February 8th, 2024

On a lighter note, I recently completed my 3500th online New York Times crossword puzzle as well as finishing my 1,200th consecutive puzzle. You might call it a magnificent obsession.

February 8, 2024

They say that it is impolite to discuss politics and religion so you may want to stop reading right now because I am about to discuss both. I was raised Catholic, and, for many years, I was very good at it. I totally aced the Baltimore Catechism, and made my First Communion. The best part of the ceremony was that I got to keep my white bucks, which were very cool a la Pat Boone. I moved on to my Confirmation where I took the name James for some unknown reason. I went to church every Sunday, and every Holy Day of Obligation. I dutifully said prayers at the Stations of the Cross.

Every Sunday, our Jesuit priest would spew fire and brimstone from the pulpit. Apparently, I was going to hell despite my best efforts to be a good Catholic. I confessed my sins regularly because I was scared not to. Based on my wayward ways, I regularly received a penance of ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Mary’s, which I rattled off in record time.

For my freshman year of high school, I went to a Catholic high school. I was already questioning much of the church’s dogma by that time, but one year of a Catholic education sent me over to the dark side. It had nothing to do with pedophile priests. It had more to do with having to spend way too much time in chapel, and not enough time in the classroom. When I transferred back to public school, I was a year behind.

I could go on, but, with all of this, I was never subjected to bald-faced politics. Even with all of their faults, the fathers, the brothers, and the nuns never used their positions of influence o proselytize for one political party, or one candidate. They didn’t abuse their offices to run voter registration campaigns just for one party; they didn’t rail against members of the LGBTQ community. They didn’t vilify immigrants. They didn’t ostracize parishioners, who voted for the wrong candidate. They didn’t believe that a particular presidential candidate was the next coming of Jesus. And they didn’t use the pulpit to sell books, unless it was the Bible, and promote websites. They limited themselves to the Kingdom of Heaven, and were not concerned about the kingdom of Mar-a-Lago.

Things have changed. Tim Alberta lays out the case in a terrific book titled “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.” The born again, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Moral Majority, Christian National coalition has morphed into a movement unrecognizable as religion. It is unabashedly political. If preachers don’t talk about the Second Amendment, or trans kids, or traffic in conspiracy theories, their congregants will move down the street where they are apt to find an unscrupulous pastor, who is more than willing to pander to their worst instincts. They are taught that Democrats are doing the devil’s work. Joe Biden is the devil incarnate. Evangelicals worship America more than God. When did God come across the border, and become an American citizen?

At a Faith and Freedom conference, Tim Alberta “looked on as thousands of believers were told that their children were being groomed; that their communities were under invasion; that their guns were going to be confiscated; that their medical treatments were suspect; that their newspapers were lying to them; that their elected officials were diabolical; that their government and country were coming after them; that their faith was being banned from public life; that their leader was being unjustly persecuted on their behalf.”

The Evangelical movement is littered with grifters and scallawags. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were involved in a sex scandal, and Jim Bakker was convicted of bilking the true believers out of $158 million. Jerry Falwell, Jr. was dismissed from Liberty University for his own sexual misconduct involving his wife and a pool boy. They were not exactly doing the Lord’s work. This movement is a money-making, political movement cloaked in the faintest patina of religiosity. Unfortunately, we don’t have to time to wait for the real Second Coming.

Paul Chiampa

January 29, 2024

People like myself are constantly pulling out what little hair we have left every time Donald Trump and his sickophants do or say something utterly pathological. We cannot wrap our heads around the fact that human beings, who walk on two feet, can actually believe the things they say they believe, or can excuse the behavior they excuse from the former President. Trump’s list of dastardly deeds would take up an entire issue of this newspaper, but even his most recent stuff is alarmingly disqualifying. Yet his comments and actions get virtually no blowback from his MAGA base-ment dwellers. Why?

He owes E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million dollars for rape and defamation, but he gets a collective “meh” from his people. He wants the stock market to crash and the economy to go into free fall because he thinks it will help his electoral chances. He, as well as Republican Congressmean Elise Stefanik, refer to the January 6th insurrectionists as hostages. He faces a MEGA, multi-million monetary fine in New York for fraud, and he still has three criminal trials to deal with , one for the January 6th attack on the Capitol, one for the stolen classified documents case, and the third for his election interference in Georgia. The cherry on the cake is he is now preventing Republicans in Congress from reaching a deal with Democrats on border security because he doesn’t want to give President Biden a victory, according to Republican Senators. He continues to brag about overturning Roe vs. Wade as the Christian Coalition kisses his ring. And none of this registers with his voters as witnessed recently in Iowa, New Hampshire, and probably South Carolina.

The two things that bind Trump’s followers to Trump are fear and racism. As long as Trump can appeal to the raw emotion of fear, and tie it to the historical theme of racism in America, he can do just about anything, including crucifying someone in the middle of the Easter Parade. This isn’t to say that all of Trump’s supporters are racists, but supporting a racist candidate keeps one’s own hands clean.

Racism is alive and well in America. It started in 1619 when slaves were first brought to America from Africa. Racism was codified in the U.S Constitution when it was determined that only three out every five slaves were to be counted in the population. The Dred Scott decision was decided by the Supreme Court in 1857. Almost 620,000 people died in the Civil War, which was about slavery. Sorry Nikki Haley. The Jim Crow laws were introduced in the late 19th century in the South to enforce racial segregation. Black soldiers fought in WW II in segregated units only to face more segregation at home. George Wallace stood on the steps of the University of Alabama in 1963. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, but the Supreme Court gutted it in 2013. Black marchers were beaten on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma in 1965. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963; Malcolm X in 1965; Martin Luther King in 1968; Robert Kennedy in 1968. Rodney King was beaten in 1991, which led to the LA riots. Court-ordered busing created a crisis in Boston in 1974. More recently, a rash of killings of black people by police officers and armed citizens spawned the Black Lives Matter movement. The Supreme Court overturned Affirmative Action as a tool for college admissions. The teaching of Critical Race Theory has been vilified. AP Black History has been attacked in many educational jurisdictions. DEI is in retreat at the corporate level.

Trump has been found guilty of discriminating against black families in real estate. He has attacked Mexicans as rapists. He questioned President Obama’s birth certificate, and is now doing the same with Nikki Haley. He tried to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. He attacked a Gold Star family from Pakistan. He threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans. He separated Hispanic families at the border. He wanted black members of Congress to go back to where they came from. He referred to certain countries as shit hole countries. He believes that there are good people amongst the white supremacists, who marched with Nazi flags in Charlottesville, and brought Confederate flags into the Capitol. He blamed BLM for the insurrection.

Causing people to be afraid of “the other” is what racists do to gain control and authoritarian power, and it is what Trump is doing. He doesn’t want to build a wall. He wants you to be afraid of what is on the other side of the wall. Hitler made the German people afraid of Jews. Hitler learned how to deal with the Jewish problem from the U.S. legal system, which had twisted itself into knots in order to discriminate against minorities. Rachel Maddow lays it out in her new book, “Prequel.” Trump is tapping into a long history of American racism to sow fear amongst the US population, and, to a certain extent, it is working.

Paul Chiampa

January 3, 2024

2023 is in the rear view mirror, and 2024 is in our face. We are facing a brutal presidential election year. The media will be gorging on and be subsumed by every facet of the coming election. Every day, we will be inundated with reports on debates, primaries, federal trials, state trials, civil charges, election tampering, slates of electors, rallies, conventions, who’s up, who’s down, control of Congress, decisions by the Supreme Court ad nauseam. Unfortunately, what we may not be hearing too much about are concrete platforms to keep the country moving forward. The Republicans have a lack of imagination, not having had an agenda or party platform in recent memory. This last-controlled Congress set a record for non-productivity. The Democrats suffer from a lack of coherent messaging. In the movie “The Graduate,” Benjamin learned that the secret of life involved one thing, plastics. For the Democrats, I would suggest that the campaign for 2024 should be about one thing also, work.

2023 is in the rear view mirror, and 2024 is in our face. We are facing is a brutal presidential election year. The media will be gorging on and be subsumed by every facet of the coming election. Every day, we will be inundated with reports on debates, primaries, federal trials, state trials, civil charges, election tampering, slates of electors, rallies, conventions, who’s up, who’s down, control of Congress, decisions by the Supreme Court ad nauseum. Unfortunately, what we may not be hearing too much about are concrete platforms to keep the country moving forward. The Republicans have a lack of imagination, not having had an agenda or party platform in recent memory. This last-controlled Congress set a record for non-productivity. The Democrats suffer from a lack of coherent messaging. In the movie “The Graduate,” Benjamin learned that the secret of life involved one thing, plastics. For the Democrats, I would suggest that the campaign for 2024 should be about one thing also, work.

Democrats have always been portrayed as the party that eschews work, and embraces freeloaders and welfare queens. Their voters are looking for a handout rather than hand up. It’s as if every Democrat was Maynard G. Krebs, the beatnik friend in the old comedy, “The Dobie Gillis Show.” Every time someone mentioned the word “work” to Maynard, he would go into a spasm. I think Democrats should make the word “Work” the cornerstone of everything they talk about.

Immigration, illegal and otherwise, is not about rapists, murderers, and drug dealers. Immigration is about work. People flocking to this country are fleeing poverty, authoritarianism, and conditions brought on by climate change. They want to work, and will work. All you have to do is look out your window to see that this is true. They work hard, and send money home when they can. We should celebrate their work ethic, and not vilify it.

Unions are about work and workers. Workers who went out on strike were looking for a fair shake after the COVID economy passed them by, and the top 1% received tax breaks courtesy of Donald Trump, who famously bragged to Mar-a-Lago members about how he made them richer. Democrats should continue to honor and support the real workers.

Democrats are largely responsible for pushing through increases in the minimum wage around the country. The minimum wage is not welfare. It goes to people who work, and who probably still can’t make ends meet. Rather than forcing companies to pay a real, livable wage, which the minimum wage is not, it falls upon the rest us to provide adequate shelter, food, and health services for the working poor. “Working” and “poor” are two words that should never be in the same sentence.

Why do women need maternal healthcare and abortions? Primarily, women seek abortions because they are already having trouble coping with raising a family, and working a full-time job. They need to work, and having another mouth to feed without adequate daycare jeopardizes the entire family. Women want to and need to work. Democrats need to make that a central part of their message. Fortunately, a women’s right to vote hasn’t been taken away…yet.

Climate change is the number one issue facing young people today. I used to say that I could outlive my mistakes. I don’t say that anymore. However, the salient question is can young people outlive our mistakes? At the rate we are going, maybe not. Young people today deserve to be able to go to work in a healthy environment where they don’t have to worry about extreme heat, natural disasters, diasporas, a choking atmosphere, rising sea levels, and more. They want to work where they can be safe and productive.

Infrastructure is not about roads, and bridges, and tunnels, and airports. It’s about getting people to work. Every large and small city in America has a traffic problem, which eats up productive work time. Bridges are bottlenecks, trains chug along, and planes are delayed, causing everyone to lose precious hours. If we could travel more efficiently, we would be able to work more productively.

Lastly, healthcare and affordable healthcare are all about work. People want to be able to get up in the morning, and go to work. They also want to be able to go to work without the mental anguish of worrying about what might happen to them and their families if they get sick. We need a healthy work because I can’t do it.

While Republicans are fiddling in hopes of burning down the house, Democrats should be pounding on the theme of “Work.” It’s not about immigration, the minimum wage, unions, abortion, day care, climate change, infrastructure or healthcare. It’s not even about Donald Trump. It’s about work.

Paul Chiampa

December 30, 2023

Well, here we are again. We are about to turn the page on a year gone by. Every publication, news show, and podcast under the sun is replete with year-end retrospectives of the best and worst moments in sports, politics, cinema, the arts, social media, natural disasters, unnatural disasters, books, quotes, lives well-lived and so on. It’s also the time of year when we start thinking about our New Year’s resolutions. If you are fortunate and didn’t accomplish any of this year’s resolutions, you get to roll them over into 2024. If you happened to knock off one or two, now you have a problem because you have to think of something new.

I lead a spin class once or twice a week at Best Fitness in Springfield, which is a whole, other story. This time of year, I try to coach my fellow spinners in setting objectives, which is a habit I developed when I was managing real people in a real job. Setting goals effectively is an entire industry in the management consulting business. There are a variety of different approaches, but there are more similarities than differences. Here are some of the techniques that are common to most programs.

• Be Specific: Saying that you want to exercise more is not a goal; it’s an aspiration. If you want to exercise more, how much more? How many times a week are you going to do it?

• Be Focused: You don’t need to have multiple resolutions. Research shows that very few people ever achieve their resolutions. Pick one, and focus on it. If you are killing it, add a second. Completing one resolution is a major achievement. Habits do not die quickly, especially bad habits.

• Be Realistic: You don’t have to set climbing Mt. Everest as your goal. Pick something that is attainable. If you are working out once a week, ramp up to twice a week, then three times a week. Setting unreasonable expectations is a resolution killer.

• Be Creative: Mix it up, keep it fresh. It’s easy to get bored with the same routine every time. If you are a walker, try different locales…your neighborhood, the high school track, the bike path, the park.

• Be Disciplined: Write it down; put in your day planner or your iPhone. If it isn’t written, it doesn’t exist. Treat it like any other appointment. If you have to cancel, you must reschedule. Remove any obstacles to getting it done.

• Be Accountable: Tell a friend, a colleague, a relative. Put yourself on notice. Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.

• Be Competitive: Challenge yourself, keep pushing the envelope. Or challenge someone else. Make a game of it.

• Be Good to Yourself: Milestones don’t need to be millstones. Treat yourself along the way.

Like everyone else, I have some of my own New Year’s resolutions. Here are some of them.

I am not going to fact check Donald Trump or any of his ilk anymore. I am going to assume that they are lying, which is a good assumption based on past actions. The burden of proof is on them to prove they are not lying. Why should I do all the work?

I am not going to watch anymore golf in 2024 on TV except for the four majors…The Masters, US Open, the PGA, and The Open. I may make an exception for The Players. I just finished reading Alan Shipnuck’s book, “LIV Free or Die.” It’s about the epic and unresolved struggles between the PGA Tour, LIV golf and the Saudi PIF. It’s worse than I thought, and has gotten worse with the defection of John Rahm . I don’t need to watch two, mediocre golf tournaments, especially when one benefits Donald Trump.

I am not going to write any more articles about Donald Trump. Hopefully, it won’t be necessary because there really isn’t much more than can be said that will make a difference, and that he will lose the 2024 election. However, I made the same resolution in 2020, and that was one resolution I definitely did not keep.

Happy New Year!

Paul Chiampa

December 29, 2023

Former Governor of South Carolina and Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, recently shanked a three foot putt when asked a very simple question. Much like the presidents of three leading universities, who struggled to answer a question if students advocating for the genocide of Jews were protected by the schools’ code of conduct, she couldn’t answer a simple question about what the Civil War was about. The question was not asked by a politician trying to create a viral moment, but was asked by a New Hampshire voter, who just wanted to know. It wasn’t a “gotcha” question. It wasn’t even a question you would find on a high school history exam because it was too easy. She dissembled and bloviated about personal freedom and government interference, but the word “slavery” never made it past her lips. She eventually said, “What do you want me to say about slavery?” The questioner responded, “You have answered my question.” She has tried to clean up the damage, but the damage has been done. Sometimes gaffes are more than just gaffes. Sometimes they give us a glimpse into the real person.

Many independents and moderates on both sides have said that they could live with Nikki Haley. At least, they say, she isn’t Donald Trump. I personally don’t like many of her positions, but I have convinced myself that she probably doesn’t believe half of the stuff she is forced to say in order to placate the MAGA’s. My thinking is that she would become more presidential once in office even though I have heard that argument before, and how did that work out? However, after Haley’s latest faux pas, I am not sure anymore that she is the one. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy are definitely not the ones. I like Chris Christie, but we have to be realistic, don’t we? Which leaves Donald Trump.

“What do you want me to say about Donald Trump?” Of course the devolution of the Republican Party is about Donald Trump. It’s about a lot of other stuff as well, but that’s the gist of it, and Abraham Lincoln is not walking through the door. “What do you want me to say?” is now the mantra of the GOP. Whenever a politician or a voter is asked about any of Donald Trump’s impeachments, legal cases, felony charges and authoritarian tendencies, the response is essentially “What do you want me to say about Donald Trump?” Do you want me to say that I know that he is criminally liable of instigating and fomenting an insurrection; that he is horribly unfit to be Commander-in-Chief because of his penchants for denigrating the military, and stealing and sharing classified information; that he has been convicted of rape; that he has been found guilty of multiple instances of defrauding consumers, companies and charities; that his authoritarian words and actions pose a serious threat to our democracy; and that I won’t support him. Never.”

When you ask MAGA Republicans what they think about global warming, their response is “What do you want me to say about climate change? That humans are warming the planet; that glaciers are melting; that seas are rising; that weather is getting more severe; that temperatures are at all time highs; that Washington is in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry; that air is getting dirtier; that water is getting scarcer; and that health is being eroded. Never.”

When you ask MAGA Republicans about why we have so many mass murders in the United States, their response is “What do you want me to say about guns?” That we are awash in guns accounting for 80% of guns in circulation worldwide; that our mental health is no worse than anywhere else; that Congress in the pocket of the NRA and the gun manufacturers; that we don’t demand background checks for all; that we allow teenagers to buy AR-15’s. Never”

When you ask MAGA Republicans about what they think about taking away a woman’s right to control her own body, they say “What do you want me to say about abortion? Do you want me to say that women are dying; do you want me to say that this is the government taking away individual freedom; that the courts are taking away a right to privacy; that Congress is in the pocket of the Christian Coalition; and that these are restrictions being put in place by old, white men. Never”

I am appalled by all of the things that MAGA Republicans are unable to say. “What do you want me to say?”

Paul Chiampa

December 18, 2023

It’s the holiday season, and AAA tells us that Americans will drive a record number of miles this year while they are visiting family and friends, especially now that a gallon of gas is under $3 in many locations. With the increased mileage comes the mathematical certainty of more carnage on the highways. Maybe this is the American carnage that Trump was referring to in his inauguration speech? Regardless, here are some of my observations and tips on driving after decades behind the wheel.

Do not drive emotionally even if you get cut off, or the guy behind you is tailgating. That guy is probably hopped up on testosterone, and carrying a weapon to protect himself from people like you. He has enough hormones for the two of you.

Do not carry a gun in your vehicle. That makes you the other guy.

Be wary of anyone driving faster than you. They are out of control, and a crazed maniac. Conversely, anyone driving slower than you is a jammer, a nuisance, and a pox on society.

Always use your turn signals even though I have never seen anyone else use theirs. Most drivers confuse their brake lights with their turn signals even though their is no lever for brake lights on the steering column.

Be careful of anyone texting while they are driving, which is all too common these days. You know the ones. Their heads are down, they slow down in the passing lane, and they swerve out of their lane. It is very dangerous. However, I find that I can get a lot of work done if I text while I drive, but I do it safely.

Watch out for drivers cutting you off on the highway as they try to shift two lanes over, or try to make their missed exit. They are in a rush to get someplace they don’t want to be. These drivers are candidates for death row. However, I find that when I cut someone off, I do it deftly, which makes me a candidate for either NASCAR or Formula One.

Anyone using GPS is directionally- challenged. Real men don’t need GPS. I do use GPS, though, because I try to be a sensitive male willing to take directions from a female. Hey, Siri.

There are way too many vehicles on the road that are ecological disasters. All these people driving either a pick up truck or an SUV are climate-change deniers. No wonder why the Saudis love us. I drive a high-powered sports car, which is way cooler.

The merging of traffic is always a difficult activity fraught with peril and anger. Zippering is the best. I know that when I let some in, I feel like I should get the Citizen of the Year award. However, when someone lets me in, I think “wimp.”

Make sure you pay attention to the speed limit. Anyone other than you that gets pulled over by the State Troopers clearly had it coming. When I get pulled over, it is a major travesty of justice much like the Hobbs decision.

Obesity is a major, national health problem. The average American gains seven pounds during the holidays. Dieting isn’t working, and average people like Oprah are resorting to prescription drugs. All you have to do is visit any McDonald’s on the highway to see that this is true. I visit McDonald’s because I am a very busy traveler with miles to go before I sleep.

Lots of people are pulling trailers on their way to Grandma’s house. You might be a redneck if this is true. I pull a trailer because I am trying to connect with my inner Jack Kerouac.

Be mindful of trucks trying to pass you on the highway. This happens a lot on downhills, which gets them into position to block everyone else on the uphill. These truck drivers are just jerks with radar. When I pass a truck on the highway, I am just getting back at all of the bullies from middle school.

Drivers with license plates composed of lots of letters and numbers are losers. Drivers with low license numbers are preppies.

And lastly, anyone driving a pick up truck is a Trump Republican. You can usually tell by the Trump flags flying from everywhere, and the incredibly offensive bumper stickers. Democrats do drive pick up trucks, but that is because they are self-reliant, and the Subaru is in the shop.

December 6, 2023

In a recent speech, Donald Trump said, “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.” “Our threat is from within.” This right out of the authoritarian playbook. Authoritarians create fear of the “other” in order to exert control of their followers. Franklin Roosevelt said that “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” He was absolutely correct, but he was talking about foreign powers, and not the threat from next door.

One of the concepts that every new person in the financial services industry learns early on in their careers is that investors are motivated by two, basic emotions, fear and greed. After over thirty years as a practitioner in the investment business, I can confidently assert that fear is a much more powerful motivator than greed. Most investors are more than happy to sacrifice relative performance on the upside for an absolute assurance of limited losses on the downside. As Will Rogers famously said, “It’s not the return on my money that I am concerned about. It’s the return of my money.”

Trump learned his this lesson from his days in real estate. He played on the fears of whites having to live side-by-side with Blacks. Immigrants became rapists. Muslims were terrorists. Mexicans were mules, and blacks were antiFa. He warned his base about voter fraud, rigged elections, the media, woke school officials, the “deep state,” medical professionals, the Generals, and others. The only person that could be trusted was him. “Only I can fix it” and “I am your redemption,” he said. As a political strategy, fear worked, and it still working.

According to historian Heather Cox Richardson, in her most recent book “Democracy Awakening, “Courting white supremacists (by the Republican Party) began the process of appealing to voters’ fears, effectively dividing the country between allegedly good Americans and those allegedly seeking to destroy it.” Trump is only the latest manifestation of a political strategy that is rotten to its core.

Democrats may need to take a page from the Republican playbook. They need to constantly and loudly remind Americans what we really need to be afraid of. We need to be afraid of politicians trying to steal elections. We need to be afraid of white supremacists. We need to be afraid of teenagers wrapping themselves up in the Second Amendment, and wielding AR-15’s. We need to be afraid of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and global warming. We need to be afraid of Republicans looking to roll back voters rights, and women’s right to control her own body. We need to be afraid of political hacks running school committees. We need to be afraid of the war on science and scientists. We need to be afraid of conspiracy theories.

According Harvard Law professor, Cass Sunstein, liberals believe in six things: freedom, human rights, pluralism, security, the rule of law, and democracy. The Republican Party and Donald Trump believes in fear as a means to an end. They embrace Barry Goldwater’s belief that “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Biden calls it ultra MAGA. No matter what you call it, call it what it is.

November 18, 2023

Rules changes saved baseball from ossifying in front of our eyes. With Theo Epstein’s foresight and perseverance, baseball is now faster and funner. The pitch clock prevents batters from endlessly adjusting their gloves, and pitchers from monotonously pacing around the mound getting ready for their next pitch as if the fate of the world hung in the balance. The shift that was designed to prevent Ted Williams from hitting a 1,000 is now as dead as dear old Ted. With larger bases and fewer opportunities for pitchers to pick off runners at first, the ghosts of Ty Cobb, Maury Wills and Ricky Henderson once again terrorize the base paths. Which begs the question. What other rules in other sports need to be either eliminated or enforced? Here is my short list of recommendations.

In basketball, the number of timeouts in the last two minutes should be reduced to one per team. It is painful to watch the end of any NBA game. Like the parable of the loaves and the fishes, it is a miracle how they can turn two minutes into what seems like two hours.

Eliminate free throws. If a player commits a foul, it’s worth one or two points, and the ball gets handed over to the other team. Keep things moving. Nobody enjoys watching free throws.

Eliminate the three point shot. Watching basketball is almost as fun as watching two, 6’4” tennis players endlessly batter each other from the baseline. Where is the finesse? Where are the big men? Where are the pick and rolls, and the fast breaks? Today, all five players set up outside the three point arc trying to decide whose turn it is.

In football, eliminate the kickoffs. They are dangerous and already a joke. While you are at it, you can eliminate the coin toss as well. The home team kicks off, and the visiting team receives the opening kickoff. Period, end of report. I know they are trying to sell advertising with every delay, but futbol somehow makes it work.

And why is there a two minute warning? Who is being warned about what? Are we being warned that it is time to take the chicken wings off of the grill?

Skip the second half kickoff. Resume play where you left off, which will eliminate the slowdown in the last two minutes of the first half. See above regarding timeouts.

Quarterbacks shouldn’t be allowed to slide. It’s not baseball. If a QB decides to run for it, and leave the pocket, they should be fair game. They might think twice, or even three times, about doing it.

I like the college rule that you only need one foot in bounds on a catch. These are football players, not ballerinas.

Get rid of reviews. They slow an already slow game down even further. In the long run, it all evens out. In the short run, if you are dumb enough to leave your fate in the hands of the officials, you get what you deserve.

Change the rules regarding overtime so that even a Ph.D. in mathematics can understand them.

Finally, a touchdown should be exactly that i.e. a touchdown. On a running play, the football must touch the end zone. It’s not called a “breaking the plane.”

Eliminate fighting in hockey. It’s not MMA. If you instigate a fight, you are gone. Olympic hockey is far superior to the NHL. They actually skate, pass, and shoot. What a concept. It would be illegal in most jurisdictions. I can’t speak for Texas.

Lastly, we get to the game of golf, which I officiate and try to play. The pace of play in professional events is egregious. It doesn’t have to be this way. If I take four hours to play a round of golf, and you take five, it’s almost like giving a basketball team an extra period for scoring. They are probably going to win. It’s not fair. Tournament and rules officials know what needs to be done because it is done at other levels of the sport. The USGA, for example, terrorizes amateur players for slow play. The people running professional events just don’t have the golf balls to enforce the rules.

Speaking of the rules, there is something wrong with the rules and how they are administered when two or more professional golfers and their caddies can’t figure out what to do or are afraid to proceed without calling over a rules official. The drama of waiting for a golf cart to pull up from out of nowhere is riveting.

Lastly, professional golfers hit the ball too damn far. If I could hit a wedge into every green, I would not suck as badly as I do. The professional golfer doesn’t care where the ball goes off of the tee because, regardless of where it goes, he only has a 100 yards in. Distance has ruined professional golf in the same way that big-headed, metal racquets have ruined tennis, and the three pointer has ruined basketball.

I think pool and table tennis are still viable sports.

Baseball got it right. It can be done.

Paul Chiampa

November 9, 2023

A recent article in the Springfield Republican titled “Exodus from state raises concerns” caught my eye. After a decade of growth, population has been declining in the Bay State caused primarily by high housing costs, inadequate transportation systems, the state’s tax code, and access to childcare. The greatest outmigration has been seen in the Boston area, but western Massachusetts also continues to lose younger Bay Staters early in their careers to other states.

I am not an elected official, nor do I own a business in the Pioneer Valley so I really don’t have a dog in this fight other than I am a resident and pay my taxes. It would be easy to go over all of the things that are “wrong” with Springfield and its environs, but I would rather focus on what is right with Springfield, the Pioneer Valley, and the surrounding areas. We live in a wonderful area, but we sometimes have to remind ourselves why this is true. The website for Mass General Brigham Cooley Dickinson Hospital describes life in the Pioneer Valley as a “perfect combination of the bucolic and the cosmopolitan, situated as close to cultural capitals like New York City and Boston as it is to Vermont ski slopes and The Berkshires.” It left out Cape Cod and the islands, New Hampshire and Maine. Our area should be a magnet for new business and population, and not a net loser.

We have a salubrious, year-round climate. I lived in Florida for eight years where being outside is almost intolerable for six moths of the year. Our air is clean, and our water is plentiful. We don’t suffer from dramatic changes in the weather. We get snow and rain, and we did have a one-off tornado, but that is pretty much it. We haven’t had severe droughts, forest fires, mud slides, flooding, earthquakes, or hurricanes. The area is very livable year-round.

We have a world class higher education infrastructure, led by the five colleges (Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, U.Mass. and Hampshire,) which always make a great trivia question. The higher educational opportunities in Springfield are many ranging from Springfield College, WNEC, Bay Path and more. A recent editorial cited the fact that even though the Springfield public schools classifies 89.6% of their students as high-need, the graduation rate for high school seniors is 85%, a rate that has grown by 30% over the last ten years. At the same time, drop-out rates have fallen to 3.9%.

One of my favorite activities in Springfield is attending the lectures sponsored by the Springfield Public Forum, which is celebrating its 88th year of providing FREE educational talks to the public. I attended the recent lecture at Symphony Hall, the home of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, by Heather Cox Richardson, political historian from Boston College. Next on their schedule is Springfield’s own Ruth E. Carter, award-winning Costume Designer for the “Black Panther” movies. I served on the program committee years ago. At meetings, we debated whether we could afford to fly out Barbara Walters as well as her make-up person. James Fallows of The Atlantic refused any remuneration. Mark Shields and David Brooks had a civilized debate. I did say it was years ago.

MGM is doing a fabulous job of bringing top flight entertainment to the region. They have brought to town Bruno Mars, Boyz to Men, Santana, and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler among others. This is in addition to the offerings of the SSO and the Mass Mutual Center, the Thunderbirds, the U.Mass Cultural series, Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow, the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, the Academy of Music in Northampton, U. Mass athletics and more. Hopefully, Northampton will gets its act together, and reopen The Iron Horse and The Calvin Theater.

Two of Golf Digest’s Top 25 College Golf Courses are in our area, Taconic in Williamstown and The Orchards in South Hadley. Within easy driving distance, you can get to some of the best golf courses not just in the area, but in the world, courses like The Country Club, Essex, Old Sandwich, Hyannisport, Kittansett, Eastward Ho!, Salem, Charles River, Worcester, and, yes, Longmeadow Country Club (I am a member.)

We have a local newspaper, which is an achievement in this day and age as papers close, and people turn to major outlets and the internet. We need a local voice. We have a vibrant dining scene between Springfield, Amherst and Northampton. Hartford and West Hartford are a stone’s throw away not to mention the North End in Boston. We have culinary offerings ranging from Portuguese, Asian, Middle Eastern, German, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, BBQ, Vegetarian, and American. MGM has a steakhouse. We have the Basketball Hall of Fame and its annual induction ceremony. We don’t have traffic. The cost of housing is relatively reasonable when compared to Boston, and there plenty available.

When he was our state Senator, Eric Lesser was a big advocate of promoting train service from Boston to Springfield and its new Union Station to help alleviate the overcrowding, congestion and expenses of living in the Boston area. It appears that the project is moving along albeit too slowly for my tastes. Hopefully, we will be able to share with others many of things that we take for granted.

Paul Chiampa