PHOTO CC: MJ Vilardi some rights reserved

Friends and family of Ross McConnell will gather in Lynchburg, Virginia on Friday, 10 October to bury his earthly remains and share memories of his remarkable life. The service starts at 11 am at the Spring Hill Cemetery. Ross died near Tbilisi, Georgia in May after being struck by a minivan. Details in our previous post.

The photos I share here (click for large versions) were taken in the late 80’s when Ross and I visited his Grandmother at her home in Lynchburg. Ross and I stayed up all night exploring his late Grandfather’s library of rare books; in the photo Ross is cradling a first edition of Dickens’ David Copperfield, one of many amazing volumes we examined. Everyone who knew Ross knows how much he loved books. That evening he was animated in a way I’d never seen before. We jumped from early Shakespeare folios to a zany 18th century book on pirates, and then on to first editions of Twain, Walt Whitman, and Theodore Roosevelt.

PHOTO CC: MJ Vilardi some rights reserved

The next day, dressed in his Grandfather’s old WW II military jacket, Ross took me to a nearby farm, where he cavorted with a frisky pony.

PHOTO CC: MJ Vilardi some rights reserved

Here’s a portrait of Ross’s Grandmother, Margaret Alexander, taken during our visit.

NOTE: If you can make it to Lynchburg on 10 October, you will be richly rewarded. Many of Ross’s closest friends and family members have never met. I’m sure it would make him a bit uneasy having all of us in one place, comparing notes and trading stories. But what stories!

IF YOU CAN’T ATTEND: Please write something. I promise to read it aloud in Lynchburg, and, with your permission, share it here. Send it to: mj [at] mjville.com

And speaking of stories, check out the new “Ross History” posts at the Ross blog maintained by the mysterious Marcolis…

PHOTO CC: John Siebert – some rights reserved

My Dad, who’s pretty conservative, told me recently that he liked a lot of what he’s heard from Barack Obama. I asked if that meant he’s going to vote for him. “We’re lifelong Republicans,” he said, and then quickly changed the subject.

Voting, for the few of us who do it, is very personal, and closely linked to our self image. So even though a lot of Republicans think the war was a mistake, and that Bush & Co. have mismanaged just about everything, they still can’t bring themselves to punch the card for a Democrat. But there are very good reasons why even lifelong Republicans like Dad should want a Democrat in the White House for a while.

Remember playing Monopoly as a kid? The game inevitably reaches the point where one player just keeps getting richer and everybody else goes broke. Game over. Play again. Well, we’re at that point in our economy. For the last 30 years the powerful players (Wall Street and their paid surrogates, the politicians) have used the questionable principles of Reaganomics (AKA “trickle down”) to strip away consumer protection and investment regulations. McCain’s favorite economic knucklehead, Phil Graham, was instrumental in wiping out the sensible barrier between banks and brokers, but almost every politician who wants campaign cash (and that’s everyone) has taken part in dismantling laws and regulations that served us well since the Great Depression. (more…)

PHOTO CC: Craig Jewell some rights reserved

In “Making America Stupid” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes today that the Republicans at their convention chanting “drill, baby, drill!” makes as much sense as, at the dawn of the Internet and IT revolution, chanting “typewriters, baby, typewriters!” It focuses enthusiasm in the wrong direction, and for all the wrong reasons.

“I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.”
Read the entire Friedman column here

There will be, I predict, a lot more hand-wringing from pundits and commentators as they try to explain why obvious lies and distortions from McCain’s camp, even when they are exposed, continue to help Republican poll numbers. Nobody really wants to label American voters “dumb” or “stupid,” and indeed, those words are not going to build any bridges or encourage people to learn more about the issues. That kind of characterization just makes folks more defensive, and entrenched in an “us/them” paradigm.

A better way to see it: the swing voters that the candidates are now competing for (”undecideds” and “independents”) are not operating on the FACT level. They are on the IDENTITY level, where WHO you are is more important than WHAT you believe. And these voters are now hypnotized by the imagery: a strong, confident lady-leader has joined a reform-minded, plain-talking war hero … and they’re going to “shake things up!”

Can Obama break this spell?

UPDATE: And the meme goes on, in this concise overview of the current economic mess: James Moore asks: Are we a nation of village idiots?

I know life in Alaska is different: a lot of people hunt and fish for food. But the brutal killing of wolves from aircraft is inexcusable. The more I learn about Sara Palin, the uglier she looks.

This year’s presidential campaign is being played out in Stupid Stadium. That’s why it doesn’t matter if Sara Palin gets every answer wrong in her interviews this week, or the press conferences and debates to follow. Because the people that the Republicans are appealing to are not listening to the words. They’re watching images. They see a feisty, spunky, pretty lady who’s got gumption.

These “swing voters,” “undecideds,” and “independents” have to be kind of dense: how else could they not have an opinion after all that’s happened in the last eight years? Obviously the facts and issues don’t speak to them. Rove and his Mad Men discovered long ago that images and identity speak to them.

That’s why it doesn’t matter what the candidates say, just how they come across. McCain is the wizened warrior, a hero. Palin is the tough but feminine hockey mom. Obama is, well, the brainy black guy who grew up in Hawaii but might as well be from Mars.

Who do you think will wow ‘em in Stupid Stadium?

Check it out: We interrupt this musty old speech to bring you a breath of fresh air…