Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 9:43PM In a guest blog, our technology consultant talks about how the information management needs of the campaign have been handled in a manner consistent with Ward's policies and ideals.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 9:17PM People have started talking more and more about the "green economy." I realize the term can be quite a bit to absorb at first, confusing and broad. The term is one that for Tennessee could mean making money and creating jobs - if the right person is elected governor in 2010.
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 10:17PM My recent family trip to Alaska really got me thinking about Tennessee's possibilities. It's possible for Tennessee to enhance tourism, create jobs, grow revenues and reduce health costs. We simply have to change the direction we've been heading in and focus on our real assets - our base of educated people, modernized facilities and our mountains and streams.
Monday, August 3, 2009 at 10:10PM I so enjoyed running, biking and swimming for many years that people suggested I put all three together and compete in a triathlon. Nashville boasts the second oldest in the world (the Hawaii Iron Man is the original), so I set my sights and began training.
Triathlons are about endurance, but what many don’t know is this combination of swimming, biking and running is done in reverse order of risk: drowning, falling off, and falling down – like political campaigns.
You’re tested from the start. You train for months in clear chlorinated water alone in your swim-lane. Then you find yourself swimming in water you can’t see through with the company of 1,000 (at Memphis in May) to 5,000 (at Chicago’s Ms. T.’s Triathlon). Flailing, thrashing bodies surround you. Each breath between strokes provides a sudden, different, dramatic snapshot: a clear view across the water, a 6 ½-foot, 200-pound all-sinew competitor swimming right over you with all the force of the Queen Mary (where did he come from?), and then the heels of someone in front of you (while at the same time someone grabs your ankle and pulls).
The intricacies are in two transitions. The first transition from swimming to biking involves running out of the water to the transition area, removing your wetsuit, putting on bike cleats and riding for twenty-five miles. Transition two is changing from cleats to running shoes and going all-out for 6 miles while your legs adjust from rotating to the back-and-forth of running. Each competitor wears a chip that times each segment of the race and each transition. Several weeks later, competitors receive in-depth analysis of times and rankings.
Some races begin with timed starts, perhaps six seconds apart so it may be an hour or more before everyone is in the water. You might be just heading out for your bike segment when someone else is already coming back in to run, provoking you to think you don’t stand a chance. Others triathlons begin en-masse, almost violent and certainly energetic.
Anyone’s first triathlon has points when you might quit. But along the way are stations for you to grab a drink of water or just dump it on your head, people clapping, and on-lookers vigorously urging you onward. How can you let them down! At the end is the magnificent food tent with all sorts of fruits, energy bars, baked goods, cold beer and so on – and all that continues right up until the last straggler makes it over the line.
There is no “one” triathlon. So much is learned with your first that you start training for the next, figuring out how to do it faster. You realize you could wear one piece of clothing under your wetsuit to bike in and to run – the smaller and the lesser, the better. You challenge yourself, and by doing so, you begin to place in the national rankings. The more you do, the better you get. Preparation. Execution. You’re hooked.
Eventually I competed around the country: Atlanta, Memphis, Tullahoma, Austin, Chicago, Nashville … once being so intent to get my bike on the plane for Boulder that my wife and I left our car keys in the ignition with the doors open at the terminal. For a small fee, the airport parked it for us.
Today, these are just memories of a 52-year-old man with bad knees who is now running for Governor of Tennessee. But they are great memories that resonate with the focus and energy required to run for office. Like most things, it’s easier to not try, but the failure is in not trying. The race needs everyone, all ages, all participants, inside the race and out, cheering, and handing out water.
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 12:32PM If you never saw Roger & Me or Food, Inc., I suggest that you run, don’t walk, and order both immediately. The first is Michael Moore’s 1989 film exposing the pre-bankruptcy arrogance of General Motors. The second, a movie and a book, is Karl Weber’s account of how America sources most of its food.
One can talk at length about the carbon footprint of cars and agri-business, but my point here is about things promoted as good that diminish our individual well being.
For years we have seen politicians blather about driving US brand name automobiles in support of American workers. All the while, politicians protected the US auto industry by not requiring aggressive, competitive fuel efficiency standards for the sake of protecting US jobs. So, US companies made cheaper gas-guzzlers in the name of enhancing the jobs of US workers when in fact nothing could have been more un-competitive and harmful to US workers. All the while, GM made a bundle selling auto financing to Americans just coming out of bankruptcy because these are the people with spotless balance sheets with quick credit approval. Unfortunately, both practices were self-diminishing and did US workers no favors.
Is organic expensive? Let’s talk about hamburger and Mad Cow disease. According to Food, Inc., a typical hamburger may be comprised of as many as 1,000 different cows filtering through the 4 major slaughter and processing plants in the US. Factory farm operators still feed “poultry litter” (the waste found on poultry barns) to cows, and prior to that, the poultry may have been fed cattle tissue prior to creating poultry litter. In a second slap to consumers, factory farmers mix low doses of antibiotics into animal feed, which makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotics for which we pay so dearly. And, if beef is corn-fed as opposed to grass-fed, it’s fattier, probably non-organic and more likely to promote heart disease.
In both instances, we all pay the price, some more than others, as insult is driven to injury with a topping of political sanctimony. American workers are better served by government demanding exceptionally high auto emission standards. In fact, the US would be energy independent today if congress had approved Jimmy Carter’s 1978 proposal of 24 miles per gallon. A lot of things might have been different. And, be circumspect when someone says that eating local or organic is too expensive. If you want to support farmers and save money, buy local first and then make sure it’s organic.
Accordingly, we will do better for the US economy and worker, rural and urban, by driving the most fuel efficient cars we can and eating as healthy as we can. And, we can do more for our bank account and our health in the process.