Make A Difference (MAD) Ohio

I expect I should keep this off my blog page… I apologize to my Republican friends. You probably don’t appreciate that I’m trying to save you (as well as myself) from a terrible fate.

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Go Fund Me

I will share the videos I’ve made, and share them NOWHERE but here. These projects need young firebrands who are a lot smarter and a lot prettier than me. But I wanted the opportunity to tell it in my unabashed and unpolished voice.

PLEASE share the GoFundMe links below… even if you’re a cheap Scott and won’t scrape up a dollar to save democracy from encroaching fascism… sharing the link might find us a wealthy donor who understands the value of saving American democracy.

 

Simply Legal Marijuana

GO FUND ME Simply Legal Marijuana:    https://www.gofundme.com/f/simply-legal-marijuana?rcid=r01-156963907506-ef6277ee612145f4&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

 

Living Wage as Minimum Wage

GO FUND ME Living Wage as Minimum Wage: https://www.gofundme.com/f/living-wage-as-minimum-wage?rcid=r01-156963907506-ef6277ee612145f4&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

 

Status

It’s one thing to have the ambition to put an initiative for legislative law on the ballot; it’s quite another to go out and accomplish that thing. This becomes an experiment in whether a citizen (an old retired guy living on his social security, for example) can inspire other citizens to make known to the legislature their desire to enact new, fair and just laws.

They do not make it easy.

The timing of every element is dictated by Ohio laws. It is intractable. If any element of the timing is missed, the initiative will be lost.

I have identified a firm in Columbus Ohio that specializes in gathering petitions signatures for exactly this kind of effort.

I have identified a constitutional attorney to write the ballot initiatives and the summary (which must be on the initial petition of 1000 signatures… which must be presented to the Attorney General of Ohio on or before November 1, 2019.)

For this effort we need to raise money. I have created two fundraising pages (GoFundMe)). We need $5K each for the written initiatives and their summaries.

If we manage this start, then the fun really begins. If we do not manage to raise the money (in about the next 20 days)… then we will go down in early defeat.

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When I say the fun really begins… we have to go out in Ohio and get petition signatures totaling 3% of the number that voted in the last gubernatorial election (132,887 to be precise); of which 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties must be represented by at least 1.2% of the number that voted in their county on that last election.

This effort will cost a minimum of $1.2 million; and frankly will probably cost about five times that much to ensure a positive outcome.

Each element has intractable timing events dictated by Ohio law.

Continuing

I can’t really do this alone. I get that. The requirements are incredibly daunting… and it would be so easy for me to walk away and admit that it’s just too much for an old retired guy to turn into a reality. It’s the thought that counts. Right?

A couple days ago I saw Greta Thunburg speaking to the United Nations. And I’ll be goddamned if I didn’t feel ashamed by the voice inside of me arguing that because of the effort of a heavy lift… I should just quit and walk away.

So, I’m all in. It will be what it will be.

Motivation

I am motivated by a desire to save the planet from imminent environmental catastrophe, from the destruction of life on this planet.

There’s a lot of attention paid these days to “global warming”. It’s worth pointing out that global warming is on one of about a dozen looming threats to a self-sustainable ecosystem on this planet.

Consider that:

• There are 25% fewer birds in the world today than there were in 1970.
• Amphibian populations have undergone mass extinctions since the 1980s.
• Insect populations in the world are dramatically declining due to ubiquitous use of pesticides, the spread of monoculture crops such as corn and soybeans, urbanization, and habitat destruction.
• Dead zones (not enough oxygen to support marine life) are increasing around the world.

I have to stop building this list… because I have other objectives to attend. I might have gone on about ten pages on the demise of our ecosystem… our planet.

Suffice it to say that the dominoes are already falling.

Current Events Are Compelling

It was bad enough when everything was “normal” and politicians gave sing-song assurances to 40-year plans for carbon reduction and other such half-assed inadequate approaches to promoting a healthy planet.

Now we have the Republicans in charge, with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Trump is a savagely stupid man more captivated by opportunities for larceny than his obligation to do anything decent or smart. He is a useful idiot to the Republican party who represents only the business interests of the ultra-wealthy. And these ultra-rich are poor stewards of our destiny. They are so focused on money grubbing that they couldn’t begin to acknowledge that everyone they have ever loved… may be dead in 40 years.

A Theory for Make A Difference (MAD) Ohio

If we can make Ohio go Blue (Democrat) we have a chance to have political leadership that has the survival of our world. So, here’s the theory:

Only about half of the eligible voters actually ever vote in Ohio. We want to get a couple initiatives on the ballot on November 3, 2020 that will attract a whole lot of voters who might otherwise not have bothered to show up. AND, if we are lucky, the majority of them will vote Democratic, up and down the ticket.

 

BLOG1447 MAD Ohio

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com.

Blind Tunnel Approaches

I’m having a good time playing with my dogs in the National Dog Agility League (NDAL). It gets me out on course every week running a handful of dogs, and has done so for about eight years now.

One of the really cool things that the NDAL does is include a link to a YouTube recording of each dog’s run in the results. This is something that helps with my own students. While I see a great deal in real time… having the recording makes every observation indisputable. So it’s a teaching tool for me, and a learning tool for my few students.

I find that I also have an opportunity to learn. Seeing how other handlers in different parts of the world solve a course riddle can be really eye opening.

And this past month, I learned something that I’m immediately taking to my personal training program: Blind Tunnel Approaches

Context

Let me share with you one of the August league courses:

The bit that is of interest to me is the approach to the pipe tunnel at #16. I knew from the onset that I had to manage the approach; and knew also that I’d have to approach this moment on old arthritic knees, so it would be more a matter of survival with little hope of fluid grace.

Here’s what this looked like with Phoenix, one of the dogs I ran on this course:

Paint Me Green and Call Me Quincy

I want to share with you a run by a handler name of Gabriela Orozco, who plays with Sport Dogs Jalisco down in Guadalajara. This is Scarlett, a Border Collie:

Needles to say, I was gob-smacked. Gabriela actually Crossed after jump #15 and sent her dog around the top of the tunnel to go find the tunnel entry. This is amazing and elegant in simplicity.

I am convinced that this is something I absolutely have to teach my dogs. You know, back in the day, I would teach a dog to seek out the entry to the collapsed tunnel… but that obstacle is now a relic of a bygone era. And I am faced with the obvious question as to why I haven’t taken the same approach with the pipe tunnels. <sigh>

The Nature of Pipe Tunnels

More than ten years ago I wrote a blog post of this title. I could find it on my computer but I can no longer find it on the Internet. I’m pretty sure I wrote it before I migrated my blog to WordPress.

So, I’ve made a “Page” of this blog (rather than a “Post”) so it will always be where I can reach it: https://wp.me/PmSZZ-1v3

There’s a good possibility that after I engage in training my dogs to the Blind Tunnel Approach, I will have to add a bullet item or two to the Page on the Nature of Pipe Tunnels.

Finding an Opportunity to Train

In September we are running courses and games in the NDAL that aren’t begging for a Blind Approach skill. But I can surely find some opportunity to train my dogs.

For my veteran dogs, I have devised these exercises (which have nothing whatever to do with the courses we’ll be running).

I promise to record to YouTube my training progress:

Exercise #1

Exercise #2

Invitation

New clubs are always welcome to join us for play in the NDAL. It’s casual and inexpensive. The September 2019 league games and courses have been published here:

https://wp.me/p2Pu8l-9Y

 

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Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. Visit our web store: www.dogagility.org/newstore. You’ll find in the web store The Book of Agility Games, a comprehensive reference to all manner of agility games played for competition and fun around the world.