WHO WILL VOLUNTEER TO COLLECT FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE VOLUNTEERS COLLECTING FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE HURRICANE?!

I know Bucyrus well - and there's a REASON they don't have any 4-way stops!

Volunteer Standing In Street Cited In Bucyrus Crash
Bucyrus On-line - 09-13-2005

A volunteer for a local charity was cited in a four-car crash involving a pedestrian on State Route 4 in Bucyrus. The volunteer was standing in the road at the time of the crash.

Saturday afternoon, a semi truck was heading northbound on Route 4 coming into Bucyrus. Suddenly it approached a line up of cars that were stopped giving donations to volunteers of the Bucyrus Professional Network who were in the road collecting money for Hurricane relief.

The driver of the semi, 23-year-old Adam Softic of Chicago, was allegedly distracted by his cell phone and began to apply his brakes, but was unable to stop in time, causing him to hit the pick up truck in front of him driven by 45-year-old Randy Warwick of Bucyrus. Upon impact, Warwick’s truck was forced into the car in front of him driven by 16-year-old Jarrenn Johnson of Bucyrus.

Johnson’s vehicle slid off to the right side of the roadway while the pick up truck lost control driving right into the front lot of Walston Motors running over a tent and slamming into a 1964 Pontiac GTO that was on display in the car show.

Warwick and his passenger were both transported to Bucyrus Community Hospital for serious injuries but have since then been released. Forty-three-year-old Fonda Moore, one of the volunteers for the Bucyrus Professional Network was cited for being in the roadway and causing stopped traffic. According to WBCO/WQEL, Softic was cited for assured cleared distance.

COMMEMORATING Da BORK!
Remember when the Reagan-nominated, religio-fascist, law professor Robert Bork was turned down for the Supreme Court? It was 1987. Bork still shows up as a old gray-bearded, combed-over, nattering head on the cable news blab -fests. Now his son is peddling tee-shirts that read: "BORK FOR SUPREME COURT. HE'S TANNED, RESTED & READY!"

REHNQUIST'S INTERRED. NOW CAN WE SAY IT?
IT'S THE FEDERALISM, STUPID!
I've posted hereabouts several times that we need to take a look at federalism.

When some conservatives ignore the inaction -the downright inattention - on the part of the administration, including the Pentagon and Justice Department officials, these same apologists on the right are quick to point out the shortcomings of the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of N'Awlins.

What the apologists for BUSHCO are fingering as the cause of the Katrina debacle is "states rights" - an article of religious faith with so many conservatives.

Remember, they have lionized the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist whose court was most instrumental in reviving dramatically the creaking concept of decentralization of power.  Mickey Kaus, in SLATE wonders,

Will Bush follow through on the current White House line of thinking and denounce hyperbolic assertions of state prerogatives (such as those embedded in a narrow interpretation of the unfortunate commerce clause)? Will he nominate someone to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat who rejects the Rehnquist view?"

There was nothing legal standing in the way of Bush's ordering troops into New Orleans to aid in evacuation and to keep order - IF he had been sufficiently aware of the situation's requirements.

NBC's smart reporter-weekend anchor at the scene, Campbell Brown, is a native of Louisiana, the only state that follows the famed, failed emperor's own "Napoleonic Code". She stated:

Watching the power struggles play out between New Orleans officials and the state and federal government has been beyond frustrating. ... They let the bureaucracy get in the way of saving lives ..."

WHAT IF - there were only the Federal gummint and, instead of 50 states, there were 10 or 12 regional administrative entities. WHAT IF - Counties administered all public services in a state or region - turning all those individual city, village and township buildings into branch offices or cellphone sales centers?

Bureaucracy is a requirement to implement services and strategies; inefficient bureaucracies aren't necessarily large or federal-level and they co$t too much. In the aftermath of Katrina, we want to blame the "go to" official - but nobody can say for certain who that may have been . . .

As for the sanctity of the founders' concept of Federalism, I think Hamilton would be with me on this. He had a more flexible, expansive view of the future of the Republic than, say, Jefferson or probably even Madison. We're not a nation of farmers and village artisans anymore, if we ever were. To borrow from Larry the Cable Guy, we need t' "git 'er done!"

AHHH, NOSTALGIA ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE . . .

When I was a pup we used to visit my grandparents in Bucyrus, Ohio. It was a major RR town, with the tracks of the both the B&O Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad running through town. The B&O Locomotive Repair Garage was in nearby Crestline, where my grandpa worked as a young man.
The Toledo and Ohio Central RR (T&OC) (post card) ran east and west 'til the '20s. It became The New York Central and later the Pennsylvania. The old passenger depot for the T&OC is still standing in Bucyrus and undergoing restoration.* I have the lantern my great-grandfather received upon retirement. The colored glass coating (green) is still intact and etched with his name on one side and "T&OC Caller", his occupation, on the other.

Rensselaer St., the road running east/west where the depot sits was almost completely populated with RR-oriented businesses - boarding houses, saloons, my uncle's pool room - tobacco shop and beer garden, several whore houses, laundrists, etc.

We return from time to time to relive some of the memories of years ago, to purchase genuine Carle's Bucyrus Bratwurst (wonderful stuff!) and to visit a cousin still living in the town. Bucyrus was a bustling railroad/industrial town 'til after the war. It reflects the hard times of a once-proud city that will never be much of anything again.

Clyde, Ohio, near Toledo, is another town that rose to prominence with the crossroads of two railroads that offers little now but memories. Closer to home, Bradford, Ohio, was a major RR stop from the turn of the century 'til after the war. I had a great aunt who ran a boardinghouse for the railroaders who stopped there.

* The Bucyrus Station Association plans to restore the building seen here blanketed in new snow, in February 2005. It is located at 700 E. Rensselaer in Bucyrus and turn it into a community building. The The old passenger depot for the T&OC  RR was originally built in 1892 and last operated as a train station in the mid -1920s.

The Station - prior to restoration - looked like this for years. The Bucyrus diaspora, which included my dad, would despair that it would be lost to fire deterioration.

The planned renovations - as pictured by a local artist, Ben Anslow, Jr.  -

The restored TOLEDO & OHIO CENTRAL
PASSENGER STATION.

My grandparents' home in Bucyrus was on E. Warren St. with the east/west tracks runnin' right just beyond Grandma's flower garden on the other side of an alley. In the '40s & '50s, the steam locomotives and diesels both ran through often. I used to get out of bed to watch out the back window at night. I hung out near the tracks waiting for trains a lot, waving at the engineer and the guy with the lantern hangin' off the caboose and they waved back.
"SMALL WORLD," Y' SAY?

YESTERDAY - September 13 - was the birthday of Sherwood Anderson, born in Camden, Ohio (1876). He's the author of ***Winesburg, Ohio*** - based on thinly -disguised characters and events in the town in which he was raised - TADA! CLYDE, Ohio! Small world, with or without railroads ...



I ran a MARX locomotive and cars with LIONEL accessories. The buildings were "Plasticville"!

Good fortune. COMMENT!!
Please spread the meme. Don't smoke in bed . . .