Talking points

[My notes as I was getting ready to film the video announcement]

Hi, I’m your neighbor, Ed Bond, and I’m running for the Chemung County Legislature – 4^th District.

Yeah, I know most people around Horseheads know me as another dad,

Or as a board game inventor

Or a sci-fi nerd

Or from when I was a volunteer with the Boy Scouts

Or as an advocate for animals …

But before I was laid off in 2009, I had spent 25 years in journalism.

I’d been a reporter in 5 states.

I’d covered stories at all levels of government from school board and zoning boards up to state and federal government. My first job out of school was to cover the Steuben County Legislature for the Star-Gazette. I then went on to cover the city of Burbank for the Los Angeles Times.

I met a lot of people who made a difference in the world. They taught me that democracy works if ordinary people are willing to step up, get involved and work together to find solutions to problems.

To be a journalist, I had to listen, to learn and get my facts straight. And when I made a mistake, I had to correct it. People relied on me to get them the right information.

But I’ve grown tired of sitting on the sidelines. I want to make use of all the memories, the people I’ve met, the meetings I’ve gone to, the events I’ve covered, the lessons I’ve learned as a government watchdog.

So, this is me, jumping in. I’m not saying I have all the answers. That will come from listening and learning to the residents of the 4^th legislative district like you.

But I think my starting point is this:

We need openness in government, fiscal transparency,

better communication within government and between governments

and better communication between the government and the people.

Want to hear my campaign slogan?

Well, we’re in the 4^th District...

And I am a sci-fi nerd… 

So … May the FOURTH be with you!

What I've written

So as I get ready to make my first run for public office -- Chemung County Legislature -- here's some of my opinion writing as published in the Star-Gazette.

Campaign announcement: May The Fourth Be With You!

Some thoughts reached as of April 2018

... Nearly half of registered voters in the United States did not vote in the 2016 election. As if they felt helpless ... as if their vote did not matter ... as if no one was listening to them ... because the leaders were all busy yelling at them, telling them what to think ...

... one party rule is not healthy for democracy ... neither are uncontested elections ...

... with the collapse of traditional journalism, the government does not have as many watchdogs as they had in years gone by ... who can watch them now?

... government must be fiscally responsible, but you can have empathy -- a social conscience -- while also being smart with money ...

... men and women experience the world very differently ... so do white people and people of color ...

... politics is not a spectator sport ...

stay tuned ...

Smart Phones and Death

With the coverage of the mass shootings in Orlando, what I am struck by is how technology has changed the nature of tragedy.

We have brought smart phones into every aspect of our life ... even into our death. They are the last thing we put down before going to sleep and the first thing we pick up when we wake up.

Even as we lay bleeding out after a shooting, we text and Tweet, SnapChat and take video.

Our bodies may not be immortal, but our posts can be.

Good Friday

For Good Friday, I wanted to share a moment of spiritual insight.

March 1987, I joined a religious retreat in my senior year at St. Joseph's University.

We went to Wernersville, Pennsylvania, to a monastery run by the Jesuits. It should have been freezing cold, but for the whole week, we had beautiful, warm, sunny weather. Until then, I'd been emotionally isolated. I learned about happiness and empathy that week.

On the last day, I went to a service in the chapel. Suddenly, I saw Jesus on the cross in a new way. I was struck by the pain and suffering depicted by this sculpture. I could envision the reality of a person being nailed to a piece of wood and hung up to die. It was awful!

I plunged into sadness at the thought.

Then it turned around with another thought. It just popped into my head.

"Jesus doesn't want us to be sad. He wants us to be happy. He just wants us to know how important it is to love one another."

My spirit exploded with a cold wave of joy. I went to talk to a priest I'd been chatting with throughout the week, and I shook with cold chills. He touched my shoulder and said, "It's like you've been touched by the Holy Spirit."

For the next few months, I lived my life raw. All the usual barriers and devices I employed to protect myself had been stripped away. I went on another student retreat to a site run by nuns in Long Branch NJ -- on the beach -- and I shared my new insights.

But I was not equipped to switch from isolated loner to living with such raw emotions. I had missed out on years of lessons about appropriate behaviors in friendships and relationships. I didn't know how to keep my feelings in check. Attempts to connect to a woman I cared about ended very badly. Obviously, I had gone off the tracks.  As I sorted it through in the months that followed, I realized my mistake was in mixing up the joy of my spiritual journey with the emotional needs I had.

I had to separate the spiritual needs from the emotional. Somehow, I needed to back out and try again.

After I moved to Corning, I stopped going to church. I didn't stop because I was bored with it or angry at God or didn't believe.  I still loved God. I stopped going because I had a lot to sort out.

I knew I believed in God. So, I accepted that, and then waited to see what else life would reveal to me.

I had to sort out the emotional needs first. In Corning, my experience with women continued as a series of crushes I never did anything about until it was far too late.

Finally, one night as I drove from Elmira to Corning, I listened to a psychologist's radio call-in show. A woman on the line was bemoaning the fact that she would never find the perfect man for her, and the host had a great response: "It's not about finding the perfect mate. It's about having fun. If you can have fun with someone, then everything else will follow."

OOOOOHHHHHHHHH!

I got it. This started a year in which I had just enough emotional growth to be ready to meet Amy. That all eventually led to marriage, kids, family and our life together.

In the meantime, my spiritual journey continued in a sideways direction. I was not actively seeking insights about God, but as  newspaper reporter, I found myself visiting every kind of worship service. As part of news coverage, I attended services of all denominations of Christianity, in synagogues, mosques and at a Unitarian center. As I met with and interviewed a variety of people, I learned about other faiths, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Protestant Christianity.

I saw a commonality in these faiths. Love of God and your fellow person, kindness, mercy were all there in each one, so long as the person expressing it held to their core beliefs. There were others who  used their faith to bully and belittle others, but these are not the true ambassadors of the higher power.

Ultimately, this would lead to a conclusion.

God is a diamond. A diamond has many, many sides. You approach that diamond from the direction that works for you.

It was the first Christmas after Jack was born that I began my journey back to the church. Christmas seemed so empty without God, and I saw no point in having our kids celebrate a holiday without understanding its meaning. I wanted them to have meaning in their lives. To realize there is something beyond themselves that is worthwhile.

With Jack as a toddler, I started going back to Church. It was not easy to get back to that rhythm. I had to sort through a lot of emotions. When we moved back to Upstate New York, I ended up in a night job as a copy editor. I hated the hours and it made it difficult to get up on Sunday mornings to go to church. I think I subconsciously hated God for that situation, so I stopped going to Church for a while.

In 2004, I began having chest pains. I went for a series of tests, and in May 2004 was scheduled for a heart catheter. This is when they poke a long needle into the big vein that runs through your groin and run it up into your heart to find out -- a possibly fix -- what was wrong.

The night before, I was very worried. Jack was 4 years old, and we were expecting a new baby boy in June. I prayed to God. I asked to be a part of his plan. "Let me raise these two boys and help them grow into good men."

The next day, I lay on a table and they injected me with valium. Then they inserted the needle up into my heart. The doctor -- a Muslim from Pakistan, by the way -- worked silently and I felt nothing. After a while, he tapped me on a shoulder and said, "I found nothing I could fix. There is nothing wrong." He gave me a clean bill of health.

What he did find was interesting. Across the surface of the heart is supposed to be three arteries. I had been born with only two.

God made me that way. He had planned this all along, just to get my attention. So that I would know he wanted me to be a part of his plan.

It was at Liam's baptism that I felt I had fully returned to the church. Yes, this is the approach to God that works for me.

A couple of years ago, I sat in the church pew waiting for services to begin, frantically trying to write out a check for my monthly donation. I thought to myself, "Yes, I am giving money. But I don't volunteer. ... Ok, maybe I will volunteer for something, but only if someone asks me."

Within 30 seconds, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

The head usher, a gentleman named Bill, stood next to me. "Could you help with the collections today?"

WOW!

Well played, God. I've helped with the collections at that mass since then.

I suppose someone else would read all this and say this is all just coincidence and luck. But I choose to see the influence of God in my life and the world. I see it as a positive force, but it needs our help and it needs to be aided with kindness. He just wants us to know how important it is to love one another.

So, my journey continues.

Pickett's charge

I was on my daily run last night, when it occurred to me that we may have witnessed the T.E.A. party's version of Pickett's charge during the government shutdown fight.

Pickett's charge is considered to be the high-water mark for the Confederacy, but it was also a disaster for their cause. The infamous charge happened on the last day of fighting at Gettysburg, when after attempts to flank the Union army on the previous two days failed, the Confederates went all-out with a massive but futile attack on the Union center.

It was the furthest advance into northern territory made by Gen. Robert E. Lee's army, but from that point on the Confederate cause was in decline.

Similarly, what we saw in the shutdown fight was a massive demonstration of T.E.A. party strength, aimed at bringing the federal government to a grinding halt. Indeed, the shutdown brought the Confederate battle flag to the gates of the White House itself, something I'll bet never happened during the Civil War.

They executed their initial plan flawlessly, but too late to realize that when they reached the enemy lines there would be no where to go but retreat and defeat.

In the aftermath, polls showing what the shutdown has cost the GOP and the T.E.A. party in particular. Most Americans now believe it is a bad thing that the GOP controls the House of Representatives.  Standard & Poor’s reported that the U.S. economy suffered a loss of $24 billion, a number strongly disputed by Forbes, but the repercussions of this foolhardy strategy have been felt throughout the country.

It is my hope that most people now realize how poisonous T.E.A. party politics have been for this country. This is not a movement of fiscal conservancy. It is a movement of selfishness, distortion, lies and deceit, waged for the benefit of a privileged few.

When the T.E.A. party rose up in 2010, I shuddered. It seemed to me this was ignorance, disguising itself as patriotism. My hope is that after this disaster, the moderates in the GOP will take back control of their party so that government can function with an ongoing series of compromises between the left and right.

We need both liberal and conservative philosophies to make the legislative process work. They are the Yin and Yang of our government. The progressive philosophy is needed so that we do not destroy our country through short-sightedness and selfishness. The conservative philosophy is needed so that we remember we cannot spend money that we do not have, and that we should be wary of too much government control of our lives.

But I also keep on thinking about a montage I saw recently -- probably on The Colbert Report -- showing Congressmen complaining that "government should get off our backs."

I find it to be an ironic argument to be made by a Congressman. After all, they are our government. In fact, we are our government. We are a self-governed nation. The first words of the Constitution read: "We, the people ..."  If we don't like the government, we can change it. But we do it through elections, and if you don't have the votes, then you need to work with what you have. Sometimes you can't get what you want. But if you don't get it, you need to earn it through the value of your arguments with the electorate, not by taking hostages and bringing the entire government to a grinding halt.

I will end with my favorite quote, from one of my favorite Republican presidents, Teddy Roosevelt: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Republicans, you didn't have the votes. That's why you don't get what you want. Ask yourselves why.