Be nice and make up!

Apparently the City’s attempt at a hostile takeover of the City Treasurer’s office has failed for lack of votes from City Council. The vote ended in a split decision, three for and three against, with the seventh eligible voter having to sit out because of a conflict of interest. By rule a tie means the effort fails.

And so it should have. About eight years ago the city tried to eliminate the Treasurer’s position by referendum. That attempt failed by 65 percent to 35 percent. I would call that a resounding victory to keep the office.

Just what is happening in the Treasurer’s office and the cause for the City to try to take over the bulk of the duties is largely unknown. Treasurer Joy Moore has defended herself against the city’s accusations, and certainly there are issues that may go beyond simple personal differences. But the citizens had spoken and now Council has spoken, so my feeling is that it is incumbent upon both parties to work out the issues.

On the face it seems ridiculous to me that there would be two different software packages being used to handle the city’s money. That doesn’t make a lot of sense, and starting there would be an easy way to get the ball rolling. The Treasurer’s office and the City should have the same equipment to do the job.

It’s not hard to figure that one out. Just try opening a Microsoft Word^® document in something other than Word. It either won’t happen or you will get pages full of code that looks a lot like Egyptian hieroglyphics. And, when you are talking about working with finances, using the same software just makes sense. Who is responsible for supplying the software doesn’t really matter, although in all likelihood that obligation belongs to the city.

The next step is to suck up the personal issues and get down to business. If the treasurer is doing something one way and the city wants it done another, it’s time to get together and work out a solution that both sides can agree to. I know this may sound silly, but it’s a compromise. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, will get done if either side decides to dig in their heels.

One would think that these people have never worked in an environment with someone that they did not care for, although I would think given the politics in this city, that such a thing would be impossible. It happens everywhere. There are always personal conflicts and there are always professional conflicts. Running a successful business, which in the final analysis this is, requires the ability to work with everyone. Let’s get this situation to the base level. It’s time to forget about any and all past indiscretions and move forward in a positive fashion.

Bury the hatchet and toss away all the brickbats. It’s time to get down to doing what this city has built a reputation for, getting the job done. In other words, get together to work out the issues. No one has fallen of the wall as yet and the city in general has suffered no ills as of yet. But if there is a thought that such a thing may happen, then it’s up to the two parties to reconcile their differences and put an end to that potential.

My guess is that Ms. Moore will be the city treasurer for some time to come. She certainly had a significant amount of support from within the community. Getting that kind of support in Colonial Heights says something. If the city doesn’t like the way things are going in her office, then it is incumbent upon them to try to work out the differences. If they can’t work out something as seemingly fundamental as using the same software, perhaps there are other issues that need looking into.

I would think that both the Treasurer’s office and the City’s finance department would have the same goal of supporting the citizens. There may in fact be two different ways of looking at supporting the citizens in that regard, but quibbling over how that’s done seems to be counter-productive. It’s time for a little powwow. Here’s my solution:  air your differences, work out viable solutions, and move forward as one cohesive unit.

Oh, and get on the same page with the software.

Finding the God-darn particle

So the whole idea, I guess, behind that monstrosity known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was to find this elusive sub-atomic particle called the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson, or so called God particle, had long been part of sub-atomic theory as espoused by you guessed it Albert Einstein and another fellow named Satyendra Nath Bose, for whom the boson particle is named.

In a sort of NASCAR spinoff, the method physicists use to find this elusive particle involves sending two particles around a huge 17 mile long circular track in opposite directions and forcing them to smash into each other. Still sounds pretty much like a NASCAR event, doesn’t it?

Anyway, the idea is that the resulting collision will produce near Big Bang results and ought to provide proof of the existence of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson, so scientists claim, is essentially the glue between atoms that holds them together and is considered a building block for subatomic structures. Last year, scientists claimed they thought they might have found just such a particle, but hesitated to confirm that it was the hard to find Higgs boson.

Recently, however, they have stepped out with confidence stating that they had indeed discovered the long-lost particle. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, reportedly a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian nuclear program, is sure they have their missing link now. CERN officials also stated that they were only doing nuclear research to improve their nuclear power plants throughout Europe.

But back to the NASCAR analogy; it’s my belief that NASCAR probably would have found the Higgs boson much faster than the physicists did. While their cars are not capable of reaching near-light speeds, they are more than capable of sustaining crashes of incredible proportions, for instance on more than one occasion parts of the smashed up vehicles left the race track and found a new home among the spectators. NASCAR officials call this collateral damage.

While this is a sad thing, it does bring up the idea of enclosing the entire track in much the same way that the LHC is contained, and then providing thick non-breakable Plexiglas around the sides so people can watch their favorite drivers without having to worry about a transmission or motor landing in their laps. It’s all about being self-contained anyway. It would also be beneficial for restarts and scoring since the track officials would have much more control over the cars themselves, even if they can’t control the drivers which time and experience has proven that they cannot.

But setting NASCAR aside, physicists are now saying that they have indeed found the missing Higgs boson. It’s a great day for physics, and great support for Albert and his friends as they move into what the current group of physicists are calling the “New Physics.”

CERN physicist Joe Incandela said in a statement last week that "it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is."

Physicists have called the Higgs boson the God particle because of two reasons: 1. It is one of the building blocks to particle theory and therefore a building block for the world as we know it (structured by God), and 2. Because one of the early theorists, frustrated by the difficulty in isolating the boson called, it the God- - - - particle in an essay about how hard it was to find. You can be the judge on which of these reasons makes the most sense.

Anyway, as most of these things goes in the history of physics, it will be dozens of years before we realize any new radical theories about the new particle. In fact, it’s much more likely to lead us down another path to identify the next missing piece of the subatomic puzzle.

We are far more likely to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. win a NASCAR Championship before we benefit from the Higgs boson discovery.

Who let the Pope out?

So the Catholic Church is now an organization literally without a head. Since Pope Benedict XVI abdicated the throne nearly two weeks ago, the Catholic Church has not had a secular head to issue proclamations, Papal Bulls, or credos of any kind. It must seem strange for the religious order to be voting on a new Pope when the old Pope is still living and breathing. Typically, the Pope dies in office and then the conclave gathers to deliberate on who should be the next Pontiff.

I suppose as long as it isn’t Pontiff Pilot everything will be cool with the Catholic Church given time to get their Sistine Chapel in order and send a shaft of white smoke up the chimney to announce the decision for a new Pope.

But one never really knows, does one?

I mean, the media’s handling of the whole conclave things has the ring of sports metaphor. Today, I read a series of snippets about those cardinals who, in the Italian, are called Papabile, or Pope eligible. There are reportedly 12 potential candidates:  Angelo Bagnasco, Joao Braz De Aviz, Timothy Dolan, Peter Erdo, Marc Ouellet, Gianfranco Ravasi, Leonardo Sandri, Odilo Pedreo Scherer, Christoph Schonborn, Angelo Scola, Luis Tagle, and Peter Turkson. And, it appears, everyone wants their guy to win.

Benedict’s choice to retire isn’t exactly unprecedented. The long and storied history of the Catholic Church contains dozens of retirements, some of their own volition, some by poison, and some by deposition. It would seem that selecting a Pope may not be much different from voting for a political office. Influence pandering, power struggles, and nepotism (called simony) abound in the selection of Popes.

Take for instance the Medici popes and the Borgia Popes. It’s not hard to figure out the kind of influence involved in getting their “man” into power. If you didn’t elect the person they wanted in, you got a visit from the equivalent of Don Corleone’s fixer, Lucca Brasi. You remember him, right? He was the guy mumbling his “Thank you speech” during the wedding scene from The Godfather.

Neither the Medici’s nor the Borgia’s at that time had much of a problem concerning ethics. It was pure ends justifies the means, they wanted their guy in and they would do whatever they needed to make it happen.

More recently, the Papal seat seems to have better inhabitants. While the Catholic Church itself has come under the scrutiny of the public for its own problems with Jerry Sandusky Syndrome, it appears they will weather that storm and come out looking like champs.

It’s hard to say which of those 12 candidates will be selected Pope. We may know the players, but we don’t have a stats sheet to go by, or even a projected draft order like they do in the NFL. And really, who has the kind of knowledge it would take to decide which of the 12 might be the best candidate? Mel Kiper? I think not.

I was living in Italy when John Paul I was elected in 1978. His tour lasted 33 days, and he was replaced by John Paul II who lasted more than 26-years, a pretty good long while. When he passed, they moved on to Benedict XVI, whose tour lasted a bit over seven years.

As to how they elect a Pope, I have little or no insight. I am not even Catholic, although my father was Catholic, which I guess makes me ½ Catholic if we can break down religious affiliations that way. Regardless of how they make their decision, the new Pope has a full schedule ahead of him. There are still lots of problems in the Catholic Church, as there are with all religions. All I can say is good luck to whoever they select to lead the church.

File-Things that should never happen: RIP Rusty Mack

When I first heard about Rusty Mack being beaten up by three people a couple weeks ago, it reminded me of how long it had been since I had last seen him. I think it was probably in his senior year wrestling for Colonial Heights. As a sports reporter and with a son on the same team, I came into contact with him relatively often.

As many people have stated, and perhaps no one better than his former wrestling Coach Tommy Coon, Rusty was not the sort of wrestler you remember as being particularly talented or particularly bad at the sport. He worked hard, did what he was told to do by the coaches, and had moderate success.

But his work ethic and his willingness to continue despite the setbacks set him apart from many other wrestlers who filtered through the program in and out in a week or month, because they didn’t like the idea of having to wear a singlet or were afraid that a female wrestler on another team might beat them. Wrestling is hard stuff, even for those blessed with talent and skills and the drive to pursue a sport that doesn’t rise very high on the charts of most fans. It’s not like football or basketball or baseball where one is hailed for their part in a team effort.

Wrestling is extremely personal. On the mat you are alone with an opponent and a referee. Everyone in the gym, or so it seems, is watching you. No matter what happens that lurks in the back of your mind for an instant before you are thrust into a match and have to grapple to try to eke out a win. And for many eke is exactly what it amounts to. For Rusty eking had become a way of life on the mats. But outside of the mat, he seemed a gentle soul ready to help out wherever he was needed.

So it seems incomprehensible to me that anyone would have taken issue with this young man or for that matter any person to such an extent that it seemed the right thing to beat him to death. In the courts, when this sad episode works its way through the system, we will likely hear about all kinds of personal situations that involve some of those involved. I am sure any defense attorney would try to make this into some kind of extended domestic crime, or a crime of passion. But when you are grasping at straws you have to take the straws that are available.

Regardless of the situation that sparked this event, no one deserves to be treated in the manner that Rusty was. A fist fight, a black eye, maybe even a broken nose to carry with you into posterity, but to go to the extent of actually beating someone to death is beyond belief. It’s one of those “that didn’t really happen here” moments in your life. And then you’re hit with the shocking reality that it did happen and that you know the kid on a personal level.

As a parent, I can’t imagine what his family is going through. From experience, I know that regardless of how the case works out, there is no relief for them. Time only puts distance between the pain and the reality. It never goes away, never really subsides, and at times will be hard to set aside. There is no closure as some might say, and even the conviction of everyone who inflicted the beating won’t give his family any piece of mind.

Still there is some resolution in convicting the perpetrators. The community and the court system will garner justice, and for anyone with a like mind the result may serve as a reason to think of some alternative. But in the end everyone loses in a case like this. The guilty parties will get whatever they deserve from the court system, and unless I am mistaken about this community it will and ought to be quite harsh a punishment. But for the rest of the community, and especially for his family, the loss is beyond words.

Monday night, my wife and I went to pay our last respects to him and his family. It reminded me of how people move through your lives at different periods. People who are friends get lost in the hubbub of getting through the next day and the next week, and before you know it years have passed. What happened to Rusty should never happen to anyone. It’s inhuman to think there are people in this city who could conduct such a vicious and hateful act.

Rest in peace, Rusty.