Author Archives: bpriddy

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Heather Cox Richardson is a history professor at Boston College whose “Letters from an American” daily Substack newsletter place contemporary events within a historical context. USA Today named her one of its Women of the Year honorees last  year.

Joyce Vance is a former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and now a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law (criminal justice reform, criminal procedure, and civil rights are her specialties) at the University of Alabama School of Law.

We are borrowing from a couple of things they wrote when our immediately former president was arraigned on criminal charges on August 3.

Donald Trump is charged with crimes linked to the January 6, 2021 events at the United States Capitol.  Richardson cites the federal prosecutor for Washington D. C. is observing that Trump is the 1,078th person charged with federal crimes connected to those events. And he was arraigned in the same courtroom where many of those 1,077 others have appeared, or will appear.

She also cites Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, responding to defense claims that the charges infringe on Trump’s constitutionally-protected right to free speech even if his remarks were repeated lies.  The charges, however, appear not to attack his free speech remarks but instead focus on the greater issue of his illegal efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

Snyder thinks we should not be distracted from the real point of the charges: “That Trump will be tried for his coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is the fulfillment of his rights.  It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial.”

We would add that in most failed coup attempts we have read about in our long life, what follows is a quick assumption of guilt and often a quick dispatching of what is called justice.

Richardson also notes in that day’s “letter,” that the arraignment took place on the same days that Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released a transcript of their interview with a Hunter Biden business associate that GOP committee members claim proves then Vice-President Biden was personally involved in some shady business deals involving Hunter.  She says the interview transcript undermines the Republicans’ claims although they’re overlooking that issue.

(If you want to read Richardsons full “letter,” you can find it at:

August 3, 2023 – by Heather Cox Richardson (substack.com)

Joyce Vance’s column, “Civil Discourse” says that, “Many people…have become inured to Trump’s behavior…A real problem with Trump is that there is just so much of it that he is exhausting. For some people it is easier to tune it out than it is to try to keep all of it in focus.”  But she says the people need to re-connect and follow the process by which these charges are dealt with “so they can assess the evidence and the proceedings for themselves…It is every American’s obligation to follow this process.”

One subtle thing she mentions is that in court, the former president is just “Mr. Trump,” a designation that applies generally to (male) trial participants.  No matter what your station is life is, or has been, you are equal in the eyes of the law to every other person who has gone through this process…Donald Trump was treated like anyone else in his position would be. Investigation having found that there is sufficient evidence of significant crimes, he has been charged by a grand jury. He now has the same opportunity to defend himself that anyone would have.”

She explains that, “Arraignment is usually a perfunctory matter, as it was for Trump… It is governed by Rule 10 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which requires that a defendant be advised of the charges against him and enter a plea to them. The traditional plea at the time of arraignment is one of not guilty. The defendant has not yet seen the government’s evidence against him—there is no informed basis for knowing whether the government can prove what it has charged. So it is no surprise that the plea Donald Trump entered…was one of not guilty.”

But this arraignment has an unusual twist, she says. While judges normally tell the defendants not to commit any new crimes while they are free on the streets, this instruction was different. The judge warned Trump not to try to influence a juror or witnesses.  If he violates that admonition, he could find himself sleeping on government-issues sheets at night and wearing government-issued clothes.

Was Trump listening to the Judge’s admonition?  Vance thinks he wasn’t. A day after he was released on pre-trial bond, Trump went on Truth Social and said, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

Vance says  on X (the former Twitter) that Trump crossed the line. “Free speech is one thing, but this is over the line. As a prosecutor, I’d be sorely tempted tomake a motion to removke Trump’s pre-trial bond and put him in custody. Let him explain it to the judge.”

Newsweek reports that Trump spokesperson has belittled Vance as “a moron (who) loses sleep because she has Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

So, apparently, does former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, the former lead prosecutor against former Trump aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, who says—in what until recently would be called a tweet—“Not addressing this will only cause it to metastasize with undue deadly risks.”

A Trump spokesman, not surprisingly, defended the threat as “the definition of political speech,” and then went into full Trump irrational rant, saying it “was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and super PACs, like the ones funded by the Koch brothers and the Club for Growth.”

Forget getting out the hip boots, folks. It’s so deep that you’ll need a full body suit.

Friday night, assistants to federal prosecutor Jack Smith filed a notice with U. S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan expressing concerns Trump might improperly share evidence in the case on Truth Social. They urged the judge to order Trump to keep any evidence given to his lawyers by the prosecutors away from public view.

The judge ordered Trump’s lawyers to respond by 5 p.m. today.  When they asked for a three-day extension, she refused to let them have it—which set off another Trump tantrum aimed directly at the judge—not a wise thing even from a self-proclaimed stable genius:  “There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge ‘assigned’ to the ridiculous Freedom of Speech/Fair Elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she!”  It was all in capital letters, followed by more capitals announcing plans to seek a new judge and a new location for the trial.

We will be watching to see if the old saying manifests itself—Don’t poke a tiger with a twig.

The prosecution says it wants a speedy trial. Normally it’s the defendant that wants a speedy trial. But in this case, it’s to Mr. Trump’s political advantage to stretch the process as far as possible.

Both Richardson and Vance believe the most important charge against Trump is the final one—the one Vance says “tears at my heart….the conspiracy by an American president to take awy our right to vote…and to have one’s vote counted.”

Vance concludes that a dozen people in the courtroom will decide Trump’s fate but all of us are a “jury in the court of public opinion.”

“The outcome of the 2024 election really is every inch the most important election of our lives. The indictment itself is not evidence, but it lays out the narrative of the facts we saw unfold before our eyes and helps us make sense of the crimes that Trump is charged with committing. It is an important document for every American to read. Not everyone will, but that’s where we can come in, sharing details, and helping people around us, understand the procedures that begin today. It’s the real work of saving the republic.”

You can read her full Civil Discourse insights at Arraignment – Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance (substack.com)

Federal court rules do not allow live broadcast coverage of trials. But the standard is a rule, not a law and the exigent circumstances of this case, which will be a transcendant event in American history and will involve questions basic to the survival of our republic, should create an exception to the rule so that all of us canbe witnesses to these evens. It is of such overwhelming importance that our grandchildren’s grandchildren should be able to see and hear how our generation responded to this crisis.

We agree that the 2024 election will be “the most important election of our lives.”  It is far more important to all of us and to our nation as a whole that all of us pay close attention to the truth that emerges in the trial of 1708 than it is to give heed to anything the interpreters of that testimony on the left and the right want us to think.

 

 

 

Was it a Lynching?

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(Before we dive into this story, we ask our readers to please go back to Monday’s entry which required a major correction of information that incorrectly stated the position of a prominent former political leader from Missouri.)

Nancy and I went to Salisbury a few days ago where I had been asked to speak to the Chariton County Historical Society.

What happened during that speech is a reminder of something James Baldwin said: “History is not the past. History is the present. We carry our history with us. To think otherwise is criminal.”

William Faulkner said in a similar vein, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Those are great quotations in today’s turbulent political times when it seems we have people who want us to ignore some of the lamentable events of years gone by—shadows of some of which remain present among us.

Whenever I speak to a county historical society I like to spend a day at the State Historical Society going through the newspapers that have been published in that county. We have 60-million pages of newspapers on microfilm so a huge amount of local history is within each spool of microfilm.

Folks are regularly surprised when I tell them how many newspapers have been published in their county. In Chariton County’s case, there have been 31.  I pull random reels of microfilm and spool a reel through a reader and start looking for random news accounts or advertisements that are informative and sometimes amusing but say a little something about that particular time and place.

I have wondered if any of the people in my audience are learning something about one of their ancestors—but until the visit to Chariton County I had never heard from anyone connected to one of the stories.

Sometimes, the news article I choose is difficult to hear.  Such is the case of a 1917 article in The Rothville Bee, that began, “The body of a negro, apparently dead about ten to twelve days, with limbs tied and wrapped in barb wire, was found in the Missouri River below Brunswick Sunday of last week. The body was later identified as being that of William Wilson of Brunswick…Examination disclosed a bullet wound through the heart and a scalp wound, indicating that the negro was murdered.”

The historical society had more people watching the presentation on its streaming internet feed than it had room for in the museum (which, by the way, is an outstanding county history museum, and they’re expanding). A few days after the speech I got an email from one of those viewers:

“One of the news articles you read was from the Brunswick newspaper regarding a man found in the river by the name of Bill Wilson, I think this is about my grandfather.  I would love to visit with you about the article and see if we can uncover anything additional regarding his murder.”  

I couldn’t provide him with anything more than I had because the article had been picked randomly but I did give him the names of several newspapers in the county that might have had follow-up articles and several from surrounding counties since the body had been found in the Missouri river.  And I suggested some courthouse records he might check—if they still existed 106 years after the fact.

But I cautioned him he might not find much because Chariton County, just before the Civil War, had a population that was about 25% enslaved.  And 1917 in Missouri was a time when the Klan was active. The murder of a Black man might not have elicited the kind of investigation a white man’s murder might have created.

Last week, I was back at the Center for Missouri Studies for a meeting and I built in some extra time to run down the original newspaper article.  The Rothville Bee had reprinted a story from the Brunswick Brunswicker that I discovered originally had been published in the Salisbury Press-Spectator. Each iteration had a difference of small details.  The the original story concluded with a discouraging but not unexpected comment:

“There seems to be no special interest in the matter as the negro’s reputation was bad.”

So it will, indeed, be surprising if there are any follow-up stories. Why was his reputation bad?  That might be hidden in reports generated by the sheriff or the coroner or the county prosecutor—-if they still exist and if they went into any detail, which seems remote.  Family legend might give some hints.

The State Archives, which has thousands of death certificates from 1910 onward has no death certificate for William Wilson of Chariton County in 1917.  The archives of the state penitentiary show no William Wilson who matches the timeline or the description of this man so we don’t think his “bad reputation” was so bad as to merit prison time.

The Chariton County Prosecuting Attorney at the time was Roy B. McKittrick who later was elected to the Missouri Senate and, with the backing of Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast, was elected Attorney General.  He turned on Pendergast and teamed with Governor Lloyd Stark and with U. S. Attorney Maurice Milligan to break the Pendergast organization. Pendergast eventually went to federal prison for tax evasion. They also broke up a major scandal in the state insurance department and sent Pendergast crony R. Emmett O’Malley, the state insurance superintendent, to federal prison for tax fraud. McKittrick and several other Democrats were involved in an effort to keep Republican Forrest Donnell from assuming the governorship in 1940.  He ran against Donnell in 1944 for the U.S. Senate but lost. He lost a race for governor to Forrest Smith in 1948.  He died in 1961 and the story of the investigation of the murder of William Wilson seems to have died with him.

Harriett C. Frazier, in her book, Lynchings in Missouri 1803-1981,  says there were at least 227 cases of “mob murder’ in Missouri during that time. The Equal Justice Initiative has counted sixty African-Americans who were lynched, 1877-1950  The archives at Tuskeegee Institute says 53 Whites and 69 Blacks were lynched in Missouri between 1882-1968.

William Wilson’s name is not on any of those lists.  Should he be?  The fact that he was bound in barbed wire, shot, and thrown into the river with a weight tied to him points to a hardly routine killing.

But the event has been lost to history, recorded only (as far as we know) in old small-town newspapers in one of our smallest counties, and barely reported at that, more than a century ago.  Even family memories or family stories have had time to fade in the telling and re-telling.

—and the only thing we know about William Wilson is that he died a terrible death in 1917 and, it seems, nobody cared much about finding his killer(s).

More than a century after his murder, the United States Congress finally got around to declaring lynching a federal crime.  One of these days we’ll tell you about a Missouri Congressman who didn’t live to see the law that he pushed throughout his career finally adopted.

SPORTS—First Sweep; Rentals for Futures; and a Racing Record 

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(ROYALS)—Two words have not been heard together for a long time: Kansas City Royals and Sweep.  The Royals beat the Twins Sunday 2-1 and for the first time last September, swept a series.  Their opponents both times were the Twins. Ryan Yarbrough had his best game of the year, allowing the Twins their only run in a seven-inning outing to run his record to 4-5 and drop his ERA to 4.24.

It’s the Royals 32nd win of the year. They’ve lost 75.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals had to win to avoid being swept and Steven Matz gave them the game they needed. Matz and two relievers stopped the Cubs’ domination of the Redbirds with a 3-0 win.  Matz is only 2-7 for the year but his recent performances have been encouraging. In his last three starts, totaling 17 innings, he’s given up one run since coming back from bullpen exile.  He started the year 0-6 and sported a 5.72 ERA.that is now about to dip below four.

(TRADES)—-The Cardinals and the Royals finally have pulled the triggers on trades.

St. Louis President of Baseball Operations, John Mozeliak called Sunday “a day that we were hoping would never happen in the sense of having to break up our club,” but the season clearly points to the need to consider the future.

The Cardinals set left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery and reliever Chris Stratton to the Texas Rangers, getting some high-level prospects in return for left-handed pitcher John King, double-A pitcher T. K. Roby (a righty) and minor league infielder Tommy Saggese.  The trade puts Montgomery in the hands of pitching coach Mike Maddux.  Although Montgomery was only 6-9 for the Cardinals, he had a highly-respectable 3.42 ERA in 21 starts. He had struck out more than three times as many batters as he had walked.  He’ll be a free agent at the end of the year.

Also gone is reliever Jordan Hicks. He’ll be throwing his 103 mph fastball for the Blue Jays for the rest of the year.  He was 1-6 with eight saves in eleven opportunities  and an ERA of 3.67 for the year. The Cardinals get a couple of right-handed minor leaguers for him—Adam Kloffenstein and Sam Robberse.  Kloffenstein has been in double-A ball this year, is 5-5 in 17 starts with a 3.24 ERA. Robberse had 18 starts, as 3-5, with an ERA of 4.06.

The Royals swapped veteran infielder Nicky Lopez to Atlanta. They get lefty Taylor Hearne, who had been designated for assignment on July 19 by the Rangers who dealt him to Atlanta for cash. He made one appearance for the Braves and got one out.

As we were going to press, the Royals announced another trade, sending right-handed pitcher Jose Cuas to the Cubs for outfielder Nelson Velazquez, who will report to their Omaha farm team.  Velazquez has 13 major league games of experience that have generated only 29 at-bats. He’s hitting .241.

From wheelin’ and dealin’ to just wheelin’:

(NASCAR)—Only four races are left before NASCAR’s playoff season begins and only two playoff slots are in play.

Chris Buescher locked himself into the 12th guaranteed playoff position with his win on the Richmond three-quarters of a mile Sunday.  Two non-winning drivers, Kevin Harvick (sixth in the points standings) and Brad Keselowski (11th) appear to have enough points to make it.

Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell have a tenuous hold on the 15th and 16th playoff slots based on points.  But Ty Gibbs is only 18 points behind McDowell and A. J. Allmendinger is only 22 points back.  Daniel Suarez is 34 back.

Also lurking are two buys who are familiar with the playoffs but can get in with a wind.  Chase Elliott has missed seven races this year, six with a broken leg and one on suspension for an on-track incident. And Alex Bowman, who missed three races with a broken back, are hungry for a win that will make them part of the final 16.

NASCAR moves its show to Brooklyn Michigan next weekend.

(FORMULA 1)—Make it eight straight F1 wins for Max Verstappen, and ten victories in twelve races this year.   Verstappen started sixth but quickly took the lead and beat teammate Sergio Perez by more than 22 seconds.  Ferrari’s Charles LeClerc claimed the final podium position.

Verstappen heads into Formula One’s annual August recess on track to break his record of 15 wins in a single season, set last year. If he wins the next grand prix, he will tie Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine straight.  Red Bull cars have won thirteen races in a row, including the 2022 finale.

(photo credit: Bob Priddy, WWTR, 2023)

 

No.  No?  Yes, No. (Corrected)

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(This story contains corrected information.  Former Congressman Richard Gephardt’s position on “No Labels” was incorrectly stated in the first version of this post as being part of the organization. This story clarifies his that he not only is not, but that he is opposed to it.)

The “No Labels” political party is beginning to form itself out of the fog of idealism announced several months ago.  It has drawn former Governor Jay Nixon into its ranks.  But former Congressman and futile (1988) presidential candidate Dick Gephardt wonders if the effort puts the anti-Trump movement in peril.

Organizers say the party is for people who are disgusted with what the long-dominant Republican and Democratic Parties have become and who want to have a middle-ground political outpost upon which to hang their hopes.

Gephardt, who was the House Majority Leader and in line to become Speaker before the Republican takeover ended that possibility, is part of one of three Democratic organizations hoping to stop the movement.

For those who claim that both parties are being run by their extreme wings, this group that has labeled itself the “No Labels” party might seem to be a refuge. But two Democratic groups, Third Way and MoveOn, want to put a stop to the “No Labels” movement because they fear it will sap votes away from the mainline Democratic ticket and hand the presidency back to Donald Trump.

A spokesman for Third Way says “No Labels” is “dangerous.”

Gephardt is part of a super political action committee called Citizens to Save our Republic.

Nixon has told the APs Steve Peoples that the opposition groups are entitled to their opinion but “No Labels” is “entitled to use our constitutional and statutory rights to allow American to have another choice.”

The question now becomes whether the party formed to be a middle ground can find a middle ground with three groups that want to snuff out its movement early.

Regardless of how this intra-party turmoil is resolved—if it can be resolved—“No Labels” adherents need to address, and quickly, what it stands for in terms of policies instead of being some kind of ill-defined safe house for the Middle.

If “No Labels” is to survive, it needs a surface identifier, a logo.. It’s not enough to say it stands for The Middle.

Sooner or later it will have to define itself in terms of positions on issues. And finding an acceptable middle of The Middle will become a difficult challenge.

But before then, there’s another crucial issue.

What will the party symbol be?  The William Jennings Bryan-William Howard Taft election of 1896 provided party adherents with symbols that are familiar to us today.

Earth & World, a website that specializes in lists and charts showing “different and unknown facts” about our planet has a list of the ten friendliest animals in the world. A new party certainly doesn’t want a threatening image (roaring lion, water buffalo, crocodile, vulture, shark, etc.).

Perhaps this guy would work (it is #1):

This is a Capybara,  E&W says they are “immensely social and trainable; thus a dear friend to everyone.” There are a couple of problems, however.  They’re not native to the United States.  And they are considered the world’s largest rodent.

Some cynical observers might find a large rat to be an appropriate emblem for a political party but we’re not going to go there today.  Mankind’s best friend, the dog, might be appropriate but who wants to be known as a member of “a dog of a party?” Besides, what kind of a dog would be most appropriate?  Pit Bulls might fit the wing nuts of either party.  But mainline folks night struggle with the dog to represet them. Something that is an edgy Golden Retriever might do.

A cross between a Golden Retriever and a German Shepherd might do.  DogTime.com told us Golden Shepherds are good watch dogs and all-around family companions, “not especially barky, they will alert when strangers approach. These dogs are protective of their loved ones and friendly with people, children, and other dogs.”

A few Golden Shepherds in Congress would be good to have right now. Replace a few Dobermans.

Number three on the E&W list is the Dolphin.  There’s some possibilities with that one. Intelligent. Communicative. Comfortable in deep water.

Number four is the cat. Not good. Nobody wants a party headquarters that would be known by detractors as the “cat house.”  Their independence is a good cat/bad cat value. But they cover up their own messes and government coverups should not be appreciated no matter how badly the mess smells. Then again, a litter-box trained politician might be better than some that we have now.

The Panda?  Nope.  We’ve enough trouble with the Chinese owning our farmland. A Chinese animal symbolizing one of our political parties is a Yangtze Bridge too far.

Rabbit?   No.  Rabbits are favorite food items for Hawks. And our national government in particular is full of hawks.  And we already have too many people, including a few in politics, who have rabbit-like moral standards.

Guinea pig?  They also are part of the rodent family.  Some people in the Andean part of Peru keep a lot of them in and around the house.  For food. Dinner-under-foot. Cuy (pronounced “kwee”) is considered a delicacy.

Horse.  The horse is one of the world’s most useful animals. Durable, unless they’re throughbreds.  Dependable.  That’s worth discussion.

Sheep.  Heavens, no.

Nixon has refused to criticize either Biden or Trump during the years since he left office. As far as becoming part of a party with no name, he says, “I feel calm.  I feel correct.”

Very Capybaric of him.

 

A New County—part II, A New Book

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Before hostilities in pre-Civil War Missouri turned deadly with the Camp Jackson incident in St. Louis, Governor Claiborne Jackson and his associates were gathering supplies they would need to repel an “invasion” of Missouri by federal troops if one happened.  A large quantity of gun powder was procured in St. Louis and taken to Jefferson City by two companies of the Missouri Volunteer Militia, one of which was Kelly’s.  From Jefferson City, some 12,000 kegs of powder that had been stored at the fairgrounds about a mile from town were distributed throughout much of the state to be hidden away until needed by Jackson’s forces. Kelly and his unit took about half of the supply to Cooper, Saline and other nearby counties where they were carefully hidden.  The stored powder was a factor in the Confederate victory in the Battle of Lexington.  One of those involved was Michael K. McGrath.

The Irish unit fought at Boonville, Carthage and Wilson’s Creek, where Kelly was wounded in the right hand, (as seen in his picture) and in the Confederate capture of Lexington. The unit also was at the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas then in 1862, he became part of the regular Confederate army that fought in Mississippi and in the Atlanta campaign against Sherman and his Union troops.

St. Louis researcher Doug Harding indicates that McGrath would have been one of the 23 survivors out of the original 125 members of Kelly’s unit. Kelly surrendered in Louisiana in 1865 and took the oath of allegiance to the Union and was paroled in Shreveport.

It is not clear if McGrath also took the oath there or at some other time and place.  But signing it allowed him to take a bar examination and become a lawyer, paving the way for him to return to public office.

Kelly, his health broken by the war, died in 1870 and is buried in the McGrath family plot in St.  Louis’ Calvary Cemetery.

(Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1913-14)

McGrath in 1866 became a deputy clerk for the United States district and circuit courts. In 1868 he was elected to the clerkship of the St. Louis City Council.  Two years later he was elected clerk of the criminal court and in 1874 he was elected to the first of his four terms as Secretary of State (his first term under the 1865 Constitution was for only two years; the 1875 constitution established the term at four years.

He decided the State of Missouri government had grown large enough to require some kind of a directory.  He produced the first one in 1878.

(Missouri State Archives)

McGrath wrote in the two-page introduction, “It is a truth that must be admitted, that many outside and some even in it, know but little of the vast resources or of its immense wealth and unexampled prosperity, and when told scarcely believe it, so great is the extent and magnitude thereof…No location in the republic represents a more encouraging field for the honest laborer or the aspiring citizen. The contentions of the war have long since disappeared. Liberalism and tolerance in politics and religion are noted characteristics of her people. They are generous, hospitable and enterprising. Among them poverty and humble birth present no barrier to the attainment of wealth, distinction and honor.

“True merit is the criterion of success, and is fostered by hearty encouragement and profitable recognition. Occupying, as she does already, a front rank among the States of the Union, it is easy to forecast her future as one of glory and renown!”

This first manual was 72 pages long.

His term was the longest in Missouri records until James C. Kirkpatrick served five four-year terms.

He was elected to the Missouri Senate to fill a vacancy and served in the Senate during the 1889 session.

McGrath was never far from the public trough, it appears.  The Columbia Daily Tribune observed upon McGrath’s death that “He has been inspector and attorney in the office of the building commissioner, assistant state examiner of building and loan associations…” He also had a brief and unsuccessful stint as a publisher of a Sedalia newspaper. He was nominated in 1909 to be St. Louis City Register of Deeds and was nominated for another city job in 1911 but lost both times.

In 1912, McGrath was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He introduced some bills, including the one to chance St. Louis County to Grant County, but failing health forced  him to go home where heart trouble and bronchitis became too much to overcome and he died on January 28, 1913 at his home in St. Louis.

A resolution of mourning passed by the House of Representatives said, “The House lost a useful, honest, and courageous member, the State a valued and Patriotic citizen, and society an influential and sympathetic member.”

The St. Louis Times wrote, “It is much to say that a man can spend all his mature thought in a lifetime covering seventy-nine years upon the chances and changes of politics and go to his grave ithout surrendering the belief that reform in politics is possible, and that it is worth while to keep on fighting.  Such was the experience of Michael McGrath, of whom men ar easing toda, ‘Yes, he was a politician—but he was square.”

Cardinals Revert to Form; Royals still have nothing to revert to. And other stuff  

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by Bob Priddy

Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Cardinals)—Why did the Cardinals walk to their next series in Phoenix?  Because the wheels fell off in Chicago.

The Redbirds swept into Chicago with a five-game post-All Star Game winning streak, made it six, and then a series of questionable calls in the second game of the series sent them to Arizona on a three-game losing streak and asking a 41-year old ‘bird with a questionable wing to rescue them.

If Jordan Montgomery us trade bait, as (increasingly-tiresome) speculators, uh, speculate, he didn’t show much to excite potential partners as the Cardinals wrapped up a week-gone-to-pot in Chicago.  The Cubs pounced on Montgomery, who had gone 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA in his previous seven starts, for seven runs (five earned) on six hits in six innings. The Baby Bears wound up winning 7-2.

He dug his own hole in the first inning when he muffed a two-out comebacker by Ian Happ for an error and then gave up Cody Bellinger’s home—and then gave up five more runs in the third.

The Cardinals flew to Phoenix (we were only joking about walking) afterwards to start a series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.  Adam Wainwright says he’s ready after some time off and a series of shots in his pitching shoulder.

They’re in a virtual tie for last place (with the Pirates) in the National League.

And the Cardinals go into the week with a lot of speculators expecting to have some new faces in the dugout by this time next week.

(ROLEN)—There was a reason for Cardinals fans to do some celebrating during the weekend—when third-baseman Scott Rolen was enshrined at Cooperstown. Baseball writers voted him in during his sixth year eligibility. In his first year, he got just over ten percent of the vote and he becomes the Hall of Famer who got the least support for membership in his first year of eligibility.

You can watch his speech at (1) Scott Rolen delivers emotional Baseball Hall of Fame Induction speech – YouTube

He started his career with a 1996 doubleheader against the Cardinals.  He played for the Phillies 1996-2002, the Cardinals 2002-2007, Toronto 2008-2009, and Cincinnati 2009-2012. His Hall of Fame Plaque shows him in a Cardinals cap

Rolen also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cincinnati Reds in a 17-year career from 1996-2012. Rolen went in as a Cardinal.

Only Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson (16), Mike Schmidt (10), plus current Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado (10) have more gold gloves at third base than Rolen. He was a key player in the 2006 World Series Cardinals victory. When he retired, only three other third basement (Mike Schmidt, George Brett, and Chipper Jones) had 2,000 hits, 500 doubles,  300 home runs, and 1,200 RBIs.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have had another ten-game streak going 2-8. They have lost one fewer game than the Athletics, so they don’t have the worst record in baseball.

Jordan Lyles has lost as many games this year as he won last year. He’s 1-12 after pitching the last game of a four-game Yankee sweep on Sunday.

The Yankees won 8-5, scoring four times in the first inning in wining their first series in July and getting their first sweep since taking three straight at Cincinnati in mid-May.  The Royals had four home runs in the game—by Salvador Perez, Michael Massey, Freddy Fermin, and Kyle Isbel but couldn’t get enough runners on base ahead of the blasts to take the game.

The Royals have three games in Cleveland to start the week before returning home Friday for a series against the Twins.

(CHIEFS)—The Kanss City Chiefs are in St. Joseph for the start of their preseason workouts. But they’re missing a key lmember of their defensive line, tackle Chris Jones, who wants a new contract. This the last year of his contract. He’ll get a base salary of $19.5 million. It’s reported he wants at least $30 millon.

Now, let’s go fast.

(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden is Der Iowameister after his sweep of the IndyCar doubleheader at the Iowa Speedway.

Newgarden won the race on Saturday but said later he felt the job was incomplete until he won the Sunday race, too.  He now has won six IndyCar races at the track, 50 overall in his career.  He has won four times this year, all on ovals—including the Indianapolis 500.  He will have a chance to sweep the oval races this year at Worldwide Technology Raceway near St. Louis on August 27. He now has won five oval races in a row, joining A. J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr., as the only drivers in all of IndyCar history to do that.

He outran teammate Will Power, the defending series champion, in Sunday’s race, by seven-tenths of a second in a three-lap run to the checkers after a late caution. Championship points leader Alex Palou got the last podium position Sunday.

Newgarden outran another Penske teammate Saturday when Scott McLaughlin came up 3.4 seconds short. Palou was eighth.

Newgarden’s two dominant wins—he led 341 of the 500 laps in the two races on the .894-mile oval—has cut Palou’s points lead from 10 to 80 points.

IndyCar heads to Newgarden’s home town of Nashville for a race through the streets on August 6.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has done IndyCar’s Josef Newgarden one better when it comes to wins at a single track.  But his seventh victory at Pocono—and his 50th overall in NASCAR Cup competition—brought a lot of boos from the crowd at the end.

The crowd was upset because Hamlin, on a restart with seven laps left, got inside leader Kyle Larson and appeared to force him into the wall.

Hamlin claimed after the race that he gave Larson enough room for a lane and said he wasn’t sure there was any contact between the two cars. Larson, although a good friend of Hamlin’s, had no doubt it was a dirty move. He said Hamlin “knew it was going to be his only opportunity to beat me…I got used up.”  Larson wound up the race 20th.

The race ended under caution because of a Ryan Preece spin so close to the end that NASCAR decided not to stop the race for cleanup.  Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick joined Hamlin in the top five.  Truex retains his lead for the regular-season points championship, up by 30 over William Byron and 55 ahead of Hamlin.

NASCAR heads to Richmond next weekend. Only five races remain before the 16-car playoff field is set.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen again, but the win at the Hungarian Grand Prix is special.  It is his seventh straight dominating win and the 12th win on a row for his Red Bull team, breaking McLaren’s 35-year old record for consecutive victories.

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton won his first pole position in two years but was out-muscled by Verstappen going  into the first turn and won comfortably.  His win puts him 110 points ahead of the field after just eleven races this year.

 

 

A New County

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We’ve commented in the past about whether some of our county names should be changed to honor more contemporary heroes—and maybe reject some scalawags who we learn from history weren’t really worth honoring in the first place.

110 years ago a distinguished Missouri politician introduced a bill to change the name of one of our major counties.

We discovered his suggestion among our clippings.  It’s part of a column from the Taney County Republican, January 30, 1913

The column began, “Until a few years after the war, the city of St. Louis was the seat of St. Louis County. When, by authority of an act of the legislature, the voters of the city and the county adopted the “scheme and charter,” St. Louis became a separate jurisdiction, a county within itself, under the name “The City of St. Louis” and the county became known as “the County of St. Louis.”  The county seat was established at the city of Clayton and a courthouse was erecte don land donated by a citizen of that name. It has never since had any legal connection with the city of St. Louis, although comparatively few of the people of the Stat know yet that St. Louis is not in St. Louis County. Deeds and legal documents intended for county officials and courts and lawyers are often mailed to St. Louis and important legal documents affecting property and persons in the city of St. Louis are often mailed to Clayton. The confusion created by the use of name St. Louis for the county has been a source of annoyance for many years to both city and county.”

It continues:

It was doubted, of course. One reason Michael McGrath’s bill didn’t make it is because Michael McGrath didn’t make it either.  By the time the newspaper published this article, McGrath had been dead for two days.  But it was something of a remarkable gesture—-because Michael McGrath had been a Confederate soldier whose unit took part in important early battles in the Civil War.

His name means nothing to most of those who labor in the halls of the Capitol now.  But in his time, Michael McGrath was a political power.  And his influence is still felt in Missouri government today. In fact, he has a presence in thousands of homes, libraries, offices, and schools.

McGrath was born in 1844 in Ballymartle, County Cork, Ireland and was raised on a farm and educated in a parish school.  He went to the National School in Kinsale, a small village in the southeast corner of Ireland where he studied to be a teacher and became one at age 16 (Kinsale is the home to a lot of famous people we Americans have never heard of except for William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania.  Nearby is Old Kinsale Head, a piece of land jutting into the Atlantic that has a lighthouse and the remains of an old castle.  About elven miles out to sea from Kinsale Head, the wreckage of the torpedoed liner Lusitania. sunk in 1915, lies 300 feet down.)

A blight that infected the potato crops throughout Europe, causing “The Great Potato Famine,” led to thousands of deaths and thousands of emigrants fleeing Ireland and other European countries to the United States. McGrath arrived here in 1851. He hung out at the library in New York where his reading of copies of The St. Louis Republic convinced him to come to Missouri in July, 1856.

His good handwriting landed him a job with the St. Louis County Recorder.  He became a deputy clerk in the criminal court in 1861, a position he lost when Radical Republicans in the legislature passed an Ouster Ordinance that declared all offices not held by citizens loyal to the Union to be vacant.

We don’t know how soon McGrath came under the influence of Father John O’Bannon who at that time was raising money for the construction of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Church, but he soon became involved a local militia unit tied closely to O’Bannon’s Total Abstinence and Benevolence Society. The unit, known as the Washington Blues, was led by Captain Joseph Kelly, another Irish immigrant, who ran a grocery and became McGrath’s father-in-law. A drill by the Blues helped raise money for O’Bannon’s church that later served as the cathedral church of the St. Louis Archdiocese and remains an active congregation today. O’Bannon was a Confederate chaplain in the war.

Kelly’s Irish Brigade was sent to Missouri’s western border in late 1860 to repel Kansas invaders, part of the infamous Missouri-Kansas border war, and became one of the first units in the Missouri State Guard, a pro-confederate force organized by Governor Claiborne Jackson and former governor Sterling Price.  McGrath was a private in what became a regiment of the Sixth Division of the Missouri State Guard.

Irish Immigrants were more likely to join the Union army but some historians think many of the immigrants in Missouri were felt they were disrespected by the anti-Irish German Unionists in St. Louis, and further identified with the Confederacy because it reminded them of Ireland’s long-standing struggle to become independent of England.

Whatever his personal motivation, Michael K. McGrath was a rebel who apparently spent the entire war fighting against the forces of the man for whom he later wanted to name a county.

Come back next time to see how this Confederate survived the war and became a distinguished political figure in Missouri.

 

 

Cardinals Re-Start Season on Hopeful Note; Royals Get Rare Win; A Close Shave in INDYCAR; Finally, a win at New Hampshire

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(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have started the post-All Star Game season by taking two out of three from the Washington Nationals with Jack Flaherty starting to look like the Flaherty of 2022 before he got hurt.  It’s his fourth straight win, a six-inning effort in which he gave up only three hits, struck out seven and walked only three.  His ERA is down to 4.29.

(CABRERA)—Those waiting for the Cardinals to make a season-transforming deal have instead been treated to a surprise by the team seemingly giving up on a promising young reliever.  It appears to be a “what have you done for us lately” situation that has turned Genesis Cabrera into disposable property. Cabrera has been designated for assignment after 32 appearances this year in which he allowed more than 1.5 walks and hits per innings pitched—a poor record for a relief pitcher, and a 5.06 ERA, an exceedingly poor record for a reliever even in this era. He had no saves and a 1-1 record.

“Designated for Assignment” does not mean the team has cut Cabrera, at least not yet. He has just been removed from the 40-man roster.  But the Cardinals have to decide within a week whether he will put him back on it, put him on waivers, trave him, or outright release him.

It’s been a tough season for Cabrera—one of a lot of tough seasons the Cardinals are having.  He’s only 26 and up to the start of 2023 had been in 142 games for St. Louis with a 3.95 ERA and a 160-83 strikeout-to-walk ratio.  He’s been with the club since 2019.

Cabrera’s replacement on the roster hasn’t been a lights-out guy this year either.  Right-hander Ryan Tepera was DFA’d by the Angels after ten undistinguished outings with a 7.27 ERA. The Rangers gave him a minor league deal and he recorded eight scoreless innings in Triple-A Round Rock but opted out of the deal when the Rangers didn’t move him to the big club.

He’s 35 but had a career 3.50 ERA coming into 2023. His strikeout radio has dropped into the 20% area the last couple of years.  Although he had eight scoreless innings at Round Rock, he struck out less than 40% of the Triple-A hitters he faced.

(Bird Relief)—Genesis Cabrera is only one part of the Cardinals bullpen problem this year.  Relievers have blown a major league-leading 21 out of 43 save opportunities in 2023. The White Sox have 20 blown saves. Those two are the only two teams with more than 20 blown saves.

Jordan Hicks delivered the 21st blown save in the completion Saturday of Friday’s rain-suspended game when he gave up two runs in the tenth inning. Andre Pallante leads the team with five.

(MONDAY NIGHT)— The Redbirds started the week with their third straight win, 6-4 in the opening game of a series against the Marlins. It’s their fifth win in the their last sixth games and pulls them into a tie for last place with the Pirates. Miles Mikolas, whose start last Friday night lasted only three good innings before the rains came, went six innings last night, gave up three runs and seven hits. The save went to Jordan Hicks, his eighth.

The ’birds wasted no time getting new relief pitcher Ryan Tepera into the lineup. Not a distinguished entrance—two-third of an inning, two singles, a hit batter, and a walk.  Giovanny Gallegos bailed him out by getting the final out in the seventh with the bases full.

(WAINO UPDATE)—Adam Wainwright was scheduled to throw a bullpen session yesterday to see how his shoulder is doing.  He’s been shut down since July 5. He’s gotten several shots in his shoulder and says he’s feeling better.

(Royals Relief)—The Royals relievers have only a dozen blown saves. But then again, there have only been 25 times this season that the Royals have had a lead to save to begin with.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have fallen forty games below .500 and they started this week having to go 54-14 to finish the year at .500.  So every win is something to cherish—and they got one Sunday in a team history-making day.

Bobby Witt Jr., and Drew Waters each had a home run and a triple—the first time two Royals players have done that in the same game—and Kansas city beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-4.  Brady Singer pitched far better than his record by going seven full innings, throwing only 70 pitches before leaving after giving up back to back home runs.

The Royals were 2-8 in their last ten games through the weekend, and started the week on a down note with a loss. Detroit scored all their runs in the seventh inning to take a 3-2 win. The Royals outhit them 6-5, though.

Okay, now let’s go racing:

(INDYCAR)—Christian Lundgaard’s first INDYCAR victory is also the first time a driver from Denmark has won a race in the long history of the series—under whatever sanctioning name it has carried.

Lundgaard also gave Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan racing its first win since Takuma Sato’s Indianapolis 500 triumph in August, 2020 (the race was delayed because of COVID and was run in front of an empty grandstand, you might recall). It also is RLL’s first win on a street circuit in six years; Graham Rahal swept both segments at Grand Isle Michigan that year.

Lundgaard finished almost 13 seconds ahead of points leader Alex Palou, who had his worst start of the year at 15th and still come home second despite a damaged front wing on his car.  Colton had his best finish of the year, at third.

Lundgaard has promised during the offseason that he would not shave his moustache until he won his first INDYCAR race.  His crew had a charged-up electric razor waiting for him in victory lane.

Lundgaard (shown here at Indianapolis last year before he made his vow) started the race on pole—his first career pole in INDYCAR—took command on the 61st of the 85 laps when he fought past Alex Palou for second place behind then-leader Scott Dixon, a lap before Dixon’s last pit stop that gave Lundgaard lead the lead he never gave up. Dixon finished fourth.

INDYCAR returns to an oval next weekend—within driving distance for many Missourians. The series runs at the Iowa  Speedway with 250 laps on the high banked 7/8 mile track Saturday and another race on Sunday.

(NASCAR)—It has finally happened at Loudon, New Hampshire for Martin Truex, Jr., one of the tracks he considers a “home track.”  (The other is Dover, in Delaware). Truex is a Trenton, New Jersey native.

Truex’s third win of the year was a dominating performance that saw him lead 254 of the 301 laps. Eight other drivers divided the other 46 laps.

His victory earned the only edible winner’s trophy in racing.  A live lobster goes to the winner each year. Some drivers spare the life of the trophy.  However, we haven’t received word if Loudon the Lobster survived the team’s celebration last night.

Truex won both stages and maxed out on points to move into the lead in the regular season standings. Joey Logano was among the drivers who tried to catch Truex but he consistently pulled ahead on restarts and finished four-tenths of a second ahead of Joey Logano.

Going into the race, Truex had led more than 900 laps in the 29 Cup races he had run at Loudon, but had three third-place finishes as his best results until yesterday’s win (the race was rained out on Sunday and moved to Monday).

Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski made up the rest of the top five.

It was a bitter race for Aric Almirola, who crashed while leading on the 168th lap when his car lost a wheel. He finished 34th.

It also was a disappointment for Logano, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, who also considers Loudon his home track.  “When you’re at your home track, second hurts more than anywhere else,” he said afterward. “That one stings but overall, still have to say it’s a good day. Just mad right now.”

Kyle Busch finished his rugged weekend with a wall encounter on lap 72. He also crashed his car in practice and again during qualifying.

(FORMULA 1)—F1’s next race is the Grand Prix of Hungary next weekend.

(Photo Credits: Lundgaard: Rick Gevers, Indianapolis 2022; Truex: Bob Priddy, WWTR 2023)

Difficult choices 

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Lawmakers, state and federal, sometimes find themselves in the position of voting for something they don’t like to get something they want. The reverse also is true—they vote against something they like to keep something they dislike from becoming law.

At campaign time, opponents usually don’t discuss these subtleties in our political system when they criticize the incumbent for voting against an issue popular or unpopular with the public.

These dual-personality bills sometimes are passed anyway.  Then it becomes a problem for governors and for presidents.

The problem could be avoided if the legislative body did not try to combine two or more (somewhat) disparate issues into one bill.

Governor Parson had one of those bills that he vetoed in the last flurry of bill signings from the 2023 session. In this case, however, he disagreed with both sections of the bill. For whatever good it does, we—as appeals court judges sometimes write—“agree in part and disagree in part.”

Had we been present in the discussion (and it is easy to be a second-guesser from our lofty perch), we would have wondered if at least some of his reasons for the veto would be different if he were still the Polk County Sheriff.

One of the sections in the bill to which Governor Parson objected expanded the number of people eligible for state restitution if their convictions of crimes were overturned by a court proceeding and the prosecutor decided not to refile the charge.

Present law allows the state to pay someone $36,500 for each year that person was wrongly imprisoned if DNA evidence proves they are innocent.  The bill that the governor vetoed upped that figure to $65,000 and includes people set free by a “conviction review process” that was established by law two years ago.

It is the new, second, category of prisoner releases that troubles Governor Parson—and the 75% increase in restitution. The original figure, an amount based on $100 a day for each day of wrongful confinement, was enacted in 2006.  The new amount would be about $178 a day.

But here’s the meat of his objection, from his veto message to the legislature:

“With very few exceptions, criminal cases are tried by local governments (counties or municipalities).  The underlying offense, elected prosecutor, elected or retained judge, and community-drawn jury all come from the local jurisdiction and not the state as a whole. However, the burden of paying restitution under these provisions falls on all Missouri taxpayers…Missourians from every part of the state should not have to foot the bill for a local decision. Local governments should bear the financial cost of their own actions.”

Had I been in the discussion, I might have piped up with something such as:

“I agree that our justice system is administered by local people in local courtrooms.  But the offender was charged with violating a STATE law.  As I recall from years of reading court records at the local courthouse, the charges often—always?—end by saying the offense occurred “against the peace and dignity of the STATE.”

“The trial was held in a circuit court, which is a division of the STATE court system. The prosecutor, although locally-elected, is prosecuting the STATE law.  The jury, although made up of local citizens, is part of the STATE judicial process that determines guilty or not-guilty verdicts.

“The accused probably was held in a local jail but the STATE compensates the local jurisdiction for the costs of incarceration—-although local officials have complained the compensation isn’t close to adequate.”

“Clearly this is a state issue because everybody but the accused is acting on behalf of the STATE.”

“If the compensation, as you argue, should be made at the local level, who should be sued to gain restitution?  If such a reversal had happened when you were Polk County Sheriff, should YOU pay it—especially if you made the original arrest? Should the twelve members of the jury be held responsible for one-twelfth of the annual amount because they acted responsibly although incorrectly?   How much responsibility should fall on the shoulders of the judge who sent this ultimately-innocent person to jail for so many years?  Should Polk County have had some liability because its county prosecutor and its county sheriff were key figures in this process?

“And suppose this trial had been moved to another county on a change of venue. How much does that county have to pitch in?

“Polk County has about 33,000 residents.  Could a court order each resident to contribute two dollars per capita times the number of years this person was improperly imprisoned? Would that be a problem in a county with a per capita income of less than $25,000 a year?”

“Do you think you would get elected to another term as sheriff if you were the one who arrested this person to begin with?”

Well—I wasn’t part of the discussion and as I said, it’s easy to second-guess a decision such as this from a distance and without hearing the other voices. And it’s always a shame when so many good things combined into a bill are knocked down because the bill contains one problematic section that a governor thinks is poorly-written.

The legislature will have a chance to override the veto when it meets in about 50 days or so.  Or it can come back about six months from now and try again, fine-tuning the language and making a better argument for financial justice for someone from whom the STATE took away the most precious gift all of us are given—time.

 

Ignorance gone to seed 

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My friend Derry Brownfield had an expression that describes somebody doing something so egregiously stupid that it causes jaws to drop in total disbelief.

A few days ago, a tourist in Rome was accused of carving into the walls of the Coliseum, something such as “Igor+Muffy2023” to show his undying affection for his girlfriend. After he was arrested, the young sculptor/love-struck fool sent a letter of apology to the local prosecutor.  He gave as his excuse, “I admit with the deepest embarrassment that only after what regrettably happened, I learned of the antiquity of the monument,”

The “thud’ you hear is the jaw of your correspondent striking the area carpet covering the hardwood floor under my chair. It has happened every time I have read the account of his apology.

He did not know that he was defacing a structure that was built about 2,000 years ago? Did he spend his entire education playing video games in class?  Did he make it through thirteen grades of school and however many years of college without ever hearing ANYTHING about ancient Rome?

This is one of those times when it is common for millions of people to think, “How could anybody be that stupid!!!!!!” (I probably did not include enough exclamation points, actually).

The Coliseum is only one of the most recognized structures in the entire world. How can somebody NOT know it and the ruins of the Roman Forum and other obviously ancient features in Rome that the city and a lot of its structures dates back to Biblical times?

It’s ROME, for God’s Sake!  The place is old. Could he not tell it’s old just by looking at it?  Did he think it was built like that just last week? 

Why did he go there to begin with?  What was he expecting to see—lots of buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright?  (This assumes he knows what a Frank Lloyd Wright is.)

What did he think went on in the Coliseum?  The Rome Lions versus the Florence Christians in the Chariot Bowl?  He seems to say in his apology, “Golly, I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t thought it was sort of new.” As if there’s nothing wrong with spray-painting anything made or built within his lifetime that sits still long enough to be attacked by a clown with a pressurized can or a chisel.

Somewhere in the last twenty or thirty years, a new culture has been created that says it’s okay to display your decorative skills by spray painting property that does not belong to you and for which you have no permission to paint—or carving your initials in something made of more solid materials twenty centuries ago.  “See how brilliant I am?  I can paint or chisel my name and other names or even paint a suggestive or profane slogan on your property.  You’re welcome. I did it to enhance public appreciation of your property (building, boxcar, subway car, billboard, town sign). And I really like your day-glow red St. Bernard now, by the way.”

Equally troubling is his apparent belief that he can just deface any building he wants to deface.  Places such as this were created, whenever, so people like him can carve away at the stone if they feel romantically or artistically inclined.

Where do these people come from?  The ones who carve their names in the rocks of world monuments and satisfy their personal artistic muses by turning somebody else‘s property into their canvas or carving piece?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to talk to their parents?   And see how proud they are of their children for their overwhelming self-expression and how they want to commemorate their immortal love for one another.  Or until their gap year ends, mom and dad’s money runs out, and they go to separate homes.

There are better ways to make your mark on the world. I wonder if such a thing will occur to those whose ignorance has gone to seed.

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