7. A travel diversion and homogenization

Upon graduation from Durrett High School in June, 1978, among the gifts I received was a week's stay at my aunt Virginia Lee (Lewis) Sharp's place in Florida. For the record the woman I am writing of is the youngest of the five daughters of the previously mentioned Rachel Lewis, four of whom are still among the living; my maternal grandmother, Vivian Thomas "Tommie" (Lewis) Hockensmith, who died in 1976, was the eldest. Aunt Jenny, as she is known, lives in a trailer park in the tiny seaside fishing village of Bokeelia, Florida, itself perched on the north end of Pine Island, in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's southwestern coast. There is an effort there to buy out the owners of some of the tracts and trailers which dot the island, and build thereupon high rises and hotels, as has been done to much of the rest of Florida. The effort is being highly resisted by Bokeelia's residents as well as those elsewhere on the island.

I can't say I know any of this firsthand. Florida has never much interested me. Other than a two-week visit to Jacksonville, Saint Augustine, Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, and Disney World, back in the year Disney World opened when I was 12 or 13, and another visit in 1999 as a delegate to the National Amateur Baseball Federation summer meeting held in Daytona Beach Shores, I've not been back. On that first visit, my family stayed at the Blue Shores (or something like that). When I returned twenty-five years later, with the address in hand, I couldn't find the quaint little motel-on-the-sea we called home for a week. It had been replaced by a high-rise hotel, which was at the time itself being converted into condominium units. I looked at a unit, about 375 square feet going for $55,000.00. You could buy up to four combined units if you really needed space and needed to part with some change. I thought about buying an individual unit but didn't. I probably should have. But, I digress.

As one drives up and down Daytona Beach, and Daytona Beach Shores, a municipality further south along the A1A, it all begins to look the same. One high rise after another. And on the right hand side, newer and quite similar 49-room motels all controlled by two or maybe three motel chains. These motels are no different from the ones alongside I-65 at Grade Lane, Brooks, or in Shepherdsville, or any other interstate anywhere else in the Republic for that matter. They all have two double beds, a TV, a clock radio, and three pictures. Some of them now have microwaves, but only if they've been "updated." The same is true if one drives north of Daytona, up to Ormond Beach and beyond. All of our places to stay have become all alike.

I was reminded of this homogenization in an entirely different way while shopping for Christmas gifts, and then shopping again last week. I found myself in two different stores of the same chain, in two different cities - actually in two different states, one in Clarksville, Indiana, the other in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Last week I went to a third store of the same chain, this time out in Okolona, near the Jefferson Mall. As I entered, I was trying to remember where in the other store I saw the item I wanted to purchase, when I realized it was in the exact same place in this store's layout. I walked right to it. It seems the differences that separated one store from another have gone the way of those individualized motels-by-the-sea where we made our home that week in Florida back in the early 1970s. The only really unique motel I can think of are the Wigwams along US31W down in Cave City. And they are for sale. Maybe I should go visit Aunt Jenny soon in their trailer amongst the mangroves in Bokeelia.

Very, very remotely related to the homogeneity discussed above is the history of the continents and their place - or more appropriately places - on the globe over long periods of time - millions and millions of years. [Can't you just hear Carl Sagan (or JohnnyCarson doing Carl Sagan) saying that?] The link below shows the progression from 200 million years ago to 100 million years from now, of the continents, from one called Pangea, through the breakup into several, and then back into one, now called Pangea Ultima. Even the scientists are predicting the hegemony of homogeneity. And it is all starting with motels and department stores.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/science/20070109_PALEO_GRAPHIC.html

6. Yarmuth's First Floor Speech; other matters

I received in today's email a notice concerning my new congressman. Tomorrow he is to deliver his first speech as a member of the 110th Congress. Below is the Press Release.

Congressman John Yarmuth
Representing Kentucky's 3rd District

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, January 9, 2007
MEDIA CONTACT
Stuart Perelmuter 202.225.5401

Congressman Yarmuth to Deliver First Floor Speech Tomorrow

Inaugural Remarks to House will Call for Passage of Legislation Raising the Minimum Wage

(Washington, DC) Still in his first seven days in the House of Representatives, Rep. John Yarmuth (KY-3) isn't wasting any time. Seizing his new position on the Education & Labor Committee, Rep. Yarmuth has thrust himself into the center of the new Congressional leadership's ambitious agenda. When the House votes Wednesday on whether or not to raise the minimum wage for the first time in nearly a decade, Yarmuth will be among the handful of members urging Congress to pass the bill.

Throughout his campaign, Yarmuth stressed the need to raise the minimum wage from $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr over a two year period. Legislation, which is nearly identical to Yarmuth's plan, will be put to a vote shortly after his speech and is expected to pass the House quickly. The Senate and President Bush have also indicated they will approve the measure.

"We have a unique opportunity and a moral obligation to dramatically increase the well-being of 13 million low wage workers and jump-start the economy in one stroke. I am proud to play a part in advancing this long overdue measure," Yarmuth said of the bill.

Due to receiving his committee preference as a member of the Education and Labor Committee, the Congressman will continue to play a prominent role in the 110th Congress. He will personally work on all workforce and education issues, allowing him to be a influential player on many of his top priorities from the 2006 campaign.

Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3)
United States House of Representatives
319 Cannon House Office Building * Washington, DC 20515
202.225-5401 phone * 202.225.5776 fax
Stuart Perelmuter Press Secretary

Hopefully we can all catch our new congressman in action on CSpan. Another matter of interest, at least to me, was an article in today's Washington Post addressing concerns about the Anacostia River, the former Eastern Branch of the Potomac, which runs generally through Washington DC from SW to SE then to NE, past RFK Stadium, and then up into Maryland as US50 crosses over it. One of my favorite places of an historic nature, and one I told Congressman Yarmuth to concern himself with should he have the opportunity, is the Congressional Cemetery, which borders the northern bank of the Anacostia River, near where Kentucky Avenue SE joins Pennsylvania Avenue SE and crosses the Anacostia. It is the scene of many plans, but also one still plagued by pollution, a word we do not here nearly as much as we did when I was growing up. Hopefully, the situation of the Anacostia can not only be addressed by the District, but by the Congress as well. Here is a link to learn more about plans for the Anacostia.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/01/09/GR2007010900142.html


In other news, today brings us another birthday. Being born on January 9th, at least in the 20th century, gives you a pretty neat birthdate, to wit: 1/9/62, for someone born in 1962. That particular someone with that particular birthdate is Janice Marie Platt McDowell, the first girl I fell for when I was in 8th grade. She wasn't a McDowell then, just a Platt. She is now principal at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Louisville and is married to another high school friend of mine, Mike McDowell. For the record, another friend, a political one, is also celebrating her birthday today, former State Representative and JCPS School Board member Dottie Priddy. Dottie is not in the best of health these days, so I hope today finds her in good spirits. Her son Jerry and I remain good friends.

If you haven't figured it out by now, birthdays fascinate me. I'm not sure why. I'm not even sure if it is the birthdays themselves or just the fact that numbers are involved. Someday I'll write more on numbers and numerology; numbers are the instruments which make up the music of mathematics. I believe, although I am not scholarly enough to know if this is true, that everything there is can be broken down into some chain of numbers. I'm sure there are theorists who do this for a living for some college somewhere. It is just a interesting fascination for me and one I promise to write on at a later date.

5. Numbering, Succeeding, Second Chances, Credits

I honestly haven't much to say today, but I am trying to keep in the habit of a post a day, at a minimum, and probably, preferably at a maximum as well. So, this is today's.

Starting today, I will be numbering the posts. There have been 4 so far, so this one is numbered 5. Simple enough. Every one has a filing system, whether it is alpha or numeric oriented, or some combination thereof. One of my favorite books from childhood was "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." [As an aside, I think when citing the title of a book, a writer is supposed to underline the title, rather than insert it in quotes as I have done. However, I can not figure out how to do that, so the quotations marks will have to suffice]. Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, as I recall, had filed something, an art object of Michelangelo's, under "Bologna." The story was made into a movie at some point, although I do not recall the title. It had to do with a brother and sister running away to some New York museum, maybe the MOMA. I never saw the movie, but I recall the book from elementary school with fondness. So, my numbering system will be easy enough.

On succeeding. I do not mean what you may have had in mind. Over the weekend, the name of Andrew Horne was mentioned to me in a specific way. Today, that of Jack Conway was mentioned in the same context. Both want to succeed, at least according to those doing the speaking. But the succession isn't at something, but rather to something, the object of their alleged desire being the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney, currently held by Irv Maze, who is a candidate for Lieutenant Governor on a slate with the current State Treasurer Jonathan Miller. For the record, I am supporting these folks in this endeavor. That is I am supporting Miller and Maze. I've taken no position on Horne or Conway. That decision will be left to the Mayor of the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, if I understand the laws of succession correctly, and then only if Messrs. Miller and Maze win their race for the top two offices in the Commonwealth, which I am helping them to do. In Great Britain, they have lists telling you exactly who is in line. At one time Al Haig professed to know such a line as it pertained to Washington, D. C. and the governance of the Republic. He didn't. Here in Kentucky, we have occassionally convoluted laws which determine who is in line and who gets to tell them so.

In another post, I mentioned we all give and get second chances. I was asked today about the Run-Off provision in Kentucky law, as it pertains to the nomination process of a slate of candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, one such as Miller and Maze, the candidates I mentioned above. Those provisions giving some losers a second bite at the apple, I have learned after some discussion with another person here in the office, are thankfully outlined in law. The long and short of it is a slate must receive 40% or more of the vote to avoid such a run-off, assuming there are more than two slates. If there are only two slates, whichever slate wins is awarded the nomination. As you progress through the statutes, the "ifs" get more numerable, like Touchstone's seven degrees of differences of opinions. And then there is a word which may throw panic into the situation. It is "conclusion." If there are contests to an election, the run-off is to be held after the "conclusion" of such contests. In 2004, a race for the State Senate was contested and wasn't decided until February 14, 2006. No "ifs, ands, or buts" are made for such an extended contest. Hopefully, we can avoid such a problem this May.

Finally, a few days ago I spoke of my maternal grandmother's mother Rachel. Today being the 8th of January, in fairness I must speak of my paternal grandmother, Grace Irene Lee Noble, as this would have been her 92nd birthday. I wrote of her once on another blog, on the topic of the Death Penalty. Some day I will revisit the subject, but not today.

By the way, there has been no snow today. We'll give the weather forecasters another chance.

Northup the Challenger; A Challenge for Northup

Today's post is an essay written to a Mr. Magruder, who like me posts comments on other blogs. One of his comments read, in part, as follows:

"How could Northup win? Easy. Most of the state is still conservative. She's a
fighter in campaigns. Many voters might like to see a woman governor again. And
even many Louisvillians who voted for Yarmuth might like to see Northup's clear
energy representing our state, after successive anemic administrations from both
parties."

What follows is my response to Mr. Magruder.

Mr. Magruder:

I have just spent six months meeting some of the voters who put put Mr. Yarmuth in Washington. I suppose there are a few of them who might vote for Anne, but I can tell you, it was none of those we encountered along the campaign trail. As the campaign progressed, the voters could have been divided into three types. At any given event, there were those who were overzealous in their support of Yarmuth, thrilled that a real liberal was finally running again. We knew we had their votes. Then there were the folks who would simply shake the hands, wish us well, and say good luck. We had their votes as well, but they probably felt we weren't going to win. Then there were the "whiperers." They would come up to Yarmuth at an event, usually from behind, look around to see who was watching and listening, and whisper in John's ear that "we are for you." They didn't want anyone to know they were crossing back over, but they were.

As time went by, the number of whisperers became fewer and fewer. They moved from being whisperers to well wishers and hand shakers, and finally from hand shakers to zealots. As the campaign progressed from the West End to the Southwest, to the South End, and ultimately to the Southeast, all along a well-planned but fluid schedule, and all well orchestrated as any had ever been under the tutelage of Yarmuth's volunteer director, Ben Basil, the evidence was building that people who had been voting for Anne for years weren't going to this time. Some of it had to do with the bridges (or lack thereof), others - many, if not most - were upset with her support of President Bush's war. Many just wanted a change.

Those who moved on principle might go back and give an experienced legislator a second chance. Many of us get and give second chances. If there are any Yarmuth voters who might vote for Northup, it would be amongst these. Those who voted for John Yarmuth and against the president's war are not likely at all to vote for Anne, especially given Bush's new plan for a surge in forces and spending. Finally, anyone who wants change will vote for it. Change transcends party identification for many people. In 2003, those voters sought a change from the Democrats, mostly over Governor Patton's personal choices, not over his successes in government. Those same folks will vote for change again. They will votes the "ins" out. What that really means is they will vote out the Republican at the top of the ticket, whoever it may be. Should formidable Democrats step up in those down ballot races against Messrs. Grayson and Farmer, it is possible that they may be thrown out too, but it probably isn't likely. We may never know.

Numbers prove that Anne has an average of 133,000 votes locked in in Jefferson County. Contested governor's races require the winner to garner over 500,000 votes. Can an anti-tobacco woman from Louisville, one who failed to deliver to her district the one signature deal she promised (a bridge - or two) convince 367,000 out in the state to support her? I don't know. I think the key to any possible victory for her lies in Washington, D.C. Her relationship with the president is so close. Admittedly, he remains relatively popular in Kentucky vis-a-vis other states, but he is still below 50%. He won Kentucky with 59.6% in 2004 getting just over 1,000,000 votes. He has lost at least 10% of that popularity - perhaps at least 100,000 votes. Can Anne get them back? Therein is her hope for victory.

The 2006 congressional campaigns of both Northup and Yarmuth were designed by their respective national parties. The Republican Party wanted the 3rd CD race to a local referendum. The Democratic Party wanted the 3rd CD race to be a national referendum, and it was. The 2007 governor's race must be ran and won in the same manner. It must be a referendum of the failed policies of the national Republican Party. Beating Fletcher will be easier because of his local foibles. But beating any Republican is enhanced by the failings of George W. Bush, especially as they relate to his - and by extension Mrs. Northup's - war. In 2007, there will be only three races for governor across the Republic. It is fair to say that two of those will be easy for the challenger, and one of those will be a cakewalk for the Republicans. Blanco, D-La., will likely lose, maybe to a Republican in the fall, but hopefully to a Democrat in the primary. If they throw her out in the Primary, the Democrats will spend some money there, but if she is the Primary nominee, national money will be in short supply. Keep in mind Louisiana also has these runoffs and other election oddities and truthfully, I've never fully understood how they ever get anybody elected.

Barbour, R-Miss., will easily win. The national Democratic Party probably doesn't even know where Mississippi is, and for good reason. Not that is pleases me, but facts are facts.

That leaves us. In 2004, our Democratic candidate for US senator nearly defeated an incumbent Republican - albeit one who is allegedly 117 years old. In 2006, we re-elected one rather conservative Democrat without opposition to the Congress, and sent another rather liberal one there to join him. After hastily and very tardily getting into the 3rd CD race in 2006, no thanks to Rahm Emanuel, and with great thanks to former President Bill Clinton [brought to Kentucky by its Democratic Party Chair, Jerry Lundergan], the national party will be much more attentive to our little state in 2007. Again, if we make the race for governor a referendum on the state of the Republic under the guidance of the national Republican Party, neither Ernie Fletcher, nor any other Republican, should be occupying the Executive Mansion, come the fifth Tuesday succeeding this fall's election.

Epiphany

Today marks, or at one time marked, the Feast of the Epiphany, which itself marks the end of Christmastide, those Twelve Days of Christmas memorialized in the carol of the same name. Christmastide in Kentucky, at least here on the south shore of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, has not been marked by any winter-like weather as of yet. We had a few flakes of snow fall for about five minutes back in late October, then no more until Christmas night when the snow fell for about ten more minutes, twenty minutes more on the 26th, and since then only promises, including one for Monday, when snow has been predicted to fall once again here in the nation's 16th largest city (according to some).

Monday will also commence the first full week of the second term of our experimental government commonly known as Louisville, or Louisville Metro. Neither name is correct or appropriate. The official name of the government of our burg is "Louisville-Jefferson County Metro." Its chief magistrate should properly be called the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro. Our mayor, the longest serving mayor of the former City of Louisville (due to a constitutional amendment giving him one term of five years rather than four), as well as the longest serving mayor of the present government, that record currently standing at four years and six days (and counting), generally chooses to omit any reference to the former county in which he serves as Commander-In-Chief.

Jefferson County, as some may know, is commonly referred to as one of the three original counties of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the other two being Lincoln and Fayette. While I appreciate, as a resident of Jefferson County, such an accolade, it isn't technically appropriate. The Commonwealth of Kentucky, as an entity, dates to the summer of 1792. At the time of Kentucky's official entry into the Union, the territory it occupied was divided into nine counties, not three. In addition to the creation of Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln in 1780 (all signed into law by the then-governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson), Nelson was formally created from Jefferson in 1785, taking that territory which lay south of the Salt River; Bourbon from Fayette, and Madison and Mercer from Lincoln in 1786; and finally Mason from Bourbon, and Woodford from Fayette in 1789. These nine counties should properly be the "original" counties of Commonwealth of Kentucky. They were all originally part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the state from which Kentucky seceded in order to join the federal union.

Travellers [or travelers] were once reminded of their entry into the territory once (and properly still) known as Jefferson County by signs located at points of entry, such as on I-64 and US60 at the Shelby County line, on I-65 and Preston Highway at the Bullitt County line, on I-71 and US42 at the Oldham County line, on Taylorsville Lake Road (KY155) at the Spencer County line, or on Dixie Highway (US 31W-US60) at the Hardin County line. [Curiously, there are no welcoming signs to our Metro entity if one is travelling from the state of Indiana into Louisville]. Those point-of-entry signs now read "Welcome to Louisville Metro, the 16th largest city in America." Neither phrase on either side of the comma is correct. The signs should read either "Welcome to Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, the 27th largest city in America" or "Welcome to Jefferson County, the 16th largest city in America and home to Louisville-Jefferson County Metro." Of course, Jefferson County is not a city, so the latter statement makes no sense. Thus only the former statement, proclaiming us (as the United States Census does) the 27th largest city in America, is appropriate.

I am curious if America's 15th, real 16th, and 17th largest cities (Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Texas; and Memphis, Tennessee; respectively) go so far as to claim themselves as such at points of entry? I've been to Columbus recently, but I didn't notice such a proclamation. If a reader knows, please share such knowledge. At some point, it can be only hoped that Louisville's mayor, in a moment of epiphany, some comprehensive recognition of the true meaning of such a statement, will throw of these shackles of our government's erroneous self-promotion and delusion and restate for all the world to see our true nature, the true count of our citizens, the true souls of our community.

Goals

One of my goals in creating this blog was to post some entry each day, some musing related to one of the purposes listed in the blog's description just below the banner. But, on some days it is difficult for a writer, especially an amateur (in its true and original meaning from the Latin, a lover or devotee, one who does what they do simply because they love doing it) as myself to do so. Nonetheless, I've been advised to write a page each day and see where those pages might take me.

I suppose today is one of those difficult days where one does not know which words may come from the pen or its modern-day cousin, the keyboard. The only significant role January 5th has ever had in my life is that it was the birthday of my great-grandmother, on my maternal grandmother's side, one Rachel Scott Brawner Lewis, born in 1895, a person I only vaguely remember, but do indeed remember something. She died in March, 1967 when I was six years old. It may have been Easter weekend. I remember hearing my mother making a noise which I took to be laughter, but I later found out was not, as she was in fact sobbing, laying on the lower bunk of the bunk bed set my brother and I shared in our bedroom as kids. My great-grandmother's brother-in-law, my late uncle Noble Hedger, had called her from Frankfort with the news of Rachel's death. It is my earliest recollection of any familiarity with death - and funerals. Rachel's services were held at the Rogers Funeral Home in Frankfort, on the south or right hand side of Second Street, just as you descend the hill from Louisville and opposite the Second Street School. Many years after Rachel passed, another of her brothers-in-law, Revel Vaughn Lewis, held some ownership in that business, although I am unfamiliar as to what that ownership was. Uncle Revel has also passed on, his interment being in the plot of his wife's family, the late Ruth Sacre Lewis, somewhere in the Frankfort Cemetery, overlooking town from the east, nearly opposite from the Rogers Funeral Home location at the west.

Where we are in life, not only in our professional lives, or our personal lives, but also physically in where we are geographically, helps to shape our outlooks as we move through this process known as life. I have written elsewhere that the one sure thing about life is that living it forces one to actually live. Even should one choose to sit out, to stand by, passively allowing those around you to make decisions, determine courses, and live for you, that in itself is a conscious way of living out a life. Making that decision to be passive is actively determining your course.

Knowing that ultimately we all must "shuffle off this mortal coil" should be reason enough to force participation. Knowing there is an end to the thread at which we will eventually arrive, and seeing how thin such a thread truly is, makes those geographic places we find ourselves, whether at the foot of Louisville Hill on Second Street in Frankfort, or up on top of town overlooking the river and the town below, like Merlin up on a hillside overlooking King Uther as he fights the battle below, utlimately handing off his sword to that of his alleged son Arthur, thereby showing him as heir and successor, we all have roles to play, and it is important we all play, however large or small that role might be.

All roles are important. Another way of saying that is that all lives are important. None of us are truly any more important that any other one of us. In my life I've had the opportunity to meet people in my vocation and avocation who are deemed important by society. And while each of them may have some role of some importance in some way to some of us, the fact we are all mortal allows that whatever importance they may have is also mortal. But there is always the next day. In the very beginning of the Bible, in the very beginning of the Book of Genesis, is a well-known story of creation. Each part closes with the words "Evening came and morning followed." As such, creation continues. As I look out my window, north toward downtown Louisville and the Ohio River, the sun has set over the hills in Floyd County, Indiana, over there beyond the Right Bank of the Ohio River. Evening, as promised, has come. I am hopeful and confident that morning, as promised, will follow on January 6th.

The 110th - America returns

The congressional delegation representing both the Left and Right banks of the Ohio River at Milepost 606 changes today. Thankfully so. The voters of Kentucky's 3rd and Indiana's 9th congressional districts threw out their Republican representatives in November, 2006.

John Yarmuth, an avowed liberal, millionaire, and of the Jewish faith, was elected in Louisville, defeating five-term Republican Anne Northup, a handmaiden of President George W. Bush. On the Right Bank, Baron Hill, a moderate former congressman and resident of Seymour, was returned to Washington by the voters, defeating the man who had defeated him two years earlier, Republican Mike Sodrel.

By these elections, voters here have began the process of returning America to its roots, bound by the words of America's greatest document, the United States Constitution, in its Preamble, which reads, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Republicans who have controlled the Congress for the last twelve years failed to establish additional justice for all Americans, failed to ensure domestic tranquility (in the current war sending over 3000 Americans to their deaths on foreign soil), failed to provide for the common defense of all Americans, failed to promote the general welfare (allowing the divide between rich and poor to further widen), and foremost failed to secure and keep secure the blessings of liberty (carelessly flouting both the laws and constitution of our Republic and undermining civil liberties gained in over 230 years of progess).

With the swearing-in of the 110th Congress, America has returned.