It has been awhile since I wrote a purely political blog bashing the demented, ignorant, racist, anti-semitic, piece of garbage occupying the Office of The Presidency and his group of unqualified, self-serving lackeys in important positions. Patel, Hegsbreath, RFK Jr, Howard Lutnick, Stephen Miller, Little Marco and the rest of the Cabinet are about as useless as a paper bag in the rain. They all are an embarrassment to any intelligent American. The whole world is laughing at the ineptness of their leadership. And that’s not even to mention the uselessness of the Republican controlled Congress or the corrupt Supreme Court.
But, everything that needs to be said about all of that has been said and written ad nauseum. So, I am going to forego any further rant here and concentrate on better subjects. I will leave this subject with a quote I saw a few nights ago... Chuck Lorre, the writer of several sitcoms puts “vanity cards” at the conclusion of each episode he writes and produces. I always pause the tv to see what he has to say. Usually they are several paragraphs long but last night’s card simply read:
“The way things are going, I am just thankful I was when I was.”
I have been asked why I write these blogs. As I have stated before, it is my therapy and I really enjoy putting my thoughts, ideas and remembrances on paper…or more recently, on the screen. I have always been a voracious reader and have never been shy about saying what I want to say.
My earliest memory of writing an opinion piece was in high school Although I certainly wrote plenty of required essays or answers to essay questions in school…that was a chore. As a senior in high school, I wrote a lengthy screed about the lack of school pride and support of our sometime beleaguered football team. I submitted it to the school paper and it was immediately rejected by the teacher advisor as “too inflammatory,” and never got printed. Another case where the administration wanted to bury its head in the sand nor listen to opposing views. Interestingly, I have gotten the same response from some people when I formerly posted my blogs on social media...and that's why I no longer post! My Blogs only go to those that have requested them or that get forwarded to their friends.
Later in business, I became quite adept in writing strategy and business plans. But that didn’t satisfy the jones I had to really express myself. Then in 1996, I got my first byline in the local newspaper...The now defunct Boca Raton News. It was a daily paper that concentrated mainly on local news, and they annually wrote a full page on each of the high school football teams before the season began. The kids looked forward to reading about themselves. But, in this year, they ran an article about 2 of the teams, but left out The Spanish River Sharks ( of which my son, Brad, was the co-captain of the team.) Being the loyal President of the Booster Club, I called the editor to find out why. He told me they wanted to run a story and assigned it to a stringer who took the assignment but left town without submitting the story…and he was short staffed. I told him I would write it and submitted it and the full page ran the next day, with to my surprise, my byline! I was hooked and covered the team for the rest of the season, and the editor would call me from time to time to cover other events.. Although he offered me the princely sum of $50 per article, I just had him write a check to the booster club. It was a labor of love, and how exciting to work on deadline and have only an hour after a game to phone in or fax the article for publication the next day! I was hooked on writing for fun!
Since I quote him quite often, many of you know of my enjoyment of listening to Tony Kornheiser on PTI (ESPN) and his three times a week podcast. Although he has been on television for over 20 years, his background was as a newspaper columnist..first as a lifestyle writer and then a much heralded sports reporter. I have read some of his collections of columns, and they are quite good. He, like me, wrote in a conversational style (especially his lifestyle columns). His 3 day a week podcast with his son Michael, while being sports related, is more “old guy” rants and comments about life in general, and the challenges of a changing world (especially his ineptness with technology) Tony often says that his target demographic is 75 to Dead and this week I finally became a core constituent of his target demo, as I turned 75!
To avoid conflict, he doesn’t discuss politics, but the few times things have slipped out, it is evident he is as disgusted by the current administration as a lot of us are. His often repeated favorite quote is “If you want the answer to everything; sports, politics, business…just follow the money.” He also said the if he ever ran for office his slogan would simply be “We are better than this.” How true!
With the changing landscape, newspapers are dinosaurs. Even the digital versions are at least a day behind the news. They have laid off real writers or completely done away with any decent coverages. The television reporting and various websites are so slanted….both right and left, that most of them are not worth reading. Newspapers like the New York Times and The Washington Post have fired all of their sports reporters and only publish scores and wire service reports. What a shame, as outlets for good, in depth writing is shrinking. However, I have found good writing and reporting in The Atlantic and The New Yorker. But even then, when they write thoughtful, well researched articles, they get sued!
I will continue to search for writings that are worth reading and will continue to write when the mood strikes. Meanwhile, if there are writers or venues that you find worthwhile, let me know!
And The Journey continues!
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