Say what?
“Never put in writing something you aren’t ready to see and defend in a newspaper,” is an old adage governing good government.
In other words, be prepared to be held to what you write, especially if it’s in government emails.
If there’s one thing I am proud of, it is my willingness and ability to stake out earnest policy positions. Nothing wishy washy on this blog. But don’t ever expect to find racism or personally belittling comments here. Or in my emails.
It’s often painful to see people held accountable for their mistakes. Then again, it’s often a necessary result of having caused unwarranted pain to other people.
With great power goes great obligation and responsibility. When these basic rules of conduct are forgotten, inevitable chains of events are uncorked.
Now that we’ve seen it here in Pennsylvania, wouldn’t it be pleasing to see it in Washington, DC, too?
Happy Father’s Day
Dont know what you dads got, but my family bought me a silly tee shirt and a gardening wand for my garden hose. We are about to cook out. All is perfect. Hope you other dads feel the same.
Got Gas?
Gas royalties paid to land owners from the development of the Marcellus Shale have amounted to $731 million in Pennsylvania in the last year alone. The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says that the $731 million is a 6,600% increase from five years ago.
Got gas? Hope so!
1972
Can’t you just hear the voice now?
“Arrrr..Iiiiiii…I am not a crooookkkk”
Funny how that echo is getting louder and louder
Visiting DC? Try this landmark
With original carved woodwork, tiles, and other intact original surfaces the Christian Heurich House is worth the five bucks admission fee. The basement was built as a traditional German inn or pub, and includes the nicest torchier I have seen. Antlers linking three old halberds together, this torchier undoubtedly was part of a larger set used to illuminate the day’s take, arranged just-so on the ground after a traditional hunt. Photos are not allowed, so I did not take one. Hopefully the association will publish a book on the place where you can see it all in detail.
http://www.heurichhouse.org/
Good news for American farmers, food consumers
America’s farmland is not only the cultural heartland, it is the bread basket of our nation.
You know the old saw: No farms, no beer. No farms, no food. No farms, no watersheds, and on and on…
So let’s ask: When our flat farmland is built on, will America import tainted, contaminated food from China? Will America become food-dependent, too, on top of importing most of our transportation fuel? What kinds of vulnerabilities come with being so dependent on others, especially on nations and people who do not share our values or ways?
So it brings me great satisfaction to see Andrew McElwaine become the new president of American Farmland Trust (http://www.farmland.org/news/pressreleases/2013/AFT-New-President-Andrew-McElwaine.asp).
AFT is America’s premier farmland preservation advocacy group. I knew Ralph Grassi, AFT’s founder, from way back in my Washington, DC days. Ralph was able to narrate his own family’s farmland preservation efforts and reasons, and he had charisma, too, so when AFT testified before Congress, or held a farmland preservation event, elected officials from both parties listened, and acted, and the public dug deep into their wallets.
Since Ralph left AFT and returned to his family ranch in Marin County, California, AFT has been on a slow, quiet identity quest that culminated with financial challenges that could be ignored no longer.
Enter Andrew McElwaine, probably America’s best non-profit turnaround guru with a conservation streak a mile wide. Andrew’s bio is easily available online, so I won’t expound upon it here, but what should be noted is that he has turned around or dramatically grown both the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Heading to Washington, DC, brings him back into the conservation policy world he knows and loves so well, and gives him an opportunity to work his financial magic once again.
American farmland needs an advocate. Andrew McElwaine is the man for the job. At a time of tight finances and faltering, struggling non-profit conservation groups, Andrew’s arrival at AFT is an unusual breath of welcome and needed good news. Now saddle up, pardner, ’cause the ride ahead is gonna be long and hard…
Garden as metaphor
Gardens are the summertime happy hunting grounds of Americans everywhere. My own is coming along nicely. Maybe it’s time to plant a 1940-s style Victory Garden?
Cascade Effect
When a snow avalanche plows over a mountainside, everything in its path falls, breaks, bends, severely, or gets swept under and away.
Avalanches do not happen all at once. First there’s a little spill of snow at the top. That bumps something larger down below, and so on. A cascade effect gathers momentum, and pretty soon the whole shebang is blasting full steam ahead.
Such is the state of the administration in Washington. Historic scandals at the IRS, Dept. of Justice, State Dept., and so on are building up steam. Partisans are ignoring them all, pooh-poohing them, hoping voters don’t pay attention. But eventually, that cascade will reach its full force.
Framing the Issue, Defining the Person
Although I spend most of my work time with muddy boots out in the field, I obviously have a passion for government policy and issues. My college and graduate school degrees are in government (and economics, and statistics, and history, and…and…), so “big issues” have always motivated me. And thus, I write about them.
As a sound policy advocate, I am always wrestling with framing an issue or defining the person behind an issue, say, in a public race for office.
One of the aspects of this process I am getting better at is understanding what motivates someone else who sees it differently than I.
And here is my conclusion: Power, power, and more power over decisions, resources, and people is what motivates the vast majority of people who take a stand on something. Especially in politics.
Take, for example, last week’s decision at the Boy Scouts of America. In my mind, the decision to allow gay people is not an issue. After all, how would I know someone is gay unless they tell me? I could not care less about who is gay, or straight, and in fact I enjoy the presence of a number of gay people because they are funny, smart, and entertaining. I have nothing against gays. But what I do have an issue with is talking about sex with my kid, and who does it, and why.
And so, the political advocates of being gay say they have a right to talk about their sexual preferences any time they want, and I respond that now I know how women feel when meatheads make stupid comments that can be construed as sexist or come-ons. There is just zero room for discussing sexuality or sexual preferences in public or with kids not your own. And so I frame this issue naively, thinking it is about what is best for kids (knowing that adults who also object to having sexuality pressed upon them can take refuge in myriad anti-sexual harassment laws).
Every kid should have a sex-free zone drawn around them. And yes, talking about your sexual preferences is S-E-X-U-A-L.
And thus are parents like me unfairly defined as bad, bigoted, evil, cruel, etc. The issue has been framed in a way that automatically makes us “bigoted” if we disagree, thereby removing our ability (power) to defend our ideas. But I prefer to frame it in a way that protects kids, my kids, from being sexualized. And thus, I will stand my ground and say “leave the kids alone.”
Gay people who want to hang out at my house and debate this, or have dinner, or play cards, are welcome any time we know you are arriving.
BSA Policy Should be Zero Tolerance for Sex
It hurt to send this to my son’s Boy Scouts troop leader today. Ben is a wonderful man and an important part of our son’s life:
“Hi Ben.
I don’t care who is gay.
And no one has a right to talk about sex with my son Isaac.
Sex has no place in the BSA.
The moment that a teenager or adult talks about sex with my son at a BSA event is the moment I file a lawsuit against BSA for sexual harassment and then withdraw from the troop.
The correct policy should have been a zero tolerance for sex, period. Talking about sexual behavior is innately sexual. It’s an innately private subject without any legitimate purpose around kids.
You are and have been a fantastic troop leader. I’m very sorry to send this to you. But I must protect my son. Isaac has a right to be free from sexualization by older kids and adults. The new BSA policy says that someone has a right to sexualize my son. That’s wrong, and the BSA is now looking like an unsafe place, the wrong place for my son.
Josh”