Month: February 2020

Leave a comment Posted on voting

Say Goodbye to Election Day

The March 3 Presidential Primary Election will be the first to comply with the 2016 California Voter’s Choice Act giving voters more flexibility but less connection to their community.

No longer does one have to wait until Election Day.  Now, voting centers (replacing polling places) open for business Feb. 22.  That’s 10 days to cast your votes.  It almost makes campaigning up until Election Day irrelevant.

Plus, you don’t have to vote in your neighborhood; anywhere in the county is okay.

Now, there is less chance you will see the people who live on your street casting ballots.  Just what we need in today’s community-starved times, eliminating one of the rare opportunities to observe with one’s own eyes democracy in action and sharing it with fellow Americans. The patriotic pleasure of going in person during the designated hours on that one day and bumping into neighbors will become a story to share with your grandchildren.

If convenience supersedes community, why not allow everyone to vote via their cell phones, any time, any day during an election year?  That way no one has to ever vote in person again.  Democracy lite.  Already people are spoiled buying everything they need online, not having to mingle with humans in a mall.  Soon, people won’t ever have to interact with others.

Cell phones and the internet have trained people to turn themselves inward, not looking up literally, cocooning themselves away from others.

How bizarre it is to be out walking my dog and instead of saying “hi” to people, watching blank stares past me, earbuds transporting them to someplace other than the here and now. The person right in front of them does not exist.

However, in trying to make voting as painless as possible, they are inviting more uninformed people to join the democratic process.

It doesn’t bother me if only 60% of the electorate chooses to participate.  What is troublesome is how little so many know about the country they live in.

I was shocked to learn that my journalism students, who one would think would be the most aware teenagers on campus regarding issues in the world, did not know the name of the Vice President.

Further, they did not know who their representative was.  Imagine not knowing that the most famous congressman today, Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who spearheaded the impeachment inquiry on President Trump, represents the area in which they live.

In just one week, I learned that students know very little about Abraham Lincoln even though they benefit from staying home on a day dedicated to his service to America.

Not one of my students have ever seen Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland.   Shouldn’t their parents have taken their children to such an entertaining yet educational attraction?

And when Vermont appeared in a lesson, I couldn’t find one student who knew what part of the country that state can be found.  “The southwest” and “the northwest” were the answers I received.  From honors students.

How can a 16-year-old go through 11 years of education and not know basic information?

One of the primary reasons for free public education to all is to ensure that students share a common base of knowledge, including what is means to be an American.

We should put more time in educating our youth about the country they live in in order to ensure the future electorate be informed, productive citizens.

And we should expect people to make a minimum effort to walk to their neighborhood polling place.  It is one’s civic duty.

Leave a comment Posted on Kobe Bryant

Early Death Freezes Kobe in Time

“Hey, Dad, you won’t believe who just died?” my oldest son shouted from a neighboring room.

I immediately thought of someone famous who I admired who was elderly.

“Vin Scully?”

“Kobe Bryant.”

Given 100 guesses, Kobe’s name would not have been on that list.

Barely two weeks have passed since the tragic helicopter crash on Jan. 26 that killed nine people including Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and a mother, father and daughter from one family.

Of all the ways to die, dying via an accident must be the worst way for a life to end.   The people who die in accidents had plans later that day.  The victims’ families had plans later that day.  The last text, phone call, spoken words were not supposed to be the last ones.

This wasn’t like Alex Trebek’s year-long battle against pancreatic cancer, allowing fans to savor each of his “Jeopardy” appearances, nor was it like 103-year-old Kirk Douglas drawing his last breath.

Those who know they are about to die from an illness or old age have the opportunity to say their final goodbyes, for closure of some kind, before leaving the living behind.

What makes people react so deeply to the death of Kobe Bryant is that he was larger than life, a worldwide icon.  And if someone is larger than life, we fool ourselves to think that they can’t die, and if they do, most definitely not when they are young.

Unlike Elvis Presley (42) or Michael Jackson (50) who died from self-inflicted means, to die in an instant via an accident that comes out of nowhere shakes our foundation of life.

He didn’t make it to his imminent Hall of Fame induction this August.

He didn’t make it for the unveiling of his Staples Center statue.

He didn’t make it for any of his children’s high school graduation ceremonies.

Some other celebrities who have lost their lives in aircraft crashes include:

January 16, 1942 – 33-year-old actress Carole Lombard whose plane leaving Las Vegas crashed into the mountains killing all 22 onboard.  Because of the fear of a Japanese attack, safety beacons lighting the mountains were turned off.

December 15, 1944 – 40-year-old bandleader Glenn Miller with two others disappeared in foggy weather flying over the English Channel from England to France to entertain the troops in newly liberated Paris; a faulty carburetor may have been the culprit.

February 3, 1959 – Rock ‘n’ roll stars Buddy Holly (22), J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson (28) and Ritchie Valens (17) died in a Beechcraft Bonanza shortly after taking off in Clear Lake, Iowa.

March 5, 1963 – 30-year-old singer Patsy Cline and three others died in a small Piper Comanche aircraft 90 miles outside of Nashville due to inclement weather.

December 10, 1967 – 26-year-old singer Otis Redding died in a Beechcraft H-18 with six others flying in rainy and foggy weather just four miles from their destination in Madison, Wisconsin, crashing into a lake; one person survived.

December 31, 1985 – 45-year-old actor/singer Ricky Nelson along with six others died in a DC-3 near De Kalb, Texas; both pilots survived the crash.

About the only positive that comes from such horrible events is that it reminds us of how precious our limited time is on earth.

One of the poems I teach to my 10th graders is A. E. Housman’s 1896 ode “To an Athlete Dying Young.”   The poem centers on an athlete who dies while still in the prime of life.  Because of an early death, he will always be remembered in people’s minds as that sparkling youth forever, never withering.

That is true of Bryant who now will forever remain 41 years old.