Mark Knows It All

I have learned over my life that people connect at many different levels. We have family connections and business connections. There are connections based in attending the same school or working in the same office or living in the same neighborhood. But every now and then, a special connection comes along based on something that defies the normal course of things. Over the course of my choral music experience, I have made two such connections. Carol Cook died today. She was a friend, although I didn’t know too much about her personal life. I knew she has some children and grandchildren. I knew she knitted (Canfield Fair blue ribbon winner) and bowled. I knew she was feisty, and said her mind as she believed necessary. But I only knew about those things in generalities. I was never to her house. I never went out with her socially. I didn’t know her other friends. But for many years, Carol and I sang in the Zion Lutheran Church choir, and later the Seraphim Chorus. She was an alto and I ...

Heath Ledger died this past week. My wife and I were watching election coverage when the news flashed across the screen. All of a sudden the news cycle was taken over by this untimely passing, with reporters standing in front of his Soho apartment in New York City, doctors speculating how this 28 year old man could have died, pictures of the body bag being removed from the apartment as a makeshift memorial was being set up at the front door, and lurid descriptions of pills being scattered around his naked body sprawled across his bed when discovered by his masseuse. After awhile, my wife looked over at me and asked:”Who’s that?” Then my mother called me and asked me the same question. At my church choir practice, another lady asked me the same thing. This was the second young actor to die this past week, 23 year old Brad Renfro being the first. Although not as “famous” as Heath Ledger, he also got substantial press coverage on his untimely demise by a drug overdose. When the televisio...

Katie, bar the door and hide the women. Here comes Wal-Mart. Sam Walton’s corporate tribute to mass merchandising, economies of scale, and the largest importer of goods into the United States, is coming to Canfield, Ohio…or not. In what appears to be one of the worst corporate real estate development decisions in modern times, Wal-Mart has decided to build one of its “Super Centers” on one of the busiest, most dangerous roads in Ohio, the State Route 224 Mahoning County corridor. It would face I-76, the Ohio Turnpike, for “exposure”. One small problem, there is no turnpike exit within 10 miles either way for anyone desiring to get to the store. State Route 11 would give it the closest freeway access, but traffic makes it almost inaccessible now, and any more construction would completely gridlock it from 3 -5 in the afternoon when it takes almost 30 minutes to drive less than a mile to the freeway. Not only is the location convoluted, they want to build it 6 miles from the newly expand...

Henry Clay and the Compromise of 1850 One of the side stories of this year’s election is whether or not New York Mayor Bloomberg will run for president as a third party candidate. His mantra is an end to "partisan politics." He envisions a Congress in which both sides of the aisle are working together, Republicans and Democrats holding hands, solving the nation’s problems while singing Kum By Yah. Sounds good, but is it? For your consideration, I believe that our political process needs, and we as citizens of a democracy deserve, a vigorous discussion of the various sides of an issue. Sometimes there is simply no room to compromise, nor would you want one. The old joke that goes Q: “What is a camel?” A: “A horse designed by a committee”, is a perfect example of what a compromise can spawn. When you need a horse, a camel don’t cut it no matter how admirable a beast it might be. Many of the great philosophical issues that face this nation are not amenable to compromise. Eithe...

The real winner this past Thursday was Iowa and its caucuses. Maybe it was the uniqueness of the current presidential election cycle; or perhaps the excitement of the possible first woman or black presidential nominee; or the lack of a clear front runner in a crowded GOP race; or the fact that my son decided to visit Iowa to see the caucuses first hand (he took the above picture in Des Moines)....whatever it was, this was American politics at its best. People never really understood how the "caucuses" worked, but the proliferation of digital cameras and videos has finally shown how this quirky institution operates from the inside. People showing up for a meeting of about 1 1/2 hours in length, listening to speeches, being cajoled by fellow citizens to vote for whomever, then physically going to a corner of the room to deomstrate a candidate preference. It was fascinating viewing. I wish we had such a system here in Ohio. Iowa serves several functions in our electoral process:...