20040829 MD Gov Bob Ehrlich at MD State Fair

Maryland Governor spends the day at the Maryland State Fair

Sunday, August 29, 2004

A picture of Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, who spent the day with his family at the Maryland State Fair Sunday on August 29, 2004. The other pictures are a few general scenes from a day at the fair…

Kevin Dayhoff

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20040829 MD Gov Bob Ehrlich at MD State Fair

Maryland Governor spends the day at the Maryland State Fair

Sunday, August 29, 2004

A picture of Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, who spent the day with his family at the Maryland State Fair Sunday on August 29, 2004. The other pictures are a few general scenes from a day at the fair…

Kevin Dayhoff

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20040827 “Bring it on John” by Oliver North

Bring it on, John

Blogger note: Col. North’s column is reprinted here in its entirety. It is a must read – comprehensively.

Oliver North (archive)

August 27, 2004

"Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'" -- Sen. John Kerry

Dear John,

As usual, you have it wrong. You don't have a beef with President George Bush about your war record. He's been exceedingly generous about your military service. Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served honorably in a war that ended 29 years ago and which you, not the president, made the centerpiece of this campaign.

I talk to a lot of vets, John, and this really isn't about your medals or how you got them. Like you, I have a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. I only have two Purple Hearts, though. I turned down the others so that I could stay with the Marines in my rifle platoon. But I think you might agree with me, though I've never heard you say it, that the officers always got more medals than they earned and the youngsters we led never got as many medals as they deserved.

This really isn't about how early you came home from that war, either, John. There have always been guys in every war who want to go home. There are also lots of guys, like those in my rifle platoon in Vietnam, who did a full 13 months in the field. And there are, thankfully, lots of young Americans today in Iraq and Afghanistan who volunteered to return to war because, as one of them told me in Ramadi a few weeks ago, "the job isn't finished."

Nor is this about whether you were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968. Heck John, people get lost going on vacation. If you got lost, just say so. Your campaign has admitted that you now know that you really weren't in Cambodia that night and that Richard Nixon wasn't really president when you thought he was. Now would be a good time to explain to us how you could have all that bogus stuff "seared" into your memory -- especially since you want to have your finger on our nation's nuclear trigger.

But that's not really the problem, either. The trouble you're having, John, isn't about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -- or even Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home, John.

When you got home, you co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War and wrote "The New Soldier," which denounced those of us who served -- and were still serving -- on the battlefields of a thankless war. Worst of all, John, you then accused me -- and all of us who served in Vietnam -- of committing terrible crimes and atrocities.

On April 22, 1971, under oath, you told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that you had knowledge that American troops "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam." And you admitted on television that "yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed."

And for good measure you stated, "(America is) more guilty than any other body, of violations of (the) Geneva Conventions ... the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners."

Your "antiwar" statements and activities were painful for those of us carrying the scars of Vietnam and trying to move on with our lives. And for those who were still there, it was even more hurtful. But those who suffered the most from what you said and did were the hundreds of American prisoners of war being held by Hanoi. Here's what some of them endured because of you, John:

Capt. James Warner had already spent four years in Vietnamese custody when he was handed a copy of your testimony by his captors. Warner says that for his captors, your statements "were proof I deserved to be punished." He wasn't released until March 14, 1973.

Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who was in Vietnamese custody for 2,284 days, says his captors "repeated incessantly" your one-liner about being "the last man to die" for a lost cause. Cordier was released March 4, 1973.

Navy Lt. Paul Galanti says your accusations "were as demoralizing as solitary (confinement) ... and a prime reason the war dragged on." He remained in North Vietnamese hands until February 12, 1973.

John, did you think they would forget? When Tim Russert asked about your claim that you and others in Vietnam committed "atrocities," instead of standing by your sworn testimony, you confessed that your words "were a bit over the top." Does that mean you lied under oath? Or does it mean you are a war criminal? You can't have this one both ways, John. Either way, you're not fit to be a prison guard at Abu Ghraib, much less commander in chief.

One last thing, John. In 1988, Jane Fonda said: "I would like to say something ... to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm ... very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families."

Even Jane Fonda apologized. Will you, John?

Oliver North is a nationally syndicated columnist, host of the Fox News Channel's War Stories and founder and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance.

©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

20040827 “Bring it on John” by Oliver North

20040825 WA History of Belle Grove Square in Westminster

Pictured above is the B. F. Shriver Company plant on Liberty Street, Westminster, Maryland, at what is now known as the “Stone Building” around 1885. The Stone Building is now the home of O’Lordans Irish Pub. This photo is from page 89 of “The Building of Westminster,” by Christopher Weeks, produced for the City of Westminster in 1978. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-74177. I cannot find an ISBN number – but to the best of my knowledge the book is out of print, however, copies on CD can be purchased from the City of Westminster. (updated March 7th, 2007 KED)

History of Belle Grove Square in Westminster

The 111^th Annual Community Demonstration in Belle Grove Square

Westminster Advocate

August 25^th, 2004 by Kevin Dayhoff, Westminster Mayor (528 words)

This Sunday, Westminster will hold its 111^th annual community demonstration in Belle Grove Square. A tradition that began in 1893. It all began during the years following the Civil War when civic minded public improvements and amenities, such as gas lights, water systems, paved roads and concrete sidewalks were important public issues discussed in Westminster.

The coming of the railroad to Westminster in 1861 and the National Banking Act of 1864, accelerated Westminster's process of residential and commercial annexation and mercantile expansion, a process as old as the city itself. Westminster’s first annexation occurred in 1788, just 24 years after the City’s founding in 1764.

In the 1870s, Westminster annexed a residential development by George W. Matthews, which included the area around Belle Grove Square. (Mr. Matthews was part owner of the Wagner and Matthew's Foundry and Machine Shops, where “The Stone Building” is on Liberty Street.) In a tradition and practice carried on to this day; as part of the residential development, Mr. Matthews donated Belle Grove Square (named after his daughter - Carrie Belle) to be a community green space on May 8^th, 1877.

Belle Grove Square was one of the first known deeded green spaces in the City. Belle Grove Square was restored by the GFWC Woman's Club of Westminster in 1976. The Club’s demonstrated civic minded generosity continues as it tends to the gardens to this day. In an interesting twist of historic fate, George W. Matthews’ son, George E. Matthews was the Mayor 60 years later in 1937, when the Westminster Playground was dedicated – the same year Carrie Belle died. (Mayor Matthews was elected in 1926 and died in office in 1938. He was also concurrently the Chief of Police.)

One such civic minded project, in 1893, was the fountain for Belle Grove Square. The cost of the fountain was $398.37. Just as with many other successful community improvements in Westminster, it was entirely paid for with contributions from the private sector, much of which was raised by having a festival. The festival raised $252.64 for the Belle Grove Square Fountain. Compare that to Westminster’s present day Fallfest, which began in 1978, and last year attracted over 40,000 visitors and raised over $25,000 for local charities. Fallfest will be held this year on September 23^rd through the 26^th, 2004. Civic-minded generosity and public demonstrations of coming together as a community have long been a part of Westminster.

The festival that raised money for the fountain in Belle Grove Square was held in 1893, which is also the year to which the Westminster Municipal Band traces its origins. That tradition of coming together in a public demonstration of celebrating community at Belle Grove Square has continued every year for 111 years. Other examples of local celebrations are the Flower and Jazz Festival in May; Celebrate Local Heroes in August, organized by Lori Graham in Dutterer Park (another example of civic minded generosity by another venerable family in Westminster – the Dutterer family) and Fallfest. Won’t you come out and join us for a great demonstration of community on Sunday evening, August 29^th, 2004 and enjoy the annual Westminster Municipal Band concert in Belle Grove Square.

20040813 Rabid Rebeccably Numb

Rabid Rebeccably Numb

- Going Rebecca -

August 13th, 2004

Did you feel for the Westminster Mayor when he was tied down and had the Rabid Rebecca attack dog baying and chewing at him at every Council Meeting and street corner in Westminster?

Did reading the Carroll Sun’s shallow and content-less stories and hearing the rumor mongering make you sick?

Or were you like most folks – engaged by the drama, entertained by the scent of scandal, yet comfortably numb about the whole thing? If you have a version of this story – well, then you are part of this story. What did you care – it wasn’t you that she was going after – it was someone else.

Many have replaced empathy with an “I”-centered sentimentality.

What is in this community for me?

Feeling has been turned on its head: caring is now a means not for taking action, but for feeling better about oneself or getting attention as long as we can explain it away as “politics.”

We ride the emotional dramas in the Carroll Sun tabloid, wear colored ribbons, and express our love for God and country.

May we all now bow our heads and say “the Lord’s Prayer”. Now we can all enjoy the twice monthly soap opera that the meetings of the Westminster Common Council have degenerated into – and perhaps, even keep score. It’s funny – like watching a bus accident.

Meanwhile, we take no action – at least none driven by empathy. Besides – it wasn’t you that she was going after – it was someone else.

Empathy is how we respond to the plight of humanity. It is the bedrock of our moral sensibility that allows us to feel for others, to put ourselves in their place. If you cannot feel, how can you act outside your own wants and desires?

To many today, it seems easier to just deny feelings of empathy, to react to them “rationally” as a weakness in this hard and fast world. Anyway - it wasn’t you that she was going after – it was someone else.

But this has a cost. Losing feeling for others, or never developing the capacity to feel deeply at all, means closing off a fundamental part of being a community.

On a global scale, we feel less not just about the millions of innocent people killed by traffic accidents and drugs and violence in the past decade, or the thousands of deaths portrayed on the television.

We have also become desensitized and numb about our own partners, neighbors, community leaders or parents. We joke about concepts such as “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Hey, whatever, it wasn’t you that she was going after – it was someone else.

What most folks have not understood is that Rabid Rebecca is a virus in our community and like mad cow disease – ‘Going Rebecca’ is a plague upon our community.

Rabid Rebecca Disease is a virus that cares not about its host organism.

When the Westminster Mayor continued to Zen the Rabid Rebecca – he denied her the very food that an hysteric virus feeds upon – reaction and words.

Fed by others who enjoyed her theatrics and enabled her, she then, in the famous words of Abigail Adams, became the famous well fed snake that turned to bite the very folks who had fed her. Tis a pity. Oh well, anyway, let’s hope that is not you that she is going after.

It can now be understood that a major attribute of Rabid Rebecca Disease, otherwise known as Councilmatic Disorder is that the person Going Rebecca sees a vast difference in the reality that is based on what the afflicted sees, hears, and feels - and the conditioned reality of what the afflicted has been socialized to understand – as fed by the snake-feeders.

The virus infected mind is driven towards the delusional based on the afflicted’s perception of reality. The afflicted is driven to shorten the gap between his or her perception of their concept of the delusional truth - and conditioned reality. When the gap becomes too great the afflicted will see the conditioned reality as beyond repair and he or she endeavors to destroy it. But certainly it not you that she is attempting to go after, or is it?

In the process of feeding Rebecca, one becomes less human. The snake feeders explain it away as politics. They care not becomes of the community left moribund as a result of her behavior because they do not care about the community – only about themselves or what benefit they chance to gain as a result of their parasitic behavior towards the community.

As this happens, the parasitic snake feeders not only stop feeling the pain of others, they become proscriptive and only more capable of inflicting it. This is the darkest side of empathy’s erosion. If feelings underlie an empathic response, numbness makes brutality viable. Thus, as you happily switch off from humanity, you become a threat to it.

We were comfortably numb about the attempted torture of the Westminster Mayor, and so were the Council members and other interested parties that facilitated the behavior and fed this snake-virus in our community. Those who have participated won’t say they are sorry because they don’t feel sorry.

Simple as that. After all, you don’t have any feelings – it’s only politics.

And if we ourselves, can’t feel for the community and others, who will feel for us?

Perhaps this is part of the general worsening of mental well-being. As a recent World Health Organization study shows, there’s a near-perfect correlation between the rise of alienation in the modern world and the decline of people’s mental states, with mental dysfunction growing globally.

As empathy falls, behaviors predicated on its lack have been pathologized, like narcissistic and antisocial personalities. But these are not symptoms of organic disease. Instead, it is the social system that is in need of radical treatment. “It’s only politics and it is not me that she is going after” is a social disease, often the victim does not know that they have it.

Medicating our numbness, by explaining that it is only politics is one thing, with a long and lonely history. But a culture medicating itself into comfortable numbness and explaining away politically motivated apotheosis patheosis is something else. Fortunately there is an anecdote – allow the Rabid Rebecca to feed herself to the point that she explodes.

The only part left to this Kabuki Morals play is to watch the very persons who created this monster now portray themselves a victim of the monster and heroically place themselves in the position of coming to the rescue of the very community that they continue to parasitically victimized.

KED / August 13th, 2004

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"Voce Viaggio" The Power of Partnership By Diane Jones

The Power of Partnership

By Diane Jones, Other Voices Carroll County Times

Monday, August 09, 2004

"Voce Viaggio" of the Children's Chorus of Carroll County is back from a highly successful first trip abroad.

Undoubtedly there will be those who say, "Oh no, not the Chorus again," and that would be understandable since we have recently gotten such great press coverage. Please bear with me briefly so I can report a few of the benefits of our trip and extend a partial thank-you for the ground-swell of support we received.

We traveled to Finland, Sweden and Estonia and enjoyed the sights, the sounds, the foods and all of the sensory experiences of European travel.

However, the heart of our endeavor was the day we spent in a rather small town in Estonia named Paide, Westminster's Partner City. We had been in Helsinki with its Rock Church and Scandinavian intrigues; we had been in Tallinn with its medieval charm; we were in Stockholm with its cultural and architectural sophistication, but Paide captured our hearts and imaginations.

This is where we sang and danced with children who had awaited our visit as much as we looked forward to seeing them. This is where both the Estonian hymn and the Star Spangled Banner were sung and citizens from opposite sides of the world were moved to tears. This is where children from both countries sang in Estonian and English and even incorporated sign language into their presentation.

This is where our children learned Estonian folk dances and the Estonians learned the macarina in an impromptu gathering on the street in front of the town church. This is where e-mail addresses and gifts were exchanged with promises of seeing one another again. This is where friendships and the beginnings of international relations began. And this is where international peace was reinforced through learning to delight in the differences and commonalties of others.

Voce Viaggio has been the beneficiary of a successful series of partnerships that enabled us to make our dream a reality. The Westminster - Paide Partner City Program captured our imagination and provided our goal. Thomas Beyard, Kevin Dayhoff, Audrey Cimino and other Westminster - Paide Committee members supported us by networking within the community to raise funds and give our trip visibility.

Many organizations and individuals partnered with us, sharing our vision and helping make our trip possible. And of course, there are our Estonian friends, our new partners, with whom we have begun friendships with the promise of more personal and cultural exchanges.

This was more than just a trip to Europe with performance opportunities. In Estonia, the struggle between tyranny and freedom is very immediate and tangible; not one of us will be the same after experiencing this post-Soviet culture.

For example, our sense of materialism is put into perspective after being in a place where the standard of living is much simpler, but happiness comes from more fundamental sources, such as friendship and nature. The blessings of the United States are highlighted as we hear first-hand accounts of women and children being deported to Siberia just because they weren't Russian. Our own national anthem takes on greater significance as we meet Estonians who were forbidden to enjoy their national hymn or cultural heritage for 50 years.

The 24 students and the adults who traveled will be forever changed, their knowledge base and sensitivities having been greatly expanded. Sincere thanks to those of you who helped make this possible. It will be exciting to see where our partnerships take us next.

Diane Jones, of Westminster, is director of the Children's Chorus of Carroll County.

20040809 The Power of Partnership Jones
Kevin Dayhoff www.kevindayhoff.net http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/