I have a confession to make!

I know that the "Smart People" in the world are telling me that I shouldn't affiliate with her:

"She's unpredictable and makes the party look silly..." Garrison Keillhor thinks she's "perky", but not legitimate. Many are not quite as eloquent as the old scout, calling her stupid and a liar -- or a moron. On the View, even her gender counterparts questioned her intelligence.

Still others think that she is a "conspicuously unintelligent right-wing media personality." Yet, I couldn't help myself... and thus my confession: I attended the Sarah Palin event this week in Minneapolis. Wait, there's more: I enjoyed it, my wife came with me, we cheered, and I .... (swallow... long dramatic pause).....like Sarah Palin.

What the Smart People don't get is that the more they jest Palin's pedigree, the clearer it becomes that she is just like the rest of us. Early in her speech, she won over her crowd with one simple truism, "what I like about you folks in Minnesota is that you sound like me." Of course, she meant her accent (which has also been criticized).

Yet, the look in people's eyes told more -- Palin made them fell that a normal person (like them) could make a difference. In one more sentence -- "Washington is addicted to OPM (sounds like opium) Other People's Money" -- she summarized one of the greatest concerns on people's minds. She is likeable, speaks straight and is able to touch people's hearts -- the "Palin Effect" as explained in one recent article.

She also instinctively understood the implications of the huge policy shift Obama recently took (from deterrence to appeasement) on national defense. Obama recently removed nuclear retaliation as an option against countries that use chemical or biological weapons against us. While Obama has not abandoned the American "speak softly and carry a big stick" approach, he has indicated that he feels that we should carry a smaller stick. This is a legitimate policy discussion that we should be having as a country, not some crackpot idea dreamed up by Palin. As explained in the USA today, this was a "major shift in the nation's security policy."

What the Smart People don't like is that Sarah Palin quickly framed this discussion in terms we all understand -- standing up to the play ground bully. I don't have to agree or disagree on every issue, but I do appreciate her ability to initiate and simplify the dialogue.

If you're curious, attached are the video links to the Palin and Obama exchange:

1. Palin in Minneapolis (I was there, but turned down Hannity's request for an interview);

2. Obama response -- notice how he says he is not going to respond and then does respond by saying that the Smart People know better than us simple folk;

3. Palin strikes back questioning his record of success in N. Korea and Iran.

I for one will keep listening to Sarah Palin as she seems a like lot of us here in Minnesota -- just trying to make the world a better place.

Thanks for listening. I feel much better having come clean on this one... although true bloggers would discover that I previously admitted to liking the Palin Label.
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Reform for the people, not for the votes.

We are overwhelmed by it: health-care reform, welfare reform, government reform. A political revolution in the making? Maybe for some. Politics as usual? Probably for most.

It is understandable that reform efforts need to have political winds behind them to reach the legislative finish line. Reform for purely political reasons, however, will not "fix" anything. Reform should be for the people, not for their votes.

As explained recently by Pope Benedict XVI, "The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding the the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them. . . . When animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have."

We should question the sincerity of the national health-care reform initiative of the left, just like we should question the motivation behind welfare reform initiatives of the hard right.

Economically and socially, we need to find a better way to do things. Reform efforts should be judged through the lens of effectively helping people, not merely re-election efforts.
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Focus on the Common Good: A case for ending our obsession with State and Federal funding

A recent nation-wide study conducted by the University of Illinois, found that many "rural" communities are well above the national average in prosperity. Rather than focus just on growth, this study identified specific outcomes and tackled the question, "Why some rural places prosper and others do not." The final conclusion of the report identified educated populations, a diverse economy -- mix of farm and non-farm jobs, creative class occupations and balanced income distributions. This study further identified civic and religious engagement and community interconnectedness as key factors in success.

While I am clearly biased, this sounds a lot like Southern Minnesota! Let's face it, we have a pretty darn good place to call home. Our small-town networks of charity, faith, education and friendship are a priceless commodity. The Illinois report gives a glimpse of hope in otherwise dark times. As a community, we should elevate the importance of our community networks in promoting community prosperity. Whether these networks are referred to as the living church, Blue Zone "moais", social networks, Tibetan "camps" or just neighborhoods, government programs cannot compete with the human touch.

Community support and prosperity should not be driven exclusively by government solutions. Instead, our government institutions should provide the important infrastructure base that allows these networks to prosper-- the foothold at the base of the pyramid. We cannot expect our government to be everything for everybody.

Too often lately, it seem our community ethos and energy has been spent chasing state and federal money -- stimulus funds, "jobs" bills, bonding bills called jobs bills and other pork projects. Make no mistake, I strongly support parochialism and protecting our turf, especially in regards to funding formula inequities. Yet, the wedge politics and hand-wringing committed to gaining these entitlements does little to promote pride and the common good. We should get off the treadmill that bribes us into chasing institutional money, fueled with the demand that the institutions take more of our money -- and our children's money. Why should we demand that they take another dollar when all they send us back is a quarter?

Government certainly can do good, but it cannot always do the most good. Institution building should not be confused with community building. We should place more confidence in our local networks and end our obsession with gaming the treadmill system. The on-going effects of the great recession will certainly threaten the social and economic fabric as we know it. As a community, we must think long term, not rely on the short-term models currently being offered by the state and federal government.

A lot of ink has been used analyzing the "no new taxes' theory of the right. This pledge certainly has many downsides and is easily perceived as anti-good government. Yet, no ink is spilled on the "no new reform" pledge of the left. The public correctly fears that any new taxes would be spent on new programs, not strengthening existing programs. Government programs are not inherently good or right. They must efficiently promote the common good, not just promote "good."

In the pursuit of prosperity and the common good, we should have more confidence in, and strengthen our local networks. We should demand that our government institutions serve our communities, not let government institutions demand that our communities service them. The first step towards this goal is to recognize and minimize our obsession with government funding.

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Why we live in Minnesota: The Silver Lining

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The Great Unifier: Obama Photo Parade

A picture (and a YouTube video) are worth a thousand words:

Click here for YouTube video:

Obama Criticizes Supreme Court in State of the Union

v. Obama Bows to the Saudi King

and the Japenese Emperor

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The GreatestGift

"The greatest gifts my parents gave to me were their unconditional love and set of values. Values that they lived and didn't just lecture about.

Values that included an understanding of the simple difference between right and wrong, a belief in God, the importance of hard work and education, self-respect and a belief in America."

Colin Powell

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Exploring Free Will

The past month, my five year old daughter has been learning the concept of making choices. One day, she asked her mother, "do you know why I don't behave when I get home at night?" Probably thinking that she can solve all of world's problems if she can solve this one, mom answered, "yes dear." Avery answered, "It is so hard being good at school all day that sometimes I need to be bad at home."

Having heard this story from my wife, the next week I get the question, "Does God control us?" [Oh boy, I'm in trouble -- deep breath] "No honey, God gave us choices on how we behave." Our good catholic school son (Age 8) then chimes in, "Like Adam and Eve." I jumped on this one "Yes, like Adam and Eve, we can choose whether to be good or bad."

Not quite satisfied, Avery goes on, "How do we know how to be good or bad." [sweat dripping down my forehead -- deep breath -- pause]. "That's our job as parents to teach you what is right and what is wrong. My parents taught me and now I have to teach you." Seemingly making the connection, Avery asks, "Do I need to teach my children?" [sigh of relief and mental high-five] "Yes, you will need to teach your children."

Back to being five again, she says "and they will teach their children and they will teach their children...... [on and on annoyingly for about five minutes].

Since then, it has been amazing to watch her work through this issue. Last night, she was ready to "blow her top" and said so, but seemed to calm herself down. She also told me recently that if she blows her top to turn on the lullaby CD in her room.

This parenting thing is scary business -- I often struggle with right and wrong and keeping my own perspective. Yet, I'm expected to teach life skills to a couple of little human sponges? I guess I need to keep exploring my own free will? Thanks to my daughter for teaching me this lesson.

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The Elephant in the room

The Perpetual Challenge of Modern Government

"This challenge requires that government finally master a delicate balancing act between opportunity and security -- between growth and fairness. To grow, a democratic capitalist economy requires strong economic incentives for investment, including low taxes and minimum regulation. To be fair, it must provide some goods and services to those who cannot provide for themselves, which will inevitably take resources away from growth. Enacting too much social spending is a cruel policy, not a humane one, because it weakens the system's capacity to serve everyone. . . It is fashionable to say that communism and socialism have been discredited. But they will not be completely discredited until government overcomes its tendency to ignore the simple fact that too much social spending saps an economy's ability to produce the funds necessary to finance the social programs."

Richard Nixon, Beyond Peace, 1994.

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The Elephant in the Room.

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the Republican elephant. While the elephant I'm talking about involves politics, this is not a political topic, but something that is happening in our own communities.

The elephant that is sitting in the room that we seem to be ignoring is that serious financial stress and a large hunger gap are infiltrating middle-class Minnesota and America. I've referred previously to the newly poor and the anxious middle class as a voting class. I have not, however, discussed this ballooning event as it is occurring in our own neighborhoods and right in front of our eyes. We have all been hearing the news for a while about extending benefits for the growing number of unemployed, food insecurity and overall increased poverty. Hunger is often associated with inner cities and third world countries, making it difficult to admit that it is prevalent in our own backyard.

A run of recent encounters triggered me to turn and point at the elephant in our own community living room to help us accept responsibility for addressing this challenge. First, the findings released from the annual Hormel Foods survey on hunger. This study found that 24% of US adults reported eating less this year so that kids had enough to eat. More profound from a community perspective, 38% indicated that they would be uncomfortable asking for food donations. People are much more likely to admit that they lost their job than admitting that they need food assistance.

Next, a recent conversation disclosed that in my local community, the waiting list for the homeless shelter and the overall grocery bill for the food shelves continues to increase at a record pace. Remember, these are the people that are asking for help. With no effort, I quickly recalled multiple family members, friends or clients that have have been laid off, had hours cut or are just simply struggling to figure out how to get by. I imagine anyone reading this can do the same. Finally, the demand for low-income legal assistance has more than doubled this year. I fear that perhaps we are just seeing the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

At the state level, we have a shortfall of 125 million meals per year and the twin cities is reporting over 100% increased demand in their food shelves. At the national level, the United States Department of Agriculture recently released its 2008 Household Food Security Report. 14.6% of US households are categorized as "food insecure", the highest number since the report began in 1995. This nation-wide hunger gap is described as "historic", yet only covers the 2008 time frame, the early stages of the current economic downturn. At the world level, our population continues with its exponential growth, with a threatened repeat of increased prices that caused food riots and governments to collapse.

While we do have a very effective delivery system in place, we must recognize that this societal challenge will not only strain, but may cause the delivery system to break down. Not only state and county government (the primary oars for safety net delivery); but also our local churches, non-profits and school districts are already feeling the pinch. Another recent report by Share our Strength, discloses that one in four children in America face hunger challenges, many in middle-class communities. Schools are described as "a critical safety net" against hunger among students.

These stories and reports are likely a whisper of what is yet to come.

Our solution to this challenge during a prolonged recovery on main street should not rely on crossing our collective fingers and waiting for the hyper-political wheels of Washington D.C. or St. Paul. Instead, we must lead at a local level to do what we do best -- adapt and work together as a community, state and country. We must challenge all organizations, governments and school districts to dramatically rethink how they fill (and pay for) this role. Difficult decisions need to be made as to who is entitled to help, and more importantly, how much help.

The answer is not to add new government programs, but to leverage, prioritize and strengthen the one's we already have. As leadership communities, we can set examples for other communities to follow. We should be part of the solution, not join the chorus of professional victims.

To meet this challenge, there must be a re-focusing of resources on basic institutional roles. To begin, a clear distinction must be drawn between the safety-net intended to keep people from falling into true poverty, and the entitlement mentality that clearly permeates current policy decisions. We must demand that these delivery institutions prioritize to keep the bottom from falling out and help people weather the storm and quickly return to self-reliance.

When working with clients, I often try to put their life challenges in perspective. Too often lately, I've found myself saying these words, "Remember, it may get worse before it gets better." Reality, with light at the end of the tunnel. Together, we should face the reality that it may get worse before it gets better -- that's the elephant in the room.

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It's Still the Economy

Political propaganda aside, the economy is very fragile right now. Two extreme political views (government is the answer v. tax-cuts) are driving the dialogue already looking towards the next election. An editorial explaining this counter-productive process appears in today's Financial Times and is a good read.

There continues to be a huge middle ground of common-sense that is not being explored. Until common-sense prevails, main street will struggle.

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Anatomy of a State Political Convention

I recently attended the 2009 Minnesota Republican Convention. According to news reports, some 1,200 people attended as voting delegates at this non-election year event. As I've done frequently for the last 20 years, I attended as a delegate and participated in this grass roots political process.

For those unfamiliar with this process, here is a primer: In the spring of an even year (election year), each political party holds is precinct caucuses. This event, generally dubbed as the beginning of the election process in Minnesota, ends with the election of delegates and alternates to the convention of "BPOU" (Basic Political Operating Unit) -- in Greater Minnesota by County. During an election year, delegates and alternates are elected to during the BPOU or County Convention to both the State and District Convention (1st Congressional District for me). These delegates are then empowered to be the official voice of the State Party and Congressional District for two years (the even election year; and the odd non-election year).

A candidate seeking the party endorsement, must receive it (by vote of the delegates) at the appropriate District or State Convention.

This past weekend was the off-year State Republican Convention. An off-year is a building year, as the next election is more than a year away. Yet, these conventions are important as the building blocks for the success or failure of the party in the next election. In addition, this year was surrounded by the buzz created by a straw poll of the delegates of their first and second choice for receiving the Republican Party endorsement to run for Governor in 2010.

I decided that my determining factor in who I would support in the straw poll was how well I thought they would perform in a "purple district." A purple district (like Albert Lea) is one that is not consistently Republican (Red) or Democrat (Blue). I wanted to support a candidate that would attract independent voters and provide a boost to local Republican candidates.

I questioned the top five candidates and posted their responses on my new found friend twitter (you can view the results of these interviews to the left of my blog). In the end, I supported Marty Siefert as my first choice and David Hann as my second.

I enjoy the opportunity to see candidates at this early point in the campaign helps to separate the real person from the campaign glitz.
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Time to Strengthen the Social Safety Net: Not extend the supply lines

I find myself talking politics a lot these days. This is common for me, but it seems that there is an across the board increased "chatter" almost comparable to an election year. There appear to be two factors driving this heightened engagement:


1. Our President's attempt orate his legislative agenda. I've previously blogged about Obama's impressive ability to open doors and initiate dialog. Through his abilities, he has injected politics (namely the health-care debate) into the popular culture of America and has been hitting the political talk show circuit and late night shows; and

2. People are genuinely scared for their families' future. More businesses are facing financial ruin, more people are being laid off and the existing support structure is being severely strained.


The anxious middle-class and the newly poor are a growing constituency that feel helplessly sandwiched between the high cost and mandates of Obamacare and the anti-welfare advocates on the far right. These extremes leave a huge middle-ground called "common-sense."


Common-sense dictates that we need to circle the wagons to make sure our existing social safety net is working properly, getting to those who need it for a hand-up and making sure that the system does not financially collapse. Adding new entitlement programs under the banner of "change" may provide good headlines, but is hollow on main street.

Government should protect the social safety net supply line, not string it out so thin that it collapses.
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Tribute to Norman Borlaug

A legend passed away this past weekend. Norman Borlaug had many titles:

Father of the Green Revolution
The man who saved more lives than any man in history
Greatest American of the 20th Century;
Greatest Human Being, RIP
The man who fed the world;
Nobel laureate

In today's pop culture world, this level of media accolades is unheard of, but refreshing.

I had the opportunity to meet Borlaug once at a World Food Prize event -- a program he started to recognize individuals who promote food availability in the world.

One of Borlaug's greatest quotes:

...most Western environmentalists "have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists in wealthy nations were trying to deny them these things."

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Better Message, Better Candidates, Better Results: Searching for Safety Net Republicans

Why do we continue surrendering the high ground to the Democrats? They express constant moral outrage over any attempt to control the ever growing appetite for government spending -- the Federal deficit is now projected to exceed a staggering $9 trillion. Their open mockery inaccurately attempts to justify entitlement spending under the cover of the social safety net.

The inconvenient fact that is being ignored is the moral line that they are crossing by advocating unsustainable spending that is on track to bankrupt every level of government. Such actions threaten to effectively destroy the social safety net, not strengthen it. The general public instinctively understands that piling another expensive program on top of the bankrupt social security and medicare programs is probably a bad idea. This realism is more likely driving the recent populist outrage than a mistrust of government.

As Republicans, we need to express the need for a sustainable safety net. Where are the "Safety Net Republicans" that can articulate the need for a hand-up, not a hand out? Republicans must express compassion for those in need and express disgust for those attempting to gain entitlements under the banner of the social safety net.

Unfortunately, we are not articulating this message, nor opening recruiting candidates who can. Running a candidate that shows an increased level of compassion during tough economic times is just good politics. After all, more people are either relying on government support or at least are worried that they may need government support in the coming years. Tough talk may satisfy ideologues looking for endorsements, but certainly does not make people feel secure and can easily be perceived as being mean-spirited.

During the fabled "Republican Revolution" ushered in by the Contract for America, general public dissatisfaction with the government was at an all-time high of 70%, compared with 57% now. Of further interest in today's new political climate, younger voters and independents are much less skeptical of government and believe that the government is run for the benefit of all people. The same is true for independents, Hispanics and minority voters. These overall trends indicate the unlikelihood of a non-presidential election repeat of the Contract for America scenario that many die hard Republicans are preaching.

Unfortunately, too much of our current Republican "message" operates under the government is bad banner. The current platform still references "requiring all able-bodied welfare recipients to work as a condition of receiving benefits..." and a strong statement that the safety net should be privatized and removed from the government domain. While these planks are laudable goals, they were written in a time of apparent endless prosperity. At that time, there was a dream that the economic growth engine alone would lead the world out of poverty. Unfortunately, prosperity alone cannot be expected to solve the worlds problems. An exclusively private social safety net is not on the current horizon.

Our party has generally supported the concept of supporting those in need and some candidates are on message. Unfortunately, in today's charged climate, Republicans feel that they need to express disgust for welfare recipients first and then reluctantly acknowledge that those that cannot help themselves MAY need some help. I support an expression of compassion first and reform second. Most recently, the party attempted to take a step in the right direction by creating its new "Health Care Coalition." Ultimately a great messaging opportunity -- yet, they still got it backwards: "The goals of the coalition are to help prevent a government takeover of the American health care system and to promote positive alternatives which put doctors and patients in charge."

Articulating what we support FIRST and what we would change SECOND is a simple, but effective way to attract voters. I support cleaner water...to be achieved in a reasonable manner. I support classrooms first .. reform second. I support immigrants pursuing the American Dream... provided they follow the law. A "Safety Net Republican" is no different. Our candidates should express compassion for those truly in need. Only then, will our leaders have the moral high ground necessary to accomplish real reform.


Exploring this new messaging should yield a new breed of candidates, sorely needed in purple swing districts. Quality candidates supporting the old ideological anti-government premise are a declining breed. I see very little "new blood" in any of the Republican camps. I frequently hear the question, "why can't we get more young people involved in the party?" They need a cause and the one being presented does not work for them.

We need more than just tough talk to win elections. We need a better message that acknowledges the concern in people's hearts. It feels good to help people and having candidates that can openly discuss that they care about people can only be a good thing. As we begin to turn the tide towards more common-sense and realism, good candidates need to get elected and then they need to lead. Safety-net Republicans, time to speak up.

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The Fall-out from "Change"

The Fall-out from "Change"

As many of you know, I am an active member in the "Agriculture Community", as a member of the American Agricultural Law Association and a student of ag policy for many years. In this capacity, I follow a number of industry and academic thinkers on industry trends and challenges. One of those thinkers is Roger McEowen, a distinguished professor from Iowa State University and Director of the ISU Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation.

One of Professor McEowen's recent tax updates included the following overview of the "massive" American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (this is the one that you see the signs for on the road projects). The following is his overview:

"Pushed through Congress with little debate based on claims that matters would be "catastrophic" if passage was not immediate, and without an opportunity for members of Congress to actually read the text of the legislation, the Congress passed the massive spending bill, H.R. 1 . . .

The Act contains 575 pages of tax provisions. Many of the provisions are individual credits that will likely have little-to-no immediate stimulative effect and targeted tax benefits that appear to be so narrow as the be largely ineffective economically at the present time. That is why it is inaccurate to call the Act a "stimulus" bill. In addition, the non-tax portion of the Act contains massive amounts of spending for social programs largely unrelated to the economy. To facilitate the massive spending contained in the Act (it is the largest spending bill in U.S. history), the Act raises the U.S. debt limit to over $12 trillion."

This one caught my attention!
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Discrimination Against White Firefighters!

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a group of White firefighters in Conn. were discriminated against when their testing results for promotions were set-aside after it was discovered that no black firefighters were among the finalists.

While not presented as a major change in the law, this ruling is drawing attention as the lower court ruling that was overturned involved Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

I expect a lot of media attention on this issue, attempting to paint the current Supreme Court as "too conservative."
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Finding Reform in St. Paul: behind every door and around every corner

The word "reform" is an often overused term in politics. A google search of "reform in politics" turns up over 48 million hits. Sometimes the concept of reform is repackaged into another term, say "change in politics" at 190 million google hits; 62.5 million for "Obama Change in politics."

While I mostly disagree with Obama's change or reform attempts, I cannot criticize him for his aggressive search for a new way of doing things. I like to say that there is reform behind every door and around every corner. Right now, the Obama presidency is seeing an unprecedented ability to open doors and get around corners that never were before thought possible. Ultimately, history will determine whether or not he is using his pulpit to force open the right doors.

In contrast, as an observer this past legislative session, I saw very little progress in finding real reform in St. Paul. Instead, the leadership of the majority party perfected the role of closing doors, dispensing political rhetoric and finger pointing. Education and health-care are the two opportunities for reform that I have blogged about previously.
http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html


Given that these two areas account for almost 70% of the budget, reform in other areas becomes irrelevant from a numbers perspective. The attached link shows a great pie chart of the State's budget. http://budgetforum.senate.mn/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/slide93.gif

The Democrats' door slamming episode ended with few new ideas even making it out of committee or being quickly killed on the floor. Even attempts to close loopholes on outright fraud and abuse of the welfare system were thwarted. To the D's anguish, they unintentionally left the door open a crack for Governor Pawlenty to utilize the unallotment process.


No one claims that unallotment is the preferred method of obtaining reform. Reform using a blunt object is always more messy than the scalpel. Yet, the Democrats posturing at the Capital left all the doors locked and the hallways blocked.


The legislative master that he is, Pawlenty remains a step ahead of his opposition. Many of his unallotment cuts are deferred until 2011, meaning that the legislature has next year to actually make reforms. If the Democratic leadership in the legislature cannot get their act together and implement "change", then the bulk of the Pawlenty cuts go into effect.


In effect, the Governor has established a new end game. Normally, the first year of session sets the budget for two years and government shut down occurs on July 1 in an impasse. This time around, Pawlenty avoided a shut down and set the rules for what will happen next July 1st if Democrats cannot perform. As much as they will posture, Democrats will not be able to avoid responsibility for a meltdown and the "No Reform" label can be placed on their candidates foreheads.


A well reasoned, disciplined approach from the minority should be able to capture this opportunity and broker reform opportunities while the Governor watches from the national campaign trail. Governor Pawlenty has handed House and Senate Republicans a set of keys that will open many doors that are normally unavailable for a party with minority status.


I hope that our caucuses can use the keys that have been handed to them to promote real reform, not just old worn-out agendas.

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A reminder of God's power and mercy

I was in Austin, Minnesota last night for the Cedar River Watershed District meeting. These monthly meetings are held at the Hormel Nature Center. Well, this location happened to be in the path of last night's tornado that hit Austin. http://www.albertleatribune.com/news/2009/jun/17/tornado-touches-down-corning-austin/

We heard the sirens and then the news came that a twister was hitting the NW side of Austin and heading our way. We watched the clouds begin to rotate and the debris starting picking up. Small "fingers" of twisters snuck out of the side of the massive cloud and then we could see the large rotating cloud heading our way.

Our group of about 15 went to the bathrooms and utility rooms as there was no basement. The men's room has a small window that we could see out. All I could see was trees being flattened or completely sideways. The interpretive center is about 20 feet away and we lost site of it when all we could see was downed trees and roots sticking out of the ground. We were waiting for the "train sound" that everyone describes when a tornado hits. Lucky for us, we never heard that sound.

Outside, the photo below is what we saw. These were the trees that we could see out of the bathroom window.

The roof of the interpretive center was torn-off as shown below.

The photo at the very top shows the path of the destruction after it hit the interpretive center, only 20 feet from our bathroom shelter. We then started to get the terrible news about other parts of town and homes that had been hit. After the chainsaws arrived, I was thankful to be heading back home to my family. Last night, I certainly said extra prayers of thanks.

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A tale of three parks!

Camping season is here!! My family enjoyed the pre-summer ritual of cleaning out the camper, taking inventory and preparing for another season. It doesn't take long to remember why we enjoy this so much: no distractions, yard-work or house work and quality time with family and friends.

For some reason, I've been intrigued by my visits to the various parks we've visited. Likely, the fact that I spend a lot of time there chasing my 4-year old (5 years old today) and 7-year old around has a lot to do with it. My observation has been that a good park has a life of its own. I'm not talking about a water park or the monstrosities that often appear in today's super sized world, just a the good old fashioned jungle gym ("JG"). These parks take on the life of who's there. A lonely teenager swinging alone, a slew of kids laughing, or fighting. At night, perhaps some beers from the neighbors cooler (last year, we were the "neighbors" whose cooler of beer disappeared in the night -- more about that later).

This year, it seems that whenever I arrive at a park with the kids, its just us and the JG. Nice, I think, just the kids and I and some good bonding. Let's play a friendly game of tag! Literally, within moments, the kids are pouring out of every nook and cranny in the area. It was almost as if they have been hiding in the bushes all day waiting for some unsuspecting mom or dad to show up. Suddenly, you become the center of their "you're it" world.

Even the older kids (over 10), who initially act too mature to stoop down to boring old tag, seem to come around when there is an adult figure on the JG. The first park I observed this was in South Dakota. We started a game of dodge ball tag. Hit them with the ball, without them catching it, and their it. I think we played for ten seconds before everyone wanted in. The traditional animosity between the age groups quickly evaporated. For a good forty-five minutes, the park was crazy-fun. Dinner time arrived and I announced that we had to leave. As quickly as they arrived, the throngs of kids were gone. It happened so quickly, I wondered if I had imagined it.

Next, we visited a campground in the Canby area. Their JG was an antique Rainbow Play set. Built like a tank. Again, tag with the kids on an empty JG turned into a ten-kid free for all. Melissa, a three-year old, was at first afraid to play. She was clearly afraid of the older kids and I finally was able to "catch" her and she was it. She then proceeded to chase me around the JG at least three times. The older kids were trying to let her catch them, but I finally realized that I was her only target. "Watch-out" all the kids shriek when it's my turn. This time, I tried to slowly disappear to the side and let the games go on. Fun to watch, but the proverbial dinner bell again ended the fun. I felt 10 again for a moment and could almost hear my mom yelling, "kids, time for dinner." Of course, I was the one yelling

Finally, last weekend, we went to our "home" campground and set-up shop across from the park. I asked the kids, to help me describe this park to someone. They immediately answered, "space rocket ship." Not what I expected, but soon I was the alien who had to recruit an army of my evil friends to attack the space ship and overrun the "good guys" and take over the ship. In the end, my army was defeated as we did not know that the good guys had a self-destruct button that blew up the ship as soon as we were all on board. I WILL remember that one next time.

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