Youngstown Renaissance

Essay: My Journey to Reason

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:05:09 -0500

Last year my brother asked me for my thoughts on God: given our shared, childhood Christian indoctrination, how and where did our paths diverge? I was intrigued by the project and promptly let it sit for four months. When I finally picked up my pen to attempt a reply, I drew from the many epiphanies that challenged my inherited world view.

I am apparently the black sheep of my family, who are uniformly Christian, though not monolithically so. I love my family, and my father has been devoted to Christianity since his conversion at age 18. It works for him, and I don't resent him his beliefs or lifestyle.

I have read authors like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris who argue for the abolition of religion, however I find this too remote a possibility given man's ego. As a species we want to believe in a divine purpose for ourselves and our planet. We are seduced by this cosmic canopy above us and are loathe to acknowledge its vast vacancy.

Because of my conservative Christian upbringing, religion has always been a topic of great interest for me, so I continue to read a great deal about it. I recently happened on one blog with an essay contest for de-conversion stories, so I dusted of my letter to my brother, reworked it, and sent it in. I've posted it below and would appreciate it if you'd vote for me here once you've read it (click the stars to rate it).

I have not read all the other essays in this contest, and there may be others that are hostile toward other beliefs; naturally I can take only take responsibility for my own statements. Let me stress that I believe in tolerance for a variety of world views. Too often politics and religion are off-limits for discussion, yet these can be the most important, not to mention the most interesting, things to discuss. It's important to engage each other in the crucial issues of our time, such as the need to educate our children based on observable, testable scientific principles.

Finally, I believe it's important to speak up for a misunderstood minority in this country. Too often, atheists are dismissed as amoral or satanic, which is far from the mark. Richard Dawkins gets it right to quip that most people reject any number of gods from Zeus to Dionysus; I just take it one God further.

My Journey to Reason
The process of reconciling the world I know with the one I was taught has been painfully challenging. Like extracting an entrenched weed, several attempts passed while the root remained obstinate and unmoved. Ultimately, I have found a certainty quite unlike what I expected, yet the long journey was necessitated by the depth of indoctrination from my youth.

My father attended seminary and was a minister of music in our church. My mother divorced him before my brother and I turned five. (Apparently his proposal “I believe God would have me marry you,” was not as enduring a line as he hoped.) We stayed with our dad and attended Christian kindergarten and elementary schools, as well as weekly services Sunday mornings and evenings and Wednesday evenings. Every activity from morning to night was accompanied by prayer, whether mealtime, school time, or any other time.

The Rapture was a two-edged sword for me. I was taught to look forward to it, but I was uncertain of the protocol. I was afraid it would happen in the middle of the night while I was sleeping naked, and I would fly up to Heaven with no opportunity to throw on some PJs. Meanwhile, everyone else would be clothed and laughing and pointing at me, of course. For this reason, I was sure to always wear underwear to bed. The Rapture might be chilly, but at least it wouldn’t be naked.

God was an ever-present part of our lives, to the extent that I was convinced that I saw an angel at the foot of my bed when I was ten years old. We were simply maintaining a heightened state of openness for communications from the Almighty. I accepted what I was told, tried to be an obedient child, and I did not question the received beliefs of my father.
Two Worlds
As a child of divorced parents, I was exposed to two different ways of life. Though not hedonistic by any means, life during the summer at my mom’s was more permissive than the school year with my dad. Instead of hearing praise tapes by Sandi Patti and Steve Green, there was at least popular music from Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand. The secular world was visible in glimpses, and we were allowed to explore it.

We were set up for some fundamental confusion: Honor thy Father and Mother was inherently contradictory. We could not honor one without necessarily confounding the other. Instinctively, we followed the house rules for wherever we found ourselves and learned to get along. When I was thirteen, I elected to live with my mom, and my brother stayed with my dad. My brother still is a Christian. I have become an atheist.

There have been a number of epiphanies in my life: experiences where, then as now, I recognized I was suddenly and quite unexpectedly seeing the world with new eyes. These moments propelled me most vigorously and violently to where I now stand.
Boarding School
Time away from home is, in itself, a catalyst for growth. Through unfiltered exposure to unknown people, places, and perspectives, we take on new vocabularies that augment or replace our working set. If the new experience conforms to our present understanding, it can be easily assimilated. However, if it challenges our received wisdom, either it or our understanding must be cast aside.

I met in high school many kids who dressed, behaved, and thought differently from me. This was in greater degree than I had encountered to that point. One classmate, now a recording artist, was a gay cross-dressing singer-songwriter who performed spot-on Tori Amos songs and derivatives at monthly coffee houses. There one would also hear an Alaskan songwriter, now a successful folk-pop songstress, strumming her guitar and yodeling. These classmates and others were exceptional creatures, even then, personifying talents and lifestyles unknown to me.

I could have, certain of my Christian upbringing, with its utter exclusion of and contempt for the secular world and all its variety and color, shunned exposure to these wild elements. But I was a boy with a foot in two worlds. Divorced parents can split a child’s personality quite beyond the help of drugs or therapy. The child’s journey must ultimately determine his chosen identity, and as I made my way through high school, I remained open to situations that would provide new sensory stimuli and expand the menu from which I could select a future me.

One catalyst was my choir director, “Craig”. I had two hours of instruction a day from him and came to be included in a group of students that hung out with him, both on campus and at his nearby home.

I had the greatest respect for him in his abilities and knowledge, and his enthusiasm for music and for conducting was infectious and kindred to me. I heard one day a conversation from other students suggesting that he was gay. Gay was still, to me at that time, an abomination of a word. It suggested at once decadence, deviance, disgust, and doom. I couldn’t believe these characteristics could be applied to this man I had come to care for and admire.

“I heard something about you,” I surprised Craig one evening while alone at his house.

“What is that?”

“Something awful,” I dug deeper but was not quite ready to confront him with what I feared. Once spoken, I could not take it back. If confirmed, how would we both respond? Could our friendship continue?

He urged me on, knowing an inevitable moment had arrived, “What have you heard?”

“That … that you…,” I paused, then pushed on. “…are a homosexual.”

I felt silly almost at once. It was a word. What terrible actions was I accusing him of? There was a moment of silence in the air as my thoughts continued to race. Craig’s response was brave and wise, “Is that really so awful?”

A moment to choose: If Craig was gay, and if that was indeed awful, I could not continue to befriend him. Instead, since he was gay and since I cared about and respected him, I decided to better understand who he was, so I could fully appreciate him.

So, here I chipped away at a foundational belief, and my holy armor was thereby weakened. A tenet my father had sworn to me was no longer true from my experience. There was no great threat to me, mankind, or God Himself from my gay friend. What else would I discover was false? There were other experiences in those years: new loves, first sex, more sex, new music, new literature, new ideas, and new questions I had to answer for myself.
Germany
One of the religious questions with which I had struggled most mightily was thrown into sharp relief during my exchange year in Germany just before the end of high school. Until then, to be sure, I had encountered international students, but mostly just students from the U.S. with varying backgrounds. In Germany, and particularly in the former East Germany, I encountered people with vastly different backgrounds, experiences, and fundamental beliefs than mine.

The magnificent cathedrals of Germany are not well attended today. Western Europe has become, by many accounts, a predominantly secular region. This is true not just by comparison to its Middle Eastern neighbors, but particularly in relation to the United States. I wondered if, then, these secular Europeans were doomed to an infernal infinity by mere chance of birth. Is this the promise of a just and merciful God, that only those born to a Christian family or those fortunate enough to be visited by a missionary have an opportunity to see the light and repent? Whereas an island-born native never visited by a Western man yet living a decent, murder-, adultery-, and idolatry-free life, should be headed to hell for the mere failure to proclaim an unknown prophet as his life’s greatest treasure?

It was with this incompletely formed notion that I found myself one August night alone in the middle of a soccer field. I had been in Germany three weeks and was soon to depart for the remainder of the year with a host family. I had been enjoying a heady romance with one of our local coordinators, a twenty-one-year-old architecture student named Catrin. Aside from her help dissecting some finer points of German grammar and customs, at only seventeen, her attentions had me feeling on top of the world.

On the cusp of an unwritten foreign adventure and flush with the exoticism of the country and all of its attractions, I stood basking in the warm night air, secluded by the surrounding trees and illuminated only by the lights of the houses on the nearby hill and the starry sky. As I gazed up at the heavens, I was struck that, above these terrestrial features and geopolitical boundaries, the stars visible to me were likewise viewable to friends and family in the States and to unknown billions, of all beliefs, throughout the rest of the world.

This ecstatic feeling of oneness with the world transcended all beliefs and dogmas; I needed and wanted a god less than ever. I can’t respect a deity so vain that he will turn away good people who haven’t sung his praises. Throughout the remainder of my year in Germany, I remained impressed by a people who were so intelligent and artistic and who seemed to have little use for America’s puritanical obsessions and restrictions.
9-11
Though naturally impacted by the traumatic terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, I was even more affected by the America revealed in its wake. At first, I was alarmed by the anti-Muslim fever that remains a steady undercurrent to our public discourse. I was later struck by an inconvenient truth: the terrorists didn’t hate us for our freedom, they hated us because of our beliefs—our God. And we, in kind, waged war with much the same instinct: Bush even baldly declared our anti-terror mission a “crusade.”

I began to fear the numbing, dumbing effect of religion on our country and the disastrous consequences its right-wing electorate brought to the White House and, ultimately, the Supreme Court through the 2004 elections. Where I had once considered religion a harmless, personal issue, I now saw religion as a paralyzing cancer on our democracy. We cannot make scientific strides with stem cells due to misguided puritans; we are embroiled in a losing, likely decades-long, struggle in the Middle East for no better reason than our hot prejudices compounded by a knee-jerk protectionism of Israel; we are crippling our competitive abilities by confusing our children with pabulum about Creationism and Intelligent Design; and we confuse straightforward scientific matters like global warming with misinformation borne of corporate self-interests and faith-based pseudo-scientists that peg the world as mere thousands of years old. Religion is not harmless; its existence and promulgation are direct threats to a democratic republic governed by reason and experience and educated by science.
Conclusion
I have come to realize that, in this world, what you see is what you get. As man has puzzled over the inexplicable happenings in the universe around him, he initially came up with the best explanations he could that made sense in the realm of his personal experiences. Rain falling from the sky resembles tears that fall from human eyes. Therefore, there must be some great being in the sky crying tears down on man. As more became known, some gods were replaced while others evolved. When the Pentateuch was transcribed, man had worked to make sense of a Great Flood and the destruction of great cities. What was the meaning behind this, surely it was not random?! So, the flood was sent to cleanse the earth; Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked and had to be likewise purged. These are arguably less primitive than predecessor legends but plainly this-is-why-it-is-so myths nonetheless.

It’s convenient to believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present father figure in the sky who cares for you even if no one else does. As long as you please this imaginary figure according to a millennia-old text and your imaginary conversations with said deity, the rest of the world be damned; you’ll be all set for eternity, come what may in this life. It’s harder to accept that there is no meaning to our existence on this planet in the universe than to share with our neighbors and work together toward the betterment of our communities and our world. Hard to accept that when we die, that’s all there was to it. If you failed to make the most out of life, you get no further chances. An afterlife is much more enticing to some; but, considering its many predicted manifestations, it is also just as likely, if not more so, not to be available.

As I continue to define my philosophy, it will be based on the tenets of naturalism: science, reason, and experience. As I learn and grow, I know I will sometimes be wrong about things, but I will have a better chance of being right by being skeptical and thinking critically about the world around me, and I will keep working on my brother and hoping he will one day see the light of reason.

Nubrella

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:55:01 -0500

A friend pointed me at this article, which I was going to blog about anyway. I think the angle of texting while walking is kind of impractical anyway, much less while it's raining and you're under an umbrella. I was thinking that maybe the best application for the handle-less, strapped-on umbrella might be for a bicyclist in the rain.

Then, I reached the end of the article and found that one of the quoted buyers was from Youngstown:

Skye Grapentine of Youngstown, Ohio, bought the Nubrella for her birthday after stumbling across it online. She likes walking, and she likes catching up on reading the newspaper when she walks -- a pleasure that is not possible with an umbrella.

"With an umbrella, you're busy gripping it," says Grapentine. Hands-free is great because "the less you have to worry about, the more you can get done."

Defend Youngstown night with Mahoning Valley Thunder!

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:55:29 -0500

Very cool news: Phil Kidd and Defend Youngstown are being recognized by the Mahoning Valley Thunder arena football team in their Monday night game, May 5. Wear a Defend Youngstown T-Shirt to the game and get $5 off your ticket. Don't have a T-Shirt yet? Easy, just visit DefendYoungstown.com

Links, Connections, and History

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:22:39 -0500

I was asked to be interviewed this weekend about things that are happening in Youngstown, so I met Saturday morning with a long-time Valley resident. As a former mill worker whose father was CEO of a steel company, I fear her story was far more interesting than mine, so I spent as much time asking questions of her as she did of me. We had an enjoyable morning discussing mutual acquaintances, and I was particularly eager to get the dirt she had on so many public figures past and present.

Growing up in bland suburbia, as I did, you aren't (or at least I wasn't) aware of political gossip, so the twisted history of corruption in Youngstown is still something whose scope I don't quite fathom.

I've been doing a little more catch-up this weekend, and I ran across a great quote from a neighbor that I must share. It says quite succinctly something that I and, I think, many of my compatriots believe in fiercely but perhaps may not ever have said so articulately.

"When a town loses its past, it can believe whatever is told about it. In order for a city to prosper it must recover its identity by embracing its past and refusing to let others destroy and humiliate it." John Russo said this in 2001 in an interview with the New York Times here. As a neighbor of John's, I have the privilege of hearing him speak often, but the Palermo trip must have been quite an inspiration, because I think that's about as eloquent as I've ever heard him.

The Stage is The Rage

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:22:15 -0500

I attended my first full Stage at the Oakland last night, and it was amazing. I had been to part of one before but had the kids and left after hearing Chris Barzak read part of One for Sorrow. The Stage is truly the most eclectic mix of entertainment that exists in the valley, bar none. There were no bands last night, alas, but there were monologues, original readings, songs, karaoke, a hilarious sketch called "Rock 'n Roll Jesus" (my favorite of the night), and Dr. Ray's Science Sideshow (I think I've got the title close to right).

All of this was emceed by the incomparable Brooke Slanina, who would disappear during numbers, reappearing each time more and more in character as Brookeback Mountains, drag queen extraordinaire. At first, I felt like we were inconveniencing her, and I wanted to offer to read off the names for her so she could concentrate on getting dressed. But, clearly, she was as much a star of the show as anyone. And boy did she turn heads when we went out to BW3 afterwards!

Korean panel

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:15:11 -0500

Friday morning I participated in a panel at city hall with a group of Youngstown residents answering questions for a group of Korean journalists as a part of the East West Center's Korea-United States Journalist Exchange.

We primarily discussed issues pertaining to the election and perceptions of race, gender, and class. I thought the most bizarre question was what kind of minority candidate white men in general would prefer: Hispanic, African-American, or Asian. We were perfectly stumped on how to respond to it and fell back on declaring that we were interested only in issues and integrity. But I'm still intrigued that the question was asked and I'm curious what kinds of responses were expected.

The very first question of the session was one I want to comment on primarily. A journalist asked about the Wall Street Journal article that profiled local working-class voters and their preferred candidates.

The men interviewed in the article offer frank appraisals of their view of the candidates, which clearly were making an assessment on an emotional level as to how they related to the candidates they saw on the ticket. The first two men on the panel who responded to the question basically questioned that these men really existed and that they in any case didn't represent any kind of cross section of the region's white males.

I spoke up to emphasize that these people do exist whether we like it or not, and that they're looking at the candidates in search of someone with whom they can identify. We need to find opportunities to bring people of disparate backgrounds together to move beyond prejudice. (I blatantly stole most of those thoughts from Sherry Linkon, by the way. Though, if I misquoted her, then they're my own.)

But what was being suggested, again, was that the media was manufacturing this false working-class representation of our city, when in reality YSU's Center for Working-Class Studies went to great pains to work with the Wall Street Journal to arrange the interviews.

We as a region and as a nation won't start addressing our problems until we drop our cynicism about media misrepresentations and face our weaknesses and hard truths. I'm not suggesting we believe everything we read. But let's be realistic about the challenges we have yet to overcome rather than pretending we're all innocence and roses.

Reason: Out of Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:58:25 -0500

Writers are supposed to find ways to reuse their material. Since I'm not sure how many visitors to this blog are also visitors to my Vindy blog, and because this is a particularly hot topic for me from before the invasion/occupation, I'm going to take the liberty of cross-posting this in full here. Thanks for your indulgence.

I still remember calling my step-mother in February of 2003 when we were sending in more inspectors to Baghdad, and it looked like there was legitimate hope of diplomacy, and I was optimistic. I just couldn't believe we would presume to invade a sovereign nation for our own suspicions and that Bush would so bully Hussein into a corner in a way that he was really backing the U.S. into a corner.

That Bush and company still believe history will vindicate them is the only thing that inflicts me with shock and awe.
---

It's astonishing to still hear people posit that there's some victory scenario on the other side of additional time spent in Iraq. The only legacy for the American misadventures in Iraq, sadly, is a dishonestly brokered and manipulated invasion of a sovereign country. There is no victory anymore, if there ever was. Does victory include the death of tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis? Does victory include the complete dismantling of basic security and infrastructure elements in the country? It seems every discussion of the Iraq debacle must contain an acknowledgement that of course the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein, because this is the principle accomplishment on which the operation rests. Fine; acknowledged. But that doesn't balance the damage that has been done. Iraq is not necessarily a better place now than before the invasion, except for certain freedoms. After all, what good is freedom without the security to enjoy it?

However, it's not just the reckless Republican administration and compliant 107^th Congress that deserve scorn. The Democrats who rode into the 110^th Congress on a mandate to get us out of Iraq have proven ineffective at best. Matt Taibbi wrote an excellent article in February's Rolling Stone highlighting the sorry story:

Solidifying his reputation as one of the biggest pussies in U.S. political history, Reid explained his decision to refocus his party's energies on topics other than ending the war by saying he just couldn't fit Iraq into his busy schedule. "We have the presidential election," Reid said recently. "Our time is really squeezed."

There was much public shedding of tears among the Democratic leadership, as Reid, Pelosi and other congressional heavyweights expressed deep sadness that their valiant charge up the hill of change had been thwarted by circumstances beyond their control — that, as much as they would love to continue trying to end the catastrophic Iraq deal, they would now have to wait until, oh, 2009 to try again. "We'll have a new president," said Pelosi. "And I do think at that time we'll take a fresh look at it."

Part of the reason the current administration, its allies in Congress, and its military appointees are so reluctant to entertain any withdrawal scenarios is because to do so would be to admit there are things they can't control but for which they are responsible. Pandora's Box has been opened, and the monsters cannot be stuffed back inside, try though they might. They can keep kicking the can down the field, but the problem is too intractable to keep promising that six more months will bring some miracle solution. The problem is too important to the futures of Iraq and the United States to keep worrying about political reputations. So, let's get past the blame and talk about what to do now.

The most compelling plan I've seen is titled, simply, A Responsible Plan To End The War In Iraq. Endorsed by Congressional candidates and military leaders, it faces the hard problems squarely and discusses the political and diplomatic choices necessary to move forward and get out.

The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. Since then, nearly 4,000 American troops have lost their lives and nearly thirty thousand more have suffered serious injuries, while as many as a million Iraqis may be dead. The financial costs of the war to the U.S. economy will ultimately exceed $3 trillion.

More than a year ago, the American public demanded a new direction in Iraq by electing a new Congress, and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (the Baker-Hamilton Commission) presented a set of recommendations for just such a new direction5. President Bush rejected the majority of those recommendations and proceeded—largely unchecked by Congress—on a course explicitly contrary to them.

Since that time, the current administration and its congressional allies have continued to use shifting rationales for extending our military involvement in Iraq with no end in sight. The American public has been presented with a set of false choices: a semi-permanent military occupation of Iraq versus a precipitous and destabilizing withdrawal. There is a deepening public desire for a new path forward and a cohesive military, diplomatic, and economic strategy that will end the war in Iraq while protecting American interests.

There are two strategic questions raised by our current dilemma:

How do we bring American military engagement in Iraq to a responsible end?
There is no military solution to the problems faced in Iraq: the real progress that can be made requires diplomatic, political, and economic means. We must stop counter-productive military operations by U.S. occupation forces and end our military presence in Iraq.

How do we prevent a repeat of the mistakes we’ve made?
The breakdown of checks and balances in our government led to bad decision-making which damaged America’s national security. Ending this war and preventing future situations like it requires that we restore these Constitutional checks and balances and fix the ways in which our governmental, military, and civil institutions have failed us.

Discussions of Iraq in the media have focused almost entirely on military operations and issues, but any real solution will require us to look at a broader set of problems. Beyond redeploying our troops, we must place equal importance on applying the full arsenal of non-military tools at our disposal. The American public must also re-engage in the discussions and decision-making about how to proceed.

I urge you to review this plan, to reject submitting to name-calling by those for whom too much blood is never enough, and to consider a time to return to committing America's resources to America's needs at home. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a compelling column two weeks ago about the costs of the war: $5,000 per second.

We’ve cut our casualty rates to the unacceptable levels that plagued us back in 2005, and we still don’t have any exit plan for years to come — all for a bill that is accumulating at the rate of almost $5,000 every second!

More important, while casualties in Baghdad are down, we’re beginning to take losses in Florida and California. The United States seems to have slipped into recession; Americans are losing their homes, jobs and health insurance; banks are struggling — and the Iraq war appears to have aggravated all these domestic woes.

A Congressional study by the Joint Economic Committee found that the sums spent on the Iraq war each day could enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start or give Pell Grants to 153,000 students to attend college. Or if we’re sure we want to invest in security, then a day’s Iraq spending would finance another 11,000 border patrol agents or 9,000 police officers.

Imagine the possibilities. We could hire more police and border patrol agents, expand Head Start and rehabilitate America’s image in the world by underwriting a global drive to slash maternal mortality, eradicate malaria and deworm every child in Africa.

All that would consume less than one month’s spending on the Iraq war.

Moreover, the Bush administration has financed this war in a way that undermines our national security — by borrowing. Forty percent of the increased debt will be held by China and other foreign countries.

Kristof ends his column, "I don't feel that I'm getting my money's worth." Do you?

Pray for better grammar

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:14:48 -0500

I'm not quite sure how I ran across this story over the weekend about drive-through prayer in Warren. And I didn't bother to read it, though I forwarded it to a friend who informed me the article was similarly riddled with poor grammar. One glance at the picture, and I winced; painful.

THE (in) YO

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:55:23 -0500

If you haven't noticed, In the Yo is back and better than ever, bringing you a daily roundup of what's up around town. You'll notice some posts from your humble author, alternating with those from Janko, of Shout Youngstown fame. Together, we aim to keep you apprised of the latest news and entertainment. All you bloggers out there can help by pushing stories out there on a daily basis. The more there is, the more we can plug.

Federal Street Again

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:12:37 -0500

The Federal Street demolition appears to be ready to kick off, according to this release in the Vindicator yesterday. I'm a practical person by nature. I don't like this project, but I know there will probably be bigger fights to fight, and sometimes you have to pick your battles. I understand there's a give and take in politics and compromise and negotiation are at the heart of getting things done in this complicated world.

However, when it comes to downtown right now, Federal Street is as good as it gets. If improvements need to be made there to the electrical grid, the city needs to get creative in how they are made so as not to rip up the street (about which I think there's consensus it does not need replacing, and that replacing concrete with asphalt is backwards). Electrical hookups could come from other sources other than replacements to the existing hookups under the street.

I'll take the liberty of sharing some thoughts from the mighty and wise Paul Hagman, who also forwarded these comments to the Mayor and the city's Board of Control:

In light of the City's current budget problems, is it a wise move to spend this money right now?

While parking is an oft heard complaint, the introduction of more of it on Federal Street is not going to suddenly inspire locals to come downtown. What is inspiring people to come down are the numerous new businesses that are opening their doors. Instead of funding this unfortunate plan, wouldn't the money be better allocated to encouraging more and more businesses to open up? The Department of Economic Development's budget is in danger of being cut by 80% which could nearly terminate the Youngstown Incentive Program which has been the key to allowing several projects to come to fruition in recent months.

The positive buzz that we are hearing about downtown right now is not about how convenient it is to park, but rather about how many new projects are on the line. Since opening its doors, the Rosetta Stone has attracted infinitely more people to downtown than will the 12 parking spaces in front of it. And the same goes with all of the businesses downtown. It is the businesses themselves that bring people; fund and encourage their growth, and you will encourage the growth of the City.

To address the issue of parking, though, I believe the City should further investigate strategic areas that could reasonably and inexpensivley be turned into parking. This was accomplished to some degree after Public Works worked with City Planning and discovered two large pockets of road (on Vindicator Square and Symphony Place) that were ideal for placing additional parking without interfereing with normal traffic patterns. Both departments should be commended for working together on that and coming up with some Location Efficient Development. That process could be repeated to round up even more under-utilized space that would quickly add the same number of parking stalls to downtown as this revised plan.

On the design side of things, a small portion of that $474,684 would do wonders for dressing up West Federal's sidewalks and making it a more inviting place to walk.

So put some money into improving what we've already got and keep encouraging more businesses to invest in downtown. By doing that, the City will find that the numerous shop owners will care for the portion of street in front of their shop and take the burden of having to redesign it every 20 years off of the City itself. (Are we even done paying for the last renovation to this very portion of the street?)

He goes on to lament the crazy and unsafe back and forth driving patterns that would result from the plan as designed, swerving from a median block to a diagonal-parking block back to a median block back to a diagonal-parking block. In my mind, the problem is that the basis for the design is wrong, therefore the design is wrong. It was all revealed in the meeting I attended in City Council chambers when the Mayor asked about the origin for the plans and Carmen Conglose responded that it was drawn up to bring the "success" of Federal Plaza to West Federal Street. That just about says it all.

If we're going to be spending money downtown, we should be bringing the spirit of West Federal Street to the rest of the city. And while you're at it, give me a bench where I can lean back, relax, and enjoy watching people pass by. And when my friend Paul Hagman passes by on his way to the beautiful Davis Building on West Federal, he can have a seat, too, and we can chat about the beautiful, tree-lined medians, and the thriving businesses we frequent, and how the street never seems to need repaving, and how isn't it great the city decided to find space for a parking garage for all the people coming downtown, and hey I'll see you at the Oakland for the show tonight...

Anyone can be an Expert Skier

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:02:58 -0500

The family and I are in Denver for a couple of weeks. It's a vacation for most of us. I'm mostly working, though I got a few days to ski Copper Mountain. Fantastic runs and real diversity in skill levels available. One of the nice things is how they've divided the mountain by experience, so that the experts can roam the eastern slopes and the beginners can feel at home on the western and the rest can meander about the center runs. You don't have to worry about accidentally getting yourself into trouble.

As it had been three years since our last ski trip, it took me both days, however, just to get back into the groove. We had taken lessons in the PMTS system, developed by Harald Harb, at Sol Vista on that prior trip. It was a fantastic experience, and I needed to regain the feel of the turns and timing: when to switch the stance foot, rotate the free foot, and lift the ski heel. But I also needed to remember not to panic when staring down a sheer drop straight into a mob of lift queues at the bottom of the slope. One turn after another does the trick.

I'll leave you with a video of Harald Harb doing some medium turns. There are some more impressive videos with moguls and the like, but this is the kind of stuff I was trying to emulate. Look at how he keeps his skis perfectly parallel the entire run. Wow! Here's the book Anyone can be an Expert Skier; highly recommended!!

By the way... where does one go to ski from Youngstown??

Charlie Brown Gets Lucky

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:04:28 -0500

We went to Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead last night at the Oakland. It was our first full show at the Oakland, though we had been to a Stage and First Night there. The show follows the Peanuts gang ten years after we last knew them from the comic strip. Snoopy has to be put to sleep after being found with Woodstock in his jaws; Lucy loses her psychiatric touch and instead ends up in a psychiatric ward; and Pigpen has internalized his dirty ugliness and become a full-bodied homophobic germ.

I recommend going to see the show. We had fun, and there was lots to talk about afterwards (at Rosetta Stone, where we ate and drank until 1:45am), which I think is one of the points of going out to the theater. Plus, local theater is one of Youngstown's great assets. The sets are wonderful, the music sets a good tone, and the actors themselves were solid and, it seemed, delivered most everything that was asked of them.

However, the production and the play itself both have some regrettable flaws. Firstly, the "dog sees god" premise suggests deep philosophical musings on death and religion that are merely attempted by asking Van (think Linus) about Buddhism, by querying CB's sister (think Sally) on her flavor-of-the-week religion, Wiccanism, and by CB (Charlie Brown, if you haven't gotten it yet) delivering a brief monologue to Beethoven (think Schroeder) which the latter ignores. Dog-sees-god as a concept is really more of a conceit to propel the gang forward in time so they can drink, smoke weed, say "fuck," and discover their sexuality. This is fine; I understand that: we get some characters with which we're familiar, and we get to see them respond to a different set of situations. This leads us to our second problem.

Who the hell are these people? The fact that it's an unauthorized adaptation means you can't come right out and call Linus "Linus" or Sally "Sally," so I spent the first fifteen minutes of the show, if not more, trying to figure out who everybody was. And in the second act, when we finally meet Van's Sister (think Lucy) in the psych ward, I wasn't actually sure that CB's sister hadn't become committed and I had missed the plot line, because the actors appeared similar to me, and there just wasn't much effort to distinguish them physically.

So, let's talk about what really worked? The message that came through was sticking up for those who needed defense, and I thought Greg Mocker was outstanding. I couldn't watch anyone else when he was on stage. Well, okay, except for Brooke and Denise, who were their usual gorgeous selves. And the morning-after scene with a semi-clad Brooke was directorial genius!

So, go check out Dog Sees God at the Oakland, because it's entertaining and thought-provoking, not to mention arousing, adult entertainment (no, not that kind of adult entertainment, though you will see men kiss). And bring cash, because they don't take MasterCard, or American Express, or Visa.

Imagined Corruption Taints Event Success

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:28:47 -0500

My mom treated the kids and me to The Greatest Show on Earth at the Chevy Centre today. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey packed 'em in for five shows this weekend, and it's the kind of show that brings in the whole area. So, you'd think this was a real win, no downside, just a great opportunity to bring the region to downtown Youngstown for family entertainment and send them away satisfied.

We were certainly satisfied; the circus put on a great show, and we were walking back to the free parking garage (what other city offers that?) across from the post office when I overheard a woman near me:

"They say they're losing millions on the Chevy Centre. Bullshit, did you see all the people?"

So, there it is: The Chevy Centre under new management and working to bring in a profitable roster of acts--and by all appearances successfully. But in the minds of this ignoramus, that success puts into doubt the reality of the facility's past struggles. They just assume, well it's Youngstown so they're probably lying and funneling the money somewhere.

What it really means is that the general public has no inkling of the financial realities of running a convention center or, certainly, a circus. What I'd like to do is get in contact with the current Chevy Centre management and, to the extent they're willing and able, publish on my Vindy.com blog the numbers on this weekend to show how expensive it is to bring in an act like that. Let me know if you can offer any help with contact info.

Art Youngstown's Second Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:40:04 -0600

I still remember Art Youngstown's inaugural exhibition. Jaci had four photographs there and sold two of them. The place was packed with a line out the door. And man was it cold!

Well, whether or not you caught the magic of that night, the Second Exhibition is coming up: Friday, March 14, 2008 from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm the Great Room at 25 E. Boardman Street. Refreshments will be served, and street parking is available. The gallery will also be open from 5:00 pm to 8:30 pm from March 17 thru 20, 2008.

If you're interested in presenting, artists (18 y.o. and older) may deliver their paintings, sculptures, films and other mediums of art on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 from noon to 4:00 pm. Artists are asked to present only those items which are to be offered for sale, and please do not include any items previously shown by Art Youngstown.

An evening of independent films produced by local filmmakers will be presented on Friday, March 21st, 2008 from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm. More info at artyoungstown.org

A Great Day for Productivity

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:57:37 -0600

Today is a great day for productivity. Why? Because Google has developed a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that will synchronize its calendar with Google Calendar! I've been waiting for this for a long time, using poor substitutes in the meantime with much frustration. Now my life is complete. Oh, happy day!

Nice vote

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:29:49 -0600

I don't know whether this is at the state or county level, but I thought the voting machines were pretty nice. The paper trail appeared as I made each selection, allowing me to verify each vote, and the process was clear and easy. The screen was easy to read, and the instructions were simple to follow. I supported all the tax levies, bleeding heart that I am, even the children's services one that I wasn't aware was on the ballot. I hope the school and WRTA levies pass, though time will tell. I'll be watching Keith Olbermann tonight to follow the Democratic Presidential Primaries. Go vote!

Plaid Again

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:40:16 -0600

If you didn't get to see the show last weekend, it got a great response from the audience, and there's one more chance this weekend, so come on out! Forever Plaid was well reviewed in both The Vindicator (by the way, I sang the solo in "Perfidia", so we're not sure whether the reviewer was talking about me and got the name wrong or got the song title wrong and meant Jimmy's great singing in "Cry") and the Warren Tribune-Chronicle (review not available online) and I even got a comment that our show was better than when an audience member saw it in Vegas :-)

I'm just back from a trip to Vegas, so I'm catching up on work and working on a post for my Vindy blog. later...

Youngstown's own featured on NPR

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:58:29 -0600

Youngstown's own Jan Pentz was featured on a Morning Edition segment this morning in an interview at the Golden Dawn. The young Obama supporter they matched her against was completely outmatched by Jan's wisdom and incisiveness (as I often find myself, also). Jan did herself, her students, Youngstown, and Clinton supporters everywhere proud.

And by the way, I will go on record and agree with you Jan that I think Clinton has more experience and skill than Obama and would make a fine and worthy president. We'd be lucky to have her.

Both Candidates on the Issues: Comparison by Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:24:15 -0600

The media like to focus on the political horse race, because it's exciting and because it's easy. It doesn't require breaking down issues, which it thinks will cause voters to yawn and tune out. You may not know, but I take requests. My mom asked the following:
"I've had several friends tell me that when Hillary speaks, they can understand what her plans are, but when Obama speaks, they feel his plans are very nebulous. I'd be interested in your and your friends take on this."

This is not the first time I've heard this slight against Obama. One of the best ways to attack someone is to find their strongest suit and attempt to turn it against them. Because he is an eloquent orator, Obama's opponents accuse him of lacking substance.

So, as a public service, I have gone through the texts of the most recent speech available on both Clinton's and Obama's Web sites and highlighted each issue or policy statement I could identify. I then pasted each into a table and organized them by topic and drew some conclusions which I will share below.

Clinton's speech was, serendipitously, her February 19th speech in Youngstown. Obama's was a week old, from February 13th, in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Clinton did not talk explicitly about unemployment or about education. I don't presume she's not sensitive to these issues, but for the record she didn't address them directly in this one speech. Obama didn't provide a timetable for exiting Iraq.

Both candidates propose universal health care. Obama had more specifics on his plan in terms of savings and coverage. They address the mortgage crisis, both by creating funds to assist families threatened by foreclosure: Obama proposes "a tax credit to low- and middle-income Americans that would cover ten percent of their mortgage interest payment every year"; Clinton "$30 billion in assistance to help families avoid foreclosures."

Both focused squarely on middle-class issues; their Web sites both use the same language: "Strengthening the middle class." Both plan to offer middle-class targeted tax breaks. Clinton had a big dollar amount in mind: "Eliminating more than $50 billion of George Bush's special breaks for the oil companies, the drug companies and Wall Street…. We'll put that money right back in your pockets." Obama was working with smaller numbers here: "send each working family a $500 tax cut and each senior a $250 supplement to their Social Security check." Obama further offered to adjust the minimum wage so that it is reworked to keep pace with inflation each year.

Clinton was blunt on Iraq, pledging to start bringing troops home within 60 days. Obama did not offer a timetable in this speech, but it was clear ending the war is a priority that will allow resources to be used to fund other needs, such as a "National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years. This investment will multiply into almost half a trillion dollars of additional infrastructure spending and generate nearly two million new jobs." He went on to address the need for green-energy sector jobs, but we'll let Clinton take this one: "Green collar jobs – five million of them – jobs we'll create by investing oil companies' record profits in clean renewable energy."

Both candidates shared a desire to end tax privileges for companies shipping jobs overseas. Obama dabbled in bankruptcy law, pledging that "if you can demonstrate that you went bankrupt because of medical expenses, then you can relieve that debt." He touched on credit, proposing to ban rate changes to debt that's already incurred along with interest on late fees.

Curiously, Obama ate Clinton's lunch on family issues. Maybe it's because Clinton doesn't have to work as hard for those votes, but he touched on several proposals in this area: "expand the child care tax credit for people earning less than $50,000 a year, and double spending on quality afterschool programs," "expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers," "require every employer to provide seven paid sick days a year," "require employers to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings… and the federal government will match the savings for lower-income, working families."

Both candidates, however, were up to the challenge on working-class issues, like trade. NAFTA: bad. China: gonna keep an eye on them and play hard-ball. Existing trade agreements: will be strenuously enforced. Future trade agreements: won't sign another one unless American workers thoroughly protected. Clinton had the advantage here, I'd have to say. She really covered all the bases and spoke conscientiously on the topic.

My hypothesis was that Obama was going to be just as full of ideas and as clear in stating those in his speech as Clinton, and I was not disappointed in the comparison. What I did not expect was to be so captivated by Clinton's speech, which I was, even in reading it. She was eloquent and persuasive, full of reasons why she and she alone should be the next President of the United States. And, as I let myself be immersed in her speech, it seemed like the right and decent choice to make.

The speech Obama gave was different in significant ways from the Youngstown one from which I heard bits and pieces and which I believe he largely repeated in Houston, which I mostly caught on MSNBC Tuesday night after his win in Wisconsin. There he talked about withdrawing from Iraq in 2009 and he picked apart opponents' attempts to denigrate his "hope" theme. Still, as stirring as his most recent speech has grown, I realized that it's not just his enthusiasm and optimism, but his ideas that are exciting the electorate. For example, look at the education credit students will get in exchange for community or national service. This is asking "what you can do for your country" and getting real benefit in return.

Downloads
I welcome you to download my outlines and make your own evaluations. I did this late at night, it was hardly scientific, and I'm sure I was not objective. I welcome your comments. Obama's speech was eight pages and Clinton's was six pages, so he also had a length advantage in terms of raw material from which to draw policy data. Again, I found both to be compelling statements, and I appreciate both of their perspectives as well as the time and attention they've given Youngstown this month.

Clinton's February 19th Speech (Word doc, highlighted)
Obama's February 13th Speech (Word doc, highlighted)
Issue Comparison Worksheet (pdf)

Update 2/23/2008: In the Sunday Chicago Tribune, Christi Parsons and John McCormick analyze Obama's stump speeches and likewise find "Yes they are filled with platitudes, but they discuss policy as much as his opponents' speeches do."

"In San Antonio, where Obama delivered a typical version of his current stump speech, his address veered at one point into a two-minute description of his health-care plan. He mentioned the age cut-off for children on their parents' plans, the estimated cost reduction of premiums for those with private health insurance and a time frame for implementation.

He outlined the high points of his energy plan with numbers and industry jargon, calling for strict caps on greenhouse emissions, increases in car fuel-efficiency standards to 40 miles per gallon and creation of green-collar jobs, right down to those working on "cellulosic ethanol."

He ticked off the dollar figures he says working families and senior citizens could save with his economic plan, and promised to raise the minimum wage yearly to keep pace with inflation."

I Love Alliteration - TH3 @ YBI

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:04:48 -0600

Tomorrow at three, there will be a presentation at the YBI on liquid crystal technology by AlphaMicron CEO Dr. Bahman Taheri. Its applications include digital lens eyewear, market-ready fashion, auto dimming mirrors and electronic shutters. Indeed, every Third Thursday at Three (TH3) at the YBI, you can catch an innovative program. Here's the schedule:

March 20th

Ohio Aerospace Institute’s Dr. Michael Heil will discuss the future of the aerospace industry in Ohio and opportunities for the state’s manufacturers, universities and federal laboratories. OAI supports the aerospace industry through research and technology development, education and training, and networking. Learn what opportunities exist for Mahoning Valley companies and organizations!

April 17th

David Karpinski, Vice President of Technology Innovation, NorTech, will present the Innovation Accelerator, a program designed to help small and mid size manufacturers develop innovative solutions and ideas. Developed in conjunction with MAGNET, the program includes monthly programs led by innovation experts, peer groups for networking and idea exchange, and innovation guides which connect companies with other resources to spur innovation and growth.

Contact:
Julie Michael Smith, Chief Development Officer
Youngstown Business Incubator
241 Federal Plaza West, Youngstown, OH 44503
jmsmith@ybi.org 330-259-7644

Obama speaks at YSU

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:35:34 -0600

Frank Rich backs me up

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:25:31 -0600

To continue the previous post that I follow up in my Vindy post last night, Frank Rich steps up to the plate and seconds some of my points:

Mr. McCain could get lucky, especially if Mrs. Clinton gets the Democratic nomination and unites the G.O.P., and definitely if she tosses her party into civil war by grabbing ghost delegates from Michigan and Florida. But those odds are dwindling. More likely, the Republican Party will face Mr. Obama with a candidate who reeks even more of the past and less of change than Mrs. Clinton does. I was startled to hear last week from a friend in California, a staunch anti-Clinton Republican businessman, that he was wavering. Though he regards Mr. McCain as a hero, he wrote me: “I am tired of fighting the Vietnam war. I have drifted toward Obama.”

Similarly, Mark McKinnon, the Bush media maven who has played a comparable role for Mr. McCain in this campaign, reaffirmed to Evan Smith of Texas Monthly weeks ago that he would not work for his own candidate in a race with Mr. Obama. Elaborating to NPR last week, Mr. McKinnon said that while he is “100 percent” for Mr. McCain and disagrees with Mr. Obama “on very fundamental issues,” he likes Mr. Obama and what he’s doing for the country enough to stay on the sidelines rather than fire off attack ads.

The Unelectable Clinton

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:40:00 -0600

I still submit that Hillary Clinton is unelectable in the general election. The GOP will have none of it, and the mainstream media, talk radio and the Sunday morning talk shows will continue to pillory her just as they did John Kerry, and we'll have another eight Republican years to contend with, mark my words. However, two noteworthy op-eds appeared in the Times this week that gave me pause, so I felt compelled to share. Ponder and enjoy.

Nicholas D. Kristof When Women Rule
The article begins declaring women victorious over men in the all-time rulers' hall of fame:
"[T]he world does have several thousand years’ worth of experience with female leaders....Their historical record puts men’s to shame. Scholars find that women, compared with men, tend to excel in consensus-building and certain other skills useful in leadership."

But it goes on to distinguish the autocrats from the democrats:
"In monarchies, women who rose to the top dealt mostly with a narrow elite, so they could prove themselves and get on with governing. But in democracies in the television age, female leaders also have to navigate public prejudices — and these make democratic politics far more challenging for a woman than for a man.

In one common experiment, the “Goldberg paradigm,” people are asked to evaluate a particular article or speech, supposedly by a man. Others are asked to evaluate the identical presentation, but from a woman. Typically, in countries all over the world, the very same words are rated higher coming from a man."

I actually don't believe that it's a problem for a woman to be elected, but I think it has to be the right woman. And I don't think that Hillary would be a bad president, I just don't think she can get there with the baggage she's carrying.

Paul Krugman Hate Springs Eternal
Krugman talks about vitriol in politics and the need to be cautious in how candidates are treated in this stage, given the ultimate goal of getting the party's candidate elected.

"What’s particularly saddening is the way many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of “Clinton rules” — the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.

For now, Clinton rules are working in Mr. Obama’s favor. But his supporters should not take comfort in that fact.

For one thing, Mrs. Clinton may yet be the nominee — and if Obama supporters care about anything beyond hero worship, they should want to see her win in November.

For another, if history is any guide, if Mr. Obama wins the nomination, he will quickly find himself being subjected to Clinton rules. Democrats always do."

Vindicator's Pet

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:03:48 -0600

In school, I was frequently labeled "Teacher's Pet," which was supposed to be pejorative, but I was happy to do well and get along with my teachers. Likewise, I'm sure there will come some type of backlash from overexposure at the Vindicator lately, but I'm happy to be used in whatever way will help the city.

I will point out a couple of things about the article. I told Angie that I thought this sentence was a bit overzealous in its certainty:
"The 2010 plan and the birth of the Williams administration was what inspired North Side resident Tyler Clark to return to the city from Arizona." It makes us sound like some political junkies in search of a good political plan and administration for our next move, when our reasons for returning to Youngstown were purely personal. Secondly, I did have several concerns about 2010 which I shared, but I understand my role in the article was to play the supporter, and that's fine. My concerns, for the record, were several that Angie covered anyway:

"There is no convenient yardstick for measuring the city’s current conditions against the promise of 2010.... City leaders have been operating without a specific 2010 budget or road map since the beginning."

"2010 is merely an arbitrary date, chosen because it symbolizes the results of the next census." The concern here is that, without having effectively communicated this, there is a let down in 2010 and citizens lose faith.

I would like for some of us Altruists/TreezPleasers to find a way to get with Mr. Abdul Harris featured in the article and find a way to contribute in his community this year.

Forever Plaid

noreply@blogger.com (Tyler S Clark) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:28:16 -0600

If you've missed me, it's not because I haven't been busy. Every night is rehearsal for Forever Plaid, with Todd Hancock, Jimmy McClelland, and Kyle Snyder. We're playing February 22nd through March 2nd at Ford Family Recital Hall at the DeYor Performing Arts Center in Historic Downtown Youngstown. Be There!

I can also be seen on the homepage of Vindy.com and was invited to inaugurate their community blogs. Since I can't talk about politics at family gatherings or dinner parties, I may as well sound off on the Web, so I've decided on a politically themed blog called Reason. I hope you'll visit. You'll see by the title of my first timely post Abortion and Fascism, I won't be shying away from controversy! I've been accused in my job of being too agreeable. Perhaps I won't carry the label too much longer.