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I just love to observe politics. On a typical Sunday morning, I usually watch "Meet the Press" at 10, and then at 11 I flip over to NASCAR on the Speed Channel. Strange bedfellows indeed, but that's nothing unusual for me. I voted for George W. Bush, twice in fact..... Mr. Conservative, that's me.... But I can also count Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, and Ozzy Osbourne among the live acts that I've seen during his Presidency. I guess that's an entirely different story, for an entirely different blog.
So where was I? Oh yeah, the point of this blog.... the debate.
I just watched Rick Santorum and Bob Casey Jr. square off in their first debate. Adding to the drama was that the debate was in front of a National audience on "Meet the Press" and moderated by the ultra-savvy Tim Russert. Gear up folks, because if this debate was any indication, what we saw today was merely round 1 in what is sure to be a bare knuckle fist fight for 15 hard fought rounds.
Honestly, you can forget about the Governors race, apologies to the Swann folks.... but it's over, and deep down they have to know it.
But our little Senate race here in the Commonwealth is already drawing huge National attention, and I suspect that so far it is nothing compared to what we will see in the coming weeks.
Santorum is a deeply entrenched incumbent, and the number three man in the U.S. Senate. Whether or not you agree with where he stands on the issues, the guy is tenured and has a lot of power within the halls of Congress. Power that only comes with time spent in Washington. More importantly, it's the kind of power that has delivered a huge amount of Federal dollars to Pennsylvania. Federal dollars that the Commonwealth desperately needs.
Don't believe me? Well, just ask our Democratic Governor... and I quote,
“Rick Santorum has proven that he gets the job done. Time and time again he has come through”
“I will eventually campaign with Casey. But, no, you won’t see me attack Santorum. I work well with him … . When it comes to Pennsylvania, Santorum delivers.”
- Ed Rendell, August 2006
Oops.
The Casey folks have been practicing the art of damage control since that statement was made. For me, all of this just adds to the intrigue.
Throw in the fact that there have been whispers in some Republican circles that Santorum may even some day be Presidential material and you have a very interesting fight brewing.
Santorum is by his own admission a staunch conservative. He is just about as far to the right as the right goes. And as the Casey campaign is quick to point out, he's been a tremendous ally to the President by helping to push forward Mr. Bush's agenda.
The bottom line is that in the political world, Rick Santorum is a heavyweight, a heavyweight that the Democrats are salivating over taking down. It's doable, and the Democrats know it.
It's amazing to me just how bitter the political climate in this country has become, and that's why this race is going to keep getting so much National attention. Did you ever think that you would live to see the day where showing a picture of a United States Senator sitting with the President of the United States could be skillfully used as part of a negative campaign ad? The Casey campaign is doing that, and given the current job approval ratings for the President, in my estimation it is a smart political move.
This is a mid-term election and one that is going to be seen by many not just in Pennsylvania, but across the country as a referendum on the war in Iraq, the President, and in a broader sense, the Republican party as a whole. A party and an administration that in my opinion does have several things to answer for before I hand them another one of my votes. Personally, right now this registered Republican is undecided between Santorum and Casey, and in my mind I'm already building cases for both candidates.
It's the kind of thing that as a political observer I just love to sit back and watch unfold, the fact that it is all taking place right here is Pennsylvania makes it all the more interesting.
In my opinion, score round 1 for Casey. While the debate was civil, it was also extremely heated at times. But that was nothing, like two skilled boxers they were just feeling each other out.
On November 7th we will all have the opportunity in this great democracy to go to the polls and decide the ultimate winner. But for me, just getting there will be half the fun.
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but they also crash.
Last week the Knight clan set out for the summer family vacation. With a car stuffed to the gills and a credit card itching to be maxed we left for a week of sun and fun in the Outer Banks, just off the coast of North Carolina. We had our own lakeside rental house, complete with our own pool, game room, and home theater….. All within a 5 minute walk of the beach. Yep, it was setting up to be a good week.
I have two boys that are ages 5 and 3. Upon arrival, the vast expanse of things to do and see left them almost too excited for words. In addition to spending time playing on the beach and swimming in the pool, I took them surf fishing and we even went out crabbing on both the beach and by the lake. They both made short work of our trips to the pizza, french fry, and ice cream stands. Life for them was very good.
I tried hard not to constantly look at my watch and play the, "what would I be doing right now if I was at work?" vacation game. At one point I seriously had to think hard to myself about whether it was Tuesday or Wednesday. I did know that it was without a doubt the best time that I had ever had on a vacation. It was perfect.
And then the phone call came…..
We’ve had two dogs for over 10 years. Otis is our chocolate lab; he became a member of the family 11 years ago when we got him as a puppy. He’s just a big, lazy, and lovable dog. Our other dog Smokey became ours by circumstance. He was a stray dog that we took in 10 years ago. He was spotted as a puppy darting between cars in the Lemoyne bottleneck at the height of rush hour. After unsuccessful attempts through local signs and the newspaper to find his owner we decided to keep him on a "trail basis." That was over ten years ago. We’ve never been sure what kind of dog Smokey is, there’s some sheppard and collie in him, but he's mostly just a, "mutt." We think before we found him that he may have been abused; he was always a bit nervous and leery of other people and other dogs. From day one, he was a handful, but he was our handful. As those with pets know, they truly do become a member of the family.
Last Thursday night we were at our beach house just getting ready to sit down to a big dinner. Another day had been spent lazing by the beach and the pool, my kids were playing with their new hermit crab, my wife was just getting out of the shower, and I was putting the finishing touches on the salad when my cell phone rang. I stepped out to the deck to take the call. It was the girl from the kennel where we had boarded our dogs for the week. Suddenly, unexpectedly, somehow, our Smokey was gone. I hung up the phone and tried to grasp what was going on. Here I am standing on a deck at our beach house having the perfect family vacation, and now I have to go tell the family that our beloved family dog has suddenly died at the kennel, 500 miles away.
It was very hard on all of us, and needless to say our perfect family vacation wasn’t so perfect anymore. It’s one thing to lose your family dog, but to have it happen while you’re on your summer vacation, miles away and unable to control the situation is really rough. The only way for them to keep Smokey until we could come home to get him was to put him in a freezer. The thought of that was horrible, but logistically there was no other way.
As you can imagine, the 8 ½ hour ride home was much more somber than the festive mood of the ride down. Coming home from your summer vacation is always hard. We were coming home to pick up and bury our family dog that was being kept in a freezer.
Our 3 year old son was able to somewhat understand what happened. He understands the basics that Smokey is gone and he isn’t coming home, but much of it thankfully went over his head. If nothing else, our 5 year old son got his first lesson about life and death. When I told him that Smokey had died, he cried on my shoulder for about 15 minutes and asked me a lot of questions. The kind of questions asked by a 5 year old trying to grasp the concept of death. When through tears he told me that he didn’t ever want me to die, it was a bittersweet moment for me.
My in-laws live in a remote area of Dauphin County, and they allowed us to bury Smokey there. I used a shovel and a pick axe to dig a hole near the woods, fighting back the tears and sweat as I did it. I took on the task of picking Smokey up from the kennel. Wrapped in a blanket I carried him from the car to the hole that I had dug. We had a small family ceremony where we passed around pictures and talked about all of the good memories. I then reluctantly grabbed the shovel and began to cover him up. My 5 year old son, in tears, placed a special rock from his rock collection on the grave.
For those of you that have never had a family dog and don't understand our sorrow, I understand. For many people a dog is just that..... A dog, and I get that. But for those of you that have ever had or lost a family dog, you know exactly where I'm coming from. They truly do become a part of the family, and their loss, especially compounded by these circumstances, is hard.
The good news is that I know that the Knight summer vacation of 2007 will end much better than this one. This one couldn't have ended much worse.
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That’s saying something, because as I close in on my 36th year, I’m no longer a spring chicken myself. For those of you who don’t know, Mike Love is the lead singer for the Beach Boys. At 65 years old he is the last original Beach Boy that is currently still on tour. Give the guy credit, he can still pull it off. Just ask the estimated crowd of 15,000 at Riverfront Park in Harrisburg if they had fun watching Love and the rest of his band run through the vast catalogue of Beach Boy hits. I mean really...? Who doesn’t like at least a few Beach Boys tunes? Thanks to a slight nudge from Governor Rendell, a friend of the band, Harrisburg was actually able to have the Beach Boys play our area on the 4th. This was a pretty big coup for the ‘Burg, the Beach Boys have a tradition of playing on the mall in Washington DC on the 4th. Kudos to the Guv and Hizzoner Steven Reed for convincing them to spend their Fourth entertaining thousands along the bank of the Susquehanna River.
Personally, I’m just glad that the event actually went off as scheduled. As you probably know, weather was once again an issue, and after a strong line of storms went through earlier in the afternoon the concert was looking a bit iffy. If I would have had to come in to work on Wednesday morning and talk about Musicfest postponements, fireworks postponements, revised schedules, and an ongoing closure on Front Street, I'm sure that I would have lost it. I know sometimes the viewers get tired of a long ongoing story such as the recent flooding, but I’ll let you in on a little secret.... We get tired of it too! But when the Governor declares an emergency in your entire viewing area, you cover it, THOROUGHLY. It’s a matter of public safety. That doesn’t mean that after days on end of talking about flooded roads that I don’t get tired of it. By last Friday I had more than had my fill. Sorry folks, but after almost all of the roads had re-opened by Friday afternoon, it actually felt good to just be talking about a good old fashioned 3 mile backlog on I-81 north approaching the I-83 split. Ahhhhhhh... A return to the normalcy of 3 mile backlogs... It was bliss.
Anyway, it was a refreshing change to see the concert and fireworks get squeezed in before MORE RAIN arrived overnight. Mike Love was quoted at Musicfest as saying, "Everybody's in good spirits. We're here to spread good vibrations and brotherly love." Hmmmmm.... How ironic that at roughly the same time Love was uttering those words North Korea was testing their so-called long range, "missiles" over the Sea of Japan. Unfortunately this turn of events will give North Korean leader Kim Jong Il all of the attention that he so desperately craves. For those of you who don’t know, North Korea is an embarrassment. Kim Jong Il makes Josef Stalin look disinterested. This little missile test could be good in that the world spotlight will finally focus its glare on what has been going on in North Korea for decades.
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations accuse North Korea of having one of the worst human rights records of any nation. They severely restrict freedoms, including freedom of speech and freedom of movement, both inside the country and abroad. Nobody gets in North Korea, and nobody is allowed to leave. Refugees have testified to the existence of detention camps with an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 inmates, and have reported torture, starvation, rape, murder and slave labor. During the 1990's, famine killed between 600,000 and 3.5 million people in North Korea. Kim Jong Il literally keeps his citizens in the dark and has brainwashed his people into thinking that he is great leader. Outside observers have called his leadership a form of a cult like religion, and because of his severe restrictions, his citizens have no idea of what the outside world is like. I don’t profess to have all the answers, and unfortunately because North Korea uses all of its resources to fuel its military machine while an estimated 10% of its population has starved to death in the last 15 years, they are going to have to be dealt with. I’m sure that logically speaking cooler heads need to prevail and that diplomacy must be the order of the day, but when Kim Jong Il starts sucking his thumb and shaking his rattle on the world stage... Well, to slightly paraphrase Toby Keith, let’s just put a boot in his diaper.
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Since I took my first job in broadcasting. Coincidentally, I had just turned 18 years old and was a recent graduate from Penn Manor High School in Millersville, PA. I was the new evening announcer (fancy way of saying nighttime disc jockey) for 1350AM in York. The station format was oldies, so there I was at 18 years of age playing all of this music that had come out before I was born, and failing miserably at displaying that I had any type of clue as to what I was doing. It was oldies on AM radio, needless to say, my friends weren’t impressed, but my parents on the other hand were thrilled.
The station had ONE computer and it sat in the Program Directors office. I was way down on the totem pole and I didn't have any access to it, but I didn’t really care either. What use did I have for it? Microsoft Windows? Not even close, it was all DOS. The internet? Still years away from becoming common place. I remember spending my downtime at work reading the newspaper. How archaic is that!
The station got a fax machine about 6 months after I started, and I remember the first day that they hooked it up we all sat huddled around it. We marveled at how it spit out messages on special crinkly paper through the phone line! Impossible!!
Fast forward 18 years, and here I sit at my desk in the Channel 21 traffic center typing my first station “blog.” Now I sit back and marvel at how much the world, and for that matter the business of broadcasting, has changed.
I want to use this space to talk a bit about what goes on behind the scenes here at WHP, maybe toss around some topics of the day, but most importantly, to just be myself. That’s right, just be myself.
Recently we conducted a viewer contest here at WHP where our viewers were asked to write in and, “tell us why they watch WHP CBS 21 News.” The response was humbling and I was really pleased to see how many folks commented on the fact that they really like that our broadcasters seem like, “real people.” We are real people. As I type this I have a 5 year old son at home that is sick with an ear infection, a car that I am hoping will get through its State inspection without costing me my entire paycheck, and no idea what we are having for dinner because like a big dope, I forgot to thaw anything out of the freezer this afternoon. This week I would have liked to have gotten a haircut, washed the car, gone to the gym, and worked on the overgrown back yard that I have been strategically putting off. I haven’t done any of it. Why? Because I haven’t had the time! I have a wife, active kids, a mortgage, car payments, bills, and groceries to buy. Sound familiar? Sound real? Um yeah, I’m a real person.
The management here at WHP has always allowed us to be ourselves. We’re all extremely professional, especially when the stories of the day dictate it. But we’re allowed to show the viewers another side. It’s a side that other stations don’t afford their air staff, and it’s just one of the many reasons why I enjoy working here at WHP. I don't feel like I have to be wooden or stiff on the air. We can all spot a phony, and it's a big turn off. In this business that means turning off our station, something we try to avoid our viewers from doing.
I see this as the next step. This is an even bigger chance to be myself and for the viewers to get to know all of us a little better. As a viewer, you make a personal choice to invite us into your homes. There is no reason why you shouldn’t get to know the people that you invite into your home a little better, and this is the perfect vehicle to do it with.
So who knows what is to come from this, my first professional blog space. I’m just really happy to have another outlet to be myself, the guy my friends and family know as just Steve.
See ya next time......
PS One shameless plug for our traffic alert emails. Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, I personally send out a traffic alert via email. Signing up is easy, just log on to our web channel at www.whptv.com Best of all…… it’s FREE!! :)
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