Driving 89X:
Bring Back The Gold Coat
By John K. Hartman
Toledo Free
Press, March 17, 2005
I miss the gold
coat.
I miss the
swashbuckling, animated figure prowling the sidelines, kicking the chairs,
stomping his feet, waving his arms and shouting at the top of his lungs with
his hands cupped around his mouth.
That version of
Stan Joplin has been gone for a while replaced by the dark-suited,
circumspect, soft-spoken, diplomatic, philosophical Stan Joplin fighting for
his job.
The long knives
are out for the dashing head basketball coach of the R-R-R-O-CKETS and the
threat of losing his job apparently has caused him to change his ways.
The critics say
he doesn’t win enough games, doesn’t recruit quality student athletes, doesn’t
win championships and doesn’t put enough fans in the increasingly antiquated
Savage Hall.
His contract was
not extended as it had been in the past. He has one year to go.
The University of
Toledo, his alma mater, had made Stan Joplin a lame duck.
Now other
colleges can say to recruits to avoid UT because its headman is a short-timer.
A powerful argument to make to teen-age boys looking for stability.
The media has
been reporting extensively on his shortcomings and his short-leash.
Joplin
temporarily silenced the boo-birds by winning a share of the Mid-American
Conference’s Western Division title this year, but his Rockets stumbled to
Buffalo in the opening game and finished 16-13 for the season.
Co-championship forgotten. Long knives back in position.
Here’s why I
think Stan Joplin deserves a better fate than the dishonor and humiliation of
lame-duck status:
-- He has built a
winning program in spite of playing a tough pre-conference schedule of games
on the road against marquee opponents, such as Duke this year.
-- His teams have
always been competitive in the conference.
-- He has
gotten the better of archrival BGSU by a landslide.
-- Joplin knows
that most blue chip recruits are not going to go to Toledo over big-name
schools. So he goes after talented players with some issues like low high
school grades and behavior challenges. Sometimes he turns these rough edges
into shining stones. Sometimes not.
-- He cares about
the Toledo area. He wants to live here and work here. Toledo is having trouble
keeping its talented graduates from fleeing the area’s troubled economy. Stan
wants to stay!
What will become
of Joplin if UT shows him the door after next season?
I predict he will
become a first assistant at a big-name university in the south or west for a
lot more money than he makes now. After three-to-five years, he will be named
head coach at another big-name university and be wildly successful.
There is
precedent for this around here. Three decades ago Bowling Green State
University showed Don Nehlen the door as head football coach because despite a
solidly winning record, he could not win a championship.
Nehlen then went
to work as an assistant for none other than the legendary Bo Schembechler of
University of Michigan fame. After a few years of “seasoning,” Nehlen took the
head job at West Virginia University and became a big winner and a legend in
his own right.
UT could show
Stan the door in a year and receive the same embarrassing fate.
(c., 2005, John K. Hartman.
All Rights Reserved.)
Driving 89X:
If I could talk to the animals
By John K. Hartman
Toledo Free Press, April,
2005
I put my reporter’s notebook in my back pocket and
headed up the Anthony Wayne Trail in search of wisdom.
Then that old
show tune hit me. Dr. Doolittle singing “If I could talk to the animals, learn
their languages …”
The Toledo Zoo
overpass was up ahead, animal pictures decorating it. I can take a hint.
I pulled in,
ditched my North American made Buick Century, waved my notebook at a guard,
who looked like she had other things on her mind and would be afraid to talk
publicly about them for fear of losing her job anyway, and into the zoo
grounds I went.
It was dark and I
went looking for the night watchman. It was right out of Good Night,
Gorilla, the lovely children’s book by Peggy Rathmann where some animals
follow the watchman home. I was looking to interview them along the way.
I missed
that parade but I ran smack into Accusing Alligator, one of several characters
straight out of the Sweet Pickles series of children’s classics written by
Jacquelyn Reinach and Richard Hefter that I would encounter.
Accusing had been
hired by someone in authority to straighten out the operation.
Apparently
being the No. 1 tourist attraction in Toledo with a stellar reputation was not
enough for some folks.
The Jewel of the
Empire of Toledo, the zoo attracts people from all walks of life and from
hundreds of miles away. It makes kids to great-grandparents and everybody who
has even a passing interest in animals smile, and puts a shiny face on a city
and region that have been taking their economic, social and image lumps.
I called on
Clever Camel. He tried to take the high road but he bent down a bit to say:
“It’s like this, scribe, hey, hey. Our doctor, Dr. Tim, does not kowtow to the
powers that be. He does what is right for us, the animals.”
Worried Walrus,
nearby, hollered, “So some things were not being done right. So, so, so Dr.
Tim called in the governmental authorities, the people who license us, to
investigate.”
Loving Lion
chimed in, “The inspectors came in and did a ROARING good job of proving Dr.
Tim right and the big bosses wrong.”
“But the law of
the jungle,” said Responsible Rabbit, “says that thou shalt not takest on the
Mightiest of the Front Office unless you can finish the job.”
Outraged Octopus
barged in to have his say: “Well, the Mightiest do not take lightly to
disloyalty. They would rather have people who are loyal than people who are
right. They don’t want any trouble. Got to keep the squeaky clean image. So we
lose an animal or two. Casualties of war, the war against the disloyal.”
It was a parade
after all, and Fearless Fish said, “The Mightiest don’t want their perks
examined so they want no dissent that might lead to an inquiry that might lead
to their excesses revealed. Big salaries. Big benefits. Big travel expenses.
And elitist cars to drive to wine and cheese parties. Would not be caught dead
in a Toledo-made Jeep.”
Moody Moose
jumped in: “Now this place is in an uproar. We animals are behaving in a
civilized manner. We don’t need cages. We could feed ourselves. But the humans
are going wild around here with accusations, recriminations and machinations.
I’m about ready to shoot them full of animal tranquilizers.”
“We do not want
people coming to Toledo primarily for the art museum, or COSI, or The Mud Hens
or a walk in the park, we want them to come to visit us first. Then
elsewhere,” Jealous Jackal added.
“Wait a minute!”
I shouted. “I haven’t even had time to ask a question!”
“And you won’t,”
Enormous Elephant thundered. “We are ejecting Accusing Alligator from the
premises tonight because he was just sent here to stir up trouble and try to
force Dr. Tim to quit. Let me put it in words you understand: If Dr. Tim goes,
we go.”
Accusing
Alligator got the hint and fled the grounds. Then the animals paraded to the
Amphitheater and chanted, “Dr. Tim, Dr. Tim, Dr. Tim.”
I had some more
questions, but they left me standing alone. Next time I’ll ask them if Carty
should run for mayor.
(c., 2005, John K. Hartman.
All Rights Reserved.)
Driving 89X:
I’ve got a closed mind on open forums
By John K. Hartman
Toledo Free Press, April
2005
Open forum.
Town meeting.
Public hearing.
These are the
techniques that the ruling class uses to find out what we, the people, are
thinking.
What gets me
stirred up is that more often than not they wind up being gimmicks that enable
the powers that be to become even more powerful, sometimes at we the people’s
expense.
I first became
intimately familiar with the concept a decade ago when Central Michigan
University, where I am a journalism professor, had a president I did not like
because he had other priorities besides students and professors. Call me an
old fogy if you must but I think public universities should spend their money
on educating students. If there is any money left, then football and
frivolity.
Consider the
University of Toledo. It is strapped financially with flat to declining
enrollment. But the April 12 Toledo Blade reported that UT had $250,000 lying
around to remodel the vice president of finance’s office. Easy to understand
why some UT faculty are flabbergasted.
Anyway, that CMU
president, whose name I have intentionally forgotten, used to hold
well-advertised open forums. Anyone could attend and ask him questions.
Sounded nice. His minions were there to write down people’s concerns, but not
to deal with them so much as to figure out a way to get around them later with
a plausible explanation.
The current CMU
president is an improvement. He cares somewhat about students and faculty in
contrast to his predecessor, yet he has maintained the open forum “tradition.”
Last summer I took my reporting class, prepped to ask sharp questions, to an
open forum. A student asked why the president had cancelled the Speakers
Series. First, the president said it was a budget cut. Then he said it was
replaced by a storytellers’ conference. Later he told a student journalist in
private that the Speakers Series brought in too many liberal speakers. In
other words, the real reason was kept from public view.
On April 11 I did
what a good citizen should do. I attended open sessions held by two prominent
northwest Ohio politicians.
In the afternoon
at the lovely historic Grand Rapids Town Hall, I attended U.S. Rep. Paul
Gillmor’s Town Meeting. It was one of four sessions held in towns in Gillmor’s
16-county district of 600,000-plus people.
About fifty
people attended of which about 25 were not staffers, public officials or
reporters.
Gillmor was 19
minutes late to the session scheduled to begin at 3:30 and last one hour. He
talked for 13 minutes before taking questions. 36 minutes later he exited,
having to catch a plane. The public got 60 percent of the time it was promised
to question him.
Most of the
questions were softballs (easy) and Gillmor breezed through them. Nobody asked
whether or not he supported beleaguered House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. I was
going to, but deferred to citizens with personal concerns about retirement
benefits and medical insurance.
Gillmor
waxed unchallenged about the wisdom of offering private accounts to younger
Social Security participants. He described how the stock market pays better
than savings certificates over time, omitting the stock market crash of 1929
and big drops in 1987 and 2000.
If
Gillmor had stayed the full hour, I think I could have gotten in my question.
His aids
furiously took notes. Re-election requires staying on top of the issues and
finding clever ways to finesse them.
Asked about
blocking factory farms in Wood County, Gillmor offered no help, saying it was
a state issue. A plausible way to avoid a controversial question, no doubt
anticipated.
That evening I
journeyed to the fifth floor conference room of the Wood County Office
Building in Bowling Green. State Sen. Randy Gardner, who represents 330,000
folks in northwest Ohio, was holding a public hearing on state budget issues.
The state is $5 billion or so short and libraries, public schools, public
colleges and universities, and health agencies among others are screaming
about projected draconian cuts. The leaders of these local agencies went
through the same humiliating squeeze two years ago.
It started 5
minutes late, but Gardner made very brief remarks before throwing it open to
the public. Unlike Gillmor, Gardner gave the public the full amount of time,
90 minutes, that was advertised.
About 30 people
attended, two thirds of whom were public officials. The 10 or so of us from
the public got to ask our questions, make our statements early on and the
public officials largely took over for the middle and end of the session.
Gardner stated
that he supported a 21 percent cut in the state income tax because he believed
it would help stimulate the state’s lagging economy.
I asked him if he
was sure the tax cut would have a stimulus effect because the state had been
cutting the tax most years and the economy has been slumping since 2000.
Gardner said he
was not sure the income tax had been cut all that much and he was supporting
the bigger cut regardless. Plausible answer, no doubt anticipated.
The next day, the
Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune carried a front page article about the public
hearing. A color picture 6 inches wide and 5 ½ inches high was published in
the top half of the page of Gardner nattily dressed in a dark suit and
colorful tie.
Below the fold
were pictures of three constituents, including me. Mine was about one-sixth
the size of Gardner’s, 3 inches wide and 2 inches high. My checked shirt shows
up nicely as does the pen I was holding pointing at my oversized ear.
The account
portrayed Gardner as a good-listener legislator, lack of support for
education, libraries and health care notwithstanding.
Forum, meeting,
hearing. Sincere efforts to listen or clever fooling of the public. You
decide.
(c., 2005, John K. Hartman.
All Rights Reserved.)