Family Values

Values have nothing to do with Hobby Lobby's bringing suit against Obamacare. That has to do with having enough money to bring together a gaggle (a pack? a murder?) of lawyers. 

I have no problem with the folks who own Hobby Lobby objecting to paying for birth control, but, they became a corporation so they have to hold their nose and pay it. Because five crabby old men on the Supreme Court disagree they will not be held to this little bit of reason. Like that's unusual today. 

But it's not a values issue. It's a who has enough money to fight stuff issue. It's wrong, but probably nowhere near as wrong as what Monsanto gets away with that actually kills people. You know, on a scale of things. I really wish the Supremes had to wear their sponsors on their robes, like NASCAR drivers. . . 

Values are what we hold closer to home. 

Values are bringing food when someone dies. Values are taking a pie to a new family in the neighborhood. Values are older kids watching younger kids at a town clambake without being asked. Values are being the village that raises a child. Values are helping each other out. Values are a verb. They are no rhetoric.

Are values as outdated as the patchwork quilt my Grandmother made years ago that is pictured above? I don't think so. Country people still bring food, bake pies, take care of whichever kid needs it at the moment. I can't speak for city folk. Maybe overcrowding and the transience of modern society has depleted the values of those who live in more urban areas. I don't know. I lived in the city when I was in college. I loved it. But I didn't want to raise kids there. Close enough to take the train into museums and plays and concerts, sure. In the city. No. 

I bet country people don't have the market cornered on values. 

But I know the so-called religious right doesn't.

Southern Comfort

On the longest day of the year in the Piedmont of North Carolina, the weather is about as perfect as summer weather can be. 

Beef cattle graze on a pasture that straddles the Chatham/Alamance county line on a farm on unincorporated land loosely identified as Snow Camp but with a Liberty mailing address. 

The cows don't care. 

The scents of lilac and hay and cattle and horses warm the summer evening. Add old friends and chardonney and the night couldn't get any better. 

I was in North Carolina on assignment for an agriculture magazine, but I took some time to visit family on that Snow Camp farm. To visit new babies and congratulate a cousin on retirement

Peyton, who's German Shepherd ancestry outweighs whatever indiscretions were in her past, watches after darkness falls. She secures the perimeter each night. 

Earlier in the evening, Easton Ross, known as Little Ross to those of us who are irreverent because we think he should have been named after his grandfather, stacked blocks on Aunt Nelda's deck. Little Ross chatters up a storm, mostly about baseball. 

 Sheep, it goes without saying, are stupid. These are meat sheep, not wool sheep. They are probably crowded around the fence because a Border Collie or English Shepherd sent them there. The dogs are smarter than most Ivy Leaguers. 

All in all, it's as fine as it can be in North Carolina. I know the state gets a bad rap for its staunch redness, but I meet people with moderate political views and, mostly, we don't talk politics. We talk family and weather and farming. Will Simon get the big McCormack ready for the Fourth of July parade? Will Henrietta move back from Raleigh now that her stepfather is gone and the house is empty? Will Christie and Sylvia make it to Weekly Meeting now that they spend so much time at the lake? Important things. 

It's Southern Comfort all right.

It's home.

Amendments 2nd and Otherwise. . .

I'm too big a fan of the 1st Amendment to get in arguments with fans of the 2nd. I figure the Bill of Rights comes as a set. Sort of like Tupperware without the pastels. 

James Madison wanted to assure the citizens of his new country had individual rights they didn't enjoy under King George III. 

One of those rights was to form a well-regulated militia. By saying "the right to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged," I figure Madison meant people have the right to acquire weapons and learn how to use them correctly. If they just get guns and don't really learn the right way to operate them, it won't do any good to a militia. And if they aren't competent for a militia, maybe they shouldn't get guns. So, background checks and required training must be part of it. Does this make sense to anybody but me?

I don't think universal background checks go against the 2nd Amendment. And, by universal, I think the states can handle it, but the data base should be national. 

I also don't think registering handguns is against the 2nd Amendment. We register cars and boats which can be stolen and used in a crime. Same should be true for handguns. Just makes sense.

As for clips with 30+ rounds, I personally don't like semi-automatic weapons. Heck, I don't even like automatic transmissions. Semis jam too easily. They have too many parts that can go wrong. So I have a hard time relating to anyone who wants to buy these humungous clips. But, I supposed they can be sold if the buyer can prove they have a reason to need them. 

Now, I'm not naive enough to think stronger gun laws will have much to do to reduce crime. If someone wants to commit a crime with a gun, he or she will find a way to get one. There is a black market in virtually everything. But, stronger laws may flag some people who are basically dangerous, but not necessarily criminal.

I don't know if this will help with these random mass shootings. But, I think it's worth a try. 

I think revamping the mental health system will probably do more. And for Elvis' sake, damn, we gotta get away from all this PC stuff. If somebody's creepy, tell the cops he's creepy. Don't be afraid to be wary of the local weirdo. Don't be afraid to use terms like "creepy," and "seriously odd" and "missing a few dots on his dice."  Yeah, the police may question a few harmless guys once it a while, but that's not the worst thing that can happen. 

 

A Nation of Wusses

Exactly when did we become a nation of wusses? 

I mean we're the people who tamed the frontier -- ok, we shoved our native people onto reservations and killed all the buffalo. So we didn't do a good job of it, but stay with me for a moment.

The point is, we weren't wusses. We did stuff. Some of it was kinda dumb and much of it was probably not a good idea, but we did stuff. We threw out the Brits. Twice, actually. Then we kissed and made up and helped them win two world wars. We crossed the Atlantic in a rickety airplane. We got to the moon. Damn. We were good.

Now, it's like, we can't do anything remotely dangerous. 

When I was a kid, one of the best rides at Bertrand's Island was the spaceships. See above. They spun around this tower leaning far out over Lake Hopatcong. They were amazing. We just sat there. We didn't have seat belts, let along these locking thingys you see on rides now. I don't have a picture, but we also rode the Whip, which sent us bouncing off wooden walls in what was basically a large barrel. Great. Also no seat belts. 

I don't remember kids getting hurt any more than I remember kids getting hurt on playgrounds with gravel under the swings, not rubber. 

I do remember kids having imaginations. 

I'm not usually one of those who laments the loss of "the good old days." "The good old days" were mostly good for white men (see Mad Men, season 1), but I do lament the days of taking chances. I never wanted to see my kids get hurt, but kids get hurt. They fall down, they get skinned knees (everybody I knew as a kid has scars on their knees), they get hurt in other ways -- pets die, friends move away. Sheltering kids doesn't teach them to be grown-ups.

Kids need to explore, get dirty, take chances. That's how you grow up.

A couple of summers ago, I was at my cousin's daughter's house. Her daughter was in a tree. Somebody asked if that was the tree she fell out of a couple of days before. She said, "yes, now I know how not to fall out of it." 

She's miles ahead of many kids her age.   

All News Just May be Local

Tip O'Neill famously said "all politics is local."

If that's true; if everything that happens in the political arena can be distilled into the wants and needs of the guy down the street, then, probably all news is local as well.

I had an editor who had me localize story after story every week. It was good training. I wasn't sure at the time if readers really wanted to read it, but now, years later, I realize they probably did. They probably wanted to know how county and state and national news affected them personally. Especially in the wallet.

The New Jersey Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists held a panel in mid-May asking "What is local news?" Not sure we got an answer, but we got a lot of interest.

Naturally, we attracted a number of journalists. Many had worked at papers no longer published or shrunken beyond recognition. And they all worried. Not about their jobs. Not about their income. They worried about the people in their communities not getting the news they need.

Sure, some of the communities are covered by citizen blogs. But, as I've said many times before, there is a difference between someone with an agenda, or even a well-meaning amateur, and a professional who is willing and able to look into every problem he or she sees. A professional who can read between the lines. A professional who knows when an official has a reason to lie or to leave out bits of the truth.

Of course, even pros have a learning curve. And municipal beat reporters, those who cover local news, tend to be young and inexperienced. But, they have the support of older and wiser reporters and editors. The support was better when there was competition. Nothing hones your skills like another reporter breathing down your neck. Especially a good reporter.

So, the gist of the panel on local news was: whatever local news is, it's necessary for living as a citizen and should not be controlled by bean counters.

No, we didn't come up with any solutions, but we agreed we want to continue the discussion.