Our City, Our State, Our Nation

[Mark Kindt]

"Unbelievable As It May Seem"

Each paragraph in the journal that I keep has for the past several weeks started with the phrase "unbelievable as it may seem".

So, as unbelievable as it may seem, I am in my 69th year and I have never in my life seen a situation where the postal service can no longer competently deliver mail without dangerous delays.

The elderly who pay their bills on-time (somewhat obsessively even) now find themselves without access to utilities (during the winter) that they have paid for or their boxes of mail-order prescription medicines they rely upon.

Yesterday, I learned that those who are over 8O years of age have basically been told that it is their responsibility to figure out how to get vaccinated. What?

My experience is that I can barely get in to see a doctor much less get a shot without weeks of delay.

While I do expect to be vaccinated at a future date, as I ponder the significance of various buzz words, like "Covid-19", HB6", "Dr. Amy" and remember the vast whole in the ground in the center of Lakewood, I want to offer some broader commentary on a non-partisan basis about the nature of government.

My motives are several.

First, it seems to me that elected and appointed government officials no longer understand the basic fundamentals of the American form of government or its actual systemic structure and how both work as a whole;

Second, the citizens who do understand this and whose friends and family members have died to protect it and sustain it are themselves fading fast, and, finally;

Those who don't understand the first two points that I make now find themselves without a viable generational map to ensure the continuity and stability of pubic and civic institutions that other generations strived to build and successfully built.

More in a while.

[Mark Kindt]

The Plight of Dr. Amy Adkins

As you know Dr. Amy Adkins was the duly appointed Director of the Ohio Department of Health by Governor DeWine.

Dr. Adkins is no longer an appointed public official in our state government and has returned to her role as private citizen.

It is my general understanding, please comment if I am in error, that while exercising her statutory duties and fulfilling her oath of office, she and/or her family were intimidated by threats that could not be disregarded without personal risk thus forcing her resignation.

Here we witness the basic impediment of governmental processes to our collective detriment.

Our constitutional guarantees of free speech do not extend to threats of harm to elected or appointed officials.

Regardless of political affiliation, talented, competent, sincere, and compassionate citizens cannot fulfill their designated governmental duties, if they are subjected to intimidation and threats for the exercise of those duties.

American constitutional democracy is and has been the envy of the world for more than two centuries.

It relies upon citizen participation and if citizens serving roles in our constitution democracy are compelled to resign under threats of harm, then we as citizens are all diminished.

[Mark Kindt]

If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It!

In 1981, one of my law school classmates accepted a job with the federal government in Washington, D.C. right after the inauguration of President Reagan.

He was a St. Ignatius and John Carroll graduate and one of the smartest people in law school (I wasn't).

He drove his used Datsun mini-pickup truck to Washington and rented an apartment in Arlington, Virginia so he could take the Metro to his new office and not the truck.

Anyway, to make a long story short, he decided that his truck needed an entire engine rebuild after the trip from Cleveland to Washington. So on the weekends, he disassembled the engine in the parking garage of his apartment building. Of course, the truck was now inoperable and it remained that way for months. In the meantime, he was storing the larger engine parts in the parking garage and hauling the smaller parts back to his efficiency apartment.

Yes, eventually the mini-pickup truck went back into working condition, but he had to have the engine rebuilt by professionals with replacements for some of the parts that went missing during the months that he spent trying to rebuild it.

I'll leave it at this. He told me that that was the last time that he was ever going to try that!

[Mark Kindt]

Smart, Well-Meaning People, and Complex Systems

I offer the Washington story of the disassembly of the Datsun truck by my friend to give a flavor of how we tend to be biased when it comes our perceptions of our own expertise when faced with complex systems.

Japanese engineers and Japanese industrial workers over time designed and built a fine very popular small truck. Obviously, that popular small truck was designed to be maintained and repaired by mechanics.

Based on prior mechanical experience with other vehicles, my friend erroneously concluded that he had both sufficient skill and sufficient time to take it apart, service it, and reassemble it.

Intelligent, well-intentioned people, often over-estimate their ability to meaningfully understand and skillfully address the operations of complex systems built by others across time.

As we shall see, this can be a common problem in government.

[ryan costa]

As we shall see, this can be a common problem in government.

this can be a common problem with voters. or successful pundits.

[Mark Kindt]

The Dinosaur Advantage

A good friend of mine took the time to tell me that I was a "dinosaur" with respect to certain recent political events.

Of course, he is correct. I am.

I'm so old that I can remember voting for George McGovern now almost 50 years ago!

I know this may be perceived as patronizing by younger readers; but as a dinosaur I have an insider view of political, historical, and cultural terrain that younger elected officials may lack -- some of which is no longer in available even in paper archives or even in digitized.

But...the dinosaur disadvantage is also knowing how swiftly one can be removed from the scene, especially now.

[ryan costa]

I like to joke that I am an Eisenhower Republican and a Truman Democrat.

I am obsolete!

ha ha ha hah

[Dan Alaimo]

I like to joke that I am an Eisenhower Republican and a Truman Democrat.

I am obsolete!

ha ha ha hah

Pass the bucks, man!

I'm an FDR Democrat.

[Mark Kindt]

Mr. Madison's Marvelous Machine

The most important book on my office desk is "Miracle At Philadelphia" by Catherine Drinker Brown.

She describes our "origin" story that took place between May and September 1787 as the leaders from many former, but now independent, British colonies met to debate changes to the existing Articles of Confederation resulting in the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1789.

Here is a link to a very inexpensive copy ($3.99):

https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Philadel ... 15&sr=1-10

More on James Madison in a while.

[Mark Kindt]

The Office of the Ohio Secretary of State - January 1983

Former United States Marshall Don Kindt offers counsel to future United States Congressman and Senator Sherrod Brown.

Photograph taken on the date that Sherrod Brown was sworn in as Ohio's Secretary of State.

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[Mark Kindt]

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner

It is also worthy of note that Jennifer Brunner, just out of law school at the time, joined this team and was later herself elected Ohio Secretary of State among her many other elective offices.

Here's a link to her official profile:

http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/SCO/justices/brunner/

Like Sherrod Brown, Justice Brunner is a most distinguished Ohioan.

[Mark Kindt]

United States Senator Howard Metzenbaum

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[Mark Kindt]

Governor of Ohio John J. Gilligan

Location: Richland County Democratic Headquarters (Date unknown)

(Left to Right) State Representative Sawyer, Jim Barney (Retail Clerks Union), Gov. Gilligan

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[Mark Kindt]

Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives Vern Rife

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[Mark Kindt]

A Few More Old Democrats

U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy - U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum

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