Loveland Magazine

LOVELAND, OHIO – Working stiffed

A penny for your thoughts? Or... How 'bout YOU paying $25.00? $65.00?

by David Miller
LOVELAND, OHIO – It's a growing trend, being expected to shell out what's left of your hard earned paycheck, to get access to government leaders. Here are two examples that hit close to home.

If you can afford a lunch break on Tuesday, April 29, from 11:30 AM -1:00 PM, the Loveland Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting lunch at a local country club where for $25.00 you get to hear views on school taxes as presented by the Superintendent of the Loveland District and the Loveland City Manager. An unspecified meal is on the menu. Work afternoons, or the graveyard shift, paying those local property taxes? At least you won't have to ask the boss for a little time off with pay.

In a “joint” press release issued by the Chamber and the City, the subject of the session is, “Supporting our Public Schools: the Role and Importance of the Commercial Tax Base.” Guest speakers will include Dr. Kevin Boys, Superintendent of Loveland City Schools; Tom Carroll, City Manager of Loveland; and Paulette Leeper from the Loveland Area Chamber of Commerce.

If usual practice is followed by Loveland, and if you are an elected official, lunch is on the taxpayer.

There are rumblings in the community that the average Joe and Jane will have to pay $25 to hear these appointed community leaders discuss their taxes, and that the Chamber may now be profiting from the recent school levy defeat. Despite formally endorsing or opposing several local ballot issues in recent years, the Chamber declined to support the recent tax levy for the school.

City Council Member Paul Elliott has always refused to allow City tax dollars to pay his way to Chamber events. The City, being a Chamber member, issues an e-mail soliciting whether City Council members wish to attend Chamber functions like networking breakfasts, cookouts, or golf outings. When Council Clerk Linda Cox receives responses, she makes reservations for the individuals and a city check is written. A recent Chamber event that was held at City Hall required an admission fee for a catered breakfast and a presentation by the City Manager and Mayor to present the “State of the City.” Elliott, being a council member wanted to find out what state his City was in, however, Elliott did not allow a reservation to be made in his name. He said he went after the breakfast was served to hear the presentation.

Boys was asked “The City usually uses tax dollars to pay the way to Chamber events for Council members - will the District pay the cost for Board members to attend this lunch?” Boys responded, “It would be a proper public expenditure, but I see your point.” Boys had told Board members at their last meeting to let him know if they wanted to go, and he would make a reservation for them to hear him speak.

Boys said in an e-mail, “Interesting. You know me.... if given the opportunity I will speak on behalf of Loveland schools and our children... not sure I would pay $25 to hear me speak.”

Responding about the upcoming breakfast where the City Manager and School Superintendent will discuss school taxes Elliott said, “I always find it interesting that such a potentially important community dialogue, especially on such an important subject, has a significant cost the attend.”

Paulette Leeper is the Executive Director of the Chamber and has also been a member of the City's Finance Committee for several years where she votes to recommend a budget to City Council that contains line items for the types of expenditure that lead to checks being written to the organization she runs. Leeper then routinely solicits money from the City for Chamber membership, and support for Chamber programs, such as a golf outing, a membership directory, and lunches where the City writes checks for staff and council members who attend.

The luncheon will be on Tuesday, April 29, from 11:30 AM -1:00 PM at the Oasis Conference Center. You can contact the Chamber to make your reservation at: info@lovelandchamber.org or 683-1544. Chamber members receive a $5.00 discount; all others will be charged $25.00 for the privilege.

Example #2

The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) has final authority over all federal dollars spent on transportation in the region. This quasi-government agency's purview also covers greenspace and land use, water quality issues, air pollution, homeland defense, and has an annual operating budget of $7.5 million. Their primary source of funds is from Federal and State government grants. The Boards of Directors, OKI's policy making body, are elected and appointed representatives from county, township, and municipal governments in eight counties in greater Cincinnati, northern Kentucky, and southeast Indiana.

They are currently working on a long-range plan that includes funding recommendations for the allocation of more than $7 billion for road, transit, freight, and bicycle/pedestrian projects in the eight-county region.

If you are a Board member there is no-cost for their April 24 Annual Meeting at the Savannah Center in West Chester where you “Step back in time when Southern grace and elegance was part of everyday living …” and be served grilled New York Strip with sauteed mushrooms and onions, a speech by Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, and get a first hand presentation of how they have used their time and your tax dollars the past year. Presumably, they will also discuss how that $7 billion will be spent.

Concerned whether OKI will recommend that trucks are banned from I-75 and rerouted to the Loveland area? Non-Board members can pay $65.00 for the “gracious service and the warmth of Southern hospitality and culinary talents of award-winning Chef Henry,” the knowledge of Toni Sander, their Sommelier, and chat with local leaders about the use of your tax dollars. If you want to make a reservation, call Marilyn Osborne at (513) 621-6300 ext. 120.

In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC - washingtonpost.com

By Tom Shales  - washingtonpost.com

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.

Read on... Tom Shales - In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC - washingtonpost.com.

David Coleman: I Was There: What Obama Really Said About Pennsylvania - Politics on The Huffington Post

Read on...  David Coleman: I Was There: What Obama Really Said About Pennsylvania - Politics on The Huffington Post.

Art, science both important in learning to save planet

By Ann fisher

                The idea of an art/environmental-science course would have seemed sort of out there 30 or 40 years ago. Groovy, yes, but seriously? Our children see things differently today.

They have grown up with environmental science and ecology. Recycle and reuse. Turn out the lights. Avoid pesticides. And, despite the erosion of arts education in many schools, children still love art, and some even imagine it as a career.

Radio silence on Bush's torture admission

Radio silence on Bush's torture admission

ABC News reported a few days ago that a group of so-called "Principals" -- including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice -- met dozens of times in the White House to "discuss and approve" specific interrogation techniques to be used against suspected terrorists.

Initial reports indicated that Bush was "insulated" from the "series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved." Bush eventually dispelled the notion that he was out of the loop, though, and said -- arguably, bragged -- that he endorsed the Principals' work from the outset. The president told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

Read on... War Room - Salon.com

Why Progressives Should Support the Draft

Link: Why Progressives Should Support the Draft.

“I can take Xanax, or I can go to Ohio and help the Maupins.”

By David Miller

It took pickup truck loads to bring all the white handcrafted wooden crosses to the Oasis Conference center in Miami Township Sunday morning. The sheer number of crosses, and then wheelbarrows full, as volunteers distributed them through the front acreage on both sides of the main entrance were mind numbing, yet these don't represent all the grief stricken mothers who lost a son or daughter to our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three thousand  plus crosses was not enough; more than 4,000 dead to be remembered, mourned, and honored. Eight thousand  moms and dads are just like Carolyn and Keith Maupin, except their son had a four-year-straight tour until they found out he wasn't coming home alive.

On this day 31 soldiers were wounded in Iraq and five more had died, a golfer, took a short cut through the Arlington Cemetery-like memorial to honor the dead, clumsily knocking crosses out of alignment and American flags to the ground with his golf bag swinging from his back - heading to the clubhouse.

On this day ten more moms and dads would be told in coming days that their precious son or daughter had died in battle, and countless hundreds of thousands of others were sick with a worry that it might be their own fate.

On this day 31 soldiers were wounded in Iraq and five more had died, Boy Scouts, Vietnam Veterans, their families and friends, spent more than eleven hours, meticulously measuring and calculating a perfect grid across the rolling front lawn of the Oasis County Club, then placed more than 3,000 white handcrafted crosses in perfect alignment. They were preparing the entrance to the country club, in anticipation of Keith and Carolyn Maupin's visit on Wednesday night to attend the "Let Us Never Forget" Scholarship Fundraiser. A few of the workers paused to watch their work and their soldiers being disrespected by the thoughtless golfer, but with tired backs and emotions spent, had no energy left to react – they had wheelbarrows full of crosses to plant into the ground before dark. Other volunteers tied large yellow bows to everything in sight.

The fundraiser is sponsored by the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, headed by the Maupins, and is expected to raise more than $100,000.00 that will be sent to all fifty states to high schools where local scholarships will be awarded in the name of a local soldier.

Regina Herbolt from Batavia, said that most of boys from Pack Troop 452 and Scout Troop 170 from Hyde Park's St. Mary Church had prior commitments, either spelunking or rowing, thus the parents took on this job Sunday for their sons. Herbolt's son Robbie was there however, as he is especially dedicated to the display of crosses. She said that Robbie had taken notice when the death count for the wars had reached 1,000 and wanted his troop do something to honor them. They contacted Clermont County Chapter 649 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, who had erected crosses at Union Township's Veterans Memorial Park, and named it the Flags of Honor Tribute. With the help of the Vietnam Veterans, proceeds from selling popcorn, generous help from adults who knew woodworking, and a discount from a Lowe's improvement store, more than 3,000 crosses have been carefully screwed together and painted. The volunteers had cans of white spray paint on hand to do touch-ups, and there were black crosses to honor the still missing in action. Regina had photos with names that will be placed on crosses for  the 166 Ohio soldiers and marines who have died.

Robbie and Regina made daily trips to the makeshift cemetery at Union Township whenever they learned about another death. Regina said that Robbie would often wear his scout uniform and handle the crosses reverently, wearing white gloves, and saluting after he placed each flag. The flags placed Sunday at the Oasis were not saluted, however, they were placed and straightened reverently by the volunteers seemingly in a constant state of prayer. Heavy on everyone's mind was the recent news that the remains of missing soldier Matt Maupin had been found in Iraq.

Regina and Robby have become close friends of Keith and Carolyn Maupin, and Regina had just taken Keith to Dillards on Saturday to buy a new suit for the funeral. She said that Keith wanted a gray suit, but his family tired to talk him out of it, feeling it would be “too much gray” given his unshaved face of full gray beard. Keith decided years ago to not shave until his son returned. She said Keith compromised by getting a “dark” gray suit. The scholarship dinner on Wednesday comes a few weeks before the 20-year-old Matt is returned home to Clermont County, and a planned memorial and funeral service. There will be a visitation on April 26 at the Union Township Civic Center that will be open for 24 hours. April 27 is the tentative date for a funeral service planned for Paul Brown Stadium or the Great American Ball Park. Regina Herbolt said on Sunday that arrangements are also being pursued that would allow President Bush to attend.

Matt played football and graduated from Glen Este High School in 2001, and attended the University of Cincinnati before joining the Army Reserve. A fuel convoy he was protecting was ambushed in 2004 and he had been listed as “missing/captured” until DNA tests confirmed his identity two weeks ago after the military found remains about twelve miles from where the attack occurred. The last time the Maupins saw their son alive was when militants in Iraq videotaped him in a crouching position on the floor surrounded by five masked cowards holding automatic rifles. Maupin was serving with the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, and stationed near Baghdad.

Regina Herbolt said that her son had once been asked whether he was erecting the crosses for Matt Maupin. He answered the question by saying, “No, this is for the soldiers who have died, Matt is coming home some day.” Regina said that her son is doing “pretty well” after hearing the bad news last Sunday about Matt Maupin. She described her son as quiet, mature, and strong, her eyes welled and glistened as she talked with pride about what he and the other scouts have done, and the dignitaries Robbie has met who congratulated him for organizing the display to honor the fallen soldiers. Robby was once in an end-of-the-year edition of Time Magazine with the “feature” photo of him in uniform, white gloves, and saluting a cross he had planted.

Dexter Thornberry, a Vietnam Veteran from Brown County seemed to be the chief adult engineer on Sunday, and the go-to-person with the tape measure and math skills - plotting how the crosses would be viewed in straight lines as the Maupins entered the Oasis on Wednesday night. It was challenging, running string lines over the mounds of the rolling landscape, and at one point a few hundred had to be moved over a couple inches when someone, checking the vantage point from the countryclub entrance, noticed that they were, “Just a little off.” Thornberry started recalculating, grateful for the chance to get it right.

Thornberry is a member of Vietnam Veterans of America, Clermont County Chapter 649, the group that helped the scouts complete their dream of honoring the fallen soldiers. Thornberry served at Pleiku in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in a helicopter unit in the late '60's. Thornberry has gone through a recent tragedy of his own, after his house burned. He said he has good insurance and drywall is now being installed, so he was where he needed to be Sunday and was still there late into the afternoon, planting crosses and flags. Thornberry has an easy going style that is of a natural leader, quietly giving instructions and listening to suggestions from the boys.

I let Dexter tell me about his service in Vietnam for several minutes, trying to hide the growing grin on my face, and only when he got uncomfortable with my reaction did I tell him that my grin was because we served out of the same base in Vietnam, and at the same time. As soon as I told him I was a Viet Vet – he stuck ouy his hand to me and said, “Welcome home.” I returned the sentiment, however, we both then got a little uncomfortable knowing what brought us both to this place on Sunday. He invited me to one of the Vet's meetings, “No pressure to join or anything.” I told him that the only organization I joined since Vietnam was a church, and he said, “Well I didn't exactly join the Army - they joined me.” I told him I know what being drafted felt like. We reminisced a while longer, before I felt guilty that I was keeping him from his current stateside duties at the Oasis, and thanked him for his time with me. Thornberry said that in recent years he had been able to go back to Vietnam to visit, but that was a discussion better left for another day.

"You're obsessed.”

“You need to get out of here."

These were instructions from co-workers in Ocean City Maryland to Rob Greenebaum. He said that his office manager told him about an Ohio Soldier who's remains had just been found after four years. Greenebaum said, “That night, it was amazing. I spent most of the night on my computer reading the condolences to the Maupin family left on the Yellow Ribbon Center web site” He said it was the stories from the “KIA mothers”  that touched him the most. Eyes tearing up,  Greenebaum said that he is an emotional person under normal circumstances, but in reading the messages, he realized Matt Maupin and he, were much alike. “He was a gym rat. He stuck up for others. I think of myself in those ways, and I work out lifting weights, like Matt did.” He said he was especially impacted by reading about the Sgt. Matt Maupin Internet Cafe and Sgt. Matt Maupin Computer Lab at Camp Anaconda in Iraq, which was made possible by the Maupin's donating 90 computers so soldiers could communicate with loved ones at home.

Greenebaum took the advice, of his co-workers and bought a plane ticket, ending at the Yellow Ribbon support Center volunteering to help, and at the Oasis planting white, handcrafted wooden crosses on Sunday. Pondering whether he could afford to take off work, he said to himself before leaving, “I can take Xanax, or I can go to Ohio to help the Maupins.”

To view more photos click here.

 

Alice Walker on Obama

Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave.

       By Alice Walker | TheRoot.com

I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find – because of the presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton race for the Democratic nomination - a new country existing alongside the old.  On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the Three Directions and can look back into the past, look at ourselves just where we are, and take a glance, as well, into the future.  It is a space with which I am familiar.

When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia plantation that was owned by a white distant relative,  Miss May Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it.  Told by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken skin she responded that of course they would not.  No Montgomerys would.

My parents and older siblings did everything imaginable for Miss May. They planted and raised her cotton and corn, fed and killed and processed her cattle and hogs, painted her house, patched her roof, ran her dairy, and, among countless other duties and responsibilities my father was her chauffeur, taking her anywhere she wanted to go at any hour of the day or night.  She lived in a large white house with green shutters and a green, luxuriant lawn:  not quite as large as Tara of Gone With the Wind fame, but in the same style.

We lived in a shack without electricity or running water, under a rusty tin roof that let in wind and rain.  Miss May went to school as a girl. The school my parents and their neighbors built for us was burned to the ground by local racists who wanted to keep ignorant their competitors in tenant farming.  During the Depression, desperate to feed his hardworking family, my father asked for a raise from ten dollars a month to twelve.  Miss May responded that she would not pay that amount to a white man and she certainly wouldn't pay it to a nigger.  That before she'd pay a nigger that much money she'd milk the dairy cows herself.

Read on... Alice Walker on Obama | Views | TheRoot.com.

MLK 40 years later: Still searching for the promised land

Watch this video.

Honoring King is Not Enough

        By Marian Wright Edelman

April 4, 2008--The day after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, I went out into the riot-torn Washington, D.C. streets and into schools in those neighborhoods scorched by flames to talk to the children.  I went to tell them not to loot and raid, so that they would not get arrested and ruin their futures. A young black boy about 12 or 13 years old looked squarely at me and said, "Lady, what future? I ain't got no future. I ain't got nothing to lose."  This young boy spoke the plain truth for himself and millions like him.  Read on...

We will Carolyn, we will.

If only we all had the strength of courage of Carolyn and Keith

by David Miller

I have seen Keith and Carolyn Maupin many times over the years since their son was reported missing in Iraq. Today, the family was informed that Matt's remains have been identified.

Last year I saw Carolyn twice in the Loveland area, the first was at the Oasis Conference center on the night of the “Let Us Never Forget” scholarship fundraiser, where thousands of dollars was raised to provide money to families who have lost a loved one. The money in turn is used in local high schools to provide college assistance. I also saw Carolyn at the Buffalo Rings and Rings in Loveland last year, there again to help raise money for veteran's causes. Last May, a few days before Memorial Day, Keith was at Loveland High School helping to send off local motorcyclists to their annual pilgrimage to the “Roaring Thunder” rally at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Each time, it was Carolyn and Keith in a role of parent, and comforting whomever they talked to. I especially remember Carolyn at the oasis event as she worked the room that night greeting everyone she could, and you could see that it was Carolyn in role as mother, consoler, and comforter to families and soldiers who were in pain with worry about a loved one, or in fact grieving over a lost son, husband, father, or fellow soldier.

Carolyn was engaging, and in obliviously deep, emotional, and personal conversations, in a role of pastor to her flock.

The news tonight about Matt leaves me personally deeply saddened and somewhat numb, as I try to understand what Carolyn and Keith, the “parents” to us all - are now going through. Of course, I cannot even begin to imagine...

To each of them I would say however, that I owe your son a great deal of gratitude for his service and his life giving sacrifice, and I owe the two of you my heartfelt thanks for showing me just how graceful, peaceful, and loving people can be, when faced with truly trying and horrible circumstances.

Carolyn said today, “"Pray.  This is going to be very difficult, and stay by our side in support."

We will Carolyn, we will.

A message to the Maupins can be left at the Yellow Ribbon Support Center by following this link.