The Navada Republican Party Delegate Selection Soap Opera

There is a fight going on in the Nevada Republican Party. It is certainly entertaining to watch although it seems rather a tempest in a teapot that doesn't really matter in the scheme of things. 

As I described in my posting about the Nevada Republican Party Convention the April 26 state convention which was abruptly adjourned without selecting delegates to the National Republican Convention. Since the convention was adjourned, two different groups have announced different dates and places for the convention to reconvene. Both groups are claiming to have no agenda other than fairness and both groups are being disingenuous and are insulting our intelligence.

The official call to reconvene the convention comes from Sue Lowden, Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party. The convention scheduled by Lowden, representing the party elected officials, is scheduled for July 26. Nowhere in the letter announcing the new date does she acknowledge that others are also trying to reconvene the convention. I assume that the party insiders are figuring that there will will not be quorum on July 26 and that as a result the insiders i.e. the central committee will have to appoint the delegates. How else can you explain the delay from April to just a month before the convention to reconvene. To give the insiders credit, they do ask in their letter for us (the delegates) to indicate if we would prefer a mail in ballot instead of reconvening.

The other call to reconvene the convention is from a group of people who have sent an email to delegates asking us to attend a reconvened convention this Saturday June 28. They claim that  "This is not about one candidate vs. another; this is about our rights as state delegates to
have our voices heard, and finish the process we started on April 26th."  Give me a break. These people are Ron Paul supporters who are angry at the Republican establishment.  Who can blame them. George Bush represents the party establishment and I am angry at him. If I am representative of Republicans then many of us are angry at the establishment. But I certainly don't support Ron Paul. Others just don't feel represented by McCain and want to make a statement. By claiming to not have an agenda the rogue group  insult my intelligence just as much as the party establishment.

It seems to me that the party insiders have the rules on their side. Sue Lowden (chairman of the Nevada Republican Party) makes her case on her pseudo blog here. I call it a pseudo blog because she clearly doesn't seem to understand that a blog is supposed to be about conversation. Reading the comments on her blog makes it clear that polite dissenting opinions voiced in comments have been deleted. Lowden's argument for the alternative convention being illegal is well stated but she should have just posted it clearly on the web site. Don't start a blog if you want to dictate. Blogs are for discussion not laying  down the law. Lots of companies and groups don't get this. Allowing people to be heard is how you build support for a position. I can get behind a position I don't agree with but first I need to feel that my opinion and dissenting position has been heard. That is basic leadership. Sun Microsystems where I started blogging understood this in spades but my last employer certainly didn't get it and I don't think the Nevada Republican Party understands it at all. Apparently they only understand  laying down the law. I would love to blog for the party and apply the principals of change management that I learned in my corporate life.

Ah well….. the fight is entertaining to watch.  I'm sure there will be a fight in the credentials committee at the national convention but who cares… really what does it matter?? McCain is the candidate.

I haven't decided if I will attend the Ron Paul convention on Saturday. It might be entertaining to watch but I don't want to help them reach a quorum. Unfortunately I will be out of town when the official convention meets at the end of July so I won't be helping them reach a quorum either.

I applied to be a delegate to the national convention but assume that I will not be elected. It is interesting to see how the National Republican Party is handling bloggers. I wish I had applied to be an independent blogger to the national convention but the applications closed May 15 long before I knew whether I would be a delegate. To be honest I never thought I would be a delegate I just didn't get my application in in time. I guess if I accuse others of being disingenuous I'd better be crystal clear myself about my motives.

This soap opera will be continued in a future blog!

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group Monday Hike at Donner Lakes

The Sierra Canyon Hiking Group hiked from Interstate 80 at Donner Pass through the Donner Pass Lakes to Old Highway 40 and back. The air was very smoky from wild fires burning in other parts of California but it was still a beautiful day.

Here we are in the parking lot getting ready to start out.
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We snowshoed on this trail last winter, across this lake. Look at the difference.
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The view from our lunch stop was stupendous in spite of the haze.

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If you would like to see or download other pictures from the hike they are available on Flickr here.

The Speaker at my High School Graduation

I graduated from Central High School in London England in 1970. It was a American High School for military dependents. My Dad worked for an oil Company. My class had about 100 kids.

Today I was sorted through stacks of old letters and memorabilia. Duke happened to pick up my commencement program.  He looked at it and said "So Bill Clinton spoke at your High School graduation?"  I certainly don't remember him but there it is on the program as clear as day.

Commencement Address ………………………..  Mr. William J. Clinton
          Rhodes Scholar- Lecturer at Oxford

How amazing is that!!

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail from Spooner Summit to Kingsbury Grade with the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group

A group of us who live in the Del Webb Sierra Canyon Development in Reno have decided to hike the Tahoe Rim Trail this summer.  As the name suggests the Tahoe Rim Trail is a trail on the mountain crests around Lake Tahoe. The trail is 165 miles long and we are planning to do it in 8 segments. Thursday we did our first segment from Spooner Summit on Highway 50 south to Kingsbury Grade.  It is the shortest segment (only 12.2 miles.) Fifteen of us completed it with no problem. It is an easy to walk on trail. It was a warm glorious day and there were stunning views.

Below are a few pictures from the hike. If you would like to see the rest of the pictures you can see them on Flickr here. There was a little snow beside the trail in a few places but most of the snow is gone.

One of the most surprising things on the hike were the beautiful red flower we found growing up out of dead wood in a few places. Since getting home I discovered on the Tahoe Country .com web site that the flower is the snowplant.

"A fairly common site in the Tahoe
landscape as the snow melts is the Snowplant (Sarcodes snaguinea), a member
of the Wintergreen family. This
strange asparagus-like plant does not photo-synthesize, but receives its nourishment
from parasitizing the roots of neighboring plants and other decaying organic
matter. It is protected by California law and there are heavy fines for tampering
with the Snowplant due to its extreme beauty and rarity (it is found only
in the Yellow Pine and Red Fir forests of California and southern Oregon)."

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Five Cities, Six Take Offs and Six Landings and No Ordinary Time – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Last Wednesday I visited six cities on Southwest Airlines. I was I accompanying my sister home from Cleveland where she had a successful revision to her ten year old hip replacement.  We flew from Cleveland to Chicago, to St. Louis, to Tulsa where I dropped her off. Then I flew on on to Phoenix and finally home  to Reno.

I had lots of time to read as we puddle jumped across the U.S. I finished the last 200+ pages of No Ordinary Time – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. What a great book!

The book provided several learnings and surprises for me. I realized how ignorant I am about the history of prejudice in this country. Although I knew that segregation and racial prejudice were prevalent in the 1940’s, I did not really appreciate how bad it was. Black men were only allowed to enlist in the Navy as mess men. In the Army black soldiers were not allowed to fight. Segregation and terrible conditions were the norm. Goodwin summarizes the progress made during the war. “Between 1940 and 1945 the Negro Military Force had increased in size from 5,000 to 920,000 and the number of Negro officers had grown from 5 to over 7,000. Moreover, whereas almost every Negro soldier in 1940 was confined to a service unit, by war’s close Negroes held responsible jobs in almost every branch of the army as artillerymen, tankmen, infantrymen,  pilots, paratroopers, doctors and more.” When I realize that the young African American men who were being treated so badly as second class citizens during World War II were the peers of my father it gives me some small window of empathy for the feelings that African Americans of my fathers generation must have. I could certainly understand bitterness. It certainly makes me ashamed of our country’s history.

No Ordinary Time also gave me a lot of insight into the strengths and weaknesses of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and their relationship. I knew FDR was a great leader. I certainly didn’t realize that the war in Europe didn’t even start until the very end of his second term. I had some understanding of what an extraordinary woman Eleanor was but I had no idea how hard she worked and what a large contribution she made both to the war effort and to FDR’s success.

Eleanor published a newspaper column  “My Day”  from 1935 to 1962. She wrote the column consistently six days a week. When I think of how I can’t even manage to write a blog a day it impresses me that she published 400 words every day and never missed a day except for 4 days when FDR died. She was a blogger ahead of her time .