Lowering the Decibel Level

 

I don’t know about you, but I am pleased that pronouncements from the White House have substantially decreased under our newly-elected President.

For the past four years, you could almost count on getting 3 or 4 “tweets” in the early morning hours many of which were attacks or controversial statements which would then dominate the news cycle for the next 24 hours.  It left you feeling out-of-breath.

Some of the “tweets” concerned the usual political targets like the “Democratic Socialists” or “left-wing enemies” like Nancy Pelosi.  But, some were focused on people who had been appointed by the administration itself—think about poor Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General, or even General “Mad Dog” Mattis who had been appointed Defense Secretary with great flourish and flash before falling out of favor.

The culture wars of who was wrong and why, the search for disunion and controversy was continual and constant.

Fast forward to today—boring, old, tight-lipped “Common Joe” Biden.  We have gone from the frying pan into the cold room.  We are finding out again that there is more to life than pronouncements from the White House.

We are finding out again that there is more to life than pronouncements from the White House.

The “truth-be-told” is that I think we are all a bit relieved and appreciative of the change in tone.  All of our problems have not gone away nor have our differences vanished.   But, we are talking more now of how we can attack our common problems instead of each other—getting the country vaccinated and fixing up our crumbling infrastructure. 

I know that the comparison is not completely accurate, but my reading of history takes me back to the years after the end of World War II.  The country was exhausted, out-of-breath.  It had come out of a terrible and costly war.  Rationing and deprivation had driven the home economy for an extended period of time.  People just wanted to take a break, live their lives, and get back together.

In 1952, they would elect as President a rather “ho-hum” quiet man of few words, General Dwight D. Eisenhower.  He would focus on rebuilding the post-war economy, strengthening international agreements, and building a huge new system of Interstate highways.  Home building also flourished.   When asked how he would define America, Eisenhower made the commonplace statement that it was a country where you could have a barbecue in your own backyard.

However you describe the time we are in now, I think we all could agree that after the past four years and the battle against COVID, it is time to take a break from our culture wars.  Pouring kerosene on our differences is emotionally exhausting.  We all may not be able to have a barbecue in our own backyard, but we can work on common challenges together and hope that each and everyone gets a “shot” at the American dream. 

I, for one, am glad that the “decibel level” in our public discourse has been lowered a bit so that we can again focus on our common aspirations as Americans.

Rolland Kidder

Missing the Draft

I am  a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran, though not entirely by choice.  One reason I joined the Navy is because I didn’t want to get drafted into the Army. 

From just before World War II until 1973, after the Vietnam War, every American male reaching the age of 18 was subject to the draft.  That was the way we provided the manpower for our military.  Had there had been no draft, I may never have chosen to enlist in the Navy.

What the draft did was to throw together Americans from all regions and walks-of-life into the same basket.  I had been raised here, in a relatively sheltered rural, small-town community in Upstate New York.  I had never really gotten to know people from El Paso, Texas; Brooklyn, NY or Tulsa, Oklahoma before serving in the military.  I had never really gotten to know someone who was Jewish or Japanese; really poor or really rich; minimally-educated or better-educated—until I went into the Navy.   The Navy was the mixing-pot that became my way of finding out who I was as an American.

I recently read an article by the columnist David Brooks which stated:  “Real change seems to involve putting bodies from different groups in the same room, on the same team, and in the same neighborhood.  That’s national service programs.”  That is what the draft was—a national service program.  Instead of being in a same group-think, echo chamber—in the military, we got to know and understand each other and experience a true cross-section of America.

“Too much of the ‘I’ and too little of the ‘We.’”

A similar thought was expressed in a video lecture I recently watched by the philosopher/theologian Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of Great Britain.  (Sacks died this past year of cancer.)  Sacks said that the primary problem we have today is:  “Too much of the ‘I’ and too little of the ‘We.’”  He then commented that he thought the greatest description of who Americans were, was to be found in the words:  “We the People.”

The thoughts of both Sacks and Brooks resonate with me.  Neither endorsed a military draft.  But I can attest that it was the draft, my serving in the military with fellow Americans, which significantly broadened my views as a citizen of this country.

Today, one of my great disappointments has been the unfulfilled promise that modern communications and social media would somehow make us more informed citizens with a larger world view.  Instead, it has given us more echo-chambers where we can shut out voices that don’t see things our way.

How, as Brooks described, do we get more people “in the same room?”  I believe we need a mandate of national service.  Let our young people, both men and women, serve for a period of time in the national interest.  Let them choose between a military and civilian option.  But, somehow, we need to expose future generations of Americans to the common purposes and ideals of this country.

We don’t need to call it a “draft.” Call it a “national service requirement” or something else—but we need to get back to it.  We need some kind for program to put us in the same room so that we can begin understanding and talking with each other again.  Somehow, we have lost that along the way.

Rolland Kidder

Sacred Ground

When you first see it, it is just a piece of low ground situated along a fast-flowing, southern river. Then you look about and see the cannons, plaques and memorials and you realize that you are at Pittsburgh Landing on the Tennessee River at Shiloh

You glance down at the brochure sent to you by the National Park Service and there is the old photo taken in 1862 of this place crammed full of steam boats delivering the goods of war… yes, this is that same place.

This is same piece of ground that General Grant and his Army were jammed into on Sunday, April 6th of that year as the Confederate Army nearly pushed his Union forces back into the river in one of the fiercest battles of the American Civil War. Here, the final line of the National forces held, its center led by another General, William Tecumseh Sherman.

The Union would not die this day, and the next day more troops would come in to reinforce the line and begin the counter attack. It was not the beginning of the end; it was more the end of the beginning. The War would go on for 3 more years. But, the momentum had shifted in the West. The Union was not going to go away.

On the recent occasion of visiting here, one of my grandchildren texted me: “Papa why are you there?” I texted back: “Our country almost disintegrated here, but fortunately it didn’t. Being here lets you know what it cost to keep it together.”

“Our country almost disintegrated here, but fortunately it didn’t. Being here lets you know what it cost to keep it together.”

Two days of horrific fighting at Shiloh resulted in over 23,000 casualties of dead, wounded or missing Americans. It was American fighting American. This is sacred ground. Being here gave me the same kind of feeling as when I visited Omaha Beach in Normandy. Big things were being decided here.

The Shiloh Meeting House, Tennesee

Near the center of this national park is a small, rebuilt, hewn log structure… the Shiloh meeting house or church. It is counter intuitive, in a way, that this building gave the battlefield its name. The word “Shiloh” in the Bible can mean “place of peace.”

It reminded me of Lincoln’s words in his Second Inaugural where he struggled with the reasons and purposes behind a Civil War in a nation that read the same Bible and prayed to the same God.

In some ways, this struggle still goes on. We are a diverse and fractious people who are still trying to find our way and live together. Shiloh reminds us of that. It is indeed “sacred ground.”


Rolland Kidder

The Heart of Winter

 

It was cold this week...

It was cold this week, and it reminded me of the poem by Robert Service about the prospector in the Yukon who  “hated the cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell.”

It is true that I don’t like the cold anymore.  Yet, I am also gripped like a “spell” when it comes to experiencing the heart of winter here in Chautauqua County.  The snow falls and covers the land like a blanket.  Everything is covered in white.

Compare that to March (next month) when the snow will start to melt, and we will start to see all of the junk reappear that we forgot to put away last fall, and the snow becomes a brownish color.  I must admit that I like February, the heart of winter, better.

A friend of mine told me what it was like on the ice last week-end in Mayville.  He went fishing and stayed inside his new pop-up tent for a few hours.  When he got ready to go home, there was a blizzard going on and he could barely see shore from where he was on the ice.  Yet, by the time he drove to Jamestown, the snow storm had subsided. 

I said to him:  “Welcome to the Chautauqua Ridge and lake effect snow coming off Lake Erie!”  Lake effect snow—it is a part of what causes us to be caught up in a “spell” up here in the hills this time of year.

Another phenomenon of winter is seeing the woods open up.  In the summer, from our house, you can’t see far down the lake because of the leaves and foliage of the woods.  But now, with just the trees and snow, we can see down the whole length of the bay. 

I have noticed that the dog is barking more.  I think it is related to the fact that he can now see much more of what is going on around him.  Any movement in the woods or a car coming down a far driveway, is picked up by his eyes, perks his ears, stimulates his protective instincts and, though told not to do so, he starts to bark.

There is a peace and solemnity to it all.

His barking is more noticeable, of course, because it interrupts the deep quiet of winter.  The hub-bub of the holidays is over, the pressure is gone to decorate and congregate, and we are now at one with the elements.  There is a peace and solemnity to it all.

And, yes, there is that one, yearly, symbolic action that lets you know you are in the “heart of winter”—the appearance of the jig saw puzzle.  Somehow, we seem to get more of them as we get older, and they sit on the table right in front of the window waiting to be assembled and solved.  Wiling away your day dealing with a jig saw puzzle and looking out on the lake—how does it get any better than that?

Celebrating the heart of winter in Chautauqua County—it is a good place to be!

Rolly Kidder 

   

America’s Saddest Day

 

photo: Leah Millis, Reuters

I have been around this country now for many decades.  Yet, I have never witnessed a sadder day in our history than this past Wednesday when a mob took control of the Unites States Capitol building. It was made especially sad because it was incited and supported by the President of the United States. 

I had turned on the TV early in the afternoon to watch the democratic process of the certification of the Electoral College vote—a traditional event held every four years, usually not controversial, but made so this year because the President had challenged its validity.

President Trump had gone earlier in the day to “pump up his troops” who had gathered on the National Mall.  Promising to march with them to the Capitol (which he didn’t do,) he incited this mob to go to the Capitol building during the Electoral College proceedings in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.  They then marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, attacked the Capitol Building forcibly entering it, and then roamed through the building damaging and desecrating the sacred deliberative chambers of the U.S. Senate and House.  It was the most un-American and anti-democratic action I have ever witnessed in this country.

When asked by President-elect Biden and leaders of his own Party to address his supporters to stop the violence, the President, late in the afternoon, made a short speech claiming the election had been stolen from him, told the mob that he loved them, and then in a half-hearted way asked them to go home.

This is an event which will forever change the face of this country.  This comes in the category of the Pearl Harbor attack or 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in terms of its impact on our country.  The view of our country as a bastion for democracy will be forever impacted. 

We tend to take for granted that Americans will abide by the result of our elections, that we are a nation of laws and not of political strongmen.  That vision was broken this week.

Recently, in this column, I wrote that January 6^th could be the day that President Trump might “fold his tent” and then turn on the Vice President as his final scapegoat, blaming Mike Pence (in his ceremonial post of chairing the certification process) for losing the election.  I never envisioned that, in so doing, he would incite a mob to attack the Nation’s Capitol.

If there is any silver lining, it is that the U.S. Congress went back into session after the events of this tragic day, worked through the night and voted to accept the results of the election.  But, our lives as Americans will be forever changed.   Unlike Pearl Harbor or 9/11—this attack was from within, fomented by a sitting President of the United States.

Rolland Kidder

To the Bitter End

Nearly three years ago, in this column, I discussed the upcoming 2018 New Year and the speculation that if the Mueller investigation were conclusive, Donald Trump’s Presidency could end like that of Richard Nixon’s.  However, I also commented that unlike Nixon: “I can’t envision our current President getting on a helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House and quietly leaving town.”

The Mueller investigation came and went and so did the 2020 election.  Yet, it seems that the observation still has merit—this President is not going to easily leave the White House.

We have now been through recounts and lawsuits in several “battleground” states.  One was Wisconsin.  This was a state that Donald Trump carried by about 20,000 votes in 2016.  He accepted and celebrated the vote… no problem.  However, this year the voters of that state said that they had enough, and President Trump lost the state by about the same margin.  In 2020, the election In Wisconsin was deemed a “fraud” by the President.

Similar accusations were made against other states that he lost, including Georgia where Republican officials ran the election and also watched over two recounts.  Still, the President didn’t believe it, as if to say:  “If I don’t win, there must be some kind of fraud involved.”

Think back over the past several years starting with the crowd at the inauguration being the “biggest ever”… though it wasn’t.  Then there was the President’s advisor, Kellyanne Conway,  inventing the phrase “alternative facts” as she did her best to create a spin over the President’s various falsehoods and misrepresentations.

It reminds me a bit of the country song:  “Call me Cleopatra… cause I’m the Queen of denial.” 

This President cannot mentally accept the fact that he lost the 2020 election.  It reminds me a bit of the country song:  “Call me Cleopatra… cause I’m the Queen of denial.”  Though, in this case, it is Donald Trump, the King, singing the song.

In most of the Presidential elections that I can remember, the loser of the election, by this time had conceded defeat.  The only exception was in 2000 when the vote count was close in Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the recounting of ballots in that state which gave George W. Bush a 500-vote advantage and the election.

This year, the same Supreme Court declined to hear a “Hail Mary” appeal supported by the President to invalidate the election in five states.  To their credit, our two Republican, western New York Congressmen—Tom Reed and Chris Jacobs—declined to join in that lawsuit.  Other Republican leaders, now including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Senate, have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden.

When will Donald Trump finally “fold his tent” and end this?  It could happen on January 6, 2021, the day that Vice President Pence declares the results of the Electoral College valid. Then, the President, could turn to Pence as his final scapegoat and give up the fight.

Whatever happens, it won’t be pretty...

Whatever happens, it won’t be pretty—and we are likely to see a President leave office under protest with the promise to run again in 2024.  He could decide not to join the new President at the Inauguration Ceremony on Capitol Hill on January 20^th.  In his mind, that might legitimize an election which Donald Trump will only recognize if he can be the winner.

Rolland Kidder

The Dust Settles in Albany

There were hopes in Republican ranks that the Party would pick-up seats in the State Legislature this year.  Now, that the “dust has settled,” we know that their position in the state capitol will be slightly worse.  In addition, after the upcoming reapportionment based on the 2020 census, Republican representation in the legislature could be reduced even more.

Democrats in the Assembly had a super-majority going into the election, but that was not true in the State Senate.  After the election, it now appears that there will be at least 43 Democrats in a State Senate of 63 members also effectively giving the Democratic Party in that house a super-majority.  “Super-majority” means that they would have enough votes to over-ride a Governor’s veto.

Some pundits have alleged that this will mean a “super-liberal” agenda in the state’s capitol.  The Governor, himself a Democrat, does not seem to be much worried about the shift in political power.  He has been around Albany a long time and knows the old adage that “all politics is local,” and that State Senators, no matter what their political affiliation, must first defend and represent the constituency from which they were elected.

In the case of New York State, this means that new Democratic Senators from Upstate and the Hudson Valley will be deemed “marginals”… a designation given to those who had close elections and who could be beaten if they were to become part of a big liberal agenda in the state.  On the other hand, because they gave the Democratic Party a super-majority in the State Senate, they will be in a much stronger position to deliver for their constituents when it comes to state budget items and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

We have now become what is essentially a one-party state, much like California.

I have written in past articles that the decline in the fortunes of the Republican Party in New York State is not a healthy political development.  We have now become what is essentially a one-party state, much like California.  The ultra-conservative, personality-driven brand that the Republican Party has been offering voters has been rejected by the people of the state in more than one election. 

This does not mean that Republicans cannot compete in statewide offices.  There is a “shelf-life” for every elected official, and the public is willing to consider alternatives for Governor and other statewide office holders.  But, the GOP will need to field candidates who represent the broad centrist, middle-of-the-road voter if they expect to succeed in electing people to statewide office. 

Perhaps something like “ranked choice voting” or an “open primary” process should be considered in our State.

The continuing decline of the Republican Party in New York may usher in new concepts to ensure voters have real choices in elections.  Perhaps something like “ranked choice voting” or an “open primary” process where people can select the primary election that they wish to vote in should be considered in our State.

Absent changes like that, it looks like we will be having one party dominance in Albany for the foreseeable future.  Though, for Democrats, this may seem advantageous… that does not mean that it is a good idea.  Competition in politics is a good thing, and we are getting less of it in Albany than at any time I can recall.

Rolland Kidder

Too Big to Fail

Back in 2008, during the financial crisis, we were introduced to the words: “too big to fail,” referring to banks that had to be saved because they otherwise could take down the whole economy.  The legislation that was then passed was intended to provide warning signs and protections so that, in the future, these companies couldn’t fail.

Despite all of these efforts, I think we must admit that we still have companies that are “too big” or “too important” to let them fail. One of these companies is Boeing.

Boeing got itself into deep trouble by rushing the 737 Max passenger jet into production.  The 737 airframe had been around for 20 years, and had become a big money-maker for Boeing.  In aviation, it is always quicker and easier to make changes to an existing air-frame than in asking for FAA certification for a new design.  If you build or a design a new airplane, it takes years (usually) to get it tested and flight approved.  

Boeing had kept adding seats, carrying capacity and bigger engines to the 737, but in going to the Max, they really “maxed” it out.  In order to accommodate new and larger engines, they had to move the engines forward and higher so that there was enough ground clearance.  This changed the stall and stability characteristics of the plane.  A new computer was designed to address this problem, but the needed sensors and, especially, new training on how to operate the system—were not made available to all who flew or purchased the new plane.  Two 737 Max planes went down within months of each other, and the plane was grounded.

Though not currently flying, but as one who has loved aviation having been a pilot with a commercial, instrument multi-engine rating — I found the story of the Boeing 737 Max to be especially distressing. Profitability and aircraft production targets trumped safety, and we have ended up with our premier large American aircraft company sitting on the edge of bankruptcy.  It has been a sad story.

Recently, the news has been better.  The FAA has announced its approval for the 737 Max to fly again. The aircraft’s computer control system has been improved, and all pilots must now be trained in how that works.  In addition, the federal government made the company eligible for billions of dollars in financial aid to keep Boeing afloat.

In the end, Boeing didn’t need the federal aid—just the promise of it propped up the credit markets and Boeing was able to float a multi-billion-dollar bond issue of its own.

All of this has pointed to an inconvenient truth. Some of our companies are so important to our economy and national security that we can’t let them fail.

But, all of this has pointed to an inconvenient truth.  Some of our companies are so important to our economy and national security that we can’t let them fail.  There is nothing that our adversaries like China and Russia would like to see more than a company like Boeing going under.  We can’t let that happen.

Maybe we have learned a lesson.  When it comes to air safety, the FAA must reassert its authority and its independence over the matter of certifying or re-certifying aircraft for commercial flight even if this means slowing the process down.  We will not have a robust and growing airline industry again until the flying public has the confidence and trust that the planes it flies in are, in fact, safe to fly. 

Rolland Kidder

Free and Fair Elections

In 1970, though I won a primary election contest for State Assembly while still in Vietnam with the Navy, in the general election I lost to the incumbent.  I didn’t like losing, but I learned a big lesson: in a contested election, there is always someone who wins and someone who loses.  Losing does not mean that you are bad, it just means that you didn’t have enough votes.

I never doubted the outcome of that or any subsequent election.  The tradition of free and fair elections is part of our American tradition.  Four years later, I ran again for the same position.  That time, I won.  Though I was the first Democrat in 100 years to hold that seat, my Republican opponent accepted the result.  The voters had spoken.

Now, we have a situation where our President, fearing that he may lose an election, is challenging the validity of the election itself.  That is outrageous and, for me, confirms just how egocentric and disconnected from our history the current occupant of the White House is.

In New York State, as in all states in the Union, there is a process where both national parties (Republican and Democrat) are represented in counting the votes.  In New York State, both parties have election commissioners in each county, and these individuals pride themselves in running free and fair elections.

Four years ago, Hillary Clinton got about 2 million more popular votes than Donald Trump, yet she lost the election in the Electoral College.  She didn’t challenge the results of that, she knew the “rules of the game” going into the election.  She lost and, in the vernacular of ages gone by, she “took it like a man.”

Hillary didn’t challenge the results, she knew the “rules of the game” going into the election. She lost and, in the vernacular of ages gone by, she “took it like a man.”

As of the time of writing this article, we still don’t know the final results of the election—but, it appears that Vice President Biden (also leading in the popular vote) may win enough votes in the electoral college to become President.

Whatever the outcome, it is outrageous that the President is now trying to undercut the legitimacy of the election.  Hopefully, his party, the nation and the courts will coalesce to ensure that whatever the vote of the electorate is will be honored when the results are finalized.

No President has, to my knowledge, besmirched the election process itself until now.  By calling it a “fraud,” President Trump is trying to perpetrate his own fraud on our democratic system of government.

No President has, to my knowledge, besmirched the election process itself until now.

Donald Trump has said he will challenge the vote counts in several states.  He has a right to ask for recounts.  In some states, like Wisconsin, he will also have to pay for the recount.  They have a statute colloquially called the “sore-losers law” which was passed to discourage frivolous and expensive recounts when the results of an election are not deemed to be close enough to justify taxpayers picking up the tab.

Joe Biden has asked for patience and pledged to abide by the results of the election.  That is the kind of commitment to free and fair elections that has prevailed in our Presidential contests since the Republic was founded.

Rolland Kidder

How to Disagree

There is a good country/western song I was listening to on the radio the other day sung by Billy Dean about a couple that has split up but who still want to remain friends. It goes:

“There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy.  There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”

Our family is like every other family — we don’t always agree on everything. And, that goes for politics. Most of us want to see a change in Washington. Yet, there are some who support the current President and will vote for him. It causes division when we bring politics up, and so we tend not to talk politics at extended family gatherings. I mean, why spoil Thanksgiving or Christmas over political differences?

We need to apply the message of the song and just agree to disagree.

The lyrics of the song also bring up another salient point, our differences don’t mean that we need to taint each other as “good” or “bad.” They are just differences. That doesn’t mean that decency, fairness and the common good are not important issues to be debated. However, when we have disagreements, we need to also factor in friendship and family.

My grandkids are now singing lyrics from the musical “Hamilton.” The words go so fast (in a rap style) that sometimes I don’t even understand what they are saying. But, a lot of that production deals with the differences that Hamilton and other “founders” of the Constitution had in putting it all together. They all were seeking a “more perfect union,” but knew that a lot of compromises had been made in order to get it done. It wasn’t perfect.

One difference or imperfection was the 3/5ths compromise where black slaves (the Constitution defined them as not being “free persons”) were counted in a state’s population as 3/5ths of a citizen for representation purposes. That policy and whether or not it should be applied as the Union expanded would ultimately lead to the Civil War. Though Lincoln initially framed the war as an act of preserving the Union, the underlying issue throughout was: “What is the meaning of ‘human equality’ in this expanding democracy?” The war would decide the fate of slavery in the United States.

If you think we have differences today, how would you like to have lived in a border state during Civil War times where families were split between Union and Confederate causes? Brothers took up arms against brothers. That is what you call serious disagreement.

Fortunately, we don’t have that today. We have big issues and big disagreements in this election, and many of them won’t be resolved in the election no matter how it turns out. But it is an election, not a war. We can take opposing positions without demonizing each other.

We will need to get along after this is all over. There is no good guy, there is no bad guy. There’s you and me and we just disagree!

Rolland Kidder

The Night the Wheels Came Off

I must admit that I don’t stay up late anymore watching TV.  I made an exception to that rule last Tuesday night and watched all 90 minutes of the Presidential debate.

It was a sad spectacle, really.  It was neither a debate nor Presidential.  It was an attack dog event put on by an unsmiling President Trump which made him look more like a distorted media reality star than the leader of our country.  There wasn’t even the pretense of a debate in terms of a civil discussion on the issues of government and programs for the future.

Being caught up in such a storm, I felt that former Vice President Biden held his own as best you can when a 90-minute verbal hurricane descends upon you.  I was most sorry for Chris Wallace, the Fox News commentator who was trying to moderate the “debate.” 

On several occasions, when Wallace tried to move on to another question, he was shouted down by Mr. Trump.  He tried to quiet the President when he was interrupting Mr. Biden—no success.  At one point, he even gave Biden an extra 30 seconds of time because he had been interrupted and “talked over” by Trump.

It was all in vain.  Listeners looking for answers ranging from health care to the economy were treated to bombast, boasts and bullying.  It was an ugly, forgettable 90 minutes and makes one wonder of the public benefit of such an event.

A conservative commentator on one of the networks after the “show” was over, was flummoxed over how future debates could continue when the President goes on a tirade and won’t let his opponent speak.  He suggested that perhaps the only solution would be to have a time-keeper control the microphones of both participants and then turn the mike off after an allotted time has expired.

I was around in 1960 for the first televised Presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy.  It was civil.  It was informative.  It was “Presidential.”  It reflected a cross section of the concerns the country was then facing.  Last Tuesday’s performance was none of this.

In my judgment, its only saving grace is that now we know what to expect from Donald Trump if he is elected again—more of the same.  He cannot stand criticism and is not interested in input if it disagrees with his own views.  I thought, as I watched the show – it is no wonder that so many qualified people have left the White House during his Presidency.  Unless you are a total “Yes Man,” he is not interested in your views.

It is no wonder that so many qualified people have left the White House during his Presidency.  Unless you are a total “Yes Man,” he is not interested in your views.

There was one other revelation at the end of the program.  When both candidates were asked by Wallace whether they would accept the certified results of the election,  Biden said “Yes, and so will he”—referring to Trump.   Trump dodged the issue and went into a diatribe about unfounded voter fraud using the mails—though he, himself, has regularly used the mail to vote.

For Trump, when you are behind in the polls, you attack not only your opponent but the electoral process itself.  Hopefully, the public will not be scared off from voting.  State and local election officials know how to run free and fair elections, and they will do it again.

Rolland Kidder

The Humility Factor

When I was growing up, my Dad would sometimes caution me with the words “don’t get a big head over it.”  It was advice which usually came when I was bragging about some great accomplishment I thought I had achieved. My father was a proponent of the biblical admonition: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”  Touting your own accomplishments was not something my Dad favored.

Probably, because of his influence, I have always put humility right up there at the top of human virtues along with “faith, hope and love.”

For that reason, I cannot see how my father could have become a big supporter of our current President.  Humility to President Trump is a bad word connoting weakness.  Donald Trump is all about being the biggest, the greatest, the best… and he tells you that all the time.

My Dad was a Republican and served as Supervisor of the Town of Kiantone and on the County Board of Supervisors.  Yet, I remember him telling me that he had supported President Harry Truman, a Democrat,  in 1951 when he had fired General Douglas MacArthur.  MacArthur had become “too big for his britches,” and had disobeyed orders from the President.  MacArthur was known for being a self-promoter with a big ego, and that also didn’t sit well with my father. 

Coming back from a recent trip on I-86, we drove into Corning and past Amo Houghton’s family home.  I was always a big Amo fan, and on occasion was in that home to have breakfast with him to talk about old times and current events.  Amo, though wealthy and the only Chairman of a Fortune 500 Company ever to serve in Congress, was also a principled, down-to-earth and humble man.  He was my Dad’s kind of Republican… and, I guess, my kind too. 

In 2016, Amo wrote these words for newspaper publication:  “Donald Trump is not a man in whom I have great respect.  He represents, sadly, all the things I reject in a leader—he is a bully; he fudges the truth; he turns on those who think differently.  He hides critical parts of his life—business failures, tax returns—and I could go on.”

Though Trump carried Chautauqua County that year, it did not deter Amo Houghton from repeating similar views when interviewed by a reporter in 2018.  They bear repeating this year, especially since three other former New York Republican Representatives, Jack Quinn, Susan Molinari and James Walsh, recently announced their support for Joe Biden.  They find Biden to be a decent, honorable man who has shown as Senator and Vice President that he can work with others to help solve the problems of the country.

Some might think this is just partisan talk because I am a Democrat.  But I am a democrat with a small “d” these days and I primarily want to see someone elected who can help unify and bring the country back together.   We have had enough of grandstanding and the politics of fear and blame.

Besides, it is my country too and so I thought I should weigh in on the choice before us.  You can’t really poll people on such an intangible concept as humility, but I think it could be a deciding factor in this year’s election.

Rolland Kidder  
September 5, 2020

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING, MARCH 4, 1865

In reflecting on the recent focus on race relations in the country, I thought it might be useful to revisit the words of our sixteenth President on the occasion of his Second Inaugural. 

It was gray and raining in Washington, D.C. on that March morning, 1865. Yet, crowds thronged around the Capitol Building waiting for the speech. Inside the building, because of the weather, the ceremony had already begun. One of the speakers, Vice President Johnson, was suffering from a cold and, as an antidote, had taken 3 glasses of whiskey to alleviate his symptoms. His speech had not gone well. President Lincoln whispered to a Senator – “Do not let Johnson speak outside.”

The skies finally lifted, the sun came out and the ceremonies were shifted outside, to the east side of the Capitol for the President’s speech and oath-taking.

Many in the crowd expected Lincoln to brag about recent Union advances in the Civil War –“We have taken Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston and now Columbia, South Carolina. Grant has surrounded Lee’s forces at Richmond. God has given us victory after victory!” That is what some thought he would say.

But, he disappointed. Instead, he spoke of his own spiritual struggle during the War. How could a good God have willed such a thing? How could two sections of the country who both believed in the same God and read the same Bible come to such different conclusions? “The prayers of both could not be answered–that of neither has been answered fully.”

God had allowed slavery to be, but the matter of the continuance of the scourge would be left for mankind to decide by war: “Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”

Lincoln was speaking to a people who had been raised in church and Sunday school. He, as President, had struggled with the theological and spiritual dimensions of slavery and the war, listening to sermons almost weekly from a pew in a Presbyterian Church in Washington.

Now, near the end of this awful war where one out of every 11 men of service age had been killed, Lincoln would not gloat or celebrate a Union victory in the traditional sense. He, instead, walked his people through his own thoughts, doubts and spiritual struggles. How could this terrible war be explained or rationalized? The speech would be a reminder that many of the questions related to the war still remained unanswered and unresolved in the minds of many Americans.

Then, at the end of this brief 6-7 minute speech, he pivoted from remonstrating about the past to the challenges lying ahead with these words of hope for his listeners and his countrymen:  

“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” 

With that sentence, the speech ended.

We could use such words today.

Rolland Kidder

Remembering the Fourth of July

The Fourth of July’s that I remember most were when I was most isolated from our country— the three years I was in the Far East in the Navy, part of that time on patrol boats in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. You appreciate your country more when you are in a faraway place celebrating its birthday. You look around for other Americans to celebrate with.

I recall friends expressing the same sentiment when they were students living in another country or as Peace Corps volunteers working in Africa or South America. They would gather as Americans on the 4th of July in countries where it was just another day of the year for everyone else.

I expect that my parents most remembered the 4th of July’s they celebrated during the Second World War. Many of their friends were gone, off fighting the war, and life on the home front was sparse with rationing and hard times a part of everyday life. It was a time of adversity. Yet, it made their national “birthday” more special, more memorable.

This year, 2020, is like that. We are not living in a “normal” America. Kids are graduating from high school without a usual commencement and with no prom. Signs appear in front of homes: “Congratulations! A 2020 High School Graduate Lives Here!” COVID 19 and all of its associated distancing and separation requirements have made this a year no one will forget.

This year the Fourth of July will be different—no huge family picnics with everyone hugging each other, no parties where a whole village congregates and, if we have fireworks, crowds will be discouraged from gathering.

Our symbol is a mask, our attitude is cautious, our minds are full of worry. Yet, we know, in our hearts, that we are all in this together.

It could be a national holiday which we will remember for other reasons. We are fighting a common battle. Our symbol is a mask, our attitude is cautious, our minds are full of worry. Yet, we know, in our hearts, that we are all in this together. We are Americans. We can do this. We are citizens of this world. We are challenged but not defeated. Somehow, we are going to come out of this, the better for it.

In the big picture, our country was built not on hubris but on common sacrifice. This is one of those times. What gatherings there are will be more memorable. What fireworks there are, will be more appreciated. The flag that flies will be more loved.

We may have had “happier” 4th of July’s. But this one, we shall surely remember. It will become one of those national birthdays we will look back to as one of our most challenging, and one when we appreciated more than ever our common liberties and freedoms. People will say, “I remember where I was on the 4th of July, 2020!”

Rolland Kidder