Wrong holiday

   'Tis the weekend before elections
and all through the county
stealth candidates hunker down
anticipating their bounty.

There's Frazier up in One,
created just for her return;
'hide and keep silent,' say handlers,
so you won't get burned.

If voters really know her
they'd go another way
and she'd have to get a real job
instead of the public pay

And Rothschild down in Four,
who scared the clientele
into thinking boogy government
is sending us to Hell.

His public image is phony
and his politics extreme,
full of statistical baloney
so he can live out his dream

And Shoemaker paces District Two
hoping others do not see
the other side of dark ambition
and the depths of political greed.

How appropriate that the holiday
is not Christmas like it seems;
No, it's just a scary scenario
at this time of Halloween.....

Definition of patriotism (a vocabulary lesson)

     There are those among us who would take it upon themselves to decide who is worthy of being called a patriot.
     So let us dust off the Random House College Dictionary and set down some rules for rhetoric.
     Patriotism:  Devoted love, support and defense of one's country. Loyalty. (No mention of immigration status, ethnic or racial background, gender or sexual orientation, nor of religion or lack thereof).
     Jingoism:  Professing patriotism loundly and excessively; chauvinistic (zealous and belligerent, prejudiced), bellicose (inclined to fight, pugnatious.)
     Guess which definition best describes those who claim to be the best patriots.
     Conservative: Disposed to preserve what is established and resist change.
     Liberal: Favorable to progress or reform; favoring representational government rather than aristocracies. Open minded or tolerant.
     Guess which definition the so-called Tea-party advocates claim as their own. Just for giggles, ask one to explain how the original tea-party crowd could be called conservative if they wanted to change the government.
     Democracy: A system of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
     Republic:  A state in which the supreme power rests in the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen by them.
     Subtle difference between the two; "republicans" are less inclined to have everybody vote on every issue. They like the idea of electing folks to make the complicated choices necessary to form policy.  Guess the party affiliation of the most vociferous critics of government at any level today. Hint: Democrats and moderates are accused of being "leftist" or socialist. The other direction, uh, that would be Right, can in extreme circumstances become totalitarian, or absolutist, or -- under state control.
     Socialism:  A theory or system that advocates the ownership and control of industry, capital, land, etc. by the community as a whole.
     Zealotry:  Undue or excessive, fanaticism.
     Bigotry: Stubborn . . . intolerance of any belief, creed, race or opinion that differs with one's own.
     Guess who today is most .... Oh, well, you get the idea.

Not yet ready for prime time club

   Overheard assessment of commissioner candidates:  "It's alarming how ignorant of the realities they all are."
    The specific reference was to the statement by District Three candidate Doug Mathias that the airport renovations are a drain on the county taxpayers; some of the most damning criticism over the months has been that they only reason the commissioners were moving ahead was because it was such a good financial deal for the county. Maybe Mr. Mathias only recently started paying attention.
     But there were other comments made that showed more astute observers of local issues just how much of a learning curve any combination of the five candidates will have before they are up to speed with the facts on waste to energy, the airport, taxes and spending, and even the powers -- or lack of them -- of the commission form of government.
     To my eye and ear, many of the statements by even the better qualified candidates are charitably defined as campaign rhetoric. Some comments are silly, like the one about the county's participation in sustainability planning being some part of an international conspiracy to bring socialism down on us.
     This is the truth:  There will be an election, and none of the candidates to lead this county are qualified to make any serious decisions just yet. So it can only be hoped that the survivors -- I can't bring myself to use the word, 'winners' --  of the vote have enough collective wisdom to contain the hubris of the moment and take some time to make sure their next moves are constructive improvements, and not just demolition work.

Support your fire department? or Tea party? You choose

   You can be supportive of your local volunteer fire company, or your recreation council, or you can help so-called patriots and tea party types take over local and national government.
    But you can't have it both ways.
    Example: This past week, the county commissioners refinanced a loan to a local fire company that had been backed by county bonds. The action saved that fire company $259,000 in interest payments, a significant amount.
     The initial loans to fire companies help them provide services to their communities at lower interest rates, and do things that they may never be able to do in a timely manner on their own. The loans are paid back, over time, at no cost to taxpayers, but that fact is often overlooked, conveniently, by ultra conservatives. Absolutist types, like the majority of Libertarians -- many posing as Republicans -- tea-party advocates and Constitution-quoting populists, maintain that community organizations should not be supported in any way by governments. They would refuse grants from the federal and state governments on that principle, even though such grants are really just our share of  tax dollars being returned to us. Their point is that refusing to use such funds will someday result in such programs drying up and going away.
     In essence, what they are saying is, if you want to support the fire companies, do it with your donations. If you want youth sports, let the parents pay full costs of fields, maintenance, equipment, referees, etc.
     Their agenda would have deleterious impacts on public safety, the courts, schools, health, roads -- just about every quality of life issue that makes this country a great place to live.
     So you have a choice: Support local government loans and grants in the form of the tax dollars that come back to us, or be willing to live in communities that do not have the quality of life that we now enjoy.
     It's a choice, and there may be arguments for either side, but you can't have it both ways.
    

Rothschild represents a costly fringe element

     Richard Rothschild's comments at Wednesday night's forum confirm what I have come to believe from reading his comments in the voters guides and one the web: He is an absolutist, whose extreme thinking is out of sync with even the mainstream Carroll County conservative.
    Oh, he sounds good. And he dresses well. But intelligence and the ability to articulate do not always mean one knows what he's talking about. He puts out numbers as if he has a complete command of the facts, but his figures on the Waste to Energy plan are out of thin air. No substance, but if you don't know, you have to be impressed with the way he talks. I can see a crowd falling under the trance of a false prophet, or a snake oil salesman.
      Rothschild can be impressive to one who knows even less than he does.
    Not to say that Rothschild does not get it. Maybe he does. But it's not what Rothschild knows that matters to him -- or to his more ardent supporters. It's what he BELIEVES that matters.
     It's apparent to me that he is more interested in forwarding his ideology than dealing with facts. He is one of those to whom truth is reserved for the True Believers, the kool-aid drinkers of a particular demagoguery devoted to an extreme Right Wing way of thinking.
     Not conservative; extreme.  I am reminded of Sen. Joe McCarthy and the anti-communist panic in America half a century ago. The roots of extreme right rantings are found there, unknown to several generations, forgotten by others, but the damage that McCarthy did to America is one of the darker chapters of our past. At one time, he had a lot of people agreeing with him.
     Most Americans opposed communism, but McCarthy's extreme witch-hunting put communists under every bed, in every closet. He manipulated the populace with fear.
     In time, most Americans, even the most patriotic, came to see McCarthy as too reminiscent of another extremist, Adolph Hitler. His extreme thinking and flaming rhetoric became a national embarrassment.
     Carroll County is a conservative county, and has, despite the campaign rhetoric of various aspirants to the powers of public office, been run in a conservative way. You don't survive the economy with a reserve intact, as we have, without conservative, sound, financial practices.
     But the True Believers -- the extreme conservatives -- would refuse to take back the taxes you have paid to the federal and state governments, money we get as part of our share of paying for schools, parks, public facilities. The True Believers would end all participation in grants, spend no money on parks and recreation, for example, and take on the entire burden for those expenses out of a demagogic dedication to smaller government.
     Smart is not what smarties say. Smart is what smart people do. Smart people will not be voting for candidates like Rothschild. Which is not to say he will not be elected. Just be aware.    
    

Questions for the candidates at the forum -- or any time....

    Wednesday night at the Carroll County community media center, the usual questions will be put to the various candidates for county commissioner. Everyone will assert that they will be brave, clean, kind and reverent and maybe even truthful, once the campaigning is over.
     Here are a couple of questions I'd like to ask.
     For Robin Frazier: There is an allegation going around that she told former county public works director Doug Myers that while she was working for a bank, she gained access to bank records of commissioner Julia Gouge, and found damaging information that "we're just waiting for the right time to bring up"? Is that true? (I have my doubts that they found anything, or we'd have seen it all over the place by now.)
     Follow up question would be, if she did access bank records of a customer for political reasons, can we trust her to serve all the citizens in public office?
    For Richard Rothschild:  Did he really tell a group of supporters that he believes people have a right to live in communities of people "like themselves."  What does that mean? What does he really do -- specifically -- to earn money? Is he a landlord in depressed neighborhoods?
     Does he believe in the Maryland Constitution, or does he consider it null and void? Does he believe in zoning (ask Frazier that one, too)? If not, what protections do homeowners have against land uses next to them that would destroy or damage the value of their homes?
     For all candidates, but particularly Haven Shoemaker: Is it your intention to turn back the progress that has been made on residential growth controls? How will that serve the best interests of taxpayers, when it was the uncontrolled growth of housing and a lack of planning for industrial and economic revenues that has caused county taxpayers to pay a disproportionate share of the bills for schools, public safety and parks and recreation?

Bang, you're dead. No I'm not, you missed. Did not. Did so. Did...

     Watching political debates, or even the attack ads on television during this interminable political season, I am reminded of the games we played as children.
      "Bang, you're dead!" said the cowboy. "No I'm not. You missed me," replied the Indian.  "I shot you, so fall down," screams the soldier. "I ducked!"
     And so on, and so on.
     Somehow, we remained friends. No one ever won the war, and even if one did, finally, concede that they were vanquished by an imaginary barrage of lead, we returned to the ramparts, resurrected, the following day.
     So O'Malley coolly destroys Ehrlich with reason in a debate, but the insouciant Ehrlich rallies with a scowl and an irreverent, "Oh, c'mon, Guv, you're not sellin' that to voters."
     It's part of the game. Like kids on the playground, political players can say anything, tell outrageous lies about their own accomplishments, slander their opponents and it's all good, because, as I have heard all too often, "Hey, if you want to win in politics, you have to play the game."
     I have to remember that adults did not bother to watch as we slaughtered each other in childhood games of war. Maybe as adults we should not watch the slander ads on TV. Hit the mute button, or just fast forward to real life, which will go on no matter who wins the political brawl.

Facts are fine, but the people bought the fiction

     Only 77 counties in the entire country, out of something like 3,000, deserve an AAA rating on the New York bond market. Carroll County got that from one of three agencies they visited in New York last week. Two other bond rating agencies gave the county those firms highest ratings for county governments. It was Carroll County's best performance in the bond market qualifications game in history.
     That was the report this week from our comptroller, economic development director and budget director. The agencies rewarded the county's performance in financially challenging times. It was noted that the county cut staff 12 percent, reduced costs, held the tax rate and did not dip into reserves while improving our debt to assessible base ratio and outpacing the state and region in holding on to jobs and expanding the business base.
     A national award for financial practices helped, and so did the fact that the county is one of the top four, if not the best, in the nation in its farm preservation program.
     In a word, the county is well-run. I will be the first to tell the world that excellent staff and good advice can make elected leaders look better than they are.
     Eight years ago, residential development was on hold, because too many plans had been approved for the school space available. Economic development was sluggish and mismanaged. Today, schools are adequate, two more projects are on schedule, and we continue to make gradual and incremental improvements in fire and emergency services support -- despite slowing because of reduced revenues.
     Economic development is better here than in the region as a whole, and we have a good record for helping existing business grow.     
     All of that adds up to good management, and good management means that borrowed money costs the taxpayers less in interest. Add to that the good judgment to pay off loans early and/or refinance when interest rates drop enough, and you have a double benefit to the taxpayers. It helps keep the tax rate down, maintains a high quality of life for residents, and would seem to ensure peace and tranquility in the land.
     The facts are in. Well, that part about peace and tranquility is wishful thinking, but the rest is all true.
     I often say that elected officials are only as good as the advice they heed. You can listen to people with bad information or a narrow political agenda and do an injustice to the county as a whole.
     Or, you can acknowledge that if you are not the smartest person in the room, you'd better listen to those who are smart. Listen to the planners, the accounts and budget directors, the economic development people (including the civilians who serve on advisory boards) and leave the politics off to the side as much as possible.
      Over the past eight years, I've heard from all sides on a variety of important issues, but the last people I listened to were the back room politicians.
     The bond ratings are proof to me that we listened to the right people, and set a pretty high standard for the next board of commissioners to meet, let alone exceed.






   
   

Instant polls make me burp

     Dennis K. was one of the more colorful characters I ever worked with, and had a habit of describing something he found odious: "Tube tops on fat women make me burp."
     That's what I think of all these instant polls -- polls in the paper, polls during the ball game, polls on line. They make me burp.
     "Weigh in with your opinion; what do YOU think of the Theory of Relativity?"
     It's not so bad when it's about sports or entertainment. Who's your favorite singer, or who do you think will win the Ravens game. It's all mindless fun.
     But not as mindless as some of the poll results you see about supposedly more serious, certainly more complex issues. "Do you think all members of Congress should be sent home?"  Betcha that one would be nearly unanimous in Fortress Carroll, except of course for Roscoe Bartlett, who is apparently still working on a plan for term limits 26 years after running on that platform.
     I can read the question in a poll and tell you in advance what the split will be; the one that appears in the local paper is more laughs than what is left of the comic pages, but there is never any mention as to how many people respond to the thing. Maybe 10? That means that easily 90 percent of Carroll County residents think we should pass a law ending government. But then who would enforce the law?
     Oh, yeah; I forgot. The sheriff, deemed by the constitutionalists as possessing the most power in the county, state, country and maybe the universe. I can't find that in my copy of the constitution, but maybe they have kind of their own King James version or something. Hey, it's almost a free country.
     I have lost some faith in the value of local instant polls, and by that I mean anything you can do on line, ever since I saw an email from a motivated activist during one particularly hot debate on public policy.
     Send this to everyone on your email list, the writer implored. Vote on line as often as you can, go back every day and stack the vote.
     The rationale for his ballot stuffing admonition was that it was a good way to let the politicians know what The People are thinking.  Or at least fifteen or twenty of them, times the number of votes that they cast per day. How useful.
     What they're really doing, of course, is trying to convince the unsuspecting masses that the popular opinion is thus and so. Seems to work, too, all too often.
     What really makes be burp is when the news media picks up on such sloppy poll results and writes a news story about it, or -- worse -- an editorial.
     But that's a different posting.

Celebrate patriotism, but not hatred

    The thing about this wonderful tool for human sharing called the internet that bothers me the most is the ease with which hatred can be camoflaged with humor, or patriotism, even spirituality.
     Americans are allowed to have different views of the same moments, events and people. I get that. I celebrate it, always have defended it.
     Someone sent me a great video of the tradition of military fly-overs at sporting events. Flags waving, football players prancing with pre-game adrenaline, crowds cheering, Americans of all cultures together to enjoy the games, inspired by the roar of military jets roaring overhead in a dance of precision, time, space, and emotion. Burly players and coaches swallow lumps in their throats and We Are One. Differences seem insignificant. I was grateful for the email.
     For just a moment.
    Only a moment, though, because at the end of the video is the oft-forwarded photo of President Obama standing with his hands in front of him while two others on the reviewing stand, one Hillary Clinton, have their hands on the hearts.
     It is to imply that the President of the United States is unpatriotic. The point of the addendum, the whole point of the inspirational email, apparently, is this one, stark image, condemning an act that may not even be an accurate portrayal of the moment.
     Context is everything. The first time I saw it, and I have seen it a dozen times as it has been broadcast by people whose virulent dislike for him have enjoyed forwarding anything negative, I suspected it was taken out of context. In any case, I find it hard to believe that anyone standing in front of a crowd would deliberately show disrespect for the flag and the country. No, this is hate propaganda, similar to that which was used to vilify Jews in the pre-World War Two era. Or black Americans in this country -- then and now.
     If he is a sneaky apologist for Muslim terrorism, as is so often alleged by his distractors, it shows an ineptitude in hiding his sneakiness. So maybe he isn't an unpatriotic sneaky anti-American who was not born in this country after all. Maybe he is one of millions of Americans who were raised to hold your hat or your hand over your heart when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; or, if in military uniform and wearing a head cover, to hand-salute.
     I was taught that way as a child in school, and as a member of the Navy. I was also taught as a child that you sang or listened to the playing or singing of the National Anthem on your feet; if in any kind of uniform, you stood at attention, but you did not salute. You did not cover your heart with your hand.
     Okay, today, many people do. You scan the crowd at the stadium during the playing of the National Anthem, or even God Bless America during the 7th inning break, and many are saluting. Fine; no criticism of that, if they want to do it. But it is not required, and neither should it be judged as disrespect.
     Unless you are determined to find fault, as I suspect is the case.
     This I know for sure: Many of those who are most critical of others -- including and perhaps particularly President Obama -- will sit on their butts during a Memorial Day parade as unit after unit passes by bearing the colors, the Stars and Stripes.
      You're supposed to stand up and shut up at that moment.

Vision, versus the view from the deck

     Newspaper headlines that Carroll County's residential taxpayers bear the third heaviest burden in the state verify what some of us have been saying for years: It's time for homeowners to have some help paying the bills for the services they want, unless you like the idea of no discounts.
     Other counties, here and in other states, get discounts. They get a break on the costs of keeping kids out of portable buildings, and having practice and playing fields, and nice fine arts centers in the schools. They have some help for the parks and the trails and the senior citizen centers that get so much use. There is money for the emergency services that come out and pry us out of our vans and trucks and commuter zoomers when we pile into each other on the roads while texting or driving too fast.
     But here in Fortress Carroll, we go it alone. Other counties get some welcome revenues from their economic development, but here, we lag. Not for a lack of effort, nor for a lack of vision on the part of current elected leaders and assembled staff. It's our inconsistency that is doing us dirty.
     It seems that, as voters, we can't decide what we want. Do we want help with revenues from business and high-tech industry, or not? Or do we just want to cut all spending for the middle classes and let the sports and schools and the rest of it dry up so we can become a little island of West Virginia in the midst of the more progressive communities of central Maryland?
     Eight years ago, the message to me was clear: We want someone who will make the tough choices to bring light industry and business revenues to Carroll County. We want better communications choices, broadband, better utility infrastructure, more recreational and leisure options for an increasingly diverse spectrum of wants and needs. And we didn't want to have to pay for it with higher property taxes.
     So we invested in professional assessments which confirmed, yes indeed, that the county had been falling behind the rest of the state. The revenues from industrial and commercial sources were half that of our neighbors. The absence of an interstate, we decided, was little more than a convenient excuse.
      There were things we could do, so we set about doing them, not the least of which was developing a master plan that integrated jobs, homes, schools and community resources. It was labeled "Pathways," perhaps a fatal appellation in an area that is such a bastion of anti-progressive ideas. In Fortress Carroll, you can call it a road, or a Lane, or even an alley, but that "Pathways" stuff sounded kind of artsy, and artsy might be liberal, and liberal is a no-no. You can chop down all the trees and put in a housing development called ''shady woods," or pave over the farmland and build a hundred houses in a neighborhood called "the fields," but don't use those terms that sound like something from left of center. Or even center.
      Any time you have a review of a master plan, which is required by Maryland law every six years, you have the battle between the property rights people and the planning people. Planning people are portrayed as socialists; property rights people like to think of themselves as guardians of good ol' American constitutional rights. There will be war between the factions, every time.
      It so happens that in this county, the most organized anti-planning people are in the business of selling off farmland and creating a cash crop called housing. They really don't give too much thought to the needs created for schools and all the things that additional families require. It is not in their portfolio to provide remedies to crowded commuter routes (though they will vociferously object to commuter rails or mass transit because they don't want "those" people moving here, or coming up on the train to rape and pillage.
     And all they have to do to win over the public is convince you that you have a right to keep the view you have now from your back deck, even if you don't own the hills beyond. They sell the view, and kill the vision.
     Perhaps the opponents to plans and new employment zones simply believe they can keep the view forever. Perhaps they lack the ability to see that the changes will be gradual, and brick and glass two-story employment centers are going to help pay the bills. Perhaps they can be convinced that there will be no self-storage units there in five years if better planning is not put in place. Or more housing, as far as the eye can see.
     You can plan with a vision, and manage costs, or you can delay or deny the need for planning and zoning, and hope that the view stays as it is -- and that you can afford to enjoy it.
     Someone said that failing to plan is planning to fail.
               

Why are Finland's schools better than ours?

     There was a news feature on television recently about Finland's educational system, and how it is the best in the world.
     I know that offends some of my fellow Americans, who believe that our system is the best in the world, but there it is; the facts cannot be ignored.
     When you ignore facts, you can't be the best at anything.  Unless your goal is to be the best at ignoring facts, and if that's the case, we're a leader.
     Finland's school system was apparently not doing so well until about a decade ago, when they faced facts. Good schools are the result of commitment is fact number one.
     Fact number two is that commitment requires parental attention and involvement.
     Fact number three is that a good education requires good teachers, and an environment that allows them to teach.
     If you accept those three facts, others become self-evident. Finland, like America, had not paid teachers particularly well, and it was difficult to recruit the best college graduates into teaching. Now, they take their teachers from the top of the college graduating classes.
     American school systems often have applicants only from the bottom half -- or third.
     Finland's teachers have enough time; there may be three teachers to a classroom, two teaching and one working with that student or another who needs extra help. That's a real commitment, and not just a slogan, to leaving no child behind.
     Finland's teachers may stay with a group of students for three years. Here, you have a class for a year, then start over again with the next semester.
     They have planning time.
     Students believe that education is important, and not an interruption to their social agenda. Parents believe that they are obligated to help the child and the teacher succeed.
     School in Finland is a doorway to lifelong learning and a progressive, productive role in the culture, not a pro sports contract.
     Education is viewed in Finland as a right to which every child is entitled, equally, and has the highest priority in the lives of young people, their parents, and the leaders of their culture. They probably don't take off for a week in Disneyworld during the middle of the semester.
     You can probably think of a few things we need to work on in our culture before America is a threat to be the best in education.
     But then we have NASCAR, Spike TV, and off-roading.....

Thinkaboutit

   Controversy is like water, wind and sand; it changes things over time, but not always for the better.

    And this has appeared several times in other places in the past few months, and I have to wonder if it's mere coincidence, considering the civil atmosphere right now:
     "There is no tyranny so despotic as that of public opinion among a free people" -- Donn Piatt, American Journalist, 1819 - 1891.

     Total blindness sees more than the deliberate denial of vision, the refusal to consider another point of view, or the absence of curiosity.