I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together...

The world is a much sadder place today...

From NBC News :

Tim Conway, who made generations of Americans laugh on TV shows such as "McHale's Navy" and "The Carol Burnett Show," died Tuesday morning, his publicist said.

Conway won multiple Emmy Awards, most recently in 2008 for his role as a guest star on the comedy show "30 Rock" in which he played Bucky Bright, an old, long-forgotten television star.

The actor's big break in Hollywood came on "McHale's Navy," when Conway was cast to play Ensign Charles Parker. He was nominated for a best supporting actor Emmy in 1963.

But he'll probably be best known for his work on "Carol Burnett," the iconic 1970s sketch comedy show that included the likes of Burnett, Conway, Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner and Vicki Lawrence. Conway won Emmys for best supporting performer in 1973, 1977 and 1978 for his "Burnett" work.
He stole many a scene on "Burnett," with cameras often catching Burnett and Korman struggling — and usually failing — to keep straight faces after something Conway had said or done something hilarious.

"I’m heartbroken," Burnett said in a statement Tuesday, shortly after Conway's passing.

"He was one in a million, not only as a brilliant comedian but as a loving human being. I cherish the times we had together both on the screen and off. He’ll be in my heart forever.”
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I grew up watching Conway on the Carol Burnett show. Now even years later it doesn't matter how many times I have seen this, it has me on the floor doubled over in laughter.

Tim Conway was 85.

The issue is NOT a new one...

At the National Press Club in 1954 talking about the need for affordable quality health care for all Americans.

Who defines being "0ut"?

Last night, we saw history made on  national television.   A  credible candidate for the Presidential nomination of one of our major political parties  was asked a question we have never seen asked before,

Sitting across from MSNBC's  Rachel Maddow, (herself an out LGBT public figure.)  South Bend, Indiana Mayor, and newly declared Presidential candidate Pete Buttigeig was basically asked, why hadn't he told everybody he was gay earlier in life than he did. 

Before I get into the underlying issues  this exchange raises.  let me first say,  the question itself was not out of line,and certainly not out of line coming from Maddow.  This was going to come up sooner or later.  Clearly  Mayor Pete knew that,  and gave an incredibly thoughtful and genuine response,

I think had he been  on Meet the Press, or  Washington Week,  or even any of the other shows on liberal-friendly MSNBC,  this question would have been far more difficult to ask.   So major kudos to Rachel Maddow for asking it, and for prefacing it with some of her own coming out story.

That being said...   I will confess I still came away from watching it feeling .... annoyed.   Not with Pete Buttigieg  or with Rachel Maddow  as such.    But  with the context  that says this question had to be asked in the first place.  It smacked of the  questions  Barack Obama faced in 2007  about being Black or  "Mixed Race".     Despite Maddow's own preface and caveats, I  felt  there was an implied criticism  in her question. That by not coming out sooner Pete Buttigeig was not as "authentically gay" as Maddow.     

Rachel Maddow is  a few years younger than me.   She grew up in Northern California,, graduated from Castro Valley High School in Alameda County in the SF Bay area.  She did her undergraduate studies at  Stanford University in Palo Alto,  then (as she reveals in the interview) was the first openly Gay American Rhodes Scholar  at  Oxford University the UK.   All of  those environments have a very different relationship to the LGBT experience than the US Military or the State of Indiana

I am NOT saying that I think Maddow's journey to self acceptance as a Lesbian was less challenging as Buttigeig's as Gay man, and  I am in no way claiming any insights into Maddow's personal experience on that journey.

But, the reality is  Maddow's coming out journey took place in an environment where that process frankly is easier.  Meaning it was logistically easier to come out in Northern CA in 2005  than in central Indiana, even a decade later.

 "So why didn't you come out sooner?" , is a question many Gays and Lesbisans get asked.   I have been asked this question many times,  by well meaning  friends, and family.   The sentiment behind the question is one of love, and at times a bit of guilt..  They see how the experience of being in the closet  is such a difficult one, and worry that they somehow may have contributed to that pain,   Part of the coming out process is educating those closest to us,  that  it really had very little to do with them.  

Coming out is not just about telling your family that you are Gay, it is about first  telling  YOURSELF that you are.   That moment in front of a mirror in Sun Prairie, WI when I looked  my own reflection in the eye  and admitted  that  the prevailing social, cultural and yes,  religious expectations for the trajectory of life  were not going to pan out for me, was both liberating, and terrifying.

It would be nearly 15 years before  I would have that conversation with my own friends and  family.   And  part of that conversation was letting them know that it was never about them. 

This is a debate which has raged with in the LGBT community  for ....well  forever.    Who gets to decide what being  "out" means?  Who gets to judge when someone should come out?    Younger friends of mine who are in the midsts of the coming out process  have asked for advice. I always tell them  that  being "out" first and foremost is NOT about who you tell.  It's always first, and foremost about  how you feel. 

There is a tendency to think that a change in laws or policy is a silver bullet. It isn't.   A changed policy doesn't mean unversially changed attitudes  I have seen close up how the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"  did not suddenly make serving in the military as openly LGBT  easy or safe, or  how Anti discrimination laws didn't suddenly make being Out at work risk free.  Even if it had,   as much as I understand the question from an intellectual stand point,  my emotional reaction  was  that, coming out remains an intensely personal journey, the timing of which,  no one, not even Maddow, the "first openly Gay Rhodes Scholar"  should get to question.

Coming out for Buttigeig while in the US Navy, or even in Indiana  in 2015 was a far different proposition than for Maddow in the SF Bay Area, and Oxford in 2005. Her question, seemed to ignore that fact.

The implication  that if you are not  "Out and Loud"  before the age of 30 you are somehow doing a disservice to  the "LGBT Community" is  as dangerous and unfair an implication  as saying Barack Obama was not as connected to  the concerns of  the African American community  because he was of mixed race and grew up in Hawaii  and not some mainland inner city.

I know  that is NOT what  Rachel Maddow was implying,  and by asking the question first,  she has even done Pete Buttigeig a real favor,  pre-empting  it as a line of attack from those who will seek to make his sexual orientation the defining issue of his candidacy   Still  it's hard  not to come away from  watching that interview feeling  that the implication was there in subtext. 

There is a real tendency in Democratic Presidential primary politics to turn the process into a giant circular firing squad of  litmus tests.   Be it Kennedy's  Catholicism as a religious litmus test, Obama's relationship with his  former Pastor as a racial litmus test, or even Hillary Clinton's marriage as a feminist litmus test.    

I don't claim to speak for any constituency or group,   I am just sharing my feelings and impressions as someone who also has made this same, very  personal journey of self- acceptance.  Consequently,  I long for the day when  the process of choosing the next President of the United States is mainly about ideas  rather than identity politics.

To my friends who support Donald Trump…

What the ungodly F*CK is wrong with you!?! Seriously! I would really like to know.

I am not talking about Russia, I am not talking about the missing millions of dollars from the Trump inaugural fund, I am not talking about Wikileaks, I am not talking about Jared’s business ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

I am not talking about Ivanka’s Chinese Patents, or Don Jr’s ties to private prison companies.I am not talking about Paul Manafort and Ukraine, I am not talking about Trump Tower Panama, or Trump Tower Moscow, the Trump Hotel DC, or 666 Park Avenue.  I am not talking about Marina Butina and the NRA. I am not talking about Stormy Daniels, or Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova.

I am not talking about Mike Flynn and Turkey, I am not talking about the Trump Foundation or Trump University.  I am not talking about Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos or Roger Stone.  I am not talking about Tom Price, Scott Pruit, Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin, Brock Long, David Shulkin or any of the other officials who have been forced to resign due to the myriad of scandals plaguing them and the rest of this Administration. 

I am not talking about the Mueller Report, the Barr Report or even whatever the latest gaslighting the President has spewed forth on Twitter today.  I am not talking about any of that. As awful as all that is, your support of the Donald Trump in that context just made me question your common sense, not doubt your fundamental human decency.

That is, until now.

As Donald Trump takes his victory lap claiming the (yet unseen) Mueller Report totally exonerates him of ….well, everything he has ever done in his life. What has he decided to focus on first? His promise of a Trillion dollar infrastructure plan? Nope.   Is he focused on his  promises to reform the criminal justice system? The Immigration System? The Postal System? Nope, no and not even close.

Donald Trump has decided to once again, try to take health insurance away from 29 Million Americans. (Forbes reports:)

In a brief filed late Monday, the Trump administration said through its Justice Department attorneys that it supported a recent U.S. District Court ruling that invalidates the entire ACA, also known as Obamacare. The law this past weekend celebrated its ninth anniversary of being signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010.

The case, which legal experts believe will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, could result in health coverage being stripped from more than 20 million people who have subsidized individual health benefits from private insurers and Medicaid benefits in more than 30 states under the ACA.



A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that across the country, 29.8 million people would lose their health insurance if the Affordable Care Act were repealed—more than doubling the number of people without health insurance. And 1.2 million jobs would be lost—not just in health care but across the board.   Let’s not even focus on the job losses, as odd as that sounds. Let’s just take that number of uninsured in the United States more than doubling. If you support this President, if you support this Administration, here is what you are saying you believe, and want. 

• If you have a pre-existing health condition, you can be denied health insurance. No matter what the condition is.
• Medicare should be cut and the payroll contributions you have made to it throughout your working life can and should be used to pay for tax cuts for the top 1% of earners and for Corporations.
• You believe Health Care is a commodity, and if you can’t afford it you should not get it. You believe in the United States in the 21rst Century, dying because you can’t afford health care is acceptable. 

Spout all the fake talking points you want about how “government run health care” is a total disaster, but the facts on the ground in 32 other industrialized nations prove you wrong. Here are some basic facts for you; Health Care is not like cars, or like consumer electronics. To claim that deregulation and competition will lower costs and increase access is a wonderful Fox News talking point but is completely false.

But hey, I’ll play along. To say you believe in a totally market driven health care sector is a valid position. But then be honest about what that means. The two core drivers in any market economy are what? Supply and Demand, right? When supply outpaces demand prices fall, when demand outpaces supply prices rise. That’s Capitalism 101.

So when you have a sector of your economy that is a basic human necessity where the demand will always, always, always far outplace supply. No amount of deregulation or competition will ever lower costs. There will always be more sick people than doctors and nurses. There will always be more need for hospitals and medicines than capacity. Left to “the market” prices and costs will never, ever decrease. That is why nearly every other industrialized nation on the planet has some form of universal health coverage for their people.

 So the only way a for profit model can make money is to deny care.  (or "manage utilization" as the for profit insurance companies call it).   So the question you don't want  to answer is this:  How many American deaths are acceptable to support your economic philosophy?   Because that is what you are advocating.

You are saying that in the United States  death by poverty is a natural cause.

The Kaiser Health Foundation did  a comprehensive study on Health and Health Care disparity in the United States.before the Affordable Care Act was in place.  They found  that disparity in access to health care, and the resulting impact that had on the health of various populations in the U.S. was a direct contributing factor in the deaths of over 87,000 Americans a year. 

Let me repeat that, because it is worth repeating. Not being able to afford Health Care, kills more Americans a year than all the terrorist attacks in history. It killed more Americans from 2000- 2001 than if there had been a 9-11 scale attack every week. 

THIS is what Donald Trump wants to return to, and if you are supporting, him, you are supporting this as well. It is an unconscionable, and deliberately cruel act by a small petty stupid man, because he is obsessed with jealousy and insecurity over his predecessor.  There is no “replace” in his repeal and replace.    This is all about Trump needing to defeat Barack Obama for whatever perceived slights his fragile ego and unstable mind can’t get past.

 He will get his vengeance, even if it kills thousands of Americans. 

If you support Donald Trump it gives me cause to doubt your basic humanity. It is not a policy disagreement. It is a clear case of good versus evil. To stand with Trump on this, is to stand with evil, and I am done with it, and with you.

Understanding the Brexit Debate....

Allow me to explain what's going on. Imagine this....

You along with all your friends and family decide to take a road trip.to the beach. Some folks including you, think you should use GPS to find the best way to go. Your friend NIgel says he has made a "magic map" that if you follow it will get you there faster, cheaper, and safer as you won't have to share the road with drivers you don't like. 

Now you think following a map your friend just made up, and that nobody else has ever used before, is a bad idea.  Your buddy Dave and his friends  however are sick of Nigel getting all attention so he gets an idea how how to steal the limelight and  says "Let's all vote on what we'll do!"

So you ask everyone in the car to vote. But the Majority of people in car are either asleep or looking out the window because they think whole idea of the  magic map is stupid,  and can't imagine anyone else taking it seriously either. So they ignore all of you and don't vote.

Out of the people in the car who did vote, 51% say give the magic map a try. Suddenly Your friend Dave remembers he gets carsick on long trips so he jumps out. leaving his girlfriend Theresa to take over following the magic map.

(Now Theresa has never driven a car before but says she has seen it done and truly believes in the Map now that she is driving, despite having voted against using it.)

You start on your trip but as you go, you notice LOT of things are NOT on the map. Large parts of the road are full of obstructions that have to be cleared, and  lots of other things on the map don't actually exist! Finally folks who were asleep in the back seat,  wake up and examine  the map and discover that it doesn't lead to the beach but takes you right over a massive cliff. 

So they and you,  start to demand that Theresa either turn off this road, stop the car, or at least slow down so everyone has time to figure out how to avoid going over the cliff!

Theresa's response is she can't do that because that would make the people who voted for the magic map feel bad. and "Map means Map!" not GPS, or Map plus GPS, and certainly not stopping to ask for directions! Theresa  adds that the majority of people who voted clearly said they wanted to follow the magic map. So that's what she is going to do.

You try to gently remind Theresa that the majority of people in the car didn't actually  vote, let alone vote to use the magic map.   Theresa says that doesn't matter, and to let the majority vote now would make those who did vote before, lose their faith in voting. So If that means driving off a cliff? So be it!

You keep hoping your friend Jeremy who is the designated back-up driver will say something.  But  turns out he is still asleep, and shows no interest in waking up.   Then Nigel and his friends start saying  that going over the cliff isn't a bad thing! In fact, even though it might severely injure us all in the short term,  the crash probably won't kill us,  and after healing from the injuries,  we will all be stronger and will enjoy the holiday even more. 

That is the insanity of the Brexit debate. Millions of people telling the driver she needs to stop speeding towards a cliff, While the driver and the idiots riding shotgun with her, are more worried about having to admit the magic map was a total lie to begin with .

The Sheer Exhaustion of Living with Trump.

I don’t know about the rest of you , but I’m tired. Really tired.

Every day the new insanity is crazier than the insanity the day before. There is no time to be shocked by what the Trump Administration is doing because the next shocking thing comes flying out moments after the previous thing.

Which is  the point. Donald Trump is many things. dishonest, corrupt, incredibly greedy, epically insecure, racist and  the most  emotionally unintelligent person to occupy the White House since Andrew Johnson. 

 But he is not, as many people have said, stupid. He is, when it comes to his own self preservation and enrichment, remarkably clever.  So it should come as a shock to …well,, nobody that Trump’s go-to maneuver comes right out of the playbook of Adolph Hitler’s own master spin doctor; 

 “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels

That is Trumpism in a nutshell. When faced with facts, gaslight your opponents and as loudly as you can, accuse them of what you actually did or are doing. “Hillary colluded with Russia!” “CNN Is Fake News!” “The Democrats are racist!”. The list has gotten painfully long. Most Americans have just stopped paying all that much attention and are just hoping Bob Mueller comes out with enough to arrest Trump for …. Something. 

Political and media pundits love to pontificate on the  constant state of “Oh God! What NOW???” that most of us are in with Trump by looking earnestly at the camera and asking, “Is this the new normal?” The answer to that,  sadly is  both Yes and No. 

Yes, this is the world we are living in now, and no, it is anything but normal. There have been a number of notable casualties in this war on reason and facts that Trump and his enablers have waged for the last two plus years. But the single greatest loss in this war on sanity. waged by Donald  Trump, may well be the Republican Party itself..

There was a time when the GOP wasn't a big bucket of crazy, it was the party that stood for individual freedom as well as individual and collective responsibility. So what happened? Simple, the Republican Party lost its mind, and sold its soul to Donald Trump. In exchange for tax cuts the GOP jumped on the crazy train, and in order to justify it, truth, had to became negotiable.

Abraham Lincoln led a GOP that sought to free the oppressed, unite the nation, and punish war profiteers. We now have a GOP that still seeks to ignore real threats to,  and attacks on our democracy.  Where we ignore or worse yet, enable human rights abuses in other countries because our family and  friends have business deals there.

Dwight Eisenhower led a GOP where war was always a last resort, and an unchecked military industrial complex is a threat to democracy. Now we have the very real possibility  the GOP will support a war in Venezuela for nor other reason than to help Trump change the news cycle,  and get stories about his relationship with Russia off the front page,

Even Richard Nixon understood we live in a world of interconnected global relationships. Constructive engagement and détente' is always more successful than direct conflict. We now have a GOP that believes  in "Trump First,  America Second"  or even third...  if we are lucky.  Where  America's intelligence agencies are attacked because  facts don't support Trump's  talking points.  Where  the Presidential Daily Intelligence brief is tossed aside in favor of the "good word" of  Vladimir Putin.

Gerald Ford led a GOP where duty and the interests of the nation were more important than polls or elections. Where accepting responsibility for the actions you take in office is a president's first obligation. No matter the personal political costs.  We now have a  GOP unable to even admit mistakes, let alone learn from them, where  defending  American interests in secondary to defending the interests and ego of Donald Trump.

George H.W. Bush once urged the nation to see; "In crucial things, unity, in important things diversity, and in all things generosity". The Republican Party of Donald  Trump has as a GOAL, to divide Americans more than at  anytime since the civil war.

Here is the reality of Donald Trump, he will say anything, that he thinks will sound good to his base. And he will do anything to protect himself, even at the expense of our national security  There is no thought process beyond “Is this good for Me?” . He gives no thought as to would it be a wise thing, or an appropriate thing, or even a potentially dangerous thing to do. Donald Trump's train of thought never makes it that far down the track.

We are now in a time when there is no point in asking if this latest episode of the Trump un-reality show will be too much for the Republican Party to bear. It's not. The fact is the GOP has decided that this is who they are, and the real tragedy is, they are right. This really IS who they are, and what they have become.

I'll say it again, Donald Trump is not stupid, he just can't be bothered care about anyone or anything but himself and his immediate interests. What Donald Trump is , is a fool. Like most fools, he will do and say foolish, reckless, even dangerous and profoundly stupid things, with no thought to any potential consequences; simply for the short term gratification of it.   Like most fools, he will make mind-bogglingly bad decisions, without a moment's hesitation, if those bad choices feed his ego. If anything bad does happen as a result, he will deny, lie, accuse and contort himself incoherently in his attempt to blame anyone  but himself.

Now, with the revelations by former Acting FBI Director, Andrew McCabe we see the final death throes of the Republican Party . In briefing to the senior congressional leadership, (known as the Gang of Eight) It was made painfully clear that Donald Trump was a compromised asset of the Russian Government.  

Yet for Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP, Tax Cuts for the top 1% and gutted government regulations are clearly more important than America’s National Security.

There are news reports that the investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller are about to come to a close. One can only hope that this will also bring an end to this long national nightmare of Donald Trump.   I know I hope so. 

Because frankly? I don’t know about you , but I’m really tired of it all.

Out of Many, One...

Here in London, the news is dominated far more by the issues surrounding the UK’s imminent crashing out of the European Union;  so the constant tornado of chaos that is the Trump Administration  can seem light years away. Yet Donald Trump’s ridiculous stunt of holding the entire US Federal government hostage for 5 billion dollars has not escaped notice even on this side of the world.

The media here (even the Rupert Murdoch owned media) has pointedly mentioned that the rationales for his “Wall”, trotted out by both Donald Trump and his various mouthpieces are in fact, total bunk. The vast majority (more than two-thirds) of undocumented foreign nationals in the United States didn’t sneak across the Southern border in the dead of night. They landed at an Airport entered the country legally on a tourist or student visa and then just stayed. 

Likewise, the claim a wall is needed to keep drugs and terrorists out is just as much a load of bull-puckey. So much so, that even FOX News’s Chris Wallace wasn’t willing to let White House Spokesperson Sara Sanders get away with it.

The whole issue of the wall is nothing more than a racist dog whistle to Donald Trump’s base supporters. And those who are cheering the idea of that wall are people who respond to racist whistles. People who have fallen for the con-job that somehow America’s multiculturalism, our diversity is responsible for the problems in their lives. 

They have bought into the ridiculous lie that arresting people trying to come here and who are picking lettuce, or making hotel beds in California, Arizona and Texas; THAT is going to make life better in Hancock County Tennessee, Dubuque, Iowa or La Crosse, Wisconsin. 

Let’s get a few facts out into the open, shall we? There is no wall, there never was going to be a wall, and there never will be a wall. A wall on the US southern border is a physical and geographical impossibility. Which is why you have started to hear Trump shift to using the phrase “border security”. 

The key thing Trump doesn’t want you to know is, when you hear him say we need five billion dollars for “border security”, what he is talking about is a massive giveaway of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to the private prison industry. Who are major donors to the Republican Party generally, and the Trump campaign specifically.

 Apparently, there is a lot of money to be made kidnapping children and locking them up. 

I have always held firm to the belief that America’s greatness comes from our incredible diversity. E Pluribus Unum - Out of many, one. It is the story or our Nation. A new nationality as Ben Franklin called it. Like nothing that had been seen before in the history of man.  But it is also the story of my family as well.    In 1987 I was studying in Germany, and my Sister went to study in Hong Kong. 

My mother likes to tell the story of the reaction of one of her friends who upon hearing what we were doing exclaimed; “Have you just given your children to the world!?”  

Indeed, in many ways she had. In more ways than either she, or my Dad could have ever imagined. Now more than thirty years later, Those lessons in the value of other cultures, traditions and peoples shaped not only our paths life, but that of the next generation as well.  As  I sit in London writing this I am in the middle of  packing for a trip next week to India. Where I will  attend my niece’s wedding. My brilliant, beautiful niece. Oldest child of my Sister and her husband, my French Brother-in-law.   She is marring an amazing young Indian man , who grew up in Singapore. 

Add to this mix her younger Sister, with her Indian-American boyfriend, her younger Brother with his Mexican-American girlfriend, and her Iranian-American best friend with her Latino boyfriend and you have the most American family wedding portrait you could ever imagine. 

E Pluribus Unum - Out of many cultures, languages, religions and parts of the world, we are creating one great global family. One that breaks down walls, builds bridges across the world, and is more truly American than anything. 

Something that Donald Trump, even being a Grandson of Germans Immigrants, who married a Slovenian, will never understand.

Star Trek Musings, 39 years later...

I was browsing on Facebook and saw a note  in a group I follow that marked today as the  39th anniversary  of the preview of  the very first Start Trek movie.  (Star Trek The Motion Picture) Which opened on December 7th , 1979

This movie will always have special place in my heart. I saw it on  that New Years Eve. I was in grade school  so there wasn't much for me to do on New Year's Eve. My older brother and sister were both doing things with their friends and I was stuck at home. 

Then My parents said we were going to go into local shopping mall near our home in  Madison WI and see the new Star Trek movie.Well , when you are in 4th grade just going to a "late showing" of any movie is pretty cool but this was STAR TREK!

So needless to say... I was pretty excited.

Also my parents were not really what you would call Star Trek fans, or the kind of people who went to late movies, so the fact that they were clearly doing this for me was also pretty cool.

We went to the movie and it was after midnight when we were driving home when our car had engine trouble. But right then a WI State Trooper saw us and offered us a ride home so Dad could get our other car and tow this one back. While we were heading home in the back of the patrol car, someone went speeding by the other direction and the trooper hit the lights and siren and swung round and went after the speeder! I was in kid heaven! 

So bash the movie if you will, call it "Star Trek the Plotless Picture" if you must. But for me it will always remind me of what remains to this day is one of the best New Year's Eve's I've ever had.

Thanks Mom & Dad

Wisconsin's Moment of Truth

Many of my friends are shocked when they learn that I, used to be a Republican. How could a good progressive Gay man like me, ever have been a member of the GOP? The answer is found in a conversation I had one afternoon when I was thirteen years old.

I was attending an event hosted at Vilas Hall, on the University of Wisconsin Madison Campus. The event was to promote a media literacy and education organization I was heavily involved with at the time. 

Like many such events I attended, I spoke early in the program, and was the youngest person there. I would then have to sit there while speaker after speaker began to blur together, and my 13 year old mind began to wander. Realizing. I was in danger of nodding off, I quietly excused myself, and ducked out into the adjacent "green room" to get a drink of water.

As I walked into the lounge area I heard the sound of a Television, and saw an older gentleman sitting on the couch watching the University of Wisconsin Football game. With his curly white hair and trademark red vest, I instantly recognized former Wisconsin Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus.

 I had met him a few times previously, and was friends with his daughter Susan, with whom I worked with on media literacy and education projects. He saw me, motioned me over (remembered my name), and cheerfully announced that the Badgers were up by 7. I sat down next to him, and we watched game for a few minutes in companionable silence.

He then turned to me and asked how I was doing. I. talked briefly about the Media education project I was there to promote. Then I got up my courage and asked if I could ask him a personal question. Governor Dreyfus smiled and said; "So is this an interview Dave?". I assured him we were off the record, he laughed and gestured for me continue. I said; "Why did you want to be Governor?" Dreyfus had recently finished a very successful term, but then not run for re-election. A move that had surprised most, and frustrated many, inside the Wisconsin Republican Party. As the conventional wisdom was had he run again, he would have won re-election quite easily.

Looking back at the television to check the score, he turned the sound down and then asked me if I had ever noticed the murals in the rotunda of the WI State Capitol building. I proudly replied that I had, and eager to demonstrate my knowledge, rattled off the names of the four murals at base of the rotunda.  

Government, Justice, Legislation, and Liberty.

The former Governor of my home state then went on to give me the best civics lesson I have ever had. He explained that he had benefited from the education system and professional and economic opportunities that living in Wisconsin had provided. Consequently, he felt an obligation to "do his part" to ensure that those opportunities and advantages he had enjoyed, were protected and expanded.

He went on to say that our system was set up to make that possible. The executive branch (Government) worked with the Legislature and the State Senate to craft and pass the laws (Legislation) that were then interpreted by the courts (Justice). Combined, this system of checks, balances and cooperation between all three entities, ensured freedom and opportunity for everyone (Liberty).  

 He looked at the television, then back to me, saying, it was to ensure others had those same opportunities he enjoyed, was why he had gotten into politics.

It was at this point his daughter poked her head into the room and chided us both for. "hiding out" and said we should re-join the event next door. I shook Governor Dreyfus' hand and thanked him for taking the time to talk with me. "My pleasure Dave", he said, and we went back into the next room.

It would be a conversation that would stay with me for years, and it was on that day, at the ripe old age of 13, I decided that I , like Lee Dreyfus, was a Republican. I would join the Young Republicans, campaigning for Ronald Reagan in 1984. Two years later, I would cast my first vote. While a student in Germany in 1986, I proudly walked into the. American Consulate in Munich, filled out my absentee ballot and cast my first ever vote, for Republican Tommy Thompson for Wisconsin Governor.

That next year  I would stand  at  Berlin wall while Ronald Reagan challenged the then Soviet Leader to  "tear down this wall!"  The pride I felt as an American would only reinforce my belief that the Party of Lee Dreyfus, Tommy Thompson and Ronald Reagan was where I was meant to be.

I would go on to become an active member and officer of the College Republicans, even chairing the CR election efforts on campus for. Bush-Quayle '88 and '92. My reasons were clear. It was a Republican who had showed me the power of our system of government to make the lives of Americans better, and by extension, the world a better and safer place.

So what happened? Why did I leave the GOP? The most concise way to answer that question is  to simply say,  the  GOP left me. Or more accurately,  the GOP left me, Lee Dreyfus, Tommy Thompson, George HW Bush, Bob Dole and yes, even left Ronald Reagan.

Wisconsin was the birthplace of the Republican Party. I used live in the town of Ripon Wisconsin and would regularly go past the landmark where the GOP had its creation. The Republican Party on the ballot next week in Wisconsin bears no resemblance to the that party. Let alone party of Lee Dreyfus.

The Party of Scott Walker sees our great system of cooperative branches of government, with its checks and balance, as an obstacle not an asset. Scott Walker is a man who serves a small select group of corporate and financial interests. The people of the great state of Wisconsin, are at best a nuisance to be tolerated, and in truth, often seen as a threat to the agenda those interests have tasked Walker to deliver for them

The Republican Party is addicted to crazy. It has embraced the darker politics of division and fear in place of faith in our system and public service to our citizens. Like many addicts, the Wisconsin Republican Party, doesn't want to get better.   The only way for the GOP to stop digging the deep dank dark hole it as been wallowing in, is to finally hit rock bottom.

This isn't just an election. It's an intervention. For the GOP, it's time for tough love. A vote for Scott Walker and the GOP is a vote to return to 50 million Americans with out access to health insurance. It is to turn the stunning natural beauty of the state of Wisconsin into a strip mined, fracked toxic wasteland where contaminated water catches fire when it comes out of the tap.

A vote for Scott Walker is to hand what is left of the WI public purse over to unregulated special interests and then gut public education and services to pay their bar tab. It is to sacrifice Wisconsin's place as America's Dairyland in favor of becoming the. Mississippi of the North. An under-educated, under-employed, over polluted gilded swamp of the very rich, the very poor and nothing in between.

Trump Supporters like to scream about how they want to “Make America Great Again!", which is nothing more than code for not wanting a people different from them to have any rights. Well,   I want to make the GOP great again. I want a Republican Party that believes in the synergy of Government, Justice , Legislation and Liberty.

It;s time to give the GOP a time out. It's for the people of Wisconsin to step up and save the Republican Party. How?   By voting for Tony Evers, and voting for the Democratic Party.

One week from now... the chance to move from Worst to Best.

It is a particularly American habit, this business of wanting to classify the best and worst of something. We are nation obsessed with statistical rankings. Be it who is “the sexiest man alive”, or who made the best/worst dressed lists. Our popular culture abounds with  top ten lists and who is the best or worst at a particular skill. What fan of college football or basketball doesn’t start the day without checking their team’s standing in the top 25 coaches and press polls? We have a real need as a nation to not just quantify, but also to qualify both our successes and our failures.

To call someone the “worst” of anything can be a dangerous generalization. Yet when talking about the American Presidency, the question itself is not so much the issue, as are the reasons for asking it.

The presidency of Donald John Trump has had far more failure than success. During his time in the White House Trump has excelled at dividing this nation, perfecting a strategy of doubling and tripling down on his base, and trying to prevent anyone else from being heard.  It is a strategy that won him 270 electoral votes.  Yet aside from that singular electoral win it has produced no real accomplishments in terms of actual governing.

Presidents at this point in their terms, especially as their focus turns to the campaign for a second term, find themselves obsessed with the need to protect their accomplishments.   In the case of Donald Trump his accomplishments can be summed up in one word: Chaos.  Under the banner of “Make America Great Again”, we are now a nation isolated from our allies, faced with emboldened adversaries, and bereft of the diplomatic credibility and strategic influence needed to deal with both the threats and opportunities of a 21^st Century  world.

This administration’s one notable domestic achievement , the Trump Tax Cuts have blown a hole in America’s fiscal security nearly a trillion dollars wide.  The Republican Party’s response to such massive fiscal irresponsibility is to target Social Security and Medicare for highway robbery to pay for their giveaway to the richest of the Rich.  

While keeping a straight face as they out and out lie that it is these programs that are the cause of our budgetary woes.  

The problem with asking if any President is the “worst”, is the implication that the success or failure of our republic hangs on the abilities and flaws of a single human being. Our country has faced the consequences of our leader’s failings many times before and has survived. As we face the third year of this flawed presidency, the question is not is Donald Trump the “worst” President, but rather what do we as nation want from our next President? Therein lays a vision for what a “best” Presidency would look like?

That vision is not hard to find. You need look no farther than a few lines from an old song…

O beautiful for patriot dream 
That sees beyond the years

The best President would have a sense of stewardship, not ownership of the presidency. The best President would strive not just to make life easier for “the base”, but ensure a better life for all our citizens, and the generations of Americans yet to come.

Thine alabaster cities gleam 
Undimmed by human tears!

The best President would never accept that any American lives in hopelessness, or lacks the opportunity to learn in safe schools, or live in safe neighborhoods. The best President would never claim  that mass shootings  were the fault of the victims for not being armed.   The best President would see the environment not as a resource to be exploited, but as a legacy to be protected. The best President would never accept that any American would have to choose between health care and economic survival.

America! America! 
God shed his grace on thee

The best President would never seek to use one group of Americans as a tool of division. The best President would never use race or religion as way to marginalize groups of our own citizens. The best President would never seek to codify ONE religion into civil law as a way to score political points. The best President would not wear faith on his sleeve while disregarding the most basic tenets of that faith. The best President would live his faith far more loudly than he would talk about it.

And crown thy good with brotherhood 
From sea to shining sea!

The best President would understand that true homeland security is collective. Strong friendships are the best defense against strong adversaries. The best President would see our freedoms as our strength not our weakness. The best President would see war as the very last resort to defend our nation’s vital interests, not the first resort to advance any one constituency’s political or economic interests.

The best President would embody our hopes, advance our dreams and embrace our diversity, our “E Pluribus Unum”. The best President would listen, would learn and would lead.

Using this simple standard, we find that the one week out from the 2018 midterm elections, an election that is more than any other in our history truly a referendum on the current occupant of the White House and his Political Party; We are asking the wrong question. The question is not “is Donald Trump the worst President ever?”. The real question is, when will we as nation, stop settling for anything less than the best?

Next Tuesday vote for true American Greatness, Vote to show America is better than this.   Vote to stop the wholesale destruction of American Democracy and our place in the world as the one indispensable nation. 

Vote out the Party of Donald Trump.

This is not about Right or Left.  This is about Right and Wrong.   The Republican Party has lost its mind and  sold its soul to a demented con man who if left unchecked,   will damage our nation beyond repair.

Vote to save America.  Vote to save the Republican Party.  

Vote Democrat.

Remembering Broadcast History...37 Years Ago - Kids to Kids

They say the worst thing you can have in live television is “dead air”. Suddenly in front of a room full of government and media dignitaries, with broadcasting history literally hanging in the balance, that is exactly what we were facing. Dead air.

The date was Thursday, October 15th, 1981. Two days earlier, I had boarded an Amtrak train in Columbus, Wisconsin, along with Mike Daugherty, John Garrett, Tom Gehrmann, Chris Kerwin, Anne O'Brien, Becky Weirough, Glenn Zweig, Steve Funk, and Mike Kennedy, Now in the ballroom of the Capital Hill Holiday Inn in Washington D.C. a live satellite demonstration, linking our group of American kids, and a group of young people in Brisbane Australia had just gone on the air.

We were there along with other young people who shared the unique experience of being media users, not just media consumers. We were from the “Kids 4” television project in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Kids4 had been on the air since 1978, and was an educational partnership between the local public access cable channel and the American Council for Better Broadcasting (ACBB, now called the National Telemedia Council )

Joining us there in Washington, was a group from the KIDS ALIVE! Project in Bloomington, Indiana. Together, we were hosting a live cultural exchange via satellite with a group of young people from down under in Brisbane Australia, who hosted the popular children’s program WOMBAT on Australia's Channel 7.

The kids from the Australian television show went first, showing an amazing video montage of their studio, the gold coast of Australia and the stories they produced there at Channel 7 in Brisbane. Then it was our turn. Or so we thought. 

Kerri Brinson from KIDS ALIVE!, looked in the camera and cheerfully announced; “Well, here’s our video montage!”  And … nothing.

A technician from COX Cable Television, hurried into the room and whispered in the ear of a nearby adult that the Video tape player in the satellite truck, was not working, and therefore none of the prepared footage we had brought with us to Washington could be shown. So we proceeded to do what we always did when doing live television. We improvised. 

The kids from Indiana looked at us like we were nuts. They were not used to working live. One of the great things about the Kids 4 program is we started out doing all of our shows live. It was only after two years we switched to recording them first, then airing them.

Still, with a ballroom full of media dignitaries watching you , plus trying to fill time  with stuff off the top your head, AND cope with at least a 5 second time delay between you and the people you were trying to interview, it was bit tense, even by our standards. The end result however, was amazing. That one technical glitch turned what would have been a largely scripted exchange into an actual conversation.

Instead of following a script,  we talked.  Asking each other about school, about hobbies and what was it about working with television that interested them, as well as sharing our own experiences as kids learning to use media and not be used by it.

Of course at the time, it felt like a disaster.

Looking back on that day, thirty-seven years ago, I marvel at how much the world has changed. At the time, what we were doing in Washington DC that day was not all that remarkable from a technical standpoint. Live satellite broadcasts were hardly unusual in 1981. Yet from a cultural and educational standpoint, the Kids-to-Kids interconnect was nothing short of revolutionary.

As much as I say that live satellite television was commonplace in 1981, that isn’t to say the mechanics of it were simple. The path of the satellite interconnect - from Washington, D.C. to , Brisbane, Australia was a complex series of relays starting with a signal carried by cable to a Cox Cable production truck parked just outside in the courtyard of the hotel.From there, the Mobil-Video Company (MV) picked up the signal in its truck parked next to the Cox truck, and carried it via microwave across town to PBS Headquarters .

PBS then took over sending the signal to its satellite ground station  and  up to a Satellite, 22,300 miles above the Earth. Which THEN transmitted the signal to a satellite receiving dish in Sans Francisco. From there, the signal was transmitted it up to another satellite which relayed it down to the an earth station near Sydney, Australia.

Finally from there the signal travelled via land lines to the studios of Channel 7, Brisbane, where the Australian children received it and responded. Their messages back to the U.S. travelled in the reverse direction using landlines and satellites to Jamesburg, CA and back to San Francisco via microwave. 

Then back to Washington via another satellite, to the on-site satellite dish located in the courtyard of the Capitol Holiday Inn, which fed the signal back into the conference room where it was seen on large screens by all of us there.

Whew! Did you follow all that? Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz. But here is what you need to know, everything that I just described, in all its complicated glory, the average teenager can now do with the phone they carry in their pocket. No trucks needed, no delay and now we don’t even think twice about it.

The Interconnect didn’t radically change the media landscape, or advance broadcast technology. What it did do, was in the space of a few short hours make the world a remarkably smaller place. It showed that live satellite broadcasting could be used for more than breaking news and sporting events.

More than that, it laid the foundation for the type of personal inter connectivity that today, we take completely for granted. I know this, because I do it nearly every day. At least three times a week I will facetime, or skype or  or Facebook video call with friends and family scattered all over the globe. From my in-laws in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to my parents in Madison, Wisconsin,  and friends  from London to Oakland and scores of points in between.

The interconnect was the first global face-time session .

The greatest take away from that day for those of us fortunate enough to have been part of it, was the power of broadcast technology to bridge distances and connect people in new and exciting ways. It was, at least for one thirteen year old, a life changing experience. A live demonstration of the power of broadcast technology to connect people and be a platform for sharing experiences and ideas, in (nearly) real time.

Those lessons of the Interconnect are even more important today than they were three decades ago. In a world where if kids in Sun Prairie, WI  want to talk to kids in Brisbane, Australia , all they need is a smart phone and a decent Wifi signal;  Media Literacy is more crucial now than ever before. Teaching young people how to harness the power of media, and connectivity as tools for education and empowerment is more important today, than it has ever been.

Teaching young people to be media users, not just media consumers has always been at heart of the mission of Kids 4 and The National Telemedia Council . That mission, which took a gigantic step forward in 1981 continues today. You can find out more about the NTC and it's mission and legacy at :https://www.nationaltelemediacouncil.org

Thirty-seven years on, it remains an experience that played a tremendous role in shaping my path in life I am so very grateful to have been a part of it.