On politics, printing and the 10-year anniversary of 911
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
On those rare occasions in the American political landscape where an all-Democratic political body appoints a Republican to public service or where an all-Republican political body appoints a Democrat to public service, it sends a clear message about the character and integrity of the appointed person.
This past January, three Republican members of the Highland County Board of Commissioners appointed Sugar Tree Ridge area Democrat Sam Snyder to serve on the Highland County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
The appointment drew some criticism within the Republican Party, as Mr. Snyder has been, in fact, a recent Democratic candidate for county commissioner. He may very well be a future candidate – perhaps even running against one of those who made the Board of DD appointment – and that is certainly within his constitutional rights.
Mr. Snyder has retired after many years of public service as an academic administrator, instructor and coach. His record of service remains untarnished.
In spite of being informed just prior to the Tuesday, June 28 Board of DD meeting at the Hills and Dales Training Center that he is now “ineligible” to serve – after six months on the board, Mr. Snyder’s record remains untarnished.
Due to the absence of a state-required declaration of eligibility form in advance of his initial board meeting, Mr. Snyder was told he could not sit at the Board of DD Tuesday. He did, however, attend the meeting and asked for a moment of the board’s time.
“I was not aware of this (declaration of eligibility) in January,” Mr. Snyder said. After he learned of the requirement, he said he completed the form and submitted it to the school.
Mr. Snyder also wisely suggested that the board implement a formal policy for new members in order to avoid similar unfortunate situations in the future.
As Mr. Snyder finished addressing the board, its chairperson, Linda Allen, stated that she had not signed the declaration of eligibility requirement. Mrs. Allen asked newly appointed board member Karen Adams if she had signed it. Adams responded that she had, as instructed by Highland County Common Pleas Court Juvenile and Probate Division Judge Kevin Greer.
(The Ohio Revised Code, 5126.028, sets forth the criteria for the number and appointment of board members as follows: Each county Board of DD shall consist of seven members. The board of county commissioners of the county shall appoint five members and the senior probate judge of the county shall appoint two members.)
Mr. Snyder respectfully pointed out that a sitting judge probably knows more about the Ohio Revised Code than the county commissioners. Again, he meant no disrespect to the board of commissioners.
When a potential infraction such as this occurs, one would think there are appropriate courses of action – and, naturally, less than appropriate actions. Misrepresenting the opinion of the Highland County Prosecuting Attorney would fall under the “less than appropriate” actions.
While we’ve all heard that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” we’ve also learned that there’s the letter of the law as well as the spirit of the law. Clearly, this ought to be a “correctable error” and Mr. Snyder’s service to the board should continue. (Perhaps commissioners will simply re-appoint Mr. Snyder, with the declaration of eligibility signed, sealed and delivered.)
Highland County Commissioner Tom Horst, a Republican, stood by Mr. Snyder’s appointment at the June 28 Board of DD meeting. Mr. Horst said commissioners appointed Mr. Snyder in January because they felt he was the best person for the job. “I nominated Sam because I thought he would make an excellent board member,” Mr. Horst said, “because of his years of experience in education and, in particular, special education.”
Good points.
Lastly, another thing that is spelled out in the Ohio Revised Code is a Bill of Rights for developmentally disabled persons.
Set forth in ORC 5123.62 are rights which must be protected by the board.
The first of these rights is “(The) right to be treated at all times with courtesy and respect and with full recognition of dignity and individuality.”
The same right to treat others with courtesy and respect ought to apply across the board – and administration.
* * *
• It’s been said that an essential act of good citizenship is to read the local newspaper in your respective community.
In previous conversations with a number of public officials – from city council members to congressmen – we’ve often reached a general consensus on that point.
Maybe that’s why I found some strange irony in last week’s column by fellow Whiteoak (by the way, how about those WHS sophomores on the recent OGT writing test!) graduate and longtime Darke County Engineer Jim Surber.
Most of the time, I’m smart enough to avoid entering into a debate with Jim. And, by no means, is that my intent today. But when Jim used these medium to lament the End Times of newspapers, I couldn’t help but smile.
Newspapers’ collective obituaries were written shortly after Marconi and his radio began reaching American homes in the 1920s and ’30s. Of course, a generation later, it was really curtains for the print industry. What radio failed to kill, television surely would eradicate. Right?
And by the time the World Wide Web creeped into our homes in the late 1990s and beyond, there were no newspapers left. The Internet sparked an age of video violence against all things print. Really?
If print is truly dead, as the “experts” began telling us almost 100 years ago, why is the first accessory to most desktop computers always a printer? Why, when you access an online story, is there a prominent option to “print” the story? And why, pray tell, what Gutenberg – and not Marconi – named the Man of the Millennium? After all, Johann didn’t even have a website or a Facebook account.
Now, before Jim responds and makes me feel even more foolish than most of you already believe me to be, this is what we call one of those tongue-in-cheek columns.
As always, Jim’s points last week were well taken. It’s true, too, that many newspapers have given up on their print editions. One of my area favorites, the former Cincinnati Post, switched to an online-only medium years ago, much to my chagrin. They weren’t alone, either. In fact, what used to be considered an industry standard and required reading for most newspaper editors and publishers, Editor & Publisher, as it were, ceased its print edition in favor of a web-only magazine.
There are, however, many success stories for locally owned newspapers. Those relatively few souls who have managed to avoid corporate takeovers, mergers and outside acquisitions by Philadelphia bean counters are still putting vital information in print and, equally important, their respective advertisers remain loyal.
To those readers and advertisers, our efforts do not go unnoticed – nor does your cherished support.
To close this brief resurrection of the 2011 newspaper, please let me share this from the masthead of a New York community newspaper that’s been publishing for more than 145 consecutive years: “By the grace of God, free and independent.”
(Quite similar to the newspaper you are presently reading!)
* * *
• It’s hard to believe, but as we celebrate Independence Day 2011, we are inching forward to the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
We all have our recollections of this fateful day in American history. As I’ve been doing for more than 350 days a year for almost three decades, I was putting words in print on Sept. 11, 2001. I still recall who gave us the news at the West Union newspaper office that morning. A young writer named Amanda Crago learned of the terrorist attacks while making her rounds at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office. Back then, we had no television and no Internet at the newspaper. I did have a small portable radio and recall listening to ABC News break in on local programming.
I called home and told Pam to turn on the television. “What channel?” she may have asked. “It doesn’t matter,” I may have responded. She was home-schooling our son, Colin, who was 6. She’d previously home-schooled our two daughters before we’d enrolled them with Lynn Lowell at the former Highland County Christian School. In fact, Sept. 11, 2001 was Meghan’s second day at the Christian school. She still remembers it.
As I recall, we hugged our children that evening. Maybe a little longer than usual. Maybe because we knew that some 3,000 fellow Americans had just been killed for doing nothing more than getting up and going to work.
When Pastor Shane Montgomery hosts the annual Sept. 11 observance at the Highland County Courthouse lawn, I can’t help but replay that fateful day in my mind. My initial thoughts always go back to my children and their well-being.
They’re all 10 years older now. They’re young adults who neither need nor want their old man’s protection from evil forces in the world. They are, as Jim Surber has written, among that generation that is much more in tune to the digital news age than anything we dare put in print.
Where parents once made keepsake scrapbooks of newspaper clippings for their children, I’m guessing that today’s parents will simply copy and paste 50 or 100 websites on which their children may have been recognized, and email the sites, along with an obligatory e-card, and say “Here’s lookin’ at you, Kid.”
Not long after Sept. 11, 2001, I received an email from former Ohio Congressman Bob McEwen. The email had nothing to do with politics. Bob and I were talking about how quickly our respective children had grown up. I believe Bob has a son serving in the Armed Forces.
But one of the things he wrote that stuck with me was this (paraphrasing from memory): Parents always want to work hard and provide for their children. They plan for the future. But they sometimes forget that these are the good old days – when everyone’s still together under the same roof. The day-to-day grind, the ball games and school plays, the road trips and vacations.
Enjoy these days. Because, all too soon, they’re gone.
As my own children enter adulthood, it’s clear that Bob was right. And if I could slow down the spinning of the earth, even just a little, I’d gladly do it.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
This past January, three Republican members of the Highland County Board of Commissioners appointed Sugar Tree Ridge area Democrat Sam Snyder to serve on the Highland County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
The appointment drew some criticism within the Republican Party, as Mr. Snyder has been, in fact, a recent Democratic candidate for county commissioner. He may very well be a future candidate – perhaps even running against one of those who made the Board of DD appointment – and that is certainly within his constitutional rights.
Mr. Snyder has retired after many years of public service as an academic administrator, instructor and coach. His record of service remains untarnished.
In spite of being informed just prior to the Tuesday, June 28 Board of DD meeting at the Hills and Dales Training Center that he is now “ineligible” to serve – after six months on the board, Mr. Snyder’s record remains untarnished.
Due to the absence of a state-required declaration of eligibility form in advance of his initial board meeting, Mr. Snyder was told he could not sit at the Board of DD Tuesday. He did, however, attend the meeting and asked for a moment of the board’s time.
“I was not aware of this (declaration of eligibility) in January,” Mr. Snyder said. After he learned of the requirement, he said he completed the form and submitted it to the school.
Mr. Snyder also wisely suggested that the board implement a formal policy for new members in order to avoid similar unfortunate situations in the future.
As Mr. Snyder finished addressing the board, its chairperson, Linda Allen, stated that she had not signed the declaration of eligibility requirement. Mrs. Allen asked newly appointed board member Karen Adams if she had signed it. Adams responded that she had, as instructed by Highland County Common Pleas Court Juvenile and Probate Division Judge Kevin Greer.
(The Ohio Revised Code, 5126.028, sets forth the criteria for the number and appointment of board members as follows: Each county Board of DD shall consist of seven members. The board of county commissioners of the county shall appoint five members and the senior probate judge of the county shall appoint two members.)
Mr. Snyder respectfully pointed out that a sitting judge probably knows more about the Ohio Revised Code than the county commissioners. Again, he meant no disrespect to the board of commissioners.
When a potential infraction such as this occurs, one would think there are appropriate courses of action – and, naturally, less than appropriate actions. Misrepresenting the opinion of the Highland County Prosecuting Attorney would fall under the “less than appropriate” actions.
While we’ve all heard that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” we’ve also learned that there’s the letter of the law as well as the spirit of the law. Clearly, this ought to be a “correctable error” and Mr. Snyder’s service to the board should continue. (Perhaps commissioners will simply re-appoint Mr. Snyder, with the declaration of eligibility signed, sealed and delivered.)
Highland County Commissioner Tom Horst, a Republican, stood by Mr. Snyder’s appointment at the June 28 Board of DD meeting. Mr. Horst said commissioners appointed Mr. Snyder in January because they felt he was the best person for the job. “I nominated Sam because I thought he would make an excellent board member,” Mr. Horst said, “because of his years of experience in education and, in particular, special education.”
Good points.
Lastly, another thing that is spelled out in the Ohio Revised Code is a Bill of Rights for developmentally disabled persons.
Set forth in ORC 5123.62 are rights which must be protected by the board.
The first of these rights is “(The) right to be treated at all times with courtesy and respect and with full recognition of dignity and individuality.”
The same right to treat others with courtesy and respect ought to apply across the board – and administration.
* * *
• It’s been said that an essential act of good citizenship is to read the local newspaper in your respective community.
In previous conversations with a number of public officials – from city council members to congressmen – we’ve often reached a general consensus on that point.
Maybe that’s why I found some strange irony in last week’s column by fellow Whiteoak (by the way, how about those WHS sophomores on the recent OGT writing test!) graduate and longtime Darke County Engineer Jim Surber.
Most of the time, I’m smart enough to avoid entering into a debate with Jim. And, by no means, is that my intent today. But when Jim used these medium to lament the End Times of newspapers, I couldn’t help but smile.
Newspapers’ collective obituaries were written shortly after Marconi and his radio began reaching American homes in the 1920s and ’30s. Of course, a generation later, it was really curtains for the print industry. What radio failed to kill, television surely would eradicate. Right?
And by the time the World Wide Web creeped into our homes in the late 1990s and beyond, there were no newspapers left. The Internet sparked an age of video violence against all things print. Really?
If print is truly dead, as the “experts” began telling us almost 100 years ago, why is the first accessory to most desktop computers always a printer? Why, when you access an online story, is there a prominent option to “print” the story? And why, pray tell, what Gutenberg – and not Marconi – named the Man of the Millennium? After all, Johann didn’t even have a website or a Facebook account.
Now, before Jim responds and makes me feel even more foolish than most of you already believe me to be, this is what we call one of those tongue-in-cheek columns.
As always, Jim’s points last week were well taken. It’s true, too, that many newspapers have given up on their print editions. One of my area favorites, the former Cincinnati Post, switched to an online-only medium years ago, much to my chagrin. They weren’t alone, either. In fact, what used to be considered an industry standard and required reading for most newspaper editors and publishers, Editor & Publisher, as it were, ceased its print edition in favor of a web-only magazine.
There are, however, many success stories for locally owned newspapers. Those relatively few souls who have managed to avoid corporate takeovers, mergers and outside acquisitions by Philadelphia bean counters are still putting vital information in print and, equally important, their respective advertisers remain loyal.
To those readers and advertisers, our efforts do not go unnoticed – nor does your cherished support.
To close this brief resurrection of the 2011 newspaper, please let me share this from the masthead of a New York community newspaper that’s been publishing for more than 145 consecutive years: “By the grace of God, free and independent.”
(Quite similar to the newspaper you are presently reading!)
* * *
• It’s hard to believe, but as we celebrate Independence Day 2011, we are inching forward to the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
We all have our recollections of this fateful day in American history. As I’ve been doing for more than 350 days a year for almost three decades, I was putting words in print on Sept. 11, 2001. I still recall who gave us the news at the West Union newspaper office that morning. A young writer named Amanda Crago learned of the terrorist attacks while making her rounds at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office. Back then, we had no television and no Internet at the newspaper. I did have a small portable radio and recall listening to ABC News break in on local programming.
I called home and told Pam to turn on the television. “What channel?” she may have asked. “It doesn’t matter,” I may have responded. She was home-schooling our son, Colin, who was 6. She’d previously home-schooled our two daughters before we’d enrolled them with Lynn Lowell at the former Highland County Christian School. In fact, Sept. 11, 2001 was Meghan’s second day at the Christian school. She still remembers it.
As I recall, we hugged our children that evening. Maybe a little longer than usual. Maybe because we knew that some 3,000 fellow Americans had just been killed for doing nothing more than getting up and going to work.
When Pastor Shane Montgomery hosts the annual Sept. 11 observance at the Highland County Courthouse lawn, I can’t help but replay that fateful day in my mind. My initial thoughts always go back to my children and their well-being.
They’re all 10 years older now. They’re young adults who neither need nor want their old man’s protection from evil forces in the world. They are, as Jim Surber has written, among that generation that is much more in tune to the digital news age than anything we dare put in print.
Where parents once made keepsake scrapbooks of newspaper clippings for their children, I’m guessing that today’s parents will simply copy and paste 50 or 100 websites on which their children may have been recognized, and email the sites, along with an obligatory e-card, and say “Here’s lookin’ at you, Kid.”
Not long after Sept. 11, 2001, I received an email from former Ohio Congressman Bob McEwen. The email had nothing to do with politics. Bob and I were talking about how quickly our respective children had grown up. I believe Bob has a son serving in the Armed Forces.
But one of the things he wrote that stuck with me was this (paraphrasing from memory): Parents always want to work hard and provide for their children. They plan for the future. But they sometimes forget that these are the good old days – when everyone’s still together under the same roof. The day-to-day grind, the ball games and school plays, the road trips and vacations.
Enjoy these days. Because, all too soon, they’re gone.
As my own children enter adulthood, it’s clear that Bob was right. And if I could slow down the spinning of the earth, even just a little, I’d gladly do it.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]