that while there are stop signs on the trails and people walk, jogging, or biking on the trail must stop at street crossings, some people don't.  Second, there are people who who are driving who see people waiting for traffic to clear on trail, stop and wave them on.  This is dangerous for drivers who are not expecting to stop, it screws up traffic patterns that could cause an accident due to back ups and of course, cars coming in the other direction may not stop or be prepared to stop putting people who are crossing in jeopardy.

Now a solution at one point at 146th Street is a nice skywalk that allows trail users to cross above the road.  This might be a costly yet functional solution however yesterday as I was turning onto 146th Street at the corner, in the shadow of the trail, were two bicyclists who were trying cross the street.  I simply shook my head, a perfectly good path with safety above their head and they are stuttering to cross 146th as cars travel by and turn onto the street with regularity.   Now I am all for using the trail and I hope that fixes are made at the crossing that are the most dangerous.  But until then here is a very simple tutorial:

1.  If you are on the Monon, when you approach a street you must cross, follow the big stop sign and the barriers you must go around and stop, look and cross when clear.  It is simple.  If you have kids, keep them back from the edge of the road, and if you are on a bike, don't play chicken with on-coming traffic.  That is simply stupid.

2.  If you are driving, as you approach the Monon crossing, slow down, if you see someone in the crosswalk, stop and yield.  If you don't keep going but be aware of surroundings.  DO NOT STOP AND WAVE PEOPLE INTO THE CROSSING.  That is dangerous.  For you and for them.  It is better you keep going and let the traffic clear.

3.  Understand that regardless if you do everything correctly someone might not.  Be aware that people are often going to make mistakes or simply not care about other people, react appropriately and take the high road.

4.  Petition local government for solutions and for law enforcement to police this and fine violators.

We have a wonderful treasure in our city and for much of the length of this it isn't much of a problem.  If we work together, we can almost certainly solve the problems and make the Monon safe and fun.

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right

It continues to be a trial to be a mindful liberal these days.  Recently in McCordsville, a suburb of Indianapolis had a teacher send home a note asking parents to have their children stop saying the words God, Jesus and Devil. Quoting the letter it says:  

"With McCordsville Elementary being a public school, we have many different religions and beliefs, and I do not want to upset a child/parent because of these words being used,” the letter said. “If you got to church or discuss these things at home, please have a talk with your child about there being an appropriate time and place of talking about it.”

So of course the keyboard first amendment experts were there to express their outrage. But first let me say the letter from the teacher was both inappropriate and violates the students rights to free speech.  This is not a gray area, the Supreme Court and many other courts have made decisions about the right of religious expression from students in school.  If children express their faith in a manner that is not disruptive to the educational process nor is an attack on another child it is within their rights to use these words.  May it be offensive? Yes.  Is that a place for a conversation?  Maybe.  Can they be banned? No. 

But of course the simple answer has no place in our culture where anyone can pick up the megaphone of the internet so let me use mine.

1.  For the people who say we are a Christian nation:  No we are not, we are a secular nation that has a plurality of people who identify as Christian.  But written into our laws is a distinct separation of religion and government.  The founders feared the role of religion in government as that is what they were feeling.  They wanted a government of the people not ordained by God.  

2.  For those who say religion has no place in school:  Religion can exist and does exist everywhere.  The issue is who is bringing the religion.  School officials cannot engage in bringing students together in prayer, cannot say one religion is better than another, cannot preach to children nor engage in religious recruitment in public school.  However, students can in fact do all those things at appropriate times.  Students can speak of their faith at free times, can pray before tests, lunch and anytime.  Can wear religious items and ask for times to say daily prayers.  

3.  One nation under God is a phrase that was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950s because of fear of atheistic communism.  It is ironically a bit unAmerican to require the pledge and worse to make a statement of faith in it.  The beauty of America is that you can be any religion or none at all.  We don't want a singular religion to be forced on us.  

I can't understand why we so many people simply do not understand the idea and role of faith in our culture.  We live in a country where we explicitly don't want all crimes to also be sins against God.  We don't want religion at the center of our laws.  (yes I know they influence our laws and some crimes are also sins)  But we also don't want religion to be washed out of our public life.  In fact we must fight for all to have their rights expressed as long as they don't interfere with the rights of others.  (We don't have right to not be offended or upset).  That way we can be free, free of the oppression of a government who defines how we interact with our gods, and free to do so. 

  

Perhaps the Most Impressive Thing Any President Has Done

CNN has a fetish for interviewing ignorant Trump supporters who never seem to have a critical thing to say about him.  I am not saying all Trump supporters are ignorant, though I think they are misguided.  I mean people really ignorant of the reality of Donald Trump as President of the United States.  They bring them together to ask them how they think he is doing, especially after some big news story, so like clockwork CNN will for the next few days have Alison Camerota talk to people about how great President Trump is while not knowing anything he has done or failed to do.  This morning we saw it with his speech on Afghanistan.

For years Donald Trump has said the United States should pull out of Afghanistan and let the people in the area deal with the fallout.  It became part of his campaign, a campaign that included him saying that he knew more than the generals on military matters.  But when asked what this group thinks of Trump's Afghan speech they said he was fulfilling a campaign promise.  When Camerota pointed out that in fact he promised the opposite in the campaign and came close to admitting he was wrong last night in the speech, they quickly changed the subject.  This is but one of a number of crazy ignorant statements made by the voters who support the President without knowledge what is actually going on.  Tomorrow CNN plans to ask about Charlottesville, that is going to be a cluster for sure.  But it is not uncommon for American voters to be uninformed.  What is less comfortable when it is a member of the media who simply vomits praise for no reason.

Tucker Carlson, Fox News, is a prime example.  Last week, after the events around the Nazi marchers,  there was segment on his show that tried to justify slavery.  Seriously, because Trump thought there were good people marching with White Supremacists Carlson tried to make it safe to say that by downplaying slavery as an American tragedy and evil.  But it gets worse.  During yesterday's eclipse the President of the United States look directly at the sun.  Something that we have been told for months not to do and he was shouted not to as he was doing it.  Carlson, talking about it,   said "He looked at the sun without any glasses. Perhaps the most impressive thing any president has done."

Seriously, for almost a decade I kept hearing people tell me that liberals saw President Obama as a mythical savior.  We never did.  But now, seriously, he could slap a baby (I mean he did kick one out of his rally) and there will be people who bring up that the baby spit up on someone at the grocery or church.  It is sickening thing and their voices should be ridiculed.  The other day on one of the NBC channels a Trump apologist was lying about the economy and the reporters whose beat was the economy basically explained to the sycophant that the first six months of this year, every measure of economic growth was slower than the previous 18 at least.  But of course the typical Trump supporter wouldn't believe it.

The facts are simple, if you like the President of not, he has been basically a terrible leader and has stumbled over every thing he has tried to accomplish that requires more work than signing his name.  Perhaps his turn around on Afghanistan and adopting previous Presidents' ideas and the military leadership in his cabinet.  I hope this is the start of something but I don't think I will be fooled.  He is having a campaign rally tonight, more than 3 years before the election.  He is doing this because he wants praise, so who knows what he will say, perhaps he will tell the good people in Arizona that he was just reading and it isn't what he thinks.  And that is where we are.  Tucker Carlson will report how cagey the President is and on CNN a group of Trump supporters will thank him for winning the war in Afghanistan.  

He Makes it So Hard.

When I started this blog so many years ago I thought the title would be a signal that not all you read can be believed and even what you see is hard to believe.  But today I stand shocked and struck down.  I have been cultivating in my head a post that I hoped I had time to write tomorrow morning, trying to be level headed and challenge those that think the answer to the ignorant violence of the Nazi marchers is to vandalize and destroy the monuments you hate.  Spray painting statues and pulling them down is no way to protest.  We can talk about how a community wants to remember its history.  I actually have a lot to say about remembering the ugly past we as a nation must not forget and talking about how some people see that as a heritage.  I don't believe we should build monuments to traitors, but I also understand that the Civil War was a war fought by a country that was a new experiment that struggled with where do the rights of the people lie.  Slavery, was a disgusting component of the war leading our modern sensibilities to reduce the discussion to that but it was much more than slavery that led farm boys to take up arms against the federal government.  So when a southern looks at Stone Mountain or a Robert E. Lee statue, I have no idea what they are thinking but I can't assume they long for a time of slavery again.  Some people do.  Some of them marched in Charlottesville. Many others think of a nostalgia that they understand is complicated.  A time and place that we can't understand fully.  To them the heroes of the confederacy might be like the uncle who drops his pants in the living room at Thanksgiving and never fully zips up after the meal.  He is embarrassing, he is wrong, but he is still your uncle.

I also wanted to say that it is okay to criticize the President of the United States for not denouncing the Nazis right away.  I was part of the angry calls for him to stand at a microphone and attack those that spew such hatred and some doing it in his name.  Name them for what they are, not the wishy-washy both sides.  So he did, and I saw many say "that's not enough".  Let's face reality I thought.  This guy is not intelligent and highly emotional.  He reacts like a toddler or a drunk guy in a bar. So even when he reads a statement I don't believe he believes it, but I wanted to say the act of calling them out was a step in the right direction.  But I can't defend that move any more.  Because this afternoon he took it all back.

While telling us how smart and excellent his statement on Saturday was, where he said that the hatred was on many sides, he decided that the left was just as much to blame as the right.  That he couldn't condemn the Nazis because he didn't know the facts.  Well Mr. President the facts are simple.  A group of people marched in an American city calling for the death of blacks and Jews.  They carried weapons and torches, the beat on and chased away people at prayer and yes, there was an anti-fascist demonstration that attacked the Nazis.  That is true, but you see when someone threatens to eliminate you I think it makes sense to respond with anger.  But here is the thing.  Today the President said

“You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides,” 

No, no you don't.  There are no fine people on the side of the Nazis, none.  If you call yourself a White Nationalist, if you chant "Jews will not replace us" and "Blood and Soil".  You are not a fine person.  If you call a woman murdered by one of your minions "a fat slut" as the internet voice of the groups that gathered did of the young woman, Heather Heyer, the you are not a fine person.  If you think that you are superior to other humans because the circumstances of your birth, you are not a fine person, and if you believe that only you and those who think like you have a place in this country you are not a fine person.  Mr. President can you fine me one fine person.  If only he were more like Abraham arguing for Sodom and Gemmorah in the Torah, looking for 10 righteous people.  But for the President it isn't about finding 10 righteous people.  It appears some part of him believes that many minorities are inferior, criminal, dangerous and he attacks them and has for as long as I have known of his existence.  Today, the President of the United States called some Nazis fine people.  Let that sink in.  A woman is dead, the worst of the worst are emboldened, and our President is attacking the media instead of the terrorists who descended on a small town with the intention of causing mayhem.  This is wrong.  This is simply wrong.

A little piece of you The little peace in me Will die For this is not America

Today, in Charlottesville a person died of the disease of hate.  A group of neo-Nazis, who have been emboldened by certain members of the Republican party and the Trump White House organized a protest.  Last night they marched with tiki torches shouting racist and anti-Semitic slogans.  Today they wanted to rally against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.  This devolved into violence. Violence promoted as the right wing protesters brought guns, ball bats, and other weapons.

Now I know some will say it has nothing to do with the President or the GOP, but you would be wrong.  They themselves see themselves as being given more support by this President and the fake the self-professed Nazis serve in his White House.  Members of the GOP also have met with and defended many of the leaders of this protest.  Even after the death of someone, the President couldn't bring himself to condemn the neo-Nazis and used the mushy statement of "violence on many sides". My dad fought for his life against people who supported the ideology those who were protesting today claim as their own.  It is unAmerican, it is hateful and it is wrong.  The President should fire anyone in his administration who wallows in the swamp that these people use people swim in.  But people are running with the 'both sides' argument.  The counter-protesters came to stop the anticipated violence and while some engaged it should be noted that some clergy at a prayer vigil were beaten by others carrying flags of groups the American people fought and died stopping.

This is not America or at least not my America.  The dog whistles and bull horns of the Trump campaign and administration have called to those members of society that are driven by hate and ignorance.  Today, I fear, is the first of many of these kinds of clashes.  It is time for action.  The President must purge himself of those close to him that in their history have given a forum to these hateful people (Bannon) or is a member and proudly wears the symbol of a neo-Nazi organization (Gorka).  In fact Gorka said the other day that we are too hard on white supremacists.

Today we mourn the dead person who got up this morning and decided to stand on the side of the angels and of America.  I don't know that person, but they are a hero whose name should be remembered.  The terrorist who killed that person should be charged as a terrorist and made an example of for his actions.

This is a shofar blast, an alarm clock, a fog horn...we are called to action.  If our leaders won't we must.  Stand up to hate.

Sec. DeVos, Wake up.

There was a wealthy man named Steve. Steve was quite generous.  He would give a $5 bill to pan handlers, even when he knew they were probably not really homeless.  His list of charitable contributions was long and he would post them in his social media platforms.  His picture was in the paper the other holding a large check symbolizing his contribution to a new arts center.  So it was no surprise the Steve was popular.  When the invitation came to a party at an acquaintance's house he went.  At the party drinks flowed freely and it didn't take long until Steve was intoxicated.  He felt free and open and it was a good time.  The group at the party wanted pizza and so they ordered delivery, when it came Steve insisted that he pay for it, opening his wallet he had about $500 in small bills and paid for the pizza with a generous tip.  An hour later Steve felt too tipsy and decided to lie down in a bedroom and passed out.  In the morning when he awoke he discovered his wallet was empty and he didn't remember where his money went.  John, the host of the party thanked him for the money as Steve walked through the living room to leave and hoped they could get together again.

Steve called the police and explained what happened.  The police asked him:
1.  Did you willing go to his house?
2.  You know that you are well known for giving money, do you think you were sending mixed signals when you displayed what you had?
3.  You were drinking, how can you be sure you didn't agree to giving him the money?
4.  This will be a He said, He said thing, he may look into times that you gave money and to whom.  we know there are times you funded programs with problems, do you want to have all that dragged out in court.
5.  Maybe you should use this as an experience to learn not to carry so much cash and not drink so much.  Do you want to ruin his future with this incident that really didn't cause too much damage?
6.  Are you sure you just don't regret giving him the money?

Steve's story sounds far fetched, and the question nonsensical.  But it happens all the time.  Women, especially young women, who are raped while drinking at a party are seen as not true victims and often are blamed for the situation they were in.  While the story of someone stealing $500 from a drunk man at a party is not seen the same way.  Could you imagine a cop asking those questions?  I cannot. Yet this is not uncommon in the world of rape and is starting to reach the highest levels of our government that are looking to excuse the behavior of men who rape women when they cannot consent.

Recently Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, met with some so-called Men's Rights Advocates who often are rape apologists, especially on college campuses.  At one point Candice Jackson, who heads the office of civil rights at DeVos' department of education said,.  “Rather, the accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,"  Think about that.  Current statistics suggest that 1 in 5 women will be sexually harassed or assaulted in their 4 years of college and government official are suggesting the 90% of acquaintance rape accusation are the result of two drunk people.  That should be considered being an accessory after the fact.  I think the Department of Education should spend less time trying to tell women how to protect themselves and more time trying to teach men about consent.  But that is hard for some people to do in a world where a judge basically apologized to a rapist who came across an unconscious woman and raped her in public only to be stopped by two heroes.

Woman own their sexuality just as men do.  They can chose how to express it and choosing to do one thing does not mean she should be forced, coerced or expected to do it again.  If there is no explicit consent then it is rape.  If the consent is withdrawn, then it is rape.  Drinking is not an excuse for rape, as it wouldn't be for other crimes, even if it mitigates the severity of the charges.  Rape is rape.

Secretary DeVos, listening to those who find was to justify assault on women to get away with it is not only a failure of your oath to our countries laws it is a moral failing that should follow you the rest of your life.  You see women's dignity is worth more than $500.

Shut Up and Sing (unless you agree with me)

Social meeting has created a special connection between celebrities and their fans and people who like their public persona.  Some celebrities have created a social media experience for fans were they answer questions, get into dialogue and share both professional and personal thoughts, sometimes too personal.  Some celebrities like  JK Rowling, Marina Sirtis, Andrew Zimmern, Cher, Christine Teigen and Mario Batali are among some of the most outspoken celebrities on Twitter.  Often after they post something that challenges a politician there are an army of people who attack them for having an opinion.  It isn't that they argue against the opinion they posted, they tell them that they shouldn't be posting anything outside their narrow occupation.  It is as if there are those who believe celebrities are one-dimensional for their entertainment and if they act like a normal human they have personally injured them.  In a forum that is completely voluntary, people posting their thoughts means you are seeking them out.  If you don't like their thoughts, you can simply stop reading them.  It is easy.  Easier then typing "stay in your lane" or "I don't follow you for your politics".  Guess what I do.  I like reading what a man like Zimmern thinks about policy as he has lived at virtually every socio-economic status in this country.  I like how a major voice and philanthropist like J.K. Rowling formulates her thoughts on issues like refugees and hate.  These celebrities are human beings, they live under the same laws and policies that we do.  What is amazing is that many of the most outspoken have means to avoid the repercussions of policies that they criticize.  They are not speaking from self-interest.  What they are is liberal and for many conservatives, it is unsettling to them for people they appreciate to have a different world view.  I know this because they also support the voice of celebrities who agree with them.  If you look at their own twitter feeds they retweet conservative celebrities like James Wood and Pat Sajak.  So their concern is not so much that a chef is being a citizen, but that they are liberal.

Social media has allowed for a closer connection to celebrities, sometimes it makes for a cool moment when a hero answers your question or retweets your joke.  But we will also see things that we don't like.  We can chalk it up to the diversity of thought that exists or tell our heroes to shut up.  They won't and shouldn't and maybe if  you listen you will see they have something to say that might help you understand the world in more color.  But that is hard for some.  

The Tweets are NOT the Issue

Republican politicians and pundits are saying that the President should stop using Twitter..  Twitter is not the issue.  Twitter is just another way of communicating.  The thing is that late at night and early in the morning when the President doesn't have lawyers and political operatives looking over his shoulder he shows us exactly who he is in real time. In fact it has become an important vision on the the abject ignorance or purposeful deception on the part of the President of the United States.

Let's look at one situation.  When the terror attack occurred on London Bridge,  Mayor Sadiq Khan of London went on television and told the people of his city that there will be a heightened level of armed police officers on the street.  He reassured them that there is no reason to be alarmed by this.  He wanted to let people know a change in the number of police on the street was not because they were in immediate danger.  You know like a a good public leader.  so the President of United States tweeted:    "At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!"  So the question is was the President just not smart enough to understand what was being said?  Did he tweet without knowing the full context of the mayor's word?  Was he just trying to attack an ally while they were in the aftermath of a terror attack?  All of these show a lack of ability to act in a way that is part of being a world leader.  So the media, doing there job of informing the American people, pointed out Trump's misunderstanding of the mayor and gave full context, publishing the quote:

“My message to Londoners and visitors to our great city is to be calm and vigilant today," Mr Khan said. "You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers.

"There is no reason to be alarmed by this. We are the safest global city in the world. You saw last night as a consequence of our planning, our preparation, the rehearsals that take place, the swift response from the emergency services tackling the terrorists and also helping the injured.”

Now a real leader would acknowledge the misunderstanding but of course the President didn't, in fact he attacked the mayor via Twitter .

"Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!"

This is amazing to anyone who has a brain. Even after there was a deluge of the fact of what Mayor Kahn said the President continues to write his own version of reality.  That is a level of disturbing that I don't think any real serious person should accept.

The issue isn't that Trump tweets telling us what he thinks, it is that he thinks these things.  His weird covfefe tweet that was met with silence for several hours, his attack on Qu'tar, a place with a large forward command base in the fight on terror because of a Middle East political situation he didn't understand, and more and more.  His travel ban tweets which undermined his own staffs pressure on the media to not call it a ban for legal reasons. And on and on and on.   The President's twitter feed is a clear window on his ignorance, his incompetence and perhaps his criminal behavior in light of some of things being investigated.  I say, let him tweet away and let him weave the proverbial rope that will hang his presidency.  

Climate Accords and the Zamboni

When I was in High School, my history teacher, I think it was Mr. Hanson, was illustrating the Industrial Revolution.  He used an analogy to Hockey, his favorite and a highly popular sport way up on the Canadian border.  He told us that years ago, to resurface the ice in-between periods of a hockey game about 10 men would come out with buckets and mop the ice with fresh water to smooth the surface.  After a game the ice was scraped with a tractor and more water added and mopped smooth.  At least 10 men were hired to do this job and with the invention of the Zamboni, a ice resurfacing machine, 9 of those men were looking for work.  A new technology put people out of work.  But the fact was that the new technology needed people to help build the Zamboni, fabricate its parts and maintain the mechanical aspects of it.  A single Zamboni could create as many hours of labor in a given year as the mopping of the ice.  But even if it didn't, the Zamboni still made sense, it as safer, more efficient and made the smoothness of rinks more uniform.  We can be sad for the men with mops, but we can also think about helping them find other work and let progress take its course.  I truly wish Donald Trump had been in that class. He would have known that regardless of what he does with the Paris Climate Agreement, coal jobs are not coming back.  Pulling out of the agreement was a policy move that he promised his base and thus had to follow through on.  It was easy, he didn't really have to do much.  He knows the right wing noise machine and his 35% of hardcore followers would back him.  He also knew he had allies in Congress, who among other things, say that God will save us from Climate Change, that it is a hoax to make money for someone (not sure) or that the earth is actually cooling.  (Just to be clear that 12 of the hottest 13 years since 1880 have been in THIS CENTURY).  He just did it in the smug and ignorant fashion he does most things.  Heads of industry including fossil fuel industries urged him not to do it.  He adds the US to only 2 other countries who didn't sign on to the agreement.  Syria, because Syria and Nicaragua because they were protesting it didn't go far enough.  This is where we are now.

Of course the social media experts on both sides filled our feeds with all kinds of things.  Media scrambled to find two sides to facts.  Funniest moment was when former Senator Rick Santorum suggested that he didn't know how batteries work.  I think he had a phone in his hand at the time.  But in the end this agreement was at the pleasure of the President and the President pleasures himself with impulsive actions.  Thus today the world will stop looking at the US as a leader in this area and fears the US will not be a leader in others.  And what is remarkable is that the President could have had his cake and eaten it too.

You see there is an argument against the Paris Climate Agreement that makes sense.  Let me be clear I don't agree with it, I think it is dangerous and short sighted and will absolutely not work, but it is there.  And some in the right wing media that can go beyond hyperbole and nonsense (only in the 8 o'clock hour) and even Rex Tillerson, our titular Secretary of State (you know the former Exxon CEO who argued to stay in the agreement) have made the argument.  That the United State, a country leading in green energy and a country that has plenty of leaders committed to reducing greenhouse emissions doesn't need to be in the deal.  They can lead from the outside.  Secretary Tillerson said talking about the US efforts over the last decade or so that, “That was done in the absence of the Paris agreement,” Tillerson said. “I don’t think we’re going to change our effort to reduce our emission in the future, either.”  That could be the message.  But of course that won't be.  Even if it is not true.  I do not trust industry to police itself totally and I fear a government not willing to support the efforts of new technology to reduce emissions.  We will have to see.  I am glad that local and state governments will work hard to make their corners of our great country more earth friendly, but I also worry that with free rein efforts to skirt some of the targets we had agreed to will continue.  But elections have consequences and we have elections coming up every two years.  

What this won't do is bring back coal to what it used to be.  You see the coal industry suffers from being an inefficient source of energy in the new energy economy.  Natural gas (which I know has its own issues) is easier to get at, we have a lot of it and it is cheaper to transport and use whether as a source of heat for homes or to create electricity.  With the expansion of wind and solar energy, breakthroughs being made in tidal energy and of course sources still being developed in the minds of scientists (like algae as a biofuel) coal may just sit in the ground and hope to become diamonds.  Berkeley Energy Group, a Kentucky coal mining company, has partnered with a green energy group to build a solar farm on a strip mined area of the state.  This is telling.  But for President Trump, he doesn't understand the new energy economy, and can't get out of his own way.  He believes that if he does the right thing that the thousands of coal miners will be coming back to work digging coal in Kentucky.  He might as well tell the sons of the former mop and bucket brigade that they two will clean the ice for an NHL finals, I can't imagine what the President's argument might be, but maybe he will think Zamboni is a foreign company stealing American jobs.

Snipe Hunt That You Can Pay For

So the President of the United States lied to the American people.  I know what you are asking, "which time?"  Well the one to sooth his own ego because he lost the popular vote and it hurts him badly.  So he said there was wide spread voter fraud and that it was particular in numbers that would mean he won the popular vote too.  He has appointed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to help lead this snipe hunt.  Yeah that Kris Kobach who claimed wide spread voter fraud in his state and 4 times tried to pass laws that the courts found to be more voter suppression than voter fraud.  The issue is simple.  There is virtually no in-person voter fraud in this country.  There are in fact incidences of it happening.  Including a woman who voted twice for President Trump in the last election.  Another a Tea Party leader and head of Colorado's GOP who forged his wife's signature and voted for her.  But back to the commission.  It is looking at something that is not a problem.

Close elections have happened.  However for voter fraud to work at a state wide level it would require a great deal of work on the part of someone organizing 100s or 1000s of people to vote more than once and under an assumed name.  In Florida, in 2000, the initial numbers suggested that George W Bush won the state by around 1000 votes.  When the Supreme Court halted the hand recount he was up by about 600 votes.  If voter fraud were to sway that election, somewhere between 500-1000 votes in the state of Florida would have had to been cast illegally without getting caught.  Think about that, a system would have to be in place that either had people register in two places, vote in both places and not get caught voting in both places when the election results are reviewed.  Or there would have to be a team of people identifying non-voters (lazy or dead) who are on the registry, send someone to the polls as them, assume no one will question the signature line and any of them.  All to see if you can overcome enough votes to sway the election.  Oh I did I say if caught it is a federal crime that carries prison time.  How is this possible?

Laws have been developed to try to add more layers of necessary identification to vote to combat the non-existent issue of in-person voter fraud.  Members of the newly appointed commission are among the worst at putting barriers to certain constituencies when it comes to voting.  There have always been identification requirements for voting.  These laws found ways to make it harder for people to vote and that is not right.  Unless there is real evidence of in-person voter fraud what is the point of these laws beyond, what some have said, to make it easier for Republicans to get elected.

Now I know that registration fraud is an issue.  Both with people registering that shouldn't, or fake registrations being sent in or dead people remaining on the roles, or people moving and not re-registering.  People registering who shouldn't is not a common thing.  The big argument is that people in the country illegally vote.  They don't.  In fact they avoid official situations where they have to give information to government officials.  You see, they are always in fear of being deported.  As for non-citizen residence, well it happens, usually because the people doing the registering are not skilled at helping people know if they can vote or not.  In most cases they tend to be found out in the process.  As for fake registrations, well that is a problem of how community groups pay people to sign people up.  There is an incentive to file as many registrations as possible as many have been paid by form filled in.  The law requires anyone doing voter registration drives to send all applications in even if known to be fraudulent.  ACORN did that in 2008 and got attacked for it.  In fact it was officials in some ACORN offices that tipped off the government officials to bad registrations that they were required to turn in.  But the facts are overwhelmed by the story and thus the GOP used it as a lever by the GOP to destroy ACORN.  In Indiana there was a raid on a community group registering African Americans and other underrepresented minorities in several counties.  Big news about raid, by January there was still no public report and in fact it was another example of people creating fake voter registrations not to sway an election but to get paid.  But registration fraud has not been proven to relate to any fake cast votes on any major scale.

What is amazing is that the President is using information he doesn't understand from a study that showed voter rolls are not updated enough.  It found people registered in two places, or registered in the wrong place as well as out of date registrations.  Funny when mentioned it was found that many of the inner circle of Trump's advisers had bad registrations.  This is not nefarious this is the failure of bureaucracy.

In-person voter fraud is not an issue in our country.  The President's claim of 3-5 million illegal votes cast in the last election has been refuted by members of both major parities including by those officials in charge of elections for their state.  But even if there was an effort to do it, the mass scale it would take is staggering in its scope and the potential benefits versus the risks makes it not worth it.  In fact 10 years ago when the justice department looked into this they found virtually nothing.  This is a waste of time, money and energy when it comes to voter fraud.  However, if the goal is to stop minorities and the elderly from voting it could have a pay off for the GOP.  Is this what you want?

A Tribute to a Friend

Last night, as she slept, a friend of mine passed into eternity.  Ellen Daniels Howell, until recently the executive director of the Global Interfaith Partnership (GIP), lost her fight with cancer. She passed away surrounded by family. Today, we gathered as a board of directors and shared thoughts, prayers and memories of Ellen.  We each told of what she meant to us, and to all the people she touched through the work and the other aspects of her life.  I have known her for almost 10 years, working together on the Umoja project that continues to feed and educate the most vulnerable children in the HIV/AIDS ravaged area in Western Kenya. "Mama" Ellen, as she is called in Kenya, was the founding director of the program with a small board and little support, but today the community around Chulaimbo, Kenya and here in Indianapolis are different and better places because of it. Ellen helped craft the vision that led to approaching the task not simply to solve but to build relationships , those relationships drove the program as labor of love.  As a GIP community, we listened to each other, we celebrated with each other and made the tragic events easier to handle.  We were about people not problems.
 
This evening, when we gathered, it was clear how much Ellen affected people she met.  People spoke how Ellen lived her beliefs out loud. She saw value in everyone she met, she saw the spark of Godness in all of humanity. It was that that she helped us find in ourselves.   She had a talent for reaching people's hearts and minds to help them find their better self.  She had a knack for asking people to make their lives more complicated by helping others.  And many, including me, did it with joy.  She found a way to make us find our own better selves.

I will miss my friend, my teacher, my mentor.  I was privileged by having had the ability to learn from her over the last decade.  I will miss her spirit and passion.  I will miss her book suggestions (she really increased my reading list) and I will miss her voice that challenged us and cheered us.  May Mama Ellen be welcomed into the arms of the Eternal and may she rest in peace.