Saturday, March 26, 2011

IN MEMORY OF GERALDINE FERRARO: AN EDITORIAL ABOUT WOMEN ELECTED TO FEDERAL OFFICE

Utah Women received the vote in 1870. Utah’s Constitution gave women the vote in 1896. The USA finally gave women the vote nation wide through a Constitutional amendment at the late date of 1920.

The voters of the USA have been notoriously slow in electing women to government. Montana elected the first female rep in 1916.

Georgia appointed a woman senator for a full day in 1922.

Arkansas appointed a woman senator in 1931, then elected that woman the first female elected senator in 1932. Senator Hattie Caraway served in that seat from 1931 to 1944.

President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins as the first female cabinet secretary in 1933. In 1940, Wendell Willkie was the Republican sacrificial lamb against Roosevelt’s third term. Roosevelt was so popular that he could have and should have nominated Perkins for vice president in 1940. She would have, in the long view, probably proved less problematical politically to Roosevelt than his almost socialist Vice President Henry Wallace.

In 1944, the Democratic convention might have replaced her with Harry Truman anyway. The delegates that year assumed that the vice president nominee would soon become president either through the death of or resignation of Roosevelt: the typical political men of that era might have balked at a women vice president when she had an even chance of becoming president. Still Roosevelt could have made the historic selection in 1940.


Ike appointed the next female cabinet secretary in 1953.

In 1960 or in 1968, Nixon could have selected Senator Margaret Smith as his VP running mate. Johnson could have selected Senator Neuberger in 1964. But no. We got Humphrey and we got Agnew, and we find it hard to fathom how Smith or Neuberger could have been worse.

Gerald Ford appointed the third female cabinet secretary in 1975.

Walter Mondale became the Democratic sacrificial lamb candidate against Ronald Reagan’s reelection in 1984. He selected Geraldine Ferraro Zaccaro as his vice president running mate in 1984, despite her minimal experience as a representative from Queens, New York. He had few options for this gimmick. At that time, both women senators were Republican, and the one Democrat woman governor of Kentucky had less experience that Mrs. Zaccaro.

It took 24 full years for a presidential candidate to choose another female vice president candidate. This time, a Republican candidate selected a female vice presidential candidate. Heaven only knows if a female veep candidate would have really improved John McCain’s chances as a presidential candidate, especially if he had selected a female veep of substance, someone like Senators Kay Bailey-Hutchinson or Olympia Snowe or a Republican female governor with more than a year and a half of experience. Instead he decided to select a gimmick: she can be best described as a inexperienced loose canon from Alaska by the named Sarah Palin.

In 220 years, major parties selected only 2 women VP nominees. It’s a pathetic historical record.

Utah may have given the vote to women in 1870, and elected its first woman state senator in 1896, but its record of female office holders remains substandard in other ways.

A woman lieutenant governor assumed the governorship in November 2003, and the Republican old boys network went to some length to get rid of her. Years later when a male lieutenant governor named Gary Herbert assumed the governorship from retiring Jon Huntsman, he got renominated and reelected. Not Olene Walker. Wrong gender apparently for the Republican convention.


Utah elected a woman to the U S House of Representatives as early as 1948, but has in total elected only 3 women to the House since 1896. It has elected no female U S senator.


THE CALL TO ACTION

Utah should amend its state Constitution requiring one male U S senator and one female U S senator.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

BYU BASKETBALL: FEET OF CLAY

The history of BYU Sports pain is a very special type of pain: the splendid agony of blowing it big time just when it looks like the team is finally bound for nationally recognized greatness.

Brandon Davies came as a bolt out of the blue, but the timing of his dereliction hardly comes as a real surprise.

Dick Harmon tried to justify BYU's official reaction to the Davies situation, but wound up making it sound as if Brandon had been caught wearing explosive underwear at an airport:


News of Brandon Davies' dismissal comes at dramatic time for Cougars

Deseret News
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700114716/News-of-Brandon-Davies-dismissal-comes-at-dramatic-time-for-Cougars.html
Published: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 12:41 a.m. MST
Dick Harmon, Deseret News

PROVO — Brandon Davies and BYU basketball separated for the season Tuesday.

And it has been a dandy of a season.

The shocking news couldn't have come at a more dramatic time for Dave Rose and his basketball program. It came one day after the Cougars attained a lofty No. 3 national ranking and the week BYU could win the Mountain West Conference title outright. It comes just when the national media declared the Cougars are in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament — the Davies news landed like a bomb.

Tonight, when the Cougars host the only league team that has defeated them, New Mexico, we will see how Rose, his staff and the team respond, both emotionally and strategically.

Make no mistake about it; the loss of Davies is a huge blow. His skill set, the tremendous impact he's had this late in the season in rebounding, blocks and scoring points will be missed.

The quickness to which BYU officials reacted to its investigation of Davies and his issue with the school's honor code means this wasn't a trivial issue. It wasn't probation; it was not an item that could be put off for a few weeks; it was a violation that required decisive and immediate action.



Yet again, the Honor Code Office has taken a major public stand against sloppy morals at BYU at the worst possible moment for all concerned.

The Cougar boys found themselves playing a major game on the very day the bombshell dropped. They rose to the occasion by falling apart. Completely. Even the Deseret News had trouble gilding the fast fading lily:



BYU basketball:
Lobos thrash Cougars, 82-64

Deseret News
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700115004/BYU-basketball-Lobos-thrash-Cougars-82-64.html
Jeff Call Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 10:05 p.m. MST

BYU-UNM boxscore

PROVO — This wasn't the way BYU wanted to show the NCAA Selection Committee how it plays without Brandon Davies.

In the No. 3 Cougars' first game without their sophomore forward, who was suspended for the remainder of the season on Tuesday, they were trounced by New Mexico, 82-64, Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.

PROVO — This wasn't the way BYU wanted to show the NCAA Selection Committee how it could play without Brandon Davies.

In the No. 3 Cougars' first game without their sophomore forward, who was suspended for the remainder of the season on Tuesday for violating the University's Honor Code, they were trounced by New Mexico, 82-64, Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.

BYU (27-3, 13-2) opened the week as a strong contender to receive a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament while earning its highest ranking in 23 years.

Since losing Davies for the season, BYU is 0-1. Against the hot-shooting Lobos, the Cougars looked nothing like a third-ranked team in the nation and nothing like a No. 1 seed.

The Cougars, who have lost for straight to the Lobos, also squandered an opportunity to clinch a share of the Mountain West Conference championship.

BYU and San Diego State, which defeated Wyoming Tuesday, are tied for first-place once again in the league standings, just days after the Cougars knocked off the Aztecs in San Diego.

BYU was never really in the game Wednesday, shooting a miserable 26 percent in the first half. The Lobos came out on fire, grabbing an early 15-4 advantage. They led by as many as 19 in the first half and took a 42-26 lead at the half.

In the second half, UNM didn't let up and built a 24-point lead.

Jimmer Fredette scored a game-high 33 points for BYU, while UNM's Phillip McDonald poured in a team-high 26 points.

© 2011 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved



As a result of the 2 March developments, the coaches, the boosters, the dyed-in-the-wool Cougars will now heap up more pressure on The Jimmer's broad shoulders. He must uphold the image of clean-cut, virtuous Mormon youth and to restore the Cougar-brand winning streak. Now. It will be fascinating to see what will happen first.

Will the Cougar season end first?

Or will The Jimmer snap emotionally and start ranting -- Charlie-Sheen-like -- on radio talk shows that he is a an F-15E?

The BYU Honor Code claims another victim. The Cougar Basketball Community -- not so much Brandon -- will suffer the most in the final analysis.

I suspect BYU authorities and administration believe it is in the best interest of their power for the BYU teams to have losing seasons. After all, BYU administrators, coaches, bishops, and stake presidents cannot exhort us that sterling character comes from enduring tribulation and losing gracefully like gentlemen --- if we win consistently and to the triumphant end.

Speculation for a stormy night: if Jimmer had warned his coaches and his team that he would resign from the team if the Honor bureaucracy removed any of his basketball star teammates -- Brandon's troubles would have been miraculously discovered after the season. If at all. However, that sort of determination and honor hardly gets a mention in the BYU Honor Code.