leisurely sunday drives
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7/31/2019 Leisurely Sunday Drives
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When an icon doesnt live upto his persona, its difficult totake for many who worship that person.
Ohio States had it happentwice 30 years ago whenWoody Hayes, perhaps the most beloved Buckeye o f all time,
punched Clemsons Charlie Bau-man near the end of the and wasfired before the plane bringingthe team back from the Gator Bowl landed in Columbus, and again more recent when JimTressel stepped down as a resultof an investigation of misconductof some of his players who trad-ed Buckeye memorabilia for tat-toos and other miscreant acts.
Im sure those in Happy Valleynever thought the little guy withthe Coke bottle glasses would ever have his image tarnished.But tarnished it is and Im notsure any amount of silver polishwill clean up this mess.
Joe Paterno, the former PennState head football coach whowas fired with a couple weeksleft in the 2011 season and passed away in J anuary of t hisyear, a victim of lung cancer, wasnamed often in a report request-ed by the university and per-formed by former FBI chief
Louis Freeh, into the child mo-lestation case involving former Penn State assistant Jerry San-dusky.
In the July 12 announcementof Freehs f indings, it stated thatthere was a total disregard for the safety and welfare of San-duskys child victims by the mostsenior leaders at Penn State. Itwent on to say that those men, basically meaning former college president Graham Spanier, for-mer vice president Gary Schultz,athletic director Tim Curley and Paterno, failed to take any steps
in 14 years to protect the chil-dren Sandusky victimized untilafter Sandusky was arrested.
It goes on to stay that those incharge actually seemed to go outof their way to hinder any notifi-cation of any crime. The reportstates that those four gave rea-sons for not taking action to re-
port Sandusky to the pol ice o r child welfare, including that thehumane thing to do in 2001 wasto carefully and responsibly as-sess the best way to handle vague but tr oubling allegations.
I can buy that part of their rea-soning, if their reasoning was for
the kids and for Sandusky, and not for the university itself.Paterno is quoted as saying I
didnt know exactly how to han-dle it and I was afraid to dosomething that might jeopardizewhat the university procedurewas. So I backed away and turned it over to some other peo- ple, people I thought would havea little more expertise than I did.It didnt work out that way.
What kind of expertise do youneed? Paterno was a father. Im afather. If I hear of someone in anorganization molesting children,Im not going to back away be-cause of procedure. Even if the
person involved is a f riend, don tyou go and say what the heck are you doing?
I sure am not going to keepthat person around, especiallywhen he was still bringing teenand preteen boys to the facility.
The report states the obvious.That Spanier, Schultz, Paterno
and Curley repeatedlyconcealed the facts relat-ing to the child abusecase. It also states that thefour knew of the 1998criminal investigation of Sandusky and a young boy in a Penn State foot- ball locker room shower
and, again, showed noconcern or take any ac-tion.
How many boyswouldve been spared if these four men of power wouldve acted when theyfirst had a chance?
After the Ohio State fiasco of 2011, many called for that foot- ball p rogram to r eceive thedeath penalty, calling for theschool to be banned from com- peting for at lea st one yea r. Their reasons? Lack of institutionalcontrol.
Is the Penn State situation nota total example of lack of institu-tional control? I believe it is.This greatly outdistances any program who may have had play-ers take money from a booster or,as with the Ohio State case, sellsome gold pants players received for defeating Michigan.
It is understandable that thePaterno family is planning tohave its own investigation. A sto-ry in the USA Today stated thatthe family is not happy withthe results of the Freeh report.
Really? Theyre not happy thatthe report said JoePa was negli-gent?
Im also sure that the Paternoinvestigation will have Joe com-ing out smelling like a rose. Butthe facts are the facts. How onespins a fact doesnt change thefact, itself.
Woody Hayes went out throw-ing a punch. The icon status of Joe Paterno went out with a punch to the gut f rom the knowl-edge that Penn States honor be-fore all doctrine wasnt quitetrue.
It just shows why we shouldntmake people into more than theyare. Theyre not icons. Theyrefootball coaches, politicians, theguy down the street.
My mother always said Therewas only one person who was perfect and they k illed h im.
N N N N N
Bill Du ffield is the editor of the Kettering-Oakwood Times. He can be reached by email a t [email protected].
COMMENTARYBy Bill
Duffield
Times
Editor
They shouldve called someone
OPINION Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or aspeech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a re- The First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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4 Thursday, July 19, 2012 Springboro Sun
Put aside all the yapping about theSupreme Courts Obamacare decisionand all the learned discussions about theconnected constitutional questions. The plain fact remains that health care costsare one of the major drivers of our enti-tlement limousine heading toward thefiscal cliff of no return.
Im one of the lucky ones who haverather enjoyed the ride so far. Its our children and grandchildren who will behurt in the crash and should be shoutingStop! Some of them are but notenough.
The U.S. health care situation is com- plex and I make no claim to understand-ing all its ins and outs. But a big help in
sorting out the puzzle has been Leslie V. Norwalk who grew up across the streetin Oakwood. Shes one of Tom Norwalks daughters, went toWashington and national politics, prac-ticed law there and was acting adminis-trator in the Bush II administration for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services where she managed day-to-dayoperations of Medicare, Medicaid, statechild health insurance programs, the sur-vey and certification of health care facil-ities, and other federal health care initia-tives.
Catch your breath yet? All of that sug-gests that Washington is and has been far too involved in our health system.
Oversight is one thing, but the tempta-tion to micromanage is always irre-sistible and the Affordable Care Act(Obamacare) is that several times over.To her credit, Ms. Norwalk from her bureaucratic catbird seat preached bring-ing federal costs (a mere $674 billion inthe 2008 budget) under control. In aForbes Magazine article in 2006 shenoted how dysfunctional many aspectsof Medicare and Medicaid are and their current rate of growth is the biggestchallenge the country faces.
Her most recent analysis shows thatall national health care costs are 17% of the gross domestic product, and rising.We are already seeing that defensespending (i.e. national security) facesdramatic cutbacks because of this.Obviously weve needed reform for along time, but Obamacare definitely isnot it. Its 2000-plus pages add new lev-els of bureaucracy, regulations and fees(now called taxes, the Supremes say)
onto an already cumbersome system of health care that does a pretty good job ina significantly inefficient way.
Reform to control costs has to startwith getting government out of the way.Letting insurers design their own poli-cies and market them across state lineswould give consumers all kinds of options.
The market, not the government,would provide a greater coverage incen-tive than any mandate. Add tax reform toreduce employer-sponsored health insur-ances tax advantages in favor of payingemployees to choose their own coverage.
Theres a great deal more to reform, but the bottom line is having consumers
shoulder more of the care costs so thatcaregivers would have an incentive tocompete on the basis of cost and qualityof service. There are already stories cir-culating about Medicare patients whofind that cash payments for proceduresare far less than what Medicare would be billed.
Another key point in the discussionsis Rep. Paul Ryans plan to implementreform gradually so that those in the sys-tem now can stay undisturbed (grandfa-thered is the appropriate term). Thatmeans reform getting us away from thefiscal cliff will take two, three, or more presidential terms.
Will we begin this November?
The reform of health caremeans shrinking government
COMMENTARYBy William H.
Wild
TimesColumnist
Letter to the Editor
Severe weather bringsout best in Red Cross
and community Editor
First the March tornadoes.Then, a dramatic June storm that caused
unexpected power outages and oppressive
heat.At times like these the public hears a lotabout the American Red Cross in action providing shelt ers, cooling cente rs and water.
While these actions may seem likequick spontaneous responses they areactually months in the making and showour community at its best.
Last year leaders at the Dayton AreaRed Cross Chapter conducted almost four hundred- yes, 400- meetings with govern-ment agencies, community based organi-zations and citizen groups.
Of those an estimated four out of fivewere proactive to specifically focus ondisaster planning:
What happens when the storms hit?How will communications flow? What can we expect of each other?The Red Cross response to the torna-
does in March and its ability to serve thecommunity so well after the recent stormis a testament to all our partners, includingdonors who give us the necessary fundsnot only to be there when called but toknow what to do!
It also underscores the value of the Red Cross regional structure, where the entirevolunteer base and material resources of the thirty six-county Greater Cincinnati-Dayton Region can mobilize at a momentsnotice.
As we continue to deal with unpre-dictable weather, our Chapter wants tothank all who work with us- including our army of 900 plus volunteers- to handlelifes emergencies.
As famous broadcaster Paul Harveyused to say: Now you know the rest of thestory.
Tom Fodor, Chief Executive Officer, Dayton Area Chapte r American Red
Cross
Thanks to several area groups, severalSpringboro athletic teams will be playingon an improved surface this season.
Work is under way to install a syntheticturf field at Ralph E. Wade Field.
Plans call for the $479,900 project, is being done by The Motz Group fromCincinnati, to be completed by Aug. 1
The cost of the project is being paid asfollows:
Pee wee football, $150,000 over fiveyears;
mily Fund, $100,000 over six years; The city of Springboro, $89,950.
Clearcreek Township, $89,950.We praise these organizations for work-ing together for the benefit of area youth.Hopefully, various groups can cooperatein other areas, too.
Editorial
Wade Field project showscooperation, partnershipsRemember when the familywould take a Sunday afternoon
drive, stopping for ice cream dur-ing the outing? Gas was probablysomewhere between 29-97 centsand the drive was maybe seven to10 miles at most.
I thought of that last Sundaywhen Lucy, daughter Jennifer and I went for a Sunday drive. We cov-ered 365 miles in 10 hours, visited two hospitals, Lucys mom in theUniversity of Toledo MedicalCenter recovering from colon can-cer surgery. Shes just threemonths short of being 95 and doing very well. She kept askingif we wanted to stay for dinner with her in ICU. She was a bitmedicated so we thanked her and told her wed wait till our nextvisit. We gave kisses goodbye and headed 55 miles west to DefianceRegional Hospital, where Lucyssister was recuperating from a bad infection.
But wait, first there was a need to stop at Kohls in Defiance. Thegirls had Kohls money thatexpired on Sunday that had to bespent or it would be like throwing$30 out the window. I understood and stopped while they shopped and shopped and shopped.
I kept the car cool, played withmy Not So Smart smart phone,got up to date on the news, weath-er and sports and checked FB tosee who was checking in to whereand what people where having for dinner. Yes, I was getting bored.
Finally, purchases in tow more than $30 worth, I might add,the girls appeared and we were off to the hospital to see Barb. A half hour of conversation and her din-ner arrived and we departed to run by Moms house to make sureeverything was OK.
Then our leisurely Sunday drivewould continue to Lima, wherewe stopped at the Cracker Barrelfor dinner (no ice cream). Theonly traffic problem we ran intowere two semis, one in the rightlane and the other in the left going60 mph and blocking both lanes asthey chatted on their CBs, look-ing at each other. They were fromCanada, so immediate ly Iremarked to the girls that theywere a couple of hockey pucks.They had traffic backed up pretty bad.
I pretended to get on my cell phone ranting and raving (the one
was looking in his mirror at me),and guess what, Goal. He pulled over so the 29 cars they were blocking could finally pass
We arrived back home from our leisurely Sunday drive around 10 p.m. had driven 365 miles, con-sumed $50 worth of gasoline and spent a little over $50 on food between lunch at Mickey Deesand dinner at the Barrel. Lovethose leisurely Sunday drives.
Did you get t o s ee TheMenus a week ago this pastTuesday at the North Park amphitheater? Biggest crowd wehave ever had at North Park for asummer concert. Tim, the maestroof insanity for the Menus, was inexceedingly rare form as hearrived on stage doing a hand stand on a skate board wearing agrey skirt.
I knew then that this was notgoing to be your typical concert of instrumentals and vocals. He wason stage, in the crowd, every-where, and young kids went crazyfor him following him likeCharley from the ChocolateFactory. I lost count of the outfitshe went through.
Midway, the band took a break and then came back for a second set that took the show to 10 p.m.,and everyone was still there wait-ing to see what Tim would donext. I talked to a lot of peoplethat follow the Menus from Putn Bay to Cincinnati and they told me that Tim has never done thesame show twice. Great music,great fun and you never knowwhat hes going to do at eachshow. He announced to the crowd
that I had stolen my ponytail outof his prop box and later when hetried to take it back by pulling onit while in the crowd he realized itwasnt his prop after all. Sorry,Tim. Springboro will definitelyhave them back in the near future.
Congratulations to JeanetteMontour (Springboro HighSchool class of 1997). She is nowMrs. Normand and will be gettingmarried for the second time thisSaturday in France. You see,Jeanette married a Frenchmanname Richard. They had a wed-ding and reception here lastSaturday for all of Jeanettes fam-ily and friends and will do thesame this Saturday in France for all of Richards family and friends. Jeanettes parents, Chrisand Tom Montour, are in Francenow to take part in that ceremonyand celebration.
I had the awesome opportunityto provide the music and fun for their celebration that was held atPolen Farm this past Saturday. TheMontours were Tamarack SwimClub members and I think all of their kids were swim team mem- bers back in the 90s. Jeanetteserved many years in the PeaceCorp and met Richard pro-nounced Ree chard skiing inOregon several years ago. I wishthe Normands who will maketheir home in Oregon much peace,love and joy in their lives together.
Leisurely Sunday drivesMERGE WRIGHT
By Don W
right
TimesColumnist