Guess who showed up in a news clip showing a tacky photo-op by supporters of HB 125 aka “Heartbeat” Bill? Senator Cliff Hite (R-Findlay) received a Teddy Bear that made a heartbeat sound when squeezed. The whole photo-op was a circus that P. T. Barnum would be proud of.
Here is a screenshot from the video:
Misinformation Is Rampant In Anti-Union Camp
One of my hobbies is political debate. I would rather debate in person and I often do but I also like using ‘Letters to the Editor’ in local newspapers. Every so often I will read a letter that frankly pisses me off and I have to respond. One such letter in the Findlay Ohio Courier showed some anti-union views are based on misinformation.
The letter in question was written by a friend of mine who happens to hold a lot of cheap labor conservative views even though he is a blue collar worker. Here is the text of the letter that was published on 11/28/2011:
At the expense of the middle class, unions, and elderly, “business friendly” means handouts and special exemptions for businesses
Governor John Kasich and the other cheap labor conservative members of the GOP talk about how the state isn’t business friendly. To them that means attacking the unions, middle class, and elderly while out of the other side of their mouths, the Governor and his buddies have given big businesses tax credits and other hand outs. Most don’t really need them. That is exactly what happened in the case of Findlay’s Marathon Petroleum.
Marathon, founded in Findlay, and still having 1,600 employees in the city along with a large office complex downtown, seemed to be in “urgent need” of help from the state government in the form of tax credits. This is the same oil company that made net profits of $2.6 billion in 2010 and nearly $1 billion more in the first quarter of 2011.
Tribute to my old Junior High
My hometown is building two new middle school buildings to replace the two current ones that were built in 1923. It is time for new buildings and has taken probably 10 or 15 years to finally get it started. However one casualty in the process is the school board is retiring the mascots in the name of district unity. Here is my tribute to the Glenwood Junior High Eagles.
Here is a short video of the Glenwood fight song which happens to go to the tune of the Northwestern University fight song. I recreated the lyrics from memory – yes I still remember them some 28 years later – so any errors are mine. Enjoy!
My Little League Experience
The Little League World Series final is today 8/29 with Japan vs Hawaii. Whenever I see the game each year it reminds me of the movie “The Bad News Bears” and my own experience in Little League back when I was 11 to 13 years old.
I played for the GM Red Sox and our coach when I was 12 was Robert Nichols who would later be my Phys Ed teacher in Junior High and even later became a Findlay City Councilman – which I notice he is serving again as a councilman from the 5th Ward.
I played outfield and batted 9th because I was such a great player… NO… I stunk as a hitter. During my “career” I had 2 hits. Just 2 over three years.
Coach Nichols tried to help me be a better hitter. One day during practice he came up to me at home plate and held a ball in his hand.
“I want you to hit this ball out of my hand,” He said.
“What?” I said.
“Take your bat and hit this ball out of my hand.”
“Okay.”
I took my stance and he held the ball on the palm of his hand.
You know where this is going, right?
I took a full power swing at the ball and the bat crashed into Coach Nichols hand completely missing the ball. He immediately started screaming words that I wouldn’t really learn until I got to Junior High. He held his hand and was in intense pain.
“Why did you do that for?” he screamed at me.
“You told me to!” I yelled back.
I so wanted to go home at that point. I figured that was it – kicked out of Little League. I slunk back to the dugout while all the other guys on the team laughed at me.
Coach Nichols paced around for a while shaking out his hand occasionally glaring at me. Then when he calmed down he came to the dug out.
“You’re right I did tell you to hit the ball out of my hand. I should have been more specific about not taking a full swing.” He said and smiled slightly
“I’m sorry…” I said.
“It doesn’t seem broken so I’ll be okay. Get out in the field for some pop fly practice.”
At the next game I hit a walk off grand slam to win the league championship all thanks to Coach Nichols… Sorry I made that last part up. Never happened. I still stunk, played outfield, and batted 9th.
What did happen was I found out I needed glasses.
Me on the GM Red Sox in 1981, year after events in this story. I still stunk.