| I caucused for Ron Paul |
[Jan. 5th, 2008|11:38 am] |
In 2004, I was a Kucinich delegate to the Black Hawk County Democratic convention. This year, I'd have gone for Obama, whom I liked, when I talked with him at Overman Park, here in Cedar Falls, last summer. I was the last in line to shake hands with him, and was with him for a while, after everyone else had left, because he wasn't in any hurry to get to his next appointment. (His bus was nearby, waiting for him.)
However, Ralph Scott talked me into going to the Republican conventio this year, to support him as a Ron Paul delegate. Ralph is an old friend, a UNI emeritus professor of ed psychology.
Ralph, who originally came from Wisconsin, was, among other things, a champion debater as an undergrad at Luther College. I think he was in the military before college, and met his wife, Liesl, when he was stationed in Germany. She comes from the same part of Germany that many of my own ancestors, on the Baker side, come from, which would mean,
southeast of Luxemburg, and even a little farther, east of Zweibruecken.
She was along with us, at the Caucuses.
I remember when Ralph ran for US Senate, in the 1972 Republican primary
against the incombent, Jack Miller. Miller didn't campaign much, because he knew Nixon would appoint him as a federal judge, for supporting him on the Viet Nam War, etc.
A judge has that job for life, so Miller knew that, when he got that job, he'd never have to do fund-raising or campaigning for re-election, agaim.
Ralph lost (because he had no money), but Miller lost to Dick Clark, who had never held political office, either, in the fall election. Clark was the chief assistant of then- Congressman John Culver, who, in turn, was a protege of the Kennedys who had good access to fund-raising. (Culver had been Ted Kennedy's roommate at Harvard.)
Clark was the first candidate who walked across the State. Dave Stanley, a brother of my old college debate partner, Dick Stanley, also did that, in 1974, but lost the election to Culver. I was the third, and last candidate to do that. I spent less than $100 on my campaign, and got 12 percent of the State-wide vote, in the Democratic primary.
This year's Republican caucus was held in only one location, for the whole of Black Hawk County. There was a horrible traffic jam, people had to park far away, and the crowd was a melee. Ralph said the Republicans were really stupid, compared to the Democrats, who held numerous local caucuses, as both parties had done in the past.
I remarked that the Republican caucus must have been planned by the Neocons, because it was a horrible mess, like Iraq.
I'm glad Obama and Huckabee won. I think Dick Doak, the Register columnist, wrote in the Sunday paper that Huckabee was really a populist.
Ralph was a little concerned about Huckabee's religiosity, but I suggested to him that it probably wasn't as dangerous as it might seem to be.
I think too many of our locals went for Romney, including my friend Jim Euchner, the realtor. However, he probably has severe worries about the housing market, and hopes, probably in vain, that a Romney presidency might be better for that business. |
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| WORE SUX |
[Jan. 5th, 2008|12:09 pm] |
Yesterday evening, I went to our Cedar Falls anti-war rally, at the corner of Main and University. That rally takes place on the first Friday of every month, from 5:30 P.M., until 6:30.
Katie Schares, nee "Meyerhoff," was there, and she had a really big smile, perhaps because she saw the sign I'd made, which read,
WAR
SUX
I've known Katie and her husband, Al, since 1984, before they were married. Katie and 2 other girls were, at that time, roommates in an apartment across the hall from mine, in a building on College Street, near the UNI campus. Al, at that time, was a disc jockey for KUNI Radio
I bought my present automobile from Al and Katie, when they advertised it in the John Deere Swap Sheet, around 6 years ago.
This year, Al and Katie's daughter, Olivia, was old enough to help run one of the Democratic caucuses. Olivia looks a lot like Katie. In the summer of 2006, she worked with Suzanne Droste, in an ice cream store that was next to the University Book Store.
http://www.uifoundation.org/student_aid/
Al comes from Gilbertville, a community of Luxemburgers, just southeast of Waterloo. He's a cousin of the late Monsignor Roman Schares, who, as I remember, was the priest at St. Joseph's, in Cresco, in the 1960s. |
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| ALL IS VANITY |
[Jan. 5th, 2008|01:06 pm] |
I've always regarded vanity license plates as just foolishness. However, it might have been a good idea for someone who had one that read, either,
WAR SUX
or
WORE SUX
It would have to be somebody who drives a car more than I do. I have a big, heavy 1989 Chevy Caprice wagon, whose massiveness I like for safety, but I save gas by doing very little driving. (There's no particular reason to go anywhere other than where I happen to be.)
In 1995, when I last visited Texas, I visited the house where President Lyndon Johnson lived, as a boy. His mother had a reproduction of a famous picture, titled, "All is vanity," on the wall, above her dresser. "All is Vanity," is a quotation from the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes.
This link is about the painter of that picture. It has also been reproduced as a wall mural. That mural was on the wall, over the bar of the "O.P." on College Hill in Cedar Falls, in 1973 or 1974.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Allan_Gilbert
One time in 1973, the year Johnson died, I'd driven to Madison, Wisconsin and had stayed overnight in the old "railroad hotel," whose name I've forgotten. The next morning, after eating breakfast in the hotel's cafe, I picked up a copy of the "State Journal," when I noticed the headline, a quote attributed to Johnson, in reference to the Viet Nam war.
It read, "Johnson: 'The kids were right. I blew it.'" |
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