Monday, February 28, 2011

The Duke is Dead


He was golden during the golden age of baseball!
by Charlie Leck

I always rooted against him and for whatever team the Brooklyn Bums might be playing, but I always recognized how good he was both at the plate and in the field. Duke Snider has died at the age of 84. The Duke is dead and now he goes to mingle again with the all the other great Bums.

The Duke moved gracefully in a ball game – whether it was rounding the bases after a home run or chasing a fly ball down in center at the old and wonderful Ebbets Field.

When the New York fans think of center fielders, they know they’ve got the market cornered – Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider. Oh, my! Here’s one verse from Terry Cashman’s wonderful baseball song, Talkin’ Baseball!

We're talkin' baseball!
Kluszewski, Campanella.
Talkin' baseball!
The Man and Bobby Feller.
The Scooter, the Barber, and the Newc,
They knew 'em all from Boston to Dubuque.
Especially Willie, Mickey, and the Duke.

Read the story in the Los Angeles Times if you’d like. If you’re a baseball fan with some years on you, you’ll want to raise a glass to the Duke today.

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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Return to the days of Yesteryear


Mitch Daniels gives the Republican Party a chance to return to its grand old, respectable roots!
by Charlie Leck

By now, those of you who are my regular readers know that I don’t often go around recommending conservative columnist David Brooks to you. A few days ago, however, I did (A Solid, Sensible Republican). And, now here I am suggesting again that you read one of his columns – and, it’s on the very same subject. In his 14 February 2011 column, Brooks gives us a more complete and tantalizing introduction to Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana.

Run Mitch, Run!
It sounds like the Indiana Governor would be a compelling and strong candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Brooks is pushing it because he’d like to see a real and sensible conservative in the office – and he’d like to see and listen to the solid and interesting debates that an Obama/Daniels race could produce.

“The historic moment calls for someone who can restrain debt while still helping government efficiently perform its duties. Daniels has spent his whole career preparing for this kind of moment, and still he’s thinking about not running.”

And Daniels believes that the system in the country needs to give people at the lower end of the economic ladder the opportunities to climb higher and succeed more regularly.

Now I’m not saying I would vote for him; the earth would likely tremble should I not vote for a Democrat. I sure would like to be given the opportunity to consider it though.

Wouldn’t it be exciting to see a respectful, honest and distinguished campaign between two thoroughly qualified candidates for the office of President?

It’s something I can barely imagine!

[If you want an introduction to Mitch Daniels, this NY Times report might be interesting to you!]

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Friday, February 25, 2011

Forgive Me, Father


There’s so many important world issues that are frightening, but this one makes me angrier than hell!
by Charlie Leck

Just take a look at the front page of any of the really significant newspapers in the country this morning – the Washington Post, the LA Times or the NY Times – and you’ll get the picture: the world is really in an extraordinary moment in history.

GOVERNMENT SHUT-DOWN LOOMS

REBELS INCHING CLOSER TO GADDAFI STRONGHOLD

U.S. TRYING TO PICK WINNERS IN NEW MIDEAST

WHY DIDN’T U.S. FORESEE THE REVOLTS

U.S. PULLING BACK IN AFGHAN VALLEY (“…there are not enough troops to win decisively against Taliban and Al Qaeda.”)

IRAQIS RALLY TO VENT ANGER AT GOVERNMENT

RISING OIL PRICES POSE THREAT TO U.S. ECONOMY

GOP’s BATTLE WITH UNIONS WILL ECHO IN 2012 AND BEYOND

WISCONSIN ASSEMBLY LIMITS UNION ACTIVITY

BOEING WINS $35 BILLION AIR FORCE TANKER CONTRACT

Well, there you go! As a blogger, pick your poison! It is a crossroads moment in U.S. and World History. This is a blogger’s dream – a political commentator’s orgiastic moment!

Oh,… I choose to write about celibacy!
What the hell, the world seems to be “going to hell in a handbag” (as my old man used to say and I don’t understand it any better now than I did then).

All I know is that the high and holy Roman Catholic Church has been erring on the question of celibate priests for about 2,000 years now. I keep wondering how long they’ll go on with this nonsense.

Humans have a very animalistic side to them. It’s not just sex I’m talking about – but it’s mainly that.

We all know the story of the rampant abuse of children by priests that has been going on in the Church for ages and ages. Just when you heard it all, you hear another one that boggles your mind. Just imagine how many of these incidents haven’t gone public. I sat with a family member within the last year, in my own kitchen, and heard him tell me of his own experiences with parish priests. We both shed tears as he explained. From a very devout family, this fellow laughed at the ridiculousness of faith. That’s all thanks to priests he’s known.

Now I read a story in AlterNet about the problem the Vatican is having with priests who abuse nuns! Jesus, are you out there listening? Isn’t there anything you can do with the fellow who runs the Church? Why can’t we let priests marry? Do I need to explain why?

“Confidential Vatican reports obtained by the National Catholic Reporter, a weekly magazine in the US, have revealed that members of the Catholic clergy have been exploiting their financial and spiritual authority to gain sexual favours from nuns, particularly those from the Third World who are more likely to be culturally conditioned to be subservient to men.

“The reports, some of which are recent and some of which have been in circulation for at least seven years, said that such priests had demanded sex in exchange for favours, such as certification to work in a given diocese.

“In extreme instances, the priests had made nuns pregnant and then encouraged them to have abortions.”

I thought I was reading ONION. I had to go back to make sure I wasn’t! It was no joke. And, it isn’t just a recent story. The Vatican has been dealing with it for years. Here’s an account in the UK’s Guardian from 2001.

What we read is really only the surface of the problem! It's what has been grudgingly revealed and made public. How much else is there? How many priests have not had the finger pointed at them. And these abuse cases are not just in the United States (though we tend to think they are because that’s what we primarily read about). Very pointed media attention has also been given to this problem in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Belgium, France, Mexico, England and Ireland. A significant number of cases have been reported in Asia and Latin America also.

Some knowledgeable experts have estimated that as many as 5 percent of priests may have been involved in such misbehavior. I have a feeling it’s even more. In Austria alone, a 2010 report pointed out over 300 priests who had been involved it cases of pedophilia.

Allegations of such abuse have reached as high up as Cardinals of the Church. Remember Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër. This Archbishop of Vienna resigned his post because of such allegations in 1995. A Norwegian Bishop, George Müller, confessed to such transgressions in 2010.

The official position of Rome is to minimalize the extent of this problem. The Pope has buried his head in the sand.

If I was a Roman Catholic (and I’m so glad I’m not) I would be raging against these revelations (and not just these new ones) and demanding the Pope do something about this. Prayer, in this case is not the answer. The Roman Church needs a reformation of its attitudes about celibacy.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

America as Oligarchy


For this blog, I take my cue from my wife, who keeps talking about America as oligarchy!
by Charlie Leck

Your morning reading assignment is to read Paul Krugman’s column, Wisconsin Power Play. As you read, keep in mind that a lot of money from the Koch Brothers (Kansas billionaires) went into the election campaign of Wisconsin’s new and very conservative governor. Here’s a NY Times story about that, too, if you’re interested.

In his column, Krugman is suggesting a developing oligarchy in America. My wife has been saying that to me for over a year now.

The wealthy are “feeling their oats” and testing their wings in America’s political currents. They and big corporations are finding they can have major influence in American politics. The U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to make enormous contributions to political campaigns is already wreaking havoc on political outcomes in national and state politics.

An oligarchy is not a tool of democracy. It is a replacement, or substitute, for democracy. Under an oligarchy, the pretense of a democracy can be kept alive while the democracy really doesn’t function.

Too wild a concept? Keep your eyes open!

Think about this comment that Krugman makes…

...For what’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t about the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power. What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side.

“…In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.

“Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.”

Ladies and Gentlemen and Children of All Ages…
the gap between America’s wealthy – its super wealthy – and our middle and poorer economic classes is growing wider and wider; while, at the same time, the very wealthy individuals and corporations are assuming more of a prominent role in politics. That could otherwise be called an oligarchy. Certainly, it is a serious weakening of the democratic institution about which our nation has long boasted.

For this, you can send a thank-you-note to the five conservative members of the United States Supreme Court. In our form of democracy, there is nothing – no single event – that can do more damage to the basic system of fair government than a poor Supreme Court decision.

Of course, the least you can do is read the two pieces I recommend to you above.

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WHAT IS A GRANDPARENT?


If you’re particularly sensitive grandparents, you might not appreciate the following. If you’re old farts who want a good laugh, you’ll love it.
by Charlie Leck

I’m writing quite a bit these days about being a grandparent and about my own grandparents and great-grandparents. Then, at just the moment when I was getting far too serious about the subject, a friend and reader from South Carolina sent along the following about Grandparents.

It claims to have been taken from papers written by a class of 8-year-olds… I think you’ll get a kick out of it!

  • Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of their own. They like other peoples.
  • A grandfather is a man, & a grandmother is a lady!
  • Grandparents don't have to do anything except be there when we come to see them.
  • They are so old they shouldn't play hard or run. It is good if they drive us to the shops and give us money.
  • When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.
  • They show us and talk to us about the colors of the flowers and also why we shouldn't step on 'cracks.'
  • They don't say, 'Hurry up.'
  • Usually grandmothers are fat but not too fat to tie your shoes
  • They wear glasses and funny underwear.
  • They can take their teeth and gums out.
  • Grandparents don't have to be smart.
  • They have to answer questions like 'Why isn't God married?' and 'How come dogs chase cats?'
  • When they read to us, they don't skip. They don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.
  • Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don't have television because they are the only grownups who like to spend time with us.
  • They know we should have snack time before bed time and they say prayers with us and kiss us even when we've acted bad.
  • A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived: “Oh,” he said, “she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then when we’re done having her visit, we take her back to the airport.”
  • “Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don’t get to see him enough to get as smart as him!”
  • It's funny when they bend over; you hear gas leaks, and they blame their dog.

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Monday, February 21, 2011

Politics Gone Crazy


I’m surprised there are any women at all supporting the GOP… no, I’m shocked that there are!
by Charlie Leck

I wish I had a way to communicate with thousands and thousands of women in all parts of the United States. I’d like to tell them, and show them, what the ultra-conservative political movement in our nation wants to do to them. For instance…

Allow a woman to die rather than perform emergency termination of pregnancy
The bill, known currently as H.R. 358 or the "Protect Life Act," would amend the 2010 health care reform law that would modify the way Obamacare deals with abortion coverage.
new language inserted into the bill just this week would go far beyond Stupak, allowing hospitals that receive federal funds but are opposed to abortions to turn away women in need of emergency pregnancy termination to save their lives. [I ain’t kidding you… read this news report about it…]

Just what is forcible rape?
Again, I’m not kidding… the GOP wants to tack on the word forcible in their NO NEW FUNDING FOR ABORTION ACT! […here’s a Huffington Post article about it]

Women as accusers rather than victims in rape incidents
Georgia law proposes to refer to raped women as accusers rather than victims. Again, I’m not kidding. [Read about it here…]

Women belong home with the kids
Yup! That’s what a proposal by Republicans in Maryland would say – it ends funding for pre-school for children from low-income families. An official says, “Ah, shucks, anyway! Women should be home with their kids!” [If you think I’m kidding, read this report about the bill!]

I received an email from MOVE-ON.ORG that documented these instances and a number of others (some even more unbelievable than these). You can read about these GOP actions against women here!

Another email came from Credo, explaining how anti-women this current Congress is: "totally anti-women" and the mailing made a good case... read about it! Here's one of the things Becky Bondy said in her email...

"It's up to the Senate to stop the attacks on women now that the House has passed a budget bill to defund family planning services — shamefully wiping out federal funding for Planned Parenthood's non-abortion health care for women. And not only that but the redefinition of rape is still on the table and anti-choice Republicans are pushing a legislation that would allow hospitals to let pregnant women die rather than perform life-saving abortions. "

I’m sending a link to this blog to every woman I know. Geez! They ought to be angry. Politically, however, women are pretty passive (by-in-large).

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Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Solid and Sensible Republican

I remember the days when a Republican and a Democrat could have sensible, calm and helpful conversations about political matters. Really!
by Charlie Leck

I recently read a very interesting piece by conservative columnist, George Will [And now for a few words from Mitch Daniels), and it got me thinking and remembering the days when progressives and conservatives respected each other and could have meaningful and productive conversations.

George Will wrote of a recent speech by Daniels at a Conservative Political Action Conference and about the audience that suddenly “realized they were hearing something unconventional – that they were being paid the rare compliment of being addressed as reflective adults – they reciprocated his respect with quiet attention to his elegant presentation of conservatism for grown-ups.”

Oh, my!

“‘The regulatory rainforest through which our enterprises must hack their way is blighting the future of millions of Americans.’ And Daniels thinks conservatives’ ‘first thought’ should be about ‘those still on that first rung of life’s ladder.’

“‘Upward mobility from the bottom is the crux of the American promise, and the stagnation of the middle class is in fact becoming a problem, on any fair reading of the facts. Our main task is not to see that people of great wealth add to it, but that those without much money have a greater chance to earn some.”

Oh, my! Now that’s a gentleman with whom it would be enjoyable to sit down and have a chat.

My late father-in-law, Lyman E. Wakefield, Jr., was a solid and proud Republican. I had a lot of respect for him and his positions and he expressed them with such politeness and logic that I enjoyed listening to him. Mind you, we rarely agreed, but we’d hear each other out. That was not an uncommon thing a few decades ago.

Lyman never called me an idiot or a socialist and he never doubted my patriotism and devotion to country. Though we rarely found it, both of us believed there might be some kind of middle ground upon which we could meet and agree. But again, that’s the way politics worked when I was a younger man.

Lyman was a staunch Reagan guy and I was a Bill Clinton backer. It never drove a wedge between us. He’d still invite me to come down to the Minneapolis Club for lunch and we’d inevitably end up talking politics. He’d also invite me to his house when he had a gathering of Republicans. It was great fun.

I never thought much of Ronald Reagan; however, he was a President with gonads and he raised taxes when it was unpopular but necessary to cool down our national debt.

I wonder what Lyman would think of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. I wonder how he’d react to the Tea Party. Oh, my! I miss talking to him.

Lyman had a bunch of really great Republican friends and I got to know them also – guys like former U.S. Senators Rudy Boschwitz and David Durenberger, and Wheelock Whitney, George Pillsbury, Bill Frenzel, Rod Graham, Doug Head and Vin Weber. My progressive attitudes were respected by them and we talked about it together – though sometimes quite jokingly, it was never disrespectfully. It was an honor to get to know these gentlemen and most of them I wouldn’t have met had it not been for Lyman.

One time, back in the 70s, I was asked to serve as the master of ceremonies at a Republican Fund Raiser – a fashion show put on by the wives of most of the guys I mentioned above. Those who asked me knew I’d have fun with it and that my humor would be a bit biting, but it made for an extraordinary evening and we all had an enjoyable time with it and the whole shindig ended with hugs all around.

Today, I can’t imagine kidding around with Michel Bachmann – and I definitely can’t imagine hugging her!

Lyman, I miss you! I miss you every single day! I wonder if I could get to know Mitch Daniels. I know, if you were alive, you'd arrange it.

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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Bahrain? Bahrain?


Bahrain? Bahrain? There’s no Bahrain in American Politics?
by Charlie Leck

I must admit, during the first days of news from Bahrain, I had to scratch my head and wonder where the hell Bahrain is. As an experiment in intellectualism, I asked several of my brightest friends where the tiny nation was (is)? All but one of them (and I think he’d had time to consult an atlas) looked at me with a combination of blanched and blushing faces and admitted they didn’t know.

Now the tiny, island nation is on the front page of our nation’s most serious and most read newspapers.

The first thought I had on this one was curiosity. Why is our President pussy-footing around on this issue? The people of Bahrain are demonstrating their dislike of the monarchy under which they live. The King (Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, if you want a mouth-full) reacted poorly and sicced a bunch of ruffians on the citizens of his country. Just condemn the frickin’ guy!

Then this know-it-all friend of mine, who’d obviously had time to get out in front of me with some fast reading, informed me that Bahrain is the home port of the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which postures itself there as a handy place to watch over the naughty leaders of Iran, just immediately, and within striking distance, to the North.

“Ahso!” I said to my friend, quickly understanding the geopolitical importance of our ally in the Gulf of Oman.

“To Bahrain’s west,” my show-off friend said, “is Saudi Arabia and to the northwest is Iraq. To the northeast is Afghanistan and Pakistan. All these nearby nations are within easy reach of shipboard missiles.”

Pow!

“Ahso! Ahso!”

So the NY Times, with a short, impoverished memory, editorialized on Friday morning that what was happening in the Royal City of Manama (that is, the King having his citizens bopped in the head and driven out of Pearl Square) was highly un-American and our President and Secretary of State should be condemning these actions in more forceful language.

"Bahrain’s brutality is not only at odds with American values, it is a threat to the country’s long-term stability. Washington will need to push harder."

Now, let me go in a different direction and express my astonishment at how short-term are our own memories of history. Reacting brutally to citizen demonstrations? Is that the question at hand?

Does anyone remember Theophilus Eugene Connor? Come on! Try harder! What if I give you a hint? His nickname was “Bull.” Alabama? Birmingham?

How about the time that over 10,000 city cops, 7,000 regular U.S. Army troops and 7,000 state National Guardsman and nearly 1,000 federal agents were unleashed against a crowd of anti-war demonstrators? Need help again? Okay, here are some hints: Chicago, 1968, Democratic National Convention!

I’m not even vaguely hinting that the King’s reaction in Bahrain is excusable. What I’m sayin’ is to the NY Times: Don’t be so high and holy, will you? “Bahrain’s brutality is at odds with American Values!”

I’m not sayin’ you know – I’m just sayin’…

How does the old sayin’ go? “It depends on whose ox is being gored!”

In the meantime, here are three cheers for the common people of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Chase that old King right out of there and let him go live out his life in luxury in Switzerland.

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Friday, February 18, 2011

The Rich Must Pay their Fair Share III


Why is it that we don’t just do the obvious!

by Charlie Leck

Back in November of the past year, Warren Buffet, of the Berkshire Hathaway Company, told Christiane Amanpour, of the This Week show, that the wealthy should be paying more taxes. [See this Bloomberg News story about the interview and watch a video of Buffet’s discussion with Amanpour.]

"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett said. "But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."

Buffet doesn’t buy the argument that the economy will suffer if taxes are raised on the wealthy. Amanpour suggested that “they” keep saying that the lower taxes for the wealthy “energizes business and capitalism.” Buffet replied with firmness.

"The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on,…"

It’s quite silly that we shall try to solve this debt crisis on the backs of those who can least afford to give or have resources taken from them.

Buffet is a multi-billionaire who is considered one of the wealthiest people in the world. He has pledged to give half of his wealth away.

“If anything,” Buffet said, “taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further… But I think people at the high end – people like myself – should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Rich Must Pay their Fair Share II


Don’t look only at entitlements, but take a look at fairly sharing the burden of reducing the nation’s debt!
by Charlie Leck

In an editorial on Tuesday morning, our local newspaper, The Star-Tribune, editorialized rather strongly about the failure of the President or Congress to look seriously at entitlements and defense costs in its effort to grapple with our huge national debt.

I concur in some respects with the sentiments expressed in that editorial and with the side bar comments by former Minnesota Congressman Bill Frenzel, who is now with the Brookings Institute.

"Both the Congress and the president are ... ignoring the entitlements and mostly ignoring the defense cuts that have to be part of a final compromise. What they're doing is dancing a little war dance, but they're doing it with toy weapons.'
[Bill Frenzel]

If you’re interested, you can read the full text of the editorial. That, however, is not the point of what I’m getting at here.

The question I would ask and which I think you should address to your Congressional Representatives and Senators is this: Why are we so hot to go after entitlements, which form the backbone of caring for those with less money and those who have put in a lifetime of work in this nation, and so cold to go after more money from the incredibly rich who are not now paying their fair share in Internal Revenue income taxes?

That is exactly the case that President Obama has to make to the nation. Why entitlements and not higher taxes on those who can easily afford them?

If ever there was an issue that can be clearly identified along political party lines, this is it! And, this is the essential issue that President Obama has to take into his next campaign for reelection.

It is quite easy to show that the wealthy pay far less a percentage of their gross income in taxes than do middle class working people.

The stinging hardship of taxes falls heavily upon those who can least afford it!

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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Rich Must Pay their Fair Share


The super-rich in America don’t pay their fair share!
by Charlie Leck

In the mid-1990s, Arthur Levitt, the Chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), went to Senator Phil Gramm (Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs) to express his alarm about the growth of unregulated derivative investing and told the Senator he was also very concerned about shaky accounting procedures and practices in America’s banking and investment industry. The Senator, afraid that Levitt was suggesting stronger regulations, said the following to the SEC Chairman:

“Unless the waters are crimson with the blood of investors, I don’t want you engaging in any regulatory flights of fancy.”

The above quotation is reported in Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson’s new book, Winner-Take-All Politics (How Washington made the rich richer).

I urge you to read the review of this book on the Crooked Timber blog.

The book will help you understand what has gone so wrong in America – why the middle classes have virtually disappeared – why financial reform is so difficult to achieve – why business is so powerful in American politics – and who was responsible for the devastating crash in our economy in 2007 and 2008.

The filthy rich in America pay far less in taxes (proportionately) than you do and the Republican Party keeps protecting them and their pocketbooks. Yet, huge numbers of middle class citizens, bamboozled by people like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, keep supporting the party of the super rich.

More about this in coming days! For now, get the book and read it. Audio versions of it are also available.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I Adore Cynthia Haydon

There’s a book I desperately wanted to write that I couldn’t!
by Charlie Leck

I first met Cynthia Haydon in Toronto in the autumn of 1981. Prior to the encounter, my wife had explained to me that the woman was “a legend.” She may have been, but I found her a hoot (as we say up here in the northland) and I have adored her ever since. She’s very famous in England, her homeland. She was among the first citizens of that nation to be named to the British Horse Society’s Equestrian Hall of Fame (housed at the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment’s headquarters in Knightsbridge). Cynthia was a close friend of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, right up to the time of the royal lady’s death in 2002 at the age of 101.

Cynthia is well known in North America as well. As a matter of fact, at shows where there are driving classes, she’s an absolute celebrity. Sports Illustrated wrote glowingly about her in June of 1961, a week following the remarkable annual horse show, and her appearance in it, in Devon, Pennsylvania.

“It was more like a scene from a Dickens novel than a Philadelphia Main Line horse show. Blue lightning streaked and thunder crackled as a cold wind lashed curtains of rain across the ring. In the distance a coach approached, its lights blinking through the storm, four dripping bays snorting and throwing mud in all directions. Ringmaster Sergeant Joseph Mulranen, his red coat slicker-covered, lifted his bugle and sounded a nonhorse-show tune: the Navy Swimming Call. Thus went the seventh day of the 65th Devon Horse Show, the first big eastern show, under conditions that would have brought the World Series, the Masters – or most horse shows – to a sudden stop.

“But most American horse shows do not have Mrs. Frank Haydon on the scene. The day Devon started, Cynthia Haydon was collecting ribbons at the Richmond Royal Horse Show in England. A jet flight later she was in Devon for her first class, driving the hackney horses of Mr. Chauncey Stillman.

“When the storm broke later in the week, she was atop Mr. Stillman’s park drag (a private coach-and-four) handling the fractious hackneys with the no-nonsense look of the headmistress of St. Trinian’s. ‘It rains in England, too,’ Mrs. Haydon announced. ‘Let’s get on with it!’ So on they went into the flooding ring, the top-hatted footmen slitting behind with arms stoically crossed as Mrs. Haydon put the four-in-hand through the driving test marked by painted barrels. On her heels came the coach of Mr. and Mrs. James K. Robinson Jr., last year’s winner, its top jammed with soaked guests, among them the show’s president, Lawrence Kelley. His gray flannels drooping, Kelley stood at the rear of the coach sounding calls on an English mail-horn and the storm continued. When the competition was over, Mrs. Haydon received the trophy from Miss Adele Statzel, who, deciding to abandon dignity and save shoes, made the wet presentation in her stocking feet. Meanwhile, huddled atop the rival coach, watching his own winning four-in-hand, was Chancey Stillman. Mrs. Haydon does not allow passengers when she drives.”
[Sports Illustrated, June 19, 1961, by Alice Higgins]

Anne, my wife, would have been 16 years old when that show took place at Devon. She and her sister often showed hunters and jumpers at Devon (at that 1961 show, 950 horses and ponies were entered in the hunter/jumper classes). She probably stood along the rail watching the coaches perform on that rainy night. She said it was at those shows that she began to fantasize about owning a coach like that and a four of hackney horses. After we married, I helped her realize her dream. I traveled the country for her, looking for the coach. She traveled, looking for the horses. In 1980, in possession of the coach and the four, she began to teach herself to drive. She was at the big show in Toronto in 1980, only a few months after we purchased the coach and the four horses. Then we showed there again in 1981, when Cynthia Haydon was judging and I got to meet the great lady for the first time. Cynthia didn’t think highly of my wife’s driving.

“She needs help,” she told me.

Four months after that gathering in Toronto, Anne and I flew to England, to spend two weeks in the beautiful Cotswold countryside, near the home that Cynthia Haydon shared with her husband, Frank, in Moreton-on-Marsh. I don’t think I ever enjoyed a vacation any more than that one.

The real purpose behind the trip was a schooling opportunity for Anne. She was going to take lessons in handling a four-in-hand of horses from Cynthia, considered the finest driver of four in the world. We were both excited and nervous about the trip for weeks before we left. Anne had only been driving for a bit more than 18 months when she went off to hone her skills with the queen of such horsemanship.

All our arrangements were made through Frank Haydon, Cynthia’s husband. He handled all of Cynthia’s business matters and arranged all her travel, as well as supervising the management and sale of horses and Cynthia’s appearances at horse shows. It had been through Frank that we paid for the tutoring lessons and he was firm and adamant about the amounts and the payments. According to Frank, his wife was royalty in the horse world and she was to be treated and paid that way.

Frank was a big man – six and a half feet tall, with massive hands and long, dangling arms. He had a deep, roaring laugh and a wide, wide smile. He dressed well, always in a tie and jacket if not a carefully tailored suit. He had arranged our hotel for us and suggested we would be pleased. We were.

It was a lovely, little hotel in the village of Kingham, only five miles from the tutoring center in Stow-on-the-Wold. An old milling building had been converted into a charming and small guest hotel. The owners boasted to Frank that it was haunted and a couple of Frank’s earlier visitors had confirmed their encounter with the ghosts. So, Frank thought it would be a special treat if we encountered an apparition or two.. They were known to be particularly present in one of the guest rooms that must have had special meaning to them. Frank, in a moment of churlishness, had inveigled the hotel owners into putting us into that sleeping room. When we were shown to the room, however, I immediately noticed that it had twin beds that were far removed from each other and, being yet quite newly married, I insisted we would be more pleased with a large, double bed. The owner was more than accommodating to us.



On one evening toward the beginning of our stay, we invited Frank, Cynthia and another English friend, Susan Greenway, to have dinner with us at the hotel. All of us gathered, at the beginning of the evening around a wonderful, big and roaring open fire in the hotel’s sitting room. I was pleased to see that Cynthia enjoyed sipping on a Martini and I joined her. Frank ordered some very expensive whiskey (remember, it was on me).

Frank was particularly interested in the topic of ghosts – ethereal beings – who might have visited the hotel and any of its guests. He kept bringing the subject up. When he learned we’d experienced none, he nearly sulked like a boy who’d been refused a bit of candy.

On that evening, and others, both of them opened up and began sharing stories of their extraordinary life together. They had shown their horses all over Europe, in Canada and, of course, in the United States. As experts on the Hackney Horse, they’d been invited to many parts of the globe to help horse owners with problems or to reeducate an unruly and/or misbehaving horse.

Frank liked big, delicious and free dinners, so we spent a couple of other nights at the hotel and the conversations always turned to their extraordinary adventures in the horse world – and most especially in the coaching world. It was on one of these evenings at the Mill House Inn that Anne and Cynthia connived to create the World Coaching Club in order to compete with the two great (gentlemen only) clubs that already existed in London and New York City. Now the World Coaching Club is well known and thriving and Anne and Cynthia are always remembered as its founders.

On Monday through Friday, during both weeks, it was all work for Anne. There was plenty of ground work – learning to properly lunge a horse and learning to handle and furl a long four-in-hand driving whip and also getting familiar with the English style of handling all the ribbons (reins) in one hand and the whip in the other. I often just hung around and took photographs and jotted down notes as I listened to Frank and Cynthia.

It was an extraordinary opportunity to get to know Cynthia and I came home aching to write a book about her. She was such a character and she had an enormous sense of humor as well as an unusual and spectacular talent. In a letter, I suggested to Cynthia that I wanted to write such a book about her life. She was known and admired in many parts of the world and, though it wouldn’t be a big seller, it would sell a copy or two.

It was Frank who replied to my letter with a long list of requirements that included a large, advance payment and complete control over the content of the book. He was assassinating the project.

Nevertheless, a couple of years later, we invited them to come to Minnesota to judge a driving show we were sponsoring. Frank informed me that they only flew first class and that their hotel had to be of a certain high level of elegance.

“What the heck,” we said to one another, and we decided to foot the bill. It would give me another chance to sell the idea of the book and an opportunity for many of our friends to meet the great lady.

They were a big hit up here in the northland. Cynthia tutored many, many struggling drivers of horses and the two of them judged two long days of classes in our horseshow for carriages and coaches.

However, I got a no-deal on the book unless the fat fee was paid way up front. Even that tempted me, but giving Frank editing control over the content just didn’t sit well with me at all. Alas, the project never happened.

I had other opportunities to spend time with Cynthia in both England and here in North America. I adored her spiritedness and I was so impressed with her ability to move a four of horses around an arena show ring with such silky smoothness. In fact, I was so taken by her that when our youngest child (a girl) was born in 1984, I lobbied to name her Cynthia Louise – after two of the finest horsewomen I’ve ever known: the great Cynthia Haydon and Anne’s sister, Louise.

Our Cynthia became something of a pretty good handler of horses herself. To this day, I don’t think I ever look at that kid without thinking of the jolly, tough and spectacular woman in Moreton-on-the-Marsh. In 1999, when our own Cynthia was 15, Anne and I took her on a trip around the world. Before flying home to America, we stopped in England and took a train out to the Cotswolds and we took Frank and Cynthia to lunch. Of course, we allowed Frank to make the reservation and, indeed, it was at a very nice inn in a lovely, peaceful spot.

In the inn’s very pretty, little garden, with Frank choosing the setting and posing the girls, I took their photograph. Ever since, it has remained one of the most prominent photographs on my desk – my two Cynthia girls. I cherish both of these spirited women a great deal.

Frank is gone now. He died on 14 May 2005. He certainly gets credit for building the most famous and successful hackney horse stud in the world – the Hurstwood Hackney Stud in East Grinstead, in Sussex. They established the business in the 50s. Frank and Cynthia soon were known around the world for their champion horses and Cynthia took home trophy after trophy at the best shows in England, Europe and North America.

They were both born into the hackney horse world. Frank’s dad produced the breed as a hobby and Frank became agile at driving them. When his father died in 1934, Frank sent a number of the horses over to a fellow named Robert Black, one of the best known trainers among Hackney people. He lived near Reading, in Berkshire, and he had a daughter named Cynthia, who began driving the horses when she was but a child. She learned to drive a four-in-hand when she was in her teens. Because of her father, she got very used to going to the biggest shows in Great Britain.

Frank had studied at Wimbledon College but left school to take over a small, family chain of butcher shops after his father died. He asked Cynthia to marry him when they were both 21. Following the Second World War, in which he served at a lieutenant-colonel, with some decent capital provided by the butcher business, they restored her father’s stud and their business took off. They began breeding horses for people all over the world – in both North and South America and all parts of Europe. He sold off the butcher shops in the late 60s and he and Cynthia moved to the Cotswolds – first to Lower Slaughter and then to Adlestrop. They officially retired from the breeding business in 1995.

The two of them were together for over 65 years. Frank was 88 when he died. Cynthia, now 93, manages to get along quite well alone. Frank would likely be disappointed. As for me, I should probably fly over there and have a Martini or two with the great woman and see if she’s still in good enough shape to tell me again the wonderful stories that would make up an extraordinary book about a fantastic and great woman. If you had ever seen her drive four big horses while sitting so properly up on a high, English style coach, you too would have been as transfixed by her as I always was when I was in her presence.

Oh, my! How I admire her!

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