Intolerance

I encountered a mini-van while on the way home from the grocery store with a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker along with another sticker stating in iconic form that marriage is solely between a man and a woman. As my irritation increased, it got me to thinking.

Why is it that people think they have to tell other people how to live their lives? What is it that makes a person think that it is they who have the right answer. While I can accept that the answer might be right for them, it certainly may not be the right one for others.

This intolerance wears on me. I’m sure that some of these folks are well meaning, it’s just that they have absolutely no clue about differences in this world of ours. And religious intolerance is particularly insidious in that over the centuries this intolerance has slaughtered, and continues to slaughter a lot of innocent people.

How about you live your live and I live mine?

Let’s all try to get through the day finding space for each other while we work, raise our kids, and do good for others. Maybe if we show a little respect and a lot of love, we might find we can all get along.

Or, to quote a conservative, decidedly Republican friend of mine, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Right, Steven?

Keeneland

Last Friday, a couple friends and I made our seasonal trek down I-75 a few miles to Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. Located on a large farm, just next door to historic Calumet Farms, as far as I’m concerned, Keeneland is horse racing heaven. For about three weeks in April and October, fans can see some of the best horse racing in the country.

As you can discover from the photos below, Keeneland is a beautiful race track and a pleasant venue to watch horse racing. Besides having the best racing in the country during their season, they make it easy to have an enjoyable day at the races. The horses get saddled in a paddock area just outside the grandstand, among beautiful old oak trees. You can almost touch these majestic animals as they leave the walking ring on their way to the race track.

Prior to this fall meet, Keeneland renovated their track:

• installing an all-weather racing surface called Polytrack
• changed the configuration of their track, making wider turns
• added Trakus, a technology for tracking and viewing the horses.

Both Polytrack and Trakus are revolutionary changes for horse racing. Polytrack is a softer and much safer racing surface, enabling a fast race track in even the most inclement weather. The same Polytrack surface was used last winter at Turfway Park offering few, if any, cancellations of racing due to a frozen track.

The Polytrack surface at Keeneland has, however, changed the way players handicap a race there. Used to that Keeneland was notorious for their speed bias, meaning that horses on the lead (the speed) often would win, as those with a late run at the end simply could not catch up. This fall however, was a frustrating one, as we saw many longshots hit the wire first, racing from off the pace, swinging wide into the stretch, and making a strong dash for the wire. Many of us avoided speed horses, preferring those with some experience on a similar surface. Additionally, many avoid horses who primarily race on grass when they change to the dirt surface. This was not my experience this fall at Keeneland.

Trakus is an interesting technology. Tiny radio devices are placed in the saddle cloth of each race horse, signalling sensors positioned all around the race track. This enables the exact position and path of each race horse to be tracked as they run the race course. Each racer’s exact times, distance traveled, and path could be recorded as well as displayed on the video monitors at the track. Although the horses were displayed as colored dots on a computer screen, it was easy to identify “your horse” even when crowded into a pack on the far turn.

Keeneland is, by far, the best place I’ve ever been to enjoy horse racing. It’s a short drive from Cincinnati and offers magnificent scenery and great racing. Unfortunately the racing season is over tomorrow, October 27. Hopefully, spring will roll around here soon, and I’ll be back at Keeneland again in April.

QuickBooks: Nice Job

Last week I purchased a brand new MacBook Pro, Apple’s laptop with an Intel processor. So far, it’s an excellent computer: fast, solid, well-designed, and it even runs the Windows operating system inside a Macintosh window using Parallels Desktop.

For years, I used QuickBooks 4.0 for the Macintosh for accounting for my FileMaker development consulting practice, Watzman Associates. Unfortunately, it only ran in MacOS 9, and would no longer run on my new computer. I was more than pleased to discover that my new laptop came installed with QuickBooks New User Edition 6 for Mac. And all I needed to do was “register” the software with a phone call.

I called Intuit sales, full well expecting to get a pressured pitch to upgrade to a bigger and better version. Upon explaining my business situation, the sales rep suggested there was no need for any other product and that registration was free. What a pleasant surprise to discover that I had a “free” and high quality accounting solution for my consulting practice.

Fast forward about 7 days. I’m now using the software and, as with any accounting software, there is a learning curve. I check out the QuickBooks support web site, only to find that I’m allowed 30 days free support even for my free software. Taking advantage of their online callback support, I received a phone call in less than 30 minutes. The support person was friendly and helpful, offering suggestions on a better method to handle my payroll accounting.

I appreciate the helpful and pleasant staff that I’ve spoken with at Intuit, as previous experiences with Intuit had been less than pleasant. I’m a satisfied “customer” and feel it only right to praise their good work.

On Writing

My last post started out as an article on my favorite football teams, yet ended up with memories of my father. I’m amazed at how the content shifted as I got in touch with my own feelings of grief over the loss of my Dad. As I noted, the feelings were bittersweet in my recollection of the good conversations and sharing between father and son on some common interests.

Writing is a good outlet for expression. Doing this blog has required that I take the time to consider what I post here and do the best I can to express what I have to say. Although I suspect that few read my posts, the blog is open to the rest of the world and my words are likely stored somewhere so that they can be read sometime by somebody.

It’s a rarity that I do this kind of writing. Most of the time my writing is much less formal, often consisting of a quick email reply. Rarely does this kind of writing lend itself to careful consideration and much expression of thought or feeling. It’s just email.

The Middle of Football Season

It’s the middle of football season and I’ve yet to make a comment about my favorite teams. The West Virginia University Mountaineers are faring quite well. Undefeated this season and rated as high as #3 in some of the polls. And of course, growing up near Pittsburgh, my blood runs black and gold for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Or The Stillers as they’re known around The ‘Burgh.

• There’s a rapper out of Morgantown, WV called 6′6 240 who has put together a rap called The Gold and the Blue. Have fun with this one!
• Where does a Steelers fan go to watch the Black and Gold play in the heart of Cincinnati Bengals country? There just happens to be a place called Martino’s on Vine that is packed with people wearing Steelers colors for every game. The food is much better than your average bar food and they have IC Lite on Tap and Iron City in the aluminum “bottle”.

On a bittersweet note, my father died last December. The last time I was with him we were watching the Steelers play the Bengals last November. I left Steubenville at half-time to return to Cincinnati.

I miss talking to him on the phone about how our favorite teams fared from week to week. He was always going on about how “the Mountaineers could never win The Big One”. I held his memory close last New Year’s as The Mountaineers beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and then, weeks later, the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

I miss you, Dad!

A Christian Nation?

There are those in power that would like the United States to be a “Christian nation.” As I understand it, those who practice Christianity follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Where is it in those teachings where Jesus talks of hatred? Of racism? Of prejudice? Of war?

Even though I’m Jewish, it is my understanding that Jesus was a man of peace, teaching tolerance, forgiveness, love. I always thought he spoke of “love thy neighbor” rather than “shun thy neighbor”.

And what happens to all the other religions and cultures in this “Christian nation?” What of the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Pagans, the atheists? Are we to be left behind?

I would imagine that Jesus, along with our founding fathers might be “rolling over in their graves” hearing of this concept of the good old USA being a Christian nation. I don’t believe this to be the vision of our founding fathers. I’d always learned they left England because of religious intolerance.

What about a nation welcoming of all people? Tolerant of differences and a nation thriving on new thought and ideas. I would like to see a nation of peace, loving our neighbors, even those ninety miles away from our shores. What about the kind of nation where we all get along and build a safe and peaceful world for all our children?

Poor Language

Do you ever run across words and phrases that simply irritate you when you read them? Below are a few in my list:

• exact same (their meaning is exactly the same)
• root cause
• ingathering (as opposed to outgathering?)
• rain event (said by our local weather people)
• end result (like there’s any other kind)
• gift (used as a verb to give a present)
• on the ground (popular phrase, but trite)
• at the end of the day (boring)

Religion + Politics = ???????

Take note of this article recently found in the Cleveland Plain Dealer entitled Preacher says GOP delaying 2nd coming.

In the article, a Houston based preacher named K.A. Paul said, “he believes that the Bush administration has delayed the second coming because U.S. foreign policy has blocked Christian missionaries from working in Iraq, Iran and Syria.”

Apparently this minister has been rallying a lot recently against the Republicans because of their abuses of power, but with quite a religious bent. Although many of the actions that I believe our government is currently taking, including the war in Iraq are wrong, my reasoning is not only moral, but I feel strongly that it is not the best for the people of our country.

“God is mad at this country”, Paul goes on to say. Since when did this human have a direct line to God? Or does God even care? Why is God mad, in particular, at the United States, instead of say, Canada or France or India? We’re making a big assumption here, one that I decidedly cannot follow.

It is scary when people invoke God in the political actions. We all have a different view of that God.

I sincerely invite comments, if you have something to say on this or any other topic!

War is not the Answer

“You see war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate”

Marvin Gaye (What’s Going On)

More Violence

I heard on the news this morning of yet another shooting in a school in Pennsylvania this time. I’m not going to bother providing a link to the story, it’s all too familiar. My two children are high school students and my wife works at another area high school. This is sad. And appalling. It’s hard to understand.

The most violence we had at Steubenville High School, where I grew up, was the occasional fight. These were often broken up by the teachers. I do recall that my friend John, was picked up by his collar when he mouthed off to a coach.

What’s changed? Too many guns? Poverty? Breakup of the family?

In another blog that I frequent, someone suggested the devaluation of life. In our society, it seems that some lives are less important than others. The life of some CEO of some company. Important. A teacher of needy children. Less important. What celebrity stars in some new movie. Important. The million dollar contract of some professional athlete. Important.

I’ll end the cynicism now. We’ve lost our way and many of our core values. What happened to valuing people over things? Listening and being, rather than always going somewhere. Taking time to care and love those around us.

I don’t pretend to have the answers. I’m saddened by the losses. Concerned by the lack of direction found in our country. Concerned at the lack of “doing what’s right” from our leadership on down.

Enough gloom and doom for one day. For something positive, take a look at my previous article on Good Friends, a facility for aging race horses.

Peace.