My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
My Dad put his house in Escondido, California up for sale back in January. It finally sold. Duke and I just got back from two weeks down there helping him pack everything up and getting it shipped.
He sent some stuff to each of the kids and of course some stuff to his apartment in Reno. I think he is relieved to be out from under it. But I know he was sad to leave Escondido and the house he and my Mom lived in and where she died.
In August of 2007 I set myself a goal to read at least one biography about each U.S. President. So far I have read the following.
In the blog I wrote about the Jefferson biography I asked if anyone could recommend the best book to read about James Madison, our fourth President. I was thrilled to have my question answered by Bernstein, the Jefferson biography author. He said "For Madison, the best large one-volume life is by Ralph Ketcham" I started reading the Madison book in December and just finished it.
Ketcham’s biography of James Madison is a big book
(671 pages) but then Madison’s life was big. When I think of all that happened
during the span of Madison’s life and all he contributed to our country it
inspires me. Madison lived for 85 years .
He is known as the father of the constitution. He was Secretary of State under
Jefferson and he was the fourth President of the United States serving two
terms from 1809 to 1817. Madison led the country through the war of 1812, the
invasion of Washington and the burning of the White House.
The constitutional guarantee of the separation of church and
state can at least partly be credited to Madison. In reading Ketcham’s
biography I was struck by how important the difference is between religious
toleration and the complete freedom of religion that Madison championed. As a young man Madison witnessed persecution
and imprisonment of Baptist preachers for preaching without a license. “His
study and the scolding and disputing over the persecutions helped move him from
the condescending idea of toleration to the more liberal concept he was to
implant in the Virginia Bill of Rights in June 1776.” Pg 57-58. Madison believed strongly that government
should have nothing to do with religion. Ketcham says “religious liberty stands out as the one subject upon which
Madison took and extreme, absolute, undeviating position throughout his life.”
Pg 165
Madison believed that we should learn from the past. Prior to the Constitutional Convention of
1787 he extensively and exhaustively studied the history of republican and federal government throughout history. Ketcham said that “Madison’s intense study at
Montpelier in 1786, after his sparse breakfasts and before the evening games of
whist for half bits, left him as well informed on the workings of confederate
governments as any man in America” Madison compiled his notes on “ the facts and lessons about the ancient
and modern confederacies in a booklet of forty-one pocket size pages, easy to
use in debate of writing.” pg 184 I like the idea of compiling notes and studying to
become an expert. In a small sense that is what I try to do in this
blog.
One of Madison’s big
concerns in determining how the federal government should be designed was the
tension between majority rule and the
idea of inalienable rights. “Was there any way to guard against the majority
consenting to a violation of such rights? A positive answer to this question
would, in Madison’s mind, solve the fundamental problem of republican
government”
I found it awe
inspiring to read Ketchum’s description of the Continental Congress and
Madison’s central role in the creation of the constitution.
Ketchum’s descriptions of Madison’s personal life were especially interesting to
me. I was surprised to learn that Madison didn’t marry his wife Dolley until
1794 when he was 43 years old and had already helped create the
constitution. She was a widow seventeen
years his junior. Her first husband and
her infant son died on the same day during the Philadelphia yellow fever
epidemic of 1793. The story of Dolley Madison’s role in Madison’s life and
especially her role as first lady are a big story in and of themselves. It is amazing to realize that
Madison’s life was half over before Dolley even entered his life.
Madison always sought to defend the balance of powers
established in the constitution. He was especially concerned about the power of war and peace. Alexander
Hamilton’s efforts to expand the executive power alarmed Madison. Madison’s words on this subject seem
prophetic.
“In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the
legislature, and not to the executive department…… It is in war …. that the
laurels are to be gathered; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle.
The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast;
ambition, avarice, vanity, the honourable or venial love of fame are all in
conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.”
Madison tried to avoid war with England long after many
people believed that it was a necessity.
When the US did go to war in 1812 the country was weak and unprepared. The
early part of the war was a disaster of bungling and defeats. Reading about the
British invasion of Washington and the burning of the White House is especially
frustrating when you realize the ineptitude
of the defenders. Ketchum puts it all in
perspective saying “ Madison accepted knowingly the liabilities of his
republican approach, calmly confident that preserving the nation’s free
character was worth some travail and inefficiency. As a result, by 1816 Madison
was for more certain than be could possibly have been twenty years earlier that
the nature of American government was firmly free, united, and republican, and
that the successful conclusion of the war made America’s national independence
unassailable.”(pg 605)
Duke and I did a great hike today from Sierra Canyon where we live north up into the Toiyabe National Forest. We were on Forest Service Roads the whole time but the only vehicle we saw was one motorcycle. We went a total of just over 10 miles and went from an elevation of 5,313 feet to 6,587 feet when we turned around. The weather was beautiful, the wild flowers were out and we saw a snake. (not a rattle snake)
If you would like to see all the pictures from the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
Bob Beers was the chairman of the Nevada Republican Convention Saturday in Reno. If you are interested in the chairman’s perspective of what happened at the convention and why we adjourned without completing our business you should read Bob Beers blog. I subscribed to Beer’s blog after the convention. It is very readable. I understand he came second in the gubernatorial primary last time around. I was impressed with him at the convention and would vote for him if he ran for state wide office again,
The Nevada Republican convention yesterday started with the
McQueen High School Band Color Guard marching in with the flag. As they played
snippets from It’s a Grand Old Flag, Anchor’s Away, The Marine Corps Song –
"From the Halls of Iwo Jima to the shores of Tripoli" and Sousa marches
like The Stars and Stripes Forever my
heart swelled and I felt proud to be a small part of our political process. By
the end of the day most if not all of the participants at the convention felt
disappointed if not disgusted by the convention. I suspect the objective of the
party leaders was to have a pep rally for John McCain but it didn’t turn out
that way.
I blogged earlier about the caucuses and being a delegate to
the county convention. I was looking
forward to attending the state convention and although it was a long shot I
applied to be a delegate to the national
convention.
The state convention did not get off to an auspicious start.
Congressman Dean Heller spoke first. He talked about what he believes that
Republicans believe. His priorities were weird and to me unbelievable. First was
his strong opposition to Gay marriage, second his opposition to illegal
immigration and the need to build a fence, third the need for English to be the
official language. Next he got to things
like the need for an energy policy, the importance of mining and how hunting
and fishing are much more important than wilderness areas. Finally he got to
the war and not wanting to “cut and run”. He ended by saying that someone who can’t
score better than a 40 bowling is not fit to be President nor is someone who
can’t remember if they have been under sniper fire fit to answer the white house crisis phone when it rings at 3 in the morning.
I was disgusted. If he represents what it means to be a Republican maybe I
should change my registration. I am a conservative. I am very concerned about the war and how we
are going to get out of this mess. I believe that the economy is in serious
trouble. I believe that tax and spend policies like those of this administration
are a disaster. I support gay marriage,
I think immigration is what has made this country strong, I am not in the least
concerned about our ‘official language’, I treasure our wilderness areas, I don’t
think that electing a liberal is they way out but I also don’t think that Dean
Heller represents my views. I certainly won’t be voting for him.
Governor Jim Gibbons spoke next. He was much more
impressive. He talked about the challenges of the state economy and how he will
handle the state budget problems while not raising taxes. He talked about
living within our means, his commitment
to no tax and spend fiscal irresponsibility and that we have a spending problem
not a revenue problem. He got a lot of cheers when he said we can just turn to California to
see “What a tax and spend Democratic State will get you”. He said “businesses
can just keep on coming to Nevada as an alternative”
Then Mitt Romney
spoke. He addressed what he sees as the
major problems facing our country. His priorities were in stark contrast to
those of Congressman Heller and were much closer to mine. First was Radical
Violent Jihadism, second was the economy which he said is the worst since World
War II, third was the need to solve our energy challenges and the fact that we
send over a billion dollars a day to other countries for energy. Finally he talked about culture. He referred
to the book “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations” which he quoted as saying that “culture
makes all the difference”. Romney and I
don’t agree on what is necessary to nurture and protect our culture but
otherwise his priorities are right on. His
ending was inspiring as he talked about his optimism about the future. It was a
good speech.
While all this was going on the credential committee was
doing their work. They took a really long time to total up the numbers of delegates
and seat the alternates. Until the Credential committee’s report was completed and accepted no real
business could be done. Finally they reported that there were 1,347 delegates
present and we could get down to work.
But first Ron Paul had to speak. He received by far the biggest ovation of anyone at the
convention. His statements like “The Republican party needs to stick to its
roots and be a conservative party” , “The
purpose of government is to secure and preserve liberty”, and that the “constitution is meant to restrain the government and not government
to restrain the people” are why he is so
popular. But when he gets to his kooky
ideas like we need to get rid of the Federal Reserve System, we should have no
income tax or IRS, We should quit having military bases abroad to “maintain our
empire” he loses any credibility. Even
though he was wildly popular with many at the convention he is just too much of
a nut for me.
OK, now we could get
down to business. The objective of the convention is to elect delegates to the
national convention and elect a platform. It quickly became clear as the rules
were debated that the Ron Paul supporters were staging a coup. After wild debate and several votes, the establishment of the party was overruled. The
most vocal and time consuming speaker was a guy names Mike Weber. What a jerk.
He sure loved to hear himself talk. The convention voted to not accept the
slate of delegates to the National convention recommended by the nominating
committee and instead take nominations from
the floor.
Apparently many people never got the form to apply to be delegates
and anyway people really wanted to elect Ron Paul delegates. To make the
process workable it was suggested that we each vote for 5 and the top vote getters would be delegates.
But that was overruled and the majority wanted each of us to vote for 34 delegates
and 34 alternates. Given that there were
at least 300 people who were going to nominated either from the applications or
from the floor the whole process was controlled chaos. Just to vote on the
three delegates that had to be elected from each congressional district took
over an hour. For our district the vote counters had to count over 700 ballots, each with three hand written names from a list of over
100 candidates. By 6:00 the results were
still not in and we hadn’t even started selecting the delegates at large.
Meanwhile the platform was presented. It was a compromise document
and contained a little bit of everything of what any and all Republican’s in the state want. We
didn’t even start considering it until after 5:00. The option to consider the
platform plank by plank was voted down. Out of what I think was shear fatigue the
platform was accepted as a whole with virtually no debate. To me the platform
is an embarrassment. It includes things like “livestock grazing shall be increased
immediately on federal land”, “We support the withdrawal of the United States
from the United Nations” , “We support
the repeal of the Federal Reserve Act” and “We demand a return to a gold and/or
silver backed currency”. But there was no way the platform was going to
get fixed and of course it has no impact and will never be used for anything –
it doesn’t matter. So I’ll admit I voted
to just accept it and move on.
I figured we would be there well into the night to choose
the delegates to the national convention. I couldn’t even imagine how the logisitics
of getting it done were going to work. Then
abruptly at about 5:55 the chairman announced that we were going into overtime for
the Peppermill contract and with a bang of his gavel the convention was
adjourned to be reconvened at a future date and time to be announced by Monday.
The delegates were dumbfounded “What the Hell??” was the most
common statement I heard as I was leaving. So, the bottom line is that the convention is to be
continued… Maybe this will give the
establishment of the party time to figure out how to get control back. I wonder
how many people will show up for the reconvened convention. How many people will
travel to Reno or wherever. I know I
have plans for the next few weeks so I don’t know if I will be there. It will
be interesting to see what happens.
According to the Reno Gazette Journal this morning I
guess I left too soon. Ron Paul supporters led by the obnoxious Mike Weber
tried to reconvene the convention but didn’t have a quorum. It sounds like there was a lot of shouting
and heckling.
My big take away from the convention is that the rank and
file of the Republican Party is fed up and disillusioned with where the current
administration has taken the Republican Party. To paraphrase Hess, the guy who
sat next to me – “ McCain is the nominee
of the party. I know that Ron Paul doesn’t
have a chance and I can’t support some of his weirder positions but, voting for Ron Paul is making a statement that
we are fed up and disgusted with the where the establishment is taking this party.
This is our way to stand up and be heard.”
Marion's Blog 