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Memorial Day, Vacation and Ballots       #286

By Hank Silverberg


I just hung my flag up on the pole in front of my home for Memorial Day. I only fly it on major holidays. 

But these days, I hear flying an American flag has become political. Apparently, the right-wing is once again claiming that the Stars and Stripes belongs to them, and if you don't fly it you are the bad guys, the "radical liberal commies," or whatever their new made-up term is this month. 

Well, we all know that is simply not the case. There are 50 stars on the flag representing all 50 states, not the red ones or the blue ones, but all 50. And there are 13 stripes, symbolic of the original 13 colonies that banded together in 1776 to fight a war of independence against imperial Great Britain.   

(My Dad's flag flies in front
 of my house this week)

That flag flew over Iwo Jima in 1945, where my dad was wounded during World War Two.  The flag I am flying now was his, and it flies in his honor. 

The Stars and Stripes still flies every day over the U.S. Capitol Building, having survived the burning of Washington during the War of 1812, and an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in 2021.   

The same flag flies at every government building across the country and every school on all levels across America. That includes those college campuses where student protestors, though misguided in their position on the Israel/Hamas war, have the right to protest under the First Amendment.     

The flag, or rather what it represents, belongs to all of us, not one political party, or one cause, or one candidate. And it's your job to remind every one of that. This Memorial Day, as in the past, we remember those who gave what Lincoln called their "full measure of devotion" to keep us all free. No one has the right to co-opt a symbol of that freedom and claim it only represents them. 


Cruising!

I let you know I would be off last week for vacation, and what I did on that break fits in with this week's theme. My wife and I took an eight-day cruise up the Columbia and Snake Rivers in the upper northwest crossing parts of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. For the most part, the views were spectacular, though a side excursion to Mt. St. Helens was marred by low cloud cover that shrouded the volcano in a white haze. 

The theme of the cruise was retracing the route of 

(Hell's Canyon on the Snake River)
the famed duo of Lewis and Clark, who opened the Pacific North West to further exploration and settlement. There was much too much information to repeat it all here, but it was a bit unnerving to find out we were all taught the incorrect pronunciation of Sacagawea's name. The famed Shoshone woman did as much to create America as Daniel Boone or the Pilgrims, but she doesn't get enough of the credit.  (CORRECT pronunciation Sa-CAG-ah-way- ya. There  is no J sound, which apparently doesn't even exist in the Shoshone language.)  

Some other information that was new to me. There are EIGHT dams and locks on the two rivers, all providing hydroelectric power, and the mountains along the Columbia, once outside the cities, are crawling with windmills, also producing millions of watts of electricity. I have put just a few of my photos here. 

(Cape Disappointment) 
But this country is vast and open, and has a remarkable legacy. The rocky shores where the Columbia meets the Pacific at Cape Disappointment reminded me a great deal of the East coast of Maine. The wide Columbia River at times looked similar to the mighty Hudson in upstate New York. And the small towns in Oregon and Washington took me home to the small communities that dot the Shenandoah Valley. Portland looked a lot like Boston, and the huge cargo ship traffic on the lower Columbia reminded me of the harbor in Baltimore.  

But the Cascades and the Continental Divide are

(Multnomah Falls, Or,) 
more spectacular than the Blue Ridge, and Multnomah Falls and the dozens of smaller waterfalls nearby had a very different feel than the mighty Niagara Falls. 

What crossed my mind more than once as we explored an area of the country where we have never been was our nation's overall beauty, abundance and diversity--something we take for granted, and really shouldn't. 


 Ballot Trouble


Getting on a state's presidential ballot when you are the sitting President of the United States should really be routine. But somehow in this year's election, nothing is routine. 

In Ohio, echoes of last year's vote making abortion a constitutional right and the legalization of adult-use marijuana--both overwhelmingly approved by the voters-- are complicating matters. 

The state has a deadline of August 7th to get a candidate on the November ballot. That precedes the Democratic National Convention, August 19th to 26th, that will formally nominate Mr. Biden. 

In 2012 and 2020, state lawmakers routinely changed the deadline to accommodate the candidates of both major parties, but this year,  the highly partisan Ohio legislature has been unable to do so. 

Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, has labeled that "ridiculous" and has called a special session of the state legislature this week to get that proper change made. The legislation though, includes a provision prohibiting foreign nationals from donating to Ohio ballot campaigns. And the Democrats say it also includes provisions that would make it harder to mount future ballot questions like those mentioned above, that the voters overwhelmingly approved last year. 

https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-biden-ballot-access-ohio-334017a5ccc21cb9f6b2133abe65b0c2

The special session is set for Tuesday with no guarantee there will be agreement.  Stay tuned.

Ohio has 18 Electoral College votes, which Donald Trump won in 2020 with 53% of the state's popular vote.  

Alabama, which Trump also easily won in 2020,  had a similar problem with the convention schedule and ballot deadline. But the General Assembly there fixed the issue earlier this month. 

  

Dumbest Quote of The Week!

This week's dumbest quote comes from Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Junior, who continues his long-shot campaign for the White House. He was speaking to the Libertarian Party Convention where both he and Donald Trump got a mixed, sometimes cold, reception from a group of people who basically reject any action by government. 

RFK Jr. was critical of both Trump and President Biden and how they handled the Covid-19 pandemic--Trump for suspending liability to companies working on a vaccine, and Biden for then mandating the vaccine once it was developed. 

Kennedy said:

"Maybe a brain worm ate that part of my memory, but I don't recall any part of the United States Constitution where there's an exemption for a pandemic."

 Now, I am not a constitutional scholar, but the document does say one of Government's main functions is to "promote the general welfare" of citizens, and one would think promoting and mandating a vaccine that may have saved a million lives fits that category, but then again, I don't have a brain worm. 

Both Kennedy and Trump wanted the Libertarian nomination--Trump to secure the 3% vote they often get in general elections, and Kennedy to use that party label just to get on the ballot in states where he has trouble doing so. Neither of them got the endorsement.


(Your suggestions and comments are welcome)   

My recent book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:

HankSilverberg@gmail.com  for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature)                       

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796


My NEWEST book is now available. It is designed for use in Public Speaking and entry level communications classes. 


                                                 
You can purchase Communications and Public Speaking Trends in the 21st Century at these two links: 


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